I’m also onboard the Wonder heading to Sydney!
Everyone’s perspective will be a bit different on the offerings (we’re not really into characters so I only know what I see in passing) but the entertainment team has worked hard to fill the days (9 sea days!).
The usual bingo, karaoke, movies, etc are there, along with tons and tons of trivia (easily 6-8 games a day, with very little repeats), crafts, and learning how to draw (using the videos but the Entertainment team is there to help guide everyone along). They also created new game shows just for this cruise, but I can’t speak much about those since I only caught a couple by accident while we were waiting for the next event (we are more trivia/crafts people).
We didn’t do any meet and greets with the characters, but off the top of my head they’ve had the Fab 5 plus Daisy, the chipmunks, Hook & Smee, Stitch, and various princesses (Ariel, Cinderella, Tiana, Belle, Rapunzel). There’s also an Encanto party in D Lounge where you can meet Mirabel and Bruno, but I think they were scheduled somewhere else at least once. We were supposed to have Captain Jack for pirate night but he got removed from the schedule last minute. But also they last minute added Thor and Spider-Man for today (after last-night’s Marvel show) and there’s a new Star Wars character greet that popped up for tomorrow but I don’t know what it is.
Last night we got a soft open sneak peak of the new Marvel show they’ll be doing and it seemed to go over really well! I heard a few people say they liked it better than Pirate night. I only saw a dress rehearsal without all the effects earlier in the cruise — I was too tired after dinner last night to stay up and watch the full deck party. I’m not sure how many Aus/NZ sailings that show will be on, though.
We did have pirate night, of course. And they also had special events and a countdown party for the day we crossed the equator. Nothing for the International Date Line beyond some time change confusion, lol.
The special guest is a
National Geographic photographer who is from Australia. He’s been giving lectures during sea days on places he’s traveled, with emphasis on Australia and Polynesia, as well as photography tips. The other guest is a chef doing the Anyone Can Cook series. I haven’t attended any of the cooking shows but they are super popular and fill up quickly.
The 3 big shows are the same: Golden Mickeys, Frozen, and Disney Dreams. They’ve also supplemented with various musicians, magicians, a juggler, and one night they had the new Haunted Mansion as the main event in the WDT. Tonight is the crew talent show which we only get to see on long crossings so I’m excited for that!
I’m not sure if this is also just for the longer sailings (especially ones where there are generally fewer kids), but a few times they’ve opened up the kids club to only adults after 10pm so we can play around and do a craft. My family used to love to make flubber but now it’s apparently Stich’s space goo! Tells you how long it’s been since we last sailed, lol.
I’m sure there’s other things I’ve missed just because they weren’t on my radar. But it’s hard to be bored when there is so much going on (not to mention just good old-fashioned relaxing!).
