Just returned from a 7 nighter on the Wonder from Galveston to the Western Carrib. Just wanted to post a quick summary for any who may be on one of the final cruises from Texas.
Port Arrival and check in were easy enough. We used EZ cruise parking and had no problems. Mickey was available for pics after check-in in the port, and was replaced with Minnie halfway through.
We boarded in group 1 and had buffet lunch in Parrot Cay. We were one of first families in there and the food was great. Our server Sam (Philippines) made great first impression on girls (DDs 5 and 3).
Afterwards we went to Concierge reception in Cadillac Lounge. Had drinks and desserts/snacks set out similar to what was in Parrot Cay. We had a seat and had to wait about 30 mins before we met with our Concierge. Her name was Lynda (Orlando, FL). She had pre-booked us for a gingerbread house making class for the next day, but not a tea with princess experience (which was weird because I called the shoreside concierge team a month prior and asked for it to be noted we wanted that, but we never asked for the gingerbread house making). She said she would see what she could do about the tea with princess, but that she had to put us on a waiting list for that. Our room was ready by the time we left the lounge. Looking back, I would recommend going to the reception first to get your requests out of the way and then going to lunch buffet.
Room: we had 8532, a 1 BR suite at mid ship. The location had good and bad points. Pros: just next to the mid ship elevators and the room layout was preferable to the suites at the end of the ship. Plus, the verandah is longer. Cons: noise from deck 9 can get loud at times at night. I think it was directly under where the arcade and goofy pool meet. The bathroom is showing a lot of wear and tear (tiles, toilet fixtures, shower, etc) as was the railing on the verandah (rust and paint worn off). Overall, would still go for the midship suites if available first and the pros far outweighed the cons. Our hostess was Maricris (Philippines) who was great as well. Really strived to make girls feel special. (made bed with princess sheets, left them notes at night, extra chocolates, etc.)
MDR: we had formal night on Sunday night and Pirate night was Wednesday. We had Boniface (India) as server Kristina (Serbia) as asst server and Nick (Sweden) as head server. Boniface was excellent. He did magic tricks for the girls and arranged for special dishes that were not on the menu for DW. If I had trouble deciding between two choices, he brought me both without hesitation. Kristina was good with girls as well. Nick checked in on us every night to make sure we had everything we needed.
Concierges: Besides Lynda, there was Rodrigo (Argentina) and Glenn who was earning his ears. Rodrigo was always eager to please and I can see why they wanted him to train a newbie. Lynda gave my girls music boxes on the fifth night , which was a thoughtful touch. There were a couple times we couldn't get them on the wave phones (phone just kept ringing until guest services picked it up), but they usually called back if they missed the call.
Ports: Didn't care much for Falmouth. Its not really a "beach" stop. its more of a ring of shops along the pier built up just for the cruise ships. If you go out of the gates, it gets a bit "rustic". We did the horse and buggy ride through historic Falmouth and regretted taking it. The vendor and guide were very nice, its just that there really isn't much to see there. We were extremely delayed leaving Falmouth which cut into our Cayman island day. Everyone's excursions were delayed (some cancelled). Ours was delayed 2 hours and we didn't end up with any time to explore the island on our own like we had hoped. We had an unfortunate incident happen on our excursion involving the employees of the vendor (not DCL employees). Long story short - a fight broke out amongst the wait staff at the restaurant and knives were drawn, there was stabbing, and a lot of commotion and frightened children. We told our concierge about it when we returned and DCL promptly told us our excursion would be refunded without any prompting by us. Apparently we were the 20th people to bring it up and they were well aware of it. Turns out they comped everyone in our group on that tour. We didn't venture out much in Cozumel, just walked to some shops and back to Wonder.
Odds and Ends: 100 free mins of Internet is included with Concierge room, but it is sooo slow, it wasn't even worth trying to connect. Practically every staff member we met was so friendly and helpful, they made us smile. The character interactions were terrific, much longer and better than at WDW. They showed some newer movies : Frozen, Thor, Planes and Ironman 3. Frozen was very good and there were Princess Anna character meets already. Santa made 2 appearances. At the princess meetup in the atrium, it was Snow White, Cinderella, Tianna, and Belle. Bingo was quite fun, and Chris (UK) is quite funny as the bingo caller.
Thats my quick summary, I hope it helps anyone sailing on Wonder before it leaves Galveston for good in a few weeks.
