Disney Wonder 1st time cruiser....

[39Scuba]

We have just booked our 1st cruise....EVER and will be taking along our 14 and 10 year old boys. We are doing the 4 night cruise but wont be taking this cruise till April, 2006. Man....the June cruises book fast and July is just too expensive, so we are heading out on spring break 2006. Any tips would be great as you can imagine we have discussed with many relatives and friends....any tips on the scuba diving in Nassau would be appreciated and anything the wife and kids can do for those 3 hours while I'm diving....they dont....have any of you toured the island with someone not affiliated with the cruise ship itinirary? A relative of mine said they had a blast and only paid $100 for the 4 of them vs. about $160 that Disney would have charged or set up for them....they just got off the boat saw some guy with a van and they took off and had a blast.....anyone else with any experiences like that?

[Crusin and lovin it]

We cruise in March but just vacationed in Nassau in April, 04. My husband and I thought the land tours were boring! If you can hire someone to drive you around you would enjoy it much more. The scheduled tours were very mechanic and a real waste as far as we were concerned. We much more enjoyed talking to the people who live there.

[Zylon66]

We did this cruise last year over Super Bowl Sunday . Me, my wife and a 4 year old, and I would highly suggest a day at Blue Lagoon, absulute Paradise.

Beautiful and totally relaxing, with much to explore.Food was good at the setting was beyond belief.

[Zylon66]

Thought I might add that we have been on 7 previous cruises and I feel that the Disney Wonder is an excellent choice for you and your family, nobody does it like Disney. On our 2 trips on Disney, the service centered around the childern, they were Kings and Queens. We absoultly loved it, the ship is beautiful, the rooms are niced sized, entertainment is wonderful and the service is top rate. I will add too that you must ditch the kids for at least one night and eat at the Palo Resturant, OUT OF THIS WORLD food and ROMANTIC, a must.

[sandeem]

"beach" was a tiny patch of rocky sand hardly big enough for a dozen people. Water had a big drop off, very few beach chairs available, hammocks were nice, but most were in picnic area where you couldn't see the beach. Food choices were limited and the day we were there everything had flies and gnats buzzing around it. Fruit punch had black residue in bottom of cups. Dirty picnic tables. I enjoy caribbean steel drum music on vacation, but they had something playing nonstop that was hard to describe - it was like someone was beating a tomtom as fast as they could with a little tropical steel drum music added. You had a choice of two ferry boats back to Nassau and I think 90% of the guests got on the first boat back. Man next to us had us laughing. Said he'd never been a violent person, but he'd have given anything for a gun so he could shoot the speakers down that were blaring that "music". This was a few years ago, maybe it's different now or maybe we were there when they were having an off day.. Also we just did beach day, not dolphin swim. Maybe that would have made it a better day for us.