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Inside the Disney Wish, Lookout Cay, & Disney Treasure | MEGA EPISODE | National Geographic

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(birds chirping)

PHILIP GENNOTTE: Papenburg is a very little town

in the northwestern part of Germany.

It's only just above 30,000 inhabitants.

It is very rural here.

We have fields, and you have dikes,

and you have some windmills,

but there's really not much else.

So, it's a bit strange, isn't it?

A small town building huge cruise ships.

LAURA CABO: The first time that you see a cruise ship,

it's akin to looking up at the pyramids

for the first time.

Because the scale of it is unbelievable.

You know, they're 1.2 million square feet at least.

They're over 200 feet tall.

They're more than three football fields long.

But a Disney cruise ship,

there's no other cruise ship like it.

(fireworks whistling)

PHILIP: The Disney Wish is the first of its kind,

so it's a first-in-class ship, never been done before.

LAURA CABO: We have four existing ships that are extraordinary,

and we're given this task of how do you make it better?

GARETH HAMBLIN: It has less emissions, it's cleaner burning.

SHELBY JIGGETTS-TIVONY: The level of technological sophistication

is awe-inspiring.

ANT MAN: Captain America!

DANNY HANDKE: We've never done anything like this

on any of our existing Disney cruise ships.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: Hang tight!

Contingency plan is on her way.

DANNY: It is unbelievable,

like, how big of a production this is.

ANT MAN: Hit your buttons now!

DANNY: It's probably .01 percent

of the overall cruise experience.

It's just one night of dinner.

ANT MAN: That guy is still eating!

(audience laughs)

(upbeat music playing)

SHELBY: There are projections and lights.

There's performer flying. There is pyrotechnics.

-(fireworks exploding) -♪ Yo-ho! ♪

(audience cheering)

PHILIP: We have a lot of work ahead of us,

and of course the pressure is enormous.

LAURA CABO: There is 100 million things

that we have to do.

We have engineering,

we have architecture, we have interiors.

CLAIRE WEISS: A ship is like the ultimate design challenge.

It has to be anti-flammable.

It has to stand up in marine environments.

LAURA CABO: We have audio.

(dramatic symphonic music playing)

LAURA CABO: Ride design.

LAUREN FONG: There's still a lot we need to do.

Where's my waterproof notebook?

(splashing)

LAURA CABO: We have show set, props.

ALYSSA MARKFORT: No guest is ever gonna get

this close to her, but we wanna make sure

that she's exactly correct.

LAURA CABO: There is so much magic

that we need to create.

PHILIP: The timeline is so demanding,

but we have the most amazing team.

DANNY: Alright. Where to next?

DENISE CASE: It'll be a race to the finish,

and we all have our running shoes

and we're ready to go.

PHILIP: We are in the main building hall

at the Meyer shipyard in Papenburg.

We've come here middle of the night

to really see one of the last blocks

of the foreship of our Disney Wish

be lifted and mounted onto the foreship.

Outside, we already have another piece of our ship

being completed as well.

A cruise ship is built in parts,

so-called blocks.

They are lifted and put together,

in a way like a LEGO principle,

and that's really what's happening at the moment.

This block has a number 73.

We are calling it the bridge block,

or wheelhouse, is where

the captain will navigate the ship.

It is really heavy.

Up to 800 tons,

so metric tons of weight.

If you think, like, a small car's about a ton,

so that's 800 cars just there hanging off of the crane.

My name is Philip Gennotte.

I'm a naval architect

and I work for Walt Disney Imagineering Germany.

I make sure that we know where we are,

what we're doing, and where we're going.

I'm also a keen model builder.

So, I'm trying to keep up

with the way the shipyard is actually doing the blocks

in the right sequence.

So, I am following the block plan here.

A cruise ship is one of the most unique,

most sophisticated, complex product out there.

I have not found anything to date that integrates

as much technology and different technologies

as a cruise ship does.

A power plant, a theme park,

a hotel resort, a sewage plant.

We have the Walt Disney Theater in there

and on top the entrance to the spa.

The ship also creates its own fresh water.

It all starts with a white piece of paper.

Concepts, ideas.

It takes a good year and a half

before the first part of construction

will even start.

We will then actually cut

the first piece of steel.

And then off we go! The main engines go in.

The LNG, the liquefied natural gas tanks go in as well.

All of the heavy components down below.

And those steel sections get put together into blocks.

The ship will be more than 60,000 tons.

These are metric tons,

so close to 130 million pounds

if I'm not mistaken.

So, the model is exactly the same size

as what our ship is at the moment.

It is not complete yet, but neither is my model.

(alarm blaring)

Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

(alarm blaring continues)

So, at the moment,

the bridge block is nearly

in its final position.

They're adjusting for the last few millimeters.

They're actually talking millimeters.

So they're laser scanning all the time,

making sure it really is perfect.

And then it will be welded up

to be part of our Disney Wish.

And then the most important one for the foreship.

It's like your child growing up.

When the ship grows like that,

you can't wait for it to grow as quickly as possible.

This... is a ship.

It's crazy, right?

My career is all about cruise ships.

And even though I've been doing this for many years,

every time is very emotional.

It's our design,

it's our dreams, our creativity,

all coming to life, pretty awesome.

LAURA CABO: Welcome to my garage.

This is my brain.

This is where I have to make the magic happen.

It's a pandemic. It's 2021.

I think I've been working in this garage

like everyone else for 15 months.

When you're designing a ship

where people are touching things

and looking at things,

you can't just do it through the computer.

You need to be surrounded by it.

I'm Laura Cabo, and I lead

the creative development of the cruise ship.

The task of designing and building cruise ships,

aside from the pandemic, is a mind-blowing task.

I'm an architect by training,

and I didn't know anything about cruise ships.

But I do know about design, and I know about storytelling,

so having that opportunity to be in charge

of an amazing team

that injects that into our cruise ships,

that's incredible.

As Imagineers on Disney Cruise Line,

we just have endless number of spaces.

And all of those spaces are telling stories.

That was one of my mantras.

Everything on the ship is inspired by something.

DAVID FISHER: You wanna actually work into the carpet, right?

Is everything related to the story?

LAURA CABO: Oh gosh, it's just endless.

We go all over the company for inspiration.

And so we work very closely with ILM,

which tells all of our Star Wars stories,

with Marvel Studios, and with Walt Disney Animation.

I think each ship carries about 5,000 pieces of artwork.

So it's a floating gallery, too.

There's no other place in the world you'll see

that amount of Disney artwork.

TAMARA KHALAF: We have about 65 million works

of art in our collection.

Everything from Snow White to Encanto,

and so we opened up our archives

and selected a lot of wonderful pieces

for various parts of the ship.

LAURA CABO: 65 million assets.

That's a lot of millions. Right?

And so that's a huge resource for us.

You look at something like so simple,

this sketch of Bambi that's even, it's unfinished.

It's the essence of Bambi.

Or we were looking at a Mary Blair,

and Mary Blair is, like, one of my

absolute favorite Disney artists,

and you could just see the brushstroke,

just it was so simple,

and yet that captured Cinderella.

TAMARA: We have more art represented on this ship

than we've ever had represented.

We have over a thousand pieces from our collection

which guests will be able to see in stairwells

and staterooms,

certainly in the restaurant.

It's pretty extensive.

CREW MEMBER (off screen): Camera rolling.

CREW MEMBER: Mark.

DIRECTOR: Everyone settling.

Here we go. Ready and action.

SCRIPT SUPERVISOR: Captain America. Sam!

Falcon American? What do I call you now?

CAPTAIN AMERICA: Sam works, so call me Cap.

So, how's the cushy cruise gig going?

SCRIPT SUPERVISOR: Try the chicken tenders,

they'll change your life.

What are you doing all the way out here?

CAPTAIN AMERICA: We were headed back to base, and we noticed

a spike in high energy levels at your location.

Red Wing, give us a bird's eye view.

DANNY: We are in a sound stage

in North Hollywood, California,

where we are shooting our first scenes

for Avengers: Quantum Encounter,

our brand-new dinner show

for the Worlds of Marvel restaurant.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: Every time I talk, I'll do this.

DANNY: It is going to be a flurry of activity

over the next few days.

We're shooting Anthony Mackie as Captain America

and our stunt double, Sabrina, as Miss Marvel.

CREW MEMBER: You can speed that up.

DANNY: I'm Danny Handke.

I am a senior creative director

for Walt Disney Imagineering,

and my job is to bring all these amazing Disney,

Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars stories

to life onboard the Disney Wish.

So, she turns. I cut there. Slo-mo shot.

So at Worlds of Marvel,

we wanna give something that's interactive

and brings the action as close to you as possible.

And so tonight you're invited

to enjoy a Avengers technology showcase.

You're learning about some cool quantum technology

and enjoying a great meal.

Things go a little wrong,

you might encounter a normal-sized seagull

at a very small-sized ship.

But all that cool quantum tech of course attracts Ultron,

and that's where we call in the Avengers

to help come save our ship.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: Watch my six!

(grunting)

Hang tight!

Contingency plan is on her way.

DANNY: We've never done anything like this

on any of our existing Disney cruise ships.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: What? What is it?

DANNY: We've never done, like, a big Hollywood style production

CAPTAIN AMERICA: You're an Avenger now.

-DANNY: And it's like, well... -CAPTAIN AMERICA: In training.

DANNY: ...if we're going to do a Marvel restaurant,

let's just go big with it, right?

DANNY: Let's see, page two,

he was destroyed six years ago.

(both laugh)

And he's looking for a new power source.

Smiley face.

(laughter)

STEVEN SPIEGEL: We're taking these characters.

DANNY: And putting them on our cruise ship,

which is so cool, right, to, to, to stage

our final battle

onboard the ship, they're there with us.

DIRECTOR: Continue to survey the ship around you, but obviously,

-your eyeline, you're talking to camera. -CAPTAIN AMERICA: Got it.

STEVEN: It gives us a way to have fun

with, like, all the tropes of being on a Disney cruise.

STEVEN: "He must be here for the quantum cores."

-DANNY: Yeah. -STEVEN: "Well, he isn't here

for the chicken tenders."

(laughter)

-DANNY: I love it. -STEVEN: I can't wait to hear him deliver that.

That will, that will just make my day.

(laughter)

WOMAN: He must be here for the quantum cores!

CAPTAIN AMERICA: Well, he isn't here for the chicken tenders,

and we're going to have a serious talk

about you bringing quantum tech on a cruise ship.

DANNY: I had no inkling the amount of people

it would take to, to pull this off.

We have people working on this in London,

in Germany, in Florida, in California.

We have to get into visual effects,

we have to score the media.

(dramatic symphonic music playing)

DANNY: We have to create the quantum cores,

we have to fit out the interior,

we have to pick the linens

and the, the chairs, you know.

There's so much left to do.

It is unbelievable, like,

how big of a production this is.

And it's, it's just one night of dinner.

It's probably .01 percent

of the overall cruise experience.

That's just mind-bending, it's very ambitious.

But we're gonna pull it off, and guests are gonna love it.

DANNY: Well done! We left some chicken tenders in your...

ANTHONY MACKIE: Those better be the best chicken tenders.

-WOMAN: Thank you. -ANTHONY: Bye!

WOMAN: Bye!

PHILIP: This is one of our many guest staterooms

going on to our Disney Wish.

This is an amazing process.

The shipyard builds prefabricated staterooms

offsite in their factory, brings them over here,

and they're being installed in the ship.

That's a very important piece of the entire puzzle.

There are more than a thousand staterooms.

Every 15 minutes,

they're installing a cabin on our ship.

MONICA IRELAND: It's amazing to see this conveyor belt.

You don't actually see it moving 'cause it's so slow,

but every component as it goes down the line,

you have people working from different directions.

One's doing plumbing, one's doing mill work,

one's doing the electrical.

KYLE BILOT: Then as we get further down the line,

they'll be installing wardrobes,

cabinets, artwork, carpet, TVs,

all of that will be in the cabin

by the time it goes onboard the ship.

I mean, this whole process

is incredibly innovative.

When this cabin first started on the line

to where it'll end now

is about a 12-hour process.

So, from 12 hours, start to finish,

you have a completed cabin.

MONICA: The total number of cabins we have,

crew and guests, is about approximately 2,000,

and we have about 900 of them so far.

There's a still a ways to go, but a good percentage

is already complete, is done.

So nobody can make changes.

(laughs)

PHILIP (off screen): Oh, this is it, fully finished.

We've got the sofa bed, the, the bed frame, the mattress.

So once the carpet is rolled out here,

they can lock up the cabin.

Done.

It is a really exciting moment.

A lot of our team members from the US

have not been able to come out here for more than a year

because of the pandemic.

So many hundreds of virtual meetings,

virtual drawing approvals,

virtual factory acceptance tests.

Come on in. Come on in.

LAURA CABO: You set your foot into this space,

and we want you to be in awe.

The stair is so beautiful.

With that sweep, it's so elegant.

PHILIP: We're going to walk. We're going to start walking.

LAURA CABO: As I'm touring the ship,

I'm seeing everything that's coming,

amazing things that are going to come to life

in a matter of months.

PHILIP: We've got the main galley

for the entertainment restaurant.

We only really have the start of the entrance.

LAURA CABO: But then up in the ceiling...

WOMAN: The main area... (indistinct)

LAURA CABO: Oh god!

This is a new feature allowing the guest

to be able to come out on to the bow of the ship.

Okay, we're in the bridge.

Alright, we're not stepping on any cables.

We want them all to work.

PHILIP: Keep going. All the way up.

Everyone catch their breath.

LAURA CABO: Oh my god. You get into good shape here.

I'm exhausted.

My legs are killing me.

But there is a ship!

I mean, it's not put together yet,

but that's where Imagineering comes in here.

PHILIP: I want a team picture.

LAURA CABO: Taking the steel

and putting an experience into it.

Everyone say Disney Wish!

GROUP: Wooo!

CLAIRE: So the good thing about construction

is that it would be stressful

if you had any time to stop and think about it.

