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

[Cinderelley]

Okay guys, I have now finished moving, and finished our adoption training, which means it's FE time!!! Finally got our FE figured out, the actual FE ordered, and stuff to make some gifts, and bought others! It's getting real now!

Way to go! August is flying by so fast! I can't believe it is the 8th already. I better hustle with these FE gifts. They aren't going to finish themselves!

 

[jenf22]

I just realized today that the Bumbershoot Festival will be taking place at Seattle Center (location of the Space Needle among others) during the entire Labor Day weekend. Here's some info from http://bumbershoot.org:

Oh, yuck! I wondered why all the downtown hotels were booked. This is going to make sight-seeing a real pain. And with the Mariners game on Sunday, there will really be no parking. Thanks for the info. I guess we'll have to figure something out...

Okay guys, I have now finished moving, and finished our adoption training, which means it's FE time!!! Finally got our FE figured out, the actual FE ordered, and stuff to make some gifts, and bought others! It's getting real now!

Yeah! Congrats on the adoption training. That is so exciting. We spent a decent amount of time looking into adoption, but I ultimately decided I couldn't handle the stress of waiting and not knowing. I think it takes a stronger person than I am. Best of luck.

I moved flights yesterday, arranged the pet sitter, and we're sort-of figuring out our pre-cruise plans. Oh and FE gifts are almost done! I'm so excited!

 

[AprilN]

Thanks for the info. I guess we'll have to figure something out...

Glad I could help. While I had heard of Bumbershoot, I didn't realize it took place on Labor Day weekend until I was searching for Labor Day hours for the Space Needle yesterday. "Bumbershoot" starting popping up in Google, and I thought, "I know that name, this doesn't sound good..."

I moved flights yesterday, arranged the pet sitter, and we're sort-of figuring out our pre-cruise plans. Oh and FE gifts are almost done! I'm so excited!

We just booked our pet sitter as well (2 kitties), a little later than I'd like, but our regular sitter didn't return our calls! My FE is almost done (hopefully I'll finish it tonight), and I'm really happy with how it came out. Still waiting for the last major piece of the FE gifts, then I can finally get started this weekend. And I found a formal dress at Nordstrom Rack that fit my cheap budget! Yay!

 

[Momma2Jax]

Yeah! Congrats on the adoption training. That is so exciting. We spent a decent amount of time looking into adoption, but I ultimately decided I couldn't handle the stress of waiting and not knowing. I think it takes a stronger person than I am. Best of luck.

Thanks! We adopted our DS from foster care, and we are starting the process again. It is stressful for sure, but worked out wonderfully in the end!

Those of you who are making your own fist extenders, I applaud you! Haha! I am mildly crafty, and am crafting some of my gifts, but I feel like the actual FE making would make me pull out my hair! I ordered mine from gradysmom on etsy.

 

[DizDays]

Those of you who are making your own fist extenders, I applaud you! Haha! I am mildly crafty, and am crafting some of my gifts, but I feel like the actual FE making would make me pull out my hair! I ordered mine from gradysmom on etsy.

that's who I bought ours from (only we bought through eBay). I was really happy with the finished product.

 

[jenf22]

that's who I bought ours from (only we bought through eBay). I was really happy with the finished product.

Ditto. She did a great job too! Just be sure you give her a "need by" date with a little padding.

I'm pretty sure The Avengers will still be playing on the ship. I just saw a post on the 8/13 cruise meet thread that listed it as playing. I'm hoping the movies are playing at times we can watch. In May we were so excited to see The Avengers but we could never make any of the times work. My husband was pretty bummed about it. I'm hoping to take our son to The Odd Life of Timothy Green. If we can make any of the other kid-friendly shows, its a bonus

 

[AprilN]

If we can make any of the other kid-friendly shows, its a bonus

We were thinking DS (4.5yo) could have his first real "movie" experience on the ship - he has watched movies at home, but not in the theater. But both Cars 2 (explosions, shooting) and Brave (final fight between bears and humans) look a little too scary/violent for him at this point, and everything else is PG or higher! Maybe the Muppets could work, but I heard it wasn't very good.

Oh well, we'll just have to wait and see what's actually playing when we board!

 

[Momma2Jax]

Yeah I emailed her yesterday to make sure I wasn't too late to order, and she said it would be fine! Phew!

 

[Cinderelley]

Somebody showed me a video yesterday of a glacier (tracy arm area) "calving" and almost drowning the tourists due to the volume of water displaced by the fallen ice. (Keep in mind that these people were actually very close to the bottom of the glacier.) I was slightly concerned at first and contacted Disney via email (forgot to ask about the movies) about how they would handle that scenario. They ensured me that the ship stays at a safe enough distance away from the glacier and that they continously moniter the land and water conditions in the event they need to change the itinerary.

How does Disney think of everything? I didn't even think of this situation!

