On a whim, Ben and I headed off to Palo to head to meet up with the adults only “Art of the Theme Show Tour.” Although this tour started in Palo, no dressing up is required and as it is a one hour walking tour, I recommend comfortable shoes.
Do you have your sneakers laced up?
We took a seat here and waited for the tour to commence.
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| Palo waiting area |
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| Palo seating...does anyone else see a profile of Mickey Mouse eyes and nose and glove in this, or is it just me? |
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| Venetian Masks Lining the walls |
It proved to be entertaining, fascinating (I love all the little details they pointed out at the time) and funny at points. I did not take any pictures at the time…but here is my brief summary for those of you who missed it and want to know what details are covered.
Walt Disney originally started the first art of the theme tours in Disneyland to show how the imagineers thought about all the details during designing. Palo means pole in Italian. Note the Venetian Murano blown glass atop the poles and the handcrafted masks around the walls from Venice. Why is the signature restaurant on the Disney cruise ship Italian?
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| Plaque Deck 10 Forward. |
The imagineers want to give tribute to the birthplace of the Magic, the Fincantieri shipyards. The big mask behind the reservations deck was received as a gift on the Magic’s completion from a Venetian artisan pictured beneath the mask. If you eat in Palo, and sign the guest book, be aware that all of the previous guest books stay onboard even during dry dock.
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| Palo foyer lined in pieces of Venetian Murano hand blown glass. |
We left Palo to count the carpeting as we walked down the stairs to deck 5 (elevators available).
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| Palo Carpet is only found on this part of the ship and the stairs leading up to Palo. |
There are many different carpets around the ship to act as a memory tool for where on the ship you are and help you feel intuitively less lost as you learn your way around the ship. We discussed the over 20,000 pieces of signage, most of which exist for naval safety.
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| My favorite warning sign on ship. |
(The closest Disney property, Animal Kingdom has only 12,000 in comparison). Due to unpredictability at sea and Disney’s current inability to control the weather, safety is a priority over visuals. The entire Magic (and Dream for that matter) exemplifies the Art Deco art style. At the Buena Vista theatre the CM explained the interest in portraying the elegance of classic ocean liners of the twenties and thirties. But high tech. Because air conditioning and elevators and 3D movies all rock. If you’ve never noticed before, you will now. The ceilings on the fifth deck are very short. I’m 5’3” and can touch the ceiling with my feet still on the floor. Flounders nursery used to be a galley for the club and lab, but with 80-120 babies per sailing a nursery went in and the galley went out. The Wonder's kids' galley was replaced during its maiden TA rather than turn back to Italy and delays the schedule. If you do have kids in the nursery, there is one way glass so you can check on your kids without them seeing you. And the sign for the nursery has a hidden mickey in the bubbles over Flounder’s head.
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| I wonder what they will do with this chandelier when it is replaced in dry dock. |
We took a look at the chandelier which is made to look like Venetian Murano glass; it is however, both acrylic and suspended to prevent breakage by Dale Chihuly. During rough seas you can see it sway…technically you and the rest of the ship are swaying and it’s staying still. A whole host of informational artwork hangs on the hall forward from the lab…
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| I wonder if they'll update this in dry dock? |
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| Apparently Dopey likes his Starbucks |
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| And Goofy too! |
the last containing a hidden Dopey and Goofy.
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| Patina effect baked tiles support the story of 20's glamour found throughout the styling of the ship. |
The Walt photo in preludes made of baked (Italian again) tiles that were baked different amounts of time to create the patina effects
The different shops in this area are to create distinct experiences. Kitschy kiddy fun vs. sophisticated adult glamour
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| Between Disney Treasure Ketch and Mickey's Mates |
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| Disney Treasure Ketch |
(More signal flags around treasure ketch top say Disney while the bottom flanking flags say DCL.) There are two hidden mickeys in this area…that I know of.
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| Check out Mickey's necklace. |
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| Wow, that's a long walk! Or is it? |
When you arrive at the elevator well and turn around the hall suddenly looks far longer than it actually is in reality to create the effect of a grand entrance
The tour headed out onto deck. Disney fought for mickey yellow (which is actually more visible in tests than yellow and red official colors) for the life boats. The black bottom of the ship is actually a dark navy, to reduce cooling costs and let it "breathe." The Magic's "innie" belly button (seam) is real.
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| Birth mark or belly button, it's neat that they left this little detail visible. |
The outie on the Wonder is faux as it was built in one piece and the added a seam so they would match. All the exterior paints are a little "chunky" due to glass beads that prevent sea water corrosion. On the way down to the third deck, Ben asked if there was a similar back and forth to get fireworks onboard as there was to get the yellow lifeboats.
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| Ka-boom! |
Our CM responded that technically, DCL is a Navy, since fireworks explosives. The smallest in the world, but technically, yep. They had to file paperwork to that effect. I don’t know what kind of paperwork, but thought that was interesting.
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| And down to the third deck. |
In the history of cruising, the well-heeled used to swap staterooms halfway through their cruise before it headed back to homeport so that you could maintain a sunset view for the entire sailing…they were known as Port Out Starboard Home, or POSH. Lumiere's as central grand dining hall such as the posh used to dine in after dancing in the ballroom. All others ate in the aft. Forced perspective is again used in the main lobby entry.
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| Forced Perspective makes this atrium appear even grander. |
The columns are cut in slightly more on each level in addition to each floor being shorter to create illusion of spacious height.
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| Mickey at the Helm |
Mickey at the Helm (based on the helmsman) goes with the Masculine Art Deco versus feminine art nouveau. Each ship’s mascot coordinates with theme along these lines. Mickey is the master of the ship and is treated and addressed as such.
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| View of the Atrium Carpet from Above |
And if you stand directly in the center of the compass rose on the floor in the lobby facing Helmsman Mickey and look straight up at the Chihuly, you’ll see the last of the hidden mickeys of the tour…
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| Hidden Mickey |
All pictures in the ship tour description above were taken over the next several days, after I realized I’d been so caught up in the descriptions that I’d entirely forgotten the whole taking pictures thing.
This post is Part 13 of an Ongoing Trip Report Covering Our Thanksgiving Cruise 2012
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