Alaska ~ 8/13/12 ~ Midnight Sun Mouseketeers!

[OC_stacylace]

Hi and welcome!

As for flying...we may even drive up. Hubby and I are throwing around the idea of sticking around the Seattle area when our cruise is over to explore some of our old hangout spots. We went on our first cruise this April and we got so spoiled it was hard to return back to reality. Adding some days of vacation to the end of our trip may help us with this. lol

Where in soCal are you from? We are in south OC in Rancho Santa Margarita.

Beth...one of our fav things to do on the cruise was Bingo! Our 5 year old won us $151! We also loved the adult themed shows in Wavebands and our after dinner drink in Diversions. One place we want to hang out more in is the Outlook Bar and Cafe.

 

[tinkerbelltwins]

Yay! The fourth family to join the Midnight Sun Mouseketeers! A huge welcome to Jodi, Bret and Maverick!

 

[tinkerbelltwins]

Good morning everyone! I've got a question for the group: do you think it is helpful to add dining info (main or second seating) to the roll call? Is this useful information? If so, I'll add it for everyone if you let me know what time you've signed up for. Let me know what you think! I don't have a strong opinion either way....

Beth

 

[Presley]

Good morning everyone! I've got a question for the group: do you think it is helpful to add dining info (main or late) to the roll call? Is this useful information? If so, I'll add it for everyone if you let me know what time you've signed up for. Let me know what you think! I don't have a strong opinion either way....

Beth

In the event that you do, we are second seating.

OC_Stacy - I am in San Diego North County. I'll most likely be flying out of Lindberg field, unless it will make a HUGE difference to fly out of LAX. I wish we could add on some time for Seattle, but we can't take anymore than the week off.

 

[OC_stacylace]

We are second seating, too. We had it last cruise and loved it.

 

[tinkerbelltwins]

Okay -- I'll add the seating times to the roll call.

Stacy, I want to pick your brain about something. I was looking around through trip reports and saw yours for the MR -- kudos to you for doing one! I saw you mentioned that you were iffy on doing a room on deck 8 again up towards the front. Right now I've got us in 8500 as it is at the front of the ship -- I read posts how fun it is to get to see the officers working out on the bridge bump outs. That sounded cool so I booked 8500 as it is the closest to the bridge wings on the starboard side. But now I'm mulling it over and thinking it is a very pricey (4B) and I'm thinking we might move down to a 5B. Our last cruise we were mid-ship on deck 7 in a 5A and it was fine for the 4 of us (my twins are still little). What would you do?

A PS here: I ended switching us to a 5B on the 7th floor!

Beth

 

[tinkerbelltwins]

@Liz -- I'm adding the dining time to the roll call too -- are you and Katie main seating or second seating? I hope all is well in Michigan -- we are experiencing tornado conditions here this morning. Yikes!

Beth

 

[OC_stacylace]

Stacy, I want to pick your brain about something. I was looking around through trip reports and saw yours for the MR -- kudos to you for doing one! I saw you mentioned that you were iffy on doing a room on deck 8 again up towards the front. Right now I've got us in 8500 as it is at the front of the ship -- I read posts how fun it is to get to see the officers working out on the bridge bump outs. That sounded cool so I booked 8500 as it is the closest to the bridge wings on the starboard side. But now I'm mulling it over and thinking it is a very pricey (4B) and I'm thinking we might move down to a 5B. Our last cruise we were mid-ship on deck 7 in a 5A and it was fine for the 4 of us (my twins are still little). What would you do?

Beth

Hey Beth,

First of all, thx for reading what was the start of my trip report. After writing a bit, I realized that it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. Plus, I didn't take any food pictures, and I realized that is one of the things I like to look at in others. I won't finish it, but take the lessons learned to hopefully do a kick butt TR from our Alaska cruise!

We were in 8014, which was also Forward near the bridge. There were some mornings where we heard them dragging something, not sure what it was, across deck 9 right above our room. Sometimes I thought it was an airplane or something, as it was so loud. It never woke me up, or anyone in my family, but we were up early and the kids sleep through most anything. It seemed to always take place at around 7 or 8 in the morning. Besides this, we heard no other noise, other than from kids on the balconies near ours.

