Small talk, big photos. Disney Wonder Cruise. 2nd - 5th Oct 08

[Bats]

Trip: 25 Sept – 9 Oct 08.
Cast:
Me. Bats or Joa as I’m known by most. Middle name ‘Planner’.
My lovely DBF Mick. He’s a star and allows me to indulge in my Disney dreams.
Also appearing will be my family at some point or another, mainly on the cruise.
Cameo appearances by Clare (with no i) and her DBF Mick .. friends who shared villa.
Other cameo star is Lou, an old friend who lives in Miami and is obviously good friends with a surgeon
2nd October 2008 – The Disney Cruise
This will probably be the most writing I do as I cannot explain the Disney Cruise just by photos alone.
I had spent over a year planning this cruise for not only myself and Mick, but for the other 11 people from my family who were joining us. I had scoured every website to get more information and I felt like I knew the ship inside out and back to front. With so much anticipation, when I first saw this view .. I cried!

It takes your breath away after such a long wait!
So, after parking, we head into the terminal. This was the only escalator in the world that I was looking forward to going up! Her we are on our way up, then the view at the top…





We were real early, so early that check in hadn’t opened! We grabbed a drink and bought some DCL lanyards and joined the queue. We were 5th .. look what we got when we checked in ..

Yay, boarding card number 2. That meant we would be boarding behind the really posh people only .. one of the first on. Our other cruise documents were: Key to the World cards for charging and entering our room, info sheet on customs and a card with our room number on (like I didn’t know already .. had spent hours scouring the web for the best rooms)!

While we were waiting to board, we sat outside in the sunshine next to OUR ship!

Contd … some pictures from inside the terminal (time was NOT flying)

[Bats]

Mickey pool on deck 9 ..

The staff pool ..

A certain M Mouse and friend ..


At last they called those with boarding card number 2 forward. Mick and I charged elbowing small children and grannies out of our way .. nobody was going to get in my way!
Through the ears we went and got held up by the camermen who make you pose for them … come on people .. we want to get on the ship!

Hey wait for me !

Mick nearly on …


We’re on !


They announce your family name and where you’re from over a microphone and the CMs clap and cheer as you walk on. A CM from England came running over to us and shook our hands before he was whisked away for a flogging as he had broken ranks! We then had our allocated CM approach us and start telling us about the ship … don’t you know I’ve researched this ship for the past 12 months lady? I know this ship like the back of my hand, now get out of the way so we can get upstairs for some lunch.

Contd ….. Onboard at last.

[Bats]

Here are some photos I took while we made our way to Deck 10 .. this is where we wanted to sit and eat lunch. We sat overlooking the Mickey pool and we got our lunch from Beach Blanket Buffet (BBB).
The drinks station on Deck 9 (BBB is behind this through the doors)

Inside on deck 9

Mick and the English bar manager (well, he know which side his bread is buttered)

Deck 10

A very empty Mickey pool

The stack

My lunch .. yum yum. Loads of veggie stuff (well more than just mac cheese)!

The terminal from deck 10

oh, what has Mick got? Could it be a Bahama Mama? Oh yesireeeeeeeee…



Contd …. More views, more cocktails and the Clampetts arrive.

[Bats]

After a spot of lunch, I wandered around and took more photos..
Quiet Cove, the adult only pool and the adult only bar (we got to know this place quite well)


Deck 10 .. looking forward towards Goofy pool and Quite Cove

Mickey pool with slide ..


We got the call then to say my family were nearly at the port. Waving frantically over the railings, we spotted them… (silver minibus)

After a while, the Clampetts arrived on deck 10!

Sam (16 yr old nephew) and Mick went straight off to bond and play table tennis (Mick says he won!)

While they were trying to be macho, the girls tested more cocktails … (this is not our order really)


Contd …. Off to our room, lifeboat drill and sailaway partayyyyyyy ..

[Bats]

I had already seen pictures of our room (6634), but to see it for ral was fantastic. It was a secret verandah room so although you pay for a cat 7 with Navigators verandah, you actually get a full verandah with railings which is a cat 6. I was very pleased with the room.




Room 6634 is classed as a cat 7 as the view is obstructed by the side of the ship. You can see the obstruction in these 2 photos …. Not much of an obstruction is it?!



The split bathroom (toilet and sink in one room, shower, half bath and sink in 2nd room … they’re not big rooms though so don’t think they’re suites! )



Oooh, and some chocolate champagne glasses that I’d ordered for Mick .. they looked lovely.


Contd …

[Bats]

Life boat drill for us was down in Animators palette.

A necessary evil on ships really .. nobody wanted to be there but we all sat and waited while they checked off random names then sent us all packing back to our rooms.
Hoorah, we were free to partayyyyyyy. We found a superb spot on deck 9 to watch the party from. It was slightly raised with railings round it and some chairs and tables so we were really pleased. The whole Clampett brigade joined us and we had numerous cocktails while we waved streamers, blew bubbles, sung and danced our way out of Port Canaveral.




Ok, some of us danced the night away! My mum and niece Rachel contemplating life.


After the sailaway party, we had to hurry back to our rooms to get ready for first seating dinner. Our first dining room was Parrot Cay .. this turned out to be our favourite. For some reason I didn’t take any pictures!

Golden Mickeys was the show tonight so we duly went along to that. It was a great show, very Disney’esque but only what you’d expect. No flash photography allowed so apologies for the pictures.





Visited a few bars after the show, did some shopping (the 2 shops on board are excellent and have something to suit every pocket). I’ll put the photos of the bars up in a different bit.
Tomorrow is Nassau, Bahamas. I’ll put the next lot in a separate thread though. Stay tuned!

[scooterdevil]

What great photos makes want to do a criuse even more now.

[kevbrydon]

Brings back fab memories!

[Bob_and_Dawn]

Great report. Thanks for all the lovely photos,

Dawn

[Guest]

Woohoo! It all looks and sounds so fabulous!
Can't wait for the next installment! xxx