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

[Bella2000]

... This is like a planes, trains, automobiles, and ships vacation!

It is! Brilliant movie. I hope not though... I've made the decision to fly into Vancouver and we'll go in early because I've never been there and since this is my dream trip - well - ok I'm the travel person I am not even going to begin to presume they will listen to me on everything but with the travel everyone likes fait accompli and for me Vancouver it is. LOL

Re excursions - I want to do a zip line - I do I really do and the suspension bridge. I walked across a bridge in New Mexico and thought OH MY HEAD so I can't even believe I am considering it.

 

[pjpoohbear]

Carla,

Planning Center in top right most tab on the main page, then saved activities in the left hand menu. This will show your Favourites choices.

This is also where you can delete your old saved items. using the - just under the photo for each one.

To pick favourites, it is the + under the pic of the tour/activity in the Shore Excursions pages, then the complied list will be in the Planning Centre -> Saved Activities.

 

[tink too]

Well, I haven't posted on this thread for a while, because I knew this was coming - we have now cancelled this cruise.

As much as we would love to do an Alaskan cruise, it's just not going to be possible as we'll be taking a vacation with extended family later in the year. Who knows? We'll maybe get to take this cruise another year.

It's not all bad though, because we've managed to transfer to the Maiden Voyage of the Fantasy!

Hope you all have a fabulous time - I'll be sure to look out for all the TR's.

 

[Bella2000]

Carla,

Planning Center in top right most tab on the main page, then saved activities in the left hand menu. This will show your Favourites choices.

This is also where you can delete your old saved items. using the - just under the photo for each one.

To pick favourites, it is the + under the pic of the tour/activity in the Shore Excursions pages, then the complied list will be in the Planning Centre -> Saved Activities.

It finally took me to the page. I was in planning but I couldn't get the second activities page to go through last week. I ended up going the long way through the shore excursions and selected alaska but now I see this on this page. Of course I now have too many favorites - time to pair down.

Port Schedules Now I am looking here for my enjoyment just to see DISNEY WONDER (Canada Place)

 

[Bella2000]

Well, I haven't posted on this thread for a while, because I knew this was coming - we have now cancelled this cruise.
:

Enjoy your family trip and how awesome about the Maiden Voyage of the Fantasy!

 

[3princessMommy]

Hi All!

It's been awhile since I've posted here as we had been focusing on our Magic Christmas cruise. We are still recovering!

But I thought I'd just check in and see what's going on with this group and say happy new year!

I started looking at excursions last night - WOW! - Those prices are scary for our family of 5! Will have to do some serious soul searching as to whether something is really worth $2000 for 4 hours.

We met some wonderful folks on our Christmas cruise who live in Seattle. They have invited us to stay with them before our Alaska adventure, so just curious if anyone had researched getting from Seattle to Vancouver and whether it's possible to do on the day of departure or whether you have to stay in Vancouver the night before. Thoughts?

Finally - are we doing a FE exchange on this cruise yet? Happy to help organize if needed. This is one of our favorite parts of cruising Disney.

I look forward to getting to know everyone over the next several months.

Joann

 

[brack]

What did you do to celebrate the birthday?

We stayed home!

 

[brack]

For excursions I think we will look at Mendenhall Glacier by helicopter out of Juneau, White Pass Railway out of Skagway - we may do this on our own rather than thru DCL- and then just do Ketchikan exploring on our own. It looks like Ketchikan has a street trolley that we could use. Is anyone else looking yet at what they might be planning?

I have only started looking at how to get there! It looks like we'll fly to Seattle a couple of days ahead then catch the train up to meet the ship. We'll stay after the cruise for a few days but all of that is up in air right now.

Excursions will probably be on our own and not the pricey ones from DCL but we'll see.

 

[MrsMork]

Hi Joanne, there is a train from Seattle to Vancouver and I believe you can catch it in the morning and arrive same day as cruise. It's been a week or so since I was looking at options and I did not write down any info, but I think I remember the train correctly. Yes, the excursions are expensive! But, I was thinking that this will be a one time shot for us and how many opportunities will our grandson get to ride in a helicopter to a glacier. I may need to get a job.

