A WONDERful way to celebrate Independence Day! - Disney Wonder July 1, 2013

[disneybeachprincess]

& we loved it! What a gorgeous ship! We did book a future cruise onboard (as always! ) but decided to sail on the Fantasy with family next summer & save Alaska until 2014. DS12 will be graduating middle school & he wanted to celebrate in Alaska! So thanks for the conversations & hopefully all your Disney cruise dreams & fantasies will be magical & wonderful! Couldn't help myself!

 

[dsnydaddy]

& we loved it! What a gorgeous ship! We did book a future cruise onboard (as always! ) but decided to sail on the Fantasy with family next summer & save Alaska until 2014. DS12 will be graduating middle school & he wanted to celebrate in Alaska! So thanks for the conversations & hopefully all your Disney cruise dreams & fantasies will be magical & wonderful! Couldn't help myself!

Well, good luck on your new cruise!


That said, for those of us still going... Next year we'll be enjoying this holiday from the decks of the WONDER!


Happy 4th everyone!

 

[dsnydaddy]

Celebrating my DD's birthday in DL this week. The new CarsLand is amazing!

 

[JeannieBlueEyes]

Hi everyone! We're booked on this cruise. This will be everyone's 1st cruise except me. Went on one many moons ago not Disney . It'll be me, DH, DS (7 cruise time), my Mom & possible step father. We reside in Oklahoma. Mom & Step father reside in North Texas.

I'm organizing everything. So glad to find this thread. I'm sure I'll have questions along the way.

JeannieBlueEyes

 

[dsnydaddy]

Hi everyone! We're booked on this cruise. This will be everyone's 1st cruise except me. Went on one many moons ago not Disney . It'll be me, DH, DS (7 cruise time), my Mom & possible step father. We reside in Oklahoma. Mom & Step father reside in North Texas.

I'm organizing everything. So glad to find this thread. I'm sure I'll have questions along the way.

JeannieBlueEyes

Welcome! Nice to have you and your family.

 

[Mackie Mouse]

Hi everyone! We're booked on this cruise. This will be everyone's 1st cruise except me. Went on one many moons ago not Disney . It'll be me, DH, DS (7 cruise time), my Mom & possible step father. We reside in Oklahoma. Mom & Step father reside in North Texas.

I'm organizing everything. So glad to find this thread. I'm sure I'll have questions along the way.

JeannieBlueEyes

Welcome! We have some experienced cruisers here...so we're happy to answer questions!

I hope everyone's 4th was great. We spent ours on a group vacation with friends in San Fran! We stayed up in wine country in a huge rental house and spent time wine tasting, touring the city, doing a bit of hiking...it was a great trip. A highlight for me, of course, was seeing the Walt Disney Family Museum

Less than a year to go now!!

 

[dsnydaddy]

For any who are interested: Disney just announced 25% off sept 2012 pacific cruises for Disneyland annual Passholders.

 

[babeogeorge]

This is our first time on the Wonder, we took our first cruise on the Disney Dream last Christmas 2011 and loved it. Our fabulous friend who coorinated everything for us (about 20) made it a vacation to remember. She is a travel agent and a long time Disney lover. If you need a Disney travel agent let me know I will share information, anyway. We have 4 in our family and would love to do the exchange again if you would please add us. It was very nice to come back to the cabin and have gifts waiting (even better because of the time of year). I would like to add for anyone that has a special dietary needs and is concerned about the food, my son and I both has a gluten intolerance and Disney knew what to do. With great choices.


Please add to roll call,

DH- Shane
DW- Karen
DD- Callie (who will be 16)
DS- Chad (18 and on college break)

Azle, Texas

 

[Mackie Mouse]

This is our first time on the Wonder, we took our first cruise on the Disney Dream last Christmas 2011 and loved it. Our fabulous friend who coorinated everything for us (about 20) made it a vacation to remember. She is a travel agent and a long time Disney lover. If you need a Disney travel agent let me know I will share information, anyway. We have 4 in our family and would love to do the exchange again if you would please add us. It was very nice to come back to the cabin and have gifts waiting (even better because of the time of year). I would like to add for anyone that has a special dietary needs and is concerned about the food, my son and I both has a gluten intolerance and Disney knew what to do. With great choices.


Please add to roll call,

DH- Shane
DW- Karen
DD- Callie (who will be 16)
DS- Chad (18 and on college break)

Azle, Texas

Welcome, welcome! On the totally random off-chance that your travel agent is the same as ours (both are Disneyphiles from Texas!), we have used Carol Zwerner for both cruises we have taken. We've met a few of her other clients on our cruises...she is one of a kind!

