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

[princess22]

Only 45 minutes? You must be a speed reader. Or you are just skimming. You are going to have trouble passing the final exam with those kind of reading habits. So, go back and read everything carefully.

And, if you like Pikey, I've got more Pikey! That guy is in more of my family's photos than I am. How did that happen?

Thanks for reading along folks, I will have some more Castaway Cay photos and comments coming up real soon!

TCD

Ok, so maybe it felt like 45 minutes. It's the Wal Mart effect. I go in and come out 20 minutes later, look at my watch and realize it's really an hour and a half later! Bring on the final exam!

Sorry you lost some of your pictures, that's cute to leave something in the treasure chest. Has anyone heard any rumors about what they are building there? It will be interesting to find out...

 

[momoffive]

Loving the report. Had to jump ship from the Fort and come by and read. I so want to add a DCL trip in the future, may have to wait a few years but your report has me ready now!
Loretta

 

[Tri-circle-D]

"There is a good sized area cleared right next to the game pavilion, and some heavy equipment on site. There was a castmember here keeping an eye on things, so I asked him what this was all about. He said he didn't know, just some kind of expansion for the bigger ships. He said in the past, when both the Magic and Wonder have docked at the same time, things have been crowded, so they figured they needed to expand. Come again? This guy should be a bus driver at WDW with that type of misinformation. For the record, even I, a relative DCL newbie, know that the Magic and Wonder have never docked at Castaway Cay at the same time. They can't. There isn't room for both ships at the same time. Heck, it is rare for the two ships to even be near each other let alone dock at the same time at Castaway Cay.

You didn't mention that you were fortunate to witness the two ships at Castaway Cay. November 2005 Turkey Day Cruise had the Wonder pull up to shore and the two ships did a horn battle. We were on the same cruise. I had pictures of you from the Crazy Legs contest but our Storage Media Vault died so I don't have access to them. Great trip report, BTW.

Well, hello there, Gina! It's good to here from a fellow member of the Turkey Day Gang. Your mention of our experience of seeing the Magic and Wonder together led me to dig into my archives, and I found the only two photos that I have from that day. Which I will now share, since you brought it up.

And, Gina, I am sorry that I can't remember your DH's name, but I remember that he was one of the three men chosen to dance on stage on pirate night. For those of you reading along, back in the day, there was a pirate dancing contest on pirate night. On our Thanksgiving Magic cruise, the three men chosen were all Disboard members. Which is a big deal. You have seen the size of the crowd that gather on Pirate Night. And we were center stage! I remember that Mr. Gfolchick had to go first, and he did an excellent "running man" dance, as well as some other classic moves. I went next, and pulled out all the stops, including cartwheels on the stage. I thought for sure that I had won. Then our buddy Lampy batted clean-up. He did the Curly Shuffle and brought down the house, and won the medal. On every cruise since, I have carefully practiced my dance moves, waiting for my opportunity, but it has not come.

Also, I remember that you guys were from Connecticut, right? I hope all is well with you and your family.

Anyway, back to the Wonder visiting Castaway Cay when we were there with the Magic.

It was the Friday after Thanksgiving. When we were docking, we could see a ship approaching off in the distance. After we were on the island, it got closer. Here it is driving past the family beach:

Nobody really knew what was going on, and there were rumors being spread that the Wonder was going to dock with the Magic. I didn't know then that that is impossible, so we all were wondering what was going on. The Wonder kept on sailing back and forth, so we just went about our business.

When I was way out in the snorkeling lagoon, the Wonder came sailing very close to the island, and slowed to almost idle speed. Then, it sounded its horn. The whole "When You Wish Upon a Star" thing. And then the Magic responded, and then the Wonder. This went on for several minutes. It was amazing. And, I did not have my camera- I was way out in the snorkeling lagoon. But, Mrs. TCD was back on the beach. I hoped she would get some photos.

Before I could get back to base camp, the Wonder had sailed on. I asked Mrs. TCD if she took pictures. She said she took one. She also said she couldn't believe how many people were "freaking out" about both of the ships being close together. She said people were crying because they said it was such a beautiful sight. She couldn't believe this. We were later told, when back aboard, that this meeting (Nov. 2005) was the first time that the ships had been together since New Year's Eve on the Millennium.

This is the only picture Mrs. TCD took. If you look, you can see the play structure that is in the water at the family beach in the bottom right corner of the photo. Unfortunately, both ships are not in the photo. And, it makes me sad to look at my now 14 year old DD when she was just 10. The past four years have flown, and if the next four years fly just as fast, she will be 18 before I know it . Here's the pic:

Gina, thanks for bringing this up. It makes a good memory.

