Terrible
Carnival Dream Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 61
5 Night Western Caribbean (Galveston Roundtrip)
Sail date: July 13, 2019
Ship: Carnival Dream
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 6477
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 5 years ago
Review summary
To Whom It May Concern: Good morning, my boyfriend and I just arrived back home from the July 13th- July 18th cruise out of Galveston to the Western Caribbean on the Carnival Dream. I’m usually not one to ever write management about anything, however, my boyfriend and I feel very strongly about some of the things that went on during this cruise. As a teacher, I plan and budget very carefully to have a nice vacation once maybe twice a year. During this vacation I plan to let loose and have fun in a relaxing environment. Summer of 2017 was my first time cruising and it was such an amazing experience that I have looked forward to and booked a cruise twice since then with ya’ll! I have to say, this cruise we just got back from, had it been my first, would have completely turned me off of cruises in general and especially off of Carnival cruises. I don’t expect a cruise to be completely kid-free of course, however imagine my surprise when I entered the ship and saw 2,500 dance competition children all over the place! I am not exaggerating when I say they were literally everywhere. These children were more often than not unsupervised by their parents or coaches or any adult. MINORS were in the after hours “adults only” comedy clubs, bars, serenity deck, 21 and over club, and the casino regularly. In addition to them being in places where they had no business being, they were also causing ruckus all over the ship at all hours of the day and night. They also had several private events where large portions of the ship were barricaded DAILY. We found ourselves spending more time in our stateroom than out of it due to the high volume of children invading all of the “relaxation” places. Now, I know that it is normal to have kids in the pools and hot tubs and roaming around the ship however this was mass quantities of kids. Literally hundreds or more. We were told by one of the staff members that Celebrity Nationals at Sea had chartered 2,500 of the rooms for their competition. I know at the end of the day Carnival is a business and you need to earn your money, however I guarantee that I would have waited until a different cruise to avoid this mass chaos. I’m very disappointed and upset that Carnival didn’t have any kind of notice up informing us that there would be a competition like this aboard during our trip. I’m not trying to be dramatic at all, however there was ice cream left melting all over the ship every day, food dropped and left on stairs and in hallways, kids being rude and disrespectful to the staff, and kids running wild. One instance in particular, there was a storm and the 5th floor (CASINO where no kid should be anyway) got a little flooded, the staff was trying to take care of it as quickly as possible via mopping, towels, shop vac, etc and there were several dance children taking the opportunity to run and slide in the water like a slip and slide. The staff member kindly asked the children to please be sure to go around the water to avoid injury and they just snapped back that the staff member “isn’t Jesus Christ and can’t tell them what to do”. This was honestly the worst vacation I have taken and I’m just so highly disappointed that we weren’t told ahead of time about the fact that there would be a competition on board. This experience has me very hesitant to continue on with booking my next New Years Eve cruise through Carnival. I had intended to book this month, however I don’t know if I would even want to again after this. I know that the money may not seem like a lot to some people, but I budget and plan very carefully for my vacation and this was honestly just the opposite of relaxing. The few people who we did meet and become cruise friends with during this trip were feeling the same way and were all very frustrated as well that we didn’t have any prior knowledge about the kids being on the boat. I would highly urge you to be sure to add some sort of notification about things like this happening on your cruises to avoid negative reviews. I’ve always talked up Carnival cruises and have referred many friends but I will have a hard time doing so after this. I will likely switch over to Royal Caribbean rather than risk this same thing again. I would also highly encourage you to have some sort of staff member to make sure that the adult only portions of the ship stay that way. I was disappointed that at the comedy show the staff member “Marky Mark” saw two very underage girls, maybe age 12-13 go in and he just shrugged and said “I’m just letting it slide, there’s too many to try to stop it anymore” and let them in the very inappropriate show. I will say, our waiter at the Scarlett Lounge, Emilio and our stateroom steward, Ali, were both so very amazing. They were both very friendly and very helpful always offering to go above and beyond. The staff for the most part was all that way, and I don’t blame them at all for any of the nonsense (with the exception of the staff who should turn children away from the adults only places allowing them in). They were given an almost impossible task and were seriously outnumbered by inconsiderate children yet they still maintained a positive attitude and did their jobs the best they could. I have included photos just from one trip to the Lido Deck to better show some of the mess that the kids made. This and more happened daily, I just didn’t take photos of anything until the last day. In addition to these photos there were several more huge messes that kids left. I’d like to reiterate that we have cruised with only Carnival since beginning to take cruises and have never seen this type of disrespect when the number of kids wasn’t outnumbering the adults. This was in no way a relaxing vacation and we are struggling seriously with the idea of continuing with our plans for the Bahamas New Year’s Eve cruise. We feel burned and unappreciated by the experience we had this trip.Embarkation
Effortless and organized
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Main dining food wasn’t good, but Guys Burgers, Blue Iguana, Mongolian Wok, Pizza, and Pasta Bella were amazing.
Onboard Activities
I did not get to enjoy much because there was a dance competition we did not know about going on while onboard and they had many of the amenities roped off for “Private Events”. They even infiltrated the adults only areas and the Serenity deck
Entertainment
Carl was an amazing comedian and the 80’s show was also amazing!
Service and Staff
My stateroom steward, Ali, and our waiter, Emilio were both amazing.
Ship Quality
They did the best they could with 2,500 dance children running around leaving food and ice cream everywhere.
Cabin / Stateroom
Comfortable and clean
Ship tip
Call and check to make sure they aren’t hosting a national dance competition before you go.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Disembarkation
14 Comments
CruzeFan 5 years ago
PaulieV 5 years ago
So sorry you had to experience this. My last cruise had a lot of pot smoking young adults. We could smell marijuana any time we were on the decks. Luckily we managed to avoid them once we knew who they were. Carnival definitely should have notified the passengers to this unusual situation.
tooteebug 5 years ago
I so would've been pissed. No excuse for that. No you shouldn't have to go on any other line to vacation and relax. I'd go way further than shipmate with my complaint. They should've warned other guests of the children. They also should've watched them and kept them away from adult areas. Total BS.