Attack of the Cobra Chickens...Our Alaskan Adventure September 16-23, 2024

[Kari0180]

The sail-a-wave party was the same as we had seen on our last cruise, but I still love it. I always get a little teary when the horn blows and we start sailing.

The best part of this sail-a-wave was the scenery, we had the most beautiful sights around us. Sailing under the Lion's Gate bridge was something else

This lighthouse was so cute. It was perfectly nestled in the mountains

We hung out for a bit taking in the landscape, then headed to our room where we found our luggage and started doing some unpacking. After unpacking, we had a little bit of time, so we headed up to the gift shops to see what was available. Now, I had seen other vlogs and read reports about the madness that occurs the first night in the gift shop on the Alaska cruises, but I wasn't prepared for how crazy it would actually be. It felt like the whole ship was in both of the shops. It was mass hysteria for people grabbing Alaska merchandise, as we were the last cruise of the season, some of the dated things were 40% off. A lot of things were already sold out, I really wanted the Minnie Mouse plush, but she was gone already, I was able to at least get Mickey. I managed to grab one of the Alaska ornaments and a couple of other things and got in line, but the line was so long and wasn't really moving. We had our next tasting coming up and I was worried that we were going to be late. A cast member came by, and I asked if there was any way that I could put this on hold and come back later to pay. She was wonderful and asked for my name and put everything on hold for me. I was able to come back after dinner, everything was there, and I was able to pay for everything then. I was very grateful because what I wanted more than anything was the Christmas ornament, there were only 4 of them when I first got in line and sure enough, they were sold out when I came back later.
The tasting I was worried we were running late for...we were headed to Palo for Prima Notte. This was a first for us, it wasn't offered on our last cruise. We thankfully arrived on time, and we were actually the second couple to arrive. We were asked to take a seat and wait for the rest of the group and were handed a glass of sparkling wine

This was the Bellavista Alma Gran Cuvee Brut, it was a little too dry for me, but still enjoyed it. Once the remainder of our group arrived, we were escorted back to the private dining room. We'd never been in this room before (except for tours with Art of the Theme), we took our seats, and our sommelier came out to explain how things would work. We were quickly presented with our first bite


This was yellowfin tuna served with Jermann Vintage Tunina. What can I say? This was so good, and the wine paired perfectly with the tuna. I loved the apple and the little cookie, it was perfect!

Up next was probably my favorite plate

This was the most perfect little gnocchi served with pesto, and it was served with a nice chianti

Close up, why do we only get one bite? I behaved, but I really wanted to lick this bowl clean. I'm also not a fan of Chianti, but this one was really good. On to our third bite

This is where I pretty much stopped taking notes and just enjoyed what I was eating and drinking. This was Waygu with broccolini and it was served with another red wine. This was another hit. For our final course

This was a chocolate pillow, and it was served with the most perfect dessert wine. I love chocolate so this pillow was so good, but the star was the wine. It was a Ben Rye and it tasted like honey. We found that this wine is sold at Total Wine, DH actually tried to pick up a bottle today, but the location he went to was sold out 

Our thoughts on Primo Notte, this was an amazing experience, the only thing I wished is that there was more food. We knew going into this that it was just small bites, but those bites were so amazing (especially that gnocchi) I just wished there were more. We loved the small group and that we were in Palo's private dining room. Spoiler, this was my favorite tasting on the cruise, I was lucky enough to get this for us on the Treasure and I can't wait to do it again. We paid our bill and noticed it was time for dinner, so we headed down to our first restaurant, Animator's Palate.

Up Next: Dinner time

 

[Kari0180]

Primo Notte at Palo finished up just in time for us to head to dinner. Our first restaurant of the trip was Animator's Palate. We got in line to be seated and were soon seated at our table. Turns out we had a table to ourselves this trip, no tablemates. DH was really bummed about this, I'm okay either way, but I think he was sad that he was stuck talking only to me. We were quickly introduced to our server Mark and our assistant server
Juni. We were handed menus and placed our drink orders and soon after our food started rolling out.

