July 1, 2007--4 Night WONDER????

[AStamm]

Anyone else booked for the Wonder July 1-5, 2007 yet? This will be our first Disney cruise and I'm so excited! Can't wait for the Pirates dinner night...sounds really fun!

 

[GoofyontheHiSeas]

Hi AStamm,
I was wondering if anyone would ever start a post for our cruise. Our family of 4 will be coming to Florida next June/July for our second cruise. We took the Magic last summer to Mexico when it sailed out of LA. Saved alot in airfare. Since then I have secured 4 rapid reward tickets for SWA, so we are coming to Disneyworld. We will be doing the land/sea package since we have never been to WDW. We go to Disneyland about 10 times a year. We will be staying at WDW for 4 days then boarding the Wonder. Our two DD's 12 and 6 (next year) will not find out about this until Christmas. You will have a blast on Pirate night. Our whole family dressed up. Will post a link to pictures when I find them. Talk to you soon.
Roger

 

[nancyj]

We're on this cruise also - our first cruise ever! I was hoping for a 7 day cruise... We decided to do the 4 day cruise and 4 days at the parks. It will be me, DH, DS10 and DD8 (DS10 will turn DS11 the day AFTER the cruise).

 

[Love2Cruise]

We will be on this cruise also. It will be our 3rd disney cruise. It will be me and my DH , DD24, ds 21, dd17, and dd9. We will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary along with my parents who will be celebrating their 5oth. My sister and her Dh and ds 16 and ds 11 will be joining us to celebrate too! We have been on both the Eastern and Western and loved them both, so we are sure we will enjoy the 4 day too. Looking forward to meeting all of you on this cruise.

 

[DisneyGirl421]

I'll be on this cruise as well!
This will be mine and my family's 4th disney cruise, but first time on the Wonder.
Going is my mom, my dad, my sister (will be 22), and me (will be 19).

I can't wait!

 

[AStamm]

Do you all have passports or will you be getting them? Ours expire in May and DS doesn't have one, but there was just an article in our newspaper last week saying they will no longer be required as of that original January 1st requirement for those traveling by boat. I'm torn as to whether to spend the $$$ to get them now, especially since DSs will only be good 5 years.

 

[Love2Cruise]

We all have passports. I recently got them for my dd 16 and dd 8. We ordered them before they changed the rule. But we probably would have gotten them anyway because we wanted the freedom to travel anywhere at any time. My Dh does alot of domestic and sometimes overseas travel and finds that the passport is very handy even for domestic travel. If you don't plan on flying or driving out of the U.S. in the near future then it's probably not worth getting new ones.

 

[GoofyontheHiSeas]

We got ours before two years ago prior to our trip to Mexico. It was a lot of money at the time but we used them this last summer going to Alaska/BC. So next year will be our third trip out of the country. They are the greatest piece of ID you could get. You never what changes could occur to security and they could be required at a drop of a hat. But if this is a one time trip they probably not be worth it. Just feel much more comfortable traveling with them.

 

[AStamm]

We've been out of the country a number of times over the 10 years we've been married, but since we had our son, they've all been to Caribbean countries or Mexico. I'm really torn whether we should spend the extra money--not so much on ours since they'll be good for 10 years, but on one for our son. We're such Disney addicts now that I really can't see us doing much travel other than to Florida or California, but you never know.

 

[EAP'sDAD]

Me, DW, DD 11 and two DS 8,7 just had to switch our 7day cruise from April over due to DW work. We are looking foward to this as it will be our first cruise with the family. I was wondering if anyone knew if the would be doing anything special on july 4th. My kids are worried that they will be missing all the fun things that happen with the 4th. Anyways we are really looking forward to this 4 day cruise.

 

[AStamm]

Although I'm sure you're disappointed you had to switch cruises, the good news is perhaps our children will have new friends! DS will be 8 by the time we cruise next summer and is so excited about the Oceaneer's Lab.

We've never been on a Disney cruise before, so I can't answer your question about the 4th, but I would hope they would do something special in terms of the fireworks. Since we'll be out to sea that day we won't have any other opportunity to see any.

 

[DisneyGirl421]

I've been on the DCL for the 4th of July twice before.
They always have a special deck party for the 4th, with a special dining menu (american-themed food... ie bbq stuff, corn on the cob, etc)... and depending on where you are/when the pirate night is, fireworks. And the characters are all dressed up in red white and blue outfits, and they are available for pictures before dinner.
We went on the West Coast DCL for the 4th in 2005, and we didn't have fireworks on the 4th because the pirate night was the 5th, and they couldn't carry enough to do both nights of fireworks, but we had them the next night!

 

[AStamm]

It's official...the final payment was made today on our cruise and we made the final payment on our Windsor Hills condo yesterday. Two weeks at WDW followed by a 4-night cruise. Can't get much better, I'm afraid.

We decided to get passports just in case something happened and we needed to get out of the Bahamas via airplane. DH and I sent our renewal applications in sometime the beginning of February, a day or two after we took DS to the prontontary to get his--none of them have arrived yet.

I got all three of us pirates costumes for the cruise--we'll be getting major use out of them since we'll be at a P&P party at WDW in August and MNSSHP in October.

Based on all the recommendations on the boards, we booked a room at the Radisson for June 30th. DS is excited that he'll be at Cape Canaveral and we'll be doing the NASA thing that day. I'm actually keeping my fingers crossed that they'll be a shuttle launch sometime between June 16 and when our cruise leaves so we can be there for it. I saw that NASA is saying it'll be at least early June until they fix the shuttle.

Any new cruisers joining us?

