Ash1217

Ash' date=' just out of curiosity, what kind of adult programs would you like to see. I know what they used to have (years ago and on the long cruises now), so will keep my fingers still about those. Just curious as to what you might like to have happen....in case DCL monitors the boards![/quote']

 

 

 

Good question, and one I don't have an answer for. I don't think they need something during the day, because you should be enjoying the port, but something at night for those people that just don't want to go see a musical every night.

 

 

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What was the triple adventure in Skagway? Obviously, 3 things, but wondering what they were.

 

I've cruised DCL to Alaska twice and agree with what you said. Great ship, great cruise, great ports, but I did get bored on the ship. I do think they need more for adults only, but they just don't have many adults that participate in adults only events. So, that's probably why there aren't that many offered.

You start out biking and then hiking in the Tondra National Forrest. The you ride a raft back to your starting point. All told it took about 7 hours and was great.

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Alaska must be one of the small terminals and because there wasn't very much room to move around.

As far as the adult activities go you hit the nail on the head. It was limited to various alcohol tastings, trivia games and bingo. Not much else. Which would have been fine on a cruise with lots of ports of call, but the Alaska cruise has 4 days at sea if you count the Tracy Arm Fijord, which you have to because it is a day at sea. 4 days of trivia and bingo left a little to be desired.

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We have been cruisers for awhile but this was our first time on Disney. We have been on Carnival and Princess cruise lines multiple times and I have to say that Disney is the better cruise line and its not even close. I'm not a reviewer but I decided to get one here and post about some of the things that we observed on this cruise.

First it was me, my wife, and our 13 year old son on the cruise. Our son spent most of his time in the tweens room with the other like minded and same aged kids on the ship.We sailed out of Vancouver on the Wonder to Alaska. We flew in to Vancouver a day early and stayed at Fairmont airport hotel overnight and boarded the Wonder the following day. I highly recommend flying in a day early. We are from Kentucky and on eastern standard time. The 3 hour time difference took a little getting used to and flying in a day early helped us get accustomed to the time difference. If we hadn't we would have wasted the first day on the ship. If you do decide to stay I also recommend purchasing the transfers from the hotel to the terminal through Disney. It was $25.00 a person but they make it so easy it was worth the price. They take your luggage at the bus and you don't see it again until you get to your room. There will be a Disney rep at the hotel to show where to go and what bus you need to board.

Going through customs and boarding the Wonder was also very easy. There were tons of airport and Disney personnel there to show you where you need to go and what lines you need to be in. The lines are long and it looks like it is going to be a nightmare, (I hate lines), but it was very organized and the lines were kept moving quickly.

Once aboard the first thing they do is direct you to a dining room and feed you lunch. I suspect they do this to allow enough time to get your luggage to your room. The room hallways are blocked off until a certain time. I think you are allowed to explore the ship if you would rather skip lunch but you cant get to your rooms until they open up the hallways.

The rooms were very nice and comparable to other cruise lines. We had a balcony room on deck seven. I believe that the Wonder just under went a makeover recently and everything looked new and everything was in working order. I will say the the rooms, although satisfactory, looked bigger in the photos on the Disney website than they were in person.

I wanted to say a few words on packing for Alaska. I read a ton of reviews and packing tips for Alaska prior to our cruise and they were all helpful but I can say with absolute certainty that we over packed. We packed for every possible weather scenario that may arise and to tell the truth half of it was unneeded. Bring a rain jacket, jeans, and some warm pullovers and you will be fine. We even went dog sledding on the Mendenhall glacier and was dressed like we were prepared for a blizzard when all we needed was a pullover, jacket, hat and gloves. To be fair the weather for our trip was super nice. It was sunny the entire time and we didn't encounter rain until the last day in Ketchikan.

We also over packed for nighttime dinning. I packed one shirt for each night and three pairs of dress pants and a suit for formal night. I never wore any of the dress pants and half the shirts. On casual nights I wore the jeans I wore throughout the day and changed shirts. I did wear the suit on formal night but I didn't have to. We observed that most people didn't dress for dinner at all, even on formal night, they wore what they had on during the day. So unless you want to, its not necessary to bring a lot of dress clothes for dinner. As I said, I wore jeans every night except for formal night as did most everybody in the dining room.

The staff on the ship was beyond compare and it is the one reason I recommend Disney above the other cruise lines and made the trip worth the extra cost. On every ship we have been on our cabin steward was really nice and our hostess, at dinner, was also really nice but you would expect that from them. It was how nice everyone else was on the ship that I noticed, from the workers cleaning the decks early in the morning, to the bus boys that took our plates from the table at lunch. They were all exceptional, always smiling and friendly. They would all stop and talk to you for as long as you wanted. The friendliness of everyone on the ship was not something we have encountered on other cruise lines. Everyone was always eager to help you with anything you wanted or needed and it doesn't go unnoticed.

If I was to give a bad mark it would be that there wasn't a lot for adults to do on the ship on sea days. If you have young kids then you are busy taking them to all the character meetings, and activities for kids, but if you didn't have kids then you were pretty much stuck playing bingo. One highlight was the Doug Jones presentations on Whales, Bears, and glaciers but they only lasted an hour each, after that you were on your own. I missed the casino that's on other cruise lines. I spent a lot of time on my balcony taking pictures of the mountains and wildlife, which were plentiful in Alaska.

The night before disembarking they give you color coded Disney character tags to put on your luggage and then they pick up your luggage that night. The morning of disembarkation everyone disembarks as they call out the color and character of your tag. I recommend waiting for them to call out your tag, you can get off earlier but your luggage wont be ready and you will have to wait in the cruise terminal. They call the tags out in correlation to what luggage is ready to be picked up. Its more comfortable to wait on the ship. Fortunately they sit you down for breakfast and there's tons of lounges you can wait in so the disembarkation process was not bad at all. Again there were tons of airport personnel and Disney personnel at the terminal and airport helping you through process. Although the lines are long they keep them moving very quickly and it didn't take long at all. From start to finish it took about two hours to get through the process, which includes the 45 minute bus ride to the airport from the cruise terminal.

Alaska was the best. We went to Juneau, Skagway, and Kethcikan and had a great time at all three. We did the Triple Adventure in Skagway, Dog sledding in Juneau and whale watching in Ketchikan. All three were awesome, especially the triple adventure excursion. If your able you will not be sorry.

We have been on all kinds of Caribbean cruises, on two different cruise lines and they pale in comparison to Disney and Alaska. I highly recommend this trip. I know that everyone talks about the extra cost of Disney but to me it was worth the cost.

My family and I have been on several cruises in the past, all of them were on Carnival Cruise Lines. This will be the first Disney Cruise that we have taken, as well as the first Alaskan cruise in June. Disney is quite a bit more expensive and I was wondering if anyone who has been on multiple cruise lines could tell be if there are any differences. What can I expect for the added cost, if anything. Thanks in advance.