Canadians hitch a ride to Disneyland on The DISNEY WONDER! (with picss) **COMPLETED**

[CrystalS]

We are back
Had a wonderful time, both on the ship and at Disneyland afterwards!

It is nice to be home again, but I would have loved to stay on the ship longer, I don't find chocolates on my bed at night anymore, and I have to cook/clean again lol

I am getting my photos uploaded and will be starting my trip report soon, so stay tuned!

 

[CrystalS]

Alright, here we go!


DAY ONE

We woke up bright and early, wanted to leave by 6am at the latest since we had a 3+ hour drive ahead of us. I woke up first, and started gathering the last few items I needed to get into our carryons. Aaron was up not long after me and then Ella woke up, so we all got dressed and into our tie dye Mickey shirts!

Once we were all ready I called my mom who was to pick us up as we were all traveling in her van. They were almost ready, so we decided to wake up Jacob.

You see, Jacob knew we were going on a Disney Cruise, and had been waiting for a long time and still thought we had longer to wait. We had told him that we were going to the waterslides that day as an excuse as to why we had to get some clothes ready for the morning.

When we woke him up I told he that we couldn't go to the waterslides, but that I had something better, we were going to the DISNEY CRUISE TODAY!!!
At first he didn't believe us, even after seeing the Mickey shirts we were all wearing, so I told him to go to the living room to see the bags all packed, and off he went running into the living room.

It still took a few minutes to sink in and a few "Are we really going today?" "We don't go to Disney at night time" (it was dark out still), but once it sank in he was thrilled and ready to get going!
Once my mom and brother arrived there was one more surprise left for Jacob. We had bought him a LeapPad that he had wanted for so long (but was always "too expensive") and gave it to him that morning to take on the trip. He was very excited and started telling Grandma all about it right away.


The diving portion was fairly boring, the kids slept some while we tried to follow the directions I printed off from MapQuest. We managed to make it to the airport without much trouble. We were going to park the van at the airport and then take the Skytrain to the port. This way when we flew home it would be simple and easy to grab the van from the airport parking and head home right away. We found the right parking lot (I had a coupon for the long term lot) and then made our way to the Skytrain.

Made our way to Waterfront station and hopped off the train, we got about 200 ft from the train when I realized that Ella was missing a shoe! So I ran and backtracked back to the Skytrain platform, but it wasn't there. She had it on the train, but not when we got off. So it was on the Skytrain which had just left to head back to the airport That was my favorite pair of shoes for her, and now all she had for the trip would be her sandals...
Not getting off to a good start now

Oh well, not much we can do now, so we walk the two blocks to the port and once we saw the Disney Wonder sitting their in all her glory everything seemed right and the shoe was forgotten, lol.

We took a couple of photos and then made our way into the terminal, check our bags with the porters and then went through security and checked in. We got to use the Castaway Club Members line since this was our second cruise, how exclusive!

We had boarding number 7 I believe and had enough time to use the restroom and sit for a couple of minutes before our number was called.

Time to board the Disney Wonder



To be continued in the next post (need some lunch) and I will add some photos as well then.

 

[FergusBC]

Lunch!? You stopped for lunch and left us hanging?! Can't wait to read more. I had intended on taking notes and doing a trip report but my pen gave out the first day and my memory gave out on the second so looking forward to (re)living vicariously through your trip report

 

[Sillysox]

Looking forward to the rest of your trip report!

 

[CrystalS]

Sorry about that, one long lunch huh? lol
I was babysitting as well and didn't get to finish.

Here are some photos up to where I ended yesterday.

Jacob realizing that we really are going on our Disney Trip right now!

Family photo in our matching shirts before hitting the road.

There she is!

Jacob with his Silver club level lanyard. (I was so excited about getting these until I found out how annoyingly difficult it was to get them open each time you needed to used your key to the world card to open your stateroom door.... umm, after that first day, we just put our cards in our pockets, lol)

We are EXCITED folks, lets get the party started! lol

Ella and I with the Wonder out the window behind us. We were waiting for our embarkation photo here.

Just a little disclaimer:
Regardless of the fact that I am a photographer at home, you will not be seeing top notch photos in this trip report, lol. There are a few reasons for this...
1) I'm on vacation, I'm enjoying the experiences and don't want to be glued to the back of a camera the whole time, nor do I want to lug around a DSLR all day.
2) With my kids its not possible to spend more than a split second taking a photo, lol.

Next installment to come shortly (today I promise), just need to put the little one down for a nap.

