I have been wanting to take this cruise for YEARS! Literally, years.

I had booked this cruise on more than one occasion and for one reason or the other, we always ended up changing plans. Not this time.

I officially booked this cruise right around a year out, but I had seriously been planning it for about 3 years. Seriously. I had big plans!

Not only were we going to Alaska, but we were also sailing on the Disney Wonder! We had sailed the other 3 Disney ships, but the Wonder was my unicorn. Every time I was close, it would slip away. Not this time.

Disney Cruise Line sails out of Vancouver for their Alaskan cruises and we spent three nights there leading up to our cruise. Blog post coming soon!

I could literally write a book on this trip and probably will before I’m finished BUT for this post, I’m going to focus on cruising the Wonder to Alaska.

I had heard that boarding at the Port of Vancouver could be hectic, but I didn’t really find that to be the case. I did, however, choose a port arrival time of 12:00 because I’m impatient and do not like to stand around waiting. Haha We had zero wait and were on board by 12:30.

Stepping onboard the Disney Wonder was everything that I had dreamed it would be!! I was finally able to get my photo with the Ariel statue in the atrium! My collection is now complete!! It only took 7 years and thousands of dollars!! LOL

Where We Slept!

We booked a whitewall verandah this cruise to save a little money, and I’m not going to lie, I was a little worried that I wasn’t going to enjoy it as much as a regular verandah but it was wonderful! Check out the video of our room https://www.facebook.com/BluePineappleTravel/videos/626477617818471/

I’m often asked if a verandah is “worth it” for Alaska and my answer is, if you can afford it, go for it! If not, go up on deck and grab a blanket and a chair, because the scenery is not to be missed!

What We Ate!

What we didn’t eat would be the better question! Seriously! There is no shortage of dining options on the Disney Wonder. From the buffet to the dining rooms to adult only dining at Palo…..we tried it all!

We hit Cabanas on boarding day for lunch and every day of the cruise for breakfast! Yum! Can’t make up your mind? No reason to! From bacon and eggs to mickey waffles to eggs benedict, Cabanas has something for everyone.

Our lunches usually consisted of grabbing something on the pool deck when we weren’t in port, which was often BBQ chicken pizza for me. It’s SO yummy! Not to say that I didn’t eat my fair share of shawarma and chicken tenders because I absolutely did, but that pizza was my jam!

We enjoyed Palo for both brunch and dinner this cruise. I can’t say enough about Palo! It’s utterly delicious and an absolute bargain at $40 per person. I won’t go into details about our brunch since I’ve blogged about it before https://www.bluepineappletravel.com/news-notes/2019/3/17/to-brunch-or-not-to-brunch but dinner was amazing as usual BUT this one was extra special due to the view. Absolutely stunning!

Dinner in the main dining rooms is a real treat! We had late dining which I thought I was up for, but absolutely was not. LOL If you’re from the East Coast, you definitely want to consider early dining. Nonetheless, the dining rooms are absolutely WONDER-ful!

Disney Cruise Line is a bit unique in its dining room options. Each ship has 3 main dining rooms, each complete with a different theme and menu. The Wonder has Animator’s Palate, Tritions’, and Tiana’s Place.

Animator’s Palate is an incredibly fun dining room that offers many surprises! Enjoy a fusion of Pacific Islands, Asian, and California cuisine. My absolute FAVORITE is the black truffle pasta purseittes. Oh my gosh!

Triton’s is very stately and fairytale like and is home to my favorite menu! French onion soup, chateaubriand filet, and not one but TWO desserts for me! I mean how can you possibly decide between Grand Marnier souffle and crème .brûlée. YUM.

Tiana’s Place is relatively new to the Wonder and was brand new for us. Its theming is from the Princess and the Frog and offers lots of singing and dancing. A very fun and lively dining experience.

Looking for a quick bite? Hit Cove Cafe (adults only) for pastries in the morning and anti-pasta and other goodies throughout the day.

What We Did!

Disney Cruise Line brings naturalist on board to discuss Alaska and the ports that you’ll be visiting. These were informative and very interesting! I highly recommend going if you can.

Want to learn to draw your favorite characters? Go to the animation classes! We attended one on board and had lots of fun. I’m still not an artist but I had a great time!

BINGO! I LOVE playing BINGO on the ships! We hit several BINGO sessions and I actually had a bit of luck.

Like chocolate and liquor? Me too! We’ve experience this tasting before and it was just as informative and delicious as I remembered.

We’ve seen many of the nightly shows but Frozen was new to us and it absolutely did not disappoint! We also watch Aladdin and Dumbo in the on board movie theater.

If you manage to stay up past 10:00 PM (I usually could not) they offer shows in the adult spaces.

My absolute FAVORITE thing to do onboard a Disney Ship…….Hang out with my favorite characters!! When I booked this trip, there were TWO things that I knew I had to do. One, was dog sledding on a glacier (we’ll talk about that in another post) AND meet Mickey Mouse in his Alaskan gear.

What We Saw!

Alaska is hard describe. Breathtaking. Incredible. Spectacular. All those words come to mind when I think back to our trip but none of them come close to describing the sheer beauty that is Alaska.