Alaska, The Final Frontier 2015

Hi Guys!

It's been a while since I have written a report here. But Ive decide that since this trip is going to be legend-(wait for it ...) dary! It deserve a report! So here is the clan:

ME (Sharma): 35 (36 on the cruise) geek, Photographer, Fan Girl, Bookworm, Coffee lover, CM - This is my birthday gift
DH (Obi - yes like the Jedi): 33 geek, engineer, video gamer, best friend




DBFF (Laura) - PhD student, geek, bookworm, whovian.
DF (Eric) - Laura's hubby. Geek, video gamer and the other birthday at the cruise!



We have done multiple vacations together(mostly driving through FL or Atlanta), but this will be the first one this big. Hopefully we will still like each other at the end...

When:
We depart Tampa, FL via Alaska Airlines to Seattle on Friday, August 28th. Get into the Disney Wonder on Monday, August 31st - Sept 7th

Plans:
Friday August 28th - We plan to arrived at Seattle. Get Car. Check In Days Inn Seatac Airport.

Saturday August 29th - visit Pike Market and the needle and head driving to Vancouver. Maybe, stop at the duty free and get some bottles of wine for the cruise. Check In at YWCA Vancouver.

Sunday August 30th - Visit Vancouver. We want to visit Capilano Suspension Bridge Park and the Winter Olympics site. Also, we want to take the ferry to Victoria Island.

Monday August 31st - Return Car. Get into the Ship. Make sure to go and check if we can add people to the Palo Brunch reservation and Mixology. Enjoy the Cruise!!!

Monday Sept 7th - Get car and drive back to Seattle. Check In at Red Roof near airport.

Tues Sept 8th - Return Car and fly home

We got private tour companies for 2 out of the 4 tours we are doing. In Skagway, we got the Glacier by Helicopter with Temsco for $65pp cheaper than with port Adventures. We are doing the Mush Camp same day in the afternoon but with Port Adventures. I found the difference in Price for this one was like $10 so we kept it with DCL.

In Juneau, we book a private Whale Watching Tour with rumrunners. This is in the morning so maybe we will tour the port in the afternoon.

In Ketchickan, there was nothing that got our attention (like the glacier and Whale Watching) so we got the DCL Lumberjack Show. It is $5 difference that doing directly to them so we kept it with DCL for now.

Palo Brunch, Mixology and long hours with coffee and blankets are planned. And tons of pics...And Laura and Obi plan on eating as many crab legs they can!

Laura and Eric have been in the Wonder before. Us only the Fantasy, but non of us as been in Alaska...so we are very excited! Let's see how it goes...

53 days!!!

silverangel879 said:

Sunday August 30th - Visit Vancouver. We want to visit Capilano Suspension Bridge Park and the Winter Olympics site. Also, we want to take the ferry to Victoria Island.

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Woohoo, sounds like a fabulous trip!! We are hoping to do Alaska next year, can't wait to hear what you think of it!
BTW, I just highlighted that part of your report because taking the ferry to Vancouver Island (Victoria is actually the capital city) is more than a one day excursion so you probably won't be able to do it seeing as you have Capilano Suspension Bridge and the Winter Olympic sites down for the same day. The ferry ride is 90 minutes each way, the island is huge (bigger than the entire UK) and the closet ferry terminals are Tswassen (45 minutes from downtown) or Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver (also 45 minutes from downtown). I would suggest coming back to Vancouver another time and trying to do Vancouver Island on a return trip ;-)

silverangel879 said:

Also, we want to take the ferry to Victoria Island

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To clarify....

• Vancouver is NOT on Vancouver Island
• Victoria is ON Vancouver Island

bcwife76 said:

Woohoo, sounds like a fabulous trip!! We are hoping to do Alaska next year, can't wait to hear what you think of it!
BTW, I just highlighted that part of your report because taking the ferry to Vancouver Island (Victoria is actually the capital city) is more than a one day excursion so you probably won't be able to do it seeing as you have Capilano Suspension Bridge and the Winter Olympic sites down for the same day. The ferry ride is 90 minutes each way, the island is huge (bigger than the entire UK) and the closet ferry terminals are Tswassen (45 minutes from downtown) or Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver (also 45 minutes from downtown). I would suggest coming back to Vancouver another time and trying to do Vancouver Island on a return trip ;-)

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This why I love this forum! You can get the correct info right away!! Thanks a lot... So sad *sarcasm* we would need to go back to Vancouver! LOL

xlxo said:

To clarify....

• Vancouver is NOT on Vancouver Island
• Victoria is ON Vancouver Island

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I got it for the post below but Thanks a lot for making sure I did!

Haha, no worries. You are going to have a fabulous trip for sure!!

A little update...

We got our car reservations. Lucky to have a corporate discount through my hubby's work. It is with National and they are located at the Cruise port in Vancouver. We are picking it up on Friday in Seattle and return it right before the cruise. And then rent it again after the cruise and return it at the airport in Seattle.

For the first, we get to pick from the Emerald Club Aile! Hoping for a big car! For the second one, we could only get a Standard, so we may have to upgrade once we get there. But we'll see.

48 Days!!!

Thanks for sharing! We are just starting to plan and I'm trying to read as much as I can so we can determine the best excursions.

Magic 2013 said:

Thanks for sharing! We are just starting to plan and I'm trying to read as much as I can so we can determine the best excursions.

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Thanks for joining in!

Well, peeps, today is officially T-30 days to our vacation!!!!

We will be departing TPA to SEA a month for today. To start our crazy Alaskan adventure. I feel it will be the longest month. Although, My parents are coming to visit for 2 weeks, so that will occupy some of the time!!

We still deciding which jacket will be the best buy so probably this weekend we will have a jacket...the problems of living in tropical place

Hope everybody is doing great!

Look what finally got here!!!!


Our paperwork and tags!!! It is official people!!!!



Also, the app as confirmed that a month from today we will be boarding the Wonder!!



Hubby and I finally found some weather proof jackets that we love and some gloves. We are still trying to decide on shoes. We found some but haven't decide! Let see how that goes!

That's all for now! Have a great weekend!

So exciting, it's getting so close!!!!!! So is your cruise the last one to Alaska for the season before the Wonder heads to Hawaii?

We're on the same cruise! Also doing Rumrunners in the morning....see you there!

We're on your cruise! See you on Monday!

Hope you're having a fabulous time, sorry the weather was so crap here in Vancouver A massive windstorm knocked power out to 500,000 people, we were in the dark for 42 hours! Will you write a TR after your cruise?