May 5, 2012 - Day 7 Disney Wonder IN Maui

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Sorry the photos are out of order again. I hate PhotoBucket!

Here are scanned copies of today's Personal Navigator and Maui Shopping Map.

We had an early start today with all ashore at 7:30am. That meant they opened the restaurants early. We had BBB and ate out on the back deck.

We were off Wonder before 8am and while we waited in a big line for the Thrifty shuttle to the airport, they were running big buses pretty close together and we were in our Chevy Cobalt by 8:05am. We paid $40.53 for the rental today. Gas fill up was at Tesoro and a total of $20.94 for 4.275 gallons at $4.899/gallon. Have you noticed that gas is really expensive in Hawaii?!

The main problem with such an early start is generally that nothing is open yet! Since we had gotten such an early start, we went first to Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens in the Iao Valley to see Iao Needle, a geographic feature. The park opens at 7am and is free. The lower parking area is free, but it is $5 to park up top at the Iao Valley State Park at the trails to see Iao Needle! We parked in the lower first and wandered the monuments and architectural samples of the different nationalities that have come to Hawaii. We did not see a way to walk up to the upper park area, so we drove up and paid $5 to park. We hiked all the paved trails and enjoyed our time in Iao Valley. It was like a wind tunnel in there, which was nice with the bright morning sunshine. It was a beautiful place and full of the sound of rushing water. The shade and the wind made the walk comfortable. There were about 125 steps to the highest point to get closest to Iao Needle. I didn't count how many steps to the lowest point along the Iao Stream. But, we got in a good walk in a beautiful landscape.

We drove back downhill toward Wailuku and stopped at the Bailey House Museum that opened at 10am. Admission was $7pp. It was interesting and they had a temporary exhibit of Hawaiian quilts that I really enjoyed. (I forgot to mention that Hilo Hatties carries Hawaiian quilts of varying sizes and we passed a couple of fabric/quilting stores on our drive yesterday on Hilo.) After that we were ready for lunch.

Now you might have noticed that I have been eating lots of steak and limiting carbs pretty well. Not today! We want to lunch with locals. This was one place that we went and did NOT see any ship people! We got to Sam Sato's (I believe this was pronounced Say-toe.) about 11am and had to put our names on a waitlist. They had more to go business than eat in, lucky for us. We asked our waitress about what to order because we didn't even know what the menu meant. Based on her descriptions, we shared small dry noodles, won ton mein, Chow Fun small and BBQ beef stick side. We both liked the dry noodles best, then Chow Fun and least of all won ton mein. It was 3 distinct kinds of noodles. All good. She showed us how to mix up a little dab of hot mustard that she brought us each in a tiny dish with soy sauce to dip our dry noodles. It was good! It was an interesting experience. Clay got a $15 t-shirt.

We both wanted shave ice after that to cool our mouths down and because of the sun-baked hot car. We drove around a bit and looked but didn't find one, so instead we drove south across the narrow part of the island to the Maui Ocean Center. Clay was reparking the car when I  found out it cost $25pp. We both doubted that an aquarium of this size would be worth that to us and I didn't want to spend that much there. We still wanted shave ice and Clay had heard enough about ABC Stores that he wanted to find one. He used his phone/GPS and said there was one nearby. So we headed off and 8 miles later we were still hearing it was much further to go.

I saw an ABC Store on the left side of the road with a Ululani's Shave Ice next door, right across the street from the Kihei Canoe Club on the beach! Clay slammed on brakes and pulled in to the lot and parked. Nothing in there is made in Hawaii, but it is the ultimate budge souvenir store. Clay got a quite nice Maui t-shirt for $15. I got a souvenir tin of mints. Next door, Clay got a small shave ice with pineapple, mango and passion fruit. I got a micro shave ice with grape and vanilla. Vanilla was blue! The people working there told us it was only their 3rd day in business! These were the best shaved ices we could ever remember having and we sat on the Kihei wharf to eat them. It was only about 3pm and we had at least 3 more hours with the car. There was a sign at the wharf with an historic photo of the wharf and saying it was originally built in the 1899 by the Alexander and Baldwin Sugar Company.

So, we drove back north to the Alexander and Baldwin Sugar Museum. Admission was $7pp again. It is in an old plantation supervisor's home and is in the midst of miles and miles of sugar cane fields that we drove through all day! It is directly across the street from the working Puunene Sugar Mill. It was very informative and helped us understand what we had been seeing since we even left the ship. They only harvest a field of sugar cane every 2 years and they rotate the fields so they will almost always have one ready to harvest. Well, we happened to be here on Maui on a harvesting day. They start by burning the field, and we saw that from the ship as we were arriving. Then they bulldoze the field and use big claw cranes to load the cane in giant chain hoppers and drive them to the mill. We saw the fire from the ship, we saw the clouds of red soil in the incessant wind as we drove around, and we saw the harvesting machines stripping the fields, then the trucks with the big chain hoppers arriving at the mill. Fascinating. The museum admission included a little ziplock bag with about a teaspoon of the local demerara sugar as a sample.

Then we drove part of the Road to Hana. We turned around about 16 miles into a maybe 52 mile winding scenic drive. Clay felt like he got to see enough of Maui's North Shore surfing activity and we saw a pair of amazing little black and white and red-crested birds there. We turned the car in about an hour early and got a shuttle back to the pier after only a little wait with the resident chickens, chicks and rooster!

Dinner tonight was at Parrot Cay. I love my new $12 muumuu! The menu was Ho'olaule'a. Hans couldn't pronounce it and said it was a place name, but he didn't know what place. I Googled it and it is a Hawaiian word that means a festival or a celebration. Clay had bresaola with melons. I had iceberg lettuce and vinaigrette and a buttered roll! Continuing my carb loading day! The bread today was pretzel sticks. (Not!) It was like slices of a giant pretzel loaf. The spread tonight was liverwurst and it was Clay's favorite of the cruise! He said it tasted like Neese's liver pudding (which he only ever eats in the little bitesize samples they hand out at the NC State Fair!) They had beef prime rib tonight, so I broke my steak streak and had pork tenderloin with the weirdest spaetzle ever. Clay had prawn curry and really liked it. Clay had the featured sundae again. I didn't see any dessert I like, so remembering the one perfect raspberry I had with some past dessert, I asked for a small bowl of just raspberries. They weren't sure and went to find out. No joy. I was offered a bowl of mostly blueberries with a few strawberry quarters and some blackberries. I refused it and they told me the chef said he'll get raspberries delivered tomorrow in Honolulu. I can believe that. They promised to find me after and deliver my bowl of raspberries only. I hope not, but we'll see.

The Personal Navigator says a Hawaiian deck party at 9:30pm tonight. But, the wait staff says Christiaan announced sometime that there would be a Hawaiian BBQ at Goofy Pool Deck at 9pm and they thought that was why the light dinner crowd. Sailaway is 11pm. We'll see. Clay will be sad if true, since he ate too much dinner.

We went up to Deck 9 at 9pm and stayed through the end of the Tihati Performers show and we wandered around, but never found an outdoor Hawaiian BBQ, so no idea what was up with that. We were asleep for the sail away! The Tihati Performers got onboard with us in LA and have been performing all over the ship at a variety of times, but I think they are getting off the ship tomorrow in Honolulu. Our loss.

What is up with the towel animals? We take them off the bed to sleep and put them on top of the steamer trunk at the foot of the bed and there they stay! (Postscript note: Alain let them get 5-7 deep and then took them away all at once. Still don't know why.)

