buzz328
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2008
- Messages
- 34
About 13 years ago, my husband and I were in a Disney Store when our toddler stopped suddenly in the middle of the store and pointed to the giant Beauty and the Beast display on the wall and pointed and screamed in delight BEAST! That was it. We were hooked. Two kids later, countless DVDs (and VHS) movies, toys, games, clothes, and seven trips to the parks, we are finally able to take the vacation weve been dreaming about since the cruise ships were unveiled 10 years ago. From September 28th thru October 2nd, we called room 8562 on the Disney Wonder our home. We researched everything we could find out about this cruise for months and found so much useful information on the Disboards that I wanted to post this trip report in case other people are looking for some information.
Sunday, September 28, 2008- Embarkation
We arrived at Port Canaveral around 10:40 a.m. (btw, its terminal A not B, oops!). Going through security was a breeze even with a little alcohol tucked away in our backpack. Then I checked us in and DH checked the kids (DD10 & DS5) into their respective clubs (we had preregistered online) and got wrist bands and the beeper. I was glad there was just one beeper to keep up with because I thought there would be one for each child. We had our picture made with Captain Mickey, walked outside to look at the ship, and the kids played cards. The time went by quickly and they called our group (#4) around 12:00 p.m. After we walked through and they welcomed us aboard (so cool!), we went up to deck nine and just got lunch from the snack counters (pizza, burgers, hot dogs, chicken strips). DH was a little disappointed because the burgers are the same as the parks that hes never been crazy about. The pizza was a little better than the parks and the chicken strips were good, weve never had them at the parks so I cant compare them. The hot dogs are the same as the parks, but weve always enjoyed them. We had our bathing suits so the kids could change and enjoy the pools before it got crowded. DD10 and DS5 must have gone down the slide 10 times or more. This is when I got my first drink of the day. If you get the souvenir cup (its $7.95 as opposed to just $3.95 for a drink of the day in a regular cup) you can get it refilled each day for $3.95 which is a good deal at most bars because they use much smaller glasses than the souvenir cup, but DH never got the souvenir cup and when he got the drink of the day from one of the bars on deck 9, they came in glasses that were just as big.
: We walked around a little and then our room was ready at 1:30 p.m. Our stateroom was great only a little smaller than a value resort room but plenty of storage and a lot of coat hangers (23 actually). We were in a category 4 because were a family of 5 so we had a veranda that was awesome, though not quite as private as I expected. I didnt panic nearly as much as I thought I would about the kids (especially DS5) leaning over. He had to stand on his tiptoes just to see over the rail and we already had the talk about not standing on the furniture and he also knew he wasnt allowed out there by himself. Some of the rails on the upper decks actually came up to DH chest and hes 62 and they all have plexiglass. You still have to watch your kids, but Disney has done everything to make it as safe as possible. DH & I took a Carnival cruise in May 07 and I saw lots of places where little ones could easily slip through the rails.
We unpacked our carry-ons and then walked around. We wanted to check out our table at the restaurants. Animators Palate is a Muster Station for the drill so they had all the tables covered with white linens. It was very quiet and kind of dark in there and the linens looked like white sheets covering bodies on all the tables quite spooky! When we got back all but one piece of our luggage was there. At 4:00, we donned our life jackets to go to the safety drill which took less than 30 minutes which I also do not mind at all because Im paranoid and am all for the better safe than sorry motto. Speaking of which, I would like to mention that I loved Disneys obsession with the hand sanitizer and wipes and that they make the kids wash their hands when they enter the kids clubs. When we took our life jackets back to the room, our missing piece of luggage still had not arrived so I was starting to get nervous, but we went to the sail-a-way party on deck nine. It was a lot of fun and the kids got streamers to wave. We went back to the stateroom to watch the ship pull away from dock from our veranda and found our other piece of luggage waiting yay! I felt much better. It was so cool to see all the people waving from the dock. I knew employees at the terminal waved with big Mickey hands, but I didnt realize how many other people line up along the shore to wave. It looked like some people had brought out a picnic to watch the ship leave and some also had Mickey hands or Disney flags or banners. We went back into the stateroom to finish unpacking and we ordered the cheese platter and chocolate chip cookies from room service. The cookies really are great; the cheese platter was pretty small but we really didnt need to eat much anyway.
