"Finally got around to it" Trip Report (La2kw's July '07 Wonder Cruise with pics)

[La2kw]

The Plan
We went on the July 12, 2007 Three Night Wonder Cruise. I started this report during the cruise, but never completed it because there were too many other things to do. I finally finished, so here we go.

DW and I have cruised before, but DD15 and DS16 never have. This was our first Disney cruise, and even though it was a short one, it was the best cruise we’ve been on. We decided on the 3 day because DW get seasick and we weren’t sure how she would do on the cruise since it’s been a while since our last cruise. Also, DS gets motion sickness. We were happy that neither of them had any problems with motion sickness. DW took Dramamine every day and it worked perfectly. DS didn’t need anything and had no problems at all. We had a great time and Disney Cruise Line really knows how to pamper you. It’s nice to see that not all branches of Disney have forgotten what customer service means. We were a bit concerned that there would be too many bratty little kids around, but Disney does a great job of keeping everyone separate. Now, before you flame me, please remember that DW and I are both teachers. We don’t hate kids, we spend plenty of time working with them and we love what we do. We just notice a lot of bratty, overindulged kids when we are at WDW and didn’t want to deal with them on the cruise, or on any vacation. We do that enough when we are working. We noticed our dinner seating was made up of adults and teens- no kids in sight. We were quite pleased with the entire experience. We are currently planning our next Disney cruise, but this one will be just DW and I for our anniversary.

For this trip, we left home (L.A. area) on July 3, and spent 5 nights at the Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando. We love Universal and have stayed there before. The Royal Pacific is our favorite, but we have stayed at all three on site resorts. If you ever do Universal, you must stay at one of the Loews hotels on site. They put Disney's deluxe resorts to shame in the area of customer service. The themeing is just as nice, and the front of the line access on all the rides is worth every penny of the resort cost, (which is cheaper than the Disney deluxe resorts). We like staying at Universal when we arrive in Orlando, because we are able to sleep in while adjusting to East Coast time. That's because with FOTL, we can get up late and still get on all the rides we want, including the best ride in Orlando. Something that's impossible to do at WDW in the summer.

After our five nights at Universal, we checked in at OKW and spent July 8th- 11th in a one bedroom unit. We have premium AP's, so we spent the time at the parks. After the cruise, we returned to OKW for July 15-20th, and did some more park time. Then we went to Clearwater Beach July 20-21st for a family function and some beach time, then back to OKW for July 22-27th before returning home on July 27th. Coming from California, we only make one trip per year to Florida and we often stay 2-3 weeks.

To be continued...

 

[La2kw]

Day 1.
We stayed at OKW in a 1BR unit from Sunday to Thursday. We have Premium AP’s and are DVC members, so we planned on staying at OKW before and after the cruise. We left OKW at 9am and arrived at the port at 10am.

We waited a few minutes and then they opened the gate and let us in. We had a rental car we picked up from MCO and planned on keeping it the entire time we were in Florida (3 weeks total) because the rate was good, so we planned on parking it at the port.

This was great, because once we disembarked, we walked outside with our luggage, hopped in the car, and we were checking back in to OKW at 9 am and heading to the MK by 9:30am. We stopped first at the old people under the umbrellas and they checked our docs and sent us around the corner to drop off our luggage. We did that, and the porter made a comment that we must have water in our suitcase because it’s so heavy. Yeah, we did have a case of water in it, but there wasn’t much else, so I’m not sure why he made that comment. After checking the luggage in, I pulled around to the parking lot. I parked the car in the second row of cars four cars down from the from the end, next to the jeep. It's the second car from the van parked in the handicapped stall. It’s the gray Toyota Highlander. See it?

I walked back to the terminal and we grabbed our carry-ons and breezed through security. We then entered the terminal and it was pretty empty. The check-in windows were not yet opened, but there were already a few people in line, so we joined them. We checked in pretty quickly and got a number 2 boarding pass. We found a nice sunny place to sit on the benches near the big windows and got comfy.

I took some photos, we read, and we had some snacks we brought from OKW. Here's a few more pics I took while waiting.

