vrneuroh
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2021
- Messages
- 73
Our family just finished up a sailing on the Wish this past weekend and I wanted to share my experience and answer any questions you may have. Sorry in advance for the long review, but I feel it might help some people get a better idea of what we experienced.
Friday:
We arrived at the port around 11:30am and dropped off our luggage and parked in the garage. The price went up a bit and we wait just over $72 for the 3-night sailing. Not having to wait for COVID testing made the process SO much faster getting on the ship. We were processed through security and were on the ship pretty fast (boarding group 5). Walking on the ship is always a great feeling and seeing the atrium for the first time was amazing! The videos I watched online do not come close to seeing it in person. The pumpkin tree was very neat and had lots of little details. We walked around a bit and went up to eat the food on the pool deck. I really enjoyed the burritos and BBQ and my kids ended up having two servings of the pizza. My kids wanted to check out the Hero Zone and it was amazing! They had fun playing air hockey and some of the other games. We also took them down to the Oceaneer Club and we loved how much space there was and all of the different options! It made us adults want to be kids again to do some of the activities. We walked around some more and went down to our room around 2pm. Our luggage slowly arrived throughout the afternoon and we had everything by 5pm. We had staterooms 6626 and 6628, which are the Family Verandahs. However, neither room had the Murphy bed and had a mirror in its place. We went down to Arendelle for dinner and ended up having a table right next to the stage! The performers were great and the food was excellent. After dinner, we went to the pumpkin tree lighting and headed over to Seas the Adventure. Cruise Director Ashely came out and welcomed everyone before the show. We really enjoyed the show and it was just over 30 minutes. The cast had some amazing singers and made us very eager to see the other shows. We then went shopping in Mainsail. They were totally out of all cruise-themed plushes, including the standard Captain Mickey/Minnie and plush cruise ships. They still had some inaugural items, but not much. The Halloween merchandise was also very limited (only shirts for kids and some lanyards). I still ended up spending a few hundred dollars on other items we have not seen on other ships. We headed back to our room and got to finally relax for the evening. One added bonus was seeing the Fantasy pass us as they were heading back to Port Canaveral! The beds were very comfortable, but we did find the shower was a little tight. The showerhead also did not have much water pressure, so you had to stand very close to it.
Saturday:
We ate breakfast in Marceline Market for breakfast and it was no different than any other ship. Finding a seat was a little tricky since we arrived after 9am, but we were able to get a seat without too much work. We did not go into Nassau this sailing since we wanted to enjoy the ship. I rushed through breakfast to get to Disney Cruise Line trivia and the host was very funny. However, the trivia had nothing to do with the cruise line. I asked the host after the trivia was done and he said even though it says DCL trivia, they only do general trivia. I was really upset about this since I have been looking forward to DCL trivia since our last sailing. We then went to see some characters and attended the Royal Gathering. We ate lunch in Marceline since some people in our group did not like the pool deck food as much as my family did. Nothing special and again the same as the other cruise ships. We hit the AquaMouse and waited about 45 minutes. We loved having a covering over most of the queue line and made it so much more tolerable. I also wanted to comment on how quiet the engines are on the pool deck. We were right next to the rear funnel and you could barely hear it running. Now, the ride itself was pretty neat and although the actual water part was not as long, having the screens going up was a neat touch. We ended up really enjoying the ride. We also tried a couple pools and really enjoyed having so many different options. I did not have any issues finding space in them and were not too crowded. After the pools, the kids went back to the Oceaneer Club and my wife and I went to some trivia. Dinner was in 1923 and it felt like a bit of a letdown after the incredible experience in Arendelle the night before. The food was pretty good, but not up to the same level as the night before. 1923 definitely has a more relaxed atmosphere and was probably designed to allow for a calmer dinner experience compared with the other two MDRs. We went up to see the Disney character pirate show before the evening show and it was fun! Very similar to the pirate party on the Dream/Fantasy, but slightly modified. We went down to see The Little Mermaid and it is a very different interpretation on the animated film. The highlights were Part of Your World (Ariel was great), Under the Sea (Sebastian was AMAZING), and my favorite song by far was the jazz-inspired version of Poor Unfortunate Souls. Ursula had a very powerful voice for the role. Unfortunately, the rest of the show felt a little rushed and the ending is quite different than the film. I do not blame the cast at all since they are working with what they are given. After the show, we went to the Pirate Rockin’ Parlay Party. We were able to get right up at the front of the stage, but I have seen some videos and was not sure I would like it. Well, I was wrong! The two main singers were beyond amazing, especially the singer playing Redd!! She owned the role and she was incredible. As an added bonus, I happened to look next to me and the whole theater cast was standing next to me! They were having a blast watching their friends on stage and the stage performers were really feeding off their excitement. After the show was over, I was able to talk with the performer that played Sebastian and I thanked him and the cast for the incredible shows and let him how amazing I thought he was. He was very moved (even teared up) and thanked me for the comments. It was an unexpected moment on the ship and one I will always cherish. We went back to our room and I relaxed on the verandah for an hour or so. Oddly, just before I went back in the room at midnight, I heard the Parlay Party again on the top deck! It was not on the schedule, but they gave a second performance.
