Our New Year's Eve on the Wonder, for those interested in DCL NYE

cmph

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I found scattered bits of information about NYE on DCL and heard so many rumors of what would happen, so I figured I would recount our experience last week for those considering sailing over 12/31/17 or other future NYE sailings! We sailed on the Wonder, 7 night, so some things are likely different than the shorter cruises or larger ships. Unbelievably, this is somehow the only Navigator I didn't keep. Also, I'm an atrocious and forgetful photographer. :( Be forewarned.

For our cruise, NYE was the first full day, and we were at sea. It was scheduled to be formal night, and we were notified over and over again that fireworks would be that night in lieu of Pirate night. That seemed to escape some folks, but honestly, the cruise director announced it quite a lot - at shows, on the little updates broadcasted throughout the ship, etc. So Pirate Night was a bit abbreviated, which perhaps is good for a lot of you who skip it completely or only pop in for the fireworks. The pre-dinner/show part of the day was pretty normal for an at-sea day. Most people seemed to get dressed up prior to the first show and dinner seating, although a lot of us went back to casual after dinner, for the on-deck party. The show was the Golden Mickeys that night, which fit well. Dinner rotation was thrown off, so for us, we ate at Triton's two nights in a row, including NYE. Photo ops took place in the atrium, pretty standard formal night stuff with the captain's reception. Also during the course of the evening, there were 2 different faux midnight celebrations in Azure lounge, intended for families with kids who could not make it to actual midnight - basically little dance parties with a countdown. We caught part of one around 7:30pm, in between our show and dinner seating, and I think the other was 9:30ish.

When we arrived at dinner, there were plastic top hats for the guys and tiaras for the ladies at our place settings. The tiaras were the standard metallic NYE ones you could buy at any party store, and the top hats had a 2017 NYE ship sticker on them, but they were both so lightweight that few people wore them after dinner. They just blew off your heads outside.

We had late seating, so we needed a pretty quick turnaround to change back into casual clothes and head up to deck 9 after dinner. We found presents in our stateroom when we went to change - chocolates and a lithograph. Blowers were not in our rooms, but they could be found close to the party. We got ours off a table full of them outside of the deck 10 elevators.
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The dance party was already underway when we got upstairs. 9 wasn't packed to capacity, but you definitely weren't going to be near the stage at that point. We headed up to 10 and grabbed some railing view spots. There wasn't a stage show with a vague plot or anything (such as the Pirate night vague storyline) - it was generic dancing, some times to line dances people already know, sometimes CMs and characters attempting to teach new dances. Characters popped in and out onstage, through the crowd on 9, and even up on 10. The photo of Mickey was taken right near our railing spot on 10, and yes, he's line dancing with guests. As the evening progressed, countdowns would pop up on-screen too.

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What's going on with that empty space and orange cone above? Yeah, someone partied too hard... a poor CM literally rang in the new year cleaning up puke.

As we got closer to midnight, CMs started to walk around with trays of canapes. We were still stuffed from dinner, it was dark, and it was just about impossible to hear anything at this point, so I don't think many actually took them. Certainly no one picky or with food allergies took anything. I took exactly one, just to say I did, and I found it was beets with a mustardy vinaigrette. I have no clue what anything else was, not that I knew what that was when I took it, either! A short time later, they started walking around with trays of little sweet treats. Again, no clue what any of them were! My 11yo took a couple, but she'll eat anything sweet! At just about midnight, they started to pass through with sparkling cider in souvenir plastic flutes. It was so busy and loud that not everyone got one, or even noticed it being passed out. Unless they passed out something on deck 9 that we didn't get up on 10 - no alcoholic drinks were passed out. Probably wise, b/c it was just too hectic for that to be well-controlled. We only ended up with 3 flutes.
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We counted down to midnight, and then the fireworks immediately began!
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A round of Auld Lang Syne was sung, and dancing/music continued, but we headed back to our rooms only 15min or so after the fireworks ended so I can't say for how long.

