Trip log, day five. At Sea.
5-Night Bahamian Cruise from Port Canaveral, Florida (Maiden Voyage)
July 18, 2022
The final full day of the Maiden Voyage began with a light breakfast in Marceline Market. So far, the breakfast tarts have been a sleeper hit. Paired with a nice bowl of fruit, it was a perfect way to start the day.
Today isn’t all that exciting, as it was finally a day to relax and enjoy the Disney Wish. However, there were a couple scheduled events for the day. While on the way to the first activity on the schedule, Goofy was spotted out on the upper deck taking pictures with guests and enjoying the lovely weather before the heat kicked in for the day.
The first event is one of the most enjoyable events held across the fleet and one that prior to the launch of the Disney Wish would pack the ship’s atriums – I think you already know what it is, but for those that don’t, it is Jack-Jack’s Diaper Dash, where the littlest cruisers race each other in a dash to the finish line.
On the Disney Wish, Jack-Jack’s Diaper Dash is held in Hero Zone on deck 12, aft. Knowing the location for the event is important as I suspect part of the mass appeal of the diaper dash was the prime location in the atrium of the other ships. Now, the event is off in an arena of sorts, so chances of haphazardly stumbling upon the event while you are walking around on a sea day is slim.
It doesn’t matter if you are sailing on the Disney Wish or one of the other ships, mark Jack-Jack’s Diaper Dash a favorite in the Navigator App. It is worth checking out at least once, but I suspect it will become a regular activity for you on future sailings.
We have an running joke in our family that we somehow never seem to miss a particular scene in the Lion King… It has gotten to the point that we should make this the free space on our cruise bingo card. A little backstory, there was a sea day where we were just sitting by the pool watching movies on Funnel Vision and for some reason, playback of the Lion King was halted about 2 or 3 times in a row, each time resetting to just before we say goodbye to Mufasa.
I was really hoping the sea day would include a number of the horns following the noon announcements. However, only ‘When You Wish Upon a Star, Makes No Difference Who You Are’ was the only horn that sounded. The Mickey Horn sounds best when you are directly in front of them in the Chip n’ Dale pool area; from elsewhere they are not as verbose. In some spots, they sound off key. However, I am beginning to believe this is all due to the location of the horns and the way the sound waves interact with the ship’s superstructure.
See, I wasn’t joking when I said to day was going to be mostly relaxing with not much going on. After lunch at Donald’s Cantina (which is now the go-to place onboard for a quick service lunch), it was time to get ready for the second planned event of the day, Disney The Little Mermaid stage show. The plan was to try and sit in the cool seats in the balcony on deck 4, but those were blocked off, so we found some decent seats in the middle section of the balcony. I would recommend seeing Disney The Little Mermaid for the first time from the main seating area on deck 3, as there were a few projections on the walls and even ceiling that were difficult to see and appreciate.
The show is not the typical rehashing of the 1989 animated classic such was the case with show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Disney The Little Mermaid is inspired by the classic animated film and celebrates the music, characters, and story which is retold during the performance by a band of storytellers along with some projection mapping magic that transforms the theater into under the sea locations such as Ariel’s grotto. While I appreciate the storytelling performance, my interest throughout the performance ebbed and flowed. I really enjoyed the higher energy musical numbers. If I could only pick one show on the Disney Wish, I’d go see Seas the Adventure, and since I am being honest here, the Princess and the Frog scene needs to turn into a full on production for one of the next ships.
I realize it is extra work for the cast, and the behind scenes crew of The Walt Disney Theatre, but I cannot tell you how much we appreciate the matinee showings of the shows. This is especially nice on the final night of the cruise when you inevitably need to start packing up those suitcases.
Following the show I took a tour of our friend’s Little Mermaid rooms which are Oceanview concierge level rooms that have a bridge view. Originally, on paper, I didn’t think I’d like this room, but I immediately fell in love with it as soon as the door opened and I saw the incredible view of the ocean in front of us. Disney would be justified for charging the current rack rate for the Tower Suite if the Tower Suite had a view like this.
Not only are the stateroom hallways uniquely themed based on where they are located on the ship, they feature lovely light fixtures which cast fun projections on the walls. For example, take a look at this lovely Tangled themed light fixture.
Before heading to dinner, it was time to pack up a bit, and prepare the gratuity envelopes. If you are someone that has traditionally used the provided stationary from the stateroom desk, I am now recommending that you bring your own cards and envelopes as those were absent from the stateroom desk. The post cards that have been stateroom staples were also absent, but the pen was there to go with the room service breakfast menu.
The final dinner was a special Maiden Voyage dinner menu after 3 nights of the standard rotational, and Pirate menus.
The Disney Wish Maiden Voyage menu was a selection of guest favorites from across the fleet.
Thanks to the matinee showing of Little Mermaid, there was free time in the evening to enjoy the final night onboard. The Rose turns out to be a great spot to get away from the crowd for a drink as it is out of the way with most grabbing a beverage before going into PALO Steakhouse or Enchanté. As much as I want to love The Bayou, it is loud and busy. I’ve coined it the atrium of the Disney Wish as this seems to be the area where the guests congregate. It is worth taking a minute to explain the overall makeup of the guest population on the Maiden Voyage – there were about 2800 guests, somewhere in the neighborhood of 220 guest were 18 and under, with about 110 of those aged 14 and under. That left a significant percentage of adult passengers, which shifted the demand to the lounges and other non-youth specific areas of the ship. It will be interesting to experience the Wish again with a more typically percentage of guests 18 and under which will shift the venue usage closer to a usage model used by Imagineering when designing the ship.
