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Wandering on the Wonder--A Semi-Live (Maybe) Review

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crewsweeper "Live from...." Rare

crewsweeper

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13 hours ago, boontj2003 said:

Do you remember what night lobster night was? i don’t want to book Hooked on that night lol

Never ate in the MDR, so I don't know.  Seems that "formal nights" were Tuesday and Thursday or maybe Friday. Most likely one of those 2 nights. 

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crewsweeper "Live from...." Rare

crewsweeper

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Okay, so... It's Hi Ho Hi Ho back to work I go.☹️  479 unread emails awaiting me.  Maybe 10 required attention.🤔

 

Overall our cruise appears to have been way better than some on other social media sites.  Yes there was a delay in boarding about an hour.  All sorts of rumors as to why.  But when we got on, shortly after the Pinnacle and Key crowd, we were able to get internet, head to our respective spots, Next Cruise and the UDP Dining table, where I get all our reservations in order and at requested times before DW finished with Next Cruise, scoring an Infinity balcony on the Icon in 2025. 

We grabbed an elevator right off, with no one in it.  Shocked.  But that was our situation for most of the week.  Only once did we have to wait for the next elevator and that was at teh end of our stroll checking out deck16.

And with 2300 kiddos on board, we were wise to stay away from the pool areas.   One complaint there was the passageways were too narrow with too many trying to group together. and the entire starboard side of 15 and 16 seemed to be holding a smokers' convention.  Largest smoking area I've seen on ships recently.

Final Thoughts--

Entertainment:  Aqua show was fine, bench seating a bit rough. Nothing really spectacular or enticing for a second viewing.  Ice show the same.  Comedians were funny, but once is enough.  Tap Factory 2.0 turnout out to be pretty darn good. Music was kinda average.  Evidently the Beatles Tribute band and one other rockband abandon ship before we got on.☹️. But when the Latin Band opens with "Guantanamera" and the Jazz band with "Tea for Two", you know there'll be no soca or hard bop.

Ship: If you have ever sailed any Oasis Class ship, you won't wander around lost on the Wonder.  Biggest difference is the aft sections of 15 and 16 plus the multiple pools and hottubs and the addition of cabanas. Solarium is covered, but never found it unbearably hot.  Ship was clean.  Stateroom Steward was great.  Kept our cabin clean as requested.  Balcony was large. Eventually learned the tricks to opening and closing the sliding door. If you don't fully close the door the AC goes off. Gym was large.  Of the 2 C2 rowers only one had a monitor that worked. Men's locker room in the spa was rarely used the times I was there (twice daily for showers).  DW enjoyed her times in the steam room. 

Food: Mason Jar is best for brunch, but not for dinner (except the bar which does have Whistle Pig Rye).  150 Central gets our top rating, despite some changes to the menu.  Chops was second, but so late in the cruise we were getting a bit of food OD.  Hooked was great for seafood.  But menu for lunch and dinner were the same.  Giovanni's as well. better lunch than dinner but same menu. Wonderland is as always a one and done.  Braised short ribs were a bit too fatty, but the World dessert and Smoke Ring cocktail saved the day.  Book Isumu sushi or Hibachi as early as possible.  Wait list only within a couple of hours of boarding.  My error in not booking lunch at Isumi Sushi when making UDP dinner ressies.

Solarium Bistro buffet at breakfast was good.   Avoided Johnny Rockets the entire cruise.  Visited Playmakers for Camp Fire Cookies.  El Loco Fresh wasn't as good a Sabor. Twice at Sprinkles found no ice cream (effect of probably serving 7000 cones a day).  But Sugar Shack or what ever did have good ice cream and selections  just charging for it.

Ports: Coco Cay was a perfect day for us at Coco Beach Club (Whistle Pig there too).  St. Thomas was a wash out.  Very windy and rainy until late morning.  Some excursions were cancelled.  We ditched the idea of heading to Water Island halfway to the ferry due to rain. Caution against taking the Nature Hike on St Martin.  It's not what we expected.  And $30 for an hour for a lounger on the beach break part was ridiculous.

 

We're back on board in January 2024 so we'll have our tips sheets for an even better cruise.  It's a Western and we have those ports down. Plus Coco Cay comes at the beginning.

