From the Sea to the World - Completed!

[lovealldisney]

Hi Magdalene

Glad you liked so many of our fine American fast food restaurants! I do like Five Guys to but they are a bit pricey for me. Next time you have Arby's have a beef and cheedar, my favorite. We have a chain here called Culvers it's I think found only in the Midwest, the founder is from Wisconsin. They have great burgers! I love a good burger. If you ever come to Milwaukee I'll take you to a few good burger places

Funny you think steak is an American thing, I never thought of it that way. I see America as known for its hamburgers and hot dogs. And well Wisconsin is known for it's cheese.. and Bratwurst... We eat brats a few times a week...

I love your sundress! DD and I were just shopping to an outlet mall this weekend for her up and coming trip... found a lot of nice things at Old Navy.. funny you should mention Europeans and shopping. When we had our exchange student all she wanted to do was shop She couldn't get over how cheap everything was here, and I'm like you think that's cheap?? To me it was way overpriced.... But then again I do love a good bargain.

That beach looked so inviting wish I was there now. Sorry your arrival on the ship was so stressful. Hope the rest of the trip went smoothly and was relaxing.

Thanks for sharing...

 

[wiigirl]

Love all the pics!

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Wow, you're really flying through the updates! Looks like the beach was beautiful, and I'm glad you got to spend some time there.

As far as American chain restaurants go, I've always liked Arby's. It's always good for a change of pace when you get sick of burgers. Even though that rarely happens in my case.

I remember being a little disappointed with Five Guys when I tried it. I think it had been so over-hyped when I finally went in that I was expecting to taste The Greatest Burger Of All Time and instead got one that was decent. I did like the fries, though.

We have a tradition in our family that when we get takeout, we try to be the first person to call out "Bag Fries!" When you do that, all loose fries that fell into the bag become your property. It's sort of like yelling "Shotgun!" when you go on a road trip so you can sit in the front passenger seat.

It's great seeing the pictures of the Wonder again. Reminds me of the cruise we took a few years ago. Still an impressive ship, even with the Dream taking over the Bahamas route.

 

[annichan]

Hey Magdalene, I'm finally onboard for your trip report!
I'm still on the fence about whether I should do one for my recent Panama Canal cruise, not a food report (took too few food pictures ) but an actual full trip report, but I'm still debating whether I'm up to that task, what with my lack of note-taking and my bad memory and all. Reading yours certainly always is more fun than writing myself!

Anyway, looking forward to reading more about your adventures on my beloved Wonder!

 

[jedijill]

Hey Magdalene, I'm finally onboard for your trip report!
I'm still on the fence about whether I should do one for my recent Panama Canal cruise, not a food report (took too few food pictures ) but an actual full trip report, but I'm still debating whether I'm up to that task, what with my lack of note-taking and my bad memory and all. Reading yours certainly always is more fun than writing myself!

Anyway, looking forward to reading more about your adventures on my beloved Wonder!

Well, I for one, would love to hear about your Panama Canal cruise! I hope you do write a report.

Jill in CO

 

[nodnol]

Hey Magdalene, I'm finally onboard for your trip report!
I'm still on the fence about whether I should do one for my recent Panama Canal cruise, not a food report (took too few food pictures ) but an actual full trip report, but I'm still debating whether I'm up to that task, what with my lack of note-taking and my bad memory and all. Reading yours certainly always is more fun than writing myself!

Anyway, looking forward to reading more about your adventures on my beloved Wonder!

Hi there!!! I would love to read your TR and am very jealous of your planned transatlantic cruise. I would love to go on one. So.... please take extensive notes next year for a detailed TR

 

[annichan]

Well, I for one, would love to hear about your Panama Canal cruise! I hope you do write a report.

Jill in CO

Thank you! I shall contemplate this a bit longer ... I will certainly not do such a wonderfully detailed one as Magdalene does, but I may do a briefer one ...

Hi there!!! I would love to read your TR and am very jealous of your planned transatlantic cruise. I would love to go on one. So.... please take extensive notes next year for a detailed TR

Come along on the transatlantic cruise and bring your sister as well! Did you know that Condor flies one-way from Puerto Rico (where the cruise ends) to Germany for under 400 euros?

 

[eandesmom]

Before starting all the shopping excitement, we needed some lunch and picked another fast food place that was new to me: Arby’s. I am sure most of you know what the food looks like, but I still took a picture of our tray:

I found the sandwich to be pretty good for what it was, definitely a chain I would revisit in the future.

Ok I have to weigh in on this one..back in the day I was rather fond of this chain but...there are SO many better places it's actually amazed me it's still around! I am glad, and a bit surprised, you found it ok.

This was our destination:

I guess for you it just looks like any mall anywhere. Somehow I think the outlet concept has still not grown as big in Germany as it is in the US. So that was certainly interesting. Also interesting was that there were these carts available which you could fill with your shopping bags and there were people that had them all filled up. They for sure needed a whole additional suitcase to bring that stuff back home!

