Carnival Dream
We used the Carnival transfer from the airport and it was a comfortable ride. Embarkation was smooth. It probably helped because we always arrive early. We moved through the lines and made it on the ship fairly quickly. The traffic jam came when we got into the lobby and ALL the elevators were full and we did not know of to get out of that area. The ship is laid out like the other Carnival ships that we have been on, only larger. The ship was beautiful, as was our stateroom. We had a Spa Balcony. Our room steward was great and had the rooms ready by two. We expected long line at the buffet, but these seem ridiculously long. Especially on the boarding day. The Mongolian was great, but slow. Our wait staff in the restaurant was great, but then with two days to go our lead waiter couldn’t work anymore. The replacement tried hard, but he just wasn’t Orlando. The Sushi is free and that is always good. My teenage son enjoyed the waterslide, mini golf, the beanbag toss and the pools. My husband and I enjoyed the Thalassotheray pool and saunas and steam rooms in the Cloud 9. The teen center turned out to be a meeting place and then they would head out to troll the ship. My husband enjoyed the football on the seaside theater, except when they cut the last two minutes off to play Pirates of the Caribbean. Talk about men running to the sports bar. Debarkation was very organized. Luggage came off quickly. The longest line was customs, why don’t people fill out the forms ahead of time? I like the fact that the terminal has an “airport” like conveyor which makes finding your bag easier. We used the transfers from Carnival to get back to the airport. However, we had to wait a little bit until the bus was full to head back to the airport.
