pearljammer
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2010
- Messages
- 808
Hi All, merely thought I'd share my thoughts on the Wonder after having been on all the others, the last being the Fantasy. We sailed the Magic years ago before it was refurbished and want to sail that now. But, to the Wonder.
Keep in mind, it is a MUCH smaller boat. In ways I like it a lot, especially at Castaway Cay where you can REALLY tell the difference in beach crowd! On days at sea, the pool areas were packed! Of course the adults and Goofy pool were small so......
I did like the new slide, which is fun. What they don't tell you is at the end when you hit the water it's like coming to an abrubt stop. So that was a shock the first time down. LOL
Restaurants:
Tiana's Place - by far the BEST restaurant out of all restaurants on any boat. The food was awesome as well as the entertainment. Lot's of fun. Loved it!
Animator's Palate - it's changed since we were on the Magic. Now, don't leave dinner too early and miss the "show" as some did. It was really cool and they've added in new movie characters to the walls such as Moana, Inside Out, etc.
Triton's Place - least favorite and we've decided we'll skip this one if/when we do the Wonder again. Nothing special about the restaurant and wasn't a fan of the menu.
Feb 14th - Pirate Night - Okay, now here is where those of you who have sailed on Dream and Fantasy may be dissapointed as we certainly were. They do NOT do the Jack Sparrow show. It's simply a video game involving kids on the big screen, they dance, characters come out and dance for a bit, Capt Hook came out for a moment and then Mickey sprung out for a split second and the firework show started. Didn't see the firework show coming at all as I was expecting a bigger lead up to it. While any firework show is awesome, it too isn't quite the standards of the bigger boats. Even my 9 yos noticed the Pirate Party dissapointment and said we won't go back on the Wonder. I even asked customer service if that was their normal Pirate Party thinking maybe something was off but they said no, that's what they do. So, again, we won't be attending next time but will make it up for the fireworks only.
Another thing, we did NOT receive Mickey bandana's at ALL!! I inquired and I was advised the shipment was late and that's why no one got mickey bandana's in their stateroom. I hope they've not stopped this on this particular boat. Folks who had sailed before including us, seemed dissapointed in this as well as it is a staple of Pirate Night. I asked as I wondered if this had stopped or if it was just something this ship didn't do........
Sail Away Party - this too was dissapointing. For us, we didn't even sail away. We were late as the boat was waiting on a party of 8 from Canada who was late getting on the boat and we were waiting on their luggage to show up. We didn't sail away until around 5:30 and then had to quickly get to dinner. But the sail away party was almost the same dancing stuff they did for the Pirate Party now that I think about it.
Shows:
Golden Mickey's - had seen it on another cruise; skipped it
Disney Dreams - skipped it
Juggler - saw it, it was okay. Short but sort of cool.
Frozen (4th night) - saw the matinee version and it was good. Started off slow but it was well done. Enjoyed it and the matinee was packed. I think the evening shows were less crowded maybe because it was the last night. My son who doesn't like Frozen at all even seemed to enjoy the effects!
Movies:
2 Star Wars movies - Rogue One included
Muana - saw it in 3d and it was such a great movie! Had no desire to see it either but so glad as it's one of the best movies I've seen in a while. A definate see if you haven't!
Zootopia - had seen it so skipped (do like it though)
Dr. Strange - we had not seen it and though it was way cool. My son is now a huge Dr. Strange fan
Finding Dory - skipped it
Kids Club - the Marvel area isn't that big but their video interactive game seemed pretty cool. My son said Spiderman came in once. He made a Capt. America shield. He loved the kids club and we couldn't keep him out of it.
So parts of the kids club is one small area of the outpost from Frozen (couldn't tell if they really did anything in there? Maybe crafts? There's a toy story section with a slinky slide. A storybook theatre section. The Marvel area. An area where there was a Wii and Xbox video games ( I think 4 screens) and the games where you can move the ship around the screen. That's all I really remember. I think there's a girl area but apologies, didn't pay much attention to the girl portion.
Gift shops.
There are 3. One on deck 3 outside the pub which mostly sold Star Wars items.
