maude39918
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2003
- Messages
- 18
Hi, just back from first cruise on the Disney Wonder. Family of four DW 40, DH 40, DD 14, DD 10. First of all the weather was wonderful, blue skies and temperatures in the 80's. We arrived at port at 11:15 a.m. there were no lines, we were directed to the help desk where they looked over our documents to make sure everything was done right and then sent us over to check in. Went fast and Disney people were very friendly. We were about the 20th family in line. They started boarding at 12:20. We were taken to lunch, people were right the shrimp was delicious. After lunch we checked out the teen center and signed my 10 year old up at the oceaners club. Then we went to our room. We lucked out and were upgraded to a outside porthole room. We had booked an inside room. Our room was 2614 and real handy to the elevators. There was never a line to get on. We had wanted early seating but when were booked were told that we had late seating. When we got to our room to our relief we were given early seating. Our wait staff did their jobs well but were not entertaining or very friendly. I did notice that our dd10 was the youngest in our wait staffs group so maybe they were given older people because they were not real personable. Our server did notice that my dd14 wasn't eating her dinner so asked if she wanted something else. She did not like the sauce on her salmon so he brought her another one. That was nice. On our first day we saw our cabin steward all the time, after that we rarely saw her. She did come in and do her job. Her towel animals were unrecognizable, and on our day in Nassau we came back at 2:00 and our beds were still not made. We could not find her on our last night or the next morning to give her the tip envelope, we left it in the room and as we were getting on the elevator we saw her and told her we couldn't find her so it was in the room. The cast off party was fun, the staff danced and really got into it. I loved the horn on the ship only disney could have the horn. Our first nights dinner was at Tritons so we were worried if our luggage would arrive on time, it did. All the meals were good. My DD10 would order somethings from the children's menu and some from the adult. We always got what we ordered and refills on drinks were offered often. We were not thrilled with the Hercules show. The comedian on the seconc night was my DD10 and DH's favorite show. He was great. I loved the Disney Dreams show. I was not impressed with the teen club or the oceaners club. I think they need to spend more time trying to get the kids to know each other. My dd14 went to the 411 meeting on the first night at the teen club.The games they played did not required the teens to talk so no one talked and they didn't get to know each other. She never went back. She had been instant messaging a 14 year old boy before our cruise that was going on the same cruise but when it came to hanging out they were both to shy and didn't talk so that didn't work out. She says that she wants to go on another cruise but wants to bring a friend next time. DD10 went to the club a few times, once to hang out, once to make flubber and once to do a cartoon. She liked these activities. I think these clubs are great for outgoing kids, but I think the counselors should be more welcoming when the kids come in so the shy kids will be more comfortable. They all seemed to be busy and didn't bother to get the kids coming in involved,in my opinion. Our favorite day was Castaway Cay. We rented four tubes and two snorkeling masks. WE went snorkeling two at a time. That was great, don't waste your time close to shore head out, there our lots of fish. My dh and dd10 went out twice. We stayed on the beach the whole day and didn't wander around the island. The weather was great and we ended up getting sunburns even though we put sunscreen on twice, but who cares it was so much fun. There was a huge sting ray that was swimming around the water it must have been four feet wide, it would shock people when it swam by them. It swam right by my daughters but I missed it. I looked for it all day but couldn't spot it. On our second night my girls hung out with each other and my dh and I went to duelling pianos, I was expecting them to be funny but they weren't, they could play the piano well though. Then we went to music trivia and match you mate. Overall I would say that the cruise was a success, the girls hung out with us and we did a lot of things as a family. We will definitely go on anothe cruise but I am not sure that it will be a disney cruise. In my opinion they cater to younger children and mine are getting to old.