The verdict from our family? The adults (me, DH, and my parents) all thought it was an enjoyable way to spend NYE - safe (no crazy drunk drivers!), fun, festive. My kids? Well, mixed reviews. Most of the kids on deck 9 close to the stage seemed to be having a great time dancing and watching the action up close. That would have made my kids nuts. DS8, who hates crowds and might be the only person on earth who consequently prefers California Adventure to Disneyland park, only enjoyed the festivities rather briefly - 11:45-12:15 or so. He thought the music/dancing/countdown was boring, not enough to compensate for the crowd. If your (older, probably male) child doesn't like music/dancing/characters - they might similarly find it not their "thing". DD11 loves all the Broadway-style stage shows, and she loved Pirate night this cruise, but she found NYE to be too crowded and loud. She has sensory issues (has always hated fireworks) but can muster through it now that she's older; if you have a child with sensory issues - you may want to proceed with caution, as I can see it being just too much. If your only deck party experience is Pirate night, which so many people outright skip - then you may be surprised how crowded NYE is. The crowds for each were vastly different.

Hope this helps capture what NYE is like on DCL for some curious folks out there!
 
I found scattered bits of information about NYE on DCL and heard so many rumors of what would happen, so I figured I would recount our experience last week for those considering sailing over 12/31/17 or other future NYE sailings! We sailed on the Wonder, 7 night, so some things are likely different than the shorter cruises or larger ships. Unbelievably, this is somehow the only Navigator I didn't keep. Also, I'm an atrocious and forgetful photographer. :( Be forewarned.

For our cruise, NYE was the first full day, and we were at sea. It was scheduled to be formal night, and we were notified over and over again that fireworks would be that night in lieu of Pirate night. That seemed to escape some folks, but honestly, the cruise director announced it quite a lot - at shows, on the little updates broadcasted throughout the ship, etc. So Pirate Night was a bit abbreviated, which perhaps is good for a lot of you who skip it completely or only pop in for the fireworks. The pre-dinner/show part of the day was pretty normal for an at-sea day. Most people seemed to get dressed up prior to the first show and dinner seating, although a lot of us went back to casual after dinner, for the on-deck party. The show was the Golden Mickeys that night, which fit well. Dinner rotation was thrown off, so for us, we ate at Triton's two nights in a row, including NYE. Photo ops took place in the atrium, pretty standard formal night stuff with the captain's reception. Also during the course of the evening, there were 2 different faux midnight celebrations in Azure lounge, intended for families with kids who could not make it to actual midnight - basically little dance parties with a countdown. We caught part of one around 7:30pm, in between our show and dinner seating, and I think the other was 9:30ish.

When we arrived at dinner, there were plastic top hats for the guys and tiaras for the ladies at our place settings. The tiaras were the standard metallic NYE ones you could buy at any party store, and the top hats had a 2017 NYE ship sticker on them, but they were both so lightweight that few people wore them after dinner. They just blew off your heads outside.

We had late seating, so we needed a pretty quick turnaround to change back into casual clothes and head up to deck 9 after dinner. We found presents in our stateroom when we went to change - chocolates and a lithograph. Blowers were not in our rooms, but they could be found close to the party. We got ours off a table full of them outside of the deck 10 elevators.
View attachment 214112
View attachment 214114 View attachment 214123

The dance party was already underway when we got upstairs. 9 wasn't packed to capacity, but you definitely weren't going to be near the stage at that point. We headed up to 10 and grabbed some railing view spots. There wasn't a stage show with a vague plot or anything (such as the Pirate night vague storyline) - it was generic dancing, some times to line dances people already know, sometimes CMs and characters attempting to teach new dances. Characters popped in and out onstage, through the crowd on 9, and even up on 10. The photo of Mickey was taken right near our railing spot on 10, and yes, he's line dancing with guests. As the evening progressed, countdowns would pop up on-screen too.

View attachment 214110
View attachment 214111
View attachment 214125
What's going on with that empty space and orange cone above? Yeah, someone partied too hard... a poor CM literally rang in the new year cleaning up puke.

