Wonder from Honolulu to Vancouver Trip Report, March 2024: Day 7, 2nd Sea Day

[newfamilyman]

We recently returned from a 10-day cruise on the Wonder, from Honolulu to Vancouver. It was our twelfth Disney cruise but our first with so many consecutive sea days (five on this trip), so it gave us a different perspective. My conclusion is that these longer cruises with multiple sea days provide the most immersive Disney experience possible.

Trip planning

We booked our verandah stateroom through Kelsie at Dreams Unlimited Travel. Because we used an on-board offer (OBO), our stateroom credit from Dreams Unlimited was only $175. However, I really appreciated Kelsie braving the long hold times to contact Disney when we wanted to submit service requests or decided to upgrade our stateroom category.

Fellow miles-and-points hobbyists may be interested in the other aspects of our trip planning. I decided to fly Hawaiian Airlines out of LAX because I was able to get DW and I each a Hawaiian Airlines M/C through Barclay’s Bank with a fantastic sign-up bonus: 70,000 miles after only one charge and payment of the annual fee. A first-class flight was 80,000 miles on their A330, so I had to transfer just under 10,000 Amex membership awards to get to the 80,000. There were plenty of seats available for redemption. For our overnight hotel, I booked the Royal Hawaiian using an 85,000 free night award from my Chase Ritz Visa. We really enjoyed the book “From Here to Eternity,” which mentions the hotel in its final chapter, and we are also history buffs. Even though the Marriott dipped to as low as 50,000 at one point so that I could have used a 35K certificate, we really wanted to stay at the Royal Hawaiian.

Booking port adventures, Palo, and checking in
I signed on at 5 AM on the earliest day that Platinums could book port adventures and dining. I was immediately shocked that so few port adventures were offered for this cruise. I was expecting all but the Lahaina excursions to be available from the main Hawaiian port adventures pages, but many more were not being offered, including none of the luau options for either Maui or Kauai. Of the ones that were offered, there was only one port adventure in which we were interested, the aquarium behind-the-scenes tour, which was already sold out by Pearl guests, and in the end, I was glad about that, since I don’t think we would have wanted to spend an entire day in an aquarium, even a nice one.

As for Palo, during this search, I was able to book one dinner and one brunch. The first-night dinner was already booked. However, after searching daily or sometimes multiple times per day as we approached the departure date, I was able to obtain a first-night reservation as well. The same tactic applied to the port adventures. What I did not realize until I called Disney, however, was that the reservations system has changed so that if you want to book a different port adventure that overlaps with your existing one, you have to cancel what you have first. This requirement makes you vulnerable to someone taking your original excursion if the one showing availability has only a spot for one person, and you are in a larger party. I was able to change my Maui excursion to one that started later in the day. Otherwise, many of the tours which showed as sold out remained sold out. For Hilo, because we wanted to visit the botanical gardens specifically, we booked a private tour through Tours by Locals, since Disney did not offer an excursion that stopped there.

I also signed on at 5 AM on the first day for Platinums to check in. The earliest port arrival time was 12:45-1, as Pearls were able to reserve the earlier times.

Day One

Here is more information for fellow points-and-miles hobbyists: I used a Suite Night Award to upgrade to a junior suite in the historic wing, which proved to include two large rooms with the highest ceilings that I have ever seen in a hotel. The Royal Hawaiian was extremely well-preserved, and its dominant pink color palette reminded me of the Beverly Hills Hotel. Unfortunately the restaurant that serves breakfast, Azure, doesn’t accept reservations, so we had to wait about a half-hour for a table. While waiting, we were amused to watch some of the young Japanese guests taking endless selfies as if they were on a competitive synchronized selfie team:

Luckily, we got one of the best tables in the restaurant, almost right on the beach. Here was the view from our table:

The Platinum and higher breakfast credit provides for a continental breakfast, which includes a parfait and several pastries in addition to juice or coffee. You can also upgrade to a number of other entrees for a reasonable price. As part of the elite amenity, you get three pastries from the bakery in the lobby, which filled us up to the point where we were in no need for much of a lunch.

The check-in process in the port was so organized and straightforward compared to the complicated mess that greeted us during our last cruise on the Wonder in San Diego. In Honolulu, the area where you drop off your bags to the stevedores was clearly marked. It was then a straightforward entrance to the terminal, no special tickets required. There was a line for the silver and no Castaway Club status guests but none for Platinum or Pearl. We quickly checked in, and by 1 PM, all guests were allowed to immediately board.

My first stop was to the French Quarter lounge, where the dining representatives are available. I first ascertained that DW and I would have our own table. I subsequently learned that there were only 1,800 guests aboard, so there were multiple empty tables during this sailing. There was a line to speak to the Palo manager, Luca, which I joined in hopes of getting an additional brunch reservation. While in line, the guest next to me struck up a conversation with me, informing me that he was Platinum but that when he went to check in, there was no availability whatsoever for Palo, so he was hoping to get a single reservation. I asked him if he ever checked availability after the initial time that he was allowed to make a reservation, and he replied with irritation, “I don’t have time for that.” Luca added me to the brunch waitlist, explaining that he had no further availability, and confirmed that our previous server, Sylvester, was available.

Afterwards, there was no line for guest services, so I redeemed my Disney gift cards. Again for miles-and-points hobbyists, I purchased $2500 in Disney gift cards from Staples and Office Depot using my Chase Ink card, where I was able to get 5 Ultimate Rewards per dollar.

