This 2017 PTR is all over the place!! Updated 08/21/17 Nearly time!!

bcwife76

DisneyMomma
Joined
Dec 10, 2014
Welcome to my PTR!

As my name suggests, I'm BCWife and we live just outside of Vancouver BC.

In September 2015 my family and I took our first Disney cruise, the repositioning cruise from Vancouver to San Diego on the Disney Wonder. Our kids loved it, I loved it, my dh not so much (but he's a grumpy bugger, as he fully admits too, and pleasing him when it comes to vacation is not always easy!)

I can tell you for sure that he thoroughly enjoyed brunch at Palo,the mixology class we did with our FE group and all the lovely adult-only time we enjoyed while our kids were in the clubs having a blast!

Before we even set foot on the ship I knew that I wanted our second cruise to be to Alaska; both DH and I turn 40 this year (actually I already did, 10 days ago :crazy2:) so I thought this would be a wonderful way to celebrate.

On our third day on the ship we went down to the future sales desk and booked the last Alaska sailing for 2016, hurrah!

Disembarking in San Diego was an utter farce and a complete nightmare and as we waited for a cab in the 95F heat (and this was October 1st!!) my dh already wanted to cancel the Alaskan cruise. I managed to calm him down, stating that I'm sure San Diego and its disembarkation-****-show was not how it always is when you disembark in other ports and to just enjoy the rest of our vacation (we went up to Disneyland for 3 days post cruise).

Once home we remembered how wonderful the cruise was, how we wished it had been 7 nights and all the bad taste of disembarkation left. And the then the CDN$ began to REALLY plummet.

Our expensive cruise to Alaska (and remember we live near the port so we don't even need flights!!) was becoming more expensive by the day. With no end to the dollar downfall insight we made the difficult decision (it was WAY more painful for me than DH) to change our cruise itinerary.

So at the end of November, we changed our cruise to the January 13 2017 sailing to the Bahamas (also on the Wonder, ironically) out of Galveston TX.

Eventhough we had to then add flights to our trip, it's still costing us significantly less than Alaska. Plus excursions are less expensive. So this meant we actually had money 'left over' and so we booked a second, earlier trip and are going to Maui this coming May!

It's a hard life, I know :teeth:
 
So going on this cruise will be myself, my wonderful DH (who's still 39 but will be 40 before we embark!) and our two daughters who will be 8 1/2 and 6 at the time of sailing.

This will definitely be different for us as we need to fly in for this cruise. We've never been to Texas and I'm quite excited about Galveston particularly so we're going to fly in the day before our cruise and will probably fly out the day AFTER we disembark. I've heard fog in Galveston can be an issue so we don't want to get stuck on either end, plus who wouldn't want to extend their vacation by an extra day or two?

We're hoping to do an excursion in Key West as well as get off in Castaway Cay (obviously!!!), just haven't decided about getting off the ship in Nassau.....we'll see. Excursions are new to us, we never got off the ship on our first cruise as the only stop between Vancouver and San Diego was Victoria BC and we've been there loads of times so it was nice to just stay on the ship, essentially giving us 3 sea days.

I know for sure we're going to want to do another Palo brunch and possibly a dinner this time as well. Another mixology class is on my husbands' list lol Hoping for a new show to attend, I know Toy Story will be gone so assuming the new Frozen show will be onboard by then (??). Definitely more pool time than our first cruise, too!

Airfare hasn't been released yet as we're still a little far out but I've been playing around with other dates so I have a rough idea of prices between Vancouver and Houston (direct only please!) Since technically we are flying internationally we can only fly into IAH and not Hobby. Have been researching hotels in Galveston and ways to get to and from the airport and port/hotel/Galveston so I'm getting prepped!

As for our upcoming Maui trip, one of the reasons we can do this trip as well despite the low loonie is because the condo we are staying in is owned by our realtor and good friend and she's giving it to us at an outstanding price (nearly half off!!) and we managed to snag direct flights Vancouver to Maui at the end of November for a crazy low price. Maui has been on the bucket list for my DH for several years now (basically since our friend bought her condo lol) so I think he's much more excited about Hawaii than the cruise!
 
Sounds like a good time! Think of your Alaska trip not as cancelled, but as postponed....

