Our amazing first cruise 8/19-8/26, finished with a couple pictures to boot!

[Dsnylndlvrs]

When I went to sleep that Sunday night, I had full intentions of starting our first sea day by sleeping in. In reality, I woke up even earlier than the day before! First, I snuck out to the verandah for a peek outside. I could tell it would be a little while before sunrise started. Knowing I wouldn’t be able to sleep anymore, I threw on some clothes, grabbed my camera and headed out of the stateroom while DH, DS(13) and DD(10) continued to sleep peacefully. I got in walking around several decks, stopping to take pictures every so often (and wiping down that lens that kept fogging up!) There were some people up and out, but not many. I enjoyed seeing a few parents with groggy, pajama clad kids out in hopes of seeing the sunrise (and I’m guessing, right back to bed!) I thoroughly enjoyed this early morning walk, both on outside decks and in – even went up and down a few stateroom hallways, looking for fun door decorations.

After about an hour, including eventually seeing another beautiful sunrise, I went back to the stateroom. Family was still asleep! So, time for a nice, long, relaxing shower. Back out of the bathroom, family still asleep! Grab a magazine and out to sit on the verandah. My hair was still wet from the shower when I went out, but the breeze outside took care of that while I read (sea breeze = best blow dryer in the world. Wish I could always dry my hair that way!) After an hour of reading, I thought, for sure someone would be awake. Nope – family all still sleeping! They did start to wake up not long after I came back inside.

Now I have to say, I WAS bummed (at first) about not sleeping in like I’d wanted. In the end, with all the walking, picture taking, reading, relaxing and just taking in the ocean zooming by, I would not change anything about that morning! It was probably the best morning of the cruise for me.

The time between when my family finally woke, having breakfast at Topsiders, and when we had lunch is a little of a blur (even with looking back at the navigator for the day.) I know we hit Mickey’s Mates, Treasure Ketch and Shutters, but I have not idea how else we filled those hours! After lunch, DS disappeared to the teen activities, while DH, DD and I went to an Animation session at Animator’s Palate. We learned how to draw (well, sort of draw) Donald Duck. My Donald probably looked the best of our three, but he looked more like Huey, Dewey or Louie. Not long after the animation thing, it was time to hit Rockin Bar D for (what else) Bingo!!! DS met us there and, nope, we didn’t win, but, yes, we had fun! Besides dinners and excursions, bingo was probably some of our best family time.

(The time between bingo and show on this day are also a blur…) At 6:15 it was time for the Golden Mickeys. Of course, we missed about the first 5 minutes while fighting with my daughter’s formal shoes. We’d bought these cute black flats just a couple months before cruising and they would go perfectly with her formal outfit. I don’t know if her feet grew that much or if her feet were swollen, but there was no way the shoes would go on her feet. So, she wore her white flip flops with her black and red formal outfit! Anyway, the Golden Mickeys were good and then we saw Greg Kennedy’s family juggling show at the Rockin Bar D.

Dinner for the night was Animator’s Palate. I’d only been waiting FOR YEARS to eat in this restaurant! The show that happened was actually different than what I’d expected after seeing the videos and Travel channel special, but we did enjoy it. I had the chilled gazpacho, maple glazed salmon and chocolate peanut butter pie. All three were very good, although the salmon wasn’t as “mapley” as I’d expected. We also did more than our fair share of formal portraits before and after dinner.

Eventually, DS disappeared to the teen activities, DD to the Lab’s Mysterious Islands (spooky story telling) on a drizzly deck 7 aft, and DH and I were left on our own again. We took in Michael Harrison’s adult show and wandered around the ship, exploring the adult lounges we hadn’t seen before. We liked the relaxed feel of Sessions the most. Following this low key sea day, I think everyone was finally in bed about 1:00am…

(to be continued)

 

[curlybop]

Still loving the report!

 

[WolffDVC2004]

Great report...looking forward to the rest of it...

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

I didn't like the new AP show, either. I prefer the old one. I can't quite put my finger on why I don't like the new one but it just didn't "wow" me.

