Wonder 7/5-7/12 Back to Back, Disney Channel Summer at Sea and more!

[grlzmom]

Not really a trip report poster, but here is my attempt at putting some info out there.

Background: I myself am a DCL addict, mom to 7 great kids (6 princesses and 1 prince) and wife to DH, Eric.

Three Magic cruises this year and still needed more ship time. Managed to get back to back Wonders booked for a good deal using a combo of Florida Resident Rates and Kids Half off! Oldest dd19 unable to come due to summer college schedule Booked a combo of GTY cat 11s and 12s for the two sailings.

This was done kind of on a whim, booked about 2 weeks prior to sailing. My BFF forever and her dd decided to join us on the four night sailing.

Getting there

Ok, we basically live here at port, but since my BFF and dd are flying in to cruise with us, we decide to stay at Residence Inn night of the 4th, precruise and leave our car there. Great room, great service, good parking and great free breakfast.

Morning of

10 people and luggage, one rental to return and DH needed to leave our car at hotel for parking and take shuttle to port did take some technical maneuvering but was done without a hitch! Me, kiddos, BFF and her dd get to port early hoping we can upgrade out of our inside rooms. Alas, port not opening very early as it is fourth of July weekend and there are not many porters and thus taking LONG time to get everyone off my ship! DCL was ready to let us in at 10 but no porters to take luggage so they held us off for a few minutes.

We were first in, and there were upgrades. Actually there were MANY upgrades (we sailed at 80 percent full). Very unusual for summer but lucky for us! We took our favorite mid ship category 3 suites and my friend kept her inside room but switched to a handicapped accessible one that was huge! FYI we were charged upgrade price from what we booked (12s) and not what we were assigned (11s).

Did the normal cruise things after boarding, concierge reception, Parrot Cay for lunch and pools for the kids. Rooms great, luggage arrived quickly and pretty uneventful.

Will skip all of the routine stuff and just FYI a few things.

My dd turned 18 on the cruise. Having done so many cruises we wanted a different cake instead of the standard one and concierge took care of this for us, it was beautiful, vanilla cake with layer of strawberry filling, covered in chocolate mousse and lots of types of berries. Very cute and personalized.

Excursion in Nassau, the catamaran snorkel. Was lovely, staff were great and snorkeling was OK. Lots of little fishes and great for a beginner but not an "exciting" trip. Rum punch and chips provided on way back. Our opinion worth the cost but not exceptional.

Teenagers did the teen excursion on Castaway. They have done it before and liked it and still like it. But HOT! They do give them a bottle of powerade.

Noticed lots of aquatic life at the family beach this time. Many more stingrays (large ones with barbs, so not castaway rays) and many more large fish. No snorkel needed to see them, they were everywhere. Got lots of great pictures.

Palo brunch was wonderful and our favorite thing to do on the ship. They celebrated my dds bday again with lots of chocolate covered strawberries and attention.

Concierge was extraordinary, we had Mike for this part of the trip and he constantly had our water and sodas replenished, arcade cards for the kids and made sure I got a picture I didn't already have when they gave it to us at the end of the cruise.

Arturo was our stateroom host and boy he was EXCELLENT!

Pretty uneventful although relaxing four day cruise!

The night before debarking we got the info from concierge about procedure for back to back cruising. We were also visited at dinner by Towanda who takes charge of it.

Since we were switching rooms (for the 3 night we had booked 12s but were upgraded to 9s) our luggage had to be packed up but left in our room for guest services to relocate. We would be walked through immigration and customs and back to the terminal for check in and reboarding. Sounds easy and it was.

Will post more shortly!

 

[grlzmom]

Continued trip report!

We had inquired about upgrades and suites the night before from concierge and were informed that the Walt suite had just become available due to cancellation. We could have it for 10k (haha, not me! But now I knew I could snag it for the port price)

After breakfast, luggage packed and met Towanda at 9:15 at guest services as instructed. We were escorted off and back into the terminal. Couldn't pass the Walt Suite up, so we took it (charged upgrade price from cat 12 to cat 1 which was 1800) and reboarded within about 10 minutes. Got great pictures of the empty terminal and ship.

Kids had deck 9 to themselves and were given access to Cove Cafe and Quiet Cove area. Cove cafe has pastries and coffee, etc. We got LOTS of pics of this and really a highlight of the cruise. Having the Mickey Pool alone is just WOW.

About 11:40 my older girls went downstairs to wait for Parrot Cay to open while we stayed in the still empty pools with the little ones. Guests began arriving and we decided to eat by the pools. After a long time and wondering what my girls were up to, they came back all excited, having met the Disney Channel Stars already. While my girls were waiting for Parrot Cay to open, the Disney Channel people were too and my girls got some photos right away!

