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An Easter Weekend Trip on the Wonder with (most of) the TCD Gang


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59 minutes ago, WannaBeImagineer said:

 

Looks like a great first evening, glad you figured out the Crown & Fin snacks, I didn't know about the 6pm thing at all, maybe after the first day they are out more often?

That's the same Tianna that we had, and I agree she was great, the fact that she was in character and would actually sing too was perfect. I really liked the live music too and I think DCL knows how great this restaurant is considering they put a Tangled restuarnt on the Magic recently.

On another note, Bayou Rum is made right down the road from us on I-10.  They have great rum, but I haven't made it over there for the tour yet.

WBI

I know that on night two it was 6 pm for the snacks at Crown and Fin again because the same thing basically happened that night too. 

That's funny that you had the same Tiana. That woman works hard!  She has to do that every night of the cruise. They really struck gold with that CM. 

I didn't know that was a real rum brand- I thought it was a prop Disney created from the movie. I'll have to see if I can hunt down a bottle. 

7 minutes ago, GaDawgFan.....Kelly said:

We love being aft as well. It's close to most things we do.

Tiana's looks amazing! I love that the twins dressed for the occasion. 

 

We didn't choose our location on this cruise since it was a CM guarantee rate. The location really spoiled us. 

Tiana's Place is great. It's pretty amazing that Disney chose to retheme a restaurant that was perfectly fine. They don't do stuff like that at WDW anymore. 

TCD 

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The TCD gang sailed again!  Well, most of us did.  We last sailed on the Disney Cruise Line in 2016. Since then, we have talked of going again, but with work and school schedules, it never worked

There used to be 17 cabanas on the family beach, and 4 at Serenity Bay, as noted on this map. But at some point, they built 4 more cabanas at the Family beach, and re-numbered the Serenity

Before I go forward, I want to thank DIT and WBI for their TR's earlier this year from their Wonder cruises. I got some great tips from you both- especially the chicken wings in the Crown and Fin tip.

1 hour ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

 

Tiana's Place is great. It's pretty amazing that Disney chose to retheme a restaurant that was perfectly fine. They don't do stuff like that at WDW anymore. 

TCD 

No, they spend their $$ updating Disney Land!  :(  They are getting all the Cool Kids stuff!

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21 hours ago, Travisma said:

No, they spend their $$ updating Disney Land!  :(  They are getting all the Cool Kids stuff!

True.  They are also spending big money in the foreign Disney properties. WDW gets some new stuff- but anything they do at WDW takes forever, and is always scaled down from what they originally announce as corners are constantly cut. 

14 hours ago, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

We were on the Wonder last year in February.  Tianna's was our second night restaurant, it is my favorite one of the three.  It is a lot of fun besides the good food.

Hey, that's when DIT cruised!  You could have been on the same cruise. 

TCD 

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14 hours ago, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

We were on the Wonder last year in February.  Tianna's was our second night restaurant, it is my favorite one of the three.  It is a lot of fun besides the good food.

 

20 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

 

Hey, that's when DIT cruised!  You could have been on the same cruise. 

Yep...we did a 3 nighter around Feb 17.  I think the dates were 2/16-19....something like that.  

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8 hours ago, DaveInTN said:

 

Yep...we did a 3 nighter around Feb 17.  I think the dates were 2/16-19....something like that.  

We were on the weekend before that, I think.  DH's cousins booked it and we were told that cast cvouldn't get the discount on 3 night cruses.  And now I read about your wonderful trip.  Your girls are able to access the Hub which retired cast can not read.

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22 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

Nuts. 

I just lost an update that I spent an hour writing. 

It just poofed. 

That hasn't happened to me in a long time, so I haven't been writing my entries offline first. 

I don't have time to re-write it now. So no update today. Sorry. 

TCD 

Sorry to hear that.  It's definitely a motivation killer when you lose all that effort.

WBI

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Time for an update. 

Although the seas were a bit rough the first night, things had calmed when I awoke at a bit before six. I took a quick shower, and headed up to the beverage station for some coffee and a look around. 

They change the soft drink availability around from time to time. These were the choices on the Wonder:

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It was still dark out, and I took a walk all the way around the top deck enjoying the peace and quiet, and watching the moon getting ready to set. There was a faint glow to the east, and I was looking forward to watching the sun rise from the sea. 

Cabanas opened for business at 6:30, and I headed in there for a small pre-breakfast. There were only a handful of guests in there, which made it very nice. 

From there, I took the secret stairs all the way down to deck 5. I wasn't sure if guests had access to deck 5 via that staircase, but they do. That was a great shortcut that I used several times after that. Thanks to WBI for mentioning them in his TR- this was the first cruise where those stairs were convenient to our cabin location. 

It was still dark on the cabin, and the twins were still sleeping, so I headed out to the verandah. The sky was getting light, but the sun had still not risen. 

I have been blessed in life to see some sunrises in spectacular places. Like over Crater Lake in Oregon, and the Haleakala Crater in Maui. Watching a sunrise at sea is right up there with those experiences. 

