April 2018 WBPC on the Wonder, 'Don't Worry, Everything is Under Control' 'COMPLETED'

[xavier2001]

Just disembarked the Wonder yesterday after a fabulous 14 day cruise, I LOVE reading everyone else's trip reports and learned SO much I thought I would try my hand at writing one. I wrote one for our previous Alaska cruise on my blog, but never in this message board format so bear with me as I figure it out. Included are 2 days of pre-cruise fun at Universal Studios.

The cast of characters, myself, an almost 40 something (eek) Occupational Therapist who loves relaxation and all things Disney. I'm not much of a parks person *gasp* due to the crowds and the heat. My DH, a definite 40 something engineer who isn't necessarily into Disney but loves cruising. My 10 year old boy/girl twins who are in the 5th grade and were VERY excited to be out of school for 2 weeks and the perfect age for cruising. And my parents, my Mom who has travelled with every cruise with us and my Dad, who recently retired, and is doing his second Disney cruise with us. Except for my Dad, this will be our 3rd Disney cruise, we've done a 7 day Eastern Caribbean on the Fantasy in 2014, and 7 day Alaska in 2016.

As for the title of the report, you'll have to wait and see, but this phrase became a running joke as the days went on.

So there you have it, hoping to get this banged out pretty quickly assuming I can figure out how to upload the photos.

 

[xavier2001]

Intro and Travel:

We booked this cruise on opening day which meant we had a LONG wait (over 400 days). When we booked the school schedule wasn't out yet, but I had a long talk with the principal at the small, Catholic school the kids attend. She was instantly supportive of the kids going on the trip, both for its educational value and for the much needed family time. Both of the kids' teachers (the 5th grade homeroom teacher and 5th grade science/social studies teacher) were also very supportive. Once the school schedule came out we realized that Spring Break was the week before we left for our cruise. This afforded us 2 benefits. First, we were able to get all the school work the kids would be missing ahead of time and they were able to get it mostly completed Spring Break week. Second, it gave us more vacation flexibility and we decided since we were going to be flying into Orlando anyway we might as well get the most bang for our buck. We contemplated a few days at Disney but ultimately decided to go to Universal instead, mainly to see Harry Potter World. Both myself and the kids have read all the books, and my daughter especially is Harry Potter obsessed.

Ok, so now we knew we wanted to go to Universal, but where to stay. We figured the parks would be busy at is was the tail end of Spring Break week, and our time was limited to 1.5 days so we wanted to stay on a Universal property that included the Express pass, which gets you on any ride with a shorter wait. Of the options, the Royal Pacific Resort was the cheapest, so we went that route. Neither my Dad nor my DH were interested in anything 'theme park' related, so in the end my Mom, the kids and I flew down 2 days before the cruise, and met up the with men later.

Ok, onto the actual trip. My Mom had driven down (she lives about 3 hours away) the night before and spent the night at my house so we'd be all ready to go in the morning. After some pizza delivery and Grey's Anatomy we headed to bed early (well except for me who was still packing). Our alarms went off at 5 a.m. on Friday morning much to everyone's groans. But when we realized the adventure was beginning we perked up. We left the house a little before 6 for the hour drive to the airport. DH dropped us off right at the terminal and then headed to work.

We got through security pretty quickly and had time to eat breakfast before boarding, here are the kids on the tram to the gate, sleepy but excited:

Our plane took off right on time at 8:30 and we had an uneventful 2 hour flight to Orlando. My daughter has had tons of problems with her ears on previous flights so we decided to try these special ear plugs that are supposed to regulate ear pressure better. She gave them 2 thumbs up and wore them on our return flights as well.

We landed, had an uneventful trip to baggage claim, then met up with our driver who was going to take us to the resort. We ended up using Tony Hinds transportation to and from the resort mainly based on the glowing reviews he receives here on the Dis as well as other places. I would highly recommend his service, he was there waiting for us and got us where we were going quickly and efficiently.

Next up, the resort and Universal!

 

[xavier2001]

So on screen the photos are showing up huge, are they on yours too? If you know how to resize them let me know, I uploaded them to wordpress then copied the image link here.

Anyway, Pre-Cruise Day 1, Universal:

So we pulled into the resort and got all checked in. Our room was not ready but we were able to leave our bags with bell services and get our tickets and express passes printed at the resort. This next photo tells me that we were on the water taxi headed to Universal before noon, not to shabby!

