More bacons & Mickey waffles Pls! 5 day W. Caribbean on the Wonder (updated 11/20/14)

[kaylychee]

Hello! My name is Kay. This is my first cruise, first Disney cruise and first trip report. Total rookie! I do, however, really enjoy taking food pictures. So: WARNING! Excessive food pictures enclosed!

To start off the trip report, I will introduce the members of this trip:

I am on the right, again, my name is Kay (30). I am originally from Taipei, Taiwan. I love Disney. It is a big part of me and my sister's childhood. We watched all of the Disney movies on VHS over and over; and we will sing along with the song when we don't even know English and were making up sounds. We also have reasons to believe that the VHS my mom bought from the street vender were bootlegged since our copy of the Beauty and the Beast would have full color in one scene and then black/white or looking like artist's sketches in others. Favorite Disney character....well, it's hard to pick a favorite, since I do like most of the villains (mostly because all the villain songs are awesome sing alongs while being alone in the car..or anywhere). But if I have to pick one, it would be a toss up between Captain Hook and Jafar (see I can't even pick one!)

On my left is my wife Lindsay (31). She is from northern Virginia, outside of DC. She also is a big Disney fan. Growing up, Lindsay enjoyed many good Disney movie memories with her sister too, except they know the words of the songs. Lindsay's favorite character is Eeyore. She also likes the villains because they have more personalities.

We currently live in central Pennsylvania (Burrrrr). Using the Disboard lingo, we will be DW#1 and DW#2.

On this trip, we are celebrating our one year anniversary and delayed honeymoon. We got married on November 9, 2013 and thought it would be great to go on a cruise on our first anniversary! Okay, maybe as the planner in this relationship, I thought it's a great idea! DW#2 concurred.


This was my first cruise ever. Lindsay has been on two NCL cruises before, so this was her third cruise. Throughout the trip, I kept asking her to compare her experience with NCL to DCL. I'll try to incorporate her comments in the reports.

Our trip date was November 9, 2014 to November 14, 2014. The itinerary was:

Day 1: Miami
Day 2: At sea.
Day 3: Cozumel, Mexico.
Day 4: At sea.
Day 5: Castaway Cay.
Day 6: Back in Miami.

Coming up next: Day 0 and Day 1.

 

[kid-at-heart]

Looking forward to reading about your adventures. We traveled the same itinerary in 2013 and had a great trip.



Kate

 

[jedijill]

Happy first anniversary! Can't wait to hear about your trip!

Jill in CO

 

[professorandmom]

I am so happy to see your trip report! I'll be on the same itinerary 12/7! Please share your wonderful cruise details
Thanks in advance!
Barb

 

[kaylychee]

Thank you all for the encouragement! I really enjoyed reading all the trip reports before my trip. Reading TRs really help with coping the anticipation and excitement! So I'm hoping to contribute back to the pot and help a fellow DISer kill time before his/her cruise.

 

[kaylychee]

Day -300ish

I booked our trip back in late Jan 2014 after my boss told me he was going to take a week off for his cruise in Jan 2015. I thought to myself, "Hum, I want to go for a cruise. You know what, I bet not that many people cruise during November. Maybe we can afford off-season Disney cruises..." So I looked up DCL and got a quote. It was surprisingly affordable! I believe I was quoted about $1300 for an inside stateroom for 2 ppl. I've heard that it costs a lot more to have a verandah... so when I found out that the "Navigator's verandah" was only $100 more, my heart was set. I booked the room and told Lindsay on gchat (we were still at work) we are going on a Disney cruise for our anniversary! Woohoo!


I quickly found Disboard and got myself aquanted with what our stateroom may look like, what FEis, pirate nights, palo's grape pizza and ...anything and everything I could find on the internet! The wait was hard. I allowed myself to obsess over this trip for the month of Feb. Then I made myself forget about it (like that's possible...). Luckily, work got really busy starting in May and crazy till October. I didn't get to be excited about the trip till the 10 days count down.

Day -1 and 0
We live in central PA. The plan was to drive from central PA to Lindsay's mom's house in VA on Friday (11/7/14) after work. We would relax and spend time with her family on Saturday (11/8/14), then fly out from Dulles airport on Sunday first thing in the morning.

We went to Tyson's mall the week before and checked out the Disney store to get ourselves in the spirit for the cruise!

