Day 13
We woke up relatively early at 08:00 and got up. It looked like a beautiful day. I had plans to attend the DVC Member Celebration. We were pondering breakfast options. I mentioned that I was probably just going to have breakfast at the DVC Member Celebration as they always have pastries and coffee available. When I mentioned that they also tend to serve Mimosas, Graham decided to come along. We still had nearly an hour so we decided to go for a walk around deck 4. It really was a beautiful morning and there is nothing quite like being surrounded by the sea when the sun is shining. We stopped a few times to enjoy this.
Shortly before 9:00 AM, we headed down to Fathoms where the DVC Member Celebration took place. We were checked in and were given new DVC baseball caps and a writing portfolio. We found ourselves a seat and then I went on a breakfast run. They had set up a table with pastries, tea and coffee near the bar. I got a selection of pastries and two cups of coffee. Shortly after I came back, a bartender came round with some drinks. Graham had a Mimosa and I had a Bellini and it was rather nice. I have seen a number of different formats to the DVC Member Celebration, but this was new. We watched some short videos about what is new to the parks, Aulani, the Villas at the Grand Floridian and
Adventures by Disney and then it was time for a game. Over the years I have experienced various icebreaker games and individual trivia questions. This time round, we had a mixture of both. First of all a panel of 4 members was selected including the person who had been a member for the longest time, the person who had been a member for the shortest time and the grumpiest member. I cannot remember the 4th category. Once the panel was in place, names were drawn out of the hat and the person whose name was called then picked one member of the panel to answer a trivia question. This was a rather strange way of going about things. Once the game was over, they put all names back and they drew two winners. One of them was for a beach tent and the other was for a $300 onboard credit. Grahams name was called for the beach tent. That left us with a problem. First of all, we would have very little use for something for this and secondly it was way to big for us to take home. So we politely declined. We assumed that they would just do a re-draw and we were fine about this. However, when they heard the reason why we declined they gave us an alternative prize, which was a nice beach bag. We got plenty of use out of this for the rest of the holiday. After the lucky winner for the onboard credit was announced, the DVC Member Celebration ended. On the way out, each family was given a nice DVC tumbler.
We quickly headed back to the cabin to drop off our stuff and then we decided to have a walk around deck 9 and get something to drink from the drink station. We had heard before the cruise that nothing much had changed on deck 9 apart from the kids pool so we were somewhat surprised when we had a closer look. I was up in arms when I found out that they would remove the Mickey pool, but I actually really liked the Aqua Lab. I think they did a great job with this and the Twist and Spout Slide, which is also open to adults definitely called my name. I also liked that they have moved and enclosed the splash area for the kids that are too young to use the pool. One drawback with this though is that it is not immediately obvious how you can get the drink station if you are on the wrong side of the ship. We landed inside Cabanas when trying for the first time. One of the cast members there pointed us in the right direction and we got ourselves something to drink before carrying on exploring. There are a number of other changes on deck 9. The ice cream station is no longer next to what used to be Goofys Galley and is now called Daisys D-Lights, but has been moved around the corner from what used to be Plutos Dog House and that is now called Petes Boiler Bites. The bar that was next to that was also relocated and is now next to the ice cream station. They now also sell smoothies and it was renamed Frozones Treats. I cannot for the life of me remember what, if anything, was in this space before. I have to have a look when I am on the Wonder. The presence of the bar and the ice cream station has created a bit of a bottleneck. In the spot where the bar used to be is now another food outlet, which servers Doner Kebabs. Unfortunately I did not have the time to sample them. Near the family pool, they added a shop that sells pool items and sundry items like sunscreen. Although I like all the additions, they do make traffic flow somewhat difficult and in our case the ship was half empty. I am dreading to think how big the impact will be on a full ship.
As we walked past the Goofy pool, I bumped into Michelle. I asked her if she would be coming to the
Castaway Club reception and she had not realized that this was that day. We agreed that we would meet there and we finished our tour of deck 9. In the adult area, not a great deal had changed. They had enclosed a storage area, which was previously just separated off by a rope, and they had removed the loungers that were off to one side on the port side of the ship and have replaced them with tables and chairs. I was a little sad to see this, as I rather liked the loungers with a view as they had been facing the big picture windows.
