3 Night Wonder, Anniversary Cruise - Taking the whole family along! (Pictures added)

[lasmickey]

Hi everyone! This is my first attempt at a trip report, so please bear with me. I have enjoyed reading everyone else's reports, so I thought I'd give it a try.

The Crew
Me
DH
DD1 (11)
DD2 (8)
DFIL & DMIL
DSIL & DSIL BF

Hmmm.. where to start? Well, I've wanted to take a Disney Cruise for quite sometime now. We tried another cruise line about 8 years ago (I know - shocking, right?!). Anyway, it was a great vacation, but considering how much I love WDW, I knew a Disney Cruise had to be in my future. Last year, as we were discussing the fact that our 15th anniversary would be this July, we decided that we really wanted to do something special to celebrate. What better way to celebrate a milestone like this than to take a Disney Cruise, right?! It started off as just a quick, 3 night cruise getaway for me and DH. That thought didn't last long, and we quickly decided we wanted our girls to go along. At this point I should mention that the last cruise we went on, we were part of a group of 22 family and friends - and it was a BLAST! Soooo... I began to think about possibly inviting some more people along on our journey. We booked this cruise kind of late (booked in February for a June cruise), so alot of our friends/family already had plans for their vacations this summer. DH's family finally decided that they would like to go. Some of you may question why we would want to take the whole family along for our anniversary celebration, but we all get along well, and have vacationed together before, and I love having lots of people to share the excitement with. They're not all Disney fanatics like I am, but they all love to travel, and we're all looking forward to sharing this trip together.

So now we have just a little over a week until we set sail, and I'm CRAZY with EXCITEMENT!! I hope you'll all come along for the ride. I look forward to sharing the experience with you!

 

[miztigg]

looking forward to your report ive NEVER cruised ourselfs last disney cruise we had 33 people and i just did a girls weekend there was 11 of us on NCL the cruise itself was horrible but with the group we had it was a blast

 

[wilma-bride]

Great start - I must admit, having vacationed with my in-laws in April, I am in no hurry to travel with family again. Having said that, we are going to Disney with friends of ours next October so I'm really looking forward to that.

One week to go - you must be almost beside yourself with excitement. Hope you have a great cruise

 

[momtocss]

We celebrated our 15 year anniversary with a cruise this year too. We went May 11-15 taking our DD - 12 and DS - 9 and 9. I'm anxious to hear how your trip went.

 

[lasmickey]

Hi all! We've been back for a week now, and I'm finally getting things back to normal. I think I'm ready to get started writing my trip report. So, here we go.....

DH and I decided to drive to Florida instead of flying this time. DH has been after me to plan a "road trip", so I figured he'd get his "road trip" and I'd get to Florida! We left our house at 2:45 a.m. on Tuesday morning ready for our 16 hour trip! We thought that by leaving so early, the girls would spend a large portion of the morning sleeping. Wrong! Everyone was "too excited to sleep!" Here's the family heading out the door...

Our first day driving/riding was fairly uneventful. We arrived in Savannah, GA around 2:15 in the afternoon. We had reservations at a Hampton Inn right off of I-95. We spent the rest of the day swimming and relaxing and enjoying the beautiful weather.

We had a nice dinner at Ruby Tuesday's and after a brief stop at Wal-Mart to pick up a few odds and ends we needed, we went back in the hotel. We wanted to be on the road at a decent time the next morning, so we were in bed fairly early.

Next stops: St. Augustine and Cape Canaveral....

 

[lasmickey]

We were up and ready to go by 8:30 Wednesday morning. We had a quick breakfast at the hotel and were on our way. We were all really excited to get going, because we knew we'd soon be in Florida and would be getting on The Wonder the next morning.

For years I've told my husband about a trip to St. Augustine I had taken as a child, and how I wanted to go back some day. As we crossed into Florida and began to see signs for St. Augustine, my husband suggested we take a side trip and stop and spend the afternoon there. Afterall, we had no other plans for the day except to reach Cape Canaveral, which we knew we would do in plenty of time. I happily agreed and was so excited to see the old city again after all these years. We had a wonderful afternoon strolling along the old streets, and shopping in the little shops. We had lunch in an excellent little Italian restaurant, and then it was time to move on. Here are a few pics of us strolling the streets...

