Disney’s Aladdin Aboard the Disney Wish
Earlier this year, my wife and I made a quick trip to Florida to take a quick weekend cruise on the Disney Wish, and a day at Epcot. We’ve posted at length about our Epcot adventures – Disney Lorcana, Ratatouille, and the general innovation at Epcot – but have only briefly touched on our enjoyable 3 night cruise on the Disney Wish. One thing I wanted to review was the Aladdin stage show, the one show onboard Disney Cruise Line my wife and I have yet to see. While it isn’t my favourite of the Disney productions, it is still quite good.
The stage is very close to a direct 1-1 remake of the animated film, condensed to fit into an hour and fifteen minute show. You’ll hear your favourite songs, see your favourite characters, and embark on an epic adventure complete with the Cave of Wonders, a Magic Carpet Ride, and some acrobatics as Aladdin moves across the stage. Technology is once again front and centre, with Disney using digital screens and projections onto a dropped curtain to create fantastic set drops. This was very apparent during both the Cave of Wonders scene and the magic carpet ride. I’m sure that pulling of large stage productions onboard a cruise ship isn’t an easy task – you have less room and more opportunities for problems to arise, but Disney finds ways to use every piece of technology at its disposal to retell great stories in their library.
Unlike my other favourite stage shows on Disney Cruise Line – Tales of Moana, The Little Mermaid, Tangled, Frozen and Beauty and the Beast – I found that Aladdin strayed a bit with the genie character to mix in jokes relevant to cruise goers in 2026. I find these jokes and puns work well in other Disney shows that aren’t based on older stories – Disney’s Believe is a good example of this, as was Villains Tonight before it was sunsetted – but those jokes didn’t land for me when trying to enjoy Aladdin. While the crowd was definitely into the Genie’s antics – and the actor was VERY good – it was easily my least favourite part of the show. Ultimately, when compared to the other major shows on the various ships, this made Aladdin my least favourite.
That said, next time I’m onboard Disney Cruise Line I don’t plan on skipping the Aladdin show, because it’s still a fantastic production and presentation. And if there are shows I generally don’t enjoy – Seas the Adventure, I’m looking at you – I will actively skip those to do other things around the ship. This one is good, not great, and definitely not my favourite!
Article By Adam
