As soon as I saw you, I knew an adventure was going to happen {DCL Adventure}
Feb 24, Tuesday morning we greeted Disney Cruise Lines, 8th and biggest ship, the Adventure coming into the Tokyo dock.
This was so cool to be apart of. There was a drum ceremony and everyone on board yelled konnichiwa, a Japanese greeting to us on land. There was a lot of high energy and positive spirits from those on board coming off the crossing.
We awaited our turn to board, and then hit the ground running and were busy working straight away. I could already tell this cruise was definitely going to be a working cruise with less free times than they have been in the past. I eventually made it to my stateroom, 12360, which was a Little Mermaid room with a verandah!
As usual on a work cruise, I don't have a ton of time to be out on my verandah, and the weather got very hot and muggy on this one that I didn't really want to be either. I am always super grateful to have the choice though, and you can bet I will do my best to try to get out there at least once a day. I even caught all of one sunset on this whole 8 day cruise!
For dinner we were still working on loading stuff in, so we had to quick service. On board there’s a few places for this, but you have to make a reservation first. I went to Cosmic Kebobs, a marvel themed quick service shawarma place, with some tasty bites.
I finally finished working right as the show for the evening, Seas the Adventure began, so I ran up to the Walt Disney Theater to catch it. I’ve seen it on other ships but this one had some big changes to it like swapping out Merida and Rapunzel in the princess trio.
The ship said goodbye to Tokyo around 10pm, as we finally sailed off toward Singapore.
The rest of the night was spent doing laundry and enjoying my Yuzu latte while walking the ship trying to get myself used to the layout before bed.
I also loved deck 10 because there was a beautiful outdoor courtyard and there is even a castle on this ship! The Garden Theater had a living, breathing screen that changed all day long to really set the mood.
The next morning we woke up to some rainy weather and some turbulent waters. We rocked a little for the first 3 days, and finally by the end of the cruise were into smoother sailing. I started most mornings by heading to Pixar, the breakfast buffet spot for Mickey Waffles. We even had a few churro Mickey waffle days.
We also got to see the Baymax Exercise Expo, where he and Hiro teach a little work out dance routine. This show actually originated from the parks in Shanghai, but every single person in that courtyard was dancing along and having the best time, including all the big bosses.
There was also a Jack Sparrow and his crew show where Captain Jack needed help to save the day. I loved how much they were utilizing their flying elements during the Garden Theater performances, and the screens were incredible and made the experience even more immersive.
A classic show on a DCL cruise is the Sail Away show, and this cruise was no different! The show had some alterations to it since the stage layout is different on this ship, but this song was still forever stuck in my head all cruise long.
A few evenings they had the Marvel Avengers Show. There were similar show moments to what I had just seen on the Magic ship, but more flying utilized and new characters like Scarlet Witch and the most exciting, Deadpool!
The Moana show happens in the very back of the ship at Wayfinder Bay where the performers utilize the pool and puppetry for a beautiful retelling of the story, while live singing.
The pools on the ship got more popular on the journey as the weather got warmer. I liked the Wayfinder pool in the back of the ship since it was a little quieter, but the deck 18 pools had a kids splash pad area and playground. I didn't have as much hot tub time on this cruise, because of work, but I did have a little pool morning with Cyndi to make sure I properly tested them out for your full review.
For lunches, I usually went to the Pixar lunch buffet where there were lots of Indian food, and Asian food options because I didn't really have time for anything else. The theming at Pixar is really cute, and features all sorts of Pixar movies like Inside Out and Coco.
I was pretty much living with the quick service options for dinners, but luckily all are quite tasty for a regular shorter sailing. There is a Polynesian style place called Gramma Talas Kitchen that had the most delicious fried chicken and a variety of dipping sauces.
Ohana was located in the Reef area, which was a little outdoor courtyard.
Stitch’s Ohana Grill quick service restaurant had pulled pork sandwiches, burgers, and hot dogs.
Mowglis Eatery had Indian dishes including my favorite, butter chicken, but everything surprised me with how spicy it was.
There was also of course pizza by the pool, and I liked the Toy Story theme tie in.
Next to Ohanas is Ursula’s bubble tea shop! These drinks are so cute and easy for on the go! The popping boba is filled with oat which was new to me, but the mango smoothie was delicious. We had a drinks package provided to us so we were able to taste lots of different options around the ship.
With my drinks package, I also got a few lattes, and my favorite part was always the latte art on top!
It wouldn't be a Disney cruise without unlimited ice cream. On this voyage chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla were the only varieties, and you had to eat it pretty quickly with the weather being so warm. Also, pro tip was to grab the toppings from the Pixar dessert buffet and add them to your soft serve!
There was a smoothie and juice bar at the gym that was also a pretty big hit. Sadly this was the only time I found time to be in the gym on this cruise and I didn't actually get to work out in there, but it was a really nice gym!
My good friend Cyndi, who was also on board and I also had a tea party one morning at the beautiful TWG Tea. After reading the very, very long menu, we tried the pink garden tea and crème brûlée tea. They were both incredibly flavorful and I liked them a lot.
The fun part about this ship is that I’m running into a lot of people I know both from working with them in Hong Kong, working with them at home, or seeing them another place in the world. It really is a small world after all.
There’s of course, some other familiar faces that I often bump into as well like Rapunzel and Ariel, but I didn't always have time for more than a quick hello and I was running by working.
Who I did go out of my way to meet though was Baymax! I even brought baby-max along to say hello, and was the cutest meet and greet.
One of the things I was most excited to see was the new Remember show. It featured WALL·E and Eve on a journey to remember each other after Eves memory gets wiped. WALL·E plays her clips from some of his favorite films to help charge her battery. Some highlights were the princesses royal quick change from rags to riches into a glow in the dark ball. Ariel singing while swimming through the air was very impressive. The stage is also huge and it extends even further with the projections around the proscenium, which are beautiful.
