Two Adults on a Disney Cruise! 4/10 MR Wonder ***FINISHED*** TRIP REPORT!!!

[Scraper]

Loving this trip report. It looks like so much fun. Never having been on a trip I was wondering how it works when you are at port. Do you have to stay off the boat a certain amount of time or are there always things to do on the boat?

 

[Mindyjoy]

Loving this trip report. It looks like so much fun. Never having been on a trip I was wondering how it works when you are at port. Do you have to stay off the boat a certain amount of time or are there always things to do on the boat?

You don't have to get off the boat if you don't want to. I read that a lot of people didn't get off the boat at all because they are scared to be in Mexico. The pools and restaurants are always open and they have some activities going on around the ship, but not as many options as on sea days.

 

[Mindyjoy]

Day 6 - Cabo again!

The night before we put our room service tag out for delivery between 7:00-7:30am but I think DF checked the wrong box because I was awoken at 6:40am by a knock at the door. I awkwardly let the CM in and then went back to bed for a little bit. We wanted a light breakfast because we were only in Cabo from 7-noon today, and we knew we would be having an early lunch. So we had a quick breakfast of muffins and fruit on the veranda.

Blocking my view!

After breakfast we headed to the Buena Vista Theater to wait in line for the tender, but there was no line so we were directed right down to deck 1, and we were on shore around 8:30am. We knew we wanted to take a water taxi tour around Los Archos and then get dropped off at The Office at Medano Beach, like Christiaan had recommended. As we walked along the marina, tons of vendors tried to get our attention for water taxis. One vendor said, "Hey I recognize you guys from yesterday, please take my card for a water taxi." Now, I'm sure he didn't recognize us per se, but we both were wearing Disney shirts and I'm sure they know the ship was in port for two days, soooo .... but his little ploy caught my attention so I asked him how much for a taxi tour around the Arch and then drop off at Medano Beach. At first he said $12 per person and we said "no thanks", and he immediately dropped it to $10. So we agreed, and he called over a co-worker who led us around the marina to the boat. As we walked, he pointed to a little dingy with wooden planks for a bottom and he said, "that's the boat" to which I said, "NO BUENO!!!!" We all had a good laugh. I wish I had taken a picture of the little boat but trust me when I say it was really sad looking.

When we got to the REAL boat, there were already some people waiting. We got on and the boat took off. At first I was nervous because we started headed towards Medano Beach which was not what we wanted, but it turns out one of the couples on board wanted to go to Mango Deck, so we dropped them off and then headed across the marina to the Arch.

Now, I had seen a lot of pictures of this area on past trip reports so I was kind of "meh" about doing this boat tour, but DF wanted to do it and Christiaan recommended it, and I'm SO GLAD we did. The pictures do not do this place justice. The rock formations are so tall and intricate, it was really something to see them up close.

Pelican Rock (no joke - I wonder why the pelicans like this particular rock the best)

Near Pelican Rock our guide stopped the boat so we could see the tropical fish. He handed us each a cracker to break up and throw over the side to attract the fish. They were really pretty and I wasn't expecting to see any tropical fish in Mexico's less-than-crystal-clear waters so, bonus.

Also, while we were stopped here a seal swam under our glass bottom boat but I couldn't get a picture fast enough.

The rest of our boatmates wanted to get dropped off at Lover's Beach, so after they got off we had a private tour around Los Archos. It was great! Our guide was wonderful and offered to take several pictures of us with our camera, and each time he would say "1-2-3, TEQUILA" which cracked me up.

Seal Rock - again, they weren't joking about that name.

The tour took us close to the Arch, then around to the Pacific side, stopping for picture opportunities. Our guide asked us if we wanted to be dropped off at Lovers Beach and we told him we wanted to go to The Office. He started heading that way and asked when we wanted him to pick us back up. We explained we wanted to walk back. I almost felt kinda bad because he was so eager to help us. We got to Medano Beach and tipped our guide $5, and hopped off the boat. A guy was there to help us off the boat, turns out he worked at Mango Deck which is right next door to The Office, and seemed annoyed when we said we weren't going to Mango. Sorry dude, it's not like we asked for help getting off the boat.

