First time Disney Cruiser - Magic or Wish?

[harbourxie]

My family of 4 are thinking of taking our first Disney cruise! Right now, we are trying to choose between 6/15-6/19 Magic vs 6/16-6/19 Wish.
We have been to other cruise lines (Princess, Celebrity and Royal) but have not been on DCL. The original plan was Wish. But after reading many reviews, I start to worry about if we will have a good time on Wish.
My kids are 13 and 8. If this is our first and only Disney Cruise, which ship should we choose? Thanks a lot,

 

[clb79]

My wife and I just got back from the 3 day sailing on the Wish. This was our first DCL cruise (only ever cruise was 20 years ago on Carnival). We loved it. My take is it really seems like people have an attachment to their first ship/experience. When you don’t have another ship to compare it to, I don’t think you can go wrong. Our only complaint was it was too short. By the time we knew our way around the ship it was over (and we even ended up with a day at sea because the weather prevented docking in Nassau). So I think I may lean towards extra days over the specific ship. That being said if your kids are fans of the properties the Wish (Marvel, Frozen, Star Wars) that would be a reason to pick the Wish even if you can only do the 3 day. I would sail on the Wish again in heart beat and definitely want to take my kids to experience it even if a 3 day itinerary is what it has to be (especially since we know the ship now). It will be interesting once we do sail on one of the other ships if we will still be attached to the Wish as our first or if we feel the same way as people when making a comparison.

 

[Flying Fish]

Do you mean only as in you have already decided to never do another Disney cruise? If you already know you like cruising which it seems you do, I would almost always try to get on the longer cruise if you can make it work. I will agree three days is too short to get to know and enjoy the Wish fully. I will also say that the Wish is by far my least favorite Disney ship, but I still totally enjoyed my cruise on her. You will love whichever one you do. Truth is, Wish might be better for the kids. The kids clubs are better and have the cool slide to enter.

It's not that people have an attachment necessarily to their first ship, but there are a lot of missteps on the Wish. It is not a bad ship at all and I would argue with anyone who says that. There are just things that make zero sense and really take away from the overall experience, but they are also things you really only notice if you have experience on the other ships. There is no one who can honestly say the Wish is a bad ship or say someone would have a bad time.

My recommendation is do whichever fits best into your budget and schedule. If you want to have a serious, deeper talk about the ships and what are the real missteps let me know. To think you would not enjoy the Wish is silly and anyone who says that is just wrong. I'm not hurrying back, but that is for two primary reasons that I won't go into and neither of which will affect your cruise. Go, have fun, enjoy your family, and don't worry about anything people on here have said.

 

[Mom2Anna&Elsa]

We had a similar decision to make between the 4 night Wish & 5 night Dream over our spring break in 2024. Never cruised DCL.

Ultimately, the Dream won out for two reasons:
1) for only a few hundred more total, we got an extra night for our cruise/ extra sea day on the Dream!
2) I would rather go to Grand Cayman than Nassau

I felt like we were mostly paying a premium for the brand new sparkly ship had we gone with the Wish.

My hope is that we have such a great time on our cruise that we will book another one and try the Wish out in the future. But I also know Disney cruises are very expensive and it was about the most bang for our buck. A second sea day to enjoy the ship was really important.

 

[FastPasser.]

I've done all the original DCL ships several times. I recently did the Wish and there is nothing about it that is a deal breaker other than it's four day cruises.

 

[DCLCruiseFan09]

My family of 4 are thinking of taking our first Disney cruise! Right now, we are trying to choose between 6/15-6/19 Magic vs 6/16-6/19 Wish.
We have been to other cruise lines (Princess, Celebrity and Royal) but have not been on DCL. The original plan was Wish. But after reading many reviews, I start to worry about if we will have a good time on Wish.
My kids are 13 and 8. If this is our first and only Disney Cruise, which ship should we choose? Thanks a lot,

As first time cruisers, I would encourage you to do the Magic. We sailed on the Wish 11/28 for the 4 night and wished it was longer. 3 nights on the ship would give you just enough time to stop getting lost before you have to get off the ship.

I had a friend who traveled with us who was on his first ever Disney Cruise and he said that 4 nights seemed too short. they wished (pun intended) that they had more time.

At 4 nights, the Magic is a perfect size. It will give you enough time to "dip your toe" in cruising and see if you like it. You won't be paying the 3 night cruise premium price for the Wish either, the highest cost per night sailing that DCL does.

 

[tntstults]

Go on the longer cruise!