Maxiscool and MelissaL's Wonder cruise 1/17-1/21/10 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Maxiscool and MelissaL's Wonder cruise 1/17-1/21/10
Cast:
Melissa, mom
Michael, dad
Max, age 11
Beth, age 6
We booked our 5th Disney cruise, 4 nights on the Wonder, using the Kids Sail Free deal. We booked a category 5, upgraded to a category 4 to get a little more space, and a week before sailing found out we’d been given an upgrade to a category 3 suite.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Our cruise leaves on Sunday, so we decided to fly down on Saturday and stay overnight in Port Canaveral just in case of flight delays. In retrospect, perhaps we should have flown down Friday night, because we’re all very tired today.
Our plan was to drive to the Kennedy Space Center, stay until near closing, then check into the Country Inn & Suites by the port. Because KSC tickets are good for 2 days within a 7-day period, we figured we could visit again after the cruise if we didn’t see everything.
Our flight into Orlando was uneventful, and our checked bags showed up quickly. The line at the Budget car rental counter moved slowly, but we finally got our car around noon and squeezed the luggage into the trunk.
We were hoping to find somewhere between Orlando and KSC to stop for lunch, but there was pretty much nothing along the expressway. Once we entered the Visitor’s Center, we grabbed lunch at the food court. By the time we finished it was around 1:30. The last bus tour was leaving at 2:45. We decided to do the bus tour first to be sure we’d have plenty of time to look around at the stops.
We all enjoyed the bus tour. The space shuttle Endeavour was on the launch pad visible from our first stop, but Max was disappointed that because the payload bay was being loaded today, equipment blocked most of the view.
We finished the tour around 4:30. The Visitor’s Center was open until 5:30, but we were so tired and hungry we decided to leave everything else for Thursday. We asked for and received directions to the port area, and drove uneventfully to our hotel.
Our room, a Kids’ Suite, had the promised alcove with bunk beds. It also had another twin bed in the alcove, which worked out well so Beth wasn’t stuck in the dark bottom bunk.
When we asked at the front desk about recommendations for dinner, we were pleasantly surprised to hear that the hotel has a complimentary shuttle running to restaurants on the waterfront. To spare Michael from further driving (and to prevent losing our space in the crowded parking lot), we decided to take the shuttle to Grills, the restaurant the desk clerk recommended. The bus driver warned us that Grills might be noisy and crowded, and offered to call to see if there was a wait. We were glad he did, because the wait was 45 minutes! He then recommended Fishlips, also on the water. That turned out to be a great choice. It was not crowded at all, and we had a table by the waterfront windows in the quiet dining room. The food was tasty (baked grouper for me, broiled trout for Michael, a grouper sandwich for Max, and a tuna sandwich for Beth), and the service was very quick. We called our van driver, who was about to drop more people off at the restaurant anyhow, and headed back to the hotel.
So far it’s been a great trip. We’re planning on getting a good night’s sleep before heading to the ship in the morning.
[I don't know if we'll post the actual cruise report day-by-day or all at once afterwards -- it depends how easy Internet access is., and whether we want to take time away from our cruise to type.]
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We had a decent continental breakfast at the hotel, then drove down the street to Budget to return the car. We met a couple of other families upset that Budget was out of cars and waiting for a shuttle to Hertz (Budget was apparently counting on cars being returned before they could rent any more) – this did not inspire confidence about our return on Thursday. We waited about 10 minutes for the shuttle to the port, arriving at the terminal about 10:45 am.
Because we were in a suite, we could use the Concierge check-in line, which had 3 clerks and one group in front of us. At check-in we were given an invitation to the concierge reception onboard from 11:45 am to 3:00 pm. We were then escorted to the front of the line to have our photos taken, then directed to the concierge boarding area, where we could wait for the 45 minutes or so until we could board the ship through the exclusive entrance off the boarding area. (I was beginning to think Disney Cruise Line upgraded us in order to spoil us and make sure we booked a suite for our next cruise – this impression was only strengthened over the rest of the cruise.)
The concierge guests boarded right after the Family of the Day. We had our embarkation photo taken, then headed to the reception at the new Outlook Café above Cove Café. There was a nice spread of sandwiches, but not much that we could eat (we keep kosher but not strictly, so at restaurants we eat anything vegetarian or fin-fish, but not meat, poultry, or shellfish). Our concierge, Mike (one of two serving the 22 suites onboard), introduced himself and gave us a folder with our dining tickets, excursion tickets, a personalized itinerary listing everything we’d booked in advance and our dining room for each night, a list of DVDs we could borrow, and some other information about the ship and its services. There was a crewmember in the lounge registering kids for the kids’ programming but she didn’t have wristbands; because we’d have to stop by the Oceaneer Lab anyhow, we decided to take care of that after lunch.
We headed for Parrot Cay, only to be told that no tables were available but we could wait in the Promenade Lounge for space to open up. After 5 minutes or so a crewmember came over to take our names, and after another 5 minutes she announced that families waiting for tables could follow her. We enjoyed lunch at the buffet (they had several vegetable dishes and some fish). We went to the Oceaneer Lab to receive a pager for the adults and wristbands with RFID tags for the kids. Michael was surprised at how bulky the tags were (about half the size of a matchbook), since a former employer of his had done work on much smaller tags. The wristband and tag didn’t bother Beth, but Max’s was so uncomfortable he had to take it off to sleep.