The terminal.

The ship.

Our rooms.

Can't wait to get here.

Afte a while, I went over to the DVC kiosk to ask a few questions and the girl checked her list of DVC members to see if we were on it. We were not, but were paying cash and not points. She said that shouldn’t matter, so she added us to the list. She gave us flashing pins, lanyards, and buttons and told us to look for the big magnets on our door later that day. She also invited us to the DVC member get-together on Friday.

Here’s our doors with the DVC magnets, which were on our door after dinner that night.

More to come...

 

[La2kw]

Day 1 Continued.
Finally, it was time to board

, so we got in line, did the picture, gave them our name to the announcer, and waved to everyone as they announced our arrival. The entrance lobby was just as beautiful as we had expected.

We then headed up to BBB for lunch, and we were the first ones in the place. They were tripping all over themselves trying to help us; I think we caught them by surprise. They offered us a variety of tables to sit at and we finally settled on one by the window in the corner. They took us on a tour of the buffet and we had our food and were eating before anyone else came into the buffet. The service was excellent, considering it was a buffet and little did we know this was just the beginning of the pampering we would receive by the entire staff (with the exception of our server).

After lunch, we walked around and I took some pics of the ship. Here's a few.

Mickey Pool slide.

Goofy's Galley.

Menu at Pluto's.

Big Screen.

Arcade where DS16 spent much of his time.

Aloft, where DD15 spent much of her time.

Adult pool where DW and I would have loved to spend more time.

Sports Deck.

Crew pool.

Shopping area.

My teenagers were becoming a bit surly at that point, wandering around aimlessly on the ship while they had to wait for their old man to take pictures. We decided to have a seat in Preludes, near the Walt Disney Theater, while we waited for the cabins to be accessible.

Our cabins were just one floor up, and this was a great location for getting to and from shows, etc. At 1:30 we went up and checked out our rooms. We had staterooms 5522 and 5524, connecting "Secret Porthole" cabins. These cabins were perfect for us, and we were thrilled because we paid the category 11 prices for them. We could not get over how spacious the staterooms were, and having two connecting rooms gave us all plenty of space. The bathrooms of course were small, and me being 6’3” didn’t help much, but we expected them to be small, so it was not a problem. I would have preferred one larger bathroom instead of two tiny rooms.

Continued later...

 

[La2kw]

Day 1 Continued

So at 1:30 we went up to our rooms and we were not disappointed. They were as gorgeous as the rest of the ship.
Here are pictures of room 5522, DW and I were in this room.

Here are pics of 5524, where DS16, and DD15 slept.

The view in our room was very good.

The view in the kid’s room was more obstructed, but still had a good view if you looked out at the right angle.

I would definitely book these rooms again.

We checked out the room, unpacked, stowed the suitcases, hung up our dinner clothes to de-wrinkle, and explored the ship a bit more. We did the muster drill and then headed up to the sail away party. It was exciting to finally be moving, but I found the character show to be a bit silly. In fact, I found most of those character dance parties they had on deck to be a bit annoying. Thankfully my kids are too old for that stuff now. It was amusing to see the cm’s get such a workout with their dance moves. After we started moving, we realized we better head downstairs and get ready for dinner. We had a 6pm seating, which worked out great for us. I also checked at Diversions at 3:30 to make sure we had a table for 4, and we did. Dinnertime as a family is very important to DW and I and we wanted to make sure we had the quiet time with just the four of us since we wouldn’t be seeing a whole lot of the kids the rest of the time. We headed downstairs and started getting ready for dinner. We were on the PTA rotation, so that meant Parrot Cay for dinner.

More coming soon...

