Wonder(lots of pics)-8 people, 4 nights and 2 trips to CC–July 27-31 (complete w/WDW)

[vatchr]

First Time Wonder – 8 people, 4 nights and2 trips to CC – July 27-31

Having never done a trip report, I decided to give it a try. I have loved reading everyone’s reports before our first Wonder cruise so I thought I’d share our trip. We combined our first DCL cruise with four days at Disney World before the cruise. It was our third trip in three years to DW and we loved our three nights at the Wilderness Lodge (our home away from home), but we were even more excited about waking up on Saturday morning, finishing our Animal Kingdom day and then taking Magical Express back to the airport to meet up with the rest of our family flying in for our cruise which leaves “tomorrow!” We all decided to stay the night before at the Airport Hyatt and be ready to board the DCL bus early the next morning to head to the port.
So…here goes….first the cast of characters for our trip (and I do mean characters)!

Me – Laura – Disney planning fanatic – elementary school teacher, wife and mom
DH – Don – husband to Disney planning fanatic, great dad, and also elementary school teacher
DD1 – age 8 – going into third grade
DD2 – age 6 – going into first grade

Here's a pic of us from our beach trip 4 days before we left for our Disney trip.(We love both being teachers and being able to travel all summer.)


The rest of the characters that joined us are:
“Rina” – my mom and grandma to DD’s
“Nana and Bubba” – DH’s parents and grandparents to DD’s
“LizzieTish” – nickname for DH”s sister, beloved aunt to DD’s

So, after four quiet days at Disney World with just the four of us, we were now arriving back at the airport to find the Hyatt, check in and let the craziness begin with the other 4 that would be joining us. Nana and Bubba were flying in from Pennsylvania and Rina and LizzieTish were flying in from Virginia. We were all meeting at the Hyatt and gearing up for four nights of fun!

Let me start by saying that the Airport Hyatt was the best choice I made for our pre cruise night. It was beautiful, convenient and made our beginning of our journey so smooth. We arrived back at the Hyatt at 3:00 pm, Nana and Bubba were already checked in, so after we got settled in our rooms, we headed straight to the roof top pool for some fun with the grandparents. Rina and LizzieTish were not scheduled to arrive until about 6:00 pm.


Here's DD2 looking out at the view from our Hyatt room - straight down into the airport terminal - very cool!


and the view from our balcony


the girls with Nana and Bubba at the rooftop pool


it really was a beautiful pool


Up next... Rina and Lizzietish arrive, dinner, we lose Nana and Bubba - lots of sleep and off to Port Canaveral.

[nikkistevej]

Love all of the pics, can't wait to read the next installment!!

[Gonecruisin]

Yeah! A new Trip Report!!!!

And pictures, too!!

Trip reports are my favorite thing about Disboards.

Can't wait for the next installment.

[lillylynnb]

cant wait to read more keep it coming!!!!!

[vatchr]

So after swimming, we changed and got a call that the others had arrived. The girls and I headed down to the Airport terminal to wait for them. They found us, we got them checked in and then we all headed to dinner at the Hyatt Restaurant. It was a very nice restaurant, a bit pricey, but we knew that we wouldn’t be “paying" for food for the next 5 days, so we splurged.

After dinner I headed up with the girls to get them ready for bed and to watch “Hannah Montana’s Concert in 3D” on Disney Channel. The others chatted at the dinner table.

Well, to make a long story short – after dinner, the elevators were crowded to get back to the rooms so Bubba didn’t make it into the elevator, so we left him in the lobby. Nana was in the elevator, but was chatting with another lady and missed getting off on our floor – so the doors closed on her. Neither of them travel much and they were unaware of how to use the room keys to make the elevators go to the upper floors. Should we be worried that they won’t get back to the room? I asked my husband, he laughed and said, “Nope, they’re on their own.” Oh well, this was the first of many times that Nana and Bubba would be on their own.

