Wonder-filled first-time cruise to Alaska! (2023 6/12-19; Completed 9/26)

[shosh1530]

Reading through Alaska trip reports helped convince me take our first-ever cruise. And I haven't seen many recent ones, so I thought I'd write up a trip report about our recent sailing on the Disney Wonder from Vancouver to Southeast Alaska.

About our family



DH and I are both in our early 50s and DS is 11 (almost 12). We live in Arizona and have been to Disneyland a few times in recent years (and shared trip reports from January 2022 and June 2022). I've always been Disney-obsessed, while DH is a sometimes reluctant participant. The kiddo definitely feels the Disney magic and wants to visit all the parks around the world (and now also become a Pearl Castaway Member - oy!).

I had actually been thinking about a Disney cruise to Alaska since DS was about 5. We didn't really have the budget back then and then when the Covid quarantines first happened, I swore I would never go on a cruise. But then with all the not-so-great changes happening in the parks I was ready more and more on the Disboards that DCL still had a lot of magic and Alaska started calling to me again.

Then DS started campaigning for a Disney cruise and that sealed the deal. He actually chose this over going to WDW (although we ended up doing that too just me and him on spring break). And Alaska seemed like the perfect opportunity for me and DH to have lots of nature time and for the kid to enjoy the ship.

We are also all different degrees of vegetarians – so expect lots of discussion and photos of food in this trip report. I'm mostly vegan with a shellfish allergy and major sensitivity to dairy. DH eats a mostly vegan diet but will do eggs when we travel. DS is mostly a pizza-tarian and eats whatever he wants, but almost always avoids meat.

We also took more than 1500 photos during our trip. I'll try not to go overboard, but expect a lot of photos.

 

[shosh1530]

Table of Contents

Some notes about planning
Day 1 - From Tucson to the West End of Vancouver
Day 2 - Stanley Park and... more Stanley Park!
Day 3 - Embarkation and sailing away
Day 4 - Rough seas but finding our groove
Day 5 - Glacier day
Day 6 - Off the beaten-path near Skagway
Day 7 - Shifting plans in Juneau
Day 8 - Kayaking in Ketchikan
Day 9 - A lazy, last day at sea
Day 10 - Back to Vancouver
Day 11 - Back home and final thoughts

 

[shosh1530]

Some notes about planning

I'm the planner in the family and it it has become something I enjoy a lot. I enjoy researching things and places that are new to me and learning as much as possible. So I was excited that there was so much to plan for an Alaskan cruise! And going on a cruise was something very new to me so there was so much to learn.

Dates and flights
We started seriously thinking about booking the cruise in early November 2022. DH and I had talked a bit about doing the Galactic Starcruiser, but the cost was so high that we were comparing that to other options. An Alaska cruise in the summer (when it is over 100 degrees everyday where we live sounded perfect.

I picked a few possible dates out by looking on the DCL website. Early June seemed like the best possibility as DS got out of school by Memorial Day and the July cruises seemed so expensive. Then we started looking at the best flights we could get.

I ended up booking the flights first on Black Friday through an Air Canada deal ($867 for all three of us direct Phoenix to Vancouver). The only dates that worked with was the June 12 sailing, so that is how we settled on which week to sail.

After booking, I read tons of horror stories about Air Canada that made me nervous. But I'm still happy we got such a good price. I wasn't so worried about lost luggage as we were flying direct, but was annoyed that they changed our flight times twice before our departure. In the end though it all worked well.

Booking our stateroom
I had a little sticker shock when it came to actually booking the cruise! We had missed opening day prices and could really only afford deck 1 or 2 cabins. A verandah would have been lovely, but was definitely not in the budget. The real debate for us became between inside or ocean view stateroom. In the end we decided having a window would be really nice.

Everyone suggests using a travel agent, so I went ahead and did that for the on-board credit. We also chose an agent who specialized in special needs travel as our son has some neurodevelopmental issues (DAS holder in the parks) and I was a bit nervous about he'd do on the cruise (spolier alert: he did great!). Our agent helped answer a lot of questions at our initial consultation.

