What is wrong with the Wonder?

Our 1st and last cruise on the Wonder, 4th Disney cruise. Out of 3 nights we only slept 1 and that's because the ship was not even moving.

We had an aft cabin that had the Navigators Verandah, but we were about the 4th one from the back. At night the ship would sway side to side so hard that you could feel it stop. The cabin was creeking all night. There was a horrible tremble all during the night. When the ship got to port, the entire back trembled very hard.

We have cruised more than 30 times already and have never experienced this. I know some captains like the sway the ships at night, which is nice, but this was uncomfortable, especially because it felt like the sway went too far and then hit a stop. We looked outside and the weather did not look bad at all. This happened the first night going south from Cape Canaveral and the last night coming north to Cape Canaveral.

The ship looked in good condition inside, is there a problem that causes it to function like this?

I can't comment on the swaying. We have occasionally experienced very strong "trembling" from the thrusters on the Wonder when the ship is docking. This is particularly obvious in the "far aft" cabins. We were in an HA cabin, second from the back of the ship and our first time cruiser friend was actually frightened by this "shaking" and noise until I explained it. And, it lasted only a couple minutes and only during the docking process.

The "hardly moving" has to do with how far the ship needs to travel at night. If you made all your ports, there was no need to move rapidly. I've only experienced "not moving at all" once, and that was a special circumstance. We had hurried back to the port area and were sitting as near as the Coast Guard would allow in order to view a shuttle launch.

I've mostly cruised on the Wonder and had the same experiences as you. Since I've mostly been on the Wonder, I didn't know it was unusual - I thought it was just part of cruising. The creaking at night is annoying, though. Docking doesn't last long - once docked, the noise/vibration stops. The swaying makes me sleep really deep and I love it. I haven't had the trembling all night, just the creaking and hangers jingling to the point where I have to get up and move stuff around in the closet.

We had the same cabin on the Magic and had similar creaking and vibrational issues - I don't think its the ship as a whole, I think those particular cabins just happen to be at a flex point in the superstructure. I loved the cabin but not sure I would book it again on that class.

We didn't have swaying like you did, not constantly, but I did notice that when the ship was moving certain directions through cross current it was very pronounced, my guess is along the route taken you hit a very strong one. There's nothing a captain can do for that other than avoid if possible, but that's not usually an option in and out of homeport. It's deceptive because you won't see any big waves.

I'll admit - this is not the first such report of this I've seen in the last couple months on the boards... it's got me quite worried! We've got inside staterooms in the very aft on Deck 2.

We have a 9C guarantee booked and I have an MSC Divina YC booked for the same time. Trying to decide between the two and this is troubling. The one question I have for people who have been on the Wonder before is about the pool area. Is it very packed? They have two pools and it looks like it would be crowded.

We have a 9C guarantee booked and I have an MSC Divina YC booked for the same time. Trying to decide between the two and this is troubling. The one question I have for people who have been on the Wonder before is about the pool area. Is it very packed? They have two pools and it looks like it would be crowded.

There are actually 3 pool areas on the Magic and Wonder. The Quiet Cove (adult only) pool is not normally crowded, but that can vary. The Goofy pool (4 feet deep, family pool) is rather like a kid soup. It is so crowded that no one can really swim. They just sort of bob up and down in the water. The Mickey Pool (18 inches deep, family pool) is not as crowded, but it depends on the cruise and the passenger mix. The splash area for not trained kids is not usually crowded and is a fun place for them to hang out.

Other than "adult only" pools, I've never been at a pool on any ship, any cruise line that was not crowded! Ship pools are just small compared to the number of passengers.

There are actually 3 pool areas on the Magic and Wonder. The Quiet Cove (adult only) pool is not normally crowded' date=' but that can vary. The Goofy pool (4 feet deep, family pool) is rather like a kid soup. It is so crowded that no one can really swim. They just sort of bob up and down in the water. The Mickey Pool (18 inches deep, family pool) is not as crowded, but it depends on the cruise and the passenger mix. The splash area for not trained kids is not usually crowded and is a fun place for them to hang out.

