[00:00:00] Speaker A: Last time we talked, we were talking about maybe a less than stellar cruise experience on the Disney Fantasy where you had some weather issues, some.
You missed at least one port, maybe two. I can't remember.
You guys had to tender in a different spot in Grand Cayman. Like you had kind of one of those disaster cruises. I'm hoping that the one we're talking about today is going to be a little bit better.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: I think we had a kind of total 180 here, so that's.
[00:00:39] Speaker C: Welcome back everybody to this week's episode of the DCL Duo podcast. And Sam, it is time for your jingle.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: Yeah, I kind of love jingle time. It gives it's my, my opportunity to perform for the audience.
Simply the best.
Better than all the rest. I gotta say, I just heard that song on the radio when I was driving home the other day and I was having kind of a bummer of a day and Tina Turner just like gave me a pick a pick me up.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: So.
[00:01:09] Speaker C: Oh, there you go. There you go. And clearly you've done your vocal warmups and exercises this morning. So. All right. This week's listener review comes from Emily R.H. combs, who writes Planning Perfection.
This podcast has the all caps best information. I listened in preparation for our first Disney cruise. There were so many helpful tips and recommendations. Not only is it helpful, but it is very enjoyable to listen. And now I'm listening in preparation for our next. Well, Emily, I hope you had an enjoyable second cruise on Disney cruise by this point. This is two years ago. Maybe a third or a fourth, I
[00:01:42] Speaker A: don't know, but maybe a fifth. Maybe. Maybe Emily is gold now.
[00:01:46] Speaker C: Maybe, yeah, for sure. But Emily, we thank you so much for that review and as always, I just like to remind folks that one of the easiest ways help support the show. Head over to Apple Podcasts, hit those five stars. If you leave us a written five star review, we will read it on the air at the top of one of our main episodes. And with that, I'm just going to throw it back to you, Sam, to intro our guests and our topic for today.
[00:02:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm super excited. We have a returning guest joining us today and we are talking about probably my favorite itinerary in the DCL portfolio. We're talking about Alaska today. I love Alaska so much and we get like asked about Alaska so much that I've started a list. Like I have a list of all of our Alaska episodes both on DCL and other cruise lines that we've covered and I'm super excited to do another episode about dcl Alaska Cruises. So I'm welcoming back to the show our friend Gabe. Welcome back, Gabe.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: Thanks for having me back, guys.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: Yeah, we are excited that you reached out to us again.
Last time we talked, we were talking about maybe a less than stellar cruise experience on the Disney Fantasy, where you had some weather issues, some.
You missed at least one port, maybe two. I can't remember.
You guys had to tender in a different spot in Grand Cayman. Like you had kind of one of those disaster cruises. I'm hoping that the one we're talking about today is going to be a little bit better.
[00:03:11] Speaker B: I think we had a kind of total 180 here, so that's great news.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: Yes. All right, spoiler alert. We've got a 180 from that was Western Caribbean, and now we're talking Alaska. So very, very different cruises. Gabe, why don't you remind folks of like, how many cruises you've been on? You've been sailing since you were a kid with your family, but how many cruises now are you at?
[00:03:32] Speaker B: So this was my 12th cruise altogether, so my family went on a cruise. I was. I couldn't go cause of work last year, so my brothers went ahead now at 13, but I'm at 12, so that's probably it for me for a little bit, for sure. So. Yeah.
[00:03:44] Speaker A: Yeah. And which itineraries have you done prior to this? Was your first time in Alaska? If I'm. If I'm okay. So what were the other itineraries that you've covered across dcl?
[00:03:55] Speaker B: We've done Western and eastern Caribbean. We've done Bahamas a couple times. And then Bahama did a special cruise also when they were doing the New England cruises out of New York City. We went on the magic. I think it was 10 years ago at this point. So this is our first time doing Alaska. My mom had gotten a gift for her birthday to go on whatever cruise she wanted, so she decided to go to Alaska. And then she brought along my brother and I with my. With my dad, of course.
So we kind of made a little bit of a family affair out of that. So also kind of celebrating my college graduation. So it's a kind of a celebration, a couple of things.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: Oh, awesome. Well, congratulations on graduating. That's really awesome way to celebrate.
Now, you guys, of course, had to head from the east coast all the way out to Vancouver.
Did you plan on spending any time in Vancouver ahead of time? Like, did you have that in your. Sort of built into your schedule? Because it is a long trip when you're coming from the east coast coming to Pacific Northwest.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: Yeah, so we did. So we left. Our Cruise was on May 11th through the 18th. We left on I believe the 8th. We flew out of Newark on the 9th in the morning. So we left on the 8th. We stayed in a hotel overnight. We met in Newark area and then on the 9th we all flew directly from Newark to Vancouver. So we got there, I think it was like almost 2pm and then by the time we got through customs, everything it was like probably closer to four. So we had a little dinner there. And then in Vancouver we stayed in the Holiday Inn and Suites downtown, which is, it's like a 25 minute walk from the port. But it was just kind of the best option for us. So.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Now why this particular itinerary? Obviously your mom was the one who chose Alaska, but anything particular about these dates that you guys went on like was there, you know, did the timing just work out right? Like what was the impetus for this particular. Because you sailed on the first, I think of the wonders itineraries in Alaska.
[00:05:51] Speaker B: Yeah, we did the first Alaska cruise of the 2026 season.
Honestly, it was just kind of a pricing thing from my understanding, timing. I'm out of school and my brother was just finishing his first year of school. So the timing just kind of worked out. He left right from his final final and then he. We went right to the trip.
So it was a lot of packing and kind of logistics to make it all work beforehand. But I think often, I think we've said it before, like the shorter seasons, um, usually coming a little cheaper. So it just worked out better for budget wise as well.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: Yeah. If you want to sail Alaska and you want to do it for less money on dcl, then like the height of the season. Right. Height of the season is going to be July pretty much. I mean all of July is going to be quite expensive, but June and like end of June and early August, also quite expensive. If you want a less expensive Alaska cruise now, they're still expensive. Just to be very clear, May, especially earlier in May or September are going to be your. As, as you mentioned, the shoulder seasons, like that's the, that's the best bang for your buck. But even if you can do like that last week of August or you know, the early June, like that will also help. It's just not quite as cheap as, and I'm using the word cheap, but it's not cheap. I just want to be clear.
Yeah, all relative. Exactly. So compared to July, it looks a lot better in price.
Now what kind of what kind of stateroom did you all choose? And you stay in one stateroom or two staterooms for this for your family because you and your brother are adults.
[00:07:22] Speaker B: Yeah, so my brother and I are both adults. And I think probably that fantasy cruise or maybe even before then got to the point where with five adults in a room, because I also have an older sister who used to come with us, it got too much. So we started doing two rooms and my brother and I actually, after I did some research, we had an inside stateroom, but it was one of the special sideways inside staterooms. So those are kind of interesting. You enter like from the long side instead of the short side of things like a rectangle. And those were. It was much nicer for us. We had great floor space and it didn't feel like we were trapped at all because I've seen some of the inside staterooms and that wasn't necessarily the goal for us even just being two adults. So yeah, the sideways stateroom was great. So that's where we stayed inside. And then my parents had a veranda on our same floor that we could kind of go whatever we want to stop in and look outside from there as well.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: Awesome. So a little bit of the best of both worlds. You save a little money on that inside stateroom, but you still have access to a veranda in your parents room. Now, did you guys do anything and you went to Vancouver a couple days in advance. Did you guys do any of the touristy stuff around Vancouver and if so, give us the highlights.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: Yeah, so because of obviously the expense of the cruise and everything, we kind of just wanted to kind of keep it like on the lower cost side with stuff.
So because of the time difference and everything, we're kind of jet lagged. So on Sunday we end up getting kind of early. Getting out kind of early was Mother's Day. So we went to. It was a restaurant called Jam Cafe, which is in Gastown. Really great. I saw some great reviews. My mom found it and then we went there first thing when it opened up and then we went.
[00:08:53] Speaker A: Delicious. You can wait in a long line to get in, but it is delicious. Yeah, we went there once ourselves.
