For the First Time in Forever - Our adventure on the first revenue sailing of the Wonder since the shutdown -- Completed 10/25/2021

Day 3 Cabo San Lucas (10/3)
Oh what a beautiful morning! Started the day with a quick walk on deck 4.

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We had considered trying to catch a sit down breakfast before our port adventure but realized it would be cutting it a bit close and everyone was hungry and ready before the sit down options opened so it was back to Cabanas which was fine because there were some beautiful views from the back of the ship.

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Cabo is a tender port and it was fun to watch them gather from our verandah.

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So the rule for our sailing was that if you were fully vaccinated you could leave the ship on your own but if you had kids under 12 then you had to go on a Disney Port Adventure. We were fine with that. The prices were decent and there were options that worked for our kids ages. Having our youngest be 6 definitely helped, options for younger kids were more limited.

We booked the Chileno Bay Snorkeling adventure. We had our kids practice snorkeling in our neighborhood pool a lot but we really haven't had quite the snorkeling opportunities we hoped yet. Castaway Cay on our first cruise proved to be a bit difficult because it is quite the distance out to see anything. We hoped this would provide a better snorkeling experience for them and it did!

Like most Disney Port Adventures first thing is you meet somewhere like the Walt Disney Theater. There they informed us of the new safety protocols. They are trying to create a "bubble" with just people from our cruise and qualified vendors. That means if you wonder away from the group you will not be allowed to board the ship. They made that very clear. Adults who wanted to maybe go shopping on their own would have to fully return to the ship with the group, check in, and then tender back over. This was a bit disappointing for me because I did want to do a bit of shopping after the excursion. I knew my kids would not be able to but I had hoped I could just wait for a later tender and go off on my own while my wife took the kids back. That wouldn't work though I had to fully return to the ship and then ride back over to prove I preserved the bubble which ended up being fine.

Back to our port adventure though. We took a tender boat to the marina where they walked us to our catamaran.

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Masks were required on the tender boats and walking to our catamaran but once we set sail we were able to remove them though the crew kept them on the whole time except when they went in the water with us. This port adventure was aboard the yellow catamaran the TropiCat which turned out to be a great boat with a great crew! They took us to see some of the famous sights like lovers beach and the arch.

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They had a photographer onboard to take our picture and I think it cost like 15-20 for just one. They normally take more pictures of you throughout the excursion but they only got one of us. We didn't mind we really only wanted the one by the arch and thought the price was reasonable for an excursion photo.

Then we sailed like 45 minutes to a cove to do some snorkeling. On the way there they offered complimentary soft drinks and juice or water. They were also passing out snorkel equipment. We brought our own tubes and masks so the kids would be familiar with them but used their fins since fins take lots of luggage space.

I will warn and maybe you can see it in the above photo but it was a small vessel and it got a bit rough, my oldest got a bit seasick on the ride over. It is interesting because I have to wear sea bands on a cruise ship but I've never had problems on small boats and didn't this time either. I think the fresh air and seeing the horizon always helps me.

We sat upfront where they have the webbed open deck area you could see in my first picture. My oldest started feeling sick and was just staring down at the water through the webbing and I warned her that would not help her seasickness she need to look out at the horizon and breath the fresh air. She refused to listen to me and put her head down and just stared down. Of course it only got worse until she had to make a visit to the side of the ship. After that she informed me that it was much better to look out and it was a dumb move. I'm glad she is learning the hard way to listen to Dad when the stakes aren't real high. Hopefully she'll trust me now when they are. After that she was fine for the rest of the trip.

We did get some great shots of the Wonder as we left the Cabo area. She really is a beautiful ship!

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When we got to the cove we'd snorkel in we had a couple options. Everyone I think 15 and under had to wear a life preserver. For everyone else they could chose that or a pool noodle. Because of Covid they didn't use the inflatable snorkel vests. I'm comfortable swimming in open water and opted for a pool noodle. It worked better than I expected! They had a slide off the back of the ship or you could jump in. I just jumped in to get in ahead of my family and be available to assist my kids. The line for the slide was long though so it took a while for them to get off.

