Carnival Dream
Launching in September, Carnival Dream is billed as the “ultimate family vacation” and boasts the latest in entertainment, kids’ spaces and balcony staterooms.
Over at Carnival Cruise Lines, the company is readying to launch the 3,646-passenger, 128,000-GRT Carnival Dream – the largest Fun Ship ever built. “We’ve taken everything we’ve learned about shipbuilding and incorporated it into the magnificent Carnival Dream,” says Carnival president and CEO Gerry Cahill. Unique features of Carnival Dream include a new concept in entertainment called Ocean Plaza, an indoor/outdoor café and live music venue. Other noteworthy features include “scenic whirlpools” that extend over the ship’s beam, and a variety of new cabin categories that include the innovative Cove balcony staterooms that are closer to the waterline.
Moreover, Carnival is billing Carnival Dream as the “ultimate family vacation”, packed with more than 1,765 square metres of space catering for children of all ages from toddlers to teenagers, including a sprawling aqua park and a Camp Carnival play area covering more than 460 square metres and divided into three sections, each dedicated to a different age group (2 to 5, 6 to 8, and 9 to 11). Kids 12 to 14 and 15 to 17 have their own activity centres. Carnival estimates it will host 625,000 children on all its 22 ships – about half of all kids carried by the North American-based cruise lines.
Carnival Dream enters service on September 21 with a 12-day Grand Mediterranean cruises from Rome, with two additional 12-day cruises departing in October. The ship then sails a 16-day transatlantic crossing on October 27 to New York, where she operates two eight-day Bahamas/Florida cruises. On December 3, Carnival Dream takes up year-round residence in Port Canaveral, where she operates a one-time, nine-day Caribbean cruise before commencing her regular schedule of seven-day eastern or western Caribbean cruises.