KatRangoon

59 minutes ago, ArthurUSCG said:

For us East coast people it's late, but if you came from the west coast and didn't time adjust yet, it is only 5:15 with food coming out around 5:45-6.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but we ate breakfast and lunch as the designated times for 1923 and Marcelline's and with lunch over around 1pm, that would mean the kids had to wait 8 hours till dinner. It was too much for my 8 and 18 year old. Getting Pizza or Chicken Tenders/Fries around 5 or 6 from the pool deck was necessary. We mainly went to the dinners for the shows. On 1923 and Pirate meal (but no show) night, we let the 8 year old play in the kids club. The Marvel show was amazing and worth it. We were hugely disappointed in Arendelle and couldn't see or hear anything.

13 hours ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

what time would late seating be on the Wish?

2nd seating on the wish is 8:15 which is horribly late for kids. The food doesn't end up being served until 8:45-9:00, so if you end up with that, make sure everyone has a 1st dinner or large snack around 5 from the quick service on the pool deck. 

11 hours ago, KINGBOBOFTHENORTH said:

I'm not aware that Mears has any service from Orlando Sanford International Airport. The airport website does list shuttle companies that do operate from there: https://flysfb.com/taxis-shuttles-rides/

It's buried at #10 on the Pre-arranged list you linked. Weird, I guess they're trying to be impartial by not listing it first even though it's one of the biggest. lol

Try Southwest if you're going from ATL to MCO, I often snag deals for $100 each way and includes baggage, which if you're taking a couple suitcases on Delta adds up fast!

I haven't been, but I agree with Mommb that it is included based off the price and description. If you're not sure, call or chat with Disney for clarification, they are very helpful with their shore excursions.

During the Aladdin show I was at last week, the Genie did some improv in his lines to keep things funny. For example, he made lots of comments about the ship, the port, and Deadpool which was coming out the next week. I don't remember if he said that particularly, but he talked to the audience so it wouldn't surprise me if he had them say something back to him on that ship.

Always arrive a day before if flying in. Don't be one of those people who miss the cruise because their plane was delayed! 

Also, bring a book or cards to entertain yourself and your kids. There is always down time between events and a game of uno or skipbo on a balcony is a great memory!

Members of the Events team will often go On-Duty with name tags but sometimes out of uniform to various shore excursions to make sure they are of quality, or will walk the Straw Markets/Main Streets to observe and answer questions. Off Duty crew will always have their name tags removed and be in casual wear. It's polite when you see someone off duty to not bother them as they like to be considered just another tourist.

Prohibited items are sometimes held and returned once back in port. I don't know if they'd do that for something cheap like a balloon though. If it's some sort of keepsake, I'd deflate it prior to arriving at Port and place it in your suitcase. It will probably go unnoticed as just a piece of plastic.

Uber/Lyft is the easiest. Mears Transportation is the local taxi/shuttle service for central Florida and they do Airport to Port transfers as well as hotel pickups.

If you've a car I highly recommend Shiloh's in Titusville. It's got a great view of the VAB, the Indian River (dolphins are frequently spotted), and the food is great.

On 7/20/2024 at 11:14 PM, daytona said:

Race Trac 8899 Astronaut Blvd, Cape Canaveral, FL 32920 will probably be your closest one. 

I usually use Race Trac heading to the port a couple of miles west at 2570 N Courtenay Pkwy, Merritt Island, FL 32953. 

 

Astronaut and Courtenay Pkwy have other stations also.

That Race Trac is a good safe one, we use it often.

We saw uber/lyft all over the place last week when we were at Terminal 8. Unfortunately it's a bit too far of a walk from 10 to 5. It shouldn't be hard to catch a ride though. You might even email/call the Port Authority, they might run a shuttle around there.

I'm from Orlando and there isn't a non car route to get you from one coast to the other. In a few years there is plan for a rail, but it's not here yet. It's almost a 4 hour drive, so you'd best rent a car. I doubt you'd even be able to find a uber that would take you. Possibly Mears Taxi might do it, but I bet it's more expensive than a rental. 

Also, my tip is make a small divert to get food/drink/bathroom in Coco. Don't drive straight from port thinking you'll see something on the way to Orlando (there is about 40 min of nothing after you leave Port till Orlando so it's worth the short backtrack), and again, there is a dry spell between Orlando and Lakeland, so pit stop accordingly. 

