Princess Half Marathon Weekend at Walt Disney World; Part: 5

By Nick

Part 5 : Monday, February 22nd 

I spent the entire morning just relaxing at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, taking a stroll over to Jambo House from Kidani. I walked around the lobby and stopped at a couple of Savannah outloooks, walked through the shop, and had a very good breakfast at The Mara, AKL's quick serve restaurant.

The African-inspired Breakfast Platter, Scrambled Eggs, Sausage, Pap, Chakalaka, and Grilled Tomato.

I spent some time at the Flamingo Pool, which is located in back of the main people pool, and watched as a giraffe tried to... get friendly with another giraffe. 

I walked back to Kidani Village and had a wonderful conversation with a Cast Member from South Africa before taking a swim. 

On my way back to my room, I ran into friends Beth and Noel, who introduced me to their brother-in-law Lars, who treated me to some Dogfish Head beer. Thanks again Lars!

I got a text a little while later from my friend Peter. I met Peter and his wife Marilyn several years ago on our Disney Cruise to Alaska and we've stayed in touch since. 

We met up at Jock Lindsey's in Disney Springs where they treated me to lunch and cocktails. Thank you again Marilyn and Peter, it's always a pleasure to spend time with you!

After saying goodbye to my friends, I went to The BOATHOUSE and ordered a margarita in honor of National Margareta Day. Yes, I considered going to the Mexico Pavilion in Epcot but instead decided to sit at the bar on the water. Love The BOATHOUSE!

I hopped the first bus to a resort, which happened to be Pop Century and then a bus to Disney's Hollywood Studios.

I was feeling hungry again and stopped into 50's Prime Time Cafe where I had hoped to grab a table at the bar in the Tune In Lounge, but it was packed. I went to the podium at Prime Time and asked if there was any chance to get a table, and was surprised when they told me it would only be a 20 minute wait! 

In the meantime I got a Bourbon at the bar. I'm starting to really dig Bourbon!

I was seated after about 30 minutes. I have to admit, it is odd eating at Prime Time solo. But I love that fried chicken dinner, so it was worth it!

I went to Star Wars Launch Bay and on the way tried to get a selfie with a First Order Stormtrooper.

Imagine my surprise when I was grabbed and interrogated! I mean, really! It was awesome. 

Fear not, Chewbacca rescued me. And we celebrated!

I used my FastPasses for Rock 'n' Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror and Muppets before catching what is my favorite fireworks show at the World at the moment, Symphony in the Stars!

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

Wordless Wednesday: The Letter "W" - Disney Wonder

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

By: Gaylin 

September 2, 2013
Disney Cruise - docking in Vancouver

On the day you dock back in Vancouver, breakfast is early and in the restaurants. We were back in Parrot Cay, as evidenced by the colourful table setting!

And the breakfast menu!

In truth I don't remember what I had . . . totally forgot to take photos. We were all too busy talking to each other about the cruise about how long it would take us to get home. Life in general. We laughed a lot and at the end of it all, we hugged a lot as well. I think the best part of the cruise for me was the people we met. Our dinner 'ladies' were awesome as were Fitzroy and Megan our servers.

We then went to the atrium and waited until the called group purple. The luggage tags are colour coded and you just wait for your colour to be called. We walked off the ship (so sad) and waded through a large room full of luggage to find ours and then walked out, easiest customs agents ever!

Right outside this dock area we got a cab back to my apartment. It was very anticlimactic having such a short ride home and 'what do you mean, no more Disney!'.

I thought you would all get a laugh out of the amount of toiletries the room host left for us! I will be Disney clean for a very long time to come. Well, I may be nice and give some of it away.

 

As always at the end of a vacation, I take a photo of all my souvenirs or as I like to call it - loot photos! As you can see, I didn't spend much money while on this cruise. The selection in the stores wasn't that great or I certainly would have. Disney shopping is the only kind of shopping I really like to do.

