Wonder 8-12 not what I expected #4

[ConnecticutDisneymaniac]

Castaway Cay. GET THERE EARLY!. It's very hot, find chairs in the shade. You will need them. If you don't have all the snorkel stuff, flippers, vest, mask, rent them. I'ts worth it. Buy underwater cameras at Wallmart (Cheap Fuji 7-8 $ ) takes great pictures. Huge fish. My kids stayed in the water for hours. Sun is very hot , reapply, reapply, or burn. Be prepared to stand in line for an hour or more for hair braiding at castaway, braid 1$, corn row 2$, long hair extra. Eat or at least get drinks at Cooks barbeq. They close promptly at 2:00 or 2:30 you will be out of luck. Take small bills or change if you are going to mail postcards from castaway cay. Stamps have disney ship on them and are Bahamian. Postcards have same ship picture. Suggest you purchase on board, write them out and mail them as soon as you get on to the island. Plan something to do like a shore excursion to beach or dolphin etc. if your cruise takes you to Freeport, don't take a cab and walk around shops. Very dirty, worse that nassau. All and all not a bad vacation. Saw the Shuttle Launch. Visited the emergency room(daughter got a 2 ''sliver at hotel pool deck in Fla. Had to replace alternator in my van. (we Drove down) Swam with sharks (yes we were in Sarasota, and Tampa. when they wer biting people) saw a funnel cloud, too.Heard that a tornado did touch down in Tampa area. It's great to be home, Already planning my next Disney adventure, Maybe a 7 day Cruise, maybe the newest hotel.Maybe not in the heat of August .

 

[mmouse37]

I feel very bad that you had such a disappointing trip. My teens found so much too do!!!!! Maybe your 18 year old was looking for more club activity or something. My DD17 did not hang out in common grounds much at all but she made friends immediately and I did not see your the whole cruise!!! She loved it!!!!

As far as sightings of Mickey....maybe you just kept missing him. We have tons of pix with him....formal and casual..
All the characters seemed to be everywhere. We always found a photo op somewhere. I am glad you at least liked CC.

As far as the CAT 4 stateroom. We have always stayed in a Cat 4 for our four DCL cruises. We have 2 adults, DD17, DS16, DD13 (my son is 6'1" and 250 lbs. and he even thought the cabin was spacious). I don't know what you were expecting. It is a ship! Not a hotel. I steered away from many other cruise lines because we would have to get two staterooms to accomodate our family. I love that Disney had family staterooms. We found plenty of room to put all our clothes, stuff, luggage away.

You said you cruised before.....did those other cruise lines have bigger cabins than Disney? Maybe next time a Cat 3 or higher would be better for you. They have much more room.

I know DCL is not for everyone...but we love it compared to other cruise lines. The service, quality and customer service are unsurpassed in our book. Hope you have a better cruise next time with Disney. Maybe see if you can travel with friends so the kids would have a better time and would not have to join the clubs and meet people. Give DCL another try!!!!

MJ

 

[sandee]

thanks for the report. Interesting. I think I saw a report recently from someone who was a vegetarian. They said the contacted guest services after boarding and told them someone in their party was vegetarian The head chef came and spoke to them about available menus. She raved about how good it was. Maybe you could try that next time. I am surprised 18 y.o. was not allowed in CG. I guess I would be somewhat bored too if I were 18 on this cruise. Maybe DCL need two groups for teens too - 13/15 16/18.

 

[lmcclure65]

I went on the 4-day Disney Wonder last August with my girlfriend who is a vegetarian. On the first night we told our server, she promptly went to the kitchen and brought out the Head Chef. He was wonderful! He asked my friend about her preferences and what she was in the mood for, she had incredible dishes for the rest of the cruise.

Our server always remembered to ask the Chef before each meal what he had prepared for vegetarians and if it didn't appeal to my friend, she was encouraged to ask for something specific.

Lisa

 

[jdm]

Trip reports on the Wonder don't seem to come around very often. I'm sorry your trip didn't seem to live up to what your expectations were. I have to keep talking to myself to not have any expectations for our first cruise in Feb so I'm not disappointed. You mentioned that your 12 year old went to Common Grounds. Does this mean that Disney is not overly strict on the age thing? Did you do any excusions in Nassua and can you be more specific on what you did in Freeport? Again, thanks for posting. I'm always interested in hearing everyone's experience, good, bad, or metsa metsa! (now, I'm sure I spelled that wrong! :~)
Jenn

 

[kamgen]

Sorry you did not get what you expected!

We went on our first DCL cruise (4day) in January and are headed on our second in a few weeks (3day). We LOVED our cruise. We had a cat 9 room for the two of us and thought it was great. We saw the characters ALL the time and we don't even have kids. I think that too many people feel that it will always be the same on every cruise, but there are instances for differences. The staff is not always the same and the activities change.

Hope you will give 'em another chance! We love DCL!!

Kamy

http://gennaroworld.topcities.com