Trip Report Our Wonder-ful October 2014 cruise and Magic Kingdom day

Hi all! We are back.:( But we had an incredible time and I can't wait to share it with you all!

First up, introductions! This was a kid free trip with just myself, Amy, and my husband, Brian. We were on a 5 night Castaway Cay double dip cruise on the Wonder starting October 1, followed by one day in the Magic Kingdom before flying home.
Here we are in DHS during my 40th birthday trip last November.


Wednesday, October 1
Our day started way too early when the alarm went off at 3:15 am! The fact we were going to Disney made it a little bit easier to get out of bed, but not much!! We were pulling out of our driveway by 4:25 am to make the drive to Columbus to catch our 7 am flight. We boarded our flight and pulled away from the gate right at 7 am. It was still dark on the ground, but once we were in the air we could see the sun rising.

The flight was uneventful, and before we knew it, we were on the ground in Orlando. I took a quick break to change from jeans to shorts, then we took our first ride of the trip!

Ok, so it wasn't a very exciting ride, but the kids always consider it the first ride!!
We quickly made our way to this sign:

And followed the signs until we found this one:

There was no line, so they checked us in and sent us right out to the waiting bus. It was pretty full, but we found a seat about 1/3 of the way back. Unfortunately, it had one of the "stickers" covering most of the window which made it hard to get good pictures! Our bus and the one right next to it pulled out very shortly after we boarded, which was about 9:30 am. I was able to get this pic of the other bus as it was pulling out.

It seemed like no time at all before the driver was telling us to look out the windows to see the Wonder. There she is:


I may have been bouncing in my seat like a little kid at that point!:oops:
Here is a picture of the terminal as we were pulling in:

I just love the seat fabric on the bus.
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Then we did a quick "drive by" of the Buena Vista Theater to check out movie times.

Cute Minnie jack o lantern on the Port Adventures desk.


Then we found the tween club, Edge.




I overheard one of the children's activities CMs in the terminal say there were only 450 kids on our cruise! Having said that, I felt like the kids that were present, were much louder and the parents less attentive than during our cruise in June! Especially during the shows. I can only imagine what the early dining experience was like! Luckily, the children we had near us at the late dining were very well mannered and quiet!
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I saw you when you walked outside at the terminal! I instantly recognized you! But I didn't wanna be all stalkerish either and wasn't sure what your hubs would think so I contained myself. Seriously tho, I love meeting friends. Next time just run up and hug me. I won't mind not one bit. I'll prob'ly loooove it...being all pseudo-famous and all. LOL! What am I saying, tho??? I'll be seeing ya in less than a year! Can't wait!!!!
Brian wouldn't have minded at all! He's used to all kinds of crazy things when it comes to me! I wish I was going to be seeing you! I'm assuming you are speaking of the girls' cruise? I would love to go, but Brian will just be finishing the fire academy and I'm not sure how that is going to work out. I'm still trying to figure a way that my mom and I can go! Keeping my fingers crossed!
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
It was finally time for us to check out our stateroom.

This was waiting on the bed for us:


The only complaint I had about the room was that the bathrooms seemed much smaller to me than the ones on the Dream. I don't know if it was the way the door opened or what, but I always felt like I didn't have enough elbow room, especially in the side with the toilet.




Loved this picture that was in the room:
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Our luggage was not there yet, so we headed back up to decks 9 and 10 to explore some more before the muster drill.














Then we made our way back down to deck 4 to our muster drill station. We were directly in the sun, and they made us get so close to the people beside us. It was really uncomfortable, and lasted longer than it should have since people apparently thought it wasn't important to show up on time!
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Next up was the Adventures Away party. We were up on deck 10 to enjoy it, but we really didn't stand in one place to watch it.


Instead, we were intrigued that the Wonder did a pirouette in the water and switched which side was facing the terminal. Apparently, they were loading some sort of equipment onto the ship! It was about this time that we ran into @wogwog and had a nice little chat! It was so cool meeting people that I "know" from here!

Then it was finally time to truly leave and we had to turn around yet again. We saw these guys playing in the water as we were leaving.


Unfortunately, my pictures didn't turn out too well, but they were fun to watch!
We bounced back and forth between port and starboard as we were leaving.






 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Brian decided that he didn't want to watch the show that night, so I didn't push it! There were certain things that were non-negotiable for me, so when he didn't want to do something that I didn't really care about, I just let it go. I had to choose my battles wisely!! (Doesn't it sound like I should be talking about my kids!?!) So, we just relaxed on the verandah until it was time to get ready for dinner. We took a quick verandah selfie ala @prfctlyximprct before heading down for the Story behind Halloween and dinner.

Beautiful sunset that we saw before leaving the room.


I nicely asked Brian to get a picture taken in the atrium and he begrudgingly complied.

We then relaxed out on Deck 4 while waiting for dinner time.

Dinner was at Triton's.





The photographer came around at some point during dinner.
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We met our server, Anthony, from Jamaica and our assistant server, Elle, from Australia. Both were wonderful!

We started with the bread.

