Another "Wonder"ful cruise - day 1

[momof2disprincesses]

We just returned from our week long Disney trip. Our trip consisted of 1 night at Buena Vista Suites before the cruise, 3 nights on the "Wonder"ful Disney Wonder, and 2 nights at the Nickelodeon Suites, including 1 day of park hopping at MGM, EPCOT, and Magic Kingdom.

This thread will focus on my review of our cruise portion. We were a party of 6 total. It was myself (age 37), dh (age 43), dd9 (she'll be 10 in 3 weeks) and dd13 PLUS 2 single female friends (ages 30 & 37). It was our second time doing a 3 night Disney cruise (in addtion to our 2 Disney cruises, we've also done a 7 night RCCL cruise) and it was our friends first time ever cruising.

We learned SO much from all of you on these boards, so I must begin by saying THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

We arrived to the port very early (we actually pulled up shortly after 9am). We were excited to get there and wanted as much time as possible on board. They did allow us to park that early (by the way, parking has gone up to $12/day) and enter the terminal (although cm's kept looking at their watches when we said we were there for the next cruise). We also got to talk with 2 families who had just exited the ship and were waiting for rides. That was interesting. They said it had been fairly cold for their trip. That made us nervous, but it turned out to not be a concern at all as the weather we had for our cruise could not have been more ideal!

We were actually the 3rd group to enter the terminal that morning. The first was a nice Mom and daughter (who works as a cm at Magic Kingdom). This was their 18th Disney cruise!

We did have to wait inside until 11am when they started checking people in. We are return cruisers, so we got to go in that line and were the second family checked in (we were behind the Mom & daughter I mentioned above and while waiting, we chatted and they shared all their pearls of wisdom ~ not a bad way to wait Check in went very quickly. We then waited some more until they let us on the ship around noon. They check you in with the number system and of course #1's are concierge guests and those needing extra time. There were very few of those and #2 was called almost immediately after and we were on the ship in no time. Even arriving early, the time waiting in the terminal flew by!

We also got to meet another Dis family (hello AKbabe & family) and chat with them before boarding. Our two oldest dd's had emailed and IM'ed before the trip because us Mom's connected on these boards and by the end, had become good friends on the cruise! That made dd13's cruise much more enjoyable!!

Once onboard, we met up with our friends and went to Beach Blanket to eat. The food was good and we loved getting ice cream at Scoops after lunch

We happened to be on the ship the day NASA launched their rocket to Pluto, so we got to see that very close up, which was really cool

After lunch, our dd's had the Goofy pool all to themselves. It was very cold that day, so they didn't stay in long, but it was fun to get pictures of them in the pool all by themselves.

Dh and I also made our PALO reserverations (we took our time getting there to do it and there were LOTS of good times still available). We got our first choice.

By this time, our stateroom was ready and we went exploring. We were in 6032, a category 6 with a balcony. It was just fine for our family. Our friends were in 2511, a category 12 and they thought it was just fine for their needs as well.

We enjoyed the sail away party together and spent some time in the hot tubs before the show and dinner. We also got a special treat of watching 4 playful dolphins swim with the ship to take us out to the open sea. That was completely incredible!!!!!!!!

We saw Hercules, the Museical, which we had seen 4 years ago on our first Disney cruise. It was funny and they had made some changes to it since 2002, but I wish they would get a new show!

Our dinner rotation was Parrot Cay, Triton's and Animator's Palate. Our servers were Lito and Herman. Our stateroom attendant was O'Dell. All were absolutely fabulous, just as we expected.

Lito has been working for Disney cruiseline on and off since it began in 1998 and he was very, very professional and attended to our every need and whim. Herman was fairly new and so flamboyant and fun. Our dd9 adored him and he would challenge her in Disney knowledge and songs, which she just ate up. He was a hoot and made our dinners so much fun!

O'Dell was quite a character. Whenever he would see us (or anyone in his area), he would say "Whassup!" really loud. Our kids would search him out just to say this with him. He was the best!!!

DD9 and I also played Mickey Mania in Studio Sea between the show and dinner.

We were the first family there and showed a lot of enthusiasm when it was time to pick teams. I'm pleased to say, we are Disney trivia nuts and we slaughtered our competition (we had the highest possible score of 950 points - the scores can only be 3 digits and come in 50 point increments). The second place team only had 250. Sorry ~ just had to gloat a bit and tell you all how much fun we had playing this game. We received "Winner" coins and ribbons What a hoot!

After the show, Mickey Mania, and dinner, we walked up on deck 10 and enjoyed all the ship had to offer before bed. It was a magical first day.

I'll write more about days 2 and 3 next. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[Jennifer48]

Sounds like your first day was great! Thanks for sharing

Now I'm off to day 2.

 

[sbatty]

We are headed out for our cruise next week. We are spending the two nights, pre-cruise, and the Nick Hotel. I was curious what you thought of the hotel. Thanks for writing a trip report.

 

[mruhaak]

I'd be interested in hearing about the Nick hotel as well!

 

[Mickee]

We stayed at the Nick after our 4 day cruise last Feb for 4 nights, the new main pool was not done at this time, I had all intentions of hitting the parks with DH DS8 DD7 and they did not want to leave the hotel, the only time they left is when I forced them to go to DTD for souvenears.

Will definetly stay there again, I am sure pricey for some, but the savings for us by totally utilizing and not paying for park passes saves me money!

The 2 bedroom suites were great.....

It was a great vaca for us as well, just to chill by the pool for 3 + days.

 

[momof2disprincesses]

We enjoyed the Nick Hotel. We had stayed there for a week once in 2003 when it was just the Holiday Inn Family Suites.

I absolutely love the set-up of the suites. They have a small living room area with a small kitchenette with dorm fridge and microwave, sink, etc. This room also has a kitchen table and tv. Then there is a master bedroom with king size bed, desk, large closet and another tv. Then there is a kid's room with bunk beds, another tv, small table, cd player, nintendo, etc.

The theming is great here and if your kids are familiar with Nick shows at all, they will love it!

They have 2 pool areas with new water slides and the pool water is very warm.

They also have a mall area with shops (one Nick merchandise, one with groceries) and an A & W and Pizza Hut and a sub shop and Nick at Nite (a bar). They also have a sit-down restaurant, a place for their character breakfasts, computer games, arcade, kid's spa, info desk, Nick Studios for nighttime games, etc.

There is a lot to do here and you can make a vacation of the hotel itself. The staff is Disney caliber and very helpful & friendly. The hotel is bright, clean and in good repair. We constantly saw employees cleaning, painting, fixing things, etc. Everyone who worked there kept asking us if we were enjoying our stay. A manager even talked with my dh and kids for over a half hour about how they could improve their image with teens (she approached them and asked how old our daughter was and would we have a few minutes to share our thoughts on teens at the Nick Hotel). So, I think they are working on constantly making it better there. She also found out we're from WI and asked about the Kalahari Hotel here (which we've stayed at many times) as she said they've done a lot of research on that hotel and aim to take some cues from them.

My girls are 9 and 13. My 9 year old LOVED this place and everything about it. My 13 year old is getting a bit old for it. She was uncomfortable in the small bunk beds and didn't get into the games and Nick theme as much. However, she is a good sport and a kid at heart (aren't we all?), so she did have fun here. She was happy to share her input with the manager.

If you have other specific questions about this place, let me know.