Sept 20,2011 Wonder Repositioning Cruise

[CADZNYCHC]

Did all our check in today and decided against Palo, the only slots left were on the day we were in Ensanada. I also looked at spa treaments and the list is pretty limited in what you can book online, a friend gave me a list she had when she did the LA to Van trip and there was so much more that can be booked I guess when on the ship.

I suppose I should start my FE gifts, I am a terrible procrastinator right now with the weather being so nice.

What times are people looking at for check in at the port? We picked noon, thinking it would be not as busy, we get on, have lunch then rooms should be ready. Of course this is my first cruise so I could be totally wrong. Thoughts?

There are always spots available for Palo brunches / dinners / teas once you're onboard & decide you want to book something...
I went ahead and chose 11 am - as we are staying at the Pan Pacific & i believe our check out time is 11 am....so might as well just get on the ship - have never been on the Wonder (only the Magic) so excited to compare....
they don't typically board like this (set times) well they do...but you don't get them until you are AT the DCL terminal (in Florida) then you get a 'booking no.' not a time...so everyone is waiting around the terminal for their "boarding no. to be called" - i think this will eliminate a LOT of that 'wait' time. But your proposed schedule sounds right - board...lunch...get into room then you can explore the ship and hopefully be available for the DIS meet that afternoon - i believe Promenade Lounge at 3ish....not 100% sure of that time....

 

[taaren]

I'm so excited, this trip does feel like it is just around the corner It would be nice if they'd give me my stateroom assignment already...pixie dust would be nice. Does anybody know if I can realistically expect to do an onboard upgrade from an inside stateroom to a verandah for anything close to $200? It's my honeymoon, so I want it to be memorable.

Don't worry, your honeymoon will be memorable no matter what ... and when you're in the room its not like you're going to be noticing the verandah or lack thereof most of the time anyhow!
That being said, there's still a chance for pixie dust for some of us and I think somewhere on the cruise boards there's a thread where people have listed what their harbor upgrade costs were, but since those were all for 3/4/7 days out of Port Canaveral it'd be hard to translate it to our cruise. Worth asking when you get there since generally I've gotten the impression that upgrades at the Port are at least half price?

I don't blame you for not being all that excited about the Ensenada excursions. I keep going back and looking at them...but nothing appeals to me. It's probably just as well that you are having brunch at Palo that day. I wish they'd picked San Francisco instead. I would have loved a Golden Gate bridge or Chinatown-related excursion. With the cruise going to Los Angeles, I think it would have been a more sensible choice.

I was really bummed that the Northbound Repo cruise stopped in SF and ours didn't but traveling in April was out of the question for us. I would have love to have done Alcatraz since despite the fact that DH lived in the Bay Area for about 25 years, and me for 10, neither of us have ever gone to Alcatraz. Even a San Diego day with either the zoo or Sea World as excursions would have been better than Ensenada.

I was able to get a Palo reservation on the 2nd night, which will be jam-packed as it is, with the Butchart Gardens/Tea excursion and Swedish couples massage my fiance and I have set up for that day. I was pretty worried that the pickings would be slim on Palo, but I was pleasantly surprised with the availability.
I feel your pain on the prices of the Disney sponsored shore excursions, but they come with peace of mind that you're not going to be left behind because your tour was late getting back to the boat.

I was pleased with the dinner availability too! That does sound like a busy day for you! To me going with Disney is less about the peace of mind than the convenience and getting off the ship early ... and I've seen other tour operators do the Butchart but not the combination with the Butterfly Gardens and in previous trips when I've gone there my nephew was so delighted to see butterflies landing on his shirt ... however my DS is not nearly as calm and probably will chase the butterflies rather than sitting still so they'll come to him so that's also part of my dilemma. But I have a feeling if I go with another tour operator I won't end up with enough time to take the DH to my favorite tea spot right next to the harbor so leaning towards the Disney one with its nice schedule. With only one day there and several things I want to accomplish time over $$ may be a factor.

Don't forget to fill out those online check-in forms ASAP. They do boarding in 30 minute time-slots, and you have to board during the time-slot it says on your check in form. I'd imagine that the 11am ones go sooner than the 3:30pm ones. Nobody wants to board the boat and have all the "leftover" activities be all filled up.

Thanks for reminding me. I did go ahead and do the check in and got an 11A slot. Wasn't 100% sure I wanted that spot since we have 24 hours in Vancouver from 11A Monday when the Amtrak arrives and taking the DS to see the belugas at the Aquarium is also at the top of my list, want to make sure we have enough time for that and was debating whether to squeeze it in Monday afternoon or Tues morning ... and DH's one request is that he wants to go see Grouse Mtn, which I'm trying to figure out if we have time for ... I guess we can always switch to a 3:00P spot later if we need to once it gets closer.

John and I are on the Butchart and Butterfly tour. We decided since it is our 1st cruise to stay with Disney though.
Just completed our check in. There are still 1100 slots available for checkin. Now to get super busy on finishing my FE stuff and get some snacks for the crew members.

