Alaska on the Wonder May 30, 2016 After Thoughts - Done

[The Grays]

At Endicott arm the life boat went out so the shutters photographer could take pics of the Wonder beside the glacier

 

[franandaj]

I saw in another trip report that you are planning on going to Capliano. Are you going to the suspension bridge park? It didn't seem very good for those with mobility issues. There are some things to do and see there without crossing the big bridge or doing all the stairs to get to cliff walk, but I am not sure if it would be worth the time and money. Be sure to research it some more if you are planning on going there. When I was there, I kept thinking, "there's no way my husband could do any of this if he were here."

I didn't realize that it was $40pp to get in. We might rethink it. What is your husband's mobility level? Fran was willing to give the bridge a try but skip the forest walk and cliff walk.

And then, I could feel food coming back up into my throat. I wasn't sick to my stomach, I was overfilled.

I've been having this problem a lot too. My stomach is just shrinking.

The meats went directly from the grill to plate. Sure, they got cold by the time we sat down, but fresh off the grill is so much better than in the serving dishes.

Hmmm that doesn't sound as good as I might have thought.

 

[cruisehopeful]

I should mention that I did keep all of the navigators. I will be sacrificing them to the recycling gods when I done with this report. If anyone wants a copy of any of them beforehand, let me know. I really don't want to upload all of them. I thought about just doing the first page for each day, but I won't bother with it if it seems like nobody wants to look at them. I know I usually don't click on them when other people upload them.

Skagway:
I started the day with wanting to give myself a healthier meal. Here's my evidence of my breakfast. It is still more food than I would normally eat at home for breakfast, but I thought it was better than having more croissants.

I'm actually cookoo for the yogurts at Goofy's Galley. The one in the picture is orange. I also loved the mango one. I had the mango in Triton's one morning, also. Yummy. I'll book another cruise just for the yogurt.

I decided to do a load of laundry. My stateroom was close the laundry room on deck 2 and when went in there, all machines were busy. They showed the time left and one would be done in 12 minutes. One was already done, so I figured when I came back in 12 minutes, I'd get one of those machines. I did my laundry with no issues, but feel motivated to say that the load that was done when I first got there, was still sitting there in the washer when I was completely done washing and drying mine.

We were in Skagway and my daughter wanted to walk the town and get some breakfast in town. We spent a while walking around and then ate at Sweet Tooth Cafe. It was a very typical breakfast place and she was happy because she could get poached eggs. When we were done eating, I told her that when we were walking, I saw a shop that said it had items from local artists. Now, if you've been to these ports, you know that the majority of the items sold here are made in China. I wanted to bring back some stuff for people at work, but it had to be something Alaskan and not too expensive. We walked up and down the street 3 times looking for the shop. It was so small, that we kept passing it. I was about to give up, but eventually found it. They sell lots of ivory jewelry and items. I told the woman in the shop that I can't give ivory to people in California as a gift. It is too frowned upon. She said the ivory is from extinct walruses that were buried thousands of years ago and have been dug up and carved. I said it didn't matter - you don't wear ivory in California or give it as a gift. She told me that they don't have much in Alaska other than rocks and gold. The wood is too soft to make stuff out of. I found some small rock charms. They had sterling silver and one had an amethyst attached to it. They came with a card that explained where the rocks came from and how local artists were supported by the purchase, etc. I bought 2 of those. I neglected to take pictures. I also bought a set of antler horn salt and pepper shakers. These came with a card explaining that they were naturally shed from the animal and an artist made them into salt and pepper shakers. Okay, that sounds true Alaskan and I can give that to someone in California. When I was purchasing the items, I said what the heck and bought one of the ivory charms for my other daughter. She doesn't care what people think about her. It came with a card explaining the extinct animal, etc. I only spend about $120. on the 4 authentic gifts. I was happy and the people working in the store were extremely happy that I bought from them.

We walked around a little bit more and decided to go check in for our train excursion. I booked us the White Pass and Yukon railroad tour through the operator on their website. We were on the same train as people from a Wonder excursion, only we paid less since we booked it direct. It was approx. 3 1/2 hours and even thought it went into Canada, we didn't need to use our passports because we were not getting off of the train. There are other tours where you take the train one way and a bus another. Since you get out, you have to have your passport. This excursion was EXCELLENT. I recommend it very highly. We sat on the right side of the train. The left said is actually quite a bit better going up the mountain. They do make everyone switch sides going back down to keep it fair. The seatbacks flip over so the seats easily change direction. When the train is moving, we are allowed to go out on the platforms. Nothing beats the wind in the fact while hanging out the side of a mountain. There were a couple families who seemed to have a monopoly on the platforms, but I did get some time out there. There is a toilet in each car and a heater. It wasn't too cold when we were on it and it was sunny, actually making the cars too warm next to the windows.

