Carnival Cruise Lines Unveils New Carnival Dream Micro-Site and “Fun Hub”

Carnival Cruise Lines has created a new micro site www.carnival.com/dream highlighting the many on-board innovations of its newest and largest “Fun Ship,” the new 130,000-ton Carnival Dream, set to debut in September. Featured within the informative site are exclusive images, video, interviews, and blogs which showcase Carnival Dream’s wide-ranging facilities and features exclusive to the 3,646-passenger vessel. Other areas highlighted include the Carnival Dream’s youth programs, stateroom categories, and entertainment options. The Carnival Dream micro site will be updated as new features are announced.

Meanwhile, when out to sea the new Carnival Dream will take high tech surfing to an entirely new level with the introduction of the FunHub, a comprehensive shipboard intranet portal featuring the cruise industry’s first on-board social network. Designed as a convenient resource for wide-ranging information specific to the Carnival Dream, the intranet portal details the ship’s numerous on-board activities, including entertainment options, daily events, and youth programs. Carnival Dream’s extensive food and beverage offerings are showcased with sample menus, hours of operation, and more. A filtering application is available to assist guests in planning their day.

Access to the FunHub will be available via 36 state-of-the-art stations located on decks 3, 4 and 5, including 12 within Ocean Plaza, Carnival Dream’s spectacular indoor/outdoor café and entertainment venue. The FunHub locations will provide guests with complimentary and convenient access to an informative ship-specific intranet portal, and an exclusive shipboard social network, both of which will be available on a 24/7 basis. Guests may also access the sites via their personal laptops or via 10-inch netbooks which are available for rent and can be used anywhere on board. A year-long collaboration involving Carnival’s hotel operations, marketing, IT and guest experience departments, the Carnival Dream’s on-board social network and intranet portal are available on any guest computer or Wi-Fi enabled device free of charge.

Users will find that Carnival Dream’s on-board social network mirrors the experience they find on other social networking sites. In addition, guests can create a personal profile and use the application to meet and interact with others on board, send and receive private messages, create groups based on interests, and invite friends to attend shows or participate in on-board events. They can also create their own private or public discussion group, inviting others in their traveling party or friends they meet on board to participate.

The portal also includes weather updates for that day and the next port of call; the latest news and sports scores; biographies of key shipboard personnel; ship and cruise director announcements; fun, interactive polls; helpful three-dimensional ship maps; and a frequently asked questions section.

Internet access to sites outside the FunHub also is available through all FunHub locations. Netbooks are available free of charge when purchasing a special Internet package on board. Cell phone service, along with bow-to-stern wireless access where guests can check e-mail and surf the Web from any shipboard location, including their staterooms, will be available, as well.

Carnival Dream is slated to debut Sept. 21, 2009, with the first of three 12-day Grand Mediterranean cruises operating round-trip from Rome (Civitavecchia), followed by a 16-day trans-Atlantic crossing from Rome (Civitavecchia) to New York Oct. 27–Nov. 12. From New York, Carnival Dream will operate two 8-day Bahamas/Florida cruises departing Nov. 15 and 23, then reposition to Port Canaveral, FL, for a special one-time 9-day Caribbean cruise departing Dec. 3. Carnival Dream will then launch year-round 7-day service from Port Canaveral, Dec. 12, offering week long voyages to the eastern and western Caribbean.

For more info from CruiseDiva.com, get a sneak peek at Carnival Cruise Line's largest “Fun Ship” ever, Carnival Dream.