Nov. 6-10 Wonder cruise

[DiszyGram]

I'm just getting this report started and will let the others continue. We just got back today, Nov. 12th, since I added two nights to the end of the cruise at the Disney World ASM resort. I'm happy but exhausted.

It was a WONDERFUL cruise, despite a loud cabin the first night. My sister and I were on deck one and in an inside deluxe cabin in mid-ship. My daughter and grandson were in a connecting cabin. All night long, about every fifteen minutes, a looong, LOUD, horn sounding noise with a flush sound at the end kept us awake. I probably slept 15 minutes at the most. I later talked to some of the crew members who bunk on deck one and they are so used to that noise, they don't hear it.

The wonderful people from Guest services moved us up to deck 2 into two outside porthole cabins. We were on deck one at first by choice because my daughter gets violent motion sickness. She chose a cabin without a porthole. Seabands!!!!! They work!!! Even with a porthole to see out of, she never felt any motion sickeness, on the ship and on the flights.

I'll continue tomorrow since I can't keep up with the typos I keep making. Loved meeting some of you wonderful Dis Board members in person. Very nice people.

Gail

 

[DiszyGram]

We traveled to the airport in an airline van on Saturday, Nov. 5th, which could easily hold 7 people and over 14 pieces of luggage. It arrived at my house 10 minutes early. That was a relief for me since our whole trip was depending on them getting us to the airport on time. Our Southwest flight left right on time and we arrived in Orlando in a little more than two hours.

My brother-in-law was waiting for us with a van he rented to get us to Cocoa Beach. His eyes opened wide when he saw the amount of luggage. We did manage to get us and all the luggage inside the van. It's a good thing my sister didn't come with him. We would have had to tie her on the roof.

My daughter, daughter-in-law, son, two grandsons and my granddaughter took over my sister's home for the night. My sister, brother-in-law and I stayed at my sister's in-laws' home, 5 minutes away from her beautiful Cocoa Beach home.

We still had the rented van the next morning, plus my sister's father in law's car to get us all to the terminal the next morning. We arrived there around 11:30, were in group 9, and were able to board immediately. It was a smooth process. We all headed up for the buffet for lunch.

My friend just came to my door to take me out for lunch. I'll continue later.

 

[DiszyGram]

Continued..after my late breakfast with my friend. He's a sweetheart.

When we first got on board, I went to the reservations place for Palo to add ibouncetoo (Jackie) on to our group of 5 going to brunch at Palos the day at sea. The man changing my reservation had fun with me, saying he had to cancel my 10:30 reservaton first. It worked out great and we had reservations for six. Jackie gave me her cell phone and cabin number so I called and let her know.

After a nice lunch at the Beach Blanket Buffet, we headed out to see if our cabins were ready. They were but our luggage hadn't arrived yet. My sister and I went up to the 9th deck near 3:00, the time we were all supposed to meet. I spotted sweet Angelina in her hot pink wheel chair. Her father was with her. I introduced myself and Vito mentioned they would be right around the corner, near Scoops. That should have been a big clue to me.

Debby, my sister, and I went up to the top deck, next to the Outlook bar (not open yet) and looked down at the Mickey pool, shortly before 3. No one was there then. Two people from here did show up and recognized my green ribbon. I was very disappointed more people didn't come. Little did I know you were all at Scoops.

We went back to our cabin and our luggage arrived. We were busy for awhile putting things away. My sister and I had a connecting door with my daughter and 6 year old grandson's cabin. He loved coming into our cabin. We were in 1069, they were in 1067, right near the mid-deck elevator. Unless that noise was a fluke, don't book those cabins. Nothing wrong with the inside of the cabins, just their location.

Our dinner time was at 5:45 and our first dinner was at Tritons. We all dressed up nicely for the dinner. It was delicious, as all of our dinners were, and I felt terrible about leaving half my food on the plates. I think if I ate it all, the ship would list to one side when I walked on deck. The three grandchildren enjoyed coloring the child's menus while we waited. It was my granddaughter, princess Meghan's fouth birthday that day and she was dressed as Cinderella. She could barely stay awake during dinner but was wideyed as the servers sang happy birthday and gave her the cake.

