This was our second 4 night Bahamian cruise on the Wonder, and we have sailed on its twin ship, the Magic, as well. We are early 40s, our son is 8. My wife and I have also cruised Royal Caribbean once w/o our son before we discovered Disney Cruise Line. We drive to Port Canaveral from Atlanta, so for the Sunday embarkation we drive down on Saturday to have a stress-free embarkation day. By the way, for those driving down I-95 to the Port, the Hampton Inn in Titusville is less than a year old, clean, comfortable, modern and has two queen size beds in a double room, much roomier than two double beds, and is conveniently near a Wal-Mart for anything you may have forgotten when you left home.

Embarkation is fast for Castaway Club (returning Disney cruisers), but the relatively new process of registering kids for the Oceaneer's Lab or Club in the terminal was slow as can be and an hour or more later I had to step out of the line to board while my wife and son were still in the registration for Club line. Minnie and Donald's appearances in the terminal were a nice touch of magic, and I have always found the luggage drop off and parking and sign in to be very well organized with lots of Disney staff to direct you.

We had booked an oceanview Cat. 8, and a month in advance were upgraded to a Cat. 5 verandah. Solid walled verandah at the back of deck 7, much less enjoyable than the regular plexiglass walled verandah must be. We find the split bathrooms handy, sure they are tight, but it is a cruise ship. Overall, the spaciousness of a Disney stateroom, on a square footage basis, is a big edge over other cruise lines. Storage in many rooms was more than ours -- a quirk in the ship's architecture left our room without the "steamer trunk" storage piece and that is a major amount of storage. On a 4 day cruise, not as big a deal, but might have mattered on a 7 day. Read more