Rockin' and Rollin' on the MR on the Wonder - Feb 20-27, 2011-LAS CALETAS ADDED 3/10!

[talie]

when: Feb 20-27, 2011 - President's Day Week (aka Ski Week)

who: Natalie (me) - part time mom at home, part time historian working in the historic preservation field. I grew up taking trips down to Orange County to visit my much older sister (15 years difference). These inevitably involved trips to Disneyland. So as a kid quite honestly Disneyland largely scared me. By the time I was old enough to be able to enjoy it they had moved from ticket books to all day passes. Overall a much better system. However I grew up with an accountant for a father so I suspect Disneyland also became much more expensive. Long story short, we started going to Knot's Berry Farm instead.
More recently, we've been to Disneyland three times in the last three years or so. On our first trip down we discovered Dis and basically rely on these boards for our Disney planning.

Mike (dh) - Mike is an engineer whose hobbies include triathlons and poker. Growing up he also made visits to Disneyland. Before kids, dh's idea of vacations involved primarily camping trips, whitewater rafting trips where we would typically camp, and stays in the mountains in rustic cabins. Since the kids came along the vacation aesthetic has morphed to nice mountain cabins ( really more nice.mountains homes than cabins truthfully), weeks spent at a nice home we rent in Bodega Bay which is within walking distance of the beach, and the occasional camping trip. In recent years trips to Disneyland have also entered the picture, typically at Hojo or the Park Vue Inn. I was pretty sure that we would be well into retirement before dh would ever agree to a cruise.

Tate (ds) - Tate is my 8 year old Star Wars and Lego loving boy. He's in third grade. At Disneyland the highlight of his trip is always Jedi training. I think he's done it 3 times now.

Kelsey (dd) - Kelsey is a 6 year old girl with a unique sense of style. Not sure where she gets it from as mom is much more comfortable in jeans and a sweatshirt and dad is rarely seen in anything other than shorts and a t-shirt outside of work. Kelsy is also a daredevil. In a moment of mediocre parenting I took her on Space Mountain when she was four. Of course you have no clue how your child is doing until you get to the end and with trepidation look over to see how they are. Luckily for me she loved it and immediately requested to do it again!

why: So how did we end up on a cruise? It was actually a spur of the moment decision. The kid’s teachers were furloughed this year for five days causing the district to set up a President’s Day furlough Week. Originally we were going to go up to the snow, but this also happens to be Ski Week in the Bay Area and everything was already booked up. dh then decided he wanted to someplace warm. His proposals? Hawaii or a cruise.

WHAT? Did you say CRUISE??? Bet you can guess what my choice was huh? And luckily for us Disney was moving the Wonder to the West Coast so we didn’t even have to fly to Florida. Woohoo!

So that is the background. I’ll add more as I go through my Navigators and get my pictures organized. Hopefully I can add some photos to this post once I get the kids to bed.

Thanks for reading if you got this far!

The Drive Down
Embarkation
Boarding our First Cruise
Let the Rockin' and Rollin' Begin
Sea Day 1 - Exploring, Experimenting, and much more
Sea Day 2 - Movies, Pools, Characters, oh my
Puerto Vallarta - Las Caletas! - part 1

 

[sletcr]

Hi Talie,

We are from Seattle and are so glad the Wonder came to the west coast. No more 6 hour flights to cruise with Disney!

I'd love to hear what you liked, didn't like, your excursions, etc. We leave on Sunday's boat with our 5 year old DD.

Thanks!!

 

[talie]

Hi Talie,

We are from Seattle and are so glad the Wonder came to the west coast. No more 6 hour flights to cruise with Disney!

I'd love to hear what you liked, didn't like, your excursions, etc. We leave on Sunday's boat with our 5 year old DD.

Thanks!!

sletcr - I gave a pretty good recap of our excursions on your post asking questions about our cruise. We really liked Las Caletas in PV and the whale watching tour with Pez Gato in Cabo. My son did get seasick on the boat ride to Las Caletas so that is one thing you might consider if seasickness is at all an issue.

 

[LKFan]

Talie, you were one of the few people in our group that I didn't end up meeting. Now that I see your picture, I realize that I saw you tons of times on the ship but didn't know it was you. I think we even had the same dining rotation. Did you do PTTAAPT?

