Bringing the Wonder home (LA to Vancouver Repo) - 04/27-05/03 - (Lots of food pics)

[Petals & Pixie Dust]

Joining along! Can't wait for more!!!

 

[megsablue]

Cruise Day 4 - San Francisco & At Sea

Again though we thought we'd let ourselves sleep in, we both ended up getting up earlier than we thought we would (around 7:30). I guess we're getting older because even just a year ago, we would have been able to sleep in until 9am We got ready (while I watched Make It or Break It - I kind of got addicted to the show while we were on the cruise) and headed up to Beach Blanket Buffet for breakfast.

No photo of breakfast, I must have forgotten, sorry! However, I'm a creature of habit, I pretty much got the same thing everyday, so you can imagine it .

It was another beautiful day in San Francisco (nice and sunny) and we had only planned to go to the Farmer's Market at the Ferry Building, so we had time to have a relaxing morning. By the time we were done breakfast, it was around 9:30, so we decided to grab our day bags and head down to the market.

By the time we got ready and disembarked to San Francisco, it was around 10, so we hopped on the F-Line and took it down to the Ferry Building (the market opened 10am). I couldn't believe how busy it was! Usually we hit our Vancouver Farmer's Market when it opens and there's usually not that many people until about an hour later - so it was a pleasant surprise to see so many people supporting their local farmers. (I realize that San Francisco has a great history or supporting their local farmers and the Farmer's Market at the Ferry Building is world renown).

I ended up getting some heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo (I've since used some since we got home - I can't believe how much more flavour they have!) and as I was paying, I realized that I had left my wallet back in the stateroom in the safe. I was really upset because I had most our our cash left and of course, very very few people took credit cards. I decided that I'd just get the beans and not the rest of my list that I had been hoping to get (let's hope that some of them ship to Canada! I'd also been looking at some unfiltered extra-virgin olive oil and some other yummy goodness). Here's a picture of Rancho Gordo's fun packaging:

(Aside to the foodies in the group here - I have to say, I cooked some of the Rio Zape beans the other day and they were phenomenal. My DH isn't a big bean lover, but I am and we both absolutely loved them - I didn't even add any seasoning or anything, just boiled them, and they turned out fantastic.)

We also walked around inside the Ferry Building and I was amazed at the quality of artisan foods available in San Francisco. I'm a bit of a foodie, so I was salivating at pretty much every place! If I had been able to eat deli meat, raw oysters and unpasteurized cheeses, I'm pretty sure I would have gained 10lbs that morning alone! (For those who watch Food Network, Chris Cosentino's Boccalone looked amazing!)

There was a Sur La Table inside the Ferry Building (one of my guilty pleasures) so we walked through there as well - I ended up buying a kitchen shear and knife set, which after I bought, realized I wouldn't be able to just waltz back on to the ship with. Luckily, I was upfront with the security people and let them know, so they took it, gave me a form and told me I could pick it up at the end of the cruise, so I did get to keep it after all! Yay!

After dropping off our day bags in our stateroom, we headed up to the Beach Blanket Buffet for lunch where the buffet was themed with Asian food. I have to say that this was my least favourite of the lunch buffets, but I think it may have been what I picked because my DH liked it.

This is my plate:

I wasn't a fan of the dumplings (they were cold, which I thought was weird) or the noodles, but everything else was good.

This is DH's plate:

(Can you tell he's a major carb lover? )


I got us a plate of desserts to split:

By the way, the desserts that day were amazing! I loved all of them - they were SO good! The apple strudel thing was a little hard to cut, but it tasted really good. The mango cheesecake was among some of the best mango cheesecake that I've had, but the best was the panna cotta (I think it was peach-mango). It was SO good! I've definitely been thinking about that since I got home

After lunch, I needed a nap (because of course I'd been up for almost 6 hours! ), so we went back to the room and I slept while my DH read a bit on my Nook. I woke up an hour and a half later (around 3pm) so we went up to the Cove Cafe to grab a snack and cup of tea before we sailed out of San Francisco. (Sorry, I forgot to take photos of the Cove Cafe food, but I promise you, it's completely worth it to go up there!).

We then headed up to Deck 10 to watch as we sailed out of San Francisco. With the weather being so nice, there were TONS of people on deck. Originally we were forward, but after thinking about the photos my DH wanted to get, I convinced him to go to the aft section of the ship. It was MUCH less busy and we ended up getting some great shots.

