Disney Adventure

Us with the crew that made Animator's Palate the room we looked forward to most, on the inaugural sailing no less.

Four nights out of Singapore on Disney's largest ship, with our two adult daughters and son-in-law. We have been cruising Disney with the girls since they were five and six, and this time the family had grown by one.

This was our seventh Disney cruise and our thirty-first overall, across ten cruise lines, so we came aboard knowing exactly what Disney does well and where it usually lands against the industry. The memories we built on these ships when the girls were young are a big part of why we still book Disney now that they are adults. That history is the lens we brought to this sailing, and it is why the week landed the way it did.

What we did not expect was for our daughters, who grew up on these ships and at the parks, to step off and call it the best Disney ship we have ever sailed. Having sailed Disney their whole lives, they are the hardest audience this brand has, and they do not hand out that verdict lightly. It sets up everything that follows, including the parts that surprised us, the things we wish we had known before booking, and the one number that nearly ruined a very good dinner.

The Stateroom

We booked an accessible Deluxe Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah on Deck 15, and the single best thing about it was where it sat. Many Disney ships tuck their accessible balcony cabins toward the aft, which turns every trip to the elevator into a slow push past housekeeping carts and across thick corridor carpet that fights a wheelchair the whole way. Anyone who has not pushed a chair down a long ship corridor underestimates how much the carpet alone takes out of you by the end of a sailing. This cabin was central, near the forward elevator lobby, and that did more for our week than any design feature could have. We were never trapped behind a service cart, never rationing energy just to get to dinner, and that freedom changed how much of the ship we used.

The cabin itself was pleasant rather than special, a Frozen mural above the bed and otherwise the same clean, slightly plain look as the rest of the Disney fleet. Nobody books Disney for the stateroom design, and this one did nothing to change that. The accessibility, though, was handled with real care. The entrance to the balcony was nearly flat, rarer than it should be, and the balcony held two chairs and a small table, enough that we used it rather than glancing at it on the way past. The bathroom was the standout: properly spacious, a roll-in shower, room to move, and counter space you could actually use. The cabin door was a power door that opened at the push of a button, the kind of small touch that does not register until you have fought a heavy spring-loaded door on every other ship you have sailed.

One thing that has always been part of Disney cruising, and reaches another level on the Adventure, is the door decorating. Guests turn their stateroom doors into full displays, magnets and cutouts and running jokes, and by mid-cruise whole hallways become their own entertainment. We walked slower to the elevator just to read them. Disney also still does the things several mainstream lines have quietly dropped: turndown every evening, and a towel animal waiting on the bed, both increasingly rare at sea, and both something we still look forward to after all these years.

Our accessible stateroom on the Adventure, somewhat plain except for the Frozen mural over the bed, and roomy where it counts.

The Dining Scene

Disney is the only mainstream cruise line where we eat in the main dining room for most of our meals. On every other mainstream line we default to the specialty venues, because the main dining is where those ships stretch thinnest. Disney's rotational dining is the exception. The food is closer to well-run banquet cooking than to a restaurant kitchen, made at scale and consistent night to night, which on a cruise ship is more of a compliment than it sounds. What sets Disney apart is that the room changes every night while your serving team moves with you, so you get variety without eating in the same space for a week. After seven Disney cruises we still find it the smartest dining model at sea. Service was stretched thinner than on a small luxury ship, but still good, the same warm, on-top-of-it presence Disney has given us on every sailing.

Animator's Palate: We had this one twice, the same table both nights, and the kitchen and show changed each time. The first night animated our own drawings onto the screens around the room and set them to music, a charming effect we did not see coming. The second ran different animated sequences from across the Disney films. Same space, same seats, two different evenings, and it was our favorite dining room on the ship.

On a four-night sailing you do not see all six rotational restaurants, and our rotation paired Animator's Palate with Navigator's Club and Pixar Market. Navigator's Club was the surprise. It is dinner and a show, but the show comes to you. Performers move through the restaurant singing and acting out a travel-themed story, stopping at tables along the way, with no stage anywhere in the room. Having the show come to us at the table was the sort of detail Disney pulls off better than anyone. Pixar Market was the forgettable one, a buffet by day that converts to a sit-down restaurant at night, and neither the food nor the room gave us a reason to remember it. If there is a night to give up your rotational seat for a specialty venue, this is the one.

Mike & Sulley's Flavors of Asia: This is the number we teased at the top. What most people do not realize is that Mike & Sulley's is really four restaurants under one roof, a teppanyaki room, a Japanese steakhouse, an outdoor sushi and sashimi counter, and an omakase bar. We made it to two, the teppanyaki room and the sushi counter, leaving the steakhouse and omakase for a future sailing. Alexis and Ryan walked up to the sushi counter for lunch and said it was very good. The teppanyaki was delicious, a wide spread of grilled meats and seafood cooked in front of us. Then the check came: with one round of drinks, dinner for five ran roughly $700. We have eaten in a lot of specialty rooms over the years and nothing has come close. We sat there a second doing the math, sure something was wrong. Nothing was wrong. Had we seen that number before booking, we would not have gone, however good the meal was. The room was half empty, and now we understand why.

