Disney Wonder: reflections on the 2025/2026 Australia/New Zealand season
A look back at Disney Cruise Line’s final season in the region, as seen across four sailings.
After first arriving in Australia in October 2023, the 2025–2026 season became Disney Cruise Line’s final scheduled season in Australia and New Zealand, concluding in February 2026. When we stepped off the last sailing of the 2024-2025 season, we had already booked our annual New Year’s Eve cruise, but it wasn’t until six months later that we learned Disney would not be returning.
But rather than eulogising the departure of the Wonder — which, after seven cruises, became a home away from home for us — this piece reflects on how the season felt, what changed, and what mattered about these sailings, both at the time and, hopefully, into the future.
The Disney Wonder starting its season in Sydney Harbour in October 2025.
Our Final Disney Cruise Line Season in Australia
The Disney Wonder sailed back into Sydney Harbour in October 2025 after a two-week crossing from Hawaii. I ran down from the office at lunchtime on that first day to take photos, feeling a flutter when I spotted the funnels as I came down the hill towards Circular Quay. Amy said she felt the same when we returned the following day to take more photos and video under sunnier skies.
We went a bit crazy with the bookings, and the deep discounts Disney unexpectedly offered certainly helped. We tried our first back-to-back cruises at the end of October, experiencing our first taste of Halloween on the High Seas. We watched 2025 turn into 2026 as fireworks lit up Hobart from the starboard side of Deck 10. Later, we were bleary-eyed, dancing and waving along to the final ’Til We Meet Again as the Wonder returned to Sydney Harbour for the last time in early February. We were on that last cruise in Australian waters, stepping off just before the crossing.
Experiencing multiple sailings across the season made it easier to spot what was evolving, and what wasn’t. Despite this being DCL’s final year Down Under, 2025–2026 was not marked by sweeping reinvention, but by a series of smaller, more telling adjustments that shaped the onboard experience in subtle ways.
READ MORE: Our complete guide to the Disney Wonder
What Changed in 2025–2026
Discounts galore
In April 2025, the previous season barely over, Disney offered a whopping 30% discount on Australia and New Zealand sailings. This suggested a concern about filling cabins, but also awareness of guests switching to the cheaper Adventure. Notably, the discounts applied to both new and existing reservations. Sales were extended, and some longer sailings were discounted separately. This is very much what allowed us to sail as often as we did this season.
Marvel deck party removed
The first significant change was announced via email in July 2025, more than three months before the Wonder returned to Australian waters. Marvel Heroes Unite was removed from the entertainment lineup for the Disney Wonder’s 2025–2026 Australia and New Zealand season and replaced by the traditional Pirate Night deck party.
Notably, Pirate Night featured on all Australian and New Zealand sailings, rather than being limited to itineraries of five nights or more. Marvel characters were still present throughout the season. We encountered Black Panther, Spider-Man and others, but the loss of the dedicated deck show marked a clear shift.
Halloween, Christmas and New Year
In our reflections on the 2023–2024 season, we admitted to being disappointed by the limited Very Merrytime and Halloween on the High Seas offerings in Australia and New Zealand. That began to improve in 2024–2025, and by Halloween 2025 we were finally treated to a proper Halloween on the High Seas experience, complete with deck party, themed activities and trick-or-treating. We adored the seasonal character costumes, especially the Chip and Dale ones, and who can say no to included candy?
It reminded us how enthusiastically the Disney fan community shows up. At Halloween, we were impressed by the amazing doors on our deck. (Deck 6 — the spookiest deck of all!) We came back to our cabin almost every day to find that we’d been “pixie dusted” by our neighbours for the weekend.
Another welcome carryover from the 2024–2025 season was the decision to remain docked in Hobart for the duration of the New Year’s Eve fireworks. This allowed for a more relaxed port day, and the novelty of watching two separate city fireworks displays from the bow of a ship. In 2025–2026, Disney even piped the city’s music through the ship’s speakers to synchronise with the fireworks overhead.
Passengers
Possibly driven by the lure of heavy discounts, we noticed a higher proportion of first-time and international cruisers this season. (We already know we’ll be on the same Adventure sailing as a Japanese couple we met). Several couples dining with us said they’d switched to the Wonder after the Disney Adventure was forced to cancel sailings from December 2025 to mid-March 2026. By the end of the year, what began as a local novelty felt more like a regional happening.
Almost all sailings we were on ran at or near capacity, with many guests experiencing Disney Cruise Line for the first time. At the same time, there was continuity: familiar faces reappeared across sailings, trivia teams re-formed, and tips were happily shared with newcomers. The result was a community that felt broader, but no less connected.
Longer cruises
One surprise of the 2025–2026 season was the addition of a 10-night sailing around New Zealand over Christmas. Cruises of this length have traditionally belonged to Princess, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, while Disney tends to focus on itineraries of three to seven nights, repositioning cruises notwithstanding. It was an intriguing experiment, and one we would have liked to see expanded, particularly with longer South Pacific sailings out of Brisbane, but more on that in a moment.
Bigger range of activities?
It could have been our imagination, but the range of trivia and other onboard activities certainly felt bigger this season. After passengers loudly (and, we thought, unfairly) complained about the American-leaning trivia in the first season, Disney added more general, sporting, and even Australian-specific quizzes. During 2025–2026, we tried Muppets Trivia, Disney Feature Animation (Advanced) and Food Trivia for the first time.
