May 12, 2012 - Day 14 Disney Wonder from Hawaii

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Photos are out of order again. Sorry. I hate PhotoBucket, they suck. In case you're 'wondering' (Ha!) Photo Bucket changed their Terms & Conditions of use in July of 2017 and broke a decade's worth of embedded links in blogs. Not just mine, but any embedded photo uploaded to Photobucket in the first decade of their existence. Rather than pay Photobucket which was their intent, I am breaking all my embeds and leaving the photos on Photobucket as daily slideshows. I'm not happy about it or the inability to organize the photos, but it seems the easiest of all onerous choices.

This is our final sea day. The seas were crazy rough last night! I had to get up and take 2 Dramamine to knock myself out again because I was getting seasick lying down asleep! It was much calmer after dawn. It is mostly cloudy again today. The winds are calmer and the temperature is 59 degrees F.

We slept in and went to BBB for breakfast and ate inside with more staff than guests. They had brunch again today in Triton's from 9am to 12:30pm but when we looked at the menu, it wasn't appetizing.

We sat and read for an hour in Outlook Bar on Deck 10. Then we went to Wonder Q&A with Captain Fabian, the Cruise Director, the Hotel Manager and the Chief Engineer. We stayed for Christiaan's Disembarkation talk.

We met Goofy in the Panorama Lounge. I thought he was trying to bite Bob when he knocked Bob's nose again his tooth, but he assured me it was a kiss. Then, he gave me one too and it didn't hurt, but I'm not sure you can tell that from the photo! He also hugged Bob to his chest and twirled around. A Goofy happy dance! Goofy has really grown on us! This is my very favorite part of a DCL cruise, the random character encounters. If it weren't for the seasickness and the ever present Disney soundtracks playing everywhere but your cabin, I swear I would just spend all my time wandering around seeing who I could catch.

Lunch today is seafood buffet at PC and BBB. Triton's is closed after 12:30pm, that leaves pizza, burgers, dogs, salads and paninis on the Pool Deck. I'm sure we'll find something to eat, but man I regret missing the Mexican buffet yesterday!

We've had 2 magnets stolen off our door now. I'm pretty sure one of them had our names on it! What's wrong with people? I brought a blue fabric lei from home and hung it on our door fish. After our Mardi Gras beads got stolen on Le Boreal, I figured the lei would go quick but it's still here. We have both found that blue lei invaluable in spotting our door down the long corridor.

Tonight is semiformal Captain's Gala night in Parrot Cay for us. The WDT show at 8:30pm is Dreams. Our final dinner is back in Triton's where we began. It turns out your breakfast is at your last dinner location, so I guess that's where we'll have our last 2 meals. They are having a Guest Talent Show in WaveBands at 7:30pm, I'm pretty sure we'll miss that.

At noon, Capt. Fabian said that today was our 5th consecutive sea day and that was a first for Wonder.

Clay got crawfish and a bunch of other stuff to eat at lunch at BBB and I found some beef stirfry and mac & cheese and a piece of chicken breast. I had bread pudding for dessert. Clay had an assortment and then a chocolate/vanilla swirl soft serve ice cream cone for dessert. They also had pineapple and blueberry soft serve ice cream at the self-service station. That reminds me. They have had 4-oz. cups of Land O Lakes yogurt, but today it switched to a 6-oz. cup from a Hawaiian Diary. I had peach and it was fruit on the bottom and I don't think I liked it as well.

Oh, last night coming down the forward elevator, the doors opened at some point and we caught a glimpse of that service dog. He was wearing mouse ears on his head! We have a lazy afternoon ahead. At 3:30pm Capt. Fabian is signing souvenirs in Treasure Kvetch. Since Clay did not have his camera at the last signing opportunity, we may go again because Bob wants his photo taken with the Captain. Well, we arrived 10 minutes early for this and that was too late because the line had been closed. Oh well, too bad.

The Captain's Gala menu may have been my least favorite, but based on the craze of double orders everyone else must have loved it. Clay had a double order of Oysters Rockefeller and tuna steak. I had iceberg lettuce and the Parmesan crusted chicken with fettuccine without the peppers and mushrooms. We both had yummy Chocolate Lava Cake with chocolate sauce and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Hans offered me a final bowl of raspberries only to return with blackberries and strawberries!

We got all of our tip envelopes handed out earlier, so that pressure is off. Honestly, if DCL is going to automatically add $12 per diem to the bill, they need to just add it to the cruise price and be done with it. I hate the whole tipping thing. It really changes the complexion of the entire experience. It makes me miss Regent Seven Seas!

Tonight we found another bed gift! A box of 4 embroidered commemorative dinner napkins with ring holders. Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Daisy. Very nice! I'm glad we aren't trying to fly home with only carryons!

Dreams, the show tonight, was spectacular! It was one of the best shows I've every seen and certainly the best ever at sea. It was amazing. So ends our last sea day.