We ended up getting a GREAT night’s sleep after four long days in the parks, woke to a great room service breakfast and were down in the lobby by 9:15 a.m. registering with the DCL table and at 9:30 a.m. we were on the first bus out of MCO! We’re on our way to Port Canaveral!!!!! Nana and Bubba were there, so I guess they figured out the room key thing with the elevators.

Here are the girls enjoying their room service breakfast:


The bus ride to the port was a lot of fun. They show cute movies about the cruise line with the characters pretending to go on a cruise. My DD’s loved them, well actually, so did I.

We knew were getting close when this came into sight far in the distance…..


Then closer…..


Then we were finally there.

The whole check in process was so smooth. We got boarding pass #3, I was so excited. We wandered around the port and registered the kids for the kids clubs, took lots of pictures and then sat and waited.

Waiting for #3 to be called:




It wasn’t long before they started boarding. We were on the ship and they were announcing our name before noon.

Yay!!!


Coming up...lunch on deck 9, finding our staterooms, and the sailaway party!

[lwilliam]

more, please
Your girls are very beautiful

Lucy

[frdeb1999]

Love your TR and pix so far!

[vatchr]

Originally Posted by lwilliam

Your girls are very beautiful

Lucy

Thanks! We had so much fun on this trip. Next post coming later tonight!
-Laura

[Olga]

Your TR is very enjoyable, thanks for your time and effort in putting it together to share.
I'd like to know how was your luggage transferred from the Hyatt to the ship, did someone pick it up from your room in the morning and how early?

[vatchr]

Originally Posted by Olga

Your TR is very enjoyable, thanks for your time and effort in putting it together to share.
I'd like to know how was your luggage transferred from the Hyatt to the ship, did someone pick it up from your room in the morning and how early?

Hi,
The Hyatt was great! We were told to put our luggage outside of our room by 9:00 on cruise morning, and then go to the lobby level and check in starting at 9:30 a.m. We did just that, and I'll admit I was a bit nervous just leaving it there, but it all worked out. The luggage had the DCL luggage tags on it.

They pick up your luggage from the hallways and get it onto the ship for you, you need to have a day bag with you because you might not see your luggage until dinner time.

We took the bus and got to the port by about 10:30 a.m., got on the ship before noon. We did not see our luggage until about 4:30 p.m. Luggage started appearing in the hallways right away at 1:30, but ours didn't show up until later. I was getting nervous again, but it all worked out just as they said.

Hope this helps, if you have any other questions, please ask!
-Laura

[Olga]

Hi and thank you for the info regarding luggage transfer times from the Hyatt.
I would also like to know if it was cool and windy on decks 9 and 10 during the sail away and pirate party? I imagine it might vary, and noticed the girls were wearing pantaloons under their adorable pirate outfits.

Enjoying your TR and pics, especially like that you post the update post number in the title.

[vatchr]

Originally Posted by poffles

I love the picture of hubby with Donald, that is priceless. Donald is looking fine!

Loving your report.

Thanks! Donald is one of his favorite characters.

Originally Posted by tinkerbell*Xo

loving the trip report! It's making me extreamly excited for my first cruise on the wonder!!
Your girls are beautiful!!

Thanks for the comment for the girls. I wish I had another cruise planned, have fun! Maybe in 2010.

Originally Posted by frdeb1999

You are doing a fantastic job on your TR!!

Thanks! I'm having a lot of fun writing it!

Originally Posted by nzdisneymom

Fabulous report - enjoying the pics and narrative - thanks for sharing it with us - can't wait to read the rest.

Thanks! Hopefully the next update will be up by tomorrow evening. I've gone back to school and have limited time now.

Originally Posted by wilma-bride

Lovely update - I agree that Minnie looks beautiful in her evening dress. Your family didn't scrub up too badly either

I loved your pics of Animators Palate - for some reason, I didn't take any inside the actual restaurant last year so I was glad to see those.

Thanks! I think that night at Animator's Palate was our favorite dinner. The girls were definitely entertained the whole time.

