Wonder of the seas Mediterranean live blog! 22nd May - 29th May 2022. Come cruise with us!

[Shocked91]

Hi. My aunty and uncle are on board now. They went to next cruise and have booked a cruise for next May on Symphony. The have booked for us as well we have 2 grand suites side by side. They have sent me our invoice and I can’t see that they have taken our diamond plus discount off. I can see we have $300 OBC. Can you only have one or the other.? OBC or diamond discount not both. Thank you.

[little britain]

Final night: final show - ice skating… by far the best show so far. Visually vibrant, good music, great skating..   

I spoke too soon- the Ukrainian juggler 🤹‍♀️  opened the show 

[little britain]

I don’t know what’s happened to @Cruisingcouple22 ?  Hope everything is ok. 

[little britain]

Spanish tax adds 21% to prices on board. The $10 wraps were $12.10! 
 

Easy disembarking process. Walked off 8:30, in cab 8:40, €39 set fare to airport. Checked in and through security before 10. 
 

Ciao Ciao as Michele would say. 

[topanga49er]

Hi.  Can you tell me which ATS you were in?  We are in 11734 WOS next spring.  Thank you.

 

[Cruisingcouple22]

Hi all, sorry about the delay in getting the next instalment out! We had a busy sea day, then an early flight and are still travelling home at the moment after picking up our cat from my mother in law, who very kindly looks after her whilst we are away! 
This means though that you’ll get two instalments in shorter succession!

woo!

Edited May 29, 2022 by Cruisingcouple22

[Albert_Park]

@Cruisingcouple22@little britainDid either of you manage to get a cruise compass for Naples? Is there one for the sea day as well? I'm trying to plan our cruise with regards to shows but I've noticed that they aren't the same each week.

 

Thanks

[Cruisingcouple22]

Our final port day was in Naples. The ship docks very close to town and our tour wasn’t booked until midday so we had a slow start to the day and went to coastal kitchen for breakfast. It was pancakes again and they were similar to the ones you get in room service but a little better as they were hot. I had a chorizo and egg flat bread and it was very tasty too.
 

 

Celebrity beyond was in port too, very interesting looking ship

 

 

 

We took a leisurely stroll into town and immediately regretted our choice of clothing it as it was already very warm! As we were going underground and didn’t want to carry too much stuff we definitely did not dress for the weather! It was quite overcast but very humid. We had a slow walk around town and popped into a few shops.

 

 

 

It’s interesting comparing the size of other ships. That’s one of the Viking ocean cruise ships in the foreground and it’s a LOT closer!

 

 

 

 

We walked past all the high end fashion shops and avoided going in, but did enjoy the blasts of air con we got as we walked by. When it was time for our tour we headed across. We then discovered we had booked the Italian tour but fortunately they were kind enough to switch us across to the english one. Must check more closely when making bookings on viator in the future! The tour was very interesting and he explained all about how the greeks built the original aqueduct system to bring water to naples and it was used up until 1880 for this purpose. There were a lot of wells around Naples and some residences had their own private wells.

 

 

There was a chapel down there too, and people even got married during the war here!
 

this is the view back up!
 

some of the graffiti you can just make out

 

 

We also told us about the “Little monks” who were the people that maintain the aqueducts in the greek times and were blamed for all the little going ons around town. If you lost your keys, it was the little monks. If a young single lady became unexpectedly with child, it was the little monks! After 1880 they modernised the water system so stopped using the aqueduct and it was forgotten about until world war 2 when it was used as a bomb shelter. The soldiers had to clear out some rubbish and make it habitable, widening tunnels so they could be walked through and levelling out the floors, and they put toilets in as well as electricity. They even put a back up system in so that it was never dark in the tunnels.

 

 

 

The handholds the little monks used to climb down and carry out repair works.

there was a number of bits of graffiti around the tunnels, but it didn’t come out too well in the photos. Naples was one of the most bombed cities in Europe, and as you can imagine there was a lot of rubbish and rubble so when rebuilding they used the conviniently placed wells to through all the rubbish into. After 10 years of this the entire system was full! In the 1980s volunteer societies started to clear out some of the rubbish and highlight the historical importance, and so far have managed approximately 8% as they have very limited funding and have to do everything by hand. This inclused winching up the rubbish by hand 40 metres!! 

[Cruisingcouple22]

Some of the tunnels are very narrow, as in have to take your rucksack off and side step narrow, but there are alternate paths if you don’t want to do these. There are 40 metres worth of steps to access the tunnels, and 15 metres to do on the way back up so bear that in mind if you fancy doing this one! Our tour guide was called Simone and he did an excellent job. His english was great and he cracked quite a few jokes as well as telling the other tour groups to be quiet! After the tour we took a wander around Naples, headed through the historic district and stop for some Tiramasu and a pistachio espresso which was delicious. As we walked around we saw some signs for a number of other undeground tours. We’ve been to Naples four times, this was the first time we had heard of an underground tour and we saw three of them, they are like buses!

