I sorry if this is too long. I know I left some things out, but it was the least I could do since I received so much help from this board before we took our trip.
We (myself-37, DW-37, DS-7 and DS-4) are just back from the 7-day land/sea (7/2904-8/5/04). It was the boys first trip to Disney and our first trip on the Wonder. We were also celebrating our 12th wedding anniversary, 8/1. We purchased everything, except air, through DCL so all of our luggage when straight from Houston to the hotel.
We arrived at the Polynesian Resort (on the DCL bus from the airport) on Thursday around noon. We had to stand in line for about 20 minutes, but our room was available. Once we got our room, we when straight to the DCL desk and cleared everything for the cruise. There was no waiting for this took about 10 minutes. We then went to our room. Our luggage arrive about 15 minutes later. We were on the 2nd floor of the Tokelau. We had a balcony with a wonderful view of the pool and the beautiful view of the well-groomed lawns. We had lunch at the Kona Café. The boys were a little tired, but they were ready for Magic Kingdom so we caught the monorail and headed for Magic Kingdom. We were there from about 2:30 until about 8:00. We had dinner at on of the restaurants there and then headed back to the room. We visited Epcot Friday. We visited MGM and went back to Magic Kingdom (we didnt finish on Thursday) on Saturday. We ate breakfast at Kona a couple of time and had dinner there once. We were very pleased when the service and food. On Friday night we had dinner at Ohana. Some of the meat was a little overcooked, but the rest of the food and selections were great. They kept bringing the food to the table and we kept eating. We basically went to bed late every night and slept in (until about 9:00 or so) during the mornings. On Sunday morning our bags were picked up around 8:15 and we caught the bus to Animal Kingdom. We were there for about 2.5 hours and then headed for the DCL bus to be taken to the Disney Wonder. Just as we were about to head for the bus the rain came hard. We had to walk about 4+ blocks to get to the bus so we got a little wet. We left AK about 12:15 and arrived at Port C. about 1:25. It basically rained all the way. It slacked off when we arrived. The boys were very excited. It was so wonderful to have checked in at the resort. We went through security and were on the ship in about 10 minutes. We were greeted and welcomed by our family last name. We went straight up and made reservations for the Palos brunch (we were glad we did) and then we went to sign the boys up for the club and lab. After that we went to checkout our room. It was about 2:35. We were in 7594 with a verandah. We were about 7-10 steps away from the laundry room. This was perfect. We did do any washing, but we use the iron quite a bit. The room was perfect. The boys loved the balcony. It made the room a little bigger. It was like a room extension. The boys went out and played while we started to unpack our carry-on. The rest of our luggages arrived about 30 minutes later.
And then our somewhat disastrous anniversary day began. I noticed that I could not find my Olympus digital camera. I remembered laying it down to take our welcome aboard family photo before boarding the ship. I immediately followed my tracks back to the photo stand, Palos reservation, kids clubs, etc., but could not find it. By now I was really feeling bad. My $300 cameras with all of my pictures from the previous 3+ days were gone. I went to Guest Services and filed a missing item report. They said they would call me when it turned up. They never called. I checked back with them on Tuesday evening and they had it. I asked them why then didnt call me, but I didnt make a big fuss because I was just glad to have it. It would have been nice to have had it for Castaway Cay, but that was ok. I did have my Wal-Mart disposal that I had brought for backup so I was able to get some shots. I apologize to all of you on the board who I was supposed to meet at Common Grounds at 3:30. By the time all of this was over, it was about 3:45 and we had to get ready for the safety drill. By this time I hadnt eaten anything but a croissant earlier that morning so I began to feel very sick. I was so weak and got dizzy. I was very close to getting off the ship, but I figured if I got something to eat I would be ok. Of course everything was closed for the drill so I couldnt get anything. I barely made it through the drill and went back to the room and laid down the rest of the evening. My wife decided to check the boys into the club for a little while when I rested and she finished unpacking. At 7:45 we started to get the boys clothes ready for dinner. It was then that I realized that I had left my 7 year olds dress clothing (all of his long pants) hanging in the closet at home. I ran down stairs to see if I could buy something form him to wear. Guess what. They do not sell any boys pant in any of the shops so I bought him a nice polo shirt and put on a pair of his longer shorts and his dress shoes. He looked great compared to some of the others I saw. Thank goodness we had the PTAP rotation. I wasnt able to eat too much because I was too week to eat. The next day I was 100% and enjoyed the rest of the cruise. I figured when we got off the ship at Nassau we could buy my boy some dress pants for the rest of the nights. NOT! It turn out that it was some type of holiday there so all of the department clothes were closed. It turned out to not be so bad because the boys fell in love with the club so they wanted to stay there during our dinnertime. On Monday night the boys went to the club and the DW and I had dinner together at Trinton. We did the same thing on Wed. night when we ate at Pirate Cay. On Tuesday night we all had dinner at Animators Palace. On the days that the boys did not have the 8:30 dinner with us, we check them out of the club and took them to dinner at Pinocchios Pizzeria and Plutos Dog House and then took them back to the club. We wanted to at least spend some dinnertime together.
