We're not virgins anymore!

[tefrench]

Cruise virgins that is We (me, DW, DS(10), DD(9) just completed a three night aboard the Wonder 2/11 - 14. Getting to PC was an experience in itself. We live in PA and had a snow storm on 2/5-6 in which most flights were cancelled. We were scheduled to leave Baltimore on 2/10 but with the impending storm we found a flight out one day earlier. If we hadn't we would not have made it. This gave us a free day which we spent at DD and DisneyQuest. Great Day! We spent Wednesday night in Cocoa Beach at the Four Points by Sheraton. After we fininished dinner and returned to our room, we lost power which appeared to affect 1-2 blocks. The outage lasted about one hour. Checking in was another adventure for us. Checkin went fine but after we were done, my wife couldn't find her drivers license. We searched everything to no avail. The disney staff had us sit in the concierge area while they determined what could be done. My wife made one last search of her purse and there it was! Were we not supposed to go on this cruise? What else could go wrong. Hopefull this was it. Now our vacation could begin. We boarded and promply headed to deck 9 and had a stiff drink. More in the actual cruise on another post!

 

[DisneyDaddio]

Nice PTR. Look forward to the TR.

 

[tefrench]

So we finally boarded all documents in hand, relaxed with a drink on deck nine. It was a cool day (Cold for FL) for departure. We relaxed and explored deck nine and checked out the Oceaneers Lab on Deck 5 until we could check into our room. We had preregistered our children for the Lab and received our pager and wrist bands in the terminal. We had cabin 7048 which was mid-ship right off the elavators. We found this very convenient during the trip as the Oceaneers club was two decks down. A note about the Oceaneers Club. Our children enjoyed it very much and they enjoyed the freedom. There was Wii, computers, making flubber, volcanos, and cookies. Our kids were 8 and 10 and we allowed them to self checkin and out. I would highly recommend this as it was very time consuming if you needed to check the kids out. The process at times took 5 -10 minutes which can be a long time.

Moving on...After checking out deck 9, we were able to get to our room at 1:30. We quickly checked it out and then we were looking for a bit of something to eat. We ended up at Parrot Cay where they had a very nice buffet. After lunch we returned to our room and our luggage was waiting for us. Our room had a veranda and that made the room feel much larger. If we had a wall were the veranda was I think I would have found it a little close. We found plenty of storage space for our clothing and our suit cases easily fit under the bed. At 4:00 p.m. we headed for the drill. After the drill we headed to our room to drop off our life vests and then headed up to deck nine for the sail-away party. I (fortunately) was not chosen to be one of the Village People, although the men chosen did very well. We stayed on Deck nine and watched until we were out of the Port. DS didn't stay and headed to the Oceaneers Club until dinner. DW, DD and me then went to our room, refreshed and headed to the Golden Mickeys, followed by Dinner at 8:15 at the Parrot Cay. I wasn't sure how I would like the second setting as we normally would eat dinner in the 5:30 time frame, but I think I would select it on the next trip.

At dinner we met our servers Savio and Stanford who did a good job with our difficult group. My DW wasn't feeling too well and left half way through the meal and of course DS left to get back to the club. This left me and DD to finish our excellent meal and desert. After dinner Savio sent me off with a cup of ginger ale and a package of crackers for my wife. DD returned to Oceaneers Club after dinner and I returned to the cabin to check on DW. She was feeling a little better but we spent the remainer of the evening in our cabin. DD returned from the Club around 11:00 and my DS returned about 12:15. I guess they had to kick him out. Speaks to how much he was enjoying the Club.

Just a note... the Carnival Sensation left the Port before us and that evening we could see her in the distance. Later we were even with her and then she was behind us. She arrived in port at Nassau after we docked...must be a slow ship??

So ends our first night.

 

[sdjen]

Enjoying your report so far! Cant wait to read more

 

[DisneyDaddio]

Nice day 1 report.

 

[mstree7832]

 

[tefrench]

