MNtwinsplus1mom
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 2, 2011
My family was on the first Alaska sailing of the 2019 season, May 20th-May 27th. We took the trip to celebrate a big birthday of mine this year. It was our first cruise ever as a family (my husband cruised once with Disney on The Big Red Boat in the early 90s, before they had their own cruise line, but he says that was a very different experience). I will jump to the bottom line right away: We LOVED our cruise. We are officially hooked on Disney Cruise Line and hope to do many more, though it will require some creative budgeting and passing on (or delaying) some other vacations I’d been envisioning to make the numbers work. I love planning and may or may not have a secret running Note on my iPhone where I sketched out family vacations through the year 2025. Yeah, that’s gonna have to be modified.
Our family consists of me, Karin, my husband Jeff, our three sons Sam (age 17), and his twin brothers Kevin and Benjamin (age 14). We live in Minnesota. I had never really wanted to take a cruise before, but we do love any kind of Disney vacation, so when we decided to cruise it had to be Disney. Growing up my family vacations were always either “up north” in Minnesota or in Florida for Disney World. After we had children, we continued the Disney World tradition in addition to other non-Disney places that we surprisingly have enjoyed very much despite the lack of Mickey waffles. We in recent years have broadened our Disney travel horizons to include Aulani, Disneyland, Disneyland Paris (just my husband and I) and the Walt Disney Hometown Museum in Marceline, MO. We have enjoyed them all. We think the Alaska cruise may well be our favorite vacation ever, though, of all these. It was that fantastic. We are so thankful we got to go!
Day 1 (May 20, 2019):
We had spent several nights pre-cruise in Vancouver, at the Times Square Suites Hotel, located on Robson Street near Stanley Park. It was an excellent space for our family, with two bedrooms, a living room with a sleeper sofa, and kitchen. On the Monday morning of the cruise, we packed up our things and grabbed breakfast at the Starbuck’s that was conveniently located just a few steps away.
The manager at the hotel called a cab for us, requesting a large vehicle because we had a larger group (5 is considered large in Vancouver), but warning that sometimes they aren’t available so two vehicles might be needed to accommodate us. Thankfully, a minivan arrived quickly and had plenty of room for us and our many bags. It cost $25 Canadian with tip.
Upon arrival at Canada Place, we handed off our luggage and then took the elevator to street level and exited the building, where we excitedly admired our ship. It was thrilling to finally see the Disney Wonder! Just beautiful.
We took pictures from many different angles and then tore ourselves away to explore the Canada Place area. We had a good hour before we could board, which had been our plan so that we could see the port area.
We stopped by Tim Horton’s, where we enjoyed doughnuts and beverages thanks to a gift card we needed to finish off.
Next, we located the pixilated orca and the Olympic cauldron.
Flyover Canada is a popular pre-cruise activity at Canada Place, but we had already seen it at home at the Mall of America. After some more wandering and gazing at the ship, it was time to check in. Our Port Arrival Time was 12:30-1pm.
We completed the required Health Questionnaire as we waited in line and were thankful that we didn’t need to check any worrisome boxes (our oldest son had just started to feel unwell with what appeared to be a cold). When we checked in, we received our paper Navigators and our Key to the World Cards which revealed a dining rotation of TP (Tiana’s Place)-TR (Triton’s)-TR-AP (Animator’s Palate)-TP-TR-AP. The process of going through Customs and Security went smoothly and took about an hour. Unfortunately, no characters were there to greet us in the terminal at that point for an embarkation photo, but we still took a family picture.
We were walking onto the ship by 1:30pm. When asked for our family name, we answered “Fitzherbert,” as we are big Tangled fans. The cast member didn’t quite buy it, but announced us anyway after we did our best to play it cool. (Next time we will probably stick with honesty, as I felt a little guilty misleading who would end up being one of our favorite cast members.)
I stopped at Guest Services right away, to make sure we had our own table at dinner, as I’d requested. The boys are growing up so fast, and as we were expecting some time apart over the week if the boys enjoyed Vibe or other independent activities, I wanted to ensure some nice family time each evening. They confirmed our solo table, and then we were on to our room, because we realized it would be ready for us. Nice timing!
We dropped off our carry-on bags in room 8572, a Deluxe Family Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah, located in the Aft of the ship on the Starboard side. I chose this room because it was the Aft room closest to the midsection of the ship. I wanted to avoid the Port side because I’d heard a few reports from people in Aft rooms on Deck 8 that smoke from the nearby Smoking section occasionally wafted over to their verandahs. We loved our room and found its location to be ideal for us throughout the cruise. We had only minimal feelings of movement there, what I’d describe as a gentle, pleasant amount. On one sea day at night, the motion of the ship caused me to wake up, but it wasn’t too bad and no one got seasick.
Our view from our room:
We took a short walk up to Deck 9 to have lunch at Cabanas, which had a good variety of choices for everyone. After that Jeff and I took the Walking Ship Tour at 2:30pm, while the twins checked out Vibe. Sam relaxed in the room, as he wasn’t feeling well and thought rest the best choice.
We all met in the room about an hour later and headed to Assembly Station O on Deck 4 for the Muster Drill. We were careful to be there early, so we wouldn’t inconvenience others by making them wait, but there must’ve been some stragglers because we didn’t start on time. We didn’t mind though, because it was pleasant outside and we were so excited just to be there.
We heard an announcement that due to weather the Sail-A-Wave Party was being moved inside to the atrium. By the time we arrived it was quite crowded, so we skipped it and the twins used the unexpected free time to head up to grab pizza at Pinocchio’s. We filled up our plastic Disney World refillable mugs at the beverage station on Deck 9. We would always use the smaller cups provided at the drink station but then would pour the liquid from them into our own mugs because those are the rules, but we enjoyed the larger capacity and the lids of our own mugs.
