Our Alaskan Adventure-A WONDERful birthday trip! July 2015

[Disneybridewifemama]

Bare with me as I attempt my first trip report.
It's been almost a year since our trip and I am having major withdrawals, resulting in attempting to relive the trip by writing this report!

Our cast of characters:

Me: 30 Married my high school sweetheart at Disneyland in 2006, long time disney fanatic and fan of anything that involves seeing the world.

DH: 30 Never vacationed before meeting me and boy have I changed that! World’s best traveling partner and the best Daddy a little princess could ever ask for. Together we have logged over 50 days at sea together. Mostly Princess cruise line, one RCL and 2 DCL.

DD: 5-turns 6 on the trip! Luckiest birthday princess ever.

We are from CA and have too many to count Disneyland trips under our belt. My husband and I have been to Disney World pre baby. We took our daughter on our first disney cruise in February of 2014 . We used our 10% discount to book this trip.


A little back story on what inspired us to take a young child to Alaska-of all places-for a birthday trip. After seeing Disney Nature:Bears, our daughter became dead set on wanting to see bears. She wanted to see bears in nature and wanted to watch them catch fish! Then, after a little education after a trip to sea world, she proclaimed that she wanted to see orcas in their natural home.

Thus began the many many many attempts at talking us into visiting Alaska. I booked this trip on opening day of release and waited over a year to tell her that we were going! That was one HARD secret to keep!

Now, on to our amazing trip!

Day 1-

Flight LAX-Vancouver

We had originally planned to fly to seattle and explore for two days and then take the train to vancouver. But after finding a killer deal on a nonstop flight from LAX, I couldn’t pass it up. Non-stop flights with a small child are heaven sent!

Our first time flying Air Canada. Nice airline-odd carry on restrictions which lead to a near disastrous end to our magical trip. More on that later.

A very uneventful drive to Lax-quick check in-and before you knew it, we were buckled in and ready for the trip of a life time to start!

The flight was so much shorter than we are used to and we were all so excited to be in Canada! Bags retrieved and we hopped in a cab to our hotel-The Pan Pacific!

The hotel was beautiful and we happened to luck out with the nicest lady at check in who complimentary upgraded us to a room with a view that would make our birthday girl over the moon excited. My daughter discovered her first of many totem poles that she would see on this trip. She was amazed by it and continued to have a fascination with them for the rest of the trip.

We enjoyed watching the sea planes land in the water from our hotel room window while we waited for our bags to arrive. After some unpacking we decided to walk around and find somewhere to eat dinner. We stumbled upon Rogue kitchen and wet bar, right across the street from our hotel and had a delicious dinner of lobster mac and cheese and my husband enjoyed the local beer. This would become a trend in the trip

After dinner, we had to try out the worlds best gelato from Bellas. It was delicious and definitely worth the stop! And then it was off to bed to get some much needed rest for our full day of vancouver exploration.

 

[Disneybridewifemama]

Day 2: We woke up and again enjoyed watching the sea planes. My husband had run downstairs to the food court attached to the hotel and grabbed some breakfast for us. Then we got ready and headed out to see the sites. We considered renting bikes and riding around stanley park but decided to just walk around instead. Our first stop was to see the olympic cauldron. We then looked for the rest of the olympic memorabilia but didn’t end up finding it until the day we embarked on the ship. Up next was my daughter’s favorite part of canada-fly over canada. It was very similar to soaring over CA and we all enjoyed it.

Then we grabbed some lunch (subway) and headed back to the room to get our tickets to go to the capilano suspension bridge. We took the free shuttle there, loved that option! We had purchased our bridge tickets from the concierge at our hotel. The bridge was pretty amazing and I’m glad we had a chance to make it there. It was warmer than we expected and after that, we were ready to go back to the room and shower and get ready for dinner. Dinner was at Joe Forte’s, the concierge had recommended it. I would say this was the one negative on our time in Canada. We definitely felt we over paid for this dinner and the food was only so-so. If we were ever in Vancouver, I wouldn’t try this place again. But we made the best of it and enjoyed ourselves anyway. After dinner, we stopped by the liquor store to grab a few essentials for the cruise. If you’ve never tried peppermint schnapps in your hot chocolate-you’re missing out!

Then it was back to the room to shuffle the bags and get ready for embarkation day!!!

Mickey-Here we come!!!!

