2015 DVC Alaska Member Cruise 5/25-5/31/15

[Jay Kat]

Hi! I was on the Members Cruise last fall and am very excited about the Alaska Cruise. I don't know if I can wait a year! We did an adult group FE as there were so many, and it was a lot of fun! Please count me in, especially if we do an adult one!

 

[slmjam]

My DH and I are booked for Alaska! Woohoo!!!!! Quick question though. I didn't book our two kids, but am now second guessing myself. Can I still add them? They would be in the same stateroom as us.

 

[BinkYABT]

Please add us to the FE list for the Alaska Members Cruise

Cabin 2105

Sisters Teri & Lori and friend Denise (all 50 somethings)

If the list gets too big and splits - how about splitting by cabin location -Aft/Forward?

 

[Johnny Quest]

Count us in also:

We are 3 Adults, cabin #6634. Jim, Christine and Mark.

We're ok with grouping according to cabin location.

 

[tidefan]

Count us in on the FE as well. We are 2 adults and 1 Child. We will be in 7136.

Brad (43)
Jennifer (41)
Delaney (11)

 

[bobbiwoz]

My DH and I are booked for Alaska! Woohoo!!!!! Quick question though. I didn't book our two kids, but am now second guessing myself. Can I still add them? They would be in the same stateroom as us.

I am not on this cruise...wish I was, but I've booked DCL's EBTA for the same time frame. But...if you are going to try to change, call ASAP. There are limits to the number of people assigned to lifeboats. Are you sure your cabin accommodates 4. They could charge you the $95 change fee. Maybe if you are within a certain time frame you can change for free.

Good luck deciding, and changing if you want.

Bobbi

 

[LOLA2]

We are 6152 and 6145!! Does everyone make their own extender and then just bring little gifts to distribute??

 

[suzysharp]

We are super excited to be booked on the Alaska members cruise. It's me, my husband and my mom. We've never done FE before but think it would be fun to try! We saw them on our last cruise and felt sad that we weren't involved! We are in 5150 and look forward to discussions/planning with you all!!

 

[poison ivy]

First,

A big welcome to everyone on our cruise meet!!!!
Can't wait to sail to Alaska on a 7-nt members cruise.

Hopefully autumnl78 will have our roll call and FE list up on the front page very soon. (no pressure! )

DisneyBelle99 - (deb and jed) can't wait to sail with you guys again.
Jay Kat - not sure who you guys were on the Dis back in Sept, but hello again too!!!

We are 6152 and 6145!! Does everyone make their own extender and then just bring little gifts to distribute??

Yes. You hang whatever fits on that little "fish" outside your door without obstructing the ability to get in and out of the cabin. I've seen bags, shoe organizers, large pockets strung together - all kinds of things. Most have a pocket or large opening in some form or fashion to hold items.

I wish I had photographed all the different FE varieties. I'll see if there's a thread here that does.

And then the gifts are just a small friendly gesture from each of us.
Some homemade and personalized, but many are not.

 

[poison ivy]

I am not on this cruise...wish I was, but I've booked DCL's EBTA for the same time frame. But...if you are going to try to change, call ASAP. There are limits to the number of people assigned to lifeboats. Are you sure your cabin accommodates 4. They could charge you the $95 change fee. Maybe if you are within a certain time frame you can change for free.

Good luck deciding, and changing if you want.

Bobbi

Hi Bobbi!

too bad you have to pass on this one. would have loved to meet you as well.
Feel free to join us here with any tips on Alaska or the Wonder or the Member's cruises in general. We welcome any and all advice and will be posting regularly to plan all the fun.

A transatlantic is on our bucket list! can't wait to hear all about it.

Also, great advice to slmjam on adding stateroom guests asap. I understand the Aug 2015 members cruise is already sold out and Alaska is on its' way.

We went back and forth trying to get a commitment out of our son Mark, (Iron Man on the dis). Well during those 3 long hrs it took to book, we had time to think and panic, and decided it would be easier to include him now and remove him if we had to, rather than risk being denied adding him later.

 

[Let'sGoToDisney]

I cannot access my DVC cruise at the Disney Cruise Line site. Has anyone been able to do this yet?
Janice

 

[poison ivy]

we can't log onto the dcl site yet either.


FYI: Here's an DCL Alaskan excursions thread on the Dis from 2011 thru 2014

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2723087

Lots of information. You may want to work backwards since it encompasses several years of cruising.

