Kidless Cruising on the Disney Wonder! Mexican Riviera 3/25 - 4/1

[everythingdisneyfan1]

Hello everyone!

Thanks for reading my trip report!! It will take a few days of installments to cover each amazing day of our vacation, but I am so excited to relive the magic. I can tell you that I had serious sadness as I fell asleep for the first night in my own bed last night!

As some of you may recall, I began a pre-trip report earlier in the month which you can find here... it's hard to believe everything has come and gone so quickly! But I can say affirmatively that we had an AMAZING trip-- one of the best we have ever had as a married couple so far (and we don't even have kids yet!). That's how great Disney is... even a couple with no kids can have a blast cruising Disney on spring break.

Quick Links:

Trip Report Day 1: Disneyland, March 24th

Day 2, Part 1: Character Breakfast and First Steps on the Ship

Day 2, Part 2: Spas, Seasickness and the Welcome Aboard Show

Day 3, Part 1: Sleeping in, sunshine, ship tours and tequila!

Day 3, Part 2: Formal night and new friends!

Day 4: Palo Brunch and Pure Laziness

Day 5: Beachcoming in Puerto Vallarta

Day 6: Paradise in Cabo at the Sirena Del Mar! Pt. 1

Thursday - Friday, March 22nd & 23rd

My DH and I didn't have school on Friday the 23rd, so we decided to drive down after the school day was over (we're teachers) on the 22nd from Oregon to California. It was a really smooth trip and our eta to get into Anaheim was about 6:00pm. I was excited because that was going to give us time to check into our hotel, change and then hit up Downtown Disney for shopping and dinner.

except....NOT.


I had completely forgotten about Friday, rush-hour traffic in LA, and as soon as we hit the Grapevine we were literally bumper to bumper, parking-lot style for 2 1/2 hours. There were tears (from me), impatience (from me) and calm reassurance from my DH of course. My perfectly planned spring break trip was already going sour... thank you LA traffic!

When we finally broke free from I-5, we ended up on Harbor blvd. where we sat in MORE traffic, eventually making it to our hotel at 8:30. I normally stay on Disney property when we visit Disneyland, but thought that just two nights in Anaheim for our cruise was worth saving some money using Priceline (which we do all of the time at home). Wow, big mistake. We got one of the worst locations and most poorly situated hotels in Anaheim, about 3 miles from Disneyland where they CHARGE for shuttle service to the parks and for parking at their hotel! I most certainly was not a happy camper. Plus, our room wasn't very clean and we didn't really get that great of a deal on the hotel. Oh well. I would be in Disneyland from sun up to sundown the next day, so I had to keep that in mind.

Suffice to say, once I was able to wash my face and change my clothes, I was ready to attempt Downtown Disney on a Friday night at 9pm, and we were able to actually get a couple of seats at the bar at the Rainforest Cafe and share some pasta and a beer after a long day of driving. I don't really like the food at Rainforest, but the experience is always so much fun (especially in Disney).

As we walked back to our car in the parking lot after our meal (and froze the whole way-- I forgot how cold California can be in the early spring!!!), we were able to watch the fireworks over Disney, and I was able to relax and enjoy being "home" in Disneyland.

The following day, we would be spending it hitting both Disney parks from opening until closing... and learning a couple of hard lessons along the way!

 

[everythingdisneyfan1]

Saturday, March 24th

My DH and I woke up bright and early on Saturday morning, threw on our sweatshirts and running shoes, waited for the valet who lost our keys (twice) and then grabbed some Starbucks coffees before we entered the Disneyland when the sun rose. Normally I am not an early morning person, but a) I was so excited to be in Disneyland and b) I wanted to get our money's worth since we only had one day to do both parks!

We were a little nervous that it was going to be crazy busy the first Saturday of spring break, but we were pleasantly surprised in the morning. From about 8am - 11am, both parks were virtually empty and we walked onto almost every major ride that usually fill up really quickly. We were there right when Disneyland opened and hit Indiana Jones, Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain in the first hour, and then walked over to California Adventure at 10am when that park opened and got Fastpasses for World of Color and Soarin, and then waited in a short line for Toy Story Mania and California Screamin'. We were really happy with all that we were able to do in a short time, and then leisurely took our time the rest of the day going between both parks.

