WOW! The New Re-Imagined Disney Wonder 11-10-16

Wow!  What a wonderful first day on the Disney Wonder this has been.  Here is a recap of what has happened since arriving at the port.

Didn’t sleep well during the night.  For me it is always the excitement of going on a cruise and I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Disney Wonder into port.  I was awake at 4 and 5 and looked out my window and there was no ship.  Woke up again at 5:55 a.m. and there she was right out the window and I raced out of the room telling Michael the ship was passing.  At 5:58 a.m. I took these pictures of the Wonder.

The port opened at 10 a.m.  If you arrived prior to, the porters were not there to take your luggage, so you had to wait.  Promptly at 10 a.m., the porters began taking luggage and then a line started for the port embarkation process.  The port doors did not open until 10:30 a.m.  When we got there at 9:50 a.m. there were probably about 50 guests whom had already arrived. So Pete, Faith, Michael and I got in line and visited with other guests waiting too.

The terminal is #2 and the port staff there says it has been recently built.  When entering, you will go through security.  They had 4 security booths opened.  Those whom had liquor in their luggage were required to stop at a table after going through security.  They were taking the bottles out and checking them, so I am assuming they were somehow looking whether it was wine or champagne and making sure the bottles were still sealed.

We then entered the check-in area and there were hundreds, literally, hundreds of chairs.  But no one was using them because everyone was in line waiting to check in for the ship.  We got in the Platinum/Concierge line.  We waited maybe 5 minutes to check in.  Check in was efficient and all was running smoothly.  We were immediately shown where to go up the escalator to where it said “To the Ship”.

Navigator:

There we came into a second floor of the building where there was hundreds of more chairs that were set up.  The area was huge.  We went to the area where we knew (roped off) that boarding would begin.  Shortly thereafter Mickey came out and guests started lining up for pictures with Mickey.

During that time Shutters came out, so we became the test subjects for the onboard picture before the boarding process began.  This allowed us to actually have all that done before boarding started (and we were the only ones that tested), so yes Scott Hughes, we were able to be literally almost first on the ship after the family of the day and the concierge boarded.

While walking onto the ship DCL had some great signage and since there was no one else boarding, we stopped and took pictures.

Since everyone was getting pictures, we basically had the whole atrium to ourselves.  Daniel, Peter, Ugo, and others welcomed us aboard the ship.  They are all very excited about the Re-imagined Wonder.  The new atrium is beautiful with a chandelier that sets high in the ceiling.  The Ariel statute has been moved to the right with the removal of the left staircase.

The Gingerbread House is on the left when you enter on deck 3 and is currently being built.  It smelled delicious in the atrium!

One of the new changes on the Wonder is that there is now a lunch served in Triton’s.  This is a sit down, order off the menu lunch.  So we headed to Triton’s after dropping our carry on luggage to the room.  It was a nice bonus today, as there were no guests on the ship as it sailed from Port Canaveral to Galveston, so the staterooms were ready as soon as we boarded (11:30 a.m.) and that allowed us to get rid of our “stuff”.

We are on second seating for dining and our rotation is Tiana’s Place (TP), Triton’s (TR), Triton’s (TR) and Animator’s Palatte (AP).  You will notice on your Key to the World card that the restaurants now have a two letter abbreviation instead of one.

 

At Triton’s, we all got the Shrimp and Chicken Gumbo with cornbread and it was delicious.  Then had the Sliced Roast Beef Sirloin for the entrée.  Was very good also.  We all decided that we wanted to explore the ship and would get some dessert later in Cabanas, so off we went.

We first headed out to After Hours.  The adult exclusive area (after 9 p.m. each night) located on deck 3 forward.  The overhead lighting is just above and beyond anything I have seen on a Disney ship before.  The hallway itself is an experience to walk through.  There are 3 clubs located in this area.  Azure (which replaced Wavebands), Cadillac Lounge (the piano bar) and then Crown and Fin Pub (which replaced Diversions I believe it was called before).

Azure’s set up is basically the same as the Disney Magic, however, by the bar they have taken out the area where the cocktail tables were with the barstools.  That opens up this area more by the accessible ramp but we have now lost our table area for Bingo.  Jo is the adult club host for all the adult activities.

There are electronic screens outside each club with a list of time and activity going on for the day.

