Disney Wonder February 18-25, 2018 Port Canaveral, St. Maarten, San Juan, Castaway Cay, Port Can

[Sara Dewberry]

Hi! I was hoping to start a thread for others who are going on this sailing. Our family includes myself and my 3 children (ds-13, ds-9, dd-6) and then my parents and sister in another stateroom. We are so excited!

 

[seacruise]

Hi, thanks for starting the thread!

We will be joining you on the 2/18/18 Wonder sailing. Five in our group: myself, DW, and our daughters (10 and 7) in one cabin, and grandma in a connecting cabin. This will be the 4th Disney cruise for all of us.

 

[Alohagirl73]

Just booked this today. This will be our 4th Disney cruise but first time on the Wonder! It will be my husband and DD 6 and DS 2

 

[crystalgenette]

Hello everyone! This will be our (myself and my son, 11 at sailing) 3rd Disney cruise, first time on the Wonder. We started on the Fantasy in 2015 with my mother and my daughter, and next up will be a quick 4 day later this year on the Dream with some friends. Looking forward to doing the Eastern Caribbean for the first time. We enjoy doing the FE gift exchanges and the 5k on Castaway Cay.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Hi everyone - we too are booked on this cruise. 6 of us in total across 2 staterooms. Myself, my wife, our 3 kids (daughters one turn 9 while one cruise and the other will be 3.5 and my son will be 6) and my mom is also coming.

Other than my mom who cruised years ago this is our first ever real cruise so very excited - if a bit nervous/intimidated

Also, I'll be turning 40 on the cruise so excited for that as well

 

[DrBebopMom]

Hi everyone!!! We just booked. Very excited. This will be our 3rd Disney Cruise. Sailing with my husband and 3 DD-ages 7, 5 & 2.
Thanks for starting the thread, Sara!

 

[WDisneyWLove]

Yay! We are sailing too! It will be Myself, my husband and two children (DD 8 and DS 5) in one stateroom and my sister her husband and her DS 12 in another! This will be our 4th sailing. The first 2 on the Dream and the last one the Fantasy 2/18/17 Sailing! So excited

 

[seacruise]

Hi, welcome back from your Fantasy sailing. We were cruising that same week, although not on Disney (10 day southern caribbean on HAL). Our kids wore their DCL lanyards so we got a lot of comments from other Disney people. Had a great cruise, but really looking forwarding to DCL again for the next one. Heading to DLR in April so we will have to get our Disney fix there, lol!

 

[KAS_73]

Hello all! Happy to be joining this sailing and am excited about the ports. This will be my 7th cruise (and 4th on the Wonder) although cruises 5 and 6 haven't happened yet I will be sailing with my 2 sons who will be 11 and 9 at time of sailing.

 

[cquick]

Hi we are going on this cruise too! We love the Wonder and were so happy to see it sail again from Port Canaveral! There are 3 of us in the handicapped accessible stateroom 8602. We are 2 adults (in our 60's) and our son, who is celebrating his 40th birthday all year! We've done the Wonder several times.

 

[shoes99]

We are on this cruise also in a handicapped accessible stateroom on deck 7 aft. We are cruise veterans 70+ and love dcl.

 

[KAS_73]

Hi we are going on this cruise too! We love the Wonder and were so happy to see it sail again from Port Canaveral! There are 3 of us in the handicapped accessible stateroom 8602. We are 2 adults (in our 60's) and our son, who is celebrating his 40th birthday all year! We've done the Wonder several times.

We will have to meet up for a drink in the lounge This will be my 4th cruise on the Wonder. My favourite ship!

 

[Dug720]

Solo adult checking in! Fifth DCL cruise, first on the Wonder to complete my Grand Slam!!

Hopefully the itinerary will stay, but a lot will depend on how quickly they get St. Martin/Sint/Maaarten back up to the point where it's workable and safe and tourists won't be in the way of repair/rebuild efforts.

 

[seacruise]

Hoping that by February DCL will be doing some sort of eastern itinerary and that this cruise won't get converted to a western. Seems unlikely to me that St. Maarten will be in any shape to accept tourists by Feb, but time will tell. There are several potential eastern port options that cruise lines could add as a replacement that were not as severely damaged. St. Kitts, St. Croix, Antigua, maybe even the Carnival built ports Grand Turk or Amber Cove.

 

[Dug720]

Hoping that by February DCL will be doing some sort of eastern itinerary and that this cruise won't get converted to a western. Seems unlikely to me that St. Maarten will be in any shape to accept tourists by Feb, but time will tell. There are several potential eastern port options that cruise lines could add as a replacement that were not as severely damaged. St. Kitts, St. Croix, Antigua, maybe even the Carnival built ports Grand Turk or Amber Cove.

From what I heard from someone who operates an excursion I've done in St Maarten, it seems they are aiming to be able to host ships by mid-December. Time will tell.

That said, I hardly see DCL using Carnival Corp ports. And UGH if they use Amber Cove. Most obviously plastic created port I've ever experienced (did on fathom, which is under the Carnival Corp umbrella - or was). Plus looking at the sheer number of Carnival Corp ships (Carnival, Princess, HAL...) that will be in the Caribbean over the winter, I don't see them having or making room for a competitor.

 

[seacruise]

I thought Amber cove was really well done, especially the pool area. True, it is a "fake" place, but that should make Disney fans like ourselves feel right at home.

Other non-Carnival brands have occasionally stopped at Grand Turk. Not sure about Amber Cover since it is so new. I'm sure your right though that Carnival Corp. has more than enough ships to reroute to those ports without trying to accommodate other lines as well.

I don't know how I would feel about stopping in St. Maarten in Feb. if they were somehow accepting ships by then. Tourism is of course vital to their economy and recovery, but it would seem odd to be vacationing in someplace with such devastation around you.

 

[KAS_73]

I'm thinking that they will be up and running and would be happy to know that our $$ would go towards rebuilding. I also have an Eastern scheduled for December stopping at St. Thomas and Tortola and I'm hoping the itinerary for that one won't be changed. It's really a waiting game at this point. Oh well, if the ports get switched, it'll give me an excuse to book more cruises

 

[shoes99]

I'm thinking that they will be up and running and would be happy to know that our $$ would go towards rebuilding. I also have an Eastern scheduled for December stopping at St. Thomas and Tortola and I'm hoping the itinerary for that one won't be changed. It's really a waiting game at this point. Oh well, if the ports get switched, it'll give me an excuse to book more cruises

Its too soon to know but we also have an early Eastern booked on the Wonder for Feb. Just a waiting game, PIF date is early Nov.

 

[seacruise]

I have decided not to worry about the itinerary, and just be happy with wherever the ship happens to take us that week. We didn't book this cruise for the ports anyway. Can't really change weeks because of school break, and certainly not going to cancel.

Finally figured out our resort for going to the parks after the cruise. That's one thing off the list anyway.

 

[Dug720]

Well, we're 9 days away from Platinum check-in... (Not that that affects me...I'm a lowly Silver). Getting closer!!

I'd been debating where to stay before the cruise, but assuming my dad figures out the transferring Hilton Hhonors points thing (his words: "We are never going to use all the points we have and would be happy to share them") soon, that is decided (the Hilton that connects to Disney Springs via a pedestrian sky bridge). Whee! Then just to make final payment on the cruise. And buy the airline tickets.