 

[talie]

Yep, that was our dining rotation. I knew there were a couple of DIS families that I saw everywhere. You wouldn't by any chance have done the Day 2 Cabo 8:45 am Dolphin Excursion?

 

[LKFan]

Yep, we did. I'm Caucasian and my husband is Asian. After we put on the wetsuits, we were sitting on the sofas talking to Beachmum.

 

[talie]

We left on Saturday Feb. 19th . We live near Sacramento, CA and had about a 7 hour drive. Our original plan was to leave at o’dark thirty on the 20th and avoid hotel fees. Well this winter has been an interesting one and when the Grapevine was closed due to snow in early January I started pulling hard core for renting a hotel room the night before. In a worst case scenario where the Grapevine was closed we’d then have the time to find some horribly long detour around the Grapevine. So dh found a pretty good deal at a La Quinta Hotel in Santa Clarita. Cheaper than staying near the port and it helped knock an hour or so off our drive on Saturday.

I ended up having to travel down to Riverside, CA the week before on a business trip. The whole time I was there the news stations were predicting snow. Needless to say I was very glad we’d decided to drive down on Saturday.

Friday night came and dh and I were checking our Facebook pages. Turns out a friend of ours drove down I-5 that night and was able to let us know that while it was windy they got through with no snow. Whew.

So Saturday morning we got up early because we knew the weather was scheduled to get worse by afternoon. We really wanted to get through the Grapevine before nightfall. What we didn’t quite predict however is how much extra stuff we ended up having to pack for this trip than our normal trip. We travel a fair amount but are a casual family. Having to dress for dinner ended up causing us quite a bit of time and added a whole additional bag. Long story short we ended up leaving about two hours later than originally planned.

The drive down was good for the first two and half hours or so. Then it started to rain. For the most part it wasn’t too bad but the temperature was dropping quickly. We made it to the Grapevine about 4:30 ish. Entering the Grapevine we had rain and temperatures around 34 degrees. We were cutting it close. We got to the summit with no snow and thought we were in the clear. Well as we meandered our way down it got colder and colder and we found ourselves in snow flurries.

I’m not sure why but the whole thought of being in the mountains with it snowing in Southern California just terrified me. It’s one thing if you’re driving in the Sierras where you expect to see snow. Snow an hour and a half out of LA, it’s just not something you encounter every day.

Anyway we got off the mountain safely and found our hotel. Our kids wanted to swim but considering it was an outdoor pool we said that that was out of the question. Instead we ate dinner and settled down and got a good nights sleep.

 

[Bruins]

Thanks for taking the time to post a trip report. I'm looking forward to hearing the details of your family's experience on the cruise!

 

[talie]

So we woke up bright and early. Went downstairs, got our complimentary breakfast and then headed out. We got to the port about 9:45 and found a great parking spot. We stood in line and waited for a porter to take our luggage. The earlier cruise was still disembarking so porters were hard to come by.

I do have a question for others who have cruised out of San Pedro. Is there anyway to check your luggage besides the porters? If there was it wasn’t apparent to us.

After that we checked in. We were only the second people who had apparently checked in that were not Castaway Club members. When we got to security we got our number and it was a 6. I was completely perplexed. There were maybe 10 other groups of people in front of us and somehow we ended up with a 6??? I actually went back and checked and the security lady told me they started with 4 for non-concierge/platinum. Anyway that was all very strange.

So we staked out our spot and I went over and checked to see when we could get the wristbands for the kiddos. I was told 10:45, or was it 11:15? Ack, I don’t remember. What I do know is that they didn’t even come close to making that time. What none of us knew at the time was that I’m sure at that point the atrium and lounges of the Wonder were probably still jam packed with people waiting to get off the ship.

So 11:15 rolls on by and they still don’t have the wristbands from the Wonder. Everyone got a different story and little lines started forming in various spots with the CMs encouraging people to sit down because management did not want the lines to start forming yet. When they finally did open the ropes for lines to form it was pure chaos with people rushing in from all sides. CRAZY, CRAZY, CRAZY. The worst part is that we then got to wait another half an hour before they even started checking any of the kids in. It was around 11:45.

