This post may contain affiliate links. I am grateful for your support of this site in this way, so thank you!
Day 3, Part 2: At Sea/Endicott Arm
You can start this trip report from the beginning by clicking here.
You can see this day’s Navigator by clicking here.
On part 1, I left off just as we approached Dawes Glacier. Also, before I forget, you can see video from this day on my Instagram account in the highlights section.
Here is Dawes Glacier with the Glacier Explorer boat, so you can see about how close it gets to the glacier compared to the Wonder.
Here’s a close-up of the boat. The weather was getting worse by now so it looks like most people were inside to avoid the rain.
We took shelter from the rain too.
The rain let up and we ventured back out.
This young woman is from Japan and makes her own outfits that match all of the outfits that Minnie wears. She somehow figures out before the cruise which outfits Minnie will be wearing. Here she is about to meet Minnie in her Alaska outfit. She was also on our Panama Canal sailing, and I heard that the Shutters people know all about her and one of them shared that she holds the record for the most Shutters photos taken during a single cruise. It was something like 1800.
Kenney, Bunny, Paul and Cindy were on the second Glacier Explorer trip of the day which was leaving. Here they are sailing away from the Wonder.
They took these pictures during the excursion:
They got really lucky and saw a huge calving event while right next to the glacier (calving is when a chunk of ice breaks off the glacier). Here is the video that they were so kind to share with me:
And here is a still photo of the event:
Isn’t that incredible??? I know they felt extremely lucky to be able to see that.
They had lots of hot chocolate out all day long:
At some point I saw the top of the Glacier Explorer boat from a window on deck 4:
The atrium was all decorated with a Frozen theme. Tonight was the “Freezing the Night Away” deck party.
The Wonder stayed near the glacier for quite a while – probably 1 to 2 hours.
We saw this boat, but I never figured out what it was.
At about 4:30, we went to the room to relax for a bit before dinner. I took these photos from our verandah. The water was a gorgeous color and it felt like we could reach out and touch the land.
Holesman had left our Frozen necklaces:
Strangely enough, we did not have the Frozen menu tonight. We were in Tiana’s Place and had the rotational menu with regional inspirations.
The Louisiana Hot Crab Dip (very good):
The Crawfish Crooners were playing tonight.
The Oven-Roasted Tom Turkey Breast:
The Baked Filet of Bering Sea Halibut (excellent):
The Lime-Marinated Jumbo Shrimp (very good):
The dessert menu:
This was the no sugar added Tiramisu. I ordered this because I love tiramisu but this was terrible – the worst dessert I have ever had on a Disney cruise. It tasted nothing like tiramisu and the outside was all wet and slimy. I am not a picky eater but was blown away by how bad this was.
The Baked Alaska (very good):
The Banoffee Cream Pie (excellent):
Prince Naveen’s Flourless Chocolate Cake (excellent):
We didn’t order this, but Lito brought it for us to try. It is the Louisiana Root Beer Creme and it was just odd. It was like a root beer flavored jello/pudding mixture. I guess if you really love root beer you may like this.
After dinner, we went back to the room to get our coats and hats and then headed to deck 9 for the “Freezing the Night Away” deck party at 7:45. It was nothing spectacular, but cute and fun. The scenery around us was the best part of the whole thing.
Next we went to the Walt Disney Theater at 8:30 to see Frozen: A Musical Spectacular. It’s a really good show and I recommend it even if you aren’t a huge Frozen fan.
The show was over at 9:30 and it was still light outside:
My husband and I went to the Cove Cafe for some coffee. On the way we saw a chunk of ice that had been pulled out of the water earlier. I wish we had seen them actually getting it out – that would have been neat.
This is the Cove Cafe menu:
This is off topic, but I remembered to photograph the room service menu this day. We never ordered room service in our 12 nights onboard.
At 10:45 we met the girls in the D Lounge for karaoke. This game show was just finishing up and our 11 year old was participating:
After karaoke, we went to bed. This was our position as we headed towards Skagway. You can see the route that we had taken in and out of Endicott Arm earlier that day.
Up Next: Day 4 – Skagway
.
You can read my other trip reports here.