We had lunch at a fabulous restaurant in California Adventure behind the new Goofy's Flying School roller coaster (formerly known as Mulholland Madness) called The Paradise Garden Grill. While everything in Disney is ridiculously expensive (and ridiculously underwhelming taste-wise), we had never tried this place out before but heard about it form great reviews on Yelp. Well, it did not disappoint. For 9.95 you get a big, warm pita bread, rice pilaf, chicken or beef kebabs, olive oil marinade, fresh tomatoes and cucumbers. It was DELICIOUS! I wish I could go back just for that meal. It was also really quiet and private-- it's kind of hidden so I don't know if people actually know about it. I highly recommend it!

After lunch, we went back into Disneyland and that's when it started to get busy. We tried waiting in line for Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion, but both rides had over 60 minute waits which we didn't want to do. The sun eventually came out (I forgot to mention it was cloudy and cool all morning), so we ended up just walking around going into shops and on rides that we don't normally see when we're in Disneyland. We rode the train around a couple of times while I munched on my favorite Disney snack-- popcorn and Coke-- and enjoyed the sunshine that we have been missing up in Oregon.

At 4:45, we had a Fastpass for Splash Mountain and dressed in sweatshirts and long pants, we thought we'd be totally fine. Well, we were wrong. The guy sat me and my DH right in the front row, and we got SOAKED! You might be thinking, "duh, it's Splash Mountain," but after going on this ride dozens and dozens of times before, I have never got as wet in my life on this ride as I did this time around. It was Grizzly River Rapid-style! Seriously, the wave nearly went over my head and we were soaked to the bone. What was really bad about this is that is was only about 60 degrees in Anaheim that day and our sweatshirts were really thin. I indicated earlier that our hotel was 3 miles away and we had to park in the parking garage so we didn't have the time or means to go back and change. There was no place to dry off (we tried sitting in the sun for an hour and that didn't work), and the sweatshirts were over $60 each (we didn't feel like spending that much money this early in our trip), so we had to just suck it up and be cold and damp the rest of the evening.

Well, this started to get really uncomfortable as the clouds moved back in and the temperatures dropped (and the indoor shows were air conditioned!). We enjoyed dinner back in California Adventure at the Pacific Wharf Cafe and warmed up with delicious broccoli and cheddar sourdough bread bowls (AMAZING!!), but it didn't really do the trick. So, we ended up giving in and going home at around 8:30pm. We had been in the parks for about 12 hours and done tons of stuff, but we learned our lesson that next time we visit Disneyland in the spring, we'll either bring an extra change of clothes to leave in the car, or will skip Splash Mountain altogether. We can laugh about it now, but at the time we were pretty bummed about our "damp" situation. We had a ton of fun in the park pre-Splash Mountain though, including wearing our matching Mickey and Minnie ears and taking a bunch of silly pictures on all of the rides. There truly is no place like Disney parks!

After our sourdough bread bowls in the park and watching the sun set, instead of buying the $9 glasses of wine in California Adventure, we decided to head back to our room, stop by the grocery store, pick up a bottle of wine and enjoy a restful and relaxing evening before we boarded our Disney cruise the next morning.

... and then the storm clouds rolled in...

 

[Toria]

Great start to your TR! Being wet and cold is for the birds. Hope the rest of your trip turned out better(wait it has to... it's Disney).

 

[Sereina]

I'm enjoying your TR so far! Sounds like you got to do quite a lot in at DL and DCA and had lots of fun, minus getting soaked.

Looking forward to hearing about the cruise!

 

[luvslikepi]

Saturday, March 24th


At 4:45, we had a Fastpass for Splash Mountain and dressed in sweatshirts and long pants, we thought we'd be totally fine. Well, we were wrong. The guy sat me and my DH right in the front row, and we got SOAKED! You might be thinking, "duh, it's Splash Mountain," but after going on this ride dozens and dozens of times before, I have never got as wet in my life on this ride as I did this time around.

ROFL, reminds me of my Thanksgiving 2011 trip to DL with my mom, step-dad, brother and SIL. First thing we decided to head over to Splash and we got in the log...well I'm the smallest in the family and ended up in the back while my brother who is a big boy was right up front with SIL. Mom and Step-dad are larger folks too. They all got soaked but step-dad and I stayed bone dry being the back. I've never seen anyone wetter than my brother and sister in law that day....and it was cold.

