Just back from Alaska... any ??'s

[kmgt]

No other soup that I saw. Except when there was soup on the MDR menus and they may have had some at the buffet, but I'm not sure.

 

[AngelDisney]

What was your Port Arrival Time?
Was your dining rotation APTAPTA?
TIA!

 

[the3dwizard]

How was the BBQ? Might want to cancel my Palo brunch for that day

Guess I will pack some extra shorts, I can see the wife being all bundled up. Did you get much rain?

Cheers!

 

[caramello]

Thought of some more questions ...

What time did you disembark?
Was it noticeably colder at Mendenhall vs. the city?

Thanks!

 

[MichelleVW]

Ticketed - We went straight to Guest Services upon embarkation and were able to get tickets for all 3. They were spread out over the week. I know Olaf was early in the week, but I'd have to find my ticket to be sure of the day. Else and Anna were at 9:15 on last sea day. Princesses were later that same day. I'm not sure if there were multiple events. We were not given time/day options. Guest Services just gave us tickets.

ETA: Olaf was on Tracy Arm day.

We were on the June 1st cruise and our tickets for Anna and Elsa, Olaf and the Princesses were all on our first day at sea. Just depends on what time you get to the port adventures desk on what time/day your tickets are for.

 

[kmgt]

Our Port Arrival times were 7:15, 6:45, and 11:15. Yes, our Dining Rotation was APTAPTA. We did Palo Wednesday night so we missed our first night at Tritons.

I honestly didn't eat any of the BBQ. It was so insane to find a table and corral my 3 kids because EVERYONE wanted to eat outside through Tracy Arm. I didn't want to go through another line or get back up from my seat once we were settled. My husband ate some and really liked it though.

We got almost NO rain. It was wonderful. I think it rained one evening as we were going to dinner but all the outside stuff was pretty much over for that night. We had late seating. I will say though, that the crew and cast repeatedly said that the wonderful weather we had was rare. I would still be prepared for rain.

Whichever dinner seating time you have is also when you'll eat breakfast the last morning. If you have the early dinner, you'll eat breakfast early and have to find a seat in a common lounge area to campout until your luggage tags are called. We had late seating so our breakfast was at 8am. We ate and then just hung out at our table until our tags were called. I would say we disembarked around 9:30am.

I did not think it was noticeable colder at Mendenhall. Now, if you are doing an excursion that gets right up there at the glacier (I think I heard there were fly ins for excursions?) then it might be colder.

 

[kmgt]

Here we are at Mendenhall Glacier. You can see others around us. Coats or sweatshirts. My youngest two have gloves on, but they took them off shortly after getting there. Ignore my youngest. He's 4 and makes a face for most pictures, lol.

 

[MommyMeNDisney]

Here we are at Mendenhall Glacier. You can see others around us. Coats or sweatshirts. My youngest two have gloves on, but they took them off shortly after getting there. Ignore my youngest. He's 4 and makes a face for most pictures, lol.

How old are your other kids? How long did it take for your kids to adjust to the time change? You're from Ohio, right? Sorry, I've been reading so many Alaska posts, I may have you mixed up with someone else.

The late seating worked great for us last month, because Main seating was during DS's second nap. I want to chose the late seating again, but I'm not sure how DS (he will be two) will adjust to the time change in Alaska. We live on the east coast. TIA

 

[MommyMeNDisney]

I have two more questions...

1) - What made cruising Alaska with DCL a must for you?

2) - Can you order hot cocoa from room service?

 

[kmgt]

My kids are 4, 8, and 11. None of us really had a hard time adjusting except the 4yo. He was fine until we'd get to dinner at 8:15 and then it was lights out, lol. I think just slowing down and sitting is what did it for him. Because he stopped moving he couldn't stay awake. We were usually in bed by 10:45 every night. They did sleep in late most mornings. Later in the week it got harder to wake them up for Port Days.

Yes, we're from Ohio. Now that we're back home, we are really catching up on sleep. 4 of us slept till 9:30 yesterday and our 8yo slept till 11:45. It's 10am now and I'm the only one awake. My boys are usually up at 6:30.

I honestly didn't have a choice in cruise line. My Mother-In-Law planned all of it. Our entire family of 18 went on this trip to celebrate their 50th anniversary. However, some in the group had been on other cruises on other cruise lines and they all said that Disney was by far the best. It was the most organized and had the most activities to do. If we cruise again we'll choose Disney for sure. I really liked having everything planned out.

I'm not sure if you can order Hot Cocoa from Room Service, but it is free in the beverage station on Deck 9 (Wonder).

 

[kmgt]

This was our little guy on most nights at dinner, lol. The one night, the head DR server made a bed for him out of two chairs. Brought out extra table cloths for pillows and covered him in a table cloth.

