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

I loved the way animators palate looked for the frozen meet and greet. The blue lighting with all the Frozen pictures were a nice touch and the meet and greet had to be a lot of fun for the kids. The coffee bar also looked awesome for coffee drinkers and the prices don’t seem bad at all.
 
I thought the Purple Haze was a fitting beer to get and it is tasty and refreshing, for sure!

The rough seas definitely detracted a bit and had us questioning the whole "cruise thing" - but the 2nd half of the cruise was much calmer and that made a bit difference in our overall experience

Yes we lived on the Gulf Coast a few hours from New Orleans so we are well versed in Abita. I tried to buy Purple Haze for Mardi Gras now that we've moved up north and had to drive an hour to get it!

I am nervous about the ship, even though it didn't bother me too much on my 3 day cruise. I did feel it one night. I'm not sure we should get patches or just be prepared with Sea Bands. My husband was in the Marine Corps so he's spent a lot of time on boats so I guess I don't anticipate it impacting him, but no clue for the 3 kids. (Based on my past experience I think I could survive, but I'd like to enjoy it!)

the kids thought this was really funny that Mommy and Daddy had funny hats on

This is hilarious! I love it!

though I heard on some cruises they also had Olaf which would have been fun)

Oooo, Olaf would honestly be the only reason we'd probably book this meet n greet. My boys aren't opposed to meeting princesses necessarily, but I doubt they'd pick it over something else they'd rather do.

I can't wait to check out the Cove! Mostly because they have Conundrum and I really enjoy that wine. But I'm sure there will be plenty of wine on the trip so I might just stick to coffee. Would be cool to try an iced coffee with that nifty contraption!
 
namely the beer I brought for the beer swap I would be participating in

So I just got caught up, and sorry for the "odd" quote. I thought I had quoted something with a little more explanation behind it, but apparently not. Basically I wanted to ask you how packing beer in a flight went. Did it get shaken up badly? No breakage/spillage? I guess it is appropriate as the beer swap is up next.

I got to say Emma is just the cutest! Seeing the pic of her as she comes out in her princess dress almost makes me want to have a daughter.

And count me in as pro Italy cruise update. Taking our first cruise (not Disney) this summer, so all the reference I can get the better. Hoping my guy, who will be 2.11 years old, will be potty trained before we go. Do you know if they were very strict about the age of the youngest going into a 3-12 play area? was it mostly about being potty trained?

Really enjoy your TR's as they focus on beer a lot!!!
 
I loved the way animators palate looked for the frozen meet and greet. The blue lighting with all the Frozen pictures were a nice touch and the meet and greet had to be a lot of fun for the kids. The coffee bar also looked awesome for coffee drinkers and the prices don’t seem bad at all.

It was a good use of the space to change it up to fit the events going on there - even for some of the other character meets in other areas of the ships they would put up little background things that fit the character - thought that was a nice tough

The coffee bar was pretty nice and in the "adults only" area so definitely had a nice, relaxing feel to it. I guess anything extra as far as $ feels like a bit when so much is included but yeah, compared to Starbucks or anything the prices weren't bad


Yes we lived on the Gulf Coast a few hours from New Orleans so we are well versed in Abita. I tried to buy Purple Haze for Mardi Gras now that we've moved up north and had to drive an hour to get it!

I am nervous about the ship, even though it didn't bother me too much on my 3 day cruise. I did feel it one night. I'm not sure we should get patches or just be prepared with Sea Bands. My husband was in the Marine Corps so he's spent a lot of time on boats so I guess I don't anticipate it impacting him, but no clue for the 3 kids. (Based on my past experience I think I could survive, but I'd like to enjoy it!)

This is hilarious! I love it!

Oooo, Olaf would honestly be the only reason we'd probably book this meet n greet. My boys aren't opposed to meeting princesses necessarily, but I doubt they'd pick it over something else they'd rather do.

I can't wait to check out the Cove! Mostly because they have Conundrum and I really enjoy that wine. But I'm sure there will be plenty of wine on the trip so I might just stick to coffee. Would be cool to try an iced coffee with that nifty contraption!

Oh wow, yeah, I am a bit spoiled having some great beer stores near me that can get pretty much anything so Abita is always in stock (and they can usually get for me anything I don't see on the shelves) - definitely a solid beer and fit the mood!

We had seabands and they helped a bit but not as much as we hoped - also wish we did more beforehand proactively starting to take dramamine or whatever - oh well, now we know!

