Our WONDERful first trip "home" to Alaska- A Trip Report -Finished 1/8!!!

[Andrew K]

Thanks for posting this . I am trying to absorb all the info I can in the next 11 months.

 

[happenin2you]

Loving your Report Great Job!

You are fortunate in the US to have way less taxes built into the cost of your Alcohol. It wasn't that you were down town Vancouver that affected the cost of the crown or the vodka it is just that expensive up here in Canada. So it is a great tip for those of you planning on bring a couple of bottles on board, when leaving from the Vancouver Port to get it at the duty free shop as you cross over into our beautiful country.

I know the tax varies by province as well because where I'm from in NY, people often times drive over to Ontario to buy liquor because it's cheaper there.

We were amazed at the floating gas station,too. We couldn't figure out if it was for the sea planes or the boats!! You had really nice shots of the Wonder before you got on. We had a great time on our cruise. We were just down the hallway from you near the midship elevators. We really like Deck 2.
Barbara
Good job on your trip report.

I didn't even consider the sea planes, I just assumed it was for boats. I've always preferred to stay on a higher deck, but it was fine down on 2. It was very conveniently located in relationship to other places on board. I'm glad we stayed low, because now I know I don't need to pay extra to get a higher deck. I'm fine lower.

Thanks! We are really excited for the trip!

Loving seeing your first day. Too bad the party had to be moved inside, but it still looks like fun!

It was great, except a small girl next to us whipping her streamer back and forth really quick caught my husband in the eye. If you have kids, just be conscious of those streamers and other people.

I love seeing other people's versions/perspectives on the same cruise that I was on, because you took pics of many of the same things I saw, but didn't stop to capture the moment. Thank you so much for sharing these memories and photos. I'm feeling very reminiscent of this particular cruise (my best so far!) Also....I'm 99.9% sure that my son is in your pic of the Mickey pool, Hahaha!

Me too! I've been reading the other reports I could find on the same cruise and it's so interesting to see what we all did the same and different. Also, hilarious if that's your son! Maybe I'll have more pics of him

@ the 'homie' part! He really does look like one!

Great pictures! And how random that there is a floating chevron!

Right? He's so the opposite. The picture cracks me up!

Thanks for posting this . I am trying to absorb all the info I can in the next 11 months.

It's a lot to absorb so good luck

 

[happenin2you]

Ok, I know you guys are here for the Disney cruise, but I have friends and family that are also reading this (but not posting because the haven't gotten Dis accounts for some reason, which makes them LURKERS! ), and they wanna see pictures from our side trip to Colorado! So a quick update of our mini trip:

We woke up at 2:30 am and were on the road to Denver by 3 am. This is a view of the Strip as we were getting on the freeway. The hotels turn some of their lights down or off at night to conserve power, so it's not usually this dark during the times when people are normally on the strip.

Already shaping up to be another hot day in Vegas

And just a few minutes later...

The moon was very perfect looking that night

A blurry welcome to Arizona

Welcome to Utah!

I missed the welcome to Colorado sign... Oh well... We drove straight through except to stop for gas twice and have breakfast at McDonald's (I love Egg McMuffins!) and lunch at Chick-Fil-A, which we always try to hit when we travel because we don't have them in Las Vegas. We got into Denver about 4:30, which was right about exactly what mapquest said it would take, about 11 hours (there was a time zone change in Utah). By this time we went to the Denver Aquarium. You probably think I'm obsessed since we've already seen my Vancouver Aquarium pics. I'm not. But my husband... he loves the otters.

Sea life in the grass

After this we decided to find the first of very many awesome looking restaurants from the food network, bang!

It was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. We sat outside at a lovely table that felt like we were in someone's backyard and ordered the soup of the day, which was a Vichysois, cold potato soup and I indulged in a glass of merlot, my fave red wine.

I had the Gumbo which has chicken, shrimp, andouille sausage, rice, & jalapeno cornbread

And Chris had the Meatloaf with mashed potatoes, sugar snap peas, & bang ketchup. Both of these dishes were featured on the show, but they just happened to be what we wanted today. We don't specifically go out trying to order what Guy has on the show.

