Solo-on-a-Scooter Abd DLR and DCL Alaska! (7/21-8/6/2012) - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Solo-on-a-Scooter Abd DLR and DCL Alaska! (7/21-8/6/2012)
Solo-on-a-Scooter AbD DLR and DCL Alaska! (7/21-8/7/2012)
This trip, which involves a week in California, 3 days in Seattle, followed by a week-long Alaska cruise, will be posted in two forums: Disneyland Trip Report Forum and Disney Cruise Line Trip Report Forum. This portion, which is a mini-pre-trip-report, will be in both places.
I’m very excited about this trip, but didn’t start out that way…. This was supposed to be my once-in-a-lifetime trip to South Africa with Adventures by Disney! I had been told on several phone calls to AbD that my scooter would be no problem on this trip and thought I was all set. I was on cloud nine with excitement and anticipation. Then, when my TA Marisa went to make the final booking, it was denied. They said not only was the trip NOT accessible, but that very few of their trips were. The reasons they gave were vague and I figured that some guest(s) had had issues and legal forced them to stop offering accessible trips. I’ve since found out that the reason is that one part of the trip involves a flight on a small plane with a per-person weight allowance of 40lbs. Since my scooter is 35 lbs, that would put me over the limit. Still disappointing, but least I have a reason. I’m not surprised that many of their trips can’t accommodate mobility devices—the world is not Disney World and can’t be retro-fitted, but I do wish more of the trips were available to me. Marisa worked VERY hard to try to find a trip that would be spectacular enough to take the place of this dream trip and we ended up with the AbD “Backstage Magic” trip which involves tours of Disney Studio, Imagineering, Muppet Studio and backstage tours of Disneyland and California Adventure. Sharon (PrincessSharon) did a trip report a few years ago of this trip and it sounded AMAZING! Then, as if that wasn’t enough, I’m flying to Seattle for the 7-night Alaska Cruise on the Wonder! Thank you, Marisa, for all your work on this! It’ll be a challenging trip to pack for, that’s for sure. Since I’ll be doing my usual solo traveling I wanted to go the luxury route, with all transfers and baggage-handling done by others! By doing the combo of AbD and DCL, this will work just great!
So, the bare outline of the trip is:
7/21/2012 fly from Boston to LA.
7/22-27 Backstage Magic, Adventures by Disney
7/27 night-time flight to Seattle
7/27-7/30 explore Seattle
7/30-8/6. DCL Alaska on the Wonder
8/6 fly from Seattle to Boston
I have plans to meet up with Jeannie (Dlandmom2) and her kids in Hollywood and, I hope, will also see Sharon and Karen (Zacksmom) at DLR at some point. As Sharon has mentioned in her AbD trip reports, one of the “problems” with AbD is that you don’t get a whole lot of details about each day’s itinerary, which makes it kind of hard to plan meetings. I know there’s a lot of free time built into this tour, though, so have no doubt that we’ll figure something out. I’m hoping to do live reports, at least for the California and Seattle days, but internet access is so slow and expensive on the Wonder, I may have to write the days up live but post them when I return.
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Oh wow, it sounds like an amazing itinerary. It's a real shame about South Africa, but hopefully this will go some way to making up for that...
It's not as exotic, but my goal was to go someplace I've never been and Seattle and Alaska fit the bill. Africa is not off my radar...
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Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
It's gonna be a great trip!
I hope so!
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Originally Posted by Disney4us2
Wow... sounds like a great trip. Jessica and I hope to meet up with you at DL as well.
YES! I PM'd you with possible times.
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Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
You are going to have a great trip, no doubt. We'd love to do an AbD trip at some point. Probably when the kids are gone.
AbD tours are expensive, but I figured the Backstage Magic one is a trip you could not plan on your own, so it's a good one!
Sorry, Everyone, about the TR being in both forums, but I couldn't figure out how else to do it. Once the trip starts I'll be posting in only the DL forum until Seattle, then will move to the Cruise forum.
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So glad I caught this at the beginning of the report. Sorry about all of the troubles with planning the original trip but it looks like you have some great alternate plans. I definitley want to cruise to Alaska one day so I am most looking forward to that part of your trip! Can't wait for more plans!
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Check out my Pre-Trip Report for our 9/18-9/23/12 trip here:
I'm so looking forward to this...both hearing about your trip and finally meeting you!
I'm hoping I can also meet up with you at DLR...and see Karen and Sharon again. Maybe I'll finally get to meet Marci, too!
I hope so, Jeannie! Marci and I are trying to figure out a time, and if Sharon's home long enough between trips maybe I can catch her, too!
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Originally Posted by emvenable77
So glad I caught this at the beginning of the report. Sorry about all of the troubles with planning the original trip but it looks like you have some great alternate plans. I definitley want to cruise to Alaska one day so I am most looking forward to that part of your trip! Can't wait for more plans!
I'm looking forward to all of it! I've been trying to plot out my packing strategy a bit-- Hot weather, bathing suit, cool weather, cruise wear, gloves and earmuffs-- it's crazy!
I'm sorry that you weren't able to get on your dream trip to South America, Laurie! Your plans sound great so far, and i'm sure you will have a fabulous trip!!
Are you just doing the Alaska cruise thing? are you hitting up Seward at all? (or do you have a day in Anchorage?) I live on the Kenai Peninsula and can point you in the right direction if you're looking for land activities!
I'm sorry that you weren't able to get on your dream trip to South America, Laurie! Your plans sound great so far, and i'm sure you will have a fabulous trip!!
Thanks, Jenn!
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Originally Posted by Tonichelle
Are you just doing the Alaska cruise thing? are you hitting up Seward at all? (or do you have a day in Anchorage?) I live on the Kenai Peninsula and can point you in the right direction if you're looking for land activities!
Oh, I wish I were doing more than the cruise, but not on this trip. I'd love to see more of the state. Some time I want to come back and spend much more time exploring.
It is going to be an awesome adventure! I am definitely following along as we just booked Backstage Magic for December....we were originally going to to go in June but the dates coincided with three grad nites and the grand opening of Carsland...I was afraid it might be too chaotic.
Looking forward to following you along.
Danielle
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~Shoot for the moon, if you miss, you will land among the stars~
Great Start!!! Sounds like it's going to be an awesome trip!!
Thanks! I hope I have as good a time at DLR as you did!
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Originally Posted by disneydani
It is going to be an awesome adventure! I am definitely following along as we just booked Backstage Magic for December....we were originally going to to go in June but the dates coincided with three grad nites and the grand opening of Carsland...I was afraid it might be too chaotic.
Looking forward to following you along.
Danielle
I think you chose well, Danielle. I just wasn't thinking at all about Carsland and it WILL be chaotic while I'm there. Crowd projection levels are at 10 for both parks for every day I'll be there. I'm just hoping that the "Magic" in "Backstage Magic" really kicks in and we're whisked here and there without too much hassle.
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I'm just hoping that the "Magic" in "Backstage Magic" really kicks in and we're whisked here and there without too much hassle.
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