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

[greensombrero]

Hello everyone! I loved reading trip reports before our first DCL cruise and then I had fun writing one about our first cruise. There has been a real lack of DCL trip reports in the last 18 months or so for obvious reasons. So I'm super excited to have a reason to write one!

I know there are differing opinions on cruising right now and everything is changing all the time. I will start by saying we had an absolutely fabulous and magical time. This was only our second cruise and despite the changes and differences it reminded us why we fell in love with Disney Cruise Line after our first one. We had absolutely no regrets about taking this trip.

I will caveat that some of what we experienced my very well change at any time as Disney continues to react to the ever evolving reality. I hope getting a glimpse of cruising right now will be helpful but again I'm sure things will continue to evolve.

With that out of the way on to our cruise. Cruising was my immediate family consisting of me, my wife, and 4 kids (2 daughters and 2 sons). We had the incredible chance to be aboard the Disney Wonder for her first revenue sailing since the pandemic. My understanding is it was also the first cruise to leave out of San Diego as well. We actually booked this sailing on opening day for Silver Castaway Club members. At the time we were pretty worried our Dec 2020 cruise would be cancelled and wanted a backup at a good rate and you generally can't beat opening day prices. The cruise was to be a 7 day Mexican Riviera though that would change. We didn't dream at the time it would be a nail biter right to the end as to whether we'd cruise. At the time we were sure everything would be normal by Oct 2021 which of course like so many things in the last 18 months proved not to turn out as expected.

Here is a rough outline for this trip report:

1. Changes Travel and Anaheim (9/27 - 9/29)
2. Old Town San Diego (9/29 - 9/30)
3. The Port of San Diego (9/30 - 10/1)
4. Onboard Again (10/1)
5. Day at Sea (10/2)
6. Cabo San Lucas (10/3)
7. Day at Sea (10/4)
8. The End (10/5)

Changes, Travel and Anaheim

As the date for our cruise grew closer and closer and we reached our PIF date we had to decide what we were going to do. Ultimately we wanted to either get extra credit if Disney offered it because our cruise was cancelled or we really wanted to cruise. We've generally been careful during the pandemic but also have really tried to find safe ways to live life including traveling where possible. We had a unique but enjoyable trip to WDW in Dec 2020 to replace our Christmas cruise that was supposed to be our family Christmas present. So we figured we'd just pay in full and see what happened.

When the Dream restart was announced we felt comfortable with everything we heard but we continued to wonder (no pun intended) if the Wonder would actually be relocated to the West coast for a short Mexican cruise season or if since Alaska didn't happen Disney would do something different. We got super excited when it became apparent the Wonder was heading to the Panama Canal. It wasn't too much later that the Wonder restart was announced and we finally had some answers.

Our cruise was changed from 7 nights to 4 nights and would only visit Cabo San Lucas. This was disappointing but understandable and Disney offered us onboard credit, a refund for the missed nights and a discount on a future cruise. We felt good about that and were okay with a shorter cruise, we just wanted to get back on the ocean aboard a Disney ship. In the end the change in schedule was better for our family schedule anyway.

A week or so later we also happened to notice our cabin numbers had changed in the app. We had booked adjoining ocean view staterooms on deck 2 and suddenly we had adjoining verandah staterooms on deck 7. We reached out to our travel agent who hadn't heard anything. We figured Disney much be moving people around either to have cabins available for quarantine in a specific part of the ship or to group people together in the ship to make things easier for stateroom attendants. They ended up sending an email to our travel agent a couple days after we saw the change in the app. We were super excited by this bit of pixie dust! A free upgrade to a verandah cabin is an awesome thing! Our cabins ended up being just off the aft elevator on deck 7 and we loved the location!

I don't really want to focus on this aspect too much but we became increasingly careful and did a lot of self isolation as we got closer to our cruise to keep everyone healthy. This also led to us deciding to leave early for the cruise as we were all ready to get out of the house.

We live a little more than 10 hours from Southern California and had always planned to drive to San Diego. With the change in cruise length we decided to head to one of our favorite hotels in Anaheim for two nights before heading down the San Diego. We didn't want to try to do Disneyland but figured we could enjoy the waterpark at the hotel and pay a visit to Downtown Disney. So on 9/27 we loaded up our minivan and headed out first thing in the morning. We did a lot of road trips when my kids were younger and this was by far the most effective drive ever. We only stopped for gas and bathrooms twice and one drive thru food stop. We made awesome time and made it to Anaheim by early evening.

I will add I finally had a chance to start the Keeper of the Lost Cities book series by listening to the audio book on the drive down. My daughters and wife had already read the whole series and had been trying to get me into it. I enjoy young adult fiction but just hadn't had time to get into the series yet. Since it starts in San Diego it seemed appropriate to listen on our drive down and we nearly finished the novel on the drive down. This becomes important because of a statement I made that turned into one of the trip quotes my family used to give me a hard time for the rest of the trip, more on that later.

When we got to Anaheim we checked in to our hotel the Marriott Courtyard Anaheim Theme Park Entrance. We discovered this hotel right after it opened on one of our epic Disneyland trips a few years back. We do Marriott Bonvoy and have their credit card and I have Titanium status so we stick to Marriott properties and were able to stay on points for this stay. I also used one of my Suite Night perks and we got a pre guaranteed upgrade to a larger suite. We love this hotel because of its family suites and waterpark. They have bunk beds and can accommodate our family of 6 in one room. In the past we've just stayed in the normal rooms but this upgrade meant we had the bunk beds in a separate room and more space overall including a balcony with this nice view of their waterpark and Disneyland in the background.



After check in and technically before this picture was taken we walked over to Downtown Disney for dinner. It was a bit busier than I hoped on a Monday night and we were trying to be careful as we'd have Covid tests to take before the cruise. So we didn't spend too much time shopping and opted to grab food at Taqueria at Tortilla Jo's and eat at their outside patio. We love Mexican food both the Tex Mex style and the more authentic variety. Tortilla Jo's is definitely in the Tex Mex style and isn't incredible but is a solid option I think. Most of us opted for nachos and my youngest got quesadillas.

After dinner of course we had to get ice cream because we love Salt and Straw and don't have any at home. My family hasn't had any for quite some time. I'm fortunate that my company opened a new office in Santa Monica and I've been out several times during construction and then for the opening. I discovered you can DoorDash Salt and Straw and have had it a few times in recent months while on business trips. Everyone was tired from the long drive so took our ice cream to go and headed back to the hotel for bed.

The next morning I woke up and uttered some words that would haunt me for the rest of the trip. We had ended our drive and therefore the audio book just when it was getting really interesting. I woke up wondering what would happen next so I told my wife first thing "I want to know what happens to Sophie (the main character)". My girls got a kick out of the fact I had gotten into the book and teased me about it for the rest of the trip. I checked and the book was available on Kindle Unlimited so I downloaded it and finished the book by reading since it was more convenient now that we weren't driving. My daughter has all the physical books at home and my wife had the Audible versions so I didn't want to buy a digital copy. Fortunately I hadn't cancelled my Kindle Unlimited yet which I keep meaning to do.

