Planes, Trains, and Cruise Ship: Get Me to Alaska!

[CatDenver]

As of this posting, my family and I are 29 days from leaving Denver to where we'll eventually board the Disney Wonder in Vancouver for a 7 night Alaskan cruise.

On this trip are my husband BJ, son Michael (14), daughter Catie (11) and yours truly, Catherine. This will be our 3rd Disney cruise with our first being to the Bahamas on the Wonder in 2013 and second to the Eastern Caribbean on the Magic in 2014. The first two cruises were during our kids' October school break, which left us with a summer of pining over the trip. Waiting for those cruises, in the words of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, was the hardest part. The beauty of this cruise is that we embark on June 8th and as those of you who are parents of school age children know, the school year is so crazy busy it's hard to think beyond 1 week. If this school year had a musical theme it would be Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train. In addition to getting through high school applications and 8th grade graduation for Michael and moving to a new school for Catie, my husband who had a very flexible substitute teacher schedule, was asked to fill in the rest of the school year at one of our local Catholic schools for a teacher who had to suddenly retire. He's teaching a 4th grade class with a couple students who have decided he needs a challenge. His last day of school is June 4th, two days before we fly out.

I, on the other hand, work from home which is a saving grace because instead of going out to lunch with co-workers, I'm able to make a quick sandwich and focus on getting things packed. Not that I've done much of that yet.

I will take a step back and give you the overall itinerary of our trip which will explain the name of this post.

• Saturday, June 6 - fly out of DIA to Seattle at 7am (except for Catie, we're early risers). We'll stay the night in Seattle at La Quinta downtown.
• Sunday, June 7 - hop an Amtrak to Vancouver (early morning, Catie's not thrilled) where our expected arrival time is 11:30 am. We're staying at the Pan Pacific in Vancouver.
• Monday, June 8th - board our beloved Disney Wonder!
• Monday, June 8th - June 15 - cruise beautiful Alaska
• Monday, June 15 - stay the night at Pan Pacific
• Tuesday, June 16 - early morning train to Seattle and an evening flight back to Denver
• Wednesday, June 17 - cry my eyes out because we're no longer on vacation

This is my intro but I'll post again later to go into details about preparation (guess I should get started so I have something to post!) and what our detailed plans are for site seeing and excursions.

More to come!

 

[Flower1]

We are on the same cruise!!

 

[CatDenver]

Awesome, Flower! Have you started any packing yet?

 

[xlxo]

Cascadia welcomes you...

 

[Flower1]

I've just put clothes aside for the family. As soon as I organize myself and look closely at our trip I'll start putting outfits together and gathering stuff up like jackets, gloves and stuff like that. I'm trying to concentrate on finishing up the school year with my kids.

 

[CatDenver]

A good friend from our first DCL cruise sailed to Alaska last May and sent me a letter (paper, envelope, stamp!) with a summary of the trip and some good tips. I'll share here as I had not seen some of this info before.

Blake's Tips
1. If the ship slows way down, typically this is an indicator there is wildlife near the ship and it's a good time to get on the top deck to check out the action.
2. Another indicator of wildlife is if you hear people getting excited.
3. Pack binoculars. He had two pairs, one for him and one for his wife.
4. The day we go to Tracy Arm is the coldest. Wear extra clothes and heavy gloves.
5. The day we go through Tracy Arm the basketball court will be setup as a kids club. Near the Foosball area they'll have hot soup in bread bowls, fresh cookies, and hot chocolate and more. There's supposed to be some sort of a barbecue grill as well but Blake never saw it. They also passout throws for people who are freezing their tatas off. This is also the day the characters walk around the desk in their Alaskan outfits.
6. We'll see land most of the cruise but it will be all trees and mountains. Few if any houses. The views were amazing and they found they did very little activities on the ship because they were enjoying the view so much.
7. He recommends doing an excursion in Juneau because there wasn't much to see or do in the area near the ship, mostly just tourist shops.
8. In Ketchikan they walked from the ship to a creek where they could see fish. There's a trail they took up the mountain which had stairs to guide them. They got a great view of the ship. Generally it was a lot of walking but they really enjoyed it. He sent a map so I'll scan it and post at some point.
9. From a packing perspective they packed a few extras to account for clothes getting wet. Their shoes got soaked one day so they had to make sure they had an extra pair of walking shoes to change into. Same goes for outerwear. I guess the weather is so unpredictable that it's best to be prepared. Don't forget umbrellas!

