DAY 1 GETTING ON THE SHIP

Up early and ready for our day to begin. I was excited to get on the Dream but yet we were not too rushed.

Ron Jon has a strict 10am check out time. No exceptions. They will charge you extra if you are late. When we were packing up our few things and preparing for check-out, my daughter was sitting on the couch looking at a book that came with the room. It had your normal things to do around there and the "house rules". Well the more she read, the more we learned.

There were several "rules" to staying at this place than I was aware of. You have to do all of your dishes, including loading the dishwasher and washing the dishes prior to leaving. All of your linens needed to be removed and put in a pile by the washer. All of your towels needed to be put by the washer. I can't remember if you actually had to put them in the washer and start it. I know we didn't because the night before my daughter had already used the trial sized laundry detergent to wash with so there wasn't any left. All trash had to be emptied, new trash bags inserted, and the trash had to be taken out to the trash chute on the premises. Of course everything had to be clean and there was a broom for sweeping. They wanted this place spick and span cleaned prior to leaving in order not to charge you. I know these places are time shares and have an official "owner", but really? I'm paying big bucks to stay in a place like this, I DON'T expect to have to do everything when I leave including the dishes and laundry. That's what you pay your housekeeping staff for. When I'm on vacation, I guess I expect to not have to do all the cleaning. :cool:

So we get down to the check out and it went fairly quickly. I had noticed that upon check-in, when they wrote out our "car parking tag" to hang in the window it only said for 1 night. So, we had to get that changed for the week since we were leaving our vehicle there at the resort while cruising. They did however tell us that we had to move the vehicle out of the garage and back to one of the back parking lots...which happen to be one of the lots we walked through on our way to the beach.

We decided since we had to move the van, we would just drive down the street and find something to eat since we were all starving. They provided a really nice map with a listing of everything around the area and the places to eat. We were informed since it was going on 10:30 that we had probably missed breakfast. :( Ron Jon had a room close to the check-in and they were nice enough to take all of our luggage and store it in there while we went to eat. We found McDonalds and was excited to see that they indeed was still serving breakfast and at this point it was probably after 11am by the time we waited in the long line to get up to the register.

When we returned from eating and parking the car, I ask the person at the front desk to call for a cab and provided her with the number I wanted. I remember prior to leaving for the cruise that someone on here mentioned that there wasn't any regulated taxi fees there and it was pretty much pay what you want. Well, I'm here to tell you that's not true. They do have meters and they do charge you according to the meter. However, the day before I did see the "Pay What You Want" taxi pull up out front. So, this is an actual taxi service, not a regular taxi rule. It's just that company. I did copy down the number for us to use the next day. So the lady at the front desk called for us and they said they would be there in about 20 minutes.

We waited for a good 45 minutes or so and I called them myself explaining when we had called and to let them know we were still patiently waiting. They told us the driver was on his way and would be there within the next 15 minutes. I knew all I had to do was wonder off to the restroom in the building and he would surely come. I was right. It never fails. We packed all of our luggage into the mini-van and off we went.

Here we come Dream!!! 😁

We pull up in to this luggage unloading area that is away from the check-in or the ship. This is the first time I had experienced this and wasn't sure what to do. They have you wait in the vehicle until one of the porters tell you where to pull. We waited and waited and waited. Sigh.

When it was finally our turn to pull up, they quickly unloaded the luggage and we were swarmed with love bugs. OH-EM-GEE!! They were everywhere and unavoidable. It must be mating season or something. I have never seen so many. They were so annoying and hitting you in the face, hitch hiking rides on your back and in your hair. Totally gross. I don't know what it was with this area but the workers acted as if they weren't even there. They must be use to it. Mean while, I was doing every karate kid move I could think of swatting them away. We found that the further we got away from the baggage area (which was in the open in a parking lot) the better the situation got. When we were done, we had no idea what to do or where to go. We got the "I will take care of your luggage from here on out and make sure it will arrive safely on the ship" speel from the porter and then of course the added "This is the last time you will see me" deal...meaning give me my tip now if you ever want to see your luggage alive again. :p

We walked under a tunnel and over to the port. In the doors, through the carry on check-in and metal detectors and pulled aside for them to "check" our carry on (soda) to make sure it was actually soda we were smuggling on the ship. Then off to ship check-in. Up to the window, handed the passports, ask how we'd like to take care of our account for the cruise, handed our cards and directed another way for pictures. Are you serious? It was just that quick and that easy? WOW...this was simply AMAZING!! I have never been through a check in this quick in all of my cruises...ever! I think I'm still in shock. Way to go Carnival. For those of you wanting to know when I checked in, it was some time around 12:30-12:45. It was so fast that I didn't even have time to check the time because there was no wait at all. People were moving right along without stopping.

