2 day WONDERful trip out of San Diego: Completed

[kiapepito]

So, I have booked and cancelled so many sailings out of San Diego because I felt a bit silly taking a 3 day cruise while we have been pampered and blessed to sail on 7 days. However, ONE week before the 2 day May 12-14th sailing out of San Diego, my husband, persisted for me to take our two girls and my mom so that she could experience her first Disney Cruise and we would be two trips from completing Gold. So... we booked it!

Day 1....

On Thursday morning the plan was to take our girls out of school for a "dentist appt..." and get in the car and when they realized Grandma was in the car we would be on our merry way... Well, driving from the Central Valley, I realized that most likely than not, we'd get stuck in Los Angeles traffic as well as San Diego traffic... so both girls woke up, and while filming on my phone, I gave them the news! They began to cry... it was super sweet! Off we went to Grandma's house, and we were on our way!

Luckily, we arrived to San Diego by 3:15 pm avoiding ALL traffic... wonderful!

I had booked the park and stay at the Holiday Inn: 1430 Seventh Ave, San Diego, CA 92101. Not going to lie... the parking structure terrified me (maybe I've watched too many shows where people creep up to people in empty dark parking garages...) anywho.... we found a space on the 4th floor, said a quick prayer that we would not get stuck in the elevator and then made it to the lobby.

This hotel is under MAJOR renovations... so much construction EVERYWHERE!! The room we stayed in was newly renovated and beautiful! We checked in and I booked the 11:00 am shuttle to the port that was complimentary. We dropped our things off and walked down the very steep hill into Little Italy where we had the best dinner which included pizza, pasta, macaroons, tiramisu and of course, wine!
Address: 1643 India St, San Diego, CA 92101- Solunto Restaurant and Bakery.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel and in the reception lobby was an assortment of warm cookies! Yum! Not like we had already consumed a million calories at dinner... I also noticed a sign that Monday- Thursday from 3-5 pm they offer Happy Hour in the hotel lobby where they provide complimentary adult drinks and sodas... I did not see this sign nor we informed about it... I was a little bummed!

It began to sprinkle a little outside as I stood in our balcony talking on the phone with my husband.

None of us really had a great night's sleep as we were too giddy and excited for our adventures the following day!

I will continue Day 2 hopefully by tonight.. I'm off to a birthday party for our daughter's friend!

 

[nycdisneygal]

Looking forward to reading the rest!!

 

[kiapepito]

Day 2... morning of Embarkation!

Since I had booked the cruise a week before the cruise, the earliest PAT we could claim was 1:30pm. That is so late for me!! So... I told my mom that we would arrive to port early and see if we could get in early (I also figured I could get the girls their bracelets for kids club as well as take character pictures).

I had arranged the shuttle to pick us up from the hotel at 11 am. He arrived and took us to port, which was literally a 5 minute shuttle ride. As we approached the end of the street, to the left you could see the beautiful Wonder... it's my third cruise, and I always seem to get quite emotional! They are such beautiful regal looking ships!

Getting into the port was super simple! The shuttle dropped us off in the loop of shuttles dropping off by baggage claim. I did not have luggage tags, so I asked for them, filled them out, the porter took our bags and we walked into the terminal! Easy peasy! We went through security before reaching the terminal to check for Disney. I did notice a side table for people who had brought on alcohol for it to be checked. I did not bring in any with me for this trip.

Once we got into the terminal, as we are Silver, we walked into that specific line and checked in! I was excited that we were able to check in so early, but was not surprised when we were given Group 26 to embark... mind you, it's 10:30 am... well... with our Keys of the World and Navigator in hand, we checked the girl's into the kids club and they were give their bracelets. They also had coloring pages for the kids to color if they wanted around that station.

Next, we took a couple pictures with the back drops that they set up. The oldest had to go to the bathroom, so as we were going to the bathroom, in a corner was Captain Mickey taking pictures! They were so hidden that not that many people noticed so the line was about a 5 minute wait!! Minnie came out after Captain Mickey.

By the time they called Group 26 (I asked why we had been given that group number, the CM told me that she believes it has to do with PAT time... that makes sense..)

By 12:34 pm we were walking onto the ship and we were given our royal introduction!

Seconds later, we were walking into Tritons where we had a nice sit down lunch before we wandered around the ship giving my mom a private tour as it was her first sailing. While in Tritan's we asked if Ida our server from our Christmas sailing was onboard and to our amazement he was a couple tables over, so our girl's ran over to him to give him a great big hug and to take a picture!

