Wonder West Coast B2B May 2014 Concierge - COMPLETED!

[pepe3penelope]

I'm still here!!! That absolutely sucks about the lack of D & B purses! I guess when you're in such a king cruise, there's nothing to do but shop! Now I'm worried that when we do our B2B in May the panama cruisers will wipe out the ship!

 

[pepe3penelope]

I'm still here!!! That absolutely sucks about the lack of D & B purses! I guess when you're in such a long cruise, there's nothing to do but shop! Now I'm worried that when we do our B2B in May the panama cruisers will wipe out the ship!

Edited to say "long" not "king" cruise! Oops!

 

[disnygirl55]

Day 8 – Disney Wonder (Day 5 of 7)

San Francisco and the Golden Gate bridge were coming into view shortly after 6:00 AM, and we were sailing under the bridge at about 6:30.

We had ordered coffee and juices for 6:00 AM, and we went out to the verandah. The bay was very foggy, but it lifted by the time the ship had docked. We docked at Pier 35, which was very close to all the attractions of Pier 39, just down the block. We were cleared to leave the ship at around 8:00 AM. Rodrigo had told us that rather than our scheduled departure time of 9:45 PM, the captain was rewarding the crew and cast members with a late departure of 2:00 AM, due to their recent customer satisfaction scores. It was especially nice to hear that Rodrigo was going to be able to leave the ship and meet some friends while in San Francisco. It must be hard on employee morale to be tethered to the long shifts the cast members sign up for – not knowing how often you’ll get free time or see friends and family. It makes you appreciate their friendly attitudes even more.

Once off the ship, we walked down to the main Boudin Bakery, where I knew they served a terrific breakfast sandwich on fresh sourdough. That sounded good to the whole family, so we browsed through their gift shop and then ate at one of the metal café tables in the atrium of the bakery. I had scrambled eggs and ham on sourdough – and the sandwiches are fairly large. It was plenty for me to share with DH. We saw lots of people having clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls, and I was kind of jealous. I never thought to eat clam chowder so early in the morning, but it looked and smelled delicious.

We walked along the waterfront and took in all the sites along the Pier and the bay.

We walked further along the water to Ghiradelli Square – home of the free samples and nice public restrooms outside in the courtyard area. LOL! They have a lovely little sundae shop there, but it was too early in the day to partake. I went inside to check for any new and yummy flavors of chocolate, but didn’t really see anything. One problem when a company like Ghiradelli gets so large and expansive is that it’s not quite so special to visit them in person. They had no special flavors that I couldn’t also find in my local grocery store.

After our bathroom and chocolate stop, we hiked up to the top of the hill at North Point Drive, where we stopped in a little coffee shop and wasted a few minutes trying to find a taxi that would fit 5 people. Unfortunately, no cab company we tried could accommodate us, so we finally just told one of them to send two cabs. Everyone had decided to go to the Walt Disney Family Museum with me and DH. Here is DS, sitting outside of the coffee shop, waiting for the cab.

By the way, it is definitely walk-able from the pier to the Presidio, where the museum is located, given you are in a fairly good health condition, have a little more than an hour available to walk, and if the weather is nice. Also required: that you not have tender and oozing blisters on your feet from the 103 degree heat in Anaheim several days earlier, when you VERY stupidly did not tie your tennis shoe laces tight enough, in a misguided attempt to keep the air circulating and your feet cool. This NEVER works, ladies and gentlemen… and it’s the second time in my life that I will be losing my big toenails from constant banging against the front of my sneakers. And I lost several layers of skin from the soles of my feet that still have not healed over - now 1 ½ months after the fact. Yowsa – it HURT, and did not add to the enjoyment of my cruise. A good Girl Scout I am not (and we’ll not even mention my level of intelligence.)

The Presidio is a large park-like area, containing many businesses and museums, and some army buildings as well. It used to be an army base, and it is spooky how much many of the red brick buildings resemble those found at our Air Force Base here in Cheyenne. (Which used to be Fort D.A. Russell in the 1880’s… an army post which was established to secure the area during the building of the Union Pacific Railroad.)

One of these brick buildings holds the Walt Disney Family Museum – which I believe is a national treasure. I love this place dearly, and it was such fun to share it with my family. Even DS12 enjoyed it. These photos are from my trip last December, so you can see what the museum building and its cute front porch with several benches and chairs looks like.