We got up to the "picture" taking (the big green screen) and they said 1 at a time. Um, we can't all be in the picture together? Gasp. I want family pictures of us all together. Rip offs trying to get more money out of us by making us have to buy 3 pictures of us for our cruise memories. :D Yea, I'm a Carnival newbie. I thought we were posting for our pictures we take that they put the ship in the background and you later purchase on board. Laugh if you want. I know these photographers thought I was a weirdo asking for my husband and daughter to be in the picture with me. We are use to NCL taking our pictures at the actual check-in desk a step before this part.

So my mug shot was done and away we went again...FINALLY, the actual place that we get our "family" picture done. :p I was a happy camper but since they confused me earlier, I made them work for it. A few pictures of us, some of my oldest daughters family, then some of us ALL together. I have my I <3 cruising girlie girl shirt on. hehe

...then off we went up the gangway to our beautiful Dream. ☺️

We have arrived. Let's get this party started and time to explore. 

My initial thoughts...WOW, simply wow!!! This ship was beautiful. I have never seen so much glitz and glamour. Everything sparkled, had glitter, mirrors or lights. The atrium was to die for. It's just like an atrium is suppose to be. It was stories tall, glass elevators and all of the lights on everything constantly changing colors. I had found paradise. I don't know what the rest of the cruise was going to be like, but so far I'm impressed for sure.

I was off to explore and start my picture journey right away (which will be located on the following page)

So now it's time for us to head to our rooms to see if they are ready. I'm not use to carrying my own luggage around (carry on) with soda in it. NCL lets you check it in with your luggage. Put it in something or not, slap a room tag on it and you're free to go. With Carnival, if you carry on soda, you C-A-R-R-Y on soda and it's attached to your hip during the entire cruise. Just kidding, only until you can drop it off at your room.

We stopped prior to getting on the freeway the day we left home just so that I could buy yet another suitcase to use just for this purpose. I had to have something with wheels. There was no way I was carrying around 3 cartons of soda. (Well, not necessarily me, but me and the hubby).

We stopped by the room prior to them being done and as we were walking down the hall to the room, we noticed the room steward had just finished our room and was headed to the next and 1 of our luggage had arrived outside. So in we went to drop off the soda and pull in 1 piece of luggage that the porter had promised would make it to our room when I handed him our tip.

Now I have read multiple times that Carnival rooms are a lot bigger and roomier than NCL. I don't know what I was expecting, but this was not it. I had seen pictures of an interior room and it also had a sofa in it long ways. But this room did not have anything like that and I can guarantee it didn't seem any bigger than our interior rooms on NCL. It was almost exactly the same.

We always book interior rooms, it gives our budget a break and allows us to cruise twice a year. Cruising twice a year is far more important to us than having a balcony or suite. Would I pass it up if offered? Of course not. But if I have to pay for it, it won't happen. Have I been upgraded before? Yes. Did I like it? Yes of course. But it was at no cost to us. Remember I'm a struggling college student and I only work 3 days a week due to that.

The only difference that I could find was the storage space. The storage space and design of the room was far less superior than NCL. NCL may have some small rooms (?), but I can guarantee they utilize every inch of that small space that they can. Their storage is awesome and we have always had plenty of room for all of our things. They have storage inside of storage. hehe Like our last cruise had the normal closet in the middle and inside that closet they had fold out shelves if you needed more space. If you didn't, you didn't have to fold it out. Inside that closet there was hidden shelves along the side. Not really "hidden", but hidden from the world. They just have wonderful storage. This time, I had to keep some of our clothes in the suitcases and pull them out as needed. I'm not complaining at all. It's just an observation. Would it distract me from cruising with Carnival again? Obviously not!

As you can tell by the picture above, I had started removing the items from the refrigerator to make room for our soda. There was a lot in there and it was jam packed full. I had been told (on here) that if you remove it and wanted it removed from the room, you had to ask the room steward to take it out. Otherwise it would just sit on top of the counter the entire cruise (taking up even more space). However, when I ask the room steward to take it out of the room, he told me NO. I told him we was not going to be purchasing any of it and I would like to use the space on the counter it was taking up and he told me "NO, it has to stay in the room." Um ok then...

The bathroom was average size and what I'm use to I guess. Maybe just a tad bit smaller? I know the shower seemed a lot smaller and it was like a triangle. But it did the trick and no complaints here.

I did find that the sink area seem to have a lot of storage space for things. There were tons of glass shelves to put things where NCL has a few, but usually not enough for us and the sink ends up cluttered.

