The We Are Family HalloWonder 2013 Trip Report

[RonningFamilyCrusin]

Looks like you had a good time. Cannot wait to hear the rest.

 

[princessnpirate]

Cannot wait to hear more. Considering a Wonder cruise next year! Concierge too

 

[CatDenver]

Cannot wait to hear more. Considering a Wonder cruise next year! Concierge too

I'm a bit behind but am hoping to write some more tonight when my insomnia kicks in. I was writing it in my mind this morning and I was thinking I'd write an entry solely on concierge. There's a bit of curiosity out there about what it included and I can share my perspective of it.

 

[CatDenver]

As promised, the staterooms were ready at 1:30 pm. After BJ, the younger kids, and I finished touring the ship we went back to the Cadillac Lounge to meet up with the older kids. We took the elevator up to Deck 8 where we quickly found stateroom 8516, right near the elevator, forward and starboard. Everyone let me have the honor of opening the door. When you walk in you enter a hallway with a bedroom on the right, a powder room on the left and two hallway closets, one which has the life jackets. It then opens up to a beautiful living and dining area. There’s a wet bar which was stocked with bottled water and sodas.

To the right of the wet bar was an entertainment center with a TV, Bose sound system, and DVD player. Lynda, our concierge, had given us a folder with an extensive list of DVDs that we could request. Two different occasions we requested DVDs for Catie to watch and each time they brought a big bag of popcorn. In case you’re wondering, there were some R-rated movies on the list so not all the movies were Disney.

The master bedroom was entered from the dining area and was very nicely appointed. It looked nicer than the pictures I found on the Internet. There was a TV, book shelves, and a chair/ottoman next to the door to the verandah. On the book shelf was a framed photograph of Walt Disney looking to be in his thirties. On the shelf below, somewhat hidden by the chair was a bronze figure of Winnie the Pooh. I thought I had taken a picture of it but I never found it on any of my cameras. Too bad because it was cute. The bed was very comfortable and the room was a nice refuge for an afternoon nap.

From the master bedroom leading towards the shower was a vanity and mirror on the left and the walk in closet on the right. The closet was huge and Kalen joked about that being his bedroom. The safe was located in there and sitting on top of a cubby area where we could store shoes. Hanging in the closet were 5 robes, 3 white adult robes, a pink child’s robe, and a blue child’s robe. They each had the DCL logo embroidered on the left side. Catie and I ended up being the only ones to use the robes. I wish I had asked about buying one but as I learned on this cruise, if you don’t act on your thoughts when you have them you’ll forget because of how much is going on.

Continuing on, we entered the next area which was a huge whirlpool bath on the right and a double sink on the left. I smiled as I saw the tubes of H2O products, remembering the ‘don’t hog the H2O’ thread on the DIS. I’m not much of a soak-in-the-bath kind of gal so the tub wasn’t a big deal to me but Cate wouldn’t wait to try it out. Past that area we finally came to the shower and toilet. There were doors to close off the area between the vanity area, the bath tub, and the shower so you could have multiple people getting ready.

Something to note about the outlets, the vanity was the only outlet near a mirror where we could plug in a blow dryer. The outlets in the rest of the bathrooms were shaver only. By the way, I had heard about the crappy blow dryers on the older ships so I brought my own. In concierge they have nice blow dryers so I ended up not needing to pack mine.

Popping back to the living area, the couch pulled out into a queen size bed. According to the younger kids who slept on it, it was pretty comfortable and they were always asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. In the second bedroom, it was configured with two twin beds that could be pushed together and a drop down bunk. Believe it or not, the tallest guy in our group slept in the top bunk. Pat is 6’2” and I was curious how his first night was. He said his feet hung over the edge but they would have on the twin beds as well. His comment when I asked if it was comfortable was, “I could sleep there again.” The second bedroom had a walk-in closet as well though much smaller, a TV, and a fairly good sized bathroom. It had a bath tub, shower, toilet, and sink.

The verandah was fabulous and we loved spending time out there. Here are a few pics of its fabulousness!

Observations
I’ll answer the question about whether concierge was worth it in another post but I will say we were very pleased with this stateroom. The location was great for us although there was a lot of walking involved. However, I also attribute that walking to not gaining as much weight from all the food as I expected to gain. A lot of the places we were going were mid ship or aft and about 3 or 4 decks down. However, that’s also why our area was so quiet too. We liked being forward as the elevators weren’t nearly as busy as the mid ship elevators. Occasionally we could hear the movement of the chairs on deck as the adult pool was right above us. Typically we heard it in the evening after dinner when we were on the verandah enjoying post-dinner cocktails but it wasn’t every evening and it was very brief. I had a few mornings where I woke up at 5am and couldn’t go back to sleep. I’d lay there for some time and then would finally get up to stroll around the ship. Around 6am I could hear the deck chairs again as they were arranging the chairs for the day but I only heard it because I was already awake. Everyone else slept through it. So it was never a problem that caused issues with our group. We loved having the dining and living area to congregate as a family before we’d all go off and do our thing, sometimes together and sometimes on our own. In the morning a few of us would go to the Beach Blanket Buffet and grab a tray full of breakfast items and bring it back to the room where we’d all nosh on the various breakfast goodies.

I’m not sure what else to say about this wonderful suite but if you have questions please fire away! Sorry I didn't get more and better pictures.

 

[ukintheus]

Loving the update and seeing all the photos of your stateroom. It looks gorgeous and I LOVE the big verandah - I know we would get our use out of that.

 

[plannermom]

Where, oh where, did she go?

I have just read thru your pre-trip report and now inquiring minds want to know...how did it go?

I also live in Denver and will be cruising over Halloween (just this year on the Fantasy!) I feel your pain when you talk about packing for all three occasions (Pirate Night, Halloween, and Formal). I am envisioning some kind of fancy pirate costume that works for all three events.

I hope to see you posting back here soon!