A WONDERful Alaskan cruise in all carry on luggage! May 2016

[tnshsms]

I'm finding your report very helpful! I'm glad we scratched Granville Island from our list. It's my wife, and my parents coming along. While the three gals might enjoy Granville Island, my father would be bored to tears.

We're doing a similar day at Stanley Park, but trying to decide between lunch at the Tea Room or Prospect Point.

So the big question I have is "what was the ambient temperature on the ship?" In the Caribbean or Mexican Riviera I find that I am comfortable wearing a sleeveless top all day and night, inside or out. I am sure that the outside temperature on this cruise will be nowhere near tank top weather especially for a So Cal girl. However if I am wearing long sleeve shirts or sweaters will I be overly warm in the corridors and dining rooms? Others in my party think that the ship will still be at the same temperature as a cruise in the warmer climates, (meaning that all ships keep their common areas at the same relative temperature). Please help resolve this dilemma! Thanks!

I think for Stanley Park it depends on how much money you want to spend and how much time you want to spend at lunch. With the 7 yo we didnt want to wait for a table at the tea room (our trolley guide was nice enough to call ahead and let us know the wait time which at 11:30 was 30 min) and we were wanting to save some money. The tea room for us 3 would have been double our bill at prospect point...maybe more...so we opted for prospect point. BUT that's not to say that 4 adults wouldn't enjoy the tea room. I wanted to try it but I wanted a happy 7 yo too. Just don't get the hot dog. My fish and chips were excellent!

Temp on the ship is comfortable. I was totally fine in a tshirt and pants inside. I saw women and kids in sundreses at dinner. Yes, this wouldn't have worked outside, but was fine inside. I would stick to sleeveless with maybe a cardigan if you plan to walk outside briefly with your sleeveless shirt. I found it to be the same temp inside as it was in the Caribbean. Hope that helps!!

 

[tnshsms]

Thank your for your trip report, I am enjoying it greatly so far (so much that I created an account just to comment). We are leaving in 13 days for this same trip with 2 8 year olds in tow AND we are doing the Eagle Preserve (Skagway) and Rainforest Walk (Ketchikan) excursions you did, so looking to get some feedback on those. Can't wait to read more!!

Oh my goodness, well thank you!!! You will LOVE the skagway excursion and I'll let you decide for yourself on the rainforest one. It was my least favorite. :/

 

[xavier2001]

Uh oh, should we rethink the Rainforest one? We are not totally locked into it yet.

 

[tnshsms]

Uh oh, should we rethink the Rainforest one? We are not totally locked into it yet.

Well my 7 yo says she really liked it. It was a little slow going....I'll let you read the report and decide but you might want to think about a backup too.

 

[tnshsms]

Sea Day!
Today was our character breakfast day. We had an 8:45 breakfast time which I thought would give us a chance to sleep in and mosey on down to breakfast.
BUT the kid had another idea. She mentioned not feeling well before we left the room but we chalked it up to being hungry. We were seated in Animators and ordered our food. The kid looked and acted like she might vomit. I ran her to the bathroom where she didn't do anything but she also didn't have a fever. In the previous 3 cruises she never got sea sick but I think that's what happening here. So we told our servers that we were leaving and headed up to our room. I ran to Goofy's galley to get 2 apples and to the shop to get some chewable Dramamine (2.50 for 2 tablets). The medical center said just 1/2 tablet for a 7yo so we get her eating the apple and pills and laying down. We didn't do much the rest of the morning. So I of course, have very few pictures of this day.

We got lunch a little early because we really didn't eat much that morning. We brought it back to our room and the kid started to perk up a little. We met the princesses at the princess gathering (Cinderella, Tiana, Ariel, Belle) at 1:30. Then we walked around to find the frozen scavenger hunt. The night before they had delivered our navigator and a note from Anna asking if we wanted to participate in a scavenger hunt. It was a cute hunt in which we got 3 clues each day in our navigator sending us to different places on the ship. When you got to each location, you would have to hunt for a picture. You would write the location and the picture down on the sheet and then turn it in when you are done. We got 3 chocolate bars for participating. It was cute and made us miss the midship detective a bit but we had fun doing it.

We went to a kid version of the magic show that was going to be on later in the week. The kid loved it and it was cute. They taught all the kiddos a little trick they could do with string.

