crazycatperson goes a-cruising!

On the eye problem, the light flashes have mostly gone away. The darn floater is just sitting there like it thinks it's set up housekeeping on a long-term basis. It's not usually in my direct line of vision, but it does scoot over there sometimes when I shift my eyes. I've mostly gotten used to it by now. I had a routine optometrist appointment yesterday, and she said it'll go away eventually.

Okay! Now for the trip from LAX to Vancouver and our introduction to Disney cruising!

We arrived at the airport in the wee hours of the morning, but being a humongous major airport it was already fairly busy (as busy at 4-ish a.m. as our little Harrisburg airport gets in the middle of the day). As Alicemouse mentioned in her recent trip report, LAX is doing some major construction in the passenger areas, so food choices were slim pickings. I ended up getting our breakfast at a quick-serve place that sold prepackaged sandwiches and such. No real breakfast food, so I grabbed lunch-type sandwiches. Didn't bother me, I don't segregate foods by the time of day. But hubby wasn't happy with his whatever and feta on whole wheat - "It's not breakfast food" - and waited till we were on the plane to eat it.

Disney scheduled us on a Delta flight to Seattle followed by a commuter jet to Vancouver. We figured out why once we were on the smaller plane - several other cruisers were also on board. Apparently Disney scheduled a bunch of folks into Seattle that morning and then dumped us all on the same commuter jet. Another odd thing about our Delta reservation from LAX to Seattle was that we were in a row of three seats - with some dude between us in the middle seat. WTF was up with that? This especially did not make hubby happy because flying gets on his last nerve since he has to spend hours without nicotine. This got even worse later in the day for reasons I'll explain later. (I do not feel sorry for him. He could solve the problem by quitting.)

En route to Seattle I got my first look at San Francisco from the air. So now I can say I've seen it.

Seattle was a huge bore, couldn't see a thing from the terminal. Also I don't know if it's Delta or Seattle, but this was the most disorganized bunch of airport/airline employees I've ever seen. Hubby seriously considered leaving the airport to smoke and then going through the hassle of coming back through security, but (wisely) decided it wasn't worth the risk of missing our flight (I told him I'd enjoy the cruise with or without him, lol).

The flight from Seattle to Vancouver was literally up and down again; took maybe half an hour. Then we got in the humongous customs line. We've flown into Canada before, but it was pre-9/11 and I do not recall its being any kind of hassle at all. This time around the lines were huge and the automated passport check terminals were just a little confusing. Fortunately, being US citizens, we got to go through the same lines as Canadians instead of the really nasty lines reserved for other foreigners. So that helped a bit with the wait.

Finally we were through customs! Picked up our luggage! Found the DCL pick-up area, which was mobbed with folks heading for the ship. Got on bus number 2, had a nice ride through Vancouver, which is very picturesque and I want to move there, please. It's clean, beautiful, and has lots of cool ethnic restaurants and a lovely multicultural population. Then there was the cruise terminal! Very awesome and beautiful! And we're catching little glimpses of the Wonder through windows and open areas and of course I am so excited!

So! More lines! First to register, then still more customs, bag check, what have you, I've forgotten everything we had o do. And then, finally, we are boarding the ship! We're being introduced! The crew is applauding! OMG it was finally happening! First thing we went to find stateroom 5012, an oceanview with porthole in the forward port section of the ship. We booked it so I could have a view but hubby wouldn't have a door to the big scary ocean right in our stateroom. Fortunately he dealt with the ocean just fine, so from now on we'll have a verandah.

Once we checked out the stateroom and dumped our carry-ons we headed for the buffet to get lunch. We were always pleased with the buffet and ate there quite a bit. Frankly, they had too much good food, which is why I was never hungry by dinnertime. I apologize for having almost no food photos. Just trust me that it all looked awesome and tasted even better.

