No Orcas, No Bears, No Fly! But Why?? Disney Wonder Alaska VIDEO/PICS/NAVS/MENUS/MORE

[Calfan]

Hi! How funny that I am replying to you in this TR! Our family did the Butchart Gardens & Butterfly Garden Tour. Yes, we don't have much time in this port, but it was highly worth it! I believe we finally got on the bus on the pier at 7:30pm and was getting back on the bus at the gardens at 9:55pm. I actually would recommend just doing the Butchart Gardens tour by itself, with no other excursion - butterfly garden or your city excursion. The reason I say this is because the gardens are 55 acres and are absolutely mind blowing. My husband took over 300 pictures just of the garden. When the bus picks you up at the pier to drive you to the gardens, which is 40 minutes from the pier, the driver will give you a whole run down of the city. You drive right through the city both on the way to the gardens and back from the gardens. Of course, on the way back it is dark, however you still get to see the city all lit up. Our driver even stopped the bus in front of the Empress Hotel for anyone who wanted to get out and take a picture. The driver narrated the whole time there and back. My DH, DD (7) and I raced around the gardens for the 1 1/2 hours were there. We did see almost all of it, however we didn't get to really take our time and admire our surroundings.

I just asked my husband if he would get off and do the tour again because of the short time, and he answered, "Yes most definetely!" The gardens were the most beautiful place I had ever seen and I have been to some beautiful places. The smell was incredible by all the flowers. I had commented like it smelled like Bath and Body Works plugins, since there are millions of blooming flowers. Bring a camera that can take pictures at night; the gardens are gorgeous when it is dusk and their little garden lights turn on. I will try my best to upload some pictures of the garden so you can get a feel for the beauty!

Thank you! I just checked the Port Adventures listing again, and there does not seem to be any option with just Butchart Gardens. However, from the description, it looks like the "Short City Drive" part of our tour is just the narrated bus ride to the gardens that you describe. Definitely going to stick with the excursion. I would hate to be in Victoria and not see the famous Butchart Gardens. Would love to see pictures if you get a chance. Sorry for hijacking your trip report, Andrea. I have loved reading it!

 

[Lindsey2065]

Loved reading this!!!! Thank you!!! We leave on 8/13 and we are super excited!!!!

 

[seizingtheday]

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your trip report. We have 28 day to go until our very own Alaskan cruise and this has helped me to become even more excited (didn't know it was possible!).

The day of your anniversary - while didn't go as expected - seemed fun and memorable. DH and I are celebrating our 2nd anniversary on the cruise and hope that ours is as enjoyable.

 

[AAshleySEG]

Thanks, I didn't have hats and gloves on my list yet! Better to be safe than sorry.

Cool!, You may not need them, but better safe than sorry I guess right...LOL

We had the Pixar channel on all the time as well. And I love Panne Cotta as well!

What a shame your surprise was cancelled. The pub skit was too funny.

Yay! Pixar Channel Ruled! Yeah, I think I have gotten over the excursion being cancelled now, I can't wait to go another cruise just to see the pub skit again!

Loved reading this!!!! Thank you!!! We leave on 8/13 and we are super excited!!!!

Thats great! I am glad you enjoyed it! I still have another day to post on the TR, so don't leave me yet...LOL

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your trip report. We have 28 day to go until our very own Alaskan cruise and this has helped me to become even more excited (didn't know it was possible!).

The day of your anniversary - while didn't go as expected - seemed fun and memorable. DH and I are celebrating our 2nd anniversary on the cruise and hope that ours is as enjoyable.

I hope you all have a great time on your cruise! It makes me happy that I made you more excited! You should have a great time! Happy early Anniversary!! Thanks for reading!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I have added a link for my Trip Video on the very first page at the head of the TR Links in case anyone is interested in watching that! I still have one more day to get done on the TR, so stay with me for a little bit longer if you can! I have just had a super busy weekend with a bridal shower and finishing this video, and still more stuff to do around the house! Have a Magical Day guys, and I hope to get the last day up very soon for you! Hope you enjoy the Video, It is only 11 minutes long, so pretty much 1 minute per day we were gone so I was proud that I kept it that short! Enjoy!!

 

[MJDisFamCruisers]

I have enjoyed reading your trip report. My family and I leave for our Alaskan cruise on July 30th and we can't wait. Thanks so much for posting the navigators...they really help us plan out our days ahead of time!

 

[Skylarr29]

Wow, Awesome video!! I'm so happy that you shared so many details of your trip with us!

What program did you use to make your video? I need to figure out how to make little excerpts into one video lol.

 

[AAshleySEG]

Wow, Awesome video!! I'm so happy that you shared so many details of your trip with us!

What program did you use to make your video? I need to figure out how to make little excerpts into one video lol.

I used Final Cut Pro X, but I have also used Sony Vegas Movie Studio a lot and it does great too! I'm glad you liked it! I took 26GB of hd video and narrowed it down to that lmao!

