Aloha Hawaii! Our 10 Day Cruise to Hawaii on the Disney Wonder, September 7, 2015 Trip Report completed 07/31/2016 - Page 8 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Awesome meals and what fun to explore these markets! I had to check to be sure you were in Seattle when I saw how steep that road was. Oops on the transit train! I'm not sure that I would have considered Labor Day making a difference. But glad you made it on time to the Amtrak station, which is so beautiful. I love train stations. Luke and I love traveling by train, but don't get to do it very often. Wonderful photos of the scenery along the way. Traveling to Vancouver had its share of glitches, but thankfully, you were reunited with the missing backpack and safely made it to port via a couple of taxis. We love the verandas, too.
Glad the backpack wasn't lost! Tell Titus not to feel bad - I left Bose headphones on an airport shuttle once. (In my defense, it was o'dark thirty) I realized as soon as I got inside, but of course they were never found....
!!!
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Originally Posted by pamcarey
Woo hoo! So exciting that you're on the ship and ready to get this voyage started!
Yes, we were so ready!
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Originally Posted by Disneybine
Awww, I love your group photo! You look so excited to be going on a cruise
thanks!
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Originally Posted by xwewhisper
So happy you were able to find the bag and WOOHOO you made it to the ship!
Yes! It would have been more of an annoyance (his extra pair of shoes were in it) than a big loss, but I'm glad it worked out.
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Originally Posted by stardust190
So glad you were able to find that backpack! And you made it to the ship. Woo Hoo!
Yes, finally!
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Originally Posted by booklady1
I am enjoying reading your report and looking forward to you and your family's cruise.! Love your photos.
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Originally Posted by jandsdennis
Looking forward to reading more. Everyone looks happy to be there. Great pictures
Thanks!
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Originally Posted by shazza
Looking forward to reading about the cruise. Your reports are always filled with infectious smiles.
aw shucks, thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Awesome meals and what fun to explore these markets! I had to check to be sure you were in Seattle when I saw how steep that road was. Oops on the transit train! I'm not sure that I would have considered Labor Day making a difference. But glad you made it on time to the Amtrak station, which is so beautiful. I love train stations. Luke and I love traveling by train, but don't get to do it very often. Wonderful photos of the scenery along the way. Traveling to Vancouver had its share of glitches, but thankfully, you were reunited with the missing backpack and safely made it to port via a couple of taxis. We love the verandas, too.
I'd love to travel more by train, I just have to convince everyone else!
(I've been having trouble with the times and dates on my photos. Because we had to change time zones so many times, I can't tell exactly when I took the picture. I usually rely heavily on the time stamp because I take terrible notes. I also usually keep receipts to back up my times, but I didn't do well with that either this trip . I did keep every Navigator, so that will help. I'll try to give you a general idea of when things happened because most of my time stamps show that I was a few hours off or even a day off, depending on when I changed the time on my phone. It also helps to remember to change the date when you're pushing back the time, especially after midnight! )
It was around 2pm that we headed up to the buffet. I was worried that we would miss lunch, but it didn't close until 3pm. One thing we noticed for sure was that it was already easier getting around because the Wonder was smaller than the Dream. It wasn't too crowded at Beach Blanket Buffet - I guess we had missed the lunch crowd. We got our food and scored two tables near the window which gave us a great view of the water. I'm glad we had such a nice view - it was the best thing about lunch I had told everyone to try not to compare the food between the Dream and the Wonder. I had lowered my expectations for the buffet and that helped - the food was just ok. Don't worry, over the next 10 days, BBB would redeem itself and become even better than the main dining rooms!
The view from our table:
Floating gas station!
We stayed there for a while, just relaxing and soaking in the scenery. It would be a long time before we'd get to Canada again and I wanted to really remember it. We also played around with the Navigator app, which I think is very cool.
The meet and greet for the Facebook group had started already at 2:30pm in the Promenade Lounge. I didn't want to miss out, so I excused myself and headed down. The boys had already taken off to check out Edge and Dh, as usual, wanted to go up top to take pictures. The boys were going to meet back in the room for the life boat drill. There were a lot of folks chatting and relaxing in the lounge already. I met some people that I was familiar with in the group. There were some really nice and industrious people that had made name tags and some other things for us. It was especially cool that some folks recognized me! I got the chance to say hi to Charles and Cindy again and then I went back up to check on Martha and Anne who were still in the buffet chatting. Anne is a cruise veteran, so all of this was familiar to her, even though this was her first Disney cruise. Martha was still getting used to the idea that we were on a large boat and we'd be leaving land soon . I went through the navigator to give her an idea of all the things she could do to maybe distract her. I'm glad she had Anne to sort of lead the way. She would be bored by the things I liked to do while on the ship. They went outside to check out the scenery and I went back downstairs to start on my stateroom door and get a little organized. I had some trouble because my cheap magnet paper wouldn't stick to the door . I had read somewhere that I may have a problem with magnets because the doors on the Wonder had been painted over so many times. I did a little bit of decorating and put out our fish extender. I had planned on going to the Vista Spa open house and entering the raffle, but I had missed both .
