After over a year, Disney Cruise Line has resumed sailings from the United States. But, Disney Cruise Line is already looking well into the future and sharing all kinds of details about its upcoming ship — the Disney Wish!

Over the past few months, we’ve gotten some HUGE reveals about the ship, including details about a special Marvel dining experience, a new Star Wars lounge, and more! But now Disney Cruise Line has announced a brand new interactive experience coming to the Disney Wish!

Today, Disney officially announced a NEW, first-of-its-kind interactive experience that will debut on the Disney Wish. It’s called Disney Uncharted Adventure! 

Think essentially of a mixture of Midship Detective Agency (an interactive game found on the Disney Fantasy and Dream ships), Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure/Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure, Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom, and the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Datapad, plus (of course) some special and unique magic.

We were actually lucky enough to get a preview of Disney Uncharted Adventure and a special look at this new game during a Media Preview Disney recently invited us to. Here’s a break-down of what this game involves:

Overview

As Disney shares, this new interactive game will take guests on a journey through the worlds of several iconic Disney and Pixar characters. The game is designed for families to play together while on the ship. It’ll really provide the with a brand-new way to explore areas of the ship, especially ones they may have never stopped by otherwise. The adventure, however, technically begins before you even step foot on the Wish!

Play Disney Parks App

To play Disney Uncharted Adventure, you’ll need the Play Disney Parks app. So, well in advance of your trip, you’ll want to make sure you’ve downloaded the app to the phone of every single person in your party so they can all play along once they board the ship.

Remember that once the ship takes off, it’ll cost you to get access to the wifi that would be needed to download the actual app, so it’s critical that you download the app in advance of the trip, or at least before the ship takes off (while you still have access to your regular phone’s internet service).

Keep in mind that the game (and the app) is only accessible on mobile phones right now, so it won’t work on your iPad.

Also note that this portion of the Play App (for Uncharted Adventure) will only be accessible to those with reservations for the Disney Wish.

Before You Board

Again, before you board you’ll want to download the app for all players. Ideally, you’ll also want to download it well in advance of your trip not just for convenience, but because the story actually begins before you board!

Once you’ve downloaded the app and the game becomes active, you can check out part of it at home. During this part, Captain Minnie and Captain Mickey will talk to you about the night sky, the stars, and the special relationship they have with seafaring. But, there are certain “magical stars” you can reportedly only see from the Disney Wish! You’ll need a magical spyglass to see these, which is where your phone comes in. The Play Disney Parks app will transform into your magical spyglass, giving you the ability to see these special constellations once onboard.

Since you’re at home, you can’t see all of these “magical constellations” just yet, but you’ll be able to get ready for your trip.

Before the cruise begins, Mickey and Minnie may just reach out again to remind you to bring your special spyglass! One cool thing to note is that the concept art we saw featured Captain Minnie and Mickey drawn in a very unique style. They’ve got some extra flair and Mickey’s outfit even has some pirate-style touches to it which looked very cool.

Once On the Ship

The Start of the Story

Once you’re on the ship, it’s time to bring out that spyglass! Now, you’ll be able to see all of those “magical constellations” from the ship and that wishing star in the center.

During our preview, some of the constellations we saw were shaped like Louis’ horn from The Princess and the Frog (with the name “New Orleans” next to it), Crush and Squirt surfing the EAC from Finding Nemo (with the name “Sydney” next to it), and Maui’s hook from Moana (with the name “Motunui” next to it).

During our time at the media event, we also got a peek at one constellation shaped in the design of a certain friendly neighborhood Spider-Man with an “Avengers Campus” name next to it (indicating perhaps the involvement of more Marvel characters?). This was merely concept art though, and Marvel experiences are not yet confirmed to be part of the game. Though, Feder did say that the game presents an amazing opportunity to tell stories that connect including with other things on the ship (hello, Marvel dining experience!). But, we’re hopefully we’ll get to see some Spidey action at sea in the future!

Some concept art also showed constellations with shapes like the magic lamp from Aladdin or a slipper from Cinderella, so who knows what other stories we could see incorporated in the game.

