A WONDERful Alaskan Adventure - Sept 4th Last Day at Sea

Haha I dunno....are you stalking me or am I stalking you? We did Liarsville in Skagway, too :flower1: I feel like I just need to tack on my trip report to yours bwahaha

Man so many awesome character photos!!:yay:
 
Haha I dunno....are you stalking me or am I stalking you? We did Liarsville in Skagway, too :flower1: I feel like I just need to tack on my trip report to yours bwahaha

Man so many awesome character photos!!:yay:

Ha! I love it! Too bad we weren't on the same sailing! I have a feeling we would have really gotten to know one another! Shall we book next year??!?!?! :hyper2: lol I'm sure our husband's wallets would love us for it!

We love the character meets There are many more to come! I especially enjoy them on the cruise because you can really build relationships with the team. There's something special about the fact that they knew my kids by name by mid-week. :tink:in the parks things always seem to be a bit more rushed, which is probably the result of more people i suppose.


Great trip report, thanks for sharing. Your kids are just so adorable!

Thanks! So sweet of you to say! They are a handful sometimes but we love them for sure! :lovestruc
 
Disney Wonder: A Day in Alaska's capital - Juneau!
We docked in Juneau at 6:45 AM. Many guests had excursions booked this day and the ship emptied out pretty quickly. We hung out at breakfast for a bit and then headed downstairs to get ready for the day. We did not book an excursion today and honestly, I have to say I'm pretty happy with that decision. We had a busy day ahead of us in Ketchikan so it was nice to take a break and relax a bit.

All bundled and ready to go!


Before we headed off the ship we finally got a picture with the Ariel statue in the Atrium. I would say both this port and the glacier were our coldest days. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't warm either. Disney also handed out ponchos (same as the ones you buy in the park) for free this day. We took four but didn't end up using them. It will be nice to have in the backpack on a future park trip though!



The walk off the ship was easy. Disney guests did have to take a bus to the town center but they ran often so it wasn't an issue. We were on the bus for maybe 10 minutes tops.

On the bus


We arrived at the Town Center around 9 AM. As we were walking up to the main shopping area my son spotted the gondolas. Now I have a fear of heights (actually falling) which is only amplified when the kids are with me. I said no, everyone else said yes. Mommy Out-voted...:(



The price actually wasn't terrible. I think it was 30 per adult and the kids were free! You could ride it as much as you wanted throughout the day as well. We only rode the one time though.



It's really high up... eesh



Pretty views, but Mommy was not a fan of being out on the ledge so Daddy took these :scared:





There was a bald eagle up at the top that they adopted after she was shot in the wing and a few walking trails to explore. I would actually say this was worth it for the price. My son definitely enjoyed it so I was happy to face my fears for a while.





After we got back down to solid ground :worship: it was off to the shopping area. I really enjoyed this port the most for shopping. They seemed to have the most available.

We did not get to go to the Alaskan Brewing Company Brewery but we did visit the gift shop in town. Alex and I both got shirts and we got two soft cups for the kids with straws. These actually came in handy once we got back to the ship for water as opposed to getting the little cups they offer on deck. Side note: Since we were sailing at what is considered the end of the tourist season, there were a lot of deals etc. However, since many stores were trying to move inventory out we found there were things we liked that weren't available in our size. It took awhile but we left happy!

After shopping we were ready to eat. Where on earth do you go to Juneau? Trick question apparently because the only place to be is Tracy's King Crab Shack. Located right on the main pier area, it's very hard to miss.



They cook the crab right outside and it smells as amazing as it tastes I assure you. The prices aren't cheap (36 dollars for a combo meal including bisque, 1 leg and crab cakes) but it's worth it!



Crab Legs!


Getting our food - we are excited!


So review: We loved the Crab Cakes - seriously best we've ever had anywhere period. The Legs were just as good as they say. The bisque was probably my least favorite but it was still really tasty. I would definitely eat here again! Be sure to go early as seating is limited and they fill up fast as the afternoon goes on!

Alex and I tried an Alaskan Brewing Company at Tracys. He had the Amber Ale and I had the White (Pale Ale) Both were delicious!


When we got back on the ship, Audrey went down for her nap and I headed out to play Disney Trivia!