We all had a wonderful time. We all enjoyed the shows and there were characters EVERYWHERE. We got a lot of pictures of the boys hugging them all over the ship, at Disney World, etc.
Some Quick notes:
·The Palos brunch was WONDERFUL! It was about the most relaxed 2 hours that we had on the ship. The food was great. Our server, Mario, was excellent. The weather was perfect so we were able to just take our time, eat and enjoy the beautiful relaxing sea.
·Due to weather, we were an hour late getting off the ship at Castaway Cay, but it cleared up nicely and we had a wonderfully day. The boys really enjoyed playing in the water with their floats.
·The boys enjoyed the ice cream at Scoops. The 24-hour drink service on 9 aft was wonderful and very convenient since our room was on 7 aft. We just ran up the stairs and got a quick drink when the boys got thirsty.
·We used room service to get the boys some dinner one evening when it rained. It was great. We ordered them pizza, hot dogs and macaroni and cheese.
·Tip Thanks everyone for the tip about putting the luggage under the bed. We had 6 pieces of luggage and it all fitted under the bead. On the way back to the airport we overhead someone saying that they had to put their luggage on the side of the bed. They didnt know about the space under the bed.
·I ordered anniversary stateroom decorations to surprise my wife. She liked it and the cake. I also ordered 2 Mickey cups for the boys and had them waiting when we arrived. They were very excited to see them.
We (myself-37, DW-37, DS-7 and DS-4) are just back from the 7-day land/sea (7/2904-8/5/04). It was the boys first trip to Disney and our first trip on the Wonder. We were also celebrating our 12th wedding anniversary, 8/1. We purchased everything, except air, through DCL so all of our luggage when straight from Houston to the hotel.
We arrived at the Polynesian Resort (on the DCL bus from the airport) on Thursday around noon. We had to stand in line for about 20 minutes, but our room was available. Once we got our room, we when straight to the DCL desk and cleared everything for the cruise. There was no waiting for this took about 10 minutes. We then went to our room. Our luggage arrive about 15 minutes later. We were on the 2nd floor of the Tokelau. We had a balcony with a wonderful view of the pool and the beautiful view of the well-groomed lawns. We had lunch at the Kona Café. The boys were a little tired, but they were ready for Magic Kingdom so we caught the monorail and headed for Magic Kingdom. We were there from about 2:30 until about 8:00. We had dinner at on of the restaurants there and then headed back to the room. We visited Epcot Friday. We visited MGM and went back to Magic Kingdom (we didnt finish on Thursday) on Saturday. We ate breakfast at Kona a couple of time and had dinner there once. We were very pleased when the service and food. On Friday night we had dinner at Ohana. Some of the meat was a little overcooked, but the rest of the food and selections were great. They kept bringing the food to the table and we kept eating. We basically went to bed late every night and slept in (until about 9:00 or so) during the mornings. On Sunday morning our bags were picked up around 8:15 and we caught the bus to Animal Kingdom. We were there for about 2.5 hours and then headed for the DCL bus to be taken to the Disney Wonder. Just as we were about to head for the bus the rain came hard. We had to walk about 4+ blocks to get to the bus so we got a little wet. We left AK about 12:15 and arrived at Port C. about 1:25. It basically rained all the way. It slacked off when we arrived. The boys were very excited. It was so wonderful to have checked in at the resort. We went through security and were on the ship in about 10 minutes. We were greeted and welcomed by our family last name. We went straight up and made reservations for the Palos brunch (we were glad we did) and then we went to sign the boys up for the club and lab. After that we went to checkout our room. It was about 2:35. We were in 7594 with a verandah. We were about 7-10 steps away from the laundry room. This was perfect. We did do any washing, but we use the iron quite a bit. The room was perfect. The boys loved the balcony. It made the room a little bigger. It was like a room extension. The boys went out and played while we started to unpack our carry-on. The rest of our luggages arrived about 30 minutes later.
