Mike sez: Today we are off to Port Canaveral for our cruise. Donna has never been on a cruise just as she had never been to WDW. Another new great adventure. I went into this with a little trepidation as I was on cruise 4 on the Disney Magic and was not impressed. But everything deserves a second chance.
From the minute the DIsney Wonder came into view, Donna's eyes grew! And I must admit this is a beautiful sight. For the life of me I still do not understand how something that big floats! I am not an engineer!
The check in process is so easy. And because I had been on a Disney cruise before, we were members of the Castaway Club. There is a separate line for members and seems to move much faster. Because we got there at 10:30, the terminal was fairly empty, but it sure didn't take long to fill up!
Once boarding starts, they have the process down to a science. Seems the last time I was here, it took forever. And the welcoming of each family is really cool. Makes you feel that much more special during a special event.
Once I got Donna out of the atrium, we went to the Beach Blanket Buffet for lunch. We ate all our breakfast meals here,too. Just seemed so much easier that doing a regular sit down meal. Not to mention the fact we could eat outside on the deck. The food is pretty good...altho I am not one for limp bacon, but thats a problem with all buffets.
We walked around the ship trying to get our bearings. This thing is huge! And because I had no clue where we were, when we went to find our cabin, we were at the wrong end of the ship and walked down the hallway from hell! Unbelievable how long these things are!
Our cabin, 7122, was another gift from Dar. We had a verandah view cabin. While it may seem like an unnecessary thing to you non-smokers, to us it was another god-send. You can smoke on the verandah's. And the cabins are so spacious. At no time during the cruise did we feel cramped or crowded. And don't know how Dar did it, but every time we tied up to a dock, our cabin was on the dock-side, so we got to watch the whole process. Very interesting to watch.
Because of our dinner reservations, we did not get to see the show the first night. It starts at 6:15 and 8:15. Our dinner was for 7:00 at Palo's.
Dinner at Palo's. This is another dress-up affair (Mike in a tie two days in a row...whoda thunk it?). This is one part of the cruise that has not changed and that is a good thing. I hope I'm saying his name right, but our server was Douga from Turkey. First of all, he was a comedian...second of all, he was very engaging...third of all, we could not have ask for a better server. Again, due to my case of CRSS, I don't remember exactly what we had. I do remember this. We had more food than you could shake a stick at...some of which we didn't ask for. Douga had recommendations for appetizer, entree and dessert...some of which we ordered, some of which we didn't. BUT if we didn't order it, we got it anyway with the explanation "We just HAD to try it!" In fact, we ended up with four desserts just because we 'had' to try them. We also had a special dessert because we were on our honeymoon. We got a plate of sliced strawberries with the word "Congradulations" in chocolate. A very nice touch. I also remember that, next to Victoria and Albert's, this is some of the best food Disney has to offer.
This was another 2 hour dinner affair. It is one of the most romantic spots Disney has to offer. Very quiet. You kinda hate to get up and leave. I was glad to see that Palo's had not changed...it is one thing I will continue to do no matter how many more cruises I take with Disney.
After dinner, we went back to the cabin to change, as we had a date that night. It was wonderful to find that someone else from themeparks would be on the same cruise. We had arranged to meet at 10:15 in the Cadillac Lounge.
I gotta tell ya...meeting people in person you meet in any kind of computer setting can be a little never-wracking. But Diana, Jim, Joann, and the girls are some of the most wonderful people we have ever met. As Diana mentioned in her TR, we closed the Cadillac down. And I sure don't know where the time went. We had a ball! I hope people's ears didn't burn too bad that night as we talked about a lot of you. But never fear, it was nothing bad. And it certainly makes us want to meet more of you! And I will have more on Diana and clan later.
Some of my impressions of the Disney Wonder, besides being a magnificent vessel. On my first cruise, I was disappointed there were not more "adult" areas. They have solved that problem. There is now an adults only area with bar and pool. On more than one occasion I saw CM's run kids out. In one instance, the father took his children and left in a huff. In another, a women told her kids 'see ya later!' I will have more to say on this later.
