Vancouver to Alaska on the Disney Wonder, 8/26 - 9/2 2013 : Part 2

Guest Writer Wednesdays

By: Gaylin

Full day at sea, August 27, 2013
Disney Wonder
Vancouver to Alaska, August 26 - September 2, 2013

Our room on the cruise was an deluxe inside stateroom. I didn't have a great nights sleep because it turns out that the these rooms are close to the engine room and the constant noise was going to take some getting used to!

We got up and went to Beach Blanket Buffet for breakfast. I was learning quickly that food allergies were going to be a pain in the butt on this cruise. If I asked about a food on the buffet, the server behind the serving line would walk away to get a chef. That means I would end up standing there, blocking the line, with my food getting cold while waiting for the chef to give me the yes or no on whatever I asked about. It also meant my travel friend was stuck waiting, with her food getting cold as well. I would soon give up asking about any food that could be questionable and ended up having the same breakfast nearly every morning of the cruise. A big disappointment.

Another disappointment was finding out later in the day that if we had gone to Parrot Cay, it would have been a character breakfast for our service group. The waiter had tried to explain it to us at dinner the night before and we couldn't really hear him. We had walked by the very long line-up for Parrot Cay and headed straight to the buffet. Oh well, no character dining for us!

We went to the lobby/atrium to watch the Jack-Jack's Incredible Diaper Dash (baby races), if this happens on your cruise, it is worth it to go watch. As you can see from the photo, they set up a race mat and when if you have a crawling baby, you can enter them. It is hilarious, we watched the whole event because it was worth the laughing. Inevitably, the mom would be holding the baby back while waiting for the starting whistle and then as soon as it would be time to go, the babies would all stop and look around and generally do what babies do, be totally random!

We checked the schedule and realized that none of the mornings activities were of great interest so we headed to the movie theatre to watch Monsters University. We both really liked the movie and appreciated being able to just walk into the theatre and see movies!

One thing we both liked on board was the art gallery in one of the hallways. I loved these two Romero originals, couldn't afford to get them, so got a photo instead.

After lunch at Parrot Cay we split up for a bit, my friend went off to walk around the ship and I went to an origami class. It was kind of goofy and fun and we did all end up with paper frogs to take away.

We got together again to go for a walk outside and surprise, even though it was getting cooler, people were swimming! Even more of a surprise, other than the day we were cruising up to the glaciers, the weather was nice enough that people swam every day of the cruise. Not me, it has to be hot out before I go swimming!

I also had to get a photo of this Mickey at the front of the ship!

We went up to the cafe on the 10th floor and had a coffee and a nice quiet break. The cafe is supposed to be 18 and over, since my 16 year old travel friend is more mature than most teenagers, her age was never asked and we went to the cafe more than once.

That evening was the formal dinner at Animator's Palate. It was a lovely meal, unfortunately the water was a bit rough and my friend was a bit seasick so I enjoyed the meal more than she did. Especially the dessert! While it wasn't the worlds best chocolate cake, it was safe for me and my allergies so I appreciated it.

On our way to go see the Golden Mickey's, we stopped at the store to get some seasick bands, which were put into use right away and thankfully worked.

The Golden Mickey's stage show is great. No photos allowed and that was fine by me, more time to enjoy the show.
Afterwards we changed out of our formal clothes and went up to the beverage service station on the 9th floor, got a tea and found a small area in front of the elevators on the 10th floor (not by the cafe) with 2 chairs and a coffee table and we sat and enjoyed our tea and talked. A lovely end to the day.
I didn't know that Alaska was a 1 hour different time zone that BC where I live. It was funny to change our watches when we were so close to home.
I had hoped to get crafty before we went on the cruise and have magnets to decorate our stateroom door with, sadly that didn't happen. Here is a photo of someone's stateroom door that was quite decorated!

Please check out Part 1 of Gaylin's trip here.