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

[DVC Mary]

We're 2 days away from the one year mark!!!!



I just got back from Poly/AKL trip yesterday. I hope everyone cruising now or soon are having fun!

 

[lsutigger2]

Hey mary, I thought I was the only excited about the one year mark I thought i would post something then, but why wait ........

on Monday it will be one year until we cruise

I am getting to go back to wDW this summer - in August The organization that I work for is allowing me to take a Disney Institute Leadership Training. The program is paying the tuition and I'll fund the other costs. I'm staying at VWL in a studio, so no cost {?} and can get Southwest flights for a little more than $200. I can eat cheap, so all in all, not a bad deal. Of course I'm going to arrive on Friday afternoon and the training doesn't begin until Sunday evening. So I'll have a little play time before the 'work' begins. We have time each evening to go to the parks also. It will be my first solo trip - without my DH. I sure will miss him

hope everyone is doing well. Don't know about where you are but it sure is hot in Louisiana.

Later,

 

[DVC Mary]

One year until we cruise!!!!!

After my very humid WDW trip, I'm looking forward to milder temperatures next year. We are having some lovely mid-70 degree days in the Chicago area now w/ lots of sprinkles, but a welcome break from the humidity we just experienced.

Janie--Congrats on your Disney Institute course--very cool! I'm sure you'll find plenty to do alone. You might even have more time to stop & really take it all in. You'll probably also make friends at your course & being a WDW veteran, I'm sure you can show them around.

Enjoy all your trips this summer!

 

[lsutigger2]

a Whole lot of Whoo Hoo - one year from today we'll be cruisin'

mary, what we wouldn't give for temps in the 70"s
It has been in the 90's without afternoon rains to cool things down. So that means I;ve spent a lot of time watering my plants

someone posted on the Vancouver FAQ thread a website that they said had good stuff on it: http://britishcolumbia.mydestinationinfo.com. I haven't had time to check it out, maybe soon.

take care all and if you are traveling this summer, be safe. We want to see you next year.

 

[lsutigger2]

Mary, i'm actually kind of looking forward to going with my DH - but don't tell him

he sometimes turns into Grumpy while at WDW =

i'll have Friday evening, all day Saturday, and part of Sunday to cruise around by myself. then each evening after the training. Sounds like enough solo time for me.

take care everyone -

 

[Boogie70]

Hello everyone!!! My family just did our first cruise last month... we had the best time. It was AWESOME!!! So we decided to book our second cruise... we choose this one to Alaska. We are all so excited.
I have been reading a thread on different FE gifts... I am ready to get started making some.
Are we going to do the FE gifts? I hope so. My girls loved getting the gifts.

Boogie70

 

[ua1992]

Just got off the wonder on Friday morning after an amazing 5 night double dip The outlook cafe was nice and it's ready for when we all sail. we did the fish extenders for the first time and we loved it. I'm in for fish extenders in Alaska less than 11 months til we sail - woo hoo

 

[nzdisneymom]

Welcome! We are also freshly back from a cruise. It was odd to not rebook whole onboard but knowing we already had this one booked kept us from even looking at anything else v

We also enjoy FE and got lots of wonderful gifts and ideas from other DISers who sailed with us.

I am blogging our trip at dclbaltic.blogspot.com but will also be doing a trip report with DCL-specific things in the next few days.

Now we can get busy planning this trip!

 

[nzdisneymom]

We're still trip reporting and sorting pictures from our Baltic cruise but that hasn't stopped me from beginning to look ahead to Alaska! I finally actually looked at the itinerary and started looking up information about it. Thought I'd share the little bit I gathered.

We are heading out two nights early.

Sunday, June 12 - fly from ATL to Vancouver.
Sunday - Tuesday, June 14 - Vancouver, British Columbia
Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel - http://www.fairmont.com/pacificrim

Tuesday, June 14 - board Disney Wonder
Wednesday, June 15 - at sea

Thursday, June 16 - Tracy Arm Fjord, just south of Juneau
http://www.alaska-cruise-advisor.com/tracy-arm.html

Friday, June 17 - Skagway, Alaska
http://www.skagway.com/

Saturday, June 18 - Juneau, Alaska
http://www.traveljuneau.com/

Sunday, June 19 - Ketchikan, Alaska
http://www.visit-ketchikan.com/

Monday, June 20 - at sea
Tuesday, June 21 - disembark Disney Wonder, fly home from Vancouver to Atlanta

I did take a quick look at the Adventures by Disney Alaska today and saw there is one that leaves on June 24th. I had a brief thought about shifting our Vancouver days from the beginning to the end and then heading to Fairbanks for the ABD, but then I looked at the price and then I tried to see what sort of airfare cost there might be to do a flight from Vancouver to Fairbanks and then home from Anchorage and kayak.com told me it couldn't even find flights for when I'd want to go -- maybe it's still a few days too early for the return flight portion of the trip, but it doesn't really matter because even if we were to use DVC points for one person, it would still be out of our price range to do both in 2011. If it were 2012, we might could swing it, but not so quick after our Baltic.

Anyway, it was fun to look at it and if I were to win the lottery or something, I might look again

Hope you all are well.

 

[DVC Mary]

Welcome Boogie 70 & anyone else who's new that I missed.

I booked our flights today. We are flying into Vancouver using up our free miles that we've been saving. I didn't even think we'd be able to get free tickets into Vancouver, but we did. Yeah! I thought we'd have to go to Seattle & take the train. No direct flights on American out of Chicago. We have to go through Dallas. It's going to be a long day traveling.

