Trip log, day nine. Spending our final day at sea.
9-Night Alaskan Cruise from Vancouver
August 1, 2017
Personal Navigator – Day 9
We did it! 8 for 8! It almost didn’t happen, I almost ruined a perfect cruise following the loss of an hour last night. Emily was up and at the gym when I woke up. I had two choices, close my eyes and attempt to sleep or do my best to offset the caloric intake that was about to happen in a few hours. I jumped out of bed, and headed to the gym only to be rewarded by Thor: The Dark World on the Marvel channel…yeah.
The view made up for the film.
Emily has a long streak of perfect workout cruises. I on the other hand am a rookie. I will tell you that the combination of going to the gym, not taking an elevator in conjunction with active days in port and all around good decisions at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and all other grazing times inbetween resulted in me losing weight. Sure, many will say I’m going about cruising all wrong, but I’m cool – I still indulged way more than I would each day compared to a typical day back home and I felt pretty good each day.
After the gym, we did our final load of laundry and on the way back I noticed this awesome door magnet using our itinerary map.
This morning we had a 10 o’clock brunch reservation in Palo.
We were seated, served our complimentary beverage (in which we both selected the Prosecco) and given the tour of the buffet.
The buffet offerings were typical with some unique dished added in like an Octopus Salad.
If the parmesan wheel ever goes missing, just check my suitcase. I love this thing. It is a house goal of mine to have this in our kitchen.
This was the first Palo brunch that I did not order the Chicken Parm… Yes, I am ok. We did however, select our own pizzas.
I came close to asking for the grape & gorgonzla, but after our server seemed uninterested in asking the chef to accommodate a small change in another dish that Emily inquired about, I didn’t feel like troubling him. Although, the kitchen doesn’t seem to care about guests going rogue with the number of now off-menu Strawberry Soups that were being delivered to tables.
We had this discussion after over dessert, but it seems like Palo is not even trying anymore and although not offered not the Classic ships, the distance between the Palo and Remy experience is growing and the difference between the Palo and MDR experience is shrinking. No need to leave comments on how I’m out of touch, I do not have a clue, etc. I get it, food is subjective & I try to limit my opinion on the subject due to the subjective nature of food. It just really bothers me that Palo used to offer some great pizzas and now they are border line quick service pizzas. Emily’s was so underwhelming she asked for red pepper flakes to bring it back to life. For what its worth, our Palo server making small talk shared that Carioca’s was going to be turned into Tiana’s and that one of the 3 new ships would be going to China. He also said that each of the 3 new ships would have a dining concept similar to Tiana’s with a show, which would not surprise me in the slightest, as this is a dynamite addition to the Wonder and I am sure very popular among guests. Take that with a grain of salt just like talking with WDW bus drivers. However, the deployment to Asia has been mentioned as a plan for years well before that latest fleet expansion was announced.
After brunch, we changed and did a drive by of the atrium where Jack Jack’s Incredible Diaper Dash was getting underway and noticed that the old Route 66 artwork that remained in February was now missing from the forward staircase between decks 3 and 4. No, this is not The Case of the Plundered (Route 66) Paintings because the classic ships do not have Midship Detective Agency.
The Case of the Plundered Route 66 Paintings (August 1, 2017)
February 2017 (well after dry dock)
The weather was awesome and might I say ‘almost’ warm enough for sitting around the pool. Isabelle was angling hard to get into the pool, but she starts school next week and we were not going to chance her getting sick. We are not animals, we did go to Blizzard Beach when we got home. Instead, we went to go see Michael Holly’s afternoon juggling show in Azure where Emily ordered the Limoncino Spritz.
After the show, it was time for Isabelle to return the the Oceaneer Lab to get ready for Friendship Rocks, an end of cruise farewell show of sorts celebrating the voyage for all the kids who spent time in the Oceaneer Club & Lab.
The kids are all given Friendship Rocks t-shirts and get to go up on the Walt Disney Theatre stage where special guests Mickey & Minnie join in the celebration.
During the show, a slideshow is shown on the big screen with photos and video clips of the kids doing what they do in the Lab & Club.
