Day 6: June 16, 2012    

Day 6 was a rainy one. Really we lucked out the whole trip not getting much rain with the skies being overcast for most of the time. 

Our group slit up this day with all the “kids” but me going on a zip line and suspension bridge excursion. They had a blast and said the staff was very friendly and had a lot of fun with them.  One the girls in our group  was a little scared of the zip line but the staff was really nice walking her through it and letting her take her time. They even got metals (made out of metal, not cheap) at the end saying they completed the course. 

As for the parents and me we went on an adventure of our own to find a free totem pole park.  We walked into the information center to find out the best way to get to this park. Just a warning when you walk into the building (the end that the ship ports at) you are bombarded by people trying to sell tours. There is a tour to another totem pole park but this park is not free and is much farther away so it requires a tour bus to get there. If you walk past all of these people you will find a real information booth with a nice person not trying to sell you something. She helped us figure out where to catch the local bus and was very helpful. 

We took the blue line bus all the way to the last stop, this took about 45 minutes. The bus comes by every hour and the bus driver let us know what time to be back at the bus stop by. 

The totem pole park, called Totem Bight State Historical Park, has a welcome / information center with a wonderful lady inside. She talked us through the history of the park and a little information about the clan house and totem poles and the stories they tell. She pointed us to the start of the trail and sent us on our way. 

The total round trip of this trail is about 10 minutes if you take no stops so we were encouraged to walk slow and enjoy the totem poles. 

It was a beautiful area even with the rain falling. There were only a handful of people there because of the rain so it was really peaceful walk.  We were told on a nice day it is much more crowded.

This park started to being restored in 1938 with the use of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) funds to both create jobs during a low economy and also to teach a new generation the art of totem pole making so it doesn’t disappear. 

The poles either restored or duplicated depending on their state. After they were complete they were raised off the ground on metal rods to help prevent the bottoms from rotting in the wet climate. 

The clan house at the park is not an original. They are not sure if a clan house ever existed at this sight used as a fish camp.

On the way back to town we took the blue line bus all the way to Creek Street which is Ketchikan’s old red light district. It was really neat walking around the raised shops over and along the creek.  

After our stop at Creek Street it was already time to head back to the boat. This was a lot shorter port this day, port to call was at 12:30pm. Make sure you take a look at the aft of the ship to see Donald Duck painting the ship. This is the only port that it is visible the whole cruise. 

After meeting up with the rest of our group we headed to our stateroom to change into dry clothes. We then headed up to Triton’s for a sit down lunch. I really wish we had done this more of the days. It was so much better food and a welcome change from the buffet lines! Make sure to get there as soon as you can on this day because a line starts to form with everyone coming back from port at the same time. 

We spent the rest of the day before dinner walking round the boat and relaxing.  Dinner this night was in Triton’s from the Captain’s Gala menu. This is a little dressier of a night but not to the extreme of Golden Mickey’s night. 

The show this night was Disney Wishes. This is our favorite of all the shows! It is with Peter pan and has tons of classic Disney songs and characters in it. “All you need is faith, trust, and pixie dust!”  For the adult show they had comedian Rondell Sheridan who played the part of the father on Disney TV show That’s So Raven. I showed up a little late for this one but what I caught was pretty funny.

After the night time shows we headed up to deck 9 to take a look at the rough seas that we were warned that we were sailing through that night. The boat was pretty rocky and the pool looked like a really fun wave pool! Too bad it was closed.  We had a lot of fun walking back down through the halls to our stateroom because we couldn’t walk straight. That night we got nine foot swells. I slept like a baby being rocked to sleep the whole night but my dad was having a problem keeping himself from rolling out of bed. He said that the swells were going way above of deck 2 stateroom window. I am actually sad that I missed this. 

I can’t remember when exactly we got this (morning cleaning or night turndown) but we received a beautiful art piece for the Alaska-Seattle inaugural sailing (with certificate of authenticity and everything). We were the only ones from our group to get this. I still don’t know why, the only thing I can think is because I had a local Seattle address. If anyone knows please let me know. All I know is I am going to frame this and hang it in my house. 

