Once again my family was blessed with very calm seas during a cruise vacation. Perfect 75 degree and sunny weather and calm seas were a great foundation for this cruise after a cold winter. Now on to the cruise.

We took the 4 night 5 day cruise on the Disney Wonder that left on Sunday March 8th. We're from the local area so we had a friend drop us off around 11:30 a.m. Despite living in the area we've frequently cruised out of Fort Lauderdale because of very good cruise deals, so typically we drive and park. I make this mention because embarking on cruises seems so chaotic, but this embarkation was stress free.

Embarkation: To make this a smooth process have your luggage tagged AND FILL OUT ALL THE CRUISE FORMS ON LINE. Proceed through the first check points with Passports, Picture Id, carry-ons, and Cruise Reservations in hand. Just a mention about carry-ons. Disney allows you to bring alcohol on board in your carry on luggage. I brought on 4 cans of beer and a bottle of Crown Royal in my backpack sent it through the X-ray machine and Voila I'm on my way......no having to hide it in my luggage. Disney I applaud your position on carry on alcohol and hope you continue the policy. Proceed into the terminal where you're segregated into two groups, First Time Disney Cruisers and Returning Castaway Members. My wife was a returning member so we were directed to that line. They had about 7-8 checker inners working our groups, but the line wasn't moving all that fast. I suspect that families in front of us did not have ALL THEIR CRUISE FORMS FILLED OUT ON LINE. I say that because our check-in process took about 4-5 minutes. We each received our Key to the World Card which is the card you use for charging and accessing your cabin. Next step - off to get our picture taken for our ID. No waiting here. Each family member generated their first on-demand vacation smile and on we moved to what we hoped was going to be a great buffet because everyone was hungry. However, we confronted a line before being able to enter the ship. Yep....the pre-boarding picture. Now this little stage was not orchestrated to well. They had three photographers and two lines. We of course picked the slow line that seemed to only be fed to one photographer while the other line was being fed to two photographers......Grrrrrrr. Note to Disney - Everythings going smoothly and you don't have sense enough to have one line feed to the next available photographer. You know it's poorly planned when you begin to consider leaving your line to go over to the other line. People behind us did just that and they got their picture taken before us. Small point but it knocked the Embarkation score from 5+ to 5. Read more