Ladies and Gentleman, I present the Disney Dream! This magnificent vessel will be my home away from home for the next four months. So, to get us started (and to borrow a rather ingenious idea from my fellow Disney Sailor, Mitch - see his blog: http://mitchlakeadventure.tumblr.com/ to follow adventures onboard Disney Magic. You should also check out Rebekka's blog - http://roamingrebekkah.tumblr.com/ - since she's on the Magic too. We all met at the Regional Interview in Chicago!) here are some facts and tidbits about the ship!
About The Dream
The Disney Dream™ is the majestic third ship in the Disney Cruise Line fleet. Boasting 14 towering decks, a ship length of 1,115 feet and a maximum width of 125 feet, the 130,000-ton vessel includes 1,250 staterooms and has the capacity to comfortably accommodate 4,000 passengers—along with the over 1,458 Crew Members who tend to the needs of every cruise Guest each and every day.
Building on the classic style of the previous 2 ships, the Disney Magic and the Disney Wonder, the Disney Dream is a valiant vessel distinguished for its classic early 20th-century design—which harkens back to the golden age of cruising—and state-of-the-art technology. As can be expected from Disney, the cruise liner was specially designed with families in mind, combining sleek style and convenient facilities with splashes of magic and cruise-industry firsts—like the splashtacular AquaDuck, the very first water coaster at sea.
Fun and Magical Facts
- The Disney Dream’s horn, a prominent element of the “Sailing Away” deck party at the start of the cruise, is quite the musical talent. It’s able to perform not just the first musical line of “When You Wish Upon a Star” but also the second line of the song (“makes no difference who you are”) PLUS several measures of “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me),” “It’s a Small World,” “Be Our Guest,” “Hi Diddle Dee Dee (An Actor’s Life for Me)” and – most appropriately – “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes.”
- The Sorcerer Mickey Mouse on the Dream’s stern is about 14 feet long. Constructed of stainless steel and fiberglass, it weighs approximately 2,500 pounds. The “ornament” was sculpted at Walt Disney Imagineering in California, structurally designed by engineers at Disney Cruise Line and Meyer Werft in Germany, manufactured in Sarasota, Fla., finish-painted in Orlando, and then transported by ship to Germany for final installation on the Disney Dream. From sculpture to the stern of Disney Dream was a journey of about 15,000 miles for Mickey Mouse
- Looking upward in the ship’s atrium lobby brings guests eye-to-crystal with a glowing piece of “Art Deco jewelry” – a stunning chandelier sparkling with thousands of crystal beads and glowing with colorful glasswork. Crafted in Brixen, located in Northern Italy, the chandelier is 22 feet diameter at the ceiling plate and comes down 13 feet from the ceiling. It is 24kt gold plated with a total of 88,680 Swarovski crystal beads ranging in size from 6mm to 12mm.
- The atrium lobby of Disney Dream also can be a showplace. Normally hidden by friezes and other architectural adornments are the lighting and audio necessary for a Dream deck party – making the lobby “plan B” if Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate with the onboard schedule of fun.
- A “light point” is shipbuilders’ lingo for “anything that’s a light. There are approximately 80,000 light points on Disney Dream – “double the normal number for a ship this size,” according to Meyer Werft, the shipyard in Germany where Disney Dream was built. The large number is the result of Disney’s flare for theatrical experiences – accomplished primarily with LEDs and other “environmentally friendly” lighting.
- Among the leading-edge technical effects in the Walt Disney Theatre is an infrared camera with motion tracking, allowing the movement of performers to be blended with projected digital animated effects.
- AquaDuck water coaster evolved from the idea of having a “lazy river” experience on the perimeter of the main “sundeck.” The Imagineers opted for an elevated experience in order to maximize space on the deck. Once they started thinking vertically, they realized a water coaster was a possibility.
- Disney Dream guests can celebrate special occasions with a one-of-a-kind toast in The District at Pink, a nightspot dedicated to “bubbly.” French Champagne maker Taittinger has crafted a “pink” just for Pink — Taittinger Prestige Rose will be the signature sparkling.
