A Topsy Turvy Trip To Alaska! June 2015

[disprincess4ever]

Welcome Aboard!

Dear fellow travelers, you are about to embark on a majestic journey through America's final frontier and beautiful British Columbia. Part of this trip will be so dazzling you might feel as though this is part of a Disney commercial. Other aspects, as the title promises, will become a bit rocky at any given moment, so hold on tightly to those computers/tablets/phones of yours!

I'm getting carried away. Let me introduce myself. You may call me Anastasia and I will be your cruise narrator. Anastasia is a pseudonym, for privacy purposes, that I chose because at my height of 5'10 Cinderella's stepsisters, Anastasia and Drizella, are the closest people to a princess that I could be friends with in the parks.



Some of you may find my face or name to be familiar. I did indeed write a trip report two summers ago where I journaled my Disney Mediterranean cruise. Many people have messaged me on DisBoards wondering where that report went to. Sadly, it is no longer on the DisBoards not anywhere else on the internet. It was taken down for privacy/ identity reasons. This time around I promise that this report won't be taken down as I'll be making privacy modifications ahead of time. Unfortunately that means my photos will contain blurred faces. Though it will harm the cosmetic appearance of this report, I hope I can still entertain and educate you.

A brief overview about myself and my Disney history. This was my fourth Disney cruise. My first was in 2012, and I've done one a year since then. The Wonder is the third ship I have sailed on and I hope to sail on the Dream within the next two years in order to complete the grand slam. Since the Magic is my favorite ship and the one I've been on my past two cruises, I'll be making some comparisons between the sister ships which do have subtle differences. I wasn't a Disney enthusiast until my first cruise in 2012, so DCL really is what gave me the Disney bug. I'm 18 and will be heading off to college this fall. This cruise wasn't a graduation present per say, but since I had graduated 1 week earlier, I decided to make this a celebration of my education.





Now for some basic trip details. This cruise took place from June 22-June 29 with 1 day pre and 1 day post cruise in Vancouver. We booked the cruise in April 2014 while aboard the Disney Magic. This was our first time taking advantage of booking onboard and booking over one year out, and it was truly worth it. We got a 10% fare discount, reduced down payment, and a $200 onboard credit. We stayed in a veranda room, category 05B, room 8532. It was in between the forward and midship elevators on the starboard (right) side.








Many of you are used to reading trip reports here on the DisBoards, but I want to encourage you to check out my report on my very own website! You can find it HERE . By having my own site, called DCL Currents, to publish my report on, I feel it gives me more control over the quality of my report and actually lets me own my content more than a message board site. I hope to continue this site after my report is finished with additional DCL tips and cruise planning advice. You can also sign up on my site to receive an email every time I publish a new post, that way you don't ever have to miss a post or feel like you have to come checking for updates. I hope you like my site as I continue to make technological and cosmetic improvements.



INDEX

1. Getting there: June 20th, 2015. Posted on 8/12/2015
2. Vancouver Part 1. June 21st, 2015. Posted on 8/22/2015
3. Vancouver Part 2. June 21st, 2015. Posted on 8/23/2015

 

[Saamh]

So excited to read another one of your trip reports!!! Congrats on your recent graduation.

 

[cheermom2four]

Joining in!!!

 

[linetbo]

I am in!!! I love your Mediterranean Cruise report helped me a lot. We sailed on the July 27th to Alaska.

 

[Mrs Green]

Following along! I've got to see these infamous matching outfits!

 

[Magic 2013]

I read your Trip report on the Mediterranean Cruise before our family went in Aug of 2013 which was the best report I read by the way... We just booked Alaska for July 2016 and I found this report. I'm looking forward to following it. Congratulations on your graduation!!!!

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

I also read your last trip report and loved it. So glad to have found this one. Congratulations on your recent graduation. Soon you'll be off to college. Good luck!

 

[disprincess4ever]

Ahoy shipmates! Welcome as we officially embark on our topsy turvy adventure!

I guess I should do a very brief intro of who we are. I'm Anastasia, 18 and Disney enthusiast. I traveled with my mom, dad, and brother, Nick, who is 12. They all enjoy the travel aspect and level of service more than the actual Disney factor, but I'm glad they put up with my obsession and choose to fund it as well.

