mcd2745
These Mickey pretzels are making me thirsty!
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2010
Planned to get to this several days ago, but…life.
Wanted to throw out some thoughts from recently completed B2B on the Wish.
I’ll start with the B2B process. First time ever doing B2B and found the process incredibly disappointing. This may or may not be a result of the unusually large number of people doing B2Bs on the Wish during her inaugural season. I don’t know. I believe on other ships, they will have the B2B passengers gather in the same place – such as Cove Café – and then they are escorted off the ship together by a CM, and the whole process until you are back on the ship is expedited from there. Ultimately, you should be off the ship for the absolute least amount of time possible. We didn’t have that experience/process. There was no meeting/gathering point for the B2B guests. You just exited the ship and went through customs on your own, made your way to the testing tent, and if your party all were fortunate enough to test negative, you had to go back through the regular (and very long) check-in line with the “new” guests who were already arriving at the port. The whole thing should have been better managed and streamlined. The best part of doing the B2B? The two sailings got us to Platinim!
The ship itself is beautiful. As so many have already said, it is a total departure from the original four ships – which are all very much the same with regards to design/layout and the nautical décor. I found the Grand Hall stage not really utilized all that much – certainly not enough to justify the removal of a third elevator bank. The chandelier is gorgeous and what they do with the lighting and “kiss goodnight” is very nice. My #1 gripe is probably what they did the promenade deck (4). One of my favorite spaces on any cruise ship. I love sitting in a chair or lounger on the side of the ship and watching the sea go by. They have eliminated practically half of this deck on each side and have so few loungers. Very strange design. I know the runners hate it as well. Yes, there are a number of dead ends that leave you scratching your head a bit, but I did not have issues finding my way around after a day or two. I also don’t necessarily mind the idea of moving away from their usual adult districts – although, they kind of still have it IMO, as most of the bars/lounges are all stacked on top of each other on decks 3,4,5 midship. My main issue is with Luna (decks 4/5). I thought it was a very poor replacement for The Tube/Evolution or Fathoms/Azure. So many of the seats offer terrible views of the stage – or NO view at all. Also, it is completely open to the hallways on deck 5. So not really an enclosed venue. The one design change that was a big win was the multiple pools. This was a very smart move. Moving the adult pool/Quiet Cove area all the way to the aft of the ship was, in theory, a smart move also. It should eliminate the #1 complaint from the Dream/Fantasy of the kids going through the area as they are coming off/going to the elevators. However, they botched everything else related to it. It is U-shaped around the back of the ship, but you can only access it from the starboard side. It’s a dead-end on the port side. The one and only hot tub is in the middle of nowhere, nowhere near the heart of the adult area. The infinity pool at the center of the area is really nice with the tile loungers built-in, but unfortunately it should have been 3-4x larger.
Food is the one area where the Wish stood out. The quick-service on deck 11 is head and shoulders above the rest of the fleet with the addition of the BBQ and cantina. Pizza – when you could actually get some as they were always out and had people waiting for the next pies to be done – seemed improved also. One thing though, that area and all the seating around it was always unbearably warm and stuffy. For whatever reason, even with the ship in motion, air didn’t flow through the deck like it does on the other ships. Food in all the MDRs were up a notch or two as well. The only problem in the MDRs is that the tables are all soclose together and on top of each other. Makes it real difficult for the servers to do their jobs. The entertainment in Marvel and Arendelle were both fun, but Arendelle was the standout thanks to Oaken and the violinist. Did a Palo in dinner and food was incredible as always, although service was a little too slow (3 hours). I did hear the server from the table next to us telling his guests that the ship is still very much understaffed relative to where they expect to be when “fully” staffed. He said the staffing problem was the worst in Enchante, but is still an issue ship-wide. And the change to al a carte made the meal cost more than double what we paid prior to the change for basically the same amount of food.
Entertainment was okay. The “Seas the Adventure” show was cute, well-done, and about what you would expect. “The Little Mermaid” was disappointing to me. Wasn’t a fan of the changes to the story line. “Aladdin” (it’s very first performance on Wish -and the CD told us later that night the cast was super-nervous) was very good, and pretty much the same I remember it from the Fantasy. Some good musicians in the lounges as well. There was a lack of variety acts though. They seem to want to replace the variety acts with karaoke and silent DJ – which is rather unfortunate. I hope this isn’t a permanent, classic Chapek cost-cutting move...having guests provide the entertainment themselves instead of hiring actual talented performers to entertain guests.
Merch was a disappointment too. I had seen a few vlogs from the initial couple of sailings and saw some cool "inaugural sailings" items, but they were all out-of-stock I guess.
In the end, I would not hesitate to sail on her again. That said, I don’t see it happening as long as she is only doing the 3&4-night Bahamas itineraries. We prefer 7-nt itineraries, and spending 7 nights doing the B2B was not the same at all. There’s just a different vibe and/or dynamic on the longer itineraries.