The good and the bad, all at once!

And the other is a coffee mug that was on sale for the 40th anniversary of WDW. I had looked at it quite a few times during the 2011 trip to WDW, but could not really make up my mind. But now it was only 8 $ at the outlet and I thought that was a great opportunity:

It looks like one of the paper cups they had at WDW in the 70s (supposedly, I wasn’t there then…).

LOVE the Mug, don't remember seeing it when I was there in 2011 but maybe it sold out fast or I decided it was too small.

Love the dress!!!!!!!!!! I am so glad you found something

After a lot of successful, but also exhausting shopping we were ready for dinner. Before the trip I had told Michael quite a few times that I definitely wanted to be sure to go to a steak house, because I love steak and don’t eat it that often in Germany. Somehow, for me steak is quite the quintessential American dish – maybe also because we don’t have a German word for steak, we use the English word. So that makes it more “exotic”?!

So for tonight we chose to a place called Longhorn, which I understand is a chain as well. I had a delicious steak – unfortunately this is one of the few meals where I forgot to take a picture of… I had a baked sweet potato with my steak which was so delicious! Sweet potatos are not common here in Germany and I love them! Of course then I had no idea how many steaks I would eat during the course of the trip...

We don't have them out here but I've heard they are ok. I adore sweet potatoes.

For today we had planned to spend some time at the beach. It turned out that our hotel actually offered a free shuttle to the beach, so we planned on taking this as it would enable us to leave all valuables in the hotel safe and just take a room key and a small amount of cash with us.

After soaking up some sun there and hanging out in and at the water, we decided to go and find some lunch. Michael had spotted an Einstein Bagel shop next to the Starbucks yesterday and suggested that for lunch. We had decided to try to have smaller meals before the cruise as we knew we would have lots and lots of food once we would be on the Disney Wonder. And I was happy with anything anyway as all of this was new to me. So once again we walked the two blocks. I had one of my favourite American dishes there: Caesars Salad. And also added a buttered bagel.

Michael had some kind of lunch sandwich deal, which came with chips and a drink:

Pool, Einstiens, Beach...sounds lovely to me! I really missed Einsteins when I first moved back to Seattle, it's tough to find a good bagel in this town, Panera is as good as it gets and that isn't terribly convenient. I love rain showers. We have one at home and they have them in Aulani. Apparently a number of folks complain about them (there is another option, dual feature shower) for not having enough water pressure but I really love them.

We decided to go to another fast food place for dinner and I requested burger! Another American delicacy! And I am serious about this, I love good burgers!

Michael had pointed out a chain called Five Guys to me when we had driven past it and I requested to go there as he had mentioned that they do good burgers. When we got there it was rather empty and I was a bit surprised by the very industrial décor:

I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that they make the burgers fresh. So we started to order. Michael had warned me that the burgers are not small and that the small fries would be enough to share between the two of us. So we each got one burger. I liked it that I could specify exactly what I wanted to have on my burger. And we got one portion of small fries to share.

While I was still filling up my cup with some ice tea, Michael already had grabbed us a table and some peanuts! That was the moment that I fell in love with this place: free peanuts and as much as you want! Perfect!!

Soon enough our order was ready, served in a brown paper bag which had my burger, a cup with fries and then a lot of additional fries loose in the bag:

Everything was so delicious!! This place is very high on my list of places I want to revisit when I am in the US again!

I love five guys! Flavor wise and even fries at times I think Fatburger is as good, in a different way (no Fuddruckers here sadly) but what I love about Five Guys is how fresh and homemade the burger itself tastes. That and the peanuts!

Today I would board the first cruise ship of my life!! I was so excited. I had been wanting to go on a cruise for ages. Here in Germany we have a long running TV series (more a series of TV films) called “Das Traumschiff” which means “The Dream Ship”. It is kind of loosely based on the US series “Loveboat” but is more of a travelogue. It is filmed on an actual cruise ship, a very luxurious one. I loved this series as a kid. And I still remember that once when I was sick at home I asked my mother to bring me some travel brochures as reading material and I ended up with one about cruises. I spent days pricing out trips for my family and tried to convince my parents to take us on a cruise.

One of these days I'd love to watch some old Love Boat episodes again, it would make me smile. Check in sounds relatively painless but I'd have to agree with you on deck 2. Still I think I'd rather have the window than not and you were close to dining so that's nice.

Next stop was the ship then! On the way there they took a picture of the two of us, but it did not turn out very well, so I did not buy it. I would have liked to get it, but unfortunately the ship photographers were not good at all at taking good pictures of the two of us…

I hope there are some later!

So finally on board and everything was new and different, I suddenly started to feel a little bit at loss. Michael and I had requested a specific dining rotation and I had seen on the KTTW card that we had gotten upon check in that we had gotten that. But we had also requested a table just for the two of us. So I wanted to check whether that request had been granted and the Navigator listed that Studio Sea was the place to do that, so I needed to head there. Somehow all these new experiences paired with my desire to make everything perfect, I suddenly was very stressed. Now I don’t even know why and about what. But we were assured that so far we were at a four top with only the two of us seated there.

