A Magical Week At Sea – Our Disney Wonder Cruise

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I love Disney. I love the movies. I love the princesses. I love the theme parks. So, I guess you could say that I’m a fan. Ever since I had my son (the oldest of our two), I couldn’t wait until the day that I could take him to Walt Disney World. It is such a magical place (even more so during Christmas time), and I love seeing my kiddos’ faces light up at the sights of Disney princesses, fun activities, and dance parties!

In the next few days, you’ll be able to read about our time at each of our ports of call: Key West, Bahamas, and Castaway Cay (Disney’s private Island). But for now, I’ll just be showing you photos of the ship and telling you all about our wonderful trip on the high seas.

If you haven’t already read the post about the ornament exchange and the fish extenders, make sure to check them out to see how you can get even more experiences out of your Disney cruise!

The App.

First thing’s first. Before we got on the ship, Disney Cruiseline let us know to make sure to download their app . The app is free and allowed us to text anyone else on the ship, see daily itineraries, ship locations, and menus for every meal. It was super handy to have! Also, they had their own Disney emojis. How cute are these? I wanted to keep them so bad! The Ship. As one of the smaller ships Disney has, you really couldn’t tell it as the Disney Wonder certainly wasn’t lacking on anything! I loved looking for all of the hidden mickeys , exploring the ship, enjoying the 24/7 food, watching the shows, seeing the latest Disney movie Moana , laughing it up at the comedic acts, dancing the night away, and seeing the joy on my kids’ faces. This cruise was definitely for “kids” of all ages! There was always something to do – and quite frankly – sometimes I had to make the hard decision of which activity to go to because I wanted to go to more than one at the same time!

Christmas on the Wonder.

I loved cruising at Christmas time. I’ve been to Disney World at Christmas and it is just magical, so I knew that Disney wouldn’t hold back on the cruise either – and they certainly didn’t. There were lights and garland everywhere, a huge Christmas tree and life-size gingerbread house in the atrium, and even Mickey and his pals had a Christmas sweater on! Every last detail was covered! We also got tickets to do a little gingerbread house decorating.

The Cabin.

The cabins on the Disney Wonder were the perfect size. There were 4 of us total – 2 adults, 2 kids – and we had plenty of room to move around. One thing I really liked about these rooms was that they had two bathrooms – one had a toilet with a sink and the other had a shower/tub with a sink, so people didn’t have to fight for the bathroom. And also, you that right – a tub. Now it’s not a full tub, but on other cruises I’ve been on with other cruise lines were showers only – which would suck with small kids. The tub was very much appreciated. I did a search online before I booked our room to find a deal. Did you know that every cruise ship has a secret bonus room (or two)? What this is means is that you pay for one room, but get the amenities of the next higher category room. So for our room, 5520, we paid for an inside cabin, but we actually got a room with a window – it just had a bit of an obstructed view. But as a lover of natural light, it was no big deal and the pipes outside of our room weren’t an issue in seeing anything outside our room at all.

Towels and Made.

One fun aspect of cruising is the towel animals that are created by your stateroom attendant every night at turn-down service. Every night after dinner Made (pronounced Mah-day), our state room attendant, would get our beds ready for us to slip into, fold our towels into fun shapes, and leave us chocolates and itineraries for the next day’s events. He was so friendly and helpful! If he saw that we were making our way down the hallway to our room, he would race us there to open it for us. He had memorized all of our names by the second day and would say hello to us by name every single time we saw him. It was amazing service! And yes, in the photo above I’m wearing a pirate wrap on my head – it was pirate night. more on that later…

Things to Do.

When you think cruise ship, you think water slides, all you can eat buffets, and lots of lounging about. Don’t get me wrong, that stuff was all available to do, but there is so much more than that! On other cruise ships there’s been activities offered that weren’t my cup of tea – art auctions and gambling – no thanks. But every single thing offered on this cruise looked fun. Trivia contests, broadway-type shows featuring your favorite Disney princesses and characters, caroling, scavenger hunts, Buckets & Boards , the Cat’s Pajamas , a private mojito making class, meet and greets with characters, autograph signing, and so much more!

Characters and Shows.

