DCL Wonder B2B May 2022: Hawaii to Vancouver plus the 1st Alaska sailing of 2022! (complete! updated 7/4/22)

[ironz]

Alaska cruise day 1--May 16, 2022

I don't have tons of photos from the first day. Mostly just talking and catching up with our friends. We just talked and talked in Tiana's over lunch. Then we each went to our rooms to put our backpacks away and unpack and met back up on Deck 10 for Sailaway. The app worked well for messaging back and forth, better than on previous cruises, I thought. Not as many delayed messages.

Our cabin for this cruise was 6634, one of the better 7A cabins. I had seen it come available at some point after booking and switched as fast as I could grab it. It's a less obstructed view than the traditional Navigator's verandah. We met our new room host since we were on a different level. She did have to go find a hair dryer for me, since there wasn't one in our cabin, but had no problem finding one. Other than that, the cabin was less noisy than before, very clean, and fewer stairs to get to decks 9 and 10.

Editing to add-- one weird thing was that while we were unpacking shortly before Sailaway, we got a call from Guest Services-- apparently something glitched on check-in and we had to stop by passport control back on shore. Very strange. A crew member led us off the ship, and we had brought all of our documents, copy of vaccine cards, etc, because we weren't sure what was going on. I was fairly stressed about not knowing what was up. The crew member said it was something with Border Patrol and might have to do with the manifest-- which he blamed on BP and I thought, well don't they get the manifest from DCL? I dropped hints that they should comp us a glass of wine when we got back for the inconvenience, but he didn't bite on that. (Mind you, I feel like as many people as I saw complaining about other little things and getting room changes, etc, it was a small thing to ask, but it was soon off of our minds.) We just had to show passports again and were led back to the ship. So, IDK what that was all about.

The weather was fairly cool-- definitely colder than our cruise at the same time 5 years ago. We enjoyed the deck party and had celebratory drinks, and waved goodbye to the people hanging around Canada Place.

Dinner was in Animator's Palate, so we got to introduce our friends to our serving team-- they already knew that we had been waiting for 10 days (and 2 years) to see them!

I don't have written down what the show was for that night, because I'm thinking Golden Mickeys was on the 2nd night. (will check one of the other TRs).

But what I remember more is that we sat in the atrium deck 4 area visiting with our friends for a long time. And watched the characters... they were everywhere-- first the fab 5 were out and about... then Stitch and Daisy joined them, then princesses Ariel, Snow White, Cinderella, Tiana, and I think Belle. And Rapunzel. We've never seen that many of them out at the same time, not specifically in one spot except maybe Minnie and Mickey, but just roaming all levels of the atrium, greeting guests and moving along. It was all very 'organic' and no crowds were gathering, it was just very laid back. I didn't take many photos because of how 'natural' it felt and also it was magical at the same time. I'm finding it hard to describe. It wasn't a scheduled thing-- maybe just a pixie dust moment?

 

[ironz]

Alaska cruise day 2--5/17/2022-- at sea

Today was our first sea day-- it started out a little bumpy-- literally, as the ship had come out from behind Vancouver Island and it was rocking a fair amount (we don't get seasick, so it didn't bother us, other than not being able to go walk the deck easily). Also bumpy in that we had a really slow breakfast service at Triton's. I feel like they were training a lot of new crew, but it took forever. All other food service throughout the rest of the cruise was great and efficient, so I think they just had new people who were learning and not as quick as the seasoned servers.

We went to the naturalist lecture about the history of the gold rush and about Skagway. Per another TR, the speaker was Tom Hedakar, a Canadian fellow. He was interesting. This lecture actually helped us figure out a plan for our Skagway visit, as we learned that our excursion had been canceled. More details later, but the short version is that we were supposed to do the Glacier Point Wilderness Safari and we ended up visiting the Gold Rush Cemetery on our own.

My friend and I played Bingo that afternoon, I know, but we must have just been exploring or visiting or seeing characters during the day. I think that's also part of the luxury of being on the ship a long time-- you don't ever feel like you *have to* cram everything in on one day.

Oh, look, it was formal night! Finally-- I had my long dress on and the characters were in their formal wear! We had dinner in Tiana's and went to the Golden Mickeys show.