Here is the Wonder from the train station. Since we booked direct, we had to board at the station. People who booked from DCL were picked up by the train next to the ship. You can see it is not a far walk to the station.

This is a pic of the one and only steam train. We were not on the steam train.

Here is part of our train. You can see it because of the curve in the track. Imagine hanging off the side of the mountain on the platform. So Fun!

There were lots of rivers and waterfalls. We were told that many of those were frozen solid the week before. I don't know if there would be as many waterfalls and rivers later in the season. It was really the perfect time for this. At one point, 3 bears crossed the track in front of the train, but I didn't see them.
We passed this old broken track that used to be the train track.

This is a picture of the engine switching track so it could move to the back of the train so we could go back down the mountain.


When we got back to town, we were told we could get off at the station or be dropped off at the Wonder. We were going to ride back to the Wonder but then they said it was going to be a wait because the steam train had to do something on the track before our train. We just got off and walked back. I don't know how long the others waited, but we were already back on board the ship before the train made it to the Wonder.

Overall, this was a very good excursion. In 2012, we booked a van tour on the fly after we docked through MandM tours. That tour was very good, too. It went through the town and into Canada. We got out a few times. The benefits of the van tour is that whenever anyone on the tour was interested in anything, we could stop and get out and look at it. With the train, that isn't an option. However, the scenery is so much better on the train, which was surprising because it was totally amazing on the van tour. I think those combo tours are probably the best idea where you take a train up and the bus/van back down.

We ate on deck 9. I had a turkey sandwich and some fruit from Goofy's galley and realized I was eating bread, but at that point, I didn't care. I ordered an Espresso Martini at the Cove Cafe. It sounded really good and sounded similar to my Godiva Chocolate Martini, but it just wasn't nearly as good. It was good, not something I'd order again. I noticed later on my receipt that the bartender charged me for the Espresso Martini and also a shot of espresso. That may be why it wasn't as good as it sounded if he threw in another shot.

We went back to the room and watched 101 Dalmations (classic) and half of Hercules. It was time to go to the Frozen party. We were given light up snowflake necklaces for the event, but it stays light outside very late and when we were outdoors, you couldn't tell they were turned on. We stood on deck 10 to watch it. It was pretty cheesy, but I was glad to be in Skagway and be outside. It was nice seeing Goofy, Minnie and Donald walk by us. There were 2 other ships in port that day. Goofy was waving across to the Holland ship (I think the Princess ship already sailed away at that point), but I didn't see anyone on deck over there. I kept looking wondering what those people on Holland were doing while we were outside having fun. Whatever they were doing, they were doing it indoors. There were servers walking around selling drinks. We didn't get any. My daughter wanted to leave before the "snow" and I insisted that we stay for that part. Once it started "snowing" we went off to Outlook.

The show this night was Alice Through the Looking Glass. We didn't go see it. I tried to watch the first one on TV a couple weeks before the cruise and I couldn't last more than an hour. It just wasn't interesting or entertaining to me. Later, we went to the adults after hours frozen party and we saw the adult show done by the ventriloquist. He wasn't good. I was much more impressed by the audience member that he had take care of his plastic baby for him. The ventriloquist was far below typical Disney entertainment. Jamzie ran a contest where he'd say something from the Frozen movie and someone would have to say the next line. My daughter and I didn't know any of those. Lots of other women did, though! They had a special frozen martini, but it was late and I didn't want to bloat out before bed again. There was a carved martini dispenser in the room (Wavebands). They said if anyone ordered the frozen martini, they would ring a cow bell and pour it through the ice sculpture. Nobody ordered one! They also served us desserts, but we didn't get any. At the end of everything, Jamzie said the contest winners would get a free martini and that we could all go watch it be poured through the sculpture. We went over to watch it and the bartender didn't do it. She just made them and poured them in the regular glasses with the light up cubes in them. Here is what she was supposed to use to pour them:

The glass in the picture was catching melting ice.

When we left, we walked by Diversions and saw this:


I was tired and went to bed. I went to bed watching Disney movies every night. My daughter said I was snoring whenever she came in.

 

[cruisehopeful]

I didn't realize that it was $40pp to get in. We might rethink it. What is your husband's mobility level? Fran was willing to give the bridge a try but skip the forest walk and cliff walk.

He has bone on bone in his knees. He is getting a replacement on one later this summer. I hope it helps because he gets in so much pain so quickly just doing normal walking, but when we do something like stairs, it will disable him for a few days. If the bridge wasn't so packed with people, he could probably get across it with his hiking sticks. Here's a picture I took of it when there were less people on it. When I was on it, it was similar to the line for Indiana Jones.

