Monday morning, Labor Day - you know what that means! Cruise day! We were all so excited. I woke up EARLY (both from excitement and getting used to the time change) and was ready to get cruising!
Michelle and I had chatted earlier that day about the check-in process. She’d wanted to look and see if there were rooms available for upgrade and because of that we knew we’d want to be one of the first ones to check in. We talked to the staff and found out they were doing check-in at one of the ballrooms / meeting rooms at the Pan Pacific, starting at 10:15AM, so arrived plenty early. They had lots of chairs set up, so we were able to wait in comfort. You CANNOT beat going down an elevator from your room and then being right at check in! Score!
We also had a chance to chat with some of our fellow cruisers, and met a very nice couple from Canada. Do you ever find that when you meet people on a cruise, you tend to run into them a lot? It’s the second day and we’ve seen this couple at least four times. :) We also talked to one of the DCL agents, who told us the cruise wasn’t full and so upgrading shouldn’t be an issue. (There are about 2,000 people on our cruise; capacity for the Wonder is about 2,500). We also found out there are tons of Platinum and past cruisers on this sailing, and not a lot of children (which isn’t super surprising with this time of year). Michelle’s son is one of only 50 kids at the Edge club (for 11-14 year olds) so that’s pretty nice also.
If there are available rooms on the cruise on the sailing date, they will offer them at an upgrade price, based on category and room type. From chatting with the agent, we knew there were quite a few Oceanview and Balcony rooms available and initially we’d wanted to look and see if we could get moved to a different Oceanview room. You need to check in before you go to the Supervisor’s desk to ask an an upgrade, though, so I went in the check in line with our passports and info and Michelle went to stand in line at the Supervisor’s desk.
Since we were there early, I was 3rd in line to check in. (TIP - even if you are a Castaway Club member and can go in a different/special line, scope out the one with the shortest wait and go there. Oftentimes, the waits at the “regular” check in will be shorter than the Concierge / Platinum or Silver/Gold Castaway Club lines.) It only took a few moments for them to scan our passports and take our signed check in forms, print our Key To The World cards and give us our lanyards.
Michelle then we into the Supervisor’s line, and was told there were Oceanview rooms available but there was also a Balcony that was a pretty great price. Since it was the lowest category of Balcony room they had, it was MUCH cheaper than the next nearest Balcony upgrade, so she went for it! Yay! We would have been just as happy in the Oceanview room, but having the Balcony is VERY nice.
After we got all checked in, we went up to the room to freshen up and get her son, then made our way to the security lines. Since we were leaving Canada, we needed to go through US Customs before boarding. It was very similar to the process going into Canada; we scanned our passports, got a printed form and then presented them to a US Customs agent. Once we were given the clear, we made the short walk onto the Disney Wonder! They announced us, the crew members clapped and cheered, and we were officially on vacation! YAHOO!!
We decided to go to Parrot Cay that first day for lunch. When you get on the ship, at least one of the sit-down dinner restaurants is also open for lunch, with a buffet style meal. You can also go up to Cabanas / Topsiders / Beach Blanket, which are the cafeteria-style places and have a buffet there as well. I tend to prefer the sit-down places, as it’s usually quieter than going to the cafeteria. Don’t worry about missing out on your favorite first cruise meal items, however, because the menus at both places are exactly the same. :)
After a delicious lunch, Michelle and I went our separate ways. She had some requests to make for excursions and dining, and I wanted to explore the ship. I hadn’t been on the Wonder since 2008 and so I wanted to be sure and reacquaint myself. I got some pretty great pictures, and also got my steps in for the Movin with Mickey challenge! :) Win win!
After the requisite safety drill, we were off and sailing! When you leave the port of Vancouver, you have the most gorgeous sail out with Stanley Park and the mountains in the distance. If you sail out of Vancouver in the future, be sure to make time to sit on deck or on your balcony to watch as you leave Vancouver. It was pretty amazing!
Speaking of dining, we have the BEST dining team. Luisa is from Italy, and our friend and fellow MWT agent Ellen recommended her; they met on Ellen’s Alaska cruise this summer. We were super glad she was available for our serving team. In order to get here we did have to switch from the 8:15 to the 5:45 dining time, but that was not an issue for us. We found out that Ellen had also let Luisa know that we were going to be on the cruise, so I think she was pleased we requested her. We also have Kenan as our assistant server, from the UK. They're both wonderful, we couldn't have better servers. I’ve always had excellent servers on DCL and this cruise is going to be no exception.
We had a delicious dinner at Triton’s; it’s one of my favorite DCL menus. I had the Brie appetizer with a berry jam/compote on the side (TO DIE FOR), the leek and potato soup and the salmon. For dessert, I had another favorite - the Grand Marnier souffle. Good thing I wore my stretchy dress pants to dinner - I needed them!
One of my cruise “splurges” this trip is the Rainforest pass to the spa. For about $20/day, I get access to a special area of the spa where they only sell 30 passes for the length of the cruise. There are AMAZING heated lounge chairs, special saunas and showers, and they also give some some pretty wonderful body scrubs that you can use in the Rainforest or in your room. That and the Pearl Harbor excursions are my “treats” for this vacation. I went into the Rainforest room after dinner, and had a nice relaxing stint there before I went back to the room and to bed.
This is a marathon post :) but I wanted to make sure and tell you all about our first day. Stay tuned for more posts, live from Hawaii!
Thanks for reading along ~ have a magical day!
No comments:
Post a Comment