Back from July 21st Wonder crusie

[ynggun21]

We have been back now for 2 days (we returned on Thurs. 25th.) & I do have to say WOW!!!!! The Wonder is an amazing ship & huge, the 4 days I spent on the ship wasn't enough...we didn't get to see everything on the ship. Nassau was ok all we did was the Dolphin encounter at Blue Lagoon and didn't have enough time to get to see Atlantis...which I wanted to see badly, but I will next year. Anyone who is getting ready for the Wonder you will not be disappointed. Oh yea be prepared to spend a fortune at Shutters...I know I did and they take such great pictures I couldn't pass them up, I think I spent well over $250.00 in pictures (9.95 for 6x8 & 19.95 for 8x10) you will see what Im talking about when you go. I tried to stay away from Shutters but it was impossible Tritons was great as well as Animator's palate and Parrot Cay, as for the pools I didn't getto set foot in any of them but my daughter who is 4 yrs old couldn't get enough of the Mickey pool and the slide there, trying to get her away was virtually impossible. Oh yea on the day at sea day DO NOT...and I do mean DO NOT miss the DISNEY DREAMS show at the Walt Disney Theater, when we went they're was 2 showings one at 2:30 and one at 8:30 don't miss it. Also everyday there is a schedule of when characters will be around to take pictures, they aren't there for long I think only for 20 min's - 1/2 and hour for example 5:00-5:20, so make sure you get there early enough because the lines do tend to be long. Everyone was there, Snow White & Dopey, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Mickey, Minnie, Goofey, Donald Duck, Pluto, Capt. Hook, Wendy, Chip & Dale etc. So there are alot of picture to be had trust me. Anway overall it was the best time I ever had and IM doing it again next year, me my wife and my daughter are extremely greatful for the way we were treated both in the restaurants and in our cabin, our stateroom host (Alex) was the best, and my daughter got a kick out of the towel animals he left for her everyday. Our server and his assistant (Muhamad & Jackeline) were excellent if not better, they treated us like royalty and spoiled my daughter. If anyone happens to get them along with (Ali) Dinner host you have the best on the ship no question about it. Also it was a pleasure to meet Jeff and his Family, Mrs. Scooby ( Laurie ) and her family, and AnnaMae along with her family, all of you have beautiful families and it was a Joy to meet all of you and hope we can do it again. Oh yea Anna Mae, thanks for wanting to watch my daughter when we were going to do the banana Boat ride sorry we didn't get a chance to do it but I will be sure to do next year first thing.

 

[minniegidget]

Frankie,
Could you please tell me about the Dolphin Eounter? Was it worth the $$'s. What time did you leave the ship and what time did you get back. I will be going in Aug with my 71 year old DM. i really want her to have a blast on this trip. Thanks for you help.PS glad that you had a great time. I cant wait to see the Wonder.

 

[ynggun21]

Hi Minniegidget, the Dolphin Encounter was I think $75.00 per person kids pay that as well, they also have the Dolphin Swim which was booked up when I wanted it and it books fast so ifI were you don't wait to get to the Ship when you want to book an excursion do it now. The Encounter was ok the swim is better and a ot more money i think it is $145.00 or higher per person. Your DM will love it and it is for all ages. I booked mine through the encounter themselves not through disney, the web site is www.dolphinswims.com/index.html Call them and book it. Now here is the funny part, when you dock in Nassau depending on what time your encounter is, there is a Ferry that leaves from the boat to Blue Lagoon (Dolphin Encounter) I didn't know this and I took a taxi 12.00, to Paradise Island and from there you have to take a ferry to Blue Lagoon, I didn't know about the ferry to Blue Lagoon till someone who did the same thing told me ther is a ferry that takes you back and forth from the ship. The ferry isn't right next to the ship you have to walk around the dock about a 5 min walk or so. Just ask someone where you can get the ferry to Blue lagoon, or someone on the ship can help you out. Now leaving Blue lagoon a ferry will take you back to where you got on but you have to find out what the times are that the ferry goes back, every few hours or so but you will have no problem getting back to the ship since your in Nassau till 10 pm. So lets get this straight k... Dock in Nassau find out when the ferry leaves for Blue Lagoon Island and take the ferry (takes you right to the Dolphin Encounter) when your done with the encounter get back on ferry and go back to the ship. Simple, or if you book an early encounter try see Atlantis, I wasn't able to but I heard it is out of this world, Atlantis is on paradise island so you can take a ferry to paradise Island from the Dolphin encounter, or take the same ferry back to the ship. It is real easy. Let me warn you, your gonna get bombarded by taxi drivers...just shrug them off and make your way to the ferry, if I remember correctly when you leave the ship walk to the end of the dock and make a right to the other end of the dock and make another right and walk to the ferry. If it is to confusing let me know and I will explain it shorter and better for you.

