A New York City Disney media event announced Disney Dream’s special features and provided a preview of the ship’s design. Disney Cruise Line (DCL), a leader in family cruising, is known for its themed youth spaces for different ages. With their fantastical designs, age-appropriate activities, and incorporation of Disney stories and characters, DCL’s youth spaces, like their adolescent and adults-only counterparts, are created to appeal to specific groups.
The Disney Dream offers a combination of familiar spaces re-imagined from those found on the Disney Magic and Disney Wonder, and new spaces designed for the latest addition to the Disney Cruise Line.
It’s a Small World Nursery (Infants to 3 years)
Designed with pastel colors and bold graphics, It’s a Small World Nursery is inspired by Disney’s theme-park attraction and the artwork of Mary Blair. The main play area has a 3-D façade resembling the classic attraction but adds interactive features for children to explore. A boat floating on the floor’s river pattern encourages imaginative play, and there are scaled tables and chairs for crafts, games, and book reading. The back of the nursery has a separate, quiet space for naps.
Children and their parents meet and interact with counselors in this hospitable environment, while a one-way window permits parents to discretely look in on their children later on.
Disney’s Oceaneer Club (ages 3 - 10)
Disney’s Oceaneer Club, designed for children between 3 and 10 years old, is a child-friendly space. The central rotunda is the Oceaneer Club’s hub. Using Peter Pan’s Never Land as a theme, the rotunda uses fiber optics to make the room glow and to create constellations of Disney characters. In this space kids can stage their own shows, get involved in storytelling, and meet Disney characters such as Peter Pan and Tinker Bell.
The rotunda has a 103-inch plasma screen for watching movies and special interactions with Crush, the animated sea turtle from the Disney-Pixar film Finding Nemo. In this experience, Nemo can talk with his “little surfer dudes” in real time. Similar to Turtle Talk with Crush in the Disney theme parks, this experience uses digital theater to create a virtual world where Crush interacts with the children in unrehearsed conversations.
Other new areas in Disney Dream’s Oceaneer Club include Andy’s Room and Monster’s Academy. Based on Toy Story, Andy’s Room “shrinks” children to toy size. Kids can then play with Mr. Potato Head, Slinky Dog, and Rex, or drive an oversize, remote-controlled car. Monster’s Academy, inspired by Monsters Inc., features a climbing area that looks like the film’s scare floor. Kids can play interactive computer games or play dress-up with monster costumes and props.
Also inspired by Finding Nemo is the Explorer Pod, a blue-and-yellow submarine that seems to emerge from water. Inside, children can explore and play computer games. Tinker Bell and her fairy friends are the inspiration for Pixie Hollow, whose centerpiece is a pixie tree filled with sparkling fairy lights and tiny fairy houses that hang from branches. Here, children can dress up in costumes or make crafts.
Disney’s Oceaneer Lab (ages 3 - 10)
On the Disney Dream, the Oceaneer Lab is designed to suggest a nautical journey, with maps and maritime instruments. The Oceaneer Lab takes children between 3 and 10 years old on great adventures that emphasize discovery and exploration. In the main hall, children can create and act in their own adventures, listen to stories, and watch movies.
Here, the animated alien Stitch will interact with kids in unrehearsed ways, using the same technology found in Oceaneer Club’s meetings with Crush. Within the Lab, the Animator’s Studio encourages kids to play with animation tools. Children can learn to draw Disney characters, create original art, or work with computer animation. The Sound Studio is devoted to music: kids can use song-making software to create their own music, and then record it.
Two workshops connect Disney’s Oceaneer Club and Oceaneer Lab. These areas house stations offering opportunities for science and culinary experimentation, art projects, and other hands-on activities.
Disney Dream will begin sailing in January 2011 and travel from Port Canaveral to Nassau, Bahamas, and Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island, on three-, four-, and five-day itineraries. The Disney Dream, like others in the Disney Cruise Line, offers numerous programs for children housed in extensively themed, imaginative spaces. These spaces, as well as those designed for tweens or teens and for adults, promise to offer guests a family cruise experience that appeals to their interests.
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