August 16, 2011 – 7 Night Alaska Sailing

[Mrs. Gumdrop]

I am very excited to say that we will be sailing with you to Alaska! Myself, DH and DSIL are fresh from the EBTA Repo, and excited to start planning our next adventure.

DH and I will be celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary on this trip.

For DH and I, this will be our 3rd sailing and DSIL's second. I am trying to talk them into joining in on the boards.


P.S. Hi there, Dee47! Nice to see you here!

 

[dee47]

LAUREN!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!! I'm on this cruise with my DS. 2 EBTA alums!

 

[pops711]

GREAT NEWS!!! I Already posted once before that my DW and I were coming but now we have more people in our cabin. We just added 2 more people to our cabin> We are expecting TWINS so now it will be me, my DW (we don't now the sexes yet) and our DKs (Disney Kids) Kinda nerves about our first cruise with kids, and that those kids will be just under a year. Any advise???

 

[disneymath]

GREAT NEWS!!! I Already posted once before that my DW and I were coming but now we have more people in our cabin. We just added 2 more people to our cabin> We are expecting TWINS so now it will be me, my DW (we don't now the sexes yet) and our DKs (Disney Kids) Kinda nerves about our first cruise with kids, and that those kids will be just under a year. Any advise???

First of all ... CONGRATS! If a baby changes everything, well let's just say that twins change it double! (My sister's twin boys are just over a year old. They are a joy and a blessing ... and a lot of work! And that's just my view as an aunt! She also has a son who is turning three, so it's nonstop action at her house!)

For what it's worth, my sis and her dh have agreed to bring the boys to WDW this summer (it will be the 3rd trip for the oldest, 1st for the twins who will be 16months old then). They have flat out refused to join us on this Alaska trip as they feel the boys would be too young (I'm holding out hope that our summer trip to WDW will change their minds).

That said, I can't really think of any advice to give you about cruising with twin infants. It's going to seem like a lifetime will pass between now and August 2011. Right now, my best advice to you would be to take things as they come - and gets lots of rest! Even the most well-mannered babies take a lot of work and you're going to have TWO bundles of joy!

A year from now, this cruise may not seem like such a great thing to do with the babies ... but it might - way too soon to say. The good news is that you'll have a pretty good idea of how things are going before the final deposit for this cruise is due ... if your gut at that time tells you it's a go, then great (I'll sure people will have given you tons of advice for cruising with babies by then). If not, don't hesitate to cancel this cruise - there will be plenty of opportunities for great family vacations down the road. (A third option is that you and mom may decide you are ready for a holiday by yourselves - hopefully you're in a position where relatives and close friends could make this happen by watching the kids.)

If you do opt to cruise with the babies, you may want to seriously consider bringing along a third person, or another couple on the cruise. It's always a good thing when there are more adults than babies. (I still spend many an evening at my sister's house helping with bath and bedtime and just being an extra set of hands.)

 

[Mrs. Gumdrop]

One of the things I am very curious about this trip is the inclusion of Pirate Night. During an imagineering lecture on the EBTA we were told the DCL didn't have fireworks releases for the Baltic or Alaska.

I know we are mostly guessing, but do you think they will keep the Pirates IN the Caribbean party without the fireworks? If it is replaced, what would YOU like to see it replaced with?

I am glad that we chose one of the later sailings on this itinerary so that we can get the scoop from those sailing in May and beyond.

Also....

Congrats to you, pops711! That is wonderful news!

 

[disneymath]

One of the things I am very curious about this trip is the inclusion of Pirate Night. During an imagineering lecture on the EBTA we were told the DCL didn't have fireworks releases for the Baltic or Alaska.

I know we are mostly guessing, but do you think they will keep the Pirates IN the Caribbean party without the fireworks? If it is replaced, what would YOU like to see it replaced with?

I am glad that we chose one of the later sailings on this itinerary so that we can get the scoop from those sailing in May and beyond.

Also....

Congrats to you, pops711! That is wonderful news!

Hmm ... I didn't know that Disney didn't have releases for fireworks in Alaska. I was looking forward to that, but then I'm a fireworks kind of girl!

I'm sure they'll have some sort of theme party ... would be kinda cool if they could like to to the old-time prospectors/goldrush etc.

I'm with you about glad to be on a later sailing so we can get the scoop from those who "venture North" before us.

 

[missmulan]

i'm on this cruise, just poppin' in to say hellllooooo!!

 

[Mrs. Gumdrop]

Anyone up for a little Alaskan inspiration? Here are some photos to dream on (snagged from flickr):

 

[pops711]

449 days or 1 year 2 months and 23 days to go. I made the mistake of looking at the picture of the day thread and now I want to go NOW

 

[Mrs. Gumdrop]

449 days or 1 year 2 months and 23 days to go. I made the mistake of looking at the picture of the day thread and now I want to go NOW

I hear you! Lets go!