Had to start off with a piece of focaccia bread, this is my favorite bread served, had it with a little bit of butter and it was so good! Then, on to our appetizers

In my opinion, the best part of the Animator's menu is the lovely black truffle past purseittes. I love these and the serving size is perfect. Once again, these were so good!

DH went with smoked salmon tartar. I've had this one before and it's pretty good, but not as good as those purseittes!

We both went with the baked potato and cheddar cheese soup next. This soup has a little bit of an odd texture, but I still love the flavors.

We both had the ginger-teriyaki dusted angus beef tenderloin. My steak was cooked to a perfect medium rare, DH's was a little more on the medium side, but he was okay with that. I ate my steak and my carrots, but left the potatoes (wasabi, yuck) and bok choy behind. Last, but not least, it was dessert time

I got the warm sticky date pudding. I had this previously and wasn't a fan, but the butterscotch sauce was really calling my name, so I decided to try it again. And let me say I was so glad that I did, this was so good! I loved how the butterscotch complimented both the pudding and the vanilla ice cream. I could've eaten 2 of these and now have a new favorite dessert.

DH went with the chocolate fudge cheesecake; this is what I've usually gotten and was once again very happy that I changed my mind. This was pretty sad; the cheesecake really had no flavor, and the brownie was really dry. We each ate a bite and moved it aside.

DH's birthday was the month before, so I put it down as a celebration on our reservation, so they also brought him the birthday cake. This was good, much better than the cheesecake. I loved the show tonight, I love watching the animation come to life and the clips from the movies. The best part is where Sorcerer Mickey comes out at the very end and parades around the dining room. I'll be honest, I'm not a huge fan of the Animator's Palate menus, but I love the entertainment in the restaurant. We left the restaurant and headed over to Azure for our night's entertainment. First up, we played the game Wonderquest, this was kind of a scavenger hunt where points were handed out to teams for bringing things to the host. We played a couple of rounds, but man, people were brutal!! When a woman dressed as sorcerer Mickey almost knocked me over to grab a stuffed animal, I decided to call it good, I didn't spend a fortune on this trip to break a bone. It was all good though, we were plenty entertained watching the others duke it out! After Wonderquest, it was time for the dueling pianos, the sisters playing were incredible, they were so talented. I love the whole dueling piano thing, but DH isn't into it. I managed to get him to stay for a few songs, but then he was asking to go back to the room, and I'll admit I was getting tired too, we had a very long day! We headed to bed to prepare for our first sea day!

 

[Kari0180]

Our vlogs for the day

 

[RysMomma]

Can't wait to read more! My family and I are going in August and we're so excited!

 

[Kari0180]

Day at Sea #1

We had an amazing night of sleep, once we woke up, it was time to shower, get dressed and head up to Cabanas for breakfast. It was raining and really windy, but we didn't think it was too cold outside. Once in Cabanas, we grabbed some food and sat down to eat


Oh, eggs benedict, how I've missed you! The omelet was not very good, but I enjoyed my chocolate chip pancake and everything else on my plate. DH's plate was pretty similar minus the pancake. I was on the hunt for churro waffles, but no such luck this day. From other vlogs, it seemed the churro waffles were served on a different day on every Alaska cruise, there was no pattern. DH wanted to have breakfast in Tritons at least one morning, but I wouldn't let him, even though I eventually got my churro waffles

After breakfast, I grabbed some hot chocolate, and we headed down to the Walt Disney Theater for our first naturalist talk

Lindsey was very informative, and the talk was entertaining. At one point, she put up a map of the United States with Alaska over it, I knew Alaska was huge, but seeing that map, man it's huge! I also didn't realize that the cruise barely goes into Alaska, there's so much more to the state. Lindsey also provided some information on some of the cities we were visiting. One of the interesting facts we learned is that Juneau is only state capital that is inaccessible by road! After the presentation, I headed into the shops again to see if there was anything that I missed or had to have. I decided to buy the Alaska Cruise ears. I know that I will never wear them again, but they were so cute, I had to have them.

