An oh-so-suite Mexican Riviera TR! 3/20/11 Wonder-UPDATED 4/23- Day 6- more Cabo fun!

[Silly Little Pixie]

Okay, I started to type this earlier tonight. Finished the first post and my Siamese cat jumped up in my lap, magically erasing everything. Guess he missed me! So, deep breath, and starting again.

I have really enjoyed the previous MR trip reports that others had written. Having a bit of a unique trip this time, and doing some excursions that I hadn't seen a lot about, I decided to jump on in. This was our first cruise as Gold Castaway Club members, so I'll talk a little about that. Also, our first in a suite! I am a huge picture taker, so be forewarned: Many Pictures are Coming!

Also: I have a short attention span, so I intend to finish this TR in a week or so- not months. (And now that I said that out loud, I have to stick to it!)

Our cast of characters:
Me- resident Disneyholic, and general coordinator of everything
DH- Mr. Friendly, and closet Disneyholic. He loves DCL!
DD- aka The Teenager, 14 and sweet when she's not bickering with her brother
DS- aka The Tween- at just 11 at an awkward age for the Edge, but a little too old for the Lab. Also a big Disney fan, even if it's not cool

Joining us:
The Trainer- my friend, who is also a personal trainer and kept me movin'
Comedian- Trainer's DH, kept us laughing
Tween2- their DS, and my DS's best bud

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

We had booked the Christmas 8 night Mexican Riviera cruise. We had no plans to sail it earlier, but Kids Sail Free was offered. A coworker got in on it, and she let me know about it. I tried to book it, but no rooms were available for 4. So I forgot about it. Fast forward a few weeks, and I mention it to Mr. Friendly. He says, hey why not look again? I'd love to go! So I call my wonderful TA, and in a few days a cat 5 B opens up. So I call up my friend Trainer, and she books her family as well. They had only done one 4 night on DCL but had done several MR cruises in the past.

After booking this, the men got together and suggested we keep it as a surprise from the kids. Not just till Christmas... all the way! I thought it was a great challenge and boy, was I nervous we would blow it. In order to pack, we sent the kids to my parents' the night before the cruise (we live in So Cal so we can easily drive in an hour to the port). We told the kids we were going to Arizona to see the Angels for spring training. Mr. Friendly even took the kids to Walmart in the days before the cruise to get new Angels gear!

Morning of the cruise, we were really nervous. We picked up the kids and drove towards LA, hoping they wouldn't notice we were going WEST not EAST. Apparently, not only did I grossly overestimate their geographic skills, but also their addiction to the i-Touch and the Kindle. They never noticed a thing!

As we got close to the parking lot, the Teenager looked up and said, "Look Mom! It's the Wonder!" I look over at the Tween and he looks bewildered, and excited...I said, "Do you still think we're going to Arizona?!" At this point, the jig is up and they are clapping and yelling.

We were so excited to get to the port, we got there about 10:00, although our boarding time was 10:30. There were only a handful of people so we went to the Castaway Club line. After checking in, we inquired about upgrades, and were directed to a window adjacent to us. After talking with the CM there was one upgrade available- a cat T (aka a cat 3 1 bedroom suite)! This is what we were hoping for. She said there were only 2 available and one had already been taken. After about a minute of discussion we decided to jump on it. We asked if our friends could possibly upgrade into our verandah, but they said that the ship was so full, our room wasn't going to be released at all, but used for their inventory.

Oh.My.Goodness. The BEST decision!!!!! Now we will be forever spoiled. In fact tonight, nobody wanted to make dinner, and we were all whining for Mike (our fantastic concierge), who would magically get us anything we wanted...

Back to reality!

Anyway- we got to go to a special concierge waiting area. I have no idea how it compares to the one at Port Canaveral, but this was fine. We all changed into our matching shirts (I brought our CC shirts in a carryon, since I just love that matching embarkation photo. Yes, I'm weird like that...) and relaxed inside. I took a few pictures around the terminal, and mostly just waited for the Trainer and her family to arrive. The boys still didn't know they would be cruising together. When they arrived, we snuck them into the Concierge lounge with us. We ended up being called to board at noon. Our friends were allowed to join us in the boarding queue, and we were onboard! Finally! The kids were going nuts.

the mostly empty Concierge Lounge at Port of Los Angeles

We had lunch at Parrot Cay, and let me say- a definitely advantage to that #1 Boarding pass is a practically empty PC! Afterwards we headed over to Cadillac Lounge for the concierge waiting area, and our friends decided to explore around the ship. We met Mike, Concierge extraoirdinare, who got the spa appointments Mr. Friendly wanted, as well as mimosas and Stellas for us. Ahhh. Nice!

