The UnDisney family's unintended grand(ish) slam trek to Alaska - July 27-Aug 3, 2015

[Claireywalsh]

I am loving your trip report, your writing is hilarious!!! I am sat here chuckling away but I am soaking up more details for our trip next week which I didn't feel was possible to be honest, but your honesty has made me think about those extra things I may have overlooked!! Can't wait for more

 

[jeffbear]

Day 1 - Reflections

I always try to reflect on the whole day, as I find otherwise I get too caught up in minutiae, and lose sight of the big stuff. (Though the details were largely what was helpful to me as we planned, so I continue to pay it forward.)

My "test" for how the day went is to gauge my gut reaction when I remember the day - and this was was about 90% positive ... minus That Line Up. However, if standing in line for 20 minutes with somewhat confused folk is the worst thing that happens to me in a day, then I need to be grateful.

Great idea ...

And we were fortunate on sail away day to be 100% satisfied. We had no children in tow and had already sorted our Palo and Spa reservations online so we had no real reason to join in the fracas at the service desks. While I know first hand how great it is having your kids on DCL cruises, it's also pretty great to be on an adults only trip. WAY less stress and negotiating ... with your kids (oh just get some pants on already), with other guests (sorry Ma'am, he doesn't always spill on other people like that. Usually it's just me) and cast members (look, I know you mean well head server, but my son will literally eat ALL the beef you stick in front of him. I understand that this seems to amuse you. Make it stop). This time around it's more "glass of red? No, I think I'll have a nightcap after dessert instead."

 

[Conorama]

I'm really enjoying your trip report so far. We took the DCL cruise to Alaska a few years ago and it was wonderful.

Thanks for reading!

I am loving your trip report, your writing is hilarious!!! I am sat here chuckling away but I am soaking up more details for our trip next week which I didn't feel was possible to be honest, but your honesty has made me think about those extra things I may have overlooked!! Can't wait for more

That's exciting! Getting very close. I probably won't finish before you go, but feel free to ask questions.

Great idea ...

And we were fortunate on sail away day to be 100% satisfied. We had no children in tow and had already sorted our Palo and Spa reservations online so we had no real reason to join in the fracas at the service desks. While I know first hand how great it is having your kids on DCL cruises, it's also pretty great to be on an adults only trip. WAY less stress and negotiating ... with your kids (oh just get some pants on already), with other guests (sorry Ma'am, he doesn't always spill on other people like that. Usually it's just me) and cast members (look, I know you mean well head server, but my son will literally eat ALL the beef you stick in front of him. I understand that this seems to amuse you. Make it stop). This time around it's more "glass of red? No, I think I'll have a nightcap after dessert instead."

Nice! And yes, you have nailed the joys of kid-travel. I travel on my own for business sometimes, and it always feels odd... but wait- don't I have to check 20 times for precious items left behind... very strange. Conor is pretty low-key overall, but he is definitely 7, which has many joys but he is definitely better at negotiating every year, which has us not-so-slightly terrified for the future.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Other than that line-up, it was a really lovely day.

 

[Conorama]

Day 2 - We see how we do at sea - in the morning, before the coffee really kicks in.

First, some thoughts about breakfast

On all 3 previous cruises, I gloried in my golden hour of quiet solitude, reading on my Kobo, from 6 to 7 every morning on Deck 9 (or 11), because Conor and Brian and just about everyone else (give or take about 10) were asleep. Not so with the time-change this time around - I had a buddy ... every morning.

Now, fortunately, Dude and I are used to mornings together, so I honestly (mostly) didn't mind losing my hour - as I got it back at other times, though it wasn't quite the same as the rest of the ship was always awake.

So, buddy and I were up at 0600. We grabbed our fleeces and headed up to deck 9 - oh my! It was DEFINITELY colder. Had I been more conscious (forgive me, but I CANNOT drink that liquid masquerading as coffee that comes out of the machines on Deck 9), I would have thought of this. Conor, apparently, forgot his Canadian genes and was going to freeze to death. I gave him my fleece which he wrapped around his legs, thereby ensuring that we could not walk anymore, got us both some hot chocolate, and, refusing to give into the elements, I (again) abandoned him on Deck 9 for a whole 5 minutes, huddled in my fleece, while I grabbed more layers from our cabin, failing miserably in my attempts not to wake up DH.

Once Conor was "sweat-panted-up", in his words, and "hot-chocolated-up", he was a willing companion to walk around Deck 9 with me (10 was too unsheltered) enjoying the sea air until Goofy's Galley opened up at 6:30 so we could get some quick breakfast items.

Which brings me to breakfast on the ships - I realized on this trip (since my buddy was up early every day) that it would be really nice to have a small breakfast station open a bit earlier than 6:30, since I'm quite sure that in lots of places on the ship, (I've seen them!) parents are up early with kiddos, who refuse to follow clocks. Yes, I could have ordered room service, but that would then wake up DH. (So, yes, maybe I should just not even pretend to let DH sleep in ... ?)

It's a minor thing, but I started my usual trick of taking extra fruit & yogurt & cereal from the buffets to make our own grab'n'go collection for mornings, which solved the problem for future mornings.

