pillow
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2007
Day 11 – Embarkation Day
Cruise day is finally here! A few words about our pre-cruise time in Vancouver . . . I felt like we were lazy tourists here. There was so much more to explore, such as Grouse Mountain, Gastown, and Granville Island. But I think we needed to chill out a bit and re-charge for the second part of our vacation. I also would have liked to spend more time in Stanley Park. We’ll just have to go back I guess.
That morning, we finished packing, and ran downstairs to Starbucks for breakfast before checking out. Mom and B offered to pack our two remaining bottles of wine into their rolling carry-on to make it less cumbersome for us since we just had backpacks instead of an easy to handle carry-on (Disney requires you to carry-on any alcohol versus packing it in “checked” bags). I should have known that handing over my precious Tofino pinot noir to the man who can drink any college student under the table would prove to be a mistake! Bye Westin . . .
As I mentioned in post #1, we had booked a porthole room for the four of us. At booking time, I was not willing to spend the additional $2K for a verandah. We decided to arrive at the port early and attempt to upgrade, as you can generally get a better price at the port if something happens to be available.
We caught cabs in front of our hotel and were pulling into the port at 10:00am sharp. I had read various posts about this port and how crazy things were with long lines, etc. We had the polar opposite experience. This was the quickest and easiest check-in experience we’ve ever had. Our bags were taken as we exited the cab, so we didn’t have to fool with those anymore. We were directed upstairs and walked right up to check-in with zero lines! (Note: someone had mentioned that they had just reversed the process where previously you had to go through security first before check-in)
We had an 11:00 boarding time, and Mom and B had 11:30. However, we were both able to check-in much earlier than this. The check-in was quick and painless, and then I walked down to the manager’s station to inquire about an upgrade. I REALLY wanted a verandah room, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up since the cruise had been sold out for a while. Luck was on our side (thank you seagull!), and we were assigned a verandah room for an additional cost of $615 (very worth it in my opinion). More on this later, but we used that balcony CONSTANTLY. We loved having it!
After check-in, we were directed downstairs to go through security and then customs, and then to the cruise waiting area. This process was unbelievably easy. We had to wait about an hour or so before boarding.
Mom and B . . . He is smiling because of whats in that purple bag there!
At some point during the hour of waiting, characters appeared for photos. I’m going to apologize in advance here for knowing zilch about which characters were onboard. My kids have never been super interested in characters. Even when they were small, they would avoid them. And now that they are teenagers, they still don’t care much. We didn’t do the character breakfast, nor did we go to the Frozen show. Sorry – we are boring people! (I have to admit, I was a little curious about the Frozen celebration, but there must have been something else more important going on that night.)
After boarding, we headed directly up to Beach Blanket (I kept calling it Cabanas all week) for lunch. Then I went to reserve Mixology for the next day (sea day). Mom bought a few bottles of Cabernet for herself and B and was kind enough to purchase some beer for DH. The room was ready at 1:30, and we headed down to check out the glorious VERANDAH (cue choir of angels singing)!
DH and I sat out on the verandah for a while – just thrilled to be there. At 3:00, DH and I met our Disboard group in the Promenade Lounge to mingle for a while. We both enjoyed meeting a great bunch of people! Then we had the mandatory muster drill, followed by the sail away party and lots of picture taking while leaving Vancouver and passing under the Lions Gate bridge.
You can still see the haze from the wildfire smoke.
Our luggage arrived about 5:00, and it wasn’t until we began to put clothes away that we noticed that the room was not very clean – dirt in closet, hair in tub, toothpaste splatter on mirrors, etc. This is a first for us; our rooms on DCL have always been spotless. I could not locate our stateroom hostess, so I called housekeeping, and a manager was sent. He promised to make it right, and he was true to his word. While we attended the All Aboard Show, they cleaned our room properly. We were not upset, as the problem was corrected promptly. The next day, we were sent a bottle of wine and arcade cards for the kids. This was not necessary but a nice gesture, nonetheless.
We had the later 8:15 dining time. Our rotation was TAPTAPT (for those of you who know what that means), which meant that we were in Triton’s for our first dinner. This is probably my favorite restaurant. Nice décor and quieter than the others. I can’t recall what I ordered that night. All I kept thinking about was the scenery outside that I was missing. From our dinner table, we could see out a window across the room, and land looked close enough to reach out and touch! I had ordered “The Alaska Cruise Handbook” by John Upton (thanks podsnell for that tip), so I knew that we would be traversing the Seymour Narrows soon, and I really couldn’t care less about the food (a first!). I wanted to be out on that balcony!
I’m too lazy to take food pictures, but I will try to do a quick food summary at the end of this report, highlighting both my favorite foods and not so favorite ones as well. After dinner, the kids went to Vibe, and DH and I spent time on guess where??? Yes – the verandah. Some pics . . .
Thanks to JTBA and the Disney Cruise Line Blog, here is the Day 1 Navigator: http://disneycruiselineblog.com/wp-...onder-7N-Alaskan-Day-1-Vancouver-20150706.pdf
Up tomorrow . . . whales, beautiful scenery, and formal night.