I think we also both needed a bathroom and finding one really stressed me out. Somehow I felt that I had to figure everything out immediately and forgot that Michael had been on the Magic, so kind of knew his way around much better than me. Well. After using the bathroom, we headed to get some lunch. Here I could use some of the Disney knowledge I had acquired on the DIS. I knew that we wanted to head to Parrot Cay as we did have quite a bit of carry on luggage (including a clothes bag which had Michael’s suit in it). Michael agreed with my thinking, so we went in that direction.

I can tell you that I am good at reading maps and I had literally spent hours looking at the Wonder’s deck plans. It is still different in reality and at least the first 24 hours it was not that easy to find my way around. So after we had walked the hallway down for quite a bit, there was suddenly people standing there and there were drinks set up, so I thought this must be the entrance to the restaurant and stopped. Michael was surprised and told me to move on – it turned out that this was the entrance to the Promenade Lounge, which we had to walk through, and it was only a display for the drinks packages you could buy for the cruise. Ahem… There you think you are an expert from reading the DIS and then you mistake a lounge for a restaurant.

But we did get to Parrot Cay despite meeting a CM in the Aft elevator lobby who wanted to send us up to the Buffet on Deck 9, Beach Blanket Buffet. We insisted on continuing on to Parrot Cay and were directly led to a table for 6, which we just had for ourselves. So we had plenty of space for our luggage. We ordered drinks from our server and then took turns going to the buffet while the other was watching the bags and had some time to read the Navigator. The Navigator is the daily programm which gives you all kind of info about entertainment offerings, but also has the weather, sunrise and sunset, infos about the port of the day, opening times for restaurants and other services. It is really very useful!

It is disorienting, no matter how much homework you've done but I'm glad you stuck to your Parrot Cay plan and had such a lovely lunch (except that mousse on top of Michaels ice cream scares me a bit).

 

[jegsnakkernorsk]

Day 4:

Unfortunately the CM checking us in was not very magical. Also, at the position next to us was a group of 8 people checking in and they seemed to think that they needed all to be right up at the counter at the same time. So there really was nearly no space for Michael and me.

I hoped to maybe get an upgrade at the port to a stateroom with a veranda. It was strange that until about one week before the cruise a lot of staterooms were available online for our cruise and then the cruise just disappeared from the website, seemingly sold out. I thought that was strange and still had hope. But it turned out that there weren’t any upgrades available at the port (at least not when we arrived there) which for me made for a little less magical start in that moment even though I had tried before not to get my hopes up too much.

Our not so magical CM also forgot to give Michael his silver Castaway Club lanyard – which we only realised some time later on.

Hey I hope the flooding in Germany is not effecting you at all!

Sorry to hear you weren't able to upgrade at the port as you had hoped - I live in southern FLA and I heard a lot of advertisements for Florida resident deals on Disney Cruises departing from Miami - they did a lot to promote the cruises to locals in southern Florida. I think this might be the reason the cruise filled up last minute and also might be why so many first time cruises were onboard with you.

I also found the CM's at Port Miami to be a little forgetful - we missed getting our lanyards too - but we got it from someone else before we boarded. I bet they will improve with time. Looks like there will be a bunch more cruises on Magic and Wonder out of Miami in the future too.

 

[PracPerfPatricia]

I'm very, very late... but I'm here and very excited... I have to go back and catch up...

 

[Flossbolna]

Ah, getting on board the WONDERful Disney WONDER!

Memories ........

Miami looks so different to getting on board at PC. I was kind of looking for things and they were not there.
Hm, boarding on deck 4 .... well, I like the Atrium better, guess, because I am so used to it.
And here is something for you to smile about. When I saw your KTTW card I was like ..... "what restaurants is she going to? Have they renamed the restaurants?" until I remembered that you were on the WONDER. Different ships, different restaurants.

Yes, I guess things might appear quite a bit off for you!! The deck 4 seemed a bit makeshift, especially since people had to walk down the stairs with their carry on luggage. But it was not a big deal to us, and there was something about walking down the stairs while people were welcoming you.

I love that you tried the "Viennese" style Schnitzel. I tried it too on our cruises and always found them far too dry, but they were a bit of home anyway.
Can't wait for more. (Off now to have lunch ..... Wiener Schnitzel! )

This one was actually quite tasty, but there will be another one later in the trip report that was extremely dry!

I love Wiener Schnitzel - especially when it is the real deal made with veal.

Hurrah! We're on board the Wonder! I have absolutely zero sense of direction so I have a feeling if I ever go on a cruise I will spend 50% of it lost.

You really ought to go on a long cruise then!! To make it worthwhile to learn how to find you way around!

