You’ll never get me on a cruise. Unless it’s to ALASKA! Recap and New PTR Link! 2/1

[Mndisneygirl]

I think it's nice that they offer a character breakfast - then you don't have to stand in line for some characters if you don't want. But I agree on the attire. Seems just wrong on an Alaskan cruise! Your napkin headgear was cute!!

I hope your nose etc. is healing and you'll be blowing soon!!

 

[englishrose47]

I love the napkin hats!! When I fdid a cruise many years ago I was usually the only one who did the sit down breakfast I remeber ordering lox and bagels and eggs benedict , the others all preferred the buffet on deck !!

 

[Charleston Princess]

What a fun character breakfast! While the characters were cute in their tropical garb, I agree that it would make more sense to me to have them in their Alaskan gear. Oh well! The best characters, though, are the four of you in your napkin hats! Too funny!

 

[Happydog]

Looks like a fun morning!!! I am just about ready to post my photos from our Character breakfast too!! LOL!!! Those hats look familiar, though I think I ended up with a princess thing Did you have hats with the plate covers and creamers dangling??!! LOL!!!!

Sorry the weather was a little iffy, looking forward to hearing how you faired out in town....

 

[eandesmom]

Hi Cynthia! Sounds like your surgery went well. I hope you are resting and recovering and that you can blow soon

Who knew blowing your nose would consume all thoughts?
Hard to tell really in terms of how well it went, sounds like it will be another week or 2 before you can really tell. Right now it's like having a rather horrible head cold with a few icky side effects. Bored out of my mind though but am being good and following doctors orders which is basically doing nothing. I over did it a bit on Friday and paid for it so I am behaving. May work from home again tomorrow, we will see.

The character breakfast is fun - we skipped it on our first cruise, then attended because our whole table was last time - we were glad we did!

I'm looking forward to your Ketchikan time - I thought this looked like the most fun port to walk around in.

I'm glad we went, no reason not to and it was a ton of fun. Our table mates all got Minnie bows...kind of interesting that they all got Minnie and I got Pocahontas. We thought the same thing about Ketchikan when we were planning which is why we figured it would be the best choice for a non excursion port.

I LOVE the funny napkin hats. Great pictures. And its nice to see the boys still enjoy the characters. I see what you mean about the attire, though...tropical? What?

Hope you're feeling better, too!

They really do. They will pretend to be all cool, especially Evan but let me tell you, once Evan saw Goofy in his Polar Explorer outfit, he HAD to get a picture with him. It was all his doing, not mine. And they both have those photos framed and in their room.

Better but I confess, it's slower going than I'd expected. I guess I didn't do my recovery homework very well. Which, knowing me, is probably for the best. Jeff says I sound a lot better during the night (funny as I didn't know I sounded bad before lol).

Looks like a fun breakfast. I like the different napkin hats.

I hope you continue to heal and can blow your nose real soon.

Thanks, me too! Not blowing is really frustrating as are all the other lovely recovery pieces which I know you understand. YUCK is about all I have to say about it. Let's just say I severely underestimated/misunderstood what they meant about irrigation, yikes!

Fun character breakfast!!

It was!

 

[eandesmom]

The pictures from your excursion of the glacier RIGHT THERE made me shout for Joe...he agreed - veryyyyyyy cool. Even Henry said, "Wow!" Beautiful, beautiful!

It was beautiful!

Love the character breakfast pictures! I have seen those in other TRs but had never heard the description of WHAT they were, love that they are representing various characters!

It was funny, earlier in the cruise, I think on our first day which was an at sea day or maybe Tracy Arm day, another group had their character breakfast rotation. We say people walking around with these colored napkins on their heads and wondered "what the heck?" I hadn't read enough cruise TR's to have ever seen pictures of it.

I think it's nice that they offer a character breakfast - then you don't have to stand in line for some characters if you don't want. But I agree on the attire. Seems just wrong on an Alaskan cruise! Your napkin headgear was cute!!

I hope your nose etc. is healing and you'll be blowing soon!!