The first stop of my mom's personal private tour of course had to be the kid's club... My girl's, all they talk about constantly on an almost daily basis is about the clubs! They LOVE them! It was open house and so kids and parents were running around everywhere! I also noticed a private group of about 30 people that were brought on as guests who get to see the ship as an open house and then they get off before we leave.

Sofia the First had an activity with the kids at 2pm where the CM's put on a cute interactive show and then Princess Sofia came out to participate and to take pictures with the kids.

By 2:28 pm we walked over to our room Midship on the 7th floor. We tend to stay on the 6th Midship to be close to the kid's club, but 7th floor was the only room available... let me tell you... that extra flight of stairs, I felt it! Lol!!

Next, we walked to the 10th deck to get ice cream and fruit! Yummy! The girl's asked to get in the pool, but literally, not even exaggerating, it had 35 kids in it. I made the remark to my mom that they were bound to close it because of an accident, and like clockwork, five minutes later, you could hear the life guard blowing his whistle for everyone to get out! I don't understand why Disney made such small pools...

 

[kiapepito]

Looking forward to reading the rest!!

Thank you so much!!

 

[kiapepito]

Day 2 continued...

After the muster drill we made our way to Deck 10 to the left side of the stage for the Sail Away party. One of the best parts of being on a smaller boat is that there are less people, even if the boat is sold out! This is the best view in my opinion to watch the Sail Away Party as well as Pirates Party! The characters are literally a few feet away.

When the party ended we continued the private tour for my mom when we ran into Chip and Dale in Shutters. I LOVE randomly running into characters! It is brilliant and adds so much to the experience.

It was then off to dinner we went. It was pirate's night and we were having dinner at Animator's. I am in love with the black truffle purseittes in Animator's! Yummy! The dinner show we had was where Animator Mickey comes out in his robe. We were seated very close to him as he passed by us. Not too many people were dressed for Pirate night as I'm guessing it was such a short trip. In fact, we did not even receive our bandanna's in our room until after dinner!

If we weren't already busy enough with a busy schedule, we also had Frozen this night. So after dinner, we were seated in first seating, we went over to watch Frozen. Love this performance so much more than the production at California Adventures. After the show, it was time for Pirate's at 10pm... fireworks started at 10:15pm. After fireworks, we went to Cabana's for the pirate buffet. I had always known about it, but never really remembered to go. I was determined this time, as we were all feeling a bit hungry!

They have TONS of food... and turkey legs too! The carvings of pirates in the fruit was amazing and full of talent! Can't wait to go back for the next sailing! By the time we were done eating our calories at 10:45 pm it was off to bed...

All in all, the first day was amazing as always!

 

[kiapepito]

Day 2 Ensenada

After a good night's sleep we woke up in Ensenada. I've been before with a friend and the only thing we found was the Starbucks with Wifi. We walked around and did the tourist stops buying local artisan crafts, and then to a couple of bars that were NOT appropriate for children.... If you've never been, it's always nice to get off the boat and venture to a new place.

As the cruise was only two days, we stayed onboard (well kinda... I'll explain more in a minute) as well as everyone else! I was told by a CM that only 600 people disembarked in Ensenada. We went over to Cabanas for breakfast as my mom wanted to go since we had eaten lunch at Tritan's the day before. By 9:00 am we were in line to see Belle in her peasant dress. (she's my favorite!) We then went to see Daisy, Donald, Ariel, Cinderella and then walked around the boat for a bit before disembarking and taking pictures outside next to the boat and my mom wanted to buy a couple of things in the stores located inside the port. Fifteen minutes later, we were back on the boat.

The girls wanted to go swimming and it took every ounce of me to agree because I knew it was kid's soup in the small pools... ten minutes after they had gotten in, sure enough, someone had peed and they were all escorted out of the pool! I took this time to walk over to get my lamb gyro. Yummy!!

We walked around the ship for a bit more, took the girl's to the kid's club for awhile and before we knew it, it was time for dinner. Tonight, was Tiana's. I was so excited for my mom to see this new restaurant. After dinner, we went to watch Believe. My daughter's love this show so much that they put on their own rendition of the show at least once a week at home!

At 10pm we headed over to the See Ya Real Soon show in the Atrium. I always get so sad because it means that the next morning we have to go home! We took a couple more pictures with characters and then we were off to bed.

The next morning we were up by 6 am and by 8:02 am we were waiting for our shuttle to pick us up to take us back to the hotel so we could get our car and get back on the road.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip and we do not regret going on the short trip! Can't wait to go back on this beautiful ship for another getaway in October! I'm excited as it will be a Halloween at Seas trip, one we have not taken!