Cruising to Mexico, Disney Style: Sept. 25 - Oct. 2, 2011 - ~*~UPDATED 10/30!~*~

[Christy323]

To put it mildly, I’m big-time suffering from the post-cruise blues. I already uploaded all of my pictures to Facebook so I’ve looked through them a billion times. My photo prints haven’t yet arrived from Snapfish, so I can’t start scrapbooking yet. The only way I can try to ward off these blues is to do a trip report here! I'm happy to answer any questions as the TR goes along, so please don't be shy! These boards were the best in terms of helping me prepare for this trip, so I am more than willing to pay it forward!

Before I forget, here are our navigators if you haven’t seen them already: Personal Navigators: Sept 25 - Oct 2

Table of Contents
Day One: Embarkation day! It’s finally here!
Day Two: Characters EVERYWHERE at sea!
Day Three: I want a stateroom hostess forever (and other musings).
Day Four: Puerto Vallarta (& when Mickey asked for the digits)!
Day Five: A Ship to Ourselves & Pirate Night!
Day Six: A Beach to Ourselves (& when Mickey used the digits)!
Day Seven: Our last day on the ship...closing it out with a bang!
Disembarkation:
​

The Players:

Me: Christy, I just graduated from law school in May 2011 and took the CA Bar Exam in July 2011. This cruise was my post-bar vacation! I’ve been wanting to go on a Disney Cruise for a long time now, as I’ve never cruised before, and I am a big-time Disney fan (I’ve been going to Disneyland pretty regularly since I was a baby, & despite the long distance between SF & Anaheim I was a Premium AP holder for a while up until law school sucked away my social life). Because I knew I’d be completely mentally drained after the Bar, I knew I’d want to pick a vacation where I could essentially just “show up.” I wanted to do something new, something fun, & something that required minimal planning. A 7-night cruise on the Disney Wonder was the perfect solution.

BFF: Carol, my best friend since forever. We grew up together in Northern CA and even though we live on opposite ends of the state now (with me in SF & she in LA) we’re still as close as ever. As soon as I decided on the Disney Wonder for my post-bar vacay, I called her up, pitched the plan, & she immediately said, “Let’s do this!” She's also a big Disney nerd. Let me put it this way: on disembarkation day, after she dropped me off for my flight at LAX, she drove straight to Disneyland to meet up with her sister, brother-in-law, and baby nephew.

Before the trip:

I’m actually the exception when it comes to planning for a cruise: we didn’t book until July, less than 3 months before the cruise! I knew a long time ago that I would be taking some sort of vacation after the bar exam, so I’d been saving money for a while. However, I hadn’t really started thinking about taking a cruise seriously until January 2011, and then my last semester of law school was a big tornado of insanity so everything else in my life fell by the wayside.

When I graduated in May, there was literally ONE day between graduation and the beginning of my bar study course, so there wasn’t much time for consideration there either. Finally, when I hit a particularly low point in studying for the bar, I decided that booking the cruise would give me something amazing to look forward to so that I could get through the last month of bar study. I started monitoring prices on the DCL website and asked for quotes from a few different travel agencies.

Then on July 7th, I got a promo email from Virgin America saying that flights from SFO-LAX were on sale for $44 one-way, but only until 4pm that day. BAM! It was over. I called BFF, confirmed the dates, booked my flights to LA & back, & emailed our TA to say that yes, we’d like to book a standard inside stateroom on the Sept. 25th-Oct. 2nd cruise! Within 48 hours I’d booked my flights, put down the entire amount for the cruise, purchased travel insurance, & booked our car service to take us to/from San Pedro. I cannot even tell you how giddy I was.

(fast forward two months, because no one wants to read about bar study & taking the bar exam)

I flew into LAX on Friday night, because I knew I also wanted to visit my baby nephew & cousins while I was down south. Because BFF lives in LA, there was no need for hotel accommodations! We ended up spending Saturday running last-minute errands and then playing with my nephew at Universal Citywalk.

Next up … It’s here, it’s here! Our vacation’s finally here!

