Cass, Rob & Kira - Christmas on the Wonder??? Get the fog outta here!

[jenseib]

I tried the hair dryer out on the Fantasy too. I always think most are crappy and a few years ago they were on the Dream. Wow that Baby Bliss is awesome!!! I even got Claire a Baby Bliss for Christmas! Now it's not nearly as good as the Hard Rock Hotel one, but it is a close second.

I really want to cruise over Christmas now!!! I know I would never get the family to agree, but that would be so much fun!!!!!!!

 

[ukintheus]

Just now finding this and have read it all. I have to say that we've sailed out of Galveston umpteen times on DCL and your embarkation day really takes the itsuckedsobad award!! We've even sailed out with a fog delay but it was nothing like yours. Kudos for staying somewhat sane that day but sorry that you weren't feeling good and that made it even worse. We've thought about the Christmas cruises out of Galveston so it's nice to hear about it first hand.

 

[Timon]

Day 5 Part 1

And just like that, it's Christmas!

Kira woke up around 8 I think and snuggled in our bed for awhile. She's such a good kid, didn't even mention Santa or presents, just wanted to snuggle and have some family time.

I even had to ask her if she was ready to check on stockings, which she totally was.

My sister had given me a gift for her, so that was opened too and just in case you didn't notice, she is a huge Stitch fan

Santa gave her these little santa hat hair clips, which she LOVED and wore ALL day

Christmas in bed? Yes please

And just like that, Christmas was over

Even more amazing...this view

Best Christmas evah!!!

Time for breakfast! Oh look, it was already made for us, just had to grab it

This man is so easy to please, just give him a buffet

This is the look of pure happiness, people!

The pools were dead quiet, note to self, Christmas morning is a great time to hit the pools!

Santa was going to be in the Atrium for 3 hours that morning. I had asked Kira if she wanted to go see him and take a pic since we never did our usual mall Santa photo. I cautioned her that the line will probably be long and she said NO!

SO my kid

I suggested we walk by and just check it out, in the hopes of changing her mind. When we did walk by, there was NO ONE in line

WHAT!!!????

How is this even possible???

Of course, it would have been nice had she been wearing something a little fancier but who cares, Santa was there and there were NO lines!!

We ran down to deck 3 and there was ONE family ahead of us!!

SCORE!!!

This was the only other professional photo we bought...the tiny santa hat was a precious touch

They had this massive spread in front of Guest Services! We just ate so we didn't partake but it looked quite impressive.

Out of nowhere, all alone, we spotted Tiana!

Up on deck 5, we found Belle in her Christmas outfit, just watching over the Atrium, all alone!

What the heck? It was like Christmas morning!!

We also found a duck....

Talk about a WONDERFUL way to spend Christmas morning

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

What a great update! I would really love to wake up Christmas morning on a Disney cruise! LOVE the mini Santa hair clips my girls would get a HUGE kick out of those! The Santa pic is precious and I can't believe there was no line! Belle with her Christmas dress is awesome as well. Love it!

 

[Timon]

Finally caught up reading and now I'm finally able to look at my computer without getting dizzy and falling off my chair!

You need to get better, missy!

Love the pic of Rob and Kira walking back to the car looking for the ipad cover. They look like they’re saluting you. LOL

LOL! Totally!

Has Rob ever tried the pecan pancakes at Cracker Barrel? AMAZING!! Do you have CB in Canada?

No and No

OMG..I love love love the pic comparison pic of Kira between 2010 and 2016. So sweet.

I thought it was kinda neat

That pic of Kira “wearing” the tennis shoes at Bubba Gumps was so funny. I saw a similar pic with Bernie wearing those and thought, yikes….that woman has huge feet and then she wears those ugly shoes?? Needless to say, I’ve never seen Forrest Gump, so I didn’t know about the story behind them. LOL!!


OH My Dog!! How funny!

The souvenir glasses remind me of the ones on the ship on Pirate Night. Remember those? Oh wait….they weren’t offer to us. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.



Sorry your embarkation day was a hot mess. The rest of the week will be awesome….I just know it. Lol



That was so sweet of you to give the Check In CM a little Christmas gift. I don’t think I’ve ever seen where someone did that. Ship CM’s, sure, but never that DCL position. Nice!

I was glad we did it

My goodness, those shirts were soooo cute. Did you get to design it too and just have CP print them?

I didn't design it, I found it on CP

Those Christmas decorations for your room were beautiful! The ship decorations made me weep like a baby. I lost it during the Tree Lighting ceremony, missing my little kiddos back home. I’ve seen Disney at Christmas before, but the ship decorations were just amazing, right?

Right

I like the safe much better on the Wonder than on other ships. Looks like that was a pull out drawer. Much more convenient.