 

 

 

toilets! Not still working 

 

one of the wells where people used to get water

 

Some rich, entitled people demanded their own quarters in the bomb shelter

 

 

 

 

pistachio cream espresso

 

The ship kind of dominates the skyline

 

A slightly disturbing looking Mickey Mouse 😳 

it looks like the mannequin on the right has been naughty and told to face the wall 😂

 

 

 

 

Tour number 2 

 

Tour number 3!

 

Amazing coffee art

 

back to the ship for a rest! 

[Cruisingcouple22]

After that we headed back to the ship for some lunch and cooling down. We had a burger at johnny rockets, included in the ultimate dining package, then headed upstairs to do the zip line, back down the ultimate abyss slide to the rock climbing wall then on to try laser tag.

 

 

 

 

 

Laser tag may have been a mistake as it used up about two hours of our afternoon due to queuing and poor organisation. Suffice to say we won’t do it again on this trip, however it was a lot of fun. The inflatables are great fun to run around and the sound track makes everything seem more urgent.

 

 

We headed up to the sun deck to relax after the stress of laser tag and enjoyed a glass of champagne in the hot tub whilst we sailed out of Naples.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The view of Vesuvius in the background as we sailed away was incredible. Dinner tonight was in coastal kitchen (lobster night!) and we had a lovely table looking out the back of the ship. This has been one of my favourite things about eating in coastal kitchen, the views. You sometimes get good views in the main dining room but you have to request or be lucky enough to get a window whereas every seat here has a great view. We had onion soup and prawn cocktail to start, and then rack of lamb and lobster for main. We also had a small portion of the gnocchi which we didn’t enjoy. Dessert was baked Alaska and a honeycomb chocolate bar and it was all great, bar the gnocchi.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We caught a bit of the voices show, and whilst it was a cool concept with the backing vocalists on screens and everyone was extremely talented there didn’t seemed to be a cohesion to the show, no flow from one set of songs to the other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed to Central Park for a relaxing drink and ended up watching a bit of the the Dune film. This wasn’t really a choice as the volume was up VERY loud so do hear this in mind. Having said that the soundproofing on the balconies is pretty good so it may not be an issue with the door closed. And then it was off to bed so we could get a jump on the sea day tomorrow!

 

 

here is our towel animal menagerie 

[Cruisingcouple22]

Sorry about the weird post with a load of photos in a row on, i was trying to upload photos whilst on the move and it didn't like it, and also wouldn't let me delete them! Also i can't seem to rotate photos once they are in so sorry if there are a couple of upside down ones dotted throughout.

I would say it is much easier to upload photos now i am on my stable home wifi 🙂

[Cruisingcouple22]

Day 6 Naples cruise compass

 

 

 

[Cruisingcouple22]

Day 7 sea day cruise compss

 

 

 

 

[Cruisingcouple22]

9 hours ago, Albert_Park said:

@Cruisingcouple22@little britainDid either of you manage to get a cruise compass for Naples? Is there one for the sea day as well? I'm trying to plan our cruise with regards to shows but I've noticed that they aren't the same each week.

 

Thanks

There you go, should all be uploaded now. Enjoy the planning, it’s one of my favourite bits of a holiday!! 

[Cruisingcouple22]

12 hours ago, topanga49er said:

Hi.  Can you tell me which ATS you were in?  We are in 11734 WOS next spring.  Thank you.

 

Ours was 11334 on the port side, I’m assuming 11734 is the same as our one, but just flipped around. There are a couple of YouTube videos of one bedroom ATS but the both have different layouts! Very confusing! 

[Cruisingcouple22]

On 5/28/2022 at 9:40 PM, little britain said:

I don’t know what’s happened to @Cruisingcouple22 ?  Hope everything is ok. 

All good, thank you 😊 just found it hard to squeeze everything in whilst on the ship😂

[Cruisingcouple22]

On 5/27/2022 at 1:35 PM, TheHawk1 said:

Can I ask what time you left the ship in order to make this train?  And how long did the line take for people disembarking?  With Wonder being such a large ship, wanting to gauge how much time we'll need for that process to be off as early as possible in the morning.  Rome is the biggest tour day for us, so we want to maximize our time there.

 

we left the ship about 0815, and there was no line at all to get off, straight through the terminal. We do walk relatively fast though so depending on you rapped you may want to adjust the time, it’s about a 2-2.5 km walk. 