Tomorrow is the last day of our cruise. It is in Ensenada, Mexico. We've never been there and have no plans. They say you can walk to town from the port so that's what we'll probably do. Just have a look around and maybe eat lunch.

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May 11, 2012 - Day 13 Disney Wonder from Hawaii

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Sorry again for out of order photos. PhotoBucket sucks!

Here is today's Personal Navigator and the fireworks letter from this evening. Is it my imagination, or is there a lot more blank space in the adult schedule now than there was on the outbound trip?

The seas were quite rough last night. We're back to things falling and doors slamming in our cabin. Swells look larger today. Temperature at 7am is 68 degrees F. Mostly cloudy and windy. We move the clock forward another hour tonight. Captain Fabian Dib is giving a presentation in BVT at 10am. We plan to attend. The only other firm thing on our agenda is getting our Ducky Williams lithograph signed. Ducky is signing up to 2 items per cabin for decks 7 and 8 between 4 and 4:45pm today in WaveBands. Tonight is casual and Pirate Night with fireworks. We hope! The Personal Navigator says weather permitting and we hope the strong winds won't interfere. We'll have to stay up late to find out as the Pirate deck party is from 9:45 to 10:45pm. Dinner tonight and tomorrow is in Parrot Cay for us. Last night was Triton's. Tonight is the Wonder Crew Talent Show in WDT at 8:15pm. We'll probably go.

They had a brunch in Triton's from 9am to 12:30pm today. Desmond asked us to go at dinner last night. We were up late this morning, so went about 10 of 8am to look at the menu to see if we'd wait for brunch. Only the regular breakfast menu was posted, so no. We walked aft and they opened the doors to Parrot Cay just as we approached. They serve a BBB-style buffet with assigned seating and sit down beverage service. It was nice, as well as quieter and less crowded than BBB. But, I can't get a mocha latte right outside the door like on deck 9. After breakfast, we walked straight forward to Diversions to kill time.

We walked up 2 floors and aft to BVT at 10am for Capt. Fabian's talk about the design and build of Dream and Fantasy and how things changed in the 12 years or so since Magic/Wonder. It was interesting but I was really feeling the seas and his background curtain and projection screen were swinging wildly while he alternatively staggered or gripped the podium. Trying to get back to the cabin, I got overwhelmed (between the motion sickness and I think the repeating stripes of the hallway carpet pattern triggering my Meniere's vertigo). I knocked myself out with a big dose of Dramamine. I can't really see them, but we must have finally reached the big swells we were in on the way down, because we've got the same pitching and rolling movements.

I missed lunch. I was sad because after 2 days of pasta at BBB, they were supposed to have a Mexican buffet. Clay went up to the pool deck and had a hamburger alone. He said it wasn't very good. Too much bread and the meat patty came out of a warming drawer. I woke up around 3pm and Clay and Bob were gone! They came back after 45 minutes. They had gotten a photo with Capt. Jack Sparrow. We went to see Capt. Hook and Smee and Peter Pan and Capt. Jack again, but didn't get in any of the crazy long lines. In fact, when I saw Capt. Jack, I asked Clay if Jack held Bob and he said yes. I'm not sure if I'd have given Bob to him!


Dinner was Pirates menu in Parrot Cay. They give each person a triangular half of a Mickey Pirate printed bandanna. The preferred method of us seems to be to tie it on your head. Clay had jerk chicken salad, and 1 BBQ short rib! (It seems if the menu says BBQ short ribs, that should mean more than 1! He said these were the same type of ribs served at BBB lunch the other day and he had more then, he was expected a dinner-sized portion vs. a lunch or appetizer sized portion. He was disappointed and a little steamed!) I had crispy pot stickers and some kind of beef. Clay had fruit cobbler and I had very crispy floating islands. That was a first! Every floating island I have ever had was a soft meringue.

After dinner, we went to a game show called A Pirate's Life for Me in Studio Sea. Then we went to WDT for the Wonder Crew Talent Show, which was unexpectedly a real mixed bag!

Oh, Clay told me that he had been watching as man worked on deck 9 every sea day in the afternoon at a table on a large model of Wonder in Legos. Tonight, it was on display! Pretty impressive.

After, we went back to the cabin to get outwear and blankets and went up to the pool deck for the Pirate Party. We didn't pick a good place to stand and we couldn't see much except Mickey's flying entrance and the fireworks. If it hadn't been so cold and windy, we'd have gone up to Deck 10 starboard and looked down for the show, then turned around for the fireworks and we'd have stayed off Deck 9. (The fireworks are shot off the starboard side and most everything is blocked off towards the back of the ship on that side. We even had a letter in our cabin asking us to stay off our balcony and keep the door shut during the fireworks.) But, it was just too cold and windy per Clay and we stayed put. Then, as soon as the fireworks ended we got a real shock when some 1500 people swarmed like rioters into long queues for 2 buffet tables fore and aft on Deck 9 portside right where we'd been standing. You'd think they'd not eaten at all today! I have no idea what they were serving as we never got anywhere near the tables. We had to go up to Deck 10 and all the way forward to get back inside the ship and to the cabin. We caught of glimpse of that service dog during that journey!