We have no time to stop and think about it.

That's actually the reality.

I'm Claire Weiss. I'm a Creative Director here

for the Disney Wish.

I really focus on

the spaces that are inspired by a film

or inspired by a character.

So we're right here in the Walt Disney Theater.

It's amazing because two weeks ago,

there wasn't a roof on this, and now there's a roof.

There's an incredible amount of steel

that has to hold this up because this isn't just one deck.

This sort of steps down between three decks.

Our entertainment partners, they wanted a theater

that uses new technology,

so that can be projection mapped,

and you can change it with color

and lighting and projection.

So this was all 3D modeled down

to the last detail and shape and light fixture and speaker.

This just looks like a normal piece of green fabric.

This was almost a two-year development process

for this color and this weave.

Now they're buying and sourcing

these materials from all over the world.

The stones, the fabrics, the metals,

and before we know it, I'll be sitting there

with a glass of wine, maybe two glasses of wine,

a bucket of popcorn watching what's on that stage.

I mean, we have a theater with a roof.

Alright, let's do a show.

PHILIP: This is a big moment for us.

We're standing on the foreship of our Disney Wish,

and the middle part of our ship

is going to come in in the next few moments.

LAURA CABO: There's a skyscraper

floating towards another skyscraper.

It's crazy.

PHILIP: And those two humongous pieces

have to be joined

at an accuracy of a few millimeters.

We did it.

Another milestone.

It's 4:30 in the morning in Papenburg, Germany.

It's the last block to go on to our Disney Wish.

It's on its way over very, very gently.

Yes, of course it's middle of the night,

but that's fine, right,

I need to be here.

We have a lot of work ahead of us

and, of course, the pressure is enormous.

But once the blocks are all welded together

we won't mention blocks anymore.

We're going to be talking decks,

we're going to be talking spaces,

restaurants, cafes, cinemas.

So, yes, of course, I'm nervous in a way

but I'm really confident we're gonna get her done.

THOMAS MAZLOUM: Let's think this thing really, really through

because we are going into the last and final seven months,

and we just got to make sure we keep spirits

really, really, really high.

'Cause people are getting tired

like everywhere else in the world,

right, from the pandemic.

LAURA CABO: Maybe 80 percent of the spaces

are really good,

but then maybe

the most critical spaces

where we have the most show and coordination...

-THOMAS: Yeah. -LAURA CABO: ...entertainment maybe those are,

their trend is actually continuing to grow apart.

-PHILIP: Well, see. -LAURA CABO: I don't know, I'm just saying.

PHILIP: No, no, you're absolutely right.

You know, we have ships

sitting out of port, not coming into the port,

we can't get a hold of our materials.

THOMAS: Having just been to the shipyard

a couple of weeks ago,

I stood in front of this majestic bow

and seeing every little detail of that ship,

it just made me realize

the resilience of the human spirit

during what was a rather challenging period

in constructing and building a ship.

PHILIP: Since we're now, you know,

a few months out, the pressure is on.

She's going to be floating out of the hall soon.

THOMAS: Let's remember that that spirit

'cause it's gonna get, uh...

If we think it was busy the last 18 months,

it's gonna get a lot worse in the next seven, right?

PHILIP: Yeah, yeah, so true.

ALYSSA: I am a little nervous just because

it looks like this one may have tipped in transit,

and so I'm just going to kind of wait

and see what she looks like when we open it up.

But hopefully we're all okay.

ALYSSA: I can see hair,

(laughs) lots of hair.

I'm Alyssa Markfort. I'm a show manager

with Walt Disney Imagineering,

and we are here today to start the installation

of the Rapunzel stern character for the Disney Wish.

Rapunzel is the largest stern character

that we've done to date.

She's 27 feet wide.

She herself is about nine feet tall.

She has a size 22 women's shoe.

She is very intricate and very big,

and it's been a really cool undertaking.

All looks really, really good.

Just some dust and some dirt,

but nothing that's out of the ordinary.

LAURA CABO: Only Disney has stern characters.

They take a good year and a half,

two years of design,

working with our partners at animation.

ROGER GOULD: So literally, we started

by just drawing sketches to go, what's the right pose?

Because we wanted that spirit of joy and enthusiasm.

LAURA CABO: Rapunzel with her bare feet,

a little bit of a painterly mess.

ROGER: She's using her hair as this crazy sling.

And so it's an incredible collaboration

with the structural engineers to make sure

that the character feels spontaneous,

even though literally years of work go into figuring out

how to make it absolutely rock solid.

ALYSSA (over radio): Ron, I'm just curious how it's going up there.

RON LENTZ (over radio): So far so good. Bolts are lining up.

ALYSSA: We start the installation from left to right,

starting with the piece of hair that goes down.

And then we go the swag, the next swag of hair,

the next swag of hair.

So now we're about to lift Rapunzel herself.

Really tricky because she has

about five attachment points,

which makes it a little bit complex

with the compound curves of the ship

and making sure that everything aligns correctly.

-Yeah! Woo! -(man speaking indistinctly)

ALYSSA: Rapunzel has a wish

for bigger things in her world.

So she's the perfect icon for our ship.

It's my favorite part of my job

is to make these magical things and see them come to life.

DANNY: Wow! Cool, cool!

Looking good.

We are standing in the conveyor belt,

our first scene of the AquaMouse.

This is crazy how just being in this,

it's so, it's much bigger than I expected, right, guys?

LAUREN: It's amazing because we've been talking

about this for a couple of years now

and dreaming up possibilities,

and now we're standing in the conveyor.

The screens are coming together.

It's starting to look like we're in

an actual Mickey and Minnie experience.

MICKEY MOUSE: The snow! It's melting!

MINNIE MOUSE: Totally worth it!

DANNY: I find inspiration everywhere,

you know, just have to immerse yourself in everything.

My daughter of course is my biggest inspiration.

Just like Walt did with his daughters,

we do like Daddy's day at the Disney Park.

And we ride Small World all the time.

SACHI HANDKE: During the pandemic, all of us had

our own unique set of challenges.

And for us, we had this added layer

of our daughter getting an autism diagnosis.

DANNY: Getting to see the world through her eyes

just opens up so many new possibilities

that I've never considered before.

Things that I have to be more cognizant about.

SACHI: It's cool to kind of see how she processes things,

and it kind of reminds us, like,

not all people think the same way

and so we have to consider a lot

of different points of view.

DANNY: We wanna make sure everyone feels welcome

to our ships.

That there's something for everybody.

The AquaMouse is a story about Mickey and Minnie.

In our very first scene, you're climbing 45 feet

all the way up to the top.

You're either in the Swiss Alps

or you're going on an underwater excursion

to look for the mermaids.

Each day of the cruise, we alternate

between different stories.

So when you get all the way to the top,

the final scene of the story,

we hit you with these giant water blasters.

(Mickey and Minnie screaming)

DANNY: And then we go down

into this amazing slide experience.

Once we are dust-free,

then we can start turning on the water

and then we start programming and making it

into an attraction.

GIACOMO PANICUCCI: We're going to have a final walk

to make sure that everything is okay.

So, the propellers, the stabilizer,

uh, the thrusters are ready to go underwater,

because that might be the last opportunity we have

to see these components for a long time.

PHILIP: In this pod, there is a large electric motor

that's directly connected to the main propeller blades.

It's, it's a naval architect's dream

to be able to design the hull for a pod

for the energy efficiency of the ship,

for the speed of the ship.

It's really the most optimal flow

to the propeller.

So this is it.

This is the last time we see her dry

for five years.

Five years, right.

-(indistinct chatter) -(Philip laughs)

PHILIP: Finally, she's afloat.

(alarm blaring)

BERNARD MEYER: It's unbelievable.

It's so special.

Suddenly, you see it's growing,

and then you're asking yourself

how could it be in the hall,

because the ship seems to be bigger than the hall.

(laughter)

PHILIP: This is it. She leaves the hall,

and she'll never come back into the hall.

MAN 1: Three, four hours diving.

MAN 2: We all wanted to be here to say hello

to the gorgeous Disney Wish.

MAN 1: This is sort of her birth.

ALL: Happy birthday, Disney Wish!

-(laughs) -(indistinct chatter)

(uplifting music playing)

-(Laura screams) -(fireworks exploding)

LAURA CABO: Oh, that's awesome! Ha ha ha!

Woo!

(all cheering)

CLAIRE: These are new.

TIM HALL: These just came today, I think.

CLAIRE: The exterior is deceptive,

'cause the exterior looks beautiful and finished.

Would lead you to believe that the inside is finished.

As you can see clearly, clearly not.

DANNY: It's still very much a construction.

You can see there's wires everywhere,

still exposed walls.

SACHI: So it's gonna be broken up by sections.

If it's too distracting, if you find that, like,

you can't even concentrate on your meal

because there's too much to see, then we can pare it back.

TIM: I said that you would probably be concerned

that on the joint over there...

DANNY: Uh, hyperspace Lounge,

which is really coming together,

you can really start to feel kind of that intimate,

like fun environment that, uh,

that Star Wars space is going to bring.

MANNY RAMIREZ: So much more to life when you see

all the equipment that's gonna be exposed.

DANNY: Yeah, it's crazy that this is going to turn into this

-in a very short amount of time. -MANNY: Yeah.

DANNY: There is a lot going on.

I have this big checklist in my head

of all the different spaces I'm touching.

But I'm not in panic mode just yet.

PHILIP: We're in the northern part of the Netherlands

in the Port of Eemshaven.

We're going to go out for a couple of days.

We'll find some deep waters and really,

really go through an entire test procedure.

Every single system needs to be put through its paces.

(indistinct announcement over PA system)

MARCO NOGARA: My name is Marco Nogara.

And I'm going to be the captain,

the first captain of the Disney Wish.

The ship is not ours. It belongs to, to the shipyard.

But they will allow me some time

just to check the thrusters and the main propulsion system.

It's something very special

because the ship became like your baby, in a way.

You see the delivery of the ship.

You see, you know, the different stage

of the outfitting.

GARETH: Being out on the sea trials is fantastic.

To finally see it float out and actually go to sea

and start operating as we expected her to

is really quite exciting.

I'm Gareth Hamblin.

I'm the fleet chief engineer

for Disney Cruise Line.

I am sort of responsible for making the ship go.

I make sure we achieve all the things

we want to achieve efficiently and effectively.

The ship is literally a small town.

We carry almost 6,000 people.

We produce our own energy.

We make our own water. We treat our own sewage.

On top of that, this small town is moving at about 20 knots.

PHILIP: We've incorporated the latest

available technology that's out there.

We literally are the seventh cruise ship in the world

to be fully running on liquefied natural gas, LNG.

That is the cleanest current fuel

that you can use for a ship of this size.

GARETH: It has less emissions,

it's cleaner burning.

And so all around

a better fuel to use.

PHILIP: But not only that,

every pump, every light, every system

has been designed to use the least energy possible.

So not only are we using the best fuel that's available,

we're also wanting to burn less of it.

It is quite unique to witnesses this,

because some of these tests,

the ship will probably never do again.

But she's got to be able to do it.

SEBASTIAN WALTER: Today's the day where we determine

the maximum speed,

at, ja, at full power.

Okay, everybody,

we start the first measurement

one hundred percent propulsion power set port.

Achtung!

Null!

PHILIP: The ship hardly creates any wave.

That means you're actually not wasting much energy,

and that's exactly what we wanted to see.

It was a hundred percent full ahead,

and we were doing 23 knots.

WOLFGANG THOS: She is fast enough

and a bit more. (laughs)

And this is amazing of course.

Everybody on the bridge, just listen for a moment!

Please secure your laptops, tablets. Thank you.

SEBASTIAN: The next test is zig zag test.

20/20, first execute to starboard.

Achtung! Null!

BRIDGE OFFICER: Starboard 20. Starboard 20.

MAN: So, we can, uh, proceed

with the crash stop part way,

so we will increase speed again two marks.

SEBASTIAN: Five...

...four...

...three, two...

...one...

...zero.

Ship is dead in the water.

PHILIP: For any real emergency situation,

the captain must always know how will his ship perform

if he does need to stop the ship

as quickly as possible.

WOLFGANG (off screen): So it went well.

We stopped the vessel from full speed ahead,

and it was in nine minutes.

PHILIP: Oh my goodness.

That was so much faster.

We were more than 30 percent faster

and a lot shorter as well.

Very impressive to see.

LAUREN: We're here on the sea trial,

and we're using the time to test the AquaMouse.

To see the raft cycling through

with the water flowing through the slide,

it's a dream come true.

Or it's a wish come true,

should I say that instead? (laughs)

We have a different configuration

of dummies in each of the rafts

that are filled with water to different weights

to simulate whether it's an adult or a child

to test all the faults and see how it performs

before we get human riders onboard.

It's exciting. I'm a little bit cold.

So... (laughs) if my reactions are muted,

that's what's going on.

Now, I have to make notes.

Where's my waterproof notebook? I'm just kidding.

MAN (off screen): Good luck!

LAUREN: There's still a lot we need to do

before we are ready for guests.

We have to install the entire show in the conveyor

and do a little bit more ride testing and tuning.

But yeah, I will say that

we have successfully built a waterslide

because I got wet. (laughs)

-LAUREN: We did it! -(laughter)

That was really cool.

THOMAS: Here you go.

PHILIP: For about ten weeks

since we left the shipyard in Papenburg,

we'd been working through the night

to get to a delivery ready ship.

THOMAS: It's the final one.

A few more seconds, and she's ours.

(laughter)

PHILIP: It's a short moment,

but it's something that we've been working towards

five years.

(applause)

PHILIP: The pressure was already high,

but I knew we were going to have a lot of pressure

the next few days, the next few weeks beyond that.

JAN MEYER: We estimate

that 15,000 persons

worked on this ship,

contributed their skill,

dedication, and ingenuity.

THOMAS: The world wasn't always the kindest

over the last two years with the pandemic,

and yet this is what we have produced together.

