We Saw It, We Ate It! 11/19 Wonder UPDATED!

[tinkmom2]

Hiya all,
We just got back from our Wonderful cruise on Sunday after spending 3 days at POP, WDW, Epcot and 3 days on the Wonder on our bounceback cruise. I am still feeling the motion of the ship. I like to call it "sea legs." I still feel like the ships a rockin lol! We took over 3 hours of video and 500 pictures. And we had a few Magical Moments on the way too!

I reported on the food for first half of our trip which was spent 11/16-19th at POP, Epcot, and at the MVMCP. See that part here
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2337135

Let me tell you first who went. It was my DH Pat, My DD10 Cassie, DD4 Claire, and me on our bounceback cruise.

We had a awesome time at Epcot seeing all the decor and at our first MVMCP. The parade was the best I have ever seen! It was our fifth time visiting the Magic Kingdom but a time for a lot of firsts for us.

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Gingerbread house at the Grand Floridian

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huge Mickey wreath on the monoraill entrance to the Contemporary

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another gingerbread house in the USA pavillion

one of the many beautiful trees at Epcot



In all the times we have been there, I have never been on the teacups or had a dole whip. We also always come at spring break time so we were loving all the decorations. We have never been to the parks nor the resorts when they are so empty. We now have officially been at all the value resorts and like POP the best.

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The MVMCP was the best time we have ever had at WDW. I was wowed at Spectromagic but when I saw the Christmas Parade it became my new #1. The decorations were over the top at MK.

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Cassie having her first Dole Whip

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We had several TS meals which you can read about in the link above. When we got back to our hotel room we got our first Magical experince. We were selected as the housekeeping family of the day. I guess we looked like we needed it lol. Our room was a mess lol! Here's the certificate below. We got turndown service and mints on our pillow. Fancy lol!

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One night we fell asleep and the next day all the decorations were up at our resort!

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Epcot day we had brekfast at Akershus. Both my dd's were able to meet the Princesses there

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So we had a awesome time at the MVMCP and Epcot. The next morning our Limo company was to pick us up with a towncar. Another Magical moment occured. Here's what pulled up:

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Next stop Port Canaveral!

 

[Cheryl726]

Great pics so far!

 

[tinkmom2]

Now off to Port...

We got to the port around 11:30AM and I went through the Castaway line at checkin. It was pretty fast but our boarding number was a 13. Really it didn't matter because we were busy getting the pager for the kids club and taking pics with the characters. On our maiden voyage we didn't get to port until 3:30pm so we were excited to see all the people and decorations. I prepaid my shipboard account up to $450.00 and am glad I did! I didn't have to worry about money the whole cruise although I did go to guest services midway to check my balance. Here are some pics from port. There is a lot of construction going on I am guessing to make room for the Dream.

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Claire and Mickey

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Our boarding number was called pretty quick and we were told to go to Beach Blanket buffet but we wanted Parrot Cay. So that's where we went. We didn't have a line at all. We were starving!
Here's my plate

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By the time lunch was over we only had a few minute wait until 1:30pm to get to our rooms.
It was off to the mandatory muster drill

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I didn't realize til I got to the muster drill that I had on a kids life jacket lol!

Off to dinner our first night at Animator's Palate. I had requested our server from our first cruise Ganesh Ubale from India but was kind of sad when someone else showed us to our table. I was reading through the menu and guess whom surprised me? Ganesh. He came up to the side of our table and I was so happy to see him as were the girls

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I had the ahi tuna tartar for the appitzer which I love:

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My entree was the steak

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Pat had the 5 spice scented fish. It was so so.

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Cassie had the lemon thyme chicken

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on to desserts next time...

OMG! I forgot to mention at 3pm that first day we got a chance to meet some fellow Disers from our FE exchange.

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[pmama]

Love it, keep it coming! We are going on a land/sea in less than 3 weeks.

 

[tinkmom2]

Can't forget the desserts for AP!

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We had first dinner seating this time. Now I know that we like the 2nd better I am sure that's what we'll get from now on. I felt with the first dinner seating we were rushing activities. With the second seating we would eat a good breakfast, take a nap, grab a piece of pizza, and then have the late dinner. The first dinner seating we were hurrying to clean up before dinner and rushing as not to be late.

The Golden Mickey's my oldest skipped but the rest of us love Ensign Benson!

The next morning we docked in Nassau! Beautiful out at sea but once you are off the ship you are bombarded by peddlers. "Do you want your hair braided?"... Our favorite line was..."Come ride these air conditioned bikes lol!"

