Disney Cruise to Alaska

Ray and Traci embarked on their second Alaskan cruise, joining the families of Ray’s siblings. With 5 young children in the party, the Disney Wonder was a natural choice especially since 2012 is the first and last year that Seattle will be the Disney home port. 2,400 passengers boarded the 10 story cruise ship at Pier 91 on the Seattle waterfront. 1,000 “cast members” greeted the excited travelers. Ray and Traci decided to avoid the crowds and board the ship late in the day – 2pm for a 4pm departure, and were rewarded with a ready stateroom and no lines at boarding. Ray found the Wonder a bit plain, without some of the spectacular lobbies or well decorated public areas found on other ships. The entertainment venues such as the theatre, music clubs, and lounge areas were well decorated and maintained. The stateroom doors were plain white – travelers in the know bring magnetic name plates and characters for decoration. Ray and Traci’s balcony room was fine except for a bit of dust in the drawers. For two people, the 300 square foot cabin was spacious with ample storage space. Ray was disappointed that their suitcases didn’t fit under the bed as is customary in most cruise ships. The cabin was well designed for families having a sofa bed that folds out, a bunk bed hidden in the ceiling, and a wall pull-down bed creating a 4 bed stateroom. The bathroom is small and divided into two separate rooms – one with a tub and sink, the other with a toilet and sink. Each room has two cell phones which Disney dubs “Wave Phones” so you can keep in touch around the ship (for free). Ray filled their room’s cooler (not really a refrigerator) with drinks brought from home even though the 24 hour beverage station on the floor above them had a selection of Coca Cola products (but no Coke zero) available for no charge.

Ray and Traci had their first lunch at the Beach Blanket Buffet. The buffet was cramped despite having both an indoor and outdoor seating area, but four food lines were available for customers. Compared with other cruises, the Disney buffet was quite limited – typical salads, carved meat and pasta were available along with a dessert bar. The travelers didn’t find anything especially notable about the food, although Ray loved the chocolate cake that the ship called a brownie. After lunch, Ray and Traci began their obligatory exploration of the ship. The pool deck was pretty much a zoo with families crowding the deck as part of the bon voyage party. Forward on the pool deck sat the sanctuary for adults, the Quiet Cove pool where a few souls sought refuge from the chaos in back. In front, the spa with a well equipped fitness center (also restricted to 18 years +) was found. As advertised in many of the cruise blogs, the adult only areas were pretty much vacant during the cruise. Ray and Traci joined the rest of their party for the initial “Welcome” production show which featured a talented cast performing selections from Disney movies. This entertainment theme was repeated during most of the cruise. The party next enjoyed a dinner in Tritons – one of the three main dining rooms on the Wonder. An interesting feature of Disney Cruises is the rotation of dining where patrons are assigned a different room (three dining rooms – Tritons, Animator’s Palette and Parrot Cay feed the guests) each night and their servers follow them in rotation. Ray found the staff extremely friendly and entertaining – he ordered a Caesar salad (off menu) and two entrees: steak and lobster macaroni & cheese. Traci started her meal with escargot followed by sea bass. While neither meal would make a cruise ship hall of fame, the food was satisfying.

Tuesday brought continued calm seas and good but cool weather. The entire cruise was exceptional for the calm seas which was very unusual especially during the “outside” passage heading toward Alaska. Ray and Traci started the day by running on deck 4 where a 1/3 mile track served walkers and runners. Other than two narrow choke points at the back of the ship, the Wonder was a nice place to run. Ray joined his sister and played Bingo in the morning, buying an electronic device that held 24 bingo cards for each game played. Everything was automatic – the device simply shows you the card closest to winning and tells you when you’ve won. Bingo was quite popular as every seat was full. Unfortunately, all Ray won was a door prize with a Disney shopping bag, a key chain, and a notebook. Lunch included stops at the Pinocchio’s Pizza stand, Goofy’s Sandwich Shop and the Beach Blanket Buffet. The highlight of the afternoon was a family effort resulting in a third place sports trivia finish mostly thanks to brother in law Dave. The production show for the night was the Golden Mickey’s – a takeoff of the Oscars, again featuring live performances based on Disney movies. Ray’s family enjoyed a formal dining experience in Animator’s Palette – attire recommendations are made by the cruise line but judging by the wide range of dress, not enforced during this cruise. Traci and Ray started with an interesting appetizer of cold asparagus combined with grapefruit and orange slices, with Traci having a bit dry but tasty traditional turkey meal and Ray enjoyed the special New York grilled steak which was considerably better than the previous night’s sirloin. Before retiring, Ray and Traci went to the Cadillac lounge where the piano performer was doing Elton John songs. It became very obvious that Disney’s main contribution to the cruise industry is their attention to families. Meticulous care is taken for children – glass panels block spaces between deck railings and prevent children from climbing over. Wrist bands with embedded sensors keep track of kids left in the clubs by their parents. At dinner time, kids are served their menu quickly and cast members from the kids clubs take children away like the Pied Piper. It was a bit mind boggling how kids of all ages eagerly left their parents to have fun with their peers. Presumably, the comparably high rates Disney charges for their cruises is not just to pay for the 24 hour free beverage station so passengers without kids are subsidizing some amazing child care.

