Ep. 712 - Disney Wish 3-Night Cruise Review: A Family of Five Trip Report

DCL Duo Podcast: A Disney Cruise Line Fan Podcast

Derek and Maddie from the Disney Trip Report Podcast join the DCL Duo to review their last-minute, three-night sailing on the Disney Wish with their three

Key takeaways

• Derek and Maddie booked a last-minute three-night trip on the Disney Wish using credit card points, treating the ship like an all-inclusive experience where merch feels free.
• The family used the Disney transfer bus for embarkation, which streamlined luggage handling and helped them secure boarding group five.

Main topics

• Short sailing strategies for families
• Onboard dining and hidden food gems

Notable quotes

"Life is short, man. We're here for a hot minute. And I'm like, I can always make more money. But like the time that I have with my family... it's worth it every time."

Conclusion

The episode delivers a highly actionable guide for maximizing brief Di

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) I'm like, life is short, man. We're here for a hot minute. And I'm like, I can always make more money. But like the time that I have with my family, with my kids, with my husband, the time that I have to make, like to really experience the magic for myself, like I don't get those, that time back. And it's worth it every time. I'll pay it every time. Speaker 2 (0:29) Welcome back, everybody, to this week's episode of the DCL Duo podcast brought to you by We Do Travel Right. Remember, life is short. Take the trip. Let the folks over at We Do Travel Right handle the planning so you can focus on the relaxing. That's Speaker 4 (0:42) right. Speaker 2 (0:42) Sam, it's time for your jingle. It's time for the jingle. Speaker 4 (0:45) Simply the best, better than all the rest. Speaker 2 (0:50) All right. This week's listener review comes from. I think it's Sombra0712. I think my eyes are not fully woken up and that text is really tiny. But Sombra0712 who writes, well-informed and prepared. I really appreciate the knowledge and preparation the host put into each episode. When they have guests on the show, they ask appropriate questions to help the guests navigate the conversation and convey their experience and knowledge. I didn't realize until recently, do tend to spotlight a more elevated concierge experience, which may not be for everybody. However, I enjoy that they feature guests with unique backgrounds and vacation experiences. Let me start by saying thank you for that review, Sombra. This is two years old. If you listen to our more recent episodes, I think we've talked to concierge a little, but not nearly as much as we were back then. So we try to... we try to feature a broad range of experiences here because we can't even afford to say we can't see our shit anymore without a discount. I think Speaker 4 (1:44) we did get an, I think there was a little period of time where we got really kind of enamored with like the luxury experiences on board and we wanted to cover them a lot. And so we, Speaker 2 (1:52) yeah, Speaker 4 (1:53) well, it was cheap. It was more affordable than it is now. But we also just like, I think we were just like really wanted to do a deep dive into what those experiences were. And so we actually. did experience some of it ourselves. And so our coverage for a bit did skew to that experience. But I think, no, I think you're right, Brian. I think we try to cover kind of everything. So concierge level experiences and then inside. you know, stateroom experiences. Just recorded an Speaker 2 (2:19) episode with someone who had a family of four in the smallest inside stateroom category available. With one of those Speaker 4 (2:24) magic portholes, actually. Yeah. Super fun. Speaker 2 (2:26) I also just, I want to say that I appreciate that we come across as prepared because folks, we're just talking. Maybe it's the analytical mind of a lawyer. I don't know. But anyway, I appreciate that we, I appreciate that we give that vibe. But anyway, thank you for that review. As always, one of the easiest ways to help support the show, head over to Apple Podcasts. Hit those... Five stars. And if you leave us a written review along with your five stars, we will read it on the air at the top of one of our main episodes. Same goes for any platform where you happen to be listening to us. If that's YouTube, Spotify, I don't know. There's so many podcasting players out there. Stitcher, yeah. Castos. Not Castos. Not Castos. That's Speaker 3 (3:05) our hosting