Disneypoor's Alaskan Cruise June 7th, 2011

[PBader]

The last navigators I saw had semi formal on the last night, with the until we meet again dinner and the Captain's Gala dinner was Ketchikan night. I don't understand why they wouldn't switch the menu too

 

[disneypoor]

Here is what was playing during our cruise:

Toy Story 3
Mars Needs Moms
Gnomeo and Juliet
Brother Bear
Tron-Legacy
Tangled
Beauty and the Beast
DisneyNature: African Cats
The Lion King
Toy Story 2
Prom
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (in 2 and 3D)
The Little Mermaid
Aladdin
I Am Number Four

Pirates played in the Walt Disney Theater on one night, so instead of seeing a Disney show at show time, we watched Pirates. Hope this helps.

Susan

 

[disneypoor]

Formal night on our cruise was on Wednesday, a day at sea. Semi formal night was on Sunday, the day we were in Ketchikan. The only down side to having it while at Ketchikan is that you don't actually get to port in Ketchikan until about 1:30, and the ship leaves port at 8:00, so you don't have much time there. They only show one show that night instead of having a 6:15 show and an 8:30 show. The show on that night is at 7:15. Still, they don't give you a lot of time to spend in Ketchikan. That was the day we did our float plane excursion. We made it back just in time to attend the show (a juggling comedian) but had no choice but to go to dinner dressed in our regular clothes that we had worn for our excursion. Well, I skipped out of the show a bit early, but you'll find out why when I write my trip report. I had a little issue on the mountain when we did our excursion. Trust me, if it can happen, it happens to me. I'm just sayin....

Susan

 

[disneypoor]

The last navigators I saw had semi formal on the last night, with the until we meet again dinner and the Captain's Gala dinner was Ketchikan night. I don't understand why they wouldn't switch the menu too

Captain's Gala was on Ketchikan night and the Til We Meet Again dinner was on the last night. On the last night, it was cruise casual instead of semi formal though. Hope this helps.

Susan

 

[disneypoor]

Disneypoor: I would love the limo guy's number. We are going there sat for a few days before cruising on the 21st. Thanks for writing a trip report!!

I sent you a private message with the info. It was money well spent for us.

Susan

 

[ilovepumba]

Thank you so much! I'll report back when we return! Joanne

 

[mardonna]

Do you think you will have trip report out by Sunday night? Love to hear the whole thing....

Thanks for the movie info.....

 

[disneypoor]

Do you think you will have trip report out by Sunday night? Love to hear the whole thing....

Thanks for the movie info.....

You've guilted me in to atleast getting it started. It's been weighing on me, but I've been so tired since we got home. I definitely need a vacation from the vacation! I can't promise I will have the whole report done, but I will get it started soon. I promise! I'm just glad someone's actually reading it and looking forward to it!

Susan

 

[disneypoor]

After I finished packing on Sunday night, I realized that it was quickly approaching midnight, and we had to be out and on the road by 4:15 a.m. I didn't get much sleep because I was too excited to sleep, but we were out and on the road at 4:15 sharp. I so badly wanted to stop for a diet mountain dew, but I resisted because I figured that knowing my luck, we'd miss our flight by ten minutes or something and the whole entire thing would be my fault.

We arrived at the airport and took off just as planned at 7:06 a.m. We had a 50 minute layover in Minneapolis and ended up arriving a bit earlier than scheduled into Vancouver. It took us about ten minutes to get through customs, claim our luggage, and find the Disney agent in the greeting area of the airport to catch our transfer to the Fairmont Pacific Rim.

We were totally enthralled with Vancouver. It's a beautiful city! Disney had a stretch limo pick us up from the airport, and it ended up being a great deal because our driver was a native to Vancouver and provided wonderful commentary and suggestions for us on our trip to the hotel. Once we arrived, we checked in and then proceeded to check in with a desk for Disney Cruise Line to make sure they were planning to get our luggage to the ship for us. No problem!

Before I continue, I have to give a huge thumbs up to the Pacific Rim. This is a gorgeous hotel and quite possibly one of the nicest we've ever stayed at. There was even the tv in the bathroom mirror like I had read before our trip, and my husband refrained from breaking the blinds or sliding down any bannisters.

This is proof that there really is a tv in the mirror!

We decided we would walk around outside to check things out. The temperature was in the 70's, and it was a beautiful day. Vancouver was playing the Boston Bruins for the Stanley Cup, so there was a lot of action in Vancouver. We checked out the olympic torch, took some photos, and began walking down the sea wall towards Stanley Park. We were all starving, so we found an oceanside restaurant called Cardero's. They had GREAT food!