I plan to follow along.

 

[DisneyBelle99]

I cannot access my DVC cruise at the Disney Cruise Line site. Has anyone been able to do this yet?
Janice

I believe the person helping me yesterday said it wouldn't post to the Cruise line site for a few days? And that some official documents would come within 2 weeks. By that point in the phone drama I might have mixed them up!

I have to say she was so helpful and enthusiastic, it made the time trying to get to a live person almost worth it!


I am on Facebook and disboards, so since I tend to be an overcommunicator anyway, will share things whenever I can. So excited

 

[tidefan]

Thanks for organizing! I thought that the folks on our May cruise did a great job, so I am posting the meet thread in case you want to see how it was organized. [thread=3062655]http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3062655[/thread]

Also, I really enjoyed Mixology on that cruise. Do you think that they would offer that on the member cruise?

 

[poison ivy]

autumnl78, I will be Sending you a pm.

thanks so much.

Here's the meet thread JQ organized for the Sept 2013 members cruise.
Just in case you'd like to see another one.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2850795

To everyone: I'm in the process of planning since I had yesterday off and took the time to get started. I will probably link some valuable resources to my first post on the front page.

Hopefully we'll get to talk a lot about this in the coming months.

Areas I've been looking at:

1) Planes; trains and automobiles - how to get to this ship from Jersey

so far Southwest phl to Seattle has lowest fares. (171 ea way - using Sept 2014 fares on a Sunday since May 2015 is slightly offpeak)
much more affordable compared to anything flying in and out of Vancouver.
couldn't find any nonstop flights into Vancouver out of phl but did remember seeing some out of Newark or NY. Haven't finished looking.

then Amtrak or these guys: http://www.quickcoach.com/schedule.htm
to get from seattle to Vancouver were the most reasonable.

very helpful youtube video showing the train station within walking distance to the port:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMKXjXWDh2o

2) overnight accommodations in Vancouver:

The Pan Pacific Hotel is right at the Port.
http://www.panpacific.com/en/hotels-resorts/canada/vancouver.html

(can't book online yet) but I've read you can thru AAA or by calling direct. haven't tried yet. be happy to inquire about a group rate if anyone is interested.

very helpful disboards link: (again, start at the last pages and work your way forward)

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2283011&highlight=driving+seattle+to+vancouver&page=170

3) excursions and ports of call

again, per my previous post, I've been scouring this thread for reports coming in from recent cruisers. Excellent Read:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2723087&page=89

Other questions:
early or late dining? - which one should we choose?

 

[maburke]

Other questions:
early or late dining? - which one should we choose?

I was thinking of late dining, in case we have a long day of excursions. But when I asked for that, he said we'd then be in the early show seating, and I definitely don't want to miss the shows! So now I'm not sure.

My big question: I want to get insurance (paid all cash, so Disney insurance not an option) but I don't want to pay for it until we get past the no-penalty cancellation period. But then I'm afraid it won't cover pre-existing conditions. I'll do some research and report back, but if anybody has some helpful hints on that, they'd be gratefully accepted.

 

[DisneyBelle99]

We had late dining last time, and that worked for us.

I might have a connection for a Fairmont deal, our Disney Son used to work for them at the Plaza. I will check if he has any Vancouver connections left, I see there are two of them, but not thrilled with some online reviews of value for the price....will investigate.

Hoping to use airline points, so that will probably influence who we fly. And I guess we need to decide how many days ahead we will get there. Vancouver appears to have lots to do.

Looking forward to all of this!

 

[Jay Kat]

I will PM you once I have the right number of posts. I am new to the DIS....please count me in but I will have to post for a while before I can pm you. If you can PM me and we can have a conversation, please do so. I did this during the Member cruise last fall and thought it was fun.

 

[JimmyL47]

This will be our first Members Cruise (our 12th Disney Cruise) and we are looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible. We will be following the Board's looking for more experienced cruisers advice and sharing our own experiences. We are crusing the Panama Canal in September and hope to meet some of you then.

Jimmy and Judith

 

[Windermere]

DH and I are going back to Alaska too. We were there at the end of the season in 2012 with family but this time its just the 2 of us. Can't wait to compare it to the beginning of the season.

This will be our second member cruise but the last one was a 4 day in 2008. It'll be interesting to do a 7 day member cruise.

Looking forward to planning.