socababy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2010
(I am having trouble with photobucket so I will post some pics as soon as I can.)
When I saw that these CA Coast cruises were not selling that well, I immediately began looking regularly on the DCL website for *GT rates. I knew I couldnt take my boys on this trip though since they will be missing 2 weeks of school when we go on the Panama Canal cruise in December. I, however, really wanted to do this cruise because for one thing, the Wonders time on the west coast is dwindling down. I want to spend as much time on her as possible. Secondly, I love San Francisco and overnight there sounded great! So with dds birthday being Oct. 2, I thought why not do a cruise in place of a birthday party. She is just in pre school so missing school is not as important as her brothers missing school.
I went ahead and asked my MIL if shed mind watching the boys if *GT rates came available and she said no problem. Back in July, IGT and OGT rates came out first. I almost hit the submit button but really wanted to hold out for a VGT rate. I saw the cruise before this one was offering the VGT rate and it was only $100 more than the OGT rate so I held out. Finally the VGT rate became available a couple days later and I booked our mother/daughter cruise!
Day 1
My oldest son had a baseball game on the way to the port so we dropped him off at his game and then my MIL drove us to the port. We arrived at the port around 10:40 with a boarding time of 11. We cruised right in and just like previous cruises at this port, no one questioned what boarding time we had. We were able to walk straight through the CC line to check in. This is my first GOLD cruise and dd wasnt happy that she got a silver lanyard and I got a Gold one. LOL I told her that when we sail in Dec, she and I will both have Gold and her brothers will only have silver. She liked that! After getting checked in, I asked if there were any upgrades available. I was walked over to the supervisors desk and was shown which 1 bedrooms were still available. There were about 6 or so. We booked a VGT room and were originally assigned 7546. I was told it would be $964 to upgrade so we took it! So we moved up a deck to room 8546.
There was no one in line for kids club registration so that took less than 5 minutes to get done. We then walked over to wait in the concierge area to board.
Here is dd excited to be boarding soon!
I thought boarding was a little late compared to previous cruises. We didnt board until close to 12. Once onboard, I went immediately to Guest Services to get Disney Friends Tea Tickets only to find out they are not offering it on these cruises. Dd was quite bummed about that. We then headed to Parrot Cay for lunch where we saw some friendly faces, Bonieface and Salomie, both servers who have taken care of us in the past. Lunch was good, especially the pineapple coconut soup. Unfortunately, I am always too busy eating to remember to take pics of food!
After lunch, we headed to the Cadillac Lounge for the Concierge Reception. It was great to see Tawanda, our concierge host, again. Such a nice man! We chatted for a bit and dd told him how she wanted a Gold lanyard so he went and got her one. She was so happy about that! LOL After, dd really wanted to go swimming. It has been very hot here in So CA for the last 6 weeks or so and today was no different. We entered deck 9 from the forward stairs and I was surprised to see the adult pool and the goofy pool empty. Almost all the table by the Mickey pool were taken. I was able to grab one by the windows but it was directly in the sun. I was starting to cook sitting there and was regretting not packing my bathing in my carry on like I did for dd. I do love the heat but dripping in sweat is no fun. Im sure in 2 days time Ill be complaining about how cold it is in San Francisco!
After some swim time and an ice cream cone, we head to our room at 2. The room is nice and I know Ill appreciate the extra room when dd sleeps in (or at least she better sleep in since she always wants to at home!) Im looking forward to ordering in breakfast for this reason. Dd relaxes while watching Cinderella and I am certain she is about to fall asleep. I was hoping to head to the DIS meet at 3 but dd napping is much more important! Soon it is 3:30 and dd never fell asleep and I wasnt about to let her now since we have the safety drill at 4.
The safety drill was miserable because we were in the sun the whole time on deck 4. I arrived right at 4 hoping to cut down on the wait time only to realize all that did was put up in the front of everybody directly in the sun. Dd complained the whole time and wanted me to hold her. I told her there was no way I was holding her because I was roasting right along with her. The drill seemed to drag as they said everything in English followed by saying everything in Spanish. I dont recall them doing this before or maybe I just now noticed since I desperately wanted to get out of the sun. The drill finally ended and we could escape the sauna. Dd didnt want to go to the Sail Away Party. I think swimming really exhausted her so we went back to our room where we called home to see how my sons baseball game went and to say a final goodbye before we set sail. Thankfully the boys didnt seem bitter that they were not with us on the ship. They were too busy to even talk much since they were playing the Wii at Grandmas house.
We set sail a little late but were finally on our way about 5:20. Docked at the same port is the SS Iowa battleship. So cool to see. My ds7 was in the car when we were dropped off and he was in awe of it. Ill have to see how long it is stationed there and maybe well go take a tour soon.
