Trip Report Disneyland by way of Alaska

stillgoofy · Oct 7, 2014

Day 1 – Sunday, August 31-Vancouver
Well we had an early flight today, around 7:30, so we had to get up around 4:00am. We took a shuttle bus to the airport as they have a direct bus service from Ann Arbor to Detroit airport which is about half hour away. The bus leaves from a hotel only a few miles from our house and you can leave your car at the hotel so it’s there when you return. Usually I have someone take us to the airport but that didn’t work out this time so this bus was a very cheap and efficient way to get there and worked out great. We got to the airport quickly and went inside to check our bags. Yikes, you should have seen the line. Where did all these people come from? Well the line moved pretty quickly and before we knew it we were up there. While in the line I was watching all these poor people who had packed their bags overweight and having to open them to take stuff out. I learned years ago about suitcase weight and had a handheld suitcase scale which has come in very handy over the years. Of course, I carefully packed and redistributed weight in my suitcases and then weighed them prior to leaving home. All set, no problem. Well guess again, I now became one of the suckers who had an overweight bag and had to take stuff out. I have no idea how this happened. I’m sure their scale was wrong; it couldn’t have been my little hand-held scale J. So luckily I had packed all of our underwear & socks in a small bag and stuffed them into the suitcase, so when it came time to empty items out of the overweight suitcase, I just pulled this bag out and the weight was now fine. Now in my defense we did have to pack quite a bit of clothes we wouldn’t normally take on a Disney vacation (jackets, sweatshirts, hats, mittens, layers) due to the unpredictable weather I’ve heard about in Alaska. Well we got the bags checked and we were on our way to the gate, bag of underwear in tow. At least if they lost our luggage we would have plenty of underwear. Shallon thought that was hilarious taking a bag of underwear on the plane with us. Gotta do what you gotta do.

Well we arrived at our gate and although we were not taking a direct flight (we would be switching planes in Minneapolis/St. Paul) it seemed like everyone on our flight was going to Alaska. By the sounds of it most were cruising other lines, not Disney. Well the first leg of this flight, the plane was half empty so they were letting people move around and sit in open rows. Kinda nice since it was pretty tight quarters otherwise. This also helped with giving Shallon a little more room to stretch out her foot (and take off the boot cast) on the flight with only having 2 in our row instead of 3. The flight attendant came around to offer us refreshments and we both got ginger-ale which Shallon thought was cool having pop for breakfast. I had brought bagels to eat and that was our express breakfast for the day. It was a pretty quick flight to Minn/St. Paul and then we had about 45 min until our next flight which was no problem because connecting flights are always at a close gate, right? Wrong, we needed to be in a completely different wing of the airport and we walked and walked and walked. It seriously must have been about a mile through that airport to the next gate. If I knew that ahead of time I would have grabbed a wheelchair to make it quicker and easier for hop-along-Shallon. Oh well, we made it in time and this flight was not so lucky for being half empty. Actually they had oversold it (heard that one before) and were offering a later flight plus $600 per person to change. Wow, if we had more than a half day in Vancouver I would have jumped at that. Think how many Alaskan cruise excursions we could have paid off with and extra $1200. Oh well, we only had that day in Vancouver, so I quickly put that get-rich-quick scheme out of my head. On this flight we were seated way in the back a couple rows away from the bathroom. Luckily we weren’t on the aisle because our aisle person kept getting slammed into by all the people waiting in line for the bathroom. The flight was pretty uneventful and the views flying over the mountains and coming into Vancouver were fabulous.

We got into Vancouver airport and already had our customs forms filled out that they gave us on the plane. I grabbed a wheelchair this time for Shallon and it was really helpful getting through the airport and down to customs with this. Also they had a shorter customs line for those in wheelchairs. Totally unplanned but I’m not opposed to a shorter line. After customs we went to get our luggage but it was not coming out yet. At this point I really had to go to the bathroom and of course the closest one was way out in the boonies. What’s up with that? Usually in airports you can find a bathroom anywhere close. Not too long after that, our bags came out so I grabbed a baggage cart and loaded up. At this point I had to ditch the wheelchair because I couldn’t push both Shallon and the luggage. After her short rest period she was ready to walk anyway. So we got in the super-long line to exit the immigration area. The line was huge but moved pretty quickly. We then hit the ATM machine for some Canadian cash I wanted to have on hand to pay for taxi and food while in Vancouver. We wheeled out front for a taxi and they had this very organized line for getting a taxi and worked out well. We were at our hotel in about 30 minutes. We were staying at the Pan Pacific which had the added bonus of being right on top of the cruise port, can’t get any more convenient than that.

stillgoofy · Oct 7, 2014

Generally the Pan Pacific is very, very expensive but I booked it far in advance and then rebooked when I found lower prices and we got a fabulous deal for about $200. We tried to check-in when we got there but the room wasn’t yet. No biggie, we had plans to spend the day at Grouse Mountain. It was now around 1:00 Vancouver time (3 hours earlier than back home). We left our suitcases with bell services and checked with concierge when the next free bus to Grouse Mountain was. Usually the bus runs about every half hour but wouldn’t be running the next hour except for the bus that left in 5 minutes, so we hoofed it downstairs and just made the bus. The drive to Grouse Mountain took about 20 minutes and was a beautiful drive. We went over Lion’s Gate Bridge and then entered forest land and had fantastic views back over the Vancouver harbor and downtown.

stillgoofy · Oct 7, 2014

We bought our tickets to go up to Grouse Mountain on the skyride.