 

[ironz]

Quick preview-- for anyone who is about to board in Vancouver tomorrow and has any specific questions (since I really intended to get this done before too many cruises departed):
We did not do the Glacier Explorer-- please see other trip reports for that.
Skagway--we explored on foot, on our own.
Juneau--Mendenhall glacier
Ketchikan-- kayaking booked independently.

 

[ironz]

Alaska cruise--day 3-- Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier 5/18/2022

Yay! Glacier Day!
I had ordered us a small room service breakfast, to tide us over until our Palo Brunch with our friends at 10:30. (note on scheduling-- we actually were only able to book a slightly different time than our friends, but I went up to Palo on Day 1 or 2 and checked with the manager, and he said he had already put us together since our reservations were linked. Thanks, Sasha! He was our server one time in Palo--I told him I remembered him.)

We walked around the ship for a little while and then met up in Palo. We had done the brunch before when it was a buffet, and it's a little different now that they are serving right to the table, but we just ordered a big variety of food and shared across the table. It was definitely plenty of food, and we enjoyed the views out the window as we approached Endicott Arm.

The weather was fairly chilly out there. Hats, gloves, and jackets were definitely in order. We had changed into outdoor/warm clothing after Palo and headed up to the deck to look around and get photos. When we did this cruise 5 years ago, we did the Glacier Explorer small boat excursion at noon, and missed some of the characters, so this cruise I was able to get photos with most of them.

To lead off, Goofy was just walking around-- not really a scheduled line-up to meet with him, so we just grabbed a quick shot. I love this.


The rest of the ones we waited in lines for (well, mostly me and my friend--the husbands were not quite as interested in the characters, but they did get some whisky or something from a roving bar server). The character lines on deck were generally about 20-30 minutes long, and it was not a completely full cruise (1300 passengers, from what we were told). As of this cruise, they were still not saying exactly which characters were assigned to each time slot, but generally, we just asked the entertainment staff who was next up and made our decision whether to hop in the line or not.

The photo with Pluto is one of my favorites from the day.



The other thing we noticed was that there was a lot more ice in the water as we approached the glacier, compared to 2017. The ship was not moving very quickly, and I started to wonder how close we'd actually get. Answer-- further than it first seemed, but not really very close compared to our last experience. And... that's Nature. This part of Alaska had, up until about that week, not had any big warm spells, whereas, they had already had some warm days by May 2017. (my older trip report is on the DIS) Obviously, not a shortcoming with anything DCL could control, though I did hear grumbling about the small boat excursion-- some people loved it, some hated it. It's a very popular excursion, though my opinion from 2017 that it is not for everyone is unchanged. With Nature involved, you may have an awesome time or not.



As you can see, it's quite scenic. And there was a lot of ice. We actually didn't see any calving ourselves from this view, and we weren't super close to the glacier. It was definitely noticeable, though, that the glacier has receded quite a bit compared to 2017. The following photo is 2022 on the top and 2017 on the bottom. Notice the position of the glacier relative to the mountain behind it, and the mountains on the sides. Also notice, there was not this much ice in front in 2017, so we got significantly closer that year, both on the Wonder and the small boat excursion.


to be continued....

 

[JulieODC]

Great report! Looking forward to hearing more before we head to our Alaskan cruise in August. We’ve also got a kayak tour booked In Ketchikan.

 

[ironz]

Great report! Looking forward to hearing more before we head to our Alaskan cruise in August. We’ve also got a kayak tour booked In Ketchikan.

Thank you! Aiming to finish up today or tomorrow. It was so much fun!

 

[ironz]

Alaska day 3--finishing up-- glacier day

Between character greeting and watching our progress to the glacier, the top deck was pretty crowded, but there was plenty of time to take in the views above. Up under the cover at the front of the ship, near the basketball court, the serving team was set up with coffee, hot chocolate and cookies. There were also some of the bar servers with mobile carts with whisky, other shots, or warm mulled wine (not free). The wine was nice, but a little on the sweet side for my taste. The husbands had some whisky.

The crew had also pulled up a small iceberg, putting a large chunk of it in the cabana on deck 9 near the main stage. The crew said it was about 600 pounds, and they had to cut it to be able to bring part of it to deck 9 for people to touch.


After dinner, we went up to deck 10 to have a spot to watch the Freezing the Night Away deck show at 7:45 p.m. It turned out to be quite a pretty day, though it was still pretty chilly and windy up on deck.



