Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:02 Welcome back to countdown travels podcast. My name is Susie. I'm a cruise act and travel agent. And this is episode number three, an episode, number three, I'm going to be sharing my review of my recent cruise with Disney cruise lines on the Disney winery.
Speaker 1 00:00:21 Welcome back to countdown travels podcast. This is episode number three, where I will be reviewing my recent cruise on the Disney wonder. So the first question is Susie, why did you book a Disney wonder cruise? In a nutshell, it had been 11 years since I last cruise Disney cruise lines. My kids were a lot younger and now that I work in the world of travel, it was time for me to experience what it's like to cruise with Disney again. And because air is a little tricky right now, and I've shared before I live on the west coast, there was a cruise with Disney from I'm in San Diego, which meant just a drive instead of a flight out to San Diego. And I got a great price on it. It was spring break, the timing was perfect. And so I went ahead and booked on the Disney wonder.
Speaker 1 00:01:17 I was a little kind of hesitant only for the fact that I really wanna to try some of their dealerships like the Disney dream or the Disney fantasy, knowing that the Disney wish is right around the corner from being brought out. So off we go, we have about a five hour drive to San Diego. We did leave the night before, stayed at a local Marriott, about 30 minutes away. And our embark time was around one o'clock. Uh, we had found a parking spot, uh, that we could leave our car in. And I think I paid around 120 for the five days. That was literally one block away from the port a ship was at. So we park our car. Our check-in time was one o'clock we show up at the port and there is an enormous line outside. We find out that they're running about two hours behind.
Speaker 1 00:02:16 So the folks that had like an 1130 embark time were just getting on the ship and were standing in the line. And it was an abnormally hot day in Southern California. I think it was close to 90 degrees in San Diego, which is not typical of the weather in San Diego. So we're standing in line and everyone has their bags. Now, typically with cruise travel, when you show up at the port, you leave your bags with the porters and then you go in line to start your embark process. Well, I don't see that happening. We're all standing there with our bags. I am guided to an area where I could drop my bags only to be told that we have to hold onto them. So go back in this very long line. I think we stood maybe an hour in this line. It was hot.
Speaker 1 00:03:06 Uh, I think, you know, my teens and I were thirsty, but we, you know, this is sometimes it it's part of the game, right. Of traveling, especially during these times, finally line is moving. We're allowed to start the invocation process, which with Disney cruise lines currently they're providing the COVID testing before your cruise. And so we are, then we leave our bags, we get on the bus. That's gonna take us to an area attended area where we have to provide a negative COVID test. So we do that. We then wait for a good 40 minutes because there is one TV that is showing, um, everyone that had a negative test, the reservation number. So my son sits in front of the TV and we wait and we wait and we wait. And he tells me, he says, mom, I think you should go find out why it's taking so long.
Speaker 1 00:04:03 Of course, like I'm naturally panicking because you know, you're waiting for these results and hopefully none of us were sick, but you know how it goes that you could potentially be positive and not even know. So I'm sitting there like, oh my goodness, what is going well, lo and behold, for some reason, our vaccination cards that I had uploaded did not upload successfully. And so that was a delay. So after about an hour of waiting for our results for our COVID test, um, we are informed we're negative. And then we're, uh, asked to wait on another line to board another bus. That's gonna take us back to the port. So off we go, it is now close to four. O'clock mind you, we got there at one, and this is not again, typical with Anmar process for cruise travel, we're hungry, we're thirsty. And we just like wanna get on the ship.
Speaker 1 00:05:00 Right. And we finally make it on the ship. And of course, it's kind of like what I remember it. Um, this is a smaller cruise ship compared to some of the other ones that I've been on, but it has all the Disney touches. Like you see Ariel right there on the atrium, you have their you're very welcomed. They announce your name, welcome Flores family, and they're clapping and Mickey's there. So smaller ship, very well maintained. Um, and of course with all the wonderful Disney touches. So the current protocols for Disney, uh, I feel like I need to mention this in case some maybe that are listening, may not know anyone over the age of five has to be fully vaccinated and you have to provide a negative P COVID test before boarding the ship. So we are on the ship trying to find food. The buffet is closed.
