anybody on NCL Dream lately out of Europe?
 

We booked the Dream out of London (Dover) for late April - Anybody been on it lately? Any advice? It is the 12 day London, Lisbon, Cadiz, Barcelona, France, Cannes/Nice, Genoa/Milan/Florence and Rome. We plan on doing our own sightseeing, any good tour guides out there?

We were on the Dream in October 03 for the Fall foliage cruise of the US and Canada. We had a great time. The entertainment was quite good. Not sure if I like the Freestyle dining or not. We found that when we were seated at a table of 8 or more, it took a long time for dinner, like 2 full hours. However when seated at a table for 4 or 6 it was about 1 1/4 hours. The Sports bar buffet dinner was so-so. The Italian restaurant was very good however they have the same menu for the whole cruise.
Overall we liked it enough to book the cruise after yours. We leave Rome on May 1st.
If you have a specific question, let me know. I'm not an authority on NCL or the Dream but I'll try to answer your questions the best I can.

Thanks Annie - appreciate your review. So when we are getting off you will be getting on! How was the cabin service? I am used to smaller ships so I will be interested in how fast they get people on and off @ the ports. How were the shows? And - did you like one restaurant over the other? I hope you don't mind me asking you these questions because your answers are very helpful to me. We are going into London 3 days early to bum around and are going back to London when we disembark. Thanks again.

Our Cabin Stewards were awesome, very personable and efficient.
Getting on the ship was very smooth, easy, and quick. We had a couple of hours before sailing to get familiar with the ship. Getting off is always a hassle in my book but it wasn't too bad on this ship.
The Four Seasons is the main dining hall and it's in the middle of the ship. We usually ate breakfast and dinner there. Breakfast was a buffet however you could get omelets (and other items on different days) cooked special order right in front of you. We enjoyed the Trattoria very much. It is the Italian restaurant on Deck 11. The menu was the same during the entire cruise but we ate there twice and enjoyed it all! The Sports Bar has a buffet dinner that was so-so. I'm hoping it is improved this trip. We never ate in Le Bistro, there is a cover charge for a meal there. We also had BBQ on the pool deck one day. Now remember this was not warm weather sailing, fall in Canada is quite cool for pool deck eating. Although we had one wonderful day enjoying that. I anticipate that being more common on this next cruise. BTW in Lucky's Bar for lunch they have it set up for soup and sandwich. It's like a nice thick deli sandwich. Convenient, quick, and good. They had a variety of shows, musicals, magician, comedy, singing, etc. We didn't go to all of them but enjoyed the ones we did. We also had seminars during the day. I went to several taught by an MD for relaxation and stress reduction. He was very, very good. There were also the usual craft classes, cooking, folding napkins, etc., that are on most cruise ships. There is always something to do. And if you just want to chill out in your cabin and watch a movie, they have them playing 24/7. Watch for the paper with the times. No theatre onboard this ship to watch movies though.
We're spending 3 days in Rome before we get on. Then we're spending 4 days in Paris after the trip. We were trying to get of in LeHavre a day early but so far they won't let us.

We sailed on the Dream last June to Russia and the Baltic and we've taken 4 cruises and this was as good or better then any of them.Sanitation is a big thing now days and on our cruise the ship was spotless and we had to use wipes before each meal and before reboarding ship. I didn't hear of any Mal De Mare on that trip.
The tratoria is lovely and do go early twenty-five minutes or so to wait a short while in line and get a window seat. We did that in all the restruants and always got great seats and excelent service Don't waste money on the cover charge one (&25 per person)as the food is great wherever you choose and there are 3 other great restruants.
I hope you have an outside room as Mary & I loved the big picture window and seats in that area to sit and relax and watch the scenery.
Shows are usual Cruise fare but worth attending and the greatest part was sitting in one of the bars as the sun set at 11:30 p.m. up near the Artic circle while a great piano player played our favorite tunes.
Any questions you can address to my home e-mail as I have received much good info from this site and try to give back.
We sail this Fall on the Amsterdam from Santiago Chile around the horn and near Antartica to Rio. We'll have long days again and that great late sunset.
Little Cricket

Thank you both for all your information I have printed it to take with me. I am glad about the safety sanitation issues - makes me feel better with all this flu stuff, I am a nurse so I know to wash the hands a lot but to know the ship is taking it seriously is very good news.

We are booked on the Dream for April 19. Is this the trip you are on? We are planning to sightsee on our own (with a few exceptions) I am interested in the replies you will receive. How will you get from London to Dover? I have had trouble finding the right RR train. Any suggestions?