Surely a Disney Cruise is just for kids? Not so, says John Honeywell.
Let Mickey, Donald and a host of your other favourite Disney characters welcome you on board Disney Dream, the company’s newest ship for 11 years, and discover fun for all the family
The Disney Dream is the first new Disney cruise ship for 11 years, and it is clear the cost per cabin, is far higher than other modern cruise ships.
The attention to detail is meticulous. From the character of Mickey in his Sorcerer’s Apprentice costume conducting brooms to clean the ship’s stern, to the thousands of ‘hidden Mickeys’ concealed throughout the vessel, there is no doubt who is the centre of attention.
Characters from other Disney and Pixar movies are on hand– via a multitude of 103-inch plasma TV screens – to provide entertainment, from Finding Nemo’s Crush the Turtle in the Animator’s Palate to Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty in the Royal Palace restaurant. While other ships emphasise their devotion to glamour, nightlife or adventure, Disney Dream’s theme is obviously its younger passengers, and there are likely to be at least 1,500 children on board at any given time.
Mickey Mouse on board the Disney Dream
Vast areas of the vessel are devoted to the kids’ clubs, with the youngest taken care of in the It’s A Small World Nursery. For a fee of $6 (£4) an hour, tots up to three can be left here even while parents go ashore. The Oceaneer Club, for three to 10-year-olds, has a unique play-floor for computer games controlled by the players’ feet, and a series of annexes themed on Disney movies such as Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Peter Pan and Finding Nemo.
The 11- to 13-year-olds have their own Tween Club inside the fake forward funnel and older teenagers have swipe card controlled access to their own space, indoors and outside, in the ship’s bow. No adults allowed here, so they can play computer games, learn to become a DJ, or simply hang out with their new-found friends in the splash pool and spa baths.
Adults have their own entertainment area on board called The District.
The central meeting area leads to the ship’s sports bar, 687, named after the shipyard’s number for the hull – every piece of metal on the ship has that number stamped or written on it somewhere. A specially-brewed beer, called 687 (come on, guys!) will be on draft. Pink is an elegant champagne bar decorated with a Murano glass sculpture and with lights in the form of bubbles fizzing gently up the walls. Inside the pink spheres is a silhouette of the pink elephants from Dumbo.
Among the champagnes on sale will be a cuvee prestige exclusively provided by Taittinger for $70 (£47) a bottle. Pink, of course. Skyline is an intimate after-dinner bar with wood-panelled walls and a constantly-changing image over a city’s rooftops on a series of plasma screens.
Evolution is the ships adults only nightclub, with decor inspired by the wings of the Monarch butterfly, and the treats for mums and dads don’t end there. The Senses Spa and Salon, operated by Steiner, extends to 16,000 square feet of pampering space at the forward end of Decks 11 and 12. Some of the relaxation rooms have great views over the bridge and there are two spa villas that can be rented by the hour or the day for extra special moments.
Adults-only speciality restaurant Remy takes its inspiration from the film Ratatouille and has menus devised by Michelin-starred Arnaud Lallement and Disney’s own Scott Hunnel from the Victoria and Albert restaurant in Walt Disney World, Florida. The $75 (£50) cover charge may seem eyewateringly expensive, but Disney claims it is a fraction of the cost of an equivalent meal in London, Paris or New York.
Palo is the ship’s other extra charge speciality restaurant, serving Italian food and with 40 wines exclusive to the venue.
Cover charge: $20 (£13.50).
Most families will take their evening meal in the three main restaurants – Enchanted Garden, Royal Palace and Animator’s Palate – with the same waiters serving them each evening. Each restaurant seats 696, and Disney operates two sittings for dinner, at 6.30pm and 8.30pm.
Casual restaurant Cabanas on Deck 11 has nine serving stations on either side of the ship, offering everything from pizzas to sushi, Asian and Italian specialities, followed by dessert and coffee. Up here also are ice cream kiosks and Flo’s Cafe for quick snacks.
There is a 399-seat cinema, the Buena Vista Theatre, and the Walt Disney Theatre, seating 1,340 with unobstructed views of the giant stage where a cast of 25 will perform three 55-minute shows every night – at 5pm, 7pm and 9pm – during each cruise.
