Just back from 3/21 Wonder

[debmomof2]

Hi Everyone,
We just got back from our trip yesterday, and I thought I'd start a trip report. This was our first cruise, and I found the other reports so helpful, I wanted to return the favor! SO, here is our info:
Family of 4, Me 44, DH44, DS14, DS10
From Wisconsin
Cruised on the Wonder - 4 nights

This is a trip that we probably wouldn't have taken except for the kids cruise free special. We booked a cat. 6 stateroom, because I was very excited about the verandah. We got bumped up to cat 5 - which is the same exact room, just on a higher level. Our stateroom # was 7582, which my DH made the kids recite almost to the point of making them scream, then continuously forgot the number himself!

Anyway, being from Wisconsin, we were very excited that it was snowing on the morning we left - there was something satisfying about flying AWAY from it. Note to self: If it's snowing when you leave, it will probably be cold when you come back (at 1:00am), so PACK PANTS!

I have so much to share with you guys - I'm planning on writing it all down first, then posting all at once. I'll just say for now that we had a magical time. The weather was crappy the first couple of days, but who wouldn't want to see lightning in the distance over the ocean?

Deb

 

[debmomof2]

Day One
We got to the port early (10:20) since we heard this means less lines to stand in. Apparently, everyone else heard it too, because it was packed! We stood in line to hand in our paperwork (TIP: even if you complete your paperwork online, make copies and take them with you), stood in line to check in, then stood in a VERY long line to get DS10 a wrist band and pager for the Oceaneer Lab, then stood in line for pictures with Mickey, then stood in line for pictures with Chip and Dale. All together, we were probably in lines a total of an hour. DH always says that “ain’t Disney if you aren’t standing in line!” We got a #5 boarding pass.

It really wasn’t too big of a deal, though, since we were 1st timers and were so excited about everything. The most annoying line was the kid club line, and the wristband lady put my son’s band on way too tight, so we had to go back. The band has a little electronic box on it, and every kid is supposed to wear one. The problem is that it’s a bit bulky and not very comfortable. I saw kids with it on their ankles, which was probably a good idea. My son didn’t wear his the majority of the time, so when he went to the Lab, they gave him a new band. The lady told us that it was also a homing device, so we joked around that if Jake fell of the ship, we could find him. I know, not very funny, but our family is kind of warped that way!

Boarding started around 11:45, and we were on the ship by 12:15. What a sight it is to walk into that lobby! I had tears in my eyes when we were announced. I wish I’d had my video camera running at that time. The ship is absolutely gorgeous! We had a blast walking around exploring, then ate at Beach Blanket Buffet. There are many people who prefer Parrot Cay, but we wanted to spend as much time outside as possible. We thought lunch was great - no more hectic than any other area on the ship. We ended up eating at BBB everyday for breakfast and were very happy sitting by the railing looking over the sea. It was a bit chilly, but since it was snowing at home (this is a fact that we would later recite many times when the bad weather made us feel down), we were happy.

The rest of the day was spent exploring, eating, and getting ourselves oriented. I got Palo reservations for dinner on Tuesday, even though I forgot to go until after 1:00. There was a long line, so I was bummed, but it seemed that everyone who wanted reservations got them. Tuesday at 6:00 ended up working very well for us. We had plenty of time to get cleaned up after Castaway Cay, and we were among the last people to get back on the ship. After a day in the sun (YES, SUN!), Palo really hit the spot! More about this on day 3.

Both boys went to their respective clubs. John had to try a couple of times to get a pager that worked. I wasn’t really impressed with the pager system. We gave Jake the ability to check himself in and out, but asked the counselors to page us when he left. The plan was that we would meet in the room after we got a page. However, the paging system needs some work. We never really got pages until the last day - and then we got all of them at once. Luckily, Jake is pretty independent and always seemed to find us. Leaving notes in the cabin worked better for us.
We got into our room a little after 1:30. The room was fabulous! Bigger than I expected. We loved having the split bathroom! We met our room hostess, Debbie from Jamaica, who was excellent the entire trip.

Remember I said the weather was crappy? They had to bring the celebration inside, and for quite a while the outside doors were roped off due to high winds and rain. We checked out the celebration in the lobby, then ended up heading down the hall to a deserted Promenade Lounge. One of my fondest memories is of us sitting by a huge porthole all by ourselves, listening to the music playing cards together.