We then stopped by the tail end of Cabana’s lunch service to get a quick snack before heading to our stateroom, 6626. Its location proved to be excellent. While it was across the hall from a service entrance and elevator, there was minimal noise from that location. The hallway foot traffic was not particularly noisy, and I appreciated that half of the verandah was a solid wall, with only the other half having the usual divider that provides only a partial barrier.

The Platinum gift was a canvass bag and beach towel. Later, there was a card that mentioned we should call room service for an additional food amenity, which proved to be the choice among a fruit bowl, chocolate truffles, or bottle of prosecco. I chose the fruit bowl, which consisted of an apple, banana, mandarin, pear, some grapes, and a small bowl of berries. We never finish eating it, since Disney cruise fruit is not especially good, but that was the healthiest of the options.

After the muster and a very late arrival of our bags, it was time for our first dinner at Palo. Luca informed me that they had available dinner reservations for all of the Hawaiian nights. As a result, I picked up two additional dinner reservations, for days two and four, adding to our previously reserved dinner reservation on day six and brunch on day nine.

My favorite Palo meal, which I had that night, starts with the pasta with the lamb ragu, which is the best Bolognese sauce that I’ve ever had, followed by the Dover sole. The tableside presentation enhances an already delicious dish, and Sylvester deboned it perfectly, with no bones remaining. We finished with the chocolate soufflé.

This meal was our first time at Palo since the implementation of the 18% service charge. Sylvester didn’t mention anything about it this night, so I assumed that it went to Sylvester. I only gave a small, supplementary amount, thinking that amount was going above-and-beyond. More would be revealed on a subsequent night.

This cruise was our first time with no show on the first night. I really used to enjoy the first night’s show which had a storyline about a boy who wanted to be the captain but really was an opportunity to preview the three variety acts who would be performing that week. When I spoke about missing this show to cruise director Trent a few days later, he patted me on the shoulder and said, “Thank you for being one of the 200 people who showed up for it.” I remember the theatre being full for those shows, but maybe my memory was wrong. Trent explained that for this cruise, as well as on some of their other longer cruises, they no longer have shows on the first night due to so many jet-lagged guests wanting to just eat and then retire early for the night.

This trip was also our first time on the Wonder since the dry dock. I was happy to see that they finally offered an internet package not based on how much data you used but by the day or length of trip. Because we would be in Hawaii for the first four days, I used my phone’s data until the sea days. While the TVs looked like they had been replaced during the dry dock, the programming, unfortunately, was not, offering only classics and other older films with nothing released in the last few years that I might have wanted to watch. I was glad that I had downloaded movies and shows onto my iPad.

Next installment: Day 2, Maui

 

[newfamilyman]

The ship’s clock moved an hour ahead at midnight, which reduced the time difference from home to one hour. DW and I are accustomed to waking up early, and this morning was no exception. I increased the amount of my jogging on this trip, since both deck 4 is my favorite place to run, and I was hoping to limit the number of pounds I’d have to reduce post-trip to get back to my normal weight. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to bring my arm band for my iPhone, and both the ship’s store and all of the ABC stores in Waikiki only sold a waterproof cover that hangs on your neck. I usually check my time against the DVC desk’s monitor, but it was turned off this morning. I ended up running about seven miles, which was a record for me.

Any kind of etiquette for the track was more honored in the breach than in the observance, even at 6 in the morning. When there was someone walking, either alone or in groups, they often were oblivious that they were sharing the track with runners so that they tended to walk in the middle rather than to the side. Some of my fellow runners failed to give the customary, “on your right,” or “on your left,” which resulted in my having to slow down or stop and/or people being startled. Luckily, these interactions mainly happened on enclosed forward-most or most aft sections so that I could still enjoy the sounds of the ocean and during the times when it was light, the sunrise or clouds and waves. I also changed my way of thinking from considering it to be a frustrating stressor when I would have to encounter people blocking my path to consider it more like an obstacle course, which helped.

Because our tour didn’t leave until close to noon, we had breakfast in Triton’s, which would be the last time that we had breakfast there until disembarkation day. I have a hard time with the streamlined menu, since I remember when menus were unique to Triton’s and Lumiere’s, back when those were the only two ships in the fleet, where you could get smoothies with names like Mango Mountain Hike, and my favorite breakfast entrée was Atlantis Secret Tower (Beast’s tower, at Lumiere’s), which was alternating layers of french toast and grilled pineapple. Another frustrating part of breakfast is that you have to request your condiments before the entrees arrive or, in the case of this particular breakfast, I had to wait while my mediocre corned beef cash grew cold while waiting for the ketchup to arrive. Alternatively, when possible, I ask our main dining team where they will be working breakfast or lunch and match their schedule to get the same level of service that we experience at dinner.

We booked the Iao Valley & Maui Tropical Plantation port excursion, which while only lasting four hours cost a whopping $218 per person. The tour began in a large bus. It is worth mentioning at this point that I was not expecting to see many children on this cruise, given its early March timeframe, and there proved to be few school-age children. What I did not anticipate was the large number of pre-school aged children. On this tour, we were joined by a family of five which included three such children who let their displeasure about being forced on this port adventure known at the very beginning and barely let up throughout the day. I overheard a number of guests seated like us near the back of the bus where this family was sitting grumbling about not being able to hear the commentary from our driver. Given that the driver’s commentary, however, tended to be along the lines of, “Here’s our high school. Here’s our community college. Here’s our shopping center,” I don’t think we missed that much. In fact, when he wasn’t pointing out the most pedestrian sites along the way, he was fulfilling the stereotype of the Hawaiian determined to bite the hand that feeds him by bashing tourists in general and Californians in particular, such as how our state is determined to take over Honolulu and what lousy drivers we are. He wasn’t all wrong, at least with respect to the latter observation, but it wasn’t the best way to get tips from his Californian passengers.