We all got together again for the drill and headed to deck 4 to find "I" station. At first it was a little confusing, because we couldn't find what station we were supposed to go to in the room. Max figured out the bold vertical line on our key cards was the letter "I". It was a little strange having the drill out in front of everyone on the dock staring at us, lol. (Isn't there always someone late, holding up the show? ) Soon it was time to party! I headed up to deck 9 and it was already crowded. It was still nice out (mid-60s) , but breezy. I saw the kids right away and we got some "drinks of the day" to start things off right - Paradise Punch for me and Princess Delights for the kids.
"Adventures Away!"
Mr.Smooth
Mr. Groove
WOOO!
I wanted to see more of the port before we started sailing so I went upstairs to check things out. I saw Dh on deck taking a million pictures . Vancouver really is a pretty city...
Here are some of Dh's:
No one in the pool! You can see the waves on the surface from the wind. It would be like this for a few more days. Brrr!
No business yet...
Anne is on the left, Martha on the right
Cheers! (No, I did not have two drinks, lol. I was holding Titus' cup for him.)
It was around this point that I went back down to the room. We had started moving ("We're already moving?") and I wanted to sit in the veranda to watch us leave. I briefly met our room host Glen. He was busy, so I didn't talk to him much.
I have video of this bridge because I was trying to catch the horn, but I missed it
I had seen that people were already putting their fish extenders out. I had several deliveries to make during the week and the first one would be candy and nightlights for the little ones. I quickly packed up my goodies and my list/map and headed out. By the time I got back, they boys had made it back, but Titus had lost his key card and I had to go with him to guest services to get it replaced. He didn't like wearing the lanyard which he thought was too scratchy. He swore up and down that he wouldn't lose it again and would keep it in his pocket. He didn't, but I'd still like to maybe get a better lanyard next time. Since the line was fairly long we missed the All Aboard show that I wanted to see. It was time to be seated for dinner as we had the 8:30 second seating. Dinner would be at Parrot Cay tonight.
On the way to dinner. Whoa it seems like we're really moving fast now!
We met our server Jude and the assistant server Maggie. This was our third cruise with Disney, and I hate to say it, but our third best team. They were both really nice, but Jude seemed to forget things and was always in a hurry. Maggie was also very nice, but more standoffish than other teams we've had. She eventually warmed up over the cruise as we got to know her a little better. Jude remained a little hurried the whole time. Their service was pretty good and always with a smile, but after the last two experiences on the Dream where we were literally "wowed", it was a bit of a letdown. Maggie later on told us that it had been a very long tour for her, having just come from doing the Alaska cruises several times and she still had a ways to go before she went home. We got the sense that she was a little homesick or maybe just tired. These cast members work so hard for so long, I totally understand her fatigue. Our head server Rakesh, however, was a superstar! Out of the three teams that we've had, we was the absolute best. Of course he came to check on us as standard, but he was always so much fun and joked around with the kids and loved to tease us and other funny stuff. I really felt like he was taking care of us. He was one of the cast members that I mentioned by name on the end of the cruise survey.
Ahi Tuna and Avocado Tower - excellent
Max had the "Mixed Grill" It was his favorite meal on the entire cruise.
Creole Crusted Grouper with Shrimp Jambalaya- The fish, delicious. The jambalaya, terrible. (You can't serve underdone rice, Disney, you just can't!)