We got a table at The Office and were offered water or juice. I forgot it was still early morning. I asked DF if it was too early for a margarita and he said "if you get one I'll get one." So we ordered strawberry margaritas at 9:30am. What, I'm on vacation!!!!!!

We ordered the chilaquiles and they were fantastic. Both the food and drinks here were REALLY good and I highly recommend this place.

*drool*

We had a leisurely brunch and stayed for about an hour and a half.

After brunch we had about an hour before we had to be back on the ship. We had some postcards to send so we head out in search of the post office. I had a map with the general location of the post office, and we were pointed in the right direction by someone at the restaurant. After about a 15 minute walk we found the post office and mailed our post cards ($7 for 5 cards, hardly seems worth it!) If I would have known I would have just mailed them when I got back to L.A.

We walked back through the marina and DF sat and read while I went inside the flea market right near the dock. I was looking for something for my mom, best friend, and also for the bracelet that a previous cruiser had lost. It didn't take long to find the lost bracelet and I also bought a pink bracelet made of chiclet wrappers for my BFF. I ended up finding a little coin/makeup pouch for mom, and I gathered up DF and we headed back to the ship. We were back on the ship by noon, whew! I was not a fan of the short Cabo day, but what can you do.

Back on the boat we had lunch at BBB, which I found to be very good today but sadly I don't have a picture of my plate. The one thing I remember was a crepe dessert station. YUM. During lunch we discussed whether or not we should rebook on board. We decided we would talk to the CM at the future cruise desk and we agreed that, if we could keep pushing out our cruise for an infinite amount of time, AND, our deposit could be completely refundable at any time, AND, we could rebook for under $300, then we would book a dummy cruise.

After lunch we headed back to the cabin for some naps, and then we both went to the gym and ran on the treadmill for a bit. After cleaning up, we went to the future cruise desk and waited in line for about 20 minutes for our turn. To make a long story short, all the answers to our questions were YES so we rebooked a dummy cruise. Not sure what we are going to do yet but eventually I want to go to WDW and maybe do a 3 or 4 night cruise while we are there, so maybe we will do that for our first or second anniversary, depending on funds.

Back to the room to hang out until it was time for dinner. We were in Tritons and it was semi-formal night, but we didn't dress up. Goofy was outside the restaurant when we went in.

For whatever reason, I find formal Goofy HILARIOUS but I couldn't get a clear picture of him. I think it's the missing hat that makes me find the whole look so odd.

Tonight was another great menu. We both ordered the Stripes cocktail which was excellent.

I started with the wild mushroom soup and DF had the beef and tomato consumme (after asking what the heck that was). Both were good, but sadly I forgot to take pictures.

For entree I ordered the asparagus and blue cheese risotto (no surprise there) and the fettuccine with parmesan crusted chicken. Both were very good, although the fettuccine was a little tough. Still delicious. DF had the lobster tail and he enjoyed it.

For dessert I ordered the banana creme brulee (disappointing - it was just regular creme brulee with some banana slices on top) and DF ordered the amaretto cheesecake (again disappointing, it just tasted like regular cheesecake). When we ordered our desserts, Nelson informed us we also wanted lava cake. Who are we to argue with the pros so we agreed. Good thing we did because we both loved the lava cake and that was the only dessert we finished. Nelson asked us if we wanted another which we sadly declined because we were stuffed. Nelson told us that there was a dessert buffet that night at Triton's at 11:15pm so to be sure to come back. We said okay knowing fully well we would be too stuffed still for more food. But now, looking at the pictures in other trip reports, I wish we had at least gone and checked it out.

After dinner I think we walked a few laps around Deck 4 before heading back to the cabin, where we met this guy:

We decided to go down to Route 66 and see if anything was happening, but the ship was moving pretty fast and was a bit rocky, and I decided I would rather just go back to the cabin and watch TV. And so we did.

 

[Susiesark]

I think the DISer is ending up with a lot of bracelets - a few from my group were also going to look for them, which was easy to find.
And, like you, everything in Cabo was perfect until the ship gets past Lands End and hits the Pacific, Really rough water for the next 1 1/2 days.
I think I forgot how to cook, and room service isn't answering my calls anymore.

