July 5, 2011 - Mickey's WONDERful Alaskan Adventure

[WDWLVR]

Good morning my fellow Alaskan cruisers!

We sail in 43 weeks!​

Hope you don't mind my little countdown. It is something I've done on many of our past cruises. Now that we are under the year mark I thought it was time.


PDFG and all our friends who need it.

 

[tksbaskets]

Good morning cruisers! Mary, I LOVE the countdown!!

Teresa

 

[BLTOH]

Good morning my fellow Alaskan cruisers!

We sail in 43 weeks!​

Hope you don't mind my little countdown. It is something I've done on many of our past cruises. Now that we are under the year mark I thought it was time.


PDFG and all our friends who need it.

wwwoooooohhhhhhhoooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[WDWLVR]

Good morning my fellow Alaskan cruisers!​

​

We sail in 42 weeks!​

I need to get used to doing this on Tuesday. It has always been Saturday or Sunday for me before.

 

[tksbaskets]

Thanks Mary! A fun reminder.

 

[WDWLVR]

Good afternoon my fellow Alaskan cruisers!​

​

We sail in 41 weeks!​

Opps - told you Tuesdays were hard to remember. Almost forgot this week.

 

[tksbaskets]

41 weeks will fly right by!

 

[BLTOH]

wow that seems so close now...just think we are almost into the holiday seasons already... although i am wondering who forgot to tell me i was having so much fun at working all the time that time is flying by so fast.

 

[perdidobay]

Well I have good news and some not so good news.... not so good- I will be canceling our cruise this week.

The good news is I found out I will become a grandmother next year!
Our DD will be having a baby due around the end of May. DH and I decided between the cost of coming to visit her when the baby is due (she wants me there for the delivery) and a drop in DH's income that should start in January, we should forgo cruising for the next year.
DD and DSIL live 900 miles away, so it's also a matter of DH taking vacation time off to see them in addition to the money.

I want to thank you Tracy for your kind offer to let us be tablemates, and everyone else for your freindliness. Next year after your cruise, I want to see lots of trip reports! We may be able to sock money away for an Alaska cruise in 2012, so I'll need to hear all about your fun!

 

[WDWLVR]

Well I have good news and some not so good news.... not so good- I will be canceling our cruise this week.

The good news is I found out I will become a grandmother next year!
Our DD will be having a baby due around the end of May. DH and I decided between the cost of coming to visit her when the baby is due (she wants me there for the delivery) and a drop in DH's income that should start in January, we should forgo cruising for the next year.
DD and DSIL live 900 miles away, so it's also a matter of DH taking vacation time off to see them in addition to the money.

I want to thank you Tracy for your kind offer to let us be tablemates, and everyone else for your freindliness. Next year after your cruise, I want to see lots of trip reports! We may be able to sock money away for an Alaska cruise in 2012, so I'll need to hear all about your fun!

Sorry you won't be cruising but congratulations on becoming a grandmother. Best wishes for a healthy, happy baby for your family.

 

[tksbaskets]

Well I have good news and some not so good news.... not so good- I will be canceling our cruise this week.

The good news is I found out I will become a grandmother next year!
Our DD will be having a baby due around the end of May. DH and I decided between the cost of coming to visit her when the baby is due (she wants me there for the delivery) and a drop in DH's income that should start in January, we should forgo cruising for the next year.
DD and DSIL live 900 miles away, so it's also a matter of DH taking vacation time off to see them in addition to the money.

I want to thank you Tracy for your kind offer to let us be tablemates, and everyone else for your friendliness. Next year after your cruise, I want to see lots of trip reports! We may be able to sock money away for an Alaska cruise in 2012, so I'll need to hear all about your fun!

I'm sure being there for the birth of your grandchild will be a priceless experience. How wonderful that your daughter wants you there. I will take tons of pictures and I bet there will be a couple of trip reports

All the best for you and your family!

 

[katie18]

Hi my name is Katie and im 13 but i will be 14 by the time of sailing and i was wondering if any of you have any 13 to 15 year olds that i could talk to before the cruise so we could know someone before the cruise. I'm not good at meeting people ha ha . If you could pm me that would be awesome

 

[WDWLVR]

Hi my name is Katie and im 13 but i will be 14 by the time of sailing and i was wondering if any of you have any 13 to 15 year olds that i could talk to before the cruise so we could know someone before the cruise. I'm not good at meeting people ha ha . If you could pm me that would be awesome

Hi Katie! I can't help with your request as my DH and I don't have any children, but I did want to welcome you to the cruise.

 

[katie18]

Hi Katie! I can't help with your request as my DH and I don't have any children, but I did want to welcome you to the cruise.

Thank you!

 

[WDWLVR]

Good morning my fellow Alaskan cruisers!​

​

We sail in 40 weeks!​

 

[WDWLVR]

Good morning my fellow Alaskan cruisers!​

​

We sail in 39 weeks!​

Woo Hoo - we are in the 30's!







PDFG and all our friends who need it.

 

[WDWLVR]

So a little discussion as we are in our 39th week. Not sure how many of you read the main cruise board and saw the Pro/Con Alaskan thread. DH Mark has been speaking his mind on it so I'm staying away. There seem to be some who think that DCL is offering an inferior product by not sailing to Glacier Bay and doing Tracy Arm instead.

