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!
Here is a picture of the terminal as we were pulling in:

I just love the seat fabric on the bus.

 

[TheMouseFan]

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!!

I'm really going to try to figure something out to get myself on that cruise!!

He didn't leave that shirt on any longer than he had to! He kept asking if he could take it off! I swear, he's worse than the kids!

I really wanted to try the chocolate souffle, but Brian just wasn't feeling the fancy dining this time, so I didn't push it! Something to look forward to next time!

 

[angieandtrevor]

Funny story. I was down at WDW at the beginning of the month to run the 10 mile Tower of Terror run with 2 of my girlfriends from high school. We spent our last day at MK (the 6th) and I saw you and your hubby in the line at the Little Mermaid. I was going to say hi but my friends told me that would creepy, haha - they don't get it so I didn't say anything but I did see you .

Enjoying your review, looks like you guys had a great trip. Can't wait to read more !!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Funny story. I was down at WDW at the beginning of the month to run the 10 mile Tower of Terror run with 2 of my girlfriends from high school. We spent our last day at MK (the 6th) and I saw you and your hubby in the line at the Little Mermaid. I was going to say hi but my friends told me that would creepy, haha - they don't get it so I didn't say anything but I did see you .

Enjoying your review, looks like you guys had a great trip. Can't wait to read more !!

You should have said hi! I wouldn't have thought it creepy at all!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Thursday, October 2
Today was Castaway Cay day #1!! I was so excited for Brian to get to experience CC! He loved it as much as I did!

We slept in a little bit today to make up for our extra early wake up time yesterday! We were still early enough to see the sun starting to come up.

We enjoyed our view from the verandah for a little while before going up for breakfast.




I loved this mural that was behind the elevators on our deck.

We had a leisurely breakfast in Beach Blanket Buffet. It was hopping, and we ended up having to sit inside.

Then I had to take a few more pics from up top.



One more from the verandah when we were in the room getting changed into our swimsuits.

 

[DisneyMorgan]

Great start to the report

Sigh. I so want to go to Castaway Cay. We are going to WDW next October and I was so tempted to book a quick Bahamas cruise, but they didn't have any during the time we were going

I so can't wait to get on a Disney cruise though!! For my college graduation we are doing an Alaskan cruise on the Wonder, and your pics are making me so excited!!

Glad your hubby got to go with you this time And NO kids! Wahoo!! Lol

 

[TheMouseFan]

Great start to the report

Sigh. I so want to go to Castaway Cay. We are going to WDW next October and I was so tempted to book a quick Bahamas cruise, but they didn't have any during the time we were going

I so can't wait to get on a Disney cruise though!! For my college graduation we are doing an Alaskan cruise on the Wonder, and your pics are making me so excited!!

Glad your hubby got to go with you this time And NO kids! Wahoo!! Lol

Thanks! Castaway Cay is incredible! It's too bad it didn't work out for you next October! I soooo want to do the Alaskan itinerary on the Wonder! I need to start saving now though to get all 5 of us on that trip!!

 

[TheMouseFan]

We were on the island at about 8:45 am.


We stopped to get this picture taken.

Then I somehow convinced Brian to go back to the post office and wait to meet Donald who was due to be out at 9:00.


We then started making our way to the beach.

 

[TheMouseFan]

We stopped to meet the main man himself!


Then a quick stop to meet Pluto before continuing on our way.



We chose a spot on the family beach right next to the family cabana beach. This was our spot first thing that morning:

I switched over to my waterproof camera at this point so we could get into the ocean. The water was really choppy that morning, but it was so nice!

The other part of the family beach was a little more crowded.

Notice the lack of people in the water! It stayed like that for a good long time that morning!


Cabana beach:


Our beach (with my lone bag on a chair!):

 

[TheMouseFan]

We pulled chairs down into the water and just relaxed!






About the time everyone started showing up on the beaches, the thunder rolled in and the skies looked menacing. We headed up to Cookies Too to sit under the shelter.

