Archive: August, 2025

Seeing as how I'm a completionist at certain trivial things, it made me squirm that we haven't yet been on the Disney Treasure, which launched in December. The ship took over the Fantasy's Caribbean itineraries, usually a week long, so that's part of the reason for the delay. The last 7-night we did was just before the holidays in 2022 (not counting some one-off Fantasy voyages to the new island). But we figured a week in August, just before school started, made sense. Whether it was east or west (we did east) didn't matter, as none of the ports on either one are super interesting. I wish they had San Juan on the east route, since it's in the neighborhood.

The Treasure is the second of four Triton-class ships (I guess they're now referred to as Wish-class, but whatever), so its layout and overall structure is nearly identical. What's different is the themes and layouts in the venues, and the decor almost everywhere. While the Wish took on more of a classic fairy tale theme, this one leans into more modern Disney IP and theme park stuff. It starts with the grand hall atrium, which is themed to a Middle Eastern style that, as you'd expect, uses Aladdin and Jasmine as the brass statue. It is overwhelmingly better in my eye, because the amount of detail is so deep. The columns have all of these hand-crafted tile murals, and you'll find the onion-shaped arches in everything. The chandelier is particularly impressive.

After getting our dinner time adjusted, and a hot stone massage for me, we tried to at least see all of the venues and their differences. The first big change, and my favorite, is that the central venue used for a variety of things, called Luna on Wish, is Sarabi. It has a lot of warm, earthy tones and African inspired styles, but otherwise is similar with a video wall behind the stage and a very similar lighting rig. Before the week was done, we would see musicians, a magician, a really great comedy show inspired by Indiana Jones stories, and I managed to get on stage, quite by accident, playing some Star Wars trivia. The guy who won was a bigger nerd than me.

On deck 4 around Sarabi, you'll find the same two movie theaters, with only slightly more comfortable seats than the Wish. On deck 5, there's the multipurpose Triton Lounge, also the same and mostly used for trivia, drawing classes and such. In place of the Keg & Compass sports bar, you get the Periscope Pub sports bar, which is vaguely a 20,000 Leagues theme, I think. It has a ceiling where you can see sea critters swimming over you. This is also where they have all of the beers, but the excellent staff there were more than adept at making great cocktails.

The piano bar on deck 3 on this one is called the Scat Cat Lounge, and it has a better layout than its Wish equivalent, with the bar backing to the atrium windows and offering an atrium bar, which the Wish doesn't have. Next door, in place of the Hyperspace Lounge is the Haunted Mansion, and it's awesome. There are some robust videos online that show the making of it (also check it out for the Coco dinner show and Moana theatrical show), so I won't go deep into it here. Being a fan of the ride on either coast helps, but regardless, the effects around the room, along with the sound design and lighting, are a huge achievement. Simon was particularly enamored with everything in the room, so he had quite a few of the bottled mocktails available there. One of our Dominican bartender friends that we've met on two previous cruises was also there, so it was great to catch up.

The common area venue there, which is odd on these ships because it's flanked by the high end retail shops that are closed in port, is a Jungle Cruise inspired bar and performance area called Skipper Society. Again, if you're a fan of the ride, you'll find all kinds of stuff there to make you smile. There is nightly music here, sometimes trivia and other activities, so it's more like the D-Lounge on the previous ships than it is a bar. The furniture is particularly cozy in this one. It's the one place that get extra busy in spurts, because it's not adult exclusive at any time of day. It has no doors.

The coffee shops on 4 and 5 are essentially the same as the Wish, though these are called Hei Hei (the rooster from Moana) and Jade Cricket, a Mulan reference. The themes match as you would expect. Hooks Barbery, the place to get a haircut and shave while sipping an old fashioned (smoked!) is on 4, and along with the salon and Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique, are about the same. The main dining in 1923 and Worlds of Marvel are also the same as on the Wish. I didn't go to the kids club open houses, but Simon reports that Vibe, the teen club, is essentially the same. I saw that the Hero Zone, the indoor gymnasium, if you will, is about the same as well, and features the Incredicourse certain days.

Also the same, in a negative way, are the adult arrangements and promenade. They still stash the Cove area for adults, with an infinity pool, bar and coffee bar, way aft on deck 13. It feels totally disconnected from everything, and we spent like 15 minutes sitting in the water there. I still wish they grouped the adult bars together as they do on the other ships, because if one is crowded, you can just roll to another one. They're never all crowded. I will say that, to their credit, the bars are more family friendly during the day, which is why Simon spent so much time in Haunted Mansion. My other gripe is the lack of a continuous loop promenade deck, which is particularly valuable on these longer itineraries. Being able to walk that loop a few miles is great when eating is kind of a sport most of the time.