I had already picked out the cabin we wanted (2514) before even contacting the agent so booking things went quick. We needed a room with the pull down bunk as none of us in the family can really share a bed. This limited the options to pretty much deck 2 aft or foward and I saw lots of terrible review about noise and vibration in the lower aft decks.

Vancouver hotels
I obsessed for months over where to stay and booked and rebooked our hotels. I know many people stay right near Canada Place in Vancouver at the Pan Pacific or Fairmont Waterfront, but neither of those offered rollaways and only had two double beds (not to mention they were very pricey). We booked a few different options with 3 beds in Downtown Vancouver for the night before the cruise and the Fairmont Airport for the day after the cruise to fly home.

Then Air Canada changed our flights for the first-time in February. We decided to shift our dates to stay two nights before the cruise and fly home the same day. This took us back to the drawing board on hotels and I started looking at the West End area of downtown to be close to Stanley Park.

We settled on the Sylvia Hotel near English Bay Beach for our before-cruise stay ($624 US for two nights with tax). The hotel had a 3-bed unit with two queen beds in one room and then a small room with a twin bed.

Then Air Canada changed our flight again later in May. Our afternoon flight for after the cruise was canceled and there was no way to get home that same day. We considered cancelling and changing airlines, but all the other flights we looked at would have been over $1000 per person. So we decided to just add one final night and booked the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver (a few blocks from the port, $370 US including tax) as they confirmed they could do a roll away bed for no cost.

Planning excursions
Thinking about excursions was the most fun part of the planning and I spent much of my Christmas holiday time researching. I budgeted about $2500 for excursions and quickly realized we'd need to book outside of Disney to make our money stretch further. Many of the port adventures listed on DCL looked the same as what I was finding on different websites but often for a good deal more. Plus DS could still get kid pricing through independent tours whereas DCL would charge full adult price.

I was mostly interested in tours that would get us away from the cruise port, a bit off the beaten-path and into nature. I went over options with both DS and DH to get ideas of what might appeal. DS was undecided about most things, but really got excited about possibly doing a glacier dog sledding trip. He also liked the idea of going rafting. I knew he would not tolerate a long trip in a car or by train and also thought he'd get bored quickly on things like whale watching. My goals was to find shorter excursions (4 hours max) that would keep him active or doing a variety of things. In the end we booked:

Glacier Day -
skipped the boat excursion so we could save for other things

Skagway -
Chilkoot Hike and Float through Skagway Float Tours ($131/adult, $110/child) - note we were contacted in May that the Chilkoot trail we were originally supposed to do for the "hike" part was closed and we would be doing a nature hike in the Dyea area instead. We decided to keep the tour as it still sounds interesting.

Juneau -
Glacier Helicopter with Dog Sledding booked through Alaska Shore Excursions (using Coastal Helicopters) - $1887 for 3 adults (no child price)

Ketchikan -
Orca Cove sea kayaking booked through Alaska Shore Tours $159 per person (no child pricing)

Next up: our travel day and first experiences in Vancouver

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Fellow Arizonon here! We've been on 2 Alaska cruises with DCL. Looking forward to hearing about your cruise! Welcome back to the heat!!

 

[shosh1530]

Fellow Arizonon here! We've been on 2 Alaska cruises with DCL. Looking forward to hearing about your cruise! Welcome back to the heat!!

Yeah, not loving the heat since we got back. When we left on Tuesday morning it was about 50 degrees in Vancouver and was at least 104 when we landed in Phoenix. Tucson is usually a little cooler, but is 108 today. Yuck.

Did you do different itineraries on your two DCL Alaska cruises? I'd love to do it again.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Yeah, not loving the heat since we got back. When we left on Tuesday morning it was about 50 degrees in Vancouver and was at least 104 when we landed in Phoenix. Tucson is usually a little cooler, but is 108 today. Yuck.

Did you do different itineraries on your two DCL Alaska cruises? I'd love to do it again.

