About a week before it happened, I got asked to jump on the newest Disney Cruise Line ship, the Disney Destiny for a media cruise before the inaugural sailing. I also got to bring Mike along for the 4 night cruise!
The day before we left, I was on another media project to welcome the ship to Cape Canaveral, where she was welcomed by hero Minnie Mouse and played her new ship horns like Go the Distance, Haunted Mansion theme song, Cruella DeVil, and other fun music. Tuesday November 4 was our boarding day, and since this was a media preview cruise, we were asked not to share any information or photos on the interior of the ship until after the Christening. We were given a warm welcome on board, and immediately my breath was taken away by the incredibly beautiful Grand Hall with its Black Panther theming.
We were also greeted by hero Minnie Mouse and Spider-Man!
We headed to deck 7 to locate our room, and I was blown away by some of the beautiful carpet art.
The outside hallway made us feel like it was meant to be a Hercules themed room, but once you went inside it was Mulan, surprise! We were also lucky to have a veranda on this one!
Some of the other themes for rooms were Big Hero 6, Brave, Raya and the Last Dragon, and the Incredibles with the ships overall theme being Heros and Villains. I got to see the Brave rooms and they were so cute, I loved how much Merida was around the ship.
There was even a Brave coffee cafe on board!
We headed to Marceline Market for some buffet items for lunch and a quick ice cream on the pool deck before work time. I didn’t have as much ice cream on this cruise because they only had chocolate and vanilla on this sailing and no alternative flavors, but the ice cream texture was perfect.
It was time for the Sail Away party and show, which meant, time for me to get to work, but at least I got to watch the show while doing so.
The Sail Away show was similar to what is usually done at this show, but Spider-Man came for a visit!
The entertainment on this ship blew me away. It truly feels like a new renaissance of Disney entertainment. The villain encounters were all my favorite part because they allow you to be up close and personal with the villains but it’s like a mini show just for you. There were also still stage performances many people can experience at the same time but involving volunteers that get you involved. One of these was the story tellers, Gamble and Zayah, telling the story of Loki.
These story tellers also led us through one of our favorite events on the ship, the Marvel Comedy Show. This was hilarious and even featured a surprise visit from Deadpool! The story tellers used silly props and puppetry to tell very, very abridged stories of Marvel heros like Black Widow, Captain America, and Iron Man. There was also a vocalist who was one of the most incredible singers. This is a don’t miss if you’re on board.
It was fitting that our dinner that night was at Marvel. We were sat with a woman from the PR team and her parents who were on board, and they were fantastic company for the week. Your servers also follow you around on the ship with your restaurant rotation and they get to know you remembering your drink orders or bringing you multiple dishes. Our server Andrea was really great and we loved her.
The Marvel menu was the same menu we have had at other Marvel restaurants on the other DCL ships, so we knew what the good things to order were, like the chicken schnitzel and Pym caramel donut sundae.
The Infinity Stones popcorn was new, but me having my favorite dinner Shirley temple was definitely not new.
After dinner, it was only fitting to say hello to Spider-Man, where he really liked the bling on my spirit jersey.
Spidy meets in the kids club area, which always has my favorite art walls.
This Kids Club had a Wreck it Ralph theme that was candylicious!
The show that evening was Seas the Adventure, which is on DCL Treasure and Wish so I was familiar. It’s. A variety show where Goofy follows his dream of becoming the captain and happens to meet some familiar heros like Crush and Hercules and royalty like Merida, Moana, Tiana, and Elsa, along the way.
The evening ended with a visit to Haunted Mansion Bar, which if I am being honest, you almost forgot was on this ship because I personally didn’t feel like it fit into the hero’s and villains theme on a ship that was a 10/10 on theme. The ship was just really cohesive already, but I understand this bar was super popular on Treasure, so I get why they’d want to offer it on other ships.
Cruella was saying goodnight to guests and of course we had to say Hellooooo Darling to her, and she was fabulous! She tried to employ me to replace Horace and Jasper, but I did unfortunately have to turn her down.
The next morning I had some work to do, but it was Castaway Cay day! Mike had a nice easy morning with Mickey and Minnie waffles for breakfast!
Disney has 2 private islands, and originally we were suppose to go to Lookout Pointe, but there was a change in schedule, which I was actually excited about. I love Castaway and it’s a lot easier for me to run off and hang out with Mike on my lunch break. He had a little island time on his own before I popped out to bug him.
We were excited to see the Castaway had its Christmas decor up as well. Merry Cruise-mas!
We had lunch on the island that apparently I did not take a photo of before we did our full on photoshoot of the outside of the ship!
When we came back on board, we were greeted with hero Minnie and captain Mickey!
This was also the day of the Cruella DeVil fashion show! This was another one of those amazing entertainment experiences that allow you to get up close with the villains in a new way. Volunteers were chosen to demonstrate their looks for Cruella while she cheers you on.
Cruella has another experience a few times during the week in her piano bar where she is very upset with the lyrics of her song, and the story tellers of the ship help you surprise her with a new one. The song writing involves the whole bars creative skills almost like mad libs style and choreography and paparazzi involved! Very fun experience, once again I would say it’a a don’t miss.
Maleficent was greeting guests in the Grand Hall before dinner, so we popped over to say hello. We spoke of her magic spells and she also was trying to recruit me for employment. During the week she had an experience that unfortunately I never had the time to make it to, so I don’t totally know what I missed.
