Jan 19th Wonder (arrival through boarding)

[tkd lisa]

Cast of Characters: Myself - late 30s, DH - mid 40s, DD - 10 1/2, DS - 9 1/2
Itinerary: Washington Dulles to Orlando 1/18, Wonder 1/19-1/23, Cape Kennedy 1/23, Animal Kingdom 1/24 Home 1/25

This was our 2nd cruise. We were on the inaugural Western Caribbean in May and really enjoyed it. But we didn't plan to cruise again until maybe late 2003. But Disney got us with those great January discounts for return cruisers! We reserved two rooms for the 1/19 trip (the kids already had 2 1/2 days off school that week) trying to convince my in-laws to come with us to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. They turned it down due to health concerns. As it turned out DH's dad had a pacemaker put in 10 days before we left, so they couldn't have gone anyway. He's doing well now though. When the in-laws said no, I told DH that I'd call to cancel and he said "let's go anyway!" So there we were.

We had a 12:50 pm flight out of Dulles on the 18th. We live about 2 hours south so we dropped the fish off at a neighbors and were on our way by 8:30. Uneventful trip down to Orlando. When we arrived it was about 55 degrees. We had a rental car from Avis (got to love that on-airport location!), and had booked a room through Priceline. We bid $33 and got the Airport Renaissance. It was very nice and well worth the $. We checked in and decided to find a place for dinner. We ended up at the Olive Garden by the Florida Mall and had a nice meal for reasonable money.

We headed back out in the morning after a quick stop by Target for batteries and reading material for the kids. Had breakfast at Steak and Shake and we were off to the port! As we came up to the port, I was trying to take pictures out the window. Somehow, DH missed the first port exit, and we took the 2nd one. Just in case anyone does this, you can't get there from here! We wandered around the opposite end of the port for about 15 minutes, almost drove off the end of a dead end road, and finally just got back on the highway to get off at the RIGHT exit! We dropped the bags off, then headed to the Radisson to return the car. Avis was reasonably convenient, we had to wait through a couple of shuttles to get there, but it was probably about 20 minutes. Overall much better than our 35 minute wait at Hertz last year, followed by a 20 minutes trip back to the boat (that was before they moved closer to the port).

Back at the port, it was now about 12:50, and we were 2nd in line in the Castaway Club check in. We got our KTTW and noticed we were in the TAPT rotation. Yoo Hoo. Normally with kids our age, you get PTAP, and we really didn't care for Parrot Cay.

We boarded right away (maybe 15-20 people in front of us), and went straight to our room (7538). The kids were surprised by the veranda. We had gotten a free upgrade from a Cat 9 ocean view to a Cat 5 verandah. The verandah comes in handy later.

We had lunch at Beach Blanket buffet at an indoor table. It was probably mid 60s with a brisk breeze!

Coming soon! Sail away and John Travolta dances into the night!

 

[tkd lisa]

I find it easier to follow a report if it's all on one thread, so that's what I'm going to do.

Cast of Characters: Myself - late 30s, DH - mid 40s, DD - 10 1/2, DS - 9 1/2

After lunch, we cancelled the kid's charging privileges and my DH tried to add our son to his fishing excursion. Didn't work since it was completely booked up. We checked the kids into the lab, since we had lost our DD the last time just before the life boat drill. The lifeboat drill went smoothly, then the kids wanted to swim (even though it was COLD)! We pulled them out for the sailaway party, and took off uneventfully.

One general thing that I noticed about feeling the motion of the ship. On the 7 day Western, we travelled some pretty substantial distances, so we were moving pretty darn quickly. The engine noise and boat motion were noticable. On this trip, I believe we went a grand total of something like 650 nautical miles, and I never noticed any motion or engine noise.

