Disney Cruise Line – Cruise Industry ‘Firsts’ and Innovations

If everything goes according to plan, tomorrow morning I’ll be aboard the grand ship of the Disney Cruise Line — the Disney Dream. In the travel industry it’s what is known as a ‘Fam Tour’, aka the chance for press and trade professionals to get familiar with the new ship and what it has to offer. The Disney Dream is the third liner to join Disney’s fleet and it’s full of innovative and exciting pluses.

I’ll be reporting back with a report on what I find. In the meantime, here is a list of items where Disney Cruise Line was the first cruise line….

• With staterooms that include a family-friendly bath-and-a-half.
• To implement an innovative rotation dining concept, featuring three themed restaurants, where guests rotate to a different restaurant each evening, all the while keeping their same servers and tablemates.
• To have a dock at the line’s private island Castaway Cay, allowing guests the ease of walking on and off the ship at their leisure, thus eliminating the need to use tender boats for transporting guests back and forth to the island.
• To have a fireworks display at sea, creating the perfect “kiss goodnight” for the “Mickey’s Pirates IN the Caribbean” celebration.
• To offer movie premieres at sea where the night the movie debuts in theaters across the U.S., guests have the opportunity to see the premiere at sea onboard the ship – including films in Disney Digital 3-D.
• With almost an entire deck dedicated to children’s areas and activities. From Flounder’s Reef Nursery to the Oceaneer Club and Oceaneer Lab, kids from 12 weeks to 12 years have plenty of areas and activities to take their imaginations to new levels.
• To offer dedicated spaces just for teens and tweens. 13-17 year olds can hang out aboard the Disney Magic at The Stack, while teens aboard the Disney Wonder hang at Aloft, both high atop each ship on Deck 11 in the (faux) funnel.
• To apply a hull coating that is both non-toxic and innovative in reducing surface resistance in the water, allowing the ship to be more fuel efficient while sailing, in addition to being eco-friendly.
• To have yellow-colored lifeboats, rather than the traditional regulation color of orange. Disney was granted special permission by the U.S. Coast Guard to paint the lifeboats yellow, in order to keep with the special color theming of the ship – the colors of Mickey Mouse himself.
• To offer a free soda program, allowing guests to have access to a 24/7 beverage station offering soda, coffee, tea and water.
• To have an animated character as the godmother of a ship. Tinker Bell is the godmother of the Disney Wonder.
• To give inside staterooms a “window” on the outside with a Magical Porthole, a wall-mounted monitor that displays real-time video views from high-definition cameras outside of the ship.
• To have a shipboard water-coaster.
• To provide guests with complimentary use of Wave Phones for onboard communications.

To learn more about Disney Cruise Line or to book a vacation, guests can visit disneycruise.com, call Disney Cruise Line at 888/DCL-2500 or contact your travel agent.