It was nice seeing Mickey come out. And considering we blew off our character breakfast, Mickey was the only character we saw in the restaurants.

Yeah, I liked the peanut butter chocolate pie, too. Good thing, too, because our servers were really slow that night. They got assigned extra tables and had too many. It took almost an hour to get our dinner. We did say something privately to them afterwards and the service got faster thereafter.

 

[Dsnylndlvrs]

I didn't like the new AP show, either. I prefer the old one. I can't quite put my finger on why I don't like the new one but it just didn't "wow" me.

It was nice seeing Mickey come out. And considering we blew off our character breakfast, Mickey was the only character we saw in the restaurants.

Yeah, I liked the peanut butter chocolate pie, too. Good thing, too, because our servers were really slow that night. They got assigned extra tables and had too many. It took almost an hour to get our dinner. We did say something privately to them afterwards and the service got faster thereafter.

Oh - I didn't know the show had changed, as this was our first time on board. Still, I'm not really complaining(in fact, we did enjoy the show for what it was), it just wasn't what I'd been expecting. You know, our service was a little slow that night too, but I thought it just had something to do with the timing of the show. Hmmmm....

 

[lvstitch]

More more more

 

[ChrisLei]

I am loving your trip report! I can't wait to go!!!

 

[Sarangel]

It's been a little over a year since we cruised last - how has the AP show changed? It seemed the same in 2005 as it was the first time we sailed in 2001

 

[Dsnylndlvrs]

And suddenly it was Tuesday. Probably by about this day, we felt like we had a feel for how things on the ship went and where most things were. Still would sometimes mix up deck 3 and deck 4 when trying to remember where things like restaurants or Shutters were, but we felt more comfortable, that is, for 3 of us. I believe DS knew where everything was, and how best to get there, in a little over 24 hours!

We had to get up a little earlier this morning for our excursion, so it was up, out of bed, get ready and have breakfast at Topsiders as we watched the ship arrive in Costa Maya. By 8:15 we were down in the Promenade Lounge waiting to head to the Dolphin Encounter! Once, everyone was there and ready, we took the walk off the ship, down the pier and behind the shops to board fairly comfortable busses. The bus ride took longer than I might have expected (I think it was around 45 minutes) and was disorienting to me. Normally I have a decent sense of direction in terms of left, right, north, south, etc. but I felt like we were either going in large circles or going way inland away from the water. Of course, neither was right and we eventually got to Uvero beach (and I still have no idea if we were north or south of the port, LOL!!!)

Upon arrival, we were lead to a small open air room to watch a video, get life jackets, get instructions, be divided into smaller groups, and be told NO cameras. Bummer! After that, we were lead down a wooden pier. At the end of the pier was a wall of open cubbies to store our belongings and a few pens built in the water. Almost immediately, our group of nine was instructed to go to a certain pen and down the ladder into the water. I was amazed how quickly upon arrival that we were actually in the water WITH a dolphin! First thing was each having a turn petting the dolphin as he swam by and then it was time to each have our picture taken with the dolphin kissing us. Very sweet and gentle peck on the cheek (with his chin.)

Next, we all moved to the middle of the pen. We spread out arms distance away from everyone else and the dolphin just freely swam among us, letting us pet his back. I think the dolphin liked me because he always “talked” to me every time he swam by! We also stood in a hand held circle as a group and the dolphin swam very fast around us, creating a sort of whirlpool. We also broke into smaller groups of 4 to 5 to go in the water and do the hand motions to instruct the dolphin to dance, splash, sing, etc. Another exciting thing was having the dolphin jump over all of us. Just so amazing! Yes, we were in the water for maybe a half hour or so, but we are so glad we did the excursion. Afterwards, we were invited to have free beverages and spend time on the beach, under the umbrellas if we wanted. The pictures they took of us were also for sale, at a whopping $20 each! The problem though is that the pictures come out VERY good. Eighty dollars poorer from the pictures, we stuck around for an hour enjoying the view and drying off, before hopping on a bus back to port (the busses leave every hour on the hour and you can pretty much leave whenever you want.)

