Wonder of the seas Mediterranean live blog! 22nd May - 29th May 2022. Come cruise with us!

[Cruisingcouple22]

Morning everyone! We had a lovely start to the day with breakfast in the room. Room service were very friendly and set up a tablecloth for us. The food was delicious, the pancakes were so soft and fluffy. The blueberry compote was a bit too sweet but the pancakes themselves were great. 

 

 

 

Just sitting in the theatre now waiting for our excursion to be called. Gangway is supposed to open in about 20 minutes so shouldn’t be long now

[sgmn]

Great blog and pics. Thanks for taking the time. We nearly bookef a last minute cruise on Wonder a couple of weeks ago but the flight costs were crazy high because of the last minute.

I may of missed it but where is your first port?

Edited May 23, 2022 by sgmn

[little britain]

2 hours ago, sgmn said:

Great blog and pics. Thanks for taking the time. We nearly bookef a last minute cruise on Wonder a couple of weeks ago but the flight costs were crazy high because of the last minute.

I may of missed it but where is your first port?

Palma on Monday - all on board by 3:30

Edited May 23, 2022 by little britain

[Cruisingcouple22]

Day 2 cruise compass

 

 

 

[BA038_Passenger]

Are you in a 2 Bed Aqua Class Suite? Star Class?

[Cruisingcouple22]

5 hours ago, BA038_Passenger said:

Are you in a 2 Bed Aqua Class Suite? Star Class?

No, we are in a one bed Aqua theatre suite, so sky class. There are a lot of amazing amenities though, especially as it’s our first time in a suite. 

[CubedTofu]

How was today? Did you take photos? 🙂

[Cruisingcouple22]

First view of wonder from off of the ship.

We had a great time at the caves today. The drive there was pretty long, just over an hour, and whilst the scenery was pretty, it was quite repetitive. Our tour guide did a good job of giving us facts and letting us know where we were etc.

I learnt that Rafael Nadal grew up in Manacor in Mallorca and now has an tennis academy/school/ museum there. 

 

He also has a very nice black catamaran that cost just over $5 million. 

 

There was a slight hiccup on our route as they were digging up the road, but with a bit of help we made it through 

 

We had about a ten minute wait until our tour group was due to go in, and if this happens to you I recommend being nearer the front if possible. You get to go through the caves at more of your own pace and also get better seats for the concert, and nearer the front if you want to do the boat ride. The caves were incredible. The formation of caves like these always astounds me and this one was no different. The length of time for them to form is incomprehensible and the variety of forms that come about is amazing. The clarity and stillness of the water is also beautiful. 

 

 

 

 

this was looking up at the ceiling. It’s a bit disconcerting and luckily none of them fell whilst we were in there 😁

 

 

I have no idea how this column broke in the middle like this! 

 

 

[Cruisingcouple22]

There was a short concert from a quartet which was beautiful. If you get the chance to see it I highly recommend it. There was also a short boat ride if you wanted to do it, although there was a bit of a queue if you weren’t right at the front. There’s also a walking path instead and the boat ride was only about a minute or so. There are a number of steps down and then back up again, but there are a couple of benches to have a seat on if you need it. 

 

 

 

this is the boat the musicians play from. Very talented! 
 

all the lights turn off and the boats come sailing from around a corner. It’s beautiful. 

 

Back up in the daylight there is a small shop, cafe and facilities. We had 1 and a half hour where overall. It’s quite a long drive there and back but it really is a beautiful location that is rare to be able to see. On the way back, we had the obligatory gift shop stop, this time a pearl factory, but there were a number of other shops about that you could go in instead. 
 

slightly better shot of wonder! 

[Cruisingcouple22]

Sorry about the quality, this was surreptitiously filmed. Don’t tell anyone 🤫 

 

 

[Cruisingcouple22]

Now back to the ship for lunch! We dropped our stuff back in the room, including our Christmas ornament (something we get from each location that we visit!) and then headed to park cafe for lunch. I’ve forgetting how good the Kummelweck sandwiches are. I don’t know what they do to the beef to make it that juicy and tasty but I really want the recipe.

