Disney Wonder Cruising From Sydney 2023

[Chiliburn]

https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/cruises-destinations/magic-at-sea/

[arxcards]

Annastasia sold them a pup 😂

 

Brisbane, Australia (Queensland)

Close to the Brisbane Airport (BNE) and public transportation, the Port of Brisbane is accessible to visitors near and far. Located in Australia’s third largest city, the port provides easy access to restaurants, pubs and shopping. Worthwhile day trips include the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and Australia Zoo.

[Chiliburn]

37 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Annastasia sold them a pup 😂

 

Brisbane, Australia (Queensland)

Close to the Brisbane Airport (BNE) and public transportation, the Port of Brisbane is accessible to visitors near and far. Located in Australia’s third largest city, the port provides easy access to restaurants, pubs and shopping. Worthwhile day trips include the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and Australia Zoo.

White bay isn’t much better but Brisbane does have a sewage plant.

 

I cross checked those dates against sydney ports and half go from white bay

[Chiliburn]

13 hours ago, geoff2802 said:

Yep, they’re expensive all right.  Good luck to them.   

I think they will sell out.

Have you seen the prices of their shows like Disney on ice  and they sell out .

If you consider a couple of their shows onboard,a photo with Mickey it won’t be that bad value.

[arxcards]

4 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

White bay isn’t much better but Brisbane does have a sewage plant.

 

I cross checked those dates against sydney ports and half go from white bay

I am quite OK with either White Bay or Brisbane. The terminals themselves are excellent, I don't get hung-up on public transport and OK paying a $35 cab fare.

[Aus Traveller]

38 minutes ago, arxcards said:

I am quite OK with either White Bay or Brisbane. The terminals themselves are excellent, I don't get hung-up on public transport and OK paying a $35 cab fare.

I agree. We have never caught public transport to go to a cruise terminal. It has been either a taxi or (on a couple of occasions) a shuttle bus. 

[MMDown Under]

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

Annastasia sold them a pup 😂

 

Brisbane, Australia (Queensland)

Close to the Brisbane Airport (BNE) and public transportation, the Port of Brisbane is accessible to visitors near and far. Located in Australia’s third largest city, the port provides easy access to restaurants, pubs and shopping. Worthwhile day trips include the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and Australia Zoo.

Where was that written?  It is a disgrace!  Makes me ashamed!  I have just returned from Adelaide which has public transport available to the airport and wharf.  Seniors travel free.  Interstate Seniors travel free on weekends and public holidays and during set times M-F, otherwise a concession fare is required.  

 

 

 

 

[arxcards]

1 minute ago, MMDown Under said:

Where was that written?  It is a disgrace!  Makes me ashamed!  I have just returned from Adelaide which has public transport available to the airport and wharf.  Seniors travel free.  Interstate Seniors travel free on weekends and public holidays and during set times M-F, otherwise a concession fare is required.  

At the link in post 51. That is Disney's words.

[Chiliburn]

3 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

Where was that written?  It is a disgrace!  Makes me ashamed!  I have just returned from Adelaide which has public transport available to the airport and wharf.  Seniors travel free.  Interstate Seniors travel free on weekends and public holidays and during set times M-F, otherwise a concession fare is required.  

 

 

 

 

I think it’s a bit deceiving.

Just like expecting to dock in Cairns where a ship over 300 meters tenders off  Yorkies knob.

[MMDown Under]

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

At the link in post 51. That is Disney's words.

Thank you  I'm just catching up on cruise critic, after travelling.  I would be very cranky if I read that as a passenger and discovered it wasn't so, especially if cruising with young children or being elderly.  Disney should correct asap as this is bad publicity for Brisbane. 

[arxcards]

13 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

Thank you  I'm just catching up on cruise critic, after travelling.  I would be very cranky if I read that as a passenger and discovered it wasn't so, especially if cruising with young children or being elderly.  Disney should correct asap as this is bad publicity for Brisbane. 

Disney might also have better shuttle options to/from the city - who knows.

 

If anything like my dad, there is nothing wrong with getting kids to walk 5km.

[springaussie]

I don’t think the cruise companies would be too worried about people complaining about public transport to the Brisbane Cruise Terminal.

 

The cruise companies executives  would say this I reckon.

“If they can’t spend $40 on a taxi to and from the terminal I am certain they aren’t going to spend much onboard.” 