 

[Christy323]

Let me preface this by saying that I have never been able to sleep the night before the first day of a trip to Disneyland. Seriously. NEVER. Even though I’ve been to Disneyland dozens of times (maybe even more than a hundred times). I toss and turn all night; I wake up every hour afraid that somehow my alarm went off & I missed it, only to jolt out of bed and see that nope, it’s only 3:48am. You know that adorable commercial with the two kids who are too excited to sleep before going to WDW (http://youtu.be/b95oyhSd5ls)? Yep, that’s always been me. Even though I’m now 27.

This same issue applied the night before embarkation day. I probably only got 3 hours of sleep total because I was just too darn excited to get on that ship! I was wide awake by 5am, but our car service wasn’t coming to pick us up until 9:30am, so I just laid there in bed until it was a reasonable enough time for me to start getting ready for the day.

Tip: if you’re travelling from the LA area to the port in San Pedro, having a car service is such a nice luxury. BFF & I had a *cough* tough time packing light, so we had 5 bags between the two of us. Having our driver lug our bags down to the car and then unload them straight onto a porter’s cart at the port was awesome. It was also great to know that (a) we weren’t leaving BFF’s new car parked in shady San Pedro, & (b) the car service would be waiting for us in San Pedro when we disembarked. The car service we hired was wonderful & I’d be happy to share the contact information if you PM me. We paid $78+tip each way.

The drive was about 40 minutes door to door, so we were in line to check-in at about 10:15am. I was expecting lots of people everywhere, and there were – but it was all folks disembarking. When we actually got in line to check in, there was no one in line! We checked in fairly quickly, as I’d already completed everything online, so by the time we’d gone through security & sat down in the waiting area it was only 10:40ish. The process was SO easy. Mickey & Minnie both showed up for photo ops, so we made sure to take some pictures with them.

Clockwise from top left: the sweet Escalade that took us to the port, boarding group #4, Captain Mickey, Shipmate Minnie!​

I’m not exactly sure what time we were allowed to board, but I’m pretty sure it was just before noon. After walking through the atrium for the first time (I still can’t get over the stunning the Art Nouveau décor of the lobby), we decided to head straight to Wavebands to grab a Palo reservation. We had already booked Palo dinner online, but we wanted to book brunch as well. After waiting around for a just a bit, we were able to book our reservation! Afterwards, we headed to Parrot Cay for a quick meal before heading up to our stateroom on Deck 5. I was soooo excited about being on the ship that I honestly can’t remember what I ate for lunch – I just remember being really excited.

Now, here’s where I am a teeny tiny bit embarrassed about what we did next. We got to our room, settled in a bit, and switched on the stateroom TV. We had every intention of leaving after 10 minutes or so to go explore the ship…

But, uh, there’s a block of channels on the stateroom TVs that play just one movie per channel, over and over again. And, um, there was a channel playing the Justin Bieber movie. Now, I am not a Bieber Belieber or whatever the kids call themselves, but darn if that movie didn’t just suck us into its clutches! I had no idea that the kid was so talented with such an interesting back story. So we ended up sitting there in our stateroom watching the last 45 minutes of the Bieber movie. I still can’t believe we did that. Seriously, who does that?

“Oh, what did you guys do on your first day aboard the Disney Wonder?”

“…well, we sat in our windowless stateroom and watched the Justin Bieber movie on TV.” LAME. Oh well.

After the movie, we went up to Deck 9 to explore for a bit before the Boat Drill. After walking around for a while, we headed down to our station, Animator’s Palate. The whole drill was quick and straightforward, especially since all we did was sit there at a table. What was interesting, however, was that our station’s team leader was DEFINITELY a princess. To this day I’m not 100% sure, but I think she was Cinderella in Disney Dreams. I base this both on her princess-like appearance & on the fact that at the end of the drill, I asked her which way to go to get to Mickey’s Mates, & when she responded her voice was all bubbly and delicate, & she demonstrated with her arms in that graceful way that all of the princesses do. SO funny.

Which got me to thinking…what would have happened if there was some ship emergency that required us to go to our stations, and she was in her Cinderella costume? Would she have gone straight to the station as Cinderella? I’m sure Disney has specific protocol for something like that, and there’s like some secret way that Cinderella can remove her costume and become a regular crew member in 2.7 seconds, but it still got me thinking.

