Disney Wonder - 1/23/2011 - Welcome back to LA!

[Lady_Kluck]

@Allison K - Thanks! I'd love to hear your trip report.

Re: the fireworks in the MR: The DIS'ers have come thru and confirmed YES

Since I'm so new I can't post the link to my original question thread, but it is in the main board section for those who want to go see.

 

[oviattfamily]

Hello All,
That was a great post. I just pulled in the driveway from my Wonder cruise (013111-020611). I thought I would add to the information.

Fireworks were on pirate night. I can not believe more lines do not do this, but they are not Disney.

Weather, great in the sun, but the at sea days are chilly with the wind at the pools. Bring a sweat shirt or windbreaker for on deck. On port calls, the weather was great.

I would definitely encourage all to read the and learn the Navigators. It took us a day or so to learn this. It would have been helpful to master this earlier.

On this note, hit guest services as soon as you board. They offer a tea time with alice and we missed it by not getting to guest services early enough.

We only did one shore excursion, Cabo Shopping tour. Do not do it. The shopping is terrible. This is unfortunate because Libby the guide is excellent. The beach or resort days seemed like better options. For PV we took the city bus and shopped ourselves. My DW and I had been to PV a few years earlier and knew the layout.

Speaking of Cabo, make sure to get a window seat as you arrive. we saw whales and dolphins from the ship.

Tastings, we did beer, wine, and tequila. All were good, but Romy made the beer tasting a ton of fun. We heard great things from the mixology tasting. We will definitely do it next time.

Speaking of drinking, average price for a beer is $5.96. We did the mug deal, 22oz for the price of 16oz and you keep the mug at the end. This was great for us. The draft selection varies by bar, so shop for your favorite. The bars also run some promos, like 2 for ones and stuff. They did good.

Kids clug was great. My girls (3 and 7) loved it. We had been told potty trained was a requirement. This had us scared. Our 3 year old refused to do this, but the counselors were good with her in pull ups. If she needed a changing, they called us. It worked great and saved us day care fees. Like I said the kids club did outstanding.

Character meets disappointed me. We hit Disneyland often and do lots of character meals and meets. On the ship the lines were horrendous. I would think this would leead to more sessions, but it does not. During the character breakfast, they rush so much you barely get a photo. Our girls were good with this because they get to Disney lots, but I had expected better.

Shopping on the ship is limited and they do not run sales. If you want something buy it early because they run out. They also ran out of the special purchase canvass shoulder bags.

The food was not spectaculor, but like mentioned earlier, they are serving 2500 meals. The wait staff is superb. They went above and beyond to make us happy and full. They would replace and meal or special order as much as they could within their power. We really did enjoy the pizza and chicken fingers from deck 9.

Our room was good, 2096. Huge window, not too rocky. We had 2 days with 8-14ft seas and it was kinda rough. Our cabin stewart was great.

Any other questions please ask. I will check here daily to help you plan your WONDERful cruise.

 

[Stinkerbe11]

I second what oviattfamily said about the tea. We had boarding number 3 and went to guest services after grabbing a quick lunch...both tea seatings were completely full this was less than an hour after boarding began! I asked if they were considering adding more seatings and they said "no, the same thing happened last week and we didn't add any". That sounds like poor planning to me and what's worse, is that we ended up getting tickets anyway (long story-will be in my trip report) and a good 1/3 of the tables were empty. Instead of people turning their tickets in for others to use, they just didn't show up and lots of kids were very disappointed. If you don't get tickets, I would show up anyway (it's at Studio Sea and the entrance is the one next to Shutters) chances are people won't show and you can take their place. The "tea" has changed from Alice to Disney friends. Peter Pan, Snow White, Cinderella and Ariel instruct the kids on proper etiquette, then you have chocolate chip cookies and apple juice and they have the characters stand in front of backdrops for pictures and autographs. The limited number of tickets made this a nice intimate character interaction but I wish they would make it available to more guests.

 

[Lissame]

For both of you who just got back--what was boarding like? Stinkerbe11, you said you were in boarding group 3, how early did you get to the port and what time did they actually begin boarding?