In between Azure and Crown and Fin Pub is Sea Treasures (used to be duty free back in the day).  This is where they sell merchandise.  Right now it has lots of Star Wars items.  I also noticed t-shirts for sale with Crown and Fin Pub in them.  Outside the Crown and Fin Pub is an English phone booth with stickers.  It will be interesting to see if the stickers change over time.  A great place for a photo, but no phone here.

Crown and Fin Pub has a lot of detail work in the ceilings and is a darker wood then the others.  It is very distinct and obviously English.  There are 6 signs in the corner of the pub.  Can you figure out what each sign references?  We were told about these signs by an officer, but I doubt many guests will even pay attention or know that they have any significance at all.

In the hallway between decks three and four there are framed posters to remind us of the area this used to be (Route 66) as you are walking from Crown and Fin Pub to Cadillac Lounge.

Cadillac Lounge has had a makeover also and the bar looks like the front end of a Cadillac.  Very clever.  And then the fixtures at the windows look like the taillights of the car.  The tables look like tires from the car.  Very cute lounge.  This is considered the piano bar and there will be music nightly in this club.  A great place to relax and usually a pretty quiet place when I’ve been there before.  We like meeting friends there occasionally before or after dinner.

Now it is off to deck 4 to check out Preludes and walk by Mickey’s Mainsail and White Caps to look through the windows at the merchandise.  This is the first cruise with merchandise for Holidays on the High Seas this season.

Continuing on deck 4, we walk to Shutters.  The Disney Wonder is the first ship to go to the new Shutters.  There are no longer actual pictures in folders in Shutters.  Everything is computerized.  You will look at all your pictures on the computer and then if you want to order a print you can do so (or purchase the disk with your photos).  If you pre-purchase the photo package on line before your cruise you can get a 15% discount.  Prices for the packages vary according to the length of the cruise.  All the Disney ships will be moving to 100% monitors at some point and there will no longer be prints to look at physically.  Personally, I think this is a great move by Shutters and is being more earth friendly in not using all that photo paper which eventually got recycled after each cruise.  And the man hours used by Shutters to put and remove photos had to be extensive, so this should be more efficient.  I applaud the change!

We hurry off to Animator’s real fast, but no real physical changes here, so no photos needed.  However the Drawn to Magic show has been added as well as the updated Animator’s show is now onboard.

Next, we are off to deck 3 aft to visit Tiana’s.  The Disney team has gone above and beyond in every little detail in this restaurant.  I am excited as this will be the first restaurant we visit this cruise tonight for dinner.  I love the table settings and the removal of the buffet.  Additionally all serving stations are to the outside, so they are not obstructing anyone’s view inside the restaurant.

 

Now we are off to Cabanas just to take a look, and get a dessert before we continue on our tour.  The most notable change here is something I had already seen a picture of, but wasn’t sure what or where it was……There is now a hand washing station outside (on both sides) at Cabanas so you can either get hand bacterial wipes or you can actually wash your hands with soap and water.  A great idea for those who felt the wipes just weren’t good enough before eating.

We walk out on deck 9 at Boiler Bites and find that they have added Schwarma to the menu as well as changed the order station and the condiment station.  No longer is the condiment station outside.  It is now at the old pickup window where you got your hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken tenders and such.  This has to be much better when it comes to keeping the condiments cold and with food safety and handling procedures.

Going to midship we stop off at the Edge on deck 9.  This location is where the arcade used to be and the arcade is now a distant memory.  There are a total of 670 kids on this cruise.  About 124, the youth counselor told me in the age category for the Edge.

We stop by the Cove Café for a quick look and the set up is about the same.  They do have some minature tea cups set up that are really cute, I am not sure if you order tea or a shot of espresso (not a coffee drinker), so I am clueless.  They do have some counter cards with some specialty holiday drinks.

 

Upstairs we go from the Cove Café to the new Concierge Lounge.  The lounge encompasses two decks.  The inside area where there are food and drinks and then up on deck 11 a private sun deck available to only concierge members.  There is absolutely a great view from this vantage point on the ship.

We are running out of time before the Mandatory Guest Assembly Drill and we want to see the brand new Oceaneer Club and Lab before it is closed to adults.  There is a Toy Story area, a Marvel Academy, the Oaken Trading Post from Frozen (this includes a screen which will most likely be playing movies).  The Walt Disney Imagineers have done a phenominal job in this area for the children.  It will be a favorite place of the children while on cruises.

