Wish - July 2023 Trip Report

[cschaaf]

My wife and I returned from our first sailing on the Wish last week.

Some background - we had done three cruises prior to this one, all with our three daughters (and two with my parents). 1 Royal Caribbean, 1 Princess, and 1 Disney (Fantasy).

We had booked the Wish for a late May trip and had a verandah room, but my wife's hip replacement surgery kept getting delayed so that timing became impossible. Just prior to the 30-day window, we had to move to the late July dates. It cost a few hundred to change, plus the late July sailing cost more - we ended up with an inside cabin for more than what the original verandah room cost :S

Pre-Trip - the day before the cruise, we went to Kennedy Space Center. It had been about 8 years since we've been there, and so much has changed. I won't get into the details of our day here, but just say that, get there at rope drop and head to the Atlantis exhibit first. Then take the bus out to the Saturn center. That leaves the exhibits in the main area, but you've beat the crowds to the main two attractions.

 

[cschaaf]

Embarkation - We drove ourselves to the port and only saw one sign that indicated which exit we needed. We didn't read it in time so we were unsure where to go and missed the exit. It wasn't hard to double back and get in the right place.

I dropped off my wife and our bags, then went to park. There was a worker helping people at the parking pay station. I put my credit card in and it didn't work. He told me to try it again and it didn't work. He then asked if it was a metal card - it is. He said metal cards don't work in the reader and that I had to use another card. I said I don't have another card. He sighed heavily and rolled his eyes, then grabbed a handheld card reader and did the charge that way using my metal card. Not sure why he made it seem like a huge deal.

My wife took a seat under the escalators and I left the bags with her while I tried to figure out where we go next and if our arrival time was being called yet. U found our line and walked back to get her. She is still using a cane while recovering from a full hip replacement. She was drinking a bottle of iced tea that we brought - we had no intention of taking it inside, nor were we even in line to head inside. Just as I was nearing her, a CM walked up to her and said she had to take the bottle immediately. The CM then said to follow her and she'd get us in. My wife's a little slow to get up, as one might imagine a person using a cane might be. After she got up, we looked for that CM and she had disappeared. It was really odd.

Either way, the security line moved pretty quickly and we were in the terminal before any boarding groups were called. We were in group 8 and were called right at noon.

My wife, who chose this vacation specifically because she loved how the Wish looked in pictures and videos was instantly in love with the ship when we entered the atrium.

We went straight to Marceline for lunch. Marceline felt more narrow and crowded than the buffet on the Fantasy (or the 2 other lines we've sailed). We then headed to Luna to try to get a Palo reservation. We got there around 12:50 and there was only one couple in front of us for Palo. There were maybe 8 people in the line to change their dining rotation. We easily got a 6:00 Palo reservation on pirate night.

We packed our bathing suits in our carry-on, so up to the adult pool we went. Maybe I watched enough videos, but we didn't have any issues finding the adult area. In fact, we had few issues finding the places we wanted to go the entire trip. I can't remember enough from the Fantasy to even know what was different, but maybe that helped us navigate this ship better than someone who knows the other ships well.

We changed in the bathrooms in the adult areas. I hate going shoeless anywhere - the joke around here is that unless I am in the shower or bed, I'm wearing my shoes. While my wife was changing, I took off a shoe and stepped on part of the deck that was in full sunlight and it was scorching hot. I told my wife, but she thought I just said that because I'm not used to going barefoot. We set up at some of the recliners around the corner from the pool (the recliners are packed in like sardines with little room to move - it's hard even getting to them because they are pushed up against the outer rail).

My wife took off her shoes and started to walk to the pool, then she started to run - the new hip and cane were no longer holding her back, the focus was now on not losing a layer of skin. We saw a few other people struggle with the deck heat throughout the week. One small girl loudly screamed when she stepped on the fool and her mom was there to scoop her up. Not sure how to remedy that, short of having some water sprayers on the walkways (like at Volcano Bay over at Universal) but then you'd introduce a potential slipping hazard.

There were only a few people in the adult pool, so it was nice to have that time. We tried it a few other times during the week. It was always busy, but we never felt the 'elbow-to-elbow' that others have had on their trips.

I went to the aqua coaster and the wait was posted at 20 minutes. I waited about 15, then a storm hit. High winds. Must have been lightning. I was about 10 people from getting on. All of the pools shut down and the wind was blowing deck chairs around. I made it back over to my wife and we grabbed our bags and went inside before we blew away. Headed down to our room, found our bags in the hall, and unpacked.

