Just back...5 day double dip on the Disney Dream Christmas Cruise....Pro's and Con's

[RedSox68]

When we were on the Dream in May 2011, our server (who was on his 10th contract!), said that the new ships were "killers" for serving staff because the walk to and from the kitchen was triple that of the older ships. Plus depending on the restaurant rotation, some of them even include steps they have to go up and down to get the food!

 

[Fabooliss]

As the last two pages of posts have assured, you will very likely love every second of your Dream cruise! Have been on 12 DCL cruises, all 4 ships. Just off the Fantasy Dec 22. Dream three times. One poster put it very well-you can SO easily avoid crowds if you time your flow to not coincide with big events going in or getting out. All the shows are great! No need to stand in line for dinner, your table is there waiting for you. No lines on the Aquaduck at night. I can't tell you how many times on all my DCL cruises I have the adult pool completely to myself. I don't know how to post pics on here, but I have many many pics of me alone in the quiet cove pool at various times to prove it.

m!

Can you give us new cruisers some tips on how to do this? avoid crowds I mean! Tips like no lines on the aqueduct at night are fantastic ...what else can you suggest ...when do you find the adult pool almost empty
what about meals /shows
anything you can give would be fantastic !
we always do touring plans for WDW and hate lines!

Thanks!!

 

[flyingcat2003]

When we were on the Dream in May 2011, our server (who was on his 10th contract!), said that the new ships were "killers" for serving staff because the walk to and from the kitchen was triple that of the older ships. Plus depending on the restaurant rotation, some of them even include steps they have to go up and down to get the food!

My goodness. This is awful. Even though we had some cons on this cruise we also had great experiences as well.

 

[Sammylammy0225]

Good to know, I will avoid the Villains show...

 

[CrowMomma]

Can you give us new cruisers some tips on how to do this? avoid crowds I mean! Tips like no lines on the aqueduct at night are fantastic ...what else can you suggest ...when do you find the adult pool almost empty
what about meals /shows
anything you can give would be fantastic !
we always do touring plans for WDW and hate lines!

Thanks!!

We rode the aqua duck one night 8 times in a row with no lines, it was great! We also spent a lot of time alone in quiet cove or in the hot tub. The key for us was to skip the main show. It was our first cruise and a short one, we figured that we couldn't do it all and riding the aqua duck and getting some alone time to relax while DS was in the club was more important to us than the shows.

Also, we stayed on the boat at Nassau and rode the aqua duck in the morning a few times with DS (very short lines) while most were booked for shore excursions.

We did manage to see villains and had a blast. It was very interactive and it was fun to play along and hiss at the villains. We showed up a little early at the upper balcony entrance and got some great seats.

CC was fun, too. Got off early, had some family time before the beach/water slides were busy. Then around lunch DS went to the club, we ate and lounged around at serenity and were back on the boat around 2 and had the movie theater to ourselves (with treats from that coffee place by shutters).

Loved the detective agency! The whole family had a great time and it was a great way to learn where everything was and explore the ship.

 

[RemysMom]

Good to know, I will avoid the Villains show...

I wouldn't avoid this show because a few people didn't like it. We've seen it 3 times and loved each one. The character is supposed to act like the one in the movie played by James Woods. It's a lot of improv and we found quite funny. If you don't like, well at least you experienced it.

It does seem a lot of folks who have been on the classic ships have a hard time transitioning to the larger ones. We did the Wonder twice before the Dream and it was different, but not a single complaint. I believe if you look for bad, you'll get bad... look for magic and guess what you'll get! Even if means you have to look through some of the annoyances.

 

[tweis]

Good to know, I will avoid the Villains show...

Why would you avoid Villains just because others didn't care for it? It's our absolute favorite show on the Dream. It is the ONLY show that my two DSs liked. They laughed the whole time! We left Golden Mickeys early and barely made it through Dreams. If I were you, I would go and form my own opinion before casting it off.

 

[castlegazer]

I am headed back to the Magic after a Dream B2B also. I most likely won't be back on the Dream any time soon. But we also had pros and cons. So people should read the pros and understand a lot of what the cons were was with comparing it to the Magic for me.

I felt the family pools on the Dream are just completely poorly designed and absolutely stupid with that many people on board. Waits for the AquaDuck are very long, but you can ride it on the morning and night with little wait, but I was disapointed with how cold the water was and how slow it was. I just didn't love it personally, so it's no longer a draw for me.

I also liked the Quiet Cove pool, but it has a lot of shade.

We absolutely loved the hot tubs on the Dream! Just loved them! We will miss them on the Magic.

We loved the Mid Ship Detective Agency and will sorely miss this.

My kids loved the clubs, but I found they spent less time in them than on the Magic - and I surmise, although they don't say this, that its because of the size and lack of personalized programming like on the Magic. But the technology blew away the classic ships... until the re-imagineering of the Magic.

We loved the public areas of the Dream and had a lot of fun walking around and exploring the ship - other than the pools. The bathrooms are phenomenal!

Remy was by far one of my favorite dining experiences on or off land!

But here's the big one that I totally agree with you on:

I really hated the feeling in the MDRs.

I felt crowded, the meals took forever, were very loud in every MDR, and my server team was very below par.

I was so looking forward to the Enchanted Garden - ended up really disliking this restaurant. It is jam packed! Just absolutely squished, the servers can't move around, and they are really harried in there.

AP I did like, but we got a table right at a big screen and it was fun - but again, we actually played cards at the table because this dinner was exceptionally slow! Like beyond belief slow! My kids didn't do the dine and dash as I like to call it here so they could see everything, but it was sooooo long to get the whole meal.

I also felt the crowds a lot on the Dream, but I had been on the Magic a lot prior to this cruise, so it was an adjustment.