Guest Trip Report: April 21, 2022 5 Night Pacific Coast on the Disney Wonder – Day 1

This guest trip report is from Rachel, whose sailed on a 5 night Pacific Coast sailing from San Diego to Vancouver on the Disney Wonder in April 2022.  You can start this trip report from the beginning here.

Guest Trip Report: April 21, 2022 5 Night Pacific Coast on the Disney Wonder

Day 1:  Boarding the Ship

We woke up bright and early for embarkation day, partly because we were still on central time (2 hours ahead) and partly because we were so excited to get on board.

We went down to the Starbucks at the street level just outside our hotel and grabbed coffee and tea and egg bites for breakfast. Then we took a walk along the water since the morning was so beautiful and we had time to kill.

We were lucky enough to see the Wonder pulling into port that morning! Several others who were on our cruise were out there watching as well.

After the Wonder was docked, we walked back to the hotel, passing by the now-empty terminal building we would enter later for arrival testing.

We were sailing in Concierge, so we did not need a specific port arrival time, but we like to have as much time on board as possible, so we headed out from our room around 10 am with our luggage.

After a very easy and short trip across the street, we arrived at the now-busy terminal building. They had the lines delineated by port arrival time and they told us to get in whichever one we would like. Of course, we opted for the earliest one – 10:30am. And right at 10:30, they allowed us to enter, drop off our luggage, and line up again to be tested.

Thankfully, by the time we got through security and seated in the terminal to await boarding, our tests had already come back negative and we were cleared to board. (Whew – always a little anxiety about that even though we had tested before we left home.)

We actually had to sit in the terminal for about an hour after we were cleared to board because they were having some technical issues with switching over the systems from the previous cruise to ours. But, as soon as they solved that, they let us board. There’s nothing like stepping onto the ship for the first day of your cruise!

We went straight to our muster station and took care of that check-in on the app and then went to Triton’s for the concierge lunch.

I always get the empanada appetizer and this time I got the salmon salad. Nice and light – so I have room for one of my favorite desserts!

After lunch we went right around the corner to French Quarter Lounge since this was my first time back on the Wonder after the reimagining of this lounge. It is now a favorite! Just look at the theming – such a beautiful space.

After checking out that lounge, we went up to our stateroom to drop our small carry-on bags. We had a 1-bedroom suite, #8048 (full stateroom review and more pictures here).

This was my first time to get the gold Castaway Club luggage tags and lanyard.

We had decided to split up the space in our suite and have my mom take the main bedroom, bathroom, and closet, and me take the sofa bed and the hall bath and closet. It was really nice to utilize this space to spread out.

My first night on the sofa bed with only this thin blanket, I was a little cold. I spoke with concierge about adding something more substantial and they coordinated with my stateroom host to have a full down comforter there the second night. That made a world of difference.

After dropping our things and checking out our stateroom, we walked around the ship to have a look. We’d both been on the Wonder before, but I’d never seen it this empty – even on embarkation day. I can’t remember the exact numbers, but we were definitely not near capacity on this cruise and we could tell the difference. Look at all the empty spaces!

We made our way around to my favorite concierge lounge of the fleet (have yet to see the Wish – will be doing that in October of this year). I *might* have grabbed one of those chocolate covered Oreo pops.

At 3pm we had scheduled a champagne tasting in the Cadillac lounge. We had the same host/sommelier as our chocolate and liquor tasting on the Wonder the last time we sailed on this ship and he was just as excellent. We learned so much and really enjoyed the champagnes.

During the tasting we actually had to sit through the lengthy announcements about the emergency procedures. However, sitting in the lounge with glasses of champagne was not a bad way to pass the time during those announcements! I would do that again in a heartbeat!

Immediately following the tasting we headed up and outside to watch the Sail A Wave party. We stood next a “friend” of Tiana’s who said she was on her first contract on the ship and asked us how we had liked it in the past.

We don’t always watch the Sail A Wave party, but this was the first one we’d seen since the return to sailing and there is something about it that gets you excited about your cruise!

Our dinner that night was in Tiana’s Place and we were seated at one of the best tables in the house – right next to the stage.

We asked for paper menus because we prefer them to using our phones. And I love the artwork and theming on each one.

After some delicious food, we went outside on Deck 4 to have a look at the sunset.

Back inside in the atrium, the characters were out in full force in their cruise/sailing attire. We just hopped from line to line and got to several this first evening. The lines were incredibly short so this took no time at all and we had fun!

While in the same area, we saw Tiana (who looks a lot like her “friend” we spoke to earlier at the deck party). 😉

That night the show was actually a showing of the new movie, Turning Red, which we were going to watch (I had seen it on our last cruise), but the Buena Vista theater was showing Encanto, which my mom had not seen yet, so we decided to hop over there and watch that.

After the movie, we called it a night. Our little towel bear (?) was waiting for us on the bed, along with some chocolates and some scented mask spray.

Up Next: Day 2 – At Sea