So by 12 I had the kids wristbands. As we were getting close to the front of the line Mickey and Minnie Mouse switched places in the photo area. There were collective groans going around from all the parents with little girls close to the front of the kids club line. Trying to convince a 6 year that she had to stay in line when Minnie Mouse was so close was not fun. But we got through the line pretty quickly and were able to get in line for Minnie. The line wasn’t long but as we got towards the front they announced that ALL groups were to start boarding at the same time. WHAT?

Well we, along with everyone else around, dropped what we were doing and started to head towards the gate. Well, someone realized that they forgot to change the announcement tape, and another announcement came over the loudspeaker stating that they were starting to board with 1s and 2s. They had to keep on asking everyone without the proper number to sit down. It was chaotic but they got through the numbers very quickly. It took them about 5 minutes to get from 1-7.

Oh, and my kids did manage to get their pictures taken with Minnie and Mickey as well.

I realize this story emphasizes a lot of the negatives. Overall the checkin was very smooth. I just don't think they have a good plan in place quite yet on how to handle when the ships are late. Also the CMs in the child care check-in really could have handled the whole situation better. Their first priority when that ship gets into port should be for those bracelets to get out so people can get their kid's wristbands.

So, if I had to do it over, what would I do differently? I’d probably get to port later. Customs in LA is slow and it takes awhile for people to disembark. They also get through the numbers very quickly. I also would wait until I got on ship to get the kid’s wristbands. I did it when I did just because I wasn’t doing anything else at that point. In hindsight I don’t think it was worth the stress.

 

[talie]

Yep, we did. I'm Caucasian and my husband is Asian. After we put on the wetsuits, we were sitting on the sofas talking to Beachmum.

I know exactly who you are. I think I talked to you briefly in line the first day during the whole wristband chaos. I lasted in line about five minutes before I decided to sit back down. I know I also ended up facing your family at just about every dinner.

I was late to the DIS meet and really didn't get to meet too many people. I met someone from Michigan who was like you, I saw her everywhere I went on ship. Can't remember her DIS name but I know she was from Michigan.

 

[LKFan]

I know exactly who you are. I think I talked to you briefly in line the first day during the whole wristband chaos. I lasted in line about five minutes before I decided to sit back down. I know I also ended up facing your family at just about every dinner.

I was late to the DIS meet and really didn't get to meet too many people. I met someone from Michigan who was like you, I saw her everywhere I went on ship. Can't remember her DIS name but I know she was from Michigan.

I walked up to check on the wristband status and met another Dis member. We stood there talking until they opened the line. I wanted to make sure that we didn't need a bracelet for my daughter who was going to be in the Edge. Since DCL collects the bracelets the night before, I'm not sure why they need to wait so long to get them off the ship.

Dinner was a fiasco for us. There was a large group near us and their kids were all over the place. After three days, we asked our head server if anything could be done. They moved us to a table across the aisle, farther from the large group.

My husband and I were talking that we should have tried to arrange a second meet on the last day at sea. It was fun seeing everyone around the ship and would have been nice to share stories and experiences at the end of the cruise too.

 

[Diamondback01]

Vey interesting and informative! Thanks for sharing. Snow on the grapevine is indeed strange and somewhat rare.

I've been wondering about this whole get to the port early thing. I think you've answered my question. It seems that when I've read that people get to the port early they just end up standing around and waiting for something to happen. Other reports I've read said the whole check-in process is quite smooth and goes quickly.

We leave in a week-and-a-half so I'm looking forward to your additional reports! At this point, I'm not going to plan to get to the port early. I think our check-in time is noon.

Interested in knowing: How was the ship's ride? Did anyone get seasick? Where did you eat lunch the first day?

 

[talie]

I walked up to check on the wristband status and met another Dis member. We stood there talking until they opened the line. I wanted to make sure that we didn't need a bracelet for my daughter who was going to be in the Edge. Since DCL collects the bracelets the night before, I'm not sure why they need to wait so long to get them off the ship.

Dinner was a fiasco for us. There was a large group near us and their kids were all over the place. After three days, we asked our head server if anything could be done. They moved us to a table across the aisle, farther from the large group.