[bcwife76]

I'm excited for you all down under to get to experience the Disney Wonder out of your backyard! The Wonder is our fave ship, we live in Vancouver so most of her itineraries are easy for us to get to. Out of 10 cruises we have sailed (or will have come December) on the Wonder 7 times. Someone mentioned why the Dream or Fantasy aren't being sent down under and there are many reasons for this, the most important being that apparently those ships are too large to make the Panama Canal crossing to get to the west coast in order to do a trans pacific crossing. I'm no engineer so can't give you all the stats, but this is mentioned quite frequently on another Disney board I frequent. 

[SinbadThePorter]

4 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

Where was that written?  It is a disgrace!

 

It looks to me like they are referring to Portside. The bit about restaurants is a give away. 😁

 

Disney probably researched Australian ports several years ago and hasn't updated since.

[arxcards]

18 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

It looks to me like they are referring to Portside. The bit about restaurants is a give away. 😁

 

Disney probably researched Australian ports several years ago and hasn't updated since.

Do you think we should tell them, or let them find out later.😁

[arxcards]

25 minutes ago, bcwife76 said:

I'm excited for you all down under to get to experience the Disney Wonder out of your backyard! The Wonder is our fave ship, we live in Vancouver so most of her itineraries are easy for us to get to. Out of 10 cruises we have sailed (or will have come December) on the Wonder 7 times. Someone mentioned why the Dream or Fantasy aren't being sent down under and there are many reasons for this, the most important being that apparently those ships are too large to make the Panama Canal crossing to get to the west coast in order to do a trans pacific crossing. I'm no engineer so can't give you all the stats, but this is mentioned quite frequently on another Disney board I frequent. 

Why Disney? What makes Disney cruising most special to you?

[losfp]

3 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Why Disney? What makes Disney cruising most special to you?

 

I'll jump in here and see if I can provide some insight.  

Almost more than any other line, DCL instills serious loyalty.  They do theming better than any other line that I've cruised on.  They own all the IP all the way through so the theming is consistent, coherent and done to an exacting standard. The way they do MDRs is really great - they have a set number of themed restaurants (on Fantasy there were three) and you cycle through all of them along with your servers. The onboard entertainment is top notch as you would expect.  The ships don't have casinos and they provide free unlimited sodas so it's really family friendly. I found the food to be excellent, and our meal at Remy is perhaps the best meal I've ever had in my life.  We were lucky enough to stop at Castaway Cay in the Bahamas, and it is superb. I hate the beach, but I loved Castaway Cay. The shopping on board is stuffed full of DCL and Disney exclusives and DCL customers love that stuff (there's a fair overlap between people who sail DCL and people who tour disney parks... and we LOVE that disney merch in a way that people don't rush to the shops to buy P&O merch for example haha).

 

All else being equal with itineraries and price, I would love to sail Disney for the rest of my life. 

 

But. All else is NOT equal with itineraries and price.....

[silverladypurple]

5 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

Where was that written?  It is a disgrace!  Makes me ashamed!  I have just returned from Adelaide which has public transport available to the airport and wharf.  Seniors travel free.  Interstate Seniors travel free on weekends and public holidays and during set times M-F, otherwise a concession fare is required.  

 

 

 

 

We live in Adelaide and Disney isn't even coming here so we have to fly interstate again 🙁. We do have great public transport here, much easier to get from our wharf to city or elsewhere.

[bcwife76]

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

Why Disney? What makes Disney cruising most special to you?

So I will preface this by saying we have not cruised on any other liners (yet). We've had a few NCL cruises booked (and cancelled) and one on the Carnival Mardi Gras booked (and cancelled) so I don't have anything to compare it to.  We are a Disney loving family lol We also own DVC at Aulani in Hawaii. So clearly we love the Disney product. It's a people trap, set by a mouse 😉 As for the cruises, it feels like coming 'home' to us, esp the Wonder. The service is fantastic (yes there are hiccups sometimes but we've always had them sorted out). The shows are amazing, the rotational dining is a Disney-only concept and really cool. Your servers get to know you very well (and you, them).  For us it's an environment where there is something for everyone in our family - teen clubs, kids clubs, adult only spaces, pools to share, adult only pools, family dinners, adult only dining, family activities like Bingo, trivia, and silent disco. Adult only like dancing, adult trivia and adult only silent disco.  I don't know if I'm adequately describing why we like (love) Disney cruising but there's a snippet anyway 😉

[arxcards]

47 minutes ago, bcwife76 said:

