The Suite Life on Deck

**The Suite Life on Deck** is an American television series created by Dannis Kallis and Jim Geoghan. The series aired on Disney Channel from September 26, 2008 to May 6, 2011. It is the sequel of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody.

## Plot

The series follows twin brothers Zack and Cody Martin and hotel heiress London Tipton in a new setting, the SS Tipton, where they attend classes at Seven Seas High School and meet Bailey Pickett while Mr. Moseby manages the ship. The ship travels around the world to nations such as Italy, France, Greece, India, Sweden and the United Kingdom where the characters experience different cultures, adventures and situations.

## Cast

### Main

* Dylan Sprouse as Zack Martin
* Cole Sprouse as Cody Martin
* Brenda Song as London Tipton
* Debby Ryan as Bailey Pickett
* Phill Lewis as Mr. Moseby

### Recurring

* Doc Shaw as Marcus Little (Season 1-3)
* Matthew Timmons as Woody Fink (Season 1-3)
* Erin Cardillo as Emma Tutweiller (Season 1-3)
* Windell D. Middlebrooks as Kirby Morris (Season 1-3)
* Rachael Kathryn Bell as Addison (Season 1-3)
* Zoey Deutch as Maya Bennett (Season 3)

### Special Guest Appearances

* Kim Rhodes as Carey Martin (Season 1 and 3)
* Hutch Dano as Moose (Season 1 and 3)
* Ashley Tisdale as Maddie Fitzpatrick (Season 1)
* Miley Cyrus as Miley Stewart (Season 1)
* Emily Osment as Lilly Truscott (Season 1)
* Selena Gomez as Alex Russo (Season 1)
* David Henri as Justin Russo (Season 1)
* Jake T. Austin as Jake Russo (Season 1)
* Jennifer Tisdale as Connie Fitzpatrick (Season 1)
* Jordin Sparks as Herself (Season 2)
* Kathie Lee Gifford as Cindy (Season 2)
* George Takei as Rome Tipton (Season 2)
* Sean Kingston as Himself (Season 3)
* Dwight Howard as Dwight Moseby Howard (Season 3)
* Deron Williams as Himself (Season 3)
* Kevin Love as Himself (Season 3)
* John Michael Higgins as Wilfred Tipton (Season 3)
* Cody Kennedy as Mischa (Season 3)

### Notable Appearances

* Brian Stepanek as Arwin Hawkhauser (Season 1 and 3)
* Brittany Curran as Chelsea Brimmer (Season 1)
* Sophie Oda as Barbara Brownstein (Season 1)
* Charlie Stewart as Bob (Season 1)
* Jacopo Sarno as Luca (Season 1)
* Robert Torti as Kurt Martin (Season 1 and 3)
* Justin Kredible as Armando the Magician (Season 2)
* Elizabeth Sung as Khun Yau (Season 2)
* Ed Begley, Jr. as Mayor Ragnar (Season 2)
* Adrian R'Mante as Esteban Ramirez (Season 2)
* Charo as Señora Ramirez (Season 2)
* Kurt Warner as Himself (Season 2)
* Charles Shaughnessy (Season 2)
* Camilla and Rebecca Russo as Jessica and Janice (Season 2)
* Matthew Willig as The Genie (Season 2)
* Andy Richter as Brother Theodore (Season 3)
* Lisa K. Wyatt as Frankie (Season 3)
* Fabio Lanzoni as Captain Hawk (Season 3)
* Brian Posehn as Dr. Cork (Season 3)
* Michael Ralph as Sergeant Pepper (Season 3)

## Episodes

See Also: List of The Suite Life on Deck Episodes

 2 | 28
 3 | 22

### Crossover with Wizards of Waverly Place and Hannah Montana

See Also: Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana

The episode "Double-Crossed" is the second part of a three-way crossover that begins on Wizards of Waverly Place and concludes on Hannah Montana. Cody promises to get tickets for himself and Bailey to a concert in Hawaii featuring Hannah Montana, who has boarded the SS Tipton. In the meantime, the Russo siblings enjoy a cruise of their own until Alex pulls a prank that causes Justin to turn blue.

## Settings

According to show creators and producers, the choice of setting was made to appeal to an international audience with different ports-of-call, such as India, Greece, Italy, Morocco, the United Kingdom and Thailand. An on-board theatre serves as an "organic" set-up for musical numbers. Most of the action in the series occurs on board the SS Tipton. However, the ship travels to a variety of places around the world which are often unfamiliar places to both Zack and Cody Martin.

