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Landed. Car picked up. Driving back to our house now. Back to the real world. Next cruise in 24 days! That is such a great feeling! 

Woohoo!! I don’t think we will need to drive down the I-75 back to Detroit lol

Thanks again for following along everyone ❤️

We are on board! That is a good sign. 

I think that sums it up. I cannot really think of anything else. Please chime in or ask away if there is something I have not answered, or said I would answer but forgot lol 
Thank you all for following our journey, it makes it way more fun to have you all with us. 

Leaving you with one final view of that beautiful balcony ❤️

Our Genie, Hannah 💜
Hannah has been a genie for a few years. She trained on Oasis with Israel (Izzy), the went to Ovation, and she has been on Wonder since the start. She is from the UK, and she was very organized, personable, and never appeared stressed or frazzled. 
Hannah was perfect for us this cruise. She arranged everything that we asked for, moved some things around at the last minute with no issues, and she was very attentive. We knew it was a good sign already when we boarded last Sunday and she sat with us in our room for about half and hour just chatting. Everything that we asked her for this week was done quickly and efficiently. 
Every day she met us at all venues and she not only walked us in, but she always took the time to chat. We treasured those chats and getting to know her more. She is definitely a bit more reserved than some of the other genies we have had, but we really enjoyed our week with Hannah. 
She is going home to the UK today and she will be back on Wonder some time in September. 
 

Sadly, the direction our species is heading, no respect, all about "me". It's not just Wonder (same bad behavior on Jewel Thanksgiving 2022 trip, just less of it), it's just more noticeable on Wonder. On our 7 day trip in April, never spent a minute at the main pool area. Too many people, too much dumped soft serve on the deck, too many drinks in the pool, generally not an enjoyable environment. I did go to the 'leper colony' a few nights around 9 or so to enjoy a cigar and a nightcap. That was relaxing.
Then there was the toddler roaming the pool deck one night, absolutely no parent in sight. A woman gathered her up and took her to a crew member. The parents?  At the pool bar. Told Security they told the girl who could not have been more than 3 to go to the Windjammer for ice cream & "knew where she was". Only problem, Windjammer was closed. Thankfully, the pool was being covered for the night at the time.
 

The ATS…
As many of you know, this was our first time trying the ATS. We have long wondered about this room, many love it, and we were so thankful that we had the opportunity to try it. We were saying at dinner last night how grateful we were to get this Royal Up, as it allowed us the opportunity to fully experience all the venues on this ship, especially specialty. 
The room is great for families. Even if we had our girls with us, there would have been plenty of space. 6 would make it tight; and I would not recommend 8 in this cabin, even though it can hold 8 max. 
What others have said is true, the views make this room worth it. IMO, there is definitely no better views from any other  cabin on this class of ship. It is great for people watching as well, and the wrap around balcony gives you privacy if you so choose. 
The floor to ceiling windows in these ATS rooms on Wonder (and Symphony), eventually Utopia, are much better that the older ones on the first 3 OA class. It opens up the room more and the view is way better from the inside. 
The location of the ATS (Deck 8, 9, 10) allows you to use the stairs more easily. That came in handy this sailing because it was so hard to get an elevator. 

Downside of this room…
As @WAAAYTOOO has already mentioned, the bathrooms are not impressive at all compared to other star cabins. It is a bit of a walk, but we did not mind that at all. And of course, it lacks the “wow”‘factor of the lofts. 
The location of these cabins makes it a bit harder to hang out in the suites area. I found that we did not spend as much time there (lounge/sun deck) this week as we normally do. You also lose a bit of the exclusivity of being Sky or Star because the location is so far removed from those areas.
Our final thoughts, we are still #teamDeck17/18, however, given the right opportunity, depending on which ship, and price, we don’t mind this room as well, especially if we had the girls with us. 
 
