Cruising Alaska with Disney Cruise Line: A First-Timer's Guide

Table Of Content

• How Food Works Onboard Disney Cruise to Alaska
• Amtrak Cascade Train from Seattle to Vancouver
• Are Disney Port Adventures Included in Your Disney Cruise Cost?
• Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park Visitor Center
• Rainforest Sanctuary and Totem Park Disney Excursion $149
• Alaskan Glacier Viewing Day Disney Cruise At Sea Day 3
• Choosing Your Disney Cruise Line Alaskan Excursions

As the most offered Disney Alaska Cruise sailing, the 7-Night Itinerary on the Disney Wonder brings you to Alaska’s Inner Passage, and along the Alaskan Coastline. If you’re looking for Alaska cruise tips, here is everything we did on our Disney Alaska Cruise that may help you in planning yours. It’s fun to wear red-and-black plaid in Ketchikan, especially if you’re planning to see the lumberjack show there, and it’s also fun to bring Disney-themed door decorations—check Pinterest and Etsy for ideas. The only restaurant with an upcharge is Palo, the adults-only Italian eatery atop the ship. The cuisine there is a step up, and the service is top-notch, too.

How Food Works Onboard Disney Cruise to Alaska

On our cruise, they also wore them the day we were in Skagway. In fact, as we sailed away from port, we ran into Mickey out on Deck 4 — with no line — waving goodbye to land with the rest of us. If you're looking for an adult version that will warm you to the bones, keep an eye out for bar carts out on deck during glacier viewing. You get a cool Alaska-themed reusable cup with the price of your drink. For example, by booking directly, we paid much less for the silly but fun Disney-branded lumberjack show right next to the ship in Ketchikan.

Disney Alaska cruise: 10 things to know before sailing north - The Points Guy

Disney Alaska cruise: 10 things to know before sailing north.

Posted: Mon, 10 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Amtrak Cascade Train from Seattle to Vancouver

If you need a book downloaded for your Kindle or podcast downloaded for the gym, do everything you can to download these before leaving for your trip. After our long morning on the boat we got back on the bus and headed to the Mendenhall Glacier. All along the ride we had very fun narration from our bus driver who shared a look into what it is like living in Alaska.

Are Disney Port Adventures Included in Your Disney Cruise Cost?

Be sure to stop off at the Juneau Visitors Center for a port map, and to ask questions. A bonus of taking the Amtrak Cascades Train from Seattle to Vancouver is that the Customs officer simply checks each passport while guests are on the train. About a 4-hour ride from Seattle to Vancouver’s Pacific Central Station, the train offers nice seating, ample overhead baggage storage, a baggage car, and a small cafe offering packaged snacks and coffee. The views from the train are worth the trip and great if you’re looking for a leisurely start to your vacation. After our railway tour we still had a chance to walk around the town. We stopped at a Christmas shop and enjoyed chatting with the owners who turned out to spend winter in San Diego, California.

Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park Visitor Center

Sometimes there's live music, cozy fires to warm up by and free talks from staffers to learn about the totem polls, wildlife and other aspects of the park. An easy excursion to do, even if you have just a few hours in Vancouver, is the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. Free shuttles leave from multiple downtown spots to the park, including from near the port itself, and it's a fabulous way to spend a few hours on land, or rather, in the trees. Glacier day isn't the only time Mickey and his friends wear these adorable outfits.

Rainforest Sanctuary and Totem Park Disney Excursion $149

Booking direct also lets you take advantage of discounts, such as lower rates for veterans or active military. The show takes place a few steps from the dock, so there's no risk of not returning to the ship on time. With other, shorter excursions, it can make a lot of sense (and save a lot of dollars) to book on your own directly with a tour operator. Don't sail all the way to Alaska and just walk around the shops near the pier in cities like Juneau and Skagway, especially if this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip. The "glacier day" on the ship can be confusing if you haven't done it before and don't know what to expect.

