Sept 30-Oct 3rd I Wonder.....Do you? Group Trip Report!

[JenGC]

Victoria on our verandah


Victoria and Goofy during Brunch


Gotta love Minnie!

[JenGC]

Is this service or what?!

[Webmiester]

Yeah, just so nobody is confused Jen's group and our group did a back to back (4d/3d) so the reports will include the 9/26 4 day as well as the 9/30 3 day.

They did have some computer issues and even though the Webmiester group was in the Castaway Club line, it took about an hour to get through. Then our IDs wouldn't print. They had to take our pictures 4 times before they had one that would print...ack!
Once we were onboard, we went to Parrot Cay (the sit-down buffet). As Jen said, they try to push everyone upstairs to the mass hysteria buffet on deck 9, but we were savvy sailors and knew to insist that we would wait. Of course 2 minutes later we were called and told to hurry so that no newcomers would see us gettign seated. Half the tables were empty when we got in. I guess it makes sense, they can't fit everyone in there.

Food was great, just as we remembered...saw a bunch of leis and speculated at who was who from the DIS. We pegged Jen and Victoria by Victoria's hand made sailor outfit (adorable!) but waited to say hi until the meet.

We went to our room after we ate and dropped our stuff. Then we went to the meet in the Promonade Lounge. We ended up being a bit more shy than usual and sort of inched in...then we started meeting a bunch of folks and chatted away until we had to go to the lifeboat drill.

After that it was normal cruising for us. We were placed with a nice family with 3 girls (one was a niece) with the youngest being Peanut's age. Turns out they lived an hour from us...kinda cool.

To sum up the first 9/26-9/30 cruise, it was a lot of fun. Our last cruise was a 7 day and we could definitely feel the slight 'rush' of a 4 day.
Food was great. I practiced my portion control strategy where if I wanted 2 of the items of a course, I'd order both and not finish either. (I used to finish one and not have room for the other)
We ended up booking one night at Palo and a couple of hours at the spa. Both were excellent as usual. Roy was our server and he had been with the Wonder since a month after it first sailed. We talked with Marco (the Palo manager, not the ship captain) for a long time and he said he'd book us at Palo for our second cruise of the B2B for any day we'd like. We took him up on it and he guaranteed us a window seat on the Nassau day (we don't get off the ship there, yuckie).
The Wonder hit a tropical depression and we missed both opportunities to get to Castaway Cay. That stunk but we figured we'd have a shot on the 3 day.
I'm a sailor , so the rockin and rollin didn't bother me...it actually helped me sleep better. Spent each evening enjoying a cigar on deck 5 starboard or deck 9 at the adult pool, depending on my mood. Probably one of my favorite parts of each day....

We got in all the character pictures that we wanted but didn't bring the autograph book as we had gotten all of the signatures we wanted on the previous cruise....until we saw the newest princess, Tiana. Oops! We'll get her next time!
We did buy an awesome embroidered pillow from Jen for Peanut. Jen was so kind as to drop at the front desk to have all the characters sign. (Minnie embroidery with Mickey/Minnie/Donald/Daisy/Pluto/Chip&Dale sigs). Thanks Jen!!!
I'll see about posting a pic of it signed and a link to Jen's Etsy page later.

One thing we did this cruise differently than the previous ones was that we talked to the staff more. Asked about how long they'd been with DCL, if they had family, where they want to go next, etc. It was very impressive to learn about them.

There was a server that we had for breakfast in Triton's and I'm curious if anyone had her as their "Main" server for dinner. She is from India and her name was Amita. She was so awesome with Arden that we tried to get her for our second cruise as our main server, but the dining rotation didn't work out... She told us that she had 2 kids, 8 and 5 back home. She wanted to switch to the Dream when it went active so that she could stick with 3 & 4 day cruises. Apparently she can only talk to her kids between sailings, and the Wonder was heading to the West coast for extended cruises. Hearing that just broke our hearts, so we wrote a letter and gave it to the manager at the front desk telling them how great she is with kids (Peanut LOVED her) and that we hoped they'd grant her request.

