Disney Wish Embarkation Day Review: From Disney World to Boarding in Port Canaveral

After a five month travel break, we were back at it in a very Disney forward way. Rachel, our adult daughter and Disney Cruise lover, came along. A 4-night sailing aboard the Disney Wish was the main event, embarking in Port Canaveral, stopping only at Disney’s private retreats in the Bahamas: Castaway Cay and Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point. We’d only ever been aboard the sister ships Magic and Wonder, Disney’s very first cruise ships, so this would be new to us. We flew into Orlando the day before, experiencing one park-less night in the Walt Disney World Resort, staying at Bay Lake Tower. In this post is our Disney Wish embarkation day review, which is part of our larger Disney Wish 2026 cruise review series.

Arrival & Transportation

Frontier Airlines landed us in Orlando by 2 PM, and after getting our checked bags and rental car, we were on our way along the inevitable Florida toll roads toward Walt Disney World. We always rent a car for our Disney trips, as it affords us more flexibility both on and off the Disney property, in particular Disney’s Character Warehouse, which sells heavily discounted merchandise from the theme parks and cruise ships. We usually visit the one on Vineland. 

The original plan was to return the car near the cruise port and take an Uber back to the airport. This offered more embarkation and debarkation flexibility plus was less costly for the three of us versus taking Disney’s transportation. One negative, however, from what we’d read was that the shuttle between the rental car location near Port Canaveral and the port itself wasn’t quick, especially when there were multiple ships in port. Another concern was that there was a lot of time to kill between our 9 AM ship debarkation and our 3:30 PM return flight. 

There’s better ways to kill time in the Orlando area outside of the airport. As a matter of convenience, we hung onto the car for the duration, parking it at the cruiseport and ultimately returned it back to the airport in time for our flight. This did cost us about $125 more, but with the parking garage directly in front of the cruise terminal, we felt it was well worth it.

Land-based Disney (not Disney Land)

A late lunch was the first order of business, so we headed for Disney Springs. Fortunately, the Lime Garage at Disney Springs had just reopened after being closed for construction the last three months. This garage is smack dab in the middle of Disney Springs, and The Polite Pig, our lunch destination, waited for us at the bottom of the escalator.

Rona ordered the cedar plank salmon with a side of their awesome whiskey-caramel brussel sprouts. Rachel, who has asymptomatic celiac, was able to order a gluten-free brisket sandwich with french fries, and I got the smoked turkey breast with a side of burnt ends chili. We filled our sodas and found an umbrella-shaded table outside, people-watching while waiting for someone to bring our food. The mid-April sun was shining, the temperature was mild, and it was only a few minutes before our food (or more accurately one of the staff) found us.

The salmon was perfectly cooked, not dry, and delicious. The brussel sprouts, which we had tried for the first time last year, were just as fantastic. Rachel ate up her sandwich, making her way methodically through the generous portion of brisket and trying her best with the crispy fries. The turkey was smoky, slightly juicy and plentiful, and the chili satisfied my desire for a taste of burnt ends without ordering an entire plate of it. A couple bites of Rona’s brussel sprouts counteracted any less-than-healthy aspects of the rest of the food. With three drinks and tip, this excellent meal cost $94.

Bellies full of barbecue — spoiler alert, that won’t be the only time this trip — there was much shopping to be done in Disney Springs. Among other “merch”, World of Disney yielded a RSVLTS Haunted Mansion shirt for yours truly, using up the Disney Rewards redemption card balance we’d earned by booking the imminent cruise. There was wandering about Marketplace Co-op for more gifts, Basin for the fresh smells, a hopeful-for-a-sample (denied) dash in and out of Ghirardelli, Jay and Rachel caffeinating at Starbucks, and Rona getting her Disney favorite, a Jamaican Me Crazy Cold Brew from Joffrey’s. 

By now we were ready to drive over to Disney’s Contemporary Resort. The Disney app let us know our room was ready at Bay Lake Tower, so off we went, curious about what our 1 bedroom villa with a theme park view would be like.  When Rona and I stayed at Bay Lake Tower for one night a few years’ prior, we liked it, but it felt small, almost like a hotel room in a major city. What we found this time, however, blew us away.