In between visiting our stateroom and getting lunch, hubby went looking for a smoking area (there were three on the ship, all on open decks). Well, dang, ALL the smoking areas were CLOSED due to refueling operations! And remember, it's now the middle of the afternoon and hubby hasn't smoked since before dawn! So somebody was feeling very nicotine deprived and thus very, very grumpy until the refueling was finally completed. I've encouraged him to get nicotine gum or patches to tide him over during periods when he can't smoke, but he just won't do it. Next time, I think I'm going to buy the darn gum and just hand it to him when he starts getting b****y.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the ship, participating in the safety drill, and doing the departure deck party. This is where we first encountered Clayton the cruise director, who introduced most of the live performances and did a lot of other stuff around the ship. He was awesome. Lots of fun. I met up with him in an elevator during the crew-only safety drill later in the cruise and in spite of the fact that he needed to be focused on the safety drill he still took the time to chat with me, ask how I was enjoying the cruise, and wish me a pleasant da. He is absolutely a credit to Disney Cruise Line. (As were pretty much all of the crew members we encountered. Class acts, every one.) This is also when we first visited the spa and asked about the rainforest room. I was going to pass, but I knew hubby would love it, so we went ahead and got it for the whole cruise. It really was nice, so I do recommend it if you like heat.

Our first dinner was at Animator's Palate, which is probably my least favorite of the three rotation dining venues. This is not to say that there's anything wrong with it - it's great! - but Parrot Cay is so colorful and Triton's so elegant, Animator's Palate just doesn't compare IMO. Still, it was fun watching the pictures change during our meal. I have photos of our starters - smoked salmon for me, soup for hubby. Hubby started right in with pigging out by getting a second started, a chicken salad. We both got a beef main dish that came with carrots, bok choy, and mashed potatoes (I skipped the potatoes) and a lovely sauce that I remember tasted great but cannot remember what was in it. Sorry. It was good. For dessert I got my first Bailey's Irish Cream, yum. For the life of me, I cannot remember whether I also had dessert or just the drink. Hubby definitely got dessert.

After dinner hubby hit the smoking area again and then went to sleep! I went to the All Aboard evening show, which was lots of fun. Afterward I visited the beverage station for a cup of tea and took a walk around the upper deck. It was fairly chilly by this time of night and quite breezy, so there weren't many people out and about. Lights visible on both shorelines told me we hadn't reached the Pacific Ocean yet. That happened in the middle of the night.

The funny thing about the ship's motion - I, with my motion sickness issues, could not only feel the motion of the ship, but could tell you which direction the ship was leaning at any given moment. Hubby could barely feel it at all.

Since I was still on Eastern time, I went to bed shortly after my walk around the deck and woke up around dawn the next morning. Next up, our first full day at sea and our 25th anniversary.

Two of the few food photos I took. Smoked salmon appetizer and soup. Hubby loved the soup, but I'm afraid I don't know what it was. And the menus aren't on the phone app anymore! So descriptions of dinner will be from memory and probably not very good. Sorry.

Now, the big day of the trip, our 25th anniversary. And I discover I took no photos at all this day! Probably because I had nowhere to put my phone in my spa or Palo attire so just left it behind.

Remember hubby fell asleep before the 8:30 live show began? He made up for it by getting up at something like 4 a.m. As for me, I was up at 7. This is odd for both of us, since we're not morning people, but being on Eastern time still really helped. So we got an early breakfast at the buffet and then walked the upper deck looking at the ocean. Hubby then headed for the rainforest room to heat himself up while I did I don't know what. I joined him a little after 10 for our 10:30 couples massage. I cannot say enough good things about that spa and the wonderful masseuses. If you've never done it before, DO IT, you will not regret it. This was the Swedish massage, which was awesome. The gals asked if we wanted to upgrade to hot stones, but since we'd never had any kind of massage before, we figured we'd try the regular one. Well, I bet those ladies were quite happy we didn't upgrade since we subsequently booked a second massage just to try the hot stones. And bought some spa stuff. Yeah, they made their money off of us, but it was so worth it. Once the massage was over, hubby headed back to the rainforest room while I got dressed and headed back to our room.