We used our D23 membership card to receive $5 off each admission ticket, so it wound up costing $15 per adult, and $12 for DS. There was a special exhibit on the work of Mary Blair, but we did not purchase that. There are so many wonderful exhibits on Walt’s life, from his early childhood until his death in December, 1966. A lot of the exhibits include voice overs of Walt himself, telling his story. The artifacts they have are amazing, and things you’d never be able to see anywhere else. One of my favorite exhibits is the story of how Walt managed to join the Red Cross contingent in Europe during World War I, by changing his birth date (that his mother had written on the authorization form) from 1901 to 1900, so that he could join at age 17 instead of the required age 18. Hearing his voice tell the story, you can hear how he thought it was the best joke in the world, to change that “1” into a “0”. My other favorite is the model of Disneyland. The walkway around it is circular, so you can walk entirely around the park to see each Land closely. And of course, there is Walt’s model railroad, the Carolwood-Pacific, that ran around the grounds of his Carolwood home in Holmby Hills, outside of Los Angeles in California. I’ve always seen lots of pictures of Walt, his family, and famous guests sitting on top of the model train cars for a ride, but it was so awesome to see the actual train in person. Although the museum looks fairly small from the outside, the rooms inside just go on and on and on, with approximately one full room dedicated to each decade of Walt Disney’s life. I took some photos (which were allowed, as long as the flash was not on) of the special Oscars Walt was awarded – 1 regular with 7 smaller Oscars - by Shirley Temple in 1939 for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as well as some early Disney comic books and an exhibit on Clarence “Ducky” Nash, the voice of Donald Duck.

After spending about 3 hours touring the museum, we walked through the gift shop, and then decided to call taxis to pick us up and take us back to Pier 39 for shopping and a late lunch. DH and his parents went in the first cab to arrive, and DS and I waited about 10 minutes for the second cab to arrive. As we were getting closer to the Pier area, our cab driver saw that there was no line to go up Lombard street, so we took the extra five minutes to drive up the hill, and then down the crookedest street in world. Several tourists were walking down the path that runs right next to the houses, and I was just thinking how horrible it must be to live on that street and have so many people constantly driving or walking past. But it was pretty cool, I'll admit. All of the flowers in planters next to the front stoops of nearly every house were overflowing and beautiful. Our driver mentioned that we were very lucky to be visiting on a Wednesday, since on the weekends, it is nearly impossible to take the Lombard Street tour without a long long wait. There must be a constant traffic jam. Here is a photo at the bottom of Lombard looking up the hill from the back of the cab. You can see what a tiny winding street it is from the cars coming down behind us.

At about 2:30, we were all together again and decided to go to Bubba Gump’s for lunch on Pier 39. The food was great, but I don’t know when I’ve had such a bad and confusing time in regards to service. I believe we went through 3 or 4 different waiters, as I guess they were changing shifts. But we asked for something twice, and never saw that particular server again. So a new server would show up, and we’d make our request a second time. It was amazing that our meal even came out correctly. I only tipped 10% - something I NEVER do – as our last waiter was only with us probably for 15 minutes, and as far as I knew, the rest of them had just gone home. I don’t think he deserved 20% for 15 minutes of work. Sheesh!

After lunch/dinner, we strolled around Pier 39 and peeked into a few of the little shops. We stopped by the small Boudin Bakery outlet, and bought a loaf of sourdough bread. I don’t remember why, but for some reason DS and I went ahead to the ship, while everyone else went into a couple more shops. My feet were probably hurting, I’m sure. One of workers at the Pier (maybe part of the Port Authority??) as we got back in line to board advised me that I needed to hide my sourdough bread before we went through the final scanner, as they would not let me board with the bread. Say WHAT??!!! I didn’t know what to do, as I only had my small travel bag. A fellow passenger right ahead of me offered to put it in her large tote bag until we got through security. She was very kind, and we had no problem “smuggling” it on board. I mean really… who visits San Francisco and doesn’t buy sourdough bread??

Once we were securely back on board, DS hightailed it to the Edge, eager to get back to some fun times with his new friends after spending all day in the museum with the parents and grandparents. I settled into my favorite lounge chair on the verandah. We were both in heaven. It was warm and wonderful during this entire day, and there was not even a hint of fog once the sun had risen fully. Not too hot and not too cold – perfect t-shirt and capris weather.

“Million Dollar Arm” was playing as the movie special that evening in the Walt Disney Theater, instead of a stage show. We didn’t go to dinner in the main dining room that night, as we were too full from our late lunch, and DH left the stateroom to catch the end of the movie, as we had missed the very end of it due to Tequila and Margarita tasting the previous Sunday. After flipping through the navigator, I decided to go catch a viewing of “Frozen” at 8:15. Sadly, it was not the sing-along version, which I thought would be a great time, but the sing-along was never playing during a time that I was free of other obligations.

I left Frozen a bit early, so that I could go to see “Who Wants to Be A Mouseketeer” at Studio Sea at 9:45 PM. Can you even believe that I stayed up so late? Ha Ha! It was a lot of fun – I was the second person drawn to come up to the hot seat and play. My brain thought it was very late, however, because I didn’t do as well as I could have if I was fully awake. DH found me right before the game began, as I was slurping down a mojito, which also could have had something to do with my forgetfulness of Disney Trivia that I would normally do so well on. Hmmmmm… early dinner at 2:30 followed by a mojito at 9:45. Yup – that might do it!

