Cass, Rob & Kira - July 2022 Disney Wonder Alaska Cruise - Worth the covid!

[Timon]

Hey peeps!

We returned from this trip a few days ago but as you can tell from the title, we brought something back with us and it wasn't just cute souvenirs.

I started to get a little tickle in my throat on the flight home on Monday. I was hoping it was just because I didn't sleep well the last night of the cruise, which happens at home sometimes, but by the time I went to bed that night, I knew it was something more. I had a fever for two days, I am still dealing with a sore throat and some congestion. I did an at-home antigen test as soon as I got to the house but it was negative. The next day, Kira said she felt a little off so we both tested and we both were positive this time. Kira also had a fever for two days and body aches but she feels quite a bit better now.

Thankfully, Rob is still testing negative and Kira and I have been wearing masks around the house and staying away from him, so hopefully he doesn't get it from us.

I still have to edit photos but I've done enough to get started so please be patient, this may take awhile to get through.

This was not a perfect cruise, we had some issues, food was mediocre at best (for the most part) but I will tell you now, this was my FAVOURITE cruise ever!

It was also Kira's favourite cruise.

And it was Rob's second favourite cruise.

So, I hope you're ready for an overabundance of scenic photos, smileys and food porn.

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Check out my other trip reports

2005 Live WDW & DCL
2009 WDW & DCL
2011 DCL Second sailing of the Dream
2013 October WDW & DCL Fantasy
2015 Disneyland

2016 Christmas on the Wonder
2017 Universal & DCL 10-Night Southern Caribbean Fantasy

2017 Christmas on the Wonder
2018 Summer WDW & Universal

2018 Christmas on the Wonder
2019 Disneyland
2019 Universal Orlando
2019 Christmas on the Wonder
2020 Galaxy's Edge

2021 Christmas on the Wonder
2022 UO & DCL Fantasy
2022 Alaska Wonder Cruise

 

[Timon]

Chapter Links

July 10th - Calgary to Vancouver
Part 1 - Good trip juju
Part 2 - Smells like teen spirit... or Canada

July 11th - Embarking the Disney Wonder
Part 1 - I heart Canada
Part 2 - I see you!
Part 3 - But I can't hear you!
Part 4 - An evening to remember

July 12th - At Sea Inside Passage
Part 1 - Best At Sea day ever!
Part 2 - Dinner and a dip

July 13th - Tracy Arm Glacier Day
Part 1 - The adventure begins
Part 2 - Around and around we go
Part 3 - Where we will end up, to the glacier, let's go!
Part 4 - 60 to 0 in sixty seconds

July 14th - Skagway, Alaska to Yukon, Canada
Part 1 - The views are spectacular...we think
Part 2 - Follow the signs!
Part 3 - OMD, those eyes!
Part 4 - Whitehorse bound
Part 5 - Just around the (river)bend
Part 6 - Mountains of food
Part 7 - I mean, c'mon!


July 15th - Juneau, Alaska
Part 1 - Take a hike, eh!
Part 2 - And then...take another one!
Part 3 - Dinner, company and a show. And beignets!!
Part 4 - We don't talk about Juneau, no no.

July 16th - NOT Ketchikan
Part 1 - We eat, then we eat again!
Part 2 - Has anyone seen my kid?


July 17th - At Sea
Part 1 - This is not the door you are looking for.
Part 2 - It just doesn't end
Part 3 - But I don't want it to end!


July 18th - Vancouver to Calgary
Part 1 - Thhhhat's all folks!




VACATION VIDEOS


Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

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And just in case you want to read about my second Alaska cruise

 

[Timon]

Sunday July 10th, Part 1

Let's get this puppy started, shall we?

With our puppy safely at her Uncle's house for the week, we packed the car up and got ready to go. This was the weirdest travel day ever. We didn't have to wake up in the middle of the night, we actually got to eat a little breakfast before we left, and believe it or not, we even had to kill some time because our flight got delayed an hour. And it was actually daylight when we left!

We arrived to the airport and ended up unloading behind this guy. We hardly ever see Alaskan plates around here AND he was driving a Yukon. Weird vibes, crazy world.

Since Westjet lost our one bag for almost 3 weeks at Christmas, we now travel with our three usual big checked bags, but also with two small carry-ons that have three days worth of clothes for all three of us.

