The morning that we arrived back into Vancouver onboard the Disney Wonder on our cruise from Honolulu in Hawaii, we both woke up at 5:30am as we wanted to be out on deck as we sailed under the Lion’s Gate Bridge before docking at Canada Place. After quickly getting dressed, we headed up to Deck 9 where we got a much needed hot drink before grabbing a blanket as it was very grey, overcast and cold and walking up to the front of Deck 10. There was already a few people out on deck and we were quickly joined by many more.

As we sailed towards Stanley Park and the Lion’s Gate Bridge, many happy memories came flooding back from our first cruise in 2013 when we sailed back into Vancouver on the Disney Wonder after an incredible cruise to Alaska. If only I had known back then how many different cruises we would sail onboard all of the other Disney ships in the years ahead as I had felt so sad on that day nine years ago knowing that our cruise was over and not having another booked. However back in the present day, all I felt was happiness that we had finally been to Hawaii and sailed on the Disney Wonder once more after all of the cancellations and many years of patiently waiting.

We sailed under the Lion’s Gate Bridge at 6:20am and only seconds later, everyone else onboard that was also standing out on Deck 10 disappeared leaving only a handful of us there as the familiar skyline of Vancouver came into view.

We walked around the entirety of Deck 10 as the Disney Wonder turned in the harbour and we approached Canada Place. After we had docked, we went to a very quiet Cabanas instead of our scheduled dining room (which would have been Tiana’s Place) to get some breakfast. Cabanas is open on the final morning however the selection is limited but for us it was perfect as it meant we could quickly get our breakfast and take it back to our stateroom to eat whilst we got ready to disembark the ship.

After eating our breakfast and having a shower to warm up from being outside, we gathered all of our bags together and checked inside the wardrobe as well as all of the cupboards and drawers before taking one last photo of our towel zoo and the map on the television showing that we had sailed a total of 2977 nautical miles from Honolulu to Kahului, Hilo and Nawiliwili before sailing across the Pacific and docking in Vancouver.

After thanking the incredible Yuthapong for looking after us so well and for all of his many amazing towel creations throughout the entire cruise, the ship was cleared for Express Walk-Off at 8:15am. We were able to get into an elevator without a wait and walk straight through the French Quarter Lounge on Deck 3 without anyone blocking the way with their bags which is something that has always made disembarkation difficult on our two previous sailings on the Disney Wonder – it was so calm that you could easily tell that everyone onboard this cruise had sailed multiple times and knew how everything worked.

There was a few people standing around in the Lobby Atrium and a small line at Guest Services but there was no one waiting to disembark and without even trying we were two of the first people to tap our Key to the World cards for the final time at 8:18am as we left the Disney Wonder and walked along the gangway and into the Canada Place cruise terminal.

The terminal was a little busy as the Norwegian Jewel was also docked at Canada Place that morning but thankfully there was only a short line at immigration which moved very quickly. We had our ArriveCAN QR codes on our iPhones ready for inspection but only needed to show our passports and hand in our completed customs forms instead.

As we were going to walk the short distance to our hotel and not take a taxi, we followed the signs saying “Exit to City” and took the elevator up to Canada Place where we exited the terminal right in front of the Disney Wonder that we had disembarked from just over five minutes previously – it really was that quick and easy!

The walk to the amazing Loden Hotel on Melville Street where we were staying for the next two nights took ten minutes and as our room would not be ready until midday we were able to leave all of our bags there whilst we had a coffee and got some shopping that we needed to get whilst we were in Vancouver.

Our hotel room was beautiful and after properly sorting out all of our stuff (we were away from home for nearly three weeks and packed way too much for this trip as we needed clothes for all temperatures) we walked back to Canada Place to take some more photos of the Disney Wonder as the grey skies from the morning had disappeared and the sunshine had finally arrived.

As our hotel had bikes that we could use for free, we cycled around the city and it felt so good to be back in the awesome city of Vancouver once again. It had been five years since our last visit and I had really missed it especially as I used to be there so often – the Pacific Northwest really is one of my most favourite places in the world.

We finished our afternoon cycling through Stanley Park where we watched the Disney Wonder sail out of Vancouver and back under the Lion’s Gate Bridge just after 5:30pm on her first cruise to Alaska since 2019. I was so happy to see her sailaway into the distance as it meant that we could finally close this chapter in our lives that had been living rent free in our brains for such a long time (this trip was almost seven years in the making) and start to look forward to new adventures now that the world and travel is nearly back to normal.

The rest of our short stay in Vancouver consisted of sleeping, enjoying lots of delicious food and cocktails, visiting Capilano Suspension Bridge as well as having to take another Covid antigen test (we were both thankfully negative) to be able to fly to the USA to get our flight back home to London.

I have said several times throughout all of the blog posts from this trip that it really did feel like the universe was saying that our long awaited Hawaii trip was supposed to happen this way and at this time and we had one more brilliant surprise at Vancouver Airport when we looked out of the window to see the Westjet Disney Magic plane with Sorcerer Mickey painted on the side waiting to fly us to Los Angeles. It really was the best way to end our trip on a high with a last little bit of Disney Magic!

It’s now almost four months since our cruise on the Disney Wonder and Hawaii seems like a very long time ago and a very long way away from home. Looking back after everything that has happened in the last few years, I cannot put into words how much travelling to Hawaii and this cruise actually going ahead meant to both of us – everything went to plan and even better than what we hoped for and it really feels like it was a wonderful dream and I will treasure the memories from it forever.

However we now have many other trips (including some that were also cancelled due to the pandemic) to some new destinations to plan and look forward to as well as at least one more cruise in the very near future – if you want a clue just remember that a Dream is a Wish your heart makes and the Dream that you Wish will come true!

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