We all take pictures when we go away, no matter if it’s a quick trip or an actual vacation. I love looking at pictures from trips we’ve gone on, especially the family Disney trips. Wouldn’t it be cool to see your pictures in a photo book! Inkubook has given me a special code to share with you that will allow you to create your own photo book for FREE! The offer is only good for a short time, it ends on 11/03/08. Inkubook is an online photo book creation service. Members can create their own photo books individually or with others.

If you join now, by November 3, you’ll have up to 30 days to create your photo book. The book will be free, all that you would need to pay is shipping of under $9. If you’d like to create your own free photo book (and who wouldn’t!), go to inkubook.com and register for your free account. You’ll need to use code TVL655 in order to get your free photo book. This is a terrific offer, so be sure to share your friends using the “invite friends” feature. Then your friends can get a free photo book. And your friends can tell two friends, and they’ll tell two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on. I’m considering putting pictures together from the big family Disney cruise and vacation of 2006. What will you put in yours?

I just started seeing commercials for this within the past several days. Beginning on January 1, 2009, people will be given access to one Disney theme (Walt Disney World, FL or Walt Disney Land, CA) park for free. Registration online at www.disneyparks.com is recommended but not mandatory for this offer, visitors at the park may also take advantage by going to the will call window at the park. This is a free offer open to everyone over the age of three. All you’ll need to do is provide proof of identification when you get to the park. Disney has even set it up so that Season Pass holders and people that have a multiday ticket who don’t need free entry into the park on that day can take advantage of the offer by making other gifts available to them. This is a nice offer.

There is no shortage of activities on a Disney Wonder cruise. Each day we would receive a new Personal Navigator, Disney’s version of a personal newsletter listing all of the events for that day. The front page of the Personal Navigator includes the operating hours of everything on board, including restaurants, bars and child care, as well as menu themes and suggested attire for the day. The inside of the Personal Navigator contains different entertainment happening around the ship. Some of the most popular adult only activities are dance parties, adult game shows, scavenger hunts and pub quest. The ship has an onboard movie theater that shows first run movies. The different children’s club activities are also featured in the Personal Navigator. Favorite family activities include dance parties, karaoke, bingo, Disney shows and magic shows. Contrary to what some may think, there is no shortage of things to do on a Disney ship. I’ll be writing a second article soon on the children’s clubs.

 

We had a big stateroom on board. Actually it was huge. We had a deluxe stateroom with verandah that quite comfortable slept four of us. Our stateroom was on the very back of the boat. We had a queen size bed, a single wall pull down bed and a single convertible sofabed. The closet was a really big walk in closet that my son ended up using as a sort of a playroom where he could drive his little cars all over the place. We had our own private verandah. There was a television with remote, a refrigerator, safe and hair dryer. The furniture was made of warm real wood. I found the linens on board to be of nice quality, not that thin, rough stuff you find at the $39.99 motel right off the highway. Housekeeping came twice a day. We had a lovely woman who would make up the room in the morning and turn down the beds at night. We often saw her in the corridor working in other rooms and she always greeted us cheerfully and spent a few minutes speaking with us. When she turned down the beds, she’d always leave something for us, like animals made of folded towels. No shortage of soaps, shampoos or lotions. It seemed like every time I turned around something we’d opened had been replaced with an unopened one. We were very pleased with our stateroom, and would book the same one again if possible.

Never having been on a cruise before, I didn’t know what to expect concerning food. Like everyone else, I’d heard different stories about quality, quantity and what’s included. We had some of the best food we’ve ever had onboard the Disney Wonder. On Disney, everything is included except alcohol. One one deck there are a number of quick serve food counters including Pinocchio’s Pizzeria, Goofy’s Galley and Pluto’s Dog House. Also located on this deck are unlimited hot and cold beverages including coffee, tea, water, milk, juice and soda. The Wonder has five restaurants - Animator’s Palate, Triton, Parrot Cay, Lumiere’s and Palo. Animator’s Palate and Palo only offer dinner. There is also the Beach Blanket Buffet, which offers buffet breakfast and lunch.

Breakfasts are held at Parrot Cay every day, and Triton and Lumiere on certain days. I really enjoy a good breakfast buffet, and both Parrot Cay and Beach Blanket Buffer offer one.

Our dinner schedule rotated between Animator’s Palate, Lumiere’s and Triton. We ate at Animator’s Palate, Lumiere’s and Triton one night each. Being as our party was so large, we only sat with our own family at dinners. We also ate one night at Palo, which is a more elegant meal and environment and requires reservations. If you go there, dress nicely and make sure you eat the chocolate souffle, it’s out of this world!

Disney celebrates special occasions with pleasure. We celebrated three birthdays while on our cruise. My brother, my father and my oldest son all have birthdays within two weeks of each other in November. On our first night there each of them received a personalized birthday dessert while eating dinner at Animator’s Palate. On another night a birthday cake was served. My hubby and I celebrated our twentieth anniversary that year, and Disney acknowledged it several times. At our dinner at Palo we received a cake, as well as at our dinner at  Animator’s Palate.

Special needs dining was not a problem for us. My younger son has celiac disease, which is an intolerance to gluten (modified food starch, wheat, rye, barley to name a few). The staff was more than happy to prepare him special foods when needed. One morning they made him gluten free pancakes. At dinner he received gluten free bread and rolls.

Disney assigns tables a personal server, and that server will travel with you each night through the different restaurants. The only restaurant they won’t travel to is Palo. Our server was Gusti, and he was so friendly. He was super friendly, intuitive and quick to remember our preferences. At the end of the cruise we wanted to bring him home with us. He went out of his way to make sure we got everything we wanted and needed and that we were fed, full and happy. He showed extra care for my youngest son, who has Down Syndrome. At Parrot Cay he took my baby to do the conga dance around the dining room.

The dining dude in charge, I don’t recall if he was called the head server or the dining captain or the maitre d’, was great. He was Gusti’s boss, and he was in charge of all servers. He made a point to find our huge party every night and check in.My Mom loves lobster and none was on any menus. She inquired if there were any certain Disney cruises that they offered lobster on, he told her no not at that point. The next dinner my Mom and the rest of the table were served lobster.

Room service is available all of the time, and it was good too. My older son liked ordering a chicken noodle soup and cookies in the middle of the night. I liked having coffee delivered early when I was trying to catch the sunrise.

I’m sure I missed writing something, so if there’s something you want to know just leave a comment.

We went on our first cruise last year aboard the Disney Wonder. We went on the four night cruise to the Bahamas, and it was fantastic! I recommend it highly. I’m going to do a mini series on our experience, covering highlights of the trip. Our cruise departed in early December, and the weather was great the whole time. Hurricane season was over and it was still plenty warm enough for our family. We had a balcony room and were able to really enjoy it. Mornings and evenings were a little cool, enough to consider wearing a long sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt or a light jacket. It was so neat to go outside onto the balcony in my robe with my room service breakfast and try and catch the sunrise each morning. Days were warm enough we could wear shorts or in my case capris, along with short sleeve shirts. It was warm enough to swim on the boat, even in December. I don’t like extreme heat or extreme cold, so in my opinion the November - December time frame is the perfect one for traveling to a warmer locale.