I think the reviews about the Disney Wish are wrong

[brentm77]

The problem becomes that the buttons have no way of knowing how many people are in whatever party wants to go to a specific floor.

Sure, but there are possible solutions. I don't think picking how many people you have would work, since other people may see you picked that floor and jump on with you. But I suspect sensors could count when a person gets on and off so that the elevator knows how many people it picked up for each trip and how many got off at each floor. That way it never tries to pick up people when there isn't likely to be room. Of course, things get more complicated based on some people taking up more room, mobility devices, etc. So maybe it wouldn't work. But I have seen these elevators work well in other settings and RCL must think they are an upgrade to have invested in them.

Edit: It looks like RCL is experimenting with moving the system to their other ships too, so they must work well in their opinion: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2024/04/30/royal-caribbean-testing-better-elevators ("Destination elevators aren't just a fad, they're a way to more efficiently tackle the issue of getting passengers between decks and that's been a traditional pain point on big ships.")

I love DCL, but it seems like DCL found a model that works and is very slow to make innovate. That's not necessarily a bad thing in general, as I love the classic ships. But there are some areas that would greatly improve the cruise experience if they were willing to be more innovative, while keeping what works. DCL will probably take the response to the Wish as a sign that people don't want change, but I disagree with that conclusion. I think a design that was closer to the classic ships, with innovations that merely added to the experience would have been a smash hit without nearly as much controversy. Love the Wish or hate it, there is no question that it has a very mixed reaction, which was almost certainly not the goal of the redesign.

 

[Kwami]

DCL will probably take the response to the Wish as a sign that people don't want change, but I disagree with that conclusion. I think a design that was closer to the classic ships, with innovations that merely added to the experience would have been a smash hit without nearly as much controversy. Love the Wish or hate it, there is no question that it has a very mixed reaction, which was almost certainly not the goal of the redesign.

The response has been overwhelmingly positive in terms of bookings and money, which is far more important to Disney than what a few fans on the DIS think. And even here, the Wish has plenty of fans that prefer it over the other ships or at least think that it's just as good.

I'm sure that they've considered the common criticisms here and that they'll fix what they can for the Treasure and Destiny, but let's not pretend that the Wish hasn't been incredibly successful.

 

[brentm77]

The response has been overwhelmingly positive in terms of bookings and money, which is far more important to Disney than what a few fans on the DIS think. And even here, the Wish has plenty of fans that prefer it over the other ships or at least think that it's just as good.

I'm sure that they've considered the common criticisms here and that they'll fix what they can for the Treasure and Destiny, but let's not pretend that the Wish hasn't been incredibly successful.

Fair point. However, it seems that a huge percentage of people sailing it are newcomers and not as many repeat cruises. It seems that everyone I know who tries DCL for the first time books the Wish, because they assume the newest ship must be the best. We did the same thing when we first sailed, only looking at booking the Fantasy since it was new. So the Wish could be burning through the "newest ship" status right now, not reflecting it's real draw once even newer ships are out. Will it have the longevity of the classic ships for rebooking? We will see.

I suspect the criticism is from more than a few overly-critical fans too. We see many reasonable-seeming repeat cruisers here say the Wish was fine, but also one-and-done. Those numbers might catch up at some point. A central core to DCL's success has been us nutty fans who keep coming back and know what we like. We should be careful of a false dichotomy here too. The right design could have been both popular right now, and a less divisive among core customers. Surely a company would prefer a win on both fronts.

But, I could be completely wrong and the Wish might be perfect - filling an untapped market for people looking for something other than what the classic ships offered. I know one first-time family that just came back from the Wish and booked the Treasure, so it is working for some people.

I know in our case, the loss of focus on making the ships as welcoming to adults as children was one of the reasons we booked a different line next versus booking the Wish or the Treasure to try something new. Maybe we would be surprised and love the Wish, but we aren't ready to pay the DCL premium to find out right now. Sure, we are just one family, but maybe families like ours will add up over time.

It's an interesting discussion, and I admit, it's easy to get a warped view of the ship from spending too much time here.