No Orcas, No Bears, No Fly! But Why?? Disney Wonder Alaska VIDEO/PICS/NAVS/MENUS/MORE

[DisSarahK]

I wish they were still doing High Tea when we cruise--I think we are missing it by only two weeks or so. I would have loved to do it!

I think the Wonder passes fairly close to my house on its way past Port Angeles. We're going to drive out to the beach I'm thinking of one of these evenings and check. We checked an app one night and it looks like it passes that beach at about 6pm, so it should be good viewing if we're right!

 

[Momma2Jax]

Another great update! I am sure everyone loved your FE gifts! I would have!

So...the dinner tickets.... Is this something you have to keep track of and take with you??

 

[Luv2Diz]

Very fun TR! Looking forward to more!

 

[rogattdm]

From one of the recipients of you FE gifts- we loved it. We have it displayed on our bookcase. So funny that you took a picture of Jeremy finding our stupid FE bags. It could be a disclaimer, "do not give FE gifts like these!"

Love, "the Schindels"

 

[AAshleySEG]

I wish they were still doing High Tea when we cruise--I think we are missing it by only two weeks or so. I would have loved to do it!

I think the Wonder passes fairly close to my house on its way past Port Angeles. We're going to drive out to the beach I'm thinking of one of these evenings and check. We checked an app one night and it looks like it passes that beach at about 6pm, so it should be good viewing if we're right!

I wish I lived close enough somewhere to go and watch the Wonder of any of the ships for that matter pass by. You guys are so lucky! I'm sorry that you aren't going to be able to experience High Tea, but if you ever go to Disney World, the Afternoon Tea at Grand Floridian is one of my absolute favorite things to do in all of Disney World!

Another great update! I am sure everyone loved your FE gifts! I would have!

So...the dinner tickets.... Is this something you have to keep track of and take with you??

Aww thank you! I am hoping to get some more updates done today!! And we never used the dinner tickets, or never needed them either. The same info with the exception of the character breakfast info is on your KTTW Cards, like table number, when and where type stuff. So maybe they used to utilize them, and now not so much anymore? I am not really sure?

Very fun TR! Looking forward to more!

Thanks for reading and I am glad you are enjoying it!!

From one of the recipients of you FE gifts- we loved it. We have it displayed on our bookcase. So funny that you took a picture of Jeremy finding our stupid FE bags. It could be a disclaimer, "do not give FE gifts like these!"

Love, "the Schindels"

Ok seriously, if I see one more post of you saying your FE stuff was stupid I am gonna drive up there and Camaro Slap you! I used that luggage tag as soon as I took it out of the bag! It immediately went on my suitcase which is also pink! We loved ALL FE Gifts, no matter how big or small! So shhh!

 

[AAshleySEG]

I had my first night sleep on the ship! I know some people say that they cannot feel the ship moving....well I am NOT one of those people. It was literally like being rocked to sleep by the ship. In our room (well most of them I am assuming) there was a lot of creaking as the ship moved through the water. Now then, I got up at 6:30am, looked at the Map on TV and found out the current status of our voyage. At 6:50 they were as follows:
Position 49° 58.28' N
127° 59.97' W
Speed 21 knots
Course 313°
So far we have covered 284 nautical miles. Tonight is formal night, and dinner is in Tritons, Golden Mickeys, maybe a naturalist presentation, and brunch at Palo at 10:30 this morning. I have contemplated going for a dip in the Quiet Cove pool as it's current temperature is 90° F. But for now, it is time for me to get ready for the day ahead! While I was in the shower, to stay on my feet I had to sway with the ship, again just to be safe rather than sorry, I took a Dramamine. I looked out the door and noticed we had even more FE stuff already! YAY! When I was getting dressed for brunch, I laid out my heels to wear, then after about a half second of consideration I changed my mind and decided to wear my ballet flats instead! I really hope I get my sea legs before Formal Night tonight! So with both of us ready to go at about 15 till 9:00 we headed over to the Walt Disney Theater for the "Into The Wild" Alaskan Naturalist Presentation with Doug Jones of the US Forest Service!

