North To Alaska--May 3, 2011 on the Disney Wonder

[Robin"D"]

We just got home from the Panama Cruise. Taking the Wonder to the west coast was an inaugual cruise and Don "Ducky" Williams was on board. The litho was Miss Bianca and Bernard with the Wonder in the back ground. It is beautiful. I had a private sitting with Ducky for a character sketch and I asked him about the Alaska cruise. He told me the litho would have Mickey and Koda bear in it.

Very Cool

Robin & Angel "D"

 

[rotary2808]

thanks for sharing the information about Ducky doing a litho for the Alaska cruise. Hopefully he'll have the family drawing lesson too. DH and our oldest DD (then 6) did it on a PC cruise. DD was lucky enough to win one of Ducky's sketches. I really enjoyed the talk he did as well.

On Panama he did at least two presentations in the WDT. We went to the 2nd one and he gave away over 20 sketches. I won a Sorcerer Mickey a few years ago. Hopefully this time I'll be able to catch one of the private sessions. I never heard when they were booking them, no mention in the navigator so we completely missed out.

 

[kris3kid]

For those of you who would like to do a Glacier Flight Seeing trip without using Disney I have found a family business that I have read good reviews on. I will be doing the Bering Sea trip before and they are willing to pick me up at the dock and moved the flight time about a half an hour to when I was able to go. The company is Seawind Aviation. They have been awesome with helpful hints on things in the area. I am not going to Alaska till May 17th but thought for those that also want to do both they would work with you as well.

 

[Scoobydoo76]

For those of you who would like to do a Glacier Flight Seeing trip without using Disney I have found a family business that I have read good reviews on. I will be doing the Bering Sea trip before and they are willing to pick me up at the dock and moved the flight time about a half an hour to when I was able to go. The company is Seawind Aviation. They have been awesome with helpful hints on things in the area. I am not going to Alaska till May 17th but thought for those that also want to do both they would work with you as well.

After reading the sited post, I was wondering if anyone else plans on doing some sightseeing using private tour companies. Our family is cruising on the Wonder in July. We are huge Disney fans, but like to explore the ports on our own. Does anyone have any experience or suggestions of tour companies in Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway? If you are hiring a tour company I’d love to hear your review of them when you return.

 

[mmmears]

The time for this excursion is 12:15 to 3:45.

Thank you for looking it up for me! I really appreciate it. I know it will be freezing (I have no intention of going on this one, but my DH and DD want to try it).

After reading the sited post, I was wondering if anyone else plans on doing some sightseeing using private tour companies. Our family is cruising on the Wonder in July. We are huge Disney fans, but like to explore the ports on our own. Does anyone have any experience or suggestions of tour companies in Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway? If you are hiring a tour company I’d love to hear your review of them when you return.

I'm not going in May, but I just booked a trek on Mendenhall with Above & Beyond Alaska. They came highly recommended from 2 families that we know, then I did some reading on TA.

 

[ibouncetoo]

Just booked little sister on the leg of the B2B!

.

 

[figmentnnemo]

We were very lucky to win a poster size of Poo when we were on the DVC cruise a few years ago. I also tracked him down a long with Tony Baxter and they both signed a figment sketch. As my wife said, if the house is on fire, grab the hard-drive backup and the poo.

It is still odd... we have not received our cabin assignment. We booked it as a guarantee but still have no answer. I s anyone else in the same situation?

 

[rotary2808]

We were very lucky to win a poster size of Poo when we were on the DVC cruise a few years ago. I also tracked him down a long with Tony Baxter and they both signed a figment sketch. As my wife said, if the house is on fire, grab the hard-drive backup and the poo.

It is still odd... we have not received our cabin assignment. We booked it as a guarantee but still have no answer. I s anyone else in the same situation?

We did the PC cruise and had a GTY stateroom and we didn't have a room assignment until Nov. or Dec. Give it a little more time.

 

[LuvBaloo]

On Panama he did at least two presentations in the WDT. We went to the 2nd one and he gave away over 20 sketches. I won a Sorcerer Mickey a few years ago. Hopefully this time I'll be able to catch one of the private sessions. I never heard when they were booking them, no mention in the navigator so we completely missed out.

It was a sorceror Mickey that my DD won too (it was on the 2008 Panama Cruise). A friend was just on the Panama cruise and I was looking at her pictures of her private session. I think I would be too shy to keep a conversation going.

Just booked little sister on the leg of the B2B!

.

More Thieves!

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Um guys... I think I just read bad news for us.
We're past the paid in full date for this cruise- aren't we? I know I paid mine last year but I think the May 3rd cruise was one that had an "earlier than normal" paid in full date, right?

Well, I just read on mousesavers that they have kids sail free on Alaska cruises may 3-June.