Wednesday was glacier day as the Disney Wonder planned to visit the Sawyer Glacier near Tracy Arm. Overeating guilt must have hit the ship as the gym was pretty much packed in the morning. Unfortunately, light rain fell most of the day but many cruisers who travelled from all over the world to see the glaciers were not deterred. The crew set up a barbecue serving steaks, chicken and salmon with widely varying quality from inedible to fairly good. Ray didn’t like the quality of meat in the steaks and Traci found her salmon to be way overdone and pretty much inedible but others liked their lunch. The captain expertly navigated the ship thru the icebergs and very narrow passages at Tracy Arm to within a few hundred yards of the South Sawyer Glacier despite visions of Titanic and the more recent Costa Concordia playing in more than a few passengers’ minds. Glacial ice was created over thousands of years with heavy precipitation falling repeatedly thereby crushing ice below. The ice has a characteristic blue color due to trapping of much of the light spectrum except for blue and periodically pieces break off in a process called calving. Harbor seals take refuge on the detached floating ice.

After watching nature’s show, Ray joined his brother, sister and brother in law to form a team competing in a 1980’s music name that tune. The finely oiled music machine ended up with 57 out of 60 points, but lost the championship due to mixing up Vanilla Ice with Queen’s “Under Pressure.” The winning team turned out to be neighbors of Ray’s sister meaning the big mistake will live on forever. The theme of missed opportunity continued with the nightly Bingo game, with Ray not only getting a machine that won a Bingo, it actually had two Bingos during the same game (on different cards). Unfortunately, 10 other people had Bingo at the same time so Ray’s whopping payday came to $28 (it cost $50 to play!). Dinner was at Animator’s Palette – still full from the steak barbecue, Ray just had a pasta dish and Traci had black bean chipotle cakes. Both dishes were fine, and Ray and Traci enjoyed the desserts including chocolate cake and apple crumble. Before retiring, the travelers went to the Cadillac Lounge to hear the piano man play the Piano Man – Ray thought the Billy Joel set was better than the Elton John set the previous night, even though the performer considered himself more of an Elton guy. On Thursday, the cruise finally docked on land. After morning workouts, Ray joined his brother in law and nephew for an excursion while Traci relaxed on the ship. Skagway, Alaska is a town of less than 1,000 people that is a regular stop for many Alaska cruises. Ray took the White Pass railway train for a mountainous 27 mile ride to Fraiser, British Columbia. The ride was scenic, but frankly, Ray didn’t see any difference between the terrain in Alaska and the Cascades east of Seattle.

At Fraiser, a bus took the cruisers back to Skagway where they stopped at the Klondike Gold Dredge. Although the business was clearly a tourist trap created out of an old mining dredging machine, the explanation of mining mechanics intrigued Ray. All three travelers loved getting to pan for gold and ended up with about $30 in gold combined (weighing your gold was part of the experience.) After joining Traci in downtown Skagway, Ray and Traci wandered the 4 blocks which make up the town before returning to the ship.

Mostly due to Ray’s brother in law Dave, the group succeeded at actually winning the trivia contest focusing on sport stars’ nicknames. Ray was really happy to win a limited edition Disney Cruise Line hat! For dinner, the group experienced the third dining venue Parrot Cay which seemed smaller, louder, and more casual then the other two dining rooms. Ray’s dinner consisted of a Caesar salad, Alaskan crab legs and an Asian flavored steak – Ray also sampled a bit of the Elk (special of the night). Traci was disappointed with a tough pork tenderloin over pureed cauliflower. Ray thought his meal was the best of the cruise. After dinner, Ray & Traci along with a few other family members went to the music club to compete in a “One Hit Wonders” name that tune, but the wider range of included years proved to be a major disadvantage to their primary 1980s music team specialty.

