Paddington's Mischief to Mexico-5/nt Wonder-Miami-updated 27/5 - More Cabana#5

[fredgirls]

Your family sounds like a lot of fun! Great TR.

 

[wiigirl]

Great TR! Love all the pics!

 

[fredgirls]

I love that Pirate Ship, and you are right, the price is not bad at all. The Jake and Neverland Pirates one is around $45 and it only has a couple pieces. May have to be on the lookout for that one!

You photos of the cabanas are now making me want to have one as well. I have never been to CC, but figured the cabanas wouldn't be worth it. It looks like you get a lot of stuff included.

Wait until you see the pictures of the real thing!

They are a lot of money. But I did some, what my husband calls, 'Mummy math'.
If you add in $70 for snorkel equipment, $24 for cycles, $48 for floats and tubes that's $142 without drinks and snacks. With our $150 on board credit the Cabana only cost us $200. That's Mummy math.

I can't wait to share castaway pics. Have a snow day here today so I hope I'll get time later to sort through the memories of paradise!

 

[fredgirls]

Here's a taste of what's to come.

 

[pharmjenn]

Wait until you see the pictures of the real thing!

They are a lot of money. But I did some, what my husband calls, 'Mummy math'.
If you add in $70 for snorkel equipment, $24 for cycles, $48 for floats and tubes that's $142 without drinks and snacks. With our $150 on board credit the Cabana only cost us $200. That's Mummy math.

I can't wait to share castaway pics. Have a snow day here today so I hope I'll get time later to sort through the memories of paradise!

I like that math! We are a family of 3, so it wouldn't be worth it. But if we ever do an extended family cruise, and can fill the cabana with 6-10 people, the price goes down so much per person it would be worth it.

 

[jm106]

I like your math- DH laughs at how I can justify anything(We were supposed to drive to Myrtle beach this year and I justified us all the way to DCL.)
We are first time cruisers so I know cabans are not in our cards anyway. DH and I dive(or dove, its been a while but would like to again one day) and have nice masks and snorkel so Ill just have to see about kids.
I love the teaser pic of castaway cay, that was why we chose our itinerary. I hope nothing prevents us from getting there.

 

[uby24]

I can't wait and thanks for the pictures. We sail April 8.

 

[fredgirls]

I can't wait and thanks for the pictures. We sail April 8.

Ooo, not long 'til your trip now! You will love the Wonder!

More pics to come now.

Between volleyball season starting and finishing up my music classes for this term, I seem to have a lot less time for this :surf web: and seem to spend a lot of time here feeling like this !!!

 

[fredgirls]

I like your math- DH laughs at how I can justify anything(We were supposed to drive to Myrtle beach this year and I justified us all the way to DCL.)
We are first time cruisers so I know cabans are not in our cards anyway. DH and I dive(or dove, its been a while but would like to again one day) and have nice masks and snorkel so Ill just have to see about kids.
I love the teaser pic of castaway cay, that was why we chose our itinerary. I hope nothing prevents us from getting there.

And just a month for you to wait! I hope I can fuel your excitement with a few more pics today!
And I hope the planets align to allow you to dock at CC. The Cabana was an indulgence but absolutely not necessary to enjoy this beautiful island.

 

[fredgirls]

So...we were half way through day 4 when we last spoke.

It was soon time for the second animation class of the day, and the last for the cruise.
And this time it was donald duck!
Here's the girls pictures.

Both girls really enjoyed these classes and became very fond of Ponz. At the end of the class Alice wanted to go and ask him to sign her picture.
But ponz did one thing better.

He flicked back to his picture of Goofy that we'd drawn earlier in the day and tore it out and signed it.
Alice was over the moon!
Both girls agreed it was the best souvenir ever! (even more so, as he signed the wrong year!)

That simple kind gesture created a little bit of magic that will last forever.

We got it home safely and framed it, ready to be put up in our family room.

 

[fredgirls]

The rest of the day was spent in the pool and listening to more of the great live music outside. It didn't matter that there was less organized activities that we wanted to do. We just hung out together, spoiled the girls with slushy cocktails while ben and I had the tipsy versions!

And we played shuffle board!

It was so much fun. The girls wanted to play game after game, but I was conscious that others may be waiting to play. So after each game, we walked a lap of deck 4, and if it was still available, we let the girls play again! Seemed fair.

This was a great day!

Soon it was time to get ready for Dinner. Again it always seemed to come round quickly.

