Disney Believe reveal week: Daily updates, clues and previews
Disney Believe is still about a year away from setting sail, but Disney Cruise Line has started revealing its newest ship one clue at a time. And apparently, we’re going to have to work for the answers.
Attractions Magazine is aboard Disney Wish for a special hosted experience leading up to the full Disney Believe reveal on Wednesday. Along the way, Disney is turning the ship’s theme of promise and possibilities into part of the experience itself, sending participating media searching for clues and offering tantalizing tastes of what could await aboard the new Wish-class ship.
Before our team set sail, we laid out our Disney Believe predictions.
The fun began with a Disney Believe scavenger hunt — but there’s a catch. Media were told only one clue would be provided per outlet, meaning different groups are uncovering different pieces of the puzzle.
Our clue led to Snow White, The Bayou and a rather suspicious-looking apple drink served in an Evil Queen goblet. Elsewhere aboard Disney Wish, other participants encountered completely different clues and surprises.
Watch the hunt for our first clue and the reveal of the Evil Queen drink in our video below.
Daily updates of Disney Believe reveal clues
We’ll be updating this story throughout Disney Believe reveal week as Disney drops more hints — and, eventually, gives us the answers.
Day 1 Afternoon: A Disney Believe scavenger hunt
Disney Cruise Line wasted little time putting us to work.
Following an afternoon reception, participating media headed out on a Disney Believe scavenger hunt — with one important twist. Media were told there would be only one clue per outlet, meaning no single group would necessarily experience every clue or preview Disney had hidden around the ship.
Our Attractions Magazine clue featured Snow White and challenged us to complete a puzzle before heading to “the place where fireflies gather.” That led us to The Bayou, the “Princess and the Frog”-inspired lounge aboard Disney Wish.
Waiting there was our reward: an apple drink served in an elaborate goblet featuring the Evil Queen. Right next door, a different group gathered inside Nightingale’s, the ship’s piano bar, and appeared to have earned a specialty drink served in a seashell with a very “The Little Mermaid” motif to it.
Photo by Matt Roseboom
Photo by Matt Roseboom
Different media groups received different clues and experiences. Attractions Magazine contributor Carly Caramanna, who participated separately, encountered an Anxiety-inspired treat at Inside Out: Joyful Sweets.
Photo by Carly Caramanna
Even the clue cards appear designed around Disney Believe’s themes. A constellation-like pattern stretches across the background, continuing the ship’s emphasis on wishes, dreams and possibilities. Four stars also appear along the top of the card.
Photo by Matt Roseboom
Disney has not said that the locations used aboard Disney Wish correspond to where these offerings will eventually be found aboard Disney Believe.
Day 1 Evening: Halloween on the High Seas
Not everything aboard Disney Wish is a Disney Believe clue — although Believe seems to be following us around the ship.
Photo by Matt Roseboom
Photo by Matt Roseboom
After the afternoon hunt, the evening shifted to enjoying Halloween on the High Seas, Disney Cruise Line’s seasonal celebration. At Cove Café (the adults only coffee shop), the Halloween menu featured “The Nightmare Before Christmas”-inspired drinks including The Pumpkin King, Creepy Crawly Shake, Patchwork Dream Café and Spiral Hill Martini.
Our drink even arrived wearing a Disney Believe sleeve.
Photo by Matt Roseboom
At the end of the evening, our crew arrived back in their stateroom to find a Pascal (from “Tangled”) themed towel and a message about what lies ahead. It instructed the “Sea-Kers” to visit Fairytale Hall inside Disney’s Oceaneer Club the following morning — even nodding to the club’s famous entrance by telling participants they could arrive “by slide or stairs.” There, a Story Keeper is expected to provide the exact time for the next meeting.
Day one gave us our first tantalizing tastes of Disney Believe, but plenty of questions remain. Tomorrow, the hunt for clues continues as we get one day closer to Disney’s full reveal.
Day 2: We chart our own course through Disney Wish
The overnight clue sent us to Fairytale Hall, where Day 2 of the Disney Believe experience started with Rapunzel then turned into a “Frozen” themed challenge. The challenge ended with a visit with Oaken inside the Arendelle restaurant.
Photo by Matt Roseboom
Participants were handed a “chart your own course” card filled with activities around Disney Wish.
Photo by Matt Roseboom
The goal was to choose a line of four activities — across or down — and complete each one. Story Keepers stationed around the ship marked the card along the way. Finish the line, and the completed card became a key to The Hideaway, with each participant assigned a return time.
The choices mixed familiar Disney Wish experiences with special activities created for the Disney Believe event. They included riding AquaMouse, Disney and Disney Cruise Line trivia, learning to draw Ursula or Olaf with Disney animator Lon Smart, finding Boo’s door, searching Deck 8 for “Encanto” themed stateroom doors, completing an Incredibles obstacle course, making Mickey magnets and several mystery “surprise encounters.”
Photo by Matt Roseboom
One of those surprises brought our staff face-to-face with Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps from “Zootopia.”
Completing a line unlocked The Hideaway — and a surprise to take along for the rest of the voyage. Each participant randomly received a shoulder buddy: Pascal, Heihei, Olaf or Anxiety.
Photo by Matt Roseboom
The trivia proved a little less forgiving: Quinn on our team missed one question after naming Jealousy instead of Envy as one of the emotions introduced in “Inside Out 2.”
Watch the hunt complete with character appearances.
New metal cups arrive aboard Disney Cruise Line ships
We also spotted another change aboard Disney Wish: the new reusable metal cups that first debuted at Disney Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point and at Castaway Cay and are now being used aboard the Disney Cruise Line ships.
Photo by Matt Roseboom
They are designed to keep drinks cold — and according to our team aboard the Wish, they may work a little too well. The drink stayed exceptionally cold.
And with another full day still ahead before Disney officially reveals the Disney Believe, the clues are starting to feel less like isolated surprises and more like pieces of a much bigger story.
More Attractions Magazine stories
Follow us:
Whether you’re ready for your next Disney Destinations vacation or your first, our trusted partner Mouse Fan Travel will handle the planning so you can focus on the memories. They offer free vacation-planning services and have nearly 20 years of experience creating memorable Disney vacations. Visit Mouse Fan Travel for a fee-free, no-obligation quote today.
