Skeletal fish sing and dance in a spooky aquarium, eyes peer and blink from cobwebbed portraits and the spirits are well and truly out of the bottle.
Welcome to the Haunted Mansion parlour aboard the new Disney Treasure cruise ship. Here, drinkers can sample cocktails such as The Chilling Challenge, Happily Never After and Final Vow. If you fancy somewhere a little less ominous, dive into the Periscope Pub, inspired by 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, where a display of ‘water’ shimmering on the ceiling gives the impression of being in a submarine.
Any other cruise line would be worried about having mice on board. But with Disney, Mickey and Minnie are the stars of the show in every way. They and pals such as Donald Duck and Goofy lead singing and dancing and pop up around the ship, waving to guests and greeting children.
Mickey and Minnie even have their own 760ft water ride – AquaMouse – which propels riders on inflatable rafts around a series of clear tubes way above the top deck. But it’s not only classic cartoon characters on board the 4,000-passenger ship, which I joined on a preview cruise from Port Canaveral, Florida, ahead of its highly anticipated maiden voyage last week.
French Polynesian princess Moana stars in a stunning new stage version of the film. As you might expect with Disney, production and performance levels match – or even exceed – those in the West End or Broadway. Hawaiian actress Kaena Kekoa is impressive in the central role as she navigates sinister sea mists and confronts giant puppets.
The other main theatre show is the Beauty and the Beast, sending you away with a song on your lips and a smile on your face, while Minnie and Goofy lead a show rounding up familiar faces from a catalogue stuffed with hits in Seas The Adventure. As Disney the company has grown, acquiring such names as Pixar, Star Wars and Marvel, the range of characters has grown too.
Marvel heroes feature in one of the many restaurants, while Pixar star Miguel leads a dinner performance in a new Mexican eatery, Plaza de Coco. With seven pools, quiet areas and adult-only bars to choose from on board, you don’t have to be a diehard Disney fan (or even a parent with children) to enjoy the cruise.
The theme of the ship is adventure. As soon as you step on board, to be greeted by your name being announced to clapping entertainment staff, you enter the Grand Hall, featuring a statue of Aladdin and Jasmin. There’s plenty of carpet as well – not flying but laid across the floor of the eye-catching three-deck atrium.
One highlight for me was pirates night, with a band blaring out rock versions of popular tunes before fireworks exploded above.
You won’t go hungry, either. Disney has a system where the same waiters greet you at different venues over three nights. I started in Worlds of Marvel, ate the following evening in 1923 – named after the year that Walt Disney Animation Studios was founded – and ended my short culinary tour in Plaza de Coco.
The dishes were delicious. But I think you can also tell a lot about a cruise line’s cuisine by its buffet and I enjoyed a beautifully cooked slice of sirloin, along with mash and other sides, at the Marceline Market. Of course, plenty of fast food is on offer, but you’d be wrong to think the fare is all burgers, pizzas and chips.
For an especially upmarket evening, begin with cocktails at The Rose lounge, followed by dinner at posh restaurant Enchanté.
There’s even a bourbon bar hidden in the men’s hairdressers, while new venue Skipper Society is based on the Disney ride Jungle Cruise. As you would expect, children are well catered for, with clubs for all ages from infants to teens, allowing parents to have some ‘us’ time as well.
And it’s not only youngsters who will be drooling over the offerings at Jumbeaux’s Sweets ice-cream parlour. When it comes to accommodation, you can’t do much better than the Tomorrow Tower Suite, which fills most of the forward funnel – a dummy fixture, in case you were wondering. The apartment can sleep up to eight people in two main bedrooms, a library/bedroom and a children’s room.
But if your budget doesn’t stretch to that, 70% of the rooms have balconies and 451 have interconnecting doors to keep families together. You can chill (or sweat) in the Senses Spa or relax in front of the latest releases in a cinema. In fact, the only thing Disney ships don’t have is a casino.
As for the itinerary, I began with a night at Disney World, Orlando, where in the morning I was allocated a coach to Port Canaveral. My three-night cruise included a stop at Castaway Cay, the line’s own island. Here I spent some hours in a private cabana at the adult-only Serenity Bay, swinging on a hammock or walking down the sandy beach to take a dip.
This was followed by a relaxing sea day before returning to port. Disney Treasure is a sister ship to Disney Wish, launched in 2022, and is the sixth member of a fleet which is scheduled to have 13 vessels by 2031. Next year will see the introduction of Disney Destiny in the US and the 6,000-passenger Disney Adventure in Asia. This giant ship, snapped up in its early stages from another cruise line that had gone bust, will feature the line’s first roller coaster.
At Disneyland, California, Walt Disney wrote: “Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.” The same could be said of these ships, which embrace the past, future and the reign of imagination.
My verdict – if you can rediscover your inner child, you’ll love it. It’s a whole new world…
Book the holiday
Disney Cruise Line offers seven nights on Disney Treasure, sailing from Port Canaveral, Florida, on September 20 and calling at Cozumel, Mexico; George Town, Grand Cayman; Falmouth, Jamaica; and Castaway Cay (The Bahamas) from £2,703pp including return flights from Heathrow to Orlando. disneyholidays.co.uk
More info at
visitflorida.com
visitmexico.com
visitcaymanislands.com
visitjamaica.com
