Wonderful Winter Vacation! Disney Wonder - February 11-18 2018

[osully]

Hi all!

This was my very first cruise ever - and my husband's 2nd or 3rd (we aren't sure - his first trip was in the early 2000's when he was about 10 years old). He had sailed then on the Disney Wonder and was happy to be back. But very sad that the arcade he remembered was no more...

We started planning this trip back in 2016 after coming back from our Disney World honeymoon. We clearly needed to figure out how soon we could get back to the Disney Bubble!

Our cabin was an inside cabin on the 5th floor. Next time we will save up a bit more and splurge for a large porthole or a small verandah, as we really did love watching the sunrise and sunset!

 

[osully]

Travel Day & 1 Night @ Pop Century

We live in Canada so we had a long day of waiting at the airport, waiting for plane de-icing, etc. We ate breakfast but were saving room for dinner at Disney World upon our arrival. We had a few snacks in the airport but as our ETA at Orlando MCO was supposed to be around 8:30pm, we were just going to wait for our late dinner. We actually got the email that our room was ready around 1pm while we were still at our home airport waiting for our plane!

Well - of course - our flight didn't even arrive on time let alone board or take off on time. We ended up arriving at MCO later than planned and were seated on the Magical Express by 10:20pm!

When we finally were arrived, checked in (just grabbing our Magic Bands, as we are Canadian so they don't mail them to us), and bags dropped off in the room around 11:30. We headed straight to Everything POP! and waited in line behind what seemed like 20 or so tweens from a cheerleading competition or something. The resort was overrun with them, but oh well.

I got the Chicken Parmesan with Alfredo sauce, and double Caesar salad for my side. My husband got the large slice of Pepperoni pizza, Caesar salad side, and an M&M sugar cookie. It was really delicious and I was so happy to be back at Disney!



Our room was one of the renovated ones. Building 6. Ground floor. Right next to the big Mickey phone! Sadly it was the noisiest hotel room we have ever stayed in. We could hear people talking, not yelling, in the other rooms. We planned to sleep in but were woken up by this around 7am.

 

[osully]

Waking up at POP & Taking DCL Transfer to the Port

We really loved the DECOR at POP. The bathrooms. The beds. The dresser. Everything was beautiful. That's what makes me so sad it was so noisy and gave us a very bad sleep. Anyways, we decided to start our day earlier than we had planned. We left our bags in the room and headed out for a nice walk all around the POP property. Many photos were taken! We really loved the statues of all the characters outside. This was the main selling point for this resort for us. The renovated rooms were a bonus!





For our honeymoon in September 2016 we had actually stayed across the lake in a Little Mermaid room at Art Of Animation. We had no issues at all with how busy the resort was, any noise in the room, etc. However we did have a room at the very back of the Ursula building and at the end of that hall so all we were around was Hourglass Lake. It was nice to see it from a new perspective!



Our DCL transfer was only meeting in the Lobby around 12:15 and was planned to leave at 12:45. Next up was grabbing breakfast!

 

[osully]

Husband got the Bounty Platter - I guess he was in a really hungry mood The potatoes, oddly, were super cold. I ended up eating some of those along with the biscuit that came with the meal. I really love biscuits. They aren't really a thing here in Canada except at Denny's or Popeyes. (I LOVE POPEYES!)

 

[osully]

I wanted to eat a smaller breakfast so I picked a cinnamon roll from the baked goods area:



OMG! This was the best cinnamon roll I have ever had. It was flaky almost like a croissant on the inside and not too sugary or sweet. We brought our food back to the room to eat while we flipped around on the TV. We made the Joffreys coffee from the room - it was really awesome to get free coffee and a coffee maker right in the room!

 

[tink1970]

Wonderful photos! Pop was my DD's favorite resort when she was little-your pictures bring back happy memories Sorry you didn't sleep well, though.

 

[osully]

After breakfast we packed up, left the room for checkout time, and headed to the lobby. I checked out the gift shop and found so many amazing plushies. I have a plushie problem and did my best to not buy these. I really wanted to buy DCL exclusives only on this trip



Never see these at the Disney Store!!



Husband spent some time in the arcade!

 

[osully]

We had a great ride on the DCL bus



Unfortunately it was already 2:30 by the time we had dropped our bags in our room and made our way to Cabanas for the welcome lunch! I loved just about everything in this photo. Chicken strips, fries, mac and cheese, mushroom mac and cheese, some fried fish with tartar sauce, and coleslaw.