KYLE: This was probably one of the hardest days

of my job in my career.

We laid this carpet out.

We started at 8:30 in the evening

and went until six o'clock the next morning.

ALL: Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

JAN (off screen): We have one tradition.

You know, the hip-hip hooray!

(laughter)

-Hip-hip! -TEAM: hooray!

-JAN: Hip-hip. -TEAM: Hooray!

PHILIP: Now we have an entire program ahead of us,

a whole schedule of things that need to be done.

We have 11 days

to get from Bremerhaven, Germany

all the way to Port Canaveral, Florida.

LAURA CABO: We have a million things to do.

Our team is still going to be working their butts off

to get this done.

And we have guests, so that makes it overwhelming.

But luckily for us, it's our friends and our family.

They are very forgiving audience.

PHILIP: We'll be there, Laura.

-I have... -(Laura laughs)

LAURA CABO: Well, you've done this before. I haven't.

But yes, I, I agree that it's unbelievable.

-PHILIP: We've got this. -LAURA CABO: What the human spirit

can get done when you need to.

DANNY: We are in the Worlds of Marvel Restaurant

putting the finishing touches as we cross the Atlantic.

It's a little bit of a nail biter

because we are just a few days away

from having our very first test audience.

We're working odd hours, 24 hours a day.

And so even though we'd like to be further along,

um, you know, the case is we're not.

PETE LEATHERS: There's still a lot of work happening in here.

As you can see.

Today, we installed the marquee.

We're working on the lighting.

We've got our media team working

on all of the media and the audio.

HOPE VAN DYNE: What are you doing all the way out here?

CAPTAIN AMERICA: We noticed a spike

in high energy levels at your location,

Redwing, give us a bird's eye view.

DANNY: Programming is a big piece,

getting all of our shows together,

lighting, audio, media.

ANT MAN: He must be here for the quantum cores.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: Well, he sure isn't here for the chicken tenders.

ANT MAN: Look at this crowd. You try keeping their attention.

Hey, look, that guy's--

GREG LHOTKA: What are the frequencies there that you got?

WOMAN: It's at, uh, 150.

PETE: Things change every day,

I just got a message an hour ago

that all of our productions tables,

we need to move.

Operations needs to have the space

because they have to practice with their team.

So, we have to be flexible,

whether it's later nights, early mornings,

whatever we need to do to finish it up.

ANT MAN: Friday, come on now!

CLAIRE: We have nine more days left in the crossing.

Sounds like a lot of time. That is not a lot of time.

I think there was eight months

of scaffolding in the Grand Hall,

so only now are we able to kind of see

the breadth of the space.

And now, like, you see it.

The carpet is in, the chandelier is up.

We installed Cinderella.

One of the big things we still have to do

is install Lucifer,

who's the really evil cat

in the Cinderella story.

MAN: Shall we start with that big color-changing moment?

SARAH: I'm currently using 17,990 channels

for the fiberoptic.

DENISE (off screen): Oh, look at that pretty color!

-WOMAN: But, like, we, I mean-- -DENISE: I love,

that color is beautiful.

CLAIRE: All of the miles of fiberoptic cables

that are in these columns and also in the ceilings,

we're just in the beginning stages

of trying to figure out when they come alive,

what they look like, how they--

the speed, the intensity, all of that.

FOREMAN: Okay, moving.

ELECTRICIAN: Nothing loose in your pockets, old mate?

CLAIRE: We're working on these show moments with the chandelier

where the chandelier becomes an enchanted object,

so like classic Cinderella, right?

Like, the clock strikes midnight.

Every night at midnight,

it's going to "bing, bing, bong, bong"

we're going to use lights to dramatically strike the space.

Please don't go into the floor.

Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Whoo! God.

-BOB G: There it is. -(group laughs)

CLAIRE: This is a super complex piece.

This took probably two and a half years

of engineering.

We got all the stars on,

and they aren't exactly wired in the way

that we want to get them to get this

sort of this swirl effect

because each of these can twinkle and change color

and do its own thing.

ELECTRICIAN: So comfy.

CLAIRE: We'll reconfigure each star by hand,

put them back on, lift her back up,

and then we're going to start programming.

DANNY: We are having another down time right now.

The ride team is on it, figuring out what's going on.

We're just going to wait around for just a little bit longer.

DAVID ODOM: There's a large amount of water spraying

where our sensors...

The system won't run

if the sensors aren't able to see those rafts.

So these pieces of plastic cardboard

represent a piece of pipe

so that rather than the water coming out here,

it would come out over here away from the sensors.

(phone rings)

-DAVID: Yes, sir. -MAN (over phone): You should be getting water

next 30 seconds or so, okay?

DAVID: Okay, copy that.

MAN: Oh yeah, no, that's great. Okay.

I think that's exactly what we want.

DAVID: I think a few more wraps

of duct tape around that cardboard, that's all you need.

-(laughter) -Patent pending.

DANNY: We're running.

(applause, cheers)

RIDE OPERATOR: Hang on to both handles at all times.

And enjoy the slide, okay.

GREG: Uh, the old walk of shame.

-We got about halfway, right? -DANNY: Halfway.

GREG: So we just kind of have to be patient

and wait for, wait for our next opportunity.

DANNY: We're getting through that tube

no matter what!

DENISE: When we first stepped on board,

we knew there were challenges,

and we knew the theater had to be completed.

The Walt Disney Theater, of course, is the crown jewel

of entertainment for us at Disney Cruise Line.

And this is a very complicated space.

SHELBY: The Imagineers have built

a state-of-the-art theater on a moving ship.

It's luxurious, it's comfortable,

it's beautiful.

There are projections and lights.

There's performer flying.

There is audio and sound, pyrotechnics.

So we have everything we could ever want on land.

The challenge is the ship

is being built (laughs)

as we're trying to rehearse this show.

It's a little like, um, building the plane

as we're trying to fly the plane.

LAURA OFFERDAHL: Usually we'd have the theater,

and we'd have 24 hours to work in the theater

and we don't, we have 12.

We're in here trying to do stuff on the stage,

and the outfitters are out here

drilling and sawing

and hammering and everything else.

SHELBY: But, you know, we have a deadline.

The maiden voyage is looming.

And so as we think about the crossing, right,

at least, you know, the closer you are to Europe,

the further you are from the maiden voyage.

(laughs)

DENISE: It takes a village to build a ship.

So, yeah, we're a hardworking village

here on the Disney Wish.

(upbeat music playing)

ASHLEY LONG: I'm Ashley. I'm Cruise Director

here onboard, which means I help look

after all the entertainment.

You've got the brilliant minds

of Walt Disney Imagineering

that have brought these stories to life all around.

And then my team comes in to operationalize it.

DCL OFFICER: It looks like me in the morning.

ASHLEY: We're training the teams on all the different stories,

the show, the programs,

and we're really working together

to see how it all fits.

Every day, it's an intricate puzzle

that we're putting together.

You've got so many different moving pieces.

TOWEL TRAINER: And then roll this short end side here.

Also the center.

There you go. That's good.

LISA PICKET: We have an extensive training plan

going on right now

throughout the beautiful Disney Wish.

TOWEL TRAINER: And then lift it up

and make a sandwich.

LISA: Test and adjust,

test and adjust, test and adjust.

Hi, my name's Lisa.

I'm the Hotel Director,

and I oversee

approximately 1,125 individuals.

Over 70 nationalities are represented on our team.

Our entire food and beverage operation,

galley, dining, quick service, concierge,

housekeeping, laundry,

I'm sure I'm forgetting someone.

It's an army of excellence

that is just crystal clear focused

on ensuring we cross that finish line.

TOWEL TRAINER: And then you can have a really nice monkey.

Good job, John. Good job, Gabriel.

SALAH CHETBI: We ready to go? Let's go!

♪ ♪

Welcome to the I-95.

Hello, guys. How are you?

I-95 is the expressway

for any crew member to go from the front to the back.

My name is Salah Chetbi.

I have the best job in the company,

because I'm the one who tastes all the wine.

I'm the one who tastes all the cocktail.

We're going to the hotel storeroom

where all the food, flour, meat,

wine, beer, everything come from there.

This is a password, is...

(imitating beeping) No, I'm just kidding.

MICHEL BELLEFEUILLE: My name is Michel.

I am the executive chef.

There are 250 of us in the galley.

Approximately 160 of us cook,

80 of us are cleaners like dishwashers,

and then we have a team of 15

that are strictly provisions.

They work every day to make sure that we don't run out of food.

STEVE WALKER: Every menu here at Disney Cruise Line

is specially written for the location that they're in,

and we have a lot of fun creating the menu.

We have to source the products.

Then we sample and then we train our cooks

and our dining staff.

And then they do

numerous play presentations.

A few dummy runs as well.

MICHEL: Every day, regardless of whether

we have guests or not,

we need to practice the menus.

Once we have 4,000 guests on board,

it has to be automatic.

We don't rest

until everything is 100 percent.

SALAH: This is a big bottle of champagne.

This is like a 15-liter bottle of champagne.

It's called the Nebuchadnezzar.

Ooh! So heavy!

We serving I would say 2,000 glass of wine a day.

Maybe like 4,000 beers during the cruise.

Cocktails are the most demanding product.

We probably going to make 10,000 a cruise.

That's what people expect. They like the adventures.

Having a bottle of wine or having a cocktail,

it's entertainment.

MARCO: I have a very good feeling about the ship.

We're all very happy about the performances.

It is a very, very comfortable vessel.

The ship is stable, maneuvers very, very well.

GARETH: We are really cruising along.

As you can see, we're just about top speed.

We're doing about 20 knots.

At the present moment, our priority is to make sure

we arrive in Port Canaveral on time,

because, as you probably realize,

we've got a lot of functions coming up.

And so schedule is very important.

It also depends, of course,

if the captain wants to go waterskiing.

If he wants to go waterskiing,

then we have to go a little bit faster.

LAURA CABO: We're out here in the middle of the ocean,

and the days are ticking by.

We're all, you know, trying to tick off what got done,

and every day is kind of like Groundhog Day.

DANNY: Usually at this point in the project,

you think you could just, like,

be done and walk away,

but it's never the case.

We're sharing the space with entertainment.

We're sharing with the food and beverage team.

And so right now, it's all theoretical

that everything is going to work together.

LLOYD MACHADO: To be honest, when you walk to certain zones,

if you're not careful, you can go into the dark side,

as we call it in Star Wars.

Let me ask this question here.

Our goal here is to start setting this place

so it looks like a restaurant at some point of time.

Is that going to hinder any work that you're doing here?

In the World of Marvel, we literally saw

there was four different elements

working at the same time.

There was a construction piece happening.

There was a programming piece with the lights.

There was a programming piece with the televisions.

As the construction is happening in one side,

we are coordinating the service part of it.

And then our team comes in there

and starts setting up the tables at the same time.

So today, while the ship is nearly ready

and we are handing over spaces, gets a little touchy.

LAURA CABO: I feel a lot of angst.

(laughs)

And I try to push it down

because I can't have that in front of the team.

But I see them struggling every day,

and they've got so much work that they need to get done.

DANNY: Just turn it counterclockwise so that--

LAURA CABO: So as we pass from space

to space to space, everything needs attention.

DANNY: Alright, where to next?

LAURA CABO: Right now, we're completely lost

in all the details, right?

Because this is our last opportunity,

you know, five years of work.

It's our last opportunity to get it all done.

They just want to deliver on it all.

And my job is to step back and remind them that it's okay.

At the same time, I'm tucking it back

in the back of my mind,

like, yes, I want that detail too.

PHILIP: The pressure is enormous. It really is.

We only have so many more days left.

It's coming really, really quickly.

ASHLEY: I think for all of us,

this is such a culmination of so many years.

That finish line is getting closer.

We've been using all 24 hours,

every single minute,

all day long to get it all done.

The crew are itching to be able

to get into their spaces.

PHILIP: When you think of the team

who have been at this,

who are so tired

and still every day they get up and they're still at it,

and a part of the team is working through the night.

(fireworks explode)

PHILIP: I never thought we would actually get as much done

as, as we have done now.

You know, look at us sitting here, right?

I mean, look at this.

She looks done, and she nearly is, right?

Just a little bit more.

LAURA CABO (voice breaking): I've worked for, like, 30 years

in the design field.

And I have to say

I've worked on some really cool things,

but this is really special.

To be able to, okay...

(sniffles)

...to be able to have a dream that five years later

it becomes real...

...it's really cool.

It's really...

Yeah.

(dramatic music playing)

SHELBY: The maiden voyage is the commitment,

that first true voyage with paying guests

is what we're all working toward.

It's hard.

I don't want to pretend that it isn't.

It is really hard.

But I think what gets me through it

is to know that I'm in an environment

where everyone is faced with the same challenge,

and everyone's doing their best.

DANNY: Okay. Alright.

Take two, take two. We got this.

Alright.

Minnie!

(yodeling)

(laughter)

Oh. That one got us.

-Uh-oh. -MAN: Alright.

DANNY: Here we go!

The show is working now. It's fun.

Rode it three times in a row, which was a blast.

Oh ho ho!

I'm actually going to go again.

ASHLEY: We're opening things up slowly but surely,

so each and every day, bringing a new program to life.

LAURA CABO: So, it's unbelievable

what happens in a couple of hours.

And all of a sudden, the space is revealed

and you're like, okay, we can do this.

DANIELLE DUFFY: Two chairs, two tables.

CLAIRE: Like the term, "all hands on deck,"

everybody has heard from every, you know,

pirate sailor movie of all time.

But this is really all hands on deck.

PHILIP: It's what people do

to create, to build,

to complete something like this.

In my perspective,

it's as close to superhuman as you can get.

-LAURA CABO: Where's trash? -PAM: Here.

LAURA CABO: Oh, okay.

Oh my gosh, this is so confusing.

Who designed this ship?

(laughter)

STAFF: So, there's the...

LAURA CABO: Okay.

(elevator dings)

ALYSSA: Lucifer! Lucifer the cat.

KYLE: It's not so easy to move on the carpet.