 

Other than "adult only" pools, I've never been at a pool on any ship, any cruise line that was not crowded! Ship pools are just small compared to the number of passengers.[/quote']

The Mickey Pool area has been converted to the AquaLab (at least on the Magic, I believe the change was made on the Wonder, also).

 

So there's only two actual "pool" areas on the Magic class - Donald and Quiet Cove.

Yes, I knew it had a different name, but couldn't remember what the new name was. They need to quit renaming things--it confuses me. Much as I like the "Fathoms" decor, that's another one that I can't remember. It is really funny not to look at the 1998 model in the terminal and realize how much has changed.

The Mickey Pool area has been converted to the AquaLab (at least on the Magic, I believe the change was made on the Wonder, also).

 

So there's only two actual "pool" areas on the Magic class - Donald and Quiet Cove.

I'll admit - this is not the first such report of this I've seen in the last couple months on the boards... it's got me quite worried! We've got inside staterooms in the very aft on Deck 2.

We were on deck 7, so I can only imagine how bad it feels in the lower decks. Like I said, I don't mind the rocking at night, but this was too much. The creaking and the hard stop when it rocks added to the tremble did not let us sleep both nights. And this was a 3 night cruise!! The jumping tremble when it docks doesn't last long, but if you're sleeping, it will wake you up.

I wish I would have read about this before booking, I would have gone with the Dream. We are definitely avoiding the Wonder. If we decide to cruise with Disney again then we'll stay with the Dream.

We have a 9C guarantee booked and I have an MSC Divina YC booked for the same time. Trying to decide between the two and this is troubling. .

We took the MSC Poesia to give them a try, beautiful ship, but the rough attitude of the staff convinced us not to sail with them again.

We took the MSC Poesia to give them a try, beautiful ship, but the rough attitude of the staff convinced us not to sail with them again.

Just curious, what made them rough?

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Just curious, what made them rough?

 

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The "I don't care" attitude. Not very friendly when you needed help and always responded as if you were bothering them.

Our 1st and last cruise on the Wonder, 4th Disney cruise. Out of 3 nights we only slept 1 and that's because the ship was not even moving.

 

We had an aft cabin that had the Navigators Verandah, but we were about the 4th one from the back. At night the ship would sway side to side so hard that you could feel it stop. The cabin was creeking all night. There was a horrible tremble all during the night. When the ship got to port, the entire back trembled very hard.

 

We have cruised more than 30 times already and have never experienced this. I know some captains like the sway the ships at night, which is nice, but this was uncomfortable, especially because it felt like the sway went too far and then hit a stop. We looked outside and the weather did not look bad at all. This happened the first night going south from Cape Canaveral and the last night coming north to Cape Canaveral.

 

The ship looked in good condition inside, is there a problem that causes it to function like this?

I suspect the "stop" you experienced was the ship being stopped from rolling too much by the stabilizers that deploy from the forward portion of the sides of the ship, since you're so far aft the rolling motion might be more pronounced until the stabilizer stops the roll and rights the ship, and the creaking is just a byproduct of an older ship in this case the 18 yr old Wonder flexing during the rolling and torquing the interior bulkheads and supports down the length of the ship. As has been stated, the shuddering/shaking is most likely occurring during port docking procedures or when the ship is turning around in the harbor basins in preparation to dock when the ship is using it's side thrusters and rudder to change direction or move sideways.

We've experienced creaking on the Magic and the Fantasy to the extent that we notified our host and had temporary fixes done during our cruise. I don't think it relates to the age of the ship, but just to the normal ship flexing and moving. They were quite adept at identifying the source and placing some material there to stop the movement and markedly reduce the sound. It likely relates to the room as we did not experience this issue on the Wonder...and we've been in lots of different Magic cabins and only has this experience in one of them.

We have a 9C guarantee booked and I have an MSC Divina YC booked for the same time. Trying to decide between the two and this is troubling. The one question I have for people who have been on the Wonder before is about the pool area. Is it very packed? They have two pools and it looks like it would be crowded.

