Our first port of the cruise was Cabo San Lucas, which required "tendering", meaning that guests had to be shuttled from Disney Wonder to the shore. Local transport was available so the ship's lifeboats did not need to be utilized. Since Kaleb and I had been here before, we didn't get off the ship. We read books on shaded lounge chairs and enjoyed the scenery. There were activities on board as well, conveniently listed on the Disney Cruise app, as well as other useful information.
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| Day 3 Personal Navigator page 1 |
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| Day 3 Personal Navigator page 2 |
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| tenders going back and forth |
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| beautiful scenery |
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| you can bring up a deck plan |
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| dinner menu also available |
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Kaleb and I went to
Triton's dining room for lunch.
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| Triton's lunch menu |
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| fried calamari |
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| marinated stem artichokes |
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| grilled halibut |
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| lamb kofta burger with "Mickey" ketchup |
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| molten cake |
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| strawberry mille feuille |
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After lunch, we walked around the ship and returned to our cabin, where we found bandannas for tonight's Pirate Night festivities.
We returned to the open deck for sailaway to enjoy the views of Cabo.
Our dinner tonight was at
Tiana's Place again; however, the theme was Pirate Night with a different menu.
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| Arrrrrrrrrrr!!! |
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| crab cake |
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| saucisson |
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| "1/2 pint" of shrimp cocktail salad |
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| fennel quinoa salad |
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| treasure of the seas |
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| Jerry couldn't decide so he ordered 3 |
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| jerk chicken |
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| after-dinner parade |
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| fruit cobbler |
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| caramel cheesecake tart |
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We returned to our cabin to find a towel snake with chocolate coin eyes.
That night, there was a
"Pirates in the Caribbean" party on deck with fireworks, followed by a pirate buffet. I hit my stomach's limit from indulging so soon after a late dinner.
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| lots of people on deck |
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| the fireworks shot off the starboard side |
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| smoked turkey legs |
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| lots of cut fruit |
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| my stomach was so full after this |
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| Kaleb's favorite |
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If that wasn't enough food, we had
Palo brunch again the next day (at sea - forgot to take pictures of Day 4 Personal Navigator).
Afterwards, we watched "
Incredibles 2" - the movie was excellent!
We then walked around the ship more and took a peek at the
Cove Cafe, an adults-only coffee and drinks place.
Upon returning to the cabin, gratuity slips were delivered along with their respective envelopes to give to the staff. (we already paid tips in advance)
Frozen was playing in the theater tonight - it was superb!
Tonight's dinner rotation was at Triton's, which ended up being our overall favorite meal out of the three main dining restaurants.
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| another bread dipping sauce |
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| escargot |
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| duck confit |
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| french onion soup |
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| iced lobster and jumbo shrimp |
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| chateaubriand |
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| rack of lamb |
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| apple tart tatin |
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| grand marnier souffle |
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| opera gateau |
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| towel monkey |
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| Day 5 Personal Navigator front |
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| Day 5 Personal Navigator back |
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On Thursday, Disney Wonder arrived in Ensenada. I purchased a ship shore excursion (
La Bufadora Sightseeing Tour) in order to experience Disney service first hand, plus I had never been to this infamous blowhole. After breakfast, we checked in to the Azure Lounge at the designated time.
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| my assorted breakfast selections |
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| inside the Azure Lounge |
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Our tour group was called in an orderly fashion, led off the ship and directed to an awaiting bus to take us to the
Hotel Riviera del Pacifico. The tour guide showed us the woodwork and architecture around the building and told us interesting details of its history, though I will be honest, I cannot remember any of it! After the tour, we were given a choice of a complimentary beer, margarita, or soda.
We then headed to La Bufadora. To get to the blowhole, you had to walk through a lot of souvenir stands, bars and restaurants. There was even a place where you could take pictures with wild baby animals, but seeing scars all over the animal handler's arms makes you think twice.
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| on the bus |
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| walking through the shops |
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| made it to La Bufadora |
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| kayakers below |
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14-second clip of the blowhole: (click
here if you cannot see the preview below)
Overall, the tour was organized very well from start to finish. The blowhole wasn't super exciting, but at least I can say I was there. When we got back to the ship, we had a late lunch at
Pete's Boiler Bites. Disembarkation information was already left inside our cabin. I liked having an assigned dining room for breakfast so that there would be a place to go in the morning after we vacated our cabin.
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| bye bye Ensenada |
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| shawarma and bratwurst |
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| disembarkation page 1 |
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| disembarkation page 2 |
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We checked out the pictures that the ship's photographers took but didn't purchase. It was nice that we could look at them on a screen versus searching and sifting through photos on walls like on other cruise lines.
In the evening, we watched
Dreams, which was good as expected.
Our last dinner was at the
Animator's Palate. The room starts out black and white, then slowly fills out with color and moving pictures...neat! It included an appearance from Mickey Mouse. If you have watched
Fantasmic at the theme parks, you will recognize the performance.
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| Animator's Palate menu page 1 |
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| Animator's Palate menu page 2 |
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| bread and dip |
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| pasta purses |
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| serrano ham |
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| butternut squash soup |
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| arugula and beets |
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| beef tenderloin |
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| pennete bolognese |
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| Animator's Palate dessert menu |
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| chocolate fudge cheesecake |
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| crunchy walnut cake |
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On disembarkation morning, we returned to the Animator's Palate for breakfast.