The Disney Wonder traveled to Juneau on Friday where it was cold and cloudy but not raining. Ray was quite happy to find the 4th floor track empty and enjoyed a nice long run. After a quick breakfast, Ray and Traci ventured into Juneau and found it nearly identical to their previous visit two years ago. Passing on the tram ride up the mountain, Ray and Traci wandered into a few shops before leaving without any purchases. Back on the ship, the travelers had a quick lunch at the buffet before going to the Disney theatre to watch Avengers in 3D. Disney is the only cruise line to show newly released films on their ships (from their studios). The Avengers was quite a computer generated image (CGI) bonanza! Afterwards, Ray and Traci joined brother in law Dave for round two of the generic sports trivia with another 2nd place finish. The headline show of the evening was a live show based on Pixar’s Toy Story series. Traci has seen the movies so she passed on the show. Ray had not, and attended an extremely well produced and executed show. The production, which runs on all of the Disney cruise ships, certainly demonstrates the pride the company takes in their Toy Story franchise. Friday represented another big Disney Cruise event – Pirate Night! Voyagers of all ages dressed up with pirate themed attire for dinner and an after party. Ray brought hats, swords, and glow sticks for his family to wear. His niece had a whole pirate costume purchased at Costco which was a fashion highlight of the restaurant. The family was assigned to eat back at the more formal Triton’s where Traci had a satisfying chicken dish and Ray enjoyed some very tasty short ribs and crab cakes. While most of the party was quite exhausted and retired after dinner, Ray and Traci watched a little of the Pirate Party which turned to be mostly older kids and adults crowding around the lobby watching a few characters in pirate garb dance to recorded music. The “Pirate Party” wasn’t as bad as the late night “Pirate Dessert Buffet” which looked like rewarmed lunch and a small area of very unimpressive desserts. Having travelled on Holland, Princess and NCL who had chefs making unbelievably extravagant dishes on dessert specialty night (such as a Chocolate Sphinx), the Disney effort was very weak.

Saturday found the ship arriving in sunny Ketchikan, which was remarkable since the town is located in a rain forest that has yearly rain totals exceeding 160 inches. Having seen the town on their previous Alaskan cruise, Traci opted to spend the morning in the empty gym while Ray hunted for a sweatshirt. After a short visit to Ketchikan, Ray and Traci had lunch at the buffet and spent a quiet afternoon in the Outlook bar, an adults only observation lounge before joining family members in a victorious 70’s music name that tune contest. Entertainment of the evening was the Disney Dreams show, an amazing musical production based on many classics including Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Cinderella. The show was given an Emerald award, the Cruise Industry’s version of a Tony award and it was well deserved. Ray considers the Dreams Show a must see on all of the Disney ships. Dinner was back at Animator’s Palate for the Captain’s Gala (commonly known in the cruise industry as lobster night). Ray enjoyed a bit dry but good sized lobster, fettuccine, and chocolate lava cake, while Traci had a so-so experience with overcooked yellow fin tuna.

On the final day, Sunday, both Ray and Traci started the day running on the promenade. Ray joined his siblings for the chaotic experience called the character breakfast where 6 Disney icons spent 25 seconds at each table which really wasn’t fair since their table had 10 people while others had 2. In any case, Ray primarily served as photographer and managed to navigate the crowded Parrot Cay dining area. Afterwards, the adult group formed a team to play famous movie quote trivia resulting in a second place finish. Afterwards, Ray and Traci experienced the culinary pinnacle of the trip – a visit to the champagne brunch at the adults only restaurant Palo. The experience was amazing, with a wide range of foods from veal to caviar, pizza to salmon mousse, trout to tiramisu – Palo saved the whole dining experience. Ray thought the tiramisu was the best he ever had, and actually had seconds. Palo is a great place for foodies and non-foodies alike!

