Completed!! First Time Cruisers take Wonder to the Mexican Riviera 2/26-3/4

[cnj]

Your family is beautiful.

Wow! Those are a lot of kids in that pool! We have been on 3 other Disney cruises and I do not remember it ever being that crowded.

I cannot wait for the hypnotist show. We have always missed it and it is something we are looking forward to.. Sounds fun!

 

[Laundress]

Any sugestions on when the pool would be a little less crowded, and murky 6 weeks to go for us. Palo looks so yummy. Can't wait.

 

[Kirbo]

We also loved Mariana! We thought she was so good we requested her for our dinner on Pirate Night

 

[juareaa]

Bonieface was also our server. We left early the first night because our little one started to cry. He ran upstairs and brought us dessert to our stateroom. Also, he had fresh berries waiting for our girl each night because we told her theh were her favorite. One night the little girl at the table next to us wanted ice cream cone and bonieface ran upsairs to get her one. I loved the service. Also, beginning on pv day, we had a treat delivered to our stateroom daily. We had a card that said we were family of the cruise and would be getting treats. I dont know if everyone gets this, but it made us feel special.

 

[kimmypie1]

Your family is beautiful.

Wow! Those are a lot of kids in that pool! We have been on 3 other Disney cruises and I do not remember it ever being that crowded.

I cannot wait for the hypnotist show. We have always missed it and it is something we are looking forward to.. Sounds fun!

Thanks The pool is a lot less crowded around dinner time, but unfortunately it was a bit too cold to go swimming, at least for us. We are spoiled Southern Californians.

I am so jealous that you are going soon, I miss the boat so much!!

 

[kimmypie1]

Bonieface was also our server. We left early the first night because our little one started to cry. He ran upstairs and brought us dessert to our stateroom. Also, he had fresh berries waiting for our girl each night because we told her theh were her favorite. One night the little girl at the table next to us wanted ice cream cone and bonieface ran upsairs to get her one. I loved the service. Also, beginning on pv day, we had a treat delivered to our stateroom daily. We had a card that said we were family of the cruise and would be getting treats. I dont know if everyone gets this, but it made us feel special.

Not everyone gets that, you were special! Must have made the cruise that much better for you!

I had heard such great things about Bonieface so I was excited when I saw he was our server. Every night when the kids would leave early for the club he would bring over a special dessert for us to take back to the room for them.

 

[kimmypie1]

We also loved Mariana! We thought she was so good we requested her for our dinner on Pirate Night

We were going to request her too but when we went to leave brunch there was no one at the front desk so we just said forget it. But when we went back for dinner we had her again and were happy. She was great, DH had to leave Palo dinner due to sea sickness (still to come in the TR) and she ordered a dinner for him and let me take it to the room, and she didn't charge us for him!! Awesome!

 

[andytaro]

I enjoyed your trip report! Your TR brought back good memories frin 2/19-26 MR cruise I was on! Oh what a coincidence, I too had Bonieface and Zinzani as our MDR server.
This was our first cruise and am very spoiled by their service. They were so good that made me book another Disney Wonder cruise next year.

 

[mississaugamom]

Really enjoying your trip report! We had Bonieface and Zinzani on our February 5 cruise and have NEVER been so spoiled on a cruise as we were that week. (It was our fifth DCL cruise ...)

looking forward to more report ...

Arlene

 

[kimmypie1]

Wednesday – Puerto Vallarta day

We woke up with our usual routine of room service.

Looking out our window I was expecting to see Walmart like you hear about in all of the MR trip reports. I was pleasantly surprised to look out the windows and see something different, never occurred to me that we were on the other side of the ship.

It was quite a pretty view and nice to see land! We sat on the verandah for a bit and watched all the people below. We knew we didn’t have to rush since we didn’t have to meet until 9:45 or something. We were amazed at how many people were already getting off the boat and it was just barely 8am.


