Just off the Dream

[SCCruiseMom]

Just finished a 3 day cruise on the Dream today. This was our first Disney crusie and I was traveling with my 12yr old DD. Just a few thoughts:

-- the decor was beautiful. Gorgeous ship from top to bottom.
-- we went to all 3 shows and liked them all. Daughter was enchanted.
-- food was shockingly terrible esp at dinner. I am no food snob but everyone at table agreed this was the weakest part of cruise. Some of the food was just inedible.
-- Service was extremely slow during the 2nd sitting. We actually left before dessert the first 2 nights because it was 10:15 and we still had not reached dessert. Two hours for dinner is ridiculous when you have kids. It may have been our particular table which was made up of 4 mother/daughter pairs. Other tables seemed to be served slightly faster.
-- Lots of kids. Lots and lots of kids. Which is to be expected, but if kids are not your cup of tea another cruise might suit you better.

All in all my daughter loved the cruise. I have to say I'm glad we did it for the experience, but might pick another line next time.

 

[SLK1]

I was also on this cruise. My husband felt the same as you did regarding the food - wasn't as good (we are Platinum cruisers). Our drink service was slow, but our food came out at a good pace. I'm surprised they didn't ask you if you wanted it brought faster/slower. Our servers kept asking how to make things better and we kept saying everything was fine, but they didn't want to accept that. It was a little weird.

 

[SCCruiseMom]

We hardly saw our server other than when he took our orders. The assistant server was efficient at bringing out drinks, but neither of them made a real effort to charm. Not sure if they had too many tables or thought that a bunch of non-alcohol drinking mother-daughter pairs were unlikely to be big tippers. I had pre-paid our gratuities fwiw. Not sure about the others.

I don't mind not getting a big show from the waiters, but the food quality was really disappointing. I am no food snob, but I felt Carnival had better food than a lot of what we had on board this time. Glad to hear this is not typical.

 

[MomtoBJSF]

We were also on that cruise, our very first cruise. It was packed, was told all the rooms were full. The food was not that great, desserts were awful. We also did not care for our server or our drink server, ugh. in fact we ended up also tipping another server we connected with more the first day we got there during lunch, he was awesome, and connected with our 3 kiddos a lot.

All in all it was very relaxing, we did not spend a lot, and only made it to a few shows and 1 movie,did not feel like we had to do everything.

The kids love love the kids lab/club, a lot more than we thought they would, which gave DH and I a lot of adult time, which was great.

Castaway Cay was good, the food again was not that great too us.

That being said we would lobe to do it again.

 

[Justacruiser]

Sorry to hear that you didn't have great service. That's not the intent, a assure you. There are alot of things that can hamper service. The first is just that the service team isn't good. In that case I generally talk to the head server. Other variables include number of tables/cruisers in the service teams care. Are their drinkers or children that require extra attention? Where is the location of the tables in reference to the kitchen area? Is everyone on time at all their tables?

Also, to state that everything is "fine" is a red flag for a service team. They all want us to complete our surveys at the end of the cruise and rate them "excellent". Telling them the service is "OK" or "fine" during the cruise will trigger them to ask you how they can provide better service. If the service is "fine" take the time to inform them how to do better. Most CM's and/or the head server will try to assist.

The Dream is one of the bigger ships and they cram alot of tables in the MDR's and their work area is not the best.

Again, sometimes there is no excuse for bad or "fine" service, but I really feel that most them are away from home trying to do their best to make their tips.

 

[jerseygal]

WOW!

When we vacation, wherever it is, I like to eat GOOD FOOD!
Think that the fact that the food was not good, this would make me "rethink" cruising on the Dream! Sad to hear this!

The Dream is Expensive and that is very disappointing to hear!

 

[jerseygal]

Don't know if it makes a difference, but we dined with "just the four" of us!

It was mid August, 2011 and was the Inagural Voyage of the Dream.
It was VERY CROWDED though, but we avoided a lot of that as hanging in the adult areas!

We have OLDER kids and are not "tied" to summer vacations anymore THANKFULLY! We did that SO MANY YEARS working around sport camps, sport leagues, etc....The only negative on our cruise summer, 11 was crowd level overall...

Cruising is nice NON SUMMER "if you can"!