On the day of last events, Ray won a third Bingo game, the family team came in third overall in the sports trivia championship, and the last port stop was a brief visit to Victoria, B.C. Unfortunately, the ship arrived at 6pm on Sunday night and many of the attractions in Victoria were closed. Ray and Traci briefly toured downtown before returning to the ship in time for their 8:15 pm late dinner. Ray enjoyed a Seafood fettuccine dish followed by baked Alaska, while Traci had the Cornish game hen followed by deep dish cranberry apple pie a la mode. With the conclusion of the final dinner, the travelers returned to their stateroom to pack their belongings for the morning debarkation. The Disney Wonder combined the natural beauty of Alaska with entertainment that the Mouse House is famous for. Certainly, the focus on entertaining children enhanced the vacation experience for parents. As with all travel experiences, one has to weigh the strengths with weaknesses but it was clear that Disney offers families an experience no other cruise line can duplicate.

More Baseball and Broadway

More Baseball and Broadway

Ray and Traci’s latest adventure brought them back to the Big Apple, for some baseball and other experiences. They took the nonstop American Airlines flight from Seattle to JFK, and enjoyed an uneventful Saturday afternoon arrival. Ray booked a low budget (but highly Yelped) car service called Quick-Ride who charged the same as the NYC taxis. Unfortunately, the car service was late (in fairness, the flight was early – something very unusual at JFK) so Ray and Traci took a cab instead. NYC has a flat $45 rate from the airport to Manhattan which doesn’t seem fair for the drivers since the trip can take 2 hours with congestion. Saturday afternoon traffic wasn’t too bad, and the taxi dropped Ray and Traci off at the New York Hilton (the one in Midtown, not Times Square where they stayed during a previous trip). Ray and Traci were quite impressed with their 31th floor room which was quite spacious even by non-New York standards. The bathroom was small but functional. The room was well equipped with an empty refrigerator, desk, sitting area and flat screen TV.

On their first evening in NYC, Ray and Traci rode the subway to a place they learned about on the Food Network – “Eataly.” This large building included several food markets and restaurants all with an Italian theme. Ray ordered a meat wrapped square pasta dish called Agnolotti al Plin, while Traci ordered a more classic pasta dish Vesuvio di Salciccia. Ray preferred Traci’s tomato sauce based pasta and Traci liked Ray’s so they ended up switching meals. On the way back, they stopped at New York’s Walgreens owned chain store Duane Reed for drinks to stock the refrigerator with.

Sunday was a beautiful high 70s degree day in New York. Ray started his day with a run thru nearby Central Park – he arrived to find a Japan Day benefit race going on, and joined the runners until they reached the reservoir where he again experienced a New York tradition of “running the reservoir.” After returning, the baseball fans spent the afternoon at the New Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. Ray and Traci enjoyed their previous trip to “The New Bronx Zoo” and again, their favorite team was facing the Yankees. After ‘stalking’ Mariner catcher Jesus Montero, Traci got to take a picture with him in the hotel lobby before he headed to the stadium for the game. Ray and Traci, unfortunately, were not invited to ride the team bus, so they took the express subway right to the park. The Mariners, in the midst of a bad season, managed to win the matinee game. Ray and Traci watched the game from the 4^th deck behind home plate which fortunately enjoyed the limited shade available at the stadium. Afterwards, Ray and Traci traveled to “The High Line,” a wonderful park created from an old 1 ½ mile section of elevated railroad trestles extending south of 34^th street. Rather than tearing down the structure, New York turned it into a park with greenery and entertainment features.

 

From the park, the travelers had dinner at the highly rated John’s Pizza (278 Bleecker Street). Wanting to further expand their pizza experience from previous trip’s visits to Grimaldi’s and Lombardi’s, both enjoyed their pepperoni pizza. NYC is considered pizza capital of the world (by New Yorkers) and John’s was no disappointment!

Clouds greeted the travelers on Monday. Ray and Traci traveled downtown to Grand Central Terminal where the new Apple Store nests high above. They visited the amazing architecture of the New York Public Library. Much to their surprise, the main library rooms have few books – mainly long rows of tables with lots of users enjoying free wi-fi access. In one area, the library actually loans people laptops to use. More museum than library, the building is a great contrast between the past and the future.

