More on the Carnival Dream

Any time I’ve been on a Carnival cruise ship I’ve always felt like I’ve stepped into someone’s schizophrenic dream of multiple personalities. I’m truly curious to know if some psychologist has ever tried to analyze Joe Farcus, the man who has designed the interiors of virtually all, if not all, of Carnival’s ships, based solely on his interior designs. And though the new Carnival Dream is actually the most subdued I’ve ever seen – FOR A CARNIVAL SHIP – I still had that strange feeling as I moved from room to room that this ship just doesn’t know who it is.

I’ll give you a perfect example of what I mean. In the middle of any large cruise ship, you’ll find the elevator banks. On either side of the elevators are two stairwells. On the Dream, if you use the stairs on one side (I don’t remember which was aft and which was forward), you’ll find artwork at each landing that is surreal, storybook-like or fantastical. There was no rhyme or reason to the art, each was distinctly different from the others. OK, fine, there’s a theme there. BUT, if you then switch to the other staircase, the artwork is 20s- or 30s-era slightly cartoonish Hollywood-esque paintings. Similar images, though not the same, line every cabin corridor. Separately, I liked the two themes, but together they just don’t make any sense. There is no way for me to relate them to each other, and so I’m left feeling like two different people, with widely different tastes, chose the ship’s décor. I can’t help it I find it confusing.

And that feeling pretty much sticks with me any time I move through a Carnival ship, there’s just no way to make sense of the interior designs.

With that said, the Dream is the most staid of the three Carnival ships I’ve sailed on. There is glitz, glimmer and burnished metal, it really wouldn’t be Carnival without it, but there’s less of it. And I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. I spoke to several travel agents for an article who said pretty much the same thing. They were surprised by the ship, that it wasn’t as over the top as Carnival ships usually are. Pleasantly surprised.

Of course, as with any Carnival ship, there are lots of places to get a drink (they’re not known as booze cruises for nothing) and lots of activities to partake in. It is a Fun Ship, after all. One of the coolest things on the ship is the new water park, the largest on any cruise ship. Of course I barely got to see it as it was rainy and cold during my few hours on board the ship. But the water park has lots of water slides, splash zones, spray toys and the longest corkscrew water slide at sea. I wonder who will use it the most? Kids or adults?

One of the things I liked the most on the Dream was a new breakdance troupe that the cruise line has brought aboard, both for onstage entertainment, and as a roving troupe in the evenings teaching people basic breakdance moves. I gotta say, watching a drunk 40-something white guy trying to break dance is pretty funny!