Looks like Rob didn't get the memo to wear ONLY shades of grey today. I swear we did not plan the whole grey colour scheme thing.

With bags dropped, we headed for security. It was pretty dead but Rob always gets stopped because of his layers of electronics, cables, adapters, doodads and doohickeys.

The only sit-down place to eat in this terminal really but we all like it. Everyone else does too apparently because the line was loooooong.

We had time to spare, especially since Air Canada decided to delay our flight, again.

The ONLY thing I want, the only thing I ever want at Chili's, is the Southwest Eggrolls but when I ordered them, our server just kind of laughed at me and said they've been out for hours. It was only around 1pm and already out of egg rolls? What kind of insanity is this?? Dang people buying up all my egg rolls! These are expensive egg rolls, people! I have to take, at the very least, a domestic flight to get them. This is the only Chili's left in Calgary!

So, I passed on lunch. Rob got the burger, Kira got shrimp and fries and I cried deep down inside.

We found a spot to wait until our flight boarded. It wasn't easy, these gates are so tiny, you have to fight for a chair. Look at all those delays. Our flight took off about two hours after it was originally scheduled but I was just thankful that it wasn't cancelled.

I mean, this was the one cruise we could actually drive to, if we really needed to but I, and more importantly, my back, were very glad that we didn't have to.

Ninety minutes is all it took to get to Vancouver.

We had great views of the Rockies and Interior B.C., even with the clouds.

We could even see Mt. Baker popping out of the clouds just before we landed.

We all loved the short flight! Rob didn't even have time to finish the movie he was watching! We're so used to watching a couple of movies and still having time to kill.

I love flying to Vancouver, it's been way too long for me. The last time we drove and even that was quite awhile ago.

So pretty!

When we got off the plane, we found out where it was headed to next. Really, Universe? You have some weird vibes happening today.

Just as we made our way to the luggage carousels, and were wondering which one our luggage would be coming down from, our three, very easily spotted Mickey bags came down, 1, 2, 3, ta-dah! Magic!

Wooo hooo!

We had some good travel juju going on today. The whole day was weird and awesome. Just so different from our usual trips but in a good, weird way.

It started at 3am, when we got the email that we were all cleared to sail. I mean, I didn't get that email until about 7am but still, laying in my own bed and getting the all clear for the cruise was the start of the weird/awesome/travel juju. Our flight was delayed but NOT cancelled. Alaska plates in a Yukon, our flight was heading to Whitehorse (more on that later) and now our bags just all show up magically in front of our eyes.

We ordered an UberXL to take us and all of our crap over to the Delta Downtown.

We passed by River Rock, this is where we stayed the last time we were all in Vancouver together. Gorgeous place!

It was $90 + tip for our trip, a little pricey but we got there safe and sound.

We checked in, headed up to our room, sanitized and unpacked a few things. This is an all-suite hotel, very clean, nice rooms and only a couple of blocks to Canada Place where the cruise leaves from. I would have loved to stay at the Pan Pacific but I prefer not to spend $800 a night for two double beds, thanks.

We were directly across from the Harbour Centre. I wonder if Americans lose their minds when they see those two words..."Honey, they spelled BOTH words wrong! What is wrong with this country!!"

If you guys know anything about me, it's just how much I love trees so I'm sure you can guess one of my favourite things about Vancouver....trees EVERYWHERE! Even on top of buildings...TREES!!! Along Granville Street from the airport, they literally have WALLS of trees. And big massive, old trees. Oh my loordy! I loooove B.C. so much! I spent my 17th birthday in Victoria and ever since then I have tried to move to either Victoria or Vancouver but every time I get close, the Universe just laughs at me and says "Nice try, not this time, babe!"

I have been thisclose on several occasions but for reasons I will never understand, it just wasn't in the cards for me. One day, beautiful British Colombia, one day.

I was half-way through unpacking when I realized the time! We were delayed two hours, so our plans had changed and it was late! Almost too late!

 

[bcwife76]

First note

Oy, 2 hour flight delay for a 90 minute flight....lordy. Glad at least it wasn't worse! Bummer about those egg rolls, now I want to see if I can get one here *googles Chili's locations* nope, guess they are all gone from BC, too

Maybe BC can be part of your retirement plan ;-)

 

[JenLovesMM]

I'm here and totally ready to hear all about this trip!! Sorry about the Covid part though, that's not so fun.