After dinner we went back to our cabin and my sister's card wouldn't open the door. She had it replaced at Guest Services, (wonderful, wonderful service there and they quickly got to know us by sight). I also put down a deposit there for headphones for my 6 year old grandson, Joey. He was born more than three months early and his only problem is a hearing loss, caused by medication he needed to cure a deadly infection in the NICU. It was a choice between letting him die or take a chance on the hearing problem. Of course my daughter said to give it to him.

He loved Hercules and the other shows so much more because he could hear them with those wonderful earphones. We sat in the same four seats each night, 4 rows from the stage and on the left aisle of the center section. It was almost as if they were reserved for us.

Since I am the oldest in our group, I was exhausted after the show and we headed back to our cabin. I could hear the noise then but didn't think it would bother me. In the morning, after a very long sleepless night, our cabin steward was right outside the door when we walked out. He could hear the noise with us. He suggested we go to guest services. Those wonderful people moved us up to deck 2, cabins 2082 and 84, deluxe porthole cabins. My daughter avoided looking out, didn't want to test those seabands to the limit. My grandson, Joey, was THRILLED with it.

Our second day at Nassau was a relaxing one. My two younger grandchildren, prince Andrew and princess Meghan loved the Oceaneer clubs and spent some great quality time there. Joey wanted to stay with us all the time. He only decided he liked the club on our last day.

Second day dinner was at the Animator's palace. My son and daughter-in-law didn't go with us because they had dinner reservations at Palo. They went on the Dolphin excursion on Nassau that day, booked directly from the site, and had an incrediblely fantastic time. They were in the water with the dolphins a long time and the childen were kissed several times. Meghan and Andrew went to the club later on.

I, my daughter, Joey, and my sister walked off the ship at Nassau and went to the Pirate Museum. It wasn't a Disney quality excursion but was very nice for Joey. He went through it a second time. We all walked back to the ship through the straw market. No one really bothered us. My daughter did say someone offered to braid her hair. We were all very polite in saying no and were never hassled. Debby and I left my daughter and Joey at the port and we took a taxi to the Atlantis hotel. I toured it last year on a Disney Wonder 3 night cruise with her and wanted just to visit the casino. We had fun. I won back all the cash I brought just to use in the casino, plus about $100 more. Debby contributed to the hotel upkeep.

We enjoyed the dinner at Animators. Our service was excellent and the two young women serving us were very patient with answering Joey's questions about EVERYTHING. He is a non-stop talker and every answer leads to another question. He loved the changing colors in the pictures and the show at the end of the dinner.

The Golden Mickeys was another incredible show. We went back to our room and my sister's card wouln't work again. Another trip to the Guest services. We realized after they asked if her card was near any magnets, that the clasp on her small dressy purse...was a magnet. Whip out your card and wipe it clean.

Taking a break.....back later.

 

[DiszyGram]

Sometime on Monday night, the toilets stopped flushing in our rooms. It wasn't a problem for my sister and I nor for my daughter, but was a big problem for my son and family. My sweet granddaughter came down with an urinary infection a few days before the cruise and had to use the bathroom often. She would not use it in the middle of the night because it smelled bad. The wonderful guest services staff did their magic thing in the middle of the night. They found another cabin for them, a deluxe stateroom on deck 5 with a verandah. We started out our original reservations 6 months ago with catagory 12. The family LOVED the new room.

Tuesday was Castaway Cay day. I have to say every day was a picture perfect weather day, sunny, warm, and not humid. I was so afraid the hurricanes would continue into November. The hurricane weather site on my computer was visited often by me.

Tuesday was a gorgeous day at the beach. My daughter, grandson Joey, sister and I claimed a spot on the family beach with an umbrella, four lounge chairs, and four regular chairs. I found my son and family not far away and they joined us. They had reservations for the Swim with the Stingrays and my granddaughter stayed with us. At the age of 4, she was too young. I rented a float and they all had fun in the water and sand.

Angelina was there at the stingray swim with mom, Michelle, Dad, Vito, and her brother, Vito Jr. My daughter-in-law heard my board name mentioned, Diszygram, in a nice way , and she introduced herself to them. The sting rays do not have an ability to sting anyone and were friendly and tame. They just recently returned to the island after the hurricane threat. My grandson had a grand time with them.