It was pretty informative, during my research for the trip, I found out most of the things he talked about. So for us, we more than likely won't go to the other ones offered, even though they are different from that first one. When his presentation was over we made our way up to Shutters to debate whether we wanted to buy a photo package. We already loved the first two pictures that were taken of us, so we will probably end up getting it. The only thing is that it seems really expensive. For 10 Photos it costs $149.95! Now, the thing that upsets me a little is how Disney goes ahead and prints all the photos anyway and then if we don't buy them, they just get thrown away! I know all the reasons behind all of this, but I still wish they would just give them out, I mean they are already wasting all of the paper and time to print them anyway, what is they harm in just giving them out. Rant over...sorry about that, moving on. I bet you will never guess who we ran into while in Shutters?? Can you guess?? If you said The Schindels...you would be correct!! It is about that time in the trip that I am going to start referring to them by name, so I will do that (I have their permission)! Their family consisted of Darren, Deanna, and Gwen! If you haven't noticed we seem to be randomly running into them a LOT! It is so funny too considering how big the ship actually is. I hope they don't think we are stalking them...eeek! That would be awkward! We stayed in Shutters for a few minutes talking about DVC and other things, Deanna asked what we were doing for our Anniversary which was Ketchikan Day. I pulled her aside because it was a surprise for Jeremy!! I have no idea how I kept it for so long from him but he still didn't know that I was taking him Flight Seeing on a Float Plane to Misty Fjords National Monument! I was so excited, and proud of myself for not telling him at the same time!!! So it was getting about that time for us to head up to Deck 10 for our first experience at Palo! So we said goodbye to them and went to brunch.

When we arrived at Palo we were seated immediately with no waiting time at all! We met our server Toni from Croatia, hmm I wonder if he knows Mario? Anyway, he brought us our complimentary Mimosas and then took us on a tour so we could get the lay of the land! You have an antipasto table, bread and cheese, seafood, one of my favorites the pastries...

hot items, which you have to order from your server, and of course the desserts! The items change a lot so you won't always have the same things on every cruise.

It is an amazing array of delicious looking food to choose from, and they really want you to eat as much of it as you want! Some of the highlights for me were the Eggs Benedict, which I ordered from the Hot Menu, the dessert Panna Cotta, and hot sticky buns, and even all of the fruit was perfectly ripe and delectable! Jeremy ordered the pancakes from the hot menu, and then Toni convinced us to get a pizza as well, but we did get it half margarita, half italian sausage. I think Jeremy liked everything he tried!

One of his favorite things to eat is chocolate covered strawberries! He would eat them all the time if he could. At the end of the meal Toni must have known because he brought us a plate of them to take back to the room for later! Stuffed...and I mean STUFFED, we walked back down to the room and discovered that our Fish Extender was full yet again!!

I am so glad that I decided to join it even though we don't have any kids! It is so much fun checking to see if we have surprises when we get back to our room! We were going to go ahead and deliver them now, but we chose to wait since ours was full, I wanted to make sure our gift would fit in everyone's, if theirs happened to be overflowing with goodies like ours was! After eating all of that food we were so tired. We wanted to be able to stay up later tonight and are hoping that maybe if we took a little nap that it would do the trick. I set an alarm for 30 minutes and put my head on the pillow...

 

[pixarmom]

Hello Ashley!!! First, I just love your trip report and I have to thank you so much for all the detailed information/navigators/spa menu/menus, etc. Wow - this is all so helpful and informative.

We're a family of five (three boys, ages 5, 12 and 13 when we cruise in August) and we're doing the FE exchange for the first time. I'm hesitant to show our boys (all vinylmation collectors) your recent update with the amazing FE gifts because I don't want them to expect that on our cruise!!! You are both so talented, and that would be their dream FE gift!

