Questions for early Alaskan cruisers!

[Lollipop's Mom]

I am just curious about a few things, like which morning the character breakfast is on, what movies were playing, etc... I know they will change on our cruise, but I love to see what we have to look forward to!

 

[Mimi1975]

I like to see teh Navigators as it helps me plan around activities I don't want to miss. For example, I would hate to book Palo while a one time only event was happening on board. A little pre-planning goes a long way for my family.

Agree, for family with kids, Navigators please

 

[Anjelica]

Agree, for family with kids, Navigators please

THIS!!!! If it was just husband and I - well we would be fine to look at the Navigators the night before and be able to absorb them. We have a 7 and 4 year old so getting anything done let alone quiet time to read is a miracle in themselves....hehehehehe

 

[plyeng2ff]

Please add to the questions on first page. Is Disney selling DCL Alaskan Beach or Bath Towel? If so how much are the towel.



Thanks,
Arthur

 

[staffieri]

PLEASE ADD TO QUESTIONS
What days were the Character breakfast?
What are the times of the meals early/late?

 

[Makayna]

For those who haven't seen them yet, navigators are here.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

That seems true for us -- DCL has us on a noon flight out of Vancouver. I hope we make it!

You should be okay.
They stressed on the paperwork and signs and announcements that if you have flights prior to 12:30 - come talk to them so you can be dealt with accordingly I suppose. LOL

our flight was going out 1pm. No special treatment for us and we didn't want to carry our luggage off. We had the fourth color/character tag called- got off the ship about 9:25am soon as they called it. HUGE lines to get outta there... got our luggage, carried it ourself, went to the shuttle desk, paid, waited 10min for shuttle, drove over to airport, and we even had to go thru the long line because the night before when I'd tried to check in online I used 18 of my precious ship internet mins trying to check in online and it kept saying my passport number was incorrect and after the 3rd try it locked us out from checking in online!
Anyway- point is we had to wait in the huge long line and up until we almost got to the front of the line AA had only ONE person at the register for us "not checked in online" peeps.... no line at all for the checked in online peeps. Checked luggage, carried our checked luggage to put on the ramp thing, went thru security, went thru several other lines where they checked our boarding passes like every 5 feet (I'm not exaggerating. I'm really not) and then thru customs, and then the long walk to the furthest terminal (again not exaggerating- literally at the end. E79) and we got there at 11:30..... our flight was supposed to start boarding at 12:15 but didn't until 12:40 for some reason.

Anyway my point is that it took HOURS- and we still made it in time to catch a noon flight if we'd had to... and DCL does something to help those with flights prior to 12:30. I'm not sure what it is- I just know they had in the literature and stuff saying to talk to them at guest services if your flight was before 12:30 so I assume they expedited the disembarkation (debarkation? LOL) process for those folks. No worries.

 

[smb6]

We also have an 11:30am flight. I'm not too worried about it.... It is all that was available. We booked DCL transfers and I do plan to get off the ship as quickly as possible though...

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

addendum to my post above:

You will be just fine with your 11:30am flight. My flight was noon and I had ample time. If you did the on line check in and noted your flight times, DCL will send to your stateroom the day before you debark an information sheet along with special luggage tags. We had to meet on the morning of debarkation in the Walt Theater at 7:30am. Your only choice for breakfast is Beach Blanket. Once off the ship, we went thought Canadian Customs and right after that our luggage with the special tags was right there waiting for us. We grabbed our luggage and a FREE luggage cart (it's knid of a long walk) and proceeded to the line to board the DCL buses. There are plenty of DCL reps. in the terminal who will guide you along. I think the DCL cost of the bus was $25 per person.

This is apparently what they do for those with flights before 12:30.
And we used vancouver shuttle for $14 pp, $10 per child. Only took moments to pay and within 10min we were on the shuttle and on our way.

I've seen people asking about lobster, but _I_ want to know if Alaskan King Crab will be available. I've been dreaming of it!

There was an alaska themed night and had alaska king crab.

