Disney Adventure review: ‘I was not expecting this balcony view on Disney’s biggest ever cruise ship’

The first words my two-year-old said were: “Wow… I love it” 

I’ll admit, that’s not the immediate reaction I had when I first saw the view from our balcony onboard Disney’s brand new cruise ship, the Disney Adventure.

I did wonder to myself, “where’s the ocean?” as I took in our view of one of the ship’s internal themed areas (and one that would quickly grow on me), the Discovery Reef.

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But the wide-eyed look on my little one’s face quickly put things into perspective.

Going on a Disney cruise isn’t necessarily about things you’d want from a traditional cruise. Say, something as generic as a sea breeze.

Instead, it’s about the wonder and magic that you can only really get from a Disney holiday. And this new ship, which is now the biggest in Disney Cruise Line’s expanding fleet, had that in spades.

The Disney Adventure

The Disney Adventure marks Disney Cruise Line’s eighth ship and has a maximum passenger capacity of approximately 6,700 guests, supported by a crew of about 2,500.

All up, the 208,000-gross-ton vessel (the 11th biggest in the world by size), features 2,111 staterooms.

After Disney pulled its ship from being homeported in Australia, the Adventure will also be the company’s first ship to homeport in Asia, becoming the closest option for Aussie fans keen to experience a Disney cruise.

“The Disney Adventure represents a new chapter for Disney Cruise Line and will introduce Disney to audiences who may be experiencing our magic for the very first time,” incoming Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company, Josh D’Amaro, said at a Christening ceremony held onboard on March 4.

“It offers fans across this region an opportunity to immerse themselves in unforgettable ways and create memories that are uniquely Disney.”

The Disney Adventure set sail on her maiden voyage from Singapore on March 10, 2026, and will embark on three- and four-night sailings at sea.

The itineraries do not include any port stops at this stage, designed to maximise time on board. Basically, the ship itself is meant to be the destination.

We were invited to experience the Adventure on a special preview sailing ahead of the maiden voyage. This is what it was like.

The (many) highlights

When a ship is this big, it can be hard to actually get to everything you might want to see. But we did manage to tick off a fair bit during our 4-night, 5-day sailing.

The Disney Adventure has seven different themed areas that draw on over “100 years of storytelling” from the Disney, Pixar and Marvel worlds.

Disney Imagination Garden

The Disney Imagination Garden is the biggest area on the ship and a hive of activity throughout the day and well into the evening.

This is where you’ll kickstart your sailing with your Let’s Set Sail Dance Party and can enjoy all sorts of performances, live music, restaurants and more.

The details in this area are incredible, from the iconic castle at one end to the Disney characters and fairy-tale favourites you’ll be able to spot in the trees and the archways.

Discovery Reef

As I mentioned above, this area quickly became our home on the ship. The Discovery Reef was the first and last thing we saw each day, and as such holds a special place in our memories of the Adventure.

In this open-air part of the ship, you can find experiences relating to The Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo, Lilo & Stitch, Luca and more.

Will Hastings, Creative Director and part of Walt Disney Imagineering team, says the whole area was actually inspired by a snorkelling trip he took with his family.

“I started to think about how there are so many amazing underwater stories that we have our canon,” he says. “Like Finding Nemo and The Little Mermaid set in an underwater environment.”

“You’ll notice that each deck gets a little bit darker and darker as it goes down to the bottom, so it gets that sense of light streaming in.”

Then at night time the entire area transforms, with moody lighting to mimic bioluminescence.

“We knew it needed to be very different day to night as the space will be used differently,” Will says.

“So during the day, it’s sort of fun and bright and really, really colourful. And then at night, we use the theatrical lighting. We have wave ripples programmed in there and it gets a little darker. So you kind of have this much more hip version of the area.”

San Fransokyo Street

One of the other standout areas of the ship was San Fransokyo Street from Disney’s Big Hero 6.

If you, or your kid, is a fan of this movie you’ll probably lose your mind once you step through the subway-themed entrance (which took an entire team of Disney imagineers to put together).

