If you’re heading out on a trip aboard the Disney Fantasy, or even just curious what the ship is like, this post offers a deck-by-deck breakdown of the ship. We’ll start with the basics of finding your way around, before moving onto deck-by-deck look at everything the ship has to offer. Read on to learn all about what’s aboard the Disney Fantasy!

About This Post and Related Posts

This post serves two purposes. First, it supplements our upcoming review of our recent cruise on the Disney Fantasy. You can see this is a relatively thorough walkthrough of the ship, and it doesn’t make sense to spend so much time in a review post talking about these details. Heck, it all feels a bit tedious even in its own post.

Second, even without the review, this post walks you through the Disney Fantasy cruise ship in a way that helps you understand how the different parts work together. If you want to get a sense of the layout Disney makes the deck plans available, and I recommend opening up that page to refer to along with this post. Notably, those deck plans are out of date in a few spots.

I’ve tried to sprinkle some context throughout this post to help give you a more intuitive understanding of the ship than the deck plans would give. I’ve sailed the Disney Dream three times, and that ship was the first Disney Cruise ship I went on. The Dream also happens to be the Fantasy’s sister ship, with near-identical layouts.

Our most recent two cruises were aboard the smaller Wonder and the larger Wish. We have a deck-by-deck breakdown of the Disney Wonder, but the similar content for the Wish can be found in our 3-Day Bahamas Cruise review.

It can be tricky to get a grasp on the layout of these ships, but once you do you’ll feel right at home, freeing your mind to just enjoy your trip.

Disney Fantasy General Layout

When it comes to navigating the ship, here are some simple tips. The ship has a total of 14 decks (floors) and can be divided into three sections from front to back—forward, midship, and aft. “Aft” is a three-letter word starting with “A” referring to the backside of the ship—should be easy to remember. “Forward” and “midship” seem clear enough.

“Port” and “Starboard” are used in place of “left” and “right”. “Port” is left when facing forward—I just remember that “port” and “left” are both three-letter words. “Starboard” is the other one (right).

You won’t use all 14 decks during your cruise. Taking the broadest view, Decks 3 through 5 of the Disney Fantasy are the main indoor spots, home to the atrium, bars, rotational dining, kids clubs, stores, and theaters. Decks 11 through 13 are the main outdoor pool decks and outdoor spots, with Deck 11 also notably housing quick service dining, including Cabanas. The rest of the decks are mostly just staterooms.

There are three elevator banks on the Disney Fantasy—forward, midship, and aft—and each has a set of stairs alongside it. For the most part, you can take any elevator to any deck, but Decks 12 through 14 have more limited elevator access.

The maps onboard are very helpful. They are always oriented according to which way you’re facing. For example, if I’m looking at this map onboard:

then I know where I am (Deck 4, Midship), and I know that forward is to my right and aft is to my left.

Disney Fantasy Deck by Deck Walkthrough

We’ll start at the bottom of the ship and work our way up. While this post and section are labeled “deck-by-deck”, part of my goal is to tie things together in a more intuitive manner, so I’ll sometimes talk about some spaces on different decks together.

Disney Fantasy Deck 1

Deck 1 is the main deck for accessing ports. Other than tender lobbies at each elevator bank, it only has the Health Center (doctors, not fitness) at the forward elevators.

Disney Fantasy Deck 2

Deck 2 is mostly staterooms, but the midship area is connected to the Deck 3 atrium by a set of stairs. In Deck 2 midship (just below the atrium) is a rotational dining restaurant, Enchanted Garden, along with the small Vista Gallery (featuring art for sale) and one of two Midship Detective Agency kiosks.

Disney Fantasy Deck 3

Now, onto Decks 3 through 5, the main indoor space onboard. Deck 3 is home to the ship’s main Atrium. This is where you’ll board the ship on day one, and there are a few activities hosted here, too, including the Royal Princess Gathering, character dance party, and “See Ya Real Soon!” farewell party

The atrium is surrounded by balconies on Decks 4 and 5. Besides their specific offerings (more below), the balconies are a good place to watch the events that take place in the atrium.

