Disney Wonder 2-20-23 Trip Report - San Diego-Cabo-Ensenada 5N

[Not]

Just back from our first Disney Cruise and thought I would would leave a trip report on our 5 night trip from San Diego last week. We traveled with a 17 year old and after pre-searching the YouTube's and such our comments:

The good:

Ship: Immaculate. Small. enough to get around, cruise sold out due Holliday week but never really felt crowded for the most part. Easy ship to navigate.

Cabin steward/hostess: Can only say great things, two cleanings a day the second with turn-down for kids's bed.

Meal staff on rotational dining at dinner: Very pleasant, working hard and the assistant server was obviously somewhat new and young but they were all great. We had very few requests outside the menu but they were happy to oblige. Table next to us had vegetarian diet (Indian diet) and the servers/ship took great care of them. Impressive.

Animators was the absolute best dining experience with the drawing show by guest animated on the screens at the end. A real treat for ALL ages. We ate there twice for dinner and last morning breakfast BUT menu was different each time for dinner.

Tianas' was twice - once for Pirate night and once for regular rotational. Menu was good both times.

Tritons - we skipped this dinner. The menu (you can see on the app) seems not to have changed on a long time and the YouTube's all with same menus indicated this was the one to skip. YMMV.

The beef servings on all dining rotations were good - the fish (sea bass, etc) very very good. The crusted pork chop at Animators on show night was huge, juicy and our kid ate it all - which was surprising.

Cabanas: Well done. Something for everyone and for sure things not for everyone. They had chilled Dungeness crab with the shrimp daily. That's a west coast thing and in season. It was as perfectly good as you will find anywhere - sweet, large and tasty.

Staff overall: All very friendly, professional and fun.

Drinks: Really the cost of cocktails and beer was in line with what you pay ashore - or probably somewhat less. A 16 oz Blue Moon was I think 8.16 with gratuity and if you bought 5 you got one free. they give you a plastic ice bucket free to use for them. Specialty cocktails were about 12 bucks each with gratuity - on the high end, less for regular cocktails. Not outrageous.

Sodas: Free 24/7 from the fountain (coffee and tea as well) so that was great and free of course at meals and Cabanas buffet.

Movies: Strange World, Ant Man, Avatar were showing and a couple others. We saw the names ones. Theaters good, no issue with seating.

Shows: A magic show that was super entertaining. I was skeptical and pleasantly surprised - really fun. Golden Mickeys and Frozen were super good as was the show on the last night - Enchanted Dreams or something like that.

Boarding: We had a 2:15 boarding time and got on about 20 minutes early. Had lunch.

Shore excursions: We self toured Cabo as I've been there before and we were not fishing. Got off the beaten track to the Wine Store (by McDonalds but over on the same street down and across from the fire station). The art and wine shopping here was much nicer, more reasonable and high quality compared to the pier area. Ensenada we did the family wine country trip. That was a fun excursion - the first stop at Cetto was great - the second stop, meh, a local place but not comparable. Weather in Cabo perfect in low 70's and sun. Ensenada low to mid 60's and sun. The wine excursion was 49 each (plus tips - which were well deserved) so for 60 bucks a person it was a bargain

Cafe: The Cove cafe on board was fine. Yea you pay for a Latte but no more than Starbucks or Peets and the pastries are free and the cafe longe is a great get away.

Wine: Disney allows two bottles of wine per adult at boarding and each port call ONLY as carry-on. We brought 4 bottles on board and left with one we had brought and two we had bought in Ensenada.

The bad/not great:

The internet access Disney sells. Garbage - Simply does not work. They should not offer it as you won't load a full browser page on a phone or tablet with a clean cache. I only bought the cheapest package to try and it was a complete waste of 20 buck. Selling a product that does not work is simply wrong.

The work-around (for us) is to use cellular at sea via AT&T directly, either by roaming (as I did) or purchasing a day package before you go. I did the former and will pay dearly for the very few times I used it. The latter is 10$ a day I think for the base package - but my advice is to avoid any wifi sold by Disney on the Wonder. YMMV.

Smoking section - this was the exception to the immaculate comment. I smoke. The areas on the Wonder Deck9 Port forward is perfect and away from everyone. Deck 4 Starboard 6pm to 6am is almost unused. Nobody was bothered in the least by smokers - however the crew did a very poor job of cleaning up the smoking area on deck 9. From poor to embarrassing. Guests using the area cleaned it more often. If you don't smoke you will never notice this. If you do, you will.

Gratuity situation: 18% on everything and how it's applied is a little out of hand. We are west coasters and used to tipping and tipping well, but the blanket policy of 18% on everything ends up stiffing the service workers ant the end of the day and people are fed up a little. Now we did leave extra tips for the housekeeping and wait staff of basically half again of what they got automatically (in the envelopes) - but many did not.

