SPECIAL EVENT - First look at the Disney Wish as Disney Cruise Line unveils its newest ship

BrianLoJan 11, 2024

This post turned out longer than expected. Promised I’d be back to give some thoughts. First time DCL, but relatively experienced cruiser. Royal and NCL primarily with a remote Princess and upcoming Celebrity. Despite being somewhat cynical on the DCL product I think I’m coming off a bit more impressed than I thought I was going to be. DCL still is overpriced (for cruises, which are underpriced compared to land vacations). But it’s nice to have something premium priced, but still offering a premium experience. I follow more of the other cruise ‘fandoms’ than DCL and what is happening on DCL doesn’t seem remotely unique to me. Every line seems to have irritable long time cruisers jumping ship to whatever other brand and swearing it is superior. The hilarity is you can follow those detractors in a total circle. I’m seeing the same chatter out of RCL, NCL, Princess and Celebrity. Perhaps the only line immune is Virgin, simply because it hasn’t existed long enough for people to ditch it. DCL’s most clear comp is RCL these days. I think NCL is attempting to swim more premium, adult focused. As well as leaning into the solo traveler. Lots of their itineraries skew longer and varied, which doesn’t work well for families. You have Disney’s newest ship sailing 3/4 days and you have NCL’s newest ships largely doing 10 days out of Iceland or Eastern Med. RCL is leaning into directly competing with land vacations and has seen a lot of success with their Perfect Day product. Though like Disney parks they’ve overstuffed the place. Because it’s such a people pleaser the downside is I find this brands itineraries have become less exciting as they basically max Perfect Day Visits. But guest scores do warrant it. I’ve found RCL, which was probably my biggest original preferred cruise line is leaning more family mass market, the food quality has mildly declined. They also exceed everyone in the industry in terms of ship innovation. So that said my perception of DCL is that the food is a bit better than royal these days, similar to NCL. The entertainment is ahead of NCL (though I still enjoy it greatly). Similar to RCL, though ‘more Disney’. RCL has a bit of entertainment edge simply due to some variety in entertainment venues. Though I find the cast and chorus a bit more fleshed out on DCL. It seems like everyone sings and even the entertainment staff were being put to more multifaceted uses (like the pirate deck show), in a good way! The kids elements are obviously going to be unparalleled and I suspect a large motivating factor behind people’s DCL choice. But RCL is even further fleshing out their product for families and really are declaring it their current direction. So that said I think DCL has the upper hand. It deserves a premium. I don’t know if I’ve actually changed my stance that it deserves the actual premium it carries though. Unlike the parks, they actually are priced higher than their direct competitors (albeit Icon and Star are quite expensive). Universal and Disney have park parity in pricing (I’m ignoring the hotels). But Disney is still the market leader in that industry, whereas it clearly isn’t in cruising. I think I’d unambiguously recommend DCL for families (or RCL), but the split is going to be down to the premium one wants to pay for ‘the brand’. If the family is into a lot of Disney’s IP, then sure that may be the tipping point. I’d even mildly recommend it to childless millennials like myself. But again you are paying a premium for the brand. For people who aren’t ‘us’ on the forums though and don’t have a mix of kids under 10yo I’d tell them to go elsewhere and save the money. I think the cruising market is stronger than the parks, which only has one competitor that tries to somewhat differentiate itself from Dis (Universal I think doesn’t do toddlers well). Whereas RCL is not so quietly coming directly for Disney. I think DCL needs to work towards not being such a niche player. Meaning it needs another round of ships and some of the older ships pricing premium coming a bit more down to reality. This is also why I think their loyalty program is so meager, they really don’t need to work very hard to fill their ships. - - - So now onto the Wish itself. I think it’s a great ship! Maybe I lack context or maybe they’ve worked out some kinks, but I think some of the old complaints here I didn’t experience as much. The ship focuses a bit on the micro venue to increase the venue count. I actually happen to like that. But I also know NCL did this with Prima/Viva and they are also controversial ships. I think with time the entertainment staff are figuring out the venues. Timing things, putting the appropriate activities at the correct times to counter balance one another. As a result the venues are ‘busy’, but I really didn’t have any issues doing anything but showing up mildly early (like 10-15 minutes). So overall I don’t know if I felt the crowds that everyone else has. I found some meager weather to get on the aqua mouse with a few minutes wait. I really like the dinner entertainment concept. I did not know that was unpopular amongst reviewers. This is something that has me interested in the Triton class. I wish the Treasure also changed up the marvel venue, just for uniqueness. I had a good arrendale table and found the Scandinavian cuisine well done. Sea day activities were well paced and filled out. I didn’t find way making or navigating that difficult. The staircase to the Hero Zone is odd for sure. But once you figure out how to transition up to deck 12 with stairs it’s a quick oddity rather than a problem. I’ve never been on a ship that I like the elevator experience, so I largely ignored it. Didn’t seem better or worse than any other one. A couple negatives with the ship were I also quickly found the adult deck area a bit too small. The only loungers in the sun abutted the Aquamouse unload so you had to tolerate the exit speech looping. They need to quadruple the number of hot tubs…. At least. Are the other ships that bad? I can’t believe there is one hot tub for the non concierge class. I’d have two hot tubs in lieu of the Weird adult pool flanks and then another symmetrically placed tub on the other side of the adult deck. The Wish is also a bit funny because all the main venues are positioned so low. When I boarded I asked someone if we were currently on deck 7 or 8 and was thrown for a loop when the lobby was only deck 3. As a result being in the hull largely the venues are limited to port holes (if at all). I find the ship incredibly inward focused and very limited exposure to the sea. To be fair this is complaint is magnified on the Oasis class. But a lot of lines are trying to get back to reincorporate the sea and the Wish doesn’t do so. Needless to say this is a Caribbean ship exclusively. It is not somewhere that should ever sail somewhere scenic. Anyways, I think that’s more than enough thoughts for now.

