Having a Whale of a Time Day 1 - Disney Wonder Alaska 2013

[Alison]

See introduction here.

Sunday 18th August - Cosplay Over Canada

Today is mainly written by Nigel - I have added the parts in italics!


6.00 am Alarm goes off…
Breathe in and breathe out slowly, close your eyes and pinch yourself - yes, the day has finally arrived. We are going on a cruise, a Disney cruise, a Disney cruise to Alaska. No more ordering hats and gloves from eBay for our summer holiday. No more strange looks from the cashier in Tesco who ask you where you are going for your holiday when you buy your new luggage.

Everybody up, washed and out of the house by 6.50. We had dropped off the dog the night before and only had to pack the last few items before driving to Heathrow. We had an appointment with Air Canada flight AC855 to Vancouver. This was a strange feeling as the flight was due to land in Canada at around the same time as we had taken off from Heathrow – very confusing and had to be checked several times to make sure we would actually make our cruise!


An uneventful drive around the M25 although it was a challenge to find a space in the car park. We parked in the BAA long-term car park - it was really heaving. The shuttle buses were supposed to have people on to help with your luggage but they were not much in evidence! In the airport terminal I found that as usual the automated electronic self-check in machines refused to acknowledge that we existed so we had to go to the human check in. We were about the third in line but by the time we had finished the queue had built up quite a bit.

Getting through customs took a small amount of time. While waiting for our flight to be called we had some coffees, a bacon muffin and Stephen had a toasted ham and cheese sandwich - which he didn't enjoy - something to do with the sauce. Alison perused the duty free and bought some perfume. Time seemed to go quite quickly and we were soon walking to gate 34. Quite a few passengers were being bumped off.

On the plane we found our seats (row 38, three together in the middle of the plane). Standard economy leg room – Nigel is 6’4” so this can often be a bit of an issue but he managed to fold himself in. Lunch was a choice of chicken and mash or vegetarian pasta. Stephen chose the pasta. Alison declined having any alcohol saying she didn't feel like drinking at 11 am.

My entertainment system was broken (for the second flight in a row) but luckily I had the iPad and it wasn't long before we were all plugged in to our own devices and read/watched films/played games etc. At about 3 pm we were served ice cream and pretzels. I had a gin and tonic and Alison had wine. Just before we landed we were served Cajun chicken wrap.

When we landed in Vancouver we walked a fair way to security. The airport looked very beautiful compared with Heathrow. Finally arriving at security we found that the line wasn't too long although it looked like they could hold thousands of people. Finding the skytrain was a doddle and the journey was quick to the Waterfront Station, giving us our first view of Vancouver. We made a slight mistake in using the exit that gave us a longer walk to Canada Place, although it was still only a few hundred metres walk anyway.

To our and especially Stephen’s surprise, an anime convention was taking place at the conference centre and the outside was teeming with cosplay characters.

Kid Icarus by makingplansfor, on Flickr

Sora by makingplansfor, on Flickr

After taking a few photos we checked in to our hotel, the Pan Pacific. Our room was ready so we admired the room, view and pillow menu! Can you tell we don’t stay in hotels very often?!


Pan Pacific by makingplansfor, on Flickr

Room with a view by makingplansfor, on Flickr

Towering by makingplansfor, on Flickr

Having dropped off our bags, we went and had a bite to eat at Subway. Stephen had eaten pretty much nothing all day so we were glad to get some food down him!

Vinylmation in Vancouver by makingplansfor, on Flickr

We then walked along the sea front enjoying a variety of sights.

Vancouver by makingplansfor, on Flickr

A HAL ship was in,

Zaandam by makingplansfor, on Flickr

a wedding couple,

Wedding by makingplansfor, on Flickr

a digital orca,

Digital orca by makingplansfor, on Flickr

some float planes

All in a row by makingplansfor, on Flickr

City by the sea by makingplansfor, on Flickr

and the Olympic cauldron.

Olympic torch by makingplansfor, on Flickr

Plenty of other sights, too.

Mountains by makingplansfor, on Flickr

Cards at the port by makingplansfor, on Flickr

Coming in to land by makingplansfor, on Flickr

We then walked back to Canada Place

Canada Place by makingplansfor, on Flickr

Contrasts by makingplansfor, on Flickr

where we watched a few more cosplay characters and explored the area.

The Avengers by makingplansfor, on Flickr

Anime convention by makingplansfor, on Flickr

Reach for the sky by makingplansfor, on Flickr

Kingdom Hearts by makingplansfor, on Flickr

Stephen and I decided it was time for ice cream. A special bargain of $4 for two scoop waffle cones. They were huge and looked gorgeous – I wish I had fancied one!


We decided to help us stay up and beat the jet lag, we would visit Fly Over Canada.

Fly over Canada by makingplansfor, on Flickr

We were warned that the current wait time was an hour and in fact we queued for one hour and twenty minutes. But it was worth it, the technology has improved on Soarin'. There was plenty of people watching to be done with the convention on so the time actually seemed to go quite quickly – we don’t normally ‘do’ queuing!


Bear by makingplansfor, on Flickr

Vancouver by makingplansfor, on Flickr

We finished the day by visiting McDonalds for nuggets and chips. We had planned to go out for a lovely meal but we were way too tired. We popped over the road to the food court – it was very strange to eat surrounded by anime characters!

Vancouver cityscape by makingplansfor, on Flickr

We finally retired to our room to try out the shower and complimentary robes at 7 pm (3 am in the morning UK time).

[caj]

Great start ... I'm looking forward to more!

[beck_loz]

Wow great pictures x

[KarenG]

Wonderful!

[Shopperholic]

Looking amazing already.

[Chilly80]

I wish fly over Canada had been open when we went, oh well another reason to return

[pluto66]

Amazing photos

[BevS97]

This is high on my wish list so i will enjoy reading this.

[orlandosgr8]

Fantastic photos, Vancouver looks like a lovely city