platform. Anyway, Speaker 2 (3:06) thank you for the review. Give us all the love. Sam, I want to get right to our guests, so I'm going to throw it over to you to introduce guests and topic for today. Speaker 4 (3:14) Yeah, we're joined by some old friends. We've known these folks for quite a few years. They actually co-host their own podcast. So we are excited to welcome actually to the first time on our show, Derek and Maddie from the Disney Trip Report podcast. Welcome, Derek. Welcome, Maddie. Speaker 1 (3:33) Thank you. Oh my gosh. Long time listener, first time caller. Can't wait to talk everything with you guys. Speaker 3 (3:39) Big fans. We're so excited to sit down and chat with you guys today. Speaker 1 (3:43) I have listened to those concierge episodes while in a hot tub on a Disney cruise because I appreciate hearing from other people who maybe travel a little bit more elegantly than we do. So it's one Speaker 3 (3:55) of the premises of our show or we're like, we love hearing about other people's experiences because maybe we aren't going to do Disney the same way. You know, like there's no there's Speaker 4 (4:04) no wrong way Speaker 3 (4:04) to Speaker 4 (4:05) do wrong way to do Disney. There's a million right ways. Absolutely. Except if you think that like. Believe is your favorite show on Disney Cruise Line, then you're just wrong. Speaker 3 (4:15) You know, listen, we welcome a whole lot of opinions. And sometimes people will say things and Derek and I are looking at each other and we're going, mm Speaker 1 (4:24) -hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 3 (4:26) Okay. That's a choice. Everyone can have their own Disney magic. That is fine. We think you're Speaker 4 (4:32) wrong, but that Speaker 3 (4:33) is fine. If Speaker 4 (4:34) you think it was magical, then it was magical. Absolutely. Absolutely. And to be clear, I'm not talking about the ship, the Believe, the new ship that's coming. I was talking about the stage show, the jukebox musical stage show on Disney Cruise Line. Well, you guys, we are super excited to have you on the show. You just came back from a trip on the beautiful Disney Whip. and so we're going to be talking about that doing a little disney trip report podcast and so we're excited to talk about that but before we do we got to start out with you know your disney background we asked everybody on our show um i mean derek's been podcasting in the disney space for a very long time but why don't derek why don't you give us a your disney background where did your love from disney for disney come from and when did you start cruising with disney as well Speaker 1 (5:22) Oh, yeah. So I am a Disney kid through and through, born in the 80s, raised in the 90s. Disney's one Saturday morning, DuckTales, the Renaissance. So all the commercials that they aired were always targeted towards me. So we went as a kid. We went every five years. And then I did my first cruise on a thing called Carnival, which I've never done again. And so we actually got in the cruising about the same time you guys did. as well. I remember Brian and I talking about like, you guys started right after we did. Now you're way ahead of us. But yeah, we started on the Disney Dream on a three night to see if we liked it. And newsflash, we loved it. Speaker 3 (5:59) We had two little kids at the time. And so now it's been interesting to like see all of the different iterations of our family on a cruise ship and to see how, you know, different cruise lines do different things. and what fits our family really well. And, you know, like being back on a Disney cruise, I was like, yeah, this is for me. I love it. It's just the best. Oh, Speaker 4 (6:23) that's awesome. Now, Maddie, where did your like love of Disney start? Like, were you a Disney kid also? Or was it Derek that like pulled you real hard into Disney? Because you guys are like hardcore Speaker 3 (6:33) parks people. We are hardcore parks people. So. I was absolutely a Disney kid. I mean, I think if you grew up in the 90s, it's just kind of like it is hard for it not to be baked in, honestly, because they had so many IPs that came movies that came out that were just like they hold up today and are as iconic today as they were when they came out. And but my family and my dad is a music teacher. So we always had music on. And there are so many incredible. you know, music moments throughout the 90s. And so we watched tons of Disney movies. Some of my earliest memories are watching Little Mermaid