This is one time you'll want to encourage kids to color inside the lines. Grown-ups, too.
Just before dinner, as Mickey Mouse appears on large monitors around the room, our placemats are whisked away. While we eat (have you ever tried buttered popcorn soup?) we're treated to a montage of famous food-themed moments from Disney cartoons (think Lady and the Tramp sharing that strand of spaghetti). But the piece de resistance isn't dessert, though the warm chocolate lava cake certainly is yummy. It's the magic that has animated our rudimentary green stick drawings and brought them to life on the huge screens around the dining room. Your characters march and skip and dance with Mickey, Jiminy Cricket, Cinderella and Snow White.
Wow! Even the jaded 17 year olds I'm with are impressed. At the end of the show, each of our names -- as we signed them on our placemat -- is listed on the credits as "guest animator." We leave the dining room smiling, clutching our drawing that has been returned embossed with a gold seal proclaiming each of us an "Official Disney Animator."
There's the first onboard Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique where little girls were patiently waiting in their princess gowns to be transformed into princesses with special updos, including one with multicolored hair, sparkly nail polish, eyes shadow and face gems. One mom from Michigan noted her daughter never sits so patiently when getting a hair cut at home. If you'd rather be a pirate -- there is a special pirate night complete with fireworks -- the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique can also accommodate pirate makeovers for boys, as well as girls.
There are two new Broadway-caliber musical shows, including "Disney Wishes" about three best friends about to graduate from high school and a Muppets Adventure Game around the ship where you uncover clues by use of a dozen pieces of "Enchanted Art" that come to life as you stand in front of them. (In case you are wondering, the Enchanted Art looks like a painting but is really a framed LCD screen that "recognizes" a guest is present and activates the animation. What's even cooler is you will see something different another time you visit.
Kids gave thumbs up to the new AquaLab -- an 1,800-square-foot water play area on Deck 12 with pop jets geysers and bubblers.
There are scores of activities scheduled for the entire family to share (everything from family dance parties to first-run Disney movies and game shows (how well do you really know your mom and dad?) but a surprising array for adults, too.
No wonder Tom Staggs, the chairman of Disney Parks and Resorts, who was about to sail with his wife and three sons, says bookings on Disney Cruise Line are ahead of last year, despite consumer concerns in the wake of the Concordia tragedy and the fact that half of those who sail with Disney are first-time cruisers -- those most skittish about cruising now. Disney has made it easier for would-be cruisers to try their ships, too, with sailings this year from New York, Galveston, Los Angeles and Seattle.
Bronlyn Holland, 10, from Georgia was preening in front of the mirror at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, the sparkles glinting in her hair. She'd saved her money to pay for her $54.95 makeover herself. "I've always loved princesses," she explained. "You never are too old to be a princess!"
Certainly not aboard the Fantasy.