June 30, 2014 WONDER Alaska cruise meet

[tiarasandcrowns]

Have most of you booked your flight tickets and excursions? Anybody flying out of LA to Vancouver? If so what prices are we looking at for flights? Based on my research all the money saved on flight to Seattle from LAX will be spent on rental car and/parking! So i am thinking of flying into Vancouver, flight out on July 7th will be easier too if we don't have to worry about any delays when we are closer to the airport than having to drive back 3 hrs. Any thoughts?

Also are you all planning to book excursions on your own or though Disney? Getting soooooo excited!

 

[tiarasandcrowns]

Have been booked on the June 30th Alaska trip since last February, but just came across this. Glad to join. I have also sent a Facebook request.

Will be my wife and I and two sons (10,3).

This will be our 4th Disney cruise and 2nd to Alaska, but we did that one on NCL.

Looking forward to being part of the group and counting down the days until we cruise!

I booked in Feb too and started the group! Isn't it the most agonizing wait ever? We have twin daughters who are 10 and this will be our second Disney cruise! Getting so excited 5.5 months to go!

 

[tiarasandcrowns]

Hi Everyone. My DH and I booked this cruise while on the Sept 9/13 repositioning cruise. So excited to go to Alaska. My DD's 9th birthday is on Jul 4th and we figured this would be a great way to celebrate it. I'm also interested in joining the FE group. Did it the last cruise and had a blast. Am also sending a request to join the FB group.

Hi , i just noticed you are from Alberta Canada. We visited Calgary and drove to Banff in September of 2013 and loved the place! What a beautiful place mother nature has created, the glaciers, the glacier lakes. OMG we felt we didn't have enough eyes to take in the beauty! Looks like from all the pictures posted here about Alalska we will be blown away with the scenic beauty again! So excited for this cruise!

 

[WRUNDELL]

Hi and welcome aboard! Very much looking forward to the cruise! We live in Miami, FL and are flying into Seattle a few days early for some time there. We are then taking the train to Vancouver from Seattle. Was much cheaper than flying into Vancouver. I was fortunate enough to be able to use my airline miles to get home from Vancouver so we are only doing the train 1-way. Let me know if you have any travel or Disney Cruise quesetions. This will be our 4th Disney cruise!

 

[WRUNDELL]

Forgot to answer your other ? We will be booking excursions on our own. Some great posts about excursions if you look around here. Also go to TripAdvisor and search activities in each city. Some great ideas!

 

[Disneydebbie1]

Have most of you booked your flight tickets and excursions? Anybody flying out of LA to Vancouver? If so what prices are we looking at for flights? Based on my research all the money saved on flight to Seattle from LAX will be spent on rental car and/parking! So i am thinking of flying into Vancouver, flight out on July 7th will be easier too if we don't have to worry about any delays when we are closer to the airport than having to drive back 3 hrs. Any thoughts?

Also are you all planning to book excursions on your own or though Disney? Getting soooooo excited!

Hi! No I have not booked anything yet, but am watching airfares. This will be our 3rd Alaska Cruise with Disney (May 2011, Sept 2012). We also are from the LA area. Currently LAX to YVR has been approx $400 RT, but I did see a fare drop closer to $300 pop up a few days ago but not for July. On our previous trips the YVR fares stayed pretty high. We chose to fly Long Beach to Seattle both time and will likely do the same this time.

If you choose Seattle there are 4 different options for getting to Vancouver that I have found. 1) rental car and pay crazy parking fees at the port. 2) Quick Shuttle offers shuttle service directly from SEA to the Canada Place Pier. With airfare from Long Beach to SEA usually under $200 with advanced purchase the $100 round trip on the bus is still less than flying into Vancouver and paying to transfer the 20+ miles from the airport to the pier. It is a 5 hour bus ride due to it making several stops and having to cross the border. 3) Amtrak is fairly inexpensive from Seattle to Vancouver but requires transferring your luggage by yourself. (SEA to Central Link Light Rail, Amtrak station Seattle, Vancouver Train Station, to the Vancouver light Rail, then a 2 block walk to Canada Place Pier). 4) we did one way while celebrating our 30th Wedding Anniversary -- not cheap but fun... Victoria Clipper between Victoria and Seattle. They have packages that include transportation to/from the Vancouver Airport or Train/Bus Station the you can taxi or light rail to the pier. It was a nice add-on to the trip.

Excursions- booking through DCL is very convenient, they handle everything for you and the fees are added to your on board account for you to settle before leaving the ship. They do not allow you to book this far out for July Cruises. I think first time DCL cruises are allowed to start booking at 75 days out. Returning DCL cruisers can book earlier depending on how many times you have sailed with them.

