Sept 23, 2007 Wonder

[dodle]

We'll be on the Wonder Sept 23-27, 2007. Anyone else going? We've got me, My DH, DS22, DD21, DS19, and DD11 plus a friend of the family, adult, going. DD11 will celebrate her 12th birthday onboard. Anyone else out there sailing with us?

 

[indimini]

We're in. We just got back from 7 day Western (Aug 12-19) and booked the 4 day for Sept while on board. Traveling will be me, DW and DS (9 by time we sail). Sadly DD15 will have to miss this cruise because of her school schedule.

We plan on spending the Thurs-Mon after the cruise at WDW (staying at our timeshare just off property.)

The 24th is our 19 wedding anniversary - looking forward to a nice dinner on board that night.

 

[dodle]

Hi! We'll look forward to meeting you. My DD 11 will be celebrating her 12th birthday on board ship. She is so excited. My DH and I want to take a 7 day on the Western cruise in either 2008 or 2009. We're going to book while onboard next year, that way we should get some extras. Maybe your DS and my DD can get on here and talk, they might both like it. We'll be going to WDW after from Thurs to Sun, too. We're going to camp though. We love the campground. See you later

 

[Dave Dizney]

Wow! I've posted with this date a while ago, but just checked this morning - I'm so pumped that there will be other DIS'ers on our trip!

Unfortunatly, my wife and I will be coming alone on this trip - it's our 25th anniversary! We'll be in room 6076. We're doing a land & sea, starting out at the Poly. It's a surprise to my wife at the moment - she'll find out next summer.

We'll be glad to meet any lime-green people while there!

 

[indimini]

Dave, do you know if Discovery HD is running the fan's guide again any time soon? I'd love to watch that with the family and tell them that one of the people will be on our cruise.

Dodle, we already are planning booking another 7 day for 2008 while on board for our 20th anniversary. We keep hoping Disney will be in Alaska that summer. (If not, we may try Royal Cribbean in 08, but it's too soon to know.)

The pre-cruise meet ups are such a great idea. It was very fun to be on board for our first cruise and know people plus not feel completely lost.

 

[Dave Dizney]

Dave, do you know if Discovery HD is running the fan's guide again any time soon? I'd love to watch that with the family and tell them that one of the people will be on our cruise.

Well, Discovery HD ran the show just last week, so I figure it will be a while until it airs again. I think our 15-minutes of fame is just about into its 16th minute. If I hear about it airing again on Discovery HD or the Travel Channel again, I'll post on this board.

Good to meet you!

 

[dodle]

Hi Dave! I didn't see your earlier post, but I guess it doesn't matter since we're here now. Happy 25th anniversary, in advance. My DH and I will be celebrating our 25th in August next year. Cruising without kids is fun. That's what my DH and I did last time. What day will you celebrating?
Indimini, it is great to "meet" people who will be on the same cruise. On my last one we had fun playing tag with a message board on each other's stateroom doors. We'll have to try that again.

 

[Dave Dizney]

Happy 25th anniversary, in advance. My DH and I will be celebrating our 25th in August next year. Cruising without kids is fun. That's what my DH and I did last time. What day will you celebrating?

We've already started celebrating! Actually, we were engaged 25 years ago this month, so we officially declared a year of celebration which will include our actual anniversary on June 5 of next year, and ending with our "first date" anniversary on September 23. This will be our first Disney trip without kids since our "B.C." time 20 years ago - feels kinda funny.

My plan is to keep this under wraps until our anniversary next June - which should be quite a task. She already has been bugging me to at least consider 3-days at the park next year - and I've been trying to avoid the topic.

It will be good to meet you folks - where are you all from? We're from Minnesota (south of the Twin Cities) where it is a comfortable 62 degrees this morning.

 

[indimini]

We're in Maryland - about 25 miles north of Washington D.C.

Originally, I'm from Chicago and DW is from New York, but we've been in Maryland for about 16 years.

 

[dodle]

We live in Mississippi now. We just moved here from Michigan, about 50 miles north of Detroit. I never thought of beginning the celebration on the anniversary of getting engaged. My DH and I became engaged on New Years Eve 25 years ago this year. My husband and I took our first trip alone since BC in 2004. It was our first cruise, on Disney of course. We had a great time.

 

[Dave Dizney]

Actually, our long story is that we're living in Minnesota, but have lived in Iowa, and met and were married in Missouri. She's from California, I was born in Connecticut. Maybe TMI.

Anyway, we defiantly should keep this discussion going as we prepare for our cruise. We'll be in Room 6076. As usual, I've done way too much research on all of this - but would love to hear comments from you veterans about the four-day cruise on the Wonder. We're planing a night at Palo's if I can figure out when our "repeat" dinner is.

BTW - my name is David, and my wife of almost 25 years is Bethany.

 

[indimini]

Glad to see we're not the only ones who rarely vacation without the kids. DW and I did our first and only non-family vacation two years ago to WDW/Cocoa Beach.

That was a great vacation - it got us thinking about DCL seriously and introduced us to the joys of convertibles. (We now own a Mini Cooper S Convertible that we took to visit Mickey and friends last year courtesy of the auto train.)

It's odd to think we'll be the "newly weds" with only 19 years to celebrate on the cruise, lol.

