By
Alex Smith |
Disney Cruise Line is to debut a new interactive experience called Disney Uncharted Adventure onboard its new cruise ship, Disney Wish.
Using the Play Disney Parks app, guests sailing on the ship will be able to use their mobile devices as a spyglass, unlocking puzzles and quests for them to complete.
“While guests will need a mobile device to play, this isn’t a traditional mobile gaming experience,” said Davey Feder, software product manager at Walt Disney Imagineering. “This is a heads-up, active experience that can be played with family and friends. The magic will happen all around the ship. The spyglass is not where the adventure takes place — it’s just the tool that brings the ship to life, opening portals into new worlds and allowing guests to interact with them.”
Leading up to a cruise on Disney Wish, the app will reveal a greeting from Disney characters Captain Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse, who will highlight the role played by the night sky in seafaring. Once onboard, guests will use their devices to reveal views of the stars above, with constellations taking the shape of icons from Disney and Pixar stories. The wishing star above them will then shatter into pieces, each landing in different areas of the ship. Guests will then need to explore Disney Wish to find each piece.
The search will lead them to find artwork, signs and props that transform to bring the characters and settings of Disney stories to life. Guests will work with the eponymous character Moana from the film Moana to navigate canoes beyond a reef, help Tiana from The Princess and the Frog cook a pot of her father’s gumbo, summon Tinker Bell from Peter Pan, and travel along the East Australian Current with characters from Finding Nemo.
“We are infusing the Disney Wish with innovative technology, like augmented reality and physical effects, to create a hidden layer of magic that can only be unlocked with Disney Uncharted Adventure,” Feder said. “Guests might admire a beautiful painting today without realising that, hiding right beneath the surface, there’s a hoard of mischievous Kakamora from the world of Moana just waiting to escape and wreak havoc on the ship. A digital menu board might showcase what’s for lunch in the afternoon, but later it will host a cooking lesson in Tiana’s own kitchen.”
The experience will then conclude in a finale hosted in one of the ship’s entertainment venues. Guests will gather with other players to defeat a Disney villain and restore the wishing star to the sky. Completing every quest will not be required to take part in the final event, and families can choose to play together on up to six devices at once, or to team up on one or two devices.
Disney Wish will sail its maiden voyage on 9 June 2022, followed by a season of three- and four-night cruises to Nassau in The Bahamas, and Disney’s private island Castaway Cay from Port Canaveral, Florida.