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]

We both ordered the black truffle pasta purseittes for our appetizers. I was so upset when I looked online and these were not on the menu, so I was super excited to actually see them on there! They were so good!!

This was by far my favorite appetizer of the trip. Brian ranked it as his second favorite, behind the brie from the previous night.
The dining room was starting to change colors at that point.



We both ordered the baked potato and cheddar soup. Apparently, I forgot to take a picture, but here is one from our June trip:

It was delicious!
I ordered the pennete bolognese for my entree. It was just okay.

Brian ordered the lemon thyme chicken. It was delicious!

The pictures continued to change throughout the meal.


I had the Sweet Temptations for dessert. It included white chocolate cheesecake, mango mousse, and a lemon raspberry tart.

Brian got the white chocolate cheesecake.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Our assistant server had some mind games for us. She lined these crayons up for us:

And we had to move 2 crayons to make 7 squares out of the 5 that were currently there. It took us awhile, but we finally figured it out.

Then she gave us this one:

We had to move 1 crayon to make 4 triangles. We thought we had it figured out:

It was 4 triangles, but the answer was really to move the red crayon from the first triangle down to actually form the number 4.
The evening ended with a visit from Sorcerer Mickey.

Another view of the Halloween tree:

Then we went for a stroll on Decks 9 and 10.



Then back to our room to find this:

 

[TheMouseFan]

Love the mind games!!

Those photos you liked so much are available as puzzles. It's the Thomas Kinkade Dreams series. They make 10 puzzles, 2 different sizes. I love them!

I know, I've been thinking of getting the puzzles! I almost bought the one of Cinderella's Castle that they have at WDW.

 

[prfctlyximprct]

Your photos make me feel like I'm there with you. Thank you so much for sharing. I love your report and have goosebumps!!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Your photos make me feel like I'm there with you. Thank you so much for sharing. I love your report and have goosebumps!!

Thank you! And you're welcome!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Friday, October 3
Today was our at sea day, so we slept in quite a bit later than we had on Castaway Cay day. This was our view from the verandah when we woke up:

We saw what we assumed was Miami for quite some time.

Then we headed up to Beach Blanket Buffet for breakfast.

I was so excited to see the Mickey waffles. I saved them for last, and then they weren't very good! They weren't necessarily bad, they just were not the same as the ones at WDW. And,yes, that's a Coke with my breakfast! I don't do coffee, so I have to get my caffeine somehow!
Then we did some shopping, as well as taking in the decorations for the Golden Mickeys.


We went back to the room to drop off our purchases. One of the things Brian talked me into buying was a new Chamilia charm.

It was a little too bright out for this picture.

Then we spent quite a bit of time strolling around deck 4.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Brian next wanted to go up to decks 9 and 10 to explore.
We had to check out where we had been:

and where we were going:

There was no way we could not go into the arcade to see what they had in there.



It's never too early for ice cream! I tried the strawberry/mango this time. It was pretty good.

Then down to decks 4 and 5 for some more chandelier and atrium pics.


We spotted Jake, but had no intention of meeting him.








In case you couldn't tell, or you forgot that I already told you, I REALLY loved that chandelier!!

 

[TheMouseFan]

All that walking made us hungry. We decided to have pizza for lunch.

I had the Hawaiian pizza and Brian had the BBQ chicken pizza. I didn't get a pic of Brian's before he inhaled it, but here is the Hawaiian:

Then we went back to the room to relax. Brian watched some TV and napped while I read a book on the verandah. I think I may have napped a little as well that afternoon.
I really didn't give Brian much choice about our next activity...Mickey in his Halloween costume! We got down there early, so I was able to get some more pics while we were waiting in line.







I then noticed that Goofy was also in his Halloween costume even though he wasn't listed that way in the Navigator. Well, everyone ended up being in costume, so I had to meet them all! The only ones we didn't get our pics taken with were Chip and Dale because there set didn't start until our dinner time.



Pluto was very playful between people.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Brian decided he didn't want to see the Golden Mickeys, so we went back to the room to get into our costumes for the festivities that night. We watched the sunset again.








Then we headed downstairs for the next installment of the Halloween story. The jack o lanterns on the tree were lit.




Then we joined the huge line to get our picture taken in our costumes.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Dinner was at Parrot Cay.

I ordered the baked crab Martinique for my appetizer.

Brian got the jerk chicken tenderloins. It doesn't look very appetizing, but it was really good!

I went with the spiced tomato soup.

Brian tried the cream of green asparagus soup and did not care for it.

For entrees, I ordered the Caribbean roasted chicken, and Brian got the mixed grill which was steak, lamb, shrimp, and bacon wrapped sausage.


That night they brought us a special anniversary dessert which was a chocolate mousse and sang to us. Elle decided we needed a picture of us together.

Then Anthony decided to have some fun with my camera. He wouldn't let me look at any of the pictures until after we had left. Here is what he got:


Then we ate our dessert. I ordered the Sweet Temptations which included chocolate cake, strawberry cheesecake, and paradise coconut pineapple layered cake. Brian got the strawberry cheesecake.