[Cruisingcouple22]

On 5/28/2022 at 6:05 PM, Cleous said:

So suite guests get any free access to thermal spa area do you know

Not in sky class, we paid for our thermal suite access. It star class though, I imagine they get anything they ask for 😁 

[Albert_Park]

   21 hours ago,  Albert_Park said: 

@Cruisingcouple22@little britainDid either of you manage to get a cruise compass for Naples? Is there one for the sea day as well? I'm trying to plan our cruise with regards to shows but I've noticed that they aren't the same each week.

 

Thanks

There you go, should all be uploaded now. Enjoy the planning, it’s one of my favourite bits of a holiday!! 
 

Thanks. That gives me some idea. It’s mainly the Aqua and ice shows that we want to see.

[Cruisingcouple22]

Sea day started with us having a last breakfast on our balcony and then heading up for a semi-private lesson on the flow rider.
 

 

 

Setting up for the pirates parade

 

There was myself and my wife then two other people for the hour long session and it cost $69 per person. We each got about 15-20 minutes of one on one tuition as it overan a little bit and I would say it was really helpful to get some more practice and specific tips. After that we had a warm up a bit, it gets a bit breezy on the back of the ship on a sea day, so we headed to the cantilevered hot tub to get the chill off.
 

We had the tub to ourselves, it was 0930 on a sea day and we had a great time looking down straight into the sea. I really like the infinity pool style so you have the clear glass, it’s a shame there is only one of them now though.

 

 

We then headed down to the thermal spa for our first trip of the day and had it to ourselves. The pass for the sea day was 29 USD + gratuities. I Think it cam to about $34 in total. There is something to be said for getting up early on a sea day if you like some quiet time in the public areas of the ship. That being said there were pool lounge ninjas about who managed to sneak out and peg out towels and then sneak back to bed without being seen! After the spa we headed up to the mason jar for brunch. There was a lot of food but it was all tasty, I really like the cornbread they give you, and my blueberry Johnny cakes with bbq pulled port were a really interesting combo of flavours. The chicken and waffle was tasty but a bit heavy, and the stuffed French toast was a bit too rich! They even served you dessert for brunch, but we could not fit it in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The band were playing a short set at lunch as well so was nice to listen to them. One thing to note is that we had pre-paid for brunch on the cruise planner and then later also booked the dining package, and the manager was able to refund us our money for the pre-booking. So if there is a reservation time that you absolutely must have and you are planning on getting a dining package, you can prebook it as long as you are happy with getting it back as onboard credit. Hope that makes sense to someone! . After brunch we took a few laps of various parts of the ship to try to burn off some calories and then headed down to the boardwalk as they had a family fun day on.

 

 

 

 

The trip so far! 

It was a bit windy around the shop, you can just b make out the waves in the pool

They had candyfloss, candy apples, hopp games, the big band playing and all sorts of other fun activities. Everybody seemed to be having a great time and it was an included event too!

 

 

 

 

some of the candy in the shop looks like Lego!

 

Whilst we were down on the boardwalk i did a bit more rock climbing, i really do love this wall! There are some easier and some really challenging climbs and its really tall. We then headed for our second spa of the day, trying to get the most out of the thermal pass, before getting changed for dinner. Before dinner we caught a bit of the international flow show on the flow rider. This is the first time i’ve seen something like this on a royal ship and if you see it on the planner i highly recommend going, everybody had a great time. The staff are incredibly talented and were doing human pyramids, flips and all sorts of other tricks on the flow rider. I struggle to just stay standing upright!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the show we headed down to grab dinner at playmakers, unfortunately we forgot that the UEFA final was on and the entirety of playmakers was booked out, not a table to be found. So we headed to Johnny Rockets instead for dinner, which was delicious as always. Apparently I was so hungry though I forgot to take any photos! We headed back to the room to pack up 😞 always a sad time, and then headed back to the Mason Jar for a final few drinks and to catch the last seat of the Country trio.
 

 

 

It was a great time, really high energy and they played everyone's requests that they knew.And then that was it, the cruise was over and it was time for bed before waking up for our flight tomorrow morning. 

[Albert_Park]

Thanks for taking the time to do this blog. I’ve really enjoyed it and it’s certainly whetted my appetite for our cruise in 6 weeks.

[Billy Baltic]

Thank you so much for bringing us with you. We’re boarding in 4 weeks and you’ve given us so many plans. Safe trip home. 

[bobmacliberty]

Thanks for posting the flowrider videos.  Very cool.  You seemed to go to the Mason Jar a lot.  What did you like about it? I'm wondering if it will show up on other ships that go through an upgrade.

[AF-1]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us.  Your pictures are stunning and I loved the underground tour in Naples.  Your food pics onboard were great.  Have fun on your next cruise.  Were you overwhelmed by the sheer size of the ship?

[Oceansaway17]

Did they have a captains corner on this cruise?