 

[indimini]

I'm Bob, my wife is Deborah. We were also married in Missouri. The St. Louis Botanical Gardens to be exact. We met the first day of grad school, knew we were getting married about 1 month later and were married just a little over a year after we first met. I guess with 18 very happy years we did something right.

We'll be in room 7120 - one of the Cat 7's that have a regular verandah but with an obstructed view in one corner. On our 7 day, we had 6520 and 6521. We decided to see if there was any difference between forward, starboard and aft, port, lol. We also wanted to be close to the deck 7 "secret verandah." It was very nice to sit out there and read while at sea.

We did brunch and dinner at Palo's. Personally, I preferred the brunch to dinner. So many wonderful things to try - from seafood to breakfast foods, lunch pizzas, and desserts. We even got a complimentary Mimosa which was a great way to start off the morning.

 

[Dave Dizney]

It's odd to think we'll be the "newly weds" with only 19 years to celebrate on the cruise, lol.

Ah, but we were married as infants!

This will be our first actual "couples only" week long vacation since we had kids. The kids have already let me know of their displeasure, citing how much we will owe them in trips with them in the future. It will be a strange experience to be there without them - but then again...

 

[Dave Dizney]

I'm Bob, my wife is Deborah. We were also married in Missouri. The St. Louis Botanical Gardens to be exact. We met the first day of grad school, knew we were getting married about 1 month later and were married just a little over a year after we first met. I guess with 18 very happy years we did something right.

We'll be in room 7120 - one of the Cat 7's that have a regular verandah but with an obstructed view in one corner. On our 7 day, we had 6520 and 6521. We decided to see if there was any difference between forward, starboard and aft, port, lol. We also wanted to be close to the deck 7 "secret verandah." It was very nice to sit out there and read while at sea.

We did brunch and dinner at Palo's. Personally, I preferred the brunch to dinner. So many wonderful things to try - from seafood to breakfast foods, lunch pizzas, and desserts. We even got a complimentary Mimosa which was a great way to start off the morning.

I've been to those gardens! I remember the Macadamia nuts you could buy under a Macadamia tree in the domed area. Great place to get married!

We got a Category 6 - I spent a lot of time thinking about a category 7, but thought this time for this event, I'd fork the extra to get a mid-ship ocean view. And anyway, the Walt Disney suite was not available!

The brunch is something I've been considering, but having a "rerun" dinner doesn't appeal to me either. Sounds like (as on any cruise) we'll be spending a lot of time eating! Woo-hoo!

 

[dodle]

We loved the brunch. I don't think with having a pirate dinner on one night that we will have any reruns. The restaurant might be the same, but the theming will be different. The brunch has a little bit of everything on it to give you the feel of Palo and not miss one your scheduled dinners. The pirate dinner is either the night in Nassau or the night on Castaway Cay. The brunch is on the sea day. I'm not sure which staterooms we'll have yet. With so many of us going I booked guaranteed catagories instead of rooms. It works better that way. They can get us as close as possible, and possibly even get us connecting rooms.

 

[Dave Dizney]

So how soon do we find out our dining rotation?

BTW - hot off the wire:

"October will see a major enhancement to accommodations aboard the two ships of the Disney Cruise Line. Each stateroom will be stocked with H2O Plus Spa bath and shower products, derived from marine botanicals, to bring a piece of the ocean into each room. The products will include Sea Marine Revitalizaing Shampoo, Marine Collagen Conditioner and Hydrating Body Butter from the H2O Plus premium Spa line ؄ all in uniquely designed, co-branded bottles. Concierge-level suites will also include offerings such as Sea Salt Body Wash and Solar Relief Gel.

The introduction of these products will coincide with the completion of a project to upgrade all bedding aboard both ships. Every stateroom will receive new Sealy Posturepedic Premium Plush Euro-top mattresses, new pillows and Frette 300 thread-count, 100 percent Egyptian cotton linens. Larger, more luxurious bath towels and bath sheets have also been added to all stateroom bathrooms. Concierge-level cruisers will also see comfortable duvets and a new "Pillow Talk" program which a choice of hypo-allergenic, feather and therapeutic memory foam pillow options.

 

[indimini]

We requested a specific rotation by calling DCL directly. They say you aren't guaranteed your requested rotation and won't know for certain what rotation you are on until you actually get to the terminal.

We did get our requested rotation, however, so I'm sure Disney tries as best they can to fulfill customer requests.

I'm also excited about the additions to the Wonder while in dry dock that we enjoyed on the Magic. Those include the dumbotron over the goofy pool, the larger fitness center and Ocean Quest with the ship bridge simulator.

It's good to see that DCL isn't resting on its laurels and constantly finds ways to improve their offering.

 

[dodle]

Usually you get whichever dining rotation you ask for. If not you can request to change it the first day and they will if they can. I'm excited about the upgrades, too. It will be interesting to see if the Wonder does get the same upgrades that the Magic did. Hopefully it will.

 

[Dave Dizney]

So, for a four day cruise, what is your recommendation for dining rotation? How soon in advance can you make your request?

This is the last bastion of Disney for me - though I'm savvy on the parks, this is still new to me. Your assistance will really be helpful as we plan this year. BTW - a year and 15 days until our cruise!