Loki was also terrorizing the Grand Hall, and we had a great conversation with him about him obviously not wearing his horns because he let the Mistress of all evil have the attention instead.
The villains game show was playing on this ship also, which is always a fun time.
Dinner was the Pridelands restaurant rotation, which is dinner and a show around the story of the Lion King. This presentation was more successful to me than Coco or Frozen variations found on the other ships simply because it was louder and I could hear better. The drums and live singers were beautiful, but the dance with the fireflies flitting around the stage was my favorite part. Most of the songs were the familiar ones you know from the movie, but they also used a lot of the Broadway show songs.
The real star for me here though was the food. The shrimp and hummus appetizers, the shrimp curry main, and the milk tart for dessert was the food we talked about the whole rest of the cruise it was that good.
This evening, we had time to run to our favourite place on the ship, the hot tub!First we wanted to try the Aquamouse, knowing it would be cold, and then run to the hot tub. The Aquamouse had a new story on it, but I honestly kind of missed it cause I was trying not to be sprayed in the face with water.
That evening, the show was Frozen. We had just saw this on the DCL Wonder over the Summer, but it was interesting to see a different cast.
For the next 2 days of our cruise remaining we had days at sea. One of the fun things with production is we often start really early so we are out of the guests way, which means eating breakfast serval times. I had a little snack from the included room service at 4am, then Mike dropped me off breakfast snacks because he is the best, and then after I was done early this day we actually got to eat real breakfast.
We went to 1923 for a sit down breakfast before running into the ships royalty and having a little hello session.
We told Rapunzel that Mother Gothel should be on board, and Moana warned us to watch out for pirates that evening.
Belle and I talked about visiting far off places, while I told Tiana of my fear of frogs.
Then I had to go back to work for a bit. The ship ended up making a surprise emergency stop in Nassau, but guests were not permitted off the ship. Mike’s first time in Nassau officially though, so he was excited to see it. We celebrated with room service Mickey bars!
Dr. Facilier had his moment to shine on this day. He was performing some card tricks for guests in his parlor, where it is once again an intimate moment that reminds me of the wand shop at Universal Studios. He uses a guests intuition to help him sort some cards into red and black, calling upon his spirit friends on the other side to help. There was no photo or video allowed inside, but this is a don’t miss. Later in the evening he was having a standard meet and greet where we went back to chat with him about hiding beignets under his hat.
It was pirate night on board, so everyone dawned their best pirate looks and visited some of the lounges before dinner. Cask and Cannon was popular this evening as Jack Sparrow made surprise visits there throughout the night.
We also went to the Sanctum, which is the Dr. Strange themed bar with levitating drinks and on brand decor.
The pirate night dinner menu took place in Pridelands but there was no show until that evening. Pirate night dinner is not my personal favorite, but my stand out was the samosa appetizer.
The shows for pirate night are not til quite later in the evening, so Mike and I spent most of that time trying to stay awake.
But it is always worth it to stay awake because fireworks at sea led by Captain Red and her crew is one of the best events.
Day 4 was our last full day, and another day at sea, but it was Hercules day!! It was a very short work day for me, so I almost got the full day to myself. After work, we grabbed some lunch at the festival of foods pool deck complete with the funniest looking ice cream cone ever, while we watched Hercules on funnel vision.
We also finally got to the gym!
There was a couple more character pop up experiences. We ran into Goofy and we saw the end of a Loki experience where he claimed to be king of the ship before Black Panther came out to defeat him for ownership.
We also finally decided on some merch to get with our holiday discount.
The show that day was Hercules, and because they expected it to be popular, there were 3 showings. We went to the matinee and holy cow it’s a good thing we did because I didn’t expect to need all night to process the amazing-ness of what I just saw.
I actually have no words for how good this show was, but I will try to articulate. This show truly is now the best show on all Disney property, hands down. The sets and costumes bring this to a whole new level. Not to mention the wow factor of the giant puppetry used. The talent was amazing and well cast. The show was written well and had some new life breathed into it. It was updated to include a modern undertone, using technology to elevate a classic story of good vs evil. If you have the chance to see it, don’t hesitate, because it is really, really well done. I wish I had the chance to watch it a few more times but everyone truly loved it.
Our cruise was coming to an end, with our final dinner at 1923. The stand out from this meal was the prime rib, and Mike is always a big fan of the soups.
For dessert our waiter brought us the dirt cup from Pridelands everyone had been raving about, but while tasty, I think I would have stuck to my milk tart.
The last night of the cruise, each ship has a little goodnight moment, where the characters pop out and say thank you for a wonderful week. This show was special and they did a nice job wrapping up all the elements of the ship into it like Black Panther, the drummers from Pridelands, and Hercules from the show making appearances.
The final morning onboard the Disney Destiny was disembarkation day. We said goodbye to our stateroom quite early because we had to be the first ones off the ship so we could drive to Miami so I could be the first one on the next ship, but more to come on the next blog post about that…
Our time on board was amazing and we both really loved this ship. I think for me personally Wish is still top of my list but Destiny is a close second and it’s really because of this one of a kind entertainment. If you have the chance to go I highly recommend it. And remember, you can go the distance!
The shows for pirate night are not til quite later in the evening, so Mike and I spent most of that time trying to stay awake. 
But it is always worth it to stay awake because fireworks at sea led by Captain Red and her crew is one of the best events.
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