Disney's advances add a lot of interactive magic to their cruises. In the Oceaneer Club on Disney Dream, playing Disney Infinity games is nothing like at home. Here, kids can choose their favorite character from the Toy Box, hop on the Disney Infinity Challenge game board, and run, dance, twist, and jump as Minnie, Olaf, or even Princess Leia or Luke Skywalker.

At the Thrill Theater on Carnival Vista and Carnival Breeze, you can not only see and hear the film, you also feel it. The seats move with the action and you'll feel the wind in your hair — and be splashed with water. Carnival Vista also has the first IMAX Theatre at sea, showing first-run movies as well as documentaries.

On Anthem of the Seas and Quantum of the Seas, you can step into a Jetsons-esque future and order a drink concocted by a robot bartender. Simply input your order and watch the robots carefully and precisely mix your drink and send it out. Even if you are a teetotaler, it's fun to watch the robots mix, shake, and pour without spilling a drop.

Opting for an inside cabin saves you money, but the lack of a window can make the room feel small and closed-off. Some lines have solved this problem by adding a virtual window displaying a livestream of the view from the ship. Every inside stateroom on Disney Fantasy and Disney Dream, for example, is equipped with a virtual porthole (classic Disney characters also pop by to share the view). Need more than just a porthole? Some inside staterooms on Royal Caribbean's Quantum Class and Voyager Class ships and Harmony of the Seas have floor-to-ceiling virtual windows that show the view from a balcony and add a lot of light to the room.

Chefs on cruise ships encounter a pretty major challenge when cooking your dinner. Open flames and gas aren't allowed anywhere on a cruise ship — even in the kitchen. Oceania's chefs have worked around this by using infrared technology to slowly cook black foot free range chickens to perfection. The ingenious addition to the kitchen is also used to cook Iberico ham, veal, and prime rib.

On Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy, you can play games with Enchanted Art around the ship. Motion-activated paintings come to life with a different animation when you pass by, and you can visit the Midship Detective Agency to get special barcode cards that let you unlock clues to help solve a mystery using the paintings. Your progress is tracked as well, ensuring a different storyline every time.

Even the largest ships are affected by the movement of the ocean, and just the slightest bit of rocking makes it impossible to do things like play pool (oops ... looks like the eight ball already rolled into the corner pocket). The gyroscopic pool tables on Royal Caribbean's Radiance Class ships and on some P&O ships are self-leveling so that whenever the ship moves the table moves, undulating to different degrees in order to keep the balls atop it perfectly still.