The Brophy's Wonderful January Cruise Part 2

[DizMare]

The Brophy Family Cruise on the Disney Wonder
January 20 – 24, 2002

The Cast – all first timer cruisers
Me and DH, mid-forties
DD age 12
DS age just three weeks shy of 11

The Oceaneer’s Lab
When we signed up at the lab the first day, dd was deeply disappointed in the lab (in true pre-teen dramatic exaggeration, she called it “the worst place on earth” because nothing was turned on yet.) Don’t worry – the worst place on earth soon turned into the coolest place in the universe. The kids went right after dinner the first night and spent the rest of the cruise either there or trying to get back there.
And although I didn’t get any warm and fuzzy feelings from the counselors (my interactions with them were very limited) the kids ADORED the counselors, and that’s what counts.

I thought the program was a wonderful mix of free time and planned events. The kids were thrilled at the freedom they had to stay out late (1 a.m. curfew! Kewl beans!). We really enjoyed our couple time. Several times we guiltily checked in with them in the lab to see if they were all right, only to be waved away impatiently. They did join us for 3 of the 4 dinners and a couple of the shows.

Maybe this is a 11 and 12 year old thing, but they never told us that they were going to be in the last day show. Of course, we knew about it from this board and showed up, video camera in hand. DS gave us a big wave and smile, but dd did the head down, my parents are embarassing me thing. (We’ve got it all on tape – hee-hee.) I thought the show was cute and you can’t beat a free tee shirt.

DD made many friends and now has two pen pals. DS made friends, too, but in typical boy fashion did not bother to exchange addresses. They give the lab two thumbs way up.

The Food
We liked everything, from the restaurants to the buffets (with the exception of the pancakes at Triton’s on the last morning – yuck). Loved the coffee bar on Deck 9. Made myself iced tea as was suggested on this board. I also made my own mocha drink of half decaf coffee, half hot chocolate, topped off with an inch of milk. Yummers.

Palo’s was wonderful. Our server, Stanislaw, was great and Sonya the wine steward was exceptional. We ordered a very expensive bottle of wine (Opus One) and it was glorious. Sonya decanted it for us and then peeled off the label and laminated it for us! Our cappuccinos were served with rock candy swizzle sticks! The chef made us a wonderful risotto. We stopped to thank the chef (Paolo?) on the way out. Terrific meal. (Stanislaw did inform us that the coverage charge was split among the servers and would not be going directly to him as a tip, but it was done in an inoffensive manner.)


Our Servers/Stateroom Host
Our stateroom host, Johannes from India, was wonderfully low-key but very friendly and efficient. He always had a friendly word for us when he saw us in the hall. We didn’t want for anything and our room was well kept.

Our head server was Ali from Turkey. He was always around, greeting us each night and stopping by the table to see if we needed anything. He arranged to have an anniversary cake delivered to our table at Animator’s Palate. Several times he offered to cut ds’ meat for him. On our last night, we stopped by Triton’s to give him and our servers their envelopes (we had dined at Palo’s). He graciously accepted his and tried to find our servers, but said they were on break. He told us just to bring them with us for breakfast in the morning. When we shared that we doubted that we would have the kids up in time for early breakfast seating, he assured us that if we could get there by 7 he would take care of us. And he did.

Balazs from Hungary was our server. He was perfect, funny and efficient with excellent dinner recommendations, and lovely with the children. (It must be common to cut children’s meat entrees, as he, too, always asked our kids if he could do it for them.) Our ds likes to drink decaf coffee, and Balazs pretended on the first night to dump a full cup of coffee into ds’ lap (he threaded a spoon through the cup handle, then held the spoon and saucer together and just as it got over ds’ lap he tipped the empty cup.) Well, I wish I had a picture of ds’ bug-eyed, alarmed face! Every night he had another prank to pull on ds or dh, who both enjoyed the attention. He pretended to be put out each night when the kids bolted after desert to get back to the lab (“And where do they think they are going?”). He told us he had gotten a promotion, so I wonder if he’ll still be a server when next we cruise.

Michelle from South Africa was our assistant server. She was fine, although perhaps new at the job. Drinks were a bit slow coming and Balazs seemed to cover for her quite a bit. But she was very friendly and good with the children and made several fine wine suggestions.

All the servers and our stateroom hosts were fluent in English and easy to understand. I felt they all spoiled us, and I longed for them for weeks after we returned home.


Nassau
I hadn’t planned any excursions, as I wanted to enjoy the ship on our first trip. But I did want the kids to glimpse how most of the world lives. It was an unpleasant eye-opening experience. DD was most unhappy at being asked every two feet if she wanted her hair braided or if we wanted a taxi. I felt the vast majority of the people were friendly and pleasantly took no for an answer.

