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

[rogattdm]

What? We did not see you guys that day? Still cannot get over your hiking experience; I told you should have gone with us on all our excursions!

 

[AAshleySEG]

What? We did not see you guys that day? Still cannot get over your hiking experience; I told you should have gone with us on all our excursions!

If I could turn back time, I most definitely would have!

 

[barbbarnes]

You are quite the trooper hiking until your heel bleeds! I'm very impressed I can't get over the size of that bug. Did you bring any kind of repellent and did you notice the bugs while on the ship?

Btw...I love your pic with Mickey and Minnie too cute!

 

[AAshleySEG]

You are quite the trooper hiking until your heel bleeds! I'm very impressed I can't get over the size of that bug. Did you bring any kind of repellent and did you notice the bugs while on the ship?

Btw...I love your pic with Mickey and Minnie too cute!

LOL, you make me sound more adventurous than I am...haha! Yeah the bugs were only in the wooded areas, so none in the towns or anything like that. We did bring bug repellent but did not use it because we were long sleeves and pants and didn't really need it. I never even got bit by anything. I love Mickey and Minnie together, it is hard to get a pic like that so I was happy about it!!

 

[Linda67]

Another great update

I must admit, I would have been disappointed with that view after such a long hike

I hope you at least sat on the bench for a while

 

[midwestpat]

Okay, I'll try this (wish uploading photos was as easy here as Facebook). The bear we saw from the train:

... and the pictures of the tent city, that charges people $300 a month to pitch their tent there so they can work in town for summer:

At this point, you can count me among those addicted to following your updates

 

[AAshleySEG]

Another great update
I must admit, I would have been disappointed with that view after such a long hike
I hope you at least sat on the bench for a while

You know, I don't even think I sat on it at all...HAHA I think I was just ready to get out of there and get back down to town! It is all good now because it makes for a good story

MidwestPat:
Aww, I am glad you like it! You guys were so lucky to get to see a bear! I was so sad that I never got to see any the whole time we were there What is so funny too, when I think about you, one of the specific things I remember about you guys is how you couldn't get any fresh carrots. I am not sure why that sticks in my mind, the crazy things I remember...LOL.

 

[AAshleySEG]

We woke up at 7:00am this morning even though we were docked in Juneau by 6:30. Our plan for today is to go Whale Watching with Weather Permitting Alaska! We are supposed to meet them at 8:30 on the cruise ship dock! For the moment, I am waiting on Jeremy to get out of the shower so we can go! Today we have to get off the ship from Deck 1 Aft. I never knew there were so many different ways to get off! When Jeremy was finally ready we headed up to Beach Blanket to get a little breakfast. We got our tray and decided to sit outside to eat. While we were sitting there we had a lovely view of Juneau, the Mt Roberts Tramway, and some eagles sitting on top of a radio tower! We made it out to the dock by 8:15am and met up with Captain Greg, his wife Tina, and the other two families going with us! One was plwilliams whom we met in the DisBoards Meet Up Thread, her and her grandson, and then another very friendly family which was a mom, dad, and daughter. So that was 7 passengers total! It was a nice small group! We drove out of Juneau on "The Road" to Auke Bay where the boat was. On our way out he told us a little about the city of Juneau, we saw a field full of Bald Eagles, and caught a glimpse of the Mendenhall Glacier! Once we got to the dock we got right on the boat!

He designed it and had it specifically built for whale watching. This place was just gorgeous, snow covered mountains all around and smelled so clean and untouched! Before we even made it out of the harbor, we saw some more eagles!

I remember when I was growing up, I thought that there were not very many Bald Eagles anymore, but apparently they have come back with a vengeance because every time you turn around you see them somewhere up here!

So we made our way out to the first sighting location, and the 1st whale was supposedly just seen lunge fishing. We only barely saw it happen for a split second (we think), and didn't see that whale again after that. We waited and waited some more, and after a long while with nothing, we headed toward our second area where whales were being spotted. When we got there we managed to see a few spouts and whale backs, but no humpback tails. We had yet to even see an Orca at all. All we had seen so far were humpbacks! We did however, get to see two glaciers, the Eagle and the Herbert Glaciers.

After coming up pretty empty again, we moved on to our third location and finally saw a whale tail! We also saw some spouts but the whales never came up out of the water. As soon as the boat would get anywhere in their vicinity they would disappear into thin air

We did have fun watching the harbor seals just playing in the water and having a great time with each other, one even came really close to the boat! It shocked me, so my photo wasn't that great, but i did manage to get it!