Back at the port, we had lunch at one of the restaurant mentioned in the shopping guide and took in a little of the show before hitting the stores. Picked up some tshirts and other souveniers. Also stopped at Diamonds International to get our freebie bracelets (and a couple other very nice trinkets. ) It was pretty warm out and very humid, making us very happy to return to the ship a little early. DS cleaned up and went in search of teen activities and then the rest of us cleaned up and just relaxed in the stateroom for a while. We also ordered room service cookies to take to that night’s show. Yummy! DS chose not to do the show that night (it was Twice Charmed) so it was just a threesome. DS made sure to join us in the Rockin Bar D in time for bingo though! While we waited for bingo to start, DD and I scooted out to try a little office pin trading and got back before the game started. No, we didn’t win bingo, but we did win a raffle prize of a little key lime rum cake!

It was Parrot Cay for dinner again, with the Master Chef menu. I had the tomato risotto (extra yummy!) in addition to the Orange Roughy and the chocolate mint sundae. I’m not normally a fish eater (just some shellfish) but I ordered a lot of fish for some reason, as did DH. It’s so funny, because our server, Oka, figured we must be really into seafood and the topic came up a few times. He really did pay attention to and remember what we ordered. After dinner, the kids did their things and DH and I went to Sessions to listen to some Elton John/Billy Joel tribute music for a while until DD paged us. I’m guessing I may have briefly woken up when DS got back to the stateroom that night, but I just can’t remember (left that to DH to monitor!)

Oh, one last thing, I think this was the night DH and I visited a very important place – the rebooking desk. The plan is to sail again during the summer of 2008 (probably June/July) but for now, we’ve got a dummy date booked for December 2007. Here’s the deal – if the Magic weren’t doing the Med next summer, we’d probably be going summer 2007. We liked the cruise THAT much...

(to be continued)

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

I was on the Wonder last August and it seemed the animation scenes during the "show" were longer time wise. We saw more scenes from different Disney movies than this time.

I guess because Mickey comes out and makes an appearance that DCL had to cut out some of the animation scenes.

It was very frustrating seeing other tables finishing their dessert when we hadn't even gotten our dinner. It was at its worst at AP. Its not so much of an issue for DH and me, but you can't expect young kids to wait that long. I think it was after 10pm when we ordered our dessert. And this was an 8:15pm seating.

We ended up bringing a deck of cards to dinner and playing card games while we waited for our food.

I also had to ask for our server to bring out the drawn butter for the lobster meal because he was so busy. And neither server came around with the big pepper grinder when I ordered a Caesar salad, yet I saw other servers doing so with their tables.

I did mention this on the comment card.

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

Uvero beach is north of the port.

I wish DCL had provided a map of the Costa Maya general area so you could get an idea where things are located (not that there is that much in that part of Mexico).

 

[Dsnylndlvrs]

Uvero beach is north of the port.

Thanks Ski and Sea!

Wow - sorry the AP dinner went like that for you. Glad you gave feedback about it though. I know I certainly would have been frustrated.
Kris

 

[Dsnylndlvrs]

We interrupt this trip reporting to say - ARGGGH! (Just a little pirate humor! ) I'm finding myself spending so much time trying to write trip reports that all my unpacked "stuff" still is sitting all over the floor! And what am I doing? Writing more trip report I can't seem to help myself. Writing the report is as much for all of you ('cause I learned SO MUCH from these boards) as it is for me (I desperately want to hold onto all the magical memories before they completely fade!)
We now return to our regularly scheduled trip report...

It's Cozumel Day!
First, it's the now normal routine of get up, get ready and have breakfast at Topsiders (where's the strawberry topped Mickey waffle when you need one?) Our excursion meet is at Diversions at 8:30am.

