June 28, 2009 ~ 4 night on the Wonder!

[Blueyed Girl]

Is anyone going on this cruise??

It will be our first. I will start planning more after our trip to WDW in February.

 

[CRVPinMinnesota]

Along with the 4 day cruise we are going to WDW for 4 days before. This will be our first 4 day cruise, we have been on 2 7 day cruises with Disney, an Eastern Caribbean and the Mexican Riveara. Thats we decided to supplement the cruise with a WDW stay

 

[blossomz]

Hi!!! I am soo exited! We will definitely be on this cruise! It will be our first! My sons and I are going..they are 18 and 21 so I would love to find some other cruisers that I might run into! I"m sure my guys will want to go off and so some things on their own. We are DVC members and will be spending 5 days prior at Kidani Village! Can't wait!

 

[Blueyed Girl]

Hey! Great to see some people on here. We just returned from our usual February trip to WDW. The day we got home we had a package from Disney Cruise line waiting for us. What better way to end your vacation than with the start of planning a new one?!!

This will be our very first cruise. I have a funny feeling that we are going to get hooked. We can't wait.

 

[blossomz]

Yay! A fellow Dis-er will be on ship!

 

[CRVPinMinnesota]

Yes you can get hooked really easily. Granted we have only cruised with Disney so my view point maybe skewed and I'm sure the other cruise lines are very pleasant but here are a few reason's we stick with Disney

Our children are 6 and 8 and my wife and I am normally the entertainment committee, with Disney that’s off our plate. Oceaneers club, Oceaneers lab do the trick alone add to that all the characters, pool slides and plays, as they say here UFFDA.

Little story, on our last cruise we were at the pool and my son forgot his swimming goggles. He was disappointed that he had to leave the pool and the fun to go back to our room and get them. We just got in the elevator to go to our room and were asked to hold the door. In walk Goofy and his handler. The Goof saw my son was a little down and started to mess around with him. The handler invited us to the Goofs next appearance at which time my son was introduced as a special guest and the first to take a picture with Goofy.

With the kids occupied my wife and I get much needed adult time, sitting by the pool with a drink, Dinner at Palo's, wine tasting, taking in a show at a night club.

Then the family activities. The activity the one the kids like the most is Mickey Mania at Studio Sea. Mickey mania is a trivia contest between 3 families and this is one of an expanded area were we depend more on our kids.

So with all this going it’s going to be hard to go from a 7 day cruise to a 4 but we wanted to experience a different ship in the Disney fleet, can't wait until the next 2 ships join the fleet

I need to stop now, its getting harder and harder to wait

 

[blossomz]

So as first time cruisers..what advice do you have for us?!

 

[Blueyed Girl]

At this time in our lives I don't really see us trying any other cruise line. I like that Disney is family fun. My DS is 4 years old and has been to WDW 4 times in 3 years. We thought it would be good to kick it up a notch this summer.

I have never seen the ocean and it's just something on the top of my list to do in this lifetime. I just can't imagine being somewhere where the sand is white and the water is clear. We just don't have that here. The Gulf of Mexico along the Louisiana coast is brown and so is the sand. The Mississippi river is mostly to thank for that. I have been waiting my whole life to see what I will see in June. I am so excited!!

The Goofy elevator story is wonderful! So good that he did that for your DS. That is why we love Disney so much.

So, what type of excursions are you guys thinking of trying?? We were going to do the dolphin encounter in Nassau but we aren't sure if DS will freak out or not. In the end we decided to save that for another trip. We may just do Atlantis and the beach instead.

 

[blossomz]

I''m thinking about the shorter dolphin excursion I saw on the website and the stingray excursion at Castaway. Anyone done either of these?

I got our packet last week and am getting really excited!

 

[Blueyed Girl]

I''m thinking about the shorter dolphin excursion I saw on the website and the stingray excursion at Castaway. Anyone done either of these?

I got our packet last week and am getting really excited!

We are planning to do the Stingrays at Castaway Cay too.

Our packet was here waiting for us when we returned from our WDW trip a couple of weeks ago. I was so excited to get it! I didn't even realize we would be getting one of those so it was a nice surprise.

 

[Blueyed Girl]

Look at our tickers! Exactly 4 months from today.

 

[blossomz]

Woo hoo! It is supposed to snow tonight here..all I can think about is how nice it will be on that ship with clear blue water everywhere! I know...I was really excited by that little booklet! It made it seem real!! Maybe we'll do the stingrays at the same time!

 

[Blueyed Girl]

Woo hoo! It is supposed to snow tonight here..all I can think about is how nice it will be on that ship with clear blue water everywhere! I know...I was really excited by that little booklet! It made it seem real!! Maybe we'll do the stingrays at the same time!

Maybe so! Yes, it is cold down here too. I don't know what happened. 2 days ago we were in the 70's and last night it dropped to the 20's!! It is 37 here right now. I'm ready for some sun and fun too.