Clocks move forward again tonight, so it is midnight now. Wonder is still really rocking! The fireworks at sea were pretty special. I don't think you often see that, at least it was our first time. I know DCL can't control the weather, but crowd control should be possible and that was a nightmare scenario played out up there for me with the buffet out there after the fireworks.

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May 10, 2012 - Day 12 Disney Wonder from Hawaii

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Here is today's Personal Navigator and the final TV and Movie schedule of the cruise.

Today is our 27th Wedding Anniversary! I have now been married to Clay longer than I lived as a single person! I find that just amazing, what you can do if you just keep on putting one foot in front of the other every single day.

The ship was really rocking side to side last night. I had to take off my heels to walk back to the cabin! The performers on ropes last night were swinging 2 to 3 feet off plumb which made the whole show even more impressive that they could all even keep their feet.

This morning seems much calmer without the visible swells. Yesterday afternoon the ship slowed down from the 20 or so knots we'd been at pretty consistently to 15 knots. This morning we're at 16.5 knots. I guess that might explain how the October Hawaii cruise will be possible in 1 day less time.

It is cloudier today and 66 degrees F at 7am. I should mention the TV says the pools' temperatures are between 84 and 88 degrees F while the sea temperature is 66 degrees F. We move the clocks ahead again one hour tonight. Our 27th Anniversary will be a short day!

Tonight is Animator's Palate for us. Tonight's show in WDT is Lehua Kelima, the best-selling female Hawaiian vocalist. I think I will pass on that for the Funnel Vision movie 2010's The Sorcerer's Apprentice, which I somehow missed. From 3 to 3:45pm they have Minnie's Fiesta Grande Mexican Party at the Pool Deck Stage. At 3pm in the Promenade Lounge, the Disboards Mascot Meet & Greet is scheduled. Bob is not really much of a joiner and doesn't wear costumes, but we'll see.

We had breakfast at BBB inside since it is raining hard this morning. We sat again in Outlook to wait for our cabin to be done. There is nothing going on for us this morning. We got the movie schedule for the rest of the cruise and I am sorry to say that The Avengers 2D will NOT be shown again.

The sun is out again by afternoon! It's still mostly cloudy, but no more rain. Clay wants to see John Carter 3D in BVT. So, I will go meet him about 11:15am with his keycard that he forgot in the cabin. Then we'll go to lunch. Clay did NOT like John Carter and really hated the 3D bit with the glasses! I know, right! They need to stop it with the 3D movies.

We had another pasta binge at lunch today at BBB with the Italian buffet. We did sit out back again, though it was windy and chilly. After lunch, we took our tip packet to the front deck and added to the base amounts for our 4 crew members that they had already charged us of $12 per person/per day. Then we went shopping again. They change things in the shops at least once a day and you do not know what you'll find or find missing. Clay really wanted the DCL Inaugural Hawaii hoodie, but hated to pay $60 for it. I reminded him that this shipboard credit was free money and he had paid real money for my 60€ Antarctica hoodie, so he should go ahead! He had to ask for an XXL, but they had some in the back. I got 2 collapsible travel hairbrushes with Mickey and Minnie on them and got Mom a present. Clay thinks we have about $10 of credit left now. We need to have his suit drycleaned before we leave the ship for $7.

So, we opted for Minnie's Fiesta Grande. It was not so grand! The schedule showed it from 3 to 3:45pm, but it was basically all over at 3:15pm and completely over and done at 3:20pm. Plus, it was so windy and cold up there! We remembered we needed wine glasses and went to our usual spot at the Promenade Lounge about 3:30pm. At least some of the Disboards Mascots were still there. Bob was a little travel worn and rough for that plushy and dressed up bunch, so we just passed through. The seas have gotten much rougher and I had to bump up from SeaBands to Relief Band. There are no more activities for us this afternoon, so we're going to lie down for awhile.

Tonight our 27th Anniversary Dinner is casual in Animator's Palate with the Master Chef menu. Clay had bruschetta and potato-crusted red snapper, which he really liked, followed by a rocky road sundae. I had, against recommendation, the cheese souffle (which was really nasty) and the beef fillet without lobster, followed by triple chocolate terrine.  I didn't really like the dessert. Then, they brought us a 2-person serving sized flourless chocolate cake (I think that's what it was!) that had a chocolate Happy Anniversary sign. We each tasted it. They sang a song and clapped and gave us each a Minnie & Mickey Anniversary pin and took our picture with our camera. The bad news is that I was trying to rush the whole time to not miss the beginning of the Funnel Vision movie. When I got up there to Deck 9, in the freezing wind, it was not even the movie I thought it was but one we'd seen and not loved with Nicholas Cage. So, I really messed up! We went back to the cabin to watch the movie Tangled on TV with room service snacks of warm chocolate chip cookies and chocolate milk with a Mickeyhead ice cream bar for Clay. Cocooning is our favorite thing to do anyway!