I loved the little swing out mirror they had attached to the wall. This was an added plus. I need one of these at home. It was a magnifying mirror on one side and a regular mirror on the other. It came out to a position you could see the back of your hair and everything. Excitement at it's best.

The shower was equivalent to NCL with them having the shampoo (which I never use) and the body wash (which I always use)...hey, less to pack right? It smelled flowery and did the job.

I have to say that when we started our cruise, we had 6 towels in the bathroom. By the end of the cruise, we were only down to 3. I'm not sure why. I need (like) a lot of towels. I take 2 showers a day, 1 in the morning to get woke up and look presentable and another at night before going to bed to relax me. Then I have to have a towel for my hair (which is very long). You do the math, that's 4 towels just for me. I'm traveling with my husband and daughter...add 2 more towels. 6 towels was a positive sign and then it diminished from there on. Then if you are out at the pools, coming back from a sandy day in port, even more showers to be had.

There was a closet with our life jackets in there. We had 4 of them (it was a possible 4 person room). They were stacked on top of each other and the room steward brought us another (I guess for our little one, even though the thing seemed HUGE).

Another plus for Carnival (well, it could be for those that would use it) is that they automatically give you robes to wear. We have only had robes once from NCL and it was during a cruise that made us VIP status. Now we have robes at home, but even at home we barely wear them. So, we didn't use these either, but still was a nice added touch that NCL doesn't automatically give you.

One thing I found funny and had never seen before were people wearing their robes everywhere on deck. There were tons of people on the pool deck at night, in their robe, watching the movies. I had never thought of that, but that was the night that the hubby and daughter wouldn't wake up otherwise I would have took the opportunity to blend in with the robe theme. LMAO. Is this just a Carnival thing?

The shelves in the room, well...what was left of them, we definitely used up. They had a few rows taken up by all of the bedding that I guess would have been used if there was another person in the room.

You had your normal sized little safe behind the door. It's the same size as the ones that NCL has in their interior rooms...I know this because my OCD folders I make for each trip fit perfectly in there.

The refrigerator was below that, same size as what we are use to.

I have to talk about the refrigerator. I read comments from others saying that it was a "cooling" place and didn't get the sodas cold. Boy were they right. I wouldn't even say they got them cool. It was terrible! We had soda in there all week that never did get cold. Thank goodness for ice is all I can say. I'm a popaholic and I live, eat, and breathe soda (I know it's bad, but that's just how I am. I don't drink coffee and I need my caffeine fix somehow). So definitely a negative thing, but not something that devastated me of course. Just NCL has refrigerators that will have your soda coda by that night.

Others had also mentioned that you would not get ice unless you ask for it to be filled (another cost reduction by Carnival). Well, ours came filled right from the beginning and was filled every day. No issues and I never ask them to. Not necessarily a positive for Carnival, just something you expect. Had it not happened, no biggie either, I would have just ask for some. Not a big deal to me.

This was the hallway leading to our room:

There were a lot of "people" standing in the hallways all the time (see below). And I thought they eliminated smoking in interior rooms. These guys obviously didn't get the memo:

Another person on our roll call posted one of a Mermaid, but we never seen her. She must have been hanging out at the opposite end of the hallway because it was the same floor as ours.

I do have to laugh because my oldest daughters room was the last door at the end of the hallway. There was this wall that came out right after it and one of these "guys" was on the wall beside it. It always caught her off guard because she thought a guy was standing there when she would come out of her room. We had to laugh the entire cruise about her "friend" that was stalking her outside her door.

There is a strip on the floor, which I originally thought of it as just being a wire cover or something (like a threshold), but on the last day of the cruise, we found out it was a light strip and they had it on. I'm not sure why it was never on prior to this??? Anyone have any clue?

Inside the room you have the flat screen tv's and you can access your account and such from it. My daughter didn't realize this until I told her the second to the last day of the cruise.

One positive thing about Carnival, they have a Kiosk up on the deck (toward the main atrium) that you can check your balance at any time and it will actually print off your charges and everything. You can also add money to your account that way (which she did her entire cruise). Way to go Carnival for having this. On NCL, you will take yourself up to the desk and wait in multiple lines to apply money or check your balance. Awesome idea. If this is a way to cut back on expenses (from having employees serve you) then it was an awesome cutback IMO.

So now it's about time for us to go to the "Save you own life if the ship sinks" drill. Everyone was assigned to different areas on the ships to meet. It's according to what is on your sail and sign card. Our meeting spot was in the Encore Theater. I'm glad they have it inside, most of the NCL ships have it inside, but the last few they were outside, in the heat, wanting you in a single filed line. Not fun with a child.