Full collections of Harry Potter and Studio Ghibli merch sit happily next to Italo Calvino, Kafka, and Agatha Christie. The most amazing bookstore to browse if you’re looking for a unique book gift or a special edition of a classic. Accessible by FREE shuttle from Canada Place every 15 minutes, you can grab a short ride over to the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. Featuring a Forest Walk that takes you over a series of suspension bridges, a deck walk that sits high above the small creek below, plus Kid’s Activities, and trails throughout, this one is not for the faint of heart.

Choosing Your Disney Cruise Line Alaskan Excursions

I made a quick stop for a last minute electronics need at an Apple Store and then it was time to get onboard the Disney Wonder for our cruise. I definitely recommend arriving to Vancouver at least one day before your Disney Cruise. Our flight arrived around 3 pm into Vancouver which gave us some time to enjoy the city before leaving to check in with Disney for our cruise the next morning. You'll also want to arrive the night before so that you aren't anxious about any flight delay that might cause you to miss the departure. The city feels far larger than it's official population (650,000 people) with innovative architecture and stunning views that blend the ocean, mountains, and city to one. In Vancouver, the spirit of adventure only grows as you lean into your anticipation for your Disney Cruise to Alaska – “the final frontier”.

Freezing the Night Away Disney Cruise Deck Party

Definitely, not enough time to check out the mill, all the totems, story plaques, or the general store. We saw several guests grab beverages, and snacks so a little food counter was also available and it would have been nice to spend more time here. Only 12 miles from the cruise port, if Mendenhall Glacier isn’t included in a tour you’ve booked, it’s easiest and cheapest to just take a taxi there. You can get up close and personal with Nugget Falls, the Mendenhall Glacier, and the trails and beaches they occupy. We did get a glimpse of the Mendenhall Glacier from our Whales excursion, but not as close as if we would’ve just gone separately.

Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, and Royal Caribbean all offer roundtrip Alaska cruises that sail from Seattle, Washington. Disney Cruise Line offers 5-night, 7-night, 8-night, and 9-night Alaskan cruises from Vancouver. As such all Disney Alaska cruises start and end in the city of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. We hand-pick everything we recommend and select items through testing and reviews. Some products are sent to us free of charge with no incentive to offer a favorable review. We offer our unbiased opinions and do not accept compensation to review products.

When we landed, it was on the 650-foot-deep Meade Glacier, but it may as well have been another planet. Confident, reassuring guides were there to explain what we were seeing—and to stop us from walking into danger—as we took in the surreal scenery before flying back to the Disney Wonder. The word “awesome” is egregiously overused, but this was awesome. There’s plenty of enthusiastic audience participation, and Goofy makes an appearance.

Essentially, the ship will sail as close as it safely can (both for the ship and wildlife) to one of a few glaciers. For example, it's common on sailings to head to the Stikine Icefields, though weather and conditions do play into exactly where you may go on a given voyage. Rochelle Mariah is a writer, designer and photographer with an MLIS in Information Science and a B.S.

A great place to grab a souvenir, this was a nice one-stop shop for us to get a feeling of Ketchikan. Disney Cruise Line does not depart from Seattle, as they depart from Vancouver, Canada. However, there are other Cruises to Alaska that depart from Seattle.

There is also an option to filter by activity type – filtering by movie for instance. This schedule that you create will then cause the app to send you push notifications. The “Add Plans” button in the app doesn't work as expected and just suggests paid activities to you. Make sure to click the “Explore” section for details on everything happening onboard.

One of the highlights on the onboard programming was the educational nature presentations. All of the adults in our group attended all three of the talks given by the naturalist that was onboard. His three presentations were on the fjords and waterways, whales and water ways, and Alaskan bears and salmon. Each of the presentations was educational and added to our excursion experience by providing context on our trip on land.

This tour is offered by Kawanti Adventures in Ketchikan, Alaska. Spanning about 3 hours this was a fairly decent deal for $149 if you wanted to get an inside look at the forests and learn about the birds and totems. However, there were definitely elements of this tour we would have changed if we had the option or had gone on our own. Included in this tour excursion are the Tongass National Rainforest Walk, The Raptor Sanctuary, and the Totem Park.