We had breakfast from the cafe at the hotel. It isn't included but I got some food credit with my Marriott status and it was convenient and pretty good food. It was 3 days before the cruise and so we took my younger 3 kids who are under 12 to get their required pre cruise covid test. Disney was requiring all kids under 12 who therefore couldn't be vaccinated to have a Covid test 3 days to 24 hours before the cruise. We found a place called the Covid Clinic has locations nationwide including a location at Anaheim City Hall. They seem to specialize in travel tests and offer quick results if you are willing to pay. We really didn't want to mess around with some maybe cheaper options where result times weren't guaranteed. Disney announced like a week before they were accepting NAAT tests now and not just PCR. I was a bit nervous to try a NAAT test since it was a recent change but it was much less expensive to get faster results by going with a NAAT test versus a Rapid PCR or a slower expedited PCR. Before we left I read Disney's site multiple times, emailed Safe Passage to confirm they were indeed accepting NAAT tests and my travel agent offered to ask Disney when she called about something else just to confirm they were accepted effective immediately. Everything said yes so we went for it. The testing was super easy, it was outdoors in front of city hall. The only issue was finding it. I had to drive around and then saw the tents. I had expected it to be in the parking lot like the testing at our city hall but it is not in the parking lot but just a short walk from it. It took maybe 10 minutes tops to get all three kids tested and then I had the first result by the time we were back at the hotel. They came in every 15 minutes, they told me it takes 15 minutes in the machine and they only had one running. This was one of the final nail biters for us if we'd be able to cruise. We really didn't expect problems given how careful we had been and pre cruise isolation and the fact no one had any symptoms but you never know.

We were blessed with 3 negative results and so we walked over to Downtown Disney to do some shopping. At this point I uploaded the test results into the Safe Passage account we created. This is part of the new required pre cruise process. You have to create an account with Safe Passage a third party Disney uses to collect proof of vaccination and negative tests to cruise. We actually had a bit of a glitch I'll mention here. We were checking the next day to see if our results were accepted and discovered something went wrong and despite a confirmation email they didn't get the actual PDFs I uploaded. I'm glad we looked because we didn't get an email about the issue. It didn't show up on the main page either we had to click into each of the kids record details to see the note the file was missing. I uploaded them again and then they were accepted a couple hours later officially clearing us to arrive at the port.

Back to Downtown Disney it was far less busy on a Tuesday morning first thing so we spent some time checking out the shops and bought a few fun things with some of our Disney Visa Rewards we had accumulated. My daughter had an assignment from her yoga teacher to take pictures of yoga poses on the trip and a picture of her eating a beignet, gotta love teachers like that.



My kids thought it was awesome that Baby Yoda was handing out hand sanitizer in the new Star Wars shop they put in the former Rainforest Cafe building.




After our morning in Downtown Disney we grabbed some lunch to go from Earl of Sandwich and walked back to the hotel. We had water park reservations for the afternoon. One of the Covid related changes at the hotel is that they required a reservation to use the water park. You could make one per day in advance and I made one for this afternoon when I made our reservation. They also allowed walk ups to enter if they weren't at capacity.

It wasn't a very warm day which was unfortunate but it was warm enough to enjoy the water park. They have this splash area and of course I had to join my kids in getting drenched by the dump bucket, I'm there in the back.



We spent time in the hot tub to warm up between the cold water. We really didn't need more than our allocated reservation time and I ended up taking the boys to the room early and taking a work call. After the water park we opted for an easy dinner and just picked up from the hotel cafe. The food was pretty good and it was convenient. I got a salad and some wings and others got sandwiches, burgers, that sort of thing. We turned in early again this night. We didn't really adjust to the time change and went to bed at our home time.

The next morning I was sent to the Panera Bread bakery in the adjacent parking lot for breakfast. I got myself a breakfast burrito at the hotel cafe. My wife got one the morning before and talked about how good it was and I wanted to give it a try myself. It was one of the better breakfast burritos I've eaten. After a bit of a lazy morning we got packed up and in the car to head down to San Diego.

Old Town San Diego (9/29 - 9/30)

San Diego wasn't a long drive, about 90 minutes or so but gave us time to start the second book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series now that I was hooked. We opted to spend a day in old town because I had heard it was a fun area from my parents. My pre trip research made it look like I'd be best off getting a hotel there to park at and then walking around. When I vacation I love being able to walk instead of driving and dealing with parking etc. So we booked the Courtyard San Diego Old Town on points. We ended up booking two rooms since like most hotels they don't have family rooms that can accommodate 6. We did get adjoining rooms though which is always nice. The hotel had been renovated recently but was clearly an older property. It was really about location. I didn't mind the hotel but it was definitely not anything special aside from the location and felt older though it was clean and the staff helpful and friendly.

We got there right a lunch time and I was excited to try some of the good Mexican food that is available in old town. The front desk gave us a recommendation for Cafe Coyote and a coupon. It was a place I had heard of in my research and was happy to try it out. So we headed out for a nice walk to the restaurant. It did have really good food. I tried their carnitas and really liked it. My youngest son tried horchata for the first time there and absolutely loved it. I've had my share of horchata and it was a good place to try it.



After lunch we walked up the hill to the Mormon Battalion Historic Site. We had heard it was a really cool museum to visit and it didn't disappoint. It tells a bit of western history I was not very familiar with. During the United States war with Mexico in 1846 the army of the west recruited a battalion of soldiers from members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They ended up marching from Iowa to Fort Leavenworth Kansas and then across the southern part of the US west to San Diego. They didn't fight in the war but they did blaze a wagon road west and when they arrived in San Diego they helped build part of the city.

We got a private tour with just our family. The museum consists of Harry Potter style talking picture frames where people tell their story along with other video projections. They have you move from room to room while watching the videos and have some other interactive elements like here where my son got to dress up.



At the end the kids got to pan for gold as members of the battalion were present in Sutter's Mill when gold was found starting the California Gold Rush.



After we finished the tour we walked around old town down to the state historic park. I would have liked to explore a bit more but the kids were getting tired and restless so we headed back to the hotel. There seemed to be a lot more to see and do in old town, I think some things are still closed/reduced due to Covid but I'd love to go back with more time to explore the state historic park and other museums. My dad mentioned there is a cool train museum there but the schedule of when it was open didn't work for us. Always nice to have a reason to come back and visit again.

My wife and I weren't really hungry after our large and delicious Mexican lunch. We just ate a few snacks we had in the room. The kids though wanted a real dinner so I googled for the nearest In and Out and made a drive thru run. The next morning we got breakfast from the hotel cafe. They had the same breakfast burrito as the Anaheim Courtyard and it was almost as good the second time. We also did a bit of laundry at the hotel's self service laundry. The kids were happy hanging out at the hotel but I wanted to see more. My wife was fine reading and staying with the kids so I got one of those rare alone time moments on vacation. I took a nice walk around old town exploring the state historic park more. I also stopped by the historic Catholic church. It is a beautiful old church and they have some displays/plaques discussing its history. There is also some fun shopping in old town and I bought a fun ornament for our Christmas tree. We collect them on our travels. I also did some early Christmas shopping and got a necklace for my mom.

When I got back it was time to pack up and switch hotels. I booked us two rooms at the Springhill Suites San Diego Downtown/Bayfront for the night before our cruise. After a year and 9 months we were getting really close to boarding a Disney ship again. Stay tuned for our experiences at the Port of San Diego and then boarding the Wonder and setting sail.

