20th Anniversary Baja Cruise and Disneyland Visit - October 2017

Following!!!!

Happy anniversary you two :love:

We were on the Wonder for our second time in August to Alaska and will be on her again in May, this time sailing out of San Diego :thumbsup2 Glad to hear your boarding experience was easy!
 
Those donuts look simply amazing. Looking forward to reading more about the Wonder. We've only cruised on RCCL, the Disney cruises have always just been a bit out of reach for us. But I can dream, can't I? :goodvibes

And I neglected to say this before, but Happy Anniversary!!!
 
Wow - I have made a note to visit Devils Dozen when we are there next year (too many great choices - my daughter will be in heaven)- and the roof top deck looks amazing!! Sound like you both had a wonderful anniversary trip.
 
I'm looking forward to following along - loved your Hawaii report! San Diego looks so fun! You were brave to walk 2 miles with your bags. I pack way too much to make that realistic for me. :rotfl:I've never been on a cruise and it's been years since I last went to Disneyland so I'm excited to hear all about it!
 


Those donuts looked amazing and what a view! The Wonder and the Magic are my favorite ships!

Jill in CO
 
Following!!!!

Happy anniversary you two :love:

We were on the Wonder for our second time in August to Alaska and will be on her again in May, this time sailing out of San Diego :thumbsup2 Glad to hear your boarding experience was easy!

Thanks! Ooh.. Alaska, I bet that was awesome! I'm sure you'll enjoy the San Diego cruise too. That's great!!!!

Those donuts look simply amazing. Looking forward to reading more about the Wonder. We've only cruised on RCCL, the Disney cruises have always just been a bit out of reach for us. But I can dream, can't I? :goodvibes

And I neglected to say this before, but Happy Anniversary!!!

Yeah, the Disney cruises are indeed pricey compared to other ships. But as Ferris Mueller would say, "If you have the means, I highly recommend it."

Wow - I have made a note to visit Devils Dozen when we are there next year (too many great choices - my daughter will be in heaven)- and the roof top deck looks amazing!! Sound like you both had a wonderful anniversary trip.

Yes, totally worth it! Funny name, about them being from the Devil when they are so heavenly!!!

I'm looking forward to following along - loved your Hawaii report! San Diego looks so fun! You were brave to walk 2 miles with your bags. I pack way too much to make that realistic for me. :rotfl:I've never been on a cruise and it's been years since I last went to Disneyland so I'm excited to hear all about it!

The two mile walk really wasn't that bad at all. You might be surprised! Glad to have you following along. Thanks!

Those donuts looked amazing and what a view! The Wonder and the Magic are my favorite ships!

Jill in CO

Cool! We've only been on the Wonder and the Dream. I would definitely prefer the Wonder due to its smaller size and fewer people. Need to get on the Magic one of these days too!
 
We've got a busy weekend, so it might be a couple days before my next update. In the meantime, I'll leave you with these teasers... I purchased a 360 degree camera a little while ago. It makes some pretty awesome photos. I don't think the 360 viewer can be embedded directly into a Disboards post, but go ahead and follow the links on these thumbnails below. It'll take you to Kuula's website where you can spin the photos around in 3D.

The first photo is from our table in False Idol.




And the second photo is from the bow of the Wonder looking out into the San Diego city skyline.



Fun!!! I took a ton of photos with this camera. Let me know if you like them and I'll be sure to share them throughout the trip report.

:hippie:
 


Those 360 pics are awesome! Which camera are you using?

Thanks! I'm using the Xiaomi Mijia MI SPHERE 360 camera. Apparently, Xiaomi is one of the worlds biggest phone makers, but they are a brand mostly known in China. I had never heard of them before I started researching 360 degree cameras. It consistently gets great reviews, so I took a chance on it. (Vs. the more popular cameras from Ricoh, Garmin, Insta360, etc.) I'm pretty happy with it. Most photos turn out great. Ones shot in dark settings (like the False Idol photo above) can come out grainy, but I guess that's to be expected...

http://360rumors.com/2017/09/ultima...re-360-camera-faq-wiki-and-resource-page.html
 
Loved the update and wow those donuts looked amazing. I'm not usually a big breakfast eater and esp not sweet stuff but those look AWESOME! And how cool that outdoor deck area!!! I have been to San Diego several times but never to Little Italy, will have to check that out. Love all the pics of the ship and the loading area etc. I have never been on a cruise and really want to take one but am always nervous cuz I get sea sick and I am terrified of being "trapped". I tried the patches behind the ear once and they didn't work. Someday mabye. Anyway great update and looking forward to the next installment!!
 
Day 2 - Sunday, 10/1/17 - Lunch time!

Yahoo, we were finally boarding the ship!!! Of course, they were doing the "Welcome 'so and so' family!" thingy… where they pretend like you are some distinguished guest as you enter the atrium. We played along as they clapped…

For some reason, I didn't get any photos of this process, or of the atrium at the time. I guess they were sending people in pretty quickly and I got caught up in the rush. Don't worry, I have gazillions of photos of it from later in the trip. But yeah, first impressions were, well… impressive!

