Our WONDERful January 2017 Cruise to the Bahamas

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Two years ago aboard the Disney Fantasy and having the time of our lives, my wife and I decided to book an onboard placeholder. We had big ambitions about where we might go or what we might do, but life has a tendency to push you in all different directions and before we knew it, we were trying to figure out how to use our placeholder before 24 months had elapsed. Our solution, book a cruise aboard the Wonder out of Galveston. We simply picked the last cruise date we could pick and keep our on board booking benefits. We live in North Texas, so Galveston meant no air travel. We even decided to drive down the morning before the cruise to save on the cost of a Hotel room.

As the day approached we realized that we were going to miss our daughter's college dance competition in Florida, but at this point there was little we could do. It also became an almost impossible week at work. The lesson we learned is, book the vacation and just go. If you wait for life to provide an opening, you'll never go.

This cruise was just for my wife and I. Our kids are college age so this review is for those adults who continue to ask if Disney cruising is good for adults only. Short answer is, SURE IS, if you LOVE Disney like we do.

We travel a good deal anyway, so the night before, we started to pack. I know, for many of you that would be impossible and way too stressful, but in all honesty, we don't have enough clothes to pack too far in advance, so the night before works just fine. One large suitcase and a backpack and we were ready to go. A few notes on what to pack (and what you can skip). I used to bring a power strip. Aside from Disney not allowing them, we found that the Wonder stateroom to have sufficient outlets for all of our electronics, including outlets at the nightstand to charge our phones overnight. Also, don't bother bringing your blow dryer. The one in the cabin is nice, so long as you use the special outlet. The Wonder has a recessed outlet that is for the blow dryer in the vanity area. People keep plugging them into other outlets thinking they are all the same. They are not. If the blow dryer isn't powerful enough, you've got it plugged in wrong. Bring a light jacket if you are cruising in January. You won't need it in the Bahamas but you will need it out on deck at times. Oh, and if you have participated in the beer mug program on a previous cruise, bring your mug.

We woke early on cruise day with nearly everyone else in our online cruise group chatting about already being in Galveston. We felt we were the last ones to leave. Our strategy was to get out of town and through Dallas before the commute traffic (cruise left on a Friday) then stop for breakfast north of Houston to wait for traffic there to clear. The plan worked beautifully. Just north of Houston we received a report that boarding would be delayed. Nobody knew for how long, but it was clear that we had plenty of time as the ship was still offshore due to fog in the port. We took our time at breakfast and headed through Houston. As we arrived in Galveston it became obvious that the delay would be a few hours long, so we used Fandango to find a local theater to go see a movie. We picked Hidden Figures, which happened to be starting about the time we were projected to arrive at the theater, so we headed straight there. During the movie, we received the call from Disney that the delay was 5 hours, so we went and played a round of miniature golf. The theater was in very good shape, but small. The movie was outstanding. The miniature golf place was in a bit of disrepair but was being fixed, which just made it worse for the time being. The view of the ocean was great though and it was a fun way to pass the time.

We had reservations at EZCruise for parking and decided we had probably better head over there as we were nearing the time when the lot was scheduled to close. We found out that they were planning to stay open longer, but we were already there so we decided to give it a go. That was a bit of a mistake as we ended up waiting in a very long line. The ship was already in port and people that were leaving were already in the parking lot, but they still needed time to prep the ship. I'll add that Disney offered everyone a $20 credit per person to pay for lunch in Galveston since we were unable to board. Despite the long line, once the ship opened for boarding, things moved very quickly. We were queued up outside at first but as the line moved we were let inside the building to go through the security screening process. We then went into another queue to check in and were given a boarding number that was roughly in the order we arrived at port. Our original boarding time was not used to determine boarding order by this point. We then went upstairs to the final waiting area for our boarding number to be called. Disney had bottles of water and granola bars available in the waiting area. Once our number was called, we queued up for boarding, which again moved very quickly. We skipped the boarding picture and headed straight for the ship.

Our final boarding time was approximately 6pm. They were just beginning to open dining rooms for dinner. Keep in mind, many people still had not boarded and nobody had their luggage yet. There was no muster drill at this point (later) and no sail away party (yet). Very odd experience. We had late seating so we headed for our stateroom. This was our first cruise since dry dock but third on the Wonder and it was my wife's fifth (now Gold!) so we were not new to Disney cruising. We were in cabin 7132, which is a Verandah with a solid white wall in the aft area of the ship. That means we were near the odd set of stairs that exist on the Wonder for evacuation purposes. This set of staircases allows you to enter Cabanas directly into the dining room area. It is really an odd place to enter the dining room, but this set of stairs was never closed. In fact, I ran up to get a soda late one evening and ended up in a completely deserted dining room with coke towers that were turned off. Lesson learned. We dropped our bags and started to explore the ship. The new navigator that was hurried together to account for the late arrival was handed to us when we boarded. We noted that Muster would happen between early and late seating. We decided to go to the all aboard show. Having been on several Disney cruises before, we usually decide to skip it, but we really had little else to do at this point since the ship was still in dock. There were a few changes to the standard, some of which we learned was due to some technical problems. Good show and worth the time. We also learned that Susan Egan would be on board. She was the original Belle on Broadway and the voice of Meg in the Hercules movie. We knew we were going to make time for her shows.