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We had our first near death experince on Nassau. We decided to take the ferry across to Atlantis at $3.00/person. Luckily we dropped the kids back off at the ship. We were instructed to walk on the slip where they tie the boats to. It was about 2 feet across and a huge drop into the ocean. I tripped myself several times on the ropes. We get on the boat and it's something out of the 1920's. It had cement seats and not enough life jackets! Luckily I had my free motion sickenss pills from the ship because the boat was in and out of the waves.
A man was on the boat and told us some history of the island. He wanted a tip afterwards.

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I spent about $40.00 on penny slots at Atlantis and lost. I love all the glass scuptures. It is the same artist whom did the glass sculpture on the Wonder.

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This is the tiny police station at Nassau

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We took the taxi back and picked up some t-shirts and rum cakes before walking to the Wonder.

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[Mojodisney]

Enjoying your TR.

 

[tinkmom2]

Thanks Everyone for Reading! And Happy Turkey Day!

 

[tinkmom2]

Back from Nassau..Now some alone time...

I forgot to tell you that earlier that AM we met with the Princesses in the atrium. Our first cruise we made it a point to be early. This time we were not so lucky and were waiting by the side of Tritons with a line of about 25 people ahead of us. Thank goodness for the cast members walking around with coffee! Tip: Since we were on a previous cruise we took our own pics and didn't like any of the pics from Shutters. My 4 year old doesn't like to look in the camera too much! Here's some of what we took! Claire had light up shoes and the Princesses got a kick out of that!

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At first I made ressies at the Vista Spa for the Exotic Rasul but decided to cancel it and use the money elsewhere. My nails were looking horrible so I made an appointment for a polish change for right before dinner. I also bought us two rainforest room passes. We couldn't find the spa at first but when we did I checked to see if I could get my nails done sooner. And I was able to. The problem was I wasn't able to enjoy the spa portion because my nails were now wet. It was a big waste of money. Plus I smeared my nails somehow. Luckily you couldn't tell unless you were looking close. I know I really should have booked the rainforest on my 4 day when we weren't so rushed.

By this time it's nearly 4pm. I ran to get Claire from her group and Pat went to get Cassie. The pagers don't work when you are on land and we didn't take them to the spa.

After our little trip to Nassau the DH and I came back and got Claire out of her club. When we got there they were playing a "Find Tink Scavenger hunt." She just turned 4 last month but was fine because she has been in school since September. The only thing I worry about is she doesn't go pee when she is involved in something but I understand they made bathroom stops

I had to wait about 15 minutes before they were finished with the hunt.

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Those were some pics of the inside of the club for the younger ones.
Most times when we looked for my older DD she was on deck 10 doing some sports activity. It was very hard to find her at times and that was a problem for us...see why later!

Claire and I did venture to the Mickey ears in the pool but found it too rough. There was very little parental supervision and there was one cast member not even in swim attire watching about 60 plus kids.

Claire can't swim and the water went to above mid waist in the ears. So I sat ther in the ears. She is too big for the splash pad and some kids were being rude and hogging the streams of water. (Boys are rough that's for sure!) She did make about 10 new friends there though. So we didn't stay long and that was our last and only experince with the pool.

My DH Pat finally located Cassie. By that time she missed out on swimming. The weather was beautiful the whole trip, no rain! And the temp in Nassau was 85. I was sweating bullets lol! I took a shower before dinner.

It was Pirate Night and we were scheduled for Parrot Cay. They don't make a big deal with presentation on a 3 night. There were no special menus and no more bandannas. Claire was the only one out of our group that was dressed up. She had a pirate dress that had LED lights in it. We bought it from Walgreens and everyone including Jack Sparrow was going bonkers over it! The only problem with the dress is it had a under part with a battery in it and kept falling down when Claire was walking. We had to tie the part that was supposed to go around her waist, around her shoulders.

Our assistant server was Luic from France. He was so nice but hard to understand sometimes because he was just learning English. I thought he did pretty good though. He knew what drinks we all wanted. Pat and I stuck to non alcoholic drinks for the most part but had this banana rum daccori and Cassie had a chocolate milkshake type drink.

Our last cruise we missed Parrot Cay because we chose Palos for the two of us. Now at this cruise we have eaten there breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Dinner unlike the other two was brought out by servers. The later were buffet style.

We were sad to hear Ganesh our server isn't going with the Wonder to Alaska. He recently got married and is going to Dallas to be with his wife! We were so happy for him! Our family developed such a bond with him on our last cruise that we were so happy we could get him this cruise!

Well more about dinner next time. I have to hurry and clean before company comes for Thanksgiving!

 

[pmama]

Oh, my girls will be so excited you saw Princess Tiana on the ship! They really want to meet her. In fact they had asked if she was on the ship and I said "probably not". I hope she is there when we sail in a couple weeks.

 

[tinkmom2]

Oh, my girls will be so excited you saw Princess Tiana on the ship! They really want to meet her. In fact they had asked if she was on the ship and I said "probably not". I hope she is there when we sail in a couple weeks.

