Our Holiday Cruise on the Wonder Review

[brookeq]

AFter lunch we decided to check out the pool. It is a huge freshwater pool. They have ledges around the side with shallow water and they put the lounge chairs in. I love that.

 

 

The kids love the pool. They spend tons of time here. There is bar behind it. Not a swim up one though.

 

 

After swimming we got some drinks. The kids got some smoothies too.

 

 

On our last crusie my husband got Amelia’s hair braided. She told me that since she was at the beach with salty water she has to get her hair braided. . So we let her do the corn rows. This was my only not so positive experience at Paradise Beach (we have been 3x). The girl who did the hair was not very nice and got annoyed If Amelia moved the slightest bit and would start huffing and sighing. It also did not last as long as when we went to Roatan. Those lasted until well after we got home. The braids she got here did not. In fact one was out the next day.  I was going to do it on the ship but didn’t realize you needed an appointment. Oh well.

She did look cute with her braids and she was pleased with them. So I tried to get a picture.

 

We played at the beach until mid afternoon and then decided to head back. Cabs are waiting there for you it is very easy to get back to the port.

[brookeq]

On the way back I wanted to get vanilla. I forgot I had written down a place to get it. People on the message boards recommended it. I just walked in somewhere. I hate haggling. They had the same merchandise as when we went to Costa Maya last year but triple the price. I saw some vanilla and couldn’t believe the price. I was just going to leave. He eventually made it a price I would pay. Gosh I hate that. It just stresses me out.

 

Hayden wanted a mask last trip and stated his case again this trip. He has some spending money so his dad took him to get one. I wasn’t going thru the haggling again! He was happy with his purchase. My husband didn’t like the Chargers colors. He wanted black and gold. Ha ha.

 

 

That is it for our day in Mexico.

[accio_7]

Thank you for posting :) We're going on our first Disney Cruise in April (Wonder), loving your review and pictures!

 

 

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[nana541]

Your review is perfect and thank you for not taking 500 posts! This is so helpful in planning our trip and knowing what to do and what to expect. Great tip about needing an appointment to get hair braided! Had not heard the appt part ;)

 

Looking forward to more!

 

 

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[brookeq]

That night we had dinner in Animators Palate and they did the show that night. It was cute. I would love to see it on the newer ships.

 

Here is the menu:

http://disneycruiselineblog.com/menus/animators-palate-menu-magic-wonder/

 

For dinner I had the black truffle pasta which was very good. I also had the potato soup and the chicken for dinner. All were good. I had the cookies and creme sundae too.

 

We wondered around a bit after dinner. Hayden saw Santa Goofy

 

 

Amelia wanted to meet Chip N Dale

 

 

 

They went to the kids club at some point.

 

We got a picture of the chandelier in the atrium.

 

 

Hayden and Mike went to see Big Hero 6 in the movie theater. Hayden didn't make it all the way thru and fell asleep.

 

We got our towel animals and were off to bed

[DaKa2002]

Enjoying your review. We are looking forward to another "Wonder" trip in November, 2015. It has been years since we have been on the Magic or Wonder.

[brookeq]

Day at Sea

 

We woke up to some rough seas. My little girl fell out of bed in the middle of the night!

 

We had tickets to make a gingerbread house that morning so that is we what did early. It was a fun little thing to do. It was the perfect day to do it since the weather was not nice. Unlike the kits you make at home this gingerbread actually tasted really good.

 

 

 

Then went to see the big gingerbread house.

 

 

While were making the house I started to feel a little sick. I went and laid down for a bit and then i was fine.

 

It was way too cold and windy for the pool today. We did go to the hot tub and watched the lion king on the movie screen.

 

 

The kids went to the kids club and played with Stitch.

 

We eventually got some lunch. The hamburger place listed that they would have cheese steak that day. Don't get it! It was gross.

 

We hit up the gift shop and let the kids pick out one thing. hayden picked a sword and Amelia got a small cruise minnie plush.

 

We saw Christmas Donald

 

 

and got a glimpse of Daisy leaving.

 

[brookeq]

We used our Sundae kits from our fish extender gifts. They gave us bowls, magic shell, sprinkles, cookies, and spoons that changed colors when cold. Fun!

 

 

Mike and Hayden tried to see a movie but it was full. They played shuffleboard instead.

 

 

I took Amelia to do crafts. It was just a 3d character to cut out and put together.

 

The kids went back to the kids club and made cookies and played with pluto.