I should mention at this point that with the schedule adjustments the Disney application for use on board was not updated. They apparently don't have the ability to update the daily schedules on the app so when there are adjustments, they'll appear only in the paper copy Navigator. As an IT guy, I found that very odd. That's one of the big benefits to electronic schedules, they are easy to update compared to creating and distributing a bunch of hard copies. Apparently not so here.

Now that the show was over, it was nearing time for muster. Ironically our first dining room was AP and being in an aft cabin, our muster station was also AP. We arrived for muster a bit early but there were still people finishing dinner. They wanted to wait to seat us, but it turned out that there just wasn't enough time. Muster was starting soon and there just wasn't a good place to sit. Some people were eating dinner through the muster drill! While we thought it would be easy for us to just stay in the dining room after muster, we were asked to leave so they could get the dining room ready. By then, there was a pretty long line outside AP. We decided to just wait in the hallway at the front of the line. Nobody seemed to mind and technically, we were there first LOL.

We were seated at a table that should have had three other couples, but only two other couples made the ship. We had a good time with them throughout the cruise. We also met our server and assistance server, but our head server didn't come by on the first night. I'm not too surprised with all the hectic things going on.

I should mention here that we didn't really get a sail away party. There apparently was one done, but it was small and I'm not even sure when they did it. We were still in port too, which was also strange.

After dinner we speculated that we'd likely wake up and still be in port because the fog that had kept the ship out at sea had rolled back in. We wondered around the ship a bit and checked out the after hours area befor decided to head our cabin and get some sleep. We left pretty early that morning and it had been a long day.

 

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Now that I have given you the background for our cruise experience, I'll continue with the rest of my review. I am going to do this a bit differently. Rather than a chronological order, I'm going to give you a review by our experiences. In other words, I'll do a page on our food and dining experiences and a page about the shows and one about adult entertainment, etc.

This page will be about the food and dining experience.

Dinner on our first night was excellent. Our rotation was AP, TP, TR, AP, TP, TR, AP. Three nights in AP followed by disembarkation in AP was a great rotation. With the introduction of Tiana's place, I'll have to say that Tritons is now fairly pedestrian by comparison. There are now two places that offer an excellent package of both dining and entertainment. Now I'm not much of a foodie so I didn't record everything I ate or take pictures of everything either. I'm also very aware everyone has a different palate, so what I really enjoyed, you may not. For that reason, I'll focus on the overall experiences and impressions. I think that is more valuable for those reading a review.

AP on the first night had the more traditional AP experience on the classic ships. As the night went on, the black and white sketches turned to color and there were LED color strings of light began to illuminate on the pillars that double as paintbrushes. Mickey came out and danced in the center of the floor surrounded by the wait staff. It was obvious this was not a meet and greet, but an appearance by Mickey. The wait staff remained in their same clothing, as opposed to changing into more colorful attire throughout the meal. The focus in AP is now the more high tech animations show that first appeared on the newer ships. That's right, on the second night in AP, we created drawings that were then transformed into an animated cartoon at the end of dinner. The wait staff were quite protective of these drawings. They would serve no drinks or food until everyone at the table and completed their drawings. This was a little annoying as I brought in a drink with me and they wanted to take it from me and bring it back when I was done. No dice. The final night in AP was the "until we meet again" standard, but it was nice to be in the great ambiance of AP.

The food in the main dining room was clearly a cut above our recent Carnival Breeze cruise. I've heard some say they enjoyed the food on Carnival better. I really don't know how. I did find it sometimes difficult to find something my often picky palate preferred for every course, but there was always something on the menu that I thoroughly enjoyed every night. The portion sizes were reasonable as well. Not huge, but not small either. Reasonable portions of seafood, crab legs, steak, etc. You can always order more if you think the sizes are too small for you, but it was perfect for us. The result of this picky approach was we often ended up skipping a course ourselves, but someone at our table ordered something off of each course, so the servers were still serving a full menu. Start with appetizers, then soup/salad, then entree then desert. My sweet tooth managed to find something for desert every night! Some items that stood out for me were at Tiana's Place. I seemed to enjoy that menu more than the others overall, but I love New Orleans food, so maybe not much of a surprise. What was a surprise is that the kitchen didn't do a good job in prepping the food. We had one meal dish that was supposed to include small slices of lobster, that were missing off of many of the plates in the entire restaurant, not just our table. I ordered a sort of jambalaya that was supposed to have an andouille sausage, that was completely missing from the dish. When we ordered beignets, some were almost completely devoid of powdered sugar. How do you do that? Clearly missing detail.

A word about our wait staff. Two of our table mates ordered the wine service with dinner. Our Assistant server was in charge of this of course. He paid good attention to them, but more than once he dripped or lightly spilled a little of the wine when pouring. Not a huge deal, but I expected better. He also had no idea how to pour beer with a decent head without making half the glass a head or spilling the head over the glass. Again, not a huge deal. When you add that he couldn't remember what my wife was drinking, after she told him every night (iced tea), didn't clear plates timely and often missed refills on my water, my wife and I were not impressed. Our server was very attentitive and filled the gaps well. What was interesting though was that our table mates thought that our assistant server was great and it was our server that was overbearing and wouldn't let him do his job. Really? Proof that everyone will take away a different perception. We thought our server was excellent. The head server came around about 4 times out of the 7 nights. She seemed to be more concerned with our ratings than actual service. I tried to tell her about some of the issues, but she was never around when they were occurring. These were really minor in the scheme of things and we in no way would say the service was poor, but it wasn't the exceptional service we expect. Even so, it was far better than our recent Carnival Breeze experience, where I actually got up and retrieved a water carafe to refill my own water on more than one occasion because the wait staff was completely absent.