The show was really cute and lively. Also-- the sweaters on the women's costumes--so cute! I would love that sweater.

 

[ironz]

Alaska cruise-- day 4--Skagway 5/19/2022

We had found out in the first day or so of the cruise that our planned excursion, the Glacier Point Safari, had been canceled. It was supposed to be a combination of boat ride, hiking, and kayaking. What I found out later was that it had been canceled due to too much ice still present on the lake we would have kayaked on, which totally made sense after seeing how much ice was in front of Dawes Glacier. Southeast Alaska did have a warm spell, beginning the week of our cruise, so I imagine later cruises got to have that experience.
So, we really didn't have a set plan for Skagway, which turned out fine. We had done the train ride 5 years ago, so didn't plan on doing that again, though it is a nice scenic ride.

We had breakfast in Cabana's and then got off the ship and walked around to find a couple of geocaches near the port area. Then we met up with our friends in town and decided to walk to the Gold Rush Cemetery, since we had our interest piqued by the lecture we listened to earlier in the week. It turned out to be a much warmer day than listed on the ship forecast, so I was way overdressed with extra layers.

The walk up to the cemetery from the town area is about 1.7 miles. Generally flat, a lot of it through the residential part of Skagway (which is not a big town at all).



As we started getting into the cemetery, we saw a side trail to Lower Reid Falls, so we went that way, and it turns out it was a nice short hike there, with a pretty waterfall. Photos not too great, since we were looking into the sun, but we were glad we made the short detour to see it.



Then we wandered through the cemetery, looking at the old graves, and made our way back to town.
We were getting pretty hungry, so we went to Skagway Brewing Company for lunch. It was PACKED. There were 4 ships in town, 2 of them the quite large (ugly, imho) ships. Our wait was not too long, about 30-40 minutes, and we got to have our burgers and beer in the restaurant. As crazy busy as it was, the staff were friendly, and they were so grateful to have tourism coming back to their area after 2 years of pandemic. A bunch of places were looking for staff, as some of their workers are seasonal, and some locals moved away with the lack of tourism income over the last 2 summers. We were happy to support their business and some of the other small businesses in town.

We eventually made it back to the ship and had our dinner. We checked out deck 4 before all aboard time, but there were not any dock runners. We did see Minnie, and the people working the dock area got to wave to her, so they enjoyed that bit of Disney magic before we sailed away.




The main show was a theater showing of the new Dr. Strange movie-- I went, but was starting to get a cold, so didn't feel like sitting through it, and also, it was just weird, so I walked around for a while.

We had seen online that there was a very slight chance we could see the northern lights this night, so we went up on deck from about 11:30 p.m. to about 12:30 a.m., but there was just too much light out, being this far north. I saw a photo online from Ketchikan that there was a small bit of the aurora showing that night, but we were too far north as we traveled from Skagway to Juneau. It was nice and peaceful up on deck, and the waterway was very smooth.
The photo below is from 10 p.m. Even at midnight, we could still see the orange glow of the sun behind the mountains to our west.

 

[ironz]

Alaska cruise-- day 5, Juneau 5/20/2022

Initially, we hadn't planned an official excursion for Juneau. But since we had 'saved' money by not going on the Skagway excursion, we booked the night before to do the DCL excursion combo of Mendenhall Glacier and the Mt. Roberts Tramway with our friends.

After our breakfast in Cabanas, we met for the excursion and were taken by bus to the Mendenhall Glacier visitor center, with the bus driver narrating along the way and telling funny stories. We saw a few eagles from the bus. At the glacier, we had about 1 hour and 20 minutes to explore, so we hiked the trail to Nugget Falls and took several photos of the glacier, falls and icebergs in the lake.



When the bus dropped us off back in town, we went to the Tramway station, but they were closed temporarily for maintenance. This didn't turn out to be a bad thing, because it was getting near lunch time, so we were able to get ahead of the crowds lining up for Tracy's Crab Shack. Last time we were here, we didn't eat here (the Hanger bar has great burgers per our previous visit), and people always give it rave reviews. I was a tiny bit skeptical, because sometimes the things that people say are "must do" end up with a hype all their own (see: Glacier Explorer small boat)-- but we were so not disappointed! We didn't get the Alaskan King Crab (it's not inexpensive), but rather got the Dungeness crab combo and DH and I shared. It was plenty of food. Very delicious, and we enjoyed sitting outdoors on another pretty day, enjoying our meal.


