Dream
Dream Overview
Tonnage: 128,000
Length: 1,115 ft
Passengers: 5,007
Passengers (all berths): 2,500
Crew: 1,458
Registry: Bahamas
Disney Dream is the most elaborate of the Disney ships with a beautiful art deco theme throughout. Fun for Adults and Kids.
Best For People Who WantMore Disney! Bring it on, Goofy, Mickey, Tinkerbell; a family-oriented vacation with the focus on spoiling your kids to pieces with a lifetime experience they will never forget.
Should Be Avoided By People Who PreferAdult oriented cruising including quiet time in the sun, a casino at night; a library; adult-oriented (rated PG-16 at least) entertainment and to be around as few children as possible.
Onboard ExperienceJust like the older ships, Disney Dream abounds with Disney characters, and not just the ones walking aorund in character. There are subtle homages to everything Disney throughout the decor from the ship's horn, which can play six different Disney tunes, to the chair fabrics and bannisters with subtle Micky-ears in the patterns. Disney Dream has many of the same features as the smaller ships but they are bigger and more technically advanced. But the ship also has more - such as the AquaDuck water coaster and Remy's French Restaurant. There are three swimming pools onboard - one for kids, one for adults and one for families (all ages).
The "rotational" dining program is identical to the earlier ships in concept; you dine with the same dining companions and servers each evening, but in a different restaurant.
Technology takes center stage on Dream - including "interactive artwork" which are wall hangings that come to life for passers by. You may spot a nice drawing of Bambi from 10 feet awaym and as you approach she a butterfly lands on her nose and Thumper appears to laugh. Birds take flight and continue flying through the adjacent wall hanging.
The kid's area are a cornucopia of video-based games including two "Magic Floors" which are large squares of floor mounted video screens under durable glass. 16 people can stand in separate control areas around the square and control one game simultaneously. What appear to be windows are actually well disguised video screens where the view changes subtley over time. For example, the adult nightclub "Skylines" has a "Windows on the World" feel like a penthouse bar, but the scene outside the "windows" is a different major world city every night of the cruise.
DecorThe ship has an opulent Art Deco fell throughout - in homage to the grand day of ocean liners. The three deck tall main lobby has a very dignified statue which works as a focal point for character pjhoto opportunities. Sumptuous fabrics, wood, and hand-woven carpets and furnishings - and the Disney logo - are ubiquitous. The cabins are decorated almost identically, combining modern design with nostalgic ocean-liner elements such as a steamer-trunk closet for kids, globe- and telescope-shaped lamps, map designs on the bedspreads, and a framed photograph of Mr. and Mrs. Walt Disney aboard the ocean liner Rex sometime in the 1930s.
Some of Disney's vast archive of animation cels, production sketches, costume studies, and inspirational artwork is displayed around the ship.
Public RoomsWhen passengers first arrive and enter the majestic Disney Dream atrium what do they behold but a large bronze statue Donald Duck as the ship's ambassador, somewhat reminicient of Lord Nelson in Trafalgar Square." From there you can procede to the beautiful Walt Disney movie theater which is one of the best mocern representations of an Art Deco movie theater anywhere. Entertainment
Entertainment on the Disney Dream is spectacular. We saw a new stage show called "Believe" where a young girl wants her father to learn how to believe in magic. Somehow, he conjures Aladdin's Genie and his third wish, to believe in magic" is finally granted after much tribulation.
What makes Disney shows so special is that they are real theater - the kind that enchanted you as a child. They use real actors in speaking roles and there are story lines. These are not typical musical revues as you see on most cruise ships, they are actual stories that children will especially love. The Walt Disney Theater is the main showroom for live entertainment, and every show is a Disney production (they do not fly in comedians, for example).
The Buena Vista Theater is the real movie cinema theater onboard. It is a full-fledge movie theater with state-of-the-art seating and even 3-D projection. All movies are 3-D and glasses are radily available inside. All movies are made by Disney, of course, and they even show first run movies onboard the same day they come out in movie theaters.
