| Carnival |
Inside Carnival Dream
TAKING GUESTS
TO THEIR DREAM
A conversation with ship
architect
Joseph Farcus
by Richard H. Wagner
TAKING GUESTS
TO THEIR DREAM
A conversation with ship
architect
Joseph Farcus
by Richard H. Wagner
| CARNIVAL DREAM |
At 130,000 gross tons, Carnival Dream is the largest ship built for Carnival Cruise
Lines thus far. However, the ship is more than merely a larger version of what has
gone before. It adds new features and embodies all that the world’s most popular
cruise line knows about pleasing the cruising public. To design her interior, Carnival
turned once again to Joseph Farcus who has worked on every Carnival ship now
sailing for Carnival. I had the opportunity to talk with Mr. Farcus about the process of
creating Carnival Dream, the concept behind her interior design and some of the
features of the new ship.
How the Dream was Created
In creating the Dream, Carnival employed a new approach to designing and building
the ship. “The top management of Carnival changed about a year ago with the
retirement of Bob Dickinson and the ascension of Gerry Cahill as the President and
CEO. As a result of that the management style has changed. I would say that what they
are doing today that is different is they are getting their top people within Carnival
more involved in the design process and more involved in expressing ideas and
feelings that they would like to see onboard the ships. In other words, to make the
whole marketing and design more coordinated.”
“To that end, they have established a design committee and put one of their top
executives in charge to be more involved in the design process. It is just a more hands-
on approach that this management is taking and I am very happy with that.”
“The design committee [has] what they call briefs describing the feelings that they
want to achieve in the various rooms. Then, I go about trying to work with these ideas
giving architectural form and materials to that to produce the overall feelings for the
ship that I am designing “
“I make drawings of the designs and [develop] specifications for the various materials
and then we have renderings made, which give the people at Carnival a better idea of
what we are building. When we get their approval, [we] move forward with the
building process, which involves sending all of these concept drawings to [Fincantieri,
the shipyard in Italy] along with specifications. Then we go through the design
development process with the shipyardwhere they make their technical drawings and
make mock-ups of the various designs. We go over the details and the materials and
finishes and how they all go together and finally approve that.”
“And then the building process begins where they actually begin fabricating all the
various materials and details for the ship and assembling them. We are constantly
watching that process as well and taking care of issues as they come up. Periodically,
we go through inspections of the ship to make sure that they are doing it correctly plus
Carnival has people who are onsite all the time watching it on a daily basis. We go
over there every six or seven weeks or so. That is the basic process.”
Manifesting the Dream
The interior designs for each of the earlier Carnival ships that Mr. Fracus has
designed have stemmed from a core central idea that serves as the inspiration for the
designs of the public areas. For example, on Carnival Pride it was icons of beauty; on
Carnival Victory, famous bodies of water; on Carnival Valor, heroes and heroic
events. “With the Dream, I wanted to make the ship less high concept and create more
an overall feeling. When I heard the name of the ship - - the Carnival Dream - - I
immediately thought of the dream cruise for the guests. I [took] everything that I have
known and learned about cruising, what the guests expect, what they would like to see
and [what] they could not imagine themselves and use that as the inspiration, in an
artistic way and in a free-association way, [to] come up with these designs.”
Looking at the sketches and photos that have been released for the Dream, the interior
décor appears to be more restrained than some earlier Carnival ships. “It was
consciously done. I think a lot of customers have followed the ships, are loyal
Carnival cruisers and have responded well to the designs of the past but we have
created a lot of ships and we want to keep it fresh, keep it new and give [guests]
something new to appreciate. It all comes from the same root idea of the type of
environment that I am trying to create for the guests onboard. That hasn’t changed at
all. It is only the external expression of it has. That is design progress and
sophistication as far as I am concerned.
"I enjoy the things that I have done in the past but I am enjoying what I am doing now.
They all have to me their complete validity. They are not derived from fashion or what
is happening now."
“I think when people see the Dream, I don’t think it will look like a radical departure
from what we have been doing. But as a designer I try to grow. Even at the age I am
today, I don’t want to sit back on my laurels and say this worked 10 years ago, five
years ago or even a year ago. I prefer to always think ahead, try to stay ahead of the
game and create something that would be new, surprising and special.”
" The basic thing that has changed over the years is that technology has allowed me
to do different things with sound and with light that you couldn’t have done 20 years
ago let’s say or could not have been done easily like we can today and that is also
reflected in the design. I see the Dream as the next logical step to me anyway of the
design process and expression of Joe Farcus.”