They had one guide in a kayak to assist and another swimming with us. We swam over to a little reef area by some rocks to find the best fish. We have an underwater camera we brought with us to take pictures but it acted up and wouldn't work saying there was a memory card issue so I don't have any photos of the snorkeling.

I have snorkeled a few times in my life in Mexico, Costa Rica and Hawaii but I know I haven't been to any super cool snorkeling. This I thought was a great place for my kids to really experience it. There were a lot of fish, at times I felt like rush hour swimming through a school of fish that were so close I thought they'd hit me (they didn't). There were both small fish and decent size ones and a fair number of colors and different varieties. The reef wasn't anything super impressive but it was cool. I suspect more experienced snorkelers probably would have just said it was okay but for us it was great! It really gave my kids the experience I wanted them to have and they were fine in the water. My youngest got a bit nervous and wanted to stay right with mom the whole time but that was fine. One advantage to bring our own equipment was our tubes looked different making it much easier to keep track of everyone in the water as we swam. We swam away from the catamaran but it wasn't as long of a swim as we experienced at Castaway Cay. We were probably in the water for I think maybe 45 minutes before they called us back to the boat.

The ride back was a bit more of a party atmosphere. They offered complimentary soft drinks, juice, water and now an open bar as well as packaged snacks. I wonder if they would have done more of a buffet pre-covid but my kids thought it was cool to try all sorts of Mexican chips, cookies, snack bars etc. They had a decent assortment of snacks you could try. They played music and encouraged some dancing, of course they did the Macarena.

When we got back we walked right to the tenders to head back to the ship. I ran quickly to our room but then grabbed a tender back as my wife really wanted me to go in search of Mexican vanilla and we didn't have too much time. I think we were back right around 1:30 and all aboard was like 3:30. We had some advice from our cruise FB group on brands and what to look for to find good quality vanilla. It wasn't hard to find what we wanted right near the port and for a good price too. I browsed another store and bought a couple other things. I do speak Spanish and talking to a store owner they were telling me how hard things have been. It doesn't help that the Wonder doesn't have too many people shopping given the rules for port adventures. I know it is always a sales tactic but right now I know tourism has really taken a hit so I probably bought a few extra souvenirs for Christmas gifts to help them out a bit. It is amazing to realize just how much this pandemic has affected people all over the world. I'm really grateful for the opportunities we've been blessed with to travel a bit and try to contribute to tourism driven economies.

Not sure if it was on the way there or back but my tender went around the back of the ship giving me a chance to see Donald up close.

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By the time I was back I was super hungry and headed up to get some shawarma, pizza and ice cream. Today they had strawberry and blueberry ice cream. I have to say DCL's blueberry soft serve is the best! I was so glad they offered it the next day too, seriously good stuff!

I need to end here for tonight. Our Cabo day was Pirate Night and they actually had a number of pirate themed activities for us to do but more on that in the next post.
 
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Pirate Night 10/3

Ahoy matey's after our adventures in the port of Cabo San Lucas it was time for this jolly group of swashbucklers to become pirates.

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I also had to get a pirate sail away photo from our verandah, loved that verandah!

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I also found the most mischievous pirate to sail the 7 seas, the dread pirate Stitch

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We then set sail to try our luck at Who Wants to Be A Pirate. I will have to walk the plank for not taking any pictures of me crew. My second mate (oldest daughter) was chosen to be our captain in the game. Unfortunately we did not win any treasure. A couple of us tried our luck at Pirate Trivia but alas again no Mickey Medals to be had.

Dinner tonight was in Tianas Place with the Pirate Night menu. I've heard many do not like this menu but personally I quite enjoyed it. The crab cake was good as were the samosas. The jerk chicken could have been spicer but it was still good. My son loved the Jack's 7 Sea Pasta with the seafood. I love letting my kids explore new foods on a cruise. We don't live near the ocean and my wife doesn't eat any seafood except for Salmon. So opportunities for my kids to explore are rare. My son discovered he loved not only shrimp but also scallops.