After parking in front of Bay Lake Tower, we headed up to room 7726, letting ourselves in with our fancy new MagicBands+. Walking straight into the kitchen area, we were immediately struck by the large windows in the living area with Seven Seas Lagoon framed between the Grand Floridian in the distance and the monorail track heading into the Contemporary’s main building.

The living area has a wonky egg shaped chair, a couch with a pull down queen-sized bed above it, and a twin pull down bed below the big TV. There’s plenty of power outlets and USB ports of varying sizes. The kitchen has a full-sized refrigerator/freezer with ice maker, oven/stove/microwave, dishwasher, and the ever important Keurig combo coffee maker with a stash of Joffrey’s pods and pouches. As with any DVC room, the cabinets hide dishes and pots and pans, and this villa has an island and a sizable dining table.

Approaching the windows and door to the outside balcony, it’s clear this theme park view is no joke. There on the right is Space Mountain, with the castle centered in the distance. We would have a perfect view of the Magic Kingdom fireworks show – Happily Ever After. This was so much nicer, lighter and roomier than we remembered.

The bedroom easily contained a king-sized bed, another huge TV, nightstands and a dresser. Once again, USB and power outlets abound. Two full bathrooms is one of the benefits of the 1 bedroom villa at Bay Lake Tower. The main one has a jacuzzi tub and sink with a toilet and shower in a separate room. The second bathroom is off the entryway, opposite a stacked washer and dryer that are tucked into a closet.

Dropping our bags and admiring our view for a while, it was time to clean up and get ready for our late dinner reservation at Steakhouse 71 down on the first floor of the Contemporary Resort. After crossing the Skyway Bridge between Bay Lake Tower and the Contemporary Resort, we found the main building thrumming with life, especially around Chef Mickey’s where there were countless families with young children waiting to meet Mickey and friends. After checking out the menu at Contempo Cafe for tomorrow’s breakfast, we poked around the various shops before checking in downstairs for dinner.

We’ve really come to appreciate Steakhouse 71, even more so than the California Grill. Our server, who’d been there for 10 years, grew up on Long Island like us, and so we chatted about our shared histories. He took our drink orders, the first of many Old Fashioned’s and Bloody Mary’s on this vacation, and the first of countless crispy Diet Cokes for Rachel. They make a great Old Fashioned, and Rona rated her Bloody Mary as “top three”.

For dinner, Rachel ordered off the gluten-free menu, reproducing my last meal at Steakhouse 71, Prime Rib with Au Gratin Potatoes, and a Bearnaise sauce on the side. Her experience with the steak was better than mine was last time, which was still pretty good. The potatoes were and still are transcendental. 

Rona ordered the Filet Mignon with red wine-glazed mushrooms and a horseradish crema on the side. I branched out to the New York Strip with charred asparagus and a red wine sauce on the side. The filet cut like butter and the strip was quite possibly the best I’ve had, though to be fair I haven’t had that many I really loved. We all sampled the delicious mushrooms, and the asparagus was excellent.

We devoured everything, leaving all our plates empty. Because there wasn’t a millimeter of room left in our three stomachs and since we wanted to catch the fireworks, we skipped dessert. With gratuity, this wonderful meal cost a somewhat steep $195.  But hey, it’s Disney vacation.

Afterward, we went back up to our room/villa/welcome-home-place to watch fireworks.

For DVC members, you can catch fireworks from the Top of the World Lounge – A Villain’s Lare in the Bay Lake Tower, though it does get crowded from what we understand.

Disney broadcasts the Happily Ever After music and narration in sync with the actual show, so we cranked up the volume on both our TV’s and stood out on our balcony to watch the show. Our vantage point was absolutely perfect. Typically, park guests line up in the middle of the Magic Kingdom, facing the castle during the fireworks. From our view, however, the main fireworks appeared to launch from behind Space Mountain, with smaller displays near the castle. 

