StarSeven7
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2017
We just got back from our first ever cruise! We went on the Disney Wonder Southern Caribbean from January 26-February 2 and it was the first cruise for everyone in our family - myself, DH, DD9, and DS6. I don't plan on writing a full review but I thought I'd give some thoughts on everything (spoiler alert: we loved it!!)
Background:
My DH and I are in our late 30s and we're used to traveling independently. We have never been interested in a cruise because we've felt like it wouldn't give us much time to explore a place and we prefer to be on our own time schedule. We were concerned about crowding and I was concerned about motion sickness. We love Disney and we've been to Disney World almost every year for the past 6 years and my DH said after our trip last January that we needed to take a break from the parks. One of my friends had done a few Disney cruises and she raved about it so I was intrigued. Both of my kids were begging to try a Disney cruise. So I started researching and narrowed it down to the Southern Caribbean cruises on the Wonder because I wanted a smaller ship and we had never been to any of those islands so it sounded the most interesting to me! Bonus was that it left from San Juan, Puerto Rico which was somewhere that we always wanted to visit. So despite my DH's reservations, we booked it last March and have been counting down ever since!
The cruise:
We spent 4 nights in San Juan before we embarked on our cruise. We spent a day exploring Old San Juan, a day in El Yunque Rainforest, and a day just relaxing on Isla Verde beach. This was the perfect amount of time for us and we really enjoyed our stay in San Juan. We boarded the ship on Sunday morning and embarkation went very smoothly. I was prepared for long lines and a lot of waiting based on reviews I had read about departing from San Juan but we never even stopped in the terminal, we just kept moving along until we boarded the ship! We got lucky at the check-in line - there were separate lines for Castaway Club members and first timers. We obviously used the first timers line which was completely empty so we walked right up to an agent but the Castaway Club line was huge! So there was one benefit to having no status!
We headed right to the ship and had lunch in Cabanas, checked out the kids club and a few other areas of the ship and by that time our stateroom was ready and our luggage was already waiting for us. We were very impressed!
Our cruise visited St. Maarten, Antigua, Martinique, Barbados, and St. Lucia. We loved all of these islands and enjoyed our time there but we probably loved Barbados and St. Lucia the most and could see ourselves returning there.
Rooms:
We booked an oceanview room, originally a category 9C GTY because that was the only oceanview category that was available at the time. I really really wanted a verandah room but the lowest verandah category available was $1600 more than our oceanview and we just couldn't justify that expense since this trip was already a splurge for us (we tend to travel very frugally since we like to travel often). We were assigned a 9C room back in June that was on deck 2 in the aft of the ship. I read a few reviews that complained about vibration in that area and I was nervous about that causing motion sickness for me, so a few weeks later a 9B GTY category popped up and we switched to that for only $20 more. I liked that 9B rooms were midship but also that there were very few of them that slept 4 so I had a higher chance of getting upgraded. Our room was finally assigned about 2 weeks before our trip and we were upgraded to a 9A room on deck 6 - room 6012. This was pretty far forward so I was a bit nervous about that and I wasn't sure how to feel about deck 6. When we got into port I asked about upgrades but there were none available so room 6012 it was! And honestly, we ended up absolutely loving the room and the location! We spent very little time in the room (basically only to sleep and get ready) so we realized a verandah would've been a total waste for us. And deck 6 was awesome because we were just a floor away from the kid's club and it was really easy to take the stairs up and down. Forward was not a problem for me with motion sickness (I did take 1 bonine each night) and the area was really quiet. So a definite win for us! At the beginning of the week we thought the split bathroom was unnecessary but by the end of the week we loved it because I had my own bathroom space to get ready while DH and the kids took the other bathroom. I was concerned with there being enough storage space for all of our stuff but we had plenty of room and even had a few cupboards that were empty! We found the beds super comfy and my kids loved the bunks. So overall, the room was a great hit!
Excursions:
We only took one Disney excursion on Martinique, and it was a bit of a bust. We had originally booked a small group excursion independently (as we did on the rest of the islands) but we ended up with a lot of Disney gift cards so we decided to cancel the independent tour and book a Disney excursion instead. I'm not sure if it's always like this, but we had to meet outside the theater at 8:30 (our tour time) and then file into the theater and wait for our group to be called. It took FOREVER! We hadn't even left the ship yet and DH and I were already having serious regrets about doing a big group tour. It was 9:15 before we made it onto the bus and it was a large coach bus.