IMG_0628 by goar2012, on Flickr


IMG_0629 by goar2012, on Flickr

Once we had eaten and were dressed we had to meet up for our DCL excursion for Paradise Beach Adventure. We met in the Walt Disney Theater and were given our group and were put onto the first bus out! Thanks to my condition called “can’t-ever-be-late-itis” we were early enough to get in the front part of the line.

It was about a 30 minute drive out to the resort. Our tour guide was pretty entertaining so it went fast. Since we were the first bus to leave, we were the first bus to arrive. So we had our pick of the chairs both at the pool and on the beach. If you do this excursion I recommend getting to the excursion meet early so you can be in the first group as well.

Seeing as how we had first dibs we were able to get a great spot on the beach with chairs and an umbrella. DS had fallen asleep on the bus ride over so he was sleeping on me while I relaxed in a chair. DD and DH went to go play in the water


IMG_0632 by goar2012, on Flickr


When you get off the bus, they give you a wristband that signals “all you can drink”. We ordered a bucket of beers and some drinks for the kids.

I needed to get some more sunscreen and the hotel itself doesn’t have a store or anything so I had to walk outside of the hotel to a little indoor mall type thing. It was really only like a 2 minute walk and still well within the grounds of the entire resort. I went by myself since DH was busy burying DD in the sand, she loves that. I felt very safe so I told him not to worry. I walked over and got what I needed and was back in probably 10 minutes total. So if you plan on this excursion you may want to be sure you have everything you need before you go so you don’t have to walk to the store.

Saw this Tiger on my walk, yes that have them just chillin in cages at the resort


IMG_0635 by goar2012, on Flickr

After we played for a while it was time to eat. It is a buffet, but is served in a restaurant. I went up to grab the kids their plates and bring it back to where we were on the beach. Unfortunately you have to eat in the restaurant or on their outdoor patio so I signaled to DH to bring the kids and all of our stuff over so we lost our spot on the beach but that was ok because we wanted to go to the pool part now anyway.

The food was ok, we were really hoping for some good quality Mexican food. Unfortunately the food was mostly American (hamburgers, fries, salads etc), But they did have some sort of Mexican fish dish and quesadillas and some yummy guacamole. They were pretty good.

They then did a raffle for a free weeklong trip back to the resort. They said that they will call 2 names first and those first 2 don’t win, then they would call the winner as the 3rd name. I thought they were joking, so when my name was called first, I jumped up all excited and then heard him say “you are not the winner”. LOL Oh well, always next time!

We bought DD one of those beach coverup dresses that the ladies there were selling. I negotiated her down in price and when I was leaving she said “don’t tell anyone else the price I gave you, this was a special deal for you”. Uh, sure it was lady!!

We headed over the pool area and about this time it started to get a bit cloudy and cooler. The kids had no interest in swimming, which I was shocked about. I mean, look at these pools!!


IMG_0636 by goar2012, on Flickr


IMG_0637 by goar2012, on Flickr


They just wanted to go in the “hot pool” (Jacuzzi) for a bit. So we did that and then hung around on loungers and ordered a few more drinks. DH wanted DD to go down the crocodile/alligator slide with him but she was too scared, so he went by himself.


IMG_0642 by goar2012, on Flickr

Pretty soon it was time to head back to the boat. We all met in the lobby and got back on the bus and headed back “home”.



IMG_0649 by goar2012, on Flickr

Once back we wanted to do a little shopping in the marketplace next to the boat. We got some souvenirs for friends and family and then decided we needed some more money to buy more stuff so……

Will play for pesos….

IMG_0652 by goar2012, on Flickr

Kidding of course. The kids just had to have these cute little guitars. Well I think they are cute, our neighbors near our verandah probably didn’t think so when DS decided to put on a little performance bright and early one morning. Sorry about that!


