Kari0180
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2013
- Messages
- 187
It's been a while since I've last posted a trip report. But we just came back from an amazing trip to Alaska on the Disney Wonder and I can't wait to share our trip with you.
Who are we:
I'm Kari and my DH is Bill. We live just outside of Minneapolis. I work in the veterinary field and DH is a photojournalist with a lifestyle show. We are your typical Disney adults, anything that is Disney and we're all for it! Love the parks, love the cruise line, and in February we were lucky enough to get to Aulani for a few nights. Here we are at the luau
Alaska has been on my radar for many, many years and finally in March of 2023, I was able to convince DH that 2024 was our year to book. We booked using our place holder that we picked up on our last cruise (February 2023, also on The Wonder). And then it was a lot of time waiting and planning until September 2024. I will say that this cruise wound up being a little bittersweet for us. My in-laws were set to join us on this cruise, we've been trying to get them to join us on a cruise for years and my mother-in-law has always wanted to go to Alaska. DH and I had all of these plans that we wanted to do with them, that we were going to get them on Match Your Mate, play trivia, drink tastings, we were very excited. Sadly, in July, my mother-in-law became very ill, at first, we had hoped that she would recover in time to still travel. Unfortunately, she now requires dialysis, and she is wheelchair bound so my in-laws had to cancel. We debated canceling ourselves, but they insisted that we still go and that we have a good time. Which we did, but we really missed having them with us and we had a few sad moments and some guilt over leaving them behind.
Okay, enough with the depressing. Let's get this party started! We woke up on September 13 very excited to finally be headed out on vacation. We dropped our fur babies off with grandpa and headed to the airport.
Aren't they adorable? They are my babies, and I hate leaving them. Anyway, my father-in-law lives about 30 minutes from the MSP airport, so we got there pretty quick. We were flying WestJet which was a first for us. There was nobody in line, so we got checked in quick and then headed to TSA. This was our first time flying TSA precheck, so we got through security in a flash, and it was so nice not to have to remove our shoes or our laptop. We got through security and decided to grab some lunch, Buffalo Wild Wings was right next to our gate and DH had enough points saved, so lunch was free!
Nothing special here, I got my usual, the chicken wrap with the honey BBQ sauce and fries and DH got wings with medium and the newer buffalo ranch sauce. Lunch hit the spot and of course, food almost always tastes better when it's free, all we had to pay for was tip!
Before we knew it, it was time to board, WestJet doesn't have a direct flight to Vancouver from Minneapolis, so we had to connect through Regina, Saskatchewan. Our first flight was about 2 hours, in which they served us beverages and these really yummy chocolates.
These were so yummy! Our first flight went really quick and before we knew it, we were landing in Regina. Now, here is where I started to get a little anxious. When it comes to travel, I'm a planner. This was my first plane ride outside of the US and I thought I had researched everything about customs. I was absolutely convinced that we would clear customs in Vancouver, even downloaded the AirCan app and had everything filled out for Vancouver. But nope, learned when the flight attendant comes through the aisles with the customs forms that we clear customs in Regina. When I start to lowkey panic, DH (who has traveled internationally) was like, "of course this is what happens", which also goes to show that DH doesn't listen to me, I know I brought it up in conversation multiple times and he never said a thing. So yeah, that was pretty stupid on my part, but I now know how customs works if I ever take another trip outside of the US (at least I hope so). We landed a little late due to wind, but thankfully, we were seated toward the front of the plane, so we got off pretty quick and we were the only plane that had landed so we got through customs quickly, picked up our bags and checked in for our second flight. We ran into a little bit of trouble at check in, we had a new employee, and he kept trying to charge us for our bags even though the ticket we purchased included bags. Thankfully another employee came over, straightened everything out. Then it was time to go through security and then we finally made it to our gate. We were supposed to have a 2 our layover in Regina, but we had about 15 minutes to sit down before it was time to board our next flight. That flight was very smooth, and I was able to indulge in another one of those delicious chocolates, and before we knew it, we had landed in Vancouver.
We arrived in Vancouver a little after 6, the nice thing about clearing customs in Regina was that we didn't have to in Vancouver. The Vancouver airport was very busy, so it was really nice to just walk right out of departures. We then headed to the Sky Train to head to our hotel. We got off at the City Centre stop and walked the couple of blocks to our hotel. It was a little bit of a pain dragging our suitcases since it was raining, but the walk was an easy one and before we knew it, we were at our new home for the next 3 nights, the Downtown Hyatt Regency. We booked our hotel stay through Costco, our package included the hotel stay, breakfast every morning and a rental car. Now you might be thinking, if we had a rental car, why did we take the Sky Train? Mainly because parking at our hotel was $60/night, plus all the places we planned on visiting had pay parking. It was actually cheaper to still book the package and leave the rental car behind than just booking the hotel itself (and then we would lose the free breakfast). There was no line, so we were able to get checked in right away and then head to our room. I can't believe I didn't take any photos of our room, but it was a pretty standard hotel room, we were on the 17th floor.
This was the view from our room, that's the Fairmont Hotel on the left. It is such a beautiful hotel; I would've loved to have stayed there. It was getting late, but we were hungry, so we headed to the hotel lobby bar for dinner. Obviously, I was tired because I took no photos of our food, but we both had a chicken sandwich with fries. The sandwich was pretty good and the fries were hot and crispy. As part of our package, we also got a 20% off coupon to use in any of the restaurants, so that helped us save a little money. It was almost 10:00 Vancouver time (so midnight back home) and we had a long travel day, so it was time to head to bed. We planned on getting up early the next morning because we had a busy day ahead of us!