My Alaska trip reports are below in my signature. We did two 9-night itineraries. Both went to Sitka, one went to Hubbard Glacier.

 

[auroralark]

Hi there! Excited to hear about your trip! We are also a family of three headed on our first Disney cruise to Alaska in late August.

 

[Flossbolna]

Signing up for this! Our Alaska cruise is in August, so this will be perfect for getting me more excited!

Great start to your trip report. We booked all independent excursions as well for our cruise, but we are doing long car rides and whale watching, so quite different from your choices!

 

[shosh1530]

Welcome, Flossbolna, auroralark, disneyfaninaz, and anyone else who is following along. I hope you all enjoy the trip report as much as I know I'll enjoy writing it. I always enjoy remembering every moment of the good trips!

And now time to get started...

 

[shosh1530]

Day 1 - From Tucson to the West End of Vancouver

Our travel day had arrived! I tend to get really nervous before a trip, but I had actually managed to get a little sleep. We had done almost all the packing the day before: one big suitcase to with our bulky warm stuff, one medium suitcase with all our essentials and clothes for the first two days, one small suitcase will all of DS's clothes, and one duffle bag full of must-have stuffed animals.

We just had to throw in a few last-minute items, double check that we had our passports like 14 times, pack the car, and we were off. We had debated about trying to arrive at the Phoenix airport (about 1.5 hours from Tucson) 2 or 3 hours ahead. Air Canada recommended 2, but we decided to give ourselves the extra cushion.

We left around 8:45 am and I was immediately glad we had some extra time as there was a huge line of cars backed up to get on I-10. Google Maps told us there was an accident several miles up the freeway, so we made a lengthy detour through town. Once we got toward Phoenix we also realized I-10 was closed near Sky Harbor causing another lengthy detour. All in all we lost that extra hour.



Luckily things went smoothly once we were at the airport. Check in and security were fairly quick. We grabbed some lunch at Panera, played on the toddler playground for a minute (DS sometimes forgets he is not toddler sized) and before you knew it we were boarding our Air Canada flight! I normally hate flying, but it sure helps when you are going somewhere really fun.



The flight was just under 3 hours and went fast. We decided to mask just for this portion of the trip to hopefully reduce any chance of getting sick at the beginning of the cruise.

It was rainy and cloudy as we landed in Vancouver, so there weren't any great views coming in. The airport is really lovely though with lots of art and interesting things to see. We quickly made our way to baggage and passport control and before you knew it we were in a taxi heading to downtown Vancouver.

It took about 30 minutes to get from the airport to the West End side of downtown. The cab dropped us right on the side of the Sylvia and looking back I could see that we were even closer to the beach than I realized.





We got checked in quickly and I immediately love the historic charm of the hotel. They had real keys (just one per room, but you could leave it back at the hotel desk, and their our historic photos as artwork through out the lobbies, hallways and rooms, showing scenes from the area back in the early 1900s.

DS was less in love with the place and spent our first few moments grumbling about how old it was and the lack of amenities (TV too small, no pool, no vending machines, the horror!). We realized he was getting hangry and quickly formulated a dinner plan.

I had a list of nearby restuarants, which he promptly rejected. But he liked the sound of a noodle place, Legendary Noodles, that DH found on Google. We quickly grabbed some layers and headed down Denman St.

Luckily the restaurant felt closer than it looked like on the map (just a few blocks). It was very small with just a few tables and had a mixture of Chinese art and oddly Italian fixtures as well.



Our server reassured me that several of the dishes could be made vegetarian/vegan so we ordered a few things to share. They make the noodles on site and they were truly legendary. DS loved them so much he exclaimed that he wanted to eat there everyday of our trip.



After dinner, we walked up Denman to find some ice cream and then we walked along English Bay Beach while he ate it. There were numerous geese (and lots of goose poop) all over the sandy part of the beach. We headed up the beach towards Stanley park, but DS ran out of energy pretty quick.



