Wonder May 28, 2006

[wannabecruiser]

It's getting closer.............as my favorite commericial says...............
We're too excited to sleep!!!

 

[K.C. Sparrow]

Just giving this a bump...

So, anyone else out there planning on doing anything in the way of excursions, shows, etc? A few things that stand out from the last time we went:

1) When you go to Triton's, or indeed ANY of the restaraunts, don't be afraid to give new or interesting-sounding foods a try! Some people stick out their toungues at the idea of eating escargot or the other more exotic-sounding foods, but give it a taste anyways. If you don't like it, order something else; It won't cost anything extra, and you're bound to find something you like eventually!

2) for all the parents with kids, be sure to bring them to Hercules: A Muse-ical. It's a show that everyone will love, whether you're 7 or 75. Lots of jokes, very funny!

3) Bring duct tape. I know this sounds silly, but depending on what the weather's like, you may be thankful you remembered it! If the seas get too rocky, sometimes the doors to the closet will start opening and closing themselves. It's all well fine and good if you're out of the room at the time, but the last thing you want is to have a sliding closet door slamming in your room at 2:00 in the morning. That's what happened to my mom, scared the living bejeebers out of her!

4) Castaway Cay is without a doubt one of the best stops on the cruise. The different beaches for adults, teens, and family can either let you go snorkling as a group or catch some rays while the kiddos do one of the excursions.

Yeah, I'm no expert, but if you've got questions I'll be glad to help out. Smooth sailing!

 

[Cinderelli]

Thanks, K. C. - I'll add duct tape to my packing list. Love your picture.

Lissa

 

[mikerry]

"We're TOO excited to sleep" for the next 6 weeks! Wow has this snuck up on us. I'm starting a list (the first of about 47 ) to try to remember everything I've learned here.

It's great to see that so many of the DISers scheduled for our cruise dates have kids around the same age as our girls.

WoooHooo......(sorry, can't sleep....)

 

[mbogoje]

Just giving us another bump...

My wife and I have booked Palo for brunch at 11am (Day 4). I have not booked any excursions as I'm still undecided. The only excursion I have been considering in Nassau is the Sting Ray excursion. I have also been considering staying on ship for most of that day, and not doing any excursions, except for a quick tour of the area around that port and maybe the Pirate Museum. What is everybody else planning to do in Nassau? I'm also leaning towards not doing an excursion on Castaway Cay. I was thinking we would just have a nice relaxing day. I might sign up my DS 13 for an excursion with the teen group.

K.C. - Have you attended the Teen Club or any teens-only excursions on your previous Disney cruises? If so, do you have any comments or suggestions? My DS 13 will most likely be attending the Teen Club and I thought he may be interested in the teen-only excursion.

wannabecruiser - I have noticed your signature and wanted to congratulate you on the Steelers winning the Super Bowl. I've had to bite my lip for awhile on this thread, as I grew up near Cleveland and have been an avid Browns fan. I'm sure you are aware, our biggest rival has always been the Steelers. I left Ohio in 1994 for the southwest and I guess I don't feel the same intensity for the rivalry. It didn't help the Browns left Cleveland for a few years. Also, my sister's fiance is from Pittsburgh (they live near Cleveland now) and she gathered with his entire family to cheer for the Steelers in the Super Bowl. At least they had an Ohio-native quarterbacking the team.

 

[TowJumper]

We will also be sailing May 28th - June 1st on the Wonder. It will be my wife and me's first cruise since our respective High School graduation cruises in 87 and 86.

We will have our daughter 8 and son 5 (turns 6 on May 31st) with us as well as all four grandparents.

To say we are looking forward to the trip is an understatement.

Regards to all.

Miguel/Suzy/Anna/Michael

Macon, Georgia

 

[K.C. Sparrow]

Have you attended the Teen Club or any teens-only excursions on your previous Disney cruises? If so, do you have any comments or suggestions? My DS 13 will most likely be attending the Teen Club and I thought he may be interested in the teen-only excursion.

Very, very yes indeed. On just about every cruise I've been on, I've been out almost 75% of the time doing either the Oceaneers Club (wow that was a long time ago now) or much more often the Teen Club. No matter what he's into, there's going to be something for him to do most all of the time. They'll have movies playing (though what you end up watching is a bit of a luck of the draw kind of deal), they've got PS2s up there, a nice variety of music to listen to, REALLY COMFY beanbag chairs unless they've changed things since last time, and the different activities around the boat are great. There's a game going on the entire cruise called Gotcha, that's pretty fun. I'd definately do the whole Kareoke routine, the on-deck party... there's more stuff to do up there than you can shake a stick at!