Our first Alaska trip we uses all DCL Shore Excursions but I felt some of them were very pricey for what you got. The last strip we only did one shore exclusion with them because I could not find a similar experience privately. This time I am looking at putting together my own shore experiences so I can better control what I get and how much it costs. I have been researching much more this time. It has been a learning process for me.

Hope this helps. Happy to answer any questions I can.

 

[tiarasandcrowns]

Hi! No I have not booked anything yet, but am watching airfares. This will be our 3rd Alaska Cruise with Disney (May 2011, Sept 2012). We also are from the LA area. Currently LAX to YVR has been approx $400 RT, but I did see a fare drop closer to $300 pop up a few days ago but not for July. On our previous trips the YVR fares stayed pretty high. We chose to fly Long Beach to Seattle both time and will likely do the same this time.

If you choose Seattle there are 4 different options for getting to Vancouver that I have found. 1) rental car and pay crazy parking fees at the port. 2) Quick Shuttle offers shuttle service directly from SEA to the Canada Place Pier. With airfare from Long Beach to SEA usually under $200 with advanced purchase the $100 round trip on the bus is still less than flying into Vancouver and paying to transfer the 20+ miles from the airport to the pier. It is a 5 hour bus ride due to it making several stops and having to cross the border. 3) Amtrak is fairly inexpensive from Seattle to Vancouver but requires transferring your luggage by yourself. (SEA to Central Link Light Rail, Amtrak station Seattle, Vancouver Train Station, to the Vancouver light Rail, then a 2 block walk to Canada Place Pier). 4) we did one way while celebrating our 30th Wedding Anniversary -- not cheap but fun... Victoria Clipper between Victoria and Seattle. They have packages that include transportation to/from the Vancouver Airport or Train/Bus Station the you can taxi or light rail to the pier. It was a nice add-on to the trip.

Excursions- booking through DCL is very convenient, they handle everything for you and the fees are added to your on board account for you to settle before leaving the ship. They do not allow you to book this far out for July Cruises. I think first time DCL cruises are allowed to start booking at 75 days out. Returning DCL cruisers can book earlier depending on how many times you have sailed with them.

Our first Alaska trip we uses all DCL Shore Excursions but I felt some of them were very pricey for what you got. The last strip we only did one shore exclusion with them because I could not find a similar experience privately. This time I am looking at putting together my own shore experiences so I can better control what I get and how much it costs. I have been researching much more this time. It has been a learning process for me.

Hope this helps. Happy to answer any questions I can.

Thank you so much for your response. Those are quite a few options to get to Canada place for the cruise. I will look around more. You are right about the fares dropping to about $300, and i checked this yesterday. That was encouraging as it is so convenient even if you end spending a couple of 100 dollars more. I read several TR's where they have booked their own excursions and i might do that too. The abundance of information available for excursions is quite overwhelming!

 

[tiarasandcrowns]

Forgot to answer your other ? We will be booking excursions on our own. Some great posts about excursions if you look around here. Also go to TripAdvisor and search activities in each city. Some great ideas!

Thank you so much, i will look into TripAdvisor for activities.

 

[She Taz]

I never thought of Trip Advisor. What a great idea. My daughter wants to do the panning for gold with Disney as there will be characters there and well what 8 year old can ever get enough of the characters. I think that will be our only one with them though. We want to do shorter excursions and then be able to explore the towns. Counting down the days. 164 to go.

 

[WRUNDELL]

Glad you are keeping a countdown! I didn't know how long exactly, just know it's TOO long!!

TripAdvisor is great for everything travel related! I found a number of activities on different Disney threads and went to TripAdvisor to get other opinions and to confirm my thoughts.

We have 2 boys (10,3) so I had to fish around to find things that we can all do.

So far we are thinking of Sled dog ride with Alaska Excursions in Skagway. Whale watching with Alaska Galore Tours in Juneau. Wanted to do Harv and Marv's but they don't take kids under 13 unless you rent out the whole boat. Alaska Galore got good reviews on TripAdvisor. Anyone else done something with them, please offer thoughts.

Ketchikan thinking about just going around town or I have heard good things about the Lumberjack show. May do that. Again, any thoughts from others would be apprecited.

My wife and I have done an Alaska cruise before but before kids back in 1999!

 

[She Taz]

I've read a lot of Dis Board trip reviews and there is a ton of info on them. Pictures too.