with my grandpa. And he had to buy the VHS tape two times because I... The one at his house, right? There was one at our house and then there was the one at his house and he had to buy it two times because I would watch it and then we'd rewind it and watch it over and over and over again. Speaker 4 (7:31) Yeah, those VHS tapes would actually wear out. It's like cassette music tapes would as well, right? Like if you, the more you played them, eventually that tape would actually wear out. CDs, it's a lot. I mean, it would take a lot to like wear out, you know, a CD or DVD. So that's, yeah. Yes, but all Speaker 2 (7:47) you needed to do to fix a tape was, you know, insert the eraser. or end of the number two pencil on there. Yeah. Speaker 4 (7:52) But Speaker 2 (7:53) I Speaker 4 (7:53) don't know. I worked at Hollywood Video. So we had those machines that would do that fast rewind of the VHS tapes. Yeah. Yeah, Speaker 3 (8:00) no. So I watched it all the time growing up. I went to my, on my first, I went to the Disney parks when I turned nine. My mom won a sweepstakes from Dairy Queen. which is so random. My very first Disney trip was because she won a sweepstakes and it was like the most magical trip. It was incredible. I loved it. I got the opportunity to go back to Magic Kingdom when I was a junior in high school because I was in a singing competition that was in Orlando. And I was like, well, we should do a day. So my dad and I did that. And then when Derek and I started dating, like within the first week, we were like, well, we have to watch Star Wars together. which is not, it literally was like our vetting process. I was like, can, should we date? Like other people are like, does this person want kids? Does this, and we're like, do they like Star Wars? Speaker 4 (8:46) Yeah. And this is, and this is before Lucasfilm was even part of Disney. Probably, right? Yeah. Speaker 3 (8:52) Yeah. And so that we, so he's a big movie buff. I grew up loving Disney and music is kind of my thing. And so there's just this beautiful, you know, then the Venn diagram is very. Speaker 3 (9:06) overlap. And so we just love that. I love a Venn Speaker 4 (9:08) diagram reference, by the way, Maddie. I don't know. This is like two of my... At work, we talk a lot about Venn diagrams at my work. I know it sounds weird, but I'm a lawyer and we do. And I absolutely love that you just brought up a Venn diagram. We're obviously meant to be friends. Yes. Speaker 3 (9:24) I think about this all the time. I'm in strategic planning and I'm a fractional CMO. So I think about this all the time. Where's the overlap? But We decided to honeymoon at Disney. And like that was kind of it's from the beginning of our relationship. It has been something that has been really important to us as a couple and us as a family. And obviously, like it led to Derek starting a podcast. We've done tons of family trips and it's just it's Speaker 1 (9:53) just Speaker 3 (9:53) part of us. Speaker 1 (9:54) contracts or annual pass is just like on repeat. We don't even question that credit card statement anymore. We're Speaker 3 (10:00) just like, la, la, la, la, la, la. Just close my ears. That's Disney math. I'm paying Speaker 1 (10:03) for a Disney credit card to pay for the annual pass every year. So it's free, guys. So it's basically free. Speaker 3 (10:09) Yeah. So if you come on our podcast, we talk a lot about Disney math. And by Disney math, you should not talk to us about Disney math. Speaker 1 (10:17) Because you'll be going on a cruise ship and buying a DVC contract. Speaker 3 (10:20) Yeah, Speaker 1 (10:20) we're like, you know what, you can always make more money, Speaker 3 (10:22) but you don't get time back, which is actually... So true. So, you Speaker 4 (10:24) know, life's short, right? So I'd Speaker 2 (10:27) rather, I'd rather invest my money in the experience than, uh, absolutely. I'm like, life is short, man. We're Speaker 3 (10:32) here for a hot minute. And I'm like, I can always make more money, but like the time that I have with my family, with my kids, with my husband, um, the time that I have to make, like to really experience the magic for myself, like I don't get those that time back and it's worth it every time I'll pay it every time. Speaker 4 (10:48) Absolutely. I think it's funny because, you know, people sort of ask like, oh, you know, do you, you know, do you buy expensive purses or expensive shoes or things like that? And it's like, no, I'm happy Speaker 3 (10:59) to shop