What do you all think? Obviously we've all booked DCL so it must not be a huge factor, but do you still feel you are getting something of a lesser quality?

For me the answer is no. I've cruised other lines (although years ago) and love DCL. We sent in a postcard to DCL 4 years ago wanting to get on an Alaskan voyage so I'm quite happy.

As for Glacier Bay. I've seen pictures, it is breathtaking. Would it be great to experience it in person? Sure. Do I feel I'm missing out because we are going to Tracy Arm instead? No Way! I'm looking forward to seeing the beauty Alaska has to offer. I'm sure I'll be blown away by all the scenery.

Now for a small private connection to Tracy Arm I didn't know about until after we booked. My Mom has been gone for 13 years now. I loved her and miss her dearly and she loved to cruise. Too bad she never got to cruise DCL. Anyway in going through some old pictures of hers a while ago I found a photo Christmas card she got from the crew of her old boss's yacht (yes he was old money and had a yacht that has been around the world). Anyway I turn it over and the picture was taken at Tracy Arm! I had never heard of Tracy Arm until we booked the cruise and here was a photo taken some 15-20 years earlier. I know in my heart that when we sail Tracy Arm my Mom will be there in spirit!

 

[pillow]

So a little discussion as we are in our 39th week. Not sure how many of you read the main cruise board and saw the Pro/Con Alaskan thread. DH Mark has been speaking his mind on it so I'm staying away. There seem to be some who think that DCL is offering an inferior product by not sailing to Glacier Bay and doing Tracy Arm instead.

What do you all think? Obviously we've all booked DCL so it must not be a huge factor, but do you still feel you are getting something of a lesser quality?

Although we LOVE cruising with DCL, we have decided to cancel this trip. For what it will cost, we would rather try a different itinerary/cruise line (maybe Princess??). I think there is some truth to the comments posted on the other thread. However, Disney goes above and beyond in every way, so what is lacking in the itinerary department, they will make up for in other ways. I'm sure it will be a wonderful trip!

Happy Sailing!

Jodie

 

[MarkRG]

Although we LOVE cruising with DCL, we have decided to cancel this trip. For what it will cost, we would rather try a different itinerary/cruise line (maybe Princess??). I think there is some truth to the comments posted on the other thread. However, Disney goes above and beyond in every way, so what is lacking in the itinerary department, they will make up for in other ways. I'm sure it will be a wonderful trip!

Happy Sailing!

Jodie

Thanks and good luck with it.

I personally think they're just being sour grapes about it because they're not going.

They keep insisting that the ship choice is secondary. It isn't, or they wouldn't be going on and on about how wrong(in their opinion)DCL is being, they'd just go on some other line and be happy with that. In condemning it they're trying to make themselves feel better about a choice that isn't on DCL.

Where you stay is just as important as where you're going. If you end up not liking where you're staying you're going to end up not liking the whole trip.

And both the two most vocal of them that are so insistent that it's inferior have been to AK multiple times by different methods. Not the same as going there for the first time and I really feel they've lost sight of that. Trying to go all the places they're talking about is going to overwhelm someone going for the first time.

The only advice I'd give is take all of it including my own statements in that thread with a grain of salt. I freely admit that DCL is my first choice and will continue to be so. Mary and I specifically waited to sail Alaska on DCL.

One thing to keep in mind with the ABD person who insists that Princess is the same. They have a lot of 'except' in the answers they gave me. To me the same is the same, not exceptions. Exceptions means it'll be different. That is as I said way back in that thread, giving up something to gain something.

 

[tksbaskets]

I have to concur with MarkRG and WDWLVR in that we pick DCL first and the itenerary second.

We are delighted with ANY destination if we can be aboard a Disney Cruise Line ship! Our family has always had an amazing time on our DCL adventures. When they cruised the Mexican Riviera in 2008 we went because it was an opportunity to see new ports PLUS sail on DCL.

We had looked at other Alaskan cruise offerings....inner passage, little National Geographic cruises...we kept coming back to our love of DCL. We have cruised on another line. They were 'ok' and it was pre-DCL. I've tried to vacation 'on the cheap' before and been dissappointed, especially when you have an excellent yard stick for measurement. Our vacation time and dollars are well spent with any Disney destination.

Disney cruises are more expensive than some/most of the competitors. Because of this we don't repeat destinations on DCL for the week or longer cruises. Now for shorter cruises the ship IS the vacation and IMHO there is no finer destination for beach fun than Castaway Cay.

As long as DCL varries their ports of call we'll keep sailing! Our travel agent typed "I say this very softly - you could go to the same ports for less money on another cruise line" I thanked her for the info and booked our DCL Alaskan vacation.

I must admit we freely drink the Disney Kool-aid. We are members of the DVC (should have done it YEARS before we did BTW), have been on 4 DCL cruises with our family, and up to our DVC purchase in 2006 went every other year to WDW for Christmas since 1997. We now make at least one trip a year to DL or WDW and went on a wonderful Adventures by Disney tour last summer.

As for being negative about the destination ports that DCL selected, I don't care.

We've never been to Alaska so any port will be new and exciting for our family! Looking forward to soft serve ice cream, adult clubs, the adult pool, some outstanding table companions, and a great time being pampered by a Wonderful crew.