TCD

 

[Tri-circle-D]

We forgive you but that means you will have to go on another cruise and SOON !!!

Sorry, Tony, but I can't get past your Disboard name. I am guessing that you are Italian American, right? And that name is OK? I haven't heard that kind of talk since Archie Bunker signed off

You must be a fun guy!

Anyway, any clue what this all means?:

TCD

 

[Tri-circle-D]

more more more please. You photos are wonderful. I love that you showed the bikes and confirmed that the do bikes with Training wheels.

I know that this trip report will sadly come to an end as you only have the rest of day 3 left and then you are off the ship

Great tip w/ the bikes. One hour. I think reading your post helped convince me to go ahead and rent bikes. It really is a fair price.

Yes, sadly, this report must come to an end. And, it looks like the end is near.

I absolutely recommend renting the bikes. The price is reasonable, and there are some fun things to see.

TCD

 

[Tri-circle-D]

I hate to write this installment, as it does move us closer to the end of our journey. But, all good things must come to an end. Our cruise did, and so will this trip report. But, not yet.

Where I last left off, we were heading back to the ship from the family beach. We were the only guests around. There was a small crew cleaning up the beach, but we were the last guests walking toward the ship.

It was a beautiful afternoon, so we skipped the tram ride, and kept walking. My camera was dead, but DD's BFF wanted a good shot of the pirate ship. So we walked.

As we were strolling alone, a cast member approached with a golf cart, and offered us a ride. He did told him that we wanted to stop for some last photos before getting back to the ship, and he said he could do that for us. So we hopped aboard. I wish I had gotten this guy's name, but I didn't. He was Australian, and told us that he lived on the island. I asked him how many people lived on the island, and he said 60. At first I thought he said 16, and I commented that I thought there would have been more, but then he corrected me and said it was 60. That surprised me. I didn't think it was that many. But, he seemed to know what he was talking about, and he definitely said 60. Here is our chauffeur:

We stopped for the pirate ship, and then again at Fresh Catch. There was another group of guests here, and we wanted to take a picture, so we told the castmember we would walk it from here. We said thanks, and off he went.

Here's our photo:

We let the other group walk on, and then we were alone again as we headed back to the ship. It looked like we would accomplish our goal of being the last back aboard.

We stopped by the boat excursion area, and I turned my camera on. There was enough power for this one photo:

This sign was posted right there on the dock. We will come back to this later when we look at the various flag designs on the ship.

This was the last photo that I took on Castaway Cay. The camera says it was taken at 4:46. All aboard was at 5. There were no more passengers anywhere to be seen, so we headed toward the boat.

We went ahead and boarded. When we boarded, the fellow who scanned our cards made a comment to another castmember to the effect that there were still 6 more passengers on the island. As we were standing there gathering our stuff that came through the x-ray machines, a golf cart drove up with a family of 6, and they came aboard. I don't know where they came from, as they were not on the family beach, but these 6 beat us out as the last to board.

Oh well, that just means we will have to try again.

From here, we dropped our stuff off in the cabins, and headed up to the pool to swim and grab a snack. By the time we got up top, the ship was already under way! They don't waste any time when it is time to go.

Next up . . .

Our last night.

TCD

 

[Tri-circle-D]

Here we are on our last night.

It was about 5:15 or 5:30, and we had just enjoyed some of the offerings from Pluto's Dog House and Goofy's Galley.

We still had to pack our suitcases.

And the Disney Dreams show would be showing for us late seating passengers at 6:15.

We voted to skip the show.

So, that makes it perfect. O for 3 on the show attendance on this cruise. I don't recommend that, but it is what worked for us on this cruise.

The TCD gang slowly left Deck 9 to get started on their packing, and get showers and such.

Ultimately, it was just me and one DD left in the Goofy pool. And, we had the pool to ourselves! Everyone else on the ship was hurrying off to dinner, or a show, or packing, or doing something else, and we got the pool to ourselves! Nice. The Disney Channel movie "Hatching Pete" was playing on the big screen. Have you seen it? It's not so good. But, it was finishing up, and we looked forward to what they would show next. So, that movie finished, and the opening credits came up for the next one. Do you know what it was? I'll bet that you would never guess. It was Fantasia 2000! Have you ever seen that? Whoever made that movie was on some heavy drugs, that's all I'm saying. One of the first sequences was about whales swimming in the air and such. Weird.