 

[CrystalS]

Just realized Jake was hiding in that last pic too, lol

 

[CrystalS]

Alright, so where was I?
Ah yes, we were just about board the ship!

We waiting in a little line while our boarding number worked their way through the embarkation photos and onto the ship. And then it happened....that magical moment I have been waiting to relive since our first cruise.... "Disney Wonder, please welcome the Sutherland and Kuiper family!"
I just love being announced onto the ship and everyone cheering and clapping for us. That has got to be one of the most fun ways to board a ship!

We then debated if we wanted to go to Parrots Cay or up to Beach Blanket buffet for lunch. We opted for Parrots Cay and had our first meal on the Wonder. Did you know you can get Chocolate milk on the ship? I did, and I think I had chocolate milk at every meal! They have really good chocolate milk too, non of that powdered mix crap, lol.
We all filled our tummies (after a long morning of driving and skytrain, we hadn't eaten in awhile), and then I think we were going to head up on deck but on the way up noticed that the rooms were already opened, so we checked out our room.

After dropping off our luggage we wanted to catch the Spa Tours since we had never seen it on our first cruise. It looked wonderful, they were of course highlighting their different treatments trying to get you to book that day, but we were just there too look around. Oh and for those of you with children, you are allowed to bring the kids in the Spa for the tour

Got to peek into the Exotic Rasul room, I must say, from reading about it on the Dis boards, I was expecting it to be a bigger room, lol. But it was still nice. I think I would get claustrophobic in there though with no windows...

The Spa Villas were beautiful and I wish I could have talked DH into booking one, if we ever get to cruise again, that is going to be one of the MUST DO's on my list, even if I have to do it alone, lol. Oh and the rainforest room looked great too! We sat on the tile lounders and they were nice and warm I can see how one could easily fall asleep in here! In one of the steam rooms we sat on the bench that looks curved funny, and then we realized what the curves were for, that bench practically molded to your spine, it was wonderful and I could have sat there all day! Might look into a rainforest pass next time too!

After putting our name into the Spa draw we headed up to deck 9 to stake our a spot for the Sail Away party! We got a prime spot right on the rope! It was awesome and the kids each got a streamer to wave around. But as soon as the characters came out the kids behind us pushed their way in front of us AND our 1 and 4 yr olds... I just have to say I was a little taken aback and the rudeness of these children and their parents for not telling them to get back in their spots.
I could see them being excited, but DH and I were SITTING, and these were older kids that could easily see over us. I could deal with them getting in front of us adults but they also pushed in front of our kids who then couldn't see anything, so much for enjoying the party.
Sigh, Hakunamatata right?

So after the party we wanted to watch us sail under the bridge, but we also didn't want to miss the Spa drawing... So off we went to the Spa and as they were drawing winners we passed under the bridge, lol. I did take some photos out the spa windows, but of course they aren't as stunning as they could have been up on deck, lol. Oh and we didn't win, but a lot of winners were called from our deck

Next we went back to our rooms to relax, clean up a little and head to dinner.
We were in Animators Palate tonight and got to meet our serving team, Yhokey and Olivia. They were so friendly and great with the kids, would definitely recommend them!

Dinner was good, dessert was even better, lol. Except poor Jacob was getting noticeably tired and couldn't even finish his Mickey bar that he was so excited for (with SPRINKLES)!!

After dinner it was show time, which woke Jacob up. He loved those shows, he would hoot and holler with everyone else, and always waved at the characters on stage, it was just as fun to watch him as it was to watch the shows! Ella on the other hand would watch for a few minutes and then I'd nurse her, and it would never fail that during each show, she nursed and then slept through the rest of the show. Which was in a way nice because had she not slept, she wouldn't have been able to sit still that long and one of us probably would have had to miss the show to take her out. So it all worked out well.

Not sure what happened after dinner. I know that at some point during that first day we got our FE hung up and our magnets got put on the door. (I tried to put them all up high to avoid little hands knocking or picking them off) And it worked, well almost, but I will get to that later...

I can't remember if it was that first night or the next day, but I am including a photo in my next post with our first "haul" of FE gifts. I must say that we had a very generous group and if seemed like every time we opened the door there were gifts waiting.... or someone standing their dropping something off, lol. Sorry to those we may have startled when we opened the door and caught you, didn't mean to bust ya.
Just a little note to our FE group, we are all very grateful for your gifts, thank you all so much, and my mom wanted me to thank you all for her and my brother as well.

So the only thing left for this day was to go to bed Oh and did I mention that I love the beds/pillows on the Disney Wonder?!? We all sleep like babies on those beds!