My husband and I were talking that we should have tried to arrange a second meet on the last day at sea. It was fun seeing everyone around the ship and would have been nice to share stories and experiences at the end of the cruise too.

We had a large group near us who luckily was very well behaved. My dh and I had an ongoing joke about a group of kids who were always unattended in the hallways and stairwells after dinner.

We leave in a week-and-a-half so I'm looking forward to your additional reports! At this point, I'm not going to plan to get to the port early. I think our check-in time is noon.

Interested in knowing: How was the ship's ride? Did anyone get seasick? Where did you eat lunch the first day?

I'd say the primary reason to get to port early would be if you wanted an upgrade or were trying to get tickets or were trying to change or get meal reservations.

As for seasickness, I did get seasick the first day. I'm prone to motion sickness and wasn't proactive with preventative measures. The last day was also very rough. I knew that day to go lay down once I started to feel queasy and was fine then.

What I didn't anticipate is the continued rocking and rolling that were are experiencing. Got back on Sunday and dh is much worse off than he was on the boat. (He wore a patch on the boat and took it off as soon as we got on dry land. I suspect he should have kept in on for a few more days.)

The rest of your questions I'll address in my next installment.

 

[LKFan]

My dh and I had an ongoing joke about a group of kids who were always unattended in the hallways and stairwells after dinner.

Yep, that was them! I think they had 6 tables of 6-8 people. At the beginning, they would do "dine and play" but the parents wanted to order dinners for the kids off of the adult menu so the servers couldn't get the food out fast enough. The kids were running around the dining room, standing on the chairs, throwing napkins across the room (one flew right over my head onto the serving station), crawling under the tables, etc. When our server or asst server would come up to take our order, the parents interrupted to place their order. The women even got up out of their seats with the menu in hand and went to the serving station where the assistant server was getting drinks/bread ready and interrupted him to place their orders. They were so needy that, at one point, the head server took our order and delivered our food. It was crazy!

 

[talie]

So sometime around 12 our number was called and we headed through the doors to the gangplank.

We were all very excited as this was our first cruise, and a Disney one at that! So we walked on board and heard our announcement, “Welcome aboard the Lindquist Family!”

Our original plans were to eat lunch up top and let the kids swim. Well given my previous story about snow in the Grapevine you can imagine that it was pretty darn cold. So we went with Plan B and ate in Parrot Cay. I wanted to get tickets to the Galley Tour and Character Tea so I sent dh and the kiddos on to lunch and got in line at Guest Services. There were only a couple of people in front of me so it went smoothly. Turned out there was no character tea but we were able to get tickets to the galley tour.

Tickets in hand I preceded to join my family at lunch. What I didn’t expect was a line down the hall. I quickly discovered the hang up, they were selling water and alcohol packages. We brought refillable water containers so I quickly bypassed that and entered Parrot Cay.

Now I’m going to kick my self for this but the one picture we forgot to take was of the people handing out sanitizing wipes in front of the restaurants and theaters. This is such a huge part of the ship’s culture that I really regret not getting a snapshot.

Anyway on to lunch. The kids and dh were already in line for the buffet so I quickly found our table, dropped off a backpack, and then got in line. They had shrimp, some sort of sandwich, salads of various types, and various and sundry other items.

The kiddos were happy with the children’s buffet that had their favorite, pasta. The general consensus of the family was YUM!

So with lunch under our belts we proceeded to explore the ship. We went up to deck 9 and checked out the pools, Funnelvision, the very important smoke stacks, sports deck, and ping pong and foosball tables.

From there we decided to go take a look at the Club and Lab. Dd is 6 and ds is 8 so technically they should be in separate clubs. Both kids were immediately enamored with the slide in the club. The lab on the surface isn’t a particularly interesting during those Open House hours. Once the programs start up however the Lab tended to be a winner for my kids. One note with the clubs and lab, if you’ve already got a wristband on your kids, there is no need to wait in the lines that first day. Just go down the free aisle, point out the wristband and they’ll let you right in.

With the kid’s clubs all checked out we then headed down to Deck 4 so dh would check out the running track. Now dh is an engineer so he loves to see the mechanics of things. Deck 4 was by far his favorite part of the ship. He loved being able to check out the ropes and anchors and various machines and gadgets involved in the ship. The kids loved the shuffleboard. LOL

By this time the rooms had opened up so we went and checked out our stateroom. We had a 5A Verandah Stateroom that was very nice.

