Guest Trip Report: January 9, 2019 Galveston to San Juan on the Disney Wonder – Day 1

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This is our second Disney Cruise. Our first one was a 4 day Bahamian Cruise out of Port Canaveral on the Disney Dream. We were super excited to be on a slightly longer cruise and on one of the smaller ships. We were sailing on the Disney Wonder out of Galveston. This is our first time sailing concierge class. We really wanted to try a one bedroom to have separate space from the kids after bedtime! We have three children, two boys ages 7 and 5 and one girl age 3. We traveled with 3 other families that we go to church and school with. This gave us 8 adults and 10 kids total!

January 9: Departure Day

I will always tell you to get to your port city the day before you depart. The 3 families we were traveling with all did this! My husband really needed to work a full day on Monday, so we decided to risk flying in on departure day. We woke up at 4:30AM.  I was super nervous about flying in so last minute, but it was a direct flight and the first flight out of the morning, so I felt a little better about it. Thankfully we had an on time departure at 7:00 AM!

We landed in Houston at 8:30 and headed to baggage claim. The DCL transfer desk was right by our baggage carousel. It is very small and nothing like Port Canaveral. They said the first bus would not be there until 9:30. I overheard one of the cast members actually say they told her the bus would be there at 9:00, but she was telling everyone 9:30. Smart lady! We were on the bus by 9:40 and at the port just after 11:00. We went through security and check in and were in the concierge waiting area by 11:30.

They started boarding at 11:40. We did the boarding photo!

As you walked on, they were encouraging passengers to go into Triton’s for a table service lunch. Concierge guests also had the option of lunch in Tiana’s Place, which is where we went.  Wine or beer was included with the concierge lunch.

The kids ordered macaroni and cheese and a hamburger. They were all happy with their food. 

Empanadas – delicious:

Salmon – delicious:

Gumbo – ok:

Lobster salad  – awesome:

Tenderloin – good:

Carrot cake – ok:

Molten Chocolate – rich, but oh so yummy:

The kids also had the first of many Mickey Bars! 

Ropa, one of our concierge hosts, met us at lunch. We had reserved Palo dinner, but it was on the only night we were in Tritons, so we asked her to move it for us. Since we were concierge, we didn’t have to wait for the rope drop at 1:30 to go to our stateroom. So after lunch we went up to our room (a concierge one bedroom suite – full review here) and the kids and my husband changed into swimwear and headed to the pool. It was a little to chilly for me, so I went to the concierge lounge and met with Selina (another host) to go over our plans for the week and to see if any other changes needed to be made.

I met everyone at the pool. I ran into two of our friends and went with them to the spa for the raffle. Unfortunately, our daughter had started melting down, so I left the raffle to get her. And they drew my name! But you had to be present to win. It was around 3:15 when she and I got back to the room. She fell asleep fast! I relaxed and did a little reading.

The boys came back and watched Peter Pan. The kid robes in the concierge rooms are adorable! Already I was grateful for the separate space. Our daughter could keep sleeping undisturbed in the bedroom.

I woke our daughter up to go do the safety drill. She was NOT happy.

We survived and came back to the room. The kids watched Mickey, I unpacked and Charles took a nap.

We decided to skip the Sail Away party and go check out the Oceaneer Club and Lab. We were a little concerned about how our 3 year old would do in there. On our last cruise she was in the nursery. So we wanted to introduce it to her when we could go in with her and when it was not as crowded. I am really glad we did this. I think it was very helpful for her.

Dinner was at Animator’s Palate. Our servers were Stefan and Francisco. They were amazing! Our head waiter was Devendra. I don’t remember ever meeting our head waiter on our last cruise, but we saw Devendra every night. He would come by and do a magic trick for the kids.

Here is the kids menu:

Truffle Pasta – awesome:

Tomato Tart – delicious:

Arugula Leaves Salad – ok, the beans in it were a little weird, the dressing was good:

Butternut squash soup  – good:

Tuna – great:

Tenderloin – good:

He ordered it medium rare and it came out well done. We didn’t say anything, but Stefan noticed and got him a new one. 

We did early dining and asked our servers to feed the kids as quickly as possible. Once the kids were done, a couple of the adults would take them all to the Oceaneer Club. This let the grown ups enjoy our dessert and coffee at a more leisurely pace!

Limoncello ice box pie –delicious:

I don’t remember what this was, or if we liked it!

My husband and I went up to the concierge lounge to get popcorn and drinks. We had packed cups with lids and straws for the kids since DCL no longer provides plastic straws or lids. The bar was open, so we got an adult beverage as well. The bartender, Alit, was just darling. Any time you asked how he was, he always said “magical”. 

We went to pick up the kids from the Oceaneers Club and the boys did not want to leave. Our daughter did, so we got her and headed to the evening show which was David Gatti, the magician. We all really enjoyed it!

After the show, we picked up the boys. The kids all wanted to go to the gift shop, so we headed there to browse.  They had all been saving their Christmas money to spend on the trip. We reminded them that if they spend it all tonight, they were out for the week. The boys learned this lesson the hard way on a previous trip, so they were good about pacing themselves! Our daughter got a little Mickey and Minnie that came with different outfits. Our 5 year old got a Stitch keychain. Our 7 year old got a pirate sword. I bought a Christmas ornament. This is always what I buy on our travels. One day I’m going to have a Christmas tree that is all travel ornaments! The kids and I headed to the room and I got them in bed. No towel animal picture tonight because our middle child destroyed it before we had a chance to see it! We decided to let the kids have the master bedroom, with the boys sharing the queen bed and our daughter in the twin Murphy bed. We wanted to be able to do things after they were asleep without worrying about waking them up. I also packed our sound machine and had it in the room with them to mask any noises. I completed the room service form for breakfast and left it on the door. Then I went to bed. After the gift shop, my husband headed to a Whiskey tasting with the 3 other husbands. It was $25 per person. They all said they enjoyed it and would do it again.

I was fast asleep when he got back to the room. It was great first day!