Disney Wonder Alaska Cruise: Juneau

Date of Visit: July 16, 2011

Our 2nd port of call on our Alaska Disney Cruise was Juneau. We didn't have any plans to do anything other than wander around town, so Mik opted to stay on the ship. We were going to scout out a place to later take him off and do a family photo in Juneau, but it ended up being a great choice for him to skip Juneau entirely.

Juneau is not horrible accessibility wise, but it certainly was the worst of the ports and it is partially because of Mik's hatred for buses. There is on dock right by the edge of downtown, but the other docks are at least a mile bus ride away and ours was the closest of them. They did offer a free shuttle including ones that had lifts, so not a real issue beyond Mik hating bus rides in his chair and not worth the fight with him to just go take a photo.

You can also walk into town on the sidewalk, but note that it is a very hilly area and you deal enough with inclines just going a few blocks around town. Hence, another reason why it wasn't worth trying to convince Mik to get off in Juneau.

Not saying Juneau is not worth it, as Mom and I really enjoyed riding the tram part way up the mountain (it is kind of pricey, though). The tram is accessible except the trails up on the mountain are pretty rugged. However, expect Juneau to be a more intense city to explore with there being not much of interest near the dock and tram other than shops and having to deal with hills and several blocks to get to even the closest attraction besides the tram. Certainly still was very doable for us to do with Mik other than his attitude towards buses and him not being interested in any of the things to do.

Disney Wonder Alaska Cruise: Show Dinner at Animator's Palette

Date of Visit: July 16, 2011

The Show Dinner at the Animator's Palatte is the best dinner on the cruise. You can enjoy the restaurant in black and white during other theme nights you end up in Animator's Palette, but it is the Show Dinner that is the ultimate.

When dinner starts the room is black and white, but as you dine different themed music plays and the related movie scenes around the room are illuminated in color. The scenes change on the ones that are screens.

Around dessert time, the servers all go in the back and turn there vests around to the color pattern. They then all come out with Sorcerer Mickey and parade around the dining room.

Mik enjoyed the Baked Potato and Cheddar Cheese Soup. He especially liked the bacon bits in it. I enjoyed the Creamy Butternut Squash Soup.

For the main course Mik had the Lemon-Thyme Marinated Chicken Breast, which he liked. I had the Stir Fry Veggies, which were kind of bland. The fried noodles were particularly annoying because they were all stuck together. Would be better with regular noodles or rice.

Mik had the Double-Fudge Chocolate Cake, which he thought was really good, for dessert. I had the Animator's Sweet Temptations, which included Strawberry Sable, Cranberry and Orange Cheesecake, and Double-Fudge Chocolate Cake. They were all good, especially the cheesecake.

Disney Wonder Alaska Cruise: Taste of Alaska at Triton's

Date of Visit: July 15, 2011

The second time we ate in Triton's was the Taste of Alaska theme night, which has the same menu served in all dining rotation restaurants. To start the dinner Mik enjoyed the special non-alcoholic cocktail called Lemonaska. He slurped it down quite fast, but he let me have one sip. It was extremely good. It is basically lemonade and vanilla ice cream. Not free like soda with dinner, but a worthwhile treat for one night.

For the appetizer Mik enjoyed the Alaskan King Crab Legs, although they were hard for him to crack and get the meat out of. I enjoyed the cheese and carrot souffle.

For dinner Mik had the pork tenderloins. I thought I would end up having salmon on the Alaska them night, but I could not pass up the Tofu Pot Pie because I have always been wanting a vegetarian pot pie without having to make it myself. It was rather small, but great tasting.

For the dessert we shared the Taste of Alaska Sweet Temptations with a Chocolate Truffle Torte, Poached Pear Hazelnut Cake, and Vanilla Panna Cotta.

Also, that night Mom got a special birthday treat brought out. Her birthday was the night before, but she didn't want to tell them and have them bring it out. She let it slip it had been her birthday and one of our table mates let the server know. It is such a cool little chocolate mousse dessert with Mickey sprinkles and a chocolate piece with Happy Birthday printed on it.