ALYSSA: Alright. Perfect fit.

CLAIRE: He's got a teacup

and there are mice under Cinderella's dress,

and he's poised perfectly to pounce on them.

(laughter)

PHILIP: We're nearly there.

Our Disney Wish is nearly there.

LAURA CABO: We'll get it.

We'll, it's going to take

another week or so.

FEMALE HEAD SERVER: ...that their stickers are on the table.

DANNY: This is opening night

for Avengers: Quantum Encounter.

This is first time we're running it for our diners.

MUNIR ARABI: Alright, all the seaters...

NICK SNYDER: Years and years of thinking

about this space being real,

and now actually seeing it come to life

for the very first time with guests coming into it,

it's amazing, this is incredible.

DANNY: What do you think of the kids menu?

SACHI: Whoa! Look at this, hun!

DANNY (off screen): It is a little chaotic

right now putting everything together,

but we're excited to sit down at a meal

and see what happens.

MUNIR: And this is going to be the new table number.

It was a crazy start, I got to say.

It shrank, yeah!

It shrank because of the quantum cores.

This restaurant, honestly speaking,

it was given to us yesterday.

Things happened very fast.

Hello. Good evening. Welcome.

May I have your stateroom number, please?

So I have a large team,

which total is of 78 crew members.

And we serve 694 guests in total.

Table number 120, please. One-two-zero.

And we're part of the show,

so we're part of the experience.

We want to make sure our crew are ready.

Our crew in place.

FRIDAY: Target acquired.

Quantum cores are in line.

Prepare to push your buttons.

ANT MAN: Ready? In...

BOTH: Three, two, one. Activate!

NICK: The quantum cores are one of my favorite things

that I've gotten to work on from the very beginning.

ANT MAN: Pretty sweet, right?

NICK: We're actually letting you be a part

of that interactive story.

ANT MAN: Alright, people, it's hero time.

When I give the signal, smash your buttons.

Hit your buttons now!

NICK: Seeing it illuminate and fill the room

with all the light that we knew it was going to do

and the dynamic, you know, content it brings,

it's, it's perfect.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: And later, we're gonna have

a serious talk about bringing

quantum tech to a cruise ship.

ANT MAN: Look at this crowd.

You try keeping their attention.

Hey, look, that guy is still eating!

(laughter) -He's talking about you.

DANNY: Like, everyone laughed at the right moments.

The technology worked very well for the first go.

So, we're just thrilled. We're just thrilled.

Yeah. Sigh of relief.

(applause and cheers)

-SACHI: Did you like the show? -HARLEY HANDKE: Yeah.

SACHI: Yes, she said yes!

DANNY: Five years of planning.

Pretty, pretty crazy to think,

like, how much has happened

over the course of a couple weeks.

Been a wild ride. (laughs)

PHILIP: We never had a dull moment.

We had one challenge after the other being thrown at us,

and we just kept on going, but we did it.

LAURA CABO: I never ever in my wildest dreams

ever thought that we would be building the ship

while we were going across the Atlantic Ocean.

(crowd cheering)

LAURA CABO: And then it was just

unbelievably sudden how,

my gosh, we have this ship.

ANNOUNCER: Welcome to the christening

of the Disney Wish!

(fireworks exploding)

(dramatic music playing)

(cheering and applause)

(horn honks)

(crowd chattering)

(laughter)

GREETER: Disney Wish, please welcome aboard

the Brown family.

(screaming)

LAURA CABO: It's so surreal.

I can't even believe that it's here.

ENTERTAINER (off screen): One, two, three.

Wishes do come true!

LAURA CABO: It's so joyful to just see now

all of these people coming onboard,

being so happy and just becoming kids

and giggling.

There's nothing more satisfying than that.

ENTERTAINER: This level of enchantment every day!

(kids giggling)

DIRECTOR: I'll count you in. Three, two...

ALYSSA: This space is unlike anything that we've ever done before.

DANNY: We've been talking to the press

trying to get everyone excited

about how we brought this all to life.

LAURA CABO: Castle on the Seas.

That's what this ship is.

You walk into that, and that sets

the tone for everything.

CLAIRE: It's been like a crazy whirlwind.

But, like, this is the chance

to explain all the stuff

and see people enjoying it.

This is the fun part. I mean, it's all the fun part,

but, like, this is really the fun part.

ANCHOR: It feels like you're just in a,

on a slide in the middle of nowhere.

LAUREN: We've been working on this slide

for such a long time,

and to see guests

finally being able to experience it,

this is why we do it.

Happy people make the world a better place

and if we can get more people on the AquaMouse,

we can make more people happy.

MAN: Oh wow! I got soaked.

Oh yeah, baby!

That was fantastic.

HARLEY: He got some eggs too!

-DANNY: Yeah, how many eggs does he have. -HARLEY: Three.

DANNY: It is amazing to observe

and just seeing Harley...

(choking up)

...play in these spaces, that, that's what

one of the reasons why I do what I do.

She was one years old when I started this project,

and a lot of the ideas I put into these spaces

are things that we both enjoy doing together.

CLAIRE: I can't believe they let us do this.

They let us do it. And, like, we're sitting in it.

(orchestral music playing)

LAURA OFFERDAHL: The minute the curtain goes up,

people cheer.

(audience cheering)

LAURA OFFERDAHL: Before they even start to sing

or dance or do anything.

LAURA OFFERDAHL: I was, like, crying, like, tears of joy.

(performers singing)

CLAIRE: And my hope is that

that can be felt by anybody that comes on the ship,

that all of that magic

and care is real.

SHELBY: We were so far behind

that I don't even know

that I was 100 percent sure we would get here.

MINNIE MOUSE: Come on, everyone.

SHELBY: And to come out on the other side,

to finally hear that applause, it's validation.

(cheering and applause)

PHILIP: And that one goes on. Done!

Alright.

It's all yours.

My model!

Just one year ago,

that block came in, right,

with the bridge in it, and now we're sailing?

Honestly, this was probably

the most challenging project that I've ever worked on.

But she's a really, really good ship,

and that is everything for us.

KRISTEN ZEIGLER: Awesome.

LAURA CABO: This was hard. (laughs)

And no one has given up.

Just when I see everybody

just still doing those last-minute things.

We have just hours left. That's all.

DANNY: I think it's going to hit me tomorrow

when I'm really going to probably break down.

(laughs)

'Cause up to this point, I'm like,

oh, there's still things I can do.

CLAIRE: If, like, there was infinite time,

we would work on this forever.

So in the words of Rafiki, it is time.

(bell tolling)

LAURA CABO: Tomorrow, we have to leave.

But everything that we have envisioned

has come true.

(cheering and applause)

(cheering)

LAURA CABO: You know, the little birdy is flying

out of the nest, right?

She's going to fly on her own.

We did it!

The ship is beautiful.

And she is loved already.

♪ Yo ho! Yo ho! ♪

LAURA CABO: We are so excited for guests

to come aboard.

♪ Yo ho! Yo ho! ♪

LAURA CABO: It's time.

It's time for the ship to speak for herself.

♪ Pirate's life for me ♪

♪ Yo ho! ♪

(cheering)

(fireworks exploding)

-Junkanoo is our spirit, our passion, our love.

[Narrator] On the islands of the Bahamas,

Junkanoo is a centuries-old celebration born out of

expressions of resistance and freedom.

-We are Junkanoo. This is ours.

[Narrator] Today, Junkanooers spill into the streets,

keeping the tradition alive with costumes made of

crepe paper and cardboard,

dancing to the rhythms of whistles,

drums, and bells.

-There is nothing in the entire world like Junkanoo!

[Narrator] And it's that spirit sweeping across the

island of Eleuthera.

Here, Disney Cruise Line is infusing the magic of

the Bahamas into a new destination for its growing

fleet of ships.

-Everything we do is meant to communicate emotions and ideas.

[Narrator] The first of its kind in 25 years.

-Something big starting right here.

[Narrator] Where visitors step ashore to

experience Bahamian art.

-Ta-da! -I'm beyond thrilled.

[Narrator] Music...

♪ Bim! ♪

[Narrator] Dance...

-You want to move.

[Narrator] And natural wonders.

-We can save nature, it's possible.

-We did it.

-This entire project is about the Bahamas.

It's not something that you would see anywhere else.

[Narrator] But infusing the best of the Bahamas

into this remote stretch of land is no small feat.

-Building on an island is really, really hard.

-I just can't go to the hardware store.

[Narrator] And now, the team has only six months

left ‘til the first ship docks.

-Time to make magic.

-Who are we? -Junkanoo!

[♪ exciting music playing]

-This is one of my favorite places to come back, man.

This is where it all began.

[Narrator] On the southernmost tip of a little-known

island of the Bahamas,

the Atlantic Ocean breaks along limestone cliffs.

-There's a spirit in this place. -Uh-huh.

-You feel it, it just pulls you in.

[Narrator] This is Lighthouse Point on the

island of Eleuthera.

80 miles from Nassau,

it's the longest island in the Bahamas.

Just 30 feet wide in one spot,

it stretches 110 miles down to Lighthouse Point.

-This has always been such a magnificent view.

[Narrator] For the past 5 years,

Bahamian artist Kevin Cooper and Disney Imagineer

Kevin Thomas have been part of an ambitious undertaking here:

Disney Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point.

-Disney Cruise Line had been searching for its new

port of call for decades.

As our fleet grows,

we knew we were going to need yet another

destination where the ships can make that journey

from Florida within a day,

and we were able to find this magnificent location.

-Lighthouse Point really has a mood.

It's full of story.

These spectacular surreal forms

all along the edges of the cliffs.

[Narrator] Joe Rohde is a former Disney Imagineer and

one of the creators behind countless Disney destinations.

He helped craft the vision of Disney Lookout Cay at

Lighthouse Point during the design phase.

[Joe Rohde] This is the kind of stuff that you

just can't design.

Lighthouse Point definitely has a feeling that you

get from being in it.

So when we started Disney Lookout Cay,

that became a design thing: How can we protect the

quality of this place while, at the same time,

doing something here that will change it?

[Narrator] In pursuit of that goal,

the team turned to the people of the Bahamas.

-It's not uncommon for local people to be very

skeptical and suspicious of a big company coming

into their space,

but if you're open to collaborating,

then we will find something together that will express our

common values together.

We started to find out where are the artists,

where are the storytellers that would be both comfortable

and willing in collaborating with us.

Kevin Cooper was one of the first.

-I wanted to be a part of the change that's happening here,

to be a part of the process of creating from

the very beginning.

-One of the most important people we

met is Antonius Roberts,

who's a preeminent artist in the Bahamas.

-Bahamians make every effort to protect this paradise.

I saw it as an opportunity to engage in meaningful

conversations about preservation.

[Joe Rohde] We started building a network of artists

with whom we could talk about this idea of

art as a way of letting culture speak universally.

-And the place itself would be the art,

and through that art,

they would get the messages and the feeling and

the voice of the local people.

-The pineapple is still my favorite, though.

[Kevin laughs]

[Narrator] From these conversations,

a uniquely Bahamian plan emerged,

featuring cultural pavilions and spaces for

music and nature.

[Joe Rohde] We let our architecture be inspired

by the shapes of the land and by the things

that live on the land:

leaves, seashells, bird wings,

by the undulating shape of the sand.

[Narrator] Less than 20% of the 900-acre site

would be developed, with a nature trail,

areas for kids and families, and, just for adults,

all designed on three main pillars.

[Kevin Thomas] One: the water, the sea life.

Another was the land,

and of course there are different plants

and animals that reside on this beautiful location.

And then, finally that of culture.

We've been able to use all of that to draw inspiration.

[Narrator] In 2022, construction began.

Now, with just six months left 'til the first ship

comes into port,

all eyes are on the push to the finish line.

-The camp starts to come alive around 6 a.m.

I start my day very early because that's the time I have

to be by myself and check the construction site.

-With that rain last night and the way the

cloud cover is this morning,

I'm not sure we're going to be doing too much today.

That hurts.

[Narrator] Weather delays are part of any job.

But building on an island this remote is a

whole new experience.

-That's a whole ‘nother wrinkle that most people don't

have to deal with when you're on a mainland project.

Everything we get on this island comes by boat.

The ocean says, “we have five-foot seas,”

the ship doesn't sail.

[Narrator] Before starting the main construction phase,

they had to build all the needed infrastructure from

the ground up.

[Jon Hough] It's the first time building a whole, essentially,

township with electric,

water and all the buildings that go with it,

because we normally have a city that we're tying

into for our infrastructure.

[Narrator] Then came the next hurdle:

building the pier that would welcome thousands of people

to the island every docking.

-When we were working through the pier design,

we worked very closely with our environmental partners.

[Narrator] The result is an open-trestle pier that

can anchor a 144,000-ton ship

with minimal environmental impact.

-The pier is unique in as far as, like,

the distance from the shore.

We did that on purpose so that we wouldn't have to

dredge the seabed.

[Narrator] To safely dock,

a cruise ship needs the water to be at least

30-50 feet deep.

By placing the pier far enough out to reach that depth,

the team avoided disturbing some of the

marine life from any dredging closer to shore.

[Angela Wu] We're very mindful of how we're impacting

the environment and trying to minimize that.

Hey, Dave!

-Angela, how are you?

-What we are building here is entirely self-sustaining.

[Narrator] Behind the scenes,

a miniature city is being engineered to sustainably

power all of the guest spaces.

-We have our solar farms back there that power

over 90% of the electricity generated on our project.

[Narrator] More than six acres of panels were installed.

-We also have our bio-digesters and incinerators and our

wastewater treatment plant.

There's a lot back there.

-I know we've got a lot of work left, but.

-We can do it.

-We're going to get there. -Alright, get back to work.

-See ya! -Show us the way, Bernadette.

[Narrator] Just a few miles away from the construction site,

another production is underway.

-Hello, hello!

Welcome, welcome, welcome! Welcome in, welcome in!

-Oh my goodness!

-Hi! -Oh, with the conch shell.