 

[minniegidget]

Thanks Frankie for the info. I have already booked the Dolphin Encouter with Disney. I know it is more money but I wanted to make sure I got to do this and I did not want to have to pay more for taxi ride. So i think everything is taken care of. At least I hope so. So there is differant times for your Dolphin Encounter. When I call DCL they told me it was at 9am.and the sooniest i would be back was 2pm. Maybe that is beacuse I booked with DCL. Oh well not to sweat the small stuff. I will be back on when I get there.

 

[ynggun21]

Oh ok, sounds good. You have an early encounter thats good. Mine was at 1:30 in the afternoon which killed the whole day. Ifyou get a chance try to make your way over to Atlantis, you will regret it if you don't...I do believe me.

 

[MrsScooby]

Hey Frankie!! I'm finally back home. I agree with you on everything ! The Wonder is incredible!! This has so spoiled me for everything else . We tried Universal afterwards and it just didn't compare.
Was your DD afraid of the dolphins? We are definitely planning a dolphin excursion next time.
Did you use your verandah alot?
What was your favorite restaurant? I liked Palo best and then Parrot Cay. Triton was our least favorite, but still very good of course.
Got to go unpack.
Laurie

 

[ynggun21]

Hi Laurie, Francesca wasn't afraid of the Dolphins to much...she did get a bit nervous when it wanted to kiss her You have to do teh dolphin thing next year, Im going to book the dolphin swim(if she is big enough) if not I will do the encounter again. Also next year IM not going to miss Atlantis no way. We were on the Verandah but not as much we went out on it at night for a bit, and a few times in the morning, thats about it. I would haveto agree with you on what restaurant we enjoyed the most and I have to say Parrot Cay was my favorite, then it was Animators Palate, then Tritons. All in all it was a great time and can't wait to do it again next year, this time I want to be able to see the rest of the ship which I didn't do this time around. Next year will be different, IM still going to do the 3 days in WDW followed by the Cruise...it's just to bad it goes so fast. By the way Laurie it was a pleasure to meet you and the family...you have a beautiful family.

 

[MrsScooby]

Frankie- I can't tell you how much I enjoyed bumping into you and your family on the ship!!
You have a beautiful family also- Francesca reminded me alot of my DD, Kelly. I also agree with Laura, Castaway Cay is where I want to live too.
We went to Atlantis, but because of the heat and the walking didn't enjoy it as much as I thought we would. I would recommend doing it on your own and taking a cab instead of ferry.
Or going at a time of year when it is not so hot. They did have some really cool fish though!
Laurie

 

[ynggun21]

Yea I wish I could of seen Atlantis, my boss kept bugging me about going to see it. I will make sure I see it next year. Are you going to book next year or are you doing something different?

 

[Sure]

Glad to see everyone made it back ok. Anna, you did make it back didn't you? It was great meeting all of you. It is amazing that on a ship that large and the number of people onboard how many times we ran into one another.

What a beautiful ship she is and I can't say enough about her crew. Our stateroom host (Weekly) was simply perfect. Our Head Server (Daniellie), Restaurant Server (Frantz), and Assitant Server (Cluadia) were great. They were attentive and took note of our likes and dislikes for the meals to come. Dinners were great and I enjoyed each of the restaurants all equally. We were fortunate to dine with a wonderful family from Ohio. Having them dine with us made the experience that much better.