Friday brought us to Nassau and balmy weather. We awoke around 7:00 a.m. and we pulled into port very shortly thereafter. We were able to watch from our veranda how the Wonder docked. It was very cool to see. We headed to Parrot Cay for breakfast where they have a buffet. This works great for our kids and a buffet for breakfast is my preference too. My wife had booked us for an excursion in Nassau and we met on deck 3 at 9:30. Our excursion was the Nassau Forts and Junkanoo. (We had to do something educational so the kids time out of school would be excused) Of course my wife enjoys history which I can easily get bored with. Our excursion had about 15 people and we were escorted from the ship through the straw market to a waiting bus. The driver pointed out various government buildings on our way to Fort Fincastle. We were left out and there was a guide who showed us throught the Fort. From there we went to Fort Charlotte and the Queens Staircase. Guides at both Forts made mention that they made their living by the generous contributions from tourists. By now I was quite bored and was ready to go back to the ship. However, we still had to make a stop at Junkanoo. I will admit that the stop at Junkanoo was worth the excursion price to me. Junkanoo is a street parade with music, which occurs in many towns across The Bahamas every Boxing Day (December 26) and New Years Day. I believe Nassau hosts the largest parade. The stop at the Junkanoo museum (I guess) was hosted by a lady who was very active with Junkanoo including making and wearing the elaborate costumes. We were able to see various costumes and we were taught about the Junkanoo music, using drums, cowbells, and whistles. Before leaving we were able to talk pictures wearing various Junkanoo costumes. This stop was a lot of fun. It's been said by many that there is no need to get off the ship in Nassau. I found this excursion worth the time (approx 3 hours). We did not feel harrassed when walking in Nassau, although there were several ladies who wanted to braid my daughters hair. After returning to the ship we donned our swimwear and headed up to deck nine to swim. My kids had their pictures taken with various characters throughout the afternoon. It was a warm day but very breezy. The water was nice but you were quite chilled when getting out of the water. This was the only time we ate counter service. No complaints about what we had to eat..burgers, hotdogs and fries were what you would expect for fast food. Later I had a plate of fresh fruit which was very good. By late afternoon we headed by to our cabin as it was getting a little chilly up top. The kids headed off to the club while me and my wife relaxed for a short time in our cabin and on the veranda. At 5:30 we headed to the Walt Disney Theatre to see Toy Story the Musical. Outside the Theatre, my wife wanted to pose with Capt'n Jack. I took a picture of the two while Capt'n Jack mumbled something to her about "not to worry, it was just his sword." Once she was done lusting, we picked up my daughter and went to see Toy Story the Musical. My son stayed behind in the Club. I think on our next cruise, I may ask him to go along because I think he would have enjoyed it. But he was having fun in the club, so why ruin it. I may have mentioned this before, but the shows are top quality. We throughly enjoyed it. Following the show it was dinner time. Tonights dinner was at Tritons. This meal went much better than our first night. We all stayed for the entire meal, even the kids. It was nearly 10:00 till we were finished and we headed up to the Pirates In The Caribbean Deck Party. It was a chilly windy night up top but they still shot off fireworks around 10:20. It was so windy that Mickey came down the stairs to the stage rather than flying down the zipline. The kids were anxious to get to the Club for a short while so we headed back inside. We totally forgot about the food at the party. (Our tummys must have been so full we didn't even think about it. ) My wife and I called it a night and the entire family was ready to turn by 11:30 p.m. Overall, we had a beautiful day in Nassau, nice weather, great experiences.

 

[tefrench]

Saturday, we woke up to cold temps and gray skys. I went out on our veranda to take a look and didn't see any land at that point. We headed (again) to Parrot Cay for our breakfast. Following breakfast, Captain Gus made an announcement that due to weather conditions we would not be able to go to Castaway Cay. (Another reason was that the Magic was couldn't leave Castaway Cay as you may have read on other threads, but we were not aware at the time) He also warned us that when we crossed the Gulf Stream that night it would be rough. The announcement that we wouldn't get to Castaway Cay was a disappointment but Disney quickly printed a new Navigator with added activities for the day. A showing of G-Force in 3D was added so I along with the Kids set off for the Theatre. This was the first time we saw a full length movie in 3D. While we were at the movie, my wife took some time to herself to have a latte at the Cove Cafe and to enjoy a Martha Stewart magazine Following the movie the kids wanted to get to the Club so I and the wife had a very slow quiet lunch at Tritons. Since it was a down day, we even took time for a nap and to just be lazy. We even took some time to begin packing our bags for our departure. Saturday was dress up night so we dressed up and took off for the final show Dreams! What can I say...but another great show. It even snowed on the audience during this feature. I won't tell you all about the show in case you haven't seen it but there were a lot of special effects in this production. Great Job Disney!!! Dinner at the Animators Palate followed the show. It was really cool to watch the dining room go from Black and White to Full Color including the servers! And there were no complaints about the food either. Following dinner, we headed back to the cabin, finished packing our luggage, put it in the hallway and called it an early night by watching a little TV in bed. The Captain was not kidding when he said it would be a little rough. It took me a long time to fall asleep with the rocking that night. Although we were unable to get to Castaway Cay, it was still a very magical day. Debarkation next post.

 

[Señor DonDuck]

Joining in late. Fun reading your report from a cruise virgin's perspective (I admit I am a cruise virgin, but hopefully that will change next year).

 

[wink13]

We were your neighbors on the cruise (7046). Glad to see you had a good trip as we did also. Enjoyed reading your trip report.

 

[The Bad Witch]

I'm enjoying your trip report! what a shame about Castaway Cay.

 

[tefrench]

Needless to say, the trip back to Port Canaveral was a rocky one. I had trouble sleeping with the constant rocking. However we did wake up to sunshine at the Port. We were second seating so, we when for breakfast at the Animators Palette. Last time to greet our servers and say our goodbyes. From Breakfast we headed off the ship. As we were getting off one of the crew welcomed us to Alaska. It was a chilly morning in FL. In the terminal there was a long line, however it seemed to move very quickly. Before we knew it our cruise was over and it was time to head back to PA and the snow.

Observations.

3 nights was good for a starter. I found that with Bonine I didn't need to worry about getting sick. So hopefully a longer trip the next time. The time was so short we didn't get to do many things. We never ordered Mickey Bar from room service, a must do for the next trip. We felt very safe letting our children have the run of the ship. Overall a great experience even though we didn't get to Castaway Cay.

Some Pics (Still learning how to post them)

Wonder from Nassau


Son in Oceaneers Lab


Animators Palette


Our Bath


Our Toilet


Wife with Captain Jack


Christian our Cruise Director


Pic of Deserts



Ice cream for Daughter


Goofy Pool


Picture of family at the Junkanoo Place


Our server Savio

 

[tefrench]

We were your neighbors on the cruise (7046). Glad to see you had a good trip as we did also. Enjoyed reading your trip report.

You must have been a quiet family, we never heard any of our neighbors.

 

[wink13]

Glad to hear we weren't too loud. We were the one with all the magnets on the door you may have seen.

I agree 3 days is short but that works into our boys school schedule. I would love to take a longer cruise also.

You must have been a quiet family, we never heard any of our neighbors.