If You See It: Eat It! Via Panama to Disneyland - Completed and Link to New Trip Report 2/24

[Captain_Oblivious]

Weird bathroom aside, the W looks like a really nice place to stay. Close to the beach, nice rooms, and I totally would have been geeking out over the stairway through the swimming pool.

 

[dolphingirl47]

I had no idea Five Guys was coming to the UK... I really need to get back to England. I used to visit there so much (even had a boyfriend living in Hereford for quite some time) and now haven't been back for three or four years...

Yes, they opened their first branch in London about a year ago. No there are 10 with 2 more opening soon. A lot of them are in London and the South East, but we have one in Manchester and there is one in Birmingham. You definitely need to come back to England, but then I am biased.

Corinna

 

[Flossbolna]

Great trip report so far and happy to have found it. We'll be on the WBPC next May (but unfortunately we don't get the Key West day), looking to forward to reading about your experience. Definitely jealous of adding on the time at Disneyland afterwards, what a great vacation and how hard was that afterwards to go back to everyday life?!

Love your comment about the bathroom! But the hotel looks like it's a great location! Looking forward to reading more and pics!

I hope you will find the TR useful for your cruise next year! Key West was lovely, but I would have preferred a stop at Castaway Cay!

It was a wonderful vacation and while I felt really strange being back in my everyday life at first, I have to say that it is amazing for how long the wonderful relaxed after a vacation feeling has lasted so far!

Great update Magdalene !!! That pool was different !!! The pins are fantastic !! I also have to display all mine I think I need a cork board . It will beat having them on lanyards hanging on my dresser !!!

I was thinking a cork board as well - might hang it above my desk. I think that would be a nice place to see my pins regularly. I don't have any pin lanyards, they are just in a box right now. So your lanyards on the dresser are already better!

This is the second year that we have had the Valencia Orange Refresher. It replaced the Cool Lime Refresher last year and the Berry Hibiscus Refresher this year.

Corinna

Interesting, in the US they had all three (with the exception of the Starbucks at DCA and DL which only had lime and hibiscus).

Hi Magdalene!

Great trip report so far -- can't wait to hear more.

And I have to say I love a group of folks who are already planning their Disney vacations for 2017.

Lisa, to my trip report!

I am really surprised about how many are talking about 2017!! But it seems that there are some very dedicated planners out there!

I popped over here after noticing your link in your signature from Corinna's TR. I love to hear differing views from people on the same trip.

We are sailing out of Miami on the October 31st cruise and you have already given us an idea of what to do since we arrive 36 hours before embarkation. Love a big mall with a Disney store!

We're considering doing the WBPC in 2017, so it will be great to hear all about it. Looking forward to the rest of this and especially since you spent a week in my home park!

I am really enjoying Corinna's TR for the other perspective on the same trip! If you are in Miami, I think Sawgrass Mills is a bit of a drive. Maybe 40 minutes or so? But if you like a big mall, I guess it fits! I am happy I could help with trip planning!

Sailing out of Miami is really nice (more on that soon), as there are interesting things to see in the harbour.

So, you are another 2017 planner! That seems to be a popular year!

Disneyland was wonderful, you are really lucky to be able to call it your home park! I can't wait to get back there!

 

[Flossbolna]

hey Magdalene!

I LOVE the W Hotels- I have stayed at a couple in NYC- the are just SO cool! Thanks for showing all the pics of this one- I am SOLD on yours!

SO- this is Micheal from when I met you? Yay! Very happy development on the more friendly status!

So crazy about the guy in the water- very glad someone came to help.

And good job getting the rate! Kinda stressful- glad it worked for you!

Ok- I am signing on for more- I will try my BEST to be a more constant companion than I have been as of late.

So nice to see you here! I have to admit that I have been lurking on your wonderful Fantasy cruise trip report as we are seriously considering sailing the Fantasy next. At least this is where our onboard booking is resting at the moment.

This is the first time I stayed at a W, but I have heard good things about the chain. Do they have crazy bathroom designs in New York as well?

And at least someone who know what I talked about when I kept on about IGT etc.

Subscribed! Can't wait to hear about your trip

love your report so far
im on the ebpc this year so it will nice to see how u find the trip

as u can see im from holland so i can understand german too but not too good

Another European!! I hope you do understand enough German for this: Herzlich Willkommen!!

