Just off the Wonder

[jasmine91]

We had a great time on our 7 day Wonder cruise to the Bahamas!

Things we loved:
Castaway Cay
Character meet and greets
Palo brunch
Our stateroom host (neal)
Live music each day
Golden Mickeys
Dreams
Room service coffee ( ordered at night for the next morning)
Baked Alaska dessert at Triton's
Banana French toast dessert at Parrot Cay
Making mocha frappes out of chocolate soft serve and coffee

Didn't love as much:
Flounder's Nursery- our 18 mo old hated it! There wasn't much for a walking toddler to do there. It got to the point of us walking by the door and he would burst into tears! The crew was wonderful, it just wasn't exciting enough for him. He would have enjoyed the time more in the kids club.

Splash Zone- too small for a full ship. It was the only place our DS could play.

Nassau- we lasted about 1 hour, then headed back to the ship.

Toy Story Musical - a little boring

Would we do it again?? Absolutely!!! But, we would wait until the kids are at least 3. They seem to get much more out of it.

Overall, it was a wonderful trip! We are sad to leave!

 

[CatDenver]

Welcome back Jasmine! I'll be on your cruise itinerary 3 weeks from today. How were the Halloween events? Was the movement of the ship impacted by the tropical storm?

 

[jasmine91]

Welcome back Jasmine! I'll be on your cruise itinerary 3 weeks from today. How were the Halloween events? Was the movement of the ship impacted by the tropical storm?

The halloween events were great! There was a Halloween deck party that we all loved! We did not stay up for the costume contests, but did all of the dance parties in costume and met the characters in their costumes as well.

Yes, we had one rough night from the storm when we encountered 15 ft waves. But, it was in the middle of the night, so we were in bed, thank goodness! It was not as bad as we thought it would be.

Have a great cruise!

 

[kjack89048]

Totally trying your mocha coffee frappe idea in 3 weeks !!!!!

 

[amejiajr8]

Glad you had a great trip. Question 1) what movies are showing in the boat 2) how was pirate night 3) what you do in Nassau? 4) How is the weather in the islands 5) what did you do in key west. This will be our first cruise with our girls. Most important question how did the Wonder look?

 

[mawhite424]

so glad you had a great time and that the storm didn't get in the way too much!

What time was the Halloween deck party? afternoon? evening?

 

[jasmine91]

Glad you had a great trip. Question 1) what movies are showing in the boat 2) how was pirate night 3) what you do in Nassau? 4) How is the weather in the islands 5) what did you do in key west. This will be our first cruise with our girls. Most important question how did the Wonder look?

1.Monsters U
Planes
Lone Ranger
Brave
There were a few more, but I don't remember

2. Pirate night was fun. The deck party started at 9:45 and fireworks were at 10:15. A little late for the little ones... Ours crashed as soon as we got to deck 9 for the party. They serve a delicious dessert on the pirate menu - banana French toast with coconut ice cream!

3. Unfortunately we didn't stay long in Nassau. We just walked the town a bit and headed back. There was alot of pressure to take tours and buy things, which bugged us. But, many others went to Atlantis, Junkanoo beach, and I am sure other excursions. We loved being on the empty ship this day. Our son met so many characters with no lines at all!

4. Weather on the islands was hot! But, it did not bother us at Castaway. The water was so nice and we had such a great time.

5. At key west, we tried delicious conch fritters, ate key lime pie at kermits, and walked the city. We heard great things about butterfly world, but never made it there.

6. The wonder was BEAUTIFUL!!! We loved the ship!

Have a great trip!

 

[amejiajr8]

It sounds amazing. Thank you for the reply Glad you had a wonderful trip.

 

[MemphisMickey]

Did they have the character breakfast?

 

[GoofyLovingFamily]

Would you please post navigators if you get a chance. We leave next Sat on the Wonder. Thank you.

 

[jasmine91]

so glad you had a great time and that the storm didn't get in the way too much!

What time was the Halloween deck party? afternoon? evening?

The deck party for Halloween was 7:30, I think..... It was shortly after our dinner. Then, they had another family dance party in studio sea later that night.

 

[jasmine91]

Did they have the character breakfast?

Yes. You are assigned one day for a character breakfast at Parrot Cay. Ours was Thursday. The characters we saw for breakfast were Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and Goofy. They rotate around the restaurant and visit each table once. The kids loved it!

 

[jasmine91]

Would you please post navigators if you get a chance. We leave next Sat on the Wonder. Thank you.

I will try! We have a long drive home and plans this evening.. But, once I unpack, I will try to post!

 

[GoofyLovingFamily]

I will try! We have a long drive home and plans this evening.. But, once I unpack, I will try to post!

Thank you. Don't stress over it. We understand as we will have a 12 hour drive home ourselves. I would be happy to see one sea day navigator to get an idea. Safe travels.

 

[Aggiegrl]

I just posted about the Halloween activities in the Fantasy Halloween thread. I'll copy it here at the end of this post.

We had a great cruise too.



We were a bit disappointed in the Halloween festivities. I mean, it was something extra, so no real complaints. It just seemed a little lackluster, sort of like an executive made a decision and didn't give his staff time or money to do it right.