- Two huge mosaic walls based on the Disney•Pixar animated feature “Finding Nemo” are showcased in Cabanas casual-dining restaurant on Deck 11. Created for Disney Dream by Italian artists, each wall is more than 25 feet wide and more than 8 feet high and contains approximately 194,500 tiles in 200 colors of hand-crafted Venetian enamel. A team of nine artists created the mosaics based on Pixar designs depicting the underwater world of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and characters featured in the motion picture.
- Guests can settle into luxurious comfort in staterooms and suites featuring plush bath towels and deluxe bed linens by Frette, a company that has been supplying fine linens for “many of Europe’s most prestigious cruise liners” since 1911. Founded in 1860 in Grenoble, France, and now headquartered in Milan, Italy, Frette created custom-design bath towels and bed linens for the Disney Dream with what is regarded as the world’s finest cotton, from El Amria in Egypt. The bed linens are 100% Egyptian cotton 300 thread count while the bath towels are 100% Egyptian cotton. Elsewhere on Disney Dream, the two adult-exclusive restaurants, Palo and Remy, use all Frette dining linens.
- Golfers can virtually play St. Andrews. That’s one of the 67 choices of courses available via simulator on Deck 13. It’s a pay-for-play onboard excursion for which guests need to reserve a tee time. It’s $25 a half hour, $45 an hour.
Where The Kids and I Will Be!
Disney's Oceaneer Club is a children's activity center located on Deck 5, Midship on the Disney Dream. It is the perfect place for children 3 to 10 years of age to immerse themselves in the imaginative worlds that only Disney could create, while performing on stage, playing games and enjoying a wide variety of supervised activities.
Design
The Oceaneer Club's central rotunda is its main gathering place and, at the same time, a portal to other "lands," including Andy's Room, Monster's Academy, Pixie Hollow and Disney's Explorer Pod. It provides a welcome environment for children, featuring twinkling constellations of Disney characters on its ceiling and sparkling pixie dust. The room's focal point is a stage area where kids can create and star in their own theatrical plays, join storytelling sessions and attend special visits by the world-famous Disney character, both in person and virtually.
The rotunda also has a 103-inch plasma screen for watching movies and for magically awesome interactions with Crush, the animated sea turtle from Disney•Pixar's Finding Nemo, who speaks like a surfer dude. The turtle personally chats with kids during his real-time animated appearances, asking them about themselves and the human world they inhabit. It's way cool!
Disney's Oceaneer Club includes:
- 4 distinctly themed play areas
- Computer banks with child-friendly computers
- A reading area
- A small stage for games
- Multiple televisions
- Play structures
- A giant TV screen
Themed Spaces
Branching off from the central rotunda, Disney's Oceaneer Club includes 4 themed spaces:
- Andy's Room - Inside this vibrantly-colored room, the world of Disney•Pixar's Toy Story comes to life. Children feel toy-sized, because everything around them is built large scale. Throughout this space, kids can play with larger-than-life characters from the animated film, including Rex the dinosaur, Hamm the piggy bank and Mr. Potato Head. This room also features a huge Slinky Dog structure that kids can climb through.
- Monsters Academy - This area is based on the Disney•Pixar animated film Monsters, Inc., the centerpiece being an elaborately themed play structure, where kids can immerse themselves in the world of Monstropolis. It also boasts computers with unique interactive games.
- Pixie Hollow - Inspired by the series of Tinkerbell movies, this fun interactive space transports children to the magical world inhabited by fairies. A pixie dust tree stands in the corner of the room, with glittering lights twinkling among its leaves, and fun acorn and mushroom stools are sprinkled about for children to sit on. This endearing and tranquil environment is designed for dress-up play, individual craft projects and storytelling sessions.