 
I hope you have all enjoyed my ramblings on our cruise! I know I have enjoyed sharing our trip with all of you.
See Ya Real Soon!

For previous installments, please type in Vancouver into the search bar to the right.

Vancouver to Alaska on the Disney Wonder, 8/26 - 9/2 2013 : Part 7

By: Gaylin 

September 1, 2013
Day at sea, Disney cruise to Alaska

We are motoring home to Vancouver! Another lovely day.

 We started out with breakfast at Tritons as I couldn't face another buffet. I started with fruit, yogurt and breakfast grits, yum!

And continued with bacon and a freshly made omelette. It was a nice way to start our day.

We had fully intended to go back to the room for a bit and then head to Studio Sea for the dessert making demonstration. I found out that as long as neither of us drinks and we both behave like adults (Tyler is 16) then we were allowed to the food demonstrations - if we sat in the back. As it turned out we didn't get to see the dessert making, we both fell asleep! Napping in the morning, must be on a cruise.

Even though it seemed like we had just had breakfast, off we went for lunch at the buffet. I admit, I couldn't get myself to eat the crawdad, maybe if it had been hot, since it was served cold, it was kind of icky.

Planes was showing that afternoon but neither of us was interested. We wanted to spend our time on the ship, since tomorrow it was home.
There is a small deck on the back of the ship where we had intended to spend some time but just after we got there, a couple of cast members showed up to power wash it! We then wandered the halls, peeking in rooms much more luxurious than ours while the cleaning staff had the doors propped open. Wow, some of those rooms are big! Beautifully panelled, large decks - if I ever do cruise again, I would hope to afford a bigger room.

After that, we had our last visit to the coffee shop. I have no idea what I was drinking, it was a cold coffee drink and was dessert in a cup.

Our last dinner was at Parrot Cay. We had a lot of fun again with our servers and the lovely ladies that were our dinner companions. It does show how big the ship is, we only saw the dinner ladies once outside of meal time! Mind you they had a room with a veranda and spent a lot of time there.

This turned out to be one of the best meals for me in the whole cruise. Red snapper with potatoes & veggies in a tomato sauce. It was divine! As you can see . . . I had started eating before I remembered to take a photo.

I was hoping to get an interesting dessert for the last meal but got a cup of chocolate mousse that was barely chocolate flavoured.
That was when we had the inspired idea to order a Mickey's Premium Ice Cream Bar!!! YUM. I love them. Ended my dinner quite well.

We then raced off to the Walt Disney Theatre for the live performance of Dreams. What an amazing show, all about reaching for your dreams.

The show ended at 9:30 and we had to get to our room to get our baggage out in the hall on time. They give you a full list of instructions on what to do with your baggage, you get baggage tags that are colour coded. Bags that you don't want to carry off ship yourself must be outside the stateroom between 8:30 p.m. and 10:30. We made it just in time!

One last walk around deck before bed, one last sit down and talk for awhile in 'our' chairs on the 10 floor landing. Soon it will all be a memory.

Please stop back tomorrow for the final part of Gaylin's Alaskan Cruise! 
For previous installments, please type in Vancouver into the search bar to the right.

Vancouver to Alaska on the Disney Wonder, 8/26 - 9/2 2013 : Part 6

By: Gaylin

August 31, 2013
Day 6, Ketchikan Alaska

This would be our last shore stop of the cruise and one of the nice things about it was that we didn't dock until after 10, which meant we slept in a bit!

After a quick breakfast we were among the first off the ship at 10:30. The dock is very near the town of Ketchikan so there is no shuttle buses, just a quick walk and you are there! We both found the town to be quite welcoming, easy to see where we might want to walk to, so that is what we did.

Right on the dock area there are things to use as photo ops . . . While the skies look all cloudy and grey, it was actually quite warm and we didn't get rained on.

As you can see from this very large gauge, Ketchikan gets lots and lots of rain.