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May 4, 2012 - Day 6 Disney Wonder IN Hawaii

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To start here is today's Personal Navigator along with Hilo Shopping Map. This Shopping Map is the only port specific literature we received for each port at which we stopped. I don't know if one had gone to the tour desk, or destinations deck, or whatever they called it if one could have gotten better maps or more tourist information because we just never did. I stopped by there on the way to Ensenada but it was closed and all they had out was a sheet with excursions for sale on it.

The light seeping through the curtains woke us up around 6am. Wonder was only traveling 9-10 knots about 30 nautical miles off Hilo. It was not visible on the bridgecam. We have covered 2112 nautical miles. Seas are very calm, wind is very slight and the sun is shining through partly cloudy skies. But Hilo is the rainiest town in the USA, so we expect to see a shower or 2!

We are thinking of going to Volcanoes National Park, but left Clay's Senior Pass at home, so that sucks. Hilo is pronounced Hee-low.

No breakfast is served onboard Wonder before 6:45am for light stuff at Goofy's on the pool deck. 7:15am for hot food at BBB. 8am for part buffet and part table service in PC. 8am for table service from a menu at Triton's.

PremEar: The Avengers is showing in WDT again today at 5 and 8pm. The schedule doesn't say if they are only showing in 3D. If so, I guess I won't be seeing it. I'll have to ask at Guest Services. I have to go anyway about my tote bag. We got it back last night with only 5 signatures on it! We had asked for everyones on Mickey's List, Princesses List, and 5 extra others available for this cruise. The dozen packs of Lance Nabs are gone but only the extra 5 signatures. I am very disappointed and plan to return the bag to Guest Services to get the other signatures. They have time and somebody already had the treats! I will assume it was just a miscommunication, but the form has everything clearly marked and spelled out. Oh well, we'll see.

More shipside rainbows this morning in the sunshine and passing rains. It must have seemed a lot like home to the first people who migrated here from Polynesian and the Marquesas.

We had breakfast again at BBB since it is the only place serving hot food before 8am. I had 2 eggs over medium for the first time. Also saw hash browns and biscuits for the first time. Biscuits were the first good biscuits we've ever had on a cruise ship! Clay had a partially frozen Krispy Kreme doughnut!

It is really rainy here! It deserves its rainiest US city rap! We are docking at 9:40am. They have no idea how long it will take to place gangways and clear the ship.

Wonder staff placed beautiful purple orchid leis on every woman leaving the ship and a brown nut lei on all the men. That was a nice touch! The locals in Hilo rolled out the sea version of a red carpet for our arrival. There was a tug boat spraying water and a helicopter circling us. Between all that and our own Wonder "When You Wish Upon A Star" ship's horn, you couldn't help but notice from inside even that we had arrived. We heard later that the helicopter circling us was dropping over 5000 orchids in the water. That is impressive! But, I didn't see any orchids! This link is the video I got of it.

Things to learn. Bring bandannas to wipe rainy humidity and sweat! We forgot ours! Bring Senior Annual National Parks pass! Clay forgot his! I think this may be part of the new communications disconnect we have. I mean we had gotten pretty expert at packing and now we work at odds. We once had everything streamlined and at the ready and now at the last minute we each do our own thing with no cooperation and argue about it. I guess we're both just getting too old for travel, so it is a good thing we have already done all the big stuff on our lists.

All ashore was originally 9:30am and Thrifty car rental pickup at 10am. We didn't get off the ship until after 10:30am. We waited about an hour for a Thrifty shuttle. Thrifty was running 2 vehicles that carried about 14 people each and they had rented over 100 cars that day! They should have rented a bus (or 2) for the day! So, it was about noon when we got our car. We rented a Chevy Aveo (or similar) for $39.26 and we got a big black Crown Victoria! It was fine if overkill for the 2 of us. We agreed to return the gas tank full within 10 miles of the return and to provide a receipt as proof. We filled up at a Chevron for 5.286 gallons at $4.659/gallon or $24.63. Hopefully, the rest of the islands we'll get the small economy cars we reserved and not spend so much on Hawaii's crazy expensive gas! A postscript note here: You can pick up a magazine called a Drive Guide at each island's Thrify/Dollar car rental place. It is invaluable! If you can read a map, take 10 minutes or so and go through it quickly as soon as you can. Honestly, everything you need for a day in a car sightseeing on each island is there. There is an entire island map up front in a foldout, with smaller area maps in the back. There are articles that divide each island into quadrants with what to see, do, shop and eat in each sector, it is concisely, logically and attractively laid out and written with lots of photos. Make sure you get one of these Driving Guides at each island and use it!


We have rarely been that wet for that long while fully clothed as we were today. It rains in Hawaii! We drove directly to Volcanoes National Park hereafter VNP. We bought Clay a second $10 Senior lifetime pass for entry. It is about a 45 minute drive each way from Hilo. The world's largest active volcano, I think they said. It was impressive. We didn't see any fresh lava though. Clay got a t-shirt and we watched a film. We saw steam vents, walked through a lava tube, saw an arch carved out of lava at the seashore and miles and miles of all kinds of solidified lava. We saw misty rain, hard rain, sideways rain of all varieties, we were in and out of the car as we drove around the park and were soaked through to the underwear as the wind whipped us. It was crazy, and the sun never stopped shining! There were lots of roads closed around the park due to high levels of harmful sulfur dioxide gas from the steam vents. Lots of warning signs up saying that if you felt bad to get in your car and keep the windows up and get away as it could be lethal gas venting in the area. Scary. We drove all the way to the end of Chain of Craters Road and back. (We started to walk down the closed road as there were lots of people as far out as we could see and we understood the road was closed because at some point there was hot lava flowing. After we got out there we realized that it was a more than 2 mile walk and you would still need binoculars to see the hot lava. Had we read carefully first, we still would've driven down to the sea and gotten out of the car to see the lava arch in the surf and where the lava wall met the sea. But, then we would've saved 20 minutes or so and not walked out the closed part of the road for nothing! That's my tip for more time at Mauna Loa Nut and Hilo Hatties.) We drove all of Crater Rim Drive that was open (only about half). Due to the short time here, our late arrival and the crazy sideways cold rain, we did not spend as much time out of the car as we'd have liked. We could easily have spent more than a full day here taking the various hikes.

We stopped at the Mauna Loa Nut Factory on the way back to turn in the car. We drove through a 2500 acre nut grove with 250,000 nut trees and we got some nuts! We saw a costumed nut! Clay got a t-shirt. We should have left VNP 15 minutes earlier and we would have had time to walk the self-guided factory tour, which is free and entails walking a marked sidewalk and stairs to view through windows from the outside of the building as far as we could tell. The last buses from the ship were just arriving as we did and so we looked at them and passed on that.