The food was amazing and the prices were not at all expensive. We figured out that in Denver restaurant prices just seem to be lower than in Las Vegas, which has pretty cheap food available. I loved this place and it was a perfect first meal on our trip.

From here we sought out a Pinkberry for some fro-yo, which was delish as usual, and went over to Chris' uncles house where the family was for a while. After that we went to our hotel, where Chris was able to get employee rate rooms for us and his parents who were also in town. After checking in, his parents and us walked over to Purple Ginger, an Asian fusion restaurant near our hotel, for a drink before bed. His sister was also with us but she stayed in the room because she is only 19. His mom and I both ordered Van Gogh chocolate vodka mixed with soda water and were only charged $5 for them. I was super excited because that's a pretty good vodka and was expecting to pay far more.

The next morning we woke up early and had breakfast at another Guy Fieri reccommended spot, Sam's No. 3. I had the Chicken Souvalki and egss, which came with a side of biscuits and gravy.

Chris had the Kitchen Sink Omelette which had 4 eggs, bacon, ham, sausage, gyro meat, onion, bell pepper, tomato, mushrooms, cheddar, and a side of their pork green chile and also the biscuits and gravy.

From there we were on a mission to get to the Coors Brewery for a tour. I'm not a beer drinker at all, but I was super excited!

My photobucket just froze up so I'll have to end this update here, but I plan on trying to update some more tomorrow.

Up next: Coors Brewery

 

[jedijill]

So far so good!

My parents are in town and we are doing the Diners Drive Ins and Dives tour too. We hit The Bagel Deli Sunday and Tocabe on Saturday night!

Jill in CO

 

[happenin2you]

So far so good!

My parents are in town and we are doing the Diners Drive Ins and Dives tour too. We hit The Bagel Deli Sunday and Tocabe on Saturday night!

Jill in CO

We are planning a return trip in August and are hoping to fit in the other places we didn't get to on this past trip. The Bagel Deli is one of them. Where else are you going? And how was it?

 

[happenin2you]

Happy Independence Day and Happy 236th Birthday to the Greatest Country I know!

I hope you all are having a safe and happy holiday with your loved ones. I'm planning to pump out some updates because I'm home while my husband is working for a few hours today. He is an accountant for a large strip property and this month is the close of a quarter for them, so they basically have to work for whole first 10 days of the month until everything related to the close is finished.

Moving on... I had left you at us arriving at Coors.

When you get there, they have you park in a lot across the street from the brewery and shuttle you over there. The shuttles seat 17 and arrive about every 5 minutes to take people back and forth. When we got there there was a small wait. We got on the third bus that arrived while we were there. Chris didn't mind the wait. As soon as you get out of your car, or if you had the windows down, you can smell the lovely yeast scent in the air. Chris was in love!
Coors bus parking only!

Once you get on the bus, they loop you around the streets of downtown Golden talking about the history of the town, pointing out points of interest, and talking about the relationship of Coors with these things for just a couple minutes before dropping you off near the front door of the Brewery.

Some things we saw walking up to the front doors.

This is one of their special beers. It is brewed here and only sold in Colorado. Chris contemplated trying to bring some home, but I reminded him that it would go against Adolf Kors beliefs of keeping beer cold always, which is why it wasn't shipped around the country until the invention of refridgerated trucks.

Rocky Mountain water

The M is for the mining school.

And we're in!

Coors and Miller have merged, so they are now known as MillerCoors. I get the feeling that in this specific brewery, the Miller part is maybe forgotten, or ignored. And I don't see a need for them to emphasize anything more about Miller, since this is the original Coors Brewing Company. I'm sure there must be a similar feeling in the original Miller brewery.

During prohibition they kept the brewery open making malted milk.

continued...

 

[happenin2you]

This scene is to represent college students from Colorado who went away and brought Coors to school with them since it was not available outside Colorado.

Some, but not nearly all, Coors brands that are made in this brewery.

You can feel the different things that are used to make beer.

Nobody's here today

This thing had business cards with a code to scan with your phone that would tell you the bars closest you in Colorado that have Colorado Native on tap for $1. Chris hadn't even tasted it yet and he was psyched!

continued...