After lunch we headed out to explore Deck 9 - what a beautiful ship!



The mandatory drill was relatively quick. Very chaotic. Most chaotic moment of the while trip but I guess it makes sense if just about everyone is out at the same time!



After the drill was over we went to the Oceaneers Club open house. We were blown away by how amazing the kids club areas are. Sad almost that they are just for kids! The Toy Story area was our favourite as we have grown up with these movies since we were both 4 years old when the first movie came out.

 

[osully]

Dinner at Tiana's Place!



We ate here 3 times during our cruise. It was our first night dinner as well as our Pirate Night dinner! This wasn't my favourite menu of the week here but it was a great first meal! Started with asparagus.



Mushroom truffle soup



Strip loin, truffled potatoes, roasted parsnips, spinach

 

[osully]

Louie and Tiana came through and got everyone to stand up and go around the restaurant. I had no idea prior to our trip that it was a character meal on the first night. Got a photo with Tiana and a photo with Louie. Loved it!




For dessert I went with the bannoffee pie. The description was bananas layered with caramel and topped with whipped cream. I actually don't like chocolate and would go so far to say I hate chocolate so I was sad the menu didn't advise it would have chocolate sauce around and some chocolate inside, etc.! I ate around the chocolate pieces and it was actually pretty delicious.

 

[osully]

Breakfast at Tritons

This was the only day we had breakfast table service - it was really the same exact food as in Cabanas. Pastry selection is a nice touch! I got a pineapple coconut muffin. My husband got a cinnamon roll. We both had coffee. Everyone complains about the coffee onboard but it was just like any old restaurant coffee in my opinion. Not as strong as we have at home but not offensive.



I took a break to admire the lighting in Triton's. These are on the back walls. I absolutely love them.



We both got eggs benedict. Little did we know you could get that at Cabanas too. It was good but I have to admit I got tired of the breakfast items over the week!

 

[Sunshine2U]

Following - we're excited to be back on Wonder in 2019!

 

[osully]

Exploring The Ship, Crafts, Lunch

I was blown away by how many activities there were at all time! On this day I headed to the Promenade Lounge for 3D Star Wars Crafts. So cute!



It was a really beautiful day. The ship was docked at Key West Florida but we were staying aboard to enjoy less crowds everywhere!



Lunch at Cabanas. Chicken strips. Polenta square. Tiny piece of seared Tuna. Lots of Asian inspired items this day.



Dessert round was a Napoleon (or Mille Feulle here in Canada), banana bread pudding with caramel sauce, and vanilla bean ice cream. Everything here was delicious.



Here is a pic of the TV in our room. We had a piece of POTC themed art right over that dresser that was very cute.



We are huge Star Trek fans and have several of those ship dedication plaques in our home. I wanted to find the Wonder's and did, pretty quick!

 

[osully]

Dinner @ Triton's

So we had the late dinner seating - 8:15pm. We loved it. Usually had a meal around 4 and then went to the evening show or got ready for dinner and walked around etc. Tangled was playing on this particular night so I grabbed a drink of the day. It was the Yellow Bird. Not good. At all.

Online it shows ingredients are:
• White Rum
• Splash of Crème de Banane
• Splash of Galliano *I think this is what was so bad*
• Pineapple Juice
• Orange Juice



Dinner tonight was at Triton's! This was our favourite meal there, but we'd admit this was our least favourite of the 3 restaurants. The mural was beautiful, the Sebastian light fixtures were adorable, but the plates were oddly just plain white along with the table cloth etc.



This was the fried brie. It was actually delicious. Gobbled it up. Husband got the escargot. I had a dip or two of the garlic butter, but I don't do snails.



For salad round I went with the red wine, pear, and lardons salad. It was just OK. Husband got the French Onion soup and found it really cheesy but hard to eat. That's why I didn't get it



My main course was the Chateaubriand with a red wine sauce at the bottom and a Bearnaise sauce at the top. Came with smashed shallot potatoes and green beans. This was absolutely delicious. Night 2 of steak. Both sauces were delicious. Husband went with the lobster pasta and really liked it.

 

[osully]

Dessert was very good - I got the Grand Marnier souffle. Never had souffle before so this was one of my most anticipated meals on the cruise. It was not my favourite dessert but it really is beautiful!



As we walked back to our room, there was live piano in the atrium. The musicians on this cruise were amazing. Someone else came by and stayed for a song



So cute. Love the DCL costume! Sadly I didn't get photos with every character in the DCL costumes. I heard someone else ask how we can find out what costume the characters will have at what times and there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for it sadly.