We reached the first destination, the Iao Valley State Park, where we were supposed to “enjoy a guided walk in the park,” according to the port adventure description. At one point, our guide boasted about his prowess at being able to watch TV regardless of distractions, so I don’t think I’m being unfair in saying that he was not prepared to leave the bus’ proximity, much less lead us in a guided tour. In fact, he doubled his initial time for this stop from 20 to 40 minutes when he was incredulous to learn that most of us wanted to explore the park. Here are some of the lovely views to which we were treated by wandering around the paths. In the first photo, you will see our bus in the parking lot:



After we were done with this first part of the tour, he drove us a short distance to the other part of the park, where there were various pavilions dedicated to early settlers. It reminded us a little of Huntington Gardens in Pasadena, if the gardens hadn’t received much in the way of TLC over the decades:


The other section of this area consisted of picnic benches and enclosures where locals could gather for celebrations and other get-togethers, many of which were taking place during our visit. After a half-hour or so, it was time to depart to the final part of the tour, the Maui Tropical Plantation, where we were supposed to “take a 40-minute fully narrated Tropical Express tram tour of the plantation's fruit fields and flower gardens, [and] enjoy a fresh fruit snack with Maui Gold pineapple.”

In a further indication of how poorly organized this port adventure was, and how it continued to veer from its description, we arrived at the plantation 45 minutes early for our 2 PM tour. There was nothing to do but browse its various shops, and some people purchased lunch items. Once the tour began, it was not the 40-minute tour as promised, or more to the point, it was a 40 minute or so tour, but only half of it was spent on the tram. The plantation tour guide spent about half the time discussing coconuts and how they are grown, harvested, and how to properly open them to obtain their fruit and milk. Furthermore, the promises of a “lush tropical plantation” proved to be just a collection of fields growing various fruit and vegetables, with none of the promised pineapple “fruit snacks” at the end.

When we got back to the ship, I expressed my frustrations with this port adventure to Pato, the Argentinian Port Adventures cast member. He said that he would contact the tour company and get back to me. Several days later, DW and I received notifications in the app to report back to the Port Adventures desk, where Pato informed us that we would each receive a $15 credit, less than 10% of the cost of the tour. I can only suggest that any readers who are future DCL Hawaiian cruisers may want to consider skipping this particular port adventure or at the very list, lowering your expectations in spite of its outrageous cost.

After a break, we returned to Palo for dinner. As always, it was a pleasure to spend time in this quiet and relaxing space. This time, I tried the ciuppin soup, which I’ve ordered on a previous cruise and decided that I don’t really enjoy. I chose the eight-ounce tenderloin with sides of the fried Yukon potatoes and mushrooms without garlic, which I shared with DW. The tenderloin, served with au jus on the side, was deliciously tender, and the mushrooms were similarly delightful. The fried Yukon potatoes, however, were mushy and not crisp on the outside, as you want fried potatoes to be. If I order these again in the future, I’ll see if they can prepare them that way. We enjoyed the amaretto soufflé for dessert this time, which DW favored over the chocolate version.

It was at this meal that the tip conversation progressed to another level. Sylvester explained that the 18% was shared among all staff, even Luca. When I asked him for some idea of what his expectation was for his outstanding service, Sylvester adamantly refused to respond, saying that he was not allowed to engage in discussions about tipping expectations. With this information, I upped the additional amount that I left him from $5 to $15 but vowed to research more about how other people tip at Palo before we returned in two days’ time.

Tonight’s entertainment was a Hawaiian singer, which didn’t particularly interest either DW or I. Furthermore, ship time was being turned ahead again one hour, which while aligning to our California time, would be disruptive to our sleep, since we had a full-day tour tomorrow at Hilo with our Tours by Locals guide. As a result, we retired early for the night to watch some more shows that I had downloaded to my iPad.

Next installment: Day 3, Hilo, with our Tours by Locals guide

 

[newfamilyman]

One of the negatives of the Wonder (and Magic) if you are a jogger or enjoy an early morning promenade on deck 4 is that on port days, your activity will likely get cut short due to mooring, which closes the bow of the ship about an hour before the listed arrival time on the app. Once the anchors are down, the bow of the ship re-opens, but today, my run was interrupted after the third mile. I went to the top deck, but I don’t like it up there as much and ended my run early.

We went to breakfast at Cabanas, which was crowded. I usually try to avoid buffets. This trip, I took the advice of the expert on a National Geographic trip that we took last year. I asked him how he avoids gaining too much weight when so many of his meals are buffets, and he told me that his rule was to only make only one trip to the buffet. This approach worked out pretty well for me. I appreciated the sectioned grapefruit slices, of which I took a heaping bowl each morning, and I took a few cups of muesli. I preferred it when they had it in a large bowl, and you could serve yourself, but since either because of COVID or to prevent food waste, they serve it to you in disposable cups. They traded food waste for plastic waste, which is a shame. At least they could have used glass or reusable bowls.