 

[kevdo]

Very nice video! Thanks for sharing, making me excited for our cruise in July.

 

[Skylarr29]

I used Final Cut Pro X, but I have also used Sony Vegas Movie Studio a lot and it does great too! I'm glad you liked it! I took 26GB of hd video and narrowed it down to that lmao!

Thank you, I'll look into those.

Seriously though, such a cute movie and just the right length! That's a lot of video!!

 

[AAshleySEG]

We were woken up on our last morning with the familiar chile of the announcements bell. The walk-off guests were already cleared to disembark at 7:30am. We quickly got ready, put the last few things in our bags, and headed down toward Animator's Palate for the See Ya Real Soon Breakfast! We said goodbye to Cristina, our room hostess, on the way down and saw a few other Disboards members leaving as well. For breakfast, I ordered the "For A Sweet Journey", which consisted of different types of pancakes and Jeremy got the Route 66, which had the classic eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns. By the time we ordered our food our Purple Minnie tags were called to disembark. I am pretty sure they had already called Ariel and Daisy also by that time, and the Minnie group was called about 10 minutes earlier than expected which was at about 8:20. Our second seating breakfast was at 8:15! Breakfast was very good, we hugged Mario and Tricia goodbye and I almost teared up yet again. It's like you feel like you get to know people on the ship for a week, and it is sad to think that you will more than likely never see them again for the rest of your life. The disembarkation process was really quick, they swiped out KKTW cards, we went down and easily found our luggage in the Purple Minnie Section...

...headed toward customs, which took all of 30 seconds because we didn't buy anything really. The guy didn't even check my passport, only Jeremy's. We got outside and called our ride Seattle Shuttle. We had an entire day to spend in Seattle and this shuttle service will drop you off anywhere you want to go in Seattle, tag your bags and store them in a secure facility, and then whenever you are ready to go to the airport, they will collect your bags and then pick you up wherever you happen to be at the time in downtown! It was awesome! I highly recommend it! So Josh, from Seattle Shuttle, picked us up at the Pier and dropped us off right in the middle of Pike Place Market. We went straight over to Chukar Cherries. I had been dying to get my hands on those since last Sunday. I think I bought 4 different kinds, and a jar of peach cherry salsa to take home! After walking the stalls of Pike for a bit we headed up toward the post office to ship all of our FE stuff home since it would not all fit in our luggage.

By now it was 10:35, we want to have some chowder at Pike Place Chowder for lunch and also I still needed to pick up a Hard Rock Glass. We also needed to stop by the Mariner Team Store to get a magnet. So we went back down to Pike to stop by the Confectional to get some cheesecake bites. I got a salted caramel one, and Jeremy a peanut butter and chocolate one. Deanna told me we had to go there, so we did!

We went by Hard Rock on our way there to get our pilsner glass and they stopped making them!! Now they only do pint glasses. Now we have this whole collection of things that I can no longer get urgh! Maybe I can find one on eBay who knows. At 11:00 we went to get some chowder, Jeremy stood in line while I found us a lovely seat, overlooking the meet the Producer sign in the market!

We opted for their namesake chowder in a sourdough bread bowl because it sounded really good! I can't say it enough, but it seriously is the best chowder I have ever had!

So we finished eating, and went down and bought the magnet from the Mariner Team Store, and started walking toward the mall and noticed the Duck Tour. I had remembered that the Schindels took it, we had also been on a duck tour in Boston before and had a lot of fun! We had some time to kill before our time slot at Chihuly Garden and Glass so we were like, hey, why not do the duck tour! Originally we had planned to go kayaking this morning, but we were way too tired to do any type of physically demanding activity. But we still ended up getting to go on Lake Union after all!

Our duck captain was named "Sid E Slicker"...lol It was really cool, we got to see the Sleepless in Seattle floating home, learned the difference between floating homes and house boats. Saw Dale Chihuly's home/studio and Gas Works Park which is really cool!

As we were driving around we happened to stop at a traffic light and there was a guy on the sidewalk waiting to cross the street I guess. The captain turned on some music and asked the dude to dance for us! That guy just started break dancing right there on the spot! It was awesome!! It was the craziest thing, even "Sid" didn't expect that guy to be able to dance as good as he did. (I Still wonder if it was set-up thing that happens on every tour). By the time the Duck Tour was over it was 1:40, so we chose to go on up to the 3rd floor of the mall to the Monorail Station and go over to Seattle Center. We contemplated going to the Pacific Science Center but changed our minds and just sat down for a bit to rest and catch up on TR notes. At 2:40 we got to the Chihuly Garden and Glass! It is beautiful inside there! The most amazing glass art I have ever seen!