My daughter really, really wants to do the tea, so we will plan to go to guest services immediately after boarding.

oviattfamily--did you sign up for the tastings the day they offered them, or in advance at the beginning of the cruise? DH and I are very interested in participating in some of them.

Also--it appeared from the first Navigators that the galley tour is now for families. Did you participate in this?

 

[ErinPie]

Hello All,
That was a great post. I just pulled in the driveway from my Wonder cruise (013111-020611). I thought I would add to the information.

Fireworks were on pirate night. I can not believe more lines do not do this, but they are not Disney.

Weather, great in the sun, but the at sea days are chilly with the wind at the pools. Bring a sweat shirt or windbreaker for on deck. On port calls, the weather was great.

I would definitely encourage all to read the and learn the Navigators. It took us a day or so to learn this. It would have been helpful to master this earlier.

On this note, hit guest services as soon as you board. They offer a tea time with alice and we missed it by not getting to guest services early enough.

We only did one shore excursion, Cabo Shopping tour. Do not do it. The shopping is terrible. This is unfortunate because Libby the guide is excellent. The beach or resort days seemed like better options. For PV we took the city bus and shopped ourselves. My DW and I had been to PV a few years earlier and knew the layout.

Speaking of Cabo, make sure to get a window seat as you arrive. we saw whales and dolphins from the ship.

Tastings, we did beer, wine, and tequila. All were good, but Romy made the beer tasting a ton of fun. We heard great things from the mixology tasting. We will definitely do it next time.

Speaking of drinking, average price for a beer is $5.96. We did the mug deal, 22oz for the price of 16oz and you keep the mug at the end. This was great for us. The draft selection varies by bar, so shop for your favorite. The bars also run some promos, like 2 for ones and stuff. They did good.

Kids clug was great. My girls (3 and 7) loved it. We had been told potty trained was a requirement. This had us scared. Our 3 year old refused to do this, but the counselors were good with her in pull ups. If she needed a changing, they called us. It worked great and saved us day care fees. Like I said the kids club did outstanding.

Character meets disappointed me. We hit Disneyland often and do lots of character meals and meets. On the ship the lines were horrendous. I would think this would leead to more sessions, but it does not. During the character breakfast, they rush so much you barely get a photo. Our girls were good with this because they get to Disney lots, but I had expected better.

Shopping on the ship is limited and they do not run sales. If you want something buy it early because they run out. They also ran out of the special purchase canvass shoulder bags.

The food was not spectaculor, but like mentioned earlier, they are serving 2500 meals. The wait staff is superb. They went above and beyond to make us happy and full. They would replace and meal or special order as much as they could within their power. We really did enjoy the pizza and chicken fingers from deck 9.

Our room was good, 2096. Huge window, not too rocky. We had 2 days with 8-14ft seas and it was kinda rough. Our cabin stewart was great.

Any other questions please ask. I will check here daily to help you plan your WONDERful cruise.

Which Cabo shopping trip did you do? Downtown Cabo San Lucas or the San Jose City tour?

Thank You
EGP

 

[drbdds]

Has anyone posted navigators from the recently returned 2/6/11 MR cruise? It's alternate itinerary is different than the first one.

 

[talie]

Has anyone posted navigators from the recently returned 2/6/11 MR cruise? It's alternate itinerary is different than the first one.

I think the first two MR cruises had the same itineraries. The 2/6/11 cruise that just left has the back to back Cabo days.

 

[cidymom]

Thanks everyone for your MR reviews. I have a few questions:

For oviattfamily - how much for the bus ride into PV for shopping? Do we pay in pesos?

Was the dinner show at Animator's Palate's working this last cruise?

Were there any little boys at the Tea Party? or is it just for little girls?

Were there any laundry specials on board? I know they have self-serve laundry rooms but I'm thinking if they have specials I won't waste my precious time doing laundry (I do enough at home!).

Thanks in advance for everyone's input.

 

[Quimby]

Great info.

I would also like to know about the tea, I have an 8 & 10 year old boys.
Do you think they would like the tea or is it geared more to the mini-princesses

Also, did you hear what the Mixology was? Mixed drinks?

Thank you!

 

[drbdds]

I think the first two MR cruises had the same itineraries. The 2/6/11 cruise that just left has the back to back Cabo days.