While we were sitting there, I suggested that we call our limo driver since he had given me his business card to see how much he'd charge to give us our own stretch limo tour of Vancouver. We were pleasantly surprised. He charges $75 per hour (no matter how many are in the limo), and he will take you where ever you want to go. We decided we would try to stick with a two hour tour, and he told us we could easily do what we wanted to do in that time frame. He was just wonderful!

Our limo driver picked us up from Cardero's, and we headed to Grouse Mountain so we could do the sky tram. It cost $133 for my family of four, and while we were boarding the tram, my daughter started to panic and felt really sick. She had told me earlier she had a headache, but she was literally hunched over, said she was going to throw up, and said her body was shaking. We didn't know what to think, but needless to say, we didn't get off at the top of the tram and just decided to ride it back down since our daughter wasn't feeling well. Turns out we think it was just the elevation that was messing with her. She had done something similar when we took her to ski in Colorado one time. She did feel really bad and kept apologizing for wasting our money. I have her trained well.

The view from the sky tram.

On our drive back down the mountain, our limo driver suggested we stop at the fish hatchery. Now, that is not something that would normally interest me, but since he suggested it, we went with it. We were so glad we did! We got to see salmon jumping up the dam, and it was the coolest thing ever!

Can you see the salmon in this picture?

Brianna started feeling better, and we took some pictures and headed back toward Stanley Park. Our limo driver told us all kinds of history about everything as we were driving. He pointed out and discussed the Lion's Gate bridge, Stanley Park, Prospect Point, and ended up dropping us off at Gas Town by the steam clock. We told him we wanted to walk back to our hotel. He was just amazing! He showed us lots of the homes in Vancouver, and we were just blown away at how clean the entire city was!

On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped to watch the Canuck's playing the Bruin's on a big screen tv that was outside of Canada Place. So, so cool! The canadians definitely love their Canuck's!

We ate a bunch of expensive snacks from the drawer in our room (hey! It was vacation!) and called it a night!

Up next: I'm gonna be the first one in line at the port and get myself an upgrade!

Susan

 

[KathyM2]

I'm another long range planner here! We booked our Aug 9, 2011 cruise to Alaska in 2009 when we first heard that Disney would be going there! I can't wait to hear all about your trip!

 

[disneypoor]

I'm another long range planner here! We booked our Aug 9, 2011 cruise to Alaska in 2009 when we first heard that Disney would be going there! I can't wait to hear all about your trip!

Truth be told, I have to be a long range planner so I can afford all of these Disney trips. I'm glad there are others out there like me though. My husband always says I have our vacations planned out two years ahead of time. Well, that's not exactly true. It's more like 20 to 22 months.

Susan

 

[angelkk]

Hi disneypoor, I really enjoy reading your trip report

May I ask a few questions? We have also booked Fairmont Pacific Rim (directly from hotel web site), staying 3 nights prior to our cruise.

1). What kind of room were you in? From your first picture, it seems you were in the harbour/mountain view room? Were you able to see Disney Wonder from your room?
2). Is there any breakfast places nearby Pacific Rim?
3). I guess since you booked the transfer with DCL, they handle your luggage. I called the hotel and they claimed that they offer complimentary luggage transfer to cruise ship, but they only do it once (around 3pm). How far is the walk from Pacific Rim to the port? I wonder if we can carry our own luggage to the porters.

 

[disneypoor]

Hi disneypoor, I really enjoy reading your trip report

May I ask a few questions? We have also booked Fairmont Pacific Rim (directly from hotel web site), staying 3 nights prior to our cruise.

1). What kind of room were you in? From your first picture, it seems you were in the harbour/mountain view room? Were you able to see Disney Wonder from your room?
2). Is there any breakfast places nearby Pacific Rim?
3). I guess since you booked the transfer with DCL, they handle your luggage. I called the hotel and they claimed that they offer complimentary luggage transfer to cruise ship, but they only do it once (around 3pm). How far is the walk from Pacific Rim to the port? I wonder if we can carry our own luggage to the porters.

Hi! To be quite honest with you, I'm not sure what type of room we were in, but we were facing the street closest to the ocean but couldn't actually see the ocean due to a building on the opposite side. I'm not sure you'd be able to see the Wonder from any room at the Pacific Rim because of where it is located at Canada Place. You can see Canada Place, but the Wonder docks on the opposite side, so I just don't see how you'd be able to see it unless you stayed at Pan Pacific, but I'm not sure on that one.