I did very well on the first super simple questions – who was the actress who played Pollyanna (Hayley Mills), what kind of animal was Jiminy in Pinocchio (a cricket) and who was NOT a character in Ratatouille (which I had just watched in the stateroom a couple of days prior – but now I can’t remember the choices). I think I used one of my lifelines on that one, because I was waffling between two answers. But then the questions got a bit more difficult. What was the song during the Noah’s Ark sequence in Fantasia 2000? Sans mojito, and earlier in the day – I would have known that one easily - Pomp and Circumstance! But I used another lifeline, as DH shook his head in the audience. We only have some artwork from that scene in our living room! Sigh… So I was down to one last lifeline, and I blew it totally on the last question, which had to do with the name of the lounge at the Boardwalk Inn. The choices were St. Charles, Park Place, Belle Vue, and Mediterranean. Since 3 of the 4 were names of Monopoly properties (as is “Boardwalk”) – I thought for sure it would have to be one of them. Even though I “locked in” my answer, they took pity on me, and let me ask the audience. One of the audience members had spent her honeymoon at the Boardwalk, and remembered the Belle Vue lounge specifically, so I took her word for it – and I WON!! The prize was a little clear plastic Lucite trophy with the DCL logo, shaped like mouse ears. It has place of pride on my mantel, even though DH doesn’t think I “technically” won. Also – they just happened to make sure that all three contestants “won” their rounds, so it was kind of a gimme.

When we got back up to the stateroom, we were surprised to see that DS had returned from the Edge early, saying that his “throat hurt”. Uh oh…… And sure enough, he came into the master bedroom at about 4:00 AM because his throat hurt and he couldn’t breathe well (super stuffy nose). I took him into his smaller bathroom and ran the shower to produce some steam to help clear his congestion a little, which worked after about ten minutes, and I got him back to bed. It would have been handy if I'd been able to sneak him into the Rainforest Room sauna!


Next Up: Wonder Day 6 – Sea Day and the cold weather is upon us!

 

[pepe3penelope]

Love the update! We went to San Francisco also when Wonder stopped by. It was the 1st time DH and I went (I was 5 so I'm not counting that time.). We loved having 2 days there! Small but beautiful and unique city.

 

[disnygirl55]

Love the update! We went to San Francisco also when Wonder stopped by. It was the 1st time DH and I went (I was 5 so I'm not counting that time.). We loved having 2 days there! Small but beautiful and unique city.

I would have loved to be on the sailing that stayed overnight - there is so much to do and see in San Francisco. Both times I've been there, I've really wanted to visit the Buena Vista cafe for an original Irish Coffee - but it hasn't happened yet! I guess that's always an excuse to go back...

 

[jetskigrl]

I would have loved to be on the sailing that stayed overnight - there is so much to do and see in San Francisco. Both times I've been there, I've really wanted to visit the Buena Vista cafe for an original Irish Coffee - but it hasn't happened yet! I guess that's always an excuse to go back...

I was on one of the Pixar cruises that stayed there overnight and we really loved it. We also did the Disney Family museum one day and spent the other day with my sister and her DH who drove into the city to hang out with us. And yes, we stopped in the Buena Vista of "one" (cough, cough) Irish coffee

But I am jealous that you got to see the bridge so well. Both time we went under it, it was so foggy that we couldn't see it until it was directly overhead.

 

[pepe3penelope]

I was on one of the Pixar cruises that stayed there overnight and we really loved it. We also did the Disney Family museum one day and spent the other day with my sister and her DH who drove into the city to hang out with us. And yes, we stopped in the Buena Vista of "one" (cough, cough) Irish coffee But I am jealous that you got to see the bridge so well. Both time we went under it, it was so foggy that we couldn't see it until it was directly overhead.

Which one were you on? We were on the October 7th sailing before it did the Hawaii sailing.

 

[jetskigrl]

Which one were you on? We were on the October 7th sailing before it did the Hawaii sailing.

We were on the September 23rd sailing We missed John Lasseter by one week...darn.

 

[2disneycruzrs]

Thanks for posting this! I was especially interested in your cruise to nowhere as we might do it next October. Did they offer brunch in Palo on Day 2?

I was also in 8532 for a cruise six years ago. Had that whole stateroom to myself because it was a work trip and DH not allowed to go. Glad to see it's still holding up well.

Thanks!

 

[disnygirl55]

Thanks for posting this! I was especially interested in your cruise to nowhere as we might do it next October. Did they offer brunch in Palo on Day 2?

I was also in 8532 for a cruise six years ago. Had that whole stateroom to myself because it was a work trip and DH not allowed to go. Glad to see it's still holding up well.

Thanks!

Hi Jen!

While we did not eat brunch on our sea day, I can say with 99% certainty that they did. I'm sure I saw the option when our online booking window opened. Have a great time!

 

[disnygirl55]

Day 9 – Disney Wonder (Day 6 of 7)

We had ordered a pot of coffee from room service to be delivered at 7:30, but discovered that the hang tag was still hanging on the door. When we called room service to let them know that it had not been picked up, they immediately responded and we soon had our coffee in hand. DH and I had a Couple’s Choice Spa Treatment scheduled from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM. DS was still in bed, and said he wasn’t feeling well, so we left him with instructions to eat some fruit and drink some orange juice, and headed to the Spa. I have to say it was nice to do this first thing in the morning. It didn’t interfere with any other activities scheduled throughout the day, and it was a great way to start the morning.