I thought it was neat! Magic has the regular ones so I was kinda shocked when this opened like a drawer!!

Nice touch to your FE with those Christmas Lights. Good idea!


Wait wait…you ordered veggies? Where’s Cass and what did you do to her?? LOL. Funny you didn’t like the soup. Was it too salty? You just know it was YOUR fault, right? Sorry, I just couldn’t resist.

Not too salty, just yucky! TOTALLY my fault

Note to self….be sure to do Tiana’s for lunch. They have meatloaf!!!

Replies in bold

Enjoying your report.
Sorry you had the rough start, that had to be a real disappointment for you guys.
I need that clock, what a great idea. I hope they have them on The Magic too.
You had my favorite breakfast item on your plate, those hash browns, I'm drooling. 15 days till I fill my craving!

I was on the Magic in February and I don't recall those clocks

Yes, love those hashbrowns, right??? OMD!!

Really enjoying following along! Thank you! So helps with planning

Yay, thanks for reading, glad to have you here

Joining in! Love your report!

Yay!

Just started following along - sounds fantastic! Love hearing about everything!

Glad you're here

Claire signed herself out for the first time on our NCL Alaskan Cruise and the rule for her too was to go back to the room immediately and she broke it once when we walked back with a friend but didn't realize the friend was at the other end of the ship so then she had to turn around and come back to our room.
She really thought she was so cool!
I didn't know the club could message from the app. My sister carried the stupid wave phone in Oct all around. She hated that phone.

Ooops!

Oh no! I hate those wave phones, no clip or way to hang/hold them! Terrible design!

For a minute, I thought that Navigator said DALEK. I was wondering when Disney bought Doctor Who

HAHAHA too funny!

Still following along. These are great reads during my commute

Love all your pictures too!

Thank you! Glad I can make your commute a tiny bit better

I tried the hair dryer out on the Fantasy too. I always think most are crappy and a few years ago they were on the Dream. Wow that Baby Bliss is awesome!!! I even got Claire a Baby Bliss for Christmas! Now it's not nearly as good as the Hard Rock Hotel one, but it is a close second.

I really want to cruise over Christmas now!!! I know I would never get the family to agree, but that would be so much fun!!!!!!!

I don't even know if I can get one in Canada but I may have to look

Yeah, that HRH hair dryer was the bomb!!!

Oh man, it was awesome!!! Crossing fingers for a Fantasy one next year

Just now finding this and have read it all. I have to say that we've sailed out of Galveston umpteen times on DCL and your embarkation day really takes the itsuckedsobad award!! We've even sailed out with a fog delay but it was nothing like yours. Kudos for staying somewhat sane that day but sorry that you weren't feeling good and that made it even worse. We've thought about the Christmas cruises out of Galveston so it's nice to hear about it first hand.

Yeah, it was harsh

If it ever happens again, I am not showing up until 5! They will wait for us

What a great update! I would really love to wake up Christmas morning on a Disney cruise! LOVE the mini Santa hair clips my girls would get a HUGE kick out of those! The Santa pic is precious and I can't believe there was no line! Belle with her Christmas dress is awesome as well. Love it!

OH My Dog!! It was soooooo awesome! No big mess to clean up, no stress, no cooking/cleaning and you can't beat that view

I would do it again in a heart beat

 

[jenseib]

How awesome!!!! What a great morning
And where did santa find those really cute santa clips. I want some for ME!

 

[jenseib]

I was on the Magic in February and I don't recall those clocks

yeah I think we either had the crap clock or no clock at all.

 

[dwonderz]

Great updates - Christmas on the ship looks awesome!! Can't believe how not busy the pools/Santa/etc. were!

 

[Dugette]

Hi, just found your report today - we will be boarding the Wonder in 1 month, so I was looking for recent reports. I love yours and, other than the insane boarding day, it sounds like a great trip so far!

 

[cntkg1]

Loved the Formal Night pics, Cass. What a beautiful family!!

It was very nice of you to help Santa. He remembers that kind of stuff ya know.

Since we're talking food, did the Wonder have those fabulous Mickey Soft Pretzels? Am I jumping the gun and you'll show us later? The Fantasy had them on Thursday's so I'm hoping the Wonder had them one day too.

I'd love to know how that porthole broke. Yikes!! How does that even happen? Did the Captain hit a rock or something??

 

[cntkg1]

Ahhhh, Christmas morning on a Disney cruise ship. Doesn't get much better than that, does it? It seems like all those characters were just waiting for you.

You must've been much better than us in Santa's eyes because we didn't get half the spread you did by the Gingerbread house. I believe I saw only Hot Chocolate and Cookies for us.

 

[TCB in FLA]

Enjoying your report! We were on the Dream over Christmas, so fun to read what the other ships did at the same time.