 

[librarygeek]

Looks like a fun day! I love all the seals on the rock, too cool to see that! And I see DF agreed to wear the tie-dye mickey shirt. I guess the new one without the pink was better

 

[soul_power]

Great TR! DBF and I are cruising on the Dream in September, and we don't have kids, so it's nice to read an "adults only" TR (not that I don't like reading the other TRs, just saying).

 

[Mindyjoy]

I think the DISer is ending up with a lot of bracelets - a few from my group were also going to look for them, which was easy to find.
And, like you, everything in Cabo was perfect until the ship gets past Lands End and hits the Pacific, Really rough water for the next 1 1/2 days.
I think I forgot how to cook, and room service isn't answering my calls anymore.

haha, went we got home we kept waiting around for Nelson to bring us our dinner.

Looks like a fun day! I love all the seals on the rock, too cool to see that! And I see DF agreed to wear the tie-dye mickey shirt. I guess the new one without the pink was better

Yeah DF wore his shirt twice that week so I guess he wasn't embarrassed by it, haha.

Great TR! DBF and I are cruising on the Dream in September, and we don't have kids, so it's nice to read an "adults only" TR (not that I don't like reading the other TRs, just saying).

I haven't been on the Dream but if it's anything like the Wonder there will be plenty to do. DF went through a couple books and I went through a few wedding magazines during the week. Outlook Cafe is a great, quiet place for adults to read (I'm sure they have an equivalent on the Dream).

Sorry I've been neglecting my TR! I should wrap it up tonight. Just one and a half days left.

 

[Mindyjoy]

Day 7 – Day At Sea

We had PALO brunch this morning so we slept in. DF went for a run around Deck 4 while I went up to BBB in my jammy-jams and got a quick bite to eat to hold me over until 11am. For some reason I'm ALWAYS hungry as soon as I wake up in the morning, but DF can go for hours without eating. After eating my snack and making myself presentable to the world, I went down to the Captains Q&A session with Captain Guss, Christiaan, and the director of hotel operations (shoot, can't remember her name ). This was very informative and I highly recommend it. One adorable little boy asked Captain Guss "Is there someone to replace you????" in a somewhat panicked voice. No one really understood the question so the boy's mom translated: "He wants to know who's driving the ship right now." Everyone cracked up. (The answer is, there are three captains and they work in 8 hours shifts.)

By the time Q&A was over it was time for brunch. I went upstairs to collect DF and we headed up to Deck 10. We checked in and the host asked if we had dined at PALO for dinner. I replied that we had and they asked us if we wanted our same server. I said sure, and requested Nikola. As we were seated we saw several other DISers, including LovingRN and her DH (I'm so embarrassed I can't remember everyone else's screennames, d'oh!) I peeked around at what everyone was eating and got some recommendations. Nikola showed us around to all the stations and I took my pictures, of course.

Seafood station

Antipasto station

My personal fav, the cheese and bread station. The blue cheese and walnut bread is to die for!!!

Dessert station.

We made our plates and also ordered a la carte items. I had the grape and gargonzola pizza (pretty good, it was a little too sweet for me) and the strawberry soup (very good, like drinking melted sherbet). DF had the frittata (he loved it and ate the whole thing).

Seriously DF talked about how good that frittata was the rest of the trip.

One thing I should mention is that Nikola offered us one complimentary drink of mimosa or sparkling wine. I said "just one?" and he said yes. Well, I thought he meant one per table, so DF ordered a mimosa (I had a mimosa in the room that morning while he was out jogging - haha - so I didn't really need another). I found out later that it was one per person. Another PALO lesson learned for next time!

Nikola remembered that we like to take our time with our meals and brought our a la carte items out slowly. We eventually made our way over to the dessert table.

This plate was just for me.

I had some kind of mango custard thingy (kind of reminded me of flan), chocolate pudding/mousse, lemon meringue tart, fruit tart, white chocolate brownie, and mini chocolate cake. The only thing I ate completely was the lemon meringue tart. IT WAS SO GOOD YOU GUYS.