One really unique thing about this ship is there’s a lot of all gender bathrooms. Its stalls for anyone and then a unified sink. I personally think it’s very innovative, but it does take a little getting used to for everyone. There is also escalators on this ship, which is very handy for getting around!
Another unique part of the ship is the full theme park attractions on the top deck! Sadly the coaster wasn’t ready for us yet while we were there, but I rode Groots Galaxy Spin which was similar to Dumbo but slower and lower to the ground.
I also took a spin on Pyms Quantum Racers which were little cars on a track that you went slowly around. The rides were super hot cause it was the top 18 deck in the Singapore sun and about 82 degrees out, but I’m glad I got to experience them because when else can you say you've done attractions on a cruise ship.
I get to see a lot of locations on the ship I wouldn’t know they existed without filming, like the kids club and the bippity boppity boutique, where the dress options for little princesses was different than back home!
This ship is pretty big so often I’d find myself somewhere I hadn’t seen before. The Luca themed sports bar is so eloquently decorated, I loved the theming, it really felt like a piece of Italy.
I also visited Spellbound the Snow White themed bar. I liked the fountain out front, and location, and the themed beverages were good.
Another bar was the Infinity Bar at the back of the ship, themed after Marvel. This was often the hang out area because the breeze was nice and the chairs were comfy.
Although I didn’t eat at a single dinner location, I still got to see a few of the dining offerings because of filming. The first restaurant was Navigators, where characters like Mickey and friends visit, while two story tellers sing original songs.
There is Animators Palate which is the restaurant where you draw and it comes to life.
Enchanted Summer is a buffet themed after either Olaf or Maximus, and the Frozen side had some of my favorite decor.
Hollywood Spotlight Club was the only one I really wanted to go to that was old Hollywood glamour style, but sadly never made it to, but just check out this beautiful hallway!
They even turn Pixar buffet into a dining location. Of course this was the only place I actually got to have dinner on the last night. I had the French onion soup and the halloumi parcel, which might have been the best version of it I’ve had.
One of the coolest entertainment offerings on this ship was the full 12 minute long fireworks show. The songs are from the Broadway version of the Lion King and the story is beautiful. This was one of my biggest highlights on the ship.
I also think my favorite part of the ship was town square mostly because it’s dedicated to all my princess girlies and it was a cozy little hang out to listen to music, play games, or drink a coffee.
I visited the Baymax Cinema to watch Big Hero 6 and was the only one in the theater, which happens when you go to a 8am movie. This theater has 4 movie theaters within it, and there is something almost always in all the theaters you can pop in to.
This giant ship is suppose to be able to hold over 6000 people, but we only had maybe 3000 on board, so most of the activities you attended were pretty light on participation. I never saw trivia happening, but there was karaoke, family game shows, and other craft making activities available on board.
I completely fell in love with all of the artwork ship wide. There’s some especially beautiful paintings of all kinds of Disney castles all over the ship.
Our 8 day cruise was finally coming to an end. Getting closer to Singapore, it was amazing to see how many ships were found in these waters. After seeing only water for so long, it was strange to see forms of life again.
As we came into Singapore we were welcomed in with a firework show and a beautiful view of the city while it prepared to dock at its new home. It was kind of emotional arrival because it was so beautiful and the reality of the cruise coming to an end was really tough.
We also docked right next to Genting Dream, which was the ship we had sailed on during Covid in Hong Kong, so that was a super crazy coincidence.
The welcome firework show was very sweet and I loved being surrounded by people who had meant so much to me on this cruise to celebrate this epic moment.
It had finally come, and I had to say goodbye to the ship and all my friends, and I was having all kinds of feels about it.
The morning of March 4, we packed up and headed to one final breakfast at Olaf.
Meredith, Taylor, and I were on the same flight at 10pm that evening, which meant we had about 12 hours to waste in Singapore. It was incredibly hot and humid and having been to Singapore before, I was ready to just have a chill day hanging out at the airport waiting for our flight.
The Jewel at the airport in Singapore is suppose to be an attraction in and of itself, and honestly it was nice but it was just an airport/mall. If you’re visiting, come like an hour early to check out the rain vortex waterfall, buts all you need to see.
All 3 of us had major cruise blues and especially were missing out because the ship Christening was that evening. The airport had a bunch of welcome DCL Adventure displays, which was fun!
We were incredibly proud of our christening team though and were cheering them on from afar as they worked through all hours of the night to put the project together. There was even a big Iron Man display, since Robert Downey Jr was deemed godparent of the ship and flew in for the Christening event, it was almost like we were there.
Back at the airport, are 3 terminals to bounce between at the airport. We saw all the mini version of actual Singapore things like Gardens by the Bay and the Merlion.
You can reach all the terminals by monorail, and one even goes closely past the rain vortex, where you too could take this terrible photo, lol.
For lunch I took the girls for an authentic dim sum experience at the Michelin star restaurant, Tim Ho Wan!
And by dinner we were pretty tired of rice and noodles so it was Shake Shack and Starbucks time.
After 20,000 steps, several stores, a pop into the movie theater (aka the floor with a mission impossible playing), and several laps of walking we were ready for our flight. Almost half the crew were flying home together on the same flight which made it more fun.
Our first leg was a 14 hour flight from Singapore to San Francisco. And final leg was San Fran to Orlando for almost 25 hours of flying.
I am so incredibly honored I was chosen to go on this project and it was such an amazing experience. I loved getting to hang out with old friends and make some new ones along the way. This was definitely one for the books and a wonderful adventure. I’m excited to see what pops up next .
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