 

[osully]

Day @ Sea # 1 - Anyone Can Cook

There were only 2 planned sessions of Anyone Can Cook on our cruise. I really enjoyed these and wish they were every day! The executive chef of Tiana's Place showed us how to make lobster ravioli. It was quite good.

 

[osully]

Dinner at ANIMATOR'S PALATE!

This was hands down our favourite place to be and to eat!



Of course, we both got the truffle pasta purseittes. I LOVE truffle. These were absolutely as good as everyone made them sound around here!



Baked potato and cheddar cheese soup - again my husband and I got the same item This again was absolutely delicious. Need to make this at home.



For the main course, I picked the filet. The tamarind bbq sauce and wasabi mashed potatoes was such a good combination! I must admit the bok choy was not my favourite but I ate it all to be healthy My husband got the pennette bolognese and loved it.



Dessert time! I went with sticky toffee pudding. My husband had the cookies and cream ice sundae. Both very good!

 

[osully]

Valentine's Day! Lunch at Triton's

The plan for today was to get lunch at Triton's and then see Star Wars: The Last Jedi in the Buena Vista Theatre. We saw this movie at the preview screening on December 14 back home. Husband saw it a week later too, so it was his 3rd time seeing it and my 2nd.



I got an appetizer - tomato mozzarella bruchetta. Absolutely delicious. The ingredient quality really stands out here as it's such a simple thing to make but was SO good. Delicious real Italian style mozzarella, not the Kraft kind!



Lunch was the farfalle pasta with a champagne cream sauce, mushrooms, and sundried tomatoes. Was a really fresh yummy pasta dish. Husband got the burger. Nothing special about that but he really liked it.



Dessert for lunch! Best part of being on vacation is all the appetizers and desserts you get to eat! I chose the apple strudel. Husband got the funnel ice cream sundae, as pretty much any time there was a sundae he got it!

 

[osully]

Movie Afternoon! Star Wars: The Last Jedi

We wrapped up lunch and headed up to Deck 5. I loved these photos of Walt and Roy that were in the stair cases.





We got some popcorn and settled in for the movie. Not a bad crowd for 2:15pm on a port day (Costa Maya Mexico). Again we chose to stay on the ship. I love Disney popcorn.



After the movie (it felt longer than we remembered, at 2.5 hours long!) we headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. We found the cutest Valentine's Day towel animal. Loved that they gave us a card too. My husband actually brought a card for me with him - he ended up giving me a card I had actually gotten him last year for Valentine's Day. It is the Lady & the Tramp card where they move together or apart when you close or open the card. Too funny!

 

[osully]

Dinner # 2 at Tiana's Place - Valentine's Day

I thought this was a wonderfully romantic spot for Valentine's Day dinner. Picked a pretty good week to cruise The meal started off with the BEST bread basket of the trip. This was herby & buttery brioche bread, with a roasted onion dip. OMG. I would go back just for this bread. The onion dip was just like shawarma garlic sauce - pretty sure it was just that. I love shawarma garlic sauce so I loved it.



Appetizer round - my husband and I both got the boudin sausage fritters. These were really surprisingly delicious. I had considered getting shrimp and grits but am glad we both got this. YUM!



For the soup / salad course, we both ordered Mama Odie's creamy tomato soup. For some reason, must have been an off night, we only got one. The server dropped it off for me only and didn't give my husband anything. Oh well. It was pretty much just regular tomato soup. I had some and then gave my husband the rest. Was really nothing special.



Main course time - I chose the Creole roasted half chicken. It came with chicken jus as the sauce, and a muffin made up of pecan bread pudding and corn stuffing. I have to say this was the worst main course I had all week but that really didn't mean it was bad. I had steak the past 3 nights and wanted to switch it up but should have stuck with my gut instinct and got the Big Daddy's prime rib. Oh well! Next time! Husband got the bucatini pasta and really liked it. He was the pasta person and I was the steak person this trip



And now, dessert! Husband got the layered chocolate cake. We ordered the beignets to share. OMG. We should have each ordered a full serving of these as there were only 2 in an order. SO WORTH THE HYPE! I went sauceless. It was a chocolate espresso sauce.



Aside from splitting the beignets I had a really hard time choosing what my dessert would be. I kind of wanted the bread pudding with praline sauce, or the pecan nut tart, but ended up going with the bananas foster ice cream sundae. It did not disappoint!



Another delicious meal here at Tiana's Place, without a doubt.