Tonight we were in Tritons.
This was my least favourite menu. It is strange, because on paper the menu looked great, making it hard to choose. We all had different things but actually none of it was very memorable. Also I had a wonderful looking steak but my request of 'well done' still bled all over the plate. Kind of put me off. I know I could have sent it back but tonight was a little crazy. Our assistant server was sick so our server was a little flustered. The wrong appetizers came and things got muddled a lot. Maybe this contributed to me not enjoying this meal. And he was so 'out-of-sorts', I really didn't want to send the steak back.
Ben ate it though, so nothing wasted!

We just love all the little touches.

Tonights show was "Dreams" This was hands-down the best show we've seen onboard. Just magical.
DON'T MISS IT!

And tomorrow...it's Castaway Cay!

 

[fredgirls]

This was the day we'd all been looking forward to the most!
It was going to be our 3rd time on the island.

Of course I was up early, and of course I was anxious to see what the seas were like, and whether we'd be able to make it in to dock.

I went up to deck 9 and took some video as we approached (click pic below). The last 2 times we'd woken as we'd been backing in to the dock, so i'd never seen the approach.



I then went and woke the others. We had been lazy on previous visits, but I wanted to make sure we got a full day in that Cabana!

We went and picked some breakfast things from BBB and sat poolside. Then the girls went to Goofy's galley for a pastry and some more fruit.

We had backed in successfully by now and had an excellent view from our room. I think the humidity got to the camera lens after the first pic, as they're a little blurry!

 

[Linda67]

Loving your TR
We are cruising on the Wonder for the first time in June and having sailed on the Dream and The Fantasy it's great to hear that there are actually a lot of pros to the smaller ships
Thanks for the heads up on the shows as well

 

[jedijill]

You seem like such a fun family! The cruise looks amazing....Can't wait to see the cabana. No amount of "mummy math" can justify it for just little ol' me.

Jill in CO

 

[Pinkocto]

I sorry it took me a while to come over. Very enjoyable TR, you guys seem to have lots of fun with each other

Can't wait to see pictures of the cabana.

 

[fredgirls]

Good Morning people!​

Well...life threw us a couple of curve balls over the last month or so and i've had no time to think about this trip report. But as things have started to calm down I couldn't wait to get back to finishing this - even if it's just as a memory for my kids

We finished up ready to get on the island and to our Cabana!

The last couple of trips we got off the boat later and the tram stop was busy, so we walked. This time it was empty so we decided to be lazy! Paddington agreed this was a good idea - he has such little legs.







It was a little choppy on the water and I was just glad we'd been able to dock.





We found our way to the Cabana check-in but couldn't actually check-in yet, as we had to go and get our snorkel gear first.
Now...this wasn't too annoying. It wasn't far, and there was no queue. But if we'd come later and had to queue a long time for this I would have either given up or got all hot and bothered - there was a cabana with our names on it and I needed to get there!!!
In hindsight, we probably could have gone back later for it, but we're rule followers and when told to do something we generally do!

Eventually we were set and ready to go. We were directed to a golf cart to take us to the Cabana. We could have walked but were not given a choice!

And then we were there!!!!









We met our host. He was British and recognized Paddington straight away! He said, to his knowledge, it was the first time Paddington had ever visited the island! This pleased Alice very much

And Paddington settled in to the life very quickly.





The view from Cabana 5 was perfect.



and this way was idyllic

 

[fredgirls]

The Cabana itself was just as i'd imagined. I'd looked at SO many pictures that I think I had it covered! I hadn't shared many with the others, so it was more of a surprise for them...and they were very excited with it!









And Ben seemed very content.



The first thing the girls wanted to do was test out the hammock.
I really loved cabana 5. It was a little sheltered and not over looked. This was particularly important when I was getting out of the hammock! Not a pretty sight!! But there's no video of that i'm afraid. It might make you choke on your coffee so it's better for your health if the hammock and I don't make an appearance here!

But it's always more fun to share!​

Coming next...we put on our snorkelling gear!

 

[jedijill]

That looks like heaven on earth!

Jill in CO

 

[MikeyNS]

Howdy neighbour! Love your TR.
It doesn't look like it was that busy, especially for March Break?

 

[Pinkocto]

I'm glad life is settling down

Paddington is too cute.

The only thing about the cabanas is they don't have a bathroom. I wouldn't flinch at the price if I had my own private bathroom.