Kicking off the 2017 Alaska Season! May 22-29, 2017 Alaska cruise on the Wonder (complete 7/14)

I would love to do this, rent this caboose and stay the night, but I guess that is not possible on a Disney cruise since they do not stay overnight.

Anyway, the scenery was lovely. At about mile 6 of the train ride, we stopped and let out hikers going to the Denver Valley. At this stop, there is an old railway caboose that you can actually rent out for the night, a bargain at only $45/night!
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Thank you for posting your journey. I enjoyed following along and can't wait for our trip on Aug 7th!! Thanks again for a wonderful blog!
 
THIS! I'm totally ready to go back and do Alaska again and do different activities this time! There are so many options.
I keep trying to tell my husband this same thing after we went last year!
 
Friday, May 26-- Juneau-- whale watching!!

Yay! Next highlight of the cruise--whales!! I love whales. I suppose from many trips to marine parks when I was younger, as well as having seen humpbacks in Hawaii, and orcas in the Pac NW. They are magnificent creatures.

We ate a good breakfast in Cabanas, since our whale watching tour was going to run from about 10 am to 2 pm (dock to dock). Quite a few months prior to the cruise, I had found our 'social media' group online and joined it. Via that page, a few people had set up smaller whale watching charters (not booked through DCL), and we were able to join one. It saved us a little money (not a huge amount, since it was just the 2 of us), but the benefit of being on a boat with about 16 people instead of a larger more crowded boat was appealing to us.

We were to meet our group on the ship dock at 9:45-- but-- I hadn't actually met the lady who had organized it yet in person (missed her at our group meet on day one), so I made sure we exited the ship in plenty of time. I think we were off the ship by 9:15, and just wandered around and waited. Since the ship docked about a mile from town, a shuttle was provided for ship passengers going into Juneau to shop. The excursion groups were picked up right at the dock.
The weather was sunny and a little chilly, though it looked like it would warm up a bit as the day went on.

This is a cute little faux mine entrance at the dock-- nicely landscaped. I mostly just wandered around here (and found a geocache in the dock area) while we waited.
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We found a representative from Harv and Marv's Whale Watching while we were waiting, so we kept an eye out for the rest of the group to arrive.
Once we gathered, we got in a small shuttle bus to ride to Auke Bay, where the smaller boats are docked. On the way, we passed a field with DOZENS of bald eagles-- wow-- I had never seen so many together in my life! (Turns out, that field was near the landfill-- eagles are so cool, but they do have that scavenger tendency.)

We arrived at our destination, had time for a quick restroom break, and boarded our excursion boat. We saw some friends we had met on the ship, who had apparently been on the excursion prior to ours-- they loved it and had good words for the boat crew.

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That's our boat-- I think we had 16 people total-- about 6 kids, the rest adults. We rode inside the cabin heading out to the water, but could go on the front and aft decks to watch the whales and take photos.

It took almost no time at all to find our first whales!
We saw one or two humpbacks in the distance, but then a pod of orcas showed up, so we focused on them initially.

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They weren't too far from the boat. Photos mostly taken by my DH with his Canon. I don't think he had his largest lens on, though. It's a new camera to us, so we still have a lot to learn with it.

Here is a photo of the larger whale watching boats.
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We could also look back from the boat across Auke Bay and see the Mendenhall Glacier, which we were not visiting today. I had visited Mendenhall on a previous trip, and with an excursion right up the middle of the day, we really didn't have time to do justice to other excursions before or after.

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continued in next post with a few photos of the humpbacks. :)
 


We then turned our attention to the humpbacks in the area. We saw quite a few of them, but no major breaching or bubble feeding for our group.
The Harv and Marv guides were great to tell us what to look for-- the mist of air, the birds flying around (also wanting whatever the whales are feeding on), the other tour boats. We learned how the whales will surface a few times without flipping up their tail and then arch over to dive down, and that is when you usually get the good tail view!

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These two were swimming side-by-side for a while.
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Will continue later-- have a couple of things to do before I can finish up for this day of the cruise. Hope you enjoy the whale photos. :)
 
Friday, May 26-- Juneau-- whale watching!!

Yay! Next highlight of the cruise--whales!! I love whales. I suppose from many trips to marine parks when I was younger, as well as having seen humpbacks in Hawaii, and orcas in the Pac NW. They are magnificent creatures.

We ate a good breakfast in Cabanas, since our whale watching tour was going to run from about 10 am to 2 pm (dock to dock). Quite a few months prior to the cruise, I had found our 'social media' group online and joined it. Via that page, a few people had set up smaller whale watching charters (not booked through DCL), and we were able to join one. It saved us a little money (not a huge amount, since it was just the 2 of us), but the benefit of being on a boat with about 16 people instead of a larger more crowded boat was appealing to us.