Once we got to the Spa, we were given robes and went out to the spa verandah, where we were both given a foot treatment - the spa therapists scrubbed our feet and lower legs and then soaked our feet in a nice warm bath. It was perfect. My therapist (there was one for each of us) was very careful not to touch the bottom of my feet, where I am extremely ticklish. After the foot scrub, the therapists went back into the therapy room and left us to soak in a large 2-person hot tub for 15-20 minutes with a large pitcher of water to drink and stay hydrated. The verandah setup was nicer, I felt, than that on the Dream Class ships. The hot tub was large, and fit the two of us side by side. If I remember correctly, last time we were on the Fantasy, the hot tub was more narrow, and the lounging bed on the Wonder – oh, my…. I’ll get to that later. Just FYI – something we did wrong on the Fantasy was booking the couple’s choice treatment on a Port Day. We were docked in St. Thomas, I think, and had a “lovely” view of the street and some construction workers. Since we were in our birthday suits, it was awkward to make sure the towel was held strategically as we got into and out of the hot tub. Just imagine if there was another ship docked right next to us! However, we kept that in mind when booking on the Wonder, and there was no one to see us except for the seagulls, which didn’t care a bit.

One of our therapists tapped on the glass door when it was time to come into the treatment room, so DH and I got back into our robes and went inside. DH had decided on the hot stone massage, and I opted for a seaweed-type wrap. We were given disposable underwear and instructions on how to lay on the massage tables and drape the towels over us. My sheet of aluminum foil (the wrap) was lying over the massage table, so I just laid down flat on it and covered up with my towels. When the therapist came back in, she exfoliated my skin and painted on the seaweed paste on the exposed parts of my body and then wrapped me up in my foil cocoon for a nice nap while she gave me a facial and scalp massage. Usually, I believe this treatment comes with a foot and leg massage, but she was very accommodating about my ticklish feet, and I enjoyed the scalp massage much much more. It was a fabulously relaxing time, and I think I might have dozed off for a few minutes. DH reported later that his hot stone massage was just as wonderful, but I can’t speak to any details.

After our massage time was up, I was helped out to the verandah with the foil still wrapped around me to shower off all the mud in private. I was given a mitt to wear to help get all the seaweed paste off my body. Then I got back into my robe and joined DH on the most plush, fabulous double lounge chair ever, which was facing out to the ocean. It was covered with clean sheets and a comforter, and tilted up like one of those adjustable beds so we bundled up (as it was a little chilly this morning) and ate skewers of fruit and drank freshly brewed hot tea. It was so wonderfully comfortable to sit there and watch the ocean from that bed. Ah….. bliss!

After a little while, during which the massage therapists were cleaning up the massage room and preparing it for the next guests, they invited us back inside, where they presented us with product recommendations for our “needs” and the bill. There is an auto-gratuity for spa treatments, but we added a bit more, as always, and left very relaxed and happy. The product sell was not a hard sell, but it was rather long as they discussed the benefits of each recommended purchase. Before this cruise, I had always marked “no product sales please” on my pre-treatment questionnaire, but didn’t this time, for some reason. But all was fine, although part of me wishes I would have just asked them to save their spiel, as we had no intention of buying any of the products.

Since we were both clean and showered, all that was left to do to get ready for the day was return to the stateroom to blow dry my hair and get dressed. Rodrigo had left us a gift – some chocolate-covered éclairs. The parents came over to visit for a little while, and then they left to go to an activity. DH and I decided to go to Triton’s for a sit-down lunch, since we were pretty hungry at that point. It was very good. DH had a cup of soup for an appetizer, and then steak and fries, and I had a field green salad with feta cheese (yum!) and a cheeseburger and fries. We sat next to a nice family whose daughter was turning 18 on the cruise. She was a lovely and very well-spoken young lady, and said it was a little odd to not be going to the Vibe anymore. The 18-21 group on board was not very active, which was a shame for her, but she was having a wonderful time anyway. She’d been on a few Disney cruises before, so knew how to keep herself entertained.

At 2:00 PM, we attended the martini tasting class in the Cadillac Lounge, with (you guessed it!) bartender JESUS! This time, we had Jesus-atinis. Like the Tequila tasting, there were a couple drinks that were just too strong for me to enjoy – but I always enjoy listening to the history of the drinks, and the Martini one was especially interesting. There were lots of James Bond and “shaken-not-stirred” references.

After the martini tasting, I needed a short nap before we headed to Diversions for the concierge reception, which was happening at 4:15 PM. The reception was lots of fun – special guest Minnie Mouse stopped by to wish us well.

We had some yummy things to eat from the special buffet: fruits, coconut shrimp, jalapeno poppers, cheeses, peel and eat shrimp, etc. The had also carved a beautiful ice sculpture of an eagle – maybe to practice for the Alaska sailings? It was a perfect day to have the concierge reception, as we had Palo reservations at 7:30, so needed a little something to tide us over until then.

We had a nice conversation with Ugo, the Director of Hotel Ops – I think that might mean he’s in charge of the concierge team and the stateroom hosting staff, but don’t quote me on that. While we were chatting, we noticed that the ship was no longer moving, and we were just drifting along. Ugo said that it was probably due to loading the fireworks for the evening’s show, and that they often stop the engines while they do so. Makes sense to me! On the way out, we made sure to grab Mickey-shaped Krispy Treats for later.