Port Arrival and check in were easy enough. We used EZ cruise parking and had no problems. Mickey was available for pics after check-in in the port, and was replaced with Minnie halfway through.
We boarded in group 1 and had buffet lunch in Parrot Cay. We were one of first families in there and the food was great. Our server Sam (Philippines) made great first impression on girls (DDs 5 and 3).
Afterwards we went to Concierge reception in Cadillac Lounge. Had drinks and desserts/snacks set out similar to what was in Parrot Cay. We had a seat and had to wait about 30 mins before we met with our Concierge. Her name was Lynda (Orlando, FL). She had pre-booked us for a gingerbread house making class for the next day, but not a tea with princess experience (which was weird because I called the shoreside concierge team a month prior and asked for it to be noted we wanted that, but we never asked for the gingerbread house making). She said she would see what she could do about the tea with princess, but that she had to put us on a waiting list for that. Our room was ready by the time we left the lounge. Looking back, I would recommend going to the reception first to get your requests out of the way and then going to lunch buffet.
Room: we had 8532, a 1 BR suite at mid ship. The location had good and bad points. Pros: just next to the mid ship elevators and the room layout was preferable to the suites at the end of the ship. Plus, the verandah is longer. Cons: noise from deck 9 can get loud at times at night. I think it was directly under where the arcade and goofy pool meet. The bathroom is showing a lot of wear and tear (tiles, toilet fixtures, shower, etc) as was the railing on the verandah (rust and paint worn off). Overall, would still go for the midship suites if available first and the pros far outweighed the cons. Our hostess was Maricris (Philippines) who was great as well. Really strived to make girls feel special. (made bed with princess sheets, left them notes at night, extra chocolates, etc.)
MDR: we had formal night on Sunday night and Pirate night was Wednesday. We had Boniface (India) as server Kristina (Serbia) as asst server and Nick (Sweden) as head server. Boniface was excellent. He did magic tricks for the girls and arranged for special dishes that were not on the menu for DW. If I had trouble deciding between two choices, he brought me both without hesitation. Kristina was good with girls as well. Nick checked in on us every night to make sure we had everything we needed.
Concierges: Besides Lynda, there was Rodrigo (Argentina) and Glenn who was earning his ears. Rodrigo was always eager to please and I can see why they wanted him to train a newbie. Lynda gave my girls music boxes on the fifth night , which was a thoughtful touch. There were a couple times we couldn't get them on the wave phones (phone just kept ringing until guest services picked it up), but they usually called back if they missed the call.
Ports: Didn't care much for Falmouth. Its not really a "beach" stop. its more of a ring of shops along the pier built up just for the cruise ships. If you go out of the gates, it gets a bit "rustic". We did the horse and buggy ride through historic Falmouth and regretted taking it. The vendor and guide were very nice, its just that there really isn't much to see there. We were extremely delayed leaving Falmouth which cut into our Cayman island day. Everyone's excursions were delayed (some cancelled). Ours was delayed 2 hours and we didn't end up with any time to explore the island on our own like we had hoped. We had an unfortunate incident happen on our excursion involving the employees of the vendor (not DCL employees). Long story short - a fight broke out amongst the wait staff at the restaurant and knives were drawn, there was stabbing, and a lot of commotion and frightened children. We told our concierge about it when we returned and DCL promptly told us our excursion would be refunded without any prompting by us. Apparently we were the 20th people to bring it up and they were well aware of it. Turns out they comped everyone in our group on that tour. We didn't venture out much in Cozumel, just walked to some shops and back to Wonder.
Odds and Ends: 100 free mins of Internet is included with Concierge room, but it is sooo slow, it wasn't even worth trying to connect. Practically every staff member we met was so friendly and helpful, they made us smile. The character interactions were terrific, much longer and better than at WDW. They showed some newer movies : Frozen, Thor, Planes and Ironman 3. Frozen was very good and there were Princess Anna character meets already. Santa made 2 appearances. At the princess meetup in the atrium, it was Snow White, Cinderella, Tianna, and Belle. Bingo was quite fun, and Chris (UK) is quite funny as the bingo caller.
Thats my quick summary, I hope it helps anyone sailing on Wonder before it leaves Galveston for good in a few weeks.
One of my friends was on that cruise. Hopefully she wasn't on your Grand Cayman excursion - what a horrible thing to encounter on a 
