Walkabout The World - A Disney Podcast - Merrytime Cruise On The Disney Fantasy With Host Jay Part 2

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

Hello Travelers! This week, enjoy part 2 of Walkabout's cruise aboard the Disney Fantasy! In this second of two episodes at sea, join host Jay aboard the Disney Fantasy during a holiday Merrytime cruise where you'll hear some of the best sounds the cruise has to offer. After hearing the ship's horn one last time as you leave Castaway Cay, you'll explore more of the ship's amenities including Quiet Cove, live music, the atrium, and even some onboard shopping.    Walkabout the World is now on TikTok! Come follow our visual companion to the audio podcast at Walkabout.the.world.pod on TikTok   Visit us at walkabouttheworld.com - find links to all the things - attraction episodes, Insta accounts of all the hosts, and even how to buy your own Walkabout shirt!   Look us up at @WalkaboutWDW on Instagram and drop us a note to say hi.   You can also drop us at line at [e-mail]. Say hi, tell us how you found us, and give us some suggestions on things you'd love to hear. Please consider giving us a rating and review wherever you listen - it really helps!

Well guys, we are headed off of Castaway Key. The boat is about to set sail. And I thought you guys might enjoy hearing the sounds of the boat. They do several different horn styles. Usually play most of them when you leave port. On the fantasy, it is an actual horn whistle. On the newer ships, they're recordings of horn whistles. But it is fun to hear the ship's whistle.

that on the fantasy because it is truly a set of horns that are played along to the melody. Hope you guys love it. I hope you guys are enjoying our time here on the Disney Fantasy. Our week is kind of coming to an end. So I have loved hanging out with you guys. I hope you guys have liked some of the sounds of the ship and some of the fun that we've had here.

All right, made it back onto the ship and through security. so I'm just waiting on an elevator and hopefully we'll get some island vibes going up on the elevator here so let's jump on the elevator and head up to deck 11 as we head back towards the back of the ship here

I'm going to spend a little bit of time in the Quiet Cove with you guys there's always a little bit of a different style on music back here it's definitely a lot more calm so we'll sit back here we'll walk through the Quiet Cove area and satellite follow

and let you guys enjoy some more chill vibes. A ship likes to offer their due. Let's tour Quycove. One of the things I really love about the true ships is just lots of live musicians. This particular musician is Lucy. She used to be a teacher in Shanghai, China, and she decided she wanted to pursue her love of music

and became a musician here on the... the Disney fantasy and today she is in quiet coves playing some the same of course so give it a listen and I hope you guys enjoy that she's a pretty talented woman I'm walking the halls here of the ship of all the state rooms. Disney people, as you might imagine, like to participate in all the Disney things. And a lot of people like to decorate their doors.

Specifically for Christmas, because we're on a Christmas cruise, but also during the regular parts of the year, they'll put on magnets, they'll put on decorations, lights, garland, the whole nine yards. They also do something called fish extenders, which is kind of a gift-giving situation

that allows you to get a group and give gifts to each other. It's a lot of fun. Yeah. So, sometimes if you're just looking for something to do, it's just a lot of fun to walk the halls and see what people have done to their doors.

All right, about midship here. I'm going to let you guys enjoy some Lindsay Sterling. Beautiful violin music. And we're going to go down a couple of decks. So come with me. Let's take the stairs and enjoy some beautiful music as we head down to the atrium. I'm sure you add some sparkles, Jim. A bit of a transition here as we head into the atrium. You'll start to hear the live music. They tend to have piano players or sometimes full bands, and it's just a lot of fun sometimes to hear what's going on in the atrium. It's usually

where people take pictures. It's one of the most beautiful things, and I'll definitely put a picture of the atrium in the comments here because they decorate the atrium beautifully. So let's listen to some atrium sounds. We'll circle the atrium a few times, see what's going on here.

And, yeah, enjoy. Let's take a stroll around the atrium of the Disney fantasy. A walkabout without a magical meltdown, and they happen on the ship too. We're going to exit the atrium for just a little bit here, and we're going to walk down. I'm currently on deck five, which is actually the third level of the atrium.

It does encompass three levels of the ship, three docks of the ship. But we're going to walk by the Kids Club, the Oceaneer Lab. It's a small world tiny taunts. This is where parents can let their children play games, supervised by Disney staff, and the kids tend to. love it.

So. And it's decorated for Christmas just like all the other parts of the ship. It's definitely really, really busy. Level of five is pretty cute. All the tops of the columns are up there. At the top of the atrium, like I said, it is the third level of the atrium. And so it's really, really pretty. It's fun to live.

look down into the atrium. It's also where you can join the midship detective agency. It's a game that you can play. There's live artwork on the ship. And it has you going all around the ship trying to solve mysteries. And the Muppets Mystery, which is my favorite, has you stopping at the most infamous door on Disney Cruise Line. And that is State Room 51.

48 and a half, which is currently occupied by Pepe, our famous king prawn. And Pepe, just like everybody else, decorates his door. I'll make sure to drop a picture of Pepe's door. And yeah, if you knock down, knock on the door, he'll yell at you because he's usually taking a nap. And as I said, you know, one of the things that's really, really fun about Disney ships is that they have this live artwork. and what'll happen is you'll walk up to the painting

and it will just come alive. It's pretty awesome because the paintings themselves look real until you walk up to them. So like when these turn back into paintings, you wouldn't even know that they are not paintings, but they become animated when you walk over to them. All right, let's cut down to level four

and we'll head back to the atrium. We celebrate our final evening together, but also wanted to mention we aren't getting a lot of questions at the guest services desk about the disbarcation procedures as we will arrive in our home port of court of court command of tomorrow. If you've not already done so, we highly recommend at least one adult from each stateroom. Tune into Channel 1 of your state room television set.