This was a great statue in the with the history of the area all in one statue. As you can see on the left, there were 2 other cruise ships in the port, making this small town very full of tourists!

We walked about for an hour and then a quick walk back to the Wonder. We made a fast trip to the buffet and then headed to the Buena Vista movie theatre for a showing of the Avengers! Nothing like some heroes to entertain us in the middle of the day.

Then we headed off ship again and back for more time in Ketchikan, we walked, shopped, had some treats. I noticed a disturbing lack of chocolates on board the ship, got myself some nice big dark chocolate salted caramels and all was well in my world again! There were no whales in this park at all, except for the one bench carved in the shape of a whale but can't miss an opportunity for a photo with a sign.

We strolled back on board in time to get changed for dinner. We were in Animator's Palate for the third time and we were both pretty excited because we knew that we were having Elk Tenderloin for dinner. Both of us are carnivores and this was yummy! Not the best photo of my dinner, as you can see the elk was perfect but another baked potato and barely cooked vegetables, very sad.

We went back to our room to change and this very cool guy was there to great us!

It turns out that neither of us are real joiners so we skipped the evenings entertainment offerings and spent another evening happily wandering around the deck. It was another lovely evening and once it got too dark, we headed back to the room for another movie from bed!

For previous installments, please type in Vancouver into the search bar to the right.

Vancouver to Alaska on the Disney Wonder, 8/26 - 9/2 2013 : Part 5

 Guest Writer Wednesday

By: Gaylin

August 30, 2013
Day 5, cruise to Alaska, Juneau

Woke up and we were in Juneau, another uninspiring breakfast buffet. Filling but meh. The cruise ship dock is just outside of Juneau and we decided to not get the shuttle bus and we walked into town. Juneau is quite big but very spread out. The boardwalk makes the walk into town quite obvious!

The centre of town is very easy to find as is the tram that goes up Mt. Roberts. This was our other excursion we had booked. When you book the tram, you can take it up the mountain anytime during the day. And your ticket is also a day pass, in case you wanted to ride the tram again.

The view from the tram is stunning. The man driving (guiding?) the tram gave a brief history of the area while we were on the way up.

See the ship on the left, that is the Wonder! I zoomed in a bit for this photo, it actually was a lot smaller from the top of the tram ride.

At the station the tram stops at, there is a visitor station with a historical movie (free), 18 minutes long. We both enjoyed it. There is a store, as well as a learning centre. On the way to the learning centre is an enclosure for this guy. You can't see in this photo but this bald eagle was shot by hunters, he is missing one eye and has a damaged beak. He cannot be returned to the wild because he can no longer hunt. He has a nice home and looks well fed and cared for.

We decided to use up some energy and instead of taking the tram down the mountain, we took the hiking trail! It is about 2.5 miles of switchback trail, fairly well marked. We were the only people going down the mountain but ran into a few people who were hiking UP the mountain. It is lovely, quiet and beautiful. We both enjoyed being off the ship and away from people, very refreshing.

The trail ends on a road that leads back into Juneau, we hiked down the mountain, back into Juneau and out the other side and walked to the ship. A very energetic afternoon.

We got back for a quick trip through the buffet, just before it closed. It had been misty raining while we were hiking so after our quick lunch we went and got changed into dry clothes and off to the Outlook Cafe for a hot drink.
Dinner was at Triton's and this was my meal, the steak was really good but the baked potato, very boring and barely cooked vegetables, eh.

Then it was off to the Walt Disney Theatre for the Toy Story Musical stage show. AWESOME! If you go to the stage shows, remember to get there a bit early, there was quite the line-up for the show.
After the show we went to the Atrium/Lobby to see the Pixar Pals show they put on. It is pretty fun, very loud and very well attended.
Then we called it a night and headed back to the room where we were met by this character, a towel dog? Whatever this is, we both had a good laugh.

For parts 1-4, please click here, here, here and here!