This is not to say that the interior of the Dream will be Spartan. “It is rich. When I
made this the shipyard didn’t say to me ‘Joe, you made this too cheap, you didn’t use
enough stuff.’ They gave me the same problems that they have on every design. It is a
little bit of a new approach for me and I will evaluate it myself when I see it all
finished. So far, I am very happy with what I have seen. I was onboard the ship at the
very end of May or the beginning of June and I think it is shaping up really, really
nicely and the feedback that I have gotten from Carnival’s people from Jerry Cahill
down has been very positive. It seems to work well with the whole new management
and the way Carnival is doing things these days - - the advertising, the whole marketing
approach, how they are massaging the product to make it the most responsive to the
guests onboard. I am hoping that when Dream is finally inaugurated in September and
people see it that it will be a very positive reaction. It will still be my style but it will
be a different form of it.”
The basic design of the Dream can be traced back to the first mega-cruise ship
Carnival Destiny. Since Destiny, Carnival has elaborated on this design some eight
times adding more amenities, features and passenger capacity. A challenge for Farcus,
was to create a new interior design that is unique and distinct from Dream’s
predecessors. “Ships always have inevitably a certain similarity about them because
of just the overall shape of a ship. It is long and stretched out and in that respect there
are always similarities. I think that certain things are very, very important and in a
way have nothing to do with style. The circulation on the ship - - how passengers or
guests move through the ship. The sense of space - - to give guests a sense of awe and
a sense of the size of the ship and above all to prevent any claustrophobic feelings.
When we designed the Destiny years ago, we felt that we had a very good platform. It
has proved out. It has been a hugely popular success. It has worked from day one.
There have been almost no glitches in terms of the physical layout of the ship. We
have massaged that all the way through with the Dream being the culmination of that.
So, it is similar in its basics but it has all sorts of new features.”
“For example, we have a promenade that runs the length of the ship on Deck 4, which
does not exist on any of the other semi-sisters to the Dream. That makes circulation
better."
" We have redesigned layout of the restaurants to introduce the open seating concept
for those who want to enjoy that onboard the ship.”
“We have created open decks on Deck 5 [called the Lanai]. These are open decks that
sort of cantilever out on either side of the ship that provide a new venue for people
who want to sit out in the sun during the day and be closer to the sea. I think these are
going to be hugely successful decks and will take some of the pressure off of the main
Lido up on Decks 10, 11, and 12 etc.”
Linking the starboard side and port side open decks on Deck 5 will be a new public
area called the Ocean Plaza. However, this area will be much more than a crosswalk.
“I felt that we would need a room in the center of the ship that would connect these two
spaces functionally as well as physically. I thought since these are going to be open
decks that you need some sort of facility at Deck 5 that has food service, bar service
and is [an entertainment] lounge. We created some cutouts into the side of the ship to
make the open deck seating area for drinks and food in that location along with the
[whirlpools]. I named it the generic name the ‘piazza”, which is like the town center,
because I felt that this was going to be a very important and necessary space on this
ship with this new arrangement. In a way, the Carnival ships have always had a
promenade. This room has morphed from the promenade into a promenade that
crosses the ship and provides the public space and food and beverage service that is
needed to service that.”
“We have also introduced a new spa layout. A couple of ships ago we upgraded to the
huge spa, I can’t remember which Carnival ship we introduced it on, but the one on
Dream will be even bigger and have more facilities in it. This has become a great
feature on the ship particularly for day time use for those who want to do something
else besides just sit out in the sun or sit in the casino.”
“This ship will have the greatest children and teens facilities on any Carnival ship.
That has become a much more important item onboard for family cruises. We have one
area on Deck 4 that has the Circle C Club, the Club O2 and the video game room all in
one area. They are all clustered together giving young people on a cruise a huge area
which in a way is dedicated to them specifically. Young people who go on a cruise
from pre-teens to teenagers really respond to that. The idea, of course, is to broaden
the market to the maximum point to give something attractive to anyone who could
come aboard on a cruise."
“The ship has a larger capacity. We added another deck of cabins to make the ship
more economically attractive. But we had to upgrade facilities for that so we have
more restaurant space, we have re-designed the theater to make it even bigger with
better sight lines than it had before and also increased seating capacity. We have re-
laid out the main public room circulation on Deck 5.”
To make more the efficient use of space, some of the functions performed on past ships
by separate public rooms have been consolidated on Dream. “We found, for example,
that it wasn’t necessary to have a dedicated sports bar. So, what we have is the casino
bar, which has [its own traditional] entertainment, but [which will also] have a series
of five large plasma screen TVs. When there is a major sporting event on, then that bar
within the casino becomes the sports bar, which seems quite natural.”