The ticket actually includes many things you can do up on the mountain which I’ll cover in a minute. The skyride was ready and waiting so we climbed in, although it looked packed and I didn’t think we would fit. Boy was I wrong. They said it only had 75 people on it and it holds 100. Seriously, how can they do this? Well they packed in about a dozen more people after this which was a very tight squeeze; people were already stepping on top of each other. I’m sure it was great for those who happened to be next to a window, but the view for those on the inside was only of other people. I managed to lift my camera up over my head and snap a few pictures although I couldn’t really tell what I was getting in the shot.

The ride up there took 8 minutes and was quite far up the mountain. OK, so they have this thing called the Grouse Grind which is when people actually walk up the mountain on a staircase with over 2800 steps. I guess it takes people about 1 ½-2 hours to do this. Not sure what would motivate anyone to do this, it was definitely not on my bucket list. I would be half dead by the time I made it there. And the catch is you can’t go back down, once you start up you have to keep going up.

stillgoofy · Oct 7, 2014

At this point we were starving because we hadn’t eaten since our bagel breakfast on the plane in the morning and it was now about 2:00 (or 5:00 back home). They had several restaurants and cafes up top so we picked the counter service one thinking it would be much faster that the sit-down ones. Not so, they had plenty of people working but these folks could definitely not multi-task so it moved really slow. I was so hungry I almost jumped over the counter and made myself a sandwich but I’m sure that wouldn’t have gone over real well. Shallon wanted pizza which they sold by the slice but I knew that wouldn’t be enough for her. No problem there because my burger combo came with a pound of fries. Yes a pound of fries is how it’s listed on the menu and that’s how it came, more than plenty for both of us, we couldn’t even begin to finish those. That’s ok because we had to get moving anyway because the lumberjack show (included in admission) was starting in a few minutes and we still had to walk to that area. The show was good with a lot of corny jokes but that made it fun. They had 2 lumberjacks that competed in sawing, axe throwing, tree climbing, log rolling, etc.

One of the guys was a 3-time world tree climbing champion and boy was he fast. There was a guy who pretended to be an audience member and while the other guys were log rolling, he climbed up the big tree poles which were very tall. When he got up there he was still pretending he didn’t know what he was doing.

On top of this pole he sat, stood up, stood on his head, juggled, pretended to fall off and then the zipline that he secretly tethered himself to caught him. Everyone gasped.

stillgoofy · Oct 7, 2014

There also was a bird demonstration (included in admission) with eagles, falcons and owls that was quite interesting. The birds were beautiful.

We then went and saw the bears they have up there. They had 2 rescue bears that are in captivity but in a big outdoor area and look like they have it pretty good. They were both in the water, one just walking around and lounging.

The other which was quite playful. He kept standing on his hind legs (he was very tall) and then was in the water playing with a big branch.

He kept pushing it down and rolling it around in the water and then he would grab it. My, what big claws he had.

They also had park rangers who gave talks about the bears and answered any questions. In case you want to see how big different bears are, this is how Shallon measured up.

stillgoofy · Oct 7, 2014

We wandered through the park looking at the overlooks and at all of the tree trunk carvings. These were so beautiful and huge.

There were other features of Grouse Mountain that had additional admission like a chair lift farther up the mountain, a windmill with an observation area in the top of it, and zip lining. We didn’t do any of this additional stuff as it was getting quite chilly up there and we were super tired. As we were heading back to the skyride, we saw a bride, groom and wedding party having their pictures taken. What a great place for a wedding although it was a bit chilly, I think some of the ladies in the strapless dresses were feeling the chill. Well the skyride was ready and waiting for us and not quite as packed this time, still a lot of people but I didn’t feel like a sardine this time. Plus it was warm. At the bottom we waited for the bus for about 10 minutes and were on our way back to the Pan Pacific.

stillgoofy · Oct 7, 2014

When we got there we were so tired from the long day and I spotted a Tim Horton’s across the street so we ran over there and picked up a couple Panini’s for dinner since I knew we wouldn’t want to run back out. I also picked up a couple items for a quick breakfast in the morning. We went back to the check-in desk at the Pan Pacific and our room was ready and they already delivered our luggage to the room, nice touch. We were on the 8th floor and were in a city view room. I asked if they had any harbor view rooms but they said no I would have to keep our city view. No biggie. Imagine my surprise when we got to our room and had a harbor view. The pool was on the 8th floor outside and we could see that and some walkways and then past that the harbor.

Not the prime harbor view, but awesome just the same. The room was very nice and the beds very plush, but I don’t like when they give me a key to the mini-bar especially when I am starving. Now I have not stayed in very many posh, upscale hotels but what’s up with the phone in the bathroom? This was in the separate small split room area with the toilet, just a toilet and a phone. Not sure what to make of that, maybe it’s a Canada thing or a Vancouver thing or maybe there’s no logic to it at all other than make folks like me ponder. We scarfed down our Panini’s and watched a little TV but we were so bushed that we went to bed at 6:30. Now this was 9:30 our time back home and we had been up since 4:00am and running around all day so I guess it was ok, but it was still light outside. We slept very well that night.

stillgoofy · Oct 7, 2014

Day 2 – Monday, September 1-Embark DCL
Woke up super early, of course because we went to bed at 6:30. I finally got out of bed at 4:30 because I just couldn’t lie there anymore and took a shower. I think it’s going to take us a couple days to adjust to this 3-hour time change. Well even though it was early, I had slept for 10 hours so I felt very rested. Since I just threw down everything in the room last night, now I needed to go through stuff and re-pack. I can put more stuff in the suitcase now since the weight doesn’t matter anymore. I can even pack the underwear in this time and don’t have to hand-carry it on the ship. We took plenty of time getting up and ready since we had plenty of time. After a while we went out on a walkabout out to the pool deck right outside our window to see the ship.

