Trip Report Mexican guy Freezes in Alaska (aka Disney Wonder Alaska trip)

Hello Guys!


I have been reminded constantly (lol) to post my trip report. I was of course.. busy.
Not much time to think other than work.

Thanks god, today (rainy day in my hometown) and after exactly 1 month since my Alaska trip.
Finally have some time to post something!!.

Anyway..

ROLLCALL!:

"Victims": My mother(64) and Yours Truly (31).
Place: Disney Wonder (Verandah room, AFT-Starboard area )
Total Days: 10 (7 Cruise + 3 in Vancouver)
Hometown: Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico (The Wonder visits us during its Panama Cruise itinerary)


Departure:
It was a gloriously (and hot) day at Gustavo Diaz Ordaz PVR International airport.
After waiting patiently for 6 months.. The departure day was finally here!
We booked via WestJet to Vancouver (route PVR-Calgary-Vancouver). It was pretty balanced in price and time. As We did not want to touch the United States for 5 hours just to change of planes (lol)

Our plane!​

Boarding with Wesjet was kinda slow, the plane was definitively packed.
Also, the layout of these 737 planes is interesting. If you see the above photo. There are 2 sections with missing windows, these are the "undesirable" and "cheaper" seats.
Despite my research I did not know this, I was right behind the first missing area, so we had a window next to me, but not a bit infront like in other planes. (My mother could not see much of the trip lol)

Here is a video of the take off:

As you see, we unfortunately got 2 babies nearby in the plane, one infront and one behind us. And the one behind us... cried ALL THE FLIGHT.
The worst? One of the babies followed us from Calgary to Vancouver as well. Good thing she didn't cry much in the last part of the trip... Still annoying.


Definitively not a small trip in any way for me. Probably the longest in distance since my trip to Orlando via Houston.

I was actually surprised on how big the Nevada desert was. Canyons and red sands for hours!


After 5 hours of flight, we finally approached Calgary.


Interestingly... the plane was always flying WAY SLOWER in the United States air space (400-450mph vs 490-510mph on Mexico and Canada)

Customs was sort of slow, but way faster than other places I've seen (like Houston International), I Of course have one of these "safe traveler" cards that lets me get pretty fast in Houston.
Also, I was surprised that the customs officer at Calgary spoke in a bit of Spanish. So we had no problem explaining our trip.
We got our stamps and good to go!

Finding the new plane wasn't that hard, unfortunately it was a lot of walk.
It was the LAST gate in the terminal. almost completely opposite from where we disembarked lol.

Then we finally arrived to Vancouver!

Since it was almost empty due of being one of the last flights... We decided to take the METRO.
I honestly had a lot of trouble figuring out how to buy the tickets there. They really have no much explanation other than colors and areas.
Finally a gentlemen explained how to use them (cue my broken english) and when we were inside.. We were surprised that they didn't check if you had purchased or not??
What a difference in culture and education! ( In Mexico there is always a guard in every entrance of the Metro, to ensure you pay and use your ticket)

Anyway, when we were waiting for the Metro, we found a pair of Mexicans who were travelling too. They kindly told us which metro train to take and which one. We were lucky as the next one went exactly where we needed to go ( Canada Place).

So once arrived, we had to walk a total of 2 blocks to get to our hotel: THE PAN PACIFIC HOTEL

It was.. of course.. VERY LATE. We were exhausted for the long trip and carrying (specially me) the bags.

And first problem of the day!!!

After checking in and getting our stuff. We go to our room and we found that.. The hotel was OVERSOLD and that the room that I had reserved and prepaid 8 months ago. Was occupied by some clients who stayed more than they should have.
So they gave us the only free room left. A single king.
I had to order a rollaway bed and complained about that. I was really ed.. 8 months in advance and they still didn't get the room I wanted?? unbelievable.

The worst part is that the guy lied, claiming it was my reservation company that incorrectly reserved the king instead of the doubles.
On the next day when asking for the switch very early.. We seen another group who had the same issue as us, except they were 3 persons and they had to share a single king.
(later when I complained in tripadvisor, the administrator knowledged that the hotel was at 100% capacity and some guests decided to stay longer than they had reserved)

View of our Hotel Room (floor 14 HARBOUR VIEW)

Anyway.. they insisted in the next day they could compensate of that and gave us the correct room.

