Last Sea Day
Waaaaaah! Our cruise is coming to an end! I cant believe it. It totally snuck up on us! We have been having such a great time and looking forward to Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning and BOOM, next thing you know, they are giving you debarkation information and tags to put on our luggage. YUCK!
I think 8 nights is my ideal length for a cruise. Or maybe 10! 7 days seems a bit rushed and by day 6, you are already packing up. But 14 seems a bit long (did it B2B Coastal/Alaska 14n) and you want to be sleeping in your own bed again and eating your own home-made meals by around day 10. But that magical 8-10 days is the perfect length for me and my family, it seems. So I am very happy that we sailed on this wonderful Holiday cruise.
Our last sea day (actually 1 ½ days since we left Cabo around 2pm) have been really fun and relaxing at the same time. Today, the kids spent a LOT of time in the clubs and we did a lot of the shipboard activities. We learned how to make towel animals and how to draw Mickey, Donald and Pluto. Older DD played a LOT of Rockband at the Edge and younger DD spent some quality time with yours truly, enjoying the new toys that Santa delivered under our 2 foot tabletop Christmas tree.
There was a wildly popular magic show at the clubs that the kids adored, as well as cookie making and tie dye t-shirt making. The Edge had an awesome shipwide scavenger hunt to find Mickeys and my older DD couldnt stop raving about it.
We did a great gingerbread decorating project at Studio Sea this morning, which was just a blast. I have about 1000 pictures of the kids making the houses and then slowly eating them. LOL. Its the first gingerbread kit where you can actually enjoy the taste because it isnt nasty like the ones you buy at Target. Also forgot to mention that yesterday we hosted the Secret Mickey reveal and had a very successful turnout. The kids enjoyed meeting each other and giving that final gift to their assigned person. I kinda wish we had organized a few more get togethers during the week because it was a great icebreaker for the young ones to get to know one another. But what I found on this cruise is that it was all families, and most tended to stick together for all activities. So we didnt meet nearly as many people as we usually do on our other cruises. Everyone ate at their own tables and did all the activities with their children. There was really no mingling time.
The day disappeared in the blink of an eye. The premier of War Horse was a big hit with my nanny and DH although I skipped the 2 ½ hour movie to stare at the waves off our balcony instead. I powered through a great romance novel while enjoying the sounds of the ocean and the gentle rocking of the ship. And despite all the fun and games, I think we all feel much more relaxed than when we first boarded. All in all, I have to say this was probably our best Christmas ever, even though both DH and I missed our families a lot and wished they would have joined us.
We said good bye to the wonderful staff (and I mean wonderful, because I have been on a lot of cruises and while I found there were always one or two exceptional people who took care of us, this time every single person we interacted with was just superb, friendly and caring). We left lots of tips and ordered Palo to our room one last time tonight, although DDs both wanted to say good bye to our servers, Eve and Julia, so we ended up going to late seating anyway for a small meal at 8:15! Crazy, I know, but it was a Christmas menu and we couldnt pass up the ham and chocolate log cake.
We packed 7 suitcases stuffed to the brim with Secret Micket and FE gifts and all of our dirty laundry (sigh). We left behind our small Christmas tree for our room stewart, who was so sweet the whole trip. He said he missed his family so much (from the Philippines) and wont be seeing them for another 2 months! Todd, our concierge, just found out he will be leaving for the Fantasy in 4 weeks, so he is going to be missed. As a matter of fact, it sounds like a good 1/3 of the staff will be moving over to the Fantasy for its first few months. Todd says they are meeting in late January and will be doing the Transatlantic to bring the ship to the Caribbean. He said they will still be wearing hardhats during that week long crossing! He will be missed because he is so young, full of energy and eager to please just what a concierge should be! He really helped make our cruise special and I think it was worth every penny to have the concierge service on this special sailing.