We'd signed up for an excursion called "Reef Snorkel" but they changed the name to "Discover Snorkel." It's now meant as more a beginner type snorkel and I think the name change has something to do with the hurricane damage that left not much "reef." The excursion had us taking taxis (already paid for as part of the excursion) to Corona beach, not that long of a ride. At the beach, there are shelves to store your stuff (didn't see the actual lockers until after the excursion- they were up the stairs.) The equipment distribution was a little hectic and disorganized. I do think that if there were any truly first time snorkelers, this way of preparing would have been super confusing and overwhelming. Some people were still trying to find where to get equipment when the snorkel guide started his VERY quick how-to despite not everyone being ready with all gear in hand.

Entry to the water was from the beach (very rocky at that!) From our CC snorkeling excursion, I learned that I'd much prefer getting in the water from a boat. Anyway, the water is VERY clear and absolutely beautiful in color to look at from above. Under the water at this location, though, really didn't have much to look at. I could imagine only somewhat what it might have looked like at one time. I could just barely see on the bottom where some plant life is just barely starting to grow. The guide I was with did point out a couple interesting fish (including one he described as very poisonous) and he did go through and check on some of the plant life that was further along in it’s growth. If you’re hoping to see LOTS of fish and plantlife, you won’t find it here for a while. There was someone taking professional underwater pictures while we were there. One was taken of DS, one was taken of me, but DH and DD were missed. Those pictures were for sale afterwards, up the stairs (where I eventually found the lockers.) We did buy both pictures even if I didn’t particularly like mine. I thought I looked like I could be the next Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade giant balloon, but it did offer proof that I actually was snorkeling!

After the excursion we took the taxi back to port, where we decided to just tender back to the ship, change out of wet bathing suits, grab free lunch at Topsiders (surprisingly tasty Mexican buffet) and then head back to port for a little shopping. We needed to hit Del Sol for DD’s much wanted color changing nail polish as well as Diamonds International for more freebie charms to go with the freebie bracelets. We also hit a couple shops for the requisite tshirts and then it was back to ship for escape from humidity.

By the way, tendering was quite efficient and easy and provided the perfect opportunity to take pictures of the ship.

Back on the ship, it was time for the cleanup and watch DS disappear routine. This day felt a little weird to me. There was no 6:15 show to go to (because of Pirate party later in the evening.) Our routine from 6:00pm on was just off. But then came 7:30 and Jackpot bingo, so all was kind of better. Our poor Kaz, bingo queen, had had some dental surgery done in Cozumel – I think wisdom teeth – and she wasn’t feeling well enough to run bingo for us. In her place, we got Pikey. Pikey was fun, we enjoyed his style too, but we’d gotten so used to Kaz and we missed her. Anyway, as normal, we didn’t win, but did have fun!

Dinner was in Lumiere’s (felt a little odd with the pirate stuff.) My daughter did dress up (she’d been a pirate at Halloween, before we even knew we’d be Disney cruising.’) The rest of us got pirate bandanas gently put on by our server. I had the couscous salad appetizer, macadamia crusted mahi-mahi and the lost banana treasure dessert (yummo!) After dinner DS disappeared (again!) and DH, DD, and I went up to Deck 9 for the pirate party. DD decided she didn’t want to be around for the loudness of the party, so DH took her to the Lab’s star gazing activity on Deck 7 aft. Another deck party for just DH and I. I really enjoyed the fireworks and it turned out DD was able to see them from where she was too. That night ended a little earlier for the three of us (if I remember correctly…)

 

[eye R.N.]

Your reaction on seeing the ship made me smile.

I go into every extra shift thinking "OK this one will pay for "x"% of the next cruise. Somehow that makes a 16 hour day much easier.

Please keep posting I'm loving this report.

