"Once Upon A Time in Carribean" - On the Wonder Feb 16-21, 2014 (WRAPUP! 7/09)

[PrincessInOz]

Not sunglasses, regular perscription glasses. She still hasn't replaced them as our medical insurance won't cover until June.

Prescription glasses???

Commiserations. That really is an awful thing to have happen.



BTW - I forgot to congratulate you and DW on your DVC booking. Sounds like you have a fantastic trip coming up.

 

[skier_pete]

Prescription glasses???

Commiserations. That really is an awful thing to have happen.



BTW - I forgot to congratulate you and DW on your DVC booking. Sounds like you have a fantastic trip coming up.

We have some friends in Houston who I was helping with booking a trip (4th one this year, I should start charging commission) they are driving from Houston, but they also don't like to finish their vacation on Sunday, so they are only going to Disney for 4 days (Mon-Thurs) and leaving on Friday. They think that this is a long time to spend there.

I had to laugh and say - I guess it depends on your point of view, since we are planning 4 days at Disney as a "weekend getaway". I can't help but be excited for the idea, even though it's a ways off and I know its going to be way too short.

 

[Tinker326]

We did Chacknaab (or however you spell it without going to look it up) on our own in 2008. Comparing it to Discovery Cove- we liked Discovery Cove better. But for the price we paid- it was OK at the time & it allowed Sarah- then 3- to do the dolphin encounter as well.

The pictures will always get you. Always. Back in 2008 we couldn't get digital and only could 'buy' the pictures each. Of course, we did... for the girls.

Cozumel is probably my least favorite port out of the entire Carribean. I wish more ships diverted to Costa Maya instead....... which I happen to love.

Sorry about DW's glasses- that stinks.

And YHEA on the DVC trip!!!

I'm one week 2 days till cruise! I'm so swamped with everything I even failed my goal to get my November Cruise TR done before the cruise!!!!

 

[skier_pete]

We did Chacknaab (or however you spell it without going to look it up) on our own in 2008. Comparing it to Discovery Cove- we liked Discovery Cove better. But for the price we paid- it was OK at the time & it allowed Sarah- then 3- to do the dolphin encounter as well.

The pictures will always get you. Always. Back in 2008 we couldn't get digital and only could 'buy' the pictures each. Of course, we did... for the girls.

Cozumel is probably my least favorite port out of the entire Carribean. I wish more ships diverted to Costa Maya instead....... which I happen to love.

Sorry about DW's glasses- that stinks.

And YHEA on the DVC trip!!!

I'm one week 2 days till cruise! I'm so swamped with everything I even failed my goal to get my November Cruise TR done before the cruise!!!!

Yeah, Cozumel overall was pretty *meh* to me. Not impressed.

Awesome that your cruise is just 10 days away. Hope you guys have a great time. Again seems to be no time to skype. Maybe after that!

 

[bbn1122]

Enjoying your TR.....we went to. Chanakaab a few years ago ....we snorkeled and loved it...nice place.

We actually joined DVC off that cruise in 2010. We also got extra points that had to be used we went all out on a 2 bedroom Easter week. You will love the space of 1 bedroom. We are a family of. 5, so we need the space.

We love being able to eat our breakfast and some lunches in the room.

Welcome to DVC!

 

[skier_pete]

Enjoying your TR.....we went to. Chanakaab a few years ago ....we snorkeled and loved it...nice place.

We actually joined DVC off that cruise in 2010. We also got extra points that had to be used we went all out on a 2 bedroom Easter week. You will love the space of 1 bedroom. We are a family of. 5, so we need the space.

We love being able to eat our breakfast and some lunches in the room.

Welcome to DVC!

I definitely see how a family of 5 could want a 2-bedroom. I think for us the studio will generally work well enough. Other than breakfast in the room, DW and I have no desire to spend our Disney vacations cooking or cleaning dishes.

 

[Imagineer5]

Joining in! I just put a deposit on a Feb 1st 2015 Wonder cruise with the same itinerary! (our first cruise!). Excited to read all about it. For Cozumel I was thinking of doing the Mayan ruins port adventure.

How much alcohol were you allowed per person? And did you bring a bottle to each meal? What was the corkage fee?

I also booked the 5-nighter after realizing we'd save nearly $2K over the 7-night from Port Canveral! How funny. I wonder your thoughts looking back on it if you wished you had sprung for the 7 nights? We plan to spend 4 nights post-cruise in the Keys, so that made it a little easier to swallow cutting out two port stops (Keys and Grand Cayman, which we have been to).

