I am so excited to be able to bring you my second post-Covid guest trip report! This times it’s from Cynthia, who has contributed to the blog in the past with her trip report for her 11 night Southern Caribbean sailing on the Fantasy, as well as her very helpful post about the medical center onboard, which she unfortunately got to experience first-hand. She recently sailed on one of first few sailings out of San Diego on the Disney Wonder!
Guest Trip Report: 4 Night on the Disney Wonder from San Diego
Day 1: Travel from Las Vegas to San Diego Port
It’s travel day! After two years (and two cancelled cruises), we can finally say it’s time to travel to San Diego for our seventh Disney cruise. This cruise is going to be very different for many reasons . . . health protocols, lower passenger capacity (about 1,000 passengers and 900 crew members), and a “no kids” cruise for my husband and me. We are traveling solo this time as both our daughters are in school and unable to travel with us. Although we are going to miss them, we are looking forward to experiencing a Disney cruise on our own.
In addition, we are taking part in the “unofficial” Legglife viewer cruise! Adam & Sherri Legg are social media creators from Anchorage, Alaska who create YouTube videos and other content focusing on many topics such as travelling, family, relationships, and Disney. Their Disney Cruise YouTube creations are the best! This cruise has been in the works for two years, so we are thrilled that we will be joining about 100 Legglife community members on this cruise and putting faces to Instagram names. Check out the Legglife channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/LeggLifeAK for full cruise videos from our adventures.
For this cruise, we selected a four-night itinerary on the Wonder out of San Diego to Cabo San Lucas and back to San Diego. Day 1 is San Diego. Day 2 is a sea day. Day 3 is in Cabo San Lucas, and Day 4 is a sea day. This will be our second sailing on the Wonder and our second cruise to Mexico. However, this is our first sailing out of San Diego. We chose this cruise because it is an easy drive from our home in Las Vegas to the port of San Diego. We are looking forward to this cruise as a nice way to ease back into cruising!
We started our day fairly early on Sunday morning as we backed out our driveway in Las Vegas at about 9:00 a.m. and headed south on I-15. The 275 mile drive was fairly easy. We encountered pockets of traffic, but pulled into my sister’s driveway in San Diego about 6 hours later. Let’s hear it for family members who live close to the port! We parked our car and then jumped into my sister’s car for a quick ride to our hotel. We decided to stay at a hotel close to the port so we could get up leisurely on cruise morning and make our way to the port without having to worry about traffic or parking.
Our hotel for the night was the Westin in downtown San Diego located at 400 W. Broadway. The Westin is .5 miles from the cruise terminal – an easy walk for two adults with limited luggage.
We had a very comfortable room on the 21st floor with a view of San Diego Bay. The room included a king bed, full bathroom, desk, large closet, TV, refrigerator and stunning view. There was plenty of room for two people. Overall this was a comfortable, clean room, but showed its age.
After putting our luggage in the room, we decided to head out for a walk and dinner. The hotel is just up the street from the beautiful San Diego train station.
We walked around the train station and then headed on a short walk to Little Italy to look for dinner. We decided to try the Crack Shack, a fried chicken restaurant in Little Italy located on Kettner Blvd. Yes, we went to Little Italy and had fried chicken! The restaurant seating is almost entirely outside which was great because the weather was fabulous. The menu was simple, but filled with interesting choices.
We went with the five piece fried chicken dinner, Firebird sandwich and fries and shared everything. We had more than enough! It was really good and we are happy we gave it a try. After dinner we headed back to the hotel via the lively Little Italy neighborhood on India Street. It was a great walk and just what we needed after a filling dinner.
We arrived back at the hotel about 9:00 pm and spent a few minutes getting organized for the morning and then called it a night.
We are so very happy that it was an easy travel day. Day one of our adventure was a success. Tomorrow is cruise day!
Up Next: Day 1 – Boarding the Disney Wonder!
Great photos Cynthia! How nice to be able to park at your sister’s house. We were weighing the pros and cons of driving. The drive from where we live is a little over 7 hours. We decided to fly which ended up being a mistake since our flight was canceled on the way home, and getting home was a disaster. Oh well, at least it didn’t happen before the cruise!
Thank you! It was great to meet you and your family on the cruise and thanks for the recipe.