My Passport’s Travels

After an early night last night, we were up bright and early this morning! We made it out the door around 7am to head across the street to McD’s for breakfast. (They had the sausage McMuffin available as an official meal, at home it has to be purchased a la cart.) We may have stopped to check on our beautiful home for the next 10 nights on the way over.

After breakfast I ran into Tim Horton’s for coffee (can’t be in Canada and not have a cup of Timmy’s!) before we went back to our room to finish repacking.  Once ready, we called the bellman to pick up our checked bags.  The Pan Pacific offers a service where they pick up the bags in our room and deliver them to the cruise ship. We won’t see them again until we meet up with them on the Wonder.

It’s still early, so Mom and I decided to go see her and wander the port area a bit.  There were lots of fruit and veggies being loaded for us!

We visited the Raindrop, made our way around to the Olympic Cauldron and the Digital Whale.  

When we made it back, it was time to check out and take the elevator down to the cruise ship level. Then we went up the escalator to check in, back down to go through security and customs, then sat and waited for boarding – all with our beautiful ship just out of arms reach through the floor-to-ceiling glass…

“The Disney Wonder welcomes aboard guest in boarding group one!”

Nope… Not us – although we didn’t have long to wait once they started calling groups – about 20 minutes later they called boarding group five.

“The Disney Wonder welcomes aboard the Price and Rustin family!”  Hi Captain Minnie!! We’re officially on board!!  First piece of business, stop by guest services to load gift cards onto our room account. Except the line is huge.  Maybe we’ll go eat first!  Lunch at Tiana’s was delightful.  Eve loved the gumbo, Mom had a beautiful chicken Caesar salad and I had the caramel sundae for dessert.

After a quick run by guest services determined the line was still too long, we made our way to the Crown and Fin Pub for Ultimate Disney Trivia.  We played well, but were definitely out-matched.  As we headed out, we did get to see floatplanes through the porthole, though!

Down to our stateroom, 2000 – as far forward on deck 2 as you can be! It’s snug, but definitely doable for the cruise, and Twinkle, our stateroom hostess from the Philippines is a delight!

We got some unpacking done, but had to go to the Theater for muster drill, then up to deck 10 for sail away!  We listened a little to the Sail-a-Wave party (we were too late for a good viewing spot).

“Everyone – are you ready for a cruise to Alaskaaaaaa!!!! Uh, Everyone – are you ready for a cruise to Hawaiiiiiiiiiii!!!!”  A season’s worth of cruising habits die hard for some entertainment staff!

While not clear, the skies were definitely lighter and it wasn’t sprinkling, so we could enjoy the trip under Lion Gate Bridge!

Enjoy our horn!
https://youtu.be/Cmwcn5sc55E?feature=shared

On the way back to our room, we stopped for a popcorn bucket (just a plain DCL one – although the Vampire Stitch bucket was tempting).  When you buy the bucket for $9.75 you get $1.75 refills the rest of the cruise, which we made good use of!

Eventually, chores called and I had to finish unpacking – and decorating our door!

We took a break to run up to the opening of the gift shops. Craziness – we waited in line to get in because there were so many people wanting to shop.  There’s limited Hawaiian cruise merchandise – although we didn’t really see anything we had to have.  The leftover pillow from theAlaskan cruises, though. That’s on my list! However, it’s only available in one shop, which hasn’t opened yet. Hopefully Whitecaps will open later today!

While I finished unpacking, Mom and Eve delivered the first round of Fish Extender gifts. (A secret pal exchange organized through the Facebook group for our cruise.) Over the week we would get some fun gifts! Our gifts were “surf and turf” themed. The “surf” were items that we thought would be helpful while at sea (air freshener, stain wipes, Kleenex, bandaids etc). The “turf” are things we thought would be helpful during shore excursions (wet wipes, pen/paper, chapstick, more bandaids…).

Another round of trivia – this time Disney Music (name the song and the movie/themepark attraction). We got 31 out of 40, but there was a group with a perfect score! It was back in the Azure lounge, which was beautiful!

Dinner tonight was in Triton’s.  Our server is Benjamin from India, our assist a server is Tod from the Phillapines. The chicken bastilla appetizers Eve and I enjoyed were a hit. Mom had penne arrabiata, Eve had salmon and I had the Dahl for entrees. Dessert was Kaluha Crème Brûlée for Eve, while I had cobbler with ice cream. We took a few minutes to wander around deck 4 – even enjoying a quick stint outside in the fog. The fog horn is sounding regularly, the ship is swaying softly. Tonight’s sleep should be a good one!