6/11/09 3 Night Wonder Trip Report-with 500+ Photos!!!

[Tri-circle-D]

Once the ship left the channel, we went back to our cabins to prepare for the evening's activities. Some of the girls had left to go watch the Hannah Montana movie. We had late seating, and decided to skip the Golden Mickeys, because we would have had to rush to much to get there.

I had already decorated our cabin doors before we went up for the Sail Away party.

As I mentioned, this was our first DCL cruise with a veranda. Also our first cruise not on Deck 1 or 2. We LOVED the location of our cabins. We had 7516 and 7518, which you can see on this deck plan:

So, our rooms were right by the elevator lobby. At first, we worried that this location could be noisy. But it wasn't. It was great. And we loved being right by the forward elevators. These are much less busy than those mid-ship and aft.

Here are some photos of our doors:

I should mention here that our cabin steward, Rohan, was the best we ever had. Without asking, he set up one cabin for the four girls, including splitting the bed into twins:

Rohan anticipated out every need, and did a great job for us! I think the better stewards must be moved up to the higher cabin categories, as Rohan was way better than any steward we had on Deck 1 or 2.

When I checked out the veranda, I saw the Pilot boat right along side the ship:

After showering and changing, we headed out for a night of fun. . .

TCD

 

[HappyGrumpy]

Dont know what I am going to do when you are done with this TR! I like how your are breaking it down into small bites and then allowing us to "clear our pallet" for the next installment!

HG

 

[Tri-circle-D]

Sorry for the shorter than normal post, but I am currently traveling out of town (oldest DD is starting summer session of college), so I am working on the fly.

So, to set the stage, it is Thursday evening. We have late seating, and we are getting ready to take in some activities before our meal at Animator's Palette at 8:15.

On our last cruise, I had exactly zero Mickey Mouse bars. I just never got around to ordering one. For you newbies these are available from room service 24 hours a day. For free. Yes, I said free. So, on this cruise, one of the first orders of business was to order a Mickey bar. The DD's joined me:

The girls noticed that there was a dance party scheduled for the Promenade Lounge right before dinner, so they went to check it out. It was attended by very young children, but the hosts were Pikey and DJ Frankie, so they joined in the fun (sorry for the photo quality-something was going on with my flash):

We also checked out the Mickey Mania game show, which was going on in Studio Sea, but they had already chosen the contestants before we got there, so we had to just watch.

From there, it was on to our first dinner aboard the Wonder:

Mrs. TCD is a great Mom. She brought little graduation bobbleheads for the girls:

I have read some reports recently from folks complaining that the food quality and service on DCL is slipping. Perhaps it is. A little. But we had a great meal, and excellent service from our head server, Jo Jo from India. What a great guy!

We had a great time eating and socializing. Then it was time for dessert. I had this sampler plate, which was great:

Leading up to this cruise, one of our DD's talked a lot about a dessert that she had on our last cruise: S'more cake. I don't remember anything about this, but apparently it left a big impression on her. It was not on the menu at AP, but we asked JoJo about it. He said it was on the Parrot Cay dinner menu, but he thought he could snag a piece for DD.

And he did:

After dinner, the DD's wanted to go sing some Karaoke in Studio Sea, so we headed over there.

Here are the girls in the Atrium:

And, here they are in Studio Sea:

The Karaoke wrapped up at around 11.

So, considering the hour, we insisted that the girls get back to the cabins and get right to bed.

NOT!!!!

The night was still young, so we went back to the cabins to change.

And, then we headed out for more fun . . .

TCD

 

[Angie_Ohio]

My family and I have taken two DCL cruises. We went in June of 06 and this March 09. Pikey was on both 7 night cruises.

My boys really enjoyed his "antics".
My husband and I are boucing back on a 3 night in Aug. I am thrilled to know Pikey will lead the adult activities. This is our first 3 night so I'm reading your new TR and your old one as well.
Looking forward to a long weekend of relaxing on the Wonder.
Angie

 

[westgirl]

Loving your trippie - we take my dad for the first time in december - i just know he's going to end up on the stage

Lookig forward for the next instalment

 

[frdeb1999]

Loving your TR and fabulous pics!!!

 

[disneycr8zy]

Loving the pics. We are taking our 5th disney cruise in October 2009. For the first time will be taking a child. My 4yr old grandson. He will turn 5 on November 1st, our last day on the boat. I am excited and nervous.