After the fireworks, Rona and I left Rachel to relax in the room and checked out Villain’s Lare for a nightcap. The crowds had left by the time we got up there, so we took a couple of seats at the bar and enjoyed the chill vibe. 

Our bartender had worked in a number of places, including the House of Blues, and she’d more recently been developing her mixologist skills. When she mentioned an off-menu banana-based Old Fashioned, I jumped all over it. That thing was incredible. Although Rona went with a seltzer, she sampled my cocktail approvingly a few times.

Disney Wish Embarkation Day Review

The next morning, we ordered breakfast from Contempo Cafe via the Disney app. I was able to get across the Skyway bridge and back before it closed at 9am for its month-long construction during business hours. We had pretty standard fare: bacon, egg & cheese on a multigrain croissant for me, a kids mickey waffle with a side of scrambled eggs for Rachel, and scrambled eggs and bacon for Rona. With a couple of drinks in addition to the included in-room Keurig coffee, this ran $35. 

Our boarding time on the Wish was 12:45pm, so we were checked out and in the car at 11AM. By 12:15PM, we arrived at the Port Canaveral parking garage right in front of the terminal. For those parking, you pull over inside the garage (there’s people to guide you) and drop with the porters any bags you don’t want to carry on yourself, and then pull away and park. 

Because we were early, we queued up outside the terminal with the other 12:45pm’ers. Disney certainly knows how to line people up. Beware if you show up too early, because you are basically left lineless and have to just find a place to hang out in the sun.  There are restrooms, though.

At 12:45PM we began the march into the terminal, through security, and then lined up again to check in at one of the many desks. The actual check-in took a few minutes longer because we had purchased a new MagicBand+ for each of us, and the agent needed to activate each one. This was kind of weird given we’d already gone through the process of connecting them to our reservation before we had even arrived at the cruise terminal. Still, having the magic band did mean we wouldn’t be fumbling with our key-to-the-world cards as much.

Overall, we’ve had faster boarding experiences, but it really wasn’t too bad. But now, the moment had arrived. By 1:15PM, the crew welcomed the Eckert family on board and that Disney cruise ship smell surrounded us.

Cabins wouldn’t be ready until around 2PM, so we and our carry-ons (backpacks & tote bags) went in search of “Lunch – the opening act” at the buffet.

Marceline Market sits aft on deck 11, with our destination being its seafood bar, offering shrimp and crab offered only on embarkation day. On the Wish, this “buffet” is Food Hall-style, in that crew members mostly serve you, except for drinks. If you were not already aware, Disney includes fountain soft drinks with your fare, not just teas, coffees, and lemonade. That the crew serves you is always reassuring, even though they strongly encourage you to wash your hands on the way in. Still, it’s Disney and, well… there’s a lot of grubby little hands around.

Marceline Market is fairly large, essentially a long loop from either side of the ship, with identical offerings on either side, though our seafood destination stood in the back. Seating is between the food and the windows on either side and in the back. It was crowded, as is often the case at embarkation. Seats were at a premium, and the crowd along with the layout of Marceline Market left us feeling claustrophobic. Rona and I grabbed (or rather, were given) a big plate of shrimp and crab, while Rachel went in search of some gluten free options. 

Disney is pretty hardcore when it comes to allergies. Rachel found out she could safely have some mashed potatoes at the buffet, but upon mentioning her gluten allergy, the allergy-trained crewmember was summoned to said potato area. They filled out a form, and a few minutes later, they brought forth a heaping plate of gluten-free mashed potatoes from “the back”.  Nice. This would not be the last experience where someone was summoned on Rachel’s behalf.

By 1:30PM we were enjoying the fresh air of an outside table behind the buffet.  The shrimp was cold, fresh and delicious. The crab were tasty, though the effort-to-crab-meat-yield ratio was far too high. The mashed potatoes were the clear winner for “least eating effort”. Still, it was a beautiful day to briefly sit outside and fight crustacean shells. But now it was time for “Lunch – the main event”.

