NerfHerder99
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2022
I took a 3 night cruise from San Diego to Ensenada last weekend with my daughter on the Wonder and wanted to jot down some thoughts:
The Positive
Oceaneer Lab / Club - Rave reviews from my 6 yo. Spent a few hours in either spot every day and loved the activities. She mentioned the staff did a lot of 1 on 1 art projects with her and were very nice. Many times I'd come back to check on her and she didn't want to leave. Quick tip - When I'd come in and check on her sometimes the staff would run all around trying to find her (it was very busy at times). When I showed them a picture of what she was wearing that day they were able to quickly recognize her and get her a few seconds.
Food - Great food at all restaurants and quick snack spots. The chateaubriand at Triton's deserves a call out as well as the french onion soup. The escargot wasn't the best I've had but very surprised to see it on a cruise ship.
Cadillac Lounge - Great experiences there. A nice quiet spot to rest and have a good cocktail. Shout out to Felipe my bartender who asked me what I liked and came up with a fantastic bourbon cocktail I've never had before.
Disembarking - We did express disembark since we only parked across the street from the dock in SD. At exactly 8am we were able to walk off with our luggage in the first group. It took only 20 minutes to leave the ship, head through customs, and then back in my car parked at the Intercontinental.
Staff Interactions - Everybody I spoke to from the bartenders, stateroom staff, servers, guest services was super helpful and nice. My daughter was referred to as a 'princess' no less than 1000 times over the weekend. Top-notch global staff.
The 'Needs Improvement'
Wifi - I wasn't sure what to expect from an internet access standpoint but it was lacking. There were no 'entire day' data packages and you had to pay by the megabyte as if it were still 2005.
Adult Activities - Two nights after early dinner seating I found myself wandering the ship alone while my daughter was in Oceaneer Club. There wasn't much to do except maybe drink at the bars. No lounge shows or things of that nature during the early evening. Plenty to do later on with the shows but the 6-9p window was fairly slow on my own.
Football at Crown & Fin - Saturday college games had the Crown & Fin crowded but they only showed two games. Everybody was coming by asking for their specific college to be on a TV but they only had two games on all the screens. I feel like with so many viewing spots with several TVs they could have been more accommodating. NFL Sunday was the same, they only showed the network TV games which was fine, however, the entire bar was closed without any staff. I feel like they missed an opportunity to have the bar open and maybe some light snacks during the games? Everybody had to go up to the pool deck to grab a drink or the French Quarter Lounge and miss out on the action.
Embarking - San Diego does not have a large cruise ship facility like Miami or even Long Beach. We were just mingling outside of the B Street Pier until they called our PAT. I didn't see anywhere to drop off luggage until you went past the gate and it wasn't clear before that you were allowed to go in there before your PAT. Some signage would have been helpful. Also worth noting was that they only cared about your PAT. I assumed after calling the PAT they'd split us into the different groups but they just moved us along to all check in at the same time.
Overall we had an absolute blast and will be going again next year. I grabbed this trip back in July and got a fantastic deal for an OGT room, now I'm a bit shocked at the 'normal' travel prices coming back and seeing what it costs to book something similar next year
The Positive
Oceaneer Lab / Club - Rave reviews from my 6 yo. Spent a few hours in either spot every day and loved the activities. She mentioned the staff did a lot of 1 on 1 art projects with her and were very nice. Many times I'd come back to check on her and she didn't want to leave. Quick tip - When I'd come in and check on her sometimes the staff would run all around trying to find her (it was very busy at times). When I showed them a picture of what she was wearing that day they were able to quickly recognize her and get her a few seconds.
Food - Great food at all restaurants and quick snack spots. The chateaubriand at Triton's deserves a call out as well as the french onion soup. The escargot wasn't the best I've had but very surprised to see it on a cruise ship.
Cadillac Lounge - Great experiences there. A nice quiet spot to rest and have a good cocktail. Shout out to Felipe my bartender who asked me what I liked and came up with a fantastic bourbon cocktail I've never had before.
Disembarking - We did express disembark since we only parked across the street from the dock in SD. At exactly 8am we were able to walk off with our luggage in the first group. It took only 20 minutes to leave the ship, head through customs, and then back in my car parked at the Intercontinental.
Staff Interactions - Everybody I spoke to from the bartenders, stateroom staff, servers, guest services was super helpful and nice. My daughter was referred to as a 'princess' no less than 1000 times over the weekend. Top-notch global staff.
The 'Needs Improvement'
Wifi - I wasn't sure what to expect from an internet access standpoint but it was lacking. There were no 'entire day' data packages and you had to pay by the megabyte as if it were still 2005.
Adult Activities - Two nights after early dinner seating I found myself wandering the ship alone while my daughter was in Oceaneer Club. There wasn't much to do except maybe drink at the bars. No lounge shows or things of that nature during the early evening. Plenty to do later on with the shows but the 6-9p window was fairly slow on my own.
Football at Crown & Fin - Saturday college games had the Crown & Fin crowded but they only showed two games. Everybody was coming by asking for their specific college to be on a TV but they only had two games on all the screens. I feel like with so many viewing spots with several TVs they could have been more accommodating. NFL Sunday was the same, they only showed the network TV games which was fine, however, the entire bar was closed without any staff. I feel like they missed an opportunity to have the bar open and maybe some light snacks during the games? Everybody had to go up to the pool deck to grab a drink or the French Quarter Lounge and miss out on the action.
Embarking - San Diego does not have a large cruise ship facility like Miami or even Long Beach. We were just mingling outside of the B Street Pier until they called our PAT. I didn't see anywhere to drop off luggage until you went past the gate and it wasn't clear before that you were allowed to go in there before your PAT. Some signage would have been helpful. Also worth noting was that they only cared about your PAT. I assumed after calling the PAT they'd split us into the different groups but they just moved us along to all check in at the same time.
Overall we had an absolute blast and will be going again next year. I grabbed this trip back in July and got a fantastic deal for an OGT room, now I'm a bit shocked at the 'normal' travel prices coming back and seeing what it costs to book something similar next year