IMG_0651 by goar2012, on Flickr

After we were back on the boat and all cleaned up it was time for the concierge reception. Previously we had Palo dinner reservations for tonight, but last night in dinner, Paulo the head server changed it for us because when he heard we were going to be missing the show at Animators Palate, he said we had to change our Palo ressies. So this brings us to my next part of the story….


Back at the Dis meet my 2 kids met sranes (Susie)’s two granddaughters, Renee and Katie. The 4 kids hit if off immediately. They also happened to have a table near by us in the MDRs. So my kids would beg me to let them go over and say hi to the girls about a hundred times during dinner. The girls would also play with our kids in the club a lot (when they probably would rather have been in the lab since the girls are both 9), but they played with my kids because my kids asked them to. They were such sweet girls. Anyway, because we had seen so much of the girls, we also got to spend some time with their grandma, Susie. There is a point to this I swear….

So at the concierge reception we were sitting with Susie and the girls and mentioned how we changed out Palo reservation and just got to talking about Palo in general. Susie said that she hadn’t planned on eating there this trip since she had the girls. So we invited her to go with us to our new Palo night and told her the kids could all play together in the clubs. I just had to ask Marcos to up our reservation from 2 to 3 and he did it just like that!

Back to the reception, there were lots of yummy snacks for both adults and kids and free drinks too. It was a nice break from what they offer elsewhere on the ship.


IMG_0655 by goar2012, on Flickr

As usual DS opted out of the pic with a character

IMG_0660 by goar2012, on Flickr

After the reception we got ready for dinner at Animators Palate. Of course before the show was going to start, the kids decided they wanted to eat and run and go to the clubs. We tried to tell them what they were going to miss, but they didn’t seem to care, so off to the club they went.

We ate our dinner and then enjoyed the show at AP. It was really pretty neat to see all the colors come to life like that. Later when DD saw the pics, she was pretty bummed. Oh well, next time right?


IMG_0668 by goar2012, on Flickr


IMG_0661 by goar2012, on Flickr


IMG_0667 by goar2012, on Flickr

So tonight was the big night, for DS that is. DS is a Toy Story fanatic!!! We have every movie, every character (sometimes more than one of each), pajamas, tshirts, flip flops, plates, cups, silverware, if Disney sells it , we have it! Needless to say, we wanted this to be special for him so DH asked Tawanda (the other concierge host) if there is any way he could get us front row seats. He said he couldn’t reserve them, but he could take us into the theater the back way so that we could avoid the crowd and have a better chance at a good seat. We were so excited, and thankful for Tawanda!!

We just had to meet him in the Cadillac Lounge at a certain time and he would take us. So we grabbed the kids from the club and went to our designated meeting place. We went in to the theater from the side door near the stage and were able to get second row seats! Which was surprising considering when we walked in, the place was already getting full, but people coming in from the top must not have known there will still seats up front. Either way, we were pretty lucky!!

There are no words to describe the feeling of looking over and seeing the look of complete and utter joy in your child’s face. Every time I would look at him, he was just awestruck that his heroes, his best friends were up on stage dancing and singing just feet from him! It was the best.

The show was fantastic as can be expected and we all enjoyed ourselves.

Then it was back to the room for , you guessed it, room service and bed.

When we planned the cruise, DH and I had every intention of sitting on the verandah enjoying a drink after the kids went to bed. But I don’t think we ever made it past 11pm! Once the kids were down, we were down right with them!!

 

[cnj]

Neat to see what our view will be like! Less than two weeks, so excited! We have that excursion booked as well.

Do you remember what time you got back to the boat area from the resort? I have a NEED to shop for my souveniors. But I also don't want to miss the concierge reception(do you remember what time it was? I have to find an Otomi bedspread, some beaded animals, a painting along the pier and talavera plates to add to my collection. Most of the things I collect are from Mexico. I cannot wait to shop, but I am worried about time. I figure I need 2-3 hours to shop. Aaah! I have done this cruise before and I know Cabo does not have what I am looking for, so it all has to be from this port.