 

[wdwfan]

Can't wait to hear the rest! Thanks for posting!!

 

[Disneybridewifemama]

Day 3, Part 1: ALL ABOARD!

Every member of our family woke up overcome with excitement. Hugely in part to opening our hotel window to this view:


If you can, I highly recommend getting a room with this view!!

DH had run downstairs again to grab some quick breakfast and we enjoyed getting ready for the day while watching the crew practice on deck. We finished packing up our bags and called the bell man. I absolutely love that the pan pacific takes your bags from your hotel room directly to the ship for you! It was so so nice. I think that might be why I thought the entire embarkation process was so simple, no lugging heavy bags around! The Pan Pacific was pricey, but I found it to be worth every penny. The bell man also told us where to find the rest of the olympic memorabilia so we set off to go find them to kill the time we had before being able to check in.

This was very fun to see as my husband and I are big fans of the olympics. However, I think we were all distracted by our eagerness to get on the mickey boat! So we didn’t spend much time here and then we were headed to the ship! EEEEEK!

Easy check in (much less hectic than I had read about...loved how the cruise terminal is connected to the pan pacific, just one more reason to recommend this hotel!)a very minimal wait time and a few character photos later and then the moment we had been waiting for:

Disney Wonder, please welcome aboard the "M" Family!!

I’m pretty sure our cheeks all hurt from smiling so much, our magical vacation was officially underway!!

After stopping by guest services to pick up our character breakfast, princess and frozen meet and greet tickets and drop off our photo matte to be signed, we headed to the theatre to kill time before our room was ready and just happened to watch Disney Nature:Bears, the movie that inspired the trip! HOW PERFECT!! 1:30 approached and I left my husband and daughter in the theatre so I could go check out the room, make sure the frozen decorations that I ordered were up and to decorate our door!

To Be Continued...

 

[Disneybridewifemama]

Can't wait to hear the rest! Thanks for posting!!

Thanks for reading! It's my first trip report...hope it's not too boring lol

 

[saxmangeoff]

Thanks for reading! It's my first trip report...hope it's not too boring lol

Far from it!

 

[Disneybridewifemama]

Day 3, Part 2: Shortly after I had arrived in our room, the birthday princess and her Daddy opened our door to this magical surprise!!



Again, well worth every penny. The blanket alone was worth what we paid for this frozen decor package! She sleeps with it every night. I cannot tell you how comfy it is!! I wish I could have bought an extra one for me!!

We had opted for an inside room to be able to spend more on excursions. We had deck 5 aft, room 5133. I had some anxiety over this decision because everyone had kept telling me that I would regret not having a balcony. Post trip I can tell you that I definitely do NOT regret it one bit. More on that later…. But we enjoyed this room and the location so we have the same one booked for our 2017 cruise!

After some unpacking, we headed to open house at the kid's club and then the muster drill. DCL's muster drills seem so much less painful that RCL and PCL. I'm not sure why...they're just quicker I think. Shortly after that, it was time to head to the sailaway party!
We got a great spot up by the stage and our little dancer had a great time and we enjoyed watching her have so much fun.

Then it was time to get ready for dinner. Here comes princess dress #1 of the trip!


Our dining rotation was PTAPTAP so tonight’s dinner was in Parrot Cay. We met our wonderful dining team. I feel awful for not remembering our waiter’s name but it is probably because our asst. waiter made such an impression. Wonderful Annabella!!! She was so amazing and she was one of the many cast members that made our trip so wonderful!

I don't take a lot of food photos-or notes-which is probably a disappointment here. But I can tell you that our daughter enjoyed her first mickey bar of the trip for dessert that evening and then we watched the all aboard show and headed to bed since we had early character breakfast in the morning!

 

[saxmangeoff]

We had opted for an inside room to be able to spend more on excursions. We had deck 5 aft, room 5133. I had some anxiety over this decision because everyone had kept telling me that I would regret not having a balcony. Post trip I can tell you that I definitely do NOT regret it one bit. More on that later…. But we enjoyed this room and the location so we have the same one booked for our 2017 cruise!

I had an inside stateroom for my first Alaska cruise, and am doing the same for my 2nd next year as well. We pretty much only used the room for sleeping. Otherwise, we were out on deck.

 

[Laura1123]

Following along. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Disneybridewifemama]

Following along. Thanks for sharing!

