The Great Thinkers Sail the Wonder - April 15 - 19, 2007

[jrose529]

I love your TR! Thanks for taking the time to write it.

Thank you for reading it!

 

[jrose529]

Chapter 7: Argh; It’s a Pirates Life for Me

We returned to the ship at 2:45 and sat at the Cove Café to read. DD and BFF came over to hang out in the Quiet Cove pool, so I joined them. It was nice to spend some time with DD. We all went back to the cabin by 5:30 to get ready for the Golden Mickey’s at 6:15 and Pirate Night in Parrot Cay. DD & I showered and dressed, DH planned to shower after the show.

We were late for the show, but it was fun. I enjoyed it more than Hercules, although it was not much different than the last time I saw it. While DH went back to get ready for dinner, I popped into Shutters to see if I liked any pictures. I found two nice 8 x 10 shots of DD and a 6 x 8 of the four girls, so I bought them. I declined to purchase a package, since I knew I wouldn’t buy any photos of myself. I love takings pictures, but hate to be in them!

I'll scan them tomorrow and add them here.

I had told DH to meet me in the Cadillac Lounge to listen to Darryl, but someone else was playing his piano. He was good, but he was no Darryl. I realized that I forgot to take my meds so I went back to the cabin to meet DH and drop off the photos.

It was time for our Pirate Dinner in PC. I bought everyone at our table an eye patch and hoop earring. Everyone bought some sort of Disney Pirate hat except for DH and me. We wore the Pirate bandanas that were at the table. I took a lot of pictures. The kids all looked so cute!

BFFS2 Erin

BFFS1 Lauren, BFF Katie, DD Amy, BFFS2 Erin

BFF Katie & DD Amy

BFFS1 Erin & BFFS2 Lauren

BFFD Mark & BFFM Chris

DH Steve

BFFD Mark having a great time!

DD Amy enjoying herself!

BFFS2 fell asleep as usual, so BFFD took her back to the cabin. The rest of us went to the Pirates in the Caribbean deck party. It was great. We danced and sang and enjoyed the fireworks.

After the party, DH BFFM and I settled in to watch POC on the big screen. It was so cool to be sitting out there on deck. I took some pics of Johnny Depp and they came out great. Here are two of them.

As an aside, I don’t know if this is a rumor, but apparently Johnny Depp and his family bought a house in our town. He’s been seen around town, but I haven’t seen him myself. It’s fun to think he’s here, but I am not sure if I believe it. A few years ago, there was a rumor that Anthony Edwards moved here, and I didn’t believe it until I ran into him in our local grocery store. He was a really nice guy and we spoke briefly since he was in line behind me. So, the Johnny Depp rumor may just be true!

Back to the movie - it became very cold out there on deck, so we returned to our cabin at midnight. Now here is when I get stupid. I decided that since I had to stay awake until DD returned at 2 AM, I would do laundry! Not smart. I was exhausted and the laundry took forever! DD got back before the clothes were dry and I wasn’t done until 2:45. Dumb move!

In between my trips to the laundry room, I watched coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre. It was horrible. What a sad and shocking event. I can’t understand how someone could take so many lives. I can’t understand how he could have shot anyone at all. I really hate guns. It must have been so terrifying for all those people. It just makes me cry.

Next up: Mickey Heads and Goofy Ears

 

[scottishwee35]

I enjoyed to read your trip report and thought the photos of pirates look good seem everybody happy

Scottishwee35

 

[outahere]

You're doing a great job Judy. Keep up the good work. Through your TR
I'm reliving those very short 4 days we were on the Wonder with your family.

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

I am so loving this TR - great job. You're getting me excited about our Wonder trip in August.

 

[Kurby]

i'm all in anticipation looking for the next bit.

you're pictures are great - makes me feel like i'm there.

 

[jrose529]

Thanks for all your words of encouragement.

