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

[lucky1]

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.

Nice report. I would have to agree with you... It seems like while Promenade Lounge is the best place to meet (centrally located, out of the way of the masses, a place to get drinks if you want), but I found the table, chair set up difficult to get around and talk to people. Would almost be better if the DIS meets would have everyone stand on the dance floor...

 

[minie_meese]

Hi Natalie -

It was nice to meet you and all of the other DISers. I wish we had arranged to meet again sometime again after the initial meet. I really don't like the Promenade Lounge for mingling either but it is a good place to check in with everyone.

Sorry you got seasick. We certainly felt the rocking on Sunday and the last night on the ship but we were fortunate that it it didn't bother anyone in our group.

I talked to a number of people who did the dolphin excursion and absolutely loved it. My son and daughter did the intro to scuba which was out of the same place and they loved it.

We were in Animator's the first night and commented on how well behaved the kids were around us. Most of the kids we saw were pretty well behaved. The last night was an exception. I think the wild children found their way to our door late on the last night. They were running around in the hallway till really late and we had a hard time sleeping.

Thanks for posting your trip report. It's always interesting to see the things others did.

Elaine

 

[ll_california]

Thank you for the great trip report!

We too got boarding group number 6 from the security, but the lady who checked us in had already given us number 4, so we ended up boarding when group 4 was announced.

I wonder how many families they put in each group ? There was only one family boarding when the called group 3. We were joking that there might be 1000 groups

 

[talie]

On this morning dh woke up early and ran on Deck 4.

When he got back we headed up to Deck 9 and ate breakfast up at the Beach Blanket Buffet. Given the choice between BBB and Parrot Cay I really prefer BBB. Just like the openness and overall atmosphere better.

This morning we dropped the kids off at the Oceaneer’s Lab. Then dh and I explored. We thought about doing the Walk a Mile but didn’t want to wait around for it to happen. I thought I’d try the Art of Entertaining Appetizer event that was going on but when I found out they were doing Tuna Tartare I decided to bow out. (Not a fan of Tuna and it’s not something I would ever make.)

We went down to pick up the kids and encountered our kiddos all dressed up in lab coats.

The Flubber demonstration was about half way through and the kids did not want to leave. So dh and I were on our own again to explore the ship.

Eventually it was time to pick up the kids and head over and watch Toy Story 3 in the Buena Vista Theater. Dd decided she didn’t want to go so she and I went over to the Oceaneer’s Lab for Snow White’s Do-si-do. Dd was pretty skittish about the clubs so she wanted mom to stick around. The program essentially consisted of a CM going through who the different dwarves are and then he read a Snow White story. After that he taught the kids an easy dance. Shortly after that Snow White came and talked to the kids and then led them in a dance. She was very charming. Excuse my poor pictures, they were taken with my iphone camera which doesn't work well at all in poor light.

After that dd decided she was comfortable enough for mom to leave so I went for a run/walk around Deck 4. Didn’t take long for me to realize that this wasn’t such a great idea. I was feeling much better than the night before but I still didn’t have my sea legs. So I headed back to the room, took a shower, and went back down to pick up dd.

The Club was now in the middle of Mouseketeer training. The portion of the training I saw was right up dd’s alley. They made little Mickey heads on sticks and then the kids waited for Mickey to show up. Mickey came and helped the kids march around in a circle. Then Mickey agreed that they were all fit to be Mouseketeers and they all got a special stamp on their Mickeyheads.

About this time dh and ds finished up with Toy Story 3 so we headed up to the pool for the kids to swim. I wasn’t real good with food pictures but with the exception of one day where we ate lunch at Triton’s our regular pattern was to pick up lunch from a combo of the Goofy Gallery, Pinocchio’s, Pluto’s or BBB. With everything on the same deck it was really easy to pick and choose as you go. I just checked my photos and I must have eaten at the Buffet that day. LOL

The ribs and mashed potatoes were one of my favorite things. YUM!

Our original plan was for the kids to do the Ratatouille Cooking School at 2:30. Well once my kids get in a pool they don’t want to leave. We decided to go with the flow and let the kids swim. NOTE: The Cooking School was extremely popular. They recommended getting there about a half an hour early to assure your kid a spot. I’m not sure if it got better throughout the week.

