Live from the Wonder of the Seas - May 5 to May 12th 2024

OCSC Mike · May 5

8 minutes ago, Dolby1000 said:

all the other nights at the Coastal Kitchen. We do not plan to step foot in the main dining room.

I don't blame ya. When treated to a GS by generous family members last June we had dinner in CK all 7 nights. Enjoy night one filet (if you like steak) and the amazing suite neighborhood!

Will be following along to help pass the time til I'm back on my favorite ship in 4 weeks.

Dolby1000 · May 5

I was interrupted by Sail Away and by the time I returned to this thread, it wouldn’t let me edit the post to describe the pictures. The food porn was the Short Ribs which were delicious.

Sailing out of Canaveral is not very scenic but I’ll try to post something later.

RFerrington · May 6

We are on this one with you. Just got back from the CK. Filet was a bit underwhelming this time. It’s usually excellent. Tomato soup was good. Peanut butter bar for dessert. Yum.

Cherful59 · May 6

@Dolby1000 Thank you for the live review. I will be following along as I will be on Wonder in February.

On 5/1/2024 at 8:46 AM, SuzD123 said:

Isn't that exciting? I LOVE that feeling. We now 16 days from our first Alaska sailing and simply can't wait. 🙂

Enjoy Alaska, I loved it. I was on Radiance last August.

Dolby1000 · May 6

Okay, where was I? Oh yes, about 24 hours ago we were sailing away.

Port Orlando isn’t really an exciting place to depart from, as evidenced from the below pictures.

Pulling away, excitement abounds. We are at the front end of the suite area, we can easily hear the festivities from the wild pool sail away party.

Oooh, exciting Jetty Campground, where we watched Saturday’s sail away.

And of course, the Wonder passes the excitement of Port Canaveral and Cocoa Beaches.

Dolby1000 · May 6

Dinner at the CK was very good. We met a wonderful couple to have lively conversation and the food was pretty great too. Although my wife wasn’t all the enraptured of the smoked tomato soup (sorry, no food port, I just don’t take good food port pictures), I loved the hearts of palm with lobster salad. Big chunks of lobster!

She had the duck breast and I had the filet, both were excellent. For dessert she had the peanut butter caramel bar (which had no taste of maple as described) and I had the Boston cream pie. Both were satisfying ends to the dinner.

We had reservations for Intense, which it was, and we were among the crowd that was wowed. A not to miss show.

Edited May 6 by Dolby1000

Dolby1000 · May 6

Lastly, I went to the casino around 11:30. This was my first real surprise. I enjoy playing Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em. I enjoy it most when there are several people at the table. The 2 tables in the “smoking” casino were empty, as was the Texas Hold’Em table, the 3 Card Poker table, most of the BlackJack tables and 90% of the slots. There were only 2 people in the no-smoking casino, and they were at a couple of not paying much of anything slots.

So, I sat down at the empty Ultimate table and went one on one with the dealer. Who promptly dealt me Aces! Then followed those with 2-3-4-5 on the board. First hand, straight! Woo Hoo, I win. NOT. She turned over a 6. Really, are you kidding me????

Before I left, she had 3 straights, a full house, trips twice. I had had the one straight and once I had trip 4s, lost to her trip 6s. The session didn’t last long.

Even more entertaining, when I took a bathroom break, as I was washing my hands, in rushed a woman who promptly threw up in the sink. Wow, what a great first night for her, drink so much you get sick and then you do in the wrong room! And I know I had it right as there were urinals in my bathroom, so I didn’t get it wrong.

Coming up, Perfect Day at Cococay!!!

Dolby1000 · May 6

Day 2.

Breakfast in the CK and again, it was so good, it was basic scrambled eggs, bacon and toast but done well. It was also quiet.

We had rented a Cabana on Chill Beach and were assigned #1, which is right at the check in desk. Less sand to trudge through, so we were good with that.

Mother nature supplied us with wonderful, if not a bit breezy, weather. The water had not yet reached it’s summer warmth, which is good, if it stays a bit cool, that will delay Hurricane Season.

For the 4th time, we also had reserved the balloon ride and for the 4th straight time, it wasn’t flying.