The suggestions and observations:

Disembarkation. We never heard the announcements for groups and really would not have mattered. We had put our bags out the night before, had coffee at the cafe, went to breakfast and sat in the lounge for some time. We are off by 11 am. So DO go to breakfast with your carry off gear. Have your bags collected the night before and don't be in a hurry - unless your travel plans call front - and then good luck. Our afternoon flight was 2:30pm so plenty of time.

Bingo - what a fun thing. You pay for the cards. but they have some amazing prizes (like a 10 grand jackpot one night). Get there 20 minutes before pre-sale time and have one or two in your group hold a couple seats while you line up to buy cards - but don't hog seats you don't need. Be reasonable. It's a lot of fun.

Wander around the shows and activities. Things you might not think are interesting turn interesting very fast.

Disney characters - Always be ready - if you go the the photo sessions you will pay 20$ for each picture. If you get lucky (and you will) you can get your pictures with Mickey, Minnie, etc., around the ship - but you have to be ready - LOL.

Kids are pretty darn safe. Ours is older and the activities all end at midnight. They can roam without much concern at all I would say for the Edge and Vibe age groups. Even though there were lot's of kids - we never thought there were too many. Plenty of adults. Everyone was quite nice

 

[Flossbolna]

Thank you for the report! It’s always interesting to read about someone’s first cruise!

I am shocked that you found people saying that Triton’s menu is the one to skip. It’s my favorite of the rotational ones!

 

[NAB]

Thanks for the report.

It does not cost $20. each time they take a picture with the characters though. Yes if you buy one alone. If you buy a package it is cheaper. Plus you are allowed to take your own pictures with your phone if the characters have a handler they will take it with your phone. Portrait pictures with back grounds are also $20 if you buy one , cheaper with the package deals.

I totally agree if you don’t have to get off to make a flight go slow wander or sit and people watch.

 

[Not]

Thank you for the report! It’s always interesting to read about someone’s first cruise!

I am shocked that you found people saying that Triton’s menu is the one to skip. It’s my favorite of the rotational ones!

Well in fairness I'm not slagging Tritons at all. There is SO MUCH food. I didn't not talk about the fast food but the Chicken Tenders got gobbled up by the kid (we got the order from the kid and delivered - LOL), and we enjoyed the burgers. Did not make it to Daisy's for sandwiches - but they looked great.

For us we had room service coffee/light breakfast and some small items, combined with lunch and maybe a burger here and there, so much food we really skipped Tritons to take a break.

 

[Not]

Thanks for the report.

It does not cost $20. each time they take a picture with the characters though. Yes if you buy one alone. If you buy a package it is cheaper. Plus you are allowed to take your own pictures with your phone if the characters have a handler they will take it with your phone. Portrait pictures with back grounds are also $20 if you buy one , cheaper with the package deals.

I totally agree if you don’t have to get off to make a flight go slow wander or sit and people watch.

Noted, thanks!

And please let me update outside the topic:

No masks or covid requirements. Our kid wore a mask a lot but that's almost become a shyness crutch. No servers wore masks really few and far between.

Gift shops were good and changed stock almost daily. We did buy plenty of swag for the kid and needed a different sized pant for a sweatsuit - and they found it and put it aside. Not the cheapest but overall quality was good.

We did buy the kid the Disney Wonder long sleeve, that was 80 bucks. If it had been 60$ we would have bought three. Disney kinda shoots themselves in the foot sometimes, but that's their deal. Was a great trip.

 

[Flossbolna]

We did buy the kid the Disney Wonder long sleeve, that was 80 bucks. If it had been 60$ we would have bought three. Disney kinda shoots themselves in the foot sometimes, but that's their deal. Was a great trip.

I totally agree with that!

 

[Nike4000]

We were on this same sailing and had a fantastic time. Instead of creating a whole new post, I'll add my thoughts below:

The Good:
As @Not shared, lots of positives on this cruise. To reiterate, the sailing was full, we were told 2,611 total passengers, but it only seemed full at select times - i.e. Cabanas at noon or the shows. Otherwise, elevators were rarely crowded, the pool wasn't packed (cooler weather certainly affected that), etc. It never seemed to be an overwhelming number of people.

Our stateroom attendant, Perfecto, was just that - perfecto! He greeted us by name after our initial meeting, had our stateroom looking immaculate, and left some fantastic towel animals. We had a few questions for him and he had answers right away.

Cove Café was our retreat, we practically lived in the chairs just outside. Super comfy, great views, fun people watching, and the blankets were helpful those times it was windy or chilly. We really enjoyed spending time in and around the café - even though I don't drink coffee or tea.

Palo - absolutely fantastic! We booked it for Pirate Night and it might have been the best choice we made the whole time we were on board. Most of the food was amazing, the scallop entrée was incredible! Duan, our server was the best and always had perfect recommendations. We enjoyed our Pirate Night dining experience so much, we booked another meal for the final night. The second night everything was just as, if not more, enjoyable as the first! I can't recommend Palo enough, it was exceptional! In our 6 previous sailings we've ignored the specialty dining, that was a huge mistake on our part. The only "negative" thing I can say about Palo was that they didn't have Coke Zero, so I had to settle for Diet Coke. Totally immaterial in the grand scheme of things, but thought I should share. I'll go back again in a heartbeat - especially if Duan is working the dining room!