Glad you had some fun hotel and shopping time before the cruise. Your hotel looks great. Love that they came around with snacks and drink samples! Your sundress is so pretty!!

Thanks! Now the weather here just needs to warm up so that I can wear it again...

Five Guys. Yum!! And thankfully there are no calories when on vacation.

I totally understand this feeling. A place familiar through research but not familiar in person. Perhaps entering a different way than you though threw everything off? Or just the general sensation that you are unsure of things.

I get a little of that when I am travelling with the kids at a new resort. I feel I need to be the one to lead them, because they are younger and I know they have no idea of the way around, and I am their mother.

Now the last trip with Chris he has a better sense of direction than I do, and I think I do pretty good but he had the layout of SSR down in one pass.

I think the problem on the ship is that for the first couple of days I had difficulty remembering which way was the front of the ship. I never had a problem on the top deck, but inside it was a different story.

Glad you settled in and got some good eats!!!!

Beautiful beach pictures. I need a bit of that right about now.

Yes, that would be wonderful!! But don't you live close to the beach??? Well, at least you get to go to a swimming pool regularly!

 

[Flossbolna]

But do they taste as good as ours????

We did not CATCH the fish, we FED them!!!

How was the bagel - compared to our favourite bagel bakery here in Berlin?

Hmm, less dense I would say. But it had tasty cheese on top, that was very nice!!

This would be me - looking for the only spot with shade and then moving my towel every 20 minutes...

Actually, I thought of you when I saw these people!!!

I miss good burgers!

Me too, but this reminds me, next time you are in Nuremberg we should go and eat at Chong's Diner

What do you need the lanyard for?

To carry your KTTW card around, just like me keys at work. I have to say that I don't want to carry a lanyard in the parks, but for the cruise it was nice as i often did not carry a bag with me. And when I had my tote bag, it was easy to find the room key in the bag.

Well, I guess that they sensed only one of you likes to get her picture taken at every possible opportunity...

The restaurant looks very cheerful, but the cheese frightens me.

I was so afraid that the restaurants would feel to dark, but as you said, it was actually very cheerful!

The cheese was quite tasty, I think it was cheddar and besides the colour it had a good taste.

I'm starting to get a feeling, you only agreed to writing a TR so that you would convince me I had to go an a cruise...

I thought you did not need any more convincing anyway...

 

[Flossbolna]

Looks like you had a nice time enjoying our fast food franchises before you set off on your cruise. I remember my grandparents taking me to Arby's, but I haven't been to one in a looong time. Yes, Five Guys is good, but I think it's rather expensive so have only been to one a couple of times.

It's always good to start off a cruise with a buffet meal!

I did not find Five Guys that expensive (especially compared with WDW counter service), but I can see that for a whole family it can add up and then the difference to a nicer meal would not be so big...

And I really liked the buffet for the first meal - strangely enough we did not end up eating many more buffet meals after this one.

Loving your TR! I feel like I'm right there enjoying your trip with you Great hotel and what a great beach day! Your style of vacationing sounds perfect - I'm taking lots of notes as to how to really enjoy my next vacation

I am usually not really good at relaxing on vacation, I often do city trips or road trips where I do lots of sightseeing. But this vacation was supposed to be different and I found out that I am better at relaxing than I thought I was!!!

I was delighted to find your trip report today. You have a very good direct style of writing which is easy to follow and allows the reader to imagine him/or herself along "for the ride". I could not resist and also read your 2010 and 2011 reports.
So looking forward to traveling along with you on the rest of your vacation. Hope that you quickly find the ship wonderful to navigate and looking forward to your dining reviews also.

and thanks for the compliments!! I am amazed that you read both of my other trip reports as well!! Especially the 2010 one is quite a long one. But I am happy that people still enjoy these old reports as well!

Hi Magdalene

Glad you liked so many of our fine American fast food restaurants! I do like Five Guys to but they are a bit pricey for me. Next time you have Arby's have a beef and cheedar, my favorite. We have a chain here called Culvers it's I think found only in the Midwest, the founder is from Wisconsin. They have great burgers! I love a good burger. If you ever come to Milwaukee I'll take you to a few good burger places

I think we talked about this before and I am very much looking forward to all the Wisconsin cuisine you already have planned for me!!

Funny you think steak is an American thing, I never thought of it that way. I see America as known for its hamburgers and hot dogs. And well Wisconsin is known for it's cheese.. and Bratwurst... We eat brats a few times a week...

Bratwurst of course is NOT American to me - since I am from the home of bratwurst!

I love your sundress! DD and I were just shopping to an outlet mall this weekend for her up and coming trip... found a lot of nice things at Old Navy.. funny you should mention Europeans and shopping. When we had our exchange student all she wanted to do was shop She couldn't get over how cheap everything was here, and I'm like you think that's cheap?? To me it was way overpriced.... But then again I do love a good bargain.

Clothing is rather expensive here in Germany - and especially American brands charge for their name.