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May 9, 2012 - Day 11 Disney Wonder from Hawaii

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Here is today's Personal Navigator and our tip letter. The tip letter came with tickets and envelopes attached to it that are not shown. Tipping is automatically charged to your onboard account now and this letter explains it.

The seas are getting a little rougher and the air a little cooler now. We'll start losing an hour a day tonight. Tonight is Formal, Golden Mickeys in Triton's for us.

Some followup. We did get our same broken Wave phone back from Alain on day 3  The buttons were still broken off phone 1 but it seemed to charge now. But, we never did use these phones. Given the chance we've signed up for of a $250 per phone charge down the line for our breakage, loss or other misuse of them, it might have been wiser to just refuse them.

We are assigned to a dinner table alone for the 2 of us as requested. Sometimes it is set for 2, sometimes it is set for 4, sometimes they clear 2 and sometimes they leave the unused places set. There is no rhyme or reason to it, but we do have a table to ourselves. It should not have been a problem because there seem to be lots of empty tables in the restaurants.

Breakfast this morning back at BBB. Probably the last day we'll be able to eat out on the back deck as it's gotten very windy and cool. Chairs were blowing over back there this morning. and it was bordering on uncomfortable. We had a lazy morning. We cooled our heels after breakfast yesterday in Diversions. Today we went up to Quiet Cove to the 2nd story of Outlook. It was quiet there. Baristas did not come on duty until 9am.

Clay went to another Glen Dolberg lecture and is still unimpressed. The subject was the Pacific Ocean. The lecturer seemed unaware that James Cameron had set the Pacific depth record in March of this year, though it was broadly covered in the news and on television even. Dr. Dolberg cited a depth record from the 1950's. With the strange subjects covered in the destination lectures and factual errors, I won't waste time attending his lectures. That's unfortunate. It leaves a paucity of adult activities or entertainments for the past 2 sea days. We enjoy lazy sea days, so it is OK for us, but we honestly expected more and better from Disney Cruise Line given the reputation of the Disney name in entertainment.

Given the fierce laundry room competition, we're trying to make do through the final days without washing any colors!

I checked the onboard account today and Clay saw he paid $15 for the Hawaiian beer tasting and just about went ballistic. He said it wasn't worth it. Oh, well. The good news is all the onboard credit we had was free money anyway. After tips being applied, we still have $209 left, so we may end up with some refunded. We'll see.

It is nearly lunchtime and there is nothing on the afternoon schedule of interest either. Naps? Strangely, I have not seen any exercise classes scheduled. When I went up to the gym in the spa, I didn't see any exercise class space. I did not go to the spa orientation, so maybe I am missing something.

We still didn't see anything on Triton's lunch menu to tempt us. So, back up to BBB for Asian buffet which we liked and ate out on the back deck. No rice!?! Only noodles in beef, chicken, shrimp, salmon or veggie stir fries. They had some tasty pork pot stickers, but they were served cold. We both really liked the saffron rice pudding served warm. It was the only rice on the Asian buffet. Weird.

There is nothing on the afternoon schedule for us until Formal night dinner and the Golden Mickeys show. So, a restful afternoon!

The day we boarded Wonder we were right behind a couple with a woman in a scooter and a big yellow service dog. We had never been on a cruise ship with a service dog before and thought it would be interesting. But, we have never even glimpsed them or the dog again since!

Dinner in Triton's. Clay had salad and duck followed by a sundae. I had crispy cheese raviolis and a steak followed by Golden Mickey Temptations and a bowl of raspberries. They are getting a lot of mileage out of one request. That's OK. I love raspberries.


The Golden Mickeys show was big and loud. It was impressive. I still don't get how they can afford to have a cast of  a dozen or more singers and dancers onboard for 15 days and only put on 5 production shows. I suppose they have it worked out. They have an adult show at 10:30pm in WDT with Ronn Lucas and his puppets, as well as an open house for adults in the Lab at 11pm, but we're going on to bed and jumping our clocks ahead an hour.

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May 8, 2012 - Day 10 Disney Wonder from Hawaii

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Sorry the photos aren't all in order again. I really hate PhotoBucket.

Here is the scanned copy of today's Personal Navigator.

Aloha Hawaii and day 1 of 5 days at sea before we reach Ensenada, Mexico, our last port.

Clay went walking this morning and I slept in til 6:45am. We went to sit down breakfast at Triton's at 8am. But, it wasn't really all that special. It was quiet ther though, and Clay got grits. I had Eggs Benedict which came with a loose link sausage again. Clay had 2 eggs over easy with rye toast. Clay said the grits were not the worst he ever had and actually pretty good for being served on a cruise ship in the middle of the Pacific. They had a pastry service up front of the meal. Not sure we'll wait til 8am for breakfast again though.

