Wonder of the Seas - Family Cruise! - July 2 - 9, 2023

[Lovetocruise2002]

19 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

and the one with the egg

This is the one I was thinking of when I wrote "unique". I hated it. Hubby loved it. He pretty much ate the entire thing.

We have totally hijacked @ZBrady's blog to talk about Giovanni's Kitchen lol

[OCSC Mike]

24 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

they have a multi-meat pizza and basic pepperoni as well. 

You lost her as soon as you added a topping, lol. Is there a stronger word I can use than "picky"? Thanks though.

24 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I loathe Givanni's table but really like the Italian Kitchen version.

This is why food is so subjective and while I enjoy reading food opinions, I'd never fully rely on them. We love Giovanni's Table. Always had a great filet there, I like the meat plank app, I always get carbonara as my pasta and my wife always gets risotto (which she has them make plain of course b/c, well, you get the idea now). Never had a bad meal there. Different strokes... All that said, Giovanni's Kitchen sounds very appealing too and I'm not sure why we weren't as interested at first. Maybe b/c we only encountered it on a family cruise where we aren't planning for ourselves.

24 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I am now wondering if PDCC is our first port, I know a lot of people like having it towards the end, but I think I would like it in the beginning.

We think we prefer it at the beginning as well but that's we've done. We have 4 cruises booked/on hold and only the last one has PDCC at the end so unless our plans change, I guess I'll find out what that's like... in March of 2025. lol.

End of hijacking... maybe. Sorry @ZBrady, I'm sure you don't mind too much.

[ZBrady]

14 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

 

I don't know why but I laughed at the photo of your daughter filming with the phone......she really looks like she knows what she is doing.

 

She really is a pro! She catches onto things really quickly and loves imitating us. Which of course sometimes backfires

7 hours ago, asquared17 said:

hope everyone got a good night’s sleep and will have a fun day in the sun

Yes! We were super nervous about our daughter sleeping on the pull out because she has only ever slept in a crib. But she did great! Affirms that we are going to be able to transition her to a big-girl bed when we get back home.

5 hours ago, Xaa said:

  I know you're an 8th grade teacher, do you teach English?

Believe it or not I actually teach math! But I do love writing, so it was touching for you to mention that. Drives my students crazy because they don’t think they should have to write properly outside of the English class room . 

5 hours ago, Xaa said:

You and your brother resemble your father

Also funny you mention *this* because both my brother and I are adopted from different parents. But people ALWAYS say we look like we are related, which we’ve always thought was pretty neat.

41 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I am now wondering if PDCC is our first port, I know a lot of people like having it towards the end, but I think I would like it in the beginning.

I think we’re probably somewhat biased/jaded - our last cruise CocoCay was the last day and we both caught the front end of Covid that exact same time. So we were miserable the whole day. Luckily the experience today was the exact opposite

[Xaa]

4 minutes ago, ZBrady said:

Also funny you mention *this* because both my brother and I are adopted from different parents. But people ALWAYS say we look like we are related, which we’ve always thought was pretty neat.

Wow!  I know we like to see what we expect to see, but in that picture of you with your dad in the background, it looked to me like one of those movies where the older you comes back and sees the younger you.  Then I stretched it over to your brother.

20 years ago when my youngest was born I remember my MIL saying "He looks exactly like Mrs. AA when she was a baby" and showed a baby picture of her.  I didn't see any of that resemblance.  Then my mother said to us "He looks exactly like you did when you were a baby X", and she showed us a baby picture of me and again neither of us saw it.  It's like both were seeing in him exactly what they wanted to see and confirmed to themselves that they were right.

[ZBrady]

Quite literally a PERFECT Day at CocoCay.

Everyone ordered room service breakfast this morning - actually something we managed to never do on any of our previous so I wasn’t totally sure what to expect.

We placed our order for the 7:00-7:30 window, received a courtesy call right at 7:00 and the food arrived a few minutes later. We had a fairly large order that was mostly correct - it was missing doughnuts and included a pot of coffee that we didn’t order. We had enough that it wasn’t a big deal. 