As far as food, we ended up walking down to Canada Place to a food court that is located on the lower level for breakfast. There was all kinds of stuff to choose from, and we just ate at McDonald's. They do give change in Canadian money though, so be prepared for that if you are paying with U.S. dollars.

The luggage piece was pre-arranged for us since we had booked flights and transfers thru Disney this time, but we went to the DCL desk at the hotel, gave them our room number, and they said there would be someone at our room around 10:00 a.m. to pick up our luggage. They wanted to know how many bags we had, and it was as easy as that. In fact, we checked out of our room before 10:00 and just left our luggage in the room with the DCL tags on it. It all worked perfectly. We could have been walked over to the port by DCL representatives at noon, but it's not a far walk (maybe a 1/2 block to a block), and we figured we could find our way there ourselves. If you don't have a ton of luggage, I think you could easily handle the luggage yourself.

The Pacific Rim is super nice and exceeded my expectations. It's in a great location, and the staff was wonderful! I even used the gym while we were there as well and thought it was all very nice. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Susan

 

[Doingitagain]

Hi! To be quite honest with you, I'm not sure what type of room we were in, but we were facing the street closest to the ocean but couldn't actually see the ocean due to a building on the opposite side. I'm not sure you'd be able to see the Wonder from any room at the Pacific Rim because of where it is located at Canada Place. You can see Canada Place, but the Wonder docks on the opposite side, so I just don't see how you'd be able to see it unless you stayed at Pan Pacific, but I'm not sure on that one.

As far as food, we ended up walking down to Canada Place to a food court that is located on the lower level for breakfast. There was all kinds of stuff to choose from, and we just ate at McDonald's. They do give change in Canadian money though, so be prepared for that if you are paying with U.S. dollars.

The luggage piece was pre-arranged for us since we had booked flights and transfers thru Disney this time, but we went to the DCL desk at the hotel, gave them our room number, and they said there would be someone at our room around 10:00 a.m. to pick up our luggage. They wanted to know how many bags we had, and it was as easy as that. In fact, we checked out of our room before 10:00 and just left our luggage in the room with the DCL tags on it. It all worked perfectly. We could have been walked over to the port by DCL representatives at noon, but it's not a far walk (maybe a 1/2 block to a block), and we figured we could find our way there ourselves. If you don't have a ton of luggage, I think you could easily handle the luggage yourself.

The Pacific Rim is super nice and exceeded my expectations. It's in a great location, and the staff was wonderful! I even used the gym while we were there as well and thought it was all very nice. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Susan

Did you book your pre-stay through DCL? They told me that breakfast would be included with the room.

 

[ariel39]

Thank you for sharing your experiences. We are on the July 25th cruise and can't wait.........

 

[vatchr]

Can't wait for our Aug. 9th cruise! We are also staying at the Pacific Rim for 3 nights before the cruise and then 1 night after. Any recommendations for dinner around the hotel?

Can't wait to read the rest! We also plan to be one of the first in line for check in at the port.....

 

[disneypoor]

Did you book your pre-stay through DCL? They told me that breakfast would be included with the room.

Hi! We did book our pre-stay with DCL, but if there was supposed to be breakfast, we missed it. They never told me that when we made our arrangements but that doesn't necessarily mean they weren't offering it. However, I would have thought that when we checked in to the hotel, they would have told us about it. Either way, Pacific Rim if fabulous!

Susan

 

[15isto2]

Really great report

 

[brackjr]

Truth be told, I have to be a long range planner so I can afford all of these Disney trips. I'm glad there are others out there like me though. My husband always says I have our vacations planned out two years ahead of time. Well, that's not exactly true. It's more like 20 to 22 months.

Susan

Ours are 12 to 16 months usually ..... so we can afford them.

 

[disneypoor]

I have a confession to make. I've been slacking ever since I got home from vacation. I think about this trip report multiple times per day, but yet I continue to sit on the couch and ignore the fact that possibly two or three people are waiting on me to get it done. I work better under pressure people, so feel free to pressure me.

I woke up super early this morning! I tossed and turned until I just couldn't sleep any more and decided to try out the gym at the Pacific Rim. While I was at the gym running, my husband and kids decided to get ready and go grab something to eat and walk around a bit. They ended up going to Canada Place to their food court and ate at McDonald's. There were all kinds of fast food places to choose from at Canada Place, but Mickey D's won out over the others.