There she was, but not a great view because one of their walkways was blocked off.

So we continued our walkabout down on Canada Place and scoped out the ship from real close up. We could almost touch it.

Got a bunch of pictures of the ship and found our room easily and took a picture of that too from the outside. We were in a category 7A Navigator’s verandah room which I specially picked for the Alaskan cruise. We’ve had balconies before and while the wide open, free blowing balconies are great for the Bahamas and Caribbean, I thought a more enclosed, protected from the Alaskan cool breezes, would be a good choice for this cruise. We hit that one right on target, this balcony was so awesome for this trip. I knew we had the first Navigator’s verandah in the row so it was quite easy to find from Canada Place. See that’s us, top row on the right of the porthole verandahs.

We ran into another family with young children also checking out the ship. This would be their first cruise and boy were they excited. I reassured them about making the right choice in Disney and also echoed their excitement about Alaska. We also saw the folks disembarking the cruise with that semi-deflated “my cruise is over” look on their faces, but I was too excited to worry about that. Plus I knew in another week we’d have the same look. We walked around some more and passed a Starbuck’s and while I’m not a coffee drinker, a hot chocolate sounded really good right about now. So we both got hot chocolates and headed back to the room to eat our mini breakfast we picked up the night before. Well Shallon must have been so excited about her hot chocolate because it wasn’t more than 20 seconds after I put it down on the night stand that she went for it and sent it flying, top came off and it splattered everywhere, floor, bed, you name it. So we grabbed towels to clean it up from the bed and carpet and by this point our socks are brown from the cocoa and you should have seen the towels. Shortly afterward I called for the bell services to come get our luggage and take down to port, another bonus of staying onsite. They pick up your suitcases from the hotel room and you see them next in your stateroom on the ship. I loved this. We went down to check out and I mentioned the hot chocolate debacle so they didn’t think we were complete slobs when they saw the towels (and floor) and that it was in fact an accident. We got in the elevator, pushed the button and in about 30 seconds we were in the terminal. How incredibly convenient is that?

stillgoofy · Oct 7, 2014

We checked in at port going through customs, immigration and then DCL check-in. A different process than in Port Canaveral obviously but not necessarily painful as we got through quickly and got boarding #4. We got our picture with Mickey in the port and waited to board.

The wait was no more than an hour and since we got there early anyway I figured this wasn’t bad at all. What I didn’t find out until later is that apparently there were some major probs in the terminal with staffing shortages due to Labor Day (yes they observe that in Canada also). Apparently the folks that arrived later had to wait up to 3 hours for a single line and there were 3 lines to go through. This was so bad that the ship did not even sail on time. We had no clue about these terminal problems until we arrived at dinner that night (more on that later).

As soon as we boarded we headed to Port Adventures desk to get tickets for Anna & Elsa, thanks to whoever on the boards mentioned this so I knew about it ahead of time. Also I was prepared to jump on the free internet package offered on the first day only. I always unplug on vacation and don’t really have the need for internet but I thought this small package would allow me to check email daily and send a couple pictures on Tracy Arm day to the folks back home. This free internet package was perfect for this and I never needed any more.

We were kinda hungry so we went to Beach Blanket Buffet to stuff our faces. Ok, so the whole cruise I kept calling this place the Beach Blanket Bingo (I guess that dates me a bit). This buffet is quite different from Cabanas on the Dream & Fantasy because it is all in one line instead of separate stations. Also it is much smaller but we were hungry and filled out plates only to realize that at the end was another counter that had pasta and chicken fried rice. Oh well, the plates were already full at this point. The dessert bar looked great and I was already eyeballing what I wanted before I even started my meal. But trying to set the good example for Shallon (who by the way is majorly food-obsessed) we waited until after the meal to get our desserts.

We then explored the ship which was still quite empty and took pictures everywhere. This was our first cruise on one of the classic ships so I was anxious to see the differences, other than size of the ship.

I loved the Outlook Café which looked down over the adult pool and had some great ambiance. Since all the kids clubs had Open House, we went to check all those out which were pretty cool but not as elaborate as on the Dream/Fantasy. Now Shallon would be perfectly happy to spend every day in one of those clubs, but due to her age of 24 we have to take advantage of the Open Houses. For young adults with special needs they’re kinda stuck in between, too old for the kids clubs but not ready for the adult bar scene. So we’ll stop back in during Open House to do some arts & crafts or coloring which Shallon loves. When we went into the Vibe I was asking the cast members how busy it usually gets in there. They said it depends on the time of the year but most cruises over the summer or busier season they will have several hundred eligible kids to come to the club (not necessarily that they will come but they are of the age group to be eligible to come). But this cruise they had only 19 eligible. Since this was a Labor Day cruise and last Alaskan cruise of the season, most kids just went back to school. This was actually a great time to cruise both for price and for crowds.

stillgoofy · Oct 7, 2014

By now it was time for our room to be ready so we went and checked that out. We were in room 7622 which was aft with a navigator’s verandah. This was a great location and quick and easy access to food & drinks up on main deck. Also, quick access to the main dining room restaurants as both Parrot Cay and Animator’s Palate were just a quick ride down the aft elevator. The aft elevators aren’t as busy as the mid-ship elevators so that was easy to get one when needed. Of course it also may have had to do with the ship not having as many people as the Dream/Fantasy class. So we went out to the verandah and waived to all the people standing out on Canada Place which was now getting busier.

