The Disney Wish is going to garner strong opinions from passionate cruisers and first-timers. The newest addition to DCL’s fleet will likely be your favorite or least favorite ship, with only a little middle ground in between reactions. In this post, we’ll offer our big picture first impressions of the new offering.
Dubbed the “castle on the sea,” the Disney Wish heavily emphasizes some of the company’s MVP IPs. Star Wars, Marvel, Frozen, and more all have strong presences aboard the ship. Just about everything is tied to characters in some fashion, with the Wish feeling very much in line with some of Disney’s other recent additions in its theme parks.
In fact, I found myself noticing similarities to Shanghai Disneyland throughout the Disney Wish. That might seem like an odd comparison given that one is a theme park and the other a cruise ship, but the case could be made that the Wish has more in common with Disney’s newest castle park than the rest of its fleet. Well, once you get past the fact that one was built on solid ground and the other is a big boat (sorry Sarah, big ship) sailing the seas.
Before we get to that, a quick housekeeping note to set the stage for the commentary to come. We had the chance to spend 3-nights aboard the Disney Wish for its Christening Cruise. During this, we experienced a lot of what the new ship has to offer, but not everything. The itinerary wasn’t normal because this was a modified media cruise offering the opportunity to see and hear behind the scenes info about the ship’s creation. More notably, certain entertainment and other aspects of the ship were not ready or otherwise offered.
It’s honesty difficult to tell where the deliberate tweaks ended and the delays began. For those and other reasons, this is not a full review. Everything could be polished and perfect by the maiden voyage—or it might take weeks before the ship is ready for prime time. We also bought our own cruise aboard the Disney Wish way back last summer when bookings opened and will review that as paying guests since it’ll better reflect the normal experience.
With that out of the way, let’s turn to some broad-strokes impressions of the Disney Wish. Much in the same way that Shanghai Disneyland largely eschewed the familiar castle park formula, so too does the Disney Wish opt for pretty significant twists on the DCL playbook.
Although the iconic exterior design of the Disney Wish matches that of its predecessors, much has changed on the inside. This starts with the layout, which I found a bit funky and downright counterintuitive at times. We never totally got our bearings on the Disney Wish, and know we’re not alone. Some of this could be attributed to a lack of familiarity with the Wish as compared to the other ships, but some odd choices were also made.
Beyond the layout, there are also major stylistic differences. The interior design no longer seems focused on evoking the glamour and beauty of the golden age of ocean liners. It largely opts against period-inspired Art Deco and Art Nouveau styles in favor of a variety of disparately-themed spaces.
Those varying themed spaces exist on the other ships, but the variety of styles is much more pronounced on the Disney Wish. To some degree, this impedes the flow of the ship.
To the extent that there is a unifying interior design motif, the style can probably best be described as glam. Many of the spaces–particularly those for adults that don’t overtly integrate intellectual property–utilize sumptuous materials, touchable textures, and glistening metallics to create an air of opulence and extravagance.
In most of these venues, this works really well. The adult specialty dining area features glam flourishes, and sprinkles in Beauty and the Beast characters and European stylization in a fashion that is surprisingly cohesive. This area is similar to Enchanted Rose Lounge at Grand Floridian, but miles better–more well-appointed, tasteful, and luxurious. Enchanté is the highlight, but this whole area is superb. As a whole, the speciality dining deck is an unequivocal upgrade on the other ships.
Same goes for the kids clubs, which offer huge improvements over the other ships and a ton of cool new things to do. Adults have long been envious of the fun, interactive experiences offered exclusively to children aboard Disney Cruise Line. To some extent, that has been directly remedied with new themed spaces for all ages.
However, the “problem” is that the kids clubs also got better and added awesome stuff…and now I want those things for adults. For all of the hype about Hyperspace Lounge, the coolest Star Wars space is far and away the Cargo Bay for kids. Also, is it really too much to ask for an Imagineering Blue Sky Bar where adults can imbibe and build/ride roller coaster simulations?! (Okay, perhaps that last part is a recipe for ‘protein spills.’)
In other cases, whether the changes are improvements is more subjective.
The modified atrium, for example, has become a better canvas for live entertainment, character appearances, and more. In simple terms, its design serves more practical purposes than aesthetic ones. In so doing, it has made compromises for the sake of functionality, and lost a degree of elegance and sophistication in the process.