They even moved our stuff(bags) while we were out in Victoria.. but that's for the next part of our trip...

(Continuing in next post..)

 

[Cesar R M]

another update done!

 

[MinnieM123]

I'm really enjoying your trip report. Paradise is the word that kept coming to mind, when I looked at all the lovely pictures from Victoria. Your commentary has also been very interesting (you've certainly had a mixture of experiences, both high and low). I'm looking forward to more updates and pictures, when you have time.

 

[Cesar R M]

aaand yet another update! I will now post the rest consecutively on different pages to prevent flooding with images and videos.

 

[Cesar R M]

The Sail Away party in the Wonder seems like they introduced their hosts (Cruise Director and assistants as well as the main entertainment crew and finally The Captain).

It was mostly Hosts dancing, DJ music nonstop, a few minutes of talk and then one song character dance.
After the characters, the show is over and kids can dance in the dance floor.

note the Norwegian Sun was also in the back having their own party (lol).


There weren't many kids in the ship ( as you see in this video):



Then a mini horn battle started when the ship finally started to move.
The Norwegian Sun departed first, The Wonder quickly behind her (they even sailed in parallel for a few hours before the Wonder set the turbo and surpassed the Norwegian Sun).

The day was perfect, cloudy but no rain. Minimal wind.

Heres a view of the Bay (as we were departing ) from our stateroom.

Good bye for now Vancouver!

We were cruising and ready to go below the Bridge!

The Norwegian Sun infront of the Wonder.​

Heres the video of the "under bridge" pass.

After a few hours, it was time for our Palo reservation.

The food was Really good!!

I loved the collection of cheese, meats..etc..

My mother had a salad, I had the Sicilian Pesto Marinated Grilled Shrimp and the Fried Calamari :9
Then I dont remember if I had the Rissotto di Mare or the Lobster and Mascarpone Ravioli.

Then I had the classic Oregano and Parmesan Crusted rack of lamb. Definitively delicious!

Also ended the dinner with the recommended Chocolate Soufflé. My mother had the Amaretto Indulgence.
We shared, definitively would go to Palo again!

Yep, it was THAT AWESOME!​

After the food, we were exhausted, so we decided to crash on our stateroom. Where our host had already set up everything with our next day for THE GOLDEN MICKEYS!


We were on our way to Tracy's Arm!

 

[Cesar R M]

Day at Sea 1 - The Golden Mickeys

Dear god, First day at sea.. the night was sort of rough.. my mother's medicine for anti-nausea actually made me feel worse and I woke up completely dizzy.
The rocking of the ship at night did not help me. My mother in the other hand, sleeped like a stone (no surprised as she had the main bed for herself lol)

Also noticed that finally, the Norwegian Sun was gone, (it had followed the Wonder most of the night, but the Wonder was faster)

The ship was still rocking all the morning but slowly recede, as we got inside the passageways between big islands off the coast of Alaska.

Thanks to the time difference too, We woke up again very early at 6:30 am or so, I couldn't sleep any more, so I just looked outside.
Then decided to shower immediately and get ready to start visiting the ship.

The entire Atrium was full of people waiting to meet their favourite princesses.
I must say that compared to the WDW princesses, the DCL Disney Wonder's ladies were stunning. Particularly the girl who did Ariel.

The interesting part is, again.. most of the people meeting the Princesses were adults.
Some were VERY old (I seen a lot between 60 to 80years old) and loved to have conversation with the ladies.


Funny thing that on the first 3 days, I had really no interest (and no time) to eat at the Beach blanket buffet (yet).
We ended eating stuff from the quick service offers on top (or in the morning at Parrot Cay's buffet). The pizza was particularly good.
My mother enjoyed the Goofy's Galley's sandwiches and wraps.

There was not much for us to do, as most of the entertainment had interaction or required a lot of fluid english to do. So we usually just roamed around the ship to know it.

The views outside, were gorgeous thanks to the sun position.
Gigantic Trees with seas, plus a yatch or two.. made the whole thing perfect for photos.

