Mexican Riviera 2/13-2/20 on the Wonder

[cidymom]

Flybone89 - thank you for your trip report. It's great to hear that your family had a great time on this MR trip. You mentioned at the end of your report that you had the second seating for breakfast on disembarkation day. What time would that be? What time did you finally step out into the cruise port with your luggage? I'm trying to figure out a time to have the shuttle meet us if we pick the second breakfast seating. Also, did you have a Dining Manager? The DCL website said that tipping the Dining Manager is at your discretion so I'm wondering what does he do as you didn't mention him anywhere in your report. Thanks for your help.

 

[texashartmann]

Thanks for sharing. Loved your quick but informative overview. We leave for CA March 12th and sail on the 13th. Can't wait. Our first DL cruise.

There seems to have been some negative reviews of the MR cruises that put some fear in some folks - me included, but let me put your fears to rest. This cruise was fantastic. I am a first time cruiser, so this was all new to me, though i have been to WDW 5 times so I know what Disney magic should be.

Overall:
PROS:
- Great service, especially our dining servers Francisco and Sandra and Alex in Palo
- Great food, especially Palo dinner and brunch
- Wonderful excursions and seamless tendering in Cabo
- Perfect weather, upper 70s and sunny the whole trip except the last day at sea back to LA
- Smooth check-in and boarding
- Great entertainment everyday
- The kids loved the Oceaneers Club/Lab and it was a great service to be able to get some adult alone time

CONS:
- Disembarkation that was chaotic at best
- Crowds and lines for some activities, especially character greetings
- Worst character breakfast compared to those we had in WDW. Characters moved so fast if you blinked you missed them
- Crowded pools, especially the Mickey pool, and it had to keep closing to clean out "accidents" - parents seemed to disregard the warning to not let potty trained kids in the pools. The pools to me were the biggest disappointment. They are way too small to handle the crowds we had.

Background:
I am a first time cruiser and we flew in to LA the day before from the cold Midwest. We wanted to ensure we had time to catch our ship the next day. We rented a car from Enterprise and dropped it off in San Pedro the next day. We stayed in a Residence Inn in Torrance only a few minutes away. We wanted to sightsee on our own and made it to Santa Monica and Beverly Hills. In retrospect we would have gotten in earlier and just did Disneyland. LA is a mess to get anywhere by car and our sightseeing involved mostly sitting in traffic. Also, Enterprise was not a very good rental company. Getting a car and dropping off took way too long. They are not at the standard of Hertz or National Emerald Club.

Embarkation:
Checking in was easy. We got there around 10:00 and had no problems flowing through the process as a newbie. There were plenty of people around to guide and help. We also did the online check in which helped. We got boarding card #5 and boarded around 1:00. There seemed to be no connection to the boarding time i picked online as the card was given to folks based on when they went through security. We got the kids bracelets for the club/lab - they are way too bulky - and there was a good 10 min line for that. Mickey showed up and began the many lines we saw for characters. Fortunately we have seen enough characters and the kids were not that into it so we could avoid them.

First Impressions:
They called our name, we got onboard and were immediately taken away by it all. I couldn't believe we were on a ship! Wow! We went up to Beach Blanket Buffet and had a wonderful meal out on deck in beautiful LA sun. We also got a taste of the great service to come as a server helped us carry our trays and get my family situated. We then took pictures, enjoyed the sun and waited for our room and the show to push away.

The Room:
We had a 4A room on deck 8 that slept 5. It was small of course compared to a hotel room, but we felt it was prefect size for us on the cruise and we loved the verandah. Besides we were hardly ever in the room! The only negative to this room is that it does require your host to set up and breakdown the bunk beds and trundle bed. And with them down it is hard to get to the verandah.

Things to Do:
I can't compare other cruise lines as this was our first cruise, but the entrainment was top notch for both quality and breadth. The evening shows were fantastic, especially The Golden Mickeys and Dreams. We also had a wonderful comedy act of Alfred and Seymour out of LA. They were hilarious. We also got lucky and had 2 movie premieres, Gnomeo and Juliet and I am Number 4. Some of the family game shows were just ok, it wasn't as much fun if you didn't get to participate. And the kids fell in love with the club/lab, but we didn't get them in there until Wed. We did lots of tastings, and although grumbled at having to pay for them, would do it again.