Palo Trattoria: Palo is our favorite Disney restaurant across the fleet, so brunch here came with high expectations. Most of the food was good, but a few dishes felt slightly off, and the meal did not reach the bar Palo has set for us on other ships. Call it a mild disappointment rather than a real one. The service was excellent and we would give it another try, since one brunch is a thin sample against the many great Palo meals we have had elsewhere. Just outside is Palo Café, a little coffee cart with a few outdoor tables. The cappuccino and pastries cost extra, but they were very good and the spot was nearly always empty. We kept ending up there for a quiet coffee away from the noise of the ship, one of our favorite small routines of the week.

Beyond the sit-down meals, the casual options were a real strength, and most cost nothing extra. The burgers at Stitch's 'Ohana Grill and the kebabs at Cosmic Kebabs were both good for a quick lunch, and the boba tea shop was the one casual spot that charged for its specialty drinks, worth it as an occasional treat. We are not buffet people, and this ship leans on the buffet more than most Disney ships, but the food was a step up from the buffets we have picked at across other lines. Across the board the food quality ran better than the other Disney ships and the other mainstream lines we have sailed.

What we kept coming back to was the variety. With the ship homeported in Singapore and the clientele largely Asian, the food ran across far more cuisines than the usual mainstream lineup. The buffets and casual counters carried real regional dishes instead of the same beige rotation of pasta and carved meat you get on most ships, and even the rotational menus leaned into this part of the world. All five of us noticed it independently and said so, unprompted, more than once. That kind of agreement across a table that rarely agrees on anything is the clearest endorsement we can give the food.

We also found Bacha Coffee and TWG Tea shops onboard, a first for us at sea. These are serious coffee and tea houses, the kind you go out of your way for in Singapore, and finding them on a cruise ship was a small thrill. We are especially partial to TWG, and that the ship carried it at all is one more sign of who Disney built this sailing for.

Tiana's Bayou Lounge, done up to the ceiling, and quiet like all of the bars and lounges on the ship.

Life Onboard

The Origin of the Ship: This is worth understanding first, because it explains how the ship feels. The Adventure was not designed as a Disney ship. The hull was built for Genting's Dream Cruises as a casino-focused vessel, the company went bankrupt mid-build, and Disney bought the unfinished ship and outfitted it. The bones were already set, which is why there is no grand Disney atrium and why moving around can feel a little disjointed. The center reminded us of the open-air midsection on Royal Caribbean's Oasis-class ships more than anything in the Disney fleet.

San Fransokyo Street: This was the highlight of the ship's theming, the Big Hero 6 district done with real detail and a lot of charm. You enter through a recreated subway into an urban market of overlapping storefronts and arcades, and we found ourselves walking through it even with nowhere to be. It is the kind of fully realized space Disney built its reputation on. Our one surprise was that it was the only heavily themed area aboard at that level. On Disney's newest and largest ship, we expected more rooms built out this way, and instead it stood mostly alone, a gap that makes more sense once you know where the ship came from.

The Bars: The themed bars were well done. Tiana's Bayou Lounge and Spellbound were our favorites, with the Buccaneer Bar close behind. And here is the oddest thing we noticed all week: the bars were empty most evenings. On a Disney ship we expected lively lounges, and instead we had long, easy conversations with the bartenders because there was no one else to serve. For some reason the mostly Asian clientele did not frequent the onboard bars, a big change from the American and European cruises we are used to, where the bars are some of the busiest rooms on the ship. Where everyone was instead, we never quite figured out, though the character meet-and-greet lines were a strong suspect.

The Adults-Only Area: At the front of the ship, an adults-only deck with multiple hot tubs and plenty of loungers, plus snacks and drinks brought around. It was never crowded and made for a calm escape from the family energy elsewhere.

The Spa: For us, the thermal suite was the place to be, and it told the same story as the bars. On most cruise lines the spa passes sell out the first morning for the whole sailing, and if you do not buy yours the moment you board, you are out of luck. Here they did not sell out, because the demand was not there, and that left one of the better thermal suites we have used wide open whenever we wanted it. Lots of space, several kinds of hot tubs and even a cold plunge, plus multiple saunas and heated tile loungers we had largely to ourselves. On a US sailing this would have been a fought-over commodity. Here it was a quiet retreat, and had the cruise run longer than four nights, we would have been in there every day. If you value the spa, this ship is one of the rare ones where you can count on getting in.

Entertainment: The shows are where Disney consistently outclasses the rest of the industry, and the Adventure held that line. Remember, the production created exclusively for this ship, was the standout, excellent in a way that did not feel like a ship show at all. Up on the top deck at Marvel Landing, the outdoor Avengers Assemble show was the other one to catch. The fight choreography was better than it had any right to be, and the sheer amount of technology Disney threw at it brought the whole thing to life in a way we did not expect from an open-air deck show. There is also a smaller show at the aft, Moana: Call of the Sea, at the outdoor Wayfinder Bay venue. It is easy to walk past and plenty of guests do, but worth catching if you are already up on deck. Disney hires real talent and stages it properly, and you do not need to be a Disney fan to see the difference.