 

 In addition to the library, Ray and Traci visited the United Nations. After getting thru security, they decided to not take the $16 tour and instead looked around at the visitor center exhibits. They also studied the many flags outside and concluded they would do very poorly on an international flag quiz. After a rest stop at the Hilton, Ray and Traci boarded the subway to Queens and made their way to the Mets new home, Citi Field. Ray and Traci last saw the Mets play during their very first visit to New York when they hosted an interleague game against the Mariners in decrepit Shea stadium. Many years later, Citi Field is certainly an upgrade to Shea, yet lacks a unique character. Other than the giant apple which rises after a Mets home run, the stadium seems unremarkable and unfortunately overlooks a junk yard positioned just outside centerfield. Using Stubhub.com, Ray obtained great tickets in the 4^th deck above Home Plate – even with service fees, both the Yankees and Mets tickets were about the same as the equivalent ticket at Safeco Field. Ray enjoyed a hot dog while Traci helped him eat his “Box Fries.” Surprisingly, the crowd was very small – certainly a lot less than the “official” paid attendance of 20,000. The Brewers on Monday with the threat of showers may not be a great draw, but Ray had never been to a major league game with so few people.  Despite the sparse crowd, the biggest line was at the Citi Field Shake Shack – a famous New York Burger Joint that branched with this Queens location. The Mets ended up winning the game, but Ray and Traci left after the 7^th inning stretch having crossing Citi Field off of their grand MLB stadium tour.

 

Ray and Traci’s good luck with New York weather ended Tuesday with rain which became heavy at times. First stop was near Wall Street to visit the New York Fed Museum. Unable to get free tour tickets to the world’s largest gold vault, Ray and Traci had to settle for the exhibits which were quite interesting, covering money and monetary policy. Surprisingly, in this era of global money printing, was the attention paid to the evils of inflation in many of the exhibits. The New York Fed also had comic books explaining various aspects of the economy available free to visitors. Ray couldn’t fine the comic book discussing the virtues of quantitative easing. From the New York Fed, Ray and Traci visited the very emotional memorial at the World Trade Center site. The large twin downward waterfalls provided a contrast to city noises giving an opportunity for personal reflection on the tragedy. A museum is under construction, as are the giant towers rising from the site.

 

 Soaking wet, Ray and Traci next traveled to a culinary highlight of a New York trip – lunch at Peter Luger’s. Suggested by a very knowledgeable ex-New York resident, Ray wanted to make a trip to Brooklyn just to experience a meal at this very busy establishment. Fortunately, the restaurant is located quite close to the Marcy subway stop. Peter Luger’s actually has a signed photo of Johnny Carson supposedly claiming he had “the best meal of his life” here. Peter Luger’s is difficult to get a dinner reservation at, and they only take cash. Ray had their “small steak” for lunch, and Traci had their salmon. Ray thought his steak was great, and agreed with all of the accolades heaped on the restaurant (maybe not Johnny Carson’s). Traci found their salmon surprisingly good. One warning, if go to Peter Lugar’s don’t expect fancy décor with conversational waiters – the butcher block tables and used plates barren of any remaining meat tell you this is a great steakhouse. Also, if you want well done steaks, don’t go to Luger’s – they will tell you they don’t make well done steaks at their establishment. Following the culinary highlight of the trip, the entertainment highlight was seeing Spiderman – Turn Off The Dark. Both travelers enjoyed the show – good music, entertaining story, and great stunts abound! While Traci leans more toward classic Broadway musicals, Ray thought Spiderman was one of the best shows he had seen. Since the aerial stunts could never be performed on a national tour, Broadway will always be Spiderman’s home.

On Wednesday, the travelers packed for their return to Seattle. The skies cleared but the 80 degree temperature felt quite muggy. Traci wanted to bring some macarons home from the famous Parisian maker Laduree so an Upper East Side trip started the day. Afterwards, Ray and Traci decided to repeat a previous experience – one of the great free tourist stops in America, the Staten Island Ferry. One of the best (and certainly the cheapest) way to see the Statue of Liberty, the 25 minute voyage brings gorgeous views of the city to all of the passengers. First time visitors (or repeat visitors with 2 ½ hours to kill) will find the Ferry a great destination!

To return to JFK, Ray and Traci decided to take the subway as their taxi driver warned them an average rush hour trip would take more than 1 ½ hours. After claiming their stored bags from the Hilton, they got on the E train which brought them to the JFK AirTrain stop in Queens. The whole trip from Manhattan took about 45 minutes which was much faster than any car. Ray and Traci had an on time departure from JFK and actually arrived 45 minutes early in Seattle, a perfect ending to another great New York visit.