I keep wondering about how the EBPC will be a significantly different experience as you will have the four sea days in a row early in a cruise. Part of me thinks that that would be more relaxing. But then you lose 3 hours of sleep!!!

 

[Flossbolna]

Subscribed, no idea what that actually means in practice but perhaps this old dog can learn a new trick.

I think a subscription means that you get regular updates from me against a certain fee. At least that's how it works with newspapers...

But the boring explanation is that once you post to a thread (or select "subscribe to this thread" under the "thread tools" heading up there on the page, it will show up when you click on "User CP" if there is a new post on the thread and you can always find it under "view all subscribed threads". And depending on your setting you might get an email every time some posts something to this thread. Hope this helps!!

Weird bathroom aside, the W looks like a really nice place to stay. Close to the beach, nice rooms, and I totally would have been geeking out over the stairway through the swimming pool.

It was very pretty and relaxing! Perfect start for the vacation!

Yes, they opened their first branch in London about a year ago. No there are 10 with 2 more opening soon. A lot of them are in London and the South East, but we have one in Manchester and there is one in Birmingham. You definitely need to come back to England, but then I am biased.

Corinna

Ok, Five Guys goes on the list of things I need to eat next time in the UK (together with Pret a Manger, Wagamama, cream tea, crumpets and gammon steak)!

 

[Flossbolna]

Day 5, May 2

Embarkation Day in Miami
Cast Off: 5:40pm
Start of Voyage: 6:15pm
Dress Code: Cruise Casual
Dinner Menu: Let the Magic Begin
Weather: Partly Sunny, 78°F/26°C
Day 1 Personal Navigator (link to disneycruiselineblog.com)

For the duration of the cruise, I will give some statistics about the day. It's the type of information you would find on the daily Navigator. This is a sheet of paper (double of what you would call letter format in the US, we here would call it A3, and then folded in half, with an additional insert) that gives you all the info about what is happening that day on the ship.

If you are interested in seeing all the Navigators for our cruise, the (unofficial) Disney Cruise Line Blog has them all here. Since someone else already went through all the effort to scan them, I won’t be posting mine here. But I will link at the beginning of the day to that day's Navigator.

The weather information and the port times however will not come from the Navigator. I have no idea how and why, but the daily forecasts were extremely generic and way off from the weather we actually experienced. I do have a wonderful source for the real weather though, but the type of the source will be revealed at a later point in time…

So let’s start with the real update!!

Today was the big day: We would board the ship. I have to say that now that the cruise was getting closer I was getting a bit apprehensive about the whole thing. Would I feel trapped by being on the ship for such a long time. Between Cartagena and Puerto Vallarta were going to be five full days when we would not step on land (we would be very close though on the Panama Canal day). But I was also still excited about finally being back on the beautiful Wonder!

We had a leisurely start in the morning. A friend of Michael was so nice to drive us to the port, so that we would not have to get a shuttle or a rental car. Leaving Michael’s car at the port was not an option as our cruise would not bring us back to Miami.

We left the hotel at around 11am and of course had to hit some traffic driving down to the port in Miami. But all in all it took us less than an hour to get there. So not too bad at all. I tried to get a picture of the first glimpse of the ship from the car:

When we got to the port a little before 12pm, I was much better prepared about what was going to happen last time. On my first cruise I was kind of confused and nervous. This time I knew that as soon as our car stopped that there would be a porter ready to take any suitcase away from us that we did not hold onto. We actually had very little carry on luggage and our bags quickly joined the piles that had already formed.

After a quick goodbye and thank you very much to Michael’s friend we were off into the terminal building. At Port Canaveral Disney has their own building, here in Miami they use a standard facility. It is actually a nice building, rather new. And they try to Disneyfy it with banners and such.

The first doors you go through, they check that you have your cruise documents with you. And I think they wanted to see our passports here already as well (just to check that we had them with us).

Then you line up for a security check (we were lucky and there were maybe two people in front of us). After that you enter a very long hall with the check in desks to the right:

There were different lines for new cruisers and Castaway Club (CC) members. The CC line was non-existent. We just walked through and directly up to a desk. Very nice! The new cruiser line was longer, but did not look too bad either.