 

[happenin2you]

Never thought of beer as having enemies...

There were several podiums on the tour with people to ask questions to. They were very helpful and knowledgeable.

A rough job, but somebody's got to do it, hahaha!

Fresh beer room =D

Chris tried Coors Original

I had the light version. It's about all I can handle without making horrible faces, which will come up later.

continued...

 

[happenin2you]

I love when a company is good to the environment and it's people. They have very little waste because they are able to recycle most everything in some way and their employees are the happiest I've seen maybe ever. They have a variety of taps in their employee lounge. I'm sure that has something to do with it =)

I saw these new cans at the store the other day

A short video of the packaging line

You know how old your beer is down to the minute!

continued...

 

[happenin2you]

Really long wall of Coors memoribilia

What was on tap today for tasting. You get 3 10oz samples per person of your choice. There are also soft drinks available for those who do not or cannot drink (kids are allowed on the tour as well.) You are not allowed to "share", but we asked the bartender if we could taste each other's beers. She said that was fine and the reasoning behind the sharing policy is so people don't get ridicuolous drunk and have to be escorted out. So we went ahead and got 6 different beers for us to taste together. I pretty much was not a fan of any of them except Coors Light, so I let Chris finish all my beers. I know that was not in line with their rules, but I was driving him and he was not more than pretty well buzzed. It had been our plan from before we got there since we know I don't drink beer, he would have as much as he pleased and I would drive.

First round Chris had Batch 19 and I had Blue Moon Summer Ale. He liked them. Second round he had Colorado Native and I had a regular Blue Moon, I think. I'm not sure what else I would have gotten. Chris enjoyed both of these, although Blue Moon was not new for him; he already knew he liked it. Round three I had the trusty Coors Light because I wanted to have one I could enjoy and saved it for last and Chris had the new Killian's Stout. He really liked that. It's a new beer and I'm not sure if it's out yet or coming soon, but if you like stouts, you should try it. I was looking for it at the store a few days ago and I haven't seen it yet.

This beer had a very creamy colored head... I just don't remember which one this was...

The Coors Light tap was in a giant Mountain shaped piece of ice... awesome!

Our last two beers

Coors Light ok

Stout... not for me...

Trying on hats made from beer boxes in the gift shop

No, thank YOU!

continued...

 

[happenin2you]

I thought this would be a nice spot to sit and relax, taking in the scenery and scents of the brewery.

After this we got back on the road to Denver. We wanted to explore Golden, but we had taken up too much time at the brewery and needed to get back to Denver for Chris' uncle's 50th birthday party, which was the reason we were in Denver.

A few shots leaving Golden.

We got to Uncle Brian's house about half an hour before the party because we wanted to take some photos of the kids and grandkids, because that was going to be Chris' gift to his grandfather for Father's Day. Some of these are hilarious, trying to get little ones to pose can be impossible!
Chris, his sister, and their two younger cousins.

This is the one that we used of the grandchildren.

And this was the one we used of the kids.
Chris' mom, his uncle, and his aunt.

And a couple of all of us before the grandparents got there. There are shots with them, but on someone else's camera, mine had been returned to the car by that point.

After the party, we went for more Pinkberry and then Chris, his dad, and I went to explore Ikea (another thing we don't have in Vegas) while his mom and sister went back to the hotel.

The next morning we got out of the hotel early (a nearly impossible feat if you know his mom and sister, haha!) and went to breakfast at Jack and Grill's, which we had seen featured on Man vs. Food. We got there early and we seated right away. Soon after our order had been taken, the restaurant filled up and we didn't see our server except 10 minutes later to tell my father in law he couldn't have what he ordered because they were out of chorizo and what else would he like and 20-30 minutes later when our food came out. The chorizo thing was baffling because my breakfast also had chorizo, but I still got it... The food we did get was amazing, but we did ask for things on the side that never showed up. The waitress apologized to us and said it was because they got so busy so quickly. I used to wait tables, so I get it, but we had been sitting and our order had been taken before the rush came in, therefore our food should not have been so delayed. We liked it well enough to go back next time we're in Denver, we'll just plan for extra time in case they are understaffed again. Who schedules 2 servers on a family holiday? Wack. It was very frustrating that our simple breakfast took almost 2 hours, especially when we needed to get to Chris' grandparents to celebrate father's day with them. I apologize I don't have any pics of the food, we were chatting with family and didn't think about it.

