All the way from Japan to enjoy the WONDER of Disney--The Cruise

[tokyodisneydad]

Ok everyone I know you are waiting for this report to continue and I promise it will soon. PLEASE be patient The TEENAGE STORM has hit the fan here this week. Sorry for the delay. THE BOY has been a real headache and I'm sitting in the corner watching KIYOMI and bothgirls going round and round

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Hope everything works out at home. As our good buddy Sebastian once said "Teenagers, you give them an inch and they swim all over you"

 

[anewmac]

cant wait to read more! good luck with the girls.. I remember how I was at that age... I think ill go call my mom and say sorry LOL

 

[tokyodisneydad]

Hope everything works out at home. As our good buddy Sebastian once said "Teenagers, you give them an inch and they swim all over you"

You had me rolling after I read this. Thanks for a much needed laugh

cant wait to read more! good luck with the girls.. I remember how I was at that age... I think ill go call my mom and say sorry LOL

I actually sent my mom flowers after watching my girls in action recently


Thanks for anyone new that has joined and anyone old for hanging on. We should be able to board the ship later tonight, if all goes well

 

[travelgirl06]

I just happened upon this TR, and I'm hooked! I can't wait to go back and read the first half . I lived in Japan for a summer (on a study abroad program/homestay) and I absolutely love the cuture there... I can't wait to get back.

Looking forward to more

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

You had me rolling after I read this. Thanks for a much needed laugh

 

[scottishwee35]

cant wait to read more! good luck with the girls.. I remember how I was at that age... I think ill go call my mom and say sorry LOL

Hi

Your mickey logo is beautiful design

Scottishwee35

 

[disneyholic family]

well eventually teenagers do grow up....the question is can you survive until then???

 

[tokyodisneydad]

Finally the bus arrived to take us to the ship. And what a bus it was. Portholes like the ship and comfortable seats inside. I don't have a picture--sorry. We took a digital camera, a 35mm camera, an underwater camera and a video camera. Unfortunately I have no clue how to scan the photos from my 35mm or the underwater camera. Maybe by the end I can figure it out, but to do that I have to use DDM computer and it's too fancy and in Japanese Kanji so really troublesome.
Back to the bus--On the way to the port they show a video to get you all excited. After watching the video you are ready to jump off the bus and run over anyone in front of you. I also reviewed how to checkin and made sure I had all the paperwork ready. On the boards here I read all about getting to the ship as early as possible and getting a loading number as low as possible, so sitting on the bus not in control was difficult. I was worried about arriving so late. In the end though it didn't matter. I don't think we missed that much by loading later.

Now do you know how before you see or do something for the first time you get a picture in your head about what you think it will be like? That's how I was about the ship. I had basically pictured a floating city. When we first got a glance of the ship I was surprised that it looked smaller than I had thought. Don't get me wrong it was still HUGE, but I think the other two ships nearby were bigger, so I was surprised.

Arriving at the port it was time to get off the bus, go through security and get on. All of this was easy, easy, easy. As we checked in I saw GOOFY standing for pictures. I didn't hear half of what the staff said. I wanted my picture with GOOFY. I had been waiting all vacation for a picture with my favorite character. When I turned around after getting our cards he was gone. So we took a picture with the model ship and went through the Ears towards the ship.

Next Welcome Aboard

 

[disneyholic family]

what a FANTASTIC picture of the 3 of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i thought the ship was soooooooooooooooooo beautiful...
we drove to the port and as we got our first view of the ship my heart literally soared...
they designed the magic/wonder to look like the classic ships of days gone by...
the last time i'd been on a ship, was on the Queen Mary - the original Queen Mary - on a transatlantic voyage when i was 7 years old (way back in 1963)...
what a magnificent ship she was...and the wonder, though it's smaller than the original QM, is very much in her style....and so i immediately fell in love with her....(though i didn't have the ship butler i had when i was 7...but alas, nothing is like it was in the "good" old days)...

the other thing that was so wonderful was how perfectly everything worked right from the moment we drove up to the gate of the terminal...everything was so efficient....perfect....and it continued to be perfect to the moment we drove out when the cruise was over...
they really run everything amazingly well.....