After dinner the whole family joined in a round of Disney Tunes Trivia. We didn't do as well as our first attempt but it was still a good time. Again no medal. After trivia we headed to line up for Disney Dreams in the Walt Disney Theater. We saw it on the Magic and I enjoyed it, my daughter really loved the show, I think she identifies with the main character. We had no trouble getting a seat and enjoyed the show.

One unique thing I noticed tonight was there was a fun little pre show featuring Goofy. He came out on stage like he was a stage hand sweeping and setting up a mic. Of course he did a bunch of physical comedy like only Goofy can do. It was a fun little bit I've not seen before.

After the show tonight was fireworks night. It was kind of weird because I don't think it ever showed up in the app. We got letters in our cabin about it and our servers told us at dinner. They only had one fireworks viewing on our cruise. Again like Mickey's Halloween show we had to go find a blue dot and our normal one on deck 10 was available. I noticed a lot of people didn't seem to understand the instructions to have a cast member find you a blue dot. Multiple people tried to come stand next to us and one of our favorite cast members kept having to police where people were standing. They had lots of options they even set up an adults only area around the Quiet Cove Pool and had good viewing on deck 4 as well. So I think everyone could have found a spot.

They had photographers up on deck taking pictures. My youngest fell asleep in mom's arms but others were enjoying the opportunity to eat some of the delicious berry ice cream. You'll notice we elected to change out of pirate costumes before the show. Also the weather was awesome, we were eating ice cream on deck 10 without the sweatshirts be brought just in case it was a little chilly as can often be the case on deck at night.

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The fireworks show is the new Disney Ever After at Sea I think they call it so not the normal pirate night show. It was fun, not particularly long but it was a fun little show and we enjoyed it.

After the fireworks we let the Wonder rock us to sleep before our final sea day.
 
Day At Sea Take 2 (10/4)

I woke up to another beautiful morning at sea.

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I went for another run on deck 4. I needed to work up an appetite because this morning my wife and I were going to experience Palo Brunch for the first time. I went by Cove Cafe to grab a couple of their complimentary pastries just to tied us over and it was fun to eat them on our verandah. Once our kids were up and ready we took them up to breakfast at Cabanas.

We reserved kids club time in advance for our Palo time. My oldest though really wanted to watch a movie on board. So she volunteered to take her younger sister to see Raya and the Last Dragon and have some sister time. My wife and I wondered around the ship with the boys for a bit before their kids club time. Then we were ready for our 10:30 Palo time.

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Palo brunch was awesome! It started off with a selection of pastries. I know they used to have a buffet portion but that isn't currently available. They did have a couple appetizer options a charcuterie platter or a seafood platter. We opted to jump right in and ordered a few things to share. We got a Mickey Waffle and a fritatta to split. Then my wife ordered the chicken parm and I got the lasagna. All the food was great, the view was awesome and the service spectacular. We really enjoyed the whole experience, it was great to have a meal just the two of us.

Before long it was time for dessert. We decided to try several of them. I'm not normally one to take food pictures as you've noticed. However the Palo desserts looked so perfect I had to take pictures.

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The desserts were as good as they looked. My overall take on Palo is the food was definitely a step up, the service great and I'm glad we experienced it. I felt it was worth the extra 45 per person. I'm not sure I'd do it every cruise but it was definitely a fun experience I'd do again. I'd love to try it when they have the buffet though I think not having it helped us avoid eating too much. We definitely left feeling full but not to the point of being sick.

We picked up our boys at the kids club and took them to get some lunch. Then all the kids wanted to spend some time on the pool deck. We had no trouble finding a spot to camp out. Captain Mickey was out on the pool deck saying hi.

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I know prior to the restart there were a lot of questions on how the pool deck might work in terms of social distancing etc. They did have the chairs in groups that were spread apart. Again I had no trouble finding a spot to hang out. They did limit capacity in the pool. There was a line and they'd let groups in for a period of time and then have them get out and let another group in. The wait wasn't too long and it meant the pool wasn't crazy busy once you got in. They only decided to take one turn in the pool but that was enough.

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The waterslide worked like normal, you just had to wait your turn.

