great cruise

Item: Carnival Dream
Rating: 4.5
Author: Nofilter142

Carnival Dream Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern

Nofilter142

Contributor Level: First Mate

77 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 4

Helpful Votes: 56

Overall rating:

4.5 out of 5

8 Night Eastern Caribbean (Galveston Roundtrip)

Sail date: February 10, 2024

Ship: Carnival Dream

Cabin type: Inside

Cabin number: 2462

Traveled as: Family (young children)

Reviewed: 8 months ago

Review summary

it was a great cruise the fun squad was great they had a lot of energy and a good party atmosphere quest was amazing and i had a great time this was my brothers second cruise and he has such a good time that he is already booking his next cruise with us all around this was a great cruise but i do prefer the 7 day cruises just because of the age difference in age the 8+ day cruise category seems to have a much older crowd

Embarkation

4 out of 5

it was rather seem less but its getting 4 stars and not 5 simply because i didn't like going out of Galveston the closest i could fly into was houston and that's over a hour away getting too the port there was a lot of traffic (could be the fact there was a parade that day) but all and all i would prefer to not go out of Galveston again

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

never went hungry on the cruise i had great food the whole time and had some really strong drinks through out the cruise we ate a lot off food and tried as many different category's as we could and didn't really find anything that was particularly bad

Burgundy Aft Lounge

4 out of 5

it was a good event space on the ship where they had comedy karaoke and quest it was a good time in there and I don't have any complaints although i didn't like how they discouraged you from walking up to the bar and wanted you to wait for the guy to come to your seat

Scarlet Dining Room

4 out of 5

i only went two nights but both nights i was in and out decently fast and the food was great

Alchemy Bar

5 out of 5

the service tended to be pretty fast, this was a surprise sense from open to close they where packed and this is justified as all the drinks i had from there where great

Pizzeria del Capitano

5 out of 5

great pizza and open late enough to not be hungry late at night

Carnival Deli

4 out of 5

I think they have dropped a good amount in quality sense covid and its very noticeable they still have good options but you can just tell its not as good as it used to be

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5

i still feel like they could have more activity's for the 18-20 age range but they have made efforts adding some mixers not to the fault of carnival but no one went to them i think it was mostly the fact it was a off season 8 day there where times where we just sat around waiting for the next thing to do but at the same time there was always stuff going on just not always to my taste things like quest where amazing though i may be biased as my team won but we had a amazing time and i hope they have it on my next cruise as well

Whirlpool Spa

4 out of 5

it really depended on the day they where either cold or very nice other then that they where a good time

Ping Pong

4 out of 5

the tables where in good shape but not a great placement of them they where in a very windy area next to the smoking deck along with they closed them really early

Cloud 9 Spa

4 out of 5

now i didn't pay for any of there services but i did use the gym and the included steam room in the locker rooms and both where great although i wish there was less cardio equipment and more weights as most of the treadmills where normally empty and everything else was packed

Jackpot Casino

4 out of 5

i went into it drunk on night and ended up winning $10 more then i went in with so I'm still not the greatest fan of the casinos but it did seem to be very popular

The Dream Team Basketball Court

5 out of 5

i played up there a few times and it was always a good time if you wanted to pick up a quick game it was pretty easy and i had some good time up playing basketball or soccer

Serenity Adult Only Retreat

5 out of 5

great time every time i went up to it there was almost no one there and i met some great people in the hot tub

Entertainment

4 out of 5

the music on board was AMAZING they had the best bands I've seen on all of the cruises I've been on normally its just background music but they where the star of the show the ocean plaza was always packed to listen to the dream rock band they sadly are splitting up after the next cruise but they had such a divers range in songs they could play and killed every single one of them the classical music in the lobby was always good and that is coming form someone who played in a orchestra for multiple years i found myself listening to the bands late into the nights

Encore! Main Lounge

5 out of 5

they used the main showcase for more on this trip then I've ever seen they had comedy in it every other night and shows every night it was a good time although there first two comedians where sub par the second two where pretty good

Punchliner Comedy Club

4 out of 5

all my last cruises I've never had a miss but the first two comedians where a flop but the second two where pretty good

Caliente Dance Club

5 out of 5

the DJ's always had this place bumping though the crowed on this cruise wasn't the most night club friendly group a lot of older people on this cruise the nightclub was still normally decent

The Page Turner Library

4 out of 5

I always say people in the library and hangout in there a few times it was a good times all the games where missing peace's but that's to be expected

Ocean Plaza

5 out of 5

they had music in here every night and i was there every night it was always great and i loved hanging out in it along with most of the rest of the people on the cruise ship

The Dream Lobby & Atrium

5 out of 5

they where always playing some good music in the lobby and they normally had people up and dancing

Children's Programs

5 out of 5

my little sister seemed to enjoy camp ocean but I cant completely comment as I'm not personally in it she never had any complaints

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

I had a great time with the staff never met anyone un friendly they where all always happy to help and easy to fine my room steward was amazing and I wish I had him on all my cruises

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

the dream class is one of my favorite classes of ship the layout just makes sense and i never noticed anything dirty other then the windows on lido they could defiantly use a cleaning. now on the upkeep I definitely noticed some things could be maintained better the biggest thing is the speakers on lido deck the speakers are blown out and the DJ's have to keep the volume low in order to make them sound decent once they turn it up they sound terrible the microphone on lido is the same way it kept cutting in and out and sounded like its been dropped in water a few times (i do audio visual work professionally and got input from one of the DJ's about this)

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5

we enjoyed our cabin but it was very rocky and during docking its like you are in a pain shaker

Ship tip

make sure you know about the hot tubs on deck 5 not just the ones on 10,11and 14 they where normally empty and the ones on the higher decks where full

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Galveston, Texas

3 out of 5

i did not enjoy going out of this port i prefer Miami or new Orleans

Thumbs Up 0

Key West, Florida

4 out of 5

to me it just felt like the rest of the USA a lot of tourist traps and just novelty items

Thumbs Up 0

Freeport, Grand Bahama Island

5 out of 5

i had a great time here we went to the garden of the groves and it was beautiful I had a great time

Thumbs Up 0

Half Moon Cay, Bahamas (Private Island)

5 out of 5

most people on the ship loved this port is was very relaxing and fun I played volley ball with some random people from the ship and explored the nature trails

Thumbs Up 0

Nassau, Bahamas

5 out of 5

we walked to the queens staircase it was about 20 minutes to walk there the taxi drivers where very push on the walk out of the port and that was kind of annoying but once you get past them its a great little island and i had a great time

Thumbs Up 0