Originally Posted by Olga

Hi and thank you for the info regarding luggage transfer times from the Hyatt.
I would also like to know if it was cool and windy on decks 9 and 10 during the sail away and pirate party? I imagine it might vary, and noticed the girls were wearing pantaloons under their adorable pirate outfits.

Enjoying your TR and pics, especially like that you post the update post number in the title.

Thanks! The Sail Away party was HOT! Only a slight breeze and very humid! The pirate party was dark (obviously ), and a little breezy. I do know we all needed our hair pulled back for both parties, or it would have been blowing in our faces. The pirate party was comfortable, not too hot and a little breeze.
Hope that helps!

[vatchr]

After reading the DIS for a full year before our cruise, I knew we wanted to go to deck 9 for lunch and the girls had their suits on under their clothes, so they were ready to experience the pools before the crowds hit.

Here we are on Deck 9:



But where was deck 9 and how did we get there? Everyone was so nice, definitely the Disney Customer Service we were used to from the parks. They tried to send us to Parrot Cay, but we found Beach Blanket Buffet and loaded up our plates with our first of many great meals. It was definitely hot (Florida in July!), but we were on a cruise ship so we found tables outside and enjoyed our meals. The waiters and servers carried the girls trays to the table and even helped Nana and Rina get their trays and drinks to the table. Wow, were we going to be spoiled!
Enjoying lunch:





Rina and Lizzietish at lunch:


What’s our first meal on the ship without a sailaway drink? (and a souvenir glass)



After lunch we found the pools and the girls enjoyed the Mickey pool for a little while and then had to try out the Goofy pool. DD2 couldn’t touch in the Goofy pool, so that didn’t last long.



Then again, we lost Nana and Bubba – they must have gone exploring. They didn’t appreciate the heat. Rina and Lizzietish are from Virginia (where we are from), and we are used to 100 degrees and high humidity.
We explored and walked around for a while and then realized it was 1:30 p.m. – time to see our stateroom!
We found deck 7 and then our rooms. The four of us were in 7586 (Cat 5 with verandah), Rina and Lizzietish were next door to us and Nana and Bubba were three doors down the hallway.



No luggage yet, but we had fun checking out the room and meeting our stateroom hostess, Nyrene. She was great and would be taking care of all three of our rooms. Rina and Lizzietish changed into their suits and took the girls back up to the Goofy pool for a little while. AAhhh….quiet time. The first break from the girls in 4 days. It might be fun to cruise with family !

I was too excited to relax, so I went up and found them all in the Goofy pool and took some pics and then it was time to get ready for the Lifeboat drill and then the Sailaway party.
The lifeboat drill went smoothly, but was long out in the heat with the life vests on.



After the drill, we hustled back to the room, dropped the vests (still no luggage) – should we be worried? And headed up to deck 9 for the party. The girls wanted to be front row to see all of the characters.
As we were walking down the hallway, Nyrene had 2 pieces of our luggage. Don stayed back to collect them and hopefully the other 2. He met us up on deck 9 right before the party. All of our luggage had arrived safely!
The Sailaway party (Adventures Away) was great! It was so exciting and full of energy. We got our streamers that the cast members were handing out and got ready to party! Rina, Nana, Bubba and Lizzietish chose not to be among the chaos and found great spots on deck 10 overlooking the stage where they could watch us, and not be in the mmiddle of the chaos! We….were in the middle of the chaos, but also ended up on the Aerial View many times. It was fun!

Here are some pics:




Here are Nana, Rina and Lizzietish on deck 10


The horn sounded! I finally heard it live – I had been hearing it on our computer for the past month. My husband found the sound file and made it our email signal. Every time we received email for the last month the horn sounded. Now it was real and we were moving.

13 months of planning and we were on our way!!


Up next: Oliver, Nyoman and the Golden Mickeys!

[Crazy4Disney06]

Loving your trip report! We are sailing on the Wonder for the first time in October! I can't wait!

[ashleylovesthebeach]

subscribing! Can't wait to hear more!