[00:08:58] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, we got there right when I opened up. So it worked out really great. And then we went to Gastown. Just kind of walked around. We went to a couple shops. You saw the steam clock there.
And then we went to the cruise terminal. Just kind of saw what other boats were coming out in and out on Sunday.
And then eventually we made our way to Stanley park. And we spent a good three hours there just kind of walking around. We had beautiful weather the whole trip. Kind of a heads up, maybe a little bit of spoiler as we go through along. But we're very lucky. Like in Vancouver, it was in the 70s or low 70s, high 60s most of the time, and sunny, which I know is not always the case. So we're very appreciative of that. So we kind of soaked it all in and saw the city from many different views as we could.
[00:09:39] Speaker A: That's awesome. I love Stanley Park. It's a great place to walk around. It's their huge city park. It's like right on, on the water.
There's a big aquarium in Sanley park also. The Vancouver Aquarium is fantastic. If you've got kids with you and you want to do. I mean even if you don't have kids with you, you can go to the Vancouver Aquarium. But lots, lots to do. A great, great city. Now I want to jump back to the planning side of things you mentioned. Of course this is an expensive cruise. The excursions are also an expensive part of the cruise.
I'm curious, you know what you guys booked in advance. You guys are all platinum cruisers. So you had, we'll call it the third booking window because technically concierge gets to book first, then Pearl, then platinum, then gold, then silver, then no castaway club status. So first time cruisers, what if any excursions were you sort of hoping to book and what did you ultimately book?
[00:10:36] Speaker B: Yeah, so as we're kind of getting around the holiday season, that's when I started looking because I believe our booking date was like in early January, mid January.
So when I was looking at the different excursion options, obviously the kind of sticker shock, especially with a lot of them depending on what you want to do. And a lot of them I think are so weather dependent. Like it's great if the weather's great, but if it's not, then you kind of may not be worth your money. That kind of thing.
[00:10:58] Speaker A: Well, and some of them just get canceled if the weather's not good enough. Yeah, for sure.
[00:11:03] Speaker B: So we decided to book three. So in Skagway, we booked the. We have the numbers because I wanted to get it all prepared.
In Skagway, we booked the White Pass Scenics Railway, the adult only departure. So that one left like really early in the morning. I think we had to be there like 7:15 in the D Lounge.
That one was, I believe $174 per person. So all four of us went on that in Juneau we did my mom, my brother and I, just the three of us did the Mendenhall Glacier and Whale Quest, which was 260 a person. And this one was really great because we had great weather which we can go into, I'm sure soon. That one was great. And then in Ketchikan, we decided to go for the exclusive great Alaskan lumberjack show, which is the one with the characters. That one's $54.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: Nice. All right. And you were able to get everything you wanted, it sounds like ahead of time without much issue. I'm. I mean the, I think the only ones that are really hard to get are maybe like the helicopter ones because they're very limited number. And if you want do the glacier day boat one, that one is a little bit also it might not be always hard to get. And yours might have been easier because it's so early in the season anyway.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: Yeah, we didn't really have any difficulties booking. Also when we booked, we booked a Palo brunch which we took your recommendation. So really great. We can get into that too. And we did a mixology also. My mom and I did a mixology on the first sea day, so.
[00:12:22] Speaker A: Awesome. All right, well, let's, let's dive in then to embarkation day. You guys, you mentioned you were staying at the Holiday Inn, about 25 minute walk from the port.
I imagine you didn't walk with your luggage to the, to the Disney Wonder.
So tell us, how did you get from your hotel to the Canada place where the port is?
[00:12:42] Speaker B: Yeah, so we end up taking a taxi. So we were talking with the hotel and we tried to get an Uber but all of our luggage didn't fit in like the Uber XL that they sent. So they end up canceling that. Then the guy got us a taxi and it was only $19, which is I guess a good tip. So also on the way back, so I was told if you're in the city of Vancouver, generally the taxis are flat. Fee to the port $19. And then if you're coming home, which we did also in a taxi, It's a flat $42. So Ubers can range, they can be very expensive depending on like how many people you have.
So I recommend the taxi when you're there. We found great success with that. But yeah, so we took the taxi right to the luggage drop off area inside the port so we could drop off our luggage right away. It was probably around.
We were a little eager. So it's probably around 9:30 plus with the time difference, we Were kind of up anyway, so we dropped off our luggage and then we kind of just like went around the port. We saw, took some pictures of the wonder from the outside until we got in line for the port or we had 11:15 check in time. I think we got in line at like 1050. They already had kind of a line in place for our time, but ours was the earliest, I guess I should say. So it was like 10:45, 11, 11:15.
So we waited in there for a little bit. They were having some issues I think because it was the first cruise of Vancouver of the year. So just keep that in mind. It's very different we found out than Port Canaveral, but it seemed like a cruise with a lot of like vloggers and influencers. I actually saw Adam Patton as we're getting into the port. So he was there. So there was just a lot of, a lot of commotion going on. But finally on 1120 we were able to check in and then they kind of put you in different holding areas until finally I think we got on the boat probably closer to noon or 12:15, so it wasn't too.
[00:14:23] Speaker C: You know.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: That's interesting.
I have noticed that on the shoulder seasons, whether that's for Alaska or even for other cruises out of the Caribbean when school's in session. When I say school I mean typically like elementary through high school, when those are still in session, that's when Disney will send influencers and travel agents and folks like that sometimes on cruises as a part of their marketing or with the travel agents agents. It's usually more of an education opportunity. But that's interesting. It makes sense because you were the first one of the season and so it probably would not be a sold out sailing. I'm curious, did you get an idea of like how what the passenger count was either from, you know, some. Did you ask anybody or sort of get a sense of it?
[00:15:13] Speaker B: I would say I heard like 80%. We were at. But all the rooms are pretty full. They stopped doing upgrades. They had a couple concierge upgrades. But I saw by the time we checked in that they kind of some people grabbed the last few of them. So it was about 80%. But I think it was because it was a lot of couples doing sailings. And while maybe all the rooms were booked like definitely there were not many kids on the sailing. If anything it was like college kids or like toddler age kids. So you kind of had that mix. But there weren't a lot of like main K through 12 like kids there obviously it's the end of the year, it's kind of hard to make it to Alaska, especially if you're coming from the east coast or whatever. So which was. It was nice, but it did kind of make the adult areas a little bit over subscribed as we were trying to use them, especially on the nice days when it was a little bit warmer.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: But yeah, yeah, no, that makes absolute sense. If you are sailing in that while school's in session, if your sailing does get fuller, then it's going to be fuller of adults, not full of children. With the exception of that toddler crowd or like you said, the college age crowd perhaps. So let's talk about boarding. I mean, was it like. It sounds like it was pretty smooth, even though it was maybe a little bit slower. Obviously. Like as you mentioned, it's the first sailing out of Vancouver for the season. So you kind of expect things to not be like perfect. You know, it's not a well oiled machine quite yet. But were there any like hiccups or snags in the boarding process?
[00:16:39] Speaker B: I don't think so. From my understanding. There was an emergency health inspection, I don't think for any particular reason. I think it was just one of the random ones which also kind of delayed us. People got a little scared of lying because of everything going on in the world. But I think it was just a random thing. I'm happy when they do them. I think that's important. But anyway, so that kind of, I think maybe delayed some stuff a little bit. But we were kind of going back and forth. We were like, do we want to do the sit down or do we want to go to cabanas? We ended up going to cabanas and we ended up sitting in the back deck area, the outside area because it was high 60s outside, not too windy. Then you could see Vancouver while we were eating lunch and it was, it was a beautiful view. So that was like a very unique experience of seeing Vancouver as you're eating lunch on the ship. The first lunch that worked out well.
[00:17:23] Speaker A: But you didn't get my Oreo cheesecake that way like you did the last time.
[00:17:27] Speaker B: No, I didn't. You know what I noticed is, well, they had like little Oreo cheesecakes, like
[00:17:32] Speaker A: pints, but it's, it's not the same one.