I will be fair- on early port days, Beach Blanket was open earlier, and most days, we would end up there after our "appetizer" from Goofy - usually to get more of a snack at 9:00 a.m. or so.

We also did the sit-down à la carte menu at Triton's once, and it was nice, but that only works if you have the time ... and if you're not going to Palo for brunch, as we were, so long-story-short, I made sure I had a light breakfast.

Having decided that we had conquered the outdoors (we got too cold...), we moved on to the truly comically bad attempt at "Anna's Chocolate Chase Scavenger Hunt". Yep ... THAT Anna. From THAT movie. That I have never seen, and that once made Conor cry. Why, do you ask, did we do this? Because....


Disney Sucks You In To Frozen Whether You Want It Or Not

The night before, there was a lovely letter from Anna on our bed that DH and I weren't expecting, so we couldn't hide it. It explained there was this game she played .... OK, I will admit, I have NO recollection of what the letter was going on about. Something about castles and chocolates and a prize at the end. All I saw was chocolate, so I figured I could put up with Anna for the sake of a scavenger hunt (which he would like) and chocolate (that I would like).

For the uninitiated, in the Navigator, for 3 days, there are 3 clues each day. You use the clues to figure out where to go on the ship, and then there is something there or nearby from Frozen. You write the locations and the images down each day, and then you win the prize.

Now, astute readers will probably foresee a wee bit of a problem ... we don't know Frozen. Or rather, I don't. Conor was, by his account, forced to watch the thing at an after school program or a camp (to be clear, he just goes off and plays quietly in a corner until the thing is over, but he watches out of the corner of his eye). So, I was banking on the fact that we could handle this. Ha!

Before we started, I made sure I had visited the Cove Café for my caffeine, so I (good grief, twice in an hour) left my kid sitting quietly by himself at a table, perusing a Star Wars magazine, right next to the adult area. I returned 10 minutes later (there was a line-up), to find him in ... the exact same place. He did tell me a CM had stopped to talk to him, but he didn't know if he should answer, so he didn't. This probably disrupted someone's trip, I'm sure.

So then, we started..

(SPOILER ALERT - I guess you should not read this next part if you want it to be a surprise... or maybe they change the clues?)

The first stop was the movie theatre - this was an obvious one, or so I thought. We looked around. We looked at the art. We looked at the doors. We looked at the popcorn stand. We even entered the 2 entry-ways, and nada. Nothing that looked even a bit chilly, never mind Frozen.

Before we all got too frustrated, we headed off to location 2 - the statue of Ariel in the Atrium in front of Triton's. Again, we checked the floor, walls, doors, and art. Not even a hint of frost.

At this point, I was wondering if they didn't have it set up yet... but I figured that Big Mouse was just messing with my brain- I mean, this is for kids - how hard could it be?

Finally, we went to location 3, which was the hallway with the art (can't remember its name) - and, as I turned to look for a place to put my coffee down in order to check something .... AHA!!!! Avast! There was this big oval - like 1.5 feet long big, so of course, VERY SUBTLE, on the port hole, with a carrot. Even *I* know that is Olaf's nose.

At this point, Conor jumps up and down and says.... "I saw something like that at the movie theatre!!!!" Really bud? Really? You didn't think to mention that when I was there thinking I had overdone the Bailey's the day before????

I then sipped my latté and remembered that, ahem, I was the grown-up, this was Disney, and Big Mouse was NOT going to get the better of me. I took a deep breath, and told him he was awesome for noticing that. (GRRRRRR)

We oh-so-casually decided to stroll BACK through the Atrium, just, well, because, and (ahem), we looked BEHIND Ariel (had escaped our notice before), and there was a big oval with some chocolates or some candy or other on it.

Then, of course, we just had to hit up the bathrooms near the theatre, where Conor (finally) remembered that the oval was on the ceiling near an entrance.

Here, we were a bit stuck. What WAS this thing? Conor told me it was moss, so I went along with that. Here it is for anyone who knows more than I do ... which would be... most of North America? I'm sure it has intense meaningful significance in the movie.




Having very cleverly solved today's mysteries (smooth, huh?), we ran off to wake up DH, all the while with me trying to figure out how we would get through 6 more of these clues. I figured I deserved a nice hot shower in exchange for A) the line up (yes, I keep track of these things) and B) the scavenger hunt/sleeping in part of things. Fortunately, DH didn't have the energy to disagree.

Up next - the sublime and the ridiculous - otherwise known as Palo brunch, followed by the dreaded Frozen meet.

 

[bcwife76]

Trolls! it's a troll ;-)

Thank you for the tip re: kids meals. My girls LOVE LOVE LOVE veggies, eat 'em every day. So I will be sure to ask for more veggies and less fries (yes like you we also don't worry so much about eating on vacation, just eat whatever. But several days in a row of too many fries and not enough cucumbers and tomatoes make my girls grumpy lol)

 

[Conorama]

Trolls! it's a troll ;-)

Thank you for the tip re: kids meals. My girls LOVE LOVE LOVE veggies, eat 'em every day. So I will be sure to ask for more veggies and less fries (yes like you we also don't worry so much about eating on vacation, just eat whatever. But several days in a row of too many fries and not enough cucumbers and tomatoes make my girls grumpy lol)

Ah! I just googled "Troll Disney Frozen" so I see what you mean. That would explain why Conor didn't know - one of the things he has mentioned was that he did NOT like the Trolls.