 

[jenf22]

We were thinking DS (4.5yo) could have his first real "movie" experience on the ship - he has watched movies at home, but not in the theater. But both Cars 2 (explosions, shooting) and Brave (final fight between bears and humans) look a little too scary/violent for him at this point, and everything else is PG or higher! Maybe the Muppets could work, but I heard it wasn't very good.

Oh well, we'll just have to wait and see what's actually playing when we board!

Oh we LOVE the Muppets here. We took Ryan to see it in the theater and he saw it with my parents on our last cruise. We've heard the Muppets soundtrack about a million times here!

 

[Pinocchio #1 Fan]

I'm gonna have to agree that the Muppets was awesome.

 

[mellers]

I'm gonna have to agree that the Muppets was awesome.

I liked them too.

 

[Cinderelley]

I'm gonna have to agree that the Muppets was awesome.

Ditto.

 

[Momma2Jax]

Oh we LOVE the Muppets here. We took Ryan to see it in the theater and he saw it with my parents on our last cruise. We've heard the Muppets soundtrack about a million times here!

Yep! More muppet lovers here! If I remember it was very clean, and always funny!

 

[DizDragonfly]

I wanted to drop in and say hi! I just booked yesterday for my mom and I. This is Mom's first Disney Cruise, but she's an avid cruiser on other lines. This will be my third Disney Cruise. My DH and our two teenage sons sailed B2B on the Dream last Sept. The DH and I are booked on the Fantasy for a week in February to celebrate our 20th anniversary.

I usually book our trips months or a year+ in advance. So, 25 days ahead of sailing is _very_ short notice for me. I'm going to be frantic trying to get everything together, do my research on the ports and even on the ship itself.

At the moment, our plan is to drive up to Seattle and either take the train or bus back to Seattle and drive home.

 

[Cinderelley]

I wanted to drop in and say hi! I just booked yesterday for my mom and I. This is Mom's first Disney Cruise, but she's an avid cruiser on other lines. This will be my third Disney Cruise. My DH and our two teenage sons sailed B2B on the Dream last Sept. The DH and I are booked on the Fantasy for a week in February to celebrate our 20th anniversary.

I usually book our trips months or a year+ in advance. So, 25 days ahead of sailing is _very_ short notice for me. I'm going to be frantic trying to get everything together, do my research on the ports and even on the ship itself.

At the moment, our plan is to drive up to Seattle and either take the train or bus back to Seattle and drive home.

Hello! and

We are so glad you could join us!

 

[DumboCollector]

Started to look at options getting back to Seattle from Vancouver and not coming up with many good ones.

So far, Quick Shuttle seems the best. The few car rentals found would be $250-300! Amtrak the full way doesn't leave until 5:45p getting in at 10:10p. Not sure what to do with our luggage in between.

Is anyone else making this trek? If so, how?

Does anyone have any other creative ideas?

Thanks for any thoughts!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I found a rental car for an extremely reasonable cost. Using Priceline, I was able to rent a car through Enterprise at the Vancouver airport returning it to the Seattle airport for $111! And no drop-off charge! Now we just need a way to the airport. Not a big deal though. There's always a cab and I heard taking the Canada Line would also be an option.

Another major item off the checklist!

 

[AprilN]

There's always a cab and I heard taking the Canada Line would also be an option.

We'll be taking the SkyTrain Canada Line to the Vancouver airport - it goes straight from the waterfront to the airport, and at $3.75 per adult and kids under 5 free (and credit cards accepted at the ticket kiosk), the price is right! Plus DS loves public transportation, so it should be fun.

FE is done!! Yippee!! I'm SO excited to show it to everyone, but you'll all see it soon enough when we start our cruise in 3.5 weeks! Now to make the gifts...

 

[Carolc]

Hi everyone,

I likewise just booked this trip (yesterday). This will be my 5th Disney Cruise (3rd on Wonder), but 1st DCL to Alaska. I'm excited but I've never planned logistics out of Seattle / Vancouver - so I'm panicking a little. I will go back and read some of the many earlier threads, but (since there are many pages) is anyone able to give a 10 second summary of what most people are doing to get to/from the ports? i.e. are most flying into SEA and flying out of YVR? I see the post above about renting a car from Vancouver to Seattle... that would save on airfare - are many of you planning to do that? What is the best way to get from SEA to the pier? Sorry if this is a rehash of common knowledge

Thanks!

 

[Cinderelley]

Hi everyone,

I likewise just booked this trip (yesterday). This will be my 5th Disney Cruise (3rd on Wonder), but 1st DCL to Alaska. I'm excited but I've never planned logistics out of Seattle / Vancouver - so I'm panicking a little. I will go back and read some of the many earlier threads, but (since there are many pages) is anyone able to give a 10 second summary of what most people are doing to get to/from the ports? i.e. are most flying into SEA and flying out of YVR? I see the post above about renting a car from Vancouver to Seattle... that would save on airfare - are many of you planning to do that? What is the best way to get from SEA to the pier? Sorry if this is a rehash of common knowledge

Thanks!

We are going to have so much fun on this trip! Only a little more than 3 weeks to go!