[00:17:34] Speaker B: And something about this cruise, I don't know why, because they also. We did the menus which I'm sure we can go into at some point too. Like right before our cruise and I think we were the first Cruise because it was longer. They were trying out a bunch of different things. There are a lot of like, gels and like jello y things. So even like desserts I remember liking ended up being like more jello y. And I don't know, I didn't love them as much as I used to when I on the other ships in the past.
[00:17:57] Speaker A: Yeah, that. You're. You're speaking my language, Gabe. I am not a fan of all those kind of like yogurty puddingy, jelly panna cotta e type desserts. And they seem to be leaning harder into those.
And they have. Yeah. Well, definite to talk about the change in the menu. Well, I'd love to like start with the port excursions because you had like such. I mean, you went to great, great ports and then you had a glacier day, of course, as well. So I'll want to start there and then we'll talk about some of the onboard stuff that you got up to as well. So let's start with Skagway was your first port of call, is that right?
[00:18:35] Speaker B: Well, it would have been the glacier.
[00:18:37] Speaker A: Oh, the glacier day. Okay, perfect. Yeah.
[00:18:39] Speaker B: So we start. We went to Dawes Glacier. It was beautiful. We got very close and it was really cool. I went to my parents room for part of it. And then brother and I went to the fourth deck as well as we were kind of approaching it. And the bridge view they had is like the perfect view of the glacier. It was kind of funny. My dad had on the tv and then you looked to the right out the veranda and it was right there, like it was like two of the same image back to back. But yeah, we saw Dawes Glacier and that was great. That was a really good day. And we had pretty good weather. To me, it was cold, but the weather was fine.
And then in Skagway, we did the white pass train, like I said.
[00:19:13] Speaker A: Let me pause you there. Did you guys take character pictures up with on Glacier Day? Because we got it. I feel like yes.
[00:19:21] Speaker B: Let's go back to that.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: Yeah, let's go back to glacier day. So you're getting to Dawes Glacier at some point during the day, but did you guys like wake up early to get in? I mean, the lines start early for character pictures. Usually I can't remember if it's Mickey or Minnie, but one of them starts at like 9am but people start lining up like an hour before maybe.
[00:19:39] Speaker B: Yeah. So we kind of went into a dilemma. I didn't really think about it beforehand, but I forgot that day we also Did Palo brunch. So we did that 10:30, which was great in many ways because just I guess on FYI, on the glacier day, they don't let anybody go. They block off the deck that goes around Palo. So if you're in Palo, you can see the scenery around you perfectly with nobody obstructing your view, which is really great shots. We were approaching the glacier also. We saw everything around us from the windows.
But yeah, we did Palo brunch. So because of that, we had to quickly get changed. And then we started to get in line for things.
I think we went to Mickey, Daisy and Goofy, I think. And we went back and forth into lines and the lines got pretty long, but it was nothing really unmanageable. But they're smart. They put out like hot cocoa and a bunch of. They try to kind of get you while you're in line.
They're experienced, but it worked out pretty well. And they were very clear about one picture only and then keep moving. They wanted to kind of keep stuff going.
But then afterwards we weren't able to see a couple other characters. Like my mom wanted to see Minnie, so we went back.
On other days, they were in their Alaska outfits still. So you could see them as well.
[00:20:49] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And for those listening, what we're talking about is on Glacier day, the characters, the Fab 5 characters will be wearing their Alaska specific outfits. And on that glacier day, you can actually get pictures with them on the top deck. And so you can get with the either sometimes with the glacier in the background, but if not the glaciers and the glacier in the background, at least the scenery, like the Alaska scenery in the background, which is incredible. And then on other days, usually at least on Ketchikan day, they're still in. They're in their Alaska outfits again, and you get pictures with them, but that will be inside. So you won't be able to get a picture with them with that beautiful scenery in the background. So if you want the beautiful scenery and potentially glacier, it just depends on the timing of when you get to the glacier and when the characters are out. The only way to do that is on that glacier day. And so if it's important to you, it's something to prioritize, I'd say. I mean, I think Palo on glacier day is an excellent choice, but it does limit your ability to do some of those. Those character photos because you are, of course, sitting in Paulo eating, but enjoying the beautiful scenery, as you mentioned. All right, well, we. With that, we gotta talk about Paulo because you had not done brunch before. And you've been on the cruise 11 times previously. Gabe, like, what were you thinking? Like, I mean, I know you're young, but you're been. You've been an adult for a little while now. Yeah.
[00:22:10] Speaker B: Yeah. So we decided to go for brunch because my parents had done, like, pre Covid. I think we're on our cruise, like 2019 when they went, and they loved it.
So we decided to do that because with it being Alaska and we haven't been on the wonder in a long time, we figured we didn't really want to skip any of the main dining to go to Palo.
And we're platinum, so we get like the discount or whatever.
But our server told us, and I knew it, to get the chicken parm and the lasagna. And those were the best. The best options at brunch. I know, Brian, that you both enjoy those.
And then the one thing, we got some pizzas and stuff as well.
And I wanted to get the grape and gorgonzola pizza that I kept hearing about, but I was like, going back and forth about it. And finally, like, towards the end, I was like, wait, can I still get that? So then I end up finishing with the pizza because of the timing of things. I love that.
[00:23:00] Speaker A: I love that. By the way. That's a great. No reason not to end your meal with a grape and gourgonzola pizza. Like, I'm not a dessert person. That's how I would love to end the meal that way.
[00:23:10] Speaker B: Yes. So it all worked out pretty well. We got the, like, cinnamon roll and they had like a chocolate.
Some kind of chocolate cake as well.
My family's a big fan of the chocolate lava cakes. So having something like that also in Palo was nice. But. Yeah, it was really nice. We were very full afterwards. We mixed the first churro waffle day, but we ended up having it on the last day, so it worked out fine, but.
[00:23:31] Speaker A: Oh, nice. Okay, well, that's good to know that they did it. That they did churro waffle day on glacier day. And then also on another.
Probably your last sea day, I'm guessing. Yeah. So, okay, so let's now we'll shift to Skagway. Yeah. But we always have to hear about the character photos. Of course. So tell. Yeah. So you did the white pass railway, but the adult only version. So for those who don't know, that's a train ride up into the Yukon territory, essentially from. You go from Skagway all the way up, you actually go into Canada So you're in Alaska, but then you go into Canada and then you come back into Alaska and tell us how did you guys like that excursion and was it there and back on the railway or were you like bused back?
[00:24:15] Speaker B: It was there and back, so it was a closed loop. So that worked out well. We all really enjoyed this excursion.
It was nice because, like, we weren't first thing. And then you kind of just go.
There were some points. I think it was kind of foggy that morning a little bit.
So once you got to the top of the mountain, you kind of just in a tundra and you couldn't see anything.
Once you got back down, it was a little bit better. But yeah, it was. It was a quick excursion. Not quick, but it was an easy excursion, I guess I should say, in terms of you kind of just sit and enjoy the scenery. And then my dad and I especially would go out to the outside air, I guess. Outside?
[00:24:47] Speaker A: Yeah, like a little balcony at the end of each car. There's like a little balcony that you can, you know, stand and take pictures and or video. You got to be real careful because you don't want to drop your camera or your phone because the train's not stopping. If you lose your phone or your camera, it's gone. But yeah, so that's nice. You got to do the full loop. We only did like a there and then we got off and we're bused back because we went to. Our excursion included going to gold Panning at the end.
How long was the whole thing? Was it like three hours or so?
[00:25:17] Speaker B: Yeah, it was like three hours. A solid three hours. And then the one thing I did notice in each of the ports, there were a lot of ships at each of the ports. So Skagway, especially between the weather and I just feel like there wasn't a ton to do in the actual port besides some stores. So afterwards we did the train and then we went to some stores and then we ended up just eating lunch on the ship, which I think is a great tip, especially the sit down. So, like Tiana's like, that's a great option if you don't want to spend extra money in port, especially if it's busy and it's hard to get a table. Just go back to the ship because it's not very far away for lunch. So we did that and then we kind of just enjoyed the ship throughout the rest of the day because it was. It was very busy in the port that day, so.