I just think since they have the cool Alaska outfits, why not get more wear out of them instead of trying to fit in tropical themes that don't really mesh with the location?

I love the napkin hats!! When I fdid a cruise many years ago I was usually the only one who did the sit down breakfast I remeber ordering lox and bagels and eggs benedict , the others all preferred the buffet on deck !!

I'd have gotten Benedict if it was an option but the menu was pretty basic.

What a fun character breakfast! While the characters were cute in their tropical garb, I agree that it would make more sense to me to have them in their Alaskan gear. Oh well! The best characters, though, are the four of you in your napkin hats! Too funny!

The napkin hats were funny

Looks like a fun morning!!! I am just about ready to post my photos from our Character breakfast too!! LOL!!! Those hats look familiar, though I think I ended up with a princess thing Did you have hats with the plate covers and creamers dangling??!! LOL!!!!

Sorry the weather was a little iffy, looking forward to hearing how you faired out in town....

We saw a table that had the plate covers, it was hysterical! We didn't get any of that though. I'll have to go check out your breakfast.

 

[MEK]

Those napkin head dresses are too funny! I love that. You make a wonderful Pocahontas, evening with your head band over your eye.

Bummer that it is rainy and grey out! I hope the weather improves.

 

[natebenma]

Cynthia- I hope the recovery from your surgery happens as quickly as possible. I'm sure you are so done at this point. Take it easy!!!

Speaking of noses... Do you know the easy way to remember which chipmunk is Chip and which is Dale? Chip has a black nose, like a chocolate chip. Dale is the other one (red or brown nose).

They are my favorite characters, so it is great to see them appearing at the character breakfast on the cruise. Now that they are no longer at the Cape May breakfast, I don't think they are at any other on property meals. It's great that your character breakfast was on a morning that you didn't have to rush to be anywhere.

Meals were scheduled, right? You don't get to pick the rotations? Are you able to make changes if they don't mesh with your plans?

I love, love, love those napkins hats. So fun! I'm glad you got a picture of all of you together. Who took that? A CM or fellow passenger?

 

[jeremysdisneymom]

Looks like a great character breakfast. Fun hats!

 

[eandesmom]

Those napkin head dresses are too funny! I love that. You make a wonderful Pocahontas, evening with your head band over your eye.

Bummer that it is rainy and grey out! I hope the weather improves.

I remember it kept slipping and then they tied it way too tight! It was funny though.

Cynthia- I hope the recovery from your surgery happens as quickly as possible. I'm sure you are so done at this point. Take it easy!!!

VERY done! Apparently I'm going to feel like I have a really horrible head cold for another 7 days until the splints come out.

Speaking of noses... Do you know the easy way to remember which chipmunk is Chip and which is Dale? Chip has a black nose, like a chocolate chip. Dale is the other one (red or brown nose).

They are my favorite characters, so it is great to see them appearing at the character breakfast on the cruise. Now that they are no longer at the Cape May breakfast, I don't think they are at any other on property meals. It's great that your character breakfast was on a morning that you didn't have to rush to be anywhere.

Meals were scheduled, right? You don't get to pick the rotations? Are you able to make changes if they don't mesh with your plans?

I love, love, love those napkins hats. So fun! I'm glad you got a picture of all of you together. Who took that? A CM or fellow passenger?

Ok to me that's backwards, I think of chocolate chips as being brown, not black so I thought I had them right! Had his nose been red I'd have listed them the other way. Oh well. They were out quite a bit on the cruise, in fact I think the official alaska cruise pin had them on it. I'd have to look, Eric did get one.

Meals area scheduled. When you book you pick first or 2nd seating (5:15 and 8:15 I think) and I think that the breakfast times are based on which seating. It is the only scheduled breakfast besides disembarking day. You don't get your rotation until you board though. I know some people have done and requested changed in their rotation, it didn't much matter to me we just timed our Palo dinner to be on the one night we knew would be in a restaurant we'd visit 3 times. It might matter more on a shorter cruise. I have no idea how easy or difficult it would be to change your rotation. We had second seating, which was perfect for us.

Our table mates took the picture of all 4 of us.

