I began my trip across country to meet the Disney Wonder in Orlando on Saturday April 28th after spending a few days prior with my wife Leslie in Walt Disney World. I was to meet Andrew Harris, friend, travel companion, camera guy and media director for Kingdom Magic later at Disneyland, crazy that you can wake up in Walt Disney World and go to sleep in Disneyland, what a world we live in! We had a pre-day and night planned at my favorite park that included a dinner at Club 33, the private dining establishment in the New Orleans Square area of Disneyland Park.
After a fantastic dinner, a viewing of Fantasmic from the balcony of Club 33 and a nice walk around the park, my long travel day was starting to catch up with me and I headed back to the Grand Californian Resort for some rest. Turns out we had a fantastic view from our roomâs balcony for World of Color the nighttime water spectacular at Disneyâs California Adventure Park. I watched as long as I could, amazed but growing more weary with each scene change.
This show really is one of the best that Disney offers, if you havenât seen it, you can see the full show over at Travel with Rick. I left the curtains open and slowly drifted off to sleep watching the kaleidoscope of fantasy and imagination and dreaming of sailing off to Hawaii the next day.
The next day I awoke early, itâs the curse of the West Coast time change, feeling rested and ready for an exciting day. Our shuttle didnât head to the port until 12:30 so we had plenty of time to walk over to Disneyland, gosh I love how easy access is to these parks, and visit a few of our favorite attractions. Of course we had to ride Pirates of the Caribbean, I love the Disneyland version, and a ride through Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain were on my short list of must doâs before we said goodbye to the place where the magic really began.
After visiting the park for a couple of hours, we headed back to Grand Californian where our shuttle would be departing from heading to the Port of Los Angeles. We ran into our table mates there, our friends Kathy and Cheryl who weâve cruised other times before. After visiting with them for a bit it was time to board the shuttle and head out to L.A. about an hourâs drive away by motor shuttle. We arrived at the Port and it was great to see the Disney Wonder there, fresh back from her winter tour of the Mexican Riviera. We made our way through the terminal and were able to board right away, that meant one thing to us, LUNCH! After heading across the gangway and having the cast members do the family name announcement they always do as guests board, we were ushered towards Parrot Cay for the Lunch Buffett. After a bountiful lunch, we made our way to our stateroom to get settled in for a 15 â night cruise to Hawaii. This is the longest cruise Andrew or I had ever embarked on, so we were very excited to see what types of entertainment and activities would be offered on the ship.
After we found our stateroom and began to get a feel for our home away from home on the sea, we focused our attention to another important task, securing reservations for Palo. The Palo team were set up in Wavebands, and we made our way there. We already had a dinner reservation, but we were hoping to land the all-important brunch reservation. Brunch in Palo really is one of those not to be missed affairs, and since we were able to score the seating, weâll be taking you there later on in the cruise.
Now with the really important things taken care of, it was time to relax a bit, get used to being on a ship, and maybe even try to shoot some video to chronicle this inaugural event with Disney Cruise Line. Oh and letâs not forget the mandatory safety drill. One must do this if not for a safety lesson then simply for the purpose of knowing that there is a great voyage taking place after all the guests assemble in various areas around the ship and learn the proper way to don a life jacket.
With much of the day behind us, it was time for our evening entertainment. We were on a late dining rotation, there are two seatings per night, 5:45 and 8:15pm, so if you have second dining you go to the show first. At 6:15 we made our way to the Walt Disney Theatre and the show kicked off with a welcome from our cruise director, Christian who introduced a variety show with the cast of the theatre, a magician, Mike Super who was fantastic, and various singers and dancers. Weâre off to a great start! Later in the week weâll see great Disney Broadway style shows, Magicians, Ventriloquists, Singers and first run movies to keep us entertained, but more about that later!
After the show, we headed off to dinner in Parrot Cay. Disney Cruise Line uses a unique ârotationalâ style dining through their three main restaurants. Each night you rotate to a new restaurant and so do your servers and wait staff. It really is a great feature and allows you to get to know your wait staff and they get to know you, your food preferences etc. and makes for a great cruise. On this cruise we had requested the same servers we had on the Alaskan repositioning cruise from last year on the Wonder. Engelbert and Liliana, theyâre fantastic! Fortunately our request was accommodated and we were welcomed into the restaurant by them. We had a wonderful first dinner with our friends Kathy and Cheryl, got reacquainted with our servers as we sailed through the Pacific towards Hawaii, , itâs going to be a great 15 nights!
My next blog post will be all about our upcoming days at sea as we head towards our first port in Hawaii, Hilo. And, be sure to check out our daily recap videos over at Travel with Rick. Thanks for sailing with us!
