You Suggest, I Pick the Best

A few months ago, Disney released their first ever artist's rendering of their three new ships, which are scheduled to launch in 2021, 22, and 23.  It was very exciting, but didn't tell very much about what the ships will feature.

In a previous post, I went over what I want Disney to include on their new ships, but now I want to hear from you!  What new features are you hoping for?  What kind of new itineraries will we get when these new ships launch?  Where will Disney put their four current ships?  Will there be an interactive onboard game like the Dream and Fantasy's Midship Detective Agency?  Will I stop asking questions?

Probably not.

If you want to tell the world what you want, feel free to leave a comment.  I'll read your suggestions and feature some of the best ideas in a future post!

20 Years of Disney Magic

Wait, that can't be right!  Disney's been around way longer than 20 years, right?  That's true, but exactly 20 years ago the Disney Magic set sail on it's first ever cruise.  The first ever Disney cruise.  The first ever people at Disney's cruise terminal.  The first ever...

Okay, you probably get it by now.  The Magic was completed and launched 20 years ago.  It has been kept up so well that it still looks and feels brand new.  If there's a small scratch on the side of the ship, someone will fix it right away.  Have you ever seen a light out on a Disney cruise?  Me neither.  There's always work being done to ensure every single guest onboard has the best possible vacation.  Last year, when I was on a short cruise on the Dream, I went to an event where an entertainer talked about the design of the ships, including the color.  The dark blue paint color is harder to maintain than standard white, and needs to be repainted more often.  That just shows how much that Disney cares about their ships.  I'm not sure if there is any celebration happening on the Magic today, but there might have been an announcement of some kind.

Happy birthday, Disney Magic!

Disney Fantasy Made Inaugural Call to Nassau

And it was...


Uneventful.  The port did nothing special to celebrate this eventful occasion.  This is probably because the Fantasy is now six years old, and its sister ship, the Dream, visits Nassau multiple times a week.  Well, at least it happened, and now we know that all of the Disney Cruise Line ships have been to Nassau.  I hope those Nassau people make a bigger effort to celebrate when the future Disney Cruise ships go their for the first time.  As long as it doesn't happen six years into their time of service.

Disney Fantasy to Make Inaugural Call in Nassau, Bahamas

It's finally here!  The Fantasy is going to Nassau!  It's hard to believe that in its six years of service it has never made a stop there.  The Dream certainly has.  Anyway, this odd visit is because of an eleven night cruise that ended earlier this week.  The Fantasy is currently on a three night cruise, stopping at Nassau and Castaway Cay, to get back on the normal schedule (Seven night cruises leaving every Saturday).  I'm not sure what will happen when the Fantasy arrives, but I will be watching portnassauwebcam.com today, and I will (try to) update later with a full summary of what happened.

I'm sure whoever is on the Fantasy now will have a fantastic time (I feel like I've used that one before :\)!

The NEW Disney Cruise Line Navigator App!

Yesterday, an update was made available for the Disney Cruise Line Navigator app for Android and iOS.  This update changed a lot and even fixed the countdown!!  Take a look:

They made it good again!  If you update the app, the little Disney Cruise ship moves around the bottom of the screen.  Also, the zeros are now Disney characters!  But I'm wondering (pun not intended) why they had that old version.
You know, the bad version:

I've narrowed down the possibilities.  The old version might have been a filler for the countdown while they made the new one.  But if that's true, then why didn't Disney just keep the good old one:

The other possibility is that the bad old version was going to be the current version.  At least, until the developers read some of the app reviews.  Bland.  Un-Disney.  Where's the magic?  Since Disney Cruises are amazing, magical vacations, why shouldn't the app look amazing and magical?  Hmm...

I'm actually kind of surprised.  I like the new look of the app the most.  It's colorful, fun, and entertaining to see what characters make the zeros.  I was also surprised that when I opened the app after updating, there was a completely different look.  The app's update notes only said "...we've added more magic to our introduction screens and made it even easier to access the dinner menus..."  After reading this, I was thinking, "Oh great, I need to access the dinner menus.  Great.  BUT WHAT ABOUT THE COUNTDOWN?"  Lucky for all those people getting on a cruise this week, they can access the dinner menu with ease.  Oh yeah, and the app looks totally different.  No way, the dinner menus are way more important

Here are some more app screenshots:

My only complaint with the app is that to swipe to the different pages of the app, you can't swipe near the cruise ship, you have to do it higher up.  It's not a big problem, but it might some time to get used to.