And then our somewhat disastrous anniversary day began. I noticed that I could not find my Olympus digital camera. I remembered laying it down to take our welcome aboard family photo before boarding the ship. I immediately followed my tracks back to the photo stand, Palos reservation, kids clubs, etc., but could not find it. By now I was really feeling bad. My $300 cameras with all of my pictures from the previous 3+ days were gone. I went to Guest Services and filed a missing item report. They said they would call me when it turned up. They never called. I checked back with them on Tuesday evening and they had it. I asked them why then didnt call me, but I didnt make a big fuss because I was just glad to have it. It would have been nice to have had it for Castaway Cay, but that was ok. I did have my Wal-Mart disposal that I had brought for backup so I was able to get some shots. I apologize to all of you on the board who I was supposed to meet at Common Grounds at 3:30. By the time all of this was over, it was about 3:45 and we had to get ready for the safety drill. By this time I hadnt eaten anything but a croissant earlier that morning so I began to feel very sick. I was so weak and got dizzy. I was very close to getting off the ship, but I figured if I got something to eat I would be ok. Of course everything was closed for the drill so I couldnt get anything. I barely made it through the drill and went back to the room and laid down the rest of the evening. My wife decided to check the boys into the club for a little while when I rested and she finished unpacking. At 7:45 we started to get the boys clothes ready for dinner. It was then that I realized that I had left my 7 year olds dress clothing (all of his long pants) hanging in the closet at home. I ran down stairs to see if I could buy something form him to wear. Guess what. They do not sell any boys pant in any of the shops so I bought him a nice polo shirt and put on a pair of his longer shorts and his dress shoes. He looked great compared to some of the others I saw. Thank goodness we had the PTAP rotation. I wasnt able to eat too much because I was too week to eat. The next day I was 100% and enjoyed the rest of the cruise. I figured when we got off the ship at Nassau we could buy my boy some dress pants for the rest of the nights. NOT! It turn out that it was some type of holiday there so all of the department clothes were closed. It turned out to not be so bad because the boys fell in love with the club so they wanted to stay there during our dinnertime. On Monday night the boys went to the club and the DW and I had dinner together at Trinton. We did the same thing on Wed. night when we ate at Pirate Cay. On Tuesday night we all had dinner at Animators Palace. On the days that the boys did not have the 8:30 dinner with us, we check them out of the club and took them to dinner at Pinocchios Pizzeria and Plutos Dog House and then took them back to the club. We wanted to at least spend some dinnertime together.
We all had a wonderful time. We all enjoyed the shows and there were characters EVERYWHERE. We got a lot of pictures of the boys hugging them all over the ship, at Disney World, etc.
Some Quick notes:
·The Palos brunch was WONDERFUL! It was about the most relaxed 2 hours that we had on the ship. The food was great. Our server, Mario, was excellent. The weather was perfect so we were able to just take our time, eat and enjoy the beautiful relaxing sea.
·Due to weather, we were an hour late getting off the ship at Castaway Cay, but it cleared up nicely and we had a wonderfully day. The boys really enjoyed playing in the water with their floats.
·The boys enjoyed the ice cream at Scoops. The 24-hour drink service on 9 aft was wonderful and very convenient since our room was on 7 aft. We just ran up the stairs and got a quick drink when the boys got thirsty.
·We used room service to get the boys some dinner one evening when it rained. It was great. We ordered them pizza, hot dogs and macaroni and cheese.
·Tip Thanks everyone for the tip about putting the luggage under the bed. We had 6 pieces of luggage and it all fitted under the bead. On the way back to the airport we overhead someone saying that they had to put their luggage on the side of the bed. They didnt know about the space under the bed.
·I ordered anniversary stateroom decorations to surprise my wife. She liked it and the cake. I also ordered 2 Mickey cups for the boys and had them waiting when we arrived. They were very excited to see them.