Since we weren't planning on ingesting any hallucinogetics that afternoon, DD and I decided to pass on the rest of Fantasia 2000, and headed back to the cabins. When we left there was no one at the Goofy pool No one. Maybe they had some work to do on it, and they chose Fantasia 2000 intentionally to empty the pool I don't know.

We got back to the cabins, and got everything packed up. It was optional dress up night, and that meant we were going to dress up. Mrs. TCD and the girls like to dress up. I don't. But I did anyway.

Our dinner tonight was in Triton's. That was good, as it is the fanciest restaurant, and we were all dressed up. I had charged the camera, so I got a photo of the girls with JoJo:

After dinner, we walked right outside the door into the Atrium, and got to meet characters galore for the Till We Meet Again show:

Somewhere in this commotion, one of the DD's came running up to tell the other girls that she had just seen Pikey dressed up weird outfit and wearing a wig. We ran off in the general direction of where she claimed to have seen him (Route 66), and ran into these guys:

Yes, that is Pikey and Frankie. They were hosting a rock-n-roll party for the adults in Wavebands that night, and Pikey was dressed as Rod Stewart (I am not sure why?) (and I am I the only one who finds this a bit disturbing?) and Frankie as Bruce Springsteen.

Here is another photo, taken just a little later, when the guys were posing outside of Wavebands:

I needed to get back to the cabins to get our suitcases in the hall by 11, and one DD joined me because she wanted to change. Here is one last towel animal:

Then, we all met back in Studio Sea for some more karaoke:

The girls closed Studio Sea down again, and then moved it over to Diversions where they played a game of Guess Who? (which they all said was one of their favorite games- if that is true, why have I never heard of it?)-

I was hanging out on the veranda for a bit that night, as I had to finish drinking the beer that we brought on board, and I also wanted to get some use out of the veranda. One of the girls came back to the room to tell me to turn on the TV. There is a channel on the TV that shows what is going on on the sports deck, and the rest of the girls were up there. They wanted me to take a photo of them on TV. I tried. This is the best photo I got:

But, I did go up top to take these photos:

It was now past midnight. The girls were still going strong. I know at some point room service stops. So, we hauled it back to the room for some Mickey Bars.

And, then, it was back out for the last bit of fun . . .

TCD

 

[Tri-circle-D]

I forgot to mention that while the girls were out having fun, Mrs. TCD and I enjoyed a drink at the bar in Cove Cafe. It was empty in there late on the last night. We never made it there for coffee in the morning. On the next cruise, we plan to do that.

It is now past 1 am. But, we have another item of business to attend to.

We need to do cartwheels in the atrium.

It's how we roll.

So, here we go:

I know what some of you are thinking. You are thinking that this type of behavior cannot possibly be allowed. But it is. The whole time that we were demonstrating our gymnastics skills, there were various security types walking around, speaking into their radios. None of them said a word to us.

But, we heard what they were talking about. There was a child missing on the ship! They were searching all over. Lots of people. After 1 am. This was very serious. And, then we heard one of the security guys talking to another. They found the child. She was asleep in a bean bag chair. I assume at one of the kids clubs. They had closed up, and locked her in. When they finally figured out where she was, she was still there, sound asleep. Oblivious. I am not sure how that happened. But, I'll bet someone got his or her you know what chewed but good over this incident.

Once we had carted our last wheel, we headed down to Deck 2 to look at the conference rooms. Do you know there are conference rooms on Deck 2? Only on the Wonder, not on the Magic. The Magic used to have conference rooms, but now they are Ocean Quest. Maybe the Wonder's will disappear during the next dry dock. So, here they are. There are three.

The Peter Pan:

The Fantasia:

And, the Steamboat Willie:

On our last cruise, we stayed on Deck 2, and I got to check out the inside of the conference rooms. They look like conference rooms. There was actually some one in these rooms getting them set up, so we did not go in on this visit.

After our stop by the conference rooms, it was approaching 2 am. Wavebands was open until 2 am. The girls wanted a last look at Pikey. The doors were open, and the music was blaring, but the place was empty. Just some bored bar servers in there. No Pikey. No Frankie. No customers. No one. There are no night owls on our cruise. Except for this guy:

He said he was bored. And, that this cruise was boring. He wished he was on a Carnival ship. What mean parents this poor boy has.