Sadly, I think they looked better on DH than on me...While I was in the shop, I looked out port hole and saw either whales or dolphins. Everybody who noticed was pretty excited, I met DH out on the walking deck and we caught a glimpse, but not enough to get any photos. We walked around a little, but then headed back into the Walt Disney Theater for Lindsey's next talk, Coastal and Marine Wildlife. Lindsey talked about the animals we could possibly see during our cruise.


I thought this bear chart was pretty cool, unfortunately, we didn't see any bears on our trip, so I wasn't able to take advantage of it. After the second talk was done, it was time to head down to Crown & Fin to play our first trivia of the day, Muppets Trivia. Both DH and I are Muppet fans and thought that we would do well

We got 13 out of 20, 2 teams got a perfect score and had to have a tiebreaker. Even though we lost, we still had a good time. After trivia, it was time for lunch, so we headed up to Cabanas again

Today was a Mediterranean corner with chicken and paella. We grabbed our food and found a seat

My plate, wasn't a huge fan of any of the chicken options (they were pretty dry), but seriously? What is it about chicken tenders on DCL? They are so good; I eat way more of them then I should every day. Not shown in this report or our vlogs is how many chicken tenders I consumed during this trip. My favorite thing on my plate though was the tomato and orzo pasta on the right side of my plate. This was really good, I wish I would've gone up for seconds because of course, I never saw if offered again. We skipped out on dessert because we decided to grab a cone from Eye Scream.

While it was chilly outside, the sun was shining so we walked around deck 9 for a little bit before we headed back to Cadillac Lounge for our first tasting of the day, Chocolate and Liquor

Our set up for our tasting

As much as I love chocolate and the chocolate is so good, I really think this is my favorite pairing. I love the combination of the Noval Tawny port wine and the parmesan cheese. This is the parmesan cheese that is served up in Palo. This is one of the things I miss about the old brunch, I used to go to that wheel of parmesan and go crazy!

Our last taste was of Glenmorangie whiskey with the melted dark chocolate. Now, I'm not a whiskey drinker, but when I'm told that a shot of this whiskey is $43, I'm getting my money's worth! Man, did it burn going down, but the chocolate definitely worked well with it. After trying the chocolate, you could taste the caramel notes, and it made it taste much better! Full of alcohol, chocolate, and cheese, I decided that I was an expert for the next trivia session offered, so we went to Azure to tackle Broadway Trivia. Yep, probably the alcohol talking, I am no expert at Broadway Trivia, with a 10 out of 20, we moved on with our day...which was right back to Cadillac Lounge for Mixology.

 

[Kari0180]

Can't wait to read more! My family and I are going in August and we're so excited!

It was such an amazing experience; you will have such a great time!

 

[Kari0180]

Mixology has always been a favorite of ours, of course I miss the days where we would make our own drinks and pass them around the bar, but even the "newer" mixology classes have been fun. When we were last on the Wonder in February 2023, we had an amazing bartender, the drinks the team made were amazing, the bartender even made flavored foams for a couple of our drinks, I was very hopeful that we would be lucky enough to have the same bartender, but sadly, he's moved on from DCL. Once we were seated, our bartender started explaining the drinks he created, he would allow one person up to make their own drink while the rest of us were being served. Our cocktails for the day





DH went up to make the second cocktail and of course he "accidently" went overboard with his vodka pour, so he wound up making 2 drinks. So, I'm going to be honest and say this was the most disappointing mixology. I felt that there wasn't a whole lot of thought into any of the cocktails and most of them didn't taste that great. The two women that were seated across from us had a sip of each of their drinks and that was it. I still had a good time, but just wish we had some better tasting drinks. After Mixology ended, we were feeling a little tipsy, so I headed up to deck 9 to get some chicken tenders and fries for myself and some pizza for DH. It was then time to play Catchphrase Trivia, we did really well at this one, we tied for first with several other teams, unfortunately, we didn't know how many episodes of Cheers aired, so we lost.