Good to know someone else from the boards picked this!
I've picked out the FE gifts I'm going to purchase though pickup will be later; the store its at they're always in stock so I'll wait til a few weeks before the trip to figure out how to get it in my suitcase. However, DH really likes the idea and wants to make his own contribution so he's going to be getting a little crafty pretty soon here and knows what he wants to do! Now I just have to order our FE from e-Bay ... wanted to spread the costs of this trip out a little more since we had to buy our DL tix right before the price went up and Southwest ran that great special we spent more than we thought on this trip last month. Now I think I'm down to ordering DS's costumes and the FE. Hmm ... snacks for the crew members! Thats a great idea!

 

[mommyto3princesses]

Heather & John, room#2560
Susan & James, Jameson (4), room #2580
Michelle & Steve, Grandma Robbie, Kate (7), room #5020
Jenn & William, Ellise (17), Jacob (16), Peter (14), Daniel (10) , room #5134
Cynthia, Sharon, room #5520
Taaren & Alex, Sam (5), room #6003
Donna & Diane, room #6047
Jennifer & Bob, room #6128
Justin & Joy, Holly (10 months), room #6313
John & Laura, room #6500
Janice, Trevor (young adult), room #6503
Hilde & Wendell, room#7052
Pam & Tim, room #7076
Doug & Norah, 2 daughters (10, 6), room#7552
Brenda, Dianne, Teresa, room #7568
Darcy, Nick (young adult), room #7621
Crystal & Aaron, Jacob (4), Ella (1), room#?
Pam & Nate, room#?
Pat & Margo, Blake (17), Duncan (13), room#?

The cutoff date to join the exchange is 8/30/11.

Hi! We are sailing with a group of friends and they are new to DCL and are leaving this up to me to organize, so I'd like to know if I could add our 5 rooms to the FE list. We'd like to do a group gift, it may be broken up in 2 or a good sized gift bag of goodies.

Just for security purposes, I am only comfortable giving out our initials on a public forum. When we sailed concierge, they strongly recommended that we not give out our names and stateroom numbers publicly. I think it's a good policy and perhaps this can be done over PM and the person in charge can have the info? This is how we did it on the EBTA.

Looking forward to the cruise!

 

[CrystalS]

Hey everyone
Still no luck in getting us moved closer to my mom/brothers room (or them close to us).
So then I thought I'd ask, does anyone here have rooms 7619, 7623, or 7037 that would be willing to switch with one of our rooms so that we can have side by side cabins with my mom/brother?

I know its a long shot, but thought it couldn't hurt to ask

 

[nate4761]

Thanks for reminding me. I did go ahead and do the check in and got an 11A slot. Wasn't 100% sure I wanted that spot since we have 24 hours in Vancouver from 11A Monday when the Amtrak arrives and taking the DS to see the belugas at the Aquarium is also at the top of my list, want to make sure we have enough time for that and was debating whether to squeeze it in Monday afternoon or Tues morning ... and DH's one request is that he wants to go see Grouse Mtn, which I'm trying to figure out if we have time for ... I guess we can always switch to a 3:00P spot later if we need to once it gets closer.

It sounds like you might be on the same train as my fiance and I are. I am taking an Amtrak that leaves Seattle at 7:40a and gets to Vancouver at 11:40a. 24 hours isn't a lot of time when you plan on trying to sleep for 6-8 of those hours. We'll see how that goes, because I am going to be so psyched out about the cruise and probably helping with some last minute FE gifts too. Sleep might be optional that night

The Aquarium sounds really cool. In fact, think I am going to make a separate trip to Vancouver for it at a later date, because I want to devote at least 3-4 hours to it For this trip, we are going to visit the Capilano Suspension Bridge for sure, not sure what else yet; but we tend to be very energetic and usually end up going to 10 places per day...on average...seriously

If you end up with extra time, here's a good "to-do list."

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g154943-Activities-Vancouver_British_Columbia.html

If you think you'd end up with not enough time, I am sure you can call DCL and ask if it would be ok to check in at 3 instead.

 

[CADZNYCHC]

It sounds like you might be on the same train as my fiance and I are. I am taking an Amtrak that leaves Seattle at 7:40a and gets to Vancouver at 11:40a. 24 hours isn't a lot of time when you plan on trying to sleep for 6-8 of those hours. We'll see how that goes, because I am going to be so psyched out about the cruise and probably helping with some last minute FE gifts too. Sleep might be optional that night

The Aquarium sounds really cool. In fact, think I am going to make a separate trip to Vancouver for it at a later date, because I want to devote at least 3-4 hours to it For this trip, we are going to visit the Capilano Suspension Bridge for sure, not sure what else yet; but we tend to be very energetic and usually end up going to 10 places per day...on average...seriously

If you end up with extra time, here's a good "to-do list."

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g154943-Activities-Vancouver_British_Columbia.html

If you think you'd end up with not enough time, I am sure you can call DCL and ask if it would be ok to check in at 3 instead.

Thanks for that list!!! We will have all day Monday so i'm looking forward to cramming as much as possible into that day!!!!

 

[FergusBC]

If you end up with extra time, here's a good "to-do list."