Going past Alcatraz again (I love that place, it's so creepy feeling, even during the day!).

Almost to the Golden Gate...

Well-wishers from the Golden Gate...

Goodbye San Francisco!

After we were a bit from the Golden Gate Bridge, we went back to our room to go get ready for the evening's show. Since we had seen quite a few people in Pirate gear, we stopped at Mickey's Mates to grab some Pirate hats before we headed back to our room. I had also picked up eyepatches when we were in DL, but we realized that with glasses it's hard to wear eyepatches! We got ready and headed down to Toy Story the Musical. We grabbed our usual seats and in contrast to the Golden Mickeys, DH and I really enjoyed this show. Right after the last song, we took off to beat the crowds and headed back to our stateroom to relax before we headed for dinner.

As we were laying on the bed, I remarked to my DH that I didn't know that there was an island off the coast of California that far north (it had to be an "island" because we were on the left side of the ship, so all we should have been seeing was open ocean). We watched out the window for awhile before in the reflection of the window we saw a bridge that looked an awful lot like the Golden Gate. My DH called Guest Services and they explained that no, we weren't going crazy, but that there was a medical emergency so we'd gone back to San Francisco. The person on the phone thought we were upset that we had gone back because we wanted to make sure we had lots of time in Victoria, but my DH assured her that we just wanted to double-check that we weren't going crazy .

Turns out that by slipping out right after the last song, we had missed our Cruise Director explaining that during the show, the Captain had announced that we had to go back into port due to a medical emergency. (Note: On our cruise meet-up thread, someone posted that it had been appendicitis and that the woman was doing well enough to fly to Vancouver and rejoin the cruise there - it sounded like she was a B2Ber - so she's fine and doing well!).

We ran up to Deck 10 so that we could watch us come in again and my DH got some nice dusk shots of San Francisco.

We stayed up there until we had to leave to head down to dinner.

(Too many photos again - stay tuned for Part II!)

 

[megsablue]

Cruise Day 4 - San Francisco & At Sea - Part II

I have to say that online, I had looked at the Parrot Cay menu and I wasn't too thrilled with it. I usually love ethnic foods (Indian, Japanese, Greek, Italian, etc), but Caribbean food has never really appealed to me. I was hoping that we'd have a Pirate Menu for Parrot Cay, but unfortunately it was not to be. However, I have to say, my pre-judgement of the restaurant was way off!

To start, I had the Baked Crab Dip Martinique and DH had the Island Spiced Seared Ahi Tuna.

(Sorry, you can see I forgot photos until we were well into our appetizers! Plus it's a little fuzzy from the shaking from the engines - we found out later that we were pretty much at full speed) I was blown away at how good the crab dip was - I thought the plantain chips were an absolutely perfect match and next time, I think I'd see if I could get it with only plantain chips. DH though the ahi tuna was really really good as well (I told you he loves tuna!). Oh and that Banana Bread is amazing! I'm going to try and see if I can find the recipe online somewhere because I've been craving it ever since!

Next, DH ordered the Cold Cream of Mango and Papaya Soup and I ordered the West Indies Romaine Salad.

The soup was absolutely delicious (DH let me try it) - it wasn't as thick and creamy as I was expecting, which was nice. We both though that I might try to recreate it this summer at home - with a salad with chicken on it, you'd have a great dinner!

The romaine salad was pretty much a Caesar salad, which was completely fine with me because I'd been wanting a big leafy salad all day. The dressing was really good and I didn't really taste the "spice" int he croutons.

For our entree, we both ordered the Mixed Grill (though Steven had recommended the Rib-Eye, telling us it was one of the best he'd had) because it sounded so ridiculously good.

The Mixed Grill lived up to the hype that our server Mihailo had given. The steak was juicy and flavourful and the lamb chop was the perfect amount of gaminess. The shrimp wasn't chewy at all (and had a great flavour) and mashed potatoes were delicious. I think I finished almost all of the food on my plate except for the asparagus (I hate asparagus, but DH ate it happily as I never make it at home and it's one of his favourites) and the bacon-wrapped sausage (a touch greasy for me). The grilled tomato was really good too - I'm thinking I should start making these at home as well.

For dessert, we both were so full we decided to spilt a dessert, the Creme Brulee Cheesecake. It was really funny - Mihailo was almost offended that we didn't want two desserts. We had to assure him that it was nothing to do with him or the food of the restaurant, we simply were really full already!

