Frist time on the Wish and this completes our Full House. We enjoyed the 3-night cruise especially since we did not stop at Nassau and instead got a sea day to explore the ship. Disney attempted to be innovative with the new ship and there are several things that worked and of course a couple of things that in the long run may need to be revisited.
THE GOOD:
Food was the best we have experienced on a Disney cruise, the main dining room meals were top shelf, and the food court concept change is one of those innovative things that will cause other cruise lines to try to copy. In fact, one of our going forward advice to people traveling on the Wish, is to skip eating at Cast-away-cay, head back to the ship to eat lunch.
The theater in the round concept for two of the dining experiences, is another of those innovative concepts that worked in our opinion. These two dinners were enjoyable and interactive without going over the top.
INNOVATIVE (should consider revisiting):
The amount of space dedicated to high end purchases.
It seemed like 60% of the on-ship retail was high end jewelry, watches and fashion accessories. Do guests on a 3-day Disney cruise buy lots of Gucci and higher end watches? Based on the crowds in the other retail spaces, more income would come from Disney retail instead of the Diamond International fare.
The number of swimming pools and hot tubs.
There are many pools on the ship, and I wonder if in fact there is more square feet of pool area on the Wish, than on the other vessels. It might make sense to market the fact there is more pool area on the Wish then the others to address the belief there is a lack of pool areas.
DISAPPOINTMENT:
Something unfortunate happen on this particular cruise, that uncovered a weakness in the crews contingency planning. The Wish got delayed leaving the private island and the communication regarding what to expect started out as perfect. Everyone was made aware of what was going to happen when we arrived back at the Cape and that we would be several hours late. The weakness was uncovered when we did in fact dock, the traditionally excellent disembarking process completely broke down. The few announcements that were made were to just be patient and wait for more announcements that would come. These additional announcements never came and the normally stress-free departure with the various character departure groups from the ship became a free for all. The line to get off the ship wrapped around the vessel on two levels and allowed everyone leaving the ship to get a tour of the Wish that was longer (but much less interesting) than the walking tour of the ship (that was informative and excellent). I feel bad for any first time Disney cruisers that were on the ship that day, since the departure was chaotic and not representative of the typically departure. Hopefully the ship's staff will conduct a review of that process and develop some guidelines for a better way to communicate and organize a late arrival to the port.
Overall, we enjoyed the cruise, the food and the shows, but the Wish in our opinion, is not the best ship in the fleet, we prefer the Dream or the Fantasy.
THE GOOD:
Food was the best we have experienced on a Disney cruise, the main dining room meals were top shelf, and the food court concept change is one of those innovative things that will cause other cruise lines to try to copy. In fact, one of our going forward advice to people traveling on the Wish, is to skip eating at Cast-away-cay, head back to the ship to eat lunch.
The theater in the round concept for two of the dining experiences, is another of those innovative concepts that worked in our opinion. These two dinners were enjoyable and interactive without going over the top.
INNOVATIVE (should consider revisiting):
The amount of space dedicated to high end purchases.
It seemed like 60% of the on-ship retail was high end jewelry, watches and fashion accessories. Do guests on a 3-day Disney cruise buy lots of Gucci and higher end watches? Based on the crowds in the other retail spaces, more income would come from Disney retail instead of the Diamond International fare.
The number of swimming pools and hot tubs.
There are many pools on the ship, and I wonder if in fact there is more square feet of pool area on the Wish, than on the other vessels. It might make sense to market the fact there is more pool area on the Wish then the others to address the belief there is a lack of pool areas.
DISAPPOINTMENT:
Something unfortunate happen on this particular cruise, that uncovered a weakness in the crews contingency planning. The Wish got delayed leaving the private island and the communication regarding what to expect started out as perfect. Everyone was made aware of what was going to happen when we arrived back at the Cape and that we would be several hours late. The weakness was uncovered when we did in fact dock, the traditionally excellent disembarking process completely broke down. The few announcements that were made were to just be patient and wait for more announcements that would come. These additional announcements never came and the normally stress-free departure with the various character departure groups from the ship became a free for all. The line to get off the ship wrapped around the vessel on two levels and allowed everyone leaving the ship to get a tour of the Wish that was longer (but much less interesting) than the walking tour of the ship (that was informative and excellent). I feel bad for any first time Disney cruisers that were on the ship that day, since the departure was chaotic and not representative of the typically departure. Hopefully the ship's staff will conduct a review of that process and develop some guidelines for a better way to communicate and organize a late arrival to the port.
Overall, we enjoyed the cruise, the food and the shows, but the Wish in our opinion, is not the best ship in the fleet, we prefer the Dream or the Fantasy.
