7 Nights Eastern Caribbean from Galveston, TX Cruise

5-Star Perfect Vacation!

We had an absolutely fantastic cruise on the Carnival Dream! We are seasoned cruisers; this was my 12th cruise, 11th on Carnival. Our last cruise was in 2019, on the Carnival Freedom. That experience was "meh", and the food was downright awful. So I had been skeptical to go back, but decided to take the family on Dream and just go in with lowered expectations. I was blown out of the water by the crew and food on the Dream! We enjoyed a gorgeous balcony room midship, and our cabin steward, Sudi, made us feel like family, calling out to us by name anytime he saw us, and always grabbing any extras we asked for, and transforming our room from a tornado-swept disaster into a perfectly organized mess every single day. Fabulous! The food was my biggest concern, after our previous experience on Freedom. We chose the Early Dining in the MDR, and I think got the best dining team, Leslie Clair and Budi. They were fantastic, always using all of our names and making jokes with my 8 and 13 year olds. They were incredibly attentive. But THE FOOD! Holy moly, the food was unbelievably delicious! I hope that maybe Carnival heard all the complaints and stepped up their game. They truly knocked it out of the park!!! Favorites included 12 hour braised short rib, Chicken cordon Bleu, Filet mignon, frog legs, alllllll of the pastas, alllllll of the desserts. We also enjoyed brunch in the MDR (incredible), and tried the Lido buffet, which also had amazing options every day! I was a little concerned about crowds, since this is a bigger ship than the Freedom, though only a little more. But it truly never felt crowded. Lines were short and quick. Seating was plentiful in the theater. The cruise director, Lawrence, was energetic and funny and super nice! Definitely A+ entertainment team! I really can't think of any complaints! Which is unusual for me, and cruises, but this was really the perfect vacation. Maybe my one thing was that Costa Maya felt like a wasted trip bc it was 1 pm arrival which meant that a lot of third party excursions were unavailable, and the beach club we paid to visit was pretty yucky, with orange and brown water. That's not Carnival's fault, but I'm not sure I'd want to cruise to CM again by choice. Overall, the Dream is my new favorite ship!! Everything was sparkling and looked new and well maintained. Crew was cleaning and painting around the clock daily. Arcade was awesome, kids loved the modern games. Camp Ocean was fantastic, my young'en loved it. I loved the Lanai around the Promenade deck, it really made such a fun change from older ships. And the non-smoking casino was genius!!! Definitely a plus for gamblers who don't want second-hand smoke choking them while they play. Seriously, can't say enough nice things about this ship and the crew. I will be back!! :)

Another Great Cruise

This was cruise number 12 with Carnival for us. We had a great time on the ship. Jaya our room attendant was wonderful and always ready to help in any way. The crew were very friendly and helpful throughout the cruise. The ship is in very good shape as before we boarded, I read some reviews that claimed the ship was in poor condition and needed an upgrade. We took in the shows throughout the ship and found that they were very entertaining. Robbie People in the piano bar was fantastic, we spent practically every night there. We love the Bonsai Sushi, most all of the food that we tried was really good. One of our favorite places to hang out on the Dream is the ocean plaza. It is right in the middle of everything on deck five. It has a dance floor area, a coffee bar and the Alchemy bar for special drinks. This is the place to sit and relax if you like to people watch. We are looking forward to our next cruise on the Dream in November.

Fun fun fun

One of the best cruises I've ever been on. -Crew service is the best I've ever experienced on a cruise especially the bar tenders and waiters. I think the cruise had lower occupancy than normal which would make sense especially for the time of year. We never had to wait at all for the MDR we had my time and as soon as we checked in they had a table ready for us. The longest we waited was probably for the Mongolian BBQ which was 10 minutes tops. Bars as well even in the lounge during at night on sea days we never waited more than 5 minutes for a drink. -Cabin was standard we had a balcony right under lido it could be loud during the day which wasn't a huge issue for us. Being so close to the action made it worth it. The ship is Definitely showing its age our room tv was very small like maybe 25" and we only had one NA socket. -Food was great. To be fair I'm not the best person to ask about food I'm always impressed with everything. Compared to the Carnival Vista that we on last year this was a bit better especially the MDR. I think everything is back in full swing from COVID. No complaints about the food. -Bars were amazing. One thing I really like about this ship in particular was the location of the Alchemy bar. Its part of the main lounge so you can get their specialty drinks without have to leave. I was part of a group of 8 so having access to all the specialty drinks and the regular bar all in one area was great. Bartenders were amazing no complaints very fast. We always purchase the drink package I think its worth your money especially if you do shots. Some of the tequila we were drinking was $19 a shot! -Entertainment was great as always we only caught a few shows and carnival isn't really known for the theater shows but they were good for what they are. What I really appreciate is the later showtime. We never made the 6pm showtime but the 9pm we were always able to make. What deserves mention is the live music in main lobby and the in the lounge. Every single musician brought something different, the violin trio with the classical rendition of mainstream music, the Latin duo with Spanish music and the country duo were the standouts for me. Biggest complaint would be the music at the club was always 90s stuff. Which is fine but I would've liked it more if they switched it up some nights. -Other Passengers we had some small issues. The cruise line cant control other passengers but I think my experience deserves a least a mention. One night in the lounge I was approached by a man who asked who I voted for, I politely declined to answer to which the man walked back to his group and I could hear him under his breath "I know who f*g." Another night at the Lgbt+ Mixer I has something similar happen. I was with my partner this night and I was asked the same question. Who did you vote for? This time I said something like "you're not gonna like my answer so you better leave us alone" It sucked but I think its more issue of porting out of Galveston. Again I know its not carnivals fault but I figured it worth mentioning. -Embarkation had no issue flew in the day of and took carnivals paid shuttle. Someone in our group had their Bluetooth speaker confiscated that must be newer rule but it was returned at the end of the cruise no harm no foul. For disembarkation no issues again we had a later flight so we chose to get off the ship later. We checked our bag getting off Id defiantly do it again it takes a lot of the hassle out of getting off. Overall/TLDR Carnival knows how to throw a party, older ship but crew makes up for it. The Live music is amazing. Drinks were amazing.