A WONDERful way to celebrate Independence Day! - Disney Wonder July 1, 2013

[clarefb]

I'm betting my wife and daughter would like the pajama party idea.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. May this new year bring prosperity to us all.

I think the day count is somewhere near the low 180's now. Won't be long and I'll be able to schedule our excursions.

I agree, I think its a great idea. My kids will love it

Has anybody thought about their planning before the cruise yet - thinking I need to start looking at hotels around the cruise terminal. We are thinking of heading to Seattle first & catching a couple of ball games (DS & DH are trying to catch a game at every ML stadium before he heads to college - luckily hes only 9....) then maybe a day or 2 in Vancouver to do Stanley Park etc.

Anyone got any bright ideas on hotels etc?

What excursions did you decide on? I'm thinking of going the kid friendly route, they have a 'family pack' of one excursion in every port that looks pretty cool. Makes it easy for me

Happy New Year to all my Dis friends - i honestly cannot wait for this cruise

 

[emum]

Just over an hour until 2013 here ! Hope you all have a wonderful New Years' I've suddenly got a lot more time on my hands, as I quit my job ! Last day was Christms Eve. there's method to my madness... I'm going back to uni to become a school teacher, so will stay at home while studying (tho' I have a fall-back casual job when I need extra $$). Plus I'll be at home for my eldest's 2 most important schooling years - uni entry here is based on work and exams in the last 2 years of school. Scary and exciting all in one !

In any case, can't wait until the cruise, and lookng forward to finally being able to devote *some* time to the DiS boards. Will catch up over the next week or so, with more posts to follow.

Cheers,
Sally

 

[dsnydaddy]

I think that I finally nailed down the excursions.

Looking exhibition (sounds fun)
Helicopter to Mendenhall glacier
White Pass train


Now, starting to plan our RV tour of Vancouver

 

[Ilovemycockerspainel]

There are four of us on this cruise. So looking forward to it! Starting the count down now!

 

[dsnydaddy]

Welcome!

Yep, we cruise this year! That makes it sound much closer than just yesterday.

 

[Mackie Mouse]

There are four of us on this cruise. So looking forward to it! Starting the count down now!

Hello and welcome! Please feel free to PM me or post here with information about the four of you, and let me know if you'd like access to the private website we have set up with details about our FE Exchange, the meetups we're planning, etc.

Yep, we cruise this year! That makes it sound much closer than just yesterday.

Not only do we cruise this year, but we're less than 6 months away! I think I can now officially get excited.

Once our booking windows open and people have Palo brunch plans nailed down, we'll figure out a day for the PJ brunch that's most convenient for everyone. Suggestions for a time welcome, as I don't have kids nagging me early in the morning to wake up Will be fun to see everyone in their jammies!

emum...glad to hear the exciting career-change news! I can tell you from experience that teaching is pretty much the most rewarding job there is

As far as excursions, here's what I have so far:
-Splurge on a floatplane to Misty Fjords in Ketichkan
-White Pass RR in Skagway
-Probably doing the Mendenhall Glacier and Tramway on our own in Juneau..maybe a jaunt over to the Alaskan Brewing Company. (Would love to hear what the rest of you are doing, as this port is really up in the air for me!)

Hotel-wise and flight-wise...I have airfare alerts set up and will probably just suck it up and buy tickets this spring if I can't get a good rate before then. Since hotel rates tend to be kind of crazy near the port, we'll probably hit up hotwire or priceline andf ind whatever deal we can near downtown!

 

[JeannieBlueEyes]

Hi Everyone! Hope your 2013 has started off great for everyone.

Mackie Mouse, will you please sign us up for the FE exchange? Tried to PM you but I haven't posted enough yet. This will be our 1st FE exchange. Trying not to get overwhelmed.

To update my group - My step-father will not be joining us. My mother will not be participating in the FE exchange.

Thanks,
JeannieBlueEyes

 

[Mackie Mouse]

Got it, Jeanne! I do need your cabin number as confirmation that you want in on the FE, and would appreciate at least your first names; sometimes people like to personalize their gifts (especially for the kids), or at least address them to people personally, so having names helps.

We have all the info up on a password-protected website, so I'll PM you with that information in case you don't have it yet. If you need to make more posts before replying back to me...just make a bunch of silly "dummy" posts here to bring up your count, I don't think anyone will care

It's not confirmed yet, but I'm proud to announce that we will be booking our first excursion this weekend! After doing a bit of price comparing and internet searching, we've decided to book a Misty Fjords floatplane excursion in Ketchikan through Island Wings on our own. I'm pretty excited. Apparently everyone else on our flight will also be from the Wonder...so if that's any of you, I'm looking forward to spending some time together!