This atrium and other parts of the ship also have the same style of Shanghai Disneyland. At times, that park feels like it’s shouting “OPULENCE!” while in actuality having a plastic-y or insubstantial feel. In other words, the substance doesn’t always adequately support the superficial style. (I apologize for the Shanghai Disneyland comparisons; I realize these are meaningless for the vast majority of readers, but some of Disney Wish’s parallels were uncanny and I found that interesting.)
Whether those changes to the atrium aboard the Disney Wish are “worth it” is really going to depend upon the guest. If you’re big on characters and cruise programming, they probably will be—the new approach opens a lot of doors as to what can be done there.
That’s really the story of the Disney Wish as a whole. In several ways, it feels like the guiding light behind this project was bringing as much of the contemporary Disney theme park experience as possible to a cruise ship.
Obviously, this is easiest to see in the aspects involving Star Wars, Marvel, and Frozen. It also applies to AquaMouse and other venues, as well as the prevalence of IP and degree of interactivity aboard the Disney Wish. There are elements here that reminds me of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Galactic Starcruiser, and Avengers Campus.
For the most part, those are favorable comparisons. There’s a lot that Imagineering and the creative entertainment teams behind the Disney Wish got really, really right. I want to focus on the big picture here—we’ll have separate posts to come about specifics.
In addition to the kids clubs, the dinner shows are fantastic and exemplars of themed design and/or storytelling. We loved all three, with some caveats about Worlds of Marvel.
Same goes for the food and beverage program as a whole.
The restaurants, fine dining, lounges, and even counter service are all the best of Disney Cruise Line. If your primary concerns are activities for kids, eating, or entertainment—there’s a strong chance the Disney Wish is going to be your favorite ship. It iterates upon or flat out reinvents all of that to great success.
It’s a similar story with the staterooms. These offer an array of little form and function improvements that, in aggregate, make them a lot nicer and more comfortable than their predecessors. (Sarah has more experience than me with Disney Cruise Line, and she gushed about the staterooms.)
Everything from the art to the lighting to the utilization of space is more thoughtful than the other four ships that came before. As with so much of the ship, it seems like DCL learned from what worked and didn’t in the past, and made incremental improvements on those bases.
Given its emphasis on intellectual property and characters, you might be concerned for the nightlife. The Disney Wish also improves upon most of the lounges and bars really well. The lounges are interesting and varied, with drink options that are thoughtfully-crafted (read: not colorful sugar water with a splash of alcohol).
The bigger concern from my perspective is the size and capacity of certain venues, in general. Even on this Christening Cruise with only a portion of staterooms filled, some of these areas were woefully undersized for demand. It’s hard to say how that will shake out with normal demographics (and full slate of cruise programming), but I foresee it being a problem.
I think this will actually work itself out over time. Some of the most high-profile venues were among my biggest disappointments, while ones that were barely featured in marketing ran circles around those.
I’d hazard a guess that DCL diehards will quickly learn this, and congregate in the “hidden gems” once they check off some of the one-and-done themed settings. Conversely, first timers will flock to the popular but underwhelming spaces.
With all of that in mind, let’s offer early assessments and recommendations about which demographics might want to book the Disney Wish, and who might want to wait–or book another ship.
The group we’d expect to least enjoy the Disney Wish is experienced cruisers who see DCL as a brand unto itself, and have come to appreciate the style and unique personality of the fleet. Disney Cruise Line diehards are the ones most likely to come in with a certain set of expectations, and like cruising for the distinct DCL atmosphere and experience.
I think there’s more than a mild possibility that these fans will be disappointed in the different direction the Disney Wish takes, and the way it does not comport with their expectations—and what made them fans in the first place.
This is really the first in DCL’s fleet to lean away from being a cruise ship or even strong nautical themes and motifs. It’s somewhat akin to a fan of the original Disneyland going to Shanghai Disneyland and seeing how much that deviated from the tried and true formula. Some may embrace the changes; others may feel it’s too substantial of a departure.
The Disney Wish is perfect for first-timers who are planning a once in a lifetime voyage and want something that is distinctly Disney, featuring the characters and movies their kids love. It delivers that exceptionally well, offering a slice of newer additions to the parks while at sea. It also iterates and improves upon some of the biggest shortcomings of the other ships, offering a better overall experience for most mainstream audiences.