On deck 11, mid-ship/forward, sits Mickey & Friends Festival of Foods, an open-air quick service food court, with four food options – Mickey’s Smokestack Barbeque, Donald’s Cantina, Daisy’s Pizza Pies, and Goofy’s Grill, plus Sweet Minnie’s Ice Cream for anytime dessert. They’re all open for lunch and dinner, with Daisy’s open late because cruise ship pizza demands it. 

We’d been planning for some barbecue all along, so we made a beeline for Mickey’s. It works this way. You point at what you want, trying not to grunt a whole lot, and then they stick it all on a tray and hand it to you. Rona chose ribs, sausage, brisket, and sides of pickles and cole slaw. I picked ribs, sausage, chicken, with a side of mac’n cheese. 

Now it was Rachel’s turn to order something gluten free. And thus, the allergy-trained crewmember was summoned. He arrived after a few minutes, furnishing Rachel with dietary guidance and scribbling down her allergy and order, before handing her a pager. As with Marceline Market, there are fountains offering sodas, lemonade, etc. As opposed to Marceline Market, it was not tremendously crowded, but even on busier days we found it handled crowds much more comfortably.

Rachel’s pager didn’t seem to work this time, but her eyes lit up when the allergy dude found our table by the windows and brought her a tray laden with ribs and gluten free mac’n cheese.

The ribs were fall-off-the-bone delicious, the sausage, brisket, and chicken were excellent. In Rona’s opinion, the pickles were absolutely top-notch. 

Between our table and barbecue stood a strategically placed sink with soap and towels intended for hand-washing, presumably for use after the general stickiness of ribs. Thus, when we left to check out our cabin, we left behind no residue on the elevator buttons.

Our bags were already there at 2:30 PM when we arrived at our cabin – #8176 – a deluxe family oceanview stateroom. After snatching our key-to-the-world cards from beside the door, we went on in. This was our first time without a veranda, but since we weren’t planning to spend much time in the cabin, we chose to skip the veranda and go with slightly more space. 

The cabin is designed for up to five guests, and features an oversized porthole window you can sit in. It includes a queen bed, single sofa bed, where Rachel would sleep, plus a wall pull-down bed, and an upper-berth pull-down bed. There’s also Disney’s signature split bathroom with a toilet and sink in one room and shower with door plus sink in the other room. Overall the cabin was very comfortable, but storage for folded clothing was pretty limited. We will post a cabin tour in the coming weeks.

The muster drill was set for 4PM, but we were hankering for caffeine, so headed up to deck 13 in search of the Cove Cafe, one of many locations offering barista-made coffee.  Here is where things go south. It was maybe 3:15PM, and the Cove Cafe, along with many other locations had closed. Closed! Denied coffee! The horrors!  Be aware, things close before muster to encourage passengers to actually go.

On Celebrity Cruises, muster involves watching a video in your cabin or on your phone, then checking in with a crewmember at your muster station for approximately 15 seconds. In fact, on our prior cruise, we watched the safety video in the uber on the way to the port. Disney, however, still does muster old-school. That is not a compliment.

Muster Station “X” was in the aft of the ship, in a back corner of the Worlds of Marvel restaurant on deck 4, though that location was not super obvious from the map in the DCL app. After figuring out the location with the help of other passengers outside the closed doors of the restaurant, we dutifully lined up. 

Eventually, the doors opened, and some crewmembers led us through the bowels of the restaurant (did we walk through the kitchen?), and sat us in a way-back dining room with table cloths obviously draped over the settings placed for dinner. I’m glad our dining rotation would not bring us to Marvel that night, or so I thought. More on that later.

It took well past 4PM for the rest of the Muster Station “X”ers to arrive. Everyone was crammed in, but at least we had seats. Others among our number were not so lucky. After some crew announcements, a 5-minute muster video appeared on the screens in the dining room, and a few minutes after that, we were dismissed.

Leaving Worlds of Marvel at that point was not much different than getting out of the back of an airplane. This also meant the nearby aft elevators were loaded, so going back up to the Cove Cafe on deck 13 wasn’t happening.  Pro-tip: on the Disney Wish, there are two other walk-up cafes that offer barista-made coffees and teas, including the Wishing Star Cafe and Enchanted Sword Cafe, as well as the Bayou Lounge, where we would spent a lot of time in the coming days. 