- Explorer Pod - Children can explore the Nemo Sub—a scaled version of a submarine inspired by the Disney•Pixar animated film Finding Nemo. The bright blue and yellow submarine surrounded by a seascape features virtual environments for children to discover. Onboard the blue and yellow submarine has 16 interactive computers stations for fun-filled individual or group games.
What makes Disney's Oceaneer Club even more magical is an endless supply of toys and games, an open seating area for arts and crafts, and ongoing Disney movies. Mats for naps are also available.
Activities at Disney's Oceaneer Club
Although subject to change, activities at Disney's Oceaneer Club may include:
- Disney's Once Upon a Time - Bartleby the Bookmaker leads the kids through the art of bookmaking and wows them with his very special talent: When he reads the books, he makes the characters come to life!
- Puzzle Playtime with Mickey and Friends - Mickey Mouse and his pals stop by to play some of their favorite games with Disney Cruise Line's youngest cruisers and their families.
- Tinker Bell's Talent Show - Tinker Bell has come from Pixie Hollow to Disney Cruise Line to help young cruisers discover their Fairy Talents and to give them the opportunity to shine in a showcase for their families.
Disney's Oceaneer Lab is a play space designed for children and dedicated to adventure and exploration—located on Deck 5, Midship aboard the Disney Dream. It's an ideal location for children ages 3 to 10 years of age to play games, perform educational experiments and enjoy a wide variety of supervised activities throughout the day. A seemingly endless supply of toys, games and Disney movies make Disney's Oceaneer Lab the perfect oasis at sea.
Celebrating children's natural explorer instincts, this space also serves as the staging area and starting point for a ship-wide quest game. Young explorers gather and decipher clues from around the ship that lead them on an exciting adventure. The room also features several individual computer stations.
Design
The Lab's main hall features a stage, where kids can hear stories of great expeditions and star in their own swashbuckling plays. They can also watch Disney movies on a 103-inch plasma screen and interact with animated characters, including Disney's mischievous animated alien Stitch, whose unrehearsed, real-time antics are sure to bring laughter.
Disney's Oceaneer Lab is connected to Disney's Oceaneer Club by a workshop and laboratory. In these specialized areas, kids concoct crazy experiments in an interactive science lab, stretch their culinary skills and participate in other hands-on activities.
Themed Spaces
Branching off the Disney's Oceaneer Lab's main room are several themed play spaces:
- Media Room - Children can kick back and relax in bean bag chairs and watch movies, play video games or even read a book.
- Animator's Studio - Designed as a working animation studio, this room allows children to create original, hand-drawn art or learn how to sketch their favorite Disney characters. With the help of a youth counselor, kids can even design and bring to life computer-animated characters.
- The Wheelhouse - This space is all about technology. It features numerous computers and large, high-definition LCD screens. Here, young technophiles can compete in various games from the latest video game consoles on the market.
- Sound Studio - This interactive area is dedicated to children who appreciate music and want to create it.
- Craft Studio - Children seeking a more tactile artistic experience can escape from technology to this creative studio and create hands-on arts and crafts projects.
Activities at Disney's Oceaneer Lab
Although subject to change, activities at Disney's Oceaneer Lab may include:
- Monsters, Inc Open "Mike" Night - Mike Wazowski and the other monsters of the Disney•Pixar film Monsters Inc. have lost their voices and are unable to collect kids' laughter to power Monstropolis. It's up to the kids to put on a comedy show for their parents so they can save Monstropolis from certain doom.
- Get the Hook! - Captain Hook's favorite dress hook has been stolen and the kids must help him find it and catch the culprit. Led by Detective Clue and featuring site-specific crime scenes, their 3-day search for clues will take them all over the ship as it sails the sea, culminating in a reward from the Captain himself.
- Super Sloppy Science with Professor Make-O-Mess - Professor Make-O-Mess is a world-famous scientist who is known for performing the sloppiest science experiments around. Now teens can partake in some educational fun as the professor offers some hands-on training that will surely having them laughing and learning.
Pictures and more updates to come soon!! Leaving for Florida on Wednesday, November 2, 2011!