We had late dinner and the early show. We went to Hercules. Our DD had a good time teasing Hades during his monologue. It seemed like he rambled on a bit more than our last trip, but it was really good. We went to Mickey Mania, and then to Triton's for dinner. Our server was Chistana from Thailand and her assistant was Irena from Germany. They were pretty good. They didn't do much to entertain the kids. The only exception was the first night, Irena turned our sons napkin into a peter pan hat, and our daughters napkin into a minnie bow. We got a picture of the kids with them that night.

After dinner, the kids were begging to go to the lab, so we went to 70s night. Last cruise, we didn't go to the clubs in the evening at all. This time I persuaded my DH that I wanted to dance, so since we're 70s type people that's where we started. I did mention to DH that they had lip synching contests, and he said that he wasn't going to do that. When we got there, we were dancing and one of the CMs asked DH if he would be a judge. He said as long as I don't have to dance and she said Of course!

Cutting to the chase, after the 3 male judges judge the Gloria Gaynor's, they get to be John Travolta! Our waitress came over looking for our KTTW to pay for the drink, and my DH had the card. She said she could wait, but asked if I had my camera. That's when I realized that they were going to have him dance too! I ran up 4 sets of stairs to get the camera and made it back in time. For anyone who was there, he was John Travolta number 1 (the really short one!). His "white jacket of power" hung down past his hands and halfway to his knees. The 2nd guy was a really big guy, who could barely get the jacket on. Anyway, after it was all done, he was still speaking to me. We had a lot of fun. Before we knew it, the pager buzzed to say the lab was closing in 15 minutes. We got the kids and went to bed. It was a great start to the trip!

 

[tkd lisa]

Cast of Characters: Myself - late 30s, DH - mid 40s, DD - 10 1/2, DS - 9 1/2

We woke up this morning to a sunny day, slightly breezy. We pulled out the shorts. I went up to the buffet to get a few things (including coffee) to get the crew moving. We really enjoyed having that little starter on the verandah. It was a really nice start to the days. We all made it up to the buffet about 8:30 ish and after breakfast, the kids went to the lab. They had no desire to go to Nassau. DH and I wandered around shopping for a couple of hours. He decided that our DD needed a new bathing suit, so that was our quest. There really weren't hardly any kids bathing suits around, but we finally found one that he liked and headed back to the ship about 12:00. We didn't particularly think that Nassau was overly dirty or pushy. I have long hair, which I had tied into a couple of braids. Several people asked if I wanted my hair braided, but it wasn't like every 2 feet someone stopped us. They all took no for an answer without any pushiness.

The kids were eating lunch when we got back. DH and I went to Triton's for lunch, and as we were finishing, the lab paged us to pick the kids up. They wanted to go SWIMMING!!!! So they spent a couple of hours in the Goofy Pool with dad, while I laid in the sun. DD wanted to go to the show (Mouseketeer), and DS wanted to see Treasure Planet with the lab. We watched the show, and were in Family Dueling Pianos when the lab paged us saying DS had gotten sick and to pick him up in the lab. When I got to the lab, they said that we needed to take him down to medical. The on-call nurse came down and checked him out. She gave us some medicine, and said to let them know how he felt in the morning. She said that they didn't open until 9:30, so we could call Guest Services and let them know if we wanted to go to Castaway Cay before they opened. Basically, she said it was just a courtesy. We weren't prevented from going out, they just wanted to know he was okay. She said that if he was okay the next morning, keep him out of the clubs until mid-day or so.

DH and DD went to dinner at Animator's while I stayed with DS in the cabin. I had ordered him some crackers and a pizza for myself from room service when there was another knock on the door. When DH went to the dining room without us, the servers had him pick out dinner for me and sent it to the room as well. It was really nice, but I had way more food than I could eat, since DH has a much bigger appetite than I do!

DS had asked our stateroom host the day before if he could learn how to make towel animals. Joel had said sure, just ask me when I'm doing it. On the way to dinner, DH had stopped Joel and asked him to come in and show DS. Joel was really nice and taught him how to make the elephant. DS made one of his own which we kept on the chest the rest of the night. Once we had done that one, we were able to figure out the rest of them pretty easily.

