June 14, 2011 - Father's Day on the Wonder in ALASKA!

[disneyochem]

Can't do much about the shore excursions until the end of the month so I've been finalizing our plans to and from Canada.

For reasons that I will share over a margarita on board ship, I do not like to fly. DH and I are driving up to Seattle to pick up Grandma and two kids at the airport on Friday, June 10. We're spending the night in Anacortes.

Ferry to Victoria Island (Syndey) on Saturday a.m. Spending the afternoon at Butchart Gardens where we have reservations for afternoon tea. Leave for Victoria--spending two nights in Victoria.

Ferry to Vancouver (from Swartz Bay) on Monday, June 13. Spending the night before the cruise at the Sheraton Wall Centre.

After the cruise, on Tuesday, June 21, putting Grandma on a plane home in Seattle. Spending the night in Olympia, WA and visiting the national park the next day. We're going to take some time wandering down the coast on the way home. DH thinks we are going to be so tired that we will want to head straight home.....

I have also been reading everyone's tips on cruising. Bought a FE from a Dis Board lady via Ebay; purchased all the raingear; got binoculars for all; got an over-the-bathroom door organizer; purchased our pirate gear and have started to get all the FE gifts!

Can't wait!

 

[sunshine state kim]

I hope that this doesn't sound silly... Does anyone know if there is laundry service on the boat?
Thanks,
Laura

Yep - you can send out clothes for dry cleaning, laundering, or just pressing. We usually have my husband's suit coat sent out for ironing as soon as we get on so it's ready when he needs it. It's not too expensive for that (I think it's half the price of the dry cleaning charge). There are also washers and dryers on the ship to use yourself. I believe they charge per piece if you have them do your washing and it's not cheap. I usually end up throwing in a load of something during the week. You can now use your room key to charge the laundry. I used to bring a role of quarters so this is much nicer.

 

[Weedy]

A few weeks ago I bought boots at Kmart. They are Coleman boots. They were buy one get one at 50% off. The first pair was $24.99 I bought a pair for each of my kids. I have a small foot and was able to find a kids size for me and only paid $4.00!! They seem sturdy and come up to the ankle and have a good tread on the bottom. We are from Florida and will probably never wear them again. Or by the time my kids need them they won't fit any more.

http://www.kmart.com/shc/s/p_10151_10104_035B021091390001P?prdNo=7&blockNo=7&blockType=G7

 

[ward3]

AAA just sent us our airline plans Disney booked for us. Anyone else on the united airlines flight 161 from Chicago to Vancouver on the 13th? They have us coming back through Denver on united 790 to Denver. I hate to fly. I hope this cruise is worth the flight. Is everyone taking boots and heavy coats?

 

[SteffyLou]

We still haven't received our GTY rooms, but we still are about 87 days out and I wasn't expecting to yet. We booked 2 11cs. There aren't any available 11c,b, or a's. So maybe we will end up with 2 11cs or maybe something in the 10 category. There seem to be a lot of deluxe inside rooms open so that would be an awesome upgrade. But, nothing is expected. We decided to book the least expensive room as possible and use the rest of the money on excursions.

We are flying from Chicago on the 11th into Dallas Fort Worth and then from DFW to Vancouver. Coming back on a United flight that is nonstop on the 21. Amazingly, we got both flights using only a total of 25,000 miles.

We are also using Harv and Marv in Juneau. After all the reviews we decided to go with them.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Looks like we have loads to catch up on. It's our spring break and we're spending it at WDW - but that doesn't mean I won't have time to check in here and catch up! We're posting a "live from..." thread if anyone is interested. We are thinking fish extender ideas, too.

We got our excursions booked - early helicopter in Juneau, train and gold panning in Skagway, and we're doing the Hummer in Ketchikan for the afternoon. We may do a whale watching thing in Juneau after the helicopter - with Harv and Marv's - our TA gave them glowing reviews and we'll have time. One more thing I need to check out this week.

Got our online checkin done so pretty much now we're just waiting for our flight assignment through DCL, figure out what we want to do for Vancouver (probably the open-top bus for part of our two-plus days), and getting through the last quarter of school.

Hi to all who have joined us since I last checked in.

 

[nzdisneymom]

We're at WDW and I was racking my brain for some fish extender ideas. Then I thought I should actually look to see how many participants we have - Drew, thanks so much for keeping this on the first post!

By summary (give or take a few in case I got off count), there are:

7 teenage boys
7 teenage girls
10 girls (ages 12 and under)
4 boys (ages 12 and under)
2 toddlers/babies
44 adults (approx 17 couples)

Thought this might be helpful for FE planning Remember to take out your own travel party's configuration unless you want to leave something in your own FE

 

[Smileneyes]

We're at WDW and I was racking my brain for some fish extender ideas. Then I thought I should actually look to see how many participants we have - Drew, thanks so much for keeping this on the first post!

By summary (give or take a few in case I got off count), there are:

7 teenage boys
7 teenage girls
10 girls (ages 12 and under)
4 boys (ages 12 and under)
2 toddlers/babies
44 adults (approx 17 couples)

Thought this might be helpful for FE planning Remember to take out your own travel party's configuration unless you want to leave something in your own FE

Thanks for the plug, Cindy! Hope you are enjoying your stay at WDW!

