Wonder January 4 2016 Galveston to Puerto Rico

[DanieD0909]

I hope I do this right as this is my first post on this board. Hi, I have a hold on a room for this cruise and as this would be the first cruise for the family I have a few questions. For context on the questions we are asking. We are a family of three, the hubs, my 8 (9 on the cruise) year old daughter and me. We travel as much as possible given school schedules and going to miss a week of school for the cruise (oh no!!). Since this is our first cruise (we are normally off the beaten path kind of travelers) we want to get a good idea of what it's about and do all the stuff disney offers. We have been to disney world 4 or 5 times since my daughter was born. Ok enough about us, here are the questions. 1. I'm making a decision between a dream cruise and this one leaving the same day. The dream cruise is only 4 nights and I think with all I've seen to do on board we need a little longer cruise for our first time. Would ya'll agree?? 2. Trying to decide on transportation to the port. I live in Texas but we don't live in the Galvestion area so we are thinking of getting one way tickets. I understan how the disney bus would work from Houston, but not so much in Puerto Rico. Do the buses take you straight away to the airport? I was thinking of booking a later flight back so wouldn't want to spend all that time in an airport. So, should we do our own transport (ie: taxi) once we land in PR? 3. I've seen the fish extenders here and looked it up and seem fun. Do you have to do gifts everyday or just a couple of times? That's all for now. So hoping I will be part of this group offically when I book if I am not talked out of this cruise for the dream one. And thank you for any and all advice!!! Barbara

Hi Barbara!
I'll try to help - this will be my 6th Disney cruise and we are also a family of three. Our daughter will be 3 at the time of the cruise. So a little younger than yours but lots of the activities are the same.

1. The first cruise we took was 14 days and we felt like it wasn't enough! lol! There is so much to do on the ship! We have done 3 days and definitely felt like it was so short! So my recommendation would be the longer cruise. We also like the smaller ships (Wonder/Magic) but the Wonder is definitely an older ship than the dream and doesn't have the aquaduck...but still has lots of great stuff to offer!

2. We ended in Puerto Rico from the last cruise we were on with DCL. We did take the DCL bus transportation directly to the airport. But there are a lot of tour companies that you can book a private tour with that will pick you up at the airport/do a tour of Old Town or other locations and then take you and your luggage with you to the airport. If you decide to book - I can ask the group we sailed with and find out who they recommend

3. For fish extenders, it is a lot of fun! You can give gifts however much you wish! We typically give gifts to each cabin once - we normally give a "cabin gift" to the adults and then individual age appropriate gifts for the kids. Everyone does something different but it is awesome to come back to the room to find little goodies!

I hope this helps!! Let us know what you decide either way!

 

[twokats]

I hope I do this right as this is my first post on this board.

Hi, I have a hold on a room for this cruise and as this would be the first cruise for the family I have a few questions.

For context on the questions we are asking. We are a family of three, the hubs, my 8 (9 on the cruise) year old daughter and me. We travel as much as possible given school schedules and going to miss a week of school for the cruise (oh no!!). Since this is our first cruise (we are normally off the beaten path kind of travelers) we want to get a good idea of what it's about and do all the stuff disney offers. We have been to disney world 4 or 5 times since my daughter was born. Ok enough about us, here are the questions.

1. I'm making a decision between a dream cruise and this one leaving the same day. The dream cruise is only 4 nights and I think with all I've seen to do on board we need a little longer cruise for our first time. Would ya'll agree??

2. Trying to decide on transportation to the port. I live in Texas but we don't live in the Galvestion area so we are thinking of getting one way tickets. I understan how the disney bus would work from Houston, but not so much in Puerto Rico. Do the buses take you straight away to the airport? I was thinking of booking a later flight back so wouldn't want to spend all that time in an airport. So, should we do our own transport (ie: taxi) once we land in PR?

3. I've seen the fish extenders here and looked it up and seem fun. Do you have to do gifts everyday or just a couple of times?

