Disney Wonder Nov 16-23: To Galveston and Beyond!

[FergusBC]

Back at the space centre we were realizing there was some rumblings in our tumblies. First stop was to hit the facilities to wash up for lunch - ostensibly for hygenic reasons but really we just wanted to run our hands under warm water to defrost them!

Imagine our disappointment when we realized that the Moon Wok place wasn't open. Sigh...that left the taco place or a sandwich place (I think there was another but it was something we knew the kids wouldn't eat). K wanted tacos. I tried to talk her out of it, realizing that these would be quite different from the tacos we eat at home. She was not to be dissuaded so Dh & V went to get some sandwiches and I ordered the lunch special, which came with 3 tacos. We met up at the table and I was still trying to decide what to get. I tried a bite of one of K's taco first, worried that it would be too spicy for her. Then I ate the whole thing.

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OMG! Best tacos I have ever had! 'Honey, honey...try this try this'. Meanwhile K is glaring at us for eating *her* lunch. So back to the counter to order three more? Six more? I can't remember but it wasn't enough. Eight and a half months later we still wax nostalgic over those tacos. I don't know if by Mexican food standards these would even count as 'good' or if it was just that we are just so accustomed to the bland El Paso taco kits from the grocery store but man, we'd go back in a minute for more of those tacos.

Sigh...

Now I'm hungry.

Eventually we regretfully decided that we should stop eating and try to see a bit more of the exhibits, so we waved a sad goodbye to the food court and made our way back to the main area.

We wandered through the Starship Gallery, marvelling at the exhibits. K was thrilled to be able to touch a real moon rock! They were studying the planets in her class so she couldn't wait to get back to tell everyone!

Eventually we came out at the Angry Birds exhibit. Yes, we were all addicted to angry birds so the kids and dh were checking it out.

And the kids got to drive the Mars Rover!

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Okay, so not the real one...which is a good thing considering the fancy moves they were trying.

At this point I had found free wi-fi so was logging in to email my mom. When we left our car parked in her condo I had (ahem) neglected to bring the keys to her building. So even though our flight didn't get in until midnight, I had to email her to ask her to meet us in the lobby.

I was also starting to get very antsy. I wasn't looking forward to the drive to the airport. What can I say? I live on an island. Freeways and multi-level overpasses just aren't in our daily commute. So even though our flight wasn't till 5:30, we pulled the plugged on the Space Centre before 2pm to make sure we'd get to the airport in time "(in time for mommy to have a nervous breakdown", is what I'm sure my DH was thinking, tho' he denies it vehemently!)

We'd long since forgotten Mr. taxi driver's directions so we relying on Ms. GPS instead. And lo and behold, we made it with no misdirections or delays! Of course, if we didn't have all that time, there would have been all sorts of problems!

Hey look! 59 south will take us home!
Oh wait, that's probably not the sign we're looking for
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The rental car drop off at the airport is super slick! No having to go into the office or anything, you just pull into the designated spot and someone came out with a remote machine to process us and in five minutes we were on our way! There's a shuttle bus from the rental area to the airport . Obviously they've been doing this for a while.

On the bus
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We had a fair amount of time to wait for our flight. I don't remember any of it, but we must have. I do remember it took us a while to find our airline's check in counter. I guess they only have the one flight a day so they were in a back corner, sharing a counter with another airline.

The wait and the flight must have been uneventful. I think we were all sunk in a miasma of despair. Yep, we were positively reeking of miasma!

We had a long layover in Seattle, so spent the time browsing the stores and the food services. At least it's an interesting airport to have to kill time in. At some point, while we were waiting at the gate, apparently I dozed off. I know this because my Dh (dead man walking!) recorded it. Perhaps it was revenge for the whole 'hey, let's take a freezing cold tram tour'. At least it hasn't shown up on the Internet. Yet.

Eventually they called our flight and we started down the hall to our exit. Now, this is where it got interesting, tho' we didn't realize it at the time. Because it's a short flight on a small plane, it's one of those gates where you walk down the stairs and actually go outside to get to your plane...and of course, there's other planes there as well so you go where they point you. This was also 11:30 at night.