 

[Dsnylndlvrs]

I think, by the time we got to the second day of sea, I managed to sleep a little bit later – something like 7:30 or so. Once we were all up, showered and fed at Topsiders it was off to Rockin Bar D for pajama bingo. DD was the only one of us to wear pjs and, for the most part, the only pj-clad bingo players were kids. Those in their pajamas got fun little key chains as prizes. (I’m wondering if the few adults in pajamas might have been hoping for something more in the line of a little spa service?) Pikey was our bingo host again, as Kaz still wasn’t feeling up to it. Now, for bingo, five rounds are played, one after the other. We’d been watching our bingo cards get SOOOOOOO close to winning all week and that’s what we watched again, until the fourth game. During the fourth game, we watched our card get down to needing only one space – B13. My daughter made a comment that 13 was her lucky number and I thought that was pretty funny. Until Pikey called out B-13. WE WON!!!!! We screamed and screamed and screamed. There was no way we’d let Pikey not notice our excitement of bingo. The number of people playing bingo this morning was a little small so we only got $160, but we were very happy with it and it covered most of what we’d spent on bingo so far (hiding head in shame that we’d spent that much! But we figured the money spent as entertainment cost that the WHOLE family really enjoyed together.) We still have that winning bingo card, it’ll probably go in a scrapbook if/WHEN I get around to it! That started off the day on a very fun, exciting note!

Afterwards, the kids wanted to do their own club stuff, while we went to guest service to make sure our bingo winnings made it onto our account. Very easy to do (once I found out I needed my ID and ran back to the stateroom, that is!) Did a little shopping (again!) after that and then rounded up kids for lunch at Parrot Cay. This is one time we were not impressed with the lunch buffet – and it was a seafood buffet! The peel and eat shrimp were fine like we’d had before. The crab claws were just difficult. We could NOT get the meat to unstick from in the claws. There were clams (I think – we don’t eat slimy raw things, maybe they were oysters or maybe some of each. Just couldn’t get myself to even look at them!) There was sushi, but it didn’t look fantastic. The ice cream was good. Hmmm, I don’t know. I was just unimpressed, but some people might have been in heaven…

DD, DH and I went to the towel folding at 2:00 and really liked it (although it would have been better if it were longer and doing more than one animal.) This was something I thought my daughter would really be excited about but I was also nervous about it too. She is a bit of a perfectionist and if she can’t figure out something right away, she easily gets frustrated (and sometimes a little whiny.) It began with a little frustration, but we overcame that right away and all successfully made towel dogs. Very cute! DD wanted to immediately rush back to the stateroom so she could make another dog there too (and she’s done it at home also!) They also gave handouts on how to make a couple other animals. Overall, very enjoyable!

Not long after this, it was time for something very important and we needed (NEEDED) to head to the Walt Disney theater. It was time to get ready for Final Jackpot Bingo. DD insisted we sit in the front row (we’d gotten there early so that wasn’t a problem!) DH and I each had a chance to go up on stage during bingo! No, we didn’t end up winning (it’s OK, we won’t get that greedy!) Pikey called on me to come up and verify that there were bingo balls in each of the slots. For my contribution, I got a couple little DCL logo pins. (Cool – that made me happy!) DH was called up at the end to help verify the final jackpot winner had all good numbers. For his contribution, he got nothing. (Ha, Ha!! ) (Oh – to all the DISers – Cruising Castaways – out there, I’m so sorry we didn’t make it to the group picture, but I was overruled on the needing to go to final bingo thing…)

The time after bingo was spent doing something I’d dreaded and really didn’t want to do, but I’m glad I did. We went to go start packing. I knew I wouldn’t want to spend a lot of time doing this after Castaway Cay and I wouldn’t want to ruin the last day with the packing either. We probably got more than half the packing done on Thursday. I’d originally packed two fold up duffle bags into the suitcases, just in case we came home with more stuff. (Who am I kidding – I KNEW we’d come home with more stuff! ) Anyway, we used the duffle bags to fill with all the heavy dirty laundry we’d created during the week. Then we started packing up a couple suitcases with other things. We made a good dent in the packing that afternoon. After a while packing, we went wandering the ship for a while.