That beach looked so inviting wish I was there now. Sorry your arrival on the ship was so stressful. Hope the rest of the trip went smoothly and was relaxing.

Thanks for sharing...

The arrival was not that stressful - and I quickly started to feel at home!!

 

[Flossbolna]

Love all the pics!

Thanks!

Wow, you're really flying through the updates! Looks like the beach was beautiful, and I'm glad you got to spend some time there.

Well, the flying through the updates did come to a bit of a stop. But I hope to get started again now!! I really want to get this TR done quickly this time!

As far as American chain restaurants go, I've always liked Arby's. It's always good for a change of pace when you get sick of burgers. Even though that rarely happens in my case.

Yes, that's ecxatly what I thought: it's nice to have something slightly different! And I was not sick of burgers yet!

I remember being a little disappointed with Five Guys when I tried it. I think it had been so over-hyped when I finally went in that I was expecting to taste The Greatest Burger Of All Time and instead got one that was decent. I did like the fries, though.

I can see how too high expectations can ruin something. And I agree, it was a very good burger, but not an out of this world experience. I just loved the peanuts so much!!

We have a tradition in our family that when we get takeout, we try to be the first person to call out "Bag Fries!" When you do that, all loose fries that fell into the bag become your property. It's sort of like yelling "Shotgun!" when you go on a road trip so you can sit in the front passenger seat.

That's a fun tradition! In my family we only yelled "First one" - it was used to indicate that upon return home this person would be the first one to use the facilities...

It's great seeing the pictures of the Wonder again. Reminds me of the cruise we took a few years ago. Still an impressive ship, even with the Dream taking over the Bahamas route.

Glad that you liked the Wonder pictures, there will be many more! I remember your cruise report - I reread it shortly before the cruise because it was on the Wonder and there aren't that many Wonder reports around...

Hey Magdalene, I'm finally onboard for your trip report!

I'm still on the fence about whether I should do one for my recent Panama Canal cruise, not a food report (took too few food pictures ) but an actual full trip report, but I'm still debating whether I'm up to that task, what with my lack of note-taking and my bad memory and all. Reading yours certainly always is more fun than writing myself!

You certainly should do a TR! I would love to see pictures!!!

Anyway, looking forward to reading more about your adventures on my beloved Wonder!

So you fell in love with the Wonder?? I did - but then I have nothing to compare her to. You at least know the Magic if I remember correctly?

Well, I for one, would love to hear about your Panama Canal cruise! I hope you do write a report.

Jill in CO

See, Annika, another vote for your TR!!

 

[Flossbolna]

Hi there!!! I would love to read your TR and am very jealous of your planned transatlantic cruise. I would love to go on one. So.... please take extensive notes next year for a detailed TR

Hey, now we are three in favour of a Panama Canal TR!!!

And I agree with my sister! Would love to read about the transatlantic cruise!

Thank you! I shall contemplate this a bit longer ... I will certainly not do such a wonderfully detailed one as Magdalene does, but I may do a briefer one ...

Thank you for the nice compliment!! I sometimes wish I could be more concise in my writing, but I guess this is just my style to go on and on about every tiny detail... But I do enjoy all kind of trip reports - and I guess you have pictures, so we all love to see those!

Come along on the transatlantic cruise and bring your sister as well! Did you know that Condor flies one-way from Puerto Rico (where the cruise ends) to Germany for under 400 euros?

Wow, that is a great price!!! Actually, a transatlantic cruise is in my bucket list and I am already collecting airmiles to use those for a one way flight... So who knows...

 

[Flossbolna]

Ok I have to weigh in on this one..back in the day I was rather fond of this chain but...there are SO many better places it's actually amazed me it's still around! I am glad, and a bit surprised, you found it ok.

They had some homemade chips which were new and quite delicious. So maybe they are trying to improve their offerings again?

The good and the bad, all at once!

It was not the nicest mall - normally when I go shopping I like everything to be new and shiny. But that also means expensive. But the outlet mall was indeed a bit tacky.

LOVE the Mug, don't remember seeing it when I was there in 2011 but maybe it sold out fast or I decided it was too small.

It is about 12 oz, so smaller than the regular WDW mugs. It works well for coffee from my Nespresso machine.

Love the dress!!!!!!!!!! I am so glad you found something

I am happy that you approve my choice!! Your input was so helpful. I would never had the idea to look into that shop, but inside I immediately saw 4 dresses which I liked, but this one was by far the prettiest. And just what I had hoped to find!

We don't have them out here but I've heard they are ok. I adore sweet potatoes.

Sweet potatoes are so delicious!! I wish I knew a few more ways of preparing them, might go and look for recipes in the fall as they seem more of a winter vegetable to me...