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

You have arrived!

Too bad that you didn't get your picture with Goofy right away, I am sure you saw him a lot while on the ship though.

 

[Mrsjvb]

hey dad, Could you help out a fellow addict? Somebody has some questions about TD in an ECV. It's been years since I was there, hopefully you have more recent information! Now I am off to read about the cruise!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1606816

Thanks!

 

[tokyodisneydad]

what a FANTASTIC picture of the 3 of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i thought the ship was soooooooooooooooooo beautiful...
we drove to the port and as we got our first view of the ship my heart literally soared...
they designed the magic/wonder to look like the classic ships of days gone by...
the last time i'd been on a ship, was on the Queen Mary - the original Queen Mary - on a transatlantic voyage when i was 7 years old (way back in 1963)...
what a magnificent ship she was...and the wonder, though it's smaller than the original QM, is very much in her style....and so i immediately fell in love with her....(though i didn't have the ship butler i had when i was 7...but alas, nothing is like it was in the "good" old days)...

the other thing that was so wonderful was how perfectly everything worked right from the moment we drove up to the gate of the terminal...everything was so efficient....perfect....and it continued to be perfect to the moment we drove out when the cruise was over...
they really run everything amazingly well.....

I also thought the ship was beautiful in fact I would make the comment to DDM throughout the trip that I was so glad that I was on the WONDER instead of those other shoe box style ships. When I boarded I even had a different reaction about the size. I the WONDER.

 

[tokyodisneydad]

You have arrived!

Too bad that you didn't get your picture with Goofy right away, I am sure you saw him a lot while on the ship though.

Stay tuned I kept seeing GOOFy and kept missing him but....

 

[dwonder6522]

I was on this cruise too. In room 6522. HI again everyone, Especially you Tracy Keep in touch! Even know we are on the phone with eachother.

 

[disneydance]

Wow so exciting and all I can tell you that i'm sorry to hear about the boy and amazingly me and boy friend broke up last week so i not dating anymore and i am bad and never told my dad lol (I hope hes not reading this) I think that would be so exciting to arrive at the port for the very first time i'd be ready to flip

 

[tokyodisneydad]

Well here we go, under the ears and towards the gangway. The first thing you see is a place to take boarding photos. Well back in the Animal Kingdom I had been told by the staff that we could add our ship photos on the photopass card. Because of that I didn't buy the CD. I regret that now, but I'm not angry at the CMs. They were very friendly and helpful and mistakes happen. Any way as of my cruise date August 26th 2007 you could not put your ship photos on your park photopass card. So heres some advice: If you have a park trip then a cruise make sure you get your CD before you leave the parks.
Back to the boarding process. We stand in line and get our pictures taken. Since we couldn't use the photopass I wasn't sure if we would buy any photos or not because on the boards I had read about the prices of photos. If you remember coming from Japan I had already paid an arm and leg and replacement hip to get here from Japan. Even though I wasn't sure I wanted to have the picture taken just in case.
As we cross the gangplank a really nice lady asked our name. We would run into this CM many times on the trip, doing many jobs. The staff on the ship are VERY hardworking. They announce our name and everyone claps. Here come the tears . This was a moment I had been waiting for and it was finally here.
Kiyomi has the video camera taping and she records me. I say: "All I can say at this moment is .....WOW!!"
We are directed to Beach Blanket Buffet for lunch while we wait for our room to be ready.

Next: Beach Blanket Buffet, a souvenir tip, and our room

 

[Donald is #1]

Can you order your CD on-line? We did that last year. We waited until we got home and then ordered the CD.

 

[disneyholic family]

mmmm....what's in the drink in the picture???
looks yummy...

coming on board was so much fun....and so exciting after all the weeks of planning and waiting........

i can't wait to hear more....

it's so great that you took so many pictures....we didn't.....not on either cruise.....so our memories are mostly in our head....
hopefully there'll be a next time.....but DD and DS are 'grown up' now, so i doubt there'll be a next time on the magic or wonder .....maybe in the future with grandkids? never say never.....

 

[CapnJackGroupie]