We saw the Golden Mickeys, which we all enjoyed, then had dinner at Parrot Cay. We were really rocking at this point, and Parrot Cay is in the back of the ship. We were all fine except for DH10 (Jake). DH(John), myself and DH14(Nick) had taken Bonine starting on Saturday morning, but the package said “not for kids under 12”. So, I went with regular Dramamine for Jake. Big mistake. He was feeling terrible by the time we ordered our food, so I took him back to the room. Just as we were leaving, our server noticed and gave me my dinner with a cover. He seemed truly sad for Jake. We walked around outside for a bit, then went back to the room. The fresh air really seemed to help him, which was one of the many reasons I was glad we had a verandah room. John and Nick arrived later with a plate of desserts - one of everything on the menu - yum!

When Jake felt better, we went outside and watched the storm, which was very cool! We were mesmerized by the lightning until we realized that we were heading TOWARD it. I decided at that point to start Jake on Bonine, which would hopefully not kill him, and this turned out to be a great decision (he’s still here!). No more seasickness! We all slept so well that night. The cabins are very quiet. We even had a connecting room, and I was concerned about the noise, but we never even heard our neighbors. All in all, it was a great day!

 

[missdani416]

cant wait to hear more

 

[debmomof2]

OOPs, that should say Day 2!
More gross weather! We braved the wind and headed up to BBB for breakfast. TIP: don’t leave your food unattended while getting a cup of coffee! A seagull swooped down and stole the bacon right off my plate! It was a good laugh! I think the cast members thought we were nuts sitting out there because it was chilly and misty. We didn’t care - again, we were happy to be outside after the long winter. Breakfast was very good - the made to order omelet was very tasty and the coffee wasn’t bad.

We had booked an excursion to Blue Lagoon - just for the beach day. John and I are really beach people, and were looking forward to snorkeling and laying on the hammocks in the sun. After we saw the sky, we considered looking into canceling the trip, but we were so looking forward to being on the beach that we packed up and hoped for the best. The day was warm, so we thought, we’ll be in our swimsuits, right? What’s a little rain when it’s snowing at home?

The tickets said to meet at Wavebands at 9:45. We got there a few minutes early to find......a really long line! Stood in line to get our stickers (different stickers on your shirt for different excursions), then sat for about 20 minutes while others got their stickers, then stood in line to get lunch/drink tickets, then stood in line to have our cards swiped to debark. Just a note - it is a bit of a walk to the catamaran. It was almost 10:45 by the time we boarded. This ended up being my one complaint about cruising. Last year, John and I went on a vacation to Grand Cayman and stayed right on the beach. It was 60 seconds from our room to the ocean. Now, I’m not stupid, I know that it takes longer on a ship and this isn’t a slam at all on how Disney handled it. It’s just my own “first time cruiser who is trying to decide if cruising is for me”. The ride to Blue Lagoon was cool - took about 45 minutes and it was neat to see the houses and yachts on the shore. It was raining a little, but not too bad. The cloud cover was really thick, though, so we didn’t really get the full effect of how beautiful the water was. The beach is protected from open ocean, which we were really happy about. The waves were crashing on the rocks, but then we turned into an inlet and the water was very calm. This little beach is truly beautiful. There are tons of chairs and hammocks and umbrellas. It’s kind of like a park area with a shelter that has picnic tables. The boys and I braved the cold water and tried a little snorkeling in the rain. We’re wet already, right? And it’s snowing at home, right? Well, the water was too cold for Nick and Jake. We did see some cool fish and a huge conch shell. The snorkeling isn’t for experienced people expecting wondrous coral and fish, but it’s perfect for kids who are used to getting excited when they see a bass or a big rock in the lake at home. I stayed in the water and it started raining so hard that it hurt my back! It was literally pouring! John described it as a gale! Everyone was called away from the water and we all huddled in the shelter. We had a chilly lunch (which was OK - not bad, not good), and waited for the trip back to the ship. We had a choice of returns at 1:00, 3:00 and 4:00. Normally, I would be the last one kicking and screaming on the 4:00. Bummer. It has to be pretty bad for me to leave a beautiful beach early. The ride back was freezing. I was glad that I grabbed extra towels as we were leaving the ship because there were puddles on the seats. There wasn’t enough room on the catamaran for everyone (only a few brave people stayed behind). I felt sorry for the people who did the dolphin swim - I’m not sure what happened, but there were a lot of long faces and a lot of people left standing in line for the next ride back. That was really a waste of almost $300.