On one cruise, Conor explained to the servers that he much preferred carrots to broccoli, so for the last 3 days, they brought out a small bowl for him every meal. Heads up though, looking for fresh veggies at lunch is often a lost cause at the buffets - if you can manage a sit-down lunch in an MDR, you're more likely to succeed.

Staving off the grumpies is VERY important.

 

[RedHatDisney]

Sure hope this trip report is done before my daughter, grandsons and I leave on the last Alaska cruise of the season......NO PRESSURE! hahahah! Love your trip reports. I had to go back and read your earlier sagas.

 

[Conorama]

Day 2 - The Sublime and the Ridiculous - in which Palo brunch strengthens us so we can cope with the Frozen character meet

Whilst we were doing the usual morning stuff - getting the adults showered, sorting out/negotiating clothes, tidying up (we try to be nice to our Cabin attendants), we were incredibly inefficient, because this sort of thing was going on outside.

Here you can see that it's RIGHT THERE. I was just sitting on the sofa and took this shot to try and capture how close it is.





Then, if you go out on the veranda, you see this sort of thing, all the time. That's what we loved the most.





We saw these guys at one point, and learned they were a kind of porpoise- can't remember which ones - but they love playing in and around ships. The photos aren't great, but you get the idea- there were maybe a dozen of them? More? They were jumping and everything- it was amazing.






So you can imagine that we weren't exactly motivated to be speedy.

Palo

We know now to feed Conor before we take him to the club over lunch hour, because he is often too busy playing to eat, and he doesn't like the pizza they usually serve (and on this trip, they were serving lunch at 1:00 often, which is too late to avoid a severe case of unreasonable 7-year-old). The food of choice for him is the "All Hands on Deck" cheese plate (hold the blue cheese) and the fruit bowl from room service. This allowed us all to keep watching what was going on outside too - bonus!

DH and I smartened ourselves up (fortunately, he kept back one shirt from the pressing people, which, due to the wonders of hanging in the bathroom, did not need ironing - I was happy), and, deposited the offspring at the club, and headed off to Palo for an 11:00 a.m. reservation.

What I think I like best about Palo is that it is peaceful. Yes, the food is really good, and some of it is amazing, and the service is great. However, it's quiet and peaceful and lovely, compared to the rest of the ship. (Not that you should think that we have wild parties in our cabin, but we DO have a 7 year old.)

I am able to shake myself out of my serenity bliss moment and eat. Fear not. I did have the Chicken Parmesan, and it was lovely. DH had some variation on Eggs Benedict. The buffet was raided, but in a serene, mature, grown-up, restrained fashion (or something resembling it).

Sated, we walked stopped by the cabin to get changed, and walked around Deck 4 a few times before fetching the boy.

Here's what Uncle Walt claimed the forecast was - but it was definitely cooler than that in the early morning. Now, I will note that Alaskan weather is like Newfoundland weather- if you don't like it, wait 5 minutes, which means that this isn't predictive of what others will experience.



If I had not been there, I would not have believed we actually did it ... the Frozen character meet

I think this is where we discovered that lunch was only at 1:00 at the club, and ultimately we persuaded Conor he needed to eat a proper lunch, so he selected Goofy's Galley. I'm pretty sure that DH and I caffeinated up because we needed our strength.

Our Frozen character meet was at 2:15. Whereas I was under the impression that on previous cruises, one could sign up to just meet Olaf, I gather I was either wrong (entirely possible) or I was in denial (also possible) - in that you get the whole meal deal. You get one of the lounges, all decked out in Frozen stuff, with Frozen playing on the monitors, and .... those two princesses ... plus Olaf.

We knew we were in the right place due to the 10 gagillion (OK, 5) little girls dressed up as Anna or Elsa and the (I do not understand this, but, hey, whatever floats your boat) grown-ups ALSO dressed up as Anna or Elsa.

They stagger the start times on the tickets, which keep the line ups very manageable. This was most appreciated.

To avoid overexposure (Dude's tolerance is low) to all the Annas & Elsas (who were very nice people, I'm sure), Conor and I went off to explore the shops (which ALSO involves avoiding the Frozen section). I'd love to tell you that DH could use the app to message me when things were ready, but that feature never worked properly for us, despite re-installing, etc., so that didn't happen. I used ancient technology to check a clock and make sure we were back in time.

Here, we entered into our "operation Olaf" mode: The goal - get in, get the photo and autograph, and GET OUT.

It's dark in the lounge, so it took a second for our eyes to adjust to the Frozen-a-palooza. We noted a long line for the princesses - in theory, you stand in this, wait to see A & E, and then you move on to Olaf. We however, had Olaf as our only goal, and we were not at all interested in getting photos with Those Two.

