LIVE from Wonder of the Seas Transatlantic April 2022

[laurieal]

2 hours ago, dolphingirl47 said:

Thanks for sharing. I got some invaluable tips by reading this. Thanks to this review, I think I found my “spirit cocktail”. Loved the Sangria Swirl. Unfortunately I had to say goodbye to Wonder this morning. 
 

Corinna

It’s so good, isn’t it? I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it. So refreshing. 
 

Did you enjoy your short stay on the Wonder? What was your favourite thing you did and/or ate onboard?

[djyellowsub]

I loved your review especially the drink pictures.  I want to try all of them!  Your writing is excellent.  No one would ever believe English is not your first language.  You seem like you would be a fun person to cruise with.

[laurieal]

1 hour ago, dleahy4444 said:

Thank you for your review. I’m on the wonder next month. I booked stateroom 6640 which appears to be across from the shore excursions area and above the bionic bar. Any idea is noise will be an issue? Thanks 

I had no issues with noise at all.

[catella02]

I so enjoyed the review you just did. I hope you do another one the next time you cruise. And yes do a summary for us if you have the time.

[laurieal]

6 minutes ago, djyellowsub said:

I loved your review especially the drink pictures.  I want to try all of them!  Your writing is excellent.  No one would ever believe English is not your first language.  You seem like you would be a fun person to cruise with.

Thank you so much! Do try all of them! And then try new ones and tell me about them!

 

I’m actually a terrible travel companion. All I do is obsess with spicy cheese and then complain about the amount of spicy cheese I eat. Also, I hog the pencil during Game of Thrones trivia 😉 

Edited May 6, 2022 by laurieal

[taglovestocruise]

25 minutes ago, laurieal said:

Thank you so much! Do try all of them! And then try new ones and tell me about them!

 

I’m actually a terrible travel companion. All I do is obsess with spicy cheese and then complain about the amount of spicy cheese I eat. Also, I hog the pencil during Game of Thrones trivia 😉 

You have just added a new sister to chair hogs, now we have pencil hogs... where will it end. 

[laurieal]

The Bonus Episode - My Time in Barcelona

 

After getting off the ship, a sign advertising a luggage delivery service caught my eye. I have a very nice piece of luggage that I can attach to the back of my wheelchair, but it’s still a hassle to haul that thing around. Since I was only flying the next day and wasn’t in any hurry to get my luggage back, I decided to give it a try. 
 

 

Feeling free as a bird without my luggage, I got out of the terminal and saw that the Blue Bus was waiting. That bus will take you from your terminal to the World Trade Centre for €3. Once there, it was a 10 minutes walk to my hotel, the Arc La Rambla. As expected, my room wasn’t ready, so I went off to do some exploring. 

 

I started by strolling along Passeig de Colom, which is a lovely and flat promenade, and then I headed to Parc de la Ciutadella. I play a mobile game that required me to do something close to a Zoo, which is why I selected that destination (the Barcelona Zoo is located in that park). Still, mobile game aside, I really enjoyed my time in the park. The fountain monument was particularly impressive. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, I realized how close I was to the Arc de Triomf, so I headed to the Passeig de Lluís Companys to check it out. 
 

 

 

 

My plan was to head to Plaça de Catalunya where I knew I would find accessible restrooms at El Corte Inglés. However, I kept getting distracted by small, interesting alleys, which is probably how I will die one day. Look for the documentary they will make about it on Netflix called She Kept Getting Distracted by Small, Interesting Alleys. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

After Plaça de Catalunya, I started slowly making my way down La Rambla. I was hoping to get a popsicle shaped like Jaime Lannister’s golden hand at Rocambolesc, but unfortunately they were all out of golden hands and I settled for the Moor’s face instead. 
 

 

With a belly full of yummy ice treat, I thought it was a good time to start exploring the Gothic Quarter. I started by Plaça Nova and had a look around the Cathedral. Then, I basically followed the Gothic Quarter Walking Tour from GPS My City. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My room was supposed to be ready at 3pm, so around that time I started making my way back to La Rambla. I was still thinking about that bocadillo from Valencia, so I went to El Mercado de La Boqueria to get some lunch/dinner to bring back to my hotel. I did find a good-looking bocadillo and I got some strawberries. 

 

 

 

 

 

If, like me, you tend to get overwhelmed by people, I recommending entering the market from one of the side entrances. The front entrance is full of people taking pictures and it can seem scary, but it really wasn’t as busy inside as the entrance made it seem. 

