For our big family vacation this year, we hit up Alaska on a Disney cruise! While my husband and I aren’t big cruisers, we thought our girls were at the perfect age to appreciate all that Disney had to offer. From princesses and character meet-and-greets to fun excursions, we had endless fun. Here are my tips on the best excursions to book, and how to plan for an Alaskan Disney cruise upon the Disney Wonder!
To book a Disney cruise during times of covid, there is some extra prep work you have to do. You also have to get tested at the port right before boarding the ship. To read my detailed blog on all the steps you need to take BEFORE your big trip and what’s included, check out my other blog here. I also go into detail on items to pack because there are a few things that aren’t intuitive to bring on your cruise! Anyhow, let’s move on….
Our itinerary for the week was as follows: Day 1: Board from Vancouver, day 2 is at sea, day 3 at Dawes Glacier, day 4 at Icy Strait Point, day 5 in Juneau, day 6 in Ketchikan, and day 7 is at sea heading back to Vancouver.
Day 1: Board from Vancouver:
Before being allowed to board your Disney cruise, you first have to go to the testing facility inside the Fairmont Hotel. It’s directly across the street from the ship, so it’s easy to access. Once you and your family members are all swabbed, you wait in the seating area for about 30 minutes until you see your names appear on the large screen showing you’re clear to proceed. Then it takes another 15-30 minutes to go through the line where you show your required paperwork and passports. (Disney will give you a timeline of when each document needs filled out. Once again, read my previous blog for more details on all that entails!) Once you show your necessary documents, you receive your “key to the world”. It’s basically just a card that acts as both your room key and your payment for the duration of the cruise.
We chose to board as soon as we could which was noon. The boat disembarks at 4 pm. Since we were on the ship by noon, we didn’t have our bags yet, as the bell hops don’t bring them until sometime before you disembark. So we went to check out our room and drop off our backpacks, then walked around the ship to acquaint ourselves with it. The other requirement before you set sail is that you watch a safety video in your room and then go to where your assigned lifeboat is stationed. After doing that, we went back to our room, grabbed our swimsuits out of our bags, and hit the pool.
Since it was my 40th and the girls’ first time on a cruise, we paid extra to have the rooms decorated. And I got each girl a welcome knap-sack that included a Minnie Mouse ball cap, and pencil pouch that matches the knap-sack.
Mickey’s Sail-a-wave Party:
The Sail-a-wave party happens as soon as you disembark! Everyone goes to the 9th deck where the pool is and characters get on stage and dance. They encourage the kids to get out and dance too, and Lila our 9-year-old was all about it! You wave goodbye to the folks on land as you set sail for your fun vacation.
Dinners:
Dinners on Disney cruises are always at assigned restaurants each night. There are two dining times, one at 5:45 PM and one at 8 PM. The early one fills up fast, so the sooner you book your cruise, the better chance you have of getting the early dining time, which we were lucky to have. You sit at the same table number each night, no matter the restaurant. The coolest part to me is that you always have the same two servers. A main server and their assistant. They get to know you and you get to know them throughout the week.
Ours were named Lito and Allan and they were amazing! They caught on pretty quickly that Winnie is extremely picky. She always wanted plain lettuce (no dressing,) with salt and pepper instead of a fancy appetizer. And most nights, she wanted pepperoni pizza instead of the featured kids meal. So Lito would have it all ready to go for her! One of the nights we were in a restaurant that didn’t have the kids pepperoni pizza, so he ran to another one to grab it. Their service was truly top-notch.
Other meals:
Lunches and breakfasts are on your own and you can dine in any of the restaurants, order room service, or grab food from one of the quick-casual places. Cabanas was where we ate most breakfasts as they had a huge breakfast buffet! Don’t skip the Mickey waffles, they are amazing! The quick-casual restaurants we hit up were Pinocchio’s Pizza which was a pizza joint next to the pool and Daisy’s De-Lites which served salads, wraps and smoothies. Room-service is 24/7 as well, but it’s a limited menu.
On board activities:
If you have never cruised with Disney before, you register for all the excursions after all the repeat customers. The folks that have cruised more with them get to book weeks ahead of you. But fear not – we found ways to get everything we wanted booked, even if it was sold out through the ship! For us, our booking date was March 24th for our June 7th departure!
Here is the timeline for how Disney decides when you get to book your excursions and on-board activities: First-Time Guests: 75 days prior to sail date, Silver Castaway Club Members: 90 days prior to sail date, Gold Castaway Club Members: 105 days prior to sail date, Concierge Guests and Platinum Castaway Club Members: 120 days prior to sail date.
Day 2: At Sea:
Since we knew we’d be at sea all day, we chose to book the girls a fun activity for the ship. If you have a daughter, you absolutely need to book them an appointment at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique! There are various packages you can choose from. We chose the “Castle Package” which includes: Hairstyling, shimmering makeup and face gems, a princess necklace, sash and cinch sack, nail polish, and the Disney Princess gown of your choice and its coordinating accessories. It costs $199.95 per kid but was worth every penny to our girls! Plus, the dresses here are way nicer than even the Disney gowns found inside the Disney store!