Let's start with the weeks leading up to this vacation. We're excessive planners. Excessive. We plan everything. And it works for us. Planning and thinking about the vacation 24/7 for the 2-3 months leading up to the trip only builds the excitement. I technically started counting this cruise down since we booked it. That means my countdown started at about 420 days out. Every once and a while I would pull out my phone and look at the DCL app to check my countdown and see how many days I had left. Excessive? Yes, but also fun. I had the mobile countdown for over a year but restrained myself from having a paper countdown till 100 days out. We stuck it to the wall right near the backdoor so every time we left the house the numbers jumped out at us reminding us that our vacay was coming!



That picture doesn't show all 100 days on the calendar, but you get the idea. A big part of our pre trip planning is the clothes. I know many people prefer throwing some random clothes into the luggage last minute and wearing jeans to dinner, but we are just not those people. Our family dresses like an ad for a clothing company. Maybe Brooks Brothers or Polo. You get the idea. I'm always on the lookout for nautical clothing and collect it throughout the year. I store the new nautical clothing I buy under my bed to save it for the cruise. This time I had more new items than I could even bring. I was kind of sad, but now I have more cute nautical sweaters for the next cruise! Yes, my mother even goes to the extent of making a spreadsheet to coordinate the outfits. We must always color coordinate. It's like a holy grail rule. If we didn't color coordinate my mother's heart might stop. We've even gotten to the point to where she and I have matching outfits. I mean, at least they're cute clothes?? We're just really weird. Every family is nuts about something...I guess this is our thing. I'll probably be disclosing where I get each piece of my outfit because maybe there's someone out there who wants to know where to pick up nautical clothing? I just want to pretend I'm a cool fashionista not some lame girl who dresses like her mom, ok? Work with my delusion here.



The adventure really started on Saturday, June 20. Exactly one week after I had graduated high school. To say the two weeks before the trip were a busy whirlwind would be a pretty accurate description. We left late for the airport and then there was traffic. There was a lot of stressing and yelling, but we made it to the gate with plenty of time. Our plane actually left late because there was a group of people in wheelchairs heading to a wheelchair convention. Seriously, rarest thing ever! I mean, when else do you see about 10 people in wheelchairs all trying to get onto the same flight? One lady even had a lapdog the whole time. They only had one sponsor so it took us an extra 30 minutes waiting for them to load before we could get on and take off. We took a flight from our local airport to Dallas/Ft. Worth. When we landed in Dallas there were tons of wheelchairers. It was kind of funny just because of the unusually large amount of people cruising around, but it was also sweet to know that they have a get together to relate to each other as many of them seemed to be veterans. Once in Dallas we then got onto our connector to Vancouver.



If you're wondering why that photo has a little decal on it, that's from Snapchat. I love using the app because you can get different filters for your photos depending on your physical location. Any photos with decals or text on them are Snapchats.



Now, remember how earlier in this post I talked about our matching outfit obsession? Here's the first example. We had matching DCL shirts that we bought off the Disney Store website. Just my brother and I wore the shirts as my parents don't like to wear t-shirts, but don't worry they color coordinated with us. A lot of people asked us about our shirts in the airport. It's fun for me but I don't think Nick enjoys being a walking advertisement as much as I do.



The flight was uneventful except that they ran out of customs forms for the last 8ish rows of the plane. How inconvenient! It basically meant we had to fill one out at a little desk in the airport before we went through customs.

Right when you step into the Vancouver ( I like to call it Van City), you notice how impressive the airport is. The airport is just the beginning of the amazingness that was to come, but from the moment I stepped into British Columbia, Van City impressed me. Their airport has been rated best North American airport 6 years in a row and they deserve that award a million times over.

This little walk way had running water streams on the sides as well as fake birds chirping/nature sounds.






Customs.



We got some neat Canadian stamps in our passports to assure we were legal, safe little travelers and then headed to baggage claim. Our prayers were answered as all of our baggage made it to the same place we did. With the luggage in tow, we walked outside to the taxi line. I researched all our possible transportation options, from private transfer, to rental car, to sky train, and decided that the taxi was the best bet when considering both price and comfort. The wait was only about 3 minutes before a taxi van pulled up for us! Taxi's leaving the airport don't charge by meter but instead by zone. The price is about the same as if it were meter and it added up to $31 CAD to get to the Hampton Inn Vancouver right next to the big stadium, BC Place. Our driver was a softer spoken, older man who was a very calm driver. He's a retired school teacher and Van City native so he pointed out the sights and talked about his life in Vancouver a bit. Most of the talk was about the road we traveled on. There's one long road that all the traffic must take to the airport. It's lined with mansions and boutique stores, so plenty of gorgeous and impressive sights.

