Sept. 23, 2012 Pacific Coast - Wonder Cruise

[glindamood]

Good morning! Got a bit more organized packing wise last night. I have also started watching the weather predictions. I so don't trust weather folks but it does say 89 degrees and sunny for 9/23! I can almost feel the sweat running down my back at the lifeboat drill - and gross as it sounds, I am looking forward to it! SF shows 70 and mostly sunny for day one and 66 and sunshine for day two - I will take it. SD was at 70 and Encenada at 77 - both mostly cloudy.

Everyone have a good day / evening. Marian - sounds like a good learning experience maybe for DL? Sometimes just the experience catches their interest and they may be totally different at the next park. ...and that was all and edit as I have NO IDEA what I read last night.

 

[jetskigrl]

We like the partailly obstructed verandah because you pay for a cat 7 but get a cat 6. We have also stayed in a cat. 4 and if you have the chance to grab a cat. 4 it is larger.

I think the stairs go to deck 6. If I remember correctly, our muster station goes down some back stairs to the back of Animators Pallet. There is also a set of stairs you can take that will take you all the way up to the back of Beach Blanket Buffet.

Bill

Thanks so much Bill. We usually book the cat 4s when our kids are with us but on the Wonder last time, we had a lot of noise from the pool deck. We were mid-ship, so right in the middle of the action, LOL. Lots of kids running back and forth, chairs scraping, etc. It was horrible or anything, just very noticeable.

So since it is just the two of us and we didn't really need the space, I was hoping for a cat 5A on deck 7 to see what that was like. But thanks to you and some others that have commented on another thread, I'm feeling much more positive about the room we received.

 

[jetskigrl]

We call the GPS 'Nikki' after an Irish friend of mine as we chose an Irish accent for the voice. Well Nikki must have felt like abandoning us yesterday as we changed route so many times the poor thing was having trouble keeping up with the sat feeds.

I said to Rich yesterday 'we should have gone to Gail's town, there'd be less people on the road than this freeway'. I'm paranoid we'll hit someone and we'll end up on the local traffic news.



What bridge? We don't recall any bridge! There was no bridge. We got to the town centre area near the port and then went towards San Diego for ages until we got on another freeway.

We got room 7552. I think we'll stick were we are and put the money towards the Sky Couches on the way home.

We went to LegoLand today, got there for gate open and left 15 minutes before close. No wait time on any ride apart from the first and that wait was 3 minutes. I'm worried what one of my kids will be like at Disneyland as the three minutes wait was something he couldn't get his head around, he seemed to think he should go straight to the front of the line as he wanted to use the ride and everyone else was blocking his passage towards his destination. I think we'll be sticking to the small rides at Disneyland, we tried the big water splash thing and the kids couldn't get out fast enough as they were scared. They didn't much like the spinning ones either. Oh well, we enjoyed waving to Daddy on the coasters as he shot past.

Ahhh, welcome to California, LOL. Yeah, many people are intimidated by our freeways. I can drive them with no problem, but I don't really like it. People can be too crazy sometimes.

Hum, are you sure you were in San Pedro when you were cruising around the port? You may have been on the Long Beach side. There are three bridges, the Vincent Thomas is the largest and connects the San Pedro port area to Terminal Island. Then there is another smaller one on the other side that connects Terminal Island to Long Beach. If you are driving from San Pedro Port to Long Beach Port, you go over both of those. There is a third one also, but it goes perpendicular to the other two and heads into Wilmington (you don't want to go there, LOL). If you look at my FB pictures from the Wonder 2011 cruise, I think I have pictures of the VT bridge in the background.

I'm sure the boys will do fine at DL You shouldn't have too bad of crowds mid-week. One thing my DH does for the long waits is Disney Trivia. He asks questions about characters, songs, etc. We also do a 20 questions about guessing what character I am.

 

[jetskigrl]

Good morning! Got a bit more organized packing wise last night. I have also started watching the weather predictions. I so don't trust weather folks but it does say 89 degrees and sunny for 9/23! I can almost feel the sweat running down my back at the lifeboat drill - and gross as it sounds, I am looking forward to it! SF shows 70 and mostly sunny for day one and 66 and sunshine for day two - I will take it. SD was at 70 and Encenada at 77 - both mostly cloudy.

Everyone have a good day / evening. Marian - sounds like a good learning experience maybe for DL? Sometimes just the experience catches their interest and they may be totally different at the next park. ...and that was all and edit as I have NO IDEA what I read last night.

Yeah, we were crazy hot yesterday, supposed to be a bit cooler today but going back up to the 90s by the weekend.

 

[MadHatterMom2]

Here is an updated FE List #2 with Room Assignments.

MadHatterMom2 - me (Julie!), DH James, DD Anneliese (13), DS Alex (9) - Room 5520
Genelle & John Jordan - Room 6045
4boons - Laura & Bill - Room 6134
AZ Pirates - Sheila, DH, DS (17), DD (14) - Room GTY/TBD
glindamood - Gail & David - Room 6511
ImDMouse - Brad & Diane - Room 6569
Crittsmom - Wendy & Schyler - Room 6089
wendyinoc - Wendy, DH, DD (2) - Room 5124
shopmom - Sheri, Robb - Room 8540
5crazyfordisney - Shea, DH Dave, DS Bryan (11), DS Liam (9), DD Anna (8) - Room TBD
mdube - Mona, Yanira, Janissa (4), Yessica (4) - Room 2014
ADandBsmommy - Clyde & Sharon (Room 2020), Katie & Greg (Room 2018), Jennie, DS Aidan (8), DS Dylan (6), DS Ben (3) (Room 2030)
kangamommy - Julie, DH Greg, DS Connor (3) - Room 6540
gunka - Gary, DW Robyn, DD Lindsay (3) - Room 7610
MC40528 - Becky & Stacie - Room 2109
Echo2 - Connie, DH Ricky, DS Edmond (3), Emily (1) - Room 2026

AZ Pirates and 5crazyfordisney - Can I get your room numbers? I didn't see them in your recent posts. Thanks!

Julie

 

[tink157]

Marian sounds like you had fun at Legoland.............good to hear that as that is where we are going in San Diago........kids are so excited!! Think we are the only ones going.

Have a great time in Disneyland........my favorite place to go. We always play games with the kids in line. Not to mention having a churo in their hands when we get in the line......they love them.......

Sandy

 

[socababy]

Marian sounds like you had fun at Legoland.............good to hear that as that is where we are going in San Diago........kids are so excited!! Think we are the only ones going.

Have a great time in Disneyland........my favorite place to go. We always play games with the kids in line. Not to mention having a churo in their hands when we get in the line......they love them.......

Sandy

Dd and I will be joining you at Legoland!

 

[gunka]

Sandy,

If you don't mind could we get the names of your grands? and room#? I know your not on the fe list, but my wife would like to stop an put a little something in their FE pockets.

 

[socababy]

My oldest just came up to me asking if we can see Nemo in 3D. I told him that his sister and I may watch it in 3D on the Mickey Boat. Dd then turns to me and says she isn't going to watch it. I asked her why and she said because she will be in the Kids Club. I asked her if she was ditching me on the cruise?? She just kept saying that she will be in the Kids Club. I asked her what I should do while she is at the Kids Club and she said I could take a nap. That does sound good to me! Since her brothers won't be there, I am curious to see how much time she actually wants to spend in the Kids Club.

 

[gunka]

We went to LegoLand today, got there for gate open and left 15 minutes before close. No wait time on any ride apart from the first and that wait was 3 minutes. I'm worried what one of my kids will be like at Disneyland as the three minutes wait was something he couldn't get his head around, he seemed to think he should go straight to the front of the line as he wanted to use the ride and everyone else was blocking his passage towards his destination. I think we'll be sticking to the small rides at Disneyland, we tried the big water splash thing and the kids couldn't get out fast enough as they were scared. They didn't much like the spinning ones either. Oh well, we enjoyed waving to Daddy on the coasters as he shot past.

I am guessing that Disneyland will not be that crowded this week. California Adventure (Specifically Cars Land) will be busy.

 

[AussieMumma]

Anyone staying at the LAX MARRIOTT and doing the Disney Transport to the port??

Checking in on 9-22...just wondering if any of you will be there also??

We are staying there but getting a private transfer. We are hoping for early check in on the 22nd, our flights lands at 8am so we'll probably be at the Marriott by 10am, we've been lucky four times out of five to get in early so fingers crossed for this trip!
Keep an eye out for us and come say hi if you see us, we're easy to spot (Aussie tourists with four kids), we'll probably have breakfast in their restaurant Sunday morning before we leave for the cruise

 

[glindamood]

Good Wednesday everyone! Gorgeous yet again here - this is my favorite time of the year I think (suppose it is because I generally cruise in the Fall??) and this year isn't proving that wrong.

I managed to get a bit more done last night (ironed two more of DH's shirts) until my Mom called and then the wheels fell off. She goes 'I'm Home' and I am thinking, yeah, so am I but thought that was no way to speak to my mother to I said 'Oh??' (yeah, quick on my feet) to which she followed with 'Didn't your brother send you a text'? She fell on an outing (actually, going to get a get well card for someone, sort of ironic as it turns out), spent Monday night in the hospital for observation and has eight stitches in her forehead! All in all - I guess she was very lucky that she didn't break anything but my guess is she will be pretty sore for the next few days. If it isn't one thing - it is another!!

But, other than that, nothing else to report from here (short of my disgust with ebags but I won't bore you with that).

Take care and have an awesome day/evening.

 

[BigDisneyOE]

Wilmington (you don't want to go there, LOL).

That's where we got off and went thru. Don't freak, it didn't look bad - we followed Nikki's advice (the GPS) to centre of port. Then we headed to the right a bit and turned back on ourselves and went left a long long way past the recyclers etc to this dairy/mini mart/mercado with roaches all over the floor where we got bottled water while the kids bounced on bugs yelling with delight. Ah, it's the small memories for the kids!

I am guessing that Disneyland will not be that crowded this week. California Adventure (Specifically Cars Land) will be busy.

Hmm, Gary CarsLand is where Alex thinks we are going for four days. Disneyland exists for CarsLand a bit like the moon around the Earth for Alex.


Gail - your poor Mum. At least she was sounding perky on the phone for you. Head injuries they worry about losing consciousness so they wake you up every two hours under observation to see if you are okay. Well that's what they do in the UK but I blagged my way out of hospital and they made my flatmate do it when I spilt my skull at work. Heads bleed like nothing on earth, must have given everyone a fright when she had the accident.

Did your brother actually send a text or get swept away with the moment dealing with the hospital? My Mum once sent an email saying Dad had had a huge heart attack and was hopitalised to me when I was living in the UK. It got stuck in the gateway at work for four days. I got this feeling something was wrong about 48 hours in and rang Mum at 3AM my time and she told me then. She didn't ring me as she didn't want to spend a couple of bucks when email was free! Sometimes family can be a challenge.


We made the kids go to Walmart yesterday. Okay this will sound weird to you guys but we wandered around for two hours with our mouths open! The kids got lots of clothes for school as it's just so cheap. Then we went to the outlet mall and bought DH his new suits and a pile of other stuff.

Today we are off to Sea World. Oliver is so excited to see his favourite animals.

 

[BlondeJungleBookFan]

We are staying there but getting a private transfer. We are hoping for early check in on the 22nd, our flights lands at 8am so we'll probably be at the Marriott by 10am, we've been lucky four times out of five to get in early so fingers crossed for this trip!
Keep an eye out for us and come say hi if you see us, we're easy to spot (Aussie tourists with four kids), we'll probably have breakfast in their restaurant Sunday morning before we leave for the cruise

Wonderful! ComputerMagic and AussieMumma and us (or maybe just me-Bob hurt his shoulder & we're waiting for results from the tests)

 

[glindamood]

Marian - She did sound really perky so that is a good thing. They were going to let her go until her back started to hurt (had I had to have a CAT scan and then exrays on my knees and lay on a metal table, mine would hurt too) so they kept her for that (or that is what she told me). She skinned her knees and her wrists are black and blue but other than that, not much worse for the wear except I bet she needs her hair washed.

And no notice at all from my brother unless he emailed and it went to my spam folder and I didn't catch it. Good thing it was not any worse than it was or challenged may be an understatement.

I can't wait to hear about Sea World and what you all think about it - that is sort of on my list for Jan '14 when we return, or the zoo. How fun to have such a good shopping experience - all the way around.

 

[gunka]

BigDisneyOE - I would suggest getting there early and getting Fastpasses for the rides that offer them. It will help the waiting in line.

