October 7, 2012 - California Dreamin' Coastal Cruise

[JonKPest]

On board, had lunch at patriot key. Now waiting to get into our stateroom.

Thanks Dorothy and DU.

 

[JonKPest]

Now in SF. Smooth landing at pier 35. Congrats to the Captain and crew for a perfect arrival under the Golden Gate Bridge.
I got some great pictures at sunrise!

 

[JonKPest]

On a sad note. The port adventure. To the Lasseter Family Winery has been canceled for lack of sign up. When I booked the cruise this outing was sold out. There is something wrong with this booking system.
Maybe a 10% non refundable policy would add stability the the pricier port adventures.

 

[RaglanRoad]

Home safe and sound now for an hour, already unpacked.
What a great trip. Met a few Dis'ers and a few new friends. A big thanks to all the fe participants, the gifts were great! I will start a trip report soon and post a picture as the gifts covered the whole bed when I unpacked them.

We enjoyed the cruise and cannot wait for the next!

 

[*Flower*]

Sad to leave the ship- had a great time (except for DH getting sick midway through)!
Had a great time on the PhotoWalk- thanks to Denise for putting it all together; we even found somewhere onboard that we'd never seen!!

 

[disneyfaninaz]

We're home. Already doing laundry!

We had a great time and absolutely perfect weather!

I was so excited to get Sasha from Magic Palo fame as our server. He and Luan were excellent!

Thanks Denise for setting up the photowalk! It was nice to meet other photo enthusiasts!

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

On a sad note. The port adventure. To the Lasseter Family Winery has been canceled for lack of sign up. When I booked the cruise this outing was sold out. There is something wrong with this booking system.
Maybe a 10% non refundable policy would add stability the the pricier port adventures.

So sorry to hear this. We wanted to do this tour but the price, application policy (guess they wanted to "screen" the guests coming) and the fact that the tour had to be pre-paid turned us off, especially when I found out you could tour the winery for $25 per person. I know DCL offered Nancy Lasseter as the tour guide and a bottle of wine but I didn't think it was would worth the $450 price difference.

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

I sent an email to DCL yesterday afternoon once we were checked into the hotel and I expressed my displeasure about the pin situation and the lack of special Pixar merchandise. Got a response today apologizing and advising that my comments had been passed on the the "necessary" people. It seems that DCL will never get the pin or special merchandise situation straightened out...so word of advise...if there is a special itinerary, made sure you are on the first sailing to ensure you can purchase the special merchandise. I will keep my eye on eBay to see if the Pixar pins go down in price.

 

[taaren]

On a sad note. The port adventure. To the Lasseter Family Winery has been canceled for lack of sign up. When I booked the cruise this outing was sold out. There is something wrong with this booking system.
Maybe a 10% non refundable policy would add stability the the pricier port adventures.

Wow that's a pity. I might have considered signing up if it had not been sold out when we booked the cruise, it got such rave reviews from the previous Pixar cruisers.

 

[denise]

Here's a shot of our photowalk group....


group photo by dionysia mou, on Flickr

 

[JonKPest]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/87982679@N04/

Some Photos from Our Wonder Cruise!

JonK

 

[JonKPest]

http://youtu.be/BABA0-Q85wI

http://youtu.be/a3kLurmqcFQ

http://youtu.be/BfajwTl3C8w

Some Youtube Videos of the trip!

JonK

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/87982679@N04/

Some Photos from Our Wonder Cruise!

JonK

Fabulous pictures...thanks or sharing.

P.S. Glad to see there are others that take pictures of their food!!!

 

[hjd0411]

Hey Jon - I recognize some of that food..!!!! ;-)

Hope you and Melissa are well and made it home safely!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[JonKPest]

Our drive home was great! If you ever drive up from Los Angeles to San Francisco stay at the Madonna Inn and check out Solvang.

http://www.madonnainn.com/

http://www.solvangusa.com/

 

[GrumpyGoat]

You must have gotten one that some just cancelled, that's great! We're still on the hunt for a Palo brunch, really hoping there'll still be some spots left when we get on the ship! (We booked late, about 60 days from sailing, so Palo brunches were gone by then, and we got a late check in time.)

I leaned a couple of things on this cruise. The first was NEVER book Palo brunch and dinner on the same day...

The second was always book a cruise with a stop in you home town. Because we live in San Diego, we staged a car in a parking lot on Navy property right across the street from the cruise terminal. We were able to off-load the majority of our luggage and clothing that Friday. This made it so much easier to get off the ship Sunday in LA as all we had were our small roller bags and backpacks. We were off the ship as soon as it was cleared and we were through Customs and in our car headed home in less the 20 minutes...

Here are my photos of the cruise:

http://johnwright.smugmug.com/Travel/Disney-Wonder-Cruise-II/25990200_JgvWtv#!i=2158448172&k=4d3qQrd

As you'll see, I'm not much into food photography...

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

The second was always book a cruise with a stop in you home town. Because we live in San Diego, we staged a car in a parking lot on Navy property right across the street from the cruise terminal. We were able to off-load the majority of our luggage and clothing that Friday. This made it so much easier to get off the ship Sunday in LA as all we had were our small roller bags and backpacks. We were off the ship as soon as it was cleared and we were through Customs and in our car headed home in less the 20 minutes...

I'm curious...DCL allowed you to take your suitcases and stuff off the ship when we were in San Diego? I would have thought that nothing could leave the ship that didn't go through customs.

 

[taaren]

I'm curious...DCL allowed you to take your suitcases and stuff off the ship when we were in San Diego? I would have thought that nothing could leave the ship that didn't go through customs.

Because we had not been to Ensenada before going to San Diego, they let us off the ship with suitcases. No customs since we hadn't left the country yet. They did ask us to have Guest Services confirm that it was okay.

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

Because we had not been to Ensenada before going to San Diego, they let us off the ship with suitcases. No customs since we hadn't left the country yet. They did ask us to have Guest Services confirm that it was okay.

Thanks for the info....had not thought of the fact that we hadn't left the US yet.