Land Ho!

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Land Ho!

Land Ho!

After several days at sea, we reached Hawaii.  That slowed down construction of the Lego Wonder because we had some islands to explore.

 

Where to put the Wonder?

Lego Wonder in Cabin, Day 6

People kept wondering where we put the Lego Wonder while we were working on her?  Like, surely we didn't leave her up on deck by the pools?  Did we?

Every day we picked her up and carried her down to our cabin (which freaked some people out).  This was one of those fortuitous things, since I didn't bother to measure the cabin's desk when I figured out how long she should be.  Like, cruise ship cabins aren't exactly known for their space you know!  And there's pretty much only one flat surface in the cabin - the desk.  The Lego Wonder cleared the walls with a couple inches to spare!



Um, What Do You Mean "Take it Home"?"

Captain Fabian with Lego Wonder, Day 10

There was another not-well thought out part of our plan.  About the 2nd day people started asking how we were going to get her home.  Umm.  Good question!  It wasn't exactly going to fit under our seat on the flight back.

We realized that the real Disney Wonder was going to Seattle in a few weeks and started hinting to the crew that maybe our Lego Wonder could stay on the Disney Wonder until Seattle.

I'd barely gotten the words out when this nice gentleman mentioned that he had the perfect spot in his cabin :)

Oops

We didn't spend a lot of time with Lego while in Hawaii, but we did encounter a few problems with the stickers and pieces.

Remember those 10 life boats per side that I bought exactly the right number of pieces for?  Well, sometimes I found "other" places to use those parts, but since I hadn't bought extras, I couldn't use them.  Also, when I dropped one I had to hunt around and find it, because there wasn't a spare!  We did find a Lego store in the middle of the Pacific - in Honolulu, and we bought some extra parts for spares.  (No, we didn't spend all day in the Lego store, it was unscheduled time, we aren't THAT crazy!)

Another problem was those stickers.  The clear stickers worked great for the ship's name on the white bricks, and the white stickers were fine for the rectangular pools.  However, knowing that the hull wasn't white, for the yellow scrollwork on the bow and stern I'd printed clear stickers.  They looked great on the sticker sheet, but the translucent yellow on the dark blue hull was nearly invisible.  Also I'd totally goofed on the logo on the stacks, both with the size and colors, so, in our first port, we stopped and bought a printer.  (Hey, it was on sale at least!).

All in the Details

Goofy in Lego Wonder, Day 12

The rest of the time was pretty much working on the little details around the top.  Some parts were reworked a little, either for structure or because something was more obviously "off" once more of the ship was built.

The top was way harder than the hull because the hull was big and mostly regular.  The top has lots of little details like the pools, stacks, masts, etc.  Now that we had a printer, I was able to put little figures on the ship, Mickey on the bridge and Goofy working ropes in the stern.  Unfortunately that meant ripping off the bottom of the boat to stick goofy in.

I also learned interesting things about the ship, like the front stack is shorter than the aft stack, which I didn't notice until I was trying to figure out the stack.  The picture I had of the back stack I had was partially occluded, so I looked at the photo for the front stack and went "whoa, it's not the same!". 

Good thing I caught that because Captain Fabian looked for that detail when he stopped by!

Factoids About the Ship

The front stack is a fake, to help get the modern-classic ship look Disney wanted.  Captain Fabian explained that the reason for the shorter front stack is so that the aerodynamics of the ship allow the exhaust from the real rear stack to escape above the turbulent layer around the ship.  Wind tunnel tests during planning for the Disney Magic and the Disney Wonder had showed that with the front stack higher, the exhaust would get trapped and sucked back down into the passenger areas on the stern.  He was thrilled that I got the heights right, particularly since there are paintings hanging on his ship that missed that detail :)

Along the same lines, classic ships (think Titanic) had lifeboats up on the top deck, not in the middle like a modern cruise ship.  I learned that the curved bay viewing windows on deck 9 represent those life boats, each being positioned directly above a real life boat.  And 2 are shorter "speed boats".

I also ran around the ship looking at everything and taking pictures, trying to get the dimensions right.  For example, I counted the windows down behind the life boats and marked their positions on the diagrams in my notes.  That's when I learned (rather obviously in hindsight) that there's no lifeboat 13 (or 14, so that odd and even numbered boats are all on the same sides).

Index

• YouTube - Lego Disney Wonder
• Page 1 - The Lego Wonder
• Page 2 - Like, What Do You Mean There Aren't Any Instructions
• Page 3 - Building the Lego Wonder
• Page 4 - Land Ho!
• Page 5 - All Done with the Lego Wonder