**SS Tipton**

The SS Tipton is a cruise ship belonging to London Tipton's father. The ship had its first canon appearance in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody episode "Let Us Entertain You". Unlike most cruise ships it also includes a school, Seven Seas High School, which is a common setting on the ship, as are the Sky Deck, the lobby, the corridors outside the students' cabins and the cabins themselves. In the third season, the Aqua Lounge, a newly refurbished space on the ship, was shown and it replaced the Sky Deck as the main hangout (although the Sky Deck is still commonly shown). There are also various areas on the SS Tipton that are mentioned, but never seen, including several decks and the ship's putt-putt golf course, where the captain spends most of his time. In the crossover episode of Wizards of Waverly Place, "Cast-Away (To Another Show)," Mr. Moseby reveals that the ship itself weighs 87,000 tons. After the events in "Graduation on Deck" the SS Tipton was sold and later dismantled. Mr Moseby mentioned in the Season 1 episode "Cruisin' for a Bruisin'", that the ship was not the first ship with the SS Tipton name (indicating that the Tipton cruiseline had been in service long before the events of the first series). Mr. Tipton commissioned a scale model "replica-in-a-bottle" of the first SS Tipton as a gift for Captain Lansferd.

**Other Settings**

* Antarctica in the Season 3 episode "Frozen"
* Belgium in the Season 3 episode "Party On!"
* Galapagos Islands in the Season 1 episode "Sea Monster Mash"
* Greece in the Season 1 episode "It's All Greek to Me"
* India in the Season 1 episode "The Mommy and the Swami"
* The International Dateline in "International Dateline"
* Kettlecorn, Kansas - A fictional location in the Season 3 episodes "Twister: Part 1", "Twister: Part 2", and "Twister: Part 3"
* Lichtenstamp - A parody of Liechtenstein in the Season 1 episode "Maddie on Deck"
* London in the Season 2 episode "Rollin' With the Holmies"
* Monte Carlo in the Season 3 episode "The Silent Treatment"
* Morocco in the Season 2 episode "Rock the Kasbah"
* New York City - in the series finale "Graduation on Deck"
* Paris - in the Season 2 episode "Breakup in Paris"
* Parrot Island - A fictional location in the Season 1 episode "Parrot Island"
* Rome in the Season 1 episode "When In Rome..."
* South America in the Season 2 episode "Can You Dig It?" and Season 3 episode "Senior Ditch Day"
* Sweden in the Season 2 episode "The Swede Life"
* Thailand in the Season 2 episode "Family Thais"
* Tokyo in the Season 3 episode "Trouble in Tokyo"
* Unnamed Island in the Season 2 episode "Lost at Sea"

## Theme Song

The show's theme song, "Livin' the Suite Life," was written by John Adair and Steve Hampton (who also wrote the themes for fellow Disney Channel series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, Phil of the Future and Wizards of Waverly Place, as well as the theme for the ABC Kids series Power Rangers: RPM), with music composed by Gary Scott (who also composed the music cues to signal scene changes and promo breaks, some of which are styled similarly to the theme), and is performed by British singer Steve Rushton (who is only credited for performing the theme in the second season).

The series was one of only four of Disney Channel shows still running in 2011 whose theme song is not performed by a star of the series (Phineas and Ferb, Fish Hooks and Shake It Up are the others).

## Cancelled Reboot

In 2013, during an interview with Gawker, Dylan Sprouse revealed he and his brother had pitched an idea to the Disney Channel about continuing the Suite Life series. The show would see Zack and Cody return to the Tipton Hotel in Boston to live with their mother and would become mentors to a boy who lived with his father at the hotel. Disney rejected the idea initially, but contacted the twins a year later with an edited concept that retained the boy and his father storyline, but Zack and Cody would move to a Miami hotel instead, Selena Gomez would also star and the twins would not get producer credits like they had requested. The Sprouses rejected the concept, leaving the project abandoned.

## Movie

See Also: The Suite Life Movie

On September 20, 2010, Disney Channel announced that production had begun for a Disney Channel Original Movie based on The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and The Suite Life on Deck.

The Suite Life Movie premiered on the Disney Channel in the United States and Canada on March 25, 2011.

