WONDERful first Cruise 12/08 with infant***including pics and tips

[AndymanGA]

A little over year ago my mom decided she wanted to do a family trip and a Disney Cruise at Christmas was decided upon. The original cruisers were my parents, myself and my wife, my sister, her husband, her son and daughter. Shortly after making the reservations, my wife and I learned that we were expecting our first child.

Tip #1 - A great way to tell your family you are expecting is to ask how hard it would be to increase the reservation by one and how hard it would be to get a pack and play put in your cabin

This was the first cruise of any kind for most of us which lead to us finding disboards and of course the Passporter. How can you do a Disney Cruise without either?

Last summer, before our son's birth, we started buying clothes that we thought he would wear on the cruise. Made sense to us that we should buy summer clothes in the summer.
Tip #2 - As first time parents we didnt realize that the size listed on baby's clothes, don't necessarily reflect the age of your child. Who knew? We had to make a mad dash right before our trip to find stuff for our DS to wear.

Our whole family got together and flew to Orlando the day before the Cruise. Tip #3 - If you have an elderly parent, get a wheelchair at the airport. You have no idea how quick you can get through security when a member of your traveling party is being pushed in a wheelchair.

We stayed in Cocoa Beach the night before the Cruise. I spent some time in Ron Jon's surf shop that day. I have lost 40 pounds since June and thought that I would have better luck finding a swimsuit in Florida then in Georgia in December. I was correct.

My next posting, I'll start with the Cruise so stay tuned

 

[AndymanGA]

Oh since I promised pictures, here's a sign from Cocoa Beach from that first day

 

[CapnJackGroupie]

Congratulations on the birth of your son!! Can't wait to hear how your cruise went!!

 

[frdeb1999]

Congrats on the adorable addition! Looking forward to your TR!

 

[ljm23]

Yes congrats! How wonderful!

 

[DisneyMama27]

Love the Tips, Andy! Keep it coming!

Shari

 

[AndymanGA]

Before I move forward let me throw in another tip for Cocoa Beach Tip #4 -If you are staying in Cocoa Beach you can ride their "trolley" (actually just a bus) anywhere you want/need to go for like a $1.25 each way but they dont give change. If unsure if the bus is heading in the right direction, dont be afraid to ask or you'll end up seeing all of Cocoa Beach like we did.

So Christmas Eve we leave the hotel for the boat. Our shuttle bus driver was named Bong. I'll let you insert your own punchline. We pulled up to the dock and were treated to our first view of the boat

We go through security and check in. Tons of holiday decorations were up.

We also took our obligatory picture in front of the model of the ship and later one with Mickey.

Tip #5 - if you go through security early, bring plenty of things for you and the kids to do while you wait a couple of hours to get on the boat.

We go through the giant Mickey doorway and onto the boat as they call our names. We eat lunch and meet Minnie.

After lunch we head back to our cabin. We decorate our door and hang our fish extender.

We dressed up for the rescue boat drill.

Tip #6 -If you have a infant it it tough to hold onto your kid in his life vest while in your own vest. The crew is good about letting you take the kid's vest off early and letting you go back to your cabin early, too.

After coming back to the room, we went to guest services to get a printout of everything we had booked. We then went to Flounders to rearrange babysitting to coincide with our dining seating. Tip #7 - book Flounders as soon as you can. A lot of the time slots fill up, especially on formal night. More on the folks at Flounders later but let me just say that we LOVED the ladies working in there on our cruise. We had no reservations about leaving our son with them and know that they took great care of him.

We explored the boat and met up with people we had met on the disboards. We went back to our room found that our luggage hadnt arrived yet so we went on to dinner at Triton's (after dropping off our son) while wearing shorts. We had no problem for "violating" dress code but tip #8 - if you worry about what people think, you might wanna pack a dinner outfit in your carry on bag just in case. We didnt take photos of dinner but the food was great. My wife had Halibut with Lobster Moouse and I had Duck. Cant remember for our other courses.

After dinner we picked up our son and headed to the Golden Mickeys. We enjoyed the show.

 

[podsnel]

Great start! i LOVE your tips!! And your son is absolutely the most handsome little man!!

 

[AndymanGA]

Is there anything better than celebrating Christmas in sunny 80+ degree weather? We woke up and went to get pictures made with Santa. They had gifts for all of the kids and eggnog, hot chocolate and cookies to munch on while waiting. It seems they made a few too many of the cookies as we saw them throughout the rest of the ship.

While in line we were told that Santa had to go feed the reindeer but would return soon. If you stayed in line then you got to have pictures with this guy

Quite honestly we preferred having our picture with Santa goofy then just the "regular" Santa.

