Just got off amazing first cruise back for the Wonder happy to answer questions

[greensombrero]

Just got off the first sailing of the Wonder post pandemic restart. It was such an incredible experience. Yes things are a bit different but the magic was still there and some new magic as well. If anyone has questions I’m happy to answer them. I will probably get a trip report up at some point.

Just a few highlights:

- Character experiences were awesome for me, I really liked how easy it was to get character time with little to no wait and didn’t mind the social distancing.

- Frozen was incredible, it was my first time seeing it and I was blown away. We also saw Disney Dreams which I have seen before but enjoyed. No trouble getting seats if we were there a bit early and both were shown on two nights so we had two opportunities.

- Loved the new dinner “shows” on Pirates night and in Tritons, it was fun to see them add the characters to dinner.

- Lots of fun onboard activities, trivia, karaoke, game shows, awesome entertainment staff and energy onboard.

It was so great to be back out at sea on a Disney ship! Again happy to answer questions.

 

[Keyser]

Great to hear! I guess some basic questions, if you happened to notice (I know these might not be things you paid attention to!):
- Can you say anything about the Edge, and the activities there? As in, did they have regular activities, and was it easy to find out what was going on, and when?
- How frequently were movies showing? How much variety in movies was there?
- I assume each of the shows was shown on multiple nights? If so, were there alternate activities for the "other" night (i.e. if you saw Frozen one night, was there something to do the other night it was shown)?
- Were there any other variety acts/performers on board?
- Did you do Palo brunch and/or dinner, and was it any different than what's been described for the other cruises?
- Did the 1820 society had activities?
- How was the gym operating (i.e. were there any special hours or restrictions)?

 

[greensombrero]

I have a 13 DD and 11 DS both spent time in Edge no reservations needed but they had a capacity limit I believe of 17. We never were turned away but it could happen. Hours were reduced it didn’t open until 10 am and closed around lunch many days for a couple hours iirc. In terms of organized activities in Edge they weren’t listed in the navigator I’ll ask my kids if they had an official schedule. They did have fun in there but my DD said there were mainly boys when she went and she didn’t want to go much after that. My DS enjoyed it but also had fun in the kids club with my younger kids since he could still go.

There were 3 movies that were shown: Jungle Cruise, Raya and the Last Dragon and Shang Chi. They were all shown multiple times and the theater seemed to have stuff going pretty regularly. There was also a good assortment of movies on Funnel Vision.

Yes each “Broadway Show” was shown on two nights, Frozen the first two Dreams the last. There were other activities going on in the evening, not shows but trivia, family games etc. We felt we didn’t get to do everything and were not bored on the nights we didn’t do a main show.

There was a magician onboard who performed in the D lounge/Azure a few times, I think Jon Armstrong was his name and we didn’t ever make it to one of his shows. They also had pianists in the Cadillac lounge and French Quarter Lounge

We did Palo Brunch for the first time and we loved it. No buffet was the only difference I was aware of but it was our first time so could have missed other changes. Food and service were great and we ordered multiple things and enjoyed it all.

I took screenshots of the daily scheduled in the navigator app and looking through it don’t see anything about the 1820 society listed. It could be they just weren’t in the main daily schedule but my guess is they weren’t doing anything.

I just ran on deck 4 so can’t speak to the gym. Running on deck 4 while at sea was awesome! Been waiting a long time to do it again.

 

[amy85]

Thank you for review! Would you mind posting the screenshots of the daily itinerary? Not being able to see the schedules in advance is killing me and my planner personality lol

 

[greensombrero]

Thank you for review! Would you mind posting the screenshots of the daily itinerary? Not being able to see the schedules in advance is killing me and my planner personality lol

I’m trying to figure out how to do it effectively. The lack of paper navigators makes it hard. The way it shows up in the app means I have like 50 screenshots. I probably need to reformat it somehow to make it easy to share/consume outside of the app. I’m open to ideas.

