Guest Trip Report: 9 Night Alaska Cruise on the Disney Wonder, Day 4

In case you missed it, I just started a new guest trip report.  Deann recently sailed on the July 9, 2018 9 night Alaska itinerary and was kind enough to share her adventures with us.  You can start this trip report from the beginning right here.

Day : 4 – Icy Strait Point

Thursday, July 12

I got up early again to check the weather and found sunny skies and brisk, cool air.  The weather forecast was for a high in the upper 50s and clear, what luck! Stopping at Icy Strait Point was the main reason we booked this 9 night cruise, as well as the addition of Hubbard Glacier.  After a great breakfast on deck 9 we went up to deck 10 to watch our approach to Icy Strait Point.  It was beautiful and awesome.  As we rounded the point to see the dock area, we could see the wooden buildings with metal roofs, totems, and I thought I heard singing with a drum. It was magical.

From my pre-trip research I learned that the fish cannery had closed.  The clan decided to incorporate under the terms of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and sell shares to its clan members to buy the cannery/land and turn the location into a cruise ship stop.  Therefore, the profits from the port would return to the clan share holders – a very good idea.  They also made the decision to only allow one ship to dock at a time and enjoy their port adventures, restaurants, shops and clan members – another very good idea.  Icy Strait Point celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2014, and the Hoonah Ship Dock Company cruise dock, Adventure Center (where the port adventures meet up) and Duck Point Smokehouse opened in 2016.  I read reviews that said that guests either really loved the place, or thought it wasn’t much.  To give background to our opinion, I have to say that all three of us love nature and learning the culture of where we visit. Therefore, I am happy to say that we really, really loved this place and wish that Disney would put this stop on more of their Alaska itineraries.  It is what true Alaska is, not a bunch of jewelry stores with workers badgering you to come into their shop.  The shops here were very laid back and in a sort of shared shopping mall space – a much better experience than on the streets of one of our other ports of call.  The whole area was clean, and professionally and efficiently run.  All of the employees wore red fleece vests or jackets that were easily recognizable if you needed help or had questions.  They had a courtesy electric golf cart to assist those who had walking problems that picked you up and returned you right to the dock by the ship’s gangway.  The pathways were easy to walk, and at the restaurant and shops they had an elevated boardwalk with benches to sit on and view the beautiful water and mountains.  There was also a bonfire just off the boardwalk where you could sit and take it all in.  It is on this boardwalk that we had one of our best experiences of all time.  But, I’m getting ahead of myself.  Let’s start at the beginning of the day.

My twin sister and I had a reservation for whale watching at 8:45 AM.  We met our group in the Walt Disney Theatre and went down to deck 1 to disembark.  This is the walkway from the dock to the Adventure Center:

People disembarking the ship and boarding a whale watching boat:

We walked right across the dock, following the Disney guide, and immediately got onto the boat for our excursion.  As we walked thru the boat, we noticed binoculars on the tables on the lower deck and as we climbed the stairs, we also saw them on the seats in the enclosed area on the upper deck. That was a nice touch.  It was such a nice day that we stayed outside on the upper deck.  Passengers going to other port adventures or exploring on their own went further down the dock to a green gangway to get to the port.  It was wide enough to have the electric golf cart drive on it in addition to the people walking.

We were then off on our whale watching adventure!

We had just pulled away from the ship when we had our first sighting of whales: a pod of four – two large, one juvenile and one calf.  During the next two and a half hours we had well over a dozen sightings, this pod as well as three others – all within sight of the Wonder.  One pod had 7 whales – that’s the one we saw do the bubble net feeding with all their mouths open breaching the surface.  They were all appearing so fast that we didn’t even try to take pictures, we just experienced it.  As one person said on the boat “I can get pictures off the internet but I’ll never experience this again”. So, you’ll just have to take my word for it that we saw lots and lots of whales.  One whale even blew its spout right next to the boat and as we went past, it flipped its tail as if saying goodbye.  We also saw seals resting on a buoy, otters floating in the water, and eagles.

We thought all of this was amazing, but as we were heading in at the end of the tour, the captain came over the speaker and said we’re not done yet.  We turned to our right and there were two orca fins on the water surface.  What a treat!  The boat captain also told us to look ahead, and we saw the salmon running.  They were after the salmon!  Then they disappeared and we headed back to the dock.  What a day, and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet.

