Guest Trip Report: February 7, 2020 7 Night on the Disney Wonder from New Orleans – Day 1

This is a day of firsts for the Tilly family.  Today is our eleventh Disney Cruise and twelfth overall (we also cruised Alaska last summer on Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas).  In eleven DCL voyages, we’ve never had the opportunity to sleep in our own beds the night before a cruise.  Thanks to our proximity to New Orleans, we got to do that last night!  We watched the live broadcast when Disney announced New Orleans as a DCL home port, and I was absolutely giddy with excitement.  We’d been begging for this addition for years.  We booked the very first day we could and have had about 1.5 years to anticipate today’s sailing.  We got up at 5:30 am and left the house close to 7:30. We live near Jackson, Mississippi, so we had about a 3-hour drive to Port NOLA.  We arrived in New Orleans proper at 10:30. Traffic really backs up when exiting to the Port (Erato Street Terminal), so pack your patience for the last couple of miles of the journey.  We turned into the port at 10:45 am and were paying to park in the parking garage at 10:50 am.  ($140 for the 7-night cruise). We dropped off our bags with a porter at 10:52, and we were in a parking spot by 10:54 am.  I was impressed with the seamless process.  Once you turn left into the port, there will be two lanes of traffic.  Port workers will be present to make sure everyone goes the right direction.  Those of you who park at the port will be directed to turn right.  Those who are dropping off guests will go further down to the guest drop-off area, which is also to the right at the terminal.  The traffic flow monitors were knowledgeable and did a great job of getting everyone where they needed to go. 

 

We entered the security line about 11:00.  Several people arrived at the same time, so there was a large room with a zig-zag line (think theme park ride line) to help with traffic flow.  A port worker checked our passports and opened them all to the photo pages.  She then directed us to one of several x-ray scanners.  We had a stroller and two backpacks, so this process took a few minutes.  Our toddler, Michael, did have to come out of the stroller for security screening.  We waited in a line dedicated for only concierge and platinum guests, and we were all checked in with new lanyards, personal navigators, and key to the world cards by 11:25.  There were also lines dedicated for silver and gold Castaway Club members and new cruisers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the daily navigator we received at check in:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As Platinum Disney cruisers, we are given priority boarding, so we were placed in boarding group one.

 

 

We’ve always been allowed to board in Port Canaveral by around 11:15, so already we noticed the lateness of the hour.  We later found out that the Mayor of New Orleans and a local news crew were treated to a tour of the ship, and that explains the relative lateness of the boarding process.  They announced the family of the day about 11:45 am, and we were boarding right at 12:00.  As always, boarding photos were offered, but we opted out as is our usual practice. Note that in New Orleans, you enter the ship on deck 4, not deck 3 like in Port Canaveral.  So, you first walk onto the ship on the outdoor part of deck 4 and then enter at the midship elevators – not into the main part of the atrium.

 

Lunch was offered both in Cabanas (the buffet) and in the lobby atrium restaurant, Triton’s.  We opted for Triton’s.  We rarely go to Cabanas and enjoy the more relaxed vibe of a sit-down restaurant with full service. I selected the grilled Caesar salad, which is my embarkation lunch go-to on all ships.  We had a lovely view of the colored glass in Triton’s.

 

 

 

 

 

We toured the relatively empty ship after lunch and got some photos of some of the public areas before they got crowded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At 1:30 we were granted access to our stateroom, 2514, an ocean view room Deck 2 forward (full stateroom review with lots of photos here).  Ocean view rooms are new to us since our son was born.  We used to sail with balconies almost exclusively, and I’m sure when “Climby McClimbface” is older, we will go back to them.  I do love the ocean view rooms, though, especially on the Dream class ships (Dream & Fantasy).  Those include fabulous padded window seats.  On the smaller classic ships (Magic & Wonder), the window seat is not included.

 

 

 

 

The Castaway Club gift is still the same sling backpack, with the luggage tags added for platinum guests:

 

 

At 3:00, we attended the spa raffle.  It felt like every person on the ship was crammed into the gym. It was incredibly hot in there too.  Our eleventh spa raffle, and we are 0-for.  You would think that odds have to be in our favor eventually.  After the spa raffle, we took the opportunity to stroll our son down the long corridors and put him to sleep.  Thankfully, that worked, and he snoozed peacefully through the entirety of the safety drill at 4:00 (we were station A, in the Walt Disney Theater). We skipped most of the Sail-a-Wave party but caught the tail end after Michael woke up from his nap.

 

 

We unpacked and had plenty of drawer and closet space for three people for seven days.  We freshened up for dinner; another change that baby brought for us was early dining.  We’d always had late dining before, but that pretty much happens after Michael’s bedtime, so early dining is the only thing that works for us with a 2-year-old.  Our first dinner was scheduled for the rotational menu at Tritons (you can read all about dining on DCL here).  We had two other families at our table:  two two-year-olds, Eli and Jaxton, and their parents.  We’ve noticed before that Disney tries to match the ages of the children at the table, and we really appreciate that.  I mean, I wasn’t embarrassed by my toddler’s antics because there were two other 2-year-olds doing 2-year-old things at the table.

 

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed dinner and ran off to the room for a quick bath time.  Disney always plans some lovely entertainment between the two dinner seatings, but for us, that was the perfect time to bathe Michael and put him in his pajamas before the theater show.  Almost every night, he fell asleep as soon as the lights went down in the Walt Disney Theater.  We left the variety show a bit early to do some window shopping.  The ship stayed in the river channel until well after midnight, so there was no opportunity to actually shop this first day (the shops can’t be open while in port – only at sea).  If you sail out of New Orleans, you will likely have cell phone service until you go to bed on embarkation day; both my husband and I did.

 

Up Next:  Day 2 – At Sea