Up next: Capilano Suspension Bridge
Who are we:
I'm Kari and my DH is Bill. We live just outside of Minneapolis. I work in the veterinary field and DH is a photojournalist with a lifestyle show. We are your typical Disney adults, anything that is Disney and we're all for it! Love the parks, love the cruise line, and in February we were lucky enough to get to Aulani for a few nights. Here we are at the luau
Alaska has been on my radar for many, many years and finally in March of 2023, I was able to convince DH that 2024 was our year to book. We booked using our place holder that we picked up on our last cruise (February 2023, also on The Wonder). And then it was a lot of time waiting and planning until September 2024. I will say that this cruise wound up being a little bittersweet for us. My in-laws were set to join us on this cruise, we've been trying to get them to join us on a cruise for years and my mother-in-law has always wanted to go to Alaska. DH and I had all of these plans that we wanted to do with them, that we were going to get them on Match Your Mate, play trivia, drink tastings, we were very excited. Sadly, in July, my mother-in-law became very ill, at first, we had hoped that she would recover in time to still travel. Unfortunately, she now requires dialysis, and she is wheelchair bound so my in-laws had to cancel. We debated canceling ourselves, but they insisted that we still go and that we have a good time. Which we did, but we really missed having them with us and we had a few sad moments and some guilt over leaving them behind.
Okay, enough with the depressing. Let's get this party started! We woke up on September 13 very excited to finally be headed out on vacation. We dropped our fur babies off with grandpa and headed to the airport.
Aren't they adorable? They are my babies, and I hate leaving them. Anyway, my father-in-law lives about 30 minutes from the MSP airport, so we got there pretty quick. We were flying WestJet which was a first for us. There was nobody in line, so we got checked in quick and then headed to TSA. This was our first time flying TSA precheck, so we got through security in a flash, and it was so nice not to have to remove our shoes or our laptop. We got through security and decided to grab some lunch, Buffalo Wild Wings was right next to our gate and DH had enough points saved, so lunch was free!
Nothing special here, I got my usual, the chicken wrap with the honey BBQ sauce and fries and DH got wings with medium and the newer buffalo ranch sauce. Lunch hit the spot and of course, food almost always tastes better when it's free, all we had to pay for was tip!
Before we knew it, it was time to board, WestJet doesn't have a direct flight to Vancouver from Minneapolis, so we had to connect through Regina, Saskatchewan. Our first flight was about 2 hours, in which they served us beverages and these really yummy chocolates.
These were so yummy! Our first flight went really quick and before we knew it, we were landing in Regina. Now, here is where I started to get a little anxious. When it comes to travel, I'm a planner. This was my first plane ride outside of the US and I thought I had researched everything about customs. I was absolutely convinced that we would clear customs in Vancouver, even downloaded the AirCan app and had everything filled out for Vancouver. But nope, learned when the flight attendant comes through the aisles with the customs forms that we clear customs in Regina. When I start to lowkey panic, DH (who has traveled internationally) was like, "of course this is what happens", which also goes to show that DH doesn't listen to me, I know I brought it up in conversation multiple times and he never said a thing. So yeah, that was pretty stupid on my part, but I now know how customs works if I ever take another trip outside of the US (at least I hope so). We landed a little late due to wind, but thankfully, we were seated toward the front of the plane, so we got off pretty quick and we were the only plane that had landed so we got through customs quickly, picked up our bags and checked in for our second flight. We ran into a little bit of trouble at check in, we had a new employee, and he kept trying to charge us for our bags even though the ticket we purchased included bags. Thankfully another employee came over, straightened everything out. Then it was time to go through security and then we finally made it to our gate. We were supposed to have a 2 our layover in Regina, but we had about 15 minutes to sit down before it was time to board our next flight. That flight was very smooth, and I was able to indulge in another one of those delicious chocolates, and before we knew it, we had landed in Vancouver.
We arrived in Vancouver a little after 6, the nice thing about clearing customs in Regina was that we didn't have to in Vancouver. The Vancouver airport was very busy, so it was really nice to just walk right out of departures. We then headed to the Sky Train to head to our hotel. We got off at the City Centre stop and walked the couple of blocks to our hotel. It was a little bit of a pain dragging our suitcases since it was raining, but the walk was an easy one and before we knew it, we were at our new home for the next 3 nights, the Downtown Hyatt Regency. We booked our hotel stay through Costco, our package included the hotel stay, breakfast every morning and a rental car. Now you might be thinking, if we had a rental car, why did we take the Sky Train? Mainly because parking at our hotel was $60/night, plus all the places we planned on visiting had pay parking. It was actually cheaper to still book the package and leave the rental car behind than just booking the hotel itself (and then we would lose the free breakfast). There was no line, so we were able to get checked in right away and then head to our room. I can't believe I didn't take any photos of our room, but it was a pretty standard hotel room, we were on the 17th floor.
This was the view from our room, that's the Fairmont Hotel on the left. It is such a beautiful hotel; I would've loved to have stayed there. It was getting late, but we were hungry, so we headed to the hotel lobby bar for dinner. Obviously, I was tired because I took no photos of our food, but we both had a chicken sandwich with fries. The sandwich was pretty good and the fries were hot and crispy. As part of our package, we also got a 20% off coupon to use in any of the restaurants, so that helped us save a little money. It was almost 10:00 Vancouver time (so midnight back home) and we had a long travel day, so it was time to head to bed. We planned on getting up early the next morning because we had a busy day ahead of us!
Up next: Capilano Suspension Bridge