The kid wanted to write in her journal she just got from our table mates so we hung out in the club area looking around while she did that. I failed to mention that before this cruise took place we had asked our cruise meet if there were any other 7 yo girls who would like to be a pen pal leading up to the cruise. So we had made a friend before the cruise even started. We sent letters back in forth for about 7 months before the cruise and it was so fun to finally meet our pen pal in person. I think it was just as fun for us adults and it was for the kids. I had arranged table mates before on the previous 2 cruises but the kid had always been just a little too young to get the concept of a pen pal so we hadn't done that yet. But it worked out perfectly this time. They were from Canada so it was fun to find the differences and similarities.

We met Minnie that afternoon and then played The Feud (like family feud) and then went to our room to get ready for dinner. It was formal night but we didn't dress up much. We took pictures with Formal Minnie (the kid loves Minnie) and some formal pictures after dinner in parrot cay and then went to the show with our popcorn in hand: Dreams. We love Dreams and the kid loves all the stage shows. After the show it was bedtime to get ready for Tracey Arm day!

Next up: Tracy Arm.....or so we thought......

 

[xavier2001]

Well my 7 yo says she really liked it. It was a little slow going....I'll let you read the report and decide but you might want to think about a backup too.

Now the pressure is on for you to get to Ketchikan before we leave for our trip LOL!! Can't wait to read some more.

 

[tnshsms]

Now the pressure is on for you to get to Ketchikan before we leave for our trip LOL!! Can't wait to read some more.

Ha...I will!! I plan to try to do a day each night this week to finish up. I now know why it takes a while if you do a trip report with pictures...all of my pictures have to be resized to post them on here. The files are too large for the board I guess.

 

[tnshsms]

Day 5-Tracy Arm day.....or so we thought
After sleeping in a bit we had some breakfast and we chose to stay in our room most of the day. We specifically chose a navigators veranda so that Tracey Arm would be a more enjoyable day for the kid and us. She spent most of the day watching movies and would come out when we would see something interesting. We brought breakfast back to the room and got ready while also stepping outside to see the scenery. Captain Gust came on over the speaker to tell us that Tracey Arm was filled with ice and we would go down Endicott arm instead. We were a bit disappointed but after looking at all the trip reports of Tracy Arm, I have come to realize that they look pretty similar. I think the difference probably comes with the excursion that was from our boat. But I'll talk about that later. About 11 we went up to deck 9 to eat fast service lunch. While we were up there we got closer to the hanging glacier and went to deck 10 after lunch to see it better. We saw our first whale tail and it was exciting.

Sailing that morning......


Kid looking for wildlife. We saw a sea lion swim right next to our ship. It was like he was waving to us and doing tricks. He was super cute and I of course didn't have my camera near me.



More of sailing to the opening of the arm....



Sumdum Hanging Glacier. Its the piece of ice in the mountain that looks like a hand with a curved C. Its hard to tell how big it was from these pictures.





After taking some pictures, getting some hot chocolate(which was excellent with our marshmallows we bought in Vancouver) and went back to the room for viewing. We stayed in the room looking at the ice chunks, bears thru binoculars, more seal lions and beautiful waterfalls.


The last one is of the blue ice you'd see sometimes because its from deep in the glacier. Its very pretty!

 

[Hallfamily2011]

Enjoying this report!

 

[linetbo]

We did Alaska last year and we loved it! Best vacation ever. We did the same excursions in Juneau and Ketchikan. My daughter was 15yo and but the only reason I booked the junior adventure in Juneau was because it was a small group, I think we were like 10 and just 2 kids. It was my favorite excursion. It was last week of July and we saw salmons, whales, eagles, sea lions, dolphins, a deer and a bear. On Mendenhall Glacier we learned so much and saw a porcupine. We are planning to do it again as my daughter graduation present.

 

[tnshsms]

We did Alaska last year and we loved it! Best vacation ever. We did the same excursions in Juneau and Ketchikan. My daughter was 15yo and but the only reason I booked the junior adventure in Juneau was because it was a small group, I think we were like 10 and just 2 kids. It was my favorite excursion. It was last week of July and we saw salmons, whales, eagles, sea lions, dolphins, a deer and a bear. On Mendenhall Glacier we learned so much and saw a porcupine. We are planning to do it again as my daughter graduation present.

Wow you got to see all kinds of stuff on your excursion. We didn't get to see that much! I picked it for its small size as well but we had 19 on our tour.

 

[tnshsms]

Endicott Arm day continued.....




Awe......







About 3, we made it to the glacier and we went upstairs to see it from deck 10. As expected it was crowded. We took pictures, took some with the professional photographer and then went back to the room to watch some more. The kid preferred staying in the room because she wanted to just step outside briefly and not stay on deck to watch. She preferred watching movies in the room.