We had lunch at Triton's, which was the place on our cruise for a table-service lunch. I had a delightful cold seafood appetizer with shrimp, scallops, and a crab claw followed by an apple and walnut salad from the soup and salad section of the menu instead of an entree (I already couldn't keep up with hubby where food consumption was concerned); he had the same seafood appetizer, carrot soup, and meatloaf with mashed potatoes and veggies. For dessert I ordered strawberry shortcake off the kids' menu, and was glad I did since it was quite delicious. I didn't write down what hubby had for dessert, but trust me, he had something.

At 2:00 in the Walt Disney Theater they showed the original Star Wars movie, the one I will never refer to as "A New Hope" because that subtitle didn't exist when I saw the film 12 times in the summer of 1977. I wish they'd shown the 1977 original, but I was happy enough with the 1990s "enhanced" version. So happy to see it on the big screen again.

After the movie we headed up to deck 9 for soft-serve ice cream, then hubby went back to the rainforest room while I returned to our stateroom to get ready for our 6:30 Palo reservation. Unbeknownst to me, hubby was also getting himself a bratwurst and fries at Pluto's dog house - just two hours before Palo!

Our night at Palo also happened to be formal night on the ship, and some people really went all out dressing up in black tie and long dresses. Hubby and I went semi-formal-ish; he wore a business suit and tie while I wore white slacks and jacket with a sparkly top underneath and gold sandals. And then a couple of men showed up for Palo in jerseys and jeans and weren't turned away. Go figure.

Dinner was lovely. We started with the antipasto platter - prosciutto, cured beef, parmigiano, olives, roasted red peppers, and marinated artichokes drizzled with rosemary olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I liked the prosciutto best and was surprised by how tasty the red peppers were. We also ordered aperitifs - I had a bellini and hubby had the Palo martini - not sure what goes in a Palo martini, but it was good. For appetizers hubby got cioppino and I had fritto di calamari which was delicious. My entree was risotto di mare - saffron risotto with shrimp, mussels, and clams with fried zucchini strips. The seafood was delicious, but I didn't much care for the risotto; I think there must have been cheese of some kind in it even though it wasn't mentioned on the menu. Hubby had grilled scallops with borlotti beans and pancetta. For dessert I had the lovely, lovely tiramisu while hubby ordered a chocolate souffle that he couldn't finish because he should not have had that bratwurst! He also ordered a second Palo martini and couldn't finish it either! During dinner we were treated to a view of a lovely sunset over the ocean from our windowside table, which just made the evening more perfect. All in all, I was quite impressed by Palo and can understand why everyone raves about it. And I must mention our waiter, Sasha, who was wonderful.

After dinner hubby made his usual trek to the smoking area while I returned to our stateroom. Our dinner at Palo was later than our usual dinner seating, and we just missed the beginning of the Golden Mickeys show, but I was able to catch most of it on our stateroom TV. I made it into bed before 10 p.m. ship time, which was 1 a.m. Eastern time. And tonight was the first of three nights that we set our clocks back an hour as we crossed time zones on our way to Hawai'i, so we got three 25-hour days during the cruise.

Next up, three whole days with no set schedule at all aside from our rotation dining time. I loved it!

Dan loved the massages just as much as I did! But there's no real difference between couples massage and going alone. Just that there's another person falling asleep on the massage table beside you. As for letting the guys pig out while we don't, sounds perfect to me. Dan will have someone to eat with, which was his main reason for dragging me along every mealtime, and you and I can skip at least one buffet each day.

It was a great 25th anniversary! And all hubby's idea except for the extra days at Disneyland after the cruise, that was my addition to his plans. It was the grandest vacation we've taken since our honeymoon (two weeks travelling by train across Ontario and Quebec and visiting the major cities along the way) and probably the last and only really big anniversary trip we'll take, since I'll be 85 for our 50th and might not be up for something this huge - but never say never, I guess.