 

Back to my hotel, my room was ready and my luggage had arrived. I thought the room was nice and clean, and it had plenty of room for me to move around. The window faced what seemed to be an inside courtyard, but for only one night I was fine with it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had my lunch/dinner, got my things sorted for the next day, and I went to bed early in preparation for the next day. Travel day is so much less exciting when you’re facing a long flight, jet lag, and laundry. 

 

The Next Day

 

My flight was scheduled for 1:15pm, but I always like to give myself plenty of time to travel, so I left my hotel around 8am. La Rambla was still quiet at this time and it was relatively easy to haul my luggage all the way up to Plaça de Catalunya where I would be taking the Aerobus. 
 

 

The Aerobus is a €8.90 shuttle that will take you to the El Prat airport (or from the airport to the city centre). All the buses have a ramp and a designated area for wheelchair passengers. It was my third time in Barcelona and my third time using the Aerobus. As a solo traveller who doesn’t have a lot of luggage, the Aerobus makes a lot of sense for me and I have always been satisfied with their service. 
 

 

 

I had to wait a bit at the airport for the Air Transat counter to open, but once it did I was quickly checked in, though security, and considering snacks in the Duty Free store. 
 

 

 

Now, I feel like I could end my post here. I have given all the Barcelona information that I could give based on my trip. There really is no benefit to me going further, but now that we’ve all made it this far, I feel like I should go on with my tale if only for therapeutic reasons. Also, I’m sitting on a bench while my wheelchair is being repaired, so I have literally nowhere to go. Bear with me. 

 

Getting on the plane was a smooth process. I was moved from row 20-something to row 6, which was close enough to first class to make me feel fancy by proxy. Then, it was announced that the plane wasn’t full and that people were welcome to move around once we were in the air, so I knew I would end up getting the whole row to myself. Life was good. 

 

I feel like now is a good time to talk about my itinerary. I was flying Air Transat from Barcelona to Montreal. Flying from Montreal to Quebec City would have been ridiculously expensive, so I opted for the last train of the day, which was scheduled to leave two hours after my flight landed. It was risky, but I knew I had plenty of options to spend the night in Montreal if I missed my train. 

 

While I was thinking about how nice it would be to lounge in my empty row, the captain made an announcement saying they were missing 56 passenger meals and we would be leaving about 30 minutes later than expected because someone had to make us sandwiches. From the groans heard in the aircraft, I’m sure we could easily have found 56 people willing to pass on lunch. But we weren’t asked, so that was a deducted 30 minutes from my already tight 2h countdown to make it aboard my train. 

 

Tick, tick. 

 

Once we were off, the flight went well. It makes a world of difference when you have some room to move around. As expected, we landed 30 minutes later than originally planned. Since the plane wasn’t full, I feel like it emptied rather quickly and the people from the Montreal airport were quick to come with the small chair that would get me out of the plane and into my own wheelchair. I know there’s a word for it, but I call it the Hannibal Lecter chair because once I’m all tied up to it I feel like this. 
 

 

My wheelchair was waiting for me outside the plane, which was good, and soon I was off sprinting towards customs. While there is a separate line for people in wheelchairs, there were a lot of people in front of me and I could hear the clock ticking in my head. Still, I had a little less than hour until my train was scheduled to leave. Plenty of time. 

 

Luckily, despite the fact that I was sweating profusely and having random bouts of loud swearing (one of those was an exaggeration), I wasn’t selected for additional questioning or random covid testing. I was free to re-enter Canada and I did so like an Olympic sprinter at the starting line if Olympic sprinters had to wait in line for elevators. 

 

Wait, wait, wait. Sprint, sprint, sprint. Wait at another elevator. Find the luggage carousel, sprint to the luggage carousel, fight with luggage to attach it to my wheelchair, then more sprinting. Tick, tick, tick. I still had half an hour  before my train left and the station is super close to the airport. I could still make it, I kept telling myself as I was stuck in the endless line to have my declaration form checked one last time. 

 

Unlike on the ship where The Wonderful Race had me singing the Wash Your Hands song (badly) at Spotlight Karaoke, at that point it felt like the actual Amazing Race and I was fighting to make my way to the finish line before the time was off. Except the prize wasn’t one million dollars, but my own bed. In my state of tiredness, I probably would have taken my own bed before the million dollars. 

 

And can I just say that the Wash Your Hands song has no right to slap this hard? I’ve had it stuck in my head for the last two weeks and I’m not tired of it yet. 
 