There was a deck party, which was characters in costumes dancing and music. They did a costume "parade," but it was not really anything to write home about. Basically anyone who wanted to went up one staircase on Deck 9, up to Deck 10, walked across to the other side and back down to Deck 9. My family jumped out of the slowly sauntering line half way. It just seemed rather pointless.

There was a "Halloween Bash" in Studio Sea...again, a dance party. We left after about 20 minutes so I'm not sure what happened at the end. No characters while we were there.

The adult costume contest was at 10:30. Staff members had cards to hand out for "finalists" in each category. We arrived at 10:25 and all the cards had been given out, so anyone arriving on time wasn't called to the stage for a category. This resulted in some very good unique costumes being excluded and some very mediocre, store bought costumes coming forward. The club host did have all the others come forward for his choice, so that was nice. It also seemed like the staff didn't have a good grasp of their categories...Cleopatra in spookiest, Fiona in Most Disney, etc. I assume with some more experience they'll get that down better.

Unless i missed something, the awards for the costume contest were the same old Mickey medals. I've seen other cruise lines give out t-shirts, keychains, bottles of champagne, etc. They had Halloween merchandise for sale on the ship and that would have made great prizes, even if it was just for one grand prize award and not for each category.

The dining rooms had some amazing carved pumpkins and some other fun decorations. We were given a chocolate mousse spider at dinner that the kids loved, and it tasted great.

There were also some more minor Halloween things in the Navigator...family crafts and themed bingo.

We had a lot of fun dressing up, and we are happy for the opportunity. It just wasn't what we were expecting. Maybe we misunderstood, but everyone we talked to on board was under the impression that the kids would get to trick or treat. Instead we got a bag with a handful of candy in our room. The festivities were just not appropriate for our young children, who bore easily with the dance party concept (especially when pirate night the day before). With a family of 5, the costumes were a lot of work and luggage space. If we're we're to do it again, we'd all wear the animal masks available during one of the family craft times.

 

[Aggiegrl]

Other movies I remember we're Wreck it Ralph and Lincoln.

We had PTAPTAP for our dining rotation and our character breakfast was Friday. 8 am for early seating.

Our servers were Richard (head), Rakesh (server), and Christina (asst.)...best servers we've had on any line/any cruise.

The princesses were amazing on this ship. We did the Princess Gathering the first sea day and they spent a nice amount of time with our kids. Result was a slow moving line, so get there early. I got in line at 11:15 (noon start) and was probably 8-10 families back.

Tea was offered 4 pm on first and last sea days. Ariel and Tiana were there, chocolate chip cookies and apple juice. Tiana knew my girls' names because she apparently had spent some time with them in the nursery before that.

The nursery was overwhelming. My girls did fine and the staff was amazing. There were just a lot of little ones on board so they were busy. Seemed to be a lot more screaming toddlers in there so that made it a bit worse...kids feed off each other. I have no idea how the staff can work with the kids day in and day out. They must have nerves of steel!

 

[ukintheus]

I can tell you what the movies were:

Saturday - Wreck it Ralph and Iron Man 3
Sunday - Brave, Monsters University, Iron Man 3, Snow White
Monday - Finding Nemo, Oz the Great & Powerful, Lincoln, Monsters University
Tuesday -Wreck It Ralph, The Avengers, Oz the Great & Powerful, Lone Ranger
Wednesday - Monsters University, Iron Man 3, Planes, The Avengers
Thursday - Monsters University, Planes, The Lone Ranger, Iron Man 3
Friday - Planes, Monsters University and The Lone Ranger.

Dining & Show Schedule:

Saturday - Depart - Cruise Casual - All Aboard: Let the Magic Begin
Sunday - At Sea - Formal - The Golden Mickeys
Monday - Key West - Cruise Casual - Showtime with Michael Harrison
Tuesday - Castaway Cay - Pirate or Cruise Casual - Movie Special: Planes 3D
Wednesday - Nassau - Halloween or Cruise Casual - Toy Story
Thursday - At Sea - Semi Formal - Disney Dreams: An Enchanted Classic
Friday - At Sea - Cruise Casual - Remember The Magic: A Final Farewell

I have all of the Navigators scanned, but I am out of time to be able to do more with them. I have them all scanned as one large pdf. They aren't the best quality but if anyone would like to see them, send me a pm with your email address.

 

[Aggiegrl]

The food was wonderful on this cruise. I can only think of a few misses for me. The steaks were very good, the fish was well prepared. The shrimp on the buffet was fresh and tasty. I don't usually eat cold shrimp as it can be a bit fishy, but not on the Wonder. I probably ate two plates over the course of the cruise!

The desserts were 10x better than what we had on the Magic earlier this year. The ice cream machine on the pool deck also had some good flavors like strawberry, blueberry, mango, and banana.

If you aren't doing much in Nassau, the characters will be up by the pool around noon. There wasn't a photographer, but there were only three or four families there when we saw Minnie and Goofy.

 

[Broncobait]

How you make the frappies I wanted to try this when we sail??

 

[mecllap]

Are there any late night Dance parties with oldies rock, or the old line dances (Macarena, Electric Slide, etc.)? As an older woman traveling alone, just wondering if I'll have an opportunity to join in anything like that.