We decided we would head right into the park and find a place to eat lunch inside. Now as much planning as I put into the cruise portion, I put very little into the Universal portion because everything I read told me that you don't need much planning in Universal. I would agree with that statement but do wish I had researched food options more, I digress.

I also need to back up a minute and share a little bit of anxiety I had with this trip. I already told you I"m not much of a parks person b/c I don't like the heat and crowds, but I was willing to go because the kids really wanted to see Universal. What I haven't told you yet is that my son can be very tentative and fearful of things. We live near Kings Island and Cedar Point. There are times that he will ride the rides, but there are also times that he will not, there is just no rhyme or reason to it. So I was nervous prior to the trip that we would spend all this money to go and then he would refuse to ride anything. Did that happen? Read on to find out.

Ok, so we walked into the park and the Main Street area was very busy. The 2 big rides up front are Minions and Shrek. Minions had a long line (even Express pass) so we opted to try Shrek first. My Mom had recently been to Universal in California with my brother and his family, she knew it was a tame ride so a good warm up. So we did that, which was fun but a little boring. By this point we were starving. There was a pretzel stand at the exit to the Shrek ride but we wanted something more substantial and soon came across the Monster Cafe. It was air conditioned and not crazy busy so we went in. What we didn't realize until after we all ordered our own meals (because I didn't do my research) is that its called the Monster Cafe not only b/c of its theming but b/c of its Monster portions. I got pizza, DD ribs, my Mom chicken, and DS this monster turkey leg.

Despite the huge portions we did pretty well on them, which made us feel better about the $$ we shelled out for lunch. Now it was time to explore the park.

We headed over the Jimmy Fallon's Race through New York yet. I had no idea what this ride was about, the people at the entrance told it was a simulator, DS was agreeable so in we went. There was only a 3 minute wait until our group was called and on we went. I won't spoil the ride for you who haven't been on it but its the moment I started to relax b/c both kids were laughing their heads off LOVING the ride. It instantly put everyone in a good mood. When we got off they both wanted to ride again but we convinced them to explore the park a little more first.

Next up Harry Potter World. I tried telling them if we waited until later in the afternoon it would be less busy but they insisted so we headed over. It was busy but manageable. We got into the Express line for Gringotts, which still was about 25 minutes. We also had our first encounter figuring out the whole locker thing, it was intimidating at first but by the end of the trip I got the hang of it. We wound through the line into the bank, grateful for the air conditioning and cool theming. When we got to the end part of the line where you climb the stairs to get on I started to get nervous. Adding to the nervousness was the fact I was a little worried about fitting into the seat as I am on the fluffy side and people have talked about having issues on the Harry Potter rides (spoiler alert I fit on everything I wanted to). And this is probably TMI but when I get nervous I have to pee, which is not a good combination. So when it was our turn I was really needing to use the restroom. So I got my family situated on the ride and then ran off to find the facilities. At the last second my son looked at me and asked if it was a rollercoaster. I played dumb and said 'I don't know'. I met up with them in the gift shop ever and they both said BEST. RIDE. EVER. They wanted to go on it again but I cajoled them into waiting until the line was less. We explored Diagon Alley a little bit and then found ourselves some Butter Beer.

We then headed out of the very crowded Diagon Alley and across the way to Simpsons world. We went on Krustyland, cute photo while we waited in line:

DS really liked this ride, DD not so much, said she felt claustrophobic with the door sliding closed next to her. From Krustyland we headed over to Men in Black, which the kids really loved, my Mom not so much. Then we headed over to ET which was nice and relaxing. With the Express pass we pretty much walked onto all these rides. During this time we got a text that our room was ready so decided to head back to the resort as we were getting tired and hot. On the way out we hit up Jimmy Fallon again, then headed to the hotel.

Our room was in Tower 3 of the resort which worked out well because it was near the Water Taxi (we got some good info about a short cut from the Bellhop who brought our luggage down). After organizing our luggage, resting, and eating some of the snacks I had brought for the plane ride we started to get our second wind. We headed to one of the Resort Restaurants for appetizers (I forget the name now but it was in Tower 1), the food was great but service slow. Then we decided to head back out to the parks.

