A cruise to Alaska had long been on my list of trips I wanted to take. We booked on the first day it was available to book so it was a long almost 18 months until we actually sailed - it felt like it was never going to get here. But, I don't regret that for several reasons. First, you can get the lowest prices on the first day of booking. And second, this was a popular itinerary and only offered one time during the year we wanted to sail. We had picked the 9 night Disney Alaska Cruise on the Disney Wonder. We picked the 9 night, partially because if we were travelling that far, we wanted to maximize our time, and mostly because it went to Hubbard Glacier and no other cruises with Disney did. I really wish that Disney had a cruise with a land/sea combo in Alaska. Other lines do have something like that where you cruise further up the inside passage for a week and then take a train to Denali. To be honest, I would love to do that still. The companies that do that itinerary don't have as high a rating in environmental aspects, though so as of now I'm not open to changing cruise lines. Still, I am hoping that one day Disney offers something like that!
We were Silver Castaway Club members going into this cruise, and this would be our 4th cruise overall, but the first on the Wonder. Thankfully we had a day of priority on booking, but a tip for those booking - Alaska cruises are VERY popular with the Gold and Platinum cruisers! There was very little left to pick from when Silver bookings opened. And prices had already been driven up by a couple of thousand dollars from where they opened with Platinum. I'm happy next time we go we will at least be Gold. We wanted to try for our first verandah but it was a 4,000$ price difference - too much to justify it. So we got a 2nd deck oceanview (with a big porthole) and it worked perfectly for our trip.
In any case, the day to leave finally arrived and we planned to spend a long weekend in Vancouver in advance of our trip, making our full trip 2 weeks. We'd never had a 2 week long trip before, so that was exciting too! We stayed by the hotel at the Hampton Inn in Richmond the first night because we knew with jet lag we would just want to eat and sleep. The hotel was nice but the room was fairly tight. If I stayed there again, I would consider getting 2 rooms because it was fairly tight for our crew. (2 adults, and 2 tall teens). It was similar in space to rooms you might have in big cities in Europe and a little smaller than rooms in New York in mid-range hotels. Still, it worked for one night where we just wanted to sleep. We walked to the Italian Tomato, and had a fabulous Italian meal. The food was incredible! The portions are also huge, so think about getting the half order unless you tend to eat large meals. I was super hungry and could barely finish the half portion! I had the bolognese sauce and it was the best bolognese sauce I have ever had. Seriously, if you're staying out near the airport, check it out. The Hampton in Richmond is in walking distance.
The second day we got on the SkyTrain and headed downtown. We got SkyTrain passes (also good on buses) and used them all weekend - no rental car to mess with. Highly effective and saved us a ton on getting place to place and parking. We were staying at the Hampton Inn Downtown and got everything settled in our new room. Very nice Hampton and the room was close to 2x the size of our room in Richmond thankfully! The rooftop Hot Tub has nice views and was a fun perk for us too! We arrived pretty early in the day and the room of course wasn't ready yet, so they stowed our luggage and we ventured out to Stanley Park.
Stanley Park is a great place to visit in Vancouver and was a great start to our weekend! Our oldest son wanted to take a run, so we started by walking on a trail from the bus stop to the seawall. He then ran along the seawall and we walked along leisurely until he turned back and met back up with us. We had lunch in the park at Stanley's Bar and Grill. The food was tasty and the atmosphere was great. I recommend this as a good place to get a nice lunch without leaving the park. Personally, I'd pick not leaving the park and eating at the park vs. leaving the park due to the time it would take to go back and forth. It is also a quick walk to Vancouver Aquarium where we were planning to go next.
The Vancouver Aquarium was a quick walk up the hill from the restaurant. We bought our tickets online before we left home, and it was a great way to skip the line and just walk in, plus it saved us a bit of money! The Aquarium was very busy with camp groups who were visiting for the day, but it wasn't impossible to navigate. I was very happy we ate at the Grill though as eating in the Aquarium would have been long lines! My favorite thing about this Aquarium vs. other aquariums was that there was no "forced pattern". Lots of aquariums now have a forced pattern where you can only go one way through the exhibits. I hate that sort of setup for many reasons, but especially because 1) you can't go immediately to what you want to see most and 2) often you are sort of pushed along by the crowd and can't take your time at exhibits you enjoy so in my opinion its more of a waste of money. Newport Aquarium near Cincinnati is set up that way and I've never been back because it made me feel like we didn't get our money's worth and it was over too fast.
Vancouver Aquarium is set up nicely with lots of room to navigate around. They also have a large outdoor section that is a nice area to see animals from multiple vantage points. Ultimately, I'd recommend this as a place to visit as a family. If you have grade school aged kids, they may want more time. The 2-3 hours we spent there was perfect for my young teens.
We walked over to the Totem Poles on display near the seawall and then boarded a bus and went to Vancouver Lookout. We had advance purchase tickets for Vancouver Lookout which saved us some money, but for the time we arrived, weren't really an advantage otherwise. There was no line when we arrived close to 4pm, and the advance tickets don't allow you to "skip the line" even if there was one. You still have to exchange your printed ticket for a real ticket at the counter. If it was very busy perhaps it would allow you in vs. someone else if it was full, but I felt like of all the pre-purchase tickets this was was likely the most unecessary. Ultimately, if you want to do the Lookout but aren't sure what day it works best, wait to buy your ticket until you get there and get it for the day it fits in best. This was also ranked on several sites as a "can't miss attraction". Having visited, it had nice views but I would definitely not consider it "can't miss". It fit nicely for us between Stanley Park and killing a little time before dinner, but of all the things we did in Vancouver, this was one I wouldn't do on a future trip.
We walked down the hill to find a spot for dinner and ended up at Steamworks Brewing. We had a great time and the building and restaurant have a lot of historical character. We liked everything we had, but my youngest son commented that the mussels were the best he'd ever had (and he has eaten them many times in other places). I would highly recommend a stop here. It is a very big restaurant with several dining rooms.
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