 

[skier_pete]

Joining in! I just put a deposit on a Feb 1st 2015 Wonder cruise with the same itinerary! (our first cruise!). Excited to read all about it. For Cozumel I was thinking of doing the Mayan ruins port adventure.

How much alcohol were you allowed per person? And did you bring a bottle to each meal? What was the corkage fee?

I also booked the 5-nighter after realizing we'd save nearly $2K over the 7-night from Port Canveral! How funny. I wonder your thoughts looking back on it if you wished you had sprung for the 7 nights? We plan to spend 4 nights post-cruise in the Keys, so that made it a little easier to swallow cutting out two port stops (Keys and Grand Cayman, which we have been to).

Hi, thanks for joining in. Hopefully you'll find what I write interesting as we are coming from the same experience as you.

First off 5-night vs 7-night, while DW especially wished the cruise could've been a little longer, I don't at all regret not paying twice the price for two more days. I wish we could have spent a few more days on land after the cruise, but flight costs wouldn't let us. I think you'll be fine.

As far as alcohol goes, Disney allows you as much alcohol as you carry on. Note the term "Carry On" - you can't pack it in your checked luggage, it has to be in your Carry-on. We had 10 bottles total between 4 people. 4 bottles of hard liquor, 4 1.5-liter bottles of wine, and two 750-ml bottles of wine.

They charge a $20 corkage fee per bottle of wine at the restaurants. We saved extra $$ here by buying 1.5 liter bottles of wine for the 4 of us at the table, but we are not real finicky with our wine either. I am not sure how much you really save doing this - someone else pointed out that the wine package - for $159 for the trip, gives you one bottle of wine per night. In our case, we probably spent about that, but got a 1.5 liter bottle instead of the 750 ml bottle. We had 750 ml bottles for Palo night, so overall, we spend $120 on the corkage fees + another ~$100 on the wine, which would've been less than the $159 x 2 = $320 Disney would've charged us. (They actually forgot to charge the corkage fee one night - so it was actually less.)

As far as the rest of the cruise, while you can't have your alcohol obvious out on deck, DW and I brought those metal water flasks, and added the whiskey/bailey's in our room, and then topped them off with ice / soda at the soda machine. I definitely got my money's worth out of those two bottles of alcohol, because drinks on deck were $7-$12 each. You could also buy beer stein which gave you discount refills on the beer if that's your choice.

 

[Imagineer5]

Hi, thanks for joining in. Hopefully you'll find what I write interesting as we are coming from the same experience as you.

First off 5-night vs 7-night, while DW especially wished the cruise could've been a little longer, I don't at all regret not paying twice the price for two more days. I wish we could have spent a few more days on land after the cruise, but flight costs wouldn't let us. I think you'll be fine.

As far as alcohol goes, Disney allows you as much alcohol as you carry on. Note the term "Carry On" - you can't pack it in your checked luggage, it has to be in your Carry-on. We had 10 bottles total between 4 people. 4 bottles of hard liquor, 4 1.5-liter bottles of wine, and two 750-ml bottles of wine.

They charge a $20 corkage fee per bottle of wine at the restaurants. We saved extra $$ here by buying 1.5 liter bottles of wine for the 4 of us at the table, but we are not real finicky with our wine either. I am not sure how much you really save doing this - someone else pointed out that the wine package - for $159 for the trip, gives you one bottle of wine per night. In our case, we probably spent about that, but got a 1.5 liter bottle instead of the 750 ml bottle. We had 750 ml bottles for Palo night, so overall, we spend $120 on the corkage fees + another ~$100 on the wine, which would've been less than the $159 x 2 = $320 Disney would've charged us. (They actually forgot to charge the corkage fee one night - so it was actually less.)

As far as the rest of the cruise, while you can't have your alcohol obvious out on deck, DW and I brought those metal water flasks, and added the whiskey/bailey's in our room, and then topped them off with ice / soda at the soda machine. I definitely got my money's worth out of those two bottles of alcohol, because drinks on deck were $7-$12 each. You could also buy beer stein which gave you discount refills on the beer if that's your choice.

Oh, I thought there was a max of 1 L per person or something but didn't remember the exact amount. Good to know, thank you! That is interesting - the $159/per person includes a full bottle of wine each night? That seems like a lot IMO (would be perfect for 2 adults sharing, though). I'm assuming you couldn't split that. Were you able to bring back unfinished bottles? Sorry for all the booze questions LOL!

