On our second day (28th - Tuesday), we woke up early because we had registered for the Blue Lagoon excursion. We were to meet at Wave Bands lounge by 9:15 AM.
We were all so exhausted from the long day before, combined with the fact that we had all stayed up late because of being excited at finally being onboard, that it was really rough getting everyone going.
Especially the four kids! But we were up by 7:30 and all took turns in the shower, etc. (nice to have two staterooms) and went up to Beach Blanket Buffet for a quick breakfast.
When we made our way up to the deck, we were amazed to see that we were still out at sea and not yet docked in Nassau. Since it was already 8:30 - ish, I was wondering how we were going to get to the island, dock and make our 9:30 excursion.
Sure enough, here comes the announcement ---
The ship had made a side trip to Castaway Cay in the early morning at about 3AM to bring supplies. Because of this, we were detained two hours.
Our excursion would leave at 11:15 instead of 9:15. Thus, we lost two full hours off our ONLY beach day on the cruise. Of course, no compensation was given for this.
Not what we wanted to hear -- especially given the fact that an extra two hours of sleep would have been MUCH appreciated.
So now we had time to kill. After breakfast, my dd and ds (12 and 8) got their suits on and attempted to swim in the Mickey and then the Goofy pools. Both were fairly crowded, but NOTHING like we would see on "at sea" day. They did manage to swim for a bit and we also walked around and explored the ship.
The theaters are gorgeous, the shops are big and have lots of souvenir items. Everything about the Wonder is just beautifully decorated down to the last detail. We really were in awe of the ship. Just loved it! The artwork on the walls was really nice, as well.
At 11 we headed to Wavebands and saw the hawkers selling water, so sent dh back to our stateroom because we had our own there.
After the groups were separated (one group for Blue Lagoon and one for Atlantis), we were herded out down the dock and shepherded to the small boat that would take us to Salt Cay (where Blue Lagoon is).
It was a fairly long walk. The boat was small and we only managed to find seats on the outside of the ship, benches along the deck. It was ok. The ride was long, too -- about 45 minutes. It was a gorgeous day!
We arrived at Blue Lagoon and were told that two boats would go back - one at 2 pm and one at 4. So we hit the beach right away. It was a nice little swimming area.
We were lucky to have brought our own masks and snorkels. I brought three sets. We really anticipated going to CC when we had left home and my dh was not wanting to bring our own masks/snorkels because we knew we could rent them at CC. But I just wanted to bring ours and insisted on it and am SO GLAD that I did.
Because we didn't get to CC -- and Blue Lagoon didn't have mask rental. The highlight of the lagoon was swimming around underwater and seeing all the beautiful fish there. Now, there weren't a LOT of fish, but enough to excite the kids! The lagoon was very nice for swimming -- not real deep in the center and calm, a perfect temperature. It truly was the highlight of our cruise. We stayed in the water almost the whole time, except for eating lunch which was -- unremarkable.
I'm SO glad we did Blue Lagoon despite the grief my dh gave me about booking it. Like I said, it was our only beach experience on the cruise and the kids had a ball.
One note about the kids here -- my teens (17 and 16) did not enter the teen club at all. My 17 yo was totally not interested. My 16yo might have gone if she had someone to go with, but she is shy and would never go alone. I kept encouraging her, but she wouldn't do it. I think if we had boarded in time for the initial meeting she MIGHT have, but by the time we had boarded, finished dinner and all of that, the teens had already met.
My 12 year old (because her birthday is in October - will be 13) was given permission by Blessing to go to the teen club. But I think she felt a little intimidated and wouldn't go.
My son, 8, was very reluctant to go to the Lab. We took him in just to show him around and he was captivated by the huge nintendo controls and big screen. After that, he wanted to go very badly. However, when there were activities going on, the kids had NO choice but to take part. In other words, he wasn't allowed to go into the Lab just to hang out and play video games. I don't know why this was so. He would have been much happier to have a place to go to play games, computer, etc., but there were short, specified times for him to do this and we were usually involved with something else at those times.
He didn't have much interest in the soap carving or whatever else they did.
Back to Blue Lagoon! 4:00 came along TOO quickly. We dragged ourselves out of the water and back onto the boat. We sat inside and all fell asleep in the plastic chairs. We were beat! It was a great day.