1 medium sized Yatch and 1 Big Yatch in a bay.​

Its one of these days where you are glad you bought all your camera lenses.

Also, the climate was perfect. Not so hot, not so cold with minimum wind.

Deck 3 looked gorgeous with this sun!

Honestly, there was not much to say on this day other than the breathtaking days and the awesome food.
The good thing was The Golden Mickeys show, which we really looked forward to.

As I said, We used most of the day to go back and fort between areas, to learn about the ship, all the ways to move around.
I always like to explore.. funnily, I never got to see the front area that has the big anchor area. dumb me!

After a few hours of recovering from the dizzyness, I was finally all ok!

Then, it was almost time for the Golden Mickeys, Which means we got to get our Formal photos with the crew.
Most of the officers were present in the atrium. It was kinda interesting to see how popular the Cruise director was compared to the Captain.

The whole place looked awesome with the red carpet and the Golden Mickeys banners.

Still, 1 hour to go until the show. We decided to watch more of the gorgeous view from Deck 3 (very close to the main theater)

Then we're good to go!

The show was definitively really good! (not my favourite which will be explained later).

Apart from the cute little islands filled with trees and some ligthouses. Found something interesting.

If you see in the next photo, there are some huge ships in the background, with gigantic structures. Almost looks like a factory.

I wondered if its something related to logging or mining. They had what appared like box concrete structures along the entire beach.

The factory building was very very long and had towers that moved into the sea (to move the cargo for sure)

After the show, it was time for Food!

Our formal night was at Triton's

Horrible cameraman job lol!​

It was the only and rare time when we were seated by more people. (the rest of the dinners, we were by ourselves).

And also meet our Servers: Andre from Jamaica and Claudia from Perú.
Thanks god Claudia could translate everything as André did not speak spanish and dinner rooms were too noisy for me to understand well.

Anyway, I got the Cheese Ravioli, skipped the soup and salads, and asked for a the Jumbo Shrimp as main course.

My mother in the other hand, had the oven roasted duckling and a salad, She unfortunately did not like the duck, but ordered the swordfish steak which she loved.

Food pics from the internet as I do not like to take photo of the dishes we eat. Might do it in the future heh.

Oven Roasted Duckling:
http://www.wades4ever.com/uploads/2/4/2/9/242946/375629880.jpg?328

Jumbo Shrimp:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney Cruise 2009/271.jpg


I ended with the Cheesecake and my mother with the chocolate award. Both were of course.. delicious!

Golden Mickey's Sweet Temptations:
http://fourweeksphotography.smugmug.com/Vacation/Disney-Wonder-Alaska-2014/July-15-Day-at-Sea/i-Srk3M2Q/0/L/Alaska Formal Night-5960-L.jpg

I think we got spoiled so bad at Palo that we didnt enjoyed this dinner that much lol!

At Triton's ​

After a first taste of Broadway like shows in the Wonder, and delicious food.. It was time for bed!
I thankfully was all recovered, no dizzyness or anything bad. So good for bed now!

Next day, it was Tracy's arm!
Also.. the magic show of Magic Dave.

 

[meyeet]

I noticed this weird plan... I wonder if anyone can identify it. It was pale white, like a mushroom infested flower plant.
I had never seen these before in my whole life.

The ghostly plant​

The flower that you were asking about is called Lamb's Ear. They have soft silvery leaves and spikes of small purple flowers. The one you have pictured looks like it was dieing out for the season. http://gardening.about.com/od/plantprofile1/p/LambsEars.htm

 

[Cesar R M]

The flower that you were asking about is called Lamb's Ear. They have soft silvery leaves and spikes of small purple flowers. The one you have pictured looks like it was dieing out for the season. http://gardening.about.com/od/plantprofile1/p/LambsEars.htm

wow, you're very correct!.

I googled and found these:

http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/common/files/catalogue/216/main_Lambs_ears_0119_LR_June11.jpg

definitively looks like it is.

 

[SharonD]

Beautiful photos of Alaska. Palo can spoil you.

You and your mother have lovely smiles

 

[mrdrift]

Loving the report, the pictures and videos are fantastic. Following along.

