Friday, January 27, 2012

Day 2, Ch. 7 - Carnival Dream Review

We then headed up to the Lido deck to have lunch. The Mongolian grill line was long and I was starving since I had not had any breakfast so I just did the regular buffet line this time. Latanya went Aft to the Tandoor Indian food station and got Indian food. I really don't remember what I ate but I am thinking a lot of salad stuff, if I recall correctly.

The food was yummy, no complaints. We had a frozen yogurt after. If I have any complaint, it is that the tap water tastes like chemicals and the lemonade on this cruise was always too pungent for me which was dissapointing since I normally enjoy it.

I did bring a 12 pack of Cherry Dr. Pepper (the small bottles) on board with me in a carry on so that I could have 1 soda a day with dinner and occasionally have one during a show.

After lunch, we headed back to our room so I could get the camera to take ship photos. Again, remember the spa photos were all actually taken on the last sea day. I just put them in the above posts so you could see it. :-)

We had some time to kill and I wanted to grab a few ship photos.

We headed to the Crimson restaurant first.

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I mentioned this early on about the Atrium but in general, I wasn't as impressed with the decor on the Dream. I do believe this is a personal taste thing coupled with how many cruises I have been on. I've enjoyed other ships better. I really loved the decor on the Miracle which we sailed on in 2010.

I did like the hallways on Deck 4 and Deck 5 Aft on the Dream. I also really thought the decor in the Club 02 teenagers lounge was neat. So, even though I don't have any kids of my own, I ventured in there to take some fun photos to show off to the parents out there. If I was a teen, I'd want to hang out here! Heck, I am an adult and I wanted to hang out in there!

Hallway leading to Club 02:

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My favorite area of club 02 was the bubble lights area where the lights change colors. This reminds me of a lava lamp - old school with a modern twist.

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I took a few more ship photos which I'll mix in on another day and then we headed back to our room to get ready for our first elegant night.

The power in the room worked just fine for my hair dryer and flat iron that I'd brought from home. (It always does but I know this is a frequently asked question.) Many people complain that the power outlets aren't in a convenient location. There is one right where the vanity mirror is in the room which is plenty convenient for me. You can sit down on the cushioned stool and do your hair and make up which I'd much rather do than go into the closet... errr bathroom. The fact that there's not an outlet in the bathroom doesn't bother me in the least. (The bathrooms are perfectly fine and spacious enough to shower and well.. you know.. :-)

Okay, all glammed up and in a dress (rare occasion.) Latanya and I head down to deck 3 to meet up with Steven and Kim. I forgot to mention that they went to visit the Maitre'D and convinced him to let Latanya and I change to the anytime dining option so we could eat with them. This was great news because we were not comfortable at our original dining assignments and because we would get to spend more time with Steven and Kim.

We sat with them and chit chatted for a while and then we all headed up to Deck 5 to have some photos taken. I didn't bring my camera this night (like a dummy) because I figured I'd buy one of the ship photos from this night and that it would be my only purchase. To say that the photos were unflattering and not at all edited would be an understatement. I was very unhappy with them (not really the photographers fault but more the fault of the photo mill type situation). So, we didn't purchase one and I unfortunately don't have any photos of us from this evening.

After taking photos, we started heading towards the Crimson dining room to eat dinner together as a group and Gumby (he's an awesome guy on the entertainment staff) stopped us, microphone in hand and asked if he could interview us for the cruise video. We said sure so he interviewed myself, Latanya, Steven and Kim. Luckily, we have this video where we all looked beautiful. I'll have to see if I can figure out how to get a still image from the video. :-)

Then we headed to the Crimson where we had a short wait and then were seated. I want to pause for a moment to say that during our entire cruise, we had different servers because we did the anytime dining. When we sailed on the Miracle in 2010, we also did anytime dining and we loved it for the convenience but hated it because of the lack of personal attention from the wait staff. This WAS NOT the case on the Dream. I read SO MANY bad reviews about the service of the wait staff on the Dream so I went into my cruise expecting the service in the dining room to not be stellar. Even with anytime dining and with us getting new servers every night, I felt that the service was STELLAR!

We had great conversations with many of our waitstaff, some of whom I'll give honorable mentions to later on. They were always very pleasant and always treated us well. I felt catered to and never felt like I was sitting around waiting for them. Awesome!

The food this night was delicious. Again, no food photos because I left the camera. I had the Lobster and Shrimp. 2 lobsters actually Yumtastical!!

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