Pool, Einstiens, Beach...sounds lovely to me! I really missed Einsteins when I first moved back to Seattle, it's tough to find a good bagel in this town, Panera is as good as it gets and that isn't terribly convenient. I love rain showers. We have one at home and they have them in Aulani. Apparently a number of folks complain about them (there is another option, dual feature shower) for not having enough water pressure but I really love them.

I am really surprised that it is so difficult to find bagels in Seattle... You just need to bake them yourself. A few months ago, I bought a new cook book and it had a recipe for bagels. They turned out quite delicious. And were fun to make!

I love five guys! Flavor wise and even fries at times I think Fatburger is as good, in a different way (no Fuddruckers here sadly) but what I love about Five Guys is how fresh and homemade the burger itself tastes. That and the peanuts!

Ok, when I am in Seattle, I need to try Fatburger!!

One of these days I'd love to watch some old Love Boat episodes again, it would make me smile. Check in sounds relatively painless but I'd have to agree with you on deck 2. Still I think I'd rather have the window than not and you were close to dining so that's nice.

I hope there are some later!

It is disorienting, no matter how much homework you've done but I'm glad you stuck to your Parrot Cay plan and had such a lovely lunch (except that mousse on top of Michaels ice cream scares me a bit).

Hey I hope the flooding in Germany is not effecting you at all!

Sorry to hear you weren't able to upgrade at the port as you had hoped - I live in southern FLA and I heard a lot of advertisements for Florida resident deals on Disney Cruises departing from Miami - they did a lot to promote the cruises to locals in southern Florida. I think this might be the reason the cruise filled up last minute and also might be why so many first time cruises were onboard with you.

I also found the CM's at Port Miami to be a little forgetful - we missed getting our lanyards too - but we got it from someone else before we boarded. I bet they will improve with time. Looks like there will be a bunch more cruises on Magic and Wonder out of Miami in the future too.

Thanks for asking!! I am quite well, Nuremberg did not have any bad flooding. But there are a number of cities that were really hard hit and many people just lost everything in the floods. It was so bad. In Passau (a city close to Austria) they had the highest high water since 1550.

I think it is great that they get new cruisers on the Disney ships! And the advertising does make a lot of sense! We actually talked to a number of people who were on their first cruise and everyone loved it!

I'm very, very late... but I'm here and very excited... I have to go back and catch up...

Patricia!! It does not matter that you are late, you are still very

 

[Flossbolna]

As I had mentioned, I was a bit anxious that being on Deck 2 would not be good. But when we walked there, we realised how nice it was to be just one floor down from the main atrium. And during the course of cruise we came to really love the location! We were just a few doors away from the midship elevator lobby and just one floor down from the main atrium, two of the three restaurants and the bar area and then two floors down from the third restaurant and the Walt Disney theatre. Neither aft nor forward were far away. And I had a direct elevator up to the Outlook Café! It was truly a great location in my opinion.

This is our door:

The two ships wheels that you can see above and below the room number are DVC magnets. We did not have those at our door when we first got there, the picture is from a later day& I knew that DVC members (and I am a DVC member) are supposed to have a magnet on their door, so was a bit surprised. Especially since just before the cruise I had gotten an email from DCL referring to the fact that I was a DVC member and which said: Come have fun with your fellow Disney Vacation Club® cruisers, enjoy refreshments and surprises, hear the newest Member news and test your Disney trivia knowledge. Plus, discover the latest offers and special cruise discounts that you'll only hear about during your Disney Cruise Line voyage. For time and location during your cruise, check your onboard Personal Navigator.

Well, I thought, maybe they still need to get around to all the cabins and did not worry about it too much&

Instead I rather wanted to see inside our stateroom:

On the bed there is the Silver Castaway Club member present that is currently given out. It is a backpack and inside was a key chain and two boxes of cheese biscuits which were rather tasteless and we did not eat much off them& The present was for Michael since he is the repeat cruiser, next cruise I am a Silver Castaway Club member, too! But I think that does not mean that our cabin will get two presents unfortunately&

On the desk in this picture you can see some papers. There were two sheets showing that we had some onboard credit, some from our travel agent as well as 25$ from DCL. I had forgotten all about the 25$ which we got through a promotion that if the booking was made online you would get that credit. Since this had original been a booking for the Fantasy and then transferred a number of times, I had not expected that credit to still be there. So that was a nice surprise!

We also got dining tickets:

These show your dining schedule in a more detailed fashion than the KTTW card. So if you are a first time cruiser, these tell you exactly where you have to go for your dinner and when. I guess we should have brought them to dinner with us the first evening, but we did forget all about them. But it was no problem at all, we just told them our room number (and maybe showed them our KTTW).

We also got an envelope with our port adventure tickets. We had booked an excursion at Cozumel with Disney

This is the room in the other direction.

The blue box you see in the picture above is a so-called steamer trunk. Some cabins on the Magic and the Wonder have them. Actually they are just additional shelves in there for storage and the box is designed to look like an old fashioned trunk&

Next up two pictures of the split bathroom. I did not think that that would be so necessary with just two people in the stateroom, but it turned out extremely helpful. With pool and beach time you end up showering more than usual, so it was nice to be able to do shifts!