When we finally got out of there, we headed over to visit with the grandparents. Pops (what Chris' grandpa is called) loved the photos and has since requested more copies to send to his family. We stayed there for a few hours, then got on the road.

Tocabe, a Native American eatery which was featured on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives, was on the way to Boulder, which was where we were headed now. It was too early to have lunch since we were still full from breakfast, but we decided to get some Indian Fry Bread. If you haven't ever had it, I reccommend it. I love fry bread. I hadn't had it since I was maybe 10 visiting Sante Fe, NM, and it was long overdue. We all had one and got on our way to Boulder to take the tour of the Celestial Seasonings factory.

You taste the tea before your tour. They had about 10 various teas in urns for you to taste, and they also had the whole list of everything the have and if you wanted to try something else, they would just make it for you. This was the best part because they are the tea people. They know what goes best with what else and how much cream and sugar to make it perfect. There's a chocolate chai I loved that they discontinued, so they reccommended that I try the Chai Spice tea with some Hershey's chocolate sauce. It was delish! I also tried to Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride tea with cream and sugar, which was so good, we bought two boxes on the way out. I don't have any pictures from the inside because they don't allow it. The tour starts every hour on the hour, so if you want to do this, plan accordingly. I will say that this tour was not nearly as detailed or interesting as the Coors tour, but both were free and offered free samples, so you can't go wrong. The best part of the tea tour was the Mint Room. They keep all the mint in a sealed room, otherwise it would make all the other teas taste minty. When you step in there, everything is cool. Your passages are immediately clearer than ever. It's just refreshing. At the end of the tour, the let you out into the gift shop where they sell the tea and many other things very cheap. The tea was around 2.50 per box, which is far less than what we pay in the grocery store here. We stocked up on several varieties and moved on. The sugar cookie tea was so amazing, though, that we intend to go back and buy tons more when we return.

From here we visited a winery in Boulder which had a small self-guided tour and tastings for $5 per person for 5 wines I think. We did that, which we enjoyed, and then drove through downtown Boulder where the mall is, and drove around the university, where Chris' mom spent some time during college (she went to the Denver campus, but did spend some time at the Boulder one, too, for various reasons.)

After that, we headed back into Denver for dinner at Steuben's Food Service, from Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. It's a very popular restaurant and had a very long wait this night, but we all really wanted to eat here and didn't mind waiting. After about 45 minutes, we were seated in the front, near one of rolling garage doors. For those who haven't seen the show, this place used to be an auto shop until the current owners bought it and turned it into a restaurant. Chris was feeling Coors-y, so he had a banquet beer and I had Steuben's Zombie- A potent mix of four rums, house-made falernum and grenadine, orange, pineapple and lime juices. LIMIT TWO PER GUEST!!! <- from their website. I actually had two of those because when you set a limit, I'm going to test it. It was pretty strong.

Silly husband... his mom looks like she's really enjoying her beer, though =)

At our table, again sorry no pics, we had a lobster roll, a green chili cheeseburger, smothered breakfast burrito, herb roasted chicken, buffalo chicken wings, gravy fries, and steubie snacks (braised pork shoulder, deep fried and rolled in powder sugar, with a chili aioli dipping sauce. shut your mouth good!) The waitress got about half-way through the description of the steubie snacks and i was like "Ooooh yeahh!" Everyone just started laughing and the waitress was thrown off track. They were every bit as good as her description of them.

After dinner, we drove around downtown Denver a bit and went back to our hotel. We went for a short swim and went to bed. In the morning we got a quick breakfast and got on the road.

We stopped for a potty break and a quick photo in Vail.