Thanks,

Jenni

 

[kimmypie1]

Neat to see what our view will be like! Less than two weeks, so excited! We have that excursion booked as well.

Do you remember what time you got back to the boat area from the resort? I have a NEED to shop for my souveniors. But I also don't want to miss the concierge reception(do you remember what time it was? I have to find an Otomi bedspread, some beaded animals, a painting along the pier and talavera plates to add to my collection. Most of the things I collect are from Mexico. I cannot wait to shop, but I am worried about time. I figure I need 2-3 hours to shop. Aaah! I have done this cruise before and I know Cabo does not have what I am looking for, so it all has to be from this port.

Thanks,

Jenni

Jenni,

We got back before 3 I want to say. Like 2:45? The concierge reception is at 4 or so. We had plenty of time to shop and get back and get dressed. It is ok if you miss the beginning, it is an open house kind of thing.

If you know Cabo doesn't have what you need and you know it will take 2-3 hours, I suggest you go off in the morning when you are first allowed off like 7 or so and do some shopping. Then come back on board and get to the meet by 9:30-9:45. Then finish your shopping when you get back from the excursion.

I am so excited for you, and really jealous. You are going to have such an awesome time. I wonder if you will have the same room hostess we had, Christina, she is fabulous.

 

[Kirbo]

We were going to request her too but when we went to leave brunch there was no one at the front desk so we just said forget it. But when we went back for dinner we had her again and were happy. She was great, DH had to leave Palo dinner due to sea sickness (still to come in the TR) and she ordered a dinner for him and let me take it to the room, and she didn't charge us for him!! Awesome!

Sorry to hear that your hub had to leave dinner, but how wonderful that she sent you back with food for him!

We did the same resort last year. DH really wanted to head to the beach, but my girls took one look at the slides and that was that. We ended up going down those slides for hours

 

[cnj]

Thanks for replying. The shops we want to go to don't open until 10, so we will have to just hurry, hurry, hurry! . Last time, we left this excursion via taxi early and had it drop us off to shop. We will probably do this again.

 

[kimmypie1]

Thursday Cabo Day 1

We woke up to a beautiful view of Los Arcos. It was a bit cloudy still so we weren’t in too much of a hurry to get off the boat. Plus the first tender wasn’t until 10am so we had time. We had room service breakfast, shocking I know and hung out on the verandah and took lots of pics. We watched boats on the water and I saw a whale! It was just barely coming out of the water, like its back and part of its tail. Then all the whale watching boats clamored over to try to see it. Pretty cool.

We were finally ready to go and called our concierge host for priority tendering. They take you down a back elevator right into the area to get off so you just pretty much walk right off.

We took the tender to the pier and walked down the walkway and negotiated with a company for a glass bottom boat tour of Los Arcos and then dropping us off at Medano Beach. Round trip for all four of us for $25. The tour was pretty neat and saw lots of fish under the boat. The boat then dropped us off at Medano Beach. We told the guy when to come back and pick us up. I was a bit leery that they would come back to get us, but they give you a receipt with the boat driver name and the company name etc.

We walked down the beach looking for a place for lunch and settled on The Office. We got a table on the sand and ordered a bucket of beers and some really yummy Mexican food. They have free wi-fi, so we connected the phone and sent a quick email to family checking in.

After eating we went in front of the restaraunts on the sand and DD and DH played in the water while DS and I sat on the sand and watched. We then went over to grab some loungers under an umbrella and all we had to do was order another bucket of beer, oh darn! Lol

Pretty soon it was time for the boat to come pick us back up and they were even early!

Here are some pics from the tender and a few of the actual process for those curious.

The tender took us back and the boys wanted to take a nap. Me and DD walked around the ship and let them sleep. Dinner time rolled around and they were still snoozing so DH said to just let DS get some rest so DD and I went to dinner by ourselves. I was really excited for some girl time!! DD and I had a nice time at dinner by ourselves. I called DH on the wave phone when DD and I ordered and he and DS ordered some food . DD and I brought it back to the room after dinner and then we all got ready for the Pirate Party!