The cheesecake was REALLY good - we almost needed another one I think this was one of my favourite desserts of the whole cruise.

After dinner we decided to go back to the room and watch a movie instead of going out to one of the adult areas. As an aside, since Parrot Cay is closer to the engines, we could really feel it when the Captain kicked the ship into full gear. It was a cool feeling (reminded me of being on BC Ferries a bit). We ended up watching a bit of Life As We Know It (perhaps not the *best* movie for a pregnant woman to watch ) before falling asleep.

 

[megsablue]

Cruise Day 5 - At Sea

Yay! Finally a day where we were able to sleep in! We knew from the night before that we wanted to head to the Captain's Corner @ 10am, because I was dying to know how it was going to take us 12 hours to get from Victoria to Vancouver because on BC Ferries, it would take about 2 hours. After getting ready, we went past Triton's for breakfast, took a look at the menu and decided that Beach Blanket was probably a better option for us. I have a really hard time eating breakfast (my DH says it's like pulling teeth most days), so a buffet where I can pick and choose usually is better. Plus, DH likes being able to go for seconds because while I'm not a big breakfast eater, he's a really big one (he LOVES breakfast). Sorry, I must have forgotten to take a photo of our plates this time around again (or I figured it looked like every other day ).

After breakfast, we headed down to Wave Bands (we got there a little early at 9:45am) for Captains Corner. I thought it would be really cool that we got to talk to the Captain and some of the questions were *hilarious*! (One lady wanted to know if the plumbing was different from the Magic because she was having major issues with her toilet and she'd never had problems on the Magic before. She then went on to list all the problems with her stateroom she was having, as if the Captain himself would come down and fix her problems. I thought it was comical, though I felt bad she was having all of these problems!).

I finally got to ask the Captain our question of how long/how fast it was going to take us to get to Vancouver from Victoria and I felt he was totally annoyed with my question (I wasn't questioning his captaining skills, I was just wondering! ). He didn't really answer why it was going to take that long, just that we'd be going 10 knots for 12 hours between Victoria and Vancouver. (As an aside, when I woke up by accident at 3am and couldn't get back to sleep, I looked at the Report from the Bridge channel and we were going 5 knots ). I did the math and wasn't really satisfied with his answer, but left it. (Later that night, it felt like we were just floating to Vancouver, which was kind of cool!)

After the Captain's Corner, we walked around the ship and DH took some photos.

(My DH loooooved this chandelier - we have many photos of it! It is really cool looking though - reminded me of the Bellagio in Vegas).


We checked on our photos in Shutters, bought our Palo one, but decided against purchasing the one we got of us with the Golden Gate in the background since it would have been $40 for 2 photos (am I the only one who feels that's expensive?). I felt that there wasn't as much to do on this At Sea day as the previous At Sea day, but it could have been my perception. We walked around for awhile before we decided to try the Parrot Cay buffet for lunch.

Lucky us, it was the Seafood Buffet! Yay! (We're big seafood lovers and since I've been pregnant, it seems like I love it even more). I was really impressed with the selection - there was even Indian food (and we LOVE Indian food as well)! There were even crawfish, though I was too scared to try them since I'd never had them before.

Here's a picture of my plate:

I pretty much ate everything on my plate (and then went for dessert). It was really good and my favourite of all the buffet days.

After lunch, I took a nap (again! ) and then spent the afternoon on deck, just people watching and lounging around. It was a *great* way to spend the day after so many days of sight-seeing. I went back to the room around 5pm and got super comfy watching TV, so when the time came around for us to watch Dreams in the theatre, I convinced DH that we could watch it on our TV and spend the evening (before dinner) just relaxing (he read the Nook for awhile).

We ended up watching Dreams (which I have to say, was my favourite show out of the ones we ended up seeing) and we both really liked it. We got ready for dinner - it was semi-formal night and the Captain's Gala, so it was fun to get somewhat dressed up again (for the last time), then headed back down to Triton's for dinner.

Here's some photos of the menu:

For appetizers, I had the Garlic and Herb-Sauteed Shrimp, while my DH had the Oysters Rockefeller on the Half Shell.

(Somehow the photos of these got deleted - sorry!)