CuisineDisney's cuisine has improved dramatically since the ship was introduced, to the point at which it can now be said to rival Princess's, with All-American and Continental fare likely to please all but the most sophisticated palate. Hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, and pizza are available until 6 p.m., and late nights snacks are served in the adults-only lounges. Room service is available 24 hours. The exceptional adult-only Italian restaurant, Palo, has a refined and elegant atmosphere and levies only a $25 surcharge. Remy's an even more exclusive adult's only restaurant with a menu created by two renowned chef's one of them with two Michelin stars. The surcharge is $75 per diner.
RestaurantsDisney Dream has the same "rotational dining" concept as the earlier ships, but let's start with the two premier dining spots especially meant to appeal to adults.
The first is Palo's, a similar restaurant as to what is presented aboard the Disney Magic and Disney Wonder. There will also be a Palo's on Disney Dream, but it will be much larger to accommodate more patrons at once. The price will remain at $20 per person to serve up special steaks and seafood.
The three chefs of Remy Langoustine in Remy Smoked Bison with Fennel and Blood Orange Private room in Remy Champagne Cocktail Picture of Ratatouille Kitchen Wine List for Remy Remy Table Remy Wine Cellar
But brand new to Disney Dream - and a dining attraction many of the Disney designers are especially looking forward to is "Remy" based on the name of the culinary rodent from the recent Disney motion picture film hit, "Ratatouille." This very small, French themed bistro will feature exclusive French dishes designed by two chefs, one American and one French, the latter with two Michelin stars. The room is tiny and will only hold about 80 total diners every night. The cover charge to dine there is a dear $75 per person, wine pairings are available for an additional $99 per person.
Those are two of the finest dining establishments onboard. Regular dining rooms, included in the cruise fare, are equally enticing although the focus may be just bit more on the fun rather than the food.
The first is "The Enchanted Garden." In this room diners will feel as if the meal is starting as something like an outdoor picnic is one of the more exquisite portions of the gardens of Versailles, the royal palace once home to Marie Antoinette near Paris. But as the meal progresses this seemingly outdoor garden house magically transforms into nighttime as the twinkling stars come out all around, lamps suddenly open up, blossoming like flowers, and fireflies and tiny Tinkerbelle-like fairies start to dart through the night-time skies.
Next is an updated version of Animator's Pallet. This restaurant is also on the first two Disney ships, but it has a significant twist on the Disney Dream. On the first two ships this room first appears to be a typical cartoonist's studio where he might engage in sketching out a quick animation on a flip pad, or perhaps just sketch and color in a concept for a brand new character. As the meal progresses each of these basic sketches would come to life and soon the diners would be fully surrounded in a thriving animation studio with cartoon characters acting everywhere, in full color, doing and saying funny thing.
On Disney Dream this goes several dimensions further. Animator's Pallet begins with a simple sketching studio, as we described, but this time there is an underwater theme to all the sketches. As dinner progresses these water creatures not only start to move, the come to life in a real sense, where they are looking at you, watching you and soon asking you questions about what you may be having for dinner.
Crush, the cool surfer-turtle dude from the movie "Finding Nemo" becomes the star of the show as he finds a way to swim up to every table in the room (each has a window nearby) so he can find someone to interact with. Surprisingly, he already knows someone at each table by name, so he is ready to have a full conversation when he arrives. How an animated movie character could every get to be on first-name basis with anyone on the ship remains a mystery for the rest of the cruise.
ServiceAs you might expect, it could hardly be more upbeat, especially in children's areas. There is a surprising numbers of Americans working onboard- especially in the children's areas where communication is vital.
TippingGratuities can be charged to your shipboard account. The recommended tipping guidelines per person (including children) are as follows: Dining Room Server $25.75 Dining Room Asst. Server $18.75 Dining Room Head Server $ 6.50 Stateroom Host/Hostess $25.25
Dining Manager and Room Service tipping is at the passenger's discretion on all cruises. A 15 percent gratuity is automatically added to bar, beverage, wine, and deck service tabs.