We decided to try Island of Adventure this time, we walked through the gates about 7 o'clock. We Hotfooted to Hogsmeade which was in the back of the park. It was crazy busy because they were preparing for the Castle light show (again, lack of planning on my part). The kids wanted to ride Forbidden Journey. I was smart this time and checked out the test seat. Could not get the light to turn green. It was dark, and the attendant wasn't very helpful so I resigned myself to the fact that I would probably not be able to ride. So I went in the line with everyone so I could get the Castle tour, then held all the bags while the other 3 rode. My Mom and DS thought it was amazing, DD loved it except for the spider at the end. My Mom kept saying the seats were bigger than the test seats outside and I should give it a try. I half heartedly vowed to try in the morning just to appease her.

From there we heard over to ride Hogwarts back to Universal. That was a fun experience. Diagon Alley was still busy but not as crazy as it was earlier in the day. We walked by Ollivanders to find no line for the wand show. We hopped in, a few minutes later 1 other family hopped in line with us and then they took us back, only 2 families, and 3 kids, was an awesome show. The other girl already had a wand from earlier in the day, DS was hiding in the back because he didn't want to get picked, so DD got picked for the show, much to her enjoyment:

After the show we decided we were tired so we headed back towards the front. We rode Transformers on the way out, both kids really liked this one, it was a bit bumpy for my tastes.

We got back to the room and fell into bed, exhausted from our long day of travel and fun, but very very happy.

 

[lklgoodman]

Looking forward to reading your report. Thanks for posting the pic of the earplugs. My dd is 9 yrs old and always complains about her ears hurting whenever we fly. I will get her some of these for our next cruise, sadly it's still 263 days away. We live just north of Columbus, Ohio, love having a quick 2 hr flight to Orlando. I'm not a parks person either, don't like long lines or all the walking. Looking forward to seeing your pics of Universal though, since we will probably never go there. I guess some day we should take our dd to WDW, but for right now we've convince her that cruises are so much more fun!lol!

 

[xavier2001]

Pre-Trip Day 2, Universal

We all slept fairly well considering we were in unfamiliar territory. I should note that we booked a standard room which had 2 queen beds. We also asked for a rollaway bed. My Mom slept in one queen, DD and I in the other, and DS in the rollaway. We had toyed with the idea of getting up early for the extra early hour at Universal which started at 8. But we did not set an alarm and did not wake up until about 8. By the time we got showered and ready for the day it was close to 9. We took a water taxi over to the park, we were delayed at least 10-15 minutes because they were doing some filming for a 'Hot Set' and the taxi couldn't be in the scene. We had planned on starting in Islands of Adventure but when we got off the taxi half of the city walk was blocked by the Production crews so we headed to Universal instead. First item on the agenda, breakfast. We ended up at a little bakery on main street and ordered these delicious sandwiches.

These were actually a good deal considering their size and we gobbled them up, they gave us great fuel to start our day.

After breakfast we decided to ride Minions as the express line was pretty short. It was a fun and silly way to start the day and got everyone in a good mood.

We then headed off to Diagon Alley before it got too busy. We had a fun chat with the Night Bus driver (DD was not digging the creepy skull head thing)

Then we spent some time casting some spells with the wands we purchased last night:

Then we headed back over to the Money Exchange to get some Wizard Money (this was not very exciting, I would not waste a lot of time if there is a line, this day there was not):

After that the kids wanted to ride Gringotts again. I figured out the locker system easily and with the Express pass we basically walked on the ride. This time my nerves did not get the best of me and I rode with the rest of the family. Tip for you fluffy people, rows 3 and 6 have bigger seats, they were downright roomy for even me. After I rode it I could not believe that DS had loved it that much the day before, it was pretty scary!!

After Gringotts we decided to take the Hogwarts Express the other way over to Islands of Adventure:

After taking in some of the Hogsmeade sites (it was starting to get pretty crowded at this point) my Mom convinced me to try Forbidden Journey. So I went back over to the test seat now that the sun was shining bright and I could see what I was doing. I still could not get the light to turn amber or green. The attendant came over and gave me some good advice and he took the other test seat bar down just to the amber line to show me how close I was. I was maybe 1 centimeter away. He told me with a good push I should fit just fine. He reassured me that the attendants on the ride would help me. So off to the crazy locker system again to stow our bags and in line we got. We did not have too long away and we were standing at the platform. On this ride its a conveyor belt system so you have to get in your seat and get it locked into place quick. The outer seats are bigger than the inner ones. So I got in an outer seat, sucked it in and pushed. The attendant came over and gave me one last firm push and the light turned green, yay. It was an awesome ride and I'm glad my Mom gave me the encouragement to give it a try. Mother knows best. When we got off the ride DD was crying, she said she was so scared by the spider again. I promised her she would not have to ride it again. We wandered around Hogsmeade some more and by this time the kids were getting hungry. They really wanted to eat at the 3 Broomsticks. It was at the tail end of the lunch rush so there was quite a bit of a line, but it moved quickly and there were plenty of workers keeping things orderly. DS got another turkey leg and the rest of us tried the beef pasties. And of course we had more butter beer.

We thought the beef pasties were really good but a pretty small portion, good thing we had that big breakfast.

After enjoying our butter beer and cooling off we set out to explore the rest of the park. We stopped for a photo op of the castle on the way:

Next up Jurassic Park. We explored the Discovery Center and hid from the quick moving rainstorm. Then we went on the River Adventure which the kids (DS especially) thought was really fun. The kids wanted to ride again and it was a walk on with the Express pass so we let them ride solo and we sat and caught our breath.

Then we headed over to Kong, DD was intimidated by the dark and creepy queue, very unlike her as she's usually my fearless one. She wanted to back out of the ride but we promised her a pretzel after (I'm not above bribery) and in the end she liked the ride. Conveniently there was a pretzel cart right at the exit so we stopped for some pretzels, a churro, and some much needed water. I asked if I could have a big cup instead of the small courtesy cups they give you and was told no. So we sat on a bench right next to the stand to eat our snacks and had the guy fill up our cups 3 times. So refreshing.

After our snack DD wanted to ride Rip Saw Falls, DS saw the big drop and said 'no way'. Its the only ride he declined going on. My Mom and I really didn't want to get wet again so DD rode with a really nice family in the single rider line and said it was the best ride of the day. From there we headed to Spider Man and wandered through the park.

By this time it was getting close to dinner and everyone was getting tired (can you tell we like to eat). My mom had it in her head that she wanted to go to Bubba Gumps at City Walk. So we left Islands and headed in that direction, it was a long, hot walk. We waited a bit for a table, and then had a leisurely meal, she and I split some sort of sampler platter. It was just ok, not worth all the hype but we can at least say we've been.

After Bubba Gumps we headed back over to Universal to hit up our favorites again. We rode Minions, then headed back to Gringotts. After the ride Diagon Alley was as empty as we've seen it so we wandered around and the kids did a lot of spells. All the sudden we realized why it was so empty, it got really dark and started pouring down rain. We took cover:

We took a look at the radar and it did not look good, big storm coming, looking like it was going to rain all night. We stood for awhile until it eased up a little, then hot footed it to the front of the park. It was still raining pretty good, and because of the thunder and lightning the water taxis were not running. So we took the walking path back, would have been pretty but our feet were tired and it was pouring lol. We made it back to the room, jumped in the shower, then ate some snacks and called it a night. Tomorrow was going to be a big day, the day we had been waiting for, The Disney Wonder!!

 

[xavier2001]

Looking forward to reading your report. Thanks for posting the pic of the earplugs. My dd is 9 yrs old and always complains about her ears hurting whenever we fly. I will get her some of these for our next cruise, sadly it's still 263 days away. We live just north of Columbus, Ohio, love having a quick 2 hr flight to Orlando. I'm not a parks person either, don't like long lines or all the walking. Looking forward to seeing your pics of Universal though, since we will probably never go there. I guess some day we should take our dd to WDW, but for right now we've convince her that cruises are so much more fun!lol!

My kids have never been to Disney World, shhhh..

 

[darnheather]

So excited to be here reading your trip report. I'll be taking my girls (17 and 13) solo on the WBPC next year. Still more than 300 days away for us but getting excited!

 

[Lesley Wake]

Following along!

If you need to resize photos, I like https://bulkresizephotos.com/ It's free and lets you do a big batch at once. You can pick a percentage decrease or a specific size (I usually do percentage so it's easier with portrait and landscape photos).

 

[scottishwee35]

Fab story... looking forward next one Wonder Disney Cruise

 

[xavier2001]

Following along!