 

[Mindyjoy]

I'm in!!!! I sail in 2 weeks!!!!!!!

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

On our November B2B, our friends upgraded to a one bedroom suite at the port. However, since it was only a 3 day cruise we rarely spent much time in their room. Also honestly I'm not sure I had ever read a TR with one bedroom suite pictures- so here are plenty! The room we got was 8600, which is an HA room. No tubs, but the showers were fine.

the loooong hallway!

the living room

the bedroom

master bath

But best of all, was the gi-nor-mous balcony! Holy cow. Since this room is aft, it's right at the curve of the ship.

We spent a lot of time out on this balcony!

But wait... there's more!

The balcony continued through 2 more fully enclosed verandahs! It was huuuuge! In this picture I am standing inside one of them, taking a picture of the boys in the next one.

It started to really rain pretty hard- so the sailaway party was moved indoors to the atrium. We'd all seen the party before, and decided not to pack in like sardines to watch it. So, we stayed in the room, opened a bottle of wine, and let the kids hang out.

the boys even played hide and go seek in this room! That's something I never thought we'd do in a cruise ship room.

As it was time to finally pull away from port, we went out to watch. Those enclosed verandahs were great! It was really rough, and the Captain had a hard time. Check out these pictures, yikes:

Waves crashing over the breakwater

lighthouse/foghorn at the end of the harbor

Next up: a sea day! Woohoo! But how warm will it be...?

 

[Lissame]

I'm excited to read your trip report! Excellent about the suite, you were right down the hall from us (we were 8572)

 

[QuiltTeddy]

Look forward to reading the rest of your TR.

 

[ladypirate]

we had this room in Aug 2009, but i have to say, i don't recall the secret verandah. Mike never showed us those!! And going back to a regular cabin after the suite is way tough!!

 

[DisneyZell]

Nice! we did the upgrade too...it's great. But as several others have pointed out...how will we ever...EVER go back to a normal cabin???

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

we had this room in Aug 2009, but i have to say, i don't recall the secret verandah. Mike never showed us those!! And going back to a regular cabin after the suite is way tough!!

Oh man. Not looking forward to that... We booked cat 11B for our B2B on the Dream next year! all that I could afford...

 

[SheaBear]

I'm in! Can't wait to read all about it.

Thew one bedrooms are way bigger than I thought it was going to be.

 

[LKFan]

Ooooooh, love all the pics!

 

[scrappinmom]

I can't believe I'm actually here lurking on the DCL board & get to follow YOUR trippie!! I am beyond excited!!!

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Okay, on to day two! Sea Day! Woohoo!

If only it weren't still kind of chilly...

Even though we were technically in Mexico now, it still wasn't pool warm (at least, not for me!). What to do, what to do?

Trainer called me up and asked if I'd go to yoga with her. So, I go up the secret back stairs from my room into Beach Blanket Bingo, grab some coffee, proceed to spill some on myself, and meet her outside the Vista Spa. We go in, only for the CM to decide that it was way too rough/windy to do the yoga in the Quiet Cove area. So we grabbed some mats and walked alllllll the way back to the aft, to the Deck 7 overlook. It was a very full class. I enjoyed it, although I'm not sure how challenging it was for those who are avid participants in yoga.

Although, it was still pretty rough so holding some of those poses was funny!

After yoga, I decided to grab a quick bite to eat and go for a run. I ran a couple miles around Deck 4...getting passed all the time by runners who are much faster. At least, I could lap the walkers! I realized at this time, this is why I hated track in high school but loved running. I don't like just going in circles and seeing the same darn thing. I did see a whale spout, which was pretty cool. Not seeing that on my regular runs in my neighborhood!

After that, I headed back to the room, hung out on the balcony with the kids, and saw this:

I know it's not a great shot, but it was hard predicting where it would come up next, AND get the shot! At this time of year, the whales are heading north, and we're going south. So the window of time we are passing each other is pretty brief.