We went up nice and early to save a spot in the very front. All the kids ran around and played on the stage while we waited. But once the party got close to starting, the entertainment team came out and started a game with all the kids. The only problem was that they had everyone clear the stage. So we had to leave the spots we had waited for. Then when the game was over, all the kids rushed the stage and my kids lost their front row spot, after waiting for nearly an hour ☹ We ended up having to hoist the kids up on our shoulders so they could see. Oh well, lesson learned. The kids had a fun time at the Pirate Party but like all of the reviews I had read previously, it was WAY too long. WAY too much dancing, it was long and drawn out. But thankfully the fireworks came and livened up the party! The kids loved it and it was awesome.

After the party, we went back to the room. I was super tired and feeling a bit sea sick so I laid down with the kids and DH went up to the buffet on the pool deck. He said it was pretty good. He came back to the room and we all went to bed ready for another fun day!

 

[kimmypie1]

so sorry about the huge pics. Flikr won't let me log in for some reason so I used photobucket. I went back and made the images smaller and relinked them but they are still huge! ugh

edit -
looks like the links finally updated and the pics are back to normal size, phew!

 

[kimmypie1]

Cabo Day 2 – Friday

We wanted to do something different for breakfast this morning so we went to Beach Blanket Buffet and ate breakfast there. Then we went off the ship and decided to stay close to port today and not take any tours or anything.

We ate at a little restaurant off the pier. It was really good. Then we did some shopping and walked around the pier area.

After that we went back to the ship and the kids swam for a little while.

From there was the Princess Tea Party (I think it was today, I may be getting my days confused, lol) All 4 of us went at first, but DS was really acting up so DH took him back to the room and I stayed with DD.

The tea was pretty neat. Ariel led the party and showed the kids how to properly drink tea (apple juice). Then they did a dance lesson which DD wanted nothing to do with so she sat at the table while most of the other kids danced.

Then they let the kids take pictures with Ariel and Tiana.

After that we went back to the room and DS was napping. We got ready and went down to dinner. DH and I had Palo dinner ressies tonight but we were going with the kids to dinner so they could eat.



We dropped them off at the club and met up with Susie and went up to Palo.

Right when we got in DH suddenly got very green and feeling very seasick. He ended up leaving before he could even order and went back to the room to lie down. Susie and I stayed behind and had a lovely dinner.

Our waitress, Mariana was so great about it, she let us order a plate for DH to bring back to the room, and she didn’t even charge us for it, really amazing!!

I picked up the kids and then went down to the medical clinic to get DH some sea sickness meds. We had planned to go the natural route and had ginger pills, ginger gum and sea bands. It seemed to be enough for me and the kids, but not for DH.

I got back to the room and have DH the pills and we all went to bed.

 

[kimmypie1]

Saturday – sea day

We woke up Saturday ad DH was feeling better, but still a bit nauseous. It is just like they say, once you are seasick it is really hard to get rid of.

I went out to deck 4 to go for a run and it was soooo windy that the doors would not even open! I could have gone to the other side of the ship (where the wind was not hitting) but I didn’t even want to be outside with wind like that! So I went up to the gym and ran on the treadmill. Now THAT was weird. Running on a treadmill while it was bobbing up and down, trying to keep my balance the whole time. I was so thankful I didn’t fall off!!

Went back to the room and we got ready for the character breakfast. The kids loved being visited by the characters and getting autographs and pictures that they may have missed before.

After the breakfast we went to shutters and got our one family picture, lol. Then on to the future booking desk and booked a dummy date! Yahooo!