More characters/stories for the game are set to be announced in the future so who knows — we might just get Marvel, Star Wars, or other tie ins added! We’ll definitely be on the lookout for more details about that.

At the center of these special constellations is the beautiful, shining “wishing star.” But, all of a sudden the picture you’ll see will be filled with a stormy scene, clouds, and more. And then the Wishing Star gets hit by something and shatters! Pieces of the star streak off toward various constellations.

That’s when Captain Mickey and Minnie enlist you to help. Using your magical spyglass, you’ll need to help navigate the ship to uncharted regions and find the pieces of the Wishing Star that have landed at the various constellations.

Davey Feder, a software product manager at Walt Disney Imagineering, spoke to us about this interactive experience during the media preview. He indicated that the constellations story fit with the story of the Wish given that wayfinders and navigators of ships used stars to sail the seas for many years.

Overall, the overarching story idea behind the game is “If wishing upon a star makes your dreams come true, what happens when that star goes missing?”

The Quest Begins

Now, your quest can begin. Each quest is a self-contained adventure. So far, Disney has officially announced that adventures/scenes involving Tiana, Moana, Peter Pan, and Finding Nemo will be involved in the game.

What you’ll do is select the constellation/adventure you want to visit. Then you’ll be sent to multiple spots around the ship. At each stop, different technologies will be utilized as part of the game that may surprise you!

During part of the preview, we got to see some concept for a Moana quest. Again, keep in mind that this was concept information that was shared with us, so all of the details are subject to change. When the Moana quest was selected, the spyglass told the guest to head to Dock 4 near the Neverland Cinema. There, guests may see a digital sign that talks about the films being presented, but as the guest holds their spyglass up, they’ll see the sign transform and become a magical porthole!

In the magical porthole is none other than Moana. Moana informs the guests that she thinks she saw a piece of the star land beyond the reef, and she can take you there but she needs your help with something first. She needs you to help get some canoes out of the reef, and that’s where the interactive experience kicks in.

Each guest may be given their own digital ship which they’ll navigate with their respective spyglass. That means the whole family can play! If 2 parents and 2 kids each have their own phones, then they can each navigate their own ships and participate separately. Feder indicated that guests will be able to tell the game how many players there are and how many phones the group has prior to the game beginning. So, if the group only has 2 phones and players are going to share phones, that can also be indicated. A family can play with up to 6 devices at once (or up to 6 players at one, sharing devices).

This Moana game (as well as the other games included in the experience) are communal and team-based, but (of course) there is an opportunity for a little competitiveness (like seeing who can get their canoe out of the reef first). Ultimately, though, the whole family will be working together toward an ultimate goal.

Feder and the Imagineering Team really made a point to emphasize that the game is a “heads-up” design, meaning they don’t want you looking down at your phone the whole time. Instead, your phone becomes essentially like a controller (think like a motion-based controller, like the Wii Remote) — it’s a tool that can help you play the games or interact with things you see up, in front of you, on the ship.

Ultimately, once the canoes are successfully out of the reef, the family may get their adventure interrupted from a message from Minnie instructing them to check out some weird stuff on dock 7 at another location. There, they may encounter a perfectly normal painting that comes to life when they pull out their spyglass.

Using augmented reality, the family will be able to see some Kakamora in the painting that are trying to jump onto the Wish and wreck havoc. It’s up to the family to catch these mischievous creatures. Again, the whole family can play and what’s cool is that the whole team will see the same thing — so if I catch one specific Kakamora, others in the group will see my net catching it.

Ultimately, once the family catches the Kakamora, they may arrive at another destination and fall into the Realm of the Monsters, but the ship is too big to pass through to get to where we need to get. In order to get through, Minnie can help but you’ll need to power up the ship to make it happen!

That’s when you may be directed to the Grand Hall to check out Cinderella’s glass slipper. There, you may do a special input on your spyglass that’ll cause the slipper to light up and activate. Or maybe you’ll be directed to the chandelier and what you do in the spyglass will cause it to sparkle or light up in a different color. Essentially, you’ll be able (in certain circumstances) to cause external things to happen with props on the ship thanks to your spyglass!

