Our Alaskan Adventure

[Chilly]

You have a very cute family.

I've been looking forward to this years TRs so I can relive my cruise from last year.

 

[mom2twokids]

THANK YOU so much for such an awesome trip report. We have a 20 month old traveling with us. How did your little one liked the nursery? How was your LOs experience overall?

I'm loving your pictures! Thanks for taking the time

My son was 21 months so almost the same age as your LO. He loved the cruise. He still talks non stop about the Mickey boat and how he wants to go back. I was worried about him in the nursery because I remembered it being so small. He was fine and loved every minute of it. They did crafts with him, played with Play-Doh, characters visited and the staff in the nursery were absolutely fantastic. I can't say enough good things about the nursery. Every time we walked anywhere near the nursery he would ask if he could go play.

 

[ktalina]

My son was 21 months so almost the same age as your LO. He loved the cruise. He still talks non stop about the Mickey boat and how he wants to go back. I was worried about him in the nursery because I remembered it being so small. He was fine and loved every minute of it. They did crafts with him, played with Play-Doh, characters visited and the staff in the nursery were absolutely fantastic. I can't say enough good things about the nursery. Every time we walked anywhere near the nursery he would ask if he could go play.

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond! You put me so much at ease in reference to the nursery. Thank you sooo soo much!

 

[RRBB]

My son was 21 months so almost the same age as your LO. He loved the cruise. He still talks non stop about the Mickey boat and how he wants to go back. I was worried about him in the nursery because I remembered it being so small. He was fine and loved every minute of it. They did crafts with him, played with Play-Doh, characters visited and the staff in the nursery were absolutely fantastic. I can't say enough good things about the nursery. Every time we walked anywhere near the nursery he would ask if he could go play.

I agree, Flounders is awesome. My daughter (now 6) spent many, many hours there on her first cruise when she was 15 months old and loved it. It was hard for us to walk down that hallway without her trying to run in. Even our son, who was 3 1/2 at the time, loved spending time there. Though he was old enough for the Oceaneer Club, he preferred Flounders with his sister.

 

[mom2twokids]

Thankfully today's excursion was scheduled to start a little later than Skagway's. We needed that extra bit of sleep.

Today we did the sled dog and musher's camp. We booked directly through Alaska excursions and found a significant savings in doing so. We were scheduled to start at 11:00 and had to meet our guide at the pier for 10:45.

We had a very slow start to the day and didn't head up for breakfast until around 10:00. We ended up sitting with the nice man who played piano in the atrium every night and struck up quite the conversation. My older children are both in piano lessons and they found it interesting to hear what he had to say. He had just started his contract and was such a friendly guy. My son who doesn't necessarily love taking piano (meaning he hates it) even enjoyed hearing what he had to say. I was hoping that he would be eager to get back to piano lessons when we returned. That didn't happen.

We hurried through breakfast and got off the boat. Our guide was waiting not too far off the boat and was really easy to find. We soon found out that we were getting our own private tour as no one else had booked our excursion!
I was slightly relieved as you never know how others will react to seeing a 1 and 2 year old on their excursion. As well behaved as our children are, they are still 1 and 2 and we can't change that.
We took a 20 minute or so drive to their camp. Only we arrived before the previous tour was done so he took us for a little detour and showed us some sights up the road. Mainly we drove up to ski hill and back, but he was a nice guy and we had an interesting conversation along the way.

We arrived at the camp and they had the sled all ready to go for us. We piled in the sled which was really a modified golf cart type thing with wheels. Off we went. We did a few laps and circles around the camp. Nothing all that exciting but it really was a lot of fun. A couple of the turns we went around so fast that it felt like we were going to fall out. The kids were all smiles the whole time. The sled ride lasted around 15 minutes and we returned back to the camp.

Upon returning we were able to get out and we were introduced to the mushers dog team. She introduced each one of her dogs by name and told us a little about that one dog. She definitely had such an attachment to these dogs and it was quite fascinating to see. She was from Kentucky and was an aspiring Iditarod racer. My son had just learned about the Iditarod in school a couple months back so it was really neat to hear and learn up close and personal about it. We got lots of time to pet the super friendly dogs.

Then we were taken to an area where we were introduced to the materials needed in an Iditarod race. The kids each got to put booties on one of the dogs and try on a musher's jacket and boot. They got to see a real sled that was once used in the Iditarod. I was thankful that we were the only ones on this tour because we really go to take it at our own pace. When the kids lost interest we didn't have to do anything to entertain them, we just moved on.

From here we took a quick walk over to the suspension bridge they have at the camp. Our baby especially enjoyed this. She has no fear of anything, including heights.

Then we got to head over for some hot chocolate and cookies. Although we didn't need the hot chocolate today, it turned out to be an incredibly beautiful day!

We then got to pet the 2.5 week old puppies. They were so sweet and my kids just loved holding them and cuddling with them.

Once we were done with them we loaded back up and headed back to the ship. Our ship was docked at the pier furthest away and a free shuttle was provided from the ship. We asked our tour guide to drop us off in town so we could explore a bit. He very happily did so and gave us his recommendations of places to see.

