WONDERing to Alaska on June 9-16th 2014 (Day 5 Posted on 7/11)

[shanhop]

 

[nancipants]

Thanks for all the great info! We had Andy on our Magic cruise in January, and he was fantastic. I'm glad to hear he's on the Wonder and hope he's still there next month!

Two random questions: How much were the nesting dolls? Also, were there any bathrooms near the lines for security and immigration? I tend to get panicky/claustrophobic in some line situations, and need to prepare myself if I'm going to have to wait a long time.

 

[shanhop]

Day 2 - At Sea

Up and at 'em early. I don't know how early, but I know I was awake at 4am. And it was light out.

The girls got up, got dressed and remembered the Fish Extender! So many gifts (Fish Extender is a gift exchange with other cruisers. We had 15 cabins in our exchange).

Some of the gifts are for individual, some are for the cabin to share. There were two pink string bags for the girls, hand warmers for all of us, an wooden ornament, and a quick guide with a location list for


Close up of the chocolate spoons for hot chocolate, Scott's coozie, and *my* (Claimed it!) key fob. So excited to get a key fob, it's the one thing I was really hoping for.


Girls found The Lego Movie again. It basically runs on a continuous loop every two hours on one channel.


I know we went to breakfast at Beach Blanket Buffet, my guess it was just after 8am. Scott and I just had drinks and a pastry, as we had Palo at 10am!

Since we were going to Palo, and the girls were testing their independence, we agreed that they could spend the day on their own. The needed to check in occasionally, and to respond to our texts.

Palo –
Scott and I had reservations for Palo at 10am, and there was a line at 9:55 when we arrived. Can I just say that the Palo bathrooms are my favorite on the ship? By the time I stepped out, everyone else had gone in. This was our first time at Palo for brunch, but we’d been there for dinner on our Caribbean cruise.

For those of you not proficient in Disney Cruising, Palo is the only restaurant you have to pay extra for on the Wonder. Brunch is $25 a head, and you need a reservation. Brunch is a buffet with lots of seafood, pastries, desserts, and you can order entrees as well.

This is on from the Fantasy, but it's very similar on the Wonder.

http://eatingwdw.com/2014/02/14/brunch-at-disney-fantasys-palo/

Our waitress was Judy from Barbados, and she was wonderful. Just enough explanation without being intrusive. We started with mimosas (first one is included in the price of the meal) and then had our tour of the buffet. While we were getting out tour, we saw our first whales! We could make out the splashes, but not the animals (I’m assuming they were humpbacks). When we sat down, we saw more from our side of the boat as well. Oh, and that NCL ship that left 30 minutes before us at Vancouver, yeah we passed that ship right before brunch. It was now behind us.

Back to the buffet…. the amount of choices is horribly overwhelming. So much good food. I tried the scallops, several of the differing cheeses, the grilled vegetables (fantastic), prosciutto and dried beef (a little goes along way) along with two different pastries, and a roll that had prosciutto in it as well.

For our main courses Scott had the tomato soup, while I had the strawberry (I could eat it every day), as well as the eggs Julia (salmon) for Scott and Chicken Parmesan for me. The chicken parmesan and the risotto it was served on lived up to the hype. Wow.

After that we had desserts, along with another pass at the rest of the buffet. The only picture I took was of this plate….


I had a bear claw, and a warm sticky bun (the lovely sauce hardens into a nice caramel once it is on your plate). Desert included a pot de crème, Sacher torte, walnut brownie, and a vanilla cream puff item. I know it sounds crazy for this chocoholic to admit, but walnut brownie was my favorite.

Dress code – most people were meeting dress code. Lots of pants for the women, but some dresses as well. Men were almost all in collared shirts. I did smile at the one gentleman that was in a Mickey t-shirt, tennis shoes and a brown corduroy jacket. The maitre d did like to wander, and was not at the entrance when multiple groups came in. In made things awkward when he had to walk groups all the way back to the front. There was one set of women who came in, meeting the one’s husband who was already seated. She was in jeans and the host did ask her to change. So the dress code was being enforced.
Judy have me two napkin wrapped satchels for the girls (each had two white chocolate dipped strawberries). She had been trying to convince us to come back for dinner, but we really didn’t feel like leaving the girls for dinner, nor did we want to miss one of them meals on our dining rotation.

