After a glorious and restful day at sea on day two of the Disney Wonder Alaskan Cruise, the family was eager to step foot on Alaskan soil for the first time in any of our lives. The excitement would have to wait as the ship wasn’t docking at Icy Strait Point until just after noon. This was a refreshing change, however, because it allowed us time to enjoy a slower pace getting ready and enjoying our first real breakfast of the cruise at Cabanas. Because the outside air was chilly with the additional movement of the ship, we agreed eating inside would be the best option. We stacked our plates as usual with our favorite breakfast goodies and swapped stories of what we were excited to see and do in the day ahead.
After breakfast we enjoyed the chilly view off the aft of the shift before returning to our room for a quick hiatus. Here we found our scavenger hunt rewards from the prior day’s morning challenge. The gifts, provided by our stateroom host during breakfast, included Frozen chocolate bars and light up snowflake necklaces for the entire family, presumably in anticipation of Frozen Night on deck later that in the evening. The boys moved right to the chocolate bars which didn’t last too long. Pretty nice gifts for the complimentary scavenger hunt!
With time to spare before docking at Icy Strait Point we perused the Navigator (the daily activity schedule) and found a fun family activity at our new favorite spot on the ship, the Promenade Lounge. It was Alaska Trivia, fun for the whole family. We secured a table, along with about 8-10 other families and were greeted by our trivia host. After selecting our team name, the Thoughtful Otters, it was time to get our game on. There were 25 questions which ranged in difficulty, most of which were out of our league. We ended up getting 9 of the 25 questions right, which put us surprisingly in third place. Lucky we didn’t need to ace the test for admission into the state.
After the mind torturing trivia the Navigator pointed us to our next activity, a meet and greet with Donald Duck. Donald has been one of Hunter’s favorites for a long time, but this meet and greet had Donald decked out in his Alaska outfit, which Emily needed to memorialize via photo. There was a bit of a wait as others had the same idea we did, but it was a fun experience interacting with the duck.
Out onto deck four we went next, taking in the beautiful scenery and warming mid-morning air. We tried to make a loop around the running track but it was blocked off, causing us to retrace our steps back through the forward of the ship. This did lead us right to Koda (Brother Bear) who was walking around the promenade as well, working his way back inside. We followed him for a quick photo to round out our character morning. Unfortunately we didn’t have the salmon that he was looking for to snack on.
Since our excursion was starting in the early afternoon, we decided to head back to Cabanas to grab a bit of lunch before the ship docked for our afternoon of fun. Since the temps were warmer we secured a spot on the outside back deck of Cabanas to watch as the ship closed in on Icy Strait Point. I have said this many times before on this blog but eating on the outside back deck of Cabanas might be one of my favorite places in the world to eat.
After wrapping up lunch it was back to the stateroom to organize our belongings for the day. We stepped out onto the veranda and watched the ship maneuver its way toward the Icy Strait Point dock. I setup the GoPro for an afternoon time lapse as we grabbed our stuff and headed to the D Lounge. At the D Lounge, we checked in for our Kodiak boat tour excursion and disembarked with our other Pinocchio stickered friends off the forward of the ship. We met up with our local guide who was awaiting us on the dock and began the walk to our Kodiak boat departure spot.
The walk took us across a series of floating walkways from the ship to the tree lined Icy Strait Point and provided a beautiful view back toward the ship. After exiting the docks we entered the Icy Strait Point Adventure Center which, although looking like it was built specifically for cruise ships, had some Alaskan charm. We continued through the building and back outside, passing a group of Native Americans who were dancing and chanting in welcome, providing a melodic backdrop to our travels. We continued on a rock path along the coastline and in front of what looked like cottages that overlooked the water. It was a very quaint area that was decked out in USA buntings adorning the docks in preparation for the 4th of July. We continued on our walk through the touristy area of restaurants and merchandise shops, erected for cruise ship travelers to purchase their Alaskan wares. Just before we arrived at our destination, we walked past a hot donut stand that we were excited to revisit when we were done.
Arriving at the Kayak Center we entered a building that was equipped with all of the water gear necessary to outfit the Navy. We handed over our signed waivers, received a safety video training, got our life vests, and headed to the dock. We joined another five families as we boarded our Kodiak boat, which was an inflatable boat with a motor that was occupied by just our family. I got the nod to drive and the boys sat in the row behind me with Emily occupying the back row. We fired up the boat and followed the guide single file into the vast waters surrounding Icy Strait Point.
