Disney Wonder Baja Cruise: Day 2 - Triton's

Date of Visit: October 15, 2018

As Mik loves mango, he had the specialty non-alcoholic drink called the Princess Delight.

As usual, Mik had to have Gaston’s Escargot Gratinee

Mik enjoyed the Roasted Rack of Lamb Medium for his entree.

For dessert, he enjoyed the Apple Tart Tatin.

Disney Wonder Baja Cruise: Day 2 - Black Widow

Date of Visit: October 15, 2018

We are pretty much never into characters and I don’t even pay attention to them, but when scrolling through the daily activities on the app I noticed Black Widow and when I mentioned it to Mik he got all excited (yes, I mentioned it only because I have no clue about Marvel or whatever the character is from).

Black Widow was on Deck 5 Mid, which actually seems like one of the better places for a line to form and not end up in the way of other things or making it hard to navigate through if you aren’t doing the character(s).

Disney Wonder Baja Cruise: Day 2 - Origami Flower

Date of Visit: October 15, 2018

The first origami activity we went to was making an origami flower. Mik wasn’t confident enough to really try it on his own and mainly came to the origami to watch me. He did help some with the folding the yellow pieces in half, though. If the table height wasn’t so low in the Promenade Lounge, he may have tried helping more.

Disney Wonder Baja Cruise: Day 2 - Door Hangers

Date of Visit: October 15, 2018

Mik and I enjoyed a few different craft and origami events this cruise. The door hangers were probably our favorite, especially since Mik was able to actually do it without much help. The only problem is the small round tables are kind of short to roll up to and use, but since it was just gluing things down it worked out okay for this craft.

Mik made a Lakers themed one and I made a Halloween themed one.

Disney Wonder Baja Cruise: Day 1 - Tiana’s Place

Date of Visit: October 14, 2018

This was our first time on the Wonder since they turned Parrot’s Cay into Tiana’s Place. We enjoyed the atmosphere of the new design, although we also did like Parrot’s Cay, and the first night it was just the same menu in all the restaurants and we didn’t get the full Tiana’s Place experience until later in the cruise.

Going into the restaurant was a little awkward as the host decided to take over pushing Mik at the entrance. I initially just let him because I thought he just wanted to do the go backwards over the big bump to enter and was going to then let me continue pushing Mik, but instead, he handed Mik off to someone to lead us to our table. That guy then kind of got lost and another guy did a slick switch of table numbers when he realized the original table 67 was impossible to get a wheelchair to and there was no one at the nearby table next to the main aisle.

We all enjoyed the calamari for our appetizer. Mik was going to get the clam chowder, which is another fav of his, but I messed up when ordering for him and he didn’t correct me because really he kind of wanted calamari and wasn’t hungry enough to also do a soup.

For the entree, Mik chose the pork tenderloin wellington. As usual, the server asked if he needed help cutting it up and we enjoyed letting them do it instead of us the whole cruise.

Mik was going to be different and have the warm sticky fig and pecan pudding, but I discouraged him since he usually doesn’t like pecans and he hadn’t noticed that was part of it. Instead, he enjoyed his typical choice of a sundae (Magical Express Sundae).

I enjoyed the creme brûlée while also feeling like something was missing until the next day I realized that my typical choice of the trio of desserts seems to have disappeared from all the menus.

Disney Wonder Baja Cruise: Day 1 - Cabanas

Date of Visit: October 14, 2018

Mik wasn’t really hungry as he had eaten the rest of the free DoubleTree cookies right before we went to the port. However, when Mom brought over a piece of pumpkin pie, he found some room.

Other than when we first get on the ship we have never taken Mik to the buffet so I’m not sure if the table pedestal leg design has always been a problem or not. At first we tried to sit near the windows at a rectangle table and found we couldn’t roll Mik up close enough. In another area we ended up getting some help from a cast member to turn a circle table so he could roll up with one of the corners of the pedestals between his casters.

We later found at breakfast the next day the way the rectangle tables were next to booth seating actually worked out the best, especially since we got the table right by the main pathway. However, mostly we just find it easier to bring it back to the room or if you can get a table outside by the pools.

Best Western Hollywood Plaza Inn

Date of Visit: May 15-22, 2018

Pretty much immediately we hated this hotel and not just because we couldn't check-in when we arrived around noon and had to wait even after the normal check-in time of 3 p.m. to get a room key and then still wait 10 to 15 minutes for them to finish cleaning our room. The real thing that made us dislike this hotel immediately was that we learned it doesn't offer free breakfast, which of the nearly 100 Best Westerns I've stayed at all over the country (and China) have always had and the only reason I chose this hotel over the ones next door that were priced at $10 to $30 cheaper per night.

The room quickly added to our dislike of the hotel as the bathroom is not designed for the wheelchair to be rolled next to the toilet and, in fact, is barely large enough to even take in there.

The lack of a roll-in shower wasn't a big deal as I don't recall it specifying what kind of mobility accessible room it was when I booked. However, the location of the grab bars for the toilet was a major problem as Mik couldn't use them. I don't so much mind having to help him, but it meant that when he was worn out for the day I couldn't go do stuff on my own like usual (or at least not for long enough to really to anything).

The layout of the rest of the room was relatively spacious and reasonably easy to maneuver even the wheelchair around it. It was nice that it had a bed and a couch, although the sink's location was rather strange and would probably be awkward to annoying if you actually used the foldout aspect of the couch.

Another reason why I tend to go with Best Western is that you almost always get microwave and fridge. The fridge was rather small, but not that unexpected. The microwave worked adequately, but was rather annoying in that it was the style you turn to how long you want making it difficult to accurately select the desired time. The Keurig was probably the only good feature here, though.

Overall there just really isn't anything that makes it worth staying at this hotel, especially considering it was more expensive than the nearby hotels that are probably just as good if not better and slightly closer to Hollywood Blvd. We were particularly annoyed that most days we had to go without getting our room cleaned because they never got to our room before 2:30 p.m. or even 3 p.m. some days. At least the internet was decent except for the one afternoon it was out, but that was understandable as the cable company was there working on it. As for TV, it's standard def, which would've been fine if it hadn't also kept freezing for 10 to 30 seconds every 5 to 10 minutes.

Destination Info:
Best Western Hollywood Plaza Inn
2011 N Highland Avenue
Hollywood, CA 90068