We flew to Vancouver once back in 1999 (we live in the Maritimes) and flying over and looking down on the Rockies was really cool!

I mean when you love trees, you have to love BC! Such beautiful trees and so tall and big, I was amazed. Very different those here in the east.

 

[DMMarla07860]

Here reading. Sorry about covid. I hope it isn't too bad for you guys and mild. I know with Lupus and remembering when I had flu in 2014 I'd rather try to not get it. So we moved our cruises from August to February 2023 on Wish, but we are definitely going then

looking forward to your trip report my Dad says the Wonder is his favorite ship

 

[Sujo1214]

Yay! I love your trip reports!

 

[Timon]

July 10th, Part 2

We had planned to wander around Canada Place for a bit and then head for dinner but it was 6:30pm and the place I wanted to eat at closed at 7pm on Sundays! We hopped into an Uber and headed for Davie Street!

I was born in Montréal and because of that, I have a love of what I call "Montréal food". Since I am the cook in the family, I make it fairly often and both Rob and Kira have come to love it. One of Kira's favourite foods is poutine, that kid could out-poutine anyone on the planet. Rob's fave is my Steak & Pepperoni subs. He makes sounds while he eats his, to his daughter's disgust.

My fave is smoked meat sammies.

When I booked this trip, I knew where we would be eating already!

This place worked out for a couple of reasons. Montréal food, obviously but also it's located in a unique part of town, Davie Village. This area is the local LGBTQ+-friendly part of the West End and is adorned with rainbow flags, signs, art and more. Kira is a proud part of that community, and I am a proud, supportive momma, so I wanted to expose her to a welcoming, positive little area of this huge, diverse city.

When we walked in La Belle Patate, they had this huge Canadian Pride flag, which she absolutely fawned over.

Sadly, they were out of smoked meat for the day but I did order us some poutine to share and some steamies. Go, Habs, go!

Steamies are hot dogs with steamed buns, in case you didn't know.

Really good poutine! As close to Montréal poutine as you can get, without actually being there.

Once we were done, we walked over to Jim Deva Plaza and explored a bit.

We even learned something new!

And I found my favourite trees....palm treeeeeees!!!

I told Kira to pose in front of the bunny but she felt awkward when she saw a lady getting her hair cut right there but then the hairdresser was motioning to her to pose and gave her a thumbs up, so she felt more comfortable. She's always giving us bunny ears so this time, she's doing it to herself.

We then walked over to the Independent Grocer, basically a very small Superstore, so we could grab some water and Diet Coke for the cruise. Kira was shocked and delighted. Shocked because there were homeless people everywhere and delighted that, inside the store, on most of the ends of each aisle, were all the different pride flags.

Drinks, procured, we walked around the corner and caught an Uber back to the hotel.

This was the Uber waiting area.

We dropped off our stuff in the room and then I unpacked what we needed for the night and the next day and tried to organize our suitcases a little better. I had to shuttle everything around to make it all work. During that time, I thought I had left my reading glasses in the Uber and just as we called our driver, Rob spotted them, under the dresser. I don't know how he saw them, they were pretty hidden! Great eye, babe!

Our plan was to walk around a bit, explore and then maybe go to Fly Over Canada but Kira was not super pumped about it so we just walked around a bit instead.

Coming out of the front part of the hotel, right outside the main door, was a guy bent over doing...ummm.....starts with H and it's super addictive.

I don't think Kira realized what it was and Rob was so flabbergasted that he just kinda stood there, staring. I walked Kira past him very quickly and then I flashed Rob the evil, get-over-here-now look and he eventually walked away. The poor guy is just too nice and wants to help everyone but a little too naïve to know when to stay out of things. These are not things we see a lot of in the burbs of Calgary, ya know?

We carried on to Gastown, checked out the Steam Clock at the 30 minute mark, watched it do it's thing.

Looking back from the clock, you can see the Harbor Centre, so the walk was not far.

Walked by all of the cute touristy Canadiana shops. Most were now closed but the one that was open, as we passed by, Kira loudly exclaimed "This smells like Canada!"

I didn't know that Canada had a smell but apparently, it smells like mini-donuts and horse poop!

Just a couple of blocks away was Canada Place!

