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We did Palo brunch on our Tracy Arm day, I think at 10:30, and we saw whales from the windows.
Cool!
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In fact, our server said this was his third season in Alsaka and the first time he'd seen one breech. Everyone at Palo was standing on one side looking out the window - including most of the servers.
Pre-trip report – part four: what can we expect on board the Wonder
As I’m the sort of person who wants to plan as much as I can beforehand, I decided to try and get a head start on what sort of activities to expect on board the Alaskan cruise. That’s one of the beauties of being on the last cruise of the season – you get to see Navigators from earlier cruises, and you know, while they may differ a bit from one week to another, presumably they won’t be that different.
By the way, in case you’re wondering, another advantage of being on the last cruise of the season is that often you get discounts on merchandise, particularly if it’s date specific. Of course, there’s also the chance that you may be out of luck, and they may be sold out, but that’s a risk you have to take…
I managed to find some Alaskan cruise Navigators on the Disney Cruise Line blog site. I have to say this is an excellent site, packed with lots of information that will help to whet your appetite, so if you haven’t checked it out before, I can thoroughly recommend it.
As I knew what we’d be doing on our days in ports, with all our shore excursions already booked, I was more intrigued to find out what the activities were on our days at sea. The Navigators I found were fascinating reading, and I’m so glad I got hold of them, as they also gave me a heads up on a few things.
Now I knew that they were doing Frozen celebrations on the Alaskan cruises - you can’t even escape from Frozen on a cruise any longer! Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy the movie, but I am starting to feel like it’s getting to be overkill with Disney. Frozen literally does seem to be everywhere, and to me, when it gets like that, it becomes a little less special – at least to me anyway. I know there are probably thousands of little girls who won’t feel that way, and of course that’s who Disney is catering too.
Anyway, after that brief rant, the reason I bring it up is that the first thing I noticed was that you can pick up tickets to meet the Frozen characters from the Port Adventures desk on the day you board, with allocation on a first come, first served basis starting at midday. I’m not interested in Anna and Elsa, we met them in Walt Disney World on our spring 2015 trip with a minimal wait and no Fastpass+ (I know, amazing huh? ), but Olaf? Oh yes please! So guess where we’ll be going as soon as we board? Wish me luck… If it doesn’t happen, it wasn’t meant to be, but at least I won’t get on board, and only discover this an hour or two after boarding. Now I know ahead of time. Of course, there’s no mention in any of the Navigators about which dates or at which times these meets actually take place, so there’s every chance it could clash with something else, but hopefully not…
Something else that you can book on boarding day, which I never realised, is the various beverage seminars they offer on board. We’ve been to a couple on our last couple of cruises and always really enjoy them, and I’d like to do some on this cruise too. By looking at the other Navigators for the week, I could work out which ones interested us, and the ones I’m considering right now (and obviously this will depend on whether they’re available on our actual cruise or not) are:
Stem to Stern wine tasting – we did this one on our cruise on the Dream in spring 2015 and enjoyed it. I’m hoping, if we do it, the wines will at least be a bit different
Chocolate and liquor tasting –w e did this on board the Magic on our Eastern Med cruise and we absolutely loved it. We did say we’d love to do it again, so hopefully we’ll get a chance this cruise.
I would also love to do the champagne tasting, but if they keep it on the same day and time as the Navigator I saw, then sadly it’s going to clash with our Palo brunch. Oh well, you can’t have everything.
Annoyingly, it looks like Disney are following their recent trend of holding the Disney Vacation Club Member Presentations stupidly early on an at sea day for the Alaskan cruises, as the Navigator I saw had it scheduled for 9:00am on day two, our day at sea. Oh please Disney – come on! Who wants to get up that early, no matter how fun the presentation, or what you might win? I won’t say “what deal you might get” as it seems the days of better incentives on board the cruises are now over. If we’re up, then great, but if not, then tough! I am not getting up early that day just for that, as it will probably be one of the rare days we can actually enjoy a lie-in.
Other things that we might enjoy include Into the Wild, presented by the on-board naturalist, but that’s at 9:30am, so again we may have the same problem as above. I know these talks are often recorded and shown in your room, so it’s not essential to go. The Navigator I saw suggests there’s likely to be a second talk by the naturalist in the afternoon, which we will probably try and go to, as it’s all about Alaska’s bears, and given one of our shore excursions should allow us the chance to see bears, that could be interesting to learn more about them.
Now last time we really did enjoy the Disney Art of Entertaining that they put on, with one session for the appetiser, one for the entrée, and one for dessert. However, try as I might, I was only able to find the appetiser session, which would be this day, and the dessert day, which I think is the other day at sea. Maybe they just forgot the entrée session for that particular cruise?
Something which was new to me was the adult animation class, which I really fancy doing. Now I will tell you a funny story here. When I first mentioned that to Mark, he kind of misheard me and took it the wrong way, thinking it was Disney animation with some form of dodgy “adult” slant on it. I certainly hope not! I did say to him I didn’t think this was a case of drawing Mickey doing something he shouldn’t be…
We’ll also be meeting up with Sharma (Silverangel879), her DH Obi and hopefully their friends Laura and Eric. I found out they’d be on the same cruise as us after she started her trip report and after various messages, we’ve agreed to meet up at the Captain’s reception at the start of formal night. As I said to her, we like to get there early, as often you get offered free drinks, and heck, it’s not often that Disney offers you anything free!