Also love the fun photos of Jeremy! Our boys have been doing the exact same for photos (usually with arms outstretched or up in the air) for the past year or so. And they have a name for it: the "awesome face." I have very few regular smiling photos of them these days - all "awesome face" photos. That's fine with me - it means they're really having a great time!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Hello Ashley!!! First, I just love your trip report and I have to thank you so much for all the detailed information/navigators/spa menu/menus, etc. Wow - this is all so helpful and informative.

We're a family of five (three boys, ages 5, 12 and 13 when we cruise in August) and we're doing the FE exchange for the first time. I'm hesitant to show our boys (all vinylmation collectors) your recent update with the amazing FE gifts because I don't want them to expect that on our cruise!!! You are both so talented, and that would be their dream FE gift!

Also love the fun photos of Jeremy! Our boys have been doing the exact same for photos (usually with arms outstretched or up in the air) for the past year or so. And they have a name for it: the "awesome face." I have very few regular smiling photos of them these days - all "awesome face" photos. That's fine with me - it means they're really having a great time!

You are so sweet! I am glad you are finding everything helpful!! That is the main reason I wanted to put up as much stuff as I could, in case anyone was interested in seeing it! FE exchange is great, you will have a blast! I am glad you love Jeremy's faces, it just makes the trip more fun for us so it is good to know other people do it too!! Thanks again for reading! Hopefully I will get some more stuff to help you out soon!!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Umm...so yeah about that 30 minutes. I think it ended up turning into a few hours. When we woke up I think it was almost 3:00 in the afternoon. So bear nap over, we got up and said, Hey, why not go ahead and deliver our FE Gifts!

We did almost get caught once, but I made it safely away. We did happen to pass Darren in the hallway heading back toward their room and mentioned accidentally that we just delivered their FE Gift, so I didn't get caught on that one, I just blurted it out inadvertently...oops! We left the Navigator in the room so we had to go back by there to see what in fact we wanted to do now, and Jeremy was very happy because someone had put mini bottles in our FE. It also happened to be one of his favorites, Captain Morgan Rum...Jeremy thinks he is a pirate. Jeremy chose the next activity which was the "Art of the Show Theme Tour" of the ship. It was at 4:00 and the meeting place was at Palo. So as we made our way up to Palo we ran into Pixie08 again! First we were "stalking" the Schindels now them too! We really weren't, I promise!!! On the tour our guide was Robin, we were given an imagineers look into the design and thought that went into the ship, from the carpet to the ceilings. I am not going to give everything away but I will tell you that if you see anchors on the rugs outside of an elevator...

That means there is some type of entertainment on that floor that can't be seen from the elevator! We learned all sorts of cool things! One more thing I thought was interesting is that when you look at the Wonder, the bottom looks black...well it is actually blue!! So wouldn't you know that while we were on the tour on Deck 5, (ABC Hallway of Nautical Flags), we ran into Deanna and Gwen! Third times the charm. Today is the day we decided that we are only allowed to see each other 3 times per day! She was taking Gwen to the club so they could go to dinner at Palo, at least I think that is what was going on, we were still on the tour so I could be mistaken...anyways...back to that Nautical Flag ABC hall I was telling you about, if you notice them there, you can sort of use them to decode something in another part of the ship! At Treasure Ketch above the doorway they have nautical flags on their sign, can anyone guess what they say?

This one spells out DCL​

And this one spells out Disney!​

It is a really fun tour if you ever have the chance to take it! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on it as well as our guide Robin! He was such a fun cast member and knew all the answers to everyone's questions! After the tour was over we still had to get ready for Formal Night tonight! The Golden Mickey Red Carpet was going to be starting soon and we only had a little bit of time to get ready for it! On our way to the show the halls and atrium were packed with guests and servers. Lots of people were waiting to have their photos taken while the servers were handing out complimentary cocktails for the Captain's Reception. As soon as we made it down the red carpet I turned my camera on and my battery was dead! Jeremy high-tailed it back to the room to get one of the backup batteries I had, luckily I had a few and they were fully charged! We made it inside and sat down, doesn't Jeremy look cute in his bow tie! AND, it is a real one...not one of those clip on ones!

