A Nice Cruise to Cozumel and Progreso

Embarkation was unusually fast. We arrived at our scheduled time, and went directly on to the ship. Parking, porter service, and check-in were efficient.

We dined in the MDR and the Steakhouse. We ate one meal on the Lido deck. The Main Dining Room food quality was excellent. I ordered from the Steakhouse Selections menu several times, and had the best filet mignon ever. Crisp, green salads, tasty desserts, and delicious entrees were standard at each meal. We chose Your Time Dining for this cruise. This is the second time we have done so. However, on our next cruise we will return to scheduled late dining at 8:15 PM. We find that we prefer having the same dining team rather than a different team each night. We ate on the Lido for our embarkation meal and on one port day. The salads were very good, and they did have some gluten-free bread, which I prefer. The meat dishes were not up to the usual standards at embarkation; however, the next time the meat was excellent. We also ate at the Mongolian Wok and really enjoyed the Szchechuan chicken. One disappointing dessert was the Tira Misu Cheesecake. The cheesecake was hard and dry. Very odd, because in the MDR the cheesecake was excellent the following day. I think the Lido Restaurant operation needs a bit more quality control on the Carnival Dream. We ate at Bonsai Sushi on our first sea day. Excellent sushi--fresh and flavorful. I highly recommend Bonsai. If you have never tried sushi, this is an inexpensive way to give it a go. Bar service on Serenity deck was very good. The servers came around regularly to see if we needed drinks, We ordered a bottle of champagne in the MDR, and they even kept the remainder of the champagne for us for the next night. I was surprised that the champagne kept most of its bubbles, too. The waiter claims they used a "special cork". I'd like to know more about that. One thing I have learned about wine selections in the main dining room is that if you order an entire bottle, they will keep the bottles in their cellar until your next meal if you want them to. However, we ordered our dinner wine by the glass. Interestingly, I ordered a glass of Chardonnay that really did not taste right; of course, chardonnay has its own particular taste, and maybe it was just my taste was off-center. I told the waiter I was not sure if it was me or the wine was old, but could I get a glass of Prosecco. They brought the Prosecco but only charged me for the chardonnay. That was good. Bar cocktails we tried included the Mango Margarita, Mojito, Carnival Cosmo, and Aperol Spritz, and Bloody Mary. All were great. One thing I have learned about Carnival is that it is preferable not to ask for a double because they already give you and extra half-shot in a regular drink. So, a double ends up being WAY too strong (I learned this the hard way). :) We also ordered room service for breakfast every day. The food was free, good, and on-time.

Serenity deck had plenty of places to enjoy sun-bathing. The hot tubs, though, were often full. I wish they had four hot tubs there instead of two. However, there are hot tubs all over the ship. This trip was during the school term, so there were very few children aboard. As such, we could use any of the pools without feeling overrun by youngsters. But, the serenity deck has a nice, quiet atmosphere and good bar servers, so why venture out? We attended some of the shows. The 80's Rock show was good. We attended two sessions with the comedian Roman. One was "family friendly" and the other was X-Rated. I will not go back for any more X-Rated shows when I am with my DW. He was funny as hell, though.

There was a brass trio (Saxophone, Cornet, and Trombone) that was great in the Dream Lobby. There was also a violin trio, but their music was a bit on the mournful side. As I said previously, the Rock and Roll show was pretty good.

No children sailing with us.

Waiters, room stewards, guest services, and spa staff are all to be commended. I went to the spa for a haircut, and they were very helpful. We had a spa suite (interior) so we did the thermal suite and Thallossotherapy each day. It was very invigorating. Pandita, our room steward was excellent and very thorough in keeping our room clean as per Carnival standards. He was always welcoming and kind. He also suggested apple juice for my seasickness. I think I'm at the point where I need to wear one of those seasickness patches.

The Carnival Dream needs a bit of painting and other work. The spa area windows were not properly cleaned, and there was rust on the railings. I wish Carnival would really emphasize that at every port, these items should be tended to thoroughly. Touch up painting at least shows the guests that Carnival is trying its best. Frankly, if the environment of the ship is a huge happiness factor, I would recommend sailing on another ship. As I mentioned earlier, the Dream probably needs to go to drydock for a facelift. Overall, the decor is nothing to write home about. The interior of the ship was usually clean, though. The public restrooms had some problems. Several were not working, which is unusual.

This was a spa interior. It is basically just a windowless cabin with Elemis soap and conditioner. Everything in the room was in working order. The room was cleaned daily and the cabin steward was friendly.

There was a delay embarking due to a lack of available customs agents. Carnival dealt with this as best they could by offering regular announcements as to what the issues were. I used a porter to get my luggage, and that really sped up the process.