They tried so hard to find us some whales to see! But they did have one thing, world famous brownies that were fantastic! We never did end up seeing any Orcas, or even very many humpbacks for that matter, which Captain Greg said was highly unusual. They usually see tons of them, maybe we were just bad luck? We were driving around and Captain Greg said we would have the chance to get the stereotypical Alaskan photo, which was Eagles and Seals on a Buoy! Well of course i had to have that!

By 12:00 we had started heading back to Auke Bay, we were still on the lookout just in case we did happen to see anything on the way back

I think they felt bad for us, because at the beginning of the trip he told us that he had books for sale that had photos taken by an Alaskan Photographer on that very boat over the last 6 years. On our way back he was going to give each family one for free since we didn't really see very much. I thought that was very kind, considering they didn't have to do that at all! When we were almost back at the dock, I got a little chuckle because of the Alaskan Gas Station on the water!

We made it back and got off the boat and walked up to the pier to wait on the cab that was supposed to take us back to the Cruise Ship Dock, where we had been picked up. I stood around for a bit taking photos and got this cute little guy!

While we were waiting, Captain Greg asked us all what we were planning to do with the rest of our time in Juneau. As soon as I said we were planning on eating some King Crab, he said right away that we should go to Tracy's King Crab Shack! I read another recent TR that said that it was "touristy", when someone who lives there, that only goes into town for Tracy's King Crab, says we should go there. I am thinking we might have picked the right place!

 

[Skylarr29]

I wonder how 'bad' it is that I'm sitting here reading your TR and planning my next trip when I haven't even left for this one lol.

 

[AAshleySEG]

I wonder how 'bad' it is that I'm sitting here reading your TR and planning my next trip when I haven't even left for this one lol.

Thats so funny! So I am guessing everything is already planned out for the trip you are going on soon?? I hope you have a great time and not nearly as many mishaps as we did...LOL

 

[Chilly]

We only saw 3 whales but we did see one come right out of the water.

 

[gotomu212]

I love your comment about thinking bald eagles were few and far between. I was thinking the same thing reading your and other reports- look at all these friggin eagles.

I remember bringing pennies into 2nd grade for a save the eagle campaign (and I'm in my early 30s so it wasn't THAT long ago). Looks like by 11 cents paid off.

I am so excited for my trip at the end of August! Thank you so much for getting me ready!

 

[Momma2Jax]

I remember bringing pennies into 2nd grade for a save the eagle campaign (and I'm in my early 30s so it wasn't THAT long ago). Looks like by 11 cents paid off.

and on behalf of us who live in the northwest and can see Eagles a lot, we thank you for your 11 cents!

 

[Skylarr29]

Thats so funny! So I am guessing everything is already planned out for the trip you are going on soon?? I hope you have a great time and not nearly as many mishaps as we did...LOL

Yes, everything is pretty much planned out for this upcoming trip... I've pretty much been obsessing about it since we booked it 'last minute' in Feb I too hope we don't have many mishaps. DH and I haven't had a date in about 3 years, we need this, ha ha ha. I think it will be the first time I will get to sleep through the night in 3 years as well (thanks to our little monsters who are 2,1, and 3 months).

We are doing a bus tour with Chilkoot in Skagway, Glacier Trek in Juneau, and then Misty Fjords in Ketchikan. I can't wait to bring the kids back.

Your trip report has made me do a mad dash of research for things to do in Seattle because we were just treating it as a stop over before but now have realized there are tons of things to do there.

 

[Travelbee]

Thanks for such a great trip report! All the photos are wonderful, especially those from Tracy Arm (and the bench for laugh factor)!

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...

We LOVE Toni from Croatia. Glad to know he's still on the ship. We've requested him for all our Palo dining for our cruise next week. What were your impressions of his service?

I was so excited! I went inside and thought to myself...I didn't know they still has outhouses in 2012? Apparently they did, because all that was inside here was a big open hole with a toilet bucket sat on top which had a seat, some TP, and seat covers, and some Purell...luckily, Thank GOODNESS for the Purell!! It looks so unassuming from the outside though right? Back to the pretty things now! It was a very short easy hike from the Cemetery to Lower Reid Falls, and they were beautiful!

This is the first I've heard of someone getting excited about an outhouse!!

We did have one more geocache to do, which was on the way, to drop off some Travel Bugs. We got back on the boat by 4:15 and went up to the room. Now...should we go see Avengers or go to the hot tub? As it turns out, neither. Well we tried to go to the hot tubs, but they were both full when we got there, so we decided to go swimming in the pool instead. It was nice for a little while, then...we had to get out! In 40 something degree windy weather, that is a whole different kind of challenge in and of itself!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let this be a typo? I will never hear the end of it from my sister who has finally agreed to go on a cruise for the first time. She thinks 70s degree weather is cold. I noticed you are wearing your beanie in all the photos... was it REALLY that cold? I may have to restrategize on how to pack.