-So we've been able to do a little work here and there.

-Wow. -Well, it's beautiful already.

-These are beautiful.

[Narrator] The Disney Live Entertainment team,

TJ Tekurio, and Kris Bunnell,

are working closely with local performers to dream up

a show inspired by Junkanoo!

-Junkanoo emanated from our ancestors in

the country of Ghana, in Africa,

which then was traversed to the Bahamas.

It brings you back to the history of why we

are who we are.

We have that feeling, that spirit,

that passion that exudes when we adorn a costume,

that when you hear that music, that when you feel that rush,

that, then you know, “it coming!”

[Narrator] It's that "rush" TJ and Kris are hoping to

tap into for the music, dance, and art at

Disney Lookout Cay.

-We can infuse that sound and cultural significance in

everything that we're doing.

Now we want to hear the music.

-Yeah! Now we want to hear the music!

-Let's go hear the music! -We're ready for it!

[percussion]

[Narrator] Alvin Johnson has been a Junkanoo performer

for almost 50 years.

As the group's leader,

he's helped recruit Eleuthera's top talent.

[Narrator] Today is the first time TJ and Kris get

to see and hear what they've been up to.

-You have a whole camaraderie of formidable,

passionate Junkanoo's who participate,

and they express their participation through

their musical instruments.

-I am more excited than ever before.

Seeing the costumes and then hearing the music, I am,

I'm beyond thrilled.

[Narrator] Alvin and his group now have only a

few months left to finalize the show.

-Our next big challenge is gonna be moving the parade to

the performance space that's being built at

Disney Lookout Cay.

-Alright. -We're here.

-Hey, Bradley! -Hey. Welcome to the Bahamas!

[Narrator] In the pre-dawn hours,

a team of scientists is reuniting.

Their focus is a main conceptual pillar at

Disney Lookout Cay:

conservation.

-Now, different birds. -Oh yeah. All right.

-Should we do it? -Let's go get it.

At Disney Lookout Cay,

we have prioritized minimizing our environmental footprint.

[Narrator] So Disney Cruise Line partnered with

Disney's Animals, Science and Environment Conservation team,

to monitor wildlife and help reduce any

impact from development.

[Pachancia Knowles] Ready? Let's go.

[Narrator] Bahamian biologists Pachancia Knowles and

Bradley Watson joined the Disney team to lead the charge.

-Going that way. -I'll follow you then.

-Alrighty.

Got some friendly plants and some not-so-friendly plants.

So, in the Bahamas,

our forests are called coppice because they grow so tightly.

[Narrator] The thick Bahamian coppice is an ideal

habitat for a wide variety of birds,

including dozens of migratory species that

stop in Eleuthera each year.

-We want to make sure that all of those species continue

to make use of this property through the years to come.

[Bradley Watson] We want to determine if there's

any changes in local bird abundances.

And that's going to let us know how we should manage

those areas to keep the birds there.

[Narrator] Most of the birds have never been

tracked on Eleuthera before now.

The work not only protects the birds' home but also

adds to the Bahamian story at Disney Lookout Cay.

-My job is to entertain people with nature.

I really like to think about using Disney Lookout Cay as a

hub for connections between our guests and nature.

And we can hear the very first Bahama mockingbird

calling right now.

So, it's a bit of a race against time to get this net up.

[Pachancia Knowles] So we're setting up eight mist nets.

Bradley, what's the distance between each net?

[Bradley Watson] Pretty much separate them by

at least 40 meters. So, yeah.

[Pachancia Knowles] Right.

It's a delight to work with Bradley,

especially in the field,

because we both have strengths and weaknesses,

and I think we balance each other out.

-Pachancia and I have been working together for a while,

and she is actually, you know,

trained as a marine biologist.

I'm really indebted to her as a partner.

[interviewer] What would say is his most favorite bird species?

-Bradley's favorite bird species?

It could either be the Kirtland's warbler.

But I might want to go with Bahama Yellowthroat,

just because I think he have a special love

for, like, endemics.

Hey, Bradley, am I right or wrong?

What's your favorite bird species?

[laughs]

-Well, I owe a lot to the Kirtland's warbler because that

was my first bird.

But for this trip, let's focus on native birds.

Let's focus on, you know, Bahama yellowthroat.

So those are my favorites right now.

-Nice. Nice. -Did you guess those?

[Pachancia Knowles] Yeah, those are my top two.

[Bradley Watson] So you're telling me I'm not mysterious?

No, just an open book?

[Pachancia Knowles] I wouldn't say that.

You have a lot of plot twists, too, you know?

[Narrator] Now that the nets and the sun are up,

they monitor the perimeter closely for any captured birds.

-Every 20 minutes, we walk this transect so that

they're not stressed out or staying in the net

for too long.

-We still have a bananaquit that tried to

fly straight through.

[Narrator] A native Bahamian species called a bananaquit is

the first bird of the day.

-There we go. Oh, yes. Free bird.

[Narrator] Every bird netted during the Disney Lookout Cay

site survey gets measured, weighed,

and banded for tracking.

[Bradley Watson] So this is exciting,

this bird here was captured previously and

so, we call it a "Recap."

[Narrator] When a bird is a recapture,

like this native thick-billed vireo.

-Oh, it was hatched here? -Yeah.

[Narrator] They can compare size and weight

to prior surveys.

-Now we can say, you know, how has he progressed in life?

[Dr. Jason Fischer] So this is huge.

What is happening right now is literally the future

of how we age birds, you know, at this site.

That's awesome.

-Pretty amazing. -That's really cool.

-63. -Okay. Last year, it was 62.

-This is what builds the basis of our knowledge of

the birds of an area.

Here we go.

-History in the making.

-Something big starting right here.

It also allows us to figure out why birds are doing well,

as well as if there are things that we can do to help birds do

even better in different parts of our property.

-Bird is healthy and happy.

Well, healthy, at least.

I will slowly remove my hand to let him sit there for

a moment until he's ready to go.

Our goal is that people find enjoyment

in the natural habitats

at Disney Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point.

The more biodiversity we have and the more people

we have viewing that biodiversity,

the better off our society will be.

[Dr. Jason Fischer] Oh, there you go.

[Narrator] From his studio in Nassau.

-And then of course, you probably walked through

that green space.

[Narrator] Bahamian artist Antonius Roberts has his own

role to play in the conservation story at

Disney Lookout Cay.

[Antonius Roberts] When we talk about preservation,

it's important for people who come here to understand

that part of that is not only

through art and culture,

but our way of life.

-Antonius Roberts was one of the more skeptical people who

really needed to see real evidence that something was

gonna happen here that wasn't just a

run-of-the-mill opportunity.

-This is my little temple.

This is my contemplative space.

My specialty is, in fact,

working with wood in particular,

because the trees are part of our history,

part of our story.

Maybe that's why I feel so deeply rooted.

[Narrator] That sense of place is exactly what

he hopes to convey with the signature sculpture

he's creating for Disney Lookout Cay.

-I thought it was important for me to create a piece that

encompassed and embodied the whole story of preservation.

[Narrator] His inspiration came from a tree that had

fallen naturally on the construction site.

[Antonius Roberts] I thought, “Oh...

...can we just take that tree and put it back?

Install it back into the environment so it can

symbolize the fact that you truly

appreciate this tree,

this sense of place?”

So, I wanted that piece to represent that.

[Narrator] Antonius moved the tree to his studio,

where he began the next phase of sculpting.

[Joe Rohde] What we are trying to do is a form of storytelling.

Everything we do is meant to communicate emotions and ideas.

[Narrator] And traditions.

Bahamian straw work, or plaiting,

is a weaving technique brought from Africa and

passed down through generations.

-Okay. He has asked for a fish.

He chose the Bahamian spiderweb.

[Narrator] There are more than 60 styles of weave

throughout the islands.

-Alright? -The natural.

[Narrator] Husband and wife Phillip and Portia Kemp,

have been crafting traditional Bahamian

artwork for years.

-Okay. Start to mark it out.

[Narrator] They'll soon have a greater audience when their

plaiting pieces go on display in the guest spaces.

-So that is the fish.

Then, now comes the fun part.

-I found some shells at the beach.

Use it for the eye of the fish.

-Ooh, I'm proud of you, you found shells.

The pieces that we create, both of us work on them.

[Philip Kemp] We will try and see who can make

the best design.

-Yes.

-And she always thought that she was always on top.

-Well, I am, I am.

-But I believe I've beat her a few times.

-If we have a number of these to do,

he'll be cutting the strips,

so I don't have to stop and wait.

Got to keep him busy, to keep him awake, you see?

-The Kemps have the skill set in working with

the different plaits.

Hello!

-Hi Kevin! -Hello Kevin, how are you?

-And how are you?

-I'm doing wonderful, how are you?

[Portia Kemp] Wonderful.

[Kevin Thomas] We just wanted to give them that platform to

create this expression of their own to share at

Disney Lookout Cay.

-And now the moment. -Oh yes.

-Will be the Junkanoo headpieces.

-That you have been waiting for. -Wow.

-One of the Junkanoo headpieces, here.

-Fantastic work.

They really kind of pushed the limits a little bit so that

they're developing things that are really new and unique.

These turned out so nice.

So excited to share these.

[Portia Kemp] Junkanoo.

[Narrator] Back at the survey site,

it's the team's last day of fieldwork

before guests arrive.

As part of their research for Disney Lookout Cay,

they're holding out for a prize find.

-Top of our list of birds is the Great Lizard Cuckoo

because there's not much known about it in the Bahamas.

It's extremely intelligent,

and it moves through the bush not by flying,

you know, in direct paths,

but by hopping from tree to tree.

It's very difficult for you to fool this bird.

[Narrator] Capturing a Great Lizard Cuckoo today

would provide key conservation data about

this native bird.

-It all helps us to put the puzzle together to understand

how can we help these species reproduce and continue

with a successful population rate.

[Narrator] It's eluded them so far.

-She just yelled. -She yelled?

-Yeah. Is that her?

-Let's go up there and see if we can get it into the net.

-She is yelling. I hope we got a bird.

-Excited. Out of town, dude!

-Lauren! -Hey, hey hey.

-Go, go, go. -Get up here!

Put it down, put it down.

-Alright. -Go, go, go, go, go.

-I'm like, violently shaking right now.

-Oh my God.

-My heart rate's like 140, I think.

-Oh my. -Let's get a tag on it.

[Narrator] It's their first ever Great Lizard Cuckoo!

-There's no signs of stress.

-All right. Magnet off to turn the tag on.

[Narrator] They attach a tracking device

that a nearby sensor station will detect,

providing brand new data on how a

Great Lizard Cuckoo moves throughout the area.

[Dr. Jason Fischer] This is a unique opportunity

to understand and investigate species that

we don't know much about.

Disney Lookout Cay guests are gonna have the chance

to see some of these species firsthand,

live and in person if they come and visit our property.

-So I'm gonna release the bird right now.

Okay buddy, I'm releasing you, okay?

The bird has no signs of stress.

All right, and 3, 2, 1.

Amazing. We did it.

[squeals]

[Narrator] Through their efforts,

Disney Lookout Cay will remain a place animals,

as well as people,

will migrate to, again and again.

[laughter]

-I'm crying. Like, I'm so excited.

-This is a great milestone for us.

-We're all working towards conservation as a team.

The Bahamas is built on its natural resources,

so the work that we do is of the utmost importance

for our country.

[Jon Hough] Please keep your hands clear of any pinch points.

Easiest way to not get hurt.

[Narrator] Jon Hough and the construction team are working

alongside the new pier that will soon carry

Disney Cruise Line guests from the ship to the island.

But today, the focus is on the underwater residents.

-We are actually setting up for some underwater fish habitats

that our environmental team has put together out of

natural limestone rock.

And we're going to set those on the seafloor

so that the fish,

as we finish construction,

have a place to migrate and hide in the

natural rock formations.

[Narrator] The pier's open-trestle design

allows for continued flow of water that won't block

tidal movement and will help sustain marine life.

-We tried to build in features that would make the

infrastructure more fish-friendly and to

create a bit of a fish migration corridor to help them

get under and through the trestle structure.

[Narrator] Environmental scientist Phil Kramer

independently monitors marine life around

Disney Lookout Cay.

And is doing some heavy lifting to encourage it.

Each of these giant slabs weighs between

3,000 to 8,000 pounds.

[Phil Kramer] These limestone here are

about 120,000 years old,

so these naturally were located here at the

Lighthouse Point site.

We're going to cluster them into groups of three or four

on the seabed.

[Narrator] The hope is that these will act as

reefs attracting fish and other marine life,

including endangered soft and hard coral.

[Phil Kramer] Coral reefs are massive reservoirs

of marine biodiversity.

And without coral reefs, you'd have a huge loss to the

planet's life in general.

[Bradley Watson] The amount of coral is declining.

Because of global warming,

it's the way that the world is right now,

and this is happening across the Bahamas and

the rest of the Caribbean.

[Narrator] From the beginning,

Disney Lookout Cay's conservation efforts

have prioritized preserving coral.

At a site nearby,

they're even trying to grow and repair it in nurseries.

These live fragments hang suspended,

benefiting from better water circulation and protection

from sea floor predators.

[Bradley Watson] We're willing to do anything we can

to preserve the corals.

[Narrator] Back at the pier,

that means lowering some 200 tons of fish and

coral habitats onto the ocean floor.

-Diver, mask up!

[high fives]

-Touching water.

-Ten feet to the left.

[Narrator] In this flat stretch of ocean floor,

the stone slabs are a popular attraction.

-After only 10 minutes,

we had dozens of fish trying to move in.

So, it really doesn't take long for them to realize

there's a new hotel in town.

[Narrator] And over the next five days,

the team will continue to install even more,

covering over 500 square feet of ocean floor

around the pier.

-We're adding back natural limestone structure,

which essentially is the lifeblood that supports a whole

cascade of marine biodiversity.

[Narrator] If it works,

Disney Lookout Cay's underwater stage will have

a whole new cast of characters.