 

Now if you’ve watched The Amazing Race, you know that there’s a point where a team takes a big risk and the music turns all angsty. That was my moment. 

 

I had arranged for Via Rail to book me an accessible taxi since their shuttle isn’t accessible. They were supposed to monitor my flight and send a taxi after I had landed. If the accessible taxi was there waiting for me, it would be the quickest option as I could just roll on and be off. But a big part of me doubted the taxi would be there at all. Still, I made the call to check the shuttle place. 

 

And that, ladies and gentlemen, who, for some reason, are still reading, was almost my downfall.

 

Elevator, sprinting, dodging of innocent bystanders, sprinting. And all that while carrying a 19kg suitcase behind me. 

 

Unfortunately, there was no sight of an accessible taxi. Tick, tick, tick. I turned back and returned to the arrivals floor, regretting my life choices. I now had fifteen minutes left before my train departed and when I arrived at the taxi bank the line seemed endless. 

 

“My train leaves in 15 minutes, is there any way we can make this happen?” I shouted at the line of people waiting for their own taxis. 

 

Thankfully, a taxi driver took pity on me and the people in line were very understanding. Still, I had to transfer into the vehicle and disassemble my wheelchair so it would fit in the car. 

 

Tick, tick, tick. 

 

We were on the move, but this is Montreal and we ran into some traffic. Tick, tick, tick. I could see the train station, but of course we had to go the long way around it to actually reach it. I could see that no train was at the station, which I thought was encouraging. Still, I could hear the minutes tick by. 

 

At the station, I sent the taxi driver inside to let the Via Rail people know their wheelchair passenger had arrived so they could start getting the lift sorted. My heart was still racing, but I couldn’t believe that I had actually made it. The train entered the station at the same time as I did and the staff was quick to get me on board. I breathed many sighs of relief: I was going home!

 

I haven’t been very consistent with asking my questions of the day, but I will do it now. Do you have a good rushing through the airport anecdote you’d like to share?

 

And for a final pet update: when I got home, cat was very interested in my suitcase and by my mother who had picked me up from the train station. She (the cat, not my mother) seemed very unimpressed with my existence. 

 

But then my mother left and I fed the cat and suddenly she seemed to remember who I was. She kept meowing and running after me if I left the room and we had a very long cuddle and purring session.  
 

Edited May 7, 2022 by laurieal

[delmom18]

Glad you're safely home, thank you for a wonderful trip report!

[ellenw]

What a wonderful time we have had. Thanks for taking us along. Start the countdown to your next live cruise!

[topnole]

You had me sweating reading that last post.  I thought for sure you had missed it.  I was starting to envision the movie planes, trains, and automobiles.  Glad you are home safe.  

[laurieal]

On 4/22/2022 at 9:32 AM, Jason12 said:

Hi any chance you could poke ya nose in 6630 and tell me the position of the bed, ideally we want it like yours..

thanks 

I did manage to take a look on the last full day. The layout is like mine, but mirrored (without the wall, the two beds would be facing each other). 
 

So the bed is closer to the bathroom and the sofa is by the balcony. 

[dolphingirl47]

13 hours ago, laurieal said:

It’s so good, isn’t it? I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it. So refreshing. 
 

Did you enjoy your short stay on the Wonder? What was your favourite thing you did and/or ate onboard?

The Sangria Swirl really is amazing.

 

I loved the ship. My favourite thing to do is tough. Spending sail away in a hot tub in the solarium must be up there. Riding the carousel is another contender, but I think my absolute favourite was the ice show. This was absolutely stunning.

 

Food-wise, I am a creature of habit. I love the roast beef roll. This was the first thing I had to eat on the ship.

 

I had my own rushing through the airport experience yesterday. We were supposed to be off the ship at 7:30 for a 10:30 flight. In the end, it was nearly 9:00 by the time the ship was cleared. Thankfully we made the first coach and I swear our driver was a Formula 1 driver in a previous life. After a sprint through the airport, we made it to the gate just before it closed. Many others were not so lucky.

 

Corinna

[retiring soon]

Hi all!

 

laurieal ~ I really enjoyed your cruise, thanks so much for posting it. What an end to you trip!! Glad you made the train.

I too will be on the Anthem TA, solo & have visited Barcelona a few times solo also & loved it. That bus to the airport is really convenient for people who travel light.

Really looking forward to your next cruise, lol!!