The schedule looks pretty light today. We walked all the way forward on Deck 3 and sat by a big porthole window in Diversions to wait to get back in the cabin. I watched Big Miracle on TV and Clay went to the Glen Dolberg nautical terms lecture at 9:30am. We both attended Ducky Williams talk in WDT at 11:30am. It was interesting, but basically the same as the last one and I have to confess I was so cold and it was rocking up front so much that I could not help nodding off repeatedly! We did not win anything. Ducky did 26 drawings.

I have a plan to catch up with some characters this afternoon. We'll see. They are showing The Avengers 2D again. Once during dinner, so we'll miss it. Once during Golden Mickeys show in WDT, we'll miss that one too. They showed it the night before Kauai til 1am, so we missed that showing too. We're hoping it may be shown again on Friday or Saturday during the morning or afternoon, but we haven't seen a movie schedule for those 2 days yet. I'll be really disappointed if I don't see Avengers onboard! (Just a note to say, we never did get to see The Avengers in 2D onboard and we are really disappointed. The adult entertainment schedule was pretty slim pickings during the morning and afternoon hours for the sea days back and I can't understand why this film wasn't shown during one of those empty sets of hours in one of the 2 theaters.)

Tonight is casual. The menu is Aloha Hawaii. WDT show is music and comedy of John Charles. We'll probably go see him.

Towels! I have been thinking DCL didn't have very nice bath towels which was strange given the quality of the bed linens, duvet and pillows. There are 4 towels hanging in the shower room. Two up and two down. It was an optical illusion that they all appeared to be towels of the same size. Clay showered first here and he used the Left upper. So, I used the Right upper and that's been our habit. Well, a couple of days ago Clay used the lower Left towel and found a big plush bath sheet, Since we hang our towels back up to reuse,  I did not notice the change. Clay kept quiet about it until today. He told me so today I showered and used the lower Right. I felt so cheated! I'd been shivering along using that skimpy bath towel!

Clay and I have each spotted a single flying fish from the balcony today. One each, not the same one. What is up with that? We have always spotted them in schools before.

Nothing good to report from lunch. Didn't like the Triton's menu again. Is it the same every day? I don't know. Didn't want Parrot Cay buffet. We went up to Deck 9 and BBB for the buffet with the back deck BBQ. They had a crepe station for dessert and we both liked that. I should point out that BBB has a bunch of different specialty lunch buffets and they are noted on the back page of the Personal Navigator each day. But, the days that they had a BBQ grill out on the back deck in the port corner by the back door, there was nothing noting that fact anywhere that we ever saw.

Off for photo opportunities with Daisy Duck, Snow White and Dopey, then maybe a Disney movie quote trivia and then a nap or TV movie before meeting Pinocchio at 5pm. Oh, Daisy Duck used sign language and guessing from her pointing at Clay t-shirt to tell us that she loves North Carolina. Didn't see that coming, did you? We didn't! We suck at trivia! These people must have grown up on DVDs of old animated Disney movies! We got 2 our of 25! Two teams had 15 out of 25 and one team won on an elimination question. When Pinocchio met Bob, he used him like a puppet barking madly. I told Pinocchio that Bob wasn't real yet and he dropped his arms from his elbows and let them swing while going knock kneed and dropping his head to one side. Then he pointed to his chest and nodded his head, he lifted Bob back up and eyed him and nodded his head again, then he kissed Bob and gave me a hug. How sweet. I love Pinocchio even more now than I did before! We saw Peter Pan, but man what a loudmouth blowhard he is! We decided not to meet and get our picture with him. OK, in all honesty, we really should have seen that coming! We met Ariel again. We ran into Goofy, Captain Mickey and Donald Duck dancing with a bunch of kids in Promenade Lounge.

We had dinner tonight in Parrot Cay from the Aloha Hawaii menu. A man that Hans serves at a table near ours ordered from the kids' menu, so I asked to see it. Clay photographed it, too. I know you can't read it in the photo of the menu, but it had the state fish of Hawaii on it, the Humuhumunukunukuapua`a. Clay and I had seen this elsewhere today and had been practicing with no real success pronouncing it. When Hans came to take my order, I pointed to it on the menu cover and asked him what it said. He hadn't noticed it before and scratched his head before telling me it was the state fish of Hawaii.(Tip: click the speaker here to hear it.) Clay had tomato/cheese stack, and chicken sausage Pad Thai. I had grilled pineapple and steak with shredded beef dumplings. Clay had the sundae and they offered me another bowl of raspberries so I took it. Oh, I wore my expensive silk Hilo Hattie's muumuu and shirt tonight, you might notice it in the after 5pm photos.

In the WDT tonight was John Charles. He was amazing. He made up songs and was an amazing musical impersonator. He had his Hawaiian wife onboard and he played 2 traditional hula songs and she danced. One of the songs he sang had a line: "where the Humuhumunukunukuapua`a goes swimming by"!

Tomorrow is Formal night in Triton's with the Golden Mickeys menu and show. It will be only the 2nd or 3rd Disney Production show, so we have to go even though it appears to be our last chance to see Avengers in 2D. Oh well.