I only ate half my pizza so Nikola offered to wrap it up to go. We signed the payment slip and rolled out of there, but not after I snuck a few more lemon tarts on my to-go plate (seriously, so good).

After brunch we waddled back to the room and we both laid on the bed for a bit, too full to move. After a while we decided to get up and go for a walk around Deck 4 but it was too windy, so we tried Deck 10, then Deck 9 ... all were too windy. So we went inside Outlook Cafe and got some lattes and did some reading.

A nearly-empty Quiet Cove.

I apparently was still in a food coma and didn't last too long.

My loving DF took some flattering pictures of me before I headed down to the room to take a proper nap. After my nap I read a little out on the veranda. DF came back eventually and we started to do some packing. We ate our leftovers from PALO and after that decided we could stand to run a few minutes on the treadmill.

After the gym we cleaned ourselves up, finished packing and put out our luggage before heading to watch Dreams. We both really enjoyed the show, despite the child in the row behind us who kept sneezing on the back of our necks. I oooh-ed and aaaaah-ed at the fiber optics (remember - easily amused).

If I ever win the lottery I am going to have fiber optic stars installed in my bedroom ceiling.

After the show it was time for our final dinner in Animators. There was lots of good stuff on this menu, and our PALO server Nikola even said the Til We Meet Again menu was his favorite.

I started with the spinach, artichoke, and jalapeño cheese dip (not spicy and very good).

I believe DF got the potato leek soup and liked it, but sadly no picture.

For entree I ordered the Tenderloin which was REALLY good, and so was the William Potato on the side.

DF ordered the garlic and rosemary lamb (good) and the orange roughy (very good).

For dessert we shared the baked alaska.

We were halfway through it when they did the presentation of the "flaming" baked alaska.

We joked that perhaps they forgot to "flame" ours because we didn't see what the big deal was. It was just okay.

After dinner we went to the atrium for the Til We Meet Again show, which is not really a show but rather all the characters come out and you have one last chance to get pictures with them. The only character I managed to get a picture with was Belle, who is my least favorite princess and she had her eyes closed, so oh well. We went up to the room to make some drinks and then headed down to Wavebands for Pub Night. The CMs do a very funny skit and this is a must-see show!

This picture needs some explanation but I'm not gonna give it to you!

After the show Wavebands turned into a dance club. DF DESPISES clubs so I asked if I could dance for a bit and he said sure. After a couple songs I was having a lot of fun so DF said I should stay and dance and he would go to Diversions to watch ESPN. So I danced with myself for an hour or so. I love dancing but am generally too shy to go dancing alone, but I should have done it earlier in the week. I had so much fun. We headed back to the room around midnight (party animals!) and found this waiting for us.

DF dubbed this the laziest of the towel animals.

Since we had to be up early to debark , we set the alarm and went right to sleep.

 

[Mindyjoy]

Day 8 - Debarkation

No pictures for this day, I guess I was just too sad.

Since we had late seating we didn't have to be at breakfast until 8:45. We gathered up all our belongings and did one last sweep of the room before heading out a bit early for breakfast (NOTE - DON'T get to your breakfast location early on the last day! We ended up waiting in line with all our luggage for the restaurant to turn over from the early diners.)

When we headed out we saw Anthony and were able to give him his tip and a bracelet I bought for him in Cabo. There were hugs all around and we wished Anthony luck with the 10 day cruise.

Breakfast this morning was definitely an assembly line feel. The options were quite simple. DF had the Denver omlette and requested some kind of substitution, which he didn't get. I ordered the Route 66 which was scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, and a hash brown . We also ordered a side of crispy bacon which was cooked perfectly. We gave our servers their tips and there was more hugging and I fought back the tears. I was going to miss Nelson bringing my dinners to me every night. We discussed sitting at our table until we were kicked out, but once we heard our luggage tag called (Donald), we headed out and off the ship.