It will sway the whole time. I have actually had a big fear of heights in the past, but I wasn't bothered by it. I think that having the line of people from end to end of it when I was on it made it seem less scary.

If Fran can get across it (twice, it's the only way back), she can probably do a few things on the other side. There were some birds of prey out with their animal caretakers. I'd definitely not suggest the forest walk or cliff walk for her because of the stairs. When you price out stuff, remember Canada dollars make things sound more expensive than they are in USD. I kept getting shocked at prices, but then I'd remember that all the $s were CAD. It is still expensive, though. It's beautiful, though.

 

[franandaj]

Thanks for the Train review. We are doing the VIP adults only with beverages and appetizers. It's nice to know that the scenery will be spectacular and they pick us up at the ship.

I forgot about the CDN dollars, so that's only about $30pp. We might just go ahead and do it. There isn't anything else that day we really want to do, but we'll wait to buy our tickets until we know for sure that we want to do it. Who knows? If our rooms at the Pan Pacific are ready earlier rather than later, we might just hang around town.

 

[MickeyD74]

I should mention that I did keep all of the navigators. I will be sacrificing them to the recycling gods when I done with this report. If anyone wants a copy of any of them beforehand, let me know. I really don't want to upload all of them. I thought about just doing the first page for each day, but I won't bother with it if it seems like nobody wants to look at them. I know I usually don't click on them when other people upload them.

I would love a copy of the last day at sea. Specifically the pages with the characters & hours and the page with the times of activities during the day.

Thanks!

 

[cruisehopeful]

I would love a copy of the last day at sea. Specifically the pages with the characters & hours and the page with the times of activities during the day.

Thanks!

Here you are. Everything except last page.

 

[cruisehopeful]

Juneau Day!
I was most looking forward to this port. In 2012, I did a DCL excursion at this port that did whale watching, Mendenhall glacier and a Salmon Bake. The whale watching wasn't impressive to me (I've been on better whale watching excursions out of my city), we only had 45 mins at the glacier and the Salmon Bake was full of gnats and mosquitos. They have since change the location for the salmon bake.

What I wanted to do most of all here was take the regular Mendenhall Glacier bus and spend as much time as I wanted over there. I also wanted to go up Mt. Roberts Tramway. Our of all the ports that DCL visits, Juneau seems to offer the most variety. It is one of the largest cities in the state. I have often thought about just flying in and staying there and taking different types of tours from there without the constraints of being on a cruise ship.

Our ship was docked about a 20 minute walk from the main part of time where all the shore excursions are. There was a complimentary shuttle that went back and forth from the ship to the main part of town and we opted to take it since we knew we would be doing a lot of walking at the glacier and on the mountain from the Tramway. My daughter wanted to eat breakfast in a restaurant and it was about a mile walk to get to the one she picked out on google. The weather was ranging from a mist to a light rain. After she ate, we walked back to where the bus let us out.

We were at the Mt. Roberts Tramway and we went in there to buy our tickets and ride it since it was clear at the moment. I've heard when it is very cloudy, you can't see anything when you take the tram up because you are in the clouds. The ticket counter was ready for DCL guests. They had Mickey ears stapled to the wall and the clerks were wearing Disney pins. There were other ships docked that day. I saw the Grand Princess, which looked lovely and like it was a lot of fun. I'll be checking itineraries for that ship! And we saw Ocenia Regatta that looked small and boring. I told my daughter it cost double what it costs to sail on DCL and it just looked so boring. I wondered if the passengers from other ships would feel left out by the clerks being so Disneyfied.

As we took the tram up, our guide in the tram told folklore and also a few things about the mountain. He played a drum the whole time and made us all sing and hum along with him. It was a bit cheesy and not what I expected, but he was nice and entertaining. At the top of the mountain, there are several hikes. The most basic one is a 1/2 hour loop and that is the one we took. We saw another that would go 3 miles up the mountain but I said no to that. There's a restaurant up there and a gift shop. They have a bald eagle on display that cannot fly and they rescued it something like 12 years ago. Most of the items in the gift shop were made in China, but they had a few pieces made by local artists. We saw a sign for a trail down the mountain that we could take in lieu of the tram. It said it was 2 1/2 miles and I was up for that (going down is easier for me than going up), I didn't know how long it would take and I wanted to make sure I had unlimited time at the glacier. We decided we would come back after the glacier if we had time and took the tram down. When you buy a tram ticket, it is good for unlimited rides for that day.

The Wonder when we were about 1/2 way up the tram.


Some of the trees has carvings on the loop hike at the top of the mountain.