My shrimp dish was SO good! I absolutely loved it - I almost asked Mihailo to just bring me another two as my entree instead of my actual entree (though I'm glad I didn't). DH's oysters were also pretty good; he'd never had Oysters Rockefeller before (usually we order raw oysters at our local seafood place) and he really enjoyed them.

For our soup and salad course, I had the Garden Fresh Salad (I was craving a salad - I kept forgetting for most of the trip that the salad bar at the buffet was at the back, so I kept forgetting to get one the entire time) and DH had the Wild Forest Mushroom Soup.

My salad was a basic salad (which was fine with me, I was happy with a regular salad - though the tomato chips were really good!) and DH's soup was his favourite soup of the whole trip. He kept saying how amazing it was (even after he was finished ;-)).

For our entrees, I had the Pan-Seared Venison Medallions and DH had the Baked Lobster Tail.

Oh my goodness was my entree good! I loved every single part of it - the venison (it wasn't too gamey), the cabbage salad part, the potato croquette (so delicious) and the sauce - oh that sauce! It was my absolute favourite (though I may be saying that for everything) entree of the whole trip. DH loved his lobster tail as well - he was especially happy that he didn't have to crack the tail or do any of the work He was surprised because most of the time when we've had lobster it's been boiled, but when you broil it, it concentrates the flavour more, so he was pleasantly surprised at how good it really was.

For dessert, I decided to have the Amaretto Cheesecake (even though it had Amaretto in it, I figured if it was safe for those under 21 to order, it should be fine) and my DH had the Warm Chocolate Lava Cake (he's a bit of a chocoholic in addition to being a carb-o-holic).

Both were absolutely delicious - my DH had the happiest look on his face as we were eating. They were so good!

After dinner we decided to walk around the ship a bit (including walking outside a bit) before heading back to the room for bed. When we got back to the room, we watched a little TV before falling asleep (though I was pretty excited for Victoria, so I didn't really sleep that much).

 

[mmmears]

Great updates! Glad you had a good time in San Francisco.

One question -- it seems like the lunch buffets have a "theme" each day -- is that listed somewhere (like outside BBB) or do you just have to go in, get in line, and figure it out? I think some menus will appeal to us, and for others we'll probably choose to find a sit down lunch instead.

 

[megsablue]

Great updates! Glad you had a good time in San Francisco.

One question -- it seems like the lunch buffets have a "theme" each day -- is that listed somewhere (like outside BBB) or do you just have to go in, get in line, and figure it out? I think some menus will appeal to us, and for others we'll probably choose to find a sit down lunch instead.

To be honest, if there was a "theme" we only caught on to it when it was the seafood buffet and the Asian buffet! All the other times, it seemed just like normal buffet food, but I could be completely wrong and there could have been more themes and we just didn't catch on. We pretty much just got in line and figured it out... though it would have been nice if it was posted somewhere. (I didn't see it outside of the buffet or in the Personal Navigators, so I'm not sure where else it would be posted).

 

[mmmears]

To be honest, if there was a "theme" we only caught on to it when it was the seafood buffet and the Asian buffet! All the other times, it seemed just like normal buffet food, but I could be completely wrong and there could have been more themes and we just didn't catch on. We pretty much just got in line and figured it out... though it would have been nice if it was posted somewhere. (I didn't see it outside of the buffet or in the Personal Navigators, so I'm not sure where else it would be posted).

Thanks for the info! I'm looking forward to the rest of your trip report -- it's great so far -- keep up the good work!

 

[megsablue]

Cruise Day 6 - Victoria

Before I even get into this cruise report, I just want to say that I absolutely love Victoria so I'm a very biased person to write about Victoria. My Mom grew up in Victoria (before moving to Vancouver in her teens), so in my family, Victoria has always been a special place. Plus, cool fact: my grandfather was the person in charge of bringing the first English double-decker bus to Victoria. Thanks Grandpa!

The morning started fairly early for us because we both were excited to be in Victoria and we couldn't sleep in due to that. We got up, got ready, went outside and took in the grey Pacific Northwest weather (having grown up on the Wet Coast, I absolutely love the grey), before heading off to Beach Blanket Buffet for breakfast.

Like I said, I'm a creature of habit. I find things I like and stick with them

After breakfast, we went out on deck and took pictures as we pulled in.