Decks 4 - One has the jewelry and clothing and the other has all the toys and souvenirs. They have a small selection of things but it is a smaller store. They had a lot of Beuaty and the Beast stuff for sale as well as Pirate stuff. The Beauty and the Beast doll who looks like the character is sort of creepy looking but that's just me. There were NO items on sale in any gift shops like you may find on the bigger boats. The special was a DCL cooler bag for $14.99 when you spent a certain amount.
Castaway Gift:
A beach bag - same one we received 1.5 years ago. It's a great bag so don't mind it at all. No pretzals, nothing. Just bag. FYI.
Drink Machine - located at the AFT of the boat on deck 9. Personally I hated having to go all the way there for drinks but oh well. I had a really hard time finding water fountains on the boat so you may want to take a large container for water if you want some in your room. The water fountain on 4th level deck (where folks walk and lay around) was out of order.
They were also doing a lot of repairs on the boat while we were there. So some doors on deck 4 were always closed from inside to outside so you had to walk around.
Weather - beautiful all days. Castaway Cay was awesome. They said it was the nicest day they had there in a while so perhaps we lucked out that day! The only rain we saw was our last night on the boat and the closed off all the doors to the decks as they were slamming shut when folks used them.
Adutl Only Pool - was always packed and chairs around pool were taken early.
It seemed like there was always an engine smell on the boat in certain areas; especially on the way to the top of the slide and certain areas of deck 10.
Didn't care for the lounge area right around the sports deck. There's a large basketball court, with foosball and some ping pong tables. No mini golf.
As far as the midship detective agency? My son missed it but still had a blast and was sad to leave.
There were character greeting scattered all over the place. We didn't attend any but you couldn't miss the lines around the place.
Room- 6503
Started out feeling small but it was fine. Nice and quiet locaton. Long walk if going to the room alot.
I think that pretty much sums it up. For us, we were trying to decide do we cruise this ship for Alaska or choose another cruise line. We love Disney cruises. It may come down to pricing when they open dates for 2018. We definately know which meals/shows we'll skip and I think it helps to now know what we're walking into. I'm still on the fence.
Regrets? No. We miss it already. But for those of you coming from the larger boats, have an open mind and know it's not the same experience.
Enjoy!
Keep in mind, it is a MUCH smaller boat. In ways I like it a lot, especially at Castaway Cay where you can REALLY tell the difference in beach crowd! On days at sea, the pool areas were packed! Of course the adults and Goofy pool were small so......
I did like the new slide, which is fun. What they don't tell you is at the end when you hit the water it's like coming to an abrubt stop. So that was a shock the first time down. LOL
Restaurants:
Tiana's Place - by far the BEST restaurant out of all restaurants on any boat. The food was awesome as well as the entertainment. Lot's of fun. Loved it!
Animator's Palate - it's changed since we were on the Magic. Now, don't leave dinner too early and miss the "show" as some did. It was really cool and they've added in new movie characters to the walls such as Moana, Inside Out, etc.
Triton's Place - least favorite and we've decided we'll skip this one if/when we do the Wonder again. Nothing special about the restaurant and wasn't a fan of the menu.
Feb 14th - Pirate Night - Okay, now here is where those of you who have sailed on Dream and Fantasy may be dissapointed as we certainly were. They do NOT do the Jack Sparrow show. It's simply a video game involving kids on the big screen, they dance, characters come out and dance for a bit, Capt Hook came out for a moment and then Mickey sprung out for a split second and the firework show started. Didn't see the firework show coming at all as I was expecting a bigger lead up to it. While any firework show is awesome, it too isn't quite the standards of the bigger boats. Even my 9 yos noticed the Pirate Party dissapointment and said we won't go back on the Wonder. I even asked customer service if that was their normal Pirate Party thinking maybe something was off but they said no, that's what they do. So, again, we won't be attending next time but will make it up for the fireworks only.
Another thing, we did NOT receive Mickey bandana's at ALL!! I inquired and I was advised the shipment was late and that's why no one got mickey bandana's in their stateroom. I hope they've not stopped this on this particular boat. Folks who had sailed before including us, seemed dissapointed in this as well as it is a staple of Pirate Night. I asked as I wondered if this had stopped or if it was just something this ship didn't do........
