Almost "Live from" Disney Wonder to Alaska! My Second Disney Experience

After lots of pictures, we then went on to dessert!

Crepe Suzettes:

(This was quite good, I enjoyed it very much! 8.7/10)

Sweet Temptations: The Golden Chocolate Award, Crême Brûlée, Raspberry Cheesecake:

(The Golden Chocolate Award was good 8.2/10, The crème brûlée wasn’t burnt enough, but nonetheless tasty 8.1, and the raspberry cheesecake was my favourite of the three 8.4/10)

Baked Apple and Blueberry Pivitiers:

(Kind of dry, not bad though 7.7/10)

Triple Strawberry Sundae:

(This sundae was great! My sister loved it 8.9/10)

Mickey Ice Cream Bar:

(Vanilla ice cream in a dark chocolate shell! 8.0/10)

After we ate our fill, we headed out to walk around for a bit before heading to the theatre. On our way to the atrium, we ran into a number of princesses!

First was Ariel (who was entertaining some children just outside of restaurant)

Tiana who made some lovely poses for me!

And Bell who was leading a train of children out of the kid’s club (:

By the atrium, Mickey was decked out in a gold-clad fancy suit taking pictures with guests:

As we approached the hallway that led to the Walt Disney Theatre, we realized that the line was stretching all the way to the Atrium elevators!! o_o!!

We all lined up and chatted as we waited. Here are the displays that lined the hallway (courtesy of my uncle):

Not long after, the line started moving. As we filed into the theatre, I noticed this on the way:

It was going to be part of the shows’ opening.

We passed Preludes (which sells candy and drinks)

We sat in our usual spots and the pre-show began shortly.

It began with a lady host who interviewed guests who were heading to the show. Mostly children, the occasional adults and the occasional kids/teens that burst into song.

This was entertaining, but the ironic thing was, all of those who were interviewed were basically the later arrivals, and therefore all had trouble finding seats the full theatre.

Abruptly, the show started with a bang. Some sparkly-suited dancers joined by sparkly Goofy appeared, shortly followed by his close friends.

Here are the better pictures I took that night (still in the secret picture taking mode. Later when I become less secretive, the picture quality will rise significantly LOL)

Snow White singing with her birds (later followed by some fake-bearded children from the kids’ club pretending to be dwarves ^^)

You can’t tell but it’s the Hunchback of Notre-Dame singing:

A muscular Tarzan swinging around with his strong monkeys:

Mulan singing Let’s Get Down to Business:

The Tarzan Trashin’ the Camp song featuring Stitch:

Ursula and her tentacles crawling out of the stage scaring children of all ages (:

Cruella Deville being fabulous:

Toy Story friends singing You’ve Got a Friend in Me:

Aurora singing with her prince: (Oddly enough, severe lack of Aurora running around the ship)

Blurry Pocahontas singing Colours of the Wind:

Blurry Lion King singing:

After the show, we went to go take pictures next to the Golden Mickeys display. Here’s my brother :P

Once we had taken a copious amount of pictures, we headed to the atrium (lol blurred uncle’s face)

In the atrium, Goofy was flopping around happily, so happily that I couldn’t get a sharp pictures of him LOL.

After 10 or so attempts, I had to resort to flash ^^”

We went up to deck 4 and took some more pictures since everyone was dressed up for formal night. While we were doing that, Mickey and Minnie appeared to have their turn of taking pictures with guests!

They were dressed very nicely for formal night! I ran over to the balcony to get a closer shot of them with my zoom lens.

While I was there, I watched them high 5 Goofy to trade shifts with him. As Goofy climbed the stairs, my 10 year old cousin and her mom ran over to the top of the stairs to greet him. They excitedly waved at him and Goofy interacted with them for a bit. After a little while, he had to go. A few moments after he started leaving, my 20s girl cousin ran over with her camera. They were both disappointed that nobody had gotten that on camera. Luckily … I HAD!!! :D I had coincidentally noticed them running over to the stairs from the balcony on the opposite side of the atrium. I had my zoom lens too, so I took a number of pictures of them jumping around and playing with Goofy :) Here’s the last picture of them regretfully watching Goofy leave LOL

After he left, they turned around and I quickly shot my hand straight up and waved it around to get their attention. “I GOT IT!! :D” They beamed, “REALLY?? :D” and ran over to me. Impressed, my aunt happily remarked that I had really gotten it. ^^~

After a while and everyone was getting tired, we all split up and started heading back to our rooms. My siblings and I agreed to meet up in our room to play games and eat pizza after changing into pajamas. I arrived in my room and was greeted with these:

(you can see some of the FE gifts I received on the bed ^^)

They arrived shortly and we played King of Tokyo and ate snacks until we were all too tired.