The room was small, but good enough for the two of us. We also felt there was enough storage for two - if we had a third, that might have been difficult.

Went back to 11 around the sail away party. Super crowded, but kids were having fun.We pre-purchased the length of cruise passes for the Rainforest Room. My wife loved the day she spent in the Rainforest Room on the Fantasy. It's not my thing, but I decided to book it too, so that we could spend that time together. If you are into that kind of thing, you'll probably enjoy your time in the Rainforest. "Relaxing" isn't for me, so I was bored. It might have helped if there were ocean views from the seats.

Dinner at Marvel was pretty good. We read a lot of bad reviews about the food at Marvel, but those don't match our experience. I'd rank it higher than Arendale. I had the bao and it wasn’t bad. The bun wasn’t the best, but flavors were good. My wife and I each had an iceberg wedge and both liked it. Could have used a bit more dressing.

For my main, I got the scallops and pasta. The scallops were cooked well and were good. The pasta didn’t have much flavor and was kind of mushy. My wife and the wife of the couple dining with us got the chicken schnitzel and both liked it.

Here's where I admit that I am probably in the vast majority of people on the ship that isn't really a fan of any of the Disney properties. I've seen the classics, but it's been years. I've seen a few of the 80s'-90s' animated films, but probably once each. I've seen a handful of the Marvel movies and they aren't my thing. All that to say, I didn't really know any of the characters in the Marvel 'show', but it wasn't hard to follow along.

 

[cschaaf]

Day 2

Breakfast at Marceline. Everything was good. We stayed on the ship instead of going into Nassau. We watched some Funnel Vision, then I went to try the Aqua Mouse again. The wait was posted at 20 minutes again and that's about how long I waited. It was fun, but short. I thought if I was a 5-10 minute wait later on the trip, I'd ride again, but wouldn't wait longer than that.

Not sure how common this is, but there was about a 30 min delay before they were letting people off the ship.

The family pools kept getting closed. They'd kick everyone out, presumably because of an 'accident', then would reopen ~10 minutes later. They'd be open 5 minutes, then all close again. We moved to the adult area and it wasn't too crowded - maybe 4 or 5 people on each side. For lunch, we decided to try the Festival of foods. I went to the BBQ place and there was surprisingly no line. It was all very good - the brisket was more like corned beef than 'brisket'. Same cut of meat, just prepared differently and resulting in a different flavor and texture. My wife got chicken fingers and said they were really good.

After lunch, we went to watch the Indiana Jones movie. I had read that the theater seats were uncomfortable. When I fist sat down, I thought, "These aren't so bad". After about 10 minutes, I started to realize how bad they were. It was a 2.5 hour movie. 2.5 hours of shifting in the seat trying to find a comfortable position.

Tonight's show was Aladdin. We both thought it was very good. We agreed that we had a better Genie on the Fantasy cruise and, as I said, "Despite the show being called Aladdin, it's Genie that will make or break the experience".

Dinner at Arendale. Wasn’t excited about anything on the menu. I got 2 appetizers: the fish board and the cheese and ham tart. The fish board was pretty good and similar to what you can find at breakfast - and that was the best part of my meal. The tart was just okay.

My wife and I both got the meatballs with pappardelle. It was also okay. It was a lot of food. The meatballs were good, but the pasta was gummy. The show was good, but loud. Maybe I'm a grumpy old man, but I felt all of the shows were too loud - in particular the sail away party and the Arendale show. You could see smart watches everywhere lighting up with loudness warnings.

We had the 25th anniversary fireworks after dinner. They were nice. We watched from deck 11 aft. I was glad that our room was on deck 9 aft, it gave us a short trip down the steps rather than having to wait for the elevators. My wife is slow on the steps with her cane, but she's able to do a few flights

Now's as good of a time as any to talk about the elevators. It would have been nice to have a 3rd bank of elevators, but it wasn't a huge issue. The elevators are small and every so often, you'd get one that was packed with people. I wish they had a better way to organize a 'queue' for the elevators; there were several times when people that were clearly there first weren't able to get to the elevator quick enough for those behind them to jump in front. Maybe a little surprising, we didn't see any arguments over the elevators.

Every elevator we took had the updated buttons - the type you have to push rather than hover over. That likely alleviated a lot of the issues previous cruisers experienced.