I saw the blue bus arrive for the glacier and one of the excursion sales people saw me looking at it and asked if we needed tickets. For 2 adult tickets, it was $66. and that included admission and ride to and from the glacier. It's about a 30 minute bus ride. We were able to get on the bus right away. It had been raining on and off this whole day, but it was a light rain. From where the bus let us out, we could either walk to the visitor center (that was the only thing I had time to do the last time I was here) or do a bear walk, which was a wooden pathway walk. We knew it was early in the season and we wouldn't see any bears, but I wanted to walk that way. After that, we followed the Nugget Falls trail. Nugget Falls is a big waterfall next to the glacier. When I was here in 2012, I was looking at it from the visitor center and I thought saw people walking around at it. I wanted to go to it so badly, but we didn't have enough time. This time, nothing was going to keep me away from the waterfall! I think it was a one mile to the waterfall and you have to take the same trail to get back. So, plan for a 2 hour walk + the time it will take to look at it when you get to it.

Here's the glacier and the splashy part on the right is the bottom of the waterfall.



Between the light rain and mist coming off of the waterfall, my phone was getting wet whenever I'd take a picture. I did absolutely have to touch the waterfall, though and get a picture of me touching it. On the right side of the falls, there were a couple small veins that I was able to get to without having to completely get wet by standing in the water.

The water felt great. It actually felt soft and refreshing and clean. It was wonderful.

This is a picture from the same spot, only I was turned away from the waterfall.

There's no question that this was the highlight of my trip. It was spectacular. The only downside was that we couldn't get very close to the glacier. The next time I am in Alaska, I will without a doubt, take an excursion that puts me on a glacier. Looking isn't good enough for me. I have to touch it.

Goodbye waterfall. See you next time!



We went into the visitor's center for another nice view of the area and then headed back to the bus. We just missed the blue bus and it would be at least a 20 minute wait for the next one. When the white bus filled up and they had extra room, the driver offered to take us back, which we appreciated very much. That let us out in from the Mount Roberts Tram. We took it up and planned on hiking back down, but then I noticed that I didn't see where a trail would let us out anywhere at the bottom. I asked 2 of the people who worked there where it would let us out, because we needed to get back to the ship and if we ended up on the other side of the mountain, that would not be helpful. Neither person that we asked knew the answer and neither offered to find out for us. It was raining pretty good at this point and my daughter said the grounds was probably too slippery anyway. We ended up just riding back down and taking the shuttle to the ship.

 

[cruisehopeful]

Something kind of funny that we overheard on our last trip down the tram... We had a very good view of all the ships in the port riding down the mountain. There were a group of women who were talking about the Disney ship. One woman said she didn't understand why anyone would go on a Disney ship. She went on to say that only people with kids go on it and she is glad they made a cruise line for kids because it keeps all the kids off of all the good ships. Another woman said Disney only had cruises so parents could leave their kids on the ships while they go out and explore all the ports without their kids. It was hard to keep from laughing.

Juneau Day Part 2 Back on the Ship
We went straight to our room when we got on the ship. We were a bit wet from the light rain, very tired and very hungry. We ordered room service. In the past, we've had excellent room service on the Wonder - not this time. I ordered the grilled cheese sandwich and the key lime pie with hot tea. My "grilled" sandwich was barely warmed up. The cheese wasn't even melted and still in the shape of sliced cheese. The bread was soft and only slight toasted. Since I was so hungry and tired, I just ate it anyway. The man who brought it into our room had a horrible time carrying the tray. He didn't bring a door stop and it took him a while to figure out how to get in the room with the tray. There wasn't enough space for me to hold the door for him. I asked him what I should do with the tray when we were done and he said I could either leave inside my room or put it in the hall outside of my room. Then, he said, "Yes. Put it in the hall outside of your room." It seemed like it was his first day on the job.

I took a shower and hung out in the room for a while decompressing from the day. I went and got some ice cream. I had a mix of blueberry and pineapple coconut. I never knew the the ice cream selections changed daily until I read it here. I've only ever seen the chocolate and vanilla. This time I remembered to check it for a few days. We hung out in Outlook with our ice cream and got some hot drinks. Then, we went to Diversions to play some games. There was live music and someone by a window said there was a whale. We all went to look, even the musician quit playing and went to look. For the first time in my life, I saw a whale do a full breach. It was really cool to see. I've been whale watching maybe 10 times in my life and never saw a full breach. That was the only whale I saw this whole trip.

Dinner was at Triton's. The boat was very rocky tonight and for a while, it leaned to one side. It was very windy outside. The next day was when I found out that the Celebrity ship crashed into the dock in Ketchikan. I can vouch that there were strong winds. I ordered a couple different entrees and nibbled on both of them, but the rocky and leaning ship was starting to upset my stomach. I ended up just going to bed to watch TV and taking another Bonine. My daughter wanted me to go see the adult show, which was physical comedy. Neither of us knew what that was, but the adult shows hadn't been good up to that point and I made the assumption that it wouldn't be worth my effort. I heard later from my daughter that it was a really good show. The rocky boat put me to sleep really well until about 1:00am. I was wide awake for a while, but when I finally fell back asleep, I was out until 9:00am/

 

[MickeyD74]

Here you are. Everything except last page.