As others have mentioned, the tables on the Oceanview balconies on Wonder are hilariously small - just large enough for one plate. So we left the trays on the end of the bed and kind of just took food a little a time.

Our goal was to be ready when the gangway opened at 8:00. After eating breakfast, picking up specialty coffee, getting towels and getting ready it was 8:15 when we exited our cabin. 

We lucked out big time, as Wonder was the only ship in port today. That was our first experience being the only ship, and we felt like it made a BIG difference. We skipped the tram because we wanted to take advantage of some of the photo spots along the way. 

We set up camp near the zero-entry portion of the pool, and it ended up being perfect. Along the way we snagged a beach stroller, which was VERY clutch because my daughter is hit or miss if she is willing to walk - and when she does it obviously isn’t the fastest.

The vast majority of our time was spent in the pool. We mainly stayed in the shallow water but would make frequent trips to the swim up bar. It was early enough in the day that the bar wasn’t crazy crowded and the music wasn’t too loud, so our daughter took some trips with us there as well.

We knew there would life jackets provided on the island, but we weren’t sure if they would be small enough for our two-year-old. Luckily, there were a few puddle jumpers available at each station and those worked PERFECTLY for her. She is just now to the point where is comfortable floating on her own and is even learning how to kick her legs to propel herself forward. So definitely exciting times!

We did make a trip to the beach just to the left of the Coco Beach Club. The water was virtually still, so we didn’t stay very long at all. As we left the Snack Shack was opening, and a worker brought my daughter French fries without us having to ask (top notch!).

Spent more time in the pool before heading to Skipper’s Grill for lunch. I’m not sure if the buffet menu has changed over the years but I particularly enjoyed our meal there today. Anyone that frequents Chipotle knows that the Smoked Tabasco is the ultimate sauce, so I was VERY excited to see that as an offering for my chicken taco. All of the sides were fresh - my only suggestion would be to include tortilla chips alongside the salsa and guacamole.

Random aside - there was hardly any wind today so the balloon was fully operational. Know that’s not always the case - we enjoyed seeing it come up and down throughout the day.

Came back to the ship for nap time before dinner. Received a towel animal from our stateroom attendant Reynaldo - so far he has been tremendous. Additionally, he took some out extra magnetic hooks and hung up my daughters backpack and headphones - love those little details. Tomorrow we will be leaving him a note and a tip.

One other cabin back I forgot to mention was the blackout curtains. My wife put them up to essentially separate the room between the bed and the pullout couch. Last night we had the curtains all the way across - today we have left them halfway. They really do work well and it seems to help my daughter sleep. 

We’ve also discovered one major-ish issue - the shower isn’t draining properly, which led to the bathroom flooding. Luckily we noticed before it spilled into the room. We contacted Reynaldo, and he said he would call maintenance for us. Fortunately we can use our families bathrooms for now, but obviously not the most ideal situation.

Dinner in the MDR tonight. Italian night, which means our reservation last night in Giovanni’s somewhat became an oops, but I think there is enough in the menu that we should be okay. After that we have Voices reserved - not *particularly* fired up for it, but I still want to go just to experience it.

Also, we signed up my daughter for a session at AO Babies tonight, so we’ll see how well she handles that. I have a feeling if there is a TV on she’ll be very content

Photo dump (which will largely feature my daughter - it’s very obvious she has become the star of this show!): 

[asquared17]

YESSSSSSSS A PERFECT DAY AT COCO CAY!!!!!

my favorite (non-st. maarten) stop!!

10 minutes ago, ZBrady said:

She is just now to the point where is comfortable floating on her own and is even learning how to kick her legs to propel herself forward. So definitely exciting times!

she is brave!! an adventurer!!

10 minutes ago, ZBrady said:

Received a towel animal from our stateroom attendant Reynaldo - so far he has been tremendous. Additionally, he took some out extra magnetic hooks and hung up my daughters backpack and headphones - love those little details. Tomorrow we will be leaving him a note and a tip.

this is so sweet!! i am happy to hear you got the towel animal, too, since mileage tends to vary with them from ship to ship.

