We've been back over a month and I need to get these memories down on digital paper before I forget.
I have held cruises in high esteem since I ever heard of them ... all you can eat food with amazing service, cabin steward who cleans your room and makes your bed, new countries and ports of call and top that with Caribbean sunshine ... what more could a person ever want in this life?? I guess you could say the bar was set high before we even set foot on the boat!
We cruised on the "beautiful Carnival Dream", as we were assured of over and over again. And, it was an impressive ship: 2 dining rooms, multiple hot tubs and pools, water slides, mini golf course, ping pong tables, 24 hour pizza and ice-cream and 12 decks to explore. It was amazing how quickly the kids found the quickest route from the stateroom to the ice-cream.
The entertainment was outstanding on a few evenings - phenomenal props and costume changes and choreography in their performances. The break dancers, aka, Fun Force were impressive. One one evening they had a couple guys that had the most amazing core strength I have ever seen. Ever. They were "competing" in shows of strength using poles - climbing the pole in increasing levels of difficulty. I cannot explain it and I have no video, as per their copy write and safety laws. I did think the volume of the Encore shows was excessive. I even wrote that in the feedback survey! Maybe by the time I go on my next cruise the decibels will be lower ;)
The food was plenteous and delicious, with the exception of the desserts. We found they looked exquisite, but the taste didn't match the presentation for the most part. I did have the chocolate melting cake, on Michelle's recommendation, and it was for sure one of the best desserts. At 1200 calories, it should be worth eating!! I didn't weigh in and weigh out, so I'm not sure what the overall damage was. The 10 times I took the stairs helped I'm sure!
Cruising with a large group was more challenging than I thought. I had really no idea how it would be, and I did feel a little lost when I couldn't find my own family at times! Although, sometimes I lost them on purpose. Ha! We practiced some good old fashioned communication skills such as, "Have you seen ??" "Oh, they are looking for you", "I think they are ....". I will be more proactive on my next cruise so I don't waste as much precious cruise time looking for people. Although, the more laps I made around the decks, the more calories I burned :)
On quite a sad note, I must share that my camera broke on the first night of the cruise. I took a few supper pictures on that first night, as you will see, and the next day my camera would not even turn on. So, the quality of my cruise pictures are not what they could be ... sad, sad, sad. But, I am thankful I brought along my phone so I could at least capture some of it. With 25 plus of us cruising together, I'm hoping I'll get a few more pictures sent my way.
All aboard!
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| First glimpse of the "beautiful Carnival Dream" after getting our bags from the |
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| Room with a view, not a balcony. |
Formal Dining
Here we all are: It was as calm and orderly as you can imagine :) Lots of laughs .. except from Kirk, at this moment!
To be continued .....
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