When I went on our first cruise aboard the Disney Dream, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the day’s Navigator.  Being a little bit of a Disney research junkie, I knew that the Navigator would list all the events and activities that would take place on the ship that day, any special information for the day’s port of call, and any special offers.  I immediately highlighted all the events our family wanted to attend – it was like Disney on overdrive and it was an awesome way to kick start our vacation.

While the Navigator still exists today and is a quintessential part of every Disney cruise, Disney is also keeping up with the times by having the Disney Cruise Line app.  The app doesn’t really do much when you are not on the ship; it gives you a countdown for your upcoming cruise and some basic information, but that’s about it.  But once you are connected to the ship’s WiFi, the app undergoes a big magical Disney transformation and many cool features are unlocked!  So here’s a behind-the-scenes look at the Disney Cruise Line app once you are onboard:

You don’t have to worry about paying for WiFi to use the app onboard.  You can use the WiFi absolutely free to access the app.  (If you want to check your personal email or browse the web though, you do have to pony up some change.)

Just like the Navigator, the app is your key to all the activities (and corresponding locations and hours) on the ship.  If you wanted to belt out some Tina Turner tunes, for example, you could look up the time for the karaoke challenge.  If you wanted to see the Ant-Man movie and wondered where the Buena Vista Theater was located, you could also see that on the app.  And if you needed to get your hands on the latest Disney merch, you could also see the list of shops and hours of operation.

The welcome page of the app has a wealth of information.  You can easily see deboarding and onboarding times for the day’s port of call.  Very important information, because as our cruise director Christian said, if you miss the boat, make sure you take out your camera and take a picture because seeing the Dream sail away into the sunset is a pretty sight to behold.  But scroll to the right and you’ll see other important information, like the featured entertainment for the evening or the featured drink of the day!  Who wants a Paradise Punch right about now?

The menu on the left hand side easily gives you access to all the information that can be found on the app.  From this menu, you can use the onboard chat, view all the activities scheduled for the day, view dining menus, see where everything is located on the ship, take a look at the deck plans, review debarkation information, and so much more.

The onboard chat feature allows you to send a text message to anyone using the app on the ship.  When you log onto the app and use the chat feature for the first time, the app will ask you to register, and then you will receive a unique number.  You can give this number to others in your party, and they can use that to locate you and send you a text.  I can tell you that the onboard chat feature was very convenient and easy to use.  We hardly ever used the wave phones, and only brought it with us when we dropped off the kids at Oceaneer Club.

The activities page lists all the activities happening on the ship for the ENTIRE cruise.  This is the app’s biggest advance over the Navigator.  The activities section gives you a chronological view of the day’s activities, but you can also pick a different day to see activities happening on future days of your cruise.  Let’s say you really wanted to participate in the Trivia Challenge – if you select the activity, you would see all the dates/times that same event is happening throughout the cruise.  This was enormously helpful, particularly with character meet-and-greets.  My girls missed seeing Tinkerbell on the second night of the cruise, but we found that she also had appearances at two other times.

You can mark your favorite activities, just like you would in the Navigator.  My kids love going to the Oceaneer Club, so we marked that as a favorite on the app.  The app allows you to only view activities that are marked as favorites, which makes is easier and/or faster to go through the list of activities.

You can easily view the menus for all the dining rooms.  Who doesn’t want a preview of all those mouth-watering dishes?  I mean, I could easily go for that Black Bear’s Jumbo Crab Cake and the Treasure-of-the-Seas Grilled Shrimp and Seared Scallops.  (Excuse me for a second while I wipe the drool off my face.)

You can also see the menu for room service!  If dining in the main dining room is not your thing, don’t fret!  The menu for room service is also at your fingertips.  I did not get a chance to order any food items from the room service menu during our last cruise, but I’ll share this little tip: I ordered  a carafe of coffee every night.  When I woke up first thing in the morning, I would make my coffee (still piping hot!) while enjoying the views outside my balcony.

You can view deck plans on the app as well.  This feature was incredibly convenient when I was walking around late at night trying to deliver our fish extender gifts!

So as you can see, the Disney Cruise Line app is loaded with information, and lets you really plan your activities.  For my family, it only made our vacation more enjoyable and gave us more things to look forward to throughout the day.  Make sure you download the app before your next cruise too!

Hi there, I’m Myra and I’m a huge Disney nerd and addict!  I’m also an Independent Travel Agent at World of Magic Travel, the preferred agency of Chip and Co. and Disney Addicts.  I’m happy to help you plan your next Disney cruise, visit my page or send me an email at [email protected] to get started!