Showing posts with label Disney Wonder Cruise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Disney Wonder Cruise. Show all posts

Monday, March 6, 2023

The Last Day of our Disney Wonder Cruise





It was the last day of the wonderful Disney Wonder Cruise that we accompanied our daughter and oldest granddaughter on.  We were sailing from the end of Baja California, Mexico, back to San Diego, where our cruise began five days before.



There were beautiful blue skies and warmer temperatures so we enjoyed sitting on our cruise ship cabin veranda and taking walks outside along the ship's decks.  Although we were sailing fast the ocean was calm and serene.



 
Although there was a children's club on board with many activities available, and the pool and slide on an upper deck were open, this day our granddaughter wanted to relax with us and listen to her music.  She also enjoyed this large lollypop that she bought in an onboard gift shop.  



One event she did not want to miss was a photo opportunity with one of her favorite Disney movie characters, "Stitch," from the movie Lilo and Stitch. She had a lot of fun taking a 'selfie" with him! 
At ten years old she wasn't as interested in the other Disney characters, as she was when we visited Disney World together when she was five, but she really enjoyed the more contemporary characters she saw on the ship.




We all watched the sun set over the Pacific




Dinner that evening was held at the "Animator's Palate" restaurant on the ship.  The walls of the restaurant are filled with screens that change all during the meal and show famous Disney movie sketches in black and white as well as colorful backdrops and scenery from the movies.  

On this last night, we were told there would be a surprise!  As we were seated at our table we were given a paper that had an outline of a person and told we could fill in details for the person any way we wished with colored pens and pencils. After were finished coloring the waiters collected our papers.  Then, after dinner and before dessert was served an announcement was made that our drawings had become animated!




If you click on the short Youtube above you can see how the drawings were animated and each table's screen showed a video of them walking, dancing, and skating,  across the screen.  It was a lot of fun to see our drawings come alive!




After dinner, there was a fireworks display off the upper deck and a wonderful musical in the theater of classic  Disney characters called "Cavalcade of Characters."




Our last blanket sculpture was a cute elephant!





The ship returned to San Diego, California, by seven in the morning and the disembarking process went very smoothly.  This was our last look at the Disney Wonder Cruise ship as we drove away to the airport. All in all, it was a fabulous and memorable trip!  

Thanks for coming along and reliving all the memories with me!





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Sunday, February 26, 2023

Disney Wonder Cruise in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico



On the fourth day of the Disney Wonder Cruise we took recently, (click here and here to see the prior posts) we woke up to see the beautiful sunrise and the land's end of the Baja California Peninsula outside from our veranda!






We decided to have an early light breakfast in the concierge lounge of the upper deck before departing for an excursion into the town of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and a cruise of the Gulf of California also known as the Sea of Cortez.





The Disney Wonder Cruise ship set anchor off the coastline so we had to tender off the ship on a ferry into the town. Cabo has many luxury resort hotels and we saw many expensive yachts in the port, as well as seals sleeping on one of the docks. 





We boarded a large catamaran ship and cruised along the shoreline.  This was the second time my husband and I saw these beautiful sights as we took a Princess Ctuiese in 2017 that also visited Cabo San Lucas--click here-- to see that post.  


 


The scenery was beautiful!





This time it was special to share the experience with our daughter and granddaughter!


We sailed to the land's end and then the catamaran made a turn around to the Pacific Ocean side of the Baja California peninsula.

Here is a short Youtube video of the view we had on the lands end of the Baja California Peninsula from the Pacific Ocean side:






There are many beaches on both sides of the peninsula and also along the Mexican coastline east of the peninsula.




After our catamaran sail was completed and we were back in Cabos San Lucas, a bus took us to the second half of our excursion, which was a beachside cafe and lounge area. There we were served lunch --we had delicious fish tacos.  Our granddaughter was able to play on the beach and wade in the water.





She had a wonderful time!



When we returned to the Disney Wonder it was time for dinner.  It was a special "Pirates of the Caribbean" night and everyone was given a red scarf to wear.  The restaurant waiters and many of the passengers were in full pirate costumes which were fun to see. Dinner was a selection of seafood and everything was fabulous!  The best part was that the waiters brought a special dessert for our granddaughter and sang Happy Birthday while the other patrons in the restaurant clapped.  She was so excited!