We arrived at the Hampton Inn in Downtown Vancouver around 9pm PST, which felt like midnight EST to us. That didn't matter to us though because we could already tell what a fascinating city Vancouver is! We stayed at the Hampton Inn because it was the only Hilton chain in the downtown, and we are Hilton Honors members. This is a great deal because we got all 3 nights we spent (both pre and post cruise) for free! It also includes a pretty decent free breakfast, so we really lucked out. Being a free room, you might think that we get that smallest rooms with the most unappealing views. This has never been true, and it wasn't this time either! We were on floor 12, the highest floor with rooms, and had a view of the stadium, BC Place! This is where the FIFA Woman's World Cup was going on.



The sun was just setting there, but the picture doesn't give the view justice as we were able to see the whole side of the stadium. Though a bit overtired our stomachs were rumbling so we set off for a quick dinner. We settled with a small pizza shop called Pizza 2001 that was about a 5 minute walk away. The deal was 2 slices of pizza and a bottled drink for $6.50 CAD. It was an awesome deal because we all got dinner for $12.50 CAD and the pizza was delicious! Thin and not to greasy just how I like it. Though served on thin paper plates, the Hawaiian, Veggie, and cheese pizza was quality. Everyone else was ready to retire, but I had more food on the mind. I wanted a M&M Blizzard from Dairy Queen and knew there was one just up the road. So I got my blizzard and ate it while walking back to the hotel shivering the entire way. It was in the low 60s and I was wearing a t-shirt! I'm from the South so any temp below 75 is cold for me....I'm basically cold blooded I have a feeling.

How did I know there was a Dairy Queen up the road? Well, let me clue you in on one of my travel tips. Google Earth. I like to go on Google Earth, type in an address (such as the hotel) and then choose street view. Then I'll click down the street and explore. This helps me visualize the area before I get there as well as see what restaurants and shops are around and within what proximity. It's very helpful for me because looking at a 2-d map online just doesn't give the same perspective and I like to be as prepared as possible.

Upon entering the hotel room to go to bed, we looked outside and saw that the stadium was aglow! It was literally glowing! Yes, the stadium has changing color lights throughout the night on its weird white tarp like cover. It's almost like mood lighting. Would have made a cool night light, but it was almost too bright so alas we had to close the curtains on the fun.



We were just getting started in Van City and the excitement kept building as we realized what an amazing place we had landed in.

Just a reminder that you can always read my trip report on my blog. There you can sign up for my email list and receive an email each time I write a new entry. You can also find my email on there if you want to contact me about questions for your future vacations and what not. I do post my updates over there up to a day before here, so if you want that advantage go check it out!

 

[disprincess4ever]

So excited to read another one of your trip reports!!! Congrats on your recent graduation.

Joining in!!!

Yay, thanks for reading! And thank you for the kind wishes for college.

I also read your last trip report and loved it. So glad to have found this one. Congratulations on your recent graduation. Soon you'll be off to college. Good luck!

I am in!!! I love your Mediterranean Cruise report helped me a lot. We sailed on the July 27th to Alaska.

I read your Trip report on the Mediterranean Cruise before our family went in Aug of 2013 which was the best report I read by the way... We just booked Alaska for July 2016 and I found this report. I'm looking forward to following it. Congratulations on your graduation!!!!

I find it so surprising yet humbling that ya'll remember my Med trip report two summers after I first put it up! It's such a pleasure to be able to help others by writing these. Also, thanks again to those of you who wish me well off in college!
Magic 2013, please feel free to email me with any questions you might have for your Alaskan cruise next summer! I know I sure had a lot before mine. You can find my email on my blog.

Following along! I've got to see these infamous matching outfits!

We'll they're more color coordinated than matching most days, but I think you'll be seeing one or two more matching ones!

 

[Saamh]

I do a spreadsheet for our outfits also! I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one.

 

[Claireywalsh]

Love it!! Following along, just in time for our trip next week!!

 

[disprincess4ever]

Hi readers! Please enjoy my day in Vancouver. Don't forget you can also read about my trip over on my blog! The blog has a mobile format so it's easy to read on the go! Thanks for sticking with me and I'm working as hard as I can to churn out updates with my busy life.

