Disney Land/Sea Package 6/19/2003 thru 6/26/2003 (Now complete) About This Page:

[kb2003]

Travelers: Me (40), DH (41), DS (6)
Disney Land/Sea Package 6/19/2003 thru 6/26/2003
Day 4: Transfer from Poly to Disney Wonder

We stayed in Niue at the Polynesian for the land portion of this trip (reports for that portion of the trip are posted in the trip report section of the board.)

This day would be our transfer from the Polynesian to the Disney Wonder. We had included Disney transportation as part of our package. We were advised to have our bags ready and by the door of the hotel room by 8:00 AM, and to be in the hotel lobby at about 11:30 AM (bus was scheduled for 12:00). Alternatively, we could have selected to do breakfast at Restaurantasaurus in Animal Kingdom – tour the park a little and get picked up there at 12:30. We had our bags ready and went to breakfast at Kona Café – DH tried the Tonga Toast. It was good – but VERY sweet (I couldn’t have done the whole plate). I had eggs, and DS had cereal, about $28 with tip.

After breakfast we went back to the room for one last pit stop (we passed our bags being moved out as we entered our building). We hung around the room until about 11:00 (house keeping was looking to get in at that point). Then we relocated to the GCH. We staked out some spots near the front entrance of the lobby. There was a TV playing Disney cartoons, and a cast member handed out flower leis (sp?), and had crayons and coloring sheets available. Luckily these things kept DS occupied until we boarded the bus. By the time everyone was loaded on, we left around 12:00. The bus had TVs which played cartoons, and eventually a Disney Cruise video. As was the theme for the first portion of our trip, it was cloudy and/or raining during the entire drive to the port. It was actually so misty as we got closer to the port, that you could barely make out the ships. The bus dropped us very close to the entrance of the port building, we entered, took a picture with Mickey and then lined up to enter the ship (all in all a very quick process – no additional check in required since we had checked in at the hotel earlier). We had our picture taken next to a sign with the sailing dates on it, then entered the ship. They asked our last name, and then welcomed our family on to the cruise – it was 1:20 PM. We were told that we could proceed to our room, or go directly to the Beach Blanket Buffet. We headed to our room, 7072 – a verandah cabin, mid-ship. We really liked the room. I’ve cruised before on Norwegian, and Premiere (the original “Big Red Boat” that was the Disney Cruise before Disney Cruise Line came along). In comparison, this was a great room and we loved having the verandah. The location was also quiet – absolutely no noise between cabins and very little hall way noise either. Our cabin host introduced himself and made sure we had no questions at this time (he was very nice). We dropped off our bags and headed to the buffet – it was an Italian theme. Of all the buffets offered during the trip this was my least favorite. It was good (and they did have the peel your own shrimp, which looked great – but I just wasn’t in the mood) but somehow just didn’t hit the spot for me that day. After lunch, we returned to our cabin (no bags yet). Since we didn’t know how DS was going to feel about the kid’s club we didn’t plan on making any Palo reservations, and we also didn’t plan any spa treatments – so we didn’t have to worry about rushing to get either of those in place. We headed toward the kid’s club to sign DS in and obtain a pager. Disney has Oceaneer’s club for kids 3-4, and 5-7 and then Oceaneer’s lab for 8-12, and also something for teens. Our DS LOVED what he saw of the kid’s club while we signed him up. He ran around and played while we did the (very brief) paper work and I think he would have happily stayed there if it was an option at the time…. but it was not… time for the life boat drill. We went back to our cabin and put on our life vests. DS was a little freaked out about the whole process – so we explained it was just like fire drills at his school and tried to play the whole thing down, and he did OK. Of course by the time we got to the deck the sun was shining full force (It rained the entire first portion of our trip) – and it was HOT. Anyway, it all passed quickly enough. We dropped out life vests off and I went off in search of the laundry room and an iron. I met a woman who had not had a good day so far – apparently they flew in that day for the cruise. They confiscated her travel iron at the airport (since Disney Cruise does not allow irons on board) – then they thought they saw suspicious dust in her luggage and ransacked it (turns out it was dirt on one of her child’s flip flops). Anyway, the poor woman was in the middle of washing/ironing all of their clothes which were apparently not in good shape after the search. Anyway… ironed our clothes for dinner (Hint: either bring clothes that don’t wrinkle, or get to the irons early in the day – there will be a line) and went back to the cabin. Since it was raining, the sail away party was relocated to the “lobby” and it was way too crowded by the time we got there, so we walked around the ship a little. We went up to deck 9. DS was not full from the buffet and wanted chicken fingers – so he had some (along with a small ice cream cone). We went back to our cabin, freshened up and got dressed for dinner. We had the early seating (6:00). Dinner that night was in Parrot Cay. We were seated, and met our servers who were both very nice (but seemed a little rushed throughout the cruise). DS was antsy. Since he had so recently eaten the chicken fingers etc… I asked if he’d like to have the fruit cocktail appetizer, and then one of us could take him to the club (it would be open by that time) – He jumped at the idea. So we ordered just the appetizer for him, and the rest of our dinner. Once we finished the appetizer course, DH walked him up to the club and then returned in time for the soup/salad course. Dinner was very good. I had the chicken wing appetizer, the mixed green salad and the mixed grill (substituted the double baked potato for the mac and cheese) – didn’t care for the shrimp, but everything else was great. DH had the crab newberg, the onion soup and the rib eye steak (you can see current menus on castawayclub.com). Can’t remember what we had for dessert – but everything was really good – and hot, which is tricky sometimes when they are serving so many people. Since I drink wine and DH does not, I had ordered a glass of wine, but our assistant server let me know that it would be more cost effective to order a bottle, and that it could follow me to the various restaurants until I finished it – sounded like a plan to me (and worked out well). Same works for bottled water. After dinner, the pager had still not sounded – so being without child for the first time in a while we went back to the cabin and enjoyed the verandah, etc… After a sufficient amount of enjoyment was had, the pager sounded, and we went to collect DS – who was hot, tired, and had developed a blister on his foot from his new shoes (I was very careful about not using new shoes while touring Disney world, but hadn’t considered it here – keep it in mind! Also – Band-Aid has these new “Blister Band-Aids” which absolutely saved our lives. Don’t think I could have gotten shoes on DS’s feet for the rest of the vacation without them. ) DS wanted to visit the “Arcade” which we did for a little while – As far as I could tell all of the games work off a debit card, which you obtain from a machine in the arcade using your key to the world card (Lowest denomination is $10). We purchased a card, played a while and then returned to the cabin at that time and crashed for the night.