Home Sweet Home


Love that our stateroom host always found fun things to do with our growing stuffed animal pile!


Speaking of Disney Trivia - I won! I've never won before and I was soooo excited to take the medal back to the room. My husband and I have a healthy sense of competition and considering that we are both big Disney fans, I felt some bragging was in order :p

When I got back to the room, Audrey was still napping so Alex and I hung out for a bit before he headed off to his beer tasting. I love that you can book tastings in advance now! I had gotten the martini tasting for myself for the next day and was looking forward to it since I've never managed to sign up in time for it in the past.

The beer tasting was good but Alex said he didn't really care for the last two beers they selected. I am not sure if they select the same each sailing or not since we've only done a tequilla and wine tasting in the past.

After Audrey woke up, I picked Avery up from the Club and we went to the Pixar Party in the Atrium.



This party was a lot of fun. Avery wanted to be up front but if you stand in the back the characters roam around and you can dance with them! Most guests didn't even look back so they didn't realize they were there!



BOO!


Tonight's dinner was at Tiana's Place! I was so excited for dessert but couldn't help soaking in all the lovely details! It is a great restaurant!



Audrey was getting a little too comfortable



Seriously the only reason you should bother going to dinner on this night - soooo good!



After dinner we met Remy and Emile - my husband loves Ratatouille


The lines on Pixar night were a bit longer than average. Some of these characters are pretty rare though so it makes sense!

Next up was Frozen. You need to be in line early for this one. Seats fill up fast and some guests even told us they skipped dinner to see both showtimes. After watching it, I can tell you why. It's AMAZING! It may be the best Disney show I have ever seen period. And I'm not the only one who thought so. My husband, who is kind of over the Frozen craze :scared1:, loved it! I mean really loved it. The cast was phenomenal and the effects were amazing. I am a huge fan of Disney shows in the parks and on the ships and this is the one show I would say you just can't miss. Okay, rant over I promise, but please go if you get on the Wonder. You won't regret it.



We kept Avery up a little longer so he could meet Jessie before bed. Frozen went about an hour and ten minutes so we were rushing to get the kids down for the evening.



Passed out and ready for Ketchikan tomorrow!



 


Awesome character photos again!

We wanted to do the tram up Mt Roberts but our day in Juneau was quite foggy/cloudy and while I know several people in our cruise group did it we felt it wasn't worth the money that day, don't think we would have gotten the same views you did!

Frozen was AMAZING! My husband, who is also not Frozen crazed, thought the same. I think the best show on any of the ships at the moment (thinking Beauty and the Beast on the Dream might give it a run for it's money though lol).
 
I would never have been able to go up that Gondola, just looking at your pictures scared me, but I love the pictures. Good for you fighting your fear!! Loving your report.
 
Awesome character photos again!

We wanted to do the tram up Mt Roberts but our day in Juneau was quite foggy/cloudy and while I know several people in our cruise group did it we felt it wasn't worth the money that day, don't think we would have gotten the same views you did!

Frozen was AMAZING! My husband, who is also not Frozen crazed, thought the same. I think the best show on any of the ships at the moment (thinking Beauty and the Beast on the Dream might give it a run for it's money though lol).

The views were nice but I liked the trails more. I didn't have to be near any ledges there :scared: We saw a sign near the trail that we were on that said you could walk down to town! Apparently the walk required a LOT of time and water. :sad2: Not for me lol.

Oh my gosh Frozen!!! I wish we were going back on the Wonder soon just so we could see it again! WOW! Beauty and the Beast will probably be amazing too. If only the Dream did 7 day or even 5 day, sailings! :genie:

We saw Tangled on the Magic last year and I wans't nearly as impressed as I was with this one. I actually preferred Twice Charmed over it, but I am a Cinderella fan so maybe that's the reason?:angel: However, Frozen was really amazing. The Let it Go scene blew us away.

I would never have been able to go up that Gondola, just looking at your pictures scared me, but I love the pictures. Good for you fighting your fear!! Loving your report.

I was pretty nervous the whole ride up and down for sure! My son kept laughing at me lol. Thanks so much reading!
 