After various text messages back and forth with the girls When did they have to meet us? No time, but they did need to get lunch. When did they need to meet us this afternoon? No time, but they needed to be showered and dressed for dinner by 5:10. We’ll see how they do with this amount of freedom!

Tuesday – At Sea – Afternoon
After getting changed out of our Palo clothing, Scott and I picked up some reading materials (and my computer) and headed up to Outlook Café to look at the water, read, and write the trip report! We did see the girls in Edge on our way up (joys of having the Edge on the same level as your room). They were busy playing video games, and called us a little while later while on a scavenger hunt, wanting to know where Scott’s hat was for the hunt. I just had water and a chocolate eclair. Scott enjoyed a coffee. (The pastries are free, the drinks you have to pay for).

Let me repeat that, the pastries in Outlook and Cove Cafe (the Adults only coffee and bar area) are FREE! We met lots of people that didn't know that. I saw small eclairs, cookies, carrot cakes, cinnamon rolls. I heard rumors of chocolate covered strawberries but never saw them.

Scott's idea of the perfect vacation. A chair, a book and a beverage (not yet acquired)


At 2pm we headed down to Wavebands for Naturalist Doug Jones talk about whales. I know other people have said it before, but he is REALLY good. I did research on whales and I still learned a ton. My favorite fact: whales evolved from land mammals. Their closest living land relative is the hippo. They also have no idea why whales sing! This session was completely full, with people standing in the back, so get there early.

It’s now almost 3pm, with nothing to do. We pass through the lobby and I grab a navigator to look up something, and I notice that Donald is going to be there at 3, so I jump in line with just Scott. That’s right, we are two adults not afraid to get our picture taken with a character.

Don't ask me why I feel the need to *lean* into pictures. I just do.

Donald is obviously WITH me. But he did at least put a hand out on Scott.

After that we headed to the room. Got to see the stacks and stacks of FE gifts that the girls had already brought in.

Bookmarks, paperclip bookmarks, Perry clothes pins


Bag of New Orleans goodies, coasters, picture frame


Journal - there was one for each girl.


Chapstick holders, Micky and Minnie hair clips (a set for each girl)


Minnie bags, goodies from Holland, a paper lantern with a battery operated candle.


BOOKS! Emma was so excited.


Did we cruise with creative people or WHAT?!?!?

Scott went upstairs for a drink and some ice cream. I hung out in the room a bit until I remembered Daisy was going to be in lobby at 3:30. I was meeting Scott at Palo for the “Art of the Theme Show Tour”, adults only tour at 4pm. Well, the line for Daisy was already around corner at Triton’s. Not a good sign, as 4pm was going to be close. I did have a lovely time talking to my line companion. I have to say I felt like this cruise has a VERY high number of 1st time DCL cruisers. I also saw two little girls, around 8 or 9, meet and become BFFs while in line. They even had their picture taken together with Daisy even thought they’d met less than 20 minutes beforehand.



I was about 5 minutes late getting to Palo, Scott was starting to worry about me (he’d apparently gone back to the room to get me as well). But tour guide, Brunette Sarah, was just finishing up discussing Palo and its new floor. We took this tour on the Magic, and I’d say it’s about 50% the same, 50% new information. We still enjoyed it. I did cut off one stop early because I needed to get back to the room so I could oversee the girls getting dressed for dinner. Scott finished the tour and said I missed the discussion of the bathrooms in the Deck Three forward bar area. Apparently they are Sarah's favorite. And yes, I now have discussed "favorite bathrooms" twice in this post.


**** I know some of the pictures are sideways, and one is upside down. I've changed them in Photobucket, and reposted them here but they are still wrong. If anyone knows what I need to do to fix them, let me know.

 

[shanhop]

I should mention, that although it seems like Scott and I didn't *do* much, it was actually a delightful day. We were go-go-GO for our two days in Vancouver, and it was nice to just sit and relax. We had a lovely view from Outlook Cafe (Deck 10) and it was comfortably warm. Being out on deck was REALLY windy and therefore a little chilly.

Dinner - Formal Night
Other than texts and passing in the hallways, 4:45 was the first time I’d seen/talked to my children since breakfast! They seemed really happy about that. And I was trying to remember that “It’s their vacation too.” I’d hoped to be inline for pictures by 5:15. But even though they were back in the room before us, they had not started on the getting ready process (which included showers). But now we know 30 minutes is not enough time. I eventually sent Scott and Kate up to get in line, while I finished drying Emma’s hair. When we go there, they were in line for Chip and Dale in their tuxes (yay!)