I didnt make a dining rotation request and we ended up with TAPAPTA. I did request to have Bonieface as our server and we were granted that request. Dinner was good. I had the shrimp with horseradish sauce which dd also enjoyed. I also had the escargot, Market Salad, Beef Tenderloin and dd and I shared a sundae for dessert. Right before we got our dessert, I had a very pleasant surprise Pierre, the F&B manager came to my table! I first met him back in April on the MR cruise and he was also on the Hawaii cruise a few weeks after that. Such a nice man! I knew he was heading to the Magic after Hawaii and I even asked here on the DIS if he was on the Magic in July. He was, so I assumed he was still there. What a nice surprise to see him here on the Wonder! That is one of the reasons why I love coming on board the Wonder, it is truly like coming home with all these familiar faces!
Seeing as this is a Pixar cruise, the Childrens menus are Pixar themed. I thought I did pretty good on my Dash drawing!
So far we have not seen any Pixar characters no were any scheduled in the Navigator for photo ops.
Dd decided she didnt want to go see the show Let the Magic Begin because she was too tired. I have a feeling this will not be the first time this happens this cruise. She doesnt have her brothers here helping her get a second wind! We head back to the room to find a nice Pixar book. The letter says it is for being a returning CC member and a Disney Visa cardholder. Im not sure of you only need to be one or both. There will be an opportunity later in the week to have the book signed by Tia Kratter. We then ordered in the movie Alladin II for dd to watch and I place our breakfast order from Tritons for tomorrow morning. I love having breakfast on the verandah which is one of the reasons why I like sailing in a concierge room.
The one bedroom concierge rooms come with 100 minutes free Wifi which is why I decided to write the trip report live. My last 2 trip reports were never finished because life got in the way once back at home. Since dd will be in bed early most nights, I decided to try and write each days events at night! Hopefully I can help any future Pixar Cruisers. It is 9:30 and dd is almost asleep and I think I will be close behind her. Bummed that tomorrows navigator isnt here yet. Oh well, I will study it over breakfast in the morning. The balcony door is opened and we will fall asleep listening to the soothing sounds of the ocean. So far, the ship is motionless for the most part and there isnt much creaking noise from the wood in the room like I have encountered in other concierge rooms. Fingers crossed this continues throughout the week.
When I saw that these CA Coast cruises were not selling that well, I immediately began looking regularly on the DCL website for *GT rates. I knew I couldnt take my boys on this trip though since they will be missing 2 weeks of school when we go on the Panama Canal cruise in December. I, however, really wanted to do this cruise because for one thing, the Wonders time on the west coast is dwindling down. I want to spend as much time on her as possible. Secondly, I love San Francisco and overnight there sounded great! So with dds birthday being Oct. 2, I thought why not do a cruise in place of a birthday party. She is just in pre school so missing school is not as important as her brothers missing school.
I went ahead and asked my MIL if shed mind watching the boys if *GT rates came available and she said no problem. Back in July, IGT and OGT rates came out first. I almost hit the submit button but really wanted to hold out for a VGT rate. I saw the cruise before this one was offering the VGT rate and it was only $100 more than the OGT rate so I held out. Finally the VGT rate became available a couple days later and I booked our mother/daughter cruise!
Day 1
My oldest son had a baseball game on the way to the port so we dropped him off at his game and then my MIL drove us to the port. We arrived at the port around 10:40 with a boarding time of 11. We cruised right in and just like previous cruises at this port, no one questioned what boarding time we had. We were able to walk straight through the CC line to check in. This is my first GOLD cruise and dd wasnt happy that she got a silver lanyard and I got a Gold one. LOL I told her that when we sail in Dec, she and I will both have Gold and her brothers will only have silver. She liked that! After getting checked in, I asked if there were any upgrades available. I was walked over to the supervisors desk and was shown which 1 bedrooms were still available. There were about 6 or so. We booked a VGT room and were originally assigned 7546. I was told it would be $964 to upgrade so we took it! So we moved up a deck to room 8546.
There was no one in line for kids club registration so that took less than 5 minutes to get done. We then walked over to wait in the concierge area to board.
Here is dd excited to be boarding soon!
I thought boarding was a little late compared to previous cruises. We didnt board until close to 12. Once onboard, I went immediately to Guest Services to get Disney Friends Tea Tickets only to find out they are not offering it on these cruises. Dd was quite bummed about that. We then headed to Parrot Cay for lunch where we saw some friendly faces, Bonieface and Salomie, both servers who have taken care of us in the past. Lunch was good, especially the pineapple coconut soup. Unfortunately, I am always too busy eating to remember to take pics of food!
