1st time Carnival cruiser (DREAM) complete review & pictorial (from a NCL cruiser)
Day 3: Our first sea day
So day 2 comes along, our first sea day. It's time to do everything we can in one day because we won't get this chance again until the next full sea day. I love going to all the different ports, but in reality, I would rather not have such a port extensive itinerary. It's just nothing but go-go-go all the time. Having a chance to enjoy the ship a little more would be nice.
We started the day with our sloppy eggs and fighting for more bacon then decided to play a little putt-putt. This time around Sakari did better and she was actually playing the entire game with a few holes she made it in 3 putts. Good for her.
I of course won the game as always...not tooting my own horn or anything.
This was Sakari's favorite, it went in to the ship and disappeared. She was so disappointed and later cheered up that it came out the other side. It's magic she said! Had to have one with the Whale Tail in it:
Sakari had been begging to go to the kids club to meet her new "friends" so we thought we would check it out. They had told us that they were open from 9am-10pm. We went up and once again, they were not open and it was after 9am. Hmm, me and this kids club is just not getting off to a good start on this cruise. We were then told it would open at 10am.
So, we had to cure her depression by telling her it was time to go to the water park and slides. She perked up really quick with that.
Slides, here we come!
We started off slow at the water park/kids area: Sakari and my grandson Brayden had fun on the "mini" slides.
What happens when you get thirsty? Sakari is willing to help you out.
Time to move on up to the bigger slides and race.
Yep, tall enough for this! Excitement in that face I tell ya!
Trial run with daddy (you notice the arms up in the air already?)
Then my oldest (Kendra) and Brayden decided to race...
Then on to the big dog...
I tried the funnel first. We really had a blast on the Epic and the "toilet bowl" and was looking forward to this again. Away I went...I was not told that you are suppose to lay down, so I went sitting up. BIG mistake. As soon as I came out of the bowl it threw me back, I hit my head and twisted...ouch. I didn't go but one other time on this funnel and made sure that I was laying down. It still kind of whipped you around and wasn't too pleasant to me. When my little one went down, she also got hurt and hit her head and never wanted to return again. I can't say I blame her. It was the devil.
I have to admit, I was a little scared to try to Twister. Not scared as in it scared me, scared as in I was concerned that I would get hurt. I have the tendency to get hurt on cruises including but not limited to broken bones. So I didn't try it that day. Sakari did and loved it and went several times.
A video of all our water and slide fun for the day (mostly here for a memory for my family so we can look back years from now and laugh and have joy).
After awhile we decided once again to try the kids club and this time it was open. We checked her in, they ask to show proof that we had our cell phone with us and informed us that we needed to pick her up at 2pm. Um, it's already almost 1pm WTH??? Why do we have to pick her up at 2pm??? Then she said, no I mean 3pm. Why at 3pm?? Well, we close from 3:45 until 5pm. Um ok. First it's 2pm, then 3pm, but you aren't actually closed until 3:45pm. I don't like you already! Seriously!!!
Off we went to the Casino for our first gambling experience on the Dream.
I managed to find my favorite game...woo hoo! Cave King has always treated me right. Well, not this time and it would continue to treat me badly the entire cruise. I traded this game in for a different one that I enjoyed and did quite good on.
No sooner than we got here, it was time to leave and pick up Sakari from CC since they were closing at 2pm. I mean 3, or whatever their story was at the time.
Now one thing I want to discuss about the casino. I'm a smoker, I'm a considerate smoker. If I'm sitting by someone who's not smoking, I make sure it's ok. I don't blow smoke in someones face, even if they are a smoker. I wave it away. I don't like the smell of smoke, I will even fabreeze myself or put on body spray to not smell it. But since I'm a smoker, I might not always smell smoke the way previous smokers or non-smokers do. When you got anywhere NEAR this casino, walking along the hallway there it smelled like striaght smoke!!! Really bad. And this is coming from a smoker. I have NEVER witnessed the smoke smell on any of the NCL ships. I don't know what they use, but it has never been like this. I just wanted to point this out.
Also, on the day we were in port, they did not allow any smoking anywhere other than in the casino prior to pulling out. They said they were fueling up and there was to be no smoking anywhere else. There were no ashtrays out. However, you did see people sitting up on the deck smoking away and who knows what they were using as an ashtray. I sure the hell hope it wasn't the ship! The other odd thing was that where they told us we could smoke in the casino was the NON-SMOKING part of the casino. Um...o.k. weird. Why not smoke in the smoking section? It just didn't make any sense at all to me.
I would find throughout the cruise that ashtrays were a hot commodity. They were very few and far in between. They did have the standing ashtrays along the way, but to sit down at a table with an ashtray was hard to do.