The tram was still not open, so we hunted a bit for a geocache, and while doing so, 2 more ships docked in Juneau, so people were everywhere. We were glad we had beaten the crowds for the glacier and our lunch. A line was also starting to form at the tram station, but we needed to be back on the ship by 4, and the tram ended up opening at 2. So we took the shuttle back to the dock (the Wonder docks at the A-J dock, which is about a mile from downtown Juneau, but there is a free shuttle), and stopped by Guest Services, along with several other people who had paid for the tram, but weren't able to ride it. Port Adventures called us back a couple of hours later after they opened, and we got a partial refund for the tram part of our port adventure, so that was fine.

We played Bingo and then went to our dinner in Animator's Palate, where we had the guest animation show.
The show this night was Frozen: the Musical, which we had seen on the Hawaii cruise, but it's such a good show, we attended it again.

 

[ironz]

Alaska cruise-- day 6-- Ketchikan 5/21/2022

A more leisurely morning, as the ship doesn't dock in Ketchikan until 11 a.m., so we had breakfast in Triton's.
Our friends had a separate port adventure today, so they took off, and we debarked the ship temporarily to go visit a friend of mine and meet her sweet little daughter, who had been born since we were last in Ketchikan. I used to do contract work up there, so still have a few local friends, and Ketchikan feels very familiar to me, so it's fun to go there.
We got back on the ship for a quick lunch at Daisy's Delites, then back off in time to walk over to the meeting point for our excursion.

Before the cruise, we had booked an independent kayaking tour with Ketchikan Kayak Company, called the Orcas Fast Boat and Sea Kayaking Tour. We met the owner of the company a few blocks away from the ship, and met up with the remaining guests on the excursion. There were 6 guests on the excursion, and we hopped onto a speedboat which took us past the Wonder and to a smaller island south of town where we got onto a houseboat sort of boat and had our safety briefing for the kayaks, which were tied to the houseboat. During this time, a humpback whale surfaced within sight, but we didn't see it again while we were kayaking.

We got into double kayaks and paddled around the smaller islands. The day was another beautiful day, really not typical for Ketchikan, which is normally rainy, but we all loved it, including our guides! We saw quite a few purple starfish along the rocky shore, and had the chance to hold one for a while. Our guide Kaity was so enthusiastic and loved talking to us about the wildlife and about Ketchikan. She was surprised that we have a few mutual friends/acquaintances.


After the kayaking, we took the fast boat back to town, passing another whale-- I was a little bummed that the boat pilot didn't take a few minutes for us to turn around and go watch the whale a bit closer, but maybe the pilot had other things to do. Note-- we didn't specifically do any whale watching on this trip like we did in 2017, but we saw this whale as well as a few others we saw from the ship cruising through the Inside Passage.

We ran into our friends when we got back into town, and walked around a little while, getting a couple of geocaches, then we re-boarded the Wonder. The guys had a beer tasting in the Crown and Fin, and my friend and I had a spot of tea. Ok, it's a fancy gin and tonic, but one of my favorite drinks on the ship.


We had dinner in Tiana's, with the Mardi Gras show, and then went back to our friend's verandah and watched the ship sail away, shared a bottle of wine and some beers, and just visited. Very relaxing. Mind you, by this time, after many days on the ship, and a variety of weather, I had picked up a cold. I tested with home tests multiple times and never tested positive for Covid, and it really felt like a regular cold. But I paid extra attention to masking and stuff the last few days, just to try not to give my cold to anyone. (we also tested to fly back to the U.S. on departure day, and took 1 or 2 more tests after we got home--- all negative)

 

[ironz]

Alaska cruise-- day 7 -- at sea-- May 22, 2022

Today was just for relaxing, and dreading having to leave the Wonder. LOL
I don't have too many notes, other than we packed. We stopped at Shutters to pick our photos for downloading (we just got the 10 photo package for this segment). We paid for our next placeholder. We ate. And one more round of Bingo, which was not as crazy as on the last day of the Hawaii cruise, thank goodness. I won a small amount on one of the rounds (or maybe that was the day before--the days started running together).



