7 nights Alaskan Cruise - solo trip - August 26th 2019

daveyc150

<font color=blue>I read this forum all the time<br
Joined
Aug 26, 2006
So I’ve enjoyed reading all of the Alaskan trip reports and getting tips and ideas so I thought I should pay it forward and write my own.

I’m a British guy who moved to Evansville IN in January as my company moved me to take up a new job there. I’m not new to cruising, this will be my tenth Disney Cruise, however it will be my first one on my own, which I have to admit is making me a little nervous at times. I’m very comfortable on my own and taking short trips alone but this will the longest solo vacation I’ve done and there will obviously be limited contact with the outside world - I’m not paying those WiFi bills 😂. All that said I am really excited for my trip, this has been a bucket list trip of mine for some time and I’ve packed in a lot of activities in order to get the most out of it.

My actually trip starts the week before with my boyfriend:

Tues 20th - we fly to Seattle after work
Wed 21st - we will be in Portland
Thurs 22nd -weI will travel up the coast back towards Seattle
Fri 23rd - we will spend in Seattle
Sat 24th - we will drive to Vancouver
Sun 25th - we will spend in Vancouver
Mon 26th - I will join the cruise and he will travel to Montana to visit a friend before coming back to Evansville.

We still haven’t planned activities for the trip so advice is welcome please!
So you may be wondering why he’s not coming on the cruise. Well I booked the trip before we were together and he can’t get so much vacation at once. This will be our first trip together longer than a weekend, so looking forward to that too.

So then on to the cruise, I’m a category 9 with a porthole, room 2644. My itinerary is below with the excursions I’ve planned in each port:

Mon 26th - all aboard!
Tues 27th - at sea - Character Breakfast, Mixology Class and Palo
Wed 28th - Icy Strait Point - Frozen Gathering, Princess Gathering, Whale, Wildlife & Bear Search
Thur 29th - Skagway - Dog Sledding & Glacier Flightseeing, Glassblowing Experience at Jewell Gardens
Fri 30th - Juneau & Dawes Glacier - Mendenhall Glacier & Whale Quest
Sat 31st - Ketchikan - Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show, Black Bear & Wildlife Exploration
Sun 1st - at sea - massage
Mon 2nd - travel back to Evansville

I love meeting the characters so I booked the breakfast, frozen gathering and princess gathering quick - they all seem to have been snapped up quickly! I’ve booked all my excursions through Disney, I know that I could probably save if I did it myself but I prefer the assurance of having Disney manage it in case anything goes wrong and I don’t really have the time to search. I had heard that the dog sledding can sometimes get cancelled so my back up is one of the train excursions.

One of the main things I’m feeling anxious about is dining. I don’t mind eating alone but I’m more worried about the awkwardness of sitting with a family and feeling a little odd. I was considering going and asking for a table on my own, but not sure if they would do that and am I then missing out on making new friends... what does everyone think?

So anyway, that was a really long post, but that’s me. I’ll post lots of pictures and my perspective, especially from a solo traveller perspective and if people have questions just let me know.
 
We are on the cruise after yours. The tables are close together which you can decide if you want to speak with people next to you or not. If you are anxious about sitting with others and having to make small talk I would suggest asking for a private table. If you are outgoing and don't mind it getting to know others is great. We have made friends with table mates we still keep in touch with.
 
We are on the cruise after yours. The tables are close together which you can decide if you want to speak with people next to you or not. If you are anxious about sitting with others and having to make small talk I would suggest asking for a private table. If you are outgoing and don't mind it getting to know others is great. We have made friends with table mates we still keep in touch with.
Thanks, it really depends, sometimes I can click with people quickly and other times not. It feels like I need to decide before I meet my table mates though, I would hate to move after one night as they might feel I’m snubbing them and it then messes with the servers. I’ve got a few weeks yet to think about it I guess.
 
So excited today to receive Mickey mail with my cruise info and bag tags. Only 37 days to go!
We were looking at going to Grouse Mountain in Vancouver before the cruise, has anyone else had any experience of this?

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From what I've heard about dinner seating, it's unlikely you'd end up with a family. All reports suggest they seat solo travelers together (obviously except for the ones who dine at their own tables). Although I have also read people saying they prefer their own tables because it felt to them like a "leftover" table (not in terms of quality of service; they just didn't particularly like that the table consisted entirely of solo travelers).
 
Thanks, for the thoughts, I’m still undecided but leaning more towards asking for a solo table. I just know that I would prefer to eat and then be off doing things elsewhere and will get frustrated if I have to wait for others.

