Disney Dream – Tween and Teen Spaces
Cruise Line Offers Clubs and Lounges for Adolescents
Nov 3, 2009
Disney Cruise Line (DCL) released information on Disney Dream at a Disney media event held in New York City in October 2009. In keeping with DCL’s focus on offering a family vacation experience for every family member, Disney Dream offers two venues for adolescents: Edge, a lounge for tweens, and Vibe, the club for teens. Both feature colorful designs, media and computer technology, and dance areas and promise the opportunity to meet people their age.
Disney Dream’s Tween Club Called Edge (ages 11 – 13)
Edge is located inside the Forward Funnel. The lounge overlooks the pool decks below using one-way viewing. Because the AquaDuck water coaster twists through the funnel, the lounge’s location enables tweens to peer through three special portals and watch the silhouetted views of AquaDuck passengers rushing by.
Edge’s design suggests a retro-look loft space, complete with subtle Mickey heads, that still houses plenty of high-tech toys and entertainment. Notebook computers permit tweens to play games and to socialize. The computers are connected to an onboard social media application, a Disney Dream intranet service, which encourages guests to communicate with each other by leaving messages and posting photos and videos.
A video wall, more than 18 feet long and almost 5 feet high, is available for gaming, screening movies, or watching television. Its 18 LCD screens can be used as one screen or divided into smaller individual ones.
Tweens interested in other creative activities can send photo postcards or shoot their own music videos using karaoke machines and green-screen technology. Edge also has a dance floor. Its colored ceiling lights and an almost 10-foot cinema screen transforms the lounge into a dance house.
Disney Dream’s Teen Club Named Vibe (ages 14 – 17)
Disney Dream extends the concept of Disney Cruise Line’s teen-only club with a combination indoor-outdoor space located on Deck 5, Forward. Vibe’s space is casual but lively, a cross between a coffee shop and nightclub. Comfortable and portable seating can be easily reconfigured and enables social interaction. Vibe offers a fountain bar serving soda, juice, smoothies, and coffee drinks.
As with Edge, Vibe offers plenty of opportunities for guests to enjoy media and technology. Teens can create and edit their own videos. They can access the onboard intranet at one of several computer stations or by using their own WiFi-enabled laptop. The media room has a 103” LCD screen suitable for gaming and screening movies. Individual areas, called wall pods, are available for those who wish to play video games or watch shows alone.
Vibe also has its own dance area with a multi-color, lighted dance floor and a video wall, and teens can spin and mix tracks to create a custom party. There is also a separate stage where karaoke contests, dance competitions, and talent shows will be held.
Vibe is an Exclusive, Teen-Only Area with Its Own Deck
Disney Dream, in re-imagining the teen spaces found on older DCL ships, extends Vibe outside by creating a private deck area. The space features two splash pools, fountains, misters and jets, and lounging chairs and chaises. Recreational opportunities in the outside area include ping-pong and foosball, and the floor has a checkerboard pattern for use in traditional deck games.
Both indoor and outdoor areas of Vibe are for teens only, and the club restricts access to guarantee its “exclusivity.” Parents need not worry, however, as Vibe has counselors who will act as low-key, unobtrusive chaperones. Entry to the almost 9,000-square-foot teen club requires a special swipe card.
Disney Dream begins sailing in January 2011 with 3-, 4-, and 5-day trips leaving from Port Canaveral and going to Nassau, Bahamas, and Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island. The Disney Dream, in updating the Disney Cruise Line’s tween and teen spaces, keeps a focus on social interaction. Edge and Vibe spaces, like those spaces designed for children and adults, help promote Disney Dream as a comprehensive family cruise experience.
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