Entertainmenton the Disney Dream is spectacular. We saw a new stage show called "Believe" where a young girl wants her father to learn how to believe in magic. Somehow, he conjures Aladdin's Genie and his third wish, to believe in magic" is finally granted after much tribulation.
What makes Disney shows so special is that they are real theater - the kind that enchanted you as a child. They use real actors in speaking roles and there are story lines. These are not typical musical revues as you see on most cruise ships, they are actual stories that children will especially love. The Walt Disney Theater is the main showroom for live entertainment, and every show is a Disney production (they do not fly in comedians, for example).
The Buena Vista Theater is the real movie cinema theater onboard. It is a full-fledge movie theater with state-of-the-art seating and even 3-D projection. All movies are 3-D and glasses are radily available inside. All movies are made by Disney, of course, and they even show first run movies onboard the same day they come out in movie theaters.
CabinsMost staterooms on Dream sleep at least one extra person, most will sleep two and some will slep three extra people in addition to the two main berths.
One of the best features is the added "half-bath" allowing people to use a toilet and sink when needed in addition to the full bathroom. All staterooms also have water facilities to bath infants and toddlers; like small tubs or showers with extra high walls (to hold some water) and a movable shower head.
Inside staterooms have an LED-screen for a "window" that shows live pictures of what is right outside the ship - often with a few surprises like Captain Hook sailing by the ship (animated).
Fitness/SpaThere are three pools, one adults-only, one kids-only and one for everyone. Kids especially love the AquaDuck - the longest water slide on any cruise ship in the world at 765-feet. The slide pushes a water raft for two people through a transparent plastic tube starting from one of the smokestacks (a faux one) - out over the side of the ship with nothing below but a 100-ft drop to the open sea, then back and completely around the pool area.
The Vista Spa and Salon, operated by Steiner's of London, has hydrotherapy and all the usual massage and beauty treatments. -oriented passengers will love the gym, with sports activities including basketball, paddle tennis and volleyball. There is a quarter-mile separate track for jogging.
Children's FacilitiesThe ship has age-appropriate childrens programs that are the best at sea seoarated as follows.
6 to 36 months
3 to 11 years
12-14 years
15-17 years
Kids can stay with siblings upon request. Kids all get tracking bracelets that allow the "keepers" to keep track of their locations.
The days are filled with fun activities; movies, dress-up like pirates and princesses, massive video games for up to 16 simultaneous players, jungle jims, etc.
AttireWith the exception of the Captain's Dinner, at which formal attire (dress or gown for women and dark suit or tux for men) is recommended, evening attire for gentlemen is pants and shirt, skirts or pants for women.
Fellow PassengersExpect almost everyone onboard to bring their children, with the exception of some avid Disney lovers.
User Reviews
by Ed Rosado
1 Review
Publication Date: October 21, 2012
This was our first time on DCL. We set out from Port Canaveral, where DCL has their own terminal. Very smooth operation. The Disney Dream is a beautiful ship, very clean and easy to navigate. Our 4 night cruise took us to Nassau and their private Island, Castaway Cay.
Castaway Cay was just like all other private Islands in the Bahamas own or operated by the cruise lines. Castaway Cay has the advantage that the ship does not have to tender, but docks right into port where a disney tram shuttle awaits and takes you to the main center.
Disney Cruises has everything well coordinated as far as shows,movies and activities. The only drawback I encounter were the long lines for picture taking and character meets.
The stateroom was very accomidating, we had a varanda on the deck 10 fwd. Large enough for two people, but it would be a bit crowded for 4 which is what is intended for.