LAKid53Dec 15, 2023

I do the Palo brunch every cruise. The gorgonzola & grape pizza is the BOMB! Agree about 1923. A restaurant I don't want to miss.

Chip ChippersonDec 15, 2023

I've sailed the Dream and had Palo brunch once on that ship. The brunch was similar on both ships to me. Dinner on the Wish apparently has more steak choices for the ala carte menu compared to the other ships. I got the 6 oz Snake River Black Wagyu filet and it was incredible. If you love steak, it's worth skipping Avengers or Arrendale for. I wouldn't necessarily skip 1923 for it just because I love their filet, too, and have no problem eating steak multiple nights on a cruise - and for an upcharge, I don't know if it's worth paying for a better version of an already excellent steak. I have a hunch that some Palo dinners open up on the Wish when people find out their rotational dining assignments and learn that their Palo dinner is the same night as their 1923 dinner, so it's worth heading to the Rose on Night 1 or 2 and asking if there are any Palo dinners available for a night that works for you. You might luck out and get it even if it was sold out when you tried to book through the app before the trip.

LAKid53Dec 15, 2023

Have you cruised on the other ships? If so, how did Palo Steakhouse dinner compare to Palo on the other 4 ships? I've yet to eat dinner at Palo Steakhouse as my cruises on the Wish have all been 3 nighters. And I agree about Arendelle's...it's my least favorite of the 3 rotational, for both the food and the noise.

Chip ChippersonDec 15, 2023

Wrapped up my 2nd voyage on the Wish on Monday. It seems as though the elevator situation has improved since they changed out the buttons to avoid accidentally hitting the buttons for multiple floors just by standing too close. Aside from the muster drill and getting back on the ship at Castaway, we really didn't have any issues getting an elevator quickly when we needed one (and mostly had empty elevators when we used them). At Castaway, we just took the stairs to Deck 3 and walked across to the other set of elevators since there was only 1 location to re-board the ship and everyone tried to use those elevators. It saved us a ton of time and got us up to Deck 11 for some food before there was a crowd. Even debarking on the last morning was a breeze this time. Our first Wish sailing took around 45 minutes to get off the ship. This time the line looked long but moved very fast - I'd say about 10 minutes, maybe less. It was a full ship but we got on the waitlist for Palo Brunch on Saturday (and ended up getting it) AND got a Palo dinner reservation for Sunday while on board, too. That was amazing - and even better because our Night 3 rotational dining was Arrendale and it's easily our least favorite dinner on the ship, so we ended things on a high note and still got to deliver our tip envelopes to our server team at breakfast the next morning. Breakfast on the last morni g wasn't very crowded so it seems like a lot of people opted to skip it and debark early.

