Alright guys, I am fresh off of the dream today and it was my first time on this ship, but my 8th DCL voyage. With that being said, I really wanted to share my opinions on some things with you all and see what you guys had to say. I'm sure a lot of these things have been said before, but maybe some havent. Pictures possibly to follow but let me start like this.
OVERALL OPINION OF SHIP
Okay, let's get this straight- the ship is AWESOME. It's everything we loved in the old ships just bigger and better. There is nothing like showing up the other ships in port with you by walking on and off the Dream. It truly is a beautiful and fun ship. After a day you feel like you are on the old ships because you know your way around so well and they are so similar in style. Not let me go into some details here.
ENTERTAINMENT
This pops into my mind first because the shows are basically all new/revamped. We had Ron Pearson on for our entertainer. Look, Ron is a really funny guy and a DCL favorite (I've seen him before on the ship too), but I think that only 1 entertainer on a 5 day cruise is a little lame. My last 7 day cruise had 3-4 entertainers on it. After day 4 they brought on more people. There were at least 3 but possibly 4. Let's just say 3. 3 on a 7 day and 1 on a 5 day just doesn't translate. Ron did the welcome show in the WD Theater and then 2 adult shows on night 4 and 5. We went essentially 72 hours without any kind of cabaret shows. The kids only got the 1st night show and that was it (I am 21 by the way so I am not sour because of this). In the past, not only were there more entertainers, but there was pretty much a cabaret show every night, in the form of family and / or adult. Some times there were 3 shows in 1 night. No lie, I have naviagators. Okay I just checked my navigators while typing this from a 7 Day cruise in 09- we had a women ventriloquist and a comic / dancing duo, then they brought on ron pearson and an amazing illusionist half way though. That is 4 TECHINICALLY 5 people. You can see why I am dragging out this point of the lack of entertainment. I'm sure I could go through my navigators and count the cabarets but I won't.
Now, for the actual shows.
VILLANS TONIGHT
I really wanted to like this show, in fact, I thought it would be my favorite. I honestly wasn't TOO impressed. Others in my party liked it but I was just kind of "eh." Some of you will remember the old hercules show. The old humor is back too with hades, panic, and pain. They make the same old references to songs / tv shows. If you are into that kind of humor you will like it, but too be blunt, it was a little too cheesy for me. The plot was somewhat lame, but they brought in some good villans and that's all I'll say.
GOLDEN MICKEYS
I wasn't sure how much this show was changed, because we were told by the cruise director that it was completely different. Trust me, it is relatively the same show. It was a very good show before and I believe it is still very good with just a few new touches / updates. Expect mostly the same though.
POTC Deck Party
I would like to note that our show in the WD Theater on the POTC night was CARS 2...what the hey? I'm sorry but shouldn't it have been..i dunno...pirates. I have already seen both on land so I didn't really care but it was curious indeed..especially with frankly, how disappointing cars 2 was. The actual deck party was also just 'alright.' The fireworks were cool, and this ship was definitely built to be able to shoot fireworks off unlike the old ships. They come out in very cool places. Anyhow, the actual 'show' part of it was kind of lame. It was all over the place and didn't have much of a plot like the old show. It was whatever though. Also I couldn't for the life of me find where the desert buffet was during the party.
BELIEVE
Okay, I had low expectations for this one because I figured it was going to lean to the cheesy side. I was right during the beginning. The father-daughter dialogue and plot is a bit lame. All of a sudden though, this show took off. They brought out some REALLY different movies and songs and characters. Mary Poppins is in this, just for an example. All in all it was a hit and better than the old signature show "Dreams."
The theater itself is also really nice, the balcony is AWESOME to sit in. I really liked the front row- sat there every night. Also the movie theater is a lot more spacious. No more lack of leg room in places. Another note- they did a great job at breaking up what movies were used in what show. There is a great variety.
