Wonder in Alaska!!! May 27, 2013

[jilljill]

Hello!
I just wanted to pop in and say, "Hi!"

I'm Brumbie's Wife, or Brumbette, as Brumbie likes to introduce me!

Hi Brumbette

 

[Brumbie13]

Hello!
I just wanted to pop in and say, "Hi!"

I'm Brumbie's Wife, or Brumbette, as Brumbie likes to introduce me!

Hiya Wifey!

 

[scrapycruiser]

Hi everyone !!
We just booked this cruise and plan to do an onboard booking for the Pacific Coast repositioning cruise for a B2B. It will be myself and dh, nav verandah, early dining.

We lived in Anchorage, Alaska many years ago when we were in the Air Force. Excited to be going back !!!

Jill ,thanks for the information on the dog sled excursion. We'd also like to do some kind of rafting or float trip. Any suggestions ?

Question ?? We are wanting to book an inside cabin to save money for the repositioning cruise. We will be on the Dream June 20 and plan to do an onboard booking. Do you think we'll be safe to wait or should we book now ?
Being Platinum we don't want to miss out on our onboard credit , also the 10% off. Any advice ??

 

[jilljill]

I'd book the cabin you want now and then just reshop it while onboard. That way you know you have what you want and can hope for a better deal onboard. Who knows in 3 months if the price will rise and how much. I haven't checked the price for this cruise in a while so I don't know if it's gone up or not since I first booked it. Although, I do need to check it since we're trying to get my aunt to go with us and will need to get a 2nd cabin.

 

[Brumbie13]

It will be myself and dh, nav verandah, early dining.

Welcome to our group!
It looks like Navigator Verandahs are popular on this cruise, that makes 4 of us in this group so far who have them booked!

Brumbette and I have late dining. We had that last time because we didn't have a choice, but this time we did have a choice and we went with late dining again. Since we don't have kids either, we like the timeline of show, dinner, show (evening adult shows in Wavebands.)

I'm jealous of the people who can double-dip. If we could get 2 weeks off at a time, we'd definitely be double-dipping this one.

If there are any pacific coast cruises scheduled for 2014, we plan on signing up for them. Cruising DCL is affordable for us as long as Disney keeps a ship over here on the best coast!

 

[scrapycruiser]

I'd book the cabin you want now and then just reshop it while onboard. That way you know you have what you want and can hope for a better deal onboard. Who knows in 3 months if the price will rise and how much. I haven't checked the price for this cruise in a while so I don't know if it's gone up or not since I first booked it. Although, I do need to check it since we're trying to get my aunt to go with us and will need to get a 2nd cabin.

Thanks for the advice. We did book the Pacific Repositioning Cruise this afternoon. Got a Cat 11B close to our Alaska Nav verandah. After being on these boards for years, and reading your comments, I feel like I know you. Looking forward to sailing with you.

 

[scrapycruiser]

Welcome to our group!
It looks like Navigator Verandahs are popular on this cruise, that makes 4 of us in this group so far who have them booked!

Brumbette and I have late dining. We had that last time because we didn't have a choice, but this time we did have a choice and we went with late dining again. Since we don't have kids either, we like the timeline of show, dinner, show (evening adult shows in Wavebands.)

I'm jealous of the people who can double-dip. If we could get 2 weeks off at a time, we'd definitely be double-dipping this one.

If there are any pacific coast cruises scheduled for 2014, we plan on signing up for them. Cruising DCL is affordable for us as long as Disney keeps a ship over here on the best coast!

Thanks for the welcome !! We're excited to be cruising with such a fun group ! We'd like the late dining if it weren't for heartburn will be following this roll call board all year long. Looking forward to the beautiful Pacific northwest and being back in Alaska.

 

[jilljill]

Thanks for the advice. We did book the Pacific Repositioning Cruise this afternoon. Got a Cat 11B close to our Alaska Nav verandah. After being on these boards for years, and reading your comments, I feel like I know you. Looking forward to sailing with you.

Aw shucks....
Did we do a Baltics cruise together or not? I get the feeling we've been on the same meets thread at some point but an not entirely sure.

We're also on the repositioning cruise, have the same cabin for both legs - that would be for 3 of us. Then DD & I are booked on the Miami-LA repositioning cruise, but arent' sure if we'll keep that one or not. I asked my aunt to join us on that one too and her eyes got HUGE when I said it was a total of 28 days onboard and she's never been on a cruise before. She said she'd be willing to give 2 weeks a shot on board so we'll see. I have to talk to my cousin to see if he can help convince her to go with us.