I am going to leave you like always with our towel animal of the night, a cute bunny rabbit. 

Day 5:June 15, 2012   

Yet another early morning on day five, with a 6:15am port. We ended up leaving the boat around 8:30am after having breakfast at Beach Blanket. 

Like Skagway, the port in Juneau was also within walking distance of the downtown area. They also had the option of a shuttle if you were not up to the short walk. 

We did not book any excursion on this day so we walked over to the tour sales booths. Some of these guys were very pushy and it was a little weird having them all yell out for our business. One good thing about having so many people trying to get your business is that you can barter for a better rate.  We ended up getting a private tour bus to the Mendenhall glacier for $20 a person. 

One big regret we (especial my mom) had for this day is not going on a whale tour. We overhead so many people talk about all of the whales they saw that night back on the boat.

Once we were dropped off at the glacier we were given 1 hour to explore the area.  We walked down to the outlook area and took some pictures. 

With 40 minutes left all the “kids” decided to take the estimated 45 minute trail walk up to the water fall and closer to the glacier. We sped walked the whole way and had plenty of time to spare to enjoy the water fall and glacier from that view point.  

The parents stayed behind and explored some of the trails near the lake and stream. 

The tour also included a stop at an outlook to the downtown Juneau area. 

After getting back into town we had some time left to walk around the town. We stopped at Red Dog Salon to check out the inside. Then I headed over to Silverbow to get a snicker doodle cookie because I had heard from a coworker that grew up in Juneau that they were the best. After finding the place they were sold out of snicker doodle cookies, so I walked away still craving dessert. 

This was a very short stay with a port to call at 12:15. After a short walk along the water front we headed back to the boat for lunch.

It was a wonderful view sitting outside at Beach Blanket. There were actually eagles flying around over the boat when we were eating.  

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing around the boat before getting ready for pirate night! Pirate night was created on the Disney Cruise Line after the move Pirates of the Caribbean came out. Normally on this night there is a pirate deck party and fireworks but because of the cold weather and noise pollution laws in Alaska they are not able to do the fireworks and they moved the party inside.  Guests have the option of dressing up like a pirate for this party and for dinner this night. 

I decided to use a silhouette machine and iron-on material to make shirts from an image I found online. They turned out really cute. I will have more on how I made the shirts in a later post. I was just really excited that we had people coming up to us and asking were we bought them from because they wanted some for their family. 

Before and after dinner they had photographers out like normal with pirate themed backdrops and characters out. Over by the theater Captain Jack Sparrow was taking pictures. He has a very long line so if you plan on meeting him go up early! 

Dinner for us this night was in parrot cay, I know perfectly themed, I don’t know how we lucked out. They were serving off the Alaska menu. 

One fun thing is they let you order more then one meal if you really want to try something but are not quite sure about it. Katie and I did this this night. We ordered our normal meal and then order the Elk to split. The elk dish was amazing! I wish I had ordered it myself so I didn't have to share. 

During dinner the waiters hand out pirate mickey bandanas to everyone. This helps everyone join in on the pirate fun even if they didn’t plan on it. 

After dinner this night we went to the live stage show of Toy Story. This is a unique show to Disney Wonder, no other Disney cruise line ship has this one. It was very well done like all of their shows. 

Right after the show we headed out to the atrium to get good standing spots for the pirate show that takes place on the main staircase in front of Tritons. This show is full of different songs and dances that the audience is encouraged to join in on. Some of the dances they do were taught to us at the sail away party. It was a little hard to dance because there were so many people standing around that were not dancing.  We made the best of it and had a lot of fun.

After the show they have a pirate late night buffet up in beach blanket (closes at around midnight). Not that anyone is really hungry but you have to go to get a big turkey leg like they have at Disney World. Nothing ends a pirate night like a big slab of meat. 

This night was my favorite towel creature, a monkey!