I also appreciated the Route 66 area of the ship. This is another adult-oriented area. The music they play would drive most kids away. The Cadillac had a singer that did old standards (my favorite)...another bar did Disco for crying out loud! lol Disney did listen to us early voyagers and have made changes. Way to go Disney!
Donna sez... OMG. I was a bit timid when it came to the checking in and all. I was concerned that my passport had the wrong birthdate on it and it would cause a problem. I was under the impression that I would have to have both my passport and my Birth Certificate, but all I needed was the passport...WHEW.
I could hardly wait to get on the ship. All I could do was stare at it up until they started boarding.
Once we boarded, we were congratulated on our marriage and assured we'd be well taken care of.
I loved the lunch buffet. The fact the CM'S made sure we didn't have to do anything for ourselves was so cool.
Rushing right along....our stateroom was great. I investigated every nook and cranny. I wasn't looking for mistakes because I had already learned from our room at the lodge that Disney doesn't slack off on the rooms. I was reveling in the space we had and all the little perks. We entered and found a tote with two drinking bottles and a net backpack which were part of the benefits of Mike having been on a Disney Cruise before. We had also recieved two lanyard to carry our ID and room card in. Ordinarily, we would only have one, but we got one at the lodge and as we checked in at the port. We also recieved our honeymoon pins on the ship. I'm still one up on Mike.
Palos was devine. As Mike said, our server was great and he stuffed us to the gills. The only thing I wasn't too fond of was the last desert I had. It was a piece of cake soaked in coffee with whipped cream on top. I have a certain standard for consuming coffee. It has to be strong, but not like sludge, hot and have cream. Other than that I was quite pleased and quite full.
Our meet up with Dianna and her family was great. I more or less consider our friends on Themeparks as pretty neato folks anyway and I'm so pleased to have finally met some of them. While we were waiting the singer did a neat imitation of Willie Nelson, by singing while holding his nose. It was a slow night and I guess he didn't want anyone to fall asleep.
That's that "other" ship.
As we're leaving port.
Our stateroom
LoL A gift from our housekeeper.
The party
Our first sunset at sea
There we all are.
From the minute the DIsney Wonder came into view, Donna's eyes grew! And I must admit this is a beautiful sight. For the life of me I still do not understand how something that big floats! I am not an engineer!
The check in process is so easy. And because I had been on a Disney cruise before, we were members of the Castaway Club. There is a separate line for members and seems to move much faster. Because we got there at 10:30, the terminal was fairly empty, but it sure didn't take long to fill up!
Once boarding starts, they have the process down to a science. Seems the last time I was here, it took forever. And the welcoming of each family is really cool. Makes you feel that much more special during a special event.
Once I got Donna out of the atrium, we went to the Beach Blanket Buffet for lunch. We ate all our breakfast meals here,too. Just seemed so much easier that doing a regular sit down meal. Not to mention the fact we could eat outside on the deck. The food is pretty good...altho I am not one for limp bacon, but thats a problem with all buffets.
We walked around the ship trying to get our bearings. This thing is huge! And because I had no clue where we were, when we went to find our cabin, we were at the wrong end of the ship and walked down the hallway from hell! Unbelievable how long these things are!
Our cabin, 7122, was another gift from Dar. We had a verandah view cabin. While it may seem like an unnecessary thing to you non-smokers, to us it was another god-send. You can smoke on the verandah's. And the cabins are so spacious. At no time during the cruise did we feel cramped or crowded. And don't know how Dar did it, but every time we tied up to a dock, our cabin was on the dock-side, so we got to watch the whole process. Very interesting to watch.
Because of our dinner reservations, we did not get to see the show the first night. It starts at 6:15 and 8:15. Our dinner was for 7:00 at Palo's.
