Repositioning on the Wonder Sept 2014 - Happy Anniversary!!! updated 11/30/14 - Page 4 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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So I'm just checking to see if I'm doing the picture thing right. If so I can finish that portion of my trip report. So what you're supposed to see below is a picture of my family. I was just going to use my kids initials rather than their names, but I'll probably goof up and forget down the line and this seems like a safe enough forum so...
Introducing: Me, Sandra (the only girl ); my gorgeous dh Louie; our oldest ds Elijah (11), middle ds Benjie (8), and youngest ds Jonny (3). Here we are at Angel Stadium. We are big time Anaheim Angel fans!
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Well with less than a week till we leave, it’s time to recap and fill in those last details. Also some more pictures of the family so you can put faces with the names.
This is our finalized itinerary:
Sailing on the Disney Wonder on a 4 night repositioning cruise from Vancouver to San Diego, 9/8-9/12. Verandah stateroom on deck 8 mid-ship.
I just re-introduced our party, but again it’s five of us: myself, dh Louie, ds11, ds8, and ds3. We are celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary, which is September 11th!
We actually start our vacation on Sunday 9/7 when we will fly out of LAX to Vancouver. Our plan is to take a taxi from the airport to the Pan Pacific Hotel. I’m surprised such a swanky hotel doesn’t offer a pick-up service or even a shuttle, but we’ve been told to either take the sky train or a cab. I prefer the cab rather than sky train because I get a little anxious about being in an unfamiliar city and I’d rather just be taken directly to our hotel. I have no doubt Canada is perfectly safe, but with the 3 boys and the significant amount of luggage we’ll have with us, I think this is the better option. Or maybe I’m more concerned about keeping Canada safe from my boys . The Pan Pacific is literally on top of the cruise terminal, which is why I chose this hotel, plus it has excellent views of the harbor. Since we’re only spending this one night in Vancouver, we want to be able to enjoy it as much as possible. I figure once we get settled it will be nearly dinnertime, so there won’t be much time for sight-seeing. I don’t have dinner plans yet but I’m sure we won’t have any trouble finding something appropriate.
Next morning we will get to take our time watching the Wonder from one of the hotel windows before finally boarding!! I’m not sure how our first day will go, but I know that we have a check-in time for 11am, and we plan on eating lunch once they let us board, at Beach Blanket Buffet. I’ve checked the weather forecast, and although it looks pleasant when we come in on Sunday, Monday is significantly cooler and possibly rainy. I hope it does rain, living in droughty SoCal, rain is not something we get to see much of. The news reports have been calling this a “mega-drought”, and although no one is complaining about the consistently pleasant weather, we do have to closely monitor our water conservation. Anyway, I don’t know what the conditions will be like for swimming, but that will likely be on our itinerary for that first day too, as well as checking out the kids clubs and participating in the sail away party. I have to work in a nap for Jonny somehow too, otherwise he will not make a very pleasant dinner companion that evening . I wish we knew our dinner rotation and who we’ll be sitting with!
Tuesday brings us to Victoria, BC where it would be my desire to see the gardens and Empress Hotel, but instead we’re doing the family-friendly Hippo Tour. A friend asked why we weren’t going to Butchart Gardens, and I replied that (besides the cost), it wouldn’t be fun for the boys. He mentioned it was the perfect place for running around, but seeing as how he has one sweet daughter, and I have three very rambunctious boys, I guess I should’ve clarified that it wouldn’t be fun for ME. As in, running after them, keeping track of them, keeping them out of restricted areas (which seem to be magnets for active kids). Yeah, it’ll be the big Hippo for us. Hopefully we’ll be back on board for lunch and nap, and spend the rest of the day enjoying the activities on board.
Next day we have reservations for our first ever Palo Brunch. I hope it’s worth the extra fee to do this buffet, we’re really not gourmets or anything, but I’m curious to try it. This is an at sea day, so we’ll probably utilize the kids club a lot and enjoy some couples time. I’m really excited to have this option. Usually when we vacation we do everything together with the family, but it’s nice that we can still do that and have separate activities as well. I believe that is the night of the Pirate Party, which we are all super excited for!! I bought a few pirate accessories at Party City and the dollar store, and the kids love ‘em! I’ve heard this party is kind of late though, so I hope my little one can hold out. I’m also very curious about the dessert buffet .
