Once upon a time I never even imagined that this day would arrive but here I was waking up at Aulani in Hawaii ready to board the beautiful Disney Wonder for our long awaited cruise around the Hawaiian Islands and across the Pacific Ocean to Vancouver. As usual the night before a cruise, I woke up in the middle of the night but at least this time I could blame the painful eleven hour time difference from home for waking up so early. The bed in our hotel room at Aulani was so comfortable yet I could not get back to sleep no matter how hard I tried so I laid in bed for the next few hours with my phone – I remember looking at the Disney Cruise Line app and the cruise countdown finally saying zero and it seemed such a strange and surreal albeit wonderful feeling after having originally booked this cruise back in 2018 before having it sadly cancelled in 2020. It was also so lovely to see so many photos online from friends who were also finally getting their long awaited trips overseas that same week and it was amazing to see after everything that has happened in the last two years.

We watched the sunrise from our balcony overlooking the Waikolohe Valley at Aulani (we could not have asked for a better view) and then sat with a cup of tea as we watched Mickey Mouse in his Hawaiian shirt meeting people at the character breakfast at Makahiki below us. At this time we also filled out the online health questionnaire for the cruise that we had been sent overnight which consisted of ten questions and took no time at all to complete.

Normally waking up and having to leave Aulani would be incredibly sad (it really was paradise and I already want to go back at some point in the future) however knowing that you are going to board your favourite Disney Cruise Line ship that day makes it a lot easier. After running across the road to Starbucks in Ko Olina for a quick and light breakfast, we showered and got ready for the day before doing one of the many antigen tests that we had brought with us on the trip. Thankfully we were both negative however we were both still feeling quite anxious knowing that we still had to test at the port before we would be allowed to board the ship.

The first part of our epic Hawaii trip had gone even better than that we could have ever hoped for. Aulani was such a magical way to begin our holiday and now it was time to start part two. I will write a separate blog about all about Aulani as it was everything we wanted it to be and more and a perfect place to stay before our cruise.

Our Port Arrival Time in Honolulu was 11:15am which while not the earliest time was perfect for us as it meant we could enjoy our last morning at Aulani before boarding the Disney Wonder ready for lunch. On our last few cruises we have always had the earliest arrival time but as we had ten nights onboard to enjoy the ship, there was no rush to be the first to board – we were just simply happy to be there! We decided to go for one last walk around Aulani and along the beach before we left to get some more photos. It was such a beautiful morning that day however the weather in Hawaii changes in minutes so we knew that it would not last for long before it started raining.

After leaving our room, we took the elevator down where we were met with a huge line of people that stretched all the way from the lobby back into the Waianae Tower so we knew that everyone that had disembarked from the Disney Wonder in Honolulu that morning had already arrived at Aulani. Thankfully as we had done express check out, we could avoid this line and walk straight out to the car park. We left Aulani at 10:20am and used the exit on level 1 of the car park as the other exit was closed due to the long line of cars, taxis and buses that were arriving – it stretched all the way out of the hotel and all along the road outside.

It was a quick thirty minute drive with hardly any traffic back to Daniel K Inouye International Airport where we dropped our car off back at Alamo. Renting a car in Hawaii is definitely the way to go as it is so convenient and it made our lives incredibly easy not only in Oahu but also on our port days on the other islands as well. We were in a taxi just after 11:00am and there were plenty of them available right outside the terminal building and they also had lots of luggage space in them as we had several large suitcases with us making the short journey to the port very easy.

The drive to the Pier 2 Cruise Terminal at the Port of Honolulu took fifteen minutes and I could see the red funnels of the Disney Wonder in the distance throughout the journey. The taxi from the airport to the port was $31.25 in total which was worth every penny – I really do not have any idea why people on our cruise were booking expensive and inconvenient transfers to do the same journey when the taxi (and Uber/Lyft) fares were so affordable as well as being quick and easy and having the ability to travel and arrive at exactly the time you want to.

Even as we arrived at the port and dropped our bags with the porters, it still had not sunk in that we were (hopefully) boarding the Disney Wonder that day. Before this cruise I had not been able to find out too much information about the cruise terminal in Honolulu (the outside of the building really reminded me of Galveston) however I was not expecting everything to go completely smoothly that day as we were sailing on the first Disney cruise to depart Hawaii since 2015 (as well as cruising during a global pandemic) but the reality was that even with the pre-cruise testing, it was actually one of the easiest and most efficient ports we have ever travelled through.

