Its time for our first full day on the Disney’s newest cruise ship, The Disney Wish. The Wish just launched last summer. I love to sleep late, but I often don’t do it on vacation because there is breakfast and touring to do (and well the opportunity for a nap later in the day). This time it was all about a lounge chair at the pool. The last time I couldn’t get a pool seat on a Disney ship I ended up going to a presentation and buying a Disney Vacation Club time share. I signed all the papers in dirty pool hair, a swimsuit, and coverup.

Rocky was up for it, so we went down to the seated breakfast in 1923, the ship’s elegant theme restaurant in the dining rotation. We were early enough to get a seat by the window. Can you say Eggs Benedict? After a nice breakfast, we headed up to The Cove to sit in the adult only section. We had a great view of the water and took the first two seats in our section. By 10:30 or 11 am, there were no seats to be found in this part of the ship, even earlier if you wanted a couple together. We passed on the servers first go around, but then heard there are morning drink specials. Until noon, mimosas and bloody marys are only $5.50. In other words drink early and save.

We went for a late lunch given the big breakfast and our late dinner seating. The pool side offerings on the Wish are varied with our favorites being the taco stand and the bar-b-que. I still prefer the boiled king crab legs and shrimp and I ate that again. Between the morning mimosas and the seafood, I had found the best deals on the ship. We kept checking the line at the Aqua Mouse, but other than first thing in the morning-it opens at 8 am-the sign indicating the wait stayed at 20-40 minutes throughout the day. I can just imagine what the wait would be on a sailing with more school-age children.

We stayed out at the pool most of the day, enjoying the water, reading, and listening to music. I know Rocky wanted to soak up as much sun a possible given his Minnesota winter. Our show tonight is The Little Mermaid. I was a little different from their other versions, but adapted well for a cruise ship and was well executed. The evening entertainment continued to impress. Since we had time after the show before our dinner seating, we checked out Nightingale’s, the ship’s champagne bar. They had a pretty good selection of by-the-glass champagne and Natasha does love her bubbles.

Rocky tried one of the cocktails where they gave you a little hammer to break the ice ball. Gimmicky but fun. The bar’s signature drink comes in a glass shaped like a bird. I doesn’t hold much, but the glass was pretty until you realized you were drinking out of the bird’s tail feathers. The glasses are not meant to be souvenirs, but our server told us that guests had already snuck out with half the stock of the speciality glasses they had when the ship starting sailing.

The highlight of Nightingale’s is the beautiful chandelier and the baby grand piano underneith. We enjoyed the Disney music in complicated arrangements performed by Matt who was part of the Victrophonics we saw last night in Luna. The small stage entertainment found outside of Walt Disney Theater was the biggest surprise and my favorite part of cruising aboard The Disney Wish.

Tonight the dining rotation took us to Arendelle’s, the Frozen-themed dining venue. I had been to a similar venue on one of the other Disney ships and was seated out in the boonies. I was excited to have a stage-side table this time. Periodically, you would get appearances on the stage, by Oaken (who acted as MC), minstrel performers, and later Anna, Elsa, Olaf, and Kristoff. Honestly, the best work was by done by the minstrel singers.

The venue itself is designed for serving, sight lines, and roaming characters. The characters wave and pass by the tales but do not stop. My favorite part of the venue is the hall that takes you back to the dining area, setting the mood and giving the feel of a castle corridor lined with portraits of family and friends. Rocky got into copying one of the painting as Anna did in the original Frozen.

After dinner, we ran into some more characters, did some more bar hopping and caught another one of Matt’s sets-music from a different era. We ended the evening the the Grand Hall getting pictures with the Cinderella statute and her glass slipper.

Our two ports-Nassau, Bahamas and Castaway Cay-are still to come on our Disney Wish adventure…Natasha.