Disney Wonder: Ketchikan!
Our final port day of the trip was Ketchikan! If you've read anything about Ketchikan, it is known as both the salmon capital of the world and one of the rainiest cities on the planet. They actually have a liquid sunshine tracking sign on the pier. I'm kind of bummed we didn't get a picture with it, but we were quite busy today.



We had booked an excursion which departed at 2:15 PM so we had the morning to hang out on the ship. We didn't arrive into Ketchikan until 11:15 so there were a lot of activities going on to pass the time.

Of course, we started with the characters!::MickeyMo::MinnieMo

We said hi to Captain America first. Avery had really gotten to know the Marvel team by this point through his adventures in the club so they had a lot to talk about.


Then it was downstairs for Belle! She loved her rose!



Kisses!


After chatting with Belle, we ran upstairs for what would be our final meet up with Black Widow. Since Audrey had gotten so close with her throughout this trip, we knew this was a meet we couldn't miss! Audrey wanted to circle back for some extra time of course. Seeing my kids discover new friends is something that represents that "Disney magic" for me and I think it really makes our trips aboard the Disney ships so special! Audrey actually surprised us all by taking her hand. She doesn't even do that with me! (Miss Independant!)

Waiting for Black Widow with Nana




But wait, what's up with the princess attire, are you undercover?



Taking a walk


After some tears saying goodbye to Black Widow, we headed down to meet my favorite glass-slipper-wearing-princess.




She loved that Avery tried to kiss her hand.



Family shot (Father in-law was in the Rainforest Room during this lol)



We went upstairs to do some shopping with Nana :goodvibes . They had a great selection of Alaska themed merchandise. Alex and I both ended up getting shirts while Avery and Audrey got that and a bit more. Did I mention we probably should have brought a duffle for all the extra items we were purchasing??? :laughing:



While we were walking back, we spotted Belle on a stroll! She sat with the kids in the atrium and started reading to them! :tink:What Belle didn't realize was that she happened to be reading Avery's favorite story about a certain mermaid. He happily took over and started telling it to her! Sorry Belle!

Look who we found!




While I was busy trying to capture Belle's storytime, my husband pointed out to me that Goofy was on the elevator in his PJs. We couldn't really tell what was going on but he kept riding it up and down as guests got on and off. After we said goodybe to Belle, we decided to see if we could catch up with him. Well we found Goofy on Deck 4 and he was SLEEPWALKING :rotfl2:



Avery and the character greeter spent a lot of time telling everyone "SHHHH," as they walked by. It was pretty funny but it got even more hysterical when Goofy woke up and saw we were pulling into port!

SHHHHH!



He woke up!



When we came inside, we bumped into Cinderella! Audrey wouldn't let me put her down but they got into a kiss war! They kept blowing kisses to each other and laughing. I must have been a pretty funny sight taking this picture. I had to lean as far back as i could to get them into frame ;)



We had done a lot this morning so it was off to bed for Audrey. Alex was nice enough to let me take Avery off the ship and sit with her. He didn't really care about seeing the town but I did. Creek Street isn't too far from the ship but it is a bit of a walk (maybe 5-10 minutes). It was neat to see and we even saw a sea lion having some lunch!


It was raining in this picture, we went in a store right after and came out after five minutes to sunshine! :confused3Alaska weather!



I had told Avery he could get some nesting dolls. We found a set for both him and Audrey in an Alaskan discount store. They aren't as nice as some of the ones that they were selling but these are for a four and one year old. :earboy2: Together, the cost was roughly 36 dollars but they are still a big hit. In fact, they were playing with them again just this morning!

When we got back to the ship it was time to head downstairs for our excursion. We had booked the Lighthouse, Eagles, and Totems tour. At first, I wasn't entirely sold but the cost, time duration (2.5 hours) and trip advisor reviews convinced me otherwise.

We left the ship and went direclty to the bus. Several of our Facebook Group was on this excursion too. Since we didn't get to attend the meet ups based on scheudling this was a great opportunity to see everyone. The bus ride took about 20 minutes and we were at the boat.

The excurision was a lot of fun. They provided snacks while onboard and binoculars.
:boat:



Do you see the eagle? We saw about 11 of them throughout the day. They are so majestic in the wild.



Totems and Master Ceremonial house (I kind of felt like I was at the Polynesian or Epcot!) Consider this my shout out to how great of a job the Imagineers did!