At about 3pm the Club had an Aloha Luau that we thought both kids would enjoy. Dh and I had yet again found time to be by ourselves but there really wasn’t anything going on we wanted to do. Well there was a dj over by the Cove Pool so we decided to just hang out on Deck 10 and relax to the music. And let me say that the music was a wonderful escape from the never ending mix of Miley Cyrus/Justin Bieber/HS Musical/Camp Rock that seemed to occur around the kid pools.

We had about an hour to ourselves before the luau program was over. We showed up a little early to the Club to find Stitch being chased up the slide by a wild band of kiddos. The kids were having a blast! Eventually we were able to get the kids to leave.

What did we end up doing? Going up to the room so the kids could rest! Not very exciting I know but we had late dining so it really was necessary for dd. Ds typically wouldn’t nap but he’d relax and watch some sort of Disney movie. Dh and I would typically hang out on our verandah with some Sangria and snacks. It was a nice relaxing way to spend an hour or so. We’d also typically bring some food down from 9 or order an All Hands on the Deck and Chocolate Chip Cookies from room service. This typically would be enough to last us until dinner (we typically eat at 5:30-6 at home so an 8:15 dinner was late).

After resting time we found ourselves a bit short on time to get to the Golden Mickey’s. As a result we decided to wait until after the show to dress for dinner. This would also become a rather humorous routine for us. I say humorous because ¾ of the people would be dressed to the nines for the show while the other ¼ were like us, getting dressed for dinner post show. But I digress, the Golden Mickeys show was a great show. When the villain portion of the show began I was very, very glad that we were a little late to the show and therefore were sitting further back. My daughter would have been seriously freaked out if we had been sitting in the lower sections of the seats.

After the show we quickly made it up to our room and changed into our formal wear. We are not a formal type of family so this was a pretty big deal for us. I thought we looked pretty snazzy.

However we were kind of rushed because we really wanted to make a 7:30 Cabaret session with Smooth E.

We really enjoyed Smooth E. ds is a closet dancer, i.e. someone who loves to dance to music in his seat but can’t be convinced to actually move out onto a dance floor. LOL Smooth E’s brand of musical comedy was perfect for ds. He could move to the rhythm and dance around but we were far enough back that no one else would notice him.

After that we were off to dinner at Triton’s. I’m not sure if I mentioned it before but our rotation was PTTAAPT. We didn’t request it but were fortunate to get a great rotation with great servers as well.

After dinner we headed back to the room to change. Look what greeted us.

On a side note, Wave Bands was hopping and my plan was that we would drop the kids off at either the Club or Lab and then go down there. Well, you know what they say about best laid plans. Ds was happy to go to the Lab where the Piston Cup activity was under way. Dd saw the guy that leads all the Lab activities and promptly decided that he was just too freaky for her to be around at night. (She’s only 6.) Well we knew that there was no way she’d go to the Club by herself and that it wasn’t fair to ds to make him go with her over to the Club. So, on we went to plan B.

They were going to have Family Karaoke up at Studio Sea so we decided to head there. There were actually a couple of really good singers and then a whole lot of others that ranged from better than average to rather painful to listen to. This would become a regular activity for us and it was fun to see the kids improve from night to night.

So, what type of activities did we miss because of the kiddo not wanting to go to the Club? The night’s offerings included the Allstars LIVE, Cabaret with Heath Hyche (which we really wanted to see), Golden Mickeys After Party, and Piano Requests.

 

[talie]

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.

The funny thing is as much as we were on parallel plans with you, we were with them. I swear I would see one or another of their group wherever we went. Luckily we weren't impacted by them as you were. I think we might have sat in the same row as them one night in the theater but that's about it. I will say that I did get sick of the unattended kids in the stairwell after three nights of it.

Nice report. I would have to agree with you... It seems like while Promenade Lounge is the best place to meet (centrally located, out of the way of the masses, a place to get drinks if you want), but I found the table, chair set up difficult to get around and talk to people. Would almost be better if the DIS meets would have everyone stand on the dance floor...

I was lurking on a different meet group and they are meeting on the Deck 7 Aft Balcony. That probably would have been to small for our group but is a good thought for smaller ones.

Hi Natalie -

It was nice to meet you and all of the other DISers. I wish we had arranged to meet again sometime again after the initial meet. I really don't like the Promenade Lounge for mingling either but it is a good place to check in with everyone.

In hindsight it would have been great to meet again. Then LKFan and I would have had the chance to actually meet as opposed to just see each other everywhere and not realize we're both DISers.