On the aft wall of the atrium on Deck 3 is another of the rotational dining restaurants—Royal Court (center above). Take a hallway on the port side (far right in above photo) further aft to get to the third, Animator’s Palate.

On opposite sides of the atrium are the Guest Services desk and the Bon Voyage bar. Bon Voyage is a pretty typical “lobby” bar. It’s not notably themed, but it catches a lot of foot traffic when there’s goings on in the atrium or around Deck 3.

I found one excuse to visit the Guest Services desk. Your ship account nowadays can be linked to your MagicBand+. I’m usually fine using my “Key to the World” card for room charges etc., but not all my running shorts have pockets and sticking the key in my shoe is…kinda gross (I ran around the ship on Deck 4, not in the fitness center). I stopped by the desk to link my MagicBand+ so I could use it as a room key after runs. It took just a few seconds and worked perfectly.

Continuing forward on Deck 3, you’ll get to shopping and the Walt Disney Theater. In terms of shopping, there are two stores that feature core Disney / DCL gear—Mickey’s Mainsail and Sea Treasures.

For finer things, you have BVLGARI and Diamonds and Wishes. As noted below, Deck 4 has another jewelry store, Carriage Jewels. (Sorry, I didn’t go into the jewelry stores and wouldn’t be able to tell you the difference even if I had.) Keep in mind the stores are not open when the ship is in port, including during embarkation and debarkation.

The Walt Disney Theater is all the way forward and occupies that portion of Decks 3 and 4 (balcony seating). Just outside the Deck 3 entrance is the Preludes snack bar (popcorn, candy, drinks).

View from the Walt Disney Theater Deck 4 Balcony

For help remembering the layout of the theaters, start with the fact that they’re staggered—one on Decks 3 and 4, the other on Decks 4 and 5. Then remember that the main theater is named after the main guy, Walt Disney and on the main deck, Deck 3, with its balcony on Deck 4. The other theater, the Buena Vista Theater, is on Deck 4 with its balcony on Deck 5.

Disney Fantasy Deck 4

Now, Deck 4, aft to forward. All the way aft on Deck 4 is the nightlife district, Europa. Europa is home to five bars. If you’re a person of simple tastes, like me, remember your ABCs—Aft is where you’ll find Bars, Clubs, and Cabanas.

The Fantasy does not have any modern, hyper-themed bars, like the Wish’s Hyperspace Lounge or the Treasure’s Haunted Mansion Parlor. Rather, it retains a more traditional Disney Cruise Line lineup of straightforward but diversely themed bars. Europa isn’t particularly intuitively organized, but it’s small enough that you’ll have no trouble finding any of the bars.

Here are some pics of the bars, descriptions to follow:

La Piazza is a pretty gorgeous Italian-themed bar that is sort of the “hub” of Europa, with O’Gills and Ooh Lah Lah on either side. You’ll often catch live music here, too. Ooh Lah Lah (which I failed to get a pic of, sorry) is the champagne bar, and there’s a piano.

O’Gills Pub is the pub. It has lots of TVs, usually playing some sorts of sports. It’s also got a small (paid) pub grub menu. Emily and I split a pretzel one afternoon. It took a while, but we weren’t in a rush.

Slightly separated from those three bars are The Tube and Skyline. The Tube is themed to the London Underground, but it largely serves as more of an activity space than a mere bar. It’s connected to Skyline, which is a dark cocktail lounge with a rotating lineup of skylines displayed behind the bar.

Still aft on Deck 4, just off the balcony around the atrium, you’ll find D Lounge (picture 6 in the above gallery). D Lounge is the main activity space onboard, mainly hosting things like trivia and game shows. I don’t believe there’s usually a bar in there, but I did see servers walking around taking orders during one event. Next to D Lounge is Carriage Jewels, another jewelry store.

As mentioned above, Decks 4 and 5 both have balconies around the atrium. These balconies regularly host character greetings, just check the app for the schedule. If no line has formed yet when you arrive, you can ask a Crew Member where a specific greeting will be. By about 15 minutes before any scheduled greeting there should be someone who knows what’s going on.