Tiana's place was excellent. I loved the live band that played both nights were were there, with the second night being a Mardis Gras theme. The only issue was the band was a bit loud for conversation at the table. We enjoyed our visits with our table mates, but not at TP, because we almost had to yell at times. Just something to be aware of.

Tritons was pretty much as it has always been, so there really isn't much to share. There are plenty of reviews that cover it well. I have nothing to add.

I always recommend that people arrive at the dining room about 5 to 10 minutes after their dining time. It helps avoid standing in the long lines. We had late seating, which we almost always do, and it was fine, but there were a lot of kids who seemed to be at the end of their rope by then. We were out of the dining room by around 9:45 every night, was barely allowed time to get to the adult entertainment area and grab a seat for the show. That's one of the complaints I have about Disney in general. Great experiences but they just don't do late seating well. The show is shorter than the dining experience so they start the adult experiences at 10pm sharp, meaning early diners often fill the venue, leaving few seats available for those on late dining. Other lines seem to have this figured out as we've never experienced this problem with them.

Final tip, the menus for every night are available on the Disney navigator app available on your phone. If you take a long time to decide, read the menu in advance. It can really help the servers get you out of the dining room more quickly if you know what you want when they come around. Removing the surprise can also be good if you are (or have) a picky eater. You can decide up front if you want to do something different. I remember one night ordering a Mickey Bar for an appetizer, for example. I knew I wanted to do that, so I stayed away from the ice cream machine that afternoon.

The overall dining room experience was excellent. Great food and great experiences. Disney seems to have a way of finding the right table mates. We've never had a bad experience. We never felt we wanted to just skip a night. We've never done that before. We almost always went somewhere else at least one or two nights. I'd say this is a big win for the newly re-imagined Wonder.

 

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Now for the rest of the food.

I'll start with our Palo Brunch. This is our favorite experience almost anywhere, ship or shore. We just love the way they mix a buffet type experience with fresh prepared entrees. We tried a flatbread that we shared and then each had our own entree. My wife wanted to try the ravioli but the portion size seemed to small. They changed the portion size for her to just three, which the server acknowledged may be a better portion size for the brunch experience anyway. They may just change it to that at some point. Appearance of the meal is critical so they are concerned as much about presentation when determining portion size as anything else. Keep in mind that there is a strictly enforced dress code for Palo, but it does not require a jacket for men. Palo brunch is includes pretty much the same items as it always has, but we never tire of it. We prefer it over the dinner experience. On Palo brunch day, we only eat twice. Brunch and dinner.

Cabanas was disappointing. We've never been happy with the hours they keep. Our recent Carnival Breeze sailing Marketplace was far superior. I know. Carnival is better than Disney at something, and ironically it is the buffet dining experience. Cabanas is too crowded with not enough seating, probably in part because they just are not open as long. The Breeze is a much larger ship that dedicates more space to the buffets, but there are also many more passengers. What Disney should do is what other lines do and that is start transitioning one "side" to lunch while still serving breakfast on the other side and never really close down. That would spread the crowds out much better. The other food areas available are just not very good. Even the healthier options of wraps and fresh fruit is lacking imagination and quality. Some of the soup area food was good, but it rotates and there is no "menu" so you can know when to come back for the item you really enjoyed. Chicken strips are good and the smoothies are a good idea, but it isn't made abundantly clear than smoothies are an additional cost. One thing they did with the dry dock is add an actual hand washing station outside of Cabanas. My observation is, good though, but bad execution. There are three hand washing stations on each side over one large trough like sink. It REALLY slows down entry to the dining room and people never spend enough time washing their hands for it to be really effective. I saw a number of people just sticking their hands under the water to prove to the staff they washed their hands, get their paper towel to enter the restaurant. If you routinely wash your hands like I do, having the hand sanitizer is far better and much faster. This process isn't likely to help anything from a health perspective and may just make exposure greater.

That said, the food quality wasn't very good either. They still do the frozen Krispy Kreme donuts that really aren't very good because they are put out while still mostly frozen and Definaltely very cold. The omlet station is good, but takes a LONG time. The good part is they give you a number to go sit at your table. The bad is that you have no idea where you are going to sit, so you have to find your table first before going to the omlet station. The fresh fruit is good, but it's hard to do on a ship. The bananas were good the first few days but were decidedly too ripe by day 4. The Honeydew was hard and crisp. The only really good fresh fruit was the pineapple. Maybe it's a factor of the port combined with the time of year. Texas doesn't have great access to fresh fruit in the off season, unlike Florida. The dep fried hash browns were disgusting and inedible. Yikes they were bad. It tasted like they dropped them in the oil a second time to "heat them up" and they just became hard containers of oil with no flavor. The bacon was way undercooked, but I've found that is an International think as some cultures seem to like their bacon more "floppy".

