WONDERful Alaska for Gold! 8/11/25-8/18/25

[Geomom]

Welcome Notes:
Hello again! This is cruise #5, so we are now Gold Castaway Club Members!


We're a Disney family from MA. We booked this cruise in March 2024 with a placeholder (10% off) from our last cruise. We did Alaska on the Wonder as our first cruise in 2016 when the kids were 16 and 12. Now they’re 25 and 21. We chose a cruise with Icy Strait Point to have 1 different port from the last time. (We did Skagway last time.)
For our cruise, we had: Captain Thord, Cruise Director Matthew, Assistant Cruise Director Michael.

Trip Report Links:
Friday 8/8: Travel Day
Saturday 8/9: Vancouver: 1, 2, 3, 4
Sunday 8/10, Vancouver: 1, 2, 3
Monday 8/11, Wonder: 1, 2, 3, 4
Tuesday 8/12, at sea:
Wednesday 8/13, Dawes Glacier viewing:
Thursday 8/14, Icy Strait Point:
Friday 8/15, Juneau:
Saturday 8/16, Ketchikan
Sunday 8/17, at sea:
Monday 8/18, Vancouver:
Tuesday 8/19, Travel Day:
Post Cruise Notes:

 

[Geomom]

Friday 8/8: Boston, MA to Vancouver, Canada

We had a non-stop WestJet flight from Boston to Vancouver for $567/person roundtrip. I chose the fare that included a checked bag, free advanced seat selection, and ‘changeable’ fares (when I booked, I had no idea where 25 would be living in August…but she’s back home again after being in the Disney College Program from 1/24-1/25.) We had dinner at Wow Bao. DH had the Kung Pao chicken with fried rice, I had the Teriyaki Chicken with Jasmine rice.

21 had the teriyaki chicken with fried rice and potstickers, 25 had the teriyaki chicken bowl with jasmine rice and breakfast bao buns.

Our 7PM flight ended up being delayed by 1.5 hrs due air traffic control issues in Vancouver. The flight itself was good and they came around 2x offering free non-alcoholic drinks and either ‘Celebration’ cookies or pretzels. The cookies were tasty!

I believe we landed around 11:30PM local time. After landing, we quickly made it through border control, got all the luggage (yay!), and got in the short line for a taxi. Taxis from YVR (Vancouver airport) are a flat, zone based, rate. It cost us $46 CAD to go to downtown Vancouver.

We got to the hotel at 12:30AM local time (3:30AM to us!) We stayed at the Barclay Hotel on Robson St. The 2 things going for this hotel are the location (walkable to everything downtown and near tons of restaurants/shops) and the price for the location. We paid $860 for 3 nts, which is great for downtown for 4 people during the summer. So…I knew all the bad stuff about the hotel before I booked and decided the location/price beat out all the bad stuff. For the bad: there is NO elevator. The lobby is up 1 flight of stairs, and our room was in the attached building…up and down another ½ flights of stairs. The hotel is still undergoing renovations. Our room was partially renovated, most of the bathroom was brand new, but still some patched-up spots, and bad caulking job. The beds were springy and soft…so I’m guessing not replaced yet. Our room had an odd setup with 2 double beds in 2 rooms with an open window between them…so separate, but not private. The room had a mini fridge, and a closet, but no bureau to put clothes. Our room overlooked the community garden, and was nice and quiet. The bar/arcade was currently closed for renovations as well, which probably helped keep it quiet at night. Despite the bad of the hotel, the room was clean, so that was a plus. They don’t have coffeemakers in the rooms, but supposedly you can ask for a kettle. We were too tired at check-in to think about it, and there was a Tim Hortons around the corner, so we never asked.
Pics from our 3 days at the hotel:

 

[Geomom]

Saturday 8/9: Vancouver, part 1
DH went to Tim Hortons for coffee, breakfast loaded box, the Timbits 30 count bucket, and 5 extra blueberry cheesecake Timbits.

DH also went to the convenience store and bought us a few things (bottled water, chips, cookies, etc).

We got everyone up and out of the room by 11AM. We walked to the London Drugs to buy Vancouver Transit Daypasses. We decided that with 4 people, it was just easier to use a daypass vs paying/ride. The daypass was under $12CAD/person. I had looked up the routes we wanted in advance. So, we took bus 5 from a stop nearby, then changed to bus 17 and rode it to the stop near Van Dusen Gardens.

