We usually do two back to back cruises in February to get a break from our long upstate NY winters. We had booked the first one to go out of New Orleans on NCL. We hadn’t been there before so we thought we’d combine some sightseeing with a cruise. Then I needed to find a second cruise on a different ship with a departure date that would work. Carnival had this cruise the day after, going out of Galveston.

We hadn’t been on carnival in over 6 years. We primarily do NCL or Celebrity (about 28 previous cruises). The Dream is about 10 years old. And the decor is very dated and like the other 5 carnival ships we’ve been on, it has lots of smoked glass, mirrors, and other decor that frankly makes the ship look like an old nightclub. And there was a noticeable amount of rust on our balcony.

We usually eat in the main dining room. But after two dinners there we decided that the food in their buffet was far better. And I don’t know why Carnival doesn’t put tablecloths on the dining room tables. Read more