ALASKA - August 30th, 2011 - Mickeys Mooseketeers & the last Alaskan Cruisade! New Th

[seaulater]

Arrived in Seattle no problem yesterday. My family picked me up and we hung around Seattle and stayed in Bellingham last night. We are now headed for our free breakfast here at the Holiday Inn Express and then headed to Vancouver.

Staying at the Westin tonight in downtown Vancouver and doing the typical tourist things today like walking across the Capillano Suspension Bridge and Stanley Park.

Watched the ship leave Ketchikan last night! She is headed to pick us up! We are excited for our cruise. See everyone in about 24 hours or so!

 

[ImprovGal]

I'm now in Seattle and am looking forward to a couple of food tours later this morning and this afternoon. But first, it's up to the lounge for a little breakfast.

Tomorrow -- I'm heading to Vancouver and the Wonder!

 

[HiMagicFan]

Glad to see some of you have made it safely.

I am hoping that they can get us on a flight out between tomorrow afternoon and Tuesday morning. If we don't leave until Tuesday, I will have to keep my fingers crossed that the Pan Pacific doesn't penalize us for canceling late.

Ugh.

First Off ~ will have my fingers and toes crossed for you that all goes well.

Second ~ I think if you provide Pan Pacific with the info of the cancelled flights and tell them you were in the hurricane zone that they would let you off.

So here's hoping you are able to make it!

 

[HiMagicFan]

Weather Saturday and Sunday in Vancouver was absolutely gorgeous. Us Hawaii people were actually walking around in short sleeve t-shirts. You could probably have gotten away with shorts too.

We got in on saturday morning at 6am! We were lucky in that the Sheraton Wall Center had a room for us!!! Yipee. Slept until noon. Then walked around to get my bearings. Headed back to the hotel to pick up my parents and then we did the seabus to North Vancouver (Lonsdale Quay Market) and had some beavertails!!! Yummy! have it with the sugar and lemon!

Sunday (another really nice day) we didn't get going til noon....headed over to the Vancouver Aquarium. If you purchase your tickets at the machine using a credit card you can get into the "fast line" and bypass the longer line. We stayed for the beluga show and did the BC Treasures exhibit which showed the different areas along the inside passage way. Then we headed to the Stanley Park Shuttle. This looks exactly like the Vancouver Trolley but has Green Flags at the top front saying Stanley Park. The cost is $10CA and is a hop on hop off....worth the price. From there we took the bus to Chinatown for the Chinatown Night Market. At least now I can say... been there done that.

Now today, Monday is another story. The weather isn't sunny, in fact it is overcast (I am so hoping it doesn't rain!). And it looks like it will be a long sleeve/jacket kind of day. Here's hoping the sun comes out! We are heading to Granville Island and Ferry Creek and the Gas Town.

 

[sunshine1259]

Weather Saturday and Sunday in Vancouver was absolutely gorgeous. Us Hawaii people were actually walking around in short sleeve t-shirts. You could probably have gotten away with shorts too.

We got in on saturday morning at 6am! We were lucky in that the Sheraton Wall Center had a room for us!!! Yipee. Slept until noon. Then walked around to get my bearings. Headed back to the hotel to pick up my parents and then we did the seabus to North Vancouver (Lonsdale Quay Market) and had some beavertails!!! Yummy! have it with the sugar and lemon!

Sunday (another really nice day) we didn't get going til noon....headed over to the Vancouver Aquarium. If you purchase your tickets at the machine using a credit card you can get into the "fast line" and bypass the longer line. We stayed for the beluga show and did the BC Treasures exhibit which showed the different areas along the inside passage way. Then we headed to the Stanley Park Shuttle. This looks exactly like the Vancouver Trolley but has Green Flags at the top front saying Stanley Park. The cost is $10CA and is a hop on hop off....worth the price. From there we took the bus to Chinatown for the Chinatown Night Market. At least now I can say... been there done that.

Now today, Monday is another story. The weather isn't sunny, in fact it is overcast (I am so hoping it doesn't rain!). And it looks like it will be a long sleeve/jacket kind of day. Here's hoping the sun comes out! We are heading to Granville Island and Ferry Creek and the Gas Town.

Glad you all made it there safely. Actually, it is suppose to rain tomorrow and Wednesday. So, hoping flights will make it in all right.

See you soon.

 

[HiMagicFan]

Welcome to Vancouver everyone!

I know people are on their way or already here and probably already getting ready to board!

Looking forward to seeing everyone!

Overcast again today so cross your fingers it doesn't rain on our Sail Away Party!

 

[poohj80]

Just made it home to Bama. Rental car from Pan Pacific and crossing border was a breeze. We did have to find a Wal-Mart to buy a new suitcase for all the 50% off merchandise we bought.

It was great meeting so many of you and thanks to Paula for the cool surprises!

Here are a few quick pix until I can get the thousands off my cameras...

Skagway Glacier Trek

Juneau Whale Watching - Orca pod

Ketchikan Excursion

Just seemed odd to see mountains off the Wonder

Successful cruise!

 

[cinderellanprince]

A big thank you to everyone for making our first cruise so fabulous! we loved all of the FE gifts, tips everyone had to share (the hotwire deal on the pan pacific, vanouver trolley groupon, character tea--which was one of jeffrey's favorite activities, tips on how to get palo reservations, etc.) i could go on and on--the trip would not have been the same without the disboards! my husband was skeptical about my dis addiction, but after seeing how well prepared we were, he is a supporter now, too. thanks again for everything--it was great finally meeting everyone! contact us if you come to disneyland--we are about 20 minutes away!

 

[sunshine1259]

Welcome Home, Everyone. I hope that everyone had as enjoyable time as we did. It was a delight to finally meet some folks.