Check-In was very quick. We still had to fill out the health questionnaire (asking whether we had flu symptoms and fever or gastrointestinal problems in the last few days) and did that during the check in.

When we got into the check-in hall, they just announced that they were boarding boarding group 4 now. At check-in we were given boarding number 5 (it’s a little card with the number written on it). We also got lanyards, a grey one each. This was the last time Michael got a grey one which stands for silver CC member, after this cruise he is now a gold CC member and they get yellow lanyards. In a certain way those lanyards really make the “pecking order” obvious on the ship. ;-) The newbies don’t get anything, the beginners get grey (silver CC member), the intermediates get yellow (gold CC member) and the experts get black (platinum CC member). I was very proud that I had moved on from “newbie” to “beginner” level!! I immediately noted that the lanyards we were given were much nicer than the one Michael had last year. They were a much softer, shinier material. Last years also had the pattern woven into them, so the back looked different. These were printed on. They are very much like the lanyards being sold for pin trading. I liked them very much as they were more comfortable to wear. And as you will see, I wore my lanyard quite a bit.

Before my first cruise, I really could not see the appeal of those lanyards. I had seen people wearing lanyards in the parks and thought that was rather odd. But since I often was wearing a sundress without pockets, it was so easy to just have the lanyard with the room key hanging from my neck. I also put the ticket with the dining locations for each day into it and the coffee card for the Cove Café. Even when I had my tote bag with me with the stuff I wanted to take to the pool (kindle, sunscreen, sun hat etc.), it was much easier to find the room key as it was attached to a long lanyard. Also, since this winter the room locks on the Wonder have been updated, so that you just need to touch your room key (like they did at WDW) and no longer insert it. With that, you really did not have to take the room key (which btw is also called Key to the World, like at WDW) out of the little plastic pouch.

Enough praising the lanyards…

Once we were done with checking in, I expected that boarding group 5 (us!) would be called soon. I had read that usually there is not a long delay between the different boarding groups. But that did not seem the case. I was surprised how crowded the terminal building was, there were people everywhere! We managed to get the first day Navigator from a cast member and tried to position us close to the entrance. It seemed to take a lot of time, but according to the time on my pictures, there is only 12 minutes between the check in desk picture and the next one:

This is the first people of boarding group 5 starting to get onto the ship. We were following just behing! The groups in front of us all skipped the picture, so we did not have a line at all. I did not let Michael skip the picture and it later turned out to be a really good picture!!

Some more walking…

And then we are on the ship! Normally you enter the ship on deck 3 directly into the atrium. But at Miami you get onto deck 4 and then walk down the stairs into the atrium. This is our first view of the atrium:

And then I had to celebrate my first steps onto the Disney Wonder carpets by taking a picture of my feet:

Our first stop was lunch. There are two options for lunch on embarkation day: Beach Blanket Buffet which is on deck 9 and is the general buffet restaurant, and Parrot Cay which is on deck 3 and turns into one of three main restaurants in the evening. The difference is that while BBB is totally self service, for PC you get seated at a table and drinks are served by the servers. You just go and get your food yourself. I prefer that much more! That’s why we are at PC on our last cruise as well as on this one.

Heading over to PC we noticed that there was quite a different crowd on this cruise than on the last one. First of all we immediately started to notice the absence of children. Instead there were many largish (6 or more) groups of adults that obviously belonged together. Some of them were wearing matching t-shirts even. We also noticed that those people knew their way around the ship much better than the crowd we sailed with on the Wonder last year. There was a line of people wanting to eat at PC. Last time it was 2/4 empty.

After some confusion because the guy in front of us was checking in alone, but needed a table for a group of 8, we were told that there was no table for two, but we could share a table. We agreed to that and were lead to a table for 6, which already had one couple sitting there. We were lead to the other end of the table, so it really was not like sharing a table. They kept to themselves and were gone rather quickly, too.

The buffet had exactly the same offerings as last time. At first I was amused. But then I thought it really made sense to have the same process to repeat every embarkation day. I headed to the buffet first and when I got there I spotted a known face a little further along the buffet line. It was Corinna, with whom I had talked to on the AKL FAQ thread in the past as well as on our cruise thread. So I headed over and quickly said hello, but obviously that was not the best place for a chat! But we ended up running into each other quite a bit during the course of the cruise.