That's it for now. Lunch break is almost over so until next time, ta ta!

 

[xlxo]

5. The day we go through Tracy Arm the basketball court will be setup as a kids club. Near the Foosball area they'll have hot soup in bread bowls, fresh cookies, and hot chocolate and more. There's supposed to be some sort of a barbecue grill as well but Blake never saw it. They also passout throws for people who are freezing their tatas off. This is also the day the characters walk around the desk in their Alaskan outfits.
6. We'll see land most of the cruise but it will be all trees and mountains.
9. From a packing perspective they packed a few extras to account for clothes getting wet. Their shoes got soaked one day so they had to make sure they had an extra pair of walking shoes to change into. Same goes for outerwear. I guess the weather is so unpredictable that it's best to be prepared. Don't forget umbrellas!
That's it for now. Lunch break is almost over so until next time, ta ta!

Yes the BBQ is hard to find during Tracy Arm....

• Go join the buffet line on Deck 9
• Then walk outside the back (aft) to join a second line to the BBQ line.
• Deck 4 is also worthy to check out.... on my trip one photographer was on Deck 9 in the rain, but I heard the others were hiding on Deck 4 when it was dry with the characters.

About point 6... I agree, there was times I wondered about going to Tracy Arm. Of course Sawyer was the highlight.

June is typically dry in Alaska, but wetter in Vancouver. You can get umbrellas in Vancouver.

 

[sdjen]

Thanks for posting. Can't wait to hear about your trip! Have you decided what excursions you are doing?

 

[Flower1]

Those are good tips, thank you! I really need to consider weather. Since we have none here where we live it's hard for me to wrap my head around cold and rainy!

 

[CatDenver]

Those are good tips, thank you! I really need to consider weather. Since we have none here where we live it's hard for me to wrap my head around cold and rainy!

I had the same thought. We've been focused on packing for cold temps but I haven't focused so much on rain gear. In Colorado we don't get much rain so we'll need to get some extra umbrellas and some of us need rain jackets.

 

[CatDenver]

Thanks for posting. Can't wait to hear about your trip! Have you decided what excursions you are doing?

It took some time but we finally agreed on our three. They are:
* Skagway - White Pass Railroad & Skagway Streetcar (Blake and his wife did this one and really enjoyed it)
* Juneau - Mendenhall Glacier Float Trip
* Ketchikan - Lighthouse, Totem, and Eagles

By the way, I'm glad you asked this question because I looked at our reservations on the DCL web site to ensure I get the excursion names correct. Turns out I had reserved the wrong Skagway excursion. I had reserved the White Pass Railway & Trail Camp instead so I was able to fix that. There are a few White Pass type excursions so I should have doublechecked when I reserved it to make sure I had the right one. So thanks for asking the question!

None of the helicopter or airplane excursions were an option for us as my husband has a deathly fear of small aircraft. From a budget perspective those would be a stretch anyway.

 

[sdjen]

Those sound fun. We aren't cursing until August but we booked private excursions. We are doing a whale watching tour in Juneau, ziplining and dogsledding in Skagway and a helicopter tour in Ketchikan. So excited!

Can't wait to hear the details do your trip if you have time to post.

