May 10-17 Alaskan Adventure

[Lilbunnyk]

I decided to start writing this trip report because I am on a 24 hour train ride back home and have lots of time to reflect on our trip. *

About us:
Me- Kathy
DH- James
our "kids" Aries; 12 year old yellow lab, Romeo; 8 year old Boston terrier, Samson and Delilah the cats, Aurora, Raider and Spirit the bunnies, Rocky the chinchilla and Heaven the horse.
Married for 5 1/2 years, together for 12 1/2 years. *We both love animals, nature and traveling. *Oh and of course Disney! **We live in the San Francisco south bay area right outside of San Jose. *Go Sharks! * We started planning this trip in September of 2009 as soon as we heard that DCL was going to Alaska. *We have always wanted to see Alaska and what better way to do it then on a Disney ship! *

 

[Lilbunnyk]

I was so excited that The Wonder was at pier 35 today just 45 minutes from our house. *Since our "kids" can't come on vacation with us, I took the dogs out to the pier to show them the ship. *We had lots of fun and the weather was beautiful!

 

[Lilbunnyk]

Today we flew from San Francisco into Vancouver on WestJet. *It was a quick 1 hr 45 minute flight. *At the Vancouver airport we rented a car and were upgraded so we ended up with a Chevy Impala. *We first drove to Richmond, just south of Vancouver and went grocery shopping at the great Canadian Superstore. * *Since this trip was so expensive we decided to save money by cooking our own meals before the cruise. *After getting groceries we found our hotel in downtown Vancouver. *Our hotel was The Century Plaza. *Our room looked like it used to be an apartment at some point. *It was not very fancy but had lots of space and was comfortable. *

Mickey and Minnie on our hotel balcony.

 

[Toria]

Cute how "the kids" are sitting there!

 

[Lilbunnyk]

We started out the day by driving to see the Olympic inukshuk which was the symbol for the 2010 winter games. *We got some pictures and then took a walk on the beach next to the inukshuk.

Inukshuk
Next we headed to Stanley Park and found a place to park. *We walked around most of the perimeter and some of the trails inside the park. *This took a couple of hours. *We saw lots of wildlife including Canada Geese and babies, raccoons, squirrels, bald eagles, great blue heron, and varies other birds. Stanley Park was great, did not cost anything and has lots of great views all around.

Great blue heron in Stanley park

From Stanley Park we drove to the Capilano suspension bridge. *The drive took about 15 minutes and was easy to find. *Admission was a little pricey at $60 for two adults with AAA discount. *The suspension bridge is very fun and a bit scary to cross, it moves a lot! *On the other side of the bridge we walked around a wooden path in a forest and crossed several other smaller suspension bridges. *Overall we had fun here and I would do it again. *From there we went to Grouse Mountain and took the gondola up to the top. *This cost us $84 with AAA discount for two adults and was not worth it. *Once on top it was too cloudy to see anything, the ice skating ring was closed, the sleigh rides were closed and the resident bears were still in hibernation. *Basically all we did was watch two short documentaries in the theater. *We wanted to see the resident wolf pack and found out that there enclosure is located right in the parking lot at the base so we headed back down. *We looked for the wolves but they must have been far inside the enclosure so we did not see any of them. *We headed back to our hotel for the night.

 

[Lilbunnyk]

One of the things we really wanted to see on this trip was orcas. *We have been whale watching many times and seen many different types of whales from around the world but never orcas. *I did some research and found that we would most likely be able to see them off the San Juan Islands. *I booked a day trip through Vancouver Whale Watch which leaves out of Richmond and goes to the San Juan islands to look for orcas. *We drove ourselves to Richmond in the morning and got on a big zodiac boat. *It seated about 40 passengers and was enclosed but the windows opened completely so we were able to see well. *We went out and passed a rocky area and we must have seen a couple dozen bald eagles sitting by the water. *I have never seen a bald eagle in the wild before yesterday so I was very excited to see so many. *We also saw some California sea lions hanging out on the rocks. *We sailed out past Victoria and to the San Juan Islands. *We were very excited to find a pod of transient orcas and watched them for a while. *On our way back we saw some stellar seal lions and wild deer. *It was a great day!