As with the other ships, the experience is more laid back and relaxing than the theme parks, thus also making the Disney Wish a good alternative to those for first-timers who want an actual vacation rather than a trip. (There’s a huge distinction, and one people who haven’t done Walt Disney World may not realize exists.)
However, the Disney Wish is not the ship we’d recommend to cruise newbies who are potentially interested in experiencing the other ships–or longtime Walt Disney World fans wanting to take their first cruise. That comes down to the expectations this particular ship creates that the rest don’t really match.
This is hardly criticism of the Disney Wish, but rather, acknowledging that it’s a bit of an outlier. It’s one that’s better in many ways, delivering exactly what some fans will want and making it difficult to go back to the other ships. By contrast, the things that the other ships do better are a matter of preference, and less make or break.
It’s difficult to articulate, but the best example I can give is that it’s easier to go from the Port Orleans Resorts to Caribbean Beach than in the other direction. The atmosphere of the former is arguably better, but transportation at the latter is hard to give up. Similar idea here, but obviously very different specifics.
Ultimately, we both really enjoyed our first experience aboard the Disney Wish. While this offers critique and criticism, that’s the nature of the beast when it comes to reviewing (or “first impressioning”) something. From our perspective, there are many more hits than misses with the Disney Wish. It’s far from flawless, but most of our complaints are relatively minor and some could be attributable to familiarity with the first four ships, a lack of that with the Wish, and personal preferences.
In the end, the Disney Wish is the ship in DCL’s fleet that I’m most eager to revisit and also one that I think has a lot of promise. While the others are already in their mature form, the Wish is going to continue evolving in the months and years to come and—hopefully—improving. There’s a ton of potential and a lot to like already, and it’s only going to get better as the company figures out how to leverage some of its ‘blank canvas’ spaces.
With that said, I doubt the Disney Wish will go down as my favorite ship or the one we’ll sail most in the long-term once that “new ship smell” wears off. For one thing, it’s a lot more expensive than comparable itineraries on the other ships and I’m not sure it’s worth the premium pricing–especially on repeat sailings. For another, I really like the layout, style, design of the other ships (save for the specialty dining and staterooms). Then again, I also prefer many of Walt Disney World’s older resorts to the newer ones, so your mileage–or nautical knots–may vary.
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What else would you like to know about the Disney Wish? Any specific spaces within the ship that interest you more than others? Does this have you more excited for the Disney Wish? Think this ship will appeal to you, or will you stick with the first four? Wishing you were under 12 so you could enjoy the Imagineering Lab–or hope the next ship has a Blue Sky Bar? Excited for the AquaMouse? Do you plan on booking a cruise aboard this ship, or are you awaiting more reviews and info from the actual guest sailings? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
How was the adult entertainment options if there were any? The quiet cove seems woefully small, poorly located, and inconvenient when wanting to grab a snack from the walk up options. Is there any kind of dance club like on previous ships? Seems like this is just themed to the max without consideration of wanting to get away from characters in your face.
Sounds like an amazing big boat… Great review, Tom!
Thanks Tom! We’re scheduled for a 3 night cruise in September. By the time we hit our 90 day reservation mark, all the adults only dining options and wine tastings were fully booked. This wasn’t terribly surprising, but do you know if it’s still possible to try and book some of these things as soon as we get on the ship? Also, do you know if the Wishes’ spa will do the Rainforest Spa daily passes? I don’t see any reference to it on the website.
I would like to know how you feel about crowding and waits once you go on a full regular cruise since the Wish has higher capacity. We sailed the Dream and the pools and deck parties were unpleasantly crowded for our tastes, esp on days at sea. Also curious how they will manage Cabana reservations with so many more concierge guests.
How are the staterooms on the other ships inferior to the staterooms on the Wish?
Really looking forward to your opinions on the spaces for adults on the Disney Wish. Early word is they seem rather small and perhaps even an afterthought.
Very informative post. Can’t wait for the disappointments post. I think I have adjusted my expectations but interested to see what your experience was. The Maiden will be our 29th DCL cruise most being on the Magic, we prefer the classic ship. The two things I haven’t found clearly explained is other than the four small closet shelves and hanging area of the closet, where do you store clothes. Are there any drawers for undergarments, etc? Also, is the market a buffet of do they plate for you? The breakfast review I saw showed menus with plated meals to pick from. I prefer buffet, especially for breakfast, which is why we choose not to eat breakfast in the restaurants.