Sunday:
I was able to wake up earlier and saw us approaching Castaway and the sun was rising. It is always a relaxing morning since the ship is moving slowly and we were lucky to have a very calm ocean. We ended up eating breakfast in 1923 (only MDR open for breakfast) and the food was on par with Marceline. My food was fairly tasty, but others in my family said it was no better, and maybe even worse than Marceline. It also took a LONG TIME to get our food, so we had a later start on Castaway than we had wanted. The island was as enjoyable as always and I saw lots of fish in the family beach area. The water took a little adjusting to, but felt great after a couple of minutes. My wife and older son went snorkeling and I stayed behind to do some underwater filming to catch some of the fish and spend time with my younger son. Eating at Cookies Too wasn’t the best. My food was fine (ribs were REALLY good), but others felt the cold salads weren’t as good and the cookies were baked a little too long. After some shopping, we headed back to the ship to get cleaned up before going down to see the Sanderson Sisters. Daisy (aka Sarah Sanderson) cracked me up and kept giving me kisses since she is always after the guys! I was cracking up the whole time and it reminds me once again why we sail with Disney. Dinner was in Marvel and the food was once again ok, but still a letdown after Arendelle for me. The show ended up being much better than what I have seen in videos and the screens showed lots of different Marvel characters and scenes between the show elements. During dessert, we did receive the spider dessert for Halloween and some extra brownies. After dinner, they had trick-or-treating on the main pool deck and had several stations to stop at. Some lines were very long, but we were able to find shorter lines. They also had the Mousequerade party during this time. I really enjoyed having the Halloween activities on a separate night so pirate night did not feel so rushed. It did give us some less time to check out our pictures, but we were fine with the change. The last evening show was Aladdin and lots of funny moments! There were times where I felt they had to rush the story along, but it was still very good. I really love how the Wish had projections to fill the theater and made the experience more immersive. We returned to our room to get our suitcases outside by 10:30 and went to bed earlier since breakfast was scheduled for 6:55am.
Monday:
Disembarkation day is always a very sad moment for us, but we get some last moments on the ship. I saw our room hostess and thanked her for everything and she said how appreciative she was for my kindness during the cruise. We returned to Marvel (breakfast will be in the MDR where you ate the night before). One big change is Marceline Market IS NOT open for breakfast. Cabanas was open with limited offerings on the Dream/Fantasy in the past, but this was not an option on our sailing. We enjoy the MDR for breakfast on the last day, so not a big issue for us. One nice touch in Marvel was what they showed on the screens. They had amazing artist rendering of various Marvel scenes and characters and my kids loved seeing everything. I had the chance to speak with our Head Server and she shared some behind-the-scenes details about her time on the ship while it was being finished in Germany. I really enjoy hearing about all of the experiences the crew has, but it was really great to hear about the process to finish the spaces. Leaving the ship was easy and we were off by 8:00am.
Final Thoughts:
We were extremely nervous to sail on the Wish based on reviews and some videos we have seen. Compared to when she first sailed, LOTS of initial issues have been addressed and corrected. There have been lots of comments about the elevators and the buttons can be tricky and yes they are a bit tight, but we were able to find ways to deal with the change. Did we let it impact our cruise, of course not! We had issues with elevators in the Dream/Fantasy during peak times, so we knew it would be the same. The crew was amazing as always and we really loved talking with various crew members. I go out of my way to say hi and I did not run into a single crew member not willing to say something back to me. I also realize not many people speak with them based on some interactions I had. With the Wish being a new ship, there are lots of stories out there about getting to experience going from an unfinished ship to the beautiful finished product. If you are as interested as I am in behind-the-scenes stories, talk with the crew and it is amazing what you may find out. I always think about how much work they do day in and day out and may not always get to have real conversations with people outside of their fellow crew members. I can honestly feel how happy some of the crew members were to have a conversation and it felt very genuine.