My eyes adjusted before DH (it's dazzling.... and not in a good way!), so I sussed this all out. I figured out we could cut across the lounge diagonally, stealth-like, and then when there was going to clearly be a break, we would get into the very short line to see Olaf. My strategy was to wait for a large group to get to A & E, as they would be spending a fair bit of time there, and we would sneak in with the snowman, and get out, without upsetting anyone.

Aha! There was a large (well-behaved) multi-generational t-shirted group just getting started with the princesses. SCORE.

It worked. And we didn't get in trouble, though friends of ours tried it on another ship and that messed up the face recognition - but at our meet, they took our card at Olaf, so it wasn't a problem.

Happily, Olaf seemed to know there was a bit of a break before the next group so Conor got lots of attention, and a super-cute autograph.

The photos weren't awesome, but pretty good. DH had a bit of a disagreement, in the politest way, with the Shutters manager, about the fact that the 10-photo CD (or something like it - I stay FAR AWAY from Shutters) was no longer offered, and he declined the upsell (good man). He just bought the prints we liked, which, while it was still seaway robbery, was less than the next stage up. DH hasn't scanned them yet, so I got all "meta" and photographed a photograph- just to prove to y'all that I didn't make this up.

(Please note- the colour coordination was 100% unintentional a) I have an allergy to matching outfits, and b) I just don't have the energy for that!)



And with that, we escaped - all in about 7 minutes. Operation Olaf was successful. And the parents' sanity was intact - or so we convinced ourselves.

At this point, Conor had Lego to build. I had my Kobo to read. DH had a nap to get back to, so we returned to the cabin to watch the amazing scenery outside for a bit.

In here, for thrills, I got all organized and did our laundry - there was a rather embarrassing Laundry Experience back on the Fantasy (never again), so my plan was to sneak in and do small loads 2-3 times, and avoid days 6/7 (and preferably 5) at all costs, when the Laundry Wars break out. This worked out well for us. Of note, I go all fancy and bring a small Ziploc back of our detergent (the boy is rashy) and a few of our dryer sheets, and this works perfectly well, and doesn't stink up the luggage.

That is how we spent our afternoon, until it was time to get gussied up for formal night. More soon!

However, fear not - we have to cope with Frozen later in the cruise... it's insidious.

Up next - Formal night and wrapping up Day 2.

 

[Conorama]

Sure hope this trip report is done before my daughter, grandsons and I leave on the last Alaska cruise of the season......NO PRESSURE! hahahah! Love your trip reports. I had to go back and read your earlier sagas.

If the last cruise of the season is after September 1st (and I think it is!) then we're good to go. I won't have as much time once school starts and there is (huge sigh from the direction of the 7 year old) there is homework.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Geomom]

Thanks for your trip report! I'm enjoying reading it!

We're going in August 2016 with our 2 DD's (they'll be 16 and 12) who love Frozen--so I appreciate your 'spoiler alert' in the other post--assuming they still do all the Frozen stuff next year, I'm sure we'll be doing as much of it as we can, especially the chocolate hunt--who doesn't love chocolate.

 

[saintstickets]

Really enjoying your TR. DW and I leave for our Alaska cruise in a few days to sail 8/24. Thanks so much for the info. This is just our second cruise and first to Alaska.

 

[Conorama]

Thanks for your trip report! I'm enjoying reading it!

We're going in August 2016 with our 2 DD's (they'll be 16 and 12) who love Frozen--so I appreciate your 'spoiler alert' in the other post--assuming they still do all the Frozen stuff next year, I'm sure we'll be doing as much of it as we can, especially the chocolate hunt--who doesn't love chocolate.

I'm glad I put that in! Though I don't think you need to worry too much- my friend was on the Magic the same week we were on the Wonder and they had very different clues, so I think they have a bunch they can sub in. It wouldn't be hard - and then you would actually know a troll when you see one - a distinct advantage.

Thanks for reading!

Really enjoying your TR. DW and I leave for our Alaska cruise in a few days to sail 8/24. Thanks so much for the info. This is just our second cruise and first to Alaska.

Have a great time! It was truly amazing. More amazingness to come shortly in the report.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Conorama]

Day 2 - At Sea - Formal night & a brief FE discussion

Formal night & 7 year olds

Once we recovered from our Frozen overload by a low-key afternoon in our cabin admiring the view, we wrangled the boy into dressing up. I had read that things were a bit less formal on Alaskan cruises, but I thought we would still make a bit of an effort anyway for formal night. This "bit" of an effort for us meant that the men were in shirts & ties with dressy(ish, in Conor's case) pants, DH had a jacket, and I had on a skirt & nice blouse. To be honest, we were super-conscious of weight limits on luggage, so I packed so that I could basically wear the same thing, changed up a bit, to Palo twice (which also nicely covered off semi-formal night), and formal night - and ditto for DH.

This was the nice plan, and the very nicely pressed shirts came back in plenty of time, whereby I learned that in the last week, apparently, Conor had developed a loathing for shirts with collars. He was informed that he could adopt that opinion for the rest of the summer starting the next day, but not on formal night - this did not impress, but he went along with it.