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May 7, 2012 - Day 9 Disney Wonder IN Kauai

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Sorry couldn't put photos in order again... Photo Bucket sucks.

Here is today's scanned Personal Navigator and Shopping Map for Kauai.

We were up early again for 7:30am all ashore. Clay was up very early and got a load of washing done this morning! We had breakfast out on the back deck of BBB again. We were scheduled to pick up a rental car at 8am. The documents said they didn't start the pier shuttle until 8am. They actually came about 10 of 8am. We got our car at 8:07am.

A quick look at today's Drive Guide Map and a query at the desk showed we could do east, south and west of this smallest inhabited Hawaiian Island.

Since we started at Lihue Airport, we went first to Opaekaa Falls. We found a couple of heiaus along the way. Very interesting.

Then to Wailua Falls.

Then we drove south and west to the Spouting Horn. It was a great blowhole and an interesting shore area past a small snorkeling beach and a botanical garden. We enjoyed watching a half dozen or so big green sea turtles in the adjoining inlets. I bought a small orchid stem and wooden basket. We could have spent a lot more time there watching the water and the turtles. It was beautiful. But, lunch called.

Months ago we learned about Puka Dogs. At this point, I don't remember where we first heard about them, online, in print or on TV. We were close to Poipu Shopping Center where Puka Dogs is located, so today we had a plan for lunch and as we drove by Koloa Shave Ice on the way down,  we have a dessert plan too. We shopped at Whalers General Store and Clay got a $12.99 t-shirt. I got a Hawaii mug at Starbucks there and used their restroom. There is also a Roy's.

We got our Puka Dogs here! Great! Puka means hole in Hawaiian. They poke a hole in a soft white small loaf of bread. They impale the bread on a toasting spike. They put garlic mayo, lilikoi mustard and a relish of your choice (or not) plus a gas-grilled Polish Sausage into the toasted hole and you're ready. (Lilikoi is passion fruit and it reminded me of honey mustard.) They were about $6 each and Clay had to have a $15 t-shirt from there. It came with a free lemonade. They were making each lemonade to order, squeezing the lemons in front of us. The whole place was tiny, so basically the entire operation was performed in front of us. It was fascinating as well as delicious. (I should note that we enjoyed these so much, we have been attempting to replicate them at home. We find that a 1" metal curling iron with the grip/clip removed works just fine!) This place, like Sam Sato's is a don't miss for real Hawaiian food experiences!

We did stop at Koloa Shave Ice on our way back to the main highway west. It was a disappointment. The ice grains were larger than anything we had to date in Hawaii and the flavors did not go all the way through. Also, they came with weird little tiny spoons instead of a regular sized spoon. Clay got his with macadamia nut ice cream on the bottom this time, he thought he ordered chocolate macadamia nut ice cream and was disappointed when he got down there and found vanilla macadamia nut ice cream. It was a nice quiet and convenient setting, but it was disappointing compared to the others we had on this trip.

We drove west across the southern end of the island for Waimea Canyon. It is known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific and it is! We passed a coffee plantation and miles and miles of sugar cane fields. The speed limits kept fluctuating but averaged about 35mph. So, it takes a while! We stopped at the Captain Cook Memorial. We seem to have followed in his footsteps around the world over, but he was killed in Hawaii over the nails in a longboat! The statue here is a replica of one in Whitby, England where Mom was last summer.

The Waimea Canyon was very impressive. Glad we went. It was a roller coaster ride of a road up there! Around one corner we found a surreal red landscape with a white frothing stream and little waterfalls running through it. I can't believe I didn't bring my binoculars today! There were beautiful strange birds at the first waterfall and goats in the canyon, but we couldn't get a good look at them! The Waimea Canyon Drive is not for the faint of heart or motion sick prone. It was a thrill ride! We did not go the last 7 miles or so.

On the way back, we stopped at Kauai Coffee Plantation. It was impressive. We drove through miles of coffee trees. Admission was free and it took about 20 minutes to walk through a self-guided tour of the plantation and coffee growing, and harvesting processes. We went in the Visitor's Center and bought a couple bags of coffee, one was $8.50 and the other was $14 for whole beans. I have been drinking the $8.50 for 10oz. regular grind and I quite like it. The other was Poipu Estate Medium Roast whole beans  10oz. as a gift for Mom. Hope she likes it. I didn't realize when buying them that they were 2 different coffees! I just thought one was ground and one was whole.

We turned in the car at 3:50pm. It was a Ford Focus today. It was $40.33 for the day plus $12.65 for 2.636 gallons at $4.77/gallon.

I think Kauai might be my favorite Hawaiian island. On the shuttle ride home, we learned from other passengers that every Hilo Hattie's store had different merchandise! We're so disappointed that we only went to the first one! Of course, we spent more than enough there and that was why we didn't go to the others. But, in hindsight, since we drove by the ones on Honolulu and here for sure with time to spare on the return to the airport, we wished we had stopped.

