...NOT cruise people. Just too many hot, sweaty, drunk people in a 3ft deep pool made for 12 people if you ask us. (No offense to anyone who loves this scene, it just wasn't for us).
We cruised on the Carnival Dream which is Carnival's newest biggest ship, and it was undoubtedly a beautiful state of the art vessel. Our rooms were better than we expected, plenty of space for the 5 of us, though we did get connecting balcony staterooms which absolutely helped in that department. The food at dinner was pretty good. Lunch was pretty awful / standard buffet fare. We never made it up before 9am for breakfast except on those mornings where we had to rush off the ship for an early morning excursion.
Ultimately, we just aren't rush rush scheduled vacation type of people, and for us cruising felt like we had to be somewhere at all times or we'd miss something. Worse, just when we would start enjoying something it was over or time to leave.
There were some bright spots for sure so here's the low down in photos...
Day One - We arrived at Port Canaveral for embarkation around 11am and we were onboard before Noon. Our staterooms weren't ready until 2, so we spent a little time wandering around the Lido Deck, grabbing a bite to eat, that sort of thing. It was really cool to take a look around the ship when it was virtually empty. The Carnival Dream gave us a stunning first impression for sure...
After the muster drill at 3:30pm, we headed out on the balcony of our stateroom to watch Port Canaveral fade away as we set sail...
Day Two - Was a "Fun Day" at sea and to be honest with you guys we were already having inklings that the whole "cruise culture" just wasn't for us. The kids spent the day in the kids club which was cool and weird all at the same time because we enjoy spending vacation with them, but activities are really geared toward grown-ups doing grown-up things while you're kids are doing kid things elsewhere. Very few opportunities to spend time together unless you wanted to be right in the madness of thousands of people trying to enjoy two very small pools as mentioned in my intro LOL.
Still we love seeing new places and the next 4 days would be filled with exotic Western Caribbean ports, so we were really looking forward to that part of the trip and for the most part, our ports did not disappoint.
Day Three - Cozumel, Mexico
We had scheduled an all-day excursion in Cozumel to visit Xcaret, an eco-archeological theme park on the mainland of Mexico. We rushed to get off the ship to catch a ferry from Cozumel to the mainland and after 40 minutes of ferry and 20 mins of bus ride, we finally made it to the park.
It was a gorgeous location with soo soo much to do, but we only had 4.5 hours to enjoy there, so we had to pick and choose our activities pretty carefully. Not to be missed was their underground river swim which was refreshing and lots of fun. The river was really long - like 45mins+ to swim through so it was quite the adventure with 3 kiddoes!
The park is full of animals like monkeys, jaguars, birds, etc and we got some amazing pics of the kids with parrots from the park photographers, but after our river swim, we decided that rather than run all over the park trying to see everything, we would relax and enjoy the amazing beach!
We could have enjoyed Xcaret and honestly the Mayan Rivera of Mexico for days, but as soon as we got comfortable - it was time to head back to the ship... Still we made it back in time for a gorgeous sunset at sea from our balcony...
Day Four - Roatan, Honduras
In the morning, we woke up to these enchanting views of our next stop, the island of Roatan.
As soon as I stepped out on to the balcony to take these shots, my camera lenses fogged up from the humidity instantly. It was miserably hot and sticky, but we trudged to our excursion, a day of play at the private resort called Maya Key.
It was pretty, but the water was murky, the included lunch was completely gross, the beach was tiny and as the kids gently put it, the "sand was a rip off" LOL. Still, I got a few nice shots today, so here's a peek...
Day Five - Belize
Sadly, with the heat and humidity, we opted to skip getting off the ship in this port. I really wanted to see the Mayan ruins, but Rocky and the kids were tired and trekking through the jungle with mosquitos, afternoon storms and the heat, just didn't sound like fun. The kids hung in the kid's club a bit and Rocky and I got a couple's massage which was heaven. Fat girls out there - don't be embarrassed to get a massage k? It is an amazing treat you won't regret! Sorry no photos of us in our knickers draped in big bohemian scarves for ya.