While we were in the stateroom, DS went to go play dodgeball extreme with the teens. I know specifically where he went for a reason – he eventually found us in the atrium area and he was in tears. Turns out he was doing really well at dodgeball, the best out of all of them (he says) at dodging the ball, but the silly kid was playing in bare feet (!!!) and hurt his foot. (He had on sandals and took them off. He blames me for getting hurt because HE didn’t think he’d need sneakers so I didn’t pack any for him.) Anyway, he was hurt and having trouble walking. DH and I thought it just looked like a weird blister on the bottom of his foot, but DS insisted it wasn’t and that it was more serious. So, we took a field trip down to medical services. Well, the woman at medical services said it was a blister and there wasn’t much that cold be done. DS didn’t believe at first so she had to repeat that, yes, it was a blister so off we went. There was no charge and it was interesting to see that part of the ship (thankfully not under serious circumstances!) BTW - DS was walking quite well again by the next day.

We barely made it to Disney Dreams (just three of us.) Nice show and very glad we made it. Afterwards, DS was supposed to meet up with us for Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer? The three of us got our numbers and found a table, but no DS. He walked in right before it started and ended up sitting, not with us, but with his friend Josh. We knew what his number was only because he used a funny kind of sign language to let us know! The first contestant called up was very close to DS’s number and happened to be a friend of DS and Josh. They were all so excited and this other friend won! Several more contestants went up and they were almost out of time. After a little discussion, it was decided that one more contestant would be called and it was DS’s number that came up!!!! The contestants (if kids) were allowed to take up a parent (and vice versa.) It was quickly decided that I should be the one to go up with DS (although friend Josh was yelling in hopes that a friend could go up instead of a parent. Sorry Josh!!!) Lo and behold, DS (and I) won!!! Cool – this was our lucky day I guess! Well, we wouldn’t have won if the host (AKA, an assistant cruise director from South Africa) hadn’t given us a not so subtle clue on one of the questions! For the win, we got two cool pins and an etched glass thing (no clue what to call it!) with the Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer logo.

Time to head to Animator’s Palate for dinner and listening to DS go on and on about winning both a game of bingo and round of Mouseketeer. He thought this was just the best day. (We did eventually have to ask him to stop going on about Mouseketeer because DD was getting a touch jealous!) We all had garlic shrimp appetizers, lobster tails for entrees and lava cakes for desserts. I thought it was so sweet when our server came over to help DD by taking the lobster meat out of the shell for her, but then he came around and did the same for all of us, and took away the shells in the process. Maybe that’s a standard, normal thing they do with the lobster tails, but it sure felt like we were being very spoiled! Very tasty evening I must say!

After dinner, DS went to do teen stuff and DD went to the Lab’s pool party. DH and I caught the Rich Purpura act before picking DD up at the end of the party, so she could change out of the bathing suit. That evening was a late evening. DD wanted to stay in the lab for as late as she could, I think she made it until 12:30 or so. DS and DH took advantage of something that wasn’t even in the navigator, but was announced at the show for the night (glad we made it to Disney Dreams!) They went to the premier of the new movie, Invincible. It STARTED at 12:01, just after midnight, in the Walt Disney theater. Both guys liked the movie and what a cool time and place to see a movie premier! I think that calls it a night…

(to be continued)

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

Hahaha.....my DD is 10 and is an extreme perfectionist. We should have had the two girls meet each other.

Last year on the Wonder we won the first round of jackpot bingo on the sea day. It was just over $300 and I kept the money until this year and it paid for our snorkeling excursion in Cozumel on this cruise.

So hang onto that money to spend on your next cruise.

We did make the DIS group photo shoot and still made it to Bingo. We got in just as the first game started so we had to quickly sit down and catch up for the first three numbers.

But I know what you mean about wanting to get in early for the final bingo game and get a good seat. That was great that you and DH got to go onstage.

 

[E&BMom]

Really enjoying your report. Glad you had a great time!!

 

[PrincessMom2002]

I love your trip report!! I had no idea there was bingo on the ship. Just one more fun thing to look forward to!

 

[jrose529]

Great job so far, Chris! I can't wait for more.

 

[tjeagle]

Terrific report! Thanks for taking the time to post it!