I didn't take any more photos as I just wanted to relax. (And stop getting on people's nerves, ha ha .) Overall, dinner was ok, which was the running theme of the main dining rooms during the cruise - some things were excellent, some things were just ok, and some things we didn't like at all, it wasn't very consistent. I hate to sound like I'm being too critical, but we spend a LOT of money to sail on Disney Cruise Line and I just expected better. I'm not at all a picky person (I eat a lot and a lot of different kinds of foods), but it really could've been better. I tended to be a lot less negative than Dh, taking into account that hundreds of meals are being prepared at the same time. But I hear that other cruise lines manage to have delicious food all the time in their main dining rooms and they also have to prepare the same amount of food. I don't know if it was because we had second dining, but sometimes the food wasn't hot (Dh says it was cold). They will have to fix that. Especially because at the end of the cruise, they expect you to fill in all the circles for "excellent" on the survey. We couldn't do it this time
We got back to the room around 10:30 and the kids hadn't come in yet. (They wouldn't until 2am! Let it goooo...) It had been a super long, exciting day and I was ready to hit the sack. I was so happy to find that the wonderful bed felt the same as on the Dream.
Here's where we were on our voyage so far.
We thought it was so cool that we were still near land.
Sadly your dining experiences sounded similar to ours on the cruise just before yours - hit and miss food and service that just wasn't amazing, which was a shame. You bought back some great memories with your photos of the Vancouver skyline.
Such a shame that for your longest cruise the dining-room team wasn't the best. I hope Disney does some re-training of staff to solve what seems to be a growing problem. It makes such a huge difference when you look forward to seeing your team every night. An exciting and wonderful day, though. Must have been quite a feeling to know that you can see land now, but you'll be heading out to cross the Pacific!
Some great photos! Looks like everyone is enjoying themselves Shame about the inconsistencies in the dining aspect of the cruise... But reading your TR makes me want to try a Disney cruise one day
Sadly your dining experiences sounded similar to ours on the cruise just before yours - hit and miss food and service that just wasn't amazing, which was a shame. You bought back some great memories with your photos of the Vancouver skyline.
I've just started your TR - I'll be comparing notes!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
Such a shame that for your longest cruise the dining-room team wasn't the best. I hope Disney does some re-training of staff to solve what seems to be a growing problem. It makes such a huge difference when you look forward to seeing your team every night. An exciting and wonderful day, though. Must have been quite a feeling to know that you can see land now, but you'll be heading out to cross the Pacific!
Oh yes! I was looking forward to some nice long sea days
Quote:
Originally Posted by kcamozzi67
Some great photos! Looks like everyone is enjoying themselves Shame about the inconsistencies in the dining aspect of the cruise... But reading your TR makes me want to try a Disney cruise one day
I hope you get to try one one day! Please don't let my food reviews ruin it for you as this was just one trip
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Great photos of the ship and Vancouver as you were sailing away! So sorry that your main dining experiences were not up to par.
Thanks! I wish the panoramic shots were a little bigger on the TR, but I know they have to be a certain size only
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Traveling to Vancouver had its share of glitches, but thankfully, you were reunited with the missing backpack and safely made it to port via a couple of taxis. We love the verandas, too. 
!!!
I usually rely heavily on the time stamp because I take terrible notes. I also usually keep receipts to back up my times, but I didn't do well with that either this trip 
. I did keep every Navigator, so that will help. I'll try to give you a general idea of when things happened because most of my time stamps show that I was a few hours off or even a day off, depending on when I changed the time on my phone. It also helps to remember to change the date when you're pushing back the time, especially after midnight! 
)
I had told everyone to try not to compare the food between the Dream and the Wonder. I had lowered my expectations for the buffet and that helped - the food was just ok. Don't worry, over the next 10 days, BBB would redeem itself and become even better than the main dining rooms!
I got the chance to say hi to Charles and Cindy again and then I went back up to check on Martha and Anne who were still in the buffet chatting. Anne is a cruise veteran, so all of this was familiar to her, even though this was her first Disney cruise. Martha was still getting used to the idea that we were on a large boat and we'd be leaving land soon 
. I went through the navigator to give her an idea of all the things she could do to maybe distract her. I'm glad she had Anne to sort of lead the way. She would be bored by the things I liked to do while on the ship. They went outside to check out the scenery and I went back downstairs to start on my stateroom door and get a little organized. I had some trouble because my cheap magnet paper wouldn't stick to the door 
. I had read somewhere that I may have a problem with magnets because the doors on the Wonder had been painted over so many times. I did a little bit of decorating and put out our fish extender. I had planned on going to the Vista Spa open house and entering the raffle, but I had missed both 
) Soon it was time to party! I headed up to deck 9 and it was already crowded. It was still nice out (mid-60s) , but breezy. I saw the kids right away and we got some "drinks of the day" to start things off right - Paradise Punch for me and Princess Delights for the kids. 
. Vancouver really is a pretty city... 
Shame about the inconsistencies in the dining aspect of the cruise... But reading your TR makes me want to try a Disney cruise one day 
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