We went to the temporary Straw Market and were unimpressed by row after row of the same dollar store stuff. We did enjoy the Del Sol store and bought a tee shirt and canvas bag. After only two hours, we headed back to the boat, to dd’s vast relief. DS’s review of Nassau: “That place was nasty.”

Now granted, we didn’t go far from the ship and I’m sure there are areas of Nassau that are very nice. But we’ll be happy to skip Nassau in the future.


Castaway Cay
I would gladly spend several days in this paradise! We loved our day here. DH left the ship soon after the all clear and walked all the way to the end of the family beach. He got us several loungers under the palm trees looking out over the cove to the Wonder. Close to the bathrooms, the bike and float rentals and the Heads Up bar. (We had the whole area to ourselves for hours.) We followed soon after, and found him by using our fsr’s. Loved the blue mats you can rent! So comfortable to float on and they make great cushions for the lounge chairs.

We did the banana boat ride, which I booked before we sailed (although I noticed that people were booking it as walkups no problem). This was a riot, although ds and dh didn’t think it was fast or long enough. It was fine for me and dd. The kids both wore their swimming goggles and that was a great suggestion as the sea spray does sting.

DH and ds snorkeled, using gear we bought at Sports Authority. We ate a delicious lunch at Cookie’s. We floated, searched for shells and lazed about and poof the day was over. There was barely time to shop! We were among the last to reboard.

I do wish we had worn water shoes, as the pieces of coral were murder on the feet. I also wish we had found time to rent bikes. Time just flew by.

Shopping
We had no trouble fining 5 photos to buy to get the Shutters photo package. It was fun stopping by each day to see if we were caught on film that day.

The shops were fun, and although smaller and fewer than I expected, still managed to tempt me into spending.

We had forgotten to pack dress socks for dh, who ended up doing his best Don Johnson impression our first night in Tritons. The gift shop had a nice selection of dress socks for sale, so I’m guessing we are not the first to forget.

Seasickness
This was my biggest worry. I get sick on any round and round rides. I had very little boating experience before, and although none of it was bad, I didn’t know for sure how I’d be on the ship. I was armed with bonine, dramamine, ginger capsules, ginger tea, ginger candy, seabands and a Relief Band (an electronic seaband). I don’t think I needed any of it.

The kids and I took ginger caps that morning. I made the kids wear seabands the first night (they hated them). I turned on my Relief Band as soon as we left port. I could feel a slight motion of the ship, especially the first evening, but I never got even remotely sick. That night I kept the Relief Band on my wrist, but turned it off. Later, I just carried it in my purse, but never wore it. Did it help? I have no idea.

The seas were calm to moderate (4 – 8 feet) on the last day. I saw people with the patch on on the last day that I hadn’t noticed before. I didn’t see or hear about anyone being sick.

I was extremely proud of myself for being such a good sailor, although I assume it was more a measure of calm seas than anything else. I did use the ginger caps several times, but to calm my overeating stomach, not a seasick one. Yo-ho, yo-ho a sailor’s life for me!

The Laundry Room
We discovered while getting dressed for our first night’s dinner that all our dressy clothes were really wrinkled (too hasty packing, too many clothes jammed in). DH volunteered to iron the worst stuff and hurried to the deck 7 laundry room. As posted here, the irons are not very good. In fact, my ds’ white polo got a black mark on it that I haven’t been able to remove yet. Next time we’ll pack a small steamer.

After Castaway Cay, I decided to wash and dry all our sandy beach clothes – and so did the rest of the ship. Every washer and dryer were taken and there was no more soap (although the machine still accepted and ate your money). I guess it would pay to go early or late on CC day. Or just dump all the wet and sandy stuff in a plastic laundry bag and handle it at home.

Crowds
There was supposedly 2500 people/700 kids on our cruise. Don’t know where they hid them all, but we never felt crowded. Seldom waited for anything.

 

[Pam]

Sounds like you had a great and attentive staff on your Cruise.

Isn't Castaway Cay the greatest place??!! I agree that Nassau could be skipped as a port stop.

Pam

 

[Casey's mom]

We have cruised twice so far (3 night and 4 night) and stayed on the ship both times when docked at Nassau. There was so much to do on the ship that we didn't feel like we were missing anything. Someday I'd like to try swimming with dolphins, but that's about it.

Sounds like a really fun trip!

 

[MollyX]

This is really fun reading your trip report - because we were on the same cruise! (My trip report is a ways back, posted in January with a title something like Jan 20-24 trip report - long).

And boy do I agree with you about those awful pancakes on disembarkation morning at Tritons!