We were to meet our group on the ship dock at 9:45-- but-- I hadn't actually met the lady who had organized it yet in person (missed her at our group meet on day one), so I made sure we exited the ship in plenty of time. I think we were off the ship by 9:15, and just wandered around and waited. Since the ship docked about a mile from town, a shuttle was provided for ship passengers going into Juneau to shop. The excursion groups were picked up right at the dock.
The weather was sunny and a little chilly, though it looked like it would warm up a bit as the day went on.

This is a cute little faux mine entrance at the dock-- nicely landscaped. I mostly just wandered around here (and found a geocache in the dock area) while we waited.
View attachment 249194

We found a representative from Harv and Marv's Whale Watching while we were waiting, so we kept an eye out for the rest of the group to arrive.
Once we gathered, we got in a small shuttle bus to ride to Auke Bay, where the smaller boats are docked. On the way, we passed a field with DOZENS of bald eagles-- wow-- I had never seen so many together in my life! (Turns out, that field was near the landfill-- eagles are so cool, but they do have that scavenger tendency.)

We arrived at our destination, had time for a quick restroom break, and boarded our excursion boat. We saw some friends we had met on the ship, who had apparently been on the excursion prior to ours-- they loved it and had good words for the boat crew.

View attachment 249196
That's our boat-- I think we had 16 people total-- about 6 kids, the rest adults. We rode inside the cabin heading out to the water, but could go on the front and aft decks to watch the whales and take photos.

It took almost no time at all to find our first whales!
We saw one or two humpbacks in the distance, but then a pod of orcas showed up, so we focused on them initially.

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They weren't too far from the boat. Photos mostly taken by my DH with his Canon. I don't think he had his largest lens on, though. It's a new camera to us, so we still have a lot to learn with it.

Here is a photo of the larger whale watching boats.
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We could also look back from the boat across Auke Bay and see the Mendenhall Glacier, which we were not visiting today. I had visited Mendenhall on a previous trip, and with an excursion right up the middle of the day, we really didn't have time to do justice to other excursions before or after.

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continued in next post with a few photos of the humpbacks. :)
Keep up these great posts! :cheer2:
 
I think we heard that all those eagles were gathered downstream from the salmon cannery. It was so odd seeing them all over the beach in amongst the seagulls. Beautiful majestic birds eating...trash.
 


I think we heard that all those eagles were gathered downstream from the salmon cannery. It was so odd seeing them all over the beach in amongst the seagulls. Beautiful majestic birds eating...trash.

Ah.... we are both correct! I just looked on Google Maps. The cannery is not too far from the landfill. Eagle heaven!
 
I love this trip report! I've been trying to convince my family to go on a Disney Cruise, and this itinerary may just work! My mom grew up in Vancouver and my dad was born there before moving down to San Diego as a kid, and both of their families still live in the area, so we've spent many summers there. My mom has always talked vaguely about wanting to do an Alaskan cruise, so I think I will use your photos to help convince her for next year!
 
I'm loving your report as well!! Your pics are amazing--I'm going to do my best to take many of the same ones. We sail on August 21st!
 
I'll go into pros/cons of the excursion in a bit.
We did see calving-- I felt like we saw more calving from the Wonder later in the day, but definitely a few good chunks from the excursion boat.
And thanks-- I made a few of the headbands--one for myself, and a few I gave as FE gifts. :)
Was the Glacier Explorer at Endicott a hard excursion to book, in terms of availability?
 
I'm enjoying your trip report! It's nice to see that there are other people out there that like to stop at all the National Parks they can as well! Last August, we brought our National Park passport books and got them stamped at both the Klondike Gold Rush NHP and at Mendenhall (for the Tongass National Forest.) The kids and I did the senior/junior ranger booklets at home for the Klondike one, turned them in at the park and got the pins. The kids also did the Tongass junior ranger book at Mendenhall and got their junior ranger pins there!

I love that you did the snowshoe excursion--that's definitely a unique excursion, especially if you're from Texas!
 
Was the Glacier Explorer at Endicott a hard excursion to book, in terms of availability?

We're silver, and I didn't have any trouble booking it. My priority when I did online checkin was: Snowshoe, then the Glacier Explorer, then Palo.
 