As we got closer to midnight, CMs started to walk around with trays of canapes. We were still stuffed from dinner, it was dark, and it was just about impossible to hear anything at this point, so I don't think many actually took them. Certainly no one picky or with food allergies took anything. I took exactly one, just to say I did, and I found it was beets with a mustardy vinaigrette. I have no clue what anything else was, not that I knew what that was when I took it, either! A short time later, they started walking around with trays of little sweet treats. Again, no clue what any of them were! My 11yo took a couple, but she'll eat anything sweet! At just about midnight, they started to pass through with sparkling cider in souvenir plastic flutes. It was so busy and loud that not everyone got one, or even noticed it being passed out. Unless they passed out something on deck 9 that we didn't get up on 10 - no alcoholic drinks were passed out. Probably wise, b/c it was just too hectic for that to be well-controlled. We only ended up with 3 flutes.
View attachment 214124

We counted down to midnight, and then the fireworks immediately began!
View attachment 214126

A round of Auld Lang Syne was sung, and dancing/music continued, but we headed back to our rooms only 15min or so after the fireworks ended so I can't say for how long.

The verdict from our family? The adults (me, DH, and my parents) all thought it was an enjoyable way to spend NYE - safe (no crazy drunk drivers!), fun, festive. My kids? Well, mixed reviews. Most of the kids on deck 9 close to the stage seemed to be having a great time dancing and watching the action up close. That would have made my kids nuts. DS8, who hates crowds and might be the only person on earth who consequently prefers California Adventure to Disneyland park, only enjoyed the festivities rather briefly - 11:45-12:15 or so. He thought the music/dancing/countdown was boring, not enough to compensate for the crowd. If your (older, probably male) child doesn't like music/dancing/characters - they might similarly find it not their "thing". DD11 loves all the Broadway-style stage shows, and she loved Pirate night this cruise, but she found NYE to be too crowded and loud. She has sensory issues (has always hated fireworks) but can muster through it now that she's older; if you have a child with sensory issues - you may want to proceed with caution, as I can see it being just too much. If your only deck party experience is Pirate night, which so many people outright skip - then you may be surprised how crowded NYE is. The crowds for each were vastly different.

Hope this helps capture what NYE is like on DCL for some curious folks out there!
Thanks for sharing. This reminds me a lot of what New Year's Eve on the Magic was like last year. We're doing New Year's on the Dream next year and looking forward to it. I agree that DCL is a great place for a family to ring in the New Year. It's safe, wholesome, festive, has dancing and fireworks, nice weather, and best of all, no crazy traffic on the way home from the party. When the festivities are over, you simply walk to your stateroom and climb into bed.
 
Thank you for writing that up. Now I won't have to. I was also on the NYE Wonder cruise ! :)

If you need any Navigator, I have them all in pictures.

I saw on FB that those who followed us were much less lucky with the weather. There was ice on deck on the first sea day and they only opened up the pools on day 2. I also was moving a lot more than for us. The Dream was unable to dock at CC yesterday. Knowing all that, we had a nearly perfect January cruise, even with the high winds at CC cancelling most excursions.
 
Thanks for the report! We were on the same cruise last year. On our cruise, the servers passed around glasses of champagne, lots of champagne! You could have had a dozen glasses if you wanted. Also, as you mentioned, they passed around trays of sweets and canapes. We found that the servers were happy to explain what they were when we asked. However, like you we were still full from dinner.

I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise!

MUN
 

This sounds like a great way to ring in the new year.
Must add to my bucket list!

Thanks for sharing.
 
We were also on the cruise. The one thing I have to add is that we were on deck 9 in the back near the pizza place and there was plenty of champagne being passed as well as sparkling cider. We thought the celebration was just right for us, although it made Pirate night a bit less exciting without having fireworks that night. And, also, despite the Director being as clear as possible with guests about no fireworks on Pirate night, our server and several other servers in the dining room on Pirate night kept telling people there would be a second round of fireworks, which I am sure caused some confusion. We had fun, and I am very glad we are not on this boat this week from what I hear! We had a great time!
 