I took some pictures from this side back onto Canada Place which was a nice perspective. Then we went and explored the secret deck on the aft of deck 7.

This was so cool, big, open, empty, and still semi-secret that it even exists. I think the Wonder is the last ship that has this secret deck.

So now my mind was wandering to later at night when I always get a craving for sweets so we went back up to the buffet and grabbed a few sweets, some ice cream and some drinks and headed back to the room to kick back a bit. We put the desserts in the fridge for later and ate our ice cream. Now I had heard about the ice boxes on the Wonder instead of actual refrigerators like the Dream/Fantasy. When we first got to the room and I looked at it, it looked just like an ice box and I was anticipating needing buckets of ice to keep stuff cold. But it kept things cold the whole trip so maybe this is upgraded, I don’t know but it worked well for us for drinks, desserts, yogurts, etc throughout the cruise. One of our suitcases arrived shortly after which was still pretty early. So I started unpacking and putting stuff away. Now there was tons of storage space in this room, it seemed much more than on the Dream/Fantasy. There were lots cabinets and drawers, way more than we needed. Now it was only two of us in the room but we’ve always used most of the drawer/cabinet space on other ships and this time we brought a lot more clothes and layers. Well as soon as I finished emptying the suitcase the second one had arrived so got all that unpacking out of the way pretty early.

We hung in the room until lifeboat drill which was in Animator’s Palate for us. Pretty quick and uneventful and then we headed up to the Sail-away Party. They were handing out these gold pom-pom sticks which were quite a hit with Shallon.

We watched the deck above and had a great view.

Party was fun, then the countdown to sail, then the horn, then nothing….that is right we didn’t actually sail. I kept waiting and waiting because I wanted to get pictures as we sailed out under the Lion’s Gate Bridge but it didn’t happen. At this point we had to go get dressed for dinner since we were on main seating.

stillgoofy · Oct 7, 2014

Our first night’s dinner was at the Animator’s Palate and we went in and were seated at an 8-top table by ourselves. Were we early or what? Very shortly after our table mates came in. We were at a table with three other couples, one couple from Delaware, one couple from Indianapolis, and another couple from Montreal. The couple from Delaware was on their 5th cruise, just like us so we were both getting Gold status on this cruise. At the beginning of the dinner, they offered everyone one free specialty drink to make up for the major inconvenience and long wait in the terminal. Did I mention that we still hadn’t sailed away yet, they were still boarding people? Our tablemates from Montreal were stuck in that fiasco in the terminal for several hours and just rolled their eyes when asked about it. They were part of the folks that had to wait 3 hours and this was in the afternoon when the major crowds should already be on the ship and not in the terminal. They must have gone down to a skeleton crew in the terminal because it didn’t seem bad when we went through. I felt bad for those who were stuck. We enjoyed dinner and the show at Animator’s Palate that night. This was the first time we’ve seen this show where everything goes from black & white to color. Toward the end of dinner, we felt the ship finally sailing. It must have been at least 7:30.

After dinner we went into the shops to do a quick shopping for Alaska merchandise. Since we were on the last Alaskan cruise of the season all of the Alaskan merchandise was 40% off. I read that in someone’s trip report and it wasn’t advertised in the Navigator so I wanted to jump on it before the major crowds. Too late, the word was out and the Treasure Ketch, which had most of the Alaskan merchandise, was a mad house. But we nudged through because we didn’t want to miss any of this special stuff before it sells out. I figured I could shop for the other regular stuff on a different day. Well they did have quite a few things left but I only got a t-shirt, magnet, pin, and some DCL gloves (even though we brought our own I felt we needed DCL ones instead, as if our hands would be more cozy & warm). Oh and I also got a Chamilia charm of Steamboat Willie for my Pandora bracelet, didn’t want to miss out on that one either. Can’t wait to see the new charms we’ll get to choose from now that Pandora has partnered with Disney. Right across the way at Mickey’s Mates Shallon spotted some Frozen stuff so we had to go check on that in case the masses cleared the shelves of that stuff to. So she got a little figurine pack with the characters as well as an Olaf stuffed animal. Shallon gets a small stuffed animal on each of our trips but she has to squeeze it to make sure it’s nice and squishy. Don’t want any of those hard stuffed characters as they must not be as good of huggers. Well Olaf passed the squish test and he joined the rest of our treasures in the bag.