 

We went and watched a special on Disney World.

 

We had dinner at Parrot Cay that night.

 

menu is here: http://disneycruiselineblog.com/menus/parrot-cay-menu/

 

I had the chicken tenderloins. They were good. I also got the soup. It was like a spicy tomato sauce but pretty good. For my main course i got the pork chop. I didn't like any of the desserts.

 

We also got a family picture

 

 

That evening we went to see the Golden Mickey's Show. I let the kids get popcorn. Everyone enjoyed the show. By the end the kids were getting a little tired.

 

 

Then we called it a night.

 

[brookeq]

I forgot...this link has all of the navigators for our trip.

 

http://disneycruiselineblog.com/2014/12/personal-navigators-5-night-western-caribbean-merrytime-cruise-disney-wonder-itinerary-november-23-2014/

[nana541]

This is wonderful and can't wait to share with my family.... Sailing Magic but this gives us a darn good idea!

 

 

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[brookeq]

This is wonderful and can't wait to share with my family.... Sailing Magic but this gives us a darn good idea!

 

 

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Have fun. The Magic was my first choice when researching Disney Cruises. It just didn't work out this time.

[brookeq]

After our day of rough seas I was nervous we would not be able to dock at Castaway Cay. I later read that on our rough sea day one of the other ships couldn't go to Castaway Cay. That stinks! Thankfully we made it.

 

The weather was to be a high of almost 70. But there was no wind. We got off right after breakfast.

 

We got a family picture with the tree.

 

 

The kids loved the sand snowmen.

 

And the sleigh

 

 

We rode the tram to the family beach.

 

We ran into Mickey with no one visiting him. Nice! We got pictures with just the kids, then the family, then the kids with Grandma Barb since no one was waiting.

 

 

We also ran into Pluto. Bonus! Only Hayden wanted to see him.

 

 

 

We passed the gift shop and peeked in. Grandma Barb got the kids a new castle mold since ours broke.

 

Just an FYI when we went to Disneyworld last year they were the same price and included a small shovel and one large shovel. These only included the mold.

Edited January 2, 2015 by brookeq

[brookeq]

We headed to the family beach. We picked a spot to the right of the play area that is in the ocean. No one was near us for most of the morning.

 

 

The water was so blue and clear. I loved it. I will have to edit out those cones later!

 

The area you see with the ropes is the snorkel area. Please make sure you take a yellow vest if you snorkel...it is required. You don't have to blow it up but you do have to put it on. There are no signs that say this. The life guards (which are no where near the snorkel area) would have to get their mega phones out and tell people all of the time.

 

I told the kids we would take some posed pictures right away (so no one would be in them) and then I wouldn't bother them much during the day. I had Santa hats ready since it was a Christmas cruise. :santa:

 

 

So we got some cute ones.

 

 

It is so hard to get a family picture. Since we were by ourselves only my mom could take it. It stresses her out for some reason so I only had her take one. This was it. I am just happy everyone is looking. Amelia is so hard. She does everything but have her eyes looking at the camera. And Hayden gets moody and won't always let us take his picture.

 

 

I did manage to sneak this cute one of him though...

 

[brookeq]

The kids played in the sand.

 

Then they got in the water. It was chilly at first but you got used to it if you kept your body in it. Once you got out it was cold until you were in a towel and dried off some.

 

 

The life guard stand near us had the snorkel life vests so we put some on the kids and swam out to the play area. We made it all the way and the life guard told us they needed to wear a regular life vest. ugh. How was I supposed to know that. So I had to go find the normal vests. That was quite a trip. I had no idea where they were. I asked two employees and they didn't tell me the right place. i finally had walked all the way back to the end of the beach and thru all of the buildings and found some. It was tiring!

 

Hayden was happy to get a real vest. he did not like the snorkel ones.

 

 

Hayden and Amelia saw their friend from our dinner table so they played nice for a long time. So we got to relax. I did some reading. Mike relaxed with his chair in the ocean.

 

 

he is usually a baby about cold water so that shows you it wasn't too bad.

[brookeq]

At some point we ate lunch. It wasn't anything exciting but we were all satisfied. We also stopped and got some ice cream. On the island they had vanilla chocolate and strawberry and banana flavors.

 

 

Hayden and my husband checked out the game area.

They played connect 4

 

 

Did some putting and played basketball. There was also chess/and checkers I think.