We had a quiet day at the Cabana, it was wonderful. Next up, dinner at CK, the Ice show and if we have the energy, the Headliner show in the Royal Theater. Below, pictures from our day in Cococay.

For those who like to see the mooring lines.

Edited May 6 by Dolby1000

OCSC Mike · May 6

28 minutes ago, Dolby1000 said:

the Ice show

My favorite ice show in the fleet and many others seem to like it. Enjoy!

Edited May 6 by OCSC Mike

gowensricks · May 7

4 hours ago, Dolby1000 said:

So, I sat down at the empty Ultimate table and went one on one with the dealer. Who promptly dealt me Aces! Then followed those with 2-3-4-5 on the board. First hand, straight! Woo Hoo, I win. NOT. She turned over a 6. Really, are you kidding me????

Greetings! I am confused because if you had an ace then you had the second highest straight - which should have beat the dealers straight.

wolfcathorse · May 7

can you please confirm who the captain is? Your Suite concierge can tell you!

Dolby1000 · May 7

The 6 was hers and not the river, thus she had the higher straight:

BecciBoo · May 7

Just looking at all your pics has me getting the booking itch and we just got back last month LOLOL

Dolby1000 · May 8

On 5/6/2024 at 10:24 PM, wolfcathorse said:

can you please confirm who the captain is? Your Suite concierge can tell you!

Captain Tyrm, he is very personal able.

Dolby1000 · May 8

So, where were we? Oh yes, we had just returned from Cococay.

Personal pet peeve. If the elevator is full and you are waiting for the next one. Please, for the love of God, do not press the appropriate up or down button again until the elevator has left. To keep pushing it while the doors are closing just causes the doors to open again and there we all stay. To do it 4, yes I say 4, times in row becomes downright annoying. No one is getting off, you are delaying the next elevator for everyone. What is surprising is that this happens 2-3 times a day! Instead of the safety briefing, can we have elevator lessons?

After a nice dinner in CK, sorry, no food pics, we went to the ice show, Seasons365. Wasn’t sure what to expect here. Of all the ice shows we have seen, Seasons365 puts it together the best. Lots of great skating, yes, but the staging effects are just as impressive. My favorite number was the first winter one, that was awesome. A few random pics below:

Dolby1000 · May 8

Our second show of the night was professional juggler David DiMuzio. Unless you have never seen juggling before, this is a must skip. I generally don’t enjoy entertainers who think they are being amusing when they beg for applause. News flash, it is not funny nor entertaining. He juggled 7 balls telling us it was a world record. Not true, we saw someone juggle 8. And while we went from 3 to 7, he had 6 drops. Wow, what a professional. His volunteer from the audience was a clear plant. We didn’t leave out of politeness.

Tried the casino again, no success there, session was even shorter then last night.

Today was a sea day, so it was pretty quiet. Had lunch at Giovanni’s.

Meat & Cheese anti-pasta plate.

Cannoli, which had a weird taste and texture. The person at the table next to us had the very same description. The consistency and taste of the Ricotta was off and not creamy.

Go Bananas. Nutella and banana Stromboli. This was good.

Chicken Parm, very good, not the best ever,

Steak Muffuletta, wife was not a big fan.

Dolby1000 · May 8

Forgot to mention, there was a sparesly attended Top Tier

Edited May 8 by Dolby1000

Dolby1000 · May 8

Finally for today, it was formal night. Don’t we clean up great!

We also saw Voices, the theater production show. I do not have pictures but we loved the show. Think Pentatonix only with 15-20 performers.

Tomorrow is Cozumel. Other than shopping for vanilla, we expect a quiet day.

Edited May 8 by Dolby1000

Coralc · May 8

I love her outfit! That looks so lovely and comfortable. I dislike formal wear, because it is usually not. ☺️

Dolby1000 · May 9

Hi everyone, when I tried to access CC Boards yesterday, it would not load. Everything else worked fine, so I’m thinking it was a CC issue.

I am back today to talk about Cozumel and Roatan.

But first, I have something very important to say. There was a thread here a while back asking if the “ping” when entering or leaving the ship had stopped. I can honestly say that on the Wonder, coming and going is accompanied by that wonderful little Ping!