Thank you for the great trip report!

We too got boarding group number 6 from the security, but the lady who checked us in had already given us number 4, so we ended up boarding when group 4 was announced.

I wonder how many families they put in each group ? There was only one family boarding when the called group 3. We were joking that there might be 1000 groups

I didn't know that they were giving out numbers at check-in. Oh well, the girl who checked us in was pretty scattered so I guess that isn't shocking. Considering how quickly they ended up going through the numbers it really was a non-issue for us and actually gave us enough time to take pics with Minnie.

 

[PizzieDuster]

That's strange with the boarding pass numbers.

We got there a little before 10am for our 9/21 2 day cruise. Just as the Wonder came through the canal.

We were not concierge, we got a #2 boarding pass. Check in was a breeze.
Thank goodness DD12 is at the Edge now - so no waiting in the lines for the kid club. I did see the kids club line and did see some frustrated parents and confusion. I was thankful I didn't have to deal with that.

 

[Diamondback01]

This makes me worry a bit that our DD4 will be not so happy with the clubs. Everything else I have read says the kids LOVE it. I'm thinking our DD4 will hang out with DD6 and be okay with it.

 

[Señor DonDuck]

Very nice trip report! Thanks for sharing.

 

[hopelea]

Thanks for the TR......we fly to LA in 7 days!!!

I will def be taking my Bonine Sunday morning before we head to the ship.

 

[talie]

This makes me worry a bit that our DD4 will be not so happy with the clubs. Everything else I have read says the kids LOVE it. I'm thinking our DD4 will hang out with DD6 and be okay with it.

My daughter has been skittish of leaving mom and dad in just about any situation other than school. If she's with her brother or another friend she is okay but she's really uncomfortable flying solo in unfamiliar environments.

Thanks for the TR......we fly to LA in 7 days!!!

I will def be taking my Bonine Sunday morning before we head to the ship.

Have fun! And yes, if you are prone to motion sickness I highly recommend taking preventative measures the first and last day. Also if you start feeling queasy, go lay down. That really does help center you and takes the edge off the queasiness.

 

[PURTYPAT1]

I am enjoying your report very much. You have a beautiful family.

Thanks for sharing

 

[Lady_Kluck]

This a great a trip report, I've taken note of your dining rotation. Was pirate night the next night after formal?

 

[XMom]

Pirate night was Wednesday. That was our day in P.V. Semi-formal was on Friday. (Monday was formal) So Mon, Wed, Fri...

 

[PixieTl]

Great report!! Miguel was our server in July 09!! We loved him!!
and I think you look like a very snazzy dressed up family too!

 

[Mindyjoy]

Great report so far, thank you!

 

[krazy4crusing]

Great Trip Report! We leave on SUnday so you are totally getting me in the mood!

I was noticing that the clock in one of your pics is the old analog clock. I have a digital light up clock packed but I was hoping that maybe they would have the new ipod docks/clocks by now.

Can't wait to read more!

 

[talie]

Great Trip Report! We leave on SUnday so you are totally getting me in the mood!

I was noticing that the clock in one of your pics is the old analog clock. I have a digital light up clock packed but I was hoping that maybe they would have the new ipod docks/clocks by now.

Can't wait to read more!

No light up clocks. Just the standard clock you see in the picture.

 

[CalDisfans]

Talie,
LOVE your trip report! More please! We leave in 3 weeks, so I am soaking up every bit of info! I'm grateful for your writing your experience with the sea sickness, and the need to take the Bonine BEFORE getting onboard. A few in our family get sea sick, so now I think we will be bringing lots of Bonine/Dramimine/sea bands! Did you take it everyday while on? Hope you continue to write more!

 

[talie]

Sorry for the delay everyone. Things around here have been crazy busy. The good news is the laundry is finally done, we are unpacked, and land sickness has finally left us all.

But on to my next segment. I apologize in advance for the lack of photos. Obviously we weren't carrying the camera around much this day.

We woke up this morning and made our way up to BBB for breakfast. This seemed to work out best for our family as the kids could pick and choose what worked best for them. Once we were done with breakfast came the hard part, what to do with the rest of the day?

