Wonder, Feb 3-7 2019, San Juan to PC

[Jeeprunner12]

Great report so far!

 

[cadien]

After dinner, we picked up DS for the 8:30 show.

If it fits, he sits.

I don't think it was clear in any of the photos, but the puffins on his shirt are all dressed as pirates.

I love the Egyptian type decor in the Walt Disney Theater.

Instead of being a Disney stage show, this was a guest act. The Jump Rope Stunts of Flight Crew. DS is in ballet and gymnastics and always loves acrobats, so I figured he'd enjoy it. And the crew is almost all men, which is an encouraging thing for him to see when his classes are so dominated by girls.

It was really fun. Their cardio abilities are off the charts. They even had a very funny Disney-themed routine at the end. And in addition to the performing, they did some more technical demonstrations of different kinds of rope tricks and brought some children on stage to learn some moves. There are lots of YouTube videos.

I swear that's a Weasley.

 

[cadien]

I forgot to post the drinks of the day. Someone here mentioned that they have information on the ingredients on the app, which I really appreciated.

 

[cadien]

And the standard Pirate Night Rasta octopus. ??

I do love how they do themed chocolate coins for turn down on Pirate Night.

 

[cadien]

Day 3. Sea Day! Also 'Optional Dress Up' Night.

Drinks of the day. I don't think we actually got around to trying any of them. We didn't spend much time on the pool deck.

Speaking of drinks, our empty prosecco bottle and used flutes from the previous afternoon looked somewhat arty in the sunrise. But oddly, the room steward never took them away. Even after I put the bottle in the recycling. We also never once saw him until the very last night, when he stuck his head in to remind us to give excellent ratings on the survey. Weird.

We decided to try the Tritons brunch. Menu from the indispensable Disney Cruise Line Blog. Ours was almost identical but the sundae was a mint Oreo instead.

It was fairly busy so they put us at a long table with two other families. No problem.

My passion fruit mimosa and DS's passion fruit "smoothie." The ones from that part of the menu rather than the special drink of the day were artificial flavoring rather than fruit. DH ordered after me and said he'd have the mimosa too. They brought him a regular orange juice one. So you'll want to specify.

This was a beautifully composed plate of fruit for about 15 seconds. Then the waiter chopped it up. Ditto DS's waffle, which took him aback. But I know it's a thoughtful service for parents of younger children.

The assorted pastries are brought around on trays by the waitstaff and you tell them which kind you want. Each tray had a different selection.

DH's eggs Benedict.

My Swiss bircher muesli. Still a little full from Palo!

DS's Mickey waffles and sausage. Those were delicious sausage links. More British style than American.

Mosaic in the dining room. I'm sorry but this is not Ariel.

 

[cadien]

We dropped DS at the kids club and did some laps of the promenade deck. It always make me think of movies like (the original) Sabrina.

Doing the full lap gives you a look at some behind the scenes areas too.

Ker-chunk!

There were several of these and we never figured out what they were.

Just another mug in a yellow jumpsuit...

These were just fun to me. Some other instructions were in the more contemporary cartoon style just like on airplane safety cards.

Obligatory feet on vacation photo.

 

[cadien]

It was a twofer for trivia! First we had Cruisin' for Trivia at 11:45 in the Promenade Lounge. General knowledge questions, but about 25% ended up being Disney anyway. The host was British but not Jo.

I don't remember why we wanted sodas instead of cocktails. But I liked the cloth napkins. And they unfolded so you had room for the rest of your can as well as the glass.

I love how they have this kids play area tucked behind the Promenade Lounge. The Magic has it too.

Two other neat features of the lounge that others have mentioned in trip reports but we still haven't tried.

The infusion includes a selection of fruit along with your chosen liquor and then you come back for it after it's had time to marinate.

 

[cadien]

Then at 1:15 was Movie Quotes Trivia in the Crown & Fin Pub. With the famous Jo. Our first trivia with her but not the last. She just read out the quotes rather than messing around with playing clips. Which is just fine with me. The answer was always the title of the film, but there were also often bonus points for answering additional questions about the movie. It skewed a little more pop culture than classics. Lots of comedies.

We really enjoyed the sliders on our last trip but this time we tried the coconut prawns. They're such a common appetizer these days but we've never had them. I'm not a shrimp person in general. DH loved these and managed to have them again elsewhere before we got home. I had always been a little curious about prawn crackers and they were pretty much exactly what you'd expect.