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I will say I missed that there wasn't an Aquadunk or Aquaduct onboard the Wonder. I rode the waterslide after our Cabo Day and just felt it was a bit slow and not exciting for me. So I didn't give it another go. If we'd had one of the more exciting slides I'm sure I would have enjoyed it. The day though was beautiful, great weather and a great time to enjoy the pool deck. I was perfectly content staying with our stuff, being the photographer and enjoying a chance to relax.

Eventually we headed back so everyone could get cleaned up before dinner. Captain Mickey and his ever faithful first mate were out.

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The glasswork in the atrium is always worth a photo.

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Our final dinner of the cruise was to take place in Tritons. I'll cover it next.
 
Thank you so much for this report! I'm on the WBPC cruise in March and we will be staying one night in San Diego - I booked the Springhill Bay View hotel based on this report, so it is much appreciated!
 


Thank you so much for this report! I'm on the WBPC cruise in March and we will be staying one night in San Diego - I booked the Springhill Bay View hotel based on this report, so it is much appreciated!
Glad you are enjoying it and the SpringHill Suites there is one of the nicer ones I’ve visited, the views definitely can’t be beat!
 
The Final Dinner (10/4)

Unfortunately our cruise had arrived at the final dinner, always a said event though we made some fun memories at ours. Our final dinner was at Triton's.

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Our head server suggested we had to try the escargot tonight. I'm up for eating almost anything, pretty sure I've had escargot before thought it isn't a favorite. I wanted to see if I could get any of my kids to try it. Both my boys were willing to give it a try. My youngest also wanted to try the duck confit appetizer. As he put it he wanted to "eat Donald Duck". He enjoyed it and both boys had some escargot as well. It was fun to see them trying new foods though my wife and daughters refused to give the snails a try.

We all enjoyed our food! I enjoy the french onion soup and tried the lamb as well. Everyone enjoyed their meals and I quite liked the Grand Mariner Souffle for dessert. The theming in Triton's is pretty cool but it is a bit less exciting meal given the lack of a dinner show. Disney must have wanted to remedy this because they had a special celebration at sea as they called it. Mickey, Minnie, Donald and friends came in for a little musical parade and dancing part way through dinner.

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I thought it was a fun new touch and another fun character interaction.

After another wonderful DCL dinner we headed out to play Mouseketeer Madness. I really wanted a last chance to earn one of those Mickey Winner Medals but alas once again I was thwarted. We had interacted multiple times with Molly from the UK and she became one of our favorite entertainment cast members on the cruise. After the game I told her I was super sad the cruise was coming to an end and I still didn't have a medal. She then offered me a challenge and final way to earn that medal. She told me if I would bring my girls to family Karaoke at 10:30 and sing she'd give me a medal. I just had to do a family rendition with my girls of Let it Go. Well my girls had been begging me to go to a final karaoke session and I've never shyed away from making a fool of myself for a good cause so I accepted the challenge.

My boys were really tired and wanted to get to bed and we had some packing still to do. So we all headed back to our cabins for a bit. Once the luggage was out my girls and I had some time until karaoke so we took a final wonder around the ship.

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I love the ship at night. We also found some friends.

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When 10:30 finally arrived we headed to the D Lounge and signed up to finally earn my winners medal. Since it was a family sing there was no one to take a video which is a good thing. My girls can kind of sing but not Dad, I'm sure it was horrible but I had my eyes on the prize. Not surprisingly I suppose the group of teenagers who witnessed my wife and I play Generations Quest were there and they recognized me and remembered my name. I'm not sure if that was a good thing or if they got payback for winning as they had to hear me sing. Either way we did it and I got my winner's medal which now hangs with my running medals.

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We didn't last the entire karaoke session but there were some great performances. Eventually I couldn't keep my eyes open and I knew I had to drive us home the next day. So we headed back to sleep for our final night of the Wonder rocking us to sleep. I'll end this trip report with a final report about disembarkation and my overall thoughts.
 
Saying Goodbye (10/5)

All good things must come to an end. After my late night karaoke adventures I didn't get up early our final morning though my wife did to watch us sail in and I eventually roused to grab a couple pictures as we docked.