Tonight was the Captain’s Gala, so they also each had drinks (They’re free!). Emma’s was apple juice with a cherry in it. Servers were walking around with Cosmos, a rum/orange juice drink, and the kid's apple juice with a cherry. Chip and Dale were on Deck 4, in the corner, and the line went around to the elevators. They’d already started the line for Mickey and Minnie too, and stretched down towards the stores. It took the full 30 minute until 5:45 and our dinner time to get pictures with Chip and Dale. We headed right down the stairs and into Triton's for dinner. I grabbed another drink (I wanted to try both!) on the way into dinner.



Triton's is a lovely restaurant. It's the most formal of the three you rotate through. For non DCL addicts - the Disney dining system is unique. We will be Table #9 each night of the cruise. We will have the same dining time, Main dining is at 5:45, (late is at 8:15), same dining companions, and same Server and Assistant Server each night.

We were seated well before our dining companions arrived. The girls arrived first, then grandma because Grandma had waited for the elevator, and it was busy. So once again we started the evening as the last table in our server’s rotation. Everyone’s drinks were ready to go (whatever they’d ordered last night). I frustrated the Asst. Server by just getting water. He really wanted me to order something else.

Tonight was the Golden Mickey Menu.. The girls and I all had the crispy ravioli appetizer, Scott had the Caramelized Bay Scallops. The ravioli was delicious. But Scott’s scallops were just OK. They scallops were chopped really small, and the risotto overpowered them. My two girls were so busy talking with their traveling companions they were eating so slowly, and they were falling behind course wise.

For course two, Scott and I had the Salad of Mixed Baby Greens with and apple cider vinaigrette (it was fine). We’d basically finished our salads and the girls were still working on their three ravioli. Eventually the girls got their Sangria Bisque. They each ate about two bites. It tasted like blueberry soup (and I have one that won’t touch a blueberry) and the other one just wasn’t hungry at the moment.

At some point the photographer came around for pictures....












Main course – Emma had the NY Strip, Kate had Oven Roasted Tom Turkey Breast, I had the Oven Roasted Duckling, and Scott had the Grilled Ginger-Lime Swordfish. Scott was warned by Lavendra that the swordfish can be dry, but Scott took his chances. Everyone liked their meals, I did take a lot of flack from five little girls about eating duckling!

Our littlest table companion asked for Caesar salad, and even though it was not on the menu (nor anywhere else since we were all on the Golden Mickeys menu), and a Caesar salad did appear. The cousins disappeared before dessert again.

My girls each had the Strawberry Sundae, I mean Wednesday (ongoing joke between them and Lavendra). He also made a puzzle for them out of the crayons and they spent their waiting time figuring it out. I ordered the Sweet Temptations trio as well as the Crepe Suzette (I’m on vacation!) and Scott had the trio. The girls loved their Sundaes and Emma learned not to have stuff left off (Macadamia Crunch) as the other two were ohhing and ahhing about how good it was! The crepes were good, but had way too much sauce for my taste. My trio was missing the crème brulee, so I had to wait for that. The mousse on the Golden Chocolate Award was yummy, but the chiffon cake was dry and tasteless. The raspberry cheesecake was ‘eh’ (I don’t think DCL does good cheesecake, too gelatinous, not creamy), the crème brulee was my favorite (Scott’s too).

After Dinner
After dinner we were on our way to more pictures! We decided to go for the ones on the stairs. The line made a uturn on the back side of the elevators, went between them, and then jumped to the other side of the elevator foyer to the Route 66 sign. They had a cast member standing at the line end, because most people tried to get in line there, not realizing the line extended on the other side.

Drinks were still being served, so everyone had another one. I chatted with some of the other families around me. I got to see the wedding couple again. The bride's 4-year old son was dressed as Prince Charming, it was SO adorable.





After pictures on the stairs, I lost two family members to a bathroom run, Kate and I saw that one backdrop had almost no line, so we wandered over there. Brunette Sarah, our tour guide from earlier was helping out, so we chatted a bit. What I didn’t realize until she introduced us, was this was the line for pictures with the captain! It’s funny to me that it worked out this way, because last cruise I only have a picture of Kate with the captain as well. Emma had refused to go.



This photo was taken by what I was now referring to as our own personal photographer, Marija. She'd taken our boarding photos, our 1st night photos, I think the Daisy or Donald pictures, and now our photos with the captain.

