 |
| Sunset from our verandah on the Disney Wonder |
I got up early and headed out for my usual routine of going to get a cup of coffee and a scone while using the internet at Blenz. This would be the last time that I would be able to get online for a while, since I did not want to pay the exorbitant fees to connect while at sea.
After that, I headed back to the room and Dave and I packed everything up. We both packed a day bag with our pajamas, a change of shirt and our medications. I packed all the dirty laundry in one bag and the clean laundry in another bag. We killed some time looking at information about the ship and then headed down to the port. We had to go through customs at the port and then checking in for the cruise. Check in was fairly easy, and we waited around for our boarding number to be called. The people watching was very entertaining.
Finally, our boarding number (11) was called and we were walking on to the ship! Disney welcomes each family on by name (The Disney Wonder welcomes The Jones Family!) but you can ask to be introduced by any name. I asked that we be introduced as “Belle and the Beast!” We got a round of applause and some laughter.
Once onboard, it was 12:30 and we were able to try to get reservations for Palo, the adults only restaurant on the ship. We really wanted to try to score a brunch reservation, but Palo only has a limited number of spots since they only serve brunch on sea days.
The line was very long and we waited without moving for quite some time. It turns out that we later found out that the computers were down and that is why the line was immobile.
While in line, I saw Belle come out in her yellow dress. Dave, who was waiting right in back of her, motioned to me that I should wave to Belle. It took a while, but she finally looked my way. I waved and signed “I love you” to her. She gave me a hug smile and put her hands over her heart. Later, when she had finished greeting the kids, she walked over to ME and said, “I had to come give you a hug!” So we hugged and then I told her she was my favorite princess because she liked to read. She got excited and said “Do you like to read too?” and then we had a lovely conversation about books and reading and teaching.
Right after my conversation with Belle, the line started moving and I was able to secure one of the last brunch openings for our first sea day! I was very excited and walked over to tell Dave. I pretended that there wasn’t any availability left and he believed me for a few minutes until I started jumping up and down and told him that we had gotten brunch for the next day.
After that, we got a light lunch, since we were going to be eating relatively early at 5:45 and it was already almost 2. As we were finishing lunch, an announcement told us that the staterooms were ready, so we went down and checked out our stateroom and met Aristo, our cabin steward. Our bags had not yet arrived, so we headed off the the DisBoards meet. I had “met” lots of them while online planning this trip, so it was nice to put names to faces and we had a very nice conversation. Then we went to the mandatory lifeboat drill and got instructions on what to do in case of an emergency.
We headed back to our cabin and sat on our balcony as we slowly pulled out of Vancouver and headed out to sea. I changed for dinner and then we went down to Triton’s, the first restaurant on our rotation. We met our tablemates, and all of them had Maine or Massachusetts connections and we were all DVC members, so we had lots to talk about. Dave tried the escargot and said it wasn’t bad, while I had the shrimp cocktail. Then Dave had an avocado citrus salad while I had the French onion soup and for our entrees I had the lobster macaroni and cheese and Dave had the sea bass, which he pronounced “excellent.” I had a taste and it was very good. For dessert, Dave had the chocolate mousse and I had a combo of the mousse and creme brulee. The chocolate mouse was “grown-up” chocolate...rich, dark and slightly bitter. It was gooooooood.
After dinner, we skipped the show and went to our verandah and watched the coast go by and the sun go down. I also unpacked our bag of “clean clothes.” At around 9:30, we came in, got ready for bed and we rocked to sleep by the gentle motion of the ship.
No comments:
Post a Comment