[Kevin Thomas] So, it's been a while since we've

been out here.

-Yeah, it's been a minute, man.

[Narrator] With only a month left until

the first guests arrive,

the “Kevins” get a preview of the final design

elements at the guest pavilions.

-What's beautiful is the variety of colors.

I never thought it would have been this dramatic.

[Narrator] It's been a long journey from what they

set out to do when they first met five years ago,

from building a team of nine local artists,

to seeing their concepts come to life.

Like the bright-colored murals inspired by original art by

Bahamian painter Dorman Stubbs.

-Oh my gosh. Look at the pavilions.

[Narrator] Or the stretched textile prints created from

the work of another Bahamian artist, Kishan Munroe.

[Kevin Thomas] I love his colors.

[Narrator] At the cabanas,

unique contributions from all the artists are

on full display,

including carved wood panels modeled after the

designs of Andret John.

[Kevin Thomas] On the door, as well.

-Okay. Oh, wow. Yes. -Look at that.

It really turned out nice, I think.

[Narrator] As a painter himself,

Kevin has been working on wall art for

the cabana interiors.

-All the art that's here has been inspired locally,

from the curly tail lizard,

to the crab, the conch shell,

the grape leaf.

-We've been able to infuse this artistry,

the storytelling, into the overall environment

that we've created here.

Ta-da.

[Narrator] Kevin Thomas isn't just focused on the sights of

Disney Lookout Cay but also on the sounds.

-Essential Bahamian guitar part happening here,

and it sounds this good, so that's a good sign.

[Narrator] He's working with locally-based music producer

Chris Szczesniak to finalize the welcome song

for Disney Lookout Cay.

-One more time for me, Dor?

-Yeah. -Just a little bit loose.

[Narrator] With the help of Bahamian musicians,

they're bringing traditional sounds into the track.

-Next take. Alright? And next take.

And you've got a full cowbell ensemble, you know?

-It really works. -Yeah.

-One of the biggest challenges is we love the sound,

but it was like,

how are we gonna capture that?

And I think you've done that here.

-Rake and Scrape and Junkanoo is our music,

our traditional music.

It's so many elements.

It's guitars, it's drums,

it's percussion instruments like the scraper,

it's some bells, its horns,

anything that you can bring in just to make noise and

have a good time.

[Narrator] Jeremiah is also on vocals.

♪ Everything cool. ♪

♪ Everything fine, Eleuthera has something for everyone, ♪

♪ Everything cool, everything fine, ♪

♪ Here in Eleuthera to let the sunshine! ♪

♪ Bim! ♪

[laughs]

-Nice. -Yes! The “bim”!

♪ Hear the sounds of the Junkanoo. ♪

[Narrator] It's just one of the original tracks designed

to set the mood at Disney Lookout Cay.

♪ See fields of pineapples in the sun. ♪

[Narrator] At the site, it's the final countdown.

For the Junkanoo group, today is their most important

dress rehearsal yet.

[Narrator] For months, they've been practicing every

move to make good on the promise to deliver a Junkanoo

“rush” with every performance.

-Make it swing, boy.

-Try to get them to go as soon as we can.

[Narrator] This will be the first time they rehearse

at the newly finished Goombay Cultural Center.

-The biggest hurdle is going to be being in the space,

all together, same time.

-Time to make Magic!

[TJ Tekurio] How fun! This is brand new.

You press play and see what happens.

[♪ Junkanoo music playing]

-It's great, man. Yeah, so good, man.

[Narrator] Not only does the group have to get used

to moving through the pavilion space,

they also have some new performers.

-That's it, Donald.

We're still in the rehearsal process.

[TJ Tekurio] Layering everything in.

-Finding out what works and what doesn't work.

-Yeah! -Thank you so much.

-Good. Paula, Paula, you ready?

-Stay exactly where you are. Stay exactly where you are.

[Narrator] TJ and Alvin's performers have little time

left to fine-tune the show for the first guests' arrival.

-We have to do a few things in this space.

Um, Mickey and Minnie, can I switch your spots?

Can you come to the middle?

You're great. Come right over here.

-Yep. That's good.

-Of course, we have a few things we want to work on,

but ultimately, this turned out better than we

could have imagined.

Good job everyone, how do you feel?

Woo!

-Hey, guys. Welcome!

[Pachancia Knowles] Morning, Phil. How are you?

-How's it going? -We are ready to go.

-Today, we are actually going to begin our

end-of-construction marine monitoring.

-You guys feel good today?

-Good morning, Bradley. -Good morning, Heather.

-Here you go. Thank you.

[Narrator] The time has come to see if the new fish hotels

are a success.

If the structures have worked to attract marine life,

they'll start using them for coral restoration.

[Phil Kramer] Okay, let's do it!

-Yep, clear.

-Right away, we could see that these fish habitats

were not only populated,

but the fish abundance was higher than we had seen

in the same area before the trestle.

[Pachancia Knowles] To see a lot of the yellowtail snappers,

some of the grouper species.

It was great to see that they have already,

after two months, called that home.

[Narrator] They identify over 30 native species

around the habitats, including some rarely seen

in this location.

[Bradley Watson] So we have two things going on.

You have a lot of structure that these fish rely on,

and then we add the corals,

because we want to preserve the biodiversity of this site.

[Narrator] Loose corals are secured one by one

to the limestone.

[Bradley Watson] This is like putting a crown

on the whole thing.

[Narrator] Over time, as the coral grows,

it will attract more diverse sea life to this area,

which in turn will help the coral survive.

They're also checking the nearby coral nursery.

[Bradley Watson] We have to maintain these coral nurseries

and limit the amount of algae growing on them.

And we do that by cleaning them.

These are fast-growing corals.

Within six months to a year,

you can harvest some propagules that you'll

go out and outplant,

and then that coral that's still left on the nursery will

grow back again for you to come back the following

year to harvest from.

This isn't our last trip out here,

we're committed to this site.

[Narrator] Bradley and Pachancia will remain on-site

to support the island ecosystems long after the

first ship has docked.

[Bradley Watson] We've been ideating about ways we

can integrate operations at

Disney Lookout Cay with conservation.

I want our guests to leave with a story that

we can save nature,

it's possible and worth trying.

Now is the time for us to deliver on all

these great ideas.

-Good job today, guys.

Let's take the slow boat back home.

[Narrator] The push is on to put everything in place.

-Let's go.

The end is always the busiest.

That's when all the little details start going into place.

[Narrator] Angela Wu and Disney teammate Dave Chiaradonna

are going through their final punch list.

-You want to head down to Sebastian's Cove?

-Saw some updates, the steel is all set.

Looking like fabric installs are going.

-Yeah. They're working on it right now.

They're almost done.

I love the signs on the buildings.

Those are good.

-Really make the buildings pop.

-Yeah.

-It's those last little finishing touches.

[Narrator] At the tram stop,

Antonius' tree sculpture crowns the site.

-It's here! -Wow. Look at that.

-The beacon made it. Yeah, Antonius.

[Antonius Roberts] They placed it where the people

will get off to walk.

When guests experience my art,

I hope they learn more about this place

we call The Bahamas.

-So, the rest of this space is such a celebration of

the Bahamian culture.

This is one of my favorites.

Our really cool door carvings.

Nice.

-Yeah, they turned out really well.

-You can see it resembles a Mickey.

[Jon Hough] You're always scrambling,

trying to make sure everything is perfect.

You only get one chance at a first impression.

[Angela Wu] It's definitely come a long way.

[Narrator] And just in time, too.

There's only 24 hours left until the first ship

pulls into port.

[Narrator] Opening day has finally arrived.

With the ship on the horizon,

Kevin steals a few moments before the rush.

[Kevin Cooper] There's always a spirit here.

It's wonderful to share a part of Eleuthera for

the guests to see.

This is Bahamian.

Disney's made it work.

[Narrator] From concept to installation, it's debut time.

-The project actually celebrates not only our environment,

but it celebrates the essence of who we

are as a people.

[Pachancia Knowles] It's a bit of a surreal feeling,

seeing it from the ground up,

to actually seeing our first ship.

I'm excited.

-One of the best moments on any Disney Project is

when the first guest walks off that ship.

[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready?

Let the celebration begin!

-Everything they did at Disney Lookout Cay is meant to

get you to feel something and think something.

[children screeching, laughing]

[Joe Rohde] It's not forceful, it's invitational,

it's beautiful.

[Joe Rohde] It beckons you to pay attention and

to look and listen.

♪ Come to Eleuthera for a holiday ♪

♪ Down at the-- ♪

[Narrator] For opening day, Jeremiah and his band are

putting on a special live performance.

-We're really hoping that some of these songs create

that little ear worm, something that they'll hum,

something that they'll just kind of have in their minds.

♪ ...in Eleuthera, down in the sunshine! ♪

-The inspiration behind this was to really celebrate the Bahamas,

its people and nature with the three pillars

that we've designed from:

the culture, the water, the land.

We can all be very proud that we've been able

to achieve that.

[Bradley Watson] The Great Lizard Cuckoo is one

that you may not see, but you just might hear it.

[Narrator] At the nature trail Bradley and

Pachancia helped design,

Eleuthera's wildlife is on full display.

-This work is so important for the Bahamas because

we need every individual to have a connection to nature

for us to have nature into the future.

[Kevin Cooper] So much work, time,

effort has gone into this place,

and to see the spirit is magic.

-Junkanoo has served as a great inspiration

for so much of what we've done.

That beautiful pageantry is established in a lot of the

places that the guests see.

-Even though you're not from the Bahamas, that's okay,

because once you feel the pulsation of the beat,

you have no other feeling!

-Who are we? -Junkanoo!

-Woo! It was a smashing hit.

-Yay TJ! Woo-hoo!

-I know the journey that our Junkanoo artists have

taken with us.

That was emotional for me.

[Joe Rohde] Guests can enjoy Disney Lookout Cay

for its color, they can enjoy it for its sophistication,

they can enjoy it for its cultural meaning,

where people have this sense of who are they among

when they come to this place.

[Narrator] A place that celebrates the spirit of the

people and the islands they call home.

-Wow.

The Bahamas represents excellence, possibilities.

-Diversity, culture, and me.

-A place of pace-setting transcenders.

-One of the greatest places in the whole entire world.

-And something that's worth saving,

worth talking about, and worth sharing.

♪ Here in Eleuthera, to let the sunshine. ♪

♪ Bim! ♪

[Narrator] This National Geographic program was paid for

and produced in collaboration with Disney Cruise Line.

-A, five, six, seven, rotate!

One, two, three, four, five.

-We're about halfway through our tech rehearsal for

Disney The Tale of Moana.

Implementing all the sets,

the costumes, the lighting, the puppetry.

-A five, six, seven, eight, one.

So think up, down.

Or up, in.

That's it, yeah.

[Narrator] Moana's embarking on a brand-new voyage,

in a floating theater, on the high seas.

-Six, seven, eight. Good.

Right when I start counting,

you can make your way to like 24, 22 at the

edge of the stage.

It really is very much an action-adventure story.

It is a circus in a really fun way.

-What next? -A shark?

-One shark, coming up.

-It's all happening,

[laughs]

-Oh.

[Narrator] It's just one of many elaborate

productions underway.

[ghost] Awaken the spirits.

-Still a work in progress.

[Narrator] As Disney Cruise Line prepares

to launch its newest vessel, the Disney Treasure.

-Let's get ready.

-We're starting all thrusters.

[Narrator] With the bold promise of adventure.

-Here we go.

-Not only throughout the world but to places

in your imagination.

-We make the fantastical real.

-Ha!

-It is dozens and dozens of spaces and stories and

experiences that are full of surprises.

[Narrator] Years in the making,

every detail is designed, constructed, and rooted

in cultures of the world.

-The process is mind-blowing.

[Narrator] Dinner in Plaza de Coco starts in

Mexico City.

-They will play mariachi music? -Of course.

Si, bravo!

[Narrator] Moana's stage debut.

-One more time! In and in.

[Narrator] Looks to the traditions of Polynesia.

-God of the ocean, hear me now.

[Narrator] And special effects experts.

-We have a full 3D world.

[Narrator] Summon spirits of the past.

-Time is ticking. Not just the ghost clock.

[clock bell]

[Narrator] Hundreds of people must now come together.

-Kind of a crazy day today.

[Narrator] To bring to life beloved Disney stories.

-Give me your best grito!

[Narrator] And set the stage for a high seas adventure.

-Places everyone.

-My name is Marco Nogara,

and I'm going to be the first captain of

the Disney Treasure.

[Narrator] Captain Marco comes from a long line of mariners.

-I was born and raised in Venice.

My family has been Venetian approximately for 1,000 years.

There are no cars in Venice, only boats.

I grew up with boats, it is in my blood.

Since I was young,

I had the same desire to navigate and

to explore the world.

[Narrator] So it's only fitting that he's about to take the

helm of a much bigger vessel.

At the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany,

the Disney Treasure has been under construction since the

first steel cutting in 2023.

As the last block slides into place,

the ship is nearing its final form.

-It's going to be my sixteenth ship as a captain.

To see the ship being constructed from the beginning

is a great feeling.

I think she's beautiful.

[Narrator] But no Disney Cruise Line ship is complete

until the signature sculptures take their place

on the stern.

[Laura] On the back of all our ships,

our stern characters provide a bit of comedy and

reflect the theme of the ship.

The theme of the Disney Treasure,

that's adventure.

So our stern characters are Captain Hook and Peter Pan

because they are all about these swashbuckling adventures.

-I run him through!

Ooh!

-We start off with a few pencil sketches.

[Narrator] That Walt Disney Animation Studios transforms

into 3D models.

And then, prints as small prototypes.

And finally, scales up to full size.

-Oh yeah. There we go.

Wow. Oh my God.

-It's huge, right? -Hook is so big!

-I know it, I know it.

-Creating Peter Pan and Hook as a spirit of adventure to

represent this new Disney cruise ship is so fantastic.

And is this their true distance from one another?

-This is, so this is 16 feet between that drip and that drip.