I'm happy to organize another FE exchange if our group is up for it! Organizing the exchange on our cruise last summer was a lot simpler than I thought it would be. It would be even easier if the ability to make a website via iWeb hadn't been taken away from me by Apple

How awesome that your two older kiddos will be joining us, too! Some of my favorite Disney memories were from my teen years.

 

[babeogeorge]

My friends name is Renee Latta we love her as well. For vacation at Christmas we were able to cruise for the first time as well as visit Disney World. Which was a trip to remeber. This year we are trying this cruise and if able we are going to try to go on the 14 day through the Panama Canal. I would love to do the FE exchange again if others want to. Glad we could connect before the cruise.

 

[emum]

Hi All,

Sorry it's been a while since postings. Thought I'd pop in for a "hello", as I'm getting close to booking our flights. Welcome to the new folk on board !

As I'm most likely using FF points, the flights can be booked in a few days. Fingers crossed I can get the dates we want. Failing that, I think I've sourced a reasonably cheap way to book paid flights, and will bank the FF points for our trip to Europe in a couple of years.

My parents leave next week for a Pacific Rim Cruise with Princess. They've done countless cruises over the years, but never done an inside passage, so it'll be interesting to hear their summation of it all. They're also going to Russia... that's on my bucket list, too

As for FE exchange - we'd love to take part If you don't mind organising it, MM, that'd be much appreciated by me.

I totally didn't realise we'd be on the ship for 4th July ! How exciting ! We obviously don't celebrate it here, so it'll be a great way to be immersed in whatever DCL organise for it

Well, that's all for now. Fingers crossed for our flights, and hope everyone up North is enjoying their Summer (I'm over our Winter already...).

Cheers,
Sally

 

[Mackie Mouse]

All right everyone...after doing some research today, I think I have a password-protected website for our group ready to roll!

http://alaska2013.jimdo.com/

I will PM everyone on our roll call so far the password for the website. Right now, although the website will show up in search engines, none of the content is publicly viewable without the password (which was my #1 criteria in finding someplace to host the site). Hopefully this should make everyone more comfortable sharing information such as cabin numbers and photos.

Please let me know if anyone has suggestions for additional content to add to the site, or if you have any other suggestions for meet-ups. For now I set our first-day CruiseMeet time as 3 PM on embarkation day in the Promenade Lounge, since that seems to be a fairly traditional place and time...but nothing is set in stone!

I also did include information the DISer List portion of the site to get a FE exchange going. In order to add you officially to the list (assuming we want to do this!), I will not only need you to make a post here or via PM to me, but I MUST have your cabin number(s) before I will officially add you. If you are booked GTY status, let me know that so I can put that information on the webpage.

Additionally, for an FE exchange it's helpful to come up with a drop-dead due date for adding anyone to the exchange. Last year, we set this date about one month before cruise departure, as a number of people in the exchange needed time to buy supplies and assemble gifts...sticking to that due date wasn't always easy, but it was immensely helpful for people. Will doing this again be OK with everyone?

Let me know if you have any feedback! After I get everyone the website password, I'll also edit the first post of this thread to include this information.

Sally - best of luck with your flights!! I will gladly trade an Australian winter for a Mid-Atlantic one if you're getting frustrated down there

 

[emum]

Many thanks for doing that, Mackie As for the FE, I'd definitely have a cut-off date. Especially if people want to order / make customised gifts. Our cabins are 5138 and 5140.

I know, I shouldn't be complaining about an Aussie Winter - it's not so much the temperatures (although we're not anywhere near as well equipped as those with harsher climates - heating options rather abysmal), but more the constant rain and drizzle, along with the shorter days. I'm a much nicer person come Spring

Well, the Frequent Flyer points have been cashed in ! I only had enough to book three of us on points, so have to wait another month or so to do the paid portion. Mind you, the amount I had to fork out in taxes makes me wonder why I bother with the points.... Anyway, we're not staying as long as I'd like, primarily due to the restrictions on flights we could book, and also because Dh doesn't want to take too much time off work. At least now I can work out other things. I think we'll do 4 nights in Disneyland, but then not sure if we should include a stop in Seattle, of just fly straight to Vancouver and spend more time there. If we flew to Seattle, then we'd probably book the train Seattle to Vancouver.

Looks like a longer jaunt will be a few more years down the track. So much to see, so little time to do it !

Cheers,
Sally

 

[Mackie Mouse]

Many thanks for doing that, Mackie Our cabins are 5138 and 5140.

You're all added! As a teacher off for the summer...the timing was perfect to spend an hour or two setting the site up today. No worries!

