I woke up on the morning of the ninth day of our Disney Wonder Hawaii cruise from Honolulu to Vancouver at 7:30am extremely grateful that there had not been another time change overnight as losing a much needed hour of sleep is exhausting. I know I said it on a previous blog but our Westbound Transatlantic cruise where we gained an hour each day we were at sea (instead of losing an hour each time like on this cruise) was much easier in comparison.

After having a cup of tea whilst sat in bed, we got dressed and ready for the day ahead before walking down to the Lobby Atrium where there was one last character group photo scheduled for 9:00am. The line was very short again (helped by the fact that it was only marked as a “Character Photo” on the Disney Cruise Line Navigator app) and I was very grateful to be on a cruise where it seemed that the majority of my fellow passengers could not give a damn about meeting a single character whilst onboard as it was only ever the same handful of people in line each time.

After meeting and taking many photos of Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale, Goofy, Pluto, Donald and Daisy in their cruise outfits, we headed up to Cabanas for a much needed breakfast. We still had not had a sit down breakfast yet in the dining room so far on this cruise (the hashbrowns in Cabanas are just too addictive) so that was our plan and mission for the following day.

After breakfast we decided to walk around the ship as we usually did every day and as the weather was now very cold and windy with occasional rain, the Quiet Cove (which had been packed earlier in the cruise) was now completely empty – even all the comfortable chairs were empty each time we walked past even though they are under cover and sheltered from the weather. All morning I kept on thinking that it was our last day onboard before realising that we still had one more full day to go.

As well as both Decks 9 and 10 being empty, there was also hardly anybody in sight on Deck 4 when we headed down there to walk several laps of the ship and the blue skies from Hawaii and our first few days at sea seemed a distant memory. Four laps of Deck 4 on the Disney Wonder and the Disney Magic is a mile and it is great to be able to get some exercise as it means you can enjoy all the food that you want to onboard without worrying about not being able to fit into your clothes when you get home.

As we still had a little time to kill before lunch and the Castaway Club Reception that afternoon, we decided to make our way back to our stateroom and have a little sort out of all of our stuff which would make packing everything much easier and quicker the following day. Just by folding and putting away any clothes and items that we knew we would no longer need for the last two days of the cruise seemed like a good idea. At this time I also remembered that I still had some US Dollars with me that I had not spent in Hawaii so I walked down to Guest Services to pay off some of our room bill and thankfully there was no line – it’s always best to sort out any stateroom charges before the last day onboard as it can get very busy.

At Midday we went up to Deck 10 and sheltered from the pouring rain to listen to the When You Wish Upon a Star horn – I have heard it more times than I can remember over the years but it still makes me smile every time I hear it. Captain Fabian made his daily announcement shortly afterwards to say that we were sailing at 19.6 knots and had so far travelled 1750 nautical miles since leaving Nawiliwili on the island of Kauai and had 693 nautical miles left until we arrived in Vancouver on the Monday. The weather was currently 13°C/55°F and it was expected to stay the same for our the following day onboard as well.

We had also decided that today was the day that we finally had a proper sit down lunch in Triton’s as we had either been to Cabanas or to one of the quick service locations on deck every day of the cruise so far. I really wanted to order the Impossible Burger but I remembered getting it on the first of our Disney Magic at Sea staycation cruises and how big it was and filling it had been. The simply solution was to order it without the bread bun and it was the perfect size and exactly what I wanted for lunch – I will order the burger the same way on any future cruises we do as it was great not feeling overly stuffed after lunch.

After we had finished our lunch we quickly walked up to the Walt Disney Theatre for the Gold and Platinum Castaway Club Reception which was due to start at 1:00pm. This was the first time we had been invited (even though this was our third cruise as Gold Castaway Club members) as it is only offered on cruises that are eight nights or longer. The theatre was nearly full as the vast majority of passengers onboard this cruise were either Gold or Platinum. Anyone who was either Silver or a first time cruiser must have wondered why everywhere on the ship was so empty for an hour and where everyone had disappeared to.

We were offered a glass of Champagne or a Mimosa as we arrived and we managed to get two seats together towards the back of the theatre. Our Cruise Director Lee introduced Captain Fabian who talked about how wonderful that this special cruise was finally happening after everything that had happened in the last two years – I will admit I did feel a little bit emotional when he was talking about it.

The cast of the Disney Wonder then performed the Lion King Circle of Life song from the Disney Dreams: An Enchanted Classic show before resetting the stage and running the same scene again but this time showing it to us from a behind the scenes point of view and showing everything going on backstage which we would never usually see which was fascinating to watch. Once the reception was over, we were all handed Mickey Rice Krispie treats as we left the theatre and you could also chat to the officers at this time.

As Cabanas was still open at this time, we decided to go and get some dessert as we did not have the time to have any in Triton’s before the reception started. We found out it was sushi day so naturally I had to have a second lunch before getting a little dessert afterwards.

