The Disney Wish Cruise: A Recap
Thank you to Disney for hosting me on this cruise
Last week was such a “pinch me” moment in my life and career! I had the opportunity to cruise on the newest Disney Cruise Line ship, the Wish. Disney hosted myself, other content creators as well as a lot of media, journalists and travel agents during their Christening cruise!
I have SO much to share with you from start to finish-this is going to be a long one, but I promise it will be filled with a ton of information that will be helpful for you when booking your Disney cruise!
Food
The food is one of my favorite things about the cruise. The restaurants weren’t just places to eat, they were experiences! From start to finish the restaurants immersed you into the experience!
There were two dining seatings at 5:45 and 8:15. We had the 5:45 seating every night. The dining was rotational, which meant your servers moved with you! It was so nice to have the same two servers all week-we loved getting to know them!
Our first night we ate at 1923. The name pays homage to the year Walt opened The Walt Disney Company. It celebrates all things Walt and Roy. Throughout the whole restaurant there are around 1,000 pieces of memorabilia Out of the places we dined, I would say this was the fanciest.
Charlotte got the sirloin steak, I opted for a vegetarian dish (soft tacos with coconut oil quinoa, cashew cream and feta), and Ryan ordered the filet! Our appetizers were also out of this world-Ryan always gravitates towards duck, so the duck confit was perfect for him, and I had the burrata mozzarella and prosciutto!
There is a new churro dessert offered at 1923 as well: Churros Calientes. They are sugar spice churros with dulce de leche dipping sauce. The ice cream sundae was so good, too!
The second restaurant in our rotation was one I was super intrigud by. I have never seen any of the Marvel movies, so I was anxious to experience this meal at Worlds of Marvel to see what it was all about!
It was so awesome! Throughout your dining experience, Ant-Man and the Wasp chat with you “live” on screens, asking for your help using the Quantum Cores (never knew that was a thing until this lol) at your table! They may or may not show up in person at the end!
As for the food, I enjoyed it a lot, but I think 1923 was more my jam. I had the Bao Buns as an appetizer, which I had never had before. I also opted for the prime rib with truffle butter! Ryan had a cream based pasta with scallops, and Charlotte for the chicken schnitzel, which she said was her favorite meal of the week! Dessert did not disappoint with a donut sundae, cheesecake and the most chocolatey chocolate cake for Ella!
The last experience in our dining rotation was Arendelle-the most fun restaurant for all of the Frozen fanatics (and non fanatics…it’s that good). From the moment you walk in, you are whisked away to Arendelle to celebrate the engagement of Anna and Kristoff! From the food to the live theater you get to be apart of, it’s truly magical. I don’t think I stopped smiling or singing along the whole time!
From roasted chicken breast, to the rib eye, the food provided a Nordic vibe-really tasty!
Besides the show, our favorite thing was the dessert. The adult menu had great options, but we all ended up ordering the S’mores dessert from the kids menu-it was SO GOOD. Probably my favorite dessert from the whole week!
These three restaurants weren’t the only food options( I mean…it’s a cruise!). We ate at Marceline Market for breakfast and lunch most days. They had so many different stations to choose from-pastries, yogurt parfaits, eggs made to order, fried rice, meat to accompany your eggs, seafood, and all of the coffee you could image. Can’t forget about the views either!
On the main deck was Mickey’s Festival of Foods-literally all you can eat and all you could want! Mexican, pizza, burgers, hot dogs, and ICE CREAM! Ella had her share of French fries here….she loved them, and loved even more that she could get seconds and even thirds if she wanted!
shopping
The shopping on the Wish is legit! Of course there is the usual Disney items you can grab, but there are also a lot of really cool Disney Wish Inaugural merchandise as well, from Loungefly backpacks, to sweatshirts, to ears!
There are a few higher end stores as well that have Pandora, Coach, Vineyard Vines and even Lily Pulitzer!
I may have even convinced Ryan to treat my to a new handbag in the luxury store!
What’s convenient is that you can charge everything to your room. There are even options you can create for your account-for example, we asked Ella and Charlotte to run to Mickey’s Mainsail to grab some hairspray. While there she texted to see if she could get a pair of ears, to which I said yes. The cashier cast member was skeptical at first being that she was so young and charging to her room, but once they checked our account, they saw that we had given Ella permission to make purchases!
castaway cay
Prior to this, we have never been on a Disney cruise before, so I was anxious to check out their private island, Castaway Cay. I had heard nothing but amazing things about it, and it was our only stop on the cruise so we were all very excited!
There is no chance to be bored when on Castaway Cay, that’s for sure! There is so much to do, but if you prefer to just sit/lay and relax, you can do that, too!
Ryan and Charlotte opted to snorkel (an additional cost) while Ella and I explored! We enjoyed smoothies at Olaf’s Summertime Freeze (the cost is extra)! We also ate lunch while on the island-all included in the cruise!
There were a few souvenir shops on the island, too! I think my favorite thing on the island though was the slide, Pelican’s Plunge! We all had so much fun doing it (even if I was slow on the slide lol)
If you find you have more time to kill, there are bike rentals to cruise the island, a game pavilion (that is supervised so kids can hang out parent free), and even bars to enjoy a drink or two.
There is also a kids club, Scuttle’s Cove where you can drop off your little ones and head to the adult only beach for some extra nice relaxation!
Stay
While on the ship, we had the luck of staying in a Family Oceanview Stateroom with a verandah! With four of us, we felt like we had plenty of room! These rooms sleep four.
There is one king sized bed (elevated for under the bed storage), a convertible sofa and a bunk that pulls down from the ceiling! Some of the family rooms (Deluxe) also have a Murphy bed!
The toilet is separate from the shower (love that) with its own sink, and the shower has ample room, too!
Here is all of the stateroom options on the Wish.
Things for kids
I cannot say enough good things about all there is to do for kids on the Wish. With Ella being 14, and Charlotte 9 (even if Cecelia, who is 2 had been with us) there was SO much for both of them to do that was age appropriate. Ella is more of a homebody in general, so while she did really like the things for teens, she stuck with us a lot of the time.
Charlotte on the other hand would have spent literally all of her time at the Oceaneer Club had we let her-lol!
For ages 3-12 there is the Oceaneer Club with themed rooms for the Star Wars fanatics where you feed creatures, an Imagineering lab where you can design and build your own roller coaster (Charlotte did three!) and then virtually ride them, and even Rapunzels artist studio!
If you’re traveling with an 11-14 year old, the Edge is for them! For teens 14-17, the Vibe is where they can hang! There’s video games to be played, movies to be watched, a cool coffee and drink bar, and there is even an indoor basketball court where, from time to time there is an inflatable obstacle course!
In true Disney fashion, they thought of everything! There is even a little nursery for little ones 6 months of age to 3 years. It is so adorable and filled with highly trained cast members to care for your little one while you enjoy some adult time!
favorites
I have to say, it’s really hard to choose just a few things that I loved about being on the Wish. I was worried going into it initially that I wouldn’t feel the Disney magic being that we weren’t going to be at the park. That couldn’t have been the furthest from the truth!
From the cast members making you feel like you are the only family on the ship, to the characters walking around, to the shopping and food you can truly feel that magic!
Finding the hidden Mickey’s throughout the ship, getting to know cast members during the week, and just experiencing all of the insanely minute details made it so special.
Being someone who has a love for theater, the shows and performances were one of my favorites. They were all Broadway level shows from the costumes, the performers, the scenery and effects. Loved every minute of them!
I hope you get to experience the Wish someday-it’s absolutely amazing! If you have any other questions about the cruise, the ship or experiences, let me know!!