We stopped to watch this heron fishing in the water on both the walk up and walk back down and got to see him catch a few fish. He was in this same spot the next two days when we walked by.



It was cloudy so we weren't able to really see the sunset. I didn't realize at the time that the clouds were keeping the crowds (especially on a Saturday night) away from the beach as it was pretty quiet.



After our walk, DH turned in really quickly and I organized our stuff a bit. I'm pretty sure we were all asleep by 10 and resting up for Stanley Park the next day.

 

[sadiecatie]

Following along as well to see how your experience was - we were on the same sailing! Loving reliving things a little

 

[shosh1530]

Following along as well to see how your experience was - we were on the same sailing! Loving reliving things a little

Welcome, sadiecatie! Excited to have you along as well. I saw you started a trip report so I'll be excited to see what your adventures included.

 

[ukintheus]

Following along! Good start to your cruise, looking forward to hearing more.

 

[shosh1530]

Day 2 - Stanley Park... and more Stanley Park

We had a pretty restful night of sleep and DH and I both woke up before 6. DH wanted to go for an early walk so he put on some layers and headed out while DS and I both stayed in bed awhile. I mostly snuggled under the cover and looked at some different options for the day on my phone. We had vague plans for Vancouver of doing Stanley Park, Granville Island, the aquarium, and Grouse Mountain, but no firm plans.

The first order of the day was breakfast. DS really wanted to try the hotel restaurant and after checking out the menus of other nearby spots it seemed to pretty much have the same options and costs. I snagged a quick reservation online and we headed down figuring DH would find us when we got back.

The Sylvia Bar and Restaurant was pretty quiet and we probably didn't need that reservation. You can see English Bay from the windows and a nicer day we might have sat outside. DH wandered in right after we got some hot chocolate for the kid. We all ordered and thought the food was very good. I even managed to score some vegan avocado toast made with Just Egg substitute.



The weather was still overcast and just a tiny bit drizzly and we all thought this would work well for our idea to bike around Stanley Park. We packed up our rain jackets just in case and took about a 10 minute walk down Denman Street toward the other side of Stanley Park where the bike rental places all were.

We decided to go to Spokes rental shop as I had heard good things and visited their website before the trip. They had a very quick and efficient process. Within minutes we were set up with cruiser type bikes (7-speed I think), locks, a basket, and helmets. You pay hourly with half day and full day rates depending on how long you keep them out. I was super excited as they had the exact same Townie bike as I had at home.

Our goal was to bike around the sea wall (about 5 miles) and hopefully stop at a few interesting places. Our first stop was a grassy area where you could see Canada Place and the two cruise ships in port. We could also see sea planes taking off and landing.



We also stopped by the Girl in Wetsuit artwork (reminded us all of the Little Mermaid) and played for a few minutes at the splash pad (while hitting up the bathrooms too). The sea wall was starting to get crowded by this point and there were a really large group of college-aged kids all on tandem bikes we had to maneuver through a few times.



My pictures from the bike ride don't really capture how beautiful all the scenery truly was. We live in the desert and I work from home now and don't get out as much as I used to. So getting to see so many views of the ocean, trees, and sky all over the course of about two hours really took my breath away (although really was just an appetizer of what was to come in Alaska).



The west side of the park had even more dramatic views and I wish we could have spent more time there. The bike path got very narrow in some places with numerous bikers passing us. DS started to get a little squirrelly and announced there would be no more stops that did not involve ice cream. I had to risk taking a few more photos while we were still moving!



We stopped at the concession stand at Second Beach and thankfully found gelato. We also got some lavender lemonade for me and hot tea for DH. There is a public pool here that looks over the ocean that we thought we might come back to (but never did). DS played on the swings for a few minutes.



DS was ready to return the bikes and we got a little lost about which bike path to follow to get back to where we started. We eventually cut across the bottom of the park passing buy this beautiful lake area (that I later learned is Lost Lagoon). We made it back to the bike shop and turned all our gear in just shy of the 3 hour mark.

