Disney Cruise Line Excursion Reviews

[stillgoofy]

Juneau, Alaska - Whale Watching Tour

We boarded our whale watching boat which was 3 stories. The first 2 floors were indoors and were heated with nice soft cushy seats and a pair of binoculars for every two seats. On the second floor you could also walk around the perimeter outdoors too. The 3rd floor was completely outdoors and was an observation deck that was opened up when we got to a viewing area.

But everyone was free to get up, move around, go downstairs, upstairs or outside at any time. There was also a snack bar with a few hot food items for sale and free coffee, tea & cocoa. The tour had about 100 people on the boat and we headed out to sea sailing out quite a ways. We saw a whale spout and break the surface and then we saw a sea lion swimming. Now this tour is listed as guaranteed to see a whale so I was hoping that this wasn’t all we’d see. We kept sailing out past a few glaciers which were great photo ops. We got out to an island with hundreds of sea lion lounging on shore and quite a few playing around. Boy are those things loud, especially in numbers like this. We saw a couple of bald eagles on the same island too.

We then sailed to another spot and saw a whale or two but this was just the beginning. We started seeing whales in groups of 4-5 and this went on for about the next hour in this spot. These were humpback whales. They would spout, come to the top of the water (sometimes just floating there for a bit) and diving so we could see their tails.

I was amazed how close they came to this small boat that was also in our area.

But the most spectacular thing of all is one whale jumped out of the water, spun around and splashed back in. We found out this is called breaching which is when the whale has at least ¾ of his body out of the water. This one was 100% out of the water and one of our guides said that’s pretty rare to be all the way out of the water like that.

What a treat to see and very glad I had the video camera running at the time. Packs of whales kept coming to this spot, it was so awesome. Then we saw a bald eagle fly right in front of the boat, then dive down to the water to grab a fish. The captain said that while this is a very common occurrence, it’s usually not so close that you can actually see what kind of fish he got.

Heading back in, we passed one of the glaciers called Eagle Glacier. The sky had cleared up quite a bit so the captain stopped for a nice photo-op. There was a tall rock right in front of the glacier and right on the tip of that rock lands an eagle. You know it’s a great photo-op when the captain pulls out his own camera and opens his window to take a shot of the eagle in front of Eagle Glacier. This was a fantastic trip.

 

[stillgoofy]

Ketchikan, Alaska - Bering Sea Crab Fisherman's Tour

Our excursion today was the Bering Sea Crab Fisherman’s Tour which was on one of those crab fishing boats like they have on the Deadliest Catch. Matter of fact, the boat we were going on, the Aleutian Ballad, was on Season 2 of the Deadliest Catch.

After our excursion group checked in we walked through town to the pier where the Aleutian Ballad was docked. This was a double decker boat with rows of seats on both decks.

We did not have a full tour today so there was plenty of space and everyone opted to sit on the lower level closer to our guides. That had an aquarium onboard which came in handy for viewing some creatures they pulled in later.

They started out by telling stories about the history of the ship, like the two times before that the boat had major accidents and sank. But they recouped the boat both times, dragged it in and fixed it up and sent it on its way again.

They sailed out and baited and dropped lines teaching us about all the steps as they did everything.

We sailed to another spot and pulled in some small crab pots with a bunch of box crabs in them.

These crabs were about the size of paper plates and they let everyone who wanted hold these.

Of course Shallon jumped and the chance, she is very adventurous and fearless.

 

[stillgoofy]

Ketchikan, Alaska - Bering Sea Crab Fisherman's Tour (continued)

We sailed a bit more and stop to watch a whale for a moment but this couldn’t compare to the whale watching the day before. They went to a rocky point where eagles hang out and there were several there. The guys threw a few fish out near the boat and the eagles swooped in real close and snatched them out of the water. Nice close up views of them.

We sailed to another spot and pulled up prawn pots (prawns are like giant shrimp) and this haul also included prawns and sea stars.

The giant sea star and giant octopus they put in the aquarium on deck.

They let people hold the smaller sea stars and the prawns which Shallon again jumped at the opportunity.

The sea stars were really slimy and their tiny tentacles were constantly wiggling.

One of the guys pulled the octopus out of the aquarium and showed it off to everyone.

At the next spot, they hauled up the king crab pots like they show on the Deadliest Catch.

These crabs were very big but we didn’t get to hold these ones.

