Norwegian Cruise Line - Dream Review

I will start off saying I am normally a huge NCL fan. The line has a lot of positive things going for it from their crew to their freestyle dining to their ability to get you on and off the ship smoothly. That being said, I am not a huge fan of the Dream. Oddly enough, I seem to get this ship for longer sailings which seem to bring home all her negative aspects. That being said, I do love to cruise and would seldom say no to any cruise!
All areas are rated 1-5 stars

Cabins **

First off the dream is an older ship and this shows not only in the layout (which was stretched) but also in the cabins. My main complaint with the cabins comes is the same with all three that we have had. All three were quads, meaning they sleep four. The thing to watch for with the Dreams quads is that a lot of them are made with the 3rd and 4th person to sleeping together in a pullout bed. This may not be a problem for some but the first time we were traveling with just the twins and so we had to break up the beds to girl/girl and boy/boy. Had they just been toddlers, this wouldn't have been a problem but they were too old to sleep in the same bed and so I spent 10 nights sleeping with my "kicks in her sleep" daughter!

Granted, I should have checked this out BEFORE booking but it is so seldom that arrangement that I didn't even ask. Trouble is, the next two times we were only able to get the same arrangements. Although these times it was less of a pain because we had the whole family and were able to split the kids up between the rooms. I will also add that pullout bed is NOT a comfortable option for adults and should be a consideration when traveling with 4 adults in the room. The walls are also thin,and cabins are showing their age on the Dream.

Dining *****

As I have stated before I LOVE the NCL Freestyle dinning! On all NCL ships, you can eat your meals anytime within the allotted served hours. There are no reassigned tables or dinning times. When you go to eat, you can ask for a table for just your party (2, 4 etc.) or ask to be seating in a large table with your fellow guest. This allows all cruisers to eat when they want, and with as many or as few other as they choose. I love that! When you have little ones, you can eat on their schedule and you don't have to wait for a specific time or wait for your entire table to arrive before ordering. And when you want to have a quiet dinner for two, you can have that too.

The food on the Dream is as it is on all NCL ships - very good. They have a changing menu with a selection of always available items such as Caesar salad and chicken breast. They offer a kids menu, vegetarian and light options. Room service is available 24/7

Toddlers *** School Age **** Teens ****

The Dream has a great kid's staff on board and there are activities for all ages. The odd thing to me about the Dream is that my older kids remember the trips on her as some of their favorite sea day memories. For some reason, every time we sail on her, there are a ton of older (pre-teen-teens) kids on board. The pre-teens go to a lot of the activities while the teens seem to bond together and spend more time at the pools and other activities. They do a few of the scheduled events but for the most part, just hang out together. In fact, they have remained friends with many kids they have met on the Dream. A couple of club activities that my older ones did enjoy were the murder mystery dinner and the picture scavenger hunt.

The younger kids had a nice selection of activities to choose from. They too had large groups of kids their age which always makes for a fun time. The kid leaders were friendly and very upbeat.

Adults ***

The Dream has all the regular adult activities from the Casino to the bars to the shows to demonstrations to the entertainment. As I stated, we seem to hit the Dream on longer cruises which normally means, more sea days. Only on the Dream we been so bored we actually participated in the trivia contests! Funny thing was, after we won a couple they actually become a bit addictive and you end up knowing all these other players and who to pair up with depending on the topic. How sad is that? We even played charades and this one where you drew the name of a person and your team had to guess it with you only saying a 5 word opening and then yes or no's. I got Ceylon Dion and didn't even know any of her songs! And yes, my team got it and after winning by a landslide over the other 3 teams we all got nice NCL pens. Yep, I have NCL leather address books, pens, can cozies, cards, caps, luggage tags, business card holders, and cups all from my Dream trips. We had a lot of sea days!

Entertainment ***

I am seldom a fan of all of the cruise entertainment but always enjoy some of it. I have seen way too many staff productions and skip all of those and some for the singers. I never miss the comedians as they are usually extremely funny, especially on the later show. On the Dream we have seen some decent magic and novelty acts. They also show afternoon movies which are nice on sea days. And of course there are multiple daily activities to choose from.

Crew *****

NCL always has an extremely professional, efficient crew. You will never see a crew member with a single hair out of place! All three times we have sailed the Dream, the crew has been superb. I cannot say one negative thing about any crew member. And, the Captain (from Croatia I believe) is hands down the best looking captain on any ship I have sailed! He is also extremely visible (and personable); having coffee on and off the ship and coming over and asking if he can sit and visit at your table. And he says things like,"Oh you warm my heart" How cute is that? Oh and he drove the ship well too LOL

Ten dollars per person, per day ($5 for children) is put on your sea card for tips. The money is divided amongst all of the staff. You should still tip room service and the kids' club staff if you use them.

Overall ***

It's funny because I really don't like the Dream and avoid her when booking unless she has an amazing deal but when writing this I am recalling how much we all DID enjoy the cruises. My two complaints about the Dream would be the quad configurations and the fact she was stretched. The stretching made getting around a real pain as there were certain elevators you need to take and/or areas you had to maneuver to get to.

Thing is I would sail her again and I would recommend her (going over the negatives) after all who wouldn't enjoy a cruise?

NCL has started offering a drink upon boarding and a lobster dish daily - yum!