May 18, 2020 Wonder in Alaska

[FoodieFriend]

Being a first time DCL cruiser, I can't book any port adventures yet. We're not very athletic/hiking types so adventures like the glassblowing in Skagway are just our speed. I did find another non-Disney company booking a similar land tour for less ($125 less per person). What do experienced cruisers feel about this? I also found a food tour thru Juneau that's non-Disney as well that sounds great. If the ports aren't exciting to us, couldn't we just stay on the boat & have a spa day or does the whole boat shut down since most people leave the boat for the day?

 

[Disneyfamforsure]

Being a first time DCL cruiser, I can't book any port adventures yet. We're not very athletic/hiking types so adventures like the glassblowing in Skagway are just our speed. I did find another non-Disney company booking a similar land tour for less ($125 less per person). What do experienced cruisers feel about this? I also found a food tour thru Juneau that's non-Disney as well that sounds great. If the ports aren't exciting to us, couldn't we just stay on the boat & have a spa day or does the whole boat shut down since most people leave the boat for the day?

You can definitely book those tours on your own and save lots. I usually book through DCL just because we are doing the more extensive tours where you are travelling far from the ship or they may get cancelled due to weather. If a tour gets cancelled then I want the peace of mind knowing DCL will handle getting us rebooked on another tour. There will be lots of activities on board the ship on the port days and you can even snag great deals on spa services on those days. Last time we cruised we only left the ship to go to Castaway Cay. We never ran out of stuff to do and even felt like we could have spent more time just wandering around the ship. I believe in Alaska, many of the port towns are right near the where the ship docks so you can leave the ship and just walk around and explore on your own. Can't wait!!

 

[Disneyfamforsure]

Sorry about the double post. I am on my chrome book and it is super sensitive.

 

[nc__monkey]

Just wanted to say hello, traveling to Alaska will be myself(25), my mother, and two of my aunts. This will be our first Alaskan cruise, but we are avid DCL fans. All of us have done Caribbean cruises with disney but we wanted something new, so here we are

 

[Disneyfamforsure]

We are now under 100 days!! Just updating my lists and starting to get my stuff organized. Now we just have to see what the weather is going to be like. We are all going to have an amazing trip! We have also done the Caribbean cruise with Disney but Alaska just seems like a more epic adventure!

 

[FoodieFriend]

I'm unsure if I can post details about outside vendors of port adventures, but I did find two "Alaska Shore" companies that did similar port adventures & decided on one adventure in Skagway & one in Juneau. They're both very short adventures that aren't weather dependent & I don't anticipate any issues with missing the all aboard time. My main questions were if anyone knew which dock the Disney Wonder uses at both those ports. Sounds like I may need extra shuttle time to get the buses that will take me to the meeting points for my port excursions. I'm still crossing my fingers we will get a reservation at Palo for brunch on embarkation day! I also appreciate @Disneyfamforsure for the info about port days on board. We're skipping the port adventures at Ketchikan & probably doing a spa day on board instead! FUN!! I'm SO excited for this adventure to begin!

 

[Disneyfamforsure]

I'm unsure if I can post details about outside vendors of port adventures, but I did find two "Alaska Shore" companies that did similar port adventures & decided on one adventure in Skagway & one in Juneau. They're both very short adventures that aren't weather dependent & I don't anticipate any issues with missing the all aboard time. My main questions were if anyone knew which dock the Disney Wonder uses at both those ports. Sounds like I may need extra shuttle time to get the buses that will take me to the meeting points for my port excursions. I'm still crossing my fingers we will get a reservation at Palo for brunch on embarkation day! I also appreciate @Disneyfamforsure for the info about port days on board. We're skipping the port adventures at Ketchikan & probably doing a spa day on board instead! FUN!! I'm SO excited for this adventure to begin!

I am with you on the spa day! I booked a couples massage with DH for the first at sea day. Also booked the Palo brunch because all the pictures listed online make it look amazing. Looking forward to eating lots and relaxing, all while taking in the beautiful scenery. I don't know anything about the actual ports but they seem pretty small so most things should be close. We are also going early in the season so hopefully there will not be too many other ships in the port. 95 days!!!