Other areas, such as the large bar found on Deck 4 on past ships between the two main
dining rooms, have been eliminated in favor of features the line feels will be more
popular with guests. “When we were coming up with what we call the GAP - - the
General Arrangement Plan - - for Dream, we looked very hard at what is happening
today and what do the customers want and use and what would be the most
advantageous [use of the available space]. There is only a certain amount of space on
the ship so if you have this, you don’t have that. It is very important to make sure that
that parsing of the space is done in the most effective manner that will appeal to the
most people onboard. We are very conscious of that. We don’t go in for gimmicks
that only a handful of people will use. We try to concentrate on the basic things that
almost everybody wants to use and make sure that those facilities are onboard for
them. Again, you can’t have it all. It is just like the money that you have to spend. The
people who spend it the most wisely are the people that get the most enjoyment out of
it. I think that we look at space onboard the ship in a very similar way.”
Some other familiar features of Carnival ships have been enhanced such as the atrium
that rises up through the center of the ship. “It will be similar to what we have done in
the past. But because the ship is bigger, I re-designed the stairs, made the opening of
the deck on Decks 4 and 5 larger so when you come onboard the ship, the atrium will
feel even bigger than it has been.. I have taken the stage that was on the floor of Deck
3 and I put it on a platform that flies above the bar with the idea being that what we are
trying to do is make that whole atrium one public room. The people will be able to sit
at the bar, sit in the lobby, sit on sofas on Deck 4 and on Deck 5 and be entertained.”
In sum, “I think it is very interesting that they named this ship the Dream because it
really was created with that in mind - - to create the dream holiday for the guests who
come onboard. What I am doing, what everybody onboard and the executives within
Carnival is working and striving for is to deliver the kind of product that people are
going to enjoy. You know it is not just a money making venture. It is a money making
venture for sure but the idea is that we are entertaining people, we are taking them to
their dream - - that is the destination of the cruise. We take that very seriously and we
really try our best to deliver that port of call to them.”
Lines thus far. However, the ship is more than merely a larger version of what has
gone before. It adds new features and embodies all that the world’s most popular
cruise line knows about pleasing the cruising public. To design her interior, Carnival
turned once again to Joseph Farcus who has worked on every Carnival ship now
sailing for Carnival. I had the opportunity to talk with Mr. Farcus about the process of
creating Carnival Dream, the concept behind her interior design and some of the
features of the new ship.
How the Dream was Created
In creating the Dream, Carnival employed a new approach to designing and building
the ship. “The top management of Carnival changed about a year ago with the
retirement of Bob Dickinson and the ascension of Gerry Cahill as the President and
CEO. As a result of that the management style has changed. I would say that what they
are doing today that is different is they are getting their top people within Carnival
more involved in the design process and more involved in expressing ideas and
feelings that they would like to see onboard the ships. In other words, to make the
whole marketing and design more coordinated.”
“To that end, they have established a design committee and put one of their top
executives in charge to be more involved in the design process. It is just a more hands-
on approach that this management is taking and I am very happy with that.”
“The design committee [has] what they call briefs describing the feelings that they
want to achieve in the various rooms. Then, I go about trying to work with these ideas
giving architectural form and materials to that to produce the overall feelings for the
ship that I am designing “
“I make drawings of the designs and [develop] specifications for the various materials
and then we have renderings made, which give the people at Carnival a better idea of
what we are building. When we get their approval, [we] move forward with the
building process, which involves sending all of these concept drawings to [Fincantieri,
the shipyard in Italy] along with specifications. Then we go through the design
development process with the shipyardwhere they make their technical drawings and
make mock-ups of the various designs. We go over the details and the materials and
finishes and how they all go together and finally approve that.”
“And then the building process begins where they actually begin fabricating all the
various materials and details for the ship and assembling them. We are constantly
watching that process as well and taking care of issues as they come up. Periodically,
we go through inspections of the ship to make sure that they are doing it correctly plus
Carnival has people who are onsite all the time watching it on a daily basis. We go
over there every six or seven weeks or so. That is the basic process.”
Manifesting the Dream
The interior designs for each of the earlier Carnival ships that Mr. Fracus has
designed have stemmed from a core central idea that serves as the inspiration for the
designs of the public areas. For example, on Carnival Pride it was icons of beauty; on
Carnival Victory, famous bodies of water; on Carnival Valor, heroes and heroic
events. “With the Dream, I wanted to make the ship less high concept and create more
an overall feeling. When I heard the name of the ship - - the Carnival Dream - - I
immediately thought of the dream cruise for the guests. I [took] everything that I have
known and learned about cruising, what the guests expect, what they would like to see
and [what] they could not imagine themselves and use that as the inspiration, in an
artistic way and in a free-association way, [to] come up with these designs.”
Looking at the sketches and photos that have been released for the Dream, the interior
décor appears to be more restrained than some earlier Carnival ships. “It was
consciously done. I think a lot of customers have followed the ships, are loyal
Carnival cruisers and have responded well to the designs of the past but we have
created a lot of ships and we want to keep it fresh, keep it new and give [guests]
something new to appreciate. It all comes from the same root idea of the type of
environment that I am trying to create for the guests onboard. That hasn’t changed at
all. It is only the external expression of it has. That is design progress and
sophistication as far as I am concerned.
"I enjoy the things that I have done in the past but I am enjoying what I am doing now.
They all have to me their complete validity. They are not derived from fashion or what
is happening now."
“I think when people see the Dream, I don’t think it will look like a radical departure
from what we have been doing. But as a designer I try to grow. Even at the age I am
today, I don’t want to sit back on my laurels and say this worked 10 years ago, five
years ago or even a year ago. I prefer to always think ahead, try to stay ahead of the
game and create something that would be new, surprising and special.”
" The basic thing that has changed over the years is that technology has allowed me
to do different things with sound and with light that you couldn’t have done 20 years
ago let’s say or could not have been done easily like we can today and that is also
reflected in the design. I see the Dream as the next logical step to me anyway of the
design process and expression of Joe Farcus.”
This is not to say that the interior of the Dream will be Spartan. “It is rich. When I
made this the shipyard didn’t say to me ‘Joe, you made this too cheap, you didn’t use
enough stuff.’ They gave me the same problems that they have on every design. It is a
little bit of a new approach for me and I will evaluate it myself when I see it all
finished. So far, I am very happy with what I have seen. I was onboard the ship at the
very end of May or the beginning of June and I think it is shaping up really, really
nicely and the feedback that I have gotten from Carnival’s people from Jerry Cahill
down has been very positive. It seems to work well with the whole new management
and the way Carnival is doing things these days - - the advertising, the whole marketing
approach, how they are massaging the product to make it the most responsive to the
guests onboard. I am hoping that when Dream is finally inaugurated in September and
people see it that it will be a very positive reaction. It will still be my style but it will
be a different form of it.”
The basic design of the Dream can be traced back to the first mega-cruise ship
Carnival Destiny. Since Destiny, Carnival has elaborated on this design some eight
times adding more amenities, features and passenger capacity. A challenge for Farcus,
was to create a new interior design that is unique and distinct from Dream’s
predecessors. “Ships always have inevitably a certain similarity about them because
of just the overall shape of a ship. It is long and stretched out and in that respect there
are always similarities. I think that certain things are very, very important and in a
way have nothing to do with style. The circulation on the ship - - how passengers or
guests move through the ship. The sense of space - - to give guests a sense of awe and
a sense of the size of the ship and above all to prevent any claustrophobic feelings.
When we designed the Destiny years ago, we felt that we had a very good platform. It
has proved out. It has been a hugely popular success. It has worked from day one.
There have been almost no glitches in terms of the physical layout of the ship. We
have massaged that all the way through with the Dream being the culmination of that.
So, it is similar in its basics but it has all sorts of new features.”
“For example, we have a promenade that runs the length of the ship on Deck 4, which
does not exist on any of the other semi-sisters to the Dream. That makes circulation
better."
" We have redesigned layout of the restaurants to introduce the open seating concept
for those who want to enjoy that onboard the ship.”
“We have created open decks on Deck 5 [called the Lanai]. These are open decks that
sort of cantilever out on either side of the ship that provide a new venue for people
who want to sit out in the sun during the day and be closer to the sea. I think these are
going to be hugely successful decks and will take some of the pressure off of the main
Lido up on Decks 10, 11, and 12 etc.”
Linking the starboard side and port side open decks on Deck 5 will be a new public
area called the Ocean Plaza. However, this area will be much more than a crosswalk.
“I felt that we would need a room in the center of the ship that would connect these two
spaces functionally as well as physically. I thought since these are going to be open
decks that you need some sort of facility at Deck 5 that has food service, bar service
and is [an entertainment] lounge. We created some cutouts into the side of the ship to
make the open deck seating area for drinks and food in that location along with the
[whirlpools]. I named it the generic name the ‘piazza”, which is like the town center,
because I felt that this was going to be a very important and necessary space on this
ship with this new arrangement. In a way, the Carnival ships have always had a
promenade. This room has morphed from the promenade into a promenade that
crosses the ship and provides the public space and food and beverage service that is
needed to service that.”