It was now about 12:45 PM. The rooms were supposed to be ready around 1:30 or 2pm. So we decided to head to lunch first. So we headed up to the buffet restaurant, Cabanas on deck 9.

This was new... hand washing stations just outside the entrance to Cabanas.



This was actually quite nice, and certainly more effective than those hand wipes that they normally give you. I guess this is better than the wipes since we're all sharing the same serving utensils to help ourselves to the buffet food...

Pardon the next batch of poor quality photos, but here a few snapshots of the food offerings. I just sort of walked and snapped… hoping for the best. I didn't actually compose the pictures or look at the screen while I snapped them. It gives you an idea of the style in which the buffet is set up, but it only covers a fraction of the offerings.











So the restaurant is on the aft/back of the ship with both inside and outside seating (all the way in the back). It was such a pleasant day, we decided to sit outside. Walking out, you could see pretty much the whole bay!





Here's my plate of food…



I went back for some more shrimp and some crab claws, but that's about all I ate. The asparagus was pretty good. The steamed broccoli and carrots, were about what you'd expect. The shrimp was fine. The fries were good. And the fried fish was a bit bland. Funny… we went on a Royal Caribbean cruise in June and at the time, I remember thinking that their buffet was mediocre at best. And that it wasn't as good as Disney's. Well, I'd have to say that this time Cabana's was mediocre at best too. I mean, it wasn't bad. Just not as good as I remembered it… we had high expectations (and weren't let down) for the rest of the meals, so I didn't really give it another thought...

After we ate, we still had some time before our stateroom was ready, so we decided to explore the ship some more. Just behind our table, there were stairs leading up to deck 10... so we followed them. What a view!





Here's one of those 360 degree photos. You'll want to click on the thumbnail to get the full effect.... the view is absolutely amazing.



We decided to explore a bit more, so we headed towards the front of the ship… It was just too cool to see San Diego in the background!!!



I love that they added the new slide. So cool! (But I never did get around to giving it a try.)







Stephanie found a chair to relax in while I fiddled with my cameras and took photos for a few minutes…



And here's another 360 degree photo for you to click on…



We eventually made out way up to the front/bow and spent a fair amount of time soaking in the views of the city skyline. Just amazing!





This is a repeat 360 degree photo from earlier, but still awesome!



And a little while later, we were ready to head down and explore the ship a bit more, as the room still wasn't quite ready.

The Azure lounge…







Lots of "Halloween on the High Seas" decorations throughout the ship…

I love how they dressed up these port holes…







Around 1:45 PM, we decided to head to our stateroom…
 
Day 2 - Sunday, 10/1/17 - Our Stateroom

So yeah, we booked room 7021. It was on the left side of the ship, towards the back. Fantastic location!!! Except for I had no idea just how noisy the back of the ship is. (More on that later, but I wouldn't recommend being this far back on the Wonder.)



First impressions of the room were great!!! Much larger than I remembered it to be.











I love how they include USB outlets now. They had some next to the bed too.



And a couple fun post cards in the drawer...



This was our third Disney cruise, which puts us in the Silver Castaway Club… and they had this bag waiting for us. Not sure what we'll do with it, but it was a nice gesture.



Some nice pictures on the walls too. We especially appreciated the Walt and Lillian one.





All in all, we were happy with the room. We were especially stoked with how much space we had with just the two of us. So nice!!!

Before we move on, here are a few more 360 degree photos of our room. Same deal, if you click on the thumbnail, it will pop open the photo in a new tab for you to interact with.









Oh, and here's the veranda... what a view!!!



What should we do now?!?!? Well, without any kids, we knew that we would't be interacting with any of the kids areas. And these were significantly changed since our last trip on the Wonder, so we really wanted to see them. Since it was still open house, we decided to go explore them before the muster drill, which was scheduled for 4pm. That gave us about an hour and a half to explore!
 
Love your trip report so far!! My family and I went on a two week California trip including Disneyland and San Diego a couple of summers ago and it was an awesome trip. San Diego was our last stop and we rented a condo right on Mission Beach. By that time we were so tired from all of the sights and traveling that we never left a two block radius, but still had a great time. Happy Anniversary and can't wait to follow along
 
Lol @ the verandah 360 with the guy one deck above looking at the camera.

Haha! Nice one, I hadn't noticed that before :rotfl2:

Love your trip report so far!! My family and I went on a two week California trip including Disneyland and San Diego a couple of summers ago and it was an awesome trip. San Diego was our last stop and we rented a condo right on Mission Beach. By that time we were so tired from all of the sights and traveling that we never left a two block radius, but still had a great time. Happy Anniversary and can't wait to follow along

Thanks! We did a two week road trip to California a couple summers ago too. We didn't get as far as San Diego, but I totally understand your being tired from all the sites and travelling at the end of the trip!

Love the 360 pictures...they are very cool!

Thanks!!! :hippie:

Loving your report - and congratulations on your 20th wedding anniversary!

Thanks a bunch! :groom:
 
Day 2 - Sunday, 10/1/17 - Exploring the Kids Areas

So yeah, we decided to go check out the kids areas while they were having open house… It was a quick walk down two flights of stairs to deck 5. (Again, I loved how easy it was to get most anywhere on the smaller ship. So nice!!!)