 

[skier_pete]

Oh, I thought there was a max of 1 L per person or something but didn't remember the exact amount. Good to know, thank you! That is interesting - the $159/per person includes a full bottle of wine each night? That seems like a lot IMO (would be perfect for 2 adults sharing, though). I'm assuming you couldn't split that. Were you able to bring back unfinished bottles? Sorry for all the booze questions LOL!

No worries, ask away. The wine fee as I saw it on board was $159 per person, but after I got back someone else stated that it provided you one bottle each night. So, 5 bottles for $159 or $31.80 a bottle, so if you are only drinking 750-ml bottles and are paying a $20 corking fee it's probably not a bad deal versus bringing your own. Again, in our case where we had big bottles, and splitting corking fees we probably saved quite a bit.

I found this link which must be an older version as it is $139 for a 5-night sail but still doesn't really explain exactly what you get.

The specifics of Disney's Alcohol policy are as follows:

Alcohol is permitted on board. Any fragile items (including bottles of alcohol) must be brought aboard in a carry-on bag not to exceed 22" wide, 14" high and 9" deep. All fragile items must be transported inside carry-on luggage. Coolers are not allowed.

Guests can have a bottle of their own champagne or wine that has been brought onboard opened and served by a Wine Steward in the dining rooms. There will be a corking fee of $20.00 per bottle.

Any alcohol that a guest brings onboard may not be consumed in any lounge or public area.

We were allowed to take our unfinished bottles off the ship as well.

 

[skier_pete]

For dinner, we had planned for the adults to go to Palo tonight, but late in the game the O’Malley’s decided they’d rather spend dinner with their kids. So, being the good friends we are, we hoisted OUR daughter on them and still went to Palo anyways!



The first thing that struck me about Palo – I had assumed that being on the top aft deck of the ship that Palo would have this great nighttime view of the ocean and the moon and all, very romantic. NOT! The way the ship is designed, the outside deck winds around Palo, leaving it such that people were walking by all the time. Apparently in addition to that, they have issues with some of the curtains being broken, so they just leave all the shades down so you can’t even see outside if you wanted to. Here’s us with our “window view”.



But, that is really my only complaint about Palo. The food was absolutely fantastic. The portions large, the service impeccable. The ambience when you weren’t looking at the drawn shades was also fantastic.






First we were started with a antipasto service and bread sticks. The Prosciutto and other meats were excellent.





We started with an appetizer. You’ll forgive me if I get these things wrong. DW started with a Tuscan White Bean Soup with Prosciutto and Parmesan Cheese



I had the Sicilian Pesto Marinated Grilled Shrimp on a Mussel, Crab, and Cherry Tomato Ragu



I’m not even going to tell you how delicious each one was, because they were just great.

For the main course, DW had an order of the Grilled Sea Scallops with Borlotti Beans and Pancetta served with a Tomato Sauce



In addition, she had mentioned having gone to the cooking class for the risotto, and they told her they would bring out a small portion. Well, instead they brought out a WHOLE portion of Wild Mushroom Risotto with freshly-shaved Parmesan and a Chianti Reduction



My main course was Pappardelle con Aragosta - Lobster, Parsley, and Fennel with Chili and fresh Tomato Sauce. Honestly this was the weakest of the bunch. The lobster was just the teeniest bit overdone. Not enough to ruin it, but just a hair past perfection.



We actually did have desert as well, it was a chocolate soufflé with white and dark chocolate sauce, but we forgot to take a picture of it!

 

[skier_pete]

Once dinner was done, it was off to the show, but first, DW and I changed into our Pirate duds. The show was the illusionist, and it was entertaining enough. He did a couple tricks that were kind of neat. After the show, DD was completely pooped out, and wanted to head to bed, but DW and I wanted to go to Pirate night. I convinced DW that we could go out and leave DD to sleep. (Some serious bad parenting going on this trip, right?)

Pirate Party!





The O’Malley’s were up on deck but all pretty pooped out (the poop deck?).





We had decided that we would buy pirate costumes and that we would re-use them for Halloween. My costume was pretty much standard pirate fare.



DW had decided she wanted to go as “The Redhead” from PotC. Surprised she didn’t get herself banned from the Disney Cruise!





The characters were in costume, and they were putting on quite a show. Unfortunately, no Captain Jack. (I missed this earlier, but I guess Captain Jack was out meeting before the stage show, and DD actually went and got her picture with him. I don’t have it though, because we haven’t gotten pictures from our friends yet.)







As the show went on, we noticed that they were turning the boat around in a 180. We supposed this was because it was windy, and they had to be careful when shooting off the fireworks. These were kind of cool, though I would say they only lasted about 5 minutes.