The Rides: This is the part that still makes us laugh, because there are actual rides on this ship. Marvel Landing at the top holds three: the Ironcycle Test Run, the first roller coaster ever built on a cruise ship, plus two smaller attractions, Groot Galaxy Spin and Pym Quantum Racers. No other Disney ship, and no other cruise line, has anything like it. Alexis and Ryan rode the coaster and came back grinning, but their honest verdict was that the lines were long enough that they did not bother again. Whether you ride or not, seeing a working coaster on the top deck tells you exactly how far Disney was willing to go with this ship.

The Shopping: We do not usually give shopping its own paragraph, but on the Adventure it earns one. This is the largest retail space Disney has put on any ship, and it shows. The first World of Disney store ever to sail is here, along with a National Geographic store and the first dedicated Duffy and Friends store at sea. For Disney fans this is a real part of the draw, not an afterthought, and the ship clearly knows it. Alexis walked away with a framed cutaway poster of the Adventure itself, the kind of ship-specific piece you cannot get anywhere else, and it is going on her wall at home.

The Lines: For all that space, only two things drew real lines all week, the character meet-and-greets and that roller coaster. Where the wait built up tells you exactly where this crowd was spending its time.

San Fransokyo Street, the one part of the ship where Disney built out the theming the way we expected everywhere.

The Experience

Cruise Line: Disney occupies its own corner of the industry, and what separates it from the other mainstream lines is attention to detail. If you like theming, Disney's runs deeper and more interesting than anything else at sea. The dining rooms are not just places to eat, they are themed and thought through, part of the show rather than a backdrop to it. And the kids' clubs are in a category of one, enormous over-the-top spaces no other cruise line comes close to matching, and after taking our own kids through them for years, we can say plainly that nobody builds for children the way Disney does. You pay a premium for all of it, and whether it is worth paying comes down to how much the theming and the kids' clubs matter to your particular trip.

Atmosphere: The ship is the first Disney has homeported in Asia, and the clientele reflected that. An officer told us the largest guest demographic was Filipino, followed by Indian, and the whole sailing felt different from a US-based Disney cruise because of it. The food ran more varied and the bars and spa stayed quiet while the meet-and-greets drew the crowds. We loved the difference. Getting to experience a place, and a crowd, unlike the one you know is much of what draws us to travel, and this was a Disney cruise we could not have had anywhere else.

Crew: Service was as good as on the other Disney ships we have sailed, which means better than the mainstream lines and less polished than premium and luxury lines. The crew were friendly and you could see the effort in everything they did. Our serving team, rotating with us each night, was the clearest example of why Disney's people are its strongest asset. And because this sailing was so quiet, we got something we rarely do, real time with the crew. The servers in the bars, many of whom had worked US-based ships, were candid about how different this clientele was to serve, and our stateroom attendant told us the same thing. In most of the world, tipping is not the daily habit it is in the US. Many cultures tip only for service that goes above and beyond, not for the routine good service Americans tip on automatically, and on a ship full of guests who travel that way, the hit to crew income is real. It is a problem Disney will have to solve, because the compensation model built around American tipping does not carry over to this one, and right now the people absorbing the gap are the crew.

Accessibility

The Good: Any cruise ship built in the last decade tends to be very accessible, and the Adventure is no different. The cabin and bathroom were excellent, covered above. The ship has only two elevator banks, forward and aft, with nothing amidships, but each holds roughly a dozen elevators, so we never once waited or competed for space, a real problem on other large ships. The restaurants were easier to move through than on most ships we have sailed, the tables set farther apart, so getting a wheelchair to a table did not turn into the usual slow negotiation past other diners. Theater accessible seating was somewhat limited, but we noticed far fewer guests using scooters and wheelchairs than on US sailings, so demand was lower and we never had trouble getting a spot at a show.

The Reality: The one thing to know is that the ship's origin as a non-Disney hull shows in how it flows. With no central elevator bank, a few routes run longer than they would on a purpose-built ship. It was never a barrier for us, just a small matter of planning the odd trip with an extra minute in mind.

On what cruise ship, during the middle of a sea day, would you ever see a full room of empty heated loungers? Disney Adventure.

The TudorTravels Perspective

This ship sorts its guests cleanly, and the honest answer to who should sail it depends on which group you fall into. If you are a Disney fan, this ship is for you, full stop. If you are traveling with kids, it is absolutely for you, because the Disney kids' clubs have no equal, and with kids aboard that alone can make the trip. If you care about shows, Disney's are top-notch whether or not you love the brand. And if you live near Singapore, this is a strong new option compared to the older ships the lines tend to send to this part of the world.

If you are not in one of those groups, we would not steer you here over another ship. You pay a Disney premium, and without a reason to want what Disney specifically does, that premium is hard to justify.

But we will give our daughters the last word, because they know exactly what a good Disney cruise is supposed to feel like. They called Disney Adventure the best Disney ship we have sailed. After seven of them, that is not a small thing to say, and by the end of the week we did not argue.

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