I read so many negative reviews of the Norwegian Dream, that I thought I had to write my own review. The service we experienced was excellent. The ship, although 12 years old was in good condition and clean. The rooms were adequate with ample closet space, but little drawer space. Some rooms are in need of refurbishing and/or recarpeting, but the public areas all had newer carpet. We had a category CC room which had a floor to ceiling window, an excellent amenity.

I found the food to be quite good except the buffet which is small and has limited choices. My advice, skip the buffet and dine in one of the other venues. Since the ship was stretched it has an unusual configuration and you must traverse either the show room or dining room to access forward cabins. This was a little inconvenient, but not terrible.

There are 2 pools (not including the pool bar). The aft pool on deck 9 was never crowded and a nice place to relax and read. The main pool on deck 11 was quite crowded when they served barbecue lunches on the pool deck. Incidentally, the barbecues were excellent and something I had never experienced on another ship.

The ship departs from New Orleans which is only a few blocks from downtown. I have read many reviews from people who dislike the freestyle dining. We thought it was great. We never waited more than a few minutes for a table; however, I was aware that large parties did have to wait longer. I enjoyed all of the ports. The dock Norwegian uses is much nicer than the one Royal Caribbean and Princess use. It opens on to a nice mall with many restaurants. We also enjoyed Roatan, Belize and Cancun. The tender ride was no problem at any port, although it was a fairly lengthy ride into Cancun. Overall, I would recommend this cruise, especially for the service, which was excellent.