June 16, 2014 Wonder to Alaska

[Ohana 4]

We just booked this morning! We're a family of 4 (me, DH, DD 17 at time of cruise, and DS 21 at time of cruise).
We've done Alaska once on the Wonder in 2011 and LOVED it.

Anyone else sailing with us this cruise?


FE Sign Up for our Alaskan Family:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ApT7A2754IL2dFFNRmtYdUwzTGM2eEEydEdwb1I1TEE&usp=sharing



Facebook Page for our Alaskan Family:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/109132235923764/

 

[DVC4US]

We will be on board with you!! Just booked this morning!

It will be :

Me - LeiLani
My Dad - Chuck
DD - Alyssa (18 when we cruise)
DDBFF - Skye (18 when we cruise
DD - Brittany ( 24 when we cruise)
DSIL - David ( 25 when we cruise)
In-Laws - David's Parents - Lee & Angie

We will be celebrating Alyssa & Skye's graduation and Brittany and David's 1st anniversary.

This will be our first time cruising to Alaska. Alyssa wants to be a Killer Whale Trainer and can't wait to see the killer whales.

 

[Ohana 4]

How fun that you're going in such a big group! It will be so much fun. We went at the end of June in 2011 and we saw lots of humpback whales from the ship. We only saw one I'd of killer whales from very far away and only their dorsal fins. But it was a great trip! We will have to start a FE group now that there are two of us, right? ;-)

 

[DVC4US]

Yeah, it is a great group to travel with. DD would take any kind of whale but we will keep our fingers crossed that we get to see some killer whales.

I agree, now that there's 2 of us we can start a FE group.

 

[Ohana 4]

I hope today we will have a bunch of our Dis friends join us on this sailing! Half the fun of cruising is getting to talk about it. At least it helps to pass the time until the cruise actually comes up.

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

OMG!!! I just moved an OBB to this sailing and we are so excited!! We are in a 9C and it's me, DH and DS who will be 10 at time of sailing. I booked this morning and DS doesn't even know since he is at school. We are also sailing on the Fantasy 4/14 so it's hard not cruising this year but we have two awesome cruises to look forward to next year!

I look forward to meeting and getting to know you guys and planning! I love the fact we have time to get stuff organized like, fly into Seattle vs. Vancouver, hotels, excursions, etc.

WOOHOO!!

Heather

 

[DVC4US]

Welcome Heather!! It's great to see more cruisers joining our thread. Hopefully we will have more additions today!!

We are sailing on the Fantasy in March. DD is getting married at WDW in June so we are doing a Spring Break girls trip for some relaxation and calm before the storm.

 

[Ohana 4]

Hello and welcome, Heather! It's great to see another Alaskan traveler! I agree, it's nice to have enough time to plan it all out and brainstorm over the little details.

This will be our second cruise to Alaska. We went in 2011 for DS's graduation gift and had a great time. That was our first cruise and we were HOOKED! Now we are gold members and quickly going towards the platinum!

LeiLani, how exciting about the wedding! I wish I had been able to afford a Disney wedding when I got married 21 years ago! Maybe my kids will want that someday (hopefully not too soon! )

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

Welcome Heather!! It's great to see more cruisers joining our thread. Hopefully we will have more additions today!!

We are sailing on the Fantasy in March. DD is getting married at WDW in June so we are doing a Spring Break girls trip for some relaxation and calm before the storm.

Thank you!! How awesome and what a fun time that will be Congrats to your daughter and what a special moment she will have!

Hello and welcome, Heather! It's great to see another Alaskan traveler! I agree, it's nice to have enough time to plan it all out and brainstorm over the little details.

This will be our second cruise to Alaska. We went in 2011 for DS's graduation gift and had a great time. That was our first cruise and we were HOOKED! Now we are gold members and quickly going towards the platinum!

LeiLani, how exciting about the wedding! I wish I had been able to afford a Disney wedding when I got married 21 years ago! Maybe my kids will want that someday (hopefully not too soon! )

Thanks You'll be our resident expert!! I've heard nothing but WONDERful things about the Alaskan cruises so we are very excited! After the Alaskan cruise I will be Gold...if I don't take another unplanned one - lol

I'm sure we'll have others joining us before too long - how fun!

Heather

 

[Kirbo]

We're joining you! It'll be me, my DH and our twin girls who will be ten when we cruise.

We actually had a different cruise planned for next year. It was in late August on the Fantasy but DH decided the timing was bad (our girls would miss the first few days of middle school, which starts in fifth grade here and it is a super busy time at work for him). When we saw DCL is doing Alaska again we decided to jump onboard!

I have to say that I am sorry we'll be missing the Fantasy, but I love the Wonder and will probably do fine to stick to the classics. Also, I was the one who started the meet thread for the Fantasy cruise . Thankfully, someone else is going to redo a thread for it. I feel rotten that I am skipping out on it though. I have vowed to never start a meet thread again

Anyway, I'm looking forward to planning with you all! We have the transatlantic and Med coming up, so I'll be focusing on those for a few months, but once we're home I'll be able to start planning this one!