The pools were the most negative experience. They were crowded and were frequently shutdown to remove child waste. Our kids did get some time in them at the beginning and they loved the slide. The crowds didn't seem to bother them as much and once we got into ports we were so busy with excursions we didn't seem to use them as much.

As I mentioned we pretty much avoided character greetings. They usually had long lines and the kids were not in to them since WDW. We did get lucky once in while and see characters going to and from the greetings. And my daughter did catch Ariel with no line and had story time with Belle and Snow White in the club which she loved. In fact, I wish they had more natural character interaction with characters roaming around the ship or appearing in random places versus just in a "line."


Ok I am running out of time writing this on the plane back home, so i will continue with more on excursions and dining as well, and try to post pictures and/or navigators too.

To be continued...

 

[flybone89]

Flybone89 - thank you for your trip report. It's great to hear that your family had a great time on this MR trip. You mentioned at the end of your report that you had the second seating for breakfast on disembarkation day. What time would that be? What time did you finally step out into the cruise port with your luggage? I'm trying to figure out a time to have the shuttle meet us if we pick the second breakfast seating. Also, did you have a Dining Manager? The DCL website said that tipping the Dining Manager is at your discretion so I'm wondering what does he do as you didn't mention him anywhere in your report. Thanks for your help.

The second breakfast for disembarkation was 8:30. I believe the first breakfast was as early as 7:00. We did not get out and get our luggage until 10:30. I originally had told our shuttle service 9:30 pick-up when I booked it, but fortunately they still had a shuttle to pick us up in just a few mins after calling dispatch. Lotus Transportation - highly recommend them. Only $49 for 5 to LAX.

If we had a dining manager, I sure don't know who it was, so did not tip them - there was no tip envelope with this role nor on the recommended tip form. But is that the same thing as the Head Server? If so, then we did have a Head Server and that was Amil for us and I did tip him. I believe the recommended rate was $5 per person (children included) for 7 night cruise. He was good in that he made his presence known every night, so even though I never had a dining problem, felt he was very accessible.

 

[cidymom]

The second breakfast for disembarkation was 8:30. I believe the first breakfast was as early as 7:00. We did not get out and get our luggage until 10:30. I originally had told our shuttle service 9:30 pick-up when I booked it, but fortunately they still had a shuttle to pick us up in just a few mins after calling dispatch. Lotus Transportation - highly recommend them. Only $49 for 5 to LAX.

If we had a dining manager, I sure don't know who it was, so did not tip them - there was no tip envelope with this role nor on the recommended tip form. But is that the same thing as the Head Server? If so, then we did have a Head Server and that was Amil for us and I did tip him. I believe the recommended rate was $5 per person (children included) for 7 night cruise. He was good in that he made his presence known every night, so even though I never had a dining problem, felt he was very accessible.

Thanks flybone89 for your answers above - it definitely helped with scheduling the shuttle (Lotus). I had an additional question regarding the tipping. You mentioned "tip envelopes" were given to you for use in tipping. I bought some Thank You cards with envelopes that I was going to use for tipping so I could write a personalized note. Should I not bother? Do the envelopes provided by Disney have the appropriate person's name already on it? On my previous cruises, tipping has always been added to our account so I never had to personally deliver any tips so I'm a bit confused about this process. Thanks again for your input.

 

[flybone89]

I bought some Thank You cards with envelopes that I was going to use for tipping so I could write a personalized note. Should I not bother? Do the envelopes provided by Disney have the appropriate person's name already on it?

Wow, I hadn't thought about it, but thats a nice touch. I like the idea. The envelopes are provided for your benefit, so I think you are more than welcome to use a thank you note if you want. All the envelopes have on them is the generic role name, like "Head Server," "Assistant Server," etc. You give them in person so I assume you could give them any envelope. You can also apply the tip to your room charge and they give you a receipt to put in the envelope to present the tip. I overheard a CM in Guest Services who said it is more of a tradition as your tip is automatically credited to their account when then cruise is over. Of course, you can also put cash in the envelope as well.

I like the personal touch of a thank card and a personal note though.

 

[LKFan]

Some of the family game shows were just ok, it wasn't as much fun if you didn't get to participate.

We felt the same way. They were much too slow and drawn out. By the end, the only people left in the room were the families of those participating.