Lunch was at Cookies BBQ and everyone chose what appealed to them. There was a nice selection of food. I happen to love hot dogs, always have, and enjoyed my hot dog lunch.

Tuesday was dinner at Animator's again and was a Pirate Night theme. Everyone repeated their Monday restaurant for dinner and all were pirate themed. I made pirate themed shirts for my daughter and myself, my son and grandsons had the Disney Captain Hook costumes on, and everyone in the restaurant was provided a bandana. My son, daughter-in-law and children attended the big Pirate party on deck that night.
They said it was great. It went past my bed time hour, and I slept through it. Well most of the time through it. My sister, who I dearly love, snores.

 

[DiszyGram]

My sister, daughter and Joey did not go see the Michael Harrison show. I knew my grandson would not understand it all with his hearing problem. I did stop by the Disney store and bought some nice Mickey refrigerator picture magnets for the grandchildren. I had them in the Disney bag and stuck them in my pocketbook.

Guess who made the newest embarrasing trip to guest services for another room card?

Wednesday was our day at sea and our 10:30 brunch at Palo. I had already met ibouncetoo, (Jackie) a few days earlier and received a nice birthday door magnet for my birthday granddaughter and daughter-in-law. My daughter finally talked Joey into staying at the club. She was worried he wouldn't stay, but he did and loved it!

We all met in front of Palo and were seated when Jackie arrived. What a nice person she is. Jackie is just as she seems to be on the Dis Board. The other Jackie (Chickie) was in a cabin just down the hall from us and I met her too earlier. Of course, nice too, aren't we all on here?

Brunch at Palo was perfect. We were given a tour of all the food stations after we were shown to our table. Everything was displayed in a gourmet setting and all looked delicious. We were treated like royalty the whole time. Your main dish was cooked to order and you helped yourself to whatever you wanted. An alcoholic or non alcholic drink was included in the meal at no extra cost. If you haven't done a meal at Palo, make sure you reserve it on your next Disney Cruise.

I had purchased one day rain forest vouchers for myself, sister and daughter-in-law that could be used any one day you choose and all that day. We all three used them that day. It's such a relaxing experience. I relaxed in one of the stone lounge chairs that have soft music and relaxing scents around them. It was sooo relaxing, I couldn't get out of the chair after. I kept sliding back in. A helpful hand from my sister pulled me out.

Dreams was the final show that night. We sat in our "reserved" seats again and I picked up water and popcorn for us. Another award winning show. Joey's earphones died in the middle of the show but we were so close, it didn't matter. He wanted to know if the ship was flying after the pixie dust covered the top of the auditorium and a picture showed us in the air. He was upset the pixie dust wasn't in the rest of the ship. When he got back to his cabin and looked out the porthole into the black night, he said excitedly, We ARE flying".

That evening we sadly packed up for departure early the next morning.

More later, my typing finger is getting cramped.

 

[wdwfan_1]

We left the Wonder on Nov 6th, so you took over our boat.

We were in room 1073. We also heared that noise. We were so tired, that it didn't really affect us. Might have woke me up early one day. I read that there are noises heard from these rooms. Still wonder what that noise was from...

 

[DiszyGram]

The most amazing thing about that noise was....no one seemed to know what was causing it.

We all got up early on our last morning since we needed to be off the ship before 9am. Our large suitcases were left outside our door the night before and silently disappeared sometime before morning. I heard stories of people having to wear night clothes getting off the ship because they forgot to leave some clothes in their room. We were well prepared with what we needed the next morning. We all had some breakfast at the Beach Blanket Buffet, packed up the last few items, and headed out for our suitcases before nine.

They were all easy to find. Disney does a very good job of organizing the suitcases. We left the ship and rolled all 14+ suitcases over to the pick-up area. My brother-in-law was coming with a pick-up truck for the suitcases, his mother was driving my sister's car, and his father was driving his own car.
Loading up went smoothly and none of the suitcases rolled out of the truck.

We got a quick look back at the ship as we drove to Cocoa Beach and my sister's home. The cruise more than met my expectations. It was a gift from me to myself and my family it it came in Wonderful wrapping paper, which kept peeling off to reveal more gifts. (I'm getting poetic.

