Just back from June 15th-June 22nd Alaska cruise

[sunryzez]

I can barely begin to put into words how amazing this cruise was but I will try. First off the weather was AMAZING! We did not have a drop of rain the entire time from the two days I stayed in Vancouver to the time we got off the ship. There were times it was cold but never unbarebale. There were even several times in port we felt hot with what we were wearing so please remember to layer.
I will start in Vancouver. We stayed at the Pan Pacific. It is a very nice hotel. On Saturday we got there about 1pm but were very tired from the long flight and our rooms were already prepared. We relaxed for a while and then got an early dinner at the cactus cafe club a block and a half down ( so yummy) anf did Fly Over Canada. This is very pricey but if you love soarin at Disney you really should try it. We all really enjoyed it. Then we just walked around a bit and explored. Originally we had planned to do the Butchart Gardens on Sunday but did not realize it is actually 3.5 hours away from Vancouver. We had just done a 7 hour flight and we did not want to spend 7 hours of travel time in Canada when we only had 2 days there. I was very dissappointed at first but just decided to sightsee in Vancouver instead. We took the hop on hop off bus right in front of the hotel. I really recomend this. It is narrated and had 23 stops around town so you really do get to see everything. We got off at Stanley Park and took the horse and carriage ride. If you are taking the hop and off bus it takes you to pretty much the same places but we wanted this experience for the kids. I did not mind spending the extra money for the hour tour because we really enjoyed it but just keep in mind if you are budgeting that it really does go to the same places. Stanley Park is gorgeous. We stopped at the Totem Poles, statues, lighthouse, Prospect point. I fell so in love with this park and city. When we got back on the bus we did stops at Grainville Island where we ate at the fair market. We had bought loaves of organic bread at this little bakery and cheeses and meats there and enjoyed a sit outside picnic. We also stopped at Robson street and Gastown to shop and see the Steam Clock. I really wanted to go to Grouse Mountain but it would be too intense for my mom who came with us but our day was pretty much over after all the sightseeing. We had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant near the hotel and then went to sleep excited about the next day. Will write about the cruise in a few minutes..

 

[MUN]

I am pleased to hear you have an enjoyable vacation.

MUN

 

[missyp]

Thanks for the info. We will be spending 4 days in Vancouver prior to sailing taking notes

 

[sunryzez]

Ok, so we got to the terminal and we were 11:30 PAT but noone got on the ship until about 12:30. The terminal was fairly easy to get through. Once on ship we went straight to port adventures to get character tickets. I recomend this. Line was long and toickets are limited. I also got into a mixology class on the second day which was very limited. The only other one was Tracy Arm day and I was not looking into that one. We went to buffet and then rooms were ready. Dininf rotation was TAPTAPT. We have been on 5 other Disney cruises and honestly have never had great servers. They were all nice but nothing like what was described on these boards. This time we finally had it, our servers were the best ever. They were Tiago and Putu. They were so attentive and did magic every night for the kids. Even on the nights where my little guy was cranky and tired and I was even over it they were so patient and just so great with him. The first two sea days just flew by and Tracy arm was BREATHTAKING. You really need to see it to understand its beauty. Weather was chilly but nowhere near really cold. We got very lucky on weather and noone was crowding around all day where you couldnt see like I read on other cruises. We moved around on deck 10 the whole time to get different views and never did we not get a front row view. We did Palo brunch that day and it was tasty as always =)

Here is a list of my excursions:

The ONLY regret I have from this trip was our excursion in Skagway. My mom took the train and originally we were planning on it but then my kids saw the Liarsville one online and really wanted to do it. It sounded really good so we booked it. Now I am a VERY simple person and will always find the bright side to anything especially on vacation. So here is my honest opinion, the excursion was just okay but EXTREMELY overpriced for what you get. It was 90 dollars per adult ( and my 13 year old had adult pricing) and 50 dollars per child. So our family paid 370.00 for this excursion in total. If it would of been like 25-30 a person I would say that would be more of a fair price for this type of thing. When you get there it looks like an old town. It was quaint and the characters really did play the part. They did a little puppet show which was cute but then the "panning for Gold" is the problem. They literally give you a dirty pan and saw put it in the water and shake it and find the gold. We had NO idea what we were doing and the "gold" flake was the size of a pepper, Im not even exageratting. You could barely see it. In town you will find a vile of real gold for 2.99 but for an almost 400 excursion you get a tiny ziploc bag and a pepper flake... My 8 year old put the whole pan in the water and dropped it all out , when we asked for a different pan they didnt want to give it to her. I almost lost my mind at that point. The food was fine and then you get on the bus and leave. After that we just walked around town ourselves and had a good time but I definately wish I would of done the train. My mom loved it and said they even got to see some bears!