[00:25:59] Speaker A: Yeah, well. And all of these ports, even Juno is not like, I mean, it's a quote unquote big city, but it's not like a big city if you're like. Compared to, like, New York or Chicago or something like that. Right. It's. It's a city, but it's still a small city. And Skagway and Ketchikan are real tiny. I mean, they've got those little downtown areas for shopping. But beyond that, like, if you're not doing an excursion, there's not, like a whole lot to do. And. Or if you're doing an excursion that's only a few hours, there's not, you know, a ton to do beyond that. So I think that's a great tip. I mean, you can, of course, just walk around, you know, the port if you want to, and that's pleasant, but if there's a lot of ships in port. That's a good point. It can be. It can be a less pleasant experience, like trying to get a table at a restaurant or trying to walk through stores when they're packed with. With people.
All right, so what was your next port of call? Was it.
[00:26:53] Speaker B: We went to Juneau.
[00:26:54] Speaker A: Juno.
[00:26:55] Speaker B: Okay, so that. That was also a long day. So Skyway and Juneau are pretty long days. That's when we went to the We're Watching and Mendenhall Glacier excursion. My mom, my brother and I, we got up not quite as early. We met at the D Lounge, and pretty much as soon as we got there, they had everybody. And then we went on a bus, which took us from main Geno center to one of the piers, I believe.
And then we went whale watching for about two hours, which was great. I will say, as I kind of mentioned before, we had great weather on this cruise, especially on the Juneau day.
They said it was the first time they'd seen the mountains from the water in two weeks.
So they cleared up. They said it was pouring the day before. So we just were very lucky in terms of timing.
So we did the whale watching, and we saw a good amount of whales actually out and about.
We had. Our captain was kind of trying to kind of see where all the other boats were at. And I think they kind of talked to each other to kind of mark if a whale has been seen or kind of follow, but obviously keeping your distance.
So that was great. We did that for about two hours. We got extra glacierita, which my mom and I wanted to get. So we got that while we were on that little boating adventure.
[00:28:02] Speaker A: Oh, cool. How many people would you say were on the boat. Did you get a sense of, like, how many. When I say people, I mean, not this crew, but like, of tourists.
[00:28:11] Speaker B: So it was two busloads. So there was one. They kind of combined two excursions. So our excursion then went to Medden Hall. But one excursion, I think was just the whale watching. Maybe it was combined with something else. So it was two busloads, I would say, I don't know, like.
[00:28:23] Speaker A: Like 100 people?
[00:28:24] Speaker B: Yeah, 80 to 100 people. So it wasn't bad at all. And then they would. They would kind of be like. They would. They told us to think of the boat as a clock. So they'd be like, at your 3 o', clock, they look over there and then people kind of start to move over. And you could tell too, like, no matter your activity level, you can easily enjoy that part of the excursion, especially because you're. You can just stay in the boat. You can see on the first deck and the windows the whole way down and just enjoy from whichever side you're on. So you don't really even have to get up if you don't want to.
[00:28:55] Speaker A: Awesome. Now, did you see orcas or just humpbacks? Humpbacks are obviously very common and you're more likely to see them than orcas, but occasionally you'll see a pod of orcas in, of course, Alaska or anywhere in the Pacific Northwest.
[00:29:12] Speaker B: I think we only saw humpbacks there. I know on another part of the cruise, I believe my brother and I were passing and someone mentioned there were orcas that we saw, so. But in that excursion itself, we just saw the humpbacks. Yeah. And then from there we ended up taking the bus. We went back to the pier and then we took the bus to the Medden Hall Glacier site. And we had about an hour there or so.
We had heard before that if you do this excursion, I don't know, I watched a vlog or something that you kind of have to really haul up to the Gl. To the glacier, because it's. It's not that it's a long walk, but they don't always give you that much time in that part. So we only had about an hour. So my brother, my mom and I were really hauling up to the. To the glacier and the Nugget Falls, I think it's called up there, which is a really beautiful area, especially because we had great weather and there's like a little almost a beach with sand area as well.
So we took some pictures there and enjoyed the scenery. And then we went back eventually to the bus and then we headed back to the port.
[00:30:10] Speaker A: So that's a really good point though. So if you are somebody who has mobility challenges, you can get there, but you might not be able. Able to see all that much. Would you just. Because it might take you too long to get up to the best lookout spot or would is there stuff to see, like right where you get off the bus as well?
[00:30:25] Speaker B: They have like a historical center, like where the bus drops you off, which I think had elevators and that kind of thing.
And apparently there was a museum where we just didn't get a chance. But we did stop by the gift shop there and they have like great views up also up from there, if you would like to just do that. But to get to the actual glacier. Yeah, it is. It is a far walk for sure. Especially trying to do in that time frame and trying to make sure you're on schedule with the bus and such. The one complaint from this particular excursion that everybody on the bus had is where the wonder berth, I guess they call it, where it docks is not very close to city center. They have shuttles that take you back and forth. But we had asked the bus driver if she could just drop us off in city center because it was on the way, like do a stop. But she said she couldn't. She had to go back to the ship. And then you have to get another shuttle to go back.
So people were kind of annoyed by that. Ended up not even going back to Juneau because I was kind of of burn out by the end of it. My brother and my mom did just to kind of shop quickly. But that's of note too. You. They can only pick you up from the ship terminal.
Ship port. Excuse me. And then they can only drop you off in front of the ship. They can't drop off anywhere else.
[00:31:32] Speaker A: Yeah. And there's two different, I believe, places that the ships will port in Juneau. And so one of them that is closer to the city center and one of them that's further away from the city center. And you like, it's hard to know which one you're going to be at. And it's not a long shuttle ride to the city center from the port. But I get what you're saying. It would have been kind of nice if she could. If your bus driver could have made that quick stop to let people off and then bring whoever else wanted to go back to the ship back to the ship because it wouldn't have been any kind of detour probably for her to even do that. But probably she wasn't allowed based on, you know, whatever her contract.
[00:32:09] Speaker B: Nothing else. The, the driver, she was great. Nothing else she wasn't allowed to. But that would have been like a nice addition just to have some options. Because I think think there is another excursion maybe in Skagway where like they did drop you off in different options if you. If you wanted to, depending where you wanted to get off. So I've seen that in the past also like in the Caribbean, depending on your option. But yeah, so that day was pretty long day. That was like a six and a half hour excursion. So we kind of missed lunch and getting like a snack at room service before we eventually went to dinner. So it's definitely a long excursion.
[00:32:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I want to back up because one thing you told me pre show was that you got a glimpse of the wonders sister, the Disney Magic. Which day did that happen on? Because the Disney Magic we know was in dry dock before it was starting its Alaska sailings. And I think you mentioned this is the first time the ships had been in the same place, like had actually seen each other. Not just like, because they were both sailing out of San Diego for a little bit before the Alaska season started, but on different days so they wouldn't necessarily like seen each other. So when. When did you see the ma. The magic?
[00:33:17] Speaker B: So we saw the magic actually in our last sea day when we were leaving back down to go to Vancouver. It was in the morning, we passed it and then our cruise director was Ashley. She was great. Actually. I think she started with the Wish. I believe she was the first cruise director on the Wish.
So I just remember like her from like the promotions and stuff. But anyhow she made an announcement to everyone that it was on the one side now it happened to be on the. The pool deck drinking a coffee by Cove. And then I just kind of went over to the one side and took some pictures. So it was neat to see.
[00:33:47] Speaker A: Yeah, it's really nice.
It's funny because they used to sail of course out of both out of Port Canaveral like when they first launched. And I'm sure they've been ported in the same place before, but it's been probably many years now since that time. So it's just kind of a. Kind of a cool thing. All right, well, let's talk about some of the onboard and experiences now. You know you're sailing Ketchikan. Oh yeah, sorry, I totally forgot about to Ketchikan.
[00:34:13] Speaker B: I just figured I'd go through that quickly.