Once you jump into the Realm of Monsters, you may just find that a certain someone who likes shiny things has found that shiny piece of the Wishing Star you’re looking for. And the adventure will continue with you (and your family) working to get it back!

This is just a concept of what was shared with us, so keep in mind that the final story may change. But, it gives you an idea of what families may experience with the app.

What other games might you play? According to Disney, highlights of the game include:

• “teaming up with Moana to navigate their canoes beyond the reef;
• helping Tiana cook up the perfect pot of her father’s favorite gumbo;
• summoning Tinker Bell to give the Disney Wish an extra dash of pixie dust; and
• making an epic dive into the East Australian Current (EAC) with Nemo and friends.”

We actually got to test a prototype of the experience to help Tiana cook and it was a fairly fast, collaborative but still competitive, mini-game that was really fun to play! If a family were to select the Tiana quest, they may be sent (for example) to a digital sign near the Small World Nursery. While the sign may normally display hours of operation, when the family arrives with their spyglass in search of a piece of the star, the board may transform into Tiana’s kitchen! There, Tiana may offer to help you find the star, but inform you that she needs your help first to make the perfect pot of gumbo.

During the play test, there were various media attendees all playing at the same time. The gumbo game consisted of 4 different mini-games. During the first part, the main screen in front would show an ingredient we needed to add to the gumbo pot. Then, each participant would have to look at their individual spyglass to quickly select the matching ingredient before time ran out.

Next, we all had to pour in some hot sauce by moving our phones from left to right, but we had to add just the right amount of hot sauce and not make it too spicy! Third, we had to stir the pot at just the right speed — not too fast, and not too slow. We had to make sure we were all working together to stir it correctly, though we were each moving our own phones in a stirring manner.

And finally there is a portion of the game where guests blow into the microphone portion of their phones to cowl down the gumbo, though we didn’t get to test that one.

The Finale!

What’s really unique about this game is that it’s finale moment is set to happen at the same time for everyone. During a special night on the cruise, there may be a scheduled event to place the Wishing Star back in the sky (since everyone has been working to hard and have collected all of those pieces). During the preview, Feder said this event would likely take place at Luna, one of the new event spaces on the Wish, but things are subject to change.

During the finale, guests will all join in one place to put the Wishing Star back in the sky, by using their individual spyglasses. But, a certain evil Sea Witch has had her eye on the Wishing Star for quite some time (and was maybe even the one who shattered it!) and isn’t going to just let you put it back in the sky that easy! That’s when the final, epic battle will begin where all those in the room will need to work as a team to defeat the villain. A large screen will allow all of those present to play, and you’ll be able to see how your actions impact the battle.

There will also be live Crew Members there hosting the event and they’ll have their own roles in the story. Note that you don’t ned to play all of the quests to participate in this finale moment.

What to Know About Disney Uncharted Adventure

What’s great is that this game can be played throughout your trip. So, you can blast through a ton of the adventures during a long day at sea, just play 1 and then pick it up again later, or do whatever is best for your family.  The game is meant to be achievable for a family to do, while not missing out on other things around the ship.

If you really enjoy the game or want to unlock even more fun, you’ll be able to replay quests. And you might need to replay certain quests to unlock more things and get all of the available rewards out there.

While you’ll need the external internet access to actually download the game, to play the game on the ship you’ll only need to tap into Disney’s local ship wifi (which is free).

To avoid congestion, the system knows what story beats are being played out at any one time, so it will ideally direct families to screens/interactive elements around the ship where they’re alone or where the people who may be in front of them interacting with the same element of the ship will be doing a different quest. In other words, where one family is set to complete the Moana quest may be entirely different than another family’s experience.

Check out the video below to see more!

We’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more news about Uncharted Adventure and we’ll let you know what we find.

Click here to learn more about the Disney Wish!

Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. We were invited by Disney World to attend their media preview of the Disney Wish. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink.You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ

Are you excited to play this new interactive game? Tell us in the comments!