 

[CRVPinMinnesota]

For us, this cruise will be a bit different. We've went on exertions before which were hit or miss considering we had our kids along. For instance the ones labeled "tours" didn't work for our family, too much sitting around for the little ones and officiating for the parents. The active ones were a hit. We did a swim with the dolphins, and a day at a resort, good stuff.

This time we plan to do Nassau by ourselves. There is flamingo parade we want to go to but other than that, we'll spend the day on the ship, which does have its advantages such as... if you plan to use the coin operated washer you can get at them, bring quarters detergent and such from home if you can. The crew still has games and activities going on. When we did the Mexican Rivera trip last year I won the golf chipping contest and got a little trophy, tees and a ball and I don't golf, I just had to beat 3 other folks, matter of fact my son got a prize for being a helper.

When we were in castaway cay we just sat on the beach and the kids were in a program for about an hour. If I had teenagers I'd do the snorkeling, banana boat and all, rumor is they have a sunken Mickey that you can snorkel too. The DW and I walked back to serenity bay and kicked back.

Suggestions for the first time cruisers? Follow the Navigator,

Mickey mania is a blast with the kids. Before going out in Nassau order room service the day before, cereal and such, then put it in baggies to bring with you, the plays are great. I was going to say make sure you see Magical Farewell but that only on the 7 day cruise. I consider myself a macho man but also being a Disney fan, got misty. If you go to Palo's make sure you plan it with the Navigator, wouldn't want to miss a play. Everyone is different when it comes to sea sickness. I get car sick if I read in the car and I didn't get sea sick on the boat, no patch no pills nothing. The kids thought it was great roller coaster like and if the waves got bigger they liked being in the pool.

This will be a different trip for us. We've been to the plays and we don't plan to do much off the boat so we'll get to experience other things for us, this cruise will be a bit different. We've went on exertions before which were hit or miss considering we had our kids along. For instance the ones labeled "tours" didn't work for our family, too much sitting around for the little ones and officiating for the parents. The active ones were a hit. We did a swim with the dolphins, and a day at a resort, good stuff.

This time we plan to do Nassau by ourselves. There is flamingo parade we want to go to but other than that, we'll spend the day on the ship, which does have its advantages such as... if you plan to use the coin operated washer you can get at them, bring quarters detergent and such from home if you can. The crew still has games and activities going on. When we did the Mexican Rivera trip last year I won the golf chipping contest and got a little trophy, tees and a ball and I don't golf, I just had to beat 3 other folks, matter of fact my son got a prize for being a helper.

When we were in castaway cay we just sat on the beach and the kids were in a program for about an hour. If I had teenagers I'd do the snorkeling, banana boat and all, rumor is they have a sunken Mickey that you can snorkel too. The DW and I walked back to serenity bay and kicked back.

 

[CRVPinMinnesota]

Sorry did a copy and paste on a copy and paste (wanted to get the spelling close to right, had to use spell checker)

 

[Blueyed Girl]

Thanks for the tips! I think we are leaning toward doing the Aquaventure thing in Nassau. When we start getting tired we will head back to the ship and enjoy some things there without too many people. Our main plan on Castaway Cay is to just lounge. We are doing the stingray adventure and will possibly walk around or rent bikes but I think mostly we will just be beach bums and enjoy being in such a beautiful place together.

I told DH yesterday that I have a bad good feeling about this cruise. He just looked at me. I said I have a bad feeling that it will be too good and will become our new addiction! He just laughed.

 

[disgrumpydad]

We are on board (DD age 13) & DW. Staying at AKV for 2 days before the cruise and visiting the coast on Saturday before the cruise. Any good seafood hangouts near the port?

Any other teen girls going/or been to "Aloft"? My DD is wondering what there is to do and possible meet a DIS'er before we go.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[blossomz]

Are you planning on booking Palo? I'm thinking since this is our first cruise..we might just be too busy!

 

[Blueyed Girl]

We are skipping Palo this time around. Perhaps when DS gets a little older or has a relative/close friend to be in the kiddie clubs with.

Booking Excursions tomorrow morning!! Can't wait!

 

[Blueyed Girl]

Did everyone get their shore excursions booked?? I got ours done this morning. We are doing the Aquaventure in Nassau and Stingray Adventure at Castaway Cay. I was going to reserve paddle boats at CC also but it was not listed on there. I'm hoping that doesn't mean they are all booked up!(?)

We are also going to arrive a day early and spend the night on the coast. Probaby at Cocoa beach. This will give me a chance to dip my toes in the ocean for the very first time before boarding the ship!


Our cruise doesn't seem to have a large booking. There seem to be plenty of staterooms left and there are only 3-4 of us on this thread. I wonder why? Maybe because we booked too close to July 4th? Just curious.