[00:34:15] Speaker A: Yes, thank you.
[00:34:16] Speaker B: I will say Ketchikan was kind of our harder day for us only because it was. It was a shorter day and the Disney exclusive Lumberjack show wasn't until like 3:30, 4:00'. Clock. I will say if you don't have young kids, I think if you're young kids, this is maybe a good option for you. I don't know. I'm not in that situation. But for our family with like older, all adults, I guess it was a long show to get through. Especially at the end of the day. We ended up kind of leaving partway through because it just took forever. It felt like. Because they kind of did a.
They started like by the time you get in there, it's like 3:15.
They started doing games at like 4 o'.
[00:34:55] Speaker C: Clock.
[00:34:55] Speaker B: That lasted for 15 minutes. And then they went into the Goofy like special like part of it, I guess Goofy came out and did like some games and stuff with the kids and some like stretches and stuff. And then they started the show.
It just felt like it was taking like forever. And it got to the point like towards the end where we were like, are all aboard's 5:45? And it was like 5:15. And we were like, this is gonna be awful trying to get back on the ship. So we kind of.
My family just kind of snuck out at one point because we were like, we did just. We'd rather avoid the chaos at the end of all these people trying to get in here because it was a Disney Cruise Line specific show.
So we knew everybody was going back there. So. But yeah, it was okay. Just maybe not for older adults. I would maybe recommend to go to like one of the earlier shows. That's not the exclusive one.
[00:35:42] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that makes sense.
We've heard similar things from folks with even older kids.
Not adult like yourself, but sort of teenage age that this is, is the Lumberjack show there in Ketchikan. Disney, exclusive or otherwise, is not really the show for you.
We did a lumberjack show at Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver before our Alaska cruise and felt like that was a good option because it wasn't a super long show, but even that was on the long side.
But Nathan seemed to enjoy it. But I, you know, he's. He's 12 now. He was 11 at the time. I think it was. Was that was sort of like the. Probably the, the higher age for, for that show. I would say it's. It's definitely more entertaining for the younger kid audience. And so families with younger kids, probably a great option. Families with teenagers Adults, maybe not so much. Maybe not the best option. There's other things you can do, like bear watching or whatever in. In Ketchikan that are maybe a better option. Something more wildlife focused. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, now, did you guys spend some time walking around the port before the. Before the lumber. Lumberjack show?
[00:36:55] Speaker B: Yeah, Catcher can was pretty good. That was also a pretty full day, like I mentioned, but we enjoyed just walking on the shops. My. We found, like, last minute, like, final Alaska souvenirs for, like, extended family members and stuff there too, which worked out pretty well because they had a lot of different shops and a lot of different options. I found now you were. When you dock there, you're like, right in city center, based in downtown center.
So it was pretty easy to get on and off. So we ended up going shopping. The boat got there at like 10. We left at like 10:15. We went shopping. We came back for lunch, and I think we actually watched hoppers on the ship in between. And then we went back out to the lumberjack show because they have you meet at that building. You don't meet on the ship. So it was pretty easy to go in and off, especially in Ketchikan.
[00:37:35] Speaker A: Now, did you get to see Koda the bear on the ship? Cause that's usually the day that he's out and about if you want to get pictures with him.
[00:37:44] Speaker B: No, I told my brother about it, and we just never saw him. I know we had went on that deck that day because we were playing. My brother and I were playing shuffleboard sometimes, especially because it got to the point there were a lot of trivias and that kind of thing, but we were just looking for some other things to do, so we played shuffleboard. And obviously you have the scenery of mountains around you, so no really complaints there. But yeah, we didn't see him, but I'd heard about that. We just didn't get the chance.
[00:38:06] Speaker A: Yeah, that's usually when he's out.
He's also out on Glacier day. But when I say he's out, he's often out on Deck 4 instead of on the top deck, I think on Glacier day. But on Ketchikan day, I believe he's typically out like midday on deck four. So you have to just, you know, they don't tell you. It's not like a timed meet and greet, that sort of a thing. So it just, you know, randomly kind of have to get lucky. But also, were the characters out again in their Alaska outfits that day? Was. Was that the. Yeah. Okay. So that's what it's been historically. It's good to know that they're sort of keeping up with those patterns. Like, historically, it's Glacier Day and Ketchikan Day that your best bets for getting pictures with the characters in their Alaska outfits. There's one exception, which is Goofy has two different Alaska outfits. I know this is getting into, like, the deep depths of, like, character meet and greets.
[00:38:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I saw the second one, though. Yeah. On the Ketchikan.
[00:39:00] Speaker A: Yeah. So Goofy has, like, his skier outfit that he's out wearing on the deck on Glacier Day, but he's got, like, a lumberjack outfit that he's wearing on. On Ketchikan Day, which is the same outfit that I think he wears to the lumberjack show. And so if you want both of his outfits, you've got to catch him twice. I will say we did not catch him on Glacier Day. On our sailing, we only caught him in his lumberjack outfit. So it's just a matter of, like, what's important to you. And this is like a very big theme about, like, Alaska cruises is you can't possibly do everything if you want to actually, like, get out and do some of those excursions because, as you mentioned, like, some of the excursions are on the longer side.
And so if you are doing a longer excursion, that's going to limit what you can do on the ship, of course, and what kind of, you know, lines you can wait. And then there are. I would say, though, you know, for us, the lines did tend to be longer.
You had a sailing with less kids on it. Do you think that, like, were the line. How are the character lines in general?
[00:40:04] Speaker B: Honestly, they were still pretty long. We also had.
[00:40:08] Speaker A: And because of the influencers probably too.
[00:40:10] Speaker B: Yes, that's true. Yes.
The one day Bluey and Bingo were on the ship and my mom, some of my cousins, really like Bluey and Bingo. So my mom wanted to go to take pictures and send to them. They were out a couple different days, but that line was insane. But they kind of kept going. I will say they didn't really restrict lines too much. It seemed like they were trying to get as many people through as wanted to be there, which was good to see. But yeah, for the most part, the lines were still pretty long. Even with. Without as many kids.
[00:40:37] Speaker A: Yeah, it seems like they have maybe less variety of characters on the cruise, for sure. Yeah. But. But they make. But they make them available, all the characters available for longer. Like, it's not like I feel like on Caribbean sailings Like, characters are out for like 15 to 30 minutes and that's it. Whereas on Alaska sailings, they might be out for like an entire hour, but, you know, you're with. They might have to take breaks and whatnot, but everyone will get to sort of who gets in line. Even if it's a really long line. We'll get to. We'll get to actually do that meet and greet. They tend to. They're less likely to sort of close those lines early than on the Caribbean sailings.
[00:41:14] Speaker B: Yeah. And then towards the end, they also started to have like, random characters, like, at weird times. Towards the end, like Stitch, I remember, was at like 9:45 in the evening. And then like, they had like Black Panther and Spider man and Thor. I saw like, in like by the merchandise shops. It was just like, kind of random. If it wasn't like the main, like, characters in their Alaska outfits, like, the other characters are kind of random. It seemed.
[00:41:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Interesting. All right, well, let's talk about some of the onboard experiences.
I want to save dining kind of for the end because I do want to talk about, you know, you got some new or revamped menus, but what kinds of stuff did you guys do on board?
Did you attend, you know, adult only activities? Did we have dueling pianos? We tend to see that sometimes in Alaska sailings. Like, what. What kinds of stuff did you end up doing?
[00:42:00] Speaker B: I will say just as a preface, because of the time zone, especially going four hours behind late night. Things my family really struggled with towards the. Towards. Especially towards the beginning, trying to stay up for stuff.
But we did try to do a lot of different things. We went to a lot of trivias. We did win one trivia. We won Disney Cruise Line trivia. The one one day right before we went to Ketchikan, actually. But yeah, we went to a lot of different trivias. My mom and I did the towel folding on the last sea day. And then the one thing that was great that both my parents went to and I went to or we had one of the Alaskan guides with us. Her name was Debbie. And she did presentations throughout the cruise which were great to see, especially as we were kind of going through the glacier and before the ports just to get some context on some things. Then on glacier day, she actually did kind of like through the overhead system. She kind of talked everyone through what we were seeing and just kind of what to look out for as we were approaching the glacier.