Dh hadn’t exercised this morning so he decided that we should walk around the ship. Ds wanted to either play foosball or ping pong. We found an open foosball table but it was by the pool and with the winds that morning a bit smoky. So we decided to keep walking around. Eventually we ended up on the sports deck and played soccer. The kids really enjoyed that. It was still pretty early so we had the soccer area all to ourselves.

After that I think we split up. Dd and I went down to the promenade lounge to do some program called Wiggle … (I can’t remember what it was called and the Navigators are in our office where a guest is sleeping.) I thought it would be some sort of kid’s dance with Wiggle music. It turned out to be a CM with a packet of CDs and she was dancing with the kids. This morning it was just myself, dd, and another little girl. Well dd is very shy so mom had to join in. So this little adventure became mom’s morning aerobic workout. We ended up doing a lot of the dances that they do at Sail Away and the Pirate Party. I felt a little silly but had fun. I think dd was bored. Unfortunately ds would have had a blast but his dad wasn't answering his wave phone.

When that was over dd and I headed back to the room to see if we could find the guys. We connected up with them and planned what we were going to do. Ds (8) decided he really wanted to do boot camp with the green soldier in the Club. Dd wasn’t excited about the idea of going to either the Club or the Lab but decided she’d prefer the Lab since they were actually making something (it was the Lava Flow program). So we took the kiddos down to the clubs. Ds happily went off to the Club.

Dd decided she wanted one of us to stay as she didn’t want to be by herself. So… mom and dd hanged out in the lab. When the program started they handed lab coats out to all the kids and played a Science Guy video about volcanoes as they were getting everyone situated. Eventually they moved all of the kids over to the tables. As was a recurring theme in the lab on this cruise, the Lava Flow program was packed. They seemed to do a reasonably good job of making sure that any child that wanted to participate had a chance to do something. I have to say that the guy that runs the Lab shows really is quite good at what he does. He’s quite entertaining and of course the kids love to watch his experiments.

Now you might wonder, why spend all of this time with dd in the Lab? Well I had an ulterior motive, dh and I really wanted to see Prince of Persia later on that morning. My grand scheme was to stay with dd during Lava Flow and then convince her that she wanted to stay in the Lab for a painting session. This actually ended up working pretty much according to plan. As the Lava Flow program progressed I went and got ds from the Club and brought him back over to the Lab. Dd saw her older brother (complete with war makeup) and then felt much better about staying. So then Mom ran out of the Lab to catch the movie. The movie was pretty good. We so rarely get to see movies anymore so it was a treat for us.

After the movie we picked up the kids and headed to lunch. We decided we needed a change of pace from the Deck 9 food sources and headed down to 3 for lunch. Ds wanted to eat in Parrot Cay, dd in Triton’s. Why are these things never easy? Anyway the adults decided that the menu at Triton's sounded good so Triton's it was.

dh had the Rueben sandwich, I had a beef kabob, and I'm pretty sure both kids had some sort of alfredo. Everyone left lunch quite content and ready to swim.

So back to the room to change and then the kids were off to the pools. My memory is failing me but I want to say that for the better part of the last afternoon the Mickey pool was closed due to a child throwing up in the pool. We were quite happy to see the Mickey pool back in business even if it was crazy busy.

So we swam and then headed back to the room to rest. I stopped at Goofy’s Galley and stocked up on fruit, fruit, and more fruit. Dh hit up the drink bar for ice and drinks. We were all set for a snack followed by a movie/nap for the kids and hanging out on the verandah with sangria, fruit, and an All Hands on the Deck order from room service. Quite a nice way to relax in the late afternoon.

Around 5 we woke up dd and set out to see some characters. Ds lasted about one character before he rebelled. Dd on the other hand had a blast character hopping with mom.

After the characters we headed to the theater to see Heath Hyche. He was hilarious and the kiddos really enjoyed his show. From there we headed back to the room and got dressed for dinner. Look who was there to greet us.

We decided before dinner that we wanted to check out the Promenade Lounge where they were having some sort of family dance.

Eventually we did get the kids out on the dance floor but I think their favorite part was the chips and salsa.

From there we were off to dinner. dd liked her dress from formal night so much that she decided she was going to wear it again.

Here is a pic with our assistant server Nyomen.

And dd's yummy dessert.

The next morning we were going to be in Puerto Vallarta. We had to be at Promenade Lounge by 7:45 so we decided to go straight to bed after dinner.

Next episode: Las Caletas!

 

[smb6]

Sounds like a great day hanging out on the ship!