Just off the Wonder (Alaska) -- Any Questions?

[mrsxsparrow]

This board was extremely helpful to me when planning our Alaskan adventure, so I want to make sure I can give back if possible! We just got off the Wonder yesterday morning from our 7-night Alaskan cruise. If anyone has any questions, I can try to answer them!

As a quick background, we were two adults, no children. Stayed at the Four Seasons Vancouver through Hotwire prior to the cruise. We had a Navigator Verandah and late dining. We did two excursion in each port (with one booked privately in Juneau and one private booking in Ketchikan) and the Vancouver excursion on debarkation day. We had both dinner and brunch in Palo, participated in a champagne tasting, and had a spa treatment. Also did some laundry if there are any questions about that!

They rolled out free iMessage on the Wonder, and from what Guest Services said, it was the first week on that ship.

So if you have questions, let me know!

 

[Arianabtd]

Glad you had a great trip!
About your navigator verandah... Which end of the ship were you on, and did you like it? I'm looking into booking one on the Wonder for next year but I'm not 100% sure yet

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Do you still get individual H2O products or have they moved to the large dispensers in the shower yet?

 

[Azza1987]

I'd be interested to just know your thoughts in general on the Alaskan Cruise? Did you get to see enough of Alaska, any favorite ports/excursions?

There's a very good deal with a VGC in Sept this year, and having never cruised before and already looking to go to Canada I might see if DH and I can do that trip, just because we are already there.

 

[Erica1016]

Do you still get individual H2O products or have they moved to the large dispensers in the shower yet?

We were on the Wonder in May and they had the dispensers. I didn't mind. My only complaint was that our body was one did not squirt out very much and the pump would get stuck down and I'd have to pull it up to pump more. The other two dispensers were fine and it wasn't too bad of an adjustment.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

I'd be interested to just know your thoughts in general on the Alaskan Cruise? Did you get to see enough of Alaska, any favorite ports/excursions?

There's a very good deal with a VGC in Sept this year, and having never cruised before and already looking to go to Canada I might see if DH and I can do that trip, just because we are already there.

Not the OP, but I'll chime in as we just went in May. Favorite excursion was the Glacier Explorer on Endicott Arm Day. Also loved renting a Green Jeep in Skagway and driving ourselves to the Yukon, and the floatplane to Misty Fjords in Ketchikan. I felt like it was a good "sampler platter" of Alaska and Canada with our three pre-cruise days in Vancouver, but if we go again I will want to take a cruise that goes to Glacier Bay or Hubbard Glacier, and will try for the dogsledding on the glacier again that got canceled. If DCL ever offers their 9 night Alaskan cruise again I will be mighty tempted even though prices will be astronomical. We really loved the Wonder.

 

[scottishclover]

What was the temperature like on the Endicott arm day? We are cruising at the end of July and wondering if our insulated jackets will be absolutely necessary or if our rain jackets are enough? We are Scottish so used to cool weather in summer but it worries me slightly that I see trip reports with people wearing hats and gloves on deck. I suppose it is all relative - on our cruise to Norway a couple of years back there were people wearing winter coats and my husband was in shorts!

 

[Geomom]

What was the temperature like on the Endicott arm day? We are cruising at the end of July and wondering if our insulated jackets will be absolutely necessary or if our rain jackets are enough? We are Scottish so used to cool weather in summer but it worries me slightly that I see trip reports with people wearing hats and gloves on deck. I suppose it is all relative - on our cruise to Norway a couple of years back there were people wearing winter coats and my husband was in shorts!

If you're Scottish, I don't think you'll need insulated jackets. We're from Massachusetts--hot in the summer (80-90F), snowy and cold in the winter, so we can deal with colder weather. We went in August 2016. We may have had sweatshirts on under our rain shells, long pants on. DH may have been in shorts. After being outside near the glacier for a while taking pics, my hands did get cold enough to put gloves on for a bit--just to have a layer of warmth. We didn't need hats. 'Layers' is the key, so you can put on/take off as you're warm/cold. I think it was between 45-52F that day. I would probably compare it to your Norway cruise. Anyone coming from the Southern US will likely have winter coats on, since they seem to be cold when the temp is below 70F!