Some food pictures, let’s start with Michael’s plate. Which you can recognize by the well done beef. It is his tradition to have beef for the first lunch on a cruise ship. And my beef would never be well done…

This is my plate, chicken and salad and a tiny roll filled with chicken salad:

As you can see, we both tried to eat lightly for our first meal. This was before we had gotten our instructions from Jimmy!!

I actually got a second plate:

By the time we got to PC it was after 12:30pm and the staterooms were going to be ready after 1:30pm. So we just had a very leisurely lunch and once it was 1:30pm we headed to our stateroom.

Next: Settling in!

 

[nodnol]

I think you have to correct your lunch picture - your beef looks very well done as well! Back to read some more...

 

[nodnol]

Day 5, May 2

Embarkation Day in Miami
Cast Off: 5:40pm
Start of Voyage: 6:15pm
Dress Code: Cruise Casual
Dinner Menu: Let the Magic Begin
Weather: Partly Sunny, 78°F/26°C

Thank you for the celsius!

Today was the big day: We would board the ship.

When we got to the port a little before 12pm, I was much better prepared about what was going to happen last time. On my first cruise I was kind of confused and nervous. This time I knew that as soon as our car stopped that there would be a porter ready to take any suitcase away from us that we did not hold onto. We actually had very little carry on luggage and our bags quickly joined the piles that had already formed.

I'm glad you were ably to enjoy the start of your cruise much more. I'm sure I'll be able to enjoy the start of my first cruise as I'll just follow my tour guide…

Knowing how big your suitcase is, I'm a little shocked by the size of some of the other suitcases...

 

[dolphingirl47]

It was great to meet you so early in the cruise. It is strange how we all seem to have our little traditions when it comes to embarkation lunch. For Graham it is Peel and Eat Shrimp and for me it used to be Strawberry Soup, but unfortunately this was not available for the last few cruises.

Corinna

 

[Flossbolna]

I think you have to correct your lunch picture - your beef looks very well done as well! Back to read some more...

Oops, thanks for the alert!! Michael would not have been pleased if I onde again "stole" his food and declared it my own... He is very possessive of his food, even in picture form...

Thank you for the celsius!

You are welcome! My secret "source" for that information provided both numbers. I guess with how international ship crews are, they always have both numbers available.

I'm glad you were ably to enjoy the start of your cruise much more. I'm sure I'll be able to enjoy the start of my first cruise as I'll just follow my tour guide…

I will try my best! Of course we are going to depart from a totally different cruise port. So who knows how confused your tour guide will be... At least she speaks the language of the locals there!

Knowing how big your suitcase is, I'm a little shocked by the size of some of the other suitcases...

Oh! I had not even realised that my suitcase was in that picture, but you are right! It does look like tiny compared to some of the other bags!!

It was great to meet you so early in the cruise. It is strange how we all seem to have our little traditions when it comes to embarkation lunch. For Graham it is Peel and Eat Shrimp and for me it used to be Strawberry Soup, but unfortunately this was not available for the last few cruises.

Corinna

That's funny how you have first cruise meal traditions as well! I really don't have any, besides maybe the fruit soup that they were offering. Sorry that they no longer have your strawberry soup, but they had something else that was fruity and quite delicious!

 

[franandaj]

It is funny how we all have our embarkation foods! I like to have some mac and cheese along with a bit of salad. The other things can vary, but I like to take it myself. On my second Wonder trip they had an outbreak on the ship prior to our cruise and the staff had to serve us from the buffet for the first two days. It was very weird and I did not like that at all.

I'm glad your first lunch worked out very well for you. I also spreche ein bissien Deutsch. I do understand Herzliche Wilkommen, and other simple phrases. Sounds good so far!

 

[tiggrbaby]

We used to order Mickey bars from room service on our first day!

 

[Flossbolna]

It is funny how we all have our embarkation foods! I like to have some mac and cheese along with a bit of salad. The other things can vary, but I like to take it myself. On my second Wonder trip they had an outbreak on the ship prior to our cruise and the staff had to serve us from the buffet for the first two days. It was very weird and I did not like that at all.