Here I am at the pier. I don't have any pictures of the whales because I was taking video instead of photos.

 

[Evette]

Looking forward to reading the rest of your Trip Report, our Alaskan cruise is in just 18 days!

 

[Lilbunnyk]

We woke up at 5:30 Am and headed out to Stanley Park to greet the Disney Wonder coming into Vancouver. *We waited for about an hour and then we saw her coming in from far away. *It was so exciting to see her get closer and closer. *We waved to the passengers and some of them waved back.

The Wonder coming into port
We then headed back to our hotel to pack and get to the cruise terminal to board. *We left at about 11AM since we had a 11:30-12 port arrival time. It took us an hour to find a gas station to fill up the rental car an then to find where we are supposed to drop it off at the terminal. *It was about 12:30 when we got to the terminal and there was a huge line to get through security and customs. *It took about 40 minutes to get through. *Once through we were given a boarding card with number 20 and told to take a seat in the waiting area. *A CM told us to ignore the boarding card because she would let us know when we should head*towards the check in area. *Some people were getting upset because they were waiting for a while and other people that just arrived were already directed to check in. *It was a bit chaotic and unorganized but James and I are patient so we just relaxed and watched the chaos until we were directed to check in about 20 minutes later. *Once we got to the check in area there was another huge line but James noticed that there was a castaway club line on the other side of the huge line so we headed there since we are castaway club members. *This line took about 15 minutes. *We heard that the computers were running slow so check in was taking longer. *Once we got to the check in counter it took about 10 minutes to check us in, the computer was running very slow. *Finally we were on our way to board! *When our KTTW card was swiped it took that computer at least 5 minutes to read our cards! *We got on board at 2 PM. *We had lunch at beach blanket then headed to our room #2608 ocean view. *There was an announcement made that everyone would get a free glass of wine or smoothie at dinner due to the long boarding times. *We went to the sail away party and watched Vancouver and Stanley Park as we sailed out. *

The luggage sniffing dogs lined up with their trainers and watched us sail away. It made me miss my babies at home!

James as we sail away from Vancouver, beautiful views!

 

[Lilbunnyk]

We had booked dinner for Palo because it was James' birthday today. *Our reservation was for 8:30 PM so we went to watch the all aboard show in The Walt Disney Theater before dinner. *After dinner we headed for Palo and got Tony as our server. *Palo was very empty tonight. *Tony said there was a lot if first time cruisers on this sailing so they probably didn't know about Palo yet. *He said the week before was mostly veteran sailers so Palo was packed every night. *We are vegetarian but always find delicious options at Palo. *The mushroom polenta appetizer is my favorite, and it looks like ice cream!

*We were each given a complementary drink of the day instead of the free glass of wine for the boarding issues. *We are not big drinkers but enjoyed these drinks. *For dinner I had the potato gnocchi and James had the mushroom risotto. *We also shared a margarita pizza and finished with chocolate soufflés for dessert. *Then we were stuffed so headed back to our room for bed.

 

[Lilbunnyk]

We headed up the inside passage and it was smooth, beautiful sailing. *We heard that the previous sailing went through the outside passage and that they had rough waters. *This morning we had character breakfast at 8:30. *Our server was Bruno from India and assistant server was Svetlana from Serbia, they were both wonderful. *The head server was Witt and he was very friendly.* *We also met our table mates, There were three guys traveling together from Atlanta and a couple from Holland. Everyone was about the same age and we all got along great. *The three guys also had Palo the previous night so everyone met this morning for the first time. *We have been on 4 previous Disney cruises but this was our first character breakfast. *It was a lot of fun and we got pictures with Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Chip and Dale.

