The UnDisney family's unintended grand(ish) slam trek to Alaska - July 27-Aug 3, 2015

Conorama said:

DH fell asleep due to being old. I did not fall asleep, due to being superior. And coffee.

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Ok, you have me here. I don't even care what this TR is about... your writing style is hilarious, so I'm going to read it all!

Day 6 - Ketchikan - in which ventured into the land of DCL excursions again

(OK- down to the wire - 3 days left to meet my own deadline ... and we are up against back to school prep including the dreaded: "Yes, you must get your hair cut. Because I am your mother. And yes that is a reason.," visit to the hair dresser's yesterday. Torture (except it's not) in the world of the soon-to-be second-grade boy.)

Ketchikan day was the first one where we were not at port when we woke up- we arrived mid-morning. This meant we had a nicely anticipated lounge-y kind of morning. We breakfasted in Beach Blanket with our imported-from-home maple syrup, which made up for Beach Buffet in general, and helped us feel superior. I'm sure we had some deep, meaningful for reason for not visiting Triton's for breakfast, but it escapes me now.

I DO remember the shenanigans involved in getting to our tour, otherwise known as ...

Running the DCL gauntlet

The worst part of a DCL excursion, for us, is usually the wind up. If you've not had the pleasure, here's how it goes.

• Ideally, you READ the info provided about your "port adventure" ahead of time, so you know where and when to meet, and with what documentation. This step is sometimes skipped by other guests. DO NOT BE THAT GUEST.
  
• You show up at the appointed hour, and you should bring victuals, because you WILL be waiting. You cannot take the victuals off the ship, usually, (or at least, choose them carefully- no fruit!), so you want victuals you can consume and/or discard without crying.
  
• You wait.
• The perky paddle of power people will tell you, over and over, what you will need. You will then be amazed at how many people don't have what they need.
  
• Finally- you get called up, usually one per party, but WITH all of the KTTW cards, and appropriate paperwork (this varies), and that lucky person gets to stand in line to wait, while the rest of you sit and wait.
• Your designated line-stander-in-person then returns with stickers of some (to us) obscure Disney character that you have to stick on your shirt.
  
• You wait some more.
• A variation.... they call the kids over for our trip to ... stand in line ... and get a wrist band for their special activity.
• You wait some more.
• You find out your group will have to wait a while, because the bus can't quite get up to port just yet.
• You wait some more.
• Finally, you are called. A perky "paddle of power" person (yes, they call it this), leads the way, with your character posted on their paddle, so you can follow. At this precise moment, despite much previous prompting to consider this issue, your child declares they have to pee.
• Fear not- the line process continues, so you have lots of time to catch up. The child gets to pee.
• You then find the line up to get off the ship.
• You then find the line up to get on the bus.

Finally... you get on the bus!!!


After our 2 days of rebel "we don't need DCL for excursions" freedom, where we waited a grand total of about 10 minute for our bus at Skagway, and that was outside in the fresh air, with lots to look at, this appeared to be a subtle form of Mouse-imposed torture. I was, of course, gracefully patient.

(Oh, and somewhere between breakfast and the waiting extravaganza, I checked the DCL site and realized, somewhat to my horror, that there was no lunch on this trek, despite it running over what most humans would call lunch- so a mad dash to pick up food we could take off the ship was added to the agenda.)

Potlatch Park

Our bus driver was our tour guide - and we were one of 2 buses for this excursion. He was very nice, and had his patter down to a science, but it seemed very rehearsed (can't blame him!) but he did not compare well to our friend Stanley in Skagway, who, with a smaller group, could be much more spontaneous.

The ride is about 20 minutes to the park and we learned things about Ketchikan, including how much rain they get (over 13 feet per year - no, that is not a typo). Because of the hilly nature of Ketchikan, every stair case (they run vertically up the hills between the main road which run, well, horizontally) that has more than 100 stairs is considered a street - with a street sign, and all.

It was a beautiful sunny, warm day - despite us being in one of the rain capital of the continent - 20 degrees Celsius (68 Fahrenheit). Probably ordered up by Big Mouse just for us- even warmer than he called for!



The park is a lovely piece of land which were the fishing grounds of the Tlingit Natives. There are many totems, plus tribal homes. And, of course, there is also an antique car collection and an antique firearms museum... (seriously). I mean, why not? ????

Our guides were very informative- we learned a lot about the totems and native culture and beliefs. They had a good approach to keeping both adults and children engaged.

Some photos:

Conor's favourite totem- about Salmon boy.