The wait to get back on the ship was awful. We were freezing and wet, and we probably waited in line about 15 minutes. They have to swipe your card, check your ID, and x-ray your stuff. The boys headed straight to the hot tub and we hit the hot showers. The pools on the ship are like bath water warm, so the boys were happy. We were back in our room by about 2:30.

John and I were happy because we were looking forward to the martini tasting! This was one of the highlights of our trip. Very informative and yummy. They explain the recipes, have you drink one at a time, ask your opinion, talk about the origins of the drink... Lots of fun! Then, at then end, they take you to a table full of different kids of booze, give you a shaker, and let you experiment with making your own.

Time for Toy Story the Musical. We enjoyed it, but all agreed that it was our least favorite. Next time, I would skip this one and go to the deserted pools instead. During the shows/dinner is a great time to get some alone time on the decks. The ship really felt empty starting a 1/2 hour or so before 1st seating dinner. There is always something going on in Studio Sea between the show and dinner. We stopped there and had a great time, then headed to Triton’s.

Our servers were very happy to see Jake smiling and well. They remembered our drink orders from the night before and brought them immediately as we sat down. I love that they have Sprite Zero on the ship, since caffeine keeps me awake and my normal diet coke would not be a good idea that late. Dinner was great - Triton’s is beautiful. I found that my boys ordered and tried different kinds of food that they normally wouldn’t even touch at home. We were getting to know our servers better - Chatchi from Thailand and Renato from Costa Rica were awesome!

Nick headed to the Aloft and the 3 of us wandered around. Another ship was parked right next to us, so it was cool to check it out. We were set to leave Nassau at 2:00 am, so we were happy to not be moving and rocking until we were unconscious!

For those of you with teenagers - I felt very comfortable letting Nick stay at the Aloft as long as he wanted. He was usually back in the room between 12:30 and 1:00. How cool for him!

The rain let up later that evening, and it got a bit cooler. We enjoyed walking around the ship at night and got another good night’s sleep. Christian, the cruise director announced that the weather was going to be better tomorrow - yeah!

 

[verygfy]

subscribing, can't wait to hear more. We are doing our first cruise in September, 4 days on the Wonder. I am so excited

 

[debmomof2]

You will have a fabulous time!! Your son will be able to do the "Out and About" club, which my son loved! Let me know if you have any questions about it, since I didn't say much in my posts. I'm working on day 3 and 4 now.

Deb

 

[debmomof2]

Another good nights sleep. The sea air really tires you out! I laid in bed that morning, scared to get up and open the curtains. The rooms are very dark, which is nice for sleeping. I had visions of going back to Wisconsin pasty white and wondered if I could afford some tanning sessions before going back to work! Got up and looked out at a beautiful sight! Castaway Cay right out our verandah! Unbelievable! Some clouds, but warm and NO RAIN.
The cruise director made an announcement that some of the activities on the island were going to be cancelled due to the ocean being “churned up”. People would get their money back for parasailing, glass bottom boat, and some other activities. This really got us thinking about our excursion in Nassau. If people were having activities cancelled on a gorgeous day, why wasn’t ours cancelled? At least today was good weather. The more we thought about it, the more we felt that we needed to say something. They could have at least told us what they saw on their radar. With all the high tech equipment on board, the captain must have known that this was going to be an all day rain. John ended up calling the next morning and saying that we obviously don’t blame Disney for the weather, but we do expect them to take better care of us - we don’t have radar in our rooms, and wish that we had been more informed about the forecast. So, in true Disney form, we got a call later that night that they were refunding 50% of the trip cost. This made us very happy. I was expecting an onboard credit for a future cruise or something. Lesson learned: check at guest services before heading out on an excursion if the weather looks iffy.

Had a lovely breakfast and packed up our things and headed out. So much better to be able to just step off the boat onto the beach. We took the advice we’d read and headed past the family beach. Found a great spot - not too crowded. Jake and I went snorkeling right away. I wish that we had waited until the clouds passed, because he got very cold pretty quickly. We did see some very cool things - Minnie included. The farther out you go, the more you see.

Nick spent most of the day on the teen beach. We rented some bikes which was a lot of fun! Stay to the left people!! Someone’s gonna wipeout coming around a corner! The island is gorgeous - exactly what we expected. I’ve been to some pretty beaches in my time, and this one is right up there with the best.