Loving your TR, can't wait to read more.

 

[AAshleySEG]

Can't Wait to Read More! We are cruising the WONDER in June to Alaska, our first DCL experience and are very excited to see what all it has to offer while on board!

 

[everythingdisneyfan1]

So in my previous post I mentioned... "and then the clouds rolled in..."

Unfortunately, this was no exaggeration.

When we woke up in our hotel room on Sunday morning, we were met with looming dark skies which did not look appealing. I am on vacation, darn it! The last thing I wanted to see was clouds and rain considering it rains 300 days a year up in Oregon. I was pretty bummed and hoping that this wasn't an indicator for what was to come for the rest of the trip, as I'd heard the weather wasn't great earlier in March along the Riviera.

We didn't have a ship boarding time until 1:00 in the afternoon, but my DH and I woke up around 7:30am and couldn't get back to sleep. I decided to pull out my trusty go-to "Yelp" app on my phone and see which places around us were highly rated for breakfast (Yelp never lets me down). Lo and behold, what comes up at a 4* rating? None other than The Storytellers Cafe at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel! We were luckily able to get a reservation for 9:30am and I was excited because not only had I never eaten there before, but I LOVE the Grand Californian Hotel and wanted to get my fix of Disney hotels on this trip since we weren't staying in one. I could at least pretend...

If you've never been to the Storytellers Cafe before, I highly recommend it. They have a buffet (which we did not partake in), but we figured that we'd be eating enough buffet stuff on the cruise (plus it is $30/pp for breakfast). More reasonably priced however are their plated breakfasts and I had an AMAZING dish of Huevos Rancheros (best ever!), and my husband had a traditional bacon/eggs breakfast. The best part about this breakfast though were all of the characters that came around for hugs! I may be almost 30, but I am never too old for some hugs from my favorite characters. My morning was definitely an improvement from our experience the night before!!

Mistake #1 that I noticed that morning was that of all things, I forgot my makeup at home!! For some reason in the rush, I forgot the one thing that I never leave home without. Normally I would just not care and not wear makeup at all, but I wanted to look nice in the evenings, especially for formal night, so thank goodness we remembered there was a Sephora in Downtown Disney right outside of the GC Hotel, so we were able to pop in there really quickly and grab the essentials. Formal night saved.

We left Anaheim around 11:00am and figured that we'd have at least an hour drive to Long Beach given the traffic nightmare we experienced two days prior. However, we quickly realized that the highways were empty and we were cruising on down to Long Beach in no time! This was unfortunately when it began to downpour, and let me tell you: San Pedro in the rain is really not a pretty sight to see. In fact, even though it was exciting to see the Disney ship as we pulled up over the bridge, it was so gloomy outside that it kind of took away the "magic." (But not for long of course!!)

We drove our car into the cruise terminal parking lot where we had to leave it for the week (paying $12 a day... ouch). A nice service that was offered however was a shuttle bus that drove around picking us and our luggage up so we didn't have to get soaked in the rain. Thank you Disney!

When we brought our luggage to the loading dock, it was about 11:30am and we thought we'd have to wait another hour and a half to check in. However, it was so quiet and empty in the terminal that we just walked right up to a cast member at the registration desk! I couldn't believe it-- the process was SO quick and easy and smooth-- lightyears ahead of other cruise lines! (We waited over an hour just to "check in" with our previous cruise!). I asked the cast member if it was okay to check in an hour and a half early and he smiled and said, "Of course! You're home now!" This was when I knew it was going to be a magical experience with Disney.

We received boarding number 11, and it was on number 7 when we showed up in the waiting area. I know that the low numbers are a hot commodity, but honestly, we were in the ship within 15 minutes of sitting down-- plus they gave us the first day's Navigator to pore over so I never felt like we were waiting for a long time. From leaving Anaheim to boarding the Wonder was about an hour total. I don't know if this is normal, but we sailed on Spring Break so we sure were impressed!