When the kids go off to do their special activity- they are decorating "feathers" for a totem - this one is full. (And again- could the weather have been more spectacular? It was just amazing.) Conor wasn't sure he wanted to go, but then he saw the nice ladies from the club (they come along), and he trotted off. 30 minutes later (or so), we went back to get him, having completed his work of art (and it is kind of neat to know it's probably up on the totem now), he was rewarded by his own, mini-totem pole. He was over the moon. (In case you're wondering, this is where the wristband came in- we needed to show our KTTW cards to claim the boy.)

Disney Totem


Feathers





Indoor totem



Indoor carving




Due to Mr. "I have 10,003 questions" asking his 10,003 questions, the guides picked him to sit in the door to the house. Yep, that's the door. It's a good way to keep your enemies out, because even if they do decide to barge in, they will do so in an ungainly, slow, and, for them, a frankly dangerous to their health fashion, as you can imagine. Dude was there to show how small it was. He was very delighted with this. His parents noticed this appeared to be an easier way to stop him from talking than our usual methods, and contemplated building such a thing for our home.




Tribal home- and the moss on the roof gives a hint about the rain they normally get.





We ended up at the gift shop (and firearms museum???), and Conor had allowance to burn through - he found the best souvenir EVER - a "Gemstone Mini-Dig Kit" - where you get little tiny tools to excavate a gem from some kind of plaster-type stuff. For my kiddo- this is pure joy in a box. It was all we could do to explain that no, he could not start excavating until we got back to the ship, which was not for quite a few hours. Happy boy.

I was offered a yummy cookie, so I was happy. Adults were then given totems, which, according to Conor, were WAY BETTER than the kid ones (more authentic, and not tarnished with US money...), so we negotiated a trade, to keep the peace. Photos to follow in the next post, because you're all dying to see what the fuss was about.

After more mandated bathroom time, and a brief view of the firearms, we boarded our bus again, to head back to Ketchikan for part 2 of the adventure: lumberjacks!

Plaid Princess said:

Ok, you have me here. I don't even care what this TR is about... your writing style is hilarious, so I'm going to read it all!

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Thanks! And it's all true. I am superiorly awake right now. Because ... coffee!

Thanks for reading.

When is your book due? (no pressure!) lol Still loving this tr!

Day 6 - Ketchikan - Lumberjacks, noise, crowds, and real-life boy stories

The super-rehearsed patter continued for the 20 minutes back, when we were dropped off near the where the lumberjack show would be. By this time, it was way past our usual lunch time, and my desperately snatched snacks weren't cutting it. Unfortunately, we did not have a lot of time to sit down for lunch, nor did we thinking waiting was advisable, given that Conor explains to random strangers that his hungry-o-meter goes off every 2 hours with a bad case of the grumpies unless he eats.

We had to resort, frustratingly, to food trucks at the port, since everything else we walked by had a line up. It wasn't yummy, but it did put us in a better frame of mind. Marginally, anyway.

Lumberjack show

We were told by friends this was worth all the Big Mouse stuff. While the skills of the men (they were all men) were amazing, the show itself was, um, well, more than a little tacky, noisy, and over the top. The whole rest of our trip was wonderfully low-key (except for that unfortunate 10 minutes 2 floors up from the Pixar party), and this was, well, the opposite.

To be fair, everyone else seemed to love it, and it's not that we didn't enjoy it- but by then, we were tired, still recovering from the rush to eat, and this was a whole lot of people and a whole lot of noise. The premise is that one of the Lost Boys from Peter Pan is there to host, and if something or other happens at this Canada vs. the US competition, he'll get to go back to Neverland. There is also a rogue character who tries to steel wheels of wood, and the goal is to stop him before he gets to five or some dire thing or other happens.

Conor liked watching for the bad guy. We all liked watching the lumberjacks do their thing- I was interested in their bios- mostly university kids or grads who were studying forestry/environmental science, etc. and they were amazing. The contest, though, was pure cheese - and (to cynical adults anyway) seemingly rigged - certainly, they had ways to catch up any side that was lagging behind. It didn't help that Conor was NOT happy to find out we were sitting on the US side, and he decided to be a rebel and cheer for Canada (we were supposed to cheer for the US). Plus, they tyranny of the t-shirts was in evidence, and they were loud today, in all senses of the word.

So, if you like that kind of thing- go for it - but we'd probably have preferred a simple display of their skills, or a real competition.

With that (man am I grumpy about this!) - here are a few photos:

Lumberjacks working hard



Lumberjacks flying!



Escape to the peace of our cabin

Conor was desperate to get back on the ship. We negotiated two short stops (read: the parents said: "We will go back on the ship, but we need to stop 2 places first, so you'll need to be patient." We were generally not popular with the boy at this point). Stop 1: Christmas store, because ornaments met my "must be small and must not make me cry when I see the exchange rate" rules I had imposed on souvenir shopping. Conor broke an ornament (yes, we were definitely having that kind of day) but the nice people at the shop wouldn't let me pay for it. Conor spent the next 15 minutes sitting quietly and contritely in a corner out of the way, looking extremely martyr-like, while I found what I liked (1 minute) and stood in line to pay (14 minutes).