If you need to resize photos, I like https://bulkresizephotos.com/ It's free and lets you do a big batch at once. You can pick a percentage decrease or a specific size (I usually do percentage so it's easier with portrait and landscape photos).

Thanks, I will have to give it a try, the photos look fine on my phone but huge on the computer screen. I'm not very tech savvy lol.

 

[xavier2001]

Day 1-Embarkation

The day had finally arrived, we were going to get on the Wonder. When we left off my Mom, the kids, and I were snug as bugs in rugs at the Royal Pacific Resort at Universal. Backing up a minute my DH had flown in the night before and was staying at the Hyatt-MCO Airport. We were able to book his flight and hotel room with credit card reward points which was a bonus. My Dad refused to fly in the night before (I know, I know), his plane was scheduled to land at MCO at 11. The plan was for everyone to meet up at the airport and take Disney transportation to the port. Since I had already booked Tony Hinds to take us to and from the resort, I tried to convince my parents just to let him take us the rest of the way to the port but they insisted on the Disney transportation in case there were any flight delays.

Ok, back to the story, my Mom woke up around 8, she got up and got ready for the day followed by myself. Tony was scheduled to pick us up at 11 so we would arrive at the airport about the time as my Dad. We hopped on the water taxi to find some breakfast. We ended up here:

There was a small line to get in and we waited about 5 minutes before we were allowed in the store, then another 5 or 10 drooling over donuts before we made it to the counter. We made our selections, got some coffee and juice, and headed outside to find a nice spot to eat, it was a beautiful morning.

After enjoying our sugary treats we hopped back on the water taxi and finished packing up our stuff. We headed to the lobby about 10:40. Just as we walked outside a van pulled up and out popped our driver. Tony had another engagement that day but he had sent us a colleague, he was very efficient but also very chatty. On our way to the airport my Dad texted that he had landed. By the time we got there he had met up with my DH near the Disney busses and found us some good seats to wait. We checked in and got our character assigned, then waiting for probably half an hour for our bus to be ready. The trip down was uneventful, by the end we were sugar crashing a bit but excited to see the Wonder peeking out of the bus window.

When we got to the terminal there was no line, we breezed through security and headed right to a check in window. After checking in we were able to board right away. New this time around was that the kids were given their kids club bands right at check in, there were cast members there to register them and put the bands on but we skipped that line and did that later onboard. We went through the Mickey funnel and got onboard, still love the announcement and clapping of each family.

By this time we were starving (it was about 1 o'clock) so we headed right to Tritons. We had decided beforehand we wanted the sit down lunch, we aren't really buffet people and figured we had 14 days to try all the options. We were seated right away and it was nice to just be able to relax. My notes tell me I ate potato soup, steak, and carrot cake, all with the words YUM written next to them. I was really bad at taking food pictures, sorry!!

After a relaxing lunch we headed to our rooms, it was about 2 o'clock at this point. All of our luggage was already there waiting outside our door. While we started to settle in DD decorated our doors for us.

From there we headed on a walk around the ship to get our bearings and do some errands. We stopped at the Port Adventures Desk to sign up for the Coast to Coast Campout in the Kids Club happening in the second week (more on that later), we also headed to Guest Services to see if there were any other ticketed character events (there were not), then we headed to the Kids Club/Lab to register and get the kids bands on. Then we headed up to check out Edge. Edge is the tween club for ages 11-14. Both of my kids are 10.5 and the youngest in their grade so used to hanging out with other kids. I told them they may not be allowed in Edge but they wanted to check it out anyway. While were there one of the counselors asked their names and ages and said that there were only 50 Edge aged kids on board so they had a list of all the 10 year olds if they wanted in. The kids were thrilled. I had to sign a waiver and they got Edge stickers added to their key to the world cards. It was really nice for the kids to be able to bounce between both spaces, DD tended to gravitate more to Edge and DS more to the Lab as the trip went on. We also walked Deck 9, checked out the offerings at Cabanas, and probably ate our first ice cream of the trip.