Vancouver is my favorite port of this whole vacation. It's seriously the best North American city I've ever visited and is tied with Barcelona as one of my fav places. Another reason Van city might be my favorite is that I got to plan everything we did here on my own. My parents didn't do any individual research, they just trusted I had planned something to do. Not to brag or anything, but my plans always turn out the best so likewise we had a perfect day here.

This fine day started with waking up early at 7:30am, even though we were wicked tired, because we had planned on going to church. We usually make church exceptions while on vacation, but since I discovered church was just down the block I made plans for us all to go to 9am mass. We went downstairs and grabbed some free breakfast from the hotel (Hampton Inn). The Hampton Inn free breakfast is always surprisingly sufficient. They have cheap foods like bagels, toast, powdered eggs, and sausage. But they also have higher quality options such as hard boiled eggs, pre made oatmeal with a topping bar, fruit salad, yogurt cups, a fresh waffle maker, and various pastries. Something I experienced at breakfast as well as around Vancouver is that their trash system is extremely efficient. They have a 3 section waste bin. Plastics, paper, and organics. The hotel had each section labeled with what items go where so it was easy to understand and follow. For those who didn't follow the rules, a breakfast attendant was going through the trash every few minutes and sorting things. I'm very into environmental conservation so this effort really impressed me and I wish more cities and towns would adopt this movement promptly. The one downfall of breakfast at the Hampton Inn was the seating area. Extremely small and only sits about 20 people. Most of the table are 2 seaters so we split up and sat at separate tables in order to eat all at the same time.

The morning air was so fresh and crisp. High 60's and sunny...it was going to be a beautiful day! We enjoyed our short morning walk to 9am mass at Holy Rosary Cathedral.





We then went straight from church to find the shuttle stop for Capilano Suspension bridge park. The park runs free shuttles that pick up at lots of different locations. The closest one to us was around the corner. Below is an example of how I map things out when I travel. Instead of carrying a big, confusing map I go to Google Maps, type in my to and from places, and get some directions. Then, I take a screen shot of the directions next to the map and print it out. I find this helpful because you have the written directions as well as a visual that shows you the path you need to take. Super easy to prepare ahead of time and to use on vacation! I have a scanned example...(sorry I cut part of it off in the scanning process but you get the idea). I also had written the shuttle times at the top.



The shuttle rolled past and stopped for us. Turns out we weren't standing in the exactly correct location, but the bus found us so all was good. The ride was about 25-30 minutes to the suspension bridge park, Capilano. The tickets came to about $150 CAD for the 4 of us. They give a AAA discount, so don't forget to ask!



You could spend anywhere from 3 hours to almost the whole day if you chose. There's a lot to do and it's a truly beautiful and well run park!







Lots of totem poles because Capilano is the name of the former chief of the Indian tribe of this area. The park has interactive displays before the bridges that explain the history of the bridge and the people who lived here in years past.

The layout of the park is that there's totem poles, historical info, the restaurant, and the gift shop near the entrance. Then you either can go to the cliff walk or take the long suspension bridge to the other side where there's shorter suspension bridges. We decided to do the longest and more famous bridge first. It does sway quite a bit, but no one in my family found it to be too wild, it's just hard to walk straight. Think of trying to walk on a cruise ship during a rocky night. The bridge passes over a creek. The walk moves at a decent pace but you have time to stop for photos. Many, many people here had selfie sticks. More than I've ever seen before.












As soon as you cross the big suspension bridge to the other side, there's a small sitting area and snack counter. On this side of the bridge you can walk around a small pond and read about the different species of plants and trees. There's also a station where you can learn about birds and see a large one (sorry not sure about the types). We chose to do a free guided nature walk which lasted about 20 minutes. I enjoyed it because it explained the info on the displays in a more memorable and interesting format. We learned about algae and mosses as well as the age of the trees, why leaves form certain shapes, and how the slime of a banana slug will numb your tongue if you lick it!











After our nature walk, we went to explore some mini suspension bridges. I believe this is called the treetops adventure. These bridges are much shorter than the 1st one we walked, and are connected by platforms built onto the trees. These bridges make you feel like a true wilderness explorer walking through the trees.



Lots of ferns below that remind me of dinosaurs.








Besides the nature tour and the treetops adventure, there's also a wooden boardwalk type path that goes through the trees.

Now to get back to the other side you have to cross the big suspension bridge again...



Here's the inside of one of the Capilano brochures I picked up. It gives you a brief overview of the different activities in the park.