Armed with alternate-coffee knowledge, we climbed the stairs to deck 5, aiming for the Enchanted Sword cafe. Taking seats at the bar, we ordered an iced americano for Rona, a hot americano for me, and a smoothie for Rachel. They handed us a new Café Fanatic card, with two stamps for our specialty coffees. After five stamps, you get a free drink, and there was no doubt we’d be taking advantage of that. After the madness that was the muster drill and the crowds at Marceline Market, this was a nice respite.

For you DVC members, note that the DVC desk is also right near the Enchanted Sword Cafe, and – another pro-tip: DVC members can pick up different swag each day of the sailing. Today, we exchanged our digital DVC cards for new lanyards, in which we stuffed our key to the world cards and Café Fanatic card. 

By now, it was time to head back to the room to change, since we were planning to see the 6:15 PM show in the Walt Disney Theater before our 8:10 PM dinner seating. Before the show, however, we stopped at the Bayou for pre-show drinks. The Bayou is a Princess and the Frog themed lounge on deck 3, mid-ship/forward. The decor is very much New Orleans, and you can often find live music there. The menu also included beignets, which… well we would enjoy them later.

Rona and I ordered a couple of Abita beers on draft, and Rachel ordered an orange soda, made with orange juice and vanilla cream soda. It was here that we met our favorite server at any lounge, who we will just call S. We chatted a while with him, and he complimented Rachel and Rona’s earrings, which Rachel had made. He seemed quite taken with them, and we began to hatch plans to give him an extra pair. Every time we came back to the Bayou, we made sure to find S.

We caught the first showing of Disney – Seas the Adventure, a live stage show featuring an all-star cast of Disney and Pixar characters, most of whom show up after Minnie hands the ship’s helm over to Goofy. The show was relatively short in comparison to the other shows, but it was very well staged. Rona was admittedly choked up watching it, though I might have been channeling Grumpy, as it wasn’t my kind of thing.

While we knew our dinners would always be at 8:10 PM, we had only discovered our dining rotation for this sailing once we’d connected to the ship’s wi-fi in the terminal.  It would begin tonight with 1923, then tomorrow would begin the interactive dining with Worlds of Marvel. The third night would remain at Marvel for Pirate Night and its themed dining, but right after we boarded, we had snagged a Palo Steakhouse dinner reservation for that evening instead. The fourth and final night’s dinner was set for Arendelle: A Frozen Dining Adventure.

We’d been looking forward to 1923 based on the menu and all the photos and videos we’d seen of the place. It’s kind of an elegant, upscale location with “Golden Age of Hollywood” glamor. There’s no “show” or other interactive features, but instead honors the year Walt Disney Studios was founded and showcases loads of animation artifacts.

The restaurant is split into the Walt Disney dining room on the right and Roy Disney on the left. Our assigned table was in the Roy Disney dining room. We lined up a few minutes early, and a friendly crewmember provided hand sanitizing wipes. After a short wait, we read off our assigned table number from the DVC app and were shown to our table, one we shared with a very nice family of three from Illinois that coincidentally included their adult daughter.

We met our main and assistant servers, who through the magic of Disney’s rotational dining would be with us in each dining room throughout the sailing. Our main server was also allergy trained, and so was key to ensuring Rachel was able to order gluten free menu items. For anyone with a food allergy, it’s essential that you inform DCL of that for your sailing, which you can do under Special Requests in the app or web site at least three days before embarkation.

Going forward, and at the end of each dinner, Rachel would order in advance both her dinner for the next evening, and her lunch at Castaway or Lookout Cay. The latter is really important because we’d seen a YouTube video where a passenger with a gluten allergy was unable to eat on Castaway Cay when they hadn’t ordered the prior day. For tonight, however, the menu and our server offered gluten free guidance, including what could be tweaked to keep it allergen friendly.

