Great, but our booking rep mislead us about on board spending credits.
Carnival Dream Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 19
6 Night Western Caribbean (Galveston Roundtrip)
Sail date: August 06, 2023
Ship: Carnival Dream
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 10287
Traveled as: Family (young children)
Reviewed: 10 months ago
Review summary
I really hope this part of my review reaches someone who cares. Anya Holt/ lied to me. Hopefully this conversation is still on the recording of the day I booked but she was very clear that I was getting an on board spending credit. If my memory serves me correctly, she said it was going to be 250$. Later, on a document she sent me, it said it would have been 200$ so I'm not sure why there was a difference but regardless, we were definitely promised an on board spending credit. I even double checked with her when we were on the phone booking and she said oh yes, I will get that added for you (or something like that). I completed all of the paperwork that was in our account prior to boarding the ship. While on the ship, we talked to customer service about something else and I double checked that our on board spending credit was there. They said they had no record of it and I would have to get in touch with to get that straightened out. They said they were seeing some other credit that our kids might should have been getting (which might be where the other 50$ comes into play) but that money never showed up being available in our account either. So, I used my vacation time at each of the ports, trying to get emails out to Anya Holt who had booked our cruise. I also used time on the ship trying to call her multiple times. When she did finally respond via email, she said that it was my fault for not filling out all if my paperwork and she couldn't do anything. She was not friendly or helpful at all. I have screen shots of the emails from 3 days before our cruise proving that all of our paperwork was indeed filled out so I don't know what she is talking about (I think she just didn't want to deal with it). We feel completely ripped off by over this on board spending credit that we were promised. The biggest plus is the food. It was perfect and we loved the variety that was offered. Also, there is always something to do. Almost too many options! There are lots of free things at the jewelry stores but I had to leave dinner at least 3 times to go and get the ones I wanted (I didn't participate in most because it was too complicated and the lines were bad). So it was kind of like a super inconvenient scavenger hunt. One other thing I'd love to see improved, is the photo situation. On our previous cruise, you could just look at your photos on a kiosk, easily dump the ones you don't like, heart the ones you do, pay 20$ and download your favorites and they are sent to your phone. Super easy and it makes sense! After arriving on the ship, we found out they only do paper photos, they are 23$, and you can only get a 10$ digital download after you have purchased the paper photo. It was way more expensive, and way less convenient. We wanted to purchase 11 photos so the total was over 250$ (including tax because we were back at Galveston) for the 11 photos and they are all 8x10 paper ones which is not the size I need for my frames. Please Carnival, offer the 20$ digital download option on all ships! It will make cruisers happy!Embarkation
Embarkation is just never fun and I didn't see anywhere that steamers are not allowed (we brought one in our last cruise). So, with a 2 year old strapped on me and another child in tow, I waited a very long time in the heat while my husband had to hike back to our car to stowe my brand new steamer. The lines and confusion and heat in the terminal are also just never fun.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Wonderful as always. No complaints.
Onboard Activities
We were not aware ahead of time that our two year old who wears a swim diaper and is only partially potty trained would not be allowed in the pools or slides. This was a huge disappointment and had an impact on our vacation.
Entertainment
Wonderful but my 10 year old did feel slightly uncomfortable with the "sexiness" in the nightly Encore shows.
Children's Programs
Our 10 year old was very happy but we were called to pick up our 2 year old within about 15 or 20 minutes both of the 2 times we left him for having "just started to cry".
Service and Staff
Wonderful as usual. No complaints.
Ship Quality
Very clean. No complaints.
Cabin / Stateroom
It worked well for us. The balcony is everything!
Ship tip
Find a different vacation if you have toddlers because they can't swim and camp ocean will not try very long at all to keep them happy if they have any separation anxiety.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Galveston is fun but the disembarkation and embarkation are a nightmare. This is with any cruise though so it's not Galveston's fault. We
The pool at the port was everything! I wish all the ports had this. Taxi situation was terrible. The excursion we did had it's problems but overall, it was our favorite and we loved the calm waters where we swam in the ocean.
Taxi situation again was difficult. We did an excursion but it wasn't through carnival. The people in Belize definitely treated cruisers like we are just dollar signs. The beach were we swam was absolutely beautiful but super rocky.
It was SOOO busy the day we were in this port. There were at least 4 giant ships in the port (probably more) and it was very hard to get around at first. Finding the kiosk for our excursion was difficult. Plya Mia was very nice but we just felt rushed with having to make it on the transport then the ship on time. We didn’t feel like we got much time at this excursion because of the time difference and the transportation situation. The ship was in early but we couldn't go to our excursion till later (when they opened) then, we had to leave quickly.
Disembarkation
We don't like having to spend our whole last day listening to announcements and meetings about disembarkation and the morning of disembarkation is stressful and tiresome. It's never a fun day.