Our first destination had us heading toward the Disney Wonder for an amazing view of the ship. The boat moved along pretty quickly which the boys thought was awesome! We continued on to a buoy in the middle of the ocean water where sea lions and sea otters were camped out. The boat provided a pretty close view of the beautiful creatures.
With a bit of water to travel we fired up the engine and tracked our guide across the choppy waters. People around us probably thought this was the first time we were ever out of the house as we were hooting and hollering in excitement. We navigated along the coastline listening the the guide share the stories and nature of the surrounding area. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to spot a moose which was one of Emily’s number one goals of this trip. She did think she saw a bear, but it was so quick she couldn’t say for sure. As our time was wrapping up we turned our boats back to the dock and cranked up the engines again. Toward the end of the trip the metal seats were taking a toll on everyone’s butt comfort. Back at the dock we were relieved to be back on land but agreed this was one of the best excursions that we had ever been on.
After turning in our gear we secured some hot donuts which hit the spot after our chilly afternoon on the water. Emily and the boys were excited to browse the Alaskan gift shops. Em and the boys got a couple of hot coffee/hot chocolates, courtesy of the free vouchers we received after completing our tour. The stores were vast warehouse looking places with your typical tourist goods that the family couldn’t get enough of. The whole complex is modeled after and demonstrates the history of when Icy Strait was a salmon packing cannery. After grabbing a few items to remember our visit (obviously Peach couldn’t live without a moose antler dog chew), we made our way back to the ship.
Just before the docks we spotted a trail that took guests down by the waterfront overlooking the Disney Wonder. We traversed the trail and walked across the rocky shoreline to dip our fingers in the chilly water. We had fun taking pictures and skipping rocks across the water. After grabbing a few final family photos it was back on the ship to relax and prepare for dinner.
After a long day on the water, Emily and I were looking forward to our Palo dinner where we could relax and enjoy some delicious food. The boys were also excited that they got to head to the Oceaneer Club and didn’t need to get dressed up for another dinner. We got them their old standby favorites from the quick serve on deck while everyone got ready. After putting the finishing touches on getting ready, we headed up to deck 11 for our dinner. We were seated at a fantastic table overlooking the beautiful Alaskan waters. Emily didn’t miss a beat starting with the Limoné Basilico (her favorite drink). We also got to meet Nikola our server from Serbia. He couldn’t have been a nicer guy, and we knew we were in for a great experience.
We started our dinner with the antipasto platter (shown above) and bread service, which alone is worth the price of admission. The antipasto gets rolled out on a cart and is assembled at the table of some of the finest meats and cheeses topped with delicious herb-infused oils and balsamic glaze. We followed this up with two appetizers to share, Heirloom Tomato Buffalo Mozzarella Caprese and Fritto di Calamari e Gamberi. The calamari at Palo is never to be missed! Both of these were absolutely delicious and enough food to have been done eating before our main courses arrived.
After a quick palette cleansing of lemon sorbet, it was time for our main course. Emily and I both chose the same main dish, which we try to never do but the Piquant Dover Sole was calling our name. I first ordered this on the Disney Magic on our Five Night Marvel Day at Sea Cruise, and Emily has had Dover sole envy ever since. This fish dish is filleted tableside by the server and is an absolutely delicious dish. We could not stop raving about the taste.
Having less than zero room left in our stomachs we hadn’t yet reached our favorite course of the meal… dessert. Nikola convinced us both to order the famous chocolate soufflé with vanilla and chocolate sauce. Knowing that we had our eye on a couple other items he didn’t hesitate to bring us a couple additional desserts as well. I don’t know I have ever been as full as I was that night. Could not have asked for a more magical and relaxing experience.
We wrapped up dinner just after 9:00 pm and decided to take a quick stroll on deck 11 to watch the sun set across the water. Just a beautiful ending to an action packed day.
We met the boys at the Oceaneer Club and headed back to the room to get in our cozy jammies for bedtime. We were greeted by our stateroom turned down ready for us to crash. We also spotted another note to the boys from Stateroom Santa which read:
Welcome back from your excursion aboard your Zodiak
To be honest I was wondering if you would ever make it back
But here you are safe and sound back on the cruise
And ready for your pajamas and another restful snooze
Before you wander off to bed on the bright Alaskan eve
Another challenge for tomorrow on this letter I will leave
In Skagway try a bite of fried dough if you choose
I can’t wait to hear if you happen to spot a moose
We had an amazing first day at Icy Strait Point and were excited for another port day tomorrow at Skagway for the Fourth of July!