12 minutes ago, ZBrady said:

the shower isn’t draining properly, which led to the bathroom flooding. Luckily we noticed before it spilled into the room. We contacted Reynaldo, and he said he would call maintenance for us. Fortunately we can use our families bathrooms for now, but obviously not the most ideal situation.

oh boy. fingers crossed this gets fixed quickly!!  

hope you have a delicious dinner and that your daughter has fun times at AO!!

[OCSC Mike]

More similarities... slightly different spot but our go-to location to park at CocoCay is by the pool, not THAT far from the swim-up bar (although I often walk up to the backside), not on top of the DJ but we can hear the music, and an easy walk from both a snack shack and Chill Grill (identical to Skipper's).

16 minutes ago, ZBrady said:

Anyone that frequents Chipotle knows that the Smoked Tabasco is the ultimate sauce, so I was VERY excited to see that as an offering for my chicken taco. All of the sides were fresh - my only suggestion would be to include tortilla chips alongside the salsa and guacamole.

Clearly I've been failing, lol. My first taco next trip will be covered in smoked Tabasco! Big fan of the tacos there. El Loco Fresh on the ship has edible tacos (and they do have tortilla chips) but their guac was awful and the "nacho cheese" was also bad. Still worth grabbing a snack from IMO but I'd stick to making your own tacos, leaving off the guac, and not going near the pre-made burritos. There was a sauce rack IIRC so they may have your Tabasco too. Oh yeah, and they also have a little dessert case with some flan-type custard desserts in a few different flavors that were decent.

Love that you're having such a great experience with the stateroom attendant and hope the shower gets fixed ASAP!

[Sweety]

She is the superstar. She is very photogenic. Please make print outs for a photo album.

[Neesa]

@ZBrady I felt the same way about Voices, but I walked out saying wow, I really enjoyed that! I hope you love it! It was simple yet entertaining at the same time. 

For Effectors 2 take @AshleyDillo advice and sit on deck 4 not up top deck 5. We did both and it was like a different show following her direction. Another, wow!

[Ampurp85]

I just checked my invoice and PDCC is our first stop on Wonder in Jan as well. It has been the last stop on all of my sailings, so it will be different.

@ZBrady How are the crowds? Besides hibachi, did you get all the reservations you wanted? Lastly, did you order backout curtains from amazon?

[ZBrady]

There is nothing better than cruising. Going to try to respond to everything without actually quoting them. Live blogging is a full-time job

In the time it took to write my last post, maintenance fixed the drain situation, so that was great. I could hear them tinkering with the pipes from the outside; then they knocked and asked to test the shower to make sure. Turns out there was just a lot of hair in there.

Another thing I forgot to mention was we got a voicemail on our phone and a card at our door that our excursion for St. Thomas was cancelled. Supposedly mechanical issues with the boat. They offered us 15% off a different excursion in the same port, but at this point all that’s left is beach days. My dad is pretty disappointed - he used to scuba dive so he was looking forward to doing some serious snorkeling. I’m going to search online to see if there are any 3rd party excursions that would work for us.

So dinner in the MDR - obviously the talk of the town has been the change in policies and new menus and perceived diminished quality. So I was definitely both excited and anxious to try the new dining room for myself and hear what new cruisers had to think. As I mentioned, I had already scouted out our location. Turned out the location was great - in the auxiliary side room next to a window. I was particular I impressed they already had a high chair in place for my daughter. Was not impressed, however, that there were only 5 other chairs at the table. So we were one short for a few minutes until they could find another. Once they added the additional chair things were fairly cramped. Considered requesting a different table but I think things will be fine.

Our server, Tomy, alluded early that we had no-showed yesterday (oops), but I explained that we enjoyed sail away and ate at specialty dining. Awkward moment when we said we ate at Giovanni’s and he immediately explained that tonight was Taste of Italy, but we all had a laugh about it.

Per the standard for the staff, they were great with my daughter and gave her bread and a fruit plate. She didn’t particularly like the fruit they happened to offer, but they had no problem when we asked for a plate of just strawberries. 

Overall, I think the quality of the food was on par with what we have experienced on our previous sailings over the years. I was several libations deep at this point of the evening, but I remember mentioning to Tomy that Taste of Italy was just as good as Giovanni’s - he particularly appreciated this. The only negative was it took about 40 minutes to get our appetizers. Everything else was speedy, including drink service.