I guess they used to let people hold them but there were too many injuries. I can see why; these crabs have big pointy spikes on their backs and big pinchers.

The guides taught us a lot about all the creatures they fish for and about their adventures in the Bering Sea.

As we sailed back in we took a picture of the Wonder when we passed it.

This was a fabulous experience and I’d highly recommend it to others.

 

[Bolna]

Excellent reviews. Still can't edit my posts to put this in the first links, so hopefully people will read through the thread!

Oh, I really hope @wdwmagic can fix that issue soon!! This is such a valuable thread with all the information collected by the many contributions. I really need to add reviews from my Panama Canal cruise.

 

[Bolna]

@stillgoofy Thank you for all those Alaska reviews!! Makes me want to book an Alaskan cruise even more!

 

[stillgoofy]

@stillgoofy Thank you for all those Alaska reviews!! Makes me want to book an Alaskan cruise even more!

My pleasure to share it. We had such great adventures.

 

[ChuckElias]

Very happy that your whale watch was so great. My family's Juneau whale watch in '11 had much less to look at, unfortunately. So I'm glad that you guys saw so many animals, and a full breach is amazing!

 

[NelleBelle]

We took our very 1st DCL, an Eastern Caribbean cruise, from Feb. 7 -14. In St. Thomas, we did the full-day Caribbean sail & snorkel to Turtle Cove and Honeymoon Beach. My husband, mom, and 2 sons--11 and 9--all took this excursion. We boarded a "pirate schooner" that was moored right in front of the Fantasy, so it was an easy walk from the ship. We boarded and sat along wooden benches (that actually sat a lot more people than the boat looked like it would hold, which made me wish I hadn't squished my family all onto one bench as there was plenty of room). We sailed about 30 minutes out to where we would snorkel, Turtle Cove. I really felt bad for the few people that had issues with motion sickness--the crew luckily had buckets for them, but there definitely was no privacy, so beware if you get "sympathy sick"! I'd recommend taking a motion sickness medication for this tour as there were definitely swells when the wind was up.

View on way to Turtles!

When we got to Turtle cove, I was fairly disappointed that there were at least 5-7 other tour boats already out there. There were quite a lot of people in the water and I was worried we wouldn't see any turtles. More on that...

The crew passed out snorkels, masks, and fins (we brought our own, except that my 11-y.o son had a big growth spurt from when he last used his fins and found out that his no longer fit--the fins he used fit just fine and worked well for him). Everybody had to wear a snorkel vest, which initially I was not too keen on wearing, but having used it, I actually really liked it! The water was calmer at the Cove but the snorkel vest gave me (and my family) better security than if we didn't have them. Just don't make the strap between the legs very tight! So the time now comes for us to get into the water, which wasn't how I really was used to entering. Previous snorkel excursion I've taken have boats that have a deck off the rear that make entering/exiting the water easy: sit down and in you go. But this is a real wooden sailing ship that had about a 9 - 10 ft drop from the deck! You either could climb a rope ladder down or jump off. We all chose to jump. My kids did just fine--I chose to have them jump without their masks and then put them on in the water.

Now that we're in the water, which wasn't too cold, I realize that it is very difficult to hear/follow our guide if I didn't want to get kicked in the face by the 30 other people in our group. So we followed behind and just enjoyed the underwater scenery. My earlier fears about not seeing the turtles was unfounded. The turtles hang out over the grass and are very used to all the tourists. The best sightings of the turtles came when they let us snorkel on our own (for about 30 - 45 minutes) and we could spread out from each other. There was also a small coral reef that you could explore that had some tropical fish hanging about--nothing like the amounts you see in Hawaii, but good enough! There was quite a lot of fire coral, which was cool to see. We opted to return to the grassy areas and search for turtles.

"Charlie", resident turtle, only has 3 fins!

 

[NelleBelle]

Time passed too quickly before they were calling us back to the boat. The rope ladder was not the most elegant way to get back into the boat, but wasn't too bad. The crew was generously passing out rum punch (virgin punch was available as well) and cracker snacks as we hoisted the sails as we got underway to Honeymoon Beach.

