It's a Wonder-ful Alaska!! May 30th-June 7th

Our Alaska cruise was finally here! We booked this cruise when it first came out over a year and a half ago! We waited soooo long!

When we first booked we weren't sure we would do it. It was so expensive! At $5000 for the four of us for an oceanview room, plus airfare to Vancouver, we weren't sure we should. Several times over the next few months I checked other cruise line rates.

Slight rant - People love to talk about how much more Disney is than other cruise lines, but that's just not always true. I never found a savings of more than a few hundred dollars on any other line. Sure you can find great specials on other lines at times, and you can find great specials on Disney at times. But comparing exact same date for date, the difference was not much if at all. Is Disney worth a few hundred more? You bet your bippy it is!:)

So we stuck with our current plans! Then when the kids sail free offer came out, our price dropped to $3000! Score! So glad we didn't jump ship so to speak! :)

Who:

We ended up with 7 cabins of friends and family on this one! It was awesome! Disney cruises are the perfect vacation for large groups with different ages and interests.

Now a disclaimer. I did a horrible job of getting a picture of everyone this time! I don’t know why! Everyone appeared in different pictures, just no good pictures of each family. So here’s a hodgepodge of photos of the group. I had to steal a few from my brother in laws facebook! We’ve got a great group picture of everyone, but unfortunately it was on the desktop which is now packed and on it’s way to Washington DC. Here’s the breakdown of who is who and then I will post pictures. This will also give you a preview of some of our activities during the week!

First - Us! I'm Tammy, Disney lover, travel agent. My Dh is Stephen, Air Force officer. Ds 16 is Chase and Dd 13 is Ally.

Next - My parents. My parents have been on most of our cruises and WDW trips, including the Med cruise last year.

Then - My inlaws. My inlaws have also been on several cruises with us. My parents love WDW and cruises, my inlaws, however, are Disney cruise addicts. Their favorite vacation, hands down. This time my brother in law got to join us again. It was his second Disney cruise.

Next up - my brother in law and fam. This is their third cruise with us. They have a Dd15 and Dd 12. You may recognize them from our Grand Villa vacation last October.

Then - Friends with twins! You may recognize these cuties from another cruise with us when they were littler. They are 3 now!

Next - More friends! This is my Ds's best friend. His sweet grandmother brought him.

Finally - More friends! These are two long time friends of my inlaws. We've known them for 20+ years.

Here’s the run down!

Dh and I –
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Dad and Mom –
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Inlaws and Uncle Scott – (Stole this picture!)
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Brother in law and Sister in law –
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Friends with Twins –
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Long time friends –
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Friend! – (Stole this picture!)
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BuzzGoofy

Well-Known Member
Loving the Cruise report.

Having never been on a cruise of any kind before, your and HollyBelle's trip reports are making me think that a sea/land vacation is in my future.

Everything seems so cool. I really like all the character interaction.

I have one Question. What are "fish extender gifts? Is this just Disney, or do other lines do it as well? (OK: two Questions)

Looking forward to reading the rest.
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Loving your report! I always look forward to your amazing pictures. We were on the June 7 sailing and you've really got me missing it! It was soooo hard to leave that cruise....especially since I came home to 105 degree temps! It was my 9th cruise (but only 2nd time on DCL) and it was my favorite by a long shot! We thought doing Alaska would be a one time thing, but we are going to do it again someday for sure! Can't wait for the rest of your report!

Thanks happymom!! You just got off! I know so many people who go back to Alaska over and over again. And I can see why!

The pictures are great (especially the ones of the scenery- they are stunning!). I would love to do the Alaska cruise so badly!

Also, I'm just curious- how many cruises do you have to do for each level (gold, silver, ec)?

Thanks, Joanna! You are silver after 1 cruise, gold after 5 (I've now done 7 :D) and platinum after 10. Platinum here I come!!

Loving the Cruise report.

Having never been on a cruise of any kind before, your and HollyBelle's trip reports are making me think that a sea/land vacation is in my future.

Everything seems so cool. I really like all the character interaction.

I have one Question. What are "fish extender gifts? Is this just Disney, or do other lines do it as well? (OK: two Questions)

Looking forward to reading the rest.

The character interaction on cruises is really awesome. Like Hollybelle said, the lines aren't bad (except the princess party where the line is usually huge!!) and several times you'll just find them roaming the ship! Wait until you see the interaction the twins had later in the week.:)

Fish Extenders are actually run by another board. It's a group of people who sign up to leave gifts in something that you hang off your fish. It's fun!
 

HollyBelle

Well-Known Member
But just look at this outfit!! Holly would you not have squealed like a little girl with me? I mean, look at those boots!!

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SOLD! You haven't reached the first port yet, but go ahead and sign me up for this itinerary!

And yes, I squealed loudly when I scrolled past this picture... Brett may or may not have squealed, too! :lol:


Edited to add: the shot of Chase taking pictures is awesome! Love that.
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
SOLD! You haven't reached the first port yet, but go ahead and sign me up for this itinerary!

And yes, I squealed loudly when I scrolled past this picture... Brett may or may not have squealed, too! :lol:


Edited to add: the shot of Chase taking pictures is awesome! Love that.

