Our First Disney Cruise - Wonder 12/2 Finished 1/22

[disneydawg10]

Enjoying your report. I love visiting St. Louis (we have family there we visit). We are going on our first cruise in July on the Dream. The weather really does have to hot for me. I would be one of those in layers of clothing (living in the south for the last 20 years has really thinned my blood). I wasn't going to do the FE on our cruise, but reading your report and seeing all your fabulous goodies, I am seriously reconsidering (I only have 7 more months to decide). Thanks for sharing!

 

[missj1975]

So after resting in our cabin for like two seconds, we changed clothes and headed to Toy Story The Musical!!!

Awesome show! Loved it. But I do have one complaint: no one in the audience shuts up. Seriously, everyone talked the whole time. It was so annoying. We had never encountered anything like this but during all three musicals, guests talked throughout the whole production...and I don't mean just kids...it was adults too. Am I insane or is wrong for me to think that guests are suppose to be quiet during the show?

Oh I am sure you are thinking why don't you just ssshhh the talkers. Yeah right, you mean the talkers who pretend they don't speak English when they don't want to hear what you are saying. Or how about the fact that I doubt the talkers to my right and left could have heard me over the talkers to the front or behind me.

So this is my one complaint about the cruise. Disney likes to keep everyone happy so there is no ushers to sshhh the talkers, just waiters to serve you alcohol. So please give me another drink so I can enjoy the show.

Even though I could barely hear the show, I did enjoy it. The actor (or maybe actress) who plays Sid was awesome. Sid had a scene where he is singing some song about him being destructive. It was the best scene in the entire musical. All my pictures are blurry cause Sid dances around the entire song.

After the show we headed to...you will never guess...Bingo. Yep Bingo...Pirate Bingo! What can I say, I love Bingo...even if I never win.

DH buying the lotto cards from one of our favorite pirates.

Here is a drink DH ordered. I can only assume it was really really good because by the time I tried to take a sip, DH had already inhaled the drink. I was like...what the heck...but at least he had the decency to look embarrassed.

Someone winning Bingo...which of course wasn't me, but not for a lack of trying. Jen, the Bingo announcer, wanted anyone who only needed one more number to BINGO to stand up to amp up the BINGO pressure. Each session was four Bingo games...we attended five Bingo sessions so that meant we played Bingo 20 times. I stood up 16 times, yeap I was so freakin close 16 times but close ain't good enough in the world of Bingo. But I should have won an award for having the most close calls...cause all the Bingo employees recognized me by the second night. I am pretty sure Jen whispered "Loser" everytime she walked by me.

Oh but wait, we weren't complete losers. Jen raffled out prizes in between games and tonight was Spa night. We won an all day pass to the Rainforest Room. Yeah!!! Not....more on that later. We were excited, I told DH it was a great prize cause I remembered reading several trips reports where guests just go on and on about the Spa and how cool the Rainforest showers are. Remember this later.

Jen, our favorite announcer in her pirate dress. Seriously the girl was funny. I doubt we would have played Bingo so much if it wasn't for her.

So after Bingo we headed to dinner, tonight was Parrot Cay night. It was also the Pirate Party. Since we had late seating, all of the waiters did an excellent job of moving this dinner along so everyone could make it to the party.

Crab artichoke dip

Tuna appetizer. This night I ordered two appetizers. DH and I split this one...he loved it too.

Hmmm, I can't remember what this soup was but whatever it was, it was delicious.

DH had another cold soup. He is now obsessed with cold soups, thanks to the cruise.

Beef Ribeye.

Creme Brulee Cheesecake. The only disappointment for me. I love Creme Bruless but not cheesecake. The combination to me was nasty. I just picked off the sugar layer.

Nelson our server saved the day. He brought this dessert along with our other two just because he thought we might like it. What a sweetie!!!

So after our dinner we headed back to the room for a quick shoe change before the party.

Awww, look at the cute monkey. Monkey Right? My DH thinks it is a turkey...hmmm, I was like Seriously Hubby?

Pics from the pirate buffet, which we didn't partake in. For one we were stuffed from just eating dinner, and two the lines were freakin long, way too long for my stuffed tummy.