Now what I find weird was that they tell you where each area is, you go in and sit down and they periodically come around and ask if you are supposed to be in area "......" and you agree. What they didn't do what account for everyone. How do they know everyone was there? They didn't have a list, they didn't take our names or room number. On NCL, you sign in with them and they make SURE you are there. If you are not, you get this nice little letter telling you that you were bad for not attending and they tell you a time you are to report to another room for your slap on your hands meeting about not attending. How do I know? Not because I got the nasty letter but because they had this meeting at the place that our meet & greet was on the last cruise and I was the person that put it all together and those naughty people were coming into our room and eating all of our drinks and snacks provided to the cc members. That's how I know! Do you think you are getting served snack and drinks for being bad?? Ok, sorry, that just brought back memories for me. LOL

So once they showed us how to put on a life jacket, we were free to roam. It was off to the sail away party on the deck. They had some good hamburgers, hotdogs and fries to get our bellies full and I was ready to sit down in peace an quiet while we drifted off to sea.

A view of us still sitting in port:

We just had to be sitting by Mickey and his gang:

Everyone looked like they were having a blast over there riding the AquaDuck...me dreaming about how maybe some day I'll be able to afford Disney. Sigh. I was really hoping that Disney pulled out before us. I wanted to hear their "Wish Upon a Star" horn. But, that didn't happen. My oldest daughter set up on a higher deck (I found out later) waiting to hear it and it never happened.

Meanwhile, here I am sitting on the deck watching this cruise line that I had never been on FULLY PACKED TO CAPACITY...yes, no rooms available, another first for me, getting ready to leave the port in silence as we drift out into the sunset quietly like a ship in the night ninja and all of a sudden...here we go...time to PAR-TAY! The music started blaring, the chairs were moved off the deck and there was Julie the cruise director getting everyone pumped up and ready to dance. Can I get a h3ll yea?! You bet. I was super excited at that point and ready to get my dance on. Whoever said Carnival was a boring, no music ship was out of their minds.

Drink in hand and party on dude!

Have you ever watched yourself dance? Well you shouldn't. You will feel complete humiliation the rest of the cruise when you see yourself on the big screen tv on the deck in front of millions. Just a warning people. I danced until I couldn't dance anymore. I had the time of my life. WHERE WAS MY DAUGHTER DURING THIS???? Still hoping to hear Mickeys horn and not to be found. She's my dancing partner and partner in crime. Darnit. We are best friends, we do everything together...and yet not to be found. Sigh.

Once the dancing was done and over with, we headed back to our rooms to put our luggage away and finally meet up with our daughter to go to dinner. It had started raining outside and everyone scrambled. I was told that the lobster day is the first night and we got dressed up and ready to go to the MDR. Once I was there I found out it was not on the first night, but the second night, which was formal night. I wondered why everyone was in shorts, jeans and stuff.

I ordered the chicken, with the honey mustard sauce I think it was, for starters

Then I ordered the shrimp, which came on a stick (never seen such a thing) and sweet and sour noodles. The hubby had chicken breast and my daughter picked a PB & J. Geesh.

Later that night we were wondering around and found the same food up at the buffet area. Really? You can get the same thing there and not have to dress up? Sigh.

As for the staff, they were working their butts off, you could tell. I know what some mean but staff cuts because it took us about an hour to get our food. Now, I have experienced this on NCL before (our last cruise was a little slow in the MDR). One thing I truly missed on Carnival was the cheesecake. I love me some cheesecake and there was none to be found. I ask every night and every night I got the reply that it was only on certain nights they had it but it "wasn't this night." Well I finally gave up. On NCL, you can get cheesecake any time, day or night, 24/7 if you'd like and it is good. Insert sad face here.

For desert, they gave my daughter chocolate chip cookies. She wasn't hungry after she ate, so I took her cookies, put them in my small carrying purse and decided I would munch on them later. Remind me to never do that again...not only for the fact that I'm on a cruise ship and there is some type of available food on the ship 24/7 if I get hungry but also for the fact that these things completely crumbled in a matter of a few hip movements from walking. It was a bloody mess I tell ya!

We tried several times to go to the kids club (Camp Carnival) to sign our youngest up and our grandson. They were never open. This is weird. I'm use to NCL being open before sail away and you sign them up, get to view the place, and then after sail away you can bring the munchkins in for play time. Not Carnival. They were not opening until 9pm for sign ups. Wow. Shocker.

So, we went to the atrium and my hubby and daughter got their dance on for awhile. She danced like there was no tomorrow and didn't want to stop when it was time to move on.