 

[bbaltes]

Well, after much procrastinating, our family (DH, DW, DD(8), and DGM) will be flying from Milwaukee to Vancouver the night before and staying at a Days Inn. There is a train at the airport that takes you directly to downtown, and the Days Inn, while not plush by any means, looks like it's comfortable. We priced out flying into Seattle, staying the night, taking a train, then staying another night on the return, taking the train back, catching a flight back from Seattle. Funny thing is that it turned out to be the same price when you factor in the extra hotels, meals, train tickets, etc. Plus, there is the consideration of the extra transfer and hauling of bags. We're just going to do the simple thing and fly directly into Vancouver, just spend the night and be one of the first in line at the port to get on the boat.

A couple of questions for all to consider:

1) What is the boarding process in Vancouver, and how does it differ (time wise) from Port Canaveral?
2) What degree of warm/cool clothing are you bringing? With all the consideration regarding extra bags, etc., I'm wondering if we're going to have think about a couple more bags for cool night sweaters, etc. We found that we were packing about 1/3 of what we did on our first Disney Cruise down in the warm Caribbean, so what are you guys going to do to bulk up?

As far as excursions, we're just going to play it by ear. We found that all that planning and stressing wasn't worth it. We'll just get off the boat, wander around and see what strikes our fancy.

Well, here I go spending a couple grand to get us out there - but then it will be done!

Ben

 

[pjpoohbear]

There is a link to a website on packing for an Alaskan Cruise in the group website in the news section, Packing help

Pj

 

[MrsMork]

As for what to pack: I will check with weather.com as we get close as the weather in the NW can be chilly or quite warm in July. One cannot know from year to year whether a heavy sweatshirt with long sleeves under will be needed vs. light sweatshirt with tshirt under. I won't pack until a week or so before we leave.

 

[3princessMommy]

Packing will be complex for our family of five - we'll be in the middle of a move from Africa back to the U.S. But I'm hoping that July in AK will be fairly mild and that layering will be sufficient. If not, well, we'll be cold I guess.

We were in WDW this year before Christmas and it was frigid! We ended up running to Walmart and getting scarves and gloves and hats and sweaters. Hoping it will be warmer in Alaska.

 

[brack]

DW and I have actually chatted a little about this trip. I am fairly certain that soon I will book our flights on Southwest to Seattle for the Saturday before the cruise and return from Seattle the Sunday after the cruise. We will probably stay in Seattle until the cruise day and stay in Vancouver until the Saturday after the cruise.

More details as they firm up.

 

[sherjoy]

Sometimes it seems so unreal to be planning something that is so far away. We still need to survive the school year

We bought our plane tickets for Seattle. Still need to find hotels in Seattle and Vancouver and train tickets for amtrak. Does the amtrak fill up so that I would need to book far in advance? We are trying to get a rental car for the trip back from Vancouver to Seattle. This is proving kind of difficult.

I have been searching thorugh the winter clearance stuff for the kids. Trying to figure how to get clothes for 10 days plus toiletries into a carry on suitcase. I am thinking 5 outfits that we wear twice and then one formal outfit. How formal is it for the kids? Will my son need to wear a suit?

Looking forward to the time where the planning is over and I can just be on Vacation

 

[MrsMork]

A pair of slacks and dress shirt would be fine for you son. Some of us dress up a bit more so that we can get a nice family photo, but it is not necessary especially if you are trying to pack light.

 

[plutojudy]

While we are on the subject of clothes...what are you thinking of for day time wear? Jeans, capris, shorts? Some of each to be prepared for any weather? But mostly jeans?

 

[MrsMork]

Judy, I'm not going to decide until about 10 days out when we can look at weather.com and get some idea of expected weather. We could have sunny and 75-80 degrees or drizzly and 40. I don't want to drag too much stuff along, so I will just try, try to wait until close to sail to pack. We have plenty of each kind of clothes, so no shopping will be required.

 

[brack]

Judy, I'm not going to decide until about 10 days out when we can look at weather.com and get some idea of expected weather. We could have sunny and 75-80 degrees or drizzly and 40. I don't want to drag too much stuff along, so I will just try, try to wait until close to sail to pack. We have plenty of each kind of clothes, so no shopping will be required.

This is my plan as well. I am expecting similiar weather as Florida in January.

 

[sherjoy]

A pair of slacks and dress shirt would be fine for you son. Some of us dress up a bit more so that we can get a nice family photo, but it is not necessary especially if you are trying to pack light.

Great! Now will this work with hubby too? I would love not having to stress about getting a suit in a suitcase, and hubby would love not having to wear one