Disney Wish - First reviews from the media cruise - biased?

[HappilyEverAfter80]

DCL had a flexible policy at the moment where you can move your cruise with no penalty up to 15 days before sail date. So if you really don’t like what you’re seeing, you do have that option.

I looked it up and if I’m understanding correctly, we can’t move to a restricted category past 60 days to sailing. The 15 day policy before Sep 30 applies when moving to non-restricted room categories (non-IGT, OGT & VGT) only.

 

[Cheburashka]

I just cancelled my 3-night February Wish cruise and booked a 5-night double dip GT Dream cruise over Thanksgiving week! Reasonably priced- only $1,000 more than the Wish 3-night which is not over a holiday. I had no idea that GT was there until I was dismayed by the Wish reviews and started looking into what I could find from the Dream. I had seen that sailing before but its regular prices were more than I was willing to pay. Yay!

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

I just cancelled my 3-night February Wish cruise and booked a 5-night double dip GT Dream cruise over Thanksgiving week! Reasonably priced- only $1,000 more than the Wish 3-night which is not over a holiday. I had no idea that GT was there until I was dismayed by the Wish reviews and started looking into what I could find from the Dream. I had seen that sailing before but its regular prices were more than I was willing to pay. Yay!

Were you within 60 days of sailing on the Wish?
Edit - Nevermind lol you said February

 

[vacay77]

I just cancelled my 3-night February Wish cruise and booked a 5-night double dip GT Dream cruise over Thanksgiving week! Reasonably priced- only $1,000 more than the Wish 3-night which is not over a holiday. I had no idea that GT was there until I was dismayed by the Wish reviews and started looking into what I could find from the Dream. I had seen that sailing before but its regular prices were more than I was willing to pay. Yay!

I just spoke to my husband and it looks like we are going to cancel our sailing on the Wish for next year. I love Disney cruises and they've always been more expensive than most other cruise lines, but I feel like they are really targeting more upscale clientele for this sailing (or at least that's what they've chosen to show us). The suites and the $5,000 drink just leave a bad taste in my mouth - I'm not really jealous that my family can't afford that - honestly, I wouldn't want want to spend my money on that. But it seems like the things that ARE included in the cruise, like the Aquamouse, seem rather underwhelming. One of my favorite cruises was the Marvel themed cruise on the Disney Magic - my parents went with us and I remember we had such a great time drawing our cartoon characters during dinner and seeing them dance on screen. I'd rather have those type of memories and I didn't see anything like that in the coverage for the Disney Wish.

 

[WB1971]

We are booked on the Wish Aug 29 2022, obviously past final payment date now and if I could I would seriously change to another Disney ship. We have been on 5 Disney cruises, Magic, Wonder & Fantasy. Our last DCL cruise was in 2018. Since then we went on 2 Royal Caribbean and we actually really enjoyed them too, but been looking for to going back on Disney. Looking at the first few glimpses of the Wish… seems over the top with Princess theme, and lacking that classic nautical ocean liner feel DCL is famous for…
i hope I’m wrong and that’s not at all how it is… but right now I feel like IF you are a family with little Princess obsessed kids under 7 maybe… with an obscene amount of $ to blow on Princess makeovers etc… then this ship is for you.
There is a Disney Dream sailing same date out of Miami about $1500 less (for a guaranteed veranda mind you) than we are paying for 5C verandah on the Wish… but I’m guessing to late to do anything about it now. I would even switch to Disney Fantasy and not do as much of WDW beforehand.
Sure hope these initial thoughts on the Wish are totally unjustified…

If you have any health concerns or exposure concerns can cancel within the last 14 days before sailing. (Covid exposure, or symptoms). They don’t ask for evidence of this.

 

[JPTexan82]

Look I get it, it’s new and exciting. This is my 20th year being involved with Disney in some form or fashion. Starting at as CP, coming to WDW for vacations, DL too, Shanghai and Hong Kong in 2019. We just completed our 5th DCL trip and also DVC members at the Poly.

But what the company has pushed out over the last 24th months, makes me really question who they are trying to target for the money. It’s always been the upper middle class, but now it seems for more click bait/gram style audiences. Granted the Wish may be different than the next two coming. But the on deck space for adults is disappointing. What I saw of the Marvel and Hyperspace is comical at best. I’ll take a skyline and AP on the Fantasy anyday over what’s being shown now. The only thing I saw that I like so far, is the poolside food and the new senses area. Everything else seems like it should be at a Westin.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

If you have any health concerns or exposure concerns can cancel within the last 14 days before sailing. (Covid exposure, or symptoms). They don’t ask for evidence of this.

This is good to know, but we’d want to change to a different sailing around the same time…

 

[OKW Lover]

The DIS has a blanket policy where they make clear if an experience was paid for by Disney. Pete will not do a "review" of anything that the DIS didn't pay for themselves. The DIS will however report accurately about what they see/do even on a "free" trip.

Keep in mind that we are talking about people who are real Disney fans. Their perspective may be different from yours.

 

[Cheburashka]

Keep in mind that we are talking about people who are real Disney fans. Their perspective may be different from yours.

I think most of us on these boards are real Disney fans. Having a different perspective on Disney's new offerings doesn't negate that.