 

[Ohana 4]

Welcome, Kirbo!!!

I can't wait to hear back from your next two trips! One of these days we will also go on a med cruise, transatlantic, and panama. We were blessed to be able to go on the Hawaii cruise in October and now we are spoiled on the two-week cruises! ;-)
But our Alaska cruise was our first one ever, so we are excited to be repeating that. I hope the weather is as nice as when we last went.

 

[Kirbo]

Welcome, Kirbo!!!

I can't wait to hear back from your next two trips! One of these days we will also go on a med cruise, transatlantic, and panama. We were blessed to be able to go on the Hawaii cruise in October and now we are spoiled on the two-week cruises! ;-)
But our Alaska cruise was our first one ever, so we are excited to be repeating that. I hope the weather is as nice as when we last went.

The Panama Canal is definitely on my bucket list! Next year's PC was at a terrible time for DH's work, and with this year's big splurge, it just isn't in the budget for quite some time

But I really want to do it someday

The Hawaiian cruise looked fabulous! How fun that you got to do that.

 

[SG101]

Booked our Alaska cruise this morning. I'm stefanie and going with DH, DS (10 on cruise) & DD (7 on cruise). We will make Gold after this cruise. We're taking a cousin and my husband's parents.

We just got off the Fantasy last weekend and brought 36 friends and family. As my son called it, that was the party boat. I'm looking forward to a very small group for Alaska so I can enjoy the sights and not feel like the cruise director.

This is my dream cruise as we have never been to Alaska. We're in Southern California so we'll probably fly to seattle, take Amtrak but don't know where to stay in Vancouver.

Can't wait to get to know everyone.

 

[Ohana 4]

SG101! It's nice to have another cruiser! Wow, that really WAS a party boat you had. But I bet you had fun. The Alaska cruise will be a breath of fresh air for you (literally). And it's amazing how quiet it really is. They aren't allowed to make too much noise out there for the nature that is out there. So that, in conjunction with how slowly the ship traverses those waters makes for a very quiet deck on Tracy Arm day. I can't wait!

We have Hampton Inn points, so we stayed there in Vancouver. The shuttle takes you to the port in about 5 minutes. We actually walked back to the hotel when we got back home with all our luggage. Strangely, we didn't get any weird looks. I guess they're all used to people going back and forth from the port. Anyway, you have over a year to figure out what you're going to do.

Glad to "meet" you!

 

[Kirbo]

SG101, that's a huge group of travelers on the Fantasy!



Can't wait for the planning to begin!

 

[SG101]

Question about hotels - let me know if this isn't the right place to ask. Has anyone signed up for Starwood credit card to get the 25,000 points to use? I was thinking of staying at westin in seattle & Vancouver. Hotels are 10,000 points per night. I'm just brainstorming since this trip is adding up fast.

I can't do Priceline since they don't guarantee 2 beds for the kids, but Hotwire is an option as well. Just trying to find any freebies that can be utilized. Thanks!!!

 

[DVC4US]

Welcome aboard Kirbo and SG101!!!

Kirbo - looks like you have a couple of great cruises coming up. We did the Med in 2007 and really had a great time. I really want to do a transatlantic or PC crossing but hasn't worked out with the school schedule yet. Maybe one of these days.

SG101 - wow what a group you had on the Fantasy!! The largest group we have had was 19. It's fun to have that many people but also a pain trying to coordinate everyone.

Can't wait for our first time on the Fantasy in 4 weeks!! The trip in 4 weeks will be my 11th cruise and I will have sailed on all 4 ships.

 

[DVC4US]

LeiLani, how exciting about the wedding! I wish I had been able to afford a Disney wedding when I got married 21 years ago! Maybe my kids will want that someday (hopefully not too soon! )

Thank you!! How awesome and what a fun time that will be Congrats to your daughter and what a special moment she will have!
Heather

Thanks guys! Is is pretty exciting planning the wedding. Both families are huge Disney fans and we both own DVC so we have done a lot of traveling to WDW and on DCL together since the kids met.

A little side story - Brittany and David met on a Disney cruise over Christmas in 2004. She was 15 and lived in Iowa and he was 16 and lived in Virginia Beach. They had a long distance relationship all through high school and Britt ended up going to Virginia for college. She has stayed in Virginia and they now live in Virginia Beach. So it just seemed right that they get married in WDW.

 

[SG101]

A little side story - Brittany and David met on a Disney cruise over Christmas in 2004. She was 15 and lived in Iowa and he was 16 and lived in Virginia Beach. They had a long distance relationship all through high school and Britt ended up going to Virginia for college. She has stayed in Virginia and they now live in Virginia Beach. So it just seemed right that they get married in WDW.

Such a cute story!!! I'm sure their wedding will turn out wonderful.

 

[IrishCowboy]

I have added your thread to the cruise meet list

Have a great cruise!