Our final dinner was in Animator’s Palate with the Animation Magic show where you get to draw a character on a placemat and watch it come alive on screen.
I looked to Twitter for advice on what to draw, and took the first suggestion… Tom Bricker of the world famous DisneyTouristBlog.com. It is not good, but I think I nailed his EPCOT Center outfit and the DSLR that is permanent affixed to his hand.
Kudos to our server Ryan for not serving me the default appetizer sampler platter with shrimp; on past sailings, it is automatically delivered to me even when our server is aware of my shellfish allergy.
The tomato, spaghetti and meatball soup was much better this time around and did not remind me of SpaghettiOs. Isabelle and I both enjoyed the soup this cruise.
By this point of the cruise, I was a bit Alaskan-fished out, so I passed on the Sockeye Salmon after seeing the Chicken Schnitzel because who doesn’t love something fried in butter, served on roasted bacon potatoes with buttered green beans.
That was a mistake. I was expecting a chicken variant of a pork schnitzel to go out in style, but the chicken arrived as an un-seasoned panko baked overcooked chicken breast rather than a thin cutlet of breaded buttery goodness. The plate was accompanied by a side of chopped bacon dropped on top of some roasted potatoes next to one cauliflower floret and floret of broccoli. I didn’t realize I had seemingly ordered chicken fingers from the kids menu.
Emily forgot how bad the Wild Mushroom and Sweet Onion Strudel was from the last time. After tonight, she won’t make that mistake again.
Isabelle was the smart one sticking with my original plan of ordering the Alaskan offerings by going with the Roasted Filet of Alaskan Sockeye Salmon.
It is always fun to watch your drawings come to life on the screens around the restaurant’s perimeter.
I realized, as the Animation Magic credits rolled, how fitting it was to have this show on the final night.
After the show, dessert arrived. I can never seem to order anything else when the Celebration Cake is on the menu.
Everyone else chose the Cappuccino Mousse & Emily ordered the Espresso Martini sans chocolate sauce.
The highlight of the dinner was learning the first See Ya Real Soon breakfast seating was at 7:15 AM. We are accustomed the first seating being in the 6 o’clock hour.
After dinner, we spent some time talking to our table mates on deck 4 while we enjoyed the views until we forced ourselves to head back to the room to face our biggest challenge of the cruise – packing our suitcases.
Mind you, we are accustomed to overpacking since we have the luxury of driving to Port Canaveral or Miami. We do not often face the challenge of making sure our bags are under the airline’s weight limits. It took some doing, but we persevered. With tomorrow another travel day where we would gain another 3 hours flying back to Florida, we called it a night.
However, there were a few last bits of business before we could turn in. Emily dealt with the feedback form which continues to limit space for notes. This time is was a blatant attempt by placing the DCL bow scroll work graphic in a blank space.
I took the time to email our pre-arrange driver to just re-confirm our meeting time since we planned to do express walk-off and then fill out the Canadian customs form.
One last thing we forgot to mention. The Oceaneer Club and Lab are beginning trial the Navigator App chat, but still prefer you use Wave phones. During the voyage the only message I received was the invite to the Friendship Rocks show.
We are a family of three and if we aren’t traveling with friends we usually opt to sit by ourselves. After your experience this trip with tablemates what would you recommend? We’ve been debating whether our daughter might enjoy another kid at the table though she’s pretty independent and mature for an eight year old.
Completely agree with you about Palo, I was disappointed at our last brunch as well.
The Route 66 pictures went missing during the transition cruise from San Diego to Vancouver.
Sounds like an anticlimatic last day – at least food wise. Too bad. But thanks again for the trip logs.
Right with you on Palo. We skipped Palo dinner on the 9-night after doing it on the Magic in December because we just weren’t impressed. The brunch has been the same for years now in terms of the buffet line and the orderable entrees are nothing spectacular. Probably won’t go to Palo again because we don’t find it worth the extra cost.
Honestly, the only reason we continue to return is that it is a Platinum perk. I would much rather have the $30 to put towards Remy on on the Dream class.
Was allowed to record your daughter on stage during the friendship rock show.
Were you allowed to record your daughter on stage during the friendship rocks show.