Here is the last shot that I took that night:

The camera says it was taken at 1:30. I headed back to the cabin. The girls went back to Diversions. And, there was some extended elevator riding, according to this photo (taken by DD's BFF):

But, by a little after 2 am, everyone was present and accounted for, and we hit the racks.

Next up . . .

The end!

TCD

 

[gfolchick]

Well, hello there, Gina! It's good to here from a fellow member of the Turkey Day Gang. Your mention of our experience of seeing the Magic and Wonder together led me to dig into my archives, and I found the only two photos that I have from that day. Which I will now share, since you brought it up.

And, Gina, I am sorry that I can't remember your DH's name, but I remember that he was one of the three men chosen to dance on stage on pirate night. For those of you reading along, back in the day, there was a pirate dancing contest on pirate night. On our Thanksgiving Magic cruise, the three men chosen were all Disboard members. Which is a big deal. You have seen the size of the crowd that gather on Pirate Night. And we were center stage! I remember that Mr. Gfolchick had to go first, and he did an excellent "running man" dance, as well as some other classic moves. I went next, and pulled out all the stops, including cartwheels on the stage. I thought for sure that I had won. Then our buddy Lampy batted clean-up. He did the Curly Shuffle and brought down the house, and won the medal. On every cruise since, I have carefully practiced my dance moves, waiting for my opportunity, but it has not come.

Also, I remember that you guys were from Connecticut, right? I hope all is well with you and your family.

Wow! I'm very impressed with your memory. I had to think about if that was Jim onstage in 2005 with you guys and yes he was. You even remembered where we were from. We're counting the days to our Tortola cruise in August so I'm living vicariously through your trip report. We tried the Wonder back in November 2007 and I was surprised how much I liked it (thought it would be too short but 4 days was great). Now, back to the end of your trip report.../COLOR]

 

[Tri-circle-D]

Wow! I'm very impressed with your memory. I had to think about if that was Jim onstage in 2005 with you guys and yes he was. You even remembered where we were from./COLOR]

Don't be too impressed. I can never find my car keys. And, I often forget to take down the trash on the correct day.

TCD

 

[Tri-circle-D]

Stand back everyone, I'm on a roll, and this report will be finished today.

We were fortunate that our dining rotation resulted in us being assigned to breakfast in Triton's at 8:15. That is the latest assignment you can get. And we needed it. We had some tired girls on our hands on Sunday morning.

But, not good old TCD, I was up and at 'em before the sun had risen. See?:

That's us back in Port Canaveral. I have no idea what time the ship got there, as our sailing was so smooth that you really couldn't tell the difference of whether the ship was moving or not. The photo above was taken at 6:11 am.

The upper decks were basically deserted, which gave me a chance to snap my last photos:

Here is the new carpet that they put down while we were at Castaway Cay yesterday:

This is the parking area for DCL. Supposedly, they are getting ready to build a six story parking garage here:

Here's the terminal. Hard to believe that in a few hours, another group will be coming to fill the ship:

The DCL buses are lined up and ready to take folks back to Orlando:

There goes the luggage, out to the claim area:

This is the RCCL ship, Freedom of the Seas. I don't know what kind of itinerary they were sailing, but we never saw this ship at all during our cruise. They obviously just got back from somewhere and were getting ready to disembark. It is a nice looking ship, and way bigger than the DCL ships:

From the bow, you can see the sun trying to break through:

Here is a look to the east:

And then south, down the channel that the ship will sail down later today as it heads back to sea:

Next up . . .

My final photos!

TCD

 

[Tri-circle-D]

This is it.

My last photos.

Want to know how many I posted in this report?

Not counting the old ones from the archives, it will be 514 when this post is finished.

514 photos!

From a three day cruise.

That has got to be a record.

I read lots of trip reports, and have never seen one with that many photos.

Ouch!

(I just hurt my arm patting myself on the back).

So, let's get 'er done:

First, I am happy to report that the sun did rise on Sunday. You probably already knew that, but it is good news for all of us:

Here is another Men's room floor. We will have to look at what these flags mean later:

On Sunday morning, one of the Pinocchio's Pizza signs was still missing. I will state for the record that I do not have it, and do not know who does:

This is the other, complete, sign:

There are two of these little plaques on the ship. You can find them on Deck 9, on either side of the forward smoke stack:

I love this photo:

Usually, there is a crowd in this area, but not this morning. It is just me.

And, this is the last shot from our veranda:

And, that, folks, is that.

No more photos.