Dining was very different, since you are schedule to dine at a different restaurant every night. I had mixed reviews for all three and to sumarized I wasn't thrilled with the idea,much too
noisy with the young ones. Food was not as good as I expected, however the Cabana dining for lunch was the best of any ship I've been on with their sea buffet selection.I took this cruise with DW because of a good discount offered to Florida residents, I would never paid full price for this cruise, however I must say to be fair that anyone with children would probably enjoy it more. Disney Cruise line is not for adults even though they advertise as such. I don't beleive I would take a Dsiney Cruise again unless it was a Transatlantic repositioning with less children on board.
by Queen of Oakville
3 Reviews
Publication Date: March 13, 2012
Well, we're back from Disney Dream – our first cruise with DCL. I thought it was an amazing holiday – but certainly not a relaxing one. We're currently booked for Fantasy for next spring break, but I'm not sure if we will keep the reservation or not. You can see my cruising history in my signature which gives some perspective to some of my comments. While we/I love Disney, I don't view Disney through rose-coloured glasses.
Characters – I had an amazing time on Dream. However, I did not feel it to be a relaxing holiday (my own doing). I felt somewhat rushed to take everything in. I never wanted my kids to miss a character, so it felt like one of us was always standing in line for something. There were a couple of disappointments when we'd been standing in line only to be told that we were now lining up for a different character. At the Farewell, we also got cut off when we were the next in line for Chip and Dale. All that being said, the characters were AMAZING. They spent sooo much time with each child, often
singing and dancing. On our sailing we had, Snow White, Cinderella, Tiana, Aurora, Ariel, Jessie and Woody, Tink, Remy, Smee and Hook, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Chip and Dale, Pluto and Goofy, Pinochio, Peter Pan, Mr.&Mrs. Incredible, Lilo&Stitch, and probably a few others too. We'd sometimes encounter characters coming/going to a photo op, and they ALWAYS stopped to give a hug and chat. The character experience was truly magical. The character experience was a zillion times better on DCL than it was on the Dreamworks cruise on Royal (FOTS).Autographs – we dropped off our photo mats at guest services. My son did not want princess signatures, so I wrote NO PRINCESS on his bag. My daughter ended up with almost all the signatures. My son however, only ended up with the VIP (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy,Pluto, Goofy and Chip&Dale). He was heartbroken that he did not get any "boy" characters like Woody, Hook, Smee etc. At 9:30 on the last night (when the photo mats were delivered to our room), I ran to guest services and came across the most amazing cast member who wanted to spread some Disney magic to a sad little boy, and ran about the ship to track down the characters and have them sign my son's photo mat. The hard part is now picking one of 600 photos to put in the frame!
DH – I was really unsure how my DH would fare on DCL. We are far from gambling addicts but we do enjoy gambling on our cruises. I had kind of thought that without a casino, we would have tons of free time to do as we pleased. But we seemed to be kind of bored. We only ever had small pockets of time between shows/characters/meals that we were not sure what to do with ourselves. As I note above, we're not sure if we will keep our Fantasy reservation or not. DH was kind of Disneyed-out, and I admit, so was I.
Keys – We had a lot of trouble with our room keys. We had to go through 3 batches before they would work. I'm not sure what the trouble was, but it ate up about 2 hours on first day trying to sort this out. Even after that, we only had our keys working, and could never use the kid's keys to open the doors. I just got tired of pursuing it.
Wave Phone – the wave phone concept is great and I saw many using them. I'm not a techno-expert but I'm pretty savy, and I had trouble figuring out how to use the phone. I probably should have taken the phones to guest services and asked for a tutorial!
Splenda – if you're like me and you like splenda – bring your own! They ship had little yellow packets, but they were not splenda – they were nutrasweet.
Food – overall the food was pretty good. I found the food at Cabanas to be much higher quality than the buffet food found on other cruise lines. The food in the main dining room was very good, but I would consider it to be on par with other cruise lines. Be warned that the breakfast in Enchanted breakfast is buffet, and the lines are long and slow. If you want a sit down breakfast go to Royal Palace and if you ant buffet go to Cabanas. I found Disney did an excellent job of fish (sea bass was excellent!) and an excellent job of roasts. I like my beef medium rare and it was always perfectly cooked. I was disappointed with the desserts. I don't think there was a single dessert that I ate in entirety (other than a mickey bar!). I buy my pastries and cakes from some fine bakeries, so I guess I have a demanding dessert palette. I enjoyed the Celebration cake the most, but if I had paid money for it in a restaurant I would have been disappointed.