That was one thing that was a bit of a bummer about the Frozen meet in that you didn't know who was there until you got there (Same thing for the princess gathering). For all the individual character meets it was always very explicit on the navigator, but less so for the "gatherings" Obviously first world type problems, but I was hopeful Olaf was there or someone else, just to be a bit different than the meet with Anna and Elsa in the parks

Definitely plenty of wine options on the ship and you can bring a few bottles on of your own if you want (to have in your stateroom or bring to dinner, but a $25 corkage fee then). I do sort of wish I tried some of the ice coffee from that contraption!



So I just got caught up, and sorry for the "odd" quote. I thought I had quoted something with a little more explanation behind it, but apparently not. Basically I wanted to ask you how packing beer in a flight went. Did it get shaken up badly? No breakage/spillage? I guess it is appropriate as the beer swap is up next.

I got to say Emma is just the cutest! Seeing the pic of her as she comes out in her princess dress almost makes me want to have a daughter.

And count me in as pro Italy cruise update. Taking our first cruise (not Disney) this summer, so all the reference I can get the better. Hoping my guy, who will be 2.11 years old, will be potty trained before we go. Do you know if they were very strict about the age of the youngest going into a 3-12 play area? was it mostly about being potty trained?

Really enjoy your TR's as they focus on beer a lot!!!

Beer swap is coming up next update! The way I brought it was to wrap the bottles in come bubble wrap and then put them in zip lock bags (just to minimize impact if they did break) and then packed them in a checked back surrounded by sweaters and other soft clothing and it worked fine. I will say (spoiler) that we got a bottle of rum in St Maarten that they put in a box, etc. and I wasn't as careful in packing it for the trip home (thinking the box they put it in would help) and the bottle broke on the way back, so that sucked. So definitely do a couple layers of protection, but should be fine!

For the kids clubs my understanding is they are very strict with ages - and they have all that information in the systems when you try to check them in at the kids clubs. So I think it would be tough to get a 2.11 into the kids club. As for the pools/kids - there wasn't anyone there checking ages or anything and no way to really tell at 2.11 year old kid from a 3.2 year old kid or whatever. Big thing is no swim diapers. Obviously the rules are technically 3 and potty trained but no way to really tell ages (not like they have a different colored band or something)

Thank you!
 


Gotta love the headwear :rotfl: I'm sorry Emma took a little tumble at breakfast!

Peter looks like he's trying to channel the Fonz! :goodvibes

Cute pics with Anna and Elsa!
 
Part 17) Lunch, Delivering our Fish Extender Gifts, and Beer Swap

After a bit of relaxing we went to check on the kids and Peter and Olivia wanted to stay in the kids club (and eat lunch there) but Emma wanted to come out so we got her and then came back up to eat lunch at Cabanas. I definitely found the buffet to be consistently quite good - with lots of variety and always fresh/warm/etc. This was my plate, with a little bit of a bunch of things (I would say the sushi was only "ok" but can't really complain) and you can see some of Judi's plate on the right side and Emma's on the left. Also a picture of a fancy little dessert I got.
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We then went back to the room and found more Fish Extender gifts had been delivered! You can see our actual Fish Extender here (Judi sewed the actual holder and then I made the decorations on each pocket - it was a Monorail theme). Then a photo of Emma checking out her new gifts

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Judi wanted to rest a bit as she still wasn't getting the best sleep at night with the ship moving. While she did that I organized our Fish Extender gifts and then Emma and I delivered them. As this was our first cruise it was obviously also our first time participating in a Fish Extender and I was a bit nervous about how people would react to our gifts and just that we did "enough" - especially as since we had two rooms in our group we had to deliver two gifts and wanted to make sure it was enough for two gifts worth.

What we decided to do was one gift would be a cabin gift, so each cabin got what you see in the first picture which is a Mickey Cooler/insulated bag, a tray with an image of the cruise itinerary and then a magnet with the cruise details.
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Then for our other gift it was an individual gift. Adults got the "starbucks" like reusable mug and the teens got the "tervis" like cup with their name on it. Both came with little things like pencils and cosies, etc. For the younger kids (which we had a number of of) we did travel Lego kits which includes the pieces and instructions for making a small lego cruise ship that I designed and then got all the pieces for. I also made up the cover and instructions using photoshop which was fun. The travel containers are just a plastic case with a lego board glued to the inside - we use these with our kids for road trips and seems to work out well.

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We delivered them in a few trips (wasn't too bad once we got a bit organized) and it was fun to walk around the ship a bit and check out all the decorated doors and other Fish Extenders.