As we stood in line on the platform to board once our number was called, it drizzled all over us and I hadn't packed a windbreaker (even though it was on my to-pack list! Yikes!). I was feeling a bit chilled, but we were excited to be steps away from our vacation (and hopefully some sun on the horizon!). Finally, we were there: Swiping our first KTTW cards and hearing claps and cheers welcoming our party on board. We felt like mini-celebrities!! I can't believe how special Disney makes each of their guests feel when entering the ship. Their red carpet treatment is something else for sure!

Our rooms wouldn't be ready until 2:00, which was also when we had our DIS meet in the Promenade Lounge, so we had to find some various things to do in the meantime and we weren't particularly hungry since we'd just eaten breakfast at Storytellers. So, we decided to go on a spa tour (I had heard great things about the Vista spa and decided to check it out), and we also went on our own private tour of the ship, exploring everything there was to see and do. It took a good two hours for both of those activities! The downside though was that since it was pouring down rain, decks 9 and 10 were soaked and slightly flooded, so you couldn't really walk around without stepping in pools of water. We felt so bad for all of the lunch workers in Goofy's Galley and Pluto's restaurant serving quick service food because the rain was sideways blowing all over them!

Right before our DIS meet, we grabbed some chicken strips and ate up in the Cove Cafe to escape the rain and relax a bit. The chicken strips were really delicious and very hot-- a good indicator of the food quality that was to come! I know they're just chicken strips... but hot chicken strips on a cold and rainy day definitely does the trip.

Next up: DIS Meet, Spa Raffle and Seasickness...

(PS- I deliberately did not take any pictures this day because like I said, it was so cold and gloomy outside-- I didn't want to spoil any of the magic!)

 

[Sereina]

I love how both of you have your Mickey and Minnie ears on at breakfast! Too Cute! I should have brought my Minnie ears (which are almost exactly like yours) on our cruise...

My family and I had never been on any cruise line before, but we too were amazed how smoothly the check-in process was. It was great!

Love your report so far! Can't wait to read more.

 

[everythingdisneyfan1]

Due to the storm on embarkation day that I mentioned earlier, the Sail Away party unfortunately had to be moved to the main atrium of the ship which made it too crowded for us to watch. We heard the festivities and the music and they seemed to do a great job improvising the venue, but we couldn't really see much. Right before that though we had met up with our fellow DIS cruisers and got to put a lot of names to faces which was really fun!

Since we couldn't see anything at the sail-away party, we decided to head up to the Vista Spa for the ever-tantalizing spa raffle giveaway. During the tour we went on earlier in the day, they handed us several "coupons" for discounted services on embarkation day, which I was very tempted to purchase. However, my DH and I had literally planned our WDW trip this July on the car ride down, and he said, "Ohana/Sanaa dinners, or massage?" I would love to say that we are the kind of DINKS that can afford all three, but we are just teachers, so we know that salary cap quite well...

Therefore, I opted to skip the spa this time around (I'll be honest, walking away from my last cruise with a $125 spa bill didn't feel that great afterwards...) and instead we have a couple of romantic dinners on the horizon planned for July! Unfortunately, we did not win anything at the spa raffle this time around, but several other people did meaning that it *is* worth it to cram all together in the small gym to see whether you're one of the lucky ones.

After losing at the spa raffle, it was time to head back to our stateroom, unpack and get ready for the first show of the night which was the Welcome Aboard show. Our room was a midship, category 5A verandah room on the 7th floor. It was quite spacious and we LOVED the balcony. Holy moly. That was my favorite place to spend the afternoons while in sunny Mexico! There was also ample storage and we had plenty of space to store all of our (many) clothing items we brought on board. I will say though that I followed some people's advice about packing a lot of extra hangers and those definitely came in handy. We liked to dress up for each dinner and wear things we don't normally wear very often at home, so we definitely used all of their hangers and then some. I think they provide about 20 hangers total in the closets.

By this time our ship had already set sail and the vacation buzz was in full-force. We had the 8:15 seating and a PTTAPTA dining rotation, so we had to watch the 6:15 showings of the performances each night. I didn't mind that, but I really did not like having to wait until 8:15 to eat. BBB didn't open until 6:00, so we never had time to get a quick snack anywhere except the counter-service places on deck 9 (which we really didn't care for). This is one reason why we ended up ordering afternoon room service almost every night!

