Since my posts have been pretty much on what we did, I decided to write up a sort of review of our
Disney Cruise experience. I used a few pictures that I posted before, but added quite a few new ones as well to keep it fresh. If I left anything out or if something doesn't make cents, please let me know!
Although we had never been on a cruise before, we're big
Disneyland fans, so we're familiar and love Disney quality and service. But cruising was still a whole new thing for us and weren't quite sure what to expect. At the beginning of the cruise, the cruise director, Jimmy, talked about how they wanted to meet our expectations during our trip. Well, to say they met our expectations would be a big understatement. The crew members were friendly and helpful, the shows were fantastic, the activities were a blast, and our servers were amazing! And that's only a small portion of the cruise experience! Our trip on the Wonder was amazing and even better than I ever imagined it would be. Now it's time to save up for another Disney Cruise!
Embarking:
We arrived at the port and began the boarding process, which went well. We had done the online check in, so we went to the desk, checked in, and received our Key To The World Cards. After going through security, we waited about 10-20 minutes before we actually boarded the ship. We made our way to Parrot Cay for lunch, but they didn't have any tables available, so they sent us to The Beach Blanket Buffet. After getting our food, it took us a long time to find an empty table since everybody was eating at the same time, but we soon had crew members helping us find an empty seat. After we ate, we checked out our staterooms, before the safety drill. After the drill, we went to the Sail Away! Deck Party on Deck 9.
Staterooms:
At 2:30PM we went to our staterooms, 2030 and 2032, which connected. There were four of us in each room, which worked out great for us. Between the closet, drawers, trunk with selves, drawers in the desk, and the shelves above the television, we had plenty (and I think extra) space for all of our stuff. The split bathrooms were perfect, and I loved the mirror at the desk, which came in handy when I did my hair in the morning while the others were using the bathrooms. I slept on the sofa bed, which was really comfortable and in the mornings I'd turn on the TV to either the channel that played Pixar Films or Disney Animated Classics.
The Wonder:
The ship it's self is beautiful! Just like the parks, the ship is filled with all sorts of little details, which I think makes the experience even more fun. She's kept up very well. My dad went on the Art of the Ship tour, so he was telling us about all these little things that we hadn't even noticed. It's really cool because you're always finding something new that you didn't see before. The ship was very well kept. On deck 9 one morning, there were crew members varnishing the wood and in the afternoons you would see them cleaning the portholes, ect.
Breakfast, Lunch, & Snacks:
The first morning we had breakfast at The Beach Blanket Buffet, but the rest of the week we at Triton's and at Parrot Cay a couple times. I preferred the sit-down restaurant instead of the buffet. The atmosphere at Triton's is really nice and when we were at port we had a nice view out the portholes. The french toast pineapple stack was so good that I had it two mornings in a row. For lunch it was pretty much the same as breakfast, mostly at Triton's, which was a sit down meal, and occasionally at Parrot Cay, which was a buffet.
Some of the days I'd get a bit hungry between lunch and dinner, so I'd stop by Goofy's Galley on the pool deck and grab a turkey and cranberry sandwich. The rest of the family also got lots of fruit to snack on as well. Mmmmm, such a delicious sandwich!
Dinners:
We chose the second seating for dinner, after hearing that the first seating is typically a bit crazier because families with younger children choose to eat earlier. 8:15 PM is a bit later than we usually eat, but it ended up working well since we were usually full from lunch until close to then anyways. The first night the service was a bit slow. Daniel and Alina got their meals first, since they were the youngest, so they got tired and nearly fell asleep at the table. After dinner that night we told them to serve all our meals at once, so we never had a problem after that.
I only got an appetizer one night (which was pot stickers on Pirate Night. Mmmm!), since the main course was so filling. One night my dad asked our server for a main course suggestion to go with his drink, but decided on another dish instead. So our server bought out not only the dish my dad had order, but the one that went well with his drink as well! Also, the first few nights I probably over ate, since I felt like I had to finish everything on my plate. After a few days though, I just ate till I felt full, so I felt much better after that. They definitely keep you well fed, that's for sure!
I loved the whole rotational dinning thing and thought it was great! All three dining rooms, Triton's, Parrot Cay, and Animator's Palate were awesome, so I don't think I could pick a favorite! Even though you only rotate between three dining rooms, you never have the same menu twice, because of all the themed nights. I didn't realize that until we were on board, which I thought was pretty neat.
The food it's self was very tasty. The meats were usually cooked perfectly and thought the menus had good variety of meals to choose from. I really loved the desserts as well. I choose a chocolate dessert almost every night and they were delicious!
My mom has gluten and dairy allergies, but that didn't stop her from having fantastic food, especially desserts. They had gluten-free rolls, dairy-free creme brulee, and gluten and dairy free chocolate cake.
