July 26, 2011 – 7 Night Alaska ~ Bears, Whales, Eagles and Ducks. Oh My!

[brackjr]

Hi,
I was wondering if we're too late to be added to the list for the fish extender gifts ... I noticed a few other late joiners and your printed list of those participating.

This is our first Disney Cruise and I just joined the Dis Board list .... aarrgh!

My kids would be really excited to participate; here are our details!

Jim and Joanne
Ryan (boy) 9
Megan (girl) 3
Room 7032

We have enough extra to add you to our list. Look for a little something in your FE. If you don't have time to make a FE, just make sure you have some kind of bag hanging there for the goodies.

And welcome aboard!!

We will be meeting with the kids at 3 pm at the Mickey Pool. There are a couple of 9/10/11 year olds.

We're prepared also! Welcome Aboard!

 

[plutojudy]

I've added the new people to my list. Welcome all!

 

[grandmatotwo]

You go, girl! I can't wait to see how this turns out. When are you doing the "reveal"?

Ben, Jenny, Lily, and Grandma Dot

Currently they believe that we are going camping just a short distance away from Wed - Sun. I have arranged the extra days off with his boss. And the reveal will be on Monday July 25 at 8:00 pm when we get our telephone call from Mickey Mouse. I will have my daughter video tape it because I can't wait to see their faces. 6 more sleeps till I don't have to keep this secret any more.

 

[ariel39]

We have enough extra to add you to our list. Look for a little something in your FE. If you don't have time to make a FE, just make sure you have some kind of bag hanging there for the goodies.

And welcome aboard!!

We will be meeting with the kids at 3 pm at the Mickey Pool. There are a couple of 9/10/11 year olds.

We will have enough too!!!

See you all next Tuesday!

 

[plutojudy]

Total of 43 people in FE?

 

[brackjr]

Washing and packing today!

Also looked through a friend's photos who had just returned from the Wonder cruise.

 

[plutojudy]

Brack, how did Annette's tests go? Hope all is well.

 

[3princessMommy]

Have definitely decided that we are cruise people vs. park people. Only 1.5 days down at Disneyland and I am so fed up with people! Or maybe we are just WDW vs. DL people?

It certainly seems to me that WDW handles crowds a heck of a lot better than DL does. It took them 35 minutes to load our first ride this morning! Talk about a waste of extra magic hours! And there are SOOOOO MANY people here! You can't move between Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear! Let alone try and keep track of a very quick and small 4-year-old! She's already been knocked down once - and the person didn't apologize or even stop!!!! People have cut in front of us in lines and just not been very pleasant!

One of our tickets was not readable on the bar code - so we couldn't get fast passes with it. Yet there were no cast members even assisting anyone with the fast passes. Then when we tried to reprint it, they told us the system wouldn't let them, so they'd just write in the missing number. We pointed out that was useless for fast passes, and they seemed at a loss. Then someone said - you could give them free fast passes. Yes - they could have done that. But almost immediately - they reprinted the park ticket instead. Huh?

Trying to get the girls to take naps so we can go back to the parks for the fireworks tonight. DCL take me away......

 

[brackjr]

Brack, how did Annette's tests go? Hope all is well.

The good news is that the Cardiologist said that her heart is "perfect" with zero blockages. He was dumbfounded because he really thought that he would find something!

The not so good news is that we are back to needing to find out what has caused the rapid heart beat and higher blood pressure. It would be good to find out that it is a reaction to the non-steriod medicine so she would never take it again.

If it is something else then we need to deal with that fairly quickly ..... after the cruise.

Thanks to everyone for the prayers and pixiedust.

 

[brackjr]

The wash is done!

I pulled out the suitcases but have not put anything in them. I am now working on luggage tags and door magnetics.

Why do I feel so far behind? Maybe it's because on all the others cruises I had this sort of stuff done two weeks ahead!

I spent two hours looking for my FE only to not find it! So now I am putting together a replacement.

I will be ready no matter what by 6AM Friday!

 

[bbaltes]

Just saw the Wonder leave Canada Place on the webcam!

I'd post the link, but it's gone already!

You can follow it here if you want: http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/

Just type "Disney Wonder" in the "vessel" box on the left, hit enter and you'll see where she's headed!

Note: It doesn't report all the time - but it's fun to see where it is...

Ben

 

[lbgraves]

ITA with what our impression of how DL was. We spent 2 days in the parks before the 2008 EBPC. I could easily see what Walt improved on at WDW. The ride loading with the people movers makes such a difference. The streets are narrower, which leads to more crowding and grumpy attitudes. The CMs were much grumpier too. One "lady" kept telling us that we couldn't stay where we were for the fireworks and we wern't going to, but were trying to figure out where we could go with the stroller, since things are definitely more defined for that on the street in front of the castle. The third time she told us we had to move, without offering any advise as to where to, I told her [as watching some obvious shirts walk by with their name tags and walkies] that we didn't want to be anywhere around her and I was going to add her to the list of why we like WDW better than DL.

