Disney Cruise Lines Navigator App is essential once you’re on board the ship. There is no paper listing of daily events on the Disney ships, not even at Guest Services. Want to know where you’re having dinner? The app. What the schedule is in the movie theater? The app. How will you contact your teenagers and tell them you’ll be out of reach in the Rainforest Room? The app.

The Navigator App is one of the most full-featured cruise apps I’ve seen. Before you cruise, you can access most of the same functionality that you can find on the DCL website. Once on board, Navigator acquires a whole new look and serves as your connection to events and information while you’re sailing. Unfortunately, that means you can’t really practice getting familiar with it before your cruise, but today I’ll walk you through it so you can quickly become an old hand. (Last updated February 27, 2023.)

When you first open the app, you’ll generally be on the Home Screen. How do you know it’s the Home Screen?  On the bottom of the screen you’ll see a menu bar; the icons will light up to indicate which menu area you’re currently using. If you’ve used any of Disney’s parks apps such as My Disney Experience or the Disneyland app, this interface will feel a little familiar.Here’s what you’ll find when tapping any of these icons:

• Home: quick access to the first few items in your plans, plus the day’s itinerary information for the ship
• Explore: all the available activities — we’ll dive into this tab in detail later on.
• Add Plans: The big plus sign is a shortcut to Things You Can Reserve; you can also access everything on this menu by scrolling down on the Home screen.
• My Plans: This is the full blow-by-blow of everything in — you guessed it — your plans.  Unlike the Home Screen where you only see the next couple of items on your itinerary, the My Plans screen lets you take in your whole day (actually your whole trip) at one time.
• More: Access to a variety of miscellaneous features: view your bill, muster information, etc.

To add items from the Explore tab to your plans, just tap the heart. Want to take them off later when reviewing your plans? Just click again to unselect them.  These favorites are specific to you, so if some family members are excited about the midnight movie and others are more interested in Rise ‘n’ Shine Yoga, everyone will see only the things they’ve added.

You’ll get notifications for everything on Your Plans, which I personally find helpful when I’m lying on deck and not paying attention to the time. Actually, I tend to add almost anything from the Explore tab that I might be interested in doing to my plans, because if I get the notification that Cup Stacking begins in 15 minutes and I’m feeling too lazy to leave the pool, I can always decide to ignore it. Here’s what you need to know to use this section like a pro.

When you first open the Explore tab, if you look at the top there are three features to help you navigate. By default, activities are shown for the current date, but clicking the Date allows you to switch and see activities for a different day. The Filter lets you select activities based on specific criteria like age range or activity type. And the slider lets you quickly move back and forth between specific venues.

The slider options are: Daily Activities, Character Greetings, Dining & Lounges, Spa & Salon, Youth Clubs, Pools, Sports & Recreation, Shopping, Live Shows & Movies, and Guest Services. Daily Activities and Character Greetings will be a list of individual activities. The other tabs on the slider open to a listing of the venues and their hours, and you click and drill down to see a detailed schedule.

You can also click on any activity to see the schedule for that particular activity. For instance, you can click on any showing of a movie to see all the other times when that movie is being shown. This is a great way to resolve conflicts between two activities you’re interested in.

Dining

Dining information is found all over the app.  On the Explore tab, the Dining & Lounges slider section shows you hours for all the dining venues.  You can see which rotational restaurant is serving lunch, and what time Cabanas is open. Clicking any eatery brings up the menu. Just for you, you can see your rotational dining assignment on the Home screen or the Your Plans tab, and you can click to bring up the menu.  Want to see your dining schedule for the whole cruise? You’ll find that on the More tab.

The chat feature of the Navigator app is accessed by clicking the little chat bubble that is visible on many (but not all) screens. If you have new messages, the bubble will have a red dot and a number to show how many new messages you have. If you don’t see the chat bubble and you’re trying to get to chat, navigate up to a top level screen and make sure that you’re scrolled all the way to the top.

If you’ve texted on your phone before, you can use the chat in the Navigator, but there are still a few things that are worth a callout. First, people in your cabin will automatically be shown in your chat list.  Want to talk to anyone else?  You’ll need to supply them with your Chat ID, visible above your name, in order to get the conversation going.

You can click the little pencil to the right of your name to change how it is shown in chat — not only on your screen, but for those you are chatting with as well. Having your kids change their screen names can be a good way to keep some privacy for your family as they accumulate a long list of chat friends in Edge and Vibe. (Changes are retroactive).