Setting Sail - Day 2

Our ship has come in ;)

Coming around the edge of Stanley Park! 

Turning around at the dock of Canada Place

All settled into its parking spot! 

I was restless last night.. I think it was excitement!
I was up early enough to see the Disney Wonder pull into port... and took a lot of pictures, I will spare you the bulk of them.
We all seemed to rise early today and with very little on our agenda it allowed us to be relaxed in our getting ready and packed. Hubby ran out and got some breakfast for the family and we dined on a yummy assortment of breakfastables when he returned.
We planned to see/ride the new Fly Over Canada experience at Canada Place this morning and we were in the second group.

Blue skies at Canada Place 

Ready for our ride! 

I highly recommend this experience. The pre-show was unique, but a bit outside my taste, and I had a very nervous young man so I was just wanting to get on with the ride.
If you have ridden Soarin' or Soarin' over California at a Disney park, this ride will feel very, very familiar. Its the same concept (even the same seats) but over Canada. And it's about 3 minutes longer than Soarin' - Canada vs California... seems like 3 minutes isn't enough to cover the difference. But it was great. Even the nervous young man said it was good by the end.
Going on this also allowed us to see the Wonder from the dockside and get that much more excited about boarding time.

Enjoying the displays out on the pier

Aww, Mom... put the camera away, already!

The proximity of all that we needed for this first night was amazing. Kudos to hubby for getting that planned - the hotel, parking, Fly Over Canada and the ship, all in the same place -- perfect.
We finished up in the room and it was time to check in for the cruise. Our room check out was at noon and our ship check in time was 11:30 to Noon... perfect!
Having only sailed on Disney out of Port Canaveral, this was a bit different. A lot more looking around to see where to go next, but it went smoothly. And not too long after our little lady had her picture taken with Minnie, we were boarding the Wonder!

With Minnie!

So Excited... well, most of us :) 

We had lunch in Beach Blanket Buffet and then popped down to Studio Sea to pick up tickets to meet Elsa and Anna (princesses from Frozen), in a few days. This is new and they are soooo popular, they are doing it as a ticketed event... tickets are free, so it's just crowd control. Fine by me.
We also took a few minutes to register the kiddos for the kid's clubs and to check those out.
So the Wonder is the second ship built by Disney (younger sister to the Magic if you ask our young man) and smaller than the Fantasy that we sailed on last summer.  Hubby and I have sailed on her once, before we had kids, for a 3 day cruise. But we have been on the Magic 3 times (one - 14 day cruise and two - 7 day cruises; nearly a month). So in some ways we feel right at home on the Wonder and in other ways nothing is where I expect it to be, if that makes sense :)  Give me a day or two and I will have it all down.
Staterooms are open by 1:30 and we were ready to get to ours. And the stateroom was exactly as exepected. Our luggage began arriving shortly after we did and I was able to unpack one bag at a time, then check the front door and grab the next one... good timing. Hubby ran out and grabbed some passes, along with confirming a shore excurion and getting our internet package all squared away. The kids enjoyed the room and balcony, and watched some Mickey cartoons.
The muster drill (lifevest drill) was at 4 and all went as planned, then we split up... Little lady and Dad hit the sail away party and the young man and I went to the front of the ship to watch our departure.
I have sailed out of Port Canaveral five times in my life; out of Seattle once and today out of Vancouver BC - I have to say sailing out of a port you know is more fun! I LOVED sailing past Stanley park and under the Lions Gate Bridge... It was soo much fun.  It also seems that the speed/wake limits aren't as strong up here in Canada... once we past the bridge we really took off!

Sights and sounds of our departure......

.... hmmm, y'all can't hear anything...  

... but it's a bit loud for some of us :) 

Stanley Park with Canada Place in the background

Lions Gate Bridge

The other side of Lions Gate Bridge!

Dinner was next up and we dined in Triton's tonight. Triton being the father of the little mermaid (in Disney lore). We have a table for four, and we met our serving team: Sam from the Philippines and Allwyn from India. They will get to know our crazy food preferences quickly, I can tell.

Ready to eat! 

Following dinner, our little lady hit the kids club for an hour and I hit the shops. Hubby and the young man explored a bit. The show tonight was the Welcome Aboard Variety show, the staged part, involving the talented cast is fairly standard from what we have seen in the past. The guest variety act was great, and we look forward to seeing him again in a few evenings.
The little lady had a solid argument for why she should go back to the kids club after the show - "Science". They were going to make a volcano and really, who can resist that? It was going to be a late night for some of us.. but tomorrow we can sleep in.
Tomorrow we have a sea day!

The first of 7 amazing towel animals from our stateroom host.