CAprincess
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Aug 2, 2010
- Messages
- 8
I know others have posted on the ABD Alaska cruise add-on, but I thought I would post my impressions too. We were on the June 21-28 sailing on the Wonder. This was our first experience with ABD. We never received any information from ABD before we left so we were a bit in the dark about ABD when we arrived at the port. Fear not, we met our guide Landon at the dock during check-in. The ABD group was small on this cruise, only 7 people. Five of the 7 were our family group! We were sailing with myself, DH, DS(10), DD(8), and my sister.
Our ABD guides, Landon and Korey, were fantastic. Very personable and great at looking after the minute details that make a vacation extra special. They were great with the kids too.
The days at sea are low-key for the ABD add-on. There was an activity each day, but we were on our own otherwise. Which is fine, because the ship certainly has enough activities to keep one busy. Of course, the ABD activities we did have were wonderful. I don't want to spoil things for future sailors with too many details!
Our excursion days were amazing. Two of the days were an early start and the Ketchikan day is later since the ship doesn't arrive until the afternoon. We all enjoyed the excursions offered. The transportation was excellent and we always had our own bus, or train car, or trolley, or boat. A little funny for a group of 7! The one down side I noticed about so many amazing activities each day was often I felt like I could have spent more time but we had to leave to meet our next deadline. I guess that means we will have to visit again! We certainly couldn't have done so many things on our own.
The highlights for the adults were the helicopter ride and dog sledding during the Juneau day. A WOW sort of day! The kids said they enjoyed the Lumberjack show the most. Go figure.
The only slightly negative aspect of the ABD add-on was missing the formal night and semi-formal night activities on the ship. Our ABD Palo dinner was on the ship's formal night and our crab dinner on an excursion was during semi-formal night. Now, we certainly could have worn our formal wear to Palo's and taken pictures with Mickey, etc. Our servers also offered to accommodate our late return to the ship for the early seating during semi-formal night with a second seating spot. So, one can do it all, but it takes a little extra effort.
All in all it was a magical experience with ABD and I would not hesitate to sign-up for the cruise add-on again. I'm hoping the 2012 ABD schedule will go somewhere I want to go for next year's vacation.
Our ABD guides, Landon and Korey, were fantastic. Very personable and great at looking after the minute details that make a vacation extra special. They were great with the kids too.
The days at sea are low-key for the ABD add-on. There was an activity each day, but we were on our own otherwise. Which is fine, because the ship certainly has enough activities to keep one busy. Of course, the ABD activities we did have were wonderful. I don't want to spoil things for future sailors with too many details!
Our excursion days were amazing. Two of the days were an early start and the Ketchikan day is later since the ship doesn't arrive until the afternoon. We all enjoyed the excursions offered. The transportation was excellent and we always had our own bus, or train car, or trolley, or boat. A little funny for a group of 7! The one down side I noticed about so many amazing activities each day was often I felt like I could have spent more time but we had to leave to meet our next deadline. I guess that means we will have to visit again! We certainly couldn't have done so many things on our own.
The highlights for the adults were the helicopter ride and dog sledding during the Juneau day. A WOW sort of day! The kids said they enjoyed the Lumberjack show the most. Go figure.
The only slightly negative aspect of the ABD add-on was missing the formal night and semi-formal night activities on the ship. Our ABD Palo dinner was on the ship's formal night and our crab dinner on an excursion was during semi-formal night. Now, we certainly could have worn our formal wear to Palo's and taken pictures with Mickey, etc. Our servers also offered to accommodate our late return to the ship for the early seating during semi-formal night with a second seating spot. So, one can do it all, but it takes a little extra effort.
All in all it was a magical experience with ABD and I would not hesitate to sign-up for the cruise add-on again. I'm hoping the 2012 ABD schedule will go somewhere I want to go for next year's vacation.
