Disney Cruise!! What ship should I choose & What Age is best???


 


As you probably know we are OBSESSED with Disney Cruises and have been cruising for almost 10 years with our family.  Our first cruise was when our son was 2 years old on the Disney Wonder and now we have sailed on all 5 of the ships.  Here is my post on what ship should I choose!

I would love to hear other peoples thoughts as well!  This post will do an overview of each ship and also a guide to best ages to take a cruise (spoiler alert-- we love ALL ships and ALL ages).

Part 1: Which Ship should I choose? For younger kids I would start with Magic/ Wonder depending on your chosen itinerary; for older kids I would do Fantasy/ Dream ships or the Wish.




DISNEY MAGIC (1998) - capacity 2700; this was refurbished in 2018 to add Rapunzel's Royal Table

- Restaurants include: Rapunzel's Royal Table (with appearances by the whole cast), Lumiere's, and Animator's Palate

- If you are a Tangled fan this is the ship for you.  The show is Tangled the musical.

- Waterslides include the twist & spout (kid friendly) and the Aqua Dunk (48" required) that dumps you straight down in a tube off of a platform (major wedgie alert).  

- New renovations to the concierge level slated for 2023.

- We LOVE this ship for any ages and good first ship as it is easy to navigate.





DISNEY WONDER (1999) - capacity 2700

- Restaurants include Tiana's Place, King Tritons, and Animators Palate (drawings change on the walls, mickey mouse parade at the end)

- Only one waterslide (twist & spout- kid friendly), but pools & splash pad available

- Current entertainment: Frozen musical show

- This was our FIRST cruise so I think would be great to start with this as a smaller ship especially if you have younger kids that would enjoy the Splash Pad and not into waterslides yet.  

- I have heard this is the BEST ship for Concierge level

- This was renovated in 2019 but mostly sails to Alaska (likely due to least number of pool amenities)



DISNEY DREAM (2011) - capacity 4000

- Restaurants include: Animators Palate with interactive Crush, Royal Court, and Enchanted Gardens.  I would consider these the "classic" Disney Cruise restaurants. In addition to Palo, another adult only restaurant Remy is available for an additional fee.

- The Dream features the AquaDuck slide (42" required) which is a fun tube/ raft slide that goes around the whole ship; also has the Mickey slide for younger (38" and age 4 - 14); and Nemo's reef with small slide for little ones.  My kids LOVE the AquaDuck.

-  Current show is Beauty and the Beast

- Midship detective agency onboard is great for sea-days

- We love the Dream for longer trips due to increased amenities (sports deck) and more pool activities for older kids.

- We also enjoy the Royal Court Tea on this ship





DISNEY FANTASY (2012) - capacity 4000 

- Restaurants include: Animators Palate with interactive Crush, Royal Court, and Enchanted Gardens.  I would consider these the "classic" Disney Cruise restaurants. In addition to Palo, another adult only restaurant Remy is available for an additional fee.

- The Dream features the AquaDuck slide (42" required) which is a fun tube/ raft slide that goes around the whole ship; also has the Mickey slide for younger (38" and age 4 - 14); and Nemo's reef with small slide for little ones.  My kids LOVE the AquaDuck.

-  Current show is Frozen

- Midship detective agency onboard is great for sea-days

- We love the Fantasy for longer trips due to increased amenities (sports deck) and more pool activities for older kids.

- We also enjoy the Royal Court Tea on this ship



DISNEY WISH (2022)

- Restaurants include: 1923 (people dress up in Flapper clothes), Arendale (includes a show with all of your Frozen friends), and Marvel (includes video & show-- recommend watching Ant-Man prior). In addition to Palo the higher end adult-only restaurant is called Enchante.  I think these are the most fun restaurants due to the interactions/ show.

- Special event is the Picnic with Olaf

- We enjoyed this ship and it is the newest (so far).  

- The elevators got backed up because they are very small

- Most itineraries are only 3 - 4 nights to Nassau at this point.

- The Wish features the AquaMouse water raft ride which we loved.  We may have just stayed on the raft and rode it continuously for an hour.

- Shows include: the Little Mermaid which we loved.



In summary-- any ship you cruise will be magical! We love all of the ships for different reasons.  If possible I recommend doing a longer trip on an older ship when comparing similarly priced itineraries.  We have the Treasure booked for 2025 so updates to come :)

Part 2: What age is best to go?

Answer: Any age-- but I will highlight below pros and cons.

