Ashley24
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2002
- Messages
- 554
Here is some background on me and my family and our cruising history. I am Ann 34, dh Cliff 35, Megan 8 and Madison 5. Cliff and I have cruised 3 times on the Wonder and the girls have gone on the Wonder twice. We were very excited to try the longer cruise! My mom, dad, sister, and 2 nephews also were on our cruise. This was their first 7 night cruise also, with only one previous Wonder cruise.
Our vacation started out on a bad note. We were supposed to fly out the night before out of Detroit at 11:00 AM and have time to enjoy the pool at the Radisson. Due to plane problems, we didn't arrive at the Radisson until midnight! We used Cartier for the towncar. When we realized that we would be arriving in Orlando so late, we called to let them know and to ask for a limo so the girls could lay down. Ali upgraded us at no cost!
The next morning we hired a taxi to get us to the port since the shuttles were booked until later in the day. However, I heard that you can call and set up a shuttle time the day before you arrive. This would have been a good idea in our case.
Once at the port, we decided to try to pay for an upgrade in the aft section of the ship. We went from a cat. 6 to a cat. 4, room 8588. It cost just under 400.00. We really like the aft section of the ship so were glad to change to this area and also liked how close we were to the Mickey Pool and Buffet area. The extra storage area was also nice. However, we did hear a lot of chair moving noise as early as 4:00 AM.
We were very glad that our request to join tables with my parents, and sister and boys was granted as shown on our Key to the World cards. They booked their cruise after the 60 day mark and the main dining time was full. We put in a request to have them join us and it was granted without us having to do anything to change them. Yeah!
Once we entered the ship, we immediately went to Rockin Bar D to make our Palo ressies. We were the first ones there (we were the first ones in line to get on the ship too, except for the suite holders of course) and got our times for the Brunch, Dinner, and Tea. That was easy! I also made a spa appointment for later in the week, the Ultimate Face and Body.
I must tell you that if you change rooms at the port, it does create some minor problems. Any items that should be in your room won't be for a while such as the Castaway Club beach towel and pins. We also had to search for our luggage. Some had been re-routed but of course not the one with my dinner clothes. This made for a rushed dinner prep time. Also, we didn't have the right sized or number of life jackets. They fixed this problem later, but not in time for the drill. Of course, my two dds were glad they didn't have to wear the life jackets! Our drill was in Animator's Pallette which I much prefer over the outside deck 4 area where the sun can be very hot.
Our servers were excellent! We had Richi and Herbert and they made a super team! They were great with the kids! They did lots of magic tricks with them and kept them entertained. They also brought out lots of extra food for us to try. Best of all, we were planning on having dinner at Palo our last night and they talked us out of it. They learned that I just wanted to go there for the souffle so they brought us two of them on our last night! Very nice of them! I felt kinda bad because we took the kids to club activities in the middle of dinner many nights but it was also nice to have some adult only time!
We really enjoyed the tea at Palo and Brunch. Tea is a nice treat, with great tasting food, and all ready for you so that it was quick. I think we were only there about a half hour. The brunch was quite longer...about an hour and a half, I believe. We had Sal for our server and he was very fun to talk with. We ate a ton of food and enjoyed it immensly (sp?). My sister couldn't get enough of the fresh fruit and whipped cream dip. My dad said the made to order omlette was the best he ever had.
As far as the club/lab activities go, my kids got involved right away and really enjoyed themselves! My dd5 went the first night to the Lilo and Stitch party and couldn't wait to go again! All over the ship, I heard lots of kids say "Hi, Madison!". Megan8 enjoyed many of the activities too although she also enjoyed going to Bingo with me, and going to the arcade. I also allowed her some freedom to go to some places by herself and she really thought that was cool!
My sister's older son (12) never went in the lab at all. I know he would have had more fun if he had given the lab a try but he didn't. Her younger son (6) got very involved and had lots of fun.