And here is where our ship would be docking in the morning. The odd thing was that this was the ONLY sailing this entire season, that the ship would be docking on this side. For all others, it docks on the other side.

We walked over to the other side, I was on a mission.

I wanted to recreate a photo of my husband's derrière that I took way back in June 1996.

Mission accomplished! Twenty-six years older but still cute

We decided to stick around for the sunset.

Next time, Fly Over, next time.

Once the sun had set, we walked all the way around, full circle.

Vancouver is such a pretty city.

Kira was anxious to get back to the hotel, she didn't love all of the beggars. She said it felt like she was in Mexico. She's not wrong.

It didn't help that her dad wanted to help them all and had a hard time saying no or passing them. It just made her feel very uncomfortable.

For those of you who will be testing at Sinclair Centre, thought I would post this photo for you. DCL's website says it's across the street from the terminal but it's really not. I mean it's only a block away but if you're not very mobile, this is not as easy as they make it sound.

I am standing across the street from it, with my back to Canada Place.

And now with looking towards Canada Place.

Back to the hotel for us. And bonus, no drug addicts.

Tomorrow is cruise day!!!

 

[SplashMom]

So excited to see a new trip report and can't wait to read about it!

 

[bcwife76]

When you are not used to it (the poverty etc) then it can be very jarring. We don't go downtown very often at all but I am used to this. My kids, however, are not and have some of the same reactions you guys did. The pandemic has only made it worse I'm afraid. Sorry, didn't mean to be a Debbie Downer!! You got some beautiful photos and that food....will have to try that place sometime!!!

 

[cntkg1]

Wow!!! Loving the pics!! What a difference from your usual trippies involving Florida/Texas. I’m going to love this one for sure.

Sorry about COVID and hoping you both recover quickly.

 

[NAB]

Yeah another trip report. Funny to see you leave .without snow too. Sorry about the Covid .

We were suppose to go on Princess cruise line to Alaska but cancelled for June. I am so ready to travel again but we are doing a car trip to Cape Breton Island next month. You thought Toronto airport was bad last Christmas…..not going near that one now.

Can’t wait to see your pictures for this trip. I’m going. To get there sooner than later I hope.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

So curious to hear your report, this is your 2nd time to Alaska on the Wonder, right? I want to go back when my boys are a bit older and can do some of the more active excursions, but I’m not sure if we would go on the Wonder again or on a ship that does Glacier Bay.

 

[Timon]

July 11th, Part 1

It's cruise day!!!

Our PAT wasn't until 11am so after getting ready for the day, Rob and I walked down to Canada Place. Kira wanted to lounge in bed so she stayed behind.

This was the first time we were cruising out of this port and the first time we were leaving from Canada, so I wanted to make sure I got some photos! This may be old hat to most of you but, as a Canadian, it was weird and wonderful to be leaving out of a Canadian port! It was the first time we had seen a Canadian flag on any of our ships and it was amazing! It was also the first time seeing the Wonder from this vantage point. We did get to see the Magic dock right next to us in Cozumel on our Christmas cruise but this was even better!

On the other side, was the Queen Elizabeth.

We decided to take the Grand Tour again...

The NCL Jewel was at the end.

And from the vantage point on the other side, you actually couldn't see the telltale red funnels but as we walked past the Jewel, you could see their reflection in the windows.

And around the corner, there she is! My favourite ship! I still think it's funny that a decade ago, when we saw her for the first time in Victoria, while we were on vacation, I never thought we would ever sail on her. This was our 6th sailing on the Wonder, the most on any ship and sadly, it might be our last. That hit me hard this cruise and I mentioned it a lot, just so that we all made sure to enjoy every last minute we got on her.

As we passed by, I pointed out to Rob, which room was ours. Although, we would be on the other side but it's the exact same room. We booked a 7A GTY and we're assigned a 6A, 6152, white wall verandah. It has a huge verandah but there were many things that I didn't like about this room and my hope was that we could upgrade at the port to a non-white wall verandah. I knew we would be spending a lot of time on the verandah and I prefer to be able to see the ocean while I am sitting down.

This room was also the second to last one at the aft, which we knew meant that it would be loud with the engine noise and vibration. Little did we know what would transpire a few days later.

