Day 2 – Sea Day

On Day 2, we slept in fairly late (for us), given the time change and the day of excitement we had boarding the ship.  The bed is very comfortable on the ship, probably more so than our one at home.  The kids finally got us up and moving.  We tried to decipher the Navigator that told us which dining rooms were open for breakfast, but eventually we gave up and headed up to Deck 9 to eat at Beach Blanket Buffet.  Beach Blanket is a buffet restaurant set up with two separate entrances.  There are two buffet lines per entrance, and each buffet line serves the same foods.  The point is, they can move a lot of people through the buffet quickly.

We got our obligatory hand wipes before entering Beach Blanket.  (This is one method that Disney uses to keep down the spread of any sort of illness on board.  You will forever be wiping your hands with these wipes as you enter the dining rooms.  The kids must wash their hands when they enter the kids clubs as well.)  You will then be given a tray, napkins and silverware as you enter the buffet line.  The food is served from metal containers and warmed or cooled from below, and you can select as much or as little of each of the food offerings as you would like.  Breakfast offerings on the main buffet line generally include a selection of fruits; cold toppings for bagels such as lox, capers, sliced cheeses and meats; grits and oatmeal; breakfast meats and potatoes, scrambled eggs, corned beef hash, Mickey waffles, French toast, and pancakes; toasted bread, bagels, and English muffins; and an assortment of donuts, pastries, and croissants.  In addition to the main buffet, there is an omelet station where a Disney chef will prepare you an omelet to order.  There is also a small cold bar with a selection of cereals and milk, cottage cheese, yogurt, and muesli with assorted toppings (coconut, cranberries, almonds, etc.)  There are sodas, juices, teas, and coffee towards the end of the main buffet line.

We gathered our food selections  and started looking for a seat.  We didn’t see a lot of selection indoors, so we decided to head outside.  I am so glad that we did.  The ship was sailing up the inner passage, which is a protected channel along the coast.  The water was nice and calm and the land started to rise on the east side of the coast.  I thought at this point the view was fantastic.  (hint, it gets SO MUCH BETTER). We must have sat there a good hour, eating and watching the coast slide along.

As a side note, one of our daughters likes French toast.  So, she got the French toast from the buffet.  At this point, she decided she LOVES the French toast from Beach Blanket.  Over the four cruises that we’ve now had on the Wonder, I can’t say that I have ever eaten breakfast anywhere but at Beach Blanket.  This caused a small problem when we went on the Fantasy last summer.  We discovered that they don’t have French toast every morning on the buffet.  Not a problem, Disney magic to the rescue.  One of the chefs went down to Royal Court and brought some back up to us!  We spent the rest of our breakfasts on the Disney Fantasy dining in Royal Court.

After breakfast, the kids both wanted to head off to their clubs.  The older one headed to the Edge, the ship’s club for tweens, where she took some pictures and played with the other kids.  The counselors played games with them and took them on various adventures around the ship, including scavenger hunts, trips to the sports deck to play games, and up to gather some food from Deck 9.  The other one went off to the Oceaneer’s Club, one of the kids’ spaces for children ages 3-12.  The counselors there usually have some sort of group activity going on, along with movies and computer games.

While the kids were occupied, Nancy and I signed up for a beer tasting.  This was offered in one of the bars on Deck 3, the pub called Diversions, and cost $15 per person.  We walked into the pub to find a flight of beers lined up at various seats around the bar.  Nancy and I handed over our event tickets and sat down.  One of the bartenders on the Wonder introduced himself to the group (there were probably about 10-12 other people attending this event).  The bartender gave a short talk about beer in general, then started talking us through the different types of beers that were in front of us.  He pointed out the different flavors and tastes before having us sample each one.  The entire experience was really relaxed.  I don’t know that I learned anything, but I got a fair amount of beer for just $15, so I considered it a worthwhile experience.

After enjoying our beer tasting, we decided to head to Deck 4 for some outside viewing.  We had room 2612 on this cruise, which is an ocean view room.  So, we could look outside, but no fresh air.  Deck 4 became our verandah.  Deck 4 includes the jogging track as well as the only deck below Deck 9 with any public outside space.  There are lots of deck chairs available for anyone to grab, as well as blankets on the Alaskan cruise.  We sat down for quite a while to watch the scenery.

We primarily saw the rocky coast as the ship headed up towards our next destination, which was Tracy Arm.  Here are just some of the sights we took in:

After spending several hours on Deck 4, we went to gather the kids back up from their clubs and headed to the room to get ready for dinner.  This was formal night for dinner, so we dressed up.  I can’t find pictures of the food, which is kind of shocking.  We take pictures of everything.  Either way, after dinner I’m pretty sure we went off to the show, but I don’t recall what it was.  I spent the first days of the trip being fairly drowsy, primarily because I was taking Dramamine.  I shouldn’t have taken it since 1) the water was very calm and 2) it makes me really sleepy.  I vaguely remember falling asleep during one of the shows, and it might have been this night.  But, at least Nancy looked great!

Planning | Travel | Boarding | Sea Day | Tracy Arm | Skagway | Juneau | Ketchikan | Sea Day | Disembarkation

 

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