Beside the fireworks show, this Thursday was also the Pixar Pals Party and Pixar Menu in the dining rooms. We decided not to attend the party, and didn’t miss the special menu at all, because we were headed once more to Palo!! Following the concierge reception, DS headed to the Edge, as he was feeling a little better. His motto is that you should NEVER miss smoothie hour, even if on your deathbed. Besides, dodge ball was following smoothie hour, so it was just a chunk of time that was too fun to miss for an annoying little cold! DH’s parents came up to the suite to visit for about a half hour, and then we split up to get dressed for dinner.

Our Palo dinner was very enjoyable, and our usual server Anastacia saw that we were well stuffed to the gills by the time we were done. She kindly brought extra food for us (as if that’s ever needed at Palo) – the Calamari that she knew I loved, as well as two special desserts in ADDITION to the chocolate soufflés. So here are our three desserts for the evening: Palo’s incredible Chocolate Soufflé, Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta with fresh berries and a raspberry sorbet, and Tiramisu with a spoon-shaped cookie.

It began to rain outside in earnest while we were eating. I always joke that it loves to rain whenever we eat in Palo. It rains more often than not while we’re there, no matter which part of the world we’re cruising in!

That Anastacia seemed pretty pleased with herself as she watched us roll out of the dining room. I think she was feeling feisty because she was leaving for vacation back home to Ukraine when we debarked in Vancouver. We enjoyed her service so much, and wished her the best of luck. She was planning on taking another contract with Disney after her vacation, so I have hopes we might run into her again someday. I hope all the troubles in that part of the world this summer are not affecting her or her family.

After dinner, we all returned to our suite to watch the fireworks from the verandah. It was starting to get VERY chilly at that point, which was about 10:25 PM. As we went to bed that night, I could tell the ocean was a bit more rough than it had been – the wood in the suite was very creaky all night long, and I woke up several times.

Next Up: Wonder Day 7 – Our Final Sea Day

 

[pepe3penelope]

Great update! I hope to one day take advantage of the spa, particularly the couples treatment room. Hope to next year cuz the kids will be older.

It is this time during the cruise that I get a little sad (actually VERY sad). It's you ward the end of the cruise & I'm not looking forward to being kicked off the ship!!!

 

[disnygirl55]

Day 10 – Disney Wonder (Day 7 of 7)

I hate hate HATE the final day of a cruise. (I even hate writing about the final day - leaves a bad taste in my mouth ). DH always wants to start packing WAY before I’m ready to give up on my vacation. I just can’t seem to enjoy myself too much once I’ve started to drag out the suitcases.

However, I was at least determined not to think about leaving until after I’d had some last minute vacation moments in the Rainforest Room. After eating the hot breakfast we had ordered, we said goodbye for a while to DS (who had decided he felt a little sick again and wasn’t interested in the Edge), and we traipsed across the now-chilly and foggy deck 8 to the spa, and were pleased to see that the parents were already there, making use of the Rainforest passes we gave them as a gift. They were in one of the sauna rooms, but I decided to start by lying on one of the tile loungers with my Kindle to read for a while. After a half hour or so, I went into one of the saunas, but there were a couple of lady friends in there, and they were visiting rather loudly with each other, which was not very relaxing for me, so I only stayed in the sauna for about 5 minutes. Then it was back to the tile lounger for more relaxation time. DMIL and DFIL left shortly thereafter, but DH and I stayed for about another half hour. It was sooooo comfortable, and I think we may have both dozed off a little. Or at least I did.

After we had relaxed for a while, DH went back to the Stateroom, but I took a detour to the quiet cove hot tubs. It was raining, but the hot tubs are covered by a little gazebo top, so it was nice, although my swim suit cover-up got wet, as there was no place dry to lay it by the hot tub. The ship was really rocking, as the seas were rough. The water in the pool was sloshing out and over the deck. After I’d soaked for a few minutes, I decided that the time had come to go back to the room to shower and pack a few things. Bah Humbug!

It was really less painful than I make it out to be. We were nearly finished with the pre-packing by 11:00 AM, so DH left to meet his parents for lunch, and I left DS and his annoying head cold watching TV in the stateroom.

I then headed to the 11:45 80’s Music Trivia that was being held in Diversions. However, when I got there, it was jam-packed with what seemed to be a gazillion other 80’s kids-at-heart. The activities director was asking everyone to get into teams of 6 or 7, and I couldn’t find a team to join – even if I had been willing to sit on the floor. This would be the theme on this last sea day. It was pretty miserably cold and wet outside, that everyone was doing indoor activities. So what to do next? I headed to get a slice of pizza and a bratwurst from Deck 9. DH and parents had gone to the buffet at Parrot Cay for lunch while I was supposedly going to play the 80’s Music Trivia, and while I could have gone to find them, I really felt like some alone time. Then I headed to the stateroom to eat, but DS was heading out the door to go to the Edge and Canas was headed in to clean, so I said hello, grabbed my Kindle (because you just never know when the opportunity to read your book will present itself) and just kept going.

