Blue Collar Diamond (+) does Wonder!

[five.]

On 6/11/2024 at 9:53 AM, BillOh said:

especially as I enter my GET OFF MY LAWN years.

The wording of this made me remember an old trip report from @HeyYouKidsGetOffMyLawn with a bitter sweet ending and reddit post. Worth checking out if you got time to spare.

 

After-Action Report, Victory, May 8-11, 2014

Carnival Burial-At-Sea from a cruise ship

[perfect match]

On 7/16/2024 at 10:30 AM, BillOh said:

Nancy,  enjoy your cruise!  Now that I am officially retired I got busy and forgot to come back to this review! I'll get back on it soon!

Isn’t it ironic how much busier life seems to get once you’re retired? 😂 I don’t have any idea how we ever managed to fit work into our days before we were retired 🤷‍♀️!

[BillOh]

On 6/8/2024 at 3:01 AM, perfect match said:

Hi Bill! Barry and I are now 92 days out from our Wonder cruise so I’ll be following your review with great interest.

 

Nancy,  remind me of your sail date again, I'll watch it on the webcam.  I kind of miss not checking that cam every Sunday since we got back. 

 

 

 

[BillOh]

Ok, back to work on this review, as limited as it is.   I've probably forgotten a lot so I'll throw out a few facts and what few pictures i took. I think i am going to take my camera with me on my next cruise.

 

Thursday we arrived in St Martin right on time and we were the only ship in port.  We walked to the taxi area and requested to go to Orient beach.  I would have paid extra to go right then with just the two of us, but they made us wait till they had 7 people to go. We waited about 20 minutes, which wasn't too bad and i think it cost us just $20.  The wait was probably worthwhile as our very nice driver asked what time we wanted to be picked back up again.   A couple and their teen age daughter got off at the Bikini beach area and the rest of us in the van went to the nude section, which is a must for me when we are in St Martin.  If you want to see all of Blue Collar Diamond and Mrs BCD, you just have to book an Eastern cruise with us 🙂   The driver asked us what time to pick us up and we all agreed on 3pm and that worked out perfect!

 

The weather was perfect and we had 5 wonderful hours on my favorite beach.  On the way back we asked to be taken directly to the ship instead of downtown.   That worked just fine, i think the taxi drivers get a kick back to bring  you to the downtown area where you can take that water taxi (waste IMO) or walk a half mile to the ship.

 

We had two sea days left and they were relaxing and nothing of major interest happened, so i think I will wrap this up and then start researching my next cruise, (Liberty out of Bayonne next May, our first 9 day cruise!

 

My wife now says Wonder is her favorite ship.  I did the payments, so I enjoyed myself, but don't think its worth the new ship premium. I would go back again on her with no hesitation. I didn't enjoy the shows as much as our other Oasis class cruises. I'm not a big broadway fan and am glad I got to see CATS on Oasis.  Even though I thought that was boring, at least I can say I saw it. I found all the shows, with the exception of the comedy shows, underwhelming on Wonder.

 

We kept our baggage and did self carry off and it was very easy, we were on our way back home by 8am.  Great cruise and I am now retired!

 

A few more pics i don't think I have shared yet. 

[perfect match]

14 hours ago, BillOh said:

Nancy,  remind me of your sail date again, I'll watch it on the webcam.  I kind of miss not checking that cam every Sunday since we got back. 

We board Wonder on September 8. At some point I’ll wave to you on the webcam. We have friends, former neighbors actually who will be sailing with us on Wonder. I don’t know what they will want to do yet for sailaway. I’ll let you know when I know.
 

We’re definitely looking forward to sailing on Wonder, but I’m not happy with a lot of what I’ve been hearing about the entertainment. The word “disappointing” comes up far too often for my liking.

 

 

[perfect match]

Bill, if you’re watching the PC webcam this coming Sunday morning when Wonder comes in be sure you wave to @OCSC Mike! He and his wife have been onboard Wonder again this week and will be disembarking on Sunday. 

[BillOh]

8 hours ago, perfect match said:

We board Wonder on September 8. At some point I’ll wave to you on the webcam. We have friends, former neighbors actually who will be sailing with us on Wonder. I don’t know what they will want to do yet for sailaway. I’ll let you know when I know.
 

We’re definitely looking forward to sailing on Wonder, but I’m not happy with a lot of what I’ve been hearing about the entertainment. The word “disappointing” comes up far too often for my liking.

 

 

Then I'll say I was underwhelmed!   The aquatheater show was stil worth seeing, just the least favorite of the ones I've seen on Allure, Oasis, and Symphony, but still worht seeing. Theater shows were definitely dissapointing, avoid the balcony!   They might be better if you can see the show better. Comedy was still good. 

[OCSC Mike]

23 hours ago, BillOh said:

The aquatheater show was stil worth seeing, just the least favorite of the ones I've seen on Allure, Oasis, and Symphony, but still worht seeing.

 

Just off Wonder this morning and you probably already know I mostly agree.

 

They did a 2nd show last night, "Aqua Nation", which is the name of the show on Symphony but I think we got more of a showcase that was still very enjoyable. It had a cool aerial part, a slack line portion, a tight rope walk at the top of the structure, and of course some diving and dancing.

It was nice to see something new.