*UPDATED 3/31* First Cruise on Disney Wonder: Mexican Riviera 2/26-3/4

[Sereina]

Hey there! So a couple weeks ago (2/26-3/4) we went on our very first cruise and had a blast! We're all big Disney fans (although I'm probably the biggest fan ) and visit Disneyland for a week every 3-4 years. And since our cruise, I'm now a huge DCL fan. Yay! Now to save up for another cruise...

Lets meet the group! We traveled with my whole family: Dad, Mom, Me (Sereina) {17}, Tiana {15}, Alina {13}, Daniel {9}, along with the grandparents, Grandma and Grandpa.

Last fall we were looking at different options for a warm weather vacation in the winter/early spring, which we had never done before. We started looking at all-inclusive resorts in Mexico, but that didn't work out. We tossed around the idea of Hawaii, but that was too expensive. The grandparents had a cruise booked on another cruise line and Grandpa suggested that we look into a Disney Cruise, which we could go on together. In the past we never thought we'd be able to afford a Disney Cruise, especially since anything x6 is expensive, but we were able to get a really good deal due to the Kids Sail Free promotion. Soon we were booked to go to the Mexican Riviera on the Disney Wonder! Super exciting!

Now that we're home, I miss the ship so much! It was even more fun than I ever imagined it would be. So many great memories... I plan on posting about each day and then at the end, give my review of the whole trip. Day 1 should be up soon!

 

[Sereina]

We flew into Long Beach the day before we set sail and stayed at the Holiday Inn. We arrived at port the next morning somewhere around 11:30AM and began the boarding process, which went well. There were little to no lines the whole way through. We had done the online check in, so we went to the desk, checked in, and received our Key To The World Cards. After going through security, we waited about 10-20 before we actually boarder the ship.

We made our way to Parrot Cay for lunch, but they didn't have any tables available, so they sent us to The Beach Blanket Buffet. All the tables were taken, so we had to walk all the way to Goofy's Pool before finding somewhere to sit down. After we ate, we checked out staterooms. We had two rooms, 2030 and 2032, which were connected. There were four of us in each room, which worked out great for us. Between the closet, drawers, trunk with selves, drawers in the desk, and the shelves above the television, we had plenty (and I think extra) space for all of our stuff. I really liked the two sinks in separate rooms, along with the mirror at the desk, which came in handy when I did my hair in the morning while the others were using the bathrooms. I slept on the sofa bed, which was really comfortable.

We had the safety drill and headed to Deck 9 for the Sail Away! Deck Party. Photography is one of my biggest hobbies, so I made my way up to the front so I could get some good pictures. I was able to get some great shots that I was really happy with.

We had the second seating for dinner, so we had the 6:15PM show every evening. I was really looking forward to the Broadway styled shows, which did not disappoint! They were all spectacular and we all really enjoyed every single one. The first night was part show and part magic which was done by Sideshow Bert.

After chilling for a little bit after the show, we went to dinner, which was at Parrot Cay. We got to meet our waiters Geffrey, Ozer, and Marvin, who soon became one of our favorite parts of the trip! The service was a bit slow that night, which we had read online that it was like that for other people as well on the first night. The rest of the evenings were great, though!

I loved coming home to the stateroom every night and finding a towel animal! I really enjoyed the chocolates left as well. Every evening I'd go through the Navigator and circle all the actives we were interested in doing.

 

[Linda67]

Wonderful start and your photos are great
Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your cruise

 

[kimmypie1]

We were on your same cruise. We had such a great time, and I also miss it so much!!

 

[Sereina]

Wonderful start and your photos are great
Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your cruise

Thanks!

We were on your same cruise. We had such a great time, and I also miss it so much!!

That's awesome you were on the same cruise! It was such a wonderful trip. Glad you had a great time as well!

 

[Wshop]

What a nice report. I look forward to more. Favorite dishes? Unexpected surprises? Anything at all

 

[Sereina]

What a nice report. I look forward to more. Favorite dishes? Unexpected surprises? Anything at all

Glad your enjoyed my first part! This is my first time doing a TR, so I'm still figuring out how I want to post everything, since I have so much to share!

 

[DCW]

Can't wait to read more. we sail in three weeks DS is 16 and is looking for more info about the teen club and activities..