I was still feeling full from breakfast, but DH and I both agreed it might be good to get some lunch into DS since he tends to get edgy if he doesn't eat every two hours. He briefly wanted to go back to the noodle shop from the night before, but we all agreed to tried the vegetarian Israeli restaurant right next door called Ofra's Kitchen. This was another tiny restaurant that appeared to be run solo by Ofra herself. We ordered a hummus plate, falafel wrap, and a bowl of soup – all very worthwhile.



DS was pretty tired from the biking, so we decided to head back to the hotel to rest. For DS this meant some iPad time and DH took a proper nap. I decided to see if I could pop into a local salon to get a pedicure as I had not had time before the trip and my feet really needed some love.

I found a few options on my phone and headed to the one closest to us on Denman Street. They had openings for walk ins and I was sat in a nice massage chair right in the window where I could watch the busy foot traffic go by. The pedicure itself was a little more intense than I'm used (male nail tech with very quick and strong massage hands), but I enjoyed the people watching and the paraffin part that I don't usually do at home.

After I got back to the boys, we decided to head down to the beach for a little bit before our dinner reservation at the Cactus Club Cafe on English Bay. DS really wanted to do typical beach stuff like body surf, but settled for taking off our shoes and getting our feet wet (yep, it was cold). The sun was out, and that also meant way more people at the beach on a Sunday night.



It was already past 6 pm, so we wiped the sand off our feet and hustled over to the Cactus Club for out 6:15 reservation. There was a line out the door for people wanting to get a table, so I was glad I made a reservation before we left. We were quickly seated and ordered some fun non-alcoholic drinks – the "hey hibiscus" with rose, peach, lemon and soda and the "soul revival" ginger beer, jalapeno, mango, lime, and basil.



Much of the food is Asian fusion and they offer a small vegetarian/vegan menu (and gluten free options) in addition to the regular offerings. We ordered the zen rolls (vegan sushi), a crispy tofu poke-type bowl, and an Impossible burger. It was all so good, but the zen rolls won the day (the whole trip actually). DS gobbled them up so fast I only got one.



I'm hitting my picture limit, so I'll do a part 2 with our after dinner beach walk and more Stanley Park.

 

[Flossbolna]

Looks like a great start to your vacation! I love the sound of that noodle place, I already noted it down for when we will be in Vancouver in August.

And your bike ride around Stanley Parks sounds like a fun adventure! Kudos to your son to make it all the way around.

 

[shosh1530]

Looks like a great start to your vacation! I love the sound of that noodle place, I already noted it down for when we will be in Vancouver in August.

And your bike ride around Stanley Parks sounds like a fun adventure! Kudos to your son to make it all the way around.

It was a really great start! The noodle place was not somewhere I'd normally just try on a whim, but we all really liked it and it was fun something different.

I had been dreaming of doing the bike ride, so I was also thrilled DS was able to hang in there. I thought there was a chance I'd have to do it alone.

 

[shosh1530]

Day 2 - Stanley Park... and more Stanley Park (continued)

After dinner, we decided to walk south along the beach. This part of English Bay had a bit of a Venice Beach type vibe with folks playing volleyball, lots of music, and a lot of hustle and bustle. We headed down to look at the Inukshuk statue. This Inuit symbol was made for the 1986 EXPO and was brought to Vancouver a year later. My kid said it reminded him of something from one of his video games.



We watched the water and the people for a short time before DS started fervently asking to go back to our hotel.



Even though it was already after 8 pm, it was still very light out. I decided to go for a solo walk over to Stanley Park while DS and DH settled in for the night. There was still quite a few people on the beach, so I decided to explore the interior of the park and quickly discovered both lawn bowling and a "pitch and putt" golf course.



They really manage to pack a lot into the park, with tons of different winding paths and beautiful trees. I discovered Rhododendron Garden and stopped in to explore the lush landscape, including some plants with huge leaves and quite a few mosquitoes.



As I left the garden I ran across a family of adorable baby geese. I was sure to give the mother goose a wide berth as she was keeping a weary eye on me.