Well that concludes today's update Day 1 complete. I will come back on and post the rest of the Day 1 pics, but they are uploading right now and taking a long time, lol, so might take an hour or so before I can get them up.
Thanks for reading along!

Tomorrow is Victoria day!

 

[CrystalS]

Here is a video of the CM's announcing us on the Disney WONDER!


We had lunch in Parrot's Cay (yay chocolate milk).

Sail Away Party

This is after we got crowded out of our front row spot...

Watching us sail out of port.

Sailing under the bridge, as seen from the gym.

Down the hallways to our room

Time for dinner.

Too tired for dessert.

Sailing to Victoria.

Waiting for the show.

Towel animal!

Here is our room (later we had the stateroom host set up the bunk for DS instead of the bottom).

And the bathroom, for those of you who haven't seen how small they are, lol.

Our door magnets and FE.

The first "haul" of FE gifts.

 

[FergusBC]

I recognize you now! I remember pointing you out to my husband because I *loved* your shirts!! Sorry about the pushy kids at the sailaway. At first I was worried they might have been mine but then remembered mine were dancing with friends more in the centre of the deck. Not that either of them is pushy by nature but out of sight of Mama...who knows?

Great pic of the Pan as you sailed away. Who knew it would be so long to see blue sky again?

 

[CrystalS]

Day Two!

After a good nights sleep it is Victoria day!
We didn't actually get off the boat today though, since we live within driving distance to Victoria it wasn't a huge draw for us. We decided instead to take advantage of a half empty ship

We had breakfast up at Beach Blanket Buffet, and I must say, the corned beef hash is my favorite dish! (my dad used to make it when I was little, so it brings back memories for me) Breakfast fare was alright, nothing super special besides the hash though. I'm not sure if it was because we had to eat outside, but the food wasn't super hot.... and I didn't care for the bacon. It was thin and just didn't taste all that great to me, not my "normal" bacon.... anyone else notice this?

This was going to be a laid back cruise for us since we had 2 sea days and didn't plan on getting off except for maybe in Ensenada, but only to go to the market.
Although there was usually SOMETHING happening on the ship, we didn't really find that much that interested us... and on a port day there wasn't much happening until that evening. There were activities, but they were spaced out and consisted of ping pong, shuffleboard etc, and of course a few movies.

We did end up going to the Disney Trivia though, we tied for first place, and had to guess the CM's age as a tie breaker. Our group thought it was a trick question and that he would be older than he looked..... nope! We guessed 28, and I think he had been 22 or something like that. I think we offended him, lol. So no win for us. Aaron and Jacob wanted to watch Gnomeo and Juliet in 3D and I think this was the day that they did that.

We didn't do much other than that. I think Jacob may have gotten to do a few rounds on the Mickey slide too, and then we just explored.

Dinner was a Parrot Cay tonight. Food was good, can't remember what we had, lol. Dessert was great as always. And mmmmm, more chocolate milk!
After dinner was the show. It was the Golden Mickeys tonight. I love that show! I love how it showcases so many Disney shows. Jacob was captivated by the shows, it was cute to watch, and Ella fell asleep once again after is started.


***Grossness alert, be warned, there is mention of vomit***


Oooooohhhh! This was the night that we had left Victoria and headed out to sea, and we were sailing through a storm! My mom had talked with a CM or two and they had said that they were surprised at how rough it was that night. The whole ship rocked and rolled on the waves, front to back and left to right, it was like a rollercoaster!
All throughout the show you'd see and child leave with the parent holding a hand over their mouth, so many kids got sick that night, and adults too!
We were feeling it too and had taken some gravol, but our kids seemed unfazed by it. Jacob was too busy watching the show, but as soon as the show was over and he wasn't distracted anymore, he got a weird look on his face.... I grabbed an empty cup that we had and shoved it towards him (I had Ella asleep on me so I couldn't help much other than that). Poor Jacob got sick And poor Aaron had to rush him to the bathroom and clean him up as best he could.

Aaron isn't usually the kid cleaner upper when it comes to sick messes..... so I was proud of him for stepping up, but I think it was getting to him, lol. Once we got back to the room and I got Ella in bed I took over and Jacob had a bath and all was well again. That was the last of the sea sickness for our group for the rest of the trip, so I think we didn't do to badly.



***Warning over, you may continue reading from this point, lol***



After that wild ride, it was time to hit the bed! We had the stateroom host make up the top bunk from now on for Jacob. He is used to sleeping in a loft bed at home, so he really wanted to be in the bunk. The room host set up an extra bed rail on the bunk, and with the blankets tucked in good around him, he never moved once all night

We were not so gently rocked to sleep that night


Photos to follow

 

[CrystalS]

We didn't take any photos until dinner this day...