While Rona and Rachel went with Iced Tea and a Diet Coke, respectively, I was forced to order the Riverside Old Fashioned, seeing as how it was constructed with maple and bacon. Clearly, they had me at maple and bacon. On subsequent days our assistant server automatically brought Rona and Rachel their same drinks soon after we were seated. However, since cocktails were not part of her autopilot instructions, I had to ask for a Diet Coke the next night.

The bread service came out, which at 1923 is a fig and olive bread with honey butter dip. They also brought out gluten free bread and separate butter for Rachel. They’d do this at each restaurant, which was excellent, and according to Rachel, the bread was quite good.

For starters, both Rona and I ordered the Alameda Porcini Spiced Ahi Tuna. I added the Pulled Guinea Hen Corn Chowder. Rachel went with a crouton-less Split Napa Baby Romaine Lettuce salad, an overwrought name for a Caesar Salad. The tuna was fresh and the various bits and bobs served with it added more flavors and texture. The soup was tasty and warming. Rachel was happy with her salad. So far, so good.

For entrees, Rachel picked the Riverside Roasted Green Circle Chicken from the three possible gluten free entrees, spanning fish, chicken and beef.  The chicken was well cooked, tasty, and moist in the best way possible. She ate all of the chicken and the accompanying potato fondant. 

Rona chose the Seared Verlasso Salmon Filet, while I went with the Peppered Filet Mignon, cooked medium-rare. Unfortunately, this is where things went wrong. 

While the salmon looked nice, it had a fishy smell, which is generally not a good sign. Rona hardly ate any. She was already somewhat satiated from the tuna and bread, and told the concerned assistant server as much when she noticed the bulk of the salmon looming on the plate, and offered something different from the kitchen. 

My filet mignon started out well, was cooked per my request and reasonably tasty.  Somewhere along the third or fourth bite, however, I wound up with a, for lack of a better term, glob of fat in my mouth. This wasn’t the fat cap you may sometimes see on the edge and cut around; it was in the middle, unexpected and indicative of a lower quality cut.

Now I don’t mind a bit of fat in my steak, and if I don’t spot it before I take a bite, I can usually manage to chew my way through it. Not this one, and not here. I wound up excusing myself to a rest room outside the restaurant to surreptitiously dispose of it.

Once the entree plates were taken away, it was time for dessert. High hopes, there. Rona went with the no sugar added coconut tapioca pudding with strawberry-lime salsa and matcha crumble. Both Rachel and I ordered the Hollywood Hills Hot Chocolate Fudge Sundae, with the fudge brownie bites replaced with gluten free chocolate chip cookies for Rachel. This was a nice touch and much appreciated. In general, the desserts were tasty and fine, and looked better than they actually were.

Before we left the dining room, our main server took Rachel’s order for tomorrow’s gluten free lunch at Castaway Cay, as well as dinner at Worlds of Marvel. He helpfully told us at which of the multiple dining locations on the island to pick up her food. Our servers were thoughtful and friendly, with the only “complaint” being a nit: we had to ask multiple times for soft drink refills (the horror!). Overall, we were disappointed in 1923 given what happened with our entrees. 

To be perfectly candid, after one day on the Wish, we weren’t impressed and were thinking that we should have paid more attention to our prior experience on the Magic in 2022, where we enjoyed it at times, but came away thinking we preferred Disney on land. We’d been strongly considering booking a placeholder for a future cruise, specifically on the same ship for a British Isles sailing, but between some of the food at 1923, the wall-to-wall bodies at Marceline Market, and the overall unpleasantness of the Muster Drill experience, we were having second thoughts.

We wandered the ship late into the evening, losing at trivia, listening to music, shopping at Mickey’s Mainsail, and filling the reusable drink cups we’d brought onboard with Coke Zero from Mickey & Friends Festival of Foods. There might have been a small late snack from Daisy’s Pizza Pies before heading back to the cabin where a bunny towel animal and chocolates greeted our return for the night.

Tomorrow the ship would dock at Castaway Cay, where a cabana, beach, and more barbeque awaited. In the meantime, here’s a couple of pieces of Disney artwork.