October 16, 2011 Mexican Riviera on the Wonder

[bradc]

Thank you guys for the wonderful FE gifts! Our kids loved getting the surprises almost everyday. They were sad when we took the FE down to pack! It was probably the smoothest sailing and the absolute best servers we've ever had.

This was also the first cruise where we'd seen dolphins and whales swimming by the boat. That was way cool! Weather was almost perfect and the port of calls were great. Hope to see you all again an another cruise!

 

[2inpink]

What a wonderful time we had on board. I had come down with the flu bug that the rest of the family had on Friday morning and made for a miserable cross-country flight on Saturday and cautiously eating on Sunday. Grace (the baby) came down with a cough/runny nose about Tuesday and by Thursday we had all caught it also. So, even though some of us were sick for some of the days, It was still fabulous. I still LOVE the evening shows and believe that the shows are part of what makes us keep coming back. Speaking of coming back, we did a dummy booking for a future cruise, which will most likely be November 9, 2013 Western Carribean on the Fantasy. The other three familieis that were with us did the same.

Thank you everyone for the FE gifts!!! They were all so clever and enjoyed immensely by everyone! Sorry that we did not make the Parrot Cay get-together on Tuesday; too many things going on and we missed it.

What room were you guys in, if you don't mind me asking? I think we might have been next door to you! Someone kept putting your magnets on our door!

We had a great week! I wish we had been able to do the FE and come to the meet up, i ended up getting a horrible eye infection and had to go to the medic on board and an eye doctor in PV. Luckily it was gone quickly and I was able to enjoy the cruise! We can't wait to book our next Disney cruise!!

 

[phred84044]

What room were you guys in, if you don't mind me asking? I think we might have been next door to you! Someone kept putting your magnets on our door!

We were in 2124; the one with the fussy 15 month old! Grace just wasn't herself on this trip.

 

[2inpink]

We were in 2124; the one with the fussy 15 month old! Grace just wasn't herself on this trip.

We were in 2126, the ones with the loud 3 year old and 7 month old, lol! We had the mickeys on our doors. I was worried my girls were going to keep your kids up. Their whole sleeping was WAY off the whole week.

 

[Jathanis]

I agree, we're home, done with the horrible Monday of going back to work, getting a week's homework back to DD's school, and getting DW off to a 3 day conference out of town. So after 7 days of non-stop family time, I get to be solo dad for 3!

We, too, didn't get a chance to label our stuff, as I was literally printing license plate door magnets right up to the time we left last Saturday to drive down to LA. Aside from those, our gifts were the bags that included the bookmarks and luggage handles, amongst other stuff...

I'm going to start preparing to do a trip report over in the correct sub-forum, but won't start on it until DW gets back. I will just say here that it was a VERY interesting trip, don't EVER trust priceline to not screw up a reservation, and avoid the City Tour (and arge iguana) in PV at all costs... Of course, the 30 or 40 high points more than make up for those few small snags - stay tuned! And feel free to add anything you'd like, of course!

 

[Jathanis]

Oh, and I should also add - if any of you got to see the pub skit on Sat night in wavebands, I managed to get a great recording of it and will get it on youtube as soon as I can find DW's camera - I think it may have gone to her conference with her purse.

If any of you don't know what I'm talking about, you can either look up "If I were not upon the sea" on youtube for other performances, or give me a few days. Be warned, if you remember Trent from Wavebands, just wait until you see him in a tutu! (No, I am NOT kidding, you have been warned!)

 

[Denine]

Oh, and I should also add - if any of you got to see the pub skit on Sat night in wavebands, I managed to get a great recording of it and will get it on youtube as soon as I can find DW's camera - I think it may have gone to her conference with her purse.

If any of you don't know what I'm talking about, you can either look up "If I were not upon the sea" on youtube for other performances, or give me a few days. Be warned, if you remember Trent from Wavebands, just wait until you see him in a tutu! (No, I am NOT kidding, you have been warned!)

We have seen this skit a number of times, but decided not to go this time. I had a feeling it would be Trent in the tutu!

 

[Disney23]

Where did you get the template for the license plates and the graphics? I absolutely LOVED them! I stupidly forgot to pack all the magnets I made except the small name ones for everybody...

 

[Jathanis]

Where did you get the template for the license plates and the graphics? I absolutely LOVED them! I stupidly forgot to pack all the magnets I made except the small name ones for everybody...