(you can see I gave my 10 year old cousin some of my gifts :D)

We then split and went to sleep (:

Loving your posts! We're doing this same cruise in June and your post is helping us to get even more excited for the trip!

Thank you! :) && I hope you have lots of fun on your trip and that you find this report helpful!!

Interesting you mention departing out of Seattle has issues with motion. I cruised out of Seattle about 5 years ago and for the first time in my life I had to get medicine for motion sickness. Was fine after the first day or so.

 

 

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Wow, I guess it is quite true! That's why I'm so unwilling to take cruises out of Seattle ^^". I already have quite a bit of trouble with motion sickness, so I don't think I'll take the chance!

Sorry for the interrut -

 

IMO:

 

I've been on a few Oceania cruises. They do advertise themselves as a 'foodie' cruise line. While they do have a number of options, especially on the bigger ships in my experience its just not worth it.

 

In the GDR (Grand Dining room) for breakfast staff would stand at your table and watch you cut into your eggs whenever they were ordered poached as the kitchen couldn't seem to get it right (on my trips their miss rate was about 90%). Further, certain dishes that were cooked for one night and not served would be re-cooked and served on a subsequent night (Jacques specialty shoe leather -er chicken comes to mind - further confirmed by speaking with an ex-Oceania employee on a different line).

 

Food listed on the Waves grill menu wasn't delivered as advertised, passengers were told to 'fix it' themselves. Burgers ordered from waves never arrived at the requested temperature unless you wanted beyond well done.

 

The prime rib in the steakhouse was freezerburned. Other steaks had obviously been through several freeze/thaw/freeze cycles.

 

Red Ginger was in my opinion dumbed down Asian food. There seemed to be some flavors/spices missing.

 

The Italian restaurant had a nice block of cheese, but was imo nothing special.

 

Jacques was extra special. Every dish came out either swimming in grease, below room temperature or both. The speed in there was glacial.

 

The buffet was a zoo. People pushing/shoving to get ahead or grab the last of something, people relocating other people while they were in line. It was like something out of Wild Kingdom.

 

The one shining bit of foodieness on the cruise (imo) were the dinners in La Reserve. This was the level of service and near the level of food I'd expected in the other restaurants.

 

For the price Oceania costs Id much rather be on Seabourn, or perhaps give Silversea another chance.

 

Thank you for taking the time and energy to post your review.

Very interesting, I will definitely keep that in mind! Thanks for the second opinion! && Thanks for reading ;)

Wednesday, August 20, 2014 : Cruise Casual

We actually had to wake up quite early this morning since it was a very special day: Character Breakfast Day! (See at the bottom of the ticket? 8:15 am!)

Here was today’s Personal Navigator:

There was also something else planned today. Due to popular request from my previous reports, I managed to convince my dad to book us a meal at Palo! (It’s supposed to say 3, but we corrected it) It was going to be my dad, brother and myself.

See the thing was, we didn’t know when we were reserving it online that it was on character breakfast day … that’s why we couldn’t eat anything at breakfast LOL. I basically spent the entire character breakfast running around both of our tables, taking pictures like a ship photographer.

The lighting in the restaurant wasn’t too good. The best seats are the ones that have the windows on your two sides. If your seat is one in which 1 of the 2 sets of windows is facing you/behind you, the lighting for your pictures will be dark. That’s what happened to my menu LOL.

So here were the characters that paid us a visit! The pictures are as follows: selca cut & non-selca cut (Chip n’ Dale were there but didn’t come over?)

(Mind you, I looked terrible in my photos because I had literally just woken up hehe, I looked so tired)

Goofy:

Mickey:

(isn’t Mickey ridiculously photogenic?)

Pluto:

Minnie:

And here was what we (excluding the 3 of us) ate!