“We have also introduced a new spa layout. A couple of ships ago we upgraded to the
huge spa, I can’t remember which Carnival ship we introduced it on, but the one on
Dream will be even bigger and have more facilities in it. This has become a great
feature on the ship particularly for day time use for those who want to do something
else besides just sit out in the sun or sit in the casino.”
“This ship will have the greatest children and teens facilities on any Carnival ship.
That has become a much more important item onboard for family cruises. We have one
area on Deck 4 that has the Circle C Club, the Club O2 and the video game room all in
one area. They are all clustered together giving young people on a cruise a huge area
which in a way is dedicated to them specifically. Young people who go on a cruise
from pre-teens to teenagers really respond to that. The idea, of course, is to broaden
the market to the maximum point to give something attractive to anyone who could
come aboard on a cruise."
“The ship has a larger capacity. We added another deck of cabins to make the ship
more economically attractive. But we had to upgrade facilities for that so we have
more restaurant space, we have re-designed the theater to make it even bigger with
better sight lines than it had before and also increased seating capacity. We have re-
laid out the main public room circulation on Deck 5.”
To make more the efficient use of space, some of the functions performed on past ships
by separate public rooms have been consolidated on Dream. “We found, for example,
that it wasn’t necessary to have a dedicated sports bar. So, what we have is the casino
bar, which has [its own traditional] entertainment, but [which will also] have a series
of five large plasma screen TVs. When there is a major sporting event on, then that bar
within the casino becomes the sports bar, which seems quite natural.”
Other areas, such as the large bar found on Deck 4 on past ships between the two main
dining rooms, have been eliminated in favor of features the line feels will be more
popular with guests. “When we were coming up with what we call the GAP - - the
General Arrangement Plan - - for Dream, we looked very hard at what is happening
today and what do the customers want and use and what would be the most
advantageous [use of the available space]. There is only a certain amount of space on
the ship so if you have this, you don’t have that. It is very important to make sure that
that parsing of the space is done in the most effective manner that will appeal to the
most people onboard. We are very conscious of that. We don’t go in for gimmicks
that only a handful of people will use. We try to concentrate on the basic things that
almost everybody wants to use and make sure that those facilities are onboard for
them. Again, you can’t have it all. It is just like the money that you have to spend. The
people who spend it the most wisely are the people that get the most enjoyment out of
it. I think that we look at space onboard the ship in a very similar way.”
Some other familiar features of Carnival ships have been enhanced such as the atrium
that rises up through the center of the ship. “It will be similar to what we have done in
the past. But because the ship is bigger, I re-designed the stairs, made the opening of
the deck on Decks 4 and 5 larger so when you come onboard the ship, the atrium will
feel even bigger than it has been.. I have taken the stage that was on the floor of Deck
3 and I put it on a platform that flies above the bar with the idea being that what we are
trying to do is make that whole atrium one public room. The people will be able to sit
at the bar, sit in the lobby, sit on sofas on Deck 4 and on Deck 5 and be entertained.”
In sum, “I think it is very interesting that they named this ship the Dream because it
really was created with that in mind - - to create the dream holiday for the guests who
come onboard. What I am doing, what everybody onboard and the executives within
Carnival is working and striving for is to deliver the kind of product that people are
going to enjoy. You know it is not just a money making venture. It is a money making
venture for sure but the idea is that we are entertaining people, we are taking them to
their dream - - that is the destination of the cruise. We take that very seriously and we
really try our best to deliver that port of call to them.”
We also have photo tours and
commentaries on these other Carnival
ships:
Carnival Destiny
Carnival Freedom
Carnival Glory
Carnival Imagination
Carnival Legend
Carnival Miracle
Carnival Pride
Carnival Sensation
Carnival Splendor
Carnival Triumph
Carnival Valor
Carnival Victory
commentaries on these other Carnival
ships:
Carnival Destiny
Carnival Freedom
Carnival Glory
Carnival Imagination
Carnival Legend
Carnival Miracle
Carnival Pride
Carnival Sensation
Carnival Splendor
Carnival Triumph
Carnival Valor
Carnival Victory
Architect and designer Joe Farcus (Photos on this
page courtesy of Carnival Cruise Lines).
page courtesy of Carnival Cruise Lines).
Cruise ship interview - - Carnival Cruise Lines - - Joe Farcus - - Carnival Dream
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