Alaska on July 19th, 2011 "Where a good tan is hard to find"

[Meskamooska]

Hi All!

I agree with you MouseClick, a day in port followed by anything at Palo and chocolate souffle makes for a pretty near perfect day. And since it won't be getting dark until sometime around 11pm the view from Palo should be spectacular even if you are dining at 9pm.

I choose to make our reservation at 8pm on the day we are in Skagway. The DH and I are going to be taking the train ride in the morning and then will be renting a car to drive the pass and see a bit of the countryside in addition to just seeing the city. Of course that means that we probably wouldn't be able to get back in time for our scheduled early seating for dinner (we were originally scheduled for the late seating and I was actually really pleased but the others in the group decided that it would be too late to eat so they switched us to early seating and since we are all linked...).

So, we will let our servers know that we won't be at dinner on Friday and will instead head to Palo and are looking forward to watching the ship leave port as we dine. I made our brunch reservation for the second day of the cruise at 11am. I think that might be our character breakfast day and if it is we will join our group but will only have coffee/tea and will save our appetites for the yummies to come.

On another front, some dear friends of ours (he is a castmember - if you are ever in the Grand Californian he is one of the storytellers and if you are there during the Holidays he is the last person you see in the Christmas Parade gave us a couple of park hopper passes for Christmas last year and we have decided to head to Disneyland tomorrow!

It will probably be pretty busy despite it being Good Friday, because the park is on spring break hours. Fortunately, since we live about 40 minutes from the park we can go again if things are too crowded. We are both taking our cameras and hoping to get some fun pictures.

I am also looking forward to a Mint Julep from the French Market. I will also be on the lookout for goodies for the FE. My DH didn't think anyone would be interested in things that came from Disneyland - silly boy

Well, I better get myself into my bath or I am going to miss my chance.

I hope everyone has a beautiful day tomorrow, a blessed Passover and a glorious Easter.

Take care all, help lots of people and have a "Wonder"ful day!

Tisza

 

[twinmom108]

I was afraid we would miss out on lobster if we kept our Palo reservation, but after a little bit of research I learned that they definitely serve lobster on semi-formal night in Palo. Know that, I'll be keeping our reservation. We aren't doing an excursion in Ketchikan so getting there by 7:00 should be no problem for us. For those of you booking excursions, booking a later dinner at Palo is another option if you are going to miss your regular rotation. After all, what can beat lobster followed by chocolate souffle?

OK I changed our dining seating back to second.

We originally had second dining, then changed it to main. After hearing that Lobster was on Ketchikan day & we don't get back from our excursion till 7:30, I tried to book Palo for 8:30 but the said there was a time conflict & would have cancelled our excursion. So that is why we are back to Second Dining & hopefully will be able to freshen up & change quickly enough to hit our dining time.

Planning for this trip is way more exhausting than any other Disney trip I've ever planned.

 

[Meskamooska]

Hi All!

The DH is dawdling getting ready to go to Disneyland and now so am I, but I wanted to stop and take a moment to wish everyone a very HAPPY EARTH DAY!

Now I have to go iron a shirt for him to wear today (seriously, who in their right mind irons a shirt to wear to the park... Oh, yeah, my DH does

Take care all, help lots of people and have a "Wonder"ful day!

 

[mouseclick1]

Hi All!

The DH is dawdling getting ready to go to Disneyland and now so am I, but I wanted to stop and take a moment to wish everyone a very HAPPY EARTH DAY!

Now I have to go iron a shirt for him to wear today (seriously, who in their right mind irons a shirt to wear to the park... Oh, yeah, my DH does

Take care all, help lots of people and have a "Wonder"ful day!

Have fun!

 

[Schachteles]

OK I changed our dining seating back to second.

We originally had second dining, then changed it to main. After hearing that Lobster was on Ketchikan day & we don't get back from our excursion till 7:30, I tried to book Palo for 8:30 but the said there was a time conflict & would have cancelled our excursion. So that is why we are back to Second Dining & hopefully will be able to freshen up & change quickly enough to hit our dining time.

Planning for this trip is way more exhausting than any other Disney trip I've ever planned.

I agree with this being exhausing! MAN

We initially had early dining, but then changed to late since we had that late port time the one day. Our kids are night owls, so hopefully it will be ok. I have to keep reminding myself that it is a three hour time difference from home.

 

[mootmoot]

OK I changed our dining seating back to second.

How are you guys changing your dining assignments? We really want to get Main dining instead of Second, and have been on a "wait list" for months.

Planning for this trip is way more exhausting than any other Disney trip I've ever planned.

YES, I agree!! But, everything is starting to fall into place, and we are almost there!!

 

[Schachteles]

How are you guys changing your dining assignments? We really want to get Main dining instead of Second, and have been on a "wait list" for months.

Main seating is almost always full (as families with young kids want to eat earlier), moving to second seating is easy. We always book main dining, so then we can change to second should the need arise.

 

["Got Disney"]

Planning for this trip is way more exhausting than any other Disney trip I've ever planned.

You can say that again....man seems like there is so much this time around to plan. I think alot of it has to do with the other cruises we have been there dont that...but have never been to Alaska or Canada and there are so many excursion choices that we want to do them all....and see as much as we possibly can.