We found our seats and got settled in. Then we waited, then there was a bit of a kerfuffle a few rows ahead of us. Then one of the passengers grabbed her stuff and got off the plane in a hurry. Then the cabin steward came on to remind us all that this flight was going to Victoria, BC Canada and if there was anyone else on the flight that wanted to go to Yakima, please also exit the plane NOW.

See! It pays to pay attention! If there hadn't been someone else assigned to her seat she would have ended up in not just the wrong city, but the wrong country! How to explain that to the Customs officials??

Fortunately, we were on the right plane so arrived on time. However, the fact that there's two flights that arrive at our small but not that small airport right around midnight came as a complete surprise to the local taxi community . Of all the places we'd been and all the connections we had to make, this was the only time we had to wait...and wait...

and wait...

There was one taxi out there but when he found out we only wanted to go a mile, he suddenly didn't have enough room in his Prius and took the next in line.

We'll skip the part where Dh got mad at the flight crew that jumped to the front and the part where I yelled at the obnoxious 30-something that never learned how to line up in kindergarten . Polite Canadians my a**!

Suffice it to say we did finally get a cab, did meet up with mom, did get our car, and even though we were so tired that we were seeing double, we did make it home safely and in one piece!

Sigh....oh, those tacos!

And Palo...we really miss Palo...

And no on board booking to obsess over.

Back to the change jar to save for future 'nominals'....

To all those of you that stuck it out, thank you for following along and the kind comments. I hope you enjoyed it. It was certainly fun to write, if somewhat long-winded LOL! It was amazing the amount of details that we really had forgotten until it was time to type them up.

I can't wait to go on another cruise so I can hopefully be more timely on my reporting!

Sure, that's the *only* reason I want to go on another cruise.

Who am I kidding?!

 

[pepe3penelope]

Awwww!!! As usual, I loved reading your report!!!

I'm sad that this was your last post though.

I haven't been on DCL since June last year and I really miss being on the ship. We will be on the May B2B sailings in May 2015. I'd rather have the two short cruises without airfare than one 7 day cruise with airfare. We are lucky to be able to drive from LA to San Diego.

Take care and thank you again for your report!

 

[ukintheus]

Kudos for finishing your report. It is hard when you start to "un-remember" things. Seeing as DCL are coming back in Nov 2015 maybe you can plan another trip. This time leave enough time to sample other tacos, as I am sure that while the Space Center tacos were "good", they aren't anywhere near as good as most restaurants around here serve up.

It sounds like your journey home was so overwhelmingly exhausting....what a LOOOOONNGGGG day that was!

Thanks for taking the time to put this together, it was fun to share your vacation.

 

[Poohbear 64]

Great report, enjoyed it all. I think you need to start a list of your followers, so you can message us when you go on another trip. Thanks for taking us along!!

 

[LoveDisneyx4]

Second time cruiser, first time reporter! We just got back last week from the Disney Wonder's Western Caribbean cruise out of Galveston. During our long wait I obsessed over trip reports so thought I'd try my hand at it. Not to mention I'm so not ready for the experience to be over so this will be my attempt to hang on to that vacation bliss for as long as possible.

This vacation was a long time in the planning and there were several times that it looked like it might never happen. So imagine my delight when the alarm went off at 3 am and it was finally time to head to the airport.

Okay, it was 3 am.

Maybe delight isn't the right term.

<insert dreamy flashback music / visual effects here>

Two years ago we took our first cruise - a 5 night repositioning cruise from Vancouver to LA on the Disney Wonder. As we live close to Vancouver this seemed a good intro to test the waters and see if we'd even like cruising. We were barely on board when my (then) 10 year old declared it the best vacation ever! Now in all fairness we hadn't been on many vacations that didn't involve visiting relatives so it wasn't like there was a lot to compare it to. But point taken and we booked a dummy date on that cruise, intending to move it to a spring break 2013 Mexican Riviera cruise. We really wanted to do the Mexican Riviera and couldn't wait for the new itineraries to come out.