To ensure every passenger gets a chance to see the shows, they will be allocated seats for each performance before boarding.
There are 1,250 staterooms, of which 1,100, or 88 per cent, are outside, and of those, 901 have balconies. The 150 inside staterooms have a sea view, courtesy of a Magic Porthole, with a real time image of the sea outside provided by one of five TV cameras around the ship depending on whether the cabin is port or starboard, forward or aft. This being Disney, surprise images such as Peach the Starfish from Finding Nemo and Mickey Mouse as Steamboat Willy will make occasional appearances throughout the day.
- The Disney Dream
With families in mind, all cabins, even the smallest, have separate bathrooms and WC, and a bathtub for toddlers who could not manage a shower. Another perfect example of how Disney thinks of everything.
Disney Dream will sail three, four and five-night cruises from Port Canaveral in Miami to Nassau in the Bahamas, and Disney’s private resort of Castaway Cay which has been upgraded to cope with the extra numbers. Fares for a family of four with two young children start from about £1,115 (not including air fares).
Sister ship Disney Fantasy is under construction and will join the fleet in 2012.
| ★ Maiden voyage: 26 January 2011 ★ Length: 1,115 ft ★ Number of decks: 14 ★ Crew: 1,458 ★ Passengers: 4,000 ★ Staterooms: 1,250 ★ Restaurants/bars: Three main restaurants providing Disney’s unique ‘rotational dining’ with fixed sittings at 6.30pm and 8.30pm, plus a buffet restaurant and two speciality extra-charge restaurants, Palo and Remy. ★ Highlights: The AquaDuck water coaster running round the sun deck; The unmatched facilities for children with clubs for four different age groups. Mums and Dads have their own entertainment district, with bars and clubs, which are off-limits to kids, and a relaxing 16,000-sq ft Steiner spa and salon. |
About the AquaDuck
The only one of its kind at sea, the AquaDuck water coaster is a 765-ft thrill ride that begins 160-ft above the waterline and swings out 13-ft over the side of the ship in a 270-degree loop. Master Blaster jets of water – fresh, rather than from the sea, and about 10,000 gallons every minute – propel riders at up to eight mph, two at a time as they sit on an inflatable dinghy inside the 54-inch diameter clear acrylic tube. There is a minimum height requirement of 48 inches, so this is not a ride for the tiny tots.
The ride lasts almost a minute, and Disney expects to cope with 250- 300 riders per hour. On the sun deck below the AquaDuck, two fresh water swimming pools can be covered to provide the perfect location for Pirate Parties and regular fireworks displays.
Read our review of the Disney Dream here
See how the Disney Dream compares with other ship in operation today here
Read more about John Honeywell’s experience of the Disney Dream conveyance here
Read further info and view the construction of the Disney Dream here
About John Honeywell
Dr. Aaronson’s family having a blast at Ruby Tuesday — the highlight of our trip to Orlando, Florida.
Disney Dream Cruise Review: Where LEAN efficiency and Service Collide
It’s true, our waiter at Ruby Tuesday at the Orlando International Airport (MCO) provided the best customer service experience the entire trip. After our meal, my wife and I commented on the wonderful hospitality and southern comfort our waiter provided.
That said, http://www.michaelaaronsonmd.com will review a recent Disney Cruise we took. The purpose of this review is to help you make the most of your experience. We love the Disney organization and want you to enjoy your trip. Therefore, please consider reading this must not miss article.
Conflict of interest statement: the Aaronson Family already has another Disney Cruise planned. Please realize this fact as you read the following!
Since the family’s last vacation much has changed in the service industry. Disney is felt to be the thought leader of the service industry. In my opinion, they tend to have a focus on lean processes. It is true that companies need to be more LEAN and efficient to survive in today’s economy. However, when LEAN adversely affects service, the value to the customer is less, much less.
Before reading further, I encourage you to read my disclaimer. I have a medical blog and hope that medical people read this medblog very closely because there are several learning points that you can take home with you to improve their business.