 

[pmama]

I read your last TR not too long ago. Very informative. Happy to stumble upon this new report. I'm really enjoying it so far.

 

[smeecanada]

We went up and chatted with Pikey and DJ Frankie. Pikey told us he was in charge of the adult activities on the cruise. He will be on the Wonder through September.
TCD

DD is going to be disappointed in the morning when I tell her Pikey is on the Wonder again. We had Pikey on our Wonder cruise in 07, and on our REPO cruise in 08. We were hoping to make it a 3 peat but alas not happening this time around. He is an awesome CM.

 

[Tri-circle-D]

My family and I have taken two DCL cruises. We went in June of 06 and this March 09. Pikey was on both 7 night cruises.

My boys really enjoyed his "antics".
My husband and I are boucing back on a 3 night in Aug. I am thrilled to know Pikey will lead the adult activities. This is our first 3 night so I'm reading your new TR and your old one as well.
Looking forward to a long weekend of relaxing on the Wonder.
Angie

We did not make it to any of the adult activities, but we did peek in from time to time. Pikey did a great job on this cruise. I'm sure you will have a blast in August. Are you traveling without the kids? That should be fun!

Loving your trippie - we take my dad for the first time in december - i just know he's going to end up on the stage

Lookig forward for the next instalment

All the way from the UK? Wow. I hope that your Dad does get on stage. And, if he does, we need to see some photos here, OK?

Loving your TR and fabulous pics!!!

Thanks. Remember, I haven't even finished day one yet (but I am about to), so there is still plenty more to come!

Loving the pics. We are taking our 5th disney cruise in October 2009. For the first time will be taking a child. My 4yr old grandson. He will turn 5 on November 1st, our last day on the boat. I am excited and nervous.

That is wonderful! I can't imagine a better trip for grandparents and a grandchild! That should be a birthday your grandson will always remember! Happy sailing!

I read your last TR not too long ago. Very informative. Happy to stumble upon this new report. I'm really enjoying it so far.

Thanks for reading along. This one should be informative too. If there are any newbies reading along, my trip report from last year has better basic information than you will find in this report.

DD is going to be disappointed in the morning when I tell her Pikey is on the Wonder again. We had Pikey on our Wonder cruise in 07, and on our REPO cruise in 08. We were hoping to make it a 3 peat but alas not happening this time around. He is an awesome CM.

Sorry for you . But, you are sailing on the Magic. For 7 nights! You will have a fabulous time (even with no Pikey). And, in case you haven't seen enough Pikey, there are more photos of him to come.

TCD

 

[Tri-circle-D]

Let's see, where are we?

Oh yes, entering the wee hours of our first night aboard the Wonder.

For those of you keeping track, we are still on day 1. So far, I have posted 160 photos.

Where we last left off, the girls were singing Karaoke in Studio Sea. We closed down the place a little after 11, and headed back to the cabin to change into more comfortable clothing. The Navigator told us that they were playing one of the NBA Championship games on the Arial View Television at the Goofy pool. That was a bit of a disappointment for us- we would have rather watched a Disney movie, but we decided to go up top and check on things.

So, we walked to the forward elevators. Here is a DD with the Walt mural in front of the Walt Disney Theater:

We quickly changed, and headed up to Deck 9.

The elevator lobby right outside of our doors proved to be the perfect place for cartwheel practice:

Here are some shots of the game on the big screen. This game went into overtime, and even as midnight approached, there was a respectable number of folks sitting out in lounge chairs watching the game. Unfortunately for us, the pool and hot tubs apparently were closed at 11 pm, so there would be no midnight swim for us tonight:

But, the drink station on deck 9 is open for 24 hours:

Some night shots from Deck 10:

You can see a DD lurking in the shadows in this photo, which I share so you will have some reference for scale:

The basketball game finished up at right around midnight. The Lakers won. The crowd appeared to be mostly Magic fans, so there were a lot of sad faces.

When the ship is underway, we always visit the front of Deck 10. It is amazing how windy it is there:

I wish I was a better photographer, because this is a shot of the moon, which was shining just off the port side, and reflecting beautifully off of the ocean:

This is the last shot that I had on my camera from our first night. The camera tells me that it was shot at 12:11 am- so we are actually now on day two of our cruise!:

From here, we headed back down to the cabins. Room service was ordered. Hey, it's free! And, we fell into our beds at a little after 1.

