Disney Wonder - Coastal - Post Trip Review

As part of a birthday celebration, we decided to try out Disney Cruise Line (DCL) with my wife's parents and our children. Being a bit cost conscious, we selected a Pacific Coastal voyage which only happen twice a year. We had heard many great things about DCL and were eager to try and figured a coastal voyage was going to be much less than a 7 day Alskan Cruise. That being said, it was still quite a bit more than a similar HAL or Princess voyage.

Throughout this review I'll summarize some special tips if you are anticipating going on DCL, with or without kids.

DCL tip #1: If you haven't sailed with DCL before, when you are 75 days out from sailing, log on to reserve character encounters. You can also reserve a boarding time during checkin - early times fill up quickly.

As you might know, Disney has no real loyalty program however if you have cruised with them before, there are a few perks that you receive. One is that you can book FREE character encounters and other onboard activities when you initially book. Everyone else must wait until 75 days out. We reserved the "Princess encounter" and the "Frozen encounter". Both were offered twice during the trip and it was nice not to have to wait in too long of a line. That being said, the opportunity to meet other characters occurs several times during the cruise so if you miss out on these encounters, your kids will still have a chance. The other onboard activities are mostly "for a fee" and include some alcohol tastings and spa treatments - they seemed to sell out before sailing.

DCL is a bit old school in that it sends you a booklet in the mail with luggage tags and informational cards to hand to friends and family with the way to reach you. There's some good info in the booklet and it hearkens back to when other cruise lines still did this practice.

Embarkation

Our flight to San Diego was very easy. The San Diego airport's older terminals are a bit cramped but

once we found our bags and met our travelling companions, we headed off toward downtown which

is very close to the airport. We took the 992 MTA city bus from the curbside to downtown which took about 10 minutes and cost under $3 per adult, and less for seniors while kids 5 and under were free. We got off the bus at the Ash Street stop which is a block or so from the cruise terminal and across the street from a very nice park and playground (Waterfront Park) that was good to stop at, get organized, let the kids play, and pick up some adult beverages at a Rite Aid while we had an hour to kill until our embarkation time of 12:30.

The map below shows our visit to the park from the bus stop (red) and the short walk to the cruise terminal (blue). The Rite Aid (not shown) is about 1 block on Ash St.

Embarkation was a bit disjointed which could be partly the fault of San Diego's B Street pier being
outdated.  I had assumed that DCL's approach to boarding would be innovative and that would make
for short waits, but this wasn't the case. While the waits weren't bad, the boarding system was nearly
the same as the one used by Princess and HAL. I had my expectations too high I suppose

DCL Tip #2 - You can bring up to 2 bottles of wine or 2 six packs of beer onboard, per adult, per port!

For those who like to bring their own beverages, its a welcome change that DCL allows you to bring a large amount on at the beginning of your cruise and at subsequent ports. Combined with a gratis fountain drink machine at the buffet, you can actually save a good amount of money on adult drinks on DCL, if that's your forte.

We boarded at 1255 with a loudspeaker introduction and applause from all cast and crew in the area.

A nice gesture to be sure which was followed by seeing that our rooms would not be ready until 1:30pm.

With 2 tired grandparents, and 2 tired grandkids, this was disappointing. My wife said to me "really?

this cruise is tailored for kids, and it's naptime." We survived for 30 minutes and grabbed some pizza.

It was decent, nothing to write home about, but I didn't have to cook it or clean up after it so I was happy.

When we finally got to our room we found that the washroom soap was missing which

took almost an hour to get some from guess services. The cabin staff however was gracious

and eager to help. Our cabin was a standard verandah which was a mixed bag. I had read that

DCL cabins were designed specifically for families and in many ways they succeeded. My favorite

parts included:

• A curtain to divide sleeping areas
• A toilet and sink bathroom and a shower/tub and sink bathroom
• Soft close drawers and cabinets
• Lighted closet area
• A "diaper genie", presumably for our 2 year old - even though I find those things to be a joke.
• An alarm clock with USB plugs
• The "wave" onboard cell phone system
• The cabin is very high quality with stainless steel sinks!

But there were some cabin attributes that left me scratching my head, like:

• Adjoining room doors were hard to come by and we didn't get one of these rooms.
• Putting the cabin phone at just the correct height for a toddler to play with
• Putting the cabin safe at just the right height for a toddler to lock your valuables away in
• One smallish TV (compared to newer Princess and HAL ships)
• Walls weren't magnetic - my magnetic hooks were nearly useless :)
• Balcony was very small.

Our cabin, with the curtains closed.

To Be Continued...