 

[Cesar R M]

Tracy Arm Day! Prepare for a ridiculous amount of photos!


Thanks to the Hour change at night, I got up even earlier (6:00am).
I was freezing in the sofa couch. I knew it was time to start getting DOUBLE layers of clothing and thermal clothing from now on.

Getting in the shower was a pain, as everything was freezing.. including the toilet seat
It was very muddy day, clouds with very low overcast. Very dense clouds forming a wall not higher than 500meters high (or lower).
Hiding most of the mountains but letting us have a perfect view of the Sea as we approached the Tracy's Arm segment.

It was a gorgeous day for some inspirational photos, thats for sure!

After the few photos, I decided to go to Beach Blanket for the first time, We got the usual fruits, scrambled eggs, sausage..etc..

The sun broke the lines of clouds a few times, creating gorgeous views as we were surrounded by tall mountains on both sides.
The crew was also preparing the area for the BBQ at Tracy's Arm.

I took a few shots more from the back of the Beach Blanket uncovered area and proceed to return to wash my mouth.
Then I headed upstairs for a few hours to Deck 10 to see and take a few photos.
Ate a few pizza slices too


It was definitively cold, but not that bad for now.
I cursed for not having bough gloves, thats for sure.

I love taking photos of small islands and rivers/waterfalls, so expect a bunch of photos of that!

Most of my photos were using a simple Nikon D5100 and one of my 3 lenses ( Tokina 11-16mm, Nikkor 18-50mm and Nikkor 50-300mm)

It was also interesting to see that many of the islands had either tiny lighthouses, buoys or these red warnings.
Theres islands everywhere!
(click on the image for a zoom)
The sense of depth and size is really very funny to note.
In the top photo, you can see there is a small 4 deck yatch near the left islands, and people in the beach on the right of said island.
The trees were GIGANTIC!
Id say many of these trees were as big or taller than the WONDER!

The Mountains also gradually got taller and more step.

Wide shot with my Tokina​

The best part is, we started to see some gorgeously blue iceberg chunks!

They were pretty big!
Id say this chunk was 1/3 of the length of the Wonder. (photo taken at around 250mm-300mm range with my 50-300mm lens)

We also decided to see the naturalist's panel, That explained most of the glacier, the animals we could see..etc..
It lasted around 2 hours.
It was still very sad to see such huge difference in the Glaciers in only 10 years. They have receded so much!


After getting information on what to expect, we returned to our stateroom to get better clothes and we separated. My mother headed to Deck 9 (It was getting very cold! Id say it was almost 5-3 degrees in Celsius) and I went to Deck 10 armed with 2 lenses.

I was of course, "mostly" prepared for the cold ( still was missing my gloves . I had thermal underwear, thigh clothing and very hot coat with fluffy collar. Also a coonskin hat with tail.
I swear I looked awfully like a Russian ( I didn't shave that day lol)

The weather continued to be colder and there were more clouds. This time the clouds covered the sun completely.

Anyway, I was right outside Palo's Deck 10 door in the outer zone, taking photos.
Then...I suddenly felt someone was pulling my raccoon tail from my hat from behind, this while I was by the railing.

I turn around and it was Mimmie in her Alaska suit!!! it was so fun!

She pointed constantly to my raccoon tail hat!, so funny!. I gave her a big hug and then asked for a photo.

A CM kindly took the photo and thanked Mimmie.

I envy her suit, looks really hot and confy! me in the other hand.. my hands started to get really cold!


Mimmie then started to move to meet more people and kids.

Mimmie definitively was popular for photos, Soon she had a group of people following her as she made stops for photos!

As we advanced, We started to see more gigantic ice chunks. They were definitively glorious to see!

Just look how low the clouds are!

Another thing that took my attention is. There were tons of waterfalls coming from the tall mountains!
It was beautiful!

I was trying my best to go back and fort from port to starboard and take pictures of both sides.
Also had to switch from lenses constantly. worth the effort as there was too much to see!

More wide shots:

Rivers and waterfalls from top of the Mountain, also lots of low clouds!

closeup of a waterfall:

Mountains started to get more steep and abruptly inclination, instead of soft mountain with hills and soft lows, it was towering Mountains with hardly much slope or gradual inclinations.

