Disney Wish - Good, Bad, Ugly

[DCL_Family]

Hi, long time lurker, first time poster. Just got off cast preview cruise and wanted to share some thoughts. We were fully aware services and amenities might not available and did not take that into consideration in this review. This is strictly based on our experience.


The Good
- The Ship is beautiful and the best way I can describe it is comparing to WDW Resorts. If the previous cruise ships were like the Yacht Club, the Wish would be like the Beach Club and Grand Floridian had a baby, less of the darker teak wood and more of the lighter colors (whites, blues, greens).
- We loved the layout of the pool deck with multiple tiers of pools all with great views of the improved, higher resolution funnel vision. Much more capacity to play in the water. We were not able to use the Mickey Pool or the Chip and Dale Pool during the cruise. Adult only area was a nice upgrade.
- The quick service food was amazing. We have never been a fan of the pool food areas but the Tacos, Pizza and BBQ were great! Goofy's grill was on par with rest of the ships with burgers, hot dogs, fries, etc.
- Kids clubs were great. Each section can be partitioned from the regular club for character meet and greats. So you can enter the Marvel or Star Wars room from the public hallway and have character photos while secured activities happened in the rest of the club.
- We liked the stateroom bathrooms, the nightlight is an upgrade, switches are now in the bathroom and not in the entryway so no more accidentally turning on cabin lights in the dark. Shower has a glass door and makes the area feel more open.
- Outlets in the stateroom, multiple USB and USB-C connections, never had a problem keeping things charged.
- Main restaurants both the theming and the shows (Marvel and Frozen) were wonderful and an improvement over the previous ships. Food was about the same as the other ships.
- Pirate Deck party, we enjoyed the live show and fireworks were great.
- Marceline Market was an upgrade to Cabanas, loved the World cuisine section with pot stickers, crab rangoon, and curry chicken/lamb
- We did not experience Hyperspace lounge when it was open but you can walk in and take pictures and look out the "windows" as you jump between galaxies
- Aquamouse was just OK. The show was cute but we prefer the aquaduck. We did like the raft which has a back rest.
- The crew was great as always

The Bad
- Overall stateroom design is a concern. Decor is great but lake of cabinets and drawers made unpacking hard. Too much unused shelf space that should have been cabinets. Lack of hangers, we are use to around 20 hangers and probably had around 10, most clothes were kept folded and stacked in closet on shelf.
- Stateroom TV - We prefer the smaller TV with the adjustable arm. The TV is flush mounted and cannot be moved. When our son was younger we would move the TV on the other side of the curtain so we can watch it. Recently we have let him watch it and we go to sleep. It can be viewed from the couch but had to leave the curtain half open.
- The ship layout made it hard to get from point A to point B. Only two elevators, one forward and aft so missing the midship elevator. Trying to get to Cove cafe is a hike since you need to walk around the complete aft section (aquamouse blocks more direct access)
- Shopping was hit or miss, the higher end watch and jewelry shop were very spacious and mostly empty. Mickey's Mainsail is long and narrow and gets congested quickly with lines going outside the door


The Ugly
- The elevators...mentioned earlier the lack of three elevators but it was the "touch" sensors that caused the problem. It's great in theory to reduce a high traffic touch-point but most elevator rides that were halfway full had people inadvertently setting off multiple floors when they stood too close to the buttons. Be prepared to make extra and unnecessary stops.


Did not experience - Palo and Echante, Senses Spa, Main Theater Shows were not performed publicly, Disney Uncharted Adventure was not available

 

[MommyCMickey]

Thank you for this review!!!

 

[RadekBonk]

Great review! Thanks for sharing.

 

[brentm77]

We liked the stateroom bathrooms, the nightlight is an upgrade, switches are now in the bathroom and not in the entryway so no more accidentally turning on cabin lights in the dark.

How do they fix little things like this, which is great, but mess up so badly on things like drawers? Someone clearly just decided drawers were too expensive, not realizing one of the great joys of cruising is unpacking once and having your little "home" travel to new destinations.

Love they are adding more international food options. The Magic Med cruise seemed to have more international options in Cabanas than my previous cruises, which was fabulous.

Great review by the way - thanks for posting!

 

[Karin1984]

How do they fix little things like this, which is great, but mess up so badly on things like drawers? Someone clearly just decided drawers were too expensive, not realizing one of the great joys of cruising is unpacking once and having your little "home" travel to new destinations.