Thank you for writing that up. Now I won't have to. I was also on the NYE Wonder cruise ! :)

If you need any Navigator, I have them all in pictures.

I saw on FB that those who followed us were much less lucky with the weather. There was ice on deck on the first sea day and they only opened up the pools on day 2. I also was moving a lot more than for us. The Dream was unable to dock at CC yesterday. Knowing all that, we had a nearly perfect January cruise, even with the high winds at CC cancelling most excursions.
Yes, we really did luck out!! Those poor people. I'm guessing we'll hear some stories next week!!
 
We were also on the cruise. The one thing I have to add is that we were on deck 9 in the back near the pizza place and there was plenty of champagne being passed as well as sparkling cider. We thought the celebration was just right for us, although it made Pirate night a bit less exciting without having fireworks that night. And, also, despite the Director being as clear as possible with guests about no fireworks on Pirate night, our server and several other servers in the dining room on Pirate night kept telling people there would be a second round of fireworks, which I am sure caused some confusion. We had fun, and I am very glad we are not on this boat this week from what I hear! We had a great time!
Dang deck 10!! We definitely only had sparkling cider around us, bummer. well, it's not like I suffered from a lack of adult beverages the rest of the time. :)

Thanks for the report! We were on the same cruise last year. On our cruise, the servers passed around glasses of champagne, lots of champagne! You could have had a dozen glasses if you wanted. Also, as you mentioned, they passed around trays of sweets and canapes. We found that the servers were happy to explain what they were when we asked. However, like you we were still full from dinner.

I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise!

MUN
Maybe we were in a particularly noisy area? I asked "what are these?" and the CM said "canapes". I said "yes, but what is in them?" and he just repeated "canapes." ha!
 
Dang deck 10!! We definitely only had sparkling cider around us, bummer. well, it's not like I suffered from a lack of adult beverages the rest of the time. :)
LOL! I actually did not know they even had sparkling cider at first, because when we got up to Deck 9 the first server I ran into was only handing out champagne. When I asked another server for a second glass, she gave me two and then she offered a glass to my 9 year old, and I was like "WHAT?" but then she explained that the ones with a cherry in them were sparkling cider, and then once I looked I could see the color difference. It freaked me out for a minute though! We must have missed the food trays though, I never saw any sweets, but as you said, we did not suffer from a lack of sweets last week, so that is ok.
 
LOL! I actually did not know they even had sparkling cider at first, because when we got up to Deck 9 the first server I ran into was only handing out champagne. When I asked another server for a second glass, she gave me two and then she offered a glass to my 9 year old, and I was like "WHAT?" but then she explained that the ones with a cherry in them were sparkling cider, and then once I looked I could see the color difference. It freaked me out for a minute though! We must have missed the food trays though, I never saw any sweets, but as you said, we did not suffer from a lack of sweets last week, so that is ok.
Oh, that's funny! My first sip of champagne actually was on a cruise when I was 14 or so, a Princess cruise - they totally did not care if we were underage, very un-Disney. I guess it was hit or miss what you were offered on NYE, depending on where you were. We were near Vibe, so maybe they (wisely) only brought N/A drinks up to that area.
 
Thanks for sharing! And I know that you replied to my comment on the other thread about price! I guess I need to look out for possible deals for NYE on the classics... But being able to cruise anytime of the year due to not having any kids and a very flexible job, it still will be pricier than early December or October...

However, the NYE celebration sound fun! Was there a special menu that night?
 
Thanks for sharing! And I know that you replied to my comment on the other thread about price! I guess I need to look out for possible deals for NYE on the classics... But being able to cruise anytime of the year due to not having any kids and a very flexible job, it still will be pricier than early December or October...

