Disney Wonder February 12, 2016

[Gator2932]

Who is ready for some nice warm weather in February? Join our FE exchange.

 

[hockeymom519]

Ill be on this cruise

 

[IrishCowboy]

I have added your thread to the cruise meet list
Have a great cruise

Also, please keep in mind the new DIS policy regarding links/directions to external sites
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=52659395

 

[Viv1112]

I'm on this cruise. I booked while we were on the Wonder two weeks ago. Hello

 

[Melissa&Shawn]

Hi. Just booked tonight

 

[Adistar]

Just booked this week, cannot wait!!!!

 

[trickiwoo]

Hi everyone! I'll be on this cruise with DH, as well as some of our friends! We will be celebrating my friend's 30th birthday! It will be our 3rd Disney cruise and our first time on the Wonder! Can't wait!

 

[gilsan]

We booked this cruise. It is our first cruise on the Wonder and the first half of a B2B to the Bahama's

 

[karmacats]

DH and I just booked this cruise a couple of days ago. A friend who's a big disney fanatic is taking her family on their first cruise, and asked if we wanted to come along. This will be our 5th disney cruise, but our first on the wonder (we've been on the dream and magic before). After we get off this cruise, we figured it was silly to schlep all the way home for one day of work, so we're going to stay in florida and do a 4-night royal caribbean cruise out of ft lauderdale on the 18th. Definitely interested in joining the FE, too - that's one of our favorite things about disney cruises.

 

[oam]

Can't wait. First trip on the Wonder. We previously cruised on the Magic.We looked at the port schedule for Grand Cayman and it appears the Wonder is the only ship in that day.2400 people on the Wonder? Some of the other days 15000 to 20000 people between all the ships in port.

 

[mcmckuf]

We are in...7th for Disney. Myself, Matt, DW Jodi, DD14 Madelyn, DD7 Jocelyn.

 

[MichelleRN]

Booked last week for our first disney cruise! Very excited!! Would love to be part of the exchange!

 

[DixieMae Girl]

This is our first cruise ever! I am super excited and a little nervous, as myself and both daughters get motion sickness. We are really excited for all the fun and want to be part of the Fish Extender.

 

[Cecilia Valenzuela]

Hi, just paid for our cruise, yeeeeeiiiii.

How does this work?

We want to join fish extenders.

Me Cecilia 31
Omar 34
Isabella 5
Carolina 1

 

[MyDisneyfamily]

We just booked this cruise. It will be my 4th. Also going on the Galveston Nov 6, 2015 cruise!! Whooopeeee! For this cruise I talked my best friend and her family into going. I will try to see if she wants to do the FE, although this is her first cruise. My family will have 2 staterooms.

me Marcia
husband Michael
DD 17 Megan
DF 18 Jamie (my daughter's friend)
DS 10 Nicholas
DD 8 Anna

If my friend joins they will have 2 adults and DD 13 and DS 10

 

[MyDisneyfamily]

DH and I just booked this cruise a couple of days ago. A friend who's a big disney fanatic is taking her family on their first cruise, and asked if we wanted to come along. This will be our 5th disney cruise, but our first on the wonder (we've been on the dream and magic before). After we get off this cruise, we figured it was silly to schlep all the way home for one day of work, so we're going to stay in florida and do a 4-night royal caribbean cruise out of ft lauderdale on the 18th. Definitely interested in joining the FE, too - that's one of our favorite things about disney cruises.

Hi Robin,
Wow, you sure seem to have this travel thing down. I am curious. What do you feel are the main differences between Royal Caribbean and Disney?

 

[karmacats]

Hi Robin,
Wow, you sure seem to have this travel thing down. I am curious. What do you feel are the main differences between Royal Caribbean and Disney?