ADULT SECTION
I can only speak for the adult section (although I did check out the kid section during open house and andy's room, among other things were awesome looking). I am not into dancing and such, and my girlfriend goes to bed early, but the adult section was honestly "hopping" every night. There were some good shows, like match your mate was HILARIOUS. One older guy became a legend for the entire cruise. Unlike past cruises, the main club, Evolution, was full every night. Mostly just dancing and drinking though which goes back to my lack of entertainers rant. But anyway I have been on cruises where the clubs were empty every night. I do think that they probably made too many clubs on this ship because the other ones were practically empty...but hey..can't complain really about that.
FOOD
Let me start by saying that I am not a fancy eater. Breakfast was good as usual, but Cabanas is slightly crazy. The buffet is huge and there are 9 stations. Most have the same thing but sometimes a random different item is added or changed. Like you can walk around the entire buffet and see the same thing over and over and then all of a sudden you'll see fried eggs where scrambled were somewhere else. WALK ALL AROUND..you will find surprises..it's somewhat a weird setup but breakfast was good if you do your searching.
Lunch- the stands served the same type of food as the old days..decent/average kind of "kid" food. I had pizza quite a few times at night from luigi's because it was open until midnight. I ate at cabanas mostly for lunch and honestly I was surprised that the food was basically the same every day. It was just alright for me...there weren't too many choices and cabanas was just as screwy for lunch as breakfast..LOOK EVERYWHERE. We ate at enchanted garden for lunch one day because it was a castaway day and cabanas was closed. I disliked it very much..hardly any selections. Always do cabanas.
Dinner- great waitstaff as usual. Some menus I really couldn't find anything to die for. Pirate menu was my favorite. I think disney should consider non seafood / non fancy eaters more (like myself). I don't think it would kill them to put a normal dish like chicken parm or something on a menu. %60 of dishes include seafood on the ship. It really limits people who don't eat it. They are flexible however. On the last night there is a seafood linguini..they were able to make it chicken linguini for me. I thought animators had the best regular menu as well. If you are a fine diner (like some members of my party) you will have a great time eating these dinners.
Activities
Once again, I have to say there were not many activities. In the past I can remember playing trivia every afternoon, going to game shows, etc. The game shows were at poor times, and there was no trivia. These are just examples but this is the general theme. I think they figured with new additions like mini gold and aquaduck that they can skimp on activities. Old favs were back like the mickey 200. Drawing class was disappointing too. We went once and drew mickey and goofy..went again and it was the same guy doing the same lesson telling the same stories. I think he should do different characters throughout the cruise or it should note a repeat event in the navigator.
Aquaduck is awesome, I'm sure you all know that. Basically if you go mid afternoon you will wait 20 minutes on a port day and up to 35-40 on a sea day. Go during dinner and you can probably just wait a few minutes. Go at 11-12 at night and you can repeatedly go on with a 5 minute wait. (besides the first night because many want to try it and POTC night because people are all awake and on the deck). I was happy it was open until midnight for sure.
Mini golf is very cool, it has a track for kids and adults and makes it fun for everyone.
Ping pong is no longer on the pool decks. It makes it impossible to play because it is WAY too windy on the sports deck even while docked. This is a shame...especially since the deck is wider now. This is an easy fix.
Shopping
There's a lot more stores, etc etc. However I was disappointed by the vinylmation selection. I'm a big collector and they didn't have anything really "cool." Not even the castaway club vinylmation. Urban 7 was also not in stock. There was also no trading events on board.
EVERYTHING ELSE
Look the ship is great. We booked our 7 day on the Fantasy while on board. We love DCL through and through. I had a great time. These were just some personal opinions on some things. Anyway here's some final thoughts.
DVC / Castaway Club
They brought a ton of cool stuff to our room the first and second day. (You'll see). It was VERY cool to have colored straps based on your castaway club level- silver, gold, platinum. At the beginning of the cruise you get a key to the world holder with a colored strap that says silver gold or plat. Wearing my gold strap around got me some very nice treatment by castmembers. Also now that they Castaway club meeting is only for gold and up, it was very exclusive..there were only about 40 people in the room..it make you feel more special. No offense to silver, but almost everyone is silver now..and it was becoming not so exclusive. Anyway..both groups shower you with gifts.
