Overheard in the elevator, a boy, perhaps 8, says to his mother, “I love this ship mommy. You know how much I love it?”

“How much?” she asks.

“So much that I’m going to live on it.”

Perhaps the kid should take a look at ResidenSea’s live-aboard ship The World if he plans to pitch camp at sea for good, but for vacations, it’s easy to see why kids would love Carnival Dream.

For starters, more than 19,000 square feet of space is dedicated to children, ‘tweens and teens. Next, there’s Carnival WaterWorks, the largest aqua park at sea. WaterWorks features a 303-foot-long, four-deck-high Twister water slide, the longest at sea, and a 104-foot long spiral water slide known as the DrainPipe. It leads into a giant funnel for an exhilarating conclusion down the slippery slope. There’s also a pair of dual-lane 80-foot-long racing slides and various water spray apparatus with squirting fountains, splash zones, “dump buckets” and more.

Supervised programs cater to thee age groups: Camp Carnival (ages 2-11), Circle “C” (12-14) and Club O2 (15-17).

A new category of accommodations features deluxe ocean-view staterooms with two bathrooms (one with a junior tub). And many accommodations can sleep up to five guests.

Carnival Cruise Lines carries more than 625,000 children annually aboard its 22-vessel “Fun Ship” fleet. That’s equivalent to filing six of Carnival’s Fantasy-class vessels for an entire year, or to put it another way, roughly half of the total number of kids carried by the entire North American cruise industry.

Carnival Dream will sail year-round from Port Canaveral, Florida, on eastern and western Caribbean itineraries, including new calls at Mahogany Bay, Carnival’s new port in Roatan.

Photos provided courtesy of Andy Newman.