The Lighthouse - we saw eagles in flight here! It was so neat!




While we were en route to the Lighthouse, I spotted what I thought were whales in the distance. Sure enough, I was right and our captain announced it to the boat soon after I told my husband. We ended up following them and we got to see a bubble feeding! It was amazing and totally unexpected. They say you might see other wildlife on the tour but only eagles are guaranteed. They were about 50 feet from our boat! We were so excited and our captain really got into it too which only fueled everyone's excitement! Definitely a highlight of the trip for sure!

Seriously, we were so excited! :dance3:



We got back to the pier at 5:30 PM which meant we had to book it to dinner at Triton's. This is where my one issue with the trip comes up. We knew Audrey would have some trouble sitting through dinner which is why we booked the nursery. But mid-week we felt a little bad not even giving her a shot at it, so we decided to try. She had done okay at Animator's and Tiana's the nights before. However, our serving staff just did not seem to care that we had younger cruisers. They didn't really engage with her and focused on Avery when they did - which was usually after the meal. I really haven't been in that situation with Disney before. They've always gotten Avery's meals out quickly and taken the time to really get to know him. I don't mind at all waiting for our food, but those of you with little ones know, if there isn't anything for them to do you lose their attention pretty quickly!

Well fast foward 30 minutes (yep a full half hour:rolleyes1 ) with nothing but drinks (nope, not even bread:confused3) and Audrey was done. I think it was around the third request for bread that they finally brought their meals out and they were COLD. Since dinner at Triton's, and this menu in particular, wasn't on my must-do I decided it would be best to just skip dinner and take her back to the room. My in-laws and husband were pretty upset that I had to make the choice to do so and honestly so was I.


However, true to Disney fashion, about five minutes after arriving to my room, a server brought my meal AND Chocolate Lava Cake with Mickey Bar on the side! I love when they turn things around. It made me feel so much better and the best part was I hadn't even asked. My husband said they felt terrible when they found out I left. It was so great that they made sure I didn't have to miss the meal and Audrey was happy too! We ended up having a picnic on the floor and I was sure to tell my server how much I appreciated the quick response the next evening. They were both very nice people, it was just hard being the last table on their rotation with the young sailors in tow.

Mickey Bars just make everything better!:mickeybar



After dinner, we realized we were all pretty spent. It had been a long week and with the time change, we had definitely hit our wall. With thoughts of our last day on board in our heads, it was time to say sweet dreams.

Next up: Our last day at sea on board the Disney Wonder as we headed back to Canada! :worried:
 
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Wow, some spectacular whale shots!!! Amazing! Eventhough you had some rain looked like it ended up being a pretty good day all around.

Haha sleep walking Goofy....never saw that before AND we never saw Belle in that particular outfit. :sad2:

I'm sorry that dinner that night was a let down but it sounds like it turned around in the end.
 
Wow, some spectacular whale shots!!! Amazing! Eventhough you had some rain looked like it ended up being a pretty good day all around.

Haha sleep walking Goofy....never saw that before AND we never saw Belle in that particular outfit. :sad2:

I'm sorry that dinner that night was a let down but it sounds like it turned around in the end.

It definitely was a good day for sure. The weather cleared up just as we were about to leave for the excursion so it worked out great! Goofy always cracks me up! We had never seen Belle meet in her blue dress officially on a boat before. We had bumped into her last year on the Magic though. I love that outfit but I love her new yellow dress too so i'm happy either way :)

Dinner was definitely a surprise but Disney always does such a great job of turning a what-could-be bad thing around, we didn't have time to notice!
 
Wow, some spectacular whale shots!!! Amazing! Eventhough you had some rain looked like it ended up being a pretty good day all around.

Haha sleep walking Goofy....never saw that before AND we never saw Belle in that particular outfit. :sad2:

I'm sorry that dinner that night was a let down but it sounds like it turned around in the end.


PS. I just noticed your upcoming cruises and I am SOOOO jeaous! I am trying to convince my husband to do our 4th and 5th next year too as opposed to the parks. A little easier to manage the younger ones for sure!
 
Disney Wonder: Heading back to Vancouver on our last day at Sea
Oh the last day at sea... I'm honestly down just writting about it.