The room overall was quite comfortable. I really, really liked the shower. I thought it was very clever of them to spend the extra money on the shower mechanism they had.

It really is just perfect for kids in that you can adjust the showerhead to their size. Big thumbs up from me.

Our bags still hadn’t arrived so we had the kids get ready to go up to the pool. Yes it was cold but my kids just love to swim and the cold doesn’t really seem to affect them. Our DISmeet was at 3 so the kids had just enough time to swim for an hour or so. The kids loved the Mickey Pool and slide.

They would continuously rotate between the hot tub ears and pool. The Goofy pool wasn’t as much of a hit, although ds did love to hang out and watch the movies in the pool.

From there we were off to the DIS meet. We were a little late so by the time we got there most people were already there and sitting. I’ll have to admit that this was an awkward one for me. I’m naturally a pretty shy person so mingling isn’t my strong suit. Also the Promenade Lounge was set up in pods of four or five for small groups, not the best setting for people to get up and mingle. Dh was tempted to stand up and take on the role of social director but opted to take the kids and explore instead. If I had one thing to do over I would have gone over and introduced myself to LKFan and Bruins. We were on parallel paths the whole cruise and didn’t find out until yesterday that we were DISers who had been conversing for months.

Okay, my brain is fried at the moment so I’ll be back later to finish up Day 1.

 

[talie]

Let’s see where were we. Oh yeah, after the DIS meet we had our muster drill. We went back to the room and had the kids put on their life jackets. Good thing too as at one point ds had his on upside down. Then we put everything away and waited for the announcement. We were Station O on Deck 4. We had been told at the DIS meet not to rush to the muster station so that is what we did. Worked out well for us as we had a minimal wait. Our assembly leader was quite bubbly and cheerful. We’d learn on the following nights that she was one of the leads in the evening performances playing Andy in Toy Story and Anmarie in Dreams.

After the muster drill we headed up to Deck 9 for the Sail Away Party. Actually we decided to find a spot on Deck 10 so we’d have a great view of the activities. The Sail Away Party was a lot of fun if a bit long.

Dh had had it after about 10 minutes and wondered around. The kiddos loved the pom poms. Ds loved dancing to the music. Looking at the pictures I just remembered that it was quite cold and windy. If I had it to do over again I would have brought an extra sweatshirt (I had two.) Even when we got into the warmer weather the mornings were still pretty chilly.

But back to the Sail Away Party. The Cruise Staff did the Pirate Shuffle, the Valentines Something or other, and a bunch of other line dance type things.

Clayton was the Cruise Director for the trip and he was great. During the show you could see him dancing on the side, and that man can dance. He’s just got a nice, vibrant personality and his story of moving up from DJ to Cruise Director in the course of 8 (or was it 11?) years was very inspiring.

After the Sail Away was over we moved to the front of the ship to watch the boat sail away. It was freezing up there! BRRRRRRR ds wanted to be at the very front of the ship so he and I stayed up there almost until we cleared land.

Then I looked at a clock and realized that we needed to head down to the Walt Disney Theater and find seats for the show. I called dh, who was wondering the ship somewhere with dd, on the Wave Phone and told him to meet us at the theater.

We ended up getting great front row seats.

I’m going to go slightly off topic at this point and say that the Wave Phones are fantastic. Dh and I used them all the time to communicate with each other. Very convenient and definitely made life easier.

Okay, back to the show, “All Aboard! Let the Magic Begin”. For first time Disney cruisers the show is a great way to start the cruise. It gives you a little flavor of what is to come with regards to the Disney performers and it also gave Clayton a great avenue to introduce himself. We also got a short performance by Heath Hyche, a comedian who we’d also see later in the week. He was really quite funny and we looked forward to his later performances.

At this point I should note that in the theater I really began to notice the motion of the ship. We’d just reached open sea and the movement was quite noticeable.

After the show we went back to the room and got ready for dinner. Look who was there to greet us.

