We landed in Vancouver on the Friday before the Monday departure. There was a long line for taxis at the airport. I should have ordered a car--lots of people had. But the taxi fare was a flat fee of $31 Canadian to downtown. We stayed at the Blue Horizon hotel. Big rooms and balconies. You could walk to the port (all downhill) but we took a taxi. It was easy to board the ship. They did itemize our two bottles per person wine but that was okay. I purchased the wine package pre-boat for dinner but it was the same price on the boat. We brought two corkscrews and we ordered cheese platters in the late afternoon so that we could have wine and cheese on our balconies with the wines we were allowed bring on board with us. Our room was very near the laundry and that was helpful. It was also nice to be on the starboard side of the boat. Predeparture, we were told that the verandah partitions could only be opened if there were connecting doors, but really you could open the deck partitions for about five rooms in a row depending on where the steel bulkheads were. So for example rooms 7584 all the way through 7592 could have had open verandah partitions, which we liked because we were a big family traveling together. The Disney coffee was awful. I brought my own. All the musical acts on board were excellent. We really liked the Cadillac lounge. The Crown and Fin pub was able to show the world cup games which were very popular. The Frozen show that we saw was pretty bad. Not equal to their other efforts. There were lots of first-run movies. We don't have little kids so we didn't have to worry about standing in line for characters and photo ops. I brought a swimsuit in case I want to go to the hot tub but I never did. Kids were able to swim in the pool because it was warm enough. The fitness area on the Wonder has enough machines, but doesn't have any dedicated group work out space although there were classes offered which were very popular and I'm sure on future cruises they are going to have to expand that area.

We brought field glasses to view from our deck. Lots of whale tales and seals and birds. We did the white pass railway in Skagway. It was a little long but the views were great. In Juneau, we meant to take the bus to the glacier but milled about town and soaked up Wi-Fi instead. In Ketchikan we did the zodiac boat tour adventures and that was really fun. Our kids were able to book on the Tracy Arm boat and really liked it, although they liked the zodiac tour better. Getting off the boat was easier than expected. We did not give them our bags the night before. We did the 7:30 AM walk off and there was essentially no immigration/custom rigmarole and there were no lines for taxis; we could have been in a taxi by about 7:50 AM. By about 9 AM, there was a line for taxis. Unfortunately, I had ordered a noncancelable car to the airport for 9 am and it couldn't come earlier so I wish I had taken a taxi instead! At the airport, it took about half an hour to clear security and US immigration and customs which was done on the Canadian side. If you had Global entry, it would have been much much quicker. So for anyone who has time to apply for Global entry and do the interview prior to their cruise, it would definitely save you time at the airport. We thought that we would be pushing it to make a 12:50 PM flight on the same day that the ship docked but we had oodles of time. If anyone did the walk off at 7:30 am, you could probably make any flight starting at 11.30 AM. But if you let them take your bags the night before and you have to pick them up from baggage claim, you would very likely be getting off the boat at 9 AM and there might be a line for taxis by then, which would delay you. We had a beautiful scenery and great weather in Alaska. Very much enjoyed it. Because it's the inner passage, there was always mountains to look at. Not like a Caribbean cruise where there is just ocean all around you.