The view from my seat.

Brian was nice enough to go get me a banana soft serve ice cream cone while we waited.

He was a little stingy with the ice cream!! Oh well, it hit the spot! It was still too early for them to serve lunch and they started closing the beaches down, so we decided to head back to the ship for lunch instead of waiting to eat at the exact same time as everyone else on the island! We made a quick stop into one of the stores for me to make some purchases, and it was starting to rain when we came out. We weren't too concerned because we were already wet! Well, about halfway there, the skies just opened and we got drenched! We just threw our towels over our shoulders and walked a little faster. I stopped quickly to grab my camera and get this pic:

They were handing out warm, dry towels as we entered the ship and taking our cold, wet ones. We hurried to our room and changed for lunch.

 

[TheMouseFan]

You two are beyond adorable. At least you got some good time in before the rain came down!

Thank you! We got lots more good time in after the rain too!!

 

[TheMouseFan]

We headed to Parrot Cay for lunch. I thought it would be a buffet, but when we got there they told us it would be a la carte. Ok, not what we expected, but it was what it was!


I wasn't a huge fan of the decor, but I did love the wall sconces.

I ordered the penne pasta with garlic shrimp and Brian ordered a cheeseburger.

Neither was bad, but not really good either. I was a little upset that they opened the buffet line just as we got our food.
We headed back to the room to decide what to do next. It had cleared up a little bit.

So we got back into our suits and decided to go to Serenity Bay. We opted to walk instead of take the tram. Man, it was a lot further than I remember it being!




I took this next pic just in case I forgot later.

 

[mrdrift]

What a beautiful island that Castaway Cay is. All of your pictures turned out really good. Of course all the character pictures turned out nice also. I so want an ice cream cone due to that pictures you have shown us, even if it was kind of small. Following along.

 

[TheMouseFan]

What a beautiful island that Castaway Cay is. All of your pictures turned out really good. Of course all the character pictures turned out nice also. I so want an ice cream cone due to that pictures you have shown us, even if it was kind of small. Following along.

Castaway Cay truly is beautiful. That banana soft serve was delicious. I may have eaten several of them during our two visits to the island!

 

[TheMouseFan]

We continued our walk toward Serenity Bay.





We finally made it!

And it was packed!! Not an empty chair to be found and wall to wall people on the beach! In fact, I ran into @sweetpee_1993 the next day and she was telling me that they ran out of food that day because there were so many people!!

So we turned around and caught the tram back to the family beach!
It was almost empty on "our" stretch of the beach when we returned!


We kind of, sort of got the Wonder in the background!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

OMGosh! We totally had Parrot Cay for lunch on the first CC day, too! And we received our plates right around the time the buffet opened. We both had the bbq rib salad which was excellent. We loved it. We were totally satisfied that we got the better dish over the standard buffet fare. Also, we had that apple-whatever cake dessert. It was so good we ordered seconds of it! LOL!

We totally did CC wrong on this cruise! We shoulda been with y'all! On the first 5-night we did (9/26 sailing) the family beaches had lots of people and Serenity Bay wasn't as packed. Serenity Bay was busy but not packed. We couldn't really "camp" at SB for the first cruise because we had the boys with us. Brian is still 16 so we didn't want to abandon him. On the 2nd cruise (10/1 sailing) the boys were gone. It was just us. So we were determined to really *DO* Serenity Bay. Too bad the ship was mostly adults by then! Ugh! It was so packed out at SB! Plus, I think as we got into the 2nd sailing we'd already been to Castaway twice (well, me 3x). We were kinda getting where we were "over" being hot or in the sun as time went on. I know I was getting very intolerant of snorkeling with my eyes burning from all the sunblock. It got where we simply weren't sweating it out hiking around to hunt for a place to get. We just went for a/c and adult drinks. LOL!