We found these adorable tsum tsum (why do Japanese ppl always come up with the cutest stuff??) in the store and couldn't help but to take them home (and later on to the cruise).

I was a little nervous about flying out the same day we were supposed to embark. But, since I didn't want to spend money on a hotel, I was counting on some good karma to come my way.

Day 1

The Day is finally here!!!

Our flight was at 7:20AM. We woke up at 4:45AM and headed to the airport. Lindsay's mom lives only 20 mins away but we are old fashioned and like to get to the airport early early, even it's domestic flight. We went through the security line quickly. There's not many people at the airport that early in the morning. Lindsay got to get tested for gun powder residue. I was jealous I didn't get to do the cool stuff.

Here's a pic of Lindsay riding the airport shuttle. Everyone was "holding on" tight as directed....

We quickly were waiting outside our boarding gate. Ok, we are ready to be on the ship.

We arrived in Miami airport at 10:30ish (right on time). The evil plan was to get some alcohol at the duty free store to take on the ship (one of the most awesome perks of DCL). To our surprise, we couldn't buy duty free items unless we were flying international... this put a damper on the evil plan.. It's ok though, we had the taxi driver take a detour. Taxi fare from MIA airport to MIA port is a flat fee of $24. I decided to do the taxi since it's half the price of taking the DCL bus. But, because we made a pitstop at a liquor store, the flat fee didn't apply so the driver had to use the meter. I was a little wary of that. Luckily, the liquor store was on the way and even with stop, it took only 15 mins to get to the Port. The taxi fare ended up being $34. Not bad at all.

We got to the port at 11:15. Way too early for our PAT time.

This is Lindsay posing with a Donald Duck flag. She meant to pretend that she was not wearing pants. But ended up looking like she needed to go to the bathroom... my classy lady.

Our PAT time was 12:30PM. But we were there at 11:15AM. I asked one of the crew members and to my surprise, we were able to go ahead and check in. There were maybe 15-20 windows open for ppl to check in, so there was no wait at all. I already pre-signed all the papers so I just handed the the signed papers with our passports to the lady and got our KTTW cards within 2 mins. Then we got the little card that tells us we were in group 12 to board/embark.

There were plenty of people there waiting to embark. They called the family of the day and group 1 to embark around 11:30AM. Group 12 was called around 12:15PM. I was very impressed with how fast and smoothly everything went. Note: I didn't realize there's a photo opportunity with Mickey in the back of the waiting area until our numbers were called for embarkment. So if you are waiting to embark, might as well use the time to take a picture with Captain Mickey!

After reading many Disboard comments, I told Lindsay we should avoid the Beach Blanket Buffet for today since that's where everyone was directed (by crew members) to go to and, instead, we should head straight to Parrot Cay. We were sitting in Parrot Cay enjoying our buffet lunch by 12:20PM. Thank you Disboard. My belly is forever in debt to your wisdom.

This is Lindsay and her first meal on the Wonder! She is trained not to touch her food until many pictures of the food have been taken. My good wifely.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Hope you find it interesting. Please feel free to leave questions or comments and let me know what you would like to hear/know about the trip.

Next up: Lunch, yes please, and a tour of the kids&teens clubs

 

[professorandmom]

This report is awesome! So rich in detail - thanks so much!
Could you tell me which night was pirate night?
Thanks
Barb

 

[nouche1]

Excited to read your trip report!!!

I feel like I have researched everything on these boards for our first cruise doing the same itinerary as you. Loving your report so far.

Congrats on first anniversary.

 

[ShellB8585]

I'm all aboard! looks like you had a very smooth boarding process! look forward to reading more!!

 

[hungrygreenhippo]

Thank you for the report, I look forward to reading more! I'm sailing the same itinerary leaving Dec 7 and we also have a PAT of 12:30 so it's good to know that we might be able to check in early. I'll also have to remember the tip about Parrot Cay.

 

[kaylychee]

This report is awesome! So rich in detail - thanks so much! Could you tell me which night was pirate night? Thanks Barb

Hi Barb! Happy to hear you are enjoying the report. . To answer your question: our pirate night was on the second day (first sea day). It was originally set as the fourth day (second sea day) on the event calendar but they changed it the last minute. I think it's because they added the holiday winter ball event so they have to move things around.

