July 26, 2011 – 7 Night Alaska ~ Bears, Whales, Eagles and Ducks. Oh My!

Brack, there are a few threads on the main board where people are reviewing the Vancouver & Alaska excursions. I have gotten a lot of ideas from there.
 
This is a very bad news/good news post.
Our life long friends, Bill and Anita, were sailing with us this trip. Unfortunately Bill passed away on Saturday. That is the very bad news. :sad2: Before he passed he told Anita that he absolutely wanted her to go ahead with the trip with us. So, the good news, even at this late date DCL let us put their daughter, Ginger, in his place and so she and her 2 year old son, Ike, will be sailing with us. :goodvibes So, we are excited for Ike to see Mickey and friends up close and personal for the very first time. :hug:
 
This is a very bad news/good news post.
Our life long friends, Bill and Anita, were sailing with us this trip. Unfortunately Bill passed away on Saturday. That is the very bad news. :sad2: Before he passed he told Anita that he absolutely wanted her to go ahead with the trip with us. So, the good news, even at this late date DCL let us put their daughter, Ginger, in his place and so she and her 2 year old son, Ike, will be sailing with us. :goodvibes So, we are excited for Ike to see Mickey and friends up close and personal for the very first time. :hug:

Angie, sad but also happy. Anita will get to build some very happy memories! And being with good friends will be wonderful for her.


Pj
 
This is a very bad news/good news post.
Our life long friends, Bill and Anita, were sailing with us this trip. Unfortunately Bill passed away on Saturday. That is the very bad news. :sad2: Before he passed he told Anita that he absolutely wanted her to go ahead with the trip with us. So, the good news, even at this late date DCL let us put their daughter, Ginger, in his place and so she and her 2 year old son, Ike, will be sailing with us. :goodvibes So, we are excited for Ike to see Mickey and friends up close and personal for the very first time. :hug:

Angie, I am very sorry to hear about your friend.
 


Brack, do we have a room number (FE) for Brack III (my husband is a III, too) and Jennifer yet?
 
This is a very bad news/good news post.
Our life long friends, Bill and Anita, were sailing with us this trip. Unfortunately Bill passed away on Saturday. That is the very bad news. :sad2: Before he passed he told Anita that he absolutely wanted her to go ahead with the trip with us. So, the good news, even at this late date DCL let us put their daughter, Ginger, in his place and so she and her 2 year old son, Ike, will be sailing with us. :goodvibes So, we are excited for Ike to see Mickey and friends up close and personal for the very first time. :hug:

I am so sorry for your loss. I am so glad he told her to go on this trip. My BIL passed away last year after 10months of fighting lung cancer....We went on a cruise last summer and he was determined to make that one. We know he is with us on this cruise and he enjoyed cruising so much. Im sure Bill will be with her on this one.........
 


Angie, sad but also happy. Anita will get to build some very happy memories! And being with good friends will be wonderful for her.


Pj

Angie, I am very sorry to hear about your friend.

I am so sorry for your loss. I am so glad he told her to go on this trip. My BIL passed away last year after 10months of fighting lung cancer....We went on a cruise last summer and he was determined to make that one. We know he is with us on this cruise and he enjoyed cruising so much. Im sure Bill will be with her on this one.........

Thank you all for the kindness. I am also glad that their daughter will get to travel with her. I know they both will be able to use some deck 4 lounge time. It was lung cancer that took him also, but it only took 2.5 months from diagnosis to death. In April they told him it was a slow growing, not to worry about small tumor that they would do mild chemo on at some point soon. A week ago they said "it exploded" for some reason and they found it in 3 more sites. :confused3


I know, Brack!!! How are we going to get those really cool photos with the life vests and Mickey hands? :rolleyes: And what if I can't figure out where mine is or how to put it on if a real emergency happens!!!! :upsidedow
 