We initially booked the Wish for the end of October. Only our second ever cruise and frost for the kids (11 and 7). The four nights being the only option, we planned on doing 3 extra nights at WDW. But a few months ago, we chose to pass on getting to be some of the first people to enjoy the new ship and instead booked a 7 nighter on the Fantasy. We were hoping being able to enjoy a full week cruise would outweigh what could’ve been a much better experience on a newly imagined ship. Classic FOMO. I’ve been looking forward to your impressions, so far I’m thinking we made a good choice. Not that the fantasy is better. But the we aren’t missing out too badly by missing the Wish. I look forward to your next report when you get more full experience.
You absolutely did. The Fantasy is a fantastic ship and there’s no way the Wish could justify its price right now over one of the best cruise ships in the world. Newer cruise ships always command a premium.
My recommendation would be to eat Palo brunch (the Italian adult restaurant) once, chill at Satellite Falls pool, go to all of the adult shows at the Tube (some can be outstanding), and encourage the kids to go to the Oceaneer Club for the younger ones, 11-14 to the Edge, and 14-17 for Vibe. They’ll love it, especially if they’re social and like to make friends and for the older ones run around the ship hanging out. Cabana’s has an awesome breakfast buffet. Also, remember you can order unlimited menu items at all the restaurants! Appetizers are typically better than the entrees, so I’ve even ordered multiple as an entree before. The coffee is weak on the ship, but the Cove Bar on the pool deck has great coffee and you can get a coffee pass which makes it cheaper as it’s ‘premium’ coffee. Definitely participate in the adult activities like Silent DJ as well. Just let loose and have fun! Don’t feel obligated to get off at every port either. The ship, unlike say Carnival, is the attraction.
We are scheduled on a Wish cruise at the end of January, with our 4 year old granddaughter. When you are talking about space in the different areas, I was wondering about the pools. I have watched a lot of the videos posted (and it may look different when you are actually there)-but the pools looked small and crowded and chopped up into a series of shallow pools. I had heard that they were designed to be covered up when an event is happening on deck. Does the pool deck feel scrunched in? Also, can you describe in more detail what the Festival of Foods area is, and why it is needed in addition to Marceline market?
Thank you for the early info! I love your site and recommend it to anyone going to anything Disney! We are DVC members who started our love of Disney with our honeymoon at Disney World 25 years ago. We will be there in September for our actual Anniversary (Food & Wine here we come and we are doing our first split stay, Bay Lake and Beach Club) , but we have also booked a vow renewal on The Wish in January 2023. They weren’t sure of venue options when we booked, but thought The Rose and Bayou would be options in addition to the atrium. We were leaning towards The Rose, but Bayou is looking like a very viable option as well. There will be about 40 of us, any thoughts?
Happy 4th of July. Hope you all have a good one. Thanks as always for the excellent content
Thanks, you too–and you’re welcome! 🙂
Such a good teaser for the full review! Curious to see if some of my guesses are correct. I haven’t been obviously but have been watching some videos. I suspect the Bayou bar will be one of your “hidden gem” locations—I love the look and it gets bonus points for being out in the open as I feel like on prior ships the seclusion of the bars made me loathe to visit them with my kids with me (they love getting shirley temples as an afternoon treat, while mom and dad get a cocktail). I haven’t seen anyone talk about Luna even though that seemed like one of the more promising additions—was it not open for your preview cruise? The aquamouse, hyperspace lounge and adult infinity pool all seem to be shadows of their potential, which is a shame. But on the other hand, I really think I will like the Spa rainforest room, large balcony (aka “bump out”) rooms, multiple family pools (so if one closes due to an accident, it’s not a big deal), and all those new quick service dining locations. P.S. Don’t feel weird about visiting the kids clubs during open houses to play on the simulators—a lot of adults do!
I actually spent more time in Luna than anywhere else on the ship–it hosted all of the behind the scenes panels. Definitely has potential as a venue, but there’s absolutely nothing special about its design and the panels certainly didn’t put the tech that might exist in that space to the test. Strikes me as fairly utilitarian.
I wish you had an adult cruise without kids.
I have been on 9 DCL cruises and not once have felt overwhelmed by children. DCL does a good job of separating the adults.
Disney and kids are like a glove is to fingers. If kids somehow mess up the Disney experience then maybe you are forgetting what Disney is truly about. There is nothing I like to see more than the kids reacting to everything Disney even though mine is an adult.