We arrived at the hallway by our room at 1:20, and waited about 12 minutes for the rooms to be ready. When we opened the door, I was sure Disney was trying to spoil us. Just past the doorway were a 3-door closet on the left and a full bath (with sink, toilet, and shower) on the right. Further down was the door to the bedroom with a queen bed, a desk, and two nightstands. Off of the bedroom were a walk-in closet with a small dresser and another full bath (with two sinks, a toilet, and shower). The main room had a counter with a sink (and cabinets above and below, including one with a beverage cooler), a table and 4 chairs, a double sofa bed, another small table, a freestanding cabinet, two arm chairs, and two end tables each with a drawer. It also had shelves with various knickknacks, which were bolted down, and a couple dozen books, which weren’t, and a flatscreen TV with more cabinets above and below.
The main room had two sliding doors opening onto a verandah that was at least double and possibly triple the size of a standard verandah, with two chairs and a table.
My main concern about having a handicapped-accessible room was that the kids would accidentally trigger the pull-cord alarms. I should have known Disney would guard against that – there were signs saying the alarms were disabled and that guests could contact Guest Services to activate them. I had also been concerned (based on reviews from a few years ago) that running the shower would flood the bathroom, but we had no trouble at all – the shower area was surrounded by a drain exactly at floor level which kept the floor outside the shower completely dry.
Another unfounded concern was about excessive noise from Beach Blanket Buffet, which was directly above us. Apart from one afternoon when it sounded like someone was tap dancing above us, we rarely heard anything at all from within the room.
Sitting on the table was a fruit basket from our concierge. I kept thinking “We’re not worthy.”
To give Beth something to do, I offered to take her on the walking tour of the ship. Michael joined us while Max stayed in the room watching TV. We didn’t learn much on the tour that we didn’t already know from previous cruises, but Beth found it interesting because she remembered less about the ship than we did. (Our last cruise was in January 2008 on the Magic.)
By the time we got back to our stateroom our luggage had arrived, so we unpacked while waiting for the safety drill to start. Although it was not obvious from the map on our door, our assembly station turned out to be in Animator’s Palate, which we accessed by using several sets of stairs at the aft of the ship that I hadn’t known existed on previous cruises.
After the drill Max went to play basketball on the Wide World of Sports deck and Michael and Beth went to the Sailaway party. I found the party a bit crowded for my taste, so I watched the departure from our verandah. When Michael and Beth returned I learned that Beth had danced on stage and been featured in the video feed on the Ariel View television, so I regretted not staying at the party.
We changed for dinner and headed for Animator’s Palate. I’d been underwhelmed by the “show” on our last few cruises, but either it got better or I just appreciated it more this time. I had butternut squash soup and salmon in phyllo dough, which were delicious. Throughout our cruise, we had no trouble finding food on the menu that was vegetarian or fish – there was always a vegetarian appetizer, soup, or salad (usually more than one), along with both vegetarian and fish entrée choices. Our server Lito and assistant server Felipe were attentive and helpful throughout the cruise. My only complaint on the service was that after I ordered hot tea I was offered refills on hot water frequently but usually had to ask for a fresh tea bag.
After dinner the kids headed to the Oceaneer’s Lab while Michael and I browsed in the shops. We received a page that Max had checked himself out of the club and was headed back to the room, so we followed him there. It turned out that he had gotten upset at a crewmember and wisely decided to leave before he lost his temper. Max had been working with a group of younger boys on building a race car. Although the other boys had explicitly asked for Max’s help, a counselor came by three times to tell Max to back off and let the rest of his team do the work. After the last time, when Max was helping the boys with a tricky task he’d learned how to do in Boy Scouts, Max left. He was furious and said he didn’t want to go back to the Lab at all since they were letting younger kids into older kids’ activities. Michael went to talk with the supervisor, who apologized and said there would be a special tween time in the Teen Club the next day. She later called to personally invite Max to that program.
Max calmed down sufficiently for us to go to the trivia contest Mickey Mania. Max and I screamed loudly enough to be chosen as contestants, and ended up winning the game. (It helped that on two “audience answer” questions, Michael knew the answers and gave his points to us.) Our game was in the final round when Michael was paged to go to the Lab where Beth was about to attend an ice cream party. He returned right after the game finished to report that Beth’s records indicated she wasn’t allowed dairy although she insisted (correctly) that she was, and the Lab staff needed Michael to clear up the confusion. We were baffled by why the records said anything about dairy – at check-in, the counselor had mentioned the upcoming ice cream party and we’d reiterated that Beth could have dairy, and even joked that she didn’t like ice cream except for broccoli flavored (not true, of course).
We walked back to the room after buying our embarkation photo at Shutters. I then went to fetch Beth. She seemed to have had a great time, but on our walk back to the room she told me that she hadn’t gotten any ice cream even after Michael came by. We were already out of the Lab by the time she said this, or I would have complained right then.
Michael and I helped the kids to bed and turned in ourselves.
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Great report so far! I'm planning my first Disney cruise for August on the Wonder, and I have a 9 year old, so I'm interested in your comments about the Oceaneer's Lab.
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Other than that it sounds like a great day - and like you got a wonderful room. 
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