So I will preface this by saying we have not cruised on any other liners (yet). We've had a few NCL cruises booked (and cancelled) and one on the Carnival Mardi Gras booked (and cancelled) so I don't have anything to compare it to.  We are a Disney loving family lol We also own DVC at Aulani in Hawaii. So clearly we love the Disney product. It's a people trap, set by a mouse 😉 As for the cruises, it feels like coming 'home' to us, esp the Wonder. The service is fantastic (yes there are hiccups sometimes but we've always had them sorted out). The shows are amazing, the rotational dining is a Disney-only concept and really cool. Your servers get to know you very well (and you, them).  For us it's an environment where there is something for everyone in our family - teen clubs, kids clubs, adult only spaces, pools to share, adult only pools, family dinners, adult only dining, family activities like Bingo, trivia, and silent disco. Adult only like dancing, adult trivia and adult only silent disco.  I don't know if I'm adequately describing why we like (love) Disney cruising but there's a snippet anyway 😉

Thank you, very helpful.

We have done several contemporary lines, but not Disney. Our nest is empty, but we a re still tempted to give it a try at some stage. We have been to Disneyland once & enjoyed our time there.

 

A lot of the activities/amenities are present on most cruise lines, but certainly not with a Disney theme. I love the idea of a holiday, but most of the offerings for the first season are really short, or open journeys that require a flight home. As mentioned elsewhere, Castaway Quay sounds awesome, but we don't have one of those either.

 

We are already looking deeper into this that I expected. People trap, set by a mouse - love it!

[Porky55]

5 hours ago, bcwife76 said:

Someone mentioned why the Dream or Fantasy aren't being sent down under and there are many reasons for this, the most important being that apparently those ships are too large to make the Panama Canal crossing to get to the west coast in order to do a trans pacific crossing.

That seems the most sensible reason why not the newer ships, but other lines  manage to relocate larger, newer vessels to Aus 🙄

 

No doubt the Disney Wonder will appeal to lots of people and that’s a wonderful thing for the market 😄

[Kangakid]

Yippee we can hardly wait, once pricing is released on 26 September we will be ready to book when bookings open on 29 September.  We are a Disney loving family and the opportunity to cruise on a Disney ship before my GC’s are teenagers is not to be missed.  We will have over 12 months to save, hi de ho, just too excited…we have been waiting for this.  We usually sail with the whole family at least once a year, so Disney will get our business in 2023. 

I do wonder if RCI will now send down an Oasis class ship, seeing Celebrity are sending down Edge also in 2023/24?… also a win on Tatts may come in very handy to provide some funding…
 

[arxcards]

27 minutes ago, Kangakid said:

Yippee we can hardly wait, once pricing is released on 26 September we will be ready to book when bookings open on 29 September.  We are a Disney loving family and the opportunity to cruise on a Disney ship before my GC’s are teenagers is not to be missed.  We will have over 12 months to save, hi de ho, just too excited…we have been waiting for this.  We usually sail with the whole family at least once a year, so Disney will get our business in 2023. 

I do wonder if RCI will now send down an Oasis class ship, seeing Celebrity are sending down Edge also in 2023/24?… also a win on Tatts may come in very handy to provide some funding…
 

I owe, I owe, it's off to work we go.

Oasis? Too soon, I reckon.

[losfp]

Oasis? I can't see it. Firstly they'd have to send it the long way around as they won't fit into either of the canals (I think?). More importantly, there's too many ports here that can't accommodate Oasis ships - either the dock is too small or requires tendering. They won't send a ship if there's no itinerary to sell.

 

I still think DCL will do well with this inaugural season - there's enough Disney mad people who have never cruised before, who don't know or even care that you can book a better cruise for less money, who will book up the sailings. I was hoping for better itineraries, but it was not to be. Maybe in future years when they have had time to schedule in desirable ports etc.

 

In the meantime, I'll keep an eye on it and enjoy the other cruises I have booked in 2023.

[Chiliburn]

10 minutes ago, losfp said:

Oasis? I can't see it. Firstly they'd have to send it the long way around as they won't fit into either of the canals (I think?). More importantly, there's too many ports here that can't accommodate Oasis ships - either the dock is too small or requires tendering. They won't send a ship if there's no itinerary to sell.

 

 

I don’t know?

The evidence is mounting up for a oasis class next season.

Ovation needs a dry dock ,Spectrum may be going back to Hong Kong.

Wonder could split between Singapore and sydney next year.