Looks like a great character breakfast. Fun hats!

It was a lot of fun.

 

[Poolrat]

Who knew blowing your nose would consume all thoughts?
Hard to tell really in terms of how well it went, sounds like it will be another week or 2 before you can really tell. Right now it's like having a rather horrible head cold with a few icky side effects. Bored out of my mind though but am being good and following doctors orders which is basically doing nothing. I over did it a bit on Friday and paid for it so I am behaving. May work from home again tomorrow, we will see.

Better but I confess, it's slower going than I'd expected. I guess I didn't do my recovery homework very well. Which, knowing me, is probably for the best. Jeff says I sound a lot better during the night (funny as I didn't know I sounded bad before lol).

Thanks, me too! Not blowing is really frustrating as are all the other lovely recovery pieces which I know you understand. YUCK is about all I have to say about it. Let's just say I severely underestimated/misunderstood what they meant about irrigation, yikes!

VERY done! Apparently I'm going to feel like I have a really horrible head cold for another 7 days until the splints come out.

I guess I was lucky. I had No splints and no packing. I think he lasered it so I didn't need any of that. That is what made me do it.
Beside the antibiotic reaction ( go figure, I am allergic to EVERYTHING ) I had it easy.

Hang in there. It is all go away soon. If you are sounding better at night, then maybe you will feel more rested. With this last bout of congestion I have had, I have been stopped up and I cannot believe that I used to be like that every day.

 

[KatMark]

Cynthia, your pictures of the character breakfast and the magical napkins put a big smile on my face after a long weekend. I love them...and you look great!

 

[eandesmom]

I guess I was lucky. I had No splints and no packing. I think he lasered it so I didn't need any of that. That is what made me do it.
Beside the antibiotic reaction ( go figure, I am allergic to EVERYTHING ) I had it easy.

Hang in there. It is all go away soon. If you are sounding better at night, then maybe you will feel more rested. With this last bout of congestion I have had, I have been stopped up and I cannot believe that I used to be like that every day.

Well the funny thing is I don't (didn't?) have sleep apnea and have always slept pretty darn well so feeling rested really wasn't an issue or a driver. The sinus headaches and constant drainage were. Thankfully no packing here but I do have splints. According to him today in my case not having them would be bad...things growing together that shouldn't. ICK!

Thankfully no issues with the antibiotic. I am allergic to one that I know of so they have to be careful with what they prescribe and this was one I'd never heard of so was a little worried. I'm also grateful he also listened to me about my pain med intolerance. I can't take any of the codiene deviates, they will make me sick before they touch any pain so they are pretty pointless. I've brought this up twice with other surgeries and they still prescribed either percocet or vicodin

Cynthia, your pictures of the character breakfast and the magical napkins put a big smile on my face after a long weekend. I love them...and you look great!

I'm so glad they made you smile, I know you had a tough weekend.

 

[manntra]

Looks like a fun breakfast!! Love the napkin hats and you are a great Pocahantas!! Looking forward to your day out on the town

Hope you are recovering well my friend

Tracy

 

[eandesmom]

When packing for this cruise, it was incredibly amusing to me to read some of what folks planned to bring. Yes, it is Alaska but it also was August! Which meant, in looking at all the data I could, that I’d be looking at something rather similar to fall or early spring at home. Kind of a pita to pack for as layers take up space but we certainly didn’t need to prepare for a blizzard and bring our parkas. In fact, I’d say Tracy Arm was the coldest day of them all and that really was due to 2 things. 1) being next to the glacier and 2) being outside for hours! And even then, it wasn’t really bad though a surprising amount of people went inside. This was a bit of a recurring theme, we’d be outside on deck and often it would be pretty empty. Not sure if it was the cooler weather but in reality I thought we had pretty darn good weather for the bulk of the cruise.
As we prepared to head into town, we checked out conditions from our verandah and saw this.