The neighbourhood includes places to eat, shop (like the very first Duffy and Friends store outside a Disney park), play arcade games, or go to the movies.

“One of the really cool things we get to do as imagineers is bring to life in 3D these incredible worlds and locations and cities that we see on our screen,” Senior Software Project Manager Davey Feder says.

Town Square

Town Square is the central area of the ship and draws inspiration from Tangled, Frozen, Cinderella and more.

Guest Services, for example, is themed to Snow White, including the desks that mimic the dwarves’ seven mine carts.

Our little one loved the Royal Hall, where Disney Princesses adorn the ceiling. She even received her very own ‘glass slipper’ (actually a felt bookmark but still) after watching the ‘Once Upon a Time’ show, retelling Cinderella’s story.

In this central hub, you’ll also find the Walt Disney Theatre.

Then there is the famous Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, or you can enjoy a tea party at the Royal Society for Friendship and Tea (though these come at a rather staggering additional cost).

The Marvel Style Studio can transform little and big kids into their favourite super heroes, and at dusk it transforms into an adults-only lounge.

Speaking of lounges, though, my favourite was Spellbound, inspired by Snow White’s Evil Queen.

The Rainforest Room (Adults-only Spa)

Speaking of adults-only, the Rainforest Room in the Spa was another highlight for me. If there is one thing I advocate for on a cruise, it’s paying a little extra to get a Spa pass with access to a thermal suite.

Even if it’s just a day pass (on Adventure that costs $US 79), this ship has one of the most expansive thermal suites I’ve ever seen on a ship.

There are whirlpools, cold plunges, a massive dry spa, a salt room, hammam and gentle steam room. Plus 20 heated ceramic loungers to really unwind. 

It’s also the least Disney-fied part of the ship (and one of the only places not playing Disney music) so if you just need a reset it’s ideal.

Toy Story Place and Marvel Landing

If you’re a fan of Disney’s theme parks, this is where you’ll really get that feeling. Toy Story Place is great for little kids.

It’s where you can find the waterpark, slides, main pool and some places for quick bites, like Pizza Planet or Wheezy’s Freezies serving soft serve ice cream.

You do need to be aware of some age limits however when travelling with really young children. The Toy Story water park is only available to children ages four and up.

There is a splash zone for littlies who are in swim diapers. But I did find this area a little disappointing, as it only had a handful of character water spouts (on the Disney Treasure this same area was much more built out with water slides and mounted water play, though it is bigger than what was on offer on the Disney Wonder).

Up one deck on Marvel Landing Groot’s Galaxy Spin was a big hit. We had multiple requests from my daughter to ride again. “One more?” she’d ask at the end of every run.

A word of caution that this ride, and much of this area is not undercover and can get very hot. So make sure to wear sunscreen, hats and cover up where possible.

As for me, I was lucky enough to get to experience the longest rollercoaster at sea after it was opened for a select few guests during the preview sailing. 

The rollercoaster

Ironcycle Test Run is Disney’s first-ever rollercoaster at sea. It runs on a 250m-long track built about nine metres above the upper deck, and curves and loops over nearly half the length of the ship.

The Iron Man-themed ride sees two riders sit in a motorcycle-style ride vehicle for two laps of the coaster. The first is set to an autopilot speed of around 70 per cent, before you get to take control (the rider in the front) and go as fast or slow as you want.

It was a lot of fun being shot out of the starting gate and then zooming out over the ocean. But with only six seats available, you’ll need some patience to ride.

Guests can use the DCL Navigator app to make a booking. Riders must be between 120cm and 195cm in height. It goes without saying that not everyone who wants to ride is going to be able to.

The food and restaurants

Once you’ve had your fill of rides and exploring, the restaurants are an attraction in themselves.

There are six main dining restaurants, each with a different theme. Hollywood Spotlight Club and Navigators Club, Animator’s Palate and Animator’s Table, Pixar Market and the Enchanted Summer Restaurant.

