Solo-on-a-Scooter AbD DLR and DCL Alaska! (7/21-8/7/2012) - Page 13 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Old 08-08-2012, 06:21 PM   #181
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Great start, Laurie. Your pictures of, and from the ship remind me of the Magic and our Caribbean cruise.
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Old 08-08-2012, 07:08 PM   #182
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Wonderful start. It makes me very anxious to go on our NYC/Canada cruise in September! It's so close to you why don't you come along too???
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Old 08-08-2012, 08:19 PM   #183
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Wow! I can see how steep that street is by the cars parked on the curb...YIKES!

What an excellent first day on the ship you had! I love that the Wonder has the new and updated bedding, unlike the Magic. So cozy looking. Yes, Deck 7 Aft is the place to be (as you had mentioned during my last trip report). You just cannot beat that location on the Magic/Wonder.

So glad your dinner was fabulous. Animator's Palate was the one dining room we missed this past May, and yours is the second report by a vegetarian I have read that has wonderful things to say about AP.

Enjoying your report! Looking forward to Tracy Arm day!
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Old 08-08-2012, 08:30 PM   #184
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Dinner sounds like it was wonderful! Dessert looks fantastic! I'm glad you ended up with good dining companions!
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Old 08-08-2012, 08:38 PM   #185
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Great start, Laurie. Your pictures of, and from the ship remind me of the Magic and our Caribbean cruise.
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2
The Magic is still my favorite ship, but the Wonder is so similar it still felt like home.

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Wonderful start. It makes me very anxious to go on our NYC/Canada cruise in September! It's so close to you why don't you come along too???
Oh, you're dangerous! Why do I feel the urge to check the website right now?

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Wow! I can see how steep that street is by the cars parked on the curb...YIKES!

What an excellent first day on the ship you had! I love that the Wonder has the new and updated bedding, unlike the Magic. So cozy looking. Yes, Deck 7 Aft is the place to be (as you had mentioned during my last trip report). You just cannot beat that location on the Magic/Wonder.

So glad your dinner was fabulous. Animator's Palate was the one dining room we missed this past May, and yours is the second report by a vegetarian I have read that has wonderful things to say about AP.

Enjoying your report! Looking forward to Tracy Arm day!
I was obsessed by those steep streets because some of them were impossible to navigate with the scooter and I'd never seen that fact mentioned in books about Seattle. Even people walking, unless they're in very good shape, could have problems going up or down!

The bedding was beautiful on the Wonder. There were two colors of day-time bed spread also-- one gold, one dark blue. Then it was stripped to just a white duvet cover at night. Very fresh-looking, and incredibly comfortable, too.

This first meal was wonderful, but they weren't all that way!

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Dinner sounds like it was wonderful! Dessert looks fantastic! I'm glad you ended up with good dining companions!
It made all the difference to be able to look forward to dinner instead of just getting through it!
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Old 08-08-2012, 09:01 PM   #186
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Love all the great shots of the ship and the beautiful views of the surroundings. What a great relief to have compatible table mates for meals....your first dinner looked delish!
Sorry for some of the scooter woes....I am sure being in a more enclosed environment presents some extra challenges.

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Old 08-09-2012, 01:45 AM   #187
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Great start to your cruise!
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Old 08-09-2012, 08:29 AM   #188
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Welcome Home!! Your first day sounds wonderful, I am happy to hear that you had some nice table mates and that the meal at Animators Palate was tasty. You mentioned that you had hardly made any purchases. I probably would have bought out the Imagineers shop But I do find myself a bit more selective when at Disney these days.
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Old 08-09-2012, 11:22 AM   #189
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Thanks everyone, for following along and for the good wishes for the flight home. They worked! I just got home and my scooter and luggage are with me! It was a long, tiring day.

It's nice and also not nice to be home-- know the feeling? Really don't want to deal with all the piled-up mail, unpacking, laundry, issues with paperwork for my mother.... but glad to go to sleep in my own bed again!

I'll start the real cruise report within the next couple of days.
Welcome home! Looking forward to the "real" report!
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Old 08-09-2012, 12:58 PM   #190
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Great start to your cruise! Your room looks lovely, and I'm glad you lucked out with some good dining companions. Dinner sounded yummy, I'm glad the food was better than what you had earlier in the day! Looking forward to more
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Old 08-09-2012, 01:13 PM   #191
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Welcome home.

Your first day sounds wonderful. Can't believe how uncrowded the pool is. It was packed my first day on the Magic out of NYC. I'm surprised you didn't request a handicapped room and I'm sure your scooter didn't fit around the bed.
More please.
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Old 08-09-2012, 06:32 PM   #192
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Love all the great shots of the ship and the beautiful views of the surroundings. What a great relief to have compatible table mates for meals....your first dinner looked delish!
Sorry for some of the scooter woes....I am sure being in a more enclosed environment presents some extra challenges.