Now, the toilet situation left something to be desired. I should've planned my trip to the potty a little better. It's located under the deck and I couldn't hold on any longer. I'm glad I held off on the punch as the wave made VERY difficult to walk to the "head", located all the way forward. It was nothing but a port-a-potty. The crew instructed us in flushing etiquette with a marine toilet (no toilet paper allowed in the pot, only the waste basket). Well, all those who went before me must not have figured out the flushing mechanism as it was literally sloshing all over the place when I opened the lid. I tried and tried to get it to flush, to no avail So I ended up just holding it until we got to the next stop

Honeymoon Beach, I learned, is a separate island that has no cars, only golf carts, that is ~1 mile from the island of St. Thomas. There were probably 50 boats anchored here. We got about 100 yards from the shore and anchored. The crew offered those who didn't want to swim it shore the option to ride in the inflatable zodiac. We chose to jump off the boat, again, and swim it to shore. This beach is the ideal white sand, turquoise water you picture when thinking of the Caribbean...stunning! They had a lunch set up for us, which as a vegetarian, was frankly terrible. There was bbq chicken, salad, macaroni salad, bread, pork-n-beans, and soda. The kids had the option of getting some disgusting Kraft mac-n-cheese (makes that Mickey mac-n-cheese truly gourmet). Once lunch was done, you had a couple hours at the beach. If you want pool noodles, make sure to take them off the boat when you get off, since you can't get back to it easily.

The kids loved being able to swim in the ultra-calm waters. I just wish they had more recliners/chairs. There were quite a few locals who were using the chairs, and then those who rode the zodiac in got first pick of the chairs. So we had to make do with sitting on the sand (in the blazing sun, so beware all you red-heads). There was shade, but nothing close to the water where you want to be to watch your kids.

All in all, we had a great time! I'd definitely take this excursion again. It wasn't too $$ and I felt the crew was very attentive (there were 3 of them). Make sure to take LOTS of sunscreen, motion sickness meds if you need them, an underwater camera, and $$ for tipping. Oh, and they have a great playlist of music, just don't sit next to the speakers--you're ears will thank you!

Crew member "modeling" the ladies tank top available to buy--sexy!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Great review @NelleBelle !

 

[TiggerDad]

@ChuckElias mentioned this thread in a recent post, and I thought there was good information, so I hope people don't mind if I bump an old thread.

In Cozumel, we did a tour of the ruins, the cultural center, and the Mayan Cacao chocolate company. For some reason, I don't see this exact tour listed any more on the website, but the different pieces are there. Our tour guide was very good about explaining the culture and the different things we were seeing. I feel like I learned a lot from listening to her. The ruins themselves were underwhelming.

I felt like I was in a tourist trap where they tried to coerce us into buying bottled water and pictures with some random bird.
The cultural center had some interesting information, but was smaller than I expected. As we were leaving, we caught the end of a performance that was being done for a different tour group.

The chocolate tasting was my favorite stop.

My only complaint was the portion sizes

In the Cayman Islands, we did the dolphin and stingray experience, which I guess is similar in other locations. Once again, we got the hard upsell, starting on the shuttle bus where they wouldn't let us off the bus until we listened to why we needed to pay more to upgrade our package. Then another mandatory bird picture. I had been warned that we would have to pay a fortune for the dolphin pictures, so I was expecting that. I did see one person taking pictures of the rest of his family from the shore, and we took some pictures of the dolphins exercising.

We loved the dolphin adventure. They were very patient and flexible with the people who were not strong swimmers, to ensure they would be able to swim with the dolphins (yes, we had already signed up for the upgraded option), and the pictures ended up not being as expensive as I had feared. I'm not sure PETA would approve of the way the dolphins were being treated, but I didn't see any protesters.

The stingray portion was another story. At this location, it takes place out in the open ocean, with wild stingrays. It's not in a little cove with rays who have had their stingers removed. Not at all like on TV. But our problem was the massive thunderstorm that rolled through while we are out in an open-sided unprotected boat. I'm not sure if these pictures adequately convey the conditions.

In Jamaica, we had a more relaxed excursion to the Green Grotto caves. Lots of bats in there.

I've been in a lot of different caves, and these were pretty typical.

This excursion left us with ample time to explore the port of Falmouth upon our return. It's a fairly new port; quite a contrast to Cozumel. But I have apparently reached the limit of pictures per post, so we'll skip that.

Our favorite port adventure wasn't an official Disney one. We stopped at the Kennedy Space Center the day before boarding, and really loved that. There is so much to see that we really could have spent a couple of days there.