It's All Disney's Fault-My Alaskan Adventure 5/3-5/10 About This Page:

[MEM]

It truly is all Disney’s fault. At least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! My husband has always wanted to go to Alaska. I had been years ago with my mother so I kept telling him when Disney sailed to Alaska we would go. Well Disney is going and we are going along for the ride!

First, let me introduce to you the cast of characters. First, there is me, Mary, MEM on the boards. I do all of the plotting and vacation planning. My husband will tell you this trip is my fault but you will see in the end that it REALLY is Disney’s fault! My husband, Tom, works extremely hard and pretty much leaves all the vacation planning up to me. He just shows up when I tell him to but, every once in a while he makes a request that we do something other than the parks and I oh so politely give in which is why we have done two Adventures By Disney and two Disney Cruises. Hey, they’re not the parks! Since our marriage he has grown to love Disney, but will grumble about that fact that I am using so much of his vacation time on this one trip. We both work for the government and because I have been there longer than he has I earn more vacation time than he does. Unfortunately, I always forget that small detail when I’m plotting/planning our next adventure. When he starts grumbling it develop selective hearing. I select not to hear his grumblings! He truly does appreciate the trip once we are on vacation but it’s getting him to there that can be the challenge. Our picture can be found below in my signature.

When Disney announced oh so long ago that in the summer of 2011 they would offer Alaskan itineraries I knew we would be on one of those weeks, but which one? The inaugural was not my original choice. Heck, it wasn’t my second, third or fourth either. Actually I try to avoid the inaugural of anything. It’s just the way I prefer things.

So how did we end up on Disney’s Inaugural Alaskan cruise? Thanks for asking. My mother and my aunt were originally going to go with us. My aunt’s youngest daughter (my cousin for those keeping track) is set to graduate from College on May 17th. She will be the first on her paternal side to graduate from College so it’s a big deal. Anyway you all know how College graduations are, you plan a party, you hold the party and then you recover from the party (that’s how it works in my family!) Well that took out most of May. So there you go, the week that worked best at the time of booking was the Inaugural. But wait did you catch the part where I said my mom and my aunt were going with us? Well, not anymore. The Economy tanked, my uncle lost his job and my mom didn’t want to go without her sister. You get the picture. So now your asking why we didn’t we just move from the Inaugural to another cruise? While most of May doesn’t work well for my aunt the rest of the summer doesn’t work at all for me. I have a seasonal part time job with the Baltimore Orioles. I work all of the O’s home games. (If you ever come to Baltimore let me know!) I try my hardest to plan around the O’s home schedule so I won’t miss any games but every once in a while a really good reason comes up and I end up missing some games. This was one of those occasions that I had to book first and hope it wouldn’t mean too many games missed. The MLB Schedule Gods were smiling on me as I’m only missing 6 games, but it could have been much worse. (I have to work 10 of the previous 12 days so you see where it could have been worse!)

So how is this trip Disney’s fault? I never gave any thought to their schedule when they first announced, I just knew that we would be going to Alaska in 2011. Then I had that light bulb moment and it finally dawned on me that the ship would sail from Vancouver on a Tuesday. Since my husband and I live in Baltimore flying to Vancouver the day of the cruise was obviously not an option. When we were originally planning and my mom was still coming it made sense to fly to Vancouver early, this would give my mom who is in her 70’s time to recover, heck it gives me and my husband time to recover and adjust to the new time zone.

Then I had the next great idea. Since we were going to be on the west coast and we don’t get here that often we should just fly to LA and go to Disneyland for a few days. It made perfect sense to me, especially since the cruise that begins on a Tuesday would also end on a Tuesday. SO after the cruise we are flying to LA so we can spend some time at Disneyland. It really was a no brainer. Hotel costs would be covered since I’m a DVC member and I was able to snag a villa at the Grand Californian for the time that we are going to be at Disneyland at the 7 months. We are Premier Annual Pass holders so our park admission was taken care of.

So there you have it - my explanation of how our Alaskan cruise is truly Disney’s evil plan to take vacation time from my husband and how our one-week cruise became a two-week vacation. See, I told you it was Disney’s fault

[pamcarey]

Great plans! Of course it's all Disney's fault!

[nikkilovesmickey]

Ican't wait to hear all about your cruise in May, my mom and I are going to Alaska via Disney June

[B.M.]

Great start!! I hope you plan to come back with all sorts of information/details as we are on the 5/31 sailing

[lauriep]

Disney logic is the best! Sounds like a great vacation.

[Diannah]

Love it! Sounds a bit like our situation. DH (also Tom, btw) has always wanted to do an Alaskan cruise. Disney was nice enough to allow kids to cruise free. Suddenly we could afford it. Yep. All Disney's fault!

Can't wait to read your report! We're sailing on May 24th, and just booked our excursions tonight.

Hope you have a great time!

[Grammy Grumpy]

Awesome. I tried to convince DH to fly to LAX, spend time at Disneyland and then go to Vancouver. No go. I should have played the DVC card!

Will be looking forward to hearing all about your cruise since we will be on the final one in August.


