Just back from the Dream! (Updated with pictures!!!)

WAIT... Disney has stopped requiring life jackets at the muster drill????? pirate:

Yes, this started on the cruise before our 1/8/11 western. The TV was turned on to the video and I was unpacking and heard do not wear them and DS told me that the people on the TV were doing it wrong. LOL! He asked the stateroom host in the hall to make sure & he told us that DCL has changed the process so that all of the DCL ships are the same and the Dream will not be wearing them to the drills so neither will the Magic or Wonder. It did take longer and there will probably be more people who get a letter in their stateroom. I saw two people being led to our area by a maintenance CM who told them to stand in front of other people in the middle of the group. The CM taking attendance didn't see them so I pointed them out when she walked by us again. I didn't want to have to stand there any longer than we had to waiting on no shows.
 
First, these pictures are amazing! Thanks so much for them. The Dream looks truly stunning, even more than I had imagined. CANNOT WAIT for Feb 20th!

Second, I need a technology tutorial on what you are describing with the card and the lights. I get the waving the room key card in front of the door to open it, but I don't get what you mean about how the lights work in the room and what happens if you remove the card. Is the idea that there is a slot that you leave a card in to turn on and off the lights? Any card? Your room key card? Do the lights then operate individually once they are activated? Need to get my brain around this before we leave!

It seems they work like they do in hotels. When you walk into your room, you stick your room key in the slot on the wall next to the door. Your lights and everything in the room work like normal after that. You don't need your room key while you are in the room so it's no big deal. When you walk out, you grab your room key out of the slot and go on your way. It saves a lot of electricity that way. Very glad they did it that way.
 
Yes, this started on the cruise before our 1/8/11 western. The TV was turned on to the video and I was unpacking and heard do not wear them and DS told me that the people on the TV were doing it wrong. LOL! He asked the stateroom host in the hall to make sure & he told us that DCL has changed the process so that all of the DCL ships are the same and the Dream will not be wearing them to the drills so neither will the Magic or Wonder. It did take longer and there will probably be more people who get a letter in their stateroom. I saw two people being led to our area by a maintenance CM who told them to stand in front of other people in the middle of the group. The CM taking attendance didn't see them so I pointed them out when she walked by us again. I didn't want to have to stand there any longer than we had to waiting on no shows.

Ahh.. I see.... Seems very strange....Ohh well. Thanks for the info! pirate:
 


I am curious. How have you seen the Dream already? I was wondering (and asked) how to get on the ship on its transatlantic voyage and was told they were not accepting any passengers. Tell me your secret!

Well, I was fortunate enough to be sailing as the guest of a Disney cast member who works for cruise line here in Orlando! The entire ship was full of only people who worked for DCL or outside vendors (like the people who supply alcohol onbiard, etc) and their guests. I myself also work seasonally for Disney and I just loved sailing with so many fellow cast members... It was interesting to see where everyone worked and what their "in" was to get on the ship - mine was one of my best friends! :)
 
Do you have any thoughts about the teen club being forward on deck 5? Is the entrance on the portside of the hall? Did you see the area and hear any noise coming from the club in the hallway? We always stay forward and enjoy the fact that there is less foot traffic in the hallway so it's relatively quiet. I am concerned about teens running through deck 5 forward to get to the club after the week we just had with a midship stateroom and noise until after midnight in the hallway.

We also enjoyed not having the life jackets on for the drill. It allowed us to go directly to deck 9 after the drill for the sail away party. Talking about it afterwards though it makes a lot of sense. Those jackets were probably never cleaned but were handled every cruise and in contact with everyone's hands and face [and the mouths of kids]. Last January on the Wonder there was an issue with Norwalk for a couple weeks and someone got sick at the life boat drill in AP on our cruise. Over the three days every stateroom in our friends' hallway got it.

Sorry, I actually didn't even go near the teen club entrance on deck 5! Sorry! I can imagine though, as with everything else, that Disney took the noise factor into consideration and you should be fine!

And yes, I LOVED not having to wear the life vests! However, I did find that it made the drill longer because they had to call out so many stateroom numbers that they didn't get to. I didn't mind though, it was still nice!
 
It seems they work like they do in hotels. When you walk into your room, you stick your room key in the slot on the wall next to the door. Your lights and everything in the room work like normal after that. You don't need your room key while you are in the room so it's no big deal. When you walk out, you grab your room key out of the slot and go on your way. It saves a lot of electricity that way. Very glad they did it that way.

um, what?
Gosh darnit- they keep doing things making it hard to have kids in another room who may spend time in your room but you don't want them having a key to your room! so now a key to the room has to be in some slot for the lights/etc. to work in the room? grumble grumble grumble
 


Thank you for taking time to share pictures and answer so many questions. We spent the last two hours with my DD reading posts/looking at your pictures. A few questions:
in AP, does it matter where you sit to allow interaction with characters? My DD is very concerned....If you had a choice of a table, where would you like to be seated in AP?
Do you know prices for photos?
Do you have to buy a "spa-pass" to be able to use "hot chairs"/sauna; how much was it?; if you had spa services reservations, was it part of the package?
You mentioned waterslide was opened when you first got there on embarkation day...do you remember about what time was it? was it already crowded?

