But You Have Promised Me A Subtropical Paradise

[dolphingirl47]

We didn't enough time just taking in the views on our cruise so its great you did that today. Shame about the mix up with the afternoon tea, I love a scone!

We did plenty of this. Actually I just formated Thursdays installment and added the photo. That was a bit of a challenge as I had over 500 photos to pick from

It was around 80 for the most part, and mid 70's at night. Perfect.

That really does sound perfect.

Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

Day 14

I had set our wake up call for 7:30 and it was nice to hear Mickey again. We were now officially in Alaska. This was the day on this cruise that I was most excited about. We got up, ready and grabbed our assorted photographic and optical equipment. We then went down to Triton's for breakfast. It was not particularly busy. We both had coffee and juice. Graham had a Mango Mountain Hike, which is essentially a smoothie consisting of mangoes, honey, granola and low-fat yogurt. He then had the Big Breakfast, which was a large filled omelet on savory toast with grilled tomatoes, bacon and baked beans topped with caramelised onions. I was not particularly hungry so I just had Dale's Omelet from the kid's menu, which was a two-egg omelet filled with turkey sausage, sweet corn kernels and hash browns.

After breakfast, we set up camp on the starboard side of deck 4 forward. We had both put various layers on and I had brought one of the ship's fleece blankets. I took a couple of photos and settled down on one of the loungers. Despite a t shirt, sleeveless waistcoat made from sweatshirt material, my hoodie and a blanket, I was still cold. It was still early in the morning at that point. Graham suggested that I should get another blanket to cover the lounger with as he suspected that a draught was coming in through the slats at the bottom. I decided it was worth a try and headed up to deck 9 to get another blanket.









Before I settled down again, I decided to go inside for a bit to warm up and take some photos. It was downright spooky. There was nobody around. People where either still in bed, at breakfast or out on the open decks. On the cruise the previous week I had discovered that there is a really unique perspective of the Chihuly chandelier from deck 5. I was in the lift at the time, but there is also a balcony overlooking the atrium on deck 5. So I headed up there and took some photos of the chandelier. I also took some other photos of the atrium and tried to be a bit creative about this. I then headed back down to deck 4 taking some more photos around the shops before rejoining Graham.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Graham had been absolutely right. With a blanket underneath me and a blanket on top of me, I was comfortable and warm. I also had a pretty neat perspective for taking photos from my lounger. In the end I spent most of the day snuggled up in my blankets on my lounger enjoying the view. This kind of day is my idea of heaven. At one stage while I was taking a photo, a bit of the railing appeared in the photo. I really liked how this looked and after this I often tried to have some element of the ship in my photos.











At around 9:00, Captain Thord came on the public address system with an update. We had picked up the pilot as planned and where now heading towards Tracy Arm Fjord, which we were expected to enter around 11:30. He talked a bit about what we should look out for. One piece of advice really amused us. He said that we should look out for something that looks like a flying golf ball as those were bald eagles. For the rest of the holiday, Graham and I referred to those beautiful regal birds as golf balls.

We had a steady stream of crew coming out to enjoy the view for a bit. Quite a few stopped to chat wanting to know what we had seen or if we had been to Alaska before. Some also asked if they could look through Graham's telescope. Indeed, for the rest of the cruise, crew members often stopped me when I was out and about to check if Graham was in his usual spot with his telescope. Some of the crew members had requested to be transferred from the other ships for the Alaska season. I can definitely understand why. I know that they don't have much time to themselves, but even if they only got a few minutes every day over the course of the summer to admire this gorgeous view, this would be well worth it. We also got to talk to same people from our cruise meet thread who came by. It was nice to share this experience with some like-minded people. Around this time, one of the ship's photographers showed up. When she offered to take a photo of us against the backdrop of the amazing view, we happily accepted.