This was not the end of our vacation. I also booked two nights and two rooms at the All Star Movies Resort with a day in-between at the Magic Kingdom for us. We stayed at my sister's home for a few hours and then took the caravan, two cars and truck, to the ASM hotel.

The ASM is a Disney Value resort, still very nice, and the two beds are double sized, not queen. My sister, daughter, and 6 year old grandson had one room. I shared a bed with my sister. She managed to acquire 75% of our bed, but I still love her. My daughter had her own bed and Joey fit nicely on an air mattress we brought with us. My son and daughter-in-law each shared a bed with 5 year old Andrew and 4 year old Meghan.

The next day was a very full day at the Magic Kingdom for the whole group. I left around 6 to get back to the hotel (needed sleep, wonderful sleep) but the others stayed late. The MK was open until 11pm. They came back before it closed, but not much before. They had a fantastic day at the park which included lunch at Cinderella's Royal Court, booked by me 90 days ago by following the great directions on this site. I think we had 5 or more princesses show up, including Cinderella.

We didn't have to get up early on our departure day since the bus taking us to the airport left at 11:05.

We flew Southwest there and back. The service wasn't great but it was non-stop each way and VERY inexpensive. Our luggage all arrived back and I'll tell you a little way down why one was partly ripped open and searched.

I had reserved an airport van to take all of us back to my home, where our cars were parked. We got our luggage and walked out of the airport doors. This is the busy Baltimore Washington International Airport. Outside the door was ONE airport shuttle waiting, ours. No taxis, no people picking up other passengers, no buses or cars in either direction, just our one shuttle. We all got in and the driver started driving down the road. He was confused too. Just a short way down and we were stopped by airport police. Something was going on, we never learned what, and no one was supposed to be where our shuttle waited. They let the van drive over the sidewalk and onto the next street.

I don't know how long we would have waited if he wasn't there. My husband died, or crossed over as I call it, almost 5 years ago. We talked about taking a family trip like this. I believe we were getting a little help from him and other family over there.

The suitcase search....My daughter-in-law didn't discover one of her cases had been searched until she got home. A zipped and unlocked compartment had the zipper ripped off it, with a note it had been searched. She had her door magnet in it. That was gone and probably the reason for the search. Unfortunately several other items were taken. She had a Mickey ears hat from Disneyland that my 5 year old grandson was given to wear in the park and it was taken. There were a few small but treasured items gone too. We doubt they will show up again.

That was the only really bad part of the trip. At least it happened at the very end and the rest of the trip was fabulous.

That's it for now. If I remember more, I'll post it. Hope you enjoyed the report.

Gail.

 

[disneygatorfan]

Sounds like a great trip all-around. Thanks for the Trip Report. I hope you also report the theft of those items to the airport your bags were searched at!

 

[E&BMom]

Thanks for the great trip report!!! Sounds like you had a great time!!! Sorry about the things taken out of the case though. Just keep thinking of all the great times and memories from the trip!!!

 

[DiszyGram]

Since we only flew out of the Orlando airport, directly to BWI. It had to be as the luggage was being loaded on in Orlando. All the luggage came off the plane at BWI and went directly to the luggage pick up area.

I gave my door magnet to my sister so it wasn't in my luggage. My daughter had her magnet in her checked in luggage but had no problem. I called airport security before the trip and asked about taking the large magnets. It wasn't listed on the not to take list and I may have been the first person who ever asked.

They didn't think the magnets would be a problem.

 

[ibouncetoo]

Great report! LOVED meeting you and your family, and thank you so much for including me in the Palo birthday celebration!

I don't know if I'll get my own report written....depends on back-log at work. I will mention one surprise here, if you don't mind. Final night, 10PM, two (YES TWO) Palo choclate souffles are delivered to my stateroom.....thanks Gutto!

 

[DiszyGram]

My sister, who has been on the Disney cruises at least 6 times, got a special invitation to meet the crew at a gathering Monday night. It started at 5 and we had a 5:45 dinner time so we couldn't stay long. There were a lot of snack foods there...but...dinner at 5:45. We just had a soda.

The head chef for Animators, Chef Winston, stopped at our table and talked with us for a long time. Very nice guy. He said he was going to send us a surprise. Captain John came by and we found out he lives in Cocoa Beach. So does my sister and her husband is a Cocoa Beach City Commissioner. He stayed with us for awhile and chatted with her.