Now, "went along with it" meant that he put the shirt on (so he wouldn't get into trouble) but made it seem as though a visit to the guillotine would be more pleasant. Being award-winning parents, we have a rock-solid approach to this. We ignore him, completely.

Conor and I were ready before DH (I'm not very skilled in the fancying up department, so I keep things simple) so to disperse the negative energy, I took the boy down to the Captain's reception. He was so bent on being grumpy that he wanted to turn down the apple juice/maraschino cherry combo, but he lacked the will-power to resist a charming CM. Magically, this elixir cleared the grumpies. I had red wine, which, also, amazingly, made his grumpies go away.

We were still a bit early, so we decided to lounge in the Promenade lounge, where they were playing loud music, that for some reason, Conor enjoyed greatly. Here I include our only formal night photos (formal ones not being our thing) with the boy singing & bopping away happily and then posing (his instigation- thus the actual nice smile you can't see very well) in a port hole.







Parrot Cay was OK in terms of ambiance - not great mostly due to one large group who kept chanting someone's name over and over and over. As it was formal night, I cannot comment on whether they were part of a tyrannical t-shirted tribe. I couldn't see them at all, actually (or rather, I didn't try - I was trying to ignore them), but we sure could hear them.

If anyone is interested in the menus, I did take screen shots for some reason that night (probably trying to keep calm while the chanting went on and on and on...) so I can post them. Just ask! The food was good, but after Palo brunch, we weren't super-hungry (except Conor) so I remember us deciding to keep things light.

When we finished, we left Conor at the club to run off some end of day energy/sugary dessert (Mickey Bar - 'nuff said), and as responsible adults, we wandered around the ship, trying to walk off at least some of brunch & dinner. We were also all trying to stay up one hour later, to adapt to the next "clocks go back one hour" change, which in my world, means getting up at 5:00 a.m. with Conor, which even for me is too early on vacation.

When we returned to the cabin, there were THINGS in our FE, which made Conor's night, and brings me to ....

FE ponderings

On 4 cruises, we've had 4 different FE experiences.

Fantasy: Rookie mistake - did not check the rules. Ended up with extremely complex (controlling) rules - one gift each per person to each other person in each cabin, plus a "cabin gift" from each adult. That ended up being more stressful than fun more often than I liked on a vacation, even once I made the executive decision that Conor, aged 4, would be giving one pencil with Canadian flags to each to everyone on the FE group who wouldn't get harmed by it (by this I mean the over 3 years old crowd). I could laugh after, but, oh my.

Dream: Reaction to Fantasy- we did not FE. We DID hang our FE and brought things for Conor, so he never knew any different, and we ended up with a lot less stuff (and man, packing was MUCH easier).

Magic: Two years after The Fantasy Incident, I decided that Conor and I could actually make stuff for folks, and I knew enough to ask about the rules (much more relaxed), so we actually generally had fun, but with 13 or 14 cabins, it was still a lot of stuff to pack and bring home.

So what about the Wonder? Initially, I was going to resist, but then a little tiny group came up - 4 cabins total, with no complicated rules. Even when it went up to 6 cabins, it was manageable. I came up with some reasonably simple but (I hope) nice ideas for our group (filled with non-Canadians) to go in the "Canadian Care Package" (including real maple syrup from our region for Mickey waffles).

This was the best experience - Conor was initially somewhat disappointed that he didn't get more stuff, but that faded quickly, because most of the things we did find in our FE were very-well-received by him - a neat dice game, some things with Stitch (his fav), etc. We parents were also generous with our gifts, so that helped too. I wasn't exhausted, my luggage wasn't overfull, and the spirit of the FE (if there is such a thing) was intact.

I know many people love the FE. I can see why, but since none of us are particularly crafty, and I work long hours (and am essentially the FE driver, so to speak) compromising is necessary. This time, it was a fun thing to do, and not a chore. (No chores on vacation!) But also, it comes down to our UnDisney-ness - some of what we get is lovely and thoughtful, and we would never use it (especially the grown-ups). Fortunately, we have lots of Disney-ish friends, (it's good to mix), so we usually find good homes for things, or they are adopted by Conor. We have, I will confess (and live dangerously by doing so), UnDisney-fied some gifts (removing Mickey from items, for example).

Up next - reflections on Day 2 (which will be short), and then a spectacular day (despite the weather) at Tracy Arm.

 

[bcwife76]

Awww what a cutie patootie in his tie!! Like the colour of his shirt, too!
I resisted participating in the FE for our upcoming (first cruise) at first and then finally relented. Hearing your first experience makes me glad we only have 10 cabins total in ours and no real rules. Phew. Talk about taking the fun out of it, eh?