 

[La2kw]

Day 1 Concluded

I know that many people rave about DCL food, but we found only a few items to be remarkable. Most of it tasted like banquet food, and I would have preferred less sauces and more veggies. That’s personal tastes though, so I understand they can’t please everyone. We were not disappointed in the food, since we understand the whole thing about cruise line food, but we really didn’t feel that we had anything to rave about. We headed down towards dinner and DD and I were feeling a bit queasy. I have never been seasick in my life, and we have spent lots of time on boats and in and around water. I think what threw me was that the ship is so large and it felt like we were on land, but it was moving. It’s hard to explain, but DD and I were feeling pretty bad. It was a bit annoying because both DW and DS who are prone to motion sickness were fine (thankfully). We headed down to dinner at Parrot Cay anyway. The decor reminded us of the Dolphin resort at WDW for some reason.

In any case, after a while, we felt fine and we had other things to think about, like what to order for dinner. I ordered Baked Crab Martinique - jumbo lump crab baked in a creamy cheese sauce, Mixed Island Greens - with marinated tomatoes and ranch dressing, Island Roasted Rib-Eye of Beef - with double-baked potatoes and green beans, and French Toast Banana Bread Pudding - with coconut ice cream and caramel sauce. I asked for the prime rib to be served without any sauce and our waiter said okay. When he brought the prime rib it was sitting in a huge puddle of sauce. This would become a pattern with our server. He had a table of 10, which he doted on, and treated our table of 4 and another table of 4 like we were an inconvenience. Thankfully our assistant server was excellent and picked up a lot of the slack. DW ordered Quinoa and Grilled Vegetables - topped with crumbled goat cheese and drizzled with black olive oil, Parrot Cay Salad - bibb lettuce with tomato dressing, Pan-Seared Grouper with Shrimp Lemon Butter - on olive oil potato and cauliflower puree with grilled zucchini, and Lemon Meringue Pie - on kumquat sauce. DS ordered Spice Island Chicken Wings - with pomegranate barbecue sauce, Tropical Style Fruit Salad - drizzled with honey-lime syrup, Baby Back Pork Ribs - with prickly pear barbecue sauce, mango and papaya coleslaw and sweet potato fries, and an Ice Cream Sundae - double fudge bar and cookies, topped with whipped cream and chocolate sauces. DD ordered no appetizer; Mixed Island Greens - with marinated tomatoes and ranch dressing, and Caribbean Roast Chicken - mashed sweet potatoes, corn kernels and spinach with a spice glaze. DD didn’t want dessert, but the waiter also brought out a slice of Creme Brulee Cheesecake, even though DD said she didn’t want dessert. As we were eating dessert, they brought out a jello cake thing to celebrate our anniversary.

They sang and made DW and I kiss, which completely disgusted DD and DS. They also gave us buttons and wished us well. It was very kind of them, but the jello cake thing was strange. Overall, I found the food just okay at PC. The best thing about dinner for me was the banana bread. DW loved her grouper and the quinoa. DD and DS said the food was okay. My queasiness may have contributed to my mediocre dinner, so I am looking forward to trying PC again next cruise.
After dinner, DW and I went to the Hercules show, and DD and DS went to Aloft. I am not someone who enjoys shows, but I enjoyed this one. The corny humor was fun. I wonder if the new Toy Story show will be worth getting rid of this one. After the show, DW and I went for a stroll on the promenade deck and did some shopping then headed back to our room. DD and DS came back much later.

Day 2 coming soon...

 

[Kay1]

Wow! I'm crazy about your trip report and your photos are fantastic.

 

[MouseGrandma]

We were on that cruise in Room 8008 with our DS and DGD. Our servers for 830 dinner were Alex and Jackie. That was a fun cruise. I will look for us in any picture you post!

 

[La2kw]

Wow! I'm crazy about your trip report and your photos are fantastic.

Thanks!

We were on that cruise in Room 8008 with our DS and DGD. Our servers for 830 dinner were Alex and Jackie. That was a fun cruise. I will look for us in any picture you post!

Hey, small world!

 

[La2kw]

Day 2
We slept like babies, and when we woke up I saw that we were nearing Nassau. I took a quick shower and headed upstairs with the camera so I could get some photos. DW was slowly getting up as were DD and DS, so I just said I would meet them later. DW said she would meet me on deck soon and we told DD and DS to meet us at BBB for breakfast at 9am. They grumbled about it, but said okay. We told them before we took this trip that they had to eat meals with us, but could do whatever they wanted the rest of the time. They knew they didn’t have a choice about meeting us for breakfast. I took quite a few shots of the ship heading into port. Here’s a few of them.

