Wonder Jan 27-31 Review

[dorothyl]

My husband, son and myself did the Wonder 4 day cruise Jan 27-31 and we loved it. This was the third cruise for me and my DH but 1st for my 9 year old.
We drove in from Niagara Falls Canada on the Saturday and stayed at the Double Tree Oceanfront in Cocoa Beach and it was a beautiful hotel, I would highly recommend it.

We parked at the terminal and it was a $60.00 flat fee. The registration was painless and quick. We were thrilled to find that we were to have an extra day at Castaway Cay replacing our day at sea. What a treat that was. The weather was awesome and it was like a little piece of heaven on that island.

Disney certainly has it down to a fine art. The island is beautiful. If you can't find something to do then you aren't trying. My son was registered in the Oceaneers lab and he loved it. He chose to spend a lot of his time on the island in the club, allowing my DH and myself an opportunity to use the adult only section of the island. If you get a chance to go there I highly recommend it. It is very relaxing.

I got the best advice I can give any parents taking there children on this cruise from this board, and that is let your children set the pace or schedule they want. Don't pull them out of the kids club and force then to do what you want so that you have "family" time. The pagers that you are given at checkin allows your kids to do that themselves. My DS made a lot of new friends and the crew was wonderful with him. He paged us to come and get him when he wanted to join us.

At Nassau we booked a room at Comfort Suites giving us full access at Atlantis online for $180.00. Much cheaper than the excursions from the cruiseline. We didn't have to be back to the ship until 2 am so we had a full day at the resort. The weather was great and we had a great time.

We had dinner at Palo and it was delicious. The chocolate souffle with the vanilla and cocoa bean sauce is out of this world. I had the lasagna and my DH had the filet and both were great. Jaun was our server and he made the dinner memorable. Try the cheese pizza offered as an appetizer. It was so good.

We had the late seating and it just didn't work for us. We ate at our assigned table the first night only. It was ok. The next night we ate at the casual dining at Topsiders from a menu and it was delicous and much more convenient. The third night we ate at Palo and our son went to dinner with the kids club and the last night we ate on deck. Our room attendant was ok. No real compaints there. We ordered the Mickey ice cream bars at dessert every night even though it wasn't on any menu. I got that tip from here also.

We had room 7094, a balcony and was it not in the least bit crowded with 3 of us. My son loved sleeping on the drop down bunk which left the couch available for us to sit on. The split bathroom is very convenient and the seas couldn't have been smoother.

We enjoyed all of the shows but I recommend getting there early if you want good seats. The Pirate party was lots of fun. I know this was long but if anyone has any questions I would be happy to answer them. We will definately do another Disney Cruise.
We have 4 kids, 3 who are adult ages and their little brother is already working on them to join us on the next one.

 

[PizzieDuster]

Thank you for posting your trip report.

I'm taking my DD9 on a Mother/Daughter cruise in 6/08. I forgot about dining at Topsiders. I don't want to be forced to "go by the book" or a definite time, since it is just DD and I (I won't have the lovely convenience of having DH to help me out) but also don't want to eat room service dinners. Although, don't get me wrong, I can't wait to see who our table mates are!

I have a few questions for you or anyone else:

Are you seated alone in Topsiders?
Is it the same meals from the dining rooms? Like the THEMED menus?
On lobster night, could you get lobster there?
Is it buffet?
Do you tip the servers at Topsiders?

How crowded was the Goofy Pool at night watching the big screen movies? Was there seat saving like during the day?


Thank you so much in advance.

 

[Deweysgirl]

Thank you for the trip report! I do have a question regarding Comfort. We also booked a room there to use the aquapark at Atlantis. Can you give details about how it all worked? Just kind of walk me through what you did? Also, did you like the waterpark, do you think it was worth the $? Did you even go into your room at all or did you check in and check out first thing just to get the armbands? Any info is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[dorothyl]

Pizza Duster and Deweys Girl

At Topsiders the casual dining was a sit down ( we waited 20 minutes for a table) and order from a menu. We had turkey and mashed potatoes and veggies. It was very good. Our waitress was awesome and yes we tipped her.

As for the Comfort Suites, we booked it the Sunday morning before we left for the ship. I wanted to check weather.com to see how nice it would be. I didn`t want to spend $200.00 for a crappy day. We checked in right after we got off the ship. The cab ride over was $4 a person. Have small bills. Our room wasn`t ready but we got the confirmation cards from the hotel to present at Atlantis to get our wrist bands and went right over there.
When we`d had enough we went back to the hotel got our room key and showered because the room was much bigger than the stateroom on board and relaxed a bit and then went back to the ship.

All we took into Nassau with us was a rolling backpack.

Another tip I got off these boards was to take Ziploc baggies with you and order sandwiches from room service the night before and put them in the fridge in your room. Thats what I did and I had brought a box of fruit bars and pretzels and cans of pop and bottled water ( we drove in so I had these all in my car anyway) and I didn`t spend a cent at Atlantis. My son loved the waterpark and the aquarium and particuarly the waterslide that went through the shark tank. Considering what the cruiseline was charging I thought it was worth it. It is not an everyday thing so we did it. Since we hadn`t booked any excursions as I always book my own i found this more economical.

We had cruise before on NCL and Holland America, both time in a suite. On Hal we had an SA, and it was roughly 600 sq. ft so I was worried that a regular balcony room would be to small, but I was pleasantly surprised that I didn`t feel like it was. We didn`t spend much time in there anyway. There was plenty of storage space in the room and bathrooms also.

Price wise a 4 day on Disney was far more expensive than a 10 day on HAL but I was looking for a child oriented cruise. I didn`t know if he would like it, but he loved it, there was so much for him to do and he is looking online for one for 09. He wants a 7 day this time. The only thing I don`t like is the timed seating. But I wouldn`t let that spoil my trip and I have to admit Disney does it right. there were little things I could complain about but the good things far out weighed them.

On the Sunday morning we left I went on this site and wrote out hints from the thread entitled `tips``and got many great ideas.

 

[suzannef]

How long did it take you to drive from Niagara Falls?

 

[dorothyl]

It took us 2 ten hour days. We stopped in Charlotte NC the first night and Cocoa beach the next. With a dvd player in the back it is not as bad as road trips when we were kids without them.

 

[Deweysgirl]

Thank you for the info on Comfort! Glad you had a wonderful cruise and thanks again for posting your report!

 

[GEB@okw]

We also cruised on the Jan 27 four nighter. We booked a room (beach tower) at Atlantis from a travelzoo link at $179.00 After a champagne breakfast in our cabin we headed to Atlantis by taxi to check in at 9:45 and our room was ready! We went to our room and changed into our suits. Spent the day on the lazy river and slides. We really liked the lazy river called the current. We lazed around it many times. We took a box of crackers and four bottles of water with us. About 4pm we went back to our room and showered and rested. A 7pm supper at Palo was a wonderful finish to our special day. The day (Jan 28) at Atlantis was our 30th anniversay and it was a lot of fun to be out of the cold of Michigan, not to mentioned the next two days at Castaway Cay!!

 

[tjhb72]

What was the water temps like? We are booking for late January 2009 and I've heard the water is cold.

 

[CraftyMouse]

What was the water temps like? We are booking for late January 2009 and I've heard the water is cold.

We were on this sailing too and the water was definitely chilly. Once you were in, however, it was fine. The air temps were 75-80 each day.

 

[melissaknits]

We were on this sailing and also thought the water was not warm, but once you were in it was fine. We swam and snorkled and were very happy.