Cruising from our back yard, A Merrytime Cruise on the Re-imagined Wonder (Updated Day 4)

[NoodlesMom]

Hello all. I've been stalking the trip reports section daily looking for new reports on the new Re-imagined Wonder but there aren't very many. I haven't written a trip report in a few years so bear with me.

The Crew
Me- Math teacher and lover of all things Disney. Disney World and Disney Cruising are my two favorite vacations. I am the vacation planner in the household and most of my free time is spent planning our next vacation.

DH- also loves Disney vacations and actually convinced me that it was imperative that we become DVC members this year. Of course, he didn't have to do much convincing.

DD(16)- has been on 15 Disney vacations in her lifetime and luckily, she still loves it! She's doesn't get as excited as dad and I anymore but I'm just grateful that we haven't burnt her out .

DS(12)- has also been on 15 Disney vacations and he's the "cool" one in the house. He pretends to be unfazed by all of our Disney travels but he always has more fun than all of us.

This is our 6th Disney cruise. First on the Wonder and the first time out of Galveston.

So, let's get started. I'm currently typing on my phone as the entire crew is sleeping, snoring and dreaming of the Disney Wonder that we will board in approximately 4 hours. We arrived yesterday around 6 pm. We live in the Houston area, hence the title "Cruising from our back yard." We left at about 4 ish. Traffic wasn't too bad but take that statement with a grain of salt coming from a native Houstonian. I would prefer to leave earlier next time.

We checked in to Hilton Galveston and set up our shuttle service for 10:30. The available times left were 10:30, 11:30, and 12:20. Of course, we want to board ASAP so we chose the 10:30 time slot. After we checked in, we threw our bags down and ran to Landry's which is right next door. It was about 6:20 by then and happy hour ended at 7. Our family LOVES appetizers. We would rather share plates than eat one big meal of our own. It just so happens that Landrys was perfect.

This is what our table looked like.






...and after all of that

 

[lorimay]

Your Dinner looks Delish!!! My kinda meal.

Have a wonderful cruise!!!!!

 

[NoodlesMom]

We're finally on a our way to port! We booked the sleep and cruise package at the Hilton. It looks like the parking is actually at the San Luis. The kids and I boarded the shuttle and DH and all of the other husbands are following behind the shuttle bus. We all had a chuckle on the shuttle bus full of women and children because there are no men on the bus right now besides the driver. They are all following behind the shuttle.



The shuttle ride was quick and painless. We handed our luggage to the porters and were whisked away to checkin. Since we have two rooms this time, check-in took a little longer but not too bad.

 

[NoodlesMom]

As soon as we boarded, we went to the port adventures desk to book the Gingerbread house making and the tequila tasting. We were given two days to choose from for the gingerbread house making, one for Wednesday and the other for Thursday. I had read before that on some cruises the were only offering it on the last day. Luckily, we were able to choose Wednesday.

We headed to Cabanas to grab lunch. I was starving so I scarfed my plate down before taking any pictures, but here is DD's plate.

So, there's a funny story about the lamb chop with mint jelly. DD is currently reading The Shinning and there was a part in the book where one of the characters expressed a love for lamb chops and mint jelly. She's never had either so she was super excited to try it. I'm not that brave but she enjoyed it.



Our rooms were ready at 1:35. We booked two rooms for the first time and it's going to hard to go back to only having one. This is our first time cruising gold so this lovely gift was waiting for us. Since we booked two rooms, we got two of them! Yay!

 

[Sneezie]

Looking forward to reading more about your trip!

 

[TestingH2O]

Can't wait to read more!

 

[NoodlesMom]

We're back at home! Fog caused a delay this morning and we didn't get off the boat until about 1:30. More about that later.

Day 1 continued...

The weather was cold and windy but didn't ruin our excitement. We decided to take a walk around and explore and make a pit stop back to the room.


As I mentioned before, we had two cabins for the first time. I booked GTY for this trip and was afraid that we wouldn't get connecting cabins. When I first got my cabin assignment, it seemed as though the rooms were next to each other but not connecting. It turns out that I was looking at old plans. After the re-furb of the Wonder, there were new connecting cabins created. We were assigned 2070 and 2072. The location was midship and close enough to the elevator. We loved the location but we did hear constant running on the deck above us.




One of the spaces that DH and I were most excited about were the adult areas. We really enjoy them on the dream and for a long time, we avoided the classic ships partly because we didn't care for the old adult areas.

 

[NoodlesMom]

Tonight, dinner was located at Animators Palate. Before dinner, we decided to have a few drinks at the Promenade Lounge. They had a really good Mai Tai that we had a few times this week.



Dinner at Animators Palate

I will apologize in advance for the food pics. They are not complete. Most of the time we had already dug in to our meals before I remembered to take pictures.

 

[Kari0180]

Following along, we board the Wonder on January 13th, can't wait to read your report!

 

[kid-at-heart]

The "new" adult areas look great. We will not be cruising until May but I am already looking forward to a drink in the Crown and Fin. Thank you very, very much for sharing your trip. I know it takes time to sit down, weed through the photos and post your review.

Kate

 

[pagek83]

Following along! Our next cruise will be on the Wonder and I am loving your report so far!