After that we were on our way up to the Golden Mickeys. I did grab another drink on the way.(Yes Mom, that makes four). Plenty of seats, I don’t think it filled up. I’m not a fan of the cruise director inviting everyone to yell and scream at the top of their lungs during his introduction). The show was cute.

I had envisioned another round of pictures, but the girls were done, and so we headed back to the room for a relatively early night. We gain an hour tonight moving to Alaska time.

Since I didn’t see my children between breakfast and dinner I asked for a summary of their day. It was spent entirely in Edge. They played Wii or Wii-U anytime there wasn’t a planned activity. There was a scavenger hunt where they had to find things like a baseball hat, name of an officer, crew members from six continents, vibe phone number, etc. They grabbed pizza for lunch and took it back to Edge for Float Fun Trivia (where they earn parts of a float by answering trivia0. More video games, played spoons and a dice game. Villainous Ventures where they have to solve puzzles, then have a photo scavenger hunt, and a final puzzle. More video games. They stated Brains vs. Brawn, an Amazing Race type game, but didn’t finish as I had called them back to the room to get dressed. They loved it all.

 

[shanhop]

Whoops! Forgot about the additional FE gifts!

Wine glass charms, candy, bottle cap magnets, headband, key chain for Scott, pencils








Pink and blue highlighting is from by the girls.

 

[shanhop]

Two random questions: How much were the nesting dolls? Also, were there any bathrooms near the lines for security and immigration? I tend to get panicky/claustrophobic in some line situations, and need to prepare myself if I'm going to have to wait a long time.

$29.95 for the nesting dolls.

I am unsure of the bathroom situation, but there must have been some BEFORE the x-ray machines, and AFTER Customs (when you are in the Disney waiting area). But between those two points, I don't think so.

 

[MrsScooby]

Loving your report

Photos of the souvenirs you bought (on ship and in port) would be great when you get a chance

 

[nancipants]

$29.95 for the nesting dolls.

I am unsure of the bathroom situation, but there must have been some BEFORE the x-ray machines, and AFTER Customs (when you are in the Disney waiting area). But between those two points, I don't think so.

Thanks!

Your first day sounds lovely. A+ for free alcohol!

 

[shanhop]

Wednesday – Tracy Arm Day!

WOO-HOO! The most anticipated day on the trip. A little background, Tracy Arm is the name of fjord that the DCL cruise line goes up. At the end is the Sawyer Glacier. We are on only the third Disney cruise of the season. The first did not make it up very far (but did see the glacier). The second cruise went up the Endicott arm to the Dawes glacier due to Tracey arm being blocked with ice.

Morning

With the time change going into Alaska, we had added an hour, I was up at 5, and the girls were up at 6. The sun was shining brightly. Scott went up on deck before the girls awoke. And while the girls were awake at 6, no one was moving until much, much after. Of course breakfast doesn’t start until 7, so we have plenty of time.

We were at the breakfast at the buffet by 7:15, it was busy but still had tables inside. Yummy omelets and hashbrowns and fruit. And chocolate croissants. Love the chocolate croissants.

Back to the room, more FE gifts and a call to maintenance to see if they can help us fix our safe. We couldn’t get it to lock. Maintenance showed up, pushed some buttons and it worked. I have no idea what we had done, but it’s working again, so we’re happy. *Guest services called and left a message later checking to make sure the problem was solved*

*The FE gifts I posted in my last post, actually arrived this morning. Hence no picture here. I messed up the timing*

And we’re watching “The Lego Movie” again on TV. I think this is the fourth occasion that I’ve been in the room and this movie has been on the TV.

We went up to have pictures taken with Rapunzel.


EDITED TO ADD... I forgot that we attended the naturalist talk about Glaciers this morning at 9:30 in the big theater. Again, it was very informational. I *forced* my children to attend as well in hopes that they would get a little bit more out of this afternoon's trip up Tracy Arm.

And I think I said something about the wedding yesterday being on the "secret deck" which had the girls all intrigued (even though I remember us being on that deck last year). So the girls followed us, and we went to the Secret Deck (aft 7). And no, it's not really a "secret" it's just that you'd never know it was there unless someone told you. It's a small deck at the very back of the ship.





And it was surprisingly crowded already. It was not yet 10:30, but a couple professional photographers were already camped out, along with some not so professionals. We said goodbye to the girls who headed to Edge (no surprises there). They were under orders to check in and find us by 1pm.

