Carnival Dream review:
I have been dragging my feet with this review because I hate posting anything at all negative about Carnival as it is still my favorite cruise line to date. I also feel like our experience on this ship is an exception, or at least for us. The reviews I am reading lately make me wonder a bit. I am drawing the conclusion that Carnival provides an inconsistent product. This I am willing to forgive for the price.
So I am a Carnival cheerleader, but this ship had some issues for us. We personally will avoid this ship in the future. This doesn't mean we had a bad cruise-- we had a great time and still love Carnival. I will list our issues-- most have to do with cleanliness.
1. Our cabin was not clean. Someone had thrown up or spilled something gross on the counter in the cabin and it had dripped onto and through the cabinetry near the refrigerator and safe. It had not been thoroughly cleaned- gross obviously! The cabin was not vacuumed during our stay. I even left
sand on the carpet to see if the room would get vacuumed, but the steward only vacuumed that one spot. Nothing in our cabin had been cleaned in a LONG time. We bring lysol wipes and bathroom throwaway scrubbers on cruises just in case. I do not always use them but did this time. They were black after use.
2. Our entire floor smelled stale and musty and was also warm. I would not recommend deck 2 on this ship at all. They reroute air conditioning away from this floor. Most other decks had substantially more air conditioning through hallways and public areas. Dh and I made a point to walk through other floors on several occasions to test this. Floors above felt cold and smelled pleasantly. If you sail Carnival Dream pick a room above deck 2. Dh and I agreed we would have had a completely different experience had our cabin been on let's say deck 7. Very pleasant temp, pleasant smell, like it was a different ship. We complained about this issue at guest services on 3 occasions and they were nice but basically brushed us off. They would send someone to our room to reassure us that it was quite comfortable. The best they could do was get the temperature in our room about 8 degrees colder than the air outside. We explained to them that this was barely air conditioning. The "tech" they sent to our room had a great sense of humor. Once when he was reassuring me that our room was "quite comfortable," he had sweat dripping down his face. I could not help cracking up and he tried to keep a straight face, but he started cracking up too. It was as Ben E N pointed out a Mr. Incredible verses Insuricare moment. Our room never felt refreshing or pleasant, just bearable. This ship had a water event about 6 months ago. I am not sure if that is why our floored smelled musty (or as our 9 year old described it, "like stinky feet all the time"). DH described the smell as an onion or rotten meat smell. It was funny when we got in our car after the cruise I felt like I could still smell the smell. Like on Seinfeld when the BO smell attached itself to Jerry.
3. I would also not recommend booking a cabin underneath the galley unless you plan on waking up at 5am every morning! I saw the sunrise several times on this cruise. Lol. I bring earplugs and Dh sleeps like a log but the galley activity woke us up every morning!
4. There was only one "craft at sea" activity scheduled for our entire cruise. On our other 2 Carnival cruises, I am pretty sure there was one per sea day. We felt the activities on this ship in general were less robust than on previous CCL cruises. Not sure if this is a shift by the company or if our cruise/ cruise director was off.
5. Speaking of our cruise director, we barely saw him the entire cruise. I hate to call him out because he seemed nice enough, but even my teen commented that he barely saw the cruise director around. We do not need a lot of direction ourselves but there was a lack of cohesion on this cruise.
6. We chose anytime dining for this cruise as we have for previous cruises. On previous cruises service during anytime dining has been excellent, but on this cruise we found the service scattered, sometimes excellent, sometimes okay. Also, on other cruises we have always been seated at adequate tables but on this cruise, every night we ate as a group in the dining room, we were seated at a table for 4 as a party of 5. They placed a chair on the end of the table which made the table feel very crowded.
7. The cruise felt too crowded. I think we have learned that August is not the best time to cruise. We have taken 3 cruises in August over the years (2 CCL one
DCL), and they all felt too crowded in August.
8. On the CCL Dream photographs are literally on the walls and you are just supposed to find them. Good luck! We have never experienced this on any ship or vacation. I have read reviews that mentioned this system, but it is hard to appreciate it until you have experienced it. Our kids had a good time finding some of our pictures, but kind of an unbelievable system. We never found all the photos that were taken. Also, all pictures are a la carte and anything considered a "portrait" is more expensive--$30 per photo. There was no ten for a price or something like that.
9. Our TV was on the fritz and had a crackling sound (not reception related). The picture was also sketchy. We also complained about this to guest services but there was no follow up in this area.
10. The crew did not seem as upbeat or friendly as on previous CCL cruises. Everyone was generally nice, but the crew seemed over it. People who were obviously supposed to be vacuuming by stairs just going through the motions and accomplishing nothing. I do not think we ever had someone pick up a plate off of our table while we ate in the buffet.
11. Condition of ship so-so. The sofa in our stateroom was incredibly stained. This was true of many carpets and chairs throughout the ship. Other chairs were so worn out that when you would sit on them they would collapse or sag.
13. The area for dive in movies was at capacity many nights. We have not felt like this area was too small to accommodate passengers for dive in movies on other ships, but it was too small on the Dream. I am wondering if this is because there were not enough other activities, or if it was ship design.
14. The layout of this ship is unfortunate and has poor flow.
15. The decor on the Dream is a bit strange even for me.
16.
People were playing their own music from speakers or tablets around the ship. We experienced this at the hot tubs and on deck in more typically quiet areas. We have never encountered this before on a cruise but did see it 3times on this one. I am not sure if this is technically allowed?
17. The tv choices are quite crappy now-- but this is not ship specific. Our kids found a "new" show on Cartoon Network about 3 bears but otherwise the map channel was the most interesting one on there. This is not a big deal for us but just noted.
18. Did not seem like there was any management around. The captain was also not "present." This was different from our other 2 Carnival cruises.