What? Wait? They stopped doing the Mexican Riviera? Well <insert swear words here>, now what do we do? For a while we had a reservation on the May 2013 LA to Vancouver repo cruise. But it wasn't filling our hearts with joy. We wanted something more exciting. Then DCL announced Galveston as a new home port and that piqued my curiousity, perhaps because I had no clue where Galveston was. After I checked a map, then I also checked our airmiles and discovered it would cost us the same amount of points to fly to Houston as it would to fly to LA. Hmm...this was getting interesting. And we could sail to the Caribbean. The Caribbean! We could have a Pirates in the Caribbean party IN THE CARIBBEAN! This idea now held our full attention. The only downside would be an extra six months wait. But what the heck. We'd been waiting this long - what's another few months. And the kids didn't even know we had a cruise booked, so really it was just DH and I that would go nuts. And we were mostly there already...

So in September 2012 we emailed our long suffering TA again and moved our reservation to the Nov 9 cruise out of Galveston. There. That's it. Done. We nodded confidently to each other, no more moving our reservations. We had made our decision.

That lasted two months and then Disney changed our cruise to a Bahamas itinerary. Nooooooooooooooooooooooo! Castaway Cay was intriguing but it wasn't the CARIBBEAN. We wanted the Caribbean (in case you hadn't noticed). So once more unto ... the TA for another change and another week added to our countdown.

So still almost a year away and I couldn't shake the feeling that maybe we weren't meant to take this cruise. But we proceeded to make plans: booked our flights the first day they were released, booked a hotel about seven months out. Obsessed over the Magic Navigators and jumped from excursion plans to excursion plans.

The summer was flying by and then crisis! An emergency vet bill put the whole trip into doubt. I was glad we hadn't told the kids about the cruise yet because then we wouldn't have to tell them about cancelling it. Mostly happy ending: old dog survived his surgery and bounced back with flying colours and the final bill came in at the lower end of the estimate (still more than the cost of the cruise!). So we held on to our holiday money and instead paid the bill with the money saved for Dh's dental work. I'm so grateful for the sacrifices my wonderful husband accepts that I make on his behalf. Oh, and our other dog now has medical insurance, you know, just in case.

So time plodded on. We joined the Facebook group, FEs were discussed, countdowns were started, money was put aside...and DH and I struggled with that age old question: When do we tell the kids? Now we didn't intend to surprise them. We hadn't actually intended on keeping it a secret but apparently my kids were oblivious to the fact that we had made a future booking so we decided not to bring it to their attention as two years is a long time for a kid to wait. I wanted to share the planning and excitement with them so they needed to have a bit of advance notice. We settled on telling them at the end of August, just before school went in. Now, how to tell them? Oh, we threw all sorts of ideas around, from the boring to the ridiculous! Some days we just wanted to scream it out just to distract them from fighting/whining/annoying us. But we didn't. And DH was having too much fun throwing out obscure hints that went right over their heads (Girls, did you know that allspice in French is poivre de Jamaïque?)

I had previously compiled our first cruise videos into one home movie. I then made up a second video, with photos and music representing the three ports we'd visit: Jamaica, Grand Cayman & Cozumel - and then added it at the end of the original video. We got Grandma involved in our little conspiracy and managed to get the kids to sit down while we played our cruise video on the TV because Grandma hasn't seen it yet.

We were pleased with the response!

So there, now everyone knew about the trip. All that was left was the packing. Well, and making FEs, and organizing for the housesitter, and trying to get caught up at work, and...and...and...and...yes, at one point I told the kids that we were never taking another holiday because it was just so much WORK! Fortunately, they didn't believe me.

Not sure if you ever check our the DISboards or not, but I am really enjoying your trip report! We are going on the Western Caribbean for Spring Break (less than 2 weeks away!), with the same ports, so I wanted to read even though we aren't leaving from Galveston--we're going out of Port Canaveral, but this will be our first time on the Magic! We are cruising for the second time as well--first time was on the Fantasy! I'm hoping that we enjoy the Magic as much as many people do who love the classic ships over the larger ships! I felt like I never saw the same family twice on the Fantasy--which of course we did at dining times, and a few people we had talked to randomly, we did see them again. Although I found the DISboards prior to our first sailing, we did not attend the meet and greet but did participate in the FE exchange! This time I'm hoping that we make it to the DISboards meet and greet and we've had soo much fun with the FE gifts this time--we can't wait to give them out! Also, we have 2 girls (ages 9 and 5)--fun to read about your girl's adventures on the ship. Thank you for writing such an entertaining Trip Report (I'm only on page 2 but wanted to write in case you check the DISboards--who knows--you may have booked a cruise that's leave this year 2015--or may be you've delayed it to 2016. I haven't gotten that far in your report to know.