 

 

 

We chilled out in Central Park for a bit then headed to playmakers to make use of our diamond drinks (another $21 saving) and dining package. We had the poke nachos and the campfire cookie and can heartily recommend both of them. The poke nachos are one of the best things we’ve eaten on the ship, just a hint of heat in the sauce balanced out by the avocado. Mmmm, delicious. We will definitely be ordering them again. Also the portion is huge. We’d been eating for what felt like 20 minutes and barely seemed to make a dent. 

 

before

 

after! Barely looks like we touched them!

 

we also saw them practising for the Aqua theatre show

 

 

After that we headed up to the pool deck to the infinity hot tubs and watched cat and dog videos on the big screen 😁 got to love the choice of videos Royal put up.
 

We then had a wander round the solarium, it was lovely but there weren’t any seats available, so got a drink at the vue bar (lime and coconut and watermelon rita, both tasty and refreshing) and headed up to the suite sun deck to relax waiting for sail away. We enjoyed watching the flow rider and basketball form the suite sun deck then sat on our balcony for sail away. Blissful!

 

 

 

Sail away from palma

 

[Cruisingcouple22]

3 hours ago, CubedTofu said:

How was today? Did you take photos? 🙂

I tend to do the posts in the morning as I get up a bit before my wife. Hope you like today's update!

[Cruisingcouple22]

After a nice relax on the balcony it was time for dinner. Tonight was formal night and we had booked 150 Central Park. If anyone is wondering, there was a real variety of outfits tonight, from full black tie and cocktail dresses, to short and tee shirts. So if you are worried about what to wear, don’t be; there will definitely be someone dressed smarter and more casual than you!

Dinner was delicious, I could have just eaten loaf after loaf of their bread. It had a lemon garlic butter that it was absolutely soaked in and it was delicious.

For starter I had the pork belly and my wife had the short rib, both were delicious. The short rib just melted in your mouth.

 

We both had the lamb wellington for main and it was excellent.

And desserts were the passion fruit mousse bar and the deep fried cheesecake, which was surprisingly quite light.

 

 

 

Highly recommended. We were worried that we were going to be left feeling very full, especially after our lunch escapades, but the portion sizes were perfect. 

 

fun statues abound around this ship! This little fella was just chilling in Central Park 

After dinner we took a jaunt up to Mason jar to catch the country trio performing there and they were brilliant. The lead singer was very funny and humble, saying how surprised he was when asked to perform country music on a ship travelling around the mediterranean and how happy that made him to know country music had spread so far! They were really engaging and took a number of requests from the crowd.

This bar is really popular so make sure to get there early or be prepared to wait for a seat. A number of their cocktails have smoke in them (and one has candied bacon! Yum!) so if you sit at the bar it can get smoky, but i love that smell. In fact, when I commented on this, one of the bartenders took my non-smoked cocktail and smoked it for me! Now that's service 🙂

 

 

and it doesn’t look like they will run out of whiskey/bourbon any time soon! 

There was a nosy dragon peering in the elevator

[Cruisingcouple22]

Alas, we had reservations for the tap show though so could not stay listening for as long as we wanted. We will definitely be returning another night though. 

We headed to the main theatre and discovered that there was reserved seating for the key, suite and pinnacle guests up on the balcony on deck 5 in the main theatre.

Cruise director introducing the show. Amazing how fluently he can speak so many languages! 

 

The show was very interesting, similar to Stomp i believe if any one has seen that. There was a mixture of percussion, gymnastic, contortionist (which really freaked me out!) and tap dancing of course. Everyone was very talented in the show, but i don’t think it is to our particular tastes.

 

 

 

 

After the show, it was time for a quick change of footwear (for me as well as my wife, those dress shoes are NOT comfortable!) and off to the silent disco in the solarium.