The next adventure (pun intended) was taking my daughter to AO Babies. So far this trip she has been fairly clingy and hesitant around strangers, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. When we entered (right at 7:00), there was only one other child in there with the 2 teachers, and (thank god!) Cocomelon on the TV. After the typical check-in procedures, it was time to pass our daughter off to the incredible staff member Star. It took some extra convening, but eventually our daughter was all the way in to the play area and we were out the door. Long story short - she did absolutely great and was fast asleep when it was time to pick her up at 10:00.

So now for probably the most enjoyable part of the cruise so far. We had some time to kill before Voices, so we made it up to the Mason Jar for drinks and to hopefully snag a table for the Country Crew Trio. I don’t exactly enjoy country, but I enjoy music enough to appreciate it and can sing along. Plus I really wanted to try some of their signature drinks. 

Fast forward - by the time it was time to go to the theater for Voices, no one wanted to leave and had already made plans to come back again. We were very much vibing, dancing, and had successfully got several of our requests played.

Heres a funny aside - I am a “very online” person, and was aware of a Facebook post a few weeks ago about this particular user was disappointed in the Mason Jar band because they didn’t actually play country music. Tonight, before playing one of our requests, they preluded the song with something along the lines of, “Now obviously we primarily play country music, but when the money is right we sometimes play other styles, like just last week there was one big spender that only wanted to hear Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys.” Knew exactly what they were referring to and had to chuckle a bit; goes back to the old saying that things are never as bad as they seem and that you can never truly trust what you read online.

Tomorrow is a sea day and is our first time on a cruise for a holiday. Since we missed Voices tonight I think we will try to see it tomorrow as stand by; can’t imagine the Theater will totally fill up. Also we’re planning on MDR breakfast, another thing I’ve somehow never done.

This is already a novel, but time for some replies:

@asquared17 All things considered, things could not be going any better! 
 

@OCSC Mike To celebrate the holiday I will be having a pre-made burrito in your honor. You can’t stop me!

@Sweety You are too kind! I am *very* glad my wife splurged on the photo package. They have already captured some great ones.

@Neesa Thanks for the advice! Effectors is a must-not miss for us; and I do want to report back about Voices tomorrow.

@Ampurp85 Crowds haven’t been bad! I think I went into this with a game plan to actively avoid crowds, so I think that is part of it, but never have I felt overwhelmed or anything like that. In terms of speciality dining, we also missed out on Hooked (), which I was also really hoping for. My *guess* is this being a holiday sailing had something to do with it. And yes on the curtains! I will work on getting the link from my wife on those and share those with you. They have completely changed the dynamic of our room and let’s us have some freedom while she is napping.

One final thing - @Matt’s live blog started in the middle of typing this, so took advantage of my very first SuperChat on the YT channel. Thought the occasion was appropriate. 

Happy 4th, everyone. Stay safe, and I’ll try to cover all of the unique festivities on the ship.

Photo Dump (which includes a random photo of the late night lost and found at the towel station, just found that humorous. Also a ride on the carousel before dinner):

 

[BoxerMomNC]

We have used https://www.stthomasadventures.com/stthomasjeeptours in the past and did the turtle jeep tour.  Our guide, Web, was fantastic and was very flexible with our kids.  

[OCSC Mike]

Glad you enjoyed hanging out at Mason Jar. The band & bar seem to be a hit (except for that FB poster I guess).  Now you just have to eat there!

If you put enough Tabasco on the burrito it might be good.

Hope you find a replacement excursion.

Happy 4th!

[BobbieS]

Your daughter is adorable! Thanks for sharing your family's adventure with us. I am really enjoying it!

[ZBrady]

@BoxerMomNC Thank you! We looked into this after your recommendation, but they are already booked up for the day. 

@OCSC Mike Too big of a breakfast today for a mid-day meal, but I know I will hit it up eventually! Have an excursion update but it is somewhat lengthy.

@BobbieS Thank you! I’m really glad I ended up doing this. 