Once we were docked, we went down to our room, grabbed our day bags and headed down to Deck 3 where we'd be disembarking (by Triton's). When we got there, there wasn't much of a line, but about 10-15 minutes later, it was PACKED! I was really happy we got in line when we did. It took a bit to get off because it seemed there was another medical emergency - they brought in a gurney and took someone off on it before we were allowed to leave. Finally, we were allowed to leave and they ended up opening both sides so more people could disembark since there were so many people.

Somehow, even though my DH & I stopped to take pictures of the Wonder in dock (since you could walk right up to the ship, it was very cool to get unobstructed shots of the ship), we ended up being the first people to reach the terminal. We were met with great fanfare (by people in Victorian dress) and we were a little embarrassed because we knew they were hoping the first people off the ship would be from somewhere a bit more exciting, not Vancouver! They gave us pins and a corsage for me, which I thought was very sweet, but because we were a little confused and embarrassed, we kind of sped through there (which now I feel kind of bad about). They took photos of us and apparently we'll be in some paper on June 1st.

(Me confused with my corsage)

Our plan for the day was only the Royal BC Museum - I had heard that the Empress tea was expensive for what you got (from my Mom), so we decided against that (even though I realize it's an institution). Not to mention that we'll be in Victoria next weekend and I'll be doing high tea at the White Heather Tea Room, that has amazing reviews.

We had decided that we'd walk to the Royal BC Museum (I had google mapped it before we left and it was under 2km, so we decided we could walk it). Since we've walked around the waterfront of Victoria many times, we decided to take the shortest route (I think it shaved 0.75km off versus the waterfront way) to get to the museum. We stopped to take pictures at the Legislative Assembly, where the kind guard let us know that we were more than welcome to come in and visit, but we politely declined since we had a museum to get to!

BC Legislative Assembly

We finally got to the Royal BC Museum and it was just as awesome as I remembered. I love that museum - (probably doesn't help that I'm an anthropologist/archaeologist!). Here's some pictures from our visit:

(As an aside, I'm VERY disappointed in DCL for not offering this as a shore excursion - it's one of the best attractions in Victoria and a fantastic place to take family. I honestly think it's one of the best museums I've been to and I used to work at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia! It really is a great museum for lots of ages - we saw a little boy about 3 or 4 having a blast, my nephew who is 9 LOVES this museum and both DH & I love it as well. I hope they change this for next year - maybe have guided tours or have a lunch/museum combo?)

After the museum, I was starving - in fact so much, I went prowling through the gift shop to see if there were any snacks. I ended up finding some maple sugar cookies with maple frosting, which were really good! It made me laugh that I picked the most typical touristy thing (except for maybe maple syrup) to eat LOL

Cookies weren't going to fill me up, so we asked at information where we should head out to eat - nothing really hit us other than Old Spaghetti Factory (I really like OSF), so we headed there (it was two blocks away).

After getting our fill of bread, salad and spaghetti, we took a cab back the ship (I think it was around $10) because my feet hurt. Later figured out that I hurt a bone in my foot, so it was a good thing I didn't push it and try to walk all that way back.

We got a picture of Mickey on our way back...

We got back to the room and *surprise* I took a nap! After my nap, we went back up to Deck 9 to sit and have a cup of tea while taking in the sight of Victoria from the ship. By the afternoon, the weather had cleared up and it was absolutely sunny and beautiful (I was so glad that people got to see Victoria in all it's pretty glory). I'm glad that we got back early because later we heard that around 4pm, there was a crazy line to get back on the ship!

We decided to head back to the room and watched the cameras as we pulled out of dock at Victoria and grinned as we realized next - we'd be HOME!

(As an aside, I have to admit, we love where we live, so while most people are always sad to leave their vacation, we're always excited to come home).

After watching us pulling out, we turned the channel so that we could watch the show for the evening - for some reason, it never came on, so we never got to actually see the last show. We ended up just watching TV and then leaving early before dinner to walk around the ship.

 

[megsablue]

Cruise Day 6 - Victoria - Part II

Dinner was in Animator's Palate and this was the menu for the evening:

For appetizers, I ordered the Grilled Chicken Sate, while my DH ordered the Sesame-Crusted Tuna Sashimi, Wakame Salad and American Caviar.

(oops, may have forgotten to take photos until we were into our appetizers again )

I was pleasantly surprised with my Chicken Sate, it was moist, but not to crazily spiced - and the cucumber salad and mint-yogurt sauce were both really good. I honestly wasn't expecting much, but it was delicious. And as usual, my DH loved the tuna appetizer (notice how he really did order it everywhere? ).