Ok, done with my ash mouth talk for the cruise.
Fast forward some to food talk. It was time to get all dressed up AGAIN and head to dinner. It was finally lobster night and I was excited. We get down to the MDR and it wasn't open yet. The time on the display outside the MDR said it opened at 5:45, but they didn't actually let anyone in until a little bit after 6pm. A line formed, people were blocking others that were trying to walk by while shopping. It was a weird location I guess to have the entrance. But we were some of the first in line and I was anticipating my lobster and wasn't leaving. (I was in the doorway area, not out in the hall being a "blocker").
We were seated and time to order. I went straight for the kill and ask for the lobster dinner. I ask if I how many came with it and they told me only 1. (NCL gave you 2). So, I ask if I could have 2 lobster tails. The waiter replied, well you can only order 1 at a time. So once you are finished with your first plate, we will bring you another. Um ok. Wouldn't it just be easier to slap 2 lobsters on there and be done with it and move on instead of running back and forth? Ok, well whatever. So they brought out the bread and it was good. They ask if I wanted something else to start with. At this point it had been a busy day at the pools and I was starving so I order something called Octopus something or other and some kind of fritters. I was a little leery but I'm game for trying anything. It was pretty good.
We sat around again waiting on our food. They give the kids a menu that you can color on. I found it weird that they sometimes gave you a crayon and other times a pencil??? Really, you are suppose to color with a pencil?
My lobster came. It wasn't as long of a wait as it was the night before. I think probably because we were one of the first in the MDR. The lobster was not the best and definitely not as big or as good as what we have had on NCL. But it was ok and it did the job.
The shrimp was suppose to be "blackened shrimp". It was just plain shrimp and didn't have much of a taste to them. The waiter came out and ask if I was ready for my next lobster and I told him sure. So instead of bringing me out another lobster, they brought me an entire second plate. Yikes! I can't eat all of that. All I wanted was a lobster.
I also tried the stuffed mushrooms. They were actually very yummy. See I told you I was hungry.
Now I have to mention, today was Mothers Day. It was also our anniversary. They were coming to the tables and passing out pink carnations to all of the ladies. It was a very nice touch. A+ Carnival.
We were on the deck later for our late night snack and another lady was passing out more carnations. That's how I ended up with 2 of them.
We decided to head to a show tonight and see just how crappy the entertainment was as others had said.
Here is the Encore theater (I personally think it should have some type of Safari name to it because it looked like a zebra fabric in there).
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The show started and it was a country show with country music. Hmmm, I'm not a country fan so I was a little torn between liking or not liking the show. I can tell you that the dancers were very talented and the props were amazing and it made for a decent night. We didn't stay for the entire show and I did notice several people leaving. Normally I will not get up and leave a show in the middle of it and feel that it's rude. However, my little one had to use the restroom, so we would have to get up anyhow to take her and since it wasn't a show that we were extremely enjoying due to the music, we decided we would go ahead and leave.
The one thing I liked about this theater compared to NCL was the room and the space there was. There were actual TABLES in front of the chairs which gave you a place to put your drinks (and even a few times we ran up to the Pizza place and brought down some pizza and ate and watched a show) and this was nice!!! Way to go Carnival. I don't know if all of the ships are like that (or at least the Dream class ships), but I really enjoyed that. It also had plenty of room for people to walk around you in the isles without stepping on your toes.
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We headed up to the buffet to see if anything was happening...of course not. However, something must have went on prior because they had a MOM ice sculpture in there still.
How nice.
It was raining outside again, but they were still playing a movie on the big screen out at the pool. People were along the sides out of the rain and watching the movies. On NCL, they are always putting away and stacking chairs...it seems like a non-stop business. I always wonder why they do this over and over. Some times you are sitting in the chairs on the deck and they are stacking them up and before long everything around you is stacked. You feel out of place and finally you move. They charge in to grab your chair and stack it. On Carnival, I really didn't notice any chair stacking. Of course they left the chairs out on the deck since they were always playing movies and people would need to sit down. I liked the non-stacking!
On our way back to the room, we found these neat chairs (which reminded me of all the neat and weird chairs that you will usually find on NCL) and I just had to have my picture taken.
The hubby being silly of course when it came time to take his picture
We made it back to the room to turn in, once again another towel animal and Sakari was happy about that but wanted to know what happened to "No feet"
Also, more mints on the bed...this would continue to be a nightly thing during the cruise. A+ Carnival.
We new we would be in Cozumel tomorrow and we were going to Playa Mia. We were excited and I was busy packing for that day and ready to call it a night.