The adults-only surprise on board Disney’s first cruise ship in Australia

Even before I’ve set foot on board the Disney Wonder, I can tell this is going to be a cruise unlike any other.

The first clue comes as I arrive at Melbourne’s Station Pier. The 2400-capacity ship is docked, its bright red funnels visible for miles, both emblazoned with the company’s iconic Mickey Mouse logo.

The twin funnels of Disney Wonder with the iconic Mickey Mouse logo.Credit: Rhett Wyman

The passengers waiting to board are a diverse bunch but they have one thing in common: they’re all wearing Disney gear. By far the most popular item of clothing, from toddlers to middle-aged dads, is a pair of mouse ears. Others wear dresses patterned with characters or T-shirts featuring Marvel superheroes.

My family of four check in our luggage and soon afterwards we’re invited to board.

The fun starts as soon as we cross the gangplank and enter the three-storey atrium and lobby. Crew form a guard of honour to welcome us. After our tickets are checked, a voice booms across a loudspeaker: “Please welcome aboard … the Platt family!”

The crew applauds and, on the atrium’s staircase, Mickey Mouse dances and gives us a thumbs up.

It’s not special treatment – every one of the hundreds of families boarding gets the same welcome. When we pass the atrium hours later, the welcomes are still going (though Mickey – likely exhausted – has been replaced by Pluto).

Disney Wonder was the second ship to join Disney Cruise Lines’ fleet.

Disney launched its cruise line 25 years ago with its first ship, Disney Magic. Disney Wonder followed the next year. Since then, the fleet has grown to five and is now increasing rapidly, with Disney Wish launched last year and three more ships in the pipeline.

But until now, Disney cruises have largely stuck to the Caribbean and other parts of North America. In fact, Disney Wonder’s arrival in Australia marks the first time a Disney ship has crossed the equator or the international date line.

What took so long? Australia is, after all, one of the key global markets for cruising, accounting for about five per cent of the market (which may sound small, but is huge considering our population).

The AquaLab water park for families.

A lack of ships is cited as the main reason, but now with more ships under construction, the cruise line is set to expand its horizons. Due to its popularity, Disney Wonder is already confirmed to return to Australia next season. Disney Adventure, set to launch in 2025, will be based in Singapore.

Despite being one of the line’s oldest ships, the Wonder is fresh out of dry dock and the hull is absolutely gleaming, as are the interiors. The maintenance period also saw the addition of infrastructure, including technical equipment for a new superhero show (see below).

We depart Melbourne at 4pm and the Disney touches are already apparent. The ship’s horn is no simple blast – it plays a few bars of When You Wish Upon a Star.

As we start to pull out into Port Phillip Bay, passengers gather on the upper deck for a departure party, where children get a kids-only space at the front of the stage to see the “Party Patrol” sing and dance with Disney’s most famous characters.

“Who is ready to party?” shouts the lead performer. The answer, it appears, is everyone.

Fun for the kids …

Disney Wonder, like all the line’s ships, is built with families in mind. There are four separate kids’ clubs, each for different ages ranging from babies through to 17-year-olds. It’s a necessity given there are about 800 kids on board. Those kids are looked after by close to 50 councillors, though the ship’s manager of youth activities, Ben Pewton, is quick to point out that they’re not just babysitters, even in the nursery.

Olaf stops by at the kids’ club.

“It’s very much an entertainment service, as it is with all of our venues,” he says. “We actually engage, interact. There are toys, games, crafts.”

Disney characters also stop by to interact with the kids. When I drop my four-year-old daughter off, Olaf the snowman from Frozen is leading a bunch of toddlers in a conga line.

Children are given an electronic wristband that allows their location within the clubs to be pinpointed easily and, for older kids, to check in and check out (adults are banned from entering any of the kids’ venues except during special “open house” periods).

“It’s immersive play,” says Pewton, pointing out the spaces dedicated to different Disney properties – one corner is Toy Story-themed, with play equipment including a slide shaped like Slinky the dog. Nearby is the Marvel Super Hero Academy, with a futuristic feel and distinctive moody lighting.

… and the adults too

“Immersive” is a word that comes up a lot.

Cruise director Jimmy Lynett, a Pennsylvania native who lives on the Gold Coast with his Australian wife, says immersive storytelling is the key to the Disney experience.

“That’s what differentiates us from anyone else. We have those stories and the ability to bring them to life,” he says.“It caters as well to the adults as it does to the kids.”

Quiet Cove is an adults-only area.

The same can be said for the ship as a whole. Although one would expect the focus on board to be on children, there’s a surprisingly large number of adults-only spaces. That includes several bars and clubs, a cafe, a spa and a pool. There’s also Palo, a high-end, adults-only Italian dining experience open for brunch and dinner.

The benefit of those kids’ clubs, with their extended hours, means parents can get away to have some “me time” too.