Thanks for reading along! That's the perfect way to put it as it is just postponed because......well, I'll update this PTR tonight and talk more about it :P
 


So timing is an interesting thing. After everyone went back to work and school in early January I got a call from a lawyer to say that my dad has passed away and that I was one of the beneficiaries of his estate. Very long story short, we were estranged for the last 4 years (he did some truly awful things to me and my husband) and no one told me he was sick/dying/died. Great family huh?
He also died without a will; the laws in our province state that spouse (his 3rd wife) is not entitled to the entire estate if there are children from a previous marriage (me from marriage #2, a horrible half brother from marriage #1). Yada yada yada, cutting to the chase, I'm getting an inheritance.

Turns out we could have afforded the Alaskan cruise after all o_O too late to change it back at this point as the rates have continued to climb so yes, we'll be booking a placeholder on this upcoming cruise, hopefully for Alaska 2018 (probably won't do 2 cruises in 2017).

So yep, Alaska is just postponed. But we're both truly excited about this upcoming cruise!

Last night I received the first part of my inheritance (the rest will not come until next year at some point I believe) so while we are being responsible with the bulk of the money, we did 'splurge' and upgrade our stateroom from an inside to a verandah! I'm thinking, however, that after this cruise we'll be spoiled and will not want to go back down to an inside cabin (split the difference for the next cruise, do an oceanview? lol)
 
Wow, that is interesting timing! I vote for splitting the difference and getting an oceanview. That's what we are doing on our upcoming cruise...I've only done inside before so am excited about that (the old budget precludes a verandah). But it is super nice that you get a verandah for this cruise!
 
wow very interesting twist there indeed! happy for you re. the verandah!!!

and, to give you a preview of my yet-to-be-written-day-8-TR (ahem as someone keeps reminding me ;) ), pls tell your hubby that the disembarkation in vancouver for our alaskan cruise was really awesome. well, we did the express walk-off (take your own luggage and literally walk off the ship yourself). we got to the atrium at 7:51 a.m., and we were on the street outside canada place by 8:03. no stress whatsoever.

p.s. definitely swing for the verandah or better for alaska!!!
 


@jtba thanks for joining along :D

Why do I get the feeling you like a verandah? :rotfl2: I have to ask though, verandah or BETTER in Alaska. What's better than the verandah? The Walt Suite?:rotfl:

The port of Vancouver seems to be a pretty tightly run ship (no pun intended) so I'm looking forward to sailing out of 'home' again in the future; just crossing my fingers Galveston is ok!
 
Why do I get the feeling you like a verandah? :rotfl2:

heehee ;)

for others who are reading this, @bcwife76 has been a very faithful follower of my 2015 alaskan TR. and would send me gentle reminders whenever i slacked off on writing...

but yeah, a verandah for alaska is a good idea because of all the beautiful scenery that passes right by. before i went on that trip, i thought, water falls schmwater falls, whatever. but it really was worth it, esp. on tracy arm day, when the ship got close to a glacier. it was beneficial because DS and DD got tired of looking at the ice bergs in the water very quickly, and i would've been bummed if i had to leave my prime viewing spot on the top decks. having a verandah allowed them to play inside the stateroom while the adults could continue to woo and aaah at the sights outside.

having said that, we're trying an ocean view for our cruise to the east carribean in 2017, just for a change. then we can decide which one to go with if/when we cruise again after that.


I have to ask though, verandah or BETTER in Alaska. What's better than the verandah? The Walt Suite?:rotfl:

why not? travel in style, live it up! :) then you can write up a TR so we can live vicariously inside the Walt thru you! :)
 
So a few days ago I called DCL and requested a 4 top table at the MDR. Although we had a wonderful experience dining with another family on our first cruise, we were kind of hoping to just have a table to ourselves this time. Of course the CM on the phone gave me the whole 'it's just a request, not a guarantee' spiel which I completely understand. However, I also understand we are almost 11 months out from our cruise and we are at second seating so I'm thinking our odds of getting a table to ourselves are pretty good. We shall see ;-)

Other than that, not much else is happening with the cruise at the moment. Flights are *just* starting to become available and are a bit higher than I had hoped (obviously since they are just released) so fingers crossed we can hit a seat sale at some point like we did for our upcoming Maui trip. Have also been researching hotels in Galveston and shuttle/transportation options to and from Houston Int'l Airport and Galveston.

Speaking of Maui, only 3 months and 1 day before we leave :cheer2:
 
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Maui! We were there a few years ago for a destination wedding and had a fabulous time. Surfing, zip-lining, paddleboarding....so much fun.
 