I had the Bourbon Fizz. This may have been the time that DH ordered beer but they accidentally brought him hard cider. Which was fine. We secretly both prefer that to beer.

A pool deck lunch with DS. I had the chicken shawarma this time because I wanted to try the turmeric yogurt sauce. We have still never had lunch in Cabanas or the MDR.

 

[cadien]

Then at 4:00 (maybe?) was mixology! In the Cadillac Lounge. I somehow thought I would remember all the drinks and didn't take any notes. Ha! He made some of them up that day so I really should have taken notes.

The room was packed. The class was hosted by Andy from Indonesia. He may have been the head bartender. He was the one who signed us up for the class when we boarded too. I know only some mixology classes are hands-on and you don't know ahead of time and this one was not. But we didn't have a preference. He did extensively explain each drink and the different styles, tools used, how to order a decent martini, etc. There were five drinks. All fruity except for the last one. I don't have a photo of that. They were Baby Guinnesses. The assistant bartender lined up shots of coffee flavored tequila on the bar. Each person carefully poured in some pre-measured Bailey's (the internet tells me it was Bailey's; that part I don't clearly remember) and then drank it.

 

[cadien]

I remembered incorrectly. After getting dressed up for semi-formal night, we returned to the Crown & Fin at 7:30 for our THIRD trivia of the day. Also with Jo. This one was 80's music. My specialty, since that was high school. I made a point of snagging a booth instead of a high table with barstools in case we were unsteady. And we just had water.

There was a team with a perfect score and it wasn't us. We did very respectably though. I think the entire thing was the kind where the opening notes are played and you get separate points for the artist and the song. Not the first time I've confused the opening of Pour Some Sugar On Me with Loving Every Minute of It. In the hallways later, I ran into the winners and complemented them. It turned out he was a retired record store owner and said he vividly pictured each album cover as the tune was played. And they lived in the same medium-sized Canadian city that my grandfather was born in. Small world!

 

[cadien]

All spiffed up for semi-formal night.

Note the pattern on DS's shirt.

We ate in Triton's. At a table for 6, but the other family didn't appear. Only one night left to meet them1

I don't remember when we would have snacked, and there aren't any photos, but neither of us were super hungry. We both skipped the appetizer and had the same salad: Arugula, sliced red onions, and crispy lardons (another fancy term for bacon!) dressed with a sherry wine dressing and served with a red wine poached Bosc pear.

I had a lot of trouble deciding between the duck and the lamb but ended up going with the latter, despite the Brussels sprouts.
Roasted rack of lamb medium with Dauphinose potatoes, buttered Brussels sprouts, and a burgundy rosemary sauce.

Those potatoes were the second best thing I ate on the cruise. I almost asked for a second helping. It was the later seating and everyone had received their entrees. They reminded me a lot of the scalloped potatoes at Cagney's Steakhouse on Norwegian, for those who have eaten there. Creamy and custardy and perfect. And I'm not usually a potatoes fan.

DH kept it really light.
Wild-mushroom stuffed pasta in a vegetable broth topped with watercress, shaved Parmesan cheese, and a paprika oil drizzle.

And DS's baked salmon, from the adult menu this time. It comes with rice or potato but he doesn't eat either one.

None of the desserts grabbed me, DH had no appetite, and DS didn't eat enough of his dinner, but the waiter really really wanted us to have the vanilla creme brulee, so we did. It was fine.

 

[cadien]

Either an elephant or a brontosaurus. Yes I said brontosaurus. And Pluto is a planet. Fight me.

The stuffed sea lion is what he picked on St. Thomas. The rest came from home, along with Bunny, who had to be propped against our pillows instead. One of those plushes for newborns that's basically a head attached to a washcloth. She and Badger are in our previous trip report photos too.

One note about this semi-formal night: The characters did not dress up in their formal wear. It has been reported here that on some cruises with only a semi-formal night (Optional Dress Up), they have. I don't know how they decide. We would have done photos if they had.

 

[FSU Girl]

I did think about using "Princesses don't get naked," which is something DH overheard a grandmother telling a little girl who did NOT want to leave her clothes on.

That would have definitely been a catchy title.