Service – this is DCL's strongsuit. The service was excellent. I might still give the edge to HAL for service though. One of the things I most noticed was the service during breakfast/lunch – which are open seating. On most ships, you have excellent service at dinner when you have your dedicated wait team who are working for their tips. The wait staff on Disney watch out for each others guests, and they give phenomal service to all guests. This truly sets Disney apart. Even with open seating at breakfast/lunch, the waiter always made a point to find out our names before they came to our table so they could personalize the service. Even the head waiter was excellent.
Tips – DCL is also quite unique in this area in that there was NO BEGGING for tips, which is often found on most cruiselines. Many cruiselines start telling you on the very first night, with a big sell on the last few nights that you need to tip, tip, tip. I can't recall if there was even any mention of this at all. We asked one water how DCL was as an employer compared to the other cruise lines and we were asking him about compensation, benefits etc. When this question is asked on other lines, they very quickly tell you that they are not paid at all. This is true for Disney, but we had to pull this information out of him, whereas on any other ship, the waiters try to find a away to let you know they work for tips.
Service Questionnaire – At the end of every cruise on any lines, guests are asked to complete a satisfaction survey. Usually, on the last few nights the CD makes a point of soliciting 'excellent' reviews telling guests that they must report excellent because the cruiselines view "very good' as not good enough and that even "very good" ratings get held against them. We received no such pressure from the DREAM CD. In fact, Disney goes so far as to ask if you were pressured in any way to give an excellent rating. Kudo's to Disney for wanting honest feedback. Entertainment – was excellent! We saw Golden Mickeys, Villians, and Believe. All 3 shows were excellent. We also had Mike Super on the ship, and he was truly lavenous.
Kid's Club – was good. I think given the number of kids' they have going through the club, they do an excellent job. My kid's really enjoyed the kid's club but not as much as they have on other ships. They never begged to go to the kid's club and I think that had to do with the number of kid's in the club. On other ships (HAL comes to mind) they have so few kids onboard, that they are able to give amazing personalized service to each family. I asked my 6 year old daughter to rank the kid's clubs and she ranked them in this order HAL, Disney, RCCL, Carnival.
Family Environment – I found that Disney did a very good job of the "family" environment. There were no hairy chest or beer belly contests that I've found on most ships. On other ships, we've enjoyed family activities such as family mini golf tourney, family scavenger hunt, family trivia etc. I'm not saying that Disney didn't have these events, but if they did, they were timed for older families (with teens) later at night, or they were timed when they conflicted with shows or character events. You can't do it all on any ship, and that is the case with DCL.
FE - I panicked before leaving when I read someone write here that the FE space is very narrow and it was! I had made my FE to about 10 inches and it was at least 2 inches too wide. We were on an inside cabin that crossed through the ship, so our cabin steward was not too concerned. If we cruise Fantasy next year, I will use the same FE just shorten my stick from 13" to 10.5" so the stick doesn't stick out as much. The FE was a wonderful experience. We only had 9 families in our group which was perfect. It was easy to manage from a cost perspective, and did not eat up too much time running around the ship. Almost every time we came back to the cabin there was a gift waiting. We gave out the Wilton Mickey Cookie Cutters and a package of Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix. We received 2 music cds, sleep masks, pez dispensers, silly bands, buttons, water pistols, stickers, markers, pencils, notebooks, candy, pirate stuff, St. Paddy's stuff, and much more.
Private Table in MDR - We requested a private table for the four of us and received it. I had heard wonderful stories here of Disney pairing guests who forged friendships after their cruise. I contemplated changing our request, but never did. Our table of 4 was always paired with another table of four who based on demographics were a good match for us. They looked to also be in their early 40s and had kids the same age as ours although their daughter might have been a year older and their son a year younger. We were certainly within speaking distance, and made several attempts to make eye contact or engage with them. There were several times when i'd smile at the other mom, and rather than smile back, she'd look away. When DH attempted to speak to them, we'd get brief answers and then they would terminate the interaction. My point is that Disney does a pretty good job of demographic match-up but they can't account for people who are not social.
