Ranking the Disney Cruise Ships that I have Been On...so far

Ranking the best Disney Cruise Line Ships

In the last two years, I have been lucky enough to get a couple of discounted cruise rates and go on my first Disney Cruise since 2005. I have been on four Disney cruises in the last two years on three different ships. All three are different ship classes, and I are each a decade apart.

Disney Wish—The Disney Wish is bringing up the rear on this list. I have been on it twice, so I have a very good grasp on this cruise ship. Let me just get this out of the way quickly, I love this cruise ship, it is a great ship with plenty of things to do. But.. compared to the other Disney cruise ships, it does fall short. I was able to enjoy an “oceanview” room which had a great view of the bow of the ship. I was also able to enjoy a verandah stateroom. Both of these staterooms had the split bathroom where the toilet and the shower are in different rooms, allowing for multiple people to use a bathroom at a time. The beds were also very comfortable. I love the turndown service with chocolate provided. It reminds me of the old days of cruising when that service was commonplace. I loved the TV that was provided to the room, it was the largest TV I’ve seen on a cruise ship…. Before I sailed on Star of the Seas.

The food was easily the worst dining on the cruise line and perhaps on any cruise line. Worlds of Marvel is IP slop, thrown in just to capitalize on a popular property. Watching the random TV screens show different Marvel characters with the music blaring over us made me feel like I was just in a big billboard. It felt like cheap advertising in the worst way. The food was the worst on the ship. I think I liked the buffet more. Which brings me to the buffet, it is just mediocre food. No great items at the buffet. 1923 was a good meal, with tastefully done theming. The Arendelle dining experience is my favorite out of the Tangled/Frozen dining shows. The Aqua Mouse is my favorite slide on Disney Cruise Line, it is a gimmick but I think it’s cute. The adult section is also very small for the size of the ship. The theaters that show the movies still in theaters were really cute in theming.

Disney Magic—Where it all started, this ship filled me with so much nostalgia. The Carnival Liberty can do the same thing, but the Magic was PRISTINE. The whole ship was well taken care of, and absolutely beautiful. No amazing water slides to report, but this ship doesn’t need it. The theming is much more muted than the Disney Wish, and I loved that. It was the first small ship I have been on in years, we were on deck 7, and it was perfect how close we were to the buffet, to the restaurants, and to the shows. It was simplistic in the best way, and they maximized all of that space. The adult section was underutilized on our trip. On a port day we could walk right to the adult section and get a pool chair, go straight to the bar, get in the hot tub/pool and not feel like tourist soup. The indoor adult section was also well themed, and just felt nostalgic being in there. The adult activities in the typical place was a great space to hang out at. The bartenders just watching and not having any customers always made me laugh after being on Royal Caribbean. The food was so much better than the Wish. Animator’s Palate was a great restaurant, well themed, and good food. We got to dine at this location two nights on our cruise and I loved it. Lumierre’s and the Tangled dinner show are both good but fall short compared to 1923 and the Frozen dinner show. Twice Charmed was a great show, I loved that two the shows on the Disney Magic were originals. Tangled was also great. I liked this lineup of three better than the Disney Wish shows, even though Aladdin is my favorite show on DCL. Chicken tenders closed early on Pirate night… ☹

Disney Fantasy—The perfect midpoint. The perfect size, the perfect amount of Disney and theming. I will say the restaurants on this ship are slightly worse than the other ships. Animator’s Palate goes more screen based with moments like Turtle Talk with Crush coming on the screens to interact with the section of tables. The Enchanted Garden was a beautifully themed restaurant that took the place of the character experiences on the other two ships like the Tangled and Frozen. I’m not the audience for the table character meet and greets, but I think they could have had them in the final restaurant I ate at called Royal Court. Princesses coming to the table could have been a layup, but I also loved this restaurant, the mosaics of the Disney princesses were excellent. The buffet wasn’t too bad to fight through, and the quick service spots pumped out the food quickly. The tacos were very good, and who could forget about the tendies. Aqua Duck is a fun slide but slightly worse than the Aqua Mouse. The entertainment is fantastic. I loved the theater shows which included Frozen, Aladdin, and Disney’s Believe. Seeing these shows in this order was perfect because of the great special guest in the Believe show. These were all great shows, but I think Aladdin is still my favorite show. Frozen was much better than the Little Mermaid that was on the Wish. The adult section on the Disney Fantasy is a place where the ship really shines. The entire adult district fashioned by Europe that goes through the ship have great locations, ending up in The Tube which was the location for all of the bigger game shows and just a really interesting space. The bathrooms in the adult section were personal bathrooms with beautiful mosaics on the bathroom walls. One of the most elegant pooping experiences I have ever had. The amount of detail they put around the ship is better than the other two ships. They didn’t just slam your head over with Disney IP. It was more muted throughout the ship, where if you look hard enough you can see a ton, but only few sections are really super Disneyfied. Like the moving artwork right next to the elevators, it looks like a picture from far away, but if you stand directly in front of it, the artwork animates. It is just a fun little detail to look while walking through the ship. My favorite was the one on deck 6, it was an image of the Pirates of the Caribbean with sounds from the attraction playing once it animates. This ship was fantastic and the best one I have been on. It even is better than the ship that is ten years newer.

I haven’t found a bad cruise ship on Disney Cruise Line as of yet. All three of these cruise ships are fantastic but when they are put up against each other, it can definitely show its flaws.