 

[richkaryn]

Day 3 Part 5


She had argued about most things so far this trip, in two days, she had argued about:

1- Her ears not ever popping again after landing in Houston
2- Her liking the iced tea at RFC
3- Her being colder wearing her bikini in the pool
4- Her not liking Forrest Gump
5- Her not hurting her fingers while doing handstands in the pool

among several other things

So I might have to agree with her on #1. When we came back from our Alaskan cruise and had a connection in Houston, my ears stopped up so bad...I've never had an issue like that on a plane. We had a 2 hour layover and they still hadn't popped.....I was talking to DH about it in line to board and the guy behind me said "Oh, yeah....welcome to Houston. It has to do with how they land the planes here. " My ears weren't right for over 2 weeks following that flight. I was almost to the point I was going to go see a dr about it when I finally got that relief of them popping.

 

[Jess_S]

So I might have to agree with her on #1. When we came back from our Alaskan cruise and had a connection in Houston, my ears stopped up so bad...I've never had an issue like that on a plane. We had a 2 hour layover and they still hadn't popped.....I was talking to DH about it in line to board and the guy behind me said "Oh, yeah....welcome to Houston. It has to do with how they land the planes here. " My ears weren't right for over 2 weeks following that flight. I was almost to the point I was going to go see a dr about it when I finally got that relief of them popping.

This is a bit off topic, but my ears always pop on planes and it's generally painful. I have had good results with earplanes. They are little ear plugs that reduce the pressure in your ears during flights.

 

[GlassAct]

We are booked for Christmas 2017, awesome report! Love the food pics

 

[toony]

A little late, but I join the party. I love your reports. You are such an authentic and honest writer.
The 'mommy you were right'- episode was absolutely precious.
I'm happy for you guys having this great Christmas experience and that you all stayed healthy this time.

 

[cyndiloveswalt]

Just wanted to say hi and let you know I'm following along. So enjoying your trip! We have a very merry Christmas cruise booked for beginning of December 2017, do you know if they sell the Xmas decorations and stockings for those cruises or only if you actually cruise over Christmas? Would love to do them for my DS13.
Can't wait to read more!!

 

[minniebeth]

Following your wonderful trip report with your sweet family! Looks like a Christmas I can get on board with

 

[Timon]

Day 5 Part 2

Before I continue with our fabulous Christmas day, I forgot to post a couple of great pics that Rob took the day before...

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled programming....

After meeting Santa, they gave us a DCL Calendar...

Not only are there festive reminder stickers, there are also cute little DCL cruise stickers and one each of the four Disney ship logo names. Is it bad that I put the Disney Fantasy sticker on December 23rd, 2017, the date of the Fantasy Christmas sailing

Just sending it out into the universe, people

And totally off topic...I took a pic of the room service menu, which can be tricky to find if you don't know where to look! It's in the hard cover book that is in the skinny drawer on the vanity/desk.

Kira wanted us to go check out the clubs with her, so we did. Since embarkation day didn't go as planned, I hadn't taken a single photo of any club, let alone even looked at them!

The Lab had secure programming so we couldn't go in there with her...

The Club was Open House though so we checked that out but apparently I only took pics of the new Frozen themed part of it

Which was totally cool

Oaken was having a big summer blowout but was a little busy in the sauna

Awesome details...

It was now time for Frozen, the brand new Disney show that is only on the Wonder. I was excited! I had watched all of the Behind the Scenes videos of Disney putting this amazing show together, so of course, I wore my Sunday best

We got to the show very early because I knew we wanted good seats for it, arriving just as the theatre was opening, about 30 minutes before the show started.

I'm going to take a minute now to talk about one of my biggest pet peeves on DCL....seat savers!

Even though it is written in every single Navigator, announced on the PA system several times per day and announced by the cruise director before every single show that you CANNOT save seats, people still save seats!!! It drives me mad!!!

I don't mind when people are saving seats for their immediate group, you know...Mom & daughter saving seats for Dad and son...that kind of thing doesn't bother me. What infuriates me are the self-entitled JERKS who try to save an entire row for their large groups who, most of the time do not even bother to show up, or if they do, end up in other seats due to their seating preference.

Oh. My. Dog.

It happened many times for every single show!!! It happened more on this cruise than any other cruise I've been on, due to large families traveling together over the holidays.

There's not much you can do, either ignore them and let them be, they think the world owes them something and the rules don't apply to them or make a huge scene.

I kind of do both, I say very loudly, "You are not allowed to save seats!!! Read your Navigator!!!"

and then find a seat close by and loudly complain about them for the next five minutes

It's also really annoying, and it also happened during every show, when that one person, who is saving the entire row, is standing up, waving or yelling (or both) trying to get their group's attention even after the cruise director has taken the stage and has started talking!!!