Thank you!!!

 

[saxmangeoff]

Juneau Day!
In 2012, I did a DCL excursion at this port that did whale watching, Mendenhall glacier and a Salmon Bake. The whale watching wasn't impressive to me (I've been on better whale watching excursions out of my city), we only had 45 mins at the glacier and the Salmon Bake was full of gnats and mosquitos. They have since change the location for the salmon bake.

What I wanted to do most of all here was take the regular Mendenhall Glacier bus and spend as much time as I wanted over there. I also wanted to go up Mt. Roberts Tramway. Our of all the ports that DCL visits, Juneau seems to offer the most variety. It is one of the largest cities in the state. I have often thought about just flying in and staying there and taking different types of tours from there without the constraints of being on a cruise ship.

This almost could have been written by me. We went in 2014, and did the adults only excursion that had Mendenhall, whale watching, and salmon bake. Mendenhall was as you describe; not nearly enough time. Our whale watching was spectacular, with once-in-a-lifetime occurrences that even had the boat's skipper freaking out. And the salmon bake was good. But I really wanted more time to do everything.

I even priced out flying to Juneau and staying a few nights to do stuff, just like you said. But that would cost about the same as the DCL cruise does, so the cruise wins. (We live close enough that we don't have to fly to Vancouver, so we have no airfare cost for the Alaska cruise.) I also looked into the ferry from Bellingham, WA. Yikes. That was super expensive, too. Anyone who thinks DCL is expensive should price some DIY alternatives.

So, my current plan for our August 2017 cruise is to do just what you did. Mendenhall and maybe the tram if weather is clear enough. So thanks for your report.

 

[Drusilla99]

I have a different opinion on this. We often stay Concierge on the larger ships and our room is on Deck 11 or 12. The only way there is the forward elevator or stairs...or to walk through the adult pool area. If I'm on deck already, I'm not going in to find the elevator to take my kids to the room. I make sure they are quiet and proceed directly through the area. The only time to get upset is if there are kids disturbing the peace or lingering. I do find it a bit rude how they questioned the OP's child, but I'd imagine they've had many people try to slip through and maybe the CM had been reprimanded in the past. No telling.

I fully understand that this is a weird design flaw, in my opinion, on the dream & fantasy, but this layout doesn't apply to the wonder or magic. I wouldn't walk around if I were you either. But there are no rooms on the deck with the adult pool, so instead of walking to midship and then coming up to enjoy the family areas, loads of people come up and then walk through the adult area to mid ship. Many families pass through quietly just to get where there going, but I've seen many go through slowly with hyped up kids (& why wouldn't they be), stop and take a seat with the kids...its just a no win situation for both viewpoints. But if they can make a concierge sun deck totally unaccessible to the rest of the ship, I'm sure they can figure out an adult pool situation on these new ships.

 

[ukintheus]

Something kind of funny that we overheard on our last trip down the tram... We had a very good view of all the ships in the port riding down the mountain. There were a group of women who were talking about the Disney ship. One woman said she didn't understand why anyone would go on a Disney ship. She went on to say that only people with kids go on it and she is glad they made a cruise line for kids because it keeps all the kids off of all the good ships. Another woman said Disney only had cruises so parents could leave their kids on the ships while they go out and explore all the ports without their kids. It was hard to keep from laughing./

That made me smile - it's so funny to hear what people "think" a Disney cruise is all about.

Love the pics of the waterfall!! Awesome that you made it out there this time.

 

[cruisehopeful]

I even priced out flying to Juneau and staying a few nights to do stuff, just like you said. But that would cost about the same as the DCL cruise does, so the cruise wins. (We live close enough that we don't have to fly to Vancouver, so we have no airfare cost for the Alaska cruise.) I also looked into the ferry from Bellingham, WA. Yikes. That was super expensive, too. Anyone who thinks DCL is expensive should price some DIY alternatives.

Yes. I've priced out so many different versions of Alaska trips and they are all very expensive. The cruise is the easiest, but most of the days on the ship vs. doing Alaska stuff. It's a tough call. I'd be happy with any type of visit there, though. I would jump at another Disney cruise, a different cruise line, a hotel stay or a RV trip there.

So, my current plan for our August 2017 cruise is to do just what you did. Mendenhall and maybe the tram if weather is clear enough. So thanks for your report.

I think you'll be very happy with a day like that.

I fully understand that this is a weird design flaw, in my opinion, on the dream & fantasy, but this layout doesn't apply to the wonder or magic.

