Trip Report - Hawaii bound on the Disney Wonder - Thursday, September 10, 2015

Today was our third (out of five) sea days and guess what was on the plan? 

Relaxation. Yes, I know you’re surprised! :)

After having breakfast with Michelle at Beach Blanket, I got ready for the day and decided I’d like to see the newest Avengers movie in the Buena Vista Theatre.  I’d seen it at home when it was released, but thought it’d be a nice way to spend the morning. 

As I rounded the corner to the theatre, I smelled that “you’re at a movie” smell - popcorn. YUM. I couldn’t resist, and bought some popcorn in a reusable Disney bucket. For $7.50, you got the popcorn and bucket, with refills at $3.50.

The movie was about two and a half hours, so then it was time for lunch! :) (are you sensing a pattern here…..eating and eating and more eating). They were having a BBQ as another lunch option, but the crowd was pretty good-sized so I decided to just do the regular lunch buffet.

After some couscous salad and veggies (OK, OK, I had dessert too….I’m on vacation!), I decided to make my way to Deck 10 to read my book. And there I stayed for about 2 hours. HEAVEN. Michelle recommended a book to me and so while the internet was at a cooperating point, I was able to log into Amazon and purchase it, and download it to my Kindle. Score! :) it was a super relaxing afternoon; I was on a chaise on Deck 10, facing the ocean and just reading and watching us sail peacefully across the Pacific.

Some people have asked about the sea conditions as you cross the open ocean. We had AMAZING weather and it’s been such a calm passage. I haven’t noticed any difference between this cruise and when we’re sailing towards the Bahamas or Caribbean. As I sat here writing this, I was watching the ocean and it was just perfect; small waves here and there, but quite calm. There had been some hurricane activity in the area last week and so we weren’t sure if we would need to go off course and sail around storms, but so far so good.

After a quiet and calm evening, I did some more reading in the room when Michelle and her son went to a movie. Michelle and I then had a fabulous dinner at Palo - antipasti, appetizers, that amazing Filet and of course, the Palo Souffle. We rolled ourselves out of Palo and right into bed. With full bellies, we were asleep in no time!

LIVE from the Disney Wonder - Tuesday, September 8th 2015

Today was our first of five at sea days. These days are my absolute FAVORITE of any cruise itinerary; honestly, if they could do an itinerary where they just sailed around nowhere and you had all sea days, I would book that in a hot minute.

We all slept really well. I am still getting used to the time change, and so I did wake up early, about 4AM (which is 6AM at home). However, I was able to get back to sleep until about 8:30AM so that was great. I’m trying to get on the current time sleeping-and-waking schedule and so far, so good. Once I got up, I went and grabbed some coffee and Michelle and I sat on the balcony, chatting for a few minutes before it was time to get ready for Palo brunch!

Oh Palo brunch…..you guys, seriously ~ I could go ON AND ON. It’s so delicious. At $30/person I feel like it’s well worth it. There are so many great options - fruits, savory items, caviar (YES), pastries, desserts as well as made-to-order items that you can have as well. Michelle and I decided to split a pizza (they will do half and half if you want to try more than one flavor), I got Eggs Benedict (the BEST) and Michelle chose the Chicken Parmasan. You also get a complimentary beverage like a mimosa or sparkling wine and of course soda, tea, coffee, etc are included. Michelle knew (name) from past cruises and so we requested him. Another excellent DCL server! Really, these folks are amazing.

It was a nice leisurely meal, and we were there about an hour and a half. After eating, we decided to visit the cruise shopping options. There is a SUPER CUTE Mickey and Minnie graphic for these Hawaii cruises and I wanted to get a Tervis cup with that graphic. I like having a larger cup to fill up at the beverage machines vs their smaller cups they provide and figured they’d have a special one this cruise, so I didn’t bring one from home. I’ll probably go back and get a magnet and that’ll be the extent of my souvenir shopping.

After changing out of the dress I wore to Palo, I decided to go up the adults area on Deck 9 and do some blog writing. Another thing I love about cruising is all the uninterrupted writing time I have, and so far this cruise has been no exception.

I spent a nice hour or so writing blog posts, and then decided to head to the room for a bit. Having a balcony is SO nice, it was great to spend some time out there with my Kindle and read, watching the ocean go by…..bliss.