I was trying to find my way back to the Lost Lagoon we had passed during their bike ride and thankfully it wasn't too hard to find my way there.



I loved how the trees and sky reflected off the calm water and sat and watched for a good chunk of time. It looked like it was possible to walk all the way around the lagoon, and I debated doing so. But in the end I was worried it would get dark before I could get back. Our phone plan didn't work in Canada either and I didn't want to worry DH staying gone to long.




After I turned to head back toward the beach areas, I saw a small riparian area with an informational sign about beavers in the park. I explored a little deeper and got really excited to see some movement thinking it was a beaver. It turned out to be a racoon instead, which I enjoyed watching it walk carefully along the rocks on the bank. They must have been slippery as he fell in to the water two times before he headed off to wherever he was going.



I wandered a bit, following different paths and generally heading west until I eventually found my way back to Second Beach.



From the beach I started walking back toward English Bay and stopped along the way to watch the sunset.



We could still hear some music from the beach when I got back to our room, but it quickly died down. We all fell asleep pretty quickly and slept well after all that activity. Which is a good thing as tomorrow was embarkation day!

 

[sadiecatie]

That looks like a lovely evening walk! We also visited Stanley Park, but just did the bike ride around the perimeter, and I was wondering what there would be on the interior if we’d had enough time to thoroughly explore.

 

[shosh1530]

That looks like a lovely evening walk! We also visited Stanley Park, but just did the bike ride around the perimeter, and I was wondering what there would be on the interior if we’d had enough time to thoroughly explore.

It is amazing how many different things Stanley Park has! I wish that we had even more time to explore and bike the interior. We ended up visiting the park every single day we were there.

 

[shosh1530]

Day 3 - Embarkation and a bit of bumpy start

DH had told me the night before that he was going to try and get out for an early walk around Stanley Park. True enough, I awoke to the sound of him getting dressed sometime around 5:30 a.m.

I got a text from him a little while later (which was slightly amazing since neither of our cell plans were working in Vancouver or Alaska). The text said he could see the Wonder sailing from English Bay Beach. I quickly threw some clothes on and rushed down stairs to try to get a photo (unfortunately the camera on his phone broke right before we left).




Alas, I didn't see anything other than the commercial ships we were always seeing anchored in the bay. I hurried back up to the room and started getting all of our stuff organized. DS lounged in bed while I finished packing up and we eventually made our way down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast, forgoing the reservations this time.

DH met us at the restaurant and we all ordered the same yummy breakfast as the day before. While eating, we decided to stay close to the hotel that morning and DS wanted to check out the golfing at Stanley Park.




Even though DH and I had both walked by the Pitch and Putt on our walks, we had a very hard time finding the entrance. We must have walked all around for 20 minutes and I was about to give up on the plan right before we found it. We only had about an hour and half before we needed to grab out taxi, but we decided to try and play a quick round.

We paid about $53 US for the entrance fee and club to do 18 holes (even though we knew we'd only have time for 9. I kind of quickly realized that DS likely wasn't up for this particular activity. The courses are smaller than a regular golf course, but much bigger than mini-golf (most whole ranging 50-100 yards). He got frustrated from the get go and found his own creative ways of playing (kicking or throwing the golf ball). Still it was nice to be outside and the under the trees.

We headed back to the Sylvia to grab our luggage, call a taxi, and check out of the hotel. We all agreed that we were going to miss this place even though we'd only been there two nights. I took a few more photos on our way out, including the stained glass window in the lobby that matches their subtle knights and Medieval theme.



And then we were off! Our taxi quickly got us over to Canada Place right before our 12:30 pm PAT. There were lots of people and different lines to stand in, but it all moved pretty fast. I packed some snacks for DS to try and stave off any hangry moments, but I could tell he was getting pretty overwhelmed moving through it all.



Soon we had our first views of the ship, but DS was too flustered to stop for a photo. I grabbed a quick selfie and then we were very quickly being announced as we boarded the ship and waving to Mickey!