We drove past the Hilo Hattie's store on our way out, so we were looking for it on the way back. I had said I wanted to get a muumuu since we first booked this trip. This was my chance. I got a rayon, made in Hawaii, muumuu on clearance sale for $12. I love it! It looks like the one Lilo (pronounced Lee-low) wears in the movie Lilo and Stitch, though I didn't know that when I bought it! It is kind of rust colored with big white leaves printed on it. I also got a beautiful Chinese-made, sage green, silk sleeveless one, with a short sleeved shirt to go over it. They were about $90 per piece! I had to have it! I'll probably never come back here! (I love it less now, first I did not realize it wasn't also made in Hawaii. Second, it is washable silk, but man it wrinkled like crazy and was very hard to iron. Clay has a few washable silk shirts and honestly I have never ironed one of them. I take them out of the dryer still damp and shake and smooth them out and let them hang to finish drying. No such luck with mine Hilo Hattie's washable silk! It wrinkles like linen! I still like it, but knowing what I know now, I would not have paid that much for it. I would have shopped the Hilo Hattie's on the other islands clearance racks!) Which brings me to something we learned as we were leaving our last island, every island's Hilo Hatties had a little bit different store inventory according to people who went to all of them! Even though we drove by and saw each one, we never stopped and went into another, assuming they were all the same! Not! I got a $10 Koa wooden Hawaiian bookmark. Clay picked up another box of macadamia nut candies, then the checkout guy gave us 2 free boxes for spending over a certain amount! I don't know what the deal was, but he scanned a coupon he had by the register. Again, evidently each island's Hilo Hattie had a different giveaway for spending a certain amount. Here I guess it was $100, since he gave us 2 boxes of candy. Other people told us they got mugs or other things at other islands. Also, Hilo Hatties stores will ship your purchases home in flat rate USPS boxes. That is a nice touch! It also means if you have anything to mail and you already have postage on it, you can drop it here for pickup.

We were docked on the port side. As I recall, the only times we docked on the starboard side were at San Pedro. Clay says he thinks we were docked once on starboard side in the islands but can't recall when. I will say that we were never docked anywhere that allowed us to take good dockside photos of Wonder. We never got to photograph the ducks hanging off the stern. We never got even a glimpse of them until we got to Ensenada. Clay didn't believe me that they were back there! We didn't get a good look at Donald and his nephews until we were disembarking and entering immigration clearance at San Pedro and we didn't have a camera out then, or a chance to get one! Clay asked me, have those really been back there all along? I know, right! What's the point if we can't ever see them! We did try to walk to the far side of the dock here to see them and security sent us back.

Below are photos of the E Komo Mai dinner menus. Sorry as usual, they are mostly too blurry to read!

We made it back onboard about 15 minutes late for dinner, but they took us in Animator's Palate for the E Komo Mai menu. That's Hawaiian for Welcome. I had pinto bean soup. (Funny story. I didn't eat it. I spooned through it and there was not a single pinto bean in there. Hans came over to see if we liked our food and asked me what was wrong. I told him there were no pinto beans in there. He whisked the bowl away and in minutes was back with a new bowl, laughing. Hans said, I told the chef what you said and he said, quite right. Ladled deep into the pot and all the pinto beans were down there. I got a bowlful!) I also had a big steak with a potato cake. Clay had green bean and potato salad and a veal shank. For dessert, Clay had a sundae and I had chocolate mousse.

After dinner, we took a walk around the ship. Then we watched the movie Chimpanzee in the BVT and then to bed.

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May 3, 2012 - Day 5 Disney Wonder to Hawaii

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Here are the scanned Personal Navigators for today.

Clay was up early today and in a bad mood. Got me up at 6:30am. Clay walked deck 4 this morning instead of on a treadmill. 3 laps equals one mile, proving this is a big ship. He says the proper direction is counterclockwise and it comes with some sharp corners and an incline. Yesterday the gym opened about 10 minutes late and had about 50 people lined up for it and no wipes out to clean your equipment. Clay was pretty unhappy about that.

Clay did a small load of whites this morning. Twenty-three minutes to wash and lots of machines available. But, 44 minutes to dry, so no machines available. We just hung them up around the cabin. $1 to wash and I brought our own detergent. You use your KTTW to pay for everything in the laundry room. (In hindsight, we should have just packed to be prepared to hand wash and hang to dry everything, because you couldn't find an available machine except in the wee hours of the night, unless it was during port hours which I didn't try. Given the amount and size of luggage we saw come onboard, we were both shocked at the volume of people constantly competing for machines in the laundry room. It was a few doors down and across the hall, so we could keep a pretty close eye on it and it was always packed or out of service. Not good for people like us that came on a 15-night cruise with only carry on bags! Since we packed light with the plan of doing laundry every 5 to 7 days, we had to improvise a little to get through the trip! Oh, well.)

Nothing planned today so far. Clay started getting worried yesterday that we have nothing planned for our time in Hawaii except Pearl Harbor. I had starting planning months ago but then he piped in and said he wanted to do the planning and GPS route everything and then he did nothing but make ridiculous plans. Like drive the Road to Hana to the furthest point and take a 4 mile muddy hike to a waterfall and then come back. I don't think so for a number of reasons, first being that it wasn't feasible in the time we have in port. Instead, we have no plans!

Oh, we're done moving clocks forward now! Evening dress today is casual. Dinner for us in Triton's with the French dinner menu. Seas still smooth, winds calming and it was sunny yesterday and today. We ate lunch on the back deck at BBB yesterday. Today is supposed to be about 5 degrees warmer. That will be nice.

WDT show tonight is Comedy and Magic of Mike Super again. Maybe we'll make it to that this time.

I guess the skies have been really clear as they've been having stargazing every night!

We had breakfast outside today. Me from Goofy's and Clay from BBB. This was so I could make a mocha latte from the hot chocolate and coffee machines outside BBB. Yum! Though Wonder has the best standard pour coffee at sea for me, yesterday it started getting that burnt flavor that most shipboard coffee has, so I switched. I staked out a shady seat for the Funnel Vision movie Pinocchio at 9am.

At 11am Captain Fabian Dib from Argentina was signing things in the Treasure Ketch shop. We each had t-shirts signed and Clay again did not have a camera on him, so Bob missed a photo with the ship's Captain!

We had lunch outside too. I had 3 small pizza slices and a salad. Clay had 2 chicken fingers, 2 slices of pepperoni pizza and fries. We both had chocolate soft-serve ice cream for dessert. We watched Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 on TV in the cabin and napped. Clay had signed up to do Hawaiian beer tasting today at 3:30pm. We have no idea what the "nominal fee" will be. (Note: when we saw our bill, it was $15. Clay's said it wasn't worth that.)

I watched Jack & Jill on TV while Clay went for beers. He said they had five 5oz. beers. 3 were Hawaiian and 2 ringers to test them. There's only 1 big brewery in Hawaii. Clay came back very surprised to see a rainbow around the ship. There was a fine misty rain falling on the ship in the sunshine!

I went to the laundry room to iron my white blouse for the trip home while it was still damp. Clay had commented that the laundry room was poorly designed and it was. It was busy and there are lots of machines but people can't cross in front of them because of the narrow space, like at the foot of the bed. Serious points off for the irons too! Both of them were burnt and left black stuff on my white blouse! If we have to wash again before the end of the cruise, we want to make sure we go before breakfast again and still hope for small enough loads not to need a dryer. People just kept coming in with bags of wet laundry saying they got a washer early in the morning, but had been wandering from deck to deck the rest of the day looking for an available dryer. That's crazy!

Triton's French dinner came with a visit from Princess Ariel and gold streamer wands. That was a surprise! Clay had shrimp followed by a lamb shank. I had onion soup followed by a steak. Clay had ice cream and I had creme brulee for desserts. I am trying to be good about limiting carbs and upping protein intake. The only bread I've had so far is 2 chocolate croissants! I thought Clay was trying to make it look like we were both eating bread, but no he told me that there've just been some really good breads!