It also didn't provide much shade on the verandah and there was no middle chest of drawers in this room. Those come in super handy with three people sharing a room. Either way, we would be happy just to be on the ship but might as well try for an upgrade right?

As we moved more forward of the ship, we noticed that they had to load everything into these swinging loaders to get it on the ship! Holy cow, that's a lot of work!

And it looks like they have some issues with hitting the ship. I assumed that's why they have those things taped to the sides? Wow, that's crazy!

Man, seeing our flag on our ship sure took us back a little and I was a little verklempt!

From this point of view, you could see right into the Bridge! Wow!

And I spotted an entire deck that I had no idea even existed!!

Man, she sure looks good here! Is it weird to have so much pride? Seeing her there, in my home country, with our flag flying, made me happier than I even thought it would!

A very long line of taxis waiting. You can see the Waterfront Station and Sinclair Centre here too.

As I was standing there, I was wondering about a colleague of mine. She would be disembarking today but had no idea if she was already gone or still on the ship so I messaged her and as luck would have it, she had just gotten off the ship. We figured out a place to meet and she was able to sneak away from her family for a few minutes to say hi. It was awesome to see Betsy, even for a short meet. We chatted about her cruise experience, she said the ship was being capped at 1800 capacity and that they ended up going to Tracy Arm instead of the planned Endicott Arm but she had a fabulous cruise and really enjoyed it.

We headed back towards our hotel, with a stop at Timmy's of course. Rob is slightly addicted and needed his one last fix before boarding our ship.

We brought Kira some breakfast and then packed up the last of our stuff.

Putting the DCL luggage tags on is the best feeling right?

We were going to grab an Uber since we had so much luggage so we sat outside and ordered one. After about 10 minutes and no one picking up our ride, we ended up in a taxi.

We had called a taxi van because we had so much luggage but then a taxi Prius, who was dropping a group off at the hotel told us he could fit us all in.

I was very doubtful, have you seen the size of our bags? But he insisted and it blew my mind when all of our stuff fit!

Oddly enough, it was cheaper than what the Uber was going to be so I tipped him well.

That car is like Mary Poppins' bag, I swear!

Now, being our first time at this port, I had done my research and still was very confused about how it worked at this place. I mean, this one building was a pier for 3+ cruises, a high-end hotel, Museum/Exhibit Space, Convention & Hall space, Fly Over Canada attraction and in all my research, I could never find decent photos or videos of how the process worked.

While I am still stunned and impressed how easy, yet disjointed it was, I made sure to take a few photos so I could try to explain it for those of you who also haven't done it before.

If you are getting dropped off, you drive down into the garage and they drop you where the porters are. It took a minute to find one, they were pretty busy with three ships in port.

It's super easy if you just follow the BLUE signs. They have steps (luggage drop off, check-in, security, customs) and you just follow the numbers and blue colours. Don't be distracted by the GREEN colours, that's for disembarking passengers only. Going on a cruise? Choose blues. Do you wanna leave? Follow green!

Then you take the elevator up. The guy told us to go to Hall C and inside the elevator there is a big paper telling you what button to press. When you come out, you pass through one of the Exhibit spaces.

And then you end up down this big hall. This is where the large rooms are where all of the cruise lines have their check-in. Cunard was sharing Hall C with us but they have a separate line. Just find the DCL line.

Here's the Disney Cruise part of Hall C, where they check the QR code from your Port Arrival form. They make sure you have done your ArriveCan MARINE submission and that you're Clear to Sail. If you have all that done, they will give you brightly coloured wrist bands to put on, to show you are good to go. Then you head to the check-in desk where they scan your passports and print you out small pieces of paper with your QR code and boarding group on them.

Once we were done with check-in, we went down to the Supervisor's desk to ask about an upgrade. There were a few rooms available with a clear verandah. I know the ship very well, so I asked her for all of the room numbers (and prices) for each one she showed available and settled on 6560 for $340 USD. They had one on deck 8 that I was spying but it was $1K to upgrade! Umm no thanks!

In the end, we chose....wisely! More on room stuffs later.

Next up, we left the hall and went outside. This was weird but cool. Then we went back inside....

And down the escalator and around the corner...

This is looking ahead, to the right. Remember green? That's all for people getting off the ships. We carry on and follow blue, and veer to the left!