Overall, I am extremely happy with the new app, and I hope that it doesn't get ruined like the last one.  Hopefully Disney learned from their mistakes and won't do it again.  But if they do...  I'll write them a 5 paragraph review on why they should have kept the old version the same.  Let's just hope they don't change it.

So for some reason, the European Union (I live in the USA) wants me to say that this site uses cookies for data and stuff like that.  Don't eat them, they probably don't taste very good.  Okay, EU, now you can't say I didn't warn my many (probably less than 15) readers about cookies.  Don't eat them!

The Disney Cruise Line Navigator App

Earlier this year, Disney completely changed their Disney Cruise Line Navigator app in an update.  It completely redid the look,

I like the old version better, it actually looks like a Disney app.

While the new version is great, it doesn't look much like a Disney app.  It feels more like a generic countdown app.  The new version updated the onboard deck plans, improved chat, and enhanced overall performance.  I haven't been able to try it on a cruise, but I hope the chat is better.  It wasn't very reliable, because you were supposed to keep the app running to receive messages.  Even with the app open, sometimes messages took a long time to send.  Occasionally, they didn't even send!  Let's hope they fixed that issue.

Some more screenshots from the app:

Even with this issue, the app is still really helpful to have.  I used it to check character appearances, look at the dinner menu (at breakfast), to check daily activities, and other things.  It's basically a Personal Navigator on your phone.  It's nice not to have to carry a big flier around with you wherever you go.  They definitely didn't have this in 1998.

Oh wait, they might have.

A Cap-Tivating Souvineir

When my family and I went on the Disney Wonder earlier this year, I wanted something to remember the trip.  On one of the later days in the trip, I saw a kid wearing a hat with autographs from various Disney characters.  That gave me an idea.  Later that day, I went to White Caps, and bought a...

White cap!!

The hat didn't come with Mickey's autograph, I had to work for that.  I checked the schedule, found when Mickey would be out, and went to where he'd be.  There was already a line.  I waited, until it was finally my turn.  I asked the photographer if I could get my hat signed, and she gave it to Mickey Mouse to sign.  She took a picture, and I left, excited to show off my latest piece of Disney Cruise Line merchandise.

If you ever want a hat like this, they are on any of the 4 Disney cruise ships.  Probably.  The selection changes every so often.  This hat cost $25, and I think it was worth it.  Who doesn't want a hat signed by Mickey Mouse?

Also, at the time of publishing, this blog has been around for over a year now!  It has been a great experience, and I really like getting reader feedback.  Your input helps me make this blog better!

Finally, I just want to give a shout out to the kid who gave me the idea for the hat, whoever he is...

Disney Wonder Now on the US's West Coast

What?  Already?

Yes.  Already.

The Wonder on the East Coast

On Friday, April 13th, the Disney Wonder made its way through the Panama Canal on a 14-night cruise.  I feel like it's going out west earlier than previous years, but I may be wrong.  The highlight of cruises on the west coast are the Alaskan cruises, but the Wonder doesn't go that far north yet.  It will stay closer to Mexico and do a few cruises from San Diego.  The California cruises aren't too long, with a few that are too short.  That includes the 2-Night Baja cruises.  2 nights.  The first night, you board the ship and unpack, the second night, you pack your suitcases!  The first dinner is the 'Welcome Aboard" one, and the second one is the "Sea You Real Soon!" one.  I think that cruise would be a waste of time.  I'd much rather pay more for a 3rd night, so that I'd have a day to not worry about unpacking or packing.  After the Wonder finishes these cruises, it will go north to Alaska, cruise from there, and go back to California.  Then, it will go back through the canal in October, and then go all over the Caribbean.  Finally, in February 2019, it will go through the canal again!  I thought April was early, but February...  Wow.

Art's a Good Start!

You know it's getting (somewhat) close when this happens.