 

[AAshleySEG]

We all got into the taxi van and headed back toward Downtown Juneau. I asked the driver if she would drop us off at Tracy's and she said she would be glad to! We said goodbye to the others as they were going back to the ship and walked up to Tracy's Crab Shack!

We walked right up, and placed our order. It took maybe 15 minutes or so for them to make our food, I was so glad that it was cooked to order! We got the Large Bucket of Crab, which was like 3 Lbs of King Crab Legs, one with a claw on it, coleslaw, garlic roll, and drawn butter. Jeremy was really starting to love that Alaskan White Label Beer and they had it on draft, so he got one of those too!

By the time we got our food it was 1:00, and we had to be back on the ship by 2:00! That King Crab was OUTSTANDING! No wonder everyone loves Tracy's!! It was most definitely the best either one of us has ever had. All other crab we have from now on will be compared to the King Crab at Tracy's! It is a little expensive, but definitely worth budgeting some extra money for it! When we were done eating we had a few minutes to spare, so of course Jeremy wanted his picture as a Crab Fisherman!

We knew we needed to get the prerequisite postcards and magnet, so we popped over to the store across the street, then caught the shuttle back to the Wonder. If anyone is wondering, it is on the ship side of the Mt Roberts Tramway area, there are loads of little kiosks set up to if you want to book any excursions from there. We actually did have to wait in a little line to get back on the ship today, but it still didn't take very long at all! We headed straight up to the room, it gave me some time to catch up on notes before the evenings festivities. Jeremy fell asleep and had a little nap while I was getting ready. So we decided to go up to Cove Cafe again for some coffee, this time however we went to the top part on Deck 10 and sat at the bar.

We sipped our coffee for a while and then went down to Shutters to look for the newest photos, and were excited when we saw The Schindels there! We hung out with them for a good long while today! We stood in line with them and talked for Hook & Mr Smee, it was pirate night after all. Jeremy had an eye patch to wear to dinner and the most disgusting teeth I have ever seen!

Next we all stood in line together for Pirate Mickey! Jeremy wanted to be funny in that picture and do the Captain Morgan stance from the rum bottle!

After Mickey they had to go to dinner. So sadly, we said goodbye for the time being, and Jeremy and I made a quick stop by the room so he could put his contacts in for the show tonight Toy Story The Musical! We were going to get our photo with Captain Jack but he was taking a break when we were about to get in line, so we just went ahead into the show! We got seated, and the couple we now referred to as "Six Flags" because of the Match Your Mate Game Show, sat down in front of us, so we had a little chuckle about that! So, I read all sorts of "reviews" about Toy Story before we got onboard and so I wanted to see for myself how it was. We actually thought it was pretty cool! There were some really neat effects in the show which I really enjoyed. I didn't mind that Andy and Sid were played by females, because you really need that in order to get the voices right, and they were GREAT at their roles! The only thing that I thought was a little strange was that some of the voices in the show were pre-recorded, so you had a mixture of voices from the film, and live? But again, not that big of a deal. So with everything as far as a Disney Stage Production goes, I would give it a solid A-. When the show was over we walked over to Studio Sea and caught "A Pirate's Life For Me". It was pretty cute and really funny at the same time. We were really excited about Dinner tonight, for one we were in Parrot Cay, which was perfect for Pirate Night, and two, it was the Taste of Alaska Menu! So we went in once again to our lovely little Table 75!

So for our appetizers tonight we each had the crab legs, we wanted to see how they compared to Tracy's. I feel sorry for Disney even having to try and compete with that...For my main course I had the Honey Mustard Marinated Alaskan Salmon with a side of Elk, just because I wanted to taste it, since it was Juniper-Spiced and that sounded interesting!

Jeremy got the marinated sirloin steak with a side of elk also, he thought the side sounded good too (copycat)! The elk sauce is pretty strong if any of you decided to get it on your cruise, the meat however was delicious! So if you get the elk, just eat a little of the sauce, because it really packs a wallop! It took us a little while to decide on dessert tonight

Mr chocaholic didn't have a hard time deciding though, of course he got the Skagway Chocolate Truffle Torte, I ended up getting the Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta, after I ordered it Mario looked shocked. He said that it is his favorite dessert but no one ever orders it! I love Panna Cotta, they had a really good mango one at Palo Brunch, and are supposed to have another really good one for Dinner at Palo!