We then tormented the boy in writing the 2 post cards he had been postponing- as these were our last moments on US soil, it was a now or never thing in the mailing department. Before you feel TOO badly for him, know that writing a post card involves him writing as large as he can get away with, and thus including as few words as possible - and this was to his grandfather, and to his favourite teacher from 2 years ago, who has a lovely tradition of asking her students and former students to send cards to her kindergarten class.

Having survived this ordeal (including mailing the things), we quickly made our way to the ship, grabbed the oh-so-welcome-even-though-it-is-warm-right-now hot chocolate, and escaped the masses to our room... where we found peace.

It was telling that Conor did not ask to go to the club. He wanted to excavate his gem, and clean up his souvenirs rescued (perhaps illegally, but I didn't know they were in his pockets - honest) from the beach the day before. DH and I broke into the Bailey's (hey- we only had one day left - why waste it?), and then he sat on the veranda, whilst I bonded with my Kobo. Yes, we all 3 did our own thing, for about 1 hour, with only Conor muttering away happily and quietly as he arranged his valuables to his satisfaction.

Having restored the family equilibrium, we were all feeling MUCH BETTER. Conor was suddenly keen to visit the club, so we dropped him there while DH and I 'pre-packed' (this is where you start to shove the stuff you know you won't need in the next 2 days into suitcases) and just to ramp up our rating on the Cool-o-meter (not related to the hungry-o-meter), we did laundry, since it was pretty empty there.

MDR fun

Having figuratively washed the Disney out of our hair, I made everyone change their pants (at least) for supper (evil mom am I) and we headed off to Triton's. Since all aboard was not until after 7:30, it was about half-empty - or it seemed like it. We enjoyed the relative quiet.

(I now realize I forgot to mention that Palo night was also semi-formal night, so we continued our tradition of generally missing semi-formal night... unintentionally!)

It was Alaskan night, which meant there was a lot of seafood and fish on the menu, so we were happy campers. Conor was unimpressed with the kids menu, so requested his own salmon, please and thanks, and got it, with some rice. He made our assistant server's night, I think, when he asked for soy sauce for his rice (she was from Thailand) - and it was quickly provided.




She also had time and was prepared, so she made him an incredible origami transformer- which enjoyed posing with our 2 totems ... the one with the American pennies was supposed to be Conor's, but he much preferred the eyes and the look of mine, so I gave it to him (happily!)



After supper, we made a quick trip to the stores to get Conor's final souvenir (experienced DCL-ers are we, I know that the last night is PACKED in there), and then he happily agreed to a quiet evening in our cabin, with his collection of souvenirs. I finally conquered something that had escaped me until this trip... the ability to take a panoramic shot. Having stuck to just one glass of wine at supper, I mastered it!

It was a gorgeous evening.



And, with that, we will end Ketchikan day. We'll see if work will leave me enough energy to report on day 7 tomorrow...

Conorama said:

The worst part of a DCL excursion, for us, is usually the wind up. If you've not had the pleasure, here's how it goes

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We did two DCL excursions, but one was an afternoon low key affair without all the crowd control ... zip lining in Ketchikan, which was a blast. But the first was one of those early AM cattle calls ... that was the only real time on this trip when we experienced something less than the "Disney Attitude" from a cast member. I know from seeing her around later that the CM in question was part of the entertainment crew, so I really doubt early morning excursion ticket punching is in her wheelhouse. I've raised a family of creatives ... they ain't morning folk. But this young lady was under pressure to do some line management (aka - that thing they do where they move the line to relieve guest frustration caused by the line not getting any shorter) by one of her fellow CMs and it was clear she didn't want to. Eventually she blurted out "Shut up whatever his name was... the line is the line. I can't make it any shorter." And look ... I laughed out loud at that, but I noticed a couple of minutes later a supervisor came over, put a gentle hand on her shoulder and led her away from her task ... to what I assume was a forceful lesson on "how Walt would want you to act." Or maybe re-education camp ... depending on your point of view.

