Sept 20,2011 Wonder Repositioning Cruise

[Makayna]

Well, I guess Nate and I are some of the last ones to check in. We got home Thursday night. Still have the cold I picked up on the ship. Not the best "souvenir" to take home!!!

Funny thing happened on Thursday when our plane landed. Nate took the bus to go get the car at the park and ride while I stayed with the bags. He got them off the baggage claim belt while I went to get myself something to eat and then when I got back, he left to get the car. So, I'm sitting there playing games on my Zune when this girl comes up to me and says, "are you Pamela?" I said, "yes," and she said that she'd taken my bag by mistake!!! Nate accidentally grabbed her bag and she accidentally grabbed mine - they were the exact same pink stripped duffel bag!!! But if I'd gone with Nate to get the car, we wouldn't have realized that I had her bag and she had mine until WAY later. It just so happened that because I was still there in the baggage claim area, that she found me and we exchanged bags! She'd gotten all the way home when her friend told her, "ummmmm.... you've got the wrong bag!" So weird, but SOOOOOO glad it worked out and we both got our correct bags back without any hassles or issues!

Anyways, it was awesome getting to meet everyone! We re-shopped our already booked cruise on-board and saved some money AND got the OBC! We almost booked an MR cruise for January, but decided it'd probably be best to save up a bit and just go on ONE cruise next year. But we're definitely going on a Bahamas cruise next year on the Dream for our 1 year anniversary! So, that's definitely something to look forward to!

I absolutely LOVED all of our FE gifts. I was debating about whether I should have signed up for it or not, but after the first day, and we started to get all that wonderful stuff, I was SO glad we did! It was so funny... I was complaining one day (I think it was about the second day or so?) that I didn't bring any Q-tips and was upset that I couldn't clean out my ears! And then later that day, or early the next day (can't remember exactly), we got the FE with Q-tips in it!!! It was PERFECT timing and I honestly was SOOOOOOO happy to get something SO simple as a Q-tip! LOL!

Nate and I really enjoyed ALL of the FE gifts that we got! They're great reminders of our awesome cruise and the truly amazing people that we met! I couldn't imagine us having a more spectacular honeymoon! Glad everyone made it home safely!



Is it September 9, 2012 yet?!?!

 

[GrumpyGoat]

Well, I guess Nate and I are some of the last ones to check in. We got home Thursday night. Still have the cold I picked up on the ship. Not the best "souvenir" to take home!!!

Funny thing happened on Thursday when our plane landed. Nate took the bus to go get the car at the park and ride while I stayed with the bags. He got them off the baggage claim belt while I went to get myself something to eat and then when I got back, he left to get the car. So, I'm sitting there playing games on my Zune when this girl comes up to me and says, "are you Pamela?" I said, "yes," and she said that she'd taken my bag by mistake!!! Nate accidentally grabbed her bag and she accidentally grabbed mine - they were the exact same pink stripped duffel bag!!! But if I'd gone with Nate to get the car, we wouldn't have realized that I had her bag and she had mine until WAY later. It just so happened that because I was still there in the baggage claim area, that she found me and we exchanged bags! She'd gotten all the way home when her friend told her, "ummmmm.... you've got the wrong bag!" So weird, but SOOOOOO glad it worked out and we both got our correct bags back without any hassles or issues!

Anyways, it was awesome getting to meet everyone! We re-shopped our already booked cruise on-board and saved some money AND got the OBC! We almost booked an MR cruise for January, but decided it'd probably be best to save up a bit and just go on ONE cruise next year. But we're definitely going on a Bahamas cruise next year on the Dream for our 1 year anniversary! So, that's definitely something to look forward to!

