Aby
Obsessive and Compulsive
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2009
Although I’ve been on two previous cruises to Alaska with DCL, this will be my first trip report for this itinerary. If you would like to read my previous trip report on our 2015 Eastern Caribbean cruise aboard the Fantasy, you can find it here.
THE 5 W’s
WHO - We are husband and wife, no kids, in our late 30’s/early 40’s from northern BC, Canada, and for the first time, we were also accompanied by my parents, who are both in their 60’s, from PEI, Canada.
WHAT & WHERE - A seven night cruise to Alaska onboard the Disney Wonder plus a pre-cruise one night stay in Vancouver at the Pan Pacific Hotel.
WHY - We love cruising with Disney, and we love their Alaskan itinerary! This was also our chance to introduce my parents to the joys of cruising as this would be their first time.
WHEN - August 14th to 22nd, 2016
Trip Planning
We booked this cruise while onboard the Fantasy in August 2015 - at the time we had no idea if we could convince my parents to cruise with us, but we went ahead and booked two rooms just in case. We dropped some hints when we returned from the cruise about how much they would enjoy a trip to Alaska, but we didn’t let them know they were already booked until just before Christmas, when we sent them a letter inviting them to join us. We were so happy that they agreed! Since they were going to be new to cruising, we sent them a little cruise care package, which included a fleece jacket for each of them, and a hand-made information package containing all they would need to know.
We booked our rooms at the Pan Pacific in early December, snagging a pretty good BC resident rate (although it was still 300+ per night!). On our past two cruises out of Vancouver, we booked through DCL across the street at the Fairmont Waterfront, which was gorgeous, but this year with this low Canadian dollar, it just wasn’t as good of a deal. I signed up for the hotel loyalty program, which was free, and would entitle us to free Wifi & bottled water when we checked in.
In February, we booked our flights, and were able to get most of them using Air Miles. My parents would fly out and visit us for a few weeks before the cruise, then we would all travel together to Vancouver (only a short 1 hour flight!), and after the cruise we would split up to fly back to our respective home towns.
Time passed by slowly at first, but once spring came, it just flew! Before we knew it, it was time to do our online check in! Once we knew my parents were joining us, I moved my mom onto my reservation, and moved my husband onto my dad’s reservation. Since we were silver, and they were new cruisers, this would ensure that we could book all of our activities at the same booking window - 90 days in advance. Being on the west coast, I was able to log in at 9pm, and I had no trouble accessing both reservations one after another to book our activities.
I was able to book an 11am port arrival time, a Palo dinner on night 5 (Juneau), a Palo brunch on day 7, and all of our first choice excursions with no trouble. I was actually hoping to get Palo brunch on the first sea day, as I really didn’t want to wait that long to enjoy the scrumptious buffet, but it turned out very well as brunch was a great way to end the cruise. We didn’t book any time for the spa in advance, as we knew there would be lots of space once onboard, and we weren’t interested in any of the character meets or the character breakfast. The one thing I wish they would allow us to book in advance is the beverage tasting seminars - it’s the only thing that we need to do when we board now, and it would be nice if we could take care of it with the rest of the booking options.
My parents arrived at our place in late July, and we enjoyed spending time discussing our trip, figuring out some of the details, and watching our DCL app count down the days! In just a few short weeks - it was time to go!
[url=https://flic.kr/p/LMdNTh][/URL]
THE 5 W’s
WHO - We are husband and wife, no kids, in our late 30’s/early 40’s from northern BC, Canada, and for the first time, we were also accompanied by my parents, who are both in their 60’s, from PEI, Canada.
WHAT & WHERE - A seven night cruise to Alaska onboard the Disney Wonder plus a pre-cruise one night stay in Vancouver at the Pan Pacific Hotel.
WHY - We love cruising with Disney, and we love their Alaskan itinerary! This was also our chance to introduce my parents to the joys of cruising as this would be their first time.
WHEN - August 14th to 22nd, 2016
Trip Planning
We booked this cruise while onboard the Fantasy in August 2015 - at the time we had no idea if we could convince my parents to cruise with us, but we went ahead and booked two rooms just in case. We dropped some hints when we returned from the cruise about how much they would enjoy a trip to Alaska, but we didn’t let them know they were already booked until just before Christmas, when we sent them a letter inviting them to join us. We were so happy that they agreed! Since they were going to be new to cruising, we sent them a little cruise care package, which included a fleece jacket for each of them, and a hand-made information package containing all they would need to know.
We booked our rooms at the Pan Pacific in early December, snagging a pretty good BC resident rate (although it was still 300+ per night!). On our past two cruises out of Vancouver, we booked through DCL across the street at the Fairmont Waterfront, which was gorgeous, but this year with this low Canadian dollar, it just wasn’t as good of a deal. I signed up for the hotel loyalty program, which was free, and would entitle us to free Wifi & bottled water when we checked in.
In February, we booked our flights, and were able to get most of them using Air Miles. My parents would fly out and visit us for a few weeks before the cruise, then we would all travel together to Vancouver (only a short 1 hour flight!), and after the cruise we would split up to fly back to our respective home towns.
Time passed by slowly at first, but once spring came, it just flew! Before we knew it, it was time to do our online check in! Once we knew my parents were joining us, I moved my mom onto my reservation, and moved my husband onto my dad’s reservation. Since we were silver, and they were new cruisers, this would ensure that we could book all of our activities at the same booking window - 90 days in advance. Being on the west coast, I was able to log in at 9pm, and I had no trouble accessing both reservations one after another to book our activities.
I was able to book an 11am port arrival time, a Palo dinner on night 5 (Juneau), a Palo brunch on day 7, and all of our first choice excursions with no trouble. I was actually hoping to get Palo brunch on the first sea day, as I really didn’t want to wait that long to enjoy the scrumptious buffet, but it turned out very well as brunch was a great way to end the cruise. We didn’t book any time for the spa in advance, as we knew there would be lots of space once onboard, and we weren’t interested in any of the character meets or the character breakfast. The one thing I wish they would allow us to book in advance is the beverage tasting seminars - it’s the only thing that we need to do when we board now, and it would be nice if we could take care of it with the rest of the booking options.
My parents arrived at our place in late July, and we enjoyed spending time discussing our trip, figuring out some of the details, and watching our DCL app count down the days! In just a few short weeks - it was time to go!
[url=https://flic.kr/p/LMdNTh][/URL]
A little taste of things to come...