Canada Place

Our first priority Sunday morning was finding some breakfast. The Hotel Auberge's breakfast selections were lacking so we walked around the corner to Mink, a chocolate shop. J. R. and Rebecca each got a belgian waffle that they shared with Janie and we each had a coffee or hot chocolate selection, which came with a free chocolate. The drinks were delicious and we supplemented with protein bars we had in our luggage from the trip from Chicago. From there we walked down to Canada Place, where our cruise ship, the Disney Wonder, was already docked. We snickered at the poor souls who were ending their vacation, knowing full well we would be among them in just 10 days. We walked around the pier for awhile until the attraction "Fly Over Canada" opened. We had bought advanced tickets so were near the front of the queue, not that it mattered because it was not busy. We were shuffled into a small room where a video about Vancover played before heading upstairs to the ride. This ride is identical to the Soarin' rides at Disneyland and Disney World except it loads all in one row. The ride had better special effects than Soarin' and gave us a taste for Canada. The price was rather high, though, when you consider what a one-day pass costs to Epcot and all of the additional rides you get there. The high costs would be a common theme for Canadian attractions.

Disney Wonder

We walked back to the hotel after Canada Place to get our luggage repacked and ready for the ship, then loaded it into an elevator, checked out and walked down to Canada Place again around 10:30. First we had to drop off our luggage, then check in for the cruise. We were surprised to be given boarding group 8 when we were at the port before 11:00, which was the first boarding time (and the one we were assigned). When we cleared passport control and got to the waiting room, we saw it was already packed with people. Disney really should enforce the port arrival times if they are going to bother having them at all. If we had known we could have checked in before 11AM, we would have come down early ourselves as we were just killing time in the hotel. Soon boarding group 1 was called and half the room got up to pretend they were part of this group. (There is no way that many people were in group 1 given the sizes of groups 2-8. Again, if DCL is going to have boarding groups, then enforce them to avoid the crush of people. Otherwise, just get rid of them if they mean nothing).

We skipped the embarkation photo and soon were being announced in the lobby. Janie and Rebecca caught a crowded elevator to Deck 9 while J. R. took the stairs and we reconvened in Cabana's for lunch. After lunch, we hung out on deck awhile until our room was ready and then Janie and J. R. took the elevator down while Rebecca went to meet some other teens she had been chatting with before the cruise. Our Disney magic was disturbed by a rude woman and her kid on the elevator. They got on at deck 3 to the elevator we were taking down and their kid pushed his way to the back, stepping on J. R.'s foot on the way. When we got to deck 2, J. R. got out but the kid moved up and blocked Janie from getting off the elevator while the woman and her friend chatted. She asked him to step aside twice before pushing past him, causing the woman to scream about her kid being pushed. J. R. noted to her that the kid had no problem pushing his way past people and it was courtesy to get out of the way to let people off the elevator. Unfortunately, there will always be rude and entitled people everywhere.

Two of our bags were already in the hallway, so we grabbed them and started to unpack before going upstairs to meet some of the people we had been chatting with on Facebook prior to the cruise. Then we went up on deck for a drink before the mandatory muster drill.

Sailaway

We unpacked our last bag and went up to deck 10 to watch the sailaway from Vancouver harbor. The sailaway was a bit delayed from the end of the sailaway show, as it was in Miami for us in December. We were so used to cruises out of Port Canaveral where the horn sounds during the show and then the ship moves. But it wasn't too long before we were underway and we stayed on the deck until the ship passed under the Red Lion bridge and out of Vancouver harbor.

Be Our Guest

The shops were open so J. R. and Janie each made a quick trip to pick up Alaska sweatshirts before they sold out. Rebecca was hanging out with her new friends so the adults went to the Walt Disney Theatre for the Be Our Guest Welcome Aboard Variety Show, where were introduced to our cruise director, Carly. The illusionist, David Gotti seemed like he would be fun but we groaned when John Charles took the stage. His act was dated when we saw him on our second cruise in 2002 and he did the same shtick this time. We were especially disappointed in his song about the room stewards and not being able to understand them. We found that offensive and borderline racist as we have never had an issue with any of our room staff and those people work hard at a dirty job we were sure Mr. Charles would never do. We know he was trying to be funny but insulting the staff in front of the guests didn't seem very "Disney". We decided we'd be skipping his show his trip.

Dinner tonight was in Triton's, where we were introduced to our tablemates, Michelle and her four daughters, Sarah, Elizabeth, Lydia and Abigail. The two oldest were around Rebecca's age and hit it off pretty quickly, talking about the Avengers and who was better, Captain America or Iron Man. Michelle and her family were very friendly, although it took some adjustment for us to get used to eating with a young child again and were amused by the meltdown over an ice cream sundae being delivered with sprinkles and glad those days were behind us (not that Rebecca ever would have objected to sprinkles or anything else ice cream related). Rebecca had the escargot appetizer while Janie and J. R. went with the Iced Lobster and Jumbo Shrimp. J. R. also had the cream of potato soup and the Alaskan Salmon Royale. Rebecca went with the Rack of Lamb and Janie had the Crispy Roasted Duck Breast. Dessert was the Grand Marnier Souffle for Janie and a Mickey ice cream bar for Rebecca.

Dinner Menus