Steve and Sue and the Wonder-ful DVC Member Cruise **Updated 11/1** COMPLETE About This Page:

[Hugmonster]

Looking forward to more.

[Colexis Mom]

What a great update Sue!! More, more, more!!

[iamgrumpy]

Ohhhhhh Sue......patiently not so patiently waiting for ummmmm MORE Just in case you forgot

[rescuesk]

Originally Posted by emtpej

I'm suprised there wasn't cheering on the shuttle bus! Looks like a great start to the cruise! Ahhhh! Onboard and relaxin in the stateroom!

Oh, there was!

Two things about the goodies we sent: First, it was pure chance and total luck that I picked the Asti version, not knowing it was your favorite. I spent about 45 minutes trying to figure out what to order, and you-know-who was no help.

It was perfect!!! And too funny about you-know-who!

Sounds like everything went very smooth!

This whole trip was so stress free, it was incredible!

[rescuesk]

Sunday, September 21, Part 2!

Steve decided to rest for a bit, but I was "too excited to sleep!" I arranged our stuff, waited for the second suitcase and sat out on the Verandah. I watched a skid full of suitcases sit out in the hot Florida sun for about 2 hours, just baking! As I was relaxing, my cell phone rang. "Amy:cell" was the caller ID. Why is Amy (iamgrumpy) calling me? "Hello?" At first it was a bit difficult to hear her, but then she was loud and clear... "What side of the ship are you on?" Uh...the side that my room is on? Actually, I think I said we were facing the port. "Well, look out your verandah!" I did, and WOW!!! There was Amy, her mom (QVCnut) and her grandmother, driving by to wish us bon voyage! I ran back in the stateroom to grab the video camera while trying to explain all this to a half asleep Steve ("Do I know her?" "No, but you'll meet her this trip." "Does she live here?" "She does now!") I managed to film Amy & company waving and not hang up on her all at the same time! See how technologically advanced I have become! It was a great surprise, and yet another time that day that I had tears in my eyes.

I rested a bit after that, and didn't get Amy's next phone call, that told me they were going to be waiting on the edge of the jetty for us to sail by. I looked when we left, but didn't see her that time. But it was OK, she saw the Wonder leaving and it was one of a those special Passporter moments knowing she had come down to see us off!

We did the required safety drill. This was the first time our station was outside on the deck. Interesting, because if we are going down, I am thinking that we would maybe NOT want to be so close to the railing!
Does he ever put that camera down?

Our safety team:


We headed back to the room and got ready for the sailaway party. At about 4:30, we headed up to Deck 10. The party was just beginning!

Jim Lewis, president of DVC:

The sailaway party:


The music played, the CM's danced, Jim Lewis spoke, the characters appeared, the horn sounded...oh, the horn. We did a countdown from 10, the horn played those wonderful sounds and...WE WERE ON VACATION!!! The drink of the day was "Inspiration Sensation" (I don't remember what was in it but it was GOOD) and I had one, while Steve had a frozen Bahama Mama. We sailed out to sea. We started out on the port side, and went over to the starboard side. I didn't see Amy, but I did get some pictures:




After watching Port Canaveral fade into the distance, we scooted back to our room to change for dinner. And...our second suitcase had appeared!!! I quickly unpacked and we got ready for our first dinner at Parrot Cay.

We arrived to be seated at Table 44. There were two other couples there, Beth and Tim from Pittsburgh, and Beth and Diane from North Carolina. We had two empty seats. Our servers told us that Laura and Lee were supposed to be joining us, but perhaps were at Palo tonight. This would come up again and again... We immediately decided that if they weren't there, we were entitled to 2 extra dinners!

Our tablemates were phenomenal...we all hit it off right away. Beth and Tim owned 1000 DVC points, , and Beth and Diane owned 280, but that would change on this trip. I didn't take any pictures from our first night, we were laughing and talking the whole time. Beth of Tim and Beth (I'll call her Beth1 and I'll call Beth of Diane and Beth Beth2) honed right in on Steve's sense of humor and they were like Abbott and Costello. This was the only time on the entire cruise I did not take pictures. We knew from the start that we were going to have some great dinners!