We were just about to enter Tracy Arm Fjord when I got a battery warning on my camera. I had checked the battery charge the evening before and had a full charge so did not charge the camera over night. I am still spoiled from having the Panasonic Lumix that could take over a 1000 photos on one battery charge so this had caught me completely off guard. I was not a happy bunny. I took the camera back to the cabin to charge. Fortunately I had also brought my underwater camera, which was fully charged. When I got back to deck 4, Graham told me that I had missed some bright blue ice. There was no reason to be worried about this as there was plenty more where that had come from. I settled back on my lounger and continued to take photos.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Shortly after we entered Tracy Arm Fjord, the naturalist came onto the public address system to talk about what we were seeing. He explained that all the waterfalls that we were seeing were fed by the snow on top of the mountains melting and that they would have dried up within a week or two. This was pretty impressive as some of those waterfalls were pretty big. He also explained why the glacier ice is bright blue. Part of this is because the ice is so heavily compacted that it cannot absorb blue light, but it is also helped by the glacial flour or glacier silt that is incorporated in the ice. He also mentioned which wildlife we may encounter, which included all kinds of sea birds, bald eagles, seals, bears and mountain goats. He then signed off only to come back shortly afterwards as a bear had been spotted on the port side of the ship. I went across to the other side, but unfortunately did not see a bear.

 

[dolphingirl47]

After enjoying the gorgeous view for a bit longer, it was time to think about some lunch. I went up to deck 9 to get us some food. The view from up there was completely different. Fortunately I had my camera with me so I could take some photos. We had been told the evening before that there would have a barbeque that day. On our Panama Canal cruise in 2011, they had set up the barbeque by the family pool which caused complete chaos as there is a bit of a bottleneck in that area anyway. This time round they had the barbeque set up on the deck behind Beach Blanket Buffet, which worked much better. I went through the buffet line first and got some potato salad for both of us, some bread and pickled herring for Graham and some meatballs and pasta with Parmesan Cheese for me. I then got some salmon and steak from the barbeque for Graham and some steak and chicken for myself. I then took this down to where Graham was and we had a picnic down on deck 4.















Once we finished our food, I went back up to deck 9 to take back the plates. While I was there, I decided to have some desserts. I know that I had three different mini desserts, but the only one that I can remember was a slice of coffee and mandarin roll, which was delicious. The rest was not very memorable. When I finished my dessert, I decided to take a lap around deck 10 to take in the view from up there. As I went up the stairs from deck 9, I was deep in thought and nearly quite literally ran into Minnie in her Alaskan outfit. I was so stunned by this near collision that I forgot to take a photo. I took some photos up on deck 10, picked up some drinks from the drink station and then headed back down to deck 4.

 

[dolphingirl47]

We were now getting quite close to the Sawyer Glacier so I decided to go back to the cabin to check if the battery had charged. It had so I switched cameras over and went back to deck 4. I must have taken 100s of photos of this glacier, but I was absolutely spellbound by this. This must be one of the most breath-taking sights I have ever seen. We slowed right down as we were as close to the glacier as we could be. Some of the maintenance staff lowered a cage from the side of the ship on deck 4 and managed to bring up a lump of glacier ice. This was brought up through a hatch right at the front of the ship and the piece of ice was actually too big to fit through the narrowest part of the running track. They managed to chip off a lump of ice that was taken up to the family pool on deck 9. The other part was meant to go up there, too, but the First Engineer vetoed this as he was concerned that the ice was too heavy for the lift.





















While they were still struggling with the ice, we were still essentially parked right in front the glacier. I continued enjoying the view when Graham called me and pointed in the distance. On top of one of the bigger pieces of bright blue ice was a seal just sunning itself. It was wonderful to watch. Word got out that the seal was there and more and more people came to join us to see it. It almost felt like the seal was aware of all the people looking at it as suddenly it slipped off the ice and into the water. In the meantime a piece of ice that had fallen off the trolley when they tried to get the ice through the narrow parts of the running track caused excitement. A lot of people just seemed to have the urge to pick it up. Graham could not resist it either. I have it on good authority that it was not all that heavy, but it was of course cold and very slippery which made it a challenge to pick up.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Soon we started to turn away from the glacier. I went over to the other side of the ship to see it once more, but that was not necessary as the ship did a slow 360 degree turn before turning again and slowly making the way back up Tracy Arm Fjord. Around this time, we had a special visitor. We had heard that the characters would walk the open decks during the day, but with the exception of my near miss with Minnie, I had not seen any evidence of characters. Finally one of them came to visit, Koda from the film Brother Bear. I gave him a hug and then posed for a photo with him.









On the way back down Tracy Arm Fjord, be got to see the other side of this. We saw more waterfalls, beautiful scenery and ice in the brightest blue that I had seen all day. At some stage, I headed back inside to see if I could get some more photos of the Chihuly chandelier, but this time from right underneath from deck three. I figured that this would be my best chance to find the atrium empty. What I really would have loved to have done is to lie down on the floor and take photos from this perspective. However, I was not brave enough to pull this off. So I just stood right underneath the chandelier and angled the camera upwards.





