After lunch, we headed to the Cadillac Lounge for the Concierge Reception. It was great to see Tawanda, our concierge host, again. Such a nice man! We chatted for a bit and dd told him how she wanted a Gold lanyard so he went and got her one. She was so happy about that! LOL After, dd really wanted to go swimming. It has been very hot here in So CA for the last 6 weeks or so and today was no different. We entered deck 9 from the forward stairs and I was surprised to see the adult pool and the goofy pool empty. Almost all the table by the Mickey pool were taken. I was able to grab one by the windows but it was directly in the sun. I was starting to cook sitting there and was regretting not packing my bathing in my carry on like I did for dd. I do love the heat but dripping in sweat is no fun. Im sure in 2 days time Ill be complaining about how cold it is in San Francisco!
After some swim time and an ice cream cone, we head to our room at 2. The room is nice and I know Ill appreciate the extra room when dd sleeps in (or at least she better sleep in since she always wants to at home!) Im looking forward to ordering in breakfast for this reason. Dd relaxes while watching Cinderella and I am certain she is about to fall asleep. I was hoping to head to the DIS meet at 3 but dd napping is much more important! Soon it is 3:30 and dd never fell asleep and I wasnt about to let her now since we have the safety drill at 4.
The safety drill was miserable because we were in the sun the whole time on deck 4. I arrived right at 4 hoping to cut down on the wait time only to realize all that did was put up in the front of everybody directly in the sun. Dd complained the whole time and wanted me to hold her. I told her there was no way I was holding her because I was roasting right along with her. The drill seemed to drag as they said everything in English followed by saying everything in Spanish. I dont recall them doing this before or maybe I just now noticed since I desperately wanted to get out of the sun. The drill finally ended and we could escape the sauna. Dd didnt want to go to the Sail Away Party. I think swimming really exhausted her so we went back to our room where we called home to see how my sons baseball game went and to say a final goodbye before we set sail. Thankfully the boys didnt seem bitter that they were not with us on the ship. They were too busy to even talk much since they were playing the Wii at Grandmas house.
We set sail a little late but were finally on our way about 5:20. Docked at the same port is the SS Iowa battleship. So cool to see. My ds7 was in the car when we were dropped off and he was in awe of it. Ill have to see how long it is stationed there and maybe well go take a tour soon.
I didnt make a dining rotation request and we ended up with TAPAPTA. I did request to have Bonieface as our server and we were granted that request. Dinner was good. I had the shrimp with horseradish sauce which dd also enjoyed. I also had the escargot, Market Salad, Beef Tenderloin and dd and I shared a sundae for dessert. Right before we got our dessert, I had a very pleasant surprise Pierre, the F&B manager came to my table! I first met him back in April on the MR cruise and he was also on the Hawaii cruise a few weeks after that. Such a nice man! I knew he was heading to the Magic after Hawaii and I even asked here on the DIS if he was on the Magic in July. He was, so I assumed he was still there. What a nice surprise to see him here on the Wonder! That is one of the reasons why I love coming on board the Wonder, it is truly like coming home with all these familiar faces!
Seeing as this is a Pixar cruise, the Childrens menus are Pixar themed. I thought I did pretty good on my Dash drawing!
So far we have not seen any Pixar characters no were any scheduled in the Navigator for photo ops.
Dd decided she didnt want to go see the show Let the Magic Begin because she was too tired. I have a feeling this will not be the first time this happens this cruise. She doesnt have her brothers here helping her get a second wind! We head back to the room to find a nice Pixar book. The letter says it is for being a returning CC member and a Disney Visa cardholder. Im not sure of you only need to be one or both. There will be an opportunity later in the week to have the book signed by Tia Kratter. We then ordered in the movie Alladin II for dd to watch and I place our breakfast order from Tritons for tomorrow morning. I love having breakfast on the verandah which is one of the reasons why I like sailing in a concierge room.
The one bedroom concierge rooms come with 100 minutes free Wifi which is why I decided to write the trip report live. My last 2 trip reports were never finished because life got in the way once back at home. Since dd will be in bed early most nights, I decided to try and write each days events at night! Hopefully I can help any future Pixar Cruisers. It is 9:30 and dd is almost asleep and I think I will be close behind her. Bummed that tomorrows navigator isnt here yet. Oh well, I will study it over breakfast in the morning. The balcony door is opened and we will fall asleep listening to the soothing sounds of the ocean. So far, the ship is motionless for the most part and there isnt much creaking noise from the wood in the room like I have encountered in other concierge rooms. Fingers crossed this continues throughout the week.
Going to try and book a warmer location cruise for this winter!! Love reading these trip reports and planning my next vacay!!
