jd99
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2001
- Messages
- 6,230
A quick report from our June 26-July 1 sailing on the Dream. I'll post some pictures later but for now, I thought I'd just cover a few highlights before I forget what I was going to say!
As the title indicates, we have cruised DCL 10 times (8 on the Magic, one on the Wonder and now, one on the Dream). We are obviously addicted! And everyone loved the Dream but it does have its drawbacks too. So here it is, for all to see, JD99's Quick List of Good, Bad and Curious things about the Dream. I haven't read any Dream trip reports for quite a while so I don't know if I'm repeating other folks here but, this is our opinion....
The Good
1. The ship is just gorgeous. And so clean. We found ourselves going from one public space to the next saying "OHHHHH look at this!!!!"
2. Love the new D Lounge space - which replaces Studio Sea on this ship. The furniture is fun and funky, the space is well used and the activities are fun.
3. I have often complained about the Goofy pool in the other ships but I thought they did a great job of improving the family pool (Donald pool on this ship) to make it more family friendly. Now it's not just a vat that you jump into and hope to get out of the human soup -it now has the great couple of inches of water across a few feet of space throughout that makes just hanging out at the pool without going in possible, comfortable - even fun.
4. Animator's Palette - Wow. What a show. Just so much going on. So much fun and interactive and it was just the favorite dinner night.
5. Palo - Loved the night out as always. Service (Christian) was fantastic. Food was great. Views were beautiful. And the Meridian Lounge which joins Palo and Remy is a wonderful treat.
6. Adult lounges. Though they look a lot bigger in the videos I've seen, they are even more "well done" in person. And never crowded but always enough people to make it not feel deserted. Favorite was Pink.
7. The Walt Disney Theater is magnificent. The new show Believe is a great addition and we totally enjoyed it.
8. Cabanas. Wow what a difference between this and Topsiders. Topsiders is one of my least favorite parts of the other ships. Cabanas was one of my favorite parts of the Dream.
9. Quick food options - this area seemed to run much more smoothly than on the other ships despite the additional passenger load. Never seemed crowded in this area.
10. Cabins are much more updated - great beds..great linens. Good use of space since they are a bit smaller than on the other ships.
11. They did a great job with the elevators. They are larger and deeper than most hotels. And there are lots of them. I don't remember ever waiting a long time for an elevator. We walked the steps a lot but when we wanted an elevator it was there and often, it was empty.
12. Saving the best for last. Aquaduck. Even more fun than I had hoped. Waited 40 minutes for it the first time and it was worth it. Never really waited more than 20 minutes after that and never got tired of it.
The Bad
1. I thought they expanded the terminal and are using staggered boarding times to make it more manageable for the bigger ships. The terminal was like the fall of Saigon. I was getting very claustrophobic and worried about the cruise.
2. We missed the blue steamer trunk in the room for storage. We did okay by being more creative but that was one thing we did miss. Not a huge thing.
3. We missed the Promenade Lounge. It was always a great meeting place, somewhere to go before dinner for a drink or some chips and salsa and maybe a trivia game or after dinner to hear the band. There is nothing really to replace this space for families. There is the District Lounge but families can't go there after 9. There is the Vista Cafe but it's an odd and kind of ill defined space.
4. I didn't love the new Sailaway Party and Pirate Party. They have both been "slickened up" by using performers from the theater shows in them as opposed to just cruise staff. Glitzier, yes but I guess I liked the quaintness of meeting your cruise staff at the first big event and seeing them throughout.
5. Even as they improved the family pool, they really did the opposite with the adult pool. The Cove pool on the Magic and Wonder are so much better than on the Dream. In an attempt to make it different, I really think DCL missed the mark big-time. And on the sea day, it looked as bad, or worse, than the family pool. And what is up with the hot tubs that now look like steel tubs that you'd put beverages in for a picnic - and situated completely away from the pools. I guess the sea view might be nice if it wasn't completely overstuffed with people - but it really was nicer to have those hot tubs adjacent to the pools in my opinion.
6. Our kids, who normally love the kid spaces (Edge and Lab for ours) skipped it altogether this time. I think it was a bit too big, too crowded and intimidating for both kids when they went to check them out. Gave us more time as a family, which is always good, but part of why we sail DCL is the kids programming and if our kids skip it, then it may be time to look at other ships too.