 

[Conorama]

Day 2 - At Sea - Reflections

While the outside scenery was different (and fabulous), this felt a lot like other days at sea, except cooler. We've always had Day 2 as an at-sea day, so we know what works for us- not running around all day to many activities, but rather to pick a few great things (or, in this case, a Frozen character meeting!) and otherwise, just go with the flow. Had we been on one of the Dream-class ships, there would have been about 300,000 mystery games, of course. Not making formal night a big event helps too in the transition to vacation. Basically, I have to run all out, figuratively speaking to get things ready at work for me to take a real vacation (no work email), and this rubs off on the menfolk, so we really work hard to just chill out on day 2.

I'm glad we got the boy to see Olaf - he really does love him - and I will even say that it was worth my lining-up experience on day 1- it wasn't even that stressful, due to it being a ticketed event, and as a bonus, it was all done, so we could stop thinking about it.

Oh, and that Pixar meet ticket that I took, just in case? We returned it.

And now, I need to sort out my photos for Tracy Arm day - as they are many and the views are awesome. Stay tuned!

 

[Conorama]

Awww what a cutie patootie in his tie!! Like the colour of his shirt, too!
I resisted participating in the FE for our upcoming (first cruise) at first and then finally relented. Hearing your first experience makes me glad we only have 10 cabins total in ours and no real rules. Phew. Talk about taking the fun out of it, eh?

Thanks re: the shirt- he's a colour-loving Dude, so that was his choice. It's hard to miss!

In retrospect it was funny. However, I didn't know about the rules until about 3 weeks before we left. I had been collecting things along the way, but I had to change the strategy a fair bit (was doing one nice-ish gift to everyone in the room from our cabin) in a period when I worked something like 21 days of 25. But pencils are nice, right????

The delivery morning (we all had an assigned day) was gong-show hilarious, as I had to combine it with the great laundry debacle. It's described here, if you're interested ... and please note- we had 10 cabins.

http://www.disboards.com/threads/dc...-3-2013-all-done.3063246/page-4#post-47528136

But - if there are no complex rules - you'll have fun!

 

[Conorama]

Day 3 - Tracy Arm - and, in my opinion, Big Mouse's best day EVER on DCL

This day was just incredible, and it's not really the kind of day I can report on chronologically, so I'll just summarize the high points, but there were many, many, many high points.

First - the weather - perhaps not a high point for many, but fine for those of us who are used to traveling to islands in the North Atlantic - or at least, we are used to packing for it. And, um, it wasn't just cloudy (sorry Uncle Walt) - it was raining, often - a drizzly, cold kind of rain.





And the naturalist we had on was, um, well, let's just say, (long pause here) .... BORING. I'm sure he had lots of interesting info to share ... but it just didn't come out. If you had trouble falling asleep, now, you were golden with him. Nice guy, but not a scintillating speaker.

Now, that's enough of the bad news.

Basically- all day, we would alternate between being in our cabin (a lot of the time), on Deck 9 (you can still see lots) and sometimes on Deck 10 when the rain slowed down. We did this from about 10:00 a.m. to about 4:30 p.m. Conor did spent some time in the club, but really loved base camp up on Deck 10 (more on this later).

Best things about the day - with kudos to Big Mouse

• The scenery cannot be described and cannot be captured in photos, but we tried. It just goes on ALL DAY.
• We did have the naturalist on the TV audio, because with amazing scenery, he wasn't boring anymore.
  
• Hot coffee or chocolate on one's balcony is amazing on these days.
• Pea soup in a bread bowl, brought to me by a CM on Deck 9 was spectacular.
• The Deck 9 BBQ was super-yummy - especially the salmon BBQ.
• Sticky toffee pudding (of the nice & warm variety) was the perfect lunch dessert.
• Mulled wine in an insulated mug is an eminently reasonable thing to do ... and YUM.
  
• Bailey's is also a nice touch in the afternoon in the coffee and/or hot chocolate.

But mostly - what was amazing was the hush on the ship during the quiet times (where they don't do any announcements). You can hear the water, bird songs, and you can practically hear individual leaves brush up against one another (or so it feels like).

Enough words. Now for the photos. Many!

Not enough layers. We fixed this.




Better layers.





Scenery before we got to the glacier








Getting closer







Pea soup interlude






Glacier







The dark spots are seals, "lollygagging" according to DH






Words do not do this day justice.

Conor's take

Conor and I started the day by solving our 3 clues and finding our 3 images. (No spoilers there!) They were easy.

He then spent some time with us (see above) and some in the club. The deal was that we'd nab him for lunch (the boy loves his salmon) and then he would do Base Camp, which takes place up on Deck 10.

We had lunch at one point of the day when it wasn't raining, so he and I found a perfect table near the BBQ (it's at the very back of Deck 9, behind Beach Blanket Buffet) to sit and eat. He started to inhale his salmon, and then he looked around ... and was struck speechless, for about 2 seconds (an eternity in his world) and then he exclaimed:

"I love this more than rocks AND ice cream AND lollipops!"

It was priceless. You wonder if a 7 year old brain can really appreciate this type of natural beauty. I had not said anything to him, but we were surrounded by what you saw above, and he was truly moved. And trust me, the boy LOVES his rocks, so this was huge for him.

I convinced him to sit still while I went to extricate DH from behind his camera (the app still wasn't working and we didn't carry our wave phones- annoying things), and we had lunch together, just being amazed.