Ok, hands are tired.....I'll write about the second leg (3 day) another time.

[Webmiester]

Jenn, lemme know if this is for all of us or if I'm hijacking your trip report! ;-)

[JenGC]

Originally Posted by Webmiester

Jenn, lemme know if this is for all of us or if I'm hijacking your trip report! ;-)

You're not hijacking at all! I am doing a complete one because it just seems like it would be really disjointed. You do the same thing and we will compare notes! This is a GROUP trip report. Just to keep everyone honest

[hawky7]

I'd be chatting about our trip...but I'm a little busy in the ER...yes ER on my vaca...this is one place I can say we have not visited in orlando before...DHs ear started bleeding like 7 hrs ago, and hasn't stopeed...so here we sit in Celebration, FL in the ER...fun fun!!!

[JenGC]

Originally Posted by hawky7

I'd be chatting about our trip...but I'm a little busy in the ER...yes ER on my vaca...this is one place I can say we have not visited in orlando before...DHs ear started bleeding like 7 hrs ago, and hasn't stopeed...so here we sit in Celebration, FL in the ER...fun fun!!!

Oh my gosh Rebekah! What in the world is wrong? Have they said?

[hawky7]

No, we are still just sitting here...we've been here about 30 mins...this is after we went to urgent care and they said that our insurance probably wouldn't pay for it...doctor hasn't even come in yet...

[StarGazer99]

Originally Posted by hawky7

No, we are still just sitting here...we've been here about 30 mins...this is after we went to urgent care and they said that our insurance probably wouldn't pay for it...doctor hasn't even come in yet...

I'm So Sorry... Was it a busted eardrum? I wonder what would have caused that? Is he in much pain... Oh I hope not!! Let us know how it goes.

[Blanche_Neige]

Originally Posted by JenGC

YES!!! But I am just now realizing it or something, today. Maybe it is the first time I have actually sat still. I am at work and my whole desk is rocking! Maybe I need to buy some Bonine for home!

I'm still rocking... when is this going to stop!!! O I know how to stop it, I need to go on another cruise!!!

[Blanche_Neige]

Originally Posted by JenGC

Do you believe that I got a FE order from this trip? Someone saw Marianne's FE and wanted one! THANKS MARIANNE! for giving her my info! :D

How did they know you made it???

Originally Posted by hawky7

I'd be chatting about our trip...but I'm a little busy in the ER...yes ER on my vaca...this is one place I can say we have not visited in orlando before...DHs ear started bleeding like 7 hrs ago, and hasn't stopeed...so here we sit in Celebration, FL in the ER...fun fun!!!

I hope it's not too serious. Let us know what happens

[StarGazer99]

Nice jot Webmiester, I enjoyed it.

I'm going to see if I can get mine done by days... I hope I can remember all the mishaps as I tried to forget them on the trip DAY 1 Wed 9-22

After Emma got ready for "school" we gave her the special gift (phone). It took her a bit to understand we were going to Disney but she was elated. The video is on my FB page. 1st thing to go wrong, her phone doesn't work so less than an hour to leave for the airport I'm on the phone with Verizon trying to get that straitened out.

Arriving to the airport and getting on the plane was no problem. Our flight landed 15 minutes early. BUT.. Mears quoted me a price for a taxi of $34, When I asked about the taxi, the guy told me to go in and get 2 adult tickets for the shuttle and not to worry about my daughter, "it will be cheeper". OK cool. I get the tickets and, dummy me, said I don't need anything for my daughter. Turns out you have to pay for 9yr olds and my total was going to be $50 I got nervous about the line forming and just paid. I went outside, found out the taxi would be about $35 and decided not to throw away the money so I went inside and got a refund. We hailed a cab, made a pit stop at walgreens(I'm so glad for), and got to the Royal Pacific(Universal Studios) 1.5 hrs latter than I expected with a taxi bill of $55 without tip.

We were suppose to have 3 hrs in the park but I planned for 2 so we are down to 1.5 hrs to have in the park... I can work with that. GUESS WHAT!!! The park closed an hour earlier than expected. We got 25 min in the park which was enough to get a good taste of Harry Potter and I am glad for that!!