At this breakfast, something happened which caused me to stop drinking the Cabanas coffee ever again (and yes, I know that they serve the same coffee in Triton’s). When I tried to dispense coffee from the machine, mostly just water came out. I left to find another machine, and when I returned, I saw how the sausage was made. The coffee from these dispensers uses the same mechanism as sodas from a fountain but instead of soda water, they use hot water. Both use syrup. It’s OK for soda, but not for coffee or iced tea. The only way to get brewed coffee on Disney ships is to pay more for it. At least at the Cove Café, they give you the sixth cup for free, and you get a cute design on top.

Because this sailing was the Wonder’s first since leaving Australia, they still had a lot of Australian products on the ship. In the Cove Café, they had cartons of whole milk which Australians call full cream. I wonder what they call heavy cream? The wine lists, at least initially, exclusively contained wines from Australia and New Zealand. The bottled water from room service was also Australian, and it was extremely refreshing. I was thinking about buying more after finishing the six bottles but decided to refill them using water from the bathroom sink. I called guest services first to see if the water from the refillable bottle stations on deck 4 was the same water as in the stateroom bathrooms, and the CM wasn’t sure. She said that some guests told her that it was better. I ended up just using the bathroom sink water, and it tasted perfectly fine when chilled in the mini-fridge. The mini-fridge got so cold that waters actually became almost slushy with ice crystals. Elsa still can’t help herself.

We booked our six-hour private tour with Laurence Currier through Tours by Locals for the main reasons that he would get us where we wanted to go (the botanical garden) and was half the price, or less, of the other guides on that site. His rate wasn’t much more than we would have paid if we were doing one of the Disney port adventures, especially as they were so expensive on this cruise.

Laurence proved to be an excellent tour guide, and the periodic pounding rain proved only a slight deterrent to our having an excellent day in Hilo. Laurence claimed that because of the island’s position, the rain mainly comes at night, so that only four of his previous tours were impacted by rain, and if we had changed our plans for how we were going to spend the day, this would have been only his fifth tour out of hundreds given.

We began the day at the botanical garden. Laurence was no botanist but was still a knowledgeable guide, pointing out many types of flowers and bringing us to some incredible views:





After the gardens, we made our way to Mr. Ed’s bakery, which is apparently a local institution of some renown. Disappointingly, the proprietor was not a talking horse but instead a human, someone who could have passed as Colonel Sander’s brother. Laurence was straightforward that by bringing guests there, they usually gave him some free jams, and we purchased many jams as gifts for co-workers. While pricey, I think they made much better gifts, if costlier, than the usual ABC macadamia nuts. Some of the jams were made from fruit completely unfamiliar to me, like jaboticaba, poha berry, and grumichama, to name but a few. Mrs. Ed charged me almost double on her first go-round at the register but got it right after re-calculating.

On the way to lunch, the topic of tipping came up. While at the garden, we had discussed Laurence’s low prices, and he reported that another guide complained about him to Tours by Locals because his prices were so low. Laurence explained that he only needed a certain amount of money for his lifestyle, since he gets social security and pays low rent as the caretaker of a coffee plantation owned by a couple who live in Idaho. He also plays in three bands, which gets him gigs in various bars and restaurants. Laurence did mention that Tours by Locals takes a 20% cut, but I didn’t get the impression that he was expecting us to cover that amount. Instead, I was figuring that buying him lunch would suffice. However, when asked, he mentioned that most people tip between $50 and $100 in addition to taking him to lunch. We decided that we would split the difference, and while we were at the restaurant, Kaleo’s Bar & Grill, one of the places where his band regularly plays, I bought a $75 gift card, since he said that he and his girlfriend enjoy going there for dinner. As a miles-and-points hobbyist, I hate paying cash if I can charge it instead, so this worked out well.

Kaleo’s turned out to be just so-so. I knew I was in trouble when I asked the server if the iced tea was brewed. She told me that it came from a gun, meaning that it wasn’t brewed. If you’re a foodie, you don’t really want to start your day with fountain coffee and continue it with fountain iced tea. Laurence suggested that we split some appetizers and get the fish and chips. At least they had malt vinegar to go with it. The fried banana dessert was good. Even though the restaurant was large and crowded with locals (it was Sunday, after all), they only had two bathrooms that could be used by one person at a time. You knew it was a restaurant for locals when only the Hawaiian words for men and women were used on their doors without even a symbol for us tourists.

During lunch, it had really started pouring. We still decided to continue the tour by going to Akaka falls. The waterfall was still beautiful in the mist:

There was a Disney port adventure visiting at the same time. From there, it was time for the long drive back to the port.

We had another break before dinner, which would be our first meal in an MDR. I was glad to see that the Crawfish Crooners would be performing. Unfortunately, the combination our table location, the under-miking of the musicians, and the loud volume of the guests meant that we could barely even hear their performance. The entire experience was culture shock for me. After two quiet and peaceful nights at Palo, this dining room could not have had a greater contrast.

We met our friendly servers, Juan Israel from Mexico and Jhud (that might not be the correct spelling) from the Phillipines. The ship was rocking quite a bit, though nowhere near as much as it would be a few days later. Nevertheless, Jhud was busy packing up dinners for guests who had to go back to their stateroom due to seasickness. Their section was also down a table; as Sylvester later explained, with only 1800 guests, there was bound to be some empty tables.

Tonight’s menu was pretty good for MDR food. The cream of mushroom soup tasted like the amuse bouche in Palo and was just as delicious. I opted for, as Juan Israel called it, Thanksgiving dinner with the turkey plate. The best part of the meal was surprisingly the dessert. I got the Banoffee cream pie, which was probably my favorite dessert of the cruise and one of the best pies that I’ve ever had.

