One of your Enchanted Adventures Agents was onboard the inaugural sailing of the new Disney Wish. Here is her review of the sailing, the ship and all the amazing extras. Thank you Kristi and family for showing your vacation with us.
“My family and I just finished Sailing on Disney’s new ship, the Disney wish. The ship was beautiful and the cast members were amazing as usual. However, Disney has made many changes with the new ship. I want to discuss some of the amazing differences and some of the things that still need a bit of work.
For a little bit of context, my family was a bit late to the cruising scene. Currently our boys are 11 and 12. We began cruising in 2017. We have only ever sailed with Disney and this most recent trip started with a week on the Fantasy followed up by three nights on the Wish. We have been on every Disney ship, sailed multiple times in the Bahamas in the Caribbean, sailed a nine night Alaska cruise on the Wonder, and did an extended test itinerary on the Disney Magic of Canada from Quebec City to New York. We are very familiar with all of the ships and absolutely love sailing with Disney.
The Ship…
First, this ship is beautiful. They have really spared no expense with the appearance of this ship. Every area is themed and well decorated. It is a bit of a shift from Disney’s nautical theme is on the other ships and has more of an elegant appearance. The entrance consists of a balcony where there was almost always a princess standing and interacting with the crowds. It had much more space for character meet and greets.
The ship is divided into smaller areas. It is not an open floor plan like the other ships are. You are definitely more separated out. There are three theaters on board. Two smaller movie theaters and one large show theater. This allows them to play more movies on board.
There are phone charger Stations everywhere. This was actually very nice since you have to use your phone to access the navigators now. On the fantasy last week, I had to pack and carry portable chargers with me. On the Wish, we were able to charge our phones as we participated in the entertainment.
Instead of having three elevator bays there are only two but they are more like having to midship elevators. I didn’t feel like the elevator location made much of a difference. What did make a difference though is that the elevator panels are not touch. You just have to get close to them and they would like the floor up. It’s a great concept for not having to touch elevator buttons, however, if you lean up against the panel it will light up all of the buttons. So you have to make sure that your elevator is not packed.
The Food…
Secondly, the food is amazing. When you cruise with Disney, you will find that all four of the already existing ships have very similar menus. Pirate night menus were the same on all the ships. Alaska was the only cruise that has a little bit of a varied menu from the other boats. On the Wish, The food is completely different. There are three restaurants: 1923, Marvel Avengers, and Frozen. 1923 is the year that steamboat Willy was created. The restaurant is a nod To animation in the creation of movies. You were surrounded with sketches and memorabilia from Disney. It has a very elegant feel… Very much like Hollywood Brown Derby at Hollywood Studios. The food here was very elegant and high-end. The Marvel and frozen restaurants had themed dining to match with the ambience of the restaurant. It was very unique and I was excited to see changes.
The most obvious change though was with the quick service windows on deck 11. They have added new options which were fantastic. They now have, in addition to the grill which serves hamburgers and hotdogs and pizza (on the other ships), they have a Cantina that does tacos and taco bowls and a barbecue place that serves pulled chicken, pulled pork, brisket, and macaroni and cheese. The new offerings were amazing! Of course, Disney also has a Buffay that serves lunch and dinner and the one on the ship is called Marceline. The food at Marceline is very similar to cabanas on the other ships. The one difference is that Marceline is not set up like a self serve buffet. You have different stations were you actually tell the cast members what you want and they fill your plate for you.
The Rooms…
Thirdly, The rooms are designed much better. Disney Cruise Line generally has larger state rooms than found on other major cruise lines. There are just a few tweaks that Disney put in that makes their rooms even better. Every room now has to bathrobes, liquid soap in a pump bottle beside the sinks, and the mirrors in both the room and the bathroom are lit around them. The bathroom has a regular light and a nightlight option. The lighting in the room also has more options. You can dim the lights from the bed. As always on a Disney ship storage is not an issue. There is plenty of storage.
Finally, The kids clubs and the addition of the hero zone gave kids a lot to do. Well there was less scheduled programming (which I will address later), there was a lot for the kids to do and the kids club. The new stations included a whole Star Wars area that resembled the galactic Starcruiser. As soon as we walked into the Star Wars area, my boys commented that it looked just like the galactic Starcruiser (which we stayed on in March). It was very similar to the engine room on the Starcruiser and very well done with creatures that moved. Another new area they loved was designed and ride your own roller coaster.