I looked at DCL prices as well as my travel agents website and believe it or not- even WITHOUT the kids sail free at this point oceanview rooms are cheaper for triple than we paid for our inside room triple. (we have all inside rooms for 4/27 and 5/3... sideways cabins but still inside. One has 2 people in it, the other has 3)
And definitely with kids sail free making one of our kids free in the triple room- it would be cheaper for us to have an oceanview and just a little more for a verandah.

But we can't do anything now that paid in full date is passed... right?

THIS STINKS.
I haz a sad. This means I booked long time ago and still ended up paying more for an inside room than others for an oceanview and pretty close to what they paid for verandah.
Man I'm telling ya- sometimes booking early doesn't pay. (and I say that because on the last cruise- EBTA- I paid fuel surcharge and people who booked it closer to the sailing date did not pay fuel surcharge)

sigh

 

[Robin"D"]

Um guys... I think I just read bad news for us.
We're past the paid in full date for this cruise- aren't we? I know I paid mine last year but I think the May 3rd cruise was one that had an "earlier than normal" paid in full date, right?

Well, I just read on mousesavers that they have kids sail free on Alaska cruises may 3-June.

I looked at DCL prices as well as my travel agents website and believe it or not- even WITHOUT the kids sail free at this point oceanview rooms are cheaper for triple than we paid for our inside room triple. (we have all inside rooms for 4/27 and 5/3... sideways cabins but still inside. One has 2 people in it, the other has 3)
And definitely with kids sail free making one of our kids free in the triple room- it would be cheaper for us to have an oceanview and just a little more for a verandah.

But we can't do anything now that paid in full date is passed... right?

THIS STINKS.
I haz a sad. This means I booked long time ago and still ended up paying more for an inside room than others for an oceanview and pretty close to what they paid for verandah.
Man I'm telling ya- sometimes booking early doesn't pay. (and I say that because on the last cruise- EBTA- I paid fuel surcharge and people who booked it closer to the sailing date did not pay fuel surcharge)

sigh

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Yes it is very depressing.
I need to find out if our date has passed that we could cancel without penalty or not. If it has passed... this is a major bummer! (it means can't re-price the cruise and change since it's cheaper)

I'm just going to hold out hope that maybe it means upgrades- but most likely that WON'T happen to us since we have two rooms next to each other and the same rooms for each cruise. That means we're likely to not get upgrades. So we're gonna be stuck in inside cabins paying more than others in oceanview and maybe even verandahs or at least very close to the same amount. I wanna cry now.

 

[Robin"D"]

Yes it is very depressing.
I need to find out if our date has passed that we could cancel without penalty or not. If it has passed... this is a major bummer! (it means can't re-price the cruise and change since it's cheaper)

I'm just going to hold out hope that maybe it means upgrades- but most likely that WON'T happen to us since we have two rooms next to each other and the same rooms for each cruise. That means we're likely to not get upgrades. So we're gonna be stuck in inside cabins paying more than others in oceanview and maybe even verandahs or at least very close to the same amount. I wanna cry now.

for you.... &

 

[rotary2808]

It was a sorceror Mickey that my DD won too (it was on the 2008 Panama Cruise). A friend was just on the Panama cruise and I was looking at her pictures of her private session. I think I would be too shy to keep a conversation going.



More Thieves!

I'm scared I would have a hard time keeping the conversation going too.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

for you.... &

haha Yeah

aww, I'm not gonna worry about it.
With the disappearance of OBC if I switched- then it would cost just slightly more for oceanview.... so I'm okay with that. It's if they got their room CHEAPER than me, even counting OBC, that would have me bummed. LOL

we have sideways inside cabins- it'll be a new thing for us. Our first cruise we had SPH rooms and since then we've always had a verandah or cat 3 for one room with oceanview or inside for the other room. so I've SEEN inside cabins, I've been around in them (cleaning the kids rooms/etc. LOL and yes I clean a bit because they make it like a tornado hit the room and I won't put a stateroom host thru trying to figure out how to clean that LOL) and all that. I've just never SLEPT in one. and besides the first cruise haven't gone without a verandah.

But I think I'll survive. LOL
for now I think what we're gonna do is keep our rooms linked just long enough to make it easier to book excursions for all 5 of us, then call our TA and "unlink" the rooms (but keep dining together) THEN maybe if any pixiedust upgrades happen... we'll be more likely to get one being the rooms aren't linked. I mean I know it can happen to both rooms- one time we had cat 12 rooms linked and they both were upgraded to deck 2 oceanview rooms (and then we upgraded at port one of the rooms to cat 3 LOL) but it's less likely because if they can only pixiedust upgrade ONE room- they'll pass us by if we have two rooms linked. I mean especially because we have 2 rooms linked, same rooms both cruises right next to one another. I would imagine they'd steer clear of messing with upgrades for them unless they could do both near one another- like they did with our cat 12's and upgraded them to oceanview next to each other. Yanno?