 

[greensombrero]

The Port of San Diego (9/30 - 10/1)

As we left Old Town and drove to the port area we couldn't wait to see if we'd spot the Wonder. I knew I picked the right pre stay hotel when we pulled up to check in and saw this view.



I used some more of my Suite Night perks to upgrade us to a room with a bay view hoping we'd be able to see the Wonder. Once again I wasn't disappointed.


We got rooms right next to each other but they weren't adjoining and only one had a view of the Wonder. So my sons and I were gentleman and gave the ladies the room with the Wonder view. We had a view of Holland America's Koningsdam which I guess has been waiting in San Diego to restart.

After checking in we were hungry for lunch so we headed down to the waterfront for another great Mexican lunch at Miguel's Cocina. We were seated with nice water view with the Koningsdam in the background.



I had really really good fish tacos and everyone else also enjoyed their meals. After lunch we walked along the waterfront to take some more pictures of the Wonder.



I loved that we got such a great view of the bow art!

One of the things I most wanted to do in San Diego was visit the USS Midway museum. Unfortunately my kids weren't super interested in it. I'm a big aviation buff and I also am fascinated by submarines and other naval vessels. So the idea of touring an aircraft carrier really appealed to me. We decided that I'd go and anyone who wanted to join me could and otherwise they could stay with my wife. It turned out only my youngest daughter wanted to go. I think she liked the idea of some one one time with Dad which was fine with me.



She is a bit young to see Top Gun but Dad thought it was pretty cool she got to sit in a Tomcat cockpit trainer



Of course they have a real one up on the flight deck.


My daughter made a pretty good photographer as Dad wanted to take pictures with all his favorite planes. This is an F4 Phantom which was one of the first airplane models I built as a kid. It was also an incredible airplane.




They have a self guided audio tour as part of your museum admission. It is a little digital device you scan at different points and they have both kids audio tracks and adults to tell the story of the Midway and what life was like onboard. For the kids they have a scavenger hunt where they get answers to questions as they do the audio tour and in the end they can earn their own pilot wings. Of course we had to do that. Here she is at her wing ceremony.

 

[greensombrero]

Port of San Diego Continued

We also got some fun views of the Wonder from the deck of the Midway



Both ships are beautiful in their own ways. I really enjoyed touring the Midway and didn't really get to see it all so I'd love to return at some point. I'm always inspired to learn more about the brave men and women who serve our country. It is interesting that per the facts I pulled up the Wonder is heavier than the Midway but not as wide or long.

After we finished visiting the USS Midway it was getting to be dinner time. I wasn't super hungry but I realized there is a Salt and Straw less than a mile walk from the port. I decided to be a responsible father and suggest ice cream for dinner. It was a nice little walk and great ice cream as usual. It is actually up in the Little Italy area which appeared to have a number of restaurants for real food. We ended up just eating our ice cream as we walked back. We did get real food from the deli at the ground floor of the hotel. It had sandwiches and I got a salad. Nothing special but it was good.

I tried to get a picture of the Wonder at night though the window glass made it difficult.



As I laid down my wife texted from the room next door that the Wonder was on the move. I tried to get some sleep that night but was full of anticipation and excitement. So it wasn't the most fitful sleep. We later heard from others that some people heard quite the cast member party on the deck of the Wonder that night. Probably the last time they could party with no guests onboard. We didn't hear it from our room though.

When we awoke the next morning we could see her from the boy's room. She had switched places with the Koningsdam to be ready to embark passengers.



The day had finally arrived. We are always early risers but especially this morning. The hotel offered a free breakfast we went down and enjoyed right as it opened. After breakfast we knew we'd have to find a way to kill time before our 11:00 AM Port Arrival Time. I was really grateful we got one of the first if not the first one. However we still had hours to go. So we walked down and took some more pictures of the Wonder.



She really is a beautiful ship!

There were news vans out in front covering the story of the first cruise ship to sail from San Diego since the shutdown. We ended up talking to one of the port officials who was down there as well and she explained this to us. I hadn't realized the Wonder would be the first cruise ship to originate from San Diego. I knew there had already been some other West coast cruises but I guess they were out of LA or Long Beach.

Of course hanging out in front of a Disney ship in Disney T Shirts we ran into some fellow passengers and got to meet them, we were all very excited and anxious to board. We also had some of the Disney port staff walk by going to work. We had a fun little Disney moment with one of them. He stopped to talk to us for a few minutes and then pulled out a framed newspaper article from his bag. It was a photo of him and his sister at the opening day of Disneyland. Now years later he was going to help check in people on the first day of Disney returning to cruising out of San Diego. It was a fun cast member interaction.

After our walk we headed back to the hotel to get ready and await our chance to really come to the port. I had to move our car. The hotel had a parking garage below it which offered cruise parking you could reserve in advance for a discounted rate. However you can't use the cruise parking when staying at the hotel. You probably wouldn't want to either because the long term cruise parking doesn't give you in and out privileges. Even though it is the same garage I wanted to avoid any issues so I moved the car out of the garage and tapped out with my room key. Then I reentered and grabbed a ticket and followed the instructions on our reservation to park in the right spot for the cruise.

At that point we still had a bit of time to kill before our PAT. However we saw people were starting to line up as we watched out our window. So finally we just decided to gather everything and make the walk across the street to the port. We figured it may take a bit to get us all over there with all our luggage. I had heard they are really strict about your PAT and they were. We ended up there like 15 minutes before 11 so we were told we'd have to wait outside which was fine. However after like 5 minutes a cast member double checked we had an 11 am PAT and took us back to the terminal.

The first step was dropping our luggage which happened to the side of the terminal building. After that we entered the terminal building which is kind of like a giant warehouse. The first stop was to collect our Covid testing supplies. After that they took us to a curtained off booth to take our test. Because we had two cabins we were split up with the adult and kids assigned to each cabin sent to a separate booth. We had to label our test vials and they had a worker scanning the bar code to make the association. Then I had to swab my kids noses and my own as they watched to make sure I did it right. Once we had done the swabbing they collected our samples and sent us to go through security and then to the test result waiting area. I think they are doing a NAAT test at the San Diego port and not a PCR like I think they did at least originally in Port Canaveral. We were told it should only take 15-30 minutes for us to have results but could be longer depending on the backlog at the machine.

I'll be honest this part was super stressful. We had waited a year and 9 months and this was the last hurdle to being onboard. They had a big TV listing reservation numbers that were cleared to board. You could also monitor your status in the Safe Passage website and they told us they'd email us as well. What we observed is it appeared they were posting batches of reservation numbers roughly every 15 minutes. This made sense if the test takes 15 minutes to process they must have been running batches through the machines at roughly the same time and then posting the results.

We discovered they were collecting samples from the booths fairly quickly but not necessarily keeping groups together. One person we had met that morning had everyone in her party except for her clear and then she had to wait for the next batch for her results. My state room cleared but not my wife's until the next batch which added to the stress. All in all we waited just over 45 minutes for the all clear for all of us. At that point they had started boarding. We were in boarding group 2 anyways. So once we were cleared we showed that screen on the safe passage site to a cast member and proceeded to check in. We had to show our passports and PAT forms and then we were set.