Coming up: Castaway Cay, and Kid #2 gets sick!

 

[tkd lisa]

Cast of Characters: Myself - late 30s, DH - mid 40s, DD - 10 1/2, DS - 9 1/2

We woke up early this morning, about 5:00. DD said she didn't feel good and threw up. She laid back down for an hour or so. When she woke again, she was fine. DH and I had the big discussion about what do we tell the staff. I was worried that we'd be locked in our room, but didn't want anyone to get sick. I figured that we'd just see how things went, but didn't think we'd be getting off the ship early, so I threw in a couple loads of laundry. About 8 oclock, DD woke up and she was bouncing off the walls! Literally running out onto the verandah saying it's Castaway Cay, let's GO! DS got up and he was fine. I got some breakfast and brought it down to the room. Both kids ate. Since medical wasn't open yet, I called guest services and told them what had happened. They could hear the kids in the background and said "that doesn't sound like sick kids. Go ahead to the island". So we did. As we got to the gangway, DS realized that his KTTW card wasn't in his lanyard, so DH and DD went on to the beach while we went back and looked for it. The 2 way radios came in really handy then. Lots of people laughed at our "Red Lobster calling Spiny Lobster", but at least I knew who I was talking to!

The kids played in the water for a while, and DS was really pushing to go to the kids club. DH wanted to check out the adult beach, because someone on the last cruise told him that had REALLY big prawns at the lunch over there. About 11:30 we put the kids in the club while we took the tram to serenity bay. There was NOONE in the water over there. There was quite a bit of sea week in the water, and it was chilly. Lunch over there didn't open until 12, and they only had hamburgers and grilled chicken sandwiches. The CM said that most people seemed to go over to Cookies to eat, so they were throwing out most of the food from the adult BBQ. They decided a while back to limit what they served so that less went to waste. We caught the tram back, and I picked up DD while DH went to catch his fishing charter. DS had NO desire to leave the club, he was having way too much fun, and the water was too cold for him. DD played in the beach until about 3:00 when she got too cold and said she was sleepy. We picked up DS and got back on the ship about 3:15. DS went back into the club as soon as they got back on board, and DD wanted to go to the show (it was the variety/comedy one). DH finally got back about 4:30 from fishing. FYI, they hooked two sharks, one about 150 pounds and one about 300 pounds. Neither one made it into the boat, but they were able to see it down in the water. He had a really good time, but thought that it would have been a little slow for our son. There were 2 boys (12 and 8) on the charter, and the 8 year old got bored. The sharks were too big for the boys to fight.

We got cleaned up because we wanted to do another family picture that night. Our first one turned out goofy because my hair was really flat! We went to the show, which was really good. It was a juggler/comedian who could do phenomenal things with his body. Both kids really like Ripley's Believe it or Not, and it was just the kind of thing you would see on that show. We kept saying it was too bad our son missed it! He had wanted to see Treasure Planet again. After the show, I ran up to get DS while DD and DH played Walk the Plank. They were picked after DD literally jumped onto her chair and screamed! Unfortunately, she forgot every bit of trivia she knew, and DH WALKED THE PLANK! DS and I met up with them coming out of the show and she was laughing about it. We went to get our picture taken, then to dinner at Parrot Cay.

As I said earlier, Parrot Cay is our least favorite restaurant. It's really noisy, and for some reason that just gets on my nerves! We put in our drink orders, and DD says "I don't feel good" and lays her head down. I could see the red cheeks and the sunken eyes, and I told DH that we should take her back to the room. DH leaves with her. DS really wants to leave because they're making flubber that night at the club. I manage to get him to hold on until I eat a few bites of my main dish, then we leave. When we get back to the cabin, no one is there. uhoh. Turns out DD threw up in the elevator and DH just took her straight to medical. Apparently she had been having some diarrhea through the day but hadn't told us. When the nurse asked her she said yes, she had. They gave us a letter saying we were isolated. Siblings couldn't go to the club, but if we weren't sick we could move around the ship. They did ask us to limit the exposure to other guests.