My family is driving to Vancouver together, but my daughter and I will fly back at 11:59 a.m. the day the cruise disembarks. My plan was to leave all the luggage with my husband so we can avoid that hassle and hightail it to the airport, but my worry is that I'll be leaving him with an even bigger hassle. We've got reservations to park at CanadaPlace; are there luggage carts to assist with getting all the luggage from the ship to the car?

there are free luggage carts but the signs say they must stay in the terminal so they can't be used to take luggage to vehicles. From the place we got our luggage to where we'd have to get out of the terminal was such a short distance anyway- we didn't bother with the luggage carts... but then we had 5 ppl to pull luggage, not just ONE person like you're describing. See previous posts about flights out before 12:30 and how DCL handles it. They don't make you wait for luggage tag color/character called like everyone else.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Actually there have been a few posts (I think on this thread) by people on board. But only 1 or 2.
With that said, I personally think these first cruisers should have been on here every night answering our questions; don't they know we have high expectations of these inagural (sp?) cruisers They should be getting home soon and I want answers!!! LOL... but seriously

LOL
well the onboard internet was sloooowwwww
And IDK about everyone else but AT&T connection in alaska ports was weird! Well first off I didn't expect absolutely no connection if you left anywhere from the port on excursions and such. Guess I didn't count on the mountains blocking it. LOL The only excursion ours still worked was on the whale watching one out in the water BUT what was weird is the AT&T connection I had worked fine for text and phone calls- but wouldn't load websites, gmail or facebook.... it would pop up on my iphone saying data cellular network could not be accessed. And I had 5 bars! Weirdness indeed.
Canadian connection on the way there and on the way back (rogers) worked well- but I only paid for the intl text pkg... not for the intl data pkg which ran $19.95 per mb. NO thanks to that. LOL

 

[MagicMe]

addendum to my post above:
This is apparently what they do for those with flights before 12:30.
And we used vancouver shuttle for $14 pp, $10 per child. Only took moments to pay and within 10min we were on the shuttle and on our way.

So you didn't take the DCL transfer but a shuttle? Are these just outside the port terminal? Did you need to book ahead of time? How many on a shuttle? We have seven people that will need to hightail it off quickly and get to the airport. thanks.

 

[wdhinn89]

I spoke on the phone with one of the Alaskan fishing charter captains and he said Verizon had the best cell phone service. He is able to get a signal 10 miles off shore. Other companies are very spotty .

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

High summer in Alaska is not that cold!!!! When I went on an Alaska cruise in late July, I only wore a jacket once; in Glacier Bay. Remember, this is not the arctic.

Disney has blankets on the decks of the Wonder (even on their MR cruises). Hot chocolate is always available at the soda and coffee station on deck 9.

I'm thinking the Alaska weather is going to be a surprise to many cruisers; sometimes hot, muggy and full of 'skeeters.

Yeah even on the first one when actually IN alaska it wasn't as cold as I thought it would be. Scagway was the coolest- we had some rain that day too and we also went up in the moutains and played in snow/etc.
But in Juneau I ended up taking jacket off at the lodge we had lunch at- and in a short sleeved shirt! And I'm a Texan! So that's really saying something. LOL They said it was in the 50's- and usually at home in the 50's I'm pretty bundled up LOL
Ketchikan was cool wherever there was wind (in other words near the ship) but when walking around downtown between the buildings- not so much. I took off my jacket and walked around in thin longsleeved shirt there and kinda got warm in the stores.

That said- it was FREEZING on deck 9 (and downright beyond freezing on deck 10) on most days, especially in evenings when the sun went down and when moving -it's the wind that gets ya. If you sat on the side on deck 9.... in just the right spots- not that cold.... anywhere else "freezing" LOL
They did have blankets in cabinets on deck 9.
Hot chocolate on repo over was hot water with packets- but then they put out a hot chocolate machine for the Alaska cruise. Which was brilliant and so much easier. LOL

So you didn't take the DCL transfer but a shuttle? Are these just outside the port terminal? Did you need to book ahead of time? How many on a shuttle? We have seven people that will need to hightail it off quickly and get to the airport. thanks.

It's just inside the port terminal before you walk out. As you walk thru- there are people with signs up saying vancouver shuttle $14pp- they pointed us over (just a few feet away really LOL) to the shuttle desk. We walked up- no line- like 2 mins to pay- and then they told us where to walk out the doors and to the shuttle area which was like about the distance between the drink station and the adult pool area- that short. LOL They said 10min- and apparently meant from that moment. We walked over- stuck some stuff in checked luggage (toiletries we'd kept in room that last night) and there the shuttle was. It took about 20min to get to airport.

You can book ahead of time but when I tried to when I finally got connection to work- it said it was too soon to the date (it was 2 days before) and to call the number. I just decided to wait till we got there. Prior info I'd received was that cc could only be used if done online and if done at the terminal they'd only take cash... this wasn't the case.. they took cc there at the shuttle desk.