As for excursions, one of the ones I'd definately recommend is the Wildside excursion. It's a mix of kayaking, biking, and... er... some other travel-oriented activity. Jogging, maybe? I can't remember off the top of my head. =/ That's always fun though, because it ends near the Teen Beach where we have a boat-building contest with some spare materials, or go play Nerf Football, that sort of thing. I don't tend to go on a lot of excursions, mostly because Nasau's not my cup of tea. It's a great place to go shopping (as my mom will attest to), but I'm hazy on any teens-only trips for that port of call.

My best advice for your DS is to remember: this is a 4-day cruise. Odds are, once you're off the boat you won't see anyone from it again. That means that you can really cut loose, have a good time, and be yourself while you're on the ship. One of the only warnings, though: the Teens Club doesn't close until something like 12 or 1 o' clock at night, so you might be in for a late breakfast the next morning!

Hope I told you what you're looking for; if not, lemme know and I'll try to be more specific.

 

[wannabecruiser]

under 40 days now!!!!

 

[4Cones]

We will taking our first cruise of any type on the May 28 Wonder I am 29, DW 28, DS 7, DS 2, looking for anyone with similar age children, this board has been great for the info so far, look forward to hearing from anyone interested in visiting

 

[mbogoje]

K.C. Sparrow - Thank you for the information about the teen club and CC excursion. My DS13 (Rudy) read your post and is very excited. I have a feeling we will not see much of him on the cruise, unless we specifically set aside some time when he needs to be with his family - for dinners, shows, early breakfasts , etc. He is very sociable and I'll think he'll have a great time and make many friends.

I'm worried about my DD6 (Gabriela) who is very shy and reluctant to approach unfamiliar children (so much unlike her brother). She has made it very clear she does not want to go to the kid's club. I still have 30+ days to convince her otherwise. When I booked the cruise, I envisioned her spending a lot of time in the kid's club, and enjoying all of the activities and interaction with the other children. I guess we'll see. Anybody have any thoughts or suggestions on how I might open her up on the cruise?

 

[mbogoje]

Just giving us another bump. Can't believe we are getting this close.

 

[Cinderelli]

OK - 28 days and counting......bump, bump, bump! We still haven't signed up for any excursions and at this point, I'm not sure we will. My youngest DD made her softball All Star Team, so just when we thought the season was over.............they are practicing 5 times a week, we have softball end of season parties, games, school, work, graduations. YIKES! We're so busy with just EVERYTHING, that I think we'll just stay on the boat (except for CC) and relax and enjoy the activities on-board. I hope we don't change our minds once we get aboard. At this point, I hope we even get packed, ha!

The only think I'm thinking of doing is Palo. Any of you others going to try Palo? I can't decide which night to do it, if we should do it, yada yada yada. I don't want to miss any of the restaurants. What are the rest of you doing?

See everyone in 28 days!!!!

Lissa

 

[K.C. Sparrow]

The only think I'm thinking of doing is Palo. Any of you others going to try Palo? I can't decide which night to do it, if we should do it, yada yada yada. I don't want to miss any of the restaurants. What are the rest of you doing?

See everyone in 28 days!!!!

Lissa

So far as I know, my mom's going to Palo's. It's a semi-regular thing for her, but it also depends on how many Disney Dollars she manages to rack up between cruises. As for which dinner to miss (if you want to miss one), it depends on what sort of atmosphere you like. Parrot Cay's very relaxed and informal, they do a conga line at one point which is waaaay fun but other than that there's not much going on there. Triton's is the exact opposite, very classy and sophisticated. It's also probably the most like Palo's atmosphere (from what I can tell, never get to go myself... X-p). Animator's Palette is probably the most interesting, but again that's a personal preference. If you can hear the music in AP, they actually change the lighting and coloring of pictures to fit the tunes. Waiters come out on musical cues and pictures come to life, and since animation is one of those things that look really cool it's one of my favorite places to eat. Music's a bit soft though, so perk up your ears if you decide to eat there!

Congrats to you and your DD, Cinderelli, from what I understand making the All Star Team's no small feat! I know that feeling of wanting to just chill on the boat; depending on the timing, I might be in a fishing tournament with my dad the day before we cruise. I'd be so beat after that! Anyways, good luck on the busy workload, and just keep counting down to the 28th!