 

[Disneydebbie1]

Exploring the towns of Skagway and Ketchikan is pretty easy as they are Very small. I recommend doing some research on the things that interest you in each port. I am not big on shopping in the touristy souvenir stores and you will find lots of them, and many tourist chain stores in each port. On the ship there are classes on shopping and you can get some coupons.

As an Environmental Scientist who enjoys history I like to learn about the ecosystems and history in the ports. Juneau is the state Capitol and is like a small city. They have public busses that good and much cheaper than taxi or tour bus. This trip our DD and her husband are joining us and his first ever cruise. We need to keep our expenses down since this trip the budget is very tight.

If anyone discovers any inexpensive ideas please share! Also if there are group discounts, maybe we can find enough people here that might be interested in forming a group. Just a thought!

Our previous cruises we did the "Best of Skagway" "Mendenhall Glacier and Glacier Gardens" "Misty Fiords catamaran" "science adventure in Juneau" and "the best of Ketchikan". Some were good some overpriced. I am happy to share my experience.

 

[She Taz]

Exploring the towns of Skagway and Ketchikan is pretty easy as they are Very small. I recommend doing some research on the things that interest you in each port. I am not big on shopping in the touristy souvenir stores and you will find lots of them, and many tourist chain stores in each port. On the ship there are classes on shopping and you can get some coupons.

As an Environmental Scientist who enjoys history I like to learn about the ecosystems and history in the ports. Juneau is the state Capitol and is like a small city. They have public busses that good and much cheaper than taxi or tour bus. This trip our DD and her husband are joining us and his first ever cruise. We need to keep our expenses down since this trip the budget is very tight.

If anyone discovers any inexpensive ideas please share! Also if there are group discounts, maybe we can find enough people here that might be interested in forming a group. Just a thought!

Our previous cruises we did the "Best of Skagway" "Mendenhall Glacier and Glacier Gardens" "Misty Fiords catamaran" "science adventure in Juneau" and "the best of Ketchikan". Some were good some overpriced. I am happy to share my experience.

Thanks Disneydebbie1 for the suggestions. We too are looking at keeping costs down as this cruise cost 3 times as much as our previous 2 repo cruises.

 

[Cali Tracy]

We just switched our date to the June 30 cruise after realizing we had a camp conflict with our prior booking! Oops! We'll be celebrating our 25th Anniversary and first time to Alaska for most of the family. Looking forward to reading all your excursion tips! I will request to add on the FB page and talk to the family about FE! Thanks for organizing.

 

[tiarasandcrowns]

Welcome!

 

[nnyl_irret]

We booked back in October 2013 but this is the frist time I got on here to look. We are cruising to celebrate the end of the school year and competitive dance season for DD (9), it'll her DH and I. We are excited to cruise out of Canada since we're Canadian.

Has anyone arranged a FE group? or Facebook group?

Thank you.

 

[She Taz]

We booked back in October 2013 but this is the frist time I got on here to look. We are cruising to celebrate the end of the school year and competitive dance season for DD (9), it'll her DH and I. We are excited to cruise out of Canada since we're Canadian.

Has anyone arranged a FE group? or Facebook group?

Thank you.

Hi and welcome. There is both a FB and FE group. The links are on the 1st page of this DisBoard. Sorry I can't link from my phone.

My daughter is turning 9 on Jul 4th and she is a competitive dancer too. We are from Cold Lake AB.

 

[She Taz]

We booked back in October 2013 but this is the frist time I got on here to look. We are cruising to celebrate the end of the school year and competitive dance season for DD (9), it'll her DH and I. We are excited to cruise out of Canada since we're Canadian.

Has anyone arranged a FE group? or Facebook group?

Thank you.

Hi and welcome. There is a link to the FE group and FB page on the first page of the DisBoard. Sorry can't link it with my phone.

My DD will be 9 on Jul 4 and is a competitive dancer too. We are from Cold Lake AB.

 

[Disneydebbie1]

Just wondering about how the FE for this cruise is being planned. I noticed that there are only families with children currently on the list. Are the plans to give gifts to the children only, or is everyone welcome to participate.

Also, when do you think the list will cut off? We may have to change our plans. Do we add to the list and then drop off if we need to change? We will be 2 cabins of adults only. Myself and DH, then DD and her DH.

Thanks for any info you have! Getting excited and hope the dates work out for us.

 

[elvisdiddy808]

Our family of 3 (DD 5yrs old) will be there. We will be the ones all bundled up. Hope it won't be too cold. Coming from Honolulu, Hawaii.