3 hours ago
3
October 14, 2025 — 5:38am
My kids have no idea who Mickey Mouse is. That’s the horrible realisation that sinks in mere seconds after boarding our ship. We’ve brought our kids on a Disney cruise, and they don’t know who Mickey Mouse is.
There’s a person in a big-eared suit trying to high-five them, and they’re just staring at them like they might as well be just the person without the suit.
They don’t know who Donald Duck is, either. Goofy means nothing to them. They’ll later be brought along for a photo opportunity with Belle, the yellow-clad Disney princess, and be utterly underwhelmed by just a normal woman in a nice dress.
Have we made a huge mistake here? Kids don’t watch old-school Disney anymore.
Those classic characters that their parents grew up with, particularly the icon whose visage is emblazoned on the outside of the ship, tend not to appear in any of the child-friendly content that modern-day Disney churns out.
Fortunately though, we’re not here for Mickey.
We’re here for the childcare, for the kids’ club where a nice person (or, more likely, people) will take care of our offspring while my partner, Jess, and I head to the pool deck and drink an overpriced cocktail. We’re here for the waterslide, which is the one thing that our kids will never, ever tire of playing on.
We’re here for meals made for us instead of having to be created on our own in a place that’s not suitable for it by parents who don’t really feel like it. We’re here, in other words, for a holiday. And parents of young children don’t normally get holidays.
Where’s our ship located right now? Who cares! This isn’t a polar expedition. I don’t have to be at the bow hoping to spot icebergs. We’re travelling from Sydney to Hobart and back, though honestly we could just be doing figure-eights in Sydney Harbour and no one on board would have any complaints.
The ship is the attraction, the theatre shows and open-air performances, the movie screenings, the character meet-and-greets, the water park, the restaurants.
Spider-Man is here, occasionally, which gets more of a reaction from our kids. Elsa from Frozen also stirs some excitement. But seriously, have you seen the breakfast buffet? You can just grab anything you want! And have you seen our bunk beds? We get to sleep on top of each other! These are the things that kids really find amazing.
Mostly, travel for parents with young children is not relaxing. It’s harder than being at home. You have to drag people around to places they’re unfamiliar with. You have to move them into new beds and bedrooms every couple of nights.
You have to battle through simple things like finding child-friendly meals, finding child-friendly tables and chairs to eat them at, just getting from one place to another with strollers and day bags and kids who don’t care what you want and would much prefer to do what they want.
You don’t go on holidays when you’re a parent of young kids – you go on trips. It’s not helpful to frame these things as holidays because they don’t bear any of the hallmarks of a holiday. You come home more stressed, more exhausted than when you left.
But here’s the alternative. You can go to an all-inclusive resort, one somewhere like Fiji, which offers high-quality childcare and high-quality lounging-around-the-pool opportunities. Or, you can go on a family-friendly cruise, on a ship that also has childcare, and numerous other features and events designed purely for the entertainment of small people who demand attention.
You unpack once, and get your kids settled once. You push aside the unreasonable fear that they will somehow fall over the side of the ship and get on with the business of having fun, with going to the kids club (which our kids truly enjoy), with going on the waterslide and eating sumptuous meals every night and having your every whim catered to.
Most of the Disney stuff falls completely flat. Our kids don’t get excited by people in suits, and as mentioned previously, they have no idea who any of these characters are anyway. The only shore time they get on this trip, meanwhile, is a brief wander around Hobart, which doesn’t exactly thrill them either.
But on board they’re happy and entertained. And we, their parents, are also happy and entertained and even prepared to fork out $30 for a frosé if it means being able to sit in the sun and read a book for an hour.
And that deserves a high-five.
Disney Wonder is making its final visit to Australian waters this summer. See disneycruise.disney.go.com
The writer was a guest of Disney Cruise Line.
Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter
Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.