Recently, Disney released their first artist's rendering of their NEW SHIPS!  Man, I am so excited! The art looks very similar to the Dream and Fantasy, but with some obvious differences.  Probably the most obvious is the sections of the ship that look to bump out. They are probably there to add larger verandahs or larger rooms.  Or, they may be there so the ships can be different from all of the other ships. There's also what seems to be an AquaDuck, which would be amazing, but Disney might add more to it.  Maybe there's two lanes, double the riders, half the wait. Or maybe there will be more sections where it dips down and goes back up. Who knows? Not me.

If you look up above the bridge, you can see at least two more decks of rooms!  This might be where the Concierge rooms are, or just some extra normal rooms.

Also, it seems that they are keeping up with the dual funnel design, adding more space higher up.  What will they use this space for? My guess is a teen or tween club, because this is how they were used on the four previous ships.

I don't see a sports deck, but I'm hoping it's up forward, similar to what they did on the Magic and Wonder.  The Dream and Fantasy's one in aft is still great, but I found it was always windy. You'd think that if it was forward, there'd be even more wind, but this is not the case.  There is a large wind wall, made of glass, that prevents your table tennis game from getting out of hand. The ball is very light, which makes it very difficult to play in the wind.  I also like it better up front because kids can look out in front of the ship. The Dream and Fantasy have an adult only area there, but seriously, adults have the Quiet Cove area and the Cove Café and the bars and the spa and the gym and, oh man, that was a lot.  My point is that KIDS like looking in front of the ship, and it is a great place to take photos for a blog. Of course, I doubt many kids would want to 'waste time' making a blog about Disney Cruise Line, but there are some. Like me. But, the adults are the ones paying, so I'll give them a reason why they should have all these cool areas.

I think the one big thing we NEED is a bigger pool.  Maybe about double the size of Goofy's Pool on the Magic and Wonder.  Also, I've heard some people hoping for a lazy river. This seems more important to adults, so it should loop around the Quiet Cove pool.  I'd also like more waterslides, not just the AquaDuck and a kid sized one. If you've seen what Royal Caribbean does, they have multiple slides that are pretty big.  If you've been on the Magic or Wonder recently, you had to have noticed the Twist 'N Spout slide, but I'd like multiple Twist 'N Spouts. Less wait time, more slide variety, and less crowds would make being at the pool much better, and more enjoyable.

It's really a shame we'll have to wait until 2021 until the first new ship enters service, but Disney will probably give us more details before then.
Well, it looks like that's about it! I think that's about all of the obvious stuff, if you notice I forgot something, please leave a comment letting me know!

Disney Magic NO LONGER in Dry Dock

Edit:  The Magic is now out of dry dock.  It  has resumed sailing.  Hopefully guests will enjoy the new improvements.

I'm a few weeks late, but the Magic is now in Freeport, Bahamas for a dry dock renovation. This one won't be as large as the one it had back in 2013, but some areas around the ship will be changed.

Probably the most obvious one is Carioca's, the Brazillian themed rotational restaurant.  This was added in the 2013 dry dock, and now...  they're replacing it with Rapunzel's Royal Table, a Tangled themed restaurant.  It will go along well with the Magic-Exclusive show, Tangled:  The Musical.  When I was on the Magic in 2015, we saw this show, and I really liked it.  Especially the puppet horse, Maximus.  This is kind of random, but Royal Table will make the Wonder the only ship without a restaurant with the word 'royal' in it.  Speaking of the Wonder, I think it will be the Magic's equivalent of Tiana's Place, with possible live music, but that made me think.  How would Disney put live music into a restaurant themed to a movie that didn't really focus on music.  Although, there was the Snuggly Duckling scene, where they played fast paced, loud music.  I wouldn't want to eat dinner to that.  Whatever Disney is doing, it must be a lot, because they closed off Carioca's for a few weeks before the dry dock started.  I don't know they can make this restaurant work, but, work your Magic, Disney (pun intended)!

The Quiet Cove adult area will also be changed a bit.  I don't know what it looked like before, or what it will look like after, so on to the next thing!

Finally, Vibe will be changed.  I'm not too sure how it looked before as well, but judging by the Wonder's, it has a homey feel to it, completely different from the Dream and Fantasy's high tech theme.  I hope to go on the Magic in the future to see how it's being changed.

This is completely unrelated, but my blog has almost been going for a year!  It's been a fun experience, but there are still some things I'm working out.  Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading this article!