 

[LoveDisneyx4]

Ah yes, waddling back to the cabin to hang out…

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Apparently Stitch is K’s FAVOURITE! Funny, first time I’ve heard of it.

Conversation while in line with other kids all around:

(K) “Remember mommy when I saw him at Disneyland”…
(me) oh yeah, maybe he’ll remember you!
(K) “Oh mommy, I’m sure it’s a different guy inside.”
(me) SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Then the CM – What do you mean ‘guy’? There’s only Stitch.

Sigh...

The great man himself
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I forgot to mention that I love all of the pictures and descriptions!! Stitch is my oldest daughter's favorite character, too!

 

[FergusBC]

Not sure if you ever check our the DISboards or not, but I am really enjoying your trip report! We are going on the Western Caribbean for Spring Break (less than 2 weeks away!), with the same ports, so I wanted to read even though we aren't leaving from Galveston--we're going out of Port Canaveral, but this will be our first time on the Magic! We are cruising for the second time as well--first time was on the Fantasy! I'm hoping that we enjoy the Magic as much as many people do who love the classic ships over the larger ships! I felt like I never saw the same family twice on the Fantasy--which of course we did at dining times, and a few people we had talked to randomly, we did see them again. Although I found the DISboards prior to our first sailing, we did not attend the meet and greet but did participate in the FE exchange! This time I'm hoping that we make it to the DISboards meet and greet and we've had soo much fun with the FE gifts this time--we can't wait to give them out! Also, we have 2 girls (ages 9 and 5)--fun to read about your girl's adventures on the ship. Thank you for writing such an entertaining Trip Report (I'm only on page 2 but wanted to write in case you check the DISboards--who knows--you may have booked a cruise that's leave this year 2015--or may be you've delayed it to 2016. I haven't gotten that far in your report to know.

LOL...I was a bit surprised to find an alert coming up on this thread...So glad you are enjoying it. We still daydream about that trip and would LOVE to do it again. You're going to have a blast! Great ports - Jamaica was our favourite. All I have to do is mention 'festival' and my kids start drooling

 

[ukintheus]

I'm glad this got a bump back up too as it reminded me you had done a really good report of Falmouth. So now that we've woken you up can I ask you about the tour you did in Jamaica? I don't like heights, I think it would be a big push....literally....from behind by my hubby... to get me to make jump into the water. Is it possible to do any of the Irie Blue Hole while being a huge chicken? Reading your report (again), really has me considering it. We are going with friends that have 10 and 8 year olds. I think they would love it.

 

[LoveDisneyx4]

LOL...I was a bit surprised to find an alert coming up on this thread...So glad you are enjoying it. We still daydream about that trip and would LOVE to do it again. You're going to have a blast! Great ports - Jamaica was our favourite. All I have to do is mention 'festival' and my kids start drooling

Glad to see that you do still check on the DISboards! We are going to use Courtney Taylor Tours as well, but have been corresponding with Samantha--which I guess will end up being our tour guide?? Not sure if that's how it works or not. We finally were able to put the deposit down yesterday after many issues with their website and forms within the website not working correctly. It was only $31 for the deposit, but at least our tour is reserved!

Do you remember how much you tipped the "guide" at the Blue Hole? Normally tip is based off service and base price (20%-25% of base price is usually given for awesome service--which is what I'm expecting to receive based on all of the reviews)--but since they don't have a base price--not sure for our family of 4 (2 adults, 2 girls--ages 9 & 5). I don't want them to be upset with us, but not sure what might be a fair tip. We don't typically carry much cash with us, but will need to for this tour--Blue Hole guide(s), Scotchies for lunch, shopping/stop at Devon House I-Scream, then back to the port. I know that there are 2 other families that have/are booking with CTT, too!

We can't wait! You're trip report was awesome! I read through all of it and loved your humor, ability to write and tell a story, and all of the pictures (with captions so that you know what the pictures are!). Thank you!

