Wonderful 4night adults only cruise 31-May-2009

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HI

I'm sure it isn't true, but when planning for our trip, I saw lots more 7 night reports then 4 nights, so I thought I would share.

There were two of us.

Both mid 30s, live in California. I had a LOT of AMEX membership rewards points that were going to expire as my company changed company credit cards. How to spend those point... I know, lets go on a cruise. Disney might be moving the Wonder out west, but they aren't moving Castaway Cay, so had to fly east.

Booked in July 2008, 11 months out. Snagged 5520, a secret port hole room (That I learned about on here) Managed to keep a secret until Christmas.

Prior cruise experience limited to 3night weekend "booze cruise" to Ensenada, Mexico on Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the Sea. (which recently moved to Port Canaveral)

One last precruise note, after booking the trip and finding DISboards, I added REAS to the reservation, 100% for the early Palo booking window as I wanted to do brunch which doesn't make it to the 75 day window & dinner on Pirate night but early to be done to watch the fireworks.

But no one really cares about pretrip reports, so lets start the real thing.

Travels and Port Canaveral
United airlines LAX get free upgrade to economy plus seats without even asking.

Uneventful flight as I watch last four episodes of Battlestar Galactica season three on the iPhone. No BG replies I haven't watched the final season yet.

Land, get rental car. Drive to Walt Disney world resort.

Dinner at Artist Point.
Copper River fresh salmon
Spinach salad
Berry cobler.

Over to Contemporary.
Watched Wishes fireworks from overlook and then saw the Electric Water Pageant

Drove 90 minutes to Port Canaveral. Stayed at the Raddison at the Port.
(another thing I learned about from DISboards)
Arrived about midnight.

11 Am shuttle to cruise terminal.
No problems checking in. Received #7 boarding card.

On ship right about 12. They "announce" your arrival followed by lunch at Parrot Cay.

Explored ship. First impressions. Much nicer then the Monarch of the Seas that I'd previously did Ensenada weekend run on. (And now based at Port Canaveral)

Our room at Secret porthole room was huge.

Met Internet friend splitting Atlantis comfort suite with.

Safety drill *yawn*

Sail away party was fun countdown to the horn and sailing away. We looked for the cruise meet gang but were unsuccessful.

Continued touring ship.

Went to Golden Mickeys show in Walt Disney Theatre. Disney theme park show on steroids. But was good.

Went to Mickey Mania show left. Added Studio Sea to the places to avoid list. Show wasn't bad; just geared to another demographic.

Walked around ship and watched sunset.

Grabbed bottle of champagne in room from REAS and took to dinner. First night we ate at Tritons

Tablemates from Detroit. Great company.

Dinner
3 jumbo shrimp Cocktail
French onion soup.
Sea bass

After dinner: jacuzzi at the adults pool.

Order room service for lunch Monday.
Pack into fridge with ice

 

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Nassau

Up at 8 am. (5 am pacific time).
Breakfast at beach blanket buffet. Only time I felt a "get me out of here" moment. "Look dear Johnny is throwing a temper tantrum, let’s take pictures."

We had plans to meet up Laura, aka Leggs22 and her cute daughter whom we met on the DISBoards and were splitting a cost of the Comfort Suites room at 9:15 but ran into her a few minutes early on deck.

We were the first people at deck one door and the first people off the boat at 9:30. Fought the building taxi drivers until we got outside. The four of us were at the Comfort Suites at 9:45 am and checked in (and out) by ten.
We took the scenic route to the pools by accident through Atlantis but ended up taking a detour via The Dig aquarium which was great. Found the towel hut for wrist bands and got a locker.

Then wow. Had a great time. I think The Not so Lazy River was worth the cost alone. The blaster slides were fun. The only line was at the pyramid tube slide that ended up in the shark tank.

Somewhere Noonish we ate our lunch we had brought from the ship. We used the REAS Soft sided ice bucket as a cooler and the night before we ordered two sandwiches no mayo, fruit, and two cookies and asked our stateroom attendant for ice. Put the food in Ziploc bags we had brought for this very purpose. Only comments. The sandwich was a poor sandwich. Lots of bread. However we took the meat and cheese off one half and made the other half more respectable. Everyone was soo accommodating that I'm sure you could also ask for a double meat sandwich if you wanted a full sized one

We had read horror stories about the costs of food at Atlantis but we saw they had a burger fries and a drink combo for nine bucks. Less than the cost at the Disney theme parks. That said I was happy to have brought the free lunch from the ship. One other comment, in Florida on Saturday night I purchased two 1.5 liters bottles of water. One each for Nassau and castaway cay. Best three bucks spent the entire week.