For our soup and salad course, I ordered the Potato Leek Soup, while my DH ordered the Crawfish and Lobster Bisque.

My Potato Leek Soup was to die for! I have to say again, you read the description and you think, Potato Leek Soup, how good can that be? But it was so good! DH liked his Crawfish and Lobster Bisque as well, but said that my soup was better. (Lucky for him, I couldn't finish it - I still needed room for my entree and dessert, so he got the last 1/3 of it).

For our entrees, we both ordered the Garlic and Rosemary-Marinated Lamb Sirloin.

Again, this was a great entree - I'm not sure how they made the potatoes, but they were crisp and creamy all in one. The sauce that accompanied the lamb was really good - I need to figure out how they make their sauces! DH loved his lamb sirloin as well - though lamb is his second favourite thing after tuna

For dessert, I took one look at the menu and promptly decided on the Baked Alaska (I LOVE 7 minute frosting, which is meringuey, ice cream and sponge cake, so how could I go wrong?). DH hummed and hawed about his choice before finally settling on the Deep-Dish Apple-Cranberry Pie. Mihailo took note that he couldn't decide and brought him the Till We Meet Again Sweet Temptations (his other choice) as well.

The Baked Alaska was good - the meringue was perfect, the cake was a little dry and the ice cream tasted a little fake to me, but overall it was still pretty good. DH said that his Apple-Cranberry Pie (it looks more like a cobbler to me) was also very good - the ice cream on top was a pretty good quality ice cream, so it definitely added to the yummy pie. We split the Temptations - the cake was VERY good (so chocolately, but not too heavy), but neither of us liked the shot glass of cappuccino mousse (it had a weird aftertaste to it). The little meringue cookie was yummy though - nice and crisp and light.

After dinner, we decided to turn in early because we both wanted to be up early to watch the ship go under the Lions Gate Bridge and into port. We live in English Bay, so we wanted to get a couple of pictures of the area as we sailed past. Though we were told we'd be crossing under the bridge around 5:30am, we set our alarms for 5am just in case, packed up some more stuff, set out our suitcases, then headed to bed!

 

[Toria]

Cruise Day 3 - San Francisco - Part II

At Animator's Palate, we were introduced to our server, Mihailo, who was from Serbia, and Henry, who was from the Dominican Republic. They made a big deal of us finally coming to dinner as it was the third night of the cruise and they were just now meeting us, which was kinda funny. Mihailo later told us that if we hadn't have shown up for dinner that night, they were going to send someone to check on us to make sure we were okay! (We had our own table so at least we didn't have tablemates wondering where we were!)

For appetizers, I had the Roma Tomato and Portobello Mushrooms on Polenta Cake, while my DH had the Ahi Tuna Tartare.

I wasn't expecting much for my appetizer, but it was the only thing that sounded appetizing (ha!). However, the sauce (red curry and coconut) was amazing and brought the whole dish together. I keep thinking I need to recreate this at home!

DH loved his tuna tartare as well - we joke that we're starting to take after our cats with the amount of tuna tartare and sashimi we can pack away. Normally, I would have had the tartare as well, but it's frowned upon when your pregnant.

For our soup and salad course, I had the Baked Potato Soup (with Bacon and Chive Garnish) an DH had the Smoked Salmon and Trout with Goat Cheese Salad.

The Baked Potato Soup was SO ridiculously good! In fact, I have a bunch of the Disney cookbooks, so I'm thinking I need to look through them and see I have the recipe because come fall/winter - that would make an awesome dinner with some crusty bread and salad!

DH really enjoyed his salad too - he's a huge fan of goat cheese, so if it has goat cheese in it, he'll order it!

For our entrees, we both had the Beef Tenderloin with Baby Bok Choy and Mashed Potatoes. (This is a photo of mine, since it was medium-well, DH's was rare).

This entree was absolutely delicious! I think it was one of my favourites (if not the favourite of the trip). The sauce was very flavourful - we both really enjoyed the dish. We also both enjoy baby bok choy as well, so we also really enjoyed the veggie portion of the dish.

For dessert, I had the Strawberry Sable with Passionfruit Cream and DH had the Buckled Warm Apple Crumble.

I really liked the Strawberry Sable, though I couldn't figure out how to eat it properly (the sable is crunchy, but if you try to cut through it, you squished the dessert). No matter though, I managed to eat it all!

