The Disney Wonder

In January of this year, we still hadn’t made any travel plans for spring break.  This was not due to procrastination; a friend and I had submitted a proposal to present at the state math conference and we were waiting to hear if it had been accepted.  Since the conference falls over the second weekend of my spring break – this coming weekend – any travel would have to fit within a very specific few days.

Our proposal was accepted, and from there, travel planning began.  We started looking at different places to visit, and just for the heck of it, we decided to look at Disney cruises.  We were sure that if there were even a cruise during the time (a long shot in and of itself), there would be no availability.  And let me explain that had this turned out to be the case, we would not have been heartbroken.  We had never been on a cruise of any sort, and had only flirted with idea of a Disney cruise to check more items off our Disney to-do list.  We have never for a single moment considered ourselves “cruise people” and “cruising” is not something that has ever been particularly appealing to us.

Well, as fate would have it, there was a cruise that worked out perfectly with our time constraints.  Perfectly.  The cruise left Friday and returned Wednesday, meaning I could go to class on Thursday, we could leave for the cruise, return home late Wednesday night, and I could go to the conference Thursday through Saturday.  We could not have timed it better, so we checked the availability of our beloved Fairy Dogmother, and then booked it.  While we were excited, we also had a sense of trepidation because we really didn’t know what to expect, despite reading what we could find online.

Fast forward to the end of February, when Ginny started having back pain.  We immediately questioned whether we should go or not, and we remained in this state of limbo until the day we were scheduled to leave.  As I have already written about, our family was fantastic and insisted we go, so we left Ginny and her post-surgery care in the excellent hands of my mom and hit the road to Florida once I got home from class last Thursday night.

We left our house at 9:00 pm and drove through the night, much of it in torrential rain.  We arrived in Miami at 12:30 pm on Friday, parked, checked in, and were on the ship at 2:00 pm.  Yes, we do realize how crazy that was!

On to the cruise…

We had a wonderful time.  We still do not consider ourselves “cruise people,” but we certainly loved it.  Better than we had anticipated, which is always a pleasant surprise – our expectations were exceeded at every turn.

after being up for almost 36 hours, I was more than ready for the ship to set sail just so I could take a nap

First off, our room was great – much more spacious than we thought it would be, and ours was located on deck 7 and had a private verandah.  The stargazing we were able to do from our verandah was amazing – millions of stars were visible – and we returned from dinner each night to find an adorable towel creature waiting for us!

The service was impeccable.  IMPECCABLE.  The most attentive and personable staff we have ever encountered – they put regular Disney employees to shame with how they treated us.  We were blown away from the moment we walked onto the ship until the moment we walked off.  Seriously.  I know I rave about Disney stuff all the time, but this level of service is unmatched even in the Disney realm.

Case in point:  One of our biggest fears about the cruise was how the dining was going to work.  Not only the menus (which we were also worried about since we are vegetarians), but the actual seating arrangements.  To be honest, we were not interested in making friends or meeting new people and as such, had no desire to dine with others.  We just wanted to hang out with one another!  On the first night, we shared this with the head server, and he immediately got us a private table that was ours for the entire cruise.  He met with us throughout the cruise to see if our food had been prepared to our liking and to preview the next day’s menu with us and special order anything we wanted if we didn’t see something on the menu that struck our fancy.  We had the same pair of servers for each of our sit-down meals who were funny and charming and took great care to make sure everything was perfect.  It was great to get to know them and discuss travel with them.

Our main restaurant was Triton’s, whose theme was The Little Mermaid, but we also had dinner at Parrot Cay, and our favorite, Animator’s Palate.  We loved Animator’s Palate because it was the one thing we were really looking forward to on the cruise.  The restaurant starts off black and white, with the staff dressed in black and white and the menus in black and white.  As the meal progresses, color is slowly added to the lighting and artwork all around the restaurant, and by the end of the meal, everything is in full color and the staff’s attire and the menus are colorful as well.  Sorcerer Mickey makes an appearance and the staff dances with him to the soundtrack of Fantasmic!  We absolutely loved it.  Room service was amazing as well, particularly the secret item not listed on the menu – Mickey ice cream bars.  If you know me, you know these are one of my favorite things to eat in the entire world, so to be able to pick up the phone and have them in hand minutes later was awesome.

