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

[Momma2Jax]

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?

No, we were first seating but I think we were on the other side of the room, at table 76! I think I saw you from afar one night!

 

[Carolc]

Who was in 2102? I absolutely LOVED the fabric that the FE was made of (floral Mickey, Tea Cups, and POTC).... Was wondering if the material was an old bedspread or something?

 

[Boridiva Belle]

Hello fellow cruisers,

The good:

Meeting all of you!!!!

FE Gifts

and the wonderful scenery!

The bad:

Really cold weather!

heavy rocking of the ship, and the loud noise of the propellers.

The ugly:

the flooding on the cabin, the smell, and the loud sound of the air blower.

Putting that aside we did have a good time (not great). Thanks for all the wonderful gifts! Looking forward to seeing you all again in a future cruise.

 

[Chris931]

No, we were first seating but I think we were on the other side of the room, at table 76! I think I saw you from afar one night!

Hey we were at table 76 in the second seating!

I'm assuming you had Fitzroy and Roman as servers. We were very happy with them, especially Roman.

 

[Pinocchio #1 Fan]

Ok, so we got home form Vancouver last night. Things were great on the cruise. We had no complaints. We got off the ship on Monday, rented a car, and walked all over the Vancouver Zoo. It was an hour out of town, but the drive was very nice and we got to see a lot of the British Columbia countryside. Tuesday, things got terrible. At about 1030 am on Tuesday, we were in a car accident on the corner of Granville and King Edward road. Neither of us were injured, but it's scary as hell getting into an accident in a foreign country in your rental car. Lets just say I'm happy I have good insurance! So after dealing with that(it really out a damper on our morning), we just bought day passes for the sky train/busses/metro in Vancouver and saw the city that way. It was still a nice vacation, with just one ugly spot on it.

I know I forgot to put a song list on the CD's I gave out, I'll post one here in a day or two. It was great to meet everyone, we had a fantastic time! Also, the gifts in the FE were top notch!

 

[Sedgha]

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!

Table 41 by any chance? Sounds like the description of our table.

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!

Our group of 5 was matched up with another group of 5 at a 10 seater table. Didn't get to know them well due to me being an introvert, but they were definately friendly, and their kids matched fairly well in ages with our kids.

 

[DizDays]

Hey all, glad to see that most everyone had a great time.

For those that are DVC members and was wondering, we won the lanyard of pins also. I don't know how many actually turned in the referral cards that I handed them, but they told us that we won by 2 cards. They were really happy since at least 2 of the people we referred actually bought into it. We even bought more points ourselves.

For those interested, I gave out the hot coco add-ins and the room ears. I loved all the magnets and stuff that we ended up with, it was great!! I even caught a few people taking pictures of our door since there was so much great stuff on it.

I had so much fun trading pins with Diz and Dumbo. I ended up trading about 350-400 pins, so I am really happy about that. I actually traded with the staff so much that they asked me to stand up with the staff the last day for pin trading with the officers. I also met a bunch of new people and I'm so excited to keep in touch with them later.

I'll be at Disneyland the first week in Oct if anyone wants to meet up there again!! I'm going to try to get there on Friday the 5th and leave on Monday the 8th.

If anyone wants to keep in touch I'm happy to meet up and catch up. Just Facebook me or email me. My email is MrHappy@Cheerful.com!!

So you were the room ears?!? I have to tell you, you could open a business onboard the ship. I had three different cabins want to know where our Stitch ears came from. One even wanted to buy them off of us!!! Of couse we told them "No way!" because those ears were just too cool!!! We were sure to bring them home with us. They will accompany us on every trip going forward!

Thanks for the pin trading and the friendship. It was great to run into you and Aimee so often. Felt more like a neighborhood than a cruiseship.

 

[DizDays]

Actually they were doing late runs to come stare at the wall of clouds between Juneau and the dog camp... I guess a large group from Taku Lodge benefited because their floatplanes couldn't get them out, but our helicopters could. They would come check the route to us, call nojoy, go pick up a bunch of them and head back. We didn't get back to Juneau until 3pm the next day on our 4th attempt. After spending the night in a musher's tent on the ice in the rain. We did get two dog sled rides out of the deal instead of one, and then the next day while Juneau was still under the weather they got us as far as Taku Lodge and fed us the salmon feast that normally comes with that excursion and we saw some bears. As far as I know they got everyone back to the ship other than my wife and I and one crewmember. They said it people got marooned on the glacier only one other time in 13 years...