I like to bug my DH because he can be very predictable when it comes to food - like he always orders Tuna Tartare, he ALWAYS orders Apple Pie or Apple Crumble if it's on a menu. He thought this one was particularly good, which is a lot coming from him - since he orders it everywhere!

Mihailo also brought us a chocolate celebration cake for our anniversary (it had been noted on our reservation) and a bunch of the servers sang "Happy Anniversary" to us. It was very sweet of them!

The cake was really good - very chocolately and fudgy.

After dinner, DH went up to the upper decks and took some nighttime shots of San Francisco while I went back to relax (and ended up falling asleep before he got back. Whoops!).

That food looks delicious!

 

[megsablue]

I was away for the Canadian long weekend (was actually back in Victoria!), but I'll post the last day (our arrival in Vancouver) with photos later today. Sorry it's taking me so long to get everything together!

 

[megsablue]

Cruise Day 7 - Vancouver! (Home!)

The alarm went off at 5am and I got up to look out the window and see where we were - surprisingly, I recognized the familiar lights and shoreline of West Vancouver, so I realized we were already heading into the Burrard Inlet. We scrambled to get ready and throw some clothes on and get out on Deck 10 so we could take some pictures.

Once we got on deck, there were very few people out there (my DH beat me out there by about 5 minutes, but the time I got up there I think there were 3 or 4 other people at the front of the ship). It was cool, because it most of the people out there were locals, so we all got to talking about where we lived and the area, etc. I actually got teary because it was so beautiful out there - the sun coming up, the fresh air - and though I love Disney and vacations, I absolutely love where we live. (Sorry, I'll stop gushing now!)

For those that haven't sailed into Vancouver before, the Lions Gate Bridge is kind of like the opening to the port/downtown area from the water.

Here's some shots that DH took as we were coming up to the Lions Gate Bridge:

Looking at English Bay (where we live) from the Wonder

Coming up to the Lions Gate Bridge (I'm guessing that was pilot boat in front of us)

So pretty with all the greys, blues and greens (and lights)...

One with the front of the ship in the photo

Close-up of the bridge

Under the bridge!

Getting closer to the port (that's Stanley Park to the right)

Vancouver sky-line...

Sky-line of Vancouver with Canada Place (that's the building over the water with the white sails) in it




Then he took some photos as we came into port.

Almost in port and the sun's almost up - that's Canada Place on the left, with the Vancouver Convention Centre on the right

Pulling into dock...

Almost in dock... (side note: Waterfront Station - the big transit hub for buses, SkyTrain, Canada Line and Seabus is that red brick building with white trim on the left side)

The crew that got us into dock safely... Thanks guys!


After we were in port, we went back down to our room to pack up the rest of our stuff - we got done a little early, so we watched TV until it was 8am and then left our room for the last time.

We walked around the ship (it seemed way more busy than it had even when we boarded - not sure how we picked up extra passengers though!) until it was time for us to head to breakfast in Animator's Palate.

I totally spaced on taking photos of breakfast that morning, sorry. I will say though, Mihailo was really good about bringing us separate things (DH wanted a side of pancakes), which we really appreciated. He and Henry asked us a bunch of questions about Vancouver (best place to get sundries, best places to eat, etc. Apparently the food for the cast members on the ship isn't as good as what guests get), then we said our good-byes and then we headed to the Promenade Lounge to wait until Red Mickey was called.

After Red Mickey was finally called (I think we were the second to last group, but I could be wrong), we headed out. We picked up my knife/scissor set at Lost and Found and then headed through Customs. I have to say, going through Customs at a port is SO much easier than by land or air - they barely looked at our form (even though we were bringing back close to our limit).

We picked up our luggage (just a hint - all of your luggage may not be together!), then waited in line for a cab (it was like a 5 minute wait - if that). We got a cab waved goodbye to the Wonder as we drove away, then headed back to our apartment. Bye Wonder! We'll see you all summer!

 

[DMMarla07860]

liked your trip report. I like looking at Vancouver from the Wonder that last morning it was so pretty and driving threw on the bus to the airport really wish I could have stayed a day later or something. Hopefully I'll go back. I almost am finished with my trip report from the same cruise

 

[megsablue]

Epilogue - So would we do it again?

So after coming home, unpacking, organizing photos and having some time to reflect on our trip, it seems all of our family wants to know - would we go on a Disney cruise again?