We had a guide who told us what we were seeing but it was hard to hear and follow along and just felt really impersonal. Our kids were really bored (plus my daughter was carsick on the extremely winding roads) even though they were really interested in the small tours we had done on the other islands. We went to a botanical garden/zoo that was pretty cool so that part was good. But overall we really disliked the large group tour and found it wasted so much time and we definitely won't book another one again!
The ship overall:
We loved the Wonder! We felt like it was easy to get around everywhere and it never felt too crowded! We were always able to get a table outside at Cabana's in the morning. We couldn't always find a prime seat by the pools but there were always chairs somewhere nearby. The kids loved the waterslide although the lines were usually fairly long except for the one night when we skipped dinner in the MDR and just ate on the pool deck -they were able to ride over and over again! We loved all the shows we did (mainly the Broadway shows) My DH and I got to enjoy the Quiet Cove adult pool several times. We also loved the Cadillac Lounge where we enjoyed the live musicians and we did trivia one night in the Crown and Fin - and won!
Kids club:
My kids absolutely LOVED the kids club and wanted to be there at every opportunity! I knew they would enjoy it but I was surprised that they wanted to be there as often as they did! One night they were there for 4 hours! We went to check on them to see if they wanted to come out with us and they responded "Do we have to??" This gave my DH and I a lot of time to have "date nights" which we weren't really expecting! It turned about to be so fun! DH and I did an adults-only trip to Hawaii a few years ago and although we loved it, we realized we probably wouldn't do a long trip without the kids again because we really missed them by the end of the week. The cruise was kind of 2 vacations in one - we got to spend a lot of family time together and then some adult time at night. So it was a really nice balance for us!
Food/Dining:
I thought the food was fine but not spectacular. The buffet at Cabana's in the morning was really good and I enjoyed the lunch buffet the 2 times we ate there. The pool deck food was ok, some better than others. We found the MDR food to be good but not amazing. My DH didn't think a few of his dishes were very good, I thought mine were fine but a lot of it was food I wouldn't normally choose. It was a lot of meat protein, starch, vegetable and I prefer to eat pasta dishes, Asian dishes, Mexican, etc so while it was fine, it wasn't my favorite. We also felt like the MDRs took SO long. Our meals were consistently 90 minutes each night. We were seated with another family so that probably added to it, but even with the entertainment my DS6 was pretty restless by the end of it each night. Our wait staff worked super hard to we have no complaints about them taking too long, I think it was just the nature of the meal. We ate up on the pool deck one night and we loved it! We felt like we gained so much time that night and it was so relaxing! If Cabana's had a buffet every night we definitely would've preferred to eat there each night even though we really enjoyed the entertainment at the MDRs.
We requested a private table for our family but we ended up being seated with another family. I was really nervous about this at first since I can be introverted and I hate small talk but it ended up working out really well. We were matched with another family with kids the same ages and gender as ours. The girls became fast friends and had so much fun together and we even ended up sitting together at a bunch of the shows! So this worked out pretty well and we even exchanged info with the family at the end of the week!
Shows:
We watched the Golden Mickeys, Frozen, and Dreams (all Broadway-style shows) and also a magic/illusion show. We all loved the Broadway shows! My DH and I have attended a lot of Broadway musicals because we love them (we finally get to see Hamilton this weekend! Eeek!) We thought the talent in those shows was excellent and we were really impressed with the singers. My DH raved about them and thought the singers were much better than those in the live-action Disney movies! (He has a real beef with Emma Watson in Beauty and the Beast! Lol) I just thought the magic/illusion show was ok but that's not really my thing and my DH and DD really enjoyed it! They were both able to participate onstage which they enjoyed. I hate being onstage so it was hard for me to relax and enjoy the show because I was nervous the whole time that I was going to be picked! I even debated just leaving partway through! Hahaha!
Final thoughts:
Overall we really loved the cruise! My DH went into it saying that he would have fun but he knew a cruise just wasn't going to be his thing. After a day or two he said he was enjoying himself more than he thought but he didn't want to do another one. Midweek he said he could see us doing another one in maybe 5 years. By the end of the week he was surprised how much he liked it and he agreed to book a placeholder! Lol! We still did have times where we wished we could explore an island more and not have to rush back to the ship but now we know where we want to explore more in the future. I still think that we are interested in the itinerary more than cruising in general so we wouldn't choose a cruise just for the ship. I'm not sure what/if we will use our placeholder on, I would be interested in more Southern Caribbean cruises but Disney isn't offering those next winter at all. Maybe 2022. So we'll see. My DH said he would only be interested in cruising Disney again although I would be open to other cruise lines. So our week was very successful and we had a great time and ended up loving it much more than we thought we would!