I admit it – at the sight of Belle and Ariel, I was instantly a kid again. And then there was the amazing shows every night (sometimes multiple shows) that featured classic Disney songs and dancers and the whole audience was singing ‘Hakuna Matata’ and ‘A Whole New World’ right along with them. But the best part of the whole cruise was seeing the huge smile on my son’s face when he got to meet – and hug – Mickey Mouse. The kid has loved Mickey for almost as long as he’s been alive. Even his room is Mickey themed. SO for his to meet his idol, was such an awesome experience for him. In fact, when he sees Mickey on tv now he says that he knows Mickey and that he can’t wait to go see him again.

Mojito Class.

If you have a group of 20 or more cabins, you can reserve special events. Since we joined the Facebook group for our cruise, the cruisers who have done more trips enlightened us to all of the different option we could choose from – a Chocolate pairing class, mojito making class, an open bar event, etc. It was really fun to get to hear the history of this famous cocktail and get to try and make a few cocktails of our own!

Nightlife.

Yes, it is a Disney cruise, however not everything on the cruise is suitable for kids. In the evenings every night, they had events for those people 18 and up – comedy events, special performances, dance clubs, etc. It was great that they can appeal to audiences of all ages.

Activities for Kids of All Ages.

The kid’s club and nursery were some amazing places. The Oceaneer Lab and Oceaneer Club were two interactive areas that were connected by a secret passageway. My little guy loved getting to learn from Captain America and Thor about how to be a super hero, pretend to be an animator with some simulation games, and everything that was in there. After he got in there, he never wanted to leave. They had a ton of events in the kids club too – like cooking classes with Remi (from Ratatouille) and relay races. Hayden even had an issue where he had to leave the kid’s club and wasn’t able to make a shield with Captain America (which he was REALLY looking forward to) and later that day, one of the kid’s club workers came to our cabin and presented him with a certificate for being brave and had Captain America’s autograph on it. I wanted to cry, it was such an over-the-top gesture for them to do. Truly amazing. Baby girl also loved the nursery. Characters would go in there as well and talk and sing and play with the kids. It was a really great feeling knowing that I could check both of my kids into their areas and be totally at ease with how they were being cared for (and this Mama could relax).

Gingerbread House Making.

Pirate Night!

Disney cruises have special themed nights – one is formal night and one is pirate night. It was so much fun to have an entire day where everyone on the boat – employees and cruisers alike – were dressed in pirate gear, having sword fights with strangers, and embracing all things swash-buckling pirate! Even the chocolates on our pillows that night were buried treasure!

Food on the Ship.

There is definitely no shortage of food on the ship. There are a couple locations that were open all day every day and then a few were only open for dinner.

Triton’s.

This is one of the three dinner options. This restaurant is fine dining and themed around the movie, The Little Mermaid . This fabulous mosaic wall we sat to was a show stopper! As one of my favorite movies growing up it was cool to see their take on Ariel and her friends.

Tiana’s Place.

This place had the best food of the dinner options. I love me some cajun food, so this restaurant themed around New Orleans and the movie The Princess and the Frog , was so tasty to enjoy! Plus, look at this ambiance! They had a live band every night playing some bayou tunes and the last night they had a mardi gras party with a second line and everything! Plus, can we say beignets ? Yum.

Animator’s Palate.

This restaurant had the best ambiance, hands down. The food was artsy and fun and the animation graphics and lighting was so neat. One night, they actually had us draw people on some papers and then they incorporated our people in a fun video! They even included our names in the credits!

PALO.

We opted to have brunch on our last full day at PALO. It was an additional charge, but it was SO worth it! This meal was also all you could eat, but the food choices were all amazing looking and tasting! Just look at these picture-perfect yummies! Plus, our waiter was so nice and laid back. My friend who went with us told him that she didn’t want anything for desert, so he brought her a plate that had ‘Nothing’ written on it in sauce. The service on this entire cruise was unmatched!

The Greatest Gift of All.

This little boy had the greatest time and seeing him smile was worth every penny spent. Disney, you already had us customers for life, but you never cease to amaze me. Thank you for an amazing time that I will look back fondly on for years to come.

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