Disney Wonder 9-Night Alaskan Cruise: Day 1/Part 2 of 3

Beth, Richard and I next took a tour of the Oceaneer Club and Oceaneer Lab before returning to the Edge for Beth's access sticker. (The photos are on my business Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/Kimberly.Oehrlein.Vacation.Planner.)  Richard started another round of chess when we got to the Edge and had no desire to leave to go visit the teen space in the Vibe, so Beth and I went by ourselves. 

The Vibe is located in the forward funnel, in what once served as a sports bar. It's a fun, funky, coffee-shop-like space. Here are a few photos:

The elevator will go down from the Vibe, but no one can take it up to deck 11 as a precaution to keep the space exclusive to teens. The elevators go up to deck 10 and then teens enter the club via staircase. 

Beth found some how-to-draw books in the Edge, so she stayed to enjoy those while Richard kept up the chess game. 

One of my DCL must-dos every embarkation day is to visit the Vista Spa drawing. Chuck and I both won prizes one voyage, when computer delays kept everyone from boarding on time and we were the only people to show up. No such luck this time, but I did talk myself into the Tropical Rainforest Pass. It's pretty pricy ($190 plus automatic gratuity), but I'll be able to use it all nine days. I figure the heated stone chairs, sauna and steam rooms would be a nice way to warm up after our days in port. Since we had booked this cruise using the onboard booking offer, we had $200 in onboard credits, so I'm trying to tell myself that this was "free."

After the spa, we met back up with the kids in our stateroom and proceded to the mandatory muster drill. I'm so glad we are no longer required to wear life jackets to these. Our muster station was on deck, which is SO much better than when it's in a restaurant or theater. 

Muster drill complete, it was time for Adventures Away, the sail away party. Richard can be hit-or-miss on these, but luckily we found his favorite member of the Cruise Staff team (JD, which honestly stands for his legal name of "Jelly Donut") and said hello. That got him all pumped up and ready to hit the dance floor. Beth, Chuck and his parents went up to deck 10 to watch the festivities while Richard and I danced on the pool deck. So much fun!

Here are a few shots of the characters and Cruise Director Jimmy at the party:

After the party, we went back to the stateroom to get ready for the performance of  "All Aboard! Let the Magic Begin." I started unpacking and suddenly realized we were almost late for the show. We rushed to get down to the theater and happily found Chuck's mom right as we were about to enter. We had previously agreed to sit on the right side of the theater and were pleasantly surprised to find two American Sign Language interpreters at the front of the stage right in front of us! Beth and I just started ASL classes a few weeks ago and had spent our last Walt Disney World (WDW) vacation trying to catch every interpreted performance. We recognized Amy, who had interpreted during our Magic Kingdom day, and were excited to see her again. She and her cohort, Ty, did a fantastic job. The WDW interpreters had told us that they and their Disneyland counterparts also interpret for select DCL voyages, but only when a Deaf or Hard of Hearing Guest requests their presence. I'd been hopeful this cruise would have a Deaf family or two and just couldn't believe our luck. 

After the show, we were all treated to a taste of magician David Williamson's performance. He did a great job of keeping the kids and parents entertained and I *almost* regret that our Palo dining time is during his performance. 

In Part 3, I'll cover the rest of our evening. Stay tuned!