To Follow Cruise Day 2: Nassau (and Deck Party.. To be or not to Be?)

[ 07-05-2003, 11:52 AM: Message edited by: kb2003 ]

[iloverags2]

Great start to your cruse. I agree, the Disney staterooms are the best I have seen so far while cruising.

Can't wait to hear more! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[luvnwdwgal]

Looking forward to reading about Nassau. We'll be visiting for the first time this November! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[PS - I LUV WDW]

I'm enjoying this part of the trip as much as your Disney portion. More please when you get a chance.

[kb2003]

Thanks for reading - I really enjoyed reading all of the reports when I was planning.

Travelers: Me (40), DH (41), DS (6)
Disney Land/Sea Package 6/19/2003 thru 6/26/2003
Day 5: Nassau

We left the curtains to the verandah open – so I woke up kind of early and saw the sun (gasp!), and also some land moving by (kind of strange sensation..). Anyway, by the time we were up and dressed I think we were probably docked. We went to the Beach Blanket Buffet for breakfast. They had the standard breakfast items as well as Mickey waffles, breakfast burritos and an omelet station. There is also a separate station that has Danish and other baked items. We had decided not to book one of the packages, and just planned to wander around Nassau a little bit in the morning. DS decided he wanted to spend the morning at the kid’s club – so we dropped him off and headed off the ship.

Everyone basically moves down the dock and through an indoor “mall” kind of area that had craft items, tour guides etc.. We had a few people approach us to offer cab rides, hair braiding etc, but really just a few and I didn’t find anyone to be aggressive. OK – small hint here if you’re going off on your own to just do some shopping in the “downtown” area. We just started to follow the “herd” of people, and followed them for a little while before we realized that they were part of the Atlantis tour, probably beginning that extensive walking that you read about. So – take a look at a map to make sure you’re getting where you want to be. I’m pretty sure there was a small street map included with the Navigator that day, and there are also additional maps and brochures along the way down the dock. Anyway, we back tracked a couple of blocks and headed into the shopping area (main shopping street runs parallel to the water, 1 block in). We shopped around for a while – DH bought some cologne, and we picked up a few inexpensive T-shirts but that was about it. There was a fair amount of traffic in town, and not that many intersections with traffic lights (at least in the area we covered). Luckily the motorists were all very courteous and would stop to let you cross the street. Obviously be careful – but it was much easier than I thought it would be from the amount of traffic.