Thanks for following along!!
Background:
My DH and I are in our late 30s and we're used to traveling independently. We have never been interested in a cruise because we've felt like it wouldn't give us much time to explore a place and we prefer to be on our own time schedule. We were concerned about crowding and I was concerned about motion sickness. We love Disney and we've been to Disney World almost every year for the past 6 years and my DH said after our trip last January that we needed to take a break from the parks. One of my friends had done a few Disney cruises and she raved about it so I was intrigued. Both of my kids were begging to try a Disney cruise. So I started researching and narrowed it down to the Southern Caribbean cruises on the Wonder because I wanted a smaller ship and we had never been to any of those islands so it sounded the most interesting to me! Bonus was that it left from San Juan, Puerto Rico which was somewhere that we always wanted to visit. So despite my DH's reservations, we booked it last March and have been counting down ever since!
The cruise:
We spent 4 nights in San Juan before we embarked on our cruise. We spent a day exploring Old San Juan, a day in El Yunque Rainforest, and a day just relaxing on Isla Verde beach. This was the perfect amount of time for us and we really enjoyed our stay in San Juan. We boarded the ship on Sunday morning and embarkation went very smoothly. I was prepared for long lines and a lot of waiting based on reviews I had read about departing from San Juan but we never even stopped in the terminal, we just kept moving along until we boarded the ship! We got lucky at the check-in line - there were separate lines for Castaway Club members and first timers. We obviously used the first timers line which was completely empty so we walked right up to an agent but the Castaway Club line was huge! So there was one benefit to having no status!
We headed right to the ship and had lunch in Cabanas, checked out the kids club and a few other areas of the ship and by that time our stateroom was ready and our luggage was already waiting for us. We were very impressed! Our cruise visited St. Maarten, Antigua, Martinique, Barbados, and St. Lucia. We loved all of these islands and enjoyed our time there but we probably loved Barbados and St. Lucia the most and could see ourselves returning there.
Rooms:
We booked an oceanview room, originally a category 9C GTY because that was the only oceanview category that was available at the time. I really really wanted a verandah room but the lowest verandah category available was $1600 more than our oceanview and we just couldn't justify that expense since this trip was already a splurge for us (we tend to travel very frugally since we like to travel often). We were assigned a 9C room back in June that was on deck 2 in the aft of the ship. I read a few reviews that complained about vibration in that area and I was nervous about that causing motion sickness for me, so a few weeks later a 9B GTY category popped up and we switched to that for only $20 more. I liked that 9B rooms were midship but also that there were very few of them that slept 4 so I had a higher chance of getting upgraded. Our room was finally assigned about 2 weeks before our trip and we were upgraded to a 9A room on deck 6 - room 6012. This was pretty far forward so I was a bit nervous about that and I wasn't sure how to feel about deck 6. When we got into port I asked about upgrades but there were none available so room 6012 it was! And honestly, we ended up absolutely loving the room and the location! We spent very little time in the room (basically only to sleep and get ready) so we realized a verandah would've been a total waste for us. And deck 6 was awesome because we were just a floor away from the kid's club and it was really easy to take the stairs up and down. Forward was not a problem for me with motion sickness (I did take 1 bonine each night) and the area was really quiet. So a definite win for us! At the beginning of the week we thought the split bathroom was unnecessary but by the end of the week we loved it because I had my own bathroom space to get ready while DH and the kids took the other bathroom. I was concerned with there being enough storage space for all of our stuff but we had plenty of room and even had a few cupboards that were empty! We found the beds super comfy and my kids loved the bunks. So overall, the room was a great hit!
Excursions:
We only took one Disney excursion on Martinique, and it was a bit of a bust. We had originally booked a small group excursion independently (as we did on the rest of the islands) but we ended up with a lot of Disney gift cards so we decided to cancel the independent tour and book a Disney excursion instead. I'm not sure if it's always like this, but we had to meet outside the theater at 8:30 (our tour time) and then file into the theater and wait for our group to be called. It took FOREVER! We hadn't even left the ship yet and DH and I were already having serious regrets about doing a big group tour. It was 9:15 before we made it onto the bus and it was a large coach bus.
