A little over a week ago, my family returned from back to back sailings on the brand new Disney Wish. We sailed on the August 15 (4 night) and August 19 (3 night) sailings. I am excited to share my thoughts with you all! I am not going to do my typical day-by-day trip reports for a few reasons. Mainly, I did not take a lot of pictures on this trip. This was our first cruise in almost 3 years, and I didn’t want to spend most of my time behind a camera. We were so excited to finally be sailing again and I didn’t want to have a constant “to-do” list in my mind to ensure that I documented every moment. Being a brand new ship and experience for us, I just wanted to live in the moment and not be concerned about photographing everything or taking notes. So, I am going to write a series of blog posts about different subjects and my thoughts on them. First off, embarkation!
Embarkation day is now only a slightly different experience than pre-Covid. I say slightly, because it used to be very different when everyone had to test at the cruise terminal. Now, passengers no longer have to test at the port if they are fully vaccinated and get a negative test within 2 days of boarding, which was the case with all of us (and all pre-cruise testing for vaccinated passengers will end soon). We set up our Safe Passage accounts (the company that DCL uses to track vaccine cards and test results) about 2 weeks before our sailing. I uploaded everyone’s vaccine cards, and then 2 days before we sailed, I uploaded everyone’s negative test results. For testing, we did the most economical and convenient option that I could find, which was to use an online proctoring service called OnPoint Testing. We used the free home test kits from the government, purchased 5 proctoring sessions ($14.99 each), and made 2 separate testing appointments. They allow up to 4 people to test in a single zoom session, so we needed to make 2 appointments which worked better for us anyway as we were not all 5 available at the same time the Saturday before our Monday sailing. The testing was very fast and easy, we just had to conduct the test within view of the proctor and show him/her our results. Then, they emailed an official report within an hour or so, which I uploaded to Safe Passage. By the next day, Safe Passage had reviewed and approved all of our results and our status on the website showed as “clear to sail”.
Now, back to embarkation day. We drove to the port and had a port arrival time of 11:15. We ended up driving up at about 11:45 and there was not a line, we were able to drive right up to the luggage drop area. We were directed to a spot at the curb and a porter took our bags. Then, we drove around to the parking garage and paid $85 to park for a 4 day cruise. FYI, if doing a back-to-back, you are not charged for the second cruise since you pay before.
As you arrive, the testing tents are on your left, across from the luggage drop area. These are for people who want to or have to test at the terminal. We had to test here a few days later between our 2 cruises.
Once in the garage, we parked on level 3 so that we could walk across the bridge, which ended up not mattering at all because we then had to go down the escalators and enter the terminal on the ground floor. Our PAT forms were scanned at least once, and I think actually twice. We entered the terminal building and it was very crowded, with the line almost going out the door. After standing in line for a minute, my husband noticed that way at the other end of the room were both separate platinum and concierge lines, so we moved to the platinum line where there was only 1 family in front of us. They checked all of our travel documents, and then we went through security and up the escalators to the main waiting area. Boarding had already begun and our boarding group was currently being called, so we were able to walk right onto the ship. It all went very quickly, only because we were able to use the platinum line. Had we not, I think we would have waited at least 30 minutes to get through check in and security but that is just a guess. Just keep those port arrival forms with the QR codes handy – you will have to scan them multiple times to get onboard.
We boarded the ship as they introduced our family, and I will say that the Grand Hall (I will probably always call it the Atrium though) is stunning. Here are some pictures I took of it during our cruises, including when they were setting up for a wedding:
I think the first thing we did was walk straight across and go down the stairs (we opted not to use the slide) to check out the Oceaneers Club, which was pretty spectacular. They did a great job with these spaces. Here is the only picture I took, of the Star Wars room.
Then, we went to find our muster station to complete the safety drill. Everyone has to go to the meeting spot for their station and use the app to take a photo of the sign. There is a CM there who can help if you need it. Ours was on deck 4 at the Luna lounge.
Next, we went up to deck 11 to Marceline Market for lunch. Being 3 years since we last sailed, I had forgotten that my rule of thumb for the buffet on embarkation day is to be one of the first onboard (used to be easy when boarding times were assigned by Castaway Club status, as we are platinum – not so easy to control this anymore) and go immediately as to be some of the first people there; otherwise, it is way too crowded and chaotic for my crowd-hating self. So, lunch was not all that enjoyable to be honest. I will address this more in my next post about the dining experiences onboard the Wish.
Up Next: Dining onboard the Disney Wish