Disney Cruise Line tonight will christen its seventh cruise ship, Disney Destiny. I am on board for the ship’s media preview cruise this week. Here is everything you need to know if you are considering a vacation on Disney Destiny or any other Disney cruise ship.
Update: Here is my coverage of the christening ceremony, which included a drone show as well as ship godmother and Disney Legend Susan Egan.
Don’t think of Disney Cruise Line as just another cruise company, but with Disney branding. Disney does cruising differently than any other cruise line. It’s really a show, disguised as a cruise. You can watch multiple live stage musicals in the Walt Disney Theatre on each sailing. Disney’s ships have no main dining room. Instead, diners rotate through three different dining rooms during their cruise, typically with one hosting some form of dinner theater production.
One night of your warm-water cruise will be designated as “pirate night,” with a special dinner menu and fireworks shooting from the top deck afterward. (Disney is the only cruise line with fireworks at sea.) Itineraries in northern climates feature special Frozen-themed celebrations. For both, guests of all ages are encouraged to cosplay… and do.
Activity-filled child care in elaborately themed kids clubs is included with the cost of your cruise, as are all soft drinks and room service. (Free Mickey ice cream bars are a popular off-the-menu option from room service and for dessert at dinner. Just ask.) Alcohol is available for purchase, but there are no cocktail packages for the adults, nor do any Disney cruise ships offer casinos.
Beyond all the programming, most Disney staterooms offer a split bathroom design, with a toilet and sink behind one door and a shower and sink behind another, allowing families to get ready quicker.
The result of all these differences is that Disney attracts a multi-generational clientele that hits a lively sweet spot between rowdy booze cruises and sleepy old folks’ voyages.
Disney Destiny is the third in Disney’s Wish class of ships, which launched in 2022 with Disney Wish. The Disney Treasure followed in 2024. Two more ships in the class are planned, with the next launching in 2027, followed by the fifth, which will be based in Japan, in 2029.
These ships each carry up to 4,000 passengers in about 1,250 staterooms. The most common type of stateroom is the Overview Verandah (see our room tour video, above), but the Wish class also offers Oceanview rooms with a porthole, interior rooms, and - at the opposite end of the cost spectrum - concierge rooms and suites.
The Wish and Treasure sail from Port Canaveral, but the Destiny calls Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale its home.
Dining on the Wish class
Two of the three rotational dining rooms on each Wish class ship are:
On Deck 11 of each Wish class ship you will find a staff-served buffet, called Marceline Market, as well as an open-deck food court called Mickey & Friends Festival of Foods, which serves barbecue, pizza, burritos and bowls, burgers, chicken strips and fries. Soft-serve ice cream also is available.
Hours for all vary by day, but the buffet is not open during dinner. You can get refills of soft drinks and water at all hours from stations next to Festival of Foods.
Wish class ships offer two adults-only upcharge restaurants: Palo Steakhouse and Enchanté by Chef Arnaud Lallement. Those both require advance reservations. If you can’t snag one of those, The Rose lounge at the restaurants’ entrance is another popular adults-only spot on the ships.
Upcharge espresso drinks are available in the Cove Café in the adults-only Quiet Cove section on Deck 13 at the aft (back) of the ship. Ask for a punch card with your drink purchase, to earn a free drink after you buy five.
Recreation and entertainment
On the ships’ top deck, you will find a water coaster called the AquaMouse, which projects scenes from Mickey Mouse cartoons in its launch tunnel. Disney also shows its popular feature-length movies on a giant screen on the pool deck.
For more movies, including current releases from all Disney brands, head to Deck 4 for the Wonderland and Never Land Cinemas. You can see times and locations for all entertainment offerings, as well as your assigned rotational dining times and locations, in the DCL’s official Navigator app.
All diners are assigned an early (5:45pm) or late (8:15pm) dining time. The Walt Disney Theatre shows its productions at the same time, so you can catch the late show if you have early dining, and vice versa.
You can find an adults-only fitness center, with exercise equipment, in Senses Fitness on Deck 5. Free and upcharge fitness classes, including yoga, are available. Check the Navigator app to book. Upcharge spa services are available in Senses Spa next door.
Kids can play in the Hero Zone, an indoor gym on Deck 12.
Disney Destiny sails four- and five-night cruises from Fort Lauderdale to The Bahamas and Western Caribbean. Most itineraries include a stop at one or both of Disney’s private destinations: Castaway Cay or Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point on Eleuthera.
Each Disney ship has unique design touches that help distinguish them from the other ships in the fleet. On Disney Destiny, the ship’s theme is “heroes and villains.” Marvel’s Black Panther is the featured character statue in the Grand Hall lobby, and Spider-Man and the Spiderbots are its exterior aft characters.
Disney Destiny’s third rotational dining restaurant is “Pride Lands: Feast of the Lion King,” with songs from the 1994 animated hit as well as food inspired by African cuisine.
Musicals playing in Disney Destiny’s main stage Walt Disney Theatre are “Disney Hercules” - a new musical for the DCL that’s based on the 1997 animated movie - as well as “Frozen, A Musical Spectacular” and the character revue “Disney Seas the Adventure.”
The Haunted Mansion Parlor bar that debuted on Disney Treasure also is featured on Disney Destiny. But the bar next to it is The Sanctum, themed to Marvel’s Doctor Strange. The piano bar next to the ship’s lobby is De Vil’s, themed to “101 Dalmatians.”