Ok, grey and foggy. No biggie

This excursion though, didn’t really look like my idea of fun at that moment

We’d actually considered a couple of different rain forest canoe and rafting excursions but had decided not to due to cost, Eric’s total lack of upper body strength (and the perceived whining) and weather concerns. While it might be fun, the visibility just didn’t look good at all. I was incredibly glad we’d done our flight in Juneau. Ketchikan is known for its fjords and there were a number of float plane excursions we’d looked at and again, I think we got lucky we’d opted for Juneau instead.

Hiking definitely seemed out, we wouldn’t be able to see squat and we can hike in the rain and fog at home any time!

With that, we geared up in our rain pants, rain jackets and fleece and prepared to get our shoes wet though at the moment, it looked pretty good!
The Wonder was berthed at the farthest possible spot from town. While a shuttle wasn’t needed, it was a bit of a hike. I think at least 4 other ships were in port, the 2 celebrity ships, the Carnival and something else. It was crowded to say the least! However, with our late arrival, others were already getting set to head out. We didn’t really have an agenda, other than to check out the town and maybe figure out a great spot to have lunch. I’d been given some recommendations by another DISer and we went to check them out. Unfortunately one had closed, one wasn’t open that day and if memory serves, the other one was pretty much all fish and chip type stuff and while some of us would go for fish and chips (or salmon and chips) Jeff was not one of them, he’s pretty anti fried anything. And realistically we eat salmon a LOT so we were kind of looking for anything just a little “different”. There was a kiosk on the waterfront by the ships that had also been recommended but it was open air seating. And…as we walked by…it began to really rain. And RAIN. We were dressed for it so it wasn’t that big of a deal but it was kind of funny. We walked through the waterfront area, saw a ton of touristy shops, but nothing that really grabbed us, it was all kind of the same touristy stuff we have in downtown Seattle. It was cute, don’t get me wrong but it just wasn’t really on our agenda. We hit a couple of shops and really didn’t see anything so kept going…out into the rain. As a result, I have no pictures of our early wanderings, just too wet to take the camera out.

What we were looking for was Creek Street. However, to us at the time, it really didn’t seem to be well marked. We walked and walked and ended up in more of a business area so decided to turn around and regroup. At that moment, 2 things happen, it REALLY began to pour and…like manna from heaven…a coffee shop appeared.

So of course we went in. We had hit coffee shops in Skagway and Juneau and needed to complete our panhandle comparison! Plus we were drenched. Though dressed for it, the rain will get through eventually. We weren’t cold and in a way, walking around in the rain was pretty fun especially when you puddle splash on purpose but…it was nice to get inside too! Not to mention too much puddle splashing, which was threatening to get out of control, would mean very very soggy shoes.

We ended up here

I had a coffee, Jeff probably an Americano and the kids…hot chocolate of course!

Our view. As you can see, it was soggy! But...we could see the sun really trying to peek through!

Now here’s a crazy thing. As we are sitting there, watching the rain, drying off, enjoying our coffee a guy starts fishing directly across from us. He looks like a clueless tourist and we are kind of laughing at him as it’s an awkward set up, and spot. At least to us…who are admittedly not expert fishers! He is on one side of the guard rail when all of a sudden we seem him make a move. He climbing under the railing, getting closer to the water. Sure enough, he lands a big fat salmon! It was crazy! And kind of cool to be sure. Dry and warm and with the rain apparently stopped for the moment, we head back out. Only to turn right and see that we’d actually walked right past Creek Street, we were practically next to it! I guess that’s what happens when you have your hood held down so it won’t blow off in the downpour.

Our coffee shop was just to the left of this bridge

Which explained the salmon, it’s right where the creek exited as well.
I imagine this offers some kind of tour, we didn’t check it out

We wandered around Creek Street for a bit. It’s a cute mix of shops, galleries, and…an old bordello (yes, a recurring theme in Alaska!)

This gallery had some cool art, we especially enjoyed this fountain

There was a funicular that appeared to go to the top of the hill. As it was Sunday, it wasn’t open and we had no idea if we were missing out and not

On the backside, you could really see just how full the creek was

There was a little walk you could do, that went along the creek and up to the salmon run, so we did.

