Disney Cruise Line: Other Things to Do

We’ve covered the most important things so far: where to swim, sleep, eat, and drink, what else is left?

So many things!

If you think that’s all you have left to do on the Disney Fantasy think again! There are TONS of activities every day and night for both kids and adults, all outlined daily in your ship newsletter (which will be placed on your bed along with a delightful towel animal every day)

These sorts of things include magic shows, trivia, karaoke and show times. Shows? Why yes!

Not only can you watch movies on deck, but in one of the two movie theaters (complete with balcony!) and there are also live shows to entertain you nightly. For the live shows there are two showings a night so that no matter what dinner seating you have you always have a chance to catch the show. In true Disney fashion, they are extravagant musicals which you really should make the time to see. When we were there we got to see the Aladdin musical (a flying carpet in the middle of the ocean, so cool!) but we were also treated to recent movies like War Horse, Real Steel, and the Muppet Movie. 

One of the only things that made us sad to be on the cruise was that we were going to miss the opening of the Avengers movie. We consoled ourselves that once we were back in port in Florida we would see it first thing. So imagine how happy we were when they made a special announcement one day…

They would be showing Avengers at midnight the day it was released!! We got to see the Avengers in 3D along with the rest of the world. It was amazing, of course. 

But maybe you aren’t a show person. It’s cool, I get it. I’m usually not a show person when it comes to parks. So what else is there to do? Well there’s always shopping! 

There are several shops on board that cater to whatever your heart desires–clothing, high end jewelry, alcohol, and your standard Disney fare. 

Want something a bit more relaxing than retail therapy? I highly recommend hitting up Senses Spa and Salon. We had booked a couples massage (so romantic!) and I had booked a separate facial treatment. Now there’s a couple things I will warn you about: they hard sell you on things you A. don’t want and B. didn’t book. When I did my facial I had booked a specific one, but when I went in the lady looked at my skin and suggested we do another one for my skin type instead. Now, I don’t know anything about my skin except that I wanted one facial and I was offered another. And when I say “offered” I mean, I got a really, really hard sell. It was super awkward and not at all relaxing, so finally I just relented and got whatever one it was she picked. It was nice enough, sure, but then at the end of whatever treatment you get you get yet another hard sell for whatever products they just gave to you. So I’d say that one was 10% relaxation and 90% awkward hard sell.

However, the massage? Totally, totally worth it! If we could have afforded it we would have booked another one! This one at the very beginning we got yet another “up sell” for not just a massage, but a hot rock massage. We agreed.

Oh. My. God.

It was amazing. While initially we had been a little hesitant (had we just been upsold on something we wouldn’t enjoy?) it was probably the best part of the whole thing. We loved it. LOVED it! Neither of us had ever really had a massage before and it was simply amazing. I highly, highly suggest you do the same!

Funny story though: there’s separate rooms for men and women to change of course. So even though we came in as a couple we were handed bathrobes and taken to different rooms to change. I went into the (very nice) changing area and put on my bathrobe, which I thought was a little big, but what did I know? So I went out to the waiting area (an EXTREMELY nice and relaxing area with flavored water and nice music) and waited for my husband, Adam, to come out. He did a few moments later, looking very uncomfortable. “Is your bathrobe REALLY short?” he asked me. They had accidentally given us the wrong robes! Laughing, we very quickly swapped robes and were then much more comfortable and had a great time.

But maybe you’re on a budget what with being on a cruise, which is not cheap! Thankfully there are plenty of free things to do on the ship, my favorite of which were the scavenger hunts. There are three (or there were when we were there, there may be more these days!) that you can choose from and they are GREAT ways to get to know the ship! Just be ready to do a LOT of walking. You basically have to solve a mystery and to do so you have to go up and down the entire ship to find clues to figure out the solution. Our favorite one was the Muppets version–so adorable and kind of tricky! I won’t go into them too much because I don’t want to spoil anything, but I HIGHLY recommend that you start your trip with at least one of these. You’ll know your way around in no time and have a blast doing it.