Nassau was just OK. We did none of the excursions but we did take a taxi to Atlantis. The taxi ride was more like a ride at the parks. Atlantis was nice but I seem to have lost a little money there. If anyone finds it.... We took the ferry back.

Castaway Cay was beautiful and we took lots of pitures of the fish with our underwater camera. A snorkel and mask is a must.

Our day at sea was great. As Frankie said " Disney Dreams " is a must. "Who wants to be a Mouseketeer" was good too. We were in the shops constantly spending our plastic money.

We finished our vacation park hopping at WDW. It was a pleasure meeting all of you and I hope we see you again.

Jeff

 

[fireplug]

Sounds like you all had a great tim. DW and I are getting excited and we still have this many days to wait...............


Steve

 

[ynggun21]

Hey Jeff hows everything...as well as the family? Did everyone enjoy the ship? Sorry to hear you lost money at Atlantis hope it wasn't a lot. Oh yea I will send that picture of you I took at the Walt Disney Theater as soon as I figure out how to do it But we are talking about doing it again next year but undecided if we want to do the 7 day or stay with the 7 day land & sea, still not sure. Hope to hear from you guys again and it was a pleasure meeting you and the family, thanks for making it happen.

 

[el_tigre]

I'm a moron. For some reason I had it in my mind that we were supposed to meet at the Atrium on Deck 3. It wasn't until just now when I did a search that I realized that the meeting was in the Promenade. Talk about being so close but so far. I'm sorry I missed meeting all of you. Sounds like it would have only enhanced what was already an amazing vacation.

Well, at least I got to meet Laurie in line waiting for Vista Spa reservations. I was hoping to run into her to find out what I had done wrong with the meeting, but I never saw her after that. It's funny that you can go through an entire cruise and never see someone. Oh well, I'm sorry I missed meeting you all.

 

[ynggun21]

Hey no problem el_tigre, there's always next year. Sorry we couldn't meet, well it wasn't a lost at all you got to meet Mrs. Scooby (Laurie). She is a great person and has a wonderful family. Im pretty sure everyone might somewhere down the line do the cruise again...I know I'am next year Maybe we might meet then.

 

[el_tigre]

Hey Frankie,

You were on the 1:30 Dolphin Encounter, weren't you? I was actually thinking on the boat back to the Wonder that you were probably on it somewhere. Short of tapping everyone on the shoulder, wasn't much I could do though.

We'll definitely be going back. I think our plan is to do a 7 day in 2004. Being from California, it's quite a trek to go to Florida every year. Did you book on the ship? A couple we met onboard told us as we were getting off that a quarter of the cruisers had booked another vacation while on board. That's unbelieveable if true.

 

[MrsScooby]

el_tigre- I wondered what happened to you! I was so focused on signing up for my "Ladies Night" at the spa, I looked up and you were already gone. You really helped pass the time away while we were waiting for the spa to open. Thanks for your patience with my DD, she was so wired.
I'm hoping to go again in 2004, on a 7 day this time. All I am certain of is that it won't be during the summer-too hot! We are also hoping to convince some family members to join us next time.
When my DS8 starts school this Sept., I am going to check with his teacher about the best time to take him out.
I did bump into Noahsmom, although I didn't know it at the time. She sat next to my DH and I at Palo. (DH also chatted with her on line for Palo). It wasn't until reading her trip report that we realized it was her!
We wound up being seated at a table for four for dinner. DH asked me why I did this, as if I would request this - motormouth that I am . I was looking forward to meeting our tablemates!!
Nora from Hungary was our server, Jorge from Chile our ***'t server, and Wira was the Head Server. All excellent of course. We hardly ever saw our stateroom host- but I did notice that the beach sand seemed to magically disappear right around the time those towel animals showed up.
Did anyone else catch "Match Your Mate"?, it was hysterical!
Laurie