Just Relaxin’ on the Wonder – Nowhere, Nothing, Nada. - Complete! and Final Thoughts

[franandaj]

I'm following along! I can't wait to read about your illegal cruise to nowhere and your slightly more legal cruise to somewhere .

Both cruises were a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to reliving them!

Holy moly no that does not work DCL for folks with disibilities! Thank godness you got valet parking. Not like PC where you park, a member of the crew takes your bags and you are good to park. That is crazy.

No. It did not work well for us.
Especially since I was expecting a smooth drop off experience. Good to know PC is easy like that. We're taking Disney Transport for that cruise.

often joke to Jo that I should get a little u-haul trailer for my scooter! Those suitcases with 360 wheels are fantastic. Glad you got some.

We treat Fran's scooter like a Uhaul! I am totally sold on those 360 degrees rolling bags!

What a lovely embarkation photo. I will take note of that you only get one we would like to do a b2b. Also that you said you can book 2 placeholder cruises. Cool.

Thanks. If you two did a B2B I imagine you would get right back on like we did. The photographers don't get set up until the family of the day boards.

The Wonder looks lovely! Looking forward to reading more. She is 1930's style art neuveau isn't she? The Fantasy style and the Magic is like The Dream I think 1920's Art Deco?

Now you're getting ahead of me! I leaned that later in the cruise!

The San Diego port is awful. It's my home town port, so I like having DCL use it, but I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to dump it. We were on the first cruise to nowhere out of San Diego about a year and a half ago. We had a board time of noon, got in line about 11:45 and it took about 2 hours to get on board. We parked a mile away and road the shuttle, but that took forever because traffic was gridlocked. The line went way down the downtown harbor. Later, a DCL server told me that something was wrong when they docked and nobody could get off the ship until after 10:00am. They didn't begin boarding until after 1:00pm. There was nowhere for anyone to wait. We all stood in the long line in full sun.

That's really sad to hear that it has been worse than what we experienced.

This time, when I took the last ever cruise to nowhere, I remembered that long line and just walked from where I parked my car, which was about a mile away at Aladdin airport parking. I had noon boarding time again and this time was able to walk right in without a line going down the harbor. It improved, but it is still pretty bad as you noted as far as not being able to drop off your luggage. Bottom line, it is far away from the service expected from a DCL cruise.

I hope that Disney gets it together and moves back to San Pedro. Or even better, they could try Long Beach on the days that Carnival isn't sailing!

At any rate, I am anxious to hear about your experience on the 2 cruises.

Glad to have you along for the ride!

 

[pacific mermaid]

Ah, we were on the cruise to nowhere the week before yours. Thanks for the link about why these cruises were always illegal! So interesting.

 

[dolphingirl47]

I was thinking that it has been a while since you have been on a cruise. I s the December one still a possibility?

Our last cruise was the Panama Canal Cruise in May 2014. Yes, the December cruise is still very much a possibility. At the moment Interline rates have been released up to the 27th November. As they tend to release them in batches, I think we are probably two weeks out before I can expect any for the dates I need.

This was by far the worst port I have ever encountered. Not that I have a ton of experience, but the San Diego port workers were not at all helpful and most were pretty rude!

We have sailed out of and into Barcelona, Galveston, Miami, Port Canaveral, Vancouver and Los Angeles and they are all way better organized than San Diego is.

You left the port between cruises and so when you came back general boarding was in progress. We got right back on the ship before they started general boarding so the photographers were not set up yet.

I had forgotten that. This may have something to do with the fact that we took to suspension bridges when we are both terrified of heights.

Corinna

 

[dglilbit]

I'm following along. Thank you SO much for posting the Navigators!
Our first cruise is in December on the Wonder and I like seeing the most recent Navigators.

 

[pepe3penelope]

I remember that TR about the meat in your luggage!!! That's funny that someone else mentioned that to you!

I assume you are doing a trip report on the 5 day?

 

[Pinkocto]

Here I am sorry I'm late... I must come back and read

 

[franandaj]

Yay for boarding even if drop off was a cluster.

Yeah, I will put the loading behind me and be happy to be on the ship.

Thanks for posting the Navigator! Seeing them makes me happy. Love the obligatory photo. You gals look great!