Either way a couple of days later I saw her out there at the Pixar dance party feigning all sorts of enthusiasm for her ... choreography? I felt like slipping her a fiver but, yeah. Wrong circumstances, right?

jeffbear said:

We did two DCL excursions, but one was an afternoon low key affair without all the crowd control ... zip lining in Ketchikan, which was a blast. But the first was one of those early AM cattle calls ... that was the only real time on this trip when we experienced something less than the "Disney Attitude" from a cast member. I know from seeing her around later that the CM in question was part of the entertainment crew, so I really doubt early morning excursion ticket punching is in her wheelhouse. I've raised a family of creatives ... they ain't morning folk. But this young lady was under pressure to do some line management (aka - that thing they do where they move the line to relieve guest frustration caused by the line not getting any shorter) by one of her fellow CMs and it was clear she didn't want to. Eventually she blurted out "Shut up whatever his name was... the line is the line. I can't make it any shorter." And look ... I laughed out loud at that, but I noticed a couple of minutes later a supervisor came over, put a gentle hand on her shoulder and led her away from her task ... to what I assume was a forceful lesson on "how Walt would want you to act." Or maybe re-education camp ... depending on your point of view.

Either way a couple of days later I saw her out there at the Pixar dance party feigning all sorts of enthusiasm for her ... choreography? I felt like slipping her a fiver but, yeah. Wrong circumstances, right?

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Oh wow! Everyone was very "Mickey" at our meet-up- CMs anyway. I feel for them - this has got to not be their favourite part of the job, especially the early days.

I probably saw her at the Pixar party - and I can attest that everyone was appearing 100% enthusiastic- as I gazed at them with confusion, trying to understand!

Reflections on Ketchikan

Well, minor health issues and back-to-school planning derailed the goal of finishing this on Sept 1st ... but we persevere!

In the end, Ketchikan was not our favourite day - but when we removed the Disney from it all, it was still a lovely port to visit. Our friend had suggested that excursion, along the lines of "if it's slightly complicated, it's probably worth it to have Disney do the organizing" and I see her point... but I think we're now too used to doing our own thing, so the little nuisance stuff got to us all, and the lack of lunch just didn't do anything good for our moods (bad planning on my part).

However, this is somewhat like complaining about the fact that one is on a Disney cruise ... one needs to get some perspective! We liked our time at the park, and we'd happily visit Ketchikan again if the opportunity arose - we just would not have Disney help us, and we would do our own thing.

Meanwhile, back on the ship, it was definitely clear that our assistant server was the best of all our servers, ever. She was SOOO happy to fetch Conor soy sauce for his rice, it was somewhat funny. Over 1 month later, the origami transformer is still proudly displayed in his room, too, though one of the totems has broken, as they're not the sturdiest souvenirs in the world.

And next up - finally- our last day - at sea!

Day 7 - At sea - a rather aimless day for us - happily so

After 3 port days in a row, we were ready to be lazy sods on the ship - well, lazy sods who had to pack, but we had no other plans. In the past, this would have been my rainforest room day, but having not been particularly enamoured of the one on the Magic (spoiled by the Fantasy & Dream in this case - a rare instance where there is a real difference), I decided to forego the pass.

There is not a lot to report, really, but to pay it forward, I'll report on a few interesting things we discovered.

Morning

By now, we were well and truly done with Beach Blanket (it's not known for its ambiance or variety, thought it's as consistent as all get out), so since we slept in a bit, we decided to do a family breakfast at Triton's, which was lovely, and provided us with an opportunity to use up the last of our maple syrup.

We noted that guest services was empty, so we dashed over there because DH's eyeglass screw was loose (I'm being well-behaved here and not using any metaphors!) and we were wondering if they had the tiny screwdrivers needed to fix it. It took them a long while to find their little set, and in the meantime, Conor bonded with a CM by showing him his gem from the day before, only to learn that the CM had completed a degree in geology, so the two of them bonded over rocks and minerals. I longed for the Cove Café, to be honest, as this took quite a while, as the screw driver did not work.

I then proceeded to save the day in the glasses department. Being someone who cannot see, hear, talk, or think without her glasses, the thought of them breaking causes me to break out in a cold sweat ... so I have lots of tricks. I raided my first aid kit, and found our trusty "blister bandages". Since I work in health care, I know what these babies can do ... so we managed to stabilize the glasses with a fairly unnoticeable, completely ingenious (I was very proud), fancy piece of what amounts to expensive tape. Of note, this solution worked over the course of the 3 days it took us to get home, get settled, and find time for DH to get to someone who could fix them properly. No, I did not gloat. That would have been immature. I was just ready to pat myself on the back, a lot. Even DH admitted that I saved the day - but that might have been to make me go away. Conor was impressed.

Having averted a crisis, we reminded Conor he had wanted to swim in the pools, but had not yet done so.

It looked like a nice day ....



But this does not capture the wind factor. I sat in my chair to supervise him, with my (hot) coffee, and, covered in not 1, but 2 blankets. Conor did this (and he was delighted about it).



