Day 1 - Embarkation

Once we had officially checked in and handed in our signature form, we were given our Key to the World (KtoW) cards and a boarding card with a number (12), and sent to the waiting area.

When we had booked our cruise, the early (6pm) seating for dinner was full, so we were put on the late (8pm) seating. Our travel agent told us to speak to Guest Services on embarkation and ask to be switched as we have young children. When I checked our KttW cards, however, it appeared that we had already been switched :) The card also had our dining rotation (PTTAPTA) on it, though I literally only realized this on the last day of our cruise!

Waiting Area

The waiting area was relatively quiet, and they were boarding group number 8. The kids were pretty excited to see the large posters of Captain Mickey, but we just sat and waited around, as we were pretty tired from the flight. There was a section for Castaway Club members, but this being our first cruise, not for us :(

There was quite a bit of activity at the booth to sign up for Youth Activities, but I had already signed in DD1 online, and booked nursery time for DD2, so there wasn't anything left for us to do.

We had also received the Personal Navigator for the day, and it confirmed what I had read in the cruise forums - that Anna and Elsa from Frozen would be onboard, and there would be pre-booked 'private' photo ops! (The Personal Navigator is basically a schedule of all the activities and entertainment for the day: what's happening onboard, character appearances, weather forecast, dinner dress code, menu theme, restaurant opening times, etc.). There is an app for smartphones with similar info.

It wasn't a long wait - when our group boarding number came up, we rushed through to get onboard. Our first glimpse of the ship was really up close, and we watched people loading supplies. It looked like a ton of food!

As we walked up to the gangway, we were greeted by DCL staff requesting that we sanitize our hands, then head over to take a family photo. One of the very first Disney crew members we met was a ship's photographer, Andre, to take a group family photo prior to embarking. All the crew wear name badges, and underneath is listed their country of citizenship. Andre is South African - Disney South African crew count = 1 :) We had our pictures taken, and headed on up the gangway!

As we approached the ship, we were asked our family name for our announcement and then... we were onboard! It was pretty surreal boarding the ship - it just felt like walking in to a luxury hotel.

We saw some signs directing us, and as planned, I headed straight to Guest Services to secure the tickets for the Anna and Elsa meet-and-greet. This was a very simple process. I was told that the system basically checked our cruise schedule, including excursions, and assigned tickets for the best slot. (Another good reason to book port excursions through Disney, I guess). Our tickets were issued for the very next morning at 10 am! I also confirmed that we had been switched to the early seating for dinner.

Lunch at Parrot Cay

We unintentionally wandered into Parrot Cay for lunch. We were hungry and went in search of food, and Parrot Cay is on the same deck as the gangway. We left our luggage (along with all the others) just inside the restaurant and we were given sanitizing wipes and led to a table. DH went straight to the buffet to get food for the kids, whilst I got them settled at the table. It's a very informal restaurant with really bright decor.

The food selection was great, we all found something we really enjoyed. The crew members we interacted with were really friendly, chatting to the kids, and they brought drinks for us (chocolate milk for DD2!). DD1 and I really enjoyed the mini desserts!

Our Stateroom and Exploring

Now that we had eaten, we then went to our room to settle in and explore a little. We got a bit lost, as we took the nearest elevators down to deck 1, but the deck 1 staterooms are only accessible from midship, so we ended up in the crew only section. We really had to get some deck plans and familiarize ourselves with the ship!

In our room, we had some 'mail': a welcome note, tickets for our dinner rotation and a pack 'n play crib (which we had requested when booking our cruise)

Miscellaneous other information we received in our room:

• "Connect@Sea" Internet access pricing, log in instructions and FAQ (I'll write more about Internet connectivity in a later post)
• Duty-free liquor pricing

So here are pictures of our stateroom - they were actually taken on the last day of our cruise. We were in the Deluxe Oceanview Stateroom, mid-ship on deck 1.

View from the door - there is a bunk bed that comes down from the ceiling. The bottom of the bunk folds up to a couch. There's a privacy curtain between the two sleeping areas.

 

View from the other side of the room to the door, bathroom(s) on the right opposite the closet and just inside the door.


Split bathroom - each side had a sink. The tub was tiny but perfect size for the kids.


Next - the Sail Away party and our first dinner onboard

Day 1 - Getting to Vancouver

Typically for me, I was up until 2 am finalizing packing, tidying up the house (so we could come home to a clean house) and doing online check-in. The taxi van I had arranged arrived early, so we were up by 5:30 am. We skipped breakfast and after installing the car and booster seats, loaded the sleepy kids and we were off! DD1 was admiring the colours in the sky just as we arrived at the airport - I hadn't realized that she'd not seen a sunrise before.

Westjet's online check-in is not useful at all - each passenger requires a unique email address, so whilst I was able to check-in everyone, I could only email boarding passes for myself and DH, but not the kids.

At the check-in booths, a Westjet employee assisted us in printing boarding passes for the girls and attaching our luggage tags. (She even mentioned that it's better to just print everyone's boarding passes at the booth, and not to bother doing it at home/ via email). We sent off our luggage and then went through security.

By the time we got to the gate, we still had over an hour to kill. I went off to get breakfast whilst DH entertained the kids on the travelator. Gosh, I had forgotten how ridiculously overpriced airport stores are. I think I paid $40 for a muffin, Starbucks brewed coffee, a sandwich, an apple, a banana, two bottles of Minute Maid juices and a carton of milk! Belatedly I found out there was a Tim Horton's farther back from our gate.