Formal Night – I see a lot of questions about formal night. On Disney Dream - I am not certain there was one. Usually, cruises make a big deal (in the navigators and by the announcements) of letting you know when it s a formal night. Usually, the night before, the wait staff will also tell you that the next night is formal night. We came prepared with formal wear for 2 nights. For my daughter, every night was formal! We asked at Breakfast on Day 2, and were told that you could be formal whenever you wanted and that most people were dressier on nights they were in Royal Palace. By Night 4, I noticed that people were dressier, as I was walking around the ship, so we broke out our formal wear for nights 4 and 5. Don't stress over it if you don't want to be too dressy. I think business casual is perfectly acceptable on DCL. A 7-night cruise might be different though.
Magical Porthole – loved it! I don't think we ever felt like it was a true ocean-view. But, there were a constant parade of characters. I also liked that we could shut it off at night. I love the black-out you get with an inside cabin.
I think that is pretty much it. I'd be happy to answer any questions, especially from anyone who wants information comparing DCL to other cruise lines.
by JHM
1 Review
Publication Date: January 3, 2012
This was my first Disney cruise, but fourth overall. I have also cruised with NCL twice, and Royal Caribbean. This cruise was overpriced, when you compare it with similar styled cruise lines
The food quality was substandard at best. Most of our meals came out lukewarm, heavily sauced, and over salted. This was consistent throughout the cruise. It's almost as Disney felt that since they were creating the Disney "magical" experience with the characters, that the adults and children wouldn't notice the lack of variety in food, fresh fruit or appetizing meals. I know that children's palates aren't as developed as adults, but please, there is just some much mac n' cheese (made with what seemed like velveeta), pizza and chicken fingers that a child can eat over the duration of a 7 day cruise. The orange and apple juice was only available during meal hours, so if you didn't plan ahead and bottle some for your stateroom, your child was drinking milk or from the soda station
We had a family deluxe oceanview. Our stateroom attendant was polite and did a great job of keeping our room clean, tidy, and well stocked with
fresh towels, etc.The Disney meet and greets were fantastic for the children. You have alot of opportunities during the cruise to meet with the different characters. If your little ones are looking at getting some autographs and pictures, you will want to get the majority of them as early on in the cruise as possible. Disney runs their ship lean, which means closer to the end of the cruise, you have less opportunity to meet the characters as many of them double for the evening entertainment. Also, for those families that didn't get their quota of photos earlier on in the cruise, they are now scrambling to get as many photos as they can before the end of the cruise. Picture taking is scheduled, and random all at the same time. Since there always seems to be a character(s) walking around on the ship, you often end up taking unplanned pictures causing you to miss other onboard activities. Due to the lineups sometimes taking a 1/2hr or more for photo taking, kids often end up getting cranky. If you can take turns with lineup duties, and have your little ones join you just before their photo is to be taken, you will make your life alot easier.
All three swimming pool areas for the younger babies, children and adults were extremely small and insufficient for the number of people onboard.
The evening (Broadway type) entertainment was also fantastic, and is definitely a higher calibre to what I've seen on other ships. The shows were done "Disney" style, and they didn't disappoint. The pirate party was also fantastic, with the fireworks show at the end - Awesome!
We did our own excursions and we were quite happy with the price and activities we were able to do on our own. I've always found that the excursions offered by cruise lines were higher than what you can get if you plan it yourself, but make sure you do your research beforehand, so you're not wasting time at port. If planning ahead isn't for you, then go with a pre-packaged excursion since there's bound to be at least one which, will interest you and your family.
If you want to see as many Disney characters as possible - than this is the cruise for you. If you are looking for the best quality cruise experience for your dollar, I would recommend a similar styled cruise which offers some character events and children programs.
Reading this review you might think that this cruise wasn't that bad, but please take into account that this itinerary only goes to 3 ports of call. Leaving alot of time spent using the amenities and onboard activities. Overall, this cruise was disappointing due to the cost, poor amenities, and the lack of quality food.