## Production

### Development

On February 4, 2008, it was announced that the Disney Channel was developing a new contemporary sequel to the Disney channel sitcom The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. The announcement was made by Gary Marsh, the President of the Disney Channel. He stated, "Our audience has shown us that after 88 episodes, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody remains one of their favourite sitcoms ever, we decided to find a new way for Zack, Cody, London and Mr. Moseby to live The Suite Life in a whole new setting, this time aboard a luxury cruise liner." The series original creator, Danny Kallis was announced to be involved with the project. The elements from the original series remain the same though the setting is completely different.

In December 2008, it was reported that the Disney Channel had renewed the series for a thirteen episode second season. On May 11, 2009, Disney issued a press release stating that the second season had been extended to include a larger number of episodes than the original thirteen. Gary Marsh, the president of Disney Channels Worldwide said, "With this second-season extension, the cast of The Suite Life makes Disney Channel history by becoming the longest running continuous characters on our air, 138 half-hour episodes. We are thrilled for them, and for the brilliant, inspired production team that made this extraordinary run possible."

As of 2011, The Suite Life series holds the record (162 episodes) for having the longest running continuous characters on air and the most canon episodes for any Disney Channel series.

## Broadcast

The Suite Life on Deck premiered in Australia and New Zealand October 6, 2008. It is broadcast on Disney Channel and on NZ MediaWorks TV3 and FOUR.

## DVD Releases

See Also: The Suite Life Videography

- Parrot Island
- Kidney of the Sea
- International Dateline
- Maddie on Deck
- Mulch Ado About Nothing
 Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana
- Double-Crossed
- Super(stitious) Girl

## Other Media

An activity book based on the series was released on July 13, 2009. The book is called "The Suite Life on Deck Sink or Swim Sticker Activity Book". A photo album based on the series was also released and it includes several posters, coloured images from the series, captions and activities for the reader. In August 2009, two new books titled "Suite Life on Deck: A Day in the Life" and "Suite Life on Deck Party Planner" were released by Walt Disney.

## Reception

### U.S. Nielsen Ratings

The show's pilot premiered on the Disney Channel in the U.S. on September 26, 2008 and gathered 5.7 million viewers on the night of its premiere. The series premiere in Canada was also the most watched series premiere on Family channel. In December 2008, Business Wire reported the show was 2008's #1 top scripted television series for children between the ages 6 to 11 and pre-teenagers between the ages 9 to 14, beating the veteran series Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place in the ratings. The show was in the #1 spot for the top rated children's television series for many months. The show has been one of the top 4 live-action television series for many months. Since then, "The Suite Life on Deck" held a commanding lead in the time slot (Friday 8:00 p.m.), ranking as TV's #1 program among the key children demographics, virtually doubling Nickelodeon among children between the age of 9-14, and defeating it by a 6% among children between the age of 6-11. In addition, the series is #1 in total viewers on all cable, outperforming #2 rank (Fox News and Nickelodeon) by 800,000 more viewers.

As of August 2009, the highest rated episode of The Suite Life on Deck was "Double-Crossed," the second part of Wizards On Deck with Hannah Montana, a trilogy of crossover episodes featuring guest stars from Wizards of Waverly Place and Hannah Montana which premiered on July 17, 2009 on Disney Channel. The special was viewed by more than 10.6 million viewers, program of the night across both cable and broadcast television and ranks as one of the highest-rated episodes for a Disney Channel original series. This was the first episode that Cody and Bailey go out on a date.

In early October 2009, the series one-hour special episode "Lost at Sea" became the most watched episode of the series, with 7.6 million total viewers, including 3.2 million in the Kids 6-11 demographic and 2.8 million in the Tweens 9-13 demographic. The episode delivered Disney Channel's best numbers in the hour with regular programming in the net's history. In 2009, the series was the most watched scripted series in the children and tween demographic (6-14), outpacing Hannah Montana and several other teenage shows. The series second season's ratings grew 25% higher than the show's season one ratings, the second season has averaged approximately 5.1 million viewers.

### Season Premiere Ratings

 2
 3

### Record Breaking Episodes

 2.08
 3.19

### iTunes

Before the series officially made its debut on air, the first episode entitled "The Suite Life Sets Sail" was made available as a free download on iTunes. All series have since been made available.

## Awards and Nominations

**Films:** The Suite Life Movie
**Video:** The Suite Life Videography
**Episodes:** List of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody Episodes | List of The Suite Life on Deck Episodes
**Locations:** Tipton Hotel | SS Tipton