My Carnival Dream Vacation

Interior: I specifically chose a Spa Stateroom because I had research the Dream's Cloud 9 Spa. By the time we booked, there were no Oceanview spa cabins left, so we had to choose between interior and balcony. It was a big difference in price, so I went interior. However, I think this was a good move. I actually didn't mind it one bit. I sleep very well in pitch darkness, though, so I think I am biased. My husband wants at least an Oceanview next time. If you are like me, and have an interior cabin, make sure to set your wake-up call, or you will be waking up at unusual hours!

Location: We chose a room very close to the back of the ship, so the staircase to the spa was really close, just around the corner. We were on the 11th deck. It was one deck higher than the lido deck, which has the swimming pools and the big buffet. It was a very short walk to all the outdoor amenities from our room, including the water slide, mini-golf, and adults-only deck.

Decor: The decor of the spa cabins was sort-of Asian. I haven't tried the regular rooms on the Dream, but read that they were a bit loud. The tan decor was really nice, not too loud at all. The paintings, of birds on cherry trees, were kinda bad, but I guess you can't expect them to put an original Hokusai in each room can you? (A few Hokusai reproductions wouldn't hurt!)

Special amenities: You get to feel pretty special if you have a Spa cabin. You get some spa product samples. Your beach towel is tan, and not blue, and you get a slippers and a robe with the cloud 9 logo. When we walked around with those towels, we could sometimes hear people asking each-other. "How did they get that stuff?" The real reason we booked the spa cabins was for the unlimited spa entry for the whole cruise, which they sell for between $170-$300 depending on the time people buy. I guess the price essentially got tacked onto the cost of the room, but to me it was worth it because of the extras and the great location.

This was the big reason we chose to cruise on the dream, and boy was it worth it! We went to the spa almost every day.

Getting In: So they give you a wristband, which doesn't get you in, but makes you look special. Whenever you want to get into the steam rooms, Thalsso pool, and VIP lockers, you turn in your sail and sign card and trade it for a special VIP card to get in. When you leave, you trade it back for your Sail and Sign card. This was a little bit annoying, since we were in and out a bunch. I'm going to tell you about something naughty we did, though. When I was in the Thalasso pool, I felt something with my foot. It was a VIP card that somebody lost. Well, we didn't do the right thing and kept it all week. It kept working and we stopped doing the check in/out process. (Shameful! I know!)

Be careful on the spa staircase if you ever cruise on the dream! The elevator is rediculously (relaxingly?) slow and impractical. The stairs felt downright dangerous, though. Both of us tripped on the stairs. Since there's space between stairs, it's really easy to catch a flip-flop. (Mine fell off and I had to run back down to the bottom to find it) Maybe we are just clumsy, but by the end of the trip we were super-focused whenever climbing the stairs so we didn't trip or smack our toes, or have our flip-flops catch and slam our shins into the next stair. (Yeah. Ow.)

Thalasso Pool: This was great. It wasn't too hot, or too cold. They had a few nice jets that were just high enough for a lovely foot massage. It was very relaxing. It wasn't perfect, I guess. The chairs were rows of metal bars. They were comfortable enough, but when the bubble jets were running, you could float off if you weren't holding on. It was hard to relax completely on these. The Thalasso pool was hardly ever crowded. In a huge ship with over 5,000 people on it, it's hard to find anyplace that isn't jam-packed with people. The Thalasso pool is one of them.

Steam rooms: They had two different steam rooms. One is crazy hot, and the other is just lukewarm. I like to sweat a little bit, and the hot steam room will make it happen, fast! But here's the secret. They have these wonderful, ceramic tiled chairs in the other steam room, and in another lukewarm room. Inside the chairs are little heaters! As you sit, or lay down, your muscles get nicely warmed. Heated seats are the bomb. It was so easy to just take a relaxing nap on those chairs.

Services: My husband went and got acupuncture done a few times. It seemed like it did him good (he was recovering from shoulder surgery) It was also really easy to make an appointment for acupuncture, but not so much for massages. We didn't get any massages, but I got my hair done up for formal night. The staff member who did my hair was really nice and personable. We ended up talking about British telly. The services are pretty expensive, though! You can still definitely have fun in the spa without paying hundreds of dollars for treatments.

Lockers: The VIP locker rooms are wonderful. They have beautiful, lockable, roomy, multi-head showers. The shower in the stateroom was, well, a closet would be an overstatement. Showering in the VIP locker rooms was great. It wasn't really highly trafficked, but it was so nice to stretch out in the shower. The locker rooms also have blow-dryers and big mirrors. If you get a spa cabin, this access is a BIG plus.

The food was scrumptious. Oh my goodness. I'm not a real dscerning foodie, so I can be happy with almost anything, but this went beyond all my expectations.

Room Service: We only did this twice, but we should have done it more! 24 hour room service comes with the cost of the room. The first time I filled out the breakfast card, I wrote '5' beside cream and sugar, because I wanted some coffee, and to have at least 5 packets of sugar, and 5 little cylinder creamers (You know what i'm talking about, right?). Well, they brought 5 carafes of cream, and 5 square holders full of sugar packets! They must have thought I was insane! We also got breakfast by room service on debarkation day, and thankfully I got exactly what I expected.

Lido: The main buffet was quite nice. It had a great variety and different desserts every day. Probably the nicest part was the custom omelette stations, and mongolian stir fry. You would choose your favorite meats and vegetables and the chef would it for you right there.

Pasta Bar: We did this once. It's upstairs from the Lido buffet. You fill out a little card and they cook whatever pasta you want, with your choice of sauce, and whatever extra meats or veggies you want. The pasta was cooked perfectly, and it was un-crowded, which is important to a small-town girl like me.