I absolutely LOVED all of our FE gifts. I was debating about whether I should have signed up for it or not, but after the first day, and we started to get all that wonderful stuff, I was SO glad we did! It was so funny... I was complaining one day (I think it was about the second day or so?) that I didn't bring any Q-tips and was upset that I couldn't clean out my ears! And then later that day, or early the next day (can't remember exactly), we got the FE with Q-tips in it!!! It was PERFECT timing and I honestly was SOOOOOOO happy to get something SO simple as a Q-tip! LOL!

Nate and I really enjoyed ALL of the FE gifts that we got! They're great reminders of our awesome cruise and the truly amazing people that we met! I couldn't imagine us having a more spectacular honeymoon! Glad everyone made it home safely!



Is it September 9, 2012 yet?!?!

Check your PM inbox...

 

[Camonkeygirl]

I haven't really been on the boards for a while since our arrival in LA on September 25. I had a doctors appointment on Monday and I had surgery on Tuesday evening. After recovering in the hospital for a day I returned home yesterday afternoon and I have been taking it easy. Tonight I fly to WDW for the W&D Half Marathon and although my doctor doesn't recommend I run the race I will try to walk it. Yeah, everyone thinks I'm crazy.

It was great meeting my fellow Disers on this cruise and considering my condition I did have a good time. I heard I was the easiest person to spot since I was the only passenger with a sling. You people are the best!

Glad you were able to have a good time, and still take care of your shoulder Luis.

Well, I guess Nate and I are some of the last ones to check in. We got home Thursday night. Still have the cold I picked up on the ship. Not the best "souvenir" to take home!!!

Funny thing happened on Thursday when our plane landed. Nate took the bus to go get the car at the park and ride while I stayed with the bags. He got them off the baggage claim belt while I went to get myself something to eat and then when I got back, he left to get the car. So, I'm sitting there playing games on my Zune when this girl comes up to me and says, "are you Pamela?" I said, "yes," and she said that she'd taken my bag by mistake!!! Nate accidentally grabbed her bag and she accidentally grabbed mine - they were the exact same pink stripped duffel bag!!! But if I'd gone with Nate to get the car, we wouldn't have realized that I had her bag and she had mine until WAY later. It just so happened that because I was still there in the baggage claim area, that she found me and we exchanged bags! She'd gotten all the way home when her friend told her, "ummmmm.... you've got the wrong bag!" So weird, but SOOOOOO glad it worked out and we both got our correct bags back without any hassles or issues!

Anyways, it was awesome getting to meet everyone! We re-shopped our already booked cruise on-board and saved some money AND got the OBC! We almost booked an MR cruise for January, but decided it'd probably be best to save up a bit and just go on ONE cruise next year. But we're definitely going on a Bahamas cruise next year on the Dream for our 1 year anniversary! So, that's definitely something to look forward to!

I absolutely LOVED all of our FE gifts. I was debating about whether I should have signed up for it or not, but after the first day, and we started to get all that wonderful stuff, I was SO glad we did! It was so funny... I was complaining one day (I think it was about the second day or so?) that I didn't bring any Q-tips and was upset that I couldn't clean out my ears! And then later that day, or early the next day (can't remember exactly), we got the FE with Q-tips in it!!! It was PERFECT timing and I honestly was SOOOOOOO happy to get something SO simple as a Q-tip! LOL!

Nate and I really enjoyed ALL of the FE gifts that we got! They're great reminders of our awesome cruise and the truly amazing people that we met! I couldn't imagine us having a more spectacular honeymoon! Glad everyone made it home safely!



Is it September 9, 2012 yet?!?!

Glad you made it home Pam. Hope you can relax a bit and recover from your cold. (I now know who the culprit is though with the cold I came down with as we we leaving Sunday . ) It was great meeting you and Nate too

 

[CrystalS]

My mom also seems to have gotten a cold right after getting off the ship

 

[CADZNYCHC]

Pam - so glad you got your bag right away; simalar thing hsppened to us last year in Florida but we got all the way to our hotel before it was noticed - Disney was so greAt - they sent debs bag up to us in a private car and picked up the wrong bag to send to the owner

So very nice to meet you & Nate and be a small part of your honeymoon. Maybe well sail again sometime (too bad you didn't book the jan 2nd mr or the eastern on the fantasy next oct)
But let's stay in touch & let me know if you're ever in the bay area and I'll do the same if we get to seattle

 

[MsRobbieA]

I must be getting old (er) took a few days for the land legs to return - but didn't notice it on board.

