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!