[ZBrady]

4th of July on WOS is no joke! Lots going on, and lots of people celebrating, with it being a Sea Day. The way the schedule worked it also is Formal Night, so I am interested to see what people choose to wear this evening.

Started our morning at 8:00am - met the rest of our crew at Cafe Promenade for speciality coffee and then headed to breakfast in the MDR. Two of the ladies in my party were wearing tank tops, so I wasn’t 100% sure what the policy was for breakfast and was a little nervous that we may be turned away (others on this board had mentioned that previously). It was no problem, and several other groups were dressed similarly. I ordered Eggs Benedict and Bagels & Lox. Next time I would ask for more cream cheese but besides that everything was great. They took our food order before our drink order - not sure if that is the normal. Everything was good, and we were out of there in time to take my daughter to AO for her 9:00-noon session.

After dropping her off (she did great, this time!) we got drinks from the Pub and headed to the Schooner Bar for Crossword and then Trivia. The crossword was particularly challenging (ie obscure) but the trivia was good as always. While we played we figured out of excursion situation - there was nothing left in St Thomas, so we decided that the portion of group that really wanted snorkel would book an excursion in St. Martin while the rest of use kept our plans for the beach day. So now St. Thomas has turned into a day on the ship, which I’m honestly not mad about. While we played trivia my brother and his fiancée enjoyed the pool.

So now to the 4th of July festivities. We walked around the ship (mind you, this was peak time in the late afternoon, so we mostly observed various activities while drinking, because lines were obviously long) until it was time to pick my daughter up at noon. Around this time the 4th of July Celebration was starting on the Boardwalk. Generally, I don’t spend much time on the Boardwalk, but I thought this was a pretty good use. There were lots of decorations and several booths set up with food stations representing different parts of the country. There were also ballon animals, face painting, various games and photo opportunities. Later on there was a celebration and live music at the AquaTheater, but we had left to get my daughter down for a nap by then. 

To say it was crowded would be an understatement! Especially after an announcement was made over the speakers that the event was starting, it was shoulder to shoulder across the entire boardwalk. I think that would be expected for the type of event, but still was a holy cow type moment.

We are back at the room now and will head out to Love and Marriage at 2:00, drinks after and then Formal Night at 5:00. Nothing reserved for the evening, but I think we are going to go to Voices since we missed it yesterday.

Random aside - the entire port aft hallway on Deck 7 smelled like weed when we walked back, so that’s an oof for me.

Photo Dump of mostly decorations and the celebration on the boardwalk:

 

[OCSC Mike]

July 4th celebration looks great. I’ve seen stuff like the flag cake before but the different food stations & band playing were pretty impressive.

We don’t spend much time there either unless going to Playmakers.

[BobbieS]

The Boardwalk set-up looks pretty impressive!

[Ampurp85]

Wow that looks insane, but at least the donuts look like actual donuts. 

[ZBrady]

The Live Blog was *slightly* delayed due to a small child that had no interest in falling asleep

Love and Marriage was pretty good. As always, you need both good contestants and a good cruise director. I thought we had a phenomenal host, but just decent contestants. Plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, but not an all-timer.

It ran a little long, so we didn’t have much time for activities before we needed to get ready for Formal night. In recent years my wife has let me dress down on Formal night, but it was time to get the suit back out now that our daughter is aboard. 

Dinner was a “special” 4th of July menu, which turned out just to be the Taste of USA menu, but with less offerings. My meal (Shrimp cocktail, salmon, ice cream) was actually pretty good. Everyone else’s was disappointing (some much more than others).   I posted pictures in the Royal Caribbean Dining Facebook page that Matt runs, which you can view here - https://m.facebook.com/groups/royalcaribbeandining/permalink/3451117285151807/ Lots of commentary about people’s opinions, which you may or may not find interesting. FWIW, we provided feedback on the negative aspects of the meal to the Head Waiter when he visited our table and also to the Windjammer manager this morning when he stopped by our table and asked if we would like to take a survey. Also, my brother and his fiancée began getting sea sick yesterday afternoon, so that added to the experience.

So after dinner we took some time taking pictures. Lines were long, as it was Formal Night. 