We did a mixology and martini tasting again this cruise, both of them in The Rose, the bar that precedes the upcharge fancy restaurants, Palo and Enchante. It's intimate because they can only park about 10 people at the bar, otherwise people doing Palo brunch would be walking in between people and the bartenders. An amazing bartender, Natalija from Croatia, walked us through some stuff that I haven't seen before, and we have new things to try at home at some point.

Our second night of dinner was in Plaza de Coco, which of course references the movie. This is the Arendelle venue on the Wish, but it's dinner and live music while you eat. The menu is, I'm told, authentic Mexican food (I'm not an expert), and I love that they serve fresh, warm tortilla chips instead of bread. The musicians are excellent and I really enjoyed the performance. After a series of excellent tables for the Frozen show, unfortunately we were literally as far as possible from the stage this time. Not ideal, but not deal breaking.

On Monday, we did brunch in Palo, had our usual dishes, and needed a nap afterward. I really like the experience, because it is what most would consider "fine dining," especially in terms of impossibly good service, but it's food that picky people like me will still eat. Our waiter was Ukrainian, and we had a brief chat about his family, which has entirely relocated to Italy, where they are safe. It's upsetting to hear those stories, in part because I guess there isn't much I can do. I can't imagine having to relocate my entire family, leaving everything behind, to escape war. If there's one consistent thing about cruising, it's the opportunity to view the world through the eyes of people from other parts of the world.

We generally don't go to very many of the theatrical shows anymore, because we've seen most of them a bunch of times. In fact, Beauty and the Beast plays here as well as the Dream and Fantasy. While the Beast transformation is excellent, we have seen it. And the old jukebox shows are meh, though they seem to be phasing those out. The signature show here, however, is Moana, and it is really extraordinary. I say that as somewhat of a theater snob. The current cast is shockingly good, because I expect some kind of ceiling for a cruise ship (where Actors Equity and IATSE don't exist). The principal players are also mostly Pacific Islanders, though oddly not the guy playing Maui, as best I can tell. The transformation of the giant puppet of Te Ka to Te Fiti is really great. It reminded me a little of seeing King Kong on Broadway (total spectacle, but forgettable plot and music), just on a smaller scale. I'm not normally easily impressed by theater tech, but this was amazing. The lighting was also the tightest and most interesting I've seen on a ship, and it served the story. A lot of love went into the stagecraft.

I won't bother you with a lot of other details, because it's pretty boring if you're not me. These cruises to the Bahamas and Caribbean are not what I categorize as "adventure" vacation, where you visit a bunch of new places and see amazing things and culture and art and whatever. If you're cruising around Europe, or anywhere else really, sure, that's adventure. But this sort of thing for me is a chance to completely turn my brain off and not have to be accountable for anything at all. Someone cleans the room twice a day, I can get good food and beverage at any time (which is all included, except alcohol and specialty coffee), there is literally some activity to do at all times if you want, and if I want to nap with my stateroom door open while the waves crash against the hull, I can do that. Everything is freakishly clean, and the way they schedule everything, people are generally spread out so instances of crowding are rare. And as I've said before, with families retiring after dinner or the second theater show, hanging out in a quiet bar and meeting people is easy, casual and not crowded.

Disney cruises are not getting any cheaper, but I will say that the quality has continuously improved. It was never low, but I think it's getting better. That's surprising partly because I have to imagine that staffing these ships has to be challenging, given the long hours day after day. They finally got wise to the fact that tattoos, beards and authentic hair are not actually threatening, so they no longer limit themselves the way they used to. It takes a certain personality to do that work, and the people taking it on are really, really good at it. Think about the friendliest people you've encountered at a Disney theme park, and level them up and put them in every role. That's what you'll experience. And yes, gratuities are not part of the base cruise fare, but I have no hesitation giving the recommended amounts. We've even singled out bar staff to tip.

Unfortunately, I woke up with a sore throat on Thursday, which did not fade. Friday it turned into a sinus thing that was even more uncomfortable, so by the time I left on Saturday morning, I was pretty miserable. Not an optimal way to end things.

I'm not sure when we'll be on this ship next, because again, we don't do 7-night itineraries often. We will do the next ship, the Destiny, next year. It will be deeply Marvel influenced, and they haven't yet revealed everything about it yet. The only thing I know for sure is that the atrium will be African/"Wakanda" themed with Black Panther as the statue, and it too will have Haunted Mansion.