Carnival Cruise Line
Carnival Dream Cruise Review
Tom (elkranger)
Itinerary: Western Caribbean
Sailing Date: January 23rd, 2010
Age: 61
Number of Cruises: 7
The Caribbean Won't Be the same after Jan 23rd 2010
Carnival Dream Review Jan 23rd 2010
The following is our personal account of our Jan 23rd
sailing onboard the Carnival Dream ( first part of a b2b –
Jan 30th sailing will be next )
This cruise was a gathering of
the MHWC ( Monkeyhead Wasters Club )
Western Caribbean Itinerary with ports of call @ Cozumel,
Isla Roatan, Belize, and Costa Maya
We stayed pre-cruise at Discovery Beach Resort on Cocoa
beach just down A1A from the cruise terminal @ Port
Canaveral
We met fellow cruisers during the week of Jan 16th who
arrived early in the area, and Friday the 22nd at the
Radisson hotel for a pre-cruise dinner that was setup by
Karen (glassbeagles)
We had 30 cruisers in attendance and enjoyed finally meeting
our cruise friends that we had been talking with for close
to two yrs.
This Dream cruise had been in the works since the Dream was
first announced of being built, when we booked these
cruises, we had 518 days to go.
We had roll calls on Carnival
Connections & Cruise Critic, when all was said and done, we
had close to 220 cruisers aboard.
``` Embarkation was a breeze, we were onboard the Dream by
noon time, had placed our carry ons in our balcony cabin on
deck 7, then headed up to deck 10 aft for the start of our
first meet & greet check-in.
Fellow cruisers stopped by, introduced themselves, were
checked off the list, given a raffle ticket for the 2nd meet
& greet festivities, and info on the other events that had
been setup thru another page that we had listed on a site
called “Cruise Fellows” This site made it real easy to put a
face to an online name, and to list events for the cruise
After the muster drill was held we went back to the aft lido
deck to wait for other carnival & cruise critic roll call
members to check in.
Once those that took the time to check in we went back to
our cabin to see if our luggage had arrived. We met our room
stewards Mr Henri & his assistant Mr Iyouman.
By 3pm we had everything unpacked and we went exploring this
massive and wonderful ship, stopped by and grabbed a Deli
sandwich to hold us over till our late dinner seating.
Sail Away was wonderful, the weather was great, the sights &
sounds of laughter filled all decks with happy cruisers
getting ready to enjoy their cruise vacation.
We toured the Dream and were impressed by everything we saw
on our first walk about, the layout of the ship is good,
easy to navigate once you get lost a few times.
We had the late dinner seating in the Crimson dining room,
tables 230 & 231 held most of the Monkeyhead members, others
were scattered about the Crimson, as well as the Scarlet
dinning room.
We met up for dinner in the Grand Atrium around 7:45 pm, had
a drink, talked, laughed and continued to be in awe about
this ship, comparing notes from the places we all had
visited while we ventured around.
We were seated by 8:20, met our Maitre D’ ( Claudio ) ,and
our wait staff (Manny & Katrina), our first meal onboard was
just as expected, we ate laughed, and continued to enjoy
what Carnival does best.
After dinner some of us got
together, walked off dinner (plus the Warm Chocolate Melting
Cake ), and continued to venture about the ship, some went
to the show, we went to the new comedy club, this is a Great
addition to the different shows that are onboard all
Carnival ships.
Our first day was a Sea day, which gave us time to relax,
and get some sun, we found deck 14 mid-ship to be the best
place, located up between the 18 hole mini golf & back of
the Sea Side theater screen, great place to catch a few rays
with plenty of room if you get there early enough.
Our first port day was Monday Jan 25th we arrived in Cozumel
at the Puerta Maya pier, we met up with fellow monkeyhead &
cruise critic roll call members, and went to Paradise beach
for a day of fun in the sun – A good time was had by all.
Monday night was the first of our two formal nights, a
goodtime in the Crimson was had by all, after dinner we
walked around the ship once again, a lazer show with music
was scheduled for the mid-ship pool area – good show but way
to short.
A Mexican Fiesta deck party was also held that night with
fun, games, and dancing – Blue team vs Red team theme.
Tuesday Jan 26th was our Isla Roatan port day – one of our
events from the Cruise Fellows page, which was setup by
Ramona from Texas, was the Victor Bodden custom tour. We had
110 cruisers on this tour, and it was setup to do beach
time, zip lining, shopping, lunch and the Monkey Business
farm at Victors place. Once we all got off the ship we met
on the dock and walked to where Victor was going to pick all
of us up, we were divided into the different groups for the
various things that we all wanted to do, and then we were
all transported to the different locations to start off our
day.
Tuesday evening we met for dinner in the Crimson, had more
laughter, talked about the days activities, from there we
went about the evening going to the shows, the comedy club,
and the other fun places to play.
Wednesday Jan 27th we visited Belize, this is a tender port,
getting off the ship wasn’t all that hard, some of us chose
to do the Bannister Island snorkel excursion through a
company called “Coral Breeze”, we met at the Wet Lizard bar
on the dock, got onboard the tour boat and headed to the
snorkel spot, after that we returned to Bannister Island to
catch up with the rest of our group, we spent time on the
island, then went in search of Manatee on our way back to
the dock We all enjoyed the day, once back onboard the Dream
we got ourselves organized and took a lil nap, LoL
Dinner in the Crimson was another fun evening, talking and
finding out what others from our group had done that day,
another goodtime was had by all.
The evening was spent at the shows & clubs
Thursday Jan 28th was scheduled to be our Costa Maya port
day, but do to high winds & several trys to dock, it was
canceled, which for most of us was good, it gave us another
Fun Day @ Sea, plus this gave us the opportunity to have the
2nd meet & greet activities a day early where we had
drawings for prizes, with the original raffle ticket that
was given out during the first check in, and a “$$$” raffle
as well.
This was also our 2nd formal night, all of our tables mates
met after dinner for a group photo, and individual shots.
Friday Jan 29th was another Fun Day @Sea – Water Slides
Races were held @ 1pm, followed by the Walk for the Cure @
3pm – FYI – The Walk for the Cure will eventually be changed
to another fund raiser ( St Judes was mentioned ) as the
next activity to raise money for.
Friday evening was our last night to sit back, enjoy talking
about the fun we all had onboard the Dream while we were
entertained by all of the waiters & assistants, and the new
friendships that were created by this Dream cruise.
Claudio our Crimson Maitre D’ had gotten to know our group
rather well during this week, and had already setup the
dinner seatings for those of us doing the following weeks
cruise.
Saturday morning we arrived back in port Canaveral and the
debarkation process started early, most cruisers were off
the ship by 10am.
It was sad to see all of our cruise friends from this first
half leave the ship, but new real time friendships were made
and plans for a 2nd club cruise are in the works. `````
-à to view pics from this sailing, just copy & paste the
following link into your browser ---> http://picasaweb.google.com/ocfelkranger/CarnivalDREAMCruises?authkey=Gv1sRgCKa-1uvb44WxvgE&feat=directlink
Then click the slideshow button `````
Since we were doing the B2B along with our friends Karen &
Bill from California, we went to the Scarlet dining room for
breakfast, then left the ship to make a Wal Mart run for
soda & water.
When we arrived back, we all went through the VIP check in,
picked up our new Sail & Sign cards at the Guest Services
desk and had a new photo ID pic Taken for the 2nd half.
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