While aboard the Disney Wonder, we had plenty of time to wander around and take in the Art Deco (masculine) and Art Nouveau (Feminine) styling as well as the great artwork. This artwork was found on almost every wall and in each stairway.

Get your kicks on Route 66

We took the Art of the Theme Show Tour and learned something about the pictures above. In each stairway, the artwork reflects the story being told on the deck it leads to or from. These pictures are from the deck which houses all of the nightclubs, presumably along Route 66.

But if you zoom in on the picture on the right, you’ll see that the hood ornament is Pluto, and that the driver of the car is wearing Mickey Ears. It’s all in the details!

Animation Concept Art

Many of the stairways had animation concept art depicting the Shorts from the early days of Disney. This was one of the few colored versions.

Again from the Art of the Theme Show Tour, it was pointed out that the saying on the bottom of the left picture is from The Song of the South, and so our Guide likes to think of the bird on the right in the picture as being the Bluebird on the shoulder! But he did say that was unofficial.

The picture of Roy Disney next to a camera was in a stairway that led to the onboard theatres.

The Disney Magic

These pictures were obviously meant to depict DCL inaugural cruising. The Disney Wonder, which we were on, was not represented, as it wasn’t built in 1998.

There was also a hallway on Deck 4 were you could view and purchase Disney artwork, but as in the Parks, this artwork was expensive. But also very beautiful! And there were also several murals painted on the walls, such as behind Customer Service and other such areas. Like this one:

Cruising ‘Under the Sea’… kind of

Another point from the Art of the Theme Show Tour, which is depicted in the artwork above, is that all of the Disney cruise ships have two stacks. Only one is functional, so why have two? In the early days of sailing, ships needed two stacks, but it was thought that if two stacks were safe, three must be safer (even though one would be fake. The fake one being at the rear so that the smoke from the first two would give the illusion that the last one was actually operating), and so the Titanic had three to comfort the passengers. We all know how that turned out! Now cruise ships only require one stack to operate but the Disney Cruise Line carries on the tradition of having an extra stack to further the story of being from the glory days of cruising. FYI: The teen club, Vibe, is found in the forward stack aboard the Disney Wonder.

Although our first Disney cruise didn’t turn out to be everything we had hoped it would be, I have to say that the level of detail and the finishing touches on the ship would be hard to beat by any other cruise line! But maybe that’s because my favorite decorating style is Art Deco.