The Carnival Dream is a great ship. Our family of four (the kids were 12 & 14) sailed on her in Dec. 2017 out of New Orleans, and had a wonderful cruise experience. Here are our best Carnival Dream tips.
These are great tips for first time cruisers, especially if your next cruise is on Carnival Dream.
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Carvival Dream Tips – 13 Things you will want to know before sailing on the Carnival Dream.
Here are our best Carnival cruise tips to help you have a great experience.
1. You can ask for bathrobes – Carnival Dream tips
Ask your friendly cabin steward to bring you bathrobes when they get a chance.
2. Guy’s Burgers have veggie burgers! Carnival Deli has veggie burgers
They aren’t on the menu but you just have to ask. They take a little longer but are definitely worth the wait. Definitely the best veggie burgers I’ve tried.
Update: Sadly Guy’s Burgers no longer serves veggie burgers, but Carnival Deli does. They are good too.
Grab your veggie burger from the Deli then go to Guy’s Burger Joint for fries and burger toppings.
3. There are 2 Guy’s Burgers lines
We noticed over and over that the line for Guy’s Burger was quite a bit shorter closest to the doors to the buffet (on the left in the picture above). There are 2 lines, but people often seem to line up closest to the pool, making for long lines and not even realizing that there is a second shorter and faster line.
If you are looking at a different cruise ship and are wondering which Carnival cruise ships has Guy’s Burger Joint? The answer is easy – all of them! Every ship in the Carnival fleet has a Guy’s Burger Joint.
Guy’s Burgers is one of my favorite things about Carnival cruises.
If you plan on eating at Guy’s Burger Joint as an alternative to the main dining room for dinner, be sure to go early, when we cruised they were only open until 6:00 p.m.
4. Carnival Hub App
Download the app before you go. The app will allow you to view your on board account, see the daily activities schedule and much more. The app itself if free and it is free to use on Carnival ships. There is a texting component (it was $5 per person when we traveled) that allowed you to stay in contact with friends and family on board. The texting part was hit or miss but we still felt it was worth the money.
5. Carnival Arcade Power Hour
If you are travelling with teens, tweens or you enjoy the arcade, keep your eye out for the Arcade Power Hour. It will be listed in your FunTimes. It was offered twice at the Carnival Dream arcade on our 7 day Caribbean cruise. All games were 1/2 off for that hour.
Tip – Be careful if your kids have charging privileges on their Sign & Sail cards. To play a game, you swipe your card and games are charged automatically to your on board account which is linked to your credit card. Charges can add up quickly when they are having so much fun if they aren’t careful.
6. There is a teen spa menu
Carnival calls it Zspa, and is for 13-17 year olds. My daughter had a facial and loved it. If you can afford the splurge, it’s a great way to make their cruise just a little more special. You can find the Carnival zspa menu here.
The adult Carival spa menu can be found here.
7. Free room service continental breakfast – updated for 2022
On our last cruise with Carnival, room service was free on most items until 10pm. Unfortunately this has recently (2022) changed. It is now just continental breakfast that is free. This is served from 6:00am to 10:00am.
Room service is a great option for a light breakfast, especially if you have a balcony room.
8. The casino is DREADFULLY smokey
We enjoy spending some time in the casino on a cruise and had read ahead of time that the casino smelled strongly of smoke on the Carnival Dream, but thought it can’t be that bad. Well it really is THAT bad. We lasted about 1/2 an hour the first evening and didn’t go back.
While it was disappointing at first, it did free up some of our time to enjoy the other nightly entertainment options.
Photo by Carnival Cruise Lines
9. Bring your own conditioner – important Carnival Dream tip
Only shampoo and body wash are provided in the cabins.
This is an important Carnival Dream tip if you normally don’t pack your own shampoo and conditioner. I find conditioner extra important on a cruise as the breeze and salty air can leave your hair extra tangled.
A great cruise packing tip is to bring shampoo and conditioner bars rather than bottles. They take up way less space and you eliminate the change of spills.
10. Spa day passes are available
One and two day passes are available for the Carnival Dream spa, however they are limited in quantity. Be sure to book these early. If you aren’t able to do this ahead of time online, do this on the first day of your cruise. The spa is usually busiest on sea days.
The Dream has a beautiful spa area where you can relax in a heated lounge chair and enjoy the thalassotherapy pool.
Photo by Carnival Cruise Line
11. Try the Blue Iguana Cantina for breakfast.
They have delicious breakfast burritos at no extra cost on Carnival Dream. They are made to order and so fresh and tasty. I wish I had discovered this earlier on our cruise.
Blue Iguana is included in your Carnival cruise cost and is found on deck 10, lido deck.
Photo by Carnival Cruise Lines
12. Select your check-in time early.
Carnival Cruise Lines offers staggered check-ins at most of their ports. After booking your cruise, log in online and look to see if the check-in times are open for selecting. If not check back often, especially if you are wanting an early check in time. On embarkation day you will be thankful for every extra minute on this ship. It’s your vacation, make the most of it.
13. Take a picture of the Port Emergency Contact information before going ashore.
The Carnival FunTimes will list this information for each cruise port you visit. If you simply take a picture of this with your cell phone, you will have this information with you on port days and don’t have to worry about losing a piece of paper (just don’t lose your phone). Hopefully you will never need this information but it is something you don’t want to be without if it’s ever needed.
If you are a first time cruiser you will want to check out these cruise tips.
Speaking of going to shore you will want to have these items with you in your port day bag on shore excursions as well.
Bonus tip:
My biggest tip for travel, no matter what type of vacation it is, is to enjoy yourself! Try something new and take lots of pictures. Travel is more than a vacation, it creates lifelong memories.
I hope you have found these Carival Dream tips helpful. If you have an upcoming Carnival Dream cruise, have the best time, there are so many fun things to do.
If this is your first Carnival cruise these might be of interest:
My favorite things about Carnival Dream
21 Romantic things to do on a Carnival cruise
Carnival Circle C program for kids 12-14 years old
- 35 Fantastic Cruise Gift Bag Ideas
- 21 Trendy Cruise Outfits for Women
- 19 Plus Size Cruise Dresses That Will Turn Heads
- 17 Carnival Horizon Tips For The Best Cruise Vacation
- 10 Ways to Protect Your Luggage When Traveling
Bon voyage!