Which Disney Cruise Ship Should You Choose?

We get asked which Disney ship is the best one fairly often, and the honest answer is that it depends entirely on you. What we can tell you is what each one is actually like to be aboard, because we have sailed all five.

If you want the shortest possible version of our verdict, it is this. We would happily sail every one of them again.

At a glance

We have sailed the Magic, Dream, Fantasy, Wish and Treasure. The Wonder and the Destiny are in the table for completeness, but we have not been aboard either. Itinerary lengths and home ports change from season to season, so check Disney's own site for what each ship is sailing now.

Sailing from the UK versus sailing from Florida

We have sailed from both sides. The Magic, Dream and Fantasy from the UK, the Wish and Treasure from Port Canaveral. The Fantasy we have done from both, which makes the comparison a fair one, because it is the same ship either way.

The most obvious difference is where you board. In Port Canaveral, Disney have their own cruise terminal, themed throughout, and you walk through the famous Mickey archway to get aboard. Sailing from the UK you are in a generic terminal, closer in feel to a train station. The magic starts when you step onto the ship rather than when you arrive at the port. What the UK gives you is straightforward. You can drive to the port. No transatlantic flight, no baggage allowance to worry about, no jet lag. For Florida sailings we fly out a day or two early to let the jet lag settle before we board, which is time and cost you do not need to factor in at home. What you give up is real. There is no private island on a UK sailing, so no Castaway Cay and no Lookout Cay. There are no fireworks at sea. And the weather is simply better in Florida.

There is a pattern to UK departures. They tend to be three, four and five night sailings, mostly scheduled through the British summer holidays, which is why they are so busy, and at times chaotic. Sailing from the US you get a lot of people who have cruised before and know how it all works, and the atmosphere aboard is calmer for it. The number of characters out and about is reduced too. Stitch is the clearest example. On the short UK sailings he only appears in the kids club for Space Goo and does no meets at all, where sailing from the US he roams a lot more freely. None of that is a reason to avoid a UK departure, but it is worth knowing so you board expecting it.

Book starboard for the fireworks

One booking tip worth knowing. Disney are the only cruise line doing fireworks at sea, and they usually launch from the starboard side. You do not get them on the European sailings, but on Bahamas and Caribbean itineraries we generally book a starboard cabin for exactly that reason. Not a guarantee, but it has worked for us.

So which one would we pick?

All the ships work for families and adults. Every one of them has its own feel, and its own positives and negatives, which is why we keep coming back to different ones.

That said, there are a few things worth weighing. The adult only areas are better on the older ships, noticeably so. If you would rather avoid big crowds, the Magic is the one. If a show restaurant every night matters to you, that rules out the Dream and the Fantasy. If you are choosing between the two newest, it comes down to whether princesses or adventure appeals more, and the bump out rooms are worth knowing about on both.

We would happily sail every one of them again, and we have already booked three. The Magic still holds a place the others cannot quite reach, but she was our first, so we may be biased.

Videos of our sailings can be found here.