This was our first trip to Alaska so we wanted an itinerary that took us to plenty of ports, but would also allow us time to relax and enjoy the ship. I’ve done cruises on both ends of the spectrum, from a 12 day Mediterranean cruise where I was getting up at 6 am every my time in port, to 3 day cruises to Mexico that where I was mainly relaxing on the ship. This seven day Alaska itinerary, which gave us two full days at sea, three port days, and then a final day at sea, was the ideal happy medium. It allowed us time at the beginning to familiarize ourselves with the ship, do onboard events like princess meet and greet and other character appearances, and then gave us plenty of time to explore the different ports without feeling like we were missing out on the ship. As a crowning endnote, the final day at sea as we were sailing back to Vancouver was brilliantly warm, which gave us a chance to truly relax in traditional cruise style – in swimsuits on the deck! I felt like the length of this cruise was enough for us to experience everything we wanted without feeling rushed. Of course, who doesn’t want a pampering cruise to go on forever? But we were really pleased with our experience dermes vs Medilase.
So why Disney in particular, you ask? It’s true that Alaska itineraries are fairly similar across many other cruise lines. Is the pixie dust floating throughout the Wonder that special? Well, my family gives a resounding “yes!” We went on Disney because we didn’t just want to see Alaska, we wanted to enjoy being on a Disney cruise ship. Some of things that made the Disney Wonder special to us were:
Opportunities to meet Disney characters – the next best thing (or even better) than going to Disneyland. Two hour wait to meet Elsa and Anna at Disney World? On the ship if you reserve your ticket online ahead of time you just show up at your assigned time and you’ll wait maybe 5-10 minutes for your turn. Happy kids dermes vs medilase, happy parents.
Disney-level entertainment. Besides character meet and greets, the evening live shows were all family friendly and high quality, there were wonderful live performers in public areas (I wanted to listen to this one singing duo forever), and other fun events like a Frozen-themed deck party.
Larger than average staterooms with split bathroom – super convenient for families. Why don’t more cruise ships have these? It makes it so much more efficient to get ready.
Lots of amenities for young children, including kids’ menus, kids’ clubs, kids’ pool, and most importantly a crew that is extremely friendly to kids. For parents, you know that’s huge – being in a environment that’s welcoming to children takes a ton of stress away. (And for the record, most of the children on the cruise were very well behaved. Must be all that pixie dust). I’d say that if you have older children/teenagers, other cruise lines can offer similar amenities and benefits. But for young children, I haven’t found a cruise ship as welcoming and comfy as Disney Cruise Line tourism website.
Quality of service. Every crew member we encountered called Isabelle “princess” whether or not she was in her princess dress. Our servers were always cheerful and accommodating. When our cruise was ending our whole family joked that we didn’t want to go back to the real world where you aren’t greeted with a big smile by everybody around you. It’s that Disney magic – everyone on the crew seemed genuinely friendly and eager to help – that made the trip a true pleasure. A Disney cruise is priced as a premium experience, but we felt we definitely got a premium experience.