Please have your ship cards ready. Coming back from my afternoon swim at Cozumel, the line to get through the entrance to security was backing up as a lady in front was digging through her beach bag and having no success I finding her card. At least 30 people stacked up behind her and there were several sarcastic comments. Finally, the security man at the employee entrance started checking our cards. I do not know if that poor lady ever found her card.

The Cruise Compass (read it daily) had a very severe warning about smoking in Cozumel as it is not permitted and anyone caught smoking could be detained for 36 hours. As I was walking to the faux beach, I passed a lady smoking and saw 3 security guys scurrying in her direction. I did not stick around to find out what happened. Talking to someone later they said that a 36 hour detaining was unlikely, as the person likely would just be charged a fine and escorted off the island.

What was cool, and I mean very, very cool, in a mall across the street from the port area, there were 6 men from Veracruz who were about to perform the Rain Ceremony. This was featured on a recent leg of The Amazing Race and it was super cool to see the whole ceremony.

These 5 men climbed to the top of the tower and while one played a fife and a small drum, the other 4. . . . .

Wait for it. . . . . .

This pic is out of order, this is the men circling the pole before they climb.

And they’re off!!

Slowly circling as the ropes unfurl and they make their way back to the ground.

Almost done.

Just us at the pyramid at the mall.

Good morning Cozumel.

Edited May 9 by Dolby1000

Lionesss · May 9

5 minutes ago, Dolby1000 said:

Hi everyone, when I tried to access CC Boards yesterday, it would not load. Everything else worked fine, so I’m thinking it was a CC issue.

I am back today to talk about Cozumel and Roatan.

But first, I have something very important to say. There was a thread here a while back asking if the “ping” when entering or leaving the ship had stopped. I can honestly say that on the Wonder, coming and going is accompanied by that wonderful little Ping!

That was what I did not hear on Symphony April 20, 2024.

Glad to hear the “Ping”still” exist.

Keep the review coming

Be safe.

Dolby1000 · May 9

So, as you can see, I’m not so good at editing these pictures in any particular order.

Random Cozumel pictures, including pictures of the port, our lunch at Giovanni’s table and our latest tiny towel animal.

Shrimp Risotto from CK, the rice was not fluffy and had no resemblance to what risotto is supposed to be. Good flavors though and it needed to be warmer, it had been sitting under a warmer before coming out to my DW.

Steak and Frites, this was super good.

Vanilla cream and meringue in a vanilla sauce, devilishly good.

Chocolate Pot o Cream. That cookie was super wonderful, but otherwise, too similar to pudding. Quite chocolatey though.

DW walked the lap track on deck 5, one of the life boats was lowered and she grabbed a picture of what it looks like inside.

The swimming area extends from Senior Frog’s (the thatched roof) to the black and white stripped area on the pier. Pretty deep and difficult to get in or out as the stairs really don’t extend low enough.

Good night from Spike, our towel rhino.

Dolby1000 · May 9

Another long, or rather short night of the dealers being devilishly evil. Finally, a full table of 7 players. For one hand, there were 4 clubs showing. 5 of us had a club in our hand leaving only four left so we were pretty confident of our flushes easily wining. There was also a pair of 4s, (the one four being the only non-club) and one of the clubs was a 2. The dealer turned over a pair of 2s for a full house, taking down all of our flushes. I have watched the dealers continuously hit 1,2, or 3 outs to take down the table at one would think are ridiculous odds. If I was a conspiracy theorist, one would be highly suspicious that those card shufflers are on the up and up.

Today, Thursday, is Roatan day. We have a friend in port with us today, the Mariner of the Seas.

We did the 4 hour Roatan tour, the one without the Beach break. It was a hazy hot and humid day. The haze coming from forest burns on Honduras.

First up, the oldest Methodist church on Roatan, I forget how old they said it was, but it was in the 17th Century, I believe.

And the inside. The sun peeking our from behind the cross was a happy accident.

A couple of fruits native to Roatan include the noni, which is the white one and yellow or red cashews, yes, the nuts. The nuts are the seeds which must be roasted as raw they are very acidic and will burn your mouth, lips and skin. The fruit is very, very juicy and can be eaten, or more commonly, made into wine.