After the drill, we headed back up to Deck 9 for the “Adventures Away” party. I tried really hard to resist buying a drink in a souvenir glass…but it was hot, and a big glass filled with half pina colada/half strawberry daiquiri just sounded too delicious. At least the ones we got were pretty fresh & not melted. We enjoyed the show and our beverages, caught a quick picture with Shipmate Pluto, & headed back down to our stateroom.

Clockwise from top left: The beautiful atrium, our lovely stateroom (before our stateroom hostess separated the bed into two), Shipmate Pluto, delicious pina colada/strawberry daiquiris.​

When we got to our stateroom, our luggage was waiting for us out in front. We spent a while unpacking all of our things and getting set up.

Tip: Those over-the-door organizers really are an amazing thing. We brought two: one to hang on the inside of the bathroom, & one on the outside. It was perfect for all of our toiletries. I also brought some of those 3M Command hooks and attached them to the inside of our front door so that I could hang a few things, and at the end of the week they came off with ease.

Once we were all settled in, we took a look at the Navigator to see what time the show was (we had late seating, so our show was always the early show). Whoops…apparently time got away from us and we missed it. Instead, we went up to Studio Sea to find out what Mickey Mania was. It was a Disney trivia game that was hosted by two people who soon became two of my favorite cruise staffers, Kat and Gregory. We ended up being chosen to play the trivia game, and we won! The prize was this cute little plastic trophy that’s sitting on my shelf right now & might just be my favorite souvenir from the trip.

Kat & BFF!​

Dinner on our first night was at Animator’s Palate (our rotation was APPTAPT), where we met our lovely tablemates Valerie & Ben, a couple from Utah that was around our age. We also met our excellent servers, Henry from Nicaragua and Goran from Croatia (later in the week, Henry had to leave for a family emergency, so Goran became our server & Julia from Peru became our asst. server). Because I was so excited about having our first rotation meal on the ship…I forgot to take pictures of everything. D'oh! It was lovely though; I could have eaten two dishes of the wild mushroom risotto.


When we got back to our stateroom, we found our first towel animal of the week:

Towel swan!​

That night, we went down to Wavebands to play Wonder Quest. We teamed up with our tablemates and another group of four. We didn't win, but we sure had a blast playing and watching everyone make absolute fools of themselves! Dave, the host, was a hoot and the things he made us all do were hilarious. Seeing four grown men wearing bras, heels, and purses strutting their stuff to try and win "sexiest man" made me cry with laughter. I definitely suggest going to play Wonder Quest whenever it shows up on your navigator during the week. After Wonder Quest, we were super exhausted, so we knocked out right away.

Next up ... Day Two, at sea: Characters EVERYWHERE!

 

[marhs]

I am loving your trip report! Can't wait to read more! We sail the Wonder in Feb., and your report is getting me even more excited to go!!!

 

[becpee]

Subbing

 

[TinkLoverSam]

I'm in... at least for the next 18 days until we leave for DL and our own MR cruise!!

 

[princesskayla]

Great start - can't wait to read more.

 

[ctp365]

I'm loving your TR and all your pics. We leave for LA in 5 days time for the October 16 cruise. Can't wait.

Looking forward to reading more.

 

[lostinyonkers]

I was on that cruise with you and I SOOOOO know what you mean about post-vacation blues!! That's why I'm here and can't seem to tear myself away from the DIS boards! lol

How funny... I TOTALLY remember you from the Mickey Mania game that first day! We were in the audience cheering for you! Didn't you think Kat (the host) was great? We just loved her.

Lovin your trip report!

 

[Christy323]

Thanks everyone for your feedback so far. I'm really enjoying writing this and it's lovely to know that folks are reading it. So thank you!

Our first day at sea! Now if you hadn’t heard this before, Hurricane Hilary formed off the southwestern coast of Mexico mere days before our cruise. Needless to say, I was so worried! Would she ruin our plans for lounging in the sun in Cabo? Would she put a damper on my plans to work on my haggling skills in Puerto Vallarta? Luckily, she kept moving west and NOT north, so between her movement and Captain Thord’s steering, we were able to avoid the hurricane. We did have a little bit of rough sea on our first two days at sea though. I didn’t get seasick, thank goodness, but I did feel weird those first couple of days, and I didn’t sleep well that first night from the swaying. My balance was off and I couldn’t walk in a straight line (though to be honest I can’t really do that on land even when sober, so I guess that’s not much of a difference). BFF, on the other hand, did feel slightly nauseous, but we’d brought some Bonine just in case so it didn’t interfere with our fun.