The Pirates of the Caribbean-themed Cask & Cannon takes over the bar space next to the forward elevator lobby on Deck 5. The flex space theater next to that, spanning Decks 4 and 5, is called Saga on Disney Destiny.
The ship’s upcharge sweet shop and ice cream parlor on Deck 11 is Edna’s A La Mode Sweets, themed to The Incredibles. And the ship’s interior walk-up cafes are Café Merida (Deck 5) and Café Megara (Deck 4), further carrying the ship’s theme.
Sailing on a Disney Cruise ship provides all the Disney you can find in a Walt Disney World theme park vacation, but without the need to do all the advance planning that can help keep a Disney theme park visit from becoming frustrating. Food is included and your dinners planned. There’s no need for an upcharge drink package to enjoy soft drinks throughout your trip.
Disney will entertain the kids with characters and activities theme to Marvel, Star Wars, princesses, or even Disney Imagineering. That provides opportunities for the grown-ups to enjoy time on their own, in one of each ship’s adults-only restaurants, bars, or pools. And there's all that live entertainment, too, wrapping up with a "Destiny Discovered" farewell moment in the Grand Hall on the final night of the cruise.
The complete package has earned Disney Cruise Line a well-satisfied and growing fanbase. And that is why the Disney fleet is growing to serve it.
Want a look at what happens underneath the guest decks, in the engine room that powers Disney's cruise ship? I got to tour those backstage facilities, and you can read my report in Take an Insider's tour of Disney Destiny's engine room.
Port Everglades is located next to the Fort Lauderdale airport [FLL]. Disney sails from Cruise Terminal 4 at Port Everglades. The Brightline high-speed rail station is located about four miles away from the cruise terminal, providing an easy connection to the Orlando International Airport [MCO], three and a half hours away. Many hotels are available within 10 miles of the port for those flying or taking the train who wish to arrive the day before their departure.
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I can never get over the sticker shock whenever I investigate the potential of taking a Disney Cruise. Yes, having most non-alcoholic drinks as part of the fare is a nice perk that other cruise company's upcharge you for, but it doesn't justify a 50-80% price difference between similarly sized ships, staterooms, and itineraries from competitors. The rotational dining is clever and certainly would be appealing to families with kids to give them a different experience every night (with the obligatory show/theme). However, I just can't get over the idea that if you don't want to eat at the designated dinner time that the buffet is not accessible during normal dinner hours - in other words, while you don't necessarily need to plan like a theme park vacation, you're still stuck with a plan Disney makes for you, which includes at the very limited ports of call.
I know DCL has carved itself out quite a nice niche in the industry, but I do wonder how much more demand there is at the prices that they charge, because they do border on the "luxury" side of things but don't necessarily provide features that most luxury cruise lines (and more high-end cruises from the "big boys") typically provide and loyalty is not as rewarded as other major cruise lines. DCL's expansion will be interesting to watch over the next few years to see if they can maintain their popularity and high price points amidst the economic headwinds expected over the next 5 years.
DCL's value point is the live entertainment, including all the character interactions, plus the value of not having a ship filled with people slamming back drinks on a cocktail package or smoking up a storm in the casino. But DCL also is for people who have aged out (or noped out) of the park experience - they still want "Disney," but don't want the hassle or discomfort of planning and spending several days in the parks. I don't see that market diminishing anytime soon.
I do think you're right Robert that DCL is becoming an alternative to the parks, and that if anything, that audience is probably growing because of the frustration, complexity, and increasing expense of visiting the parks, particularly the domestic ones. Disney does seem to be catering more and more to this audience by adding more and more park-like features to their ships like the themed bars and they're even adding flat rides to their newer ships. However, I think Disney's cruise business is going to run into the same issues that their theme park business is running into with increasing prices alienating a larger and larger percentage of their potential customer base. For the theme parks, Disney's not really seeing too much of an impact because the demand far exceeds supply even as prices reach into the stratosphere, and in fact by repositioning their park experiences into the luxury market, they're able to generate record revenues without having to pack their parks to capacity. Their cruise business though is still developing, and they've already positioned it on the upper end of the market from a cost perspective. While I do think you're onto something in regards to DCL's experience inherently weeding out certain undesirable behaviors (smoking, gambling, and excessive drinking), I do think some well established cruise lines are already addressing this with internal policies and pricing. For example, we just booked a RCL cruise for next year where the all-inclusive drinks package is $65/person/day (on "sale"), which puts it at $1k for my wife and I for the voyage with the gratuities. I can drink with the best of them, but I highly doubt I could feel good about myself consuming $500 of drinks during the 100 or so hours we're physically on the boat (including sleeping) even at $15 a drink. Other lines and certain voyages are being specifically marketed towards customers that want those vices and to explicitly prohibit kids (i.e. Virgin).
I do think DCL offers the perfect environment for multi-generation families, particularly those more financially secure baby boomers that want to treat their grandkids to a nice vacation where everyone in the family can have fun together. I just wonder if the demand and financial wherewithal will still be there when the final 2 Wish-class ships are delivered at the end of the decade.
Ship looks great, a little too much In your face Disney for my liking nor do I want kids cosplaying at dinner time. Buffet closed at dinner is baffling, I guess on the private island you might find some peace and tranquility
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This is Impressive!!
I have never been on a cruise except the time I spent serving my country and this ship is so much better...