July 09 WONDER w/Dis Stars & New Menus; updated 9-3-09

[IrenicMom]

Glad to read more!

I'm RARELY in any photos. If it weren't for Joseph's Mom, I wouldn't have been in any in my trip

 

[joseph'smom]

I'm only in them b/c I begged people to take pics of us! Advice #1,005: TAKE LOTS OF PICS, and ask others to take pics of you w/ your camera...

 

[anetnmike]

Oh my gosh I know what you mean! I promise myself I will take pictures of everything I lay eyes on the next time I go and then I get so caught up in the excitement...
Thank God for my DH's ability to be more grounded and capture me some memories

 

[OurOhana]

Still enjoying the trip report - and glad you're having so much fun. Can't wait to read more.

Oh my gosh I know what you mean! I promise myself I will take pictures of everything I lay eyes on the next time I go and then I get so caught up in the excitement...
Thank God for my DH's ability to be more grounded and capture me some memories

Ditto. Same thing here. My husband says he's bringing four cameras this time in hopes I'll be inspired to actually take pictures. I did take some last time, but not many after we left port and I couldn't use my iphone camera - that's just so much handier.

 

[RoyalVizier]

If you look at the desk, you can see the little clock that is in each room. Can you read the time from that vantage point across the room? (1:30?) Now imagine it's pitch black. That clock does not light up. That's why DISers say to bring your own lighted clock if you want to know the time.

Uh, can I just stress here for all of your readers... pitch midnight black! Black like the blackness of having been swallowed into a Heffalump's gut. Way way way black!

Bring a light up clock!

 

[anetnmike]

4 cameras
that's a great idea except I am so happy to be in my happy place I'd run off without them!

 

[barney4liz]

SO glad to see the pics of your sideways Cat. 11! We have 2 sideways Cat. 11's on the 8/16 sailing. Were you on Deck 6 forward? Look forward to hearing more about your trip and how you liked that location.

 

[Narnia_girl]

Uh, can I just stress here for all of your readers... pitch midnight black! Black like the blackness of having been swallowed into a Heffalump's gut. Way way way black!


Bring a light up clock!

I loved your illustration on your TR of the inside of a cabin at night.

SO glad to see the pics of your sideways Cat. 11! We have 2 sideways Cat. 11's on the 8/16 sailing. Were you on Deck 6 forward? Look forward to hearing more about your trip and how you liked that location.

Yes, we were on Deck 6 forward. It seemed to be a great location for quiet and very little traffic. It was a bit of hike to get to our room if we didn't get off at the mid-ship elevators but do-able.
Seems that there is a connecting door on deck 6 aft that was often closed, so if we got on/off the aft elevators we had to hike down the opposite side of deck 6 and then cut over and walk some more.

 

[Narnia_girl]

At 3:00 p.m. we find our way to the Promenade Lounge for our scheduled DIS board meet. It wass fun to get to meet these families. The kids enjoy creating a craft thanks to AbsyBabsy.

Then grlzmom tells us of her fortunate procurement of the Walt Disney Suite and invites us up for a tour. Well, it’s just as nice as you can imagine. Beautiful, soft woodwork throughout. It includes a guest powder room, a master bedroom with large bathroom and whirlpool tub, a library, living room, dining room, second bedroom and another bathroom. And running the length of three rooms is a long verandah. It’s just beautiful. Sorry I didn't take any more pictures of it, but I bet grlzmom did and they are around here somewhere.

Three DIS children enjoying the view from the Walt Disney Suite:

All the while we are doing our DIS meet and tour, our teen boys had decided to go off on their own and do stuff.
They had heard about a presentation in the Buena Vista Theatre so they wanted to see that.
I’m not sure what they were expecting but they found themselves in the shopping presentation
learning all about jewelry and designer handbags.

They said they were easily the youngest attendees and the only males. Later in our trip, however,
Andrew was able to point out the fashion versatility of the ribbon handbag:

We said goodbye to our new DIS friends and met the boys in the cabin for the safety drill.

After getting the lifejackets on we were directed down a back staircase to deck 4 where we waited for everyone to show up. It was easy and didn’t take more than 15 minutes, but that’s a long time to be crammed next to sweaty strangers in the Florida heat/humidity.

Here's something I didn't know: your lifejackets have room numbers on them and they try to check you off as you line up. I assumed they called roll, classroom style, but nope, they are more efficient than that!

Finally, that’s done and we are ready to sail! We drop the lifejackets off and head up to Deck 10 so we can get a good view of the Sail-Away party.

Pikey (I know his name for TCD's report) has the party going when we arrive and it’s just starting to get in full swing when a couple of drops hit us. We decide to watch from deck 9 in the covered area but before we can move an inch the sky completely opens up and it begins to pour and lightning. (Remember a tourist died the day before in Cape Canaveral from a lightning strike.)

Everyone runs for cover. Once inside we hear that the Sail Away party has been relocated to the Atrium, decks 3,4,5. We find a spot on the railing of Deck 5 and watch the party two stories below. It’s just not the same.