Then we headed back down to the room to finish unpacking before muster. We went to muster (we were outside on Deck 4 but it was shady and cool), then headed back to our balcony to watch sail away. Neither kid wanted to go to the sailaway party, stating it was too loud. Really I think they were just itching for a little freedom. Which leads me to my next tangent. How much freedom to give these kids. I read and read on these (and other) forums, had a long discussion with my DH, and asked the kids their opinions too. In general my kids are pretty responsible so we decided to give them check out privileges at the kids club, set some limits, and let them have some freedom. We had some very old iPhones that we were able to put the Disney app on which made it convenient because we could text the kids and they could text us where they were at. By the end of the trip they pretty much had free run of the ship except the pool, I wanted to be on deck when they were swimming.

So while we enjoyed sail away from our balcony, the kids headed to the lab with strict instructions to be back to the room by 515, they were right on time. We got changed for dinner and headed out. Our rotation was TP-TR-AP which put us in Tianas the first night with the Welcome Aboard menu. We were at a 6 top table (which we requested) so we could have some good family time that we don't often get enough of. Our server was Jose from the Dominican Republic, and assistant server Noel. Noel was in his first month as assistant sever, he previously worked in Cabanas. He was very quiet and unsure of himself tonight but gained confidence as the days went on. My notes tell me that I ate the Chicken Basetela for an appetizer (it was dry), couscous salad which was delicious, and pork wellington (yum). The only thing I snapped a photo of was dessert:

The kids were not hungry for dessert and wanted to go explore, so we set test #2, meet us by the theater at 8:15 for the Welcome Aboard show. The adults enjoyed a quiet dessert and again the kids were right on time. This was the time when they were still texting us a bunch (that changed later in the week):

We went as a family to the Welcome Aboard show to see what things they were offering Entertainment wise this week. Then I headed over to the Connect at Sea desk as I had messed up and already wasted my free 50 MB. She reset my phone to the proper settings and gave me my megabytes back. By this time I was tired so headed back to the room. DH was off doing his own thing, probably reading up in the Quiet Cove. The kids, enjoying their freedom, asked to go play, I gave them an 11:30 curfew, they were back right on time. We fell into bed, tired but very very happy.

 

[o&smom]

So excited to read your report. My family was lucky enough to get to do this cruise last April/May. We loved it. So glad your kids got most of their homework done prior. We have a trip this June after the kids get out of school and my 7 year old keeps asking is she will have to do homework in Hawaii. I guess we ruined her cruise since it was during the school year.

 

[xavier2001]

Day 2- Castaway Cay

Ok, I have to back up a little bit and talk more about food (can you tell I like to ramble). My kids are pretty adventurous eaters and really enjoyed eating on this cruise. Out of 14 nights DS ate only on the adults menu, and DD ate off the kids menu just once. In Tianas they ate salmon, halibut, shrimp, and loads of other things their non-adventurous parents wouldn't eat. Ok, back on track.

After a pretty good night of sleep I woke up about 6:45 which is way too early for vacation, DH was already up and about, he snuck out for a little while so the rest of us could sleep. I tried to go back to sleep but it wasn't happening, so finally at 8 I got out of bed. We had already decided we would not rush and play Castaway Cay by ear. 4 years ago, on our first Disney cruise, we did not have the best Castaway Cay experience. We were on the Fantasy in August, it was very hot and very crowded. Due to some miscommunication our group got split up on the Island and we spent more time frustrated than relaxing. We decided that we would give the Island one more chance.

So I got up at 8 and took my time getting ready, when I got out of the shower the kids were still doing this:

They had partied hard the last few days. I woke them at 8:45, once they got moving they wanted to go to Tritons for a 'fancy' breakfast. This is the only day I ate breakfast at Tritons (more on that later too). The girls had eggs benedict, DS the pineapple French Toast and 2 big servings of bacon. DH joined us and ate a little something, I think he had eaten earlier at Cabanas as well. My parents had gotten up earlier and already eaten. After breakfast we headed to the room, lathered up in sunscreen, met my parents and headed off the ship.

As soon as we got off the ship we met this guy just hanging out all by himself:

He did not like that DH was not sporting a Captain Hook pin, he drew a line in the sand and told him he was not allowed to cross it. After our fun encounter we hopped on the tram to the Family Beach. It was a very pleasant morning, I think the high that day was only 80 degrees. It was also half empty which was glorious. We found some shaded loungers, dropped our stuff, and headed out to explore. DH and the kids headed right to the water. My Dad went with DD who wanted to do the Pelican Plunge Slide. My Mom went off exploring somewhere. I sat in the loungers for a bit and just relaxed. When I got hot I went over to the water to dip my toes in, it was COLD. I could not believe all the people who had been brave enough to get in. I pulled a chair up to the waters edge and sat down with just my toes it, it was perfect. Soon my Mom joined me. Not long after, DS showed up with a drink in his hand my Dad had bought for me. Doesn't get any better than that. I spent the whole morning parked in that chair while the kids swam. DS found a friend and the 2 of them played happily in the water. DD went back and forth between the slide and the swimming area. DH swam for awhile, then he and my Dad sought the refuge of our shaded lounge chairs.