On the ship, there is a new climate controlled area called the Hero Zone. It has basketball and soccer and then ping-pong, AirHockey, and foosball. It is open from eight in the morning till 10 o’clock at night and was a great place for the boys to go play. They would set up a lot of pick up basketball games. It was also just a nice family space to be able to play indoors when it’s raining or brutally hot out on the decks.
The Pool Decks and All the Extras…
Finally, let’s discuss the pool decks. I actually loved the new set up of the decks. There were eight smaller pools… Two of them were for sitting in the water and watching FunnelVision movies. The rest were for kids to play in. They also have a kids play area and a kids pool specifically for toddlers and babies. I felt like with people spread out more it felt less crowded on the deck. They have a four-story yellow slide similar to the slides on the other ships. But, this ship has a very unique experience called the AquaMouse. It is a ride, combined with a waterslide. The beginning of the ride has screens of Mickey shorts that you watch and then you proceed to ride the slide. The AquaMouse is much faster than the AquaDuck on the Dream in the Fantasy. It was one of my favorite things about the ship.
Not Good or Bad…but Different
The Disney wish has a very large laundry room for you to do laundry. There is only one of them but it has plenty of space.
Tritons, one of the places that the family entertainment took place was always freezing. I mean not just cold… But freezing. Make sure you bring a sweatshirt or jacket with you on board.
The D lounge has been replaced with a space called Luna. I actually loved the change. It had comfortable tables, lots of charging stations, a bar area where they serve drinks, and it’s two stories. There is a balcony that allows for four people to see what’s going on. It has a formal stage with Lots of lighting and curtain affects. Many of the game show type entertainment as well as trivia and karaoke took place in Luna.
If you are someone who participates in fish extenders or in decorating your door, things are a little bit different on the wish. You need to make sure that your fish extender has a long enough rope to hang it by because they are no longer fishes on the wish so it needs a bigger space to fit over the outside. Secondly, the circle port holes with your room number on the door are gone. They are replaced with a fancy rectangle shape. So if you have any magnets that specifically go around the room number circle, those will not fit around the room number on the wish.
Just a Bit of Tweaking …
My biggest complaint about the ship is the amount of activities that are taking place. Compared to the other boats, there is relatively few organized activities. For example, there were not as many trivia‘s, crafts, name that tune type activities. We found ourselves having downtime waiting for the next activity to start, which never really happens on the other ships. Now, they have made some changes to some favorite activities as well. The animation where you draw Disney characters is now a video of an animator at Disney teaching you how to draw the character with the cast member/host helping. This is a personal preference. My boys loved the change but I hated it. I want a cast member showing me how to do it. I just feel like I could watch a video from my house. There was also no Disney tunes trivia the whole time we were on the ship. If you’re familiar with the other cruises, that is an activity that takes place sometimes five times a day. My boys were disappointed in the relatively few activities offered in Edge (a club for 11 through 14-year-olds). Some of these things could be that it was the third sailing and they are still working out the scheduling and the kinks, but I hope they add more things to do on the ship as time progresses.
The rain forest passes are really expensive. My husband and I always do the weeklong passes to the rainforest room. If you don’t know, the rainforest room is a paid only experience, in the spas, where they have scented showers, private hot tubs, steam rooms, saunas, and heated beds. It’s always very quiet. While we were on the fantasy, the rainforest room costs around $300 for a couple for the whole week and is open from 7:30 in the morning until 10 o’clock at night. For a three night sailing on the wish, they were charging $166 per person plus tax. So, it was more expensive for two people to do the rainforest room for three nights then it was for our seven night cruise. We opted not to purchase passes and most people who use the rainforest room on other ships also opted not to purchase passes due to the price.Overall, you can’t go wrong with a Disney cruise. The Wish is an amazing experience. It does three and four night cruise to the Bahamas from Port Canaveral. As they receive initial feedback, I have no doubt that Disney will tweak some things and make improvements.”
While this has been a wildly popular cruise ship to board, there are tons of staterooms available. Make sure to get with your favorite Enchanted Adventures Agent to book your sailing onboard the Disney Wish.