We still had about 15 minutes until the Castaway Club reception, but decided to head in that general direction anyway. They were not quite ready for us so we decided to hang out in the big portholes in the After Hours area. They actually have a porthole that was big enough for both of us. It was also rather comfortable. We were joking that we did not really need a cabin and that we would be quite comfortable just staying there. Just before 11:00, we headed towards OGills again and this time they were ready for us. I have to say OGills did not do anything for me. Having said that, I never got Diversions either so there was nothing lost or gained as far as I was concerned. One thing that I intensely disliked is that they had removed most of the normal tables in the room and replaced them with high tables and bar stools. Fortunately there were still some booth at the back wall with normal tables. We managed to snag one of those.
Shortly after we sat down, Michelle joined us with her husband and her sister in law. It was nice to have another chance to catch up with each other. Not long after we sat down, servers started to come round with drinks. They had Mimosas, Bellinis, Tuxedos and Prosecco. I had a Tuxedo and Graham had some Prosecco. They also came round with plates of food. We had some canapés, assorted fruit and some sugar cookies. The Captain and the Cruise Director said a few words before mingling. Up to that point we had not know who our Captain and the Cruise Director were as the screen in the atrium that normally displays this info now had the character schedule on it as well. It turned out that they were both familiar faces. The Cruise Director was Jimmy, who was our Cruise Director on the Los Angeles to Vancouver repositioning cruise in May and our Captain was Captain John, who we met on the Magic the previous year. They both came at some point and stopped for a while to chat with us. Captain Mickey was also present for photos and had next to no line. All in all, it was a very pleasant hour.
Once the reception was over, we said goodbye to Michelle and her family and we decided to get some lunch. We had snacked quite a bit during the morning, but did not have a proper meal and were ready for something a bit more substantial. This also gave us the opportunity to check out one of the last re-imagined areas that we had not seen at that point. We headed up to Cabanas. I have never really rated Topsiders. I always thought that the set up was a nightmare and was not too impressed with the quality of the food either. Well, Cabanas was a winner in every respect. I loved the pod set up where you just go straight to the section that you wanted. The selection was much bigger and the seating was organized better as well. We had no problem finding our seat. Graham had some salad and then some pie, a piece of Fish and some chips. For his dessert he had some Bread and Butter pudding. I started with a gorgeous Tortilla Soup with fresh fried Tortilla strips. I then tried all kinds of different foods. I had some Steak, some Beef Patties with Onion Rings, some Fajita Strips, some Chicken Nuggets and some Chips. I loved all the food, but the Chips were absolutely amazing. For dessert I had some Key Lime Pie, which was nothing special.
After lunch we both had some down time. I also was absolutely stuffed. We decided to go back to the cabin to have a nap. This cruise was definitely a new experience for me as I spent more time just chilling out. I rather liked this and cant wait to try this on a longer cruise. I had set a wake up call for 15:15. This was the first time I got to hear Mickey waking me up this holiday. There was a character out at 15:30 that I rather wanted to see: Princess Anna from the film Frozen. Graham decided to go for a run and headed up to the gym. We arranged to meet at the pool later. I had a lot of fun with Princess Anna. I have to say I knew very little about the film Frozen at that stage, but she gave a few hints that made me really want to watch the film.
I still nearly had an hour until the next Meet and Greet. I wanted to have a proper look at Shutters as this had been closed the previous day when we had been exploring deck 4. This had changed a lot. Rather than having the photos all up on the wall where you have to go and find your photos, they were now in folders and there was one folder for each stateroom. The folders were kept in cabinets along the back wall. On the opposite wall there were readers that you touched your Key to the World card to and on a screen above, it then showed a character, a colour and a number. This was the location of your folder. I much prefer this system. They have also added some more photo kiosks and some counter tops that you could use to check the physical photos in your folder. As much as I love the Wonder, I was not looking forward to going back to the old system in May. However, I have since found out that they have redone Shutters while the Wonder was in dry dock and it is now the same as on the other three ships. After this I decided to have a quick look at the shops as they had changed quite a lot, too. Whitecaps, which used to be Treasure Ketch, now had some portholes and the whole layout had been changed around. What used to be Mickeys Mates was now Mickeys Main Sail and the layout had been inverted. I liked both shops a lot. They looked more spacious and a lot brighter. When I came out of the shops, Princess Anna was out again. This time round she wore a cape over her dress and as she had only a very short line, I decided to see her again. She was teasing me that I was back again.
Once I was finished with Anna, I headed up to deck 5 to see Donald and Daisy in quick succession. This is a new development that they do character meet and greets on deck 5. With the entrance to the Oceaneers Club now being round the corner, this freed up some space on deck 5 overlooking the atrium. This took some getting used to, but actually works better than in the same spot on deck 4 as there is less traffic on deck 5. Daisy and Donald were both wearing their holiday outfits.
