Port Canaveral
On our Disney Cruise with Alex and Bethany, we took advantage of their reduced deposit placeholder offer. With the launch of the Disney Wish, we decided to take a short weekend break to make Platinum status and cruise on the fifth ship. We got up early Friday morning and made the drive to Port Canaveral, stopping again at Water's Edge for breakfast and then heading to the port. Check-in was easy but we had to sit around the terminal until after noon to board. Next time we won't bother with the 11AM port arrival time and just choose a later time so we don't have to sit in the terminal. We got lucky and had made our way up to the end of boarding group 1 and the attendant told group 2 could board before they made the general announcement.
Boarding the Wish
We headed up the gangway onto deck three and were welcomed as the Gray Family into the three story atrium of the Disney Wish.
Lunch in Arendelle
We opted to skip the buffet for lunch and instead went to Arendelle where a sit-down lunch was being served. Arendelle is one of the three themed restaurants on the Disney Wish, themed obviously after the movie Frozen, although to J. R., it looked like a themed German restaurant. The food was very good. Both of us had the Beef Empanadas for an appetizer. J. R. had the seafood and chicken gumbo and the beef sirloin while Janie had the chicken caesar salad. She finished off her meal with the no-sugar-added chocolate marquise bombe.
Lunch Menu
Rapunzel
A unique feature of the Disney Wish atrium as opposed to the other ships is the stage that is built above the atrium. Throughout the voyage, characters would appear there, including Rebecca's favorite, Rapunzel on day one.
The Bayou
Another difference between the Wish and the other Disney ships is that the bars and lounges are not tucked away into a unique space, but instead spread throughout the ship like other on other cruise ships. We liked this better since we rarely went to the bars on the Dream and Fantasy. One of these lounge spaces is called the Bayou and themed after Princess and the Frog. We sat at the bar where Janie had a Hurricane and J. R. tried the Smoked Fashioned. At first he was disappointed it was not smoked in front of him and had little smoky smell but then the bartender apparently figured out the smoker and brought over the box and smoked the drink correctly. We never tried the beignets but heard they were good.
Bayou Menu
Wandering the Wish
After our drink, we decided to walk around the ship before Janie headed to her Champagne tasting. On the Wish, the shops were separated with Mickey's Mainsail on deck 5 and the jewelry shops on Deck 3. Belle was now hanging out in the atrium balcony. We stopped by the Keg and Crown, which was not open and Luna, the two-story lounge and entertainment space and checked out the Worlds of Marvel restaurant entranceway and the cinemas. We went up to deck 11 to visit the Marceline Market and were happy with our decision to eat downstairs. There was woefully inadequate seating and the u-shaped design of the buffet lines, combined with the seating made for tight corridors between the people trying to get food and those trying to pass by with their food. We stopped in the sweet shop and looked at all the gelato but never tried any, since in general we don't like paying extra for food when there is food to be had for free.
The Stateroom
J. R. headed to the stateroom to pick up our Keys to the World while Janie was tasting champagne in Nightingales. He was disappointed the television only showed us as a "Valued Guest" but later it changed to say "Gray Family". He found the on-demand channel and put on The Avengers while waiting for Janie to return. Our luggage had still not arrived by the time we had to leave for the muster drill. DCL had returned to the dreaded in-person drill so we headed down to outside the Senses Spa to congregate. This did give us a chance to check out the Rainforest Room, which was very nice and included an outdoor area. We didn't ask about the pricing for this trip but would do it again on a longer voyage. We checked in at our station, got in our little lines and listened for the distress signal and then learned for the 30th time how to don a life jacket.
Hyperspace Lounge
We pushed our way through the crowd trying to go up in order to get to deck 3 and the Star Wars Hyperspace Lounge. We had hoped it might be less crowded after the drill and before sailaway but it was not. We were able to find two seats at a low table but we really couldn't see the view screen with all of the people crowded around the bar. Janie ordered The Golden One from the Moons of Endor while J. R. went with the Berken's Flow from Mustafar. His drink was topped with a smoke bubble, which was cool, but also shaved coconut, which he did not like because he doesn't like chewing his drinks.
Hyperspace Lounge Menu
Sailaway
We headed back to the room to see if our luggage had arrived and it had not. The ship was starting to sailaway but we decided to skip the party on deck and just watch out our porthole. We were going to go get another drink and as we walked down the hall, J. R. saw a set of luggage near one of the crew doors and saw our bag so he grabbed it and we took it back to the room to unpack. We guessed that maybe security saw Janie's hair curlers and our phone cables and thought there was something illegal inside and so they held our bag. This made more sense when we saw our TSA-approved lock set to 000 when we set it to a random number when we left.
Dinner
After unpacking, we changed for dinner and went back to the Bayou, which was the only open bar. Janie ordered a glass of wine and it took forever to arrive, finally showing up after 15 minutes with just five minutes before our dinner time. This would prove to be the norm at any of the bars if you didn't sit at the bar.
We arrived at our dinner table in 1923 and saw were seated at a six-top. We were concerned we would be seated again with a family with small children but were delighted when two other childless couples joined our table. We had a good time talking with them throughout dinner and were actually a little bummed that they had adult dining plans the next night and would not be joining us, although Susan 2 (both women were named Susan) joined us for dinner the third night and both her and her husband Pano had breakfast with us on the last morning. 1923 was a classic restaurant with a lot of gold accents and artwork from various Disney movies, especially Beauty and the Beast. It would be the only quiet dining experience.
1923 Menu
Show and Cognac Tasting
After dinner, we went to the Disney Seas The Adventure show in the theatre. This would be the only show we attended as we find we don't enjoy the retellings of Disney movies with the same songs we've heard so many times. After the show, we had a cognac tasting with Jennifer in Marceline Market. We sampled four cognacs, Hennessy XO, Martell XO and Remy Martin XO and finally a French Connection, which is 1/2 oz. of Grand Marnier and 1 oz. Camus XO. Adding two drops of lemon juice would make that a Sidecar. Jen did a great job with the seminar. We preferred to Martell and the Remy Martin over the spicier Hennessy.
Night on the Wish
We attended the Silent Dance Party in Luna after our tasting. The event was fun, but way too short at 45 minutes and having the hosts count down every 15 minutes was annoying. Ending it early did not make sense since afterward was another dance party anyway.
