Lisa F
is a very wise woman
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2000
- Messages
- 11,129
I never seem to have time to post a full trip report so I figured I'd just post some highlights. We were on the 9/19 Wonder in a cat 8 cabin.
-Using Avis and staying at the Radisson is WAY easier than I thought it would be. We flew in late Wed night and drove out
to the radisson, turning the car in the next morning when we were ready to go to the port. On the way back we just grabbed the Radisson shuttle because it was there. The whole thing was very quick and very painless!
-I was afraid of being disappointed in the activities in the 3 day after being spoiled by our first cruise being a 7 day. We found that because there were fewer activities we were DYING to do during the day that we had more time to relax and and take naps and actually made it to a lot of the nighttime activities we missed last time, plus spent some time at the spa. Fun!
-Apparantly we (accidentally) made a Palo Faux-Pas. I might post that one separately to keep this a bit shorter since I am really curious about it... we ate there twice and apparantly that DOES NOT HAPPEN on the 3 day (oops).
-The manager at Palo's, Sid, from the 7 day cruise that we were on last JANUARY has switched to the Wonder as a head waiter. He was awesome at Palo, made us feel very elegant and special when we were there, and we recognized him right away. The amazing thing is that he saw us in a crowd and came right over to say welcome back! I'm sure he has seen hundreds, if not thousands of people since that January PLUS it was on a different ship in a different job and he remembered us! How magical is that? We really felt like we had "come home."
-the weather was absolutely perfect during the day, but did rain at night. No matter since we were indoors at night anyway.
-the chocolate chip cookie dough frozen yogurt at castaway cay is AMAZING. Yum!
here are a few disappointments (and the lessons we learned from them!)
-our tablemates were real duds. They were nice enough people but just not our kind of people. They were old enough to be our grandparents (which is not by itself a bad thing, I love my grandparents and my husband's grandparents and think they are awesome people to be with, even if we weren't related) which was a first strike against having much in common. The second strike is that they seem to have the kind of relationship where they don't need to talk anymore, so try as I might to start a conversation I only got one or two word responses. The third was that they enjoy very plain food, which is fine... but when the only thing they DO offer to the conversation is how disgusting the snails are (when my hubby ordered escargot) or how weird the goat cheese was... well, it was a REALLY painful first dinner. I think next time we will request being seated at a larger table... this way hopefully there will be SOMEONE to talk to OR we can just retreat into our own corner. We were at a table for 4 and it felt WAY too intimate for people we did not hit it off with.
-if you are going to tip your waiters at breakfast, tip them right when you get to the table. We didn't and since we had missed the second two dinners, I am guessing they assumed that they werent' going to get a tip from us. The server was VERY cold and seemed downright put out when I asked for egg beaters instead of regular eggs. He practically had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes when we gave him the envelope, even though we tipped the recommended amount (even though we had only eaten ONE meal with him, we figured it wasn't HIS fault our tablemates were so uncomfortable to be with). Anyway, I wonder if we had given him the envelope BEFORE breakfast if it would've been more pleasant (but maybe not).
That was really the only disappointment... otherwise it was a fabulous 3 days and I cannot BELIEVE that we got it for only $257 for the two of us. I honestly would not have tried a shorter cruise after doing the 7 day if it hadn't been for that deal... yes, the cruise was over very quickly but it was absolutely wonderful and has its own charm about it. I would have no qualms about recommending either one.
Lisa
-Using Avis and staying at the Radisson is WAY easier than I thought it would be. We flew in late Wed night and drove out
to the radisson, turning the car in the next morning when we were ready to go to the port. On the way back we just grabbed the Radisson shuttle because it was there. The whole thing was very quick and very painless!
-I was afraid of being disappointed in the activities in the 3 day after being spoiled by our first cruise being a 7 day. We found that because there were fewer activities we were DYING to do during the day that we had more time to relax and and take naps and actually made it to a lot of the nighttime activities we missed last time, plus spent some time at the spa. Fun!
-Apparantly we (accidentally) made a Palo Faux-Pas. I might post that one separately to keep this a bit shorter since I am really curious about it... we ate there twice and apparantly that DOES NOT HAPPEN on the 3 day (oops).
-The manager at Palo's, Sid, from the 7 day cruise that we were on last JANUARY has switched to the Wonder as a head waiter. He was awesome at Palo, made us feel very elegant and special when we were there, and we recognized him right away. The amazing thing is that he saw us in a crowd and came right over to say welcome back! I'm sure he has seen hundreds, if not thousands of people since that January PLUS it was on a different ship in a different job and he remembered us! How magical is that? We really felt like we had "come home."
-the weather was absolutely perfect during the day, but did rain at night. No matter since we were indoors at night anyway.
-the chocolate chip cookie dough frozen yogurt at castaway cay is AMAZING. Yum!
here are a few disappointments (and the lessons we learned from them!)
-our tablemates were real duds. They were nice enough people but just not our kind of people. They were old enough to be our grandparents (which is not by itself a bad thing, I love my grandparents and my husband's grandparents and think they are awesome people to be with, even if we weren't related) which was a first strike against having much in common. The second strike is that they seem to have the kind of relationship where they don't need to talk anymore, so try as I might to start a conversation I only got one or two word responses. The third was that they enjoy very plain food, which is fine... but when the only thing they DO offer to the conversation is how disgusting the snails are (when my hubby ordered escargot) or how weird the goat cheese was... well, it was a REALLY painful first dinner. I think next time we will request being seated at a larger table... this way hopefully there will be SOMEONE to talk to OR we can just retreat into our own corner. We were at a table for 4 and it felt WAY too intimate for people we did not hit it off with.
-if you are going to tip your waiters at breakfast, tip them right when you get to the table. We didn't and since we had missed the second two dinners, I am guessing they assumed that they werent' going to get a tip from us. The server was VERY cold and seemed downright put out when I asked for egg beaters instead of regular eggs. He practically had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes when we gave him the envelope, even though we tipped the recommended amount (even though we had only eaten ONE meal with him, we figured it wasn't HIS fault our tablemates were so uncomfortable to be with). Anyway, I wonder if we had given him the envelope BEFORE breakfast if it would've been more pleasant (but maybe not).
That was really the only disappointment... otherwise it was a fabulous 3 days and I cannot BELIEVE that we got it for only $257 for the two of us. I honestly would not have tried a shorter cruise after doing the 7 day if it hadn't been for that deal... yes, the cruise was over very quickly but it was absolutely wonderful and has its own charm about it. I would have no qualms about recommending either one.
Lisa