As far as Easter goes on the ship, Madison5 had an Easter egg hunt in the club and her face painted like the Bunny. Both girls got candy, Madison made some Easter crafts and they had the club decorated nicely for the holiday. In the atrium, they had the Easter Bunny from Alice in Wonderland, face painting, candy, and balloon animals. They also had premade Easter baskets in the gift shop. If I had known that, I wouldn't have brought my own.
They also had special Easter pins.
In St. Marteen, we went on the Golden Eagle Catamaran ride. It was a lot of fun! I worried that Madison would be too young and that the ride would be too scary for her. It wasn't. Although some kids were getting sick, she had a blast and I thought the boat didn't go very fast at all. Megan 8 tried snorkeling for the first time and really liked it! There were plenty of fish to see. Afterwards we went shopping on the Dutch side. I didn't care for it at all. It was very hot (can't help that, I know) and dirty. Maybe the French side is better but I definately was not impressed. I had a hard time finding dresses for the girls for Tropical Night.
On St. Thomas we took a taxi to Red Hook and then took a water ferry over to St. John. Then we took another taxi to Trunk Bay. After renting snorkeling equipment twice, I would recommend buying your own that fits properly and is clean. St. John is very beautiful and a nice place to snorkel. However, it cost quite a bit to get there and back for a short amount of time. The kids really liked the open air taxi ride in St. Thomas; they said it was like a roller coaster ride! Then we did some shopping at the pier and it was way better than the shopping in St. Marteen! If you are looking for souvenirs, this is definately the place to go!
Compared to the Wonder, the days at sea were nice but there really is no room to lay out. People are up at the crack of dawn laying down their beach towels for the whole day. When we would try to find an empty spot, there were literally none! Since we knew about the deck 7 aft verandah, we headed there and had a nice selection. Thank goodness! On the Wonder this wasn't a problem since people leave the ship at the ports.
Here are some miscellaneous positives and negatives:
Positives:
***Saw the primear of Holes!
***Who Wants to Be a Mousekeeter was much better with cruise director Rick in charge
***Saw many Disers with their Lime Green Mickey shapes on them!
***More shopping time on the ship than the Wonder!
***Enjoyed pin trading
***Beautiful weather!!!
***Great lunch buffets! Make sure you look around the corner because there usually is something extra like a baked potato bar or a tortilla bar, etc.
***Character Breakfast was fun! Perfect time for photos and autographs!
***Councelors did a super job with the kids!
***Formal Night: It was fun to see everyone dressed to the nines! OK! Almost everyone!
***70's Night: This was so much fun!!!! Very funny too!
***Dueling Pianos with Jeff and Chris...Am I the only one who thinks Chris is cute???
***Castaway Cay Walking Kayak Tour: DH went on this one and highly recommends it...Learned a lot about the history of the island and saw where the owners used to live, saw a shark, stingray, and a baracuda too.
***Art Of Entertaining classes: DH loved these, especially the galley tour!
Negatives:
***Won't sign pillowcases anymore
***Not enough time between after dinner activity and main show, plus very crowded in the bars
***Morty show was kinda lame
***Crabby kids from lack of sleep (Not Disney's fault, I know!)
***Rude kids on the ship (loud in hallways at night, light sabor fights in front of the elevators, climbing on the Mickey statue in the atrium with dad right there: Kid even asked what the sign said on it (No climbing) and the dad didn't stop him)
***Adult club activities are too late: in our case, only one adult could go since it was too late for our kids to stay in their clubs.
***Pools are too crowded so my kids never used them except when we first got on the ship (put suits on under clothes)
***Spa: Massage really hurt! Is it supposed to???? Also they really push their products.
***Nametags at the clubs: The councelors on the Magic put a lot more emphasis on wearing them and I had to go back to the room many times to fetch it!
Well, the positives outweigh the negatives by a lot! We had an awesome time and really would highly recommend this trip to anyone, with or without kids! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!