As we got back on the interstate it started to rain. It was at that time my DMIL called to say they (DFIL, DMIL, DSIL and DSIL BF) were in Pittsburgh getting ready to board their plane. She said there were reports of tornadoes in the Orlando area and she wanted to check the weather before they got on the plane. I told her that although it was raining pretty hard at the time, we hadn't heard any reports of tornadoes. This calmed her fears a bit, and we wished them a speedy and uneventful flight. We'd be seeing them in just a few short hours.

By the time we arrived at the Radisson at the Port by late afternoon, the rain was over. I was a bit worried when we pulled in and saw all of the construction going on. I checked us in and was directed to our room in the back of the complex. I also confirmed that we were all scheduled for the port shuttle at 10:00 a.m. and was told to be out in front of the lobby by 9:45 the next morning. I was very impressed with the Radisson. It was clean and comfortable, and we didn't hear any noise from the construction at all. It's a very nice resort with a beautiful swimming pool area and nice landscaping.

We decided to drive around Cape Canaveral and check out the area. We stopped in and checked out Ron Jon's Surf Shop and grabbed a quick early dinner at Long John Silver's. None of us were very hungry and we decided not to waste the time or money on a sit-down restaurant this night. We knew we had 3 nights of sit-down dinners ahead of us on the cruise and we wanted to go check out the cruise port before heading back to the hotel.

We were all excited to get our first glimpse of the cruise terminal and of course this just made us that much more excited for morning to come.

We headed back to the hotel and it wasn't long before the rest of our group arrived. We made plans to meet the next morning to get their rental car returned and have breakfast. Although we were all in bed early, I don't think any of us really slept. The excitement was evident by all the giggles we heard from the girls throughout the night!

 

[momtocss]

Glad to see you started your trip report. I am anxious to hear more!

I had a tough time sleeping the night before our cruise. Our first night on board, though, I slept so well. What a relief to finally be there.

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

We left our house at 2:45 a.m. on Tuesday morning ready for our 16 hour trip! We thought that by leaving so early, the girls would spend a large portion of the morning sleeping. Wrong! Everyone was "too excited to sleep!"

Of course you were.


Great start to your trip report.

 

[lasmickey]

We were up early on Thursday morning. No need for alarm clocks or wake up calls this morning! We could hardly contain our excitement!!! I knew the ship would be docked by then and was just sitting there getting ready for US to board!!! It was pretty overcast, and looked like it might rain, but I was NOT going to allow that to dampen my spirits!

The in-laws decided to have breakfast at the hotel, but none of us were very hungry. The girls wanted to go to the McDonald's across the street and that was fine with us. As soon as the kids had swallowed their last bite of breakfast I herded them quickly back to the car and directed DH to drive straight to the cruise port.... I couldn't wait another minute to see our ship!!

The girls were instantly excited to see a Carnival ship docked at the port, but I knew something even more exciting would soon be coming into sight. I saw it first. With its glorious red stacks bearing those prominent mickey ears, it was quite a sight to behold!! I get teary eyed now just remembering the moment.

We drove over to get a better look before returning to the hotel to meet up with the rest of the gang. By this time I was practically bursting with excitement!

We got back at to the hotel and took a few pics around the property while the others were still at breakfast.

Then DH and DFIL left to return DFIL's rental car. By the time they returned, it was 9:30 and we decided to head over to the lobby. Here's a picture of DD's with DMIL & DFIL getting ready to go catch the shuttle.

DH drove me and DD's over and dropped us off with the luggage and then went to park our car in the "cruise parking lot". By 9:45 he was back and the shuttle had just arrived. The driver loaded up all of our luggage, and checked off everyone's names to make sure everyone who was getting on had reservations for 10:00 a.m. He said we were all present and accounted for, and asked if it was ok for him to go ahead and leave a few minutes early to take us over. Of course nobody had a problem with that, and we were on our way! I was excited to see the ship again, and since we had already seen it once this morning, I was able to watch the expressions of the rest of the family as they saw it for the first time. They were just as awestruck as I was!

It was about 9:55 when the driver dropped us off at the baggage check area outside the terminal. He said they would be opening up the gates and collecting our luggage in about 5 minutes and then we would be able to proceed inside the terminal. Here we are waiting...