After trivia, we headed up to deck 9 to get some more hot chocolate and to enjoy the sunshine. We had a nice relaxing time before heading to the Walt Disney Theater for The Golden Mickeys. Tonight was formal night, but we stopped dressing up many cruises ago. I've never been one for collecting the popcorn buckets, but I saw this lovely and knew I had to have him

DH was so happy when I came back with Stitch, he's DH's favorite. He didn't hold a lot of popcorn, but he was so freaking adorable! It was then time for 70's music trivia, another loss for us, but I wasn't surprised. After trivia, we would be headed to dinner and then off to Azure for the night.

Up next: Dinner and Match your Mate

 

[Kari0180]

After a loss at trivia, we headed to dinner at Tiana's Place. This wasn't the traditional first night Tiana's menu we were used to, it was a California Regional menu. We both started off with a California Roll

We are both lovers of sushi (California Rolls are my favorite) so we were very excited to have sushi on the menu. Sadly, we were very disappointed, the rice wasn't really cooked, we pretty much ate the insides and then moved on to the next course

This was the coriander and tomato soup with chipotle cream. This was very good, but I love tomato soup

Once again, we went with the same entree, we chose the Golden State Beef Tenderloin, this was served with red bliss and feta cheese potatoes, tomato, spinach and garlic shrimp. We both enjoyed this, I really liked the potatoes. I was very excited by the dessert offerings, we split two of them

We had the chocolate caramel torte. It was okay, it was very rich.

I forgot put in my notes what this was called, it was basically a chocolate cake thing with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream. When our desserts were first dropped off, our head server pointed to this and said this was his favorite dessert of all time and we would enjoy it so much...that didn't happen, in fact we barely ate it. The cake was so tough we couldn't even break into with our spoon, in fact, DH's spoon started to bend trying to break into it.

We were pretty disappointed with this menu, I was sad that I didn't get my crab dip or my Tom Turkey breast. Tiana and Louis still came by, I think Tiana was confused by the menu tonight too, she kept telling tables to try her hot crab dip. Even though dinner was disappointing, we were entertained by the Crawfish Crooners

I love listening to them, they're so talented! After dinner, it was time for our favorite evening in Azure, it was Match Your Mate night! First, we played Majority Rules, we did okay at first, but then we learned we don't think like the majority. And then it was time for Match Your Mate, we've never played, don't really care to, but love watching. All three couples were hilarious, but our favorite was the newlywed couple, and they were the winners for the night. We headed back to our room for the night and were greeted by this cutie

It was then off to bed; I was so excited for the next day!

Up Next: It's Glacier Day

 

[Kari0180]

All the videos from our 1st sea day

 

[Kari0180]

Today was one of the days I was looking forward to the most when we booked this trip, it's Glacier Day. I was so excited to cruise to the Dawes Glacier, but also, I wanted to see everyone in the fabulous Alaska wear!

The day started pretty early for us; we had a full day of character meets ahead of us, so we got ready and headed up to Cabanas for a quick breakfast. It was pretty early so it wasn't too busy yet; we were able to snag a table and ate some breakfast. No pictures today, I think I was too excited for the day to come, but we're both creatures of habit, I'm sure our plates looked exactly like other mornings.