Traveling with kids and car seats means you get to board first/ early, yay. The plane was a small one, with three seats on either side of a narrow aisle. The car seat did not fit through the aisle, so I had to carry it over my head to our seats, which were just behind the wing. DH took the kids ahead and loaded our carry-on bags in the overhead compartments whilst I installed the carseat at the window seat and the CARES harness on the aisle seat.

Note for parents travelling with carseats on planes: the installation is really easy - simply use the plane seatbelt as you would the car seatbelt, but tuck away and secure the top tether since you don't use that. Also note that you will not be able to use the tray table, since it cannot come all the way down.

We had a little issue when seating the kids - DD2 did not want to get in, crying, "I want to go on the airplane!" She thought that she was in a car because of the car seat. Once we pointed out the wing outside the window, she was fine. With the kids settled and DH between them, I sat in the seat across the aisle. There was no napping, at least not by the kids... I managed to get about an hour of sleep, the kids played in the iPads and used the onboard entertainment.

We had brought our kid-safe headphones, but the volume limiting also made it too soft to hear above the plane noise. Luckily the kids didn't seem to mind and were content to just watch.

Disney Transfer

Our transfer to the port was seamless. DD1 and I met the Disney staff holding signs with our names on them at the bottom of the escalators to the baggage area (DH had taken DD2 in the car-seat-stroller via the elevator) and we arranged to meet up after we had retrieved our luggage.

Side rant: Vancouver Airport is NOT baby-friendly at all! DH could not find a washroom with a change table, and DD2 had fallen asleep whilst wheeling her around looking for one. Lo and behold, there was no change table in the ladies' washroom either. I ended up having to change DD2 in her car seat while it was propped up against the wall of the bathroom stall. Amazingly DD2 slept through all of this!

The crew helped us attach our Disney luggage tags and took our luggage cart while we walked to the bus. We were the last passengers for the Disney bus and got to sit right at the back. We met another family (with a five year old daughter and three year old son) that had just flown in from San Francisco and chatted to them for a bit (more about this family later!)

The drive to the port, Canada Place, was about 40 minutes, though the running commentary from the driver kept us entertained along the way.

Canada Place

A down side to the bus was that we did not spot our ship once we arrived - the entrance to the parking was on the other side of the dock, so we could only see the (I think, Norwegian cruise line) ship that was docked there.

The major up side was that we did not have to worry about our luggage at all. Once handing it over to the crew at the airport, we didn't see it again until they arrived at our stateroom. We simply got off the bus with our carry-on luggage and followed the signs for passengers to clear security and US Customs. The line was pretty long but was moving - the Disney cruisers were easy to spot, all holding their blue cruise info books with Mickey on the cover. The excitement in the air was palpable - everyone eager to start their vacation!

Next - Embarkation of the Disney Wonder.

Cruise Vacation Planning - Port Excursions

If you want details of our actual trip, feel free to skip this post - this is more informational for other parents needing tips on cruising with their young children.

Excursions

I did a lot of reading on the Disney website about the various port excursions. Whilst I had read that there were cheaper options through private companies, we decided the convenience of booking through Disney was worth it for us, especially as this was our first-ever cruise, and we had no idea what to expect.

The main criteria for selecting excursions was for our 2 year old to be able to go - though we had the option, we did not want to leave her onboard whilst we went off - this was our family vacation after all. Luckily there were quite a few options, and bonus that a lot of them were free for under age 3!

We decided that since we were going all the way to Alaska, we'd have to do a trip to a glacier - the rest we'd just go with whatever worked out in terms of schedule and availability. More about the excursions we chose in the trip reports :)

Disney Website

The website is very useful and has a ton of information regarding excursions. The booking section is pretty slow though. It was pretty frustrating was having to go back and forth between cruise days to select an excursion, then check available times because each time there was a wait to load the screen. It was otherwise pretty easy to book - I wish they would have listed upfront the time slots available, that would have saved a lot of back-and-forth, or even better, shown excursions in a daily agenda or calendar format.

The most frustrating part was, being first-time Disney cruisers, we had 'last' access to book excursions, and the Disney themed ones (where Disney characters attend your excursion) were all already booked out :(

Some notes of what I learned when booking excursions:

• You cannot book excursions back-to-back - it seems the system requires at least an hour between end time of one excursion and start time of the next. (In retrospect, this is to allow you time to get back on the ship, as the meeting point is always onboard in one of the lounges).
• If the description says, "All Ages" but the booking system doesn't allow you to select your child, this simply means s/he does not require a ticket (i.e they are free)
• If the excursion involves sea or air travel, every passenger requires a ticket and has to pay (for safety reasons, and to allocate safety jackets etc)

Overall, I was impressed with the functionality of the Disney website - I was able to do a lot of additional things (besides book excursions) to save time later: enter passport/ I information, online check-in, sign up for Youth Activities, select boarding time, print signature sheet (authorizing our onboard account).

About six weeks before our cruise, we received a cruise information booklet in the mail (postal mail!!) with pre-printed luggage tags and information for our trip (though nothing new as it was all online).

Our vacation was feeling more and more real!!

Next up - our vacation begins: Getting to Vancouver.