Now that we are "over the hump" on school schedules, will not travel ANYWHERE in the height of the in demand summertime, June-Sept.1st!

 

[ratt1345]

Although I have never had this experience, I have read on these boards that people have said they heard their servers were about to go on leave for a bit. Apparently those servers were on board for a good while and were tired. Mind you, that's still not an excuse to give poor service to your guests.

I would say this: if you and everyone else at your table (if you shared a table) were on time, then by all means, you should have received prompt service.

 

[Ariel484]

Wow! We disembarked from the Dream on 7/24 (4-night itinerary) and thought the food and service were awesome. Strange!!

 

[Justacruiser]

Don't know if it makes a difference, but we dined with "just the four" of us!

It was mid August, 2011 and was the Inagural Voyage of the Dream.
It was VERY CROWDED though, but we avoided a lot of that as hanging in the adult areas!

We have OLDER kids and are not "tied" to summer vacations anymore THANKFULLY! We did that SO MANY YEARS working around sport camps, sport leagues, etc....The only negative on our cruise summer, 11 was crowd level overall...

Cruising is nice NON SUMMER "if you can"!

Now that we are "over the hump" on school schedules, will not travel ANYWHERE in the height of the in demand summertime, June-Sept.1st!

We also did the Inagural Voyage on the Dream. They were not ready for the 4,000 passengers that hit the ship that day. They sprinkled in some CM's from the other too ships but overall it took 6 months to get staff up to par.

As previously mentioned, CM's that are about ready to leave on vacation are sometimes ready to be home. But, that should not hamper the service. Now, if you get a CM who is leaving and is not returnin to the cruise line, ouch. There should be a ethical taking care of mentaility, but I can see where some CM's aren't cut out for that kind of life style.

Also, although you maybe a table of 4 cruisers, you have to look at the service teams area of tables. The DW and I have sailed a number of times alone. And no matter how streamlined and knowing of the menus we are, it doesn't help with the speed of service if the CM's can't get a rythem down.

 

[Chrisey]

We travelled on the 3 day embarking on July 19th and we found the food and service to be fantastic. Especially with our server and assistant server, they taught the kids magic tricks and our food was always prompt.

 

[Zandy595]

Don't know if it makes a difference, but we dined with "just the four" of us!

It was mid August, 2011 and was the Inagural Voyage of the Dream.
It was VERY CROWDED though, but we avoided a lot of that as hanging in the adult areas!

We have OLDER kids and are not "tied" to summer vacations anymore THANKFULLY! We did that SO MANY YEARS working around sport camps, sport leagues, etc....The only negative on our cruise summer, 11 was crowd level overall...

Cruising is nice NON SUMMER "if you can"!

Now that we are "over the hump" on school schedules, will not travel ANYWHERE in the height of the in demand summertime, June-Sept.1st!

Are you sure you were on the inaugural voyage because that was actually January 26, 2011.



OP, it's summer vacation for LOTS of kids, that's why there were so many on your cruise. July and early August cruises are always going to be packed with kids.

We've been on two Dream cruises and have loved the food. I'm a little worried about our October cruise now.

 

[mmfox316]

I find the food a little over the top. However, it was good. My biggest complaint is Disney has no idea what a salad is. To me a salad has alots of different veggies and different lettuces. Their idea is four cucumber slices and a tomato.

After my 1st cruise I learned to ask for something outside the menu and got something closer to my idea of a salad.


I never thought the service lacked. I didn't care for our first set of servers but they did do a good job. I just didn't care for them personally.

 

[Sofia McStuffins]

Same cruise. I agree that the food was not very good in the dining rooms (or Cabanas for that matter), which was very disappointing esp. after hearing from several people how great the food is. Preferred the counter service food. Our servers though were amazing!!!

 

[tweis]

Food is very subjective. We have enjoyed the food on both of our Dream cruises. A couple of items we didn't love so our server took them back and gave us a different item. We had exceptionally slow service on the Magic this past April so it isn't limited to the Dream, its just luck of the draw which servers you get.

 

[gigi1313]

Are you sure you were on the inaugural voyage because that was actually January 26, 2011.
.

That was maiden voyage... Inaugural lasts the entire first year, and while technically it may not be, from a DCL Marketing pov it was (based on merchandise for sale, advertising, etc).