Atlantis in the distance.

Wharf in the distance.

Getting closer.

British Colonial Hilton.

Stay away from this place!

After docking, we headed downstairs to breakfast and DD and DS were a bit miffed because we were about 10 minutes late. In any case, we had a very nice breakfast together and I enjoyed the made to order omelets. After breakfast, we got off the ship and walked around the town for a while. Nassau reminded me a tiny bit of New Orleans, but was even more run down than the French Quarter is. We walked to the Straw Market and promptly left because we’ve seen much better shopping and much better deals in Mexico. Living in Southern California, we can drive to Mexico on the weekend if we want to do that kind of shopping. That tent was incredibly hot inside and the junk they were selling was not worth it. Stay away from the Straw Market, and don't try any hats on if you do go there! We did buy some T-shirts at Piranha Joe’s and some rum cakes at the Tortuga Rum Cake factory. Walking into the rum cake factory felt like taking a bath in rum, the scent was so strong and permeated the entire store. We also bought some magnets and souvenirs at one of the many souvenir shops on the street. We walked over to the Pirate Museum, but did not go into it. It looked a bit cheesey. We also visited the Christ Church. By this time, DD and DS were complaining about how hot it was, how hungry they were, and how they just wanted to get back on the ship to go to Aloft and to watch Ratatouille (which had just come out in theaters). I guess they had enough culture for one day. I wanted to head over to the Queen’s Staircase and the Parliament buildings, but was outvoted, so we headed back to the ship. DW and I planned to head back out after lunch and visit those other sights, but decided to stay and watch Ratatouille after lunch with DD and DS. After lunch at Beach Blanket Buffet, we went to see Ratatouille at the Walt Disney Theater. I guess they play the new releases there since it’s bigger than the movie theater. We enjoyed the movie, and then headed to Diversions for the DVC meeting. We listened to the spiel, which was basically a sales pitch for the AKV, which we have absolutely no interest in buying into. The guide who did the presentation had a few errors in his facts about DVC, but I was nice and did not correct him on the errors. We have been DVC since 1994 and we know our stuff pretty well. It wasn’t a total waste of time, since we did get some free snacks and we won a nice DVC towel, plus everyone got a goody bag with hats, more flashing DVC pins, and some other stuff. We don't do lanyards and we don't do pins, but they were free and now we had even more of them since the girl at the terminal already gave me some. After the sales pitch, we went to Shutters to check out our photos. We didn’t see any from PC the night before, and they never did show up. We did see out embarkation photos, but didn’t buy any. By now, it was time to get ready for dinner, so we headed to our room.

 

[La2kw]

Day 2 Continued.

Dinner tonight was Triton’s, and I was looking forward to this one. I wasn’t disappointed at all. This was the best meal of the entire cruise, and I can’t wait to go back to Triton’s again. I thought the dining room was the nicest on the ship and everything about this meal was excellent. Even my server got our orders right, though he was pretty absent as usual. Thank goodness for our assistant server, or we would have definitely felt left out.

I ordered the Leek and Goats Cheese Quiche - with sweet onion chutney; Normandy Salad - iceberg lettuce, slices of green apple, hearts of palm and julienne of red cabbage with citrus shallot vinaigrette; Coquilles St. Jacques - Sauteed scallops, mushrooms and shallots baked in a Mornay sauce; and Cherries Jubilee - with vanilla ice cream. Everything was perfect, especially the quiche and the Coquille St. Jacques. DW had the Tomato and Basil Soup - rich blend of tomato, fresh basil and cream; Normandy Salad - iceberg lettuce, slices of green apple, hearts of palm and julienne of red cabbage with citrus shallot vinaigrette; Herb-Crusted Halibut - layered with tomato and mushroom duxelle on sauteed spinach and champagne sauce; and Crème Brulee. DD had Leek and Goats Cheese Quiche - with sweet onion chutney; Mixed Garden Salad - tossed with red wine vinaigrette and topped with goat cheese croutons; Slowly Braised Shank of Lamb in Natural Juices - with pommes boulangeres, portobello mushrooms, braised vegetables and a red wine sauce; and White Chocolate Domes - filled with chocolate raspberry parfait and served with a raspberry coulis. DS had Escargot - baked in herb and garlic butter; Slowly Braised Shank of Lamb in Natural Juices - with pommes boulangeres, portobello mushrooms, braised vegetables and a red wine sauce; and Honey and Cinnamon Apple Tart - with vanilla ice cream. We all enjoyed the food and loved the dining room.