 

[cschaaf]

Castaway Cay day. Not much to report. Spent day at adult beach. For the most part, the first row of loungers are useless. They are on a very steep hill. If you manage to get to them, it's difficult to sit down. I don't think we saw anyone in them all day. the second (back) row of loungers was a bit better or, if you walked about half way down the beach, the angle seemed to be less steep.

On the way back to the ship, I saw a guy get in the snorkel cleaning tub, I guess trying to rinse off the sand. Classy.

Dinner at Palo. Charcuterie board was very good. My wife loved the tomatoes and burrata. I ended up with pasta again, much to my surprise. I like pasta, but almost never order it out. Nothing else caught my interest. The pasta was good. Easy to tell the pasta was cooked to order. The lobster felt a bit undercooked to me - it was a struggle to cut through it. I think we both agreed that, while the meal was good, we wouldn't bother next time unless they bring back the buffet style.

Sea day. Aqua Mouse wasn’t working all morning. They'd keep the posted wait as 5 minutes, but the line went down the steps and halfway across the deck. I don't know when it opened, but it was closed at least through lunch time. It was very hot this day, we couldn't spend much time topside and not be in a pool.

I went to find the outside access to the front of the ship. That was the hardest thing to find all week. It’s hard even finding where you can get to an outside deck.

Lunch was at Festival of Foods - I think I had the pizza (pretty good), and some tacos (very good).

We spent the afternoon in the Rainforest Room. It was relatively empty. We spent most of the time in the outside area and there were maybe 4 other loungers taken.

Dinner was in 1932 - I think it was our best MDR meal. I had the steak and my wife got the pasta. The one time I didn't get the pasta, and it looked like the best pasta meal of the trip

 

[cschaaf]

Random Notes

Bathroom door in the Marcelline hallway that opens out. That hallway is already crowded with the sinks. One bathroom door opens in, the other out - not sure why.

Would have been nice if you could see outside more. The Rainforest Room especially needs some outside views.

Venues, as it’s been said over and over, are too small. Trivia was often packed with people sitting on the floor or standing. We showed up 10 minutes early for a trivia in the Triton Lounge (It was something like 10:30p) and people were already standing/siting on the floor. The host did say he'd never seen it so crowded.

Just like we experienced on our Fantasy cruise, the soda fountain drinks all taste weird. There's a bubble gum-y taste.

The Uncharted game was hit or miss, mostly miss. We tried early in the trip and it wouldn't let me scan the icon. A kid came up and his let him scan, but when the mini-game stated, his app locked up. I tried a few times on the sea day and kept getting an error ‘try again during operating hours'. My wife was able to successfully complete one mini-game. I never got it to work.

Overall, the rest of the app worked pretty well. I think there could be two improvements. The first is to make the pre-cruise and during-cruise apps more alike. You spend time pre-cruise looking through things on the app, then when you get to the port, it's like a completely different app. I realize that the are two very different stages of the cruise, but I think the app should still feel 'familiar' when you are on-site.

The second is to add a search - I wanted to search for 'trivia' or 'crafts' to find all instances rather than having to scroll and scroll.

Our dinner mates also said the theater seats were very uncomfortable.

Overall, I thought the food was good, not great.

The ship was beautiful, staff was great.

 

[jhlmendez]

Thank you for this report. Am considering a cruise on the Wish in February 2024 and loading up on info. recent trip reports are very helpful and appreciated.

overall, would you cruise on the Wish again?

 

[cschaaf]

Thank you for this report. Am considering a cruise on the Wish in February 2024 and loading up on info. recent trip reports are very helpful and appreciated.

overall, would you cruise on the Wish again?

If it were up to me, I probably wouldn't sail Disney again - it's just too expensive for what we get out of it. If we had kids using the kids club, then that might add enough value for us. I'd choose a longer itinerary on another line for less.

If I did choose to cruise on Disney, I'd prefer a different itinerary than is currently offered on the Wish. I know many don't like the layout of the Wish, but it didn't bother me. For the most part, we found it easy to find things and get around. We liked the adult area and never felt it was overly crowded, but that's probably the luck of the draw.

All that said, my wife really loved the Wish and would choose it again - I don't think it would matter what the itinerary was. She preferred it to the Fantasy.

So the short answer to your question is - I'll probably sail the Wish again within a few years

 

[Alura21]

Hey! I used to work in a movie theatre. If a soda fountain ever tastes weird, it means the filter needs to be changed.