What We Still Love
Every time we step on board, even by our seventh visit to the Wonder by early February, that moment of compression and expansion as you walk off the gangway into the atrium still melts our hearts. It feels like home. That welcoming vibe carries through the entire cruise in small, personal touches.
Crown & Finn beers
You might have gathered from this site that we like a beer or four, and the English pub onboard remains one of our favourite spots. It probably says something that the bar staff we met in October still remembered us in December and beyond. We were especially pleased to see local independent brewer Young Henrys represented across the bars, alongside excellent Belgian imports like Duvel and Saison Dupont. They weren’t much pricier than the main taplist and made those evenings feel like a proper holiday.
That winning feeling
We. Love. Trivia. From Disney classics and Muppets through to food, brainteasers and ’80s music, we tested ourselves and emerged victorious more than once. This season we finally completed our set of trivia medallions, unlocking Chip and Dale and Goofy. Yes, that was a minor humblebrag.
Palo brunch
Hands down our favourite restaurant at sea. The brunch is legendary, and our eyes are always bigger than our stomachs. Even on land, it would be hard to find prosecco, omelette, fresh pizza, ravioli and dessert for that price. We may have started dreaming about the ravioli.
The Art of the Theme tour
We’ve taken this adults-only tour at least once on every cruise. The theming details around the ship are impeccable, and the cast members always teach us something new — whether it’s the carpets, the sound design, or the way adult spaces are subtly set apart. Even after all our sailings, there’s still more to notice.
Jack-Jack’s Diaper Dash
Let me hear you say it with me: RACE. THOSE. BABIES! If watching infants race for our collective delight isn’t the most ridiculous, joyful and downright fun thing we’ve done at sea, then I’ll eat my Mickey ears. (Especially if they’re on a churro waffle).
What Didn’t Always Work
Shopping
There was always a sense that we were missing a slice of the US Disney experience. Options in the retail shops were never quite as plentiful, and we only saw Sea Treasures open once for the entire 2025–2026 season. (That said, we did appreciate the addition of the Create Your Own Headbands this season). Mickey Bars were available only after the crossing, replaced by Magnums for the remainder of the cruises. And, yes, we yearned for a Dole Whip like nobody’s business.
Dining hiccups
For the most part, we didn’t have major issues, though vegetarian options remain consistent but limited. Most menus default to carnivores, with only a couple of vegetarian dishes per sitting. On multiple embarkation days at Tiana’s, the welcome dishes were limited to soup and pasta — not ideal on a summer day. Quick service and room service usually fared better, though we did once wait 20 minutes for a “special” order Impossible hot dog at Pete’s Boiler Bites before giving up. The cruise after the 10-night New Zealand cruise, most black tea seemed to have disappeared from Cabanas and Deck 9.
The 5-night New Year’s Eve cruise 2025-2026 in particular highlighted some operational strains. A fellow passenger described dining as “chaos,” and we heard multiple reports of servers struggling to keep up, including our own. Our section never saw our Head Server, and the ‘express’ breakfast on the last day took nearly 90 minutes, with massive lines and forgotten dishes handled by a single overworked server in our area. To be clear, this isn’t a criticism of the crew; they worked hard. Instead, it reflects insufficient resource allocation and high crew turnover between seasons. By the time we sailed in late January, these timing issues were all non-existent, and we had nothing but the impeccable dining service we knew and loved.
Farewell or til we meet again? Moana, Cinderella, Tiana, Rapunzel and Donald Duck wave goodbye for the last time in Australia on the Disney Wonder.
The final voyage
The final sailing on the Disney Wonder (29 January – 2 February 2026) was an emotional rollercoaster. Things didn’t start well when we received an email days before embarkation advising that the ship wouldn’t depart until 2:00 a.m., “to support crew operations.” There was still a Sail-A-Wave party, but most folks were already tucked away in bed by the time we left harbour. It also meant significantly less time at sea and in the onboard shops than we’d hoped.
Still, having experienced the same thing at the end of the 2024–2025 season, we at least knew how to adapt. We stayed up later, lingered in the Cadillac Lounge after dinner, caught game shows in Azure, and made the most of late-night snacks in the Crown & Finn.
The rest of the cruise was still wonderful. Familiar faces, new friends, and unexpectedly touching moments. Even the crew seemed sad to be going. There were laughs and healthy competitions, but above all, kindness.
On the final night, it was hard to imagine many dry eyes in the atrium as cast and characters gathered to say farewell. Or rather, ’Til We Meet Again. This time, it truly was the last time it would happen in Australian waters. Later that night, we stood on the bow of the Wonder as she prematurely made her final voyage into Sydney Harbour at 1:00 a.m. on a stormy Monday, 2 February.
The wind raged violently on the way through the heads, but a group of about a dozen “faithful” huddled under blankets to nod to this quietly eventful ending. As the ship pulled into port, all was calm and eerily quiet — save for the crew party raging immediately below.
‘Til We Meet Again
For all of those relatively minor imperfections, the final Disney Cruise Line season in Australia and New Zealand was a joy. Knowing it would be the last gave us permission to cruise differently. We tried new cabin types, danced like fools at silent disco, dressed up for Halloween, and decorated our doors. We also spent entire days doing nothing more than sitting in the sun or napping.
Our next Disney cruise will feature an actual rollercoaster, not just an emotional one, when we head to Singapore for some of the first sailings of the brand-new Disney Adventure. Still, the Wonder will always be our ship, and we’re grateful we got to spend one final season with her.
This final season was only part of the picture, and we’ll be taking a step back to reflect on Disney Cruise Line’s full three-year journey in Australia and New Zealand soon.