Now there were some things that I liked more at DL...POC being a longer ride, the personalization in the parade since the characters are all miked and not enclosed in the globes. Several princes both walking by and on the floats wished DD a happy birthday, which shocked me at first. LOL! They also read all of the ride directions instead of pushing a button for the recording to start. I really liked being able to watch Wishes and Fantasmic within an hour of each other at the same park both nights we were there too. I miss Fantasmic because we don't go to MGM anymore.

 

[lbgraves]

Here is the site with the webcams for the ports.
http://www.kroooz-cams.com/portcams/us/juneau.php

If you copy picture and post to paint then you can save the picture so that you can post it and others can see it later.

 

[MrsMork]

Have definitely decided that we are cruise people vs. park people. Only 1.5 days down at Disneyland and I am so fed up with people! Or maybe we are just WDW vs. DL people?

It certainly seems to me that WDW handles crowds a heck of a lot better than DL does. It took them 35 minutes to load our first ride this morning! Talk about a waste of extra magic hours! And there are SOOOOO MANY people here! You can't move between Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear! Let alone try and keep track of a very quick and small 4-year-old! She's already been knocked down once - and the person didn't apologize or even stop!!!! People have cut in front of us in lines and just not been very pleasant!

One of our tickets was not readable on the bar code - so we couldn't get fast passes with it. Yet there were no cast members even assisting anyone with the fast passes. Then when we tried to reprint it, they told us the system wouldn't let them, so they'd just write in the missing number. We pointed out that was useless for fast passes, and they seemed at a loss. Then someone said - you could give them free fast passes. Yes - they could have done that. But almost immediately - they reprinted the park ticket instead. Huh?

Trying to get the girls to take naps so we can go back to the parks for the fireworks tonight. DCL take me away......

Oh so sorry your DL trip is not going well! We WAY prefer DL to MK (although we LOVE WDW as a whole better), but then we know DL so well that we are able to move around and avoid crouds easlily and get onto every ride at least once in a day. It IS very crowded there in July, but we went a few years ago in July with DD and her DH and I was able to get fastpasses for all the rides by 4 pm and then we just went and rode! We are not much parade people so we avoid Main Street like the plague during that time.

The good news is that the Cardiologist said that her heart is "perfect" with zero blockages. He was dumbfounded because he really thought that he would find something!

The not so good news is that we are back to needing to find out what has caused the rapid heart beat and higher blood pressure. It would be good to find out that it is a reaction to the non-steriod medicine so she would never take it again.

If it is something else then we need to deal with that fairly quickly ..... after the cruise.

Thanks to everyone for the prayers and pixiedust.

Brack, Dennis says "yes, the med is probably the problem." He always "thinks druggily when something goes awry." He will be happy to confer on the ship!

 

[3princessMommy]

Oh so sorry your DL trip is not going well! We WAY prefer DL to MK (although we LOVE WDW as a whole better), but then we know DL so well that we are able to move around and avoid crouds easlily and get onto every ride at least once in a day. It IS very crowded there in July, but we went a few years ago in July with DD and her DH and I was able to get fastpasses for all the rides by 4 pm and then we just went and rode! We are not much parade people so we avoid Main Street like the plague during that time.

I can do that at MK - but guess I just don't know DL well enough. We have not figured out the traffic flow or the fast passes that we need to get when. If you have tips - would love to hear them since we'll be here till Saturday am.

The fireworks were beautiful this evening though! And they blocked all of main street, so we just plopped ourselves down in the middle with some ice cream cones! Pretty good view! And the girls decided they loved Thunder Mountain - so we were able to get multiple fast passes and ride it three more times tonight. They are happy and EXHAUSTED!!!!

 

[lbgraves]

I can do that at MK - but guess I just don't know DL well enough. We have not figured out the traffic flow or the fast passes that we need to get when. If you have tips - would love to hear them since we'll be here till Saturday am.

We used our same strategy at DL that we do at WDW. DH is in charge of getting the FPs. He gets them from the beginning and keeps getting them when our time allows. We do not use them until after 2:30/3:00 when the crowds start showing up so that we don't have to wait in the long lines. The FPs do not expire for the day.

The one thing that I remember is that to get to Fantasmic from Wishes you go through Frontierland. Think Fs together.

 

[bbaltes]

It's eerily quiet on our little board.

What's everyone doing?

We're getting our last minute lists made and checked off, most of the bags have been "sample packed" to test for quantity, and we've been looking at the marinetraffic site to check the route of our future home... well, if only for a week.

DW and I are both teachers , so we're spending a lot of time at school so we can leave with less stress and worry about what needs to be done when we get back to get ready for the year.

Let's post our last minute thoughts!

Ben, Jenny, Lily, and Grandma Dot

 

[MrsMork]

Door magnets being printed here today. We will pack Sunday and hit the road early Monday morning.

 

[3princessMommy]

Hanging out at Disneyland en route to Vancouver. Caitie's hit a wall today (not unusual after 4 days of non-stop park going). So she and I are having a quiet night in the hotel while the rest of the family are out riding rides and watching the World of Color.

See everyone Tuesday!

 

[brackjr]

Probably my last post on the DISBoard before the cruise. Leave for airport at 5AM so I have a lot to finish up.

See ya there!