We had a heck of a time getting everyone going on Sunday. The girls all voted to skip showers, and just throw on clothes at the last minute. I knew better than to take photos of what they looked like. So, use you imagination. We were supposed to be at breakfast by 8:15, and I believe all cabins must be vacated by 8. We were just getting ready to leave our cabins at 8 when a crew member knocked on the door and said cabin check. They were doing that to every door, and leaving them open. They are serious about 8 am.

So we headed to breakfast. We looked bad, and felt worse. It was just about 9 as we finished and headed off the ship. And, there were still a lot of folks milling around the atrium and taking photos as we left. It is amazing to think that in less than 2 hours the new cruisers would be boarding the ship.

We have never gotten off the ship this late before. We usually have an earlier breakfast assignment. The baggage claim area was busy, but it was easy to find our luggage, because most folks had already gotten theirs.

We used a porter. We had a lady porter this time. That was a first. But she was amazingly strong. She was picking up our heaviest suitcases with one hand, and got them all on her cart.

I don't think we ever had an easier time going through customs. I know that we have been stopped and had to show all of our id's before. But not today. The porter handed the customs agent our form, and he waived us right through. We didn't even have to slow down.

And, then we were back at our car, got loaded up, and headed west for home.

And, that is the end.

Hopefully, there will be a next time.

If you have questions, feel free to ask. I will keep my eye on this thread, and will answer any questions.

If you liked this report, let me know. I appreciate the feedback.

If you did not like this report, call your doctor and get your medication adjusted, and then come back and read it again.

And with that. . .

TCD is out.

 

[mkmommy]

Thank you for taking the time to share your trip, your pictures are wonderful.

You missed cartwheels in Beat Street/Route 66, we have spent hours down there doing cartwheels. It is one of my daughters favorite things to do on the ship. They take books sit and read in the porthole windows and then do cartwheels for awhile. Last trip we spent so much time that the person who cleans up down there told us that he was going to get a reserved sign for us.

 

[danceteacher]

I just have to say, I love your trip report. We are going on our first cruise in 17 days. I can't tell you how helpful I have found your reports. Thanks for sharing! You have a beautiful family and it warms my heart to see that your children are still hanging out with mom and dad. My babies are 6 and 3 and I hope they still want to be with me when they are graduates...eighth grade or high school.

Thanks!

 

[SmallWorld71]

Great trip report! We are FINALLY taking our 1st cruise, but not 'til next summer. In the mean time, I am reading trip reports. I learned lots of valuable tips from yours. Among them:
1) Don't let teenage son order his own drink at Senor Frogs
2) It's O.K. if DD decides to use ship as personal gymnastics practice area
3) There are bikes of all sizes at CC, including ones w/ training wheels in case DD isn't ready to go without
4) The reason we have not had sun here in weeks - it is following the cruise ships
and most importantly
5) If you want to get through customs quickly, do not bathe

 

[Mndisneygirl]

I, like many others, loved your TR. Just as fun as the last one! I hope you get to go on more cruises so I can read about them. Your pictures (all 514 of them!) were great. I got so many good ideas.
Thanks for allowing us the pleasure (again) of sharing your family and your trip with us.

 

[DaddyDon]

Thanks TCD Thanks!!!!!Great report as allway's
Now back to the camping board.....

 

[dollysmom]

TCD - you have done another great trip report. I have looked forward to reading each installment. Hopefully it will not be too long before you board another Disney ship!!!

 

[DMMarla07860]

Somewhere in this commotion, one of the DD's came running up to tell the other girls that she had just seen Pikey dressed up weird outfit and wearing a wig. We ran off in the general direction of where she claimed to have seen him (Route 66), and ran into these guys:

Yes, that is Pikey and Frankie. They were hosting a rock-n-roll party for the adults in Wavebands that night, and Pikey was dressed as Rod Stewart (I am not sure why?) (and I am I the only one who finds this a bit disturbing?) and Frankie as Bruce Springsteen.

Here is another photo, taken just a little later, when the guys were posing outside of Wavebands:

Pikey was dressed as Rod Stewart? Did you tell you this? your not the only one that finds this disturbing, I find it disturbing as well and hate it, can't stand Rod Stewart, but my friend listenings to him. Now Frankie dressed as Bruce Springsteen I can stand and not disturbing since Bruce is from NJ so I gotta love him

 

[Olga]

TCD, Thanks for sharing your delightful family's trip report.
Loved your comments and all the pictures.