So that was really nice to see. So there are a lot of cool opportunities like that.
I know the one thing that this is kind of random, but for like the Frozen show, people were wondering if that was coming back and that did not come back. I don't think that's happening this year.
[00:43:09] Speaker A: It is, but I don't think it was on your. I mean, they advertise that it is back, I think. But I may not just.
[00:43:16] Speaker B: They did like a sing along, but maybe I'm thinking something.
[00:43:19] Speaker A: Oh, okay. That might. Yeah, I think they are the deck
[00:43:22] Speaker B: party I don't think is happening.
[00:43:23] Speaker A: Oh, interesting. I thought I saw something online about it happening or them revamping it. Maybe that. Maybe that's what it is.
[00:43:30] Speaker B: Maybe they revamped it.
[00:43:31] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:43:31] Speaker B: So we're supposed to do this thing along. Oh, sorry, Brian.
[00:43:34] Speaker C: I was just gonna say I'd seen some stuff online about Frozen Sam in the act.
[00:43:38] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what we're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. So I feel like they're revamping the show. I just don't know if. If they've brought it back yet or if it might not have just been back for the first sailing.
[00:43:48] Speaker B: Yeah, it could have not been ready. Like that's totally possible. But it seemed like they're supposed to do a frozen sing along. Like kind of like the one, I think at like Hollywood Studios. I was told on the glacier night, but it was too cold. So they end up moving it to the last sea day and I think that worked out better for them.
That was the main thing from before that people weren't sure about. But at least in our sailing it wasn't happening.
[00:44:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Now did you guys go to the shows? I mean, you've seen them before, but it's been a while since you had been on the Wonder, right?
[00:44:15] Speaker B: Yes. So we did not go to any of the main shows. But Sam, I think you're going to like this though.
They had the Broadway Star series and we were the first crews to do so.
So we had Adam Jacobs, who was the original Aladdin. I think it was. Ding. Was Josh Strickland who was the original Tarzan. So they had a show that my mom and I went to that was fantastic. Like, it was very unique. It was a quick thing, but it was. It was kind of an unexpected thing that they were on the cruise. Then the. That was like on night three. I think that would have been like Glacier day. And then the next night they did a Q and A that we went to as well, which was really kind of cool to see because I think I gone like with my school to Aladdin, like Many years ago. And I'm pretty sure it was Adam who I saw. So it's cool to see him like at the show and just talking to guests. So that was a really unique opportunity as well.
[00:45:00] Speaker A: Yeah, those are awesome. Whenever the Broadway Starz series is on Disney Cruise Line, I highly recommend for anyone who's listening go to it. And this is separate from your Broadway visiting artist. So you might have a Broadway visiting artist who's a part of the theater cast who might do a separate sort of show themselves. But the Broadway artists or Broadway star series is when they bring on typically two Broadway stars or West End stars or national tour stars. And they'll come. And oftentimes they have Disney connection connections. They don't have to have Disney connections, meaning they don't have to have been in a Disney Broadway show, but they often. At least one of them does. That's awesome that you had, I mean you had two, you had Tarzan and Aladdin is pretty incredible.
So yeah, very much recommend that. Now I know you guys didn't stay up for some of the late night stuff and I totally understand, you know, it is a three hour time difference just to get to West Coast Pacific time. But then you're also go an hour further when you go into Alaska. So you're four hours off of east coast time.
But do you know if they had the dueling pianos? I know that they are having the.
[00:46:07] Speaker B: They did, yes.
[00:46:08] Speaker A: They had it multiple nights.
[00:46:09] Speaker B: Yes. I get a chance, like I said to stop by. I had a hard time staying awake towards most of it. But yeah, it worked out pretty well. And they had matchroom 8 one night as well.
I'm just trying to think of the different options, like the normal cruise things. The normal cruise shows that you would see on the classic ships they pretty much had going as well. The schedules were definitely different than a Caribbean cruise. They had things at different timing than maybe what you're used to.
I think also just because of how the days are lined up and what they try to focus on.
But for the most part I think they tried to have as many of those adult activities as well. Especially because we were pretty an adult heavy crews.
So that's something they had to keep in mind of too.
[00:46:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Now you mentioned the adult areas being a bit over subscribed. Like what were. What did. Which areas and which kinds of activities tended to be the more crowded ones
[00:47:00] Speaker B: on the nice days? Definitely the pool deck was pretty crowded. Like the adult only area cafe. That was the first time I waited in line at Coke Cafe Almost every day, it felt like, because that's like, one of the only coffee areas. And. Yeah, that was a long line. Many days. But I would say a lot of the activities, like in the French Corner Lounge, like, trivias or the different game shows, like, they were just always kind of packed. The, like, the music trivias that they have between the dinner times, those were especially packed. We only went to one, but, like, luckily we got a table. But, like, you had people standing on the aisles and just kind of watching from afar. So a lot of those activities, because I think, think it's cold outside and people don't want to be outside as much. Just generally the tributes, that wouldn't be as hard to maybe win a medal or. Definitely there's more people in the game than usual, so.
[00:47:45] Speaker A: All right, well, we'd be remiss if we didn't talk about food.
You had the introduction of a bunch of new menus and revamped menus, I should say, because they're not completely different in the sense of, like, not everything has been removed and replaced, but there are some dishes that have been replaced across. And it's sounds like it's happening across the four classic ships. So the magic, the wonder, the dream, and the fantasy. But of course, in phases.
They are revamping the menu so that there isn't, like, a separate section. From what we've seen and posted on Instagram, there isn't like a separate appetizer, soup and salad section. Now they've put it into one section, calling it, like, small plates. And then they've got your section for your mains, and then, of course, your desserts. And so it does seem to be encouraging people to order three courses instead of four or five courses. Did you feel like there was any push to not order multiple things or. I mean, I. My typical experience is you order as much as you want and they're happy to bring whatever you want.
[00:48:51] Speaker B: No, yeah, for sure. They definitely still, like, encourage you to get whatever you would like. Even on the last day, because they had the new menu. I gotten something. I think it was, like, salmon or something that, like, wasn't fantastic. But he ended up bringing me, like, lamb chops. And I saw he was bringing it to other people's tables just for them to try, because I think they have a lot of new menu items. So just trying to kind of get a feeling. Feeling of. But, yeah, if they did change the menus, I had two great servers. We did. It was Sentosa and Armando on the Wonder, and they Were fantastic. They're one of our favorites of recent memory. And they were pretty attentive and they could read the room pretty well, which I think is important, depending on your. Your party. But yeah, they were great and they were efficient. I will say sometimes it seems like with the new menus and everything going on, they would forget. Like if you got two appetizers, they would maybe forget one of them and then they'd have to kind of un. Back to go back. But it wasn't too bad by any means. And for the most part, they. I was told with the new kind of style that you ordered also dessert with your mains, which you used to have like a separate menu for, that was intentional just to kind of move the dinners along better. And I think it helps the shows align a little bit better so people aren't trying to order dessert as like something starting. So.
[00:49:55] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a really good point. I think that we've seen that on. On the wish class they now have. You always order your dessert when you're ordering your meal. Like, they used to bring, as you mentioned, bring you a separate dessert menu after you were sort of finished. When you were finishing up your entree, they used to bring you a dessert menu. And then that has shifted and now you order everything from the start, which I don't object to either. I think it's actually helpful because it does keep dinner moving and it does help if you're in a dinner that has a show element to it that they're not sort of interrupting. Did you find that the speed of the dinner increased as well? I mean, we felt. We have found that the efficiency has gone up, which I think is a good thing. I don't like sitting in the main dining for two and a half hours if I don't need to. That's not what I do at home.
[00:50:44] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I thoroughly agree. So even with the new menu. So as I told you before, my sister was on the fantasy with her fiance's family at the same time. So they kind of gave us a heads up because their crew started a day before ours.