The club was open programming and the closed programming was on deck 10. It was cold and she wasn't interested in that. She's lukewarm on the clubs as it is and a cold outside club wasn't exciting for her. She didn't like the lab and we found that we were disappointed in all the open programming they had during the cruise. She doesn't use it much but there were many times she wanted to go and it was open.

We enjoyed how close we got to the glacier and was happy that we didn't spend the money on the boat from the ship excursion. They reviews I heard were that they didn't get any closer than we did, there wasn't any explanation and it was just a boat that went a little faster than the ship. It was 3 hours long and was a waste of money from what we hear. From what I can tell though the difference was that we went to Endicott and not Tracy Arm. I believe that DCL might be cancelling this excursion in the future if they go down Endicot but you might keep that in mind if you have your heart set on this excursion.

Here is a picture I took from our veranda of the smaller boat....


The ship turned around and we left Endicott Arm. We were very happy to have not only the veranda but a navigator's veranda to help shield us from the wind. We saw Alaskan Daisy and Donald before heading to dinner. We went to Tritons for dinner this night and since our tablemates were on the small boat excursion and it got back late, it was just us at dinner.



After dinner we got Mickey and Minnie in their Alaskan gear and went to the Magic stage show. It was really good and then up to bed for Skagway!!

Up Next: Skagway....what kind of wildlife will we see?

 

[linetbo]

Wow you got to see all kinds of stuff on your excursion. We didn't get to see that much! I picked it for its small size as well but we had 19 on our tour.

Forest ranger told us that the day before was the first day they saw salmons, and the bear we saw it crossing the street in front of the bus. Best experience ever, they said it was almost impossible to see bears because of the season. We were there last week of July.

 

[tnshsms]

Laundry and how did you pack for Alaska in carry ons?

What I failed to mention is that we did laundry on that first sea day. I was thinking that the first full day, early in the morning, I won't have any trouble getting 2 washers. Well on the Wonder there are 2 laundry rooms....Deck 2 and Deck 6. AND there are 5 washers and 6 dryers on the Deck 6 laundry room. I went at 7:15ish to start laundry and they were all full! It was nice that they all had visible timers on them so I knew when to get back. I went back about 3 min before one was going to end and thankfully the owners were also there waiting for their washer. I was able to snag two washers at that time and then went back 27 min later to move my stuff to the dryer. (Two washer loads were 1 dryer load for me) The dryers took 45 minutes. This wasn't a problem on a later day in the cruise. I was able to get a washer right away at like 4 in the afternoon (I think it was Ketichkan day) and get a small load done. I came home with one suitcase full of clean laundry which was nice and doing laundry on the ship wasn't really that difficult. I mean, I wouldn't want to do like 8 loads or anything but the 3 washes and 2 dry weren't bad.



I totally didn't think we could do Alaska in 3 carry on rolling suitcases and 2 backpacks. When my husband suggested it I thought he was crazy. We had just had 2 different families lose their luggage on trips (both recovered a day or 2 later but never fun) and we didn't want to be those people. So I said I'd try. Well now I don't want to ever check luggage again!

We started off acknowledging that we'd have to do laundry. So we chose 5 outfits each that would layer well, wash and dry well and that the outer layer could possibly be worn twice if we needed to. We also packed two dinner outfits each, 1 coat each, the hubby and kid had 3 pairs of shoes, I had 2 pairs, 1 set of PJ's for the adults and 2 for the kid, enough under garments for 5 days and all our toiletries. The only things we needed to get when we got to Vancouver was a razor and shaving cream which we ended up being able to get from the Fairmont Waterfront.

So here are pictures of everything we packed. The big secret were some dollar store zip close Ziploc bags. We used them like space bags and used 21 of them. I used 24 on the way home to get us all back in carry on's with souvenirs. These pictures are everything but add our PJs and undergarments. They are not in the pictures.

 

[tnshsms]

Skagway!!

We were thankful to wake up to sunny skies and no rain. We had a 9:15 meet time for our excursion but we also wanted to meet Mickey AND Minnie together in their Alaskan outfits at 8:30 so the hubby ran upstairs to get some breakfast for us to eat while we got ready. I always pack our bag the night before because when I pack it that day I seem to forget something. We got in line for M and M at 8:10 and we were several people back. It's so rare for them to be together and both in Alaskan outfits so people lined up fast.

We got thru the line and made our way to our meeting place in wavebands. We then loaded onto a bus that drove us 5 min to a ferry. Several different tours got on this ferry that held about 150 people. The guide talked a little about the ferry, the 5 different kinds of salmon, about Skagway and Haines. The ferry ride took about 45 min and then we met our tour back up to get on a school bus.