It is truly thought provoking and spiritual to look out and see nothing but water and sky for as far as you can see:

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Today was a sea day, and we had the whole day to enjoy the ship. The girls had asked me to wake them at 7:30-ish, but I got them up a bit earlier, and suggested that they come out on the verandah to watch the sunrise. I reminded them that we don't get too many chances to see a sunrise at sea. They joined me, and we were treated to this view:

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This is one of those times where a photograph doesn't do justice to what we actually saw. It was a beautiful sunrise, and a great way to start our first full day of the cruise. 

I think that I already mentioned that we had what they call a Navigator's Verandah for this cruise. There are only about 30 of these on the ship. They have a metal wall with a large opening instead of the plexiglass and railing that the other verandahs have. You have to stand to get a good view, but I liked the cozy feeling and privacy:

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The Navigator's Verandahs have gadgets mounted on the walls, which I thought was a cool touch. We had a thermometer:

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And a barometer:

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And there was a compass over there in the corner. You can also see the wooden chair that was provided:

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On the wall opposite the chair and compass, this cool nautical chart was posted on the bulkhead, and there was a built in bench with a cushion below:

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I ended up really liking the Navigator's Verandah. 

After watching the sunrise, we all headed to breakfast together. We sat on the outside deck and enjoyed the cool air and breeze. Since we were at sea, there were no seagulls harassing us. It was really nice. 

The plan for today was our standard sea day plan. We would establish base camp by grabbing some loungers on Deck 10 overlooking the family pool and Funnel Vision. We would sun, eat, drink, and watch the movies they had playing. Since we headed up top early, we had no trouble finding chairs. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we appreciated that it was nowhere near as hot and humid as our most recent cruises have been. 

The girls decided that they would pop down to the atrium for character meet and greets periodically. Here's a collection of their photos from that:

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In between all of this, we bit the bullet and waited in line to ride the new Twist and Shout slide. It is a nice slide- nicer than most of the WDW resort slides- but the wait was too long. You do get a really good view of the ship from up there, though.  

When we got hungry for lunch, we tried the quick serve places around the pool. I checked off the List of Fun item for trying something new by trying the shawarma. I tried both the lamb and chicken. Both meats tasted the same to me. It wasn't much different from eating a taco. 

We ended up spending the whole day hanging out by the pool. We did take a break to get some  drinks of the day at the adult pool. I'll start the next update with that. 

TCD 

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Great update!

Deck 10 is where it's at!  It's way better up there than down below on Deck 9, plus deck 9 only has those half chairs.

Great job on the pre-breakfast, i had that via room service some mornings, but we didn't do it every day like we used to.

We had a similar cabin to yours, it was partially enclosed, not a full navigator cabin.  I prefer the plexi glass railing, W made me nervous trying to stand on a stool to look out.

WBI

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On 4/6/2018 at 11:48 AM, DaveInTN said:

Yes, the service and experience on DCL is phenomenal.  No argument from me, and you know I have loved my DCL cruises.  But keep in mind...you experienced all of that on a CM rate.  Over the past 2-3 years, as I have considered taking my entire family on another Disney cruise, I've seen the prices literally skyrocket.  So much so, that for us to book 2 cabins for 8 people (1 Oceanview and 1 Interior) for a 7 night Caribbean cruise on the Fantasy we'd be paying between $11-15k depending on timing!  The only conclusion I can make is that Disney is handling DCL similarly to how they are handling WDW....too many people want to vacation with them, so keep raising the prices until demand levels out a bit.  So far, demand seems to have kept pace with the increases, because many of the sailings fill up.  And those that don't get offered up with CM and Travel Agent rates to sell the remaining cabins.  It's a beautiful business plan.  But it kinda stinks for those of us who want to take their family on vacation but think spending a year's worth of college expenses on a 1 week vacation is stupid.    

I totally agree. Coming from a guy who has never been on a cruise, I can’t see dumping that much money. I have the fear of the day walking on the boat saying,”this is the best thing ever” to the day walking off the boat saying,” what the hell did I just do dumping all that money?”  We were supposed to go on a Disney cruise a few years back but we just couldn’t afford it. I agree with supply and demand but it makes a lot of people unhappy. I guess who am I to talk when camping for a week at Disney with site, food and tickets will put me back around $1600.....for CAMPING.  WTF...

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Sorry for the delay. I was at the Fort for the weekend. Yes, there will be bonus content. But for now, we are still aboard the Wonder for our sea day. 

When it got to be 5 o'clock somewhere, we grabbed our plastic DCL cups and headed to the bar. I've always heard that there was a discount associated with using these cups, but never confirmed it. I finally did. The deal is that if you present one of these plastic cups at the bar, they will fill it with the drink of the day for $5. That's a bargain by WDW standards, but I'm pretty sure that the regular price of the drink of the day is $5, and I don't think the capacity of those plastic cups is much more (if at all) than the regular cups they use to serve cocktails.

Today's drink of the day was called the Sunken Treasure. I don't remember everything that was in it- but I do recall that two of the liquors were spiced rum and midori. It was pretty in the cup:

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Twin #1 needed some possible instagram photos of her drink:

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I didn't really care for this one- there were too many competing flavors. But it was a great deal, and the bartender was not stingy with his pours. 