Mickey had his first meet at 9:00 am, it was about 8:00 when we finished with breakfast, went up to deck 10 and got in line to meet him. The line was already very long an hour before Mickey would meet with us. Thankfully, we made some friends in line, talked a lot about DCL, previous and future cruises and before we knew it, it was time to meet this guy

I don't get this pose I do on occasion, like, why do I pop my knee? I don't even realize that I do it and then I see the pictures and just get confused. I love Mickey's rain gear, I also loved seeing all the people who managed to find the same outfits as the characters, they all looked so great! When we finished our meet with Mickey, we headed to the other side of the ship and got in line to meet with Minnie. Her line was even longer, so I ran down to Cove Cafe to grab a coffee to warm myself up

I rarely drink hot coffee, but I got a salted caramel latte and got Ariel! She was so pretty, I didn't want to drink my coffee, but after about 30 seconds, I was cold and started drinking, sorry Ariel. We continued chatting with our new friends and we saw some whales (couldn't get any decent photos) to pass the time and then it was time to meet Minnie

Her outfit is my favorite!! I wanted nothing more than a plush of her in her Alaska gear, but sadly, they were sold out After pics were taken with Mickey and Minnie, we headed down to deck 4 to walk around and to also hopefully catch a photo with Koda. No luck on the photo, but we walked a couple of laps and saw some beautiful scenery. We were doing the Glacier tour, and we were on the first boat and our meeting time was at 12:00, since it was a 3-hour excursion, we ran up to Cabanas to grab some lunch.

They had chicken pot pie today and it was very good. I usually try to avoid desserts for lunch, but there were 2 today that caught my eye

These were both very good, but I enjoyed the strawberry one the best! It was then time to meet for our excursion. We headed to the D Lounge to meet and were soon boarding our boat to head to the glacier. Once on board we were off and saying good-bye to the Wonder

The scenery was amazing, everywhere you looked, there were waterfalls.

 

[Kari0180]

More scenery


It was very cold out on the deck; we were zipping along and of course it had to start raining shortly after we got on board, a lot of people stayed inside, but I wasn't missing out on this, I made some adjustments to my attire and kept taking photos

Pretty quickly, we were passing icebergs in the water





The ice was so beautiful, it was so blue! The more ice we came across, we knew we were getting closer to the glacier and before we knew it, we were there

 

[Kari0180]

Everyone made their way out to the deck; it started to get very crowded

Everyone was lining up for photos with the glacier background. I loved the fact that everyone was patient, waited to take their turn and offered to take photos for others. Eventually, it was our turn

We took some more photos of the glacier.



We were one of two boats around the glacier, we each took turns getting closer to the glacier.

I was hoping to see more wildlife while we were out on the boat, but we didn't really see anything. The guides on the boat told us that seal season had ended a few weeks ago, but we might be lucky that there were some stragglers around. And sure enough, just as we were about to head back to the Wonder, we saw seals!

 

[Kari0180]

It was soon time to turn around to meet up with the Wonder. They announced that they had pulled up a piece of glacier from the water and that you could go down to the bar and order beverages that had glacier ice in them. I was thirsty anyway and who can say no to a beverage with glacier ice

This was your standard margarita, but it was fancy with the glacier ice. Before we knew it, we were meeting back up with the Wonder



We grabbed a quick photo before we got back on board

I know that there is a lot of discussion as to whether this excursion is worth it. For us, it was totally worth the cost ($309/person). Because it was late in the season and there was a lot of ice, we were able to get much closer to the glacier than the Wonder. You really didn't get a good view of the glacier from the Wonder. There are two excursions, one at 12:00 and one at 3:00, we were on the 12:00 excursion, sadly, they had to cancel the 3:00 because there was too much ice in the water to load people on the boats safely.

Once we were back on board, we headed back down to our room to quickly change out of our wet clothes and then we headed to French Quarter Lounge to play Pixar Trivia, with a score of 15 out of 20, we lost but had a good time. On our way to our next thing, we ran into Daisy and snagged a quick photo

We made a final quick lap around deck 4 to see if we could find Koda, sadly, we struck out, we were never able to find that bear. Guess we're going to have to take another cruise to Alaska!

This is where I leave you for tonight, my bed is calling me. I will hopefully follow up with the rest of our day soon!

 

[Counting Stars]

What a marvelous report! Thanks so much for taking the time to share your experiences- and your great pictures!