We were always able to get good seats for the shows during the week, and we really enjoyed the Welcome Aboard show. Our cruise director, Jimmy, came out and introduced himself and got everyone riled up and in full-vacation mode. Then, the performance started which was SO good. I won't spoil it for you in case you are planning your own Disney cruise soon, but I loved the family aspect of it all and the focus of getting us all in vacation mode! We also had a fabulous juggler on board-- a 9 time world champion who juggled an axe, a bowling ball and an egg at one point in time! He was hilarious and we saw him twice throughout the ship-- his name was Ivan Pecel. I don't know if he is always on board or just for this trip, but we loved his show.

The performances always end around 7:15, so you have enough time to watch an "after hours" performance (usually a family activity, an adults-only show or another 45 minute long entertainment activity) until it's time for dinner. I started feeling really nauseous at this point and I don't normally get motion sickness at all (I don't even wear the bands or ear patch!). I decided that I would just lay down for an hour until dinner and hopefully would feel better.

Unfortunately... I just felt worse. By the time 8:15 rolled around, I slowly got out of bed, we put our shoes on and started walking down the stairs when I felt like I was going to completely lose it. Not common for me. I think what the problem was was that I'm not used to eating fried foods very often and those chicken strips weren't sitting well, plus the ocean is VERY rough coming out of LA and going into LA for about 12 hours or so. Not fun. So I ended up having to go back to the room and thankfully was able to keep everything down, but on our first night DH and I had to order chicken noodle soup & ginger ale room service... which thankfully helped a lot! I promised DH I would make it up to him with our Palo reservations later on in the week. We fell asleep that night watching some of the on-demand movies on our TV: Cars 2, The Little Mermaid and The Adventures of Tin-Tin. So much for meeting up with our dining table-mates the first night!

Next up: Sleeping in, Ship Tours and Sunshine!

**PS- I do have all of the Navigators from our trip; however, I am a "loves to be surprised" kind of girl and my favorite thing to do was to pore over the Navigators in bed each night, planning out the next day. Therefore, I decided that I didn't want to spoil the surprise for all of you soon-to-be-sailing cruisers and post all of the Navigators. Instead, I can happily answer any questions from them that you might have!

 

[jedijill]

Great report so far. You and your hubby are a cute couple!

Jill in CO

 

[Sereina]

Oh no! That's disappointing that you got sea sick. Glad you felt better after you soup and ginger ale.

I loved Jimmy! He was fun and I loved hearing his announcements every evening.

We had the same dinning rotation as you! We loved being in Triton's for Formal Night and Parrot Cay for Pirate Night.

Can't wait for more! Hopefully you'll be posting pictures?

 

[everythingdisneyfan1]

Oh no! That's disappointing that you got sea sick. Glad you felt better after you soup and ginger ale.

I loved Jimmy! He was fun and I loved hearing his announcements every evening.

We had the same dinning rotation as you! We loved being in Triton's for Formal Night and Parrot Cay for Pirate Night.

Can't wait for more! Hopefully you'll be posting pictures?

Yes! I have TONS of pictures. I just deliberately didn't take pictures the first day because it was so gloomy outside (which doesn't do the Disney Wonder justice!), and then the inside of the ship was SUPER crowded because of the fact that they had to move the Sail Away party indoors. I didn't really feel like taking a bunch of crowd pictures. Who were your servers? We were at table 12 and had Eddie and Raka-- fabulous guys!

I will start posting pictures of the remaining days when I write the next installments.

 

[Sereina]

Yes! I have TONS of pictures. I just deliberately didn't take pictures the first day because it was so gloomy outside (which doesn't do the Disney Wonder justice!), and then the inside of the ship was SUPER crowded because of the fact that they had to move the Sail Away party indoors. I didn't really feel like taking a bunch of crowd pictures. Who were your servers? We were at table 12 and had Eddie and Raka-- fabulous guys!

I will start posting pictures of the remaining days when I write the next installments.

Totally understandable! I can't wait to see them all! That's too bad that the weather was so gloomy. It was cold the day we set sail, but luckily the sun was out. For the dinner, we had table 20, Ozer and Marvin, who we loved!

 

[MandyMommytoReaghan]

Loving your TR so far!! You guys make such a cute couple! Sorry you had the rain and some sickness!! Never good!! Can't wait until your next installment.

