By Paul Motter

Disney Dream, scheduled to begin service in January of 2011, and her sister ship Disney Fantasy coming in April 2012, are long overdue.

Disney Dream is Disney Cruise Line's first new ship since its two original vessels, Disney Magic and Disney Wonder, debuted in 1998 and 1999. Nearly tripling the passenger capacity within a year might be a problem for most cruise lines, but Disney Dream (scheduled to begin service in January 2011) and her sister ship Disney Fantasy (coming in April 2012) are long overdue. High passenger demand for the two current Disney ships, even in an economic crisis, has their cruises selling for as much as $3,300 per person for a balcony stateroom in May 2011. Getting a cabin on the new ships when they debut will not be much easier.

While the older Disney ships introduced some unique concepts, -- like "rotational dining," where guests and their waiters move together to different dining rooms each night -- Disney Dream will offer more sophisticated dining and d�cor. The overall look is Art Deco, especially in the movie theater and the adult-focused areas, to pay homage to the golden age of ocean liners. Public rooms are beautifully designed and finished, such as the Atrium where guests enter on deck three, topped with a 24-carat gold chandelier with Swarovski Crystal and Murano glass accents.

Staterooms
Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy are each 128,000 tons with 1,250 staterooms. On most cruise ships, that translates to a berth capacity of 2,500, but every Disney stateroom is built with extra passengers, specifically children, in mind. Each cabin comes with a queen-size bed plus a sofa-bed; some have a double sofa-bed, and some suites even offer Murphy beds that pull down from the wall. Family Suites have a maximum capacity of five in one stateroom. With these extra berths, the stated capacity of each new Disney ship is 4,000 passengers.

The staterooms are spacious and utile; all the outside ones include two washrooms -- one with a bathtub-shower combination and the other with a commode. The bathtubs are especially handy for bathing children, although they are probably too short for Dad. The inside staterooms are actually more popular than the verandah staterooms; guests are reportedly refusing an upgrade even at no added cost. The reason? The insides feature a clever, oversized "porthole" that is actually a video screen fed by a live camera with the same point of view a real porthole would have. This virtual window offers "little surprises" popping on screen about every 15 minutes. You might be perusing the Nassau Straw Market when suddenly Peach, the coquettish starfish from "Finding Nemo," attaches herself to your window and insists on flirting.

The beds in each cabin have been raised to accommodate empty luggage. Every room has a 22-inch flat panel TV, an iPod docking station, mini-refrigerator and wireless Internet access (for an added fee).

Some 21 suites are available, each with two baths with granite and marble finishes. Master bathrooms have a rain shower, double sinks and a TV hidden behind the mirror for easy viewing from the whirlpool tub. Both the master bedrooms and the living rooms (where the spare beds are located) have 42-inch flat-panel TVs.

There are two signature Royal Suites on deck 12 forward. Each one has an outdoor whirlpool tub on the verandah, a media library (DVDs and CDs) and a kitchenette.

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Verandah Stateroom		Steel Bedframe and art deco decor		Mini-suite

The Magic of Interactive Video
Most Disney Dream articles I have seen reduce all the "Imagineering" (Disney-speak for imaginative engineering) that has gone into the ship to a single concept: interactive video. This is an oversimplification, although the abundant use of video effects is obvious. The virtual porthole is just one of many video innovations that constitute the "Magic" features on this ship. The adult nightclub Skyline is another, offering virtual windows that show a different world-class city every night of the cruise. As the hour gets later, the city view changes accordingly, from daylight through sunset and beyond as nightlife ensues.

In the Enchanted Garden restaurant, based on the gardens of Versailles, the virtual glass ceiling - actually video screens framed to look like windows - of the greenhouse atrium changes from daylight to a star-filled sky. Large hanging glass flowers bloom from the ceiling by spreading translucent glass petals. Wall sconces unfold to become decorative glowing fans. Even the wall paintings change themes as the evening goes on.