I can’t believe how close it is to my trip, I leave in just over a week now. As anticipated the dog sledding was cancelled so i’ve opted a helicopter trip instead. I’m really disappointed but I guess it can’t be helped.

A final bit of excitement also happened! I managed to get tickets to the passholder preview of galaxies edge at a Disney World so I’ve got a flying visit to Florida next weekend to enjoy that. I’m not the biggest Star Wars fan but I wanted to take advantage of the preview s8nce I managed to get one. I’ll be driving down from Indiana on Thursday and driving back on Sunday. Then just two days at work before the vacation starts... I guess I’ll pack at some point too! 😂
 
From what I've heard about dinner seating, it's unlikely you'd end up with a family. All reports suggest they seat solo travelers together (obviously except for the ones who dine at their own tables). Although I have also read people saying they prefer their own tables because it felt to them like a "leftover" table (not in terms of quality of service; they just didn't particularly like that the table consisted entirely of solo travelers).
I was a solo traveller on the Magic in January, and I got seated with three ladies of one family. Daughter, mother, aunt. The daughter was close to my age, a bit younger I think.
It worked out fine, we had our dinners and last breakfast together and said hi when we ran into each other in the hallways, which was just the right level of interaction I liked. I don't think they seat solo travellers with families with smaller kids, but all adults happens more often, I guess.

I am not sure what I would do on a next solo cruise. It will go quicker for sure when you dine solo.
 


Thanks, for the thoughts, I’m still undecided but leaning more towards asking for a solo table. I just know that I would prefer to eat and then be off doing things elsewhere and will get frustrated if I have to wait for others.

I can’t believe how close it is to my trip, I leave in just over a week now. As anticipated the dog sledding was cancelled so i’ve opted a helicopter trip instead. I’m really disappointed but I guess it can’t be helped.

A final bit of excitement also happened! I managed to get tickets to the passholder preview of galaxies edge at a Disney World so I’ve got a flying visit to Florida next weekend to enjoy that. I’m not the biggest Star Wars fan but I wanted to take advantage of the preview s8nce I managed to get one. I’ll be driving down from Indiana on Thursday and driving back on Sunday. Then just two days at work before the vacation starts... I guess I’ll pack at some point too! 😂
Sounds awesome David. When you in WDW?
 
Sounds awesome David. When you in WDW?
Friday and Saturday next weekend 16th and 17th. I’m leaving Indiana on Thursday afternoon and hoping to make it to the Florida state line to sleep and then arrive at WDW on Friday morning. Will then drive home all day Sunday. It’ll be tiring but I couldn’t pass up the preview.
 
So finally found the time to update on my adventures. As I’d mentioned I managed to get a passholder preview for Star Wars Galaxies Edge on the 17th of August. Not ideal timing since my travel to the West Coast starts on the 20th... however never one to pass up on a trip to WDW I was packed up into the car at about 3pm on Thursday afternoon. Being a last minute trip I decided I was going to drive the 12 hours to Florida rather than fly. The flights were expensive and with the cruise coming up I didn’t really want to spend a lot.

I did a rough estimate of where I’d get to that night and booked a cheap motel in Valdosta to take a break, get some sleep and a shower before continuing on Friday morning.

I set off and the map on my phone said arrival would be about 1:15am. I made great timing until I hit Nashville... at rush hour! Well it wasn’t so bad despite slow going and I didn’t lose that much time. I stopped and got gas before heading in the direction of Chattanooga. I breezed through there and on through Atlanta before hitting the worst traffic jam at about midnight a little north of Macon. It was soul sucking and all the time I’d managed to catch up I completely lost...
After passing that I stopped for more gas and hit the road for the final run to Valdosta, pulling up at the hotel at 1:15am. Completely as predicted... how I have no idea!
The room was as you’d expect for $39 a night... I’ll say no more. I set my alarm and went to sleep.

My plan was to set off early enough to get to AK before opening to ride Avatar, I hadn’t managed to get a Fastpass so I needed to be there early. When the alarm rang at 5am I immediately rejected it and reset it for 6am giving up on my plan since sleep was more important at that point.

So 6am rolled around and I hopped in the shower and started the head down the road. I was delighted to pull in to the AK parking lot at 9:20!


I won’t bore you too much with the details but I headed over to Festival of the Lion King and then rode Expedition Everest, Dinosaur and had an early lunch.
I’d managed to secure a FP for the safari but not until a little later so decided to check out the animal tours that are offered. I managed to get myself booked on to the Elephant tour. There were only 3 other people so was pretty private. We boarded a small motor coach backstage behind festival of the lion king and drove the back of the elephant area that you see on the safari. The guide asks for no photos during the journey but points out the different areas and talked quite freely about the care they give to the animals. When at the elephant area we were met by a guide who talked about the elephants they have on the savannah, answered questions and we were also able to take lots of close up photos. We also got to meet with someone from Africa who talked about his home country, the wildlife there and how people and animals live together. As the next group arrived we were transported back to Africa. Overall I thought it was a good experience and as a frequent park visitor it was nice to do something different.