We headed up to deck 10 to scope things out and decide what we were going to do. Deck 9, with the pools, is completely enclosed, so we'd be looking through glass. Deck 10 is open. I knew I didn't want to be at the bow. I know it gets crazy crowded up there, and there are less places to sit. I know some people like Deck 4 (it's open, but you're closed in, and can't see up), but I wanted a more spacious view.

We saw that people were starting to camp out and decided to join them. So we went back downstairs to prepare. This was going to be a layering day. So I had a sweater on, and my lighter jacket (think hoodie). I had my heavy jacket in a bag as well as small gloves, my USA mittens and hand warmers if needed.

We went upstairs and found an open spot right in front of the second funnel, port side. We chose a location right next to one of the deck boxes in order to block the wind. We dragged a round table and two chairs from the inner rail, to the outer rail. Soon thereafter I grabbed two more chairs from the stack nearby and put them between the rail and the deck boxes for the girls.

(from much later, but so you can see our set-up...)




I have to say it was an idea location as the stairs were right behind us, the bathroom were at the bottom of the stairs on Deck 9, and the drink station was right there too.

We hung out, watched the scenery. Scott read (I'm too excited, moving around to read).

A tug with a barge.


The other big advantage to being on deck 10 is that we could see off both sides. Here is the Sumdum Glacier. It's a hanging type as it does not reach the water.


Me with the glacier behind me.


As soon as we started entering Tracey Arm (about noon), we started seeing large icebergs. Considering how far these have traveled, they must have been HUGE to start with.



Glacier ice is blue. Once it is exposed to air it turns white. The blue it is, the newer it is. Photos can not give it justice. It's the most amazing shade of blue.


And here's a bald eagle on an iceberg.


And there he goes...


Our first character sighting! Pluto!


It's worth noting that the character have special Alaskan outfits that they wear today. I had been told that today was the ONLY day they'd be in them, but that was not the case. We did see them in these outfits later in the week (but I'd still try to get as many as possible today since you never know). The characters wander around, but they are only out for 15 minutes at a time, so they can't cover all three decks in that time. So don't plan on all of them coming to you. There are no photographers with them, and they don't officially stop for photos although they will take a few before moving along.

Random shots...






Doug Jones, the Naturalist was supposed to talk at three times as we went through the passage, when we entered it, in the middle, and at the very end. His talking over the loudspeakers is very regulated as is all the ships "noise" while in Alaska. I think I only heard the horn twice - when we left Vancouver and Day 1 at noon. They didn't even have FunnelVision when we were in Alaska!

Lots of waterfalls


We did have photographers coming around. I was not expecting that.


I was starting to get hungry, and I'd heard from the 9-day cruise that they served soup in bread bowls on deck. I'd seen people with it, any finally asked and found out it was on 10 forward. I walked down and stood in a short line for soup in bread, hot chocolate and cookies.

The soup was nondescript but warm and yummy (potato maybe?). It was not long after this that the girls showed up (early) and they went to get bread bowls too.

I also wandered down to the Beach Blanket Buffet and grabbed a couple of desserts (everything is small portions, so you can try more than one!).

Now for my mini-rant. I had read that there was a BBQ one day at the buffet. They bring out grills and grill all sorts of meat and fish on the deck. I had no idea that today was that day. It wasn't mentioned in the Navigator. It wasn't mentioned when I entered the buffet. I don't know how I missed it, but I did. I know on the Magic last year the type of lunch buffet (seafood, Asian, etc) was mentioned in the Navigator. Not so this week. Even our servers this night asked us if we liked the BBQ, but that was the first we'd heard about it. So if you are interested, GO FIND IT!





In an attempt to give you a sense of scale.... that's a boat.




Blankets! I forgot to mention that about half of the deck boxes that would normally hold towels, hold blankets on Wonder Alaska cruises. Lots of blue blankets.


The girls were a bit chilly, even though they had their PJ pants on under their jeans. The wind was pretty brisk at home, and the wall they are sitting behind does not go all the way down to the floor. There is an opening.

 

[shanhop]

Pictures with props!




Kate apparently can't get two good pictures in a row...





Chip and Dale!




Icebergs starting to get more prevalent, bigger and bluer.


Emma utters the words "Oh, it's a bird", which I balk at since I doubt she'd be picking out birds. It was actually our first seal sighting!


