Our First Disney Cruise on the Wonder!

[daveypoo]

I will speak only for myself, I'll let deb chime in on her own.

I had a GREAT TIME! To give the highlights, we arrived around 10:30am and got the 6th boarding group. We waited about 2 hours to board the boat and loved the entrance process. We went right to Parrot Cay for lunch, had a very nice buffet meal, and then wandered a little, since the rooms were not scheduled to be ready until 1:30.

A little before 1:30, I headed to our deck so I could get to the room before deb and our daughter, Lizz. Since this was her graduation present, I wanted to get a couple of things added to the room before she got there. I had to wait about 10 minutes and then I made my way to the room, put the stuff in that I needed, added magnets to the stateroom door, and went to get the ladies.

Elizabeth was VERY surprised and happy with the presents that were waiting for her (not only our stuff we added, but we also pre-purchased a Congratulations package to be in the room). We read our Navigator and relaxed until our luggage arrived, then unpacked and got ready for dinner. Our rotation was Triton’s, Parrot Cay, Animator’s Pallet, Animator’s Pallet, and Parrot Cay. When we arrived in the restaurant, we met our table mates for the cruise; a mother/daughter group and a granddaughter/nana group. We then met out server, head server and assistant server. Everyone we met was so nice. The food was excellent, and the service was stupendous. We then went to Bingo and Elizabeth went to the College Club event.

Our ports of call were; Key West, a day at sea, Nassau, and Castaway Cay. Every night had events, bingo, club things, etc. There were also things like Tequila Tasting (which I did!!!), beer and wine tasting, how to make towel animals, etc. Honestly, there were so many things to do, we felt it was a bit overwhelming. There were parties, events on the decks, and more things that you could ever want to do in one trip. We were exhausted at the end of each day!

In Key West, we didn’t do much, since it’s American soil, we figure we can visit any time. In Nassau, we went to the Atlantis Resort and got to swim with the dolphins. The resort was large, not overly friendly, and not as impressive as it seems on the commercials. The Dolphin Encounter was fun and worth doing, but the whole process was delayed due to thunder storms. After the Dolphins, we had lunch and then went to the raging river attraction. You sit in a tube for 1 or 2, and float around a river that has rapids every so often. The big problem was getting a tube. We waited in an area but no one was giving them up, so I walked around to another location where they had plenty of tubes and got one made for 2 people. THIS is where my problems started. I jumped on the tube and headed to the next stop where deb was waiting for me. There were 2 rapids I had to go through. The 1st one was no problem. The second one was rougher and as I went through, I got dumped out of the tube and dragged down the rapids. I lost my glasses and about 10 layers of skin from my knees! Unlike the Disney water parks lazy rivers, these rivers were concrete and not painted/lined with rubber, so it was like being dragged over sandpaper! But I did save the raft (because if I had lost it, there was no way I’d get another!). deb felt really bad and it made the remainder of the trip very painful. Oh, we did go around the river 2 more times without incident. When we returned to the ship, I went to the medical center. The personnel there seemed…ummm…liked they cared less that I was injured and just gave me big band-aids and some antibiotic cream. That is my ONLY complaint about the ship!

The rest of the trip was still fun, and on Friday night, we dined at Palo, the adult only, semi-formal restaurant. What a FANTASTIC MEAL! The server was awesome, the food was great, and the deserts were to die for!

Castaway Cay was a great place. You could do nothing but sit and relax, or do all sorts of things and adventures. There are places for families, kids, and adults. And again, the service was impeccable. We decided to do the Stingray adventure, have lunch, then deb and Lizz went Parasailing and I went Jet skiing. The Stingrays were awesome. They were so cool to watch, touch and feed. They we got to swim with them. The lunch was awesome and then the other adventures. I’ll let deb talk about the parasailing, but I can tell you about the jet ski’s. I was a little worried since my knees were so raw and hurt and looked really bad. Since I’d be in a sitting position with my feet flat, I figured I’d be OK. What I hadn’t figured on was salt water spraying up on my knees! But that wasn’t too bad. The jet ski itself was…SCARY! I ride a motorcycle, and figured this would be similar…boy was I wrong. This thing was hard to control, and the person ahead of me was going slow since she was scared so it made the first part a little tough. We all met on a sandbar about ½ mile from the ship (maybe farther!). We walked around a bit and then we headed back. That was MUCH more fun and I was able to control the ski a lot easier. All in all, it was fun, since it was my first time on a jet ski, I think I did ok. After our adventures, we were hot and tired and kind of sunburned (the waterproof sunscreen was’t very waterproof!).

The last night was bitter-sweet. We were sad to leave the cruise, but we were excited to be heading to WDW and meeting up with Elizabeth’s boyfriend, whom we had flown down as another part of her graduation present. We also had to pack and were a little freaked since we had a lot more stuff and no place to put it all! But we got it all to fit, and had the bags ready in time. Elizabeth went to her last College Club event and was out until way past midnight (as she was every night!).

In the morning, we had to get up early for breakfast, said our goodbyes and headed off the ship. Getting our luggage and getting through customs was real easy, and we were on our way in no time.

All in all, the trip was excellent, and we’ll definitely go on another cruise. Service, food, quality, and experience are top-notch. The boat is beautiful and we had a ball. If you’re thinking about a cruise, don’t think about it, DO IT! We were all worried about motion sickness, mostly for deb since she is prone to it. After the first night, we hardly knew we were on a boat. You do feel motion, and if you look out a window or over a railing, you’ll see how fast you’re going, but aside from that, you don’t even notice. It was just a fantastic trip, and I thank my wife and daughter for helping make our first-ever cruise PERFECT!
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When you're curious, you find lots of interesting things to do.
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