We had been told that in Palisade, Colorado, just east of Grand Junction, there are farms and lots of fresh produce, so we decided to stop and check it out. We found a Meadery! It was one of the things on our list of things to see in Boulder, but it wasn't open on Sunday and we ran out of time before then, so we didn't get to it. This Meadery is called Meadery of the Rockies and it was a cute little shop with really good drink inside We tried several meads, Chris just had little sips since he was driving us home another 8 hours, and I finished his samples. It was our first time trying mead and we loved it so much we bought two bottles to bring home with us and joined their mead club, where they send you bottles every 3 months. It was a great discovery. We also got some fresh apricots at the reccommedation of the farmer boy who was working the fruit stand we stopped at. He seemed really knowledgeable and eager to be helping us out with any questions that we had.

From here, we had lunch at Chick-Fil-A again, got back on the road, and had dinner in Cedar City, Ut at Costa Vida, fresh Mexican Grill. The food was good there, not at all authentic, but tasty. I has a sweet pork enchilada and Chris had the Sweet pork in a burrito. It was pretty good, pricey, but I had more food than I could have eaten as well. In the future, I'd probably get something smaller like a taco.

After dinner, we got back on the road and made it home in our house by 8:30pm, which was not at all bad considering all the road construction and lengthy stops we made.

We're planning on going back in August to see his grandparents again. I'm going to have to figure out which restaurants I need to add to my list again, too.

Next up: the rest of embarkation day on the Wonder

 

[jedijill]

We are planning a return trip in August and are hoping to fit in the other places we didn't get to on this past trip. The Bagel Deli is one of them. Where else are you going? And how was it?

We are going to Duffyrolls on Friday morning. I really wanted to take them to D-Bar Desserts (Keegan Gerhart from the Food Network) but not sure if we can fit that into this trip.

Jill in CO

 

[happenin2you]

We are going to Duffyrolls on Friday morning. I really wanted to take them to D-Bar Desserts (Keegan Gerhart from the Food Network) but not sure if we can fit that into this trip.

Jill in CO

Those places look amazing! Add them to the list of where I'm going in August. I didn't ever come across them on my searches. Anything else I should know about?

 

[jedijill]

Those places look amazing! Add them to the list of where I'm going in August. I didn't ever come across them on my searches. Anything else I should know about?

We hit Duffyrolls this morning and D Bar Desserts last night. We got to see Keegan! You gotta love a handsome man that can bake.

A friend told me about Lucille's. It's downtown and apparently a great place to eat breakfast...its a Cajun/Southern place.

I love Snooze! Fantastic breakfast and who doesn't love a cocktail in the morning.

Jill in CO

PS...If you go to The Bagel Deli wave at me...I live 1 exit away.

 

[happenin2you]

Ok, so when I left you, we were just starting to pull away from the port in Vancouver. Some more parting shots of the city and the park.

This is the bridge that you go under on the way out into the open water from the bay.

People waving goodbye

The horn as we go under the bridge
After this, we went down to the spa to try to win the raffle. No dice. And from there we had to get straight to dinner. We had gotten Triton's for the first night and were super excited to get there and meet our table mates. We were placed with two other married couples about our ages and a mother and son duo who were celebrating the son's 21st birthday. Everyone got along really well and we were able to maintain long conversations every night. Now for the important part, food porn!

This is Chris' Applewood Smoked Bacon and Wild Mushroom Tart
with Creamy Leeks

And my Duck Confit Salted and Slow-cooked Duck, Dried Prunes, Candied Walnuts, Chicory and Mixed Leaves with Apple Walnut Dressing, which I was trying for the first time and really enjoyed.

I had the Tomato and Basil Soup, Rich blend of Tomatoes, fresh Basil, and Cream, which I liked.

And Chris had the "Chef Louis" French Onion Soup with Gruyère Cheese Crouton

Chris had the Crispy Roasted Duck Breast with Braised Napa Cabbage and Potato Cake, with Pomegranate Jus, which he didn't think was as good as the last time he had it. Not bad, just not as good as somewhere else.

And I had "Triton's" Seared Sea Bass with a Mushroom Herb Risotto, Sweet Onion Marmalade, and garnished with a Potato Crisp, which was another new food for me and I was in love! It was so good!

While waiting for dessert we took some shots of the room. I'm not sure why these are on their sides, I rotated them on Photobucket...

For dessert Chris had the Grand Marnier Soufflé with Vanilla Sauce, which we had tried before and love, so we were really excited for it.