Lunch at Cabanas was decidedly better than breakfast but still under par compared to other lines and even the Fantasy. The biggest problem was still the crowds and finding a seat, but the lunch options were simply unimaginative. Nothing really fresh. They did have fresh carved meats and plenty of shrimp, but I can't rely on that every day on a 7 day cruise. Having late seating for dinner, we really count on a solid mid-day meal and it just doesn't exist. You can't even get a decent hamburger anywhere on the ship. Here is something really telling. I actually lost weight during the cruise. I didn't feel I was going hungry mind you, there just wasn't much at the buffet or other food areas on the ship that was appealing enough to make we want to go eat it. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't great.

The pizza place is really bad in my view. I see them preparing it in the ovens but it doesn't taste very good. Almost flavorless really. They serve pretzels there too but I wasn't impressed. They were filled pretzels. I think they would be better to just serve regular pretzels, but those may have turned out too dry. I also noticed the ice cream machines had a middle machine that changed flavors on occasion. There was one day when that middle machine had banana and strawberry. YUM. I never got to try it because when I cam back the next day, it was switched back. I never saw it again. Post a schedule when you are going to do that.

Enough complaining. The food was good. Brunch was awesome. I love that Disney has popcorn, but I don't like that they charge for it. The Carnival Breeze popped popcorn every night. Free. For everyone that wanted it. It wasn't seasoned but they provided seasoning for you. That was actually good for those who need to go salt free. Seriously though, I was very surprised that Disney didn't improve the food and seating at Cabanas when they re-themed it. They had an opportunity to seriously improve the offerings and they didn't. That's a miss in my view.

 

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Now it is time to talk about the ship.

Let's start with the stateroom. We were in Stateroom 7132. A balcony room with a sold whitewall in the aft. It is one of the last rooms before they turn to facing the rear. A lot of people complain about the white wall balcony rooms but we found this one to be just fine. The size of the balcony may be a tad smaller but the white wall gives the impression of just a modicum more privacy while still getting out into the fresh sea air without having to go up on deck. We really like the sliding door on the Wonder and the way Disney provides the curtain that separates the main bed from the sitting area (or pull down bed), it means I can go out on the balcony without bothering my wife who likes to sleep longer. We had a Jr. Suite on our Carnival Breeze cruise and we like the Disney stateroom much better. The split bath doesn't hurt, but despite the smaller size, the Disney stateroom just feels more functional. We didn't actually notice too many changes to the staterooms after dry dock. The Wonder still does not have the card key lighting system found in many International hotels and on the Dream and Fantasy. There are proximity sensors for room entry instead of card swipe, but I honestly don't remember if it was already that way before. The KTTW card is still the same. The location of the stateroom seemed pretty much ideal to us, although our next cruise will be between fore and midship just based on availability of rooms, but we like being below Cabanas. There is that strange staircase I mentioned previously, but it makes it easy to get to your room after breakfast (if you can get up there before they close Cabanas.)

One thing I'll mention is that because of the fog and late port departure we had to go full RPM on all engines for two days straight. There was a clear noise and vibration in our aft cabin that we did not experience any other time on the cruise or previously on the Wonder. I'm guessing that the ship doesn't push that hard very often, but those who are sensitive to noise may want to consider midship.

The ship is wonderful. It is clearly Disney and dazzles everywhere. Rich wood tones, beautiful light fixtures. Elegance with a touch of Disney fun. Fantastical. We were a little surprised though that there was still work being done. It seems they rushed the ship out of dry dock. They were replacing deck boxes that are used for trash, towels and crew cleaning equipment. The new boxes are nice, but not the same size. That means there is work that needs to be done on the deck to get them to fit. Throughout the voyage they were working on one box or another out on the upper decks. The work wasn't in our way but it was clearly noticeable with straps holding the boxes down and caution tape wrapped around them. We also noticed some of the elevator panels were loose and the bannisters at the end of the aisles in the movie theater were also loose. We also noticed some of the seats in the Walt Disney theater had loose pieces. Really surprised, but it didn't take away from the overall decour and grandeur that is the Disney shipboard experience.

There were three major things that we really loved that were new out of dry dock. One was Tiana's Place. The other was the After Hours clubs and the last is the new Frozen show. We thought the new hand washing station outside of Cabanas was misguided and they really missed an opportunity to improve Cabanas rather than just re-theme it. The other big change that I'm sure most people really loved was the water play area. That was a significant improvement, but we didn't use any of it, so I didn't put it in my personal top three. The rest of the ship was pretty much business as usual.

The other really big change was shutters and we were a bit disappointed. There was a professional photo studio available and all of shutters was now fully electronic. No physical photos at all. You use a touch screen display and your KTTW card to view photos and select what you are going to purchase (or not). We used it once and it worked OK, but it seemed to be missing a photo or two. We didn't take many and were not planning on purchasing, so we moved on. I noticed some screens were out of order or displaying the MS Windows screen instead of the photo screen. Obviously a system problem of some sort. I also noticed a number of people struggling with the process. In all, it is a much better use of space than having photos everywhere but it is largely a cost savings in terms of both labor and making all the prints that nobody wants. I like eliminating waste so I think it was fine, but those who struggle with technology or just like to see the way the photo will look before buying it may find it disappointing.