Disney cruises practise rotational dining, with passengers given one of two seating times for dinner. On the Disney Adventure, it is 5.45pm or 8.15pm. There is no traditional buffet available for dinner.

Overall the menus had plenty of options, including a good selection of kids meals. And huge shout out to our wait staff (you will have as servers each night of your cruise) – it felt like seeing ‘friends’ each night and I was never short of a Coke Zero.

The Navigator’s Club dinner and show was a massive hit with my daughter. She had the time of her life receiving high fives from Minnie Mouse, Mickey Mouse, Donald and Daisy Duck, plus the singers, as they made their way singing and dancing around the dining room.

She also now counts Daisy as her new favourite after she found herself hand in hand with the character, dancing away at the front of the Explorer’s Parade at the end of dinner.

The Disney Adventure also has six quick-service food kiosks for meals or snacks throughout the day, serving items like pizza, burgers, rice dishes and kebabs.

Our favourite was Stitch’s Ohana grill, with hot dogs and burgers. We ended up here almost every day.

On busier voyages these options will still require a reservation via the app, but the pizza and soft serve ice cream are available at any time.

We also used this option one night, heading to Cosmic Kebabs to have dinner early in order to make the early sitting of the night-time show with a little one.

And boy was that worth it….

The shows

Disney Adventure plays host to a brand-new Broadway-style musical called “Remember”. The heartfelt story features WALL-E and Eve, alongside a host of Disney favourites, and was a core memory moment.

There was love, heartbreak, Disney classics, dancing, bubbles, snow and more. Add to that my two-year-old clapping along to songs that defined much of my own childhood and you have the perfect recipe for a moment that literally brought tears to my eyes.

Yes I cried watching the WALL-E movie already so I was no hope for this one.

On the Garden Stage at the Disney Imagination Garden you also can’t miss the high-octane Avengers Assemble show, also created specifically for the Disney Adventure.

Disney is also the only cruise line that has fireworks at sea. On the Adventure you can watch a show themed to The Lion King and narrated by Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan.

The new original show, called The Lion King: Celebration In The Sky, blends a fireworks display with the movie’s soundtrack and runs almost 12 minutes long.

The best vantage point for this is deck 18 on the starboard side. But a note for the little ones: it wasn’t on until after 10:30pm.

Things to know

While there were plenty of highlights on board the Disney Adventure there are a few things you need to be aware of if you’re thinking of booking a cruise.

As with any new product, there are going to be teething issues and the app experience is something that the company will continue to fine-tune as more sailings take place.

We generally had no major issues on our preview cruise but it was only sailing at a small capacity of what a full-booked sailing would be like. Despite this, we still queued in a line to see Minnie Mouse for over 45 minutes despite having a booked Character meet slot that is meant to guarantee you are in and done within a 15-minute window.

So you’ll need to be aware of that when booking in multiple experiences, as timings may well run over. 

Queues and wait times are something well-known to Disney fans already and I expect this will also be something faced on board a ship that will carry over 6,500 guests.

But there are a few tips and tricks we worked out that will hopefully come in handy when dealing with bigger crowds.

The lifts, especially, can be a pain point even on smaller cruise ships. On the Adventure, all three walls of lifts operate separately, so we always went to the ones at the end wall which generally were less trafficked.

Or better yet, use the escalators across levels 5-9 and save half the trouble.

And make note of which areas can be accessed by which lifts. For example, the Imagination Garden can be accessed on level 10 forward, but from aft it’s level 11.

The verdict

For Aussies who feel like they missed out on experiencing Disney Cruise Line while Disney Wonder was homeported in Australia, having the Disney Adventure in Singapore is a big win.

The ship offers plenty of opportunities for magical moments, but personally, I think I would struggle on a ship this big at full capacity.

At the end of the day though, when it comes to cruise holidays, the choice is yours and you can make it whatever you want it to be. You will not be short of things to do on this ship so it’s completely up to you what you are willing to stand in line for!

For our experience, when you hear your little one exclaim “wow” and “I love it” multiple times a day, you know it’s been a success.

The writer and her family travelled as guests of Disney Cruise Line.