Stayed at the pool for awhile and my little ones got pics with some of the Disney Channel Stars on our cruise.

At 1:30, room was ready and luggage there as promised.

The suite was great and so glad we experienced it. More tvs, dvd players and phones than a person can use. Honestly though, for layout, we much prefer two category 3 midships.

The master bed in the Walt is smaller and the balcony comes off of the bedroom directly in the midship 3s where as with Walt you have the balcony off of the library so if someone is using the double murphy in the library, when you are shut in the Walt master, it's not like having a balcony by your bed. It feels more like an inside stateroom. Two jacuzzi bath tubs, and the kid bedroom is great with two singles and two drop down bunks. Plenty of storage and great location to deck 9 although noisy too!

Dining room in Walt is great as you can easily seat 8 there and in suite dining from Palo is wonderful and we made great use of it!

We had a DIS meet in Promenade lounge and my girls met some other girls and this was such a nice group. Just a few families for our FE. We all trekked up to our room to show the suite to those who hadn't seen it before.

Sailaway party started outdoors with introduction of the stars, but was moved inside due to weather so I hung out in the room while kids attended.

Rain kept up for awhile and this is where the concierge DVD list comes in handy as we stayed in the room, ordered room service from Palo and hung out. Kids loved having Palo and we loved not dressing up.

Our concierge for this portion of the trip was Gavin and boy did that guy work hard for us! He is the absolute best, most incredible and funny too.

He kept us well stocked with bottled water and sodas, lots of popcorn for the movies and chocolate covered strawberries were endless. Kids got arcade cards, stuffed animals and he just provides a really great experience.

Will continue on.....

 

[grlzmom]

Continued....

Waking up to Nassau day, we just really wanted to stay on the ship. We knew it was Nassau Independence day and had been told most of the stores were closed. But, my teenagers wanted straw market, so we agreed to an hour.

Corbin Bleu concert was scheduled for 4pm so we wanted to get our pool time in and do the concert too.

Straw market was as usual, very hot and not my favorite thing, but my girls like all the purses and tshirts, so ok I endured it for an hour and back to the ship we went with our purses and tshirts.

Normal pool time stuff, kids watching Corbin Bleu set up for the concert. The concert was at 4pm and by 3pm when they closed the goofy pool, lots of people already gathered. Thanks to some nice DIS moms my kids had spots in the front row and I sat up on Deck 10 in a chair and watched. Inserting a special thanks here to Amanda who called me several times on the phone to alert me to what was going on where and with whom!

In my opinion, it was OK, but not great. He did alot of Michael Jackson songs and a few of his own but we were just not impressed (personal opinion of my kids here). Groups of kids were taken up on stage to participate, but I don't know where they came from or how they were chosen.

After concert, it was off to the concierge reception from 5-6 out back of Beach Blanket Buffet. Took some of our new dis buddies (these people are awesome and I hope they post on my report here so I don't have to go disclosing their identities!) Character there was Goofy and lots of great company and photos. Weather was perfect and we sat here a LONG time.

Pirate night so we decided to skip our regular dining rotation again, got some room service, then Palo for dessert (how many chocolate souffles can one family consume in a 3 day cruise?) Apparently a lot. We had 8 people and ordered them twice.

My dh had ordered me a special birthday cake (my birthday is actually today) and so that was delivered with the 8 souffles. Ok, so I skipped the pirate party due to being overstuffed with chocolate. Kids went and got more pictures.

At this point I am thinking ok, we are done, got all the pictures of the celebs we need and will get their autographs at the session in the morning and consider it a success.

I had no idea how great Castaway Day would turn out to be!

Continued.........

 

[grlzmom]

Saturday, Castaway day and lots to do!

Disney Channel Summer at Sea Q&A session was scheduled for 9:00 a.m. with autograph session to follow at 9:45 a.m. We wanted done quick to get out to Castaway!

I decided to attend the Kodak photo tip meeting at 8:30 a.m. first and that was a good idea because I won a video camera. Since I never win anything, that made my day! They also handed out 8x11 poster type papers with picture of all the Summer at Sea stars on it which would be good for the autographs if you don't have something else you want signed.

On my way out the door, the Disney Channel camera crew asked if we were going to the autograph session and if they could film my two youngest (8 and 6) dds for a promo. Course I said yes, thinking it wouldn't happen and off we went to the Walt Theater.

Meanwhile, my older girls were in the Walt Theater waiting for the Q&A session to begin. Tickets were given out in front of the Walt Theater prior to entering with numbers on them to indicate where your spot in line would be for the autograph session that followed the Q&A. All very organized and the Walt theater certainly wasn't packed or anything, but a good crowd.