 

[everythingdisneyfan1]

Sorry for the delay in posting. Hosted the entire family for Easter dinner for the first time and that took some planning this week!

So where did I leave off...

Day 3 of vacation, day 2 of the ship:

Oh yes. The next morning. SO much better than the night before! Once the ship cleared Los Angeles and San Diego, the waters were much calmer and everyone seemed to get their sea legs back. My appetite was in full force and I was ready for my vacation to start!

We awoke with our curtains open and the sunlight pouring into our cabin. Breakfast was typically offered one of three places on the ship: Triton's, Beach Blanket Buffet and Parrot Cay. We decided that since we missed dinner the night before, we would start our dining off with a bang and join 8:30am breakfast at Triton's the next morning. This is where my feedback to Disney goes a little south. Besides our experience at Palo's, we never had a good breakfast on the ship. This is okay for us because we are not huge breakfast people anyway, but breakfast was so mediocre that it just became a way to take away the hunger pangs but not a lingering, enjoyable experience for us (unlike the other meals the ship offered).

Here is a picture of me at breakfast that morning-- fully recovered from seasickness (but still looking a little green). Hooray!

One of the best things about the cruise (and also unfortunate when you think about it!) was that there was SO much to do while on board. I say unfortunate because part of me wanted to experience everything there was to do on the ship every hour, and part of me wanted to just sit back, lay out and relax with a good book for 90% of my time onboard. My DH and I settled on a happy medium between the two.

After breakfast that morning, we decided that we were going to go on a full exploration of every area on the ship, so we found the gift shops

and perused their goods (and also bought a bathing suit because stupid rushed packing mistake #2 on my part was that I forgot my bathing suit- ugh), discovered the movie theatre, sat up by the quiet pool and then found our way back to Wave Bands for a little bingo action at 11:00. I normally LOVE cruise ship bingo (and ironically never win), but Disney's bingo buy-in prices were SO expensive compared to other ships that we didn't indulge this time. Minimum was $30 and it went up to $60. I couldn't justify losing that much money in one single go (at least draw it out of me in the slot machines or something--lol), so we just sat and watched the competition for an hour or so. There was some schadenfreud involved as we watched people drop tons of cash on bingo computers and then subsequently lose it all. Ouch. It made me want to stay out of bingo for the entire trip (which I did-- hooray!).

After bingo, we decided to head back to our verandah for some room service and quiet time because-- surprise!-- the sun was finally out. Ahhhh... glorious sun. We Oregonians had missed you so badly!! I forgot what healthy heat felt like on my pale skin. It was quiet marvelous.

After some delightful reading and vitamin D, we decided to embark on an "Art of the Ship" tour, to go around and hear the behind-the-scenes details of the specific and intentional design ideas that went into both the Wonder and the Magic. I HIGHLY recommend going on this tour if it's offered on your upcoming cruises. We met on deck 10 in a small group and it was led by a fabulous entertainment host named Sophie. If you're heading out on the Wonder anytime soon, I hope you have the pleasure of meeting her.

We first learned the history of the restaurant Palo, which means 'pole' in Italian. It got its name because the Wonder was crafted and built in Venice, and Venice is marked by several various gondola poles. In Palo, there are many different authentic Venetian masks and poles all around, which makes sense as to why the restaurant's primary cuisine is Northern Italian influence!

After that, we headed down to deck 5 and Sophie asked us to count how many different types of carpet we saw on the way down. This wasn't something I normally would have paid attention to, but of course now I did. When we made it down, I noticed eight different types of carpet between the corridors, the lobby areas and the stairs, and that was correct. Sophie said that the ship actually has around 250 different styles of carpeting and they all have a very specific and intentional theme to them. Other cruise ships have approximately 80 - 100 different types of carpet, but Disney has a purpose for all of theirs and replaces them completely every few years or so.

On deck 5, which is the children's area deck, Sophie noted that the ceilings are intentionally 1 - 2 feet lower, because it gives kids the feeling that they are more "in control" since they are often running around on the deck in their own clubs. It apparently gives them much more comfortability and confidence feeling "bigger" than on other floors. Kind of interesting!

