Disney Wonder - April 2019

5 day cruise to Cabo San Lucas, Roundtrip from San Diego

PLEASE NOTE: THIS REVIEW IS INTENDED TO PROMOTE SALES AS A TRAVEL ADVISOR, I WOULD APPRECIATE YOUR BUSINESS IF YOU DECIDE THIS VACATION IS FOR YOU.

No doubt that we love Disney!  So when we sailed on our previous Disney Cruise, we had put down a future deposit to sail on Disney sometime again.  My friend and Independent Contracter Mandi was hoping that we'd find a sailing that would work for her significant birthday!  As luck would have it, there was an April 3rd sailing out of San Diego.  This made getting a group together to celebrate much easier with it being a West Coast departure and a shorter "weekender" cruise.  This was also a cruise with just one port of call- Cabo San Lucas and since we have been to Cabo numerous times, we decided that we'd just stay on the ship and enjoy the scenery of Cabo from the water!  

We flew to San Diego the night before the cruise and stayed at a hotel right across the street from the cruise terminal.  Because we are Elite status with Marriott, we try to stay at their properties whenever we can.  We stayed at the Springhill Suites Downtown/Bayfront and it was literally right across the street from the cruise terminal.  We were given a corner room with wonderful floor to ceiling windows and it was FUN to wake up the next morning and look out to see the ship in port!   We casually, got ready for the day and walked across the street to board the ship.   The check-in process was not quite as smooth as we've seen it in other ports of call.   It was a little hectic dropping off luggage as there was another ship next to us and not enough people directing guests to the proper place.  The check-in terminal had a fairly long line and was being used to check-in both ships, so again a little confusing and lengthy.   We finally stepped on board and we were welcomed in true Disney fashion,  "Disney Wonder welcomes the Horst family" & the crowd applauds. 

We decided to have lunch right away in the sit down restaurant that was right near the main lobby.  It was convenient and we had not had breakfast, so we were hungry.  We had a great lunch, dropped off our carry-on bags to our cabin and then started to explore the ship and find our friends!  But before we could meet up with everyone, I had a job to do-- make sure every cabin was decorated with their magnetic signs!!  We've sailed on the Disney Magic before which is a sister ship to the Wonder..and having just sailed a couple of years ago on the newer Fantasy, it felt like home.  We were able to navigate ourselves around the ship very easily.  Only minor differences between the ships and of course the Fantasy is newer and larger.  We eventually met up with our friends in the Adult Only Pool area and had our "welcome aboard" drink before the Muster Drill. 

After the Muster Drill, most of us met up again to spend some time together before dinner.   Disney Cruise Line offers "Rotational Dining" and with this you are assigned a different dining room each night and your waiter and bus staff travels with you each night to the new restaurant.  Given that we were on the ship for 4 nights, we would experience each restaurant and then our last night would repeat the restaurant where we dined on the 1st night.  The restaurants are all decorated differently and the menus reflect the theme to some degree.  Disney has a wonderful presentation of the food and excellent tasting options.  Delicious!  But what really makes your dining experience the best is the interaction with your servers.  We also started our dining experience with a PARTY for Mandi..a few of us arrived ahead of everyone else and decorated the tables for her special birthday.  Our dining room servers made sure that she was honored!  Of course, Mickey ice cream on a stick is a favorite dessert and it's not listed on the menu for adults, but you can ask for it! 

After dinner, what is a group going to do?  Take Photos of course!   It can be a little like herding cows and I think we're missing 1-2 folks in this "matching T-shirt" group photo.  Our shirts said "Celebrating Mandi's 60th birthday" and Mandi's shirt said "Celebrating MY 60th birthday"....you can find some amazing things on Etsy! 

Each night after dinner, our group would find our way to the Adult only area on the ship where there would be nightly entertainment and eventually DJ with lots of dancing.  Many times, we were the only ones in the lounge ~ which actually made for a lot of line dancing FUN.  Most of us know each other through our mutual love for country line dancing, so we did get a lot of dancing each night.  The DJ was very happy to play whatever we asked him to play.  We were also the ones playing just about every audience participation game, we laughed so much!

Overall, the cruise was spent laughing, dancing, playing games, getting some sunshine, sleeping in, eating, drinking  & meeting up with characters for photo sessions!   Making lots of memories with a great group of people! Sometimes you find the perfect backdrop for that "Twinning" photo!  We didn't plan to both wear Red & Black that night, but it worked!  

Here are a few more photos from our wonderful cruise, but if you'd like to see more, please click here:  DISNEY WONDER 2019 PHOTOS