 

[nancyj]

Congrats on making that final payment! We opted to use our DVC points (I know, may not be the most cost effective use of points, but we figure this is part of the reason we bought DVC, and I can't deal with renting points out). We're now trying to decide what to do on Nassau. The kids want to do the dolphin encounter, DH does not... Any suggestions? We're staying at the Country Inn the night before our cruise. We got a family room with bunk beds. After the cruise we are staying at Boardwalk Villas for 4 nights. I am SOOO looking forward to this cruise. I'm so confident that I'm going to love it, I'm already planning for next year (or maybe the year after that).

 

[nhpgator]

I couldn't find this thread and thought we woudl be on a boat by ourselves! We'll be going with DH, DD - 4years and DD 8 months and grandma and grandpa! This will be our first cruise so we are going to try to not overplan and just enjoy!

 

[rstamm]

Congrats on making that final payment! We opted to use our DVC points (I know, may not be the most cost effective use of points, but we figure this is part of the reason we bought DVC, and I can't deal with renting points out). We're now trying to decide what to do on Nassau. The kids want to do the dolphin encounter, DH does not... Any suggestions? We're staying at the Country Inn the night before our cruise. We got a family room with bunk beds. After the cruise we are staying at Boardwalk Villas for 4 nights. I am SOOO looking forward to this cruise. I'm so confident that I'm going to love it, I'm already planning for next year (or maybe the year after that).

I've been to Nassau three times before, having cruised there for a day once and had two actual vacations there. Atlantis is beatiful, and I see that they now offer a day pass for the beach and water slides there. You might want to consider it although it will be $$$$ to do it. I'm not a huge shopper anymore, but the Straw Market is fun. If you've been to any other islands, you'll appreciate the fact that the salespeople aren't quite as aggressive as other places...if this is your first time at a market like this you may think they're pushing for the sale a bit too hard. The three of us went to the Pirates of Nassau musuem during our last cruise--DS had a nice time, but DH and I were a bit disappointed in the quality and cleanliness of everything.

You could always leave your DH on the ship--that's what I'll be doing. My DH gets a bit seasick on small boats (and even felt a bit of it on our Carnival cruise) and would be completely wiped out after a 40-minute ride over and back for the Dolphin Encounter. I suspect he'll be in the room most of the time enjoying the chance to relax a bit and watch a little TV, over at the movie theater if they're showing anything during the excursion, and up at the lunch buffet sampling lots of tasty food.

As for planning for another cruise, it's in the back of my mind, but I'll definitely have to see how all 3 of us react to this cruise. We were really disappointed with the Carnival cruise three years ago and its taken until now to convince DH to try the Disney one. The price is so high for the cruise though--we're only spending 1/3 of the price of this 4-night cruise for our Cat. 11 room for our 14 nights at Windsor Hills for a 2-bedroom/2-bath condo. Granted, that price doesn't include tickets to the parks (but we've got annual passes, so that's already paid for) or food (but we've got the DDE card for 20%), but this cruise is going to have be really something to make us go back in the next year or two.

 

[AStamm]

I couldn't find this thread and thought we woudl be on a boat by ourselves! We'll be going with DH, DD - 4years and DD 8 months and grandma and grandpa! This will be our first cruise so we are going to try to not overplan and just enjoy!

Welcome! Glad you found the thread. This is our first DCL cruise as well and I'm getting more excited as the days tick by.

 

[AStamm]

I've been to Nassau three times before, having cruised there for a day once and had two actual vacations there. Atlantis is beatiful, and I see that they now offer a day pass for the beach and water slides there. You might want to consider it although it will be $$$$ to do it. I'm not a huge shopper anymore, but the Straw Market is fun. If you've been to any other islands, you'll appreciate the fact that the salespeople aren't quite as aggressive as other places...if this is your first time at a market like this you may think they're pushing for the sale a bit too hard. The three of us went to the Pirates of Nassau musuem during our last cruise--DS had a nice time, but DH and I were a bit disappointed in the quality and cleanliness of everything.

You could always leave your DH on the ship--that's what I'll be doing. My DH gets a bit seasick on small boats (and even felt a bit of it on our Carnival cruise) and would be completely wiped out after a 40-minute ride over and back for the Dolphin Encounter. I suspect he'll be in the room most of the time enjoying the chance to relax a bit and watch a little TV, over at the movie theater if they're showing anything during the excursion, and up at the lunch buffet sampling lots of tasty food.

As for planning for another cruise, it's in the back of my mind, but I'll definitely have to see how all 3 of us react to this cruise. We were really disappointed with the Carnival cruise three years ago and its taken until now to convince DH to try the Disney one. The price is so high for the cruise though--we're only spending 1/3 of the price of this 4-night cruise for our Cat. 11 room for our 14 nights at Windsor Hills for a 2-bedroom/2-bath condo. Granted, that price doesn't include tickets to the parks (but we've got annual passes, so that's already paid for) or food (but we've got the DDE card for 20%), but this cruise is going to have be really something to make us go back in the next year or two.

Sorry...I didn't realize DH was signed on...these are really all my sentiments!

 

[AStamm]

I've been on the DCL for the 4th of July twice before.
They always have a special deck party for the 4th, with a special dining menu (american-themed food... ie bbq stuff, corn on the cob, etc)... and depending on where you are/when the pirate night is, fireworks. And the characters are all dressed up in red white and blue outfits, and they are available for pictures before dinner.

This sounds so cute...another reason to get red, white, and blue clothing for the 4th of July...don't want to miss all these photo ops.

 

[Thumper's Mom 06]

I thought for awhile that no other obsessive/compulsive vacation planners would be on our cruise! It took me awhile to find this...I'm getting so excited. This will be our first cruise & our first real vacation with our daughter.

Happy Planning!