We went up to BBB for breakfast. Nothing special, just breakfast with powdered eggs and limp bacon. We ate outside and watched the ship dock. We got off the boat and took a cab to Atlantis. Table minimums were like $25 so I didnt do any gambling other than a couple of bucks in a slot machine. We walked around and took a cab back. DW took our DS back on board and I set out to do some shopping.

Tip #9 - Major holidays, and the majority of shops are closed in Nassau. I couldnt believe this. I thought surely they would be open since their economy depends so much on tourists and there was 2 boats docked. Only one liquor store was open and maybe a fifth of the straw market. I saw some watches I was interested in at the market but the merchant was not in the mood to work out a deal so she made no sale.

I got back on board and explored the Wonder with my DW and DS after eating lunch. After lunch we caught a showing of the new film Bedtime Stories.

Dinner that night was billed as a "Traditional holiday meal". They did have turkey and ham but I went with crab legs for my appetizer and lobster tail for my entree. My wife had the crab legs and prime rib. The food was good on board but was missing some seasoning and herbs for the most part to make it great. The prime rib Christmas night was the only one that seemed properly seasoned. For dessert that night I had a yule log cake with little mushrooms made out of meringue.

We went to the art auction that night and won a couple of prints (door prizes, we didnt bid on anything). They also had complimentary martinis . We went back home where we found our "romantic" turndown service as part of our romantic encounter package (or whatever it was called) that we had purchased.

Our son was a little fussy and we decided not hit the evening's show. Tip #10 - the shows are broadcast on the ships television so if you are tired or have a fussy kid, you can enjoy them from the comfort of your cabin while in your PJs. I think that night's show was Toy Story the musical but I could be wrong.

 

[jenseib]

Congrats on your son and weightloss. Can't wait to read more.

 

[tammythetwinsmom]

Thanks for tip#10.. I was worried about the show being late for us and didn't realize we could watch it in the room! Great report! Thanks

 

[DisneyZell]

Great report so far...we were on Castaway Cay on the 26th and saw you sailing by. Did you see us waving? We were a little disappointed that the Wonder didn't get closer to the Magic than they did...we couldn't get a good shot of the two of them together. It was fun hearing the horns compete though!

 

[alldiz]

Thanks for posting.....Sounds like a great 1st cruise....your son is a cutie

Living through your cruise right now....I can't wait to go....I have to wait till Dec though
Kerri

 

[AndymanGA]

DS was kind enough to wake me up early on Day 3 so I went up to watch the sunrise . Wow! I had wanted to watch a sunset but that was difficult with our 5:45 p.m. dinner seating so I was going to have to do sunrise and why not day 3?

We had our breakfast in bed as part of our Romantic Encounter package and then set out to enjoy the pool and take some pictures with characters. Stitch became our favorite. He dropped down immediately to the floor and reached for our son before we even got to him. He played with him and didnt really seem to care that others were in line or that there was even a camera there. One of the best pics we bought from Shutters looks like Stitch is kissing our son's forehead. Here's the one we took.

We went up to the pool area to play. Tip #11 - We found the lines a lot shorter to get pictures with the characters up by the pool than in the atrium.

After hanging out at the pool we head to dress up for dinner at Palo. On our way to dropping off DS at Flounder's, we stopped for a pic with Minnie (Mickey was too long a line) and in front of the nighttime backdrop.

Palo was FABULOUS! Service was excellent and the food... We had a bottle of wine that we didnt finished so they recorked it and asked if we wanted the following night at dinner or just sent to our room. We opted for dinner the next night. Oh and if anybody has the recipe for the lemon dessert shot let me know. It had prosecca, sorbet and vodka. I guess I could just experiment until I find the correct ratio

We picked up our son and went to watch the pirate show . We had brought glow in the dark bracelets that we had put into fish extenders and then took the rest to the show to hand to kids nearby.

After the show while others were rushing to the buffet, we were hitting up the drink stand for our nightly warm water for formula. The buffet looked good but I was full from Palo.

The next day is Castaway Cay

 

[WDBRDWLK]

First of all, WOW, was I shocked to read 'Story about Me'...I have to admit that I did not read the words in the box next to it..I thought I was going to read a story about the birth of your son! First of all let me say that I am glad that your kidney transplant was a success and welcome to your new life! It is so wonderful that a total stranger would give her kidney to another living person in order to make that person's life more fulfilling. What a true hero! Congratulations to you and your wife on the birth of your son...he is really a cutie!

Second, your trip report has been great. Great tips for the newbies that are cruising especially with infants. Sounds like you all had a great time. Don't ya just love Palo's. It is my favorite restaurant. We always make reservations at Palo's when we cruise. If you ever do the 7 night or more cruises you gotta try the champagne brunch at Palo's.