But I did enjoy viewing the buffet even if I didn't eat anything.

Wait...who is that...why yes that is Jen (my fave Bingo announcer). She and a male cast member were the hosts. Jen was awesome...and she can dance...really dance. The girl is multi-talented.

We had a blast at the party. We were on deck ten leaning on the railing looking down at the party. We had great view of the show and the fireworks. But we did have a parade moment...you know when you have a really great spot because you got there early...so people come in at the last moment and think they deserve your great spot. Yeah that happened. I had to use my legs and elbows to keep my claim. I think I left bruises...that is what happens when you invade my personal space without the decency of buying me dinner first.

 

[zerog]

So after resting in our cabin for like two seconds, we changed clothes and headed to Toy Story The Musical!!!

Awesome show! Loved it. But I do have one complaint: no one in the audience shuts up. Seriously, everyone talked the whole time. It was so annoying. We had never encountered anything like this but during all three musicals, guests talked throughout the whole production...and I don't mean just kids...it was adults too. Am I insane or is wrong for me to think that guests are suppose to be quiet during the show?

I also noticed a lot of crowd noise during the theater performances on my cruise. The most irritating for me, however, were the 2 ladies speaking loudly in what sounded like Spanish , while over 100 people were outside lying on lounge chairs watching Pirates of the Caribbean on the Ariel-Vision. They could have gone anywhere on the ship to have their little chat, but were much too ignorant to realize what was going on around them. And it wasn't just a few whispered words here and there, it was a full blown back-n-forth with no breaths in-between.

 

[kimberleeJohnston]

Your report is fantastic. Thanks for sharing all your fun!

 

[disnewbie108]

Someone winning Bingo...which of course wasn't me, but not for a lack of trying. Jen, the Bingo announcer, wanted anyone who only needed one more number to BINGO to stand up to amp up the BINGO pressure. Each session was four Bingo games...we attended five Bingo sessions so that meant we played Bingo 20 times. I stood up 16 times, yeap I was so freakin close 16 times but close ain't good enough in the world of Bingo. But I should have won an award for having the most close calls...cause all the Bingo employees recognized me by the second night. I am pretty sure Jen whispered "Loser" everytime she walked by me.

Oh but wait, we weren't complete losers. Jen raffled out prizes in between games and tonight was Spa night. We won an all day pass to the Rainforest Room. Yeah!!! Not....more on that later. We were excited, I told DH it was a great prize cause I remembered reading several trips reports where guests just go on and on about the Spa and how cool the Rainforest showers are. Remember this later.

I loved Jen. She was the reason why I went back to all the sessions on our cruise. She was HILARIOUS! Seems so silly to want to play Bingo when I have a wonderful boat filled with tons of things to do. But that's part of the magic Disney has to offer, something that appeals to everyone. And I loved Jen. We quote her all the time ("jealous" & "please stand up" come to mind). BTW-I did win, just about evey session I played, EXCEPT the final jackpot game. That's OK. Won enough to cover all the games I had played tho! And we won the rainforest prize too. My DH was not a fan. But happy to try it! Did you happen to get to see the B11 dance?

Totally agree about personal space. My biggest pet peeve. Esp. at buffets. Does the person breathing down my deck not see there are 30 people ahead of me, and I cannot move at all! Jeez!

Enjoying the report! Thanks for sharing.

H

 

[missj1975]

I loved Jen. She was the reason why I went back to all the sessions on our cruise. She was HILARIOUS! Seems so silly to want to play Bingo when I have a wonderful boat filled with tons of things to do. But that's part of the magic Disney has to offer, something that appeals to everyone. And I loved Jen. We quote her all the time ("jealous" & "please stand up" come to mind). BTW-I did win, just about evey session I played, EXCEPT the final jackpot game. That's OK. Won enough to cover all the games I had played tho! And we won the rainforest prize too. My DH was not a fan. But happy to try it! Did you happen to get to see the B11 dance?

Totally agree about personal space. My biggest pet peeve. Esp. at buffets. Does the person breathing down my deck not see there are 30 people ahead of me, and I cannot move at all! Jeez!

