Traveling on the Disney Wish (pt.2)
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.
(continuing from part 1)
Day 4
After breakfast at the top of the Disney Wish, we docked at Disney’s private island, Castaway Key. We spent the entire day here, and the people from the ship were the only ones on the island.
We started off our time by swimming with the sting rays in a netted bay. The full package included feeding them too, but something messed with their feeding schedules, so we got to swim around them. They gave us goggles and snorkels so we could look under the water to watch the sting rays swim around. Catherine did not enjoy the experience as much. The sting rays were a little strange to her and kept approaching her. Meanwhile, Sarah and I tried to touch as many sting rays as we could. They felt like hardboiled eggs, similar to the dolphins from the day before. Dad swam a little further out than the rest of us and said he nearly drank the salt water a few times. Small disclaimer, saltwater tastes awful; please never drink it.
After the sting rays, we just got to enjoy the rest of the day on the beach. There was a whole buffet of food, and with the only people on the island coming from the cruise ship, there was close to no traffic to get our food. We even got to see our servers from the dinners we had already had.
That night was Pirate night, so everything for that evening was themed to fit. We had another dinner in Arendale, but none of the Frozen characters showed up. Following dinner, we watched the Pirate Party celebration on the top deck by the pools. There were tons of characters performing, and they even launched fireworks off the side of the ship. We had figured out the night before from a cast member which way they would launch from the ship, so we had a perfect spot to watch both the performance on the stage and the fireworks off the ship. There was lots of ice cream that day from the soft serve on the island and the soft serve station on the ship. This led to a bad sugar crash back at the rooms. We even tried watching the first half of Pirates of the Caribbean before falling asleep.
Day 5
This was our day at sea during the cruise, and we made sure to make the most of it. After a quick breakfast (all of our breakfasts were quick at this point), we returned to Arendale and met Anna and Elsa for pictures. We found out after that there were more character meet and greets. My sisters and I went straight to the main hall to meet more of the Disney princesses.
Throughout the day, we also met Donald, Mickey, and Minnie! Sarah adores Donald, and she shared her mini-Donald with him. We did a ton of swimming and had even more ice cream and some fries at the pool. All the food there is free; you just have to walk up to get it. This was super dangerous for Catherine because ice cream might be her favorite thing. I think she had 10-15 total ice cream cones throughout the cruise.
That night was our last dinner on the Disney Wish. We ate at the 1923 restaurant, which was fully decorated with everything from the beginning of Disney. They had many framed sketches from Snow White, Sword in the Stone, and nearly every other early Disney film. And there were plenty of sketches of Minnie and Mickey too.
Our meal there also included a small celebration for our parents’ anniversary, which would be later that month. We had a final hoorah with our servers and thanked them for their work and for taking care of us every evening.
After dinner, we went back to the theater one last time to see Aladdin. They made it interactive by having the audience boo or cheer, depending on whether a character entering the stage was one of the good or bad guys. We had some people sitting behind us who were entertaining to listen to.
Later that night, there was a silent disco. Of course, being the only one that had been to one before, I had to show Mom and Catherine what it was all about. Sarah went to check out the teenager area, and Dad apparently had a few gifts he wanted to pick out, so they didn’t join us until later.
Catherine and I had a great time jumping and dancing to all of the songs that played. Anyone who walked by the room would have heard many people loudly singing along to nothing. Everyone inside, however, was having the time of their lives. Catherine and I even did the Just Dance dance to Footloose (which we have memorized from the insane number of times we've done it).
After the disco, it was straight to bed for us (after finishing Pirates of the Caribbean, of course). We had to be up bright and early the next morning.
Day 6
We were all up and fully packed by 6:30 am and heading down to breakfast back at 1923 by 6:45 am. Disney tries to pack in as many cruises as possible since it was part of the Inaugural Sailing for the Disney Wish. This leads to a 4-night cruise (Monday to Friday) and a 3-night one (Friday to Monday) each week. For each cruise, the previous guests disembark by 8 am so the crew can clean the ship and prepare it for the next group of people before they board at 2 pm the same day.
Our servers were with us one last time for breakfast, and we thanked them again for an amazing dining experience. Once we were done eating, we grabbed all of our luggage and disembarked back at Cape Canaveral.
The same driver that brought us from Orlando was waiting for us at the port and brought us back to Orlando, specifically to Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort. After dropping our bags off with the bellhop, we hopped on a bus to Magic Kingdom.
We spent the morning running around Magic Kingdom and made sure to ride Splash Mountain one last time as they would be closing it the next week to start the renovations. We met Captain Hook, and Dad, of course, got his Pineapple Dole Whip (at 10 in the morning, mind you). In the afternoon, we watched the parade and got ready to go to Epcot for the rest of the day.
At Epcot, we rode on Guardians of the Galaxy, Test Track, and had dinner at the new Space 220 restaurant, which was a really cool experience. We watched the new water show on the lake, finished some snacks, and went back to the resort. One of my favorite things about staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort or the Riviera Resort is that the Skyliner is right there. It gives easy access to Hollywood Studios and Epcot without waiting for the bus.
We got our bags and tucked in for the night at the resort. It was shocking to some of us that we had been on the Disney Wish just that morning and still got a full day at the parks.
Day 7
The next morning was spent at Hollywood Studios. We went straight to the Star Wars area first. I bought a fantastic sweatshirt that I wear probably weekly (yes, even in the summer). Somehow we managed to get 2 Coaxium on Smuggler's Run. I had never been able to do any of the times I had ridden it.
Next was Muppet Vision 3D, which Catherine had never seen before. It was fun to see her reactions to all the goofy things that happened.
Afterward, it was back to Galaxy’s Edge to go on Rise of the Resistance. We always love messing with the cast members on that ride as much as possible.
We chose to spend some time at the pool back at the resort before heading to Magic Kingdom for the afternoon. I braided Sarah’s hair while Catherine swam around with her waterproof phone case, taking super cool underwater videos.
That evening, we were back in Magic Kingdom for dinner at the Crystal Palace. Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore were there for the Friendship Day Celebration!
We rode a few more rides before the night's end and returned to our hotel.
Day 8
Our last day at Disney World. We went to the Riviera Resort for breakfast with Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, and Donald up at Topolino’s Terrace. It was nice to see them again after seeing most of them on the Disney Wish cruise. We watched the characters dance several times before heading back toward the Skyliner.
Everyone but Mom got on the Skyliner to head to Hollywood Studios. Mom stayed behind at the resort for a bit. She had us checked out and put our bags with the bellhop for when we would return to head to the airport.
We rode on the Toy Story Mania at Hollywood Studios, and unfortunately, I failed to beat Dad. Once Mom joined us, we split up, and Sarah and I went to ride Rock’n Roller Coaster while the other three did another round on Smugglers Run. Sarah and I also got some fun pictures under the upside-down car outside Rock’n Roller Coaster.
Afterward, we grabbed a quick lunch and jumped on the Skyliner back to the resort. We collected our bags and waited for the Uber to pick us up and head to the airport.
All in all, yet another amazing Disney trip for our family, and Dad is already trying to plan the next one. It might not be on the Disney Wish again but we will not shy away from Disney Cruise Lines.