Speaker 1 00:05:58 The main dining room is closed. And thankfully they have some food options on the Lido deck, which is the pool deck, burgers, fries, hot dogs, salads, wraps, sandwiches, and we just grab whatever. And we're just happy to have water. And, um, you know, just to know that our cruise vacation is about to start. So I kind of wanna speak on some of the activities that are on this cruise that make it different than some of the other crews throughout the cruise. You have, uh, photo opportunities with some of the characters. So on your cruise planner, on your daily planner, on your app that you download, which is free, you can see, uh, where these photo opportunities are being held. So if they're in the atrium, if they're on the pool deck or, you know, just throughout the ship all day long, you can take pictures with some of the characters like Pluto and the princesses, Lilo and stitch, even Jack Sparrow.
Speaker 1 00:07:02 So that was kind of cool to, if you have little ones that really love these characters, to be able to take pictures with them, or if you're just a fanatic of Disney. Another thing that they have is some of the picture drawing like where you can actually draw the picture. It's like guided art, uh, that you can find at California adventure, um, where they help you draw Pluto, or they help you draw some of the other finding Nemo characters. And they have that almost at least twice a day. They also have some of your other offerings that you can find on some of the other cruise lines like trivia bingo, uh, the pools area, they have Waterside jacuzzis. And one of my favorites was the adult section of the cruise ship that I really enjoyed. Um, but again, there's no casino on this ship. <affirmative> I wanna speak briefly on our ports of calls.
Speaker 1 00:08:02 And again, sometimes you book a cruise knowing that you really wanna visit a certain port of call. Sometimes it's driven by the ship. You really wanna experience the ship. For me, it was a combination of just really wanting to get away. I had last been in Cabo in January, and I really wanted to go back there just to spend a nice warm spring day in Cabo, but more importantly, to have the experience of cruising with Disney. So this cruise took us to KASA mucus and in Sonal, Mexico, which I had been to this year, at least three times. <laugh>. So again, it wasn't really port driven for me. It was more about experiencing Disney again so many years later. So in Cowells and Lucas, we didn't have anything planned. I needed to take advantage of the phone service and wifi service in Mexico. My, uh, phone plan allows me to use my phone in Mexico.
Speaker 1 00:09:09 And Disney does not have unlimited wifi. You pay by mega and I had run out of megabytes at this point. So because I'm a travel advisor and I always have to stay connected. I had to use some of my time while in Cabo to catch up on work on emails, make payments, or just follow up with clients. And once I was done working my kids and I decided to not really do anything, they just wanna to go and explore. So we jumped on the water shuttle, water shutter, oh my gosh, I'm totally tongue tied, water shuttle. And we went to, uh, just the, the marina area there in Coon Lucas, we were walking and one of the tour guy approached us, wanted to give us a city tour. We declined. And he offered to take us to the area that we wanted to go to, which had some, uh, authentic local eats and I'm addicted to Starbucks.
Speaker 1 00:10:08 So we had to go to the Starbucks. So for $20, he no, actually I'm wrong. It was $10. He drove us to an area, recommended a restaurant where we could have local tacos and a Starbucks and just do some local shopping to take home. We grabbed some tacos, grabbed a Starbucks, did a little shopping. And then we walked our way back to the marina, which was a very long walk, but it was nice. The weather was a easy, it was absolutely perfect in Cabo, not too hot, not too cold, a little windy, but probably the best day I had ever been in Cabo in terms of weather. And we just got back on the ships. So really relax. You know, sometimes when you go on cruise ships and you go to these sports, you may have the opportunity to do an excursion, snorkeling, parasailing tours, ATVs, and sometimes you just walk around and enjoy the city.