Enjoying the report! Thanks for sharing.

H

You won BINGO! Everyone say "Jealous." Yes I loved Jen. I am pretty sure I saw the B11 dance and all the other crazy dances. Jen and her whole group were so much fun.

 

[kerbertx]

Your report is fantastic. Thanks for sharing all your fun!

Agreed!

 

[MEK]

Love your Cruise TR. Very funny and enjoyable. I am learning a lot. My DH just agreed to our first DCL cruise.

 

[momtoleasawav]

I am loving your trip report! We are going on the dream in April. As I look out my window at the massive blizzard we have going on right now I am reading your trip report dreaming of my cruise! Thanks so much for the Nassau info. I was debating whether or not to take mt daughter shopping and now I think I will!

 

[KristiMc]

Great trip report. My DH and I did a 3-night on the Wonder back in 2000 (pre-kids) and loved it. 10 years and 2 kids later we are booked on the Magic in March for the Eastern Caribbean. I can't wait. These trip reports are helping me countdown the days.

 

[cam322]

[QUOTE A car being towed!!! I was amused. I know so terrible of me to laugh at someone's problem...shame on me...but "Parking Wars" is one of my favorite reality shows.QUOTE]


That's funny, I work for the Parking Authority in Philadelphia @ the impound lot where they film!!

 

[jenseib]

I'm loving this report! We were considering going on the 3 day wonder on Dec 9th, but then my DH had to have surgery so it was out. We are now planning at this point and time to hit WDW in March, but I still keep thinking, maybe we should do a 4 day Dream cruise. I can't make up my mind. We do have a 6 YO DD, and I think she would be happy either way. She was really excited about the cruise whne we talked about it before...and she really wants to go to a beach.

 

[missj1975]

Thank you everyone for reading and thanks for all the compliments. Now that Christmas is over with, I have more time to write!

Now that we are officially booked for our second cruise, we are Castaway Club members and the freebies have already started rolling in ;-). We received a magnetic picture frame to hang on the fridge in the mail the other day. My DH was like "Wow It is cardboard, they sure go all out." [insert sarcasm here]. I just smacked him and said "Free is Free." I actually like the picture frame.

 

[missj1975]

So we get up early and the first thing I do is check our FE, very very important.

Yeah, we got a paint brush which doubles as a "sand duster." very very clever idea indeed!!!

Oh look we are already docked at Castaway Cay, view from our room.

We head to Triton's for breakfast. Service was awesome as usual.

Poached eggs, I am impressed cause it wasn't on the menu. I asked and so they made. Yes I felt very special at that moment.

So after breakfast we disembark from the boat. Not that many people disembarked early. I was surprised but very happy. We felt like we had the island to ourselves for like 20 minutes.

This Christmas tree was right when you get off the boat at Castaway Cay. Cast members hand you towels right when you disembark so no need to bring your own towels. Plus cast members try to sell you bottled water and a cooler to keep your bottled water cold. (they did that at Nassau too).

I was just amused at Disney trying to sell you water when technically you can get it free at the concession stands. Plus I am not a big bottled water fan since most bottled water is just purified water which isn't any healthier for you then tap water. Wait...I am so sorry...just went off on a bottled water tangent. Back to the cruise...but wait one more tangent. If you think Disney's $3 water is expensive, go to a Blue's Hockey Game...$5 a bottle.

Castaway Cay has tons of cute decorations to take pictures of. I will try not to bore you with too many, just my favorites

 

[jenseib]

Don't worry about boring us. I would love to see all the pictures! LOL!

One question, do you get to bring towels off the ship at CC, or do they have them on the island...or both?

 

[missj1975]

A picture of a coconut on the walking path to the beach. Funny how one little picture is so important later. I took the picture cause DH was telling me Disney cuts the coconuts out of the trees so they don't fall and hit anyone on the head. So I took a picture cause I am funny like that.

So later in the day, I saw a kid carrying a coconut (probably this coconut) around. Hmmm, I must be old because I never once thought of picking up the coconut and keeping it. Just like I never pick flowers, fruit from trees that don't belong to me, etc. Plus there is this funny thing called Customs that definitely would love to fine you if they catch you with that coconut.