Lunch was very good - I recommend the mahi-mahi or the ribs. All the soda you want, ice cream, and drinks delivered to your chair. No problems getting a chair at all. It was a relaxing, beautiful day. We stayed until the last possible minute. I needed a lot more time there. To me, it was the best day of the cruise. Getting back on the boat was a breeze, since both gangways were open. Why didn’t they do this yesterday at Nassau?

We had plenty of time to get cleaned up after Castaway Cay for our 6:00 Palo reservations, and we were among the last people to get back on the ship. John remembered a tip and decided to go to the fitness center for his shower - ours was not good. I liked that it was hand held, but the shower head needed replacing. John thought this was a good option. He felt like Buddy the Elf in our room shower!!

After a day in the sun, Palo really hit the spot! I don’t really feel the need to say much about Palo, other than the reviews are right. It was fabulous. We had a table right by the window, which was nice. John didn’t care for his drink, so our waiter cheerfully got him a new one.
The boys were in their clubs, so we hung out on deck and enjoyed the weather.

We didn’t really have to go to dinner, since this was our night to repeat Triton’s. The pirate buffet was on this night as well. However, the boys wanted to see our servers! So, just for the sake of seeing Chatchai and Renato, we sat and watched the boys eat.

The pirate party was a hoot! We watched from deck 10, which I would recommend for anyone height challenged like me. The fireworks were amazing, and the show was cute. Then, the buffet was out. The line was ridiculous, and we weren’t really hungry. The food looked really good, though, so next time I will make sure to be hungry! The ship has so many fun things to do, so we were really looking forward to the day at sea. Honestly, I can’t imagine doing less than a 4 day cruise - this was going so fast!

 

[missdani416]

So glad you had good weather on castaway cay, that place is the best!

 

[iloverags2]

Ah, rain and cold in Nassau. Been there. Ick. So glad you were able to make the best of your day. And Castaway Cay sounds like it was an excellent day!

 

[DairyFreeinTennessee]

Great TR. Thanks for doing it. Can't wait to read about day 4 and the wrap-up. Glad you got a partial refund. Better than nothing.

 

[debmomof2]

Days 4 and 5
We had a great day at sea. We ate, we laid around on deck, we ate... John and I finally hit the adult pool for awhile, which we really enjoyed until a cast member started getting a very loud game going. Not what we were looking for at that time, but it did look like fun. This was our first time having lunch on the ship since the first day. The weather was gorgeous, so we ate outside. We did a lot of strolling around the ship as well, and bought some souvenirs. The boys spent a lot of time in their clubs - Jake hung with the Out and About group and played dodgeball and karaoke. It was a beautiful, relaxing day - I could have used another day like this. I think the perfect cruise for me would look like this:
at sea
Castaway Cay
at sea
Castaway Cay
at sea
I know, you’re thinking, “where would we go on the sea day in between the Castaway days? I don’t care - we could drive around in circles or just stay docked. It would be so nice to stay docked there longer and maybe even spend an evening. Wouldn’t a bonfire on the beach be nice?

John decided to take the “Art of the Theme” tour. (not sure if we got this name just right) They walked around the ship and talked about the decorating decisions that were made, and about the 100’s of styles of carpet on the ship... A really cool fact, and one that I wish we’d had earlier in the cruise: on the carpet in the stateroom hallways, are anchors that are blue and red. The blue anchors always point to the forward and the red to aft. John enjoyed the tour and amazed us with trivia all evening!

I have to say that it was kind of hard to head inside and get dressed for the show scheduled at 6:15. Our evenings felt so scheduled, that I do wish we had chosen to spend some time on the decks during sunset time. Next time we’ll probably skip a show or two. We headed to Disney Dreams. This was my favorite show. It had that magical Disney feeling to it, and I’m really glad that we went. I’m also glad that the shows are an hour or less - I don’t think I could have stayed inside on a nice day for longer than that.

Time for dinner at Animator’s Palate. The atmosphere and decorating here was my favorite. I do agree with some other posts that the way they bring out the color in the room was not as cool as it used to be. Apparently, the color used to gradually darken and get brighter throughout the meal. Now, it goes from black and white to full color a few pictures at a time. It was still really neat, though. We gave our servers their tips at this time, and enjoyed the food a touch less than at Triton’s. We had a great time at dinner, and really enjoyed cheering for the servers as they did a little show for us.