Back to the stateroom to unpack and go to the Mandatory Guest Assembly Drill.  Everything is the same.  Then immediately following Assembly Drill is the Adventures Away Family Deck Party with our Cruise Director Peter and the Cruise Staff along with all our Disney Pals!  As usual, we have plenty of fun during the sailaway party.

We have second seating for dinner and we go to the show in the Walt Disney Theater first.  Tonight is the brand new The Golden Mickeys hosted by Diana Dior.  The new segments in the show and other surprises are awesome.  It is definitely a show not to be missed.  The graphics update is great too.  Can’t wait to see what they have done on the Wonder with Disney Dreams and the newest show Frozen.

Immediately following The Golden Mickeys we stop and shop!  Pick up a few new items that I just had to have.  There is plenty of holiday merchandise and lots of new items.  Everyone should be able to find a souvenir or two without any problem.

At 7:30 in the Atrium is Mickey’s Tree Lighting Magic.  The atrium is packed.  We go up on deck 5 to get some pictures.  Once the tree lighting ceremony is completed, now anywhere you walk on the ship in the hallways there is holiday music playing.  It really gets you in the holiday spirit and many guests are singing right along with the music.

We have dinner at 8:15 in Tiana’s.  The Walt Disney Imagineers have gone above and beyond in getting every little detail to this restaurant right on the mark.  I feel like I am in the middle of Mardi Gras enjoying the evening with music, dancing, and great food.  Our Hostess, Princess Tiana has really gone all out with her restaurant.  She wanders around the restaurant and you have an opportunity to get a picture with her while you are having your dinner.  For my appetizer I had the Seasoned Gulf Shrimp and Grits.  I would order again in a heartbeat.  For my salad I had the Iceberg Wedge.  Once again, delicious.  Then for my main course I had the James Roasted Pork Tenderloin.  In between there was dancing, singing, we received Mardi Gras beads.  The children’s menus are saxaphones and horns.  Then during the party the kids can use their instruments and play them around the dining room.  It is just one big party with all the servers and the guests.  We brought streamers to dinner to celebrate the opening of Tiana’s and Michael shared them with guests (because he brought a lot).  It really added to the party and the kids loved them.

But, I have to say the best part of the dinner for me was the dessert.  The dessert menu lights up when you push the menu.  I couldn’t decide between a couple of items so our server brought us Tiana’s Buttermilk Beignets and Mama Odie’s White Chocolate Bread Pudding.  Now, I was a little hesitant about whether I would like the beignets and whether there was any way Disney could pull off serving hundreds of beignets that would not be mushy and lukewarm to say the least.  This was the biggest surprise of the night.  The beignets were hot, tasted like they just came off the fryer.  The powdered sugar and dark chocolate dipping sauce were just a bonus and they melted in my mouth.  In fact, it is hard to type about them without wanting more.  They were that GREAT.  Did I say there were great?  My mouth is watering………….

I have only see the movie Princess and the Frog once, but like I said before Disney did not miss a beat with this and I have to say besides Palo, this may be my new favorite restaurant on the ships.  Can’t wait to go again on the next cruise.

I think the more involved you get with the whole show going on in the dining room, the more fun you will have.  The crew had all kinds of “instruments”, tamborines, etc.  We decided when we all go to Alaska next July we all need tamborines to add to the festivities.

After dinner, we rushed off to Azure, the new adult nightclub, to see Jo host a new show called Seriously?!  Four couples participate in the show.  It was funny.  Jo asks questions and then the couples have to answer standing “back to back” by holding up the woman’s shoe or the man’s shoe and see if they match.  For example, one question was:  “Who is the loudest snorer?”  The couple (not seeing each other) hold up either the wife’s shoe or the husband’s shoe to see if they match.

For the adult variety act, we have MaryEllen Hooper.  She shared outtakes of her life as a woman, wife and mother in a hysterically comical way.  We were all non-stopping laughing.  She was really good.  She performs again the last night of the cruise.  We will definitely see her again.

It is now midnight.  We have to turn our clocks forward an hour tonight.  So it is really 1 a.m. and we have got to call it a night.  I have downloaded my pictures. I have taken over 300 this first day.  I will see what I can attach to the blog.  If the internet is slow, I probably will head into Starbuck’s in Cozumel on Saturday so I can download the pictures free.  So I may do a separate blog entry with lots of pictures.

Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Goodnight from the new Re-Imagined Disney Wonder.