Best,

Kay

 

[kaylychee]

Excited to read your trip report!!! I feel like I have researched everything on these boards for our first cruise doing the same itinerary as you. Loving your report so far. Congrats on first anniversary.

Thank you! DCL was great for an anniversary trip!! I find it super fun to do all the research and discover this great community. Thanks for reading!

 

[kaylychee]

Thank you for the report, I look forward to reading more! I'm sailing the same itinerary leaving Dec 7 and we also have a PAT of 12:30 so it's good to know that we might be able to check in early. I'll also have to remember the tip about Parrot Cay.

Thanks for reading! I was glad we can check in early because there wasn't any siting/standing area before you check in. Once you checked in and got your embarking/boarding group number card, there will be plenty of space to sit/stand.

Best, Kay

 

[kalikat420]

Your TR is off to a great start! We are doing a very similar itinerary on the Magic next October, so I'm especially eager to read more about your trip.

 

[kaylychee]

Lunch at Parrot Cay

I forgot to add to the earlier post. Our cruise is the start of their Christmas decorations. As we are boarding the ship, we can see CMs everywhere busy setting up all the decorations. It was pretty special seeing how CMs transform an already magical ship to even more magical!

Back to the buffet line! First day's lunch at Parrot Cay is buffet style (like BBB) but we are assigned a table and have server who takes care of our drink orders (unlike BBB).

I was very happy with the selections. On my plate: steamed shrimps, spicy beef salad (just a little spicy flavor, not spicy at all), tomato salad (yummmm), stirred fried veggies (what you would expect), Caribbean jerk chicken (good flavor, could be spicier) and baked salmon (very fresh).

On Lindsay's plate: same tomato salad (Lindsay also liked it), a chicken salad slider, cheesy bread with red peppers and olives, penne pasta and spinach salad. Everything tasted good. Nothing special.

Parrot Cay was 30% full when we were there at 12:20. When we left at 1:00ish, it's about 75% full and we can see more people standing outside waiting for a table. I, again, was happy that we went straight to the dinning room.

Ahoy! Let the exploration begin...

This pic was taken around 1:10PM, our stateroom was not ready yet. I can't wait to show Lindsay what our room looks like and our special Navigator's verandah.

Since our room wasn't ready, we decided to look at the kids' and tweens' clubs during their open house.

This was the tweens' club. The theme is space and futuristic.

We got very jealous when we saw this.

Lots of cool, science stuff on those shelves. On the Navigators (including the DCL app), we can see all the activities happening during the day. There's always many fun stuff happening for kids, tweens and teens that we wish we could join.

I think it was the outside of the kid's club. The theme here is... pirate ship?

Excuse the picture quality here. The space is kind of dark.

The setup in the kids' club is up to the theme park experience and standard. Even "big" kids like us really enjoy it...

This stairs lead to a slide that's also parts of a pirate ship. Sorry we forgot to take a picture of the ship...

Under the deck of the ship leads to a "secret" room that has more computer games and this cool treasure chest!

Oh! Time flies when you are taking silly pictures! As soon as it's 1:30, we tried to see if our room was ready and it was!

Continued to next post due to photo limits!

 

[kaylychee]

And here we go again!

Room #5638. Our home for the next 5 days

Omg we are so excited! This is our room, #5638 on deck 5, aft with a Navigator Verandah. We really like the location of our room. It's close to the Buena Vista movie theatre, so part of our hall always smell like popcorn when there's a movie playing (yumm).

Ta daa! Oh everything looks so magical! We pre-ordered the romance for 2 package because Lindsay really wanted a new cruise bathrobe (she has a NCL one). Oh my, this robe is so so soft. We highly recommend it.

Of course, we don't mind the package also comes with a bottle of champagne and a box of chocolate.

Here's some pics of the room to give you a better idea of what it's like.

The sitting area.

The famous separate toilet and separate bath/shower with two separate sinks.

The shower has surprisingly good water pressure.

We love love love the shampoo and conditioner. The lotion is awesome too. We hoarded a ton of them over the length of the trip. I now use the lotion bit by bit so I can still "smell like I'm on the cruise..."

The gateway to our little private ocean view.

Right now the view is the port. You can actually see people embarking from our verandah (I waved...).