We stopped by the Buena Vista Theatre where she told us that Disney is the only cruise line who shows first-run movies and in-theatre movies still, largely because they own all of them...

We also learned that there are over 28,000 different signs on board the Wonder alone... crazy!

We then made our way down to deck 4 where the Walt Disney Theatre is housed. We studied this picture for a minute... do you happen to know what is different about it?

... While this is a very famous picture, Walt's cigarette was photoshopped out of his fingers because the cruise didn't want to give the idea of endorsing smoking to kids... especially since he died of lung cancer

Deck 4 is also the only place where the famous "WD" logo is found on the carpet!

While we were talking about the picture, none other than Daisy Duck comes strolling along the red carpet, no big deal! Only on a Disney cruise can you pass by a character and "chat" with them, without them being escorted away hurriedly by their entourage.

By the elevators of deck 4, there is a lobby viewpoint area where the beautiful (plastic) ceiling sculpture by Dale Chihuly hung from the ceilings. Sophie said that crew members hike themselves up with ladders every Sunday and dust that thing, and that the reason it is not actually glass (unlike his sculpture at the Bellagio in Vegas) is because of the danger of a rocking ship + frequent guests underneath. Smart move.

After that, we walked out to the running deck on deck 4 to note a few different characteristics of the outdoors. First, the Disney Wonder and Disney Magic are sister ships and are intentionally the same, except for the fact that the Wonder was built as a whole, and the Magic was built as two halves put together. There is a large seam down the sides of the Magic to signify this, so, even though the Wonder was built as a whole, it also has a large seam down the middle (re-created) in order to be identical twin sisters with the Magic. Crazy fun fact!

Sophie also told us that Disney wasn't cool with the ugly orange boats that the Maritime law (or whatever it's called) requires all cruise ships to keep on board and they didn't feel that orange meshed well with the colors of "The Mouse." They appealed to the coast guard and asked if they could test out the yellow color shown below. The coast guard obliged after some negotiations, and discovered that not only did the yellow color work, but it was actually more visible at night than orange! Fancy that...

Disney also wanted to design their ships not as cutesy Fantasyland-extensions, but as elegant, grand vessels similar to the Titanic or Lusitania. Because those turn of the century ships had the traditional shuffleboard games on the outside decks, of course Disney had to as well.

All in all, we learned a ton of valuable, "insider" information on this tour and I definitely didn't cover it all on this post. It took about an hour and a half, and the most amazing fact of all (for all of your Disney-afficionados), is that Mr. Dave Smith himself of the Disney archives was on our tour of ten! In fact, he was on the ship the entire week we were there and even led his own informational seminars about the Archives and Disneyland. It was fabulous! We so enjoyed meeting him and learning from such an amazing Disney legend. I was a bit star struck, as only true Disney fans might imagine.

Conveniently enough, our tour dropped us right off at the Cadillac Lounge where I had a 4:15pm tequila tasting which was fabulous. We tried three different types of tequila, two different types of margaritas and a "beer-quila" which is beer mixed with Patron silver. There were about 30 of us (which apparently is a record!) and it got a little bit rowdy. But it was SO delicious and so much fun. I was feeling 1,000x different than the night before and finally had vacation fever. We learned that Patron is kind of a no-no in Mexico as Paul Mitchell was thought to kind of steal the thunder of locally-(grown? harvested? created? I don't know how it's prepared...) tequila. It's still good, but apparently Don Julio is the man. It was a fitting tasting considering we were 24 hours away from Puerto Vallarta.

Next up: First time dining, meeting new friends, formal night and The Golden Mickeys

 

[Sereina]

Sounds like a good first day at sea! Love all the pictures. My dad and grandpa went on The Art of the Ship tour on our cruise as well and were telling us all the neat they learned when they got back. That's one of the things I love about Disney, all the little details!

Can't wait to hear about the rest of the day!

 

[everythingdisneyfan1]

Sounds like a good first day at sea! Love all the pictures. My dad and grandpa went on The Art of the Ship tour on our cruise as well and were telling us all the neat they learned when they got back. That's one of the things I love about Disney, all the little details!

Can't wait to hear about the rest of the day!

It just totally reaffirmed why I love Disney-- because everything is intentional. They work hard for the magic!