 

[nemeola]

Your photography in wonderful. May I ask what type of camera you have. We are on the Wonder next June and I ned to buy a camera. Thanks

 

[disprincess4ever]

Your photography in wonderful. May I ask what type of camera you have. We are on the Wonder next June and I ned to buy a camera. Thanks

Thanks for your kind compliment! I used 4 types of cameras, and will list them in order from what I used the most, to what I used the least.

The Nikon D3100. You can buy it there from Amazon, but they no longer actually make the model. I bought it back in February 2013, so it hasn't been discontinued that long. If you want something a bit newer, try the D3200. This camera is by far the best one we own.

The Canon Powershot SX230.Image quality is not as good as the Nikon, but the pros are that this camera is smaller, lighters, and has an incredible zoom. The zoom feature is helpful for closeups of wildlife.

The Panasonic HX-WA03. This camera is good for both photo and video and works underwater, which is great for the pool, ocean, or a rainy day. We bought it 2 years ago and its since been discontinued, but here's something very similar.

The iPhone 6. Surprisingly good photo quality compared to my old iPhone 4. Used for simplicity and size.

Hope this helps!

 

[disprincess4ever]

It was now about 1:30pm and we had entered the park around 11am, so everyone was getting a bit hungry and tired. Though the food was pricey we caved and ate at the one pickup food counter in the park. It was a made to order grill with hamburgers, salmon burgers, and hot dogs. An adult burger meal was about $15 CAD, not including a drink. However, the burger and fries were pretty good quality, think Ruby Tuesday or Chilis, so it wasn't a total waste of money and really filled us up. They also had a live band playing some banjo/folk music and free wifi to use.

I was back at it on Snapchat and found a Capilano filter.



The last main attraction of the park was the cliff walk. I had expected this to bother me more than the suspension bridge, but found this to be less intense because it doesn't sway.





The narrow platform you walk on.



Some of the platforms run along the rock wall. There's also small flights of stairs.







To finish out our time at Capilano we headed to the gift shop. The main reason we stopped in was to get my dad his certificate. The whole time we were at the park he insisted on completing some kids challenge. There was about 6 (maybe more) imprinting stamp machines around the park and you had to find them all and stamp their allocated spot on the guide map. Once you got all the stamps you got a certificate. No clue why my dad was so obsessed with getting this award but I'm pretty sure it's because he was really scared of the bridges in the park and wanted to award himself for being brave, lol.



The gift shop had some cute stuff in it, but my fav was this little bear!



We then got on the free shuttle to go back to downtown. Instead of taking the shuttle back to our hotel, we took a shuttle to the hotel nearest Stanley Park where we were going to ride bikes. The shuttle driver was nice enough to stop right near the entrance of Stanley Park and let people off there, which is what we did.

There's plenty of different bike shops in the area, but we went with a place called Spokes. It's on the corner and is the largest and busiest store so we felt it was a safe choice since it was so crowded there.

How much you want to spend on a bike depends on the speed you choose. My mom and I got the cheapest option: a 1 speed bike for $7.95 CAD per hour. This bike has wide handles and to brake you must pedal backwards (no hand brakes). My dad and brother felt more comfortable having hand breaks so they got the next cheapest option: the 3 speed for $9.95 CAD per hour. The rental includes a basket for the front of your bike, a bike lock, and a helmet. The employees hand you your bike outside and fit it for you so that your ride is as comfortable as possible. You literally just bike across the street and there you are at Stanley Park and ready to bike the trail!

Here's a map picked up from the bike shop. Stanley Park is that large, dark green area at the top and we rode the orange path around the entire thing. I'm not sure of the milage, but it would be a lot to walk. Our bike ride around the entire thing took us an hour and a half and we rode at a moderate pace with plenty of picture stops. The bike rental cost us a total of $54 CAD for the hour and a half.



Stanley Park is incredible! Truly a beautiful place to visit. There's beaches, a water park, playground, and aquarium. We would have loved to spend more time here. Most of the bike ride is along the water and the bike path varies in width. We rode on a beautiful Sunday, which was also Father's day, so the path was extremely crowded! It was a bit stressful at times because people would ring their bike bell and try to speed past you on these narrow paths, so you always had to be aware of your surroundings. It was like driving on the interstate during rush hour. For this reason I wouldn't recommend this activity for younger kids because it could honestly become dangerous.






The sister bridge to the Golden Gate. We rode on this bridge earlier in the day to get to Capilano.