And then-after we've unlinked the rooms- we'll see what happens if one of the rooms gets upgraded for free.
and if that doesn't happen then MAYBE since this cruise apparently isn't full yet- and maybe won't be even after KSF.... we'll see what it costs to upgrade at the port. I mean we upgraded from cat 12 price (even though we were upgraded to 9) to cat 3 for the same cost it would cost for us to upgrade from 11b to navigator's verandah right now! so it's definitely better price if able to upgrade at port. LOL

May must be a hard month for them to fill and being in Alaska probably doesn't help (flight cost to/from Vancouver) I mean May 2009 is the only time we've ever taken a "short notice" cruise (ie: didn't book at least a year in advance- usually closer to 2yrs in advance/soon as dates are available for that cruise) because the prices dropped and we couldn't pass it up. Now it's May 2011- seems like the same situation happening again. I'm sure it's because of school- and then add on Vancouver flight costs.... they gotta work to fill up the ship.

 

[gydell]

Um guys... I think I just read bad news for us.
We're past the paid in full date for this cruise- aren't we? I know I paid mine last year but I think the May 3rd cruise was one that had an "earlier than normal" paid in full date, right?

Well, I just read on mousesavers that they have kids sail free on Alaska cruises may 3-June.

I looked at DCL prices as well as my travel agents website and believe it or not- even WITHOUT the kids sail free at this point oceanview rooms are cheaper for triple than we paid for our inside room triple. (we have all inside rooms for 4/27 and 5/3... sideways cabins but still inside. One has 2 people in it, the other has 3)
And definitely with kids sail free making one of our kids free in the triple room- it would be cheaper for us to have an oceanview and just a little more for a verandah.

But we can't do anything now that paid in full date is passed... right?

THIS STINKS.
I haz a sad. This means I booked long time ago and still ended up paying more for an inside room than others for an oceanview and pretty close to what they paid for verandah.
Man I'm telling ya- sometimes booking early doesn't pay. (and I say that because on the last cruise- EBTA- I paid fuel surcharge and people who booked it closer to the sailing date did not pay fuel surcharge)

sigh

Even with the fee to cancel we kept our same room and saved $600. Check and see because you might be able to get an outside room cheaper than your inside one.

 

[zakerdog]

Is there a list for FE's for the Alaska portion of the cruise. I saw one for the repo but nothing for Vancouver to Alaska. I would like to be added to the list if there is one.

 

[LuvBaloo]

Ken (MouseFaninQ) is just looking to see if we'd be better off re-booking our Alaska portion. Not too sure how it would work with the OBC we have. If it looks close on-line, I might have to call tomorrow.


and I don't think there's a fish extender list for the Alaska cruise.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Wait what? We don't have a fish extender list for this cruise?!?

Even with the fee to cancel we kept our same room and saved $600. Check and see because you might be able to get an outside room cheaper than your inside one.

Yes I updated with another post.
I checked- it would be a few hundred more (considering we booked the day the dates came out, with 10% discount and also taking into consideration the OBC) for an oceanview. To me the oceanview vs. sideways cabin next to our kids room is not worth paying MORE. (not that having a room right next to them is high on priority list. We've stayed on different decks before LOL)

To move up to verandah- losing our 10% and OBC (as well as our lower price for booking the day the dates opened) is quite a huge jump in price for us as well.

So what we're going to do is keep the inside rooms, book our excursions while linked since it makes it easier instead of jumping back and forth thru both reservations for us to do all the same excursions, and then call and unlink our rooms (with still staying together for dining.) Then we'll have a better chance that maybe one room will be upgraded free. And if not, then with DCL offering discounts to fill the ship- there's a chance we can upgrade at the port for less money. we cruised once before in May 09 jumping in on a cruise like this one- one that they lowered the prices to fill the ship- and then upgraded from cat 12 to cat 3 suite, at the port, for less than it would cost us now to upgrade from 11B to verandah! LOL So we'll just see what happens. I'm okay with at least knowing that someone (at least at the moment...) cannot book an oceanview for less than we're paying for inside when 10% discount and OBC is considered. That would have bothered me. LOL You know- like it wasn't really an incentive to rebook onboard and transfer the date to this cruise the day the dates became available, yanno?

BUT -just FYI... our TA told us that had we switched to an oceanview or verandah- thus losing our OBC/10% discount, that we could just book like it was a new room.... keep our OBC/10% on this ressie and just transfer it to another far off date (just like a dummy date when you rebook onboard) and then have that lingering waiting to move forward to another date in the future... exactly like we do when we rebook onboard with dummy dates. So at least it wouldn't have been completely lost- it just wouldn't be used on THIS cruise. just thought I'd share that in case anyone thinks they must transfer their dates and lose the OBC/10% discount completely.

 

[LuvBaloo]

Just got a $1578 refund on this cruise. DH & I are in an inside room with our two DD's and inlaws are across the hall in a verandah room. I called Disney and was able to move the kids over to the inlaws room. Now that refund will be nice to pay off the LA-repo cruise and start paying for excursions.


Thanks bibbidibobbidi! Your post got me thinking about it and it was definitely worth an hour on the phone to get the information and do it.