This morning was our chosen morning for the Character Breakfast! Since we had late seating for dinner, our breakfast was at 9:45am. The food was fine; your average breakfast fare. Our assistant server, Goran, turned our napkins into Minnie bows for us, and gave our table mates Tiger Lily hats. Since the breakfast was in Parrot Cay, all of the characters were dressed in tropical attire. When Minnie came to visit us, I told her that I really liked her dress, and her handler replied that Minnie had made everyone’s clothes herself, and it took her a long time! While the handler was saying that, Minnie was counting off her fingers as if to say, “I made Mickey’s shirt, Pluto’s collar, Goofy’s shirt, etc.” It was really cute!

Tropical characters!​

Now’s a good a time as any for me to say this: I was AMAZED at the amount of face time that was available for interaction with the Disney characters. BFF & I are total kids at heart, so we love taking pictures with the characters, and essentially “playing along” with them. I don’t care that I’m 27, it’s fun! I’ve had my share of character dining and have gotten in many a line to take quick pictures with characters at Disneyland. But that is NOTHING compared to the amount of attention you get on the ship. I can’t even imagine what this experience would have been like when I was, say, 6 years old. The characters have time to sit there with a child and actually play with them!

There were multiple times that I saw this interaction happen in the hallways of a ship: a child would be walking along with their parents, they’d get a tap on their shoulder, and would turn around only to see that it was Mickey tapping their shoulder! The look you’d see on the kid’s face is absolutely priceless. The character schedule was well organized and lines were well managed, and even if you didn’t get a chance to take a picture with Mickey that first time around, it was pretty much guaranteed that you would have ten other chances to take a picture with Mickey. Also, I’m pretty sure that Mickey was the same Mickey the entire week (and the same for the other characters), which made for funny interactions later on.

After we finished our character breakfast, we wandered around the ship some more, and then passed by the atrium while walking on Deck 4. The Princess Gathering had begun, and folks were lined up for quite a while to get a chance to meet Princess Tiana, Belle, Snow White, Cinderella, and Ariel all at once. Seeing as I’m not really one for waiting in huge lines, and knowing that we’d have plenty of chances to meet the princesses, we skipped out on the gathering. It looked like a lot of fun though; the princesses were all taking their time, spending a good amount of time chatting with the kids.

Princess Gathering insanity​

While looking down at the gathering, we walked past the doors of Studio Sea...and Donald Duck was hanging out all by his lonesome! I guess with all the craziness of the princesses, not too many folks noticed that Donald was around too! Poor Donald, he already has a complex about being number one. So, we stopped by to snag a picture with our favorite duck.

Donald Duck: #1!​

Once that was done, we headed back down to the Promenade Lounge to play Disney Movie Trivia. I loooooove trivia, and so does BFF. Throw Disney into the mix, and we’re sold! We played…and we won! Hooray for DCL keychains!

Winners!​

Then we noticed that directly afterwards was Disney Tune Trivia, so we stuck around for that…and we won that too! Hooray for DCL baseball caps!

Winners again!​

At this point, my lack of sleep for the past two nights had caught up to me, so I went back to the stateroom and took a nap before getting dolled up for Formal Night. On our way down to the Captain’s Welcome Reception, we ran into this dapper gentleman in the hallway:

Only Mickey could make a gold tux look that good.​

We mingled around in the lobby atrium, drank delicious free appletinis, met Captain Thord, and listened to the duo performing in the Promenade Lounge (they were great, BTW, but unfortunately I don’t remember their names). After a while, we made our way to the Walt Disney Theatre for the Golden Mickeys, but not before we ran into these ladies:

What's up, Cindy and Tiana?​

See what I mean about face time with the characters? Cinderella & Princess Tiana were just hanging out on Deck 4 Midship, greeting folks and signing autographs. Too fun!

The Golden Mickeys was a great show. I enjoyed the fun plot of awarding different movies awards for being the best of their genre, & of course the performers were all excellent. I would expect nothing less from Disney.