The run

Now to be honest, we’ve seen many a salmon run but it is still fun to try to spot them making their way up. It’s pretty brutal if you ask me, survival of the fittest to be sure.

Continued in next post

 

[eandesmom]

Try as I might, I couldn’t really catch one on film

Our walk complete and after a disappointing re-visit to a gallery with a seriously cool native American art T shirt that Evan really wanted (but didn’t come in his size…so frustrating to be not quite an adult size at times) we continued our quest for lunch and headed back towards the main area and decided to ask for some input at the visitors center since we were striking out on our original list and plan. Believe it or not, in my pre-planning research, Skagway was the one place without a brewpub! But at least now we could actually see things, and take pictures since the torrent seemed to have stopped for now.

We got a kick out of this

Clearing up!

By now it was almost 3 and we really needed to eat. I don’t recall having a snack at the coffee shop but it’s possible. Breakfast had been a LONG time ago!

We ended up eating at Annabelle’s keg and chowder house. It had been recommended by the visitors center which always makes me think they pay them to say that, but we were at a bit of a loss nothing else sounded good and they had the best sounding menu. It was in an old hotel, very cute décor but horrendous for pictures! I attempted 3 and gave up and am not going to post them as they are really bad. Apparently I didn’t feel like fiddling with setting either. It does get good reviews and the food was quite good but the ambiance was a little odd. It’s a big place and while I know 3pm on a Sunday isn’t a busy time, it was pretty deserted and so felt a little lacking somehow. It’s an old hotel parlor and I think had we been there in the evening, we’d have felt the vibe a lot more. Check out the menu, they also had a great beer selection. Pretty sure we each had two!

I “think” I had salmon tacos. It’s possible I had the crab cake sandwich but I’m almost positive I went for the tacos. I think Eric had the beer batter halibut. Evan maybe went for the blackened Halibut wrap and Jeff the sourdough bread bowl of clam chowder. It definitely hit the spot! Not a cheap lunch at $99 with tip but hey, it was our “excursion”. I figured the lumberjack show would have been more and no one was interested! I do think they'd have enjoyed it if I forced it...and maybe I should have but oh well. It really was kind of a nice lazy port day and with it being the 3rd in a row, after 2 busier excursions, pretty welcome to all.

“Lunch” over, we decided we were kind of done with Ketchikan. It was about 4pm and getting gloomy again and there wasn’t much else we really wanted to see. We committed to the kids to check out a few more shops and slowly meander back. Even though we were in port till 7:30 we didn’t think there was that much left to do on a Sunday night and there were things back on board that interested us. Still, we weren’t in a rush.
The Wonder back at the far end of town.

Bye Bye Celebrity

Goofy boys

Huh, what’s that in the water?

Why, it’s a lifeboat!

Apparently it was drill time. I enjoyed watching it. The boys on the other hand started to get annoyed with me…they wanted to shop!

Too bad! I wanted to watch.

This distracted Jeff for a minute, it was funny, clearing up and then misting at the same time. Just like home!

Back to my drill

Continued in next post

 

[eandesmom]

The second row of glass windows on the front there is our workout with a view! Yep, that’s the fitness area. Nice huh!

A good time to get a picture of Steamboat Willie

Drill complete, we popped into a store and found some deals on cheap T’s and a hat for Evan

One of my favorite pictures of him from the trip

We kept walking

This is one of the excursions we could have done…except no one had any interest in it

All kinds of boats to look at, tourist and…working!

As we approached the Wonder, we realized something

We’d never seen Donald and the nephews!

So we decided to try and see them. First though we made one last shopping trip, into the store right at the end of our berth. Which actually had a ton of fun cheap tees. One thing I will say about all 3 ports and the touristy shops. We found tons of cheap, cute tees that the boys liked. I need to count but all 3 of them ended up with a LOT of new shirts, without spending a ton. We’d already hit one shop that day, Evan getting a hat, Eric getting a tee and Eric getting 2 small stuffed animals. Still, both E’s had money in their budgets left and if memory serves it was something like 3 for $20 on the tees at this place. I think we ended up with Evan getting 2 and Jeff getting one, and 2 more small stuff animals for Eric. I was getting a bit concerned about all the animals, Alaska themed or no, but they were small and it was his money.