All in all, the room is not large. But for the two of us it never felt cramped and I have been on vacations where I had much less personal space. The stateroom was also in top shape. There was literally no wear and tear visible inside the stateroom, only on the outside of our window did we see some rust. Compared to the hotel room we had just left at the Hilton in Fort Lauderdale this room was in a so much better state of repair. The cabin was also very clean and was kept that way during the course of the cruise. I had read so much about the classic ships being a little bit worn out  but I really never ever witnessed any of that.

Seeing the stateroom was the next thing where my already high expectations were actually exceeded. The first was the food quality at lunch.

I wanted to do a spa tour next as I wanted to see the spa. I was still thinking about getting a treatment there (but then in the end did not as I did not want to overschedule my days on the ship). We also had pre-ordered 1-day passes for the Rainforest Room, so it made sense to check the spa out to know where everything was.

When we got up there a nice young lady showed us around. It was actually set up so that you went from stop to stop where someone doing the specific services was telling you what they offered and how wonderful it was. Everyone was very enthusiastic, but also extremely young! Especially the guy who was offering acupuncture looked like he was 16. He actually made a point of telling us that he had 8 years of experience in acupuncture  my guess was that this was specifically because he looked like he just escaped from the teen club on the ship. And who would want to be poked with needles by a teenager? The nicest thing was that they actually demonstrated three different massage styles on us, so we got a mini massage out of it.

They also showed us the Rainforest Room which has different saunas and steambaths and showers as well as some wonderful heated tile loungers. We were both looking forward to using our day pass there.

The exercise room is really nice and has a fabulous view out of the front of the ship:

At the end of the tour you can fill out a form and enter a drawing for some spa vouchers. So we did that.

And after the tour we just headed out to the adult pool which is right next to the spa for our first dip in the pool:

The pool was not at all crowded and we really enjoyed it a lot. After some time it was time to head inside into the spa again for the spa raffle. The problem that I had not foreseen that now I was in a wet bathing suit. I did put my dress over it and just went inside thinking that the raffle would not take long. Big mistake!! The raffle is another sales event (yes, I was a bit naïve not to foresee that). So it did take quite some time while I was standing in the cold air conditioning in a damp dress. I was more uncomfortable than cold though& Neither Michael nor I did win anything&

So we headed back out to the pool and just before it was time for the lifeboat drill we headed down into our stateroom. Michael was lucky that his luggage had arrived earlier already and could get changed. I could at least get out of the wet swimsuit, but my dress was by now already very wet as well. But I did not have anything else to change into and it was warm, so I headed to the lifeboat drill in a slightly wet dress. It was the nice sundress that I had bought the day before which had large white flowers on a purple background. And when I got out of the swim suit in the stateroom I realised that the water had made the purple colour bleed into the white flowers! I was rather upset that my stupidity could have ruined my new dress on the first day I was wearing it!! Later on I realised that it was not too bad  it looked worse when the dress was wet. And since then I have washed it and that removed the bled colour luckily. But in that moment I was not happy!!!

The lifeboat drill was quick and painless despite me being grumpy and sad about the dress. I think around that time I had also realised that they forgot to give Michael the Silver Castaway Cay lanyard and that made me unhappy, too. Also I had now seen that other cabins had DVC magnets on their doors, while our room hadnt. This all sounds like I was having a lousy time - but that was not the case. It was all just a little damper on the perfect state of happiness that I had hoped for...

Next: Out to the Open Sea

 

[eandesmom]

As I had mentioned, I was a bit anxious that being on Deck 2 would not be good. But when we walked there, we realised how nice it was to be just one floor down from the main atrium. And during the course of cruise we came to really love the location! We were just a few doors away from the midship elevator lobby and just one floor down from the main atrium, two of the three restaurants and the bar area and then two floors down from the third restaurant and the Walt Disney theatre. Neither aft nor forward were far away. And I had a direct elevator up to the Outlook Café! It was truly a great location in my opinion.

This is our door:

Oh I am so happy it worked out so well, that is an incredibly conveniently located room! This is the first picture I've seen of the new magnet, it is different than the one we got last summer, fun! I am glad they showed up eventually and I hope Michael got his silver lanyard (if not I have one I can send lol!)

I think the split bathrooms are brilliant.

Ugh for having to sit through the raffle in a wet dress and then seeing that the colors bled! Especially on a new dress. I am SO glad it turned out ok. I would have been very upset as well. I had something similar in Hawaii happen towards the end but thankfully it washed out as well but it really annoyed me at the time!

The adult pool layout is SO much better on the classic ships, this makes me very excited for our next cruise, even if it is a solid 15 months away.

 

[Poolrat]

Yes, that would be wonderful!! But don't you live close to the beach??? Well, at least you get to go to a swimming pool regularly!

