Review: Disney Wonder... some hits and misses

When I was trying to see what was on the ship, I found the reviews of the wonder to be somewhat limited, so I don't know if anyone is curious, but I thought I'd share a short review from our trip on the Wonder.

We (my wife and I, we left the kids at home with grandma) just took the 3-night cruise out of San Diego to Ensenada, with a day at sea. Here are my observations, but let me know if you have questions:

• The San Diego port is extremely easy to get to from anywhere in downtown. We stayed at the Hyatt so that we could use DCL transport for the early arrival time, but if we already had an early arrival time, we would have stayed somewhere else and just walked there.
• Check-in was a breeze and we were on the ship within 20 minutes or so of arriving. The experience, I thought, was similar to Galveston's.
• The ship could use some touch up, there was rust showing multiple places. We have been on the Magic, Wish, and Dream, and I've never seen rust like I have here. I did notice that the other ships seemed to have more infrastructure at the ports to support ongoing maintenance than maybe they do in San Diego and Ensenada?
• That being said, I don't think the ship felt dated at all. Still a classic. But spaces are smaller than the newer ships. However, it also holds fewer people so there were times that the pools felt crowded, but wasn't overwhelming.
• Going out of San Diego seemed like it drew more locals from Cali for the trip, rather than people that travel from across the country (world?) for the Florida ships. Not bad, but definitely a different vibe. The adult entertainment wasn't as well attended as on other ships, and I think it's because there were mainly local families on this one.
• The staff we encountered were top-notch, especially compared to the Wish, which seemed to have newer staff.
• We really like the rotational dining, and food quality was good. Tritan's menu could use a refresh. Only issue we encountered was that our serve team also had a large group that demanded a lot of their time. So we were often left waiting. I don't necessarily blame our servers, but there isn't much help for them when the other table is demanding to eat quickly, and get all of their courses at once.
• The deck food was decent. I was excited to be on a ship with shawarma again, and it didn't disappoint. However, the deck options on the Wish were far superior with their BBQ and Pizza.
• The smoking section is on the front of the ship, which means when the ship is moving forward (as they usually do), the smoke flows toward the back. At times it was way too strong in the adults-only area.
• We did Palo brunch, and it didn't disappoint. Another great experience there.
• The shows were Golden Mickey's, Frozen, and Disney Dreams. All were good, but Frozen was great. The Lion King singer was amazing.
• We had signed up for one excursion in Ensenada, but that was cancelled last minute. So we opted for the Taco/Margarita/Beach excursion, and were quite disappointed. They limited the amount of food and drink, and they allowed smoking everywhere. It wasn't as relaxing or interesting as the one we originally signed up for. I wouldn't recommend.
• 3 days was great for an adult getaway. Watching families, all of the kids seemed to be having a great time.

All in all, we had a great trip. We like the intimacy of the smaller ship, and didn't feel like we ran out of things to do. The Wonder is moving now to do the Alaskan itinerary, and I think it (and the Magic) are perfect for up there.