Despite looking up the directions in advance, I neglected to re-read the end part…and I confidently led everyone in the wrong direction for 10 minutes before realizing that I went the wrong way. So we all backtracked back to the bus stop…only to discover that the sign for Van Dusen Gardens was just before we got off the bus…so I missed it completely. The kids were NOT happy with me. But, I did have a nice surprise that I’d kept in reserve in case it didn’t work out. The Van Dusen Garden Café offers a casual afternoon tea, $130 CAD for 4 people. So we did that as soon as we arrived. The kids each got to choose a sandwich flavor and a tea flavor for our group. We had Chai Roobios and Fancy Roobios pots of tea.

The bottom layer is Grilled Fraser Chicken sandwiches, and Bocconcini/Tomato sandwiches; cut in 1/4s.

The middle layer contained Herbed Cheddar scones, Cranberry White Chocolate scones, and croissants.

The top layer had 4 shortbread cookies, 4 macaroons, 2 pistachio macarons, 2 raspberry/chocolate macarons, chocolate mousse cup, chocolate tart, blueberry cheesecake cup, mango cheesecake cup, raspberry jam, clotted cream, and honey.

It was delicious and very relaxing! We sat outside on the patio to enjoy the beautiful weather. We had so much food that we took some cookies and scones/croissants to go. (I had Ziploc bags in my backpack.)

 

[Geomom]

8/9/25: Vancouver, part 2:
The Van Dusen Gardens cost $16 CAD with tax/person. We enjoyed walking through the gardens over the next 2 hrs.

DH and I did the hedge maze:

When we were done, we stopped in the shop and bought some loose tea and a magnet.

We walked across the street and took bus 17 to bus 5 again…although I got confused as to where we needed to get on bus 5 to get back to Robson St at Bute St. DH figured it out, I’d have been riding aimlessly around Vancouver for a while otherwise!

 

[Geomom]

Saturday 8/9: Vancouver, Part 3
We stopped at Hello Kitty Café. The kids were SO excited when they learned it was just down the street from the hotel.

We all bought Hello Kitty T-shirts from Old Navy before the trip. One of the workers gave us stickers because we were wearing the shirts.

We got a ‘to go’ order of passionfruit green tea with pearls, lychee green tea with coconut jellies, bubble milk tea with pearls, brown sugar milk tea with pearls.

Chocolate cookie cream cake

Mango coconut cake (21 did not like, the mango layer was too jelly like in consistency)

Strawberry cake

Mini Taiyakis (filled with custard or chocolate or toffee)

21 bought a bucket hat and 25 got a water bottle

 

[Geomom]

Saturday 8/9: Vancouver, part 4
For dinner we went to ‘Rice & Noodle’ on Robson St. The food was tasty.

25 and I split the Chicken Pad Thai. DH and 21 split the Chicken Creamy Peanut Noodles

25 had spring rolls and 21 had Gyoza

We went shopping at London Drugs and bought a bunch of chocolates, Kinder eggs, and postcards.

 

[justafigment27]

I’m delighted to see you started a trip report! I re-read your first Alaskan trip report several times before we embarked on our Alaskan cruise in 2019 to get ideas and help plan for the logistics - I booked one excursion based entirely on your report (my daughters were 15 and 17 at the time). I’m very curious to see how this compares to the first!

I am excited to see that both of your kids joined you for this cruise! Mine are now 21 and 23 and I keep wondering if each trip will be our last as a family. DH and I have started to branch out and travel without them and it’s weird … less expensive and easier (2 opinions vs. 4), but weird.

 

[Geomom]

I’m delighted to see you started a trip report! I re-read your first Alaskan trip report several times before we embarked on our Alaskan cruise in 2019 to get ideas and help plan for the logistics - I booked one excursion based entirely on your report (my daughters were 15 and 17 at the time). I’m very curious to see how this compares to the first!

I am excited to see that both of your kids joined you for this cruise! Mine are now 21 and 23 and I keep wondering if each trip will be our last as a family. DH and I have started to branch out and travel without them and it’s weird … less expensive and easier (2 opinions vs. 4), but weird.

Thanks for reading! I'm happy to hear the past trip reports have been helpful to people!

Yes, our kids have still been traveling with us, but I did tell them both that this 'may' be the last cruise as a family...with the kids being 25 and 21 now, they will hopefully be living their own lives to their fullest in 2 years. 2024 was weird for us. 25 did 1 year in the Disney College Program, living in Florida; and 21 was at college 8 mths of the year. It was interesting being partial empty nesters. All our 2024 travel was spent going to Disney World to visit 25, using our annual passes and DVC points to the fullest.