As an aside - long story short, my father never formally proposed to my mother, so he was hoping to take this cruise as an opportunity to do so. He asked me how he should do so, I suggest formal night pictures would be a good opportunity. So we waited in line for photos on the stairs, everyone around us cheered, good times were had. As ANOTHER aside, we woke up this morning to $50 off coupons to the Spa to “celebrate our special day”. They were addressed to us, I presume, because we gave them our stateroom cabin number for the photos.

We quickly changed into casual clothing and made it just a bit late to Voices. This actually worked out perfectly, as we were able to stumble upon a fairly private seating area on the very far edge of the upper level. A private box, of sorts, with 4 seats that let our daughter sit right up against the glass. Turned out to be perfect, as she could freely move around and make a little bit of noise without disturbing anyone else. We didn’t get to stay for the whole show once she become too rambunctious; so to get out some energy we decided to stop by the indoor play place in AO. She really enjoyed that, especially since there was only one other family there with another girl around her same age.

We ended the night walking around Central Park - our daughter especially liked looking down into the Promenade - and we took some great selfies at the Trellis Bar. Her putting her arms around both my wife and me will be something I hope I ever forget

As I alluded to earlier, my daughter had no interest in going to bed, so when she was still awake when it was time for the 4th of July Balloon drop, we figured what the heck. The director said it was the most people they have ever had on the promenade, not sure that’s the truth or not but it sure felt like it.

We had already signed her up for a 9am session in AO Babies, so that was a quick turnaround. We enjoyed the Windjammer for breakfast (not crowded yet at 8am) - I had firsts and secones of avacado toast with salmon, eggs Benedict, and pancakes.

After dropping off at AO we went to the Schooner Bar for more trivia, but the host was MIA and never arrived. So instead we went shopping and bought 5 (!!!) shirts from the logo store (they were having a sale, and we are suckers). We’re relaxing in the shade on the pool deck and plan to pick our daughter up a little early so that we can take her to the Anchors Away Parade, which I think she will enjoy. Wonderland (our first time) and the 365 Ice Show tonight. Very excited! 

Photo Dump:

 

[Ampurp85]

I know minus the sea sickness everyone is living their best life, but your daughter truly is.......hence her not wanting to sleep.

[Sweety]

Precious moments 

[asquared17]

7 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

I know minus the sea sickness everyone is living their best life, but your daughter truly is.......hence her not wanting to sleep.

she has extreme FOMO!!! (fear of missing out)

evidently, i was the same as a tiny small — godspeed, friend

[Ivy]

I’m going on this sailing!

[OCSC Mike]

@ZBrady Hopefully you’re too busy having fun to keep us updated. Looking forward to hearing about the rest of the cruise whenever you get to it.

[OCSC Mike]

14 hours ago, Ivy said:

I’m going on this sailing!

I hope not b/c it left last Sunday.

[Neesa]

Has anyone heard from @ZBrady? I'm just sending uplifting positive thoughts. Hoping it was so amazing there was no time to blog. Is he doing a b2b? It's crazy; we are strangers yet not. I've been thinking about he and his family this week. What a beautiful community we have. Hoping all is well. 

[OCSC Mike]

3 minutes ago, Neesa said:

Has anyone heard from @ZBrady? I'm just sending uplifting positive thoughts. Hoping it was so amazing there was no time to blog. Is he doing a b2b? It's crazy; we are strangers yet not. I've been thinking about he and his family this week. What a beautiful community we have. Hoping all is well. 

As someone who has started semi-live blogs and abandoned them b/c they were getting in the way of my cruise and started feeling like work, not fun, I hope that's the case as well.

[Ampurp85]

I would imagine...and hope......he was having such a wonderful time blogging fell by the wayside. With such a spicy tiny human, I imagine it was hard to live blog. Then coming home and dealing with the real world got in the way. Hopefully he will be back with a recap.

[Neesa]

22 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

 With such a spicy tiny human

I LOVE the way you express yourself, I am so going to use this!! 

[BobbieS]

Hoping he just got caught up in enjoying the experience with his family and will update us as soon as he can. I was really enjoying his blog and all the great pictures!