7. The big one in our opinion. There is no "culture" formed yet on the ship - I assume it's because of all the newbies. With some exceptions (most notably Wayland in the Cove Cafe) so much of the interaction with cast members was just "off" a bit compared to past cruises. I'm afraid this may never get fixed as our servers told us they are going to train the new people and then move to the Fantasy. If these folks are doing the training, they are going to lose another level of that culture as it gets further diluted. We also had one awful experience with the head server that was truly quite shocking. This was by far our one and only BIG disappointment.
The Curious
1. Crowd movement was strange. When you thought it should be crazy crowded (Sailaway Party, Pirate Party, Castaway Cay), it wasn't. When you least expected it, just walking the halls at any given time of day or night, it was.
2. We usually stay Aft but didn't on this sailing and thank goodness. You have to walk through Cabanas on the pool level deck to get to the aft elevators or stairs. Which wouldn't be so bad except during meals there are greeters, and moist towelette distributors at every turn. Don't understand this at all.
3. Our room steward seemed to be completely overwhelmed from day one. I'm not sure if they have more rooms to do or if she was new or what. I'd hate to hear that DCL assigned them more rooms on the bigger ship since the turnaround time between sailings is no different than on the smaller ships.
Some Lessons Learned (for our family)
1. We prefer the smaller ships. Wish they had the aquaduck on the Magic.
2. We are going to give the Fantasy a try because it may be a combination of the larger ship and short itinerary that we didn't like as much. A seven night sailing on the larger ship could make a difference.
3. Don't ever ever ever NOT get a verandah when possible. I booked this too late and verandahs were sold out. I missed being able to escape from the chaos of three girls/women getting ready for dinner without having to leave the room.
4. We thought the highlight was going to be Castaway Cay twice (we've never done this before) but the highlight was the ship. Don't get me wrong, we LOVED Castaway but when you go twice I think you take it a bit for granted. We stayed on the ship the first day until noon so that we could ride the Aquaduck 4 or 5 times.
5. Stay on the ship in Nassau. If we ever do a Bahamas sailing again, the ship will be our playground. Almost did this time. Wish we had.
That's a quick report of the Dream from a 10-time cruiser. Beautiful ship with just a few little issues. I'm sure I forgot a few things and will add them as I get photos uploaded.
As the title indicates, we have cruised DCL 10 times (8 on the Magic, one on the Wonder and now, one on the Dream). We are obviously addicted! And everyone loved the Dream but it does have its drawbacks too. So here it is, for all to see, JD99's Quick List of Good, Bad and Curious things about the Dream. I haven't read any Dream trip reports for quite a while so I don't know if I'm repeating other folks here but, this is our opinion....
The Good
1. The ship is just gorgeous. And so clean. We found ourselves going from one public space to the next saying "OHHHHH look at this!!!!"
2. Love the new D Lounge space - which replaces Studio Sea on this ship. The furniture is fun and funky, the space is well used and the activities are fun.
3. I have often complained about the Goofy pool in the other ships but I thought they did a great job of improving the family pool (Donald pool on this ship) to make it more family friendly. Now it's not just a vat that you jump into and hope to get out of the human soup -it now has the great couple of inches of water across a few feet of space throughout that makes just hanging out at the pool without going in possible, comfortable - even fun.
4. Animator's Palette - Wow. What a show. Just so much going on. So much fun and interactive and it was just the favorite dinner night.
5. Palo - Loved the night out as always. Service (Christian) was fantastic. Food was great. Views were beautiful. And the Meridian Lounge which joins Palo and Remy is a wonderful treat.
6. Adult lounges. Though they look a lot bigger in the videos I've seen, they are even more "well done" in person. And never crowded but always enough people to make it not feel deserted. Favorite was Pink.
7. The Walt Disney Theater is magnificent. The new show Believe is a great addition and we totally enjoyed it.
8. Cabanas. Wow what a difference between this and Topsiders. Topsiders is one of my least favorite parts of the other ships. Cabanas was one of my favorite parts of the Dream.
9. Quick food options - this area seemed to run much more smoothly than on the other ships despite the additional passenger load. Never seemed crowded in this area.
10. Cabins are much more updated - great beds..great linens. Good use of space since they are a bit smaller than on the other ships.
11. They did a great job with the elevators. They are larger and deeper than most hotels. And there are lots of them. I don't remember ever waiting a long time for an elevator. We walked the steps a lot but when we wanted an elevator it was there and often, it was empty.