About 1:30-2:00 it started to rain and then pour hard. However it was a warm rain and no lightning or thunder and we were at a water park so we just got wet. We took advantage of the storm to ride the tube ride through the sharks again with minimal wait.

We had ridden every slide at least once and every combination of the not so lazy river a few times. About 2:30 we took a final blaster ride. ( our favorite first level slide to the right). And then a final complete lap around the river before we called it a day and changed back at the lockers.

Hmm on vacation and at a casino whatever should we do next…... This time we retraced our scenic detour on purpose and made our way to the casino via The Dig. This time stopping for pictures along the way. Very cool as a free bonus. Not sure worthy of admission or shore excursion. At the end took $10.00 of the casino’s money.

Shared a taxi back to town. ( note the four dollar per person has an $11.00 min but the driver we could wait just a minute and he'd buddy us up. It was less then two minutes and we had our two other people and were off to town.

It was a holiday so most of the shops were closed. That was fine by us but if you were there to shop it would have been a bummer. The fact that The Wonder was the only ship in town with its demographics might have helped make the shop owners close.

We had the taxi drop us off at The Hard Rock Cafe. Bought a shirt and hurricane in a souvenir glass to keep up a collection I started when I was 18. The place was empty. Note the bar tab had an automatic gratuity that we didn't notice until after we had tipped twice.

Walked one block to the rum cake store to get presents for family, friends, and co workers back in the real world.

Final stop was the famed straw market. 80% of the shops were closed and what was open made me realize I wasn't missing the rest.

Back at the port, we asked at the guard shack about getting a passport stamp, and after a quick look at our passports, directed into the building and to the right room. A friendly lady stamped it and we were off to the ship.

Back on ship about 4:30-5:00. How was Toy Story the Musical? I don't know we decided to use the rainforest pass that came with the Reas. Very enjoyable. All four loungers empty. Loved the rainforest shower. I'm 6'4" so it was great to not have to duck as it was raining from the ceiling.

Dinner Animators Palate cute show doesn't live up to hype but fun time. Unfortunately, only bad meal. Veal was tough and really uneatable. I sent mine back and asked for the pasta that I had been weighing as my other choice. Tablemate toughed it out but said I made the better choice by changing.

After dinner we received our Reas turndown. We also filled out the card for the Reas breakfast the next morning.

 

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Castaway cay

Wake up call at 8 am. Sound asleep but breakfast was coming between 8:30 and 9:00. It arrived exactly at 8:30. The hot Reas breakfast was great. We had requested one order of egg whites scrambled with ham and a side of salsa. Neither was an option on the card but arrived as ordered.

We finished and disembarked a few minutes after nine.
Strolled off the ship to find the post office open and no line. Yes. Postcards mailed.

First stop the snorkel beach. We had the 3 in one excursion. Picked up rental gear and hit the water.

Was getting slightly bummed that half way out to the end it was still only 3-4 feet deep and no fish. However eventually it got deeper and LOTS of fish. Found Mickey. Of course the three buoys make that part easy. Enjoyed ourselves very much

Hopped on tram to Serenity Bay. Found two lounge chairs at the water's edge and claimed them as our own. We picked up the floats in the package. We felt that yesterday was tube day at Atlantis so today was float.

Serenity bay was also shallow with a rocky bottom. We both were glad to have swim shoes at both Atlantis and Serenity bay.

Made it out by the pink buoys where it was deeper and floated around. Very relaxing.

Eventually the call of lunch drove us to shore. Yummy

Forgot to add that as we reached our chairs someone had vacated one of the close umbrellas.

So we dragged our chairs to the shade and headed to lunch.

After lunch and such a strenuous day of doing nothing it was time to relax. We camped out under the umbrella. I tried the infamous konch kooler. Tasty and very sweet.

After an hour of doing nothing I decided to take float and continue to do nothing on the water. Rob continued to relax in the lounge chair under the umbrella

Eventually I came in showered off, and brought soda and frozen yougart over. We finally decided to ride bikes. We gave our floats to the couple under the next umbrella and headed to the tram.