It was finally time to board the Disney Wonder. I will admit I was kind of in shock at this point. There is always anticipation before a cruise. However in our case having booked opening day and then not knowing until a couple weeks before if we'd actually sail certainly added to it. Then even more the fact we had two rounds of Covid tests we had to pass. Needless to say we felt very blessed, excited and overwhelmed the moment had come. We were going to board the Wonder for a Disney cruise!!!

Now I'll leave all you with a bit of anticipation until I post the next chapter ...

 

[fallonkendra]

Joining in! Great report so far!

 

[greensombrero]

Onboard Again (10/1)



I've had people ask me what was it like getting back on a Disney ship after all these months? I will admit I was in a bit of disbelief and shock, it was all rather surreal. There had been such waiting to know if this cruise would sail and then we had to wait for the test results and as we paused for our boarding picture and then walked up the gangway I just had to keep asking myself is this really happening?

As we approached the end of the gangway they asked us to pause. They now do a little greeting show with Mickey and Minnie and so you have to wait for the prior show to finish. They then let you board and announce your name as always and you receive that Disney welcome. It was awesome! We met a super friendly cast member who directed us to our Mickey circle where we would wait in socially distanced fashion and watch Mickey and Minnie's little welcome show. I was soaking in the experience and didn't take great pictures but here is one.



I wish I could remember the name of the cast member who was assigned to greet us. We saw her later in the cruise but I neglected to write down her name and it was unique enough I'd recognize it but I can't recall it. She was super friendly and had that Disney excitement that just reminded me why I love the service and cast members aboard DCL. It was a great first interaction! She was tasked after the show to ensure we had the navigator app and were connected to the ship's WiFi so we could head to our muster station.

Technically you don't have to go to your muster station first thing but it certainly makes sense. The new muster drill format is a change I hope that survives as everything else returns to normal. We just had to go to our station and take a picture of our sign within the app. It verified we took the right picture and marked us as having checked in. There was then a video you could watch in the app (didn't work so well) or in your stateroom TV (what we did later). At 4:00 PM they announced they'd play the general alarm followed by the safety briefing video throughout the ship. You didn't have to go anywhere just stop and listen. We just watched the video in our room at that point.

After the quick muster check in we headed up to Cabanas. From a time perspective it was a bit after noon at this point maybe 12:20. From our PAT to board and Cabanas was just over an hour which wasn't bad at all. I'll caveat I'm sure experiences vary based on many factors.

I imagine some may be interested in what Cabanas looks like these days. First thing was washing our hands before entering. Then a cast member greeted us and guided us to our station on the buffet line. What they've done is created multiple "main" stations along the buffet line with the same food offerings. Each party is led to one as they enter to spread out the crowd. At the station cast members are waiting behind the counter to fill your plate with anything and everything from that station.

The variety is reduced as a result of this duplication of stations but I think the quality is maybe a bit better and I actually liked the service of them filling the plates especially for my kids. In terms of food offerings I'm not one to take pictures of food (sorry) but they had a decent variety. There was mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, a grilled fish I liked, a beef option, lamb, a orozo pasta thing, some vegetable offerings, assorted breads/rolls that sort of thing. They still had separate from the main stations a seafood station with crab and shrimp. There was also a separate salad and fruit station along with a dessert station. Those speciality stations were not repeated over and over. After filling our plates we guided to a table and then went to a drink station where a cast member got us our drinks. There was also a "sauce" station where a cast member would fill you up a little container of ketchup, BBQ sauce, honey mustard etc. Anything you wanted cast members were happy to get for you and you could direct them on quantities etc.

My review is that I really like this model, feels more full service and you still can get what you want. We had a vacation at an all inclusive in Costa Rica this summer and they had the full service buffet but they were not as organized as Disney. There it was sometimes chaotic figuring out who would serve you and waiting in lines. I felt Disney had the flow really worked out well. There wasn't a wait to get what you needed and there was always a cast member ready to assist. Our Cabanas experiences throughout the cruise were positive. I little more variety would certainly be nice but I had no complaints and I'll talk about it more at breakfast but I liked breakfast a lot more than on our last cruise.

Originally I intended to just get a little bit at Cabanas and then hit the pool deck food options (they were available). However we enjoyed Cabanas too much and were full so it was time for the next thing! Given no one had been onboard before us we wondered if our cabins might already be available. Definitely a unique benefit to being on the first cruise. We headed down 2 decks and found yes indeed we could get in our cabins and our luggage was already waiting for us. I think this is another benefit to both a less full ship and being the first cruise back.

We met our awesome stateroom attendant Alvin from the Philippines. He was waiting in the hall and wanted to make sure we had all our bags. I'll give a quick aside here I was really curious how many cast members would be new versus long time with DCL. I figured many might have found new lines of work during the shutdown. What I found is that many were long time cast members returning. While I saw a number of cast members with a little tag they were "Earning their Ears" many many told me they had been with DCL for multiple prior contracts though there was a decent split between people returning to the Wonder or coming from other ships. Alvin told me they had just found odd jobs and ways to survive during the shutdown and he was happy to be back. He was awesome, magically ensuring everything was taken care of without you really seeing him until you need him and then he was there. We definitely enjoyed having him as our stateroom attendant.

Being the Dad I got caught up in cataloging our bags and bringing them all in. With 6 of us plus costumes we had a few bags to bring in. Then I realized I wanted to put them under the bed so I started unpacking my stuff and then was helping unpack the kids. Without really meaning to we just got most of the unpacking done right then. I realized none of us took photos of our stateroom. It really wasn't much different from our prior cruise aside from the verandah which we didn't really enjoy until a bit later.

After unpacking it was time to do some exploring. Things were not very busy considering this was almost 2pm at this point.



We ended up checking out the kids clubs. They were having an open house of sorts. I got to use the cool hand washing machine, my main reason to visit! You could go in and look around but everything was basically put away, there wasn't anything to really do but look around. We did ensure our kids were properly registered and got the little lock things to keep their bands on.

I suppose now is as good of time as any to talk about how the kids clubs worked. A reservation was required. You could make one per day ahead of the cruise via the "Onboard Fun" section in the app. Then on a space available basis you could make additional reservations onboard via the app or with a cast member at the club. To be honest we had really bad luck using the app and were better off stopping by but hopefully that will get better. We had mixed luck getting spots beyond what we pre reserved but some of that may have been because we wanted spots for multiple kids. The cast members definitely tried to accommodate even reaching out after they said no to let us know something had opened up and they had booked it for us.

The reason for the reservations was two fold. The first was to control capacity. The other is they had new groups starting every 10 - 15 minutes. Each group rotated through the different activities and stations. Things were more structured where kids stayed in their little group with their counselors to move through the activities versus the prior free for all model where you could do whatever or optionally join in an activity. For my kids they did better with this model and liked the structure. I've heard the same for others who really like the kids club now versus previously. I'm sure that will vary by kid though.

My older two did check out Edge briefly as well. It did not require reservations but they did have capacity restrictions and limited hours. They didn't open until 10 am and closed mid day for a couple hours. I need to sync up with my kids and will cover more about their Edge experiences in my sea day post.