Hi! Thanks for reading

 

[Disneybridewifemama]

I had an inside stateroom for my first Alaska cruise, and am doing the same for my 2nd next year as well. We pretty much only used the room for sleeping. Otherwise, we were out on deck.

Same here! We spent a lot of time relaxing on deck 4 or even using the portholes on Route 66! I spoke with a few people who had issues with their verandas and it made me happy to have an inside room. Plus, we had amazing excursions. I'm glad we spent the extra money on those.

 

[heaven2dc]

Joining in! The view from the room you stayed in at the Pan Pacific is perfect to get excited for the cruise! Your daughter is so adorable in her first princess dress Can't wait to read more about our trip!

 

[bcwife76]

Following!! We live in Vancouver and we are on the Wonder to Alaska in August 2017! Can't wait to read more!

 

[Disneybridewifemama]

Joining in! The view from the room you stayed in at the Pan Pacific is perfect to get excited for the cruise! Your daughter is so adorable in her first princess dress Can't wait to read more about our trip!

Hi! Welcome! Thanks for following along. The view totally made the stay in Vancouver! I am so incredibly grateful that we were lucky enough to be complimentary upgraded.

Thanks it's the first of MANY dresses of the trip, lol!

Following!! We live in Vancouver and we are on the Wonder to Alaska in August 2017! Can't wait to read more!

Hi there! Welcome! Alaska was the trip of a lifetime for us. I'm sure you will love your trip!

 

[Disneybridewifemama]

Day 4: Sea Day and character overload with special appearances by humpback whales!

Today was a character filled day starting with our character breakfast.

Mickey waffles, bacon and Disney characters make for one happy kid!

We met Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Pluto in their cruise attire, I was hoping they’d be in their Alaska gear, but no worries… we got those photos later in the trip!

After breakfast we set off to find the clue of the day in Anna’s chocolate scavenger hunt. We enjoyed doing this scavenger hunt as a family. And the sweet treat at the end was yummy!!

Then back to the room for costume change #1 of the day. Sofia meets Sofia…and Jake!

A quick change #2 and then we went to the princess gathering.Yes, I allowed my kid to run me ragged with multiple costume changes this day. But her love for characters and the excitement she gets over matching the characters is totally worth a gazillion costume changes! This is, after all, why paying extra for DCL is worth it for us! My husband and I figure that we only have so many years that she feels this way about the characters so we make sure to soak it up and enjoy it. I say, Let them be little! This is also something we experience at home. I often take Elsa to the grocery store, Mulan to the mall, Anna out to dinner, etc. So we knew our little princess would love a Disney cruise and I never thought twice about packing a whole suitcase full of princess dresses, shoes and accessories!

We enjoyed lunch in tritons after the princess gathering and after yet another costume change, we set off to explore the ship. We found our favorite spot, the porthole windows in route 66. Just in case you all wondered where Queen Elsa spends her summers…I found her…in Alaska!


I guess you can say that we were in the right place at the right time because not too long after we sat down, we spotted humpback whales!! We were all over the moon excited about this!!


My husband stayed there to continue to whale watch and DD and I went to our ticketed frozen meet and greet. This of course, was a big hit with my frozen obsessed princess. I love DCL character interactions. Nothing is ever rushed and the characters make the kids feel so special. Elsa’s "special friend” Danielle became a special part of making our trip so magical. More on that later.

After our meet and greet we went back to get DH and put some warmer clothes on and then we were off to play our first of many games of shuffleboard. Then we ran DD to the kids club and DH and I enjoyed the scenery on the deck chairs and not long after sitting out there we spotted MORE WHALES! My photos aren’t the best because I didn’t have my good lens and I was more about living in the moment than snapping photos. But this was such an amazing experience and it was just a small hint of the amazing wild life experiences we would encounter on this trip.

I made a quick stop at guest services to get a birthday button for our daughter. I was bummed when they said that they were out of them. But they gave me an “I’m celebrating” button and that would just have to do! My memory fails me on what we did for the rest of the afternoon. But up next is formal night and yes…more characters!

Dinner was in tritons tonight, perfect setting for formal night. We lucked out with a great dining rotation. We had some more character meets in their formal attire and then enjoyed the golden mickeys. Love that show!!

Then it was back to the room to tuck our 5 year old in to bed for the last time. In the morning, she would wake up and be SIX!