Tonight at 12:01AM, they are showing The Avengers 3D "PremEAR" movie in WDT. We're NOT going. I can't tolerate 3D and we have somewhere to be in the morning. Aloha Hawaii!

After dinner, we had a photo with Donald Duck. Then we went to Studio Sea for So You Think You Know Your Family and finally to WDT for Mike Super's Magic show.


Tonight our DCL tote bag was delivered back to us. It only had 5 signatures on it and none were of the Fab 5, or any other standards like Princesses but all the more than dozen packs of Nabs and the Sharpie were gone. Obviously, there has been some miscommunication. The tote bag will go back to Guest Services for another try at this.

Some final comments on the day. We would never want to cruise without a balcony. But, here is one area with points off for Disney. There is a permanent ashtray out there welded to the wall! Fortunately, none of our neighbors seem to be smokers! Worse though is the dirty, cloudy Plexiglas sheet over the metal rails forming the balcony railing. You pretty much have to stand and look out over the waist high rail whether inside the cabin or outside on the balcony. I can see why people are loathe to pay the balcony price premium for it.

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May 2, 2012 - Day 4 Disney Wonder to Hawaii

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Starting again with scanned copies of today's Personal Navigator. I am going to stop pasting them in, you can just use the link above if you're interested.

No fever today. Smooth seas. And warmer, maybe low 70's F today! We haven't even seen as much as another ship at sea since leaving LA. No sea life at all either. Just blue water as far as the eye can see... No birds, no flying fish, nothing.

Today has been about movies. I watched most of Tangled on TV this morning. After BBB breakfast with a chocolate croissant! (My Doctor recently told me to cut back on my carb intake and increase my protein intake. Hence, all the nightly steaks. I have been good and not had a chocolate croissant yet, but they have them every single morning... so I confess that I had one every single morning starting today. Hey, I am on vacation! I will go ahead and confess that I gained 4 pounds on this trip, but  I had lost them again by the 18th so no worries.) After breakfast, I watched Beauty & the Beast in BVT, followed by the new Muppets movie.

At one, we returned to BBB for lunch. Clay was thrilled to find BBQ ribs on the buffet. Clay went to watch Some Like it Hot in BVT and I opted for a nap before we have a Disboards Hawaiian shirt photo in the atrium lobby at 4pm. Sorry, I don't have a photo but I'd be amazed if there isn't one posted online somewhere,  saw more than one or two people photographing.

Dinner tonight is casual and in Parrot Cay with the Island Dinner menu. Not really looking forward to that. In the WDT tonight is "Who wants to be a Mouseketeer?" Not sure we'll go to that. Might watch a movie on TV.

Dinner was good! It came with a little Mexican skirt dance by Minnie Mouse and 2 girls. It was very fun and a great surprise. I had St. Maarten stack, jerk chicken strips, a big ribeye steak with a stuffed baked potato half and corn on the cob. Clay had a cold cream soup, ahi tuna and mixed grill.  I felt well enough and the ship was stable enough and Parrot Cay low enough on deck 3 to carry a glass of Riesling to dinner. Clay has been having a beer on the balcony in the afternoon after his first one in WDT. After dinner, Clay decided to leave his camera in the cabin, so we just saw Snow White in action from above.  I guess that is how we managed to meet Cinderella the first sea dinner, she must have been on her way to the atrium for photos. Then we went to the movie War Horse in BVT. It was good and well attended considering they had already shown it several times. Then we watched Thor on TV and went to bed after moving the clocks back an hour again. This is going to be tough going east!

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May 1, 2012 - Day 3 Disney Wonder to Hawaii

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Here are scanned copies of today's Personal Navigator. You should be able to click them and view them larger and hopefully be able to read them!

I am coughing badly and choking up big gobs of yellow phlegm this morning! I didn't bring any medicine for something like this since I just got over bronchitis in March from the Antarctica trip. I'm riding it out for now and seeing how it goes. I have already lost my voice. It is something about me and ships, happens every time.

The seas are calmer today. All the dinner help told us their whole time during the Mexican Riviera season it has been like that the first day. That sailing in and out of LA is rough. So something to look forward to.

They have stargazing on the Navigator schedule today at 10:30pm on the very top deck. I don't know that we will go, but I'm impressed they are doing it since you usually have to beg for it on every ship we've sailed but one before this.

At our Character Breakfast in Parrot Cay this morning, we got photos taken with our camera of us with Goofy, Pluto, Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale. Hans said we could order whatever we wanted whether it was on the menu or not and gave Eggs Benedict as an example, so that is what I ordered. It was good. They put napkins on our heads. Clay got a whole tablecloth drape and said it was warm. I was jealous, because its freezing on this ship! Oh, so the character's handlers take your picture with your own camera. Just a note for anyone who hasn't done this before, don't be disappointed, take your own camera because there is no professional photographer there. Chip's handler saw Bob and she said "Is that Bob?" Yes, it is. How did you know? "Oh, I heard all about Bob!" Everyone loves Bob! Now, Bob is famous, or infamous, or notorious, not sure which, already on a ship with about 2000 passengers and 1000 crews on day 3's morning! Who told her about Bob? Cinderella? Anyway, we really enjoyed the Character Breakfast notwithstanding the napkins on the head. You will be able to get better photos with characters onboard, but you won't get them any more easily than just have a meal and waiting! Oh, loved all the great Hawaiian clothes they were wearing!

After breakfast, we walked forward and happened on Christiaan and Leslie filming their morning show, so we stood and watched for a while.We also checked out the games (who plays Jenga at sea!) and minuscule Internet area there. Then Clay went to a second destination lecture that he reported was just as badly done as the first one. He says he won't give the guy another chance. Then he went to a Tandoori chicken cooking demo. (Note: per Clay if you don't arrive about 15 to 20 minutes early, you don't get into these cooking demos! This was the only one he was able to get in during the 2 weeks, all the rest were filled by the time he arrived.) I went to watch Peter Pan, the original movie in Buena Vista Theater (hereafter BVT). I liked it and there were only about 30 other people in there. I sat rows away from everyone, but then 2 families cam and sat within 6 seats of me and didn't like it when I coughed. Sorry! I was self-isolating until you piled on me. After I got back to the cabin, I had a monster coughing fit that ended with vomiting up breakfast and tears. I feel terrible, but at least the seas have really calmed down.

We went up to the pool deck for lunch, I was hoping to keep myself self-isolated and not cough on anyone. It worked this time. We went to Goofy's Landing and I got a half panini of mozzarella and ham and a Granny Smith apple. Clay got a half panini of tomato, pesto and mozzarella and a salad. Clay went and got us drinks. He had a cup of chocolate and banana soft serve ice cream. The paninis might have tasted good, but they were premade and had gotten soggy. You couldn't pick them up, but had to cut them with a plastic knife and fork. I wonder if the pools are heated? I was very cold out there at lunch and all those kids were running around wet! (Yes, I later learned the pools stay at 84 to 89 degrees F.)

