Star Wars, Marvel, wet Mickey and hidden stars: Disney Cruise Line offers up Disney Wish behind-the-scenes look

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Disney Cruise Line is letting loose little armies of Imagineers to make its new ship Disney Wish something special. The vessel arriving to Port Canaveral in summer 2022 is filled with unique offerings, with each one championed by a creative talent that is part of the company’s design arm, Walt Disney Imagineering.

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Star Wars, Marvel, wet Mickey and hidden stars: Disney Cruise Line offers up Disney Wish behind-the-scenes look

 

Images of Disney Wish, the fifth cruise ship coming to Disney Cruise Line that will sail out of Port Canaveral beginning ...

 

Disney Cruise Line is letting loose little armies of Imagineers to make its new ship Disney Wish something special. The vessel arriving to Port Canaveral in summer 2022 is filled with unique offerings, with each one championed by a creative talent that is part of the company’s design arm, Walt Disney Imagineering.

While many have their hands in many pots, be it Star Wars, Marvel or Frozen, some take the lead on certain projects to get the work done.

“We have our fingertips on just an endless supply of stories to put on our ships,” said Portfolio Creative Executive Laura Cabo, who is heading up all of the projects on board. She looks forward to translating them to the cruise experience, which is different than the theme parks. “If we tell a Star Wars story, it’s going to be told on an elegant, elevated level.”

Disney Imagineers work on features coming to new cruise ship Disney Wish. (Walt Disney Co.)

The company recently previewed some of the behind-the-scenes work on the new spaces coming to the 144,000-gross-ton ship, showing off what will be its marquee attractions coming to life in backlot trailers and off-Disney property warehouses.

That includes something new that will interact with the spaces using a cell phone. Using the existing Play Disney Parks app, Disney Wish will be offering up “Disney Uncharted Adventure,” a game that turns your smartphone into a spyglass that lets you see hidden Disney-themed constellations in the sky and then embark on a scavenger hunt around the ship interacting with objects and artwork.

The key to the game’s storyline is the biggest star in the sky, the wishing star, which is coveted by Disney villain Ursula from “The Little Mermaid.” The star shatters into pieces that are thrown into the far-flung corners of Disney and Pixar-themed universes such as Tiana’s New Orleans from “The Princess & the Frog” as well as adventures with Peter Pan, Moana and Nemo.

Disney Imagineer Davey Feder demonstrates the interactive game Disney Uncharted Adventure coming to new cruise ship Disney Wish. (Walt Disney Co.)

Travelers can team up as a family to solve puzzles and games throughout the ship similar to the Midship Detective Agency on Disney Dream and Fantasy, except this one raises the bar with a lot more stories, games and places on board with which people will interact.

“It’s a team experience. We want everyone working together,” said Davey Feder, the software product manager leading the game’s creation. He said it’s accessible to everyone, “whether they’re tech-savvy or a technophobe.”

Feder said the game culminates in a finale showdown in which all passengers can join in for what gamers would call a Boss Battle, where the combined efforts of the crowd in one venue take on the villain near the end of the cruise.

With less than 10 months to go before the ship’s debut, Feder has some more time to work out all the details, while other Imagineers are closer to the finish line before their efforts are installed at the German shipyard where Disney Wish is being constructed.

Disney Imagineers Laura Cabo, right, and Danny Handke work on a demo model of the AquaMouse ride coming to new cruise ship Disney Wish. (Walt Disney Co.)

That includes the signature water ride attraction on the top deck, the AquaMouse, a mashup between a signature Disney dark ride and the popular water coaster found on Disney Dream and Fantasy.

Imagineer Sachi Handke displayed the ride float that will take up to two passengers and the Mickey and Minnie Mouse-themed animation that will be part of the dark ride, a slow trek in which an animated story centered around the mice’s ill-conceived Port Misadventures company.

Handke said there will be nine screens playing a short cartoon cut up into 7-second clips, with each clip featuring something that if you were in the scene would get you wet. Each screen is surrounded by 60 nozzle sprayers that will nail the riders in a variety of ways.

“At this point in the attraction, you’re completely soaked. You have no hope of staying dry,” she said.

She’s also been working on more than one storyline for the ride, so on different days, people will get different experiences. The latest is called Swiss Meltdown, in which Mickey & Minnie “really want to take you on a sledding excursion, but the sun comes out and the snow begins to melt.”

Handke said the animation features a lot of Easter eggs, so it may take a few rides to catch them all. The wait, though, should not be as long as the similar rides on Dream and Fantasy.

While the water coaster is the star on the top decks, inside the ship there are other gems. They include the Star Wars: Hyperspace Lounge, an attraction primarily targeted for adults, although kids will be able to check it out during the day.

Disney Imagineers work on a model for Star Wars: Hyperspace Lounge coming to new cruise ship Disney Wish. (Walt Disney Co.)

While similar attractions are coming to Walt Disney World, concept designer Nick Snyder said it will be unique.

“We’re looking to be as exclusive for our space for Disney Cruise Line. We always want to plus up the experience,” Snyder said. The space will be immersive, even to the point of being able to serve brand alcohol in Star Wars-themed containers.

“You’ll never see a bottle of Jack Daniels,” said concept designer Nick Snyder.

The space will be filled with references and “have something for you to look at from the novice fan to the expert fan,” Snyder said. That includes holograms and “oddities” in jars, and a massive window into space that will cycle through multiple planets using high definition with a resolution that’s equivalent to squeezing four full-size move screens into one room.

Each stop will be orbiting a planet from the Star Wars universe like Tatooine and Coruscant married with hundreds of spaceships from the films and TV shows.

That theme continues at the Marvel-themed restaurant coming on board the ship.

Disney Imagineers work on a model for the Worlds of Marvel restaurant coming to new cruise ship Disney Wish. (Walt Disney Co.)

Danny Handke, a senior creative director, has his hands full with the “Avengers: Quantum Encounter” show that will accompany diners at the new Worlds of Marvel restaurant. At its core will be a prop known as the Quantum Core, a hands-on piece of technology at every diner’s table that will let them shrink and grow an everyday object, if only on screens, in the spirit of Ant-Man.

The dinner plays out as a three-act structure, so people know when to enjoy the food inspired by real and fictitious Marvel lands like New York and Wakanda. It culminates in diners helping the heroes defeat Ultron, the villain from the second Avengers movie.

Cabo said all of the stories, no matter if pulling from Disney, Pixar, Star Wars or Marvel will have the level of detail developed by the Imagineers that will impress when people finally sail.

“They pour their heart and soul in this,” she said. “The team has left no stone unturned.”

 

 

Richard Tribou

Orlando Sentinel