That's when I wanna go all Negan on them

People, if you do this...JUST STOP NOW!!! Your party will find seats, they will not miss it and if they do, well it's their own stupid fault for arriving so damn late!!!

Ahem, back to the show...

Kira brought a buddy to snuggle with!

And Rob bought these...

He bought the Tie Fighter popcorn bucket and two souvenir mugs, which sadly, and quite pathetically say "Walt Disney World" on them.

Really, Disney?

Really?

Couldn't afford to make a Disney Cruise Mug??? You have 4 ships to sell them on, I am sure you will have no problems selling them


The popcorn bucket was used a few times this cruise as refills were only $1.50. The bucket, popcorn, two mugs, water and diet-coke was $36

The show was AMAZE BALLS and I grabbed a quick pic during the finale, which they don't mind.

The cast were phenomenal, so much talent


Kira was thrilled when she saw something other than just ocean

It was time for lunch now...according to my pics, we only had one lunch that day

My lunch...

And we got these to share...thankfully they were much better than those first ones we got!

Kira refused to eat them, stating that she "didn't like the chicken strips"

Remember that later on, folks

She does like very large fries, however

and ice cream!

 

[Timon]

How awesome!!!! What a great morning
And where did santa find those really cute santa clips. I want some for ME!

I believe Santa found them at the Dollarama Store

yeah I think we either had the crap clock or no clock at all.

I don't recall seeing a clock and I didn't take pics of that side of the bed for some reason

Great updates - Christmas on the ship looks awesome!! Can't believe how not busy the pools/Santa/etc. were!

I wonder if everyone was too busy doing "Christmas" in their rooms??

Hi, just found your report today - we will be boarding the Wonder in 1 month, so I was looking for recent reports. I love yours and, other than the insane boarding day, it sounds like a great trip so far!

Wow, 1 month, not very far away!!

Happy cruising, it's a great ship!

Loved the Formal Night pics, Cass. What a beautiful family!!

It was very nice of you to help Santa. He remembers that kind of stuff ya know.

Since we're talking food, did the Wonder have those fabulous Mickey Soft Pretzels? Am I jumping the gun and you'll show us later? The Fantasy had them on Thursday's so I'm hoping the Wonder had them one day too.

I'd love to know how that porthole broke. Yikes!! How does that even happen? Did the Captain hit a rock or something??

You are definitely jumping the gun

Stay tuned

I have no idea, I would love to know too!

Ahhhh, Christmas morning on a Disney cruise ship. Doesn't get much better than that, does it? It seems like all those characters were just waiting for you.

You must've been much better than us in Santa's eyes because we didn't get half the spread you did by the Gingerbread house. I believe I saw only Hot Chocolate and Cookies for us.

I think the spread was a Christmas Day only kind of thing

Enjoying your report! We were on the Dream over Christmas, so fun to read what the other ships did at the same time.

Nice!!! The Dream is my favourite ship

I was hoping to see another Disney ship on our travels but sadly, we didn't.

So I might have to agree with her on #1. When we came back from our Alaskan cruise and had a connection in Houston, my ears stopped up so bad...I've never had an issue like that on a plane. We had a 2 hour layover and they still hadn't popped.....I was talking to DH about it in line to board and the guy behind me said "Oh, yeah....welcome to Houston. It has to do with how they land the planes here. " My ears weren't right for over 2 weeks following that flight. I was almost to the point I was going to go see a dr about it when I finally got that relief of them popping.

Yikes, that really sucks!!! I have sea legs for a couple weeks after, not fun either but not as bad as your ears

The tough thing is that she doesn't know how to pop her ears yet

This is a bit off topic, but my ears always pop on planes and it's generally painful. I have had good results with earplanes. They are little ear plugs that reduce the pressure in your ears during flights.

Hmm, might have to look into those for her next flights, thanks for the info

We are booked for Christmas 2017, awesome report! Love the food pics

Nice!!! I hope yours is as good as ours

A little late, but I join the party. I love your reports. You are such an authentic and honest writer.
The 'mommy you were right'- episode was absolutely precious.
I'm happy for you guys having this great Christmas experience and that you all stayed healthy this time.

Hi Toony!!!

Thanks and I am glad to see you here

Just wanted to say hi and let you know I'm following along. So enjoying your trip! We have a very merry Christmas cruise booked for beginning of December 2017, do you know if they sell the Xmas decorations and stockings for those cruises or only if you actually cruise over Christmas? Would love to do them for my DS13.
Can't wait to read more!!

Thanks for posting

Yes, they sell the room decor packages for all of the Merry Time cruises

Following your wonderful trip report with your sweet family! Looks like a Christmas I can get on board with

HAHAHAA! That is too punny