First, sorry for the length and verboseness of this review. This is not a rant or a rave, but I want it to be the type of review I would have appreciated reading prior to booking a Disney Cruise so that hopefully you can make an informed decision and leverage your hard earned vacation dollars on something you can enjoy. Let me tee-up the review by giving a little bit of our background so that you can relate to our perspective (this is important) on what we encountered on our Disney Dream cruise. We are empty-nester, middle-aged (45 and 48), professional couple who have been Walt Disney World passholders for the better part of 17 years, we frequent the parks quite often, and enjoy the mix of traditional Disney characters, as well as the hidden gems of non-traditional Disney entertainment in the Parks.

Our Cruise-Line pedigree is a fairly diverse background of approximately 85+ days at sea (HAL, RCL, Celebrity, Princess and NCL), most recently 10 days on the HAL's Noordam during December 2012. At this point in our lives we tend to gravitate toward understated elegance, higher-end (foodie) dining opportunities, polished service, comfort, entertainment inclusive of multiple live music, vocal performances, and adult enrichment topics and well-traveled fellow passengers who make interesting new acquaintances. I am a value conscious travel-consumer and always look for a good value perspective in booking my vacations. The value perspective is what directly impacts my "Value for Money" and "Rates" categories in this review.

Gimmicky (others may find them absolute musts -- and that's OK) ship features like flow-riders, rock climbing walls, ice-skating rinks, overly large atriums, and other large venues (think conference centers) with limited accessibility that dilute the passenger space ratios (Gross Registered Tonnage (GRT) divided by the number of revenue passengers at double occupancy = PSR) are not appealing to us. For example, the Disney Dream is approximately 130,000 GRT with a double occupancy revenue passenger count of 2,500, (3,700 with children on our cruise) passengers calculates to a PSR of 35.1, our most recent cruise on HAL's Noordam calculates to a PSR of 42.8 (82,318 GRT / 1,924 Pax), from there, you have to start reconciling out space occupied by amenities that add nothing to your personal value proposition (not always quantifiable) -- in our case the vast children's centers on the Dream or any Disney ship, so if your following the math, the PSR available for use by Adults traveling with no children becomes quite lop-sided. What this means in real terms on the Dream is a large beautiful ship with a large amount of public spaces devoted to children traveling with their families (yes -- I said it that way for a reason) and children exclusive areas (Vibe, Edge, Oceaneerclub, and Oceanneerlab on the Dream) including an absolutely gorgeous atrium/lobby/grand foyer that serves primarily as a backdrop for character meet n' greets and kids' activities. Whereas the Noordam, with the exception of a few conference rooms, has the majority of its public spaces oriented towards adults (yes even including a casino) with a small portion devoted to children. The entertainment on both vessels follows a similar path as well. Read more