Note the waterfall on the bottom right.

Also, the commemorative photo!

Waterfalls, Waterfalls everywhere!

Some waterfalls moved a lot of water!


Others were tiny but with very abrupt falls.

Others flopped flat in the last parts.

Video of the Waterfall:

 

[mrdrift]

Beautiful pictures, thanks for sharing them with us. Following along.

 

[Cesar R M]

Continuing on...

We were slowly getting close to the Glacier.
At this moment I was completely freezing, my Hands were numb and pretty white.. It was VERY COLD .
Infact, Its the coldest I've experienced in my whole life!

It didn't help that there was wind and I constantly had to get my hands out of my pockets to take photos.
BRRRR!

Tons of very picturesque views. The constant shift of the fog, low clouds and high clouds, made very each photo very different as time moved on.

There were valleys with some pockets of snow too. Also big rivers.

It was very cool to see the wonder approaching the mountain walls so much.
Sometimes felt like the distance between the shore and the wonder were less than 50 meters. Kudos to the captain as he had to make some very strong turns, yet graciously dodge the wall borders and rocks.

Valleys!!

Note the snow pocked on the right lower wall.

More loud waterfalls!

And impressive towering walls that stopped suddenly and made way to the Water.

The front of the ship was packed with people. They were serving hot soup ( I think pumpkin ) and coffee.
They were clever too, Because crew members were selling Vodka and similar strong drinks as well.


How about sum rivers?

and more gorgeous valleys! note the big ice chunk on the bottom left:

Very close to the Glacier now!
Ice chunks everywhere!

Look at that gorgeous blue!

ready for one gigantic picture?

check this Sawyer Panorama from Deck 3 of The wonder!

Funfact, every black dot in the front of the glacier.. ARE SEALS!!
big fat seals!!

Proof!:
Just dots right?

nope.. seals buddy!

lots of them!

Wideshot from Deck 3

Note the BLACK ICE floating right in the middle of this pic, More of these later.



and one of my best panoramas ever..
Total composite photos: 15. revealing the Full detail on the Sawyer Glacier:

MOAR seals!:

Dozens of them!

 

[Cesar R M]

The infamous "Black iceberg"

This icechunk was pitch blank in some areas. very intersting to see.. but also scary.
It floated and hit the directional propellers of the wonder (aka bow thrusters) when the Wonder was manoeuvring side to side to let the visitors view the glacier from the ship.

It clearly had rocks, dirt and what looked like... ash.


It was also pretty big, id say it was 9 meters long x 2 meters sideways, and who knows how deep it was.

Harbor seals chilling on both sides.

There were big chunks of ice floating on each side as well.
This one was interesting, As most of the top areas melted or broke apart, but the part below the water was like a solid raft.

The clouds also cleared a bit, letting me take some zoomed photos of the snowy mountains behind the glacier.

Some closeup and cropped picture of the closest harbor seals.
Kinda hard because the ice was moving, the wonder was moving and THEY were moving and flopping around.

Wideshot from Deck 3, This time from starboard.

And of course, the glorious shot with yours truly.

Note about this picture, the daughter of the man on the left. took this photo. She had the same camera as me and got a nice shot!.
Also note that right behind me, on the right... There is the black ice!

Thats it!

So the ship started to rotate again, so I decided to go up to Deck 10 to continue shooting.
I just got there, opened the door of the middle funnel elevator zone and then I seen a small line of people going into the door on the right of me (port side of the ship). And then instantly felt someone was pushing my coonskin's hat's tail again, I turn around... it was Goofy!

I got then in line and got my photo taken. Goofy was very playful and loving my Hat!
The photographer also went nuts and took a lot of photos!

So good!


I thanked the CM and Goofy and went my way to take more photos of the front.

The Wonder then started to rotate one last time. It definitively was time to return!
We slowly started to leave the Glacier Area!