 

[mikerry]

My DH and I signed up for the Palo brunch on the sea day. I've heard if you've got to pick dinner or brunch, pick brunch so that's what we did. Since this is our first cruise, I wanted to be able to experience all of the restaurants in our regular rotation and just take time for us for brunch. (Besides....I LOVE breakfast/brunch so this worked!)

Our girls are asking to see the ticker on a daily basis and we all getting so excited. They are having trouble sleeping lately and I can't help but think of that cute Disney commercial with the little boy "too excited to sleep". Think Mike and I will be joining them in this syndrome soon!

Looking forward to meeting everyone. How is that done? Is there some sort of "May 28" DISers meet up planned or do we just run into one another?

 

[Cleocruiser]

Hi everyone,
We will be sailing with you on May 28th. It will be DH and myself as well as our DD12 and DS9. It will be our 4th cruise and we kind of booked this one last minute. We live in Fl, so its not far to drive.

 

[wannabecruiser]

Hi everyone,
We will be sailing with you on May 28th. It will be DH and myself as well as our DD12 and DS9. It will be our 4th cruise and we kind of booked this one last minute. We live in Fl, so its not far to drive.

Welcome!!!! Only 18 more days to go!!!! I have a DS12 we all can't wait!!! See ya soon!!!

 

[wannabecruiser]

OK - 28 days and counting......bump, bump, bump! We still haven't signed up for any excursions and at this point, I'm not sure we will. My youngest DD made her softball All Star Team, so just when we thought the season was over.............they are practicing 5 times a week, we have softball end of season parties, games, school, work, graduations. YIKES! We're so busy with just EVERYTHING, that I think we'll just stay on the boat (except for CC) and relax and enjoy the activities on-board. I hope we don't change our minds once we get aboard. At this point, I hope we even get packed, ha!

The only think I'm thinking of doing is Palo. Any of you others going to try Palo? I can't decide which night to do it, if we should do it, yada yada yada. I don't want to miss any of the restaurants. What are the rest of you doing?

See everyone in 28 days!!!!

Lissa

Hi Lissa,

The only thing me and DS12 signed up for is the Stingray excursion on CC. I think it will be fun. I just got finished filling out all the online forms, and my travel agent just called and said all of our documents are in!!! I will be picking them up after work today!!! Oh my 18 more to go, I got our suitcases out and I am trying to figure out what all to bring, do I have to go shopping some more? I am making lists of things not to forget etc. etc. etc. I am too excited to sleep!!!!

See ya all real soon,
Kelly

 

[FlaHomeBldr]

Cinderelli are you in Tampa I think our daughters are playing at the same park Town and Country we are also on the May 28th Wonder cruise.

 

[Cinderelli]

FlaHomeBldr - Holy Cow! We play for Lutz. My daughter is a Pixie (9 but playing as an 8). How old is your daughter? We have our first game at 6:00 tomorrow night in Brandon. We will be there at the same time as you, and may end up playing you - who knows?

It would be great to meet you. How old is your daughter? I have one 9 and one 12 (too young to make AS in her division), plus my DS10.

CleoCruiser - I have a 12 yo dd, too and a DS10 (almost 11), plus my DD9. I hope to be able to meet some of you on the ship. I'll have to take a list of names with me.

K.C.Sparrow - thanks for the wonderful info. Do you have any idea how we can tell in advance what our dining rotation will be. We received our docs on Monday (YIPPEE!). I don't really want to miss any of the normal restaurants and I know that if we have AP two nights - they don't do the lights on the 2nd nite? I would hate to make Palo ressies for the 1st AP night and end up missing the "show". How can we know what night to make the ressies for?

Wannabecruiser - we are so lame. We still haven't signed up for any excursions. That stingray thing sounds neat. I hope after this weekend (All Star Tournament, then Mother's Day) that I can really check into some stuff and still make ressies. My luck - they'll be booked.

Our neighbors just booked the same cruise. They have a DD5 and DS4. They are such nice people. How amazing that they would decide at the last minute to do a cruise and end up on the same one as us. We are really excited and I do hope to meet some of you on the ship.

Hello to everyone I missed! Have a great cruise!


Lissa

 

[FlaHomeBldr]

Lissa I will be out at the game tommorow my daughter is not playing but her team was first place so her coaches are coaching the team our game is at 7:00 and we are suppose to be playing one of the teams that wins the 6:00 game. My DD is 8 it was her first year playing she did real well, she got trophy for most improved player and she is real excited for next year. If you see me come say hello and I'll introduce our daughters. You can't miss me I'm the big guy early 40's with a big red folding chair. My name is Jeff. Good Luck Tommorow.