Quiche.

DS16's escargot.

After dinner, the kids went to Aloft and DW and I explored the various decks. Tonight is the Pirate party, so we skipped the Golden Mickey’s show. I can only stomach so many rubber heads bobbing the heads to recorded dialogue in one day. I mean, are we really supposed to believe that they can talk without moving their mouths? The party was definitely for children, we found it even more than the sailaway party. This is where you can tell DCL is geared towards kids, no matter how much they tell you that there's plenty for adults to do. We did enjoy the fireworks, which we've never seen on a cruise before. The dessert buffet was a joke because the lines were so long and jammed with pushy children, some of them ignoring the serving utensils. We grabbed a cookie from the server who was walking around with a tray of them and got the heck out of there.

 

[poffles]

Love your report!!! Pictures are awesome.

 

[La2kw]

Thanks.

 

[frdeb1999]

Wonderful TR .... love seeing all the pics!

 

[aceshigh73]

Wow, great pics!!!!

 

[kalel29]

Great report and pics. The pictures bring back so many memories.....

 

[DisneyDadFaNaTic]

Great pictures! Can't wait to read more!

Good luck!

 

[snowwhite139]

I love your pictures and story! They bring back happy memories.
Thanks for posting !

 

[perez6plus1]

I love your report.
We will be doing our first DCL this fall.

 

[La2kw]

Day 3
Today is the day we have been looking foreward to the most. Castaway Cay. I was up early again to take pictures of the ship pulling into port, and here are a few:

Close up of Flying Dutchman

DW came up just as we were docking, and DD and DS met us for breakfast at BBB at the appointed time.
After breakfast, we headed off the ship and out to the beach.

On the way, we dropped some postcards off at the post office and the surly clerk stamped the postmark for us.

We continued to the beach after mailing the postcards.

It's quite a walk in the heat of the Bahamas.

 

[La2kw]

We headed first to the family beach and found some chairs, umbrella and a hammock easily, since we were amongst the first people on the beach.

We rented snorkel equipment and went snorkeling in the lagoon. I wanted to find the Mickey statue and the Nautilus submarine. I found the Mickey, but not the sub. Next time I will find it. After snorkeling, we explored the island a bit, and DD and DS went to the teen beach. They met us a short time later because they said the other teens were being too much of a “clique” and didn’t want to hang out there anymore. Here's some random shots of the island.

Teen Beach

We got hungry and decided to have lunch at Cookie's. The burgers and hot dogs were so good, I was surprised. I didn’t like the fish sandwich, but everything else was good. The variety of fruit was great.

After lunch, DD and DS decided to head back to the ship to do whatever it is teenagers do on the ship, and DW wanted to lay out on the chaise lounge. I went snorkeling again and still couldn’t find the sub. After I was done, DW and I headed over to Serenity Bay. We checked out the food there and decided to eat there next time. We also noticed the tide was pretty low by now and there was a lot of rocks and gunk in the water. It was not very pleasant and we wished we had gotten there sooner when the tide was higher. While we were there, we noticed some commotion, and the lifeguards heading out to some lady in a tube. I guess she had drifted out way too far and was caught in a current. They commented that if you go to far out, you can get carried away in a current and not get back very easily. They brought her back in and she was pretty upset. Other than the strange low tide, we loved how quiet it was here. By now it was getting late, and we were getting tired, so we headed back to the ship.