“That lets the adults enjoy their time around the ship, knowing their kids are looked after and they’re safe … the kids generally don’t want to leave the space anyway,” says Pewton.

“We might have a kid come in with special needs and it might be the first time, for example, mum and dad have been able to have a date since the child’s been born. And that’s a sort of magic moment.”

Magic meals

That magic doesn’t stop, even for meals. Rather than one big main dining room, passengers are rotated through the three family restaurants on board. Our first night is in the Animator’s Palate, where the walls are covered in large TV screens showing scenes from classic Disney films.

The food is good, but the highlight comes after the main meal. Upon arrival, we’re each given a piece of paper and some coloured markers to draw a basic cartoon character, filling in an outline on the sheet. Later the TV screens light up and, through the magic of technology, our drawings come to life on screen, inserted into a montage of musical sequences from Disney films – my own sketch is up there, dancing with Baloo from The Jungle Book.

Tiana’s Place is a restaurant with a New Orleans theme and a party atmosphere.

At Tiana’s Place, the restaurant features a New Orleans theme inspired by The Princess and the Frog, with live music and a party atmosphere. As the performers leave the stage to create a mini-Mardi Gras before dessert, dancing through the restaurant, my daughter disappears from our table and seconds later is at the front with “Tiana”, leading the procession. She’s having the time of her life.

Room for the whole family

When we need a break from the fun, we retreat to our veranda room which features a queen bed, a couch that converts to a single and a bunk that pulls down from the ceiling. A curtain separates the living area and kids’ beds from ours.

A veranda stateroom on board.

The bathroom is comfortable, with a small bath in the shower recess large enough to wash young children. Importantly, the toilet is separate, so there’s no need for the kids to hold on if someone’s in the shower.

The TV offers a wide variety of channels (mostly Disney cartoons of course) which get a fair workout when the kids need to wind down for a while.

Are you not entertained?

But TV is a long way from the key entertainment on board. Most large cruise ships feature live shows these days, but once again Disney ups the ante. The large theatre on board hosts three different shows, including a live adaptation of Frozen. Featuring life-size puppets of characters like Olaf the snowman and Sven the reindeer, plus a dazzling array of advanced special effects, the show is as impressive as anything you’ll see in a city theatre. To top it off because there are so many kids present, there’s no parental embarrassment when youngsters decide to talk, shout or generally behave in a raucous manner – if anything, it’s encouraged.

A musical version of Frozen is one of the entertainment highlights.

Outside the main theatre shows, there’s also a cinema (Disney movies will premiere on board the same day they are released globally), plus various “pop-up” performances of characters in various places throughout the day. My kids are thrilled when we turn a corner to come across two Stormtroopers “on patrol” (they’re too young to understand they’re actually baddies and aren’t intimidated by their gruff manner).

On our final night, with my kids fast asleep, I sneak up to the upper deck to catch the Marvel Heroes Unite show. It’s unlike anything else you’ll see at sea – a wild stunt show with a storyline that, naturally, fits into the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. Again it aims for an immersive experience – our ship is under attack by Hydra and it’s up to the Avengers to save the day.

Spider-Man swings in during the Heroes Unite show.

The heroes take on the villains, including some spectacular work from Spider-Man who descends, upside down, from one of the funnels (only to climb back up it later in pursuit of the Red Skull). The show climaxes with fireworks as Iron Man shoots down the (imaginary … or at least not visible in the dark) drones set to destroy the ship.

Afterwards, I stop by a couple of the bars to have a look but find them largely deserted. I suspect, like me, most parents are just as exhausted as their kids.

Mixed emotions

The corporate power of Disney means it’s easy to be cynical. Over the past 20 years, Disney has become an entertainment empire to rival Darth Vader’s, hoovering up Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm (obtaining Star Wars and Indiana Jones), The Muppets and more recently Fox (including The Simpsons).

Much like its theme parks, Disney can charge a premium for its cruises simply because it’s Disney (prices on board are in US dollars and tipping is expected), but it’s hard to stay cynical once you see kids’ faces light up when they spot one of their favourite characters on board for the first time.

“I’m surprised by the amount of tears I’ve seen,” says Lynett of the ship’s first few cruises from Australia. “For some of them having their first Disney experience, the emotion of walking on board. It makes me emotional, too.”

We also feel emotions as we leave. An early arrival back in Melbourne sees us back at home by 9am. There are no tears, but life on land now seems decidedly un-magical.

Disney Wonder will return to Australia for a second season in late 2024.

DETAILS

Disney Wonder is sailing from Australia and New Zealand until early February with cruises from two to seven nights. The ship will return to Australian waters from October 2024. Prices from $2433 for a two-night cruise for a family of four. See disneycruise.disney.go.com

The writer travelled as a guest of Disney Cruise Lines.