Weedy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2008
This was our 9th cruise and by far our favorite. The sights were magnificent!! We had great weather, it only rained one afternoon in Juneau. It was never very cold ( and this from a Florida girl) we wore jeans and a light jacket most days.
We started our trip in Seattle, here is a link to our trip report from there
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2739572
We took the Amtrak Cascades from Seattle to Vancouver, it was wonderful. The train travels along the coast. It was scenic and very peaceful the train was amazingly quiet. As we crossed the border from Washington to Vancouver we saw a flock of eagles. I have never seen so many eagles at one time. There were 20-30.
The public transportation is great. We took the Light Rail from the train station to The Pan Pacific. It cost $8.00 for the four of us. We got off a stop to early, if we got off at the correct stop it would have been about a two block walk to the hotel. We had to walk about 8 blocks.
We were in Vancouver for game 6 Stanley Cup hockey series to the Boston Bruins. The played the game on a large screen TV in front of the Pan Pacific. I could not believe how many people were out to watch the game (luckily we were not there for game 7). We tried to go out to get dinner but everything was packed so we fed the kids pizza and we ate in the hotel bar. There is a food court across the street from the Pan Pacific the prices are not bad there, but everywhere else food in Vancouver is very expensive.
Tuesday morning the Wonder arrived in Port at 7 am. We had the hotel come and get our bags around 10:30 and take them to the Wonder. It was very easy.
They opened boarding around 11:00. We went down around 11:30 and got through security quickly. We got #13 boarding number. BUT then our luck ran out. We were in the Castaway check in and we were assigned to a cast member by the name of Cheryl. It was painful!!! We had preregistered but it made no difference, she redid every part of or paperwork. Our reservations were linked ( we had two state rooms) she did both separately. Our credit card had been compromised prior to the trip so we needed to change the number. This totally confused her. She had to ask for help twice during our check in. The cast members on either side of her checked in 4 or 5 people during our check in. Did I say it was painful. Finally when she was done I asked was it possible for a lower boarding #. The cast member in the next booth who had been watching her struggle with our check in gave us #10. We waited another 15-20 minutes and then boarded. From then on it was a wonderful cruise.
The entertainment was great. John Charles was on the first half and he was wonderful as usual. Because so many people want to see his adult show it was held in the Walt Disney Theater instead of Wave Bands. On the second half there was The Platt Brothers. This was their first time on a Disney Cruise. They were very funny. The do a little comedy dance and acrobatics. For the family show we had two little boys sitting behind us who belly laughed the whole show. They Platt brothers have great imaginations and I learned that they only thing that can beat a Robot is a Dinosaur.
I was amazed how close we were to land the whole cruise. There was very little time that we could not see land. When we were in Tracy Arm it was unbelievable when the captain turned the ship sideways. It felt that you could almost reach out and touch the rock walls on either side of the ship.
When we were there it was seal pupping season. There were tons on seals and their pups on the icebergs floating in the water. Because of the seals and the big icebergs we did not get to go as close to the glacier, but it was still magnificent.
We sat on our balcony for hours and enjoyed the sights.
More to come
We started our trip in Seattle, here is a link to our trip report from there
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2739572
We took the Amtrak Cascades from Seattle to Vancouver, it was wonderful. The train travels along the coast. It was scenic and very peaceful the train was amazingly quiet. As we crossed the border from Washington to Vancouver we saw a flock of eagles. I have never seen so many eagles at one time. There were 20-30.
The public transportation is great. We took the Light Rail from the train station to The Pan Pacific. It cost $8.00 for the four of us. We got off a stop to early, if we got off at the correct stop it would have been about a two block walk to the hotel. We had to walk about 8 blocks.
We were in Vancouver for game 6 Stanley Cup hockey series to the Boston Bruins. The played the game on a large screen TV in front of the Pan Pacific. I could not believe how many people were out to watch the game (luckily we were not there for game 7). We tried to go out to get dinner but everything was packed so we fed the kids pizza and we ate in the hotel bar. There is a food court across the street from the Pan Pacific the prices are not bad there, but everywhere else food in Vancouver is very expensive.
Tuesday morning the Wonder arrived in Port at 7 am. We had the hotel come and get our bags around 10:30 and take them to the Wonder. It was very easy.
They opened boarding around 11:00. We went down around 11:30 and got through security quickly. We got #13 boarding number. BUT then our luck ran out. We were in the Castaway check in and we were assigned to a cast member by the name of Cheryl. It was painful!!! We had preregistered but it made no difference, she redid every part of or paperwork. Our reservations were linked ( we had two state rooms) she did both separately. Our credit card had been compromised prior to the trip so we needed to change the number. This totally confused her. She had to ask for help twice during our check in. The cast members on either side of her checked in 4 or 5 people during our check in. Did I say it was painful. Finally when she was done I asked was it possible for a lower boarding #. The cast member in the next booth who had been watching her struggle with our check in gave us #10. We waited another 15-20 minutes and then boarded. From then on it was a wonderful cruise.
The entertainment was great. John Charles was on the first half and he was wonderful as usual. Because so many people want to see his adult show it was held in the Walt Disney Theater instead of Wave Bands. On the second half there was The Platt Brothers. This was their first time on a Disney Cruise. They were very funny. The do a little comedy dance and acrobatics. For the family show we had two little boys sitting behind us who belly laughed the whole show. They Platt brothers have great imaginations and I learned that they only thing that can beat a Robot is a Dinosaur.
I was amazed how close we were to land the whole cruise. There was very little time that we could not see land. When we were in Tracy Arm it was unbelievable when the captain turned the ship sideways. It felt that you could almost reach out and touch the rock walls on either side of the ship.
When we were there it was seal pupping season. There were tons on seals and their pups on the icebergs floating in the water. Because of the seals and the big icebergs we did not get to go as close to the glacier, but it was still magnificent.
We sat on our balcony for hours and enjoyed the sights.
More to come
cool1:
) all afternoon! Magical time.
Alaska is simply breathtaking, isn't it? We also commented on how we couldn't believe how close we were to land the entire time. Glad you had a great cruise and can't wait to read more!
We are also flying into Seattle then taking the train to Vancouver. I will look at your Seattle report too.
It will be great when we can meet face to face on the ship. It should be an amazing cruise! I'm especially excited after reading these trip reports.