Regardless of the designs, there's no reason why kids should be inside the Cove/Outlook cafe. I really don't care about the walking through the pool area if they keep walking (often the kids are stomping the whole time), but I don't understand why they are allowed to come into the cafe to talk to their parents when everyone gets a set of wave phones.

Love the pics of the waterfall!! Awesome that you made it out there this time.

It was the highlight of the trip, but now I keep thinking about going back.

 

[cruisehopeful]

Ketchikan
Our day started with a dramatic breakfast. We are normally not high maintenance people. We were in Parrot Cay and I asked my server if we could order special eggs anywhere. He told me we just order it through him. My daughter ordered 4 poached eggs. It sounds so harmless. We had plenty of other food to eat and it wouldn't have been a big deal if they told us no. A few minutes later, the head server came over to tell us that it would take a few minutes because they needed to prepare the water, etc. We know about poached eggs it was nearing the closing time for Parrot Cay breakfast. We weren't bothered with having to wait and wouldn't have minded if we just couldn't get them at all. About 20 minutes later, the head waiter came back with 2 eggs and said the others would be a little longer because they ran out of eggs and had to go get some from a different kitchen. We were mortified. We would have never asked if we knew it was going to be a big hassle and I told the head waiter that we were fine with just the 2 eggs and he insisted that get all 4. We had been eating for about 30 minutes and I'd say we were both very full, but we decided that we'd wait for the other 2 eggs since everyone went through so much trouble. The rest of the dining was was beginning to be cleaned up and we started to feel really bad but I did see 2 other tables with people at them and told my daughter that we weren't the last people and it was fine. A few minutes later, the other eggs came and my daughter was already completely stuffed, but managed to eat out the yolk portions on some toast. I ended up leaving a couple dollars under my plate because they went through so much for something we would have been fine doing without. I don't think we will ever order poached eggs on board again.

We got in the long line to disembark for Ketchikan. I am not sure why the line was so long at this port. We didn't have any lines at the other ports. When we got off our platform, the diamond salesman from the ship was handing out shopping maps. I told him we didn't need one and he seemed put off by that. Later, I saw him sneaking around the outside of the diamond store. He seemed to be checking to see if anyone from the whip was in there, then he quickly went into the alley behind it and began pacing around. In 2012, it was pouring rain at this stop and my husband and I only did some shopping. We were also in port for only 4 hours on the previous cruise. This time, we'd be here all day and I already knew that I didn't like the little town, so I booked an excursion through a private party for later in the afternoon. Ketchikan is similar to a carnival in that when you walk around, shopkeepers will come out of their shops and try to get you to go inside their stores. People selling tours will holler after you to buy one of their tours and seem to get mad when you don't buy one. I'd almost describe it as the Nassau of Alaska. All the cruise ships go there and I'd rather go to a different port. Oddly, I heard people on the cruise ship describe Skagway as a tourist trap, but not Ketchikan. I guess we all have different experiences.

We walked past the stores to Creek street. It was kind of nice to walk over there, but it seemed kind of dirty and unkempt. There's an old prostitute shop that had tours there, but I wasn't interested. There's somewhat of a pretty walk going through the back of Creek St. It is a rain forest here. Oddly, it didn't rain at all today in spite of it being the rainiest city in the U.S. We were walking on some residential streets and it just seemed really dirty and junky. We decided to go back to the ship until our afternoon tour.
Here's some salmonberries. They grow wild in lots of places. These were growing along Creek Street's wooden walkway. They are called salmonberries because they look like salmon eggs. We tried some. They are similar to raspberries.


We both took naps on the ship. We both felt crash and burn today. We were looking forward to our tour and it was going to be a hike in a rain forest. I wasn't sure how we'd do, since we were so tired this day. I ate a little fruit before going out to meet our tour guide, hoping it would help me get through the hike.

We booked through Wild Wolf Tours on their website. I spent a lot of time looking up tour companies and reading reviews for Ketchikan because I didn't see anything that sounded good on the DCL website and I didn't like the town. It was actually very difficult to find nature activities at this time of year. I decided on Wild Wolf Tours 3 hour Rainforest walk and totem park. We were actually all done before the 3 hours was up, but we were fine with it. http://www.wildwolftours.com/3-hour-rainforest-walk-totem-park/ The email I had said she would meet us at our ship. We figured she'd probably get there at least 15 minutes before the tour, but we were wrong. She got there right at the start time. While we were waiting, one of the tour salesman for other tours told us the story of the Celebrity ship that crashed into the dock the day before. He was very chatty. When we saw her walk up with the sign for Wild Wolf Tours we jumped up and off we went. It turned out it as just the 2 of us on her afternoon tour.