Cruise day is finally here! A few words about our pre-cruise time in Vancouver . . . I felt like we were lazy tourists here. There was so much more to explore, such as Grouse Mountain, Gastown, and Granville Island. But I think we needed to chill out a bit and re-charge for the second part of our vacation. I also would have liked to spend more time in Stanley Park. We’ll just have to go back I guess.
That morning, we finished packing, and ran downstairs to Starbucks for breakfast before checking out. Mom and B offered to pack our two remaining bottles of wine into their rolling carry-on to make it less cumbersome for us since we just had backpacks instead of an easy to handle carry-on (Disney requires you to carry-on any alcohol versus packing it in “checked” bags). I should have known that handing over my precious Tofino pinot noir to the man who can drink any college student under the table would prove to be a mistake! Bye Westin . . .
As I mentioned in post #1, we had booked a porthole room for the four of us. At booking time, I was not willing to spend the additional $2K for a verandah. We decided to arrive at the port early and attempt to upgrade, as you can generally get a better price at the port if something happens to be available.
We caught cabs in front of our hotel and were pulling into the port at 10:00am sharp. I had read various posts about this port and how crazy things were with long lines, etc. We had the polar opposite experience. This was the quickest and easiest check-in experience we’ve ever had. Our bags were taken as we exited the cab, so we didn’t have to fool with those anymore. We were directed upstairs and walked right up to check-in with zero lines! (Note: someone had mentioned that they had just reversed the process where previously you had to go through security first before check-in)
We had an 11:00 boarding time, and Mom and B had 11:30. However, we were both able to check-in much earlier than this. The check-in was quick and painless, and then I walked down to the manager’s station to inquire about an upgrade. I REALLY wanted a verandah room, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up since the cruise had been sold out for a while. Luck was on our side (thank you seagull!), and we were assigned a verandah room for an additional cost of $615 (very worth it in my opinion). More on this later, but we used that balcony CONSTANTLY. We loved having it!
After check-in, we were directed downstairs to go through security and then customs, and then to the cruise waiting area. This process was unbelievably easy. We had to wait about an hour or so before boarding.
Mom and B . . . He is smiling because of whats in that purple bag there!
At some point during the hour of waiting, characters appeared for photos. I’m going to apologize in advance here for knowing zilch about which characters were onboard. My kids have never been super interested in characters. Even when they were small, they would avoid them. And now that they are teenagers, they still don’t care much. We didn’t do the character breakfast, nor did we go to the Frozen show. Sorry – we are boring people! (I have to admit, I was a little curious about the Frozen celebration, but there must have been something else more important going on that night.)
After boarding, we headed directly up to Beach Blanket (I kept calling it Cabanas all week) for lunch. Then I went to reserve Mixology for the next day (sea day). Mom bought a few bottles of Cabernet for herself and B and was kind enough to purchase some beer for DH. The room was ready at 1:30, and we headed down to check out the glorious VERANDAH (cue choir of angels singing)!
DH and I sat out on the verandah for a while – just thrilled to be there. At 3:00, DH and I met our Disboard group in the Promenade Lounge to mingle for a while. We both enjoyed meeting a great bunch of people! Then we had the mandatory muster drill, followed by the sail away party and lots of picture taking while leaving Vancouver and passing under the Lions Gate bridge.
You can still see the haze from the wildfire smoke.
Our luggage arrived about 5:00, and it wasn’t until we began to put clothes away that we noticed that the room was not very clean – dirt in closet, hair in tub, toothpaste splatter on mirrors, etc. This is a first for us; our rooms on DCL have always been spotless. I could not locate our stateroom hostess, so I called housekeeping, and a manager was sent. He promised to make it right, and he was true to his word. While we attended the All Aboard Show, they cleaned our room properly. We were not upset, as the problem was corrected promptly. The next day, we were sent a bottle of wine and arcade cards for the kids. This was not necessary but a nice gesture, nonetheless.
We had the later 8:15 dining time. Our rotation was TAPTAPT (for those of you who know what that means), which meant that we were in Triton’s for our first dinner. This is probably my favorite restaurant. Nice décor and quieter than the others. I can’t recall what I ordered that night. All I kept thinking about was the scenery outside that I was missing. From our dinner table, we could see out a window across the room, and land looked close enough to reach out and touch! I had ordered “The Alaska Cruise Handbook” by John Upton (thanks podsnell for that tip), so I knew that we would be traversing the Seymour Narrows soon, and I really couldn’t care less about the food (a first!). I wanted to be out on that balcony!
I’m too lazy to take food pictures, but I will try to do a quick food summary at the end of this report, highlighting both my favorite foods and not so favorite ones as well. After dinner, the kids went to Vibe, and DH and I spent time on guess where??? Yes – the verandah. Some pics . . .
Thanks to JTBA and the Disney Cruise Line Blog, here is the Day 1 Navigator: http://disneycruiselineblog.com/wp-...onder-7N-Alaskan-Day-1-Vancouver-20150706.pdf
Up tomorrow . . . whales, beautiful scenery, and formal night.
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All caught up and just in time for the cruise portion. Your trip so far was amazing. Looking forward to reading along for the rest of your journey.