At some point after I returned back to deck 4, I spotted Minnie further down deck 4. I decided to walk over there to see if I could get a photo with her. There was just one little problem with this. The huge lump of ice that they had pulled up and that could not go up to deck 9 was parked about half-way between me and Minnie and drawn a considerable crowd of people taking photos with it. So there was no getting through. I figured I may as well try to take a photo of the ice myself and when somebody realised what I was doing, she offered to take a photo of me with the ice. I figured I may as well. While I was waiting to get through, Minnie had made her way closer to where I was. When I was finally managed to get through, the character manager told people that Minnie could not pose for photos with anybody at the moment as she had some filming to do. Oh well, I got plenty of photos with her later in the cruise.

 

[dolphingirl47]

By about 15:30, I started to get a little chilly. The sun was not due to set until much later in the day, but had definitely lost some strength. I decided to take another turn along deck 10. I took some more photos and generally admired the view. While I was up there, I ran into one of the photographers that we had got quite friendly with over the course of the last cruise and this one. We said "hi" to each other and I jokingly said that we had been waiting for him to come round to take some photos. He had told us the previous day that they had a prop, which was a huge picture frame in the colours of the ship and that he would take this with him when taking photos around the open decks. When I met him, he was carrying that frame. He told me that he was done up there anyway and asked where we were. He then asked if I was going back down. I said that I was and he decided to come with me to take our photo. We had a chat with him for a bit and then he headed back to Shutters.

 

[dolphingirl47]

At this time, I was done, too. I had spotted in the Navigator that they would have Disney Cruise Line Trivia at 16:00 in the Promenade Lounge and decided to do this. I did OK with this and got 22 out of 25 questions right. The only questions that I struggled with involved numbers. I got the length of the ship wrong; had no idea how many cabins there or on the ship and got another number related question wrong as well, but I can't remember what that was. The winning family only dropped a point and this was kind of Disney Cruise Line's fault. One of the questions was in how many pieces the Disney Wonder was built and the correct answer to this would be one. However, they now have some trivia on the front page of the Navigator and it stated there that the Wonder was built in two pieces, which was the case for the Disney Magic. They did challenge this, but they did great on anything else so it did not matter.

About half-way into the quiz, we got interrupted as Captain Thord was coming on the public address system. He said that he had hoped that we had all enjoyed the day and mentioned that we had been very lucky with the weather as the forecast had mentioned a lot of rain. Well, we had an absolutely glorious day. He also pointed out a waterfall that was to our left and he said that this was the only waterfall we had seen that day that would remain active all season. I tried to take a couple of photos, but this was a bit of a challenge through the porthole and with the reflection from the lights in the Promenade Lounge. We did another slow 360 degree loop. I could not see where I was as I was quite far aft and could only see what was off to the side rather than forward, but Graham told me afterwards that Captain Thord pointed the bow straight into the waterfall. Graham did end up speaking to the naturalist quite a bit during the rest of the cruise. He had done a few cruises for Disney since the Wonder started to do Alaska in 2011, but also has worked on a number of other cruise ships. He commented that no other cruise line does something like pulling up some glacier ice or gets that close to the waterfall. After hearing this, I was even more glad that we had decided to do Alaska on the Wonder.









Once the quiz was over, I decided to get in line for the characters. There was still a little time until the characters would be out, but as they would all be in their Alaskan outfits and this was the first time that they were out in those, I figured the lines may be crazy. Actually I did not need to have worried. I was pretty close to the front of the line for Mickey so it did not take long until I got to see him. The other lines moved quickly as well as most of the characters were definitely dressed for Alaskan weather. They were wearing gloves and they were too bulky to sign autographs. I ended up seeing Pluto, Minnie and Goofy in relatively quick succession.

















When I had met all the characters that were out in this session, I headed back up to deck 4 to see if Graham was still out there. He was, but he was just about ready to come back inside. We headed back to the cabin, got showered and changed. Never before had a hot shower felt so glorious. I arranged to meet Graham in the atrium a bit later and then left to meet some more characters. Mickey and Minnie were out again, but additionally we also had Koda and Chip and Dale. I managed to get photos with all of them without waiting too long.

