After the show, we dropped by our stateroom real quick and found this little guy:

Then we moseyed on over to Deck 10 Aft, because tonight we had our dinner reservation for Palo! I had booked this reservation online when we first checked in, and specifically made it for Monday evening, as I knew we’d have to dress up for Palo and figured it would be easy enough to knock out formal wear and Palo in one fell swoop.

Now, being from San Francisco, a veritable foodie capital, I’ve had more than my share of amazing food, so I walked into Palo a little skeptical as to whether Palo really was as amazing as everyone said. Believe the hype folks, it was absolutely phenomenal! I can’t tell you enough just how delectable the Branzino in Cartoccio (sea bass) was – tender and flavorful, with just enough ginger orange glaze to enhance the fish without overpowering it. BFF had the beef tenderloin, which was also delicious.

Clockwise from top left: Antipasti, cioppino, beef tenderloin with gorgonzola sauce, a side of lobster ravioli to share, branzino in cartoccio, grilled shrimp. Nom nom nom...​

Prior to the cruise, I had also read everywhere that we should order the chocolate soufflé. When telling our servers that we’d be missing dinner Monday night to go to Palo, Goran said to order the chocolate soufflé. When chatting with the Cruise Director, Christiaan, earlier in the day, he told us to order the chocolate soufflé. Now, this is me telling YOU: order the chocolate soufflé! It is sooooooo good. I don’t even have words to explain to you its awesomeness. Light and rich at the same time, the perfect amount of dark chocolate flavor set off by the vanilla bean sauce…If you like chocolate, do not miss the soufflé.

We also ordered the tiramisu, as Toni, our server, told us that we had to order another dessert. I’m sure if we hadn’t had the soufflé, I would have thought the tiramisu was heavenly. But because we did have the soufflé, the tiramisu just paled in comparison.

Amazing chocolate souffle on the left; delicious (but not as amazing) tiramisu on the right.​

After Palo, we totally went into food coma status, but we forced ourselves to try and walk it off around Deck 10. I gotta tell you, walking around Deck 10 late at night became one of my favorite things to do throughout the cruise. The funnel at night is so pretty, and with the exception of the sound from whatever’s playing on the Funnel Vision, it’s kind of quiet and peaceful. It’s neat knowing that you’re surrounded by nothing but the Pacific ocean. We ended up sitting at a table and watching some of Disneynature: Earth before taking another lap around Deck 10 and finally retiring to the room for the night.

Next up ... Palo brunch, more trivia, and more characters!

 

[Christy323]

How funny... I TOTALLY remember you from the Mickey Mania game that first day! We were in the audience cheering for you! Didn't you think Kat (the host) was great? We just loved her.

Lovin your trip report!

Kat was the best! So fun, and just a real pleasure to chat with. Thanks for cheering us on during Mickey Mania, haha! It was a blast, but towards the end I felt kinda bad that we were doing so well so I told Carol to quit answering.

I wish we were still on the Wonder!

 

[yukongirl123]

Enjoying the report.

DS Trevor & I were at Studio Sea with you before the 'Til we Meet Again Event in the Lobby. Wasn't that fun!

 

[Christy323]

Enjoying the report.

DS Trevor & I were at Studio Sea with you before the 'Til we Meet Again Event in the Lobby. Wasn't that fun!

I think I remember you! Were you the two with the awesome shirts on Pirate Night? I think I told you that I loved them while we were in line somewhere. That event was SO MUCH fun! I've been telling pretty much everyone I know about it, and they never believe me until I show them the pictures

 

[ctp365]

Hi Christy

Just one quick question - were all your great character photos taken at breakfast and around the ship taken on your own camera, or are they purchased photos??

Also, ive been wondering if 2 adults without kids can go to the character breakfast. I thought it would be a fun thing to do, but wasnt sure if we would look out of place with all the families there. I can see you went, so I think that I would like to do that as well.

Keep the report coming

 

[Christy323]

Hi Christy

Just one quick question - were all your great character photos taken at breakfast and around the ship taken on your own camera, or are they purchased photos??

Also, ive been wondering if 2 adults without kids can go to the character breakfast. I thought it would be a fun thing to do, but wasnt sure if we would look out of place with all the families there. I can see you went, so I think that I would like to do that as well.