Being near the Forward elevators was nice, as they were no where near as busy as the Mid or Aft ones. Being on deck 8 was nice, too, in that you just went up a flight of stairs and you were at deck 9. The only thing for us was that we were right under the Cove pool. I felt bad about taking my little guy through the area towards the back of the ship. He always held my hand, and I told him to be quiet, but I felt like we were intruding on the adult space as we walked through. I just didn't like walking through the hallways on deck 8 as much as walking on deck 9.

Lastly, as for the room, the extra space of the cat 4 was nice, but we can do without. I'd rather book at 5 or 6, and take the hundreds of dollars saved, and put that on excursions or what have you. To each his own, though...(ask me what I think after this cruise! lol)

 

[tinkerbelltwins]

Stacy, That's so funny you mentioned how busy the mid ship elevators were -- that too, was our experience on the Magic in October. Our room was very near those mid-ship elevators but we rarely took them because they were so busy. Plus our twins loved taking the stairs up and down. We figured the exercise was good because we were definitely eating food that was a lot richer than what we consumed at home!

I'm still uncertain about what to do with the rooms. I'll probably keep the 4B for now but might change later. I know my DH would love to be able to check out what's going on by seeing the officers working away on the bridge, and they will certainly be super busy when we are making our way up Tracy Arm!

Also -- it is fun to read that both you and Jodi live in Southern California. When I was little I spent every summer visiting my grandparents who lived in Laguna Hills -- we loved going to the beach either at Laguna or San Clemente.

Beth

 

[Jack'sGirl5]

@Liz -- I'm adding the dining time to the roll call too -- are you and Katie main seating or second seating? I hope all is well in Michigan -- we are experiencing tornado conditions here this morning. Yikes!

Beth

Hi Beth,

Katie and I are main seating. We were second seating on our last cruise but what with the short, early port times I thought main might be better this time around. We will be up early to try to fit in excursions and should be plenty hungry by main seating time!

Hope you are OK with all your wild weather down there -- they are even showing all the destruction on our news casts up here. We have been having (as Pooh Bear says) a very blustery couple of days but nothing like down south!

Thanks for updating all the helpful links by the way -- very useful.

Liz

 

[Jack'sGirl5]

Hi Stacy,

Looking forward to sharing a cruise. I noticed that you have lived in the Seattle area. Katie and I are planning on spending a few days before the cruise in Seattle. The pacific northwest is the one area of the country that I have not visited and we are really looking forward to it.

As our resident expert, could you give us some sight seeing suggestions or "not to be missed" experiences?? Any suggestions would be very welcome -- thanks so much!

Liz

 

[OC_stacylace]

Also -- it is fun to read that both you and Jodi live in Southern California. When I was little I spent every summer visiting my grandparents who lived in Laguna Hills -- we loved going to the beach either at Laguna or San Clemente.

Beth

Wow, Laguna Hills? That's 5 miles from my house. Small world, sometimes...eh?

 

[OC_stacylace]

Hi Stacy,

Looking forward to sharing a cruise. I noticed that you have lived in the Seattle area. Katie and I are planning on spending a few days before the cruise in Seattle. The pacific northwest is the one area of the country that I have not visited and we are really looking forward to it.

As our resident expert, could you give us some sight seeing suggestions or "not to be missed" experiences?? Any suggestions would be very welcome -- thanks so much!

Liz

Hi Liz!

I have a few things in mind you guys may like.

1. Seattle Aquarium: This is right on the water by the Ferry Terminal. It's a nice aquarium that has lots of local fish you'd find in the Pacific Northwest. Last time we were there they had a very neat, and large, octupus along with several sea otters they were nursing back to health.

2. Ferry ride: I know we are cruising ourselves, but there are ferry rides out of downtown that go either 1 hr (to Bremerton) or 1/2 hour (to Bainbridge Island) each way. It's really cheap if you walk on, and it's a nice way to get pictures of the city from the water, as well as see some of the scenery across Puget Sound.

3. Underground Tour: Seattle has a neat history in its construction. There is an underground tour that starts in Pioneer Square (downtown). On the tour you learn the city was actually a level lower than where it rests now, and you can safely go and explore the old sidewalks underneathe the current ones. It's pretty neat, and is funny. You ever learn about toilet bowl history!

4. Pike Place Market: This is a great place to get a taste of Seattle. This is where you can see people ordering fish and the men selling them throwing them. They have fresh produce for sale, as well as local craft vendors selling their wares.

