Preview: AquaLab add-on to the AquaDuck water coaster offers a splash-tacular time aboard the Disney Fantasy cruise ship

in Disney Cruise Line, Entertainment, The Walt Disney Company

The whimsical Aqua Lab sign featuring playful cartoon ducks, mounted on a vibrant red and blue structure, greets families entering Disney Fantasy’s AquaLab splash zone—just steps from the excitement of the famous AquaDuck waterslide.

One of the most fun experiences on the Disney Dream cruise ship has been expanded aboard the new Disney Fantasy. The world’s first water-coaster-at-sea, the AquaDuck, debuted last year on the Disney Dream, featuring twists and turns above the high seas. But on the Fantasy, not only is Disney Cruise Line duplicating this high-sliding ride, but also adding the AquaLab, a drenching water play area that ties in to the AquaDuck fun.

As the attraction’s story goes, Huey, Dewey, and Louie built the AquaDuck for their amusement, but their uncle Donald Duck hopped on before it was ready, sending him soaring into one of the ship’s nearby smokestacks. On the Disney Fantasy, that story is taken a step further with the AquaLab serving as the workshop where the young trio created the AquaDuck. Of course, not all is perfect in a workshop, with leaky pipes and squirting water jets around every turn.

Video: Disney Fantasy AquaLab preview (beginning 36 seconds into the video)

That video is the latest in a series of video diaries showing off some of the Disney Fantasy’s new features.

The 1,800-square-foot AquaLab water play area is located on Deck 12 of the Disney Fantasy and includes 24 pop jets and countless other geysers, bubblers, and other water features that are designed to douse all who enter, with around 900 gallons of water pumping through per minute.

Aqua Lab sign featuring playful cartoon ducks, surrounded by vibrant orange, yellow, and blue pipes on the Disney Fantasy cruise ship—gateway to the thrilling AquaDuck water coaster experience.

A vibrant blue AQUALAB blueprint bursts with imaginative water pipe routes, playful handwritten notes, and whimsical sketches—capturing the Disney Fantasy cruise ship’s signature splash of creative engineering seen in Disney Parks’ themed attractions.

Ducky Dinghy, a whimsical blue and white boat with its name displayed on the side, is suspended on pipes just above the water near the playful AquaLab area aboard the Disney Fantasy cruise ship, with a bucket resting inside for added nautical fun.

The Ducky Dinghy, a blue and white boat from the AquaDuck water coaster, is suspended among colorful pipes and supports high above the decks on the Disney Fantasy cruise ship, framed by a bright blue sky.

Nearby, the AquaDuck welcomes guests on the Fantasy just as it does on the Dream, providing rides via two-person rafts, on a twisting, turning, up, down and over-the-side-of-the-ship adventure, rising as high as Deck 16 before splashing back down on Deck 12.

The AquaDuck is easily my favorite water attraction around and I look forward to sliding through it, along with running amuck in the AquaLab, on the upcoming Inaugural Magical Preview Cruise of the Disney Fantasy. I’ll return with plenty of wet-and-wild video from around the new play area, but in the meantime, enjoy my point-of-view ride aboard the AquaDuck on the Disney Dream from its Christening Cruise in 2011:

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