Disney Cruise Line in a Jiffy: What is the Midship Detective Agency?

The Midship Detective Agency is an self-directed interactive game only available on the Disney Dream and the Disney Fantasy. The game is best enjoyed by kids in the 6-10 age range, but my teens have also had fun playing it as well. You can play on your own or with a group.

On both the Dream and the Fantasy, you’ll find the Midship Detective Agency desk located on deck five near the It’s a Small World nursery. Players hunt for clues located all over the ship to solve a mystery “mission.” There are three possible missions to unravel:

• The Case of the Plundered Paintings. Classic Disney characters work to recover stolen artworks.
• The Case of the Missing Puppies. Roger Radcliffe and Pongo work to find 99 of the missing 101 Dalmatians.
• The Case of the Stolen Show. Muppets characters work to find the missing props for their headliner performance.

To start the game, you’ll grab a “mission,” a player card, and a pencil from the Agency desk (photo above). You scan the QR code at the desk and follow the instructions on the screen. You will be directed to visit artworks displayed all over the ship. While the art appears to be static images, when you position your player card in a specific place near the art, the images become animated and tell a portion of the mystery you’re tasked to solve. You can play the game all at once, or break it into shorter sessions if that’s all that time allows.

The Midship Detective Agency is a pleasant diversion, useful as a way to get kids moving around and burning energy on a day at sea. Adults won’t find the missions intellectually engaging, but it can be a way to add some novelty to your day as you’re trying to up your step count.

“Disney Cruise Line in a Jiffy” is an offshoot of our “Disney in a Minute” series. Both are bite-sized nuggets of information that can better help you understand a Disney term or planning topic. Have a question about a DCL term that is unfamiliar to you? Suggest it here for an upcoming segment.