Of course! And thank you!

I'm here I was so happy to be one of those that finally got to say Hello in person on this cruise!! I can't wait to hear all about your 5-night also. We really enjoyed that cruise and I hope they repeat it again in the future.

It was nice getting to say "hello" to you after all this time chatting on the boards! I will definitely cover the 5 day once I finish the 2 day!

Me too!!! I really missing having the ship right here in our backyard. We were lucky with embarkation on both of our cruises this time (walked right up, dropped off luggage and away we went), but debarkation was a mess on both.

I'm glad you lucked out, I'm glad we only had to deal with luggage embarkation once. It was a PITA! I sure hope that Port Canaveral is better in December!

Ah, we were on the cruise to nowhere the week before yours. Thanks for the link about why these cruises were always illegal! So interesting.

I'm glad you enjoyed the article. Someone in our group on that other social media site posted it and I found it to be quite informational. It's too bad that stupid gambling cruises ended what we enjoyed.

Our last cruise was the Panama Canal Cruise in May 2014. Yes, the December cruise is still very much a possibility. At the moment Interline rates have been released up to the 27th November. As they tend to release them in batches, I think we are probably two weeks out before I can expect any for the dates I need.

I'll be waiting to find out if you are joining us on that cruise!

We have sailed out of and into Barcelona, Galveston, Miami, Port Canaveral, Vancouver and Los Angeles and they are all way better organized than San Diego is.

I've sailed out of all those same ports except Barcelona too! And yes San Diego was the worst!

I had forgotten that. This may have something to do with the fact that we took to suspension bridges when we are both terrified of heights.

I'm following along. Thank you SO much for posting the Navigators!
Our first cruise is in December on the Wonder and I like seeing the most recent Navigators.

I hope that you enjoy your first cruise!

 

[franandaj]

I remember that TR about the meat in your luggage!!! That's funny that someone else mentioned that to you!

I assume you are doing a trip report on the 5 day?

This report will cover the entire trip that we took. I just have to get there, I'm still on Day 1 and we haven't even gotten to lunch!

Here I am sorry I'm late... I must come back and read

You're not late, we just got on board the ship! When I get a chance to figure out who hasn't made it over here yet, I was going to be sending out bat signals, but I've been so busy I haven't had the chance! You just saved me on bat signal!

 

[franandaj]

Finally On Board the ship.

So for us, the first lunch is traditionally at Parrot Cay. There are a number of options when you board the ship, but this is our favorite. First because we usually have way more bags than normal people. Who wants to try to work their way around a buffet when you have a million bags and a scooter, much less, fight the crowds of people to find a table, potentially sit outside to eat. No thanks.

We like being seated at a table, have a server bring us drinks and be able to hit the buffet as often as we like when we like. So for us Parrot Cay is the obvious choice on embarkation day. I believe on the Dream we will be heading to Enchanted Garden.

Even if this isn’t my most favorite restaurant there is something refreshing about coming here for embarkation lunch.







Our Table



Let’s hit the buffet!



I always start with the salad.





And of course the shrimp!











For those wondering, this is a roasted Calabaza Soup















Here’s Fran’s first plate, she had already been working on it while I was up at the buffet getting mine and taking pictures.



And of course my plate with the separated sections.



I went back to get some seconds. Fran asked for this.



I wanted this



And then finally I went up and got us some desserts to split, but first the selections.







This is what I chose



I think here is as good a place as any to mention this. Anyone who has been on a cruise, you know that all that they try to do is stuff you full, overly full. I made a resolution at the beginning of this cruise that I would not stuff myself to the point of bloating and overeating. I actually accomplished this for most of the cruise. On my first plate, I did not finish everything. I gave Fran one of my shrimps and I left a piece of broccoli. I couldn’t finish all the beef they gave me, nor could I polish of the little corn dog nuggets. Fran and I split the desserts and we didn’t eat them all, just took bites of each one. I hated wasting food, but I’m sure they end up wasting a ton of food on the ship as it is. Why should I gain a ton of weight just to make up for everything that they over serve? In the end I still gained 10 pounds on the cruise. At least I have taken off two of those pounds already.