So a couple of random observations and gripes (you know I always have to gripe a little). First off, there is NOTHING for the adults to do during the day. Unlike ships such as Princess and Royal, I think this line is all about the kids. Yes, you can sit out at the Cove pool and be away from the kids, but aside from that, literally there are no activities for adults. Unless you count the many, many sales pitches by the spa staff (disguised as educational events) such as how to eat more but get a flat stomach and how to cure chronic pain with acupuncture. But those little events always end in a product you can buy to get rid of your aches and fat and so on. Also, lots of DVC presentations to buy points. Again, sales pitches. If you look closely at the Navigator, it looks like there is a lot going on throughout the day, but in reality its these little talks made to part with your money. Or, you can pay for wine tasting, tequila tasting, beer tasting, margarita tasting.... I can name the bazillion different alcohol tasting events they had all week. Now those were a plenty, like 3 a day. But they were 1) pay events, 2) made for people seriously into alcohol. I can see maybe going to 1 during the whole week, but 3 a day??? Kidding, right? I think each of these events should be followed by a Friends of Bill W meeting. On Princess, we had lots of trivia and some scrapbooking/origami/bingo and other fun little things, that are not expensive to put on and really enjoyable for people who cant get off at a port or want to just hang and relax. But Disney clearly makes no effort whatsoever to help those who cant tender into Cabo for 2 days, for example. Yesterday the adult only section read Games and Puzzles available at Wavebands for like 8 hours! This is probably part of the reason why I felt like I just didnt meet people on this cruise. The little daytime events help unite people with common interests and they were nonexistent. I honestly would never sail Disney unless I had kids. Not because its a bad cruise line, but because there is so much more on other lines that is offered for adults during their leisure time. As someone pointed out at our Secret Mickey reveal yesterday, the Edge is open until 1am every day but the adult music stops at 11 every night! The preteens are getting more entertainment than the adults who pay for the cruise. ☺
Gripe #2: the food is bad. Not Palo, but everything else. I know I have said this before, but think of your local chain restaurant, like Red Robin or Dennys or something like that. Now take it down about 2 notches. Thats the food on this cruise ship. Again, if you have never sailed before, you probably think this is the norm. But I can tell you that the food on other ships is much better. Even on our one Carnival cruise, we had much better seasoned and cooked food. The only 2 seasonings Disney chefs used during this cruise were salt and pepper. Lots of it. When we asked for any slight alterations to the dish (no nuts on the sundae), they always said, no, they are preplated. Literally NOTHING can be custom ordered. You want to hold the scallops on your appetizer or want a side of steamed veggies instead of mashed potatoes? No can do. You would like extra potatoes nope, not unless you order another full dish. (Unless you are in Palo. They cook everything made to order there. Too bad you have to pay!) Anyway, if you go into the cruise knowing this, then you will be pleasantly surprised when once or twice you get an amazingly delicious dish (like my fish at Tritons on day 4). Oh, and dont get me started on the buffet hours, or lack there of. Its just lame. See previous posts for details (I wont waste your time on it again). Closes at 2pm never to open again until the next morning. But hey, you can have all you can eat burgers and fries over and over and over again.
Gripe #3: The ship is LOUD. We decided to call our suite (the Walt Disney Suite) the Rice Crispy Suite because it is constantly snapping, crackling and popping. As a matter of fact, as I type this at 11pm on our last see day, I can hear every single thing in the room vibrating, moaning and squeaking like an old car. You can hear everyone walking above you and people talking in the hallway. And if the ship encounters some waves and it actually starts to sway a little (like right now), the entire cabin is like a brass band. I think this is due to the age of the Wonder, and I just dont see how they could solve this anytime soon. Bring earplugs!
But you know what, that is it! I really have no other gripes. Despite it being a sold out holiday cruise, I didnt feel the crowds (except in line for photographs) and there were tons to do for the kids all day and all night. The staff was amazing and everyone in my family, even my shy and sometimes hard to please 7 year old, had a wonderful time. As a matter of fact, I cant imagine anyone NOT having a great time. You really have to try to be a Grinch to not find something to enjoy. Of course it helped that we had pretty much calm seas and perfect weather and that our excursions, all through Disney, went off without a hitch. But I also think the little things, like the enthusiasm of the DISboarders in putting together gift exchanges, really made it magical for us.
I am sad to hear that the Wonder is being pulled from LA in December. If you are reading this and havent booked for 2012, I would book a cruise on her ASAP before it leaves Mexico forever and you are stuck having to fly 6 hours to catch the ship. Its a real shame that the economy is the way it is because I would love to sail the Wonder again, maybe in a couple of years. We are booked on the Carnival Splendor for 2012 and then the Allure of the Seas for 2013, so it would be nice to add in another Disney ship in 2014, hopefully out of LA. Pixie dust for its return.
So with that, we will get home today around noon, cook (gasp), clean (double gasp) and do truckloads of laundry (gasp, gasp, gasp) and then post some pictures from our awesome cruise. Hope you enjoyed this TR! Happy Holidays! Katherine
Can't wait to see pics