Fruit Platter (melons):

Smoked Salmon:

Omelette + Hash brown + Sausages:

Omelette + Hash brown + Sausages + Mushrooms:

Granola + Milk:

Kid’s Fruit Salad + Blueberry Pancakes + Mickey Waffle:

Hash brown + Mickey Waffles + Mushrooms:

At about 10:00 am, the three of us excused ourselves and started making our way to Palo. On the way there, I asked my dad if we could stop by the Edge (tween club) because it had an open house and I wanted some pictures. He said alright and the three of us dropped by. Here is the Edge:

Enter and turn right.

Look to the right:

Look to the left:

Go back to entrance and go straight:

Look to the left:

That’s it. It’s so small LOL. A bit of a letdown, it’s literally one somewhat large room with many doors.

Once I was done, we headed up to deck 10 aft to have our brunch (we booked brunch because I had heard it was more impressive than their dinner).

The place was decorated very nicely. Apparently Palo’s theme was Venice.

So we enter the restaurant and my dad tells the head waiter our room number. He greets us gladly and gestures to a server to show us in. Then, something really awkward happens. We totally forgot about the dress code. The server that was told to show us in looks he’s afraid to say something. After the maitre'd told the waiter to lead us to the table, the waiter kind of awkwardly doesn’t go. He has this "what should we do?" look on his face, directed toward his boss. We obviously feel something's amiss, so my dad asks the maitre'd: “Is something the matter?” The maitre'd cautiously says: “Uhh sir, see we have a dress code ... No blue jeans D:"

o_o gasps.

And it registers. My dad realizes, “Oh my gosh I totally forgot!" The maitre'd responds: "It's okay, I have this lovely pair of Armani pants for you! :D" LOL Dad says it's fine, and that he'll go back to the room to change. Meanwhile, Bro and I go in and get seated.

We get this super awkward waiter that seems kind of uncomfortable with the fact that we're younger and that I have a ginormous camera. He kind of has this “what-do-I-do” feeling oozing from him and it’s making us uncomfortable too LOL. It’s as if he’s never seen young people before. He also seems to have never encountered a blogger either ^^”. He seats us, places the napkins on our laps and just … disappears. o.o

After he leaves, I get up and begin my mission: taking pictures. I HOPE YOU GUYS APPRECIATE IT, BECAUSE THIS WAS REALLY EMBARRASSING LOL. Have you any idea how it feels like to be a paparazzi in a fancy restaurant? I was taking the pictures as quickly as I could before people started destroying it (everything was perfect and spic & span because we were the first group in), but I would sometimes be in the way and blocking a server from doing his food explanations to other guests. I would be taking pictures, and there would be a server + ~2 people standing 3 feet away from me, just waiting for me to finish what I’m doing. In awkward silence. Watching me. I was just taking them as fast as I could and crying inside “I’M SORRY, I’M GOING AS FAST AS I CAN!! ;___;”

(Note: I noticed that all the staff were male? Interesting. Also, they have a protocol. Your server has to give you a tour of the buffet before you’re allowed to eat. Follow the rules or you lack table manners LOL. There was this guy in a group of people that was like “Do I have to? D:” Hehe)

Anyways, I HOPE YOU GUYS LIKE THESE PICTURES BECAUSE THEY WERE TAKEN AT THE EXPENSE OF MY DIGNITY.

The pastry table:

The seafood table:

(Trout Mousse)

(Caviar)

(Scallops)

The appetizer-like Italian fare (more vegetarian) side:

(all vegetarian except this)

The bread and cheese table:

This whole time that I was taking the pictures, Bro was kind of hovering near me because he didn't want to just wait at the table by himself. Suddenly out of nowhere, this server strikes up a conversation with us. We chat for a while about various things, including why I'm being a paparazzi. He finds it fascinating that I blog. My dad eventually re-appears while we're chatting and joking around. (Honestly the whole place and atmosphere was feeling very quiet, intimidating and fancy until this guy showed up, so props to him for making us not uncomfortable anymore. He was basically the only reason we teenager-ish individuals didn’t feel so out of place anymore. Like, how can we not? The place is just full of couples who are at least 30.) The server talks for a bit before he smoothly begins introducing the food. They are these display dishes by a bar-like cooking area:

Frittata:

Seared Tilapia:

Chicken Parmesan:

Veal Saltinbocca:

Oysters Rockefeller:

Fusilli Pasta with Pesto:

Eggs Florentine:

Eggs Julia:

Oriechette Pasta with Salmon: