The MR Halloween & Sweet Sixteen Trip Report! Finished 9/3~ See Ya Real Soon!

[Schmoopsie Poo!]

YAY! I'm so glad she had such a fantastic birthday!!! I've had three of mine on DCL and my mom is having her first this October!!!! Disney b-days are the best!!!

Those desserts really make me want something sweet now!

Thank you! It truly is magical, isn't it?

They always have the same effect on me, too...

 

[Schmoopsie Poo!]

Well, here it was. We had arrived at this, our final day onboard the Wonder. We might as well call the last day "Zombie Day" because we walk around in a too-much-food-too-little-sleep-too-attached-to-leave-induced haze. We tried to soak up every minute... but still... we knew what was coming... We had our second-to-last breakfast (but, I mean, does that "getting off" breakfast even really count?) at Triton's, and we got all our favorites one more time... Dulce de leche waffles for me, Lox and bagels for DH, Mickey waffle for DS, and Mango smoothie/Dulce de leche waffles for DD.

DS pretty much showed what we were all feeling...

Suckers-for-a-Character that we are, we waited in the monstrosity* of a line for the final sea day Princess Gathering. (*: We do recognize how awesome the lines onboard are in comparison to those in the park... but as far as a cruise character line goes, it's pretty darn long!)

We had seen Ariel and Tiana lots of times all week, so they knew us pretty well... and we were starting to get sad again...

(Tiana was DD's favorite... )

We went back to our room for who-knows-what and got a picture with Cristina our room hostess...

As our final day, we of course had to partake in our favorite activity: Character stalking... at the pool.

(LOVE this shot!)

We also got a couple pics with our favorite character handlers that we had really gotten to know throughout the week! They were SO sweet and they really made our week more magical.

Sabrina: (This was the last week of the handlers' contract, and I think she was going back to work at Disneyland. If anyone has met/seen/knows anything about her, we would love to know what she's up to!)

Heather:

We got ready for dinner a little bit early because we had registered for the princess tea at the beginning of the week! Before we got the Studio Sea, we caught the last pic of the shift with Lilo and Stitch (and said hi to Sabrina and Heather again...)

Tea time! (It was fun... definitely designed for princesses younger than us... but still fun. And hey! We got cookies out of the deal... sooo....)

It was hosted by Ariel and Tiana, our two favorite princesses, so we were happy to get to see them again. They taught us how to pour our tea, eat our cookies, etc. properly. It was cute.

(It was at this photo op moment that I complimented Tia on how great her shoulders were... and she responded "Well thank you! It must be from stirring my gumbo pot all day!" She started giggling... and then she really got the giggles for just a second. It was a really sweet moment. )

 

[Schmoopsie Poo!]

After tea, we stopped by Friendship Rocks, the kids show. (Though we love watching DS, we really just wanted to see Mickey and Minnie do this...)

And, as Yzma has been known to say... "It's dinner time!" This menu always makes us sad...

(Apologies, but... we didn't really take many food pics this dinner. We had photographed everything we ordered in February, and it looked pretty much the same, so it felt redundant to photo them all again!)

We did get Baked Alaska, though...

One last action shot of Sasha...

After dinner... one last towel animal...

In the Atrium, we got a couple cute shots of Mickey on this background... (we didn't wait in the line, so we just took 'em as we could get 'em.)

We took a few last strolls around Deck 9 and 10, soaking in that gorgeous ocean air until it was time for Till We Meet Again. We saw Sabrina strolling around and taking her last pics with characters too (she was getting off when we were!). Seeing her set DD over the edge... "Till We Meet Again" syndrome set in.

We mostly just strolled around and said hi to our new friends in the cast from the week. When Cruise Director Christian gave the "2 minute warning", DD rushed down to just say one last goodbye to Mickey. Major magical moment! He obviously knew her from a whole week of character following, and even though the picture turned out blurry, it's one of her favorite pics from the trip. (And the blurriness sort of helps disguise how red her eyes were getting... Her words, not mine!)

As soon as the attendant snapped the shot, Christian announced that the characters needed to come back onstage... so DD had gotten the last picture that Mickey would take with a guest of the cruise! One last hug, then she resumed her shot at the back of the crowd to watch the characters leave and catch some magical confetti.

After the adorable and sob-inducing final scene, we hung around to say a few last goodbyes to our new friends. When we could deny the end no longer, we headed back to our stateroom for the *final* time...

Final thoughts...

Well... what can I say?? It was a wonderful trip! Food, friends, characters... everything was perfect! My advice: If you possibly can, spend a birthday at Disney! They truly made it a magical one for DD.

Thanks for joining us! We hope you enjoyed it and got some helpful for your magical/wonderful vacation coming up! Comments and questions are welcome! See ya real soon!

 

[kitty'sAuntie]

Thank you for all the great pictures and information! We're going to be on the Wonder in less than 3 weeks and your TR has gotten me even more excited! This will be our first Disney cruise.
Where do you think is the best place to be for the fireworks?
We'll be flying in the day of embarkation, so I know I'm going to be hungry by the time we can get on the ship. Do you know how late the buffet stays open?
I know I have a bunch more questions, but I need to go back and re-read your TR so I don't ask things you have already answered!

 

[giftcard]

Great TR! You have a beautiful family. I loved all the pics. I think my favourite was your son in "jail". And I loved Donald's super hero costume.

We'll be on the Wonder in FOUR more sleeps to celebrate my birthday. I can't wait.