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

[ironz]

Ketchikan--Saturday, May 27, 2017-- exploring on our own

We woke up to the most lovely day heading to Ketchikan! Having worked off and on in Ketchikan for about 6 years or so (in all seasons), I was prepared for normal Ketchikan weather, which is cloudy and drizzly. This was a gorgeous day--sunny and not very cold! Since all ashore time wasn't until 11:15 a.m., we didn't rush to get up too early. Had our usual breakfast at Cabanas and watched the scenery as we got closer to town. It was fun for me, because I could pick out landmarks of the island and know exactly where we were.





After breakfast, we got our running clothes on and were ready to go ashore as soon as we could. My DH was sweet enough to offer to run with me, so instead of my taking the flat path out towards the Saxman totem village, and his taking the hilly route over the 3rd Ave overpass, we both went for the hilly route. It works out ok, sometimes, for us to run together (he's fast and I'm notfast), for him to run ahead a little bit and double back.
The 'overpass road' is that hill with houses along it in the background of the two photos above.

We had a great run, with perfect running weather. The 1.3 mile Rainbird Trail can be accessed from the overpass, so we decided to go check it out. (one of the few places I hadn't been in KTN)
This is the view of downtown and the Wonder from the trail (and you can see 3rd Ave. just below the trail)



DH


I made him run back down the steep hill on Schoenbar Road after we finished doing the hike-- it's crazy steep, and not open in the winter due to ice/snow. No pics. I used to run up it (rarely) when I was there for work.
Cutting back through town, we used one of the "stair streets" to get to Water St. If you do the walking tour of Ketchikan (or just walk around), you can see these stairs-- they are actually designated streets, as they are the access point to some homes.



We then ran past the Ketchikan tunnel-- unique in that it's a tunnel you can drive through, around, or over, depending on where you are heading-- and back to the ship. All in all, I think we covered about 5 miles.
We grabbed lunch at Daisy Delights on our way to the cabin (I may have crammed an ice cream cone into my hungry mouth when we went by the ice cream station ).

 

[ironz]

Ketchikan, continued

After lunch, we got back off the ship to go walk around town. We visited a cute park right near the dock (Whale Park), where there are several totems, and my favorite park bench.


Lovely blooming trees in the park:


This is one of the nearby totems



I tried to solve a geocache puzzle in the area, but didn't find it (I have a fear of looking TOO obvious when I am hunting). However, the clues made me read more about the totems and local culture, so it's all good.
We went over to look over the creek and I saw a new salmon art piece that was new since I had been there last (2013).
Not the right time of year for the salmon to be running, though I have seen many in this creek in the past.





We also visited the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center, where we got our National Parks Passport stamped for the Tongass National Forest (and for Misty Fiords National Monument-- we did a Misty Fiords floatplane in 2012), and explored the exhibits. We watched part of a film which was quite interesting (and sad) about how the Native languages such as Tlingit are being lost, because people are not using them anymore, although there are efforts out there to learn the languages from the tribe elders so they are not lost forever.

Of course, we visited the local quilt shop and souvenir shop to get a postcard for the baby.

Prior to the trip, I had reached out to several of my Ketchikan friends to let them know we would be there and that we would love to meet up while in town to say hi. However, one friend I had not reached out to was the owner of the rental apartment that I stayed in while up there for work-- a nice studio apartment below their house, so I became friends with the family. Since they had since moved to Anchorage, I didn't think to contact her. Lo and behold, who do I run into while walking around over by Creek Street?! What a wonderful surprise. I told her that we would definitely have to plan a trip to the northern part of Alaska in the future.

We did meet a couple of friends at Annabelle's-- one that I used to work with, and the other I knew from swimming. The latter is an amazing woman, a school teacher who has done the Iditarod twice! She is never without a smile. It was great to catch up, and we also ate my favorite blue cheese crusted halibut at Annabelle's. Yum.
Angie had taken this photo of the Wonder that afternoon, when she and her dad were returning from fishing:



Of course, I had to take the classic Ketchikan visitor photo on the way back to the ship:


Love the snow on the top of Deer Mountain in the background. Next time we're there, I think we're going to hike up there (partway).

We got a photo in front of the ship, right on the dock where our Alaskan dream began 5 years ago:

 

[ironz]

Ketchikan, part 3

Leaving Ketchikan, we just relaxed and watched Revillagigedo Island (where Ketchikan is located) as we sailed by. I can't tell you how many times I waved at departing ships from the running trail near where I used to stay while there. The house I stayed in was one of these at the top of the hill:



My friend sent me this photo of us sailing away, most likely from the same beach as in the foreground of my photo above.



