Day 3, Wednesday, July 8, Tracy Arm
Slept slightly better today, waking up close to 6, then I stayed in bed, probably playing around with the DCL Navigator app and texting with my new friends aboard the ship to see what their plans were.
As I mentioned we had set up some penpals for the kids thru that other social media site. Some of the penpal moms and I ended up texting each other throughout the day to see what each other was up to, and to arrange for the kids to meet at the clubs so they would have pals to hang out with. It worked out really well.
Waited until close to 7, then woke the kids up so we could go to breakfast at Parrot Cay. We were happy to find boxed cereals available for the taking. She chose corn flakes for herslef and ate about half a bowl before pushing it away. The rest of us probably ordered scrambled eggs, bacon, the usual stuff. At 8:35 DH took the kids to see "Big Hero 6" while I went back to the stateroom to change.
At 9 o'clock I went to the spa to meet S for our jaunt to the Rainforest Room Spa. The attendant showed us around the two different steam rooms and sauna room in the Rainforest Room itself, then left us alone to change in the locker room. Because the spa co-ed, we had worn swimsuits under our street clothes, so we pulled off our tops and pants, put on the robe and slippers available in each locker, then went into the spa.
We first tried out the "mild steam room", which actually wasn't that mild because the steam was coming out full-blast right when we went in. I didn't realize the vents were at foot level, so got a little scalded when I walked by one. Yikes! Thankfully the pain didn't last long. We sat down and chatted about this and that. Probablay stayed in there for 10-15 minutes? Not sure, because I left my phone in the locker and didn't have my watch on, so had no concept of time whatsoever. Anyway, we stayed in there long enough to become red lobsters, then we went on to the sauna (dry heat). That probably killed another 10-15 minutes or so before we moved on to the much smaller aromatic steam room, after which we moved to the tiled loungers in the main room. We chatted with the other two ladies who were already there about the cruises everyone's been on. I left at 10:10 as I had arranged to meet with my family at 10:30. I also bought another one-day pass for future use with another friend, since DH was not interested in the spa experience at all and I didn't want to go by myself.
DH, DS, and DD were already back from the movie by the time I arrived, I think. We moped around until 10:45, when we went up to Pluto's Doghouse up at Deck 9 to get hotdogs and french fries for the kids. I also ordered some chicken tenders for DH and myself. But when we sat down DH was like, "Um, why did you get those? Did you forget we're going to Palo?" Oops! I did forget. Silly me. That was the whole reason the kids were having hotdogs, so that we could send them to the kids' club at 11:20 in time for our brunch at Palo at 11:30.
Everything went off as planned--went back to the stateroom, put on makeup, changed, dropped the kids off, went up to Deck 9, where people had staked out their loungers by the sides, getting ready for a view of Tracy Arm. We also saw S's family up there at port side, where they were nicely bundled up. The winds had picked up slightly, so I was glad I had a little sweater with me because it was quite chilly in the open air.
We arrived at Palo at 11:35, and were happy to learn Sasha was to be our server as requested. He was very nice, knowledgeable, not obnoxiously over-solicitous. He showed us around the buffet area, then left us alone to choose what we wanted to eat.
At 11:56 we saw the first piece of iceberg float by. It was quite small but I took a picture of it anyway (you can barely see it, a little white dot to the right of the champagne flute):
I went back for two rounds of appetizers (king crab legs, shrimp cocktail, marinated mushrooms,ahi tuna prepared two styles, the two mousses weren't very good as they felt dry, and various sundries):
Also ordered an eggs benedict for myself and shared some of DH's veal saltimboca (very tender; highly recommend), then I had panna cotta (good) and pot de creme (OK) for dessert.
Overall, the food was good. Not amazing, but good (am spoiled by haute cuisine in the area where we're from), and I enjoyed the scenery and in particular the serenity that comes with adult-only dining. No children to interrupt my thoughts every five minutes with demands of this or that! *sigh of happiness*
The bigger chucks started appearing around 12:16 p.m.:
I also want to point out how quickly the fog hugging the mountains appeared and disapeared:
While at Palo, we also saw two separate pods of orcas who all breached and jumped. The passengers as well as wait staff all rushed to the aft windows to get a good look; even Sasha commented it's not often you see so many all at once. I did not get photos of the orcas because I wanted to remember the scene in my mind's eye (and without a good lens the picture wouldn't have come out anyway). But it really was quite a sight, to see them in person. Everyone wooed and aaaahed, then returned to their tables.
For those who haven't been to Palo, there are two rows of tables, so even if you don't get to sit right by the windows you can still get a pretty good exterior view. They also blocked off the walkway outside so people couldn't park themselves there and block the Palo patrons' view of the ocean.