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We headed to breakfast to say goodbye to our servers. They gave us a great breakfast with extra pastries if we wanted them. I remembered to go grab our USB stick with our cruise photos from Shutters. We did the unlimited digital package since we love coming home with a bunch of photo memories where we didn't have to be the photographers.

We didn't have too long to wait after breakfast until it was time to walk off the ship, always a rather sad walk. The whole process though was super easy, no real hiccups or challenges aside from a minute when my youngest daughter insisted on trying to take one of the larger suitcases as we crossed the street to where we parked. Fortunately some random strangers were nice and helped her as we regrouped and encouraged her to take a bag she could manage herself. We wanted to get back home for some things and saw no reason to delay the inevitable so we just drove home that same day. It made for a long day but we were home before midnight and back to the real world.

So that brings me to the conclusion to this trip report. After waiting a year a nine months since we last got off a Disney ship it was incredible to be on one again. When we booked this cruise we never imagined it would be the first one back for the Wonder since the shutdown. There was a lot of nervous wondering if it would happen. In the end it did and it was incredible! We enjoyed every minute of it and can't wait to sail again!

Were there some differences due to Covid and other things? There definitely were and sure we wish some things were different but ultimately the magic was there and the joy of being on the ocean. We made some great family memories and just had a great time. We don't regret sailing at all and would gladly get back onboard in a second. I do think sailing with reduced capacity offers some really cool advantages. Clearly they won't stay this way forever so I'm glad we got to experience it. The character experiences while different were really cool mainly because they were so much easier to have. Anytime we walked by the deck 4 atrium it felt like we could grab a selfie without a line. If my kids were more in to princesses it seemed the chances to talk to them and have real conversations were more plentiful. It seemed like the food may have been up a notch with less mouths to feed. The new kids club format was really enjoyable for my kids. While reservations are a pain the more structured format was something my kids preferred.

Since we originally booked this as a 7 day and they shortened it we did get a discount off a future cruise though it had to be used by September of 2022. They let us stack it with an onboard booking credit so we did sign up for that in the app while onboard to get that discount as well. We've decided we can't wait to get back onboard and found a cruise at the end of my kid's spring break that was a decent price. We are going to round out this 4 day with a 3 day on the Dream this spring. We've never been on a bigger ship and we realized so far we've done the ships in the order they were built. So we will snag a quick cruise on the Dream and then we booked a fall break cruise for 2022 on opening day a few months back. We will finally get our 7 day cruise but aboard the Fantasy in the Western Caribbean.

It feels so good to be back to where we can look forward to cruising. Hopefully things will continue to get more normal not just in cruising but overall. This pandemic has been hard on way too many people for too long. It felt really good to see the cast members who love what they do being able to work again. It felt great to do something more normal feeling again. I don't know what cruising will look like for the next little while, I'm sure it will continue to evolve. Based on our experience though we just can't wait to get back out on the ocean again!
 


Thank you for taking the time to do this. We can’t wait for our cruise on the Wonder in about 30 days from now. The details were interesting to hear as I think we can expect something similar in Galveston. I’m glad your family had a great time. Even with the changes I’m sure we will too.
 
Thanks for sharing! We had a great first cruise experience on the Wonder a few days ago. It was kind of nice being our first cruise we didn’t know any different with all the “new rules.”
 
Thank you for this lovely trip report. DS (6) and I enjoyed reading it very much. We will be sailing in June and can’t wait.

His only complaint was not enough food, and I explained you said you didn’t do food photography...so I placated him by letting him scroll through the food pictures thread.
 
Thank you for this lovely trip report. DS (6) and I enjoyed reading it very much. We will be sailing in June and can’t wait.

His only complaint was not enough food, and I explained you said you didn’t do food photography...so I placated him by letting him scroll through the food pictures thread.

I’m glad you enjoyed reading it! You can assure your son that there was plenty of food on the cruise lol. I just need to get better at taking pictures of it for trip reports. Maybe on my next cruise.
 
Thanks so much for taking the time and putting the effort into writing this and sharing it with us all, it was great to tag along with you guys. :cool1:

Now I am even more excited for our Christmas cruise. :woohoo:🎄
 

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