Trip log, day six. A Whale of a tale in Icy Strait Point, Alaska.
9-Night Alaskan Cruise on Disney Wonder
July 20, 2024
Guests Ashore: 7:00 am Guests Onboard: 6:00 pm
Personal Navigator – Day 6

Today started out like most days so far on this voyage, a brisk walk outside to see the sights then down to French Quarter Lounge for a morning coffee and conversation while Emily headed out to the gym.

The stateroom TV map still has not updated since early Thursday morning.

While I was sitting in the lounge, I picked up a Donald Duck paper craft, scissors, and a glue stick and did my best in the 10-minutes remaining for this activity as Disney Villains trivia was about to start. We didn’t win trivia, but I did take a picture of the Chip & Dale winner medal.

As luck would have it, we didn’t need to change venues for Haunted Mansion trivia which we scored 17/20 – an admirable score considering my only experience is the Walt Disney World attraction and the movies. The winners with 20/20 received a Pluto medal.

While the all ashore time was early in the morning, we stayed onboard through lunch. Our serving team was working in Cabanas and it was nice to see them outside of the main dining rooms. I was contemplating asking for a bowl of cashews from Daisy’s De-Lites when I was coming back with a couple slices of the butternut squash pizza of the day, but I felt weird asking at the make a bowl station. Our server must have had mystic powers, because he asked if we liked cashews and hooked us up with a bowl.

Today, we booked a port adventure that would be taking us away from the Icy Strait Point compound into Hoonah, which starts at 3 o’clock. The tour included a wristband to ride the gondola all day. Initially, we were told to pick up a wristband at a tent near the Adventure Center transporter gondola, but the tent was unmanned by this time of the day. We were directed board the transporter gondola, which is free, for the 5 minute ride to Wilderness Landing and to the excursion desk inside the Departure Den. Here we discovered our names were not on the port adventure manifest. We presented screenshots of our Port Adventure reservation from the Disney Cruise Navigator app which was something Guest Services recommended in a message the day before, and that was good enough to get us the wristbands. 

We then took the 7-minute ride up on the Sky Peak Gondola up to the area with a listed elevation of 1,600 feet.

The gondola system is new since our last visit in 2019, and overall there is so much more to do at Icy Strait Point.

At the top, we just managed to take some photos at the Home Shore viewpoint before cloud cover arrived with a steady drizzle.

The top feature is a hidden lake nature trail to Hidden Lake and a cave. Prior to the addition of the gondola system, visitors would be transported by a shuttle up to the top of Sky Peak to ride the Zip Rider, the longest zip line in Alaska, down to the bottom near the Duck Point Smokehouse Restaurant.

The top of the mountain was encapsulated by the clouds, thus it was a misty rain. We looked around and then headed back down on the gondola.

We had about 15-20 minutes before we needed to meet for our Port Adventure. I made my way over to the Duck Point Smokehouse Restaurant and ordered a Cannery Red Ale, brewed specifically for Icy Strait Point.

The bulk of the group set out to the popular Lil’ Gen’s Mini-Doughnuts stand behind the cannery.

Around 2:45PM, we assembled inside the Adventure Center to check-in for our tour, the 3:00PM departure of the Hoonah Sightsee & Tribal Show excursion.

We were led down a path to a bus. Originally, we stopped just a stones throw from where we departed at Tribal Show building, but our guide learned the show as already underway and made the decision to move this to the end of the tour. Our energetic guide shared a number of stories and history of the area during our bus tour. There was one stop along the way to get out and look around near a marina, but overall it was primary a bus tour with a guide. I think next time around, I’d like to just walk into town and meander around – there was, after all, the Icy Strait Brewing company location in Hoonah.

Upon our return to the Icy Strait Point Cannery, we all decided to skip the show and proceeded into the cannery building to browse the various shops.

Got a whale of a tale to tell ya, lads! I briefly stepped outside and noticed someone gesturing to their wife to look out into the water. As one does in this situation, I too looked out into the water for what would become an amazing free whale watching tour.

Initially, the whale was simply poking its head out of the water and waving. The whale then proceeded to swim just offshore of the cannery dock, breaching multiple times. The group of folks on the walkway grew exponentially, and we all began to walk down the beach towards the pier where the Disney Wonder was docked. We went on a whale watching tour the last time we visited Icy Strait Point and this impromptu sighting far exceeded the experience from 2019.

This is just one of those things that makes sailing to Alaska interesting. One day, it can be nice and sunny with the next an over abundance of liquid sunshine. Same can be said for wildlife spotting. When the opportunity comes up and you spot something, share it with a fellow passenger.

Some of the folks down on the beach saw an amazing goodbye tail wave from the whale as it proceeded past the Disney Wonder. The opportunity was there for someone to get an amazing photo of the whale with the stern of the Disney Wonder in the background.

In addition, there was a bald eagle fishing for dinner taking a high perch on the berth’s mooring dolphin near the ship’s stern.

We made our way back to the ship stopping briefly to enjoy the view before my camera battery died.

Once back onboard and cleaned up, we set out for dinner at Animator’s Palate. Due to the number of nights on this voyage, we were served the Vista menu with regional inspirations. Fun fact: Disney Cruise Line’s Vista dinner menu was once known as the Taste of California menu.

Our server once again brought us out a serving bowl of vegetables which we shared. Our table ended up going on a baked potato bender. Joining in on the fun, I enhanced the baked potato with some of the vegetable medley.

We are still not making it all out on time to get spots for 7:30 trivia. We’ve begun to take matters into our own hands with some of us skipping dessert, or in some cases we are brining desserts to Crown & Fin so we can all enjoy 90’s Music Trivia. Shout out to Tammy & Isabelle, who were usually the ones heading out to save our spots.

Once Crown & Fin cleared out, we settled into a booth and tried a few more of the zero-proof cocktails.

If I didn’t know any better, I would have never known the Sapiir Tonic was non-alcoholic – the Brunswick Aces Spades Sapiir used is a full flavored gin alternative.

We spent the rest of the evening in the quiet lounge until we started a round of yawning.

Isabelle found some ducks in the atrium and walked on deck 4 on our way back to the stateroom to enjoy the sights.

Along with turndown service, we were given a letter with details on the required completion of the Canadian Customs Declaration (E311) which we needed to be returned by 4 o’clock in the afternoon tomorrow.

Complete Trip Log Index

• Pre-Cruise – ✈️ Travel Day from Orlando, Florida to Vancouver, British Columbia & Pre-Cruise Day in Vancouver
• Day 1 – Vancouver, Canada
• Day 2 – At Sea
• Day 3 – Ketchikan, Alaska
• Day 4 – Glacier Viewing (Stikine Icecap), Alaska
• Day 5 – Juneau, Alaska
• Day 6 – Icy Strait Point, Alaska
• Day 7 – Sitka, Alaska
• Day 8 – At Sea
• Day 9 – Victoria, Canada

We love it if you considered joining us on our next DCL Blog Cruise in May 2025 as we sail from cay to cay. We will be returning to The Bahamas visiting both Castaway Cay and Lookout Cay. Click here to learn more.