As always, don’t forget to like me on Facebook (click here) and follow me on Pinterest (click here) for all of the latest Disney Cruise Mom Blog updates!
Did the ship get closer to the glacier, I ask cause your pictures looks like your kind of far away.
No, that’s about as close as it got. If you want to get closer, you’ll have to book the Glacier Explorer port adventure.
Deann,
On this cruise the glacier tour stopped at a quarter mile of the Dawes. Based on that, I’d estimate the Wonder was about 2 miles. I understand this is not always the case … sometimes it is not that much difference, but on this cruise we felt fortunate to get to view the glacier from that close. Off course tidal glaciers are very impressive (and different) from numerous views and distances. Mendenhal for instance looks different from the observation point than from the much closer Nugget Falls … both views are interesting and impressive. From further away you get to see the “flow” and the “tire tracks” and closeups get to see an entirely different surface.
Sorry to hear that. I was basing my comment on our trip last year. We also went on the first Alaska sailing but in 2017. On that trip we got very close and parked broadside to view the glacier hen the tour boat that had already finished changed out groups and then the ship pivioted to the port side viewing. Each side getting about 40 minutes. Then we headed back out and picked up the tour boat later after they got a close view of the shore. On
I guess it depends on the conditions on how close you get seeing that ice and wildlife we’re in the area. I guess we were just lucky.
Isn’t it amazing how close to land you are up there? You really do feel like you can reach out and touch it
Some notes of interest: we were able to get a bit closer to the Glacier on our August cruise last year; again must depend on how much ice is in the fjord. Our Freezing the Night Away deck party was on Skagway day (actually occured as we were leaving Skagway) and then Frozen was shown the following night. Guess DCL likes to mix it up lol
Good to know! That makes perfect sense that it depends on how much ice there is. I think it might depend on how many seals there are too as the ship is not allowed to get too close to them.
The scenery pictures are outstanding …. such a buetiful day in the fjord! Thank you for sharing.
My girls and I did room service on our Disney World day on the last cruise. We were just exhausted and it was past our seating anyway. They loved it so much they’ve asked to do it on the next cruise as well. I told them we’d pick a night that we didn’t love the menu. This menu might be it.
Hi, I’m just curious if your friends felt the Glacier Explorer port adventure was worth it? It seems pricey for 3 hours, but the views look incredible. I’m trying to decide if we should book this for our Alaska cruise in July. Thanks in advance!
Hi Carey! I think that since they saw the huge calving event they would say it was worth it. Had they not seen any calving, I think they would say that it was great but not a must do. If money is no object, then I say go for it. If saving that money allows you to put it towards a different experience that you wouldn’t otherwise get to do, I say skip it. I never considered it since there are 5 of us and that amount of money could literally pay for another vacation. If there were just 2 of us, I probably would have done it. But, that is just me personally and others may feel differently. If seeing a glacier up close would be very exciting for you, then I don’t think you’d have any regrets.
Thank you for the feedback! I appreciate it. 🙂
Love this trip report! Amazing pictures. We’re planning an Alaska cruise with DCL next year. What excursions would you recommend with young kids and did you feel like a veranda stateroom is necessary for this cruise. We need two connecting rooms so we booked two ocean view rooms to fit our family but now I’m regretting it :/
Finally if you had to book a Palo dinner which night do you think Is best to do that? So none of the great dinner shows are missed. Thanks again for such a great trip report.
Whether or not a verandah is worth it is very subjective. I normally do not personally feel that a verandah is worth it for our family because the times we have had one, we have spent zero time on it. However, we did spend time on ours in Alaska. We didn’t sit out there for long periods, but would jump in and out of the room if we noticed wildlife, waterfalls, etc. It did allow us to see a few things that we would have otherwise missed. But, we did the majority of our scenic viewing from the outdoor spaces on decks 4 and 10, so I would not say it is a must if you are okay going to those decks a lot. If you have young kids who will be napping or spending a lot of time in the room, then I think a verandah is more important. As far as Palo, take a look at past navigators to see which nights the main shows were held. They tend to keep schedules pretty similar from year to year. Here is a link: https://disneycruiselineblog.com/personal-navigators/