this was our 32 cruise, and since we had not been on carnival since they moved the glory, we decided to do the dream, and do a back to back.the price was right, and for the first time we used the carnival rep. i must say they were terrific, we are stockholders, and did all the paperwork ourselves, and carnival was very prompt, and our onboard credits were placed right away.we could not get the same room for the two weeks, because the second cruise was booked at a different time it was a pack and go, which we grabbed right away.we always pre-cruise stay at the radisson at the port, and have been doing so for the past 10 years. as always the room was clean, the service great and the shuttle terrific. can't say enough about the hotel, we love the park and cruise package as it let us leave our car for the 14 days we were gone.embarcation went fast as we are platinum. and were one of the first ones onboard at around 11 a.m. we in and found the ship to be really beautiful. we thought the layout was very similar to their other ships, with the 5th floor going thru from front to back. the first week we were on the 7th floor, and never heard a sound or any movement. this ship is solid, and we have been on some that you felt for the entire cruise rock and roll. this ship really moves, and one night we saw that she was going 23 knots, we never went that fast before. we went to lunch which i must say was pretty blaa i had the stir fry, and the noodles were tough, go figure., but we just thought "well it's first day" there are two pools on this ship that holds 3,500 passengers, the first week 1100 kids under 18, the second 1800 under 18.the pool at my house is 20x40, i don't think these pools are 25x25. it 's a real joke. first of all on either week the kids had no PARENTS if they did they were no where to be seen or heard. i think the crew were afraid to say anything to anyone. chairs were used by TOWELS, pools were used by KIDS. the crew did not enforce any of the rules that any cruise line puts in place. i'm not a old grouch, and i was not bothered, i like to sit in the sun and read, so a regular chair is fine for me, and i always found one in the back area,but i saw a few people ask the crew to remove things from chairs that were left unattended. the same held true in the encore theater. the seat thing is a big issue on this ship, more so than any we've been on. the food was terrible, so bad that one night i ordered from the kids menu and had a burger, and even that was dry overcooked, the bun cold.we tried the buffet one night pretty sad. yes we missed roatan just like the rest of the cruises before and after us. seems to me carnival would just drop the stop if they miss it 4 out of every 5 times.oh we got the platinum gift. the same thing for both weeks, we now have 4 pads and pen sets huh.... the second week we had a room on the second floor. every time the captain used the thrusters the whole floor rumbled, our room was great and we had plenty of everything we needed, and the cabin stewards made the change so easy for us. i give them cudos.the slots are so tight we won more money in st maartin, in one hour that we did in two weeks. the plus is the area is practically smoke free. you must be playing a machine to smoke, and there are special machines where you can smoke.Yea for carnival. now if they can have a curfew for kids like royal Caribbean i'd give it two thumbs us.i can blame anything on the size of the ship, as i've been on bigger. i think security could have done a better joB, sure we want kids to have fun, but when they hog ever hot tub, and pool space, it just gives adults no options. i love carnival, but it will be a very long time before i go on the dream again, i might try the legend out of tampa, i hear they go to roatan every time.hA