There was a fun pirate extravaganza celebration on the top deck that evening and a delightful Disney show in the ship's theater.  When we returned to our suite, exhausted after a long day, we found our blanket was shaped into a pirate accompanied by gold coin chocolates and was wearing its own red scarf which made us smile!   It was the end of a perfect day!

The next day we sailed all the way back to San Diego, another day at sea, and that will be my next and last Disney Cruise blog post.  Thanks for following along so far!




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Monday, February 13, 2023

Disney Wonder Cruise Along the Baja California Sur Part One


 Disney Wonder Cruise Ship
 
Our oldest granddaughter was turning 10 in February and our daughter had the wonderful idea to celebrate her birthday on a five-day Disney Cruise along the Baja California Sur in Mexico. Our granddaughter's 5th birthday happened to occur on a trip to Disneyworld--click here to read that blog post--so a Disney Cruise would make this birthday five years later extra special. 

My husband and I decided to go along on the cruise.  We have been very careful the last three years and have not traveled out of state because of worries about the Covid-19 virus, but we decided it was time to begin to travel again as we were fully vaccinated and boosted and had our family physician's approval. Since this was a last-minute trip we were the only ones in our family that could go along on the cruise since the rest of our family had work and school obligations. 



San Diego Harbor

We flew from Denver to San Diego, California. the day before the cruise was to depart and visited the San Diego Zoo--see my last blog post about that visit here.



Our last-minute plans meant we decided to take a cruise ship stateroom together on the Disney Wonder Cruise Ship.  It had a queen size bed and also a murphy bed and another bed that lowered from the ceiling that the cruise crew assigned to our floor set up every evening, so it easily slept four people  What we were delighted to learn was that this larger verandah room on the 8th deck is accompanied by "concierge service" which meant many perks for the entire cruise! As concierge members, we were the first group to board the ship and also depart the ship at the end of the cruise,  and there was a wonderful private lounge we were able to visit all day on an upper deck.  It served delicious snacks and hot and cold beverages during the day.  We all enjoyed this lounge and private sun deck that was part of it throughout the cruise as places to relax. 




After boarding the ship we were served a light lunch in one of the restaurants on board. All passengers have a choice of eating breakfast and lunch individually served in a restaurant or at the large buffet dining area.



The Disney Wonder cruise ship "Sail A Wave Party"  took place on one of the top decks with songs and dance and many Disney character appearances on the stage. It was lots of fun!

There was also the mandatory attendance safety drill which is held on every cruise ship after everyone boards, where lifejackets and lifeboat loading stations are discussed.  My husband and I have been on three cruises before this one. Our first was in the maiden year of the Queen Mary 2, which departed from New York to Quebec Canada, and the second was on the Princess Cruise line to the Mexican Riveria--click here to see the first of a few posts I wrote about that enjoyable cruise, and the third on a Princess Cruise line where we had a land and sea Alaska Adventure--click here to read about the unusual beginning we had on that cruise trip. Many more Alaska posts follow which you can read under the Alaska blog label--click here-- if you keep clicking "next" after each post.



Before we knew it was time for dinner! Everything we ordered was so delicious.  I particularly enjoyed trying all the different soups each night from the menu, as I often make soup as our dinner at home. 



That evening, we attended the show at the Walt Disney Theater and saw a magician, Siegfried Tieber perform. He was very entertaining and personable. We really enjoyed the show!  Disney Wonder does not allow photos or videos of the show to be taken, but we were able to meet the magician afterward for photos.  He actually had called our daughter onto the stage to take part in a skit during the show and also called on my husband to check out one of his props for the audience.




After the show, we were all tired and went back to our ship's stateroom where we saw our bed's blanket throw twisted into a shape--this night was a swan--and chocolates were provided.  

It was the end of a wonderful day on the Disney Wonder Cruise Ship and we were sailing away towards our first stop on the Baja California in Mexico, the town of Ensenada, which will be in my next blog post.



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