Juneau- HIGHLIGHT of my whole trip. We did best of Juneau. I went back and forth a million times between booking with Disney or not and in the end Im SO glad we booked with Disney. Boat was equipped for over 100 and there were only about 30 of us on this excursion. We got to move around freely and never had anyone or thing blocking our view. We saw so many humpbacks. At one point we were following a group of about 8 whales and they started bubbleneck feeding. We were told this was extremely rare this time of year. They jumped halfway up out of the water during this point and we were only a few feet away. This was my absolute favorite part of the trip! We then ate at this lodge and the food was great and so were the views. We ended our trip at the Glacier and I could of stayed there all day. We hiked nuggets fall trail and you end at a massive waterfall and very close view of the glacier! Sadly we could only stay about 15 minutes to enjoy the view because we had limited time. I really wish we could of enjoyed it more. I know everyone says the smaller boats are better and maybe we just got really lucky but I saw several smaller boats with the same amount of people we had and they looked cramped trying to see the whales so in my experience the larger boat was the much better choice.

Ketchikan-
Another great experience. We booked a private tour thru Alaska Coach and it was thru the city and POtlatch park. WE only spent 175.00 for all 5 of us and it was a three hour private tour. So worth it. Our guide was great and told amazing stories. My daughter was so interested in the whole tour and asked her a million questions and the guide was great with her. She knew the story of each totem at the park and we even got to talk to the master carver there. We walked in and he was carving. WE watched him carve for a while and then he just started talking to us. He explained all the tools to the kids, told them stories of all the totems he carved and gave them a wood chip off the one he was working on. It really was a once in a lifetime experience for our family! I highly recomend doing this cause the Potlatch park tour through Disney was WAY higher priced.

Everything else was wonderful. The kids enjoyed the kids club as always, counselors were so nice, activities on board were plentiful. We enjoyed the change up from the pirate party to the pixar party. It was nice seeing different characters on board then usual. I am so sad it is over but feel so blessed to have had this experience! If you have any questions please ask away =)

 

[bjakmom]

Thanks for the great TR!! My girls (11 & 14) are here packing and we are so excited!!
We were going to walk Stanley Park on our return day (doing Grouse and Capilano the day before the cruise). Do you think we would see more just doing the hop on/off? Do they also take you into the city a bit? And can you get to Granville Island on the bus? We are taking a cab to the airport that night and flying out in the morning.
How was the Frozen event? Was it on Skagway day?
Was there a semi-formal night on Juneau day? The girls are packing nice dresses for formal night since they love to dress up (me, not so much lol), but they are thinking just cute sun dresses for semi formal. Would that be enough?
I am so glad to hear you enjoyed the disney excursion in Juneau. We are doing Mendenhall then Whales. I had debated a smaller boat, but decided my DGrd11 would do better on a larger boat for so many hours, with room to move around a bit. I hope we are as lucky as you were on that trip.
Also hope we have some sunny days! We are debating bringing our stuffable down jackets with hoods - they are soft and tuck into a small drawstring, but wondering if a fleece and our waterproof jackets will be enough. Did you need gloves? hats? Ok, back to packing and cleaning the house!!
One more question - what morning was your character breakfast?

 

[KristiMc]

Glad you had a great trip! We were on the cruise right before you and had amazing weather also.

 

[genki3]

Thank you for your review! I had a few questions.

Just curious where are Tiago and Putu from? Did you enjoy your TAPTAPT rotation?

Was there anything special at the kids club that your 8 year old really enjoyed?

Your mom's train excursion in Skagway, did she book through Disney? Can you tell me more about her experience that day? I'm currently booked with Disney for the train but might consider Chilkoot instead based on positive reviews... The difference is the roundtrip train ride through DCL and train/bus combo through Chilkoot and I can't decide which one I want. Thanks for anything you can share!

 

[Sarabi's Cubs]

Sounds like a great trip! We're going next year. What did you think of doing Palo on the Tracey Arm day? Did it interfere with your sightseeing or add to it?

Laurie

 

[MommyMeNDisney]

I love reading these. They allow me to live vicariously through the OPs until our Alaskan cruise next year.

OP, I'm glad you had an amazing time!

P.S. - that gold flake the size of a "pepper" part was hilarious.