 

Will be happy to answer any questions.

 

Safe cruising!

 

Crew

 

 

 

 

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topanga49er

topanga49er

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7 hours ago, crewsweeper said:

Never ate in the MDR, so I don't know.  Seems that "formal nights" were Tuesday and Thursday or maybe Friday. Most likely one of those 2 nights. 

 

21 hours ago, boontj2003 said:

Do you remember what night lobster night was? i don’t want to book Hooked on that night lol

Lobster night Day 6.  Same night as "Dress your best".

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ourfamilylovescruising

ourfamilylovescruising

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On 4/10/2023 at 11:23 AM, crewsweeper said:

Okay, so... It's Hi Ho Hi Ho back to work I go.☹️  479 unread emails awaiting me.  Maybe 10 required attention.🤔

 

Overall our cruise appears to have been way better than some on other social media sites.  Yes there was a delay in boarding about an hour.  All sorts of rumors as to why.  But when we got on, shortly after the Pinnacle and Key crowd, we were able to get internet, head to our respective spots, Next Cruise and the UDP Dining table, where I get all our reservations in order and at requested times before DW finished with Next Cruise, scoring an Infinity balcony on the Icon in 2025. 

We grabbed an elevator right off, with no one in it.  Shocked.  But that was our situation for most of the week.  Only once did we have to wait for the next elevator and that was at teh end of our stroll checking out deck16.

And with 2300 kiddos on board, we were wise to stay away from the pool areas.   One complaint there was the passageways were too narrow with too many trying to group together. and the entire starboard side of 15 and 16 seemed to be holding a smokers' convention.  Largest smoking area I've seen on ships recently.

Final Thoughts--

Entertainment:  Aqua show was fine, bench seating a bit rough. Nothing really spectacular or enticing for a second viewing.  Ice show the same.  Comedians were funny, but once is enough.  Tap Factory 2.0 turnout out to be pretty darn good. Music was kinda average.  Evidently the Beatles Tribute band and one other rockband abandon ship before we got on.☹️. But when the Latin Band opens with "Guantanamera" and the Jazz band with "Tea for Two", you know there'll be no soca or hard bop.

Ship: If you have ever sailed any Oasis Class ship, you won't wander around lost on the Wonder.  Biggest difference is the aft sections of 15 and 16 plus the multiple pools and hottubs and the addition of cabanas. Solarium is covered, but never found it unbearably hot.  Ship was clean.  Stateroom Steward was great.  Kept our cabin clean as requested.  Balcony was large. Eventually learned the tricks to opening and closing the sliding door. If you don't fully close the door the AC goes off. Gym was large.  Of the 2 C2 rowers only one had a monitor that worked. Men's locker room in the spa was rarely used the times I was there (twice daily for showers).  DW enjoyed her times in the steam room. 

Food: Mason Jar is best for brunch, but not for dinner (except the bar which does have Whistle Pig Rye).  150 Central gets our top rating, despite some changes to the menu.  Chops was second, but so late in the cruise we were getting a bit of food OD.  Hooked was great for seafood.  But menu for lunch and dinner were the same.  Giovanni's as well. better lunch than dinner but same menu. Wonderland is as always a one and done.  Braised short ribs were a bit too fatty, but the World dessert and Smoke Ring cocktail saved the day.  Book Isumu sushi or Hibachi as early as possible.  Wait list only within a couple of hours of boarding.  My error in not booking lunch at Isumi Sushi when making UDP dinner ressies.

Solarium Bistro buffet at breakfast was good.   Avoided Johnny Rockets the entire cruise.  Visited Playmakers for Camp Fire Cookies.  El Loco Fresh wasn't as good a Sabor. Twice at Sprinkles found no ice cream (effect of probably serving 7000 cones a day).  But Sugar Shack or what ever did have good ice cream and selections  just charging for it.

Ports: Coco Cay was a perfect day for us at Coco Beach Club (Whistle Pig there too).  St. Thomas was a wash out.  Very windy and rainy until late morning.  Some excursions were cancelled.  We ditched the idea of heading to Water Island halfway to the ferry due to rain. Caution against taking the Nature Hike on St Martin.  It's not what we expected.  And $30 for an hour for a lounger on the beach break part was ridiculous.