We stopped at the Nursery first. The whole kids area was completely redone as part of the reimagining of the ship… but the nursery was completely new. It was somewhat small, but adorably themed in Mary Blair... It's a Small World style. How cool!









Since we didn't have kids, I didn't really inquire on the rates, but this is one of the few activities on board that requires an additional fee. More like a babysitting service than a kids club. But a welcome addition to parents with babies and toddlers, I'm sure!

Next, we headed over to the Oceaneer Club - which is for the 3 to 12 year-olds. It's broken into two areas, the "club/play" areas and then the Oceaneer Lab, which has more activities and stuff.

We entered the Club area first. You enter into a larger, open room that has the themed areas jetting out from it. If you make a circle heading to the right, you go through the Frozen area, then MARVEL's Super Hero Academy room, then Disney Junior, and then Andy's Room from Toy Story. Fun!

Here are a few shots of the Frozen area…





If you've gone through the queue in the new Frozen ride at Epcot, you'll recognize this window with the animated Oaken screen...



All sorts of cute nick knacks on the shelves!







There is a big open area with a screen in between all the smaller areas…



And then heading over to MARVEL…











And then the Disney Jr. area….







And by far, my favorite area… Andy's Room!!!!



So cool!! Everything is made to scale so you feel toy sized! Andy's bed is up the stairs, and then you come down the slinky dog slide! (I assumed that I’m too big and didn't even try going down the slide. But I really wanted to!!! LOL.)





He's the rootinest tootinest cowboy in the wild wild west....







Love the walls and posters!!!



Just so darn cool!!!!!
 
Day 2 - Sunday, 10/1/17 - More Exploring the Kids Areas…

And then moving over to the Oceaneer Lab. The central atrium of the ship divides the Lab and Club areas, and they each have their own dedicated entrances. Before the renovations, kids had to go outside the kids areas and across the atrium and then check back into the other area before continuing their activities. You can still do that, but now they have their own dedicated hallway that joins the two areas.. and kids can switch between the two areas as they please. So we passed through that hallway to save a few steps...

The Lab area is much more open, and it seemed to be more geared towards group activities and crafts.

It had more of a maritime/pirate theme throughout.











Noting that both areas are open to the 3 to 12 year old range. I sort of felt like the younger end of that group would have more fun in the Club area and the older kids would prefer the Lab area.

Next up, we decided to go find the teen area, ViBE. It's on deck 10, but it seemed more like 11 as you go up some stairs... and it has sort of a loft vibe.



OK. The teen area is awesome. Way cooler than what we saw on the Disney Dream and the previous version of the Wonder. To be honest, I wouldn't have minded spending a significant amount of time in this area too!!!

Some classic arcade games when you first enter…



Walking in and turning to the left, they have a TV up on the wall, and some lounge chairs off to the right.





And straight back, there is a smoothie bar.





And then back in a smaller room, they have some games, lounge chairs, and another TV to watch…



Giant Connect Four?!?! YES!!!



The wallpaper in this area was fun. It reminded me of the table tops at Wendy's restaurants when I was a kid.





So yeah, the ViBE was really awesome, if not a little on the small side. I wonder if it ever gets super crowded?

Next up, we headed over towards the middle school area, the Edge.



This one seemed sort of small and less complex than the other kids areas. I might have been disappointed if I was a 13 or 14 year old had only this option after seeing the other spaces. I'm sure the activities made up for it though. The cast members in there seemed pretty cool.







 
Day 2 - Sunday, 10/1/17 - Exploring the Adult Area and the Muster Drill

Next up, we headed over to the Cove area. Funny, on our last two Disney cruises, we never visited the adult only areas. Not even for a few minutes while the kids were in their clubs and stuff. So it felt pretty special this time around. Notice Stephanie's grin as she points to the "This Area Is Reserved For Guests 18 And Older" in the following photo. Love it!



We didn't order anything from the Cove Café, but we had fun checking it out for a few minutes…





They had just finished putting on the finishing touch on someone's drink…



Sitting here right now, I'm thinking, "I'll take two of each please…"



They had a TV screen showing the ship's current location, course, etc. And it also cycled through info about the other ships in the Disney fleet. Cool! (This is on a permanent cycle on one of the channels in your stateroom TV too.)



And then we headed outside to check out the adult pool and hot tub areas.





It looks inviting, we'll definitely be back here!!!!!!

It was now about time for the muster drill. We decided to get a couple soft drinks before heading down to our rendezvous location inside Animators Palate.

Cool, even the cups are themed for Halloween!!!



We were about ten minutes early and some of the first to arrive.





Really not a lot to say about this. I dread this portion of every cruise that we've been on. Makes me feel like I'm back in school or something. But, at least we had nice seats in a pleasant environment. And of course, if there ever was an emergency, it's nice to know that everyone is reasonably prepared for how to evacuate and stuff. :hippie:

After the drill, we decided to head back up to our room and relax on our veranda for a little while…
 

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