We were well taken care of for the hotel night in Juneau, commercial flights to Vancouver via Seattle, and another hotel night in Vancouver, but obviously the last half of the cruise got blown away, and we were "traveling" for four days in a row continuously tired rather than relaxed.

While neither the dog mushers, helicopter tour company, or cruise line can take any blame for the weather, and in fact all three took extremely good care of us, it was just an unfortunate set of circumstances. Paid for a seven night cruise and ended up with four...

Oh my gosh! So sorry to hear about this. I am, however, happy to have the real story. I heard three or four different versions - none of them accurate. I am so sorry you had to miss the last half of the cruise.

 

[DizDays]

Mr. Happy... The coco add ins were such a great idea!!! We also loved the room ears, so much fun! Our door was crazy good by the time we added all the gift magnets from our fellow FE friends. Many people were stopping to take photos. It was great.

We ended up adding more DVC points as well. We are now the proud owners of 220 Hawaii points to add to our AKV collection. Very happy about that one! We had a great time with so many DVC folks on the ship.

Congratulations on the new points!! Unfortunately this trip, all we could do is stand at the DVC store window and stare at the points longingly.

 

[DizDays]

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!

We were thrown off, too. We were certain Semi-Formal night was Ketchikan, but when the Navigator said it was Cruise Casual, we stayed in the town until the last "All Aboard" minute. Imagine our surprise as I see lovely people all dressed up and I'm a mess from running around all day. There was no way I could do a "teardown and remodel" in enough time for the 8:15 dinner. Dh and I just decided to order room service and chill for the evening. I would not have felt right even just hopping into the shower and going to dinner with "hat head" during a dressy event.

 

[DizDays]

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 completely agree! Disney is better than that. There was at least a mistake or typo every day. Some more significant than others. That was very surprising - and very un-Disney.

 

[DizDays]

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!

It was just DH and I at a 4-top. We were on the PTTAPTA rotation for the Late Dining. And we ended up with a table up (#39) against the wall right next to the serving station in Animators.

The dining rooms did seem very empty. Our Waiter said the ship was only 1/2 full.

 

[DizDays]

Ok, so we got home form Vancouver last night. Things were great on the cruise. We had no complaints. We got off the ship on Monday, rented a car, and walked all over the Vancouver Zoo. It was an hour out of town, but the drive was very nice and we got to see a lot of the British Columbia countryside. Tuesday, things got terrible. At about 1030 am on Tuesday, we were in a car accident on the corner of Granville and King Edward road. Neither of us were injured, but it's scary as hell getting into an accident in a foreign country in your rental car. Lets just say I'm happy I have good insurance! So after dealing with that(it really out a damper on our morning), we just bought day passes for the sky train/busses/metro in Vancouver and saw the city that way. It was still a nice vacation, with just one ugly spot on it.

I know I forgot to put a song list on the CD's I gave out, I'll post one here in a day or two. It was great to meet everyone, we had a fantastic time! Also, the gifts in the FE were top notch!

So sorry to hear about the accident. Very glad no one was hurt. It was so nice meeting you and running into you on the ship so frequently. And my DH told me to tell you that was choice music you selected. Each new track was a new surprise!

 

[DizDays]

Thank you so much for your creativity and your generosity. My goodness, I almost didn't participate in the FE because DH was so busy with school and work I would be on my own (hence the store-bought hand and foot warmers for the adults), but I am so glad I did. What a talented bunch of people you are. Even DH got into the spirit of it all (which was a nice surprise as I figured he'd just be braindead and recovering from school all cruise).

DH and I spent two days in Vancouver. The first day we drove to Whistler. We had the opportunity to listen to all four CD mixes - all were wonderful and so creative.

I'd love to list every FE we thought was great - but it would be the whole list! Thank you again for sharing a little piece of yourself with us and for making each return to the cabin a special one!!

 

[DizDragonfly]

heavy rocking of the ship, and the loud noise of the propellers.

Yup, we must have been nearby. I don't know if it was the propellers or stabilizers, but it was LOUD. And our stateroom was below Wavebands, so it was pretty noisy at night.

the flooding on the cabin, the smell, and the loud sound of the air blower

.