Third, we are basically neighbors...whats two states...we are Bruins & Carolina fans when they play each other...otherwise its Carolina Hurricanes! My DD is the loudest person at the game! or so it seems..earplugs are a necessity when with her!

Can't wait to read more...

 

[AndymanGA]

Third, we are basically neighbors...whats two states...we are Bruins & Carolina fans when they play each other...otherwise its Carolina Hurricanes! My DD is the loudest person at the game! or so it seems..earplugs are a necessity when with her!

Jan 31 there is over 150 of us invading Raleigh to watch the Thrashers. Come say hello if you are at the game.

I've been kinda busy but will finish up my TR later tonight. Stay tuned

 

[nzdisneymom]

Great report! Love the pics. We, too, were on Castaway Cay when you guys sailed by on the 26th.

Love the baby life vests!

 

[AndymanGA]

So Saturday we wake up as the boat was docking at Castaway Cay We went up to Beachblanket for the morning buffet. We discovered the omelet station and thank god no powdered eggs. They could use a few more topping selections but again, it beats the heck out of the powdered eggs that are on the buffet. My wife LOVED the sausages they served and I agree they were tasty.

We were among the first to get off the boat and onto the island. Tip #12 - The only problem with this is there wasnt anyone around to take pics of all 3 of us and not all of the photographers had an assistant to take the pics for you.

Mickey welcomed us to his private island and by this point there was an assistant to use our camera.

Tons of other characters were around for photos and of course there are some photos you have to have.

Enough of the characters, etc. We're here for the beach! Our son had his first splash in the ocean and thought it was great!

Tip #13 - Water, even in the Caribbean, is cold in December.

We played in the sand and ocean for a while and then we had lunch at Cookie's. The ribs were very good. Tip #14 - If you want the ribs, and believe me you do, get there early as they ran out during our visit (at least it was a long time after we had eaten).

After we were all back on board we did some family photos before dinner at Parrot Cay.

.

Dinner we handed out the tip envelopes to our server, head server and assistant server. I had went to Guest Services earlier to ring the tips up (and close my credit card). I added more for our server and assistant because I believe they had deserved it. Same for our Hostess.
Tip #15 - Disney gives you a suggested tip amount if you feel that someone has done an exceptional job or you have been a pain in the neck, increase what you give them.

Tip # 16 - As good a job as the people that fold your towels do or the people that feed you do, is their job more important than the people that watch after your children? Tip them. When I closed out my account and was getting the tip slips, I had tried to put a tip on my credit card for the ladies in Flounders but was told that unless you are tipping the 4 people that Disney suggests you tip, they couldnt do it. I asked for some envelopes and put cash in it. When we picked up our son after dinner, we tipped the ladies and they almost cried. I cant believe nobody ever tips them. We also had to have a picture with them but could only get 2 of them as the other 2 were busy watching other people's kids.

We had our picture made with the Captain

and then went back to our room. We watched the night's show while packing our bags. I went down to guest services and asked about the photo mat we had left there to be signed. Seems they had "misplaced" it, but assured me they would look for it. I went back empty handed and finished packing. We put our bags in the hall and then I went down to the "until we meet again" party. All of the characters are standing around and tip # 16 - this is the best time to get photos and autographs of any of the characters you might have missed.


The following morning we get up. I call the front desk to ask about the photo mat and am told that they are still looking for it. We go to breakfast at our assigned area (which was the Parrot and happened to be where we began our trip on the Wonder). We eat and say goodbye to our servers. I go back by Guest Services and they hand me a replacement mat with a stock photo of Mickey sitting on the steps with all of the princesses. I thank them, go buy some more photos from Shutters (that I had them recrop), and then we sadly left the Wonder.

We got a rental car and then hung out in Downtown Disney for the afternoon before heading to the airport and home. I'll post some random tips and maybe some more photos in the next couple of days. Feel free to ask me any questions you might have and I'll try to answer them for you, too.

 

[AndymanGA]

Using the power of Google, I have deciphered the drink served at the end of the dinner at Palo's is Sgroppino. Basically, take a Tablespoon of chilled lemon vodka and pour into a flute. Add 1/2 cup of chilled prosecco and top with a scoop of lemon sorbet. I guess you could reverse that order and it would work well, too. I'll have to experiment and let you know

Sorry I havent posted the rest of the stuff as promised but work has been a bear. I'll try to get the rest up soon.

 

[WDBRDWLK]

Great trip report. You have a beautiful family...life is precious as you know, cherish every moment! And what a better way than on a Disney Cruise!

We sail on the Wonder in 33 days! I can not wait...we had 7 inches off SNOW on Tuesday, something we do not see too often, maybe every couple of years a flurry, but seven inches shut us down for almost two days!

Your son is so adorable BTW.