Day Six - Costa Maya, Mexico
This was BY FAR our favorite port on the cruise! Of course, we were only here from 8am to 3pm and had to be back on the ship by 2:30pm... so poo! Anyhow, we had heard about a wonderful little beach resort called Maya Chan. Run by a former cruise fanatic, Maya Chan is only open for 30 cruise guests a day. Everything is included for $50 per person and it was a little slice of heaven!
The kids played on the beach and in the water for the entire time, food was yummy and grilled fresh for us - fish/steak/chicken fajitas, amazing guacamole, chips, salsa, fresh tortillas with all the trimmings - delish! The staff came around constantly refilling our drinks and would even come out into the water to bring you stuff. It was seriously an AMAZING experience that we didn't want to leave.
Amazing.. AMAZING! That night was also our 2nd formal night and you guys have to check out this quick snap of my little man in his suit!
Day Seven - Yet another "Fun Day" at sea. We did some packing and even though Rocky and I hated the idea, we promised the kids we would take them up to the madness of the waterpark for a bit, so we did that for awhile too...
We also played some Bingo and watched a silly couples game that we won on our Disney Cruise 11 years ago
I hate for any vacation to come to an end because I love being away with Rocky and the kids, but we were pretty ready to be done by the time the end had arrived. Overall, I'm grateful to have had the experience and now we know that this kind of vacation isn't for us which is a good thing.
One great thing I will say is that I got a TON of family photos of the 5 of us together on this trip. It cost me a small fortune to buy them all onboard, but it was worth it and much better than a "You Better Belize It" t-shirt I'm really proud of our formal night portrait, so I'll try to scan some in and share in a bit.
Anyhow, glad to be home and looking forward to planning our next moreelaxing adventure away : )
Thanks for reading,
R
We cruised on the Carnival Dream which is Carnival's newest biggest ship, and it was undoubtedly a beautiful state of the art vessel. Our rooms were better than we expected, plenty of space for the 5 of us, though we did get connecting balcony staterooms which absolutely helped in that department. The food at dinner was pretty good. Lunch was pretty awful / standard buffet fare. We never made it up before 9am for breakfast except on those mornings where we had to rush off the ship for an early morning excursion.
Ultimately, we just aren't rush rush scheduled vacation type of people, and for us cruising felt like we had to be somewhere at all times or we'd miss something. Worse, just when we would start enjoying something it was over or time to leave.
There were some bright spots for sure so here's the low down in photos...
Day One - We arrived at Port Canaveral for embarkation around 11am and we were onboard before Noon. Our staterooms weren't ready until 2, so we spent a little time wandering around the Lido Deck, grabbing a bite to eat, that sort of thing. It was really cool to take a look around the ship when it was virtually empty. The Carnival Dream gave us a stunning first impression for sure...
After the muster drill at 3:30pm, we headed out on the balcony of our stateroom to watch Port Canaveral fade away as we set sail...
Day Two - Was a "Fun Day" at sea and to be honest with you guys we were already having inklings that the whole "cruise culture" just wasn't for us. The kids spent the day in the kids club which was cool and weird all at the same time because we enjoy spending vacation with them, but activities are really geared toward grown-ups doing grown-up things while you're kids are doing kid things elsewhere. Very few opportunities to spend time together unless you wanted to be right in the madness of thousands of people trying to enjoy two very small pools as mentioned in my intro LOL.
Still we love seeing new places and the next 4 days would be filled with exotic Western Caribbean ports, so we were really looking forward to that part of the trip and for the most part, our ports did not disappoint.
Day Three - Cozumel, Mexico
We had scheduled an all-day excursion in Cozumel to visit Xcaret, an eco-archeological theme park on the mainland of Mexico. We rushed to get off the ship to catch a ferry from Cozumel to the mainland and after 40 minutes of ferry and 20 mins of bus ride, we finally made it to the park.