Here is the next chapter:

Chapter 8: Mickey Heads and Goofy Ears

Day 4 - April 81, 2007
Day at Sea

I just love sea days! We all planned to sleep in this morning. Are you shocked? That was the theme of this cruise – relaxation, and we definitely did that. We woke up at 10 AM and after getting ready, we went to PC for breakfast. DD went off with BFF and I didn’t see them until dinner. I have to say that this morning’s breakfast was the worst meal of the cruise. It wasn’t the food, it was the server. I feel sorry for anyone who had him during the cruise. I hope he was better at dinner. I don’t remember his name or where he was from, but he was very unfriendly and never introduced himself. The table wasn’t set and we had trouble getting anything from him. DH had to wait for his coffee and it was cold. He was never offered another cup. It made me realize how lucky we were to have Corrine and Brent. They were always smiling.

After breakfast, DH went to work out again and I went to Shutters. There were some nice pics of DD, but I didn’t buy any. I thought I’d check again later. I then went to shop and didn’t buy much for some reason. Actually throughout the cruise, I only bought an ankle bracelet at the gold by an inch event on the first evening and a magnet on the last day. I held off on my shopping for DTD on our last day at WDW, but I’ll get to that soon.

It was now time for the Castaway Clubhouse for people who had cruised DCL before. I figured that I may as well go since DH was still working out. I met some wonderful people who had cruised DCL many times, but one couple beat them all. This was their 24th DCL cruise! They were an older couple and they were so adorable. The best part was her name – it was Wonder! Isn’t that amazing? I’m still trying to get DH to book our 3rd DCL cruise, I can’t imagine 24! I didn’t win one of the Castaway Clocks, but I had fun and took back chocolate covered Rice Krispie Mickey heads for the 4 girls. They were thrilled with that.

DH met me for lunch at Goofy’s Galley. I had a great Panini and we got fries. We loved the fries. We took a nice walk around deck 4 and settled down to read in our favorite chairs. It was a beautiful day and I wanted to stay outside all day! Something convinced me to go inside though. There was an animation class in AP and I really wanted to go. When I got inside I saw one of my DIS friends, Smeck and his DD Rachel. I sat with them and we laughed the whole time. We just couldn’t get it right. Rachel was the most talented out of the three of us. We drew a Mickey and Goofy head. Oh boy, am I a lousy artist! I made the heads so large; I had no room for the ears, especially Goofy’s. Smeck just ripped his up. I should have done the same. DH & DD were rolling when they saw my feeble attempt at animation. I guess I’ll keep my day job.

I guess I was too relaxed to take pictures. There really aren't any to fit this chapter, so I'll throw in some just for fun!

CM pool

Next up: Disney Dreams, French Food & Packing Problems

 

[whithouston]

Awesome Judy! Keep it up!!!!

 

[Kim in TN]

Awesome trip report, thanks for sharing!! Love the photos.

 

[jrose529]

Chapter 9: Disney Dreams, French Food & Packing Problems

After making a fool of myself at the Animation class, I went back to the comfy chairs on deck 4 to take notes and read. I needed to check my email to see if our confirmation for Disney Grad night came through. I’ll talk about that in a later chapter. I was online for maybe two minutes and DH was on for 2 more minutes and it cost $6! I’m glad I wasn’t on longer.

I decided to begin my packing so I could have more time after dinner. After getting ready for dinner, we went to Disney Dreams. That is my favorite show. There were a few changes to this show and the lighting was cool. I took a few pics at the end without my flash and they came out lousy. I don’t know how people get such good shots at the shows.

I told you I got lousy shots!

We went to listen to Darryl in the Cadillac Lounge for a little while and went back to our cabin to pack and find Winston, our stateroom host to give him his tip. He was good and very friendly to me, but DH was not happy when he wanted to change after his workout and Winston was annoyed when he asked if he could shower. I felt bad for Winston. He worked so hard and we slept so late; he had trouble finding the cabin empty so he could do his job. His towel animals were not spectacular. The elephant was a dud, but the monkey was cute.

This was our first one and it was good.

I guess this one wan't bad. I think it's a rabbit, but it may be a dog.

Not a very convincing elephant!

Here's the monkey.

I guess we were spoiled on the Magic. Our towel animals were great!