 

[Geomom]

Sunday 8/10: Vancouver, part 1:

DH went over to Tim Hortons again this morning for breakfast. 2 coffees, 2 lemonade drinks, a cheesy pastry stick, lemon poppyseed cheesecake muffin, and a chocolate chip muffin.

We walked to the ‘Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art’ on Hornby St, and probably spent around an hour there. It’s $13 CAD/adult.

 

[Geomom]

Sunday 8/10: Vancouver, part 2:
From there, we walked to Canada Place, then past the Convention Center, and took pics of the Olympic Cauldron

And 8 bit Orca sculpture.

At 1:30PM, we had lunch at the ‘Tap and Barrel’ outside. It was a beautiful day in Vancouver!

25 and 21 had the Sour Cherry Lemonade, I had the Aperol Spritz

We shared Fried pickles and Truffle Waffle Fries

I had the Mediterranean Power Bowl with Moroccan Chicken

25 had the West Coast Club Sandwich

21 had the Falafel Veggie Burger

DH had the Ahi Tuna Poke Bowl

 

[Geomom]

Sunday 8/10: Vancouver, part 3:
View from Canada Place pier


I had pre-purchased tix for Flyover Canada, ‘Awaken Canada’ a couple weeks before vacation. They’re cheaper if you buy them online in advance, and I found a coupon code online. I got them for $27 CAD/person. If you’ve ever been to Epcot at Disney World, and gone on ‘Soarin,’ it’s similar to that, but more exciting…quicker movements, and it had mist as well as smells. It’s located at the end of the pier at Canada Place. You only need to get there 20 minutes early, but we were there well over an hour early, and 21 was bothered by the vibrations on the pier as we waited (upstairs by the ride entrance was better for 21). We had tix for the 4PM show, but they were able to take us for the 3:45PM show, which was good. We enjoyed it. It’s fun to do once. They do change out the movies periodically. They were showing both ‘Awaken Canada’, and ‘Legendary Iceland’ when we were there.


After Flyover Canada, we walked back to the hotel, basically completing a big loop of downtown. After resting for a bit, the kids were hungry and we decided to walk ‘the other’ direction on Robson St.

Pride flags on Cardero St near Robson St

There are tons of Asian restaurants on Robson St, and the kids had a disagreement over which one to get food from, with neither one wanting to give in. DH walked off towards the hotel during their argument (with their water bottles in his backpack.) The 3 of us finally went into ‘Nom Nom’, which was 25’s choice. 25 really wanted to try Kimbap and loved the name of the restaurant, ‘Nom Nom’. Once 21 realized they could order Kimbap without eggs (the major reason 21 didn't want to eat there), all was good. We ordered food to go. We got 2 make your own kimbaps

21 got the Rice/Carrot/Cucumber/Spinach/Bulgogi Beef/Sweet Onion Mayo Kimbap

25 got the Rice/Carrot/Cucumber/Spinach/Egg/Tofu/Korean Katsu Sauce Kimbap

We also got Fried Vegetables (they were 3 giant balls of tempura fried shredded vegetables!), Fried Dumplings, Fried Sweet Potatoes,, and a London Fog iced drink for 25.

We did get 21 a free cup of water, so they had something to drink on the walk back uphill to the hotel. On the walk back, we met up with DH who was just walking around on Robson St, taking pics, waiting for us to figure out where we were getting food.

We went back to the room. The kids ate half their kimbaps, so DH and I split what was left. And there was plenty of fried stuff for everyone.

Beautiful Sunset view from our room:

 

[Geomom]

Monday 8/11/25: Vancouver, Canada: The Wonder, part 1:

Breakfast was whatever leftover bits we had in the room—some Timbits, cookies, etc. We checked out of the Barclay Hotel at 10:40AM and walked 1 mile to port with our bags (mostly downhill). A cruise port worker directed us the wrong way, so we went down to the garage level with our bags, then had to use the elevator to go back up to ground level inside Canada Place cruise terminal. (I'm pretty sure we could have just entered at street level instead.) Finally, we checked our bags, did the Disney check in (getting wristbands), and went through security. Boarding started at 11:30AM. We were boarding group 6. As we were in line to board, I pulled out our Mickey ears so we’d have them on as we boarded. 21 managed to break the headband part of theirs while trying to quickly put them on. (We need to put a new headband in to fix it.) Not a good start for 21. We did get on the ship just before Noon though. We embarked on deck 3, atrium. Pic below is from deck 4 promenade, starboard.