We entered Tracy Arm at 12:52 p.m. (so 12:00 reservation would've been better than our 11:30:00 one). There were many waterfalls that came down from the side of the mountains. Most of them were very thin:
At 1:15 p.m. we finished lunch. Walked around slowly, then picked up the kids at 1:30. We were going to head out to Decks 9 & 10, but brought them back to our stateroom instead. And it was a good decision because DS & DD really weren't that interested in the scenery outside anyway. They were happy to be out on the verandah for maybe 5 minutes at a time. When they got bored they ran right back into the room to play. I was so glad we got a verandah for this reason. If we had gone up to Deck 9/10 and got a good spot, and the kids got whiny after 10 minutes, one of us would've had to either take them back to the club or hang out with them in the stateroom below.
2:08: We got our first view of Sawyer Glacier from our verandah. It was still quite far away. We called the kids out again, but DD started fussing about wanting to sit on the chair (she was probably starting to get a little tired). DS headed back in, so DH carried her for a while, pointing out this and that to her. She got bored after 5 minutes, then went back in to play some more.
We were seeing more and more chunks of blue (and some green) ice float by:
DH didn't think we'd proceed further, but we did (whew!). We also saw some seals hanging out on the ice or swimming by. They were fun to watch.
Oh I want to thank the person (can't remember if s/he was a DISer or from elsewhere on the web) who recommended these gloves:
They kept my fingers nice and warm, and I could quickly take the tops off to use the camera or do other things. Totally awesome! PM me if you want the exact name and where to buy 'em.
At 2:30 I went down to Deck 4 to get an alternate view. First I went to port-side. There weren't a lot of people there. I tried to go all the way forward, but it was blocked off--a CM said they were fishing for ice, and would re-open that section later.
I then went to starboard. Woa, there were a ton of people here, and no wonder (har har), as that was where you could get a good view of Sawyer Glacier! A's family was hanging out here, so I took a picture with her with the DCL photographer, then I went back up to the stateroom.
A short while later the ship started to turn around so the people on port side could get a good view too. The sky got more and more ominous as the day went on:
Our next-door neighbors were hanging out at their verandah also, so I asked them to take a family photo of us with the glacier in the background. It came out just slightly too dark because of the bright white background from the glacier and sky. Our neighbor offered to re-take it, but without a flash we couldn't really get it to come out right. Oh well, it was worth a shot.
At 3:30 the captain turned the ship around slowly again for starboard to get their view of the glacier. We put DD down for her nap and had DS play quietly in the sitting area. 20 minutes later we got our view again, and at that point the ship started heading out.
It drizzled a bit the whole time we headed into the fjord, but by the time we left it had started to rain quite a bit. Well, it wasn't pouring per se, but just enough to bother me if I were out in the open.
DH and I stayed at the verandah until 5, when we woke DD up to get ready for dinner, you know, the usual bath/shower routine.
We had dinner at Triton's tonight. Can't recall the appetizer, but I wrote down that I enjoyed the potato soup, rack of lamb, and the sweet temptations dessert, which offered a trio of mousse, creme brulée, and something else (mango mousse?).
At 7:45 we got in line for a photo with Mickey in his Alaskan garb. Took 15 minutes, which was way better than the ordeal from the night before! DD needed a bathroom break afterwards, so we did that, then headed for a professional family photo with the Alaskan background. These lines were always much shorter, so I was more willing to spend time waiting there.
Tonight's main attraction was the Kyle Knight and Mistie Magic Show. As can be expected, they did an excellent job. The highlights were the classic act of cutting the lady in half (they even had random audience members standing around the boxes so Kyle coudldn't "trick" us), moving 4 coins around in front of our eyes and ending up with 16 (? lost count). The last one and best one was when Mistie put Kyle in a box, lifted it high up in the air while Mistie pulled up a screen to cover herself up, only to drop it within a few seconds to reveal Kyle, then the box came back down, and out jumped Mistie in a different dress. Simply amazing. It was the kids' first time seeing a magic show. They were absolutely mesmerized.
Trudged back to the stateroom, and got the kids in bed at 10:10, so I went to the deliver the last FE gifts as I had been lagging (most people in our group had delivered theirs on the first two days).
At 10:30 I happened to walk by the atrium on deck 3 and saw that Minnie was in her Alaskan costume! So I got in line (one of the last ones to make it in, woot!) and had the photo taken at 10:37 according to the timestamp.
Prior to sailing, a fellow DISer had asked for photos of art around the Wonder as s/he was planning to do a scavenger hunt for a family (friend?) who would be sailing in August. Because of this request, I actually walked around the ship quite often and took random photos here and there late at night. The ship was much quieter then, and it was very calming.
At 11:05 I returned to the stateroom and called it a night.