And thanks, everyone, for your concern about my eye problem.

Okay, on to our second full day at sea.

When I went to bed Tuesday evening I didn't change the time on my phone, since I didn't know whether it would automatically change with the ship's time - I do have it set up to automatically change when I visit different time zones. So I woke up at what I thought was 7 a.m. only to discover that it was, in fact, 6 a.m. I asked a crew member (one of the few out and about so early) for verification; a bit later up on the pool deck I was able to verify the time for another passenger who had accidentally set her clocks forward an hour instead of behind and was two hours off ship's time.

This morning hubby was still sleeping when I got up, so I threw on yesterday's clothes (still wearing jeans since it was cool on the northern Pacific), headed to the promenade deck, and did two miles walking on the track. This was something I'd planned to do regularly, but spa treatments and port adventures got in the way later in the trip so I actually only did it twice - not that I didn't get a good bit of walking in anyway between roaming all over the ship and trekking around Hawai'i. I liked the track better than the fitness room at the spa, since it was mostly out in the open air. Walking through the enclosed areas and seeing working sections of the ship was kind of cool. I also saw the most disgusting "service animal relief area" in the aft enclosed section - it was a large shallow pan, like something you mix cement in, full of some kind of turf (real, fake, I couldn't tell) that was soggy and nasty and looked as if it hadn't been changed in ages. Hubby met a woman in the smoking area who had a service dog, and she said he sometimes refused to get in the filthy thing. Poor puppy dog. Disney, you can do better than that!

After walking I headed back to the pool deck for some water and got a text from hubby, who was now up and smoking. We met where I was and headed into the buffet for breakfast, where I tried to eat a little less but dang it, it's so hard when all this good food is lying there begging to be eaten.

Next up, hubby headed for his favorite place, the rainforest room, while I made my way to the Buena Vista Theater to see Big Hero 6 in 3D! Then, after a quick trek to deck 9 for a soda, I was back in the theater to see Tomorrowland for the first time ever. Awesome! If I'd known several minutes of the movie take place at the New York World's Fair I would've made seeing it earlier a priority. OMG I loved it, it was almost as good as being at the fair again! And yes, the rest of the movie was pretty cool, too.

Hubby and I got together again for lunch at the buffet, and again, I tried to eat light but failed. Then we both headed to the Walt Disney Theater for the showing of The Empire Strikes Back. So as you can see, this was movie day for me. And I loved it! After the movie, hubby wandered off to smoke while I went to the atrium for Oaken's Maypole Swirl and Twirl, part of the day's Frozen-themed festivities. It was fun to watch. I've already posted a few of my photos from this day, but I'll add one or two more so you don't have to scroll back a several pages.

Tonight's dinner should've been our second in a row at Parrot Cay (since it was a 10-day cruise, we had 3 nights at Animator's Palate and Triton's but 4 at Parrot Cay), but it was our first since we'd done Palo the previous evening. This was my favorite of the rotation restaurants, since it's so colorful and lively looking. They had an awesome scallop pie appetizer that we both got - a rich cream-based filling that tasted of the sea topped with puff pastry, it was so delicious. I followed it up with a salmon entree while hubby got boar! Unfortunately I don't remember much about either one, except that the salmon and boar were both quite tasty. But I was beyond stuffed, so we took dessert with us back to our stateroom. I was expecting little Styrofoam containers, but no! We got real dishes with metal covers and real flatware wrapped in a napkin! Which we couldn't fit in the little beverage cooler, so they spent the evening in a cabinet.