The harbor seals travel up Tracy Arm to the Glacier and give birth and then nurse their pups for 21 days (and only 21 days). There was talk at the forest offices that they may start closing Tracy Arm to cruise ships during those 21-days. Which i guess I would understand.

Here you can actually see that there are two seals


More icebergs.


We reached the glacier around 2pm.



It was incredible.


We did see two calvings (where chunks fall off), but I was not quick enough to get a picture. It was more seeing the splash. We were not close enough to hear the glacier noises.

Super blue ice






More photographers while we were AT the glacier.




And it was REALLY sunny all of a sudden. It was overcast on the way in. We had been told that overcast was better for glacier viewing as the sun tends to reflect off of all that white.

We even found Goofy at the glacier (one of my favorites from this trip!


Four seals on one berg




All the dark spots are seals


That brilliant blue...


It may be cold, but there's always room for ice cream.

 

[shanhop]

By 3pm I had "released" the girls. They were chilly, and there was only so much of looking at the same thing they can handle.

At 3:15 we saw Donald...


Then we saw this saw this...


They were out there to take pictures of the ship with the glacier in the background. We'll discuss that later

Look closely(quarter of the way from the right of the glacier) and you can see the splash as a piece falls off.


All this time, over an hour, it's been the port side that has been facing the glacier. I REALLY don't think that starboard got a good long look at it. We then took a slow turn at went back out the way we came. We were heading out by 3:30.

It was about this time that I remembered that we never heard the naturalist talk at the glacier. I don't know if they didn't put it on deck because of the seals, or if they didn't do it at all.

Turning around... we seemed awfully close to the sides.


They brought a piece of the glacier up to the pool deck.


I borrowed a piece to show Scott


Glacier ice is stunningly clear. It's very dense, and the piece at the bottom was all one crystal. Because it is so compact with so little air in it it takes a long time to melt as well.



Look how clear!






It's hard to explain how big that is.


Some last pictures....(cloudy again). If you compare the face to earlier you can see where the chunk fell off.












Time to go to the movies. I'll have to finish this later...

 

[shanhop]

Before I forget... I said earlier that we had picked up tickets to Tea with Friends for today at 4pm. Well, it was discussed at breakfast and neither girl had ANY interest in attending. They would have gone if I pushed, but I decided not to push. After breakfast I went and handed tickets in at Guest Services with a "we're not going to make it, I thought someone else could use them". The gentlemen looked surprised, but very happy. He said they'd go to good use.

Also, I never saw the Tea advertised anywhere. If you didn't know to ask for tickets, you wouldn't to know about it.

I don't know for sure which days it was, but at least of the teas on our week was with Ariel.

And it was a good thing we cancelled, because we were on the deck watching the glacier until at least 4:40.

 

[travln1234]

I am really enjoying your trip report. We were on the cruise just prior to yours and only a few cabins down the hall from you, too. We had the same steward, I'm sure. Like you, we were completely unimpressed. Never introduced himself and he lost my DD's Elsa doll in the couch when he made it up that first night. Anyway, we also had Lavendra! I can't remember our assistant server's name. We enjoyed him very much.

We found the bbq out on the deck of Beach Blanket Buffet. I would never have seen it even if I'd eaten in the buffet, had I not known it was the same day as Tracy Arm and asked for it it, too.

We talked to Sarah a lot, too. We learned she's from a city not too far from us.

Looking forward to the rest of your trip report!

 

[shanhop]

I am really enjoying your trip report. We were on the cruise just prior to yours and only a few cabins down the hall from you, too. We had the same steward, I'm sure. Like you, we were completely unimpressed. Never introduced himself and he lost my DD's Elsa doll in the couch when he made it up that first night. Anyway, we also had Lavendra! I can't remember our assistant server's name. We enjoyed him very much.

I'm glad to hear it wasn't just us on the steward. Sometimes I think we/I have unrealistic expectations of the staff because so many are raving how wonderful it is here on Disboards and other places.

Lavendra was the one shining light in our assigned staff. Even the Head Server was nothing special. He made an appearance every night to ensure we recognized him, but very little interaction at all. Ours from last March on the Magic was wonderful.

 

[for my family]

I am really enjoying your trip report. We were on the same cruise and on the 2nd deck, but all the way in the back. Concerning the bbq on Tracy Arm day, our server mentioned it to us, that's how we knew about it.