Our last dinner was at Triton's, and DH and I skipped the Dreams show to rest. We hung out in the atrium one last time, but there weren't any characters out-- I think so many of them participate in the Dreams show, that was their 'work' for the night.
It was becoming very hard to say goodbye to the crew and our friends.

 

[ironz]

End of Alaska cruise-- debarkation and travel-- May 23, 2022

We had the 7 am breakfast at Triton's and one last time to say goodbye to our serving team, and our last meal (for now!) with our friends.
We had booked the post-cruise Covid testing through Safe Passage and needed to do that and get to the airport since we were flying home (that requirement ended a few weeks after our cruise), so the Guest Services staff had recommended that we do Express Walkoff so we could be off the ship and have more time to do all of this. Our test appointment was at 8:45 a.m.

We reluctantly said goodbye to our friends one more time in the atrium. (The express walkoff line looked long, but moved pretty quickly) Passport control/customs went quickly, and we just followed the line to the conference center at the Pan Pacific, where they were doing the testing.

We were tested by 8:30, and took a last few photos in the port area and then walked over to the SkyTrain station to get to the airport. We got our results while on the train, and were at the airport by 10 am, not able to check in until 11:20, with a 2:20 pm flight, so we had plenty of time. We find the train to be wonderful transportation in Vancouver, esp as we do not typically overpack and don't have kids to keep up with. Since we debarked on Victoria Day, a Canadian holiday, our fare to the airport was only $6.10 for both of us.

There was so much angst among people on social media about all the testing... it certainly added to the complexity of things, but was not a huge obstacle in our opinion. We're blessed to be able to travel, but that blessing is accompanied by responsibility as well, whether on a cruise ship, or visiting a National Park, or whatever. We can all do our best to take care of each other and our planet.

Flight to Seattle was uneventful, and flight to Texas delayed about an hour or so, but we just ate and had one more prosecco in the airport. We got home late that night, and the next morning, went to pickup our dear cat, who had been relaxing at the cat hotel for 3 weeks. He did great!

We've already got a cruise booked on the Wish with our friends, and looking forward to whatever other adventures 2022 and beyond have in store for us.

I eventually did a post-trip review of our expenses, comparing what I 'guessed' we would spend in non-fixed costs-- gas for rental cars, food, drinks, bingo, etc-- we did ok! A little under what I had planned, probably mostly due to the canceled excursion in Skagway, but having at least a rough budget might have helped in that we didn't go all crazy shopping or anything. We don't typically buy a lot of souvenirs, but spend most of our money on experiences.

Thanks for reading.

 

[KantLose]

Alaska cruise-- day 6-- Ketchikan 5/21/2022

A more leisurely morning, as the ship doesn't dock in Ketchikan until 11 a.m., so we had breakfast in Triton's.
Our friends had a separate port adventure today, so they took off, and we debarked the ship temporarily to go visit a friend of mine and meet her sweet little daughter, who had been born since we were last in Ketchikan. I used to do contract work up there, so still have a few local friends, and Ketchikan feels very familiar to me, so it's fun to go there.
We got back on the ship for a quick lunch at Daisy's Delites, then back off in time to walk over to the meeting point for our excursion.

Before the cruise, we had booked an independent kayaking tour with Ketchikan Kayak Company, called the Orcas Fast Boat and Sea Kayaking Tour. We met the owner of the company a few blocks away from the ship, and met up with the remaining guests on the excursion. There were 6 guests on the excursion, and we hopped onto a speedboat which took us past the Wonder and to a smaller island south of town where we got onto a houseboat sort of boat and had our safety briefing for the kayaks, which were tied to the houseboat. During this time, a humpback whale surfaced within sight, but we didn't see it again while we were kayaking.
View attachment 681639View attachment 681640
We got into double kayaks and paddled around the smaller islands. The day was another beautiful day, really not typical for Ketchikan, which is normally rainy, but we all loved it, including our guides! We saw quite a few purple starfish along the rocky shore, and had the chance to hold one for a while. Our guide Kaity was so enthusiastic and loved talking to us about the wildlife and about Ketchikan. She was surprised that we have a few mutual friends/acquaintances.
View attachment 681641

After the kayaking, we took the fast boat back to town, passing another whale-- I was a little bummed that the boat pilot didn't take a few minutes for us to turn around and go watch the whale a bit closer, but maybe the pilot had other things to do. Note-- we didn't specifically do any whale watching on this trip like we did in 2017, but we saw this whale as well as a few others we saw from the ship cruising through the Inside Passage.