And I had the Sweet Temptations, which I had everynight so that I didn't have to decide on just one thing. That night it had Crème Brûlée, Chocolate Mousse and Praline Petite Choux

Everything was delicious. I think that was my favorite meal of the whole cruise. After dinner, we spotted the start of route 66.

We stopped by our room to see that our DVC magnet had arrived, which made me very happy

A short video of the sun and light at 9:15 pm

That night we knew we wanted to go to Mickey Mania, the game show they have on board, and Wavebands for the adult scavenger hunt. Some Mickey Mania pics, before the Mania.

That child on the other side of me just appeared out of nowhere. Chris and I got a table for two close to the front and this girl, probably about 10 or 11, pulls a chair out and brings it right next to mine and sits down. I thought it was a little strange. When the waiter came to get our drinks, he asked her what she wanted and Chris was like, "Um, she's not ours." Her family kept calling her on the wave phone and she was arguing with them. Weird.

The game show was cute, but more for families with children. A picture with Mickey on the way out.

From here we went straight over to Wavebands and we watched SpeakerBoxx, the band on the ship, finish up their set.

We saw them several times on the cruise and enjoyed them very much.
Enjoying Speakerboxx

A snippet of Speakerboxx

During the scavenger hunt, one of the things that we had to "find" was a man, wearing a woman's bra, shoes, purse, and lipstick. On the cruise I don't ever carry my purse, but luckily the other girls on our team had one, I gave Chris my bra and Ugg boots (the sweater kind so he was able to easily stretch his much larger than mine feet into them) and for lipstick I wiped the chocolate sauce from my chocolate martini on his lips. It worked perfectly

Chris shakin' it in his lady garb
We didn't win, so guy who was wearing his sister-in-law's bra won. After that, we stopped for a quick photo with Ariel.

And the ceiling sculpture I'm so into

Then we hit the sack. We had had a very full day and were very tired.

Next up: A cooking demonstration with Chef Alex

 

[Señor DonDuck]

Did a double-take on the Coors tour and then read that this was a separate trip in Colorado Wow, that looks like an extensive tour.

Food porn... awesome! And now I'm hungry.

 

[Tehanna]

During the scavenger hunt, one of the things that we had to "find" was a man, wearing a woman's bra, shoes, purse, and lipstick.

Gee, I need to rethink what I'm packing for DH!

 

[Chilly]

The blokes that night who dressed up were all so funny.

 

[happenin2you]

We hit Duffyrolls this morning and D Bar Desserts last night. We got to see Keegan! You gotta love a handsome man that can bake.

A friend told me about Lucille's. It's downtown and apparently a great place to eat breakfast...its a Cajun/Southern place.

I love Snooze! Fantastic breakfast and who doesn't love a cocktail in the morning.

Jill in CO

PS...If you go to The Bagel Deli wave at me...I live 1 exit away.

I'm taking note of all of these and will be waving to you as we head towards the Bagel Deli. I'm so hungry right now!! Thanks for the great tips

Did a double-take on the Coors tour and then read that this was a separate trip in Colorado Wow, that looks like an extensive tour.

Food porn... awesome! And now I'm hungry.

It was a really long, really nice, free, self-guided tour. I highly reccommend it to anyone who would be visiting the Denver area.

I feel like the pictures don't do the presentation of the food any justice. It was soo good!

Gee, I need to rethink what I'm packing for DH!

Haha! Just make sure to bring your purse and lipstick to the hunt. It'd be really funny if you came prepared with his "own" bra from the Goodwill or something.

The blokes that night who dressed up were all so funny.