DH and i are lucky - even though we're pretty young and still work full-time, our jobs are flexible and so we have the opportunity to travel a lot. we both also prefer "experiences" to "stuff", so if we have extra $$$ we tend to spend it on trips.

disney and royal are probably more alike than different. i should say up front that royal is my favorite cruise line, so i'm a little skewed in their favor, though we enjoy disney enough to cruise them pretty much every year. the big issue for me is that i'm a night person, and disney is pretty dead at night, while royal has tons going on until midnight or later. i don't drink and don't really gamble (maybe a slot machine here and there, but often not even that) and i still find plenty to do on royal in the evenings. i should also mention that i've been on a number of royal ships, but they've all been the newer/bigger ones, so an older or smaller royal ship may be a different experience than what i've had.

so, in general terms:

i think disney's rooms are better - they are bigger and have the split bath. that said, for the price of a disney room, you can often get a suite on royal, which will be larger with a larger balcony, and sometimes a second bathroom depending on the room type, as well as suite perks (concierge etc).

overall disney's service is usually better. on royal, we've almost always had stellar room stewards and dining room servers, but some of the other staff (guest services, photo shop, etc) are sometimes meh, and occasionally even rude. on disney, our room stewards have been great, and staff elsewhere are almost always wonderful. our dining room servers on disney, however, have also been kind of meh.

i think royal's ships/activities are better. we go on the newer ships with things like flowriders, rock walls, ice skating rinks, bumper cars, carousels, zip lines, etc. i am a ride chicken so i haven't done some of these (ok, most of these ), but it's fun to watch people do them, and i'm glad the opportunity is there. there's plenty to do even for us chickens - i've done the bumper cars, carousel, mini golf, cupcake decorating classes, parades, dance parties, behind the scenes tours, etc, as well as the usual swimming, movies, bingo, and similar. i'm signed up to try the skydiving simulator on my next royal cruise, and am trying to psych myself up to do the zip line on another cruise next fall. on disney, other than mini golf and the midship detective agency on the newer ships, i don't feel like there's as much to do. i also love the promenade on royal, which is a multi-story space down the center of the ship that has shops and restaurants - it's a hub to see people and where activities like the parades are held. i do love the look of disney's ships, especially from the outside with the black hull etc, but i think royal's are organized better and even the mega-ships usually don't feel crowded. most royal ships have dreamworks characters and 3d movies, if you like that stuff on disney.

i think royal's entertainment is better, at least on the newer ships. we've seen the usual disney shows - golden mickeys, villians tonight, disney dreams, etc - and they were cute, but i still think royal has the edge. each of their newer ships has a broadway-style show (mamma mia, cats, saturday night fever, etc) and a cirque-du-soleil style show, and oasis class has a diving/water show that's incredible. they also do ice skating shows on the rink which are fantastic, especially when you consider the ships are often moving quite a bit.

as for food, that's totally subjective, but i think disney's buffets tend to be better than royal's, but royal's main dining room food is better than disney's. palo is my favorite cruise specialty restaurant ever, though some of royal's are close. disney of course has the rotational dining which most royal ships don't have.

phew, that was a novel! if you have particular questions, just let me know!

 

[MyDisneyfamily]

DH and i are lucky - even though we're pretty young and still work full-time, our jobs are flexible and so we have the opportunity to travel a lot. we both also prefer "experiences" to "stuff", so if we have extra $$$ we tend to spend it on trips.

disney and royal are probably more alike than different. i should say up front that royal is my favorite cruise line, so i'm a little skewed in their favor, though we enjoy disney enough to cruise them pretty much every year. the big issue for me is that i'm a night person, and disney is pretty dead at night, while royal has tons going on until midnight or later. i don't drink and don't really gamble (maybe a slot machine here and there, but often not even that) and i still find plenty to do on royal in the evenings. i should also mention that i've been on a number of royal ships, but they've all been the newer/bigger ones, so an older or smaller royal ship may be a different experience than what i've had.

so, in general terms:

i think disney's rooms are better - they are bigger and have the split bath. that said, for the price of a disney room, you can often get a suite on royal, which will be larger with a larger balcony, and sometimes a second bathroom depending on the room type, as well as suite perks (concierge etc).