Using the new navigator app on my phone (hooray!), I saw that there would soon be a game of Ultimate Disney trivia starting in the Promenade Lounge at 1:00. As it was only a little after noon at this point, I knew I would still be able to find a seat, so I headed that way, ordered a beer from the bar, and read my kindle for a while at a little corner table in the Lounge. See? I told you that it would be a smart move to take my Kindle along!

The Disney trivia was pretty tough, but I did well. At the end, I was tied for 1st place with about 5 other people. The tie-breaker question was to name as many “One-Word” Disney animated films as we could. I had a mental block on this one, (maybe I would have done better with a second beer) and couldn’t remember as many as I would have liked, so I think I wound up coming in 3rd. But the moderator very sweetly gave all the four runners-up a Disney key chain, which was very nice.

Back in the stateroom, I took some time to catch up on my notes for this trip report, and then DH arrived and we did a bit more packing. (See why I don’t even like to SEE him on our last cruising day… he really turns into a wet blanket on our last day!) I also got the gratuity sheet all filled out. We left some additional gratuities on this final gratuity sheet, and also called Rodrigo to come and see us, and we gave him his concierge gratuity. I want to say we gave $300 for the 7 nights total - $100 from each of us. I wish we could have given him more. He was just terrific. When he came to see us, he had dug through his “archive” of prints that they give to each concierge family at the end of a cruise. He wanted us to have the usual print for 2014 for the first leg of our B2B cruise, which he gave us in San Diego, but he wanted to find us a different one from a previous year that we didn’t have in our collection. So he brought us two or three to choose from. That’s the kind of wonderful thing a concierge host does for you, and why we truly enjoy the concierge personalized attention. Yay, Rodrigo – you’re the best!!!

Speaking of concierge extras, DS had a couple of arcade cards that Rodrigo had given him earlier in the week, so we went up one flight of stairs from our stateroom to the Quartermasters Arcade, and blew through those cards like no tomorrow.

While we were at the Arcade, Rodrigo must have snuck back into the room to leave us our afternoon nibbles. And it was my favorite treat, a variety of cheeses, crackers, and pieces of honeycomb to accompany all that cheesy yumminess. So so good.

It was approaching 3:30 at that point, so we met up with DH’s parents and went to go see “Bears” in the Buena Vista theatre. All I can say is “Oops!” – we should have left the stateroom about 15 minutes earlier. Remember the rain outside? The theatre was crowded like I’ve never seen it before. There was a group of seats down toward the front of the screen, but DH hates to watch movies so close to a big screen, so DMIL, DFIL and DS took those seats, and DH and I were going to go find something else to do, but we saw two available seats together toward the top of the theatre in the middle of a row, so we climbed over a bunch of legs and settled in to watch. Rodrigo had very kindly brought us bags of popcorn for movies a couple of different times over the course of the cruise, so we were all set. It was such a cute movie – I love the DisneyNature films. I was glad that we had been able to find seats.

The movie was over just in time to head to dinner, which was the “Till We Meet Again” themed dinner in Animator’s Palate.

First, we ordered our final bottle of wine. DH and I had pre-ordered the premium wine package, for four nights, I believe. (for every night except San Francisco night). Here were our choices of whites and reds. We are really just starting to appreciate wine over the past two or three years, and we enjoyed sharing a bottle with DMIL at dinner each night.

For the main course, I had seafood linguini (with half a lobster tail on top!), and nearly everyone else had beef wellington.

Someone in our party had a very delicious Chicken Noodle Soup for an appetizer, and must have raved about it enough that I put it in my notes. Maybe it was DS, attempting to shorten the severity and duration of his cold. Most of us had Baked Alaska for dessert. A very nice treat that I usually only encounter on Disney cruises. Here are a couple of final dinner shots, including one of my darling darling in-laws. Aren’t they so cute together?!

We had turned into the Strait of Juan de Fuca at that time, taking the last leg of our journey before reaching Vancouver. The Strait lies between the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State and Vancouver Island (which is NOT home to the city of Vancouver – it is home to Victoria, BC, and some other very lovely cities in British Columbia. This is an area of the world our entire family is familiar with. Both DH and I grew up in Forks, Washington, (yep – that’s right, vampire central for you Twi-Hards) on the Peninsula, and where both our sets of parents still live. I went to my first two years of college at Peninsula College in the city of Port Angeles, and I could see the lights of Port Angeles and other small towns and homes on the northern Washington Coast as we sailed slowly by, even though it was very foggy. I got a bit homesick, so I called my Mom and Dad (figuring we were probably close enough to land to not get additional international charges on my cell phone – which turned out to be true). Remember my Mom, who was in Disneyland with us? She answered the phone and I told her I was practically close enough to see the house – which was pretty cool. If we’d swam to shore, we’d have been less than an hour from Forks. It tugged on my heartstrings a little, since I haven’t seen my Dad in over a year. He doesn’t travel very far away from the lure of the big salmon he likes to fish for, so we don’t see him as much as my Mom. No vacation is as fun for him as a day of fishing! Here’s one of my favorite photos of him from my childhood with one of the monster fish he likes to catch. And another with my baby sister and Dad on his boat. There, I’ve managed to get the ENTIRE family into this trip report! (Love you, Daddy and Sis!).