The garden outside is right under the Space Needle, so how could I not take a photo like this...LOL

By 4:00 in the afternoon we had made our way back to Westlake mall. Pixie08 had told us about this place called Shorty's which is a 21+ bar/arcade that had really good hot dogs and nachos! So thanks to her for telling us about that! The booths are really cool in there, the tables are actually pinball machine tops, with everything still inside! So after we ate we were still trying to figure out things to do because we still had some time before we needed to go to the airport. I pulled up the Fandango App on my iPhone and found a theater near us, so we went to see a movie. The theater we went to was awesome! Porbably the nicest AMC I have ever been to, I think it was called the AMC Pacific Place Mall? We finished the movie and I called Seattle Shuttle to pick us up at 6th and Pine, which is where the theater was! That corner turned out to be pretty interesting. On one side there was a guy playing violin in a tux, and on the opposite corner, there was an older gentleman screaming curse words and obscenities at passing children and families. Luckily, we didn't have to wait too long for our driver. We made it quickly to the airport, checked in, dropped off our luggage, went through security. Our gate was the first one right after security so we didn't have to walk far at all, boarding started at 9:40, we got on the plane and made our way home back to Stanley.

I want to thank everyone for reading my TR! I had a lot of fun writing it and taking photos and video for it! We had a great time on our cruise, even though there were a few mishaps...LOL If anyone has any questions to ask about anything please feel free to ask me! If you enjoyed reading my TR, look for another one toward the end of August, We are going on an Atlanta/WDW/Disney Dream Cruise, August 17-24, 2012! I found TR's to be a great way to remember things on my vacation, and it has been wonderful looking back over it all and sharing it with all of you! Thanks again for reading, and I hope it helped some of you plan for your own upcoming vacations, or makes some of you want to go on a Seattle/Alaskan vacation...LOL! Have a magical day!

 

[midwestpat]

Thanks for sharing Andrea! I've enjoyed your TR and seeing how similar or different our memories of this cruise have been. Have a great time on your August cruise. My next cruise is probably 3 years away!

 

[Laundress]

Thank you for taking the time to share your trip. I have looked forward to each update. We hope to see Alaska in 2014. You have given me plenaty to think about. Will look forward to your August trip. Love your TR style.
Thank you again

 

[Linda67]

Noooo, I can't believe your TR is over

It's been such fun reading along and your photos are just wonderful

Thanks so much for sharing your trip with us all

 

[PizzieDuster]

Oh man, it's over? Bummer!

I really enjoyed your trip report! Loved all the pictures.

You did a fantastic job! I copied it to show my DH who wants to cruise to Alaska.

 

[Diana Lyn]

Do you have a website or contact info for the shuttle you used on disembarkation day? I'm looking for someone who will take our luggage and let us do some sightseeing before we head to the airport.

 

[rogattdm]

Yeah! You completed your first TR! Congratulations! I am so glad you guys did the duck tour. Totally corny, but a great way to see the city! Did you enjoy your cheesecake? I was so impressed that you guys did all that in one afternoon. Pike's Market (cherries, clam chowder, cheesecake), Duck Tour, Glass Exhibit, and movie - wow! I would have been pooped out!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Yeah! You completed your first TR! Congratulations! I am so glad you guys did the duck tour. Totally corny, but a great way to see the city! Did you enjoy your cheesecake? I was so impressed that you guys did all that in one afternoon. Pike's Market (cherries, clam chowder, cheesecake), Duck Tour, Glass Exhibit, and movie - wow! I would have been pooped out!

That cheesecake was great! We also had lots of fun on the Duck Tour! Next time instead of planning my own stuff to do, I am just going to ask you, that stuff seemed to work out better anyway...LOL! It sounds like a whole lot but I feel like it was really spread out over a long time period, we did sleep on the plane on the way home though, so I am pretty sure we were pooped!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Do you have a website or contact info for the shuttle you used on disembarkation day? I'm looking for someone who will take our luggage and let us do some sightseeing before we head to the airport.

Sure thing, I had never even heard of it before, we asked the concierge at the Mayflower Park and she said they were great, but not many people knew about them except locals, Here is their website:

http://seattleshuttle.net/

Phone number is: (206)-423-8388

I highly recommend them, they were fantastic!

 

[Luv_Tink]

I'm so sad that your TR is over! But is has gotten me so excited for our cruise at the end of August.

How many memory cards did you fill? I need to take inventory of our memory cards and decide if we need a couple more.

 

[AAshleySEG]

I'm so sad that your TR is over! But is has gotten me so excited for our cruise at the end of August.

How many memory cards did you fill? I need to take inventory of our memory cards and decide if we need a couple more.

I filled up a 32GB card with photos and HD video (On my Canon Rebel Camera I used the Medium Size Photo Settings) I then used about 1 GB maybe on a 16GB card. I took with me 2-32GB Cards, 3-16GB Cards, 1-4GB Card, but never needed the others. I always like to be safe rather than sorry...LOL I also took 2 back-up batteries because I did have to recharge, and even on the last day in Seattle, left the extra batteries in my camera bag, and so my camera died at Chihuly Garden & Glass so I didn't have it the rest of the day! Lesson learned there, keep extra batteries with me...HAHA