We had a great view of the stage until a tall gentleman and his family of big hair decided to sit right in front of us and blocked most of our view. I know the people behind me were probably getting angry because I had to keep leaning to the side to see stuff. The Golden Mickeys was a really good show, I really loved the fact that they used some of the lesser popular movies! I feel like they never get any air time so I was very pleased with that! When the show was over we dropped by the DVC Desk to pick up our DVC Cruise Pin and Cruise Pack! It was really funny because the lady at the desk LOVED Jeremy's bow tie! She said she doesn't get to see many real ones anymore! His tie turned into the hit of the night! I went to stand in line for a photo with Mickey in his Golden Formal Outfit and Jeremy returned the DVC stuff to the room. The line was long enough that he had plenty of time.

After taking our photo with "The Golden Mickey" we stood in line for a photo with Captain Fabian. Surprisingly this was a much shorter line than the one to have photos taken on the steps outside of Tritons! Captain Fabian was very friendly and it was fun to meet him! It was almost time for dinner but we wanted to see if we could get the photo on the steps before they started letting people in. We were about 2 families away when everyone started going in for dinner, so we just got out of line and decided we would just do it after! Tonight's Menu Theme was The Golden Mickey's Menu. For my appetizer, I got the Caramelized Bay Scallops which were served on a Leek and Sun-Dried Tomato Risotto, I skipped the soup & salad course, and went straight in for the main, the Jumbo Shrimp and Porcini Mushroom Tagliatelle with a Garlic-Porcini Mushroom Cream Sauce topped with Parmesan Shavings. I forgot to mention that tonight's bread selection was a Rosemary & Potato Loaf, with a Rosemary Garlic Oil Dip. I really enjoyed that a lot! Jeremy had the Crispy Cheese Ravioli served with Tomato Concasse and Lemon Zest, he also skipped the salad course and had the Grilled Ginger-Lime Swordfish Steak with Jasmine Rice, braised swiss chard, and red pepper coulis! His food was great! He won 2-0 tonight for sure! There was a photographer roaming around dinner and they managed to get this great photo of us dining in Tritons!

For dessert I had the Golden Mickey Sweet Temptations, which was a trio of Creme Brûlée, The Golden Chocolate Award, and Raspberry Cheesecake! Jeremy just got The Golden Award! We both enjoyed all of the desserts!

After we finished dining, there was no one in line to have their photo taken at the steps now, so we jumped right up! The photographer loved my shoes! She said, "How very pin-up of me to wear those!" She made me pose accordingly!

You know that nap we took...it didn't seem to help one bit! We were so tired, I guess that is what late dinner does to you! So full of food just dragging through the halls, we made it back to our room for some R&R, when we got their we had a little towel doggie chillin' on the bed!

I was trying to stay awake while Jeremy was writing down some TR notes about dinner, so we could look over tomorrow's Navigator and discuss what or if we wanted to do anything before the Tracy Arm viewing...well that didn't happen because I fell asleep with the navigator still in my hand!

 

[rogattdm]

We love reading your TR bEcause it allows us to relive our trip! Amazing how even though it was only a week ago, I have forgotten quite a bit!

 

[AAshleySEG]

We love reading your TR bEcause it allows us to relive our trip! Amazing how even though it was only a week ago, I have forgotten quite a bit!

I know...because seriously had I not written down all of this stuff...I would not have remembered the majority of it. I get surprised every time I read over my notes over how many things I have already forgotten!!


For anyone interested in seeing EVERY photo we took on this trip I have started adding the links to them at the bottom of the very first post. So far I only have June 8th & 9th uploaded, but will have more as I keep posting TR updates! Thank you all for reading!!