Shallon was so tired at this point and wanted to skip the first night show which was a magician, I think. I was tired too as I was still adjusting to the time change, it doesn’t seem like it should be that hard. But I did get up at 4:30am so I guess rest was in the picture. Got to the room and saw our first towel animal which was a dog and the bed turned down and ready to go. Then I noticed that our drink carrier was gone. I brought one of those cardboard drink carriers as suggested by my friend “she who must not be named” to carry several drinks back to the room at a time. This is such a great idea and makes this so easy. Plus with only 2 people we could put 4 drinks in there, 2 for now and 2 for the fridge for later. Or better yet, we could each get a drink and an ice cream for now (which we always put in cups). But the drink carrier was gone. Seriously, this was the first night and it hadn’t even been used yet and it was on top of a shelf nowhere near a trashcan and it gets thrown out. So I trudged out in search of our stateroom host only to find one that wasn’t ours but he pointed me in the other direction and sure enough there was our host. I explained the situation and within a minute or so he was back with my drink carrier, hopefully not from the bottom of a pile of mushy trash. It didn’t look dirty anyway. I did have to fold down the sofa-bed for Shallon but only on the first night. I imagine when only two people are in the room, the stateroom host might not know the sleeping arrangements. It was always ready for her every other night though. Shallon went to sleep as soon as her head hit the pillow and I stayed up to watch a movie and go through the Navigator for the next day. I fell asleep a bit later and did feel some motion during the night but not much. I once again, slept very well.

stillgoofy · Oct 7, 2014

Day 3 – Tuesday, September 2-At Sea Day
Got up around 6:30, pretty normal for me on vacation as I’m usually an early riser. One thing I noticed about the stateroom is that the bathroom seemed smaller, especially the split side with the toilet. Maybe it’s because the door opens in instead of out like the other ships. But I was always felt cramped and running into the wall, counter, door and I’ve never had before. Also the towels didn’t seem to be as thick as previous cruises and they didn’t have the familiar DCL logo on them. But enough of my complaining, these were little gripes that I was fine with after all I was on a Disney cruise. This morning we had our scheduled character breakfast in Parrot Cay. We only knew about this breakfast because someone just happened to mention it on our way out from dinner the night before, but otherwise I had no idea. I guess it was printed on our dinner tickets but when I went back to look at them, it was printed right over top of some of the DCL logo stuff on the ticket stock and I could barely ready even when I was trying. No wonder I didn’t see it initially. But we did find out, we did go, and we had a lot of fun. We’ve never been to a character meal on DCL since we’ve only cruised the big ships before and they don’t have them. The breakfast was good and the waiters made funny hats out of the colorful cloth napkins for everyone in the restaurant. This was really a hoot especially for those you could tell were not into this kind of standing out behavior. The characters came by and we had plenty of chances to get pictures. It was very helpful that the character handler would take our individual cameras and take picture for everyone, especially at a table like ours with 4 separate couples so we didn’t all have to get up and down and move around.

Today was an at-sea day and we started to sail into the inner passage of southeast Alaska which is so nice because there is beautiful scenery on both sides of the boat.

It was a cooler day today but it didn’t stop some kids from swimming in the pools, which are quite heated on this itinerary. We then hit up the future cruise sales desk which I wanted to take care of early in the cruise. I was ready to book two more cruises, one for just Shallon and I and another for me to go with a group of new friends, without Shallon. So I got both of these booked and got the discount on one but OBC’s on both. We then popped right outside for some chilly, windy shuffleboard. Shallon and I love to play this on the cruises although we never really keep score. These decks weren’t as slippery as the ones on the other ships so you had to put a lot of force into the puck (is that what it’s even called?) to get it to the other end. Well the game was short lived anyway because it was just too darn chilly and we weren’t bundled up yet. So we headed back inside and scoped out the gift shops again, this time in very leisurely fashion. The cast member who checked us out the night before asked Shallon if Olaf was squishy enough to sleep with. We ran into her several times over the period of the cruise and she always reached out to Shallon and initiated a friendly conversation. Very nice and refreshing to experience this Disney magic. Well with still a minor chill to the bones, it was time for some hot chocolate and back to the room for a short time. There were having family crafts in the Animators Palate and since Shallon loves arts & crafts, we checked it out. We made foam animal mask from kits, although the cast member didn’t really know what pieces went where. Some of the animals were easier than others to figure out, but a couple were downright baffling, like the giraffe I picked and the elephant Shallon picked. Seems like there would be some kind of directions for these, especially for the really young children. But I guess that’s why they put the “art” in arts & crafts so it’s all a matter of interpretation. It’s not like we’re getting graded on these so if I want all my giraffe spots on one side of the head so be it.