Ella loved her dinner rolls!

A stroll on deck 4 between dinner and the show.

Looks like we got a photo in front of the fancy backdrop too This was taken with our own camera.

Towel animal (bunny) and Jacob's top bunk This was actually perfect because then we still had the couch underneath we could sit.

 

[CrystalS]

DAY 3

Today was a sea day, and PIRATE NIGHT! Yay!
I'm going to post the photos and try to explain the day through the pics because I'm not entirely sure what happened on the sea days from memory, lol.

We started off the day with our Character breakfast, bright and early!
We started out with Pluto

Minnie!

Dale

Jacob loved his hat!

Goofy! (Jakes hat started to fall apart in this photo, lol)

Mickey!

The top decks were all wet because of the misty weather! They even closed down the Goofy pool for awhile because of all the sloshing of the water in it.

We have more gifts! (we were very spoiled with FE gifts on this trip, thanks fellow Dis'ers!)

A random photo on the steps near Shutters

A little tip: If you don't want to stand in an hour long line with a one year old you can still catch the princesses. If you stand up on deck 5, the princesses come from this deck and then down the staircase. We had a great up close view as they walked by, and Belle even waved and blew kisses at Ella

We stood in ONE character line on the boat because it was only about 5 people long. Jacob wanted to see Peter Pan, but once our turn came around he wouldn't budge or say anything, so Mommy and Ella got a photo with Peter instead

Capt'n Jack was out signing autographs and taking photos but we didn't feel like standing in the line with two little ones, so we just snapped a photo from afar, lol.

We took some more window photos on Route 66, you can see its nice and foggy outside!

A 4 figure bottle of something, lol.

We saw the Cadillac Lounge and even looked in the door, but never actually went inside, lol

This is as far as my pirate garb went, lol. DCL provided us with these bandanas at dinner.

Towel Monkey

My little Pirate!

Pirate party in progress.

My little glow stick girl!

 

[DMMarla07860]

loving your trip report

 

[FergusBC]

Love the report, and the pics! I'm still disappointed we never did see Cap'n Jack. And I seem to remember DH eyeing up that bottle in the duty free...fortunately he decided he'd rather take another cruise someday instead

 

[namihos]

Hi, thanks so much for your report! I'm going on the 11/13 Wonder cruise with my hubby and 2 daughters (ages 2 & 4). I was curious to know how your kids did (since it is similar age differences in terms of kids clubs & potty training). I understand kids who are not potty trained can't go into the main pools, so did you find this difficult to have to separate your kids? Also, were you allowed to bring your daughter into the older kids club with your son, if you stayed with them?

Thanks so much! Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip!

 

[CrystalS]

Hi, thanks so much for your report! I'm going on the 11/13 Wonder cruise with my hubby and 2 daughters (ages 2 & 4). I was curious to know how your kids did (since it is similar age differences in terms of kids clubs & potty training). I understand kids who are not potty trained can't go into the main pools, so did you find this difficult to have to separate your kids? Also, were you allowed to bring your daughter into the older kids club with your son, if you stayed with them?

Thanks so much! Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip!

Hi, thanks for following along

As far as the pools went for the kids, Ella of course only being a year old couldn't use anything other than the splash area. Both our sea days were too cool for her to be "out of the water" in the spash area so she didn't get any water action until our last day in Ensenada when the weather cleared and it got warm out. She did like the splash area, and Jacob played there with her for a bit too, he still thought it was fun at 4yrs old.

Jacob of course wanted to try out the other pools too though. So Ella just hung out with us as we watched Jacob do slide after slide on the Mickey slide, and he also stepped a foot in the ears of the mickey pool a couple times, but it was mostly the slide for him. Then a couple of evenings he went into the Goofy pool with his grandma, or with Dh and I while grandma watched a sleeping Ella in the room. Had we not had anyone else with us to watch Ella, or to take Jacob into the Goofy pool, DH and I would have had to take turns watching Ella/swimming with Jake. With grandma there, we were also able to leave BOTH kids with her after the Goofy pool closed while DH and I went to the adults only pool/hot tub.