Before going to bed, I called and left a message with Brent at Sea and Ski Shuttle in Vancouver, to confirm our transportation pickup at the Ballantyne port in the morning. We set our luggage outside the door as requested, placed an order for continental breakfast delivery for the final morning (another little perk in concierge suites on the classic ships), and hit the comfortable bed for the final time.

Next Up: Debarkation / Day in Vancouver / End of Vacation – Boo!

 

[pepe3penelope]

Oh, how I LOATHE last cruise days!!!! So hard to imagine all the fun coming to an end!!!

Thanks again for the update! As usual, can't wait for the next update.

 

[disnygirl55]

Days 11 and 12 – Disney Wonder Debarkation and Vancouver

Debarkation went very smoothly. Customs was much more intense at the Airport the next morning than it was getting off the ship in Vancouver. The setup for picking up luggage was very similar to debarking at Port Canaveral – find the section for your luggage tag and voila! Easy as that.

I could barely see the terminal through my tears, so I wish I could tell you more. (just kidding…. kinda)

We walked outside the terminal to find our transportation with Sea & Ski Shuttle. Since we were arriving at Ballantyne, we needed transport to the Pan Pacific Hotel, where we were staying for the night. We had previously arranged this with Brent Anderson of Sea & Ski Shuttle. I was hoping we would see someone from his company waiting for us with a sign or something. I had left him a message the previous evening to re-confirm, since I had not corresponded with him since before we left on vacation. When I checked my phone, there were no messages. So instead, we asked a nice lady with a clipboard, who was directing people to various tour buses and shuttles right outside the pier. She didn’t have us on any of her lists, so she called Brent, and told him that a family was there waiting for him. I’m not sure what he said, but she loaded us onto one of the shuttles that was transporting passengers to the Canada Place hotels. There was a bit of a delay leaving the pier, due to someone in another large party getting held up in customs. From snatches of conversation, there may have been an issue with either a criminal record or a warrant out for back child support owed, and while that in itself is not important, it just goes to show that while it APPEARED easy to get through customs into Canada, they have the technology to pull up records that might preclude you from entering. It sounded like it was something that would get cleared up swiftly, however, so most of his party stayed with us on the shuttle and left for our destination, while a couple others stayed behind to follow later with the gentleman being detained by customs.

Since it was fairly early in the morning, we checked in at the hotel, but our room was not ready yet. We were able to buy three tickets to the hop-on-hop-off tour to get a feel for the sights in Vancouver. We left our luggage with bell services and got right onto a trolley. It was a really neat way to get a feel for the city. We decided to just stay on the trolley and listen to the tour guide tell stories about the various locations, rather than get off at Stanley Park or anywhere else on the route. After a couple of hours, I think, we were returning close to Canada Place, so got off in Gastown to have lunch and then walk back.

We hopped off the bus at the Old Spaghetti Factory. While Spaghetti Factories can be found in several cities (we’ve eaten at them in Seattle and Denver) – we don’t go there very often, and our son has never been – so it was still a special treat. It was not crowded, and we had a very nice server who got our lunch to us quickly. DH ordered hot tea with his lunch, which is what the cool and foggy weather dictated.

After lunch, we strolled back toward the Pan Pacific, stopping in a couple little souvenir shops. I think we bought a couple of little trinkets, under $5 or so each. The shops had no trouble at all taking our US Dollars. I had hemmed and hawed about ordering Canadian Currency, and there was absolutely no need. For larger purchases, such as meals, I didn’t think that the foreign transaction fee on our credit card was very much at all. Maybe a few pennies on the dollar.

We also strolled past a very cool piece of Vancouver history, the Steam Clock, which was only a block or two from the hotel.

Our room was ready by this time, and we decided to stay put and relax in our room. It was spacious and clean – and the entire hotel was beautiful, full of light and sparkling. We paid for Internet access, and read, surfed the Internet, and watched TV for the rest of the afternoon. The rooms at the Pan Pacific (ours anyway) jutted out a little to form a corner, so there were windows on two sides of the room. It was perfect for watching the scenery and the skyline of the city. Vancouver is very beautiful – it was bustling, but wasn’t overrun with traffic. Riding bicycles is a norm in the city, and our trolley bus driver had told us that since it’s not very huge geographically, it’s possible to ride your bike practically anywhere you need to go.

For dinner, we kept everything low-key, and went over to the food court across the street and in the basement. I think it might have been under the other hotel, or a shopping center, but I’m not sure. DH was in search of a Canadian McDonalds that sold Poutine (French fries with cheese curds and gravy), so he was happy to find it there. DS has never met a McDonalds he didn’t like, so he was also thrilled. I had a kabob plate, if I remember correctly, from a small local vendor. The proprietor was very nice, and gave me a bottle of water for free when I asked for water to drink. There was also a Tim Horton’s, which looked like it had some great sandwiches and kettle chips, but they were getting ready to close, which was a bummer.

Since we had to wake up for our early morning flight, we went to bed fairly early once we got back to the room.