Back at the family beach, we grabbed a chair near the tram to dump our stuff and rented bikes. This was something I probably wouldn't have done if it wasn't already in the package but it turned out to be a fun surprise. We did the loop out to the tower and then out to the point. Both were worthwhile and I was glad we had gone.

After dropping the bikes back we decided we'd had enough fun in the sun for one day and slowly headed back to the ship, stopping by She Sells to pick up a Castaway Cay polo shirt.

Back on ship we headed to the rainforest room. I quickly felt that after hours in the heat I didn't need to be in the steam rooms so I left rob and showered to head back to the room.

Flipping thru navigator I see DVC presentation is starting so I head to Route 66. At the end they do a drawing for a $300 on board credit. There were only about 12 of us there and I won! Woo Hoo! The only rule it had to be spent on the ship. It wasn't refundable. I can live with fine print like that.

We went window shopping though the two stores. ( I didn't trust a time share salesmen even from Disney and didn't want to spend the $300 until it posted to the account.)

We had 7 pm reservations at Palo. The entire cruise was great but the one thing that surpassed the hype was Palo. Wow. I wish we had eaten there every night.

Courses are what showed up. We shared things. I also ordered the $64.00 Chianti wine. It was good. $50.00 of the price was included with the Reas and the other $14 by the DVC. I drank half at Palo and they sent the bottle to finish the next night at the main dining room.

1st course I had warm shrimp salad with asparagus not sure why they called it a salad but it was good. Rob had minestrone soup

Next, to arrive, 4 cheese pizza and the lasagna (a special that night.) It had to be one of the best lasagnas that I've ever had. Pizza was good too.

Then the main course. I had the beef tenderloin and rob the halibut. We also asked for an appetizer portion of the lobster ravioli. All great

Dessert. Need you ask? chocolate soufflé. Rob had something else but I was too busy trying saver every bite of the soufflé that I can't remember.

All said it was about 2.25 hours. About 10 minutes after we had finished our main course our waitress apologies and said they burnt my soufflé and had to cook me a second one. We didn't mind or wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't said anything.

Changed out of our nice clothes and into casual for the pirate party. I finally had a reason to wear my Disneyland POTC 5k t-shirt. After watching all of the pirate merch being sold all over the ship I know how they afford the fireworks. I'm sure the party turns a profit.

We had asked where to watch the fireworks and were told they launched them off the Palo roof. We had a great view of the stage and fireworks from deck ten. After the show, we looked at the buffet but being stuffed from Palo we passed.

After fireworks we again hit the adult hot tub and ran into our tablemates there and exchanged dinner notes. (Palo won over the Pirates menu )

 

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Day at sea and disimbarkation

Woke up at 8:00. Wandered up to adult pool and sat on the deck and let my feet dangle in the water while I typed notes on my iPhone. It was very peaceful only about four people around the adult pool area. ( if you enjoyed my Nassau description it was typed into the iPhone at this time)

About nine I headed to spa and took a shower. Soon woke up rob. Palo was calling once again for brunch at ten. It was as good as if not better than dinner. Ended the meal with the famous fruit dessert pizza.

We had finished a few minutes before noon. Rob headed to the rainforest room while I went back to the adult pool. No longer empty I sat in the shallow water and typed notes. It eventually got hot so I had to jump in the deep pool for a bit and then back to shallow with my back to the wall. Repeat a few times (if you enjoyed my castaway post it was written here)

We had made plans to meet up again at the 1:30 pm matinee showing of Disney Dreams. I enjoyed the show.

After the show we had some fruit for a small late lunch from Goofy's galley and then saw the 3:00 pm showing of Up! I was surprised the theatre was full even thought Up had played three times in the big theatre the day/night prior. Movie was great. Surreal that you are fully engrossed in the movie and then you walk out of the theatre and see the ocean thru a porthole. We could never feel the ship moving. The entire cruise, if you weren't looking at the ocean you'd swear the ship was parked.

After the movie Rob wanted to Rainforest again. I headed to guest services to buy martini tasting vouchers. There was a line a mile long of people prepaying tips. I headed directly to Diversions to see if I could just pay there and they, of course, said no problem.

Adam was a great bartender. The people sitting around me were all fun people. The tasting ended but we all sat around talking until 6:30.
Two martini tasting notes that I didn't know. First they do it twice. One is gin and the other is vodka. I was lucky and showed up for vodka.
Second when they ask for volunteers put your hand up.
Lastly, some hearsay from the people had done the beer tasting and said that was not worth it. Average mass produced beer, nothing special or worth the price. Looking at what they had on tap, I would have to agree. Some folks had done the wine tasting at Palo and said that was good.