Right at 10:00 a.m. they allowed us through, and a few minutes later we were going through security. Everyone made it through the metal detectors with no trouble.... except for me. They had to use the hand-held device over me to make sure I wasn't packing a weapon. I asked my DMIL & DSIL to take a picture, and was quickly reprimanded for that! I didn't know you couldn't take pictures in the security area... oops! I had just stepped inside the doors to the terminal and was already trying to get us kicked out! I was finally cleared and we were allowed to go upstairs.

Other than a group of travel agents who were getting ready to tour the ship, there were very few people in the terminal yet.

The check-in windows weren't open yet, so we had some time to look around. It was neat to see the big model of the ship

and after checking that out we quickly went outside onto the "balcony" area to get a close up view of The Wonder.

Around 10:45 they began to open the check-in windows, so we got in line. While we were in line we were handed this...

The coveted #2 boarding pass! WOO-HOO!!!

We were checked in quickly and then found some comfortable seats near the windows to sit and wait to board. We also took this time to sign the girls in for the kids clubs and get our pager, and purchase lanyards and autograph books. DD's were happy we did, as Minnie Mouse soon appeared. Time passed fairly quickly, and soon we decided to get in line for boarding. We were told that boarding would probably begin around 11:45. Sure enough, at 11:45 they made an announcement that the "magical family" would be starting things off and immediately after they went through, away we went! OMG - I'm finally going to be on board!!! I might just pee my pants!!

Before I knew it, they were announcing us and we were on board!! YAY! It was just as beautiful as I had anticipated. We headed up to deck 9 for some lunch, and were some of the first through the buffet line. You can see by this next picture that we basically had the outdoor seating area to ourselves for awhile.

Next - our first day/evening on board...

 

[ivet]

Your doing GREAT!!!! I can feel myself right in your shoes and cant wait for you to resume our DCL broadcast special

ivet

 

[lasmickey]

After lunch we decided to walk around and check out the ship.

As we were walking around we ran into Goofy in the hallway outside the shops. It was just us and Goofy, and he spent about 5 minutes with us with no interruptions. The girls wre thrilled!

And so was DH - Goofy is his favorite character! He was a bit embarrassed that I made him get his picture taken though!

After our private meet & greet with Goofy, it was time to head to our staterooms. Just when we reached our hallway, they took down the barrier and allowed us to enter. Perfect timing! Our cabin was side by side with DMIL & DFIL. DSIL & DSIL BF were just a few doors down. We originally all booked category 12 staterooms, but were all very happy to be upgraded to category 10's. The split bathrooms are great!! We were on deck 2 forward (cabin #'s 2035, 2037 and 2045). Here are a few pictures of our cabin.

We took some time to look over our Navigator for the day and see what all was available to do. It was then that I noticed our dining room tickets on the desk. We had rotation PTA, and we were very pleasantly surprised to find that our request to be switched from late to early dinner had been granted. We quickly confirmed with the rest of our group that they also had been switched, and we were all seated at the same table (which of course we were). It was at this time that I decided that DD's and myself should take our Bonine. We all get motion sick very easily, and I didn't want to take any chances. DH doesn't usually have issues like we do, and so he decided he would be fine without it for the time being. We had a short time before the life boat drill, so we went up to the customer service desk to put some money down on our charge account. We very rarely use credit cards, and were happy to be able to use cash on the cruise for our account. By the time that was accomplished and we looked around the ship a bit more, it was time to grab our lifejackets out of our stateroom for the drill. We noticed that we only had 3 lifejackets for the 4 of us, but it just so happened our cabin stewardess was in the hallway, and she quickly got us a child's sized jacket for our youngest DD. Our station was in the Walt Disney theater, so we headed that way. We stopped along the way to have this taken

It's certainly not the most fun part of a cruise, but I felt the need to have a commemorative photo of it! Of course I would need one of the in-laws, too! Afterall, we all look so good in orange!

WOW! Does DCL ever keep you hoppin'! As soon as the drill was done, we had just enough time to drop our lifejackets off in the room and go up for the Adventure's Away party. It had apparently rained sometime while we were inside, but it had stopped by the time we reached deck 9. Thank goodness! We were all full of excitement and energy, and we had a blast at this party. It was all so festive! Our DD's had another memorable moment during the party. They were chosen to be among a few select kids to go up on stage and lead everyone in doing the Cha Cha Slide. I'm sorry to say I didn't get pictures of them doing it, but DH was able to video it. They were pretty nervous, but they had a great time doing it! Here we are just after the horn blew and we were sailing away (everyone that is except DH - he took most of the pictures!)