Our winters here in Philly are so unpredictable...I'd take a few seasons of drizzle and rain any year! This year we had no snow at all...just lots and lots of cold. (Well...except for the freak snowstorm we had around Halloween!) The previous two years, however, we were completely pelted with numerous blizzard-level storms that necessitated more than a week's worth of snow days. Neither Mac the Wonder Corgi (whose legs were generally too short to allow him movement through our yard!) nor I were happy about that one.

Glad you got your frequent flyer miles to work out! To be honest, my opinion as to how to spend your time would be to just spend more time seeing more of Vancouver and darting all over the east coast and trying to fit everything in in less time. I haven't been to either city, but know that I could easily spend a whole week seeing all the sites in either place. If you're also doing Disneyland...adding Seattle AND Vancouver to that might be pretty exhausting.

That said...we'll happily report back to you in March after our own 4 days in Disneyland and give you tips for next summer! We'll also likely be doing the weekend before the cruise in Vancouver to give ourselves time to adjust to the time difference and see some of the sites. Maybe we'll run into one another pre-cruise

 

[emum]

To be honest, my opinion as to how to spend your time would be to just spend more time seeing more of Vancouver and darting all over the east coast and trying to fit everything in in less time. I haven't been to either city, but know that I could easily spend a whole week seeing all the sites in either place. If you're also doing Disneyland...adding Seattle AND Vancouver to that might be pretty exhausting.

That said...we'll happily report back to you in March after our own 4 days in Disneyland and give you tips for next summer! We'll also likely be doing the weekend before the cruise in Vancouver to give ourselves time to adjust to the time difference and see some of the sites. Maybe we'll run into one another pre-cruise

Good points ! We'll probably just do Vancouver then. And indeed, possibly bump into you as well !

Haven't read up on crowd levels at DL this Summer yet. They could not possibly be any worse than post-Christmas 2010 when we were last there. It was postively claustrophobic. Waits of 3+ hours on most rides. It'll also help having extended opening hours, I guess. Can't wait to see Cars Land !

Well, I'm off to the gym. Have gained a few pounds with this cold weather, and I don't like it !

 

[Mackie Mouse]

Haven't read up on crowd levels at DL this Summer yet. They could not possibly be any worse than post-Christmas 2010 when we were last there. It was postively claustrophobic. Waits of 3+ hours on most rides. It'll also help having extended opening hours, I guess. Can't wait to see Cars Land !!

Since our trip to DL is only about 8 months away, I've been reading the DL boards here religiously...and the crowds are interesting this summer to say the least. Crowds are apparently very heavy, but *everyone* has been bum-rushing CarsLand every day. Standby lines for Radiator Springs Racers are averaging 3-5 hours during peak times (mid-day) and FastPasses are generally gone by 9:30 or 10:00 every day...with a 30-45 minute wait in the morning just to get a FastPass. The general strategy right now all seems to depend on where you're staying - if you're "on-site" and can get early access to the parks, heading to RSR and getting a FP, then doing the rest of CarsLand is the way to go. If you don't have early park access, the best bet seems to be forgetting all about waiting for a FastPass and just using the single rider line for RSR whenever you feel like it, as that wait is never more than 30-45 min. At best you break even on wait time and don't have to wait in the Fastpass line, which itself is unpredictable because the ride has been breaking down all over the place.

*deep breath*

THANK GOODNESS we'll be going well after the opening summer hype has died down!!

Rumor has it, however, that if you couldn't care less about Car Land the rest of the parks are a breeze because everyone is crowded in over there!

dsnydaddy...anything to add??

 

[Quagmire]

Good morning.

Myself, wife and teenage daughter booked our Alaska cruise for next July 1st while we were onboard the Fantasy last week. We can't wait.

 

[JeannieBlueEyes]

I've been looking into vacation insurance. Read that Allianz Classic plan is good. Not exactly sure what to look for. When to get it?? .

Who have you used and when did you buy? Any thoughts appreciated.

 

[Mackie Mouse]

Quagmire - welcome! Please feel free to provide any additional info you'd like so I can add you to our roll call. If you also send a PM I can give you access to our private website

Jeannie - we've only booked trip insurance once, and when we booked it we did it through our travel agent. So...I'm of almost no help, except to say that I've seen some here on the DIS recommend insuremytrip.com before. That's all I've got!

 

[JeannieBlueEyes]

Quagmire - welcome! Please feel free to provide any additional info you'd like so I can add you to our roll call. If you also send a PM I can give you access to our private website

Jeannie - we've only booked trip insurance once, and when we booked it we did it through our travel agent. So...I'm of almost no help, except to say that I've seen some here on the DIS recommend insuremytrip.com before. That's all I've got!

Thanks for your response Mackie Mouse. I'll check there.