There was an Alaskan naturalist onboard who would be giving talks and today’s talk was on Bears. I really wanted to check this out so we only had a little bit of time before it started. We headed up top for a quickie lunch of pizza and back down to the theater for this presentation. This was fantastic and the speaker was very knowledgeable and engaging. He had retired from the park services in Alaska and he definitely knew his stuff. This would not be the last time we heard him speak throughout the cruise. We then went and watched Maleficent in 3D. Although we had already seen this at the movie at home, it was great to see in 3D. We went back to the room after that. Tonight was formal night and we’re not real formal folks so we skipped the MDR which was Triton’s. So we went to the early show of the Golden Mickey’s which is always so good and a great way to kick off the cruise. But when we went in to get a seat there was one lady sitting at the end of the row with about 15-20 empty seats right past her in the row that she wasn’t saving for anybody. Now I have no prob with someone wanting an aisle seat but this lady seemed extremely inconvenienced to let us through to get to some of the empty seats. Seriously, go find an aisle seat of a full row. After the show we went up to Beach Blanket Bingo (I mean Buffet) for a sit down meal there. I got a rib eye steak and baked potato and when it came out the steak was as big as the plate. How embarrassing, but it was really good. I have to say that I did not keep notes or take pictures of the food we ate on our trip (I know bad TR award for no food photos). Oh yeah I did take food pictures in Palo, more on that later. Back to BBB, dinner was great but the service was the slowest I have ever experienced. I felt like just getting up and getting the stuff myself. Now I am a very patient person especially with folks who I know are training and need more time, but this was a bit much overkill on the slow side. During dinner a couple families in the window seats spotted a whale which we rushed over to see, totally invading their dinner space (but that’s ok if there is cool wildlife to see, right?). Shallon saw the whale but I missed it. We went back to the room around 9:30 and we had to turn clocks back an hour tonight. Good thing I was finally getting used to the time change because this now put us 4 hours behind time at home. We hung on the balcony for a while and watched this small boat zooming right towards the ship. And sure enough it came right alongside and docked against the side of the boat. A couple guys came out of the cabin and threw 2 lifejackets to someone on the ship. Shortly after that 2 people with backpacks got off the ship onto the small boat and they sped away off to Never-neverland. Shallon went to bed and I stayed up and watch Monuments Men on TV.

stillgoofy · Oct 7, 2014

Day 4 – Wednesday, September 3-Tracy Arm Day
Got up this morning to a beautiful sunrise and took some pictures off the balcony.

I was really looking forward to Tracy Arm day as I have read so much about it from other trip reports. It was supposed to be about 50 degrees today and was a bit cloudy but we just dressed in layers. We went up to Beach Blanket Buffet for breakfast. Now when I am at home, not on vacation, I try to eat as healthy as possible without eating a ton of junk food. It doesn’t always work out that way, but I usually do pretty well. So when I see certain junk food I try to resist and put it in my mind that I need to wait for vacation to eat that. During vacation, I don’t care what I eat after all I have waited so long and the eating is part of the vacation “prize”. So one of the things that I am so totally in love with from Cabanas on the Dream/Fantasy is the Krispy Kreme donuts, you know the glazed ones with the chocolate on top, major YUM! These donuts are like the “visions of sugar plums dancing in my head” throughout the year as I walk past them in our local grocery store repeating to myself “wait for the cruise, wait for the cruise”. So you can imagine my disappointment when we went into our first breakfast buffet for the cruise and found that they don’t have these donuts, but instead some other brand. Now to be fair, I tried the chocolate covered donut but it did not even come close to living up to par. I didn’t eat any more donuts the whole cruise. Probably all the better, I didn’t need the extra donut weight anyway but still kinda sad. One thing I don’t like about Beach Blanket Buffet is that it is very small with real limited seating. We ran into this problem every time we ate in there for breakfast or lunch. Luckily after we were aimlessly searching for a table, one of our table mate couples was seated and invited us over to theirs. Love new friends; never know when you’ll need to lean on them for something.
We had our reserved ticket time at 9:00 to go meet Anna & Elsa so we headed over to Animator’s Palate where this was taking place. Shallon brought her new Olaf stuffed animal because after all what is a picture with the Frozen ladies without Olaf. When you get into Animator’s Palate, they direct you to long tables that they had pulled together with coloring pages and crayons for the kids (or kids at heart) to keep you busy while waiting for the ladies to come out. There was a big area cleared of tables with a nice Frozen backdrop for the ultimate pictures. They had let in the 9:00 & 9:15 people but there only seemed to be about a dozen per assigned time. When the ladies came out, they directed the 9:00 people up to the line and had the 9:15 people stay at the tables and color. This was such a great way to handle the flow and we never at any time felt crowded or rushed. Each person had plenty of time with the ladies. Although I felt bad for one family whose little boy would go nowhere near them and instead crawled away under the dining tables to the other side of the restaurant. Then their little girl who went all the way up in the line with them was also scared so she would come a little closer than the photographer but not close enough to get in a picture. When it was Shallon’s turn, the ladies were so excited to see Olaf and they all started making jokes and laughing about him. I took several pictures of Shallon with Anna and Elsa and then came Shallon’s obligatory hug for each of the ladies (Shallon is a real hugger). When she hugged Anna, Shallon’s glasses got caught on Anna’s hair and they were sorta stuck together at the head. It was kinda funny but could have turned bad if Shallon pulled off Anna’s wig. They may have been traumatic for some in the room. But it all worked out well and everyone parted with smiles.

Geez, I could have at least cropped out the background (told you my pictures aren’t that good).

The Alaskan naturalist was having another talk on icebergs and as we headed in we saw our table mates again who jokingly asked if we were following them. Another great talk, I feel like I was learning so much. Next up we played bingo which was held in Diversions. Now I am in no way a big gambler, but thought we’d give it a whirl. Shallon loved it too and we were real close to Bingo on all 3 games but not close enough. It was fun anyway. We headed back to Beach Blanket Buffet for the BBQ lunch being held on Tracy Arm day. In the outdoor seating area they have grills set up and are grilling up goodies like chicken, salmon, steak, etc. Now this BBQ was not advertised in the Navigator which I thought was weird especially since they were serving other menu items in the lunch line right inside. So if you didn’t stumble upon it you would have never known. I actually read about it in someone’s previous trip report. So anyway we got our BBQ goodies but there was no chance that we would get a seat in this mad house at lunch time on Tracy Arm day when every guest was in the same place. So we took our eats down to the room which was so close and convenient anyway. Much better and much more comfy.