I'm local to Orlando and I would caution you away from the theme parks that week unless you have a fast pass and then it'll still be a headache. You're going on a cruise with probably a couple beach days so I don't know how many beach days you want, but Coco beach is great that time of year. It's also a great time to go dolphin/manatee watching if you like that sort of stuff and there are many pontoon boat tours that will take you around for that. Also Kayaks if you're adventurous. If you want to stay in Orlando and then take a shuttle/taxi/uber to the port, there are lots of fun things to do that aren't theme parks. Too many really to name. If you stay at one of the Rosen resorts on I-Drive, you'll be within walking distance of dinner theaters, Wonderworks, the Eye, arcades like Arcade Monsters, Dave and Busters, and Main Event, Ripley's Belive it or not, several themed mini golfs,  etc etc. 

I don't remember any characters scheduled on board the ship during shore days. They did have character meets on Castaway Cay but that's Disney's Island so that's different. On shore days the ship becomes a ghost town, so you don't miss much.

We were just on the Wish and there was no Formal Night. It's all very casual. The Buffet is closed during dinner time, but they do have a fast food type setup open in the evenings on the pool deck. Usually it was Pizza or Burgers/Fries. There was also a sports bar that served appetizers in the evening (but you have to pay) and room service was pretty quick when we ordered.

Hey all, we just got back from the Disney Wish, port days in Nassau and Castaway Cay. I'm a Florida Local as well, and happy to answer any questions. Here's my review I wrote up for reference. 🙂

We've taken a variety of cruise lines for reasons such as affordability, destination, the group we were going with, and room size. We specifically chose a Disney Cruise for a family experience that we thought a 8 year old, 18 year old, and 40 yr olds could enjoy together. We were unfortunately completely disappointed with the experience and can't recommend Disney Cruises for 18-20year olds or adults that can't have alcohol (in our case, I'm currently on meds that the smallest amount of alcohol makes me crazy loopy!).

The Good: 
The Service. The dining staff and our room attendant was the best part of the cruise. Very attentive, remembered us, was always anticipating our needs. They're really the reason this cruise wasn't rated a 2/5. 

The Room. We had a balcony, and while with 4 in the room it was tight, it was always clean. Having a separate bath/shower was fantastic. We also enjoyed having the choice of Disney movies, shows, and songs on our TV (though little quibble, there was no Disney+ so we couldn't watch the finale of The Acolyte when it aired). Free Room Service was also nice. We didn't use it but once, but it was nice that it was there as an option.

Random Character Encounters. Our 8 year old loved seeing the Disney characters randomly on the ship, be it waving from a balcony or walking down the hall to an event. They were always engaging with the kids and my little one lit up each time. A surprise cameo at the Marvel Dinner show was especially exciting.

Theater Stage Shows. We saw The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, and both shows were short enough to hold everyone's attention and tell a fun and engaging story. They were great productions and well performed.

The Aquamouse. The water coaster was a lot of fun, my kids loved the little movie inside the tunnel. It was open on Sea day, which some cruise lines close their slides when the ship is moving so that was a nice surprise. 

The Could Have Been Good but Disappointed:

The Kids Club. This was one of the big draws to this Disney Cruise. It's advertised as basically a day camp for kids where they get to meet characters and do activities with them all day. No parents are allowed inside, but we got to see it in a open house and it looked magical. Events are listed in the schedule so we know when to drop them off so they don't miss things like Story Time with Belle or Star Wars Creatures with Rey and Chewbacca. What they don't tell you is there is little to no organization inside the kids club. Once you drop them off, they run around in a sort of free play recess. If they're playing video games or simulators or running around playing tag or hide and seek with the other kids they don't automatically do the listed kid events. There is no way to sign them up for them, or make sure they attend. Several times when we picked our 8 year old up after we had dropped them off to attend a event inside the club we discovered she didn't attend it because she forgot or was in line for the video game and didn't want to lose her place. The events she did attend, we have no photos of. We bought the photo package and figured they would be taking pictures of the events and meets inside the kids club and we could see her experiences though that, but no, there was no evidence she was ever even at the club in our photos. The kids club could have been the best part of the cruise, but it's unorganized structure and lack of photos just made it a place for parents to dump their kids off at, instead of the magical memory making event space it could have been.