Thank you for any info you could tell us!

Thank you so much, I am so glad you enjoyed it!

In AP, the best place to sit to have a chance to interact with Crush is close to the wall. The closer you are the higher your chance will be of Crush talking to someone at your table. He does have to make the rounds around the whole room though, so he usually onely talks to one or two tables in each area.

The only price I noted was the 8x10, which was 20... I believe the 6x8 was maybe 12? Or 14? I bought 2 8x10s, that's the only reason I remember!! :)

The Rainforest Room pass for a 3-nighter was 42 per person or if you buy it as a couple, 75 for 2. I believe you can just pick a day and go for 15 though, but it was nice to be able to come and go whenever we wanted the whole cruise! I do not believe this room is part of many, if any, spa packages now. It used to be, but they are trying to limit the number of people in there.

We got on the Aqua Duck around 2pm on the first day and waited maybe 3 minutes! We wanted to explore a little before going on it and getting wet, but I would say the earlier you go the better! The at sea day we waited maybe 15 mins or so, still not bad. Just keep in mind though that both of those days were incredibly chilly and windy, so I think that was a bit of luck that we didn't have to wait long... Probably the shortest time we will ever have to wait ever!
 
um, what?
Gosh darnit- they keep doing things making it hard to have kids in another room who may spend time in your room but you don't want them having a key to your room! so now a key to the room has to be in some slot for the lights/etc. to work in the room? grumble grumble grumble

It does not have to be a stateroom key. Should work with your grocery store club card or your library card (and possibly even a paper business card, but not sure about that). At least that's how all of them work in the hotels and we will have DISers double checking that (can't imagine DCL got some special hi-tech coded to the room key system though).

.
 
Thank you so much, I am so glad you enjoyed it!

In AP, the best place to sit to have a chance to interact with Crush is close to the wall. The closer you are the higher your chance will be of Crush talking to someone at your table. He does have to make the rounds around the whole room though, so he usually onely talks to one or two tables in each area.

The only price I noted was the 8x10, which was 20... I believe the 6x8 was maybe 12? Or 14? I bought 2 8x10s, that's the only reason I remember!! :)

The Rainforest Room pass for a 3-nighter was 42 per person or if you buy it as a couple, 75 for 2. I believe you can just pick a day and go for 15 though, but it was nice to be able to come and go whenever we wanted the whole cruise! I do not believe this room is part of many, if any, spa packages now. It used to be, but they are trying to limit the number of people in there.

We got on the Aqua Duck around 2pm on the first day and waited maybe 3 minutes! We wanted to explore a little before going on it and getting wet, but I would say the earlier you go the better! The at sea day we waited maybe 15 mins or so, still not bad. Just keep in mind though that both of those days were incredibly chilly and windy, so I think that was a bit of luck that we didn't have to wait long... Probably the shortest time we will ever have to wait ever!


Thank you so much for your detailed answers :flower3:
I will place a request for AP . I hope DD will get to interact with Crush :wizard:
 
Well, good! I can use that infor for the 'adult' half of my B2B! :lmao:



IF the Dream lights work the same has many hotels...ANY card can be left in the slot to trigger the lights. So bring your grocer store club card with you! Just remember to take it out when you are leaving the room for any period of time (though I can understand people wanting the AC running constantly at certain timesof the year).

.

Oh no, that was going to be my next question- the key only affects the lights and tv- not the a/c does it?
ohh nooooo I cannot come back to a hot room.
no no no no no!

And I'll probably be the one to continuously leave the key there and walk out of the room. I better just ask for another key "for my child staying in another room" but then not give it to said child LOL
 
Thank you so much for your detailed answers :flower3:
I will place a request for AP . I hope DD will get to interact with Crush :wizard:

Don't be disappinted if he doesn't interact with you table though - it is still so cool and there are many characters that pop up on the screens during dinner that it makes for a Great dining experience! AP was our favorite!!
 
Oh no, that was going to be my next question- the key only affects the lights and tv- not the a/c does it?
ohh nooooo I cannot come back to a hot room.
no no no no no!

And I'll probably be the one to continuously leave the key there and walk out of the room. I better just ask for another key "for my child staying in another room" but then not give it to said child LOL

To my knowledge it did not control the AC. In fact, I remember coming back to a freezing room each and every night!!
 