I already mentioned the big technology change for Annimators Palate, which was cute, but they didn't put the Turtle Talk with Crush in, which was a little bit of a disappointment. I understand it would have made things more difficult, but they already have plenty of displays throughout the room, they could have figured something out. Perhaps they felt the screens just were not big enough. So, they retrofitted the animation technology used from other ships.

The rest of the changes were not very noticeable.

We spent a good deal of time in the adult pool area. The weather on the first two days at sea (we had to skip Key West because we didn't leave port until 7am on the second morning, adding a sea day) was marginal. A bit cloudy, windy and a little cool. Not great for sunning so we spent time inside watching a movie or enjoying the other entertainment offered. A lot of others seemed to feel the same way. On the way back from the Bahamas (two more sea days) the weather was FANTASTIC. Everyone was out on deck and finding a lounge was impossible, especially with all the lounge hounds. We spent most of our time in the water, alternating between the hot tub and the pool. No drinks allowed in the pool. I know they don't have that rule on other lines. I'm not sure if they had that rule before as I didn't remember it. In any case, it was a pain because you can't just sit in the pool and sip your drink. I don't care for the rule. I guess I understand it because they don't want people spilling their drink in the pool, but there were a lot of guests struggling with this rule. They were having to ask people to move their drinks often. This is what drove us to the hot tub. Not an issue there for some reason. We spent a few hours on both sea days out in the adult pool area and loved it. The family pool area was crazy busy and I noticed they drained the pool a few times. The line for the water slide was also a bit long, but we skipped it.

We really loved the smaller ship and smaller crowds as a result. Really the only time we noticed things being a bit crowded (aside from boarding) was the Frozen show. Everyone wanted to see it and since our seating was late, we had the early show. I think a lot of people who were not going to dinner that night also picked the early show. It was very full. The elevator area was pretty crowded right after the show. My wife had tweaked her knee a little walking up the stairs out of the theater so we wanted to take the elevator and that meant a bit of a wait. Other than that, it was fine and a reason why we really like the Wonder.

A word about the adult After Hours area. This is a really nice upgrade. The only thing that didn't change was a the Cadillac Lounge. We spent one evening in there and did a mixology and it was great. We also really liked the Crown and Finn Pub. Very fun watching playoff games there while playing backgammon and having a drink. The Azure was a welcome upgrade. The colors and hues are much more after hours and adult. We didn't go there for Bingo but we did go there during the day for a few things. Overall I would say this area is much improved over Route 66 in use about every way.

The overall assessment is that the reimagined Wonder is a great new upgraded ship, one we're looking forward to sailing again. Hopefully they will continue to work on and fix some of the things we noticed were just a bit off by then, but I'm sure there will be new things to work on as well.

 

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No cruise is complete without Entertainment and Disney does not disappoint.

Due to the odd schedule there wasn't much of a sail away party, but we did go to the first show and enjoyed it. We really liked the Be Our Guest addition and that made it a lot more fun. There was a nice overview of what was to come, which is pretty much normal, but at that time nobody was sure we were missing Key West yet, so there were more changes yet to come.

We awoke on the first sea day to go to a cooking demonstration for Lobster Raviolli. The wine served was good, which is unusual for us since we don't usually drink wine. Not a bad start to the cruise. Watching him cook the Raviolli was nice too. It was fun to have him talk about the way things are done differently when serving to a large group of people vs. how they prepare it in Palo, which is more like a typical restaurant. If you ever wanted to truly understand the difference between the main dining rooms and Palo, think about that.

We wandered around the ship a bit and headed for something to eat. We slept in and missed the actual sail away which was 7am that morning. This is when we learned we'd be missing Key West. A number of people were disappointed. We were able to use the app to find things to do and keep us up to the minute with reminders, but it wasn't much help for the next sea day since the app still though we were going to Key West.

The days sort of blur together so I'll say we were able to see several movies that we had avoided and hoped to catch on the ship. Moana, Star Wars and Dr. Strange were three. We also watched Pete's Dragon. The theater is excellent, but the ship announcements bleed into the theater and unless you are watching a loud action scene it is an annoying distraction. It was funny the first time, but by the second or third time it stopped being humorous.

We spent time with Susan Egan and her Q&A and also enjoyed her adult show and the headliner show in the Walt Disney theater. A lot of people skipped it. Their loss. It was amazing. Susan is very nice and humble and an exceptional talent. We are not sure how we ended up getting her on this sailing but it was luck of the draw and how lucky it was. We also enjoyed the comedy of John Charles, whom we saw on the Wonder in Alaska. He is a also a Disney staple and did not disappoint. The magician (forget his name) was also very good. For those who don't know the Disney adult area, it is Disney adult, not dirty language, just more adult themes and innuendo, but they skip the language for the most part. Very refreshing from late night shows on other lines that seem to think dropping the F bomb every third word is comedy. Thanks Disney. We LOVE that.

The shows in the Walt Disney Theater did not disappoint either. Disney Dreams, which follows a Peter Pan theme but includes appearances from several other Disney movies, is a staple on the Wonder and remains very good. There were a few updates to the show but it stayed pretty true to the original and that's just fine. Some things don't need to be changed. We skipped Disney's version of the Emmy's as we don't watch award shows generally and didn't really care much for the show the first time we saw it. We found other things to do. However, we did go watch Frozen and OH MY. That is probably our new favorite. What a great show and an excellent way to handle Olaf as a puppet. The talent was amazing of course, but the way they handled the story and carried out everything was superb. I will not ruin the surprises for those going by sharing details, but it is a show not to be missed.