What can I say, my sister is a pretty blond and 10 years younger than I am. She has no children and is an amature belly dancer. My belly dances every time I walk. No one looks at me when I'm with her.

On pirates' night, our second night at Animators, someone delivered a large covered dish to our table. It was filled with a big assortment of fancy bon bons. They were from Chef Winston.

 

[michelle9343]

What a great report. It was such a pleasure meeting you and your family.I wish that we had not missed each other on the first night but at least we kept runnung into each other throughout the cruise. I will try to do a report but beleave it or not Angelina is home sick again, woke up this am with a fever and vomiting. Thrusday I go in for surgery so hopefully sometime next week I will get to post it. We have so many wonderful things to share. The trip was made
so much more special by having some Dis friends on board!
Michelle

 

[jns]

Thanks for a wonderful trip report

we will be going on our first cruise next Oct

you said you first booked CAT 12
did you get free upgrades or did you up grade yourself

 

[DiszyGram]

Hi Jackie, my sister booked the cruise for us over 6 months ago through her travel agent. We were guaranteed a catagory 12, which means you are guaranteed an actual cabin, no matter what. They are the least expensive cabins and there are not a lot of them. Most only sleep 3 people and the bathroom is not split. We paid the least expensive price for them.

We were upgraded to 10s, without asking or paying more, and it is a nice inside deluxe stateroom cabin with a split bathroom. We were happy with them, until the noise got to us.

The ship crew found us two catagory 9 cabins next to each other on deck 2. They were identical to our 10s except now we had a large porthole on the back wall, instead of a large mirror.

My daughter-in-law, son and two grandchildren were upgraded to a catagory 7. It looked identical to ours except theirs had a verandah. They loved it! When they had the toilet problem, there weren't a lot of empty cabins left. The crew member told them before he opened the door, you are going to like this one.

The Disney Cruise staff is a fantastic group of people.

Michelle, I'm sorry to hear Angelina is sick again. It's so easy for anyone to get sick when you are around a lot of people. Hope she is better soon.

 

[tjmw2727]

Thanks so much for taking the time to post your report, what a wonderful trip! I have been looking for a 4 day wonder report, its nice to see actually what happens each day including dinners! I booked our first cruise in Feb with my dh and dd's ages 11 and 9, its a Christmas Surprise so they don't know yet. We are doing the 4 day wonder followed by 2 or 3 days in the parks mid February.

If you like, oh and if they still offer them I could pick up a set of Mickey Ears for your grandson.

I have had our luggage opened and searched almost every WDW trip but luckily nothing has been taken. Since we are driving I can pretty much guarantee the safe return of the golden mickey ears!

Feel free to PM me...

TJ

 

[DiszyGram]

Thank you very much for the offer, TJ I'll check the internet myself and see if I can find a replacement.

The ears were from Disneyland and look different from the ones we saw in Disneyworld. There were two sets, one for a girl and one for a boy. My granddaughter still has hers, my grandson's is the missing one. They were a gift from a friend of my daughter-in-law.

It's a shame it happened, but it doesn't take away from the whole incredible experience we all had. It was also not a problem that happened on the cruise or the Magic Kingdom visit. It was an airport problem.

Gail

 

[DiszyGram]

Somewhere I acquired a picture showing the floor plans of all the cabin catagories. I think I got it off the internet. On the left it says Stateroom Plans with a printed description and three photographs of cabins under it. On the right there are 6 different colored illustrations of the insides of each catagory, telling how many they sleep and their square footage.

My copy is pretty ratty looking now and I wanted to print out a new one. Anyone recognize it and where it is located?

 

[Jennifer48]

Thanks for sharing your trip report DiszyGram. I'm going on my first cruise in April aboard the Wonder so I'm trying to take in as much as possible.

I'm sorry to hear about the missing items. Thankfully it wasn't anything priceless that couldn't be replaced.

 

[grammynelliebelle]

Hi from another grammy- We were on the 11-10 to 11-13 Wonder and were in rooms 1066&1068 and 1074 &1076 (across the hall from your original rooms ) and fortunately there was on noise at all! We also wanted them for potential sea sickness. We also had a great time and the looks on the grandkids faces at each new adventure were priceless!