OMG!!! You mean they didn't move you out of a flooded stateroom? That's crazy. The ship was half empty!

 

[patapat]

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!

Wow I thought we were the only ones. I was traveling alone with Melat and they put us at a 4 top alone. I literally started crying. They were very helpful at first but finally the head of the dining room searched and found me a table on a different rotation with two wonderful families. We were on the TPAATPA rotation and then changed to the PTATTPA. Our table location was bad as well (#53). But all in all it was a good move. I spent all the evenings with both families.

Just wanted to thank everyone for the wonder FE gifts. Melat and I loved them all. Every time we came back to the room, M would check to see if there was a present and most of the time there was one waiting.

I loved my first cruise experience and the FE and meeting everyione made it even more special. I hope to be able to do it again.

By the way, does anyone have an electronic copy of the pic of all the FE participants that they can send. I didn't get one taken and would love to keep it.

 

[Boridiva Belle]

Yup, we must have been nearby. I don't know if it was the propellers or stabilizers, but it was LOUD. And our stateroom was below Wavebands, so it was pretty noisy at night.

.

OMG!!! You mean they didn't move you out of a flooded stateroom? That's crazy. The ship was half empty!

It was around 3:30 pm on the last day of the cruise when I was offered another stateroom. We decided to stay since it was only one more night. However since this was just one of many issues, the Guest Services General Manager has offered to take care of us on our next cruise (and upgrade our room ) which is in 2 1/2 weeks.

 

[Momma2Jax]

Hey we were at table 76 in the second seating!

I'm assuming you had Fitzroy and Roman as servers. We were very happy with them, especially Roman.

OMG! Small world! Yes we LOVED Fitzroy and Roman! Especially Roman for us too! We actually saw Roman in all 3 ports! He rode the Mt Roberts Tram with us, and told someone that our DS was "his boy" he kept offering to push the stroller, open doors for me, etc..l and I kept saying "you are finally on break! Take it!"
I also saw him in Ketchikan while my DS and DH were in a shop, and he stopped and talked to me for about 15 minutes! Sweet, sweet guy, in love with life! He was just so happy to be in ports in Alaska for the first time! Both of them were really good with DS, and really understanding about his special needs.

Ok, so we got home form Vancouver last night. Things were great on the cruise. We had no complaints. We got off the ship on Monday, rented a car, and walked all over the Vancouver Zoo. It was an hour out of town, but the drive was very nice and we got to see a lot of the British Columbia countryside. Tuesday, things got terrible. At about 1030 am on Tuesday, we were in a car accident on the corner of Granville and King Edward road. Neither of us were injured, but it's scary as hell getting into an accident in a foreign country in your rental car. Lets just say I'm happy I have good insurance! So after dealing with that(it really out a damper on our morning), we just bought day passes for the sky train/busses/metro in Vancouver and saw the city that way. It was still a nice vacation, with just one ugly spot on it.

Ack! So sorry about the accident! Glad you are all okay, but still that is scary! Hey, every time I went to shutters I saw so many pics of you and your DW! They were great! Y both looked so happy!

Wow I thought we were the only ones. I was traveling alone with Melat and they put us at a 4 top alone. I literally started crying. They were very helpful at first but finally the head of the dining room searched and found me a table on a different rotation with two wonderful families. We were on the TPAATPA rotation and then changed to the PTATTPA. Our table location was bad as well (#53). But all in all it was a good move. I spent all the evenings with both families.
.

I'm sorry it was so frustrating! We liked being alone because DS can be overwhelming to families without special needs kiddos, so I was worried about that. But I am so glad it worked out for you two in the end!

 

[Momma2Jax]

It was around 3:30 pm on the last day of the cruise when I was offered another stateroom. We decided to stay since it was only one more night. However since this was just one of many issues, the Guest Services General Manager has offered to take care of us on our next cruise (and upgrade our room ) which is in 2 1/2 weeks.

So glad they are making it up! And I can't lie, I am SO jealous you are sailing again so soon!

 

[DizDragonfly]

It was around 3:30 pm on the last day of the cruise when I was offered another stateroom. We decided to stay since it was only one more night. However since this was just one of many issues, the Guest Services General Manager has offered to take care of us on our next cruise (and upgrade our room ) which is in 2 1/2 weeks.

Wow! I can't believe it took them so long. But, at least they are going to make it up to you soon!