That said, the purpose of this article is informational. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Also, Dr. Aaronson and his counsel believe the First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects what will be stated: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
The Aaronson family just completed their 5th Disney Vacation Cruise. That’s right folks, we will be gold members when we embark on our next journey. Before discussing the cruise, let me finish my point regarding the service we received at the local Orlando restaurants after our cruise. You know how we felt about Ruby Tuesday’s. :-) However, I didn’t feel that way about another pizza restaurant we went to. It turns out that we had to trial a kiosk system. The kiosk system is a table top media system enabling a party to order and pay their bill electronically with no interaction from the server. When asked if we had to do this we were told that it is time to get into the 21st century, and yes, we had to.
Here is how it works, there are table top kiosks that are interactive where a person can in addition to ordering and paying, play games, see specials, etc. In theory, the system saves the waiter time. The problem is that there is less service and less interaction with the wait staff. I understand that there can be a quicker turnaround; however, If the experience is going to become similar to a buffet, then the tip should reflect that — 1 dollar per adult person. Trust me, the math doesn’t work in the server’s favor in this case, but they are enforcing these rules, not I. So in my opinion, we as consumers need to tip based on service. If you don’t get good service you do not tip anything. I’m tired of feeling like I have to pay more yet get less.
Given the cost of the 2 restaurants were similar, next time I’ll go to Ruby Tuesday’s because of the exceptional service. Let me expound. Instead of being throttled to receive a reduced amount of soda pop and thereby save the organization money, we were brought an extra lemonade “just in case the ones in front of us ran out.” What a great “call” on the server’s part! We had just started our meal, so of course we were going to be thirsty and require additional beverages. Remember, the restaurant business is a service industry.
Our cruise was a 3-day adventure. This trip was our first on The Disney Dream. We have been on The Magic 3 times and The Wonder once. The Magic and Wonder are sister ships. The Dream and the soon to be released Fantasy are sister ships. From a structural perspective, The Dream seemed to have smaller pools. Do the math: more people, less pool real estate. Too crowded — even on excursion days when many have left the ship.
Sidebar: unfortunately during our trip Disney was filming footage for a popular TV show. The filming occurred during an excursion day so there were obviously fewer people on the ship. My experience, and my son’s experience was less that it should have been, because we were told to smile and and look like we were having fun. Also, we were asked to not take pictures. Great, my vacation affected because instead of filming us having actual fun, we were told to act like we were having fun. Instead of getting a great picture of my boy swimming at the pool, I have the Ruby Tuesday one above as a remembrance. We didn’t even get a lousy T-shirt for participating! Moreover, my son was told to move out of the way because he was in the shot. Ridiculous. Absurd! Preposterous!
If other cruiseline companies are reading, heads up! If you would like our patronage, and I’m sure we represent many others in the field, please consider making some simple changes. First, allow for the availability of children’s club activities throughout the day. Blackouts for a few hours prevents us from using your cruise line. And we want to give it a try!
Let’s talk about the stateroom. We had a nice verandah. What wasn’t so nice was the fact that in order for the electricity to work we had to keep a room key card inserted. I agree with the concept, because http://www.michaelaaronsonmd.com respects the environment; however, the functionality of the concept left much to be desired and is not very user friendly. For example, if my card is inserted and I want to get a beverage at the bar, I have to remove my card and insert my wife’s card. The TV turns off, the lights go out, the kids in the bathroom are in darkness. How annoying!
Your stateroom key is required for electricity to work in your stateroom on the Disney Dream.
I found it interesting that the cleaning crew were using non-Disney hotel cards to keep the lights on. Perhaps this is a work-around to improve the experience in the stateroom? I’m not sure if this would work and am not recommending it, but it would be nice to have light as required in the stateroom.
Another electricity issue we had: it turns out the you can only insert plugs a certain way. I was unable to charge my cell phone. I can be disconnected from the world during the cruise, but when I get off the ship, I need to be connected. Dr. Aaronson is a simple country nephrologist who needs to communicate with the patients he serves. Although I don’t recommend this, it turns out that a simple adapter extension can give you the electricity you need. Remember, the title of this blog is: “Where LEAN efficiency and Service Collide.” I would argue for the cost of the journey, I am entitled to some free electrical juice.