The Deck 4 atrium balcony is also home to Shutters—the onboard photography shop (mostly just kiosks to check your onboard photos)—and Vista Cafe, a “lobby” coffeeshop, if you will. Vista notably has cold brew, which is otherwise available only in Cove Cafe, located in the adult-only portion of the ship. So if you have kids in tow and you need your cold brew, it’ll be Vista Cafe.

The Buena Vista Theater is just forward of the atrium on Deck 4 (again, both theaters are forward). This is the smaller of the two theaters and is pretty much constantly playing feature films of some sort. There’s a snack bar outside of it, too. And all the way forward, you’ll find the balcony seating for the Walt Disney Theater.

Buena Vista Theater on the Disney Fantasy

No discussion of Deck 4 would be complete without mentioning the jogging path. Deck 4 has an outdoor walking / jogging path that encircles the ship. There are benches and shuffleboard courts around it, too. Disney advertises it as being 0.4 miles long (2.5 laps to a mile). While I ran on it every morning, I failed to use my GPS on the only stationary morning. I used “indoor” tracking on my watch and the distance seemed close enough.

I ran from about 5:45AM to 6:30AM every morning. Usually I’d see one couple with a stroller walking about the same time, and between one and three runners joining as the morning went on, plus a few crew members maintaining the ship.

Lots of people have lots of feeling about proper etiquette on the jogging path. It’s altogether an awkward situation during busy times because non-runners want to enjoy the space, too, and it simply isn’t very big. For starters, there can be no debate that the proper direction for running is counter-clockwise because that’s what the signs say. The signs also specifically refer to “Jogging,” lest you worry that you’ll be out of place running on it. Personally, I’ve been happy to use the ships’ promenades during off hours, but if I were running midday I would choose the fitness center.

You could use a lap counter, but I just checked my watch every lap, noting its rough departure from the 0.4 estimate (e.g. I’d see 0.36, then 0.72, then 1.08 because it was coming in about 10% short) to keep track. Pay extra attention to your surroundings at the start—the whole ship looks pretty similar so you might forget where your laps start and end.

Disney Fantasy Deck 5

Deck 5 is pretty straightforward—it’s mostly for kids. Just off the atrium you’ve got Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, the salon for kids 3-12. Aft of the atrium are the It’s a Small World Nursery ($), along with the two clubs for kids aged 3 to 10, Oceaneer Club and Oceaneer Lab.

Forward of the atrium is balcony seating for the Buena Vista Theater.

All the way forward on deck 5 is Vibe, the club for teens 14-17. I never made it to Vibe during open house hours. The entrance is via staircase just off the jogging path on Deck 4 forward, so you don’t actually access it from Deck 5.

A final note on the lower-level indoor spaces: laundry rooms can be found on decks 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. These are smaller laundry rooms, not the single large room like on the newer ships. This means that if one is too busy you’ll have to transit across decks and some length of the ship to another one. I wound up just paying for laundry service (which, given how unreasonably priced Disney can be sometimes, was much better priced than a lot of laundry services I’d paid for).

Disney Fantasy Decks 6 through 10

Decks 6 through 10 are just staterooms.

Disney Fantasy Decks 11 through 14

Deck 11 is where the main outside spaces begin, the Deck 11 pool deck being the heart of it all. With that in mind, I’m actually going to first cover all the indoor spaces on these decks so that I can cover all the outdoor spaces together.

That’s basically how these decks individually function, divided between indoor and outdoor—in some cases you can’t even move between indoor and outdoor spaces on the same deck. And altogether, you should think of the outdoor portions of Decks 11 through 13 as one big recreational area.

Cabanas is the main quick service restaurant on the Disney Fantasy and it forms a U around the aft of Deck 11. Cabanas serves daily breakfast and lunch buffets (specific hours do vary, check the app). It’s not open during dinner, much to my constant disappointment. You may find it open late in special circumstances—primarily, it’s sometimes open late night as a part of Pirate Night (I failed to check on this during our cruise). Attached to Cabanas is Sweet On You, the sweets shop.

Midship on Deck 11, just off the elevator bank, is Whozits & Whatzits. This is a small shop selling swimwear and other swim-related things, like sunscreen. As with all shopping, it isn’t open while the ship is at any port.