I think they only look at the outside, it has to look beautiful. Not thinking about the practical side of it, or doing a proper customer journey from beginning to end. Or not asking enough opinions. Maybe only people were in charge who travel solo and more than happy to live out of a suitcase.

Same happened with Virgin. Just before Covid happened they released their first ship. A sleek modern interior, but also hardly any storage there. Minimalism is a trend, but they forget that not everyone lives or travels like this. Especially with (small) children. Virgin is an adult only cruiseline at the moment, but even then.

 

[BamaGuy44]

Thanks for your review. Hopefully they can tweak the sensitivity of the elevator buttons to reduce pushing accidentally.

 

[brentm77]

Thanks for your review. Hopefully they can tweak the sensitivity of the elevator buttons to reduce pushing accidentally.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought of this when they first saw how the buttons worked:

 

[Calantha]

Hopefully they can tweak the sensitivity of the elevator buttons to reduce pushing accidentally.

I'll be honest, we were having button issues on the Wonder in June too. On a few occasions when the elevator was crowded, people would definitely lean on the panel and trigger them.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

Thank you for the review. From your experiences and other posts I have read, seems like the interior designers never cruise on a Disney ship with a family: lack of usable storage, TV mounted to the wall, divided sleeping space without direct TV access, and smaller drawer fridge.

 

[dad of 3 addicted to DCL]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought of this when they first saw how the buttons worked:

View attachment 682246

I had to laugh at this. Strangely, this is actually a very easy fix. Replace the panel with different buttons and ... done. Not really that hard. Probably 20 minutes/elevator.

 

[paladin732]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought of this when they first saw how the buttons worked:

View attachment 682246

I used to do this as a kid!

 

[namtrig2]

As someone sailing on the Madian Voyage next week, it's a bit concerning that they main shows were not running/working yet. Keep hearing about all the stuff that isn't finished / not working. Really hoping they get this stuff ironed out in next 7 days.

 

[bayri]

The downgrade to two elevators/stairs is interesting -- I wonder why they decided to do this for a slightly larger ship?

 

[gismo1554]

The downgrade to two elevators/stairs is interesting -- I wonder why they decided to do this for a slightly larger ship?

Although its only 2 banks of elevators there are more individual elevators in both banks so I think capacity is actually slightly higher. I'm not sure if that also means the stairs are larger too.

 

[Kwami]

The downgrade to two elevators/stairs is interesting -- I wonder why they decided to do this for a slightly larger ship?

I don't think it's a downgrade. The mid and aft stairs were always close together and the forward stairs always felt far away. The new design separates the ship into just about ever thirds, so nothing is too close or too far. There are more elevators in the new ship, which should help with wait times since capacity guest didn't increase. And, there's more space for other fun stuff.

 

[Karin1984]

I don't think it's a downgrade. The mid and aft stairs were always close together and the forward stairs always felt far away. The new design separates the ship into just about ever thirds, so nothing is too close or too far. There are more elevators in the new ship, which should help with wait times since capacity guest didn't increase. And, there's more space for other fun stuff.

But it can lead to more inconvenience. You are at the top deck on the side without elevators and you want to stay on this side, but a few floors down. You first have to go to mid, then take the elevator down, and then backtrack.

 

[Kariyaffa]

So you can enter the Marvel or Star Wars room from the public hallway and have character photos while secured activities happened in the rest of the club.

So you can enter the Marvel or Star Wars room from the public hallway and have character photos while secured activities happened in the rest of the club.

Does that mean the kids can’t use those spaces when they’re checked into the kids club?

Thanks for this balanced review

 

[DCL_Family]

So you can enter the Marvel or Star Wars room from the public hallway and have character photos while secured activities happened in the rest of the club.

Does that mean the kids can’t use those spaces when they’re checked into the kids club?

Thanks for this balanced review

Correct, but the two times we did it, the character photos were only 30 minutes. After the photo set, the area would go back to secured activity.

 

[Disneyland_emily]

T

So you can enter the Marvel or Star Wars room from the public hallway and have character photos while secured activities happened in the rest of the club.

Does that mean the kids can’t use those spaces when they’re checked into the kids club?

Thanks for this balanced review

I’d imagine they’d have specific activities during those times elsewhere so it draws attention away from it being an option..

 

[Kwami]

But it can lead to more inconvenience. You are at the top deck on the side without elevators and you want to stay on this side, but a few floors down. You first have to go to mid, then take the elevator down, and then backtrack.

I guess I don't follow. There are no midship elevators, so you don't have to go very far from wherever you are. And I don't know what side doesn't have elevators. They aren't really side-specific.