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[MEM]

6 airports in 14 days and the planning begins

We found out officially in early December that my aunt and my mother would not be going with us. I was sad, but hey I got over it quick enough. It was time to book our flights! After much consideration on my part I decided to go with the original plan and fly to the west coast on Saturday prior the cruise. One choice down, but then I had to decide which city we would fly into: Seattle or Vancouver? Seattle would be cheaper since we could fly Southwest from Baltimore, but then we would have to find our way from Seattle to Vancouver. Flying into Vancouver would be more expensive but would be much more convenient. Flying into Vancouver won out in the end. What can I say; I’m all about convenience!

Once the airport was selected the choice became which airline to go with. The ones that fly into Vancouver all charge for luggage now so while it factored into our choice it really didn’t. Remember the part about convenience. I went with United, as the flight times were better. Our plans are to fly United on a multi city tour of the U.S and Canada. We depart Baltimore on April 30th and fly initially into Chicago O’Hare where we will catch our next flight to Vancouver. After the cruise we will fly from Vancouver to LAX. On Saturday the 14th of May we will fly out of Santa Ana Orange County John Wayne Airport (And I here thought Baltimore Washington Thurgood Marshall was a mouthful) through Denver before finally landing in Baltimore at the end of our journey.

I know the history of the legacy airlines to change flight times and equipment so I’ve been checking our flights often. Sure enough, United didn’t disappoint and they have changed each of our flights at least once. However, the changes were not that dramatic and each time I have caught it quickly, confirmed the flights were ok or if they were too drastic a change I got on a flight that worked best for us.

It took forever for Disney to release the excursions that they would be offering on the Alaskan cruises. Once they did however, the planning went into overdrive. I printed off the excursions that looked interesting to me and then I gave them to my husband to read. He told me the one’s that he was interested in doing. When the booking window opened up for Silver Castaway Club members I selected completely different excursions. The more I thought about the ones we really liked, you know the ones that involved floatplanes and flying, I just couldn’t get past the prices Disney was asking for their excursions. HELLO my name is not TRUMP. I know I could have booked some of them cheaper by going through private companies, but if you really knew my husband you would understand why we just go through Disney.

So, after weeks and weeks of looking, reading, and more looking we decided on the following:

Skagway
Yukon Expedition – (8:15AM - 4:45PM) includes heading into the Yukon Territory of Canada via the South Klondike Highway, stopping in Caribou Crossing, a BBQ lunch, visit the Dog Musher’s Village and heading back to Fraser, BC where we will board the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad for the ride back to the ship
Juneau
Best of Juneau – (8:45AM – 3:15PM) includes a 2.5 hour cruise on a catamaran designed for wildlife viewing, head to Orca Point Lodge for lunch, then head to Mendenhall Glacier
Ketchikan
Misty Fjords and Wilderness Explorer – (12:15PM – 5:15PM) board a catamaran and travel to Misty Fjords, stopping along the way to see wildlife, etc.

As you can see each excursion has multiple components, last several hours and they didn’t break the bank, which makes them OK in my book. As the trip gets closer I’m getting more and more excited about the excursions we choose.

The only serious planning that I have left is what we are going to do once we land in Vancouver. We will have 2 ½ days to explore the city and it’s environs. I have ideas and thought I had a solid plan until last week when I found out the Vancouver Marathon runs on Sunday, May 1st. My husband and I live on the Baltimore Marathon route and we know that on race day not to make any solid plans that involve an automobile until later in the day. I just have to find out how the Vancouver Marathon will affect the plans that I have for us. We hope to do the traditional touristy things in Vancouver-Grouse Mountain, Capilano Suspension Bridge. We may venture to either Whistler or go to Butchart Gardens in Victoria. We want to go to Stanley Park and maybe visit the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden. I wish we had more time than we do.

Did I say that was the only planning I had left to do? I lied. Well, not really, but I have to figure out what we are going to do during our time at Disneyland. But that is a report for another board. I’ll leave it at planning for a trip to Disneyland is different from planning one to Walt Disney World. Not better, not worse, just different. I don’t always do well with different, but that’s my issue. Regardless of what we do or don’t do we will have a great time and I’m sure the philosophy that I use for our WDW trips will be accurate. If we don’t do it this time we will catch it the next time, because there’s always a next time!

[B.M.]

Great update!
Convenience won out for us also; as we are also flying into Vancouver rather than Seattle (and we are also on United/Continental).

Sounds like you have great excursions planned

[chezp]

What a great start and great plans!

[Li'lMermaid]

You will LOVE the Best of Juneau tour - I've cruised to Alaska twice, and I've done that tour both times! The Yukon Expedition is great, too - you'd think it'd be a no-brainer, but take your passport - since you're going into Canada! On our trip, some idiot failed to do so (even though it was on the tickets!) and we got held up at the Canadian border. Caribou Crossing is neat (the sled dog puppies are so cute!), and the Yukon Territory is beautiful. The train ride is really cool....sit on the right side of the train for the best views.

Alaska is one of the most beautiful parts of the country, so soak in every second of it. I will go back one day, and it'll definitely be on Disney!

[Maribell]

Your plans sound great. It will be here before you know it. Have a great trip and I look forward to hearing about your adventures when you return!

[cruising_Minnie]

Just caught up. How cool that you are on the inaugural cruise. Can’t wait to hear more. It’s so exiting. We will sail on July 5th.

[cubfancolleen]

Just found this PTR. How great that you'll be sailing SOON!
We'd love to do the Alaska cruise, and will only cruise DCL, so I hope they continue the Alaska route after this year. LOVE your logic - my DH would say it sounds a lot like mine!

[Colexis Mom]

Great start!