I thought that would get you!! :lol:

It's okay, Brett. Real men squeal sometimes too.:lookaroun

Chase even took Holly shot in the mirror!:)
 

foreverbelle

Well-Known Member
Well I can totally see why the hubs loves Alaska. What great scenery as you said.

And what a beautiful wedding! How lucky where you to catch that.

It looks kind of chilly? And people are in the pool? It better have been heated. I don't think you would have caught me dead in there if it wasn't.

I love Minnie's outfit!!! Seriously I think this is one of my favorites that I have seen her in.

We are DVC members and never take advantage of receptions and what not, but I think we just may have to one of these days. Just to see what it is all about...

Keep it coming. Thoroughly enjoying it.
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Well I can totally see why the hubs loves Alaska. What great scenery as you said.

And what a beautiful wedding! How lucky where you to catch that.

It looks kind of chilly? And people are in the pool? It better have been heated. I don't think you would have caught me dead in there if it wasn't.

I love Minnie's outfit!!! Seriously I think this is one of my favorites that I have seen her in.

We are DVC members and never take advantage of receptions and what not, but I think we just may have to one of these days. Just to see what it is all about...

Keep it coming. Thoroughly enjoying it.

Thanks, Foreverbelle! The wedding was so beautiful! I was excited we saw it.

It was defintely on the chilly side at times. I wasn't ever freezing though. I was good in jeans and light jackets.

The pools were awesome. They were heated to 90 degrees. Later in the week we got in the hot tub and it was scorching. We got in the pool to cool off and discovered it was like paradise. The perfect temperature. We stayed in it forever!! I wish we'd discovered it earlier in the week.

I love love love her outfit.:)

We don't ever go to the reception at the parks, but we usually do on the cruises if we're not busy. Ususally in hopes that we'll win something.:lookaroun
 

meganw1985

Active Member
Those are the most beautiful pictures I have ever seen. Sign me up for this cruise! We were thinking about taking an Alaskan cruise anyway, and one with Minnie in snow boots has GOT to be better than anything anyone else can offer us!
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Good to know. Thank you! I swear, I will reach platinum

Me too!! :sohappy:

Those are the most beautiful pictures I have ever seen. Sign me up for this cruise! We were thinking about taking an Alaskan cruise anyway, and one with Minnie in snow boots has GOT to be better than anything anyone else can offer us!

Isn't it gorgeous! It stays that pretty or prettier.

Maybe they should sell those boots!:)
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thursday - June 2

I was feeling refreshed and there was so much light under the curtains I knew it must be pretty late. So I looked at the clock. Shoot. It was 4:54! :brick:

I read a little while on the ipad and then when dh got up to go run, I took a little nap.

We finally all left the room about 8:30 and went up to Beach Blanket for breakfast. Look at the view we had!

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Dd is planning her day:

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We saw our first of many whales today during breakfast. I did learn something about whales. Several years ago we took a ferry through these same waters to take dh to his unaccompanied assignment in Alaska. We saw a lot of whales, several up close. We saw several whales from the cruise ship, but none very close. I hear someone say they just don’t get very close to the giant ships and that may be right. If you want to see whales up close, I’d recommend a whale watching excursion.

Here’s the first one. Well two actually!!:

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Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After we finished eating we went up to deck 10 to stake out some chairs. We planned on sitting outside all day and watching the trip through the Tracy Arm Fjord. We weren’t supposed to turn in until around 1:00, but we knew there would be plenty to watch until then.

We ran into family and grabbed about 10 chairs. Then we decided to move further down the ship. So we found 10 more. Then a cast member told us the ship would turn towards the other side when we reached the glacier. So we gathered all of our belongings and moved again! We started off with 10 people and 10 chairs. In the next few hours we squeezed several more in. We really didn’t save any, we actually had someone sitting in every one!

We brought blankets, cameras, jackets and books. The weather was nice and sunny. When we started the day we needed jackets and blankets. But several times it was nice enough we didn’t need any extra layers. Bil actually had on shorts later in the day.

Whales!

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Dad bought us some hot chocolate:

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There was free hot chocolate too. They set some up in the enclosed area on the front of deck 10, and had some at the drink stations. Here they were getting it set up:

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Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Here’s our line of chairs: It got longer!

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No one was in the pool yet:

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Here’s a gift we got in our fish extenders. Great gift! We made good use out of it. We didn’t even notice the spelling error for several hours. Do you see it? Your brain just wants to correct it:

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Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sometimes the girls weren’t so into the scenery:

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The view was amazing on both sides:

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Some of us couldn’t wait for lunch either:

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Whale!

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Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
At lunch time we took turns going down to the Alaska barbque at Beach Blanket. They had salmon, sausage, steaks, and the list goes on. We brought the food back to our chairs and ate in the sun.

One of the twins has developed a bad habit. He uses the wrong finger to point. His parents have tried to break him of this habit to no avail. So this is how he points. Either that or he really really doesn’t like mac and cheese.:eek::ROFLOL::

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Here’s Fil enjoying his ice cream with some amazing scenery around him:

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The characters were out to entertain us! We missed rain slicker Mickey! I was so sad when I saw his picture later in the day. Here’s Donald though!

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