How the Disney Wonder won my heart!

The day of our first cruise had come. We woke up at 7.30, showered and got ready to check out of our resort. But before we wanted to do that we needed some breakfast. So we met with Mary Ellen and Joe, walked out to the car and drove over to Downtown Disney to have some breakfast at Wolfgang Puck’s Express. We only had one CS dining credit left, so I told the Cast Member that we wanted to pay cash for the second breakfast. The Cast Member then asked if we had any snack credits left and yes we did have some left over. We were so surprised when the girl offered to use our snack credits as payment for the breakfast. There is no better use for them than to have a nice breakfast. Tom decided on having  Wolfgang's Breakfast Pocket - Scrambled eggs, peppers, Niman Ranch Bacon, onions, mushrooms, mozzarella and cheddar cheese baked into Wolfgang's pizza dough. He had some coffee and some juice with it.

I was really looking forward to the Applewood Smoked Bacon Pizza - scrambled eggs, Niman Ranch Bacon, mozzarella and cheddar cheese and Ranch Dressing. I had some Earl Grey Tea and orange juice with it. After we had finished our breakfast we all went back to the resort, put our luggage in the car, checked out of the resort and got on our way to Port Canaveral, to get onboard the Disney Wonder. The first part of the drive was rather uneventful, but about halfway into the journey the skies got darker and darker. About 15 minutes before we were supposed to reach our destination it started to rain, then it rained harder and then it was just torrential rain. We could not read the overhead signs, nor could we see anything around us. So we happened to drive right by the ship. We only realized when we found out that we were nearly at the beach. So we turned around and went to “search” for the ship. By that time we were both wondering if it had been a good idea to go on a cruise.

It took us nearly half an hour to find the ship and we got in line to hand over our luggage. We were about 10 cars from the dropping zone, when the line suddenly stopped moving. A little while later a Cast Member came by to tell us that there was lightning in the area and they had put luggage services on hold. How fun, sitting in your car and waiting. About 15 minutes later we could hand our luggage to luggage services and went to park the car.

The walk to the ship was short, but our mood had gone from excited to let’s hope this gets better. We went through security, then got in line for check in, then got into another line to have our picture taken for our onboard records, then got into yet another line to have our picture taken before boarding. And finally we entered the lobby of the Disney Wonder! And were greeted not only by Disney Cast Members, but by Moley and some other members of the Tagrel group.

Since it was only a few minutes until we could get into our staterooms we waited for the sections to open and checked out our staterooms, just to be shocked by the size of it. Yes, staterooms are supposed to be tiny and this one was bigger than most, but it was still smaller than our hotel room, but there was a nice balcony and that made up for some other things. We left our luggage in the room and went to the Beachblanket Restaurant for lunch.

The buffet was well stocked and we found a few really nice items. There was even a dessert buffet which had very nice choices. They were offering alcoholic beverages and Tom and I got a “Bahama Mama” which was really nice. We then went back to our stateroom and in the meantime Mary Ellen and Joe had arrived. They went for dinner while we checked out our cabin some more. There was a mandatory safety drill, so we all got ready to get to our stations and actually got to talk to one of the ships nicest Cast Members, Michele, who worked at Palo, the adults only restaurant. After the safety drill we took the life vests back to our room and went to see the Sail away party.

It had to be held indoors, since there had to be too much liquid sunshine – Disney’s term for rain! After the show we went outside and that was when the Disney Wonder won my heart.

There were two other cruise ships in the harbour and they were both tooting their horns. People on board both vessels cheered when it was their ships turn. Well, it went on for a while, “toooot” went the Carnival Cruise ship and “tooooooot” went the other ship, and then it was the Wonder’s turn. But its horn is a magical “when you wish upon a star”!!! Both of the other ships went completely silent and this huge cruise ship had just won my heart! Hehe, you other ships, top THAT!!!!

Soon after that the Carnival Cruise ship left and then it was our turn. Cast Members with white Mickey gloves waved good bye to us and we really enjoyed our send off! We then went back to our stateroom, unpacked and just left everything out and lying around before we went to check out the ship some more. We then remembered that the Golden Mickey’s were on at 6pm, so we got changed and headed to the Walt Disney Theater.

The show was stunning! There were so many actors and characters involved, it was amazing! And it went on for about an hour!

When we came back to the room Jose, our stateroom host had “tried” to do turndown, but we had left everything so unorganized that he had not been able to and had just left a towel animal on our bed.

It was time to get ready for dinner, so we got changed and went on our way to Tritons. We were taken to our table, which we shared with some other members of the Tag cruise. Our servers Miguel and Ferenc introduced themselves and handed us the drinks menus. Tom and I ordered Diet Cokes (what else) and we both got a Cosmopolitan L'Orange, Grey Goose L'Orange, Grand Marnier, Cranberry Juice, dash of lime juice. It was a bit strong for my taste, but still very yummy. For our starter we both ordered the Applewood Smoked Bacon and Wild Mushroom Tart with Creamy Leeks. Boy, that was delicious! For my main course I ordered "Triton's" Seared Sea Bass with a Mushroom Herb Risotto, Sweet Onion Marmalade, and garnished with a Potato Crisp. I was a very happy bunny with my choice.

Tom had the Three-Cheese Lobster Macaroni, Lobster Meat, Gruyère, and Cheddar Cheese Sauce tossed with Tubular Pasta and topped with a Parmesan Wafer. I tried a little bit and it was really delicious. Lots of lobster mixed into a surprisingly light cheese sauce. What a yummy start to our cruise. Now on to desserts! Tom ordered the Grand Marnier Soufflé with Vanilla Sauce. Well, it was more like a heavy muffin with Vanilla Sauce. I wanted to try Triton's Sweet Temptations, A Trio of Crème Brûlée, Chocolate Mousse and Praline Petite Choux. I did not like the Praline Petite Choux, which was stale, the Crème Brulee was curdled but the Chocolate Mousse was quite nice, but all in all the desserts were a disappointment. We stayed for a little more time to finish our drinks, then went back to our staterooms to get changed and Tom and I went one the first of quite a few Fish-extender rounds.

Fish extenders are little bags you hand on the fish outside your stateroom, therefore fish-extender! You sign up for a group and then you secretly hand out little presents for the member your group. It took more than an hour to get to and find all the staterooms on our list and we were SO tired when we got back to our room. We stayed out on the balcony for quite some more time with a few drinks before we went to bed.