As I alluded to just now, tonight is formal night, and I think I would like to see the Golden Mickeys show, as I do always enjoy this. I’m becoming a bit more blasé now about the Disney shows on board the cruises, as we have seen a lot of them, and I don’t feel the need to see all of them. Equally, if it’s not a traditional Disney show, and say it’s a comedian, magician or ventriloquist, as they sometimes have, I don’t tend to bother with those – not unless I’ve heard of them anyway, and usually we haven’t, being British. It may be totally the wrong attitude, as I’m sure they are all amazing, but they just don’t do much for me.
The next day is the day we sail into Tracy Arm Fjord, and unsurprisingly, there aren’t that many activities once you start cruising up the fjord, as they expect everyone to be admiring the scenery outside, and rightly so, as it is stunning and not to be missed. Now this could be an early start, as there may be a talk about Disney’s Innovations: Theme Parks and also one about ice fields and glaciers by the naturalist at 9:30am, but again, we’ll see how we’re doing first thing, and whether we’re up in time. If we are, then we’ll have to decide which to go for.
That really was about it for that day, then the next day we’re into Skagway and, as we’ve got the Evening Wildlife Expedition, we’re off the boat until quite late. We’re supposed to be back on board at 7:15pm, which is just half an hour before all aboard. Of course, that means no dinner in our assigned restaurant tonight either, as we’re on the early seating for dinner. Still, at least our “picnic style meal” is served on the way back, so we won’t starve.
Now tonight is the big Freezing the Night Away with Anna, Elsa and friends at 9:45pm, so we’re going to have to go to that, given it’s something new, although I can just imagine it being an absolute mob scene. I have to say though I think it’s a much more sensible idea than trying to shoehorn the Pirates in the Caribbean into a cruise like this, much as I enjoy that party, and the accompanying menu.
The next day is the big day – Mark’s birthday and our stop in Juneau for hopefully some decent whale watching. Now there is nothing that appealed from the Navigator for this day, but if the weather is good when we get to Juneau – and heck, that is going to be a very big if, given it rained the last time we were there – we may do the Mount Roberts Tramway. I said this last time, but that it would depend on the weather, and of course, you couldn’t see the top of the mountain the day we were in port, so that was a complete no-go. Frustratingly, there are no details of opening times on their website, but I suspect that’s because it depends which ships are in port. Our all ashore is 6:15am (yes, you did read that right! ) and our tour departs at 10:30am, so we may have time to do this before we head out, but it’ll be a case of waiting until the day to see whether it works out for us or not…
The next day sees us arrive in Ketchikan, and this is one the options for the chocolate and liquor tasting, although we may go for the one on the at sea day, as today it’s an 10:00am. Now heck I know “it’s five o’clock somewhere”, but that may be a bit early for us to start drinking… Something I’m a lot more interested in is the Adult Chip-It Golf in the atrium lobby not long after we get back from our excursion. I don’t ever remember seeing this offered before, so I’m very intrigued, and I’d like to see it, to find out what it’s all about, and get some photos – and maybe Mark can even try it out?
The next day will be our last on board (how the heck did that happen ) and a day at sea. This is when I’d much rather do the chocolate and liquor tasting, as it’s at a much more reasonable 12:15pm. There’s also another adult animation class, although I’d want to know that you’d get to do something different, rather than the same as the first one, if you know what I mean. I do like the sound of the talk from the naturalist, entitled Humpbacks, Gray and Killer Whales: What you don’t see, as I’m sure Mark would be fascinated to go along to that. I’d also like to see the Disney Dreams show, as this is another one I enjoy.
Wow, now I’ve written all of that out, I’m starting to wonder (scuse the pun! ) how on earth we’ll find any time to enjoy the Rainforest in amongst all those activities, given that we usually get a length of cruise pass for it. Interestingly, the deals on massages did look somewhat limited from the Navigator I saw, so I’m not going to get my hopes up too much on that count. The way it works with me is that, much as I love getting spa treatments, I won’t pay the prices Disney charges upfront. I always keep an eye out for deals, and sometimes they have amazing deals, and I’ll get one or more treatments during a cruise, and at other times, they don’t have a single deal, and I don’t get one. It looks like it may be the latter on this cruise…
Next: remember when I said that the plan for the side trip to Victoria had bitten the dust? Well, yeah… … about that…
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The naturalist talk on glaciers was really interesting, we did that one.
The gifts at the DVC member reception were pretty good, just sayin'....
I only saw appetizer and dessert on our cruise for Art of Entertaining. We did the appetizer one - it was delicious!!
I did mixology and martini tastings for my drink seminars. I enjoyed both. I think you might really like some of the drinks offered in the mixology seminar.
The Freezing the Night Away party was not a mob scene. DH and I both remarked how much better it was crowd-wise, over PITC parties where you can't move.