 

[sunryzez]

To answer a dew questions.....
the hkp on and off bus brings you to stanley park, granville island , and all over the city of vancouver. It was way easier then trying to get taxis all day. Also there are free shuttles to grouse and capilano right in front of pan pacific if you are going there.
Frozen event was skagway at 945. It is night four of skagway. The kids watch it on deck 9 for about 30 minutes. The show was really nice and everyone seemec to enjoy it. After they showed frozen on funnelvision. Kids all loved it and had a great time.
Semi formal was juneau. This cruise was way more casual then most of the disney cruises but we still dressed up. I think that sun dresses will be fine.
we did not need gloves but i think we were very lucky. My best advice to you would be to pack alot of layers to be prepared for any weather and hopevully it will be great weather in the end
Lastly, our chara ter breakfast was day 3 of tracey arm.
hope this helps.

 

[sunryzez]

Tiago is from portugal and putu is from indonesia. My kids 7 and 8 loved the kids club. They really enjoyed toy story boot camp, plutos pajama party, all the arts and crafts, and friendship rocks. They enjoyed the club more then the lab. We also got to watch inside out and the kids loved this movie. Make sure you guys have a chance to view it.
She did book thru disney. It was fro. 7 to about 12 or 1 if i remember correctly. She said it was fully narrated and had breathtaking views. Thry also served champagne. Shs said kids got to go to front train car. She thinks my kidz would of loved it. I really regret not doing it. Apparently there was a bear and cub hanging out on the tracks so they all got see them. If you have any more questions let me know.

 

[Love2Cruise]

To answer a dew questions.....
the hkp on and off bus brings you to stanley park, granville island , and all over the city of vancouver. It was way easier then trying to get taxis all day. Also there are free shuttles to grouse and capilano right in front of pan pacific if you are going there.
Frozen event was skagway at 945. It is night four of skagway. The kids watch it on deck 9 for about 30 minutes. The show was really nice and everyone seemec to enjoy it. After they showed frozen on funnelvision. Kids all loved it and had a great time.
Semi formal was juneau. This cruise was way more casual then most of the disney cruises but we still dressed up. I think that sun dresses will be fine.
we did not need gloves but i think we were very lucky. My best advice to you would be to pack alot of layers to be prepared for any weather and hopevully it will be great weather in the end
Lastly, our chara ter breakfast was day 3 of tracey arm.
hope this helps.

We had lightweight down jackets That squished up into a pouch. They were great and the warmth was needed on Tracy Arm Day. Also, I had gloves and the chemical hand warmer packets which I needed since my hands get cold easily. We were on Deck 10 at the front of the ship going through Tracy Arm. Very cold there due to the wind, but the view is so worth it. Bring layers and a warm coat and hat if you plan to be at the front to view Tracy Arm. I was amazed at the people I saw wearing shorts and flip flops going through Tracy Arm. They must be very warm blooded! It was COLD up on the decks! There were also kids in the pool! . We only wore our shorts in Vancouver. I needed a windbreaker outside on the open decks most of the time.

 

[Mazz519]

Sounds great we are sailing on July 6th ....Cant wait !!!!!

 

[xlxo]

Originally we had planned to do the Butchart Gardens on Sunday but did not realize it is actually 3.5 hours away from Vancouver. We had just done a 7 hour flight and we did not want to spend 7 hours of travel time in Canada when we only had 2 days there. I was very dissappointed at first but just decided to sightsee in Vancouver instead.

I call this "unfinished business". Time to make plans for that return trip...

 

[kmgt]

We were on your cruise too!! I agree on Liarsville. We chose it because we have young kids (4, 8, and 11) and thought the character part would make it fun for them. But yeah, the panning for gold was disappointing.

 

[havoc315]

Ok, so we got to the terminal and we were 11:30 PAT but noone got on the ship until about 12:30. The terminal was fairly easy to get through. Once on ship we went straight to port adventures to get character tickets. I recomend this. Line was long and toickets are limited. I also got into a mixology class on the second day which was very limited. The only other one was Tracy Arm day and I was not looking into that one. We went to buffet and then rooms were ready. Dininf rotation was TAPTAPT. We have been on 5 other Disney cruises and honestly have never had great servers. They were all nice but nothing like what was described on these boards. This time we finally had it, our servers were the best ever. They were Tiago and Putu. They were so attentive and did magic every night for the kids. Even on the nights where my little guy was cranky and tired and I was even over it they were so patient and just so great with him. The first two sea days just flew by and Tracy arm was BREATHTAKING. You really need to see it to understand its beauty. Weather was chilly but nowhere near really cold. We got very lucky on weather and noone was crowding around all day where you couldnt see like I read on other cruises. We moved around on deck 10 the whole time to get different views and never did we not get a front row view. We did Palo brunch that day and it was tasty as always =)

Here is a list of my excursions:

The ONLY regret I have from this trip was our excursion in Skagway. My mom took the train and originally we were planning on it but then my kids saw the Liarsville one online and really wanted to do it. It sounded really good so we booked it. Now I am a VERY simple person and will always find the bright side to anything especially on vacation. So here is my honest opinion, the excursion was just okay but EXTREMELY overpriced for what you get. It was 90 dollars per adult ( and my 13 year old had adult pricing) and 50 dollars per child. So our family paid 370.00 for this excursion in total. If it would of been like 25-30 a person I would say that would be more of a fair price for this type of thing. When you get there it looks like an old town. It was quaint and the characters really did play the part. They did a little puppet show which was cute but then the "panning for Gold" is the problem. They literally give you a dirty pan and saw put it in the water and shake it and find the gold. We had NO idea what we were doing and the "gold" flake was the size of a pepper, Im not even exageratting. You could barely see it. In town you will find a vile of real gold for 2.99 but for an almost 400 excursion you get a tiny ziploc bag and a pepper flake... My 8 year old put the whole pan in the water and dropped it all out , when we asked for a different pan they didnt want to give it to her. I almost lost my mind at that point. The food was fine and then you get on the bus and leave. After that we just walked around town ourselves and had a good time but I definately wish I would of done the train. My mom loved it and said they even got to see some bears!

Juneau- HIGHLIGHT of my whole trip. We did best of Juneau. I went back and forth a million times between booking with Disney or not and in the end Im SO glad we booked with Disney. Boat was equipped for over 100 and there were only about 30 of us on this excursion. We got to move around freely and never had anyone or thing blocking our view. We saw so many humpbacks. At one point we were following a group of about 8 whales and they started bubbleneck feeding. We were told this was extremely rare this time of year. They jumped halfway up out of the water during this point and we were only a few feet away. This was my absolute favorite part of the trip! We then ate at this lodge and the food was great and so were the views. We ended our trip at the Glacier and I could of stayed there all day. We hiked nuggets fall trail and you end at a massive waterfall and very close view of the glacier! Sadly we could only stay about 15 minutes to enjoy the view because we had limited time. I really wish we could of enjoyed it more. I know everyone says the smaller boats are better and maybe we just got really lucky but I saw several smaller boats with the same amount of people we had and they looked cramped trying to see the whales so in my experience the larger boat was the much better choice.

Ketchikan-
Another great experience. We booked a private tour thru Alaska Coach and it was thru the city and POtlatch park. WE only spent 175.00 for all 5 of us and it was a three hour private tour. So worth it. Our guide was great and told amazing stories. My daughter was so interested in the whole tour and asked her a million questions and the guide was great with her. She knew the story of each totem at the park and we even got to talk to the master carver there. We walked in and he was carving. WE watched him carve for a while and then he just started talking to us. He explained all the tools to the kids, told them stories of all the totems he carved and gave them a wood chip off the one he was working on. It really was a once in a lifetime experience for our family! I highly recomend doing this cause the Potlatch park tour through Disney was WAY higher priced.

Everything else was wonderful. The kids enjoyed the kids club as always, counselors were so nice, activities on board were plentiful. We enjoyed the change up from the pirate party to the pixar party. It was nice seeing different characters on board then usual. I am so sad it is over but feel so blessed to have had this experience! If you have any questions please ask away =)

What time was the mixology class?

 

[sunryzez]

Mixology was at 4pm i believe.

 

[MommyMeNDisney]

We were on your cruise too!! I agree on Liarsville. We chose it because we have young kids (4, 8, and 11) and thought the character part would make it fun for them. But yeah, the panning for gold was disappointing.

I was considering it for the same reasons, but decided against it for our upcoming cruise.

 

[Magic2013]

We are doing the Alaska cruise in July 2016 so I'm starting the comb the DIS now I have a couple of questions that I haven't seen asked on any of the TR's I've read to date.

Can you see land most of the time your at sea?

Is the water rough on the cruise or whale watch?

 

[jtba]

We are doing the Alaska cruise in July 2016 so I'm starting the comb the DIS now I have a couple of questions that I haven't seen asked on any of the TR's I've read to date.

Can you see land most of the time your at sea?

Is the water rough on the cruise or whale watch?

jumping in and we just got off the wonder this past monday...

yes, we could see land most of the time. we had a port-side verandah and felt it was quite worth it because of that reason.

the water wasn't that rough on the wonder during the cruise. i felt the ship rock and sway a bit, yes, but as we all had sea bands on (we were newbies so didn't know what to expect) it didn't affect us at all. we stopped wearing them after day 2.

at juneau we had a private whale watching excursion thru harv & marv's on a smaller boat. didn't think the water was that bad, but DS complained he was feeling yucky after about half an hour. however, after we made him look out the window and eat some pretzels, he was quite chipper and did not complain again. he's not a roller coaster fan at all so that may have contributed to his brief bout of seasickness.