Dinner at Palo's. This is another dress-up affair (Mike in a tie two days in a row...whoda thunk it?). This is one part of the cruise that has not changed and that is a good thing. I hope I'm saying his name right, but our server was Douga from Turkey. First of all, he was a comedian...second of all, he was very engaging...third of all, we could not have ask for a better server. Again, due to my case of CRSS, I don't remember exactly what we had. I do remember this. We had more food than you could shake a stick at...some of which we didn't ask for. Douga had recommendations for appetizer, entree and dessert...some of which we ordered, some of which we didn't. BUT if we didn't order it, we got it anyway with the explanation "We just HAD to try it!" In fact, we ended up with four desserts just because we 'had' to try them. We also had a special dessert because we were on our honeymoon. We got a plate of sliced strawberries with the word "Congradulations" in chocolate. A very nice touch. I also remember that, next to Victoria and Albert's, this is some of the best food Disney has to offer.
This was another 2 hour dinner affair. It is one of the most romantic spots Disney has to offer. Very quiet. You kinda hate to get up and leave. I was glad to see that Palo's had not changed...it is one thing I will continue to do no matter how many more cruises I take with Disney.
After dinner, we went back to the cabin to change, as we had a date that night. It was wonderful to find that someone else from themeparks would be on the same cruise. We had arranged to meet at 10:15 in the Cadillac Lounge.
I gotta tell ya...meeting people in person you meet in any kind of computer setting can be a little never-wracking. But Diana, Jim, Joann, and the girls are some of the most wonderful people we have ever met. As Diana mentioned in her TR, we closed the Cadillac down. And I sure don't know where the time went. We had a ball! I hope people's ears didn't burn too bad that night as we talked about a lot of you. But never fear, it was nothing bad. And it certainly makes us want to meet more of you! And I will have more on Diana and clan later.
Some of my impressions of the Disney Wonder, besides being a magnificent vessel. On my first cruise, I was disappointed there were not more "adult" areas. They have solved that problem. There is now an adults only area with bar and pool. On more than one occasion I saw CM's run kids out. In one instance, the father took his children and left in a huff. In another, a women told her kids 'see ya later!' I will have more to say on this later.
I also appreciated the Route 66 area of the ship. This is another adult-oriented area. The music they play would drive most kids away. The Cadillac had a singer that did old standards (my favorite)...another bar did Disco for crying out loud! lol Disney did listen to us early voyagers and have made changes. Way to go Disney!
Donna sez... OMG. I was a bit timid when it came to the checking in and all. I was concerned that my passport had the wrong birthdate on it and it would cause a problem. I was under the impression that I would have to have both my passport and my Birth Certificate, but all I needed was the passport...WHEW.
I could hardly wait to get on the ship. All I could do was stare at it up until they started boarding.
Once we boarded, we were congratulated on our marriage and assured we'd be well taken care of.
I loved the lunch buffet. The fact the CM'S made sure we didn't have to do anything for ourselves was so cool.
Rushing right along....our stateroom was great. I investigated every nook and cranny. I wasn't looking for mistakes because I had already learned from our room at the lodge that Disney doesn't slack off on the rooms. I was reveling in the space we had and all the little perks. We entered and found a tote with two drinking bottles and a net backpack which were part of the benefits of Mike having been on a Disney Cruise before. We had also recieved two lanyard to carry our ID and room card in. Ordinarily, we would only have one, but we got one at the lodge and as we checked in at the port. We also recieved our honeymoon pins on the ship. I'm still one up on Mike.
Palos was devine. As Mike said, our server was great and he stuffed us to the gills. The only thing I wasn't too fond of was the last desert I had. It was a piece of cake soaked in coffee with whipped cream on top. I have a certain standard for consuming coffee. It has to be strong, but not like sludge, hot and have cream. Other than that I was quite pleased and quite full.
Our meet up with Dianna and her family was great. I more or less consider our friends on Themeparks as pretty neato folks anyway and I'm so pleased to have finally met some of them. While we were waiting the singer did a neat imitation of Willie Nelson, by singing while holding his nose. It was a slow night and I guess he didn't want anyone to fall asleep.
That's that "other" ship.
As we're leaving port.
Our stateroom
LoL A gift from our housekeeper.
The party
Our first sunset at sea
There we all are.