On the comment card, I noticed they separated the MDR dining service from the quality of the food. I recall all dining was put into a single area and I felt bad to rate the food quality lower than the service (I have been told the food quality impacts the servers, but this might be a positive change to have it in different sections). I do not blame the servers at all for food quality, especially in Marceline Market or the pool deck when they have 0% involvement in those areas. Our MDR server was a bit quiet on the first night, but then I started to notice the little things he would do for us without even realizing it was happening. One thing I found to be very special was at our final breakfast. My older son was cutting his waffle and our server said he would help him and ended up cutting his waffle. Is this something major? No, but he did not have to do that. It’s all the little things that you may not notice that make DCL a very special place. This is why I marked down excellent for the wait staff, but marked the food much lower. DCL will not make any changes if the passengers are not honest. I definitely notice things have changed since the initial sailings, which I feel are based on passenger feedback. We also noticed our servers and room hostess did not push for the excellent ratings. They both said they hoped their services have been excellent and thanks us. We know how important the ratings are, but for the first time out of any of our prior sailings, they did not push us for high marks.
My last parting comment – the cruise will be what you make it to be. We had an incredible sailing (actually, beyond incredible). We didn’t allow the negative comments ruin our trip. The ship is beautiful and we loved all of the little details all around. Will there be some outliers on the ship and there are legitimate issues? Sure, but those are more than likely far and few between. If you are expecting a perfect cruise without any issues with 5-star quality food at every meal, no large cruise ship can offer this. DCL offers a high-level product and we know we are paying the high premium to enjoy the magic moments. Did we love every meal? No. Did I tear up seeing my kids have a blast, or while watching in the amazing character interactions and theater performances on the ship? More times than I can count. This is why we did not hesitate purchasing a placeholder and we are going to hopefully sail in Feb/Mar again. If you allow yourself to go with the flow and find your own magic, you will have an amazing experience.
Friday:
We arrived at the port around 11:30am and dropped off our luggage and parked in the garage. The price went up a bit and we wait just over $72 for the 3-night sailing. Not having to wait for COVID testing made the process SO much faster getting on the ship. We were processed through security and were on the ship pretty fast (boarding group 5). Walking on the ship is always a great feeling and seeing the atrium for the first time was amazing! The videos I watched online do not come close to seeing it in person. The pumpkin tree was very neat and had lots of little details. We walked around a bit and went up to eat the food on the pool deck. I really enjoyed the burritos and BBQ and my kids ended up having two servings of the pizza. My kids wanted to check out the Hero Zone and it was amazing! They had fun playing air hockey and some of the other games. We also took them down to the Oceaneer Club and we loved how much space there was and all of the different options! It made us adults want to be kids again to do some of the activities. We walked around some more and went down to our room around 2pm. Our luggage slowly arrived throughout the afternoon and we had everything by 5pm. We had staterooms 6626 and 6628, which are the Family Verandahs. However, neither room had the Murphy bed and had a mirror in its place. We went down to Arendelle for dinner and ended up having a table right next to the stage! The performers were great and the food was excellent. After dinner, we went to the pumpkin tree lighting and headed over to Seas the Adventure. Cruise Director Ashely came out and welcomed everyone before the show. We really enjoyed the show and it was just over 30 minutes. The cast had some amazing singers and made us very eager to see the other shows. We then went shopping in Mainsail. They were totally out of all cruise-themed plushes, including the standard Captain Mickey/Minnie and plush cruise ships. They still had some inaugural items, but not much. The Halloween merchandise was also very limited (only shirts for kids and some lanyards). I still ended up spending a few hundred dollars on other items we have not seen on other ships. We headed back to our room and got to finally relax for the evening. One added bonus was seeing the Fantasy pass us as they were heading back to Port Canaveral! The beds were very comfortable, but we did find the shower was a little tight. The showerhead also did not have much water pressure, so you had to stand very close to it.