Brent from Sea & Ski was due to arrive at 4:00 AM. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:20 AM, so we wanted to have plenty of time. Brent had suggested 4:00 AM, and said it would take no longer than 25 minutes from the Pan Pacific to the airport.

Side note: I had originally decided that I would purchase business class airline tickets back to Denver from Vancouver. We chose the early morning flight, because it was a larger airbus, so that we would have entertainment options (read: TV) on the three hour flight back to Denver. The United flight also came with free checked bags (2 per person) and free breakfast with the business class ticket. With luggage charges, I felt I could justify the extra price, and the up-charge was fairly minimal in light of all the luggage we had after a 10-day vacation. Plus, it is a luxury to fly business class, and I like to end our vacations on a high note.

Well, United Airlines, in their infinite wisdom, decided to change our nice big aircraft into a smaller one with no meal service or entertainment – one month before the scheduled takeoff. REALLY??? I would have taken a later flight if I’d known that was going to happen. When I sent an email to United Airlines customer relations to ask for at least a partial refund for (what I felt was) a smaller amount of amenities than what I had purchased – the reply was that I was welcome to cancel and book a different flight with a different airline. It was a disgustingly snotty reply – and I will NEVER fly United EVER again if I have any choice of airlines. Sadly, with the change being last-minute, purchasing a different ticket would have been outrageously expensive. And, unfortunately, there is not any other game in town between Vancouver and Denver, unless you want to change planes in another city. So – I am getting this off my chest – BOO to you, United Airlines. I would not have been nearly upset if you hadn’t sent such an offensive reply to my request.

So…. anywho….. there we were standing in front of the Pan Pacific, waiting for our shuttle to the airport in the 4:00 AM dark. We spend a while chatting with a very nice young American doorman who had ties to Colorado, and had been to Cheyenne several times. And we waited and waited. After about 15 minutes, we asked the young man to call a cab for us, since it was obvious that Brent or one of his employees was NOT going to show up. Good grief. The transportation service in Vancouver really put a damper on the end of our otherwise wonderful vacation. So sadly, I cannot recommend Sea and Ski Shuttle to anyone. I never received a message or anything from Brent. So BOO on him, too. Luckily, it was much easier to get to the airport than I had figured, and the cab had us there in 20 minutes, for about the same amount that Brent had quoted us. No harm done, but I don’t think that has ever happened to me when booking car transportation.

The line for customs was a bit long and tedious, but we crossed through the “Canada / U.S. Border” in plenty of time to catch our flight (which was now at 6:45 AM rather than 6:20 with the airplane itinerary change). The flight attendant DID still offer us coffee or other drinks, as part of business class. I think I ordered a screwdriver or something, just to make up for some of the stresses of the morning. It was a smaller plane, so the three of us couldn’t sit together, but thankfully the time passed quickly with a book, and we were home before we knew it.

It was a terrific vacation all-in-all, but we agreed that we probably would not sail this itinerary again in the near future. We are looking forward to getting back on the Dream class ships, and getting back to Castaway Cay very soon. (only about 247 more days to go!!!) LOL! It was so wonderful to be with part of the family for Disneyland, and sail with another part of the family – we enjoyed their company immensely. We had fun showing off “our ship” to DH’s parents. Now it is “their ship” as well – and I hope they can go on another DCL cruise soon, now that they understand what all the hype is about. They talked about going to Alaska next time, but they’ll have to be on their own for that one, I fear.

One thing that was a little disappointing was that it didn’t turn out to be a “Pixar” cruise like the previous West Coast cruises before it. I was hoping for some special guests or interesting seminars. In terms of activity offerings, it really was very similar to a 5-day Bahamian cruise, in my opinion, with no Castaway Cay, but a much-more-interesting San Francisco in place of Nassau. And of course, the weather was much different, especially north of San Francisco. We are glad that we experienced it, but we are ready for something different (and more tropical) in the future.

Thanks for taking the time to read this trip report – it is my sincere hope that it will answer some questions for others taking this itinerary for the first time.

THE END!!!!

 

[jedijill]

Oooh, I hate the last day! I can't believe the car service! Unacceptable that they didn't show up or return messages. United stinks! I would be upset that they changed to a smaller plane as well. I try to avoid them whenever I can.

Glad you had a great trip!

Jill in CO

 

[disnygirl55]

Oooh, I hate the last day! I can't believe the car service! Unacceptable that they didn't show up or return messages. United stinks! I would be upset that they changed to a smaller plane as well. I try to avoid them whenever I can.

Glad you had a great trip!

Jill in CO

Thanks so much for reading along, Jill. I enjoyed your trip report as well, so I was glad I could give back.

I can see why United made the bottom of the list for airline services. I was frankly a little shocked at their response. I would have been fine with a polite, "We're sorry, we wish we could refund some of your cost, but unfortunately, sometimes capacity dictates the type of airplane we are able to use for a particular flight. We know you'll have an enjoyable trip anyway, and hope you will give us a chance to show you our excellent service onboard."

See? Even I could do a better job in their customer service department. (Let me tell you - it wouldn't be hard...)