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It's getting so a cruise passenger can't even stroll the 1,100-foot-long corridors in private without launching interactivity.  Which is exactly what Disney's creative gang,the Imagineers, has been planning for years.  The venue is the company's first new ship since 1999, the 4,000-passenger Disney Dream.  It begins sailing from Port Canaveral, Fla., on Jan. 26.  That will shift the Disney Wonder from Florida to the West Coast; it will be based in Los Angeles or making weeklong runs next summer in Alaska.

 

Aboard the Dream, technology rules, in clever and entertaining ways.  For instance, in 22 places along the corridors of the Dream, framed images from such classics as Bambi and Fantasia become several seconds of the actual film when passengers approach - thanks to motion detectors.  Passengers can even play detective, solving any of six mysteries by passing a special card in front of some of those frames, which read a bar code on the card and then display a clue.

 

Speaking of animation, a starring role aboard the ship goes to Crush, the surfer-dude sea turtle from Finding Nemo.  A few years ago, the Imagineers introduced an interactive version of Crush to the theme parks: Youngsters face a huge LED screen, onto which the animated turtle swims. He asks specific kids their names, jokes with them and answers questions.  On the ship, Crush reprises this act on a 103-inch plasma screen in the Oceaneer's Club, a hangout for the 3- to 10-year-old set.

 

But Crush is also the headliner in the Animator's Palate, one of three restaurants that passengers will use on a planned rotation for dinners.  The 696-seat Palate is decorated as a studio where Walt Disney and his colleagues might have worked in the 1930s.  Giant pencils and paintbrushes stand upright in the room, and wallboards hold notes and character sketches.  During the meal, however, the room changes, seemingly submerging into the waters occupied by Crush and his undersea pals.  On more than 100 TV monitors of varying sizes, these creatures flit about, and Crush visits with diners in nine sections of the room.

 

The technological innovations are not all child's play aboard the Dream:

•Seven large "windows" of the Skyline bar each day show a different cityscape - New York, Rio or Paris, for instance - although the ship sails to none of these places.  Light or shadows play out in real time during the day as the sun crosses above that city. The windows are actually LED screens.  •Inside cabins, which have no actual window on the world, do have a live view of what's happening outside the hull, courtesy of five high-definition TV cameras.  The playful Imagineers also have arranged that one of three dozen animated images randomly flashes onto the real picture televised in a virtual porthole.

What's likely to become the Dream's icon is hard to miss: the 765-foot long, enclosed waterslide named the AquaDuck.  Mounted 160 feet above the waterline and passing down both sides of the ship, the water coaster is a transparent tube, 54 inches in diameter, through which pumps force more than 9,000 gallons of water.  Passengers sit on two-person rubber rafts and are immediately thrust into a 360-degree loop that carries them over the side of the ship for about 12 feet before returning them to the first long, straight part of the ride.  They pass through the forward funnel, then again parallel the hull for another 335 feet, before ending about 46 feet below where they started.

 

The general design of the Dream avoids the current boxy look of megaships.  It has a pronounced prow and an added curve of metal sweeping down several decks of staterooms near the stern.  Interiors blend touches of art nouveau, art deco and, of course, Disney whimsy.  There's no chance passengers will forget that the parent company grew from cartoons to beloved, full-length animated films.

 

There's plenty to amuse adults, too, such as four themed bars plus disco grouped in the area termed the District, and adults-only fine-dining restaurants, one Italian, one French.  The latter has a menu designed by a chef with two Michelin stars. Although the venue is named Remy, after the leading character in the animated film Ratatouille, there's no kidding around about the price: $75 per person.

• Disney Dream is approximately 40% larger than Disney Magic or Disney Wonder.
• Disney Dream has 5007 beds—over 1,900 more than Disney Magic or Disney Wonder.
• Disney Dream is 2 decks taller than sister ships, Disney Magic & Disney Wonder.

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