We always do the early dining and yet we always book the later excursions....We all like to sleep in because we dont get to bed till real late. So this does interfere with our dining times when at port. But this time the only one that we will miss is in Ketchican....but we will go to dinner as mentioned to Top siders where we have to clean up but not like as if going in to dinner in the main dinning room. And Top siders is with a menu and server in the evenings for folks like us that get back late.

As for the Lobster...maybe since so many get back late they will change it to another night...after all there will be many that will not be there for the main dining at all that night.

So does everyone have their Pass Ports yet?

 

[Schachteles]

[QUOTE="Got Disney";40835463]You can say that again....man seems like there is so much this time around to plan. I think alot of it has to do with the other cruises we have been there dont that...but have never been to Alaska or Canada and there are so many excursion choices that we want to do them all....and see as much as we possibly can.

We always do the early dining and yet we always book the later excursions....We all like to sleep in because we dont get to bed till real late. So this does interfere with our dining times when at port. But this time the only one that we will miss is in Ketchican....but we will go to dinner as mentioned to Top siders where we have to clean up but not like as if going in to dinner in the main dinning room. And Top siders is with a menu and server in the evenings for folks like us that get back late.

As for the Lobster...maybe since so many get back late they will change it to another night...after all there will be many that will not be there for the main dining at all that night.

So does everyone have their Pass Ports yet?[/QUOTE]

I didn't know that Topsiders served the meals from the dining room...good information to have.

We are waiting for my husband's passport, we sent it in to be renewed about 2.5 weeks ago, hopefully we will get it back soon. I was just lucky that I noticed it was expiring or we would have been set to leave with no passport for him!!

 

[twinmom108]

[QUOTE="Got Disney";40835463]
As for the Lobster...maybe since so many get back late they will change it to another night...after all there will be many that will not be there for the main dining at all that night.

[/QUOTE]

Maybe that's what they're counting on - that there won't be that many people eating lobster. Could be their way of cutting costs?

 

["Got Disney"]

I didn't know that Topsiders served the meals from the dining room...good information to have.

We are waiting for my husband's passport, we sent it in to be renewed about 2.5 weeks ago, hopefully we will get it back soon. I was just lucky that I noticed it was expiring or we would have been set to leave with no passport for him!!

wow good thing you checked! that would have been a real bummer.

yes...they have the same things just a smaller menu but the service is great. They have had this on all our cruises....unless they decide to change it up for this cruise ...hope not. You have to leave a tip however because they dont share the tips with your regular servers....and they work extra hard to plese you because they are the ones training to become the new servers...so they want you to leave telling the manager that they were great.

It is a sit down meal and they put table cloths on the tables and set it up the same as if you are in the regular dining rooms. And it is not as loud because ther eare a lot less people in there.

In case some of you have not thought about this you may want to get travel insurance. I am going to do this tomorrow.

 

[Schachteles]

[QUOTE="Got Disney";40841433]wow good thing you checked! that would have been a real bummer.

yes...they have the same things just a smaller menu but the service is great. They have had this on all our cruises....unless they decide to change it up for this cruise ...hope not. You have to leave a tip however because they dont share the tips with your regular servers....and they work extra hard to plese you because they are the ones training to become the new servers...so they want you to leave telling the manager that they were great.

It is a sit down meal and they put table cloths on the tables and set it up the same as if you are in the regular dining rooms. And it is not as loud because ther eare a lot less people in there.

In case some of you have not thought about this you may want to get travel insurance. I am going to do this tomorrow.[/QUOTE]

I am SO glad we checked. Hope that it gets here soon...one less thing to worry about!

I have never bought travel insurance?!

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

Happy Easter everyone!!

 

[Schachteles]

Happy Easter everyone!!

HAPPY EASTER to you and your family too. Hope that everyone has a great one.

Ours was uneventful, which is ok with me. I called into DCL today and started the process of applying gift cards to our on board account, still have like 25 more to go, but I figured I would break them out to three calls so I don't "upset" the agent who is lucky enough to get my call

Hope that everyone has a good week, again this weekend went by FAR too fast!

Kim

 

["Got Disney"]

On a late note...Happy Easter to everyone!

 

[twinmom108]

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!! Busy day for us, but a nice family time today.
Definitely ate to much. Hoping you all had a good weekend & Holiday too.

 

[Schachteles]

...it's Monday...AGAIN...the weekends sure go by too fast!

I just went on Hotwire and booked a hotel for our last night in Seattle before we fly home...looks like we got a good deal, so that is exciting!!

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

I just went on Hotwire and booked a hotel for our last night in Seattle before we fly home...looks like we got a good deal, so that is exciting!!

I booked a cheap motel in Bellingham for the night of the 18th. We're still trying to decide if we want to make the drive in 1 or 2 days. It'll probably be 2, so then we'll have to find something to book along the way.

We still haven't booked any excursions yet, but did book a table for 6 for Palo brunch on the Tracy Arm Fjord day!

 

[poohj80]

...it's Monday...AGAIN...the weekends sure go by too fast!

I just went on Hotwire and booked a hotel for our last night in Seattle before we fly home...looks like we got a good deal, so that is exciting!!

May I ask which hotel you got and the rate? Thanks!

 

[wdhinn89]

I know it's late but I hope everyone enjoyed the holdiays. Finally a beautiful day here in NY.