Our driver told us that we would take a 30 min bus ride to Haines and we would eat as soon as we got there. The ride was scenic and a two lane road the whole time. Once we got to our "camp" we had hot dogs, chips, a brownie, veggie chili, lemonade and water. We had about 30 min to eat and then we started to load into smaller 16 person boats. Before we left, the owner showed us an eagle perched in the tree nearby and then threw a fish in the water so we could see it swoop down and get a fish. It was really cool.


We started down the river in our boat with narration from Javier showing us mountains and bear tracks. We also watched some bald eagles fly over our head and we stopped in an area where they can sometimes see a moose. We specifically chose this tour so we could see a moose. It was the one thing the kid asked for on this cruise, a moose. From everything I read, you have to go further north into Alaska to see a moose and the chances of us seeing one here are rare. We left this area seeing nothing. We started to get a little worried the kids dream would be crushed. We did enjoy the scenery. We saw a mountain goat with some binoculars here.





We went down the river a little more and saw some more gorgeous scenery. He pointed out trails and different things about the mountains. Then we went to see Fred and Ethel, a bald eagle couple Javier had named. We saw her large nest and she was sitting on top her babies! We were able to watch Fred fly over us looking for food and Ethel watch over her land.







To give you some perspective of maybe just how big this nest was...I mean, its hard to tell in pictures, but it was massive.



Then further down the river some more pretty mountains on this gorgeous day. We got very lucky with the weather. We actually started to get a little hot at one point. It was in the high 60s.






Up Next....Skagway part 2...will we see the elusive moose?

 

[tnshsms]

Skagway - Part 2

At this point we had sailed pretty much down all the river banks and lakes there was and we hadn't seen a ton of wildlife (eagles, bear tracks, beavers, mountain goat) but not a moose. I was kind of bummed at this point. We had been on the river for about an hour and 15 min and I knew our time would be up soon. Then we were told that Javier got some interesting information. He sped us over to a certain part of the river and the hubby and I were hoping it was a moose. We got closer and there she was....not only a moose but a mama moose and two adorable babies!!!!





We were soooo very excited!! We floated there for a good 8-10 minutes just watching her and her babies. Then they got up and walked away. Javier said that since it was so rare we were just going to sit there and watch her until we couldn't see her anymore. It made our day.....really our week!

After the moose sighting, we headed back to "camp". Once we got back there we used the bathrooms which were clean and got back on the bus. We were on the river about 75-90 minutes. Then we took the 30 min bus ride and 45 min ferry ride back. We heard several of the same things on the ferry back to Skagway and took a bus back to the ship. You could have walked to town from the ferry port (about a 10 min walk) which I almost did but I wanted to see how to get back to the ship so I rode it back with the family.

The hubby and kid went to the room and I walked into town (about 5-10 min walk from the ship). I was in search of a Christmas ornament. I found one at the Christmas store - a moose - and caught a "free shuttle" back to port. What I didn't realize is that the shuttle wasn't free as I heard another passenger say. It was $2. But that's ok. It was worth not walking back in the very windy cold weather. It was cloudy at this point and although it wasn't rainy it was cold. Once back on the ship, we rested before dinner. At dinner we talked with our table mates about the white pass train ride they took which they enjoyed but her kiddos were bored. (She had a 7 and 4 year old) She said the 7 yo liked it more but it didn't keep her 4 yo attention.

Remember how I said there wouldn't be pictures of food unless it was really good...well here you go. Dessert from our Frozen menu. I don't remember what it was...some kind of Olaf cake. It was excellent and even had an Olaf chocolate on top.



After dinner, we went to the Freezing the night away show on the top deck. It started at 7:45 which I think was earlier than they had done in the previous year which I was happy about because we were all tired from our exciting day. The show was kind of what you expect. Dancing and singing by the cast members for a bit, then Anna comes out and they sing a couple of songs and then Elsa comes out for Let it go. And it "snows". The kid wasn't much of a frozen fan as every other girl in America. She liked the movie and all but not the craze in our household like some. She enjoyed the show and I enjoyed my hot chocolate.


They handed these out at dinner for us to wear. One is turned on and one is off so you could see them. What I didn't think about until we got there is that those who had a late seating didn't get their snowflake until after the deck party. So it might have been better if they had put them out with the navigators the night before. We were the first sailing and I'm not sure if they had done these necklaces before so maybe its just a learning curve still.



While others were at the show including the kid and hubby, I walked around the ship and got some pictures.