We saw Tiana at dinner and realized that she was the first Disney character that we had seen. We hadn’t waited on lines for any character photos mainly because on the cruises, they feel less like interactions between guests and characters than transactions to increase Shutters bills. When viewed from above looking down on the atrium, it really looks like an assembly line. Usually we see characters walking around the ship, but not on this cruise, at least not so far. It looked like cost-cutting to me.

Tonight’s show was the Golden Mickeys. They’ve swapped out the video with Bob Iger to one with Captain Minnie; otherwise, the videos with the other celebrities remain. I didn’t notice the show being any different. We were very fortunate on this cruise to have incredible ASL performers led by Stephanie. I say performers because they go way above-and-beyond interpreting; they act out the shows. I didn’t get to meet her colleagues, but it was a pleasure to see Stephanie again, and we always sat just behind or next to the hearing-impaired guests and their families.

Next Installment: Day one in Kauai

 

[mrp4352]

Thank you! We’re doing the reverse in Sept, so I’m enjoying learning about some of the uniqueness of these rare sailings!

 

[newfamilyman]

Thank you! We’re doing the reverse in Sept, so I’m enjoying learning about some of the uniqueness of these rare sailings!

I'm glad that you're finding the trip report to be helpful, and I hope that you have a wonderful sailing this fall.

 

[newfamilyman]

I had an enjoyable run on deck 4. The previous two time changes resulted in fewer people getting an early start, though a couple of others were beginning their exercise around 7, when I was near the end of mine. I used to enjoy showering and shaving in the spa, but I found the water pressure in the shower to be so strong that I never needed to go upstairs. We then repeated our Cabanas and Cove Café experience this morning before our port adventure, which was the Kauai movie tour conducted by Polynesian Adventures. Pearls had already sold the tour out on the second Kauai day, but there were still spots for the first day, and this day sold out pretty quickly afterwards. The description promised that unlike yesterday’s tour, this one would be conducted on a mini-bus, and the buses were about half the size of a regular bus, with drop-down TV screens every few rows. There were two buses to accommodate two tours. Otherwise, the tour did not have an auspicious beginning. For one thing, there was another family that thought it would be a great idea to bring two pre-school aged children on a tour of Hawaiian movie locations. Also, whereas I was hoping that the tour would have a serious tone, perhaps with TCM vibes, our tour guide, Kaleo, fashioned himself more jungle cruise skipper than film historian. At one point, he actually borrowed from the Jungle Cruise spiel. At Ahukini Landing, where the John Wayne movie “Donovan’s Reef” was filmed, Kaleo pointed out one dock and then a different dock, concluding, “Do you know what you call that? A pair of docks (pronounced like paradox, if that wasn’t clear from reading the joke).”

Once I leaned into the day as an extended Jungle Cruise tour on wheels, it was entertaining. At its best, Kaleo would show a scene from a movie and then drive past its actual location, seeing how set dressers had transformed it to the location of the movie. The two most impressive examples were in Kapa’a Town, where a scene from Jurassic Park was filmed that took place in Costa Rica, and Princeville where expansive fields were transformed into Vietnamese rice paddies for the Gene Hackman vehicle, “Behind Enemy Lines”:

Kaleo also leaned into “Lilo and Stitch” for several of its locations, including the lighthouse which inspired the one in the movie:

Kaleo, ever the wannabee skipper, offered to take pictures of guests in front of this impressive backdrop. While he was at it, though, he couldn’t resist including a selfie, which gave us a good laugh when we discovered it:

Unfortunately, the two groups shared the same restaurant for lunch, and Kaleo must have drawn the short straw because we got the second time slot, so we didn’t get to the restaurant until 2. Besides having to listen to the preschool children scream about how hungry they were, I was also disappointed that the late lunch meant the window between eating lunch and our Palo dinner was going to be only a few hours. The restaurant was in Hanalei Town, just a few doors down from the Tahiti Nui restaurant where “The Descendants” was filmed (the George Clooney, Oscar-winning movie, not the Disney Channel one), and Kaleo played clips of that scene before our arrival. We were supposed to choose our menu preferences ahead of time, which resulted in a comical roll call, as some guests had not submitted their orders, some had some specific item requests and/or removals, and the class clown of the group insisted on his name being called out so he could state his order for the group. I wasn’t expecting to eat at a restaurant, which resulted in a hot meal. I recommend the fish sandwich with fries, which was delicious. The meal included a non-alcoholic drink, and the restaurant served brewed iced tea with refills, so that was a win for me.

The name Hanalei reminded me of “Puff the Magic Dragon,” and Kaleo told a story about the history of the song which was fascinating even if it wasn’t true. In the 60’s, Elizabeth Taylor’s brother ran a commune in the area where there was heavy use of hallucinogens. While locals pronounce Hanalei as “Hana-lay,” it looks like it could or should be pronounced “Hana-Lee,” like in the song. Here is a picture of the bay, where the resemblance to a dragon is highlighted:

Regardless of whether these facts are only a string of coincidences or whether they are the actual story behind the song, you can buy any number of t-shirts featuring dragons and Hanalei at various stores in the area and plenty of time to visit them, with the 45 minutes or so of free time which followed lunch.