After this photo was taken, I decided to go back a bit around the Funnelvision middle funnel on Deck 10 to take more photos.
Then I noticed a small group moving with rythm.
It was Mickey! He had just left the Palo's door and was coming my way.
The interesting part was: Mickey and his helper CM were definitively not static! they were walking everywhere on each side of the ship. I followed them for around 10-30 seconds to get my picture taken! ( I ended being this picture taken on the port side, the inverted of last photo)

This Mickey was very active!, dancing, pointing. Way more interactive and happy looking than the others!
props for the CM!

We finally left the Glacier area and we started to move backup.
The clouds had moved higher (still covering most of the mountain)
Letting me take a lot of photos!

Bonus Video: Dancing Mickey!


I of course decided to head to my stateroom as my hands were almost completely frozen.
But could not stop taking photos! so nice sceneries and waterfalls!

View from Stateroom 7620


As you will notice, I love to take photos of waterfalls... So expect a lot of them!

Waterfall Compilation:

 

[Cesar R M]

More photos as we were leaving Tracy's Arm:

There were some areas with pure bare rock and rarely any plant. I suspect the snow constantly wipes the area in Winter.

fun game, find the only little pine tree in this whole photo!

Dual waterfalls!

Close up!

This one was one of the most beautiful ones. So many contrasts!

closeup!

Ice melting as water moved

creating interesting ice "caves"

Pines and other big trees peeking from the clouds

One of my favorite pictures:

As featured in my top video.. This river moved tons of water! it was pretty far away and I could hear the roaring!

 

[Cesar R M]

"Icebergs" in the other side of the area.

Super Wide composite Panorama:

Love these tiny islands!

Every white spot in the rocks area in the middle, is a bird!

And that's it for photos!

After taking a big amount of photos. Decided to relax a bit in our stateroom, where my mother and I got a nap.

After the small power nap, We got prepared and went to see the Magic Dave's show.
The show itself was very simple (in magic levels) but VERY VERY FUNNY.
The show encouraged interaction with kids and their parents. My mother and I we were laughing a lot on the whole thing.

After the show, we were ready for our dinner!

Again we were seated at Triton's, this time alone by ourselves in our special little space for only us.

Our Staff were already learning our quirks by quickly giving our drinks quickly.

I got the Chilled Jumbo Shrimp, the Chef Louis French Onion Soup and then the Slowly Braised Lamb Shank.

My mother got the Prine Eric's Escargot Gratinée (she shared and I loved it! so soft!), the Market Green Salad, and the Crispy Roasted Duck Breast (which she changed to the Three Cheese Lobster Macaroni when she did not like the duck)


We ended our dinner by getting the Chocolate Mousse (shared).

Food shots:

Chilled Shrimp:
French Soup
Escargot Gratinée:
Tree Cheese Lobster Macaroni
Crispy Roasted Duck Breast
Lamb Shanks:

And with that, We finish the report of Today. Tracy's Arm.
Only one thing that I regretted was. Not going to the BBQ in the back of the ship (by the time the ship arrived to Tracy arm, It was already closed) also, I did not notice that it was unique time to take photos of Koda and Kenai from brother bear!

Next day will be SKAGWAY!

 

[HakunaMatata89]

looks like a lot of fun.

the mountains and especially the glacier pics made me put this on my todo list one day

 

[FlaggNL]

Wow what a great report! Thanks for sharing and such a great pics!!!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

I didn't know you started your report! Yay!

Okay, title cracked me up. I will be back to read!

 

[Cesar R M]

looks like a lot of fun.

the mountains and especially the glacier pics made me put this on my todo list one day

You definitively need to be there.
Photos really do not do justice.
Unlike other places where you only see a few things for a few hours.. There is ALWAYS something to see in the Alaska Cruise

 

[Disneyfalcon]

I'm caught up!! I took notes!
My word that is a long way to travel!

That’s poor show by the Pan Pacific. I’m glad they made it right.

The gardens are beautiful!

I’m so glad the day cleared up for you in Vancouver because the pictures are amazing!

I also love the pictures of the Wonder coming in of course!

Great sailaway spot! Yay!

The Palo heads cracked me up. And yes, Palo absolutely spoils you.

Isn’t Tracy Arm amazing? It was definitely our favorite day too! I love your Sawyer Glacier panorama!

Soooo many seals!

Great report so far!