By this time, it was time to start getting ready for the show and dinner. We had second seating at 8:15 and the shows start and 6:15 so I didnt know if there would be enough time to get ready for dinner after the show there would have been since the shows end at 7:15. Our dinner rotation was TAAP. DS5 was not too thrilled about getting changed for dinner. We should have known how exhausted he was since we picked him up from school on Friday and drove straight to Orlando. We hit Atlanta rush hour so it was after midnight when we checked in and then got up at the crack of dawn Saturday to do a whirlwind 3 parks in one day. It was a challenge but we managed all of these attractions in one day: Soarin, Test Track, Mission Space, Living Seas, Turtle Talk, Tower Of Terror, Rockin Roller Coaster, Indiana Jones, Star Tours, Philharmagic, Tea Cups, Indy Cars, Snow White, Space Mountain, Stitchs Great Escape, Buzz Space Ranger Spin, Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Pirates of the Caribbean, & Cinderellas Carousel!
Then Sunday we got up at the crack of dawn again so its no wonder he was worn out. When he gets tired, he starts obsessing over little things like not wanting to tuck his shirt in because we were making him look like an old man. I am soooo sorry our neighbors had to hear that fuss it was not very Disney-like. He pouted all throughout the Golden Mickeys and the Mickey Mania show in Studio Sea. He continued to pout in Tritons until he ate a couple of rolls and I realized that he really had not eaten much at lunch because he was so excited about the Mickey Pool. So not only was he exhausted but also starving. He took one sip of chocolate milk and laid his head down in my lap and was out like a light. 
So the rest of us DH, DD14 & DD10 enjoyed a nice quiet first dinner. We got to know our servers ( Romy & Everett) a little. They were really great. I know its their job, but they make everyone feel special. They knew our names before we even got there. They cut our kids steak up. Even DD14 enjoyed the service because she had planned to skip dinner on our last night to watch the season premier of Pushing Daises, but ended up coming to dinner with us. Romy did a few puzzles with crayons for them that they got a big kick out of.
I had studied menus online and was a little disappointed to find that the Mariners Soufflé wasnt offered anymore, but I got the cherries jubilee and they were very good. DD10 got the crème brulee she had been dying to try and she wasnt disappointed at all. After dinner we went back to the room to find the beds made out and an elephant towel animal waiting for us. We studied the next days navigator for a while then we were all gently rocked to sleep!
DS5's first sight of the ship. (Ok, so I missed his first reaction & this is a reenactment):
Captain Mickey!!!
I "borrowed" this pose from another trip report:
Fun on the Mickey slide!
DD10 at the Sailaway Party:
Sailaway Party:
Our 1st Towel Animal!
A long day!
more to come...
Sunday, September 28, 2008- Embarkation
We arrived at Port Canaveral around 10:40 a.m. (btw, its terminal A not B, oops!). Going through security was a breeze even with a little alcohol tucked away in our backpack. Then I checked us in and DH checked the kids (DD10 & DS5) into their respective clubs (we had preregistered online) and got wrist bands and the beeper. I was glad there was just one beeper to keep up with because I thought there would be one for each child. We had our picture made with Captain Mickey, walked outside to look at the ship, and the kids played cards. The time went by quickly and they called our group (#4) around 12:00 p.m. After we walked through and they welcomed us aboard (so cool!), we went up to deck nine and just got lunch from the snack counters (pizza, burgers, hot dogs, chicken strips). DH was a little disappointed because the burgers are the same as the parks that hes never been crazy about. The pizza was a little better than the parks and the chicken strips were good, weve never had them at the parks so I cant compare them. The hot dogs are the same as the parks, but weve always enjoyed them. We had our bathing suits so the kids could change and enjoy the pools before it got crowded. DD10 and DS5 must have gone down the slide 10 times or more. This is when I got my first drink of the day. If you get the souvenir cup (its $7.95 as opposed to just $3.95 for a drink of the day in a regular cup) you can get it refilled each day for $3.95 which is a good deal at most bars because they use much smaller glasses than the souvenir cup, but DH never got the souvenir cup and when he got the drink of the day from one of the bars on deck 9, they came in glasses that were just as big.