I am impressed with Disney at how quickly they can relocate a live production. The characters were all there, CM dancers were in the audience, the music was perfect and everyone on the mail level really seemed to enjoy the party (well almost everyone).

But for us being up so high, the celebration aspect was diminished quite a bit. We could have moved down a floor but those were crowded by then, too. While watching the party below we spotted this fun fellow.

The whole time the crowd around him was gyrating to the music, he stood exactly like that. He was probably miffed about the missing the horn but his wife was having a good time.

My own party animal husband had abandoned the celebration by then to head back up top. The rain and pretty much stopped. Seems it just rained long enough to ruin the outdoor party.

oh, look! My elbow...proof I was onboard that day.


As the party was in full swing I glanced out the deck 5 port holes and saw that we were moving. At that point we gave up the party all together and ran up top to see as we set sail.

You can see that the decks are all wet, but others like us were more interested in the sailing than the party.

We waved to the fine workers at the terminal. We waved to total strangers on land....


And then we heard those beautiful notes on the ship's horn. And for some reason, I was crying.




Next up: our first show and dinner onboard and Bonine revenge

 

[barney4liz]

Our sailaway party on our last cruise was held inside too, due to horrible weather in PC that day. Oh well, a rainy day on a cruise ship is better than a dry day at work!

Sooo nice that you got to see that suite. Would love to see it, can only dream of sailing in it.

 

[missdani416]

"About 11:30 I decide to stand in the short line that has formed. My family follows. At this point we realize all our pictures up to the Minnie one have been deleted.
I had asked my son to see if he could check how many that card would hold and he accidentally deleted them all. It’s a bummer for sure, but we’re just starting our cruise so we try to shake it off. Christian is especially upset as he has taken many posed shots of his Lego character as he is writing a picture story; and of course, we lost all the Downtown Disney shots (not sure when we’ll ever get back there). "


Your pictures may not be lost. If you have not formatted the card you can download an image recovery program for free from the internet and it should be able to "find" your lost pictures.

 

[Narnia_girl]

Your pictures may not be lost. If you have not formatted the card you can download an image recovery program for free from the internet and it should be able to "find" your lost pictures.

I had no idea I could do this. I'm checking into it right now. Thanks for the tip!

 

[lucas]

Great report! Can't wait to read more.

ETA: Glad to hear that you liked the Radisson. We're staying there for 1 night before our Thanksgiving cruise.

 

[Narnia_girl]

Continuing with our first day onboard....
Since it’s been about five hours since lunch and we won’t eat dinner for another three, we all enjoy snacks and ice cream on Deck 9. Andrew had the Cajun chicken and rated it excellent.

Then we move inside to see the Golden Mickeys. We hurried to get there on time, but did not realize that part of the show was the "red carpet" interviews. We could have easily come 15 minutes later than we did—the theater was about half full. I’m not sure if this pre-show interview always lasts that long, but it consisted of a quick thinking reporter talking to about 8 children, none of who seemed interested in answering questions.

Then the captain and cruise director introductions were done and instructions were given about Nassau and other ship stuff.
Finally, the show started and it was wonderful! Enjoyed every bit of it. And, I found myself crying again. I think it's because nearly every song defined a portion of my children's lives. The Lion King was Andrew's first real movie at age 3; Christian's was Toy Story; When I was pregnant with Caroline, Christian wanted to name her Mulan. It was their childhood replaying in one beautiful show.


I was mindful of the “no flash photography” warnings and took a few pics with the flash off, but I guess my arms weren’t steady enough and they didn’t turn out well.

After the Golden Mickeys, we had time to return to our cabin and dress for dinner. The cruise director had let us know that everyone had a dinner reservation and there was no need to line up outside the restaurant. So we heeded those directions and took our time. A lot of people must not have known this, however, as they had formed a long line outside of Tritons.

As I mentioned, we brought along a cooler with frozen water and one beer. I had never mentioned to our cabin steward to add ice to the cooler and honestly I didn't think it needed it. My husband, however, had a terrible fear that his $1.75 beer was going to get hot and thus be wasted. So when we went to dinner, he carried that honker with us. So while everyone else was standing in line for the restaurant, we were lounging around waiting for him to finish.

I'm pretty sure there's a Jeff Foxworthy joke in here somewhere:

After the guzzling ceased we headed into Tritons. No waiting time, great seating service and attention by the head waiter. Since we were a party of five I assumed we’d be placed by ourselves or with a party of 3. Instead, we were placed at a large table with another party of 5, all women (ranging from a toddler to grandmother).

They were already seated when we arrived. I tried several times throughout the dining rotation to engage them in small talk and be friendly. And while they would politely answer my questions (how was your day? Is this your first cruise, etc…) they didn’t seem interested in talking to us. By the second night it was “hello” and pretty much nothing more. I’m sure they also thought us very weird for taking food pictures every night.