Amazed at all the wonderful FE gifts - incredibly awesome - thank you all. The bandaids came in handy - took new sandals.

Pirate night was my favorite - they did such a good job.

I now know why I don't play bingo at home - the bingo fairies don't sprinkle their fairy dust on me.

Did love the lattes on board - first thing at the airport lounge was have lattes with baileys (ok had 2 very generous baileys coffees) and salads.

Thank you all for such a memorable cruise. Hope our paths pass on another cruise.

All the best Ms. Robbie. aka Robbie Alexander

 

[Makayna]

Check your PM inbox...

Replied.

Glad you made it home Pam. Hope you can relax a bit and recover from your cold. (I now know who the culprit is though with the cold I came down with as we we leaving Sunday . ) It was great meeting you and Nate too

Sorry I got you sick too!

Pam - so glad you got your bag right away; simalar thing hsppened to us last year in Florida but we got all the way to our hotel before it was noticed - Disney was so greAt - they sent debs bag up to us in a private car and picked up the wrong bag to send to the owner

So very nice to meet you & Nate and be a small part of your honeymoon. Maybe well sail again sometime (too bad you didn't book the jan 2nd mr or the eastern on the fantasy next oct)
But let's stay in touch & let me know if you're ever in the bay area and I'll do the same if we get to seattle

Definitely! It was great getting to meet you, your sister and your friend! Would love to meet up again sometime if that works out!

 

[tinker1bell]

I am finally home!! Hubby picked me up tonight and we got home at 10:00pm.

Had the best time. I know our friends had a great time as well.

Highlights:

Palo Brunch
Alone time at the Spa
Empress Tea
Drink O Day
Loved the movie The Help
Loved, loved watching Pirates of the Caribbean in 3D
Really laughed at the Comic and had such fun watching the scavenger hunt and the married challenge.
too many other things to mention

Lowlights:

Really wished the Empress Tea tour was set up different. I would have loved to be able to tour the grounds and shops. I was getting really tired of hearing about how much the homes cost. I didn't think that I was signing up for a real estate tour!!
Leaving the ship took way longer than necessary.
The weather could have been better

 

[rosiep]

Really wished the Empress Tea tour was set up different. I would have loved to be able to tour the grounds and shops. I was getting really tired of hearing about how much the homes cost. I didn't think that I was signing up for a real estate tour!!
Leaving the ship took way longer than necessary.
The weather could have been better

I agree with all of your lows! The bus tour was overly long and I would much rather have spent that time exploring the Empress.

 

[GrumpyGoat]

When we got home, the October issue of Westways Magazine was in our mail. Inside was an article about a couple with no children on a Wonder cruise to Alaska.

http://www.calif.aaa.com/westways/2011-10/Pages/honey-they-hid-kids-disney-alaska-cruise.aspx

I love the title...

 

[CrystalS]

When we got home, the October issue of Westways Magazine was in our mail. Inside was an article about a couple with no children on a Wonder cruise to Alaska.

http://www.calif.aaa.com/westways/2011-10/Pages/honey-they-hid-kids-disney-alaska-cruise.aspx

I love the title...

Link won't open the article for me, just goes to aaa homepage (guessing cuz I'm not a member?). But I can see the title from the link

 

[GrumpyGoat]

Link won't open the article for me, just goes to aaa homepage (guessing cuz I'm not a member?). But I can see the title from the link

Yeah, I found that out in another thread where I posted the link. They said they found it by googling it and loading the cached page.

Here's the cached page link.. Hope it works...

http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...ney+the+hid+the+kids&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Scroll down to see the article...

