cruisinalong
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2007
We returned from a cruise on the Disney Dream last Thursday. The ship was attractive but there were a few things that we noticed that were surprising to us. This was our 7th Disney cruise but our first on the Dream.
- line for the Aquaduck - I was concerned that with 3,000 people on board lines would be a problem for the Aquaduck. This was not the case. Went on the ride twice and the longest wait time was about 20 min. The ride was also much more tame than I expected. This probably accounts for the short lines.
- Shutters - there used to be a lot of people looking at pictures in Shutters. Now they have everything organized and there is no general browsing of pictures. You find your little box and look at your pictures. Very sterile environment.
- Television - we do not usually watch much TV on the ship but checked it out on the last day. They have a very nice video-on-demand system. Watched Snow White without problems. The remote is not the easiest thing to use. There is an on screen tips for the remote which shows they know it is a problem.
- Telephone - the phone is a CISCO voip phone better suited to an office environment. There is no button for the usual resort functions like front desk etc. There is NO nice red light to let you know you have a message.
- Dining - the dining rooms are very nice looking but they took a lot of the fun stuff out of the experience. The changes no doubt make accountants happy. We did not see any characters in the dining room - they used to show up at least once per dinner. There was no parade of the staff around the dining room. We used to enjoy seeing all the staff parading around.
- Castaway Cay - I was amazed that the lines were much shorter for the Cookies lunch. The water slide is down near Cookies Too which was actually busier than Cookies. The other interesting thing we noticed at Castaway Cay was getting on and off the ship - the entry/exit point at the far end of the ship was used. Since the ship is almost a quarter mile long this makes for a little longer walk. The staff used the entry point that was closer. For some reason they did not use the center entry/exit point.
- Crowding - the ship and Castaway Cay felt MUCH more crowded than any of the Magic or the Wonder trips. Putting twice as many people on board with only a relatively small increase in the size of the public areas had the expected result.
- The Villians Tonight show was a huge disappointment. The fart humor went over well with the kids who were not scared.
- Golden Mickeys show was great. Sad to see Roy Disney replaced with the Disney CEO.
- line for the Aquaduck - I was concerned that with 3,000 people on board lines would be a problem for the Aquaduck. This was not the case. Went on the ride twice and the longest wait time was about 20 min. The ride was also much more tame than I expected. This probably accounts for the short lines.
- Shutters - there used to be a lot of people looking at pictures in Shutters. Now they have everything organized and there is no general browsing of pictures. You find your little box and look at your pictures. Very sterile environment.
- Television - we do not usually watch much TV on the ship but checked it out on the last day. They have a very nice video-on-demand system. Watched Snow White without problems. The remote is not the easiest thing to use. There is an on screen tips for the remote which shows they know it is a problem.
- Telephone - the phone is a CISCO voip phone better suited to an office environment. There is no button for the usual resort functions like front desk etc. There is NO nice red light to let you know you have a message.
- Dining - the dining rooms are very nice looking but they took a lot of the fun stuff out of the experience. The changes no doubt make accountants happy. We did not see any characters in the dining room - they used to show up at least once per dinner. There was no parade of the staff around the dining room. We used to enjoy seeing all the staff parading around.
- Castaway Cay - I was amazed that the lines were much shorter for the Cookies lunch. The water slide is down near Cookies Too which was actually busier than Cookies. The other interesting thing we noticed at Castaway Cay was getting on and off the ship - the entry/exit point at the far end of the ship was used. Since the ship is almost a quarter mile long this makes for a little longer walk. The staff used the entry point that was closer. For some reason they did not use the center entry/exit point.
- Crowding - the ship and Castaway Cay felt MUCH more crowded than any of the Magic or the Wonder trips. Putting twice as many people on board with only a relatively small increase in the size of the public areas had the expected result.
- The Villians Tonight show was a huge disappointment. The fart humor went over well with the kids who were not scared.
- Golden Mickeys show was great. Sad to see Roy Disney replaced with the Disney CEO.