 

[emilyann415]

We haven't even taken our next cruise yet, 5 day Key West in Aug and I just rebooked for Alaska....hoping that I can get it a bit cheaper rebooking on the cruise this Aug but we'll see. We've been on a 3 night and this next will be a 5 night and Alaska will be 7....so we're getting the hang of this cruising thing!
Just wondering if any of you have done an Alaska cruise before? Wondering weather wise what to expect, I wanted an verandah to take in the beautiful scenery but now am worried with it not getting dark at night if an inside would be better. Also, we have a 5 year old. I am hoping to see other kids on the cruise....

Can't wait for 2011!
If there is a FE list...count us in.

Emily, DH, DD (3) in 2010

 

[godalejunior]

This will be our first cruise ever....we opted for category 9b with the ocean view. Upgrading more to the verandah was quite a bit and I thought we could use the money for excursions. Keeping my fingers crossed for an upgrade.

I think it would be great to do a dis meet and greet and fe exchange...I'm in!

 

[Inkmahm]

We haven't even taken our next cruise yet, 5 day Key West in Aug and I just rebooked for Alaska....hoping that I can get it a bit cheaper rebooking on the cruise this Aug but we'll see. We've been on a 3 night and this next will be a 5 night and Alaska will be 7....so we're getting the hang of this cruising thing!
Just wondering if any of you have done an Alaska cruise before? Wondering weather wise what to expect, I wanted an verandah to take in the beautiful scenery but now am worried with it not getting dark at night if an inside would be better. Also, we have a 5 year old. I am hoping to see other kids on the cruise....

Can't wait for 2011!
If there is a FE list...count us in.

Emily, DH, DD (3) in 2010

DH and I have cruised Alaska twice wit Priincess. We definitely have the verandah for the scenery. Don't worry, we're going in August when the days are getting shorter already. It DOES get dark at night. I've been there in late August and had no trouble at all. Where it stays light longer is the land portion of a cruisetour when you get to Fairbanks, Denali, etc. That's not where we're going though so don't worry.

For weather, expect very cold and wet and then be pleasantly surprised if the weather is nicer.

 

[wisegal]

We are booked on this trip as well, this is our 1st cruise as well.We are myself, Nicole, my husband Dave and our kids Brooklyn (5 at the time of the cruise) and Michael (4 at the time of the cruise). We will be joined by my sister and her family (3 kids aged 9,6,2 turning 3 while on board the ship), my parents, a family friend, my aunt, my cousin and her family (2 kids aged 13 and 11 i think) and my cousins inlaws.

i am intrested in the FE exchange

Nicole

 

[pops711]

Just out of curiosity how many Cruises has everyone taken and what were they?

My DW and I have taken 2: A 3 day & the western bound Panama Canal

 

[Inkmahm]

Just out of curiosity how many Cruises has everyone taken and what were they?

My DW and I have taken 2: A 3 day & the western bound Panama Canal

Alaska with DCL will be our 8th cruise. We've done Alaska twice with Princess and with DCL we've donethe 4 night Bahama 3 times, Eastern Caribbean and Western Caribbean (Dec '10)

 

[bekkio]

Just out of curiosity how many Cruises has everyone taken and what were they?

This will be the 2nd cruise for DH and myself. We went on a 3-day DCL cruise last November (it was our incentive for adding on DVC points at GCV) and had a great time.


Mrs. Gumdrop, thanks for the pictures, so beautiful!

 

[mmouse37]

Hey, my DS and I live in Bellevue too! DIS MEET!!!!!!!!!! He'll be 14 almost 15 at cruise time.

We're taking the train the day before. We love Vancouver, and plan to spend some time before and after the cruise there. We splurged on the Empress the night before (it's right at the port), and afterward we'll stay at our favorite hotel, The Pacific Palisades.

At least that's the plan at the moment.

Hey There....we are also on this cruise with a fairly large group. We booked the day it was open for bookings.....it will be our 21st DCL cruise...(we are going on 18 in October and then 19 and 20 will be the Dream MV and the one after that.....can't wait. Always wanted to see Alaska....

I just wanted to let you know that I tried the link for the Pacific Palisades and sadly it says that they have closed their doors.....so it looks like that won't be a hotel option...says something about them being apartments in the future....just wanted to give you a heads up.

MJ

 

[dee47]

I just wanted to let you know that I tried the link for the Pacific Palisades and sadly it says that they have closed their doors.....so it looks like that won't be a hotel option...says something about them being apartments in the future....just wanted to give you a heads up.

MJ

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[jel0511]

Hi everyone!!! we'll be joining your little group! We're myself, DH, DD13 and DS 10. We have a cat 5c and 11b across the hall from each other on deck 5. We were booked on the aug 23rd sailing, but just switched to this one because of school schedules. Can't wait to catch up with everyone!!!!