This guest trip report was written by Rhonda Tilly, who sailed on the February 7, 2020 inaugural cruise on the Disney Wonder from New Orleans. It was a 7 night cruise stopping at Key West, Nassau, and Castaway Cay. You can start the report from the beginning here.
Day 7: At Sea
This morning was jam packed full for us, so as soon as we woke up and got dressed, we ran up to the pool deck to get Michael some breakfast. We had an early reservation for Palo brunch, so we were waiting to eat there. After breakfast, we headed straight to the lobby atrium with tickets for the Princess Gathering.
Immediately following the Princess Gathering, we were scheduled for the Frozen Gathering in Animator’s Palate. We waited in line quite a while to meet Anna and Elsa but realized eventually that we were not going to make it to see them before our reservation time at Palo, so we ended up bailing on that meet and greet this time. (Tickets are needed for the gatherings. They are free, but they should be reserved online before the cruise as soon as possible. Click here for details.). We dropped Michael off in the nursery and headed to Palo brunch where Harry, our new friend, was waiting on us. We enjoyed some of our favorites from the buffet. I also ordered the chicken parmigiana entrée, which is simply spectacular. After brunch, we took the opportunity to use the luxurious bathrooms just outside of the restaurant on Deck 12 aft.
We picked Michael up from the nursery just in time to see the last few minutes of Jack Jack’s Diaper Dash. The atrium was packed, and I did not get a good angle for pictures, but this is always a fun event. Crawling babies race down the track to see who is the fastest. It’s fun to watch because they are so unpredictable. Some never move from the starting line and others get distracted along the way. So many laughs to be had here! I highly recommend working it into your schedule if possible.
As the diaper dash was wrapping up, the DVC preview was beginning in the D Lounge. We have gone to the DVC presentation in the past for a chance to win $200 on our stateroom account. (We are not potential DVC members and have zero interest in timeshares in general. We do like the chance to win money, though). We were going to skip this one altogether this cruise when we noticed the incentive was different! Not only were they giving away $200 to some lucky attendee, one person from each stateroom would automatically be credited $50 just for attending!
Steven attended the DVC presentation while Michael and I went back to the stateroom to watch cartoons.
After a little rest for Michael and a little packing for the grownups, we headed to the $10,000 Final Mega Jackpot Bingo in Azure. We did not win, unfortunately, but one lucky lady from New Orleans walked out with winnings of over $7,100! That’s the largest Bingo prize we’ve ever seen on DCL. We got ready for dinner and headed to the French Quarter Lounge to the family dance party with the MVP Duo. We had our final dinner in Tiana’s Place tonight, and this was the traditional menu that I enjoyed much, much more than the prior visit to Tiana’s. We also participated in the Mardi Gras parade and listened to more live music by the Crawfish Crooners.
We took the time to take pictures with our wait staff, Yansen and Carla.
With Disney, your servers stay with you for each dinner meal, so you have the opportunity to really get to know them. Saying goodbye to them is never easy. We usually take the time to “tip” on this last night as well. Breakfast on debarkation morning is quite hectic, so we’ve found that this is the best time to catch our servers for a couple of minutes. Tip: We always call the cruise line and pre-pay our tips to keep that amount off our stateroom account. Disney provides the letter below that includes perforated slips that go into these envelopes. That is what we actually hand to each cast member. We often add additional cash to these envelopes because Disney cast members are very likely to go “above and beyond” to make the trip memorable and magical (all of the details about gratuities can be found here).
After saying our goodbyes, we headed to the theater for Disney Dreams. This is one of the original shows for the fleet. It is a sweet show, but not one of our favorites. Michael was restless after a few minutes, so we left to pack. I decided that I just couldn’t live without this fabulous suitcase, so I headed to White Caps to purchase it.
Also, this shirt sold out as soon as the stores opened on Day 2 of the cruise.
They finally agreed to sell them via mail order and ship them to us later. I was just thrilled to be able to get it; my heart was broken when they sold out so fast. **Update** It’s May now, and I still do not have my t-shirt. They called me two or three weeks ago and told me that they had the shirts in the warehouse, but everyone is furloughed due to Covid. I’m not sure when the shirt will actually make it to me.
We had four surprises waiting for us when we got back to the stateroom on this last night of the cruise. First, we noticed a large envelope from the nursery in our mail fish.
We’ve not ever gotten anything like this before, but this envelope was filled with Michael’s artwork and crafts from the time he spent in the nursery this week. I love it! Next, we had a shark to enjoy.
They also left some chocolates for us to help us celebrate Valentine’s Day. And the best thing ever: everyone on this sailing got a lithograph gift from the Captain for taking part in the inaugural New Orleans sailing!
Our room host also left our arrival information for New Orleans, which is not nearly as fun as the other surprises.
We put our luggage out for our stateroom host, and then got to bed to prepare for disembarkation.
Day 8: Disembarking the Wonder in NOLA
Just a note about debarkation: On DCL, there are two breakfast seatings on debarkation morning that correspond to the dinner seatings (early and late). Our seating for breakfast was at 7:00 am in Tiana’s Place (you are assigned the same dining room as the previous night’s dinner). After that, we were asked to wait in the lounges or theaters on the ship until our character (Daisy) was called. This is definitely the worst part of cruising. If we are not sailing concierge, we usually opt to do the express walk off and keep all our luggage with us. (Concierge guests are escorted off the ship at their leisure with no wait). We really couldn’t handle all of our luggage ourselves this time, so we had to wait in a long line.
Next time, we have determined to pack as lightly as possible so that we can utilize express walk-off again and avoid this delay.
We had no idea when we walked off the Wonder that day that the world of travel would shut down within a few weeks. I’ve often wondered about Yansen, Carla, and our other friends among the crew and hope they are home and healthy. Here’s hoping that cruising can safely resume soon!
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Rhonda Tilley is a travel agent with Magical Distractions Travel and can help you plan your next vacation! You can find her here on Facebook:
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Yansen is an awesome server. Missed him in January, glad he was back in time for New Orleans sailings.