Speaker 1 00:11:05 And that's what we did in Ensenada, because we had been there so many times recently, our only mission in Ensenada was to get treats for some of the crew that we had met our white staff on the ship. They wanted chips <laugh>. So we literally went and got chips again, stopped at Starbucks and walked back to the ship. I, we really had nothing planned. It was a very laid back. It was very cool. And I had to also get some work done well in port, the things I loved about this Disney cruise was again, that adult area of the ship and the Cove cafe, which is a, a cafe, um, coffee cafe in the adult only area. They had sometimes a girl with a guitar singing, playing music, small bites, and really delicious lattes. I think Disney does a fantastic job on their shows, their productions.
Speaker 1 00:12:11 So we saw three of 'em. We saw the golden Mickeys, we saw dreams, and then we saw frozen, um, dreams was fantastic. Uh, just the technical part of their shows. So they had bubbles, they had snow, they, the lights, the, just everything aside from the actual singing and acting and dancing, which was fantastic. But everything that kind of comes together and makes it Disney is something that I really did enjoy about this cruise. Disney knows how to do desserts. Let me talk about that for a second, because, uh, I obviously cruise a lot with some of the other lines and Disney desserts. You guys were so good. So you have your beignets, you have ice cream, you can get those Mickey bars, the chocolate Mickey bars with the vanilla ice cream inside that is included in your cruise Faire. But yeah, I say that the desserts were some of the best that I've had in the past 20 years of cruising.
Speaker 1 00:13:20 Disney also has really amazing things where they know how to make something special. So they still do the towel animals at turndown service with a little chocolate, a lot of the cruise lines. So don't do the little chocolates anymore. And if your cruiser, you know what I'm talking about, they used to leave you like, um, after dinner chocolates on your bed and they don't really do that anymore. So Disney still does that. And I love that pirate night was really fun. Fireworks at sea was amazing. They give you these, uh, pirate bandanas. Everyone gets one, and you can put it on again. The themed rooms were fantastic. Rotational dining is something that I really did enjoy where you have, um, different restaurants that you, you sit at for your dinner and your waitstaff follows you with you. So you have, um, animators palette and you have Tritons and, uh, Tiana's place.
Speaker 1 00:14:23 So all the different restaurants and they follow you. And each restaurant is very different. So I really did enjoy that. The show on in animators palette was fantastic where it's really like white walls. And then, uh, they convert it to color and there's a lot of the animation and the movies on the walls. And then Mickey comes out in Tiana's place. You have some music, some live music from new Orleans style. So again, those little themed touches were fantastic. What I feel like could have been a different or better experience are some of the offerings on the Lito deck, um, or not the best. So I feel like they're missing a lot of the inter international touches that some of other cruise lines have been able to capitalize on like Indian food, Asian food, um, even Mexican food. I love having a variety of options. And I felt like that was kind of lacking on this Disney cruise. I also feel like the buffet was very limited. Um, it is a smaller ship. That means that the buffet area, which is called Kaba is on the smaller end.
Speaker 1 00:15:35 But overall, I would say it was a good cruise. It was a, a really kind of a reality check of how Disney is doing cruise travel, um, AF during this pandemic and the ship was in my, it was spotless even though the first revenue ceiling on that ship was in 1999. So it's kind of old. Um, but it was great. Overall, would I cruise Disney again? Yes. I would definitely try Disney again on one of their newer ships. I would love to cruise on the dream or the fantasy or their newest ship that's coming out the wish.
Speaker 1 00:16:17 So that is my review of the Disney wonder. Um, again, we cruised on April 9th for a five night cruise to Cabo and in Sonata, Mexico, I cruised with my two teenagers ages, 16 and 14, and we had a balcony state room. I hope you enjoyed this review of my Disney wonder next week, I will be sharing, uh, with you guys, a guest speaker that I'm super excited to have this interview with someone that is, uh, part of our cruise world. So stay tuned for that. I will share more, but I hope you enjoyed this episode of my review of the Disney wonder. Well, I hope you enjoyed my review of the Disney wonder. It was honestly a great cruise with Disney cruise lines. I can't wait to cruise on some of their dealerships and please let me know if you have any questions about cruising with Disney. Lastly, I would love if you could follow, like, and subscribe to my podcast, I really appreciate any feedback and would love your review. Thanks again, this is Susie with countdown travels, and until next week stay safe and we will see you soon.
