June 21, 2011 - The Wonder breaks the Alaskan icebergs!

[DenverVal]

...And by 12:30 all the brunch reservations (for 1-2) were gone as well.

Heck, the brunch reservations were gone well before that! I tried booking a separate reservation for my daughter, but by 10 past the hour there were no more.

I tried to make a reservation on our cruise for grins and giggles, and was only able to pull up a single room! Looks like it will sail full.

 

[Meerkat504]

First posting on this board.

The June 21st cruise out of Vancouver will be our first cruise ever.

Traveling will be me and my wife along with our 2-year old son (actually almost three).

After lurking on this board, have a gameplan for tonight when online checkin begins but any last minute advice sure would be appreciated.

 

[mousemom11]

My recommendation is to book Palo first as those reservations go quickly. Have a prioritized list of days and times that would work for you and then grab the first one that is available. After that, you can book spa and excursions.

 

[Meerkat504]

Thanks Mousemom.

 

[ilovepumba]

fellow Texan! Won't it be nice to leave the hot Texas weather for a week?

 

[DenverVal]

First posting on this board.

The June 21st cruise out of Vancouver will be our first cruise ever.

Traveling will be me and my wife along with our 2-year old son (actually almost three).

After lurking on this board, have a gameplan for tonight when online checkin begins but any last minute advice sure would be appreciated.

Have your reservation number handy so you can log in.
Don't try and jump the gun, log in on the hour but not before.
Book in order of least availibility to highest: Palo Brunch, then Tea, then dinner, then any spa, then excursions, and good luck!

 

[Meerkat504]

We are so looking forward to escaping the summer heat for a week, ilovepumba. We're heading up the day before on Continental and going to stay an extra day in Vancouver just to enjoy a hopefully more temperate climent.

And more great advice, Denverval.

A question for anyone ... will we be assigned our stateroom tonight? And do you have an opportunity to request a particular room?

 

[DenverVal]

Are you in a guaranty room? If so, you don't have the option of choosing, and they can assign it any time up to a week or so before the cruise, so maybe not tonight, but that's not important for your Palo/spa/excursion booking tonight. If you book further out, or if the category you want isn't full, you have the option of choosing a specific stateroom.

 

[kveens]

Good Luck, Meerkat and all othe first time DCL cruisers as you book your Palo, Spa and excursions later tonight. May you have pixie dust and get just what you want!

Kerri

 

[Meerkat504]

Despite our broadband deciding to go down right before registration opened and having to wait for the system to reboot, was happy with the process.

By the time I got my son registered for the nursery and went on to Palo registrations, there were no brunch openings but did get registered for dinner one night during the cruise.

We have already booked a train/bus excursion for Skagway but last night booked a whale watching/glacier tour while in Juneau.

The only thing I didn't realize until I went back and read some more postings was that the final steps to online registration including the selection of a boarding time did not open until 7 a.m. ET this morning. Was able to finish the process this morning and get an early boarding time so we can have an opportunity to explore the ship and start our cruise vacation early on the 21st.

We're excited about setting sail in 75 days!

 

[mousemom11]

I'm glad to hear that you got what you wanted, in spite of your internet not cooperating. You are going to love Palo! Definitely order the chocolate souffle for dessert.

 

[Meerkat504]

With the June 21st cruise being our first, have really enjoyed looking over the postings on this board to gain as much knowledge about cruising in general and cruising the Disney way in particular.

Described to Mrs. Meerkat504 about the Fish Extender programs on cruises and showed her a few FEs. Before finding this board, I had no idea about things like FE and now my wife is excited about the possibilities. Whether we are part of an FE or not, we will have a Fish Extender when we board in June. I haven't seen much communication in the past few pages of posts and know our cruise will be here before you know it, but thought I'd ask if being added to the FE list is still a possibility.

Would love to be apart of the tradition but completely understand if a deadline for signing up has passed.

 

[MrsMeerkat504]

Have been letting DH take the lead on cruising with Mickey. But after reading about FEs, meals, excursions, etc have gotten motivated to participate!

Can't wait to set sail in June and escape the Texas heat --- it's already Hades hot here.

 

[DenverVal]

Welcome to both of you!

 

[kveens]

Have been letting DH take the lead on cruising with Mickey. But after reading about FEs, meals, excursions, etc have gotten motivated to participate!

Can't wait to set sail in June and escape the Texas heat --- it's already Hades hot here.

I am the designated FE group coordinator and you to our lively gang. You will make the 12th cabin particiapting. If you are not shy about sharing some personal details, please let us know who is in your travel party and if kids, their ages and gender so we can provide appropriate age-related items. Once your GTY is assigned, please share that info as well so I can make a map for deliveries. FE participants this time do not have assigned days, it is go with the flow, but please deliver no later than Monday, so we all can pack up our treasures before heading home. I would like cut-off to join the FE list to be May 21st, so those of us making handmade items, have time to complete them without scrambling to get extra materials for late additions. Any questions, please PM me.

 

[kveens]

Any of you who have been waffling about whether to join the fun of FE gift exchange, please note that the cutoff to join will be May 21st. We need to have time for our crafty folk to create their magical items and get them packed before we set sail.

Once the Meerkat family gives us their details and any others who want to join now, I will post an updated list of participants.

I made 11 special items over the weekend, one for each cabin and now will make a 12th, and am very happy how they turned out. I hope you will all enjoy!

Kerri

 

[jodeja]

I have a couple of questions about schedule. I was trying to book some spa appointments this weekend, but realized that I didn’t know what time the shows are.
Also, I am a bit confused about our dinner time. When we booked our cruise, the TA said that only late seating was available but she would put us on the wait list for main seating (since my parents can’t eat that late). When I looked at our reservation on the DCL site, it said dining preference was main seating. I just want to be certain we are in main seating, and what time is dinner?
I definitely want at least one spa appointment (and maybe two!), but don’t want to miss dinner or any shows.

Oh, one more question – as long as we book shore excursions through the DCL website, I assume we are guaranteed to make it back to the ship on time, right? Our shore excursion for Juneau says it ends at 4:15 and I believe the ship is scheduled to leave at 4:30. Is that cutting it close, or is it fine because it’s a Disney-affiliated excursion?

 

[DenverVal]

If you're on a Disney excursion, they won't leave until the excursion returns.

They keep changing things around so much with dining that I'm confused too.

 

[ratt1345]

I finally found our arrival time!!! Thanks to all who helped me find it.
DW and I have 11:00 AM. Seems like a few of us have the same arrival time. It's not that big of an issue to us since we are a 2-3 minute walk from the port.

We are now under 10 weeks until the cruise!!!

Charlie

 

[lilpooh108]

Hello DIS'ers. Random question---my parents are on this sailing and we'd love to join them. I've noticed that all of the sailings before this one (May & June) have openings...but June 21 is completely sold out and has been for weeks.

Does anyone know why? Large groups? This sailing does appear to be the first sailing after West Coast schools let out for summer...is that why? Any thoughts?