Don’t be fooled by the phone plug. It is not a plug-in like the other options shown. This plug-in appears to be a European plug.
Plug extender.
This next comment is admittedly nit-picky, but I would have liked to see the towel origami more detailed. Fold here; fold there; done! In prior trips the towel folding was quite creative and much enjoyed by the kids. I know that LEAN doesn’t allow for time spent on the customer, but we missed this feature.
Some of the hallways seemed to have low ceilings. I never felt this way on The Dream or The Wonder. I can imagine the design session for the ship (see fictitious statement above): let’s see. If we decrease the height by 10 inches a floor, times 12 floors, poof, extra floor created! How LEAN! How brilliant! High five! Now we are talking return on investment!… Fast forward to Dr. Aaronson’s cruise… BANG! Dr. Aaronson hits his head on a chandelier. (Just kidding.) Remember, the Aaronson family has signed up for another cruise, and we love Disney! We recommend the cruise line.
There seems to be less entertainment with a lot of repeated programming. Instead of many movies available at the theater, there were just a few. Once you have seen a flick, you are for the most part done. Previous journeys were filled with things to do and options. Perhaps, there is less to do on a 3-day cruise versus a 4- or 7- day cruise? Not sure, but we did appreciate a difference.
We did not like the kid’s areas. Yes, we can drop them off whenever they need to blow off some steam; however, there were too many digital games. Yes, it is true that one doesn’t have to pay for supplies if everything is digital which decreases cost, but on prior experiences, the kids had more interactive options, in my simple-country, America’s medical blogger opinion.
I kept opining: paying more, getting less. What is going on here? Let me give you some more examples: the dinner trays are gone. Obviously, if there are no trays you can’t take food with you as easily. We are not hording food and room service is available 24/7; however with my three kids running around, I would prefer getting enough for my family without having to return to long lines several times.
With respect to the quality of the food, the quality was much less than before. More burgers and fries, less fruit. The fruit was only available at certain times. On other cruises, a person could get fresh fruit all day long. Again, room service is available, but if my family is playing in the overcrowded pool and hot-tub, room service is not the best option.
Vegetable burgers are available upon request, although they are not advertised. I don’t know if sushi was available this cruise like on prior ones we have taken. We probably missed the sign advertising it.
In classic LEAN design, removable trays held the cups. This makes sense because inventory is easier using these Toyota LEAN, six sigma processes. Smart move Disney!
Another trick I have seen used is having many servers waiting to seat you at the dinner table. The problem here was that there were too many people standing around and not enough actually working.
Our waiter was phenomenal. However, our assistant server made us wait for beverages. Unlike Ruby Tuesday’s above, we had to remind our assistant server we needed refills. The head waiter was very helpful, but he was busy doing his job.
Our head server stopped by one time to oversee a special request by my family. In other cruises, the head server always stopped by every meal to say hello and make sure we were happy. Perhaps we were not worthy? He stopped at other tables. Unfortunately, he did not receive a tip. Although you can pre-pay for your tips, we don’t recommend you do that because we believe in service. Service is earned. You can only rest on your laurels for so long.
Another problem was staff blocking the drink areas, feeling free to take their own beverages, and not providing any service. Doesn’t the customer come first?
Although we do not recommend this, we were told to order room service immediately and save the tray. This facilitates getting food to feed your starving family. Also, the biggest plates can be found towards the middle of the buffet. I’m told you may be able to hold more food using this approach, but I don’t know for sure! (This blog will likely change the placement of the plates.)
The new wifi telephone system leaves much to be desired. Dial 7 in this situation. Dial 41 in this situation. Just dial the number in this situation. Hugh? No instructions were provided. One of our phones didn’t work. This fact prevented us from dropping off our kids at the club until we got a rental from guest services, and yes there was a line. I miss the pager system! Here is the workaround we used to remember all the details: we taped instructions on the phone. That helped when there weren’t dead spots.
See you on our next Disney Cruise!*