The second night of your Disney cruise is when you have the formal dinner. There is one formal dinner and one semi-formal dinner per 7-day cruise. The formal dresses for the kids were obviously their Disney princess ones. I went with a knee-length cocktail dress and Vince wore khakis and a sport coat and we fit in just fine. There are people that wear jeans and other people who wear tuxes and ballgowns, so don’t feel like you’ll be out of place! So long as you aren’t in sweats, you’re all good! Dinner this night was at Animator’s Palate. I should also note, this is the one night of your cruise where you get a free cocktail in the lobby. The rest of the time you pay extra for booze!
Day 3: Dawes Glacier:
For the third day of our cruise, we hit up Dawes Glacier. For this port-of-call, you only have one option for an excursion. You can get off the ship onto a smaller boat that takes you closer to the glacier. We figured we’d be seeing plenty of glaciers, so we chose to stay on the ship. We took our girls to the kids Oceaneers club. Important note: You are charged $13 per kid every time you drop them off at the kids club! So don’t do what we did and drop them off for 20 minutes just for them to “check it out” unless you want to pay $26 for that little venture.
Character Photo Ops: One of the driving forces for wanting to take a Disney cruise is so you don’t need to wait in long lines for your kids to get face time with all of their favorite characters. Our ship did NOT disappoint when it came to that! Our kids saw every character and got photos with them more than once. The longest we stood in line to get a photo was five minutes tops. In a post-covid world, know that your kids will be told to stand on a marker on the floor and the characters stay 8-10 feet behind them. You can buy a photo package through the ship, or take your own. We did both! The cool thing about buying the package through Disney is that they photoshop in some special guests into certain pictures. See below! Just please don’t judge Winnie’s RBF!
Anyhow – while the kids were at the Oceaneer’s Club, my husband and I went to dinner at the adults-only restaurant – Palo. The food was fantastic! It’s an additional charge and you are only allowed to have one reservation there per cruise. However, there is one work-around. If you dine there your first night on the ship, it doesn’t count as your one reservation, and then you can book a second one! Reservations go fast, so if you want to try this fancy Italian restaurant, book it as soon as you can!
After we ate, I utilized the on-board gym and Vince took the kids to the pool. Then we had dinner at Triton’s, then went to Deck 9 and watched the Frozen Deck Party. It was cute and fairly quick. The only downside to a lot of the free shows is that they start around 8 pm. We are early risers so by 8 pm we were usually ready to wind down. So that’s just something to keep in mind when perusing the onboard entertainment.
Day 4: Icy Strait Point
We arrived in Icy Strait Point at 7:45 am, got of the ship and walked to a smaller boat for whale watching. We saw humpback whales, seals, sea lions and otters, but didn’t see any killer whales. (Until a couple days later from our room’s window!) This was one of the excursions that was booked up, so instead of using Disney, we booked it ourselves. We used Alaska Shore Tours and they were fantastic. They also work with Disney so they make sure you get back to your dock in time before your cruise ship takes off without you. Also, I recommend booking excursions outside of Disney if you are wanting to save some money! We saved HUNDREDS doing this! *It’s important to note – I am not affiliated with any company and am recommending them solely because we loved them! I get no kick-backs from my recommendations on this blog!*
After our two-hour whale watching tour, we souvenir shopped at the dock. (The first photo in the gallery above shows one of many shops!) Icy Strait Point is very small, so there isn’t much to do unless you partake in the whale watching tours.
After shopping, we headed back to the ship, had lunch, swam, and then had dinner at Tiana’s Place. This was my favorite of the restaurants mainly because the music and musicians were fantastic! Plus, the woman who places Tiana has a beautiful voice!
Day 5: Juenau:
This day was our family’s favorite! If there is one thing you take away from this blog, it should be that if you visit Juneau, you need to do the helicopter and dogsled tour. Once again, we booked this through Alaska Shore Tours, and it was way cheaper than booking through Disney. It’s also the same company they use, as we were on a tour with other people from the ship. We started our day with breakfast at Cabanas, then took the bus from the ship terminal into town.
I won’t lie to you – I fucking HATE heights. I’m fine in planes and buildings but the thought of being in a tiny helicopter in high winds above a glacier didn’t sound appealing to me. Vince and I have a few helicopter tours under our belt, and none scared me. But the ride in on this one was choppy and I was beyond relieved when we landed on top of the glacier to see the dogs!
Tour details:
This tour is 3 hours long. You take a shuttle from town to the helipad. Once you arrive, you watch a safety video. Then you get special boots and gloves to wear on top of the glacier. I will stress that you should come dressed in your winter gear! We had our girls wear snowsuits under heavy winter coats. Vince and I both wore our heavy winter coats, and I got us all matching Mickey Mouse hats from barefootdreams.com to be on brand. (We all know I’m a bougie bitch at this point.) So dress warm! And leave all belongings in the lockers provided to you near the helipad and just bring your phones or cameras.