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As the tour finished it was time for my FP on the safari. I don’t recall the guide being that good but the giraffes and rhinos were very active.

I left the park after this, about 3ish and headed to my hotel to check in. My partner works for Marriott so I got great rate for a hotel for two nights at the Fairfield Inn on the 192 for two nights. I have to say I was really impressed with this hotel and it only took 10 minutes to get to the parks. Since I had my AP I was not concerned about parking fees.

After a quick turnaround there I headed to Epcot. I’d managed to get a fastpass for Soarin’ and then bounced around a couple of other things in future world. I thought the park was pretty quiet for a Friday night in the middle of summer. Soarin’ standby was only 40 minutes. I headed into world showcase popping into shops with the intent to make it to see the guardians of the galaxy show. I’m not really sure I get why it’s there and the storyline is a bit random but I like the music they did from the soundtrack.

I went back to Morocco for some dinner which was delicious. I always think the food offerings in the pavilion are excellent but often overlooked which is a real shame but makes for an easy to get dining reservation.
I then continued my journey round world showcase to get a spot for the fireworks between the two gift shops. I really wanted to see illuminations one last time before it changes next month. I remember seeing the show when it first opened and also seeing it nightly when I was a CM at the rose and crown so it holds a lot of special memories. Whilst the music was as wonderful as ever I realized that night just how much of the show Disney has stripped away over the years. There are nowhere near the amount of fireworks that there used to be. So whilst nostalgia plays heavily on the memories I’m glad it’s going and will be replaced with something new it’s long overdue.
I had been up very early and also had a long day ahead tomorrow so I headed back to the hotel after that for some well deserved sleep!
 
So I had questioned in my head several time what time to set my alarm and get to Hollywood Studios for my preview that started at 9am. I settled on a 6:30 alarm with the aim of getting there for 7:30 which I did. I found a relatively modest crowd mostly there to experience Star Wars Galaxies Edge. I had prepared myself for it already to be busier so I was pleased to join the line at the turnstiles. The cast members didn’t quite seem to know what was going on and as the crowd started to grow they seemed unsure what to do, you’d think they would have been briefed 🤷‍♂️.

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By about 7:50 they gave up on trying to form any kind of line outside and allowed people in. Star Wars people to the left where we were held in front of Indiana Jones. Just after 8 they led us to the entrance of the land, checked our paperwork and gathered people at the tunnel. As the crowd continued fill the space they started moving the group further and further through the tunnel until about 8:15 when they then walked everyone one the land to the entrance to smugglers run.

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I was pretty close to the front and experienced the attraction pretty quickly. I loved the attention to detail although I thought the storyline was hard follow until you were in it... maybe I was just too excited to follow 🤣. The issuing of the boarding passes slows things down a little and got worse later as people had experienced the ride multiple times and wanted a specific role. Everyone was excited to be inside to millennium falcon and taking pictures before they were called for the ride. I thought it was excellent, I loved how it knew if there were repeat visitors and it’s very interactive with the ability to have an impact of the outcome, very clever which will lead to people wanting to ride multiple times to play the different roles. Success does depend on who gets which role and how good they are, so those competitive folk out there are going to get really annoyed if there is a small child in the pilot seat I’m sure.

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It was just after 9am when I exited and so I decided to chance my luck at the cantina since I didn’t have a reservation. I was in luck and taken straight in and given a spot at the bar. The place was full and very lively.
It was explained that there was a time restriction and a two drink maximum. At 9am in the morning I’m not even sure I needed one drink but I was there for the experience and my cocktail promptly arrived. I chatted with the guy next to me who was also there on his own. In my view it’s a bar, it was expensive and whilst well themed I was kind of expecting a bit more. Disney has hyped up how Star Wars land will be an immersive experience, I thought it needed a bit more. So I finished my drink, said goodbye to my drinking buddy and left just before my time was up. (I will say that having now experienced this again with friends, I warmed to it more but it’s still expensive 🤣)

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The line for smugglers run was now up at about an hour but most people hadn’t seemed to realize that the single rider line was actually open. I took advantage of it and rode four more times having the chance to experience several different roles with almost no wait at all. The repeatability of the ride is definitely there and I’m sure it will keep people coming back.