Servers:
Our servers were fantastic! Our head sever was Geffrey, Ozer was our server, and Marvin was our assistant server. It was fun how they made the ketchup in the shape of a Mickey head and one night Ozer did one in the shape of Pluto! We also loved the magic tricks and the puzzles they had for us to figure out. Such a great way to end the evening! We had no idea how fond we would become of them and were really sad when we had to leave them.
They worked very well with my mom's allergies, making sure she had just about whatever she wanted and that it would be safe for her. At the end of each dinner, Geffrey (our head server) would bring the next night's menu for her to order what she wanted, so the chef could make it work for her. It was great not having to worry each night about her being able to have something that would be both tasty and something she could eat.
Alina got sick for about two days and spent most of her time in our stateroom. At the end of our dinner, Ozer would bring the meal we had ordered for her out for us to take down to her, nice and hot, along with a dessert. It was also fun running into our servers throughout the day and chatting with them for a few minutes, it was like bumping in to an old friend.
Entertainment:
I love the live shows at Disneyland, so I was really looking forward to the Broadway styled shows on the Wonder. Since we had second seating for dinner we saw the 6:15PM show every night. At the Walt Disney Theater we saw The Golden Mickey's, Toy Story: The Musical, and Dreams and all of them were amazing! One night was hypnotist show by Ricky Kalmon and it was hilarious!
We also saw some of the 30-45 minute variety shows in between the show and dinner, which were great as well. One of our favorites was Michael Harrison, who did a ventriloquist act. I liked having something to do in between the show and dinner.
At the Buena Vista Theater they had several different first run movies throughout the day. We saw The Muppets (which I'd been wanting to see since I first heard about it) and the guys saw Cars 2, which was in 3D.
Crew Members:
All the crew members we encountered were every friendly and often said a "hello" when passing my in the halls. The crew members who led the different family activities were really fun as well.
Activities:
Even though I was seventeen at the time, I never went to Vibe or did any of the activities there. I was always busing doing the other activities, such as golf putting, trivia (we won some awesome
DCL baseball caps at one!), paper plane making, Wonder Quest, and Animation. There were so many fun sounding activities I saw on the Navigator to choose from and didn't even have time to do all the ones we wanted.
Characters:
What would a Disney Cruise be without characters? I love getting my pictures with them and I got to see some new ones that I hadn't met at Disneyland before. It seems to be the older I get, the more excited I get to see them!
There are lots of opportunities to meet different characters aboard the ship. They were scheduled throughout the day on decks 3 and 4 in the Lobby Atrium. Each character has a 15 minute time slot, so as long as you got in line within that time slot, you knew for sure you were going to see that character. When you get to the front of the line, there is a professional photographer who will take your photo, along with a Crew Member who will hold any autograph books during the photos and take a photo with your own camera as well. That worked out well when I wanted to see a character when nobody else was with me.
There were often characters roaming around the halls on decks 3 and 4 as well, mostly in the afternoons and evenings. Peter Pan was the character we saw wandering around the most, but we also saw Cinderella, Snow White, Donald, Goofy, and Mickey. One day Peter Pan walked by in the hallway where we were standing in line to see one of the characters (I can't seem to remember who...) and everyone in the hallway shouted, "Peter Pan"!
Disembarkment:
The whole disembarkation process went very well and was set up great. On Saturday they had a video playing on one of the TV stations with Jimmy, the Cruise Director, explaining everything you needed to know for the whole process. The day before, we received a color coded luggage tag with a character, which indicated the order to get off the ship and where to pick up your luggage after you're off. We had the orange tags with Goofy. The dining room where you had dinner the last night is where you go for breakfast the next morning, which for us was Animator's Palate. Since we had second seating for dinner, we had the second seating for breakfast, which was at 8:15 AM. Breakfast was fast, as to be expected, but we didn't feel too rushed. We also said good-bye to our wonderful servers for the last time. Then we disembarked the ship, which we didn't have any problems with, and went to the orange Goofy section, where we found our luggage very easily.
Summary:
I loved everything about our first Disney Cruise. There were tons of fun activities to choose from in the Navigator and had fun choosing which ones we wanted to do each day. I really enjoyed having breakfast and lunch in the main dining rooms. The atmosphere was nice and it was a great time to relax and chat with whoever in our group decided to eat together. To say I loved the live shows would be an understatement, because all of them were amazing! And then we had our servers, who made sure all of us had meals that we loved and became our friends on the ship. Although I would have to say, it's the little things that truly make the cruise even more memorable: Our head server, Geffrey, calling me "the Planner" and asking how well my schedule was going every time I bumped into him, the music from Disney movies playing in the hallways, the servers making the ketchup in the shape of Mickey Mouse heads, the little details in the ships decor, and crew member Ponz who could remember the names of just about everyone. It's all those little details that make Disney vacations magical.