We fly in Saturday night & we'll also be staying an extra night after the cruise.

Lots of Disers seem to be staying at the Pacific Rim. What's the benefit of staying there???

I need to get planning. We really want to do the zipline at Whistler:

http://www.canadianoutback.com/whistler-ziptrek.php

There seems to be so much to do there that I'm wondering if we should stay there. I need to spend some time on the Vancouver FAQ thread & start planning our fun for Vancouver.

Drew--I'll try to check out your blog when I get a chance. Can't wait to here all about it next year. Bring some photos if you remember or have them stored on a laptop.

You too nzdisney!!

 

[nzdisneymom]

I just subscribed to the Vancouver thread and the 2011 Alaska planning thread. Lots of good info there already.

We are at the Paxific Rim because we are doing air, hotel, and transfers through the cruiseline. We did this for the Baltic, too, and it was so easy and nice and also removed a lot of stress that we watched others dealing with. We don't have loads of frequent flier miles or hotel points or such that we could use and there are four of us anyway. However we are collecting those points and miles as we go.

The cruise folks in London did let guests check in fir the cruise at the hotel rather than having to wait til getting to the port even if they weren't doing the hotel thru the cruiseline.

 

[DVC Mary]

Just wanted to post that if anyone is going on this cruise and you don't want to do FE gifts you don't have to do them. You can still get to know people & have fun. I realized that some people think if you are in the meet group you are committed to doing the FEs.

I just want everyone to feel welcome!! FEs are optional & can be decided a few months out from the cruise.

 

[mmmears]

Hi everyone!

Just popping in here to introduce myself and add one more family who will be on the 6/14 Alaska cruise. This will be our 2nd cruise -- we tried out the 3-day last April and had a wonderful time. It'll be me, DH, my DM, and DD 14. We've never been to Alaska before (except for my DM) so we're really looking forward to the cruise!!!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Mmmears - welcome! I'm Cindy D. and will be traveling with DH and two teenage boys - one will turn 15 on the ship and the other will be 13 3/4 (finishing 9th and 7th grades respectively). This will be our 6th DCL but our first trip to Vancouver or Alaska!

 

[mmmears]

Mmmears - welcome! I'm Cindy D. and will be traveling with DH and two teenage boys - one will turn 15 on the ship and the other will be 13 3/4 (finishing 9th and 7th grades respectively). This will be our 6th DCL but our first trip to Vancouver or Alaska!

Thanks for the warm welcome! My DM has been to Alaska twice with Princess, but the rest of us have never been there, so we are really looking forward to it. I'm also waiting (impatiently) for the excursion information to be released!!!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Hi everyone! School started this week and I'm beat - but we just keep saying each day of school brings us one day closer to Alaska!

We changed our arrangements and now are going out on Saturday the 11th to give us an extra day in Vancouver. It makes it easier for my brother who will be dropping us off at the airport - if we left on Sunday, that's his birthday.

 

[sunshine state kim]

We're all booked to celebrate my parents 50th wedding anniversary on the Alaskan cruise. DH, DD (17), DS (14) and I will hit Platinum with this cruise and are so excited! My brother and his 2 kids (16 and 14) will be on their first cruise ever and my parents will be taking their second Disney cruise, 11 years after their first. We're just checking out airfare and hotels and pre-planning for potential excursions. We'll probably fly into Seattle to save some money and take the train to Vancouver and stay a couple of nights pre-cruise. We're huge fish extender fans too. Looking forward to a fantastic trip. We're from Florida, but my brother and Mom and Dad are from MN.

 

[ClubDis]

Haven't booked yet, but I'm thinking about booking this and surprising my boyfriend for his 21st birthday, which will be on the 17th that week. We're booked on our first cruise in Jan, so we'll see how we like it first before I decide to book anything. I think he'd really like it though. He keeps telling me he'd like to cruise to Alaska.

 

[DVC Mary]

ClubDis--Take the hint & book this. Join the fun!

sunshine state kim--Welcome!

50th anniversary--Wow! That's great. Lots of fun adults! More teens!!! We seem to have about 9 so far. What grades will the teens in your grade be finishing? Hopefully we can get the kids started chatting one of these days if they're interested. It makes it so much easier if they know someone in their age range.

If I've got this correct we have 5 teenage boys age (grade completed): 18 (12th), 14 (9th), 14 (8th), 14 (?), 13 (7th)

3 teenage girls: 17 (?), ? (finishing 8th) MVAN's family & 14 (?)

2 teens undetermined gender 14 & 16 (need to get more info from ss kim)

1 boy: turning 11 on the cruise (5th)



DH got called to go downtown for a market research study. He's not supposed to post about it. DCL is still investigating/planning things for this cruise. They asked the group tons of questions about almost everything imaginable. DCL gave nothing away for what they have planned for us. It's cool that they're working so hard to make this special. Please don't post about it on the general board b/c I don't have any real info--just that they're planning.

 

[mmmears]

DVCMary -- now you just have me wondering what they were asking him!!! I read how the map on the DCL website went from non-inside passage to inside passage and I really hope that is what they have planned for us... Otherwise I will definitely regret my decision to book this one...

So with all the teens here and no little kids, do you think that our sample size is too small or can we infer that the avg. age of the kids to Alaska will be higher than the FL cruises?