 

[MommyMeNDisney]

My kids are 4, 8, and 11. None of us really had a hard time adjusting except the 4yo. He was fine until we'd get to dinner at 8:15 and then it was lights out, lol. I think just slowing down and sitting is what did it for him. Because he stopped moving he couldn't stay awake. We were usually in bed by 10:45 every night. They did sleep in late most mornings. Later in the week it got harder to wake them up for Port Days.

Yes, we're from Ohio. Now that we're back home, we are really catching up on sleep. 4 of us slept till 9:30 yesterday and our 8yo slept till 11:45. It's 10am now and I'm the only one awake. My boys are usually up at 6:30.

I honestly didn't have a choice in cruise line. My Mother-In-Law planned all of it. Our entire family of 18 went on this trip to celebrate their 50th anniversary. However, some in the group had been on other cruises on other cruise lines and they all said that Disney was by far the best. It was the most organized and had the most activities to do. If we cruise again we'll choose Disney for sure. I really liked having everything planned out.

I'm not sure if you can order Hot Cocoa from Room Service, but it is free in the beverage station on Deck 9 (Wonder).

Thank you, I appreciate the thorough reply! Since we're so far out from our cruise date, I'll wait until we get closer to the date to see how many naps DS is taking when he's closer to two, as well as his bed time then.

It's good to know there's hot cocoa on Deck 9, just in case it's not available via room service.

 

[caramello]

Your little boy is adorable!! Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions!

 

[MommyMeNDisney]

This was our little guy on most nights at dinner, lol. The one night, the head DR server made a bed for him out of two chairs. Brought out extra table cloths for pillows and covered him in a table cloth.

Lol too funny! Thank you for sharing that.

DS was like that only one night at dinner (Castaway Cay day). That beach wore him out! Our server made him a "bed, pillow and covers" out of the table cloths too. Lol

 

[TJA]

Hi, thanks for taking the time to tell us about your trip! I am going to plan our first Alaskan cruise in the new few days....we are from the northeast as well. I'm wondering -- where did you fly to? How did you go about getting to the cruise port? I have so many basic questions that I hate to ask, but Alaska is totally new to us.

 

[jtba]

How did you go about getting to the cruise port? I have so many basic questions that I hate to ask, but Alaska is totally new to us.

sorry to jump in but we just got off today. we stayed at the delta suites downtown vancouver, which is about four blocks away. if we had teenagers we would walk with our two large suitcases and four small carry-on's, but because our kids are still young we chose to take a taxi which came out to be around $5. on our way home to the airport we walked three blocks to the skytrain station and took that to the airport. very easy.

 

[tnshsms]

How did you get to the port after you flew in? I'm so use to Happy Limo or DCL transfers that I can't figure out what to do! We are flying in a couple of days before so DCL transfers aren't an option and I don't see a car service type of setup.

 

[jtba]

How did you get to the port after you flew in? I'm so use to Happy Limo or DCL transfers that I can't figure out what to do! We are flying in a couple of days before so DCL transfers aren't an option and I don't see a car service type of setup.

i'm going to copy and paste my reply to a similar question from my other thread here:

we stayed at the delta suites (4 1/2 blocks from the cruise terminal), so we took the skytrain from the airport to waterfront station, which is the terminus station (3 blocks from the cruise terminal). it was very easy. because we planned to take the skytrain both to and from the airport, DH opted to buy a booklet of 10 tickets from the 7-eleven inside the airport, which cost ~CAN$21 and saves you the airport surcharge fee if you were to buy single tickets.

caveat: using the tickets is slightly complicated. from the airport to waterfront station is really two zones, but on the weekends (we arrived on a saturday) it counts as one zone. if you were to go there during most hours on a weekday it's two zones, which means you have to pay an extra CAN$1.75 at the ticket validating machine. hope that makes sense.
​

there are at least three limo services that i looked into but did not book any of them:

1) starlimousine.com, who gave me the following quote:

6 Passenger Limousine $157.50
6 Passenger SUV $144.38
9 Passenger Mercedes Sprinter Van $157.50
​

2) legacy limo service: http://www.panpacificvancouver.com/area-activities/legacy-limousine-services/

3) aerocar service: info@aerocar.ca, 604-298-1000

 

[tnshsms]

Thank you so much for your reply and info! Super helpful!!

 

[jetskigrl]

How did you get to the port after you flew in? I'm so use to Happy Limo or DCL transfers that I can't figure out what to do! We are flying in a couple of days before so DCL transfers aren't an option and I don't see a car service type of setup.

When we flew into Vancouver last year, we used Aerocar service for a towncar. It is right outside the door (once you finish customs) and it was as easy as getting a taxi. We had 4 people and a lot of luggage so we knew it would be either one towncar of two taxis so this was easiest. We didn't need to prebook anything, just walked out the door and right to the Aerocar stand. They have the cars and drivers right there waiting. We waiting maybe 5 minutes while they called the driver over and we were on our way.