Many of the license plate templates came from Jordak here on this board, a service he used to do around here. I just took some of his blanks and photoshopped them with all of your names and colors... The rest was just me and photoshop, using images found through google searches. The font is a free download on the web. In your family's case, I had mostly ran out of templates before you jumped in, so all but the Tiana and Tink plates were Google searches plus my photoshop skills. There was a lot of use of the "alpha to selection", "grow border", and "add bevel" commands, over and over and over...

All the bookmark images were from hours of Google searches and screen captures, and the Mickey ears I found on a free site and played with a bit. The rest was just color matching, cloning, adding gradients, etc... Believe it or not, the bookmarks took a LOT more time than the plates, even those I did from scratch! That was offset, though by reusing many of the bookmarks for different rooms - each of the 43 plate magnets were completely different, which took some work when we had 4 or 5 fans of Minnie!

If you (or anyone else, for that matter) would like the original .jpg files, I'd be glad to send them to you. As for the blank plates, here's Jordak's galleries, where many of the plates came from: http://s229.photobucket.com/albums/...magnets/Disney blank plates/#!cpZZ10QQtppZZ32

I just remember how much I loved Jordak's work, and was bummed that he isn't doing it anymore. So I just picked up where he left off, just for our little FE group. Anyone wants similar for future cruises, just PM me - I can doo the plates fairly quickly, then can post them for you to print yourselves... I just don't want to encroach too much on Jordak's work without getting his permission first, and he spent quite a bit of time doing requests, something like 6 threads full of requests, time I'd rather spend relaxing!

Anyone else starting to realize how much free time we'll all have now that all our prep is done? I'm going to miss checking this forum 3 times a day!

 

[Jathanis]

Oh, and I should also add - if any of you got to see the pub skit on Sat night in wavebands, I managed to get a great recording of it and will get it on youtube as soon as I can find DW's camera - I think it may have gone to her conference with her purse.

If any of you don't know what I'm talking about, you can either look up "If I were not upon the sea" on youtube for other performances, or give me a few days. Be warned, if you remember Trent from Wavebands, just wait until you see him in a tutu! (No, I am NOT kidding, you have been warned!)

We have seen this skit a number of times, but decided not to go this time. I had a feeling it would be Trent in the tutu!

Okay, if you missed it, or want to see it again, here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S8mnwjnO5Y

 

[HaileeB]

Hi, does anyone have Personal Navigators they can post?

 

[betsy2010]

What a fun surprise!!! Please tell us how excited the kids were!!!

Well the surprise went off without a hitch although they were more confused than excited at first at least - here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmd20GtOdSs

We had the BEST week ever. So sad to be home but the kids are already back to doing chore and saving $ in the 'disney cruise' jar so we'll be back

I can not say thank you enough for the amazing, creative, thoughtful, useful, yummy, detailed and wonderful FE gifts! on our last cruise the FE gifts were like a tiny fun sized candy or A dollar store toy. This time, everyone outdid themselves. I felt so lame with my acrylic tumblers and raisinets but I hope some of you enjoyed them! Last time we had them on the ship at least a dozen people asked where to get them which is why I gave them this time.

Thanks again all!
Betsy

 

[DisneyKim68]

Well the surprise went off without a hitch although they were more confused than excited at first at least - here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmd20GtOdSs

We had the BEST week ever. So sad to be home but the kids are already back to doing chore and saving $ in the 'disney cruise' jar so we'll be back

I can not say thank you enough for the amazing, creative, thoughtful, useful, yummy, detailed and wonderful FE gifts! on our last cruise the FE gifts were like a tiny fun sized candy or A dollar store toy. This time, everyone outdid themselves. I felt so lame with my acrylic tumblers and raisinets but I hope some of you enjoyed them! Last time we had them on the ship at least a dozen people asked where to get them which is why I gave them this time.

Thanks again all!
Betsy

You should not feel lame about the tumblers at all! I was THRILLED to get them! I had bought some to bring, but at the last minute had to take them out of my suitcase and leave them at home because I didn't have enough room! I got asked where I got them too!
Oh, and I took the Raisinets to the movies today and enjoyed those too

 

[Jathanis]

I felt so lame with my acrylic tumblers and raisinets but I hope some of you enjoyed them! Last time we had them on the ship at least a dozen people asked where to get them which is why I gave them this time.

Thanks again all!
Betsy

You should not feel lame about the tumblers at all! I was THRILLED to get them!