Disney Wonder Alaska Cruise: Walking around Skagway

Date of Visit: July 15, 2011

Skagway was the main port we explored with Mik. Getting into town was a short walk, although there are several sets of train tracks you have to cross over on the way. Some of them are a kind of oddly lined up with the sidewalk, so that if you try to cross them straight on you aren't lined up right with the cutout onto the sidewalk on the other side of the tracks. The Free Wheel came in handy this day, although kind of annoying in the shops since we don't yet have the bracket to put in on back of chair when not using.

Once over the last train tracks you are in town and it is overall was easy to go around, except the Klondike Gold Rush National Park Visitor center not having a cutout way up on one of it's corners. Skagway was also a pretty flat town, especially compared to Juneau.

Getting off in Skagway the gangway was on Deck 4 and was rather steep, but they always had someone that would roll Mik down backwards for us at the ports. When we got back the Gangway had been moved to a lower deck due to the change in tide and it was only a tad steep. The only thing to watch for is that everyone is up into the ship, so you don't end up waiting on the steep gangway while they are checking IDs and going through security. I waited to push Mik up and did not let anyone pass us until I knew we could roll into the ship when we got to top.

Disney Wonder Alaska Cruise: Klondike Gold Rush National Park, Skagway

Date of Visit: July 15, 2011

The Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in Skagway was the one and only thing Mik wanted to see in Alaska. It was not bad, but the museum part in Seattle is much better. However, the movie they show in the main visitor center building by the train station is pretty good.

The Visitor Center is up on a raised platform from the street. You have to go up to it on a ramp from the side by the train tracks or back around halfway down the block on the other side. Not a big deal and they have signs to point out that it is the accessible way to the visitor center. However, it does mean you should cross the street by train tracks to go further into town without having to awkwardly cross mid street where there tends to be regular tour vehicle traffic.

There is not really much to the Visitor Center. There is a room they show a 30 minute movie about the Klondike Gold Rush. The movie was totally worth seeing, but it is not well laid out for wheelchair access. You just end up with the wheelchair next to wherever you sit, which mostly blocks the aisle.

There is also a little museum next to the Visitor Center. This is well laid out with plenty of room to roll around, but there really isn't much in it, especially compared to the part in Seattle. It does have a cool look into a safe where gold was stored, though.

The most interesting part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Park in Skagway in our opinion was the restored Mascot Saloon a couple blocks further into town. This building is set up to look like the original saloon that was on this site. It includes some artifacts found under the floorboards during restoration. This building also has plenty of open space for navigating through no problem and the entrance was propped open, so even easier to get into than the Visitor Center.

Of course, one of the highlights of the visit was stamping our 25th Anniversary National Park Passports, which we are using only for 2011. The Klondike Gold Rush National Park not only had the standard cancellation stamp, but there was also a 25th Passport Anniversary stamp and a special logo design Klondike Gold Rush National Park stamp.

Photos by Kjersti
Text by Kjersti with Mik's wheelchair accessibility input

Destination Info:
Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park
Skagway, AK

Disney Wonder Alaska Cruise: Cruisin' for Trivia and Pirate Trivia

Date of Visit: July 16, 2011

I love the trivia sessions in the Promenade Lounge. I think I went to them all, but I couldn't get Mik to go to all of them. On July 16, he made a deal with me that he would go to them all and skip going into Juneau. One of the sessions was Cruisin' for Trivia. Since it was a port day, very few people showed up to play. The questions were some random stuff and some Disney stuff. It was multiple choice, which also helped. We ended up with 20 out of 25 right and won. Mik was happy to get the keychain for winning, as was I, although I kind of wish we won one of the sessions that gave away the Mickey medal necklaces. The Disney Cruise keychain is nice, but the Mickey medal is really cool.

We did come close to winning later with Pirate trivia, but Mik was listening to his iPod and didn't do a good job of getting my attention when he knew the answer and I guessed wrong on a few he knew. So close to a Mickey medal!!! Oh well, even if we had lost them all, trivia is still great free fun on the cruise.

Disney Wonder Alaska Cruise: Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer? In Studio Sea

Date of Visit: July 14, 2011

Mik and I both enjoyed Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer? on our first Disney cruise, so this was one activity we had really been looking forward to doing again. We didn't get in the hot seat, but that didn't matter as they still give our the same pins as we got before, although I guess if you actually win you get something better. Anyways, it was a lot of fun to quietly guess amongst ourselves in the audience. Of course, it was a lot of Disney trivia we knew and somehow the Disney trivia sessions that everyone plays on teams in we knew fewer answers for.