So, by about 11:00 AM we were headed back to the boat. We just reached the dock when the pager went off that my son wanted to be picked up. This became the usual “call time” during the cruise. Apparently they’d tell the kids what was for lunch around this time and it didn’t appeal to my son on any of the days so he’d call to be picked up. We picked up DS and went to the cabin to put on our swim suits (although it was slightly cloudy all morning – the sun was peaking out now and then – and it wasn’t raining!). Doing just the short trip into Nassau worked really well for us since we enjoyed several hours by the pools with relatively little crowds. DS loved the Mickey slide – but other than that we stayed by the Goofy pool. Lunch this day was the American Buffet – they had several seafood salads, fried chicken, corn on the cob, turkey, mashed potatoes, large cold crab claws, and a station where you could get tacos and nachos. There were a number of other salads, and probably some other food that I’m forgetting – but there was a lot to choose from. Your choice for drinks here is limited to water, iced tea, and fruit punch (also probably coffee/tea – didn’t check). If you want a soda, bottled water or anything else – pick it up before you come in to the buffet. Just before you come inside on deck 9 there is a station that has iced tea, coffee, tea, and lemonade (may have also had fruit punch here). Anyway – we’d always pick DS up some lemonade before coming in to lunch. Once you come inside (just outside the door of the buffet) is a bar where you can get soda or other drinks.

After lunch we did some more pool time and arcade time – then DS wanted to go back to the club (his plan tonight was to eat dinner with the kids). Dropped DS at the club around 4:00 – planning to pick him up after our dinner in time for the deck party. Dinner tonight was at Tritons so we dressed up slightly – then dressed back down again after dinner. We checked on DS, but he didn’t want to leave yet so we walked around the deck and just kind of “hung out” for a while Turns out the weather didn’t cooperate for the deck party – the poor crew set everything up and then the rains came back – I never did hear an announcement about whether this party was moved somewhere else – we got a page at this point (around 9:15) to pick up DS. We just decided to call it a night at this point.

Coming next: Day 6, Castaway Cay

[figment52]

Great report so far. I will be on the Wonder in December so I am looking forward to the rest,

Thanks for writing.

[MrsM]

I'm really enjoying your report, and I'm looking forward to hearing how you like Castaway Cay!

[kb2003]

Travelers: Me (40), DH (41), DS (6)
Disney Land/Sea Package 6/19/2003 thru 6/26/2003
Days 6, 7 and 8: Castaway Cay, Day at Sea, Debarkation


Day 6: Castaway Cay

We woke up as we were approaching the docks at Castaway Cay. The weather was ….. Sunny (yippee!). We went to Beach Blanket Buffet for breakfast – today they had the usual fare as well as breakfast sandwiches and made to order omelets (all vegetables for me – yummy)… We sat out on the deck and enjoyed the sunshine while we ate. Then back to the room for quick “pit stops” and to lotion up etc…

Remember – you will need your key to the world and your photo ID to get off the ship (DH had to make a quick trip back to the room to get our passports). It’s a fairly long walk from the ship to the family beach. There is a tram available if you prefer (we made use of this on the way back). Walking along to the beach, the water was absolutely beautiful, as was the landscaping (or natural greenery?) – Anyway, Great island. We had an early start, so after dropping DS off (at his request) at scuttle’s cove (Kid’s club area on the island) with instructions to page us when he was ready to swim, we had a fairly good selection of lounge chairs with or without an umbrella in the family area. Note: This selection DID NOT last for long. For any of you from the New Jersey area – before long this beach looked like Seaside Heights on a Holiday weekend (translation: crowded – body to body seating…). But… the sun was shining, and we were in the closest available thing to paradise as far as I was concerned at the time. We rented a raft, but the water was still cold – so we just enjoyed some “quiet” time on the lounge chairs until DS paged to be picked up. DS and I did some time out in the water on the raft – still a little cool when the sun went behind the clouds. At about 11:45/ 12:00 we headed over to Cookies and had lunch. I wasn’t expecting much here – but it was very good. There was a stand, just before you enter the main area that had all kinds of fresh fruit – then for lunch they had hamburgers, grilled chicken sandwiches, lobster “burgers”, ribs, corn on the cob, coleslaw, potato salad, chips.. probably a few other choices that I can’t remember. Any way everything we sampled was good.

After lunch there were some clouds, and DS and DH had had enough beach time so we headed back to the ship (via the tram this time). This was a VERY good MOVE. We enjoyed the rest of the afternoon in a VERY un-crowded pool area. For quite a while DS and I had the goofy pool all to ourselves. This worked out very well for us – best of both worlds.