Wanted to throw out some thoughts from recently completed B2B on the Wish.
I’ll start with the B2B process. First time ever doing B2B and found the process incredibly disappointing. This may or may not be a result of the unusually large number of people doing B2Bs on the Wish during her inaugural season. I don’t know. I believe on other ships, they will have the B2B passengers gather in the same place – such as Cove Café – and then they are escorted off the ship together by a CM, and the whole process until you are back on the ship is expedited from there. Ultimately, you should be off the ship for the absolute least amount of time possible. We didn’t have that experience/process. There was no meeting/gathering point for the B2B guests. You just exited the ship and went through customs on your own, made your way to the testing tent, and if your party all were fortunate enough to test negative, you had to go back through the regular (and very long) check-in line with the “new” guests who were already arriving at the port. The whole thing should have been better managed and streamlined. The best part of doing the B2B? The two sailings got us to Platinim!
The ship itself is beautiful. As so many have already said, it is a total departure from the original four ships – which are all very much the same with regards to design/layout and the nautical décor. I found the Grand Hall stage not really utilized all that much – certainly not enough to justify the removal of a third elevator bank. The chandelier is gorgeous and what they do with the lighting and “kiss goodnight” is very nice. My #1 gripe is probably what they did the promenade deck (4). One of my favorite spaces on any cruise ship. I love sitting in a chair or lounger on the side of the ship and watching the sea go by. They have eliminated practically half of this deck on each side and have so few loungers. Very strange design. I know the runners hate it as well. Yes, there are a number of dead ends that leave you scratching your head a bit, but I did not have issues finding my way around after a day or two. I also don’t necessarily mind the idea of moving away from their usual adult districts – although, they kind of still have it IMO, as most of the bars/lounges are all stacked on top of each other on decks 3,4,5 midship. My main issue is with Luna (decks 4/5). I thought it was a very poor replacement for The Tube/Evolution or Fathoms/Azure. So many of the seats offer terrible views of the stage – or NO view at all. Also, it is completely open to the hallways on deck 5. So not really an enclosed venue. The one design change that was a big win was the multiple pools. This was a very smart move. Moving the adult pool/Quiet Cove area all the way to the aft of the ship was, in theory, a smart move also. It should eliminate the #1 complaint from the Dream/Fantasy of the kids going through the area as they are coming off/going to the elevators. However, they botched everything else related to it. It is U-shaped around the back of the ship, but you can only access it from the starboard side. It’s a dead-end on the port side. The one and only hot tub is in the middle of nowhere, nowhere near the heart of the adult area. The infinity pool at the center of the area is really nice with the tile loungers built-in, but unfortunately it should have been 3-4x larger.
Food is the one area where the Wish stood out. The quick-service on deck 11 is head and shoulders above the rest of the fleet with the addition of the BBQ and cantina. Pizza – when you could actually get some as they were always out and had people waiting for the next pies to be done – seemed improved also. One thing though, that area and all the seating around it was always unbearably warm and stuffy. For whatever reason, even with the ship in motion, air didn’t flow through the deck like it does on the other ships. Food in all the MDRs were up a notch or two as well. The only problem in the MDRs is that the tables are all soclose together and on top of each other. Makes it real difficult for the servers to do their jobs. The entertainment in Marvel and Arendelle were both fun, but Arendelle was the standout thanks to Oaken and the violinist. Did a Palo in dinner and food was incredible as always, although service was a little too slow (3 hours). I did hear the server from the table next to us telling his guests that the ship is still very much understaffed relative to where they expect to be when “fully” staffed. He said the staffing problem was the worst in Enchante, but is still an issue ship-wide. And the change to al a carte made the meal cost more than double what we paid prior to the change for basically the same amount of food.
Entertainment was okay. The “Seas the Adventure” show was cute, well-done, and about what you would expect. “The Little Mermaid” was disappointing to me. Wasn’t a fan of the changes to the story line. “Aladdin” (it’s very first performance on Wish -and the CD told us later that night the cast was super-nervous) was very good, and pretty much the same I remember it from the Fantasy. Some good musicians in the lounges as well. There was a lack of variety acts though. They seem to want to replace the variety acts with karaoke and silent DJ – which is rather unfortunate. I hope this isn’t a permanent, classic Chapek cost-cutting move...having guests provide the entertainment themselves instead of hiring actual talented performers to entertain guests.
Merch was a disappointment too. I had seen a few vlogs from the initial couple of sailings and saw some cool "inaugural sailings" items, but they were all out-of-stock I guess.
In the end, I would not hesitate to sail on her again. That said, I don’t see it happening as long as she is only doing the 3&4-night Bahamas itineraries. We prefer 7-nt itineraries, and spending 7 nights doing the B2B was not the same at all. There’s just a different vibe and/or dynamic on the longer itineraries.
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but we want to experience the ship first-hand.