Arendelle Stage Show. My kids are big Frozen fans, especially of Olaf. The reason we chose WISH over other Disney cruises were the emphasis on Marvel, Star Wars, and Frozen. The Arendelle Dinner Show was on our last night of the cruise and the one my 8 year old had been waiting for. She couldn't wait to see Olaf (for some reason they didn't have a Olaf meet on the cruise, but I promised her she'd see him at dinner). Unfortunately, we were seated near the back of the dining room with the stage barely raised off the floor. We were also seated with a table of Adults in front of us who could care less about the show and attempted to talk OVER the show the entire time. We could only see the human performers heads from where we sat, and only caught snippits of song choruses. The human performers did a quick walk/wave past the table of adults at one point but never looked over at where we were. We never saw Olaf. I told my kid he was off playing with Sven that night and couldn't come. She was heartbroken because we'd been talking about seeing him all week. (At that point I thought I was crazy and had imagined pictures of him as part of the show, but when I got home I looked it up and videos of people up close to the low stage show he's on the stage for most of the show, just that he's short.) This was so poorly set up, it was infuriating. The stage should have been set up higher, with Olaf on a higher platform (maybe an ice sculpture or even just a table). Screens projecting the show could have been placed on the back walls for those that didn't have a good view (they did this for the Marvel show and it worked great!). They should have made an announcement for people to keep their voices down during the performance, and had the mics turned up more. They could have placed families with children near the front so the kids could see. So many little things could have been done to address huge problems that they obviously have to know about after running the show for 2 years.  

The Not Random Character Encounters:  What my 8 year old didn't enjoy was waiting in line for 30-45 min to meet a character and after we did it twice, she didn't want to meet any other characters, even her favorite Donald Duck.  Coming from Florida and used to theme park lines I understand the line ride is a necessity, but they could have made it magical for the kids by providing them an activity or had the meets in a location showing a Disney movie or doing a sing along or something. Also, it was aggravating that there were more ADULTS in these lines than kids and they often took longer than the kids as they needed to tell the character their life story and get videos and multiple phone/camera shots for their blogs etc. Having adult only meets in the adult areas might have solved this. Also having pictures taken with characters in the Kids Club could have shortened the line as well. 

Small Bars/Cafes. I loved the idea of the Hyperspace Lounge and Tiana's Bayou. Both small themed areas that ended up being a huge disappointment. The Bayou had delicious Beignets, perfectly in theme with Tiana's, but they had no coffee to go with them! They only served alcohol or root beer, which did not fit with Beignets at all. We had to bring a coffee from another cafe when we went back a second time for the beignets. Hyperspace was even more disappointing. They didn't have any bar food to order and only had 2 non-alcoholic drinks (an oat milk drink - eww, and a shirly temple type drink mix that couldn't be adjusted and since I have a pineapple allergy wasn't an option). They didn't even serve soda. It had been one of the draws of the entire ship when choosing a cruise and we left without ordering anything, completely dejected. 

The Overall Bad/Disappointing: 
Small Events/Programming. I really got the feeling that this ship only focused on providing daycare for kids and catering to adults who would buy alcohol. I've mentioned the lack of non-alcoholic drinks in the specialty locations, but it's also very evident in the programming. There were tons of daily drinking events you could pay for (types of rum, wine tastings, mixology etc), but nothing for the family like lightsaber building, cooking classes, imagineering activities etc. There were some free events like trivia scattered throughout the day, but a lot of those were 18+ because they were in bars even though there was nothing questionable about the subject material. Those events even felt limited because they were often during evening show/dinner time or after 10pm when we needed to get the kid to bed. It often felt like we were being funneled up to the pool deck to either eat or swim out of boredom. With everyone feeling that way though the pools were almost always overfull and the dining areas crowded. We are used to always being able to find live music somewhere on the ship we could sit and listen to between activities, but there only seemed to be one or two live performances each day, and those were mostly at night. Many times we just aimlessly wandered with nothing to do while we waited for our assigned theater show or dinner.

1820 Society. I'm pulling this out separately because this was also one reason we picked Disney over other cruise lines. We have a 18 year old. They are too old to be in the Teen Club and too young for the Drinking activities. When we saw that Wish had a club for the 18-20 year olds we were excited. I was hoping for activities like video game tournaments, young adult Karaoke, organized sports, age appropriate Trivia, etc. It was a horrible let down. They had one event each day, which was a 10pm meeting, lunch in Marceline's, a bike ride on castaway cay, and another lunch. My 18 year old went to the 10pm meeting the first night, said a couple people were awkwardly sitting around, and that was it. They were visibly upset when they returned to the room and didn't want to go to the boring lunches because they didn't see a point since they weren't doing anything. So my 18 year old was too old to do any of the fun activities the 17 year olds were doing, but too young to do well in most of the trivia since it was geared for older adults, and too young to do any of the drinking activities. 

Random Let downs: 
The Incredibles Obstacle Course in all the promotional materials was out only once, when everyone was on shore at the Bahamas. The kids never got to go on it. 

No Arcade. While never listed, it seems like an obvious thing to have on a kid centric ship and the other cruise ships we've been on have had a arcade as part of their casino. A Dave and Busters/Main Event style arcade room with Disney themed Pinball, arcade, and VR games would have made a ton of money from our family, we easily would have dropped a couple hundred a day there going back several times a day when we had a half our or hour between events. 