It was a successful first day aboard the Wonder.

Next, we arrive in Nassau. . .

Will we have any fun there?

What do you think?

TCD

p.s. if you haven't read my TR from last year, you may want to read the passage about one of my DD's encounters with a pigeon on Nassau. As luck would have it, we ran into that same bird again on this visit. Was there another bombing? Check back to find out!

 

[Tri-circle-D]

I think that I already mentioned how smooth the seas were on this cruise.

When I woke at about 6 am on Friday morning, I couldn't tell if the ship was moving or not. A quick peek out on the veranda confirmed that the sun was just rising, and we were still steaming toward Nassau.

So, I grabbed a quick shower, and headed up to Deck 9 for some coffee. Here is a shot of Friday's sunrise from Deck 10. (The sun was rising on the port side, so we did not have this view from our veranda):

One of the things that I love to do in the early morning is explore the ship. There are very few folks around, and you can go just about anywhere. I have rarely seen shots of the Buena Vista theater on the Disboards, so here are a few. This is where they typically will show the movies on board (on this cruise, "UP" was shown in the larger Walt Disney Theater:

Here are a couple of shots of the Promenade Lounge:

As I wandered around, I came across these kiosks on Deck 3:

There were three here, and only one was working. There were a few more right up the stairs, outside of the Shutters entrance.

If you put your KTTW card in the machine, it pulls up photos of your group. On this trip, the photographers would sometimes ask for a KTTW card when taking photos. The photos were then linked to your card, so when you put the card into the machine, you get your photos. The thing is, these machines were broken down more than they worked on this cruise.

Here is where you will get my rant about the photos on the ship. I hate how this is handled. It is the same on every cruise that I have been on. Including other cruise lines. Your photos are put out on display in a large room, with lots of display units to hold the photos. You have to search through all the photos to find yours. One old tried and true suggestion is that when you find photos of your group, you stack them in a certain place. That way, you can look at them all together and decide which you might want to purchase. On the first night, I visited Shutters, and found our embarkation photo. But, I could not find the photos that the ship's photographer took of our group with Captain Mickey in the terminal. And, there are now signs posted in Shutters saying do not stack your photos, because they will be moved to accommodate new photos. So, that was it for me- I never went back in there on this trip. And, they charge $19.95 for each 8 x10 photo! Outrageous!

But, now I regret that we didn't buy at least a couple of group shots. We didn't end up with any good shots of our group together.

Anyway, rant over. Back to the kiosks.

Here are a few more shots:

If I had some more time to fool around with this, I perhaps could have gotten some decent photos of our photos from the computer screens. But, this is what I ended up with:

When I went back later to try to use these kiosks to look at our photos, all of them were out of order. Phooey.

Here is the internet cafe:

These two paintings hang in the elevator lobby for Deck 3, aft:

I should have read the little display plaques to see what cities were depicted in these paintings, but I didn't. I suspect that these might have been from the Wonder's inaugural cruise.

From here, I decided to head back to my cabin. As I have already mentioned, we have never sailed with a veranda before, and I wanted to see what approaching Nassau looked like from our veranda.

TCD

 

[Tri-circle-D]

Here we are on the veranda of cabin #7518. If you look at the horizon in these photos, you can see small buildings. That is Nassau. Look how calm the water is:

Here's the view from one of the chairs out on the veranda. There is a thick piece of Plexiglas underneath the hand rail:

On the port side of the ship, the sun was rising. Here on the starboard, the moon was setting:

Looking out over the sea:

The ship started to noticeably slow down right about here. You can see we are still a ways from the island:

Here is a shot of our other veranda- cabin #7516:

Look!

A small boat approaches:

Next up: What's the deal with the small boat?

TCD

 

[Tri-circle-D]

As the Wonder continued to move forward at a noticeably slow pace, the small ship that we spotted in the last photo above approached. Here is what I saw:

I found this whole process to be fascinating. I have never seen photos of this procedure, or even a mention of it before. Obviously, a Pilot from the port at Nassau is required to board the ship as it approaches, and supervise the docking procedure. I don't know if you can see it in the photos, but there were clearly two men on the little boat as it approached the Wonder, and only one on board as it left.

