Day 1 - Port of Miami - Embarkation
Our boarding time was scheduled for 1:30 pm - we had a few hours in the morning for a light breakfast then we headed over to Ralph's (less than a 10 minute walk) to pickup some last minutes supplies. Our
AVIS car rental drop off was located downtown and went very smoothly as they offered a quick drop off and free shuttle to the Cruise port. There were families arriving from the three cruise ships that disembarked that day. We and our luggage were brought to the port by about 11:30 am.
We did not try to board earlier than scheduled but we able to drop off our luggage to the baggage handlers and walked over to a
Coral Way Trolly stop located in the port parking lot. It is a free Trolly service that runs throughout downtown Miami and we took the Freedom Tower stop and walked over to the
Bayside Marketplace. The marketplace is a good sized outdoor shopping plaza with plenty of food options such as Starbucks, Hard Rock Cage, Bubba Gump, etc. After lunch, we boarded the trolly back to the cruise port on Biscayne Blvd.
Our boarding process was very efficient, pleasant and quick - we waited for approximately 20 minutes to board but the boarding assignments were being called very quickly. Due to the configuration of the port, we boarded on Deck 4 rather than Deck 3.
The design of the cruise port is fairly basic and decorated with a few disney banners and popup signs.
Once aboard the ship, we decided to do a quick tour to get acquainted with the layout of the Wonder - very similar to the Disney Magic but the Wonder appeared to be better maintained - throughout the cruise we noted that the ship was very clean and cared for - both in common areas and our own stateroom.
We then headed to Deck 4 to watch the dock workers loading the supplies for our 15-day voyage - dozens upon dozens of pallets of fresh fruit, vegetables, cases of water, ice cream and basic cooking supplies were loaded onto the ship.
We then headed to our cabin and were able to enter our stateroom at approximately 2:30 pm - we unloaded our carry on bags and checked out stateroom flyers and notices. Our dining rotation APT (Animators, Parrot Cay, Tritons) was set and we receive our Palo and Shore Excursion Tickets upon arrival. Our lifeboat drill was scheduled for 3:45 and was completed in 20 minutes. We were assigned 2082 - Deck 2 - Midship - not too close to the laundry (no noticeable sound, traffic, heat). The room was equipped with a steamer trunk and cooler.
Adventures Away! was scheduled for 4:30 pm and we were happy to find out that Cruise Director Jimmy was leading the show! Jimmy is absolutely the most energetic, down-to-earth and fun cruise director that any guest could ask for.
The deck party was excellent and we quickly noticed that there were significantly fewer children than our previous cruise. We were told that approximately 280 children were aboard compared to 800+ on a normal cruise. I would estimate the average age for the adults at 50 years old with a high number of adult couples with no children.
Our second seating dinner (8:15) allowed us to hit the early shows - the first show in the Walt Disney Theatre was All Aboard - another great production with top notch dancers, singers and characters. We were introduced to Captain Fabian and John Charles - we enjoyed his act on the Disney Magic and again enjoyed his act on this cruise.
really, really enjoying your TR. We are on the Sep EBPC cruise and getting excited reading your adventures. We are imagining it all in reverse! Keep them coming! 