He even went on the Mickey slide, which involved him getting out, being quickly toweled off by DH, then heading up the stairs to stand in line, wet (and cold) to wait. He did this about 10 times. Finally, he decided he was cold, so he stopped ... and his lips were blue at this point. He's a Canadian kid, through and through, our boy.

Afternoon

Having ensured the return of blood circulation to our offspring, we finished up lunch in our room (from a quick serve place) and plotted out the afternoon. The goals were to get to the shops before the masses (lessons learned) for Conor to get one last gift (for himself!), to pack, and to relax.

Somewhere along the line, I had sorted out a few options at the shop for him that A) he could afford with his saved allowance, and b) we were willing and able to take back with us (this imposed restrictions by way of size and annoyance factor). No, the Buzz Lightyear thingy that made obnoxious noises would NOT fit in our lugaage, I was (not so very) sad to confess to the boy. He picked out what I guessed he would - a nifty case full of pencils, a ruler, and other cool things (the boy has never seen a protractor before - it was exciting to his math-inclined brain). This continues to be a hit, and it nicely complemented the Captain Mickey stuffy he found before, and his new pins (mostly traded pins). One month later, both are still in active circulation, which I consider to be the pinnacle of trip souvenirs.

Success having been achieved, the boy was happy to club it out for much of the afternoon.

Packing was reasonably easy, having pre-packed the day before, and having this down to a science now. I was DETERMINED to not leave anything behind, having done so in embarrassing fashion our last 2 trips. (I blame the sun.) By miracle, there were free washer in the laundry room, so DH and I shared laundry duty in aid of not having to wash everything when we got home.

The views were a bit distracting...



But we persevered. We decided to be strategic and ensure we finished up the Bailey's to lighten our packing load, so this helped.

At one point, we fetched the boy to ensure he had a snack and did not turn into a Disney Monster. When we dropped him back at the Club, he was asked if he wanted to participate in the end of cruise show, and he agreed, explaining to all and sundry that he had just finished theater camp (this was true) and that he was not plagued with stage fright. No kidding, bud .... you, who have been described by my friends as being an actor looking for a stage...

DH and I returned to packing, clearing, relaxing, viewing, resting, reading, laundry, coffee. We were entertained by some guy in a small motor boat who was serenading the ship with his trumpet. It's quite the sight & sound to behold. I gather he's known as "trumpet guy". Passengers were cheering him along. He's quite the guy ... and I am guessing, Canadian, based on where we were. There are videos of him around, but we didn't take one, preferring to just listen in, well, stunned silence.

I'll end this post by describing the excitement of the show ... DH missed most of Conor's first appearance back on the magic, so we made sure we were early, with cameras in hand to capture the spectacle. So we waited. And waited. And then ... the kids came out .... and Conor was not there. We made a not-so-subtle exit (sorry!), and stopped by the Club, to be told by Conor that while he had rehearsed for the show, he decided at the last minute that he wanted to play some more in the Club, instead of going on stage, so, well, that was it. (We did find a message on our Wave Phone later, but we didn't use them much this trip.)

And on that firmly anticlimactic note, the day must get started here, so more later - tonight, perhaps?

Conorama said:

After 3 port days in a row, we were ready to be lazy sods on the ship

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Same here. We even decided to forego breakfast completely, in favor of a nice large something from Cove Cafe and about 10 laps of the promenade deck in the AM. We grabbed an early lunch and then decided we hadn't really done many of the trivia games and stuff so we sort of binged on those. Two trivia games, an animation workshop and then we played some foosball up on the sports deck. It was sunny and beautiful and we completely enjoyed getting a restful day under our belts before what was sure to be a travel marathon the following day. I was right about that ... I bloody hate flying eastward in the afternoon in the US ... so it a good thing we had gone all loosey goosey the day before. After dinner we hung around Promenade Lounge for a little while with the other folks from our table and called it a night.

One thing I really enjoyed about the itinerary on this sailing was the days at sea book-ending the more adventure packed days. That really gives you a chance to decompress from the travel on the front end and then to rest up and relax before hitting the end of the journey on the back end. That's a real plus on a 7 day cruise, IMO.

jeffbear said:

Same here. We even decided to forego breakfast completely, in favor of a nice large something from Cove Cafe and about 10 laps of the promenade deck in the AM. We grabbed an early lunch and then decided we hadn't really done many of the trivia games and stuff so we sort of binged on those. Two trivia games, an animation workshop and then we played some foosball up on the sports deck. It was sunny and beautiful and we completely enjoyed getting a restful day under our belts before what was sure to be a travel marathon the following day. I was right about that ... I bloody hate flying eastward in the afternoon in the US ... so it a good thing we had gone all loosey goosey the day before. After dinner we hung around Promenade Lounge for a little while with the other folks from our table and called it a night.