By the time I had all my photos, Graham had arrived. We slowly headed up to Animator's Palate. This evening the rotational menu was served, which also meant that this would be the night of the show. So we agreed to make a quick exit after the main course. Graham had Baked Potato and Cheddar Cheese Soup with Bacon Bits and Chives followed by Lemon-Thyme Marinated Chicken Breast on top of Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Root Vegetables, and Grain Mustard Jus. I was greedy as I could not make up my mind between two starters. I had Wild Mushroom Risotto and Porcini Twist served with Parmigiano-Reggiano and Black Truffle Oil, Roma Tomato and Portobello Mushrooms on Polenta Cake with Monterey Jack Cheese and Red Curry-Coconut Marinara and
Baked Potato and Cheddar Cheese Soup with Bacon Bits and Chive. For my main course I had Black Bean Chipotle Cakes over Corn Kernels and Brown Rice topped with Tomato-Cilantro Salsa. I had wanted to try this for a long time and I am glad I did. However, if I have this again, I will ask for this without the salsa.

We made a quick exit as planned before the show started. As we still had nearly an hour until the last character that I really wanted to see was coming out, we headed back to our cabin. I made sure that I had everything that I needed for our excursion the next day and put my camera battery on charge to avoid having a repeat of the events of that day. I had a look through the Navigator for the next day, set our wake up call and took a photo of our towel animal. I then left Graham to go to bed and headed out again.





When I came down to deck 3, Donald's line was nearly up to the sign with the distances on Route 66. This did not exactly fill me with joy. Donald was not out at that point and once he arrived, the line moved pretty swiftly. I have to say he looked adorable in his lumberjack outfit and was well worth the wait. Once I had my photos, I went back to the cabin and got ready for bed.

 

[Pinkocto]

Wow wow wow!!! What an amazing day! The chandelier pictures were absolutely gorgeous, and Alaska was breathtaking. All the characters looked too cute in their special outfits.

 

[Chilly]

I agree I like the photos with a bit of the ship in them, seems to give them more personality.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Wow wow wow!!! What an amazing day! The chandelier pictures were absolutely gorgeous, and Alaska was breathtaking. All the characters looked too cute in their special outfits.

The whole day was just all round amazing. I was glad that they had a full compliment of special outfits for the characters. I was so disappointed when we did the cruise our of Galveston last year that just Goofy had a special outfit.

I agree I like the photos with a bit of the ship in them, seems to give them more personality.

I could never quite put my finger on why I like those photos so much, but you are absolutely right.

Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

I wanted to share a couple of photos that Graham took at Tracy Arm:


P1040191 by manchesterprobate, on Flickr



P1040195 by manchesterprobate, on Flickr

Corinna

 

[Pinkocto]

Corinna, you're really making me think if an Alaska cruise sooner rather than later. Seeing all the wildlife would just mesmerize me.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Corinna, you're really making me think if an Alaska cruise sooner rather than later. Seeing all the wildlife would just mesmerize me.

If get the opportunity, grab it with both hands. We both agree that this was one of the most amazing vacations we ever had.

Corinna

 

[Pinkocto]

If get the opportunity, grab it with both hands. We both agree that this was one of the most amazing vacations we ever had.

Corinna

You just gave me a fantastic idea. I've been planning Aulani for 2015, 10-14 days. I could shorten the Aulani portion to 6-7 days and piggyback an Alaskan cruise, that would save a bunch on airfare since I'll be on the West coast already. Either that or it will have to wait until 2016. I'll have to map out the logistics.

 

[dolphingirl47]

You just gave me a fantastic idea. I've been planning Aulani for 2015, 10-14 days. I could shorten the Aulani portion to 6-7 days and piggyback an Alaskan cruise, that would save a bunch on airfare since I'll be on the West coast already. Either that or it will have to wait until 2016. I'll have to map out the logistics.

Now that would be my absolute dream trip. Hawaii and Alaska are the two most stunning places I have seen and to combine them both in one trip would be absolutely amazing.

Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

Day 15

We had another relatively early start and Mickey called us at 7:00 as we had a 7:30 meeting time for our excursion. We got up and ready and then went down to the Walt Disney Theatre, which was our meeting place that day. They had a table set up outside the theatre where they checked the tickets, ID and gave people their stickers. I was a bit excited as the information for our excursion on the website and also information that came with our excursion tickets stated that passports were required for our excursion as we would be crossing into Canada. I figured my might get my Canadian stamp that day. Check in was quick and smooth. We showed our passports, excursion tickets and Key to the World cards and then we were directed to a certain section of the theatre where we then were directed to a specific row by another member of cruise staff. I think they had about half a dozen different excursions all checking in at the Walt Disney Theatre.