Tonight was our French dinner in Triton’s. Our server Corrine was so excited since she is the only French server. She had some great suggestions for food choices. I had the leek and goat cheese quiche, which I never would have tried any other time. It was fabulous! Next, I had a delicious Tomato Basil soup. Yummy! I had a few bites of salad – I don’t know why I ordered that. I was full before my main course arrived. Corrine put a plate of escargot on the table so we could at least try it. There was no chance that DD or I would try those! Yuk!!! DH, BFF, BFFD & BFFM all tried it and thought it was okay. They weren’t clamoring for more though. My next course was the beef tenderloin. It was a bit overcooked and not as good as the one in Palo. No big surprise there. We LOVED Palo. I did ask for it to be cooked medium-well, so I should have expected it to be overcooked. For dessert, I had the white chocolate dome. It wasn’t as good as it looked. For some reason that was the only food pic I took.

We had birthday cake for BFFS1 Lauren who turned 16 the day before we embarked. She was rather embarrassed.

We were in the dining room until 10:30. We gave our tips and hugged our wonderful servers. We knew we’d see them in the morning, but we really enjoyed our time with them. Brent did a few magic tricks for the kids and we all ran back to finish packing.

I’m not sure if I mentioned this, but we had 6 checked bags for the 3 of us! It was tough to get everything back into those bags for some reason. We ended up with 4 carry-ons instead of 3.

DH decided to change for bed, so we ended up staying in the cabin for the evening. I was disappointed, but I figured I could hang out and read. DH wanted to finish his book, and I had to read my book for my book club. The only problem was I foolishly packed it in my checked bag! I can’t believe I did that. DD was staying out until 2:30 tonight, so I had a long evening ahead of me. No, I was not going to do any more laundry! I wrote more notes and looked over my Birnbaum’s WDW book for our trip to OKW. I also watched CNN again for coverage of Virginia Tech.

Next up: It’s Nice to be Home!

 

[jrose529]

Awesome Judy! Keep it up!!!!

Thanks Scott!

Kim in TN, I'm glad you're enjoying this. It's fun to relive the trip.

 

[LITTLEKID58]

Awesome.. enjoyed very much

 

[Miscoehill]

Judy,

Love the TR! We had a great time! It was our first cruise but certainly not our last! Love our pics..

Laurie (Miscoehill)

 

[jrose529]

Hi Laurie, It was great to meet you and your family.

I'm glad you're enjoying my trip report.

LITTLEKID58, thanks for taking the time to read my report. I'll get the next chapter up soon.

 

[AlisaP]

Judy,

Great trip report and Thank you so much for organizing the Great Thinkers meet and greet. We had fun meeting all our DIS friends! Plus I think my DD Kayleigh has a new penpal in AussieFan's DD Brittney!

Alisa

 

[jrose529]

Judy,

Great trip report and Thank you so much for organizing the Great Thinkers meet and greet. We had fun meeting all our DIS friends! Plus I think my DD Kayleigh has a new penpal in AussieFan's DD Brittney!

Alisa

Thanks Alisa. I enjoyed organizing the M&G and meeting all of you. I'm so glad Kayleigh and Brittney hit it off. That's exciting!

 

[jrose529]

Chapter 10: It’s Nice to be Home!

Day 5 – April 19, 2007
Old Key West and Epcot

We got up early this morning and were at breakfast by our 8:15 scheduled time. I ran up to shutters one last time, but I couldn’t find the photo’s I liked the day before. Oh well, the 3 pictures I purchased the day before were good enough. We had a nice breakfast, said our good-bye’s and sadly disembarked the Wonder.

We took the DCL bus to OKW. It was freezing on that bus! I think next time we’d use a car service. It took too long on the bus with all the stops before we finally got to OKW. It was nice to be home. We are DVC members and OKW is our home resort. We love staying there! It is comfortable for us. We stayed in a studio room and our friends had a 2 bedroom. They invited DD to stay with them, which was great for all of us. We were in the same building, but not right next door to one another.

After we checked in and had them store our luggage since it was too early to enter our room, we decided to go to MGM. Well, apparently we had just missed the bus and the Epcot bus was pulling up, so we changed gears and went there. Epcot is my favorite park, so I was happy to go there first.

We were there for the Flower and Garden show and it was beautiful. We took many pictures. Here are just a few.