Then it was time for the Beer Swap I was participating in. It was organized by someone in our Facebook Group and the idea was to bring a 6-pack of beer from a brewery local to where you live and then we would all take turns picking out different beers to make a variety pack from different areas of the country. We had just over 20 people participating and it turned out to be really fun! We wound up doing it in the British Pub on board and one of the Cast Members cam up to us and was super excited and said it was the coolest thing she had ever seen on board, so that was fun.

I brought a 6-pack of a session IPA from Captain Lawrence which is just down the road from my office and was able to get a good variety of beers including one of the once that was very popular, largely due ot the name: Butterfly Farts. First picture shows the array of beers that were out for the exchange and then the beers I wound up with.

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When I got back to the room it was quite nice out so seemed like a good opportunity to chill on the veranda a bit with one of my newly acquired beers. Figured I would try out the Polygamy Nitro Porter which is from a brewery in Utah - so definitely something new to me. Quite enjoyable and not too heavy ... as you can see from the beer description, this is the "sister wife" of their regular porter beer
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Emma was also enjoying the nice weather with me ... but before too long it was time to get ready for dinner!
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Part 18) Dinner at Triton's and Frozen!

We picked up Olivia and Peter from the kids club to go to our dinner for this evening which would be in Triton's. This was probably the location I was least excited about but it turned out to be really nice. It isn't as heavily themed as Animator's Palette or Tiana's - but it is probably the "fanciest" of the main dining rooms and the food was really good ... sorry for the bad menu pics though
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This was a night we definitely ordered quite a bit as a number of things looked really good! I started with two appetizers - the Lobster and Shrimp (which I had heard was very good) and also the escargot as I can't pass them up. Both were quite good and definitely glad I got both (and neither were huge which was good). My mom and Judi also got the escargot and we did get Olivia to try one so we were proud of her for that!
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Emma wanted plain pasta but when it came it had cheese on it (like she normally likes) but for whatever reason that upset her so then she wanted pizza so they brought that too. Olivia wanted the kids steak but she asked if she could get a side of mac and cheese and instead of a side they just brought a 2nd full order for her. I think Peter just got Mac and cheese this night
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For my main I go the Chateaubriand - and it was really good, meat came out super tender.
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Dessert is where we went a bit nuts as so much of it looked good. I forget who got what at this point but amongst us all we got the cheesecake, the creme brulee, the praline sundae, the grand marnier souffle, and the chocolate opera cake - so pretty much everything! The Souffle and sundae we really good
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Of course this was also the night they sang Happy Birthday to Olivia and brought her a special dessert for that too (brought out by the head server which was nice)
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Our server also had a box that he did a magic trick with that was empty and then magically had a bunch of candy in it - Emma was very amazed! (and clearly after all that dessert we needed some candy!)
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After dinner it was time for the Frozen show - which was something added during the recent dry dock refurbishment of the ship. We were not allowed to take photos or video so I will just include a picture I saw the DIS posted at one point to give you an idea of how it looked. It was a really great show and the staging and how they do the effects and the puppetry was really, really cool - highly recommend you go if you ever find yourself on the Wonder!
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After the show we all just went back to the room and back to bed as we were a bit wiped out and we had our first port the next day - St. Maarten - and it would be my 40th birthday!

TTFN!
 


Gotta love the headwear :rotfl: I'm sorry Emma took a little tumble at breakfast!

Peter looks like he's trying to channel the Fonz! :goodvibes

Cute pics with Anna and Elsa!

Oops, I think this comment came in while I was doing the last update, sorry that I missed it!

The headwear was fun, and something different which was nice - the didn't all stay on the best though

Yeah, Peter is definitely that cool :rotfl2: that was the best I could get as he kept switching one thumb to be down or whatever. Silly kid

Thank you!
 
Your fish extender gifts are so cool! Love the lego set you put together!

The beer swap is such a neat idea!

Looks like a nice dinner! Glad you enjoyed the Frozen show too!
 
Great updates. I'm sorry the ship's motion was an issue. It's always one for me (well, not Alaska, but everywhere else) and the sea bands didn't make a difference for anyone in my family. I love your FE gifts - they are great! When we participated (years ago) FE gifts weren't so large and fancy. Now I don't think I could join - too much to pack and I'd be worried it wouldn't be enough. You really gave out nice gifts!
 
Oh wow, we're practically neighbors (I'm in Peekskill)! Enjoying the report so far!

Oh wow, we were just there last weekend for the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new brewery that is run by the same people as Captain Lawrence, River Outpost, which is at Charles Point in Peekskill (Inside the Spins). I work in Armonk, but live in Mahopac just into Putnam County.

