How cruise ship Disney Fantasy will make a big splash in the Big Apple

My tour of Disney Fantasy allowed a peek behind closed doors and roped-off areas inside the ship, where contractors were hard at work applying the finishing touches.
Outside, I saw evidence of some of the extra thought that had been put into planning the open deck space, because it wouldn’t do to simply copy what had gone before.
Fantasy is the fourth member of the Disney fleet, but the first to be built specifically with lazy days at sea in mind. Sister ship Disney Dream, launched last year, and the Magic and Wonder, completed in 1998 and 1989, frequently operate on short itineraries and are usually in port during the day.
As well as providing extra splash pools and squeezing in more space for sunbeds, the architects also had to think of passengers who might be looking for some cooling shade as the ship ploughs through the Caribbean with the midday sun beating down.
So, high up on Deck 13, for example, Satellite Falls (above) is cunningly built under a big dome containing the ship’s television receiver. The circular two-foot-deep pool contains a tiled bench for passengers, and is surrounded by a rain-shower curtain.
Not far away there’s a new splash pool with a central fountain which will form a bubble of water filled with a fine mist. Enchanting. Around the pools, canopies have been erected to cover cabanas and rest areas.
Aft of the second funnel, the AquaLab children’s play area has been created in space that is a bar on Dream. Here, kids can pretend they are helping Donald Duck’s nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie, to control the AquaDuck water coaster which spirals down from the smokestack and skirts the pool deck. They have to plug leaks in the walls and pipes, and they’ll spend all day turning wheels and dials to adjust the water flow.
When they are not splashing around outside, children of all ages can take advantage of Disney’s unrivalled play facilities, such as Andy’s Room (below), from the Toy Story movies.

►Disney confirmed today that Fantasy will be christened in a star-studded ceremony in New York on March 1. The event will take place at Manhattan’s Pier 88, but officials are remaining coy about the identity of the godmother.
Dream was christened by singer Jennifer Hudson in Port Canaveral a year ago, and she was joined on the inaugural sailing by celebrities including Whoopi Goldberg )and little old me).
In a few days’ time, Fantasy will be towed gently – and stern first – from the shipyard in Papenburg to the mouth of the River Ems. After sea trials, the ship will be handed over on February 9 and is scheduled to arrive in New York on February 28. It will not be sailing preview cruises until March 23 and the maiden voyage, a seven-night cruise to the Cayman Islands, Cozumel, Costa Maya and Castaway Cay, Disney’s private resort island in the Bahamas, leaves Port Canaveral on March 31.
Disney Magic will, for the first time, be based in New York from May 25, sailing eight-night cruises to the Bahamas, five-nighters north to Canada, and three weekend cruises “to nowhere.”