So my DH notices the kid with the coconut too and pretty much has a meltdown. He starts going on and on about how he should of picked up the coconut, blah blah blah. I just looked at him and said what the heck would you have done with it. He was like I would have opened it up, drank the milk, ate the coconut. So I resisted the urge to fall to the ground and roll around in laughter. Instead I say "Ok surviverman how would you open the coconut?" He starts mumbling something about rocks and I just walk off. Sometimes it is just better to walk away.

As a side note, DH still mentions that darn coconut. 30 days later and he still remembers the coconut and regrets not picking it up. I so hope we don't see any on our next trip cause I can just imagine a trip to the ER if DH attempts to open a coconut.

When you disembark the ship, you can take a tram to the beach or they have a nice walking path. I highly recommend the walking path if you enjoy a little exercise. Tons of great photo taking opportunities on the path.

Since we bought a Shutters package, I did make DH wait with me for a couple of character photos. I swear I read on a trip report that people get annoyed by all the pictures Shutter employees take. We wish that would have happened to us. We had to actively seek out Shutters employees to take our picture, otherwise we would have had only one picture (the boarding picture) to choose from.

I know it is hard to see but it is a hermit crab. He was just walking across the path and almost got stepped on by a guest. I quickly moved him to the side of the path.

A picture of the snorkeling lagoon. We bought the package deal where you get snorkeling equipment, tube rental, and a bike rental. We technically never used a tube rental but it was still cheaper then buying the snorkel rental and the bike rental separately.

So when we first got in we were the first people snorkeling. I have a cool underwater camera that DH bought me 3 years ago for a Discovery Cove trip. Well apparently 3 years is the lifespan of the camera cause it conked out on me in the middle of snorkeling around the lagoon. No big loss cause frankly there wasn't much to take pictures of. Maybe the fish were all hiding that day cause we sure didn't see many, in the lagoon anyway.

We are just swimming around when bam, I get hit on the side. I immediately know it isn't a shark cause the whole lagoon is netted off. Instead it is just a kid, cause you know we are surrounded by a big empty lagoon so of course the kid hits me. You know like when you park in the furtherest corner of an empty parking lot with no cars around you and you come back 20 minutes later and now your car is surrounded even though there are tons of other empty spaces. Seriously that annoys the crap out of me.

So I make sure the kid is ok an start snorkeling again and bam I get hit again...by a different kid. *Sigh* So I'm done, I motion to DH that I am heading back so I can take off the Kid Magnet.

So I am contemplating whether to turn the snorkeling gear in or take it to the adult beach. I head over to the rental counter and ask the clerk. He says "oh no you don't want to snorkel there. There is nothing to see but sand, plus there are no nets so we aren't liable if you get attacked by a shark." Seriously he said that. I was like no worries my DH assured me I wouldn't get attacked by a shark this trip. See, the is the only way I will snorkel is if I have a written guarantee that I won't get ate by a shark. (My greatest fear in life is getting attacked by a shark or a bear). So then the cast member says my husband's guarantee is void at the adult beach. Fine take your darn snorkel equipment, I am done.

I start twisting my wedding band (I do that when I am nervous) and then I start cussing (silently) cause I realize my wedding rings are in the room safe. Yep I did agree when DH asked me not to wear the rings to the beach. Only cause I read somewhere that sharks are attracted to diamonds and not trying to brag or anything but my engagement ring has a huge rock on it so in the interest of not getting my hand bit off I took my rings off for the first time since I got married. I think I even started crying when I took my rings off that morning. I seriously never take them off. Main reason I am just so happy that I finally got married and proved to all my family that I wouldn't turn into the old maid with a million cats and 2) I thought I lost my engagement ring once, that is a nightmare I never want to live through again.

At this point, the beach was started getting crowded with kids, lots and lots of kids. So you know what that means...adult beach time. As we wait for the tram...who do we see....

Ok it was planned, I knew he was going to be near the tram but apparently I was the only who knew cause there was no line and even after we got our pictures no one came up to him. I actually started feeling sorry for him.