 

[NoodlesMom]

Day 2-

Today was our first sea day. We had no real plans and wanted to simply hang out and enjoy the boat. Before the cruise, I joined the FB group and participated in the FE group and the magnet exchange. If I participate on our next cruise, I'm going to have to step up my FE game. We received some AMAZING gifts this cruise! Our gifts consisted of a small tablet/electronics case and a Texas Magnet. I ordered so many magnets that I gave them as a part of my FE gift as well as the magnet exchange and used some for pixie dusting.



I dropped off a few FE's and headed to the DVC Member presentation. We recently joined DVC so we are hoarders of DVC merchandise right now. I'm sure our hoarding tendencies will stop after the newness wears off. At least I hope it does!

Free Mimosas!


Unfortunately we didn't win a DVC beach bag but we did walk away with a few DVC lanyards. We had a private mixology scheduled a few hours later so we went a grabbed an early lunch and hang out until the Mixology class. I think our class started at 2:00.

I wish I would have taken notes about each drink because I can't remember what any of them were called or what was in them. The class was held in the Cadillac Bar.

 

[NoodlesMom]

Day 2 Cont'd-
After making our individual drinks, one person got to make a specialty drink for themselves. We've participated in a few mixology classes over the years and each time they were different. The drinks have definitely gotten smaller and we were not very excited about any of them this time. We enjoyed the tequila tasting better but more on that later this week.


After the mixology class, we met up with the kiddos and played around the ship. My son played a lot of basketball this trip. He spent more time playing basketball than he spent in the edge. He said that the edge would get crowded so him and a few of the kids would leave and go play basketball. He was the only one of us that didn't gain a pound.



Tonight was formal night and dinner was at Tianna's. I enjoyed the restaurant but our table was in an area that was not well lit. I had read reviews about how loud it gets but I didn't think it was too bad. We really enjoyed the live music.



The food was ok. I'm a native Texan with a lot of family from Louisiana. I knew that they would not be able to really duplicate real Louisiana dishes but there was little to no seasoning on any of the food.

 

[NoodlesMom]

Day 3-
I didn't take many pictures today. I guess we were too busy enjoying our day in Cozumel.



We spent the day at Sunscape Sabor resort. We also spent the day here on our last cruise and enjoyed it so the kids wanted to come back. It is an all inclusive resort but they sell day passes. Since were were off the boat early, we made it in time for breakfast. The kids really got a kick out of the cereal boxes. They had pancakes, waffles and a plethora of Mexican dishes. Everything was tasty and a welcome break from the ships breakfast buffet.





We checked out paddle boards, kayaks and snorkel gear. The weather was beautiful and it was a great day!

 

[NoodlesMom]

Day 4-

Today was Costa Maya (Mahahaul) day. DH and I went to Costa Maya for the first time in 2006 or 2007 on a RCL cruise and it was totally different. Cruise ships had just started to frequent the cruise terminal. We went to Mahahaul for the day and fell in love so we knew we wanted to do the same. As you can see, we are not excursion people. We've been on 12 cruises and have never done a cruise line excursion.

We love the beach and usually find something that we like on our own or with an outside company. I originally planned to go the The Krazy Lobster but about a week before the cruise, I read a review about an issue with a waiter inflating their bill. We had a similar experience one year at Paradise Beach in Cozumel and it really rubbed me the wrong way. The math teacher in me keeps a running tally of my bill in my head and on paper and the waiter came back with a bill that was $40 more than it should be. He then said that he added it as a tip. He gave himself a 40% tip. Anyway, I wanted to avoid a repeat of that experience so I emailed Tropicante a few days before the trip. It's listed as number one on TripAdvisor. Steve, the owner, answered my email promptly we reserved a table. There were no more loungers available but since we were in port earlier than the other ships, he said that we could use available loungers until the other cruisers arrived.

We were in port from 6:45 to 2:45. I knew we needed to get off the ship pretty early so we all went to sleep early the night before. We were off the boat by 8:00. I wish I would have gotten pictures of the the cruise terminal. I have to admit, it's very pretty but very fake and touristy. I do enjoy my share of touristy things but this was not at all what we wanted to see while in Mexico. There's a pool and bars and stores everywhere. It was very difficult to get out of the terminal. It seems like the want to trap you and keep you there. We finally figure out how to exit (we didn't see any signs) and took a cab outside of the terminal gate. The ride to Mahahaul took about 5 minutes and a guide walked us over to the beach. The cab ride cost $2 each one way. We had another relaxing day with food, drinks and massages on the beach ($20/.5hr)



Margarita- It was very good!


Shrimp Tacos



Ceviche



Nachos



Iguana Eggs (stuffed jalapenos)



Steve (owner) and DH talking football.

 

[NoodlesMom]

Day 4 Cont'd-
After getting back on the boat, we took showers and naps to prepare for the afternoon. We stopped by the promenade lounge for a drink and a game of Go Fish. There was live music and dancing in the Promenade lounge that night. We didn't make it to the dance floor but the families that did looked to have a great time. After finishing our game, it was dinner time so we made our way to Animators Palate. I didn't take any food pictures tonight.

 

[princess aleya]

Great reviews and pictures!

 

[TestingH2O]

So Sorcerer Mickey no longer walks around AP? What is the show like?

 

[Credit Man]

Wonderful report! Thanks sharing.

 

[lorimay]

Enjoying your report.
You have a beautiful family!