If pools are important, dcl is a bad line. It seems like they have the smallest pools in the industry. We are deciding between dcl magic and msc seaside next spring. Both are booked and we cannot decide. We are kind of over dcl, but our kids still like it. We did not book YC on msc, just a regular balcony, but it seems like people on the msc boards rave about YC. We are kind of leaning towards cancelling both and going with an entirely different option.

I suspect the "stop" you experienced was the ship being stopped from rolling too much by the stabilizers that deploy from the forward portion of the sides of the ship, since you're so far aft the rolling motion might be more pronounced until the stabilizer stops the roll and rights the ship, and the creaking is just a byproduct of an older ship in this case the 18 yr old Wonder flexing during the rolling and torquing the interior bulkheads and supports down the length of the ship. As has been stated, the shuddering/shaking is most likely occurring during port docking procedures or when the ship is turning around in the harbor basins in preparation to dock when the ship is using it's side thrusters and rudder to change direction or move sideways.

Stabilizers don't "stop" rolling, and certainly don't create a noticeable jerk at any time. Stabilizers "reduce" or "slow" the rolling by creating a counteracting force that is out of phase with the wave force.

Jerkiness while rolling is a function of the ship's stability and its center of gravity. The higher the center of gravity, as most cruise ships have a high center of gravity, the more resistant the ship is to initiating rolling, but once it starts, the righting moment created is much greater, so the roll period (time from one side to the other) is short, quick, and jerky. This is an uncomfortable rolling motion, so stabilizers are used to dampen this snap rolling.

This happened the first night going south from Cape Canaveral and the last night coming north to Cape Canaveral.

you simply experienced the 'motion of the ocean' while crossing the Gulf Stream

I know some captains like the sway the ships at night, which is nice

I've chewed on this one for hours

HUH???????

I know some captains like the sway the ships at night, which is nice

 

I've chewed on this one for hours

 

HUH???????

I'm with you on this one. Scratch head.

my worst experience was on the disney dream - we swayed or rolled or whatever the side to side tipping over movement is called...

it was so extreme, i seriously thought we were going over every time..

it was during hurricane sandy, so special circumstances to be sure..

but it was so bad, i vowed i would never sail on a tall ship like that again - the kind that gets that 'sail effect' tipping feeling..

but what can i say, i'm sailing on her again in august....hmmm....

This is weird as we have sailed every ship the in Disney fleet and cabins in many locations (aft and forward) and never experienced any of this. 13 times overall with 2 on Wonder 2 on Magic. Only once did we have a rocky night on the Dream but it was due to high winds/rough seas. We have always slept like babies on our cruises.

Totally agree with the above...30 DCL cruises, most on Magic and Wonder. We had creaky noise problems once--not ship movement "problems," but loud creak every time it moved. It took a little time, but they did find and fix the issue. We've had occasional rough seas, especially when crossing the gulf stream. And we've had thruster noise/vibration, but that only lasts a few minutes. And I'd book on any DCL ship again in a minute if she was doing a cruise I wanted to go on at a price I wanted to pay.

my worst experience was on the disney dream - we swayed or rolled or whatever the side to side tipping over movement is called...

it was so extreme, i seriously thought we were going over every time..

you kids .....

We were on deck 7, so I can only imagine how bad it feels in the lower decks. Like I said, I don't mind the rocking at night, but this was too much. The creaking and the hard stop when it rocks added to the tremble did not let us sleep both nights. And this was a 3 night cruise!! The jumping tremble when it docks doesn't last long, but if you're sleeping, it will wake you up.

 

 

 

I wish I would have read about this before booking, I would have gone with the Dream. We are definitely avoiding the Wonder. If we decide to cruise with Disney again then we'll stay with the Dream.

I was on the Dream in November in two aft-ish balconies. There was tons of motion as we left port canaveral. The captain attributed this to us leaving the cooler Florida waters to the warmer Caribbean waters. Vibration was also noticeable during docking. I believe I've read that the vibration is from the thrusters moving in reverse? Our two cabins didn't mind it in the slightest. So you may still notice vibration on the Dream depending on your cabin location.

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