After this I spent some time drinking blue milk, taking some pictures and exploring the stores. It was about 11/11:30 so there was a lot of people now. I loved the layout of the market place and each of the stores was selling different things so lots of different options out there for those dedicated Star Wars fans. I thought Disney has done an incredible job in the theming but it really needs to up the game to truly hit immersive. The whole morning I only saw two stormtroopers wandering and honestly the cast members saying bright suns to me got a bit annoying. I’m hoping that there will be something “extra” when I visit next time.

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I left Star Wars land maybe a little after 12 and seeing the wait times across the park I decided to leave. I wanted to quickly head up to the mall at millennia before going to the Magic Kingdom. Getting to an Abercrombie store is not easy in my part of Indiana and so I making a bit of a detour was on my plan. A quick visit there and I then headed to Disney Springs where I did a little shopping and had some lunch at Earl of Sandwich.
I got to Magic Kingdom around 3pm, I had prebooked fastpasses for Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain and the Haunted Mansion. The park felt quite busy as compared to my previous day at Epcot but with my fastpasses I didn’t need to worry. After using my prebooked passes I played the fastpass game on the app and managed to get on a lot of things with no wait at all. I had dinner with Sonny Eclipse and got a great spot in the centre of the hub for the fireworks. I do love the show but feel that you really have to get close to see everything happening on the castle. I don’t normally get myself into the throng of the hub, but I was in my own and not in a rush... it was worth it.

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After the fireworks I rode jungle cruise and pirates before heading to Main Street for ice cream and making my way out. The monorail and ferry boat lines were just crazy. I can’t wait for that bridge to open to the Grand Floridian, walking back will be far quicker some nights.


I made it back to the hotel by about 11:30.

The next morning I got up around 7, grabbed breakfast and set off on my 12 hour drive home... relatively uneventful except for an accident on the approach to Chattanooga which stole an hour of my life. I got back to Indiana at about 7pm.

Overall a short trip but worth it!502710
 
So Tuesday rolled around very quickly and I was so excited for my trip to the west coast and finally the cruise! The weather on Tuesday afternoon was particularly ominous and by 2pm storms were rolling in. I tried not to worry too much as they pass through quickly and I left work about 2:30. I got home and received a text message from Delta advising of a delay in our flight to Detroit, this delay would unfortunately mean missing our connection 😕. I quickly jumped on to the app to see what the alternate options were. Low and behold the flight to Atlanta was also delayed but would still get us to Seattle that night and we would have 90 minutes in Atlanta to connect. I even managed to select exit row seats on the ATL to SEA leg. I changed us up and picked up the new boarding passses.

Feeling pleased with myself I texted my boyfriend and headed to the airport. I checked our bags in and went through security which is always fast at Evansville airport and waited. My boyfriend arrived about 20 mins later and we waited and watched as the delay on the Atlanta flight got a little longer and then a little longer again. We boarded the plane and our connection time had now dropped to about 40 minutes... no problem we thought at the plane pulled away from the gate. As we trundled along the taxiways the captain regretfully informed us that due to the storms we needed to wait another 25 minutes to takeoff... 15 minutes from terminal D to terminal A, we had no chance but we were no prepared to admit defeat.

As we pulled up at the gate we had about 12 minutes. We ran... and I mean sprinted through terminal D to the train. We boarded the train with about 7 minutes to go and my Boyfriend checked online and realized that there was a short delay in the flight to Seattle. We breathed a sigh of relief as we managed to make it to the gate just as they started to board.

We checked to see that our bags had made it... they had and so we settled in for our 4 hour flight, exhausted but relieved. Feeling hungry we realized we hadn’t eaten any dinner, we resigned ourselves to the over priced snack boxes that Delta sells, whilst pretty miserable they filled a hole.

We arrived late into Seattle due to the late departure, picked up our bags and rode the shuttle to the rental car building. I’d booked the car through a UK website and it included all the insurance so no hard sell and we were sorted and on our way to the A-Loft at SeaTac.

It was pretty nice, a huge shower, big comfy bed and plenty of charging sockets on the nightstand. We were extremely tired but happy to make it to Seattle that night as planned.
 
Not being woken by an alarm was a wonderful experience, while we didn’t want to sleep late we also wanted to relax and enjoy a rest, especially after the escapades of the night before.

We were showered and dressed a little after 9 and headed to ihop for some breakfast. It was a bit gloomy and drizzly but we’re weren’t about to let a little weather ruin our fun. After breakfast we set off for Multonnomah Falls in Oregon. Having reviewed the guidebooks this seemed a good option close to Portland that we could see without having to spend the entire day driving.