stillgoofy · Oct 7, 2014

We started sailing into Tracy Arm and the scenery was already breathtaking. We decided since it was an outdoor day and it was chilly that hot chocolate was next on the agenda. So I ran up top to get some while Shallon lounged in the room. The hot chocolate machine was broken and a guy was working on it trying to fix it. But not to fear because they had a special table set up next to it with hot chocolate and cookies. But this bin of cocoa was almost empty; the cast member was tipping it on its side to scrape up the last few drops for some of us pathetic looking folks in line. I ended up with about a half cup for each Shallon and I but what can you do so I grabbed a couple cookies as a consolation prize and headed back to the room. Tracy Arm day was not the day to be out of cocoa, but they were working on it. I did take a quick peek out on the deck 7 secret deck because I figured that might be a good place to check out part of the Tracy Arm voyage because up top the spots were already claimed and I knew it would be packed. Well, get this…no access to the secret deck during this time unless of course you were in the wedding party for the wedding taking place. Yes, it was decorated beautifully and some lucky couple was going to be tying the knot there soon. Great for them, not for us. Oh well, we had a balcony and a navigators verandah at that, so we were all set.

We spent most of the Tracy Arm day out on our balcony and did go up top a few times. Tracy Arm was so spectacular, majestic, and there were waterfalls everywhere.

The Alaskan naturalist narrated the whole trip into Tracy Arm over the ship’s loud speakers and over the TV channel so we could hear it all from our balcony too. He did take care in several areas to turn off the narration or keep it to a minimum because Disney’s commitment to not disturb the Alaskan wildlife was very important. It just amazed me how the ship could maneuver into these areas.

As we neared the glacier, we went up top to check it out and boy was it nuts up there, especially from the front of the ship where everyone was packed in like sardines, clamoring for a spot to take a picture. This is also where we found another (unadvertised) food table with soup in a bread bowl. That was a nice touch for a cool day. It now started to rain but not hard so we wandered other areas of the top deck and got some great pictures. We found that we could easily get good pictures of the glacier for the side of the ship instead of crashing through the masses as the front.

There was one little boy swimming in the pool. It was funny to see the lifeguard so bundled up in coat, hat mittens and this one die-hard boy in the pool.

There were more kids in the pools on other days, but this was the coldest day of the cruise so not many takers today.

stillgoofy · Oct 7, 2014

We saw tons of sea lions hanging out on the chunks of ice floating in front of the glacier, they looked like dots. Seems like they each had their own chunk of ice.

They weren’t letting the massive cruise ship bother them at all, and the ship got way up there really close to the glacier (I was surprised how close). We also saw the glacier calving several times while we were there too. Calving (part of my new-found knowledge) is when a big chunk of ice breaks off the glacier and falls into the water. There is a big thunder-like sound before this happens and then a chunk of ice as big as a house crashes into the water causing a mini wave depending how big it is. It almost looks like it’s in slow motion, really cool to see. And sometimes we just saw random chunks of ice floating around.

We went back down to the room after the ship starting turning around for the voyage back out of Tracy Arm. Now we get to see the other side of Tracy Arm that we didn’t see on the way in. It was a cold day but we bundled in layers and stocking hats and gloves. Also there were fleece blankets set out all over the decks for extra bundling so we grabbed a couple to take back to the balcony with us. I can’t emphasize enough how much we loved, loved, loved having the navigator’s verandah being partially enclosed because we could actually stay out there all day while others on regular verandahs could not due to the cold. Tracy Arm is so magnificent and truly very difficult to put into words. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I’m not even sure pictures can do it justice as it is really hard to appreciate the expanse of it unless you’re plunked right down in the middle of it.

Dinner tonight was in Parrot Cay and the whole gang was there and we had fun discussing our day. After dinner we skipped the show again, I think a ventriloquist, and headed back to the room. Tomorrow we had 2 excursions and the first one was an early meeting of 7:15. I didn’t think the buffet opened so early for breakfast (which I later found out it did), so we placed an order for room service for breakfast by putting one of those hang tags on our door at night. Another good night’s sleep, amazing how that happens on vacation.

stillgoofy · Oct 7, 2014

Day 5 – Thursday, September 4-Skagway
Our room service breakfast ordered for between 6:00 and 6:30 came right on time and we gobbled down our cereal, croissants and fruit and got ready for our first excursion. We pulled into port with 3 other ships. Now I read that the weather in Alaska can change quite frequently so we dressed in layers and packed extra stuff in the backpack like hats, mittens and raincoats.

Our morning excursion was the White Pass Railroad and Yukon Suspension Bridge, kind of a double feature. Shortly after meeting, we were escorted out to our tour bus for our ride up the mountain to the Yukon Suspension Bridge. There weren’t a ton of people on our bus so there was plenty of room to get up and move around to take pictures of the beautiful scenery. It was a little overcast but we could still get ok pictures. Some of the areas we drove through were pretty thick with fog and clouds. Our bus driver was very knowledgeable and kept talking the whole way which was great. It started to rain a little and then a lot and the driver mentioned that this was the hardest it has rained here in 3 years. The bus ride must have been cozy because Shallon grabbed a little power nap on the way.

We pulled over for a photo-op in this nice spot with lakes in the background and all of these rocks that people pile up on top of each other. There was some name for this but I don’t remember what he told us.