When I planned dinner wear for everyone I wasn’t planning on it being freezing. Couple this with the fact that I was starting to feel quite queasy, I guess I’m just happy that everyone was presentable, even if our choice of clothing wasn’t exactly plan A. At this time I also took some Bonine. In hindsight I should have taken this in the morning before we left Santa Clarita. I guess I was just hoping I wouldn’t be affected by sea sickness. This would end up being a costly error on my part.

So down we went to dinner at Parrot Cay. We were at the very back of the restaurant. We met our servers, Miguel from Peru and Nyomen from Indonesia. They were very nice and excellent servers all around. I’d love to show you photos of dinner, our servers and the family but I only lasted about five minutes before I had to leave.

I went up to Deck 4 to get some fresh air and sit in the deck chairs. Needless to say seasickness had me good. The seas weren’t particularly rough, I guess I’m just naturally prone to seasickness. I think at some point I might have ended up back in the room but decided that the fresh air was better for me so I went back to 4. Dh ended up leaving dinner early, before the entrees were even served, because the kids were really tired. He said this really sent the dining staff into a tizzy. Our head server, Ronald from India, came over to make sure everything was all right as did the dining room supervisor. Miguel, our server, ended up bringing entrees for Mike and myself to the room himself.

So, the family decided to head to the room from Deck 4. Ds and I headed up the stairs and must have been just behind dh and dd. As we hit the 7th floor the ship did a weird little jimmy which sent both ds and I slightly off balance. Oh oh. There went my stomach. I headed down the hall quickly thinking positive thoughts. Made it into the room and the bathroom just in time.

Definitely not the way I envisioned our trip starting. At this point I was really worried because I was pretty miserable. We had some sea bands we’d brought so I went ahead and put those on and then tried to fall asleep. Laying down really does help, especially with irregular seas. I think it really helps cut down on the disorientation.

So, I’ll leave our story with me falling asleep to rocky seas, slamming closets, and the pitter, patter of rain on the ceiling (oh wait, we have cabins above us. Turns out the pitter, patter of rain is actually the boat creaking.) Important note to first time cruisers: if prone to motion sickness, take precautions. And the closet doors lock, just make sure to close them all the way! (As my dh informed me the next morning.)

 

[Diamondback01]

Sorry to hear your first day ended in sea sickness. How did the kids fare?

 

[talie]

Sorry to hear your first day ended in sea sickness. How did the kids fare?

The kiddos did great. ds had a bout of seasickness on one of the excursions but that was on an excursion boat and was a pretty rocky ride.

 

[silence]

Yep, that was them! I think they had 6 tables of 6-8 people. At the beginning, they would do "dine and play" but the parents wanted to order dinners for the kids off of the adult menu so the servers couldn't get the food out fast enough. The kids were running around the dining room, standing on the chairs, throwing napkins across the room (one flew right over my head onto the serving station), crawling under the tables, etc. When our server or asst server would come up to take our order, the parents interrupted to place their order. The women even got up out of their seats with the menu in hand and went to the serving station where the assistant server was getting drinks/bread ready and interrupted him to place their orders. They were so needy that, at one point, the head server took our order and delivered our food. It was crazy!

OH MY GOODNESS! Sounds like you guys had some really needy folks in your rotation! We didn't have any kids running around that I could see. However, on formal night, we went straight to Animators as I thought we would wait for pictures until after dinner to avoid some lines. Just as we were sitting down, I see something fly over our table. A small child had thrown a stick of peanut butter. Of course, it hit DH. Got all over his shirt and tie. The father came over and was so appologetic. Their youngest has autism and was a little difficult to control at times. He would sometimes get under the table and lay on the ground, but he wasn't running around anywhere. Needless to say, they did not bring him with peanut butter again.

 

[LKFan]

The first night, we happened to sit behind them at the show. The kids had their DSi consoles and were trying to record the sound of the performance. They would hold their consoles up above their heads which interferred with our view. After they took the recording, they would turn up the volume (so they could hear it over the performance) and replay it several times.

Needlesstosay, after we realized who they were, we avoided their group at all costs.

When we disembarked, they went to the "non US citizens" line. They spoke English well but, when talking to each other and across the tables, they spoke in Spanish. Some of their behavoir and assertiveness could have been cultural but some of it was just plain rude.