We wanted to have a chilled afternoon and really wanted to sit in one of the hot tubs but we still could not get one at the Quiet Cove so we sat in one at the Goofy family pool instead which was completely empty whilst Pocahontas was playing on the Funnelvision. It was cold, windy and rainy out (which did not bother us one bit) but sitting in the hot water felt like heaven. We also got an ice cream from Eye Scream as they finally had Mango flavour which we both love and had not seen so far on this cruise.

Back in our stateroom, we had even more cupcakes waiting for us (these ones were so good) and we both had a shower to warm up after being outside before sitting and watching the television for a while.

One of the amazing Cast Members that we had been talking to throughout the cruise had told us that the characters would be wearing their Alaskan outfits again on this day so at 4:00pm we walked down to the Lobby Atrium to meet as many of them as we could and thankfully yet again the lines were very short as it was the exact same people waiting each time for each character. I never ever thought I would see the characters in their Alaskan outfits ever again (and some of them even had new outfits) unless I booked another cruise to Alaska and it brought back so many happy memories from our first cruise on the Disney Wonder in 2013.

We met Mickey, Goofy (in his new Lumberjack costume), Chip and Dale (another new costume), Daisy (we never met her on our last Alaskan cruise but I absolutely loved her Ugg Boots), Pluto (with a new collar), Donald (with a new jacket and woolly hat) before leaving the best for last with Minnie in her incredible winter coat. It was so wondeful to see so many characters in such a short space of time again especially given how cold and rainy it was outside – I would have thought it would be busier as everyone was indoors but it really wasn’t.

Even though we had not done much so far on this day, we were both feeling tired again (and my eyes were feeling very heavy) so we walked back to our stateroom where we both had a quick power nap for twenty minutes which was very much needed ready for the night ahead.

The Freezing the Night Away deck party was due to take place on the Deck 9 stage at 7:30pm and as it was still windy, rainy and actually freezing cold outside we honestly expected it to be cancelled. We asked one of the Cast Members who said that it was still going ahead so we grabbed some towels and blankets to wrap ourselves up in to try and stay dry and warm and everyone else who came to watch arrived on deck all wrapped up as well.

Freezing the Night Away started and the only difference that I noticed was that Olaf stayed underneath one of the Gazebos to stay dry instead of dancing on the stage. Due to the weather it was the quietest deck party I have ever been to in eight cruises and I could not stop laughing throughout as both the wind and rain got progressively worse. Once the party had finished everyone ran back inside very quickly to escape the flooded decks and we headed back to our stateroom to dry off and get changed ready for dinner.

Our dinner on this night was back in Animator’s Palate and as it was the Animation Magic show, we were there when the restaurant opened at 8:15pm which meant we had more time to draw our characters ready for them to be animated and brought to life later on during the meal. I had no idea what I was going to draw but then decided to attempt to draw Olu the Turtle (the Duffy and Friends character from Aulani) quite unsuccessfully!

I loved the menu in Animator’s Palate on this night of the cruise and ordered two of my favourite dishes (as well as one new one) to start which were the Porcini Sacchetti, the Sesame Crusted Tuna Sashimi and the Lobster Bisque. Before we started eating, Sorcerer Mickey appeared on the screens around the restaurant to thank us for all of our drawings and to say he was working on some animation magic.

For my main course I ordered the Wild Mushroom and Sweet Onion Strudel which I had only ever ordered once before on our first ever cruise and it was delicious followed by the incredible Celebration Cake.

Just before we ate our dessert we quickly moved to one of the many empty tables close to the screens around the edge of the restaurant so we could watch the show from there as it was difficult to see the screens where our drawings would be from the table where we were sat – we had already asked our serving team if we could do this and it was not a problem. It did not make sense on this cruise in Animator’s Palate that people had been sat far away from the screens when there were a lot of empty tables that were in much better locations.

The show was still just as fun as ever and it still makes me smile so much even though I have now done the Animation Magic dinner five times. After the animation had finished we went back to our original table to finish eating our dessert and on this cruise we also got our drawings back with an “Official Disney Animator” seal on it just like old times – on the Disney Magic at Sea UK staycation sailings last year you did not get them back so this was a lovely surprise.

After we left Animator’s Palate, both Minnie and Mickey as well as Daisy were back out in the Lobby Atrium so we waited to meet them once again. There was also a long line at Guest Services which made me happy that I had visited much earlier in the day when it was much quieter.

The giveaway sign that our Hawaii cruise was nearly over was the Tip Envelopes that were waiting for us back in our stateroom along with a letter detailing the arrival procedures for Vancouver. We had already completed our ArriveCAN information before boarding the ship in Honolulu the previous week but a nice-to-know is that the ArriveCAN website can be accessed free of charge onboard using the ships wifi if needed.

We also had two towel swans on our bed wearing one of our leis which was still looking good despite sitting in our stateroom (usually on one of our many towel animals) for over a week at this point. And with that it was time to go to sleep, have one final time change and get ready to enjoy our last full day onboard the Disney Wonder.

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