Another thing I wanted to mention about these photos is that you can see that when you stand at the rail of your veranda, you can see your neighbors, and they can see you. As you saw in one of my earlier pics, your next door neighbor can easily see around the partition into your veranda if he or she is so inclined. I'm not sure that anything can be done about this, but it surprised me. The lack of privacy had a chilling effect on my plans to sunbathe on the veranda.

. . . just kidding!

At about this time, Mrs. TCD headed up to Beach Blanket Buffet for breakfast. All of the girls were still asleep, so we planned to grab a quick bite, and wake them when we returned.

Nassau was approaching fast as we headed to breakfast.

From Deck 10, I got to watch as the Captain backed the ship up to the dock:

This is a view of the Atlantis resort, which is off of the starboard side of the ship, as we are backed in to the dock:

Here is another shot of the view on the starboard side. This is the view we had from our veranda all day while in port:

This is a view of downtown Nassau taken from Deck 10:

The big yellow tower that you see to the left of the photo is the area where you will be as you walk off the pier into town. To the right are the shops and the Straw Market.

I don't know why people complain about Nassau. As far as cruise ports go, there is nothing wrong with it. Yes, there are a lot of people who will pester you asking if you want to take a tour or have your hair braided, but name a port in the Caribbean where that doesn't happen.

Even though the Carnival ship that we saw in Port Canaveral left well ahead of us, we are the first cruise ship in Nassau today. That is a first for me. On our other visits, there were already at least two or three ships docked when we arrived, and things were already busy. Not so on this trip. The Carnival ship did not arrive for another hour or two, and even then, there were only them and us in port all day. On our previous cruises, there was always a Royal Caribbean ship in port with us, too. But not this time. There was no Royal Caribbean ship heading out on Thursday, and there wasn't one here at Nassau either.

Looks like a nice day to visit Nassau, doesn't it?

Check back to see us in the city.

TCD

 

[westgirl]

more great pics thank you!

By the way the 2 pictures on board the ship the bottom one is definately Venice as my parents are cruising there now....not that I'm jealous lol

 

[westgirl]

and yes all the way from the UK - been to WDW every year for the past 6 after we found it was cheaper than going to Disneyland Paris and the people are 500% nicer

 

[Fatima1922]

While you comment on the quality of your pictures, these are exactly the type of photos I intend to show my DH as I prepare him for our WONDERful trip in December. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to the rest of your report.

 

[pmama]

Looking forward to seeing what you chose to do in Nassau.

 

[Tri-circle-D]

In order to keep this report moving along, here is another installment. . .

If you are following along, you know that we are in Nassau, and getting ready to head out for some adventure.

Mrs. TCD and I enjoyed our breakfast together, and then we got the girls going when we got back to the cabins. I hung out on the veranda for a while, and I also took these photos of the beverage cooler in the room. I have seen many questions asked about these, but I don't recall seeing photos. So here you go.

Here is what it looks like closed:

Don't you love how the label it. Why? Like you can't figure out what is behind the door?

Anyway, once you open the first door, here is what you see:

And then, you open that door to find:

And then you open the third door (yes I said three doors) to finally get to the cooler:

On our previous cruises, our coolers had shelves. I guess those have broken, because we didn't have shelves in either of our coolers. And, these things work horribly. It takes about three days for anything to cool off in there. And, why do we need three doors? I always think of Maxwell Smart heading into headquarters when I try to get into the beverage cooler. From what I can gather, these things were designed to be mini-bars. What I don't get is who thought it was a good idea to have a mini-bar on a cruise ship where just about everything to eat or drink is already included? What's the deal?

But, I digress.

Let's get back to our adventure.

The plan for Nassau is to get off the ship and see what adventure we can find. Last year, we arrived on the Bahamian Labor Day, and marched in a parade.

This year, we decided to go on a hunt for the Tortuga Rum Cake factory. I like rum. I like cake. Do the math. Other Disboard members have raved about the rum cake. And, supposedly, there are free samples. We are there!

Mrs. TCD and one DD decided that Nassau was not their thing, and that they would prefer to stay on this ship. So, it was me, two DD's and oldest DD's BFF hitting the town.