Another main restaurant, Animators' Palate, is an updated version of its namesake on the older ships. On Disney Dream, the state of the room is similar to those earlier versions at the beginning of the meal, but it soon becomes transformed into more than 100 coral reef aquarium windows with "live" sea creatures from the Disney film "Finding Nemo." The star, Crush the Turtle, turns up and magically finds someone to engage in unscripted, real-time conversation at every table in the house. At the end of the meal, laser light Dalmatian puppies guide guests to the exits.

Another interactive video-based feature is the Magic PlayFloor (there are two; one in the Oceaneer Lab and another in the Oceaneer Club, and both were covered with thick layers of cardboard during our tour). This is a huge, multi-screened interactive play floor where kids can fly over London with Peter Pan or change the angle of a tilting virtual maze by adding weight on different areas.

Green-screen technology is available for teenagers to make music videos, and a virtual audio mixing board lets them create their own dance mixes.

The ultimate video trick, however, is the Enchanted Art game that involves certain hanging "paintings" throughout the ship. A special key makes the paintings come to life: What originally appears to be an animator's drawing of a Disney character turns into an animated vignette that reveals a clue to solving a mystery. But not all paintings are the same. Some require looking through the key's magic glass to find a hidden clue, and if you don't find the paintings and the clues in the right sequence, the magic isn't there.

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Enchanted Garden Banquette		Enchanted Art		Animator's Palate

All these video-based effects have some elements in common - motion sensing and two-way interactivity. In many cases, they are simply TV screens used to change the décor of a room over time. The interactive "Crush" is obviously created by having a real person play the part of the character, no doubt wearing some kind of body sensors that capture facial expressions and feed them to the animated character, similar to the way Golum was created for the movie "Lord of the Rings."

Disney generally does not like to talk about its technological tricks, but I find that a bit disingenuous in this age. The people who already understand how such things work will recognize the processes immediately, while those who don't probably won't care. Some 12-year-old kids will instantly recognize the Magic PlayFloor as a huge, highly efficient, interactive video game, and they will love it exactly for what it is - not because it is "magic."

I don't care for this over-emphasis on Disney's "magic" because it puts the focus on the wrong place. What Disney creates is values-based entertainment, and such entertainment is often better when it is not mysterious. I enjoy the intellectual dichotomy of my love/hate relationship for Tony Soprano, but I get truly touched deep in my heart when I see a story like "Finding Nemo." You don't need magic to make entertainment work; you need a payoff, and that is where Disney delivers; in their stage shows, onboard movies, character experiences (interactions with Disney characters) and the themes of the games rather than the technology that makes them work.

Other Attractions

Besides the video-based Imagineering described above, there are plenty of other fun ways for kids to blow off steam on Disney Dream.

Foremost is AquaDuck, the longest water slide yet on a cruise ship. High-powered water jets propel a two-person raft up, down and around 765 feet of round, clear acrylic tubing. The ride starts inside the forward smokestack, immediately shooting the riders 13 feet beyond the side of the ship with nothing but a 150-foot view of ocean below. Pushing 10,000 gallons of water per minute, the ride ends with a 335-foot set of "river rapids."

Goofy's Sports Deck has a nine-hole miniature golf course with "twists" to make the game more interesting. "Quirky" golf clubs are intentionally bent for an extra challenge. Also on deck are games of virtual soccer, hockey, basketball, baseball, football, and even rugby. If you don't mind chasing the ball, there is a real basketball court as well as table tennis and foosball.

Nemo's Reef is a spot for little ones (age eight and under with parental supervision) to play with giant reproductions of the characters from Finding Nemo in a wading pool with pop jets and bubble-makers. For older kids, there is a separate water park with splashers, shooters and water jets.

Donald's Pool, intended for family fun, has a 30x18-foot outdoor movie screen showing Disney films as well as sports events. Mickey's Pool is just for kids and includes the same water slide shaped like Mickey's hand as those on the previous Disney ships.

Disney Dream can carry at least 1,500 children per cruise if you count the extra beds. There is almost an entire deck just for children's areas; we'll describe their features in a follow-up article next week, along with the ship's stage shows and dining options.

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Nemo's Reef slide for kids up to 8 years old		smokestack with AquaDuck running through it		Micky's slide in main pool area

Discuss the New Disney ships here: Disney Dream is Coming.