Not sure what happened to my last post but kids are to Disney what fingers are to a glove. They kinda go together and something would be lacking if kids were not a part of the landscape during a Disney experience.
Would love to see photos of the bar menus! I’m looking for information about what mocktails might be available, and many of the menus I’ve seen online actually cut off that part as if it can’t be of any interest to anyone!
I don’t have those, sorry–but I do know there was an emphasis made on crafting unique “zero proof cocktails” for the Disney Wish. (That’s the specific term they used since “mocktails” is more juvenile according to the culinary team. I’m guessing “zero proof cocktails” also somehow justifies higher price points than what people would pay for mocktails! 😉 )
We are sailing on the Wish in September and I’m really looking forward to it, though we ended up adding it to the front end of an already scheduled trip. So we will sail on the Wish and then after a weekend in Miami will sail on the Dream. That gets all the ships ticked for us, and saves us airfare by doing another cruise at a later date. However, it’ll be interesting to see how the two ships feel back to back. I’m going in with a very open mind, except when it comes to the Aqua Mouse, which I have very low expectations for. I saw a POV of the “attraction” on Youtube & was heartily disappointed. My initial reaction was “LAME” and felt the same way on a second viewing a few days later. Maybe it’ll be better in person, but… Did you experience it? Thoughts? Is it complete? There were a bunch of what I presumed were speakers between the screens (which featured that new style of animation which I despise!), but maybe they were screens that were missing displays? It certainly was underwhelming for something touted as the first Disney attraction at sea. Aqua Duck & Dunk are much more engaging right off the bat. The Aqua Mouse was just a slow conveyor belt crawling along until the water ride started. Or am I missing something?
C’mon now, don’t make me spoil the upcoming “Biggest Disappointments of the Disney Wish” post!
For now, I’ll just say this…adjust your AquaMouse expectations downwards. 😉
@ TomBricker: Yikes! Adjust my already low expectations downwards? Even with a winky face emoji, that is telling. Oh well, I’ll look forward to everything else, and the Aqua Mouse will be a one & done. Thanks for the first impressions post, btw. Always appreciate your thoughtful perspectives.
I heard from one of the bloggers that the Aquamouse wasn’t running complete…that some special effects were still being worked on? We’re going in November…hopefully many kinks will be worked out a little more by then
I certainly hope what I saw online isn’t the finished product. I was sort of thinking it might be more along the lines of a water version of the Incredi-coaster at Disneyland, but we shall see. Thanks for your feedback Kathleen.
We are booked on the wish for the Christmas cruise start of December (after 2 weeks in Orlando!). It will be our first time on a cruise ship so we felt 3 nights would be a good sampler to if we like it.
I’m curious Tom if the hidden gems you mention, we much rather those than the main ones as prefer quieter ambiance.
How was the food? Fine dining is not something we are used to but rather excited about along with usual ‘park’ fare?
I can’t wait to read more. We recently took and Royal Caribbean cruise for the first time, after sailing DCL on several prior trips, I know it’s even more extreme, but we missed the classic, stylized nature of DCL, despite many new and fun amenities on RC.
This was very informative, thank you! We’ll be sailing on the Wish in September. I’ve previously sailed on both the Wonder and Dream. The Wonder was much easier to navigate and had more “connecting” decks and walkways than the Dream. We caught ourselves having to go up and down to navigate around certain things on the Dream. Is the Wish similar to the Dream in this aspect?
“Is the Wish similar to the Dream in this aspect?”
I’d say it’s slightly worse. Accessing some areas (like Cove Cafe or the specialty dining area) requires a convoluted approach. Even the levels around the atrium have occasionally-confusing orientations. On the plus side, that can add a sense of intimacy.
Our first DCL ship will be the Wish following Thanksgiving. We’re already a bit skeptical of the sizing of popular areas. The Star Wars bar has had super long waits to get into it from what we’ve been hearing. We’re also doing star cruise next month which means the Star Wars bar on the wish more than likely will be a let down anyways lol. We haven’t got our window for buying extras and excursions but lol forward to seeing what is offered there. Can’t wait to see your actual paid for cruise impressions. I’m sure this vessel is impressive though regardless.
The Star Wars bar started doing reservations after the first day, and I’d expect that to continue with actual guest sayings. Nevertheless, your suspicions about going from the Galactic Starcruiser to Hyperspace Lounge are pretty much on point.
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