FionaMG

Finally made it home. We left ship around 730ish with wonderful Norman and Kenny concierge escort. On road before 8am and arrived home after 500 plus miles of driving around 430pm. I’m smoked and have added joy of work tomorrow. Did I mention I wish I was retired? 
awesome week with getting to meet @OCSC Mike and his lovely bride and seeing matt briefly twice. Wonder is just an awesome ship. Crew killed it as always. Royal for the win!
Next cruise is icon in August. y’all thanks for following our posts. 

I can't believe it's over already. Where did the week go?
Safe travels home @OCSC Mike and @GatorCruiser and thanks for the ride. 😊

Hi @New Cruiser from Kansas and welcome to the boards. 😊
Check out this thread on the Shore Excursions board. I posted my research in it for our Norwegian fjords cruise last year. You don't mention which ports you're visiting except for Stavanger but at least it will give you a starting point.
Also @Plasticbrain is from Norway and has posted lots of useful information. The easiest way to find it is to open the Shore Excursions board and type the word "Norway" into the search box towards the top right.
Hope it helps. 😊

Happy that everyone seemed to enjoy the blog so much. Also happy that I accomplished my goal of more shorter posts with pics.
That said, I'm still a work in progress and I may have been posting a little TOO frequently. My goal in June will be to mostly emulate this one but save some posts for later (as opposed to closer to real-time) when we're truly not doing anything for a while so that I'm not on my phone so much during short breaks in the action. Obviously I enjoy sharing everything with you guys... but I don't want to take anything away from enjoying the time with my wife. I know there's room for both, I just have to find the happy medium.
For so many obvious reasons... I'm feeling very fortunate knowing that we'll be back on Wonder in exactly 10 weeks... and then 5 weeks after that one ends.

I can't believe it's over already. Where did the week go?
Safe travels home @OCSC Mike and @GatorCruiser and thanks for the ride. 😊

I can't believe it's over already. Where did the week go?
Safe travels home @OCSC Mike and @GatorCruiser and thanks for the ride. 😊

I can't believe it's over already. Where did the week go?
Safe travels home @OCSC Mike and @GatorCruiser and thanks for the ride. 😊

I can't believe it's over already. Where did the week go?
Safe travels home @OCSC Mike and @GatorCruiser and thanks for the ride. 😊

I can't believe it's over already. Where did the week go?
Safe travels home @OCSC Mike and @GatorCruiser and thanks for the ride. 😊

I can't believe it's over already. Where did the week go?
Safe travels home @OCSC Mike and @GatorCruiser and thanks for the ride. 😊

Rest of Mason Jar story…
Pretty sure I mentioned that my wife ran into the very friendly & excellent server we had with the family last June on day 1 while I was getting a drink from the bar. Anyway, she was our server for brunch on day 3 and we got to know her a bit more. The plan was to go back that night and my wife was going to get a milkshake. When we did, our server wasn’t there & someone told us she wasn’t feeling well & had to go to medical. Naturally we were concerned.
Fast forward to tonight when I went there for a drink… my wife saw her and I think she’ll be fine but we went back to our cabin to get her some OTC meds to leave with her. She was very appreciative & even got my wife her favorite dessert (Gone Bananas) to go at no charge.
I don’t want to share specific details and that stuff isn’t important anyway. I’m just happy to report that we’re still having many of the experiences that have always made our cruises so great. Sure the WJ has a bit less variety, the MDR may not be as good as it once was (you know I’m not even a huge subscriber to that one), our bed was only made once/day, etc. but our overall enjoyment hasn’t really diminished.

MDR Bon Voyage Menu
Mediterranean Tapas

Steak - Again, surprisingly edible

Apple cobbler

Our wonderful TA from MEI, Jennifer, gave us and my parents a bottle of wine and a cheese and fruit plate. She gave the kids some cupcakes. So we are stuffed from two meals in the last 5 hours, and we have a whole cake, cupcakes, and cheese/fruit plates in our rooms. We need an @OCSC Mike in our bathtub to help us eat it all.

We pulled up just after noon and were checked in and to Jamie's by 12:33 for our 12:30 reservation. It was packed and loud in there because no one could sit outside. Central Park was extremely slippery and we saw one girl wipe out leaving the restaurant. 
And then we scrambled- did our Muster station (very long line!), got our Freestyle cups, got our Voom working, came to our rooms and started to unpack which also included running back and forth from room to room to give and take things. We brought a pop up hamper for my parents and hand soap. They had our wine and allergy meds my son ran out of. We had a bunch of stuff for our kids and balcony wasn't opened yet. We decorated our doors too!
We were supposed to do the pickleball lesson but they cancelled it due to weather so we switched to night 6. It was also the day we reserved laser tag so I had to switch times and luckily there were still spots available later the same night.
Also we bought birthday package for my daughter (but haven't eaten the chocolate cake yet @Ampurp85)

Ok, we are on the ship. It has been a day! In addition to the horrible weather mentioned in @OCSC Mike and @GatorCruiser's blog, there was a VIP & Secret Service shut down of the port from 11am-noon. Traffic came to a grinding halt. For. An. Hour.
My parents made it in just before and said nothing was moving and all baggage attendants were just sitting around with nothing to do. We were stuck in our Uber. The poor Uber driver had to just sit with us for that whole time. We tipped him well! 
I'll do a series of short posts as I'm able to try to recap our day. 
I don't plan on posting our MDR dinner options - I figure the menu has been the same for a year and people have probably seen all of the options by now. We did have lunch at Jamie's so I've got those (y'all are going to be so sick of my new toy - the collage!)
Appys

Mains

Desserts (we all shared):

I want one too! 😋

That extra night makes ALL the difference. 😊

That extra night makes ALL the difference. 😊

WJ shrimp & ribs for lunch. Really not bad by WJ standards.

 
Now sitting in a very windy & empty ELF for perhaps my last tacos of the cruise. 😭

That extra night makes ALL the difference. 😊

That extra night makes ALL the difference. 😊

When we first started cruising we cruised four in a basic ocean view, so not even a balcony. The kids were 12 and 4 on the first one, and 17 and 9 by the time we did the last one with those arrangements. It was tight and it wasn't ideal but that was what budget allowed so we made it work. Basically, we spent the vast majority of our time out of the room. Admittedly, the ships we sailed on at the time had a huge advantage over Quantum class ships in that the 3rd and 4th guests slept in pullman bunks, way better than the sofa.
If budget allows you to splurge for a JS or a second cabin, great; but my thinking is that on a cruise to Alaska that money would probably be better spent on doing great stuff off the ship rather than on an extra cabin you're going to spend very little time in.

That extra night makes ALL the difference. 😊

Views from our balcony 

Lost internet for a little while. Storm seems to be letting up but now the Solarium has become a mild flood zone, lol. Not sure where the water is coming from but there’s almost inch-deep water flowing in front of our loungers by the windows. Saw at least one flip flop float by.