Guest Trip Report: January 20, 2019 Southern Caribbean on the Disney Wonder – Day 1

The next morning, we slept in til the late hour (for us) of 8:30 a.m. Our Port Arrival Time (PAT) wasn’t until noon, and we wanted to take it easy at our hotel instead of waiting in line at the port. I had heard that the Pan American Pier can get very crowded and we had no need or intention of arriving earlier than we needed to. It was hard to resist the temptation, especially since we could see the Disney Wonder from just outside the hotel.

Included in our stay at the Hyatt Place was a breakfast buffet, which had a lot of hot and cold options. The breakfast room was very crowded with fellow Disney cruisers, which made it easier to take our time to enjoy our meal since we weren’t in a rush. After breakfast I finished re-packing our suitcases and remembered to put our luggage tags on the ones we would be leaving with the porters.

It was about time for us to start making our way to the port, but our plans changed about how we would get there. We had originally planned to get an Uber or taxi to the port but as the morning progressed, the hotel lobby became packed with cruisers and their luggage. Everyone was waiting for Ubers, taxis, and private shuttles and I overhead that the wait to get one was about 45 minutes – way longer than we were expecting! The intersection outside of the hotel was still partially closed due to the festival and there were still police officers there directing traffic, including traffic to and from the Pan American Pier.

I chatted with one of the officers to ask if it would be safe for us to walk from the hotel to the port. After all, if we could see the ship it couldn’t be that far of a walk? Between the two of us we could reasonably manage our suitcases. I expected the officer to discourage it due to safety concerns or pedestrians not being allowed, but to my surprise he said it would be fine to do so! He explained there was a sidewalk for part of the way and then we would be walking along the side of the road with the rest of the traffic.

And that is how we made the decision to WALK to the Disney Wonder. The walk took us about 18 minutes and was 0.7 miles. Luckily the weather was mild since we were in the sun the whole time. The sidewalk ended and as expected we were walking on the side of the road next to a guardrail with the rest of the traffic, which was steady but not going too fast. We walked single file and met up with another family along the way who were also discouraged by the long wait for a taxi.

During the walk, I thought a lot about alcoholic beverages and soft serve ice cream.

Was it an incredibly safe thing to do? Probably not. I would not take that walk with small children especially since there wasn’t much sidewalk. For us, the benefit of getting to the port on time and not waiting for a car outweighed the obvious risk – and gave us a great story to tell!

When we arrived at the Pan American Pier, we unintentionally went to the crew entrance, realized our error, and walked a bit further to where the passenger check in area was. As we arrived, friendly cast members were there to greet us. They were all stunned that we walked to the port. There was a short line to drop off our bags with the porters, and then we went through the security screening in less than 5 minutes.

I knew that the Pan American Pier was much smaller than Port Canaveral, but I was still surprised as to how small it was. I’d read before about people waiting in long lines outside in the sun just to drop bags off. Because we arrived at our PAT we avoided this entirely.

Inside the terminal, we waited about 15 minutes in the Silver/Gold Castaway line to check in.

The terminal itself is nothing much but the check in area is air conditioned. There is lots of DCL signage and one small store that sold wine, liquor, water, and snacks.

After checking in, we were directed to a large warehouse area where passengers were waiting for their boarding group to be called. This would be the same warehouse area where we would claim our luggage when we disembarked. There were a few characters out and available for pictures.  Here is the daily navigator that we received at check in:

And some spa information:

Our boarding group had already been called, so we moved quickly through the warehouse area and up an escalator to board the ship.

We boarded the ship on Deck 4, Starboard, and made our way down the beautiful staircase. My understanding was that a lot of the pier infrastructure was damaged in Hurricane Maria and that repairs are ongoing.

I had a few “to-dos” for when I boarded, including making reservations for Palo and alcohol beverage tastings. I also decided that I needed a massage after dragging suitcases on the walk to the port. While my husband explored on his own (and snacked on some shrimp from Cabanas) I went straight to Azure and stood in line for about 25 minutes once the Palo reservation line opened at 12:30 p.m. This was probably the longest line I waited in during the entire cruise. My waiting paid off and I was able to book Palo dinner for one night and got on the waiting list for brunch. I didn’t want to book dinner until I knew what our dining rotation would be and wasn’t able to get brunch before we boarded, despite my vigilant checking. There were separate tables and lines for Palo, alcohol tastings, and Senses Spa. I was also able to book a port day special hot stone massage for the next day. The alcohol beverage tastings seemed limited for our sailing and most of them were sold out. I did get a reservation for a tequila and margarita tasting during the first sea day.

I made my way to Triton’s and met up with my husband for lunch. We’d never done embarkation day lunch in the main dining room before and wanted to avoid the crowds at Cabanas. We were seated immediately and enjoyed our lunch of pennette pasta and carrot cake for dessert. It was great to be able to sit down and have a relaxing meal after our walk to the port, checking in, and waiting in line for reservations.

After lunch, we made our way to our stateroom, room 6576 (stateroom review here)and met our stateroom host. Later, we went to the Promenade Lounge for a meet and greet with fellow cruisers from a Facebook group for our particular sailing. There we met another couple that we ended up spending time with during the cruise. It was then time for the safety drill, which didn’t seem to take a long as I remembered. Before we knew it, it was time to make our way to Deck 10 for the “Adventures Away” Sail Away party and say goodbye for now to San Juan.

I spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking while my husband explored the ship. The view of Old San Juan as the sun was about to set was lovely.

Our dinner was in Animator’s Palate this evening. On our previous cruises, we had a table for two at our request but this time we were at a table for six. I was a bit hesitant at first because on other non-Disney cruises we had terrible tablemates, but here we were seated with two other couples traveling without children. To my relief we all got along really well and enjoyed seeing each other throughout the cruise. Looking around the dining room, I could see that there were very few (if any) tables for two compared to the Disney Fantasy. For dinner I had the black truffle pasta pursettes as my appetizer, the black bean chipotle cakes for dinner, and chocolate fudge cheesecake for dessert. All of my food was very good, especially the cheesecake, which was sweet but not too sweet.

After dinner, my husband went to Azure to have a drink and watch the magician show with David Gatti while I joined the large noisy crowd in Crown and Fin to watch the NFL playoff game between the Patriots and the Chiefs. Let’s just say he enjoyed the show more than I enjoyed watching that particular football game…