BTW, I see my entire family in one of the sail away party photos.

I did a doubletake a couple of times, as your husband resembles a former neigbor of ours.

Take care!

 

[shanhop]

PORT SIDE

We were on the PORT side going up Tracy Arm, and it seemed to have the best view of the glacier. I had a typo, and it has been fixed. In case you read it before I fixed it, I wanted to be absolutely clear.

Other Tracy Arm observations..... The one thing we did not do, and I regret it, is we did not go down to Deck 4, or even our porthole room on Deck 2 to look at the glacier and icebergs. You forget how high you are on deck 10. I really wish we'd gone to Deck 4 on the way out to experience it from there as well.

 

[shanhop]

I show that I took the last picture on the deck at just after 4:30. We then headed to our room to get rid of our warm weather "stuff". Of course it was in putting this stuff away that I found the hand warmers. Whoops. The girls could have used them.

One last picture from Scott's phone...



FE goodies...




After we changed, we headed up stairs for the first round of photos with the characters dressed in their Alaskan garb.

The girls had seen the iceberg on deck during their Edge Scavenger Hunt. They were posing for pictures while we were in line. This was at 5pm, and there are still icebergs in the background.


Scott went to see Goofy since the girls had their picture taken with him already. I took the girls to see Donald, since they had missed him.



We then ran to get in line for Mickey and Minnie, who were coming out together. Of course Goofy was still there, but we knew the drill and knew that they would start the Mickey/Minnie line before he left. There's always a CM with the characters managing the line. She asked who we wanted to see, and when we said Mickey, she has us start that line at the corner of Triton's. A few other people heard us, and they jumped in line too. One person was ahead of us in the Donald line, but backed into our line when she heard she could get in line with for Mickey.

One of my favorites!


After that, it was time for dinner at Triton's.


Tonight was the Triton's signature french menu. It appears to be the one night I did NOT write down what everyone ate! I know I ordered Escargot for the table as well as another appetizer. I bribed my two to try them ($5.02). Kate did, Emma didn't make it past the garlic sauce. Little Miss K, our eight year old dining companion ADORED them, ate two, and asked for them every night after that (and they were unfortunately unavailable). I don't remember the salad, and I'm guessing this was the night I had duck? But maybe not. Sorry. I'm useless.

After dinner it was a LOT more pictures.
We did see Pluto.. and completed the Fab 5!


Then we moved to the generic backgrounds. Since the characters were out in the Alaskan gear, most people were focusing on those. That gave us the opportunity to focus on other things. Last year we took four main photos. The six of us, the four of us, Scott and I, the two girls. This year I knew to mix it up. First up, Scott and the Kate.

Then Emma and me. (only showing you best of the three or four of each pairing).

The photographer REALLY wants group shots, so one of those too.


Tried to do Scott and the girls, and both were horrible. It was a good thing we checked in the morning so we knew to do them again!


Then we moved to the white background. We got some truly awesome photographs on this background last year of the girls. Depending on the photographer, he/she will make you take off your shoes.

The photos tonight were not that good. This is the only one I liked out of 10 taken. I think he had the girls too close to the flash, and it was causing odd shadows and closed eyes.



Really odd lighting.


Upstairs for Koda....


And over to the fireworks back drop.... If my count is correct, there were five simultaneous photo locations going on tonight.
Kate and Mom

Emma and Dad


Officers!


After all that picture taking, we headed to tonight's show... "The Comedy and Magic of Shawn Farquhar" in the Walt Disney Theater. The magic was good, the comedy was funny. Three or four people pulled from the audience (all from the lower part if you care about that). It was an enjoyable hour.

After that it was time for bed.


But not before some more FE goodies, these were from Australia!


The TimTams were amazing (and eaten at the Vancouver airport). Good thing I have some Australian friends that can hook me up!

 

[shanhop]

 

[rwhistler92]

I am loving you report. I have kids close to the age of your girls, so your info is very helpful.
Did you preorder your photo cd?
Do you know how much it is on the ship?
We leave next week for the July 7th cruise.

Thanks so much.

 

[TheChanClan]

Enjoying your trip report so far. We are going on the sept 1st cruise. I can't wait to see all those glaciers. The pictures are great, I can only imagine how breathtaking they are in person!

I can't remember if you mentioned it in the beginning..but did you buy the photo package prior to your cruise or on board? Was there a price difference? I'm trying to see if it would be worth it for our family. Thanks!