Thanks for the fast response! I didn't realize they were random like that, I thought it alternated every other week. Then I'll be looking forward to someone hopefully posting them from this week.
Thanks again!

 

[oviattfamily]

We booked the tastings on the first day, but you can do it throughout if they do not sell out. We heard this happened with the wine tastings. If you need to cancel do it at guest services. We tried to cancel over the phone and were told we could not. We went to guest services and they refunded us. Our friends that went to mixology said they put alot of mixers on the bar and it was kind of a free for all, mix what you want.

We did the San Jose Shopping tour. It was not good. They town itself has only a few shops. Then you stop at a "mall" that has 20 stores selling the same stuff. We were not impressed. We had hoped to show our girls a little of Mexico.

We checked in at the desk around noon. We were in boarding group 27. We were on the ship by 1. It was a fairly smooth process. We parked in the cruise parking lot. The terminal is very easy to find, drop off, and park. The porters outside were very helpful. It was $84 for the week.

We have not compared the navigators so I can not answer that yet. If I get a chance I will.

 

[oviattfamily]

For PV the bus ride costs about 50 pesos. The exhange rate was about 11 pesos to a dollar. We used dollars to pay for the bus and the driver gave us a fair exchange rate. There are lots of taxis and van available for rent, but i did not check on the rate.

Animators was working and it was a fun dinner.

I did not notice any laundry deals. We did use the laundry room. It was smooth, but busy. We did laundry on the second Cabo day.

 

[mnsweeps]

We booked the tastings on the first day, but you can do it throughout if they do not sell out. We heard this happened with the wine tastings. If you need to cancel do it at guest services. We tried to cancel over the phone and were told we could not. We went to guest services and they refunded us. Our friends that went to mixology said they put alot of mixers on the bar and it was kind of a free for all, mix what you want.

We did the San Jose Shopping tour. It was not good. They town itself has only a few shops. Then you stop at a "mall" that has 20 stores selling the same stuff. We were not impressed. We had hoped to show our girls a little of Mexico.

We checked in at the desk around noon. We were in boarding group 27. We were on the ship by 1. It was a fairly smooth process. We parked in the cruise parking lot. The terminal is very easy to find, drop off, and park. The porters outside were very helpful. It was $84 for the week.

We have not compared the navigators so I can not answer that yet. If I get a chance I will.

Is this the San Jose Del Cabo city and shopping tour you talking about in Cabo San Lucas? I booked it for my family and now wondering if I should cancel it if its not too great..we also want to see some real Mexico and not the tourist traps.

 

[talie]

Thanks for the fast response! I didn't realize they were random like that, I thought it alternated every other week. Then I'll be looking forward to someone hopefully posting them from this week.
Thanks again!

Here's the outline I got from my TA.

Here are the new itineraries based on sailing date (subject to change without notice):

1/23, 1/30, 2/13, 3/13, 4/3

Day 1 – Los Angeles
Day 2 – Day at Sea
Day 3 – Cabo San Lucas
Day 4 – Puerto Vallarta
Day 5 – Day at Sea
Day 6 – Cabo San Lucas
Day 7 – Day at Sea
Day 8 – Los Angeles


2/6, 2/20, 2/27, 3/6, 3/20, 3/27, 4/10

Day 1 – Los Angeles
Day 2 – Day at Sea
Day 3 – Day at Sea
Day 4 – Puerto Vallarta
Day 5 – Cabo San Lucas
Day 6 – Cabo San Lucas
Day 7 – Day at Sea
Day 8 – Los Angeles



4/17 Day 8 - Replace Mazatlan with Cabo San Lucas

 

[ForTheLoveOfDCL]

Can someone tell me do we have to carry the wave phones if we have kids in the club or are they stil doing pagers?? Not sure I wanna risk having the wave phones outta my room, debating if I want to let DD(11) carry it around! Thanks for any info!

 

[oviattfamily]

The wave phones replaced the pagers. Each room has 2 phones. The Oceaneers Club calls or pages the phones when parents are needed.