A mini comparison to DCL for sake of the thread lol:
1. The air conditioning on DCL has usually been superb for us. We did experience one DCL cabin where the a/c was only okay. But in general all areas on DCL feel refreshing and clean, sometimes I have to put on a sweater. But I would rather have to put on a sweater than have the ship feel sticky and uncomfortable. Maybe not worth the extra $7000 our trip would have cost though!
2. Our cabins on DCL have always been satisfactory, although not always perfectly clean. We have found dust and occasional grime in DCL cabins and sometimes more wear on cabins than we would like to see for the price.
3. We have always been seated at appropriately sized tables on DCL, but we do prefer the anytime dining on CCL. And we prefer the food availability on CCL. On CCL we feel like it is our vacation, on our terms, but on DCL, we have to roll with their timetable. Too rigid for us.
4. We find the cruise directors on DCL weak and have never been impressed by any, but on DCL management is very present and generally responsive.
5. Love DCL's TV selection.
6. Do not love DCL's outdoor movie set up or lack of popcorn. Love their movie theatre but do not love popcorn charges, just silly.
In sum, the big issue for us is cleanliness. Other things are secondary. (Well, the kids club is a close second, other issues distant second). The air conditioning ties to cleanliness. Unfortunately, the ac is something out of our control. I know on the Vista that each cabin has it's own a/c unit, so CCL is addressing this issue with newer ships. Our a/c in our Vista cabin was heavenly. But our a/c on the Conquest, which is DCL Wonder era, was also excellent. So I think you have to do your research. Now that we know that there is some inconsistency on cabin cleanliness on CCL, we will go armed with even more lysol wipes and lysol to spray the carpet wall to wall (got this idea off of someone else's review). Also will bring more air freshener. I hate to admit it but I am willing to "clean" a bit in the cabin for a $7000 cruise discount. But... we also will do more research on specific ships. We found the Conquest very clean and in great condition, even better than Vista. Not crowded, excellent cruise.
As everyone points out, the price comparison with DCL is nuts. We paid $3300 for 5 people (got price drops), one inside, one balcony. DCL would have been in the $11000-12000 for our family for a very similar itinerary. That is just not a price that makes us happy for a 7 night vacation, no matter what it is. At this point we have 5 future cruises booked through summer 2020, three with CCL, one NCL, one DCL. Four night on DCL, 7 and 8 nights on the others. We like to cruise, and cruising on CCL is definitely a great value. I know my review will probably seem overly critical, but I am just trying to be as honest as possible. We do not expect everything to be perfect on a vacation, actually I like imperfection (Dh not as much lol), but I do notice things that could be improved. I did let Carnival know about these things. On that note, I will list some of the positives from our CCL Dream cruise:
1. Guys burgers (as usual) and food overall-- love it
2. Bartenders were really on top of popcorn service for dive in movies. Had boxes lined up ready to take all night.
3. GREAT dive in movie choices.
4. Desserts in buffet at lunch have been kicked up a notch and were excellent.
4. We liked the large atrium.
5. Tender system for Belize VERY well organized.
6. Kids loved the kids club-- real high point for the entire line. Our kids still like the CCL kids club better than the DCL kids club. As I have written before this was a real shocker for us on our first CCL cruise, but after 3 CCL cruises I can see why. The counselors are more engaged and come up with fun, basic games, where the kids have to be creative themselves, create something out of nothing, whereas on DCL the creativity is handed to them, done already, maybe less satisfying? I am not saying they dislike the DCL kids club but that they get "bored," and when I pick them up they are usually playing alone on ipads as opposed to happy and out of breath from playing with "friends." The only thing they really like in the DCL kids clubs is gaga ball. They also do not like Marvel and only one likes Star Wars-- slightly. They like the drawing area on DCL, but it is often too crowded, and again, it is a more solitary activity, which is fine, but they make a lot more "friends" on CCL. On DCL, it seems like many families have already negotiated friendships for their kids ahead of time on Facebook.
8. mini
golf location great, relaxing area
9. good experience in spa, caved and bought 2 elemis products for the first time. Have to admit they are excellent.
10. comedians (Michael Issacs! So funny.) and trivia-- awesome on CCL.
11. Love the cafe
12. Effortless boarding and disembark
13. Great ports (Cozumel-Paradise Beach, Belize- cave tubing, Mahogany Bay) and NOLA is a great departure port.
Our next cruise is the Breeze in March.
. You made the right choice with Vista! I am sure they will really redo the Dream at some point and it will be like a new ship. But until then... there are many others. We are on Ncl Thanksgiving 2019, so it will be a while unfortunately. We have been on NCL before and like them a lot, but our kids prefer CCL. To me, NCL has a slightly more adult vibe than CCL. The shows are better on NCL than CCL. Their buffet is amazing and very relaxing , less bustling feel than CCl. Like you see people reading a book sometimes in their buffet. They have a 24 hour free restaurant that feels like a bennigan's or chilis which is awesome, but they do not have as many quickservice food venues as Ccl. They have a crepe stand on top deck. Awesome. If you are willing to sleep 4 in a room they have 3rd and 4th guests sail free offers sometimes that make their pricing more affordable. But over the last couple of years it seems like their prices have gone up. We got a last minute sailaway deal 2 years ago for $499 per person, week long cruise, interior cabins. So you might be able to get good last minute deals. The other cruise we took on NCL, we kept rebooking it as better "sales" came along. We ended up with 3rd and 4th guest sail free, free gratuities and free extra dining. The current one we have booked, we have rebooked once when a "tax free" sale popped up. We have not seen a 3rd and 4th guest sail free on that one yet, but we are hoping. 
Now, I'm waiting for them to break the news to him... (And I feel super bad)