After lunch, I went back to bed after finding that my temperature had finally spiked to 100.4 degrees F. Clay was off to sun himself on Deck 7 aft. Then he planned to go to Don "Ducky" Williams sketch seminar. Then to watch Citizen Kane in BVT. I started taking Claritin and Advil which is all I have with me. I could really use a cough suppressant, but I didn't see any in the shop and I'd rather not go to the Doctor onboard. I am hoping to make it to dinner tonight. We are in Animator's Palate again, but this time is the color show. I have looked forward to it since I first heard about it so fingers crossed. The WDT show tonight is Comedy & Mystery of Guy Bavli. I don't know about that. Christiaan liked the movie Real Steel, which is shown at BVT at 8pm. Or, Dolphin Tale finally appeared as per the printed schedule this afternoon and a showing should start at 8pm. We'll see. Fever up to 100.9 with Advil so that's not looking good for going out at all.

Clay said Ducky Williams said we would all have an opportunity to have him sign our Inaugural Hawaii lithograph from last night's bed gifts.

Tonight we had the black and white to color show in Animator's Palate at dinner. Sorcerer Mickey was there. It was pretty amazing. I had the best menu with an action hologram of Lady and the Tramp's spaghetti kiss! Clay ordered smoked salmon salad and a veal chop followed by Warm Apple Crumble. He said it was the best dessert yet. (Am I alone in thinking this is his first dessert that wasn't a sundae?) I had bacon and cheddar potato soup that I found far too salty. I had the Asian beef tenderloin with wasabi mashed potatoes and for dessert, double chocolate fudge cake. It was the exact same cake as last night's flourless chocolate cake but served with a chocolate wedge and a single perfect raspberry. First raspberry!

We plan to watch the movie Dolphin Tale on TV in our cabin. We move the clocks back another hour tonight. Clay brought me hot chocolate in bed from the deck 9 self service beverage station. I am freezing!

Tomorrow afternoon is the Disboards Hawaiian shirts photo op at 4pm in the atrium lobby, deck 3. That's all we have planned yet. The newsletter for tomorrow isn't out yet.

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April 30, 2012 - Day 2 Disney Wonder to Hawaii

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Here are scanned copies of today's Personal Navigator. You should be able to click them and view them larger and hopefully be able to read them!

The seas and our ride got really rough overnight. Also it got very windy, cool and cloudy. We must be in big swells as the sea does not appear that rough. We are really having some big rocks and rolls. Things fell last night and doors were slamming. Now we keep the doors latched. There are 2 little bathrooms. One has a toilet and a sink and some corner shelves (that one is mine, or where I keep my toothbrush). One has a sink and a shower over tub (that one is Clay's or where he keeps his toothbrush). Those doors and the sliding closet doors were slamming.

The rough motion is disturbingly random. There is minor roughness that would be tolerable and then after 6 to 8 to 12 little rocks there will be a 2 to 3 foot roll that will just send you across the room or into a seat. We hear this may last 2 or 3 days! I hope not. I am in bed this morning hoping to either adjust to this or else I'll have to wait for conditions to change. I feel sad that I'm missing things out there like movies and Donald and Daisy. Also, the TV movies are not playing according to the schedule they provided. And, how does Disney NOT have movies on demand?!? At these prices, on vacation on a Disney cruise ship, you are at the mercy of their schedule? And then the schedule is NOT even correct?! Really? Am I missing something? How is this possible? Or acceptable? I know I am pretty cranky right now, but seriously!

Clay went out for breakfast which did not start anywhere before 7AM! (This proved a pattern for the entire cruise! I guess we have been spoiled with adult-oriented cruises and their early riser breakfasts.) He also went to a destination lecture. He brought back yogurt, a Coke and an apple. He says he wants a brat for lunch, so I've requested he bring me chicken fingers. I did get some hand laundering done and now I need a nap. Clay says the out of order sign is now off our hallway's laundry room. That is good. I am holding out hope that I can make it up and out to Formal night and Captain's welcome tonight which for us is in Animator's Palate and tonight's show is Toy Story the Musical.

Noon: Captain's announcement. There are 1928 or so passengers and 300 or so are children. We've covered 320 some nautical miles. It is 60 degrees F, still overcast but improving. We are making 20 knots and on schedule. These are normal open sea conditions for the area. We should expect the same tomorrow. All pools are empty because of the high waves on deck 9. We turn our clocks back one hour tonight! An extra hour to sleep! Captain is Fabian Dib, Cruise Director is Christiaan, Asst. CD is Leslie.

The sun is out this afternoon.

There is a shortage of electrical outlets in our cabin. I don't know how I missed knowing that up front after all the reading I've been doing about Disney cruises and the ships. We could use a small powerstrip, but then I guess we might not have brought one anyway with the small amount of luggage we allowed ourselves. One outlet is lost at the desk by the plug used for the Wave phone recharger. The 110 outlet in the toilet room doesn't work with a 4-watt nightlight bulb. Sadly. It will work in the one outlet in the tub/shower room which doesn't help a lot with going to the bathroom at night! We found we can use the outlet behind the TV and the space below for recharging our own batteries and devices.

I have developed postnasal drip and am now getting a sore throat on top of seasickness. Not looking good...

Good news is the bed is quite comfortable. It is made up with a top sheet (great for Clay!) and a duvet which I like.

4pm I managed to get up and showered and dressed by 4:30pm. Clay and I went down and applied the Disney Visa Rewards gift cards I had collected to our onboard account. Then we came back up to the cabin and dressed for formal night. Heels were tricky but I did not seem any worse off than anyone else. Still, making a mental note to find some dressy flats! We had a Taste of California menu in the Animator's Palate. I had potato croquettes and a tenderloin steak without shrimp. Clay had a California roll and a maple glazed pork tenderloin. We shared a Chocolate Long Beach sundae and a chocolate flourless cake. Again all the food was good to us.

We walked through the art gallery, which seems to change daily, to kill some time and met CINDERELLA! I confess I gasped out loud! She smiled and spoke to us, she held Bob and said he was about the size of her mice. I told her, and just as clever. So she held him up and gave him a good eye-to-eye look. "Wonder"ful! I was so flustered and shocked to just run into Cinderella (I wasn't even sure who she was until she started talking about her mice!) that I didn't even ask to see her shoes!

Before dinner, we hung out in the atrium for the Captain's welcome and saw Mickey and Minnie and Goofy in their formal finery.

I got to meet Pluto and he gestured for me to put Bob on his snout after he gave him a kiss on the nose. Pluto flipped Bob in the air and I caught him. Pluto was very soft, I wanted to flip him over and give him a belly rub! I suppose that might be frowned upon. Clay finally agreed with me about Goofy when he asked, What's the difference between Pluto and Goofy? I know, right? They look like the same dog except Goofy has 2 teeth, talks and wears clothes and giant shoes. Pluto is Mickey's pet dog. Goofy has a son named Max, but where is Mrs. Goofy? What is up with that? I avoid Goofy, he freaks me out a little.


We went to the shops tonight and spent some of our onboard credit on a t-shirt like Clay's for me ($34.95) and a t-shirt/ballcap bundle for Clay ($29.95).

We went to Toy Story the Musical in the Walt Disney Theater at 8:30pm. It was pretty amazing. We had planned to stay for the adults only Mike Super magic show, but didn't. We changed out of our formal wear before the show and Clay took a beer to the show and I took my water bottle to sip to keep from coughing. Clay slept through most of Toy Story and I had to pee after all the water! So, we went back to the cabin and to bed.

Tonight at bed time, we found a limited edition Don "Ducky" Williams lithograph on our bed for our Inaugural Hawaii sailing. We had actually just noticed that picture framed and displayed on an easel in the art walk area. It is Donald and Goofy on the beach watching 2 hula girls with Wonder offshore behind them. We are freaked out by Goofy's toes! (We got Ducky Williams to sign it and we found a perfect fit 11x14 inch frame in black and gold at A.C. Moore for $8! It is hanging in our hall with all our other travel-purchased art.)