Great pics keep them coming

will you post navigators as well?

 

[Sereina]

Can't wait to read more. we sail in three weeks DS is 16 and is looking for more info about the teen club and activities..

Great pics keep them coming

will you post navigators as well?

I actually never did any of the teen activities or club (and neither did my sister), so won't be able to post about that. I did lots of activities from the family category instead, which worked out great for me.

Thanks!

Kimmiepie1 was on the same cruise as us and already posted the navigators. I can't post links yet, since I'm new to the forum, but look for a post in DCL Trip Reports called "First Time Cruisers take Wonder to the Mexican Riviera 2/26-3/4" It's in the middle of the second page.

 

[Deirdres]

sorry, duplicate, see below.

 

[Sereina]

I love being on the ship and feeling it slowly rock beneath your feet. The beds were very comfortable, so I slept very well. I seemed to wake up at about 6:00AM-6:30AM every morning, so I would turn on the TV, usually to the Pixar Channel, and watch that for awhile before getting dressed. The the buffet and dining room didn't open till 8:00AM, most of the activities didn't start till around 9:00AM-10:00AM, so there was no rush to get up early.

By then end of the first full day, I had most of the ship memorized, so when someone in our group wasn't sure where to go, they asked me. Studio Sea? Deck 4 midships. Wavebands? Deck 3 forward. Beach Blanket Buffet? Deck 9 Aft. See, it's not that hard!

Our first morning we decided to go to the Beach Blanket Buffet for breakfast. All four of us kids were up before the adults, so we went to eat together and they joined us later.

Tiana's breakfast:

My breakfast:

First we ran into our server, Ozer and later we our head waiter, Geffrey while we were eating at the buffet. Geffrey noticed me going through the navigator and making up a plan for the day with my family, telling them what I wanted to do, asking them what they wanted to do, ect. From then on, whenever we saw Geffrey he asked how the plans went and called me the Planner! It was pretty awesome.

Getting older and never stopped me from seeing characters and getting pictures with them. In fact, the older I get, the more I seem to like them! lol! I'm easily the biggest character fanatic in our family!

I really like how they did the characters. How it works is you have a 15 minute time slot to get in line for a character. They always had a professional photographer that took a photo, which you could buy later, and a cast member who held autograph books while the picture was being taken and they also took a photo with your own camera. That worked out great when I decided to see Minnie by myself.

I was SUPER excited to see Daisy Duck, since we've never met her at Disneyland before.

I'm a big Muppet fan, so I was extremely excited to see The Muppets on the ship. So at 10:00AM we all went to watch it. It was a really fun movie and I really loved it. Lots of awesome Muppet-ness!

For lunch we went to the Italian Buffet at Parrot Cay. I had a salad, pasta, and sandwich.

Our first day at sea was also Formal Night. The theme was The Golden Mickeys, which was like the Oscar Awards. They had live music in the lobby atrium, along with some really tasty complementary drinks. They had characters dressed in their formal outfits to get pictures with.

Minnie's dress was so pretty!

And guess who we ran into in the hall? Peter Pan! He's also another one who we've never seen at Disneyland and I was extremily excited to get a picture with him! Every day he'd wander around Decks 3 and 4 and once while inline to see a character, Peter Pan passed by and everyone in the hallway shouted "Peter Pan"!

At the Walt Disney Theater, waiting for the show to start. The Golden Mickey's was a spectacular show! Then again, all of them were!

Just being me... lol!

Sideshow Bert! He was awesome! He had a small show in Wavebands between the main show and dinner that night.

Our dinner at our first night at sea was at Triton's. I thought that was perfect, since it was formal night and Triton's is the most formal dinning room on the ship. My mom:

I loved the Mickey head Marvin (our assistant sever) made each night for Daniel. So simple, but I love it!

Almost every dessert I order was chocolate. Mmmmm, looking at this photo makes me hungry...

And our towel animal that night:

 

[Deirdres]

I actually never did any of the teen activities or club (and neither did my sister), so won't be able to post about that. I did lots of activities from the family category instead, which worked out great for me.