I still had a bit of time until the next set of Meet and Greets. I headed back to the cabin. I have not participated in the Fish Extender Exchange as such for the previous few cruises, but I always made some goodies to drop in the Fish Extenders of people taking part. I had done the same again for this cruise. Making Fish Extender gifts is an important part of the cruise planning process for me and in this case it was one of the things that kept me sane. I had made a Snowflake Christmas ornaments out of crystals, semi-precious stone beads and metal beads as a family gift. I also had made some individual gifts. For the men, I had made cufflinks with Mickey heads in Christmas colours. For the boys, I had made keyrings. The girls got Mickey hairclips and the ladies got Mickey hairpins. This was probably the easiest Fish Extender run that I ever did. Everybody was either on deck 6 or on deck 5 forward. I did deck 6 first and once I had finished with deck 5, I was in the right place for meeting the next characters.
The next set of character meet and greets gave me the chance to finally see Minnie and Mickey in their holiday finest. They had by far the nicest holiday outfits. I was really excited as I had a holiday outfit of my own made for this evening and I was looking forward to having some more photos taken with them after I was changed. In the meantime, I had some photos taken with Minnie and then got straight back in line, which meant I was first in line for Mickey. He also arrived a little earlier than scheduled so I was on my way again before he even was meant to arrive.
I quickly went back to the cabin to get changed into my swimsuit. Graham was in the pool as expected and I joined him for a bit. After about 10 minutes, he suggested that we should check out the Aqua Dunk. I had the best intentions to try this and we both went up to deck 10 and then up the stairs to the loading area. Once I saw this, I chickened out. There is a clear capsule that you enter with a trap door that drops out from underneath you. Looking down from outside the capsule, I was fairly sure that I could not do this. I stayed behind while Graham was given his instructions on what he needed to do and this freaked me out even more. I suppose I have used every last ounce of braveness during the Ride-A-Thon and now there was none left. So I headed back down the stairs. Graham arrived at the splashdown area at about the same time. He absolutely loved it and as we were the only people there, he went straight back to do it again. After that we moved on.
I had always wanted to have a go on the Mickey slide, but unfortunately adults are not allowed on this. Initially it looked like the same would be the case for the new Twist and Spout slide that has replaced the Mickey slide. So I was absolutely delighted when the people came back from the first cruises and reported that they had taped over the maximum height for this slide and adults had been allowed to use it. It sounded even more promising when people reported a couple of cruises after this that the signs at been replaced and the new signs no longer mentioned a maximum height. This was our next stop. There was a boy in front of us, but other than that there was nobody else around. I was surprised that there was no life guard up there and wondered if we had missed a sign that this was closed as even with the smaller Mickey slide, there was always a life guard on duty at the top of the slide when this was open. The boy reassured us that this was OK and we were allowed to go once the light turned green. So once he had gone down the slide and the light had turned green again, I went. Initially I did not move at all and had to use my legs to push myself along, but after the first short stretch, I was on my way and this was actually quite fast and a lot of fun. Graham tried this as well and has he had finished, we decided to head back to the cabin. The sun had by then gone down and it started to feel quite chilly.
When we got back to the cabin, I got showered and then I started to put on my make up. Once Graham was done, he then had the task to tie me into my gown. He has become an expert in this over the years. I have had many beautiful gowns over the years, but this was by far my favourite one. The style really suits me and it was also really comfortable. Once the gown was on, I put on my lipstick and jewellery and then I headed out to see Minnie and Mickey. Graham and I agreed that he would come and find me there when he was ready. This character set changed a lot. I tend to have an issue on every cruise that the characters, their escorts and the photographers dont quite know what to make of me. This was not really an issue with the characters this time round, as they seemed to have got the measure of me straightaway. However, some of the photographers and the escorts had been decidedly cool up to that point. When I turned up in my Christmas gown, I turned a few heads. A couple of the cast members asked me about this and I told them that I had the gown made for this cruise. This news seemed to have spread like wildfire and I was stopped by a few cast members afterwards to ask me if it was really true that I had this gown made especially for this cruise. Once they had realized that I was really getting into the spirit of things, they thawed quite considerably and for the rest of the cruise I had a lot of fun with the photographers and the character escorts. Mickey and Minnie also approved of my gown and I love the photos that I got from those interactions.