Our server for the cruise was Jojo from India. He was wonderful and we would be happy to have him again. The assistant was Izabella from Macedonia and she, too, was just as sweet and helpful as could be. We were very well cared for.

About this time I began to really feel the movement of the ship. My head had a dull ache which I attributed to not drinking enough water, but as the motion kept up I added a queasy stomach to the mix. I remembered that drinking water and eating well were effective in fighting off altitude sickness, so that must work on motion sickness, too, right?

Hoping it was true, I dug in.

These are some of the foods we enjoyed.
Tomato-basil soup—excellent!

Chef Luis French onion soup—excellent!

Rick enjoyed the chilled jumbo shrimp appetizer.

Crispy roast duck with Napa cabbage, potato cake and pomegranate jus. Andrew had this and declared it excellent. I tried the duck and just didn’t care for it, but I think part of that was mental (I’m eating Donald Duck).

Christian had the Triton’s seared sea bass which he rated a 5 out of 10. Said it was okay but not a lot of flavor. His meal included a potato crisp garnish which he said was a cross between crepe paper and a communion wafer.

Rick had the grilled beef tenderloin which he said was very good and the mashed potatoes which were “decent”.

I ordered the Porcini mushroom-stuffed pasta in vegetable broth. Jojo tried to steer me towards another entrée and I should have listened. The pasta was fairly bland and not to my liking.

We had informed Jojo that we’d be participating in the play and dine option so Caroline was served her Mac and cheese first. Right about 9 p.m. the CMs showed up and she went away with them.

For dessert, Andrew tried the no-sugar added chocolate cheesecake and loved it.

Rick had the ….Grand Marnier with vanilla sauce and also raved about it. I had the trio, of which I enjoyed duo.

We took lots of photos of the food, but not very many of our family. The ship’s photographer did come by and we posed but didn’t end up buying those.
After dinner, we changed back into casual clothes and I took one Bonine, remembering that they could cause drowsiness, I didn’t want to fall asleep just yet.

About this time we received a page that Caroline wanted to be picked up. She was disappointed in the Oceaneer’s Lab. In our pre-cruise days she had watched the DCL promo DVD several times and couldn’t wait to get on the slides she saw. What she found out was that as an 8-yr. old she was in the Lab and it was mostly video games, computers and some other board games (at that time). I guess she’s still enough of a little kid that she wanted to active play and really I didn’t want to park her there just to play video games either. We did walk across the hall and talk to the nice CMs in the Oceaneer’s Club and they said that anytime it listed “Slide Fun” in our Navigator that she was free to come in and enjoy the slides. We noted those times, but it ended up not working out for us to go back. I don’t think she set foot in the club/lab the rest of the cruise.

We moseyed down to deck four to watch some shuffleboard. It is just so relaxing and beautiful there that I made a mental note to try and steal some time to come back here with a book and relax. There was an older couple relaxing in the lounge chairs nearby and I could tell the woman wasn’t sleeping but thoroughly relaxed in the atmosphere.

After a time we headed back up to Deck 9 and watched a portion of a Corbin Bleu movie while enjoying a slice of Pinnochio’s pizza. Okay, we enjoyed two slices.

At this point we are full and tired and not all that interested in the jump rope movie so we called it a night. I thought the Bonine helped with my queasy stomach so I took another one hoping it would last into the next day. By this time I was wiped out and our bed was very comfortable. The kids, however, still had some energy so they stayed up and ordered room service. (separate rooms...very good idea)

Something I learned:

• It's probably okay to get to the Golden Mickeys right at the stated start time or even a little late....unless you like the pre-show interviews.
• You can try to engage strangers in small talk but for whatever reason, they just may not be that into you!
• Dine and play is a great service, but the kids clubs might not be for everyone.

Tomorrow: Nassau Segway

 

[lucas]

Enjoying the continuation of your cruise report.

I had to laugh about your hubby with his 1 beer. And also it cracked me up about strangers maybe not being that into you.

 

[OurOhana]

Ooh - Can't wait to hear what you thought of the segwey tour. I'm curious if you thought it was easy to use - I've never used one (and am not the most coordinated) but it looks like fun.

That's a shame about your tablemates. I've not heard many people say they had similar experiences. We really worried about sitting with strangers, but ended up loving them - and we're even going on our next cruise together. I wouldn't have guessed that would have happened. But it sounds like you enjoyed your dinners regardless.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Enjoying your report.

I can totally relate with having a 8 year old DD who did not jazz to the Oceaneer's Lab.

Also, about the sea sickness. I have never had drowsiness while using Bonine and it really does work best if you start taking it before you feel sick. We took one every day during our cruise and never felt anything. We also didn't have the stabilizers working and we rocked at night.

 

[Ware Bears]

Really enjoying your report.

 

[missdani416]

Great job on your trip report! I can't wait to read more.

 

[hopeforus]

I am having such a fun time reading your review. I am thinking of something similar for my family next summer. Also, I am from Illinios - about 2.5 hours from St. Louis - we might be neighbors.

Can't wait to hear more.