DD dropped us right at luggage check at the terminal. She kept her passport and cruise paper work and left to return the van. We asked for an extra luggage tag for the duffle bag we'd packed the soda and water in and were told no problem. I had put my new fan, still in the box, in a vinyl shopping bag and asked about a tag for it, but was told no. Any bag that is not closed at the top had to be hand carried because contents could fall out during xray. With the two handles connected by the rubberband on the port tags it would have taken a lot to get the fan to fall out, but hey I'm on vacation..I'm not about to argue the point with this nice man, so I hand carried it. No biggy...it was very light weight. Just a tip - don't try to check in any open bags.
We went to the returning cruisers line and were quickly checked in. While the 2 newbies walked around looking at everything my aunt and I got into line to board. We were about the 20th ones in line. Usually I'm waaay at the back so it was the 1st time I'd heard the castmember who keeps people entertained at the front. Julie was back in no time on the Avis shuttle and quickly signed in and joined us. Time goes very fast and soon we were being photographed and heading up to the buffet on deck 9. It was a beautiful day and we all agreed it would be fun to sit outside and eat. We saw that the time to start booking ressies for Palos was at 1:30, but after reading reports on this board we went down to wave bands at 1:10. A couple people were already ahead of us, but we had no problem getting the time we wanted. Just a tip - go a little early.
We went to our rooms which I'd booked - ajoining rooms cat. 10. I found a nice big Disney beach towel waiting for me and two Castaway Club pins. The odd thing was my cousin Nancy, who has never sailed anywere before, got the same welcome back card, towel and pins over in their cabin. She also got a $50 shipboard credit and I did too. She gave the towel and pins to my DD who was in my room with me and was on her 3rd disney cruise. Julie gave the pins and I gave one to my aunt,one to my cousin and one of mine to my cousins DD. I may have forgotten to mention, I was the only Disney nut in our party. My DD and the others just wanted to sail on DCL because the ship is so pretty and they weren't interested in casinos. We ended up using the shipboard credit for Palos, a nice bottle of wine, and we each bought a pin from castaway cay.
DD and I grabbed our bathing suits and headed to adult pool. It seemed odd not to be camped out at the goofy pool with my little grand dtr. We had only one other person in the pool with us. It was great. The others all were busy touring around discovering all the wonderful things about the ship.
We were assigned Animator's Palete for our fire drill site so we were out of the sun, but we were at a table crammed in a corner behind a serving station. Fine for a fire drill, but I would feel sorry for people dining at this table - 4 of the diners would sit with their back to the serving station and their face to the wall. They'd miss the fun of watching the show of colors. We were quickly free of our orange life preservers and headed off to enjoy our sail away deck party. Don't other ships do this? There was a Celebrity ship and a NCL ship also getting ready to set sail, but they all appeared to be hanging at the railing trying to see what was going on with the WONDER. I did notice CMs didn't come wave us off with their big Mickey gloves...too bad, this was a nice touch.
We had late seating at Tritons , table location 3. We sat with a couple and their 16 yo son who were so nice we all felt very comfortable and relaxed in one anothers company quickly and our 17 yo teen had found a friend to hang with that night. Both had been to the teen club and called it lame, but decided with a friend it might be okay.
We had skipped Hercules. I wasn't wild about it the 1st time I'd seen it. So, teenager headed off to Common Grounds with her new friend, DD and I went to 70's party and others just relaxed out on deck. I love to watch the Gloria Gaynor and John Travolta contest. Tonight one of the men bore a strong resemblance to John Travolta and he really had the dance steps too I thought he'd win, but the 3rd contestent was a very southern, 50- something guy who was dressed rather conservatively. He did everything but strip down to his skivvies. It was a riot. Everyone is tired after this exciting 1st day and were in bed and asleep quickly.
We went to the returning cruisers line and were quickly checked in. While the 2 newbies walked around looking at everything my aunt and I got into line to board. We were about the 20th ones in line. Usually I'm waaay at the back so it was the 1st time I'd heard the castmember who keeps people entertained at the front. Julie was back in no time on the Avis shuttle and quickly signed in and joined us. Time goes very fast and soon we were being photographed and heading up to the buffet on deck 9. It was a beautiful day and we all agreed it would be fun to sit outside and eat. We saw that the time to start booking ressies for Palos was at 1:30, but after reading reports on this board we went down to wave bands at 1:10. A couple people were already ahead of us, but we had no problem getting the time we wanted. Just a tip - go a little early.
We went to our rooms which I'd booked - ajoining rooms cat. 10. I found a nice big Disney beach towel waiting for me and two Castaway Club pins. The odd thing was my cousin Nancy, who has never sailed anywere before, got the same welcome back card, towel and pins over in their cabin. She also got a $50 shipboard credit and I did too. She gave the towel and pins to my DD who was in my room with me and was on her 3rd disney cruise. Julie gave the pins and I gave one to my aunt,one to my cousin and one of mine to my cousins DD. I may have forgotten to mention, I was the only Disney nut in our party. My DD and the others just wanted to sail on DCL because the ship is so pretty and they weren't interested in casinos. We ended up using the shipboard credit for Palos, a nice bottle of wine, and we each bought a pin from castaway cay.
DD and I grabbed our bathing suits and headed to adult pool. It seemed odd not to be camped out at the goofy pool with my little grand dtr. We had only one other person in the pool with us. It was great. The others all were busy touring around discovering all the wonderful things about the ship.
We were assigned Animator's Palete for our fire drill site so we were out of the sun, but we were at a table crammed in a corner behind a serving station. Fine for a fire drill, but I would feel sorry for people dining at this table - 4 of the diners would sit with their back to the serving station and their face to the wall. They'd miss the fun of watching the show of colors. We were quickly free of our orange life preservers and headed off to enjoy our sail away deck party. Don't other ships do this? There was a Celebrity ship and a NCL ship also getting ready to set sail, but they all appeared to be hanging at the railing trying to see what was going on with the WONDER. I did notice CMs didn't come wave us off with their big Mickey gloves...too bad, this was a nice touch.
We had late seating at Tritons , table location 3. We sat with a couple and their 16 yo son who were so nice we all felt very comfortable and relaxed in one anothers company quickly and our 17 yo teen had found a friend to hang with that night. Both had been to the teen club and called it lame, but decided with a friend it might be okay.
We had skipped Hercules. I wasn't wild about it the 1st time I'd seen it. So, teenager headed off to Common Grounds with her new friend, DD and I went to 70's party and others just relaxed out on deck. I love to watch the Gloria Gaynor and John Travolta contest. Tonight one of the men bore a strong resemblance to John Travolta and he really had the dance steps too I thought he'd win, but the 3rd contestent was a very southern, 50- something guy who was dressed rather conservatively. He did everything but strip down to his skivvies. It was a riot. Everyone is tired after this exciting 1st day and were in bed and asleep quickly.
