Thank you!
We did have a great trip! I'd probably say we're more of the warm weather type of vacationers, but Alaska is something that was on our bucket list. We are so glad we did this cruise, and I'm sure it's something that we'll all remember for years and years! I was just so glad we could take the kids before they're grown and out of the house. It just seems like people save Alaska for when they get older, and we wanted to make sure our kiddos got to see it before we (mom and dad) got old.
As far as seeing vendors at the port, the most noticeable place for us was at Ketchikan. We did walk around a bit in Skagway, and there were probably a few vendors there but I can't say for sure what they were offering. For Juneau, we left directly from the ship on our excursion, so I didn't see any vendors there although I'm sure they were somewhere. They were definitely in Ketchikan though because we almost booked something with one of them before our Misty Fjords excursion but were nervous because of the time.
It's doable if you get right off of the bus, go straight to Nugget Falls, don't mess around too long, and head straight back. Hopefully, by the time you'd do this, they will figure out that guests need more than 45 minutes! It's neat even if you don't get to walk down to the falls, but we were determined because we love waterfalls!
I thought the weight limit for our ziplining in Juneau was 70 pounds, and they didn't weigh them, so I think he'd be close enough. I didn't think about the age limit though.
As for the laundry, my son changes clothes several times a day. He should have been my girl.
Susan
! Our family motto is "never a dull moment" too! Maybe we should arrange to be at Disneyworld at the same time if you (don't get kicked out of the DVC reps office) and end up buying into DVC. 
It would be fun to be able to meet up at WDW, but I fear that we could get in a whole lot of trouble. Not you and me, but our families. You know, now that I think of it, the WDW section of the DIS has trip reports too, so it would make for good writing material. We'll have to ponder this one.We are booked with Michelle for our day in Ketchikan and I can't wait!! Thanks for sharing your experience with us. And my family would have been laughing hysterically if I fell
I knew before I even stepped out of that plane that if anyone was going to fall, it would likely be me. I didn't intend on falling twice though. I mean, that was just uncalled for! Glad I could provide entertainment for the family though. Believe me, I laugh at them when they do stupid things!
) Even Brianna was feeling sick from the waves. I asked my husband to turn on the t.v. to see how big the waves were, and I was fully expecting to see something like 25 to 30 feet, but it said they were 8 to 13 feet (I think they lie) and that conditions were rough. I could hardly even take a shower because the ship was rocking and about to knock me over! 
Anyhow, I told him about all of the white hat people I had talked to and how we tend to almost always vacation with Disney involved in one way or another. Of course, we are going to Hawaii next spring break and already have that booked, so he had to throw in my face how that was just a big waste of money because if we were thinking of doing DVC, we should have just stayed at Aulani. I quickly reminded him that it would be very unlikely that we could get Aulani this close (I really didn't know that but he didn't know I didn't know that) and besides, Aulani is on Oahu, and we wanted to go to Maui. I didn't press it too much, but I made darn sure I pointed out the positives. He showed just a slight bit of interest, and that's when I really started playing my A game. Because we bought in on the cruise, we also got a $500 onboard credit, and since we'd been traveling like rock stars, we could use that! We set up a meeting for 4:30 to close on the deal. My husband immediately put on his "white hat". I continued to stalk all of the white hat cruisers. I'm not at all afraid to talk to complete strangers. Trust me. My family thinks there is something wrong with me. I tell them I'm just nice like that. They were fine with refunding our money, so it was no big deal.), and we decided we really wanted to watch the entire game, so we skipped Disney Dreams. We've seen it many times though, so no big deal. Forgot to mention, that the Rock Star lifestyle came out a bit more--I scheduled a hair appointment for Brianna at 5:30. They did a great job though! We said our goodbyes and this ended our fabulous Alaska vacation. Seriously, I've already emailed the lady and we've talked DVC a couple of times since I got back. They were just great people and so excited about DVC and said it was one of the best things they've ever purchased. Of course, I made sure my husband heard that! Besides, we won $407 in bingo and got a $500 OBC, and it should all be mine. I'm the one that plans these darn things!
Okay, the waves seemed as if they were almost to roll the ship over, and I felt very under the weather. In fact, I wasn't even sure if I would be able to get ready for our DVC meeting at 10:00. (Just kidding! I would have gone to that throwing up if I had to!
Eventually, the movement of the ship finally calmed down, and both Brianna and I started to feel a bit better. In the meantime, I had been casually discussing DVC with my husband. I don't want to go into details of our conversation because I'm afraid it might come across as me being the begging type, which I'm not.
