Disney Wonder September 3, 2012. Seattle to Vancouver 7 night Alaska Cruise!

[belle07]

Just got home and wanted to say we loved all the gifts in our FE. It was great meeting everyone, and even though I had to convince my husband to do the FE lol, he loved sneaking around and putting our stuff in the fe's. We gave out the stuff that came in the paper bags if anyone wanted to know. Hope to keep in touch with you guys in the future!

 

[Sedgha]

It was great to be able to place a face to names from the board. And I even managed to chat with a few people as well.

My kids loved the FE (as did my wife and I) and were running back to the room to check it each time we went that way.

Looking at another cruise early 2014, but don't know when as they haven't posted any cruise dates yet.

 

[jenf22]

Hi all! I wanted to say thanks so much for all the wonderful FE gifts. Our son LOVED coming to the room and seeing more surprises for him. We enjoyed the cruise very much and re-booked for the Fantasy in October 2013 out of Port Canaveral.

I was hoping to make it to a DVC presentation, but never did. Oh well.

 

[Sedgha]

Here are some pics that I took on the cruise. I've included the links to the Vancouver Aquarium as well. If you see yourself in any of them and want them removed, please let me know. If you want the full sized version of any of them, let me know that as well.

The only pics of my family are a few where you see the back of them, so it's not just the "hey look at my family on vacation", but more of a "This is what I found somewhat interesting". If you want to see shots of the family on the cruise, send me a note, and I'll decide if I trust you with the link. These pics are at 1/3 the size of the originals so hopefully I haven't lost too much detail. I'll start adding comments to some of them explaining where they were taking, and if there are any interesting things about them.

Vancouver Aquarium
https://plus.google.com/photos/1062...ms/5787096441183451937?authkey=COTAxc7s4biWeA

Disney Cruise
https://plus.google.com/photos/1062...ms/5787102763504244993?authkey=CNOa0pLTj6OBGg


edit: including the links would help

 

[Momma2Jax]

So I am somewhat obsessively trying to plan our next cruise. I think I have post-DCL-depression. We booked a dummy date with intentions to sail again in 2014, but there is no way we are waiting that long! haha! It was seriously the perfect vacation for us, with my son's needs, etc!

We have a lot of unknowns now with being in the adoption process, so we can't nail down anything now, but apparently that does not stop me from obsessively checking the itineraries and dividing the amount by the months between now and then to make lots of hypothetical savings plans! ha!

 

[MrHappy]

So I am somewhat obsessively trying to plan our next cruise. I think I have post-DCL-depression. We booked a dummy date with intentions to sail again in 2014, but there is no way we are waiting that long! haha!

Yeah, I knew I'd be in Post Disney Depression so I started planning a trip to DL before we even got on the ship. I'm excited to finally go to DL with my niece and nephew (5 & 8). I can finally go on the little kid rides without being looked at strange.

Unfortunately it will probably be about 2014 before we will have enough points to go on another cruise though. Need all the new and old points to get a good room. Oh well, I might have to go to WDW or Hawaii instead.

And yeah, I was really happy being able to trade pins with all the people. I love seeing the look on people's faces when they find a pin that they have been looking for and finally see it on my lanyard. I can only imagine all the faces that the cast get all the time doing it every day. I know if I lived in the LA area that I'd work at DL for free just to trade pins.

 

[jenf22]

Here are some pics that I took on the cruise. I've included the links to the Vancouver Aquarium as well. If you see yourself in any of them and want them removed, please let me know. If you want the full sized version of any of them, let me know that as well.

The only pics of my family are a few where you see the back of them, so it's not just the "hey look at my family on vacation", but more of a "This is what I found somewhat interesting". If you want to see shots of the family on the cruise, send me a note, and I'll decide if I trust you with the link. These pics are at 1/3 the size of the originals so hopefully I haven't lost too much detail. I'll start adding comments to some of them explaining where they were taking, and if there are any interesting things about them.

Vancouver Aquarium
https://plus.google.com/photos/1062...ms/5787096441183451937?authkey=COTAxc7s4biWeA

Disney Cruise
https://plus.google.com/photos/1062...ms/5787102763504244993?authkey=CNOa0pLTj6OBGg


edit: including the links would help

Thanks for the pictures! I hope to have links soon, but we took over 4000 (!) pictures, so it's going to take me a while to go through them

Was anyone else thrown by semi-formal night? I thought it was the Ketchikan night, but the Navigator said "cruise casual" so I figured they must have changed it (we've never been on a 7-night before). Imagine our surprise when half the people were dressed up. Even the people at Shutters said the characters would be dressed in their formal attires on the last night since "they moved semi-formal night". I was really, really disappointed. We bought new stuff for Ryan and brought stuff for us too. We also felt really out of place in the dining room by the time we figured out what happened.

In case anyone was wondering, we made one of the CDs, the little photo book, and the photo magnets. Hope you guys liked them!

 

[Carolc]

I'm always sad after cruises However, I think with this particular cruise, the 'sadness' is a bit less intense since I know the ship is no longer in Alaska. I mean, if the ship was still sailing to Alaska, I'd be tormenting myself by picturing the ship sailing up Tracy Arm today with all new passengers (and people in MY stateroom, lol). Yeah there are still people in MY stateroom but I think our 7-night cruise to Alaska was probably more exciting than their 6-night cruise down to Los Angeles, right? (help me convince myself ). I am looking at cruise prices now though, wondering if I could swing one more before the Wonder leaves California. I think it is out of reach, though

 

[DizDragonfly]

Was anyone else thrown by semi-formal night? I thought it was the Ketchikan night, but the Navigator said "cruise casual" so I figured they must have changed it (we've never been on a 7-night before). Imagine our surprise when half the people were dressed up.