  • In utero. I do not recommend if possible.
    • Pros: FREE (j/k) you can cruise up to 24 weeks pregnant. After that you cannot board the ship due to the inability to transport you to an NICU if you go into labor.  This is important to consider when planning your trip around childbearing years
    • Cons: Motion sickness is WAY worse when you are pregnant, also you cannot drink or do crazy waterslides, I also avoided hot tubs when I was newly pregnant.  
  • Ages birth to 3 years.  I recommend this age.  Many people avoid cruising at these ages due to inability to go to the Kids Club but we LOVED cruising during the baby/toddler age because TRAVEL is HARD and cruising is EASY :) 
    • Pros: You can go back to your room literally ANY time to take naps (for kids and for yourself), they have food available ALL the time, it is the most incredible service-- when we brought my daughter they would make her smoothies (home-made baby food) and go above and beyond to accommodate for us; it is very stroller friendly; you will not be disturbing anyone when your baby is crying; the rooms are very soundproof.  The rocking of the ship is one of the 5 S's for sleep (if you know you know).  You can use the nursery and go to the spa.  You do not need to plan anything.
    • Cons: Your child cannot use the pools until they are potty trained (no swim diapers allowed) but there are splash pads that they can use, you have to pay $$ for the nursery as they are too young for the "kids club", they may not know the characters-- but my kids loved the classic Mickey/ Minnie/ Goofy at this age. 
  • Ages 3 to 8 years.  I recommend very highly.  This is the age where Disney is truly magical
    • Pros: Everything is magical.  They can go to the kids club and you can go to the spa.  My daughter loved going to "stories with Belle" and Belle would come and read her stories.  My son did not like the kids club by himself but once he had his sister to "watch" they loved running around and doing all of the activities and meeting all of the characters.  The dinners are fun, the shows are fantastic and you can just go to the beach and play in the sand.
    • Cons: With all the free time I spend much more money on spa, drink tastings, adult dinners etc.  Also because they are so into characters we have to wait in more lines to meet them and do the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique. But real cons: they are too young to do some of the excursions.
  • Ages 8 to 11 years. I highly recommend at this age.  Time to check out some of the specialty cruises.
    • Pros: If you are comfortable kids can wander around the ship and do activities independently.  You can do more excursions at these ages. 
    • Cons: My son does not believe the characters are "real" and thinks they are just actors in costumes so refuses to do any of the photo ops :(
  • Ages: 30 years plus.  Highly recommend
    • My parents LOVE Disney cruises because there are so many amenities.  The food is decent and the service in incomparable so for those used to luxury travel this is great.  Also for those with mobility issues it is so convenient.  My mom is booked to come with us in December and August at age 79.  
As you can see any age can benefit from Disney Cruising and it is a wonderful multigenerational trip!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Glacier National Park

Image
We took a 6 day trip to Glacier National Park this summer and I cannot recommend it highly enough.  One of my favorite places I have ever been! OVERVIEW: I recommend going in the summer.  The temperatures were in the 70s to 80s during the day and 40s to 50s at nighttime.  You cannot even drive the going to the sun road until mid-June due to snow.  We had above normal temperatures for the first few days but it was still incredible. There are two "sides" to Glacier National Park the East Side (St. Mary) and West Side (West Glacier).  Connecting the two sides is a road called the going to the sun road and takes about 2.5 hours to drive from one side to the other.  That's why we chose to split our trip to 2 nights on the East side and 2 nights on the West side to minimize driving and experience all that Glacier has to offer. I thought 5 days was perfect for the amount of time, but I think you could do longer or shorter depending on the number of hikes and activ...
Read more

Paris Trip in April 2023

Image
We spent Spring Break this year in Paris! It was incredible and I highly recommend as a first overseas trip for families.  We were concerned about the recent protests and strikes going on from the Pension age changing to 64 and no-confidence vote last week but everything was fine and these will likely occur for several months: DO NOT WORRY!  I found this website to be the most helpful for next Nationwide Strike days: https://worldinparis.com/transport-in-france-strike-news-tips-for-traveling-to-paris WHEN TO GO: We loved going in April because we had some sunny days in the 60s, but it did get cooler a few days and we had some wind & rain. Last summer it was in the 90's and there is no air conditioning in most buildings so I would rather wear layers (wish I had brought a winter hat though). WHAT TO BRING: We did all carry-ons. Packed: jeans, shirts, dresses x2, skirt x1, 2 pairs of shoes (wore 1 pair), 2 scarves (these are very big in Paris), wore trench coat, and swea...
Read more

Canadian Rockies Trip

Image
Canadian Rockies Itinerary! We traveled to the Canadian Rockies with 6 and 9 year old kids and my 80 year old parents. I highly recommend! Prior to the trip: 1) Download GyPSy App and purchase the Canadian Rockies Tour-- this will guide you on the entire trip 2) Purchase a park pass-- you want the Discovery Pass https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/voyage-travel/admission 3) I booked restaurant reservations, tea at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, boat tickets for Spirit Island at Maligne Lake, and tour tickets for hiking the Althabasca glacier ( www.icewalks.com ) Day 1: Flew to Calgary and rented a car and drove to Banff. We stayed at the Fairmont Banff club level- great service & club but very small rooms. I think you could definitely do another option if $ is an issue. We did the 5 pin bowling which was super fun (had reservations). Day 2: Banff day- we followed the GyPSy tour that took us to the Cave & Basin (kids loved), Lake Minnewanka, Hoodoos, Vermillion Lakes, Banff Gondola, Bow...
Read more