Dream - pools are WAY too small

[Bruin Family]

I have been on the Wonder twice and loved it. The second time was during an April cruise and the pool decks were very crowded, especially on Sea Days.

When I first saw the design and specs for the Dream, I was concerned about the size of the pools. The ship holds 40+% more people, but the pools did not appear to be any larger.

Now, lots of pictures from the preview cruise(s) are starting to appear. I think the situation is worse than I feared. The pools appear to be VERY small.

We are sailing again in April. I realize that there are other things on the ship to do, but I fear the main pool deck will be a zoo.

Any thoughts?

P.S. - I am a Disneyland annual passholder. If you tell me that Disney is good at managing crowds, I might fall out of my chair. Ever been on Main Street in the summer when the parade is about to begin? You ever stood in line for 1.5 hours to ride a flying elephant? I have...

 

[DisneyNutMary]

I have to agree, it looks like it's going to be a tight squeeze on sea days.
I felt the same way looking at pictures of the Carnival Dream before sailing on her, and the reviews I read had widely different opinions. But the fact is, in the hot Caribbean sun, people flock to the pool deck and the pools, and it appears that there is going to be a lot of bodily contact in the pools pictured. I sure hope there will be alot of activities going on that will draw crowds away from the pools.

 

[Bruin Family]

I sure hope there will be alot of activities going on that will draw crowds away from the pools.

I am sure the line for the AquaDuck will keep some people away...

 

[Orlando Disney Guy]

I am sure the line for the AquaDuck will keep some people away...

Aqua Duck this weekend had mostly a 20 min wait except for Sunday (Castaway Cay day) when the wait was nearly and hour. I guess a lot of people had the same idea of waiting till the last day. On Nassua day I rode it twice and the line mid afternoon was no more than 15 min.

Wild guess I am sure there were less than 3000 guests on board.

 

[InDashMP3]

You ever stood in line for 1.5 hours to ride a flying elephant? I have...

LOL!

BTW, I noticed someone's photo here that showed a sign for the Aqua Duck stating "Wait time :45 from Here". It's gonna be busy!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I have been on the Wonder twice and loved it. The second time was during an April cruise and the pool decks were very crowded, especially on Sea Days.

When I first saw the design and specs for the Dream, I was concerned about the size of the pools. The ship holds 40+% more people, but the pools did not appear to be any larger.

Now, lots of pictures from the preview cruise(s) are starting to appear. I think the situation is worse than I feared. The pools appear to be VERY small.

We are sailing again in April. I realize that there are other things on the ship to do, but I fear the main pool deck will be a zoo.

Any thoughts?

P.S. - I am a Disneyland annual passholder. If you tell me that Disney is good at managing crowds, I might fall out of my chair. Ever been on Main Street in the summer when the parade is about to begin? You ever stood in line for 1.5 hours to ride a flying elephant? I have...

I totally agree. All along while sailing the Magic, I kept thinking, "Once they built the new ships, they have the opportunity to make these pools so much larger." I think they're still way too small. Plus add another 1600 ppl? Are they serious?

Here is one area where I have to give credit to RCCL. Their pools are very generously sized and never felt at all crowded. Too bad a drunk vomited in one which closed it on a beautiful sea day. The other had beer cans floating in it.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

P.S. - I am a Disneyland annual passholder. If you tell me that Disney is good at managing crowds, I might fall out of my chair. Ever been on Main Street in the summer when the parade is about to begin? You ever stood in line for 1.5 hours to ride a flying elephant? I have...

I know I love the "Disney is good a managing crowds" thoery. Anyone do Wine and Dine Half this fall????? Let's see hour long waits for bag check... something other races do much better. Let's open the park to THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of folks and close all the attractions and half the bathrooms! Let's give out food coupons but staff so poorly the lines take an hour to get a coke!

Yeah, right "Disney is good a crowds" LOL!

Disney is good at taking $$$$$$$. And when things go great, Disney is great. But as someone said, when they screw up they do it in a BIG way. Let's hope this isn't another "BIG WAY"

 

[PizzieDuster]

I thought the exact same thing. The adult pool looks like there are no loungers around them. Or if there are, they are shaded. So if you are seeking sun, you need to go one deck above. Just seems very small - with the wading areas and all.

 

[RJAYL]

I totally agree. All along while sailing the Magic, I kept thinking, "Once they built the new ships, they have the opportunity to make these pools so much larger." I think they're still way too small. Plus add another 1600 ppl? Are they serious?