 

[Laundress]

Loving your update. Stunning photo of the two of you at Tritons. Looking forward to the next one.

 

[Linda67]

Well you both look fab on formal night

Love your hubby's bow tie and I agree with the photographer ..... Your shoes are gorgeous

 

[AAshleySEG]

I just wanted to put a little note up again before I started this section. In case you are not following the chatter, I added the links at the bottom of the first post to ALL of the trip photos. I took 1671 I believe? I am only picking and choosing for the TR, so if you are interested in seeing the rest I am putting them up with the corresponding date as I post the TR update! Hope you enjoy those as well. Now back to the main event!

So today is the day that we officially get to see some Alaskan sights! We turned our clocks back 1 hour last night so we are now 4 hours behind our home which is in EDT at the moment. I woke up at 6:00am yet again, got ready by 6:30. Jeremy was still asleep in the bed, so I grabbed a wave phone, my camera, & notebook and went down to Deck 4 to see what it looked like outside. We had not yet arrived at Tracy Arm but there were already lovely snow-capped mountains and the most fresh, clean smelling air my nose has ever come in contact with! It was a little hazy but I knew we were in for a great day!

By the time I got back to the room Jeremy was up and almost ready to go. Our assigned character breakfast was this morning but we decided not to go to it. I have been to tons of character breakfasts at WDW and heard that the one on the ship was a little more rushed, so we just decided to go to Tritons instead. Once we got down there it was pretty empty, so we were seated right away!

Jeremy had some orange juice and I chose to have a coffee, I wanted to be very alert when we were up on Deck 10 looking for whales and sightseeing today!

I really enjoyed the sit down Breakfast! It was a great start to our morning. I ordered the Eggs Benedict, which came with a sausage link and Jeremy had the french toast, waffle, and pancake.

After we had finished eating, we thought about going outside for a bit to see if we could see any whales or anything. We did need to run back by our room to grab our jackets though. We walked out of the front door of Tritons, so I had to get a quick photo of Jeremy with The Fairy Godmother of the ship herself Ariel!

So we got our jackets and headed up to the Forward Part of the ship. Wouldn't you know that there were 2 people up there watching for seals and whales and one of them happened to be Darren! (That's 1 for today) We said hi, and talked a little...it was very windy and a little on the cold side at the moment, but we are big winter sports people, so it wasn't so bad!

After only being up there for a few minutes we saw our first humpback whale of the trip! I did manage to catch it's tail going into the water!

I was kind of caught off guard because I wasn't expecting to see them so soon or really even at all. I only had my smaller lens, and my head was getting cold, so I made a quick run back to the room to grab my hat and larger lens so I could try and take some better photos! When I made it back up there it had started to drizzle a little bit, but also Deanna and Gwen had joined Darren and Jeremy at the front of the ship! I put Jeremy on camera duty for a minute or so and he took the opportunity to take a picture of me.

My camera was getting wet, but I did have a waterproof cover for it, but you guessed it...it was back in the room. I then went back down to the room yet again, put the cover on it...then decided I didn't want it on there..and then went back up there, so basically I went to the room for no reason. There were a few more people up there now trying to get photos, me included, for a while all I could get was Jeremy

Then, before you know it we saw about 5 whales off the starboard side of the ship. They never did really all come up at the same time. But I got lots of pics anyway, some of them of just water, or the whales' backs, or water being shot in the air.

Still no orcas or seals yet, but we were keeping our eyes peeled for them! We stayed up there a little bit longer and then at around 10:00 we walked down to Quiet Cove on Deck 9 and sat on lounge chairs, drinking HOT chocolate, I burnt my tongue on it! We relaxed there for a good 45 minutes, then made yet another pit stop by the room to grab my notebook, which I had left in there, I know Cristina our room hostess probably thought we were crazy! Notebook in hand, we walked to the aft deck behind BBB to get good seats for the grill-out! They were already setting up the grills, and it was scheduled to start at Noon.