We both chose the breaded and deep fried brie for appetizers. This ended up being Brian's favorite and my second favorite appetizer of the trip. It was delicious!

We both chose the potage parmentier (or potato leek soup). It was good, but nothing special.

I chose the lobster macaroni and Brian chose the chateubriand roasted filet for our entrees. Both were good.


The filet was the same one I ordered at Royal Palace on the Dream in June. The soup was the same also, so even though they aren't the same dining rooms, the dishes definitely cross over the ships.
For dessert, I chose the Grand Marnier souffle which ended up being my favorite dessert of the trip.

Brian got the strawberry shortcake sundae and wished he had ordered the souffle!

We were at a table by ourselves, which is what we had requested. There was a couple and their daughter at the table next to us. The mother was curious about me taking pictures of our food. She kind of turned her nose up at it, and then she had to be sure to tell us how many cruises she had been on and how many of them were DCL, etc. Brian later took to calling them the "hoitie toities"! It became a running joke with us and I had to laugh every time we saw them on the ship!!
We were exhausted at that point since our day had started at 3:15 am,so we headed back to the room to turn in for the night. We had this waiting for us:
 

wogwog

Well-Known Member
Thanks for posting great pix. I take few and not very good pix. It was fun putting a face to @TheMouseFan and also seeing @sweetpee_1993 again. I find it comforting that I am not the only adult sailing without kids who has to tour the kid area every cruise. I don't think hubby will be reluctant to sail again.

Next for us December on the Magic.
 
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TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thanks for posting great pix. I take few and not very good pix. It was fun putting a face to @TheMouseFan and also seeing @sweetpee again. I find it comforting that I am not the only adult sailing without kids who has to tour the kid area every cruise. I don't think hubby will be reluctant to sail again.

Next for us December on the Magic.
He will definitely not hesitate to sail again!! I love seeing the kids areas! We had to scout them out in case we do bring the kids back!
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Brian wouldn't have minded at all! He's used to all kinds of crazy things when it comes to me! I wish I was going to be seeing you! I'm assuming you are speaking of the girls' cruise? I would love to go, but Brian will just be finishing the fire academy and I'm not sure how that is going to work out. I'm still trying to figure a way that my mom and I can go! Keeping my fingers crossed!

Ohhhhhh, that would be super awesome if you could go! I just decided last week that I'm going, too! :) Hopefully you can find a way to make it work!

Loving all your pics so far!! And LOVE the DCL shirts you two are sportin'!

Pet peeve: people who are late for muster drill! They make sure you KNOW where and when to be there and yet some people STILL can't comprehend. In fact, on our first cruise, the 2 guys in the room next to ours didn't even go. Not sure what happened to them or if they got into any trouble, but they NEVER left their room. We never saw them. They had the do not disturb on their door the entire time. And hey, all the power to them if they want to stay in their stateroom the whole time but why bother to pay all that money for a cruise when all you do is sit in your room? You could go to a Motel 6 or Super 8 for MUCH cheaper than DCL! I digress though...

Grand Marnier souffle = my favorite dessert in the main dining rooms. On our cruise in February, we had dinner at Palo on night 3and tried the chocolate souffle. The next night when we went back to regular dining, we were in Animator’s and our waiter asked how we liked Palo. We told him we LOVED it and that the chocolate souffle was so good. He remembered from Royal Palace that I ordered the soufflé but Ashley didn’t like it so he was surprised to hear Ashley ordered the chocolate one adn liked it. She said it was because it was chocolate and she likes chocolate, not vanilla. So when dessert came around, he went to Royal Palace and came back with 2 Grand Marnier soufflés plus chocolate sauce instead of the vanilla for us. He thought Ashley would like to try it with chocolate on top. It was really awesome of him to do that.

Can't wait to read more!! :)
 
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sweetpee_1993

Well-Known Member
Brian wouldn't have minded at all! He's used to all kinds of crazy things when it comes to me! I wish I was going to be seeing you! I'm assuming you are speaking of the girls' cruise? I would love to go, but Brian will just be finishing the fire academy and I'm not sure how that is going to work out. I'm still trying to figure a way that my mom and I can go! Keeping my fingers crossed!
We'll keep our fingers crossed and hope for pixie dust to get you onboard for keepsies! :)
 

Maggie Mae

Active Member
HOLY MOLY! How very exciting! I have been as excited for your trip report as I am getting down to the nitty gritty for my trip in 22 day! Can't wait to read some more!
 

mrdrift

Well-Known Member
What a wonderful start to the cruise. All of the pictures are really beautiful. You sure captured alot of the ship on just the first day. I tell you that all the food so far looks really good. I'm adding a Disney cruise to my bucket list. Will be watching for more of this trip.
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
What a wonderful start to the cruise. All of the pictures are really beautiful. You sure captured alot of the ship on just the first day. I tell you that all the food so far looks really good. I'm adding a Disney cruise to my bucket list. Will be watching for more of this trip.
Thanks! The food WAS really good! All of it! I think everyone should experience a Disney cruise at least once!
 

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