I agree. My poor husband never does anything like that that puts him outside of his comfort zone. I think he needed to have had a couple more drinks to have actually danced a bit more. He was pretty embarrassed to be running up there and I'm sure if he thought he would have had to stand up there for that long and face everyone in the room, he probably wouldn't have done it. He had fun though, surprisingly

 

[happenin2you]

If you haven't noticed, I've posted a link to a trip report of someone who was on the same cruise who has scanned images of all the navigators. It is located on the first page of my TR. Hopefully this person doesn't mind, but I no longer have a scanner at home and the one my husband has at work is only black and white. I also kept other things from the ship including the Vista Spa menu with prices, the duty free liquor price list, the onboard shopping promotions, the stateroom tv guide, featured films, buena vista theatre schedule (although I'm sure those would be most likely to change more frequently), a map of the ship, and our voyage navigator which describes each day's basic events in a glance on one sheet with basic rules, services, and descriptions of food venues. If you have any questions pertaining to any of these things, I'd be happy to share what I can find out for you, but at this time, I do not plan to scan them in. That being said, let's get on with the report!

We had placed our placard for room service breakfast outside our door the night before for delivery around 7 am, I believe. We just had a simple toast, fruit, juice, and milk snack delivered so that we would have something in our stomachs before we went to the gym. Our food arrived on time, we ate, changed into our gym clothes, and watched tv in our stateroom for a short while to let our food digest before heading out to the gym. My husband and I run, but he prefers the treadmill and I prefer the elliptical. There were two right next to each other at the front, center of the gym facing the water. Score! Until we got on them and realized the ceiling is lower in that part of the room and my husband barely fit on the treadmill without hitting his head on the awkwardly placed smoke detector on the ceiling. I offered to move to another spot, but he said he could make this work. He did, and we had a very refreshing morning workout. I love the water infused with orange and lemon pieces and the fresh fruit in the gym area. It was much better than bringing a water bottle or using a drinking fountain. After this, we went back to our room and got ready so that we could squeeze in the Art of Entertaining cooking demonstration before our brunch reservation at Palo. We got there early and wanted to get seats right in the front, but I don't reccommend this, and we didn't do it for the rest of the cooking shows we went to. They have cameras that display the cooking surface so you can see what the chef is doing, but if you are in the front, you are basically under the monitor so you have to look straight up to see. It was awkward.

Chef Alex, who is the head chef at Animator's Palate, made Herb Seared Alaskan Halibut with Fennel Confit, Olives, Sweet Peppers and Yukon Gold Potatoes.

The food was amazing and comes with a wine paring, which I have no idea what we were given. I only remember it was a white wine. I think it may have been a reisling.

After this, it was about time to head to Palo for brunch. Chris noticed the elevators had Mickey's hand.

We were a few minutes early, but they sat us right away next to a window, where within moments, people with much better cameras than ours were zooming in and looking at whales that were so far out we could not see. First of many missed whale sightings for me.

A short video Chris shot of the inside of Palo

Mmm... mimosa

Chris experimenting with pictures of objects

Chris' plate, which included from the top left of center, salmon paste, assorted cheeses, non-alcoholic bloody mary shrimp shooter, cinnamon roll, caprese salad, breads, crackers, mushrooms, poached scallop, ahi tuna, caviar with all the accompaniments, and lox in the middle.

And Chris trying the caviar to see if it's as good as people seem to think it is. I was not interested in trying it. Wimp, I know.

My plate contained pretty much the same things as his, minus most of the adventure. I had cinnamon roll, a small chicken salad sandwich, more bread, the shrimp shooter, tuna, proscuitto wrapped melon, caprese salad, eggplant wrapped (goat?) cheese, a strong blue cheese, a wine soaked cheese, brie, and a cheese that went with the walnut (the blue veiny one)

From the a la carte section we ordered the grape gorgonzola pizza

OMG!!! Strawberry soup was the best thing ever!!!

Chris ordered some kind of Eggs Benedict. It was either salmon, crab, or lobster... kinda looks like salmon to me.

I also ordered Eggs Florentine and Chicken Parmesan that I apparently did not get pictures of. They were amazing. I wasn't sure that I'd like the eggs, so I ordered the chicken as a back up, and man they were both amazing. The fee to dine at Palo is completely worth it.

After Palo, we took some time to explore the ship a bit more.

Always gotta get a picture of the wake, I love it!

We had talked about trying to do a bunch of the various tastings they had on board, so we went to the Onboard Services desk to see if they had room at the wine tasting, which is something we love doing, and the bloody mary tasting, which we were also interested in. We were in luck, they were able to get us in to both tastings.

Next up: Tastings and Animator's Palate