 

[CatDenver]

Here we are 3 weeks until we sail, less than 3 weeks before we fly out. We've been so busy with the end of school year and graduation that now we're frantically looking for gaps in what we need so we can get our orders into Amazon. Winter gear is clearly out of the stores now so I've gone online to order gloves, hats, and other cold weather clothing. How many gloves and hats can one family lose in a winter? It's just crazy! It's like there's this black hole where all these things go along with the single sock. Oh well.....I'm trying out Amazon Prime so thankfully orders are getting to me in 2 days. I ordered a new winter jacket as the one I have is old and I probably should have bought a new one before everything was pulled out of the stores. Not sure what I was thinking about the color scheme but I ordered lime green ski gloves two weeks ago to go with my original black jacket so they'd be easy to find since the guys have black gloves. However, the new coat I ordered is an eggplant color. So what comes to mind is that with a purplish coat and green gloves I now have the Incredible Hulk color scheme going. I think living with two guys who are Marvel fanatics are rubbing off on me.

Today we'll begin packing as I'm feeling a bit antsy. I feel like if the packing begins then it will make the time to leave seem shorter. I had actually started packing winter coats and boots until we got hit with a snowstorm last week. I think we're safe so I can at least pack sweaters, boots, etc. Still not comfortable that we have good rain gear so will have to hit Marshall's and Ross to see what I can find. Checked umbrellas and one of them needs to be tossed. I'm keeping an eye on Vancouver weather via this site: http://www.accuweather.com/en/ca/vancouver/v5y/june-weather/53286?monyr=6/1/2015. In another group someone asked if there was anyone packing shorts. I'm pretty sure we'll be as we've been known to wear shorts here in Colorado in winter. It's actually a common sight to see snow on the ground and people in sweaters, boots, and shorts.
The first two paragraphs I wrote yesterday and then left, forgetting to finish up. In the meantime my coat and two fleece tops were delivered today! And by the way, I didn't start packing as I said I would in paragraph 2. So tonight for sure I'm going to at least make my list of what's getting packed.

The last thing to order are binoculars. We have a pair that are pretty old, though they still kind of work. My husband did some research and explained what the numbers mean but of course I've forgotten. All I know is he found a pair on eBay he thought would be good for this trip but of course, I'm trying to get him using Amazon. Here's what we ordered: http://www.amazon.com/Bushnell-Wate...84665&sr=1-7&keywords=bushnell+binoculars#Ask. We ordered the 8X42mm which is supposed to be good for long range viewing. They weigh just under 2 pounds but when I first read the question of how much it weighs I thought it said 27 pounds. I was thinking I'll have arms like Popeye before the trip is over. Talk about an airhead! I clearly didn't think through that one! Haahaha! Actually the person answering the question said it weighed 27 ounces, not pounds. Clearly my brain is fogged and I need a vacation!

 

[CatDenver]

Just ordered a few goodies to be delivered to our stateroom. The last time we sailed I ordered the Sweet Welcome and an Elegant Farewell, which is a bottle of Martini & Rossi Asti Spumante awaiting us in our cabin on embarkation and a bottle of Korbel Brut Champagne for our last night at sea. That turned out to be such a nice treat. We shared the champagne with our wonderful table mates last time. Yes, I could have bought the two bottles cheaper at a local liquor store but it was so nice not having to schlepp bottles around and this trip especially I'm trying to minimize what we carry on.

Also ordered 4 Rainforest 1-day passes, 2 for me and 2 for hubby. We didn't try it our last two times sailing but definitely want to this time around.

The last items I ordered were for two beer mugs where you get 22 oz for the price of 16 oz. We have two mugs from the last trip and I want to expand it to four! We're not real big on souvenirs but this is something we would use after we get home.

 

[CatDenver]

Holy majoly! Just came to the realization that mosquitoes are a problem in Alaska, especially if on an excursion near water. I was looking at various packing lists and saw bug spray with DEET mentioned several times. Here's a link with more info on that situation. http://www.alaska.org/advice/mosquitoes-in-alaska

 

[jbland]

This is GREAT! We are planning on the cruise in July. I will be following.