Not too much to update at the moment. Flight prices continue to be high. Grrrr....it's about $400 cheaper to fly direct from Seattle to Houston that direct Vancouver to Houston. However, factoring driving/gas (3 hours each way), hotel at least one night in Seattle and parking, there goes a chunk of that $400 'saved' so right now we're still hoping to fly from here. I am obsessively checking flights each day :crazy:

When I upgraded our cabin to a verandah, for whatever reason I didn't get us a midship cabin like we prefer and opted for an aft cabin. Not sure why but there must have been a reason. Well, taking a peek at the DCL website tonight and I saw a midship cabin on deck 6 available (directly across from what was our first cabin last year!) and it was only $63 more than the aft cabin so I quickly snapped it up. Odd.

While I received the confirmation email from DCL right away, when I log into my reservation it still shows our old aft cabin. Hopefully it's updated in the morning. You know I'll be obsessively checking that, too :rolleyes1

DH's vacation time has been approved for the coming year (yes they must submit all their weeks for the entire fiscal year up front, annoying) so no problems with our week for Maui at the end of May (less than 10 weeks now!), the week he wants off at the end of August and the two weeks he'll be taking in January for this cruise. So now I can officially join the FE list with our information - you know, as soon as I stop changing our cabin numbers :rotfl2:
 
Tiny update, not too much to report.
On the cruise-front flight prices continue to stay high, boo :mad: Since my husbands' vacation time for the coming year was made 'official' I felt I could breathe a bit easier and have signed us up for the fish extender again!
Also, I changed our cabin - again. We are still in a verandah but now mid-ship which is my #1 preference. Right across from our first cabin lol We were inside cabin #6049 on our first cruise, now we will be verandah #6048 on our second.

We decided 305 days was too long to go without some sort of Disney fix so we're off to Disneyland and Universal at the end of August :cool1::cool1: So lucky that we get to now celebrate the Disneyland Diamond Anniversary Celebration twice!! So far we're actually only planning on 1 day at Disneyland (could turn into 2) and 1 day at Universal. We're only going for 4 nights (Monday morning to Friday morning), staying at the Howard Johnson Anaheim Waterpark.

And because I'm a greedy travel-bug, only 69 days until we leave for Maui :cool2:
 
that sounds like a sweet location, 6048. we were at 7086 but there was a bit of a weird metallic noise at night. a friend from that cruise, who had a verandah further up forward said they heard no noise whatsoever.
 
Other than a bit of creaking when we were in 6049, we didn't hear any other noises (a little bit from the kids club but that was ok) Suspect it will be the same right across the hall :cool1:
 
Hii! I am here! I didn't know you started a cruise PTR! That is really exciting you're going to Maui! I absolutely love Maui!
Is your cruise 7 nights? It sounds like fun! I've never been to Texas before either. You're gonna have so much fun! Palo! Mixology! Yay!!
 
Hii! I am here! I didn't know you started a cruise PTR! That is really exciting you're going to Maui! I absolutely love Maui!
Is your cruise 7 nights? It sounds like fun! I've never been to Texas before either. You're gonna have so much fun! Palo! Mixology! Yay!!

Yay, thanks for joining :welcome:

I think we're only about 8 more weeks or so away from going to Maui, so excited!! I know a week is going to fly by so I'm planning like a mad woman to make the most of our time, but don't want to pack the days too much, want to have lots of that all important beach time as well!

Yes, our cruise is 7 nights and believe me, Palo and a mixology class (which I've already mentioned in our cruise group lol) will definitely be part of this cruise too:thumbsup2
 
You will have a blast on Maui! What do you have planned? Road to Hana? Haleakala for sunrise/sunset?
Some restaurants I like are Star Noodle, Monkeypod Kitchen, Da Kitchen, Mama's fish House, Kaana Kitchen, and Merrimans. Ululani's and Local Boyz for shave ice is the best! I usually get all tropical flavors with ice cream on the bottom and a "cream top".
There is a gorgeous lavender farm called Ali'i Kula Lavender farm upcountry. We had fun at all the different beaches. Blackrock in front of the Sheraton in Kaanapali was where we always swam with sea turtles. Big Beach in Makena is gorgeous. Actually every beach was just gorgeous! I could go on and on about Maui...such a beautiful place. Aloha!!

I would really love to do an Alaskan cruise and I think the Wonder does these? I just wish they weren't so expensive! It'll be cheaper for us to go on another SWDAS than an Alaskan cruise! Dreaming...
 
Oh wow, I will probably send you a PM closer to our Maui trip then, for all your ideas @chunkymonkey !!

Alaska is definitely still on our list, hopefully for 2018. Whether it will be with Disney or not remains to be seen (though I will book a placeholder on our next cruise regardless!!)
 

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