AshTravel: Our Inspection of the Carnival Dream

AshTravel: Our Inspection of the Carnival Dream

Our Inspection of the Carnival Dream

Natalee and I were able to tour the Carnival Dream  last month (March 2010) and are looking forward to a trip on the Dream or her sister ship the "Carnival Magic" which is scheduled to launch the summer of 2011. Carnival has built these ships about 20% larger than their previous largest ship. The passenger count has not changed much and it was apparent when looking at the common areas of this ship. I took most of these photos but added a few from Carnival. This link is to more stock photos from carnival.

Carnival Dream ship highlights

A lot of what we saw was the same "Fun Ship" we have come to expect from Carnival, but there were also some impressive new features that I want to share with you. Also I want to show you some pictures I took of cabins.

We were on the ship around 10:30 and were viewing cabins as they were being cleaned and prepared for the next guest. Most of you probably have not seen a quad room set up. In this balcony room, there is a sofa bed and a Fourth bed that drops down from the ceiling.

Here I got a shot of an inside quad cabin that would be for four adults. At least one person over 25 has to be booked in each cabin. we could not book 4 children in a room. Some families may book adjoining cabins and let the kids sleep together.

One of the suites we looked at was decorated with a "Happy Anniversary" package from Carnival. 

Carnival has added something new to its large variety of staterooms. This one includes dual bathrooms, which consist of one full bath with a tub and one bath with shower. The two doors on the left past Natalee are the bathrooms. This cabin is made up as a triple with the sofa bed. Looking at the ceiling you will see there is a fourth bed available.

This is another suite on the Carnival Dream. This is a great stateroom for an anniversary or honeymoon. The closet and drawer space is double the norm and the balcony is also twice the size of a std room. The next picture show the bath for this cabin. With granite counters, double sinks, and a large tub with Jacuzzi jets.

Someone received some nice departing gifts in this stateroom.

This is an outside stateroom set up with a queen and two twins for a family.

At the front corners of the ship, there are two cabins that can be used as a suite. There is a door entering into a small entryway then two doors entering the cabins. This allows them to be booked together or as two separate rooms. The two balcony pictures are for these two rooms and the partition is open creating one very large wrap around balcony.

This is the menu for the Statehouse. The normal dining room food and service was excellent, but for a superior steak, you can pay a little extra and get a meal fit for a king.

Check out the computers in Camp Carnival!       The Carnival Dream has the largest play area for kids in the fleet. I could not imagine a game that I did not see on the shelf as we toured these areas.

The water park is the largest for now. The cruise lines are so fast at out doing each other, we will be seeing even more to come. And that is saying a lot.

The Dream has a nice mini-golf course.

It is more creative than most others we have seen.

Carnival has increased the size of the "Serenity" Adult only area on the Dream. It is at the front of the ship and on 2 decks. The upper deck has plenty of lounge chairs for the sun bathers, a hot tub, hammock, and couches for groups to gather.

The lower deck has a nice bar with your favorite beverage.

There is comfortable seating in the shade.Also more two person loungers at the edge of the deck.

Princess Cay

Princess Cay is a small island at the tip of a 12-mile long island in the Bahamas. It is used by Princess Cruise Lines as a port of call on a lot of their Caribbean cruises. I found Princess Cay to be small but beautiful. There was plenty of room and amenities for everyone. They had a variety of fresh fruit available an hour after we landed and lunch was served from 11am to 1pm and drinks were available until 3pm. I would rate the snorkeling off the island a 6 out of 10.
Here is a link to some pictures I took while at Princess Cay:

http://picasaweb.google.com/GerryAsh/PicasaOnlinePrincessCay

Caribbean Princess

May 2008,
My wife and I took a long weekend trip on the Caribbean Princess. It was a short trip with one stop at Princess Cay. This is a beautiful ship and we found that it will take more than 3 days to cover all it has to offer. Our favorite feature was the Movie Under the Stars. This is a 22' screen located at the forward pool deck. There are movies showing all day and into the early morning hours. While watching the movie and eating popcorn, a crew member shows up pushing a cart and wearing a 'milk and cookies' hat. He served us a fresh glass of milk with a HOT chocolate chip cookie. I was impressed. This ship has a lot to offer. The common rooms are not as large as some other ships, but with all the venues, the 3,000 passengers are spread out. We checked out the kids programs and found everything I could imagine to keep your children busy and having the time of their lives.

This link is to some pictures I took during our trip. I will post others of Princess Cay and the underwater pics I took there.


http://picasaweb.google.com/GerryAsh/PicasaOnlineCaribbeanPrincess