at Target. And, Speaker 4 (11:02) you know, because I want, I want to spend my money in Mickey's pocket. So yeah. Speaker 3 (11:09) Yeah. I'm like, we live in Nebraska in, and we drive modest cars. I love getting a good thrift. I love a coupon. Where I splurge is going to Disney. Money doesn't make sense Speaker 1 (11:22) on a cruise ship either. As soon as you check in, like we- It's all free. It's Speaker 3 (11:26) all Speaker 1 (11:26) free. You're like, what? Yeah. I just did not check that bill at the end of the day. We Speaker 3 (11:30) treat the cruise ship like it's truly an all-inclusive and that includes merch. All Speaker 4 (11:33) right. Well, let's dive into this cruise. Now, what number cruise was this for you all, Derek? Speaker 1 (11:41) This is our fifth Disney cruise, so we've gone on the Dream, the Magic. I know we're gold finally. We've been on the Wish twice and the Fantasy. So, like I said, we started at the same time. And you guys just, we go to the parks like three or four times a year while you guys go to cruises more. So, we're trying to catch up, but you guys keep moving the goalpost on us. Speaker 2 (12:01) Well, I mean, we dumped our annual pass. I mean, we just don't go, I mean, despite owning an ungodly amount of DVC points, we really don't go to the... Yeah. I mean, Speaker 4 (12:11) yeah, we just will spend like a night, right, at a resort the night before the cruise or even a night after the cruise and not actually go to the parks at all. Here's the deal. There's so Speaker 3 (12:22) much to do on Disney property outside of the parks that that is absolutely a way for you to experience the magic. There are people who have tons of DVC points and they plan their whole DVC vacation and they never set foot in the parks. And there's still so much to do. Speaker 4 (12:37) Yeah. All right. Well, why did you choose this cruise, this itinerary? Did you pair it with a park trip? I'm guessing that that's how this all fit in. Yeah, this is Speaker 1 (12:46) crazy because we have three kids, one in high school, one in eighth grade, middle school, and then in elementary school. So our kids have 9,000 activities. So really in a year, we have about 13 days, maybe we can take a vacation. And so this is a last minute booking. We were looking at our summer schedule and we're like, oh, they move football back a couple of days and we get this theater thing. we have a week off in the summer. What do we do? Oh my gosh. And, uh, no, that's not what we do. Uh, we wanted to book a cruise. We wanted to do a three night and, uh, we had the credit card points to help pay for it. And we decided to the wish, cause it lined up exactly because Brian said we have DVC points. We're like, well, I guess we'll go for a couple of days before. And then like a crazy person because football got moved back. We decided to do universal afterwards. And so I don't recommend. park cruise parks, but that's what we did. It Speaker 3 (13:39) was very much, it was a very Derek kind of trip. If you guys know Derek, well, he is like, he's like fast and like fast paced and wants to do all the things, go, go, go. So this was kind of like three mini trips in one week. I am not quite that fast paced. I can keep up, but I am much more like, I'm like. We got onto the wish and I was like, three nights. This is ridiculous. We should never do this again. Three nights is stupid. Why are we doing this? I was like, Speaker 4 (14:12) we Speaker 3 (14:12) can't. We can't. This is our last three night, which it's probably not. A three night would be just fine for just Derek and I, maybe. I don't know. Speaker 4 (14:19) It's hard. It's hard. I'm always like, Speaker 3 (14:22) I'm like, you barely like, even though we had been on that ship before and I was really familiar, I was still like, oh, there's so many things that I'm missing out on. Speaker 2 (14:31) I mean, you have the same issue we do. I mean, you're going all the way from Nebraska, right? And so, like, you know, for us to fly all the way to Florida for a three-night sailing, it's just, it is, it's a lot. And I do agree, like, maybe Sam and I could do it. San Diego is not bad. I mean, we've done that and it's not terrible for us, but that's a long trip to go for three nights. So I'm always like seven nights or more is like what I'm aiming for. Speaker 3 (14:54) What's funny is that when we took our first cruise, so by the time we took our first cruise, when our oldest, our oldest are almost 15, 13. And at the time they, it was like 10 years ago. So we, I had already implemented like. because Derek likes a quick trip. I had already implemented, hey, we have to have double the amount of days that it takes to travel to and from. So I was like, if it is less than four days, I'm not into it because especially with traveling with little kids, it's a lot, right? And so this did fit the parameter, right? Speaker 4 (15:29) Because we did- Because you added the park days on the front of Speaker 3 (15:33) the back. Speaker 4 (15:34) Even if you had just had them on the front end, you would have been over your four-day limit. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 3 (15:39) But so that's normally what we do is that we, we, even if we have a shorter cruise, we're, we're doing a full, usually close to closer to a seven day. Speaker 4 (15:50) Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's talk about the planning side of things. You mentioned that this was kind of last minute. Like when you say last minute, how last minute are we talking? Cause you, you just got off like a week ago. So this was early, early August that you sailed or late July that you sailed. Like, How far in advance were you planning? And were there things that you were like looking to book? Or were you just like, Okay, well, it's only three days, we don't need to pre book anything. I'll throw that one to Derek. Speaker 1 (16:18) Yeah, so we started booking this April, May is when we finally got the cruise set. And it really was, oh my gosh, we have a week. Our kids are getting older and they're not as into Disney as they once were. So like we want to be able to have those moments with them before they get to, I mean, two of them are teenagers. So we knew, hey, we don't know how many more cruises we have as a full family. So let's definitely make this magic, do the three night. And then the kids really wanted to do Epic. So it's like, okay, we'll add that. for them because it's their vacation too um but yeah we planned it very last minute our ta was wonderful to work with and just literally it was like here's the week like what can fit in this week we want to fly out of uh pork we fly to mco so it's like there's only two options and so we chose the wish it was either the wish or the fantasy and the wish just worked better timing wise, because we also didn't know our football schedule until about two weeks before the cruise. So we didn't even add, we didn't even add, I don't even think I booked flights for this cruise until about two weeks before. And then we added Epic at the very, very last minute. We added Speaker 3 (17:25) Epic last minute and Speaker 1 (17:26) we added a park day last Speaker 3 (17:28) minute. Cause we honestly, we were like, well, maybe we'll just go to a water park. Like until. We were literally in the airport on Wednesday night. We were like, okay, do we want to go to a water park and just have a chill day? Or are we going to go and do the parks? I Speaker 1 (17:41) bought park tickets at the airport, at MCO, for the following day. Oh, my God. So it was very lucky. We did all the parks in one day. And Speaker 3 (17:50) it was booked in May. OK, we booked this in May. I had a I am president of a nonprofit. We had a huge amount of stuff to do. And so truly, like I was like, I truly told Derek, I was like, I can't even think about this. You have to plan everything. I will just be along for the ride. Speaker 1 (18:09) The best part of that is when the night before the cruise, she looks at me and goes. what did you sign us up for fish extender wise? And I'm like, Speaker 3 (18:17) don't worry, Speaker 1 (18:17) honey, I'm on top. I did. Speaker 3 (18:19) I was like, I had a panic moment because I was like, oh my God, if he signed us up for a bunch of stuff, I haven't gotten anything. And truly like I hadn't, I mean, I like last minute packing, like all the things, because it's a theater show. I literally did strike until six in the morning on Sunday. Okay. And then on Wednesday we left. Speaker 4 (18:38) So yeah, this is a very quick like planning turnaround for Maddie, at least that. Well, Speaker 3 (18:43) and it was also we were like, we weren't even sure we were going to do a cruise. We were like, well, let's just see. The reason it was so last minute is we were like, OK, we have this time. We reached out to our TA and we were like, hey, what even could we do? And she's like, well, you could do this or this. And we were like, cool. Let's go. Yeah. Speaker 1 (18:59) And that Disney Visa credit