Wait for Wish or sail sooner?

[Mamabear247]

We have been dreaming of taking a Disney Cruise for a while, our girls are currently 3 and 5. I was hoping to wait for the New Ship "Wish" to debut. (As a somewhat typical millennial who likes all things shiny and new. LOL.) Now it seems so far off for girls to be 5 and 7. I'm wondering if we should consider sailing in 2021 when they are 4 and 6 as our budget will really only allow this trip to happen once (for at least a few years). I see the Wish will be very similar in size to the Dream and Fantasy, same number of cabins etc. I know it's impossible to know what the entertainment and other onboard ares will feature as of now. I'm also worried prices for Wish will be astronomical as it will be shiny and new. 

As background- we parents have cruised before, but never the kids. I would love for their first cruise to be Disney, but comparing prices across lines, I'm not sure. (And I'm not sure I want to wait another 2 years either!)

I don't want to wait till August when details might be released for Wish, just to end up booking for 2021 since prices will go up between now and then. 

 

Anyone else with the same thought process? Any input would be greatly appreciated. 

 

 

[Missus_Aitch]

FWIW, we've been on three of the Disney ships, and they all seem shiny and new!  I'm an early riser and saw people every day at the crack of dawn varnishing or painting this or that element on deck.  You really would never know any cruise wasn't the ship's maiden voyage.

[Oceansaway17]

Life is short and things can happen.

I say do a cruise in 2021 on Fantasy since the adult area area has best 2nd level pool in front of ship vs the Dream. Really nice area for relaxing that Dream does not have.

And then aim for 2023 or later for the NEXT ship which would be the 6th ship in fleet.

I loved the Fantasy ship a lot.

[ForMyBoys2015]

I vote for don't wait. 🙂  Also all 4 ships are fantastic so pick based on price, dates and itinerary.  And book a placeholder on board as you'll save 10% on next cruise if taken within 2 years.  

[cantgetin]

When the new ships come out, they will sail at top dollar and be very booked for the initial season.  I'm hoping that there might be some bargains on the existing ships when the new ones launch......yeah, I know...dream on.....

[bbwex]

I wouldn't necessarily wait for WISH to be out, but having taken grandchildren on two Disney cruises, I wonder if waiting two years might be better for the kids.  A three-year-old is not really going to appreciate nearly as much as a five-year-old.  For no other reason, IMHO I would wait a couple of years. 

[Tapi]

We are cruise fanatics, but I approached sailing on Disney as a “one time thing”. Admittedly, we are not big Disney fans, but still, I wanted to give my children the experience of sailing on a Disney ship. We finally pulled the trigger two years ago when they were 5 and 7 years old and took them on the Disney Fantasy. For a one time experience, I considered that age to be perfect. They were old enough to enjoy it and get into the Disney “magic”. I think that if we’d gone when my 5 year old was younger, she would’ve not fully appreciated the cruise; and if we’d waited until my 7 year old was older, he would’ve not embraced the magic as much as he did.

 

Overall, we had a fantastic cruise, and Disney truly delivers a wonderful product. I’m very glad we did a Disney Cruise when we did. But so far, I’m not changing my mind about sailing on Disney again. We’ve taken the kids on 11 cruises aboard 5 different cruise lines so far, and interestingly they don’t rank Disney as one of their best or most fun (which my wallet is secretly thankful for! 😂). Our last cruise (aboard the brand new Niew Statendam, which I was a bit concerned about for not being on a traditionally family-oriented cruise line), literally cost 1/4 what our Disney Cruise cost, and the kids came home raving about it and begging to return. Hard to justify going back to Disney taking into consideration those factors. 

Edited March 6, 2020 by Tapi