I have to note that our whale watching boat did not return to the same dock that it left from.  It went to a dock at the other end of the port – way down at the other end.  If we had known this would happen, we would have had my husband meet us there and had lunch at the Crab Shack.  Now, we had to make our way back to the ship to meet up with him.  We had no way to communicate since our cell phones didn’t work here.  So, we caught a ride back to the ship, had lunch, then rode the courtesy cart again and got off at the far end, at the red buildings.  Here there was a clan house where there were dances to see, if you had a ticket.  You could also catch a shuttle to the town of Hoonah, only 1.5 miles away.  We stopped at the donut hut run by the local Salvation Army.  The mini donuts were great, made on the spot, and all proceeds stayed at the local Salvation Army in Hoonah.  We had the apple cinnamon, and they were gone in a flash.  There were shops in the old cannery, as well as a museum showing how the cannery operated.  The exhibits were all very well done and easy to access, with lots of information and history here to learn.  This is the dock at the cannery:

The buildings by the cannery and the boat dock:

The Wonder through the trees:

Some cannery equipment:

A display in the fish processing area:

From talking with locals, we also found out that when the port is open, those in Hoonah can have access.  We talked to and saw many locals at the port.  All of them were very friendly and helpful.  Like I said before, you got the true feeling of an Alaska town experience here at Icy Strait Point.

A camp fire at the Point:

People skipping rocks on the water:

Outside the shops in the cannery buildings was a boardwalk leading to another restaurant, which makes a total of three.  There on a bench we met a local elder who was a veteran.  As he told us about the first time he saw a whale off the point, he suddenly said “There, look!” and not 20 feet off shore in front of us a whale blew its spout, dove and flipped its tail.  We were astonished and he just chuckled.  I asked how deep the water was there and he answered “pretty deep”, still chuckling.  We talked of this and that a little while longer until he met up with a friend.  We thanked him for his service then made our way into the shops and bought some stuff.  Then we went down to the bonfire to sit and contemplate our day.

While we were on our whale watching adventure, my husband took the nature walk that started just off the gangway.  He said he felt like he might see an Ewok any minutes in the trees.  He did it again with us this time, but only part way because the last part just before the water was too steep.  So, we turned around and came out the way we went in.  It was so quiet and restful, and the temperature also dropped about 10 degrees inside the forest.  Here you can see the nature trail to the left of the meeting hall:

A photo from the nature trail:

Just a little ways from the nature trail was the building where all the zip line and other port adventures met up.  They had good signage and benches for people to wait for their port adventure.  There were a lot of red vest workers directing people to the proper waiting place.   I noticed at the zip line wait area that they had lockers to store your stuff before being transported up the mountain to the longest, highest zip line I had ever seen.  It had six harness lines across.  One of our tablemates did it and he said there was nothing to compare it with it was so good.

These are the buildings in the plaza where port adventures meet:

Ziplining:

A restaurant on the water:

A sign on the gangway back to the ship:

A view of the Wonder from our whale watching boat:

I really liked the dock and gangway system at Icy Strait Point.  It was easy to access everything the port had to offer.  I think I read that there were 20 plus port adventures to do here.  I did notice that almost all of the guests on the ship at one time or another were ashore with smiles on their faces.  We had a long day at Icy Strait Point, not leaving until around 6:00 PM.  Many people were still zip lining, driving ATVs and out on fishing trips or sea kayaks well into the late afternoon.  We even lingered at the bonfire, just enjoying the atmosphere.  Back on the ship, we had dinner in Animator’s Palate again, this time with Mickey making an appearance and the cartoons on the wall changing to color.  Up on deck 9 there was the Freezing the Night Away deck party and Elsa made it snow!

We ended the night with the Disney on Broadway: Stars Set Sail show.  Kissy Simmons (who played the role of Nala in the Lion King on Broadway) performed a one woman show.  Later in the week she did club shows and Q & A sessions on the ship.  Finally, we were treated to a beautiful sunset about 10:30 PM.

All in all, this was one of those great days embedded in your memory. We would come to Icy Strait Point again in a heartbeat.

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Up next:  Day 5 – Juneau