it could have only been worse if i died

Carnival Dream Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 42

Overall rating:

1.1 out of 5
Verified Review
Carnival Dream

5 Night Western Caribbean (Galveston Roundtrip)

Sail date: June 24, 2019

Ship: Carnival Dream

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 9408

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

1. Its unacceptable to have shoddy safety, but inexcusable to perpetuate lies about it. 2. Customer service is truly atrocious, there is no accountability for any employee or employee’s actions, and management is truly invisible. 3. Guests who take the time to voice dissatisfaction or point out specific service failures deserve a cogent response. 4. Surliness is not just tolerated but rampant and accepted and seemingly rewarded. 5. Entire employee base has focus that is completely, irrationally wrong – interested in charging for everything and collecting money on top of copious amounts already collected. And the more time employee’s assist passengers with already-paid for items the less they can continue unseemly money grubbing. 6. Security is woeful, interested only in lording inauthentic power of passengers rather than insuring their safety in an expedient manner. I want the report of Carily, immediately. 7. The color coded nature of the ship room cards, sign and sail, whatever they are is an abomination and idiotic and ensures horrific treatment to those deemed dispensable or not worth providing even a minute modicum of service. It is actually discrimination as I have discussed with the FMC. 8. When the Carnival Dream sinks, I would bet copious amounts of money that Giuseppe Giusa, Shane and Gary the Cruise Director will be on the first lifeboat away from the ship (identical to the Carnival captain in the sinking and deaths of 32 on board in 2012), giving the passengers their last middle finger from Carnival as they depart salvaging all the liquor on board 9. I would like to recognize two employees that went out of their way to provide excellent service and care to me (even though I was marked with the sign of the devil – a Blue Card). One worked in the Coffee Shop on the Fifth floor – he works long hours but always is friendly and efficient and FAIR with his serving of customers and went out of his way to provide excellent service. Similarly, Apple BZ who helped me both in the Gathering and at dinner in the Scarlett lounge was friendly, caring, went out of her way to help several times and always was smiling and conscientious.

Embarkation

1 out of 5
unorganized ,unfair

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

2 out of 5
i received the worst table on the ship

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5
wasnt permitted to participate

Entertainment

1 out of 5
singers resembled bad karaoke

Service and Staff

1 out of 5
1. On June 25 I was in Sam’s piano bar for well over an hour with no beverage service. I surmise that this bar does not have beverage service, although an announcement or sign to this fact would have been beneficial. (Perhaps the only bar in the world without beverage service.) 2. On June 26, I was in the Burgundy lounge, and while I did see a server inside, I was not served (I was the wrong gender or national origin to be honored with service), so I had to go to the bar and wait until the bartender had satisfied every other request, including requests subsequent to my arrival. 3. On the morning of June 27, at the coffee counter, we order a mocha coffee, but were served a bottle of water instead (no explanation). When reordering the mocha coffee, we were then told it was a 5 minute wait, (although it was unclear why, and even more unclear why this wasn’t communicated instead of proffering the unordered bottle of water) 4. On the afternoon of June 28th I visited the Blue Iguana bar. I waited while the bar staff served three customers, EACH OF WHOM ARRIVED AFTER ME. I despise watching true, severe incompetence at work - especially WHEN ITS AT MY EXPENSE 5. I then went to the Red Frog Rum Bar, and waited semi-patiently while the staff ignored me and stocked the beer cooler, until my patience expired. As I left unserved, I pointedly voiced my displeasure with the two beer stockers and told them what their manager (if they had one) should have: ignoring customers and stocking beer was a poor decision, but I was ignored. At least Carnival’s beer coolers are stocked for the NEXT CRUISE 6. At 12:30am on June 28th I got ice cream at the soft serve area in the Gathering, BUT there were no spoons anywhere in the Gathering, so I got the pleasure of eating my ice cream with a FORK. 7. For the last two days of the cruise, the hallway outside my room smelled as if someone had defecated by my door, and it never went away and the odor not addressed by staff

Ship Quality

1 out of 5
rusting out

Cabin / Stateroom

1 out of 5
ok but marred by a shipboard fire which fried the air conditioning for 24 hours

Ship tip

stay away

Ports of call

Galveston, Texas Did not visit port

cruise began here

Cozumel, Mexico

1 out of 5
explored on my own

Progreso (Merida), Mexico

1 out of 5
i did excursion to a resort which was overoccupied the bus was full and i was given the only middle seat on the bus and required to hold my suitcase the entire 45 minute ride

Disembarkation

1 out of 5
chaos and utterly slow
Was this review helpful? 42

13 Comments

texaspride    5 years ago

All I can say is wow! Glad I wasn't on the same cruise as you. We have always had a good time on cruises. It is a shame you spent your time looking for things to complain about.

RacerBC    5 years ago

WOW, sounds like you went out of the way to not enjoy your cruise. I was on this ship the week before you and never experienced what you experienced. The ship was clean, did not have any defecation smell on it, the staff was always friendly and helpful. Never had any problems getting a drink. Yes, sometimes you have to wait a couple minutes if there are people in front of you, but no where like you seemed to have experienced at every bar you visited. Maybe you need to step up and take Celebrity cruises where, if you ask nicely, they will address you as "Your Highness" if you want, and won't find and complain about every spec of dust you can.

terriesanchez    5 years ago

So... You spent your entire vacation with a notepad and pen waiting for crap to happen? AMAZING!

briahg    5 years ago

Do not listen to this review. This ship and help were AMAZING and while at some bars (including Sams) it did take a while to get drinks, there was one bartender/server dealing w the whole room. And the casino bar which had amazing service was only a short walk. As someone who had been everywhere on the ship I saw many security officers whose goal was not to spoil any ones fun, but to make sure everyone was safe.

Fam2Cruise    5 years ago

You don’t really address the event that leads to you calling them out on safety.

Mydogluke    5 years ago

Please leave CART and let us have all the fun. Love the Dream and Carnival

imi45    5 years ago

Wow! Pessimistic much?!?! I hope you never cruise Carnival again!! I suggest you rent a venue and hire some people just to wait on you. I’m picturing like a movie scene in Ancient Rome where you have slaves feeding you grapes and fanning you with palm fronds. I hope no one takes this review seriously or they will miss out on a wonderful vacation.

capnbrownbeard    5 years ago

If everywhere you go it smells like shit, it's time to check the bottom of your shoe.

ReidRGetALife    5 years ago

Well that was a fun read. I'll be Gold on my next cruise, I bet I'll be treated like a KING!!!!!! Or not...

DiegoZZ    5 years ago

The dream sounds super fun, sign me up. I want to go to see if I can survive it!!!

Ensignsbh    5 years ago

You sound very high maintenance. We had our first cruise back in November and had great service. If you aren’t not getting served speak up and get the bartenders attention.

Texasmom22    5 years ago

It seems cruising may not be for you. Wait times at some bars can be frustrating (like waiting for bottomless bubbles refills), but we've all experienced it regardless of card color, and when you realize you're on vacation, and don't need everything done for you immediately, and find a way to relax... That's when you enjoy a cruise. Best wishes for finding a future vacation you enjoy!

CruzeFan    5 years ago

Thanks for the great review. I will now be cruising with Carnival’s more often in the future.

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