It was a gorgeous location with soo soo much to do, but we only had 4.5 hours to enjoy there, so we had to pick and choose our activities pretty carefully. Not to be missed was their underground river swim which was refreshing and lots of fun. The river was really long - like 45mins+ to swim through so it was quite the adventure with 3 kiddoes!
The park is full of animals like monkeys, jaguars, birds, etc and we got some amazing pics of the kids with parrots from the park photographers, but after our river swim, we decided that rather than run all over the park trying to see everything, we would relax and enjoy the amazing beach!
We could have enjoyed Xcaret and honestly the Mayan Rivera of Mexico for days, but as soon as we got comfortable - it was time to head back to the ship... Still we made it back in time for a gorgeous sunset at sea from our balcony...
Day Four - Roatan, Honduras
In the morning, we woke up to these enchanting views of our next stop, the island of Roatan.
As soon as I stepped out on to the balcony to take these shots, my camera lenses fogged up from the humidity instantly. It was miserably hot and sticky, but we trudged to our excursion, a day of play at the private resort called Maya Key.
It was pretty, but the water was murky, the included lunch was completely gross, the beach was tiny and as the kids gently put it, the "sand was a rip off" LOL. Still, I got a few nice shots today, so here's a peek...
Day Five - Belize
Sadly, with the heat and humidity, we opted to skip getting off the ship in this port. I really wanted to see the Mayan ruins, but Rocky and the kids were tired and trekking through the jungle with mosquitos, afternoon storms and the heat, just didn't sound like fun. The kids hung in the kid's club a bit and Rocky and I got a couple's massage which was heaven. Fat girls out there - don't be embarrassed to get a massage k? It is an amazing treat you won't regret! Sorry no photos of us in our knickers draped in big bohemian scarves for ya.
Day Six - Costa Maya, Mexico
This was BY FAR our favorite port on the cruise! Of course, we were only here from 8am to 3pm and had to be back on the ship by 2:30pm... so poo! Anyhow, we had heard about a wonderful little beach resort called Maya Chan. Run by a former cruise fanatic, Maya Chan is only open for 30 cruise guests a day. Everything is included for $50 per person and it was a little slice of heaven!
The kids played on the beach and in the water for the entire time, food was yummy and grilled fresh for us - fish/steak/chicken fajitas, amazing guacamole, chips, salsa, fresh tortillas with all the trimmings - delish! The staff came around constantly refilling our drinks and would even come out into the water to bring you stuff. It was seriously an AMAZING experience that we didn't want to leave.
Amazing.. AMAZING! That night was also our 2nd formal night and you guys have to check out this quick snap of my little man in his suit!
Day Seven - Yet another "Fun Day" at sea. We did some packing and even though Rocky and I hated the idea, we promised the kids we would take them up to the madness of the waterpark for a bit, so we did that for awhile too...
We also played some Bingo and watched a silly couples game that we won on our Disney Cruise 11 years ago
I hate for any vacation to come to an end because I love being away with Rocky and the kids, but we were pretty ready to be done by the time the end had arrived. Overall, I'm grateful to have had the experience and now we know that this kind of vacation isn't for us which is a good thing.
One great thing I will say is that I got a TON of family photos of the 5 of us together on this trip. It cost me a small fortune to buy them all onboard, but it was worth it and much better than a "You Better Belize It" t-shirt
I'm really proud of our formal night portrait, so I'll try to scan some in and share in a bit. Anyhow, glad to be home and looking forward to planning our next moreelaxing adventure away : )
Thanks for reading,
R
LOVE LOVE all the pics!
We cruised for our honeymoon and it was awesome but I've never gone with kids. Looks like the weather was beautiful! Did you do any snorkling? That was my favorite part of our cruise.
![[michele]](/forum/data/avatars/m/2/2815.jpg?1772210905){kind=avatar}
and basking in the sun. But as a family adventure, that wouldn't be our focus. Sharing your experience probably has saved us from disappointment. I'm hoping your next trip more than makes up for the lackluster one this time!