We mostly take food photos when traveling. It drove my aunt crazy when we went on our honeymoon but all our friends appreciated them.

I love food photos! I've been doing a lot of dining reports on here from our Disney World trips so I feel like I do it a lot more now. I typically save those pictures for these reports and keep them to a minimum when I post them online for friends.

So cute! I've only been to San Juan once on our first Disney cruise, but it was a really nice place. We saw a lot of dogs, not too many cats.

Your son is the animal whisperer

Looking back from the entrance. I generally don't mind being landlocked, but I really miss the ocean when I actually see it. Even if this is the wrong one. I grew up in Southeast Alaska and DH is from Los Angeles

Wow you've lived in fascinating places!

I went to the fort when we stopped there, it was a really cool, I loved the long entrance.

I always see pictures under these umbrellas, we never found them lol. Nice photo!

Yum! DH was commenting how he wished the bigger ships that this type of food too.

 

[FSU Girl]

We were docked right next to a decent-sized yacht, which was fun to watch. There were at least two hot tubs and one pool. There were several young male crew members half-heartedly cleaning it and we were pretty sure they were hired primarily for their looks. They were all pretty stunning, and all of the same general type.

I would have had so much fun people watching this.

The driver asked about motion sickness before we left.

They have some serious winding roads there. My mom grew up there so when we took a cruise we drove to all her houses around the island. I remember one road was a hard 90 degree angle and a ton of accidents happen there because you can't see the other cars and people would drive like maniacs around it.

This looks like such a fun excursion!

The Wonder is the only remaining ship with no on-demand television but we did manage to find the channel that shows a live feed from the bridge and plays Disney tunes. We often had that on. I was impressed by how many Spanish-language channels there were.

Hopefully they upgrade this. It's so nice being able to watch movies on demand. At least for me since we did spend a good deal of time lounging in the room.

We went full out for Pirate Night on our Magic cruise and it was fun. But we wanted to try Palo dinner this time and, like so many, we really hadn't cared for the Pirate Night menu. So this was the obvious choice. I had thought ahead of time that the pirate menu sounded delicious, but everything was a little off. On the Magic, we did do Palo brunch, and would have probably done it again if we'd managed to snag a reservation on this trip.

I have yet to try the pirate night menu. All three of my cruises I've scheduled Palo dinner on pirate night.

Your Palo meal looked great!

 

[cadien]

I always see pictures under these umbrellas, we never found them lol. Nice photo!

We only did because we stumbled across them.

Yum! DH was commenting how he wished the bigger ships that this type of food too.

It's fun to type that, isn't it?

 

[cadien]

I'm an idiot. That wasn't Bailey's in those baby Guinnesses at the mixology class. It was Amarula! That South African cream liqueur that they put in the Zebra Domes at Animal Kingdom Lodge.

 

[missangelalexis]

Enjoying your report! Sounds like you all were having fun!

DS looks too cute in his shirt and bow tie on semi formal night

 

[Magical_Suitcase]

"Princesses don't get naked,"

I love this!

Then mallorcas, which every guide calls the must-try breakfast. Ham and Swiss inside. Super buttery pastry. See that shine?

I am taking notes, we are on next year's cruise from San Juan to New Orleans.

El Morro.

Yum!


Thanks for the room and food photos. I love to vacation vicariously and/or use other folk's trip reports to help plan my trips. It helps when you can see a hotel room or the food at a particular restaurant/cafe. Will be back to read more later.

Kate

 

[cadien]

I'm attempting to upload my scanned Daily Navigators.

I'll work on the rest of the report and research later how to make pdf files actually visible here. And on Flickr. If anyone already knows, please feel free to post.

 

[cadien]

Okay. Castaway Cay Day. Yay!! Last day of the cruise. Boo!!

We've now done, in order, a 7-day, a 5-day, and a 4-day cruise. And the shorter ones really don't bother me. The learning curve was so steep on the first one (on NCL) that I feel like we get just as much out of the shorter ones now. We have to fly to any port, so we need more than 4-days to rationalize the airfare, but planning a couple days of something in the port area before and/or after the cruise is just as satisfying to us as a longer trip. And often cheaper. I wouldn't turn down a longer one if it fits our lives but I now feel confident saying we're flexible there.

Drinks of the day.

Handy service.