Keep the report coming

All of the pictures in my trip report were taken on my lil' point & shoot digital camera that is always hanging from my wrist (Canon PowerShot SD1100IS). I learned pretty quickly to have it out and ready to go at all times, because you never know who you might run into! The cruise staff are all wonderful about taking pictures with your own personal camera, even if there's a professional photographer there to take pictures too.

You can certainly go to the character breakfast without kids! Everyone is invited and assigned a day for it. Our table was child-free (BFF & I, and the couple from Utah, all twenty-somethings) and we had a blast. The characters make their way to every table. Of course they spend more time playing with the kids, but we still had a great time.

 

[Schmoopsie Poo!]

Great start! I love your pictures! (Especially the princess ones!) As if we weren't excited enough, this is just making me even more pumped to go see our Pals! Looking forward to more!

 

[PizzieDuster]

Love, love, love this report! Love the pictures. My DH is an atty, my brother is an atty, my son is in law school. This is the BEST vacay to take after all your hard work and all the studying you did for the bar. I keep looking at your beautiful smile and think you are thinking "I did it, it's over, it's vacation relaxation time!" That was a lot of hard work. Good luck to you! Come back and post an update when the results are in!

Can't wait for more!

 

[Christy323]

Great start! I love your pictures! (Especially the princess ones!) As if we weren't excited enough, this is just making me even more pumped to go see our Pals! Looking forward to more!

Thank you! I'm so jealous that you'll be back on the ship in two weeks!

Love, love, love this report! Love the pictures. My DH is an atty, my brother is an atty, my son is in law school. This is the BEST vacay to take after all your hard work and all the studying you did for the bar. I keep looking at your beautiful smile and think you are thinking "I did it, it's over, it's vacation relaxation time!" That was a lot of hard work. Good luck to you! Come back and post an update when the results are in!

Thank you very much! That is so sweet of you. It certainly was a relief to be done with bar study and be able to take this vacation! Hopefully I will have good news come November 18th!

 

[princesskayla]

Wow Christy - I am like the others, this really makes me want to hop onboard tomorrow. Oh wait, I gotta wait a few more weeks.

Love that you won both triva games. What was the Disney tunes triva? Is it like name that tune? If you looked at my iphone you would laugh - Disney songs outnumber regular songs 3 to 1. I can finally get some use out of my obsession for Disney musical scores.

I am also loving the charactor interaction. I hope it is like that when we arrive. I will probably be the only person on the whole ship that doesn't get those happenstance meetings. I never seem to be that lucky. Maybe some pixie dust will float my way with the Pacific winds....

 

[Christy323]

Wow Christy - I am like the others, this really makes me want to hop onboard tomorrow. Oh wait, I gotta wait a few more weeks.

Love that you won both triva games. What was the Disney tunes triva? Is it like name that tune? If you looked at my iphone you would laugh - Disney songs outnumber regular songs 3 to 1. I can finally get some use out of my obsession for Disney musical scores.

I am also loving the charactor interaction. I hope it is like that when we arrive. I will probably be the only person on the whole ship that doesn't get those happenstance meetings. I never seem to be that lucky. Maybe some pixie dust will float my way with the Pacific winds....

Thank you for reading along; it make me want to hop onboard tomorrow too! The Disney tunes trivia was actually kind of difficult. They would play different songs, and you would have to name the song as well as the movie it was from, and then also answer a bonus question. For example, they played the song "Cruella de Vil" which is from 101 Dalmatians, and then they asked who played the character in the 1996 live-action film (Glenn Close). You really had to know your stuff for this one, so it was a lot of fun.

I'm still amazed at the amount of character interaction we saw and experienced. There's a thread on the main board about lack of character interaction and I'm just baffled as to how other folks had such a different experience. Maybe we were lucky, but I swear you couldn't walk through Decks 3 & 4 midship without seeing characters. You'll run into them plenty, I know it!

 

[IceSk8ersMom]

Great TR! I am getting fired up for my MR cruise next month! Wonderful pictures! I have been never participate in the trivia games, but I think I will give it a go, which is all thanks to your post.

Who was the cruise director?

Keep it up. I look forward to reading more.