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Carnival Dream Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern

Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Reviews: 3
Helpful Votes: 113

Overall rating:

3 out of 5
Verified Review
Carnival Dream

7 Night Eastern Caribbean (New Orleans Roundtrip)

Sail date: August 28, 2016

Ship: Carnival Dream

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 6418

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

This was our third cruise on Carnival and it was as expected except for the change of the itinerary due to a hurricane.  Carnival is a good cruise line but are more or less a Plain Jane cruise line. Carnival has gone to a timed check in and this was much faster and if you set up on board account online it went even faster.

On this cruise we had a balcony stateroom and it was small compared to the suites we usually get.  Lots of not being able to get into closet because the bathroom door was open and so on.  Bed was very comfortable. Storage room was good with suitcase storage under the bed.  Carnival has cut back to once a day room cleaning and no longer does a bed turndown. Room had a safe and frig but it was not very cold.

When we cruise, we dine in the dinning rooms.  On the Dream the dinning rooms are very nice but the food is not very upscale.  Most often we choose the flat iron steak and baked potato since it was a safe bet.  On cruise days they have a brunch in the dinning rooms and this was the best meal we had.  Try the steak and eggs.  There were times when we wanted a quick snack and this could be hard to find.  Pizza was 24 hours but it was hard to catch the buffet open to get potato salad to go with your deli sandwich.  Coffee shop didn't open until 11am so early morning fancy coffee was out.  Overall the food was good but could have been better. Once they had  a grill cookout where the meat was so spicy hot that we could not eat it even though we like some heat in our food.

We did purchase the Cheer's Beverage Package and enjoyed the drinks and bartenders.

We will cruise again with Carnival because we are moving to a town near a port making it really easy to go on a cruise.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Children's Programs

3 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5
Cabin was small and required lots of position swapping. Good under the bed storage for luggage. If you like to spend much time in your cabin this could be too small for you.

Ship tip

On the first day take a good tour of the whole ship and learn where everything is. The Dream is a big ship with lots of hidden areas.

Ports of call

New Orleans, Louisiana

5 out of 5

Key West, Florida

3 out of 5

Freeport, Grand Bahama Island

3 out of 5

Nassau, Bahamas

3 out of 5
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7 Comments

cruisingfam    8 years ago

It floors me people complain about things they choose. I get balcony cause I like them. I don't complain after the fact. Cruises are relatively cheap in comparison to a full blown all inclusive vacation. I've been on carnival and RC. When it comes right down to it they are worth the money. Even my worse cruise I didn't want to get off!

gellmore    8 years ago

Third cruise on Carnival and "EVERYTHING WAS AS EXPECTED" and you still only gave 3 stars??? If you ask for 2x day cleaning you will get it. Ports were changed to protect you!!! Come on man don't blame Carnival because you did not do your research.!!!!!

jriley413    8 years ago

Don't see why you were suprised that a balcony stateroom was smaller than the suite you usually have. That's kinda how it works when you downgrade. It shouldn't be something you complain about.

WatermelonQueen    8 years ago

Jhjd we were supposed to go to Key West, Freeport, and Nassau but got rerouted to Cozumel, Costa Maya, and Roatan.

WatermelonQueen    8 years ago

Were you on the 8/28 cruise? We chose evening service and we always got a turndown.

jhjd91127    8 years ago

What changes were made to your itinerary?

desjardins    8 years ago

We cruised the pride this July and the sunshine last week for a journey cruise. Our stewards cleaned our room 2x per day with fresh towels and did the bed turn down every night. Going on dream in October. Hope it's not as bad as you say. 😱

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