Well, as I said, DCL keeps things moving right along, so by this time it was time to get ready for dinner. We got back to our stateroom and were happy to find all of our luggage waiting for us. We quickly put some stuff away, changed, freshened up for dinner, and were out the door headed to Parrot Cay. As we were walking down the hall to Parrot Cay and passing all of the large porthole windows, I soon decided I was very glad to have taken my motion sickness medication. We were rocking quite a bit just then, and watching it out the window certainly didn't help! DD's and I all had to concentrate very hard on not looking outside while we passed those windows!

We reached Parrot Cay and were met at the door by Nino - who we soon found out would be our server. He greated us warmly and directed us to our table. As we had figured, we were at an "8 top" table for just our family which was very nice, although we would have been just as happy to have table mates. We soon met Sonja, our assistant server. She was very sweet, but somewhat quiet and reserved. We were well pleased with her service throughout our time on board, but in all honesty we much preferred Nino. He was great. He kept us all entertained and his service was excellent. We all very much enjoyed our food on this evening. I plan to post pics of our food and give a review of it on the "food pics" thread, so I won't go into detail about all of that now, except to say that from appetizers to dessert, the food was great. I will also mention once again how happy I was that DD's and I had taken our Bonine! The motion of the ship was really rough during dinner, and I constantly had to remind myself and oldest DD to focus on something other than the boat rocking! We didn't get sick, thank goodness, but the potential was definitely there! I can't stress enough to take your motion sickness medicine before setting sail if you even have an inkling that you might get sick. After we had finished our entire meal, the head server and several of the servers brought DH and I out an anniversary cake and sang to us. Also, during dinner, the girls got to do the Conga Line with Nino and Sonja, and they were loving being in the spotlight yet again. As I mentioned, Nino kept us entertained and one way he did so was by doing "magic tricks" each evening. In this next picture he is showing us his "pet mouse" which sometimes tries to "leap away from him". He was quite comical, but we all about died laughing at my DMIL. Every time the mouse would "jump" she would scream (quite loudly!). Even after he had done the trick many, many times, she would still squeal when he did it again. She just couldn't understand how he was doing it! (Ok, so she's a bit slow in figuring things out - but it kept us all in stitches!!) Here he is with his "mouse"

After dinner we stopped off in our stateroom before heading to "The Golden Mickeys" show. Our girls were thrilled to find our beds turned down and our first towel animal.

The girls decided they didn't want to go to the show, and instead decided to try out the kids' club for the first time. We dropped them off on the way to the show, and requested that they stay until at least our show was over. We loved the show, and kind of wished the girls would have attended with us, but at the same time, were glad we all had the opportunity to do what we wanted and nobody was forced to do something they preferred not to. No sooner was the show over and we received a page saying the kids were headed back to the stateroom. They very much enjoyed their time there, and were happy to know they were going to enjoy some "freedom" from Mom & Dad while on board. We all made a quick run to the shops to take a quick look around before heading back down to the stateroom to get ready for bed. It had been an exhilarating and yet exhausting day, and we were ready to turn in fairly early. Afterall, tomorrow we would be touring Nassau for the first time, and we wanted to be well rested and ready to get off the boat early.

 

[ashleylovesthebeach]

Love hearing about your trip! Can't wait to hear and sea more!
Keep up the good work!
~Ashley

 

[natale1980]

Your TR is great -But I feel like the day just flew by. We're going on a three day cruise in Jan and I'm afraid 3 days is just too short.

Can't wait for more!
-nat

 

[disneyjunkie99]

Lovin your trip report. We are doing a 3 day in March. My daughter will be 9 when we sail so I am very interested in the things that your daughters liked doing. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Jaime]

Great trip report...can't wait to read more!

 

[pjstevens]

Loving your TR, can't wait to hear more!

 

[looneytunes31419]

Great TR. Cant wait to hear more. My DH and I are going on the wonder for our third wedding Anniversary. I am getting really excited and cant wait to be on board. And by the way We live in Savannah.

 

[RLccweems]

Nice trip report...I love all the pics!!

 

[CapnJackGroupie]

Enjoying your TR!!

 

[lasmickey]

Thanks to all of you who are reading! I will try to post another installment sometime tomorrow. My work schedule is crazy this week!