I loved the Navigator's verandah. The color, the details, the way it feels very private and it blocks of cold sea wind.

We end up spending a lot of our afternoon time relaxing here.

Here's an overall view of the room.

Here's a view from the other angle.

Trying to get the details...

This was great storage space. But be careful not to run into it with your toes...Lindsay learned that the...obvious way.

Cute little piece in the room...

Door magnets are up! FE is up! Now we are officially settled in!!

Next up: Teens' club, us wandering around Wonder and dinner at Parrot Cay!

 

[cjc149]

Thanks for posting the review! Great pictures!

 

[kaylychee]

Before I continue the report, I would like to add a bit info about our Facebook group, FE and FE gifts. FE is one of the first things I did tons of research on for our cruise. I think the whole Fish Extender culture really adds the magic to a Disney cruise. After a few weeks after booking the trip, I found the Facebook group for our specific cruise on DISboard and signed us up for a FE group. The people in our group are super friendly and helpful. The group is also very active with people posting about their planning or having fun discussions about the group from 300 day count down to the day. A lot us still post in the group AFTER our cruise! So make you search for a group for your cruise to enhance your DCL experience.

We got our fish extender via Esty (as pictured in previous post). There's many people offer their service there to make personalize FEs for you. Many people in our Facebook made their own FEs and have wonderful results. One lady made a complete no-sew one out of duck tape and decorative tapes. I was very impressed.

For our FE gifts: again, I searched and read every thread here on DISboard for ideas. For individual gifts for kids, I decided on giving "Disney trading pin starter kit" by getting $1 Disney lanyards from the party store and a lot of 50 Disney trading pins. I also got id holders to attach to the lanyard so people can place their KTTW card in there. I was going for practical and fun there. I forgot to take pictures of the starter kits before handing them out...sorry I don't have pictures to show for this.

As for the gift for the family, I really liked the idea of a custom string backpack that has our specific cruise information on it. So it can be both a practical bag to carry around on the ship and a good keep sake. Our Facebook group divided people participating in FEs into three groups so there's only 15 families in a group. I thought that was a perfect number because it's just enough so your FE can be filled many times throughout the trip but, at the same time, it's not burdensome and costly to prepare the gifts. I decided to order 20 bags so I have some leftover bags for our own keepsake.


Picture below is our bag. I put the simple design together using Paint from my PC (super old school, right?) I also brought silver Sharpie pen for the characters to sign the bag. I thought it would be really nice to frame the bags with all the characters' signatures on it. This makes a really good memorabilia for our anniversary trip. Too bad there's not enough space for everyone to sign the bag so on the front of the bag we have the classic, favorite characters. I love how the signatures turned out. Can't wait to put it in a frame and display it at home!

On the back of the bag are signatures from the princesses. We didn't stand in line for character meets to get the bags signed. We dropped the bags (the limit is 2 items per stateroom) and the silver Sharpie at Guests Services on the first day and they gave us the signed bags on the last night (Thanks again to all the wisdom from DISboard).

For the other extra bag, we brought it to the Meet the Captain event and have the captain sign it. The Captain and CMs all really like the bag.

It's also a very rewarding experience to see people walking around the ship wearing/using our FE gifts...we get really excited and wish we had the courage to go over and say hi

Another regret I have was I forgot to take a pictures of all the FE gifts we received! We were super happy with all of the gifts received. Gifts we got includes: first aid kit, fridge magnets, mini laundry detergent pack, bath salt, travel sewing kit (we got 3 sets from different families, haha great minds think alike), hand sanitizer, little white board and pen, tiny bottle of vodka and more!

Anyways, I hope this post is helpful and interesting... I will be back on Monday to continue the TR. Mother-in-Law is coming in tomorrow night and staying for the weekend, so I doubt I'll have anytime to do the TR. Until next time my friends!

Kay

 

[ashDisney4ever]

I'm following! I love your report so far with all the pics! My trip is January 5th with the same itinerary!

 

[Imagineer5]

Hi! I am following along!! We embark on our first cruise - same itinerary as yours - 2/1!! I can't wait. So excited to read your updates, especially when you mention something you learned about on the DIS like going to Parrot Cay for lunch (we have an early embarkation time!) and dropping something off at guest services for all the characters to sign! We are going for our DD's 3rd birthday. Hope you continue the TR soon!