That's all for now. So hoping I will be part of this group offically when I book if I am not talked out of this cruise for the dream one. And thank you for any and all advice!!!

Barbara

Hi Barbara!
I'll try to help - this will be my 6th Disney cruise and we are also a family of three. Our daughter will be 3 at the time of the cruise. So a little younger than yours but lots of the activities are the same.

1. The first cruise we took was 14 days and we felt like it wasn't enough! lol! There is so much to do on the ship! We have done 3 days and definitely felt like it was so short! So my recommendation would be the longer cruise. We also like the smaller ships (Wonder/Magic) but the Wonder is definitely an older ship than the dream and doesn't have the aquaduck...but still has lots of great stuff to offer!

2. We ended in Puerto Rico from the last cruise we were on with DCL. We did take the DCL bus transportation directly to the airport. But there are a lot of tour companies that you can book a private tour with that will pick you up at the airport/do a tour of Old Town or other locations and then take you and your luggage with you to the airport. If you decide to book - I can ask the group we sailed with and find out who they recommend

3. For fish extenders, it is a lot of fun! You can give gifts however much you wish! We typically give gifts to each cabin once - we normally give a "cabin gift" to the adults and then individual age appropriate gifts for the kids. Everyone does something different but it is awesome to come back to the room to find little goodies!

I hope this helps!! Let us know what you decide either way!

We do hope you join us. This will be our 10th cruise. My daughter will also be traveling with us, but she is an adult, so a lot older than either of yours.

Our very first cruise was a 4 night, but since then we have only done 7 nights and 14 nights with a 10 night back to back which was a 7 plus 3 night. We took our other kids on a 4 night a couple of years ago and to me it was so short.

We live up in Northeast TX and we will have two of our kids drive us to Galveston and we will probably spend a day or so extra in Puerto Rico to show some of the sights to our daughter. We did the southern from Puerto Rico last October and we really enjoyed it. We chose a taxi as our mode of transportation. When we flew into San Juan, we took a taxi to old San Juan and the hotel we had booked and we also took a taxi from our hotel to the port. When we arrive for this cruise we plan on using the taxi again.

On the FE, I have always done a cabin gift and something extra for kids in the room. If you decide you want to be on the FE list just let me know and I will make sure you get added to it.

The Wonder is a great ship. Out of our 10 cruises we will have been on the Wonder 5 times. The Dream is the only one I have not been on. I have been on the Fantasy twice and the Magic three times. As I said, hope you join us and happy planning.

 

[voyageant]

SO first, thank you for the responses. I talked with some other folks and given what you said here we are booking tomorrow for this cruise. I mean we don't know what we aren't getting if we haven't been on the Dream. We can always do it if we decide in the future to do another cruise.

Yes, I would like to be added to the FE list. I have a year to figure out what to do so seems like I can get it done. But as always, we will probably wait until the last minute.

I saw on some other boards a kids thread for those on the cruise. I'm interested in doing that for my daughter (I will probably have to do most of the typing for her since she is only 8), but she is an only child and a little scared of the kids club and being by herself. So would really like to find some kids about her age that she "knows" before boarding. I haven't seen many families with young ones on this thread yet, but let me know.

Thanks again to those that answered by questions. Seems weird to book a vacation so far in advance but glad to get to know ya'll during this time.

Barbara

 

[twokats]

SO first, thank you for the responses. I talked with some other folks and given what you said here we are booking tomorrow for this cruise. I mean we don't know what we aren't getting if we haven't been on the Dream. We can always do it if we decide in the future to do another cruise.

Yes, I would like to be added to the FE list. I have a year to figure out what to do so seems like I can get it done. But as always, we will probably wait until the last minute.

I saw on some other boards a kids thread for those on the cruise. I'm interested in doing that for my daughter (I will probably have to do most of the typing for her since she is only 8), but she is an only child and a little scared of the kids club and being by herself. So would really like to find some kids about her age that she "knows" before boarding. I haven't seen many families with young ones on this thread yet, but let me know.

