Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana

Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana  is a trilogy of crossover episodes between three Disney Channel original sitcoms which premiered in the United States on July 17, 2009. The crossover spanned across episodes of Wizards of Waverly Place, The Suite Life on Deck, and Hannah Montana. Max, Justin and Alex Russo join regulars from The Suite Life on Deck aboard the SS Tipton, Cody Martin attempting to retrieve tickets for a Hannah Montana concert in Hawaii, while Miley Stewart, on route to the concert on the SS Tipton, loses her mother's lucky anklet – triggering a streak of further bad luck.

Release
The broadcast was watched by 10.6 million viewers, becoming the highest-rated program of the night on both broadcast and specialty television. It was also the second highest-rated cable broadcast of 2009 to date (as of August 30, 2009). The show aired in the United Kingdom on October 2, 2009, as part of Disney Channel's "big five Friday" at 6.30pm. The crossover premiered on Disney Channel Middle East on December 6, 2009 as part of the Christmas special and was watched by 400,000 viewers. It premiered in Disney Channel Latin America on February 12, 2010 as part of "February on Board."

Part 1: "Cast-Away (To Another Show)"

 * Season 2, episode 25 of Wizards of Waverly Place.

Justin Russo is excited to meet London Tipton when he wins an essay contest prize, which is a "Teen cruise" on the SS Tipton. Theresa and Jerry say that Alex Russo can't go because of her 14 missed assignments, but Alex finds out that there is a school on board and convinces her parents to let her stay aboard the SS Tipton. Max Russo also joins Alex and Justin on board, where Alex bonds with Bailey Pickett, but soon gets in hot water when she uses magic to bring Harper aboard. Alex says that she is Ashley Olsen so she won't get caught skipping classes. She also tells Harper to be Alex Russo for her. When Justin meets London, he pretends that he is a doctor, which gains her interest. However, Justin begins to lose interest in her when he discovers how unintelligent she is. Meanwhile, Max competes with Zack Martin in a series of outrageous challenges, but when Zack and Max race luggage carts, Max bumps his cart into several people standing in front of the hot tub and Bailey gets knocked over into it while eating pizza and starts choking. London sees this and tells Justin to save Bailey, but Justin says that he doesn't know how to. Alex then saves Bailey by stepping in to give her abdominal thrusts. Mr. Moseby then steps in to congratulate Alex for helping Bailey and Alex, having forgotten the name Ashley Olsen, says her name is Ashley Simpson (and then Ashley Simpson-Olsen after being reminded by Bailey of what she said before), but then Max, unaware of Alex's plan, reveals Alex's true identity. She then pushes Max into the hot tub for doing so. London, ashamed of Justin for not trying to save Bailey, calls him "a dumb doctor" and breaks up with him (which Justin goes along with). At the end Alex transports Harper home, but then realizes that she may have accidentally sent her to Rome instead of home, and continues to skip class.

Part 2: "Double-Crossed"

 * Season 1, episode 21 of The Suite Life on Deck.

Hannah Montana and Lola Luftnagle board the S.S. Tipton on their way to a concert performance in Honolulu. Since Bailey is a big fan of Hannah Montana, Cody attempts to get tickets because he knows Hannah. However, Hannah doesn't remember Cody, so he enlists Woody to help him get tickets by doing a scavenger hunt. However, he fails the hunt due to an intermix with Zack, and not only disappoints himself but also Bailey. Cody then gets himself splattered on a cake, and Hannah remembers him (though it was Zack who was splattered by it instead), giving them concert tickets. Bailey then kisses Cody, as he privately shouts "Yes! My six-month plan worked!". Of course, the two finally start their relationship with each other.

Meanwhile, Alex pulls a prank on Justin by putting blue dye in the hot tub, for which Mr. Moseby blames Zack who then blames Cody. Zack then develops a crush on Alex, while Max introduces London to a roomy luggage. London says they will meet again, kissing Max on the cheek.


 * Note: This is the only episode in the crossover to feature characters from all three series involved in the crossover, much was the case in the That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana crossover where the episode of the same name in the The Suite Life of Zack & Cody part of the crossover featured cast members from that series, That's So Raven and Hannah Montana. (Ashley Tisdale and Kim Rhodes don't appear because they were not aboard the SS Tipton.) However, neither Selena Gomez, David Henrie nor Jake T. Austin have any scenes with either Miley Cyrus or Emily Osment in this episode. This is also the first episode that Cody and Bailey are seen to have a requited love (Cody has liked Bailey as more than a friend since the series pilot, but Bailey has not seemed to like him as more than a friend until this episode). All the main cast from The Suite Life on Deck appeared in all three shows.

Part 3: "Super(stitious) Girl"

 * Season 3, episode 19 of Hannah Montana.

While in her cabin on the ship, Hannah loses the anklet that her mother gave her before she died. Lola helps her to try and find it, but with no luck. Finally, a maid shows the anklet to Mr. Moseby, but London takes it, seeing it as valuable. Hannah and Lola find that London has it, when they tell her that the anklet has fake diamonds, she throws it overboard, disgusted that the diamonds are fake. Hannah is depressed and wonders if anything else bad could happen: it does. A storm blows her wig away and her hair dye turns her hair green instead of blonde, a rat appears on her head, and a mirror breaks. Even Hannah's rehearsal goes poorly, so she tells Cody and Bailey that the concert is cancelled. Miley believes the anklet is the only thing that will help her, but her father, Robby tells her that the spirit of her mother is in her heart, too. He tells Miley that he always has a back-up wig and gives it to her. Hannah then tells Cody and Bailey the concert is back on and that they are invited to the after-party. Bailey asks Cody if that was his plan and Cody talks about a good relationship needing honesty, but lies by saying yes it was his plan. Hannah's Hawaii concert goes ahead, and all is well.

Meanwhile, back in at Miley's house in Malibu, her brother Jackson, Oliver Oken and Rico Suave open a package addressed to Robby which turns out to be a bounce house. Ignoring Robby, they open the box and the bounce house automatically inflates itself, getting the boys stuck to the window for quite some time, but Rico eventually deflates it with his fingernail.

Note: Unlike That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana, Hannah/Miley was more involved with the three part story and the characters from The Suite Life on Deck, while in That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana, Hannah/Miley had only little interaction with the characters from the other shows and didn't have a big part in the crossover.

DVD release
The special was released on DVD on September 22, 2009. Bonus features include:
 * Justin's Award-Winning Essay! -- Watch the essay video that got Justin and his siblings on the SS Tipton Teen Cruise.
 * It's a Suite Life Having Fun with Hannah and the Wizards—Hilarious bloopers and backstage interviews with the stars.

Theme song
The theme song to Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana is a remix of the three shows' opening sequences and theme songs in a format of a Rubik's Cube twisting and turning to the three shows' theme songs; it starts with Wizards of Waverly Place, then The Suite Life on Deck, and followed by Hannah Montana. It lasted for 1.03 minutes and appears during the show when changing to the different episodes. (The 1:03 minute theme song is not on the DVD sale of the Canadian region (Separated into 3 different shows, broadcast with own theme songs.))

Subsequent rebroadcasts of all three episodes feature each show's respective opening sequences for the individual episodes, as well as the closing credits for Wizards of Waverly Place and The Suite Life on Deck for the episodes of those two series that were part of the crossover, that were not included in the original broadcast and initial repeats. This is Disney Channel's first crossover to have an opening sequence and theme song to show first then to start their respective episodes series. In the UK, however, it is shown, even on the premier, as three individual episodes, with three individual title sequences.