We mostly watched scenery today on deck 9. *They had blankets out so we bundled up and stayed warm. We had a spa villa appointment at 3:30. We arrived at the Vista Spa and got into our robes and were told to wait for someone to get us from our respective waiting areas in the changing rooms. After waiting for about 10 minutes we were told that the hot tub of our villa was broken and they were trying to fix it so we could go to the rainforest room to wait. We relaxed in the sauna and on the tile lounges for about 30 minutes and then were told that they would not be able to fix the hot tub today but we could get a complementary couples massage and come back the next day for the villa at 4 pm. We were a little worried because Tracy Arms was the next day and did not want to miss anything. Our massage therapist to,d us we would have great seats from the hot tub to see the glacier so we went ahead and go our free couples massage and rebooked the villa for the next day. *After the spa The golden mickeys were on which I watched on my own because James said he has seen it too many times! *I still enjoy it though. *After the show we got dressed up for formal night and and took pictures with Mickey and Minnie. *

 

[Lilbunnyk]

Looking forward to reading the rest of your Trip Report, our Alaskan cruise is in just 18 days!

Thanks for reading! I'm sure you are excited for your trip, you are going to have a blast! I hope to finish a lot of this trip report on the train home.

 

[Lilbunnyk]

Cute how "the kids" are sitting there!

They love to have there picture taken!

 

[pmotto2222]

Enjoyed reading your trip report!

 

[Lilbunnyk]

Enjoyed reading your trip report!

Thanks! There is more coming.

 

[Lilbunnyk]

The night before we found a brand new digital clock in our stateroom and a note *to turn our clocks back one hour for Alaska. *We were also told that we won't get to Tracy Arms until about 1 pm so we had plenty of time in the morning to do whatever. *We went to a naturalist talk about the Chilkhoot trail and Yukon which was very interesting. *I played a round of Bingo but did not win anything. *For lunch we went to the BBQ but the only vegetarian item we found was a baked potato, so we had that for lunch and then changed into warner clothes since it was misting as we entered Tracy Arms.

Minnie also had her warm clothes on!

It was very cold and raining off and on so most people were behind the glass. *James and I and a couple more brave people stood at the front of the ship and got soaked! *After about 1 hour I had to go back to the room to dry off and change my clothes. *I watched from our stateroom window and saw many icebergs float by. *I could hear them scrape the front of the ship as we ran into them! *

From our stateroom window.
I went back up in about 40 minutes and the weather was much nicer. *There were many people now at the front so I had to squeeze my way in. *I watched as we approached the glacier and then I had to leave for our spa villa appointment. *

This time everything was working and when we got to the villa we were right by the glacier! *They had the sliding glass closed so we asked them to open it so we could watch the scenery. *It was freezing cold sitting outside in our robes but worth it! *When we were in the hot tub we passed the glacier and it was awesome, we could not take our eyes off. *After we passed the glacier, our hot tub time was up so we went inside for our treatments. *I had the hot stone massage and James had the seaweed wrap with massage. *We both enjoyed the treatments and afterwards got to sit out on the patio and drink tea while we watched the scenery. *This was an awesome experience, it couldn't have been any better. *

View from our hot tub

We had dinner at Parrot Key and shared our experiences of the day with our table mates. *Everyone had an amazing day. *

 

[Elfinjojo]

wow! what a great TR so far, and loving the pictures. We sail in August and I am so excited about the scenery! Not so sure about the iceburgs scraping on the side of the ship - as it is every time we sail and do the muster drill my DH just has to sing the titanic theme tune to me

What a great way to see Tracey Arm - from a hot tub - hmm may have to think about that!!

Looking forward to the rest of the TR

subbing

 

[Lilbunnyk]

wow! what a great TR so far, and loving the pictures. We sail in August and I am so excited about the scenery! Not so sure about the iceburgs scraping on the side of the ship - as it is every time we sail and do the muster drill my DH just has to sing the titanic theme tune to me

What a great way to see Tracey Arm - from a hot tub - hmm may have to think about that!!