 

[anjuan]

What was the temperature like on the Endicott arm day? We are cruising at the end of July and wondering if our insulated jackets will be absolutely necessary or if our rain jackets are enough? We are Scottish so used to cool weather in summer but it worries me slightly that I see trip reports with people wearing hats and gloves on deck. I suppose it is all relative - on our cruise to Norway a couple of years back there were people wearing winter coats and my husband was in shorts!

Also not the OP, but we were on the May 27 cruise and the Endicott arm day was gorgeous! It was about 70 and sunny- we didn't even need a coat. With that being said the next day in Skagway we did need our coats. So it does seem like it can vary and bringing layers really is the best option to be prepared.

 

[Kanga&TwoRoos]

How was the champagne tasting? Where does it take place?

 

[Shellyred8]

I'd be interested to just know your thoughts in general on the Alaskan Cruise? Did you get to see enough of Alaska, any favorite ports/excursions?

There's a very good deal with a VGC in Sept this year, and having never cruised before and already looking to go to Canada I might see if DH and I can do that trip, just because we are already there.

We did a Sept Alaska cruise in 2017 and loved it! On our trip, we had a little more drizzle/rain than you might have during the summer months, but it was never a total washout. We just made sure we brought our rain jackets with us when we were out in case it decided to start to rain/drizzle. We were able to enjoy our time in the ports. We did the WhitePass Steam engine tour, which was absolutely beautiful! Since it is a cruise, you get to see quite a bit of Alaska, but not for a very long time in any one place. I loved cruising the inside passage, because there was almost always amazing scenery on either side of the ship. We had a veranda and I would highly recommend it to anyone doing the cruise. There were times that I just wanted some quite time to enjoy looking at the scenery.

The other bonus for us is that there were very few kids on board. One of the CM's said there were only about 300 on the ship for our cruise. It was really nice.

 

[Happy99]

How did the iMessaging work? did you take photos of menus or navigators you can share? I know there are some out there on another website but I look looking and comparing if anything changed. What type of champagne was in the tasting?

 

[mrsxsparrow]

Glad you had a great trip!
About your navigator verandah... Which end of the ship were you on, and did you like it? I'm looking into booking one on the Wonder for next year but I'm not 100% sure yet

We were aft, on the starboard side (I think?). Stateroom 6638. Loved the location -- quick trip up to Cabanas/Palo, quick trip down to Animators/Tianas. Plus our muster station was in Animators -- I've never been inside for the drill before, it was a nice change of pace! We did feel some vibration at times, but honestly not enough to bother us. Would not hesitate to book this cabin again. My dad was there to see us off and the cabin faced the port in Vancouver which was nice. Faced the port in both Skagway and Juneau as well. It did NOT face Ketchikan though, which would have been cool since the town is literally right there, but we were out exploring most of the time so again, not a huge deal.

 

[mrsxsparrow]

Do you still get individual H2O products or have they moved to the large dispensers in the shower yet?

Large dispensers unfortunately. I love the products and found it difficult to pump the shampoo/conditioner. Plus I couldn't mysteriously lose all the little bottles...

 

[mrsxsparrow]

I'd be interested to just know your thoughts in general on the Alaskan Cruise? Did you get to see enough of Alaska, any favorite ports/excursions?

There's a very good deal with a VGC in Sept this year, and having never cruised before and already looking to go to Canada I might see if DH and I can do that trip, just because we are already there.

Okay so this is going to be very skewed. We lucked out and had AMAZING weather. It's all anyone on the ship or in the towns could talk about. I absolutely LOVED this Alaska cruise. It definitely made me want to go back. We did do two excursions in each port, which is a lot. But it allowed us to do everything we wanted. In Skagway we did the City Tour (in a street car)/White Pass Railway excursion and the Adventure Park Zipline (both through Disney). In Juneau we did a whale watching tour in the morning (privately booked) and the glacier guided walk by helicopter (booked through Disney). In Ketchikan we did the Rainforest Sanctuary (booked through Disney) and the Disney exclusive Lumberjack show plus ax throwing (ironically, booked directly through the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show website).