She gave a really good narration as she drove. She told us lots of history of the area. It used to be a logging town. When that went bust, it became a cruise ship stop. I think she said 80% of the city's money comes from tourism, but don't quote me on that. I could be mixed up with something else at this point. Our first stop was Totem Bight park. We were the only people in the park. The big buses full of people from the ship had already come and gone. It was very peaceful, except for the eagle that kept hollering at us the whole time. She told us stories of the totems. It's interesting, but seemed more for little kids than adults. Here's a couple of the totems.


The only wildlife I saw here was a big slug and the eagle who was watching us and hollering at us.



Our next stop was a rain forest on Lunch Creek Trail. It wasn't a terribly long hike, but does have stairs and may be too much for some people. She told me she has an easier hike for people who cannot do stairs.
Here's the creek.


This is a hollowed out log that might become a bedroom for a bear at some point.


After that, we were headed back to the dock with some more narration about the history of the area. It was definitely better than any of the stuff in town. I think if I went to Ketchikan again, I'd do a longer nature type tour or a float plane tour. Everything else just seems too contrived in this town. Our tour guide offered to drop us off anywhere, but we wanted to go back to the ship. We were both tired on this day and there was nothing particularly unique to do. We ate some food on deck 9 and took it easy until the show. Actually, I think my daughter napped again and I went to the show alone. It was the magic of Kyle Knight and Mistie. They were fantastic. I guess they normally perform in Vegas. I'll be looking for them when I go to Vegas. They have a new version of the old saw a woman in half routine. It was really good and they had audience members on stage with them to watch and make sure there were no tricks I actually saw a trap door in one of their other tricks. I think the lighting and where I was sitting put me in the right spot, but since it's not possible for people to reappear elsewhere, I think we all know there are trap doors whether we see them or not.

We hung out in Diversions in the evening and played games and trivia. I ended up playing a lot of trivia on this cruise. There weren't a lot of other adult activities that were free. I wanted to stay up to watch Match your Mate, but I was too tired and went to bed instead.

Our stateroom hostess never made towel animals. She made blanket animals every day. I only took a picture of one. They were all pretty creative.


It was hard to believe, but we only had one more sea day and then we'd be done with this cruise.

 

[saxmangeoff]

Ketchikan is similar to a carnival in that when you walk around, shopkeepers will come out of their shops and try to get you to go inside their stores. People selling tours will holler after you to buy one of their tours and seem to get mad when you don't buy one. I'd almost describe it as the Nassau of Alaska. All the cruise ships go there and I'd rather go to a different port. Oddly, I heard people on the cruise ship describe Skagway as a tourist trap, but not Ketchikan. I guess we all have different experiences.

I definitely got more of a tourist trap feel from Skagway. I think the difference is that Skagway has a rich gold rush history, and yet many of the buildings are just tacky tourist trap shops. With Ketchikan, yes, the tacky shops are right there at the docks. But then there's a whole town away from them. We did a walking tour up and around town, across the "Married Men's Trail," to a nice park up the hill, chatted with some locals, etc.

I found it much easier to escape the tourist trap in Ketchikan.

 

[ukintheus]

What a funny start to the day with the egg-event. I'm sure they didn't realize it was going to be such a big deal either! ha ha. We play a lot of trivia too. They don't change it up much, but that doesn't seem to make our scores any better! LOL

 

[cruisehopeful]

I found it much easier to escape the tourist trap in Ketchikan.

What are you planning on doing there on your next Alaska cruise?
Are you planning on doing the Tracy Arm excursion? Since you've already been on the cruise once, it would probably be a nice change up.

We play a lot of trivia too. They don't change it up much, but that doesn't seem to make our scores any better! LOL

If I ever end up on the same cruise as you, I'll definitely want to join your team. Even if the questions stay the same, I probably won't remember the answers. There was one group who had answers written down from this forum, lol. I only saw them at one of the trivia games, though.

Last Sea Day:
We needed to set our clocks one hour forward today. I don't think I mentioned above, but when we got to Alaska waters, we had to turn our clocks back an hour. One hour doesn't sound like a big deal, but when you know it is your last full day on the Wonder, you really don't want to do it.

I had breakfast in Beach Blanket and the place was almost completely empty. I got there right in the middle of the breakfast shift. I think everyone was sleeping in, too depressed that we were no longer in Alaska or they didn't set their clocks forward and had no idea what time it was.

I went to play my final game of trivia in Diversions with my daughter. It was supposed to be a really hard game. Well, I thought we were total rock stars when I got my scored sheet back and saw we got 14/20 correct. I thought we might win. Ding dong, I was wrong. There were several groups with more correct answers and the winning group had 19 right. I stayed in there next to the window enjoying the inside passage or wherever we were. This will sound hard to believe, but by this day, we were getting bored with the gorgeous scenery. It was so spectacular the whole time and by now, we were taking it for granted.

