The Seas are full of WONDER and waves! Our first Disney Cruise - 7-night Eastern Caribbean; Feb 2018

TheMaxRebo

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 12, 2008
Part 1) Introductions

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Well, hello there! Thank you for joining me as I relive our first Disney Cruise - which was a 7-night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Disney Wonder!

My family and I are Walt Disney World veterans and have also been to Disneyland in California and I have been to Disneyland in Hong Kong as well - but we had never done a cruise before. We had heard nothing but positive raves about the ships and the service so we definitely wanted to give it a tr.

So after doing some research into different options we decided to do a 7-nights to the Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Disney Wonder from February 18th - 25th. Reasons for this included: The kids had a few days off from school, both myself and my oldest daughter would be celebrating birthdays this week, I thought it would be better to start with one of the smaller ship and potentially "move up" later rather than the other way, and the Wonder had recently gone through a refurbishment and I was excited about many of the changes.

Cast of Characters:

Phil (Me): Husband, father to three, and goes by TheMaxRebo on the boards
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Judi: Wife, mother to three, all around pretty lady ... and has grown to love Disney more through me/tolerates it
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Olivia: Oldest daughter (turned 9 while on the ship). Still very much into the princesses but also into Star Wars and is growing in her independence
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Peter: Only son and middle child. He is 6 and definitely a bit in that phase of starting to be a big kid but still a little kid at times.
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Emma: Youngest child at age 3.5. She did quite well and was most into meeting the characters - definitely wanted more time with mom and dad than her siblings.
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Dorothy (my mom): Really the reason for why the cruise was possible and she was glad to have the time with her grandchildren (though I think she now realizes what a handful they can be)
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We had two staterooms that were directly across the hall from each other - on the 6th floor, mid-ship, starboard (one verandah and one inside stateroom - thought this was a good compromise ... worked out pretty well)

Hope you enjoy reading along and please do comment - these are always more fun with active audience participation ;)
 
Part 2 Contents




Day 4 - Wednesday, February 21st - St. Maarten
Part 19) Welcome to St. Maarten
Part 20) More on St. Maarten
Part 21) Carousel Gelato!
Part 22) Mixology Class!
Part 23) Palo Dinner - Part 1
Part 24) Palo Dinner - Part 2 ... Desserts!

Day 5 - Thursday, February 22nd - San Juan
Part 25) Morning of Day 5 - Arriving at San Juan
Part 26) San Juan - Part 1
Part 27) San Juan - Part 2
Part 28) Pool Time
Part 29) Hello, It's Smee You're Looking For
Part 30) Pirate Night Dinner
Part 31) Dessert and Black Panther, Finally!

*** INTERMISSION ***
DIS Italy Sojourn on the Viking Sky
Part A) Introduction and Time in Rome
Part B) The Viking Sky - Our Room, the Ship, and the Food!
Part C) Excursions and Recap/Comparison to Disney Cruise Line

Day 6 - Friday, February 23rd - Day at Sea
Part 32) Breakfast and Some Meet and Greets with Emma
Part 33) Lunch and Innovation Session
Part 34) Dinner in the Bayou
Part 35) Dessert and Dancing
Part 36) Evening Activities are a Blast!

Day 7 - Saturday, February 24th - Castaway Cay
Part 37) Running 5K While on Vacation
Part 38) Attempting Character Meets
Part 39) Lunch on Castaway Cay
Part 40) Dinner at Tritons
Part 41) Dessert and we say our goodbyes to our servers

Day 8 - Sunday, February 25th - End of the Cruise
Part 41) Arrival at Port and We Leave The Ship
Part 43) Overall Thoughts
 
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Joining in! I was hoping you would do a TR.

Thanks for joining - I hope it lives up to expectations!


I'm aboard!

Interested to see (sea?) how your trip went.

Great to have you .... and you are punny!


Looking forward to vicariously enjoying your cruise.

Kate

Thanks Kate! and thanks for joining!


We are just starting to research a cruise and I was hoping you would do a trip report.

Awesome! Thanks for joining and obviously I am no expert after only one cruise but happy to help answer any questions as I think we did do a lot of different things and was active in our Facebook group so did a number of group events, and the Fish Extender, etc.
 


Ready to set sail! Looks like a wonderful & promising start to your cruise & trip report :boat:
 
We leave Sunday on this same cruise - also our 1st Disney cruise. So I'm REALLY interested in reading this. Although Im guessing you may not get a chance to add much before we leave!!!!
 
I'm following along! I never been on a Disney cruise so can't wait to see what it's like.
 
Excited to read about your first cruise. Having an inside room and balcony room was a really good idea to save a few bucks.
 
Excited to read along. I just planned my first Disney cruise for next April. You make a good point about starting with the smaller ships so you can move up; I had never thought about that. Our first is scheduled for the Dream, but we needed a shorter sailing for a couple of reasons, so I guess that's out for us. I'm interested to read from the perspective of a first time cruiser, but Disney vet.
 
Hi Phil... I've been sort of burned out on DISBoards the last few months, but excited to have a very good reason to start coming back again. Looking forward to comparing notes from our October trip on the Wonder. :hippie:
 
I’m joining in! Glad to see you are doing a TR! Cruising is my favorite form of travel, and DCL has become my favorite cruise line!

Glad you are here Zach! Not sure if I am ready to say cruising is our favorite, but by the end of the trip we certainly came to understand why people love it so much - and the Disney service is just top notch!


Yay! Can’t wait to read along!

Thanks for joining!


Yay i'm here!

Thanks for joining!


Ready to set sail! Looks like a wonderful & promising start to your cruise & trip report :boat:

Thanks! While a bit harried things worked out quite well as far as transportation plans, etc.
 

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