This is where it really deviates from your normal cruise check-in. For security, they do ALL ships together, so there is a bit of a line here. I want to say it took maybe 20 minutes but if you come later, I think it might be busier.

Once you get through security, you veer right and head into US Customs. We had a fabulous customs guy who was joking with Rob since they both have almost no hair.

And then, once past Customs, you go left and walk down towards these flag signs...

Follow that down and you will find the seating area for Disney Wonder.

They hadn't begun boarding yet so we found a seat and got connected to the ship's Wi-Fi and started our account in the app and got set up for chat. Then we checked out the week's worth of activities in the app and "hearted" all of the stuff we wanted to do.

Spoiler alert, of all the things I hearted that morning, we ended up doing exactly two of them.

 

[loislane]

First time commenter - I love reading your trip reports!

 

[JenLovesMM]

Oh wow! You are so right, seeing the ship in a Canadian port with the mountains behind and then seeing it sporting the Canadian flag is quite the sight!
That terminal did seem like it wasn't the easiest to navigate but you guys are pros, you rocked it!
Can't wait to hear the stories about the room locations, I remember the stories of your Christmastime cruise.

 

[bcwife76]

Sailing from a Canadian port and Vancouver no less is so magical. I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!!
The port of Vancouver can be....um....challenging to navigate to say the least! I think you did it well And so many beautiful shots of our beloved Wonder

 

[Timon]

July 11th, Part 2

A few minutes after we found some seats, they mistakenly made the "now boarding" announcement and everyone started to get up and then they played the proper announcement and everyone sat back down and laughed.

Shortly after that, they began with Groups 1 & 2. It's funny because no one knew where to board. There were no (easy to see) signs and everyone in that first group all made their way to the windows where you can see the ship and then Disney announced that the boarding was on the other side, so this big hoard of people moved over there, it was pretty funny!

We were group 3, so we got up and I was taking a photo of Rob and Kira when a lovely lady offered to take a family shot. Thanks nice lady. She even told us to remove our masks for the photo. Hahahahah, thanks nice, rebellious lady.

Our number was called and off we went!

We were welcomed onboard and then they directed us into Azure but we bypassed that! CM's seemed pretty forceful in trying to get everyone in there but I just showed them we already had the app up and running and had our muster station thing ready to go, they let us pass. If you don't have the app or don't know how to get your account started, this is the place to do it. If you already know what's up, skip it.

We went to our muster station K out on deck 4 and took the photo of the sign via the app and then we headed to Cabanas for lunch. We were able to sit outside for lunch, which was a nice change. Usually it's too hot for me but today was the perfect weather, as long as I stayed in the shade.

Rob's...

Kira's...

Mine. Although, I did have another plate with some roast beef and gravy, which I guess didn't warrant a photo.

The chicken tenders tasted weird and they didn't have the good honey mustard dip like they have on the Fantasy. I didn't eat much.

Kira enjoyed her first cookies of the trip...

And these two seagulls provided fantastic entertainment for us all.

They were funny to watch. They kept walking on the covering and you could see their little orange feet.

They were pretty bold and tried getting people's food. This one lady had me laughing...

After lunch, we headed down to midship deck 6, where we could see our room from the elevator bank. It was now 1:30 and they would be opening these barriers soon!

Some people hate the rooms by the elevators because they tend to be loud and sometimes we have had that experience but we really love the convenience of this location.

Rob shocked both of us and ordered the sail away décor package. I never would have ordered it myself, I don't see the value in it but it was kinda cute.

Checking out our verandah, it's so weird to look out onto people right there, taking pics of you.

In this photo, you can see that middle chest of drawers I mentioned earlier. These are great for us because I put all of Kira's stuff over by the desk area, all my stuff goes in the middle one and Rob gets the drawers over by the closet. This has worked out really well for us on our previous cruises. So nice and easy to stay organized!

This was Kira's first cruise as a Platinum Castaway Club member.

Can you imagine being 15 and Platinum? Sheesh! Spoiled

Here's the new Platinum gift. A cooler bag with back pack straps.

Now, we are not new to the port upgrade game and we know that your luggage always ends up at your old room so we went hunting for it. Your room host will eventually hunt it down for you and bring it to you if you tell them that you changed rooms but I always hate making them do extra work and it's easy for us just to go grab them ourselves.

And voila! There they all are!