I'm not sure what hubby did after dinner (besides smoke); he may have gone to the rainforest room or just gone to bed. As for me, I went to the Freezing the Night Away deck show and then to the evening's entertainment at the Walt Disney Theater, which was a magic act called Kyle Knight and Mistie. They're a married couple; he's the magician and she's the eye candy assistant, except that she did some of the magic, too (and he was not half bad as eye candy himself, lol). And they were quite good. Early in the show Kyle mentioned that there are two kinds of people who go to magic shows - the ones who want to figure it out and the ones who just want to be amazed. Well, I say why not be both? I love to try to figure out the tricks, but I'm also amazed even when I can figure them out. And with this couple, well, I couldn't figure much of anything out. They're a great act. If they're ever on your DCL ship, don't skip their show!

Earlier in the day I had purchase a bunch of locking pin backs for my Disney pins so I could securely fasten them to my new hat, so after the show I got started locking stuff on, but didn't finish - working those locking backs on my hat was HARD. I'll add a few photos of the finished hat along with a couple of the day's photos.

Next up, another sea day with no fixed schedule - my favorite kind of cruise day.

A couple more photos from Frozen day.

And here's my pinned hat - front, left side, back, right side, and the whole hat with an extra cat.

Edited to add: Some of the pins were purchased at WDW, some were traded, some were purchased on eBay, and the one in front is a gift DisneyDee got for me at Hong Kong Disneyland (thanks again, Dee).

We set our clocks back by another hour Wednesday evening, so another 25-hour day and another morning waking up around dawn. I did another two miles on the track, although it may have been more. One lap equals a third of a mile, but I lost track twice. I know I did at least six laps but may have done as many as eight.

Breakfast was at the buffet again. After breakfast I accompanied hubby to the rainforest room. I liked the heated tile lounge chairs, but there were only four so we were lucky to get to use a couple of them. From the looks of it, at least one woman brings a book down and spends the whole day there! The sauna was tolerable for a few minutes and the steam room was unbearable. We actually opened the door a bit to cool it down a little, but it was no good, I was still miserable. I do NOT understand how anyone can enjoy that. And this was the less intense of the two steam rooms! My favorite part was the rainforest showers once I'd figured out how to cool the water down. But I didn't spend nearly as much time there as hubby did. Sorry, just not my thing.

So after I left the rainforest room I headed to my favorite spot, the Buena Vista Theater, to see Avengers: Age of Ultron again. Then lunch at the buffet (don't get me wrong, the buffet was good, but I was really wanting a hamburger about now) followed by a workshop held by one of the ship's entertainers, a ventriloquist. He'd done a short bit during the welcome show on departure night and I knew he was hilarious, so I really wanted to attend the workshop, where I learned...um...not much about ventriloquism. Well, enough that if I actually wanted to do it I could start practicing at home. But I don't, so the info has already escaped from my brain. There was no Star Wars movie this afternoon, so I spent a chunk of my time lounging in the shade by the adult pool while hubby did, I don't know what, smoked maybe?

Dinner this evening was at Triton's, which is hubby's favorite of the three rotation restaurants. It's the most elegant, not counting Palo. And we ate...food. Sorry, I meant to write everything down based on the menus available on the Personal Navigator app, but I never got around to it and now they're gone! Suffice it to say that the food was good and I think there was creme brulee for dessert, which I love.

Tonight's live show was a couple of people singing show tunes, so I skipped it in favor of seeing Inside Out at the Buena Vista Theater. (I think hubby went back to the stateroom and took a nap.) Of course I loved it! Cannot say enough good things about this movie; loved it so much I saw it again later on the cruise. And the animated short, Lava, was also really sweet. After the movie, hubby had woken up and we both went to see Kyle Knight and Mistie again, who were doing an adults-only show at the Walt Disney Theater. (This show was adults only in the sense that no kids were allowed; there was nothing at all risque or objectionable.) Hubby had missed their general show the day before, and I wanted to be sure he got to see them. And the adults show was just as good as the main show was.

Last thing on our agenda this evening was getting a drink at one of the ship's lounges. We ended up at Diversions, the sports bar, which was empty that time of the evening. I had a gin and tonic; hubby started with an Irish whiskey and followed it with a mai tai. I sipped both of his drinks and both were excellent. The Irish whiskey was something I'd never heard of and probably pricey but definitely worth it.