Throughout the afternoon, there were some things that happened on the stage beneath the movie screen. One thing was a long movie trivia game that had some good questions. And a random character would show up from time to time. Donald is somewhere down there in this photo:

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Somewhere in this timeframe, Twin#1 met pirate Stitch:

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It was a great day. We spent the whole day out on deck. Then we headed back to the cabin to get ready for pirate night. The girls were definitely going to tonight's show, but there was a showing of Black Panther in the theater right down the hall that was starting at 5. We had all already seen it- the twins twice, but I wanted to see it again, so I headed to the theater. What a great movie!  But as I sat there, I kept thinking about the chicken wings at the Crown and Fin, and how I was sitting here re-watching a movie that will be out on Bluray in a couple of months, instead of spending time with my daughters, whom I don't get to spend time with as much as I'd like. So, I snuck out of the theater and told the girls I'd go to the show with them after all. 

We are all kind of over the pirate night thing, so the extent of our costumes were the bandanas they give out for free:

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It was another beautiful evening:

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Before the show, we popped in the Crown and Fin at 5:59 pm. I expected that they'd be setting up the chicken wings, but it was the same as the night before - totally deserted.  But, just like the previous night, the same server materialized out of nowhere and told us the food was coming right out.  Weird.  Maybe they wait to see if anyone shows up before setting out the food?  In any event, that was another win.  I gulped down some wings, grabbed my pint, and we headed up to the show.  

The show tonight was called Disney Dreams.  It's about a girl who dreams about Peter Pan and flying, which allows for numerous musical dream sequences, and a predictable ending.  Definitely not my favorite DCL show, but I'm glad we went. The beer definitely helped.

After the show, there were some characters dressed in pirate gear for us to meet:

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We also spent some time on deck 4 enjoying the sunset and the wood lounge chairs they have there:

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Our dinner tonight was in Triton's restaurant, which used to be my favorite on the Wonder, but now is a distant third behind Tiana's Place and Animator's Palate. Compared to those two, Triton's seems dull. Also, we had now been aboard for over 24 hours and had eaten a lot. None of us were all that hungry. There were no extra appetizers or entrees ordered tonight. 

After dinner, we headed straight up to deck 9 for the pirate party. It was so much less crowded and more pleasant than on the Dream.

Here's a pirate selfie:

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We all agreed that we like the show and fireworks more on the Wonder than on the Dream.

As soon as the fireworks ended, we headed in to Cabanas for a look at the pirate buffet:

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It had not even been an hour since we finished dinner, so we just took one turkey leg to share, and a few dessert items. It was crowded in Cabanas, so I thought I would impress the girls by taking them down the secret staircase. They weren't impressed at all. I guess a secret staircase is nothing compared to all of the backstage stuff that they get to see every day at work. 

Our towel animal tonight was a classic:

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Since we planned to rope drop Cabanas for breakfast, and then rope drop Castaway Cay, we had a rare evening without room service, and fell asleep watching Captain America Civil War on the Marvel channel on the cabin TV. That was good prep work for next week's Infinity War movie. 

Next up- an early morning and a long day on Castaway Cay!

 TCD 

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On 4/11/2018 at 12:33 PM, Tri-Circle-D said:

Time for an update. 

Although the seas were a bit rough the first night, things had calmed when I awoke at a bit before six. I took a quick shower, and headed up to the beverage station for some coffee and a look around. 

They change the soft drink availability around from time to time. These were the choices on the Wonder:

IMG_9958_zpspla2vegu.jpg

 

IMG_9179_zpswfrljocb.jpg

 

 

TCD 

What a beautiful view!

Is that Pomegranate Lemonade on the beverage station?  If it is and is there most of the time, I might actually be able to talk DH into a Disney Cruise . :)

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On 4/11/2018 at 1:15 PM, DaveInTN said:

Any pics of chair-hogging Moms buzzing around the pool deck placing towels on chairs?

This was a strange cruise. Because of the on-board booking blackout, it was mostly first timers on this cruise. The chair hogging apparently doesn't start until those moms have one cruise under their belts. It was surprisingly chill on the pool deck all day. 

On 4/16/2018 at 11:52 AM, DaveInTN said:

If I cruised on the Wonder again, I might be convinced to skip Triton's and just hang out at Crown and Fin eating wings and guzzling beer.  

You're a genius. I'll bet that bar is fun when there are guests in it. 

On 4/16/2018 at 11:58 AM, Mrs.TN22 said:

What a beautiful view!

Is that Pomegranate Lemonade on the beverage station?  If it is and is there most of the time, I might actually be able to talk DH into a Disney Cruise . :)

Yes, that's pomegranate lemonade. And it's "free!"  That's a great reason to cruise!

 TCD 

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6 minutes ago, DaveInTN said:

INC and I were in it one night when it was absolutely packed.  It was later in the evening and they were doing a trivia night thing.  That was fun.  

Both times we stopped by the Crown and Fin up to this point on the cruise, we were the only guests in there. I haven't gotten to our third night - which happened to coincide with the Final Four basketball games on Saturday night, March 31st. That packed the house. 

TCD 

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