After dinner, we strolled the deck, and I took some shots of night falling over the Disney Wonder:
Sunset:










Now, when Steve and I did our 7 day cruise in May 2007, he pretty much slept through the entire cruise, morning, afternoon and night. He would nap after breakfast, nap in the afternoon, nap while I saw the shows...on the last day, he couldn't believe all that he had missed on the ship. So I told him that he was NOT sleeping through this whole cruise. : So tonight, he promised to go to the show with me. Another thing he discovered on the last day of our last cruise was the Cove Cafe Coffee Bar. This trip, the Cove Cafe and it's bartender would become one of our best friends!

After a walk around the ship, we headed to the Cove Cafe right now, before the show. The Cove is a little nook right next to Quiet Cove pool, and they serve specialty coffees and teas. There are lovely little seating areas, and a TV playing sports that comes with headphones, so you can listen if you want to, or just relax and not listen if you want to!



Our coffee-bar-tender, Michael:

My latte:

Steve's moccachino:



We got a card that entitled us to a free coffee after a purchase of 5. We spent quite a bit of time talking to Michael, who was from England.

We headed down to the show. Tonight was "The Golden Mickeys". I had seen this show several times, but Steve hadn't seen it since our first cruise! No flash photography, of course, but I did take a picture or two: (Some of them are a bit blurry...)












The show was awesome, Steve stayed awake!

After the show, we walked down the past the stores. Remember all those DVC member touches I told you about? This was in the window of Treasure Ketch:

Mickey's clipboard says "Member's to-do list" and has the "Disney Inspirations" logo on the bottom!

We were pretty tired by now, so we opted out of Disco night and walked around the deck one more time. Then we headed up to our stateroom, where we found not only a towel animal, but a few more gifts from Disney Vacation Club:

Tonight we got a special copy of the Disney Files, the DVC member magazine, and 2 DVC member cruise exclusive pins!

What a day it had been! And there was so much more to come!

Next...."Vacation Inspirations", Castaway Cay and...um....a few pictures of the island...

[iamgrumpy]

Awwww Sue I made the Trip Report that we got to send you off! I was practically Dancing all morning knowing where we were going and what I was going to get to do

Makes me miss the ship though reading this...good thing i have now 3 cruises booked to look forward to!

More please

[lexiemom]

What a wonderful first day on the ship! The Cove Cafe looks like a place where DH would spend a lot of time! DH is quite the coffee nut (or should I say bean ).

[Colexis Mom]

What a great day Sue!!! Glad you had some fun tablemates!! The pictures of the clouds are awesome!! Hurry back with more

[Kenny]

Originally Posted by rescuesk

Is that Captain Mickey at the railing?
Great pictures, I'm glad you got to see Amy and the "Floor Foot" Gang as you were leaving!
I think I'll look for a coffee bar like that on the Magic soon!

[Tink and co.]

Just found your report this evening, and I'm loving it! Brought back so many good memories of our trip to KSC, and now I'm just dying to go on a cruise. And I thinks it's going to be a long time...

[TheThomasFam]

Sue:

I'm all caught up with your tr. I'm enjoying it and can't wait to read more. I'm tossing around the idea of taking a cruise with my kids so reading about them helps to decide.

[iamgrumpy]

I hope you update soon! I am anxious to hear more!

[rescuesk]

Monday, September 22, Part 1!

Ah what a perfect way to start the day! We looked out our verandah window and we saw this:


WooooHoooo!!! We were arriving at Castaway Cay! We got up and got ready for the day. We headed up to Beach Blanket Buffet for breakfast, and managed to get a table right at the front of the ship. Needless to say, this meant a few photo ops for me!







