Traveling on the Disney Wish

So I am a huge Disney fan. Except… until this past January, I had only ever been to Disney World in Orlando. For the first time, my family and I tried something outside of just 4-6 days at the Disney World Parks.

We chose to go on a week-long Disney vacation, complete with Disney Springs, 3 of the Disney World Parks, and a 4-night cruise on the Disney Wish.

Day 1

Our first day was traveling to Orlando, where we checked into our hotel, which was within walking distance of Disney Springs. We got settled and took a few moments to relax after our plane ride and then headed over to Disney Springs for some shopping. We got some snacks, checked out a few of the more artsy stores, and contemplated buying a few birthday gifts for some of our extended family members. We got to chat with a cast member who quizzed us on Disney movies and musical lines from each of them, which turned into a fun competition for our family to see who could guess it first. We had dinner at The Edison and enjoyed the live music downstairs and all the old Disney cartoons they were showing on the tv behind our table. Shortly after, we went back to our hotel to get a good night’s sleep.

Day 2

The next day we got up, had breakfast at the hotel, and then waited for our ride to pick us up. It was about a 30ish minute drive to Cape Canaveral to board the Wish, and the process to go through their version of TSA was very straightforward, thanks to the cast members. We had given ourselves two extra hours of time to deal with any sort of traffic, security, or other issues that could have popped up, but instead, we got to spend them just sitting and waiting for our gate to be called.

We got to wait in their terminal for our boarding group to be called, and there were lots of things to see in there. They had models of one of the other ships, which my mom and I enjoyed looking at. Constant Disney songs were playing through the sound system as we waited to hear our group number, and you can bet my sisters and I sang along to every single one.

I don’t remember which group we were in, but I think we boarded close to 2 pm, and as we stepped onto the ship, they announced our family to the entirety of the main hall. Now we had time to wander around the ship and do a little bit of discovery. We stopped by our rooms to get our key cards which had our safety letter on them, so we knew where to go for our safety briefing. We had two separate rooms for this trip, so we were split up for the safety meeting. My sisters went with my dad, and I went with my mom. 

After that, it was time for the send-off. We meandered our way to the main deck with all the pools to watch the send-off party with all the cast members, and then as we started to leave the dock, we made our way to the front of the ship and watched as we slowly exited the harbor. There was so much to see as we left; NASA in the distance, a SpaceX launch pad, etc. It was some really cool stuff. 

After leaving Cape Canaveral, we lost all connection to cellular data, and Sarah and I realized that we would not be posting much on social media this trip. There was WiFi on the ship, which allowed you to text but not much else. My dad paid a little extra so he could make any necessary business calls or check work emails while we were on the trip, which was a good option for them to offer.

We had dinner at Worlds of Marvel and got to see Scott Lang (Ant-Man) and Hope Pym (the Wasp) during our meal.

All the parties had two servers that followed them to every meal. We became very friendly with ours, and they got to know our habits and what we liked at our meals, so every meal, our drinks were ready for us when we arrived, and one of them even caught onto my sister’s love for bread rolls and butter. He would bring out a separate basket just for her with her own dish of butter.

Every meal on the Wish is themed around the location you are in, so our first night in the Marvel world had Wakandan dinner rolls, food from Sokovia, American food, Asgardian meals, and even shawarma. All 5 of us ordered the same dessert, and once dinner was over, we chose to go to the show at the theater. They had a few musical productions throughout our time on the boat, and we made sure to see all of them. 

Day 3

This was technically day 2 of our cruise but day 3 for the Disney-filled week. We woke up and went to get breakfast on the top deck and watched as we docked in the Bahamas. After breakfast, we had to meet somewhere for our tickets and info to get into the Atlantis resort, and after being cleared and getting everything we needed, we left the ship and took buses to the resort. 

After getting our wristbands and making sure everything was paid for, we walked through the resort to the far side, where they kept the dolphins. We got to swim with them and, in a way, ride them across the water. There were six dolphins, two at each station, and you could grab onto their dorsal fins, and they would pull you to the other side. Another time, they had on dolphin push on your foot while you held onto a kickboard, and my sister went so fast through the water for that one. We also got to tread water around them while they swam up close, and they did some tricks for us, which my sisters and I got a kick out of.

After our time with the dolphins, we got to enjoy the rest of the resort. We got some pizza and swam in the pool, and did a few water slides until it was time to head back to the boat for the evening. Mom and I decided we might need to go back to Atlantis someday. 

That evening we had dinner in Arendale with a full musical production from Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, and even Oaken! Yoo Hoo!!! I think that was one of my favorite meals on the ship. We walked around the ship that night and went to see The Little Mermaid back at the theater. Then we went back to our rooms to turn in before another busy day.

Enjoy more in part 2!