 

 

Amelia wanted to go to the dance party. Minnie, goofy, and Mickey were there. She had a blast.

 

This minnie could kick her leg above her head!

 

I forgot to take them to the digging area. They would have loved that. Its just so hard to remember to do everything!

 

There was also hair braiding (in the shade). And some more shops down the way.

[nana541]

Thanks for the heads up about those crazy life jacket rules!

 

Can you explain about shipboard hair braiding again, prices too if you know. Thanks!

 

 

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[brookeq]

There was a stand right near the entrance to cove cafe (but still out of the actual adult area)

 

I don't know if you make appointments there or somewhere else. Sorry.

 

I think it was like 3 dollars a braid maybe. I am sorry I am not much help. Someone on this board has to know

 

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[nana541]

Thanks, I know we will want to get it done on the ship...

 

 

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[Susie51]

Happy New Year! Thank you for posting lots of pics. They bring back great memories of our cruise on Wonder.

[brookeq]

Next we decided to check out the water slide.

 

 

The kids liked the spray guns

 

 

I went first and rode the twisty open slide.

 

 

Mike rode the tube slide.

 

 

Hayden wanted to try it but changed his mind. I didn't force it.

 

Here is a photo of the next beach on the other side of the slides. It is the family beach too.

 

 

On our walk back i got a picture with the ship in the background.

 

[Dulciana8]

This review has been great-- I've really appreciated all of your photos and comments. We just booked our first Disney cruise on the Wonder for this time next year, same itinerary as the trip you reviewed, so seeing your photos and comments have just made us more excited!

[inthefloridasunshine]

Thank you so much for taking time to write this! Do you jot down notes from your days while you are traveling? We love to cruise and love Disney and are taking our first cruise with Disney on Christmas Eve 2015 - I love seeing that they have the yummy gingerbread houses up on the ships too! Nothing like smelling that on a holiday vaca.

 

I think we are going to be needing to schedule naps in so we can enjoy all of the late night activity - even if we make it up for it, I know the next mornings will be miserable if the kids (and us), are not well rested. Thank you for pointing this all out!! This will be the first cruise for my kiddos and I don't want to over-do it, but also want to make the most of what they offer!

[brookeq]

Thank you so much for taking time to write this! Do you jot down notes from your days while you are traveling? We love to cruise and love Disney and are taking our first cruise with Disney on Christmas Eve 2015 - I love seeing that they have the yummy gingerbread houses up on the ships too! Nothing like smelling that on a holiday vaca.

 

I think we are going to be needing to schedule naps in so we can enjoy all of the late night activity - even if we make it up for it, I know the next mornings will be miserable if the kids (and us), are not well rested. Thank you for pointing this all out!! This will be the first cruise for my kiddos and I don't want to over-do it, but also want to make the most of what they offer!

 

I read a lot reviews on this site and some others and just made priorities. Things i really wanted to do and things that I wanted to do but it was ok if we didn't.

 

On Pirate night I did try to get the kids to nap. They were never good nappers even when young. But I also went knowing that they would probably get cranky, which they did. But I still want them to experience things. We just didn't stay up late every night. Its just not worth it.

 

On our last cruise we had 4 stops to 4 different islands all in a row. that was also too much for our kids. We needed a relaxing sea day to break it up.

[brookeq]

Thank you so much for taking time to write this! Do you jot down notes from your days while you are traveling? We love to cruise and love Disney and are taking our first cruise with Disney on Christmas Eve 2015 - I love seeing that they have the yummy gingerbread houses up on the ships too! Nothing like smelling that on a holiday vaca.

 

I think we are going to be needing to schedule naps in so we can enjoy all of the late night activity - even if we make it up for it, I know the next mornings will be miserable if the kids (and us), are not well rested. Thank you for pointing this all out!! This will be the first cruise for my kiddos and I don't want to over-do it, but also want to make the most of what they offer!

 

I jot down some quick notes before bed and put them in the note pad on my cell phone.

[brookeq]

We stayed at the beach a little longer and then headed back to the ship. Probably after 2.

 

We loved Castaway Cay. It is so nice to be able to just get off the ship and not worry about catching a taxi, paying for food, being haggled to buy stuff. It was the best part of our cruise. If we take another disney cruise it would have to stop here.

 

On our way out we stopped to take a picture with Olaf at the post office.

 

 

We also saw Stitch before we boarded.

 

 

Back on the ship reality is setting in that the cruise is ending and I started packing. Its always so sad :(