Disney gives sneak peek of new cruise ship

By Robert Jenkins

PAPENBURG, Germany — New features on the Disney Fantasy were on display during a preview walkthrough of the partially-finished ship this week at the Meyer Werft shipyard. The ship makes its first revenue sailing on March 31. (View a slideshow of some of the new spaces here or by clicking on the photo.) 

Planners were motivated by traffic-flow and usage studies done on the Disney Dream, a sister ship that entered service a year ago. Among the major changes:

• A pool deck bar has been replaced by the AquaLab, an interactive splash park that squirts or drenches kids. There are two, 10-foot-long “leaky walls”; as a kid covers the water squirting from one hole, another gushes.

• The bars in the adults-only lounge area, Europa, will be set up in a hub-and-spoke fashion. At the center will be a circular entry bar whose lighting will evoke a carousel’s motion. The four themed bars will be slightly larger than the bars in the District, the adults’ entertainment area on the Dream.

• In the Animator’s Palate dining room, diners will be given placemats bearing the outline of a human figure. Each diner creates a sketch within this outline. The placemats are collected and scanned, and a computer places three of the figures in a clever animation that matches them to Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Pinocchio and others. In unison, they march and dance on the dining room monitors. Each of the nine dining room areas sees only the amateur sketches created by its diners.