Disney Wonder Review

4.0 / 5.0
574 reviews

Disney Wonder almost wonderful

Review for the Bahamas Cruise on Disney Wonder
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downt219
First Time Cruiser • Age 20s

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Sail Date: Mar 2009
Traveled with children

We recently sailed on the Disney Wonder in a Family Verandah stateroom. The room was great. Certainly enough room for our family of 4 Mom and Dad plus 9 year old daughter and 5 year old son. We looked with longing into the suites as they were being cleaned and while they looked very nice, I wasn't feeling as though we were missing much. Our stateroom hostess was perfectly attentive although we really did not have any special requests. I think the service on the ship was mostly top notch (with a hiccup or two). I read a review by a gentleman in a suite who felt he deserved preferential treatment. I reserved a somewhat upgraded room for my family and was actually quite pleased that everyone aboard the ship seemed to be treated with the same level of courtesy. The check in process was relatively uneventful. We paid for the Disney airport transfers and am glad that I did. The flight in was on Saturday so we stayed at the Orlando Airport Hyatt. Disney Cruise Lines picked up our luggage from inside our hotel room on Sunday. I highly recommend the service. The coach ride to Port Canaveral included a video to help explain the check in process and gave an overview of the onboard activities. It definitely helped the time to the Port fly by. From drop off by the coach to embarkation was about 40 minutes which included check in, registration for the kids programs and photos. Not too bad... The dining options onboard were very nice. I highly recommend Palo restaurant. We had some issues with our server forgetting my husband's soup (2 nights in a row) but the head server apologized profusely for the problem and followed up with chocolate covered strawberries delivered to our room. The kids menu is very simple and standard kid fare but for picky eaters, it was almost perfect. They allowed my daughter to order off the adult dessert menu which made her feel special. The character experiences are a bit limited. I really wished we'd have seen them just walking around the ship more rather than having to wait in line for our photo op. We quickly realized that there were so many ways to spend more money onboard. Our 4 day bill (which included drinks, a few souvenirs, 2 mid-range shore excursions and tips) ended up coming in at just over $1200. OUCH! According to my kids, the childrens programs sounded alot more magical than they really were. They spend a couple of hours there on one day and then a few more hours on our last day at sea. My daughter rated the kids programs an 8 out of 10. The evening entertainment was spectacular and highly recommended. At one hour long, each show was perfect for the shorter attention spans. During the entire cruise, I didn't see any kids that were out of control with unruliness. It seems all kids were well entertained and unsavory behavior kept in check. A huge negative was the photo area. As with any cruise, photos are constantly being taken and are available for review and purchase. We had checked photos one night early in the cruise but then decided to hold off until the end to make our purchases and perhaps take advantage of the package deals. We were advised that the photo area would be open after breakfast on our final day for any last minute purchases. Well, directly after breakfast we went to the photo area only to find that all the photos had been removed from the racks and stacked in humongous piles on the counter. And, of course, the photo kiosks were no longer available for use. We spent about 30 minutes trying to find our photos and only succeeded in finding 2 photos. About 6 other mothers were there rifling through the stacks trying to find photos. Finally, we were advised that they had proof sheets available for review and I was able to find 3 additional photos. It was a horrible send-off to say the least. My husband says I shouldn't have waiting for the last minute but I maintain that we were advised that the photo shop would be open for purchases and expected our photos to be readily available. Disembarkation and customs was super simple (maybe because we were one of the last families off the ship because of the photo snafu).

Cabin Review

Cabin 4B

Perfect location... nice verandah. Floor 8 is very accessible from pools and forward locale kept us away from the dining area mobs. Near end of hall so it was relatively quiet overall. Room seemed very well insulated against any neighboring room noise. I felt as though we were in a hall by ourselves (which was of course, not the case). No rooms above us except fitness center so I think that contributed to the quietness.

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