Clocks back one hour tonight and tomorrow night. This will be much harder on the way back! Tomorrow morning at 8am is our character breakfast in Parrot Cay restaurant. We are hoping the seas calm down by then.



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Boarding Disney Wonder - April 29, 2012

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Woke up on the Queen Mary Hotel, Deck A, Room 128. Did not sleep too well. Bed was comfortable, but the walls were thin and sound traveled well. Also, the room was haunted. None of the above combined made for a good, solid night's sleep.

There was a man with binoculars looking out the porthole in our room all night! I was sleeping on that side of the bed, so he was only about 3 feet away from me. Clay never saw him. I don't think Clay even rolled over on his right side to face that direction all night! Maybe Clay did sleep well all night! Before we went to bed, Clay went to the ice machine and refilled our travel water bottles. They had neoprene covers on them, so we can easily carry them around. Clay put mine in a wooden cup holder on my bedside table. I thought that was so thoughtful and courteous of him! The first 2 times I woke up in the night and saw a man beside the bed holding something up to his face, I thought it was Clay drinking my water. He did eat a lot of ribs, but I was amazed that he had drunk all his own water and was now drinking mine! The third time I woke up, I sat up and I reached over to his side of the bed and he was there! I looked and it was him. I looked more closely at the drinking man and realized my water bottle was in place and he was actually holding a pair of binoculars up to his face! I thought about it and decided NOT to freak out. I was too tired and the man was not bothering anyone, so I should try not to disturb him in return. The 4th time, I woke up really needing to pee, but I really did not want to have to deal with binoculars man, and was very disappointed and much more freaked out to find he was real and still there! I rolled over so as not to have to see him, and I held it! I have no idea if this is a documented Queen Mary haunting. Apparently there are a lot of them documented, but I did not check and really didn't want to find out that the hauntings were real! We were both wide awake about 4am, probably due to the time zone difference and fortunately binoculars man was gone. We listened to the neighbors coughing and whispered about what to do. Clay did not believe me about binoculars man! I was for getting up and getting on with the day while binoculars man was gone! We did. We showered and dressed and finished touring the ship. We had it all to ourselves. It seemed big. Then, we noticed the Carnival ship docked behind the QMH and it seemed small. The QM literature said they started serving light breakfast onboard at 6:30am, but there was a long and cranky line of people still waiting for coffee then, so we decided to leave the ship/hotel for breakfast and wine/beer shopping and come back well before noon for checkout. We had done DCL online check in and had a noon to 12:30pm arrival time scheduled.

We went out to the bus stop and the first bus to arrive was signed C - downtown. We got on and she was starting a 15 minute break. Lucky for us, since we talked about our plans and she set us straight. With the bicycle race going on today, the routes were altered. Also, her bus C was changing over to B route about 4 stops into the ride! I don't know how you would know this in advance if you got on a C - downtown bus at the QMH. I guess you would do what we did every time we got on a bus, ask the driver if you they are going to your destination! So, we took Passport C/B to Elm and 4th and walked about a block to a market center with Albertson's, CVS, Walgreens, Wal-mart, Denny's, McDonald's, etc. We went to Denny's first and got the AARP discount on coffee with breakfast. We got some small wine cartons and a Guinness 8 pack of cans at Albertson's. (I will go ahead and report now, that Clay was hard pressed to drink his beers. He had planned to have one every afternoon on the balcony, but most days it was too windy and cold for him to enjoy sitting out there sipping a Guinness. He wound up having 1 left over. On the wines, we bought too much for our small glass of wine routine. Clay was rarely in the mood for a glass at all, so that reduced our need even more. I felt too unwell or heavily seasickness medicated to chance alcohol on top a few too many nights as well. Then there were our choices, we had never purchased wine that wasn't in bottles before so we weren't familiar with the brands and there were not a lot of choices anyway. We chose the small milk carton type instead of the big boxes and that was a good decision. We bought a Vendage and Bota Box Pinot Grigio and dumped both out after a first glass as they were not drinkable and we aren't really all that picky! We bought a Bandit Riesling and a Bandit Pinot Grigio and both were drinkable. The 2 boxes we dumped contained 3 glasses each and the 2 boxes we drank contained 5 glasses each and that still wound up being too much wine for us.) We walked back to the corner with the Passport bus stops and got on the B bus which turned into C. Again, we asked if we could ride to the Queen Mary Hotel when the driver stopped and opened the door and he said yes.

Back at QMH, we entered our room to find that the camera/electronics bits and pieces Clay had left sitting on the cabinet right inside the door were strewn across the floor towards the bathroom. I said to Clay, told you. I did not disrespect binoculars man and he didn't touch any of my stuff. Clay frowned as we repacked our luggage to make it all easy to carry again. We should have done a better job, since Clay wound up breaking his rolling bag handle as we went down the ramp to Wonder! I was trying to explain to Clay that the bags with liquid in them had to be carried on and put through a standard carry on sized x-ray machine. Somehow that with the fact that we were carrying on all of our bags did not translate and we were awkwardly packed with a duffel of the beer and wine on top of a rolling bag which caused the handle to break on a turn in the zigzagging ramp to Wonder. Something for anyone else trying this to think about.

We were prepaid at the QMH and could keep the keycards as souvenirs, so all checkout required was leaving. We walked to the bus stop again and got back on the free Passport C bus to Long Beach Transit Mall. We got off there and walked one block to Stop A for Commuter Express bus 142 at $1.50pp fare for the ride to San Pedro. We left Long Beach at 10:30am and saw NCL Pearl and DCL Wonder as we were crossing the bridge. We got off CE bus 142 at the Ports o Call stop in front of the Maritime Museum around 11am. Facing the museum, we turned left and started up the sidewalk, again construction obstructions made things complicated when they shouldn't have been. But, we could see the ship and we knew we were headed in the right direction. We did see the tracks for a waterfront tram line, but during the hour we were out there, we never saw a tram running. I am not sure if it is not in operation, or just not on Sunday mornings, or if it was related to the construction. The good news was that it was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the leisurely stroll once we passed the construction barricades. We both estimated the walk was about one mile North to Wonder. There were water features, dancing waters, and markers and art along the walk way so we had plenty of time to pause and sit and enjoy as we slowly made our way. There was a really impressive water show to recorded classical music right at the entrance to the parking lot for Disney Wonder and we were glad we were on foot so we could stop and enjoy the show. Fortunately, it didn't start really shooting off the jets and cannons until we had gotten to the other side of the fence. Because if we had been right there on the sidewalk when the finale started, we'd have gotten wet! On this subject, I need to thank CopaDave of the Disboards, who had a post with a bunch satellite images pasted in documenting Berth 93 at San Pedro and how to get there and around. Unfortunately, the photos have since been lost, otherwise I would post a link here. But, I would suggest using Google satellite or aerial maps to check it out if you plan to go. We found it really helpful to familiarize ourselves with the lay of the land before arriving.

We got to Wonder right about noon. We checked right in and were sent to the big waiting room with 800 or so other guests. We got photos with Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse with little wait. Both nose kissed Bob! We were given boarding group number 15 and they did not starting calling group 1 until after we had been waiting a while. I am still not sure I understanding getting an arrival time by doing the online check in weeks early if they aren't going to let anyone onboard until afternoon anyway.