I had done a little packing earlier in the day, so after dinner and a walk, I started throwing things in suitcases. You have to have your luggage out by 11:00pm, and I think mine made it at about 10:50! We ordered Mickey Bars from room service, even though we were still stuffed from dinner. I spent quite a bit of time on the verandah that night, looking at the sea. Stopped in Shutter’s and got our pictures. Bummer. I was really not ready to go home. I think that the big reason I wasn’t totally depressed was that we had a day planned at Epcot right after leaving the ship, and I was really looking forward to that. It would have been hard for me to leave the ship and immediately head home. I’m glad our airline tickets were for later that night.



Going home
We had breakfast in Animator’s Palate - you have this meal at the last dinner restaurant. It gives you a chance to say goodbye to your servers. I was impressed with the selection - I guess I was expecting bagels and donuts, but it was a small menu of hot items as well. We ate at 7:45 and were off the ship by about 8:30. Debarkation was flawless. We were off the ship in about 5 minutes and in our car in another 5. Talk about whiplash! We had left our rental car at the port during the trip - it was cheaper to just keep the car for the week than to rent one way twice. Avoiding another shuttle line was priceless. We headed to Epcot for the day with our Volunteer vouchers. Walked into the park by 10:00 and were able to get fast passes for every ride. We were even able to walk into Chef de France and have lunch at around 2:00 with no reservations! What a great way to end a wonderful vacation!!!

Thanks for reading - let me know if you have any questions and I’ll try to help. I’m working on a short “what I would do differently and the same” page. Coming soon...
Bon Voyage!

 

[debmomof2]

Here are some things that I didn’t fit into the report:

Things I would do differently:
-give Jake Bonine at the start
-skip the T-Rex restaurant at Downtown Disney (We spent some time there on Saturday before heading to Cocoa Beach)
-stay at the Hampton Inn Cocoa Beach - we had fun on the beach that day, and it’s walking distance from the hotel
-skip a show or two and spend more time out on the deck in the evenings
-I would make sure to have the cast member take more pictures of us at Castaway Cay early in the day. The pics are expensive, but they are professional quality. After about noon, the photographers were nowhere to be seen and they never came back!
-I would walk to the beach on Castaway Cay instead of taking the tram. We missed some great photo ops on the way because we were lazy!
-eat less!? who am I kidding?


Things I would make sure to do again:
-try the beach day at Blue Lagoon, but John disagrees with me.
-leave a rental car at the port
-get a verandah - it was the best part of our room
-tip well - these people work so hard. Chatchai, our head waiter had my kids convinced that they were the only ones he did card tricks for because we were his favorites. That’s good service!
-request our own dinner table. Dinner was a great time for us to reconnect and hear about everyone’s day - especially Nick the 14 year old who was gone a lot. It was really nice quality time for our family.
-bring our own snorkel equipment
-pack very carefully: you have several “stages” of your vacation and it pays to be organized
-request 2nd seating for dinner - this worked out very well for us
-get a room on the starboard side. The ship backs in at Castaway Cay, and that view when we woke up in the morning was amazing! We also were able to watch the ship slowly sail away and took some great video from our own room.
-do something fun the day we get off the ship - I needed something good to look forward to!
-book with Dreams Unlimited - they did a great job!



About the ship
-the boys thought that the pool for their ages was small - it didn’t help that the Mickey Pool was closed for most of one day due to poop...
-we loved the Outlook Cafe - they have a little cooler type thing with yummy sandwiches and desserts to just walk in and grab anytime

Expenses
We tried not to spend too much money. I think that we struck a good balance between not going overboard with purchases but still having fun. Our final bill onboard came to about $800, minus $125 credit from Disney and Dreams Unlimited, minus crediting back half of our excursion. So with souvenirs, about 2-3 drinks a day each for John and I, and some arcade time for the kids, we ended up charging around $550 on the ship. Not too bad.

 

[mfortune]

Good report! We were on this cruise as well and loved everything about it!

 

[KSDisneyDad]

Great report. We were on this cruise with you as well.

We too were at the port early (boarding group #3) and of all of our cruises, I'd never seen the kids line so long. I think it had something to do with Kids Sail Free. On the Sea Day, my jaw hit the floor looking at the Mickey pool area. I don't think you could have fit one more person in that pool. It looked miserably crowded.