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g154943-Activities-Vancouver_British_Columbia.html

If you think you'd end up with not enough time, I am sure you can call DCL and ask if it would be ok to check in at 3 instead.

I find it hilarious that Wreck Beach gets a higher placing than the Aquarium

 

[GrumpyGoat]

Got 2 Palo ressies, the dinner in the timeframe I wanted for the fourth night though all that was left for brunch was the day we're in port at Ensenada which was since I thought they only did brunch on sea days? But we haven't seen any Ensenada excursions we're terribly excited about so we might stick with it or we might try to switch the Palo brunch to day 3 when we board then wander off the ship on day 5.
Also nabbed the Butterfly Gardens & Butchart tour in Victoria though I might reevaluate whether that's worth it when we can go with a different tour operator to just Butchart for half the price.
The trip is definitely starting to feel more real/imminent now!
Did all the other first-time cruisers get the excursions/Palo/spa reservations they were hoping for?

Ensanada is only a half day port call. Guests are ashore from 12:30 to 6 PM.

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/c...eraries/5-night-vancouver-los-angeles-cruise/

 

[KatiezMom]

I find it hilarious that Wreck Beach gets a higher placing than the Aquarium

I also find it funny that the Skytrain is listed as an attraction Yes please come see the charming back alleys of Metrotown and Burnaby, as well as the lovely parking lots of historic Scott Road Park N Ride

 

[CADZNYCHC]

I find it hilarious that Wreck Beach gets a higher placing than the Aquarium

oh we will DEFINITELY being staying away from Wreck Beach!!!!

I also find it funny that the Skytrain is listed as an attraction Yes please come see the charming back alleys of Metrotown and Burnaby, as well as the lovely parking lots of historic Scott Road Park N Ride

NICE!!!!

thanks for the tips on what NOT to see!!!!!

 

[rosiep]

Hey everyone
Still no luck in getting us moved closer to my mom/brothers room (or them close to us).
So then I thought I'd ask, does anyone here have rooms 7619, 7623, or 7037 that would be willing to switch with one of our rooms so that we can have side by side cabins with my mom/brother?

I know its a long shot, but thought it couldn't hurt to ask

No Sorry, not us. We're on deck 6.

Good luck though.

 

[CADZNYCHC]

Originally Posted by CrystalS View Post
Hey everyone
Still no luck in getting us moved closer to my mom/brothers room (or them close to us).
So then I thought I'd ask, does anyone here have rooms 7619, 7623, or 7037 that would be willing to switch with one of our rooms so that we can have side by side cabins with my mom/brother?

I know its a long shot, but thought it couldn't hurt to ask [\QUOTE]

We are on deck 7 but mid ship so not really much closer...what room are you in?

 

[mommyto3princesses]

Hello, who is on this morning train? We are!

Was wondering if anyone has already researched the best mode of transportation to the port? TIA!

ETA: From reading cruise critic, it sounds like we'll get in the taxi line and head over.

 

[disneydiane61]

Hello, who is on this morning train? We are!

Was wondering if anyone has already researched the best mode of transportation to the port? TIA!

ETA: From reading cruise critic, it sounds like we'll get in the taxi line and head over.

Sounds like some people are coming in on the Monday train and others in on the Tuesday train. We are on the Tuesday train and will take a taxi over to the port. We booked the business class seats so that we would be first off. The time line is short. Arrival @ 11:40 and need to be on the ship @ 1:30 only a 2 hour window. But we are going to risk it.

 

[mommyto3princesses]

Sounds like some people are coming in on the Monday train and others in on the Tuesday train. We are on the Tuesday train and will take a taxi over to the port. We booked the business class seats so that we would be first off. The time line is short. Arrival @ 11:40 and need to be on the ship @ 1:30 only a 2 hour window. But we are going to risk it.

I originally booked business class, then switched to coach with an awesome cruise rate, and now the cost to switch back to business is really high. sigh. Should have stuck with my original plan.

Do we have to be on the ship at 1:30? I think we can make it by catching a taxi. I hope the customs line is not long that morning.

Is the Wonder at Canada Place? TIA

 

[AJA55]

CrystalS

Sorry...we are on deck 6.

 

[nate4761]

Is the Wonder at Canada Place? TIA

Here's the info on the port from the Disney Cruise page. I hope this helps

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/planning-center/planning-library/travel-logistics-vancouver/

 

[mommyto3princesses]

Here's the info on the port from the Disney Cruise page. I hope this helps

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/planning-center/planning-library/travel-logistics-vancouver/

Thanks for the info!

 

[disneydiane61]

Here's the info on the port from the Disney Cruise page. I hope this helps

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/planning-center/planning-library/travel-logistics-vancouver/

Thanks for the info. I was under the impression that we set sail @ 3:00 pm. Don't know why I thought that, but happy to see I'm incorrect. I will rest easier knowing I have until 3 to board. That gives us 3+ hours to get their from the train station. It allows for late train, long customs and a myriad of other hicupps in the road and still gives us time. Yeah. 90 extra minutes gives me so much more peace of mind.

 

[CrystalS]

We are on deck 7 but mid ship so not really much closer...what room are you in?

We are in 7035, and my mom is in 7621