Kaleo provided some other film clips on the way back to the pier, where we had a couple of hours before dinner, our third Palo meal. This time I tried the osso buco, and I was not impressed. I was beginning to arrive at the conclusion that while Palo provides an unparalleled ambience for the ship and stellar service, its number of solid entrees was limited. Before dinner, I researched the tip issue in the era of 18% service charge on the disboards. The highest tip went to the poster who wrote that he or she left $50-100 tips for brunch, which seemed excessive to me, given that you were still paying an 18% service charge, even if not much of it actually went to your server. Multiple people wrote that they were paying $10-20 per person, so I decided to start leaving $40 tips for the remainder of our Palo meals. On the way out, I nagged Luca again about brunch, and he showed me the pages of waitlisted people. We were next scheduled to return to Palo on the first sea day, day 6, which was the first meal that I had booked when the Platinum window opened.

We then made our way to the Walt Disney Theatre for “Wish.” At last night’s Golden Mickeys, Trent announced “Wish” as a “premiere at sea,” which considering that the movie had opened and tanked while the Wonder was still in Australia made me wonder if Australians have a different definition of what qualifies as a “premiere.” The story was trite and the songs, embarrassingly awful. It left me sad as both a Disney fan and stockholder that the company’s film slate has fallen into such disrepair, like Disneyland during the Paul Pressler era. At least the “premiere” wasn’t for one of the recent Marvel bombs.

Since the shop was docked overnight in Kauai, there wouldn’t be any gentle rocking, but at least there wouldn’t be another time change yet, either.

Next installment, Day 5: Kauai Day 2 and the Jewel of Hawaii port adventure

 

[SplashMom]

Great report so far! We were supposed to be on this cruise but had to cancel due to medical reasons. We may book in the future and it's great to see your comments.

 

[newfamilyman]

Great report so far! We were supposed to be on this cruise but had to cancel due to medical reasons. We may book in the future and it's great to see your comments.

Thanks for your kind words. Sorry you weren't able to make it but glad that you can join along vicariously.

 

[newfamilyman]

After our usual morning routine, we headed out for the Jewel of Hawaii port adventure. Priced at more than $700 for the two of us, we wondered about how it could possibly live up to the price. However, we were not disappointed in what proved to be the best of all our Hawaiian tours.

There were again two mini-buses to accommodate two groups. For the first time, there were bottled waters at the entrance of the bus, which was a nice touch, and our guide/driver explained the various flora as we covered some of the same ground as yesterday’s expansive movie location tour (the island is only so big, after all). Our guide, whose name unfortunately I never learned, repeated frequently as we passed barren fields, “There used to be sugar cane fields here as far as the eye could see.” When we stopped at Spotting Horn park, while others were looking at the blowhole, I asked him what happened to all those sugar cane fields. I found his explanation to be fascinating. He attributed the disappearance of this industry to three factors. He explained that the fields were initially farmed by poor immigrants who were willing to work for low wages. Over the years, the employees became unionized and engaged in multiple crippling strikes whose successes resulted in large pay increases. At the same time, sugar consumption decreased as a result of sugar substitutes, both natural (high fructose corn syrup) and artificial. Finally, refined sugar could also be derived from sugar beets, which can be grown much cheaper in other locations. Pineapples, another quintessential Hawaiian crop, also became cheaper to grow in other places, rendering Hawaii dependent on tourism as an industry.

The Allerton and McBryde botanical gardens where the majority of the tour took place were a real treat. The only way to see these gardens is to be part of a tour, and there were only the two Disney tours taking place at that time. Continuing with the movie location theme, the gardens were extensively used in “Jurassic Park” and “PotC: On Stranger Tides.” In fact, the trees which contained dinosaur eggs in the movie still had the prop eggs in them:

Here are some of the beautiful vistas you will see if you go on this tour:



Lunch was more of a snack than a real meal. They had only shrimp on a bed of noodles, so I’m not sure what someone with a shellfish allergy or a vegetarian would have done. There were also cans of fruit juice and water.

The tour guide was constantly offering to take pictures when he wasn’t teaching us about the plants and the history of the gardens. The tour culminated at a waterfall, where the guide found an ingenious way to take a picture so that it looked like a still photo with the waterfall moving in the background. He accomplished this trick by filming in slow motion. Because it’s a video, I can’t post it in this report, but here is the waterfall:


We were back in the MDR tonight at Animator’s Palate, the World of Flavour menu. There was no show, but the pictures played a game of sorts where some unrecognizable drawings sans characters appeared initially, only later to be replaced with giveaway ones which clearly revealed their movie. Guessing the movie was a fun way to pass the time. I had chosen the Greek salad, pea soup, chicken Kiev, and apple strudel. The Greek salad was deconstructed, with each ingredient separated almost abstractly on the plate. I don’t generally enjoy deconstructed menu items, which I thought was a fad that had gone away. The soup was terrific, as MDR soups typically are. The chicken kiev was fairly standard and not memorable in any way. I enjoyed the butter pecan ice cream in the strudel, an ice cream flavor that I had not partaken in some time but was a favorite of my dad’s. In short, this was not a great meal.

The mediocre meal was followed by mediocre entertainment. Erin Mosher was billed as part of their Broadway series with her cabaret show, Songs for Everafter. From her credits, Erin Mosher has never performed on Broadway and probably will never appear on Broadway, and it’s not clear if she has worked since performing in the last year’s cast on the Disney Magic. Her voice was unexceptional, and it didn’t help that a piano would have been much more preferable to the backing tracks that she used in her act. It was like listening to a mildly talented person perform karaoke for three-quarters of an hour. My favorite part was watching Stephanie perform “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” in ASL. I can’t imagine a harder assignment for an interpreter than that, and as always, she was prepared for the challenge.