By the way, we went to the Magic Kingdom afterwards, had breakfast at the Castle (Great!), and went to the miniature golf (WinterSummerland). Cartier surprised us with another limo ride from the port!!!
Ann
Our vacation started out on a bad note. We were supposed to fly out the night before out of Detroit at 11:00 AM and have time to enjoy the pool at the Radisson. Due to plane problems, we didn't arrive at the Radisson until midnight! We used Cartier for the towncar. When we realized that we would be arriving in Orlando so late, we called to let them know and to ask for a limo so the girls could lay down. Ali upgraded us at no cost!
The next morning we hired a taxi to get us to the port since the shuttles were booked until later in the day. However, I heard that you can call and set up a shuttle time the day before you arrive. This would have been a good idea in our case.
Once at the port, we decided to try to pay for an upgrade in the aft section of the ship. We went from a cat. 6 to a cat. 4, room 8588. It cost just under 400.00. We really like the aft section of the ship so were glad to change to this area and also liked how close we were to the Mickey Pool and Buffet area. The extra storage area was also nice. However, we did hear a lot of chair moving noise as early as 4:00 AM.
We were very glad that our request to join tables with my parents, and sister and boys was granted as shown on our Key to the World cards. They booked their cruise after the 60 day mark and the main dining time was full. We put in a request to have them join us and it was granted without us having to do anything to change them. Yeah!
Once we entered the ship, we immediately went to Rockin Bar D to make our Palo ressies. We were the first ones there (we were the first ones in line to get on the ship too, except for the suite holders of course) and got our times for the Brunch, Dinner, and Tea. That was easy! I also made a spa appointment for later in the week, the Ultimate Face and Body.
I must tell you that if you change rooms at the port, it does create some minor problems. Any items that should be in your room won't be for a while such as the Castaway Club beach towel and pins. We also had to search for our luggage. Some had been re-routed but of course not the one with my dinner clothes. This made for a rushed dinner prep time. Also, we didn't have the right sized or number of life jackets. They fixed this problem later, but not in time for the drill. Of course, my two dds were glad they didn't have to wear the life jackets! Our drill was in Animator's Pallette which I much prefer over the outside deck 4 area where the sun can be very hot.
Our servers were excellent! We had Richi and Herbert and they made a super team! They were great with the kids! They did lots of magic tricks with them and kept them entertained. They also brought out lots of extra food for us to try. Best of all, we were planning on having dinner at Palo our last night and they talked us out of it. They learned that I just wanted to go there for the souffle so they brought us two of them on our last night! Very nice of them! I felt kinda bad because we took the kids to club activities in the middle of dinner many nights but it was also nice to have some adult only time!
We really enjoyed the tea at Palo and Brunch. Tea is a nice treat, with great tasting food, and all ready for you so that it was quick. I think we were only there about a half hour. The brunch was quite longer...about an hour and a half, I believe. We had Sal for our server and he was very fun to talk with. We ate a ton of food and enjoyed it immensly (sp?). My sister couldn't get enough of the fresh fruit and whipped cream dip. My dad said the made to order omlette was the best he ever had.
As far as the club/lab activities go, my kids got involved right away and really enjoyed themselves! My dd5 went the first night to the Lilo and Stitch party and couldn't wait to go again! All over the ship, I heard lots of kids say "Hi, Madison!". Megan8 enjoyed many of the activities too although she also enjoyed going to Bingo with me, and going to the arcade. I also allowed her some freedom to go to some places by herself and she really thought that was cool!
My sister's older son (12) never went in the lab at all. I know he would have had more fun if he had given the lab a try but he didn't. Her younger son (6) got very involved and had lots of fun.
As far as Easter goes on the ship, Madison5 had an Easter egg hunt in the club and her face painted like the Bunny. Both girls got candy, Madison made some Easter crafts and they had the club decorated nicely for the holiday. In the atrium, they had the Easter Bunny from Alice in Wonderland, face painting, candy, and balloon animals. They also had premade Easter baskets in the gift shop. If I had known that, I wouldn't have brought my own.