One thing I really enjoyed about the itinerary on this sailing was the days at sea book-ending the more adventure packed days. That really gives you a chance to decompress from the travel on the front end and then to rest up and relax before hitting the end of the journey on the back end. That's a real plus on a 7 day cruise, IMO.

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I would definitely agree- the day at sea vs. the crazy day of Castaway Cay (where I did the 5K last time so I was visiting new levels of exhaustion) is a much better way to wind down. I'm not surprised I forgot a bunch of stuff on our last cruise after that. Clearly, all my mental energy went into the 5K.

While we did walk Deck 4 quite a bit, we've never done any workshop (unless you count DH's tastings, that he mostly skipped this time). Conor and I ended up by accident at one of the trivia sessions in the Promenade lounge, while we were waiting for DH one day, and it was hilariously bad at our table - I did know how to spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, but we barely knew anything else.

You'll hear about our flying East adventures on Day 8 - it wasn't pretty, so I was also glad we were rested.

Day 7 - At sea - and almost done the Grand Slam

We're almost done! And it was a pretty uneventful evening, so I won't blather on.

Our final supper was at Animator's Palate, which is good with the 7 year old set. We tried to wait for the big song and dance, but it wasn't happening quickly enough, and we had Officer's Pin Trading to get to just after 7:00 p.m., so Conor and I bailed on waiting and jogged over to Preludes.

DH and I prepared our tip envelopes ahead of time, and DH handed those out. I'll note here that our head server was the best we've had, but that just means in our case that he talked to us more than once, and remembered Conor's name. I don't doubt they work hard, but none have ever stood out for us. We topped up both our server and our assistant servers amounts, though. I give them bonus points for not trying to convince us to come to breakfast at 6:45 a.m. with all our baggage - of the concrete and figurative variety! - they just accepted quickly (when the tip envelopes were handed out) that we weren't going to be there.

Officer Pin Trading was as good as usual - full points the the officers for bonding with the kiddos. Conor loves this.

We had promised a final hour or so at the Club, (which coincided nicely with the last bit of packing we needed to do.... we are such evil parents sometimes), so Conor happily skipped off to his pirate ship.

DH and I did the penultimate sweep - and got all but one bag all done and out in the hall ... before anyone else in our hall. We had a moment of back-patting, as this has never happened before. The final bag had room for our last few clothes and things from our day at sea.

I did my usual paranoia thing of ensuring that we had clothes to wear the next day, having read of people forgetting that, and having to disembark in their skivvies.... EEEK!

DH headed off to fetch the boy, who returned with a Pluto's Pyjama Party pillow case, so he was happy. I sighed, and made more room in the last bag.

Our final plan before bed is to order breakfast foods from room service, so that we have things for the morning. This was sheer Disboards genius, I figured, when I read it before our first cruise, and we've never done anything else. Usually we get cereal, fruit, sometimes cheese, and milk. We usually have a yogurt or two left over, and we're ready to go... once DH or I hit up the Café, of course.

Conor was truly ready for his last DCL bath of the trip, and we all settled into our pre-bed routine, and the Last Bag was prepared and out before the deadline. Oh happy day!

And with that, we got ready for bed, and had a peaceful last night of sleep on the Wonder.

Next up: Disembarkation, Vancouver Style.

Day 8 - Off the ship!

We awoke in the morning, and felt superior, as we were able to break our fast in a civilized fashion (in my world, this means I'm in my PJs). Once the adults were cleaned up (again- no rushing- have I mentioned the "no-rushing on vacation" thing?), we did a truly final sweep of the room (I was DETERMINED to make up for my previous forgetfulness). DH fetched some good coffee, and things went reasonably smoothly - by which I mean none of us were TOO cranky, and we generally got out the door in an uneventful fashion.

It's lovely with a 7 year old now- he can carry his own backpack and pull his suitcase along, which helps immensely. We headed down to Deck 3 to find a lounge to wait in. In Vancouver, you wait for your luggage tag to be called. I hate the lounges though (sorry!) especially in the morning, so we elected to sit in a port hole outside some obnoxious lounge or other. DH and I spent our time reconnecting to Canadian cell phone service (but I still don't check my work email on vacation), and Conor amused himself without being too annoying - not his fault for being a bit annoying- it was a boring wait.

Once our character was called second (gray someone or other), so we meandered down to the atrium, and I glared meaningfully at the Port Adventures desk where I had been forced to start the cruise. No one noticed, but I felt better. DH had handed in our comment cards (and lest you worry- we tipped our cabin steward handsomely as he was truly great).

