A new musical, ‘Aladdin,’ will recharge the theatrical lineup, and the Royal Court restaurant with Italian mosaics and hand-blown glass pumpkin coaches is a slightly different version of the princess-themed Royal Palace on Disney Dream.
Why make changes?
‘We’re Disney. We don’t like to repeat ourselves,’ Joe Lanzisero, creative svp for Walt Disney Imagineering, the lead designer for the newbuild, told Seatrade Insider at a preview on Thursday. The company also has a loyal fan base with a high number of repeat cruisers and likes to show them something a little different from ship to ship.
Compared to the Art Deco look of Disney Dream’s lobby with its statue of Admiral Donald Duck, the Art Nouveau of Disney Fantasy with Minnie Mouse has peacock imagery (reminiscent of the artist Erté) and a palette of blue, green, pink and gold.
The Walt Disney Theatre will stage ‘Aladdin,’ a Broadway-style production of the animated classic, complete with a flying carpet made possible by projections, a fully rotating mechanical arm and smoke to give the illusion of clouds, said Jim Urry, vp entertainment for Disney Cruise Line.
‘Aladdin,’ with a new song for Disney Fantasy and an opening sequence using shadow puppetry, joins ‘Disney’s Believe’ (also running on Disney Dream), a third show still in development and the welcome and farewell productions.
A brand new space is Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, instead of what is a meeting room on Disney Dream. Here, youngsters can get princess makeovers by their own Fairy Godmother-in-training. Various packages will be available for purchase.
On pirate nights, skulls replace the princess slipper decorations as the room transforms into Pirate’s League where boys, girls and grownups can get decked out in eye patches, bandanas, beards and other buccaneer regalia.
Disney Fantasy reprises all the Disney Dream features such as the AquaDuck water coaster, the inside staterooms with their virtual portholes, the youth areas, the interactive artworks and the specialty restaurants Palo and Remy.