After the show, the dance party went on for a while. DW and I stayed for about another ½ hour, but the crowd died off a lot, so we headed to bed. We had another towel animal awaiting us, and another fun day at sea ahead!



The Good
The Dolphin encounter was awesome.
Dinner at Palo was likewise.
The Pirate Party was lots of fun.

The Bad
DW had a very bad day losing her glasses.
DD pooping out before the pirate party.

The Ugly
Did I mention the guys with machine guns riding in jeeps in Cozumel? Yeah, that happened!

 

[PrincessInOz]

You forgot to add those wonderful pirate costumes to "The Good". And oh my! Is it bad to admit that I just love that luscious pic of DW?

Great night at Palo. The food looks amazing. And I think you did good on the parenting.


I love your shots of the fireworks. They are really really cool.

 

[Imagineer5]

Wow - Palo looks fantastic! We are definitely planning to spend one evening here, though I'm surprised at the lack of view. And Pirate night looks like so much fun. DH and DD already have Pirate outfits to wear, but I'll need to work on mine. You guys looked great!!

 

[skier_pete]

You forgot to add those wonderful pirate costumes to "The Good". And oh my! Is it bad to admit that I just love that luscious pic of DW?

Great night at Palo. The food looks amazing. And I think you did good on the parenting.


I love your shots of the fireworks. They are really really cool.

Yeah, DW was showing it off there, right? I swear that the camera guy kept putting her up on the Jumbotron because of her outfit! But then he'd cut away just as quickly, I'm guessing they wanted to keep it G-rated.

It means a lot that from you that you think those fireworks pix came out. I think they are some of the better ones I've taken. Now if I could only remember how I did it!

 

[Tinker326]

We did Palo this cruise for brunch. Maybe it was the timing, but we did get a window seat, the curtains were open...and there was no one walking around! It was nice. I tried caviar for the first time and almost threw up. Gross.

I agree the food was very good. But due to Kurt's pickiness, I don't think dinner would have been a good value for us. Brunch was good for us to try because it was more 'buffet' style. And cheaper. Hahahahaha!!!

I LOVE U's pirate outfit. Awesome!

Where is a picture of A in pirate gear?

 

[skier_pete]

We did Palo this cruise for brunch. Maybe it was the timing, but we did get a window seat, the curtains were open...and there was no one walking around! It was nice. I tried caviar for the first time and almost threw up. Gross.

I agree the food was very good. But due to Kurt's pickiness, I don't think dinner would have been a good value for us. Brunch was good for us to try because it was more 'buffet' style. And cheaper. Hahahahaha!!!

I LOVE U's pirate outfit. Awesome!

Where is a picture of A in pirate gear?

We don't have pictures of DD in pirate gear. She didn't dress up with us as she was with the "O'Malleys" before the show, and then after the show she went to bed. Never met a kid that wants to go to bed EARLIER on vacation than she does at home. At least it seems unlikely we'll have a hard-partying teenager on our hands.

 

[skier_pete]

Well, again life has backed up and I am having a hard time trying to write up this TR. I’m also discovering that we have very few pictures from our last few days and that unlike my Disney trips I didn’t write any notes about the trip, therefore I think this report is going to die on the vine a bit.

Our third FULL day aboard the vessel (is that even possible that we’re only to the third day) was once again totally spent at sea. For breakfast, we ended up finally changing it up and had breakfast at Parrot Cay. As it turned out, we came in about 5 minutes after our friends, so we ended up sitting together for breakfast. DD wanted to go to the pool for awhile first thing as did the other kids, so we did that in the morning for a little while. Meanwhile, DW went to see another chef’s preparation thing. I noticed that some of the characters were out greeting on the top deck. Again, we didn’t go and see any of them. “NO CHARACTERS EVER!” screams DD.



After a while, DD was ready to go back on the computer…er, go to the kids club, so I brought her down there and did some more relaxing. I then picked her up again for a brief lunch, and again brought her back. In the afternoon, there was a presentation about the top 20 Disney Imagineering achievements. I thought this would be an interesting presentation. We got there early and got a seat in the front row.



The presentation was OK, nothing really new, and some of them were not what I would have chosen, but it was fun. After that they had “70s music trivia” . It was pretty hard, and though I did well, I didn’t come in first, though the people that did was a group working together. They played snippets from 25 songs from the 70s (some very short) and you had to name the song AND the artist. I got hung up on who sang some of the Disco songs, I did pretty well with the rock and pop stuff. I think I got something like 44 out of 50 right.