We shuffled along in line (our last DCL line of the trip- yippee!) back to the room where we had waited to embark. With minor angst, we found our bags, and a cart, and all was well with the world.

For some reason, Canadian customs was spectacularly uninterested in us and equally uninterested in most of our fellow cruise mates- we were basically just waved straight through. I guess we looked VERY trustworthy, and my filling out of the card was most impressive???

We followed signs and directions from helpful terminal folk, and landed at the Taxi area. We had debated back and forth all cruise about whether we would risk another taxi, but it seemed too much like work on vacation to arrange something else, so we thought we'd take a chance. Happily, we FINALLY met a nice taxi guy, though we quickly learned he was working under the table (hardly a surprise with it being a Holiday Monday). Whatever, Taxi-Man - you didn't make me worry for my life and that of my family, you may be paid in cash!

And with that, we were on our way to the airport ... and our completely glorious, best money spent EVER, day room at the Fairmount at the airport.

Fairmount Vancouver Airport Hotel Day Room - Best Airport Hotel we've visited!

At this point, I don't expect anyone to remember (heck, I barely do!) but our lovely 11:30 Westjet flight (or something close to it) had been changed for a 3:30 flight. UGH. This would mean we would get in after midnight, Ontario time. It was just long enough to be really annoying, but not long enough to allow us to do much in Vancouver, especially in that we might have to find something to do with our luggage.

Thus... the day room. I figured we would need a place to escape humans, and it might as well be nice - right?

It was lovely. I actually dream of returning to the hotel (yes, an airport hotel) because it was so nice.

Conor helped me with the photos- since I couldn't find many when I was planning.

Someone was very excited about the room. That is a King sized bed.



A not very good photo that mostly shows how big the room was. With goof, on bed.



After 7 days on board, the bathtub struck me as being the best thing since sliced bread. And yes, I tried it out. And yes, it was AWESOME - super-long, so full stretching out was possible. There is nothing that says luxury in my world more than a really nice bath in the middle of the morning, just because. My many minor 40 years plus aches and pains just disappeared. The shower (separate) was huge and lovely. The toilet was in another separate little room, which Conor found hilarious.



Before I luxuriated in the tub, though, we went on a hunt for coffee and snacks and to sort out where out gait was, so we would know where and when to check in. All good!

While I was having my bath, Conor and DH went swimming (and guess who had been smart enough to a) pack their swim stuff in an easily accessible place? and b) ensured there was a waterproof bag ready to take their wet gear? The smug one - that is correct!

Anyhow- they reported the pool was small but good and Conor made friends with kids who had been on our cruise. As in many Fairmounts, Conor had his own bathrobe that they require you to wear to the pool and back, and he was a happy camper as a result. DH tried the shower after swimming and was in 6'6'' heaven. Conor played diligently with his pencil case as we knew we had a screen-full day ahead of us.

By then, we were ready for lunch, so we elected to wander over to the food court, rather than hemorrhage cash on room service, much to Conor's chagrin.

We then finally (without rushing!) wandered back to our room, to assemble our things in anticipation of checking in.


Was this necessary? Probably not. Did it help immensely in our super-long day of traveling? I cannot even explain what a difference it made. Rather than getting on a plane all tired, stressed, and irritated by all the other humans, we were all mellowed out, well-rested physically and emotionally, and it made all the difference in the world. Would I pay the money again? For sure. It was 4 glorious hours, and it felt like we were continuing our vacation.

Next up .... the long trip home.

Well I'm glad that disembarakation was uneventful! The Fairmont at the airport is heavenly or so I have been told (not needing to use it since we live here LOL) and I have to agree, with that amount of time it wasn't (a) enough to actually do anything since you still had your luggage and (b) too long to just wander around YVR aimlessly! Better to travel well rested, especially when you have a cross-country flight to endure with a child.

So since you didn't mention the future sales desk I take it you didn't book cruise #5? ;-)

Conorama said:

For some reason, Canadian customs was spectacularly uninterested in us and equally uninterested in most of our fellow cruise mates- we were basically just waved straight through. I guess we looked VERY trustworthy, and my filling out of the card was most impressive???

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This really surprised me, given every single other experience I've had with Canadian customs. We had kind of a early-ish flight so we decided we needed to do the early walk-off routine with our own luggage. But because it took all of 2 minutes to get through the customs check and because I forgot that Vancouver work-day traffic doesn't really kick in until after 8 AM, we ended up at the bloody airport a good 3 hours before our flight. Just in time to sit around for what seemed like forever ... only to land in Houston and have our flight home completely bollocksed up by United. We got home at 1:45 AM Eastern Time, and by then I was resenting that we missed that nice leisurely breakfast we could have had on the Wonder.

bcwife76 said:

Well I'm glad that disembarakation was uneventful! The Fairmont at the airport is heavenly or so I have been told (not needing to use it since we live here LOL) and I have to agree, with that amount of time it wasn't (a) enough to actually do anything since you still had your luggage and (b) too long to just wander around YVR aimlessly! Better to travel well rested, especially when you have a cross-country flight to endure with a child.