The key to the world system is very cool. Use your key holder. You don't have to swipe cards anymore..you just hold your key up to things and it scans it through plastic or other non disney cards (like my ID..I'm 21 so I carried it in my lanyard also). It's very convenient.
The rooms were nice as usual..not too noticeably bigger.
Something awesome though: EACH ROOM HAS 2 MOBILE PHONES. You can communicate with anyone throughout the ship by getting the phone number for FREE. You can even text. The phones are ancient technology and lame texting with numbers, but hey..ITS AWESOME. And works on Castaway Cay. Very good service all around the ship. Highly recommended to use. Just don't lose it- $250 charge..I wouldn't give it to the kids.
Detective painting game- the game is very cool..it's fun to do and all, but just do it once. There are only 2 different cases and it's confusing when I say it but both you can get the same villan for both and they will be the same. There are only 2 different villans you can get but by doing a different case does not guarantee you to get a different villan or perpetrator, if you will. Just do it once, trust me. Unless your kids are amused with it even if it is repetitive.
There were just some other things that were a little stupid. There were a couple of weird design issues. One of the main elevators led DIRECTLY to the adult pool. There was no warning either and people would take this elevator and end up there, or walk through the adult section to use it. Children were constantly walking through the adult section. Not totally their fault. Also there were some doors all over that you didn't know if they were auto or not. They would jump at you. Some doors were tight up top and I can't explain it any better but there was a "1.5" door section where you clearly needed 2 doors, and people were congested there. The "half" door didn't open but basically just blocked people from walking like they should be able to. Also the room locations were not labeled well..especially on deck 2 where I was, and neither were the exits from the hallway. Only the emergency exits were pointed to in the hallways, so it took just memorization as to where to regular exits were.
Okay, If I think of anything else I will definitely ad it lol. Let me know if you disagree with anything. Like I said..I loved the cruise though.
OVERALL OPINION OF SHIP
Okay, let's get this straight- the ship is AWESOME. It's everything we loved in the old ships just bigger and better. There is nothing like showing up the other ships in port with you by walking on and off the Dream. It truly is a beautiful and fun ship. After a day you feel like you are on the old ships because you know your way around so well and they are so similar in style. Not let me go into some details here.
ENTERTAINMENT
This pops into my mind first because the shows are basically all new/revamped. We had Ron Pearson on for our entertainer. Look, Ron is a really funny guy and a DCL favorite (I've seen him before on the ship too), but I think that only 1 entertainer on a 5 day cruise is a little lame. My last 7 day cruise had 3-4 entertainers on it. After day 4 they brought on more people. There were at least 3 but possibly 4. Let's just say 3. 3 on a 7 day and 1 on a 5 day just doesn't translate. Ron did the welcome show in the WD Theater and then 2 adult shows on night 4 and 5. We went essentially 72 hours without any kind of cabaret shows. The kids only got the 1st night show and that was it (I am 21 by the way so I am not sour because of this). In the past, not only were there more entertainers, but there was pretty much a cabaret show every night, in the form of family and / or adult. Some times there were 3 shows in 1 night. No lie, I have naviagators. Okay I just checked my navigators while typing this from a 7 Day cruise in 09- we had a women ventriloquist and a comic / dancing duo, then they brought on ron pearson and an amazing illusionist half way though. That is 4 TECHINICALLY 5 people. You can see why I am dragging out this point of the lack of entertainment. I'm sure I could go through my navigators and count the cabarets but I won't.
Now, for the actual shows.