We also went to another cooking demonstration for Apple Struddel, which was just as fun as the Lobster Raviolli, but it was open to all ages, so no wine. The most fun was a private mixology organized through our "group". It was held in the Cadillac Lounge and it was differen than the one we did on the Fantasy. Instead of getting behind the bar and mixing drinks, the bartender talked to us about all of the drinks we were sampling and why the ingredients worked so well together. Premium spirits were used and the drinks were amazing. Highly recommend Mixology to anyone looking for adult activities.

Disney is pretty amazing when it comes to things to do on the ships. Never a dull moment and lots of fun. In previous cruises we've spent time doing trivia and this time we skipped it altogether and just found other things to do. I wanted to do the Art of the Ship tour but we just got busy and never got to it. What a great time.

 

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I have so much more I could share but I am going to make this one my last post unless someone has any questions or wants to know more about anything else.

The ports were excellent. There have been many posts about Castaway Cay and Nassau so all I can say is the weather we had was great, but the water was a bit cool. We still enjoyed going in though and wading around. We spent time on the adult beach and the adult buffet on Castaway Cay was better than the ship buffet. We were late getting on the island so they did the 5k on the ship, but still had signs out for anyone who wanted to do the island course. I rented a bike and road around the trails. I love the island and this trip was no different. Nassau was nice too as we did the Blue Lagoon trip. We also bought the package that included the half moon shades, drinks and towels. Nice bargain really. Some complained that it was too expensive to buy time on the obstacle course and some went and did the dolphin adventure. We took the last shuttle out of the lagoon back to the ship.

We encoutered fog on our way back to Galveston as well and were delayed getting in. It wasn't too bad but it really messed up disembarkation. Everyone was anxious and there were a few unkind words spoken in the hallways as everyone was trying to get off. We had decided to put our luggage out at the last minute and that was an excellent choice with the delay. The common areas were crowded and we didn't need to be lugging baggage around on top of that. Disney decided to offer us a 15% discount toward a future cruise due to the fog issues and missing Key West. Nice gesture that they didn't need to do.

If you've read the entire review you can see I was nitpicking a few minor items. I do that, but it don't dwell on it and it didn't divert our attention away from thoroughly enjoying our time on our vacation. It was excellent and I would recommend it to anyone. But we are Disney fans and expect a lot from Disney for the premium price. As a result, I think it is fair to be a attentive to details and share with everyone what we loved and what we thought could be improved. Truth be told, our Carnival Breeze cruise that I mentioned several times had far more of these issues, but we paid half the price, so we felt it was tolerable.

Those who are adults who are wondering if there is anything to do as adults only on a Disney cruise will hopefully find this report useful. There is enough to do to have fun, but you've got to be a Disney fan to really enjoy yourself or you may find some of the policies a bit frustrating. Things like no drinks in the pool, limited lounges in the adult area, watching shows before dinner if you have late dining, limited breakfast hours (for those late night people who want to sleep in and still get breakfast) and something I didn't mention earlier. Part of the Cove Cafe has been allocated to a concierge lounge area. Some of the best views on the ship from the second floor of the cove lounge are now reserved only for guests paying a fortune to cruise. This was an adult only area before and a place we liked to go to relax, play cards and enjoy a drink or two.

We will definitely choose a similar sailing in the future if it is offered. We're going to use our 15% off on our Panama Canal cruise and we booked another placeholder while on board. Who knows, maybe we'll sail this itinerary again and finally get to Key West.

Hope you enjoyed reading about our adventure half as much as we enjoyed experiencing it.

 

[chamberlain]

Thank you for all of your good information. I always like to read reports from those who have sailed with Disney and other cruise lines to see the differences and similarities they have. Too bad about the fog. I'm sure that was a little chaotic for awhile.

 

[BCV23]

Really enjoyed your comprehensive review. Please share more if you have time and are in the mood. I think many people like me enjoy reading cruise TR without having anything much to add.

Have you ever tried lunch in the MDR? Royal Court/Triton's/Royal Palace and ? are open each day except embarkation day. Someone also posted recently that is is also open on embarkation day now on the Wonder rather than the buffet at Tiana's. A very good and huge burger is always on the menu and is cooked to order. My only complaint about it is that it is too large for me but there are many other things on the menus which I enjoy. Lunch in the MDR is our tradition every day with the exception of our Palo brunch day.

 

[ukintheus]

We were on this cruise also and it was really nice to read your review of it all. The fog definitely made it a different trip but we love the Wonder and so it would be hard for us to not have a good time on her. We love Tiana's and After Hours too, our favorite refurb improvements for sure. Thanks for taking the time to post.

 

[cyclenut]

Really enjoyed your comprehensive review. Please share more if you have time and are in the mood. I think many people like me enjoy reading cruise TR without having anything much to add.