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| denver omelet |
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| chef's farewell |
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Disembarkation was easy and organized, and to avoid crowds, we had an Uber pick us up from the nearby
Star of India tourist attraction to take us to the San Diego airport.
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| Disney Wonder parked next to Emerald Princess |
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| Star of India |
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Overall, the Disney cruise holds high marks for service, great production shows, and activities dedicated for kids. I would definitely recommend families who enjoy Disney in general to sail on a Disney cruise at least once to experience the brand. Some cruises are themed, like the one we were on (
Halloween on the High Seas), plus others such as
Star Wars at Sea, and
Marvel at Sea. Doing a Disney cruise without kids can be fun if you are really into Disney/Star Wars/Marvel (and enjoy gourmet food at Palo), but otherwise, I would have preferred to have kids along, since they would have a fantastic time, which would increase our enjoyment.
Disney Cruise fares are at a premium, due to the high demand. The most affordable times to go would be between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and right after New Year's. There are also short 3 to 5-night cruises available from the West Coast as well as Florida. Prices are usually lowest right when voyages open up for sale; deposits are fully refundable until final payment (except for Concierge Suites) so there is no obligation to locking down a date for your family vacation around 14-18 months in advance. Contact me if you are interested in booking a Disney cruise - I would be happy to help you find the right one to fit your needs.
Wait, this blog entry keeps going...what's up with that? Our travels did not end with the cruise...there's more:
When we woke up on disembarkation day, Kaleb got a barrage of texts from family when he took his cell off airplane mode. His maternal grandfather ("Paw") had passed away during our cruise and the service was being held tomorrow afternoon in Pennsylvania! Thankfully we had a lot of American Airlines frequent flyer miles saved up, so I booked a red-eye flight to Philadelphia online (plus a $75/pp "close-in" fee), planning to fly home as scheduled, pack for the funeral and take off again. However, our Southwest flight ended up delayed. Every hour that passed, we would revise our plans, progressing from "we still have enough time to go home, pack, go back to the airport" to "we have no time to go home to pack, get on the red-eye when we land" to "we will miss our flight, need to change departure to be from San Diego". I was unable to make modifications online and had to call the American Airlines service center - their phone lines were busy and I was in a queue for callback in 1.5 hours! Not like we had anywhere to go. Around the expected time, my call was returned by an agent, and the flight was changed to leave from San Diego, incurring another booking fee for some reason, even though it was less than 24 hours, but we were just glad to have tickets. Fortunately, I used my US Bank Altitude Visa card, so I was able to redeem
Real-Time Rewards towards the fees.
In the meantime, while we were waiting for our now 5-hour-delayed Southwest flight, passengers were getting irate, so the gate agents issued $200 "LUV" vouchers to everyone as compensation for the lost time. Once it was for sure that Kaleb and I were going to have to abandon our flight home to fly American Airlines to Philadelphia, I sent a private Tweet to @SouthwestAir to ask them to cancel our leg since the phone lines were probably busy too. I didn't receive a response for a while and figured it was a lost cause, though at least we still had $400 worth of flight vouchers. Eventually, they got back to me and refunded our flights to make up for the inconvenience - great customer service!
Our journey to Philadelphia was pretty rough in terms of last-minute planning stress and lack of sleep on a red-eye, but at least it was as comfortable as it could be in this situation, as the cheapest award ticket available happened to be in first class, though with 2 stops. We flew from San Diego to Phoenix, to Columbus, then to Philadelphia. To get to Lancaster, we rode the SEPTA to 30th Street Station, then the Amtrak Keystone train, similar to what I did just
a few weeks ago but to Atlantic City. Kaleb's brother Jarrett and wife Kate picked us up from the station and drove directly to the funeral home. We barely had time to change into our most formal clothes we had packed for the cruise. The military funeral went smoothly, including a gun salute at the cemetery and a reception afterward. We were glad to have made it to the services, and it was nice to meet the other side of Paw's family. Rest in peace, Paw.
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| complimentary snacks at Airspace Lounge in SAN |
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| first leg to PHX |
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| The Club at PHX |
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| second leg to CMH |
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| third leg to PHL |
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| early morning snack |
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We spent another couple of days with family before heading back. We flew from Philadelphia, to Indianapolis, then to Dallas, then finally home...phew! We were able to enjoy the Centurion Lounge in PHL, ate at The Fan Zone (a Priority Pass restaurant in IND), and dinner was served on the flight from DFW.
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| breakfast in the Centurion Lounge |
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| snack from PHL-IND |
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| last leg |
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| dinner... |
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| ...and ice cream |
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It was nice to be finally home, though I would be off again in 5 days to visit Montreal in Quebec, Canada with my friend Denise...stay tuned!
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Another disclaimer: The intention of this blog was to remind Future Me in full detail about where I went and what I did. I could have made it private, but I frequently get questions from family, friends and internet folks about how I planned things, got deals, etc., so instead of repeating the story over and over, I direct them here. If you are offended by anything I say or do, save yourself the discomfort and kindly click away from my blog. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day!