 

The ship itself is beautiful.  We had such a great time just roaming around and exploring all it had to offer.  Given that I always have homework – always – we were able to find quiet spots all over the ship where I could read or type with little distraction.  The bars and lounges were great for this, as they were typically pretty empty and away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the ship.  One of my favorite nights was when we skipped the pirate party (we could not have been less interested in that loud chaos!) to hang out in the Cadillac Lounge where we were two of only five people in the entire place and the pianist chatted with C and played our requests while I read.  Such a perfect night.  Around the ship the next day, various crew members asked if we had enjoyed the pirate party the night before, and when we told them we had skipped it in favor of the Cadillac Lounge, the general consensus from them was that we’d made a very wise choice.  We were pretty pleased with ourselves.

This particular cruise did not go to Disney’s island, Castaway Cay, but it did go to Grand Cayman Island and Cozumel, Mexico.  We did an excursion at each of these ports, even though this is not really our idea of authentic sightseeing.  The Grand Cayman excursion was to a turtle farm where they breed and release green turtles.  The turtles were beautiful and I loved seeing them up close and holding the little ones.  I felt terrible about that decision afterwards because I don't really want to support any organization that exploits animals for profit in anyway (dolphin encounters and the like), and afterwards I heard some less than flattering information about the turtle farm.  Lesson learned - we will thoroughly research a place before visiting it. The excursion to Cozumel the next day was quite good – we saw some Mayan ruins, took a tequila tour (during which the tour guide gave a shout out to not only the Leafs, but also to the Canadian men’s hockey team for winning the gold medal), and visited a Mexican heritage museum.  Not sure we would do any excursions in the future, though…we just loved the ship so much and felt like the time we spent on the excursions would have been more enjoyable on the ship.

of course

Cruises seem to be known for their entertainment, and the Disney Wonder was no exception.  There was live theater each night and character appearances throughout each day.  We went to the live show on the first night, but did not see any of the others, although there were simultaneously broadcast on the TVs in case you wanted to see them while hanging out in your room.  Instead of the live shows, we went to the movies twice.  Yep, the movies!  The movie theater on board was stunning and showed Disney movies throughout the day – Planes, Monsters University, Thor, Saving Mr. Banks, and Frozen (regular, 3D, and sing-along versions!).  We saw Frozen in 3D and Saving Mr. Banks – and can I just say I have no idea who votes for the Academy Awards, but how Saving Mr. Banks was passed over, I will never understand.  Emma Thompson was brilliant.

Finally, the highlight of the cruise for me was something so simple, yet so wonderful – truly my personal definition of paradise:  non-stop Disney movies on the TV in our room.  One channel for Disney movies, one channel for Pixar movies, and one channel dedicated to documentaries about Disney and Pixar.  Between these three channels and Mickey ice cream bars being delivered, there was almost no reason to ever leave the room.  I was so happy!  So very happy!  Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Hercules, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Bambi, Lilo and Stitch, Fantasia, Robin Hood, Lion King, Mulan, Lady and the Tramp, Toy Story, Cars, A Bug’s Life, Ratatouille, Wall-E, Cars 2, Monsters, Inc., Toy Story 3, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles…and these are the ones I can remember!  There was also a Disney music channel that showed clips from movies around the clock.  I have only one question:  how can I get these channels at home?!?

We left Miami at 10:30 am in 85 degree weather and arrived home at 3:00 am in 30 degree weather.  We were greeted by some very happy gals upon our arrival and are so grateful for my mom’s excellent care because Ginny looks spectacular!

Happy Tails to you!