However, the NYE celebration sound fun! Was there a special menu that night?
I didn't take a single photo of a menu or my food, if you can believe it! I told DH to take a photo of his gluten-free specially-made dessert in Palo and that was the only food photo we have! As far as I can recall, it was exactly like the one posted here from 2015: http://disneycruiselineblog.com/menus/happy-new-year-dinner-menu/

My dad and daughter thought the chocolate fondant was the best dessert of the cruise! She had two. :)
 
We were on the Magic this NYE and received the same lithograph and chocolates :) And the cute green glasses -- my 11 year old thought at first she was being offered champagne but when I pointed out that it was cider with a cherry at the bottom (good idea so one can tell the difference) she quickly grabbed a glass and continued dancing away!

My DH who is also gluten free had a sampling of all of the gelatos and sorbetos in Palo, very cute presentation that I should have taken a picture of!
 
I did not take any menu or food photos either but yes, we had that same menu (we were in Tiana's on NYE). That is funny that they thought the fondant was the best, we and the other couple at our table had it and thought it was ok but odd, like just eating hot fudge. I did LOVE the fireworks drink though. I am glad to hear that your DH had a good dessert in Palo. My poor dairy allergic 4 year old did not have great experiences with dessert on this cruise, the chefs seemed unable to really get creative. She ate lots of fruit. I was very glad we booked the Princess Tea Party for her because that was the only place they made her a special items - they made her special cookies, scones and dairy free whipped cream, a special dairy free cupcake with lots of icing, dairy free tea sandwiches. It was awesome after her having to go all week with very little dessert while her brother ate mickey bars at every meal...
 
I did not take any menu or food photos either but yes, we had that same menu (we were in Tiana's on NYE). That is funny that they thought the fondant was the best, we and the other couple at our table had it and thought it was ok but odd, like just eating hot fudge. I did LOVE the fireworks drink though. I am glad to hear that your DH had a good dessert in Palo. My poor dairy allergic 4 year old did not have great experiences with dessert on this cruise, the chefs seemed unable to really get creative. She ate lots of fruit. I was very glad we booked the Princess Tea Party for her because that was the only place they made her a special items - they made her special cookies, scones and dairy free whipped cream, a special dairy free cupcake with lots of icing, dairy free tea sandwiches. It was awesome after her having to go all week with very little dessert while her brother ate mickey bars at every meal...
It looked like eating hot fudge, I will say! Which frankly, would not be a problem for my daughter. I ordered the sundae that night, as it didn't sound that appealing to me either. They made DH something special this night, b/c nothing was gf on the menu... some little cake with a berry sauce, I think? This might have been the only night without something gf on the dessert menu, which is weird. You would think on NYE, they'd have something special planned. No df or gf? strange. I'm bummed for your daughter! An adult will deal without good desserts, but a kid isn't so happy in that situation!
 
My DH who is also gluten free had a sampling of all of the gelatos and sorbetos in Palo, very cute presentation that I should have taken a picture of!
I posted the photo on the food pics thread! Might as well post the one and only food photo we left with, right?!
 
It looked like eating hot fudge, I will say! Which frankly, would not be a problem for my daughter. I ordered the sundae that night, as it didn't sound that appealing to me either. They made DH something special this night, b/c nothing was gf on the menu... some little cake with a berry sauce, I think? This might have been the only night without something gf on the dessert menu, which is weird. You would think on NYE, they'd have something special planned. No df or gf? strange. I'm bummed for your daughter! An adult will deal without good desserts, but a kid isn't so happy in that situation!

Our NYE cruise had limited GF desserts as well. Like you said, one night there was not a single GF dessert! I feel like our last cruise our GF people had more options.
 
Thank you so much for posting this! I've been wondering what happens during New Years on DCL. Maybe 2018/19 we will have to do it in person :)
 
Thank you for writing that up. Now I won't have to. I was also on the NYE Wonder cruise ! :)

If you need any Navigator, I have them all in pictures.

I saw on FB that those who followed us were much less lucky with the weather. There was ice on deck on the first sea day and they only opened up the pools on day 2. I also was moving a lot more than for us. The Dream was unable to dock at CC yesterday. Knowing all that, we had a nearly perfect January cruise, even with the high winds at CC cancelling most excursions.


Could you share the navigators?
 


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