overall disney's service is usually better. on royal, we've almost always had stellar room stewards and dining room servers, but some of the other staff (guest services, photo shop, etc) are sometimes meh, and occasionally even rude. on disney, our room stewards have been great, and staff elsewhere are almost always wonderful. our dining room servers on disney, however, have also been kind of meh.

i think royal's ships/activities are better. we go on the newer ships with things like flowriders, rock walls, ice skating rinks, bumper cars, carousels, zip lines, etc. i am a ride chicken so i haven't done some of these (ok, most of these ), but it's fun to watch people do them, and i'm glad the opportunity is there. there's plenty to do even for us chickens - i've done the bumper cars, carousel, mini golf, cupcake decorating classes, parades, dance parties, behind the scenes tours, etc, as well as the usual swimming, movies, bingo, and similar. i'm signed up to try the skydiving simulator on my next royal cruise, and am trying to psych myself up to do the zip line on another cruise next fall. on disney, other than mini golf and the midship detective agency on the newer ships, i don't feel like there's as much to do. i also love the promenade on royal, which is a multi-story space down the center of the ship that has shops and restaurants - it's a hub to see people and where activities like the parades are held. i do love the look of disney's ships, especially from the outside with the black hull etc, but i think royal's are organized better and even the mega-ships usually don't feel crowded. most royal ships have dreamworks characters and 3d movies, if you like that stuff on disney.

i think royal's entertainment is better, at least on the newer ships. we've seen the usual disney shows - golden mickeys, villians tonight, disney dreams, etc - and they were cute, but i still think royal has the edge. each of their newer ships has a broadway-style show (mamma mia, cats, saturday night fever, etc) and a cirque-du-soleil style show, and oasis class has a diving/water show that's incredible. they also do ice skating shows on the rink which are fantastic, especially when you consider the ships are often moving quite a bit.

as for food, that's totally subjective, but i think disney's buffets tend to be better than royal's, but royal's main dining room food is better than disney's. palo is my favorite cruise specialty restaurant ever, though some of royal's are close. disney of course has the rotational dining which most royal ships don't have.

phew, that was a novel! if you have particular questions, just let me know!

That was awesome! Thanks so much for being thorough. I have only been on Disney cruises so I was wondering. I did hear that the Royal kids clubs aren't so great as Disney's and don't have as long as hours. A friend also mentioned that sometimes the kids activities did not happen if they didn't have enough people participating.

 

[karmacats]

no problem! obviously i wasn't so thorough because i didn't really mention the kids' clubs. DH and i don't have kids so it's not on my radar. we do travel with friends with kids, though, and have other friends with kids who go on royal and disney so i know a little bit.

it's true the royal clubs are not open as many hours. i think they usually close for a couple of hours around lunch. they are free during the morning and day, but in the evening there's a charge of $6-8/hour. you can also get in-room babysitting, but it's more expensive - maybe $12/hour or so. it doesn't look like you have any super-small kids, but in case anyone who does is reading this, royal doesn't really have much free for kids under 3 - they have a nursery, but parents have to stay there with the kids. i do think the for-charge babysitters will watch babies and toddlers, though.

some of our friends' kids like disney's clubs better and some like royal better - i'm sure it depends on the ship, the kids' club employees, etc. royal also has teen clubs which are supposed to be pretty good. i don't know about activities being cancelled, but i think sometimes they may combine age groups if there are not enough in each tier.

to go along with that, i should mention that the pools on royal are generally much bigger than on the disney ships, and the small kids' pool area on the newer royal ships is pretty great - they have splash pads, a small lazy river, etc. your kids are probably too old for that, but i may or may not run through the splash pad once in a while myself...

 

[DisneyMommy77]

Hello,
We will be on this cruise and would like to join the FE exchange. It will be me, DH, DD8, DD3, and DS1. We will be in stateroom 8032. We will be celebrating our 10th anniversary!