Cartoon Dream: fireworks light the sky on Florida's east coast as Disney's newest liner is unveiled


For many it's the perfect family holiday, a Caribbean cruise where you can count Mickey, Pluto and Donald among your fellow guests.

So when Walt Disney unveiled its new 4,000-passenger cruise liner, Disney Dream, this week, a legion of cartoon fans were waiting to catch a glimpse.


The 4000-passenger Disney Dream will make her maiden voyage on January 26th


The ship, which cost more than $900 million and features a high-speed water slide that takes riders out over the side of the ship and back again, made its Florida debut at Port Canaveral ahead of its maiden voyage on January 26th. The liner was greeted with fireworks and a familiar cast of characters on shore.

The Dream is the third ship in the Disney Cruise Line fleet following the launch of the Disney Magic and the Disney Wonder in the late 1990s. A fourth ship, the Disney Fantasy, is under construction and scheduled for its maiden voyage in March 2012.

The company's new liners are about 50 percent bigger than the original Disney ships and are scheduled to travel on popular Caribbean routes with stops at Disney's private island in the Bahamas, Castaway Cay.

Like their predecessors, the new cruise ships are designed to evoke the golden age of cruising, with early 20th-century Art Nouveau and Art Deco styling.

Passengers enjoy larger than average rooms and family-friendly features along with adults-only activities.

In recent years, bigger has been seen as better with leading cruise lines, including Carnival and Royal Caribbean Cruises introducing increasingly bigger ships.

Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas, which set sail in late 2009, is the world's largest, capable of carrying more than 6,000 passengers and over 2,000 crew members. The same company added a twin, the Allure of the Seas, last year.

Michael Driscoll, editor of the Cruise Week newsletter, said the new Disney options will help lure back returning passengers.

'It gives their repeats (customers) something different to do. Their kids are older. It's a logical way for them to progress,' he said.

Disney Dream will initially sail short itineraries to Castaway Cay and Nassau in the Bahamas.

source: dailymail