Somewhere in all of this we got our first onboard ice cream, a favorite for my family. This is another change I actually hope they keep. I'm horrible at using soft serve machines. My ice cream cones always come out deformed. I was totally happy to have a friendly cast member serve me my ice cream. Occasionally there were short lines but they had the line up area clearly marked. Sometimes there were two cast members present sometimes just one. They'd make sure you sanitized your hands and then make your cone and hand it to you. They took instructions like I only want a little or I want a lot . They also were not tracking how many ice creams you got (fortunately for my family).

My notes say the kids got changed and spent some brief time on the pool deck with my wife. I went to my first of many trivia sessions and lost a good round of Disney trivia but had fun. It finished right before the 4pm safety briefing and I chose to head back to our cabin for that. Everyone had returned from the pool and we watched the safety video.

I went out on the verandah and we ended up sailing away a bit earlier than I expected. Originally I had heard around 5pm but the captain came on and announced we were about to cast off lines and we sailed away well before 5pm. This was the first point we really enjoyed our pixie dust upgrade to a verandah.



We got an escort by both the Coast Guard and the Harbor Patrol who both stayed with us until we were in the open ocean




Someone loved sitting on the verandah





I think this was the point when it was all real and I really relaxed and got into cruise mode. Sailing past that last point of land as the sun was going down and being back at sea was just awesome! This picture and words just don't do it justice.

I'm going to leave this post here for now and will pick up with dinner in the next post.

 

[ukintheus]

So happy to find this! Looking forward to hearing all about your adventures while we patiently wait for our turn in December.

ETA: Now that I have actually caught up, this is a great trip report. I really like your writing style.

 

[RetCM]

I really appreciate all this information! I’m going next week!

 

[greensombrero]

I really appreciate all this information! I’m going next week!

That is so awesome! I hope you have a great experience, I know we did! I’ll try and get more chapters posted but if you have any specific questions feel free to ask!

 

[greensombrero]

First Evening Onboard (10/1)

One of the hardest things about coming home from a cruise is you have to start preparing food for yourself again . I've been on many vacations but felt the dinner dining aboard DCL is something extra special. We took a vacation this summer to an all inclusive fearing our cruise wouldn't happen. It was a great trip with good food and many of the benefits of cruising but the dinner times just weren't the same.

So let's get to our first dinner aboard the Wonder. We had early dining but one of the changes is that they are spacing parties out so not everyone arrives at the same time. Our dining time was 5:55 PM which was great! I liked having it be a bit later but not really late. Our rotation was Animators Palate, Tianas, Tianas, Tritons.

One new thing at dinner is the Disney photographers will come around and take your picture.



We also got individual and small group shots as well. In terms of the menu it seemed to match what I remember and have seen online, nothing really new. I think a lot of people were hoping they'd mix up the menus during the shutdown but for whatever reason, maybe simplicity of supplies when they restarted they did not. I don't recall being a huge fan of Animators on our last cruise but I really liked it this cruise. I'm not a food photographer but I'll share I got the infamous pasta pursettes, I tried a rather good walnut salad, and then got the steak dish for my main. It was all really good. I had a date tart thing for dessert which is one of my favorite DCL desserts! Everyone enjoyed their meal.

Our serving team was Emeril from the Philippines and Asep from Indonesia both experienced on DCL. They were incredible, great service and we really enjoyed getting to know them. The "show" in animators on the classic ships is great! My kids really enjoy watching the drawings unfold and guessing what they will be. We really enjoyed that aspect of the show. It was a bit different at the end as they didn't have the "special visitor" come out or the servers do the little parade thing I recall from our first cruise. Initially I figured it was due to Covid concerns but given what happened in the dining rooms on other nights I am unsure why it wasn't what I remembered. I didn't really mind though because we actually enjoy the early parts of the show as much as the finale.

After dinner we did go and get some of the photos they had available in the atrium. Photos on vacation are really important to my wife and so we always get a photo package for our Disney vacations. Given cast members aren't taking photos with your phone right now it is really the only way to get good photos with everyone. I'll post a couple to give an idea of the backgrounds.




After dinner we really wanted to go in the shops but they hadn't opened yet and there was a pretty long line forming. We also really wanted to go and see Frozen the show for the evening. Some of us lined up outside the theater. The doors opened 30 minutes before and we lined up like 10 minutes before that. Others got in the shop lines until they realized they wouldn't make it in and came over. This was the only night we saw them having lines and limiting capacity in the shops. I think it was just the excitement of their initial opening.

I'll explain how the shows worked real quick. Each show was shown on two nights you could decide which night you wanted to go. Then they sat people with social distancing, every other row and 3 seats between parties. Cast members just took you to where you needed to sit. Masks were required in the theater as in all the indoor spaces where you weren't seated and eating/drinking. They also did not allow eating in the theaters, no popcorn sales etc presumably because they didn't want anyone taking their mask off.

This was our first time seeing Frozen and let's just say I was blown away. I'm not a huge frozen fan though I enjoyed the movie the first time I saw it. I wasn't expecting what it was and I do really enjoy Broadway musicals. However then I thought it was just overdone and so I wasn't sure what to think about it being the show onboard. I know the story and the music really well now. That being said it just blew away my expectations for a couple reasons. The first is that the quality of the performers was just top notch. I guess I haven't seen any live theater really since our last cruise. We only were home for a couple months before the pandemic hit and then no theater. We don't go a ton but my wife and I really enjoy live theater and musicals so it felt so great to be experiencing it again.

The next thing is that even though I really know the story they told it in a unique way. Without spoiling too much they use awesome puppets in creative ways and it is an awesome way to tell the story. Finally they have a lot of really cool special effects especially considering you are at sea. All in all it made for an awesome first night of entertainment onboard!

After the show the kids were really tired. This is a con to early dining it means late shows. When we cruised from the east coast we had late dining and early shows which I liked but only due to the time difference, we knew it wouldn't work on the west coast.

One thing I really didn't not like about this cruise is we had quick time changes. We lost an hour the first night to get on Cabo time. I guess it is best to do it before your sea day not before your port day but still didn't like it.

My oldest daughter really really wanted to go do family karaoke. I will say I questioned the family part when I heard the first song performed. It is one I don't recall every hearing before and while I wasn't surprised they had a whole collection of non Disney pop songs this one just felt very very non Disney, "Stacey's Mom Has Got it Going On" it just caught me off guard. My daughter got up and sang how far I'll go from Moana and she had a good time hanging out late with Dad. I will comment the funniest thing about karaoke right now and actually multiple game shows. They have little "shower caps" for the microphones they change between each person and sanitize the lower part with a wipe. I get wiping down the part you hold but I'm unclear how Covid transfers via microphone tops. It wasn't a big deal but I just found these little microphone caps they put on kind of funny. I'm wondering who invented them and if it was just a Covid invention or if they existed before?

After a little karaoke I was totally ready for bed so back to the room. We did have awesome towel animals but I don't remember to take pictures at night so I can't share.

Oh I just found this picture of a character meet and greet we did sometime around dinner.



