highlights of our first cruise - 3 day Wonder cruise (the 4th of july)

[disneyholic family]

ok...
so i'm still on vacation (in WDW) but before i forget everything i'll try to hit some of the highlights:

overall - the ship is run extremely well.....in every area the level of professionalism is amazing.....we were impressed beyond words...the room was gorgeous, the service was impeccable....the staff universally helpful and friendly.....

food - we are a bit unusual and had special food needs.....we were so very pleasantly surprised....from the very first moment we arrived on board the ship.....the first head server we encountered was PJ....he wasn't our head server but he took care of us for that first lunch and contacted our head server (Gaspare).....PJ is fantastic.....a walking encyclopedia.....
for our dinner rotation we had Gaspare as our head server and he took brilliant care of our needs.....he was assisted by Stoyan our waiter who also made sure we had everything possible...without question, these gentlemen made our cruise for us....

Category 3 Stateroom (8534) - there are only four cat 3 staterooms with this configuration.....they have an extra long verandah.....it's a fantastic room and i highly recommend it.....the living room is perpendicular to the bedroom giving it a much larger feel than the other cat 3 staterooms (and it's midship right next to the cat 1 suites)....8534 only holds 4 people...if we go again, i would certainly request it...

Nassau- we rented a room at the comfort suites so that we could use the pools/slides at atlantis......we had a great time (never used the room at the comfort suites which is just this side of a rat's nest)......we very much enjoyed the pools/slides, however i can only recommend doing it if you are seriously into pools/slides.....otherwise i think you might be disappointed (not to mention the very high cost)...
on our next cruise we'll stay on the ship at nassau....

Castaway Cay - our favorite thing was the bike ride (my 18 year old daughter says her favorite thing was the massage at serenity bay).....and speaking of serenity bay, it's beautiful and i strongly urge adults to go directly there....it's much much nicer than the family beach....
as for the snorkeling.....it's a bit lame.....but that's because we live near a beach with corals.....so the castaway snorkeling wasn't much of an attraction for us....so we wouldn't do that again......also, our beach has waves and castaway's doesn't......so the next time we get there i think we'll just do the bike ride and a massage at serenity.....

teenage activities - my 15 year old spent most of his time in common grounds or in activities associated with common grounds....his only complaint is the age range....he feels 13 to 17 is far too broad and should be broken down...
my 18 year daughter on the other hand had no group activities at all....she went to common grounds the first day but there were no other kids her age who showed up (though there were a few on the ship)....since she was too young for the singles on board she ended up spending all of her time with us (in the adult clubs)....nevertheless she still loved the cruise....but she wishes they would have at least organized the 18 year olds into a group that attended the clubs together....not organized activities, but just a group that would attend the parties together....
she plans on bringing her cousin next time so that she won't have the same problem again...

entertainment - we LOVED Hercules.....that was our favorite....we also liked disney dreams but not as much as Hercules....as for the adult clubs, my daughter and i loved dueling pianos and went to almost every show....also the parties in wavebands (she and i were dancing partners)....i think the band was called the West End or something like that.....by the way, Hades in Hercules was our sections co-captain in the lifeboat drill.....

i'll add this in here:

one of my most favorite things to do was to just sit out on the verandah....especially as the ship arrived or left the various destinations (port canaveral, nassau, castaway cay)...

i really enjoyed that immensely....watching the activity....waving at the other ships.....watching the docking process......just watching the sea with the wind in my face..

silly i suppose....but without question one of the highlights for me...

also, we enjoyed walking on deck 4 (i think that's the deck)....the deck where there's a jogging track.....it was practically deserted except for one other walker and one jogger......along the way we stopped to play shuffleboard.....that was one of the highlights of our cruise....(i suppose that sounds silly too, but it was so very pleasant.....and like we were on a private yacht.....2700 passengers but it seemed like we were all alone).....

i know there are other things i wanted to comment on but that's all i can think of for now...