We all felt a little lost about what to do now that we were on the ship! My plan was for us to get a sit down lunch at Tiana's, find the table about dining issues to check in about our requests, and then to visit the kid's club/Edge open houses.

But DS was getting quickly agitated, really wanting for us to get to our cabin (not possible yet). We decided to head up to the quick service options on Deck 9, but got impatient while we waited for the midship elevators and before I knew it he race up the crowded stairway and out of sight! I wasn't sure to laugh or to cry as I turned to DH and asked "Did we really just lose our kid after the first minute?" He shrugged and headed up the stairs to try to find him while I stayed in the lobby.

Turns DS had gone by and peeked in the gift shop windows on Deck 4, while DH had gone all the way up to Deck 9 looking for him. DS eventually came back down to me pretty upset and I convinced him to walk over to Tiana's to see if we could get a table. I checked out the menu though and realized it wouldn't work for him, so we diverted back to the elevators, found DH, and after a few tense moments of family drama got DS into an elevator to head up (Note to self: eat lunch before embarkation unless we have an early PAT).

Thankfully the pool deck options were open and fast. DS got some cheese pizza while the adults grabbed Impossible Burgers and french fries. And then DS discovered the free flowing ice cream machines and started to feel a lot happier.



We were close to the Edge, so we popped into the open house to check it out. DS was immediately unimpressed, I think mainly because no were kids were there and he declared it looked "small and boring."

By this time, the cabins were open so we headed off to deck 2 to check out our stateroom. I think it was huge relief to DS to have a place out of the fray to be, although none of our luggage had arrived yet. He wanted to chill with his iPad and dad wanted to take a nap, so I decided to leave them to rest while I tried to find out about dining and maybe check out the spa.

I wandered around deck 3 a bit trying to find the table where they set up for people with dining questions but never found it. I asked a CM in the lobby and they directed me to Guest Services, but the line was way too long (turns out there was a table still over at the French Quarter, but it had already closed at 2:30 by the time I finally found that out).

My next stop was the spa as I wanted to check out the rainforest room. One of the spa staff offered to give me a tour and explained that they only sell 60 spots at $139 each (another staff member later told me 80 spots). There are two steam rooms, three different rainforest showers and five, heated stone loungers. It sounds like the bigger ships have a much nicer set up, but I still decided to do it as a nice extra for DH and myself.

While buying our access they convinced me to do an extra scrub package for $49. I usually would have said no to this but I was pretty, tired and overwhelmed myself! So I walked away with a scrub, body masque and lotion to do on my own later. They also got me signed up for the spa raffle, which was starting in just a few minutes.

I went to the gym to wait with all the other raffle hopefuls. Several people won various spa credit packages and it is, not surprisingly, a big advertisement for their services.

Next, I met back up with the boys in our cabin as it was almost time for the muster drill. We were assigned to the Walt Disney Theater. We tried to stop at the Oceaneer Club to get DS set up (as an 11 year old he can go to either the kid's club or the Edge), but they must have closed so close to the drill.

Somewhere along the way (the atrium? near the theater?), we stopped for some back drop photos with the ship. These turned out really cute and I'm happy to see him smiling as my memory of this day is he was mostly on edge.




I honestly don't remember all that much about the muster drill either. Afterwards, we went and got DS his magic band for the Oceaneer club and eventually made our way up for the Sailaway party.



We did not get there early enough to get a good spot and DS wasn't super into it. But we did enjoy a few moments of watching Vancouver sail by, plus some nice family photos as we sailed under the bridge. I could tell though that DS was still pretty overwhelmed as he could not stay put in one place for very long.



I wish I had taken some proper photos of our cabin! I did at some point get DS to "help" me decorate our door – we only had four magnets so it didn't take much. But I forgot to snap a picture of that too.



We all hung out in the cabin for bit hoping that our luggage would arrive before dinner. That wasn't to be, so around 5:40 we headed off to our first dinner on the ship!

To be continued...