Not as "funtastic" as I dreamed

That was a very easy process. I purchased the Faster To The Fun (FTTF) pass. We had our own embarkation line which made it really easy.

The food was okay to good. The service was about the same. There were definitely some issues with cook times in the galley. For instance, I ordered a medium rare flat iron steak and baked potato the first night. The steak was well done, difficult to cut and almost impossible to chew. The baked potato wasn't fully cooked. Actually, baked potato was the side with three dished I ordered while on ship. Every one was hard and undercooked. My husband had the same problem. The wait staff was forgetful at times. Twice they actually forgot to put in my entree order and I didn't receive my food until everyone else was done. They forget to put bread out on the table the first 4 nights. My husband asked the wait staff to arrange for a birthday cake for the table the last night of the cruise. They forgot to order it. No birthday cake for me. Seaday breakfast was absolutely terrible. The wait staff there was difficult to locate. We had to ask for something as simple as hot water or milk no less than 4-5 times. They never passed out pastries like some wait staff were doing at other tables. The food was cold and did not taste good at all. My breakfast sausage was actually refrigerator cold. I was unable to eat the food and left the breakfast and went to LIDO deck to get some buffet food which was actually better. I went to Guy's burger joint. I had a very dry, overcooked burger patty one time. The second time I tried it, it was very tasty. There were some definite highlights to dining. My husband and I paid to experience the Chef Table. The food was amazing and very creative. We definitely enjoyed the experience. They were even able to accommodate my food allergies. That said, there were 2 problems I encountered during. The first one was a hair in one of the dishes under my pork belly. The second was a cooking issue. My veal was so well done and dry, it was inedible. My husband did not have these issues during the Chef Table experience. I expected more from my dining experience and the staff based on a cruise we took last year aboard Carnival Magic. That was truly a magical experience and this cruise dining experience did NOT live up expectation.

I did not participate in a lot of activities. I did use the hot tub on the last day. The water was cold. That particular hot tub was taken out of service twice that cruise due to mechanical issues. They did not get it fixed properly. I could not go to the other hot tubs because they were located near smoking areas. My husband and I did participate in a couple of trivia activities which were fun. To be fair, it is very hard to participate in a lot of the activities for health reasons. My husband is a very tall, very large man and most of the seats on the ship have arms on them. My husband can't fit into them. That excludes us from a lot of things. There aren't seats outside anywhere for us except in the smoking areas. I can't sit in the smoking areas due to asthma. There aren't any seats on Dream near the pools without arms. Same for the outdoor eating areas. Carnival Magic at least had bench seats outside for eating near the back pool.

We went to 2 shows in the Encore Lounge. My husband actually liked them! That is no small feat. Their music selections were great and even got people on their feet. Personally I would have liked a little less of the laser lights. They hurt my eyes

no children

I will start by saying everyone was friendly and always greeted us with a smile. As previously stated, the wait staff was forgetful. It was little things that I noticed that wasn't on par with my previous cruise on the Carnival Magic. Staff forgot pastries at breakfast (at some tables, not all) and forgot the bread basket at dinner the first 4 nights. Breakfast staff forgot my water for tea, milk, juice, butter, etc. We would ask multiple people just to get half of what we asked for. It was so bad that the guests would share their food or butter with others or just get up and get their own juice. They often brought the wrong items too. We tried Seaday breakfast twice and it was bad both times. We skipped the 3rd one. Our dinner wait staff was nice but forgot to put in some appetizers. They forgot to put my entree in 2 different nights and I didn't get my food until everyone else was done eating. They no one could order dessert until after I ate which made the other couple at the table miss an activity they planned to attend. The second time that happened, I just took a couple bites of food and said I was done so I didn't hold anyone else up.

One thing I absolutely hate about Carnival Cruise lines ship design is the Casino being in the middle of deck 5. To get to the areas beyond the casino, you either have to choke your way through the smoke or walk around outside. Even if you walk around, to sit at the area where the trivia activities and music are, near the Alchemy bar, all you smell is cigarettes from the casino. They need MUCH better ventilation in that area. And the bathrooms are just inside the casino. I found a number of maintenance issues as well.There were large decorative colored glass beads a;ll over the ship. I saw many of the light fixtures were missing the glass beads. There were lights with burned out bulbs, Some cracked tiles were noted and some tiles were not glued to the floor well either. They moved when you walked on them. OMG, I almost forgot, the bathrooms. The bathrooms on deck 10 midship at the pool was out of service for the last 2 days of the cruise. If I needed a bathroom, I had to go back to my room. Cleanliness was definitely an issue as well. Our room was dirty upon arrival: so much so that we had to ask the porter to come clean the bathroom of the layer of dust on all the shelves. In addition, the curtain in our room was dirty, there were dried coffee stains on the wall, and there was a large brown stain on the carpet near the bed....some sort of food because it was dried onto the carpet and raised. Those issues were not fixed during our cruise.

The size was great and very comfortable. The cleanliness was lacking. Our room was dirty upon arrival: so much so that we had to ask the porter to come clean the bathroom of the layer of dust on all the shelves. In addition, the curtain in our room was dirty, there were dried coffee stains on the wall, and there was a large brown stain on the carpet near the bed....some sort of food because it was dried onto the carpet and raised. Those issues were not fixed during our cruise.

FTTF pass made it an easy process. The longest wait we had was for a porter to come with a cart to take our luggage to the car