Saturday:
We ate breakfast in Marceline Market for breakfast and it was no different than any other ship. Finding a seat was a little tricky since we arrived after 9am, but we were able to get a seat without too much work. We did not go into Nassau this sailing since we wanted to enjoy the ship. I rushed through breakfast to get to Disney Cruise Line trivia and the host was very funny. However, the trivia had nothing to do with the cruise line. I asked the host after the trivia was done and he said even though it says DCL trivia, they only do general trivia. I was really upset about this since I have been looking forward to DCL trivia since our last sailing. We then went to see some characters and attended the Royal Gathering. We ate lunch in Marceline since some people in our group did not like the pool deck food as much as my family did. Nothing special and again the same as the other cruise ships. We hit the AquaMouse and waited about 45 minutes. We loved having a covering over most of the queue line and made it so much more tolerable. I also wanted to comment on how quiet the engines are on the pool deck. We were right next to the rear funnel and you could barely hear it running. Now, the ride itself was pretty neat and although the actual water part was not as long, having the screens going up was a neat touch. We ended up really enjoying the ride. We also tried a couple pools and really enjoyed having so many different options. I did not have any issues finding space in them and were not too crowded. After the pools, the kids went back to the Oceaneer Club and my wife and I went to some trivia. Dinner was in 1923 and it felt like a bit of a letdown after the incredible experience in Arendelle the night before. The food was pretty good, but not up to the same level as the night before. 1923 definitely has a more relaxed atmosphere and was probably designed to allow for a calmer dinner experience compared with the other two MDRs. We went up to see the Disney character pirate show before the evening show and it was fun! Very similar to the pirate party on the Dream/Fantasy, but slightly modified. We went down to see The Little Mermaid and it is a very different interpretation on the animated film. The highlights were Part of Your World (Ariel was great), Under the Sea (Sebastian was AMAZING), and my favorite song by far was the jazz-inspired version of Poor Unfortunate Souls. Ursula had a very powerful voice for the role. Unfortunately, the rest of the show felt a little rushed and the ending is quite different than the film. I do not blame the cast at all since they are working with what they are given. After the show, we went to the Pirate Rockin’ Parlay Party. We were able to get right up at the front of the stage, but I have seen some videos and was not sure I would like it. Well, I was wrong! The two main singers were beyond amazing, especially the singer playing Redd!! She owned the role and she was incredible. As an added bonus, I happened to look next to me and the whole theater cast was standing next to me! They were having a blast watching their friends on stage and the stage performers were really feeding off their excitement. After the show was over, I was able to talk with the performer that played Sebastian and I thanked him and the cast for the incredible shows and let him how amazing I thought he was. He was very moved (even teared up) and thanked me for the comments. It was an unexpected moment on the ship and one I will always cherish. We went back to our room and I relaxed on the verandah for an hour or so. Oddly, just before I went back in the room at midnight, I heard the Parlay Party again on the top deck! It was not on the schedule, but they gave a second performance.
Sunday:
I was able to wake up earlier and saw us approaching Castaway and the sun was rising. It is always a relaxing morning since the ship is moving slowly and we were lucky to have a very calm ocean. We ended up eating breakfast in 1923 (only MDR open for breakfast) and the food was on par with Marceline. My food was fairly tasty, but others in my family said it was no better, and maybe even worse than Marceline. It also took a LONG TIME to get our food, so we had a later start on Castaway than we had wanted. The island was as enjoyable as always and I saw lots of fish in the family beach area. The water took a little adjusting to, but felt great after a couple of minutes. My wife and older son went snorkeling and I stayed behind to do some underwater filming to catch some of the fish and spend time with my younger son. Eating at Cookies Too wasn’t the best. My food was fine (ribs were REALLY good), but others felt the cold salads weren’t as good and the cookies were baked a little too long. After some shopping, we headed back to the ship to get cleaned up before going down to see the Sanderson Sisters. Daisy (aka Sarah Sanderson) cracked me up and kept giving me kisses since she is always after the guys! I was cracking up the whole time and it reminds me once again why we sail with Disney. Dinner was in Marvel and the food was once again ok, but still a letdown after Arendelle for me. The show ended up being much better than what I have seen in videos and the screens showed lots of different Marvel characters and scenes between the show elements. During dessert, we did receive the spider dessert for Halloween and some extra brownies. After dinner, they had trick-or-treating on the main pool deck and had several stations to stop at. Some lines were very long, but we were able to find shorter lines. They also had the Mousequerade party during this time. I really enjoyed having the Halloween activities on a separate night so pirate night did not feel so rushed. It did give us some less time to check out our pictures, but we were fine with the change. The last evening show was Aladdin and lots of funny moments! There were times where I felt they had to rush the story along, but it was still very good. I really love how the Wish had projections to fill the theater and made the experience more immersive. We returned to our room to get our suitcases outside by 10:30 and went to bed earlier since breakfast was scheduled for 6:55am.