[Narrator] While Laura's team dreams up the creative themes.

-Oh, they look so good. -Yeah.

[Narrator] Roger's group oversees the transition of a

character from screen to ship.

[Captain Hook] Scabby brat!

[Peter Pan] Thank you, Captain.

-Come down, boy,

if you have a taste for cold steel.

[Peter Pan] Watch this Wendy!

-We want to make sure that we're capturing

the essence of that character.

Is he looking at Hook or is he looking at the name of the ship?

Because right now he's looking at the name of the ship.

I'd like to try,

since we're here having him look at Hook

and let's just see how it feels.

-Yeah. Alright.

-That looks good.

-Yeah, he's that little mischievous kid, right?

He'll never grow up.

I kind of feel like they're my children.

You know, I want them to go out in the world and look their

best and be themselves.

And that you feel that when you see them.

[Narrator] With Pan and Hook in place,

it's time to transform the spaces within.

From stern to bow,

there's less than a year to get it all done.

-We want the ship to really feel as if you're very

organically making your way through stories in a way

that still feels connected to that core theme of adventure.

For us it's this idea of going places we've never been,

exploring cultures we've never seen.

[Narrator] In the Walt Disney Theater,

the build-out has begun for three different shows,

including the first stage adaptation of the

animated film, Moana.

But capturing a girl's heroic journey against all odds

is a daunting task.

-The opportunity to bring that to the stage and deliver

on the spectacular images from the film is a

really exciting challenge.

-People will be able to be in the water, be in the islands,

be in that environment.

It's going to be amazing.

[Narrator] While Moana's stage is being set in Germany,

two oceans away, her musical story is finding its rhythm.

[tom tom drumming]

-Can you try something?

At the beginning of each set, can you roll into it?

Brrrrm.

-Like that?

And then.

-Yeah.

We are in a series of recording sessions that will get

the first pieces down of the musical score for

Disney the Tale of Moana.

Dun-jing, dun-jing, dun-jing, dun-brrrng.

I'm from the Pacific,

and so the story obviously rings true for me.

A story that connects people to the land and to the ocean

through this one young lady who has no fear.

[guitar riff]

-Now, can we put some other stuff on?

Can we move around a little bit?

-Let's go to percussion.

-We are in Hawaii because we wanted Hawaiian musicians.

-We have a pahu,

which is a traditional drum played by hand.

We have an ipu heke, which is a gourd.

[♪ island music playing]

What we need, first of all, is the bedrock of the show,

that Moana is first and foremost a Pacific Islander.

-Let's do a shaker pass.

Yup.

[Connor] The music is still the music that we know and love

from the film, but in adapting it to a new language,

we give it its own identity.

-Done. Beautiful.

[Narrator] With the new tracks complete,

the team moves to a Disney Cruise Line studio in Toronto

to start rehearsals with the full cast.

-Okay, shake it out.

Again. Bend your knees, move your hips.

Ha!

Between Connor and I, we find ways of telling this magical,

amazing story with some movement and try to give it a

Pacific island lens,

but also that artistry of Broadway.

-Good. Can we go to the same place?

♪ Consider the coconut ♪

♪ The what? ♪

♪ Consider its tree ♪

♪ We use each part of the coconut, ♪

♪ That's all we need ♪

[Connor] Chh-chh-chh-chhhh.

We have several different languages and

styles of movement,

and we have experts from each department

to weigh in and to collaborate.

-Alright, let's try that.

-This is the first time we've had our puppet prototypes we've

been developing for years in the room.

♪ Now I know I can be happy as a clam, ♪

♪ Because I'm beautiful, baby ♪

-We're doing things with these puppets that we haven't

really done on any of our ships.

-Swat, wait, and then I can look at it.

One more time.

-We're dealing with a lot of large-scale puppetry.

[crew] One. Two.

[Narrator] Like Moana's arch-villain,

the monster Te-Ka, that takes four actors to manipulate.

-Better.

-When you're trying to move something of large scale it

becomes that much more difficult to really

breathe life into that.

-It's a very, very complicated show to get up

on its feet.

-Have you ever seen so many piles of coconuts?

-I don't think I have.

-My name is Kaenaon laniowaianuhea Kekoa.

I play Moana. I am from Hawaii.

Born and raised in Honolulu.

-I hope that when people come to this show that they

feel the sense of ohana, of family.

♪ Holoholo vaka ♪

-Your community comes first.

♪ Aue, aue! ♪

♪ Nuku I mua ♪

♪ Na heko hakilia ♪

♪ kaiga e ♪

♪ We know the way ♪

♪ Ha! ♪

[applause]

-Really good.

It's really because it's so good and I'm so homesick.

-Awww.

-Because it's so good, I wonder what it might be like

for you if you were to move in meaning

rather than choreography.

Tatou is a really important word because tatou includes

all of the audience.

-And you. -And everybody here.

So I feel like as you're going,

"Tatou o tagata folau."

All of you people who sail on the ocean.

That's everybody in the room.

"Vala'auina," let's gather and be together,

"E le atua o le sami tele,"

the God of the ocean, hear me now.

And really sort of embody that and we want to challenge

you to go further.

Can we try again?

Yeah.

♪ Tatou o tagata folau ♪

♪ Vala'auina ♪

-They'll continue polishing and the next I see

the production it will be on the ship itself.

♪ We Know the Way! ♪

♪ Ha! ♪

[Narrator] Back in Europe, Captain Marco and his crew are

doing their own rehearsals.

-Manhattan traffic control. Manhattan traffic control.

This is Disney Treasure.

Disney Treasure. Channel 1-0.

-The tugboat is pushing.

-This is Disney Treasure, stop pushing, stop pushing.

-Put 60 revolutions on two.

[crew] 60 on two.

[Narrator] It's a training exercise.

[Alia] Confirm the pitch is on zero at this time.

[Narrator] Captain Marco runs the scenarios at this

simulation center in Rotterdam.

-Do you have a central vision now?

-Yes I do Captain.

[Narrator] This state-of-the-art facility

has accurate ship models,

a full navigation bridge, and 360-degree projections.

-The thruster is 50% to starboard.

[crew] 50 to starboard.

[Narrator] Today, the team is docking in New York City,

one of the busiest, tightest harbors in the world.

[Marco] Alright, let's do it.

[Narrator] This training will soon be put to the test.

-Disney Treasure, standing by, channel one.

[Narrator] When the real Disney Treasure arrives in

New York City for its official christening celebration.

-Setup for 60 revolution.

[crew] 60 RPM.

-The current is ebbing,

it's going to push eventually toward the dock.

The arrival in New York is kind of tricky because of

the strong current.

Alia, zero, nine, 42.

Standby below, four thrusters required.

[Narrator] As Chief Officer, Alia is in charge of docking.

[Alia] Zero nine four two, standby below.

[crew] This is Disney Treasure. Channel 1-6.

[captain] This is the bridge, go ahead.

-You always need to understand what's the priority

number one at that moment and just maintaining a clear

picture and a calm situation all the time.

-We have to go here.

So we have to put the bow right on the 90.

[Narrator] Maneuvering a 1000-foot-long ship calls on

precise calculation and flawless teamwork.

[overlapping chatter]

-Control is on the starboard wing.

[crew] 19 meters to go, captain.

[Marco] Ship is coming nicely alongside.

Very good, you have zero point one going to the docks,

so that's good.

-Check, check.

All stations, all stations, end of exercise, end of exercise.

[Marco] Okay. Very good job, Alia.

-Thank you.

[Narrator] Simulation complete.

Captain and crew are ready to take it live.

[crew] Yeah, on the pumps.

In Papenburg, the Disney Treasure floats out

of the shipyard for the first and last time.

But inside, it's still crunch time.

There are only a few months left to make good

on the promise of adventure and surprise.

-We are in the Haunted Mansion Parlor here

on the Disney Treasure.

Ready, set, pew.

-For the first time ever,

our guests will experience spaces inspired by

theme park attractions.

-I think the sconces are out and they turn on

during the lightning flash.

-Danny Hanke is another one of our

very talented storytellers.

He is a big kid at heart.

-You're right. Oh, I was wrong, oh no.

[laughs].

[Narrator] And now, Danny and his team are conjuring up

a bar and lounge,

based on the Haunted Mansion,

where Madame Leota's séance summons a variety

of spectral apparitions.

-When I worked at Disneyland almost 19 years ago,

I was a butler at the Haunted Mansion.

So then to come here on the Disney Treasure and

bring a whole new version of Haunted Mansion to life,

it's just a dream come true for me.

[ghost] Welcome, foolish mortals, to the Haunted Mansion.

I am your host.

Your ghost host.

Hm, hm, hm.

[Narrator] To reimagine the iconic attraction,

they first looked to ghosts of the past

and to the original Haunted Mansion that

opened at Disneyland in 1969.

Back then, Imagineers had worked nearly two decades

to bring the dead back to life,

with the support of Walt Disney himself.

[Walt] Mark Davis is the master of illusion.

[Mark] This is Medusa as a very beautiful girl.

She offended the goddess Athena,

and as a result Athena turned her into a Gorgon.

And as you may know, if you looked at the Gorgon,

a gorgon would turn you into stone.

[Walt] Well, we sure don't want that to happen.

[Narrator] Now, those classic paintings,

the light fixtures and wallpaper,

even the music and sound.

[ghost] Beware of hitchhiking ghosts.

[ghoulish laugh]

[Narrator] Are getting a new lease on life.

-Just like the ride, we have to beware of hitchhiking ghosts.

And they will appear in the mirror.

They will see if they can follow you to your stateroom.

♪ To terrorize! ♪

-There's a whole mythology we created just for this parlor.

The sea captain is about to be married and then

something goes wrong.

And the secret is held inside the ghost fish tank.

[Narrator] A ghost fish tank is a decades-old idea

that has never materialized.

Until now.

-We wanted a signature centerpiece that is not

in any other Haunted Mansion.

And we went through the archives and looked through all

the old drawings.

[Narrator] One drawing jumped out,

a 1965 sketch

by legendary Imagineer Rolly Crump

of an aquarium inhabited by ghost fish.

-They didn't really have the tech back then in the mid-1960s

to pull off such an effect.

Nowadays we do.

-Yeah.

[Narrator] They went to work testing out a prototype.

[Daniel] Awesome.

The ghost fish have to be visible from both sides,

which is really, really difficult.

[Narrator] But like any good illusionist,

Daniel is not giving up his tricks.

[Daniel] That's the magician's code.

But I can say it's really cool how optics and

liquids work together.

[Narrator] After years of trial and error,

they're filling up the ghost fish aquarium for

its big debut.

-When you walk in,

it will look like a real fish tank,

there will be bubbles,

but then the ghost fish will appear and disappear.

[Narrator] But spirits won't awaken 'til countless details

are perfected.

-Time is ticking. Not just the ghost clock.

There's just a lot of work to do before we are show-ready.

[Narrator] As spaces come alive all over the ship.

-What I really love to do is to take you to a place you've

never been before.

[Narrator] In Plaza de Coco.

[Danny] Oh my gosh.

[Narrator] Danny's team is recreating another iconic world

for the very first time

-It's amazing!

[laughs]

[Narrator] Where dinner and a show will transport guests

into the animated film, Coco.

[Danny] This is really neat to be able to create something

like this and make it worthy of the name Coco.

[Narrator] They're continuing the story of Miguel Rivera and

his quest to bring music to his family in the land

of the living and the dead.

-You're walking through the Rivera family house into

Mariachi Plaza, where it's an outdoor space.

We started on this almost five years ago with the

folks at Pixar.

[Roger] As we were designing the Plaza de Coco space,

it was so fun to just dive into all those details.

The furniture, the flatware, the dishes and of course the

food are all part of that storytelling.

-The ofrenda!

Oh, I haven't seen this in person yet.

[Narrator] The Rivera's ofrenda is based on a

long tradition in Mexico,

honoring deceased loved ones on Dia de los Muertos.

-Being part of this family means being here

for this family.

[Narrator] This replica will greet guests as they

enter the restaurant.

-Our job at first is to kind of set the placemaking, right?

-But how do we give you the feeling of warmth,

of being invited by the Riviera family?

[Danny] That's where our entertainment team

comes into play.

-As a Mexican American, with Mexican parents to know

that I'm leading the charge and directing this beautiful

experience, it's really, really special.

[Narrator] In search of talent and culture,

Juan returned to the very place that shaped the movie.

-We are in the middle of Mexico City.

I'm looking forward to just being inspired by the textures,

the colors, all of that vibrancy and make sure that it

makes its way into Plaza de Coco.

[Narrator] To fully immerse guests into the world of Coco,

Juan will bring in traditional Mexican mariachi music.

[Narrator] Mariachi is played on distinct sized guitars.

[Narrator] From the smaller vihuela...

[overlapping chatter in Spanish]

[Narrator] ...To the much larger guitarrón.

[♪ guitarrón music playing]

-The whole point of Plaza de Coco is you're coming

to have dinner with the Rivera family.

And so I want people to feel that warmth,

that special moment, like they were at my mom's house,

at my Abuela's house.

[Narrator] Juan will take this inspiration back

to the ship,

where he'll lead rehearsals in just a few months.

Back in Germany, inside a studio in Hamburg,

Moana's Pacific Island is starting to take root.

-This is the best part where we get to see all of the scenic

pieces that we've been working on for the last couple of years.

This is the point where we get to actually touch it and see

how it works.

-It's beautiful.

My name is Milagros Ponce de Leon.

I created every single element that you see.

From the big props, the island, the nature, the textures.

-What's your first impression?

[Milagros] It's looking amazing.

-Great.

[Milagros] The first challenge was to create an island that

was fun to look at, good to light.

So we have all of these portals that mimic the visuals

of the island, have the textures,

the lashing, the bamboo,

all the colors just to convey the space.

But then the island opens up,

we are going to go on a real journey.

[Narrator] At the center of it all is Moana's

trusty outrigger canoe.