 

[glindamood]

Wonderful! ComputerMagic and AussieMumma and us (or maybe just me-Bob hurt his shoulder & we're waiting for results from the tests)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! that it isn't anything that will change the vacation plans. I twisted my knee before our last trip to Florida, spent 3 hours in the ER the night before we left (and I had not packed yet) and I was SO disgusted with myself. I am a gambler as I don't ever purchase travel insurance but I really do need to change my ways with that - stuff happens as we all know.

 

[erbie]

Took my dress in to get it altered yesterday. Can't wait to see how it turns out. DH isn't usually all that excited over clothes, but when I put it on, he said that it's really a beautiful dress. It's super formal, so I'll be one that's dressed to the nines for formal night, after thinking I wasn't going to bring our formal clothes at all.

Marian, glad you're all having a good time!

Gail, sorry to hear about your mom. Glad she's mostly okay. Your brother sounds like my two. Neither of them would even think to let me know if something happened and they had to take our mom to the hospital.

Can you believe it's a week and a half now?! SO much to do still! I haven't even taken the costume bin down to see if the pirate stuff fits the kids, and I can't do it tonight because we're having dinner out with out of town family, maybe I can try to do it tomorrow, but I need to pack for our weekend trip this weekend, and then we're not home til Monday evening, when I'll need to unpack from that and wash everything and then figure out which suitcases to bring. MIL and FIL come in Thursday next week, so we need to do some serious cleaning, and SIL arrives next Saturday. I need to take a vacation to get ready for my vacation!

We have a whole box already of FE stuff, door decorations, and scavenger hunt prizes. Between that, and garment bags for formal wear, and our other clothes, I'm thinking it's going to be a lot of luggage. So glad we don't have to fly but wondering if it will all fit with us in the car!

 

[erbie]

Last call for scavenger hunt!

To all the newbies, I'm running a scavenger hunt onboard. It will be lots of questions that you have to go around the ship to find answers for, plus some puzzles to solve. I'll pass it out at the meet on Sunday, and you'll have until the second sea day to find the answers. I have some little prizes, mostly for the kids, but some for adults as well, for the most correct answers. We can set a meet when we see what the schedules will be like.

PM me if you'd like to participate. I need to print stuff out, so I'll set a deadline of Monday at 11:59 pm to let me know you'd like to participate.

If you can't PM because you don't have enough posts, you can also send me a message on Facebook if you're on the meet group. My real name is in the list of DIS names and real names. Be careful, because there are two or three on that list with the same first name. If you can't do either of those, then go ahead and post on this thread. I do read it. And I'll bring extras to the meet too.

 

[glindamood]

Took my dress in to get it altered yesterday. Can't wait to see how it turns out. DH isn't usually all that excited over clothes, but when I put it on, he said that it's really a beautiful dress. It's super formal, so I'll be one that's dressed to the nines for formal night, after thinking I wasn't going to bring our formal clothes at all.

Marian, glad you're all having a good time!

Gail, sorry to hear about your mom. Glad she's mostly okay. Your brother sounds like my two. Neither of them would even think to let me know if something happened and they had to take our mom to the hospital.

Can you believe it's a week and a half now?! SO much to do still! I haven't even taken the costume bin down to see if the pirate stuff fits the kids, and I can't do it tonight because we're having dinner out with out of town family, maybe I can try to do it tomorrow, but I need to pack for our weekend trip this weekend, and then we're not home til Monday evening, when I'll need to unpack from that and wash everything and then figure out which suitcases to bring. MIL and FIL come in Thursday next week, so we need to do some serious cleaning, and SIL arrives next Saturday. I need to take a vacation to get ready for my vacation!

We have a whole box already of FE stuff, door decorations, and scavenger hunt prizes. Between that, and garment bags for formal wear, and our other clothes, I'm thinking it's going to be a lot of luggage. So glad we don't have to fly but wondering if it will all fit with us in the car!

Holy moly - your plate runneth over! I was so happy that the conference I thought I had to go to this week didn't pan out. If I can stick with my schedule and do some things every day I will be locked and loaded in plenty of time to go and should not get all stressed out (NOT a pretty picture). I got sick once leaving everything until the last minute (didn't stress out or anything though but I was younger then) but ended up being up packing until 2:00AM and swore I would never do that again. Even with the knee debackle last year, I was in bed by midnight.

Packing the car - good luck there. We are carrying on our FE gifts so the TSA will have fun with those. If DH would work a bit faster - I might be inclined to ship them, sure would make things a bit simplier.