DS wanted to do dinner with the “club” tonight, so we dropped him off around 4:30, and then enjoyed a little quiet time and got ourselves ready for dinner – Animators Palate this night. I don’t think I mentioned in earlier trip reports, but we were seated at our own table – but we had another table through the rotations that was very near our table (a grandmother, mother and son about DS’s age) so we chatted a little with them between courses. This also was the best of both worlds for me. Tonight DH had the lobster and shrimp wrapper, and I had the duck and goat cheese flatbread, we both had the chilled gazpacho. I had the roasted chicken breast, DH had the grilled sirloin – for dessert the cheese cake and the double-fudge chocolate cake. All good – but my favorite part of the meal was the large portion of veggies with my chicken!

After dinner we checked up on DS – who still wasn’t ready to leave the club – so we went to see Hercules the Musical by ourselves. I thought it was really cute – and well done. We really enjoyed it. Picked up DS and to bed for the night.

Day 7: Day at Sea

Decided to try something different this morning, and hit Parrot Cay for breakfast. We really enjoyed it here. The buffet just seemed better organized than BB, plus you are taken care of a little more (someone gets your OJ, and coffee, toasts a bagel for you…), and it also seemed much easier to go up and get seconds of something than it seemed for me at BB. Anyway – same type of food offered, but also pancakes here.

After breakfast, we were all ready to enjoy our day at sea. All I can say now, is that we were lucky that DS wanted to go to the kid’s club. The family areas were excruciatingly crowded this day. Luckily we could escape to the adults only area where peace, tranquility and space to sit were waiting. We enjoyed most of the morning in the adult pool area (OK – we had to get a chair on deck 10, but we could see the pool – and if we walked downstairs there was space for us to get in the pool…) As usual DS paged at 11:15 to be picked up (just as I was on my way to hear the important Debarkation talk – Note: the talk runs on your TV all day, so if you don’t catch it here you can see it later.) So… dragged DS to the talk with me and he was not a happy camper. Following the talk we put his swimsuit on and went up to let him have a swim. Unfortunately – by that time he couldn’t have fit in the pool with a shoe horn, and the arcade was equally as crowded. Now DS had his first meltdown of the trip – freaking out about how crowded everything was! I took him downstairs and found some quiet places to look at things etc.. and he eventually calmed down (had tried to take him back to the room but they were cleaning it at the time – my timing was not great with this for most of the cruise). Anyway eventually everyone was calm and we went to lunch at BB – very nice Asian buffet –also the usual kid’s stuff.

Dropped DS back at the club in time to practice for their show – which was quick but cute, and he received a T-shirt for participating. We met up with him at the club after the show to see what his “dining” preferences would be tonight and he wanted to eat with us – so back to the cabin to freshen up and change. Tonight –back to Parrot Cay for the Master Chef menu. This was OK – but probably my least favorite menu of the cruise. Appetizer (fried seafood platter) was good though. This night was the Disney Dreams Show – which I’ve heard is great.. but DS wanted to have one last night at the club, DH wasn’t interested, and I had a ton of un-packing / re-packing to do, so unfortunately we missed it – maybe next time.

Day 8: Debarkation

Since we had early seating dinner, we had very early breakfast that day. After breakfast we didn’t have to wait in line very long at all to walk off the ship. The whole process was very painless and we were able to check in at Continental right there – get on the bus to the airport and we were on our way.


Summary:

The cabins on the Wonder were great – and spacious compared to any of my previous cruises.

The Disney transportation package worked out well for us. We checked our bags in NJ, and they found their way to out hotel, to our cabin on the Wonder and off again. We had someone help us with our bags through customs and he delivered them to the Continental Check in Counter at Port Canaveral – didn’t have to touch them again until we picked them up back home. We didn’t get onboard the ship until almost 1:30 though, and I don’t know how this would have worked if we were trying to get reservations for Palo or the Spa.

Going early to Castaway Cay, and returning to the ship after lunch allowed us the best of both worlds. I would highly advise this to get some un-crowded pool time (same plan for Nassau if you aren’t doing one of the tours).

If I were going to do the 4 day again, I might choose the trip with Freeport included instead of the day at sea just to get one more day when at least some of the people aren’t on the ship all day.

[BRWombat]

KB, great report. Sounds like you had a fun time.

Yes, you will need to go on another cruise just to see Disney Dreams. It is WONDERFUL. Don't miss it next time, even if you have to go on your own!

[Belle*]

Thanks for the report! We are on the 11/30 4 night which has a Freeport stop and are looking forward to some "quiet ship" time.

[All Ears]

Thank you soo much for the great report. I really enjoyed reading about your days. It sounds like you had a great time. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
Michelle

[iloverags2]

I had finished reading this awhile ago...not sure why I didn't comment back then. Anyway, thanks so much for sharing with us. I have to agree with you about those staterooms on DCL...the best in the industry (at least of the four cruise lines I've sailed with). [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]