We were back onboard in time to shower before dinner. Dinner was in Animator's Palate and the menu was Mai e'ai (Come and eat). Clay had duck quesadillas and lamb followed by ice cream. I had soup and a steak followed by chocolate mousse.

We went to the WDT show which was comedy and ventriloquism of Ronn Lucas. It was funny, but we were expecting more big production shows by Disney.

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May 6, 2012 - Day 8 Disney Wonder IN Oahu

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Here are today's scanned Personal Navigator and Shopping Map as well as the next week's TV and Movie schedules.

It was hot and sunny when we woke up as Wonder was approaching Honolulu and it stayed that way. We had breakfast outside BBB and we were off the ship shortly after 7:30am. We caught a Thrifty shuttle without hassle pretty quickly and learned we are docked at Pier 2. Pier 2 looks to be about 1 mile away from Piers 4 to 11 which are at the Aloha Tower complex. Too bad! Clay was right we did dock on the starboard side once in Hawaii, here in Honolulu. Aloha Tower was visible in the distance from the port side.

We were in our car at the airport by 8:06am. We had some trouble finding our way to The Valor in the Pacific, Pearl Harbor National Park. Signage was confusing and I don't trust Clay's GPS but, it did get us there once I stopped interfering and I have apologized! But, we were there with one bag checked for $3 per piece and at the will call for tickets by just after 8:30am for our 10:30am timed entry. For a fee, you can now reserve a free timed ticket to the USS Arizona. Since we had heard horror stories of people coming in on cruise ships getting to the park to find that it would be hours before they could visit or worse all the tickets for the day had been handed out already, Clay didn't want to take a chance and so we had reserved tickets at the will call desk. The security there is such that you can't carry anything in but a camera and water in a clear bottle. We didn't want to take a chance on the rental car being broken into, hence the bag check. The email we had printed out and brought with us to get our reserved tickets said you had to pick them up at least one hour before your scheduled time, so we were only 1 hour early.

The man who checked us in said he had 10am tickets available if we'd like and we exchanged for those. We each rented a $7.50 audio guide. Then we walked around everything related to USS Arizona except the film and boat ride out to the monument and wreckage. I was nodding during the 23-minute film! I got a little sea sick as we docked at the Arizona memorial and being in it didn't make me any better, nor knowing I had to get back on the boat to return. I should just say that I didn't want to come to Pearl Harbor and I'm not glad I did it. Clay seems pleased enough with the day, but it was wasted on me. It isn't that I don't honor our veterans or war dead, my father and grandfather were war veterans. I do. I just really don't like spending my vacation time at disturbing war locations. Clay has late in life developed an interest in battlefields. What is up with that? I haven't put up too much of a stink when he wanted to visit Revolutionary War or Civil War battlefields because let's face it, they are just woods and fields now. When we traveled in Europe, he never expressed an interest and that was good because I don't want to visit any thing recent. I was disturbed enough by the Anne Frank House and DC's Holocaust Museum. I honor the losses and the suffering, but I don't want to visit it on my vacation. It is disturbing and well it should be and that seems incongruous combined with a fun vacation. I guess it is just me. I love visiting cemeteries but that is about monumental art and landscaping to me, whereas war sites are trauma and violence and gruesome suffering to me. Well, I can't explain it and I feel bad about it. Since Clay has developed this yen, I guess I'll have to get over it or we'll have to figure out something that we can both live with.

When we got back ashore, we got into the short Attack Film we had missed earlier, used the rest rooms and then I had to go to the snack bar. I got some peanuts that were kind of like Chinese Boston baked beans and a Coke. Clay got a Klondike Bar. We sat in the shade and ate, then we went to the Gift Shop. I got a metal Tree of Life sculpture bookmark with a red tassel for a Christmas Tree ornament for $8.95.

Then we got in line and bought tickets to visit the Bowfin submarine and museum with audio guides for $10 for me and $7 for Clay as a senior. I had heard people at the Arizona Memorial talking about how they were glad they spent the money on the Bowfin and neither of us could remember being on a submarine for years. It was OK. There were volunteer guides on the sub that kept pushing us and others out of the audioguide's space and bunching us up in uncomfortable clusters for no apparent reason. There weren't that many people visiting since it wasn't free, like the Arizona site. So, we didn't get to listen to any part of the audioguide all the way through, we had to keep skipping to the next number. So, it wasn't as nice as it should have been. No idea what that was about because they weren't at all busy in the noon time heat!

Clay wanted shave ice and I wanted lunch first. We had no idea where to go eat today. Clay used some phone app to come up with a list. We picked one and followed the GPS to it. It looked like an authentic plate lunch place, but it was closed on Sunday. Next door was Dixie Grill with a full parking lot with Harleys, the police and an adjoining tattoo parlor. So we went there. Big mistake. We wasted a meal ashore at a place that smoked their own meat and styled themselves as a Deep South Redneck bar and grill, I guess. I had a turkey, bacon, melted pepper jack cheese sandwich with fries that was OK and filling for $10 or so. Clay had fish and chips. He ate the fish, but not many fries. He didn't say how it was. I felt a bit better after lunch and told Clay I wanted to go to the Dole Plantation and showed him on the Drive Guide Map. It was only about 2pm. He said OK, but he had a shave ice place called Waiola's in his GPS first.

