This dream is in living colour

More public space per person

“Another major breakthrough in the design of Global Dream is we have increased the public area per person by 25% which will further complement the concept of connectivity and open spaces. Our guests will enjoy more space to roam, which will also serve as buffer personal space under the post-Covid new norm.”

Dream Cruises attracts a wide demographic, including multigenerational groups, and Genting has already broken away from the norm of other lines which tuck children’s clubs out of sight at the back of ships.

Mr Foster says “With the Dream ships, we have moved a lot of the kids’ areas into the public area. Everybody loves to see kids laughing and having fun, it creates a great atmosphere. We are very much a family-oriented cruise line, and we welcome extended families.”

However, he points out this does not mean one size fits all as Global Dream offers different tiers of experiences.

“With The Palace, the ‘luxury ship-within-a-ship’ concept, affluent travellers who like a quieter time when they get away can enjoy this private space at their leisure, while their kids and their mates can go downstairs and enjoy the fun with the crowds. It’s all about choices. You can have a simple meal at the 24-hr restaurant Blue Lagoon or you can go for fine dining and have Kobe steak at the steakhouse, or prime abalone, or caviar in the other restaurants. So when you walk around the ship, you experience a great variety of tastes, smells, sounds and feelings.”

Mr Foster describes the interiors as “young, simple and refreshed” and says they are designed to fit the new lifestyle of today’s cruisers. He cites the restaurants as a prime example.

“People want to keep moving, they don’t have the patience and don’t want to be seated for a long time anymore. We have changed the table heights and the chair heights for Global Dream. The reason is, in the past, cruisers dressed up to have long and formal dinners, with a full set of tableware and a formal posture. When you sit like this, it’s too stuffy and too intimidating. Nowadays the guests are much more relaxed. Most of them will finish the meal with just a fork, or a pair of chopsticks.

“We now live much more casually, so we need to adapt accordingly. Traditionally the height ratio between the table and chair is 28 cm from the top of the seat to the top of the table. On Global Dream, we have reduced that to 26 cm, so people aren’t seated in a rigid way. Another reason is because a dining table is not only a dining table anymore. People live around the table now, they eat there, they use their mobile devices there, and they socialise there.”

Casual vibe

This casual vibe is also reflected in furniture which is less bulky and more user-friendly. Mr Foster continues “Our cruise ships use state-of-the-art technology that enables smooth and stable sailing, so instead of the big and heavy tables and chairs, we will now use furniture that our crew staff can mobilise easily to cater to the needs of our guests, our guests can also move around the furniture to best accommodate their needs.”

Elsewhere, the ship has also moved away from traditional artwork and features art panels rather than framed paintings.

Mr Foster says “We don’t actually commission a lot of individual pieces of art anymore. We also focus on having a key iconic piece of art that can be a major photo opportunity on the ship, something iconic that can be the mascot of the ship, in a way.”

Turning to the cabins, he highlights the innovation of the two-bathroom cabin design and features that allow several people to get ready at once and have privacy.

“The unique split-bathroom design is a sensible and practical design that allows our guests to use the space simultaneously. The staterooms can also accommodate up to four with two full-sized king-size beds, one of which is a sofa bed that easily unfolds to sleep two comfortably. A thoughtful touch is a privacy curtain that can be closed to divide the room into separate seating and sleeping areas, making the cabins suitable for families and group travellers.

“This is a concept we have been working on for a long time, once we had the split-bathroom concept in place, it took a lot of work for us to put the rest of the room together.”

Quality control has been paramount through the project and Mr Foster adds, “We inspect at every level. If we are building a large room, we will have a section of the room pre-built for inspection, to check on the quality. The trial piece will be built as designed, and once we inspect the pre-built piece, we will be able to test and adjust the specifications accordingly.”

Theme park at sea

Global Dream’s most striking exterior feature is the theme park, which brought its own set of testing design issues.

“The safety of the theme park is our top priority, and one of the biggest challenges is with the technical specifications, especially with weight,” he says. “We are very lucky to have a fantastic team of naval architects, as well as great specialists at the shipyard. Based on the group’s background at Genting, we have also leveraged the company’s internal resources and consulted the experts from the Resorts World projects in Singapore and Malaysia.”

The park is certainly an apt high spot on a ship that has been designed to thrill and excite its passengers.