Sail Away Party - this too was dissapointing. For us, we didn't even sail away. We were late as the boat was waiting on a party of 8 from Canada who was late getting on the boat and we were waiting on their luggage to show up. We didn't sail away until around 5:30 and then had to quickly get to dinner. But the sail away party was almost the same dancing stuff they did for the Pirate Party now that I think about it.
Shows:
Golden Mickey's - had seen it on another cruise; skipped it
Disney Dreams - skipped it
Juggler - saw it, it was okay. Short but sort of cool.
Frozen (4th night) - saw the matinee version and it was good. Started off slow but it was well done. Enjoyed it and the matinee was packed. I think the evening shows were less crowded maybe because it was the last night. My son who doesn't like Frozen at all even seemed to enjoy the effects!
Movies:
2 Star Wars movies - Rogue One included
Muana - saw it in 3d and it was such a great movie! Had no desire to see it either but so glad as it's one of the best movies I've seen in a while. A definate see if you haven't!
Zootopia - had seen it so skipped (do like it though)
Dr. Strange - we had not seen it and though it was way cool. My son is now a huge Dr. Strange fan
Finding Dory - skipped it
Kids Club - the Marvel area isn't that big but their video interactive game seemed pretty cool. My son said Spiderman came in once. He made a Capt. America shield. He loved the kids club and we couldn't keep him out of it.
So parts of the kids club is one small area of the outpost from Frozen (couldn't tell if they really did anything in there? Maybe crafts? There's a toy story section with a slinky slide. A storybook theatre section. The Marvel area. An area where there was a Wii and Xbox video games ( I think 4 screens) and the games where you can move the ship around the screen. That's all I really remember. I think there's a girl area but apologies, didn't pay much attention to the girl portion.
Gift shops.
There are 3. One on deck 3 outside the pub which mostly sold Star Wars items.
Decks 4 - One has the jewelry and clothing and the other has all the toys and souvenirs. They have a small selection of things but it is a smaller store. They had a lot of Beuaty and the Beast stuff for sale as well as Pirate stuff. The Beauty and the Beast doll who looks like the character is sort of creepy looking but that's just me. There were NO items on sale in any gift shops like you may find on the bigger boats. The special was a DCL cooler bag for $14.99 when you spent a certain amount.
Castaway Gift:
A beach bag - same one we received 1.5 years ago. It's a great bag so don't mind it at all. No pretzals, nothing. Just bag. FYI.
Drink Machine - located at the AFT of the boat on deck 9. Personally I hated having to go all the way there for drinks but oh well. I had a really hard time finding water fountains on the boat so you may want to take a large container for water if you want some in your room. The water fountain on 4th level deck (where folks walk and lay around) was out of order.
They were also doing a lot of repairs on the boat while we were there. So some doors on deck 4 were always closed from inside to outside so you had to walk around.
Weather - beautiful all days. Castaway Cay was awesome. They said it was the nicest day they had there in a while so perhaps we lucked out that day! The only rain we saw was our last night on the boat and the closed off all the doors to the decks as they were slamming shut when folks used them.
Adutl Only Pool - was always packed and chairs around pool were taken early.
It seemed like there was always an engine smell on the boat in certain areas; especially on the way to the top of the slide and certain areas of deck 10.
Didn't care for the lounge area right around the sports deck. There's a large basketball court, with foosball and some ping pong tables. No mini golf.
As far as the midship detective agency? My son missed it but still had a blast and was sad to leave.
There were character greeting scattered all over the place. We didn't attend any but you couldn't miss the lines around the place.
Room- 6503
Started out feeling small but it was fine. Nice and quiet locaton. Long walk if going to the room alot.
I think that pretty much sums it up. For us, we were trying to decide do we cruise this ship for Alaska or choose another cruise line. We love Disney cruises. It may come down to pricing when they open dates for 2018. We definately know which meals/shows we'll skip and I think it helps to now know what we're walking into. I'm still on the fence.
Regrets? No. We miss it already. But for those of you coming from the larger boats, have an open mind and know it's not the same experience.
Enjoy!
Last edited:
... Do you remember what your dining rotation was on the cruise?
so i am not remembering anything else. what's even harder to remember is what was "missing" from the show to make room for the new bits.
