The BEST Disney Cruise Ship (How to Choose)

Wondering what the best Disney Cruise ship is? The best ship for you depends on what you’re looking for in a ship.

There is no one single ‘best’ Disney Cruise ship that everyone would agree on, because all seven of them have special themes and features that make them unique and separate from the others.

Thats part of why people go on many Disney cruises – different ships and itineraries mean a different experience.

So, the best Disney Cruise Ship for you depends on:

• If you prefer a larger ship with more to do, or a smaller and quieter ship
• If you prefer special features for adults only, or for families with young kids
• Which Disney movies are your favourite(s), as each ship has different movie themes

Generally, each Disney Cruise caters to people of all ages, from babies to adults cruising alone.

But, because of the different specializations of each ship, some might be more appealing to adults, and some have a bit more for families.

I have been on 3 of the 7 Disney Cruise ships, and have done a crazy amount of research into the differences between all the ships, and comparing what makes them different.

So, I’m about to save you hours of time. Let’s dive into figuring out which of the ships YOU would like best.

The Current Disney Cruise Fleet: Quick Facts

I’ve grouped the Disney Cruise ships into three categories – oldest, middle and newer.

Disney Cruise Line went through three ‘phases’ of how they built and manage their ships, so its important to keep these phases in mind when choosing which ship you’d like best.

The oldest ships:

• Disney Magic (1998 – first ever Disney Cruise ship) Holds 2,700 passengers
• Disney Wonder (1999) Holds 2,700 passengers

The ‘middle’ ships:

• Disney Dream (2011) Holds 4,000 passengers
• Disney Fantasy (2012) Holds 4,000 passengers

The ‘newer’ ships

• Disney Wish (2022) 4,000 passengers
• Disney Treasure (2024) 4,000 passengers
• Disney Destiny (2025) 4,000 passengers
• Disney Adventure (coming 2026) will carry 6,700 passengers!!

So as you can see, the ships get bigger over time and are designed to carry more passengers, and have even more things to do.

The newer ships tend to be fancier, and more elegant. The ships in the ‘newer’ category above tend to have a lot more extravagant detail than the ships in the middle and older categories.

However, don’t let these details put you off the older ships. The oldest ships hold fewer passengers, but they’re also less chaotic. There’s more space, fewer lineups.

I went on a 3-day Wonder cruise, and it was a lot calmer than our 3 days on the Wish. It was also just as fun.

I do believe that unless you have a huge preference for a large vs small ship, you will have fun no matter what. So, let’s jump into the amenities that each of the ships offer.

Best Disney Cruise Ship for Food and Dining Experience

Whether you’re cruising as a family with kids, or a group of only adults – the one thing everyone appreciates is food, so I’m going to start with that.

First of all, the food quality on all of the ships is the same. What changes is the TYPE of food.

Here are the unique restaurants that are on each ship’s dining rotation:

• Disney Magic – Rapunzel’s Royal Table, and Lumiere’s (French/European cuisine)
• Disney Wonder – Triton’s (French) and Tiana’s Place (Southern cuisine)
• Disney Dream – Enchanted Garden (French cuisine)
• Disney Fantasy – Enchanted Garden (French cuisine)
• Disney Wish – Arendelle’s (Nordic cuisine)
• Disney Treasure – Plaza de Coco Restaurant (Mexican food),
• Disney Destiny – Pride Lands: Feast of The Lion King (African cuisine!)
• Disney Adventure – Enchanted Summer Restaurant

*To be clear, these are not the only restaurants that these ships have. It’s the restaurants they have that are different from the other ships.

Another thing to keep in mind for food on the Disney Cruise Ships is is Cabana’s vs Marceline Market.

• Cabana’s is found on the older ships (Fantasy, Wonder, Magic and Dream) is a self-serve buffet. The food is good, and it’s stuff you’d find at your favourite breakfast place at home – omelets, scrambled eggs, sausages, hash browns, Mickey-shaped waffles, muffins, fruits, cereals, etc.
• Marceline Market (Wish, Treasure, Destiny and Adventure) is a more upper scale buffet where you tell staff what you want, and they serve it to you. It has the same stuff you’ll see at Cabana’s but it has more advanced and fancy options too. I LOVED the Marceline Market, and I prefer it to Cabana’s. I feel like I could eat there every day.

Bottom line: The food quality and service on all the Disney Cruise ships is going to be the same. A key difference is Marceline vs Cabana’s (I like the food at Marceline Market better) and the types of cuisine offered at the sit-down dinner rotation dining restaurants. The older ships have a lot of European and North American-style food, whereas the newer ships are branching out a bit, with Mexican and African cuisine options. So that may give you a nudge towards which food experience you’d like best.

Best Disney Cruise ship for FAMILIES with Kids

If you’re taking your kids on a Disney Cruise, then there are a few things you probably want to know about:

• the pools
• waterslides
• the childcare options
• activities for kids (of all ages)
• how each ship caters to families

1. Pools

All the Disney Cruise Ships have pools.

• The three newer ships (Wish, Treasure and Destiny) have more pools, but they tend to be many small pools as opposed to a couple large big ones.
  