Inside the Walt Disney Theatre, a member of the cruise staff, who fancied himself a bit of a comedian, was telling jokes to entertain people. Some were quite funny, others not so much. I just looked around at all the clever detail in the theatre. Most of the time I have been in there, it was dark. The most amusing thing while we were waiting in the theatre was not the jokes though. An announcement was made that it was illegal to take any produce or food items that were not factory sealed ashore and that there can be quite steep fines for doing so. They asked people to put any food that they may be carrying on a table, which had been set up at the side of the theatre. Suddenly there was a lot of frantic activity with people getting up and going to this table. Suddenly there were hundreds of bananas on that table. I don't think I have ever seen so many bananas in one place. I think everybody apart from us must have had a banana or two in their bags.



Eventually it was time to leave for our excursion our sticker was called and we were escorted to the atrium where the gangway was located. What really surprised me is that we were then escorted towards busses. Part of the reason for booking this through Disney and not independently was that I had read that if you book this excursion through the cruise line, you get on the train right by the dock. If you book it independently you have a short walk into town to the White Pass Railroad depot. Well, we were docked at the Ore dock, which is the furthest away from the town, but the whole port area is quite compact. I think by the time we were all on the bus, we could have walked as the distance was really short. When we got off the bus the other end, there were a number of carriages reserved for people coming from the Disney Wonder. The other half of the train was reserved for another cruise line. There were 4 different ships in port that day.

Once everybody was onboard, we set off. The first few feet, we went backwards. The train is so long that it would block a street if they left it as a whole unit. Therefore they split the train when it is parked with the two halves parked either side of the street. When the train is ready to leave, they have to reverse the half of the train that has the engine attached so that the two halves of the train can be connected. Once this was done, we were on our way. At various points of the trip we could see the front of the train as it was so long and there are quite a few curves along the route. At the start of the trip the train went through the town, past the engine shop for the White Pass Railroad and past the Gold Rush Cemetery. The Gold Rush cemetery is the burial place of the con artist and outlaw Jefferson Randolph Soapy Smith. Soapy Smith was killed by Frank Reid and Jesse Murphy on July 8, 1898 in the famed Shoot Out at Juneau Wharf. Frank Reid was also fatally injured in the shoot out and did of his injuries 12 days later. He is also buried at the Gold Rush Cemetery.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Then it was up into the mountains past valleys, forests and waterfalls. One of the more interesting things was some giant letters on the side of a rock. On the rocks below the U.S. Customs Station at Clifton are the words “On to Alaska with Buchanan”. Our guide explained to us that George Buchanan was a successful coal merchant from Detroit. During the Depression he decided to help boys to get out of town and see Alaska. Every summer from 1923 through the Depression, Mr. Buchanan and 50 or 60 boys journeyed across Canada to Vancouver, sailed up the coast to Skagway, spent several weeks touring Alaska, climbing glaciers, panning for gold. Part of the deal was that their parents would donate 1/3 of the money, George Buchanan would donate 1/3 of the money and the boy would work selling items such as kitchen implements door to door to raise the remaining 1/3.



























We saw those letters again all too quickly. Shortly after we passed the U.S. Customs Station at Clifton, the train just stopped. After a while, an announcement was made that the train in front of us had technical difficulties and that we would need to reverse down to the U.S. Customs Station, where there were sidings. I have to say I was not too sure about reversing down a fairly steep hill. Still, it did not take long until we were safely parked in the sidings and then we had to wait for the other train to come past us before we could continue on our journey.

 

[dolphingirl47]

We carried on further up the mountain. The further we got, the thinner the trees got and made way to sheer mountain tops covered in snow. There was also still some mist around the summits of those mountains, which provided some stunning photo opportunities. Once we got close to the White Pass Summit, we crossed over a wooden trestle bridge, went through two tunnels and passed an impressive iron bridge, which is unfortunately beyond repair. We also passed an area with all kinds of flags, which mark the official border between the USA and Canada. At this point we were advised that we would not need our passports, as we would not get off the train. I was more than a little disappointed. My passport stamp count still stood at USA 2, Canada 0.