I grew up minutes from the beach and now I am hours from the beach. To me that is far as in I would not drive down for the day. I do get to see a pool daily but some days I would rather not.....

As I had mentioned, I was a bit anxious that being on Deck 2 would not be good. But when we walked there, we realised how nice it was to be just one floor down from the main atrium. And during the course of cruise we came to really love the location! We were just a few doors away from the midship elevator lobby and just one floor down from the main atrium, two of the three restaurants and the bar area and then two floors down from the third restaurant and the Walt Disney theatre. Neither aft nor forward were far away. And I had a direct elevator up to the Outlook Café! It was truly a great location in my opinion.

on the great location!!!

This is the room in the other direction.

Nice size- I always think of cruise room being teeny tiny. Glad that there is some room to move around in there.

The blue box you see in the picture above is a so-called “steamer trunk”. Some cabins on the Magic and the Wonder have them. Actually they are just additional shelves in there for storage and the box is designed to look like an old fashioned trunk…

As a was looking I actually said out loud " I wonder what that trunk is for"
Too big for a refrigerator.

Next up two pictures of the split bathroom. I did not think that that would be so necessary with just two people in the stateroom, but it turned out extremely helpful. With pool and beach time you end up showering more than usual, so it was nice to be able to do shifts!

Good to know.

Especially the guy who was offering acupuncture looked like he was 16. He actually made a point of telling us that he had 8 years of experience in acupuncture – my guess was that this was specifically because he looked like he just escaped from the teen club on the ship. And who would want to be poked with needles by a teenager? The nicest thing was that they actually demonstrated three different massage styles on us, so we got a mini massage out of it.

Kids with needles Yup I would think twice about that.

The pool was not at all crowded and we really enjoyed it a lot. After some time it was time to head inside into the spa again for the spa raffle. The problem that I had not foreseen that now I was in a wet bathing suit. I did put my dress over it and just went inside thinking that the raffle would not take long. Big mistake!! The raffle is another sales event (yes, I was a bit naïve not to foresee that). So it did take quite some time while I was standing in the cold air conditioning in a damp dress. I was more uncomfortable than cold though… Neither Michael nor I did win anything…

Ugh I would hate to be in a wet bathing suit in air conditioning.

And when I got out of the swim suit in the stateroom I realised that the water had made the purple colour bleed into the white flowers! I was rather upset that my stupidity could have ruined my new dress on the first day I was wearing it!! Later on I realised that it was not too bad – it looked worse when the dress was wet. And since then I have washed it and that removed the bled colour luckily. But in that moment I was not happy!!!

Glad it washed out.

 

[Flossbolna]

Oh I am so happy it worked out so well, that is an incredibly conveniently located room! This is the first picture I've seen of the new magnet, it is different than the one we got last summer, fun! I am glad they showed up eventually and I hope Michael got his silver lanyard (if not I have one I can send lol!)

The room turned out to be so perfect!! I actually made sure that my rebooked cruise is in the same room (even though I am anticipating that this booking will be moved to another cruise).

I think the split bathrooms are brilliant.

Yes, I never understood why people were talking about them so much, but for us it was a great convenience. I could survive without one with only 2 people, but it did make things much easier.

Ugh for having to sit through the raffle in a wet dress and then seeing that the colors bled! Especially on a new dress. I am SO glad it turned out ok. I would have been very upset as well. I had something similar in Hawaii happen towards the end but thankfully it washed out as well but it really annoyed me at the time!

Sorry that you had a similar experience! I just thought it was so silly that they have something in different colours and then use colour that bleeds...

And I really did not want to try and wash it while in the US since I rather wanted to use some detergent that I know is mild. So I had to wait for a few weeks until the issue was finally resolved.

The adult pool layout is SO much better on the classic ships, this makes me very excited for our next cruise, even if it is a solid 15 months away.

I haven't been on the new ships, but I remember that already when I saw the first pictures of the design for the Dream I thought the adult pool looked way too small.

I grew up minutes from the beach and now I am hours from the beach. To me that is far as in I would not drive down for the day. I do get to see a pool daily but some days I would rather not.....

Stupid me - I just see that you are from a state along the east Coast and think that the beach is not far. I alwas forget how large the US is...

on the great location!!!

It was really great!

Nice size- I always think of cruise room being teeny tiny. Glad that there is some room to move around in there.

The room was what I would call "cosy". Large enough to move around, but not a large room. I liked it a lot!

As a was looking I actually said out loud " I wonder what that trunk is for"
Too big for a refrigerator.

There isn't a fridge, only a cooler, but it worked well enough for us. But it is much much smaller!

Kids with needles Yup I would think twice about that.

He seemed quite sweet - so not a dangerous teenager, rather a nerdy one. But still...

Ugh I would hate to be in a wet bathing suit in air conditioning.

Yes, I decided to skip that raffle on my next cruise, it really is not worth the standing around...

Glad it washed out.

Yes, me too!