Have you ever tried lunch in the MDR? Royal Court/Triton's/Royal Palace and ? are open each day except embarkation day. Someone also posted recently that is is also open on embarkation day now on the Wonder rather than the buffet at Tiana's. A very good and huge burger is always on the menu and is cooked to order. My only complaint about it is that it is too large for me but there are many other things on the menus which I enjoy. Lunch in the MDR is our tradition every day with the exception of our Palo brunch day.

Thanks for the great questions. I will get to them this weekend!

 

[RockyMtns]

Found your report!

 

[cyclenut]

Thanks for the great comments. I'm glad folks are enjoying the trip report. I realize it is a bit unconventional. Most trip reports are chronological and are loaded with pictures. A lot more fun and still informative. I wanted to be different. I do have pictures and I'll see if I have time to get them posted.

We have been on 5 Disney cruises and have only tried lunch in the MDR one time. It was fine but somewhat unremarkable. I didn't have the burger though so I'll have to give that a try next time. What's really important though regarding my comment about a "good burger" is that both Royal and Carnival have a place you can go pretty much whenever you want and get a good burger. I'm not even talking about a "die for" burger mind you, just a good one. Royal had Johnny Rockets (yes there is a cover charge) and Carnival had Guy's Burger Joint. Guy's wins for a number of reasons. It is poolside and super convenient. There is no cover charge. They have numerous fresh toppings that allow you to make your burger into anything you want. It's a reasonable size (not huge). It is greasy, juicy goodness every time. It isn't THE reason to choose a cruise, but I sure wish Disney would get a clue. This is a mistake they make throughout their entire system. The parks, the ships and the resorts. You have to go to a sit down restaurant and be served (and pay through the nose on land) to get a decent burger. Everything they serve at the counter service places are grilled hockey puck mystery meat patties sandwiched between two crouton like pieces of bread. Mostly inedible.

The only poolside food that we found worth eating were the chicken strips. I usually got them without fries because those were not any good either. Disney needs to consider a significant upgrade to their pool side offerings.

 

[arcticdisneylovers]

I must say I am shocked that you seemed to enjoy the food offering on the Carnival Breeze better than Disney boats. We've sailed on the Dream and Fantasy and tried the Carnival breeze last March and were VERY disappointed. We found the food basically inedible. The buffet was the absolute worse, the food was always cold with little selection. Staff and cleanliness were no comparison to Disney boats in our experience. Though we did like our junior Carnival suite a bit better than the Deluxe Family Staterooms we had on Disney. The horrible food was the main reason we will never sail Carnival again. We actually really enjoyed the food offering on both of our Disney cruises. We can't wait for our next Disney cruise next winter.

 

[cyclenut]

There are tons of comments from folks about Castaway Cay and I chose to avoid that topic in my earlier posts. However, since a few of you wanted to read more, I'll give it a go.

The fog delay meant we were going full speed from Galveston to Castaway Cay. Even then, it meant we were not going to arrive at the time we originally planned. The decision was made to hold the 5k on board the ship. We did not select the 5k, but we heard from those who did the disappointment of just running around the ship. Many of them had been doing that earlier just to be "tuned up" for the 5k on the island. If you ran the 5k on the ship, you still received your medal and Disney apparently made it fun. They left up the signs on the island to mark the 5k route and we noticed a number of people choosing to do the 5k route on the island, so not all was lost.

When we arrived we were told we would have to wait for the island to be made ready for our arrival. What you may not realize, is the provisions for meals, the towels you use and a number of other things all come from the ship. I watched from the deck as the forklifts danced on and off placing pallets in strategic locations for transportation to the island aboard a variety of vehicles. Perishables went into a refrigerated truck while other items were loaded onto open trailers. It was actually very efficient and fun to watch. The island opened remarkably quickly and we were allowed to start our island adventure. This was supposed to be the second port so a lot of folks were very excited to be getting off the ship. We had a quick breakfast and headed down for disembarkation. We did not prepurchase anything for Castaway Cay and you don't need to. There is plenty of gear, bicycles, etc. That may be different if you are going to use jet ski's or do something else off the island.

We chose to board the shuttle and head to the adult beach. The way this works is you get on one shuttle to Pelican Point and then board another shuttle to Serrenity Cove. While you don't need to take a shuttle, the walk to the adult beach is quite long. Even with our wait, we still arrived faster than those who walked, so if getting there quickly is your goal, take the shuttle.

The adult beach is at the end of the "runway" for the island. Cookies 2 is the dining area and is also exclusive to adults. It is open from 11am to 2pm. I think they should have adjusted this time for us a since we were late arriving and would be staying a bit later. They could have easily extended it to 3pm. That's just another annoyance for us about how Disney really restricts access to the buffet area, even on the island. It isn't that we want to go back for more, it just means we have to plan a bit to ensure that it fits in with our other plans.

