Disney Cruise Line® Returns to Sailing: Onboard the Disney Wonder

By Tink's planner, Kathy F.
I recently returned from the first sailing on the Disney Wonder since the industry shut down in March of 2020.  My cruise was a four night sailing out of San Diego with two sea days and one stop in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. My traveling party was just my 5 year old daughter and I and we had an amazing time.  ​

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Disney Cruise Line has enhanced their health and safety measures to align with CDC guidelines.  This included a requirement for all guests 12 years of age and older to be fully vaccinated for Covid-19.  Guests who were 11 years old and under were required to get a PCR or NAAT Covid-19 test between 24-72 hours of sailing.  All guests regardless of vaccine status also had to take a Covid-19 test upon embarkation at the terminal.  Every guest had to be cleared through safepassage.com to be able to sail.  I was able to download my Covid-19 vaccination card on the website along with our passport information.  Since I was traveling with someone under 12 years of age I had to wait until my daughter’s Covid-19 test came back to be cleared to sail.  

Disney has partnered with Inspire Diagnostics to provide a mail-in Covid-19 test at a discounted rate for guests under 12 years of age.  This is the test that I ordered for my daughter.  The test kit arrived 4 days prior to our sailing date.  3 days prior to sailing I got a nasal sample from my daughter and sent it in using a prepaid label through UPS.  I was able to track the shipment and testing process online and got her negative results the next day.  The results were automatically downloaded into my Safe Passage account and I received a clear to sail status.  

We arrived in San Diego the night before our sailing and stayed at the Wyndham San Diego Bayside Hotel which is directly across the street from the cruise terminal.  We had a room with a view of the Disney Wonder right across the street!  In the morning we headed over to the terminal at 11:30 AM, which was the port arrival time given to us when we did our online check in.  After checking in our bags we were directed to the Covid-19 testing area where we self administered the tests and then had to wait inside the terminal for our test results to be emailed.  About an hour later our negative test results came in and we were able to check in and board the Disney Wonder! 

Once on board, Mickey and Minnie welcomed us with a short song and dance.  After the welcome show we needed to check into our muster station.  This was a quick and easy process and much better than the way it used to be where everyone had to gather at a certain time before the sailing could start.  Health and safety measures on board included facial coverings to be worn for all guests 2 and up while indoors, physical distancing, and many hand washing stations and hand sanitizers throughout the ship.  The Disney Cruise Line app was also an important feature.  The app allowed us to check the daily schedules, look at our dining rotation and menus, and chat with guest services whenever we had a question.  We were also able to book a placeholder on the app which is an open-ended reservation that allows guests to select their future cruise at a later time.   The future cruise includes a 10% discount and a reduced deposit on 7 night or longer sailings.  The placeholder deposit is $250 per stateroom and has to be used within 2 years.  If it is not used then the deposit is fully refundable.   Make sure that Tink's Magical Vacations is listed as the travel agency on the form so that we can assist you!

We were able to go directly to our room and our Key to the World cards were waiting for us in a sealed envelope on the door.  Our stateroom was a deluxe oceanview stateroom with a navigator’s verandah.  The room was perfect for the two of us and we loved the enclosed verandah which provided us with a great view while sheltering us from the wind and sun.  

All the swimming pools, hot tubs, splash areas and the water slide were open throughout the cruise and we enjoyed using all of them.  During busier parts of the days they did limit the amount of guests in the swimming pools by directing guests to exit the pool every 15 minutes so the next group could enter.  Hot tubs were limited to one party at a time and for 15 minutes if someone else was waiting.  We found that if we went to the pool deck first thing in the morning nobody else was around and we had at least an hour or more of uninterrupted pool and hot tub time.  

Dining locations were all open including Cabana’s buffet but the food was served by the staff rather than being self-serve.  Dinner guests all had an assigned dinner time that was staggered to avoid too many people showing up at the restaurants at the same time.  Disney does rotational dining which means each guest is assigned a different restaurant for dinner each night and the serving team stays with their assigned guests.  This way the serving team gets to know the guests needs and preferences.  We had to check the Disney Cruise Line app to know which restaurant we were assigned to each night.  The app also showed us the menus so we could pick out what we wanted to eat even before arriving for dinner. 

There were plenty of activities on board including crafts, art classes, bingo, drink tastings, shows, trivia, karaoke, and much more.  My daughter and I joined in on a lot of the family crafting sessions and enjoyed watching shows especially the broadway style musicals each night.  On our cruise the live stage shows were: Frozen: a Musical Spectacular and Disney Dreams - An Enchanted Classic.  Each show was performed on two nights and did not have to be reserved ahead of time.  They did make sure that guests were distanced from each other in the Walt Disney Theater but there still seemed to be plenty of room for everyone.  

The kid’s clubs were open but the Oceaneer Club and Oceaneer Lab (for 3-12 year old kids) required reservations that were in 2.5 hour time slots.  The kids were put into small groups and assigned a counselor who guided them through the different stations and activities.  My daughter went to the kids club twice on our cruise and always came back with a bag full of projects she had been working on.  

During the time my daughter was in the kids club I enjoyed the spa and salon.  I did not make any appointments before boarding the ship but was able to get some appointments while on board.  One day I got a haircut and keratin hair treatment with a blowout and on another day I got a facial with a foot, hand, shoulder and scalp massage.  Both spa treatments were amazing and I enjoyed treating myself! 

At our stop in Cabo San Lucas guests 12 years and older could disembark the ship to explore on their own.  Guests under 12 years of age had to be part of a Disney shore excursion to leave the ship and had to stay with the excursion group the entire time to be able to return to the ship afterwards.  We chose to do a dolphin swim excursion.  We met with our excursion group in the morning and took a boat tender from the ship to the dock.  Once on land they made sure to keep us together and directed us to a bus that took us to our adventure.  We had a great time swimming and learning about dolphins at Cabo Adventures in San Jose.  After our excursion was done we were taken back to the dock and directed back to the Disney Wonder.  

Our cruise was a Halloween on the High Seas themed sailing.  I have been on several Halloween cruises in the past and this one seemed to have less Halloween activities than the previous ones I have been on, but I still felt that they did a great job with the decorations and a Halloween show on deck.  We were able to wear costumes on one night but there was no trick or treating.  Our stateroom host did bring my daughter a bag of candy which she loved.  

We also had a Pirate’s Night one night which included dressing up as pirates and a show during our dinner which was something new and fun.  I did not see fireworks on the schedule in my app but I heard from others that there was a fireworks show on pirate’s night.  I never made it up to the deck that night because it was the same day as our Cabo adventure and we were exhausted and went to bed early! 

Disney characters were plentiful and we saw them throughout the cruise in the atrium or walking around the decks.  My daughter said she saw characters in the kid’s club as well.  Photos could be taken with the characters at a distance.  There never seemed to be a line to see the characters so we had lots of opportunities to interact with them and always had a great time meeting them.  

On disembarkation day they called groups off the ship one at a time about 15 minutes apart.  This process did take a long time and we ended up waiting several hours before being able to disembark.  Luckily we were staying in San Diego for a few more days so we did not need to rush to the airport but for guests with early flights this might be a bit stressful.  

This was my eleventh Disney cruise and it was just as magical as all the others even with all the new safety measures and protocols in place.  I am already dreaming of my next Disney cruise line vacation!