I do love Jack...he is the only man I would leave my DH for. I made the mistake of telling hubby that and he actually got quite mad at me, going on and on about there is no one he would leave me for. Aww how sweet but hubby you do realize that Jack Sparrow is a fictional character and there is no way I could actually leave you for him since he isn't real. DH gave me the how could you look so I had to bring out the secret weapon...Ariel. Yep my Dh has a thing for Ariel so I was like seriously DH are you telling me that if Ariel swam up to you in Serenity Bay you wouldn't swim off with her without a backward glance. His face got read and he walked off. Yeah that is what I thought.

At that point we needed alcohol, it always makes everything better.

 

[SmithFamily2003]

Seriously, do you have a problem with kids?

Just teasing!!!

Loving your pics. I wouldn't have taken the wedding ring off. You could have used it as a weapon to gouge out the shark's eyes!

 

[missj1975]

So we take the tram to Serenity Bay. I did see some people walking to it but I read it isn't a quick walk so we took the tram and I am glad we did cause it doesn't look like it is an easy walk.

I know the sign is kind of hard to read but it is basically saying beware of sharks, jellyfish, blah blah blah. I just gave DH the look because he told me there are no sharks at Castaway Cay...and I believed him...silly me. He assured me no one has ever been attacked by a shark at Castaway Cay...but there is always a first time...and I could be lucky like that. But today was my day, no sharks but we did see an octopus, lots of starfish, a stingray and all kinds of other sealife. At one point I was very tempted to go back to the kid beach and give the cast member who said there is nothing to see at the adult beach a piece of my mind. On our next cruise we are bringing our own snorkel equipment, should have dragged it with us this time.

I know the beach isn't much to look at but all the black stuff you see in the water is like an old coral bed with sealife. The water is very shallow for at least 100 yards out. We just put our water shoes on and walked around the water all afternoon looking at the sealife.

There were even shells on the beach...small but very pretty spiral shells. We collected a very nice handful before the day was over. Seriously the adult beach was awesome.

People were picking up starfish left and right. I really hope everyone was smart and nice enough to put them back in the water. I didn't feel like being the "taking live sealife is wrong" lecturer for the day so I pretty much just ignored everyone and focused on my hubby. We had a blast at the beach.

The adult beach has it's own food service area with a very nice lunch buffet which I assume is the same as the kid area.

The best part is they have a soft serve ice cream machine that stayed open until 2 pm. We had lots and lots of ice cream that day but apparently I forgot to take a picture. It was the best soft serve I have ever had, not grainy at all.

After lunch we decided to use our bike rental.

Biking was fun if not a little scary at first. The bikes have the old fashioned braking method of backpedaling to break. Whoever said you don't forget how to ride a bike is an idiot.. Growing up we biked everywhere so I have done my fair share of biking plus I own an awesome mountain bike with handle brakes but it still took me awhile to catch on to the back peddling brakes but I didn't wreck so I was happy. I did see two or three people crash so I was feeling pretty good about myself.

View of the ship from the lookout tower.

Classic Schwinn bikes.

The tram. It is kind of hard to see but Disney put reindeer antlers on the tram.

We headed back to the ship around 2:30pm. We both had a wonderful time at Castaway Cay and definitely look forward to going back.

 

[missj1975]

Seriously, do you have a problem with kids?

Just teasing!!!

Loving your pics. I wouldn't have taken the wedding ring off. You could have used it as a weapon to gouge out the shark's eyes!

I just have a problem with your kids, they cost me way too much money ;-). We picked them up some Disney stuff today at Target, DH's idea. I swear he spoils them more then I do.

 

[missj1975]

Don't worry about boring us. I would love to see all the pictures! LOL!

One question, do you get to bring towels off the ship at CC, or do they have them on the island...or both?

They hand you towels when you exit the ship. There are plenty of bins to drop off used towels around Castaway Cay but I never saw another spot to get refresher towels. New towels would have been nice in the afternoon. Plus the towels aren't that big. I think next time I will bring my own beach towel since I will have my beach bag anyway.