Customs was super easy. There were no lines and no bag searching. We had our tequila we purchased in a separate bag because I thought we had to declare it. The enforcement officer was a bit intimidating. He barked, "What's in the bag?" and DF and I both said "Tequila!" We probably sounded rehearsed. He kind of stared at the bag for a while and then asked us the usual questions about fruits or animal parts (eww) and then let us on our way. We collected our luggage in the Donald area and saw LovingRN again!

We made our way out to the car, and the line to pay to get out of the parking lot took longer than it did to go through customs. With a 40 minute drive home, we were home by 11am! Our cat was crazy happy to see us.

Thank you everyone for reading my report! Til we meet again .....

 

[librarygeek]

Aww, what a nice TR! All of your food pictures look so delicious. That brunch at Palo looks especially yummy!

 

[Mindyjoy]

Aww, what a nice TR! All of your food pictures look so delicious. That brunch at Palo looks especially yummy!

I think I enjoyed brunch more than I enjoyed dinner, although they were both incredible. Thanks so much for reading.

 

[Susiesark]

I think I enjoyed brunch more than I enjoyed dinner, although they were both incredible. Thanks so much for reading.

I was at Palo for brunch on our last full day, too. I was so stuffed form the table stuff that I didn't order anything. Big mistake,since I could have taken it with me. Now I know for next time. We're neighbors (Lakewood) and it took longer to wait for a shuttle back to the DoubleTree than it did to drive home. Thanks for the report and for refreshing my memories.

 

[Mindyjoy]

I was at Palo for brunch on our last full day, too. I was so stuffed form the table stuff that I didn't order anything. Big mistake,since I could have taken it with me. Now I know for next time. We're neighbors (Lakewood) and it took longer to wait for a shuttle back to the DoubleTree than it did to drive home. Thanks for the report and for refreshing my memories.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Cookiesmom]

I'd love to know what the item number is for the champagne & treats that were in your room! They look much nicer than what's currently online for Disney. There are nine of us headed to the Wonder on 10/2 and the husband and I will celebrate our tenth anniversary on the Wonder on 10/6.

 

[Shell54]

Loved your trip report..the horse back riding on the beach looked fun! Sounds like a great cruise

 

[Mindyjoy]

I'd love to know what the item number is for the champagne & treats that were in your room! They look much nicer than what's currently online for Disney. There are nine of us headed to the Wonder on 10/2 and the husband and I will celebrate our tenth anniversary on the Wonder on 10/6.

Congrats on your anniversary! Be sure to stop by guest services to get your "I'm celebrating" pins. I think it was the Bon Voyage package but to be honest I don't know for sure, and neither does my friend. She actually called Disney and asked what kind of gifts were available and they took the lead. So I'm sorry I can't be of much help.

 

[lilsqueakrr]

Aww yay! Sounds like so much fun and love all of the pictures! So jealous! Can't wait for my first cruise!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Hi MindyJoy! Great TR! You finished while I was gone, and I missed you until today when I thought, "Hey, what ever happened on Mindy's cruise?" Looks like you had a great time, and got alot of relaxation in like we did! I did 't know anything about Pub Night until I got back, so we're going to have to go again so I can see it! I'm thinking our report may be a little boring to some. We had some trouble boarding, but otherwise, everything was great! My TR has started (she hints shamelessly).

 

[Mindyjoy]

Hi MindyJoy! Great TR! You finished while I was gone, and I missed you until today when I thought, "Hey, what ever happened on Mindy's cruise?" Looks like you had a great time, and got alot of relaxation in like we did! I did 't know anything about Pub Night until I got back, so we're going to have to go again so I can see it! I'm thinking our report may be a little boring to some. We had some trouble boarding, but otherwise, everything was great! My TR has started (she hints shamelessly).

I'm so glad you found me! I've already been following along on your TR, great stuff so far! Isn't it sad that our cruises are over? After all that time we spent planning they are over in a flash!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

I'm so glad you found me! I've already been following along on your TR, great stuff so far! Isn't it sad that our cruises are over? After all that time we spent planning they are over in a flash!

I know, it's just over too fast - the planning goes on for months, and Poof! It's over. Thanks for reading my TR - I'm a little spacey lately - I've probably already seen you there!