Don’t they do the shows twice?
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Similar. We did Alaska on Princess and I liked Alaska but boat not so much. Did Disney and was blown away. I’ve done three total Disney cruises and two royal Caribbean. Did not like either Royal Caribbean but liked all the Disney ones. So I hope you enjoy! Our new rule is if it ain’t Disney or like Viking or something like that we’re not doing it. I got invited on a margaritaville cruise by a good friend and I’m like sorry. Something else some other time? lol.
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I get it. You’re in the land like Jeff of always being around kids. So being without them is weird. As they age you get used to the alone time. It’s hard at first because they are your whole life in the same way that becoming a parent is hard at first when all the sudden you have zero freedom including with your own body if you’re breastfeeding them. Then one day kids is just the norm and is your life and the idea of being without them does not sound alright. But eventually it’s kind of nice. Especially when they’re older teens and cranky with you. Lol
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They do. We just prefer to be able to relax and watch the show after dinner. It doesn’t feel like evening entertainment to me if I have to go before dinner! Personal preference definitely.
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Yes, and for me the rhythm was off when we did the later dinner, show first. Because the dinner takes longer than the shows do, when we did the later seating, I felt like there was dead space between the show and dinner. Not really enough time for an activity, and harder to keep the group together. Whereas, when you do dinner first, the time gap is shorter, and you can pretty much head toward seating for the show with just a quick trip to the shops on the way or something similar. YMMV, of course.
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Absolutely, we would often head up to grab drinks from the pool deck, maybe go to the cabin to change to more casual clothes and then go straight to the show.
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The reason I said I would choose late dining if I didn’t have kids is because I would rather feel more relaxed at dinner. Sometimes we felt rushed due to activities between dinner and the show, like trick or treating.
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I wholeheartedly endorse late dining. We do late dining even with kids.
Since their first cruise was DCL with great shows, I knew they’d stay awake and alert for food, but they could have gotten tired early and drifted off if show second.
What I also found was we like to stay at our beach excursions as long as possible. When we cruise other lines we rarely bother with the “entertainment,” and I don’t like to rush for dinner.
Three of my 10 cruises have been sans kids. I strongly prefer the ones with kids. I’ve never had a bad cruise. I hope you have a wonderful time.
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There’s just so little to do on DCL! I want more fun things like ropes courses and waterslides and and and. But I do love the characters! 
My girls ask pretty much every day if I think we can take a cruise this year. DH and DS23 are doing NCL in May to celebrate his graduation… I may squeeze something in in August but I won’t commit yet. 
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Not true! We were pretty darn busy on the Destiny (just got off this morning, 4 night cruise) as it is packed with things to do. We didn’t have any real time to just sit and relax, and that was with a cancelled port day Saturday. Of course we visit the adult lounges a bunch.
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I love the Wish! I hope you end up loving it too!
I am very much a member of the late dinner fan club. It feels like we get a more relaxing afternoon having the show go first, dinner second. And to make sure that any kids who may not make it through dinner awake eat and to stave off everyone else from feeling starving at any point, we get a snack at the pool deck food sometime between 3-4pm ish.
As for what to do on the ship: Definitely do the ship tour (the artwork is phenomenal all over).
I triple recommend enjoying the Rose Bar (whether or not you get a Palo booking) because the views from there are the best of any of the ships and spaces on them.
Also, Match Your Mate is really a fun highlight and popular later night adult only activity (but it will likely be packed so definitely go a little early to find your seat). But any of the entertainment games/trivias, etc. will be fun including bingo/trivias mentioned.
A little less priority for an adult trip, but we also loved trying the open house at the Oceaneer club, but especially the day the ship was docked at Castaway because it was DEAD and we had the place to ourselves and could play the 2 interactive band games without waiting or being cut in line. We liked both of those over the scavenger hunt game on the app that just never quite seemed to work (and hasn’t worked well for us on any of the newer ships even though we’ve attempted to play it every single cruise we’ve done on the newer ships).
The games specific to the Oceaneer club are a Marvel Suit experience in the Avengers room and a build your own coaster experience in the Walt Disney Imagineering room that both use the MagicBand+/DisneyBand+ technology to track your progress and there are levels to play and experience.
If you want to dedicate more of your Castaway Day to the island and don’t want to spend time in the kids club that day, there are other open house times too (the first afternoon and then sometimes an hour or so in the mornings). They just are much harder to play the games on and you may have to wait in a line (and the Marvel one might not be available because they usually use that open house time to have a character meet there). But you can explore the entire club area which has so much fun Disney stuff, a Belle library mini replica as well as a Rapunzel themed room and Anna & Elsa Summerhaus themed room - also with another interactive mini-game that works on the band, a model of the ship and some of the concept artwork and other fun pieces from Disney parks in the Walt Disney Imagineering area.