We drove for over an hour to the far side of Waikiki to get there. I think it was 23 miles away from where we started and the opposite direction of the Dole Plantation. Clay boasted that Obama ate there. It put us both in a mind of Plum Street SnoBall in New Orleans, except not in a Garden District setting, more like in the midst of apartment building blocks. We drove by and then circled, looking for a parking spot. We parked a block away and around the corner and walked back and stood in line (clearly it was popular!). We sat in the shade on the side of the building and ate them. The locals were getting theirs with macadamia nut ice cream in the bottom and beans on top. (We had the beans version once in Singapore and that was enough for us, though I kind of liked it. Of course, it didn't help that we got durian flavor!)  Clay said it was the best shave ice he ever had. I would rank it below Ululani's and even with Plum Street and Hills of Snow. I forget what flavors we ordered, though I know I ordered vanilla and strawberry and the vanilla was blue again. I think Clay ordered tropical fruit flavors again. I know they had posted up Obama's 3 flavors and Clay did NOT order that. I didn't write it down and now I don't remember. We walked back to the car.

Now Clay was ready to go to the Dole Plantation and mystified when I again showed him a map and explained the concept of going to things in order so they come together. At Pearl Harbor, we were half way to Dole Plantation but now we are a lot farther away and can't go. We finally fought through Waikiki traffic past the Ala Moana Mall and got into downtown Honolulu to see the outside of Iolani Palace (closed Sundays) and the King Kamehameha Statue. Then, we drove toward the airport, found a gas station and filled our Chevy Aveo with 2 gallons of gas at $4.439/gallon and turned the car back into Thrifty for $36.80 at 4:15pm which was 2 hours early. But, Honolulu is a hard place to drive around and we were both done! We got back on the ship in time to shower before dinner in Triton's.

Tonight's menu was Makahiki, which was something about a fall festival. Clay had conch fritters and flank steak. I had iceberg lettuce and Polynesian chicken sausages with cheese grits and zucchini. They were really stretching to make anything we ate have anything to do with fall in Polynesia. I mean was that a joke, Polynesian chicken sausages? You know because of all the feral chickens! Anyway, with all aboard at 10:30pm again, dinner was sparsely attended. They very proudly brought out my bowl of raspberries, which was perfect timing because none of the desserts sounded appetizing to me. Clay got the upside down pineapple pudding with rum sauce that he ate but said was too heavy on the rum sauce. I ate all my raspberries and didn't share. They offered me another bowl tomorrow night, but I declined so I could wait and see what is on the menu.

We have no plan for tomorrow. Does not bode well. Clay said he would research it and make a plan, but he is sleeping. We plan to go to the Keiki Hula Show at 8:30pm in WDT. I'll wake him up then and see if he still wants to go. I don't really understand why he refused to buy Internet onboard. We'll probably have to figure out what to do with all the leftover shipboard credit after they take the tips out of it.

The Keiki Hula Show was really well done. Keiki is Hawaiian for kids. The girls usually start hula lessons at age 3 and boys at age 7. They did a great show and it was a sweet farewell to Hawaii.

Health followup: I only had a fever for about 24 hours. I only lost my voice for about 24 hours too. Clay got a little less sick than me a few days later and he said he never had a fever. We both just had terrible coughs though for a few weeks. I was still yakking up a loogie or 2 a day up until last week. It was a mucus overload for both of us and not much else. We are both over it now and have no idea if we caught something, or if we were allergic to something or what. So, I guess once the initial bad part was over I forgot about writing updates on it and I didn't want to leave the impression that we were sick for the entire cruise! Sorry about that!

Thrifty Rental Car recap: All in all, we were quite satisfied. There were some times when they could have done a better job with the shuttles to the airport in the morning crush, but we were still satisfied. If you had had a tightly scheduled day and it had been important to you to get exactly the car you had reserved, then you might have been very unhappy. We were just hanging loose and didn't care, so we were fine with our experience. I want to say that I got almost all of my information about Thrifty car rentals from a cruise on Cruise Critic's Hawaii Ports of Call message board. The best suggestions made repeatedly over there are to join Thrifty's Blue Chip program which is free and will streamline the pickup process as well as put you in a shorter line. The other best suggestion was to rent through Discount Hawaii Cars which gave a discount code for each rental, other than that it was exactly as if we had rented directly through the Thrifty website. Also, as I recall, when I reserved each car rental, I clicked through Discount Hawaii Cars website as pier pickup for cruise ship passengers and I believe it automatically set it to let Thrifty know we would be expecting a pier pickup. I still called on arrival at most of the ports just to make sure as it didn't always look like a sure thing. So, I can recommend Discount Hawaii Cars, Thrifty's Blue Chip and Thrifty as well as Cruise Critic's Hawaii board.


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