We did the table service embarkation lunch at Tiana’s Place at 12:20PM.
I got the drink of the day, Nautilus, for $7 + tip.

25, DH, and I had the Leek and Potato Soup with Soda Bread

21 and I had the Beef Empanada

DH had the Grilled Salmon Salad

25 had the Chicken Caeser Salad

21 had Pennette Pasta.

25 and I had the Carrot Cake. DH and I fed each other 1 bite of carrot cake, as it was our wedding cake flavor...almost 32 yrs ago!

DH had the Welcome Aboard Sundae.

21 had the Cookies ‘n Cream Cheesecake.

 

[Geomom]

Monday 8/11/25: Vancouver, Canada: The Wonder, part 2
By the time we finished eating, the rooms were available, so we were in our Deck 2 Oceanview room, 2112, just after 1:30PM. (Yes, I specifically chose 2112 for DH, who loves the band 'Rush'.) Ekarat from Thailand was our stateroom host and did an amazing job!

Silver Castaway gift:

The room!
Split bathrooms, this is the shower room, there is a separate room with toilet/sink.


The kids decorated our door with magnets,

Then, we all walked around the ship to figure out where everything is! Our last 2 cruises were on the Dream class, and while our first cruise was the Wonder in 2016, it was completely redecorated/refurbished shortly after our cruise--and the kids are both adults now. We got a tour of the Senses/the Fitness Center. We sat outside Cove Cafe (18+) on deck 9 for a bit.

After that we went back to the room. The luggage had arrived, so we were able to get completely unpacked before having to go to the muster drill at 3:45PM, drill was at 4PM. Our station was on the deck 4 Promenade, facing away from the port, so nice views while waiting for everyone to arrive!

We went to the DVC Member Celebration in D Lounge at 5PM. I had the free glass of sparkling wine, they also had the non-alcoholic Cloudem Blue, and Dasani water in metal bottles. At the end they had a meet and greet with Pluto:

 

[Geomom]

Monday 8/11/25: Vancouver, Canada: The Wonder, part 3:

Dinner was in Tiana’s Place (Princess Menu) at 5:45PM.
Our serving team was Eka (server), Dodi (assistant server), and Charles (head server.) They were all wonderful!
During the meal there was the jazz band playing, Tiana and Louis walked around, but never stopped for pics at tables.

21 had the Lava Smoothie (non-alcoholic drink of the day for $6 + tip)

I had the Louisiana Hot Crab Dip

DH had the Alaskan Smoked Salmon Timbale

25 had the Country Green Lentil Soup

25 had the Warm Cheddar Cheese and Applewood smoked Bacon Tartlet

21, DH, and I had the Coronation of Mixed Leaves

I had the Seared Pork Medallions

DH had the Baked Filet of Bering Sea Halibut

25 and 21 had the Northern Vegetable Turnover

 

[Geomom]

Monday 8/11/25: Vancouver, Canada: The Wonder, part 4:

Desserts:
I had the Baked Alaska.

DH had the Banoffee Cream Pie

25 had the Louisiana Root Beer Crème.

21 had the Maldonia Berry Financier.

For the table to share:
Prince Naveen’s Flourless Chocolate Cake

Tiramisu.

Today was the start of collecting complimentary charms—25, 21, and I did that whenever they had it, including in Juneau and Ketchikan. They had some special Alaska themed ones like a bear paw, whale tale, etc. We also stopped by the DVC desk daily to get our free goodie of the day. (I’ll post a pic of it all at the end of the trip report.)

There was no show in the Walt Disney Theater today, so we just enjoyed the views and sunset outside on decks 4/9/10. We got some olives, cheese, breadsticks, and lavash from Cove Café before they closed at 9PM; and a plate of fries from Pete’s Boiler Bites. I got a soft serve cone: vanilla and chocolate (1 machine always has this combo.)


We went to the 10:30PM Dueling Piano show in Azure called ‘Piano Party’.

I ran over to Crown and Fin for some free late night snacks around 10:45PM. I grabbed a couple sliders—cucumber/cream cheese, and a deli turkey one, some crudites with ranch dressing, and a couple mini sweet treats—blondie bar, and a pink rice Krispie treat. DH and 25 left the party about halfway through when they told everyone to give 20 people high 5’s. 21 and I stayed until the last 10 minutes…when they were making everyone get up on the stage by themselves and do a dance move. (We’re all introverts and want no part of being made a spectacle of!)

Towel Animal: Elephant!