I was kinda curious if those key cards sitting there were ours.

I knocked on the door several times, there was no answer so I carefully opened the envelope and peeked in. They were ours!

I wondered if they would still open the door. Rob was not super pleased with me but I tried them anyway.

I told him that if someone had upgraded at the port and was assigned our old room that there would be new cards there, not our old ones.

I knocked a few more times, just in case, then I tried our cards and they worked! Now I knew 100% that no one was assigned this room because they would have reprogrammed the locks for the new tenants.

Rob was too chicken but I went and peeked. I was curious about the verandah and I wanted a few pics.

See, no middle chest of drawers! And what's with the wooden thing above the couch?

Definitely not in use!

Here's some verandah pics....

Also, notice how much that couch sticks out into the verandah door?

When standing on the aft part, you could totally see the 6154's entire verandah. These verandahs were also easily seen from Cabanas, no privacy at all!

For many reasons, I am so glad we changed!

I was literally in the old room for less than a minute.

I'm actually really glad I went in because when our room host transferred over those decorations, he forget the magnet and the window cling. So I grabbed those while I was in there.

Back to our new room with our suitcases, where we were able to sanitize, unpack and get all organized! I also decorated our door.

We chilled until it was time for the Sail-a-wave party.

We've never actually seen this party before. It was new for us back in 2019's Christmas cruise but it was rained out and we skipped it in 2021 I think.

It was super busy, we didn't have the best spot but we enjoyed what we could see. I think with the characters taking up all of that room in the middle of the deck, it really takes away the space for people to watch. This sailing had roughly 1800 people so I can't imagine watching it with a full ship.

It was getting super hot for me, so we walked aft, seeking shade.

On the way to the shade, Kira ran into two of her friends that she made weeks ago via text. On our cruise FB group, I had posted if anyone had any teens that wanted to connect before the cruise and a fellow Canadian mom posted that she had twins that were game. The girl twin, "E", connected with Kira over Instagram and then they shared phone numbers and had been texting with each other ever since. Kira ADORED E! She said they hit it off immediately and she couldn't wait to meet her in person! Not too long ago, E's twin brother "A" also began texting Kira and she adored him too! They all shared the same kind of humour and got along really well. They had sent photos so she knew what they looked like and she recognized them instantly!

Sadly, A & E had late dining and we had early dining, so they didn't really get to hang out much until after their dinner. They had an absolute blast together though and hung out all week long.

We went down to deck 4 to seek some shade and watch us sail out.

They pushed back the boarding bridges but we were still tied up.

We waited and watched for them to untie us so we could head out to sea and get this journey started.

 

[Timon]

July 11th, Part 3

Not too much later and we were off!

See you in a week Vancouver!

Just after we pulled away, the QE followed us.

We watched as we rounded Stanley Park.

When we got closer to Lion's Gate bridge, we went up to deck 10 aft.

Okay, Vancouver is now, by far, my favourite port to sail out of.

I had never gone under a bridge on a Disney ship before. NCL yes, Disney, no. It was pretty cool.

I wanted to keep watching but our dinner was about to start!

Our first dinner was at Tiana's. We had table #4, near the window. We had table #5 on the Fantasy at the end of March and table #2 on the Wonder for Christmas, I sense a pattern here.

Zaldy was our server and Luis was our assistant-server. They were really awesome!!! We've been super lucky lately with our dining teams. I felt we were kind of spoiled by Dean on our last cruise but Luis was funny too so he was a good replacement. You know how much I love CM's that have a good sense of humour.

I don't have a photo of them from this first night but we have some from other nights that I will post.

I gave Rob and Kira my order so they could handle that while I ran downstairs to get in line for the shops. They opened just after 6pm and I knew they would sell out of sizes for things. By the time they opened, the line was probably about 50+ people deep!

I got almost everything I had wanted, dropped it off at the room and then back to my family....

Okay, so let's talk food.

Let me start by saying this was my 16th Disney cruise, 6th time on the Wonder and I have to be honest, this was my least favourite food on any Disney ship.

I'm pretty easy to please, I'm a meat and potatoes kind of girl and Disney has always done meat and potatoes well. I really look forward to my dinners on Disney cruises, and some have been better than others but they've always been good. Some have been great. My first three or four were phenomenal, food-wise actually. Back in 2002, on our first cruise, everything we ate was spectacular!