So since you didn't mention the future sales desk I take it you didn't book cruise #5? ;-)

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It's probably now in my top 5 favourite hotels. Quite different too - which I like.

You'll have to wait to hear about whether we booked or not. I don't necessarily report completely in chronological order.

jeffbear said:

This really surprised me, given every single other experience I've had with Canadian customs. We had kind of a early-ish flight so we decided we needed to do the early walk-off routine with our own luggage. But because it took all of 2 minutes to get through the customs check and because I forgot that Vancouver work-day traffic doesn't really kick in until after 8 AM, we ended up at the bloody airport a good 3 hours before our flight. Just in time to sit around for what seemed like forever ... only to land in Houston and have our flight home completely bollocksed up by United. We got home at 1:45 AM Eastern Time, and by then I was resenting that we missed that nice leisurely breakfast we could have had on the Wonder.

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It was wild how quick that was. I've never been through any customs that quickly, ever. You also probably had a short commute since our debarkation day was a holiday Monday in Vancouver- thus the lack of traffic, even during the traditional "prime" rush hour.

We landed at about midnight EST, as you'll see- so there was no way we were going to drive 2 hours at that point, so we were grateful for yet another night in a hotel ... stay tuned- we didn't have a flight messed up (phew!) but we were so ridiculously tired it was comical at the other end - or so it seemed to us.

Day 8 - Flying home - or close to it anyway.

We finally had to bestir our Zen selves to check in. Fortunately, the whole process was fairly painless - our bags were under the weight limit, and we had decided to risk checking the booster seat (since it wasn't as essential on the other end this time as we had our main booster in the car), and security was quick and painless. Having learned our lessons the hard way on the way up, we "snacked up" as soon as we cleared security, so that we would not starve on the plane.

Turns out this was not necessary, as WestJet was great. We had upgraded to obtain slightly more leg room for DH, and that came with food included.

The flight was wonderfully, beautifully uneventful. It was a thrill!

We had a very quick stop at Calgary airport, and were relieved to note that, while we had to give off the plane, we would actually just be re-boarding, which boded well for our luggage arriving with us in Ottawa. Conor had agreed to my suggestion that he get in his PJs before we boarded, and I wished I could do the same. I realized that, completely unintentionally, he would be terribly thematic...

Yes, those are air plane PJs.... and note Mr. "I am an experienced traveller" boarding with his carry-on suitcase and back pack.



Someone was tired on the flight as soon as we finished supper. Sleep followed shortly after this.




Inevitably, as we arrived in Ottawa, on time (novel!), DH and I were tuckered out (midnight Ontario time, but we were basically still at 8:00 p.m. Alaskan time... yet somehow exhausted...), and Conor woke up, fresh as the proverbially annoying daisy. He was entertainingly enthusiastic about helping, hitting up the bathroom, and getting the baggage. This lasted until we got to the hotel.

At this point, we entered into Operation Get To Bed, because we needed to adapt, pronto, back to Ontario time. Picture a very happy, enthusiastic 7 year old bouncing around, creating forts with the sofa cushions, while DH and I fumbled about getting PJs on, getting the child cleaned up (he was in his PJs, of course) and getting things ready for bed. I was so tired from the day that I could barely figure out where I had put the toothbrushes (in a conveniently accessible location, of course), whereas Conor was about ready to solve complex equations or something, he had that much energy. IRRITATING.

Fortunately, despite his bounciness, he fell asleep fairly easily with my white noise app running. Dude likes rainforest noises. I can't stand the rainforest mode, but I used "put in your earplugs" mode and that worked well, thanks. DH used "drink some tea in the dark" mode and that worked.

And with that ... it has been a very long week, so good night!

I have a few more posts- a short one about getting home and jet lag (UGH), one about my reflections on the trip, and the great reveal about whether we made any other DCL plans. And then, of course, the post where i put in all the things I forgot to report on. It's a tradition now!

Thanks for the wonderful TR! It looks like you had a fantastic time. We're sailing on the Wonder to Alaska next year and your TR has definitely whetted my appetite.

Tink2312 said:

Thanks for the wonderful TR! It looks like you had a fantastic time. We're sailing on the Wonder to Alaska next year and your TR has definitely whetted my appetite.

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Thank you! We did have a great time - and I hope you do too. Many thanks for reading along.