I agree with DisneyKim - I had brought a plain water bottle to use from time to time, but yours was MUCH better - I think I finished a full 1.75L bottle of rum last week thanks to your gift and the unlimited diet coke! And it fits much better in my truck's cup holder than anything I currently own...

 

[anthonysmama]

All I have to say is WOW!! We had an AMAZING time on our first cruise!! We were so sad to see the week come to an end!! It was BY FAR the best vacation I have ever been on in my entire life and I absolutely cannot wait to do another one!!! The ship, the entertainment, the food, the service, the character experiences....EVERYTHING was AWESOME!! I am sooo sad I didn't make it a priority to book another cruise onboard, but that doesn't mean we won't be doing another one! I will ABSOLUTELY choose Disney for any and all future cruises!! The experience was fabulous!!

One thing (of the many I can list!) that really made our trip super fabulous (for me & our baby girl who LOVES Disney characters) was the character interactions!! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Disneyland, but the character experiences on the ship put Disneyland character experiences to shame BIG TIME!! It was SO much more than waiting in a long line just to be rushed in and have them snap one quick photo, not caring if it was a good one or if the baby had her finger in her nose, or if I was blinking or whatever the case may be, like they do at Disneyland! The photographers took their time (and a whole lot of photos) to try to get a good shot of everyone in our party! I am VERY BIG into pictures so this was SUCH a pleasant surprise for me!! One of the photographers in particular (Margarita ) had not only learned our baby girl's name by the end of the first day onboard and was calling her by name all week long, but also the tricks to make her smile for the pics!!! The characters were AMAZING! They actually interacted with the kids! Not just one or two of them, EVERY character we took photos with/got an autograph from, did more than just stand there and pose for a pic! Minnie Mouse even took our baby girl for a stroll along deck 9!! It was soo awesome!! Valerie LOVES Minnie so she was over the moon!! I could go on and on about this one aspect of our experience, but I will not. I'm sure you all know exactly what I'm talking about!!

I want to extend a HUGE thank you to all the FE participants!! Our family loved all the wonderful FE gifts we received!! I sure hope everyone enjoyed ours as well! DOH! I labeled ours with our family name rather than my username, so in case anyone is wondering...our gifts were the cloth gift bags with lanyards, candy, hairbows for the girls, and toys for the boys! Oh and personalized bottlecap magnets for each family/stateroom. I hope I got everyone's favorite characters correct!

I could spend hours and hours going on and on about how fabulous a time we had!! This cruise was such a learning experience for my hubby and I. Now that we've been on one, our next one will be SOOOO easy to plan out our days and make it run a little smoother. We missed alot of the adult stuff because we were trying to hang out as a family, but by the end of the second day, our son had practically traded us in for time at the Lab and Valerie didn't miss us a bit apparently when she spent what little time she did at the nursery!!

I hope to meet up with you all again on future cruises! Well, at least on the message boards for future cruises!! We did go to Parrot Cay for the meet, but couldn't figure out how to recognize anyone. We had lunch and then went about our day because it would've been a little awkward going table to table asking if anyone was from The Dis!

Thanks again to everyone for the great conversation before/after the cruise and for all the wonderful gifts!!

~ Brandy ~

 

[Bareacuda]

Hi All....

First off... I didn't cruise with you.
Yesterday I had a coversation with a lady that did cruise with you.
This was the first time I ever heard such a horrid report from a first time cruiser... or even a long time cruiser.

Her complaints were from the most discusting food ever eatten to the worst ports ... including the "stupid" stop in Encinada(sp?).
I can't believe Wonder could have been that terrible... over everything!
The more she flamed, I relized I think she flames for a living

Hope you all had a great time and made Wonder-ful memories!


Ann

 

[DisneyKim68]

Hi All....

First off... I didn't cruise with you.
Yesterday I had a coversation with a lady that did cruise with you.
This was the first time I ever heard such a horrid report from a first time cruiser... or even a long time cruiser.

Her complaints were from the most discusting food ever eatten to the worst ports ... including the "stupid" stop in Encinada(sp?).
I can't believe Wonder could have been that terrible... over everything!
The more she flamed, I relized I think she flames for a living

Hope you all had a great time and made Wonder-ful memories!

Ann

Well, for starters I think she has her cruises mixed up. we didn't even stop in Ensenada! We did stop in Puerto Vallarta and Cabo, which were both absolutely beautiful and a lot of fun. I thought the food was great, the shows were wonderful, I loved everything about it!