 

Stay safe!

 

~ Jo ~ 😊

 

[lazydayz]

Great trip report. Loved your photos of Barcelona and am so glad you made your train.  Rest up and enjoy your cat! 

[DesireeC03]

I loved your review - felt like I was there with you.  That last post had me feeling all kinds of angst!!! Take Care

[geoblond]

What a great review-so enjoyable!  Like others stated I didn’t want it to end.  I checked your profile and saw that you did a review on the Allure-looking forward to reading it.

Thanks!

[geoblond]

48 minutes ago, geoblond said:

What a great review-so enjoyable!  Like others stated I didn’t want it to end.  I checked your profile and saw that you did a review on the Allure-looking forward to reading it.

Thanks!

Oops!  Just found out that you were replying to an Allure review by another author.  ☺️  Oh well I’ll just wait for your next cruise/review. 

[fla gang]

On 4/19/2022 at 5:41 PM, laurieal said:

Hello from Fort Lauderdale!

 

My flight from Montreal ended up leaving two hours later than planned because the snow made everything more complicated and there was a lot of traffic at the plane de-icing stations. 

 

At the airport, I had no issue getting an accessible taxi. I asked the person who was manning the taxi station and it took less than 5 minutes for a taxi with a ramp to show up. 

 

I am staying at the Hyatt Place on SE 10th Ave. I have an accessible room with a king bed. The room feels a bit dated, but the bathroom is great for me accessibility-wise. It has a roll-in shower with a large bench and two sets of faucets so it’s just as conveniently placed if you’re standing up or using the bench. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The hotel is close to the Harbor Shops where I bought my two bottles of wine to bring onboard (Total Wine) and cabin snacks (Publix). As much as there is to eat on a cruise ship, I always miss chips.

 

Later tonight I am reuniting with my cruise friends who are also doing the transatlantic.

 

A lot of you mentioned doing transatlantics in the past or having one booked in the future. What was everyone’s favourite transatlantic crossing (ship/itinerary) and why? 

Ive stayed several times at this hotel and yes it does need to be freshened up a bit, but it is close to the port!

 

[Royalnina]

On 5/7/2022 at 1:41 AM, laurieal said:

Thank you so much! Do try all of them! And then try new ones and tell me about them!

 

I’m actually a terrible travel companion. All I do is obsess with spicy cheese and then complain about the amount of spicy cheese I eat. Also, I hog the pencil during Game of Thrones trivia 😉 

Oh you are a great travel companion and I can't wait to travel with you again 🙂  and I loved reading your review and relive our cruise. 

[Teeara]

Great review.  I think I might try a live review during the WB TA on Wonder this fall.  Never tried one before and I think it would be fun with all the "down" time we'll have ;o)

 

 

[Sarah1974]

I've just caught up with your final days on the cruise and was holding my breath during your dash from airport to train - so glad you made it.  Thanks for taking us along with you on your trip; I really liked your writing style and wit

[floridagal83]

@lauriealThank you so much for the comprehensive and very entertaining review. I really enjoyed reading all about Wonder and your trip. It let me relive a little bit of last year's TA on Harmony. Looking forward to hopefully another one of your reviews!

[laurieal]

On 5/7/2022 at 12:20 PM, retiring soon said:

Hi all!

 

laurieal ~ I really enjoyed your cruise, thanks so much for posting it. What an end to you trip!! Glad you made the train.

I too will be on the Anthem TA, solo & have visited Barcelona a few times solo also & loved it. That bus to the airport is really convenient for people who travel light.

Really looking forward to your next cruise, lol!!

 

Stay safe!

 

~ Jo ~ 😊

 

 

Oh, hello! I remember you from the Anthem roll call! Now that the Wonder cruise is behind me, I should start actively monitoring the Anthem roll call again. Only 149 days to go!

 

Is Anthem also your next cruise or do you have some planned before?

[laurieal]

On 5/8/2022 at 12:20 AM, geoblond said:

Oops!  Just found out that you were replying to an Allure review by another author.  ☺️  Oh well I’ll just wait for your next cruise/review. 

 

Haha oh no! Hopefully I'll get to do a live review from the Allure one day. She looks lovely.

[laurieal]

On 5/9/2022 at 7:37 AM, Royalnina said:

Oh you are a great travel companion and I can't wait to travel with you again 🙂  and I loved reading your review and relive our cruise. 

 

Aw, no, YOU are a great travel companion ❤️ Let's do it again sometime!