On this sailing, in the main dining rooms, the appetizers, were good to okay, the main dishes were kinda terrible and the desserts were good. This was no bearing on Zaldy and Luis, they were fabulous and always asked if we wanted something else when we didn't care for a dish.

All three of us agreed too. Kira hardly ate. She got her fill with her buns, which they both always devour, and then she enjoyed one or two entrees the whole week and didn't eat much else at dinner, other than her Mickey bars.

The one who really surprised me this trip was Rob! If you have read my reports, you know that we normally have to roll him out of the dining rooms, he eats so much! He tried some of the new dishes and some of the old faves and he didn't really like them. There were some dishes that I totally thought he was going to love and not only did he not love them, they were so bad, he didn't even get past a bite or two. Rob does not like to waste food, so if he leaves food on his plate, you know it's bad.

Both Kira and I got the steak.

My potatoes were good but the meat was terrible. It was a little overcooked and super fatty.


The service was phenomenal though. We told Luis right at the beginning that we like lots of buns, lots of butter and none of those fancy dips. We tell this to all of our servers and we always have to ask for more butter, more buns and feel terrible because the dips they bring us just sit there, going to waste.

Well, right from the start, Luis listened to us. He never brought us the dips, he brought us two little bowls of butter and lots of buns as soon as we sat down every night. We didn't have to fight each other for buns or butter. It was a nice, welcome change.

We talked with him about this on the last night of the cruise. We thanked him for actually doing what we asked. He was surprised to know that no one has ever actually done what we've asked. He did say there were strict butter rules. I laughed when he said that, I thought he was joking but he wasn't! He explained that they were only supposed to have ONE butter dish, with no more than FOUR butters in the dish and it was supposed to be in the center of the table at all times.

Huh.

Butter rules! Who would have thought!

We all agreed though, that any request from a guest for anything more (or less), should be accommodated.

The other issue we had at dinner that night was the volume of the music from the Crawfish Crooners. Good Lord was it loud!!!

We could barely hear each other at dinner, we literally had to yell at each other. We had a huge table behind us and they were all yelling so loudly (you had to, to hear over that music!) which made it almost unbearable at times.

We all love Tiana's, we love the music, the band, the Mardi Gras stuff later on in the cruise but it gets to a point where if you have to scream at each other to communicate, maybe turn down the volume a tad?

Walking out, we all had headaches. I had to head straight out on deck just to get some air and some peace and quiet.

Oh man, look at that!!!

Now this is MY kind of cruise!!!!

I took a similar shot to this one but with a sunset in the Caribbean....I like this one much better!

Kira went off to the Vibe and Rob and I went back to the room. Our room hadn't been turned down but I think our stateroom host, Jhe, thought we were on late dining. We told him we would be leaving around 8pm and he said he would do it then for us. We had met him briefly before dinner, asked him for extra pillows, requested ice and to leave Kira's bed as a bed. He was very nice and got us everything we needed.

Here's the stuff I had purchased in the shop.

We each got a Disney Alaska shirt. I was hoping for the pink one but the biggest size they had was small.

Kira asked for this hoodie and she LOVED it! She wore this every day of the cruise. It was thicker than most hoodies, nice and warm. I saw a lot of people wearing it during the week, it was popular!

I bought Rob the Alaska pin and I also got us the blanket, which was $20, if you spent $60, which, I clearly did.

I'm glad I went during supper, someone said the blankets sold out in two hours.

I also bought Kira those slipper socks but I ended up wearing them all week when I went out onto the verandah. I don't like wearing shoes and it was too cold for bare feet out there.

I enjoyed some verandah time. So gorgeous and warm enough for me in a tee and shorts.

Next up...anyone for a swim?

 

[LiZaArd]

I was reading through your great post and had to laugh when I was watching the seagull at Cabana's video because we have the overhead shot as well. I said to my husband 'hey, you're in this video for a split second in the end!?' Then looked at the cookie pic and said there I am sitting behind Kira and her cookie Funny also is that we left after checking in, walked around for 20 minutes then walked back in and downstairs. Said oh wow, no calling of groups apparently because after we got through security we walked right onto the ship! Guess had we not walked outside for a bit we would have had to wait for Group 3 to be called. Glad I missed that anticipation