Thank you all for the kindness. I am also glad that their daughter will get to travel with her. I know they both will be able to use some deck 4 lounge time. It was lung cancer that took him also, but it only took 2.5 months from diagnosis to death. In April they told him it was a slow growing, not to worry about small tumor that they would do mild chemo on at some point soon. A week ago they said "it exploded" for some reason and they found it in 3 more sites. :confused3


oops it was actually 6 months for my BIL I don't know why I was thinking 10months. Anyhow we had these bracelets made in his memory, I <3 LUNGS. Last summer my youngest daughter had a bracelet that said I Love ****ies in sponsor of Breast Cancer. My BIL said to us, why don't you have I Love Lungs.....So after he passed we had them made up in his honor. We are all very involved with American Cancer Society Relay for Life and they dedicated the Relay in his memory. The bracelets were a hit.....I guess what I am trying to say is cancer affects us all in one way or another, unfortunately, and I so feel for your friend and her family. I just know she is going to have an awesome trip.

18 days to our Alaskan Cruise!! :cool1: :cool1: :cool1: :cool1:
 
This is a very bad news/good news post.
Our life long friends, Bill and Anita, were sailing with us this trip. Unfortunately Bill passed away on Saturday.[\QUOTE]

I am very sorry for everyone's loss. I am glad they will still go on the cruise. Are they part of the FE Group?
 
I have tried to reach Shellie to get the details for her family, including the cabin number. She hasn't been on this board for a while, so I'm wondering if they are still coming with us. Other than that, this is updated with everything that's been posted:

ScreenName.........................Names.......... ...Cabin #...Adults...child......Ages...Girls/Boys........... Names............Restrictions
3PrincessMommy/BigAWL...Joann & Aaron.....6024/6026......2..........3......9, 7, & 4....3g.....Caitlin/Alexandra/Grace.....none
Brack...............................Brack & Annette.....2515..........2
" .....................................Brack & Jennifer.......6323........2
Kate2961...........................Kate & Randall ......7552..........2..........1... .....10.........1b...................Aidan...................none
Memowse9.......................Lori & Dennis..........7130..........2
Mikash.................................Shellie.... ................................
MrsMork........................Dennis & Angie..........6319..........2......... .1 ........11.........1b...................Aaron….... ...........none
Plutojudy...........................Fred &Judy............5122..........2
Kwm...................................Cindi & Dan.........7564...........2....... ..2.......7 & 9......1g/1b..............Kaili/William.......no princesses/loves Pooh & Cars
"....................................Grdma/Grdpa/Myk....7560...........3..........1. .......11.........1g.................Mikela. ...............no princesses/loves Stitch
Ariel 39...........................Teri & Jennifer.........5142...........2..........1...... ....9..........1g
"...................................Danny & Kathie.........5144...........2
"...................................Nishelle & Breanna....5146...........1......... .1.........15.........1g
"..................................Ron & Kristina............5148...........2
 
Our family is taking the Amtrak train from Vancouver to Seattle on the evening of August 2. We've been wondering what we could do during that day - given that we have 3 kids and 5 suitcases. I thought others might be in a similar situation, so figured I'd post what I've found here:

There is luggage storage at Canada Place:
http://www.prioritybaggage.ca/services-cruiseterminalbaggagestorageservice

It costs $6 per bag per day for your average suitcase size.

From Canada Place http://www.canadaplace.ca/ you have several options if you don’t want to do the “guided tour” thing:
- You can walk about 2 miles along the sea wall and visit Stanley Park http://vancouver.ca/parks/parks/stanley/ and the Vancouver Aquarium http://www.vanaqua.org/.
- If you are going to walk to Stanley Park, you can also visit the Klahowya Village http://www.aboriginalbc.com/klahowya-village for a visit into Aboriginal life, legends, and artistry. You can also take the #19 bus to get here or the aquarium.
- You can take the shuttle to the Capilano Suspension Bridge http://www.capbridge.com/index.php. The shuttles are free and start at 9am. They start returning at 10:45am.
- You can take a free shuttle to Grouse Mountain http://www.grousemountain.com/. You must purchase a general admission ticket ($39.95/adult) to ride the shuttle.

There are also several tour companies that operate out of Canada Place:
West Coast Sightseeing (aka GreyLine) offers a 4-hour Highlights of Vancouver Tour especially for Post (and Pre) Cruise travelers.
http://www.vancouversightseeing.com/vancouver-city-highlights-tour/
They will take you and your luggage and drop you at the Train Station following the tour.
The website says they also offer other tours, but I haven’t heard back from them to see if any would work Post-Cruise. For example the site suggests adding on the Aquarium Post-cruise, but not sure about the logistics on this one yet.