A view of Canada Place, the cruise port.







This marina is where the bike trail starts and ends.









A crowded bike path.



After our awesome ride, we had to figure out how to get back to the hotel. We decided we weren't that tired and that we were going to walk. The Hampton Inn is on Robson Street, which runs all the way down from the hotel to a block away from Spokes bike rental. All we had to do was walk 2 blocks over and about a mile and a half (maybe a bit less) up Robson Street. I am so glad we chose to walk because it allowed us to see the city and culture in a way we wouldn't have seen otherwise. Along the way we stopped for McFlurries at McDonalds to take a break. We even stopped into a Whole Foods to see what it was all about as we don't have one where we live. Robson Street has a lot of high fashion on it. We saw a lot of very posh stores, which I would have loved to stop into. We even passed a jazz street festival. The city was alive on a Sunday afternoon and it was so fun to be a part of the hustle and bustle. It reminded me of NYC, yet cleaner and newer.

When we got back to our hotel, the woman's FIFA soccer game across the street at BC Place had about 10 minutes left. We switched on the TV and watched the end of the game where Canada beat out Germany. The coolest thing was you could hear the cheering from inside the stadium from inside our room. Because of the 3 sec delay on TV, you would hear the cheers in the stadium before you would hear it on TV. When the game ended, we decided to go up to the terrace and watch all the people leave the stadium. It was beautiful up there, and it was neat to see the streams of people that looked like little ants all dressed in red to support Canada. The police had blocked the street off, so the people streamed out as far as we could see.



All around us were shiny, new apartment buildings that made me feel like I was in some futuristic city. As you can tell from this Snapchat, I was loving Van city.



After that it was about 6pm and we were all super tired. We had hoped to go to Chinatown, just a few blocks away, and grab some dinner but apparently no one else in my family felt up to it. (Believe it or not but I still had tons of energy at this point) So instead, we got some fast food from up the street. Nick got some Tim Hortons, I got Subway, and the parentals got McDonalds. Let me tell you, McDonalds in Canada is a lot better than in the US. (This excludes the McDonalds in the Canada Place food court which sucks). The one we went to had a healthier menu. My parents got some "greeking out" salad that was actually really healthy. (Think Panera Bread Quality) My mom was so impressed she saved the receipt. Mind you we're never people who eat at McDonalds besides for ice cream but if they had those salads here we might go.



Now that I'm done with this bizarre McDonalds rant, I'm going to end this post by saying that Vancouver is worth your time pre cruise or post cruise. I preferred it to Alaska, thats just my opinion, but there's so much to do here and I only showed you a small sampling of the major tourist attractions. Even if you're trying to save money, take the time to come to Vancouver...it's well worth it.

 

[linetbo]

I agree with you, love Vancouver. We spent 2 whole days in Vancouver and 1 day in Victoria.

 

[jeffbear]

Even if you're trying to save money, take the time to come to Vancouver...it's well worth it.

Agreed. We spent two VERY lovely days in Vancouver ahead of our sailing and I really wish we had gone for 3 because I never managed to make it to Chinatown for dinner and that's always a priority ... in ANY city with a proper Chinatown.

Oh ... and Japadog. Best food truck food evAR.

 

[Mrs Green]

I am very excited to spend time in Vancouver precruise next summer. I really want to bike Stanley park but feel concerned about your comment that it could be dangerous for kids with the crowds, so I am thinking maybe if we go right away in the morning it will be better. Do you or any other readers have insight about that?

 

[jeffbear]

I am very excited to spend time in Vancouver precruise next summer. I really want to bike Stanley park but feel concerned about your comment that it could be dangerous for kids with the crowds, so I am thinking maybe if we go right away in the morning it will be better. Do you or any other readers have insight about that?

Depends on the day. There aren't a ton of crowds in the park on a weekday, and as you'd expect there are more people on a weekend ... 'cause it's a park. We spent time there on a Sunday in the morning and I definitely never considered it unsafe for kids. In fact, there were a bunch of kids on bikes and everybody seemed fine. Let's face it, unless they are new to biking, most kids handle their bikes better than the average desk job adult. I seriously wouldn't worry about it, but heading there in the AM if you're going to be there on a weekend is probably a good idea either way.

 

[Mrs Green]

Thanks @jeffbear we will be there Sunday, so we will go in the a.m. My three year old will be riding in a seat but my 7 year old is very dramatic in life and in biking so less crowds will be better(for my sanity )