Passing by the pool areas for a moment, all the way forward on Deck 11 is the Senses Spa. Typically I’d plan to use the Fitness Center in Senses for my daily run, but I’ve been an early bird recently and the fitness center at Senses didn’t open until 6AM, so I instead did my runs on the Deck 4 promenade.

Up on Deck 12 are more staterooms (forward) and the fine dining, adult-only restaurants, Remy and Palo (aft). Between Remy and Palo is an upscale bar, Meridian. This tends to be one of the hidden gems onboard as it isn’t en route to anything other than the two restaurants. To reach this area of the ship, you’ll have to take the elevators or stairs—there is no access from the rest of Deck 12.

Decks 13 and 14 both have very limited indoor spaces, off the midship elevator bank. Deck 13 midship houses Edge, the club for kids aged 11-14. Deck 14 has Outlook, a reservation-only event space.

This brings us to the pools and outdoor areas.

Disney Fantasy main pool deck, looking forward

Deck 11 is the main pool area of the ship. That’s where you’ll find Donald’s Pool, Mickey’s Pool, and Funnel Vision (the big screen). The two pools can (and will) be closed for special events, like the Sail Away Party and Pirate Night.

Disney Fantasy main pool deck, looking aft-ward

There are two waterslides onboard. Mickey’s Slide is the yellow one on the left of the above photo, for guests 38” to 64” (intended for ages 4-14). The AquaDuck is the bigger one that wraps around the ship, for guests 42” and up. The midship part of Deck 12 (as seen above) wraps around the outside of the main Deck 11 pools, providing additional seating and space to watch Funnel Vision or anything else happening in the middle of Deck 11.

From here it makes most sense to talk about forward and aft, rather than covering each deck itself. Aft, outdoor Decks 11 through 13 is family fun / recreational stuff. Forward, outdoor Decks 11 through 13 is mostly (not fully) adult-centric.

We’ll start aft. Just aft of the two main pools on Deck 11 is the Nemo’s Reef splash area.

Heading up to Deck 12 aft, you first have the AquaDuck entrance. After of that is a bonus splash area, AquaLab. AquaLab distinguishes the Fantasy from the Dream, which instead has seating and a bar (“Waves”) here. On the Fantasy, Waves is actually just a small, hidden walkup window off to the side. (If you only casually research the issue you’ll become convinced there is some good bar right in this spot—there isn’t.)

Then from Deck 12 aft you’ll head up stairs to get to Deck 13’s Goofy’s Sports Deck. This area is home to the sports simulator, a miniature golf course, and a basketball court.

This finishes the aft end of the outdoor portions of the ship. Now, let’s head back to the pools and go forward on Deck 11. Immediately forward of the pools on Deck 11 are the five quick service stands (three food starboard, one ice cream and one beverage shop port). These are generally open from lunch through dinner and late night. Check specific hours, though, because they don’t all always remain open together.

Forward of those, still on Deck 11, are the main adult-only areas of the ship—Cove Bar (a simple pool bar), Cove Cafe, and the Quiet Cove Pool. As noted earlier, if you need specialty coffee while you have a kid in tow, you’ll need to go to Vista Cafe on Deck 4. Cove Cafe is inside the adult-only (18+) area of the ship.

But this brings us to Deck 12 forward. Forward on Deck 12, just on the other side of the forward Funnel Vision funnel, you’ll find the Funnel Puddle, a small family-friendly pool that strangely enough overlooks the adult-only Quiet Cove Pool. It’s an odd choice, particularly because forward from here is more adult-only space.

From Deck 12 forward, the stairs take you up to Deck 13’s Currents Bar and (all the way forward) Satellite Falls. This is a slightly less famed adult-only area of the ship, with a small pool and plenty of seating.

As I’ve only just recovered from my lengthy meltdown over Disney World unveiling a new adult-only space, it feels odd for me to point out that it’s super strange to have Funnel Puddle be specifically family-friendly. It might be better for everyone’s sense of organization just to make the entire forward spaces on Decks 11 through 13 adult-only.

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