 

[chaddow]

Can you tell us about the Oceaneer's club? Were you able to do more than one reservation a day? My kids love the club so this is a big deal for them when we cruise on November 29th.

 

[samily]

Thanks for the updates.

A few questions…

Do you know how many passengers were on board?

Do you have pics of the menus? I’m wondering if they took advantage of the time off to refresh them.

Were you able to choose which show time you went to or was it assigned? How was seating in the theater?

How was the muster drill handled?

Thanks!

 

[erik3dis]

This is great info, thank you! Really interested in availability of the gym.

 

[erik3dis]

Were the sport court and ping pong tables open for their intended purpose or was the area used as a sundeck?

 

[TBLaube]

For the dining rotation, did you have the Pirate menu and if so, what night? Doing a 4-nt with CABO on Day 3 and trying to figure out if I guessed on the right night to do Palo for dinner.
Also, any information on the Rainforest Room? On the Dream it is $175 plus gratuity for an hour and forty-five minutes. Is it the same on the Wonder? Thank you!!!

 

[greensombrero]

Can you tell us about the Oceaneer's club? Were you able to do more than one reservation a day? My kids love the club so this is a big deal for them when we cruise on November 29th.

Definitely recommend getting advanced reservations which show up under onboard fun when your activity booking window opens. You definitely can get as many reservations as are available once you get onboard. You are supposed to be able to do it via the app onboard but we had mixed results and had better luck just going to the club and asking. They were super helpful and we got last minute reservations and extras but also got told no availability at different times. One time though they said no but reached back out a bit later that they were able to accommodate us so they are trying to make sure everyone can be there as much as they want, My youngest really loved the club and got to go a bunch so I wouldn’t be super concerned but it definitely is less flexible than in the past. The more structured format though really appealed to my kids. They start a new group at each time and have them rotate through different activities/sessions during their time period.

 

[greensombrero]

Thanks for the updates.

A few questions…

Do you know how many passengers were on board?

Do you have pics of the menus? I’m wondering if they took advantage of the time off to refresh them.

Were you able to choose which show time you went to or was it assigned? How was seating in the theater?

How was the muster drill handled?

Thanks!

We heard somewhere around 1000-1200 passengers from different sources, nothing I’d consider official but I think it was in that range. I felt it was perfect, enough people to have energy and excitement while never feeling really crowded or uncomfortable and waits were minimal for anything.

No menu pics but I will say I don’t think they really changed anything unfortunately.

Show time was based on dinner seating like in the past though no one was checking if you wanted to skip dinner and go to the show. They did not assign which night of the two you were to go to. They had cast members ushering and assigning seats it was every other row and three seats between parties. Doors opened 30 minutes early and people starting lining up maybe 15 min before. We did show up a bit before doors opened and got good seats. I’m not sure if anyone was turned away.

Muster drill was great, right after you board a cast member directs you to your station. You use the app to take a picture of your muster station sign to prove you know where it is and went there. Then there is a video to watch. At 4pm they sound the general alarm and play videos/audio everywhere on the ship that goes over all the safety briefing. You can just stay wherever you are. You can also watch the video in advance in the app or in your room.

 

[greensombrero]

Were the sport court and ping pong tables open for their intended purpose or was the area used as a sundeck?

The basketball court was a sundeck. The ping pong/foos ball table and the shuffleboard on deck 4 had signs to contact guest services if you wanted to play. I think they were sanitizing the equipment between each group and ensuring that only one group used them at a time. We never asked to play but I saw others playing. You can chat with guest services via the app or they were at their normal location but I never asked about the activities.

 

[greensombrero]

For the dining rotation, did you have the Pirate menu and if so, what night? Doing a 4-nt with CABO on Day 3 and trying to figure out if I guessed on the right night to do Palo for dinner.
Also, any information on the Rainforest Room? On the Dream it is $175 plus gratuity for an hour and forty-five minutes. Is it the same on the Wonder? Thank you!!!

