The next morning, we grabbed breakfast, which was included in the room costs. They had the standard continental breakfast of Danish, breads, pastries, cereal, yogurts and fruits. And they also had hot breakfast including scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and waffles. You get to make your own hot waffles with a waffles iron and the pre-made cups of waffle batter. Another bonus of this hotel was the very friendly and helpful staff and they recycled. In your hotel room and in the breakfast area, they had separate bins for paper, plastic, aluminum/cans and trash. Love that!
We hopped on our shuttle at 10:30 a.m., our shuttle reservation time. Our driver was on time, courteous and gave each passenger a phone number for after cruise pick up service. Although this is a different driver than the night before, he had our names and cell phone from the shuttle service to the restaurant the previous night. I’ll explain why I was so impressed with this on our last day. Getting to the port was a quick ride. We got off the bus and the porters took our bags, we never saw those again till we got into our staterooms that afternoon. Seeing the Disney Wonder in port was so exciting. We could hardly wait to get on board. We walked through the terminal building doors and went through security and up the escalators to check in. No lines. At the top of stairs, Disney had their CMs ready to guide us through every step. I had completed and printed up all the necessary paperwork ahead, so check in only took a few minutes. We got our KTTW and a copy of the activities for the day.
View of the Disney Wonder coming into the terminal
After check in, we had to get our pictures taken for security. Each of us, even DS had to get his picture taken. By the time this was all done, it was 11:15 p.m. We had another 45 minutes to lounge around, so I went to check out the kids’ activities desk, went outside to take pictures of the boat and then checked out the model in the atrium. By then, Goofy showed up and DS had to say “hi” and got his pictures taken with Goofy. Then, we sat and watched Disney movie on the television while we waited to board. Boarding began at noon with the special family they selected to get the boarding process started, then group 1 on up. It only took 10 -15 minutes to get to group 6. Once we walked through the Mickey head, we presented our picture IDs, got our KTTW cards scanned and waited for our first pictures with the professional photographers. Little did we realize, this would be the first of many, many pictures that will be captured by the ship photographers.
Taking those first steps on the gangway, we were filled with anticipation! I felt like a kid on Christmas day. We walked through the gangway and were onboard the Disney Wonder and it truly was WONDERful! We were greeted by CMs and I have to say I love those first words you hear! What a surprise for DH and DS to hear our names called out and welcomed aboard to lots of clapping and cheering.
It puts a smile on my face just thinking about it.
With Disney efficiency, we were informed that lunch was being served in Parrot Cay and Beach Blanket Buffet. We were directed to Deck 9’s Beach Blanket Buffet because Parrot Cay was full. Upon our arrival, a CM took our carry-on bags off our hands and took it to a table for us. The buffet had a nice selection. I grabbed our 2 plates, mine and DS’ and headed to our table, while trying to corral my little excited goat to the table. A CM was good enough to grab one of the plates off my hands, so I could hold DS’s hand and walk him to the table. The very helpful CM also went and got our drinks for us, since I had my hands full trying to control a very excited DS and getting his lunch ready. For us, this will be the theme for the rest of the cruise – great service from a great service team trained to pamper their guests. Even my little almost 3 year old was treated like a prince!
It was close to 12:45 p.m. when I was done with lunch, a signal for me to head to Wavebands to move our Palo dinner. When I got down there, a long line has formed. They opened promptly at 1 p.m. and I had a short 5 minutes wait before I was able to move our Palo dinner, although we were waitlisted for Palo brunch, they weren’t able to work us in. Another great excuse to book another trip. I noticed 3 tables, one for changing dinner rotation, one for Palo and one for the spa. There was no line for the spa at all.
By this time, it was close to 1:30 p.m., and we headed up to our stateroom to check it out. We had to wait a few minutes for before we were able to get in our rooms but I saw all the stateroom hosts rushing around trying to get everything ready for us and there were several others just waiting in the lobby. When we got to our stateroom, 2 of our bags were already outside the door. We were really excited to check out our room since we got upgraded from a Cat 8 oceanview forward to a Cat 5 with verandah mid ship. Wow. We were impressed with the size of the room, I thought it would be much smaller but it was fine for the 3 of us. Our gifts from Shirley’s were already there and so was a very nice note from Disney wishing us a happy anniversary. We did some quick unpacking while waiting for the other bags and decided to go ahead and explore the ship a little more, especially Flounders’ since we were going to put DS in there for a few hours while we go to Palo. Although DS ran in there and started playing with the toys right away, I had a feeling it wouldn’t keep his interest. The nursery was great for infants and toddlers but not for children closer to 3. At this time, I realized, we had to meet our DIS roll call, so we ran a little late and were only able to meet only Anne Marie and her family, who were nice enough to wait for us.
Packages from Shirley'
Flounder's Nursery
DS was anxious to open his gift basket, so we headed back to our stateroom. After hanging out on the verandah for a few minutes, DS tore into his present happily. He played with all the goodies while we unpacked our other bags, which got there shortly after we got back to our room. All this time, I saw the stateroom hosts working busily away still getting everything ready. Shortly after, it was time for the safety drill. We got our lifejackets and headed down to the assembly are for deck 4. The whole drill took 20 minutes, including the time to walk down and back up to our room.
The sailaway party started not long after and we headed up to meet our Passporter Group. We finally met SailingSue – yay! But we didn’t meet anyone else. DS loved the Sailaway Party. We heard the sound of the beautiful horn and then, we slowly left the ship. We enjoyed the party and leaving the port as long as we could before we had to get ready for our early dinner seating.
Sailaway Party
Animator’s Palate is first. I was really excited about it because everyone had talked about the show. We met our head server, server and assistant server for the cruise, Anil, Marco and Lito. We really enjoyed Marco and Lito’s service the entire cruise. They were attentive and really engaging with DS, who is very shy with strangers. I ordered the ahi tuna appetizers and the short ribs. The short ribs were YUMMY. DH ordered an appetizer with avocado and the lamb. He liked them both very much. And DS? You guessed it. Mac and cheese and a side of fruit. We enjoyed dinner and the show.
After dinner, we had a little time to go exploring before the next show. The Golden Mickeys started at 8:30 and we got there just in time. Great show! We came back to our stateroom to find a towel swan waiting for us and DS’ bed all made up. DS would love coming back each night to see what towel animal creation was waiting for him on the bed.