We had a guide who told us what we were seeing but it was hard to hear and follow along and just felt really impersonal. Our kids were really bored (plus my daughter was carsick on the extremely winding roads) even though they were really interested in the small tours we had done on the other islands. We went to a botanical garden/zoo that was pretty cool so that part was good. But overall we really disliked the large group tour and found it wasted so much time and we definitely won't book another one again!The ship overall:
We loved the Wonder! We felt like it was easy to get around everywhere and it never felt too crowded! We were always able to get a table outside at Cabana's in the morning. We couldn't always find a prime seat by the pools but there were always chairs somewhere nearby. The kids loved the waterslide although the lines were usually fairly long except for the one night when we skipped dinner in the MDR and just ate on the pool deck -they were able to ride over and over again! We loved all the shows we did (mainly the Broadway shows) My DH and I got to enjoy the Quiet Cove adult pool several times. We also loved the Cadillac Lounge where we enjoyed the live musicians and we did trivia one night in the Crown and Fin - and won!
Kids club:
My kids absolutely LOVED the kids club and wanted to be there at every opportunity! I knew they would enjoy it but I was surprised that they wanted to be there as often as they did! One night they were there for 4 hours! We went to check on them to see if they wanted to come out with us and they responded "Do we have to??" This gave my DH and I a lot of time to have "date nights" which we weren't really expecting! It turned about to be so fun! DH and I did an adults-only trip to Hawaii a few years ago and although we loved it, we realized we probably wouldn't do a long trip without the kids again because we really missed them by the end of the week. The cruise was kind of 2 vacations in one - we got to spend a lot of family time together and then some adult time at night. So it was a really nice balance for us!
Food/Dining:
I thought the food was fine but not spectacular. The buffet at Cabana's in the morning was really good and I enjoyed the lunch buffet the 2 times we ate there. The pool deck food was ok, some better than others. We found the MDR food to be good but not amazing. My DH didn't think a few of his dishes were very good, I thought mine were fine but a lot of it was food I wouldn't normally choose. It was a lot of meat protein, starch, vegetable and I prefer to eat pasta dishes, Asian dishes, Mexican, etc so while it was fine, it wasn't my favorite. We also felt like the MDRs took SO long. Our meals were consistently 90 minutes each night. We were seated with another family so that probably added to it, but even with the entertainment my DS6 was pretty restless by the end of it each night. Our wait staff worked super hard to we have no complaints about them taking too long, I think it was just the nature of the meal. We ate up on the pool deck one night and we loved it! We felt like we gained so much time that night and it was so relaxing! If Cabana's had a buffet every night we definitely would've preferred to eat there each night even though we really enjoyed the entertainment at the MDRs.
We requested a private table for our family but we ended up being seated with another family. I was really nervous about this at first since I can be introverted and I hate small talk but it ended up working out really well. We were matched with another family with kids the same ages and gender as ours. The girls became fast friends and had so much fun together and we even ended up sitting together at a bunch of the shows! So this worked out pretty well and we even exchanged info with the family at the end of the week!
Shows:
We watched the Golden Mickeys, Frozen, and Dreams (all Broadway-style shows) and also a magic/illusion show. We all loved the Broadway shows! My DH and I have attended a lot of Broadway musicals because we love them (we finally get to see Hamilton this weekend! Eeek!) We thought the talent in those shows was excellent and we were really impressed with the singers. My DH raved about them and thought the singers were much better than those in the live-action Disney movies! (He has a real beef with Emma Watson in Beauty and the Beast! Lol) I just thought the magic/illusion show was ok but that's not really my thing and my DH and DD really enjoyed it! They were both able to participate onstage which they enjoyed. I hate being onstage so it was hard for me to relax and enjoy the show because I was nervous the whole time that I was going to be picked! I even debated just leaving partway through! Hahaha!
Final thoughts:
Overall we really loved the cruise! My DH went into it saying that he would have fun but he knew a cruise just wasn't going to be his thing. After a day or two he said he was enjoying himself more than he thought but he didn't want to do another one. Midweek he said he could see us doing another one in maybe 5 years. By the end of the week he was surprised how much he liked it and he agreed to book a placeholder! Lol! We still did have times where we wished we could explore an island more and not have to rush back to the ship but now we know where we want to explore more in the future. I still think that we are interested in the itinerary more than cruising in general so we wouldn't choose a cruise just for the ship. I'm not sure what/if we will use our placeholder on, I would be interested in more Southern Caribbean cruises but Disney isn't offering those next winter at all. Maybe 2022. So we'll see. My DH said he would only be interested in cruising Disney again although I would be open to other cruise lines. So our week was very successful and we had a great time and ended up loving it much more than we thought we would!
Thanks for following along!!
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