Very interested in your report, your photos are great! Since you didnt do the clubs, I would love to hear which family activities you enjoyed and would be good for other teenagers. My DS's are 18 and 15, and they can't be in the club together, but want to do activities together. Love to hear your opinion!

 

[Sereina]

Very interested in your report, your photos are great! Since you didnt do the clubs, I would love to hear which family activities you enjoyed and would be good for other teenagers. My DS's are 18 and 15, and they can't be in the club together, but want to do activities together. Love to hear your opinion!

There were so many fun things in the family catigory that I wanted to do and I was sad when some of them were at the same time! Let's see, where to start...

One of my favorites was Animation, which there were four of on our 7 day cruise. They taught us how to draw different Disney characters. I missed the first one, Mickey Mouse, but was able to do the other three, Goofy, Donald, and Daisy. There are also different trivia games every day, some of them are way harder than others. I liked Crusin' for Trivia the best and our group (Me, my sister, brother, and grandma) actually won and got these really cool DCL baseball caps as prizes. Paper plane making was also a fun one, where we designed our own paper airplane and raced them. Then we improved our designs and tested them again. Chip it Golf and Golf Putting we fun, even though I was terrible at it, lol!

One of our favorite activities, which would be best to do as a who family as you need to be in a group, is Wonder Quest. It's a really fun scavenger hunt styled game and is so much fun! We had a blast with that one!

Some other activities they had, but we didn't end up doing were charades, ping pong tournaments (they also had other sports tournaments), game show styled games, family dance parties and other fun stuff like that. Then you also have all the first run movies playing throughout the day at the Buena Vista Theater (some of them in 3D as well).

 

[Deirdres]

congratulations on your win. Looks like we'll have a few things to choose from. I guess reading the navigator closely will help alot. thanks for all the great info.

 

[Sereina]

congratulations on your win. Looks like we'll have a few things to choose from. I guess reading the navigator closely will help alot. thanks for all the great info.

Thanks! We were all super excited that we actually won something!

Yes, be sure to thoughly read your navigator so you don't miss anything fun! I'd use a pen and circle all the actives we wanted to do, so I didn't forget about them, and carried that navigator around with me.

 

[Kirbo]

We were on your cruise as well!


Love your TR!

 

[Sereina]

We were on your cruise as well!


Love your TR!

That's awesome! Thanks!

 

[Sereina]

Tuesday was also spend at sea. By then it felt like we had been on the ship way longer than a day and a half. You know how some trips seem to go by super, duper fast? Well that wasn't the case on our cruise, which was a good thing!

For breakfast we went to Triton's. I had the french toast and pineapple stack. It was so good I even had it again the next morning!

Tiana and Alina chose to do most of their swimming in the morning, when there was nearly nobody in the pool.

One of my favorite activities was Animation, where we were taught how to draw different Disney characters. I missed the first one, Mickey Mouse, because it was going on while we were watching The Muppets. So on Tuesday I went and drew Goofy. Ponz was the crew member who taught it to us. He was pretty cool.

My Goofy:

We had lunch at Triton's again.

After lunch, we played Chip It Golf in the lobby. It was there (and at golf putting on the last day as well) where I learned that I am pretty bad at any type of golf.

Tiana was a lot better than me...

There were often characters roaming around the halls. Daniel ran into Donald Duck and Goofy.

At 4:30PM we made our way to Wavebands for Wonder Quest, which was incredibly fun! It's a scavenger hunt styled game where we had to take different items up to Drew, who was leading the game, to get points. The items were things like KTTW cards, shoelaces, and a wave phone. One of them was a receipt, which we didn't have, so we wrote "receipt" on a piece of paper!

Later that evening we relaxed in the Promenade Lounge listening to The Northern Lights.

Later in the lobby we got our picture with Minnie and Mickey in their sailing outfits.

The show for the night was hypnotist, who hypnotized several people from the audience. It was hilarious! And afterwards we had dinner at Triton's again (which I don't have any pictures of).

Our towel animal was a turtle!

 

[Linda67]

Great update and yet more wonderful photos

Looks like you had a really great first day at sea

 

[Kirbo]

We loved the hypnotist! Last year it was the one show we skipped. This year we decided there was no way we were missing it. And it was so funny

Your Goofy is excellent. Goofy is my favorite of the characters.