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

It's good to hear your comments about how they accommodated your special dietary needs. I'm glad they were so good and that you were so pleased.

Glad to hear your DD18 had a great time even though she's at a "tweener" age as far as ships' programming. I'm <i>sure</i> she enjoyed that massage.

Enjoy the rest of your visit with the Mouse!

 

[CamColt]

Sounds great!!!

I have to say something that stood out to me too was how friendly all the CMs were and how well they did their jobs. Your are right, the ship is run very well. Disney definitely does it right!

 

[tltjet]

I almost stayed in the Comfort Suits last year but had to cancel my plans. Did you actually go into the room? Is this a nice hotel or would you be better off staying in the Atlantis resort itself.

Thanks for the information.

 

[disneyholic family]

tltjet...
Atlantis itself is unbelievable......even the 'cheaper' buildings (coral and beach) are stunning....
i wouldn't hesitate staying there for a vacation of several days....of course the room rates are in accordance (i think the cheapest rate i was quoted was $350/day)....
that's why we took the comfort suites to just be able to use the pools...
in the US a similar comfort suites room would cost maybe $30.....in this case it's over $200....i'm shocked that the comfort suites chains allows this place to carry it's name.....we did not go into the room but saw other rooms through the open door as they were being cleaned....
in any case, you only get the room at 3 pm.....by that time we were ready to go back to the ship.....why go into a yucky room when you can go back to your beautiful stateroom?.....

as for getting to and from paradise island, both taxi drivers were great.....polite, good drivers and they charged the going rate....

as i said, all in all we enjoyed the day at atlantis, but on our next cruise we'll stay on board the ship.....i find the ship atmosphere to be very relaxing...

CamColt..
yes the CMs are wonderful....each and every one....

Dave...
after all my worries about everything we were so pleasantly surprised by how great it was and how much we enjoyed it.....
without question, one of our best vacations ever.....maybe THE best ever....

 

[inkkognito]

Ah, so P.J. was your head server...isn't he great?!?!?!
We met him a long time ago and have seen him many times since. We haven't had him as our head server for a while, as it always seems that he's on a different rotation, but we still manage to see him around and say "hi."
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[PiperG]

disneyholic family,

Could you speak a little more about your special diet needs? Don't feel pressured to disclose them. I am just wondering how exactly they accomodated you? Were the servers able to determine if their were risky elements in each dish?

I ask because DS 5 is severly allergic to nuts and I am gathering information on safe products and cross contamination risk and ways to gather that information while on ship.

Thanks

 

[disneyholic family]

Barb,
No PJ wasn't our head server.......Gaspare was....
PJ was on duty in parrot cay during lunch when we boarded the ship.....he was totally amazing....his knowledge of what's available and possible.....he ran off to have the chef prepare us special meals for that first lunch and made sure they were perfect.....and he immediately contacted Gaspare (our rotation's head server - we ate in triton the first night) to let him know that we needed special care.....then he went through all the menus with us including what would be served on castaway cay to make sure we would have food....
PJ is indeed special.....we made sure to mention him to every 'official' type person we met on the ship.....as well as writing his name on the comment card...
his knowledge and willingness to go that extra mile without question made an enormous difference to our cruising experience....

 

[disneyholic family]

PiperG...
we don't have food allergies.....we keep kosher....however, PJ's knowledge of the ingredients in all the various dishes on board the ship was encyclopedic.....(as well as knowing how they're all prepared, which is also an issue in the case of allergies)....
i don't know if the other head servers are as knowledgeable or not....PJ's on the Wonder by the way.....
have you called DCL to enquire about your specific concerns?...

 

[PiperG]

I have gathered a lot of information from Ducklite on these boards and also spoken to DCL relative to our brief 3-day Wonder trip last Dec.

I have a very high comfort level overall but its always comforting to hear that the servers have such extensive knowledge. I am keeping close watch on threads about servers to see if there is anyone on the Magic we should try and get (I don't know if its possible to request a server but figured its worth a look).

Thanks so much for your feedback!