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Your cruise is going to be so much fun!! I like how you read the Navigator before the cruise to make a plan. Typically, I like to wait for it to arrive each night as I like to be surprised by what is going to occur on the next day. . We are cruising in January again and I might just change up my ways to do some planning ahead. On our last cruise they advertised the Frozen characters, but it was only Elsa and Anna. Neat that Olaf has been added. Getting tickets ahead of time makes everything so much easier and better. No more long lines! Don't they have the DVC member event on the first day for this sailing? That is when we always go and it is so much fun. The golf event looked really fun on our last sailing. My daughter and I watched it with the original plan of playing along. I kept trying to get her to do it (she is Captain of the golf team at her school) but she wouldn't as it was mainly young boys doing it. I so hear you on the spa treatments! Hope you get to have some rainforest time on this cruise.
The naturalist talk on glaciers was really interesting, we did that one.
Cool!
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The gifts at the DVC member reception were pretty good, just sayin'....
Good to know!
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I only saw appetizer and dessert on our cruise for Art of Entertaining. We did the appetizer one - it was delicious!!
Without giving too much away, would I be able to have it? i.e. I assume it wasn't meat?
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I did mixology and martini tastings for my drink seminars. I enjoyed both. I think you might really like some of the drinks offered in the mixology seminar.
Wow - you did pack a lot in!
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The Freezing the Night Away party was not a mob scene. DH and I both remarked how much better it was crowd-wise, over PITC parties where you can't move.
Your cruise is going to be so much fun!! I like how you read the Navigator before the cruise to make a plan. Typically, I like to wait for it to arrive each night as I like to be surprised by what is going to occur on the next day. .
That's how I used to do it, but while it's a nice surprise, it's also a bit of a pain when you realise there's something on you really wanted to see/go to and it clashes with something you've already booked, which always seemed to happen to us.
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We are cruising in January again and I might just change up my ways to do some planning ahead. On our last cruise they advertised the Frozen characters, but it was only Elsa and Anna. Neat that Olaf has been added. Getting tickets ahead of time makes everything so much easier and better. No more long lines!
Definitely works for me!
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Don't they have the DVC member event on the first day for this sailing? That is when we always go and it is so much fun.
Maybe we will go after all. I guess part of it will depend on how jetlagged we are.
Some nice plans you have going! Hope you are able to get some spa time in as it seems may clash with other things. Just may have to trade one off for the other to get some of it in to enjoy and not do the length of cruise pass! The Beverage seminars are a lot of fun as I did one on my cruise. I think I reserved mine on day two. Most were still available except the Chocolate and Liquor tasting, which for obvious reasons seems quite popular!
The DCL cruise blog is a great site and I used that quite often for my recent cruise planning. Loved being able to look at the previous Navigators and get an idea what I wanted to do on board the ship.
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Some nice plans you have going! Hope you are able to get some spa time in as it seems may clash with other things.
Oh trust me, I will always get my spa time!
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Just may have to trade one off for the other to get some of it in to enjoy and not do the length of cruise pass! The Beverage seminars are a lot of fun as I did one on my cruise. I think I reserved mine on day two. Most were still available except the Chocolate and Liquor tasting, which for obvious reasons seems quite popular!
Adult animation class. Yeah, Mark, adult animation!
That's such a cool web site. Thanks for sharing that! It very much comes in handy
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you can’t even escape from Frozen on a cruise any longer! 
Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy the movie, but I am starting to feel like it’s getting to be overkill with Disney. Frozen literally does seem to be everywhere, and to me, when it gets like that, it becomes a little less special – at least to me anyway. I know there are probably thousands of little girls who won’t feel that way, and of course that’s who Disney is catering too. 
If it doesn’t happen, it wasn’t meant to be, but at least I won’t get on board, and only discover this an hour or two after boarding. Now I know ahead of time. 
We did say we’d love to do it again, so hopefully we’ll get a chance this cruise. 
I am not getting up early that day just for that, as it will probably be one of the rare days we can actually enjoy a lie-in. 
I certainly hope not! 
I did say to him I didn’t think this was a case of drawing Mickey doing something he shouldn’t be… 
) and our tour departs at 10:30am, so we may have time to do this before we head out, but it’ll be a case of waiting until the day to see whether it works out for us or not… 
) and a day at sea. This is when I’d much rather do the chocolate and liquor tasting, as it’s at a much more reasonable 12:15pm. There’s also another adult animation class, although I’d want to know that you’d get to do something different, rather than the same as the first one, if you know what I mean. I do like the sound of the talk from the naturalist, entitled Humpbacks, Gray and Killer Whales: What you don’t see, as I’m sure Mark would be fascinated to go along to that. I’d also like to see the Disney Dreams show, as this is another one I enjoy. 
… about that… 
. We are cruising in January again and I might just change up my ways to do some planning ahead. On our last cruise they advertised the Frozen characters, but it was only Elsa and Anna. Neat that Olaf has been added. Getting tickets ahead of time makes everything so much easier and better. No more long lines! 
I've now bookmarked the Disney Cruise Line Blog. 
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