I was really looking forward to the new Soarin’ ride. After all of us rode Spaceship Earth, the three older girls took off and the four adults took Erin to the Nemo ride in the Living Seas pavilion. It was cute. By then it was 1:00 and we were hungry. We went next door to the Land and ate in the food court. DH, DD and I purchased the Disney Dining Plan (DDP) and had a nice lunch which included dessert. I substituted a pasta salad for my dessert. What was I thinking? We noticed the line for Soarin’ was 75 minutes and DH didn’t want to wait so we got Fast Passes for 7:15 – 8:15. I hoped we wouldn’t be on the other side of the park at that time! We took the Land boat tour, which I always enjoy. I find it so interesting.

When we got off the boat, we ran into the 3 older girls who said it only took 45 minutes to wait for Soarin.’ BFFM & I really wanted to wait, so we did. It only took 25 minutes, not 45 or 75 as it said on the sign! It was so worth the wait. I loved it! DH is afraid of heights and was white knuckled! Poor baby. We next took Erin to see Figment which she loved, then saw Honey I Shrunk the Audience. Erin had a great time with the dancing water. We couldn’t get her to leave.

BFFM & BFFS2 Erin with Figment!

Erin getting splashed!

We went across to ride Ellen’s dinosaur ride. I forgot the name of that one. Next up was Mission to Mars. We decided to take the green (less intense) ride. It was fun. I couldn’t have taken the orange ride. It would have made me sick. DH, BFFD & BFFM went on the single rider line for the Test Track and I sat with Erin outside. They got through pretty quickly and we headed over to the countries. We really never had to wait very long for anything. We must have timed it right. We also started out late and that worked to our advantage.

We didn’t go into any of the countries pavilions; we just walked around looking for a place for dinner. The Turtles were performing as we passed the American Pavilion, so we stayed to listen. It was so much fun and brought back so many great memories!

By now we were really hungry snce it was nearly 8:00. There was a long line for the Italian restaurant, but everyone wanted to eat there. We walked a bit more and decided to go back to wait in Italy. It turned out to be a shot wait, but we did miss our Fast Pass time for Soarin’. At least I was able to ride it once, so I wasn’t too disappointed. I had Gnocchi for dinner, which paled in comparison the Gnocchi I had at Palo. In fact the food was just okay. By the time we finished dinner, it was time for the fireworks, so BFFM, Erin & I ran out to watch while the husbands took care of the bill. We arranged to meet the older girls and went back to OKW. I was exhausted! Tomorrow was going to be a busy day and a very late night. I just wanted to go to sleep. We had to wait for our luggage which took about half an hour. By then I was really dragging. I told DH I wanted my own bed since DD was with her BFF’s family. Of course, once I got into bed, I couldn’t fall asleep!

Next up: The Punishment and the Crime

 

[smeck]

we had the same situation with Soarin when we were their the wait was alot shorter than advertised a pleasant surprise to be sure. We ate at the Italian rest. also and was very dissappointed and will never eat their again. Menu was only soso and very expensive and not that good. I think next year we do Disney without the water, haven't been to the parks in a couple of years and DD is dying to go on the new Coaster at Animal Kingdom.

 

[Miscoehill]

Smeck,
We did the RC at AK and the kids didn't like it. They said it wasn't fast enough. They like rockin better.

Judy,
Epcot looked awesome. We ran out of time, but I would love to go during Flower Festival.

 

[jrose529]

we had the same situation with Soarin when we were their the wait was alot shorter than advertised a pleasant surprise to be sure. We ate at the Italion rest. also and was very dissappointed and will never eat their again. Menu was only soso and very expensive and not that good. I think next year we do Disney without the water, haven't been to the parks in a couple of years and DD is dying to go on the new Coaster at Animal Kingdom.

DD and DH didn't want to go to AK. They didn't like it as much as the other parks the last time we were there. I would have liked to check it ou though. I think there were more new things to see and do there.

Laurie, Epcot during the Flower and Garden show is absolutely beautiful. I could have taken hundreds of pictures and am sorry that I missed so much of it. The character plantings are outstanding! This is the 3rd time we were there at this time of year and I love it. There is also the Flower Power concerts that are so much fun. Davey Jones was there the last time we went.