12. Saving the best for last. Aquaduck. Even more fun than I had hoped. Waited 40 minutes for it the first time and it was worth it. Never really waited more than 20 minutes after that and never got tired of it.
The Bad
1. I thought they expanded the terminal and are using staggered boarding times to make it more manageable for the bigger ships. The terminal was like the fall of Saigon. I was getting very claustrophobic and worried about the cruise.
2. We missed the blue steamer trunk in the room for storage. We did okay by being more creative but that was one thing we did miss. Not a huge thing.
3. We missed the Promenade Lounge. It was always a great meeting place, somewhere to go before dinner for a drink or some chips and salsa and maybe a trivia game or after dinner to hear the band. There is nothing really to replace this space for families. There is the District Lounge but families can't go there after 9. There is the Vista Cafe but it's an odd and kind of ill defined space.
4. I didn't love the new Sailaway Party and Pirate Party. They have both been "slickened up" by using performers from the theater shows in them as opposed to just cruise staff. Glitzier, yes but I guess I liked the quaintness of meeting your cruise staff at the first big event and seeing them throughout.
5. Even as they improved the family pool, they really did the opposite with the adult pool. The Cove pool on the Magic and Wonder are so much better than on the Dream. In an attempt to make it different, I really think DCL missed the mark big-time. And on the sea day, it looked as bad, or worse, than the family pool. And what is up with the hot tubs that now look like steel tubs that you'd put beverages in for a picnic - and situated completely away from the pools. I guess the sea view might be nice if it wasn't completely overstuffed with people - but it really was nicer to have those hot tubs adjacent to the pools in my opinion.
6. Our kids, who normally love the kid spaces (Edge and Lab for ours) skipped it altogether this time. I think it was a bit too big, too crowded and intimidating for both kids when they went to check them out. Gave us more time as a family, which is always good, but part of why we sail DCL is the kids programming and if our kids skip it, then it may be time to look at other ships too.
7. The big one in our opinion. There is no "culture" formed yet on the ship - I assume it's because of all the newbies. With some exceptions (most notably Wayland in the Cove Cafe) so much of the interaction with cast members was just "off" a bit compared to past cruises. I'm afraid this may never get fixed as our servers told us they are going to train the new people and then move to the Fantasy. If these folks are doing the training, they are going to lose another level of that culture as it gets further diluted. We also had one awful experience with the head server that was truly quite shocking. This was by far our one and only BIG disappointment.
The Curious
1. Crowd movement was strange. When you thought it should be crazy crowded (Sailaway Party, Pirate Party, Castaway Cay), it wasn't. When you least expected it, just walking the halls at any given time of day or night, it was.
2. We usually stay Aft but didn't on this sailing and thank goodness. You have to walk through Cabanas on the pool level deck to get to the aft elevators or stairs. Which wouldn't be so bad except during meals there are greeters, and moist towelette distributors at every turn. Don't understand this at all.
3. Our room steward seemed to be completely overwhelmed from day one. I'm not sure if they have more rooms to do or if she was new or what. I'd hate to hear that DCL assigned them more rooms on the bigger ship since the turnaround time between sailings is no different than on the smaller ships.
Some Lessons Learned (for our family)
1. We prefer the smaller ships. Wish they had the aquaduck on the Magic.
2. We are going to give the Fantasy a try because it may be a combination of the larger ship and short itinerary that we didn't like as much. A seven night sailing on the larger ship could make a difference.
3. Don't ever ever ever NOT get a verandah when possible. I booked this too late and verandahs were sold out. I missed being able to escape from the chaos of three girls/women getting ready for dinner without having to leave the room.
4. We thought the highlight was going to be Castaway Cay twice (we've never done this before) but the highlight was the ship. Don't get me wrong, we LOVED Castaway but when you go twice I think you take it a bit for granted. We stayed on the ship the first day until noon so that we could ride the Aquaduck 4 or 5 times.
5. Stay on the ship in Nassau. If we ever do a Bahamas sailing again, the ship will be our playground. Almost did this time. Wish we had.
That's a quick report of the Dream from a 10-time cruiser. Beautiful ship with just a few little issues. I'm sure I forgot a few things and will add them as I get photos uploaded.
Our stateroom was aft and we found ourselves walking to midship or even forward elevators on our deck if we wanted to go to the pool. Agree by the way, about the adult pool and the hot tubs. And having the forward elevator right there at the adult pool led to a constant parade of humanity. The Quiet Cove pool was anything but quiet when everyone was aboard the ship 
!