Once you take the 15 minute flight up to the top of the glacier, you have another instructional/safety meeting with one of the dog mushers. Then you meet your personal dog musher, meet the dogs, and off you go. Winnie was our first driver of the sled and she was thrilled. Lila soon followed, then Vince. I was photographer as per usual, so I didn’t care that I didn’t mush. I will say, the view while sledding through the glacier is something I will remember for a lifetime. It was breathtakingly beautiful and so eerily calm. It was an all-time favorite memory, not just from the Disney cruise, but from all of our travels.
After the excursion, we went back into town and shopped for souvenirs. Our main server, Lito, mentioned how he loved the fudge at The Alaskan Fudge Company, so we got him and Allan some. (You do tip all of your servers well at the end of the cruise, but we just did this as an added gift.)
Pro tip: When you are still at home, buy some small trinkets that are indicative of the town you’re from. For instance, I wish we had brought some local Colorado craft beer, or some Celestial Seasonings tea, or Boulder chips, or even an ornament of the Colorado flag. It’s a nice little touch to give to the staff members that went above and beyond on your cruise. I did NOT do this, but if we ever take another Disney cruise again, I will!
Next, we shopped for more souvenirs (if you know me at all, you know that means Christmas ornaments,) and headed back to the ship for lunch. We were all wiped out so we took a nap, then got ready for dinner. Dinner this night was at Tritons, which to me is the least exciting of all restaurants. There’s no live music, no big character appearances, or anything super special about it.
Day 6: Ketchikan:
We started our day with breakfast at Cabanas, the buffet restaurant. I booked myself a massage knowing it was the last day of my thirties and I needed to indulge. While I got a massage, Vince took the kids to Tiana’s for breakfast so they could get beignets. Who doesn’t love fried dough saturated in powdered sugar? Then we strolled around Ketchikan to see all the totem poles. We hadn’t intended to do an excursion, but after walking the town and shopping, we figured we’d add one on last-minute. So, we bought tickets to the Lumberjack Show. It didn’t start until late afternoon, so we shopped some more and had great pizza and beer at Fat Stan’s. It was the only restaurant we ate at the entire week that wasn’t on the ship!
Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show:
The Great Alaskan Lumberjack show was recommended by Disney for the kids, because Goofy makes an appearance at the start of the show. The show is an hour long and is exactly what it sounds like. Lumberjacks do an interactive show and showcase all of their tricks and talents. They compete against each other, and are very engaged with the audience. They asked for two volunteers, one from each side of the stage, and I was one of the “lucky” ones picked out of the audience.
I told the lumberjack who picked me out that I didn’t want to go on stage, but Vince wasn’t having it. I had to throw an axe at a wooden target three times in a row and compete against the male audience member from the other side of the venue. Was it embarrassing? Fuck yes! But fun? Also yes! And while I wasn’t great, I did at least hit my target, albeit with the axe handle. It’s all about the little victories people…
Dinner was at the Animator’s Palate. The last evening you spend at this restaurant is the night everyone looks forward to. You draw a photo on special paper (photo below) and your server will compile everyone’s drawings at your table. Then they get turned into a live animation. They’re played on all of the surrounding screens hanging on the wall of the restaurant so that you can see your work come to life. Our kids loved it! Since the next day was my 40th, our housekeeper left me a little surprise towel cake, button, and card in our room that was waiting for me after dinner.
Day 7: At Sea – heading back to Vancouver:
We wanted the last day of the cruise to be special, not just for my birthday but more for the girls to be sent off with a bang. So we saved another big on-board activity for the last day: The Royal Court Royal Tea. This is another activity you can only book when Disney gives you the go-ahead (75 days before departure for first-timers.) But it was worth every cent to our girls.
The Royal Tea costs $220 per kid and $90 per adult. It’s also more fun if your kids are dressed up in their princess dress and you get dressed up too. You enter the restaurant and are greeted by Lady Chamomile and Chef Brule and as you’re seated, your daughter will be gifted MANY things! Our girls each got: A very fancy Cinderella doll (it’s like the size of an American Girl doll), a tiara headband with a matching purse, a charm bracelet with 3 charms and matching necklace, a keepsake Cinderella storybook notebook, (that was the coolest item to me besides Cinderella,) a pen, and drawing of all the princesses in a frame.
You’re served tea sandwiches and a LOT of sweets and while I love sweets more than most, even I was overwhelmed. The “tea” for the girls was apple juice, but my girls are like their mother and wanted the real thing. So the servers obliged and brought them out their own fancy hot tea as well. Then for the finale, Ariel, Rapunzel, and Tiana come say hi to each girl and have a photo op!
As I said before, Vince and I aren’t big cruisers. But if we did another one, there’s no doubt in my mind I’d do a Disney one. (Assuming our kids are still young then.) There were adults without kids on our cruise though! I was surprised how many adults without kids love Disney cruises! While choosing Disney for an adult’s trip may not be for everyone, I will say this. The service was above and beyond. The food was infinitely better than any cruise food out there I’ve ever tried. And while it was an expensive trip, the memories for our kids will last a lifetime.
Once again, if you want to read all the ins and outs of costs, what is fully included in your cruise and what is extra, check out my first blog here! I hope this helped you in planning your Alaskan Disney Cruise!