Soon our bellies were telling us it was time for lunch. We headed to the Cookies buffet where we enjoyed hamburgers, hotdogs, ribs, beans, and an assortment of salads. There was a delicious couscous salad that I had seconds of. We took our time and enjoyed the day. Of course there was dessert:

We decided after lunch to head back to the ship to enjoy the pool while things were quiet. We slathered on some more sunscreen and headed back. At some point My Mom, the kids and I got separated from the Men. We ended up on a tram that they missed. We waited at the tram stop for awhile but they never appeared so we gave up and headed back on board. They showed up a little while later having gone on an adventure to Serenity Bay and back. We sat up on the pool deck and enjoyed the day. DD swam, at some point DS went back to the room to change so he could hang out with his new friend in Edge, they went to the lab to meet up with some other kids as well. We played some euchre and ate some snacks, this would become a tradition. I had some pizza. My Mom tried the shwarma but did not care for it, I tried just a bite of her chicken and was not terribly impressed.

At some point we headed back to the room to get cleaned up for dinner. We were in Tritons tonight with the standard rotational menu. My Dad and DD had a mini tea

You can see how red poor DD was here, despite our best efforts the hot Caribbean Sun was not kind to her.

I don't remember all what was ordered for dinner, I know that DS ordered the escargot because he had been talking about wanting to try it for MONTHS. When it arrived he started to chicken out. My Dad tried one and said it actually tasted good. This got myself and my Mom to try one. Then DS was brave enough to try and ended up enjoying them.

I know we ate French Onion Soup and Chateaubriand steak, it was delicious. Again DS wanted to duck out before dessert to go play. I think this caught our server off guard, we assured him that we were fine and he just did not want to sit so long. We noticed our meals got considerably faster after this, which was fine by us. DD stuck it out and had her first Mickey bar of the trip:

After dinner we noticed that the ships motion had started to increase. The show tonight was John Civecello who was a juggler. We spent some time browsing the shops after dinner. Then we all went to the show. It was ok, nothing to really write home about. The kids really enjoyed it.

After the show the kids wanted to go play so I sat on deck 9 with DH and chilled. At 10:15 they were doing an animation drawing class in the D-lounge, DH, DD, and I went, we drew Mickey and Goofy. DH was tired and left after Mickey, DD and I didn't do too shabby:

We headed back to the room about 11:30 sunburned, and happy, and fell fast asleep. What a great day!

 

[darnheather]

Your photos look great to me on the computer. I love that couscous salad at Cookie's. In fact I love nearly all the cruise food.

 

[xavier2001]

Day 3- At Sea

Today was the first of our EIGHT Sea Days. DH and DS were up early, they headed out of the room about 7:30 and headed up to Cabanas for breakfast. Then they played some shuffleboard. DH headed to the first of the Panama Canal lectures by former pilot Captain Ken Puckett at 9:30. My parents also attended the lecture. DS came back to the room and woke up us girls. After getting ready we headed up to Cabanas for breakfast, DS was hungry and ate a second plate of food.

As for me I had some coffee, but nothing to eat because we had something really special planned. At 11 o'clock the 4 adults in our group were scheduled for brunch at the adults only restaurant, Palo. would you believe I did not getting ANY photos. we started with bellinis and mimosas, ate some yummy cheese, and appetizers from the buffet, then had some eggplant and chicken parm from the menu. I think my Dad ordered the eggs benedict and my Mom one of the pizzas. We finished with an assortment of desserts. Our server also brought us a molten chocolate cake which was divine. After our long brunch we headed for a walk around the ship.

The kids were busy playing during this time, and enjoyed having their own special lunch at Cabanas. They took photos on their phones to prove they had eaten healthy, they had some shrimp, ham, salad, and of course ice cream.