 

[Capn Jack Savvy]

Great article. My only complaint about the cruise is the lack of updated toys, learning programs, and computer consoles in the Oceanarium Lab and Oceanarium Club. Some of the items on the shelves when we toured the facilities seemed awfully outdated. Most kids that age are computer game oriented and alot of the computer games were on keyboard systems. Very archaic and frusturating for my 5 year old. There was one Wii console but it was always being used so not many other kids got a chance to jump on the system. The ships driving game or console game in the middle of the rooms always seems to be locked up or the screen made the ship stuck in strange areas.

Other activities were great.

 

[CrystalS]

Yeah, I found that out in another thread where I posted the link. They said they found it by googling it and loading the cached page.

Here's the cached page link.. Hope it works...

http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...ney+the+hid+the+kids&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Scroll down to see the article...

Great article, thanks for sharing.
Our 4yr old loved the club/lab, he never called us once, we always had to go get him for meals/activities! I thought it was nice that if he wanted to change from the club to the lab that they would take him, kept him busy with things he liked to do

 

[GrumpyGoat]

Since we don't have children, I can't speak to the kid's activities but whatever they were doing, it sure kept the kids occupied. I was astounded when Jimmy, the Assistant Cruise Director, told me there were 900 kids on the ship.

 

[AJA55]

OK…I’m going to play the good, the bad and the lessons learned. As the trip report that I’m writing up is only done through the first day. Who knows if I’ll ever finish.

Big Bests:
• Meeting all the Dis people and continuing to bump into you, all over the ship. Wish we could have met each one of you. And yes Louise you were very distinctive with your sling.
• Palo Brunch. Glad we went to Studio Sea on the first day to make ressies. Saw a lot of you there. It was nice to meet your partner Michael. Hope the travel route to home went smooth.
• Tour of the ship. Got some great info.
• Sitting in the Promenade Lounge after dinner and watching the dancing.
• Martini tasting
• The sunrise while pulling into Victoria
• 10% discount for the next cruise. Yes, we took advantage. Not that we’ll be going anytime soon. April 2012 is mom’s 80th and we’re headed back to one of her favorite places New Orleans. Next Fall is our quadrennial visit to WDW to ignore the political hot air for a few days.

Not so good:
• Having to listen to the couple in the immigration line talk about their cruise experience on Disney. I got tired of saying “yes we know”….for a full hour. They were not of the Dis. We should have joined Rosie and Tara a few people behind us!
• The rock and roll sea adventure. Only other cruise I’ve been on had the same problem. I think we’ll try the east coast next time
• Mother not getting a picture of John’s backside. (that’s OK we meet a nice Aussie)
• No special requests that I faxed to DCL were fulfilled. But they made it all good.
• No wheel chair at any of the airports. Per our on-line ressies.
• Canceling of the Victoria Tour.

Lessons learned:
• Call your airlines a couple of days before you leave to double check on wheelchair assistance. Or ask at the airport.
• Call ahead (like your TA advises) on any special requests that you faxed to DCL
• The printed pictures that DCL takes are the size they are. You can’t have them made little or big.
• Just like the kind Mexican gentleman from last cruise said…..carbonization to settle your tummy and a little bit of alcohol will cure sea sickness…LOL…but it really works!
• The stores are closed during the day when in port.
• I love verandas.
• The lines for the characters are NOT short on board.
• No nice disembarking luggage service in LA.
• It is a very short walk to the Disney transfer busses from the luggage pick up. If you don’t have a lot you can do it yourself and save a couple of bucks on porter service. (OK…it was nice to have the service through)
• Palo’s brunch is worth it. But don’t buy a bottle of champagne for brunch as they will pour more than one glassful.

