Can we really do this without kids? Our 5 night CA repo to Vancouver

Oh my gosh, time flies!! She is going to NAU? and will be a freshman? DD is at NAU and will be a senior!!
Since my DH works in higher ed we will most likely have to wait until he retires to do Panama. That will be the reward for retiring!
If she needs a friend or advice contact me and I will put her in touch with DD, but Im sure she has friends going up there too.
 
I wasn't sure if I could play with the character by myself but as you can see I did fine.
It wasn't the craziness of when DD was with me and we would go see every character but it was still fun.
I have a client who has no children and her husband is in media and they took a fam cruise and she said she just went crazy and had so much fun and I used her for inspiration.
 
No idea they moved the firework desserts to Cabanas?! Is it still just desserts or another full-blown buffet? What time does it open? I've been missing out on this for years! I only remember when they used to do the dessert party in Titons/Lumiere's and then moved it to the pool deck.
 
Yup, they moved the buffet to Cabanas and now its a food buffet with turkey legs, tacos, fruits and no themed desserts.
The first time we had Pirate Night many years ago it was just a dessert buffet but they had this pirate chest filled with the chocolate coins they used to put on your bed with the towel animal, before they switched to Sleepy and now they use Ghiradeli (sp) chocolates. So you may also remember the chocolate/dessert buffet from long ago.
 


SAN FRANCISCO
The next morning we had set our alarm to wake up early so that we could watch sailing in under the Golden Gate Bridge.
We went up to 10 and found a good spot.
It was kind of eerie because it felt like the Wonder was slowly gliding in and as she did the bay started to come to like. At first we could see the lighthouse off to the left and then the hills started materializing and we could see sort of something slowly rising in the distance. We could make the lights out of the bridge and see cars making their way into the city.
Then the bride appeared. The weather was cold and damp and misty. And perfect.
I have walked the bridge before and been on her many times, even drove a convertible over her because a family member told us it wasn't something we'd forget.
We have sailed under the Lion's Gate in Vancouver and under the bridge that connects Norway or Denmark and Sweden. But this is the Golden Gate! So cool!
As we were getting closer to port we could hear them before we saw them. And heard them almost all the way to the dock. Sea Lions!! I love how they just seem to gripe at each other. They are just so funny!

Our shore excursion today was the Walt Disney Family Museum. We had been once before when we went to our nephew's graduation from Berkley. We had planned on having more time but we had problems with the rental car which cut several hours out of our visit and we were flying home that day.
This time we were actually able to go through things much more slowly, read more, observe more.
This time however we wanted to see the Glenn Keane exhibit and I had a choice of seeing that or going through the last hallway slowly. The last hallway discusses Walt's passing and has a very emotional exhibit of tributes and all like that. It is worth seeing and I could have spent an hour in there at least. When we went the first time I didnt pay as much attention to the early years so I focused on that this time. I don't think I looked at anything in that hallway.
I knew I would end up bawling again.
Technically he is not a character, but I always say that Walt in my favorite character. It took character and carisma to do what he did. It took faith, trust and pixie dust and Roy.
Glenn Keane is from Arizona and his father Bill Keane is the creator of Family Circus cartoons. SO I had to spend a little time on a guy from Az who made it.
I highly recommend the museum. It is really worth spending some time there. But when you go, plan on spending several hours so that you can feel you really saw it and not rushed through it.
 
Photo Time: This set will include photos at the museum and up to and including Palo Brunch
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The lighthouse as you come into SF Bay

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Lights on the Golden Gate

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Getting closer

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And we are directly under the bridge

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And the other side of the bridge

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The dock with Coit Tower looking straight down on it

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I like this because you can see the staff out on their deck watching as we dock. Nice to see that they do have a bit of down time where they take their photos too!
 


On this day I discovered thisIMG_3052.jpg
I always liked going into Cove Bar for their treats seemed a bit more upscale but it took 8 cruises to discover this. Albeit I didn't like "Starbucks" type coffees until I had cancer so discovering it now isn't that big of a surprise. I also did not know that that have a coffee card and after 5 your 6th is free. This may be a good thing that I didn't know about this on the BI cruise! Unfortunately I did not make it to 5. Maybe next cruise.

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Also there were these beauties. If you like chocolate orange together, this is wonderful. And I don't know what they do differently to their rice crispie treats but that was yummy too.
 
THE MUSEUM:
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This is actually a new hotel they are building next to the museum called "Lodge at Presidio", and I want to stay there someday. The museum is to the left of the lodge and is the twin of this building.

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The multiplane camera
 
PALO'S BRUNCH AND CALIFORNIA THEMED DINNER
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PARM!!!

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The start of something wonderful

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Two things: I don't know why it's upside down and 2) They were acting as though deviled eggs were new to the universe. Thye were good with no mustardy after taste but they were deviled eggs.