VILLANS TONIGHT
I really wanted to like this show, in fact, I thought it would be my favorite. I honestly wasn't TOO impressed. Others in my party liked it but I was just kind of "eh." Some of you will remember the old hercules show. The old humor is back too with hades, panic, and pain. They make the same old references to songs / tv shows. If you are into that kind of humor you will like it, but too be blunt, it was a little too cheesy for me. The plot was somewhat lame, but they brought in some good villans and that's all I'll say.
GOLDEN MICKEYS
I wasn't sure how much this show was changed, because we were told by the cruise director that it was completely different. Trust me, it is relatively the same show. It was a very good show before and I believe it is still very good with just a few new touches / updates. Expect mostly the same though.
POTC Deck Party
I would like to note that our show in the WD Theater on the POTC night was CARS 2...what the hey? I'm sorry but shouldn't it have been..i dunno...pirates. I have already seen both on land so I didn't really care but it was curious indeed..especially with frankly, how disappointing cars 2 was. The actual deck party was also just 'alright.' The fireworks were cool, and this ship was definitely built to be able to shoot fireworks off unlike the old ships. They come out in very cool places. Anyhow, the actual 'show' part of it was kind of lame. It was all over the place and didn't have much of a plot like the old show. It was whatever though. Also I couldn't for the life of me find where the desert buffet was during the party.
BELIEVE
Okay, I had low expectations for this one because I figured it was going to lean to the cheesy side. I was right during the beginning. The father-daughter dialogue and plot is a bit lame. All of a sudden though, this show took off. They brought out some REALLY different movies and songs and characters. Mary Poppins is in this, just for an example. All in all it was a hit and better than the old signature show "Dreams."
The theater itself is also really nice, the balcony is AWESOME to sit in. I really liked the front row- sat there every night. Also the movie theater is a lot more spacious. No more lack of leg room in places. Another note- they did a great job at breaking up what movies were used in what show. There is a great variety.
ADULT SECTION
I can only speak for the adult section (although I did check out the kid section during open house and andy's room, among other things were awesome looking). I am not into dancing and such, and my girlfriend goes to bed early, but the adult section was honestly "hopping" every night. There were some good shows, like match your mate was HILARIOUS. One older guy became a legend for the entire cruise. Unlike past cruises, the main club, Evolution, was full every night. Mostly just dancing and drinking though which goes back to my lack of entertainers rant. But anyway I have been on cruises where the clubs were empty every night. I do think that they probably made too many clubs on this ship because the other ones were practically empty...but hey..can't complain really about that.
FOOD
Let me start by saying that I am not a fancy eater. Breakfast was good as usual, but Cabanas is slightly crazy. The buffet is huge and there are 9 stations. Most have the same thing but sometimes a random different item is added or changed. Like you can walk around the entire buffet and see the same thing over and over and then all of a sudden you'll see fried eggs where scrambled were somewhere else. WALK ALL AROUND..you will find surprises..it's somewhat a weird setup but breakfast was good if you do your searching.
Lunch- the stands served the same type of food as the old days..decent/average kind of "kid" food. I had pizza quite a few times at night from luigi's because it was open until midnight. I ate at cabanas mostly for lunch and honestly I was surprised that the food was basically the same every day. It was just alright for me...there weren't too many choices and cabanas was just as screwy for lunch as breakfast..LOOK EVERYWHERE. We ate at enchanted garden for lunch one day because it was a castaway day and cabanas was closed. I disliked it very much..hardly any selections. Always do cabanas.
Dinner- great waitstaff as usual. Some menus I really couldn't find anything to die for. Pirate menu was my favorite. I think disney should consider non seafood / non fancy eaters more (like myself). I don't think it would kill them to put a normal dish like chicken parm or something on a menu. %60 of dishes include seafood on the ship. It really limits people who don't eat it. They are flexible however. On the last night there is a seafood linguini..they were able to make it chicken linguini for me. I thought animators had the best regular menu as well. If you are a fine diner (like some members of my party) you will have a great time eating these dinners.