First towel animal of the cruise. I love these little touches!
The captain had made an announcement earlier that they were expecting very strong winds and the open decks were going to be closed, and whilst it was windy, the decks remained open. The disco was a lot of fun, they had two channels going, but my favourite bit was taking the headphones off and listening to a crowd of people singing two different songs! Amazing fun if you get the chance to go. 

 

I love how the ship looks at night, they do such a great job with the lighting. 

 

 

Teens get their own outdoor space with Christmas lights! 

And then it was off to bed. A busy day but a lot of fun. We have a lie in tomorrow as we are not planning on getting off the ship and are going to enjoy a (hopefully) quieter ship for a bit. Many thanks for following along! Please let me know if you have any questions or want me to check anything out!

[Norwich Cruiser]

Please could you try and find out when Effectors 2 may start.

 

Thank you.

[Cruisingcouple22]

35 minutes ago, Norwich Cruiser said:

Please could you try and find out when Effectors 2 may start.

 

Thank you.

Yep, I will see if we can find out 👍 

[Cruisingcouple22]

This is where this morning’s entry was written from, sunny Marseilles. Last night was nowhere near as rough and the captain led us to believe, which was a nice surprise

 

 

 

there are some nice seats along the running track if you are looking for a quiet spot, as well as shuffleboard and table tennis

 

central park views are impressive

 

 

it’s nice to see the crew get some deck space up top on wonder too. This is just up and behind the solarium. 
 

 

 

 

beautiful sunrise coming in to Marseilles

 

Now, this is very much a first world problem, but the walk from the elevator lobby to our cabin seems sooooo long sometimes. We have to walk past 32 other cabins (yes, we counted 😂) before you get to ours! Shouldn’t complain too much though I guess 😜 

[Cruisingcouple22]

And here are a couple of shots of the room I didn’t upload yet 

 

 

 

 

[little britain]

48 minutes ago, Norwich Cruiser said:

Please could you try and find out when Effectors 2 may start.

 

Thank you.

I asked Michele at the c&a meeting yesterday for you…. He said the end of June

 

Top cruiser had 2100 points

4 new pinnacles 

 

[little britain]

We went to the Mason Jar for dinner… it was an experience; far too much food and very heavy ( thank goodness I packed the Rennies!).  I don’t think it was worth the $51.19pp they charge on board.  
The bar area looked fun though and the band were good - sadly no time to listen to them as we went to the 9:45 show.   As said, like Stomp meets Blue Man Group…. The contortionist guy freaked me out and tbh made me feel ill….

 

After dinner we went for one last drink at Boleros which as jumping as many Spanish guests on board… love it that they all can dance… especially the children.

There were also a few quinceañera celebrations on board so stunning teen outfits.

Adherence to formal night dress ( yes it was called that still in the Compass - which is delivered daily still so that experiment didn’t last long!) was mixed to say the least. 
 

*don’t ask how a lady got the 2nd pic… it’s my challenge to get them all! 
 

 

Edited May 24, 2022 by little britain

[little britain]

There isn’t any RCI cloudy lemonade on board….

[cloud_nine]

Loving this review! Your photos from the Caves of Drach were stunning! Would you be able to find out if soda, wine and beer are free from 11-11 in the Suite Lounge, please? I've been hearing mixed reports. 

[Norwich Cruiser]

6 hours ago, little britain said:

I asked Michele at the c&a meeting yesterday for you…. He said the end of June

 

Top cruiser had 2100 points

4 new pinnacles 

 

Thank you for finding out for us.

 

I knew I could rely on you 😀

 

You always always come up with the goods.

 

We aren’t on until the summer school holidays but grandson will be right into that show.

 

Thanks again..

 

Have a great cruise.

[little britain]

Asked elsewhere so thought I’d post here too!

 

Cost of the drinks packages on board for 7n Med cruise including the Spanish tax.

 

 

[hmudrick]

Thanks so much for blogging...we're on this cruise in June so fun to get a preview!