 

[LoveDisneyx4]

I'm glad this got a bump back up too as it reminded me you had done a really good report of Falmouth. So now that we've woken you up can I ask you about the tour you did in Jamaica? I don't like heights, I think it would be a big push....literally....from behind by my hubby... to get me to make jump into the water. Is it possible to do any of the Irie Blue Hole while being a huge chicken? Reading your report (again), really has me considering it. We are going with friends that have 10 and 8 year olds. I think they would love it.

Great question! My girls are not very adventurous, either and I think that I read that there is or a few spots that they don't have to jump in and can still swim around. I won't jump from too high either, but I still think that it looks like a gorgeous way to see Jamaica, and have a bit of fun!

 

[DnA2010]

Really enjoyed your report! We are from BC too and a bit sad about the limited offerings on the west coast other than alaska. Really enjoyed your writing style, especially the uhh beverage detail def interested in those parts!

 

[FergusBC]

Glad to see that you do still check on the DISboards! We are going to use Courtney Taylor Tours as well, but have been corresponding with Samantha--which I guess will end up being our tour guide?? Not sure if that's how it works or not. We finally were able to put the deposit down yesterday after many issues with their website and forms within the website not working correctly. It was only $31 for the deposit, but at least our tour is reserved!

Do you remember how much you tipped the "guide" at the Blue Hole?

LOL...so glad you're going with Courtney's tours! He seems to have very high standards for who he hires as guides so whoever you end up with I'm sure will be great. I think think think (?) it was about $15-$20 that we tipped at the Blue Hole. I left that up to hubby as I've never mastered the art of tipping with a confident air LOL! Or maybe it was more...We were there for quite a while - an hour and a half or so - and the young guy that was our guide was with us the whole time. So if you break it down as an hourly rate, we seem pretty darn cheap LOL!

 

[FergusBC]

I'm glad this got a bump back up too as it reminded me you had done a really good report of Falmouth. So now that we've woken you up can I ask you about the tour you did in Jamaica? I don't like heights, I think it would be a big push....literally....from behind by my hubby... to get me to make jump into the water. Is it possible to do any of the Irie Blue Hole while being a huge chicken? Reading your report (again), really has me considering it. We are going with friends that have 10 and 8 year olds. I think they would love it.

LOL...Oh I hear you! I am not a heights person at all. The first pool that we got into was only a couple of feet to jump in so no worries there. Then there's the river and small pools up above - no jumping required The brave ones can have a go jumping off the waterfall. There were no brave ones in my family at all. Some day if we go again maybe I'll fortify my courage with some red stripe and try it.

But yes, there's lots to enjoy without having to jump in from up high. The only 'big' jump my wimpy self did was the lower pool with the rope string. There's two levels that you can jump from. I took the lowest one and tThat was about...meh..6? 8? feet. Eventually I just closed my eyes and stepped out. The little kids that were with the other family took the higher level. Show offs. It was worth it though just to play on the rope swing.

 

[ukintheus]

LOL...Oh I hear you! I am not a heights person at all. The first pool that we got into was only a couple of feet to jump in so no worries there. Then there's the river and small pools up above - no jumping required The brave ones can have a go jumping off the waterfall. There were no brave ones in my family at all. Some day if we go again maybe I'll fortify my courage with some red stripe and try it.

But yes, there's lots to enjoy without having to jump in from up high. The only 'big' jump my wimpy self did was the lower pool with the rope string. There's two levels that you can jump from. I took the lowest one and tThat was about...meh..6? 8? feet. Eventually I just closed my eyes and stepped out. The little kids that were with the other family took the higher level. Show offs. It was worth it though just to play on the rope swing.

Thanks - fortification may be in my best interest. Thanks for the reply, I've emailed to get a quote as I really think it will be fun. I do have to admit to not being a huge "jump in" fan...more of a "stick-my-toe and then cautiously enter the water type" but it still looks like it would be cool.

 

[PhiSigKris]

Just wanted to pop in & say I thoroughly enjoyed binge reading your trip report. Feel like the 5th member of your family now, which means I'll be bunking with you on your next cruise. Kidding! Maybe...
We're hoping this cruise is still around in 2018. I know, I know, so far away, but that's a lot of $ to spend when your kids are still in preschool & daycare.
Anyway, thanks again for the entertainment & I'll meet you at embarkation!