Thanks again to those that answered by questions. Seems weird to book a vacation so far in advance but glad to get to know ya'll during this time.

Barbara

We almost always book a year or so in advance on our cruises and sometimes a little more. We have gotten used to it.
I sent you an email so if you got it let me know. Since you can't pm yet, I will get some of the info for the FE thru e-mail. Keep putting it out there for others to talk to your daughter. Sometimes things get lost as we post and new ones come on.

 

[voyageant]

Kathy, I just looked and no PM. Sorry.

Barbara

 

[twokats]

Kathy, I just looked and no PM. Sorry.

Barbara

Would you click on my screen name twokats and it will give you a drop menu. Choose send twokats an email and that way I can send you the message I need to. Thanks.

 

[voyageant]

Kathy, sorry it doesn't give me that option. Guess I'm still too new to contact anyone directly. Give it a couple of more posts and I'll try again.

Thanks for trying.

Barbara

 

[twokats]

Kathy, sorry it doesn't give me that option. Guess I'm still too new to contact anyone directly. Give it a couple of more posts and I'll try again. Thanks for trying. Barbara

Ten posts is the magic number.

Where in Texas is your home. We are in northeast TX about 45 miles east of Dallas.

 

[voyageant]

Ok, ya'll are stuck with us now.

Kathy, we live in a suburb of Dallas. If you know Dallas we are just outside LBJ. Guess we should give locations on a public forum.

 

[DanieD0909]

Hi everyone! We have decided to switch to the San Juan to Miami repo instead...the logistics for us to get to Galveston was just too much have fun everyone!

 

[twokats]

Hi everyone! We have decided to switch to the San Juan to Miami repo instead...the logistics for us to get to Galveston was just too much have fun everyone!

Enjoy.

 

[trj010014]

My parents just booked this cruise!!! It will just be me and my parents, and this will be our seventh cruise.
The wonder is my favorite ship, and I am very glad to go on it again. This will be my first cruise out of vibe, (I'll be 18 when we sail) but I'm very excited for club 18*21.
I would love to join the FE, (Kathy I will send you a PM)
I am very excited!!!!!!!!!!

Taylor

 

[Kommando K]

Hey and Hi! My sweet hubby and I are adding this cruise to the forward part of a BTB in January, celebrating 35 years of sailing together in all kinds of weather! Anyone else doing a BTB Wonder?

 

[Swanie56]

Howdy, shipmates! We just booked. DW and I are going to do a back-to-back with a Southern Caribbean following.

 

[twokats]

Howdy, shipmates! We just booked. DW and I are going to do a back-to-back with a Southern Caribbean following.

Welcome, glad you are joining us. My DH and I did the Southern B2B last October on the Magic.

 

[twokats]

Hey and Hi! My sweet hubby and I are adding this cruise to the forward part of a BTB in January, celebrating 35 years of sailing together in all kinds of weather! Anyone else doing a BTB Wonder?

Glad you are joining us. We are not doing a B2B this time, but we are doing a Bahama on the Wonder in December.

 

[13jbear]

Hi everyone!

We booked this cruise while on the Magic a couple weeks ago. My name is Janae, and it will be me, my husband, our 11 year old (a week shy of 12 by then) son, and our 7 year old daughter. This will be our 2nd cruise. Looking forward to getting to know all of you!

 

[twokats]

Hi everyone!

We booked this cruise while on the Magic a couple weeks ago. My name is Janae, and it will be me, my husband, our 11 year old (a week shy of 12 by then) son, and our 7 year old daughter. This will be our 2nd cruise. Looking forward to getting to know all of you!

So glad you are joining us. We are looking forward to this cruise. It will be number 10 for us.

 

[tiberius]

Hi all!
I just booked this cruise and will be travelling with my DD (27) for some father-daughter quality time. We are both looking forward to the experiences of this cruise! I travelled on the Wonder with my wife out of Galveston in November 2013 and this is my second booked DCL cruise.

 

[MsOnceUponATime]

Afternoon, all! I am considering booking this cruise in the very near future for our Disneymoon!!