Hi,
If you have been on the NCL Dream then please give me some feed back on what the cruise was like. We are first time cruisers and have heard both good and bad. What is she really like...??? Are we going to hate it or are we going to love it. You advise shall shall be greatly appreciated.
I enjoyed my cruise on the Dream mainly because of the Baltic Itinerary. It was a port-intensive cruise with almost no sea days. I liked our outside cabin with the sitting area by the window.
The ship itself is less than wonderful. The layout is quite confusing, there is no lido deck per se which makes buffets a nightmare. The food in the sports bar is particularly disgusting and chaotic.The food & service in the no-charge restaurants is generally poor in quality unless you eat at Le Bistro. Up your budget for alternative dining.
We were able to improve our impressions greatly by eating dinner at Le Bistro 9 out of 12 nights. No I'm not kidding.
Customer service and guest relations are quite poor in quality. But we still chose to have a great time. Entertainment was fair. There was a lot of second hand cigarette smoke most anywhere one went. This may have been because we were in Europe and most people from European countries are in deed smokers.
We were on the Dream this March for the first time.
We were pleased with the overall ship. We found the food to be very good but not as good as some previous cruises that we have taken. The service was lacking in both the dining rooms and for the room staff.
We were very apprehensive about Free-Style since this was our first experience with it. Overall, it was positive because we were able to meet many more nice and interesting people from all over the world at out daily meals. We had been on other cruises were we were stuck with the same tablemates for a week and had not really clicked with them.
This being said, the down-fall of Free-Style was the waiting that we encountered when go to dinner at least 50% of the time. It was critical for us to evaluate the best time to arrive for dinner or we would experience 30-50 minute waits in line. We had never encountered this on a cruise and it was very unpleasant. I have always appreciate the punctuality of the cruise staffs and the adherance to a schedule. Due to the waits that we encountered, we missed some of the shows or arrived too late to get a good seat in the showrooms.
WE tried to get reservations in Le Bistro but were not able to since we asked late in the week. If this interests you, make your reservations early since they fill up fast.
The other facilities were very similar to what we have encountered on other cruises and we were pleased.
We had some administration issues with NCL due to a mistake that they made on our extra night (prior to the cruise) that we had asked for but they made up for it by booking an excellent hotel for a night after the cruise. They also sent us a voucher for $100 good for the next cruise (this seems to be a standard amount that they issue when they make a mistake on a booking.
I will never again book a cruise directly with the office in Miami. They are hard to get on the phone and then you are put on hold for literally hours. Their operators are hard to understand and are poorly trained. I ended up telling the operators things that they should have known.
I do not mean to be argumentative, however we had the best food and dining room service we have had on many cruises. As far as waiting to eat, you must learn to use freestyle dining. We went each nite at 5.30 and never waited over two minutes. If you go like sheep at 6.30 to 7.30 there will be a line. Or you can wait until 8 or 9 and just walk right in. As far as Le Bistro is concerned, there is no inside wall only a curtain and the noise from the hallway is disturbing. It has no windows and we found the food much poorer than the Terraces.
I never saw a smoker inside the ship in 12 days. We would certainly sail the dream again. I think some people would complain if hung with a NEW rope!!
The worst cruise we ever took was wonderful!! Go on the ship with the idea I am going to have the time of my life and I bet you will. Sorry if this upsets some of you, but sometimes I read reviews after our cruises and I think maybe the writers were on a different ship. I do agree, however, that NCL offices are terrible. It is almost impossible to get any information from them and they do not care. After 5 straight cruises with them we are sailing on Costa in Feb because of this problem. Great ships, great crew and a customer service that STINKS.
I did a 7 day western on the Dream back in March, We had a great time. Our room had new furniture and carpets and was very spacious. The ship was in great shape and very clean. The shows were fantastic although I realize that you will see different performers than were there in march. The food was pretty good, I have had better and worse on other cruises. Our room steward did his job well. We usually ate dinner pretty late so we never had to wait longer than 5 min for a table. The main reason we picked the Dream was because it had 4 port days instead of 3 on a 7 day cruise, the other reason we picked it was because it left on a Sun so I was able to keep the num of vacation days I took to a minimum. Overall, it was a very enjoyable cruise and I would get on the dream again with no hesitation.
Selwyn,
Doing a cruise review is a very subjective thing when it comes to likes and dislikes. That being said, DH and I sailed on the Dream in March 2003 from Chili to Miami through the Panama Canal and we loved that ship!! Sure it has a few quirks (having been "stretched") but we found that quire endearing. The crew was delightful, the food was great, the pax were sophisticated and the experience was delightful. Hope you have a great cruise!!!
We also just returned from the Baltic cruise......The cruise was wonderful due to the great ports.....We saw sooooooo much.. Food, ship and rest were just Ok...but the great ports made up for the rest. We would go again just for the ports....
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Who has been on NCL DREAM.....????????
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