After lunch they wanted to go play some more so we headed to movie tunes trivia. We were bad at it but had fun. At 3 o'clock DD had a date with her favorite character. I'm posting 2 photos so you can see the difference between my camera and the professional.

After Stitch Olivia wanted to get her hair braided at the stand they had set up on Deck 9. They were charing $1.50 a braid, she chose to get 4 braids, what a bargain.

After the braiding we decided to check out Bingo, the only form of gambling on a Disney Cruise Ship. DS was still busy playing at the club/lab so DD, DH, and I headed over. Not sure what my parents were doing at this time. So we went into Bingo having no clue what we were doing and bought a family pack which included paper cards and an electronic thing-y. Still having no clue what we were doing we listed to the instructions. First thing they brought out was 'Betty', the machine that held all the Bingo Balls they were going to draw from. They needed a 'Betty Checker' to check the numbers, before I knew what was happening MY name was flashing across the screen. In addition to checking all the balls to make sure none were missing, they made me do the Chicken Dance, then a nice looking gentleman in a tux presented me with a Diamond Charm Necklace and a goody bag. The Diamond is super small but it was still fun to have won something. After all that excitement we settled in to play Bingo. We didn't win but had fun. This would be the only Bingo we'd make it to this trip.

Dinner tonight was at Animators Palate with their standard rotational menu and Sorcer Mickey show. This might be my favorite themed dinner of all. I know I had Pasta Pursettes as an appetizer, they are my favorite, not sure what other goodies I ate this night. We enjoyed watching the colors and Animations change throughout the dinner. In this restaurant we had a seat right on the main aisle (come to think of it we had aisle seats at all 3 restaurants which was awesome for being right in the middle of the action. On this night DD was sitting in one of the aisle seats. She was very excitedly telling everyone about her encounter with Stitch when she flung her hands up in the air. It just so happened at that moment Jose walked by carrying a large tray of food. Her hands collided with the tray and it was nearly a disaster. Thankfully Jose is quick on his feet and did a little juggling to save the tray. Olivia was startled and embarrassed and started to tear up. Once Jose had the tray safely set down at the server station he came over and patted her on the back saying 'Don't worry Princess, Everything is Under Control.' From that moment on he said that phrase at least once a meal.

After dinner the kids went to play and we wandered around the ship. We met up in front of the theater at 8:15 for the first of the Broadway shows, The Golden Mickeys. The Men both opted to skip out. My Mom, DD, and I loved the show, DS said it wasn't his thing but he was tired.

After the show they wanted to go play some more, I said ok but set an earlier curfew because I knew they were tired. I headed to Deck 9 for a drink and some pizza, then ran into Olivia, we wandered around, running into these crazy chipmunks:

After this I headed to the room, DD wandered a little longer, then we all met up in the room. We turned the clocks back one hour and hit the hay, having had a great first sea day.

 

[darnheather]

Thank you for posting both photos. Personally I love the professional photos but do always wonder if they are worth it. Your photo was good but the pro was great.

 

[thefamilymouse]

I am so glad to have foundyour trip report. We are booked on the 2019 WBPC and I have been reading everything I can find. You sound like you had a great time. Can't wait to read the rest of your trip report. BTW I had to laugh when I saw your cabin number. We have 6046 booked for next year.

 

[lklgoodman]

Did your dd say if it hurt to have her hair braided? My dd wanted to get braids last month when we were on the Wonder. I've heard that they really pull hard to do it. My dd has really long hair and always complains when I brush it, so I wouldn't let her get braids. I know she'll ask for them again on our next cruise.

 

[xavier2001]

I am so glad to have foundyour trip report. We are booked on the 2019 WBPC and I have been reading everything I can find. You sound like you had a great time. Can't wait to read the rest of your trip report. BTW I had to laugh when I saw your cabin number. We have 6046 booked for next year.

It’s a great cabin in a great location. We had 6546 in Alaska and we loved it so much we tried to get it again but it was booked already. We loved our room and had great views!

 

[xavier2001]

Did your dd say if it hurt to have her hair braided? My dd wanted to get braids last month when we were on the Wonder. I've heard that they really pull hard to do it. My dd has really long hair and always complains when I brush it, so I wouldn't let her get braids. I know she'll ask for them again on our next cruise.

When she had just the 4 no, later in the cruise she had the whole front braided, she said it hurt a little but getting the braids out was not easy, and painful for her.