Landsea Tours & Adventures http://www.vancouvertours.com/tours also offers various city tours. They will pick-up at the Pan Pacific, which is across the street from Canada Place, and drop you at the Train Station. They tour they recommended for this was their 2-hour Vancouver Snap Shots tour, which departs the Pan Pacific at 11am. I have asked them if there are any other options, but haven’t heard back yet.

If you want to do your own private tour, you can book a private car through http://www.ridebooker.com/. They will pick you and your luggage up at the terminal and take you anywhere you want to go for $90/hour. You can choose from stretch limos to 10 pax vans to luxury sedans on this site.

I hope this is helpful to everyone!
 
I am very sorry for everyone's loss. I am glad they will still go on the cruise. Are they part of the FE Group?

They are not.

Our family is taking the Amtrak train from Vancouver to Seattle on the evening of August 2. We've been wondering what we could do during that day - given that we have 3 kids and 5 suitcases. I thought others might be in a similar situation, so figured I'd post what I've found here:

There is luggage storage at Canada Place:
http://www.prioritybaggage.ca/services-cruiseterminalbaggagestorageservice

It costs $6 per bag per day for your average suitcase size.

From Canada Place http://www.canadaplace.ca/ you have several options if you don’t want to do the “guided tour” thing:
- You can walk about 2 miles along the sea wall and visit Stanley Park http://vancouver.ca/parks/parks/stanley/ and the Vancouver Aquarium http://www.vanaqua.org/.
- If you are going to walk to Stanley Park, you can also visit the Klahowya Village http://www.aboriginalbc.com/klahowya-village for a visit into Aboriginal life, legends, and artistry. You can also take the #19 bus to get here or the aquarium.
- You can take the shuttle to the Capilano Suspension Bridge http://www.capbridge.com/index.php. The shuttles are free and start at 9am. They start returning at 10:45am.
- You can take a free shuttle to Grouse Mountain http://www.grousemountain.com/. You must purchase a general admission ticket ($39.95/adult) to ride the shuttle.

There are also several tour companies that operate out of Canada Place:
West Coast Sightseeing (aka GreyLine) offers a 4-hour Highlights of Vancouver Tour especially for Post (and Pre) Cruise travelers.
http://www.vancouversightseeing.com/vancouver-city-highlights-tour/
They will take you and your luggage and drop you at the Train Station following the tour.
The website says they also offer other tours, but I haven’t heard back from them to see if any would work Post-Cruise. For example the site suggests adding on the Aquarium Post-cruise, but not sure about the logistics on this one yet.

Landsea Tours & Adventures http://www.vancouvertours.com/tours also offers various city tours. They will pick-up at the Pan Pacific, which is across the street from Canada Place, and drop you at the Train Station. They tour they recommended for this was their 2-hour Vancouver Snap Shots tour, which departs the Pan Pacific at 11am. I have asked them if there are any other options, but haven’t heard back yet.

If you want to do your own private tour, you can book a private car through http://www.ridebooker.com/. They will pick you and your luggage up at the terminal and take you anywhere you want to go for $90/hour. You can choose from stretch limos to 10 pax vans to luxury sedans on this site.

I hope this is helpful to everyone!

This is REALLY good stuff! :thumbsup2
 
Just found four more families cruising with us on cruisecritic's roll call for our cruise. don't know if any of them are already in this group...Thought it would be nice to invite them to join our group since they all appear to be DCL newbies.
 
This is a very bad news/good news post.
Our life long friends, Bill and Anita, were sailing with us this trip. Unfortunately Bill passed away on Saturday. That is the very bad news. :sad2: Before he passed he told Anita that he absolutely wanted her to go ahead with the trip with us. So, the good news, even at this late date DCL let us put their daughter, Ginger, in his place and so she and her 2 year old son, Ike, will be sailing with us. :goodvibes So, we are excited for Ike to see Mickey and friends up close and personal for the very first time. :hug:

MrsMork - We are so sorry to hear the news about your friend. Sending our condolences.
 

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