card, I checked how many points I had and offset the cruise and that makes it a free cruise in my mind. That's right. When our Speaker 3 (19:06) TA called in, she was like, they were like, you have how many points? Like, they were like, oh my God. Speaker 4 (19:13) Listen, it's all Disney math. Now, did you guys... plan any onboard activities? Did you book any of the onboard activities? Like, I don't know, like Apollo or an Enchante or a drink tasting, or I don't know, an excursion. Like I'm thinking, because this is kind of last minute, you may, there may not have been very much available, but were there any, was there anything you Speaker 2 (19:34) were Speaker 4 (19:34) like, we were like, Speaker 3 (19:35) there's so much to do for free that is already baked into the price. Speaker 1 (19:39) Daughter got something, Madison. What did you. Book our 15-year-old daughter that neither of us got. Speaker 3 (19:48) Yeah. So we had even talked about, we had, we have been on the wish before. So this is the sec, this is the first time we've ever repeated on a ship. And I love the rainforest room on the wish. It's so lovely. And so I was like, oh, on the, on, we'll, we'll get on, we'll get on the ship and we'll, you know, walk around the ship. And I was like, oh, Olivia can go to the open house, right? Like she can't go in the rainforest room anymore, but you know, yeah, she's not old enough. But I was like, you can go and look at it. And then. you know, we were like talking and then people were like, oh, I'd love to schedule you a facial. And then I couldn't say no. And so Olivia got a facial. Speaker 4 (20:23) Awesome. I love that. Yeah. So for those listening. We don't talk about how Speaker 3 (20:26) much it was. We don't know. For Speaker 4 (20:27) those listening, teens can do certain treatments. There's sort of a, there are certain treatments they're allowed to do. And then there are other treatments that are. not allowed until you're 18. And a rainforest room is one of those areas that you can't access until you're 18. And, you know, there's a pass for that, but there are some things like mani-pedis are available for teens. Facial sun massages. Yeah. Well, Speaker 2 (20:49) and on the wish class, they have their own rooms. Actually, didn't they build those into the fantasy in Dry Dock when they built the kitchen for Concierge? So, yeah, I think they, or they took over. And Speaker 4 (20:59) it functioned Speaker 3 (20:59) as her souvenir. Speaker 4 (21:00) Yeah. Well, experience is over things, right? Yes, as a souvenir. Yeah. Expensive souvenir. Yeah. Well, Speaker 1 (21:07) no, Speaker 2 (21:08) but it's the theme I was just saying a few minutes ago of like pay for the experience, not the thing. Right. Like, yeah. And so you got the experience of, you know, yeah, that spa treatment, which are the rainforest room. So, yeah. Yeah. Speaker 3 (21:19) So Derek and I have never done that. We did. We've done rainforest room before. We decided not to do it this time because truly I was just like, there's too many things I want to do on the ship and it's so short. Yeah. Speaker 4 (21:28) I, I generally don't recommend unless you're like sailing adults only and. and relaxation is that priority for you, I don't generally recommend somebody booking the rainforest room on that shorter length cruise because there are so many other things to do. And if you have kids with you, the kids are going to want to do things with you. And well, if they want to do things with you, obviously that's a whole other topic. But if they're going to want to do things with you, you're not going to end up using that rainforest room pass and you're going to have paid for the pass. that never gets used. Well, let's talk embarkation day. Now, how did you guys get down to the port? You were up in Orlando, obviously. It's about an hour, hour and 15 minutes to get to Port Canaveral, which is where you were sailing out of. What was your transportation situation? Speaker 1 (22:15) We took the bus. We are now officially, we love the bus. It helps move the... onboard time up so we got boarding group five because of it and i've just really grown to appreciate it and i think i realized why on this trip because it is what the magical express used to be when i was younger that feeling when you're going from the airport to the parks or playing shows and you get that excitement that is what the disney transfer bus does like we've done private car service we've rented cars i hate both those the bus is where it's