Afterward, I went to the cooking demo in Studio Sea. True story - even though it was my 4th cruise on the Wonder, it was my first time inside Studio Sea. We had an amazing pastry chef from Jamaica who was showing us how to make apple strudel. While we watched him, we were treated to a sample piece of it along with a small splash of Moscatto, which was spectacular. I am not sure what the under 21 crowd was given to drink. The main thing I learned from the demonstration was that I will never attempt to make apple strudel. It was just way too complicated for me. I had lunch on deck 9 and enjoyed the same old breathtaking scenery that we had been seeing for so many days.

I went to the physical comedy show (family version) with Michael Holly. It was juggling and tightrope, but very entertaining. He said he got his start in Disneyland many years ago. I decided I would try to see his show in Vegas sometime.

Then, I played some farewell games in the arcade in case it was going to be removed by the next time I would be on the Wonder. Sadly, I got the news right after the cruise that it would in fact be gone. I'll have to see if my arcade card will work in DCA park.

I went to see Zootopia. It was EXCELLENT. I really enjoyed the movie. I wish they ran movies much more often than they did, but I did get to see 2 movies in the theater this cruise.

I spent some time in the Outlook listening the captain and watching the beauty of Canada as we passed by. We passed some towns that he talked about. I think there was the oldest totem or tallest totem. Whatever it was, I didn't see it, but he made a big deal about it. At one point, a small boat came up next to us and the lone man in the boat started playing his trumpet to the Wonder. I couldn't hear it as I was in the Outlook Cafe, but the captain said he was going to do the Mickey horn back at as a friendly competition. He blew the Mickey horn a few times and I pondered why it was called the Micky horn instead of the Pinocchio horn. I'm still trying to figure that one out.

I felt that I kept getting bored on this day even though I did many activities. I went to the DVC presentation. I've already bought and sold my DVC. When I bought my VGC, I think I paid $96./pp from Disney directly. Boy, that's a far cry from what they are charging now! Their sales pitch is to think of how much you spend on vacation each year, multiply it by 10 and that's what you should spend for buying DVC. I would assume that most people don't finance their yearly vacations, but would have to finance the 10 year total. It was probably a good pitch for people who don't bat an eye at going into debt, but I'm not willing to take on more debt for anything.

At 9:30pm, my daughter and I played our first ever game of shuffleboard out on the deck. It was still light outside and it wasn't too cold. It was pretty amazing to have the scenery we had at that time of night and the full light and not feel too cold to enjoy the deck.

I fell asleep to some movies on TV after that. We didn't go to dinner this night and I kept my envelopes to pass out to the serving team during breakfast.

This is one of many freighters we passed today. I took a picture of it because I was so amazed at how small the school buses looked when stacked up with all the other stuff. Yes, those yellow things are full sized school buses


When you get cinnamon on your cappuccino in Outlook/Cove Cafe.


If you want to make some apple strudel, try this recipe.



I spent a little time talking to other cruises on this day and previous days. It seemed like those who took this cruise because they like Disney cruises and wanted to try a different itinerary, generally did not like it. Several people said they enjoy lounging on their balcony or by the pool on cruises and it was too cold to do that on this cruise. There were very few activities on the port days, at least for the adults. I was actually surprised that there wasn't more going on and I hope they consider adding something for those who don't want to spend the entire day in the port. Maybe I'll post the schedule page from the Navigators on those days in my next post.

The people that I talked to who wanted to see Alaska seemed overall pleased.

Coming up: Disembark day and some final thoughts.

 

[saxmangeoff]

What are you planning on doing there on your next Alaska cruise?

Ketchikan is still our "don't know" port. Last time, we just did a walking tour, and greatly enjoyed it. This time, I don't know if we'll do an excursion or not.

Are you planning on doing the Tracy Arm excursion? Since you've already been on the cruise once, it would probably be a nice change up.

I'm planning on it. In Tracy Arm last time, I was really envious of the smaller boats that were in there. Tracy Arm and Skagway were my favorite days. (Yes, I know I said above I was disappointed in the tourist trap feel of Skagway, but I did the steam train excursion in Skagway, and was in heaven.)

This time, I owe my wife the horseback excursion in Skagway. She got trumped by the WP&Y the first time.

 

[TestingH2O]

I have a different opinion on this. We often stay Concierge on the larger ships and our room is on Deck 11 or 12. The only way there is the forward elevator or stairs...or to walk through the adult pool area

We prefer 12 when sailing concierge. It makes more sense to us to take the stairs by the stage up to 12 and thereby avoid the adult area. There's no way I'm taking an elevator for just 1 flight of stairs, so it's not like I'm exerting effort. But, the midship elevators are right there if someone wanted to do that.

I don't see any way around it for the few rooms on 11 though.