It was then I found the Sticky Toffee pudding, and generally was in a blissful place.

We all went down to the cabin as we knew we were approaching the glacier, and there were no requests whatsoever to return to the club - Conor was truly mesmerized. He would even listen to our (nice but boring) naturalist for details.

At 1:30 or so, I layered him up, got his rain gear on, and took him up to Deck 10. To be clear, it was cold, and raining, and grey out, but he was keen. He knew that he could have us called (he has never asked this) but we made sure the CM knew we were very open to hearing from him.

It was funny. He was one of about 5 kids. We are Canadian. Hear us roar. We know how to layer!

And yes, I had to go and fetch him almost 90 minutes later to thaw him out a bit. There were still fewer than 10 kids there

He was very happy to sit in the cabin, sipping on hot chocolate (minus the Bailey's) and share the veranda views with us.

I'm going to stop there. The rest of the day was fine but more typically DCL, but I will report on it ... after I sleep a bit. I have caught a rotten summer cold (I hate the things) so I need my zzzzzzs.

 

[Conorama]

Day 3 - Practical matters for the planners out there, and wrapping the day up.

Practical things we noticed/learned/lucked into

As I was lying in bed last night, I realized I had put very few practical points into my post yesterday, so here they are. I was too busy reliving the day, it seems.

Clothing:

• We all wore jeans, but we didn't need our long underwear. And yes, we had packed it. And yes, we all own some that we use every single winter.
  
• We all wore long-sleeve shirts, and a fleece or similar layer - that we could take off when we were truly indoors - which happened very rarely until about 4:30 that day.
  
• Outside, we either wore rain jackets (good ones with proper hoods), or if it wasn't raining, Conor wore his puffy orange jacket you can see above. For Canadians and and those with similar winters - it's not his winter coat - it's his "in-between" coat (when it's too cold for his fall/spring jacket but not cold enough for the full winter gear - at least, in Ontario- I'm thinking it might just be all that is needed often in places like Vancouver?)
  
• Ear covering was helpful outside- so you can see Conor's tuque (again, we didn't need the REAL winter hats) and I did wear my earmuffs sometimes, and he wore convertible gloves/mittens as did I.
  
• We didn't feel we needed scarves, but we had them packed - a few degrees colder, and they would have come out.
• We all wore our hiking boots.

Blankets:

• There are lots!
  
• I had brought one back to our room the night before - and we grabbed a few more which we all layered on when we were on the veranda, as needed, or were in the cabin, since we kept our door most of the day when we were in there.
• This just helped not need to wear our rain coats on the veranda just to stay warm (as we were dry there as the rain just came down straight, not sideways like we're used to at times on the East Coast)

Chairs on deck:

• There were lots on 10! Or at least, there were right up until about 1:00 p.m. - but it was definitely raining. I was surprised as I had expected it to be blocked full.
• There were very few on Deck 9 in the general sections- lots of people were there playing cards, etc., all morning. However, DH and I had no trouble finding a table before lunch in the adult section, and it wasn't even near the smoking section.

Food & Drink

• On the boards, there was lots of discussion about where to find the BBQ and the soup. The soup was literally brought to us, so I have no idea where it was being served up.
• The BBQ was behind Beach Blanket - and we were told about it as soon as we entered Beach Blanket - but I can see how you could miss it if you didn't hear them or know it was there to look for.
• Sticky Toffee Pudding was in Beach Blanket at the dessert station.
• There were hot chocolate stations (avec booze) on Deck 10. The hot chocolate is yummy, and free - but you pay for the additions. We had our bottle in our cabin.
  
• Mulled wine was sold at the bar on Deck 9 near the pizza place, at least, and, at least on other days, in the Atrium before supper. I loved it as alternative to sweet stuff or coffee.
  
• We did try the hot pretzels. They were OK, but none of us went back for seconds- just a personal preference.

Binoculars

• So totally, totally, totally worth it. Essential I would say. What we saw through the binoculars was better than what we saw through our camera with the zoom lens.
  
• I bought DH a decent pair for Christmas - we loved them, and we know we will use them a lot, so they were worth the $200 Canadian (probably on sale for $59.99 in the US )
  
• They were also selling them at Canada Place, if you forget them.
• I had read that they sell them on board- but I didn't see any, but wasn't looking, so can't be sure.

Camera

• We got some decent shots just with our point & shoot, but the best ones were from DH's Canon Rebel thingy thingy.
  
• He did comment that the decent binoculars made his zoom lens seem inadequate.

Base camp:

• This is not well advertised. We knew about it from our friend, so I knew what to look for in the Navigator.
  
• I can't imagine kids being shut up in the near-windowless club/lab (can't speak to the others) for the duration of this amazing day - so I love the idea.
• It's on the sports court, and they had stuff organized, but mostly Conor played with hula hoops, and the like - and then he could see what was going on around him if he wanted.
  
• He loved it - and it looked like the other 7 children up there did too. The CMs at times looked a little cold and a bit miserable, but Conor was dressed for the weather, so he was a happy man.