The Disney Channel stars were sitting in overstuffed chairs on stage (minus Corbin Bleu) to do about half an hour of Q&A tied in with some videos and previews of upcoming Disney Channel stuff.

Good thing the video camera I won was pre charged and ready to go since my dd13 got picked to ask a question. FYI, the questions are pre printed on cards and read by the kids, they don't pick the question.

The stars were interesting and interacted well together and it was enjoyable even from an adult perspective.

They took about a 10 minute break and the stage was rearranged from the furniture to chairs with long table in front to make easy access for autographs and quick assembly line style movement. This was all the stars, including Corbin Bleu.

We were in the first group of 20 called up to stage and the process was painless and QUICK. Less than 2 minutes to get everyone's autograph and off the stage. You can get each celeb to autograph once, no double dipping or repeating. They sign once, NO personalization and you are on the way down the line. You can snap a pic while they are signing but you are across the table and they are sitting down. They have their own pens.

After we got off stage, I had forgotten about the camera crew, but there they were, looking for my dds. Took about a minute or two and they just had them giggle and look interested and bubbly and well ok, I thought they were less than star quality enthusiastic but the crew said they did fine. Then the rest of the bunch, all my kids and some adorable, wonderful fellow DIS board girls from our group got to do a Disney "365" for TV. I hope we see this stuff on tv, because it was exciting and neat!

Ok, enough, no more Disney Channel Star stuff, on to the fun part of the cruise, Castaway Cay!

Thinking we are totally done at this point. Got the photos, got the autographs, no more!

Then came lunch at Cookies.

We sat and ate and along came the crew with 3 of the Disney Channel Stars in tow, Roshon, Brandon and Doug and sat right beside us. We of course left them alone to eat but Roshon's dad Roy and my dh started talking and then we all started talking and it kept up and when they had to go and they decided to continue the conversation later. deciding we would hang in our suite when they were done for the day if they had time.

Of course I thought everyone would get busy and it would be forgotten, but we got back on the ship and Roshon called to find out when they could come over.

This is where wonderful Gavin concierge came in handy. Roshon called us, I called Gavin, and he arranged a party. Food and drinks were delivered, party platters with cheeses and fruit, lots of sodas and waters. My newest DIS friends came by and hung out waiting, taking pictures and kids playing. Roshon, parents and friend Chris came, with Brandon shortly following (Brandon didn't stay for dinner).

After an hour or so we got Gavin (superstar concierge) to come back down and take orders for Palo dinner (including some teen friendly stuff that wasn't on the menu). Wonderful Marco (Palo manager) came through and we got dinner for 12 (and some extra) delivered including a bunch of palo pizzas and a HUGE assortment of desserts, some of which weren't on any Palo menu I've ever seen. Took 3 deliveries to get all the food there with a crew doing it, kudos to the Wonder Crew, they are awesome!

We had a great time, the kids had a great time and never thought that would be our experience in the Walt Suite. Life is full of surprises. There were plenty of photos, video and just hanging out. The boys even left my oldest DD a voice mail message. She was at home and couldn't miss summer college for the cruise. She was suprised when she got home from work and listened to the voice mail. Roshon's parents are very nice people and everyone we interacted with was very nice.

We then all went to Karaoke (yeah, more time with my new DIS friends too!) and needless to say my luggage didn't make it to the hallway in time since we didn't get back to the room til Midnight or so, ugh but thanks to Arturo our incredible stateroom host for his hard work.

Then of course there was the trip to the gift shop after hours for flip flops since all the shoes accidentally went with the luggage

Sunday a.m. we saw everyone before we left and exchanged info and hope to see the Fegan family again in the future.

Sweet, wonderful Gavin will be going on his well deserved vacation in a week not to return until October and boy he worked so hard helping us.

Was hard coming home and know it was a one time experience with the Walt Suite and Disney Channel Stars, but well worth the expense and the kids loved it!

There were alot more Wonderful moments, too many to list, but that's the highlights anyhow!

 

[mkmommy]

Sounds like you had a wonderful trip, and you are so lucky to have been able to stay in the Walt Suite.

I should never have read this though as I was so close to booking this cruise a couple of weeks ago, my girls would have had so much fun.

 

[OurOhana]

Thanks for the report. We're doing back to back cruises in September, so it was nice to see things went so smoothly between cruises. Out of curiosity, did you all keep your same dining room servers for both cruises? Did they offer if you wanted to switch servers or number of people at a table? Anything else you think someone who will be doing back to back cruises should know? Thank you!

 

[grlzmom]

Sounds like you had a wonderful trip, and you are so lucky to have been able to stay in the Walt Suite.