I'm glad your first lunch worked out very well for you. I also spreche ein bissien Deutsch. I do understand Herzliche Wilkommen, and other simple phrases. Sounds good so far!

More German speakers!! Sounds like your German is about as good as my French. Even if it is not much, sometimes just a few phrases can be sooo helpful!

Interesting to hear about more embarkation day food traditions!!

I have read about how they serve you at the buffets in case of outbreaks. I once was at a wedding where they had a very fancy buffet (partly with cooking stations) and there you were served as well. I kind of liked it as they did take care to arrange what you wanted very nicely on the plate and that is one of the things I don't like about buffets: I like it when my food is nicely plated. When I dump it on there on my own, it usually looks like chaos. But if the CMs just put it on the plate in the same fashion as I would, I think I would prefer doing it myself as well...

We used to order Mickey bars from room service on our first day!

Another first day tradition!!

While I don't have a tradition in connection with the buffet, I think I have after my second cruise now another first day tradition that I am going to keep. More about that in the next update!

 

[DH of dolphingirl47]

Garnelen schälen und essen.

 

[annichan]

Oh, so you are from Hamburg? Or Kiel?

I have actually started to seriously look at other cruise lines. So far the one that appeals to me the most is Princess.

Yes, from Hamburg originally!
I have also looked at other cruise lines and found Celebrity appealing, but their "German prices" for the cruises I looked at were really high. I also looked up a few other cruise lines (if briefly) and it really seems that Disney is the cheapest of the lot, because they do not have separate prices for Germany or the Euro area (more expensive ones, like so many other companies). What was your experience, did you find anything more affordable than (but not too different from) DCL? Maybe I just need to look more.

I guess this is all I can tell you about the three days in Fort Lauderdale.

Okay, when I recommended "our" Miami sightseeing tour to you before your trip, I very much expected that would come much too late since you would have everything planned out already long before ... But now I see that you weren't staying in Miami anyway, so it wouldn't have worked at all!

Also, since this winter the room locks on the Wonder have been updated, so that you just need to touch your room key (like they did at WDW) and no longer insert it. With that, you really did not have to take the room key (which btw is also called Key to the World, like at WDW) out of the little plastic pouch.

Oh neat, I hadn't heard about that, that is useful. I hate fiddling with the lanyard pouch to open the door when I have, say, cups of coffee in both hands. I hope they have updated this on the Magic as well.

As you can see, we both tried to eat lightly for our first meal.

Yeah, we always do that at the embarkation brunch too - usually changes by the first dinner though

 

[MouseMomx2]

Eine weitere deutsche Sprecher hier! Ihr Bericht is wunderbar!

 

[kerstfan1]

So nice to see you here! I have to admit that I have been lurking on your wonderful Fantasy cruise trip report as we are seriously considering sailing the Fantasy next. At least this is where our onboard booking is resting at the moment.

This is the first time I stayed at a W, but I have heard good things about the chain. Do they have crazy bathroom designs in New York as well?

And at least someone who know what I talked about when I kept on about IGT etc.







Another European!! I hope you do understand enough German for this: Herzlich Willkommen!!

I keep wondering about how the EBPC will be a significantly different experience as you will have the four sea days in a row early in a cruise. Part of me thinks that that would be more relaxing. But then you lose 3 hours of sleep!!!

danke

 

[dolphingirl47]

That's funny how you have first cruise meal traditions as well! I really don't have any, besides maybe the fruit soup that they were offering. Sorry that they no longer have your strawberry soup, but they had something else that was fruity and quite delicious!

I did have the chilled Pineapple and Coconut Soup and really enjoyed it, but it was not Strawberry Soup.

I'm glad your first lunch worked out very well for you. I also spreche ein bissien Deutsch. I do understand Herzliche Wilkommen, and other simple phrases. Sounds good so far!

We have to practise that German in November.

Corinna

 

[Poodleparty]

Great info

 

[DWGal210]

Great update ~ love embarkation day!!

Yes, it's interesting how we all have our little "first foods, first activities, etc" on the ships isn't it? My DCL breakfast is always the same; their Eggs Benedict & a Mickey Waffle. Yum!