After leaving the park we headed to Citywalk we looked around had dinner at Bubba Gumps(Fabulous), and headed back to swim in the pool a bit before bed. This was a rough but fun day... a was nervous about what else would go wrong on the trip though.

[JenGC]

Originally Posted by StarGazer99

I'm So Sorry... Was it a busted eardrum? I wonder what would have caused that? Is he in much pain... Oh I hope not!! Let us know how it goes.

I talked to her last night and from what she said, it was just an ear infection. The doctor didnt explain why it was bleeding but it stopped and they gave him antibiotics. I just hope it heals enough to not be painful for the plane ride home!

[JenGC]

Originally Posted by JenGC

We went to Walmart the night before and bought Victoria a camera with her money that she saved up. So she has her own pictures that is very much a play by play pictures. It's like you are right there with me!!

We made it to the airport in plenty of time. We went to eat breakfast at Whitt's Barbeque....which was a little odd since they normally dont serve breakfast! lol We finished and got to the gate right when they were boarding section A which was our section WOOHOO!

I was waiting and looked around to see....none other than....STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN!! I couldn't believe it! He is a Christian music singer and such a really great guy. I wouldnt talk to him because I am sure he gets bugged all the time and I wanted him to be treated as a normal guy. He was there with Will and Caleb (his sons). Will and Caleb has a band called Caleb. I havent heard them before but I am sure that they are really good. They got off the plane faster than we did so I thought I wouldnt see them again. We went to baggage claim and there he was! He passed right in front of me saying "they are going to meet us at Tony Romas". I told mom "why dont we eat lunch at Tony Romas??" LOL

We got our car, which we had to upgrade since we had so many many bags and the car we rented wouldnt fit...never thought of that. But man it is a COOL CAR! GMC something or other.

Then we find our way to the toll road and hit about a million love bugs EWWWW!! After we got to Port Canaveral, they went away. Not sure what that was all about! We get to the Radisson around 2 (local time LOL) and rested for a couple of hours. We decided we would go get something to eat and went to Rusty's hoping that Steven Curtis Chapman was trying to throw off the Paparazzi and went to Rusty's instead! Well, I guess not. It was very nice though. Except for the people smoking right next to me. I have found out that cigarette smoke gives me a terrible headache. So our waitress was nice enough to move us. :D That was such good fish.

We then decided to find Walgreens for batteries for Victoria's camera and thought we would do a dry run. It is really really easy to get to. And then came back to the hotel.

We woke up to a view of the cruise ships from our hotel room!! Soooo cool! Mom and I decided to go to McDonalds this morning and went to see the ship. BEAUTIFUL!!!! She is much smaller than the other ones, but I dont care. She is much prettier than the other ones. I was worried that the ships would be so tall that I would be really scared but since the Wonder is smaller, I will be MUCH better! Oh I cant wait!!!

Jen

Here's my proof! He's just so cool

[JenGC]

OK after we left the port I started getting dizzy so I decided to put a patch on. We then went to see the Golden Mickeys. It was a good show but maybe I am just not into musicals. It just didn't hold my attention.

After that, we hand some time until it was time for dinner so we decided to check out the Dooney and Burke purses. Ohhh they were sooo nice! I got a wristlet and the Medium size purse. I bought the smaller tassel one, but it was just too small. I commented to the very nice lady at the check out about how rocky the boat was. She said it had something to do with the warm and cold water coming together right where they sailed and it was this way on every cruise. While I accepted this explanation, I was not happy with it.

We then went to dinner. Our rotation was Tritons, Animator's Palette, Animator's Palette, and then Parrot Cay. (I think that's right anyway) We had Richardo as our server and Andrea (I think that is how it is spelled) as our assistant server. They were both fantastic! They really made the trip special, in conjunction with Wona our hostess. She was amazing and even gave Victoria a gift on her birthday! But that is later.

After dinner it was late and we were exhausted so we went to bed. Wona fixed the bed so Victoria had a bunk bed and she was ecstatic.

Our towel animal of the day, and probably the only one we took a picture of LOL