Next installment: Day 6, First Sea Day

 

[newfamilyman]

It was the first of five sea days, and we wondered if we were going to be able to avoid boredom for the remainder of the cruise. We never saw a movie at the Buena Vista theatre because almost all of the movies playing we had either seen (“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”) or had no interest in seeing (“The Marvels”, live action “Lady and the Tramp”). We almost watched “Next Goal Wins” and ended up watching it on Hulu when we got back home and actually enjoyed this movie quite a bit. Given the length of the cruise, I was hoping for more variation in the movies playing, but no such luck. They played only 11 movies on repeat mode for the length of the cruise, 10 if you don’t count “Wish,” since it played in the Walt Disney Theatre as well. For a 10-night cruise, an average of only one different movie per day seemed like a particularly penny-pinching move on Disney’s part.

Today was the day where he we ended up participating in the most activities. After our usual morning beginning of long jog around deck 4 (me)/treadmill at the gym (DW) and a light breakfast at Cabanas, we participated in the Art of the Theme tour for the first time. It started at 9:30 at Palo, and the activities CM who led the tour was affable, if not always accurate in the details provided. For example, he explained that the word “posh” originated from the fact that certain ocean liners had larger staterooms on one side of the ship than the other so that passengers would want portside cabins outbound and starboard ones home (POSH). Actually, it had to do with the views being better in those cabins, not their size. I’m not sure how much of the other information that he shared was incorrect, but it did make for an entertaining 45 minutes. As an added bonus, we got to use the automatic handwashing stations in the kids’ club, which I had never used before, since when we traveled with our kids, they never liked to go to the clubs.

At 10:30, it was time for Anyone Can Cook in the D lounge, which was another activity that I had never previously experienced. For the next five days, the guest chef was Rob from Animal Kingdom park, whose turf includes Dinoland and its surrounding area. Each day, he prepared a dish which was currently or previously served at various AK restaurants. The first day, he prepared a carrot and ginger soup which was previously offered at Tusker House. His use of coconut milk gave the soup a creamy consistency, and the recipe could easily have been made vegan by removing the butter. There was also a granola topping that seemed unnecessary and didn’t add anything to the soup other than a crunchy texture. Attendees received both a sample of the soup and a wine pairing. The latter was unfortunately accompanied by a sales pitch from the sommelier; thankfully, Rob was not given anything to sell. Everyone got recipes on the way out. This activity became more popular each day so that by the last day, not only was every chair taken but extra chairs had to be added for overflow guests. It turned out that Rob’s family sat very near to us in the dining rooms (he confirmed that they were table 38, and we were 40), and we had the same early dining rotation. He was very friendly, and this activity was definitely something fun to do on sea days. Just know that if you sit in the front row, you won’t be able to see the TVs, which provide an overhead view of his cooking, though he would walk along the front row periodically to show those guests what he was doing.

We then made a quick stop to the DVC kiosk where they again had hats for members. You can never have too many hats. I haven’t been a fan of the latest incarnation of the member get-togethers on the cruises. The $500 stateroom credit prize for attending has apparently gone the way of the extra FastPasses for meeting with the salespeople, sorry, guides. Other than maybe lip balm, their daily giveaways are usually not something that we ever want. In any case, the member events on this cruise were always at 12:30, which was never a time that worked for us, so we never attended any of them.

We proceeded to have lunch at Tiana’s. The food was disappointingly mediocre. I ordered the linguine and clams, which was the worst rendition of this dish that I’ve ever experienced. There were only a few clams, and the pasta sauce was cheesy. We left this meal unsatisfied, which unfortunately is a relatively frequent occurrence on Disney cruises.

From there, we went to the 1 PM Bruce Kimbrell lecture, The Magic of Main Street. When I first saw this listed on the app, I thought it was another magic show until I realized that he was giving lectures on a daily basis for the remainder of the cruise. Like Anyone Can Cook, this event became progressively more crowded each day until you needed to show up almost a half hour early to get a seat (hence the DVC meeting conflict). Bruce Kimbrell was a former Disneyland manager whose main claims to fame, as he tells it, were being the first person to hire women as Jungle Cruise skippers and for removing the "Barcarolle" number from Offenbach's opera Tales of Hoffmann from the Tiki Room.

With this first lecture, he educated us on the history of Main Street and the construction and opening of Disneyland, but like the Art of the Theme guide, he seemed to be embellishing his stories. One of his stories concerned Imagineer John Hench, perhaps best known for his candid assessment of the original incarnation of Disney’s California Adventure: “I liked it better as a parking lot.” According to Bruce, John procured the flag pole base after observing a car accident in which a car destroyed a light post, at which point John single-handedly hefted the base into his trunk and then drove it to the park, where it remains today as the base of the flag pole on Main Street. I just can’t imagine one person lifting such a heavy object, so this telling had more of a whiff of urban legend than being factually correct. Nevertheless, Bruce was a good storyteller, even if he did subscribe to the adage, “Many a good story is ruined by an over-adherence to the truth.” This particular lecture was engaging and had us along with the other attendees looking forward to his future presentations.

We next went to our couple’s villa massage appointment, an admittedly costly indulgence. Unfortunately, these villas on the Wonder are not as spacious as the ones on the Fantasy and Dream, which even include a bathroom. One of the perks of these villas is the private jacuzzi; however, for the cost, I would have wanted to use it after the massage, not just before it. This experience wasn’t as enjoyable as previous massages. I asked my masseuse to avoid my lower legs, as I am prone to charley horses. However, she completely blew past this request, which made the massage uncomfortable and stressful. We’ll be on the Fantasy again next year, so I’m looking forward to that experience.