: We walked around a little and then our room was ready at 1:30 p.m. Our stateroom was great only a little smaller than a value resort room but plenty of storage and a lot of coat hangers (23 actually). We were in a category 4 because were a family of 5 so we had a veranda that was awesome, though not quite as private as I expected. I didnt panic nearly as much as I thought I would about the kids (especially DS5) leaning over. He had to stand on his tiptoes just to see over the rail and we already had the talk about not standing on the furniture and he also knew he wasnt allowed out there by himself. Some of the rails on the upper decks actually came up to DH chest and hes 62 and they all have plexiglass. You still have to watch your kids, but Disney has done everything to make it as safe as possible. DH & I took a Carnival cruise in May 07 and I saw lots of places where little ones could easily slip through the rails. We unpacked our carry-ons and then walked around. We wanted to check out our table at the restaurants. Animators Palate is a Muster Station for the drill so they had all the tables covered with white linens. It was very quiet and kind of dark in there and the linens looked like white sheets covering bodies on all the tables quite spooky! When we got back all but one piece of our luggage was there. At 4:00, we donned our life jackets to go to the safety drill which took less than 30 minutes which I also do not mind at all because Im paranoid and am all for the better safe than sorry motto. Speaking of which, I would like to mention that I loved Disneys obsession with the hand sanitizer and wipes and that they make the kids wash their hands when they enter the kids clubs. When we took our life jackets back to the room, our missing piece of luggage still had not arrived so I was starting to get nervous, but we went to the sail-a-way party on deck nine. It was a lot of fun and the kids got streamers to wave. We went back to the stateroom to watch the ship pull away from dock from our veranda and found our other piece of luggage waiting yay! I felt much better. It was so cool to see all the people waving from the dock. I knew employees at the terminal waved with big Mickey hands, but I didnt realize how many other people line up along the shore to wave. It looked like some people had brought out a picnic to watch the ship leave and some also had Mickey hands or Disney flags or banners. We went back into the stateroom to finish unpacking and we ordered the cheese platter and chocolate chip cookies from room service. The cookies really are great; the cheese platter was pretty small but we really didnt need to eat much anyway.
By this time, it was time to start getting ready for the show and dinner. We had second seating at 8:15 and the shows start and 6:15 so I didnt know if there would be enough time to get ready for dinner after the show there would have been since the shows end at 7:15. Our dinner rotation was TAAP. DS5 was not too thrilled about getting changed for dinner. We should have known how exhausted he was since we picked him up from school on Friday and drove straight to Orlando. We hit Atlanta rush hour so it was after midnight when we checked in and then got up at the crack of dawn Saturday to do a whirlwind 3 parks in one day. It was a challenge but we managed all of these attractions in one day: Soarin, Test Track, Mission Space, Living Seas, Turtle Talk, Tower Of Terror, Rockin Roller Coaster, Indiana Jones, Star Tours, Philharmagic, Tea Cups, Indy Cars, Snow White, Space Mountain, Stitchs Great Escape, Buzz Space Ranger Spin, Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Pirates of the Caribbean, & Cinderellas Carousel!
Then Sunday we got up at the crack of dawn again so its no wonder he was worn out. When he gets tired, he starts obsessing over little things like not wanting to tuck his shirt in because we were making him look like an old man. I am soooo sorry our neighbors had to hear that fuss it was not very Disney-like. He pouted all throughout the Golden Mickeys and the Mickey Mania show in Studio Sea. He continued to pout in Tritons until he ate a couple of rolls and I realized that he really had not eaten much at lunch because he was so excited about the Mickey Pool. So not only was he exhausted but also starving. He took one sip of chocolate milk and laid his head down in my lap and was out like a light. So the rest of us DH, DD14 & DD10 enjoyed a nice quiet first dinner. We got to know our servers ( Romy & Everett) a little. They were really great. I know its their job, but they make everyone feel special. They knew our names before we even got there. They cut our kids steak up. Even DD14 enjoyed the service because she had planned to skip dinner on our last night to watch the season premier of Pushing Daises, but ended up coming to dinner with us. Romy did a few puzzles with crayons for them that they got a big kick out of.I had studied menus online and was a little disappointed to find that the Mariners Soufflé wasnt offered anymore, but I got the cherries jubilee and they were very good. DD10 got the crème brulee she had been dying to try and she wasnt disappointed at all. After dinner we went back to the room to find the beds made out and an elephant towel animal waiting for us. We studied the next days navigator for a while then we were all gently rocked to sleep!
DS5's first sight of the ship. (Ok, so I missed his first reaction & this is a reenactment):
Captain Mickey!!!
I "borrowed" this pose from another trip report:
Fun on the Mickey slide!
DD10 at the Sailaway Party:
Sailaway Party:
Our 1st Towel Animal!
A long day!
more to come...
P.S. May I ask you approx cost for this 4 day cruise. Also, was your statesroom comfie for 5?
I usually rely on my cell phone for the time, but after we left port it had crazy times and dates showing up till we got back.
If they work on the ship, they would have been very useful especially with my 14-year-old daughter.
):
and thanks for including pictures 
(i love TRs with pics) can't wait to read more 
