Vancouver to Alaska on the Disney Wonder, 8/26 - 9/2 2013 : Part 4

Guest Writer Wednesday

By: Gaylin

August 29, 2013
Day 4 of the cruise to Alaska

Accidentally setting the alarm wrong, sucks. We needed to get up at 10 to 7 to have breakfast before our excursion and when it went off at 10 to 5, no fun at all.

Went to Parrot Cay for breakfast this morning. I was happy to be able to order breakfast grits, the buffet has oatmeal and cream of wheat but no grits. The chef made me grain-free pancakes and they were beautiful to look at and horrible to eat. I made it through 2 bites and had to stop. Oh well, I did have enough other food to fill up on!

Today we are in Skagway and our excursion was called the Liarsville Goldrush Trail. We went to the Walt Disney Theatre and were put in the correct group so that we all left as a group, off the ship and right onto a bus. (or in fancy cruise lingo, a motor coach) The bus goes about 15 minutes into the bush to Liarsville.

Liarsville is set up to show what a gold rush camp would have looked like, with actors in character as well. They put on a stage show about what happened in gold rush days, part story telling, part hilarious puppet show! The actors were all very funny and entertaining and very well versed in their topic.

This feller was Okie Bob . . . because he is originally from Oklahoma. After he finished telling the story, we all got to pan for gold.

And while we were panning for gold, we had visitors! I convinced Okie Bob that I needed a picture of him with Dale, he was a very good sport about it.

After we panned for gold and got some tiny flakes of pure gold, we had another visitor. The duck himself!

This was another of our lovely gold rush characters. When the Disney tour is at Liarsville, she is a saloon girl . . . when other ships are doing the tours they are the town (ahem) whores. Really she was a very nice young woman, who is going to school to be an actress.

There is a lovely salmon bbq lunch that everyone chowed down on! After lunch it was time to go back to Skagway. We did wander about the town for awhile before going back on the ship.
I guess the fresh air was too much for me, I had another nap. My travel friend went for a walk on deck and she had a nap in a deck chair! It was sunny and warm, a lovely afternoon . . . after we both woke up.
Dinner was at Parrot Cay, this was a great meal for me. Caribbean chicken, sweet potato mash and veggies. Again, sadly dessert was not interesting at all. I have to say that the Fitzroy & Megan, our servers were awesome, along with the lovely women we had at our table, our dinners were so fun!

After dinner we were off to the movie theatre to watch the Lone Ranger. I am not sure why it didn't do well in the theatres, I thought it was great.

Back in the room there was this towel animal waiting for us . . . a lobster? We got ready for bed early and settled in to watch another movie, Pirates of the Caribbean. The selection of in room movies was pretty good, we did enjoy being able to snuggle in our wee beds and watch them.

Please check out Parts 1, 2 and 3 as well!

The Lone Ranger : Movie Review

This review of Disney's The Lone Ranger may seem as disjointed and contradictory as the The Lone Ranger sometimes feels.  I'm also going to be as spoiler free as possible, which may actually add to the convolution.

It's very entertaining, but overly long and predictable.
I knew the direction the movie was going in after 10 minutes, yet was still captivated.
I was engrossed by the train wrecks, and felt that the movie itself was a bit of a train wreck.

I love the way the movie is laid out, being told in a very inventive way, jumping back and forth through time,  leaving you anticipating what is to come. But, as I said, I was able to anticipate the outcome very early on.

The film is a lot of fun, but very dark, and at times, sinister.
In fact, besides it's predictability, how dark and violent it turns at times is the biggest problem I had with the movie. It's being marketed to families, with a rating of PG13, but I wouldn't bring a child younger than 15.

Probably the saving grace for me was the chemistry of Johnny Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as The Lone Ranger. They are the Odd Couple of the Wild West, and their scenes together made some of the more aggressive elements of the film more palatable. Yet, at the same time, I felt a lot of the lighthearted moments between the two actors were shoe-horned in to diffuse the more aggressive aspects of the film.

My wife's opinion of the film is a lot more succinct : "If I was at home, I'd have changed the channel at a few points, but overall, it was okay."
A friend who saw it with us: "That was awful, but I didn't mind spending the money to see it."

So, is it worth seeing? Yes. Like it or not, it's a spectacle, like a train wreck, hard to look away.

Disney Summer Movie Merchandise at the Disney Store

There are several movies we are really excited about coming from Disney in the next few months, and the Disney Store has some great merchandise to help build interest and our excitement!

Monsters University, the sequel to Monsters, Inc. is due out June 21st.

They have a virtual cornucopia of items including plush, clothing, backpacks, figurines,  and books!

The neatest thing however is the Monsters Assembly, where you get to build your own monster

You get to pick everything from body style to eyes, horns, arms and legs!

 The Lone Ranger comes out July 3rd, staring Armie Hammer, Helena Bonham Carter, and some guy named Johhny Depp.

There are a few items for this film including this Lone Ranger hat being worn by my lovely wife.

Last, we have the Cars spin off, Planes coming out on August 9th.
Lot's of action figures and play sets, as well as some nice clothing options.

 

Will you be seeing any or all of these this Summer?