As we had seen the afternoon show of Dreams we decided to enjoy the pool during the evening while it was fairly empty.

Eventually we had to get out and get ready for our final dinner at Parrot Cay. I can honestly say food here was just average. All four of us at the table thought this every course.

After dinner we went to guest services and x-fered Rob’s balance to my account and then got a print out of how much of the $364 credit was left (fuel surcharge refund and DVC winning) and then hit the stores to take care that "problem.". Somewhere we went to see Till We Meet Again in the lobby but left after the characters split up for photos for 25 minutes and missed the big finale. I'm guessing all the characters come together, there is a song sung, “Now it’s time to say goodbye…..” and then streamers are launched.

One final trip to the hot tub. Since it was only a four day, we had our small suitcases. We didn't put our luggage out, however we did pack because it was going to be an early morning. (Disney was so organized, if I cruised again, i would put my luggage out, even on a short cruise)

Up at 6:45 am. Shower quickly.

Then even though we were docked we had to meet at 7:30 for a bridge tour. Woo Hoo.

The bridge of the Wonder is as high tech as the Enterprise. You can tell the people take pride in what they do. In addition to the high tech, they also are “old school” and we learned that they also still chart out all of the courses on maps. While they have the routes from Cape Canaveral to Nassau down, they were saying at the day at sea, they were kept busy with both the computers, radar, and maps as they were trying to maneuver around the weather so we all would have a beautiful day. (Which they did a fantastic job of doing.) I also learned the Wonder and the Magic each have two captains that work a 10 week on and 10 week off rotation.

This was a fun ending to the cruise and I can't wait to see the pictures from up there.

Back to the room for the last time to grab our stuff, and walked off the ship at eight.

Having only been on one other boat out of Los Angeles I'd have to say Disney was a thousand times more organized. We strolled right off the ship with no wait at customs. I think we hit a good time as the early seating folks had already left and the late group was still having breakfast.

Waited less than five minutes for a shuttle back to the Raddison to pick up the car.

Had a McBreakfast across the street since we had missed ours with the bridge tour and then headed west to Walt Disney World. EPCOT was calling.

 

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Random notes.
Do Palo.
I wouldn't normally recommend doing dinner and them brunch the next morning but it worked for us because I wanted to do dinner on Pirate night. It was our first Disney cruise and wanted to hit all three of the dining rooms and especially make sure to see Animators Palate show.
End the end, back to back Palo worked out fine for us.

REAS. Worth it cost wise? Not even close. However I had paid for the cruise with Amex membership rewards points. After booking cruise and found DIS boards and the 105 booking window that unofficially comes with Reas, I called Amex back to add it since I know brunch on the four day doesn't make it to the 75 day mark and waking up still on California time early to get a #2 boarding wasn't going to happen.
It was a nice bonus since it didn't cost real money. I booked Palo for brunch and dinner on the days and times I wanted. It was fun in the fact that I bought it for the booking window I forgot about the champagne that was waiting in our room as well as the hot in-room breakfast and the free photo until we walked into our room and saw the vouchers and bottle cooling.
If we did Disney again (and with the Wonder coming to the left coast, the odds look good) I'll just try my luck at the 90 day mark.

Random things I learned only from Disboards.
Stay at the Raddison Port Canaveral the night before your cruise. When you factor in the cost of parking at the port, the room is dirt cheap. The pool looked nice too, but didn’t use it. If you do, book your shuttle reservation in advance. Since we had Palo covered we booked at 11 hoping, as folks on here said, they would start boarding about 11:45. And they did.

The secret port hole rooms are fantastic. I wouldn't even call our room view obstructed. 5520 Talk about a free upgrade!

When in Nassau don't miss the Atlantis pools and book a room at the Comfort Suites. We were only two but found two more people to split the cost on the cruise meet thread.

I scanned the navigators and sent them to the DIS and Castaway Club sites. Hopefully they will be up soon.

Since people ask. The movies shown:
UP! It was the opening weekend, 3D in both theatres.

In addition in the Buena Vista theatre....

Race for Witch Mountain
Bolt in 3D
Hannah Montana the Movie
DisneyNature Earth

Feel free to ask any questions.

 

[pmama]

Sounds like you had a fantastic cruise. Thanks for sharing. You are right, it does seem that more 7 day cruise TRs are posted.