[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

When we were finished there was less than 20 minutes until our stateroom would be ready. We decided to go and wait rather than lug all our heavy bags around the ship. Here is Fran in the hall waiting for “rope drop.”



Soon our room was ready and we hurried to get there and unload everything. This was a new room for us. Previously we have sailed on decks 7 & 8. I can’t remember what room we had on our very first cruise. But for the last three cruises we have always had the farthest back room on the ship, and this was the case again, but we were on deck 6 instead. Let me tell you, this is my new favorite room on the Wonder!







There was this little “extra room” here. I know all the staterooms have an area for a couch, but this was kind of separate from the bed part of the room and it was really cool.







Oh, let’s see what’s behind that door there…well what do you know? We should have brought the house elf along, that would have been a perfect place to sleep!



Can you believe I didn’t use this bathtub once during the cruise?







OK, let’s check out the Verandah. Not bad.



Oh yeah, but then there is the rest of it.



View from the far end.



Yeah, I think I’m going to like this room!

 

[skier_pete]

DW and I were just talking about how we no longer enjoy "stuff your face" eating. While I am OK with the occasional buffet, I generally prefer less food and better food. While I remember Parrot Cay being pretty good, the buffets in general on the cruise got real old, real fast for us. Same thing at WDW. We used to go to several buffets to catch characters, but now we would rather just limit it to once a trip max.

Edit: And WOW what a room. That verandah is massive! It looks bigger than the room!

 

[dolphingirl47]

Lunch looked very nice. I am glad that they still do the Schnitzel and the corn dog nuggets. That room is out of this world.

Corinna

 

[jedijill]

I hate the buffet too and much prefer to sit down for the first meal. Your plates looked good!


Jill in CO

 

[dizneeat]

Who wants to try to work their way around a buffet when you have a million bags and a scooter, much less, fight the crowds of people to find a table, potentially sit outside to eat. No thanks.

We don't either!

We like being seated at a table, have a server bring us drinks and be able to hit the buffet as often as we like when we like. So for us Parrot Cay is the obvious choice on embarkation day. I believe on the Dream we will be heading to Enchanted Garden.

Yes, that is exactly how we like it too and we ALWAYS go and have lunch at the "other restaurant". I am on vacation, it's enough if I have to go and get my food, no need for fighting for a table and juggle drinks around.

Your room is AMAZING!!! You got really lucky there - those large verandas are such a blessing.

Oh, and btw - thanks for filling me in on what to expect on embarkation day San Diego - should be fun trying to get ALL of our luggage on board.

 

[rentayenta]

What a WONDERful room indeed!

I'm really liking your painted fingernails.

Your plates with the food never touching always cracks me up.

We enjoyed Parrot Cay. I think I liked Triton's the least. While it is quite pretty, I prefer the less formal....at least when I was with Joshua anyway. With Michael it might be another story. #WishingAndDreaming

 

[PrincessInOz]

What a great looking lunch you had! Good for you for sticking to "just enough".

And WOW! What an amazing room. You definitely had room for me in that house elf cupboard. If not, one of those deck chairs on that amazing verandah would have worked just as well. That's definitely got to be one of the best rooms on the ship!!!

 

[Dis_Yoda]

That is an awesomely huge room! That is so much area to expand and have a nice relaxing vacation!

 

[dhorner233]

Great pictures! The food looked delicious! Good for you for not stuffing yourselves. I would be tempted to eat until I was sick! Everything looked so good!

And the room! Holy cow! I could be happy just hanging out in the room and the veranda! All that veranda just for your room? Everything is beautiful! Off to a great start!

 

[jedijill]

If you ever need a house elf, just call me Doby!

Jill in CO

 

[pepe3penelope]

Omg, Alison! I completely forgot about how you don't like your food to touch each other. I'm the same way!!! In particular, I hate my salty stuff to touch my sweet stuff. Unfortunately, DD8 is the SAME way!!! She is actually worse cuz she wants separate salty from sweet utensils!

Your stateroom is so massive and the balcony is beyond massive! Does that mean you spend a lot of time out on the balcony?

Our 1st Wonder trip we did Parrot Cay and this last time we did BBB. Next time we will follow suit and do Parrot Cay again. I agree it's less chaotic, stressful. I like that they seat you and bring our drinks.