I should never have read this though as I was so close to booking this cruise a couple of weeks ago, my girls would have had so much fun.

Thanks for reading.

It was fun, but it always is on DCL, that's the problem!

 

[grlzmom]

Thanks for the report. We're doing back to back cruises in September, so it was nice to see things went so smoothly between cruises. Out of curiosity, did you all keep your same dining room servers for both cruises? Did they offer if you wanted to switch servers or number of people at a table? Anything else you think someone who will be doing back to back cruises should know? Thank you!

We were scheduled to change dining rotations but the night before, we requested to keep the same team. Our two friends were leaving after the four night, so we went from a party of 10 on early dining to a party of 8 on late and kept same servers. Although we never did make it to the dining room on the 3 night cruise! No problem getting our requests.

You might have access to the pool like we did between cruises, so keep swim suits handy (no stateroom access if changing rooms) and nice to be able to use the cell phones and catch up on calls that day. Take pictures of the empty port and ship, great photo ops!

We loved it.

 

[Tri-circle-D]

Wow! What an adventure you had! Thanks for sharing.

Could you please clarify something?

On the 3-day portion of your cruise, are you saying that you were able to upgrade from two Cat. 12's to the Walt Suite for a total of only $1800? If I am understanding that correctly, that is amazing! Good for you!

And, my DD's met Roshon at the DC Games in 2008. He is a rap artist, in addition to an actor. I believe he raps under the name 3 in a Row, or something along those lines. He is a really nice and personable young man.

TCD

 

[grlzmom]

The 1800 was the additional amount we paid at port. We had already paid a total of 2600 for the two cat 12 rooms (1300 each). So grand total for the 3 night was 4400 for 8 of us.

We had the option to keep one of the rooms along with the Walt Suite. We didn't want to. Everyone fit just fine so we just gave up both rooms but we didn't have to.

My dds really like Roshon. We did listen to the hip hop stuff he is doing on a cd (it's on iTunes too) but haven't heard him live or rapping! Did the kids like the DC Games?

 

[Tri-circle-D]

The 1800 was the additional amount we paid at port. We had already paid a total of 2600 for the two cat 12 rooms (1300 each). So grand total for the 3 night was 4400 for 8 of us.

We had the option to keep one of the rooms along with the Walt Suite. We didn't want to. Everyone fit just fine so we just gave up both rooms but we didn't have to.

My dds really like Roshon. We did listen to the hip hop stuff he is doing on a cd (it's on iTunes too) but haven't heard him live or rapping! Did the kids like the DC Games?

Wow! You got an unbelievable deal! I paid around $3200 for a party of 6 for two Category 5's on the 6/11/09 3 night cruise, and I thought that I was getting a good deal. Thanks for sharing the details. I did not ask at the port for upgrade opportunities, as we were already in connecting 5's. On our previous cruises, the ships were full, and there were no upgrades available. I really had no idea that the price for an upgrade to a suite could be that low at the port. That is good to know.

The DC Games were great. But they cancelled them this year (2009). I think that is how the idea of the DC Star Cruises was hatched.

If you would like to read the nitty gritty of the TCD Gang's experiences at the 2008 DC Games, check out this trip report: TCD's 2008 Disney Channel Games Trip Report

(The report is posted on the Disboard camping thread, as that is where I normally hang out. The DC Games photos and descriptions begin on page 2, post 23)

TCD

 

[Narnia_girl]

Great trip report, Jeanne. You really did get to experience a great family vacation!

 

[alldiz]

Wow....the Walt Suite......Niiiiice

Now I'm afraid that I will ask for an upgrade on my 3 night cruise at port

I'm officially "old"....I don't know any of the "stars" you were mentioning
Kerri

 

[grlzmom]

Wow! You got an unbelievable deal! I paid around $3200 for a party of 6 for two Category 5's on the 6/11/09 3 night cruise, and I thought that I was getting a good deal. Thanks for sharing the details. I did not ask at the port for upgrade opportunities, as we were already in connecting 5's. On our previous cruises, the ships were full, and there were no upgrades available. I really had no idea that the price for an upgrade to a suite could be that low at the port. That is good to know.

The DC Games were great. But they cancelled them this year (2009). I think that is how the idea of the DC Star Cruises was hatched.

If you would like to read the nitty gritty of the TCD Gang's experiences at the 2008 DC Games, check out this trip report: TCD's 2008 Disney Channel Games Trip Report

(The report is posted on the Disboard camping thread, as that is where I normally hang out. The DC Games photos and descriptions begin on page 2, post 23)

TCD

Thanks for the link to the trip report, I love reading it!