 

[FoodieFriend]

I am with you on the spa day! I booked a couples massage with DH for the first at sea day. Also booked the Palo brunch because all the pictures listed online make it look amazing. Looking forward to eating lots and relaxing, all while taking in the beautiful scenery. I don't know anything about the actual ports but they seem pretty small so most things should be close. We are also going early in the season so hopefully there will not be too many other ships in the port. 95 days!!!

FYI, if you google "Alaska Port Schedules" they have a tentative schedule showing all ships that will be at each port along with the Wonder during our cruise. The Crew Center page actually shows each ships capacity to give you an idea of how busy each port will be. I've never been, so I don't have any idea what would be considered "crowded".
Skagway - Holland America's Westerdam, Princess's Emerald Princess & Sun Princess (approx 2900 additional cruisers besides all of us on the Wonder)
Juneau - Holland America's Voldendam, Princess's Sun Princess & Golden Princess (approx 2600)
Ketchikan - Norwegian's Norwegian Jewel, Princess's Sun Princess & Pacific Princess, Silversea's Silver Muse (approx 2760)

 

[Disneyfamforsure]

FYI, if you google "Alaska Port Schedules" they have a tentative schedule showing all ships that will be at each port along with the Wonder during our cruise. The Crew Center page actually shows each ships capacity to give you an idea of how busy each port will be. I've never been, so I don't have any idea what would be considered "crowded".
Skagway - Holland America's Westerdam, Princess's Emerald Princess & Sun Princess (approx 2900 additional cruisers besides all of us on the Wonder)
Juneau - Holland America's Voldendam, Princess's Sun Princess & Golden Princess (approx 2600)
Ketchikan - Norwegian's Norwegian Jewel, Princess's Sun Princess & Pacific Princess, Silversea's Silver Muse (approx 2760)

Cool website! I had read that some ports can have up to 7 ships during peak season. I believe our week is the first week Disney is doing Alaska. Seriously counting down the days!

 

[jlotravels]

Ottawa just announced that any cruise ship with more than 500 passengers will not be allowed to dock at any Canadian port. This ban will be in effect until July 1. It won't allow me to post a direct link to the article here, but you can google for News 1130 and Feds announce flight restrictions, cruise ship ban amid COVID-19 outbreak

Waiting for DCL to communicate that our sailing will be cancelled

 

[FoodieFriend]

Ottawa just announced that any cruise ship with more than 500 passengers will not be allowed to dock at any Canadian port. This ban will be in effect until July 1. It won't allow me to post a direct link to the article here, but you can google for News 1130 and Feds announce flight restrictions, cruise ship ban amid COVID-19 outbreak

Waiting for DCL to communicate that our sailing will be cancelled

I heard they are waiting for final approval to ban all cruise ships over 500 ppl until July. I checked in with my DUT agent & she said DCL is busy handling their cancellations for March then they will eventually get to us traveling in May. I'm guessing they are waiting for the final word/approval from Canada before refunding anything because currently it's a "proposal" to ban cruise ship entries into Canada. I hadn't realized CV has spread even wider in Vancouver then when I checked on it last week. EEK! I have no idea what we're going to do. My sister has no way to move her vacation days this year.

 

[jlotravels]

DCL is most likely slowly getting through all the guests who have booked on March and April sailings before they get to ours.

If you try to search for any of the AK sailings that sail through Vancouver, they have been removed from the website, including ours for May 18.

 

[Coffee66]

DCL is most likely slowly getting through all the guests who have booked on March and April sailings before they get to ours.

If you try to search for any of the AK sailings that sail through Vancouver, they have been removed from the website, including ours for May 18.

Getting on a boat cruise anytime in the next year would be a good thing. Close quarters yikes

 

[jlotravels]

Officially recieved our email from DCL about our cancelled cruise. Try again next year.

 

[Disneyfamforsure]

Just rebooked for 5/17/21. Used the credit to upgrade to one bedroom. Only 404 days to go We were thinking of cancelling but needed something to look forward to. Hope everyone is staying safe and maybe some of you will be sailing with us next year.

 

[FoodieFriend]

We already had other plans for 2021 that didn't fit a rebooking of our cruise, so we needed to take the refund. Per Dreams Unlimited, refund will take up to 60 days & will be returned in the order received. Therefore I'm getting the initial deposit.... someday, then the interim deposit, then the final payment. Then I still have to refund the people in our travel group. Yikes.

 

[jlotravels]

Hello to everyone who would have left for this sailing yesterday