 

[magsnwonderland]

I also think it kinds of smells rotten to sell the maiden voyage to customers, when it really isn't. I think a much better approach would be to sell about 75% of the rooms, and invite vloggers to fill the rest. And spread out the Disney execs to have their turn over a year, so they get to experience the ship with paying customers, which will allow for a much more real experience and help improve the product from their input.

If I was paying $$$$ to be on the maiden voyage, I would be very annoyed by the vloggers trying to be in the front row of everything with camera equipment out and in the way and vlogging/streaming constantly when I’m trying to enjoy my cruise. I’m assuming that is part of the reason why they do it on a separate cruise ahead of paying customers. It is very annoying to be near someone who is narrating their entire experience while they’re walking around.

If you’re on an influencer cruise, you know you’re going to end up in the background of someone’s footage. On a regular cruise, I’d assume I might end up in someone’s personal vacation pictures or video, but not someone with a following.

I also tend to enjoy Disney “influencer” content that is done in voice over or where they are stationary talking to the camera about what they just did, rather than watching the other style, so maybe I’m more sensitive to it.

 

[Cheburashka]

I feel like they are really targeting more upscale clientele for this sailing (or at least that's what they've chosen to show us). The suites and the $5,000 drink just leave a bad taste in my mouth - I'm not really jealous that my family can't afford that - honestly, I wouldn't want want to spend my money on that. But it seems like the things that ARE included in the cruise, like the Aquamouse, seem rather underwhelming.

I noticed this, too. More expanded concierge areas, and smaller adult areas. So much coverage about those pretty multi-level suites, but if you're not wealthy, you can't afford those.

Things we've enjoyed on past cruises on the Dream class ships that are not on the Wish include: huge porthole windows for oceanview staterooms, magical portholes in inside staterooms, wraparound promenade, ample adult areas, Remy, midship detective agency, etc.

Also, is Disney on Demand included? I haven't seen that mentioned. I'm assuming it is, but it would be nice to see that verified. I'd hate to see a trend of that not being available.

 

[Metalfan]

There are going to be things people like and don't like. That's life. But I think the biggest thing we can gather is that no one should be concerned about cruises being canceled for things on the ship being "not ready". That was a huge concern for people before this cruise.

 

[Joel0917]

Based on what we’ve seen we have B2B booked in august and have concierge as well. But we have wish booked for next March but after this based on theme and Bahamas Itinerary we may hop back to fantasy.

 

[happycamper47]

There are going to be things people like and don't like. That's life.

Amen!

 

[LambertLion]

Yeah, the free cruisers are not going to give truth. Wait for paid customers to give reviews and you can always go yourself to make the best review for you, as we all have different tastes. And that’s cool. I hope to be able to put some impressions together after our July 25 cruise and post up. I’m looking at pics but mostly avoiding videos of any of the experiences, so I can at least judge those on my own. And no, I wont be ordering any $5,000 drinks! I do like the pics I’ve seen so far tho and agree from what I’ve seen the adult spaces look small but I’m going to reserve all my deeper opinions until i see it myself.

 

[lklgoodman]

I'm glad I read this thread because I didn't know the people on the ship were vbloggers and were cruising for free. I very rarely watch any kind of videos made by vbloggers. I missed the live stream that was done earlier in the week, so I did a search on YouTube and watched a video a family did. I didn't realize the cruise was free for them. They showed their stateroom and kept gushing about the split bathroom, how amazing it was. They just kept going on about it. I thought, have they never been on a Disney cruise before?! I stopped watching because it was just too over the top. Now that I know videos by other people on it are going to be the same, I'm not going to look for anymore.

 

[DCLDVC1]

I was really looking forward to the Disney Wish but does anyone else feel like it's underwhelming after following the Christening? I saw some of the ride cams for the Aquamouse and it really didn't look like anything extraordinary. I have a cruise booked next year on the Wish and I'm thinking about canceling, lol. All I heard about was the $5,000 drink and saw pics of the upscale suites and those are definitely things that my family can't afford.

I feel it's very underwhelming. It's basically an updated version the Dream and Fantasy with some new theming and locations for bars and restaurants. For a company that thrives on innovation, they missed the boat this time.

 

[AmishGuy91]

Every time there’s a grand opening at Disney now it’s basically like a frat/sorority party with all these media/vloggers. Starting to leave a bad taste in my mouth

 

[DCLDVC1]

I love seeing the reviews from the Disney Wish, but have to admit I am a little annoyed (or is it jealous) at all the bloggers that got to go on the cruise for free. I know they work hard for their money, but how much can we really trust any of the reviews? They all had variations of the same headline after the first day ("What I learned after 24 hours on the Disney Wish", "Surprises on the First Day of the Disney Wish", "7 Ways the Disney Wish Surprised me in the First 24 hours"). The titles of their articles all make it seem like they were fed what to write about on their blogs.

I don't believe much of what the bloggers and vloggers say. They're not going to say or write anything that's going to risk their ride on the Disney gravy train.

I think a lot of bloggers already had most of their posts written before they even got on the ship. All they had to do was tweak a few things once onboard.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

There are always things you like and don’t like on every ship, we all like different things. I know I’ll find things to love about the Disney Wish -but the overall theme is overwhelmingly little kid princess & geared towards those sailing in concierge. I agree waiting for the general consensus once regular paying guests start sailing will tell more of the story.