After entering the terminal, we joined a short line where all of our paperwork was checked – we had printed everything out that we could possibly need and placed it all into a display folder making this a very quick and easy process. We then went through the fastest port security I have ever seen before joining another line to have our embarkation tests done. Whilst we were waiting we were handed a form asking us to complete our details on the ArriveCAN app ready for our arrival into Vancouver – I had already set up my account and uploaded my vaccination proof in advance before we travelled so it took me less than two minutes to get the QR code that I needed to show before we could board the ship.

During this time we were also each handed a bag with our Covid test kits inside and as the line moved so quickly, it took less than five minutes to reach one of the testing tents. A member of the Inspire Diagnostics team checked our details (we had each created an account on the Safe Passage website fifteen days before our cruise where we had uploaded our proof of being fully vaccinated) and they then supervised both of us taking the test. As it was an antigen test, all we had to do was simply swab each nostril five times.

We took a seat in the waiting area and I tried to pass the time by taking photos of the different character banners in front of us. In my mind I hoped we would both be okay as we had both taken so many precautions in the weeks leading up to the cruise (we even wore masks on the flights to Los Angeles and Honolulu when we did not need to anymore as well as wearing them whilst indoors for the whole time we were in Hawaii that week as we did not want to be careless at the last minute) so at least we knew that we had done as much as we possibly could.

Everyone around us was very quiet and calm and you could already tell how many people had cruised many times before and knew what the process was. In the next room I could hear “So Close” from Enchanted playing which I thought was very apt given the situation. Then at 11:56am, thirteen minutes after we sat down, we each got the email we wanted – except I was so stressed at this point that I completely missed the big bold letters saying “Clear to Sail” on my email and started logging into my Safe Passage account to check my results. After such a long build up to this cruise, the relief was immense and yes I did cry tears of absolute joy. It was finally the end of two years of sadness and it was the most wonderful feeling ever.

Our test results were checked and as we walked into the check-in area, we were each given a kukui nut lei by the staff from the Port of Honolulu. There were no lines at any of the desks and it seemed very quiet as apart from a large group of embarking crew, there were very few people to be seen. We had already completed the check-in process online so our passports and ArriveCAN QR codes were checked and we were told that we could board straight away as open boarding had already started.

There is definitely something special about Disney music as “Almost There” from Princess and the Frog was playing as we headed up the escalator from the check-in area to the gangway which again was very apt and such perfect timing. It had only taken just over forty minutes (including the wait for our test results) from arriving at the terminal to reaching the gangway for the ship which was simply incredible.

Before we knew it at 12:10pm we were being announced back onboard the Disney Wonder and were each given a flower lei by the cruise staff to go with our kukui nut lei that we had been given at the port. It really was the best feeling ever to be back onboard the Wonder for a third time as she has a very special place in both our hearts – she was the very first ship we ever sailed on back in 2013 to Alaska which started our love of Disney cruises and we also sailed on her in 2017 around the Western Caribbean.

We also realised at this time that we could finally take our masks off that we had been wearing since we left Aulani that morning as they were no longer required anywhere onboard the ship. This took a few days to get used to as every time we went to leave our stateroom, we stopped to collect a mask out of habit before remembering that we did not need them anymore. Not wearing a mask whilst indoors on the ship felt so good and another sign of life returning to “normal”.

As is tradition for us on embarkation day, we headed straight up to Cabanas for lunch. As we had sailed on both the Disney Wonder and Disney Magic many times before, we knew our way around the ship so we did not even need to think about which direction or deck that we needed to go to which was a great feeling. We washed our hands before entering and one of the major changes onboard since our last cruise on the Disney Magic last summer is that you can serve yourself once again in Cabanas. I had my traditional boarding day lunch of a plate of Shrimp with a side of Mac and Cheese with a Raspberry Creme Pot (it had changed from strawberry) for dessert. It was very quiet in Cabanas and we had no trouble finding a table outside where we could enjoy our lunch overlooking Honolulu Harbor.

After we had finished our lunch, we walked around a very empty Deck 10. The ship was still so quiet at this time and we wondered whether the cruise was empty or if not everyone had boarded yet – the answer turned out to be a little bit of both. It still felt very surreal that we were onboard and I could not believe that this cruise was finally happening after so long. It was also lovely to see the Deck 9 stage was set up ready for Mickey’s Sail-A-Wave Party later that afternoon.