There are small details on the ship to help you get around.
In the stateroom area halls, the top point of the stars in the carpet points to forward on the ship.
There are the usual fish on the doors on the port side rooms but there are seahorses on the starboard side.
Deck 5 staterooms have a maze of halls especially forward due to the children's areas. Even on other decks around the staterooms we had to backtrack a few time to get where we wanted.
Oh no. So it's hard to find rooms and we've booked rooms on deck 5... youngest is gonna have a hard time navigating it? sigh LOL

Few more pics from one of my friends... adult seating area on the deck above the adult pool...
164326_1763597646174_1126090721_32050328_5429584_n.jpg


Another look at the kiddie pool
164070_1763601286265_1126090721_32050356_2835089_n.jpg


A look inside Evolution, the nightclub
163820_1763599886230_1126090721_32050347_6808300_n.jpg


Another look at Evolution
34792_1763600006233_1126090721_32050348_4550263_n.jpg

thanks so much for posting all the pictures! A lot of them aren't showing anymore though. Will they show again later or are they just gone once bandwidth is exceeded? I really wanted to see that adult seating area above the adult pool and the one you labelled about Crush isn't showing either. :(
Wait- now that I've quoted them- those pictures ARE showing. Maybe I should go quote the crush photo haha

The lights on the aquaduck are cool!

You have answered so many questions that the only ones I can think of right now are: did you happen to get a chance to look at (in any way possible) the verandahs for the deck 5 rooms? do the dividers go all the way out now or what? I'm still confused about those.
And you described walking thru the adult bars from one to the other- do they also have individual doors if you're attempting to go to one directly? Or do you have to walk thru all of them to get to the one you want?
 
TO bring your own wine etc. do you carry it on or put it in your checked bags?

Yes, DCL wants all beverages to be brought onboard in your carryons. It can be any type of suitcase or rolling duffle you want as long as it fits through the x-ray scanner (same size as an airport scanner). You are not limited to the amount you can bring on.

You will read reports of people giving cases of water or soda to the porters to take to the room (or that they packed their booze in their checked luggage) but you must understand that the porters do not work for DCL and will pretty much take anything to ensure their tip. There have been reports that people who packed beverages in their checked luggage were contacted by DCL to come and claim it out the luggage. Just think of what damage could be done to your own stuff and the stuff in cases around yours if something like wine opened up in the suitcase. The baggage handlers are not gentle.

It is very easy to put your beverages in a rolled bag and take it onboard with you. It is a very nice perk...DCL is the only cruise line out there that lets people bring on unlimited amount of alcohol for your consumption.

MJ
 
It does not have to be a stateroom key. Should work with your grocery store club card or your library card (and possibly even a paper business card, but not sure about that). At least that's how all of them work in the hotels and we will have DISers double checking that (can't imagine DCL got some special hi-tech coded to the room key system though).

.
Oh that is good news. I always have cards like that in my purse. yay!

To my knowledge it did not control the AC. In fact, I remember coming back to a freezing room each and every night!!
Well that is good news as well.... I don't mind stuff shutting off when we all leave with our cards EXCEPT for the a/c. that wouldn't be cool (literally :rotfl: )
 
Oh no. So it's hard to find rooms and we've booked rooms on deck 5... youngest is gonna have a hard time navigating it? sigh LOL



thanks so much for posting all the pictures! A lot of them aren't showing anymore though. Will they show again later or are they just gone once bandwidth is exceeded? I really wanted to see that adult seating area above the adult pool and the one you labelled about Crush isn't showing either. :(
Wait- now that I've quoted them- those pictures ARE showing. Maybe I should go quote the crush photo haha

The lights on the aquaduck are cool!

You have answered so many questions that the only ones I can think of right now are: did you happen to get a chance to look at (in any way possible) the verandahs for the deck 5 rooms? do the dividers go all the way out now or what? I'm still confused about those.
And you described walking thru the adult bars from one to the other- do they also have individual doors if you're attempting to go to one directly? Or do you have to walk thru all of them to get to the one you want?


I did not see any rooms on deck 5, sorry! I only saw rooms on our deck, deck 10! As for the adults area, the District Lounge is an open area with no doors, Pink is only accessible with a door off of the lounge, 687 is also only accessible via a door in the lounge as well... you walk through this winding hallway to get into Evolution, there is really no "door" to is... and Skyline is accessible via a door to the outside hallway and via a door inside Evoluion! It's like a long winding area with doors to different lounges and clubs everywhere if that makes sense. It is very cool!
 
One of the quick service places... these are now all together by the adult pool, not spread out like they used to be.

Did this add much in the way of under 18 traffic to the adult pool? I liked that there wasn't much reason for kids to even come up to the adult pool on the Magic/Wonder. Made it much easier for the CM's to send them away the few times parents thought the rules were for "everyone else".
 

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