After the massage, we had a little down time before dinner, which would be our final dinner at Palo. This was the first reservation I had booked, hoping to bypass the dreadful Pirate’s Night menu in the MDRs. It turned out that they never had the Pirate’s Menu in any of the MDRs that night, but I don’t regret choosing Palo again. Palo was considerably busier tonight than it had been during our other port days, so Sylvester had less time to chat. I decided to order my favorite menu items again, and this time Luca deboned my sole filet. He left in two bones, which I teased him should earn me a second brunch reservation. Luca explained that he was anticipating cancellations due to the expected high swells on the last two days of the cruise, so he said that he could squeeze me in, but it wouldn’t be at a table next to the window. I told him that would be fine.

The entertainment tonight was a juggler, Matt Baker, and we were pretty tired from the busy pace of the day, so we retired to our room after dinner.

 

[newfamilyman]

Today, we experienced the roughest swells of the entire cruise. It actually made it hard to sleep at night because of all the creaking noises. Even though the closet doors remained closed, it still sounded like doors were moving. It also made for an incredibly difficult running experience on deck 4. My first sign of trouble was that it was impossible to find doors which opened, since the wind was preventing them opening. It was so windy that the enclosed ends of the deck became wind tunnels so that it either I was getting a strong thrust forward or it felt like I was running into gale-force winds. There was also a considerable amount of water pelting me on the exposed parts of the deck as well as the unusual experience of being propelled upwards and then down with the waves. There was only I only saw one other person who found one of the doors that opened, but he quickly decided go back inside.

We still ate breakfast at Cabanas, though we ate quickly. We later overheard people saying that if they left their table to get a drink or return to the buffet, plates were flying off the tables. We made it to Anyone Can Cook, where Rob was making shrimp and grits from the Tiffins menu. He jokingly asked people not to laugh if he fell down due to the ship’s lurching. It was a delicious dish, even though it was tricky for Rob to demonstrate, and happily, he maintained his balance.

Following this demonstration was one of the highlights of the trip for me. Gold and higher Castaway Club members were invited to the Walt Disney Theatre for a behind-the-scenes look at “Frozen,” which was to be performed later that night. It began with a run-through of the “Love is an Open Door” number with a casually-dressed cast, complete with the choreographer calling out instructions from the stage’s edge, which segued into a repeat performance with a costumed cast. Trent them came on stage to explain that they were in the crossover time when the old cast was finishing their contracts and would be replaced by the new, incoming cast. We in the audience got to see both casts perform the same number. He then brought out the show’s director, who, among other topics, described the Toronto rehearsal space in which they can accommodate three separate productions at once. The incoming cast had just finished rehearsing there for two months and were now learning to perform the numbers on the main stage, which had trap doors and other moving pieces absent from the rehearsal space. The rest of the backstage crew were also brought out and introduced, and it was fun to learn about how many people are involved in the productions besides the performers. While I wish the director could have answered questions from the audience, this experience was both unexpected and for this theatre buff, a lot of fun.

I was looking forward to today’s meal back at Tianna’s, since they were offering a bratwurst with sauerkraut on a pretzel bun in their burger section today. It was as delicious as I hoped it would be and heartily recommend it.

Bruce’s presentation today was, “Who Lives on Main Street Part I,” with Part II being offered tomorrow. Unfortunately, today’s session was rather dull and almost had me nodding off. He didn’t have personal stories for most of them, so it reminded me of a particularly a tedious history class where you’d learn about one obscure historical figure and then hear a few highlights from his or her career before moving on to the next. We went back for Part II, but it didn’t get better. He had one interesting story of how he bought a “Pete’s Dragon” movie theatre display that he got the animator of Elliot to sign so that Bruce could sell it at a higher price, but that story might have only been interesting because “Pete’s Dragon” is one of my all-time favorite Disney movies.

We didn’t participate in any of the afternoon activities. Tonight’s dinner at Triton’s was another of those unmemorable, Hyatt-banquet-wedding experiences. Only the banana bread pudding dessert made much of an impression. It’s nice to have the consistency with the servers, but I wish it didn’t have to be accompanied by so many mediocre meals.

I had seen Letz, a Brazilian guitarist, perform briefly in the atrium the day before and wanted to watch one of her sets. Tonight, she performed at 7:30 in the French Quarter lounge. While beautifully and elaborate themed, it’s not the most comfortable place to sit and watch music. Still, I found Letz’s mellow sounds to be soothing and relaxing. She begins by sampling some chords on her guitar and/or her mouthing a percussion beat and uses the sampling while she is playing her guitar live while singing. I didn’t recognize many of her songs, which seemed to be from the 90’s and aughts, but I loved her covers of them.

We left her set near the end to see “Frozen.” I was particularly eager to watch Stephanie perform “Let it Go,” and she did not let me down. The ASL movement for storm is already poetic, but Stephanie infused it with all of the song’s passion to the point where she gave me goosebumps. This particular production is already plenty elaborate, with its use of puppets, snow, and special effects, but the ASL performers add a further layer. I was bored by the Broadway production, which was loaded down by new songs, none of which were near as good as the original ones from the movie, but this DCL version was certainly magical.

Next Installment: Day 8, Third Sea Day