This was a cool thing about our cruise. We had lots of opportunities to say hi to Captain Minnie and Mickey. They almost always had two characters in this little hallway on Deck 4. You could interact with them from either side or across the atrium. They would both turn to make sure you got both of them looking for a picture if you wanted. There was rarely more than one family in front of you and often no one. We had more opportunities to interact with characters and grab a picture with no wait than I've had in any Disney experience on land or sea. It was generally two of the Fab 5 in one outfit or another and it was fun to collect pictures in their different outfits.

I'll close with a picture of the Wonder at night. I must have headed up to the top decks before bed. Maybe I grabbed some late night ice cream after karaoke or something. I know I got pizza late a couple times because hey it is a cruise and you can.

 

[Mathmagicland]

Thanks so much for doing this Report! We sail on the Wonder next week, first time back since DCL started back up, so it is very helpful to know some of what to expect re onboard changes.

I guess I haven't seen any live theater really since our last cruise. We only were home for a couple months before the pandemic hit and then no theater. We don't go a ton but my wife and I really enjoy live theater and musicals so it felt so great to be experiencing it again.

I totally agree here - I didn’t realize how much I missed live theatre until I went to a drive-in-type car concert with our local theatre company last summer. Just seeing and hearing them sing a few songs on a small portable stage with a not so good sound system was so wonderful at the time! I’m looking forward to seeing this one again.

I get wiping down the part you hold but I'm unclear how Covid transfers via microphone tops

My guess would they can’t completely sanitize the tops of the microphones, so use the covers which can be swapped out. When I went to those outdoor shows, each performer had their own microphone which they carried on & off the stage between their numbers throughout, where before it might be one standing mic everyone shared.

We did have awesome towel animals

Towel animals will seem so “normal”! Did they also leave the chocolates on the beds with the animals?

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

First Evening Onboard (10/1)

One of the hardest things about coming home from a cruise is you have to start preparing food for yourself again . I've been on many vacations but felt the dinner dining aboard DCL is something extra special. We took a vacation this summer to an all inclusive fearing our cruise wouldn't happen. It was a great trip with good food and many of the benefits of cruising but the dinner times just weren't the same.

So let's get to our first dinner aboard the Wonder. We had early dining but one of the changes is that they are spacing parties out so not everyone arrives at the same time. Our dining time was 5:55 PM which was great! I liked having it be a bit later but not really late. Our rotation was Animators Palate, Tianas, Tianas, Tritons.

One new thing at dinner is the Disney photographers will come around and take your picture.

View attachment 612909

We also got individual and small group shots as well. In terms of the menu it seemed to match what I remember and have seen online, nothing really new. I think a lot of people were hoping they'd mix up the menus during the shutdown but for whatever reason, maybe simplicity of supplies when they restarted they did not. I don't recall being a huge fan of Animators on our last cruise but I really liked it this cruise. I'm not a food photographer but I'll share I got the infamous pasta pursettes, I tried a rather good walnut salad, and then got the steak dish for my main. It was all really good. I had a date tart thing for dessert which is one of my favorite DCL desserts! Everyone enjoyed their meal.

Our serving team was Emeril from the Philippines and Asep from Indonesia both experienced on DCL. They were incredible, great service and we really enjoyed getting to know them. The "show" in animators on the classic ships is great! My kids really enjoy watching the drawings unfold and guessing what they will be. We really enjoyed that aspect of the show. It was a bit different at the end as they didn't have the "special visitor" come out or the servers do the little parade thing I recall from our first cruise. Initially I figured it was due to Covid concerns but given what happened in the dining rooms on other nights I am unsure why it wasn't what I remembered. I didn't really mind though because we actually enjoy the early parts of the show as much as the finale.

After dinner we did go and get some of the photos they had available in the atrium. Photos on vacation are really important to my wife and so we always get a photo package for our Disney vacations. Given cast members aren't taking photos with your phone right now it is really the only way to get good photos with everyone. I'll post a couple to give an idea of the backgrounds.

View attachment 612910
View attachment 612911

After dinner we really wanted to go in the shops but they hadn't opened yet and there was a pretty long line forming. We also really wanted to go and see Frozen the show for the evening. Some of us lined up outside the theater. The doors opened 30 minutes before and we lined up like 10 minutes before that. Others got in the shop lines until they realized they wouldn't make it in and came over. This was the only night we saw them having lines and limiting capacity in the shops. I think it was just the excitement of their initial opening.

I'll explain how the shows worked real quick. Each show was shown on two nights you could decide which night you wanted to go. Then they sat people with social distancing, every other row and 3 seats between parties. Cast members just took you to where you needed to sit. Masks were required in the theater as in all the indoor spaces where you weren't seated and eating/drinking. They also did not allow eating in the theaters, no popcorn sales etc presumably because they didn't want anyone taking their mask off.

This was our first time seeing Frozen and let's just say I was blown away. I'm not a huge frozen fan though I enjoyed the movie the first time I saw it. I wasn't expecting what it was and I do really enjoy Broadway musicals. However then I thought it was just overdone and so I wasn't sure what to think about it being the show onboard. I know the story and the music really well now. That being said it just blew away my expectations for a couple reasons. The first is that the quality of the performers was just top notch. I guess I haven't seen any live theater really since our last cruise. We only were home for a couple months before the pandemic hit and then no theater. We don't go a ton but my wife and I really enjoy live theater and musicals so it felt so great to be experiencing it again.

The next thing is that even though I really know the story they told it in a unique way. Without spoiling too much they use awesome puppets in creative ways and it is an awesome way to tell the story. Finally they have a lot of really cool special effects especially considering you are at sea. All in all it made for an awesome first night of entertainment onboard!

After the show the kids were really tired. This is a con to early dining it means late shows. When we cruised from the east coast we had late dining and early shows which I liked but only due to the time difference, we knew it wouldn't work on the west coast.

One thing I really didn't not like about this cruise is we had quick time changes. We lost an hour the first night to get on Cabo time. I guess it is best to do it before your sea day not before your port day but still didn't like it.

My oldest daughter really really wanted to go do family karaoke. I will say I questioned the family part when I heard the first song performed. It is one I don't recall every hearing before and while I wasn't surprised they had a whole collection of non Disney pop songs this one just felt very very non Disney, "Stacey's Mom Has Got it Going On" it just caught me off guard. My daughter got up and sang how far I'll go from Moana and she had a good time hanging out late with Dad. I will comment the funniest thing about karaoke right now and actually multiple game shows. They have little "shower caps" for the microphones they change between each person and sanitize the lower part with a wipe. I get wiping down the part you hold but I'm unclear how Covid transfers via microphone tops. It wasn't a big deal but I just found these little microphone caps they put on kind of funny. I'm wondering who invented them and if it was just a Covid invention or if they existed before?

After a little karaoke I was totally ready for bed so back to the room. We did have awesome towel animals but I don't remember to take pictures at night so I can't share.

Oh I just found this picture of a character meet and greet we did sometime around dinner.

View attachment 612920

This was a cool thing about our cruise. We had lots of opportunities to say hi to Captain Minnie and Mickey. They almost always had two characters in this little hallway on Deck 4. You could interact with them from either side or across the atrium. They would both turn to make sure you got both of them looking for a picture if you wanted. There was rarely more than one family in front of you and often no one. We had more opportunities to interact with characters and grab a picture with no wait than I've had in any Disney experience on land or sea. It was generally two of the Fab 5 in one outfit or another and it was fun to collect pictures in their different outfits.