The shopping trip took us to a very small town center with about 5 tourist shops, a church, and 3 restaurants. We had about 2 hours here. We then hoped on the bus and went to a "mall." It was a new building, very clean, but all the shops carried the same stuff. Like I mentioned earlier, the driver, and Libby the guide are excellent, but the destinations were not exciting. In the tours defense, we live in AZ and have been to Mexico often. Maybe our expectations were to high. We thought of doing the coastal shopping tour, but we were not sure grandpa could handle the walking. We heard the walking was not as much as the flyer mentioned.

 

[ErinPie]

We booked the tastings on the first day, but you can do it throughout if they do not sell out. We heard this happened with the wine tastings. If you need to cancel do it at guest services. We tried to cancel over the phone and were told we could not. We went to guest services and they refunded us. Our friends that went to mixology said they put alot of mixers on the bar and it was kind of a free for all, mix what you want.

We did the San Jose Shopping tour. It was not good. They town itself has only a few shops. Then you stop at a "mall" that has 20 stores selling the same stuff. We were not impressed. We had hoped to show our girls a little of Mexico.

We checked in at the desk around noon. We were in boarding group 27. We were on the ship by 1. It was a fairly smooth process. We parked in the cruise parking lot. The terminal is very easy to find, drop off, and park. The porters outside were very helpful. It was $84 for the week.

We have not compared the navigators so I can not answer that yet. If I get a chance I will.

That is disappointing to hear about the San Jose del Cabo (San Jose City) tour. Grandma is the only one who wants to shop though and we booked this excursion for her. I think we will still keep this excursion so Grandma can do a little shopping, plus we have a timeshare with a location in the San Jose area and want to check out that area before booking a week there sometime in the future.

 

[Stinkerbe11]

For both of you who just got back--what was boarding like? Stinkerbe11, you said you were in boarding group 3, how early did you get to the port and what time did they actually begin boarding?

We stayed at the Doubletree but the first shuttle didn't leave until 1030, so I had DH drop me off at 945 to get an early number. Check in was slow, the CM was new and this was her first day. The boarding cards are handed out after check in and before the security scan, so I had to show my KTTW card before getting a number. The terminal was actually pretty empty at 10 but after 10:30 it became really busy. I was able to register the kids and get their armbands at 11 and we boarded around 1145. If you really want tickets to the tea, get to the port at 0930 and go to guest services first thing after boarding. For the tastings, we had several people show up to the tequila tasting late and without a reservation. The tasting started 30 minutes late because they kept letting people join in, it was difficult having those shots in front of me and having to wait.

 

[Jewelss37]

1. How formal was formal night? Were majority in tux's and formal dresses?
2. Were lots of adults/children dressed in pirate outfits?
3.Which MDR did you enjoy the most? Which meal did you love? Hate?
4. Are crustables still avail?
5.Were theaters and MDR really cold?
6.If you went to Palo did you also go to MDR? My Palo night is on Formal night, should I try to go to both? Maybe just do dessert in MDR for the experience?
7.In kids clubs, are the kids always doing projects/activities or do they just kinda roam around? I have a 3 and 5 year old.
8.Did you participate in FE's? Or decorate door? I've heard reports of magnets/gifts being taken?
9. Did you eat in Cabo or PV. I'm looking forward to some good food. Any recommendations??
10.If you didn't have an excursion booked how long to tender in Cabo and when should you get in line to tender?
11. Ocean temps at Ports?
Ok sorry for all the questions!!! hope others want to know these too??

 

[Lissame]

We stayed at the Doubletree but the first shuttle didn't leave until 1030, so I had DH drop me off at 945 to get an early number. Check in was slow, the CM was new and this was her first day. The boarding cards are handed out after check in and before the security scan, so I had to show my KTTW card before getting a number. The terminal was actually pretty empty at 10 but after 10:30 it became really busy. I was able to register the kids and get their armbands at 11 and we boarded around 1145. If you really want tickets to the tea, get to the port at 0930 and go to guest services first thing after boarding. For the tastings, we had several people show up to the tequila tasting late and without a reservation. The tasting started 30 minutes late because they kept letting people join in, it was difficult having those shots in front of me and having to wait.

This is frustrating for me, because I won't have another way to the port other than the shuttle as we won't have a car there. I seriously don't want to wait until 10:30 (along with everyone else). I wonder if we could get a taxi?