Disney Wonder: May 20, 2019 7-Day Alaska Adventure!

ofcabbagesandkings

DIS Veteran
Joined
Aug 16, 2014
Starting this thread since there isn't one yet! Just booked myself, DH, and my 2 boys who will be 7 and 2 at the time of the cruise. This is our first-ever cruise on DCL, and our first cruise as a family, I went on a girl's trip cruise a lifetime ago in Europe, but DH has never been on a cruise ship. We've got a long wait, but super excited!
 
We'll be cruising with you! It will be me, my son who will be 8 and my parents. My son and I had been planning a trip to the Grand Canyon for 2019 when my parents began thinking of cruising to Alaska in 2019 (her lifelong dream, my dad's - not so much). My son decided he'd rather do Alaska (I figured he wouldn't have interest in it until he's older - what do I know?!?!), so my parents agreed to do DCL (their 4th and our 5th), though they were looking at other lines up until last week! So excited for this trip. It will be amazing!!!
 
Joining in... first cruise for me & sons (presently) age 13, 13, 16. DH went on a Disney cruise long ago before they had an official Disney Cruise Line! He had trouble with seasickness then so hoping the inside passage of Alaska and the newer, larger ship is gentler on him. We have been planning this trip for a long time already. So excited to be able to book it last week!
 




Finally under 400 days! I been busy working on our fish extenders. What I don't totally understand yet is how the groups for trading get formed. Any information/advice from experienced cruisers would be appreciated.
 
Has anyone started booking excursions yet? Everyone I’ve contacted has told me to get back to them towards the end of the year, one as late as next February. This makes sense but I seem to recall that some folks have been able to book. We’re still not 100% sure what we want to do, but I’d like to book ASAP because we’re trying to coordinate more than one excursion in each port. Thanks.
 
Hi everyone! First time cruisers here, myself and wife, 2 kiddos (DD5 and DS2) and 3 grandparents. For the kids and 2 grandparents it will be their first time on a boat of any kind, much less a ship! Sooo looking forward to this cruise. We are huge Disney fans and had a blast with the same family group at WDW last summer.
 
Hi folks! Joining in. This will be my 4th Disney Cruise and I'll be joined by friends and family. Some are first time cruisers, too! Can anyone tell me how to sign up for the Fish Extenders gift exchange? We want to make and participate in the gift-giving, but I can't really find good information on it.
Thank you for any help!
 
I haven't tried booking excursions yet, but am getting a good idea about what sounds good for us in each port so am excited to book later. (I like paying as much as we can in advance of trips, and we plan to book some on our own [not through Disney] so that'll be nice.)

One area that I find tricky is finding a room for our family of 5 in Vancouver. Tough! Have any of you booked hotels for pre- and/or post-cruise yet? I'm not clear on when some open for booking.

I think it's exciting to see trip reports beginning for the season, including the first Alaska cruise of the year! I'm taking lots of notes.
 
Me too, MNTwin! I've got my trip binder started in OneNote. I've been looking at hotel and AirBnB pricing in vancouver. There are a lot of hotels starting to show the Sunday night before departure as booked. I hate to book too far in advance, because I'm not sure on my travel yet, but at the same time...better to book something I can let go of later if I need to.
 
I guess I already waited too long to book hotels too, the one I wanted appears to be booked already before our cruise. Just still not sure exactly when we’re getting to Vancouver. I’ve booked excursions in Ketchikan (float plane) and Juneau (whale watching) but nothing for Skagway yet. I’d like to squeeze in 2 excursions that day since it’s a later all aboard, but since we have main dining I guess we can’t really take advantage of that unless we eat in Cabanas that night.

ETA: We were able to book the Pan Pacific yesterday for the weekend before our cruise. The website was glitching out and telling me the room was unavailable after I hit confirm booking, but then someone from their reservation team emailed me and told me I had three bookings! Luckily I booked the non-prepay room so they were able to take the extra two off. I'm hoping I'll find a discount I can apply to the room later or even just switch to the Alaska cruise package that includes breakfast, but I'm wary of doing full pre-pay this far in advance so I'm going to wait until we're closer to the date. We haven't booked flights yet and I'm hoping we'll spend more time in Vancouver, but I think we'll do a cheaper hotel or AirBnB if we decide to do that and just switch to the Pan the weekend before the cruise.
 
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I guess I already waited too long to book hotels too, the one I wanted appears to be booked already before our cruise. Just still not sure exactly when we’re getting to Vancouver. I’ve booked excursions in Ketchikan (float plane) and Juneau (whale watching) but nothing for Skagway yet. I’d like to squeeze in 2 excursions that day since it’s a later all aboard, but since we have main dining I guess we can’t really take advantage of that unless we eat in Cabanas that night.

ETA: We were able to book the Pan Pacific yesterday for the weekend before our cruise. The website was glitching out and telling me the room was unavailable after I hit confirm booking, but then someone from their reservation team emailed me and told me I had three bookings! Luckily I booked the non-prepay room so they were able to take the extra two off. I'm hoping I'll find a discount I can apply to the room later or even just switch to the Alaska cruise package that includes breakfast, but I'm wary of doing full pre-pay this far in advance so I'm going to wait until we're closer to the date. We haven't booked flights yet and I'm hoping we'll spend more time in Vancouver, but I think we'll do a cheaper hotel or AirBnB if we decide to do that and just switch to the Pan the weekend before the cruise.

We have a room booked pre-cruise at the Douglas Guest House. We are just starting to look into excursions. I think in Skagway we want to pan for gold and/or do a dog sledding excursion. In Juneau we want to do a whale watching excursion and I think we have settled on the Deadliest Catch excursion in Ketchican. Ofcabbagesandkings, can I ask which company you booked your whale watching excursion through?
 
We have a room booked pre-cruise at the Douglas Guest House. We are just starting to look into excursions. I think in Skagway we want to pan for gold and/or do a dog sledding excursion. In Juneau we want to do a whale watching excursion and I think we have settled on the Deadliest Catch excursion in Ketchican. Ofcabbagesandkings, can I ask which company you booked your whale watching excursion through?

It was the Scania, recommended by someone on Disboards. http://www.whalewatchingjuneau.com We wanted a small-boat experience without having to pay for a private charter because we have small kids, which Harv and Marv make you do.
 

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