Before we left, Anthony decided we needed another photo shoot.

 

[TheMouseFan]

The Mousequerade dance party was next.

We went to the adult costume party, and turned right back around because there were so many people in the lounge that you couldn't even move! We just wanted to check it out anyway, so it wasn't worth it to us to fight the crowds. Instead, we went back to the room to get some sleep for our early morning. This was waiting for us when we returned:

 

[TheMouseFan]

Saturday, Oct. 4
We had to be up early today for our excursion, so we ordered room service the night before to arrive at 6-6:30 this morning. We ordered fruit and pastries, but I forgot to get any pics. A quick peek at Key West when we first pulled in:

We were out the door and on our way to the Walt Disney theater for Customs by 7 am. They started allowing people into the theater at about 7:30 or so, and took us maybe 5 minutes since we were some of the first people through. Luckily, we had time to return our passports to our room before leaving the ship to check in for our excursion. It was getting lighter outside when we left the ship at about 7:45.



We got all checked in for our jet ski tour, and then had about 1/2 hour to wander around before we had to be back for the start of the tour.

 

[TheMouseFan]

They had someone there taking pictures of everyone. I, of course, was a sucker and purchased ours.



I took lots of pics from the jet ski.









Crossing under the bridge into the Atlantic Ocean:

 

[TheMouseFan]

Then we took a break on a sand bar. We all just drove up onto it, and let our jet skis just drift while we relaxed in the water.


Notice Brian's hat in that last pic? That was the last time he saw it this trip, as it blew off his head as we approached the Wonder on our return. The waves were really bad and one caught him right in the face and took the hat off. He was very upset to start, but he got over it much quicker than I thought he would!



A Bahamian sea star:

You can see the Wonder's smoke stacks in the distance in this pic:


We were back a few minutes after 10 am and went back to our room to shower and get ready for the rest of the day.

 

[TheMouseFan]

After getting cleaned up, we called the kids since we had cell service. It was funny to look up at the ship when we were ashore and see all of the people on the verandahs on their phones, whether it was making calls or using the internet! I took a few pics while Brian was talking to the kids.


We decided to just walk around and take in the sights and do some shopping. We contemplated taking one of the trolleys, but decided we would do that some other time, as Brian had already decided we were going to come back to Key West with the kids in the future! We mainly explored the shops at the Westin, Mallory Square and Duval St.



The Hard Rock Cafe:


We finally decided to eat at Margaritaville because I was craving a cheeseburger.


We both had burgers, and I got fries and Brian got onion rings and we shared. It was nothing fantastic, but it was exactly what I was wanting at the moment!
Then we set out to find...


It was delicious! Brian is trying to figure out how to get some at our house since I refuse to pay the shipping charges!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Then we just wandered some more on our way back to the Wonder.


This Walgreens cracked me up:

 

[TheMouseFan]

We returned to our room to relax a little that afternoon. We passed this porthole in the Promenade lounge on our way through deck 4:

Here are some last pics of Key West as we were pulling away:

 

[TheMouseFan]

Brian decided he wanted to watch Guardians of the Galaxy that afternoon. I wanted to see Pirate Mickey and Minnie, but because I had already seen them in June, I went with him to the movie. After the movie, I did make him meet some other characters with me. Here is the Halloween tree from our vantage point in line to meet the first of the characters:


We returned to our room to watch the sunset from our verandah. Here is our view one direction:

And here is the view the other direction:

We had our picture taken again before dinner:


Then I convinced Brian to wait in line with me to meet Jack Sparrow.

Dinner was at Triton's again.


We had a special pirate menu that night.

I ordered the pot stickers for my appetizer and Brian ordered the sun-ripened pineapple. I forgot to take a pic of mine until I had already eaten one of the pot stickers, and I totally forgot to get one of Brian's pineapple.

Next, I had the jerk chicken salad and Brian had the conch chowder.


Our entrees were Captain Hook's Macadamia Nut Dusted Mahi Mahi and the short ribs.


Dessert menu:

I had the fruit cobbler.

Brian had the Sweet Temptations which was the fruit cobbler, rum soaked chocolate cake, and coconut cream treasure.

And Anthony brought a full sized portion of the dessert that he recommended, the chocolate cake.

I didn't much care for it because I could really taste the alcohol.
A quick pic of Ariel on our way out:

 

[TheMouseFan]

We made a quick trip to our room and found this:

Then we made our way up to deck 10 to enjoy the Pirates in the Caribbean party.







The fireworks were much more off to the side of the ship than they seemed to be on the Dream. We easily could have seen them from the verandah this time, which I kind of wish we had done!



We were exhausted from our early wake up that morning, so Brian wanted to skip the pirate buffet. I would have liked to go, but I didn't feel like battling the crowds on my own. Something to look forward to next time!

 

[Maggie Mae]

Lovin' the report, can't wait to go on the Wonder in April! Is it chilly on board, I never thought about it but I see you in a sweater on and off, just curious, I get cold easily so should I plan on packing a sweater...