It was nice and warm back there, while we waited on the Salmon, Chicken, and Steak they had grilling! It was a little bit smoky...but luckily we sat on the left side of the grills and the wind was blowing in our favor, so the smoke was going to the other side of the deck!

While we waited the views just kept getting better and better! We got our very first glimpse of an iceberg so we knew we were heading in the right direction!

The buffet line opened right at 12:00, you had to stand in line to get a tray, then get whatever accompaniments you wanted in the buffet line, then take your plate over to the grills to get the freshly grilled selections! It was so much fun to sit out on the ship watching them grill the food as you pass these mountains and waterfalls!

We knew it was about time to head back upstairs because everything was getting much closer to the sides of the ship. We had made it into Tracy Arm, and couldn't wait for the beauty of Alaska to show itself to us!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Loving your update. Stunning photo of the two of you at Tritons. Looking forward to the next one.

Thank you so much!! I loved that photo of us too! It is rare that we get good ones by the Disney photographers, but the ones on the ship were fantastic!!

Well you both look fab on formal night

Love your hubby's bow tie and I agree with the photographer ..... Your shoes are gorgeous

Thanks!! Jeremy loves bow ties, way more than regular ones. He bought a new one just for the cruise, which you should see later on in the TR! I seriously love my shoes and the funny thing is I got them for $20 at pay less

 

[midwestpat]

Clive, our room host, seemed to be lurking near our room all morning and into the afternoon on Tracy Arm Day. Finally, on one of my many trips down the hall as I did laundry that day, I told him to just go in and do whatever he needed to do to the room. DH was on the balcony, and as I explained to him, this one day was the pinnacle of the trip for him, and the entire justification for the balcony was the ability to stand out there alllllll dayyyyyy longggggg on Tracy Arm day. He WASN'T going to be leaving, so Clive didn't need to wait for that moment.

He smiled at me and did exactly that.

 

[Linda67]

Another great update
I was thinking of booking a whale watching excursion for our cruise but it looks like I might see a few from the ship so maybe I will try something else

 

[Chilly]

Nope different servers, but we were at a table of 4 and it was just the 2 of us as well.

 

[Kerryluv]

It's official, I am addicted to checking up on this thread! I excitedly await every updated post and feel like I am going "Remember to do [fill in the blank!]"

 

[AAshleySEG]

Clive, our room host, seemed to be lurking near our room all morning and into the afternoon on Tracy Arm Day. Finally, on one of my many trips down the hall as I did laundry that day, I told him to just go in and do whatever he needed to do to the room. DH was on the balcony, and as I explained to him, this one day was the pinnacle of the trip for him, and the entire justification for the balcony was the ability to stand out there alllllll dayyyyyy longggggg on Tracy Arm day. He WASN'T going to be leaving, so Clive didn't need to wait for that moment.

He smiled at me and did exactly that.

That is awesome! I am glad you guys enjoyed your verandah! I hope you guys had great views!!! I just love how friendly and courteous the room hosts/hostesses were!

Another great update
I was thinking of booking a whale watching excursion for our cruise but it looks like I might see a few from the ship so maybe I will try something else

I am going to talk about it later on in the TR, but we did go Whale-Watching in Juneau and saw way more whales on the ship that the actual tour. The guys said that the whale activity really picks up in July & August on those tours, so I guess we just booked it at the wrong time

Nope different servers, but we were at a table of 4 and it was just the 2 of us as well.

It was so strange sitting by ourselves every night and watching all of the other tables converse and have a great time, not that we didn't have a great time, it would have just been neat to get to have other people to share our experiences with and vice versa at dinners!

It's official, I am addicted to checking up on this thread! I excitedly await every updated post and feel like I am going "Remember to do [fill in the blank!]"

That just made my day! I am glad you are enjoying it so much and that I am helping you out!! I am trying to best to get it updated quickly for the people that are leaving soon! Thanks again for reading!!