We did have to pass from Alaska back into Canada so we were all required to bring and show our passports to the Canadian guard at the border that came onto the bus to check these. We got to the bridge and the rain had slowed down to almost nothing which was nice because it was time to get out and explore. The Yukon Suspension Bridge is very strong, made out of steel, and goes across a deep gorge and a raging river. It was really cool to walk over and the views were great.

There were some wooden walkways built on the other side of the gorge with some mini educational stops to learn about different aspects of the Yukon Gold Rush and some beautiful overlooks. We wandered around for a while on the other side and took a bunch of pictures, then headed back. There was a gift shop (of course) and a little café at the beginning so we stopped in for some hot cocoa (do you see a common thread here?). We browsed the gift shop but didn’t buy anything. Shortly afterward it was time to board the bus. Our bus driver had brought cookies for everyone on the bus which was a nice touch especially since you knew that these tour bus drivers couldn’t make a ton of money. He told us that this bridge was built so strong that if it were wider, it could hold the weight of the bus driving across. Wow, that’s pretty strong for something that looks semi-flimsy. One more tidbit our driver told us was that back in the gold rush days (1898) when people were flooding to the Yukon Territory, you weren’t allowed into the territory unless you brought a year’s worth of supplies since the area was so remote. Now a year’s worth of supplies was measured by 2000 pounds of items. If you didn’t have 2000 pounds per person you couldn’t get in. And even if you had 2000 pounds, you still had to haul it in by hand or pack mule and the trails were harsh. Brutal dedication!

stillgoofy · Oct 7, 2014

Our next destination as part of our first excursion was the White Pass Railroad and I was really excited about this because I had seen pictures of how beautiful the scenery was for this trip. We would be taking the train from Douglas back down the mountain to Skagway. I knew from reading other trip reports which side of the train to sit on to get the view, so we grabbed one of the seats on the right and were ready to go as soon as the train filled up. Our train car had all of the people on our tour and I believe each of the other cars were separate tours also. The seating was quite roomy and there was also a bathroom on the car, if needed (for those who drink too much hot cocoa). The first half hour of the trip was almost complete fog and we could barely see out the window (bummer) but towards the bottom it did start clearing up and we did get some great views at the lower elevations.

Like most of the tours, there were selling stuff and these wares included a DVD of the complete White Pass Railroad trip on an actual sunny day and a White Pass & Yukon baseball hat. I think they wanted $15 for each the hat & the DVD but if you bought both it would cost $20 and they would throw in a photographic picture book of the views with some history about it. Well since we didn’t see most of the scenery at the top and I was going to buy my Dad an Alaskan hat anyway, I went for it. I haven’t watched the DVD yet, but it is about 1 ½ hours long so should have some nice stuff included. The picture book was great and gave a good view of what we missed. And by the way, Dad loved the hat. So I guess it was a good purchase. I was not able to get very good pictures of this excursion due to the weather. We rode the train to Skagway and then back on the bus for the quick return to the ship. It was around 1:00 so we went up to the counter service lunch and grabbed some chicken tenders for me and cheeseburger for Shallon. We had kick back time until meeting for our next excursion at 3:15. We were in port until like 7:30pm so we had plenty of time for two excursions in this port, plus we didn’t want to miss out on the Alaskan adventures.

stillgoofy · Oct 7, 2014

Our next Skagway excursion was the Musher’s Sled Dog Camp. I knew with Shallon being such a dog lover, we could not go to Alaska without experiencing this. This excursion met outside on the pier and as soon as our group of 24 assembled we were loaded into a mini-bus for about a 30-minute drive to the base camp. This drive went the opposite direction of our morning excursion so it was nice to get a different view of the land. It was a beautiful drive and we pulled up to a flat area at the bottom of a mountain. The flat land has some grassy areas as well as some water and the guides told us it was a very popular spot for bears although we didn’t see any today.

We walked a short way to the base camp where we got in vehicles called Unimogs for the steep drive up the side of the mountain.

The Unimogs had some serious horsepower to be able to drive up terrain like these inclines.

stillgoofy · Oct 7, 2014

When we got up the mountain to the dog camp the dogs were anxiously awaiting our arrival. They were already hooked to the sleds and were ready to get started. Since this is a summer camp for the dogs, they train using sled on wheels, similar to the look of a golf cart without the steering wheel.

There were 16 dogs hooked to each sleds and 4 sleds ready to take our group 6 people in each sled. The first thing I noticed about the dogs other than they were ready was that they were quite smaller in size than I would imagine a sled dog to be. We learned that although “Hollywood” sled dogs are generally huskies, they are actually not the fastest runners so the mushers have bred a mix-breed over the years that are much smaller, but much faster. This is a must when training for and trying to win an Iditarod race, like these dogs were training for. I guess these dogs blood lines are as important as blood lines in horses for horse racing. Who knew? We got into our sled for a few laps around the track which was about a mile. Notice how green and lush the forest floor is.

After that we got a chance to get out of the sled and meet our dogs.

We took the Unimog back down the mountain stopping about halfway at an overlook for some amazing pictures.

We could even see the ships in port, although it wasn’t the Wonder we saw. We then rode the rest of the way down the mountain back to the base camp. Here we listened to one of the mushers talk about the Iditarod race and training for it. We also we able to see some sleds and the types of gear they use for the races.

Trip Report Disneyland by way of Alaska

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