I'll close with a picture of the Wonder at night. I must have headed up to the top decks before bed. Maybe I grabbed some late night ice cream after karaoke or something. I know I got pizza late a couple times because hey it is a cruise and you can.

View attachment 612921

Loving this report! Also as an FYI, the microphone shower caps is something that is up to the place providing said microphone. Some places just do a full wipe down. Others use the shower caps. Just depends on the place.

 

[greensombrero]

Thanks so much for doing this Report! We sail on the Wonder next week, first time back since DCL started back up, so it is very helpful to know some of what to expect re onboard changes.



I totally agree here - I didn’t realize how much I missed live theatre until I went to a drive-in-type car concert with our local theatre company last summer. Just seeing and hearing them sing a few songs on a small portable stage with a not so good sound system was so wonderful at the time! I’m looking forward to seeing this one again.



My guess would they can’t completely sanitize the tops of the microphones, so use the covers which can be swapped out. When I went to those outdoor shows, each performer had their own microphone which they carried on & off the stage between their numbers throughout, where before it might be one standing mic everyone shared.



Towel animals will seem so “normal”! Did they also leave the chocolates on the beds with the animals?

Yes they had Dove chocolates with the towel animals. I don’t think I ever ate one but my family says they were there.

 

[Mathmagicland]

The first stop was to collect our Covid testing supplies. After that they took us to a curtained off booth to take our test. Because we had two cabins we were split up with the adult and kids assigned to each cabin sent to a separate booth

Hi, quick question on the testing & waiting area - even though you were separated by cabin for the testing, were you able to be together in the test waiting area?

 

[greensombrero]

Hi, quick question on the testing & waiting area - even though you were separated by cabin for the testing, were you able to be together in the test waiting area?

We were together in line to get our testing supplies. They separated us by cabin going into the curtained place we took the test but then we rejoined to go through security (my wife waited for us) and then we were together from there out. No one was really enforcing social distancing by cabin or anything in the waiting area from what I saw, though there was plenty of space and people were respectful. I saw several large multi generational family groups waiting together etc.

 

[greensombrero]

Day at Sea #1 Part One (10/2)
I woke up fairly early for our first day at sea. The Wonder was riding pretty rough. The waves weren't bad but there was a lot of vibration because we were trying for 20 knots to make Cabo on time. I wonder if the ship's engines were just a little out of sorts from not really going for a while. I intended to wake up early anyway.

This was going to be almost our first sea day ever and I had something I'd be waiting a long time to do. Our first cruise had a Marvel Day at Sea which was really cool but felt much more like a park day it was so busy. We did Couch to 5K before our first cruise (Jan 2020) to train for the Castaway Cay 5K. It ended up starting my journey to become a runner. As the pandemic hit I had signed up for several more local 5Ks. I got to run one and then many of the local cities in our area continued to offer virtual run on your own races to keep people moving. One thing led to another and I ended up really getting into running eventually running my first half marathon almost exactly a year ago from this sea day. I found I really loved the distance and ran another 6 half marathons in the last 12 months. Running had become a huge part of my life and it all started with the Castaway Cay 5K. So my goal for the morning was a nice long run on deck 4. There is nothing like running at sea! For those who aren't aware its 3 laps to a mile and at sea you can run completely around deck 4 outdoors. When you are moored or at port the front and back sections are often closed off because of the mooring equipment and lines so you can't run the full loop. This makes morning runs a special treat on sea days.



Incidentally don't try using Strava on a cruise ship or you will get interesting results like this.



I think intuitively I knew the GPS would get all confused running laps on a cruise ship moving at sea but I had to see what it actually did. For the record I don't run 2 minute miles. I only did 10 laps which is roughly a 5K. As much as I had been looking forward to a run at sea I did have other things I wanted to do. After my run I walked around deck 9 and 10 to get some water and enjoy the beautiful morning.






After my run the rest of the family was about ready to head to breakfast so I quickly cleaned up and we headed to see what Cabanas was like in the morning. It operated just like I described previously when we boarded. The selection had all the breakfast essentials. Each day they seemed to have 2 types of scrambled eggs, a plain and one with veggies or cheese and ham etc. They had bacon and sausage and all the carbs for post run fuel: assorted pastries, hash brown patties, pancakes, french toast and of course mickey waffles. There were also some breakfast sandwich thing and often some form of vegetables in the hot bar that was repeated in multiple sections. They also had a fruit bar in a separate area and a yogurt bar. The main thing my son was missing were the doughnuts, they were absent. Overall though I enjoyed breakfast a lot more than on our first cruise. While the selections were less and I did miss having an omelette station, the quality seemed better than on our first cruise. It was a great breakfast and we had a nice view as I recall we sat outside.

After breakfast we were hoping to get a kids club time for the younger kids. Which reminds me I'm not sure if I talked about the kids club yet. You did have to have a reservation. You could get them in advance in the onboard fun section of the app. We had one for the afternoon but we wanted to see if there was anything available in the morning. I may have neglected to mention it but while we were watching the sail away from our verandah on the first day our youngest wanted to check out the kids club and we were able to get him a walk up reservation. He came back with this cool draw string backpack with crayons for him to use on future visits and crafts he made. It got my youngest daughter who didn't like the kids club on our first cruise interested in trying it. Everyone wanted their own backpack and they all got one. The goal I think was to avoid throwing away supplies they'd only use with one kid like crayons and instead encouraging the kids to bring them back on their next visit. It made for a fun souvenir though along with the crafts they made.

Unfortunately there wasn't availability this morning. So we went to explore the ship and met up with some characters.



The princesses were happy to talk and have a conversation and there was little to no line. Character meetings were nice, relaxed and plentiful on our cruise. I really liked that. We almost always could stop for some quick interaction with some character and a selfie. The princesses were less common than the others but they were out a couple times.



I also grabbed a selfie with Cinderella on the balcony. I think we also did some shopping this morning and generally enjoyed a low key morning enjoying the ship. I did head up on deck to check out Pinocchios pizza, I discovered they had some really interesting speciality pizza flavors today which I found a few excuses to try. One was a caramelized onion and sweet pear with white sauce. They also had a taco pizza with taco meat, jalapenos and guacamole. There were speciality pizzas every day but I think today was my favorite.

My older two spent time in Edge this morning. They had a good time and since they don't usually get along I was really glad they were having fun in Edge together. My daughter ultimately didn't enjoy Edge this cruise as much. There weren't any girls or counselor's she hit it off with. I suspect some of it was related to the social distancing. They said they made them stay apart when playing video games and sanitized everything between players. I know aside from video games they played bingo. I'm not sure what else went on in Edge my 11 yr old decided to join his younger siblings in the Oceaneers Club most of the rest of the time on the cruise and my oldest didn't go back.

My wife and younger kids headed to do some family crafts in the French Quarter lounge and I joined them a bit late.



We made cool Mickeys and Minnies



After crafts we headed to Cabanas for lunch and tried a few things and also enjoyed some items on the pool deck. I love how there is no stress as a parent about food onboard a Disney Cruise. There are always options for everyone and its all included.

I'm going to leave this post here and continue on the afternoon and evening's activities in the next post.