And for the kids club, Jacob absolutely LOVED them! We'd always drop him off in the Oceanears Club, but sometimes when we'd pick him up he'd be over in the Lab. (He would ask to go to the lab and a CM would take him, and any other children who wanted to go, over there through a special walkway).
Ella was allowed to be in the club/lab as long as an adult was with her. We'd both get visitor stickers and could come and go as we liked. Because of her size though she ended up getting knocked over by some little boys and face planted into the floor. Ended up with a bruise on her head
So if you do take your little one in, try to keep them out of the center of the mayhem, lol. There was a cute area just behind the CM's desk that had a smaller slide, perfect for toddlers and Ella loved it! She'd go on it over and over again!

Hope that helps




I will have another update up soon. I got a Mac today and so I'm just in the middle of switching over to it and then I'll get some more pics uploaded and another installment up here
Thanks for being patient

 

[CrystalS]

loving your trip report

Thank you
I have read most of your TR's too and have always enjoyed them

 

[CrystalS]

Love the report, and the pics! I'm still disappointed we never did see Cap'n Jack. And I seem to remember DH eyeing up that bottle in the duty free...fortunately he decided he'd rather take another cruise someday instead

I had really wanted to get princess photos, and Capt'n Jack photos but we just didn't want to deal with long lines with the kids. Jake may have been able to handle in, but I know Ella wouldn't have, lol.

That pricey bottle was out of our budget too, lol, we stuck with the $9 and $12 dollar bottles, lol.

 

[namihos]

Hi, thanks for following along

As far as the pools went for the kids, Ella of course only being a year old couldn't use anything other than the splash area. Both our sea days were too cool for her to be "out of the water" in the spash area so she didn't get any water action until our last day in Ensenada when the weather cleared and it got warm out. She did like the splash area, and Jacob played there with her for a bit too, he still thought it was fun at 4yrs old.

Jacob of course wanted to try out the other pools too though. So Ella just hung out with us as we watched Jacob do slide after slide on the Mickey slide, and he also stepped a foot in the ears of the mickey pool a couple times, but it was mostly the slide for him. Then a couple of evenings he went into the Goofy pool with his grandma, or with Dh and I while grandma watched a sleeping Ella in the room. Had we not had anyone else with us to watch Ella, or to take Jacob into the Goofy pool, DH and I would have had to take turns watching Ella/swimming with Jake. With grandma there, we were also able to leave BOTH kids with her after the Goofy pool closed while DH and I went to the adults only pool/hot tub.


And for the kids club, Jacob absolutely LOVED them! We'd always drop him off in the Oceanears Club, but sometimes when we'd pick him up he'd be over in the Lab. (He would ask to go to the lab and a CM would take him, and any other children who wanted to go, over there through a special walkway).
Ella was allowed to be in the club/lab as long as an adult was with her. We'd both get visitor stickers and could come and go as we liked. Because of her size though she ended up getting knocked over by some little boys and face planted into the floor. Ended up with a bruise on her head
So if you do take your little one in, try to keep them out of the center of the mayhem, lol. There was a cute area just behind the CM's desk that had a smaller slide, perfect for toddlers and Ella loved it! She'd go on it over and over again!

Hope that helps




I will have another update up soon. I got a Mac today and so I'm just in the middle of switching over to it and then I'll get some more pics uploaded and another installment up here
Thanks for being patient

thank you sooo much for all this valuable info!!! aww, i'm sorry about ella's bruise, poor thing!! will definitely keep my lil one away from the action. ooh, a mac - fun! can't wait for the next installment! thanks again.

 

[CrystalS]

Day 4 - Our second sea day

The ship wasn't quite so rocky today, either that or we are getting used to it, lol. I think I went for breakfast in Tritons this morning. Mom wanted a sit down breakfast so I met her there. Had a wonderful eggs benedict! (I love those)

We spent some more time down on Route 66, outside of the Cadillac Lounge. This was a nice place to hang out because of the large view windows and the soft carpet for Ella to walk on!

Our attempt at pretty staircase photos, but Aaron made a funny face, and mom only took one picture, lol.

We tried some hats on the kids from Mickey's Mates

Our assistant server Olivia (loved her!) coloring with Jacob at dinner in Tritons. This was our semi-formal night. Jacob is wearing a mickey button up shirt I made for him.

Ella playing with her Mickey pasta at dinner. Wearing a Minnie-inspired dress that I made for her.

On the way out from dinner, Mickey was coming down the stair case to do photos for the long line of people waiting for him. Since he walked by us Jacob was able to give him a big high five (this is just after the high five). Gotta love being in the right place at the right time and getting to skip lining up to see Mickey! lol

Towel Animal and chocolates tonight

An evening swim at the Goofy pool. Jacob and grandma enjoying an empty pool late at night after the nightly show.

Tomorrow is Ensenada day! Bring on the clear skies and warm air! We're ready!