Upcoming, a day at sea mostly in the cabin.

 

[tkd lisa]

Cast of Characters: Myself - late 30s, DH - mid 40s, DD - 10 1/2, DS - 9 1/2

This was our day at sea. After we got the isolation letter last night, it said they would bring us a tv/vcr and any food and drink we wanted. They would provide toys/games, etc to the room. We got the tv/vcr and opted to keep the one already there. Several times, DD was watching a video while DH was watching the regular tv using the headphones we had for DDs CD player. For those of you wondering, yes the drink includes alcoholic drinks. They also brought gingerale and sprite. Finding plain saltines took a bit of work. We went through several varieties of crackers before they figured out what we meant. They also went above and beyone the normal menu. For instance, they made plain boiled rice w/ soy sauce once, and plain boiled pasta.

Right after we got the vcr, they gave us a list of movies. DD decided she wanted to watch flubber, so I called guest services and asked for it. About 20 minutes later, a knock on the door. I understand you wanted flubber? She handed me 4 baggies of the flubber they make in the club, as well as a pack of playdoh!

After figuring out the mixup, we kept the toys and they brought us the video. My kids don't get to play with playdoh at home since they can't help but make a huge mess, so they had lots of fun with it! Here's what I remember being on the video list:

Flubber, George of the Jungle, 101 dalmations, cats and dogs, snow dogs, american beauty, american pie, and a few other adult ones. I think there were probably 15 titles listed, with about 2/3 of them kid's movies.

I spent most of the morning packing our stuff. After all, we weren't going to need any of it anyway! DS finished up his homework (DD's teachers just told her not to worry about anything, DS's gave him a pretty substantial amount of work). We finished that stuff about 12 or so. DS and I went up to the oriental buffet at BB. We enjoyed the food, and took a few things back down to the sickies (plain rice, etc.) DD was really bummed because she love sushi, but I wouldn't let her have any.

DS and I wandered about, played a bit of shuffle board, then I talked him into watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding with me. The theater was absolutely packed, which really surprised me! That's the most people I've ever seen at a movie on board! We enjoyed the show, then headed back to the room. DD was feeling better and asked if she could go to see Disney Dreams. I had her wash and sanitize her hands, and we sat way off to the side, a long way from anyone else. About 1/2 way through, she had to go to the bathroom, and we went on back to the room.

That night was the master chef's menu, so DS and I went down to pay our tips and pick up the menu. We all ordered, and our stuff got to the room about 8:30 or so. We were on late dining, so it was pretty much the same time frame as normal.

We packed it in for the night. The next morning we woke up to everyone feeling fine. We went up to Beach Blanket for our last meal, headed off the boat as soon as they opened the doors. Disembarkment was easy, we got the Avis shuttle and met my mom and her friend at the Radisson.

Closing thoughts:

The noise level overall seemed less this trip. The last trip, I couldn't stand to be at the Goofy pool when the band was playing. This time, it was much more tolerable. The only place that seemed noisy was Parrot Cay.

I'll never again cruise that far north in the winter. To me, not being comfortable getting wet in that temperature took away a lot of the experience. I'm not a huge swimmer, but I like to at least get in periodically. 75 degrees with a light wind just isn't swimming weather to me. We were lucky to have sunny skies without bad winds. The crew members were happy to be able to actually get off at Castaway Cay.

We enjoyed much more of the entertainment this time. I did miss the family cabaret shows they had on the magic. We compensated by doing the trivia type shows at studio sea, and once did the dueling pianos, but I really liked the cabaret shows better. Again, the main shows were wonderful!

I was satisfied with the way Disney handled our illness. They didn't overreact, but once we were isolated, they did everything they could do to make us comfortable.

Hope you enjoy this. I'll probably post a one day report on the DW trip report pages to describe our Friday visit to Animal Kingdom (yes that was the day the temperature was 28).