Lemme think how many were on the shuttle... I think around 16 with a few empty seats also. It was 5 of us and we got on the first shuttle that came around- even though we weren't paying attention and lots of people got on before us. I mean we walked up and were the only people, showed the guy our ticket and he said it would be a few minutes.. we were putting stuff in checked luggage as I mentioned above and then still sitting there in the chairs and saw people getting in that van/shuttle but didn't think it was for us since the guy didn't say anything. Finally I said is that our shuttle? And the guy said oh are you going to the airport? I said yes and he apologized and said yes it is our shuttle. LOL So he loaded our luggage in the back and away we went. (we had 5 in our family and 9 pieces of luggage btw.... 2 checked size luggage, 5 carry on size, and 2 DCL rolling duffles- you know how you come home with more stuff than you went with LOL)

Oh just more info- the previous info we'd received on the alaska thread was that it has times to choose and even if the time you want isn't available just choose what is available and you can still leave when you want to. I guess this must be true since we didn't even book ahead of time and were off on our way really quickly

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

I spoke on the phone with one of the Alaskan fishing charter captains and he said Verizon had the best cell phone service. He is able to get a signal 10 miles off shore. Other companies are very spotty .

True
we had some tagalongs on the bus portion of our scagway tour that were training for the driver positions and they said that verizon worked in some places- even amongst the mountains up there! But AT&T didn't work at all the entire day- not until we got back to the port. LOL

 

[Shanny145]

I saw a picture of disney's version of a totem pole with Mickey on top sold on the ship.....does anyone remember the price?

 

[llkoolj40]

Information We Know


Questions Needing Answers

01. Navigators - pretty,pretty please with cherry on top?
02. Timing/Open- Since the sun comes up so ding-dang early, do the fitness center and cove cafe open any earlier than normal?
03. On Deck - Are there blankets, hot cocoa, etc. on deck?
04. Dinner menus - anything different, what night was what?
05. Excursion and port reviews?
06. Boarding and Vancouver Cruise Terminal - wait times, boarding numbers, set up at terminal?
07. New - Anything at all new/different than normal for Alaska?
08. Weather - What was the weather like? (both on ship and in ports)
09. Mickey Bars - Can we get mickey bars from room service in Alaska?
10. Repellant - Is repellent is really a necessity for this cruise?
11. Upgrades- Did anyone upgrade at port or look into upgrading, and how were the prices?
12. Lobster - was there lobster available at the BBB table service?
13. Movies - What movies are playing?
14. Temp - Is the temperature in the indoor areas comfortable?
15. Cell - How was cell phone service in the Alaska ports?
16. Luggage - if you booked DCL transfers for after the cruise, can you still check your luggage in with DCL since it is international and did they check you in for your flight and print your boarding passes if you book their transfers?
17. DCL Pickup - What time was DCL's pick up from the Fairmont Vancouver Hotel to bring you to the port?
18. Tracy Arm - What's the best spot for viewing during the day when you are sailing by Tracy Arm?
19 . Activities - what kind of Alaska-related activities where offered on board?
20. Packing - Is there any thing that you didn't bring that you wished you had (i.e. warmers, etc.)?
21. Tea - are they doing the Tea with Characters?
22. Shows - What times are the shows for the Alaska cruise?
23. Age Group - What does the age of the crowd appear to be?
24. What dining rotation did you have?

Here are a couple of observations.

We arrived at 10:45 to the port and the line was very long to get through customs, so we dropped off our luggage and went across the street and went up to the look-out tower. Got amazing views of Vancouver. Here is a shot of the Wonder in port.

We then went back to port about noon. The line was very short and we were through in about 10 minutes. After customs,you head to check-in. Grab your boarding number handed out by the cast as you enter the area. Check in only took about 10 minutes. Then wait for your number to be called. We went right through because of platinum status.

Weather for this cruise was AMAZING!!. Couldn't asked for better days in the ports.

There is good viewing for Tracy Arm everywhere. Many people crowded at the front of deck 10 so it was hard to get pictures there.It is very noisy up there as well because of the kids playing. If you want to hear the narration and be in a quiet location to possibly hear the glacier calving, deck 4 would be the place to be.

 

[EricaLovesMickey]

is it better to reserve a shuttle bus ride to the airport from the port on disembarkation day? or are there plenty of taxis & transportation options?

We debarked yesterday. There were four of us and we took a taxi to the airport. It was about 45.00. It was very easy.

 

[Mineu]

Did anyone use the Quick Shuttle to Seattle after the cruise? If so, please describe the process. Thanks!

 

[EricaLovesMickey]

I saw a picture of disney's version of a totem pole with Mickey on top sold on the ship.....does anyone remember the price?

It was very cute! $24.95.

 

[littleprince]

do you need to sign up in advance for the character breakfast?