More money spent with some left for pins on board, we headed to find Donald and the boys. Easier said than done. We had to walk out and around a shop, down a pretty broken up street and sneak into the back of a seaplane base to actually get some kind of view. But we did it.

And of course a picture of our photo location that we’d sneaked down to.

On our way back, it started to pour. So we ducked into the back entrance of the same shop we’d just bought a bunch of stuff in. Guess what? A whole back area with MORE shirts. More seaplane shirts which always made Jeff very happy, they are generally hard to find. Unless you are in Alaska! 2 more shirts for Jeff and one for Evan and we were on our way. For whatever reason, not sure if it was because it was our last port or the selection really was bigger, better and cheaper but Ketchikan was the mother lode for our shopping. Each kid got something from each port but by far the most in Ketchikan. As for me, the only port souvenir I ended up with was a pint glass from Skagway Brewing company. Kind of pathetic but there just wasn’t anything I really saw that I wanted. I kind of wish I’d gotten a cool travel mug from the Juneau coffee company, and I did like of like the mug from the Ketchikan coffee company but really, that was it. I did have my eye on something back on the ship though but was still thinking about it. At the end of the day, no regrets on anything in port that I passed up. It was amusing when we got home to see that Jeff ended up with a lot more souvies than I did! Heading back to the ship we boarded quickly with one last glance back at port and our photo spot as we walked up.

However, as we went through the bag check, Evan realized he was missing his rain jacket! His relatively new (spring) North Face green one! He’d taken it off back at the coffee shop and had been carting it around all day. I’d been worried all day about this exact thing happening. “I got it handled mom” he’d say. It was too wet to go into a bag with the new purchases and , out ofprinciple, I was making him carry it. He’d set it on a shelf in the shop to try on the adult small tees to see if they’d work. Sometimes they do, sometimes not. The good thing about cheaper tees…they often run small. Eric and Jeff headed to the stateroom while, you guessed it, Evan and I booked it back to the store. And thankfully found his jacket right where he’d left it. By the time all of us were back in the stateroom it was almost 5. We had about 2 and a half hours before our planned evening activities, and the ship left port. What would we do until then?

 

[glennbo123]

Despite not having an excursion in Ketchikan, it looked like a fun day (in spite of the weather).

I'm glad Evan found his jacket...been there, done that! Oy. And that is a really nice picture of him.

 

[eandesmom]

Looks like a fun breakfast!! Love the napkin hats and you are a great Pocahantas!! Looking forward to your day out on the town

Hope you are recovering well my friend

Tracy

Thanks Tracy! I am muddling along, it's going to be a long week but I'm very hopeful it will be worth it. It was a very very fun breakfast!

Despite not having an excursion in Ketchikan, it looked like a fun day (in spite of the weather).

I'm glad Evan found his jacket...been there, done that! Oy. And that is a really nice picture of him.

It was a fun day. Very relaxing touristy kind of day. I was very happy he found the jacket. It would not have gone well for him had he not. In fact I'm pretty sure I told him it would get deducted from what remained of his fall school clothes budget.

 

[Poolrat]

Well the funny thing is I don't (didn't?) have sleep apnea and have always slept pretty darn well so feeling rested really wasn't an issue or a driver. The sinus headaches and constant drainage were. Thankfully no packing here but I do have splints. According to him today in my case not having them would be bad...things growing together that shouldn't. ICK!

I don't either but I found I was able to have a more restful sleep because I could move air better.

Thankfully no issues with the antibiotic. I am allergic to one that I know of so they have to be careful with what they prescribe and this was one I'd never heard of so was a little worried. I'm also grateful he also listened to me about my pain med intolerance. I can't take any of the codiene deviates, they will make me sick before they touch any pain so they are pretty pointless. I've brought this up twice with other surgeries and they still prescribed either percocet or vicodin

Percodan does the same thing to me, sick as a dog.




Nice excusion into Ketchikan. You planned well, and glad the jacket was at the last stop.