I hope she is there for you! We had Sleeping Beauty, Tianna, Snow White, and Cinderella but had neither Sleeping Beauty nor Tinana on our cruise in March. It all depends on who is onboard at the time. The girl whom played Belle was the same whom played Mulan and is good for stage but not close ups with the kids.

 

[natale1980]

Great TR...
But I have to ask you... why was the Dole whip green?

-nat

 

[tinkmom2]

They said they made the Dole Whip green and the pineapple was supposed to be red for the Christmas Party.

 

[tinkmom2]

Well back to talking about eating lol!

Our dinner at Parrot Cay was good. I haven't eatten dinner here before and it was good for the most part.
Starters I had crab martinique as well as Cassie.
I thought it was so so. I think I was expecting more of a crab flavor and I didn't care for the plantain chips.

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I can't recall what this is and will have to ask the DH when he gets up.

Ganesh was really good about bringing Claire (4) her entree first.

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My salad was a ceasar salad but I can't remember the name they give it:

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I had this "island" sampler and recall it had lamb, sausage, and I think steak on it.

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Pat had the fish

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Cassie had a jerk style chicken

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Claire asked Ganesh if he could bring her Mickey Mouse and here's what he brought!

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We knew we would be eating at Pirate night so we opted out of dessert. Ganesh picked up Clarie at our table so she could march in the parade they had. She was wearing a pirate costume with LED lights in it.

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So its off to Pirate night on deck. My oldest Cassie didn't want to come out of her program. My DH was pretty frustrated with her because he ran up to deck 10 about 5 times. Eventually he took her back to our room and never came back down to meet me. By this time Claire 4 was exhausted.

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We were right by Minnie when she was doing the "tail feather"

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We never made it through our first pirate party so I was determined to do it by myself. I still have never tried any of the hot food there but did get some desserts to take back to the stateroom.

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I also was able to get a pic of my fellow Diser VET's kids with Claire:

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Next off to Castaway!

 

[pmama]

Sounds like a great evening. Love the pirate costume.

 

[Fatima1922]

I am doing my first DCL cruise in a couple of weeks. I am trying to decide whether to change to late dinner but I have a 3 year old. I am curious how your daughters did when you had late dining the last time. I don't like being rushed and I KNOW my DH hates it.

 

[tinkmom2]

I am doing my first DCL cruise in a couple of weeks. I am trying to decide whether to change to late dinner but I have a 3 year old. I am curious how your daughters did when you had late dining the last time. I don't like being rushed and I KNOW my DH hates it.

My DD was 3 on our first cruise and did just fine with having late dinner. We took a nap mid day and she was ready to go for the rest of the night. She is pretty energetic though and it's hard for her to slow down lol!

 

[VET]

Hello Chris!!!
I am back at work---UGH!!! And am ABSOLUTELY LOVING your TR!!!! I read that you didnt get any pics of your door on the cruise...well...I did!!! One morning, Katrina was helping me deliver the gifts, and I said I wanted an action shot of her, and realized it was your door...I will email it to you if you like. Valerie and Katrina (both pictured with Claire in the pirate costume picture) havent stopped talking about how sweet Claire was!!! They loved looking for her and getting her special hugs!!! I see from my pictures Thomas and Cassie seemed to be together quite a bit with the kids activities. I really enjoyed meeting all of you and must thank you again for coordinating our FE!!! It was GREAT!!!
Thanks again!!!
Ellen

 

[tinkmom2]

Hi,
I was wondering why Cassie didn't want to come out of her group I had a great time but wish we all could have been together more. It was just too short of a trip! Right now I am up with a tooth ache..fun I know! (I am glad it didn't happen on the cruise)

Did you have fun on Castaway?

The FE was a blast! It's like having Christmas when ever you come back to your cabin. The girls have a huge bowl full of candy and gifts and get to choose something every day.

Thanks for taking a pic of my door. I took video of the inside of the cabin but forgot to take some of the outside. We took about 500 plus have a few hours of video. There were so many magical moments throughout our whole trip. It's about 35 degrees now. I wish I could be back there in Florida!
Chris

 

[VET]

Castaway Cay was AWESOME!!! We brought our own snorkle gear and played on the beach. I ended up renting a bike and went for a nice ride by myself. I will do that again hopefully if the weather is nice when we go. I think Castaway Cay is really what made me go ahead and book the Dream, although we have 722 more days to go!!! I hope your tooth feels better!!!
Ellen
P.S. as for the weather.... right now we're not too far behind you....its 46!!!! I am so glad we had such great weather for the cruise!!!

 

[Kay1]

Thanks for sharing with us and thanks for all the food pictures.