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Try the black stuff, it's delicious! I could make an endless meal out of what's on this plate. Cavier! Yum!

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Eggs Benedicct with Salmon ( I think its also called Eggs Royal)

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I do not like hummas but I think these are cute
 
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These were wonderful and I highly recommend them

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So many desserts, so little time!

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Plate 1

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Plate 2-The little loaf bread is a cocoanut bread and so good!

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And we finish off Palo's with a Champagne geletin with strawberries.
 
SECOND SEA DAY
I did my last round of FE gifties. If we have two sea days I like to bring a little more for the kids, first thing in the morning and had my second Mickey Coffee.
Then we were the Very Hungry Caterpillars and ate through all of the above!
After they rolled us back to our cabin I think we just had some down time, maybe played trivia, got a few character pictures before we were forced, ya right=) to eat again!
I spent some time talking to a lifegaurd who happened to be from Phoenix! Love it when you meet someone from your state and they can talk to you about home and you understand.
Next up, dinner photos!
 
Oh wow, you guys were up on deck when we went under the GGbridge in the morning, hardcore ;-) DH and I set the alarm for 5:30am and watched from our verandah, then went back to bed as soon as we had gone under the bridge and slept til 8am lol Our kids didn't MOVE the entire time! The museum looks really cool, I read a lot of people from our cruise group went there. We ended up going to Alcatraz because after 5 trips to SF this is the only place we had never been to (besides the museum so it was basically a toss up).

Mmmm.....Palo Brunch....yum! We went on the second sea day.
 
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Belle was actually very sweet and advised trying the gray stuff. Unfortunately no gray stuff at dinner tonight!

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Donald made a heart for Lauren who wasn't on this cruise but who loves him very much
 
DINNER:
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California themed dinner (cute menu)

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Tried the California Roll, did not care for the rice, no photo

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Dinner menu

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The beef tenderloin was excellent and the spinach was nice and tender

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Dessert menu
 
VICTORIA:
The last day is always the saddest day because "now it's time to say goodbye".
We had gotten our place holder earlier in the cruise so we knew we would be cruising again but after the semester we had had this cruise could have gone on a lot longer. I also don't think we will be cruising again until 2020 because DD wants to go to Aulani next year for her graduation from college and if we do add a cruise on it most likely will be NCL.
But for today we went to Butchard Gardens and were going to have the dinner we waited all cruise for at Tiana's Place. We were so hoping that it wouldn't disappoint and it did not!
Chris and DD had gone to the gardens on the last Alaskan cruise and fell in love with it and DD's minor is in photography due to it. DS and I had taken a peddlecar ride through Victoria downtown.
So this time Chris took me to the gardens.
We have nothing to compare this to in Arizona. We have the beautiful Desert Botanical Garden. This is one of the more beautiful gardens I have ever seen. And if you are from the Southwest you will understand when I say that the green is green ( not the green AZ has!).
The only thing that was disappointing is that there were no roses in bloom. Chris even noticed that which he said that he thought was kind of weird. Roses are my favorite flower.
We walked through the sunken garden, Japanese garden, saw the antique carousel (LOVE carousels!) where the animals were all hand carved and had gelato at their gelato parlour.
Walked around their gift shop and got a tee for DD. DS collects neckties. We could not find a tie her, in Vancouver or at the Vancouver airport. I don't think they wear ties in Canada=)
Our bus/tour guide was very nice and told some interesting stories about the Butchard family and Victoria as he drove back to the port. You could get off at a particular spot and walk back to the ship but we decided to just go back to the ship. He had driven around most of the highlights of the city and it almost felt like to tours in one.

By the time we got back to the ship it was almost time to get ready for dinner. We both kept thinking and hoping that it would be good.
I had warned our tablemates that I was going to turn into a kid, especially if I saw Louis, the alligator.
Our tablemates had each cruised DCL before, maybe two or three times.When it came up that this was our eighth cruise and had been filling them on a couple of things (such as three not two new ships and scouting for another island like Castaway Cay) they all decided that I should be a crew member and working for DCL! Thank you, no. I would not care to work a 70 hour work week!
 
We missed the California menu as we had Palo dinner that night :flower1:

Glad you had such a great time in Victoria and at the gardens! Since we've been to Victoria countless times we only got off for a bit, took the free shuttle into downtown, got my chocolates at Rogers Chocolates, walked up to the mall for some free wifi and then went back to the ship, think we were gone a total of 90 minutes lol

Love Tiana's Place, it's now my fave restaurant on the Wonder! I had called DCL a few weeks before our sailing and requested to be in Tianas twice and we were happily surprised that they were able to accommodate (we had TP TP TR TR A).
 

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