 

[TinkLoverSam]

Hoping to be back on the Wonder to Alaska in May 2022 and while I hope many of the restrictions won’t be in place it’s good to see how things are currently working especially for the kids. I’ll have an almost 7 yo and a newish 2yo.

 

[Strawberry's mom&dad]

We were on the same cruise. I am really enjoying your trip report.

 

[iannovich]

Hopefully they'll bring the RunDisney events back to the West Coast, so you can take advantage of them! (and me too).

 

[Timon]

It’s so nice to see trip reports again, especially from the Wonder


Thanks for taking the time to share your adventures with us.

 

[greensombrero]

Day at Sea #1 Part Two (10/2)

I left off with us eating at Cabanas. I love eating outside and enjoying the view.



Does the wake of the ship ever get boring to look at?



After lunch I headed to Ultimate Disney Trivia, I don't recall if any of my kids joined me and let me just say they don't call it Ultimate Disney Trivia for nothing. I didn't do so well. I really wanted to earn a Mickey Winner's medallion and things weren't looking good. After
that my kids were in the kids club and my wife and I found ourselves on vacation without kids and able to do whatever we wanted.



I got to take my picture with Donald in his costume. Tonight was Halloween night. We did some shopping in the shops and then decided to try out something called Generations Quest.

Now we had never seen this activity before and when we entered the D lounge the cast member asked if we wanted to play. If my wife had understood what it involved she never would have agreed but the basic premise of an older generation versus a younger one battling to determine which generation is better. I saw an opportunity to win a mickey medallion and neither of us really knew what we were in for so we said why not. We even messaged my oldest to come from whatever she was doing to be on hand to film us (a bit of a mistake).

The first round of Generations Quest is pop trivia. The adults do modern trivia and the "kids/teens" do 90s era trivia. That was fine and we did okay. Round two though got interesting. My wife had to "rap" happy birthday and the teen had to sing it "opera style". My wife actually gave it a go while the teen girl couldn't stop laughing and do an opera happy birthday. Unfortunately the rounds are awarded via the "applausometer" and the teens had a large group cheering them on. We were in trouble.

My challenge was to "lip sync" and yes they called out lip syncing in a mask is a challenge. We were encouraged to use our whole bodies to be really expressive. So yes I lip synced "Reflections" by Christina Aguilera while wearing a mask and being super expressive. The large group of teens thought I did well but the applause o meter still failed me. I can't remember what the other teen chose to lip sync to, it was a 90s era song.

The final round was a dance off. My wife was not thrilled, she hates being the center of attention but she did it and did well. I though I did well but my daughter informed me my dancing was so bad I broke her phone. The video she took comes up with an error any time she tries to play it. I think maybe her phone knows who pays for it and decided to spare me any future embarrassment for my moves which may be too cool for some .

In the end I got to embarrass my teenager check, make some memories with my wife check, earn a DCL winners medal, unfortunately no check. I will say I think Generations Quest is rigged. I suspect they really just want to make adults look crazy and give kids a win but in the end it was a good time. Before the cruise ends will I get so desperate for a Mickey Winner's Medal that I'm willing to make a complete fool out of myself? You'll have to wait for the last activity of the cruise to find out. One cool thing they did after many activities if you waited around they had a character appearance like this.



After our big performance we were ready to relax a bit. So we decided to discover a new favorite: sitting out on our verandah enjoying the ocean while ordering a Mickey Bar from room service. I imagine there are some questions how room service works now. Basically the cast member won't enter your room. In our case they just handed us a dish with the Mickey Bars at the door. If we had more my understanding is they wheel the cart up to your door and you can take it from there. In terms of tipping they now will have your order show up as an open order in the app where you can add a tip charged to your room. That way you don't have to hand them cash. The same thing happens if you order a drink in a lounge for example. It will show up in the app where you can give a tip. After a while it auto closes out but it alerted me before hand once which was nice because I had forgotten and did want to tip. Being able to view your account and all your state room charges in the app is a nice new feature.

Tonight was Halloween night so after relaxing on our verandah we got into our costumes. There weren't many Halloween activities on the cruise. I think they are still figuring out how to make it all work with the current health restrictions. They had cool decorations and I noticed there was Halloween music in the hallways but aside from that and Mickey's Mousequerade there wasn't much else. They did have the characters in their costumes and fun photo ops before dinner.



I thought this was a fun "magic shot" they did. My wife dressed up in her Ghost Host Haunted Mansion costume and I came up with a matching Steam Punk Mickey outfit. It was fun to put together! My Mickey ears are actually from our Honeymoon WDW trip 15 years ago, I just steam punked them.



They had us do a "scary" photo.

Dinner tonight was in Tiana's Place. I had been so looking forward to this dinner. I start with the entertainment. They still had Tiana onstage along with musicians playing. I think the big difference (having never seen the show before) was Tiana didn't mingle among the tables. They did have the photographers out though.





Louie did walk through the restaurant and you could snap a quick picture. He didn't get super close to us. The servers all came out and did a little parade thing with cardboard instruments.



I really liked the music and enjoyed the entertainment even if Tiana wasn't able to be out meeting her guests. As for the food however I have to say it was a pretty major disappointment for me. I think the problem is my wife is originally from Houston and I've eaten some pretty good cajun style food. She makes a mean pot of gumbo and great beignets so my bar is pretty high. The shrimp and grits were pretty good but I found the other parts of my meal rather bland, I had the seafood pepper pot soup and the cajun sea bass I think it was called. I suspect Disney is trying to appeal to everyone and so the food and even the menu just didn't seem authentic enough to me. Even the beignets for dessert were sub par by Disney standards. All that being said I still enjoyed dinner. It wasn't bad it just wasn't what I'd imagine Tiana's Place to be. I enjoy the food at Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney or even the food in New Orleans Square at Disneyland more. To be fair it is also possible that being the first cruise back since the pandemic everything wasn't firing on all cylinders when we were there. I definitely wouldn't be opposed to giving Tiana's Place another shot if we cruise on the Wonder again. However it wasn't my favorite meal of the cruise either.

After dinner we had the main Halloween activity of the cruise. They did offer Mickey's Mousequerade party twice, once at 7:30 and once at 10:15, you could chose which to attend. It took place up on deck with social distancing. They had blue dots all over deck 9 and 10. You were supposed to find an unoccupied dot and stay on it with your travel group to ensure adequate distancing between parties. Cast members were available to help. The challenge was that many people didn't listen or didn't want to listen. Cast members had to talk to people who were just trying to fill in all the available space which Disney used to train us to do. So my PSA is please don't make the cast member's lives more difficult. Ask them to help you find an available blue dot. We headed up maybe 30 minutes early and found what has become our favorite spot on the classic ships up on deck 10. We used this spot when we watched the Marvel Deck party on the Magic and would get it again on this cruise for fireworks night (the next night).



It was a fun little deck party like experience with music and dancing and the characters. Afterwords we decided it was time for most of my family to head to bed. I was going to post a photo of our towel shark for the night but I'm at my limit. My oldest begged me to take her out for a 9pm edition of Generations Quest. After watching her parents she wanted to participate. I agreed and she went and won and got a medal which only fueled my desire to get one even stronger. After we came back and headed to bed before our big day in Cabo.