When we took the stairs up to Deck 10 to watch the ship get on its way, we were greeted with drizzly weather and cloudy skies. Despite the weather, it was a delight to hear the famous “When You Wish Upon a Star” horn blast and watch the ship set out toward Alaska, making the dramatic pass under Lions Gate Bridge along the way.
Our family consists of me, Karin, my husband Jeff, our three sons Sam (age 17), and his twin brothers Kevin and Benjamin (age 14). We live in Minnesota. I had never really wanted to take a cruise before, but we do love any kind of Disney vacation, so when we decided to cruise it had to be Disney. Growing up my family vacations were always either “up north” in Minnesota or in Florida for Disney World. After we had children, we continued the Disney World tradition in addition to other non-Disney places that we surprisingly have enjoyed very much despite the lack of Mickey waffles. We in recent years have broadened our Disney travel horizons to include Aulani, Disneyland, Disneyland Paris (just my husband and I) and the Walt Disney Hometown Museum in Marceline, MO. We have enjoyed them all. We think the Alaska cruise may well be our favorite vacation ever, though, of all these. It was that fantastic. We are so thankful we got to go!
Day 1 (May 20, 2019):
We had spent several nights pre-cruise in Vancouver, at the Times Square Suites Hotel, located on Robson Street near Stanley Park. It was an excellent space for our family, with two bedrooms, a living room with a sleeper sofa, and kitchen. On the Monday morning of the cruise, we packed up our things and grabbed breakfast at the Starbuck’s that was conveniently located just a few steps away.
The manager at the hotel called a cab for us, requesting a large vehicle because we had a larger group (5 is considered large in Vancouver), but warning that sometimes they aren’t available so two vehicles might be needed to accommodate us. Thankfully, a minivan arrived quickly and had plenty of room for us and our many bags. It cost $25 Canadian with tip.
Upon arrival at Canada Place, we handed off our luggage and then took the elevator to street level and exited the building, where we excitedly admired our ship. It was thrilling to finally see the Disney Wonder! Just beautiful.
We took pictures from many different angles and then tore ourselves away to explore the Canada Place area. We had a good hour before we could board, which had been our plan so that we could see the port area.
We stopped by Tim Horton’s, where we enjoyed doughnuts and beverages thanks to a gift card we needed to finish off.
Next, we located the pixilated orca and the Olympic cauldron.
Flyover Canada is a popular pre-cruise activity at Canada Place, but we had already seen it at home at the Mall of America. After some more wandering and gazing at the ship, it was time to check in. Our Port Arrival Time was 12:30-1pm.
We completed the required Health Questionnaire as we waited in line and were thankful that we didn’t need to check any worrisome boxes (our oldest son had just started to feel unwell with what appeared to be a cold). When we checked in, we received our paper Navigators and our Key to the World Cards which revealed a dining rotation of TP (Tiana’s Place)-TR (Triton’s)-TR-AP (Animator’s Palate)-TP-TR-AP. The process of going through Customs and Security went smoothly and took about an hour. Unfortunately, no characters were there to greet us in the terminal at that point for an embarkation photo, but we still took a family picture.
We were walking onto the ship by 1:30pm. When asked for our family name, we answered “Fitzherbert,” as we are big Tangled fans. The cast member didn’t quite buy it, but announced us anyway after we did our best to play it cool. (Next time we will probably stick with honesty, as I felt a little guilty misleading who would end up being one of our favorite cast members.)
I stopped at Guest Services right away, to make sure we had our own table at dinner, as I’d requested. The boys are growing up so fast, and as we were expecting some time apart over the week if the boys enjoyed Vibe or other independent activities, I wanted to ensure some nice family time each evening. They confirmed our solo table, and then we were on to our room, because we realized it would be ready for us. Nice timing!
We dropped off our carry-on bags in room 8572, a Deluxe Family Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah, located in the Aft of the ship on the Starboard side. I chose this room because it was the Aft room closest to the midsection of the ship. I wanted to avoid the Port side because I’d heard a few reports from people in Aft rooms on Deck 8 that smoke from the nearby Smoking section occasionally wafted over to their verandahs. We loved our room and found its location to be ideal for us throughout the cruise. We had only minimal feelings of movement there, what I’d describe as a gentle, pleasant amount. On one sea day at night, the motion of the ship caused me to wake up, but it wasn’t too bad and no one got seasick.
Our view from our room:
We took a short walk up to Deck 9 to have lunch at Cabanas, which had a good variety of choices for everyone. After that Jeff and I took the Walking Ship Tour at 2:30pm, while the twins checked out Vibe. Sam relaxed in the room, as he wasn’t feeling well and thought rest the best choice.
We all met in the room about an hour later and headed to Assembly Station O on Deck 4 for the Muster Drill. We were careful to be there early, so we wouldn’t inconvenience others by making them wait, but there must’ve been some stragglers because we didn’t start on time. We didn’t mind though, because it was pleasant outside and we were so excited just to be there.
We heard an announcement that due to weather the Sail-A-Wave Party was being moved inside to the atrium. By the time we arrived it was quite crowded, so we skipped it and the twins used the unexpected free time to head up to grab pizza at Pinocchio’s. We filled up our plastic Disney World refillable mugs at the beverage station on Deck 9. We would always use the smaller cups provided at the drink station but then would pour the liquid from them into our own mugs because those are the rules, but we enjoyed the larger capacity and the lids of our own mugs.
When we took the stairs up to Deck 10 to watch the ship get on its way, we were greeted with drizzly weather and cloudy skies. Despite the weather, it was a delight to hear the famous “When You Wish Upon a Star” horn blast and watch the ship set out toward Alaska, making the dramatic pass under Lions Gate Bridge along the way.
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