Just completed a 3 day cruise on what used to be my favorite Disney Ship. It was the Lookout (workout) Cay and Cast-A-Way Cay trip. This is the best itinerary in my opinion since it does not travel to Nassau.
The good: Lookout Cay is much improved over the last visit in June. The place looks more complete and some of the required organization is starting to work out. There are now bicycle tours available and we took the ebike/snorkel one. This tour was very good since it was a little adventurous in that some of the paths we were on were not paved. The rad runner ebikes worked well and the trip to a quiet bay was about 5 miles each way. The really good part of the tour was the 30 minutes of snorkeling in a nice little bay that had only the ten people on the guided tour enjoying the oceans wonders. It confirmed to me that the island has some decent snorkeling areas, but they are not on the Disney portion of the island. You can see the real island life on this tour as you leave the Disney compound and travel past some of the rudimentary housing the inhabitants live in. Some of the areas appeared a little shady but there was no stopping in these areas, mostly a gravel path that led to the other side of the island.
The bad: Practically nothing started on time, during this cruise. Typically, Disney cruises we have been on have events start on time or within minutes of the advertised time. On this trip events started from 10 minutes later than the published (one of the evening shows) to 30 minutes later (the opening of Cabanas).
Dream was not as clean as I would have expected for a ship fresh out of a dry dock evolution. Common areas were not refreshed and some areas had carpets that were not addressed dirng the drydock period. The staff was not as responsive as the staff on our other multiple Disney cruises. Compared to our recent trip on the Magic (which again has taken the place as our favorite ship) whose personnel were friendly and helpful, the Dream staff seemed tired and bored. More interested in standing around than providing service.
Now for the question mark part of this report: A quick tour of the high-end shop on the Dream revealed a showcase of watches. Why the family cruise ship has devoted space to a high-end jewelry store is beyond my comprehension. I asked the nice salesman how much was the Rolex Yachtsman wristwatch and he replied twenty six for the stainless steel one and thirty two five for the gold version. The showcase which had room for about 30 watches only had 12 watches filling the spaces and my estimation held close to $400,000 worth of Rolex timepieces. This I find amazing that Disney expects to sell watches on a family cruise that cost as much as cars! While these were nice to look at, I suspect that none of these will sell this year on the Disney Dream, and if they do I hope the individual who buys one correctly declares the major purchase when returning to the US.
The good: Lookout Cay is much improved over the last visit in June. The place looks more complete and some of the required organization is starting to work out. There are now bicycle tours available and we took the ebike/snorkel one. This tour was very good since it was a little adventurous in that some of the paths we were on were not paved. The rad runner ebikes worked well and the trip to a quiet bay was about 5 miles each way. The really good part of the tour was the 30 minutes of snorkeling in a nice little bay that had only the ten people on the guided tour enjoying the oceans wonders. It confirmed to me that the island has some decent snorkeling areas, but they are not on the Disney portion of the island. You can see the real island life on this tour as you leave the Disney compound and travel past some of the rudimentary housing the inhabitants live in. Some of the areas appeared a little shady but there was no stopping in these areas, mostly a gravel path that led to the other side of the island.
The bad: Practically nothing started on time, during this cruise. Typically, Disney cruises we have been on have events start on time or within minutes of the advertised time. On this trip events started from 10 minutes later than the published (one of the evening shows) to 30 minutes later (the opening of Cabanas).
Dream was not as clean as I would have expected for a ship fresh out of a dry dock evolution. Common areas were not refreshed and some areas had carpets that were not addressed dirng the drydock period. The staff was not as responsive as the staff on our other multiple Disney cruises. Compared to our recent trip on the Magic (which again has taken the place as our favorite ship) whose personnel were friendly and helpful, the Dream staff seemed tired and bored. More interested in standing around than providing service.
Now for the question mark part of this report: A quick tour of the high-end shop on the Dream revealed a showcase of watches. Why the family cruise ship has devoted space to a high-end jewelry store is beyond my comprehension. I asked the nice salesman how much was the Rolex Yachtsman wristwatch and he replied twenty six for the stainless steel one and thirty two five for the gold version. The showcase which had room for about 30 watches only had 12 watches filling the spaces and my estimation held close to $400,000 worth of Rolex timepieces. This I find amazing that Disney expects to sell watches on a family cruise that cost as much as cars! While these were nice to look at, I suspect that none of these will sell this year on the Disney Dream, and if they do I hope the individual who buys one correctly declares the major purchase when returning to the US.