After the deck party, we got our popcorn and went back to the room. This was the Jungle Book movie night and although I wanted to see it, the kid thought it was scary and didn't. So we opted to relax in the room and watch a movie there. We had a long day and another big day tomorrow in Juneau with an 8:30 meet time so it was a perfect night for us.

Up Next: Juneau with the hope for some whales....

 

[dinglehopper79]

Really enjoying your TR and to hear about your excursions as they were different than what DH and I did! I'm glad she got to see her moose and totally understand how that made the week I've started to follow a few TR's from the same sailing and really getting excited to write ours up; hoping to get it started this weekend!!

 

[condorthb]

enjoying

 

[tnshsms]

Really enjoying your TR and to hear about your excursions as they were different than what DH and I did! I'm glad she got to see her moose and totally understand how that made the week I've started to follow a few TR's from the same sailing and really getting excited to write ours up; hoping to get it started this weekend!!

I look forward to reading yours!

 

[tnshsms]

Day 7 - Juneau

We woke up to another gorgeous day in Juneau. We had been very lucky with weather! We brought breakfast back to the room again to get ready for our 8:30 meet time in Diversions. They gathered us all up and took us outside to meet our tour guide Jon. The thing we began to notice was how steep the ramps to the ports were. In Skagway we had to go up and down quite the steep ramp to get to the ferry. Then in Juneau we used two ramps that were steep. I guess with the tide they have sometimes really steep ramps. Might keep that in mind if you have mobility issues. I'm not sure if a motorized scooter or wheelchair could have done those ramps. But if it was a higher tide it won't be as bad. Anyway, Jon loaded our 19 person excursion onto a small tour bus and told us we'd have a 30 minute bus ride to a hike that would take us to Mendenhall glacier. We had a total of 7 kids with us ranging from baby to maybe 9ish years old. Jon was with Gastineau Guiding Company and he was an excellent guide.


Along the way, he told us about Juneau and how it was all formed, how expensive the housing was and that we'd do a 45 min hike to see the glacier. Once we got to our parking spot, we got out and crossed the street to a stream. Jon asked what kiddos wanted to get bugs with him. A few went down but mine wasn't interested in bugs. After about 10 minutes, he came back up with a tray of water and bugs and explained each bug and how it relates to salmon and then bears since the salmon eat the bugs and the Bears eat the salmon. I took some pictures while the kids got the bugs.


After writing down our information we found for the experiments they were keeping track of back in their shop, we crossed the street to go on a hike. The trail was gravel and dirt and wasn't smooth. A couple had a jogging stroller with them and I was shocked and how well the stroller did. Along the hike, he mainly just tried to keep track of the younger 2 kids running ahead of him because there could be bears in the area. We were told to keep the kids in the middle and the adults were to be on the lookout but 2 kids in our group kept running ahead so Jon was trying to make sure they didn't get trampled by a bear. He stopped a couple of times to tell us about our surroundings. Once we got to the glacier there was a bigger area for everyone to look around and take lots of pictures. We spent about 15 or so minutes there. The glacier was larger than you can tell in my pictures and the beach we were on was a great place to view it. We hiked back to the visitors center to use the bathrooms and get back on the bus. They gave us some snacks (peanuts, fruit strip, mint, granola bar) and after about 10 minutes we were at the port boarding our boat for whale watching!



To give some perspective....I took this picture of a kayak that was on the lake at the same time we were there. We could see them off in the distance but I took a picture of them zoomed in and then a picture of the glacier and mountain immediately after getting a picture of the kayak so you could see how large it really all was.





You can't even see them in the zoomed out picture...its crazy! It was a really neat viewing spot.

We got on our boat which was fully enclosed with windows and had a small front and rear decking. It could have held about 25 people. We were told that everyone, especially children, should remain seated the entire time because if anyone is standing when the boat has to make a quick turn or hits a wake, then the adult or child will most likely fall and could hit their head. He tells us that he has had to do that before and if that happens then the tour is over, they take the boat back to the dock for a hospital run. With as many small children as we had with us, this was a little worrisome as I wanted to see whales and not have to turn back around!

Our first stop was to pull up a basket of fish and hermit crabs and some kind of other crab for the kids to look at. They all enjoyed looking at this and then again, they wrote down their findings.


Then we were off in search of whales! I took some pictures while the kids were collecting sea life.


Our first sighting!



As you can tell there are many other whale watching boats out there to try to find them as well. But luckily I don't feel like any of them interfered with our experience. Everyone seemed to be courtesy of other boats so that was nice.

Part 2 up next......