Danielle
It definitely was hard with the crowds in the small spaces, but the hardest thing was finding out and then remembering which doors had push-buttons on which decks. I finally figured it out and then mapping my jaunts around the ship got much easier. I'm pretty good at opening doors myself, but the ones leading to the open decks are very heavy and I needed the buttons.

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Great start to your cruise!
Nothing like the feeling of ease when you're cruising!

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Welcome Home!! Your first day sounds wonderful, I am happy to hear that you had some nice table mates and that the meal at Animators Palate was tasty. You mentioned that you had hardly made any purchases. I probably would have bought out the Imagineers shop But I do find myself a bit more selective when at Disney these days.
I did some damage at Imagineers, but there wasn't as much exclusive "Imagineering" merchandise as I'd hoped.

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Welcome home! Looking forward to the "real" report!
Day 2 of the cruise coming up soon!

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Great start to your cruise! Your room looks lovely, and I'm glad you lucked out with some good dining companions. Dinner sounded yummy, I'm glad the food was better than what you had earlier in the day! Looking forward to more
The food at the buffets was only so-so. For meat and fish eaters the selection certainly was wider, but I doubt that the quality was much better.

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Welcome home.

Your first day sounds wonderful. Can't believe how uncrowded the pool is. It was packed my first day on the Magic out of NYC. I'm surprised you didn't request a handicapped room and I'm sure your scooter didn't fit around the bed.
More please.
The temps were only in the low 60's. The pools didn't see much use on this trip!
I don't like the water-everywhere aspect of the handicapped bathrooms, and don't really need the scooter in enclosed spaces. I never use the scooter in my apartment-- if I can hold onto a wall or a piece of furniture, I'm ok.
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Old 08-09-2012, 07:04 PM   #193
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Day 11, Tuesday 7/31/12. Day 2 of the cruise, Day at sea

Weather: Overcast morning, cold and windy on deck, but ok for short periods with a sweatshirt.

I woke without an alarm at 4:30am—I love to roam the ship in the early morning. It’s beautiful. We sailed all day to the Northwest, and had an open sea view from the Port side and in the morning Vancouver Island was on the Starboard side. Beautiful. We sail into the Inside passage at around 6am Wednesday and later in the day will turn into Tracy Arm. The Navigator schedule for today is packed with things to do. My first priority every day will be any talks that are given by the on-board Alaska Naturalist. Today that’s at 9am. I got a call last night from the Port Excursions desk asking me to stop by to make sure the accessible arrangements for my excursions are set up. Very nice that they do this.

I got good wireless reception in my stateroom and purchased a fairly big block of time, figuring I could still do my daily updates. Unfortunately, uploading the photos to photobucket took forever and often stalled out in the middle. I’ll have to just write up the daily blog off-line and post the updates complete with photos when I return home.

I went out to explore at about 6am. Using the scooter this early is ok because very few people are out and about. It’s always a drag, though, because most of the doors to the decks have no push-buttons to open and are too heavy for me. In some places, the outer doors have buttons, but the inner doors do not!! Just takes a lot of planning to get where you’re going and I’d rather just be free to go where I want. I do need the scooter, though, if I’m going the full length of the ship so will just put up with it. Cove Café opens at 6:30 and I was there as they opened the doors. I love this place. It’s so peaceful in the morning and the coffee is much better than that at the buffets or dining rooms. I had a latte and a mini-brioche, which was still warm from the oven and delicious. There’s a charge here for the beverages, but the pastries (and they have really good ones for breakfast and, later in the day, for tea or dessert) are free.







I continued my explorations of the ship with the deck 10 Outlook Café. They don’t have this on the Magic (or at least they didn’t in 2008) and I love it! It’s like Cove Café only a bit bigger and with a glorious view from both sides! They have the same coffees and pastries as the Cove Café, so I’ll have breakfast there in future. I’ll also pop in tomorrow when we get closer to Tracy Arm, as the view should be amazing.



I took some more ship photos in the atrium when I went to the excursion desk.







I confirmed that my requests for accessibility on the tours I'd chosen were ok and was pleased to see that they were paying attention to these requests. I never had a single problem with any of the excursions. This was not the case on the Panama cruise, as I'd had a hard time finding out what was and wasn't accessible. Both of the tours I took on that cruise ended up not being fully accessible. I don't expect all of the offerings to work for me and know that all parts of the world don't may much attention to this issue. Alaska, at least the cruise ports, seems to be doing a stellar job of adapting some of the tours-- there were usually several available in each port that I could do!