We wandered through the shops on the what seemed to be the main street and didn't find anything exciting so we headed back to the ship. We did notice the tramway and thought it really would be neat to see but the cost for all of us didn't seem worth it. It was the perfect day for it though as it was so clear and sunny all day.

I just love seeing the ship in the mountains. It never gets old!

Up next...Pixar Party and Semi-Formal night

 

[Chilly]

Great that you had the tour to yourself, you got some great photos, how cute are those puppies.

 

[ibmickey]

I have enjoyed reading your trip report. We leave on Aug. 2nd. We had booked an excursion that includes Liarsville but based on your report I am rethinking that. Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip.

 

[Meekins]

Thanks so much for the trip report and pictures - great to hear your excursion experiences!

 

[Ducky61]

I have enjoyed reading your trip report.

Have a question when do you find out when your family's character breakfast is.

Also was there a princess tea and did you family attend?

 

[gomets]

Thanks so much for taking the time to post such a detailed report. We are seriously considering booking this trip for next summer. You are making the decision an easy one.

 

[Goldeelox9]

Great Trip Report! I am loving this!

 

[Kim in TN]

Loving your trip report!!

 

[Ware Bears]

Enjoyed reading your report

 

[mom2twokids]

Sorry I haven't been around to work on my trip report. It's been an absolutely devastating week for our city. We live in Calgary, AB and our city a large portion of our province has been ravished by floods. It has been a terrible time and absolutely heartbreaking. Thankfully for us we were unaffected directly. Our house was fine and we were not evacuated. Unfortunately for our immediate family, they did not have such luck. Two of our brothers currently have water up to the ceiling in their basements. Things are starting to subside and while it is so hard to move on from such an emotional experience, they are doing the best they can.

That is a before and after shot of the area surrounding our hockey arena. Things are different around here and hopefully our city will begin to pick up the pieces and put it back together. As of now our downtown area is still closed to the 300,000 people who work there. They anticipate by mid week they should be allowed back in.



Having said all that, I wanted to update my report just a little. Can't leave everyone hanging. I appreciate everyone who has tuned in and taken the time to comment. I'm happy to help everyone out and I love reliving my vacation, especially at a time like this!

I want to finish of Juneau day as this day was definitely an overload. I hope they have changed this around for future cruise as I did not like how it played out. It was Pixar night and semi formal night, all on top of being a port day...

Once we were back on the the ship, around 3:00, we took the kids to club and the younger kids for a nap. I kept checking on the main lobby as I knew that there was a meet and greet posted with Woody and Jesse right following the 4:30 Pixar party. The screen in the lobby had been saying so all day long. My 2 year old LOVES Buzz and Woody and we could not miss an opportunity to meet Woody. Around 4:00 we woke him up from his nap and took him up to the lobby to get in line for Woody. We were standing in what I thought was a line until I realized it was a little jumbled. Then the Pixar party started and it disintegrated. I asked a CM what happened to the line and then I was told there was no meet and greet, it was a mistake they made posting it on the board! There were A LOT of upset people around us. We found the best possible spot to watch the party from where we were and tried to make the best of it.

Basically there were a few Pixar characters who came down the stairs 2 at a time and danced. Two would dance on the steps while the other characters mingled with those dancing in the lobby. Thankfully they were spread out and it worked out that we were in a good spot as there was always a character dancing right beside us. I appreciated that they moved around so we got to see some of them right up close. I did not appreciate then when we tried to take pictures of our kids with the characters we got snapped at by the CM's near by telling us there were no pictures of characters with our kids, only dancing. We took pictures anyways and I'm glad we did. We weren't trying to pose with the characters, my kids were dancing with the characters. It was definitely a new experience for the CM's as I don't think they really knew what to do and I assume that's why they were getting short with some of the people around us. There were some photographers wandering around, so we did get some photos they snapped for us as well. It was all really strange and very confusing.

In the end our kids got to dance with Elastigirl, Dug, Woody (thank goodness), Sully and Flik. Each one of those characters had a companion but they took their turns dancing on the other side of the lobby so we did not see them.

The party was definitely congested and unorganized but my kids really enjoyed it. I did not see value in going to the later show so we skipped it. We later found out it was much more organized and there were many pictures taken.

I didn't like that this was semi formal night as my 2 year old was wearing his Buzz costume. It was a fight to get it off him but I really wanted to get some family photos done so I needed him to be dressed nicer. It was a rush getting everyone into their gear so we weren't put together as nice as I wanted, but I do love how our pictures turned out.

After photos we headed to dinner, late again. I was seeing a trend and decided late dining is definitely better for our family.