With 3 days, I would definitely stick to minimal or no bookings. Palo would be a good one but I wouldn’t try to find anything else, including the spa. It’s nice and a beautiful space, but with only 3 days you really want to keep yourself open to being able to pivot and do all the fun things that aren’t tied to a booking.
And finally, one thing I haven’t seen mentioned yet that was one of my highlights on the Wish, the midnight goodnight kiss with the chandelier lighting show. It’s a very short lighting show in the atrium that’s Cinderella themed (except for Pirate night when it’s Peter Pan/Pirate themed) and plays at 10 or 11pm and also midnight. It’s my favorite way to end a day and was magical and serene watching the midnight one each night on the Wish. You may see people laying flat down on the floor under the chandelier to see the show from that vantage point and if it doesn’t weird you out, you can join them! (I’m always joining in on watching from the floor).
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Ok. Fair enough. FOR ME & DH there isn’t enough to do.
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You did the Destiny?!?!?! Is there a thread you’ve put up any pictures or recaps in???
I feel the same as you that all the ships are jam-packed with activities but the Destiny was EVEN MORE SO packed with things and entertainment. Like, I had no time for anything and 4 days was not nearly enough. So I’m glad we have another 4 days on the same ship in a few more months!
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We went to Palo last night. The food was great, and more importantly it was a quieter dining experience for our last night. And we saw our previous Palo waiter from the Wish, he is now on the Destiny. Of course @Julianne_fki recognized him as she is skilled this way.
By the way, the Destiny was pretty fabulous. Such a fun experience, the Marvel adult only show with those fabulous Storytellers Gamble and Zaya and the Treble making with Cruella in De Vils were the highlights for me. Loved the shows too, Hercules had some tech issues but it was such a good show. The actor portraying Hercules was 
. So much fun and kind of sad it’s over.
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Yes! We just got off this morning and are currently all travelling home. No trip report, though might throw something together once home.
Only thing we didn’t care for was the port experience today, and FLL. So stressful! Not the Disney part, but once you hit the non Disney owned parts. Getting an Uber/Lyft was impossible and the airport is a disaster. Much prefer Port Canaveral and MCO.
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Good call out with the midnight chandelier show! I haven’t seen that in person, but I’ve seen about it on social media, and I would love that! Do they do that on any other ships, or just the Wish?
I begin to think this might be a good topic for @magiccox 
the case for early/late dining on DCL.
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The Wish and the other ships in its same class (so same layout and bones with different themes/overlays). The Treasure has an Aladdin themed show and the Destiny has a Marvel/Black Panther show (each matches the atrium statue). The Wish’s is by far my favorite. The Destiny though is really cool because it’s Marvel and because they went like 10000x on the lighting for the atrium so it looks stunning. The Treasure’s was a lot more muted and subtle both the music & the lighting but still a nice touch. And the better showcase of the atrium lighting on the Treasure was the final goodbye show at 10pm on the last night
Which oooh reminds me, I forgot to mention this - there is a goodbye show at 10pm in the atrium and they have allll the characters there and you can do speed meets with a bunch of them - no photographers just you take your own with your phone so you can snag any last photos/do any last meets - for about 10 maybe 15 min. And then they do a little bit of a farewell show with the atrium using the same lighting system as the chandelier show to light up and for the Wish they tie in wishing and bringing the wishing star to life in that. So it’s cute and a little last touch of Disney magic to send you on your way.
And similar to that, you’ll want to be able to hear the horn on sailaway so even if you skip the chaos and party of the deck party, be somewhere on an open deck to hear the horn. I think it’s magical.
And one other quiet spot I meant to mention but didn’t was the Chip & Dale pool on Deck 14 forward. It’s out of the way and is all ages, but it’s a nice spot to be able to get a more quiet pool space with ample deck seating. And great views!
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Same same same! Although we flew to MIA not FLL so I can’t say I hate FLL (yet, I think we’re going to fly there in June). And the terminal at FLL for the Destiny was very lovely but also didn’t like it outside of the Disney terminal part.
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Thank you so much for all of these tips! I will definitely seek out the midnight goodnight kiss. And I agree… we are trying not to overschedule but to leave space to try lots of things on the ship. We do not plan to get off at Nassau and also plan to keep our Castaway Cay time short (just relax at the adults only area, try some food there, and do the 5K), so the Oceaneer club is a great suggestion for that afternoon.
I am getting SO excited…. and the good news of booking with such short notice is that I don’t have long to wait!
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I would suggest the opposite for the same reason. We had the island to ourselves twice later in the day.
Keep checking especially just before the cut off to book at 3 days before the cruise. I feel people drop stuff around then.
Yes!
It’s the perfect amount of time to hit a lounge 
I second this!
That Wakanda music made it my favorite 
(well of the 2 I’ve done )
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