Later, I met up with some friends near the deck 5 staircase in the Grand Hall, which turned out to be the perfect spot for impromptu character meet and greets.
The Disney Wish features the Fairytale Players, in this case Lady Lilly and Lord Leopold, who appear at various times in the Grand Hall. Hands down, the Fairytale Players are such an amazing aspect of the Disney Wish. Not only do they perform scripted material such as the embarkation skit, but they have the freedom to ad lib. One day, they asked for a one syllable man’s name and turned it into a song. which reminded me of Who’s Line is it Anyway. It is amazing and refreshing that in this day of IP everything, Disney took the risk and created a unique set of characters to bring the castle at sea to life.
Tonight’s movie on Funnel Vision was Cruella, not really an easy film to sit down and start watching in the middle.
Oh hey, look at that — a message overlooked in the Navigator ap!!. Platinum Castaway Club members (which was essentially the entire ship) were still offered a choice of truffle chocolates, a bottle of prosecco, or fruit bowl/nature’s delight. Full disclosure, friends did say they called room service and requested the gift earlier in the cruise, but I figured they just called asked. My point here is that there will likely not be a paper in your stateroom informing you about this perk and it may be worth checking the chat in the Navigator App from time to time in the event you are not using your phone that much or you simply miss a notification.
Trip log, day six. Debarkation morning in Port Canaveral.
5-Night Bahamian Cruise from Port Canaveral, Florida (Maiden Voyage)
July 19, 2022
Back in Florida, and time to head home. With survey in hand it was time to head down to the Grand Hall for express walk-off which started on this morning around 7-7:15 AM.
Express walk-off is great if you want or need to get going in the morning. The only thing to consider is that you will need to take all of your luggage with you and not set it outside your stateroom. Even with a line of passengers running down the hallway to The Walt Disney Theatre, the line moved quickly and by 7:30 AM the car was packed up and I was on the way home.
I still have more to share from my 8-nights onboard the Disney Wish. Let me know if you have any questions or if there is something missing in my coverage to date.
Looking for a Disney Wish cruise to book? We have two upcoming DCL Blog Group Cruise sailings on the Disney Wish, this November for the ship’s first Very MerryTime cruise, and next October for a Halloween on the High Seas voyage.
Hi – just a quick comment, the DCL stationery and DCL post cards were back in the desk drawers starting with the DVC charter cruise.
Good to hear!
Like to know about the internet and photos of the new movie theatres.
Thank you for your trip reports. I had stationary in our desk drawer but no post cards. My only real issue with this cruise was the navigator. My phone died at EPCOT on the day before we sailed and my mom only has a flip phone. Even though we have been able to get crew navigators before(and even since COVID) I had to fight every day and only got them twice. Sailing without a smart phone made activities almost impossible. They need to fix that. There are still people without smart phones. I missed the opportunity for the platinum gift. I just figured with everything else we were getting it wasnt available.
Happy to hear the stationary is not gone. I’d be willing to pay for a crew navigator at a print on demand kiosk. They provide all the information I need to plan my day. The format is simple and to the point.
I said that too. Give me the option to buy it. I’ll even pick it up at guest services each morning or like you say go to a kiosk and print it out. They just need to do something for those without smart phones.
My daughter is about the same age as yours and I was wondering if she went on this cruise with you. If so, did she go to Vibe and what were her thoughts on it? We are cruising on the Wish in September and we haven’t heard much about Vibe except the pictures and video you showed earlier.
I was on this cruise by myself. You can see some of the activities offered by checking out the screen captures from the Navigator app.
Scott, please do not even give them the idea of our paying for a paper navigator. The last thing DCL needs is to start nickel and diming its passengers. We all pay a premium price to sail on DCL; they should treat us accordingly or we will start jumping ship to other cruise lines.
Oh, I so agree with you! We only occasionally sail on Disney – waaaay too expensive! We primarily sail on Princess for the ease of going/coming in/out of San Francisco. I’m so tired of Disney’s money-hungry attitude. We don’t even go to the Parks anymore.
I’m a little shocked at how few kids were on board. I’m not sure how much of that is because of the fact it was the maiden voyage and sold out quickly vs. how much is related to Disney still forcing children to be vaccinated for COVID. It will be interesting to see if a more “normal” distribution develops in subsequent cruises or if this is the “new normal” distribution for as long as Disney continues to insist on children being vaccinated. I know we won’t be cruising again for as long as COVID vaccines are required for kids.
I really hope that this bizarre anti-science schtick that has become all too prevalent ends some day.
Me too, it will be nice when the science actually prevails over the politics and people aren’t forced to inject their children with an ineffective experimental vaccine for a disease that isn’t a threat to themselves or their children jist to take a cruise.
I thought I read somewhere that the Wish was not honoring the beer mug deal from the other ships (buy the resuable mug and pay the 16 oz price for 20 oz refills, and then at the end of the cruise, either take the mug home with you or turn it in for a voucher to bring on your next cruise.) Do you know if they have this program on the Wish, and if you can bring vouchers from other ships and redeem them?
I saw a few guests on the upper decks with the plastic DCL beer mugs. However, I did not specifically inquire other than buying the Wish mug.
A guest at Keg & Compass at the table next to us had a beer mug card from another ship and they would not honor it on the Wish. They said it was because the mugs on the Wish are different (larger and say Wish on them).
Scott – do you know if fruit is available at Festival of Foods or is it only at Marciline Market? Just trying to find out if we need to juggle when we want fruit but don’t want to order it thru room service. Thanks.
Pete, fruit was only available in Marciline Market. There’s no equivalent to Daisy’s or Filmore’s at Festival of Foods, so for your fruits, salads, and other healthier options, Marciline is your only grab and go option