After I finished running, I went back to the room to get ready and pack. I always try to be one of the first ones at the port. It drives my family crazy, but it has landed us some really nice upgrades here and there, so I think it's worth it. The hotel was going to be transferring our luggage to the port for us. All we had to do was make sure our Disney luggage tags were on our luggage. It was as easy as that. They were scheduled to start picking up luggage around 10:00 a.m., so we checked out of the hotel, and I made my husband and kids go back to McDonald's so I could get something to eat.

After we ate, we went outside to get some pictures of the Wonder while she was in port. There really wasn't a great place to take a picture of the ship, but I did the best I could.

We then headed to get in line at the port so I could try to get an upgrade. We arrived at about 10:00 a.m. and got in line to go through security. There were two other families ahead of us, so I felt pretty good about the possibility of getting the Walt Suite. We waited and waited, and suddenly the line began to grow VERY long! Around 11:00, they finally started letting us go through.

We checked in, and I immediately asked to speak to the supervisor about possibly getting an upgrade. I was the first person at the supervisor's desk, and I found out that there weren't any upgrades because the ship was sailing at full capacity. I was just glad we had booked a room we'd be happy with because it's always a gamble when you wait to try to upgrade at the port. Of course, I had to hear it from my family like I always do when there aren't any upgrades, but you can bet your Disney money that when I do get an upgrade, they keep their mouths shut and all of a sudden mom is the wisest person in the world.

We got checked in and were given this:

When we cruised on the Dream in February, they were randomly passing out the cards in no particular order. My family got a 3, but many other families that checked in at the same time we did received anything from a 9 to a 13. I didn't even know their numbers went that high! So, I was pleasantly surprised with the 3 this time around. We had late dining, and our dining rotation was TAPTAPT.

We got our picture taken with Mickey Mouse and then sat down to wait and people watch until they called our number. They started calling 1's and 2's at about 11:35 or so. I was surprised that hardly anyone was boarding. I know there had to be 1's and 2's somewhere, but they obviously weren't as concerned about getting on the ship as I was. At 11:45, they called group 3, and we boarded the Wonder.

We ate at Parrot Cay and then went to the Vista Spa to take a tour. In all of our cruises, we had never booked anything at the spa. I did get my hair cut on the Dream in February, but we had never done a massage or anything like that. Let's just say we should have kept it that way. I think we may have spent as much at that darn spa as we did for our cruise! We ended up booking a Couples Retreat (because it included the couples villa and jacuzzi which looked SO COOL!) and all of a sudden, my "not a girly girl" sixteen year old daughter decides she wants to book something. She never asks for anything, so we decided to let her try it out. Turns out you can't do much until you're 18, but they did have something called the Salon Taster that she could do, so we booked it. My husband and I were booked for our couples retreat on Thursday, and Brianna was booked for the taster on Wednesday.

We went to check out our room at 2:00. We were in room 2512, and we were pleasantly surprised with it! It was a cat. 9C and at the front of the ship. Because of where it was positioned, it had about 3 extra feet of space between the desk/couch and the porthole. We've stayed in cat. 9's many, many times, but this one was far bigger than any of the other ones we have been in. All of our luggage stored nicely on each side of the porthole with room to spare. I'd definitely book this room again (and I might of now that I think about it.......).

Turns out I didn't get a great picture that would show just how much bigger this room is, but I'm hoping you get the idea from this one.

I began to unpack but then we had to report to the Walt Disney Theater for our mandatory boat drill. I'm so glad you no longer have to take the life jackets with you! After that, I headed back to the room to finish unpacking and the rest of my family went up to deck 10 to check things out. My son pretty much lives on the basketball court while we cruise. He plays year round basketball, so you'd think he'd find something else to do, but he just loves playing on the ship. Turns out he discovered another thing he likes while we were on this cruise too, but more on that later.

I was so busy unpacking that I totally forgot about the Sail Away party! I didn't really care much about the actual party, but I really wanted to get some pictures of the Lion's Gate Bridge as we passed under it, but that didn't happen. My family told me it was pretty cool but none of them bothered to come and get me. I thought about making our party of four a party of one for a little while, but I didn't know if someone would see me pushing them overboard or not.

I ordered Mickey Ice Cream bars from room service, and we got ready for the show at 6:15. Tonight it was All Aboard! Let the Magic Begin with Heath Hyche and dinner was at Triton's. It was cruise casual for dress tonight, so we didn't bother to dress up fancy or anything, and boy was my family disappointed.

Because we had late dining, we were pretty exhausted by the time dinner was over. We all headed back to the room and called it a day.

Up next: I think my family has a new addiction. Of course, it involves spending money.

Susan