Will I be disappointed??

[seafarer71]

My family of 4 (kids ages 6 and 4) are booked on the Dream for a 5 nighter in August 2012. Our first DCL experience was on the Wonder two years ago over Easter break. We loved the Wonder, and particularly enjoyed the fact that the ship NEVER felt overly crowded. After reading some reviews regarding crowding of the Dream, it seems that this may be an issue. Now I'm worried that the one big thing that endeared us to the Wonder, will be lost on a ship with twice as many people on it. I'm wondering if I should save a bunch of money by booking on another line, or just go to Disney World instead.

Those of you who have sailed on both ships, what are your thoughts regarding the above???

 

[Mickeyhugger]

I would think that a sold-out cruise ship would be MUCH LESS CROWDED than WDW in August.

 

[seafarer71]

We were just at WDW last August, and it was awesome. Never had to use a fastpass, as the normal lines were very short or nonexistent. Many rides/attractions we were able to walk right onto/into. Perhaps this was a fluke because it was HOT, not sure.

 

[TinkBell10]

My family of 4 (kids ages 6 and 4) are booked on the Dream for a 5 nighter in August 2012. Our first DCL experience was on the Wonder two years ago over Easter break. We loved the Wonder, and particularly enjoyed the fact that the ship NEVER felt overly crowded. After reading some reviews regarding crowding of the Dream, it seems that this may be an issue. Now I'm worried that the one big thing that endeared us to the Wonder, will be lost on a ship with twice as many people on it. I'm wondering if I should save a bunch of money by booking on another line, or just go to Disney World instead.

Those of you who have sailed on both ships, what are your thoughts regarding the above???

As much as I love the Magic & Wonder for the same reasons as you...I'm still excited to see the Dream & Fantasy. I'm going with an open mind and planning to have fun regardless. There are conflicting reports on how crowded the ship feels....and everyone's opinion of what 'crowded' means is different. So, if I were you, I wouldn't cancel. You don't know how you'll like it until you try it.

 

[sjsjbrook]

I was on a full dream, and didn't feel like it was crowded.

There are a lot of things to do on the large ship.

The one thing I did was rarely take the midship elevators as the majority of the people would take those to get to dining and other locations.


Don't panic, we had a great cruise and would have never known it was a full trip if we hadn't had known it was sold out.

 

[KSDisneyDad]

My family of 4 (kids ages 6 and 4) are booked on the Dream for a 5 nighter in August 2012. Our first DCL experience was on the Wonder two years ago over Easter break. We loved the Wonder, and particularly enjoyed the fact that the ship NEVER felt overly crowded. After reading some reviews regarding crowding of the Dream, it seems that this may be an issue. Now I'm worried that the one big thing that endeared us to the Wonder, will be lost on a ship with twice as many people on it. I'm wondering if I should save a bunch of money by booking on another line, or just go to Disney World instead.

Those of you who have sailed on both ships, what are your thoughts regarding the above???

My worst experience with respect to crowding was on a 4-night Wonder cruise over Spring Break. A lot more kids and more crowding of the pool deck when compared to when we normally cruise on Disney.

Really, the only day of crowding should be the one-and-only sea day.

Also, there have been just as many reports from the Dream about it not feeling crowded as there have been of it feeling crowded. I've read many posts about Palo being nothing but an over-hyped restaurant that's not that good, yet we love eating at Palo. Similarly, I've read threads for years about how the food has gone downhill, yet we've enjoyed the food onboard. If I only focused on the glass half-empty reports, we'd never leave home again!