Although we had eaten delicious halibut in town, it was lobster night in the dining room, so we just had to go to Triton's.
We somehow found room for more food, including desserts!

Apricot trio:


Creme brulee:


Sadly, this night was our worst night in the dining room. Somehow, another large table of adults (not anyone we had met) had taken up the habit of chanting loudly anytime their server appeared. It was so annoying... esp in Triton's, where we were trying to actually converse with our tablemates (we had to stop talking and continue our sentences after the chanting stopped). It almost seemed that their server, if not encouraging them, was at least enjoying it, and did not discourage them from the noise. We had heard them on other nights, and perhaps it was less obvious in the other dining venues because they are generally louder, but in Triton's, it was just too much (reminiscent of certain WDW tour groups ). I did say something to our server, and wrote to Guest Services after the cruise. I suppose DCL can't do too much about rude guests, but I would hope this is was a one-off disruption and future cruisers don't have to put up with it (we never heard this on our first DCL cruise).
However, I would say that this was probably the only real negative point of our cruise (other than my not feeling well that one night).

The sunset leaving Ketchikan was so pretty... so sad that we are almost to the last day!


We had our best towel animals of the trip, too-- we hadn't noticed them when we first got into the cabin that evening, then my husband heard me laughing hysterically. This is so us, reading at night:

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

I am so enjoying your trip report. Alaska is definitely a dream trip of mine.

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

Pretty sure your assistant server is a friend of a friend. @IBelieveInTheMagic is this your friend Patricia?

So sweet to tag me @anricat! My CM friend doesn't go by Patricia but what's eerie is she looks very similar to her

OP ~ awesome trip report and I've really enjoyed reading it! Alaska trip reports always bring back many happy memories. Thanks for sharing with us!

Heather

 

[anricat]

Wow, you had such a lovely day in Ketchikan. Ours was pretty typical with the weather (but it didn't get us down).

The visitor's center was closed when we were there, on a Saturday. Were you guys there a different day?

I think we have a picture of Em in front of that same totem you posted a picture of.

 

[BuzzLightyearInTampa]

We went to Queen Elizabeth Park before our cruise as well. It was stunning and I loved the view of the mountains. DS and DW also did the butterfly garden there (admission required) and enjoyed it. Right after our cruise, we did Van Dusen Gardens. That place was incredible! The entire area just seems well-suited for botanical gardens.

 

[ironz]

I am so enjoying your trip report. Alaska is definitely a dream trip of mine.

So. Worth. It. It was amazing and just so much fun.

 

[ironz]

So sweet to tag me @anricat! My CM friend doesn't go by Patricia but what's eerie is she looks very similar to her

OP ~ awesome trip report and I've really enjoyed reading it! Alaska trip reports always bring back many happy memories. Thanks for sharing with us!

Heather

Her name tag said Patricia-- very petite young lady from Great Britain? I have another photo I'll post later. We loved her, at any rate.
Glad you are enjoying-- I definitely enjoyed reading about y'all's experiences last year!

 

[ironz]

Wow, you had such a lovely day in Ketchikan. Ours was pretty typical with the weather (but it didn't get us down).

The visitor's center was closed when we were there, on a Saturday. Were you guys there a different day?

I think we have a picture of Em in front of that same totem you posted a picture of.

So weird-- we were there on a Saturday and it was open. ??
I sortof wished we had done the kayaks like y'all did-- but just chilling was also a good option for us, after having busy days in the other ports.

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

Her name tag said Patricia-- very petite young lady from Great Britain? I have another photo I'll post later. We loved her, at any rate.
Glad you are enjoying-- I definitely enjoyed reading about y'all's experiences last year!

Definitely a different CM

Thank you for sharing!
Heather

 

[ironz]

Day at Sea-- Sunday, May 28, 2017

Sigh-- one more day. So much more we want to do, and it can't be almost over, can it?
We woke up and wandered to Cabanas for our usual buffet breakfast. I think we just relaxed most of the morning and enjoyed the scenery and smooth water. It was a clear, sunny day, and the water was quite calm.
I probably got a head start on packing as well. I must have had some relax time in mind, since I apparently skipped some activities that I see on my Navigator that I might have enjoyed doing that day! (Seriously, there are 3 things listed that morning that I would have enjoyed-- cooking demo, the final naturalist talk, and origami crafts-- where was I?) Oh, I think I was also doing a last bit of shopping as well, as I had to get an Alaska Minnie plush for our granddaughter, and DH had picked out a shirt he wanted (which he wears at least once a week now).