The shows were great, we enjoyed the magician and of course the Disney shows were top notch.

The Bad:
As @Not said, the internet on the ship is horrible and a complete waste of money. Don't bother!

The movies themselves were fine, but they didn't show Quantumania until mid-sailing. The first showings were the evening's show in the Walt Disney Theater, then after that the movie was only shown during the Disney performances - i.e. instead of watching the Frozen stage show, you could go see Quantumania in the smaller theater. Really inconvenient for someone who enjoys the stage performances.

Dining was a cluster for us. We're from Texas and got booked for late dining at 8:15, which is 10:15 to us. So, we immediately requested to be shifted to early dining after booking the cruise. Never heard anything. When we boarded the ship, we got confirmation that we still had the late dining time, but that we could request to be moved by talking to the dining team in the Mardi Gras Lounge. So, we were first in line for that. We spoke with the dining team who told us early dining was fully booked, but that we would be first on the list to move. Awesome, we'll take it!

The first night our app shows the 8:15 dining time so we head to Tiana's. When we get to the table, there are 2 other couples already seated and no place settings, plates, or glasses for us. After sitting down, the waiter comes over and says, "You shouldn't be here. You're at the wrong table. Show me your table number in your app and I'll help you find the correct table." He was not very friendly about it either. A little shocked at his tone, I opened my app and showed him that it confirmed the table number, 34, and the time, 8:15. He was totally confused and confirmed our names. Yup, we were at the right table and on his list for service. Turns out that one of the other couples wasn't supposed to be at our table. Instead of apologizing or relocating them, he proceeded to ignores us for the rest of the meal. We had to beg to order our meals and drinks. Our food came out long after our tablemates had their desserts even though we ordered at the same time. Honestly, our food was inedible. It had been sitting under a heat lamp forever and was chewy and gross. If we weren't so tired due to it being after 11 our time, we would have gone to eat somewhere else on the ship. Instead, we decided to take the L and head to bed, wondering what the next day would hold at dinner.

The next day, at 4:30 pm, I check the app to look at the night's menu and lo & behold, we had been switched to the early dining time! Fan Freakin' Tastic! So we quickly get ready & excitedly head to the early dinner. The person leading us to our table has no clue where our assigned table was. After leading us around the entire Triton's dining room, he finally found our table. We meet a wonderful family who proceed to tell us that after getting on board the previous day at 2:30, they went to the Mardi Gras lounge and asked about getting switched to early dining. The exact same team member who put us on the wait list, said "No problem" and switched them to early dining. I don't know what we did wrong or why we couldn't get moved & they could, but I was thrilled to not have to eat at 10:15. Our waiters at the new table, Galan & Dylan, were sensational. Apparently our table had been added, which was why it was wedged into a back corner and couldn't easily be found - it didn't exist! Regardless, we were ecstatic to be eating early and thankful for the switch to a better team of waiters! The food was so much better at Tritons!

Look it's totally a first world problem to complain about the dining time & I get it. I was very irritated by the rudeness of the waiter that first night, there was no place for it. Other than that first night, our dining experiences on the Wonder were fabulous. We really enjoyed everything and everyone we were with.

The only other bad thing was that our Whale Watching excursion in Cabo was cancelled the day before we arrived without any explanation. We had booked a lunch whale watching cruise with SunRider and, like I said, it was cancelled. When we tendered into port in Cabo, we could see the SunRider boat anchored to the pier. Oh well, no major loss. I'm assuming there weren't enough other customers. They did issue a full refund, which we appreciated. We ended up booking the "Harbor Cruise & Scenic Stop (CL06)" excursion at the last minute and it was outstanding. We saw whales on the cruise part of it and the glass factory was a very interesting stop. The best parts were that the boat and bus were comfortable, both had bathrooms, and the stops were short and they didn't push buying tons of touristy crap. 9/10, I highly recommend it!

Overall we had a great time, only a few minor inconveniences along the way, but nothing to prevent us from booking it again - in fact, we're probably doing it again next year!

Let me know if you have any specific questions. It was a good sailing!

 

[Not]

@Nike4000

Two things about Cabo were notable. First a sport fishing boat next to our tender coming in had a sea lion on the tail and the folks were petting and feeding it. Something we would NEVER do in San Francisco. However it was a priceless experience for our daughter as it was right next to us.

Second was the road (if you make it that far) where they cars, trucks and busses were - used to be the border of the docks. Last time I was in Cabo the shore was that far inland. It's all built up. So that was interesting from a historic perspective. None of the harbor as you see it was there 30 years ago.