 

[scrapycruiser]

Aw shucks....
Did we do a Baltics cruise together or not? I get the feeling we've been on the same meets thread at some point but an not entirely sure.

We're also on the repositioning cruise, have the same cabin for both legs - that would be for 3 of us. Then DD & I are booked on the Miami-LA repositioning cruise, but arent' sure if we'll keep that one or not. I asked my aunt to join us on that one too and her eyes got HUGE when I said it was a total of 28 days onboard and she's never been on a cruise before. She said she'd be willing to give 2 weeks a shot on board so we'll see. I have to talk to my cousin to see if he can help convince her to go with us.

We were on the July 18,2010 Baltic Cruise.

Wish I could talk my family into doing the Alaskan cruise. We were going on the July 20,2013 Med cruise with my son & family, but we had just gone to the med last year and wanted to do something different so we changed.
We have a family reunion cruise in June on the Dream for 27 family members

 

[jilljill]

We were on the July 18,2010 Baltic Cruise.

Wish I could talk my family into doing the Alaskan cruise. We were going on the July 20,2013 Med cruise with my son & family, but we had just gone to the med last year and wanted to do something different so we changed.
We have a family reunion cruise in June on the Dream for 27 family members

I thought we were on the same cruise.

Have you been on the Dream yet?

 

[scrapycruiser]

I thought we were on the same cruise.

Have you been on the Dream yet?

We were on the Dream last March. Did a B2B , beautiful ship !!
Meet our all time favorite dining server.... "super" Mario. We have requested him for our reunion cruise this June.

 

[COASTIEandMATE]

Hi we are going on this cruise also! We were on the Inaugural Alaska last year and can't wait to do it again!! We did the fe's and want to join in the fun again! Please add us to the meet! Aloha, Karen and Ron

Just wanted to mention that the April issue of Porthole magazine has Mickey and Minnie on the Wonder in Alaska on the cover and a nice 4 page article with cute pix! Aloha, Karen and Ron

 

[scrapycruiser]

We won't be going on this cruise afterall. We will be going on the Eastern Med Cruise with our son and his family. I know you'll enjoy Alaska. We lived in Anchorage for 3 years and loved it !

 

[Brumbie13]

I'm so excited! It's so far away, but that just allows us time to pay for it gradually.
I'm glad Disney gives you that option for the cruises.
You can't plan a trip very far in advance for Disneyland through the website.
But this trip will be much more expensive than Disneyland.

I'm glad i have the opportunity to pay over time like this, it's the only way we could afford such a nice vacation.

 

[Brumbie13]

Got a question for those that are around us. There's JillJill and someone else on either side of us.

Have you guys specifically requested not to be upgraded?
I am thinking of calling them and asking them to put "no upgrade" on my room because I like where I'm at, and I don't really consider a normal verandah to be much of an upgrade from a NV.

If I knew that you folks were staying put, that would make the decision even easier. I like having neighbours that I "kinda" know.

 

[jilljill]

In 14 cruises we've never been upgraded by DCL for free. The only upgrades I've rec'd are the 2 that I paid for at the port. By all the postings on here you would think that upgrades are a common occurance, but in reality they aren't.

 

[Brumbie13]

A couple of things make me nervous...

1)The cruise we were on in Jan, the people right across the hall from us were part of our DIS group, and they had been upgraded from oceanview it regular verandah by Disney. It was a group of 2 connecting rooms, and both rooms were upgraded together.

2) The NV's are already selling now for higher than what we got them for. A few weeks ago, they were all spoken for, and you couldn't select a room, you had to go with VGY. Now there are open rooms. I might be wrong, but that looks to my novice eye like some people already got bumped out of their rooms to make way for the people who will pay more for them.

AFAIK, NV's are hot items on Alaska cruises.

 

[jilljill]

I don't see DCL giving out free upgrades over 13 months out, that makes no monetary sense in my book. It could be that people are looking at other cruiselines and jumping ship or they are just cancelling and going to vacation closer to home with gas prices the way they are now. I checked and the NV is about $400 more for 3 people than when we booked the first day, not a big jump in price. When you start seeing discounts being offered, you will usually start hearing about people getting comp. upgrades - easier for DCL to fill the lower cat. cabins than the higher ones.

 

[Brumbie13]

Okay, I'll take your word for it on this one. I'm definitely not in familiar territory here.

 

[jilljill]

If we decide to move cabins I'll let you know. But we would only do that if we can talk my aunt into cruising with us, but I don't really see that happening.