I had officially lost my voice by this day so I decided to sleep in and skip the Facebook 5K our group arranged to avoid picking something worse up. We had a very long day ahead and I wasn't about to miss any of it!

Since we were traveling back through the Pacific Ocean the water was pretty choppy today. It was the only day we really could tell we were on a boat. Once we got in the channel again (around 2) it smoothed out.

As we were heading out of the room, I noticed the carpet. This is the same on every ship I believe but I really had never noticed it before. Did you know all four ships are featured? DETAILS! Love it!



We started off with the Princess Gathering. The scheduling for this event was interesting as these meet ups are usually avaialble first thing in the morning. I prefer to do this earlier in the voyage but the times they offered then were right in the middle of naptime. Fortunately, they had an early morning on the last day.

Our favorite mermaid was first. The kids were ecstatic to see her again. We hadn't seen her since the first day of the voyage.



She was so happy!




Tiana loved hearing about how much we enjoyed her restaurant.





After saying hi to the royalty we set off to the Frozen meet up. We were sure to thank Elsa for all the amazing weather the past week!


We also said hi to Woody and Sulley! The lines were long but nothing compared to the ones you see at the parks.

Howdy Partner!


Roar!


After all that fun, we headed back to the room to re-group and found a note to the kids from Ariel! I can't tell you how excited Avery was. It was such a sweet gesture and something he will always cherrish! :tink:


Today was my martini tasting. I had been wanting to try this for a long time and was so excited to finally have the opportunity. I am a martini fan but since they are usually expensive, I never really try anything outside of my comfort zone. The reason I love the tastings so much (other than the fact that it provides some adult time) is that you can try new things! Here's what we had:

- Gin Martini with Onion
- Vodka Martini with Olive
- Manhattan
- Appletini
- Chocolate Martini



As we went through each selection, the bartender taught us about the history of the martini and how each one we were tasting came about. It was really nice and I would do it again for sure!

Our next activity was watching Avery in FriendSHIP Rocks at the Walt Disney Theatre. They only offer it on the Magic or Wonder and we had missed it last year due to a Moana showing. If this is offered on your voyage please go! It was so cool to see all the kids on stage celebrating their week on board and they got a free shirt! This is the first time Avery has done something like this so we were actually a little emotional! :hyper2:



Front row center! I love that Mickey and Minnie led the group too!


When we got back to our room to get ready for dinner we found yet another note... this time it was from the character team inviting us to a special meeting before the Sea Ya Real Soon event. It was at 9:45 (translation 1:45 AM for the kids :eek:) but we weren't about to miss it. We had done something like this on the Fantasy during our first trip with DCL and we were so touched they had extended it to us again.

Dinner tonight was in Animator's Palate. Avery loved making his own cupcakes.


Not like the adults were jealous or anything...


We had to rush back to the room to change Avery into his pajamas for Pluto's PJ Party in the Oceaneer Lab. I snuck in to see the end of this event and it is so funny! They really wear the kids out!


Disney Dreams as up next and ended the voyage with it's usual emotional farewell. I do really enjoy this show so much. I love the classic stories they chose to represent and I'll miss it next year on the Fantasy.
Of course, we were a bit excited throughout for our meeting with the Entertainment Team. When we arrived, we were greeted by an Entertainment Officer who told us our friends were on our way up to say goodbye. We didn't have to wait long...

And I'm crying....









Watching Audrey open up to the characters and actually reaching out to them was pure magic. Seriously, in February she wanted nothing to do with them so this was such a great change. I was hugging every Cast Member I could see and of course, have written Disney after we got back. I still don't think I've done them enough justice. They were such an amazing group of people.




Mickey playing Peek-A-Boo (aww Mickey :hug:)






Royalty!


Excited!


Avery was so happy. He just kept hugging everyone!

His very favorite!



Aww, he was awake for this!




Family shot



After all this, it was time to head back to the room and get ready for debarkation the next day. How we slept, i'm not sure... :goodvibes:goodvibes:goodvibes

Next up: Debarkation and one final day in Canada

 
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Ok you're officially stalking me, we did Martini tasting on our last day as well :rotfl2:

The last full day is always sad but you certainly made the most of it! What a sweet note from Ariel :love:
 

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