Thursday is our anniversary , and another at sea day, so we’ll take advantage of whatever activities we couldn’t get to yesterday. We have a big long list of things we want to do on board, and I’m sure we won’t get to them all! That night, since it’s our real anniversary, we booked dinner for Palo . Last time we cruised (for our 10th anniversary), we loved Palo. But I’ve heard a lot of negative reports lately so I’m a bit nervous now. I hope it’s still good!!
Friday, bright and early, we debark and take a cab to the rental agency where we have a car reservation waiting for us. San Diego is a mere 2 hour drive from home, and on the way we’ll pass my mom’s house. So we’ll stop there right around lunch time for a quick visit and be home in the afternoon. I contemplated spending more time in San Diego, there’s so much to do, but since we hope to do that Hawaii cruise next year we need to save, save, save!
So that’s our trip in a nutshell:
9/7 – Arrive in Vancouver, settle in at Pan Pacific and sight-see
9/8 – Board Disney Wonder, night 1
9/9 – Port at Victoria, BC. Take Hippo Tour. Night 2
9/10 – At sea. Palo Brunch and Pirate Party. Night 3
9/11 – At sea. Palo dinner for our anniversary. Night 4
9/12 – Debark in San Diego. Visit Mom and head home. Vacation over!
Weight loss update – um..well…maybe next time . I got off to a great start in the winter and lost 10 pounds and 3 inches. Then baseball started and that interfered with work outs, plus we ate at the snack bar a lot (we had to, we ran the thing!). I never really got back on track and the weight started sneaking back on, but I was at least able to stop it all from coming back. I’m still 4 pounds and 2 inches smaller, so I’ll take it!
Potty training update – Yeah that’s not going so great either . He’s about 50/50 at this point. We don’t plan on leaving him in the kids clubs for long stretches though, so hopefully there won’t be issues. Wish us luck!
Now for some pictures:
Here is a pic from us during our 10th anniversary WDW and DCL trip. As you can see it was just the 4 of us then, and I was about 20 pounds lighter *sigh*
This is one of me and my mom taken this Mothers Day
These are my boys at a promotion ceremony in June
All my boys at our local beach just last week
We are 5 days away now! Now we just wait, and pack
Very exciting that it's nearly time to set sail! How nice that you have just a 2 hour drive after the cruise to get home instead of dealing with airports and flights. Hope everyone has a great time!
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Thanks! I think I got the hang of the picture thing now so I'll be ready to upload all those photos when we get back
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
Very exciting that it's nearly time to set sail! How nice that you have just a 2 hour drive after the cruise to get home instead of dealing with airports and flights. Hope everyone has a great time!
Yes, thats partly why we chose this cruise. Everything sort of worked out well. Our only flight will be a 3 hour up to Vancouver which shouldn't be too bad
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Great plans - I really hope the Palo dinner comes through for you, as I know we're one of those who've recently had a bad experience there.
It's getting really close now!
Well the last time we ate at Palo it was only $15/person so I'm not going to be a happy camper if I'm paying more for bad quality. But we will hope for the best
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
Sounds like some great plans!
Not that my plans ever work out anyway, but its fun to pretend
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
Sounds great! You have a beautiful family!
Thank you!
Quote:
Originally Posted by shazza
This sounds like a fun trip. Lucky you - getting to travel with 4 handsome guys!
They are pretty easy on the eyes, I can't argue there
Quote:
Originally Posted by OhToodles!
It's so close! Sounds like everything is set and planned well! Happy early Anniversary!
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); my gorgeous dh Louie; our oldest ds Elijah (11), middle ds Benjie (8), and youngest ds Jonny (3). Here we are at Angel Stadium. We are big time Anaheim Angel fans!
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. I wish we knew our dinner rotation and who we’ll be sitting with!
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, and another at sea day, so we’ll take advantage of whatever activities we couldn’t get to yesterday. We have a big long list of things we want to do on board, and I’m sure we won’t get to them all! That night, since it’s our real anniversary, we booked dinner for Palo 
. Last time we cruised (for our 10th anniversary), we loved Palo. But I’ve heard a lot of negative reports lately so I’m a bit nervous now. I hope it’s still good!!
. He’s about 50/50 at this point. We don’t plan on leaving him in the kids clubs for long stretches though, so hopefully there won’t be issues. Wish us luck!
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
Looking forward to hearing all about it! 
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