 

[CrystalS]

Ok, I wanna play the good/bad game too

The Good
- We were able to get into the pools this time and Jacob was able to use the Mickey slide! (DH and I even got to go to the Quiet Cove pool!)
- Jacob was old enough for the kids clubs and LOVED them, had to drag that boy out, lol.
- Got to tour the Spa area, really nice place, wish we had used it, lol.
- The shows! We had seen 3 of them before but it was great to see them again, I can't get enough of the Disney shows each night!
- Booking a limo to pick us up at the LA port was the best choice we made, so easy and comfortable, no worries what so ever, plus we felt like rock stars!
- So exciting to find new goodies in the FE each day
- Our servers Yhokey and Olivia were the best, they were both great with the children (and us), will miss them both.

The not so good
- The rocking of the ship after Victoria (apparently we were going through a storm and they had even shut down ferries to Victoria that day because of it). Jacob did great through the show that night (2nd show time) but as soon as the show ended and he was no longer distracted he got sick, poor guy
- The couch in our room being broken upon arriving, and it taking until the next evening to be fixed (they left the couch half apart in the mean time so I couldn't let Ella walk around the room since metal was exposed).
- Hubby said no to spa treatments, lol
- The stinky sea lions in Ensenada, lol, ok so it wasn't a deal breaker or anything, but they did smell bad.
- Ella got knocked over in the kids club while we were visiting and had a nasty bruise on her forehead from hitting the floor

And the most disappointing thing..... that it is over

 

[GrumpyGoat]

OK…I’m going to play the good, the bad and the lessons learned. As the trip report that I’m writing up is only done through the first day. Who knows if I’ll ever finish.

<snip>

Ok, I wanna play the good/bad game too

<snip>

My turn...

The good:

Vancouver (Very nice down along the waterfront)
Butchart Gardens in Victoria
The weather the first morning out of Victoria. I haven't been aboard a ship in weather like that in over 30 years. It brought back many memories when I went up forward by the sports deck and just let the wind hit me in the face...
Palo
The food in general. Now I'm back to eating my own cooking...
Towel sculptures—Heather wanted to take the monkey home...
Meeting everyone and the gift exchange
The group at our dinner table

The bad:

900 kids (Actually, for the most part they were very unobtrusive.)
The long line to get off the ship and US Customs in LA
Vancouver (we could have had a better view from our hotel)
The coffee. Mediocre at best and the stuff dispensed at the drink station on Deck 9 made Navy coffee look good.
Having to come home...

It's a good thing when the good outnumbers the bad...

Crystal, I haven't met a sea lion yet that didn't smell bad and as a former Navy diver, I've met a few...

 

[Makayna]

I'll play too!

The Good:
Couple's Spa Villa
Palo
The Food - all but the character breakfast. That was by far the worst meal we had on the ship.
Towel Animals - John, I agree with Heather. The towel monkey was the best!!!
Nikola - our server for Palo Brunch.
Ron - our room steward. One of my Mickey ears came off of our FE during the trip. Ron got some Carpenter's glue and glued it back on for us!!!
The entertainment - Definitely top notch! The shows were EXCELLENT! I wasn't impressed with the last night's show, but the rest were pretty amazing! We especially enjoyed the juggler and the mind-reader/comedian/magician guy. And we loved participating in the TV catch phrase trivia game and the 80's music trivia game (although we didn't win either )
Meeting everyone from the DIS. You guys didn't disappoint!

The Not So Good
Catching a cold the 4th night
Butchart Gardens. We only had about 2 hours there. Not nearly enough time. But, the gardens were amazing. One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen! And the food at tea was really good too.
The servers in the MDR's - We weren't especially impressed with our servers.
The Character Breakfast - my fruit was hot and other things that SHOULD have been hot were cold. Our server gave the person next to me a breakfast danish, and then walked off, not even giving me one even though I hadn't had one yet!
Having to leave the ship.



This is for Nate. He asked me to add a to my post.

 

[GrumpyGoat]

I'll play too!

This is for Nate. He asked me to add a to my post.

Shudder....