Well, the photos aren't ready (let's face it, I haven't had the oomph to attack the photos, yet) but I suppose I should say something about our recent vacation.
Yes, we're retired and yes, we needed a vacation. This doing-nothing-in-particular is hard work! Nothing like they promised when I was still working and dreaming of retirement. Of course, one of the allures of retirement was the ability to travel without regard to the need to issue paychecks or to ask for time off from a boss that didn't believe in taking time off herself.
You all know we're a couple of Disney nuts, right? Disney fanatics, perhaps. Disney freaks to a few close friends who don't understand our endless fascination with most things Disney.
So the Wonder has been on the West Coast recently. Spent the summer doing Alaska; winter is spent doing the Mexican riviera. So the ship has to be moved from the northern climes (it sailed out of Vancouver for Alaska) to the southern climes (it sails out of Los Angeles for the MR). So we booked ourselves on the west coast repositioning cruise from Canada to L.A. And as long as we were on the ship, we decided to stay on the ship for the first MR of the season. And while we're in L.A., it's been a long time since we visited the Disneyland Resort.... Nearly three weeks of Disney, Disney, Disney!
The first cruise was primarily sea days - our favorites! We flew from Mexico City to Phoenix for immigration and customs, then on to Vancouver the day before we sailed. We had reserved a room in the Pan Pacific Vancouver hotel which is built on the top of the wharf from which the Wonder was to sail. The hotel upgraded our room so that we had a wall of glass onto the bay and the city beyond. That meant that we could stay awake and watch the Wonder as it sailed from drydock to the wharf. Quite a sight. We didn't stay up all night, but it was out there, lit up for all to see each time we awakened.
Morning eventually dawned and we showered, dressed, packed, and headed out for a bite of breakfast. After all, lunch wouldn't be served until 11:30 or 12:00. Just how long are we supposed to wait?!? The hotel is a bit pricey, so we zipped downstairs and found breakfast in the mall beneath street level. After that we only needed to walk downstairs from the first floor lobby to the cruise terminal and check-in. The hotel took care of moving our luggage to the ship for us.
We had obtained an early check-in assignment, so there was plenty of time to wander around the wharf and check out the Wonder from outside as well as a couple of other ships. She was our first Disney ship and I think will always be our favorite. Yes, we're booked on the Maiden Voyage of the Fantasy in the spring, and I'm sure it'll be nice, but the Wonder is a smaller ship (about 2500 passengers) and more 'homey.'
Met some nice folks while in line waiting for check-in whom we would run into aboard ship. Lots of 'family' aboard, but most of them too infatuated with themselves to say 'hello.' I wonder if they would exchange greetings if we were running for the lifeboats and let them go first....
The first cruise was wonderful. We did stop the first full day in Victoria, where Michael and I visited the Natural Science Museum after wandering around the downtown area. The Museum has amazing re-creations of the seashores with the appropriate wildlife as well as a huge walk-through early Victoria Island exhibit. We had a great time and stopped by the Empress Hotel for a quick peek at the famous tea rooms before heading back to the ship for lunch.
After that we were at sea until we visited Ensenada for a day before heading back north towards Los Angeles. Although we hadn't planned on getting off the ship in Ensenada, we took a tequila tour with lots of history and tasting involved. Much better than one earlier trip to Ensenada when we took a tour of a brandy distillery that included singing a song that included every person's name who was on the bus! Did I mention that we were in the back of the bus....?
I would have preferred it if we had stopped over in San Francisco (that was the midpoint stop on the northbound repo cruise in the spring), but that wasn't in the cards. Since the cruise had originated in a foreign country there was no requirement to stop at a second foreign port (Ensenada), but there was time to burn, so that the ship arrived ready to disgorge the repo passengers and embark with new folks for the first Mexican Riviera cruise of the winter season the same day.
I'm going to be a bit sketchy about goings-on aboard ship. It was the usual Disney entertainment, meals, and activities. Didn't partake in too many organized activities, but had a swell time. Became fast friends with the bartenders in the Promenade Lounge mid-ship on Deck Three. They even rounded up cucumbers for our gin and tonics made with Hendrik's gin. We were sailing with the owner and the IT person from the Florida-based travel agency that we use, and our meals were synchronized, so that was fun! Always good to be with Rick and Andrew. In fact, Rick and his wife will be on the Maiden Voyage of the Fantasy with us. We're hoping we'll be able to match dinner reservations there, too. Guess we'd better call Kim, our agent.
We did manage to visit the adult-only, premium restaurant on board, Palo, a total of six times during the two cruises. We're blaming that for the weight gain. Also - because of the time spent in Alaska - the adult's only Cove Cafe (sort of Starbucks with free pastries) - had been enlarged to include an enclosed second story. Spending time reading in the Cove Cafe while the watery world slipped by, munching on delicious pastries and drinking sweet coffee drinks didn't help the ole waistline, either.
We weren't lucky enough to sail in the same cabin on both cruises, so we had to pack up after the repo cruise, but our second cabin was just next door, so the cast members moved our things while we got off the ship for about 20 minutes between cruises. Well, it was probably a bit more than 20 minutes since we had to go through immigration and customs and that line was s-l-o-o-o-w. But we got back on fairly quickly and then we were off to Mexico!