Thank you!


Your fish extender gifts are so cool! Love the lego set you put together!

The beer swap is such a neat idea!

Looks like a nice dinner! Glad you enjoyed the Frozen show too!

Thanks so much!

Yeah, I really liked the idea of the beer swap - it was fun and different and you got to meet a lot of different people.

The Frozen show was really good - definitely top flight stage entertainment!


Great updates. I'm sorry the ship's motion was an issue. It's always one for me (well, not Alaska, but everywhere else) and the sea bands didn't make a difference for anyone in my family. I love your FE gifts - they are great! When we participated (years ago) FE gifts weren't so large and fancy. Now I don't think I could join - too much to pack and I'd be worried it wouldn't be enough. You really gave out nice gifts!

Thank you! Seems like everyone reacts differently to the ship movement and also different remedies seem to work better for some people than others - so we need to figure out what will work best of us

I appreciate your kind words about our gifts - we wound up having a separate checked bag just for the Fish Extender stuff (and needed almost that much room to fit everything we got in return). It was definitely fun to participate but not sure if we would do it again just do the work and the packing (or maybe do like a kids only one or something to at least reduce the room).
 
Thank you! Seems like everyone reacts differently to the ship movement and also different remedies seem to work better for some people than others - so we need to figure out what will work best of us

I appreciate your kind words about our gifts - we wound up having a separate checked bag just for the Fish Extender stuff (and needed almost that much room to fit everything we got in return). It was definitely fun to participate but not sure if we would do it again just do the work and the packing (or maybe do like a kids only one or something to at least reduce the room).

Yes, I think that what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another. Dramamine and Bonine don't help me (I've tried them both). There is a kind of wrist band (not a sea band) that is FDA approved for motion sickness and we are thinking about getting one to try on our upcoming cruise. Of course if it works and we need it we'll all be fighting for it! I use the patch, and my family members seem to find help in ginger cookies and candies. Ginger Ale at dinner really helps me, too.
 
Looks like a great time! I have always been curious about the Fish Extender process. It looks like a really fun way to connect with others on the ship and that beer exchange is a great idea!

I have heard good things about the new Frozen show so far. Love the birthday dessert too!
 
Hi Phil

I managed to miss the start of this trip report. I have read your first couple of posts and have now travelled to the port. I'm sure you were all really excited to see the ship. I would love to go on a Disney cruise but I think it is always going to be too expensive add on to a WDW vacation. My Peter would love to go to Castaway Cay - maybe one day. In the meantime I'm looking forward to living vicariously through your trip report. It is lovely to see the difference in your children from earlier trip reports. They have grown up so much.
 
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I've been way behind on the DIS since before we left for Italy, so I'm FINALLY all caught up!!

That GIF of Olivia and Emma with Olivia posing in her princess and Emma acting silly behind her is EVERYTHING! :rotfl: They will so appreciate that as they get older and look back on it.

Was the princess meet & greet something you booked before the cruise? That's something I'd love to do with DD. Sorry if I missed where you said that.
 
I've been way behind on the DIS since before we left for Italy, so I'm FINALLY all caught up!!

That GIF of Olivia and Emma with Olivia posing in her princess and Emma acting silly behind her is EVERYTHING! :rotfl: They will so appreciate that as they get older and look back on it.

Was the princess meet & greet something you booked before the cruise? That's something I'd love to do with DD. Sorry if I missed where you said that.

You book the Princess and Frozen meet and greets before your cruise. You do it along with your online check-in and when you book any Disney excursions, it will be listed under the "on board fun" section when it's your time to book. If this is your first cruise, you will be able to do all of this 75 days before your cruise. If all the time slots are taken, keep checking online until your cruise, spots often open up. You can also go to guest services once you are on the ship to see if they have any extra tickets. Sometimes they have extras or they will put you on a waiting list.
 
You book the Princess and Frozen meet and greets before your cruise. You do it along with your online check-in and when you book any Disney excursions, it will be listed under the "on board fun" section when it's your time to book. If this is your first cruise, you will be able to do all of this 75 days before your cruise. If all the time slots are taken, keep checking online until your cruise, spots often open up. You can also go to guest services once you are on the ship to see if they have any extra tickets. Sometimes they have extras or they will put you on a waiting list.

Thanks for the info!
 
Yes, I think that what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another. Dramamine and Bonine don't help me (I've tried them both). There is a kind of wrist band (not a sea band) that is FDA approved for motion sickness and we are thinking about getting one to try on our upcoming cruise. Of course if it works and we need it we'll all be fighting for it! I use the patch, and my family members seem to find help in ginger cookies and candies. Ginger Ale at dinner really helps me, too.