My favorite excursions were the ziplining in Skagway (I had never done it before) and the helicopter to the glacier in Juneau (which honestly blew everything else out of the water). But my favorite port in general was Ketchikan -- I wasn't a fan of the towns in Skagway or Juneau (although Juneau had my favorite lunch -- halibut tacos and beer battered french fries from a food truck called Deckhand Dave's).

I definitely felt like this was a fantastic way to see Alaska for the first time. I'd also like to one day check out Denali, but it's pretty inland so that'd be a different trip altogether. Maybe it's because I didn't do much research on any other parts of Alaska, but this pretty much checked off all my Alaska bucket list items. Bald eagles in the wild? Check. Whales seen from the ship (as I ate brunch in Palo)? Check. Glaciers? Check. White Pass Railway? Check. So I'm happy!

 

[mrsxsparrow]

What was the temperature like on the Endicott arm day? We are cruising at the end of July and wondering if our insulated jackets will be absolutely necessary or if our rain jackets are enough? We are Scottish so used to cool weather in summer but it worries me slightly that I see trip reports with people wearing hats and gloves on deck. I suppose it is all relative - on our cruise to Norway a couple of years back there were people wearing winter coats and my husband was in shorts!

Again I'll be a little skewed on this for a few reasons. We had great weather the whole cruise, which from what I understand is abnormal for Alaska. On the glacier day specifically, my mom and I booked a "Couples Massage" in the spa villa -- so we actually saw the glacier in our swimsuits from the hot tub on the villa's verandah!

After the massage though, we were in jeans and insulated jackets. I didn't find gloves to be necessary. We DID want them when we did our walk on the glacier though -- it was about 45 degrees Fahrenheit. We also had gloves and hats for that. It was also on the colder side in Ketchikan -- 55 or so. We're from Southern California and Florida though, so we're babies.

 

[mrsxsparrow]

How was the champagne tasting? Where does it take place?

It was awesome. It was held in the Cadillac lounge. I thought it would be too crazy on embarkation day so almost cancelled it, but I'm so glad I didn't. We boarded pretty early (we managed to be in boarding group 5) and had plenty of time to tour the ship and check out our stateroom once it was ready before heading down. If I remember correctly we tasted five champagnes? Two to start that were slightly different, a rose, a weird one some people liked but I can't remember, and finished with a glass of Vevue Clicquot Rich over ice, which I had never tried before and was delicious. The sommelier from Palo led it and he was awesome! Such good stories and tips and it was the perfect way to start the cruise.

 

[GPaLarry]

When we were in Juneau, on our verandah waiting to shove off, a hummingbird flew up above the railing, looked at us and flew off. We could never figure out where she/he came from or was going? Perchance the bird was looking for the drink of the day. Other thought was that it was Tinkerbell just checking in on us. The Alaska cruise was truly magical.

 

[mrsxsparrow]

How did the iMessaging work? did you take photos of menus or navigators you can share? I know there are some out there on another website but I look looking and comparing if anything changed. What type of champagne was in the tasting?

We turned our phones on airplane mode but turned on Wifi and connected to Disney Guest like normal, and iMessage just worked. Only texts though, no photos or videos.

I can't remember all the types of champagnes in the tasting and unfortunately did not take any pictures. We ended with the Vevue Clicquot Rich though, I know that! There was also a Bollinger and a Moet & Chandon, though I don't remember specifics for those. There were five.

I don't have any pictures of menus or Navigator's but I can tell you nothing major changed. I did a LOT of research heading up to the cruise so I knew what was happening going in and there were no surprises. We did have the prem"EAR" of Toy Story 4 on Friday (Juneau day) so that was slightly different. But otherwise, everything was the same as the posted navigators and menus as I had seen before.

 

[mrsxsparrow]

How did the iMessaging work? did you take photos of menus or navigators you can share? I know there are some out there on another website but I look looking and comparing if anything changed. What type of champagne was in the tasting?

My mom just sent me a picture of the bottles from the tasting. Moet & Chandon Imperial, Taittinger, Pommery, Bollinger, and the Vevue Clicquot Rich.