 

Some final thoughts….
Wonder, the ship itself, is awesome! They took the best features from sister Oasis class ships and added some really nice additions to it. The ones that stand out the most to me are Deck 17/18 suites area and the Mason Jar. We really enjoyed this sailing. The service in all venues was a 10/10. Not really a single complaint on that front. 
Some things that we did not care for are complaints that others have already mentioned. Getting an elevator was terrible, they need to do a better job keeping the doors closed to Deck 17/18, and Wonder seems to draw a lot of kids (and remember that we normally sail this time of the year) and really large groups, so people need to parent their kids better, or Royal needs better security or something on Wonder.
This week we witnessed so many kids unsupervised, running crazy in the halls and elevators. There was even a group of young kids under 10 pretending they were the Tap Factory/Intense cast, doing all sorts of flips and maneuvers in the middle of the Bionic Bar (with no adult in sight). That is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Teens were rude to elderly people in the elevators, just not nice things to see from younger generations.

I don't know Detroit but it's a nice sunny day over here where you are returning.  Fingers crossed.

Nityam picked us up at 7:45am. From elevator to curb 10 minutes. Very smooth. 5 mins wait to catch Lyft. Now on the way to MCO. LyftXL is $115.78. Flight is on time at the moment, plane coming in from DTW is boarding 🤞

What a wonderful blog....again. Thank you so much for taking us with you. Have an uneventful and safe day of travel. I am so happy your trip on the Wonder was so joyful! Can't wait for your next adventure!!

Last night on board…dinner back at Giovanni’s. Already in food coma status, we stuck with our favourites tonight. Excellent dinner as with all meals on this ship. Not a single complaint. 

After dinner, we headed back to the room to pack. That is our routine, no packing until we’ve enjoyed our last dinner. Anyway, when we got back, Intense was going on again (must have been an additional show because it was not on the original line up of shows tonight). Hubby decided he wanted one more round from Sugar Beach and I watched Intense one last time from our balcony. 

Now packed and headed to bed. Praying that we have a boring, uneventful travel day tomorrow back home. 🤞
We already said our goodbyes to Hannah because she is leaving the ship tomorrow as well and the plan is that Nityam will walk us off. 

@Neesa Ranger cookies 😋 (not the ones with chocolate chips)

It’s “Dress Your Best” night. 

We never really understood the fascination with aft cabins until last summer on Anthem. Totally in love with this one. Will probably keep an eye on more aft cabins in the future. The Voyager and Freedom class ones I am not sure how good those will be because of the obstruction….
I think that is partially why we like Mason Jar, we don’t really have anything like to locally to compare it to.
Thanks! It was a wrap skirt. It was also Caribbean night. 
 

Sea Day…I don’t know about all of you, but I will never tire of these views 🩵
 

We returned to our cabin to find some treats from Hannah. 
@Sweety that is the Chops red velvet cake in the shape of a heart 😋

Dinner at Hooked tonight. 
I am not quite sure what to say about this. Dinner was good, but it was not great. None of the dishes really stood out to us. There was nothing wrong with them, just nothing that we feel like we would need to return for. 
My favourite was probably the grilled salmon. Hubby really liked the Lobster Mac n Cheese. 

After dinner they brought out a slice of coconut cream pie to celebrate with us .


Before we left, our waiter took this picture 

 

After lunch, I went for a walk on the jogging track again. Feels better to move after a meal. 

Now back to enjoying the room. Tried to chill on the balcony but it’s way too windy out there today. Hubby went to the Flowrider again. I might take a nap, read a book, or just sit…

Thanks for following along! 
Like all things we have had ups and downs, but like my mom always says, each passing year is a true blessing, never to be taken for granted. 
 
It’s taken on a chill vibe because that is literally all we have been doing. Which is awesome! I am not complaining at all, especially with the craziness of how this vacation started. Remember one week ago today, I was sitting at DTW wondering if I would make it MCO or not? Lol
I gave Hubby the option of Mason Jar on boarding day but he did not even think he would like it there so we went with what we knew we would like, which was Playmakers. 

@Neesa
Red Sangria CK

Oh, he knows. He gets a great laugh out of that photo all the time.

We are the opposite. This photo pretty much sums it up. Taken 2 years ago when it was hard to cruise over the pandemic and we stayed in Canada. 

21 years today ❤️
(Our kids who are at home will cringe at this photo but I don’t care 😁)

Woke up this morning to a whole lot of noise outside; talking/yelling, blaring announcements. It was only 7:30am at the time. Upon investigating, this was the source of the noise….