1. Before digging into all the great food, just don’t eat the food in front.
2. Don’t match everyone else’s Disney looks, be original and wear Disney Crazy Shirts.
3. Watch out for the shampoo. It burns your eyes.
4. Make your stateroom easier to find by decorating it, but door decorating requires strong magnets.
5. Did you get everything packed? Now pack even more bags inside your bags.

Primary Pack

Your primary pack should be a medium-sized backpack. Not small but not meant to haul all either. This pack will hold items for a day especially when your luggage isn’t available like during embarkation and debarkation. For long shore excursions, your primary pack needs to hold jackets, food, drinks, cameras, and anything else while away from your ship. I went with the Borealis day pack from The North Face through Zappos.

The North Face makes some great quality gear, and you’ll pay for that. However, during the summer months, watch clearances at Zappos. They’ll be clearing inventory to make way for new back to school gear. So if you don’t mind last year’s model, you can easily get lower prices. Even better prices are had by being bold with colors. There’ve been even steeper discounts on the more exuberant-colored packs. That’s how I ended up with my Borealis pack in tofino blue plaid.

The Borealis has a capacity of 29 liters and offers up two expandable side pockets for bottled drinks. What’s also useful is the external bungee cord that can quickly cinch down jackets.

Secondary Pack

Once on-board, you won’t need everything in your primary pack and can unburden yourself. But yet, you’ll need some carrying capacity, and that’s why you need a smaller, lighter secondary pack. My suggestion is a single strapped backpack aka a monopack. This monopack is from Eddie Bauer, but unfortunately, it’s now sold out. If you’re lucky, you may be able to find one in a brick and mortar store like REI.

Small and light yet tough, this Eddie Bauer mono can hold light jackets, a DSLR, a camcorder, and comes with an external bottle holder. Sure, you can always run back to your stateroom to grab a jacket for a family member, but it’s just easier to have that jacket available. And while on the Disney Wonder, you’ll never know when you’ll need your camera for a shot with Mickey or Goofy or to capture that fleeting moment of Alaskan wildlife.

“Handy Packs”

My last bag tip is to bring along several zip lock bags, the quart and gallon sized ones. They’ll come in handy. If you have an excursion that’ll make you miss a meal, grab some food from Goofy’s Galley or Pinocchio’s Pizzeria and bring it along in your sealed zip lock bags. That’s what we did while fishing with with Captain Jerry. Slices of pizza, sandwiches, and paninis while on the Pacific Ocean is a simple but amazing meal. Don’t let your litter spoil the natural beauty of Alaska by re-using your zip locks for trash. There are many more uses for the zip locks…as long as you have them.

No matter what you’ll definitely have an enjoyable, memorable stay on your Disney cruise. But having an extra bag (or three) will make things just a bit easier.

The oddest part of the staterooms on the Wonder are the “split” bathrooms. Instead of one room, the shower and a sink are together in a room while the toilet and a second sink are in another room. I guess this split arrangement does make it more efficient so one person doesn’t hold up the use of a single bathroom. Just something to get used to.

The stateroom doors on the Disney Wonder are thick and barely magnetic. Large surface area magnets like a flat sheet work well, but smaller “button” magnets are easily dislodged. When your door slams, the average magnet will fall off, littering the hallway. Strong Like Bull magnets would definitely stick, but at their value, I wouldn’t leave these unattended.

Bring along extra magnets if possible and also tape to attach them to your door decorations. Even though we tested our decorations on a refrigerator, they didn’t stick to the Disney doors without extra magnets added on.

Here’s our door that was remade several times after our decorations fell off.

Oh, don’t forget Disney’s policy that you can’t use any type of adhesives (like tape) on the door themselves.

After playing in the busy swimming pool onboard the Disney Wonder, parents may want to give their kids a good cleaning. So back in your stateroom, you’ll use extra everything – extra soap, extra shampoo, and extra conditioner. Then you’ll hear your kids scream out, “My eyes! My eyes!”

Ooops, sorry. The provided H20-branded shampoo is not tear free. Although Disney cruises cater to kids, the shampoo is for the whole family. So yeah, the Sea Marine Revitalizing shampoo stings if it hits your eyes. Just a tip to not overdo the shampoo and watch the eyes.

The best food while at sea was at Palo (not surprising). Go for the dishes your server says isn’t available elsewhere on ship. You also need to try Palo both for dinner and for brunch. These are two different experiences with very different menus and styles.

Zefferelli’s in Vancouver was a completely lucky find. Late in the day while on Robson Street, our group couldn’t decide what to eat. Adults wanted Thai or Asian while the kids wanted spaghetti. The kids won out so we headed to the closest Italian place which happened to be the second-floor Zefferelli’s. Wow. Here’s my abbreviated Yelp review I drafted on my iPhone. In general though, Vancouver is a great place to sample different cuisines. There’s so much to pick from, all within walking distance. Biggest challenge for a large group is the small size of many restaurants.

I was not disappointed with the sit down meals we had on the Wonder. The menu featured a large variety, but some dishes really sang. The soups were surprisingly good and always save space for dessert. Our server would always exclaim “calorie time!” when he came to take our dessert orders. I’m not sure why, but asparagus had no effect on me during the cruise, and trust me, I tried by ordering several dishes with asparagus.

In Juneau, seek out Tracy’s King Crab Shack and soak it all in. Located right on the docks, this literal shack serves the biggest, freshest crab product you’ll probably ever find (I think I’ll post pics in a separate post).

Now, I’m getting hungry…

Juneau on Dwellable

Yeah, I know I’ve used this picture in the past, but it’s one of my favorites.

The shirts themselves are high quality as all Crazy Shirts are, but the designs are more distinctive than stuff you see everywhere else. I rocked my Perry shirts, both in black and white during the cruise and people noticed. I had one crew member ask about the shirt and tell me about her (platonic) platypus love. Okay then.

But really, seeing the artistic Disney designs by Crazy Shirts is refreshing and breaks the monotony you’ll see on the ship.

I personally witnessed one too many kids poking, prodding, taking, and putting back food that’s in front. Yes, that food frontline could be abused (though of no fault to the cruise line), so grab the food in back. And parents, please remind your kids that if you touch it, you take it (and don’t put it back). In this case, I think wasting food is a better alternative than the potential spread of germs on ship.

Now, if you happen to be dining at Palo where no kids are allowed, then you don’t have to worry as much. But I did see a diner drop a dessert on the ground and wondered what she’d do with it. Luckily I already had my desserts.