Still, we were pretty excited!!

 

[scrappinmom]

Very cool!!!! Casey just saw the whales on her boat in Hawaii!!! Can't wait to see MORE pics!

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Okay I am not thrilled with the Dis at this moment since my whole post I just wrote has disappeared. ARG!

Back to Day Two, first sea day:

In the afternoon, we (we= moms, dragging the children, the men were somewhere else I am not sure where) went to the Promenade Lounge for Family Wonder Quest. So much fun! We laughed so hard. I'd recommend this family game.

After that, there was more hot tubbin' , then back to the suite to get ready for Formal Night. The men were not thrilled about having to get dressed up, and the boys...uh... a lot less than thrilled. Because that meant terrible things like showers and cleanliness and ties...

But, I got to sit out on the verandah and watch this beautiful sunset, enjoying a glass of wine

(anyone sensing a theme here?)

Then the Tween and I got to hang out, looking at all the constellations we know in the crystal clear, inky black sky. I swear on my MR cruises (the other on Princess) the sky is SO much darker than in the Caribbean. I think the sky off Baja has so little light pollution.

We finally got everyone all together and headed down to dinner. We had late seating (ok, it's official: we all hate it). It was the Golden Mickeys menu, which was as a group our least favorite. It was just okay. The food wasn't bad, it just didn't grab our attention.

I did manage to set down my wine and get this picture, proof positive we clean up just fine.

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Very cool!!!! Casey just saw the whales on her boat in Hawaii!!! Can't wait to see MORE pics!

Cool! Did she take a whale watching excursion? We saw plenty of whales on this trip, without even paying for one! That was pretty awesome, especially since this was the very very very end of whale season in Mexico.

 

[Lissame]

In the afternoon, we (we= moms, dragging the children, the men were somewhere else I am not sure where) went to the Promenade Lounge for Family Wonder Quest. So much fun! We laughed so hard. I'd recommend this family game.



We finally got everyone all together and headed down to dinner. We had late seating (ok, it's official: we all hate it). It was the Golden Mickeys menu, which was as a group our least favorite. It was just okay. The food wasn't bad, it just didn't grab our attention.

Hey, we were the winners of Family Wonder Quest last week It was a blast, I hope people give it a chance. My husband and I played the "adult" version the night before and laughed so much doing that as well.

We didn't love the Golden Mickeys menu either. Next time I'll say we'll skip it and go to Palo instead.

We had late dining on our last cruise (Carnival) and we hated it too. Early dining this time occasionally required a bit of scrambling (like on Pirate night when we had spend the day in Cabo) but overall it was totally worth it.

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Hey, we were the winners of Family Wonder Quest last week It was a blast, I hope people give it a chance. My husband and I played the "adult" version the night before and laughed so much doing that as well.

We didn't love the Golden Mickeys menu either. Next time I'll say we'll skip it and go to Palo instead.

We had late dining on our last cruise (Carnival) and we hated it too. Early dining this time occasionally required a bit of scrambling (like on Pirate night when we had spend the day in Cabo) but overall it was totally worth it.

I will definitely try the adult version on our next cruise! We weren't really sure what it was so we didn't try it. We only had late dining once before, on our kidless cruise last year on the Magic. It was okay for just us, but I would really try to get first dining on future cruises.

Looking back, we should have asked Mike to hook us up with that... heck, he got everything else we could have ever wanted...shoot!

 

[Mindyjoy]

Try typing your posts in a Word document first, and save often! Then copy and paste into the thread. This is what I always do (after learning the hard way.)

Loving the report so far!! I can picture myself having wine on my own veranda in two weeks.

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Try typing your posts in a Word document first, and save often! Then copy and paste into the thread. This is what I always do (after learning the hard way.)

Loving the report so far!! I can picture myself having wine on my own veranda in two weeks.

Genius! Thank you for the tip. I've never tried a trip report so I've never tried doing more than one post, or even a really long post before.

Also- anyone reading- please, ask me any questions too. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about the MR or the Wonder in general. This was our 4th cruise on her, and while we enjoyed the Magic, I just feel like the Wonder is prettier, and so well kept up. My rooms on the Magic both showed a little wear. Not so on the Wonder. I haven't had a room or a bathroom with so much as a chipped tile.