5. EMP: the Experience Music Project, or a rock and roll museum. This is a really great place to not only learn about music's history, but to play music as well. The building itself is amazing to look at.

6. Univ of Washington: My kids like going to schools, as it gets them excited to go one day themselves. This school is so pretty. Picture a university in your head of what you would think ideal, and UW is it. Lots of amazing buildings complete with ivy on the walls, and fountains and trees all the same.

7. Space Needle: Such a landmark of Seattle and a must do. You can ride an elevator to the top. In August, you will get some amazing views of the Seattle and the water, as well as Mount Ranier.

I hope this gives you a few ideas. I'm always here to answer questions!

 

[OC_stacylace]

Beth, what cruise did you guys take before? I am looking (and dreaming) at the Disney website and trying to decide where to go next. I really want to see Castaway Cay. Did your cruise go there? How did you guys like it?

 

[tinkerbelltwins]

Beth, what cruise did you guys take before? I am looking (and dreaming) at the Disney website and trying to decide where to go next. I really want to see Castaway Cay. Did your cruise go there? How did you guys like it?

Hi Stacy, We went on the Magic Halloween Cruise last fall. We went to the Western Caribbean -- Key West on Halloween, Grand Cayman, Cozumel and Castaway Cay. We loved it and it was super special being on the boat for Halloween. I was part of an incredible Dismeets group -- one of the designers was on our meet thread who made some great designs for our cruise, one of the Dis moderators (MJ)was on it, we had someone on board who organized a trick or treat for the kids (that was in addition to the one disney organized), we had a pirate scavenger hunt on Nachi beach in Cozumel (and our meet group rented out the whole beach -- over 100 of us were there), there was a Palo Brunch, and the list goes on. Lots of people pitched in and volunteered to spearhead various things, so we had tons of fun on the whole cruise. I was so wowed by everything and made some great friendships, so much so that my family is going again in August and meeting up with a family we met from New Jersey. In fact, their daughter became pals with my twins on email so they got to know each other a little bit even before we actually met them on the cruise!

I highly recommend those DCL cruises out of Port Canaveral. Very fun to also have a pre-cruise, postcruise, or both stay at WDW too.

Beth

 

[tinkerbelltwins]

Hey everyone,
I posted some links to the Seattle places that Stacy mentioned a few posts up. So check them out in post #3 if you feel so inclined!

 

[tinkerbelltwins]

Since I was just talking about how one of the DISigners was on my last cruise, it caused me to think about coming up with a design for our cruise. We could use it on door magnets, maybe t-shirts, etc.

I don't have a clue how to make a logo, but I spotted a really cool one used by the Alaska Meets Thread for the July 19, 2011 cruise. The circles within circles is a nifty idea, the lettering pops out, the colors are wonderful and the image of a polar bear sunning on an iceberg is priceless! Their logo is: Alaska: Where a good tan is hard to find". The logo went through several iterations but post 225 is the one they decided to use.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2294276&page=15

I've emailed the person who designed it to ask how he did it, but I haven't heard back.

The other cool thing is that they then are using cafepress so that members of their group can order a wide variety of things if they feel like it. Here is the link for that:

http://www.cafepress.com/goodtan

On the last cruise I went on, people wondered about getting t-shirts made, but if we went through a place like cafepress (a site I had never heard of before ) you could basically get anything you wanted. I think that the July 19 meets group was careful not to use the word "disney" on their logo for cafepress to avoid copyright issues.

So I'm wondering if anybody on our meet thread knows how to make a logo? If you all like the "Midnight Sun Mouseketeers" name, maybe we could come up with a logo related to that. Or, if you'd like to come up with something different then that's fine too.

Just thought I'd put it out there! Anyone want to take a stab at this?

 

[Presley]

The shirts do sound fun. I am not skilled enough to come up with a logo, though

 

[tinkerbelltwins]

The shirts do sound fun. I am not skilled enough to come up with a logo, though

Me either! If no one wants to do it now, we can wait until more people join our Alaska thread and I'll ask again! We do have a wee bit of time until departure!

 

[Presley]

I changed my room to a navigator's verandah. When I read that there is stuff to look at for most of the cruising time, I thought it would be worth it. Room # 7122