Here we go:

Usually you have to wait for these wonderful photo ops on the dock, but we were the only ship in port the time, and there were no crowds:

Once you leave the dock, you must walk through this building that they call Festival Place. Inside, there are displays of the same crappy (please excuse the crass language-but it is truly deserved) merchandise that you will find for sale everywhere you look in Nassau. But, there are also some delightful photo ops, such as:

And:

And, then you exit to the gauntlet of gentleman asking if you would like a tour. These guys are relentless. They will literally stand there and listen while you turn down one offer, and then another guy will ask you again if you would like a taxi or a tour:

We just kept on walking and kept on saying no thanks to the offers.

A while back, I recall a post where someone asked where the Starbucks was on Nassau. You can see it here, right outside this gate, and across the street. It is one of the first things you come to as you walk out of the Festival Place gates:

We headed off to find the Tortuga Rum Cake factory.

It was easy to find.

Maybe two or three blocks away.

Right next to the Burger King (yummy):

We have arrived!:

We are ready to tour the factory!

We are ready for free samples!!!

Will we be disappointed?

What do you think?

TCD

 

[Tri-circle-D]

If you are liking this report, today's your lucky day.

Because, here is yet another installment!

We are at the rum cake factory.

First thing we found out was that there ain't no factory here.

At least not one that we saw.

This was just a store front with two small rooms.

But there were free samples.

Of the Key Lime rum cake.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that the free samples were prominently displayed under a glass case that one of the employees had to open. And, the sample pieces were about the size of a crouton. Yes, I said crouton. Like on a salad. But, the sample was delicious. And free. So how can I complain. I should also mention, that it was only one sample per customer. And they watched you. Like a hawk.

Crammed in these two small rooms were tons of boxed rum cakes. They had a lot of different flavors. The saleslady suggested that I buy a six pack of the small cakes. They had them on special. The small cakes were normally $6 each, but the six pack could be mine for only $29.99. And, there would be no sales tax! Sounded good to me. So, I walked out with my six pack of rum cakes.

Here is what the inside of the store looked like:

So, off we walked with my rum cakes. I was happy to have received such a bargain. I carried those things all around Nassau, and had to make room in my suitcase to get them home. Imagine my surprise when I got home and opened the first box to find a cake that was the size of a large cupcake. I'm not kidding- these things are minuscule! But, they were moist and tasty.

I heard that you can buy the same rum cakes on Amazon.com of all places. So, I checked on that, and look what I found:

Yes, that is the same exact package that I got for $29.99 in the Bahamas. Do you think I am bothered by the fact that I could get the same exact thing delivered to my house for less money? Well, I'm not. OK. Maybe I am a little. But, remember, I also got to enjoy the crouton sized free sample.

From the rum cake factory, we walked along the water toward the Straw Market. We were going to buy some cheap t-shirts, but then one of the DD's said she wanted to check out Senor Frogs. This is a notorious bar/restaurant next to the Straw Market. There are Senor Frog locations throughout the Caribbean. They are popular with the spring break crowd. I think they are a little lax on the drinking age enforcement, so the 18 year old crowd apparently likes to party there.

I thought there would be no harm in checking out the place. And, the girls could then have bragging rights that they had been to Senor Frogs.

Along the way to Senor Frogs, we saw this entrepreneur selling conch shells and starfish (probably imported from China, like his pirate hat):

And, my DD ran into her friend Mr. Pigeon:

Luckily, he was on the ground, so the reunion was without incident. Good for both DD and the pigeon.

On we went to Senor Frogs.

Here we are:

According to the sign that the girls are posed next to, they are qualified to drink at Senor Frogs. That's a funny joke, right? So, I gave the girls some money to go in and get a coke or something, and I went in to check out the gift shop.

Imagine my surprise when I met up with the girls to find this:

That is my 14 year old there with a Strawberry Daiquiri!

Can you believe it?

I couldn't!

But, I made sure that they stopped at one.

I mean, we are talking about a 14 year old, right?

While the girls polished off their cocktails, I looked around.

Look what I saw coming off in the distance:

Yikes!

There goes the neighborhood!

It's the Carnival ship.

I had to get the slightly tipsy girls out of the bar before the Carnival boys showed up at the bar.

TCD

p.s. the whole bit about the alcohol was a joke.

I like to kid, what can I say.

You didn't believe me did you?

I went into the bar with the girls, and watched the bartender make the non-alcoholic drinks I ordered.

But, I do believe that the sign outside is not a joke. I think they would have served the girls liqour.

So, keep your kids away from there.