Dinner tonight was at Animator’s Palette, one of my favorite menus of the cruise. Michelle and I split the pasta pursettes, which is right up there for me as one of my favorite DCL appetizers EVER. I also had the squash soup, and the beef tenderloin. I typically don’t choose red meat but decided to go out on a limb today and was so glad I did - it was delicious. We also saw the special show they do at Animators with a special guest - Mickey Mouse! This is my favorite incarnation of Mickey Mouse and so I always love this show.

I ended my night in the Rainforest spa, in the saunas and showers. SO relaxing. I also discovered they have the facial cleaners and toners that they use in the spa, free and available for our use.

We ended the night by watching movies in the room, and drifted off to sleep. We got a notice in our room that we were to turn our clocks back an hour before we went to bed - getting closer to that Hawaii time zone!

Thanks for reading; I apologize that my internet has been spotty and I’ve not been able to post live blogs as I would like, so these are a few days behind “real time”. 

Have a magical day!

LIVE from the Disney Wonder ~ Hawaii Cruise, Embarkation Day!

Hello from somewhere in the Pacific Ocean! :) I was hoping to post every day but our internet out here on the Pacific has been spotty. I'll post updates when I can; and when we get to Hilo, HI on Sunday, I'll have even better signal so hopefully I can post some more blog updates. I will also be posting more photos to Facebook and Instagram, so stayed tuned for those!

On Sunday AM, I flew out early from Des Moines and arrived in Vancouver about 11:30AM local time. Michelle (my agency owner) and her son also arrived about the same time, which was great. We went through security and customs at the airport, grabbed our bags, and then got on the train to go from the airport to downtown Vancouver, and the Pan Pacific Hotel.

A quick note about the Vancouver airport; if you’re flying in from the US, you will go through a customs line in order to gain entrance into Canada. Once you get off the plane, customs is the first thing you do (and I didn’t see any chances to visit the restroom before you get in line, so you’ll want to do that on the plane before you disembark). The line can look long, but it moves pretty fast. They have these pretty neat self-serve machines where you scan your passport, answer some questions and then a receipt is printed out. You get in another line (which also moves pretty fast) and then show that receipt and your passport to one of the Canadian customs agents. From there, you are right at baggage claim and then it’s a very easy walk to the train, taxis or shuttles. I would say it took about 15-20 minutes to get through customs.

We then exited the airport and went to the train station; it’s about $6 US to get a train ticket, and it only took about 20 minutes to arrive at the Waterfront station. From there, it was a quick 5 minute walk and then we arrived at the Pan Pacific!

Seriously, you guys - if you sail out of Vancouver, you HAVE to stay at the Pan Pacific. The location can’t be beat; the cruise port is RIGHT at the hotel, so you just go downstairs to do your check in and go through security. They even have a service where they’ll come and get your bags from you, and transport them to baggage services for you! You just attach those baggage tags that come in your documents and they’ll grab them for you. 

The price for a room is about $250-300 per night, but for convenience and ease it can’t be beat. You’re also very close to lots of eating and shopping, as well as places like Stanley Park, so if you’re looking for things to do in the days before you sail there is plenty to do. 

When we arrived Sunday night, we chose to stay pretty close to the hotel and relax; we knew we’d have a busy day on Monday so we wanted to stay close. Michelle and I did end up walking to a market/grocery store that’s about a 5-10 minute walk from Pan Pacific, and getting some snacks and extras we forgot to pack. We then all turned in early, and were getting SO excited to cruise!

Coming up next - Monday: cruise embarkation day!

Bon Voyage! Vancouver and Hawaii, here I come!

Hello, friends! Today is the last blog entry before I leave on my Vancouver-Hawaii adventure on the Disney Wonder. I am leaving home tomorrow afternoon, with an early flight to Vancouver on Sunday morning.

I will be doing a post each day about what happened the previous day, so be sure and stay tuned for those!

I will also be sharing LOTS of pictures and videos on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so be sure you're following me there (those links are on the top of this page).

Once we get to Hawaii, I'll also be doing LIVE Periscope videos from the islands, as well as Disney's Aulani Resort, so make sure you're signed up for Periscope if you're not already.

I'm pretty excited to take this journey and am equally excited to have you along!

Have a magical day!