Monday:
Disembarkation day is always a very sad moment for us, but we get some last moments on the ship. I saw our room hostess and thanked her for everything and she said how appreciative she was for my kindness during the cruise. We returned to Marvel (breakfast will be in the MDR where you ate the night before). One big change is Marceline Market IS NOT open for breakfast. Cabanas was open with limited offerings on the Dream/Fantasy in the past, but this was not an option on our sailing. We enjoy the MDR for breakfast on the last day, so not a big issue for us. One nice touch in Marvel was what they showed on the screens. They had amazing artist rendering of various Marvel scenes and characters and my kids loved seeing everything. I had the chance to speak with our Head Server and she shared some behind-the-scenes details about her time on the ship while it was being finished in Germany. I really enjoy hearing about all of the experiences the crew has, but it was really great to hear about the process to finish the spaces. Leaving the ship was easy and we were off by 8:00am.
Final Thoughts:
We were extremely nervous to sail on the Wish based on reviews and some videos we have seen. Compared to when she first sailed, LOTS of initial issues have been addressed and corrected. There have been lots of comments about the elevators and the buttons can be tricky and yes they are a bit tight, but we were able to find ways to deal with the change. Did we let it impact our cruise, of course not! We had issues with elevators in the Dream/Fantasy during peak times, so we knew it would be the same. The crew was amazing as always and we really loved talking with various crew members. I go out of my way to say hi and I did not run into a single crew member not willing to say something back to me. I also realize not many people speak with them based on some interactions I had. With the Wish being a new ship, there are lots of stories out there about getting to experience going from an unfinished ship to the beautiful finished product. If you are as interested as I am in behind-the-scenes stories, talk with the crew and it is amazing what you may find out. I always think about how much work they do day in and day out and may not always get to have real conversations with people outside of their fellow crew members. I can honestly feel how happy some of the crew members were to have a conversation and it felt very genuine.
On the comment card, I noticed they separated the MDR dining service from the quality of the food. I recall all dining was put into a single area and I felt bad to rate the food quality lower than the service (I have been told the food quality impacts the servers, but this might be a positive change to have it in different sections). I do not blame the servers at all for food quality, especially in Marceline Market or the pool deck when they have 0% involvement in those areas. Our MDR server was a bit quiet on the first night, but then I started to notice the little things he would do for us without even realizing it was happening. One thing I found to be very special was at our final breakfast. My older son was cutting his waffle and our server said he would help him and ended up cutting his waffle. Is this something major? No, but he did not have to do that. It’s all the little things that you may not notice that make DCL a very special place. This is why I marked down excellent for the wait staff, but marked the food much lower. DCL will not make any changes if the passengers are not honest. I definitely notice things have changed since the initial sailings, which I feel are based on passenger feedback. We also noticed our servers and room hostess did not push for the excellent ratings. They both said they hoped their services have been excellent and thanks us. We know how important the ratings are, but for the first time out of any of our prior sailings, they did not push us for high marks.
My last parting comment – the cruise will be what you make it to be. We had an incredible sailing (actually, beyond incredible). We didn’t allow the negative comments ruin our trip. The ship is beautiful and we loved all of the little details all around. Will there be some outliers on the ship and there are legitimate issues? Sure, but those are more than likely far and few between. If you are expecting a perfect cruise without any issues with 5-star quality food at every meal, no large cruise ship can offer this. DCL offers a high-level product and we know we are paying the high premium to enjoy the magic moments. Did we love every meal? No. Did I tear up seeing my kids have a blast, or while watching in the amazing character interactions and theater performances on the ship? More times than I can count. This is why we did not hesitate purchasing a placeholder and we are going to hopefully sail in Feb/Mar again. If you allow yourself to go with the flow and find your own magic, you will have an amazing experience.
Thank you both!!