 

[everythingdisneyfan1]

So after our fabulous tequila tasting (sadly) ended, we headed back to our room to get ready for The Golden Mickeys evening performance. It was fabulous! I'll admit. I teared up a bit. I LOVED feeling like a kid again and seeing all of my favorite Disney characters and movies up on stage. It took me back to such a special time in my childhood and definitely caught me up in magic. It sounds pretty cheesy, but I let myself be "ageless" on this trip and just relish the wonder that Disney brings. My DH looked at me a little funny when he saw me tearing up over the Golden Mickeys, but after the cruise was over, he eventually got it.

If you are planning a Disney cruise soon, I won't spoil the show for you other than to say that it was definitely my favorite one on board. They pull out all the stops, and the Golden Mickeys was shown on the second night of the cruise which happened to be formal night as well.

I was super impressed with the fact that SO many families dressed up for formal night. During our cruise last year, we felt overdressed on formal night because many families believed that khakis and skirts were formal and not cocktail dresses or dress coats. We wanted to go all out, and we weren't alone for sure! They had complimentary cocktails in the lobby and lots of photo opportunities with characters and CMs also dressed to the nines.

Here is a picture of us on formal night with our captain of the ship, Thord Haugen.

(My hair had issues this trip so I didn't really go all out hair-wise...!

After the show, Ivan Pecel was doing another family show in the WaveBands where we watched him juggle a bowling ball, and egg, and an axe (no joke) among other things like 6 bouncy balls at the same time and even a 7 year old kid at one point! He was incredibly talented. I highly recommend checking out his stuff online if you can.

Wavebands at night:

(It's red in there because the only lights were red...)


After the show we finally made it to dinner for the first time. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, we were on the PTTAPTA dining rotation and missed Parrot Cay the first night (as well as all the meet-n-greets). This night, we were at Triton's and got to meet our table mates and our fabulous servers, Eddie and Raka. Disney did an amazing job and paired us with three other "kidless" couples around our same age range. That made SUCH a huge difference for us! It was great having things in common with people and we became fast friends with one couple in particular during the cruise. Disney is just all about the details for sure!

I didn't take any food pictures because I gotta be honest: For me, cruising and vacationing is all about the discovery. I didn't want to be spoiled by food previews so I didn't really read people's TRs that included food pics. Plus we all have different standards of what's good, and different preferences anyway.

(Okay, I lied. I forgot I took a picture of brunch at Palo which comes up on the next post, but that's because it was incredibly amazing and absolutely photo-worthy...)

I also don't really remember what I ate each night... sorry. I will say that I ate a lot of steak and it was all amazing, AND, if I wanted to try multiple items including soups, apps and salads, Raka just brought out one of everything to sample! I highly recommend that route... even if you don't end up eating everything. Like he said, "it all has to get used up before the cruise is over anyway, so you might as well try it!"

Dining became one of my favorite things to do on board, even though it was hard for me to wait until 8:15 every night to eat. I loved taking my time leisurely through the meals and then enjoying dessert and coffee with friends until closing time. It was so relaxing and those dinners provided a lot of memories for all of us. Plus, I loved having our servers follow us around because we got to know them really well over the course of the week also.

After we said our good-byes around 10:15pm, we headed back to our room because I am a total party-pooper and can't stay out past 11pm anymore. Our friends went out for the late-night adult entertainment options, but sadly I couldn't muster the stamina. If you are into that kind of thing and staying up late, there are TONS of options for adults to do after dinner.

Upon coming back to our room each night, we always had a navigator, chocolate and an animal to look forward to. One of my favorite nightly "rituals" was to wash my face, brush my teeth, and crawl into bed with a Navigator and a highlighter, planning out the next day's adventures.

Up next: Morning run and brunch at Palo!

 

[PixieMom712]

I'm in!

Great level of detail, especially about the ship tour. You and your husband are a great looking couple too, btw. I love your formal night dress!

 

[everythingdisneyfan1]

I'm in!

Great level of detail, especially about the ship tour. You and your husband are a great looking couple too, btw. I love your formal night dress!

Nice to meet you, and thank you! I got it last year at White House, Black Market. I never had a "little black dress," and I told my husband it would be a worthwhile investment. Being able to stay in it year-to-year has been my motivation to work out!