Other people:

• Honestly, I was impressed with everyone for the most part - which is all I can ask.
  
• Some folks at the chairs on Deck 9 were a bit rowdy, but only because of a very intense card game.
  
• Perhaps because it wasn't super-crowded, at least when we were up there, we didn't have any trouble getting to the railings to see things.
  
• Many groups of teens would be found in various nooks & crannies playing cards. As a former card-obsessed teenager (I grew up before most video games were allowed in my house), I took great comfort in this. They were usually tucked out of the way in corners, and (cheesy moment here) it warmed my heart that they still play cards!
  
• Folks were good about eating quickly and moving at the BBQ - we were despairing of getting a seat and a nice family noticed, and quickly cleared their table (which was a primo one, so we were very grateful).

Miscellaneous:

• I gather some naturalists are better than others - I'd suggest checking him/her out on day 1, then if they are not spectacular, just put them on the TV in the cabin.
• Even though we loved our veranda, we did make sure we headed up on Deck 9 or 10 at least once an hour - partly to walk, partly to see what is happening elsewhere.
• Because the ship sails in to the glacier, then turns around, in theory it doesn't matter what side you are on. In reality, there are different but great things on either side. We didn't stress about this and run around- we had enough to look at wherever we were. You can't see it all- accept that and you'll have a much better time. We did.

Wrapping up the day

After all that, the end of the day was not exactly anticlimactic, but definitely far less exciting, which was fine.

Conor did ask to see Alaskan Mickey. We had seen Alaskan Donald in the morning (I now realize, having raided DH's phone photos that I was missing) - because my aunt whom Conor had bonded with in Vancouver had mentioned she loved Donald, so my lovely wee man decided to buy a postcard with his own money and get it signed by Donald, so that we did. (He has his moments, I will admit!)

As I look at this photo, I now remember that we actually sat down for supper, realized we forgot about Alaskan Mickey, so sent DH and Conor back out to get the photos - which miraculously worked out. See everyone eating back there in Tritons? We were good, though, I had the info about the men's orders, so we didn't delay things for the servers.

Even I, UnDisney mom, will admit I like Alaskan Mickey.





Supper was our first in Triton's, which was nice. Table 63 got us a table right near the entrance, but it's far enough removed so that this location wasn't a problem for us. In fact, it's interesting for those who like to people-watch (I do) to watch folks come in and find their tables, and you can see many servers all all stripes in action.

I didn't screen-shot the menu (is that a verb? I know, it's not....) but I remember it was all fine, though it paled compared to eating fresh BBQ Salmon and other yummies out on the deck in the middle of awe-striking scenery.

Since we had an early start the next morning in Skagway, we elected to just visit the shops (I think Conor bought his Captain Mickey then - he had been saving his allowance for quite a while - topped up nicely by the bank of grandpa - so he had was keen to spend some - or rather, we spent it, and then he paid us back due to the card system).

It seems that as usual, DH went out after Conor and I got ready for bed ... he nabbed this photo of his scotch (his special stash of expensive single malt brought on board especially for nights like this) visiting the chunk of iceberg they put on deck 9- and yes, it seems, it was raining again. I am told this is the ONLY water that is allowed to come in proximity to his scotch (rain water from a lovely day outside). I hate the stuff, so it matters not in the least to me.




Up next: Reflections on an awe-inspiring Day 3.

 

[Conorama]

Day 3 - Reflections on Tracy Arm day

What can I say? This was our best day of cruising, bar none. We're not cruise-a-holics, but I just calculated we've been on 4 7-night cruises and 1 4-night cruise, so that is 32 nights, and this ranked number 1 for sure.

This is because what you can see you can really ONLY see by ship - so it's more about being at sea than traveling to a destination, if that makes sense. And it's incredible.

We are probably somewhat biased in that Northern climes suit us, with our connections to Newfoundland, so I suppose some folks might be much more bothered by the climate.

These are photos from 2 years ago at the end of July- the first is a gloriously sunny day (which do happen, from time to time) and the next is a more typical raining on and off day - but you can probably see the similarities. As Conor said: "Newfoundland is like Alaska, but more flat." We have bigger ice bergs though. (Wrong time of year in this picture...)








And yes, that is a lined raincoat he is wearing. In July. With pants. But the day before, he was very comfortable in shorts.

(Final Newfoundland note - it's a unique & wonderful place, so you should try to visit some time. Very, very, very special place in Canada, with some of the nicest people you'll ever meet. I am of course not biased by the fact I lived there for 4 years and married a Newfoundlander. Nope. )

Back to the day... Disney did this perfectly, I think. The day was mostly about the awe-inspiring nature around us, and not about Big Mouse. The small details (the food, for example) just made it all better. Yes, there were some characters wandering around the ship, but there was no, what I call, OTTD (over-the-top Disney) or if there was, we were blissfully unaware of it which means it wasn't intrusive.

I give a big, huge, thumbs up to Disney for this day, because Uncle Walt seemed to know to hold back.

Up next - Skawgay on our own and one train ride we will never forget.

 

[RedHatDisney]

WOW! Thank you so much! This is a great TR.