Here is one area where I have to give credit to RCCL. Their pools are very generously sized and never felt at all crowded. Too bad a drunk vomited in one which closed it on a beautiful sea day. The other had beer cans floating in it.

So what if the pool area's will be like EPCOT on New Years Eve! Isnt that the Disney Magic!

 

[NancyIL]

I'm not a pool person, so there will be only 3,999 people using the pools on my cruise! I won't be in line for the Aqua Duck, either.

 

[RJAYL]

I'm not a pool person, so there will be only 3,999 people using the pools on my cruise! I won't be in line for the Aqua Duck, either.

Are you one of those cruisers who glow?

 

[inlove678]

So it looks to me maybe Disney was trying to add different water activities instead of just making bigger pools. As already said the aquaduck will have long lines and lots of appeal for the tween crowd (and most everyone else ) They made the nemo area for the little ones. And the new teen pool/cool off area as well. That doubles the water activites on the ship...and also gives options besides sitting in a pool all day!

I have to say I have never been on a cruise so when I saw the pictures of the main pools I thought there was no way they would hold enough people, but with the addition of everything else I am very glad we picked the dream!

 

[NancyIL]

Are you one of those cruisers who glow?

Glow? Not from baking in the sun!

 

[Silverfox97]

Let's see....on our past 2 cruises, we use Nassau day as our "sea day" and let DD have her fun at the Mickey pool (not like we don't have a pool out back, but there are no other little kids in our pool, I guess). Anyways, we have a cruise booked on the Fantasy for June 2012. When, oh when, will she get to do that where it won't be packed?? And, I can tell you, I will not waste 45 min in line for the AquaDuck; 20 min., maybe a half hour. We don't wait in line for rides at WDW if they are longer than 20 min!!!

I guess I have 18 months until we cruise the Fantasy to see how it goes, right??

 

[Bruin Family]

Someone on another thread posted that on the Dream, the family pool is so small that they limit the number of people in it to 25! Also, there appears to be no family jacuzzi, unlike the Wonder. All and all I have not read one review of the preview cruise that has ANYTHING good to say about the pool situation.

I can't believe with all of the work that went into the design of the ship that Disney did not do a better job on the pools. It seems like a no-brainer that when you have a ship that holds 40+% more people than the Wonder and the Wonder has a crowded pool, that you make the pools AT LEAST 40% larger. If anything, there appears to be less gallons of water used for swimming on the Dream than on the Wonder.

Can someone figure the total gallon capacity for the pools on each ship?

 

[catzle]

really a limit for the family pool, no hot tub in that area around the big screen. Oh boy, we already booked for May and 2012, we may cancel if the pool situation is that bad. We are from the north so we want sun and pools, crazy if this is really what is going on.

 

[Bruin Family]

We are from the north so we want sun and pools, crazy if this is really what is going on.

I live in sunny Southern California and have a pool and this is still irritating me. Looks like you and I are agitating each other about this situation in competing posts.

 

[dursin]

I live in sunny Southern California and have a pool and this is still irritating me. Looks like you and I are agitating each other about this situation in competing posts.

I live in sunny Orlando and have a nice screened in-ground pool. Couldn't care less about the pools on the ships. I can see why they would be important to people from less sunny locations though.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

So it looks to me maybe Disney was trying to add different water activities instead of just making bigger pools. As already said the aquaduck will have long lines and lots of appeal for the tween crowd (and most everyone else ) They made the nemo area for the little ones. And the new teen pool/cool off area as well. That doubles the water activites on the ship...and also gives options besides sitting in a pool all day!

I have to say I have never been on a cruise so when I saw the pictures of the main pools I thought there was no way they would hold enough people, but with the addition of everything else I am very glad we picked the dream!

The problem is that the pools are already way too small on the current ships. You'd think if they were going to add 1-2k people, they'd really expand the pool area. There already is a splash are for little ones (though not that great) so Nemo's Reef doesn't remove anyone from the family pool. While the AquaDuck will keep some out of the pool, having a pool that can only hold 25 people is ridiculous! That is only 0.625% of the # of guests on the ship.


On a hot sea day, people are going to flip.
Whomever thought this was a good idea should be flogged, as well as those that agreed with him/her & let it be.

 

[lmhall2000]

Can someone figure the total gallon capacity for the pools on each ship?

I can only imagine that Disney did the largest they could by code....there are many restrictions and I'm sure they have found issues on their previous ship's pools (having to close it down, refill due to contamination etc.) that forced the engineers to design them this way...Because you know Disney (resorts), they make their pools massive!

Tara