 

[JeannieBlueEyes]

Thanks Mackie Mouse!!

Think I'm halfway there now with my post

I need to get back to looking at excursions again. I'm so excited!

 

[JeannieBlueEyes]

Wonder what the likelihood of seeing whales from the cruise ship is?? Trying to decide whether to book a whale watching excursion.

 

[dsnydaddy]

I've heard it was actually pretty high.

 

[JeannieBlueEyes]

Glad to hear that. Why I was hoping to hear. Thanks

 

[JeannieBlueEyes]

What I was hoping to hear.....

 

[Mackie Mouse]

Wonder what the likelihood of seeing whales from the cruise ship is?? Trying to decide whether to book a whale watching excursion.

We have friends who went through DCL in May of 2011 and saw a ton - they had extra-good luck, although sightings are all but guaranteed on most sailings. The trick I've seen on the Alaska excursions thread seems to indicate that your best bet is getting on a small ship where you'll be able to get a little more one-on-one attention from the naturalists on board and be competing less with other people for position. I wanted to do this as well, but DH has been whale watching before and feels "meh" about doing it again. I talked him into the floatplane thing...so you gotta compromise somewhere!

Any recs for what others plan on doing in Juneau would be great...this is really the one port of call where I feel unsure about our plans, like I'm not going to be maximizing our time....then again, I also felt this way about Key West on our honeymoon and we wound up having a great day there, so I'm sure it'll be OK.

 

[Dancin Mom]

We are booked for this cruise now and would like to be added to the list!
Lori (DW)
Scott (DH)
Violet (DD age 7 )

 

[Mackie Mouse]

We are booked for this cruise now and would like to be added to the list!
Lori (DW)
Scott (DH)
Violet (DD age 7 )

Welcome! I will also PM you the information for our private website. Would you just like to be added to the roll call, or to the FE exchange, too?

 

[Dancin Mom]

I wanted to say hello and generally introduce, and I'll keep on reading your posts to get to know you all more ! This is our second Disney Cruise, our previous one was 2011 Thanksgiving cruise to Mexico!! We're super excited about Alaska!!! WE have never been there!! I am happy to be going on the Wonder again! We loved our last cruise.

Forgive me if this is already out there, but I haven't come across it yet, but we'd love to join a Fish Extender list, I will keep looking for it, but feel free to guide me as I am overwhelmed in the forum and may get lost!!!! We'd also love to meet other families as our daughter is an only child, so it's fun to find friends!

We are coming from Cali, we're so excited and look forward to meeting you all!

Lori (DW) Scott (DH) Violet (DD age 7)

 

[Dancin Mom]

Welcome! I will also PM you the information for our private website. Would you just like to be added to the roll call, or to the FE exchange, too?

Oh great!! You're fast I would love to join the Fish Extender list, too!!!

Thanks so much!!!!!
Lori

 

[Mackie Mouse]

Forgive me if this is already out there, but I haven't come across it yet, but we'd love to join a Fish Extender list, I will keep looking for it, but feel free to guide me as I am overwhelmed in the forum and may get lost!!!! We'd also love to meet other families as our daughter is an only child, so it's fun to find friends!

We are coming from Cali, we're so excited and look forward to meeting you all!

Lori (DW) Scott (DH) Violet (DD age 7)

I just sent you the link to our website, which has all the info you'll need for the FE. You'll just need to reply to me with your cabin number so I can add you officially (We kept it private since sometimes people are uncomfortable with publicly posting their cabin numbers and names of their kids online.) There should be info up there as well about the meet-up we have planned for the first day, too!

Where in Cali are you? Not surprisingly, there are lots of west-coasters on our cruise (we're all the way out near Philly).

 

[Dancin Mom]

Oh, how I am seething with jealousy! Luke gets a high-five from me for that one, for sure! Hope you got video; that'll be one to show his future fiancee...

One of my students was in WDW last week (that's right, the oft-maligned, oft-discussed "let's pull the kid out of school for the week" vacation here on the DIS!) and it drove me bonkers. How dare she ride the new Test Track and see New Fantasyland without me! (For the record - upon finding out about the trip, I had her complete her spelling work fr the week and make up the test when she got back, had her math teacher circle the pages in her current homework packet to complete, and had her keep a journal of her trip. All missed classwork had to be completed this week at home after she got back. I teach third grade...when I taught middle school, I would generally assign similar work - here's the homework you're missing, complete the classwork when you get back - but there was a lot more of it...)

Sorry to nose in Mackie Mouse, but I'm readin the posts to get to know you all, and I noticed we have something in common I'm a teacher, too, 4th Grade

Hope you're having a great weekend!
Lori