I apparently was lured by the potential of winning money to get out of my stupor and go play Bingo, with pre-sales at 11 a.m. It was fun, although I got too many cards (DH didn't join me after all!) and it was stressful trying to keep up with them (mostly on the electronic thingies, though several were manual punch cards, so I was trying really hard to stay on top of it all)! All for total winnings of... zero dollars, but 45 minutes of fun! Sat with a couple of the friends I had made on the cruise.

Lack of winnings aside, we got in the line to put a placeholder deposit down for a future cruise-- now to decide where and when! We'd ideally like to do the Panama Canal, though timing for doing the longer cruises is tough.
We ate lunch at Daisy Delights again (wraps and fruit) since the line at Pete's Boiler Bites was sort of long.

After lunch, we had our chance to see the new "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" movie in the Walt Disney Theatre. (We were too tired for the Prem-ear earlier in the week.) We settled in with our popcorn and beverages and enjoyed the movie. (note: it seemed that the popcorn stand/bar did close before the movie ended-- so I suppose if you want refills, go earlier in the movie)

It was just too nice outside after the movie to stay indoors, so we spent a good part of the next couple of hours on deck.



We saw some Dall's porpoises playing in the water alongside the ship. They swim so fast!! Their markings are sort of like orcas, but they are sleeker and smaller.



Then, this thing kept calling my name: The new Twist 'n' Spout, added at the last dry dock.



I just had to try it-- in the name of research, right? Besides, we figure our next cruise is likely to be in the Bahamas, or somewhere warm, so the lines for the waterslide will be longer. I had to take advantage of the opportunity!
I zipped over to our cabin to get my swimsuit and met DH back on the deck. It was a little chilly, but the water was warm. Also, the stairs up to the top of the slide are a little protected from the wind and get some heat from the smokestack, so I didn't freeze. Pretty much it was me and a couple of little kids on the slide.
It was fast and fun! I squealed like a little girl! Since there was no line, I slid down 3 times. I'll look forward to this on future cruises.


After our fun in the sun, we got ready for our dinner reservation at Palo. Palo is the upscale adult-only restaurant on the Wonder, and we loved it so much on our honeymoon, so were looking forward to dining there again. There is an upcharge to eat there, but it is so worth it-- personal service, great food, wonderful views out the windows.
Our server was Hristo-- he was very professional and attentive.

We started with bread service and an antipasti platter, as well as wine for me and a beer for DH.
He had the Tomato Mozzarella Caprese salad and I had Fritto di Calamari for appetizers.
They serve a tiny scoop of lemon sorbet as a palate cleanser between the appetizer and main course.
For our main courses, I had the Sea Scallops with Celery Root Puree and Baby Vegetables with a Prosecco and Black Truffle Sauce, and DH had the Grilled Prime Beef Tenderloin with Pancetta Potato, Sauteed Spinach, and a Chianti Wine Sauce.





And then, my favorite dessert on the ship-- so rich and delicious-- the Chocolate Souffle for me, and the Apple Crostata for DH. Delectable, and such lovely presentation.





This was by far the best dinner we had on the ship! One of these days, we'll try the Palo brunch, which is supposed to be quite wonderful as well.

 

[anricat]

I actually prefer brunch to dinner. I'm glad you two had a lovely evening together.

 

[ironz]

I actually prefer brunch to dinner. I'm glad you two had a lovely evening together.

I'll book the brunch next time! If we can decide on the next cruise! so many options...

 

[ironz]

Sadly, all good things must come to an end...
Due to our dining rotation and my choice of going to Palo on our last night, we were going to miss contributing a drawing to the guest animated show at Animator's Palate. Thankfully, our servers encouraged us to come on down after our dinner to see the show! We also used this opportunity to get a photo with our tablemates. So, after Palo, we finished packing our suitcases and put them outside the cabin door and went to Animator's Palate. Our servers told us we had arrived just in time for the show-- perfect!

For those who haven't been, a new feature of AP is that the dinner guests are provided with crayons and a special paper on which one draws a figure to be animated. During the dinner, the papers are taken somewhere and Disney magic happens, then around the time of the dessert serving, the guest-submitted figures are shown on the screens around the restaurant. First the figures are just sort of there not doing too much, but as the show progresses, the figures become more and more animated-- walking, dancing, figure skating, leaping! It fascinated me, and how cool it must have felt to see the simple character you drew come to life on the screen! (Google this and I'm sure you can find examples on YouTube-- my words are not doing it justice.) So my lesson learned is to remember to pay a little more attention on what menus/shows are on which nights on future cruises so I don't schedule Palo on a night I want to see the show in the MDR. Dining rotation plays a part in this because on a 7 night cruise, you have dinner in one dining room 3 times and in the other two, just 2 times.