Activities
Once again, I have to say there were not many activities. In the past I can remember playing trivia every afternoon, going to game shows, etc. The game shows were at poor times, and there was no trivia. These are just examples but this is the general theme. I think they figured with new additions like mini gold and aquaduck that they can skimp on activities. Old favs were back like the mickey 200. Drawing class was disappointing too. We went once and drew mickey and goofy..went again and it was the same guy doing the same lesson telling the same stories. I think he should do different characters throughout the cruise or it should note a repeat event in the navigator.
Aquaduck is awesome, I'm sure you all know that. Basically if you go mid afternoon you will wait 20 minutes on a port day and up to 35-40 on a sea day. Go during dinner and you can probably just wait a few minutes. Go at 11-12 at night and you can repeatedly go on with a 5 minute wait. (besides the first night because many want to try it and POTC night because people are all awake and on the deck). I was happy it was open until midnight for sure.
Mini golf is very cool, it has a track for kids and adults and makes it fun for everyone.
Ping pong is no longer on the pool decks. It makes it impossible to play because it is WAY too windy on the sports deck even while docked. This is a shame...especially since the deck is wider now. This is an easy fix.
Shopping
There's a lot more stores, etc etc. However I was disappointed by the vinylmation selection. I'm a big collector and they didn't have anything really "cool." Not even the castaway club vinylmation. Urban 7 was also not in stock. There was also no trading events on board.
EVERYTHING ELSE
Look the ship is great. We booked our 7 day on the Fantasy while on board. We love DCL through and through. I had a great time. These were just some personal opinions on some things. Anyway here's some final thoughts.
DVC / Castaway Club
They brought a ton of cool stuff to our room the first and second day. (You'll see). It was VERY cool to have colored straps based on your castaway club level- silver, gold, platinum. At the beginning of the cruise you get a key to the world holder with a colored strap that says silver gold or plat. Wearing my gold strap around got me some very nice treatment by castmembers. Also now that they Castaway club meeting is only for gold and up, it was very exclusive..there were only about 40 people in the room..it make you feel more special. No offense to silver, but almost everyone is silver now..and it was becoming not so exclusive. Anyway..both groups shower you with gifts.
The key to the world system is very cool. Use your key holder. You don't have to swipe cards anymore..you just hold your key up to things and it scans it through plastic or other non disney cards (like my ID..I'm 21 so I carried it in my lanyard also). It's very convenient.
The rooms were nice as usual..not too noticeably bigger.
Something awesome though: EACH ROOM HAS 2 MOBILE PHONES. You can communicate with anyone throughout the ship by getting the phone number for FREE. You can even text. The phones are ancient technology and lame texting with numbers, but hey..ITS AWESOME. And works on Castaway Cay. Very good service all around the ship. Highly recommended to use. Just don't lose it- $250 charge..I wouldn't give it to the kids.
Detective painting game- the game is very cool..it's fun to do and all, but just do it once. There are only 2 different cases and it's confusing when I say it but both you can get the same villan for both and they will be the same. There are only 2 different villans you can get but by doing a different case does not guarantee you to get a different villan or perpetrator, if you will. Just do it once, trust me. Unless your kids are amused with it even if it is repetitive.
There were just some other things that were a little stupid. There were a couple of weird design issues. One of the main elevators led DIRECTLY to the adult pool. There was no warning either and people would take this elevator and end up there, or walk through the adult section to use it. Children were constantly walking through the adult section. Not totally their fault. Also there were some doors all over that you didn't know if they were auto or not. They would jump at you. Some doors were tight up top and I can't explain it any better but there was a "1.5" door section where you clearly needed 2 doors, and people were congested there. The "half" door didn't open but basically just blocked people from walking like they should be able to. Also the room locations were not labeled well..especially on deck 2 where I was, and neither were the exits from the hallway. Only the emergency exits were pointed to in the hallways, so it took just memorization as to where to regular exits were.
Okay, If I think of anything else I will definitely ad it lol. Let me know if you disagree with anything. Like I said..I loved the cruise though.
