Our WONDERful cruise 2/12

[Superslew]

We went on the 4-day Wonder on Feb. 12, 2006 and I thought I should write a little something for DIS. We had a group of 6, myself, DW, DD11 and DD10. My DW’s parents were down the hall, both of us on Deck 6 midship and both with Cat. 6 rooms with balconies. The rooms were excellent and the balcony made it so much nicer even if the weather was pretty cool. Waking up in the morning to see the sunshine and stepping outside to see where you or to watch the ship dock are was a very nice perk.

Checking in took about 40 minutes but was no big deal. Being Canadians they did take our passports. We arrived by car at about 12:30 and were on board by around 1:30. Debarkation was smooth too. As non-US citizens we had to be in the theatre by 6:00am to get our passports back and to clear customs. We then went to our 6:45am sit down breakfast at PC. We were in no hurry to leave the ship and we were off by around 8:00am with no standing in line at all.

The ship itself is immaculate. This was our first cruise so we have nothing to compare it to, but it was very big, elegant, easy to get around and absolutely spotless. I’m sure there were parts of the ship that we didn’t see, but what we saw was very impressive.

Our dinner rotation was TAP and we had the early seating at 5:30. This was fine but 6:00 would have been better as we could have enjoyed the island stops just a bit longer. For this cruise they moved Pirates Night up to the second night so that Valentines Day would be the formal night. The food at all meals was excellent. We had some great steaks one night and all of the desserts we awesome with the exception of the lemon pie which none of us really cared for. Our servers, Stoyan and JoJo, were super. Stoyan especially would take time to stand around and chat with us and we got to know each other quite well in just 4 days. Unfortunately he will be leaving DCL shortly after 6 years of service.

My oldest daughter turned 12 on Valentines Day and the whole service staff come over to sing to her. She received one of those fancy little birthday cakes too. It was funny though because in just our dining room we counted 7 people who had birthdays on Feb. 12! Weird.

This was also our day at Castaway. We sat on the beach for a bit then the 2 girls and I went snorkeling. DD10 hated the salt water and got out right away but DD11 and I went way out and saw a sunken boat and tons of fish. Later that afternoon the 4 of us we went on the catamaran snorkel excursion and 2 of us loved it while the other 2 barely got in the water.

The day before we had been to Nassau on a cold and windy day. That was unfortunate because we had planned to swim at Atlantis that day. We had a room at Comfort Suites and we actually did go on the slides for a while but even for a Canadian it was too cold. Atlantis is a spectacular place but now that I’ve seen it I don’t know that I’d hurry back. If anyone is planning to get a room at Comfort Suites be sure to get a cab to that hotel not to Atlantis as it is about a 15 minute walk from one to the other and you don’t want to waste any time.

I had brought along some goodies so we all got dressed up on Pirate Night and had a blast dancing under the stars even though the air was cool. Later that night I checked out Route 66 and was surprised to see that most people on the ship were in bed by midnight. One night I watched Rich Papura (?) in the bar and he was pretty funny. They were having a lot of problems with the sound system that night for some reason and one of the bands had a very tough time.

For us, one of the highlights was getting to meet Don “Ducky” Williams. He is the one and only animator for Disney World and DCL, and he cruises about 6 to 8 times each year. DD11 (who is now DD12) really took to the character drawing. She saw Ducky with me twice and once in the Oceaneers Lab. We talked to him later and got our picture taken with him. We also won one of his drawings ( ) which we brought home and will get framed. He was a great guy with a great story to tell. Believe it or not, he submitted over 10,000 drawings to Disney before he was hired!

We enjoyed all of the shows at night. I would have to say that Dreams was my favorite but they were all great. If you haven’t gone before don’t miss any of them.

Some other thoughts:
- I made up a magnetic door sign and I think ours was the only one on our floor, but it was still cool and we got a lot of compliments on it.
- Kids can now get free soda on deck 9 any time of day or night.
- We brought drink bottles but never used them. Don’t bother.
- DW is hoping to make a scrapbook so she bought the book and the extra pages. She also saved everything that she could. We’ll see if it actually happens.
- We also bought one of the room clocks. They seemed kind of unique.
- We took lanyards but found that my card always stayed in my wallet and DW’s was in her purse. For the kids we bought them each a plastic DCL dry box that held their cards and a few dollar bills and they loved them. I wouldn’t bother taking your own but that’s my opinion.
- Taking advice for DIS, we took care of the gratuities early on when there was no lineup at Guest Services. That’s a great tip!
- We were all worried about potential sea sickness, but never had even the slightest bit of nausea. The ship was very smooth even in the rougher ocean on the first night.

Will we be back??? Of course!!! We love DCL!

In fact, while on board the in-laws booked for next year when they will take the rest of the grandkids. I think we are all big DCL fans now so look for us to be there again…. Hopefully on a 7-day MAGICal cruise!

 

[nluvwithmickey]

Thanks for the cruise reviews!


We are also from Canada and have another land/sea Dcl planned for next Jan 2007. This time, the kids will join us and they can't wait.

I am worried about 2 things, cold weather and motion sickness. I am keeping my fingers crossed. We had such beautiful weather in 2004, let's hope we get to be as lucky.