• The middle ships (Dream and the Disney Fantasy) have two large pools rather than a bunch of small ones like the newer ships do
  
• The oldest ships (Wonder and Fantasy) have the same number of pools as the middle ships, but get this – you’re sharing them with half of the number of people!

So, for the older ships, you have the same square footage of pools but for 2,000 fewer people. That means that the pools tend to be a lot less crowded.

Disney Cruiseline has realized this and tried to make a bunch of small pools rather than two big ones on their newer ships, but speaking from experience, they can still get crowded at peak times.

My youngest still enjoyed her time swimming on the crowded pools of the Wish, and she is a big swimmer.

If swimming is very important to you, then you may value the pools on the older ships better.

The bottom line for pools: The oldest pools (the Wonder and the Magic) are the best when it comes to pools, because its the same square footage shared with half of the amount of people that you have to share with on the newer ships

2. Waterslides

I’m not sure if anyone really cares about waterslides, but I find the differences in them really interesting so going to give you a brief rundown anyway.

There are three different waterslides that you can find across Disney Cruise Ships, and they are all very different.

• Aqua Duck -an open-air, classic waterslide. When you ride it, you get views of the ocean surrounding you. You must be 7 years old or 42 inches tall. (found on the Disney Dream, Fantasy, and Magic)
• Aqua Mouse – a cinematic and enclosed waterslide. It’s fun, but it’s faster and more stimulating because of all the moves at the beginning. See my YouTube video of it here. You need to be 42 inches tall. You have to be (found on the Disney Wish, Treasure)
• Twist ‘n’ Sprout – a yellow waterslide, similar to the Aqua Duck for ages 4, or 38 inches tall (found on the Disney Wonder, Magic and Fantasy)

The bottom line: The best Disney Cruise ship for waterslides is the Disney Fantasy. It’s the only ship that has two different waterslide options – the Aqua Duck and the Twist n Sprout. This makes it ideal for families with different age kids, because they have more waterslide options.

3. Chilcare Centres

The childcare offerings are the same for all the ships, in terms of price, quality of staff, and offerings.

All of the Disney Cruise ships have:

• it’s a small world for ages 0-3
• Oceaneer’s Club for 4-10
• Edge for 11-14
• Vibe for 14-17

The only difference is the style and aesthetic, and the layout on each of the ships. Here are some descriptions of each of the themes.

The newer ships (Wish, Treasure and Destiny) have a layout in a long form with different rooms splitting off from it. They have more focus on Marvel/Pixar themes than the older ships do.

The older ships (Fantasy, Magic, Wonder and Dream) childcare centres are more open concept. They have more traditional Disney style in their childcare centres than the newer ships.

Most people seem to agree that the Disney Wish has one of the best Oceaneer’s Club – it has Belle’s Library, Rapunzel’s art room, and the Frozen activity room. The Marvel design-your-own-super-suit and the Star Wars sections are really cool. It was so amazing walking through it.

4. Activities for kids

The activities for kids are more or less the same on all the Disney Cruise Ships.

The only differnce is their extra ‘paid’ activities that cost an additional fee.

• Royal Court Tea – offered on the Dream, Magic, Wonder and Fastasy
• Olaf’s Royal Picnic – offered on the Disney Wish only

Another downside with the larger ship is the lineups and how hard it can be to get a spot at the things you want to do, such as Royal Gathering (because you’re competing with more people.) However, if you go with a longer itinerary (4-7 nights rather than only 3 nights) then your chances of getting spots at these activities increase because there are MORE time slots offered.

Best Disney Cruise ship for ADULTS

Some of the features that adults enjoy on a Disney Cruise are:

• some nightlife (bars and pubs)
• spas
• well-developed adult-only areas, which include pools, hot tubs and places to relax

The best Disney Cruise ships for adults (that have the best of the things above) tend to be the Disney Treasure, Disney Fantasy, Disney Dream and the Disney Wish. And I’ll tell you why:

Disney Treasure

• has lots of bars and pubs open late. There are so many cozy pubs to have a late night drink

Disney Fantasy

• has one of the best spas
• one of the best adult-only areas
• it’s fitness centre has an indoor running track

Disney Dream

• It’s fitness centre also has an indoor running track

All of the ships have good fitness centres, but the Disney Dream and Fantasy have a special feature to their fitness centres – indoor running tracks, which you can’t find on the other ships.

The best Disney Cruises for adults are: The Disney Dream and the Disney Fantasy. They have better fitness centres, best adult only areas, great spas, and the most nightlife options.

Final Thoughts on Best Disney Cruise Ship

Most people will tell you that you shouldn’t book your Disney Cruise vacation based on the SHIP, only the itinerary. And I would agree. However, the ships do offer different experiences and their own unique qualities. So, if you’re flexible where and for how long you cruise for, then you can choose based on the ship.

Personally, I really like the older ships. They’re less crowded, and it feels more relaxed. I really enjoy the newer ships too (the Wish, and soon the Treasure.) However, I’m not planning to sail on the Disney Adventure, because of the increase in passengers. 4,000 already feels like a lot of people and I don’t have interest in being on a ship where there’s even more than that.

I hope that this article saves you some time and gave you some interesting insight into the best Disney Cruise ship for you!