vikescaperNov 04, 2023

After wrapping up my first ever cruise, I figure I may as well follow up on this….. For backstory, I have never been on a cruise but my mom and sister have been. Out stateroom was midship on deck 7 and we were pretty much equidistant from both elevator banks. I never had any real issues with the elevators but I will say that I used the stairs 90% of the time so I could burn off all those ice cream cones I was eating. My mom is in her 70’s and my sister is in her mid 40’s and has had knee issues most of her life so they used the elevators more than I did. They did have to wait longer for the elevator during peak times but never really complained about it. I did find myself getting lost a few times but after I started to pay more attention to signage, I was fine. The adults only section did feel like an afterthought and I didn’t go into those pools. I don’t know if it is feasible but maybe they could extend the adults only section to the forward section of deck 14 as that felt like wasted space. We didn’t really spend much time in the lounges but ended up in Keg and Compass a few times. I really enjoyed that space. I was looking forward to Hyperspace Lounge but was let down by it. We also found ourselves in the movie theaters a few times and enjoyed those spaces. The seats are very uncomfortable, though. Overall, my family did enjoy our time on the Wish and thought she was a beautiful ship. We would have liked more time on it so we could do more exploring but there is always next time!

DisAlJul 16, 2023

I was watching the Port Nassau webcam this afternoon as the Wish was backing out from the dock. It then started pulling back in. I had to leave before they finished but I wonder what was going on.

Chip ChippersonJul 06, 2023

And on top of that, the narrow-but-deeper design makes it so that most of the people in the elevator have to step out each time someone in the back is getting out at their floor. It slows down an already slow process.

LAKid53Jul 06, 2023

Given the lack of midship elevators and that the Wish's predominantly are smaller, yes, the elevators get crowded.

jaklgreenJul 06, 2023

Yeah, way too many people try to cram into the elevators.

Chip ChippersonJul 05, 2023

It's an issue when people overcrowd the elevators, forcing people to move as close to the walls as possible. It happened several times on my cruise in December. With the elevator situation already less than ideal, I'm sure the extra stops weren't helping matters.

jaklgreenJul 05, 2023

I wonder why so many people had problems with this. I have sailed on the Wish and never had any issues with staying far enough away from the buttons to not set them off. I actually like the no touch buttons because I didn't have to touch them. After the one cruise when a guy came into Cabanas and refused to wash his hands before going to the buffet, claiming that he "took a shower that morning", I don't want to touch anything. LOL

Disney AnalystJul 05, 2023

SplashJacketMar 25, 2023

The 8th isn’t meant for American markets. So that does nothing. With the Wish in Florida during the summer, they moved the Dream to the very expensive European market (effectively adding a second Magic to Europe. Then they retained the Magic in Florida. The Treasure will push one of the larger ships out west, replacing the Wonder, which will go to Australia, an entirely new market. So in terms of existing markets, they’re adding one Magic to Europe and one Wonder out West, and two big ships to Florida, which is the same expansion as when they added the Dream and Fantasy. They wouldn’t have built Lighthouse Point and their Fort Lauderdale port if they were planning on going back down to 5 ships (ignoring the Asia exclusive). Castaway could’ve easily handled an extra ship (compared to 4) if they retired Magic and Wonder. That’s not what they’re doing. Not in the short term, and not in the medium term. They might 15-20+ years, but it’s hardly imminent. The Dream going to Europe has made those cruises, especially verandahs, incredibly more affordable. Big win in my book. They were initially only adding two ships, but they clearly saw the growth potential and added an extra. The 8th ship is a different story, but it seems Disney deems it too good of an opportunity to fail. Minimal risk super high potential reward. Buying the ship seems like some Michael Eisner craziness, but should be a separate product in a completely different and new market.