It feels good to be getting back to reliving our experience!! Thank you to everyone who has been following and responding. Also to those who suggested we contact Disney about the excursion issue. I have told my mom to and she said she has typed up an email but hasn't sent it yet.
: who knows why, but I will be sure she sends it right away. It can't hurt to let them know.
Today was our only really rainy day of the whole trip. We expected it to be as I had read it has a nickname of being the rain capital of the USA. It is in the rainforest afterall....
We started our day with our character breakfast. It was at 8:00 as we have early dining. Oh boy....that is just way to early to wake 4 kids ups and be ready to head to breakfast. I told our server we wouldn't make it but we would try. He said to come at any time, as the characters make their rounds and we would get to see some at least.
Well, the kids decided to wake up early. By early I mean they were awake at 7:45 (they wake around 6:30 at home). I decided to pack up and take the older 3 kids to the breakfast since we were up and my husband would want to sleep longer. So we hurried our way to Parrot Cay. Getting there around 8:15 (late again). I don't think our server was too happy to see us...
As soon as we sat down Minnie came by. I should have just told her to move on. It was SO rushed. I thought character meals at the park were bad. This was way worse!! She barely stopped to take a photo.
Our head server took our breakfast order. My husband was on his way to join us, so I had to guess what to order him. Even our server was rushing. I completely understand as I know they have the second seating right after us, but wow...it was complete chaos in there. Characters would stop for a quick picture and we only needed an autograph from Mickey in the kids books, so I had them laid out and open. He still signed upside down.
My advice to you would be make sure you have your kids or yourself positioned how you want pictures taken as they don't even give you a chance to move for pictures. We did not even get one picture taken with the characters and the baby because she was on the other side of the table from the other kids and there was definitely no time to move her for pictures. It seems to me if they are going to do it this way, they just shouldn't bother. Even my kids asked if we could leave early. We were the last ones in the restaurant and one of the first ones out. It wasn't because we were late either, as the character we did miss did not double back to us. The characters were the same at every other table.
Since we weren't docking in Ketchikan until 11:45 and the only thing we had planned there was the lumberjack show, we sent the kids to the kids lab and wandered the ships with my parents and the two youngest kids. This is when I bought my photo cd, with no line ups so it was a very peaceful process.
Despite what some people have said, they were handing out Disney rain ponchos in the lobby right before we docked and for a little while after we were docked. They were free and they had kids ones and adult ones.
By the time we got off the boat around 1:30 they had taken down the table but people were still getting them from guest services when asking for them.
As we were about to get off the boat (with my parents) my dad looked at the off ramp and said there was no WAY he was getting off. It was raining and the ramp was very steep. I wish I had taken a picture but all I have is this one. If you look to the right you can see the ramp. It doesn't look so bad, but from the top looking down it is very steep.
I knew after missing their excursion in Juneau that I had to somehow convince them to attempt getting off. After much persuasion, my dad was willing to try. He was most afraid of losing control and pummeling off the side. I would say it was a valid concern...
The staff was very helpful. The ramp was very narrow so I stood at the bottom asking people not to come up as my dad was coming down. They had a covered walkway at the bottom so people weren't getting wet. Of course some people insisted on coming anyways, but it worked out as we tiptoed around each other and them around my dad. Two tiny men helped my dad down the ramp (I don't think they really needed to help as my dad was in his electric chair, but it really was comforting to my dad and I was grateful).
Success! He was off the boat!! What a relief! I knew he needed to get off that ship and I was so glad he tried.
My parents bought their lumberjack tickets from the cruise ship. I bought ours directly from the show as it saved us enough $ to make it worth it. They ended up refunding my parents lumberjack tickets because of Juneau's scuffle, so I was glad they bought theirs through the ship. The walk to the show was only a couple of minutes. I was able to pick my tickets up from the gift shop without any issues at all.
It is a pretty small store and they had us line up in the shop before they opened the doors to get into the seating for the show. It worked, but it was cramped. Once we were let in, we were able to pick any seats we wanted. Unfortunately the stadium seats did not accommodate wheelchairs and my parents section was off to the side. There isn't a bad seat in the house but I knew my kids wanted to volunteer in the show and I was certain they wouldn't have been picked if we sat with my parents. So we did not sit with them.
Good news is, they did pick my son for one of the challenges. He had fun doing it and got a free wooden souvenir ax for doing it.
They had some adult volunteers at the end of the show and it was hilarious to watch. There was a lovely family from Arizona that we had ran into a few times on the cruise and they were in our fish extender group. We sat right by them for the show and it was great chatting with them. She was also one of the adult volunteers and she was a riot.
It was a good show to watch. I really did enjoy it and so did the kids. The seating was covered and heated, so it was very comfortable.
After the show my daughter and I wandered town and my husband went back on the boat with my son. (We had left the two little ones on the boat because of the rain
)
My daughter and I wandered town a little before finding the shuttle to Walmart. I had to go to Walmart as there were things I desperately needed that I had no success finding elsewhere and I knew Walmart would have them. The shuttle was full of cruise ship workers and it appeared that they bought all their essentials at Walmart. What a great service for them. The shuttle driver was NOT friendly and did not answer any questions I had. I did get that the shuttle comes every 15 minutes out of him. We were quick in Walmart and caught a shuttle back to town right away.
Once back in town we wandered a bit. It had cleared up and was beautiful outside. We window shopped in so many of the stores. There was some beautiful and unique items in the stores here. I thought Ketchikan had the best shopping. It was so quaint and very cute. I really quite enjoyed Ketchikan. There was a really neat Christmas store which was a lot of fun.
This was another day I wished we had late dining. We had to hurry our way back on the ship so we could make it for dinner. We barely made it, but I think we were actually on time!! Tonight was the taste of Alaska menu and I thought it was the best menu. I got the elk and it was delicious.
Our baby definitely enjoyed her dinner, despite how much landed on her face.
Instead of going to the show I wanted to tidy and pack up our room a bit. I really wanted to go to the show, but I wanted to go to Dreams the next day even more, so we opted out. The kids went to the kids club and we went to the room to organize a bit. It was very rocky on this night and it started making me feel ill, so I retired to bed very early as I felt awful.
I loved Ketchikan. I wish we had more time there and it is a place I would like to visit again and see what else the town has to offer.
I was hoping that one of our neighbors would be willing to switch with us. Finally around 2:30 our first neighbor showed up. I proposed my plan and found out that he had another stateroom on the other side of the boat and was planning on staying there anyways, so he was so kind and was more than willing to switch us!!!!
In the end we had 2 connecting staterooms and it made our cruise that much more magical!!
. The lumberjack show was a fun experience and the "log chair" I won at musical chairs has arrived and is sitting on our back patio. You have a beautiful family and we are glad you also enjoyed your vacation. Thanks for sharing your memories with all of us.