Dining Times. Having the 2nd Main dining time at 8:15pm is ridiculous on a family cruise. The first course was never delivered until 8:45-9pm and we didn't get out of dinner until about 10pm each night. We would have to go to the quick service for pizza or fries or something around 5 just to keep everyone from starving. Most other ships we've been on have had a 5 and 7 dinner service, and while the 7pm wasn't great, it's a lot better than a 8:15 one. 

Navigator App/Magic Bands Magic Bands are all over the website and App about how once you have it for the cruise it does everything. So we bought 4 for around $200 even though most other cruise lines give you the medallions for free. Then found them pretty useless. Yes they opened doors, but you still needed the door card issued you to turn on the lights. When you went to pay, they asked for your card, and if you showed your band, they would just kind of sigh and then have you take off the band so they could take it to their register to scan. You still had to have your card when you went off the boat even though it says the band will work instead. Yes your kid needs the band for tracking inside the kids club, but they give your kid one for free if they don't have one. Speaking of tracking unlike on other cruise ships, while they have the technology to show location of family wearing the band (see previous comment about using it in the kids club) they don't have it on the navigator app, so we never knew where anyone was unless we texted them. The bands would also glow randomly, but there was no information in the app explaining why. They were also supposed to be important to activating the interactive element of the Marvel dinner show, but they had buttons to push since most people didn't have the bands. 

Overall, it was just plain disappointing. We picked this cruise because of the Magical Family Experience, but in the end felt like execution had much to be desired and themed experiences were some of the weakest elements. We will not be recommending the Wish for families in general, but may recommend it for parents with young Mickey's Clubhouse loving kids who don't like Frozen or other Disney IPs. 

Nassau is the worst. The people are rude and pushy and honestly a bit scary the way they try and bully you into their cars for "tours". If you go, I highly recommend not leaving the ship on your own and only going on a tour booked by Disney as they will take you to and from the excursion (if you've kids, we loved Blackbeard's Pirate Ship cruise). 

We loved Cozumel when we went though watch the port time. Some cruises have only about 6 hours there and depending on where you dock, you might have to take a boat to get to the main areas and that sucks about an hour each way from your time.  

I was just on the Wish and we bought 4 because the advertisements say it greatly enhances the experience. We found it to be basically useless. Yes you can use them for your room key, but you need the key card to turn on the lights in the room. Plus everywhere asks for the card for food/drinks so you have to keep taking it off. The kids club will give the kids one for free to use if they don't have one. The Port asked for our room key as well. 

It did glow randomly during the cruise, we thought maybe it had to do with location or events, but sometimes it wouldn't glow when we expected it to, so who knows. 

Hi Mike, if the family is all coming from the midwest and possibly flying from KCI, the airfare to Orlando is very reasonable, and you can charter a van taxi that can take you from the airport to the port, or if you stay on disney property the day before they have affordable shuttles. 

My concern like everyone else is the senior's missing school. I have a 18 yr old who just graduated HS and her schedule was packed with SAT testing, college tours, etc in the Fall. Also, I don't know when their 18th birthday is, but once they turn 18 they can't go to the Teen Kid's club. Mine was 18 and was bored on the Wish. Everything was geared towards 21+. 

If you do book on a Disney Cruise, book those kid's activities ASAP. Olaf's Lunch and the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique sell out super fast!

With that large a group, I might suggest letting the parents decide on the shore excursions and the option of splitting up. There are a lot of fun options for older kids and some designed specifically for younger ones. If you're looking for entire family recommendations we all loved the glass bottom boat.

What is this duck hiding/finding game and what are the rules? I've never heard of such a thing!

13 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

If you're off the ship in port for 8 hours a day, that means you're on the ship for 16 hours a day.  If you sleep 8 hours, that leaves you 8 hours to drink.  If you have a single drink every TWO hours, that's four drinks per day, which gives you your monies worth.  But you have your  math and I have mine 

 

Yup, different math. 4 drinks for me means 2 fancy coffees (say $5 each) and 2 cans of soda (no more than $3 each). So that's $16 for me. 

I also enjoy a fair bit of water to stay hydrated and that is thankfully free. 🙂

Oh yum! Where on the ship can I get that yummy Guac and Salsa!?!

22 hours ago, wolfie11 said:

But not the good games like Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, or some of the newer ones.  

These are much more our style. Planning on packing Fluxx, Splendor, Unstable Unicorns, Carcassonne, and a few others if they will fit.