 

We're back on board in January 2024 so we'll have our tips sheets for an even better cruise.  It's a Western and we have those ports down. Plus Coco Cay comes at the beginning.

 

Will be happy to answer any questions.

 

Safe cruising!

 

Crew

 

 

 

 

do you have the entertainment information times and days?

 

thank you for a great review so excited for our July cruise

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crewsweeper "Live from...." Rare

crewsweeper

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22 minutes ago, ourfamilylovescruising said:

do you have the entertainment information times and days?

 

thank you for a great review so excited for our July cruise

Sadly no.  Did not scan the printed Cruise Compasses.  But these should start showing up on your app about 30 days before your cruise.  Don't worry about the app saying sold out.  There's always seats to reserve once on board.

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notscb "Live from...." Rare

notscb

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On 4/10/2023 at 11:23 AM, crewsweeper said:

Solarium is covered, but never found it unbearably hot.

This is something I've often wondered- if the solariums get super hot and/or humid due to being covered with what seems like little ventilation. Thanks for posting!

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scorpluvsdolphins

scorpluvsdolphins

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On 4/5/2023 at 2:19 PM, topanga49er said:

Hi.  You will love Wonder.  Don't want to hijack this review, but thought I'd add in our own thoughts.  We were just on 3/19 and it was amazing!  Everyone can find little things they didn't like, but we were very happy overall.

 

First time with Deluxe Beverage pkg and would not do it any other way again.  So convenient, so easy and really makes sense to try out all things alcoholic and non.  We also did the 3 specialty dining instead of the ultimate dining pkg.  It worked best for us bc with four port days sometimes you do not want to run back for a big meal.  We only had two sea days; maybe would do ultimate specialty dining if we had more sea days.

 

Did not eat at main dining room so could not speak about that.  Two nights in coastal kitchen were fine; Paid for hooked additional and it was just ok:  Note: all the menus on line show a two pound lobster.  New menu is only 1.25lb lobster.  Kind of bummed about that, and waiters were very pushy for extra tip.

 

Chops was excellent, Izumi sushi was good with amazing service, and we loved Wonderland.  We felt a bit rushed in there, and the Mad Hatter was not around but overall very cool.  Will go back.

 

Shows were good. 365 and Intense were best.

 

Comment on the suites:  We had the 1 bdroom ATS on deck 11 with a balcony next door for our girls.  It was very nice, loved the large balcony views and room was spacious with a ton of storage.  But last time we were on an Oasis class we were in CLS, and I missed being on 17th floor.  Something calmer and less frantic and trafficky up there.  Yes, very good problem to have, but thought I'd mention it bc price is very similar for CLS and ATS, and have seen posts with people wondering which to go with. CLS feels more like a suite if that makes sense.  Walk to room was not bad; I'd heard a lot of concern about that but did not bother us.  Suite sundeck was great and Kenny was an AMAZING concierge.

 

Royal was very good about crediting back excursions on coco cay due to bad weather.  Loved the coco cay beach club lunch even in the rain.  Kids thought the thrill park was "meh"; lines too long and slides not as good as on the ship.

 

Flowrider lines were not bad, and they gave everyone 4-5 minutes on it.  Lots of fun.  Overall amazing.  If you have any questions happy to answer.  I would have done a separate mini review, but not sure how...

 

 

100% disagree about the Aqua show. It’s absolutely the worst of the fleet. 

Ice Show, 365 is the best in the fleet. Voices is great and the last 15 mins of Tap Factory is good. 

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NightOne

NightOne

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On 4/3/2023 at 6:32 PM, renza said:

I hate that the got rid of the seats and it’s all benches now. My least favorite aqua show on all the oasis. Not much diving anymore, just all women dancing around. 

 

They told me that changing to all benches allowed them to get like 262 more people in the Aquatheater. (Don't quote me on the number but it was significantly more people)

 

Intense ... not much diving? Did you watch the show? Tons of diving! Compare it to OceanAria and it is like tons more diving than that one. 

 

Intense refers to the women's heart rates during that show. Nonstop action.

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