The Disney Wonder ended the 2023 Alaskan season on Monday, and headed to dry dock on Tuesday. The Disney Wonder departed Vancouver around 4:30 PM on September 19th and entered the Esquimalt Graving Dock, the largest non-military hard bottom dry dock on the west coast of the Americas, in Victoria, Canada at 4:00 AM on September 20th.
Disney Cruise Line has yet to share details of the 2023 dry dock which is exactly the way the cruise line handled the Disney Magic’s dry dock earlier this year where they only shared updates on the day passengers boarded the ship. The Disney Wonder is expected to receive the new internet service allowing for the transition to data usage to usage type internet plans which was previously rolled out across the fleet.
The Disney Wonder is scheduled to return to service for a 10-night sailing to Hawaii on October 3rd when she welcomes guests onboard for the first leg of her Transpacific voyage for the inaugural season in Australia.
We were on the Alaskan cruise 9/4-9/11 and our server told us Australia has extremely high expectations for cleanliness especially on the outside of the ship. Reported to have turned away a cruise ship recently for having too much ocean growth on their hull. Disney is hosing the Wonder down to leave no room for question for her new journey.
What are some of the tasks that typically get done during dry-docks?
We got off the 8 night Alaska yesterday. They had gradually been replacing some of the carpet on our cruise. I noticed new carpet in Tritons and by the shops on Deck 3. Deck 4 had supplies tied down on the last day that looked like it would become coverings for the deck. There were lots of plaster buckets and what appeared to be Sheetrock type repair stuff on Deck 4 forward close the the mooring area. Deck 6 midship behind the elevators had quite a few new mattresses stacked up by the last night. Deck 10 forward had crates that seemed to be from a flooring company that were there the entire cruise. We were told it was all going to be mainly cosmetic, but that doesn’t mean much.
We got off the 8 night as well and were told during the tour of the ship on the final day at sea to “take a look at the Disney Jr. section of the Oceaneer Club because it probably won’t be there much longer…” so i’m excited to see what changes might be coming to the kids area!
Also, I forgot to mention that on the day before we disembarked the cruise, Cove Cafe looked like it was packing up and the cast members told us that Cove Cafe is moving during the dry dock. There is some speculation that it is moving into the old store space between Crown & Fin and Azure since it was closed up and covered all cruise. Unsure what they plan to do with the space if it truly is moving.
Cove Cafe is adults only though. Why would they move it? Plus they just redid Cove Cafe on the Wonder not too long ago. Guess it all remains to be seen ????
Carpets and sunchairs had started to be replaced during the week of August 21st. Officers on board have stated (as shared by another poster) that a very deep cleaning and potentially repainting is necessary for Australia, and other technical upgrades including the propulsion system… with no major changes expected in the hotel division… So looking quite a bit like the Magic drydock… except that the Magic got a new lounge
We were told on our recent Alaska cruise that the first thing that would be done was the replacement of a broken propeller and the internet would be upgraded. I have heard rumors that Cadillac might be changed.
I am really surprised DCL had all that housekeeping going on during a sailing. Mmmm how does one find out when a ship is going into drydock? I know the Fantasy went through one in 2017. Have not seen any news in that matter regarding the Fantasy so I thought that DCL would have met their requirements by perhaps doing it ahead of time while they were without passengers because of cvd19. Maybe I missed something and she has been drydocked since 2017?
My understanding was that no work was being done in drydocks during COVID. I could be wrong though and a ship would have already needed to be scheduled for the drydock.
During the shutdown all the ships went to Dry Dock in France.
I just got off the 9/11-19 sailing before it went to dry dock and there was *so much* maintenance being done during our sailing, especially on the last day. Before we got off, deck 10 was already covered in plywood and railings were wrapped in foam. FWIW, we didn’t hear anything or see anything about Cove relocating.
Don’t take food off the vessel. Food that you bring to the Caribbean is illegal. If you bring fresh food from your boat, the food could be confiscated. Bags are usually checked, and sometimes there are sniffer dogs that are trained to look for food items.
We live in Victoria, BC and we are always excited when the Wonder makes a stop here. So on Saturday we took a trip down to see the ship while it’s in the graving dock at Esquimalt harbour. I took some photos that show some of the work in progress, which I thought blog readers might find interesting. (I know I appreciate the contributions from other readers, and thought it’s time to pay it back.)
The graving dock is part of the Canadian Navy’s base, so access is restricted to some of the locations where it might be possible to get some better pictures.
The first thing that caught my eye was that none of the lifeboats were on board–that row of “shoe yellow” at deck 5 is a distinctive visual feature, and it’s noticeable when it’s missing!
You’ll notice the scaffold around one of the radomes; I have added a zoomed-in image. I am guessing, but this might be associated with the speculated internet upgrade.
We also noticed that in two locations on the port side on deck 8, a couple of the cabins at each location seemed to be undergoing substantial work. (Perhaps the large suites?) The balcony railings and doors had been removed, and there was plenty of activity. It was harder to see, but the same sort of thing might be happening on the starboard side.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get closer to see any of the work that might be happening below the water line, given the speculation about the maintenance necessary to bring it up to snuff for a trip to Australia.
I also had the good fortune to be on a seaplane yesterday as we flew into Victoria, and managed to get a couple of aerial photos.
Here’s a link to my google photo album:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/9oRtPkEgsyKyLxQn7