It was a couple of hours drive and despite the grey drizzly weather it was worth it. The falls were very impressive and we took a lot of pictures. We decided, I say we, I was informed that we would hike to the top... ok, fine, it’s only a mile, I thought as we set off on the gentle pathway. Oh my word I was a sweaty heap by the time we finally made it to the top! The view was great and the clouds were finally starting to thin out a little. We took some snaps and headed back down. We were quite excited to see a young eaglet in its nest quite close to the pathway, just not close enough for good pictures 🤣.

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We made it down and grabbed some cold drinks before jumping in the car again. It was about 3pm and it was just a 30 minute drive into Portland. We drove around the downtown a little before settling on a place to park.

We had a nice stroll around some shops and down to the river front before finding some food for an early dinner since we’d not really had lunch. We went into an Indian restaurant that wasn’t too busy at about 5:30pm. After dinner we wandered a little further and found ice cream before going back to the car and driving to our hotel (another ALoft) which was a little out of the centre in the direction of the coast. We probably got into the room about 8:30/9 after a pit stop at Target to pick up drinks for the following day.

I have to say that I was relatively non-plussed with Portland. I felt like I could have been in any downtown city and there is quite an intimidating homeless problem there. It certainly didn’t live up to the hype. I’m not saying I wouldn’t go back but I would say it wouldn’t be on my list of must visit places. Maybe we were just tired 🤷‍♂️
 
I have to say that I was relatively non-plussed with Portland. I felt like I could have been in any downtown city and there is quite an intimidating homeless problem there. It certainly didn’t live up to the hype. I’m not saying I wouldn’t go back but I would say it wouldn’t be on my list of must visit places. Maybe we were just tired 🤷‍♂️
Your assessment of Downtown Portland is correct. I spent a week there for business, smack down town. The homeless population is large and could be intimidating. I found that the surrounding neighborhoods really show off the unique vibes that the "city" is known for. I have good friends who live in PDX, so I spent some of the "local" things in addition to a few hiking trails and areas away from the city.
 
So the next day we were up bright and breezy and ready for another adventure. We stopped at Trader Joe’s for some car snacks and headed towards to coast. The weather was much improved from the day before and the sun was out. We arrived at Cannon beach mid-morning and got out and had a really nice walk along the beach down to where the famous rocks from the Goonies are, we then wandered back up the beach to where we had parked the car. We were pretty hungry so we found a local brewery where we had some lunch before heading on.

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We drive through Astoria and then on up the coast. I won’t bore you with uneventful drive, we just enjoyed the beautiful scenery. We got to our Airbnb which was near Port Townsend at about 10pm. It was a cute little cabin in the woods, it was lovely and we were very glad to climb into bed.

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After a good nights sleep we woke to another beautiful day. Our cabin had an outdoor hot shower. We made good use of it and I’ll say no more about it... 🤣

We didn’t hang around as we were very excited to get to Seattle. I think after a day in the car we were craving the city! We drove down to Bainbridge Island ferry port where we waited maybe 15 mins to board the ferry to the city. It was quite windy and that wind was quite cold but I was so excited, I felt like I was on Grey’s Anatomy.

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We got into the city at about 12 and we were lucky enough that the hotel was able to check us straight in so we were able leave all of our bags. Our hotel was pretty central downtown so great to be able to get out and walk. This was my first time in Seattle and so I was really looking forward to exploring a new place.

We left the hotel and walked down to Pikes Place Market where we browsed the stalls, had some food and saw the original Starbucks. The line for that place was just crazy... I mean it’s just coffee right? We then headed up towards shops as I wanted to go to Abercrombie and we browsed a few other places. Next we hopped on the monorail to the Space Needle. I love that Seattle has a monorail makes me think of Disney 🤣

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We bought tickets for the Space Needle and Chihuly glass museum. We did the Space Needle first, it wasn’t particularly busy so we were able to enjoy the views without feeling rushed or squished. My better half was not thrilled about the glass floors everywhere on the lower deck of the observatory as he carefully avoided them. The glass museum was stunning, I’m no art expert on art but I do like sculpture and these were really impressive. Just amazing how he managed to create such beautiful pieces.

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Time for a little rest we Ubered back to the hotel where we had a short rest, showered and dressed for dinner. We made a poor choice for dining location as we wanted to stay close to the hotel and lots of places were booked up. The food was ok but the ambience of eating in a restaurant with no other diners left a lot to be desired. After that we went for Cocktails in the Smith Tower, this redeemed our dinner choice and I would highly recommend this. Good views and good drinks!

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