Ooh, good to know about ginger - Judi really likes ginger flavored things and we actually had some
ginger candies with us (that I guess we should have used more of!)

Looks like a great time! I have always been curious about the Fish Extender process. It looks like a really fun way to connect with others on the ship and that beer exchange is a great idea!

I have heard good things about the new Frozen show so far. Love the birthday dessert too!

The Fish Extender is definitely a fun way to connect with people beforehand on Facebook and just share a bit of where you are from and just do something fun! You don't really see the other people during the Fish Extender process - but our Facebook group did set up a few meet and greets and other things so we met a lot of them that way

Frozen show was really good and just kinda neat that it is only on the Wonder so feels a bit special. Definitely nice they brought out something for Olivia's birthday - there were a lot of birthdays on the ship - seemed like we would hear the servers singing at least a few times each dinner


Hi Phil

I managed to miss the start of this trip report. I have read your first couple of posts and have now travelled to the port. I'm sure you were all really excited to see the ship. I would love to go on a Disney cruise but I think it is always going to be too expensive add on to a WDW vacation. My Peter would love to go to Castaway Cay - maybe one day. In the meantime I'm looking forward to living vicariously through your trip report. It is lovely to see the difference in your children from earlier trip reports. They have grown up so much.

Thanks for joining and for reading along! Hopefully now that you are up to the point we get on the ship it gets more interesting! ;)

The Disney Cruise is definitely not cheap and not sure we could combine it with a trip to WDW (though we are planning to do a WDW trip this August on the cheap, but partly because my inlaws are coming and get get us the Military tickets which helps a lot and we are staying off site and driving down).

Thank you - kids have definitely gotten big - time does go fast!


I've been way behind on the DIS since before we left for Italy, so I'm FINALLY all caught up!!

That GIF of Olivia and Emma with Olivia posing in her princess and Emma acting silly behind her is EVERYTHING! :rotfl: They will so appreciate that as they get older and look back on it.

Was the princess meet & greet something you booked before the cruise? That's something I'd love to do with DD. Sorry if I missed where you said that.

Thanks for catching up and for joining in!

I really love that gif as it does capture their personalities ,... good call to keep track of it, could be good for Emma's sweet 16 party or something ;)

I see that @lklgoodman already responded to your question about the princess meet. And it also went for the Disney Jr breakfast, so those three things you have to get tickets for (they are free, but you do need to get them). I logged in at midnight of my 75 day mark and times were already pretty limited and when I checked later that day all the Frozen meet tickets were gone. The breakfast i think is a bit easier to get. The other princesses did meet periodically by themselves just as regular meets but not Anna and Elsa so I guess that is why it is more in demand
 
We had seabands and they helped a bit but not as much as we hoped - also wish we did more beforehand proactively starting to take dramamine or whatever - oh well, now we know!

Yes, I think that what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another. Dramamine and Bonine don't help me (I've tried them both). There is a kind of wrist band (not a sea band) that is FDA approved for motion sickness and we are thinking about getting one to try on our upcoming cruise. Of course if it works and we need it we'll all be fighting for it! I use the patch, and my family members seem to find help in ginger cookies and candies. Ginger Ale at dinner really helps me, too.

I'll have to research that Sea Band type thing. I think it's the fear of the unknown of how my kids will react that is the worst! I'll add some ginger candies or cookies to our packing list though just in case.

Definitely plenty of wine options on the ship and you can bring a

Not sure why this didn't quote everything I highlighted, but we are definitely planning to bring wine on! Not sure if we'll fly with it or get a car service that will allow us to stop at Publix or the like. On my last cruise I really enjoyed a glass of wine on the verandah so I'm looking forward to that again!

You can see our actual Fish Extender here (Judi sewed the actual holder and then I made the decorations on each pocket - it was a Monorail theme)

Oh my goodness, I LOVE your fish extender! My middle son is obsessed with the monorail! (He used to say it was his favorite ride! LOL!)

For the younger kids (which we had a number of of) we did travel Lego kits which includes the pieces and instructions for making a small lego cruise ship that I designed and then got all the pieces for. I also made up the cover and instructions using photoshop which was fun. The travel containers are just a plastic case with a lego board glued to the inside - we use these with our kids for road trips and seems to work out well.

These are awesome! I love the case too! My boys would love these!

Also, all that delicious food I think I'm going to gain 10 pounds on our cruise!
 

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