First, a little background. DH and are in our early 40s and have sailed about 7 or 8 times before, previously on RCCL and Princess. We did the 2 night cruise to "nowhere" on Disney's Wonder in February 2011, and it was a disaster. BUT, we had this special 8n holiday cruise to the MR booked already (some 2 years ago) and we decided to keep the reservation and see what a full cruise would be like on the Wonder. Our 2 DD's are almost 12 and 7 and have been on 3 other cruises with us.

First the great things about the ship: it's smaller, which means much less walking from place to place. Our suite was located forward of the midship elevators and there is a reason why the most expensive suites are there. The forward elevators are the quietest and have the best access to the theater, the lounges and other frequently visited places on the ship. The midship elevators are very busy but take you just about everywhere including the kids clubs, the theater, the shops, and Tritons. Midship is also the most stable on the ship as far as movement, which was key for my younger DD, who sometimes gets a little seasick in rough waters.

Our cabin, the Walt Disney suite, was beautiful in its appearance with whitewashed wood everywhere. Tons of storage space too. The layout was very clever with a separate bedroom for the kids (sleeps 4 with 2 pull downs) and a dining room that easily sits 6, plus a living room area that we hung out in a lot. The "reading room" has 2 huge chairs to sit in, which I used often to stare out the huge bay windows into the deep blue sea. There is a large murphy bed in that room too that the stewart lowered for my older DD every night. Then there is the master bedroom and bathroom, which are not huge but very comfortable. It's the best use of about 1200 square feet I have ever seen, and I think you can easily fit 6 people into the room at least without being on top of eachother. The suite had the wonderful gift of having free Palo delivered to your room every night if you wished. Our room stewart (the same one each night we ordered) was superb and set up a white linen tablecloth and all the dishes, etc about 30 minutes before our food was to be delivered. Sometimes we ordered in as a 3 course meal, sometimes we had them deliver everything all at once if we were in a hurry to do something. It was the best part of the whole cruise. We also had brunch at Palo (not free and not in our room) and it was FABULOUS. The views from the top deck are to die for. I would recommend brunch over dinner, actually! The seafood spread was amazing and absolutely delicious. Worth every penny. Read more