So after dinner there was the Pirate Party (in the atrium), The big Pirate Night Buffet at Beach Blanket...well we didn't make it to either one of them. I know I know, I swear I feel so old going to bed so early! But we were tired from staying up late the night before, and getting up again to be ready and out in Juneau! These early port times were killing me, tomorrow in Ketchikan we have an arrival time of 7:15 and leave there by 12:30!! BUT, I am so excited about tomorrow! It is our 5th Anniversary! I am also proud to say that I kept the surprise from Jeremy the entire time! He still doesn't know anything about it! I booked the Flight Seeing with Island Wings, we are going to the Misty Fjords National Monument! We have I think 2 hours of flight time, plus a lake landing, with 30 minutes to walk around! That is the picture that I want to hang up in our living room from Alaska! So needless to say! I cannot wait for tomorrow!!!

 

[pixielizzie]

It was SOOO good...
I did have second thoughts after hearing how long you have to be on antibiotics if you get an infection....
Thank you for a beautiful TR and your husband is mad cute by the way!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Thanks for such a great trip report! All the photos are wonderful, especially those from Tracy Arm (and the bench for laugh factor)!

We LOVE Toni from Croatia. Glad to know he's still on the ship. We've requested him for all our Palo dining for our cruise next week. What were your impressions of his service?

This is the first I've heard of someone getting excited about an outhouse!!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let this be a typo? I will never hear the end of it from my sister who has finally agreed to go on a cruise for the first time. She thinks 70s degree weather is cold. I noticed you are wearing your beanie in all the photos... was it REALLY that cold? I may have to restrategize on how to pack.

I'm glad some people are getting a good laugh from my bench photo!

We really enjoyed Toni a lot!! On the Ketchikan Day which I will try and have up tomorrow, I will talk about Toni a lot more because we went to Palo for our Anniversary Dinner and had him again!

I was excited to see a bathroom, but then when it turned into an outhouse I was way more excited that it was a sanitary outhouse, more than the fact of it being an outhouse...ROFL

Sorry to say it was not a typo, but I guess you do have to remember that we went in the 2nd week of June, so maybe it will get a little warmer? I really have no idea. I kept pretty comfortable with my beanie and north face shell, I did have on like a long sleeve shirt underneath and then gloves. We live in NC, so I mean it gets into the 20's, 30's, 40's here in the winter time, so I guess I am used to that? I was never "Cold", but it was Cold outside, some people were giving us crazy looks earlier in the day for wearing all of that, but then after they were outside for a while, quite a few of them went to get more clothes to put on...LOL But hey, you could always buy a Disney Alaska Jacket and stuff to keep warm if you do get cold right...LOL

 

[AAshleySEG]

We only saw 3 whales but we did see one come right out of the water.

I would have loved to see a whale breach! That is what I was hoping for when I booked that Whale Watching Tour! Or at least an Orca sighting of some kind, oh well, when we got home we found out that the whales are much more active in July and August, so if anyone goes then, they should have a really great show of whales!

I love your comment about thinking bald eagles were few and far between. I was thinking the same thing reading your and other reports- look at all these friggin eagles.
I remember bringing pennies into 2nd grade for a save the eagle campaign (and I'm in my early 30s so it wasn't THAT long ago). Looks like by 11 cents paid off.
I am so excited for my trip at the end of August! Thank you so much for getting me ready!

Yeah, when I was in school I thought they were an Endangered Species! I am only 27! I am trying to remember what they say at the Flight of Wonder Show at Animal Kingdom, because they bring out that bald eagle and tell the story of eagles at that show, I guess I will have to watch it again when I am there in October!

and on behalf of us who live in the northwest and can see Eagles a lot, we thank you for your 11 cents!

Even those of us that can only see them on vacation! I really thank you too!!

Yes, everything is pretty much planned out for this upcoming trip... I've pretty much been obsessing about it since we booked it 'last minute' in Feb I too hope we don't have many mishaps. DH and I haven't had a date in about 3 years, we need this, ha ha ha. I think it will be the first time I will get to sleep through the night in 3 years as well (thanks to our little monsters who are 2,1, and 3 months).
We are doing a bus tour with Chilkoot in Skagway, Glacier Trek in Juneau, and then Misty Fjords in Ketchikan. I can't wait to bring the kids back.
Your trip report has made me do a mad dash of research for things to do in Seattle because we were just treating it as a stop over before but now have realized there are tons of things to do there.

I originally thought of Seattle as just a stop over until I started researching it. Now I want to go back to Seattle more than I want to go back to Alaska...is that a bad thing??

It was SOOO good...
I did have second thoughts after hearing how long you have to be on antibiotics if you get an infection....
Thank you for a beautiful TR and your husband is mad cute by the way!

At least we know it was good!! It looked like it would have been! I know had I had some of it, I probably would have gotten sick with the way our luck was on that trip! I am glad you are enjoying my TR! And my cute husband...LOL

 

[rogattdm]

Those teeth of Jeremy's were the most disgusting thing! However it totally fit with pirate night!