The short answer is maybe. As of right now, there's no itineraries that appeal to us, so we don't really have to make a decision anytime soon. (For those wondering, my dream itinerary is a Southern US trip - Galveston, New Orleans, Key West, then Port Canaveral for a trip to WDW! Or an Eastern US/Canada trip with better ports than what DCL is offering for 2012)

For the long answer, here's our pros and cons of the trip.

What we liked:

- The food - The dining room food was consistently delicious, while the buffet food was overall pretty good.

- The service - Every Disney employee we were in contact with was extremely helpful and courteous and several went above and beyond.

- The entertainment - Aside from the Golden Mickeys, I was blown away by the evening stage shows (we didn't see anything else, but others said that the other entertainment was really good as well).

- The Beverage Bar and Self-Serve Ice-Cream - I really appreciated these amenities!

- The room - We found the room spacious enough for the two of us and we really liked the amenities in the room, as well as our split bathroom. We also liked how quiet it was.

- Being able to unpack once and then be able to go to different ports of call!


What we weren't so crazy about:

- Afternoon food selections - I would have preferred that the buffet be open (with the lunch items) until at least 4pm to accommodate those with late dining.

- The dining assignments (both times & restaurants) - 5:45 seems early to me, while 8:15 was a little too late for us. I thought we would like this, but I think I would have much rather had a freestyle dining experience like Norwegian has.

- The motion - I totally understand that Disney has absolutely no control over this. But as some one who gets severe motion sickness, it's something I have to take into consideration before booking another cruise (hopefully if there is a next time I won't be pregnant so I can take some heavy duty drugs).

- I wish there was more for adults to do on the second at sea day. I would have liked to see more classes (maybe a ballroom dance class, or more "The Art of Entertaining" type classes) provided.

- And as a complete oxymoron to the above, I felt sometimes that everything was really scheduled by Disney and was a "group" activity. I would have liked more things that just DH & I could do, as well as I would have liked some more open-house/drop-in type events (like perhaps like wine-bar style tastings, but I can't really think of anything else). I totally realize that this would be difficult for DCL to pull off, so that may be why they're not offered now.


Overall, DH & I feel that we may just not be cruise people. It's not that our cruise wasn't great overall, it definitely was and we had a lovely time thanks to Disney. My guess is that it could be that we're such park people that we are more comfortable with doing things on our own schedule (especially now that we're used to the DVC accommodations) and without the motion . So while we're happy that we went on our cruise, we're not sure that we'll do one again (especially in the near future as we're planning both DLR & WDW trips in 2012 & 2013 respectively).

However, that being said, I want to thank everyone on the Disboards who went above and beyond to answer my questions and to make our first cruise special. Thank you!

 

[megsablue]

liked your trip report. I like looking at Vancouver from the Wonder that last morning it was so pretty and driving threw on the bus to the airport really wish I could have stayed a day later or something. Hopefully I'll go back. I almost am finished with my trip report from the same cruise

Thanks! We were lucky to have an absolutely beautiful day as we pulled into port, so it gave everyone a good impression You'll have to come back and visit our fair city! I've been keeping up with your TR too - it's always fun to read TR from someone who was doing the exact same thing - gives you different perspectives!

 

[DMMarla07860]

Thanks! We were lucky to have an absolutely beautiful day as we pulled into port, so it gave everyone a good impression You'll have to come back and visit our fair city! I've been keeping up with your TR too - it's always fun to read TR from someone who was doing the exact same thing - gives you different perspectives!

I agree about reading trip reports about people doing the exact same thing, love the different perspectives and too see what others did on the cruise as well. I don't think I'll be back to Vancouver anytime soon, but want to try one day. Can't wait for Magic to go to NYC though so I am only 1 hour away

 

[nunzia]

Thanks for a great trip report! Your city does indeed look beautiful..wow..what a skyline..(I live in a town with just sky, no line).

 

[FergusBC]

Thank you for the great trip report! We're booked on the return Van-LA relo so it's been interesting to follow your report and try to imagine doing it all in reverse . But if it makes me sad just to reach the end of your report, how am I going to feel at the end of our cruise!?!

 

[KatiezMom]

Great trip report, we are also doing the Van to LA repo and was imagining how our trip would compare. I really wish our cruise went to San Fran as well, Ensanada just doesn't compare.