 

[xwewhisper]

Just read this report start to finish. Thank you so much for sharing! I will be going on this same itinerary in November so it was really helpful to get an idea of what to expect and what days the nominals are offered because I will be all over that!!

 

[dsrose345]

So enjoyed your trip report. My DH and I are 2nd time cruisers. Our first cruise was on the Older version Magic out of Galveston. We are cruising out of Galveston on Dec. 11, 2015 and this time bringing our young adult 3 children. Can't wait to share Disney Cruising with them!
Thank you for an entertaining cruise report.

Just read this report start to finish. Thank you so much for sharing! I will be going on this same itinerary in November so it was really helpful to get an idea of what to expect and what days the nominals are offered because I will be all over that!!

LOL...Oh I hear you! I am not a heights person at all. The first pool that we got into was only a couple of feet to jump in so no worries there. Then there's the river and small pools up above - no jumping required The brave ones can have a go jumping off the waterfall. There were no brave ones in my family at all. Some day if we go again maybe I'll fortify my courage with some red stripe and try it.

But yes, there's lots to enjoy without having to jump in from up high. The only 'big' jump my wimpy self did was the lower pool with the rope string. There's two levels that you can jump from. I took the lowest one and tThat was about...meh..6? 8? feet. Eventually I just closed my eyes and stepped out. The little kids that were with the other family took the higher level. Show offs. It was worth it though just to play on the rope swing.

 

[mevans9066]

I have really loved reading all these fun pages of info and pics from your trip! I just booked our first disney cruise on the Wonder for this Nov 13th out of galveston! Your reviews and pics make me even more excited! Although we have the different itinerary going to castaway cay and Nassau and key west! Just hoping for great weather!! We're all the characters in Christmas theme outfits all the time? I was so hoping for pics of them in cute tropical attire! Thanks again, really enjoyed it! Come on Nov!!!!!

 

[thumpie's mom]

And just like that, after 783 days, we were back on board!

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I wasn’t going to video. But then I remembered what a long, grey winter still lies before us and decided I needed to have this video to play over and over. And over again.

Time for one quick shot of the atrium ...
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...and then like true Caribbean pirates, we stuck to the code. The girls and I grabbed the elevator to Deck 9 while DH ran up to Studio Sea. (It wasn’t until later that I registered ‘hey, we walked right past the Christmas tree!)

What an awesome feeling to get back on the ship and not have to ask ‘where am I going and how do I get there?’…

We staked out a table by the pool. First the Goofy Pool then we moved down to the Mickey Pool, looking out at the harbour. There wasn’t a soul around yet so we it wasn’t like we had to fight for a spot!

Look at all the free loungers! Makes me want to put a sandal on each one! <wink>

Someone was happy to be first in the pool.

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DH found our table and snagged us our first DRINKS of the Day (Margaritas!) while K was in the pool. We took turns going into BBB for trays of goodies. Woohoo! Shrimp! And salmon! I couldn’t get over how good the salmon was considering it was buffet food.

Then the kids took me over to educate me in the ways of cruising…
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Oh so that’s where that is! The kids have never let me forget that I spent an entire 5 night cruise without knowing there was a self-serve ice cream machine available! They have taunted and teased me relentlessly over the past two years. I was not making that mistake twice.

Happiness is an ice cream cone AND a drink of the day!


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This became the surprise of the trip. Although we didn’t eat there this day, it became a favourite for grabbing a sandwich or salad. Man, those paninis were good! My fave was the bacon, brie and tomato. I mean, bacon and brie? What more can you say?

By this time it was 1:30ish and DH was antsy to see our cabin (and dump our carry-ons!)

The bacon and brie panini is sooo good! Occasionally they have a shrimp wrap that was delicious (I am making myself hungry and missing the WONDER)

 

[Queenk333]

Hi!

I just wanted to say that I loved every second of your trip report. DH and I are on The Wonder out of Galveston for our second Disneymoon this Christmas, and your report kicked up our excitement up several notches. Thank you!