We got to the dining room and my parents were already there, as usual. Asked them how their day was and my mom almost started crying. I guess when they went to go on their excursion they were told there was no wheelchair bus booked for them. They booked it through Disney and took all the right steps. They called after booking to inform Disney that they had a wheelchair, they double checked again a week before the cruise, and they were called down to port adventures upon boarding to double check what was necessary. THEY STILL GOT IT WRONG!! My parents were not able to get off and see Juneau because the CM that was in charge of port excursions that day told them that they could get a shuttle into town but were not guaranteed a shuttle back. I was furious when I heard this. I felt so bad for them and they were obviously extremely upset about it. I can't believe that Disney screwed up and I can't believe they made my parents feel like it was there fault. I wish I was there with them when this all happened as it is illegal for them not to provide my father transportation when they are providing it for everyone else. There is no reason why they couldn't have at least gone into town and looked around. I did personally talk to guest services and it was rectified but there is nothing they could have done to give that opportunity back to my parents. It was sad.

To top it off, it was Toy Story menu night and the menu was terrible in our opinion. If you don't want lobster, there wasn't much else to choose from. I think it was the worst menu I have ever seen on a cruise and I hope they fix that for future cruises. My father didn't like anything on the menu so he ordered chicken noodle soup. I wish I had taken a picture of it. It was basically chicken broth with a large chunk of chicken in it. No noodles, no vegetables or anything. It was gross. So he left dinner very hungry.

I just love this photo of my husband and baby. I wanted to share it to show you what the border is like on the restaurant photos.

They did have a bubblegum ice cream sundae and my kids did enjoy that, as did I.

Tonight was the Toy Story show in the theater and I could not let my 2 year old miss that. Even though it was late and he was woken up from his nap earlier in the day, he never took his eyes off the show. He LOVED it! I was surprised, I thought for sure we would leave half way through. I know a lot of people say they don't enjoy this show, but I really did like it and my kids definitely liked it.

I was happy to head to bed after the show. It was a long day with emotions running high and low. I am sure my parents felt the same way. It was hard because we had experienced the best excursion and they had such a terrible day. Thankfully every day is a new day and we get to start over again after a good night's sleep.

 

[mom2twokids]

I have enjoyed reading your trip report.

Have a question when do you find out when your family's character breakfast is.

Also was there a princess tea and did you family attend?

Our character breakfast was on Ketchikan day (I will try and update to post about that day tomorrow). It was very early in the morning and we were late...again.

As far as I know there were 2 princess tea days, one was on Tracy Arm day and the other was on the last sea day. We attended the last one but would have preferred the Tracy Arm day.

 

[mom2twokids]

I have enjoyed reading your trip report. We leave on Aug. 2nd. We had booked an excursion that includes Liarsville but based on your report I am rethinking that. Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip.

I'm sorry I missed your comment earlier. I just wanted to tell you that we did enjoy ourselves and it was an interesting excursion. I would definitely not want to do it a second time and I do think the excursion was over priced, but so is pretty much every other excursion.

I do think that seeing Chip and Dale and getting those photos with Donald were worth it. I know you get to see characters on the ship but they always feel so rushed. I never felt that way with them at Liarsville. They were always willing to spend time with our kids.

I also wanted my children to learn about panning for gold. I remembered doing it as a kid and I remember it being hard. I was telling my kids about the gold rush and wanted them to see for themselves what it was like panning for gold. I know this wasn't like it was in real life, but it gave them a taste of it and they were excited when they finally found their gold.

If I were to go back, I wouldn't do it, but I don't regret doing it.

I'm not much help, am I?

 

[Tsunami]

The characters were on deck 4 and when we saw them it was around 2:00-3:00. There seemed to photographers on deck 4 at all times. They didn't seem to know when the characters were going to show up though. It was a surprise for everyone. We did get photos from the photographer taken with Mickey and Minnie as well.
We never knew what side they were going to be on either. We were on the port side when all of a sudden I heard some one say let's go see Minnie. Sure enough we followed them and there she was on the starboard side. There was never a line longer than 4 people to see them.
I saw photos of people with Koda, Chip and Dale and Pluto positioned like our photos were. We never saw them ourselves. I imagine they were out before we discovered the characters.

Thank you so much! We are planning to purchase the CD as well and these are my favorite photos.

Very much loving your trip report and your family is just gorgeous.

I'm so sorry to see the devastation in Calgary. Sending your family my thoughts as they clean up and mend.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

This is great! You have a lovely family and I'm really enjoying reading about your trip. We're going on the 8/19/13 sailing and are excited to do the sled dog musher summer camp too! Those pictures of the kids with the puppies are adorable!

I've never heard about this princess tea party! I've got to check that out. Kids only? Maybe they could do that while we do brunch at Palo!

Looking forward to hearing more.

 

[cwid510]

Did you purchase the CD package? I thought that the CD will not have borders. I read somewhere that the CD only contain the picture. We only get the border if we purchase the print from Shutter, is that right?

 

[mom2twokids]

This is great! You have a lovely family and I'm really enjoying reading about your trip. We're going on the 8/19/13 sailing and are excited to do the sled dog musher summer camp too! Those pictures of the kids with the puppies are adorable!

I've never heard about this princess tea party! I've got to check that out. Kids only? Maybe they could do that while we do brunch at Palo!

Looking forward to hearing more.

The tea party is a family event. You get apple juice and cookies and a couple of princess's visit. Its cute and about 30 minutes long.