Then we had lunch at Tritons and planned on getting in line for the princess photo line. It was noon and the meet wasn’t until 1 and already there was a line!! So I ate my food super fast and went and got in line. After DH and the kids were done, they came out and met me. DH took DS to see a movie and DD and I stayed in line. We ended up waiting almost 2 hours!! But it was worth it as DD go to take pics with all of her favorite princesses!!

After the princess meet, DD wanted to go to the club. DH and DS were still in the movie so I dropped her off and went back to the room to call DH on the wave phone and tell him to take DS to the club and we could have some alone time.

DH and I took a nice nap and then I woke up and picked the kids up and took them for ice cream while DH napped some more.

Then we took the kids back to the club to get ready for the Friendship Rocks show.

I didn’t think the kids would end up going thru with it, but they did and they had such a great time doing it. We loved seeing them on stage.

Then it was off to dinner at AP. As usual we took the kids to the club for a bit, and then to the final show of the cruise, Remember The Magic. At this point I started to get sad because the cruise was over ☹

After the show, we decided to skip the final farewell in the atrium as it was just too late for the kids. Maybe when they are a bit older.

So off to bed for our final night, so sad.

Earlier in the day, I was able to snap this pic of the sunset off the verandah. Totally fitting for the last night of the cruise

Sunday – disembarkation day

We ended up with Ariel luggage tags which meant we were first off the ship! We went and had breakfast at BBB, then off to our meeting place to wait for the tags to be called. They called us not too long after we got to the WD Theater and before we knew it we were off the ship. It was super easy and fast.

We went in the luggage room to find our luggage. They all ended up in different parts of the room, so I encourage you to put some sort of ribbon or something to help you quickly identify yours!

Then DH grabbed our truck and picked us up with the luggage and we were officially on our way home and sadly back to reality.

We had such a fabulous time and really enjoyed every minute of it. It is definitely worth every penny we paid and would do it again in a heartbeat!!

Sadly I don’t know if we will get to actually book a cruise with the dummy booking. With DCL no longer on the west coast, it pretty much eliminates any chances of us going again. Who knows though maybe there will be an itinerary that we find when they release them that we just have to go on! Fingers crossed

 

[Kirbo]

Oh my gosh! You must have gone for a run at the same time that I did!

I opened one of the doors by the theater and was shocked at the pull on it! I walked around the deck to the other door by the theater on the other side and went back in (I heard someone announce that we had gale force winds that morning!)

I headed up to do the elliptical but that just felt so weird that I gave up. I also stepped on the scale while in there. I wanted to see how much weight I'd put on while on the cruise but because of how the motion of the ship was so intense I sat an watched my weight going up and down by 25 pounds . It was so bizarre!

We hated getting off the boat. I wanted to cry. It was such a perfect vacation.

Thank you for sharing your pictures and memories with us all. You and your family are beautiful.

 

[kimmypie1]

Oh my gosh! You must have gone for a run at the same time that I did!

I opened one of the doors by the theater and was shocked at the pull on it! I walked around the deck to the other door by the theater on the other side and went back in (I heard someone announce that we had gale force winds that morning!)

I headed up to do the elliptical but that just felt so weird that I gave up. I also stepped on the scale while in there. I wanted to see how much weight I'd put on while on the cruise but because of how the motion of the ship was so intense I sat an watched my weight going up and down by 25 pounds . It was so bizarre!

We hated getting off the boat. I wanted to cry. It was such a perfect vacation.

Thank you for sharing your pictures and memories with us all. You and your family are beautiful.

It was so crazy! I couldn't believe the force of the wind. This was our first cruise, were those winds out of the ordinary?

That is so weird about the scale! Talk about a tease - you lost weight, you gained weight. HAHA.

Thanks for the kind words, I am glad I did the TR. I learned so much from other people's TRs that I had to return the favor.

Last night when I was posting this, DD was looking at the photo from the cruise we have on the entertainment center and she said "Mom, everytime I look at the picture of the cruise I get so sad because I wish I was still on there". Me too, my dear. Me too....