I'm enjoying your trip report! It's nice to see that there are other people out there that like to stop at all the National Parks they can as well! Last August, we brought our National Park passport books and got them stamped at both the Klondike Gold Rush NHP and at Mendenhall (for the Tongass National Forest.) The kids and I did the senior/junior ranger booklets at home for the Klondike one, turned them in at the park and got the pins. The kids also did the Tongass junior ranger book at Mendenhall and got their junior ranger pins there!

I love that you did the snowshoe excursion--that's definitely a unique excursion, especially if you're from Texas!

We want to go to all of them!! Mainly the major NPs, but also the historic sites and monuments. We went to Zion and Bryce Canyons last year and were awestruck!

Have you read the book "Dear Bob and Sue"-- it's a cute take on visiting the National Parks. :)
 
I have some new thoughts on the Glacier Explorer after seeing photos from this past week's cruise where they ended up in Tracy Arm and not Endicott Arm.
I think, if you have reasonable expectation that the ship is going to Tracy Arm (watch for reports on various websites, including the Dis, Fb, and cruise critic, as well as the ship tracking sites), then the Glacier Explorer might give you a better close up view.

As you can see-- when we went to Endicott, we had great views both from the excursion boat and from the Wonder, so I didn't think the small boat excursion was a 'must-do.'
This past week, the Wonder went to Tracy Arm due to a landslide in Endicott-- they did not get all that close to the glacier, from the photos I saw (please correct me, recent cruisers, if I am wrong!). This week, the smaller excursion got cancelled, but that may have been as much due to uncertainty if the Wonder was getting into either Arm as anything. However, I would think that if one is pretty certain the Wonder is going into Tracy Arm, the smaller boat (if offered) is going to get you closer to the glacier face.

That said, the photos I did see of Tracy Arm were quite beautiful-- it's just a different type of viewpoint than we had in Endicott.

Ahh... nature! So wonderful, yet unpredictable!
 
I'm going to try to get this report finished up in the next few days. Worked all weekend. At least the major highlights are done. Sorry it's taking so long-- my intentions were good, hoping to have info out there for this year's Alaskan cruisers. However, things are a bit topsy turvy in my world, so I'm doing it a little at a time.
 
Alright--let's finish up Juneau!

On the way back from the Harv and Marv Whale Watching, the shuttle stopped for photos at a viewpoint to see the Mendenhall glacier. This excursion didn't specifically go TO the glacier, and we didn't feel like we had time to do it justice (and I had been there before), so we were ok with just getting some far away photos.

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and a closeup of the art on the railing

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The shuttle gave us the option of being dropped off in Juneau or back at the ship, so we chose town again, so we could eat, shop, and mail our granddaughter's postcard.
I've got a friend who lives in Juneau, so we met at the Hangar for a late lunch/early dinner. I had some delicious fish and chips and my husband had a halibut burger. DH also had a delicious Alaska Brewery smoked porter. He loves dark beer, and this one was good. We had a great visit-- nice to catch up!
We walked around town and shopped-- me at the quilt shop and DH at the Alaskan Brewery store (the store in town has shirts and souvenirs, no beer tasting (that's at the brewery further away). Picked up a new postcard for the baby, and mailed the one we had from Skagway.

I wanted to get back to the ship for the Pixar Party at 4:30, so we dropped off our stuff in the room and changed into our Carl and Ellie shirts, and made it to the atrium for the end of the party.
I don't think I had ever see the Boo character previously-- she is so cute!

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After the party, we went to the DVC member mixer in Cabanas (free drinks!) and visited with some of tablemates for a bit.

Then-- OMG, the Frozen show. Spectacular!!! Of course, I have no photos, since photography is not allowed in the theater during the show, but it was so great! We kept getting asked "Why DCL?" when we were out and about... THIS. That show blew us away. Did not regret the premium we paid to sail on DCL vs other lines one minute.

After Frozen, we had a chance to meet Russell from UP! (wish Carl Frederickson had been there)

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He liked our shirts, and our homemade Grape Soda pins.

Then, we dashed back to the cabin to put on nicer clothes for dinner, since it was semi-formal night. Dinner was in Tiana's Place, which was so much fun. Didn't get a chance to say hi to Tiana this night, but it was Mardi Gras theme and high energy!
I had the wedge salad, and asked our server if I could have the appetizer of shrimp and grits for my main course, because I didn't want a huge meal. Now, I don't necessarily recommend doing that-- it messes up their timing (the servers and the chefs), but it was sweet that they let me do it. If I had to do it again, I'd just order both, and set aside my salad to eat after the shrimp. That said, the shrimp and grits was delicious!

And our servers were so cute.

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I think we just wandered around after dinner while we let our food settle, then went to sleep-- tomorrow we'd be in my old stomping grounds of Ketchikan!
 

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