Next up, our last completely unscheduled day. Also the last day for which I took notes, oops!

Colonel, so glad you had a chance at PoTC before it closed. Maybe we'll get out that way again someday and finally get to ride it.

Thursday evening we set clocks back another hour, which got us to Hawai'i time before we'd actually reached Hawai'i, the result being that sunrise came quite early this morning, before 6 a.m. I awoke after sunrise but still quite early. Hubby was already up on deck 9 having a smoke; I decided to skip the morning walk today and went up to fetch him and go to breakfast. It was the buffet again this morning, but this time I passed on bacon and sausage and had a bowl of oatmeal and a plate of fresh fruit. And a Mickey waffle.

While hubby rainforested this morning I lounged in the shade by the adult pool listening to an audiobook I've been trying to finish since I visited a sister out west last spring. I keep falling asleep mid-chapter or forgetting how it began and having to start over, and this trip was pretty much the same. Late morning we tried our first and only culinary demo, which involved an incredible recipe for short ribs that I am definitely going to try at home now that autumn has arrived. We even got a half glass of wine and all for free! Thanks to our excursion schedule we never made it to another demo, but this one was very well worth our time. When I finally finish unpacking I'll post the recipe here.

After the cooking demo we took a tour backstage at the Walt Disney Theater led by one of the actors in the various stage shows. In addition to her insights, we also visited various technical and backstage personnel and learned more about what they do. We visited the sound and lighting booths, took a ride on one of the stage lifts, saw costumes and props as well as how very little space there is backstage and how incredibly much work each cast and crew member has to do. EVERYBODY does more than just their job, and ALL of the cast members understudy other people's roles. One sick cast member can mean five or six people switching roles for that night's performance.

Lunch that afternoon was, sigh, back at the buffet. By this point I was getting pretty sick of the buffet. After lunch we saw Star Wars - Return of the Jedi in the Walt Disney Theater, which completed the original trilogy, and since the "prequel" trilogy was only shown late at night, this was the last Star Wars movie we saw on the cruise. I wish we could've seen it as it was originally screened in 1983, though, even with the silly Ewok song at the end of the movie.

On our way back to our stateroom after the movie, the family one cabin beyond ours was also returning, and their little girl (maybe 4 or 5 years old?) ran ahead of her family and past us to see whether there was anything in their fish extender. Score! It was full of fun stuff, so she was quite happy.

For dinner we were back at Animator's Palate and it was pirate night, arrrrr! I've righted the photo of me that hubby took upside down and it will be posted below. Pirate night is a lot of fun! I started with a pot stickers appetizer while hubby had a crabcake. Hubby also got soup, then I had barbecued short ribs (this was a short rib day for me) while hubby had mahi mahi. Everything was awesome as usual.

After dinner we stopped by a ship's officer's pin trading session, but nobody had any cat pins. This night's entertainment was the ventriloquist's full show, which was quite entertaining. He had some pretty inventive puppets and is quite good at his craft and very funny. I can't recall his name, but it's in the Personal Navigators, so once I unpack them I'll include his name. Apparently he was on America's Got Talent at some point, although I assume he didn't win since they surely would've mentioned it if he had.

Then it was up to deck 10 for the pirate party. Both decks 9 and 10 were pretty crowded by then, so we parked ourselves by the starboard deck railing where we could see part of the Funnel Vision and had a perfect spot to watch the fireworks. The fireworks at sea were cool; the pirate show was okay, so very glad we prioritized the fireworks when finding a spot to watch. And then it was early to bed. Tomorrow was our last day at sea and our second couples massage was scheduled first thing in the morning.

From this point on I'm going to have to find those Personal Navigators to write the trip report because Friday was the last day I took notes. We just got too busy after that.

My "pirate-ish" outfit for Pirate Night, and our piratey servers at Animator's Palate.