The Naturalist on board is Riley Woodford and he did a wonderful job, today focusing on the terrain we’ll be passing through, explaining the changes made to the landscape by the many glaciers and the formation of the inside passage. He told us how to recognize mountainsides transformed by the passage of glaciers thousands of years ago and also the changes caused by recent glacier movement and avalanches. The slide show he presented illustrating the talk was pretty spectacular and I can’t wait to see some of this in person. As we progress further north we’ll enter the inside passage and will be able to see the carved slope and delta formations, as well as the visible difference in salt and fresh water at the base of the glaciers. Tomorrow he’ll give a talk on his specialty, brown and black bears and he’ll also narrate our voyage in Tracy Arm in the afternoon.







After this interesting lecture I went to the DVC member meeting. I think people generally go to this for the free loot they hand out, but they always have an on-board special for new members and also add-on specials for current members. On this cruise they’re giving a $500 on-board credit if you add on a certain number of points. No more DVC points for me, but I got free luggage tags, a hat and a nice quality shoulder bag.



On this trip I’ve gotten 4 free bags so far—a backpack and duffel from ABD, a backpack from Castaway Club, and the DVC shoulder bag.

After the DVC meeting I went to the shop and finally bought a few things. I got a really nice fleece zippered sweater and it was on sale! Also got a travel mug with the Disney Alaska logo on it. Again, they had far more apparel for men than for women or even for kids. Aside from princess dresses, there’s very little. Only two Alaska logo tees and both look very boyish.



For lunch I filled my water bottle with iced tea from the free beverage station and had a delicious caprese Panini and salad from Goofy’s Kitchen. I found a sheltered table on deck and ate there. I was on the Starboard side with a faint view of, the Canadian coastline. It’s amazing that even this far south there’s a clear line along the shore marking the ocean water and the less saline glacier water. We’re a bit too far from the coast for me to get a clear photo of this but there should be other chances.





I made two attempts to spend some time in the Rainforest room today, both unsuccessful. I know the spa is very busy on sea days, but never expected to find the room full (all the loungers and all the sauna rooms) all day long. It irritated me that they just take your key card and send you to the changing rooms without even checking, or suggesting that you check, to see if there’s room. On my first visit I got changed but now I know to check first. I planned to try for a third time after dinner, but never made it back.

I was amazed, passing by the kids’ pool and the family pool, that there were kids in the pools! All around them people on the deck chairs had sweatshirts on and were wrapped in blankets and drinking hot cocoa, and 4’ away from them were little kids in bathing suits. No one was in the adult pool. Crew members were making the rounds handing out blankets and I took one and, instead of reading in the spa, spent a really nice, relaxing hour on a lounge chair on deck 4. It was cold enough to make the blanket feel really good, but not so cold that your hands got cold holding a book. I expect that will change tomorrow as we get closer to the glacier ice.



Dinner was pretty bad tonight. It was at Parrot Cay, which has colorful, tropical decor. The menu tonight was "Golden Mickeys".





I had a salad, which was described as baby greens with pears, pistachio and cider vinaigrette. It was all iceberg lettuce with pears and exactly two pistachios. Very bland dressing. Blah looking and blah tasting.



For my entrée I had the gnocchi pesto, which tasted like garlic-flavored Elmer’s glue. Sorry, no photo of this disaster. Debra tasted it also and agreed-- Elmers glue. The server of course offered to get me something else and I got one of the appetizers—asparagus with grapefruit slices. This was fine, and very refreshing. Then I had a vanilla crème brulee that tasted like scrambled eggs.



Oh, dear, what a bad meal! Such a difference from last night. My companions weren’t thrilled with their choices, either. Pat had steak and baked potato and said it was good, not great. Debra had swordfish steak and you could tell just looking at it that it was very over-cooked. I really didn’t have much to eat today—a mini brioche, half a Panini, and asparagus and 3 grapefruit sections.

All morning and up to about 3pm the seas were glassy smooth, then it started to get choppy, and by dinner-time and after we were rocking and rolling. I took Bonine when I first noticed the change and it worked well until after dinner. Everyone had to hold onto the walls when walking, it was really tipping from side to side. I’m going to bed now, at 7:45. Got to close my eyes before I get sick!







Note added in the morning: Even while in bed I could feel the deep rocking of the ship. I'd left the closet door ajar and could hear it sliding open and then banging shut but didn't dare open my eyes to take care of it. Finally, I took a deep breath, staggered over and shut the door. I'm amazed I didn't get sick and was able to sleep-- thinking all the time that if the ship rocked any more I'd roll right out of bed.
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Old 08-09-2012, 08:07 PM   #194
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Great pictures of the ship! Sorry about your dinner.
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Old 08-09-2012, 09:08 PM   #195
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Great update. I guess you didn't have to worry about gaining weight on the cruise so far

Thanks for the report on the Outlook Cafe - sounds like a good place for our breakfast while sailing on the Wonder in January. We enjoyed the Cove Bar on the Dream, and were surprised how empty it was most of the time.

Will be looking for your next update.
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