One New Ship Name Confirmed!

Last Sunday, August 25th, Disney announced the name of the fifth Disney ship:

The Disney Wish!  Also confirmed was the character on the stern, which is Rapunzel.  For a ship named the Wish, I would've chosen the Genie from Aladdin, but Rapunzel was still a good choice.  In Tangled, she wanted to see the world, and on a cruise, you get to see the world.  Rapunzel also loved to paint in the movie.  If you're going to be permanently frozen, you might as well be doing what you like.  Every DCL ship also has a character on the hull, and so far that character has been Mickey.  Since Disney seems to be giving Minnie some extra love (including putting her on bars of soap), I was thinking that they might put Minnie on the front.  According to the Disney Parks Blog, the Wish's construction will be completed at the end of 2021, and cruises will start in January of 2022.  Those cruises are going to be expensive.

I was surprised to see that the Wish will actually be around 144,000 gross tons.  Disney had originally said that these three new ships would be around 135,000 gross tons, but I'm happy for the change.  Now the new ships will be noticeably larger than the Dream and Fantasy, rather than barely larger.  They still won't be nearly as gigantic as Royal Caribbean's Oasis class ships, but that's okay.  A smaller ship can visit more ports than a bigger one.  Disney also said that the Wish will have 1,250 staterooms, which is exactly the same amount as the Dream class.  Maybe the extra size will be for more exciting features, such as an AquaDuck 2?

Additionally, we got a look at an artist's rendering of the Atrium.  However, the picture does not confirm any restaurants or special features. It looks nothing like any of the existing atriums, and I'm excited to see how it looks in real life.

Finally, with the addition of the Wish, the ships can no longer be identified by their initials.  Since there's already a ship name that starts with 'W', the Wonder, we'll have to get creative.  DWo and DWi?

I'm wondering what the other two ships will be named.  Any ideas?

My Dream Cruise

On Monday, my family and I returned home after a three night cruise on the Dream.  It was a lot of fun, and I did a lot in such a short time.  However, since it was only three nights, I didn't get to do everything I had wanted to do.

The day before the cruise started, my family and I went to SeaWorld's waterpark, Aquatica.  We spent the afternoon there, and the weather was great...until a thunderstorm started.  My family decided to wait until it passed, and after the storm, the park was much less crowded.  If you ever go to Aquatica, you need to ride the Ray Rush slide.  It's a raft slide that has multiple drops and turns.  I went on it sitting backwards, which was terrifying since I had no idea of what was coming.

I didn't take many pictures at the water park.  This is a slide at the entrance of the park.  It goes underwater through the dolphin habitat.

A diver in the dolphin habitat.

The next day, we had breakfast at our hotel.  Below is my first Mickey waffle of the trip, from the hotel.  It wasn't as good as a Mickey waffle from Cabanas.

After that, we drove from Orlando to Port Canaveral.  We got through security and checked in pretty quickly.

These photos were taken from the bridge from the parking garage to the terminal.

The model of the Magic in the terminal.

I'm always amazed by this model, and how detailed it is.  I didn't see the sign for Captain Mickey's Sail-Away Game last time at Disney's terminal, so it must be new(ish).  I would've played it, but it was only for iPhones, and I have an Android.  I should get my mom to play it next time.

The TV's are the same, but why change them?  They're the highest quality TV's in the world.

In addition to Disney cruises, I'm also obsessed with the mobile game Pokémon Go.  I played at the terminal while waiting for our boarding group to be called.

 The game makes you go to real locations to find Pokémon.  On the left is the picture in the game, on the right is a picture I took.

Cruises+Pokemon Go=Me

After some waiting, it was finally time to get on the Dream!

The view of the terminal and parking garage from Goofy's Sports Deck

Later, I went to our rooms to see what they looked like.  I was surprised because of how big it was!

 This is what I saw when I walked in.  Both of our rooms had two large portholes, with cushions on them.

 Each room had not one...

...but two TV's!  One across from the bed, and one across from the couch.

 The single bathroom was exactly what I expected, basically a split bathroom that wasn't split.

One thing I noticed was the hand soap in the bathroom.  It now has Minnie on it instead of Mickey.  Other than that, it's exactly the same.  Also, instead of the small squeezable soap bottles, there were now larger, reusable soap pumps.  You probably shouldn't take these.

That afternoon, I decided to check out the Millennium Falcon in the Oceaneer Club, and I'm glad I did.

Most of these buttons could be pressed, and many switches could be flipped.

"Let the Wookie win"

This is the 'window', a screen that makes it look like you're actually flying the Falcon.  There are many buttons in the cockpit, but they don't do anything.  It's still very cool though.

 This table was covered with Mr. Potato Heads, all with Star Wars clothes.

R2-D2 was one of the coolest parts of the area, he moved and made noise.

After this, I registered at Vibe.  Vibe was where I spent a big part of the cruise, playing games and hanging out.  It's hidden, you have to go on the running track and then up a staircase.  Then, you have to use your card to open the door.  They don't want 5 year-olds sneaking in.

 These wall seats were cool, each one of them had a screen with an Xbox.  They were also very comfortable to sit in.  They also have USB ports to charge devices.

The colorful lights on the ceiling.

 This is Vibe's sundeck.  It has three small pools, lots of chairs, a fountain, and the only ping pong table on the ship.  I remember there being a few at Goofy's Sports Deck, but they weren't there.  I think it was because it gets really windy on Deck 13, and too many balls probably blew away.  At Vibe, the table is protected from the wind, which makes it much easier.

I didn't get a picture of it, but you can see the bridge from the sundeck.  It looked really cool and would've been a great photo.  Next time I'll get it!

A giant book obstacle in Goofy Golf.  Goofy Golf is one of my favorite parts about the Dream and Fantasy.  In the past, there have been real, hard golf balls.  This trip, however, there were soft foam balls.  I didn't like these as much because they were all the same color.  It was hard to remember who had which ball.

I had some geometry flashbacks seeing this.

Remember, you get 50 of these free if you log in to the Internet on your first night.

I thought I'd take some random pictures of the AquaDuck, so here you go!

The next four pictures were taken in Nassau.

That's a lot of water.

Even though I'm the DCLKid, I went to The District and took a few pictures there.

Next, I have some pictures from Castaway Cay.  On Castaway Cay, I did a teen exclusive excursion called the Wild Side.  I went snorkeling, bike riding, and also rode a speedboat.  Snorkeling was fun, Castaway Cay has Mickey and Minnie underwater.  For all three activities, it cost $54, but it is the cheapest excursion on the island.  If you are 14-17, you should do it!

During this cruise, I learned about maritime signal flags.  I had no idea that every flag represented a letter until I went to the lookout tower on Castaway Cay.  There is a line of flags hanging off of it, and if you decode it, they spell Castaway Cay.  I had recognized some of the flags from around the ship, and then I realized that they also mean something!

According to the alphabet, can you figure out what the carpet says?  I've seen it so many times, and it only took me eight cruises to realize it meant something.

Oh wait...

The Signals bar on the Magic and Wonder has flags everywhere!  On the sign for the bar, every letter is decorated with its corresponding flag!

I'm just amazed how long that took me to figure out.  How did I not realize anything?

Finally, one thing I didn't get to do on this trip was go to Vanellope's.  I'm a little disappointed, I was planning to go, but three nights just isn't enough to do everything.  If I go on another three night cruise, I'll just have to accept that I can't do everything.  But that's why they have seven night cruises!

This was one of my longest blog posts ever, and I hope you enjoyed.  I know I forgot to add some pictures, but I think I got most.  Thanks for making it to the bottom of the page, and I guess I'll...