(to be continued)
We were all so exhausted from the long day before, combined with the fact that we had all stayed up late because of being excited at finally being onboard, that it was really rough getting everyone going.
Especially the four kids! But we were up by 7:30 and all took turns in the shower, etc. (nice to have two staterooms) and went up to Beach Blanket Buffet for a quick breakfast.
When we made our way up to the deck, we were amazed to see that we were still out at sea and not yet docked in Nassau. Since it was already 8:30 - ish, I was wondering how we were going to get to the island, dock and make our 9:30 excursion.
Sure enough, here comes the announcement ---
The ship had made a side trip to Castaway Cay in the early morning at about 3AM to bring supplies. Because of this, we were detained two hours.
Our excursion would leave at 11:15 instead of 9:15. Thus, we lost two full hours off our ONLY beach day on the cruise. Of course, no compensation was given for this.
Not what we wanted to hear -- especially given the fact that an extra two hours of sleep would have been MUCH appreciated.
So now we had time to kill. After breakfast, my dd and ds (12 and 8) got their suits on and attempted to swim in the Mickey and then the Goofy pools. Both were fairly crowded, but NOTHING like we would see on "at sea" day. They did manage to swim for a bit and we also walked around and explored the ship.
The theaters are gorgeous, the shops are big and have lots of souvenir items. Everything about the Wonder is just beautifully decorated down to the last detail. We really were in awe of the ship. Just loved it! The artwork on the walls was really nice, as well.
At 11 we headed to Wavebands and saw the hawkers selling water, so sent dh back to our stateroom because we had our own there.
After the groups were separated (one group for Blue Lagoon and one for Atlantis), we were herded out down the dock and shepherded to the small boat that would take us to Salt Cay (where Blue Lagoon is).
It was a fairly long walk. The boat was small and we only managed to find seats on the outside of the ship, benches along the deck. It was ok. The ride was long, too -- about 45 minutes. It was a gorgeous day!
We arrived at Blue Lagoon and were told that two boats would go back - one at 2 pm and one at 4. So we hit the beach right away. It was a nice little swimming area.
We were lucky to have brought our own masks and snorkels. I brought three sets. We really anticipated going to CC when we had left home and my dh was not wanting to bring our own masks/snorkels because we knew we could rent them at CC. But I just wanted to bring ours and insisted on it and am SO GLAD that I did.
Because we didn't get to CC -- and Blue Lagoon didn't have mask rental. The highlight of the lagoon was swimming around underwater and seeing all the beautiful fish there. Now, there weren't a LOT of fish, but enough to excite the kids! The lagoon was very nice for swimming -- not real deep in the center and calm, a perfect temperature. It truly was the highlight of our cruise. We stayed in the water almost the whole time, except for eating lunch which was -- unremarkable.
I'm SO glad we did Blue Lagoon despite the grief my dh gave me about booking it. Like I said, it was our only beach experience on the cruise and the kids had a ball.
One note about the kids here -- my teens (17 and 16) did not enter the teen club at all. My 17 yo was totally not interested. My 16yo might have gone if she had someone to go with, but she is shy and would never go alone. I kept encouraging her, but she wouldn't do it. I think if we had boarded in time for the initial meeting she MIGHT have, but by the time we had boarded, finished dinner and all of that, the teens had already met.
My 12 year old (because her birthday is in October - will be 13) was given permission by Blessing to go to the teen club. But I think she felt a little intimidated and wouldn't go.
My son, 8, was very reluctant to go to the Lab. We took him in just to show him around and he was captivated by the huge nintendo controls and big screen. After that, he wanted to go very badly. However, when there were activities going on, the kids had NO choice but to take part. In other words, he wasn't allowed to go into the Lab just to hang out and play video games. I don't know why this was so. He would have been much happier to have a place to go to play games, computer, etc., but there were short, specified times for him to do this and we were usually involved with something else at those times.
He didn't have much interest in the soap carving or whatever else they did.
Back to Blue Lagoon! 4:00 came along TOO quickly. We dragged ourselves out of the water and back onto the boat. We sat inside and all fell asleep in the plastic chairs. We were beat! It was a great day.
(to be continued)