State-of-the-art projection will create the illusion that

it's moving through water,

just like in the movie.

-Yeah, it feels awesome.

-And then the oar.

-Yeah, the oar, yeah, yeah.

-It's bigger than a baseball bat.

-They can just whittle it down.

-The size is right.

[crew] Where that needs to go.

[Milagros] I found pictures from a nautical museum that

has a really amazing collection of navigation and canoes.

I try to ground myself on those images that I find so

that they feel legitimate to the place and the storytelling.

[Narrator] They'll continue to refine the set

before all the pieces are sent off to the Disney Treasure,

which is its own production.

-Morning. How are you?

Why is it so cold?

This is the biggest day for unloading The Tale of Moana.

We have four trucks coming from Studio Hamburg

full of scenery.

This is crunch time.

[Narrator] The Disney Treasure is leaving Europe soon.

-The back of this truck is the Moana canoe.

[Narrator] So this choreography must be flawless.

-We have to unload the truck over there and then

bring it all over to the barge crane.

-We have a canoe.

[Lee] Load it onto the barge crane,

the barge crane then drives over to the other side

of the ship, which is the only entrance to the theater.

-Okay. Good to go down.

-It's kind of a crazy day today.

[crew] We're bringing in the screen for ya.

[Narrator] The Walt Disney Theatre

is built like a giant toolbox that can quickly

adapt to fit the needs of any show.

[Milagros] Oh my God.

-Look, there's the wall.

-Yeah. -That was a fun surprise.

-Yeah. Awesome.

Today, for sure, the first time I'm seeing things up and

standing and together, so it's really exciting.

Oh my God, the canoe is here.

With the sail, I didn't see the sail.

Yeah, sail looks wonderful.

[Narrator] Now, to add the special effects.

-I'm actually looking at putting all the trackers on it

so we can project on the sail, project on the floor around it.

This one has about 16 separate trackers.

No matter where it goes on the stage,

we can track it so we can light it and project on it.

We can project pretty much on every

single surface in this theater,

so you can really be immersed into whichever

story we're telling.

It's quite magical what the system can do.

[Narrator] While the magic is building throughout the ship,

on the bridge, Captain Marco and his crew...

[Marco] Let's get ready.

[Narrator] ...have a schedule to keep.

-Two hours' notice to standby for departure.

[Narrator] The Disney Treasure will be christened in

New York City...

-Standby below.

[Narrator] ...In just a few short weeks.

[Alia] Four and two, forward and aft.

[Narrator] So preparations are in full swing...

-Forward thrusters are ready and tested.

[Narrator] ...for an imminent departure across the Atlantic.

-Alright.

[Narrator] Below deck...

-I'm coming here to check on the quality of the produce.

[Narrator] ...they're loading enough food for the

long journey at sea.

[Goran] Nice!

It's a complex operation, we're talking about 15,000

meals per day.

We're using 4,000 pounds of potatoes,

two and a half thousand pounds of carrots,

800 to 1,000 pounds of pineapple.

-We are ready for standby.

-Start the propulsion of all four thrusters.

[Narrator] For everyone onboard,

the crossing is a two-week working window to bring all the

final elements together.

-People are trying their first test services at restaurants.

The lightbulbs are being screwed in.

The final coats of paint are going on,

but the ship feels already that it's alive.

[Narrator] In the Walt Disney Theater.

[Connor] Both of you should loop around because this

canoe won't be here.

[Narrator] The cast and crew of Disney The Tale of Moana

rehearse with props and costumes for the first time.

[Connor] Today is a tricky day.

This is a great example of all of our elements coming

together as one.

Our biggest puppetry,

a lot of our biggest effects and dancing,

and new music.

All two, three, a pull.

Da-da.

-All right, when we're ready.

[Narrator] The stage managers call the shots.

-Flower petals dropping in the house for about 30 seconds.

-Flower confetti, I'll take it.

It's really this lovely marriage between

technical and performance.

So for us, we're watching everything and finding exactly

what needs to be seen for the next thing to happen.

[Connor] Hayley, can we set for Te Ka?

-Yes.

[Narrator] Up until now,

they've only practiced with a prototype of Te Ka.

-We've never even run the whole thing at speed,

so I just want to know that it's actually achievable.

[Narrator] Today, they're working with the lava monster

in its final form.

[Connor] Te Ka, can you go to your position?

[Meena] My goodness, not the eye!

[Connor] I don't know what's going on with Te Ka's eye.

[Lee] Let's just put two more magnets on this.

[Jeff] Te Ka has been the most challenging,

and we've made quite a few adjustments to her

since she's been here on the ship.

[Connor] Let's do this once without lights.

-Are we good? -That's good!

-Alright, let's try that again. Standby for track.

[Narrator] Now, they can start finalizing Te Ka's moves.

-Raising up.

-Te Ka! -Right, left.

[Narrator] So she matches the animated character.

-Te Ka has been a lot of learning.

I always joke it's like trying to pat your head,

rub your stomach and do a tap dance underwater all

at the same time and still try to look like it's really easy.

Turn upstage and roar at me here, Lexi!

[roaring]

Come on!

-Being able to puppeteer in this capacity I've

never done before.

It's been probably one of my favorite things to do.

[James] Awesome.

Great, relax for a second there, guys.

[Narrator] Lexi is doing double-duty as Moana villains.

She's one of Te Ka's puppeteers and also stars as

the crab Tomatoa.

[Lexi] There's so much to do, so much to figure out,

that I'm really excited for but also nervous about because

we do open so soon.

[Connor] That's great.

It's my job to just keep the ship driving in

the right direction,

reacting and sort of adjusting and adapting to

whatever comes our way.

♪ Take apart your aching heart ♪

[James] 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

[Narrator] Rehearsals and the Disney Treasure steam on,

as christening day fast approaches.

In the Haunted Mansion Parlor,

the final push is on.

-We have our illusions team on board,

our special effects team.

They are making sure our Ghost Fish aquarium is

all set and bringing some ghosts into our tank.

This is amazing.

-So this is the highlight moment.

-I'm gonna just take a quick peek.

[Narrator] The animated fish are custom-built,

each with its own personality and story.

-We are losing a lot of definition on Bony and what's

the other one called?

-Spikey.

I can squeeze them together,

so they're closer to each other,

but it just kind of affects the choreography.

-We've been fine-tuning and it's all test and adjust.

[Narrator] And for the first ever haunted aquarium,

you can never make too many ghost fish.

-So the request came just last night if we could add a

seahorse into the tank.

So now I'm going in and going to make our crazy

Haunted Mansion seahorse skeleton and do a 3D file and

add in to the liveliness inside our tank.

It's just part of the fun.

[Narrator] The Imagineers aren't the only ones having fun.

This is a bar after all.

-The "Chilling Challenge" is going to come in a box.

Tonight, we're doing the training with the beverage team.

-It has to be nice and chilled because it's

the "Chilling Challenge."

-I love the beverage team on Disney Cruise Line because

they come with big ideas.

-Now we're going to recreate the salted rim of

a margarita with this foam.

-All the drink we created are to die for.

Listening to the Imagineers to tell us about the story

of the venue, we decided let's create those

cocktails around it.

-And if you all smell that smoke,

it has a particular scent and aroma that will actually

enhance the cocktail.

Who can guess the flavor of this one?

-Passionfruit. -Passionfruit.

-You cannot have those drinks outside the Haunted Mansion.

-Here we have our Restless Experience.

-Guests will have to solve a riddle in order for

them to order that.

-Create the potion in front of them.

-I'm looking forward to our first test run of the Haunted

Mansion Parlor with guests.

-I'm waiting for one more soul.

-You're waiting for one more soul.

I like that Nikola.

That's it, you're hired!

[Danny] It's just a mad dash to the finish line before

the maiden voyage.

[Narrator] While spirits rise in the Haunted Mansion Parlor,

in Plaza de Coco, the tables are set.

[Juan] The room is doing its job to really make

people feel like they're in Mexico.

Next is food.

[Narrator] They're cooking up and taste testing

all the dishes on the menu before they go live.

-We wanted to put a lot of the Mexican influence

in every dish.

Some of the dishes you will have like a very particular

ingredient like cotija cheese or serrano pepper or products

from the Mexican cuisine.

Nice cover with the cotija cheese.

[Narrator] Precision is key when you're feeding 700 people

twice every night.

-Yeah, good job on the tomatillo salsa, alright.

-To build a restaurant experience,

we do have to meld feeding people a beautiful meal,

and then we're entertaining them with stories and all these

wonderful characters.

[Narrator] All of it accompanied by the distinct

sounds from the world of Coco.

[Juan] We have a trio of mariachi musicians

that are incredible.

-Mariachi brings people together.

Even people that have never heard mariachi before

feel connected to it.

-Hey!

-Muchachos, Otra vez. Uno, dos.

Bam, bam, ba-ba-ba-dum.

I grew up listening to and learning mariachi music.

My role is to ensure that the musical integrity of our

mariachi music from Mexico is representative of

the true music form.

-Hey!

-Perfect, thank you guys, gracias.

-I'm excited for the launch of this show.

I have moments of feeling nervous,

but I keep my eye on the prize,

which is telling this story for our guests.

And inspiring people to connect with familia.

[♪ mariachi music playing]

-It's so cool to just watch sort of these petals

unfold in each space.

Every night a little more is added, or a new thing opens,

or a new thing is served.

[Narrator] With land in sight, it's nearly showtime.

-I cannot wait for people to be able to see the ship.

[Laura] This is New York City!

Today is a really special day,

the christening for the Disney Treasure.

[Narrator] Before the party can start,

Captain Marco and his crew must put their simulator

training to the test.

[Marco] Let's do it.

Okay, we're all clear on the starboard quarter.

[tugboat] Standing by in sight.

-Navigating into New York requires a lot of focus and

a lot of preparation.

-The pier that we are assigned is basically

perpendicular to the current of the Hudson River.

-Two degrees to go.

Seven degrees rate of turn.

[Narrator] Practice makes perfect.

And now, it's time to celebrate.

[announcer] Good evening guests.

We hope you are having a wonderful time.

-The christening is such a special event in the

life of the ship of getting her ready to go into service

for the guests.

-All drones are launching.

[Narrator] To mark the occasion,

1,000 drones are synchronized to dramatize

the story of the Disney Treasure.

♪ On the seas ♪

♪ In the sky ♪

♪ We'll discover the treasure ♪

♪ Let's live the adventure ♪

-We christen thee, Disney Treasure.

[♪ triumphant music playing]

[Narrator] It's been years in the making,

and now it's time to head home and greet guests for

the first time.

-Disney Treasure, please welcome aboard Dave and Mindy.

-Good afternoon, Disney Treasure.

This is Captain Marco speaking from the bridge.

Now the ship is full of people, and especially full of kids.

It changes everything.

The ship is beautiful, but with people onboard,

it gets even more beautiful.

[Danny] What does that sign say?

[Harley] Plaza de Coco.

-This is the most exciting part because you get

to see how guests are utilizing the spaces and how

they feel about it.

That's when it really comes to life.

[Goran] Franky, let's make the main course.

It's a unique experience.

Chicken mole ready?

When we provide so many different options.

You guys making more enchiladas?

It's fantastic.

[Juan] The cast is very ready.

I even told them I'm passing the show off to you.

It's yours now.

-Hola Papa Hector.

The rest of the family is down at the cemetery setting up for

Dia de los Muertos.

But I wanted a moment just to honor you today.

-Once you actually have someone to make eye contact with,

it really changes the emotion because you see

how their eyes just grow.

[overlapping singing and clapping]

[in Spanish] Yes, sir!

Thank you, thank you!

[applause]

-I think we got it,

I think we got that feeling of being with Abuela and we're

really sharing something that's authentic and beautiful.

[applause]

-Walt Disney said something that inspires us every day,

which is for every laugh, there should be a tear.

[announcer] Welcome to the Walt Disney Theater.

Enjoy the show!

-We want to entertain people, of course,

but we really want to touch their heart.

-Places everyone.

-Is there a big line outside? -Huge line.

-Have a magical show everyone.

-It's like your child coming up for the first time.

And you have to let it go and allow them to express

themselves and be the best they are.

[applause]

[Meena] Track five. Go.

-It worked! -One shark coming up.

-With this cast, I feel like we're capable of anything.

-Toma, Toma. -Tamatoa, that's me!

-No way. -Yeah!

-I'm just really grateful for this family.

-Ocean!

[Connor] To see something that you imagine go through

all these brilliant creative minds and

end up on stage is really exciting because we

don't do any of this alone.

♪ Tatou o tagata folau ♪

♪ Vala'auina ♪

♪ Aue aue ♪

♪ nuku I mua, ♪

♪ And when it's time to find home, we know the way. ♪

-As a Pacific Islander who yearns for representation,

I'm so incredibly proud.

♪ Ha! ♪

[applause]

-Standby tracks 19 and 20.

[crew] Standing by.

-I do it for my ancestors.

It's for those people that came before me.

♪ I am Moana! ♪

[Peter] That story translates to anyone.

And if people can relate and find identity,

we did our job.

[overlapping singing]

[applause]

[Roger] You went out to sail with Moana.

You ended up in the land of the dead with Miguel.

Adventure is such a beautiful theme because that's

what our guests are getting to experience.

[ghost] There you are, and just in time.

-Boo!

-After years of planning and design,

and now we're here at the end of our journey.

-Foolish mortals, here's some cards from Madame Leota.

[Danny] This place is filled full of people.

They're just really immersing themselves in the music

♪ Grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize ♪

[Danny] And the lore and all the special illusions.

Right there, right there, you see it?

It's a dream come true for all of us.

Hurry Back.

-Our team has just knocked this out of the ballpark.

-I love when that happens.

-This is the love and effort and passion of

hundreds of people.

-This place is to die for.

-Good storytelling. Everyone can see themselves in.

And I think that we're doing that here.

-Thanks everyone, that's show.

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Inside the Disney Wish, Lookout Cay, & Disney Treasure | MEGA EPISODE | National Geographic