Our next job was to head down to Deck 4 and check in at our muster station. Even now that cruising is returning to normal, I am so happy that this new process which was introduced as cruises resumed has stayed the same as it is so easy and makes embarkation day a lot less stressful than it used to be – I don’t want to have to stand for ages in huge crowds of people ever again. All we had to do was visit Animator’s Palate (where our muster station was located) and take a photo of the “S” muster sign using the Disney Cruise Line app to prove that we had visited.

We walked past the lobby atrium and saw Mickey Mouse on the stairs who was waving to everyone that was boarding the Disney Wonder. I had been so happy and overjoyed when we boarded I had not even noticed that neither Minnie or Mickey were nowhere to be seen at that time. We also went to Mickey’s Mainsail and White Caps to look through the windows and unlike on the Disney Magic at Sea sailings, they were both well stocked and we could see Hawaii specific merchandise as well as some other items that I wanted to buy. The only downside was that the shops were not open until the evening of the third day of the cruise when we left Hilo so we would have to wait a little bit longer to get our shopping fix.

It was just after 2:00pm so we decided to see if our stateroom was ready which it was. We once again had 7624 which is our favourite room onboard which we had also booked on our cancelled Hawaii cruise in 2020. When we had rebooked this cruise on the day that bookings opened for Gold Castaway Club members, all we could get was a GTY reservation (where you choose your stateroom category but they assign your room number before sailing) however a few weeks before our cruise we had been able to switch to 7620 which was only two doors away (and also one of the “Secret Verandah” rooms on the Disney Magic and Disney Wonder) and we were so happy and grateful to be able to get that room as we love the location. We said we would only swap that room if 7624 became available but the chances of that happening were zero but only one week later, it actually happened. I’ve always believed that everything happens for a reason and that this was a sign that our dream cruise was meant to be.

Our luggage had not been delivered yet but it was nice to be able to drop off and unpack our carry on bags as well as put the two bottles of wine that we each brought onboard into the fridge. We also had two notes to say that our onboard credit (from both our original Placeholder booking that we got back in 2019 as well as the leftover funds from the Future Cruise Credit from one of our cancelled sailings) had been added to our account.

At 3:15pm we realised that we both desperately needed a cup of tea so walked up two decks to the drinks station on Deck 9 and met the legend that is John from the Philippines who not only remembered everyone’s name onboard the ship but also what they drank including how they took their tea and coffee – he was simply amazing! We then decided to sit down and grab a spot on Deck 10 ready for the Sail-A-Wave Party – it was so nice and relaxed to not have to frantically run from your muster station up all of the stairs to the outside decks to make sure you got a good view. The emergency drill started at 3:45pm and again it was nice to be able to listen to and watch from wherever we were on the ship.

Just after 4:00pm, a cheer went across the ship as Captain Fabian made his first announcement welcoming us all onboard the Disney Wonder. We had already sailed with him three times previously – on our first cruise to Alaska as well as both of our Disney Magic at Sea staycation cruises from Southampton and Tilbury – and it was great to hear a familiar voice once again. He said that we would not set sail until 10:15pm that night (due to having to load all of the fuel we needed for the 2900 mile journey to Vancouver whilst we were in Honolulu) but that it would not affect our arrival into our first port of Kahului in Maui the following morning at 7:15am.

It was then time to say “goodbye to stress and hello to vacation” as Mickey’s Sail-A-Wave Party started. It was our first time seeing this sailaway party on the Disney Wonder as we had only seen the Adventures Away deck party before and this cruise was perfectly timed as these very much missed deck parties only restarted two weeks before we sailed – it was yet another time that I was convinced that this cruise was meant to be.

Mickey’s Sail-A-Wave Party starts with the Party Patrol dancing to It’s a Good Time (Get Your Ears On) before being joined on stage by Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto.

Then it was time to “Sail-A-Wave” your hands in the air every time you heard the words “Disney Wonder”. I had heard this next piece of music so many times before as it is/was used in the We Love Mickey show at Hong Kong Disneyland. Despite both the wind and the misty rain in the air that continued throughout the entire Mickey’s Sail-A-Wave Party, I could not stop smiling the whole time.

Our Cruise Director Lee arrived on the Deck 9 stage to begin the countdown to the start of our long awaited Hawaiian cruise from Honolulu to Vancouver and before we knew it, we finally heard the “When You Wish Upon a Star” ship horn.