That will provide you with all of the information you need to know to make a smooth transition from ship to shore upon our arrival back in Portman Apple. Also, it will avoid you having to wait in the queue at guest services to get those answers. Several things either having this evening, lots happening tomorrow. So again, it's all on Channel 1 of your seat from television set. But as we celebrate this evening, Walt Disney Theater do not miss out on our final big Broadway quality show. Disney's Believe 6 and 8.30 will be those performance times.

Remember the doors open approximately 30 minutes before the show. We'd highly recommend you arrive early and visit. Remember, you must arrive together in order to be seated together as we don't allow for seat saving. And if you do bring electronic devices in, such as your smartphone, a kind of reminder that you go in the off position. Disney's believe at 6'clock.m. And of course, no Disney cruise would be complete without an interruption from the cruise director. The lounges are always busy. La Piazza and the Odules, excuse me, El Gilles, and Ula la, and the two are all adult clubs.

So children are allowed in them. But there is also the D-Lounge, the Edge, the Vibe. Those are teen clubs and kid clubs that are they're allowed to go to while they're on ship here. And we're walking down the long hallway here. It's going to go buy one of the largest lounges on the ship, which is called the D lounge. It's a pretty awesome space. And they do a lot of entertainment in it. Bingo, drawing information or how to draw, all that kind of stuff.

So let's see what we got going on in the D lounge tonight. You guys are hearing a little bit of a transition here. We're back in the HM and they've got live music going on. We made our way to the fourth floor, which is the middle floor. So we're not quite on the floor of the lobby yet. But we are in the atrium. Looks like our piano player is done for a little while. Like I said, there's lots and lots of live music on the business ships.

And the atrium is one of those places you can catch a lot of those great artists. The ship has two theaters on it. One is a movie theater and the other is a production theater. This particular sailing, we were lucky enough to get to see the premiere of Zootopia 2, which is not actually out in theaters yet, but you are allowed to get those early premieres when you're on a Disney ship if that movie happens to be releasing within that week of the cruise. So we were lucky we got to see Zootopia 2 and in the point of it's the theater, which is beautiful. As I've said before, this whole ship is a love letter to Art Nouveau

and walk in the stairs. As we're heading down, the railings are beautiful wood. It's just gorgeous. It really is just gorgeous. The carpets are beautiful blue with stars, and each landing has a different carpet. And as we head down into the third floor, which is the floor of the atrium,

that's where the shops will be that's also the entrance to the upper entrance I should say to the Walt Disney Theater it's a full-sized production theater with a balcony and the productions in there are awesome

as much as I'd love to give you recordings of that it is against the rules so if you want to see one of these beautiful Broadway shows this particular cruise we had Believe which is an original Disney Broadway show

Aladdin, which has been on Broadway in New York, and then also frozen. It's a highlight of the crews, and they're really, really awesome. And the production value is at least on par with Broadway. It's just fantastic. So let's walk through the shops here and see if we can hear any music to the shop. See what's going on. Maybe we'll get ourselves an extra magical meltdown. Who knows?

What we might encounter. Let's go! There are three main shops on the Disney ships. It's the Diamonds and Wishes, the Sea Treasures, and the Mickey's Main Sale. They all sold different types of merchandise, some jewelry, some cruise line merchandise, some specific Christmas merchandise. So they're a lot of fun. And I like walking through and seeing what we can see in here.

Mickey's Main Sales My favorite. It has all the Christmas merchandise. This year they've got really pretty Spirit jersey. It's red and it's got all the different ornaments on it of the different characters in their Christmas gear.

And it's pretty awesome. I love the floors in the shops. The shops themselves are carpeted in this beautiful orange but the floor of the atrium and the hallways leading up to the atrium. and around these shops are all this beautiful marble. It's actually quite a lot of marble on this ship, ironically.

But it's just gorgeous in browns, whites, and greens. It's just a beautiful ship. Its theme is the peacock. I'm sure you'll be able to see in the Atrium photos there with the chandelier. The peacock feathers are a huge inspiration to lots and lots and lots. of the stuff that's going on here. And of course, one of the big things at Christmas time

that we have on the ship is the gingerbread house. And it's a huge one. If you've been to the Grand Floridian, it's almost the size of the Grand Floridians. Each ship does it, and they are judged. It's actually made of gingerbread. It makes the lobby smell of fresh gingerbread. It's just amazing.

I'll definitely drop a photo down for you guys So you can see this year's fantasy, their version of the gingerbread. And it's done by the tasty chefs, just like in Disney World. And so, yeah, this is just some Christmas vibes in the lobby here and enjoy ourselves a little bit.

Well, everyone is meeting Mickey. Well, we've made it all the way aft, which means that I'm all the way at the back of the ship. So I think I'll leave you guys with a classic here. And I hope you enjoyed chewing the ship with us today. And I hope you enjoyed our visit the Castaway Key. And, yeah, I do quite a lot of these cruises.

So hopefully the next one will be a regular old cruise with regular music and regular sounds. But I hope you enjoyed this festive version of Walkabout. And what I'm going to call Walk About the ship. So I've loved hanging out with you guys. and Bon voyage.