I probably saw you several times during the cruise and didn't know it. I was at Wavebands at 1:00 pm playing musical chairs in that long line. We also secured 6:00 pm Palo reservations on Tuesday night. We had a party of 7 adults, so we were in their private room. The sunset at Palo was gorgeous that evening.

Sorry about your Nassau excursion. We had considered booking a snorkerling excursion, but decided not to at the last minute as we were nervous about water temps. I'm so glad we didn't.

Castaway Cay was awesome as usual. A little too cool in the morning, but we were the first ones on the beach that morning. I have pictures of our boys without anyone else on the beach. It was neat to see it groomed for the day. One of the boys braved the cold water for Pelican Plunge, but the others just played on the family beach all day. We did take a bike ride and I completely agree with you about STAY TO THE LEFT!!! I came around one corner and a boy around 10 years old hit me head on as he was on the wrong side of the path. I was able to stop in time, but he couldn't figure out how to use the foot brakes on the bike so he hit me pretty hard. I was disappointed that his Dad didn't even apologize to me.

We were also on Deck 10 for the Pirate Party last Tuesday. Loved the fireworks, but I think that's our last Pirate night for a while. After 4 times, it's not our favorite anymore.

We too enjoyed the Outlook Cafe -- especially the upper level to it. We spent a couple of hours up there enjoying a hot coffee drink (mine had Bailey's, Grand Marnier and something else in it) during the rain on Nassau Day while the kids saw a movie.

Overall, the four day cruise goes by way too fast!!! We really missed the "relaxation" that comes with a longer cruise. Our next cruise will be 7 days or more!! Can't wait until the Fantasy sails in 2012.

 

[lucy0558]

A lot of good tips and info here, I enjoyed reading it! Had to chuckle about your weather mantra "at least it isn't snowing". It helps us Wisconites enjoy all temps above 60 degrees! Thanks for sharing!

 

[debmomof2]

Glad you are all enjoying reading - I sure enjoyed writing! It's amazing how fast you forget details - we had to look at our pictures to get some things straight!

It's nice to hear from you, Christopher, and that you had a good time. It's funny that we were in the same place several times! I will make sure to do better at getting our info out before we travel. I think I had that same coffee drink, it was really good!

I think that a 7 day sounds really good, too. Today at work I couldn't help thinking,"what was I doing this time last week"... Fortunately, the weather is supposed to be in the 70's later this week, so being home doesn't involve snow (at least this week!), right Cheryl??

 

[verygfy]

You will have a fabulous time!! Your son will be able to do the "Out and About" club, which my son loved! Let me know if you have any questions about it, since I didn't say much in my posts. I'm working on day 3 and 4 now.

Deb

My son has looked at some old navigators and definitely sees a lot of things he would like to do. I am just curious how you keep track of them if they are signing themselves out? Did you have your son meet you at the room, especially on sea day?

 

[jessrose18]

Great report, loved the details. We were also thinking about Blue Lagoon beach day, but maybe we will wait until closer to the cruise to book, did you book the excursion long before the cruise? Not sure if this one fills up to capacity.

 

[debmomof2]

My son has looked at some old navigators and definitely sees a lot of things he would like to do. I am just curious how you keep track of them if they are signing themselves out? Did you have your son meet you at the room, especially on sea day?

They give you a pager and a wristband on your kid. They theoretically page you when your kid leaves the club, but this didn't happen with us. Also, Jake didn't really like have the bulky plastic square thing on his wrist. It worked fine for us to leave him a note in the room. After the first day, and certainly by the sea day, he was very comfortable finding his way back to the room and letting himself in. We had the guy at check-in punch a hole in Jake's card, and he had it around his neck on a lanyard the whole time. We just made sure that our notes to him were specific - if we weren't sure where we'd be, we gave him 3 choices to look and made sure we were in one of them. It really was great - no worries!

 

[debmomof2]

Great report, loved the details. We were also thinking about Blue Lagoon beach day, but maybe we will wait until closer to the cruise to book, did you book the excursion long before the cruise? Not sure if this one fills up to capacity.

We booked far in advance, but probably wouldn't do that again because there is no way to know about the weather. My guess is (this is NOT an educated guess, by the way!), that it would be rare to be turned away - they make big bucks on these excursions. If the weather would have cooperated, I'm sure this would have been one of our favorite days - it was beautiful there, even in a monsoon!