So, long story short, we go to the fancy inside stateroom office of our DVC representative, and we bought in to DVC!
Brianna went to play bingo with Toni, my friend that was traveling with us, and Brandon went to a free throw contest. I headed back to the room to start the whole dreaded packing process. I must say though that having a sea day on the last day of the cruise was quite nice. In past experience, I'm just a straight you know what because I'm so stressed about getting those darn suitcases out by 10:30 p.m. For this cruise, I was as happy as a lark on the last day, which I'm sure my family totally appreciated.
We headed up to Beach Blanket Buffet to get some lunch and found out they were doing a BBQ outside of Beach Blanket. It was yummy! They had chicken, steaks, and disgusting fish (remember--the smell of seafood makes us almost vomit). They also had stir fry on the buffet, and it was scrumptious!
Since we were rock stars and were feeling lucky on this cruise, we headed to the Walt Disney Theater at 3:30 for a final round of bingo. Turns out, the final day of bingo is NUTS! They didn't start on time, and we ended up having to ask for our money back because we had to go sign the papers to spend thousands on DVC.
We headed to the fancy DVC reps office again and closed the deal. He presented us with a few goodies from DVC and reminded us we'd be getting the $500 OBC. It was as easy as that. So now, part of the reason I've been slow at getting my report done is because I've been on a whole new section of the DIS for me--DVC!!!!!
After we finished closing on the DVC contract, we headed to Diversions to watch the Stanley Cup game between the Canucks and the Bruins. They were serving yummy chicken wings and chips and salsa. It was nice. This was the 6th game (the Canucks lost
We went back to the room before dinner to set out our suitcases, got our tip envelopes ready, and met our tablemates for one last dinner at Triton's. We told everyone we wouldn't be at breakfast because we had to meet in the Walt Disney Theater by 7:45 to get off of the ship early due to our 12:15 flight time. I should also say that for the first time ever, we gave our head server in the dining room extra money in his tip envelope. In all of our DCL cruises, we hardly ever see the head server and aren't sure what he does. For this cruise, our head server was awesome! He came and talked to us every single night, and he made his presence known. We gave extra money to everyone we tipped, but I felt really good about giving it to the head server this time!
I'm not going to do a separate post for the day we got off of the ship, but I will say that it went smoothly. We took a bus to the airport, had a layover in Minneapolis, and made it back to Kansas City safe and sound. I will add though that I was separated from my family on the flight due to the seat assignments, and I got to sit with two people that were DVC! My family couldn't believe it! They said we never shut up the entire flight!
Thank you all for reading! I hope I've been able to help out at least a few cruisers with some tips and advice, and I hope you all have happy sailings in the future. As for me, I gotta get off here. I'm meeting my sister in Kansas City for lunch today, and I think the Coach store is calling my name. What? You didn't think I would give up the Rock Star lifestyle that easily, did you? This will be it though. Today is the end. NO MORE ROCK STAR SPENDING AFTER TODAY. Well, maybe after tomorrow, but we'll see.......Just don't tell my husband!
Susan
).
Fantastic trip report! Welcome to the DVC family. Be prepared for a serious case of "addonitis" though. We started our DVC love affair at BLT in 2009 and added VGC (twice) last year. Being able to walk over to the Magic Kingdom from BLT is awesome and it's great to see the fireworks from your room or the Top of the World Lounge. The absolute best for us so far was the 1-bedroom we got at VGC last summer--you can watch World of Color from the balcony of the room! DH put in a request for the same room when we get there next Saturday (pre-DCL trip
It took me a while to figure out what "addonitis" was when I first got home from my cruise and started lingering on the DVC forums. I can see where that's a pretty common illness DVC members get. I'm still trying to figure out all of the abbreviations though, and it's taking me a while. Heck, I just figured out all of the abbreviations on the DCL forums, and now I am constantly having to reference the stickies to figure out what things mean on the DVC forums! VGC is villas at Grand California, right? Don't worry about answering me cause I'm heading over to the DVC forums to check it out! Thanks for reading my report! Hoping I don't get addonitis any time soon or my DH is going to get rid of me.
I'm not sure why the seas were a bit rougher on the last sea day, but I wouldn't worry too much about it. Overall, we had great weather and smooth sailing. I'm just somewhat sensitive to movement at all, so I think that's why it bothered me so much. Up until that last day, I didn't feel movement AT ALL, and if I did, it wasn't anything that made me feel icky, so I think you'll be fine. Have a wonderful trip!