We got onboard Wonder about 1:30pm. After we were announced, a Cast Member (hereafter CM, which is what DCL calls the people who work aboard their ships) took us aside and prevented us looking up agape at the Chihuly chandelier as we crossed the atrium lobby we had entered. The CM explained that the buffet restaurant indoors aft on that deck was filled, but that we could walk back that way to put our names on a wait list or take the elevators back there to deck 9 for lunch at Beach Blanket Buffet (hereafter BBB). We found some empty wall space to park our bags and ate indoors at a very crowded BBB and found the food pretty good with a reasonable selection. We walked the ship a bit to find self-service ice cream and drinks and the adult only area. (Which had live amplified music and at least one running child, belying the name Quiet Cove. Disappointment.) We really dislike every CM encounter being a sales opportunity, guess we are spoiled from RSSC!

Hit the link and there are scanned Navigators from our cabin upon boarding.

By now it was 2:30pm and we went straight to the cabin to unpack. After, we went to Guest Services to drop off for character signatures a DCL tote bag that I had won from Cruise Critic. We also were hoping for car- sized ship maps like we've gotten on most other cruise ships, but got 2 letter size maps. We also requested ice in our room since we had not seen our steward yet. We did not see Alain, our Filipino cabin steward, until later when he delivered our requested ice. We went by the Promenade Lounge for the 3pm Disboards Meet & Greet and to pick up a pair of wineglasses. We didn't actually meet anyone. Everyone seemed to already know one another, so after milling through the crowd to and from the bar without anyone making eye contact with us, we moseyed on along. We were wearing our Disboards Hawaiian shirts, as were a number of others. The Disboards Hawaiian shirts were the hit of embarkation day! We got lots of comments and questions about them. They were great shirts! I wish we had located Valbob to thank her for her efforts on the Disboards shirts, but we never did meet her. Still, thanks!

We went back to the cabin for the lifeboat drill as instructed at 4pm. We are in cabin 7582 and our muster station is O (oh!) down on deck 4. So, we head aft and starboard, same as our cabin from the lobby. After that I called Mom to say bye. Then we went up to deck 9 again for a sail away party. We got big plastic souvenir Mickey hands to wave! The party was fun with lots of costumed characters! We enjoyed it and DCL really got into it! It really has been a beautiful day!

We were a little late in sailing and the crowds were so thick we couldn't go forward. So, we went aft and wound up on our deck 7 aft's tiny secret outer deck to watch them cast off and sail away with a very few others. Nice. There was another couple out there wearing the Disboards Hawaiian fabric and a woman offered to take a group photo of us, the woman in the Disboards fabric skirt told her that we didn't know each other and she hightailed it out of there! She didn't say it in a mean way, and in fact we didn't know each other. I don't remember their names and I'm sure they don't remember ours and neither of us knew each other by Disboard names either! That was weird. It was amazing the number of people who had never heard of Disboards or Cruise Critic or even understood the concept of meeting people online before a cruise without actually meeting them in person or knowing them.

I saw 2 seals, or sea lions, in our wake as we sailed out of the port but Clay missed them. Our dinner was 5:45pm seating. So, we went straight there before we were out of the port area.

Our first dinner was in Triton's. Our room key card, called a Key to the World card and hereafter KTTW had the following sequence on it: TAAPTAPTAPTAPPT Table:22. DCL has what they call rotational dining. That means that you and your servers move together nightly among 3 restaurants. T was our first, in Triton's. It is the prettiest room, low and midship, off the atrium lobby. A is Animator's Palate, deck 4 and aft. It is all black and white and on one night in your rotation it has a show where it is lit in colors. It is more interesting than it probably sounds. Yet somehow still not as impressive as I had expected though I really enjoyed it and was disappointed when it only happened the one night! P is Parrot Cay on deck 3 and aft. It has a permanent buffet section built at the front of the room, so even with menu service it still feels the most casual of the 3. You enter through a vestibule with parrot pictures and recorded bird sounds. It is very colorful in a Caribbean palate.

Our table was 22, which in each room was just off the wide center aisle at the back of the room. It was a good location. The table was set for 4 and we weren't sure if we had gotten assigned a table alone as requested. By the second night it had been established that the table 22 was ours alone. That was very good! As about 1/3 of the tables were vacant at the early seating, I'd have been upset if we had not gotten the table to ourselves as requested. We hit open ocean before being served, but the stabilizers were soon in use and it was bearable. The food at dinner was better than expected given what I had read online from past cruisers. In hindsight, I don't really think it was low expectations, I think DCL really did a good job with food. Except it seemed to me that the menus the final 2 nights had overtaxed the chefs' imaginations! I think Clay photographed every menu, so I will post them here and if you click to see them full size, you should be able to read most of them and you can be the judge. Tonight, Clay had fried calamari, halibut and a sundae. I had a chicken "bastela" which was like chicken curry in a filo pastry and a yachtsman steak with green peppercorn sauce, a twice baked potato half and steamed broccoli. It was all good and well prepared. I did not like the sound of any of the desserts, so I asked for and got a Mickey head ice cream bar.


Our servers are Hans from South Africa and Desmond from Goa, India and we have Paolo from Portugal over them. Alain, our cabin steward, is from the Philippines. They are all personable and seem ready to please.

We walked to the shops on our way to the Walt Disney Theater (hereafter WDT) for the late show. Hysteria! Long lines for Inaugural Hawaii sailing souvenirs! I think we only saw 15 -20 items and they were imposing a 2 per item per person limit. It was crazy! We didn't even see anything we really liked. Both glad for the excellent and excellently priced Disboard shirts! And glad I had prepurchased Clay one of the t-shirts as that was on the bed when we arrived at the cabin! I will say that they added items over the course of the cruise and we did wind up purchasing more souvenirs. In fact, they must have been moving stock around in both stores more than once a day from what we observed over the course of the 15 nights!

It started getting rough at show time but I made it through and enjoyed "Let the Magic Begin". It was a combination of production show and variety show. We went straight to bed after. We have a had a couple of long days now.

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Heading for Disney Wonder Inaugural Hawaiian Cruise

Photo Slideshow

OK. So, technically a Disney cruise is not a road trip. But, my thinking is that since it basically remains in North America and we plan to rent a car in each Hawaiian port, that it does not rise to the level of warranting a standalone blog... especially since there is so much written by Disney experts already available. So, here we go!

We booked this trip about a year before it happened. We had been interested in a Disney cruise, but couldn't stand the thought of all those kids. We had talked about a cruise to Hawaii. Then, we heard that DCL was getting ready to release this cruise, 15 days during school time and over our 27th Anniversary. It sounded perfect for us. Then, I tried to book it. Forget about it. DCL opens bookings first to their Platinum, Gold, then Silver Castaway Cay members. I still don't know quite what those terms signify, but since we had never cruised DCL before we weren't anywhere in the first week of booking. I was following Disboards and it looked like it might sell out without ever opening to the general public. I tried to get a quote from Dreams Unlimited, the Travel Agency that sponsors the Disboard, but never got a reply,. They were overwhelmed. Eventually, DCL's website went live and I was able to book myself. I took the cabin it offered me in the closest category to low, balcony, midship. It was number 7582 and a category 5A for $8742.22 total for the 2 of us. I had asked for a category 5B, deck 6 midship, but they were sold out. We got a $25 onboard credit for booking on DCL's website. A few weeks later, I contacted Dreams Unlimited again about transferring the booking for the $400 onboard credit and that happened quickly and smoothly after things had calmed down with the new cruise releases. It was a couple of months before they assigned us an actual agent, but it turned out that we never had reason to have contact with her, so all was fine. A few weeks after booking, I received an offer for a Chase Disney credit card with a $200 gift card after the first use within 30 days or something like that. I applied and got the card with Mickey on it! Pretty quickly got the $200 gift card and that finished out our onboard credit of over $600. We also wound up with another $42 in Disney Rewards from using the Disney CC that we also applied to our onboard account. In the end, we ended up with $3.87 being credited back onto that card.