Looking forward to the rest of the TR

subbing

The scraping icebergs were a bit scary but I could only hear them from my room on deck 2. I also had visions of Titanic in my head but soon forgot about it and got lost in the scenery! Have fun on your trip in August!

 

[Lilbunnyk]

We woke up to find that James' camera had become too wet from being outside yesterday and now was not working so we left it behind hoping it would be working by the time we got back. *We had booked the glacier explore by helicopter excursion for today. *Our meeting area was the Walt Disney theatre at 9:30 AM. *We left from there to board a shuttle outside the boat. *When we were in the shuttle I realized that I had left my camera in the theatre so now we had no cameras! *We got to the helicopter area which is just around the corner and we had to watch a safety video about the helicopter. *Then we were fitted with glacier boots and life jacket vests. *Everyone was assigned a spot in one of three helicopters according to weight so they could balance the helicopters. *I got to sit up front right next to the pilot and James was next to me. *The helicopter ride was super fun and we had beautiful scenery. *We had headsets on and the pilot explained everything we were looking at. *We landed on Mead glacier and had to wait for the helicopter to power off before getting out. Then the pilot took us on a walk and showed us a bunch of cool stuff like running water, crevasses, and ponds. *It was all very beautiful and so peaceful. *We then took our helicopter back to the area we started and flew over The Wonder! Then we took the shuttle back to the boat. *I went in to look for my camera but could not find it and guest services did not have it so I filled out a lost item form. *We walked to town after that, it's only about 2 minutes from the boat. *The town is very small and it does not take long to walk down the main road. *It is very cute and looks like a set from a western movie. *Most of the stores are jewelry stores with only a few souvenir shops. *After walking around town we went back to the boat. *The show tonight was Toy Story which we both watched and then dinner was at Tritons. *I went to lost and found after dinner and someone had turned in my camera! *Too bad I didn't get any pictures of today but at least I had my camera back.

 

[Lilbunnyk]

Today we had booked the Mendenhall glacier and whale quest excursion and had to meet in the Walt Disney theatre at 8:15 am. *We boarded a bus and drove to a dock about 30 minutes away to get on the whale watching boat. *The boat was a double decker and they put 110 people on it. *This was a bit too much for a whale watching trip. *On previous whale watching trips I have always been on smaller boats so did not like this one very much. *We all got binoculars and a naturalist came on the load speaker to talk about wildlife and point out animals to us. *We saw a pod of resident orcas but they were too far away to get any good pictures, I mostly watched through the binoculars. *We then saw a group of stellar sea lions up on rocks. *They make a very interesting noise, not at all like a California sea lion. *We then saw some humpbacks but again were too far away to get any good pictures. *One did pop up right next to the boat for a sec but then swam away. *The naturalist said that they are just now coming back from migration so there should be a lot more in the next few weeks. *The weather was gorgeous today and I enjoyed the boat ride but wish we would have been on smaller boats with less people.

We then took a bus to the Mendenhall glacier and were told to be back on the bus in 45 minutes. *There is a trail to the glacier that takes about 40 minutes round trip so we decided to power walk it. *Along the trail we came across a mom black bear and three cubs! *They were on the trail at first but then wondered into the bushes as they ate plants. *They did not mind us watching them. *Since we had limited time we hurried over to the glacier got a few pictures and power walked back to the bus right in time. *I really enjoyed the glacier but 45 minutes was not enough time, we did not even have time to see the visitors center.

Once back to the boat we relaxed f or a bit then when went to see Disney Nature Big Cats movie in the Walt Disney theatre. *We both loved the movie. *Tonight was pirates night but we did not feel the theme really fit with Alaska. Dinner was at Animators but was not the pirates menu, it was the regular show menu. *After dinner we did not go to the deck party but watched Secretariat in the Buena Vista theatre instead.

 

[MassDisLovers]

Great trip report - love the pictures!