But yeah, so they also changed menus. But yeah, it was much more efficient. My family always kind of eats fast. We prefer a faster dinner, even for some of the shows. Like, it got to the point before the show even started. Like, my dad would kind of want one out if you didn't really want to stay for one of the things.
So it worked out pretty efficiently, I think better than other than past experiences, especially because we just had our tables for the most part were great. Especially at Tiana's, we were right by the stage, which was great. But at Animator, for some reason, where we were, it was really tight and cramped and we did not enjoy that experience as much. So especially for that night, once we were done with the shop element, we could easily kind of get out of there quickly. So that was nice as well.
[00:51:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's a really good point and I actually think this is gonna help even more so for those families with young kids, which, you know, that's the complaint that we tend to hear from people with main dining who have really young kids is that dinner just takes too long and their kids are like too antsy and can't sit through the whole thing. Now when there's a show, it's a little bit less of an issue. Cause at least there's a distraction that's entertaining those young kids. But when there's no show. So a four course meal that doesn't move very fast is just too long. Right. It's not, you know, it's not like Palo, where you're having a leisurely adult only experience and you're happy to sit there for two and a half hours. You really want it to move. And it also makes it difficult for them to have those two dining seatings. Right. If the first dining seating goes long, then the, the crew is not getting any, you know, time to do turn over that table and to sort of set up and even have even any kind of rest break for themselves. So, yeah, I think this, I, I hope that these changes are good. I know that there are a few things that people are sad about not being on.
Did you find there was anything, you know, I know. I think the Chateaubriand is gone now and replaced by just like a sirloin steak in.
What is the restaurant on? It's Tritons or Lumiere's. Yeah, yeah.
[00:52:55] Speaker B: For the most part, the changes seem to be okay. I tried some new things, but like there's things, things like we always go with baked potato soup at Animators, whenever it's like lobster night, we get the lava cake that's always on that night. So there's definitely some things that were still the same that we liked. I don't think there was anything that really stuck out that. Oh, the fried brie that would be at Trans, they just changed that with a burrata dish.
That was the one thing we were looking forward to that wasn't.
[00:53:20] Speaker C: I've also heard the beef Wellington is gone. I saw that recently.
[00:53:24] Speaker B: Yes. I don't think I saw that, actually.
[00:53:25] Speaker C: That. Yeah.
[00:53:26] Speaker B: Which.
[00:53:26] Speaker C: That was one of my favorites.
[00:53:28] Speaker A: Yeah, there are some, you know, they've kept like the truffle presets. They've kept, like, there are a few things, you know, they're kept. There's a sticky date pudding still, but I think they might have changed. Like.
[00:53:38] Speaker B: No, the date pudding's not there anymore.
[00:53:39] Speaker A: Oh, not the date. Oh, but it's different stick. It's a sticky something. Other pudding.
[00:53:43] Speaker B: Yeah, they, like I said with the gels, a lot of the desserts that I used to like, they turn into like gel things. Like, there's like a walnut thing I used to like, that turned into like, like something totally different.
So some of the desserts definitely changed to like long gel cakes. It was weird. That was the one thing that was kind of weird. And I think also because this was, I think, the Wonder's first week long cruise in a couple months, the servers were kind of struggling with like, what. Not like what they were serving, but like, it was just very. They weren't used to the new menus yet especially. And with the longer sailing, that was different. The one thing too, I wanted to mention on the first day, my mom and I actually missed the first, like 15 minutes of our first dinner or because of the merchandise opening up. And that was a whole other thing. And we got by, like, happenstance. My mom happened to be like, first in line for like, the Mickey's Main sale side. So we were first in line. But it was. It was a madness. But, like, in 15 minutes we had to like, get in and out and get like a piece for everyone. But like my mom said, like, on that night, some woman, like, put her whole, like, arm around her head as she was trying to grab something. Like, it was like, it was madness. It was really bad. So that's the one thing I don't.
That's like a heads up for everyone. They did actually have March sex, especially through the second day. But towards the end, like, the. Some of the things were gone. They didn't have a ton of merch either. So that was kind of a struggle. We got what we quit the first day and then went to dinner. And we saw a lot of other people doing the same. So that may be a heads up too.
[00:55:06] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that Alaska merch is well one. They only have a handful of items, right? It's usually a few. A couple of shirts, a couple of sweatshirts. There's always like an ears lounge fly. And of course the plushies we found last Year they were well stocked through the whole season, but then they ended up having leftovers at the end of the season. So I wonder if they have. You know, we'll see how the season goes this year as we're recording at the, you know, mid to late May. It will be interesting, as we'll see over the next few months, what people are saying about whether the merchandise is sort of disappearing. They do tend to restock quite often, you know, when they dock in Vancouver and they have some store on board as well. But of course they don't want to put everything out for. For one sailing and then have nothing left at the end. So they do tend to kind of roll it out and replenish it as they go. But yeah, it's. The merchandise stuff has just gotten a little bit crazy in general.
People are very.
Can be very aggressive, especially on those early sailing. And the same thing happens on any kind of like, you know, at the beginning of the Europe season on any maiden voyage or inaugural season. Right. Like it's. People tend to go a little bit crazy for that specific exclusive merchandise that you can only get on those sailings. And that's kind of across the fleet. And the same thing, you know, unfortunately we see happen at Walt Disney World and Disneyland as well. So buyer beware, caution. If you're going to Mickey's main sale, prepare your elbows so that you don't get knocked over.
[00:56:41] Speaker B: We did notice. I don't know if it's because there were two ships sailing this year too. There was nothing that was like Wonder specifically and there was nothing dated. So both those I like. I understand why, because I'm sure they want to reuse it if they can, but it seems they're trying to be just more general Alaska than like anything specific to a year or a ship. So just a heads up too.
[00:56:58] Speaker A: That's actually. So I think that's a good thing. I hate when they put years on stuff because I think it's, you know, I would rather not have something, say 20, 26 on it because then I can wear it for years and nobody knows what year it's from.
But I, you know, and then not having anything ship specific is just probably for ordering purposes. It's easier for them. Yeah. And they, they have in the past had Disney Wonder, Alaska specific stuff, but that's because that was the only ship going there for years and years and years. And so now that they're going to have the Wonder and the magic going there, at least for the next couple of years, they probably just want to say Disney Cruise Line Alaska or something like that. And instead. Well, Gabe, is there anything that we have missed? Sounds like a fantastic sailing.
[00:57:46] Speaker C: I'd love to know actually before we get to the anything we've missed is. So would you do this again? Was Alaska like where does Alaska rank in terms of your, your experiences with the cruise line?
[00:57:56] Speaker B: For me it was definitely one of my favorite cruises. But as we kind of got especially towards the middle, towards the end, just because of us that travel to get there, the expense obviously and just is to do Alaska. It's, it's. It's a lot, it's a lot of planning. It's.
[00:58:11] Speaker A: It's exhausting.
[00:58:12] Speaker B: Yeah, it can be exhausting. It was probably a one and done. We decided for us and I think that's totally fine. Like we're very glad we were able to kind of check it off the list and, and say that we've done it. Something we've been wanting to do for a long time since we started cruising. But I think it's probably a one and done. Especially with the travel that you have to consider to kind of get there and kind of the experience. Because even if you think about it like the cruise, the cruise ship experience, like the pool deck are kind of use. Not useless but for 50% of the cruise like you can't really go out on the pool deck. They don't really have like funnel vision playing. That's very different. There are definitely some elements of like the typical Caribbean cruises that we kind of started to miss a little bit. Even though you're trying to soak in everything you can while you're there. Because it's unique.
Just some classic things are different that, that we missed a little bit.
[00:58:59] Speaker A: So yeah, it doesn't have the same relaxing vibes as you of course can have in like a Caribbean or Bahamian cruise. Like that's a big like Alaska. You're there to see Alaska. You're going to do some stuff on the ship as well. But it's definitely a more hurry up and go kind of a culture and like lots to do and see and less of a I'm going to sit by the pool with my margarita and just like enjoy the atmosphere kind of cruise. So very, yeah very different experience and with add the travel in with that and I imagine just kind of exhausting. I mean it was kind of exhausting for us and we only had to drive a few hours to the port so. But we loved it and we loved sailing out of the same time zone. For us it was for us, that was an advantage, not the disadvantage that it was for you, of course. Gabe? Yeah. Have we missed anything? Any experiences on board?
