This guest trip report was written by Cynthia, who sailed on the October 18, 2021 sailing on the Disney Wonder from San Diego. It was a 4 night cruise that stopped in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. You can start the report from the beginning here.
Day 1: Boarding the Disney Wonder
October 18, 2021 is finally here! After 803 days it is finally cruise day. We were up bright and early and ready to go. We had an 11:00 a.m. port arrival time and we knew that we would not be allowed to begin the boarding process before 11:00, so we took our time checking out of the hotel. After a quick snack for breakfast, we gathered our luggage and headed to the port.
The San Diego cruise terminal is very easy to get to. For us, it was a short 10 minute walk from our hotel straight down to the waterfront. As we were walking towards the port, we crossed paths with fellow cruisers all parading with bags in hand. For an even shorter walk, you have several choices of hotels directly across the street from the cruise terminal. You can literally leave your hotel and be at the terminal in less than 5 minutes.
The cruise terminal itself is a very large, unassuming building. We arrived a few minutes before 11:00 so we checked out the Wonder and the terminal arrival area.
The arrival process was very simple. If you are arriving via cab or private car, there is an unloading area right at the terminal entrance. Very convenient.
The first order of business should be to drop off your luggage. The luggage dropoff is just to the left of the terminal entrance. Simply walk through the gates to the porters and hand over your luggage. The entire luggage dropoff process took all of thirty seconds.
Once you drop off your luggage, you will be directed back to the gathering area to await your port arrival time and initial entrance into the terminal.
The 11:00 a.m. boarding group (boarding group 2) was directed into the terminal right on time. The first checkpoint we encountered was the Inspire Embarkation Covid testing center. We were instructed to pick-up a covid testing kit and enter an assigned testing area.
All members of your traveling party enter the same testing area at the same time. Our Inspire representative did a great job of walking us through the test process – everyone collects their own sample. Once you have completed the collection of your sample, an Inspire representative collects everything and sends it out for testing. The collection process took only a few minutes and was very efficient. Once we completed the collection process, we were directed to the security checkpoint.
The security checkpoint is very similar to a TSA check at the airport. Very quick and simple.
Once through security we were directed by DCL personnel to the waiting area where we waited for our Covid test results.
The waiting area was comfortable. There are large screens set up throughout the waiting area where you can watch for your test results. If you follow along on these screens you need to have your reservation number handy because results are listed by the last four digits of your reservation number. You can also view your results on the Safe Passage website or your email. It appeared that results appeared faster via email. The wait for results was excruciating! We watched family after family get their results, but nothing came through for my husband and me. After almost an hour of waiting and talking to others who were still waiting, I finally found the Inspire on-site representative to see if I could get an update. It was then that I found out that some groups (including my husband and me) were experiencing technical difficulties. Our results were “clear,” but the results were not uploading to the Safe Passage App and thus we were not getting the “clear to board” message. It took another half hour or so to fix the issue. After waiting for almost 90 minutes, we finally received the “clear to board” message!
With a spring in our step and a smile on our face, we made our way to the DCL check-in location. Here our passports were verified and we were sent to the boarding ramp.
When we arrived at the ship entrance we waited to be directed into the ship’s atrium for the official welcome. Each traveling group is directed to a specified location – there were about 10 designated spots – for a short welcome from Captains Mickey & Minnie.
The next stop was our assembly station where a crew member checked us in and walked us through the process on the DCL App of verifying that we successfully completed our check-in at the assembly station. Once this was done, we were free to go. At this point we really felt as if our cruise had begun.
We made our way up to Deck 9 for lunch at Pete’s Boiler Bites quick service – burgers and shawarma! After lunch we headed to our cabin on the 6th deck to unpack and get organized before the Wonder departed.
The weather was perfect for walking around the deck. We spent time exploring Deck 10 and taking in the views of San Diego. We also had a chance to meet several members of the Legglife Viewer group. Everyone was so excited to be on board. Finally 4:30 p.m. arrived and we sailed away from the dock.
We had the second dining time – 8:00 p.m. – so we were able to go to the 6:00 p.m. performance of Frozen in the Walt Disney Theatre. The show was very good and well worth the time. After the show we made our way over to the Buena Vista Theater to check out the movie schedule. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that there were a couple of movies that we were anxious to see.
Our assigned restaurant for the dinner was Animator’s Palate. The first order of business was meeting our dining team – Toto and Abi.
What a great team. We were so lucky to be introduced to these wonderful crew members. Dinner was very good. I enjoyed the baked potato & cheddar cheese soup followed by the herb crusted pork chop. For dessert, Toto and Abi surprised me with a slice of birthday cake! What a great way to complete the meal.
After dinner, we walked around the ship looking for characters.
The character encounters were very different because of the Covid protocols. The characters are at assigned locations (Atrium, Deck 4, Buena Vista Theater, and Kids’ Club) and socially distanced from the guests. You are allowed to take pictures with the characters but you must stand in front of the character and wear your mask. What was also interesting to me was the characters, if they appeared together such as Chip & Dale, could not stand next to each other. One character would always be slightly in front of the other character. There were many opportunities to meet your favorite characters, but the experience was very different.
We also checked out the Halloween decorations as this was a Halloween on the High Seas cruise.
We also confirmed that the Atrium chandelier is as beautiful as always!
Our last activity of the day was the cognac tasting at Signals Bar in the adult pool area. My husband really enjoyed this tasting and said it was a great way to end the evening.
I love the Disney ships at night, so we decided to take an evening walk around Decks 4 and 10.
It was great to get some fresh air and shed the masks for a while. On our sailing, masks were only required while inside. We tried to spend a lot of time outside!
It had been a long and exciting day so we decided to call it a night.
Up Next: Day 2 – At Sea
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.