The ship was docked and we were going to be cleared at around 10 AM. In the meantime, we were heading down to see "Vacation Inspirations". This had been billed as a DVC "signature show" which basically meant it was to try to sell you more points. We knew that going in, but we were excited to see what the incentives were. And, we were really excited to see that one of the hosts of the show was our very own DVC rep, Joan! Joan is our DVC "guardian angel", and we were pretty happy that she was going to be sailing on the member cruise with us. I didn't realize how much work the DVC reps did on a cruise...more on that later! Joan and her partner who's name I can't for the life of me recall helped Casey, the main host of the show, introduce DVC's newest properties, Bay Lake Towers and the Treehouse Villas. BLT is the name of the new DVC resort at Contemporary, and the price is ! But, the incentives to buy were fantastic! You would get a $5 credit per point, plus, a pretty hefty vacation dependent upon the amount of points you added on. You would start with a 4 day vacation for 2 at AKV with the minimum add-on of 120 points, all the way up to a 9 day Adventures by Disney vacation for 2 with an add on of 500 points! You also got a limited edition Mickey statue. We had no intention of adding on at this time, but boy, if that was your intention, you got some really sweet perks! One of the best things we learned was that the Treehouse Villas would be part of Saratoga Springs. We already own at SSR, so we are golden!

We left "Vacation Inspirations" and ran back to our room to get our stuff. I stopped by The Promenade Lounge to meet up with Martin, the CM in charge of the Treasure Hunt. I had read about the hunt on Passporter, and decided to give it a try. Martin explained the rules, gave us our treasure map, and warned us that cheating would have us swabbing the decks!

Then, the ship doors were open, and we were free to go!

The Disney Wonder:



Beautiful Castaway Cay:









We headed over to Serenity Bay, the adult beach. So did 6,598,732 million other DVC members. Not really, but this was truly a kid-decreased cruise. With so many adults, the family beach was empty! We staked out our spot and relaxed, sunbathed and swam.




After a bit, we decided we were hungry, so we headed over to Air BBQ, which is the adults-only buffet. It was PACKED! In fact, it was so packed, that they ran out of steak ready for the guests! Steve had to wait almost 10 minutes for his steak! I staked out a spot at a picnic table and waited. We shared with another couple, and had a very pleasant lunch despite the crowds.
Air BBQ:



Steve has his steak:


Now, let's talk about the treasure hunt. It's really cute! You are given a treasure map with clues, and you can find these clues hidden among the island. You figure them out, write them down, and the answer tells you where to find the treasure. I had alot of fun figuring it out, but there was one hidden treasure that we found thanks to the hunt! Two of the clues were located at the Heads Up bar, a small open air bar located on the tip of the island between the family beach and the sports beach. We walked up that way in search of clues, and found a little gem of a bar. It was empty, funky and oh-so-refreshing on a hot Caribbean day! Steve had a Bahama Mama and I had a non-alcoholic Mango Tango. We spent some time talking to the bartender. The bar has Bahamian coins embedded in it for decoration, and I found this buried under some bags of chips:


The bar:



And some more of the beach and the view from the Heads Up area:






This bar is truly a hidden gem, one we would be revisiting on Wednesday and probably on every future cruise!

Steve was getting a bit tired, and he headed back to the ship. I wanted to stay on the Island and finish the treasure hunt. I found the last four clues, worked the puzzle, and went in search of the treasure keeper. I found him.......


NO!!! I WILL NEVER TELL!!!!!

If you want to know, you will have to do the treasure hunt yourself! I did, however, convince the treasure keeper to take a picture of my victory:


I headed back to the ship, and took this shot on the way:

Miss Minnie!

I stopped at Deck 9 and brought iced tea and lemonade back to the room. We took a quick nap, and a nice refreshing shower. Tonight was Pirates night!

Next....Arrrrrggghhh, Toy Story, the Musical and "Is that a flamingo?"

[iamgrumpy]

What a great day on Castaway Cay!!!! True Paradise and I miss it

I will have to try the treasure hunt and the bar! Sounds very fun and very nice!

[WDWfan]

Oh Sue - The pictures of CC brought back so many memories.