Good, bad, unique? Anything that we've missed?
[00:59:55] Speaker B: I was trying to think a little bit. The one thing that I want to mention too. So instead of the pirate menu, they have the frozen menu.
Our server said it's his least favorite menu that he's ever served. It's not great. So we were really struggling that night. We kind of made stuff work, especially this cruise. We started to try to order something from another restaurant or just do chicken with the potato or something. We were a little bit more not too in line with the menu sometimes because they were definitely different.
Especially adding in some of the menus with the Alaskan off option. Sometimes they take something out or it. It's a little more specific. And my mom and my brother don't eat fish, so that wasn't great for them.
So, yeah, that's definitely something to consider as well. And then I would say just in general, when doing one of these sailings, I think the idea of packing many layers is so important. But we were. Luckily we didn't have to use them. But I think there are many people that definitely over prepared or under prepared. But I think that's totally fine because we were glad that like our rain gear stayed dry this trip. But it definitely seemed like it's. You kind of take a chance and a dime depending on your excursion or what you're planning to do. And I will say, I guess something to consider too. Even with Alaska Lake, we were very grateful, like I said, for our weather. But if it had been raining the whole time, I think it would have been a very rough trip, if that makes sense. The weather kind of saved a lot of things and made life a little bit easier. But with the travel and everything else, it's. It's a big gambler to bet on one of these cruises than have a lot of the things that you've been waiting for for years get kind of canceled or changed and not what you expected.
[01:01:31] Speaker A: Yeah. And with May, early May is really a big question mark because it can still be pretty cold and rainy at that time of year. And we know from living in the Seattle area like that that's, you know, the weather can be really nice, which it was this year, or it can be really not so nice. And so, you know, you can have that variation. I think your point about packing is in this is one of those cruises where if you lean towards the overpacking versus the underpacking you probably won't regret that, right? Like, you might end up with stuff that you didn't wear, but that's okay. And also, don't forget you can do laundry on board. So, like, your everyday clothes, like, if you need to wash them or you can either send them out for laundry or do the laundry yourself on board. They always usually have a special, like halfway through the cruise where you can send. Send. Yeah. Okay. So it was like, what was it, like 20 or $25 to send a bag of laundry?
[01:02:25] Speaker B: Yeah, it was like 25 bucks, which I thought was great. My mom ended up. Because we got to Vancouver a couple days early, I think on our, like, first full day. She ended up doing laundry, like, early in the morning because she was up anyway. That's a good tip, too. If you're coming from the east coast, like, do laundry early in the morning because there's not as many people up and about. But yeah, so that's definitely another consideration too, because we tried to do. So my mom on the way back, her luggage was like 51 pounds. So then we were trying to kind of move stuff around. But that's just because she bought. Bought all this extra stuff. You end up not needing all of. Because you're in a different climate where you just have to be prepared for whatever weather.
[01:02:57] Speaker A: Well, I want to. We're not going to do a full rapid fire because we did that last time. But I do want to ask you.
[01:03:03] Speaker C: Things may have changed, Sam. It's been.
[01:03:05] Speaker A: Well, that's why I want to ask. I do want to ask. I got to ask.
[01:03:08] Speaker C: Is his new favorite Disney movie.
[01:03:10] Speaker A: No, I want to. I want to ask you your favorite ship at this point.
You know, you've been on all of the classic ships from my memory, but not yet on the wish class, right?
[01:03:20] Speaker B: Correct.
[01:03:21] Speaker A: Yeah. And this is your first time back on the Wonder in quite a while.
Did she, like, take that top spot or you still dream class? Were you Dream class? I feel like you were fantasy.
[01:03:31] Speaker B: Yeah, I was. Yeah. Yeah. I think the fantasy is still my favorite. I don't know. I don't want to break any news here, but the Wonder.
Well, the magic was. I've heard my. My family was on it. Last year was definitely showing its age. I think the Wonder is also starting to show its age a little bit. Bit. I heard from my server that he's planning to retire when the ship retires, and he told me three years.
So I don't know how true that is or how not true. I don't know if there's inside information, but it seems like it's kind of getting towards this end. And while it's definitely still up kept as great as it can, there are definitely some not. Not so great upcut things. But I think it was like Fantasy then Wonder, because I did really enjoy the Wonder. But there's things like only having one drink station, which was always like busy because of like all the hot chocolate stuff and just some different things about the layout that I like the Fantasy and Dream better because it feels like the layout's simple. And even though the Wonder and the Magic are a little bit. They still have like a pretty simple layout compared to Commander Chain of the Wish Class, they're still kind of kooky in certain areas that make life a little bit more difficult than I think the Dream Class ships.
[01:04:34] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, interesting inside information from your server, I will say. I always say take those with a grain of salt. Salt. Because the servers often or onboard crew often have not accurate information.
But sometimes they do and it. We just don't know when it's accurate and when it's inaccurate. So it wouldn't be shocking to. To us, I would say if. If those ships started. If we started seeing retirement in the early, let's say 2000s. But I think it's probably. I think it's probably more than three years away for the Wonder, but not a whole lot more than that. That would just be my prediction without any inside information.
Well, Gabe, thank you so much for coming back on the show.
We're glad to hear this was such an enjoyable cruise that it was a 180 from your last Fantasy Cruise. That was a bit of a. A bit of a mess. But yeah, we just really appreciate you coming back on and it's. It's always fun to hear about the Wonder in Alaska. We'll have some more shows coming up this Alaska season. But you're actually. Because you're on the first one, it was yours, the first recorded show. I think we've got a live show that will actually come out before this show. But love talking about Alaska on Disney Cruise Line. And hopefully we'll also get to hear about how the Magic is doing with its sailing.
[01:05:50] Speaker C: Sam, did we ask what's next?
[01:05:52] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, no. What's next?
[01:05:54] Speaker C: Is there anything in the future here for you for Disney Cruise Line?
[01:05:57] Speaker B: I think I'm taking a break for a little bit, unfortunately. We'll see what life brings. I just started my career, so I'm starting to kind of navigate that. So this was a grateful gift I'm grateful for my parents for that. But we'll see what's next. I know with the Castaway Club Wolves, we were talking, we were like, I got to do something the next five years, but that may just be a quick one. So we'll see how it works out because nothing's getting cheaper, that's for sure.
[01:06:19] Speaker A: Yeah. And you're gonna have to start paying for these on your own, Gabe. You're out of the house. You're done with.
[01:06:23] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely. I help with this one, but yeah, it was. Yeah, I couldn't. A full one would be. Would be beyond my means at this point. So we'll see what happens next.
[01:06:31] Speaker A: Nice.
[01:06:31] Speaker C: Nice.
[01:06:32] Speaker A: Well, we hope you'll keep us in the loop. If you do book something, let us know. And with that we'll just say thanks again for joining us.
[01:06:39] Speaker B: Thank you guys for having me.
[01:06:44] Speaker C: Well, thank you. Thanks to everyone out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact, twice a week we publish shows. So be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us alive, we have a live show now every week, Monday nights, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want to help support the show. Be sure to hit those five five stars on Apple Podcasts. And if you leave us a written review, a five star written review, we will read it at the top of one of our main episodes. So please head over there and hit those five stars. If you've got questions or you'd like to connect with us. The best way to do that is to head over to DCLDuo.com it's got links to all of our things, full catalog of the podcast episodes including a searchable catalog for the podcast links off to our vlog, a link to our Etsy store. We sell some fun fan inspired magnets link to our Patreon if you if you'd like to help directly support the show each and every month, just head over to the website or patreon.com DCLDUO also as a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter that we're hoping to start really pumping out monthly here, at least on a few blog articles that we've written. So DCLDUO.com is the best way to connect with us. You can also of course email
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