After a little while I went to pick up DD again, and we did some other stuff. (My memory is vague, and there is only the one picture for evidence.)



Eventually we ended up going to dinner the same place we had breakfast, Parrot Cay. Again, I have to give it to Disney’s rotational dining system where your wait staff follows you, by this point our waiter and assistant were becoming like family. (Though not family enough that I remember their names 4 months later!)

The food at Parrot Cay was probably the weakest meal of the bunch. It was still very good, but since I couldn’t quite call it outstanding, it ranked last amongst a standout crowd. (In the future if I were to do the same cruise, I would likely skip this meal for Palo.)

There may not be many pictures on the day, but I couldn’t miss out on the food porn. Appetizers were as follows:

Baked Crab Dip Martinique - Jumbo Lump Crab baked in a creamy Cheese Sauce served with colorful Tortilla and Plantain Chips



Cream of Green Asparagus- with Crabmeat and Asparagus Tips


West Indies Romaine Salad - Fresh crisp Romaine tossed with a creamy Romano Dressing topped with West Indies Spice-dusted Croutons.


For the main course, DW had Island-spiced Grilled Rib-Eye of Beef - topped with handmade spiced Butter, Corn on the Cob, and Double-baked Potato.



While I had the Mixed Grill - Grilled Beef Tenderloin Steak, Lamb Chop, Bacon-wrapped Sausage and Jumbo Shrimp on Mashed Potatoes, Asparagus, and Grilled Tomato with a Cabernet Mushroom Sauce



The desserts in particular did not hold particular appeal to me, though some in our party had the chocolate cake



Or this which was some sort of fruit cake.



I opted instead for a tried and true, Mickey Bar!



After the show but before the stage show, we decided to check out the Saludos Amigos latin dance party. DD was being her usual party pooper self:



But DW got out on the dance floor to cut a rug.



Cause our host was none other than Donald himself!



After the dance party, we headed down to see the show. This time, it was Toy Story, The Musical. This was a slight improvement over the previous few nights, in that it was an entertaining and well done version of the show, even if the songs were pretty much forgettable. (It reminded me a bit of the Nemo musical at AK in that respect.) To me, the biggest flaw with it is that the original Toy Story had THREE great songs in it, not just “You’ve got a friend in me”, which of course was used in the show – several times. The other two songs “Strange Things” and the absolutely brilliant “I will go Sailing no more” would have been PERFECT for the musical, yet somehow were completely absent. I just don’t get it.

We got back to the room, and the steward had made DDs bunk up a little differently than before, with special princess sheets and as you can see, a towel monkey.



We actually called it an early night tonight, or at least DW did. I think I went out for a while afterwards, first meeting our friends for a nightcap, and then to watch one of the entertainers “adult” act. It’s funny, being Disney, even the “adult” stuff on the cruise ship is pretty PG stuff.

Overall a good day. We were feeling more comfortable getting around the ship than on our first sea day, and we took a little more advantage of the things to do. I was really looking forward to Castaway Cay the next day though.

The Good
Hmmm, I would say the relaxation of it. There was really not a hurry to be somewhere, and a go with the flow level that I don’t often achieve.
I achieved a very nice level of alcohol consumption most of the day. That along with a little breezier travel day allowed me to perfect my Jack Sparrow stagger/swagger.

The Bad
I don’t really have a bad today. Overall, nothing really went astray.

The Ugly
I wish DD would play with other kids instead of just sitting on a computer, but hey, it’s her vacation too.

 

[Tinker326]

Wait.... you give me cr#p for forgetting my November vacation and here you are doing the same thing!!!!

Sarah, too, LOVED the kids club... for the computers. I was like, seriously? You are on a boat in the middle of the Caribbean with tons of cool stuff and you want... the computer?

You know, you posted that picture of Pluto roaming the deck.. we saw that on our last two Disney cruises but not a single character just roaming the decks on this cruise. Don't know if our timing was off or they just didn't do it? We were on deck A LOT this cruise...........so it's odd.............

Good update! And Mickey Bars are always a winner!

 

[skier_pete]

Wait.... you give me cr#p for forgetting my November vacation and here you are doing the same thing!!!!

Hey, in my defense, I was drunk most of the time!

Sarah, too, LOVED the kids club... for the computers. I was like, seriously? You are on a boat in the middle of the Caribbean with tons of cool stuff and you want... the computer?

It really does seem like those two are made to be friends, huh? When are we doing that Skype thing again?