A general reminder that I'm still in need of some information from a few participants:

• Stateroom number
• Hometown
• E-mail address for Excel spreadsheet (should you wish to provide it)

At the end of next week, I'll send a more detailed list of what is missing from whom. For those of you who haven't gotten your "ten posts" in (so you have permissions to send me a PM with sensitive information), now's a good chance to get those posts in!

Again, thanks to everyone who is participating!

--Drew

 

[butler3]

Just checking in on the boards. I am working on ten posts. We are traveling with Ward3 to Alaska. Looking forward to booking excursions. Any early twenty females sailing. DD is worried about no one being her age on board.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Just checking in on the boards. I am working on ten posts. We are traveling with Ward3 to Alaska. Looking forward to booking excursions. Any early twenty females sailing. DD is worried about no one being her age on board.

While there might not be any others from the DISers, I imagine there will be on board! It seems like I have seen activities planned as "mixers" or "singles lunches" or other such things early in the sailing to give those of that age range a chance to get acquainted... the "college age group" - check the Navigator and also with any of the Cruise Staff after you board to find out what activities there might be.

 

[Smileneyes]

Just checking in on the boards. I am working on ten posts. We are traveling with Ward3 to Alaska. Looking forward to booking excursions. Any early twenty females sailing. DD is worried about no one being her age on board.

DS is feeling the same thing, being 18. Cindy is correct, there will likely be people meeting up at the "college social" early on in the cruise.

 

[SteffyLou]

Writing from Old Key West on Spring Break and boy, is the weather beautiful here in Orlando!

80 days and still both rooms are GTY status. Hopefully they send that information out soon. I am getting antsy! I know it might still be weeks before we find out though!

 

[Smileneyes]

Writing from Old Key West on Spring Break and boy, is the weather beautiful here in Orlando!

80 days and still both rooms are GTY status. Hopefully they send that information out soon. I am getting antsy! I know it might still be weeks before we find out though!

Boy, am I jealous...we're in the 40's for the next 5-7 days!!!

I saw that some May GTY's were getting assigned, so hopefully it won't be far off. In any case, we can always send out a second spreadsheet if the cabin numbers aren't given to you by mid-April.

Enjoy your Spring Break!!!

 

[disneyochem]

80 days and still both rooms are GTY status. Hopefully they send that information out soon. I am getting antsy! I know it might still be weeks before we find out though!

Excuse this question (as I'm sure it's been answered MANY times before ) but what is GTY?

 

[nzdisneymom]

Writing from Old Key West on Spring Break and boy, is the weather beautiful here in Orlando!

80 days and still both rooms are GTY status. Hopefully they send that information out soon. I am getting antsy! I know it might still be weeks before we find out though!

Hiya Neighbor! We're at SSR on spring break this week, too! It has been absolutely beautiful!!! We were in Apopka last night at the Beef O'Brady's - our friend hosts the weekly trivia they have on Thursdays.

Disneyochem - GTY means "guarantee" status - which means you know what category stateroom you have but just not which exact stateroom you'll have.

 

[disneymagic316]

Wendy, welcome to the gang! Feel free to join in on the festivities. As you can probably tell by the posts, we're all getting excited, now that we're close to the 100 day mark!!!

--Drew

P.S. Good to see another Tortola cruiser...when did you sail? We have a couple of us on here from the mid-June cruise...myself and DVCMary.

Thanks!

We sailed to Tortola in July.

We're in Florida. The weather is gorgeous. We spent a few days at SSR and are now at our house in Vero Beach.

Our excursions are booked. We're doing the Best of Skagway, Exclusive Mendenhall Glacier and Whale Watching and The Great Lumberjack show.

 

[SteffyLou]

It is going to be really hard to leave here tomorrow and go back to IL. My brother told me it has been snowing.

So we decided to cancel the floatplane in Ketchikan. DH and I sat down and talked and decided we would much rather do the glacier helicopter in Skagway and while this sounded great, it wasn't our top priority.

Besides planning things to do in Vancouver for 2 days and getting out Wonder rooms, I think everything is planned out. Well besides packing, but that is going to take forever!

 

[nzdisneymom]

I finally looked up the official names for the excursions we've booked.

Skagway: White Pass Railway and Trail Camp

Juneau: Mendenhall Glacier by Helicopter and Guided Walk

Ketchikan: Alaska Hummer Adventure

 

[wendy151950]

It looks like there are plenty of excursions still available at all stops. We are doing:

Skagway: Klondike Gold Dredge and White Pass Railroad
Juneau: private whale watching with Harv& Marv
Ketchikan: Saxman Native Village and Lumberjack Show

We're still thinking about the Ketchikan one though I would like to get DD exposed to some cultural activity, she may still want to do something via a plane or helicopter. Kayaking also looked interesting though I think it would be very cold. Any thoughts on that one?

We just got back from a week at Sanibel Island visiting my brother who goes down there for the winter. It was a shock to come back home - it was 60 something when we left and 32 when we landed Friday so we had to buy sweat shirts. Work on Monday and school (yuck!).

 

[SteffyLou]

Well, we are back home. Bummer. But Disney was beautiful and I loved what the new Old Key West looked like.

DH and I decided to cancel the Misty Fjords Flightseeing in Ketchikan. We decided we really wanted to do the helicopter in Skagway and this one wasn't as appealing. At the moment, just planning on grabbing a map in Ketchikan and doing a tour on our own.