Tandoori: This is on the forward side of the ship. It was amazing! The fish was incredible. They had a bunch of chutneys, some of which I didn't like, but I felt really healthy eating the vegetables and meats here. We ate here at least three times. It was wonderful.

Dinner: The dinner restaurant was wonderful. We went every single night, since the dishes were just way too good to pass up. We chose 6:00 dining, but we might do 9:00 next time. I liked the on-time dining because we got to know the people we were sitting with and could exchange excursion stories with them. The most exciting part to me was ordering whatever combination of food I wanted. We got in the habit of ordering two appetizers each because they were so yummy. I tried escargot, and found it very buttery. I ordered some shrimp once, and didn't notice that they were breaded, which wasn't terrible was a bit of a surprise. Another time, a had a piece of fish that was just a tad dry. I ordered a few steaks and some lamb, though, and they cooked it exactly how I wanted it. (as rare as possible) The crab cake was stupendous. The Creme Brulee was ho hum. All in all, I felt like I was spoiling myself!

Drinks: We didn't order many sodas, since they cost money. We actually brought some cans with us, in accordance with their beverage policy. The lemonade, punch, and coffee that was on tap was usually good enough for us!

We rented a moped and drove around the island. It was very nice, but a little sketchy! We rented it out of an alley. Carnival strongly discourages people from doing this, and well, so do I! But we made sure to buy all the insurance they offered us. It was actually really fun! If we ever went, again it would be cool to rent a jeep instead and enjoy some AC and booty-space (narrow seats on mopeds!). I was not appropriately attired for it, but there are some very craggy looking areas with blowholes and probably tide-pools filled with Caribbean critters. I like checking out tide-pools, so that's another thing for next time. It was really pleasant to feel the sea-spray and see the scenery.

I thought this was pretty much the best excursion idea in Cozumel, except for maybe snorkeling/other water sports, or finding a bar.
The ruins are small, the zip line course is apparently tiny, shopping is overpriced. There are all these tanzanite places. Maybe if you researched beforehand and haggled really well, you could get a good deal, but it seemed like a ripoff for the most part.On the elevator going back up from the gangway we met this guy holding a bunch of jewelry store bags who was completely smashed. They give you lots of tequila if you are a serious shopper. I guess that's a plus?

We went zip-lining. If you have never been, it was AMAZING and only scary on the very first line. It was with a company called Pirates of the Caribbean. I got to pet the company's spider monkey. I scratched him on his haunch and then he wanted to eat my finger. I guess in Honduras they have lax copyright and animal related laws. I don't know! I thought they were really great people, myself.

Isla Roatan is really nice. It's very green and hilly, and has it's own airport. It's the only place we stopped that I would consider actually going for a whole vacation. However, they had a ski lift over the water. That looked like a dumb idea to me. Ski lifts are for snow. I bet it wasn't so great with the sun beating down on you. I bet the snorkeling is good. They had a bunch of sunken ships around.

For this port day, we booked the River Wallace & Ruins tour through the Carnival website. Since we knew we wanted to do that, and it's a long excursion, we wanted to be sure we didn't miss the boat! This is the only one we booked through Carnival. The actual company was called Bak a Bush, and I thought they had some very friendly, well trained staff.

We took a speedboat up the river Wallace and saw howler monkeys, and birds, and mango trees, and DOLPHINS AND SEACOWS, and one little tiny crocodile. The sun was hot out on the open water, but it wasn't bad when we got into the river, and when the boat was moving. They had life jackets and complementary water bottles, so it was a pleasant trip. My husband got a new camera, and I was afraid he would fall out of the boat from the way he was leaning! They were really great about stopping the boat whenever somebody saw a cool animal. The guide was knowledgeable about all the flora and fauna, and the tour was really informational. We learned that Belizians sometimes go blind because of the process of roasting cashews. The difficulty and danger involved is why they are so expensive at the grocery store. Talk about blood-nuts!

We had lunch at a resort at the end of the boat ride. It wasn't complementary, and I wasn't very impressed, to be honest. It was the equivalent of eight bucks for a piece of chicken and some beans, or a basic hamburger. We were in a good mood though, so it wasn't upsetting. I had stashed sodas in my purse so we didn't have to buy those (heh heh) so we ordered a local beer (the only brand of local beer) and split it.

There was a guy giving free samples of local wines, most of which were very sweet and fruity. We bought a bottle of cashew wine.

Then we looked at the ruins, which were good, but it was really really hot, and they were sorta badly reconstructed in some places. They don't really have the budget for it, and rely on grad students to come there and do it for them for free.

The bus trip back was long, but the guide had plenty of anecdotes and information about Belize to keep things interesting. Between her and the A.C., we didn't get bored at all!

If you ever commit some terrible crime and need to move someplace, go to Belize. They will never find you, and all you need to do to emigrate there is squat on some land for 3 years and you are a citizen. They'll give you the land and everything.

It was on fire when we went! We woke up smelling smoke in our cabin and saw that the entire coastline was black and burned.

We went on a short excursion to see some ruins called Chaccoben. We went with Native Choice, which we booked online, but not through Carnival. We had a really good guide and they were the nicest ruins we'd seen, probably second only to Chichen Itza (back on our honeymoon). He told us all about the gods that they were made for and how the people lived in the city. He was actually a descendant of the Maya and had a lot of knowledge. The secret to these ruins is going EARLY in the morning if at all possible. Those sites are always incredibly hot.This time we went it was like 6am (8 am ship time) so it was very nice and cool. There weren't too many people there yet, so it was easier to get a photo-op without people in the background.