We took a photo of our servers so we will remember them-- Hernan and Patricia. They were both so great, and made us feel like valued guests each and every meal.

 

[ironz]

Debarkation in Vancouver, Monday, May 29, 2017

Since most of our belongings were packed and picked up by the porters the night before, we just had to gather the things in our carry on bags before breakfast. Having had late dining, we didn't have to meet for breakfast until 8 a.m., I think? We ate at Animator's Palate, one last time. I think I just had some basic bacon and eggs and maybe a pancake.
When we had tagged our bags the night before, we received blue Donald Duck tags. The various character tags are distributed so that the entire ship of guests does not try to debark all at the same time-- that would be chaos. We were able to just hang out in the dining room until they called our group, which was one of the later groups to debark. I think I heard at least 5 or 6 groups get called before ours.

We said our goodbyes and made our way off the ship to where everyone's luggage was grouped by character. There was a bit of a long line to go to customs, and I'm not sure why-- some of the Cast Members had a look of "why is it so hard is it to herd people" on their faces, so I think there was maybe some sort of glitch/holdup down the line and the flow of people was backing up. It soon got sorted out and we got through customs without taking too much time.
We knew we were going to tour Vancouver a little more since our flight wasn't until nearly 8 p.m., so we paid about $40 CAD to CDS baggage (located right there at the port-- hard to miss) for 4 pieces of luggage to be transported to the Vancouver airport.

We then walked the short 1-2 blocks to the SkyTrain station and got on the train to the Olympic Village station, from which we walked about 1.25 miles to Granville Island. It was a warm and sunny beautiful day, so the walk wasn't too bad, although I might have cared to know just how far it was because, not having done much research on Granville, in my head it wasn't going to be that far a walk.
We really hadn't "made a plan" for this last day other than to kill some time before going to the airport. That said, if I had done my research, I might have learned that a Children's Festival at Granville Island was beginning on that Monday, and that the area would be teeming with visitors. I might have also had a destination in mind as to where to eat. So-- longer than expected walk, hordes of children, starting to get hangry-- let's just say this was not my favorite day of vacation.

We did eventually find the brewery, which was having issues with their machinery and they were not serving beer or food. So we ended up in the marketplace, which I would have likely found much more fascinating if not tired/hangry. It looked like they sell just about everything there, so much fresh food, flowers, gifts.. and I'm sorry it wasn't a good day for me to explore. We ordered burgers at a stand in the corner of the market and took them outside where we ate, people watched, and relaxed.

Then it was time to walk back to the train station, where we boarded to go to the airport. (We had bought 2 separate fares-- one from the port to the Olympic Village station, and another from Olympic Village to the airport-- I think you can just get a day pass for about the same amount of money. At any rate, it wasn't expensive.)

Checked in at the airport, went through security, flew Vancouver--Seattle, then Seattle--Austin on the redeye. DH found an old friend of his in the airport in Seattle, so they chatted the whole way home. Thankfully, it's only a 3.5 hour flight, so I wouldn't have slept much anyway.

Sigh.... it was really a great cruise. I've said it before, and I'll say it again-- we could do this cruise at least 2 more times and not feel like we are repeating anything. There is so much to explore in Alaska, and on the ship. There is no doubt in my mind that DCL is our favorite cruise line. We love the Wonder so much, and hope to do one of the sailings from Galveston one day, so we can just drive to the port. Panama Canal is on our bucket list, so we are crunching numbers and available vacation time to figure out how to check that off.

So, that's it... please feel free to ask any questions. I know there are details that I forgot to include (or just forgot!).

P.S. When you leave for a long vacation, it might not be a bad idea to turn off the water to your house, or at least to the potties. We had a flush malfunction (whoever was last out the door on our way TO the cruise), and the flapper didn't close properly. Thankfully, the water all went down the drain instead of onto our floors and carpet, but 10 days of running water is not inexpensive.

 

[anricat]

Thankfully, the water all went down the drain instead of onto our floors and carpet, but 10 days of running water is not inexpensive.

Oh yikes! When I had a toilet malfunction, I called the utility service and they gave me a reduced rate for that usage since it was sort of not our fault. You might ask!

 

[wdwfan]

Loved your trip report!! Thanks for writing it!! We go in 23 days!! I can't wait!!

 

[wdwfan]

Thanks for writing your trip report! I really enjoyed it!!

 

[buteraa]

Great trip report! Thanks.