We booked American Airlines flights with frequent flyer miles in October. Even so, we were only able to get coach seats outbound and on the return only first class seats were available. Fortunately, we still had enough miles between us to get award tickets roundtrip. Meanwhile, AA was changing our flights and never contacting us all the while in bankruptcy and we were sweating it. All went just fine.

We headed to LAX a day early. On April 28th, we left home about 10 minutes of 6am. We drove to Clay's office and parked and waited a few minutes for the taxi Clay scheduled. It is less than 5 miles to RDU from the office and we were there in plenty of time. It was not terribly crowded and we were through security with only carry on luggage and the boarding passes we printed at home 23 hours in advance with no trouble.

Not much was open this early and we ate at Bruegger's Bagels. About $13 for 2 bagels with eggs, cheese and meat and 1 coffee. They only sell bottled water. Clay found a public drinking fountain to fill our travel water bottles. The flight was not completely full. The plane was a 2/3 configuration and we were on a 2 side. About 1.5 hours to Chicago's ORD. It was rainy and 49 degrees in Chicago and it was a turbulent flight. Clay watched PBS' Mansfield Park on his tablet. They did have a drink service in coach. We each got a cup full of ice and a whole can of Coke. There was no snack at all, except food for sale.We arrived at gate K9.

About 2 hours later we flew out from gate K8. The flight to LAX was completely full and rough to start and lasted about 4 hours. ORD had nice ladies toilets with electrically operated seat covers! I hate the auto-flush though. I ate a protein bar. I bought an Apple Pie caramel apple for about $8 at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and shared it with Clay. Clay was on a quest for a brat. He got a Classic Chicago dog with fries at Prairie Taps and said it was good.

Our flight is booked solid, possibly overbooked, not good. This flight is a 3/3 configuration and we have a window and middle seat. Clay let me have the window. The guy next to him did not get the memo about the center seat getting both arm rests. He kept his elbow in Clay's side the whole flight and Clay leaned into me. It would have been nice to be able to raise the armrest against the wall to gain an extra couple of inches, but it was fixed. There was drink service again, but just one ice cube and one cup, with the same little snack. They showed one, maybe 2 movies, but you had to buy a headset and I didn't. Clay had a headset he could use already and he used it. I don't remember what they were showing, though I could see it, just not hear it. Looking forward to first class on the way home.

We were on the ground at LAX before noon. We planned to take public transit all the way to the ship. On the way home, we expect to have additional luggage and will take Prime Time Shuttle directly from the pier when we disembark ($32 for the 2 of us and 4 bags). But, for today we only needed to get to the Queen Mary Hotel in Long Beach. We booked this directly with the hotel about a year in advance and prepaid $160 as an AARP rate. Check-in time is 4pm, so we have plenty of time to make our way there. We had also reserved 9:30am Sunday Brunch for Wonder embarkation day. It was $39pp when we reserved, by April of this year the price had increased to $48.95pp and we decided it could not possibly be worth that much to us, so on 4/9/2012 I cancelled brunch. Anyway, on to public transit!

The hardest part was finding the free shuttle to the Green Line Aviation Blvd. Station. I believe we finally wound up standing in the center of the roads under a sign that said LAX Shuttle & Airline Connections. We had to ask for help. It was also the longest wait! No idea what was up with that. It was maybe a 10 minute bus ride to the Metro station, once the shuttle bus showed up. You buy a ticket from a machine downstairs. It is $1.50 one-way for adults. You need to buy another $1.50 ticket for the Blue Line when you transfer. We messed up and just bought four tickets at the first ticket machine. Technically, that wasn't the right thing to do. We should have gotten one ticket each for the Green Line and then one ticket each for the Blue Line when we got to it, but we did pay our full fare at the Green Line's Aviation Blvd. Station and no one stopped us so it was OK.  The next problem was after we got off the Blue Line at the Long Beach Transit Mall. We should have been able to just walk across the street and get the Passport C red bus, which is free, the rest of the way to the Queen Mary Hotel. Unfortunately for us, there were some sidewalk barriers/construction going on and more than one or two of the stops were blocked and closed with no signage to that effect. We finally saw a red Passport C bus that was signed as going to Queen Mary and we chased it 2 blocks while the driver kept pointing ahead at us until it finally arrived at an open bus stop. The prices I found online were out of date and we paid $6 total  for the 2 of us from LAX to Long Beach.

We got to the Queen Mary Hotel about 3:30pm. By the time we got to the check-in desk it was just after 4pm. There was a very long line! I had read a lot of Trip Advisor complaints about the noise when staying at QMH during special events or music events. Unfortunately, at some point after we booked they booked a "Rock the Queen" rock and roll event for the 28th. We were offered complimentary ear plugs! There were also throngs of bicyclists there for a diabetes fund raising race that weekend. I will say that the walls were paper thin and you could hear everything. Also, the Queen Mary is haunted! We were bone tired, but did not sleep well!

We did a QM self tour right after putting our bags in room 128 on Deck A. The historic exhibit in the low aft portion which includes the engine room and closes after 6pm or so. We hustled down there only to learn that the last audio-guide rental is at 4:30pm. Too late. We did a self tour with our guide map. We did that portion of the ship then, more after dinner, and more again early the next morning. I think we saw most of it.

About 6 to 6:30pm, we set out again on the free Passport C bus to Famous Dave's at The Pike. Clay found this place online before leaving home and it was where he wanted to eat. We had spotted it while riding the Passport bus out to the QMH, but since not all the bus stops were open, we weren't exactly sure how to get there. We wound up getting off at the Aquarium and walking along the waterfront to get there. It was a pleasant walk and not too inconvenient. We later learned that all the concrete barriers were a remnant from a Grand Prix race they had held in Long Beach. There was a crowd at The Pike, seems it was prom weekend! We had to put our names on a waitlist and get a buzzer at Famous Dave's. I think we waited about 30 minutes or more. There was a costumed pig named Wilbur wandering around, so it was amusing. Clay loved his full rack of St. Louis ribs. I had the Georgia Q and we would both advise avoiding it..

After dinner, we had planned to continue on the bus in the same direction and go shop for wine and beer, but we were too tired. We walked back to the Aquarium of the Pacific bus stop and watched the prom goers arrive and unload in a variety of limos and buses until our own bus arrived. It was a trip!

We went back to the QMH and toured some more. Then early to bed! Our room overlooks the parking lot! More tomorrow as we leave this old ship, continue on public transit and board Disney's Wonder! Maybe excitement is another reason for not getting a good night's sleep. The bed was plenty comfortable, by the way.

Photo Slideshow

Clay's photo journal

Clay posted some photos of our Disney Wonder cruise to Hawaii and back from LA.