We ran into our friends when we got back into town, and walked around a little while, getting a couple of geocaches, then we re-boarded the Wonder. The guys had a beer tasting in the Crown and Fin, and my friend and I had a spot of tea. Ok, it's a fancy gin and tonic, but one of my favorite drinks on the ship.
View attachment 681642

We had dinner in Tiana's, with the Mardi Gras show, and then went back to our friend's verandah and watched the ship sail away, shared a bottle of wine and some beers, and just visited. Very relaxing. Mind you, by this time, after many days on the ship, and a variety of weather, I had picked up a cold. I tested with home tests multiple times and never tested positive for Covid, and it really felt like a regular cold. But I paid extra attention to masking and stuff the last few days, just to try not to give my cold to anyone. (we also tested to fly back to the U.S. on departure day, and took 1 or 2 more tests after we got home--- all negative)

Thanks so much for your trip report! I am looking forward even more to our Alaska trip in 6 weeks! Can I ask about the "tea"? Is this in Crown and Fin? We've only been on Dream and Fantasy, so this will be our first time on the Classics. Any other highlights on the Wonder you would recommend?

 

[JulieODC]

Thank you for taking the time to do this report!! Great to read actual experiences form Alaska from this season - and getting us excited for our trip in August!

 

[TikiThunderPirates]

Thanks so much for your trip report! I am looking forward even more to our Alaska trip in 6 weeks! Can I ask about the "tea"? Is this in Crown and Fin? We've only been on Dream and Fantasy, so this will be our first time on the Classics. Any other highlights on the Wonder you would recommend?

I'd suggest checking out the Cadillac lounge. It is exclusive to the Wonder (just across the hall from The Crown and Fin) and it's one of my favorite places to hang out. It even has it's own "smell" - I'd guess its just from all the leather in there! The French Quarter Lounge is a "newer" addition to the Wonder and a great place to hang out. It's extra fun on the evening when they have a live Jazz band. It's family friendly and has drinks to match that goal. It's right outside Tiana's Place. Enjoy your upcoming cruise!

 

[KantLose]

I'd suggest checking out the Cadillac lounge. It is exclusive to the Wonder (just across the hall from The Crown and Fin) and it's one of my favorite places to hang out. It even has it's own "smell" - I'd guess its just from all the leather in there! The French Quarter Lounge is a "newer" addition to the Wonder and a great place to hang out. It's extra fun on the evening when they have a live Jazz band. It's family friendly and has drinks to match that goal. It's right outside Tiana's Place. Enjoy your upcoming cruise!

Will add those to my list! Thank you!

 

[ironz]

Thanks so much for your trip report! I am looking forward even more to our Alaska trip in 6 weeks! Can I ask about the "tea"? Is this in Crown and Fin? We've only been on Dream and Fantasy, so this will be our first time on the Classics. Any other highlights on the Wonder you would recommend?

The tea drink is called a Gin Tea Tonic, served in Crown and Fin-- basically a tea-infused gin and tonic.

Will second the recommendation for the Cadillac Lounge, though we didn't spend any time there on this cruise-- not sure why, as we spent time there on our Panama Canal cruise.
We did have drinks in the French Quarter Lounge, which is on Deck 3... I tried their old-fashioned one day. There was a great jazz duo playing in there a lot of the time. We'd walk by and appreciate their talent, but it was usually pretty full of people between the music or other activities, so we didn't hang out there too much. On the Hawaii part, we'd hang out at Signals to be outside.

We also didn't spend much time in the Cove Cafe, for whatever reason. DH got fancy coffee in there a couple of times.
We did not do any spa treatments, so I can't speak to that, though I love the smell emanating from Senses when we were in the forward elevator bank on that deck.
DH went to the gym a couple of times. I was lazy.

 

[indyannamom]

Thank you for sharing your trip report! We’re going on our first Alaska cruise in August and loved hearing about yours!

 

[anricat]

Finally got a chance to finish your report and now I want to go to Alaska again!! And do a cruise to Hawaii! So glad you all had such an awesome time.

 

[teach22180]

Thank you for this trip report. It's definitely a dream to do those two cruises B2B.