I swear it's like all the stuff I knew about the rhythm of Castaway was so off on the 2nd 5-night because of the adult:kids ratio being so unusual. It was really odd!

 

[TheMouseFan]

OMGosh! We totally had Parrot Cay for lunch on the first CC day, too! And we received our plates right around the time the buffet opened. We both had the bbq rib salad which was excellent. We loved it. We were totally satisfied that we got the better dish over the standard buffet fare. Also, we had that apple-whatever cake dessert. It was so good we ordered seconds of it! LOL!

We totally did CC wrong on this cruise! We shoulda been with y'all! On the first 5-night we did (9/26 sailing) the family beaches had lots of people and Serenity Bay wasn't as packed. Serenity Bay was busy but not packed. We couldn't really "camp" at SB for the first cruise because we had the boys with us. Brian is still 16 so we didn't want to abandon him. On the 2nd cruise (10/1 sailing) the boys were gone. It was just us. So we were determined to really *DO* Serenity Bay. Too bad the ship was mostly adults by then! Ugh! It was so packed out at SB! Plus, I think as we got into the 2nd sailing we'd already been to Castaway twice (well, me 3x). We were kinda getting where we were "over" being hot or in the sun as time went on. I know I was getting very intolerant of snorkeling with my eyes burning from all the sunblock. It got where we simply weren't sweating it out hiking around to hunt for a place to get. We just went for a/c and adult drinks. LOL!

I swear it's like all the stuff I knew about the rhythm of Castaway was so off on the 2nd 5-night because of the adult:kids ratio being so unusual. It was really odd!

I guess we just ordered the wrong things at Parrot Cay. Now I'm wishing we had ordered dessert!

We loved the part of the beach we were on! There were a few kids, but it was mostly empty the entire time we were there, especially the first day. I think more people moved from SB to the family beach that second day. I certainly don't blame them!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Brian decided he wanted to lay out in the sun for awhile. I stayed in my chair in the water. After a little while, I joined him on the beach, but I stayed in the shade. I walked along the beach and got a few pics.



The view from our chairs:


Then I decided to spend a few last minutes in the sun.

At about 3:00, we decided it was time to head in. We stopped and spent a few minutes relaxing on a hammock. Here was our view:


Then we started the walk back to the ship.

 

[TheMouseFan]

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!

We'll keep our fingers crossed and hope for pixie dust to get you onboard for keepsies!

Ok, I think I've figured out a way to get myself on that cruise! Just last week Brian asked me if I wanted to combine our birthday, anniversary, and Christmas gifts (my bday is Nov. 22, his is Jan. 23, our anniversary is Dec. 19) or do individual gifts. He has decided that he wants a Playstation 4, so I think that even though we aren't even talking about the same price realm, I may have to see if he would let me do the cruise for my combined gift. Besides, I will need a little me time by September, as he will be living in an apartment in Columbus during the week while I am home in Dayton with the kids for the whole 7 months he is in the fire academy! I'll have to start working on that angle with him! The only thing would be that I would need a roommate. I know my mom would love to go with me, but I'll need someone to stay home with the kids because Brian will have 24 hours on and 48 hours off and wouldn't have any vacation time built up yet. Hmmm, I'll definitely have to start trying to set this up!

 

[TheMouseFan]

A few last pics of CC from the verandah.


I loved the lampshades next to the beds. They had a castle on each coast!

Brian decided to sit and watch a movie on TV while I went to Shutters for something. I can't seem to remember why I went there, I just know that was my destination! Along the way, I found these paintings that I need on my walls at home.










Then it was time to leave Castaway Cay.


Luckily, we would be returning in a few days time!!

 

[TheMouseFan]

We relaxed on the verandah until it was time for the show. I insisted Brian go to this one with me.

It was cute, but I'm not in any rush to see it again!
Then back to the room to get dressed for dinner. We once again got to see the beautiful sunset.

We got our picture taken again before dinner.

The Halloween tree had pumpkins today!

Dinner time!