Thanks to Paula for setting up everything.

A special thank you to Piikea. I loved your gift. It was very thoughtful of you to think of me.

Hi, to Marni, Bob and Tracy. It was nice to keep running into familiar faces.

Hope to see you all again on future disney cruises.

Number 8, here we come!!!

 

[poohj80]

A big thank you to everyone for making our first cruise so fabulous! we loved all of the FE gifts, tips everyone had to share (the hotwire deal on the pan pacific, vanouver trolley groupon, character tea--which was one of jeffrey's favorite activities, tips on how to get palo reservations, etc.) i could go on and on--the trip would not have been the same without the disboards! my husband was skeptical about my dis addiction, but after seeing how well prepared we were, he is a supporter now, too. thanks again for everything--it was great finally meeting everyone! contact us if you come to disneyland--we are about 20 minutes away!

Aspen is still talking about Jeffrey! Thanks again for the sweet gift and I'm so sorry DH is SO bad with names!

 

[HiMagicFan]

Mahalo! to EVERYONE!

You all made my Wonder cruise just that - wonderful!

I loved all of the FE Surprises! My Mom did too! A big Mahalo for all the wonderful work that you all put into them.

I had a great time in Vancouver as well as the Alaskan ports.

And it was fun seeing you all, all over the ship.

PJ ~ those pics are great! I have already added Alaska to my list again and will plan to do the helicopter to the glacier and the whales watch. your pictures just confirmed it.

Mahalo to you Mooseketeers who made my BD cruise celebration wonderful!

 

[poohj80]

Just had to share the most MAGICAL night of a lil' girl's life...

 

[Politzania]

Howdy everyone! Back home & to work... but will have our magical cruise memories for always! Posted a photo of our FE swag to the Facebook site - we found a couple more goodies as we finished unpacking, but all the gifts were much appreciated!

Sorry we didn't make any of the daily meets - were either still out on excursions or having fun somewhere else on the ship- I did enjoy chatting with a few of you that we met sometime during the week & hope to stay in touch here & on FB.

pooh80 - I think we saw that same Orca pod during our whale watching tour, too! Our pilot (Captain Steve of Harv & Marv) said they only see orca during about a dozen or so days during the season and we saw another pod farther out later during our tour! He also took us out to a sea lion rookery with about 100 critters lolling about - a group of about a dozen were curious & swam out to say hi to us!

We'll be discussing our trip report on our next podcast - which will come out Sun Sep 18 - will probably start posting photos to the website starting this weekend as well...

 

[poohj80]

Haven't had time to get all pix off the camera yet, but we had a wonderful Whale Watching experience in Juneau. This was the only excursion we booked outside of DCL and used Rum Runner Charters after reading reviews on Trip Advisor. Capt. Chris and his First Mate Moon (his dog) were great and the smaller boat allowed us to get closer to the whales than the larger charters. Here are a few pix...

We saw a pod of Orcas with at least 2 babies (their bellies were pinkish, not white)

We also found 4 humpbacks playing together (including under our boat)

Head looking at us

Waving

Gotta get the tail shots...

 

[sumeto]

Hi! We are still here! We road the Vancouver 6.3 earthquake from this afternoon, in the Vancouver Lookout!!!! You know that big round saucer shaped building downtown that is up on top of the square building!!!!. The elevator dropped about a foot when you went down, just like Tower of Terror!
We had a great time, We also bought a new suitcase to get all the stuff home on Sunday. Thank you for all the FE goodies. That was so much fun.
We were soo busy on this trip. I think we need to go again. From the look of the pictures above we missed a few things

 

[poohj80]

I hadn't heard about another earthquake today. What is going on?

We stopped at a Wal-Mart in Bellingham, WA on our way to the Seattle airport to by a new suitcase for all our stuff and it still weighed 50 lbs.

 

[sumeto]

Haven't had time to get all pix off the camera yet, but we had a wonderful Whale Watching experience in Juneau. This was the only excursion we booked outside of DCL and used Rum Runner Charters after reading reviews on Trip Advisor. Capt. Chris and his First Mate Moon (his dog) were great and the smaller boat allowed us to get closer to the whales than the larger charters. Here are a few pix...

We saw a pod of Orcas with at least 2 babies (their bellies were pinkish, not white)

We also found 4 humpbacks playing together (including under our boat)

Head looking at us

Waving

Gotta get the tail shots...

What is the name of the Glacier Toour you did? Through what Company? Thanks in advance.

 

[poohj80]

What is the name of the Glacier Toour you did? Through what Company? Thanks in advance.

The glacier tour was through DCL and was the Glacier Discovery by Helicopter.

The Whale Watching tour was booked with a private tour operator called Rum Runner Charters in Juneau.

 

[poohj80]

Finally had time to start looking at all my pix. I'll share a few as I don't want to bore you with all.

I'm doing them day by day so here is Day 1...

Looks like we barely made it

Late dinner first night - didn't quite make it

 

[HiMagicFan]

Wow! 6.3 earthquake! We left the day before after a 5 hour delay and yes we too had to buy 2 extra suitcases for all of our wonderful goodies!

PJ ~ thanks for posting your great pics! I am definitely planning to go back to Alaska (maybe not necessarily on DCL but definitely going back) so I will keep your charter co on file for my next trip. thanks for sharing!

I am back and work and already planning my next trip(s) ha ha ~ don't have the vacation or the money after this last one but am all ready to go...looking at Disneyland at XMAS (hee hee).

Mahalo again to everyone for making this cruise so special. Hoping to keep in touch and will be seeing you all on the boards!

Can't wait to see the wonder in hawaii in 2012!