They also had special Easter pins.
In St. Marteen, we went on the Golden Eagle Catamaran ride. It was a lot of fun! I worried that Madison would be too young and that the ride would be too scary for her. It wasn't. Although some kids were getting sick, she had a blast and I thought the boat didn't go very fast at all. Megan 8 tried snorkeling for the first time and really liked it! There were plenty of fish to see. Afterwards we went shopping on the Dutch side. I didn't care for it at all. It was very hot (can't help that, I know) and dirty. Maybe the French side is better but I definately was not impressed. I had a hard time finding dresses for the girls for Tropical Night.
On St. Thomas we took a taxi to Red Hook and then took a water ferry over to St. John. Then we took another taxi to Trunk Bay. After renting snorkeling equipment twice, I would recommend buying your own that fits properly and is clean. St. John is very beautiful and a nice place to snorkel. However, it cost quite a bit to get there and back for a short amount of time. The kids really liked the open air taxi ride in St. Thomas; they said it was like a roller coaster ride! Then we did some shopping at the pier and it was way better than the shopping in St. Marteen! If you are looking for souvenirs, this is definately the place to go!
Compared to the Wonder, the days at sea were nice but there really is no room to lay out. People are up at the crack of dawn laying down their beach towels for the whole day. When we would try to find an empty spot, there were literally none! Since we knew about the deck 7 aft verandah, we headed there and had a nice selection. Thank goodness! On the Wonder this wasn't a problem since people leave the ship at the ports.
Here are some miscellaneous positives and negatives:
Positives:
***Saw the primear of Holes!
***Who Wants to Be a Mousekeeter was much better with cruise director Rick in charge
***Saw many Disers with their Lime Green Mickey shapes on them!
***More shopping time on the ship than the Wonder!
***Enjoyed pin trading
***Beautiful weather!!!
***Great lunch buffets! Make sure you look around the corner because there usually is something extra like a baked potato bar or a tortilla bar, etc.
***Character Breakfast was fun! Perfect time for photos and autographs!
***Councelors did a super job with the kids!
***Formal Night: It was fun to see everyone dressed to the nines! OK! Almost everyone!
***70's Night: This was so much fun!!!! Very funny too!
***Dueling Pianos with Jeff and Chris...Am I the only one who thinks Chris is cute???
***Castaway Cay Walking Kayak Tour: DH went on this one and highly recommends it...Learned a lot about the history of the island and saw where the owners used to live, saw a shark, stingray, and a baracuda too.
***Art Of Entertaining classes: DH loved these, especially the galley tour!
Negatives:
***Won't sign pillowcases anymore
***Not enough time between after dinner activity and main show, plus very crowded in the bars
***Morty show was kinda lame
***Crabby kids from lack of sleep (Not Disney's fault, I know!)
***Rude kids on the ship (loud in hallways at night, light sabor fights in front of the elevators, climbing on the Mickey statue in the atrium with dad right there: Kid even asked what the sign said on it (No climbing) and the dad didn't stop him)
***Adult club activities are too late: in our case, only one adult could go since it was too late for our kids to stay in their clubs.
***Pools are too crowded so my kids never used them except when we first got on the ship (put suits on under clothes)
***Spa: Massage really hurt! Is it supposed to???? Also they really push their products.
***Nametags at the clubs: The councelors on the Magic put a lot more emphasis on wearing them and I had to go back to the room many times to fetch it!
Well, the positives outweigh the negatives by a lot! We had an awesome time and really would highly recommend this trip to anyone, with or without kids! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!
By the way, we went to the Magic Kingdom afterwards, had breakfast at the Castle (Great!), and went to the miniature golf (WinterSummerland). Cartier surprised us with another limo ride from the port!!!
Ann