The adult beach is really amazing. We arrived as the tide was near high and found ourselves a couple of lounge chairs. There are also several hammocks but if you want one of those, you need to be one of the first off the ship. Folks don't seem willing to share once they have staked out around a hammock, even if they are not using it. The lounge chairs are arranged around an umbrella with a small table for drinks and they also give you one beach chair with every lounge chair. You can take this down to the water and let your feet soak while reading a book if you like. Talk about relaxing. The beach area is a bay so there are no waves. The water is calm and even with high tide, mostly shallow. There are buoys to mark the end of where you should venture out and how far along the beach you should go. It's a very large area. New for us was the lifeguard, who sat up in a tower watching the water. Interesting. Speaking of water, the color was amazing bu the temperature a bit chilly. I still waded out to a bit beyond the buoys watching for fish and other creatures. As the tide lowered later in the day, you could be that far out and still be standing. There were some places that were deeper than others due to the shifting sands, but during low tide, the bay was pretty shallow. We were able to see quite a few fish, a starfish and I even got pretty close to a stingray. I didn't even need snorkeling gear. The water was crystal clear. The only thing getting in the way was the wind was making ripples. If you stood in the way of the wind, you could block the ripples and see clearly to the bottom.

My wife loves to relax in the sun and I'm a bit more restless so after our meal, I rented a bike for $10. They say it is by the hour, but they don't track returns. They don't even track which bike you have. I road out behind the adult beach cabanas to the end of the road. There is a viewing area there to look out to the ocean and down the beach, but they don't want you going out to the water. It was at this location that someone else decided my bike was better than theirs and I ended up with a different bike than the one I arrived on. No big deal. I road back to the "runway" to the trail that loops around by the observation tower. That gives you such an incredible panoramic view of the island and the ship in the distance. I really enjoyed the ride and the views. Some complained that the tall native bushes and trees along the trail meant there was nothing to see and was boring. I thought looking at all that green as I road this trail that was blazed through this area was amazing. I felt a little like I was making my way through the briar patch unscathed. I recommend taking a long walk or bike ride around the island. It isn't huge and there are limitations on where you can go, but it's a great place.

In typical Disney fashion, they themed the island and placed items throughout that made you sort of feel like you were seeing old wreckage and cargo from previous occupants of the island. While this certainly exited in numerous places, it was not over the top manufactured scenery either. It was subtle enough to not take over the natural beauty. That said, we never really ventured over to the family beach, maybe there was more of that there.

After returning the bike I went back out into the water to experience the low tide conditions before heading back to the lounge. This is where I decided to try a tropical rum drink. I must say, I was disappointed in the bar service. It is a long stretch of beach but we were on a smaller ship with fewer passenger and I received much better service when we came in on the Fantasy. However, that is likely because there are also fewer servers. I just noticed some inherent inefficiencies in the way they provided the service. The drinks were fine, although a bit strong, but we only had one each largely because we just didn't see a server when we wanted one.

It was nearing time to leave and while I wanted something to drink, since the food area was closed, so too were the drink machines. They do sell a cooler with water bottles for your day on the beach as you disembark. We thought it a bit odd, but if you've got a family and want cold water available during the stay, don't count on the drink machines being available as they are on the ship. There are a few water stations around, but not in very convenient locations (at least in the adult area).

We found getting back to the ship a bit slow with waiting for shuttles and all, but it wasn't too bad. Getting back on board was not a problem and we once again found ourselves missing the island almost the minute we stepped off. It is a unique experience. Very relaxing.

I'll offer a short comparison here to the Royal Caribbean beach Labadee, that is really part of Haiti. This area is truely a private area and feels quite a bit like a private island, even though it is attached to the mainland. We sailed there on the Freedom of the Seas, a ship slightly larger than the Dream and Fantasy. Beautiful ship by the way. The dock is a decent distance away from the beach, but not as far as with Castawy Cay. There are a few small shuttles, but most people choose to walk. We were able to get a cabana, which is a completely different experience than Disney. We chose an over the water cabana, which cost around $300 for two. These are open air cabanas, closed on three sides with a ceiling fan and comfortable seating. There is a "deck" with chaise lounges in front of the cabana that in our case stretched over the bay. The Cabanas included an ice chest with water and soda plus a bar server who came around frequently. There were also two floats and a ladder that took you straight down from the cabana into the water. Just a few steps down. The view was incredible and the service spectacular. We pretty much stayed in the cabana or the water most of the time. Very relaxing. Very. When you get a cabana you get access to the deluxe food area, which includes premium meats and other fixings. We found it very tasty. Those that don't have the cabana get hamburger and hotdogs (basically). There were quite a few cabanas available and we didn't have trouble booking one well in advance. With Roal Caribben anyone can book and pay for a cabana at virtually any time so you are not losing out on a chance to book because you are not Platinum. There was a dragon coaster and zip lines along the beach and plenty of places to go to enjoy the views or the water. There were not many hard paths and no bike rentals or 5k. It wasn't as "clean" either but more natural. We are planning to return someday soon and we may even make this a stop on our next cruise.

In all, we prefer Castaway Cay but we wish Disney would do something different with their Cabanas. They are set up as a premium experience and they could probably offer the Royal Caribbean style of Cabanas at a lower price and not take anything away from the current offerings. I could see them building a dozen or so in various areas that would give guests great value and increase revenue at the same time.

Once again, we loved Castaway Cay and will definitely be back. We have already booked our next Disney cruise and it stops at Castaway Cay!!

 

[tutumomickey]

Great review. We were on the last cruise before the refurb(EBPC 2016). It was bittersweet, enjoying our beloved classic ship and knowing that some special features( second staircase, Route 66 ) would be gone. We will see her for the first time April 23rd (WBPC) Can you tell me who your captain, cruise director and club host were? Looking foward to seeing you on the 2018 Panama cruise. Already booked it.