Disney Cruise Line is known for its big, Broadway-style theater shows as well as its dinner theater productions. But Disney's Wish class of ships - especially the new Disney Destiny - offer plenty of live theater for guests in other locations, as well.
Guests board Disney Destiny through its Grand Hall. While the large, open space provides a natural focal point for the ship, Disney's Imagineers have designed the space to function as a theater, as well. The DCL's Navigator app will detail what productions can be found in the Grand Hall on each day of your cruise.
Today, I watched a performance of "Sleeping Beauty: A Mostly Accurate Tale." As that name suggests, this is not going to be a Walt Disney Theatre-style production that plays straight with a famous Disney animated film. Instead, we get the Destiny's two traveling storytellers presenting the story of Aurora and Maleficent in an abbreviated, story theater format.
Disney's Grand Hall allows for easy use of audience interaction within productions. And the storytellers made use of that here, calling audience members to play roles in the show. The storytellers are at their best when improving with guests, as that affords the opportunity to go off-script and do something fun and unexpected with what are very familiar tales for many adult Disney fans.
(FWIW, Aurora's mom's name is Queen Leah. There was a Star Wars joke right there....) The storytellers are not limited to the Grand Hall. You will find them also appearing in Disney Destiny's other flexible theater space, Saga.
That's the same two-level space known as Sarabi on Disney Treasure and Luna on Disney Wish. Last night, the storytellers took the Saga stage for an adults-only show, "With Great Power: A Marvel Comedy Show." While Disney limits this show to guests ages 18 and older, there's not much that I would consider truly "adult" in this or any other DCL production. It's just that the language and content gets pushes PG-13, rather sticking with the all-ages, family-friendly content in other DCL shows.
"With Great Power" allows the storytellers to lean into absurdity, as they play characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe in an hour-long revue. Simple puppets (including literal sock puppets) and props help amplify the absurdity in recreating the notoriously expensive-to-produce MCU. But Saga offers some nifty tech for a small theater, with a large screen that this show puts to good use by allowing Deadpool to crash the production.
Saga also hosts "Under Her Spell: A Maleficent Encounter." The Sleeping Beauty villain holds court on the Saga stage for a 10-minute presentation in which the theater gets to show off its tech while the Queen of All Evil vamps with selected (picked-upon?) audience members. It all leads into a meet and greet for those who wish to stay after the brief show.
These are just a few of the dozens of shows and theatrical character encounters that guests can find on Disney Destiny. I have written this before, but Disney Cruise Line is the theater nerd's cruise line. Without a casino or cocktail packages to keep visitors entertained, Disney leans heavily into live theater and storytelling performances on its ships. Yes, that makes Disney more expensive. (Gamblers' losses in the casino really do help subsidize fares on other cruise lines.) But if you love the personal, emotional engagement of seeing actors on stage bringing stories to life, a Disney cruise delivers.
For my overview of Disney Destiny, upon which I am sailing this week for its media preview cruise, please see Everything you need to know about Disney’s new cruise ship.
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Did you get to experience Dr. Facilia's Santorum? That was interesting but I was expecting some special FX the way other cruisers raved about it. The actor was great and he did close up card magic but that was it.