After having no sailaway parties on our previous two cruises, it felt great to have yet another bit of “normality” back again. The Cha Cha Slide then started playing which made me smile even more as I have always joked that I know I’m onboard a Disney ship whenever I hear it playing. After walking around Deck 10, most people had disappeared from the open decks so we sat on a near deserted Deck 9 with a cold drink and a panini from Daisy’s De-Lites as we were both hungry and we still had three hours to wait until dinner.

When we got back to our stateroom our bags were waiting outside the door for us along with four other bags that belonged to the people that originally had our stateroom booked and for some unknown reason had put their old luggage tags on their bags with a room number that they were no longer staying in. I’m not sure why they did this as you could get new tags from the porters at the port that morning when you dropped your luggage off or even collected them at Aulani as we did (our luggage tags did not arrive at home before we travelled to Hawaii) as they also had them available there the day before the cruise. They must have wondered where their bags were as they were still sat outside our room hours later.

After unpacking everything and storing our luggage under the bed and out of the way, we could finally relax and get ready to enjoy the next ten nights onboard – it was made even better that we were in “our” stateroom which I loved and it really felt like being home. We decided to walk around the ship and once again everywhere was deserted – even the bars and the dining rooms were empty but I think that a lot of the people onboard were at the Walt Disney Theatre for the PremEAR of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness that was released that day.

The lobby atrium had a long line of people at Guest Services as normal and there was also a short line to meet Chip and Dale who were out on Deck 3 in their sailor outfits. Despite the changes at the Disney parks and Aulani two weeks previously where you could now finally hug the characters once again, it was still distanced Meet and Greets onboard the ships where you had to be three feet away from the characters. I know this angered some people (I heard them complaining loudly) who expected everything to be normal onboard but it did not bother either of us in the slightest – we were just happy the cruise was actually happening and we made the most of getting character hugs during our stay at Aulani instead. We did not wait to see any characters that night but went out onto Deck 4 to watch a beautiful sunset over Honolulu instead.

As the sun went down, we walked around the ship and watched as the city of Honolulu as well as the Disney Wonder started lighting up all around us.

Our dinner on the first night of our Hawaiian cruise was in Tiana’s Place and as we had booked second seating, our dining time was at 8:15pm. We were not sure if they would be seating people with other parties yet on this cruise (I had read differing things online) so we had made sure to request a private table in advance just in case as sitting with strangers for dinner is our personal idea of absolute hell.

We need not have worried as the dining room was not even half full and we met our dining team for the first time who took such amazing care looking after us for the next ten nights – Caglar was our Server, Gusti was our Assistant Server and Faisal was our Head Server. They were all wonderful and we were so grateful to all three of them for making this cruise as incredible as it was. We were given paper menus each night and there was also a QR code on each table which you could scan to view the menu in the Disney Cruise Line app as well.

Our table was towards the back of the restaurant but with a clear view of the stage and just like on our last cruise on the Disney Wonder, I absolutely loved listening to the brilliant Crawfish Crooners during our dinner. However because of the current restrictions, Tiana stays on the stage and no longer walks between all of the tables talking to the guests during the meal.

For my first dinner onboard I ordered the Louisiana Hot Crab Dip and the Buttered Green and White Asparagus Spears to start followed by the Brown Rice Risotto for my main course and the Tiramisu to finish.

Once we had finished dinner, we made our way up to Deck 10 to watch our sailaway from Honolulu. The lines were released just after 10:00pm and we slowly turned around in the harbour before heading out to sea and towards the island of Maui. I had been looking forward to seeing Diamond Head at sunset as we sailed past but sadly as it was dark, there was not too much to see apart from the lights of Honolulu in the distance.

After we had sailed out of Honolulu we were both feeling extremely tired as it was 10:30pm and it had been a very long day as we had been awake since 4:00am. We grabbed a Lemon and Ginger tea from Deck 9 and walked back to our room where we found our first towel animal (wearing one of our leis) waiting for us as well as some new style Galaxy chocolates.

The bed on the Disney Wonder felt even more comfortable than on our last cruise on the Disney Magic and as Captain Fabian had promised earlier in the day, we were definitely being “gently rocked to sleep” as the sea was a little rough outside. We made sure the alarm was set and happily fell asleep ready for our next day and our first port of call at Kahului on the island of Maui.

Support Me and Buy Me a Coffee
Follow Me on Instagram
Pin this Blog Post on Pinterest
Follow Me on Bloglovin’