There were lots of misprints in the Navigators. Lots of references to disembarking in Seattle, etc. It wasn't as though they didn't know there weren't changes to the itinerary in advance. I was a bit disappointed by that.

 

[jenf22]

There were lots of misprints in the Navigators. Lots of references to disembarking in Seattle, etc. It wasn't as though they didn't know there weren't changes to the itinerary in advance. I was a bit disappointed by that.

I guess I figured they printed the Navigators on the ship and they were always the most accurate (they have tomorrow's weather on them). I guess that was a stupid assumption. I only had 2 disappointments - one was missing semi-formal night and the other was the movie show times. I thought it was odd they had 3 PG-13 movies playing during the day on our last sea day and then Cars 2 was playing at 10:30 at night. And they showed "The Help" back to back. It was a great movie, but we saw it on video over 6 months ago. We were really hoping there would be more movies to take Ryan to. Oh well. We still had an awesome cruise!

 

[DizDragonfly]

I guess I figured they printed the Navigators on the ship and they were always the most accurate (they have tomorrow's weather on them). I guess that was a stupid assumption.

No, not stupid at all. My understanding is that they DO print the Navigators onboard (and most everything else). That's why I was so disappointed.

 

[Momma2Jax]

I guess I figured they printed the Navigators on the ship and they were always the most accurate (they have tomorrow's weather on them). I guess that was a stupid assumption. I only had 2 disappointments - one was missing semi-formal night and the other was the movie show times. I thought it was odd they had 3 PG-13 movies playing during the day on our last sea day and then Cars 2 was playing at 10:30 at night. And they showed "The Help" back to back. It was a great movie, but we saw it on video over 6 months ago. We were really hoping there would be more movies to take Ryan to. Oh well. We still had an awesome cruise!

I read that about cruise casual that night, and just 10 minutes earlier our server had said it was semi formal! It was confusing. I also wished there were more movie choices at good times for our DS...but it worked out fine.

 

[DizDragonfly]

I read that about cruise casual that night, and just 10 minutes earlier our server had said it was semi formal! It was confusing. I also wished there were more movie choices at good times for our DS...but it worked out fine.

Yes, it was our server who mentioned it too. We had our character breakfast that morning and we confirmed it with him. Not that it was a big deal to us. But, I like to know what's going on and I'm not a big fan of surprises.

 

[Carolc]

Yes, it was our server who mentioned it too. We had our character breakfast that morning and we confirmed it with him. Not that it was a big deal to us. But, I like to know what's going on and I'm not a big fan of surprises.

I'm glad that you noticed it on the Navigator and brought it up to confirm, else I might have been confused the day of!

 

[jenf22]

Yes, it was our server who mentioned it too. We had our character breakfast that morning and we confirmed it with him. Not that it was a big deal to us. But, I like to know what's going on and I'm not a big fan of surprises.

I guess that was part of our problem - we ate at the buffet for breakfast and then were in Ketchikan most of the day. We dashed back to the room, checked the Navigator, and then headed to the dining room. By the time we had figured it out, it was too late to go back and dress up. On the plus side, we had a horrible table in Tritons, against the front wall, right behind a serving station. So only a handful of people saw us! But I agree - the surprise did not go over well with me!

 

[Chris931]

Hi everyone! We just got home tonight. We stayed two nights in Vancouver. We enjoyed it a lot.

Loved the cruise! I was so sad to get off! We booked a dummy date that we will probably change to 2014. I was trying to convince my husband to do the Med. in 2013 but he isn't going for it. Plus we like to travel in Sept / Oct and those are all in the summer.

Did anyone have trouble getting navigators at the end? The last 2 nights we never got them. Had to pick them up from guest services the next morning.

What was everyone's favorite thing they did? Mine was going to Saxman village. We got a dancing demonstration and then had an opportunity to try it. I volunteered and was so honored that the women allowed us to wear their own tribal shawls.

 

[DizDragonfly]

I'm glad that you noticed it on the Navigator and brought it up to confirm, else I might have been confused the day of!

It was very confusing. Glad our server knew what was going on.

On the plus side, we had a horrible table in Tritons, against the front wall, right behind a serving station.

Two out of our three dining room tables were behind a serving station. You think they could have given us just one crumby table out of the three.

 

[Momma2Jax]

Did anyone end up with table mates? The MDRs seemed so empty, and it seemed like most people were at small tables, or large tables with their own families. We had our own 4-top for 3. We also got the PTTAPTA rotation without requesting it!

 

[wnissen]

For those going through glacier withdrawal, here's a reminder that Tracy Arm actually happened:

 

[jenf22]

Did anyone end up with table mates? The MDRs seemed so empty, and it seemed like most people were at small tables, or large tables with their own families. We had our own 4-top for 3. We also got the PTTAPTA rotation without requesting it!

We didn't, but the people across the hall from us did. We met them the first day and strangely enough, they're from Colorado Springs. We also ran into them on the rental car shuttle to the airport in Seattle. Anyway, it was a couple and a maybe 4 month old baby. They were seated with another couple who had a similar aged baby. We also had a 4-top. I don't remember seeing you guys at dinner, did you have second seating?