Meanwhile, I'm busy snapping pictures in the Atrium and my surroundings as I glanced over waving at her twirling around like a princess and wearing daddy out.

Finally it was 9pm and time to go sign up for Camp Carnival. We signed the kids up and had a look around. The area was pretty big. I've seen bigger, I've seen much smaller, but all in all, it looked like a good time was to be had there and the kids couldn't wait to play...wait, what? You're not open tonight? Seriously? The first night of the cruise and parents are eager to spend money in your Casino and you aren't open? Definitely a negative for me. Sigh.

Just so you know you are going in the right direction for direction impaired people like me...

The front desk, which never really had anyone sitting there. You actually had to go inside at the glass gate and check in with the gatekeeper to pick up and drop off the munchkins. I guess possibly another staff cutback?

Inside CC

The windows you see in the background goes out to one of the decks, which would later become very useful to us...details to come!

The movie viewing area (which is still the same area as previous, this is just where the tv was located)...more on this to come as well.

Daddy and Sakari checking out all of the neat toys on the shelves. She loves dinosaurs and can name the different types. She has a huge box/collection of them at home and as I currently type this, she is watching a dinosaur movie. LOL (Truth be known and keep this our little secret, she is roaring too).

This place was so colorful and I loved it.

A shirt they would later give to my daughter to color and then proceed to not let her color it...details on that later as well!

Their going away gift on the last night of the cruise:

It looks like a lot of stuff for them to do some drawing activities right? But my daughter does not like to participate in things like that....MORE TO COME!!!!

Ok, so Camp Carnival was not open for registration before sailing and not until hours later after sailing. Then they are not open that night AT ALL. So far not off to a good start right?

The next thing they inform me is that we have to carry around this god awful huge "cell" phone from the 1990's in order to have our kids there. Um say what? Where am I suppose to put this thing? It has no clip on it and you are forced to carry it. It didn't even fit in my small hand purse. They require everyone in the kids club, ages 2-5, to have one of these. They give you a school plastic box with the phone and the charger in it to take back to your room to charge and make you check in with it each time by giving them your number. You assigned me the phone, you wrote the number down, shouldn't you HAVE that number? :confused: Ok so this was not my idea of "fun" but guess what...I just found my new source of a way to tell time AND...... me and my oldest daughter now had a form of communication between each other when we were seperated. LOL Whenever we were going somewhere, trying to find each other, simply pick up the cell phone and call. NOT WHAT CARNIVAL? You just gave us a personal communication tool. Thanks! My daughter also carried hers to port with her (for some reason these phones stayed on ships time no matter what port we were in) and we now knew exactly what time it was all the time. My daughter also used the plastic school box they gave to her as something to put her stuff in while in the bag. It kept things from getting wet and she made it into a little carrier. HA! Take that Carnival. I was not as enthused about carrying the dinosaur phone as she was, but I delt with it.

They also require the children to wear an armband the ENTIRE cruise. Remember how mine did not like the last armband from Ron Jon and that was only on for 1 day? Well I was just informed that she would now have another armband for the entire week. Gasp. Here we go....(in the end, she only ask for it to come off for a few days and then she finally gave up and all was well, but I guarantee that when stepped foot off the cruise and she knew it was over, she ask again for us to remove it).

Well since there was nothing more that a family with children can do at this time of night (since everything consisted of bars, dancing, or casino), that pretty much left us out on anything other than going back to the room for the night (after a little snack of course).

Outside our room was our tickets for our excursion to Playa Mia (the only excursion we did with Carnival because it's a place we wanted to go and that was the only way to book it). It was kind of neat that each room had it's own little "mailbox" outside of the room. I'm use to things being shoved in the room number outside the door for everyone to see. This was kind of "hidden". I liked it. A+ Carnival.

We arrived to find our first towel animal...his name was "no feet" according to Sakari.

Our beds were together (which was something we were wondering about since Carnivals online sign in kept changing it back to separated) and Sakari's bed was pulled down from the ceiling.

We each was left a mint...another A+ Carnival. At least you still do that for the cruisers. This is something you now have to "earn" with NCL and be up the ladder to receive. Rolling my eyes out loud.

Ok, time to plug in that dinosaur cell phone to charge for tomorrow, the computer, and charge the batteries to the camera...wait, only 1 plug and I forgot my power strip either at home on the table or in the van left at Ron Jon. (Yea, it was the van at Ron Jon's we found out after the cruise). I would continue the rest of the cruise on a charging frenzy between all of the items. Some took priority over others and some people were a little upset about that (Camp Carnival to name one).