We had HOTHS which was really just Mickey’s Mousequarade Party on sea day one. It was on deck and done twice and you had to be assigned a blue dot to stand on with your party to promote social distancing. Lots of people dressed up. Didn’t see any other Halloween activities that day.

Pirate night was on Cabo day. They do have a new pirate dinner show that was brief but fun and then we had the fireworks that night. They were the Happily Ever After at Sea not pirate themed. They had pirate games and trivia that day. Pirate night felt more themed than Halloween night except for all the Halloween decorations which were present and cool!

No idea on the rainforest room, sorry.

 

[greensombrero]

This is great info, thank you! Really interested in availability of the gym.

My understanding is the gym is open but I think the equipment is socially distanced and maybe there are capacity restrictions but I don’t know details. I heard more recently on the Dream they required masks which was not the case on earlier Dream cruises. Again I didn’t use it on the Wonder but that is what I’ve heard from others. I think if you want to use it you will be able to but may have to deal with restrictions.

 

[Vikesqueen]

Just got off the first sailing of the Wonder post pandemic restart. It was such an incredible experience. Yes things are a bit different but the magic was still there and some new magic as well. If anyone has questions I’m happy to answer them. I will probably get a trip report up at some point.

Just a few highlights:

- Character experiences were awesome for me, I really liked how easy it was to get character time with little to no wait and didn’t mind the social distancing.

- Frozen was incredible, it was my first time seeing it and I was blown away. We also saw Disney Dreams which I have seen before but enjoyed. No trouble getting seats if we were there a bit early and both were shown on two nights so we had two opportunities.

- Loved the new dinner “shows” on Pirates night and in Tritons, it was fun to see them add the characters to dinner.

- Lots of fun onboard activities, trivia, karaoke, game shows, awesome entertainment staff and energy onboard.

It was so great to be back out at sea on a Disney ship! Again happy to answer questions.

Great updates thanks

 

[KashasMom]

Thanks for the info! We're sailing the Wonder in Feb (our grand slam). We'll have a 20 mos. old who LOVES Mickey Mouse with us. Can you explain how the character interactions are? I think the lack of being close is one of the biggest things we're bummed about.

The other big negatives for us is having to take a Disney excursion. Did you do any excursions?

 

[ggfred32]

Who is the Captain?

 

[jujubiee4]

Did you get off the boat in Cabo? Do an excursion?

How smooth was the testing before boarding?

Did you drive and park nearby?

 

[greensombrero]

Thanks for the info! We're sailing the Wonder in Feb (our grand slam). We'll have a 20 mos. old who LOVES Mickey Mouse with us. Can you explain how the character interactions are? I think the lack of being close is one of the biggest things we're bummed about.

The other big negatives for us is having to take a Disney excursion. Did you do any excursions?

Character interactions were less formal and I liked that. They did list events like Disney Pals Wave and Greet in the navigator and then they’d have a couple characters on deck 4 overlooking the atrium and you could walk up and interact with them or take a selfie. They had a rope to keep you from getting too close. I liked them there was rarely more than one family ahead of us, never felt rushed and they seemed to spend more time playing and interacting then in the past. Almost anytime we had a couple extra minutes and were close by we stopped by deck 4 and saw a character or two. They’d also wave to people below or across from them if there was no one waiting close. We saw Mickey just walking around Deck 10 waving to the kids in the pool and below on deck 9. The princesses sat on the grand staircase in the atrium and you could talk to them from below or take a picture and have a real conversation.They also had them on the deck 4 balcony overlooking the atrium and they would wave and interact with you. I felt we had more fun interactions then in the past even if they were more distanced. They also had Mickey and Friends come and do a dance show/parade through the tables in Tritons during dinner that was super fun.

We did the Chileno Bay Snorkeling excursion through Disney and loved it. Wouldn’t be good for a 20 month old but with my youngest being 6 it was great and my kids loved it. They excursion felt very safe and they really created a bubble. In fact if you left the group you wouldn’t be allowed back on. It did mean I had to return with the group before tendering back to do some shopping in port for some Mexican Vanilla my wife wanted.