3-night cruise on the Disney Wish - Day 5 Home and Final Thoughts

Home and Final Thoughts

We gave ourselves plenty of time on disembarkation morning. It always feels like we are rushing. We ate breakfast at Arendell, said goodbye to our servers (they were quite good) and headed off the ship. We were some of the first to board and some of the last to leave! 

 I was feeling okay at breakfast, but I forgot to mention that the night before at Arendell, I was feeling pretty melancholy. The cruise went by really quickly and leaving it somehow felt like going back, not only to regular life, but really an irregular life. Not the life I want. A life still full of grief and upcoming cancer treatment. The reality of my situation felt somehow magnified against the backdrop of our wonderful vacation.

People say to me, “Summer, you are so strong,” or “you are so positive.” I am not always. Sometimes I’m frustrated, angry, and sad. I’m not scared really, I just don’t want to deal with all of this. But, I also look forward to our next cruise in July when I will have put all of this behind me. It won’t be so much that I have beat cancer or survived cancer, but instead passed through it and come out the other side. That is what I can look forward to. And in the dark moments that will no doubt come soon, I can think of these memories of better times. 

I digress. Let’s get back to the end of our trip. We got on the bus to the airport, having lunch after checking in and finding our gate. Our flight was slightly delayed, but only by about 15 minutes. At a neighboring gate, a bald eagle was boarding. His name is Challenger and he’s a non-releasable bald eagle who flies at various events around the country. 

If you haven’t been on a Disney ship and my thoughts on the Wish vs. the other ships on the fleet don’t interest you, you can end here. But I thought it would be nice to put down some thoughts about the Wish because it is so different from the other four ships. 

The Classics (Magic and Wonder) remain our favorite ships hands down. All three of us are in agreement. For Emmaline and myself, it’s the Magic. I think Roger prefers the Wonder. And we all prefer the other four ships to the Wish. Is the Wish terrible? Definitely not. I’d take the Wish over the Mariner of the Seas any day. In the gym I ran into someone I know from a previous cruise and she asked what I thought. I answered that it’s definitely different and she said, “I LOATHE this ship. I will never sail it again!” We don’t feel that strongly. Roger said, “if it sailed some more interesting itinerary, I’d sail it again.” 

The Good: 

• I mean, ultimately, it’s a Disney ship and it shows. The ship is lovely but I think my friend Betsy summed it up when she said it’s “boujee.” I don’t know if this is good or bad, honestly.
• The entertainment was all fantastic and the food was on par with other ships. Some of the quick serve food on the pool deck was superior to the other ships. 
• The layout of the main activity space, “Luna” was really nice vs. D-Lounge on the other ships. It seemed to be a combo of D-Lounge and the adult spaces.
• The shower is much better with the glass door vs. the shower curtain. It’s far too small of a shower to have a shower curtain constantly attacking you. 
• There are more storage shelves in the bathroom and in the shower. 
• Palo was really good.
• The musicians were incredible and Victrophonics is a fun show.
• Having Guest Services one level up from the atrium (or “Grand Hall” I think is what they are calling it on the Wish) is so much better. It keeps all the people needing Guest Services (especially on debarkation day) out of the madness of everything else going on in that space. 
• Debarkation had a clear pathway/line to leave the ship. The other ships sometimes feel like a free-for-all with no clear line. 
• The kid’s club is amazing. (For the smaller kids. The tween and teen clubs felt a little more bland.) 
• The pirate party was so much better with a live band and real singers.
• The bed was very comfortable. Moreso, I thought, than the other ships.
• The ship was incredibly quiet and smooth. No engine noise, thruster vibration, rattles, shakes, or other issues we've experienced on other ships.

The Not So Good: 

• No walking/running deck. I’m seriously baffled by this decision. It’s probably too late for the next ship, too, which is unfortunate. This would make me hesitate to book this ship with a longer itinerary. Running around deck four in the mornings on the other ship is truly one of my happy places.
• As a result, the gym on Nassau day was packed. Every piece of cardio equipment was in use. For those that have said, “Just use the treadmill,” every treadmill was being used.
• Cycle classes, which used to be free on the old ships (and seem to have not returned since the restart) are $20. 
• The closet setup in the room is really odd. You can’t have one closet door open while you’re in the other closet. It would just be better to have one big closet with the two doors like on the other ships. Three separate closets with three separate sliding doors that slide into each other doesn’t work well. 
• There isn’t enough storage/drawer space in the room. Any longer than a 3-night and we would have had problems.
• There isn’t a healthy food station on the pool deck. The other ships have fruit, salads, wraps and sandwiches on the pool deck. There’s no place to get anything healthy when Marceline isn’t open. 
• That boujee vibe. Something about many of the spaces feels like a Hyatt that’s been gussied up a bit with some Disney touches. It’s pretty, but there’s almost something cold or sterile about some of the spaces. There are exceptions (the restaurants, Luna, Bayou lounge). 
• Hyperspace Lounge was a let down. The Star Wars section of the kid’s club was far superior. I wanted to hang out there, not in Hyperspace. We went in and then left. Thumbs down.
• The pool deck doesn’t have enough shade. 
• The pools are all over the place and oddly spread out.
• The couch in the stateroom is perhaps the most uncomfortable couch I have ever had the misfortune to sit upon.
• The TV is only in front of the bed so anyone on the couch can’t watch it. Not that you’d want to be on the couch, but still. 
• Apparently, as Platinum cruisers we were supposed to receive a gift of chocolates, wine, or fruit on the first day. I didn’t know this and we didn’t receive it. Not a deal killer, but it would have been nice. (This was our first cruise as Platinum.) 
• The “Uncharted Adventure” game was a complete disaster. The controls didn’t work, it was slow, buggy, and uninteresting. “Midship Detective” on the Dream and Fantasy is more fun and works better.
• The fridge in the room didn’t seem very cold and it’s a weird sort of drawer. It made it hard to put drinks in there as pulling open the drawer could result in spillage. Plus there were weird dividers inside that made it hard to put certain things in. The bowl of fruit I got at breakfast to have later in the day (as a result of the aforementioned lack of fruits on the pool deck) was balanced precariously across some dividers. 
• The majority of the shops onboard are watches, jewelry, and expensive handbags. I don't know who is buying this stuff but it must be someone, I suppose. 
• The elevators are a hot mess. Nice try with the buttons but when we wanted them to activate, they wouldn't without being touched. When we didn't want them to activate, they did such that we got to take the "scenic route" stopping at every floor. Emmaline only "Elfed" the elevator once (as I started calling it) by leaning close to it once when the elevator was really full, but we were in a lot of full elevators that got "Elfed" by various people. 
• The meals in the main dining rooms lacked substantial serving of vegetables. It would be a protein plus one little baby cooked carrot and one spear of asparagus or something. It was pretty sad. We wanted more veg.