The Alaskan Jewel! Welcome Aboard….You don’t Exist! updated 12/13/2015 - Page 42 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Sounds like you had an enjoyable carriage ride and on such a clear day!!! The mountains are just so beautiful up that way! Sorry that Claire's arm was hurting her so much.
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Sorry Clare was complaining about her arm - I am so with you, I have similar conversations with Mark. "Have you taken any pain killers?" "Well, you're not getting any sympathy from me then...."
She is sick right now with a really bad cold and ear infection....you should see the productions that goes on to get her to take her medicine. I sure hope this first round works. We are on day 2 of 5 days of antibiotics and she says it feels worse today.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Sounds like you all lucked out with the clear blue skies! Sorry you couldn't make Butchart Garden, but that was a very steep taxi fee.
We really did luck out. I was happy with what we did and we had such a full trip that it didn't hurt us to just chill out for the rest of the night.
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Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great shots from the tour!
Thanks
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Originally Posted by xwewhisper
What beautiful blue skies for your tour! I think I would have made the same call to go back to the ship for food if I were that close!
The skies were beautiful and the night sky was amazing too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lindawdw
Sounds like you had an enjoyable carriage ride and on such a clear day!!! The mountains are just so beautiful up that way! Sorry that Claire's arm was hurting her so much.
It was a nice way to end the trip. I can't wait to go back that way again in the future.
One restaurant I had wanted to try was Le Bistro. It is the French specialty restaurant. I had heard mixed reviews on it so I never made a reservation ahead of time. Tonight would be the perfect night to try it. We figured if we didn’t like the food we had time to go to another restaurant or even the main dining room.
We walked down and asked if it was possible to get seated and they said yes and led the way. Now Claire was not opposed to going here but she was now dead set on getting one last order of truffle fries from Cagneys. I told her if we couldn’t get them here I would call up our butler and she could get them.
So we had a seat in a practically empty restaurant.
We kind of got a weird vibe in there though. I think because it was slow the waiters were just not on their top game. It wasn’t bad service….just kind of weird.
We had this bread to start out with…I forget what this stuff with it was…maybe a salmon mousse?
We asked if Claire could get fries, which were not listed and they said yes. We were hoping they would be the truffle fries
Skip ordered a soup…I am pretty sure it was a mushroom soup and when it arrived it came like this. We totally laughed as this was not what any of us expected. Skip said it was good though.
I don’t remember if Claire had an appetizer or not, but if she did, I did not take a picture.
Skip ordered something with lobster in it for his entrée which shocked me as he doesn’t eat lobster ever usually. I don’t remember what it was, but I think that its pasta…or potatoes…I didn’t take a picture of the menu so I can’t remember now. He said it was pretty good though.
These steaks were the best ones we had on the ship. They were so wonderful in taste and so tender we could cut them with a fork. Now I wish we had come here more often.
Time for dessert. I believe Skip ordered the Chocolate Napoleon.
By now we were starting to have some tears about the cruise coming to an end. Claire gets emotional sometimes at the end of vacations. Yes we are all sad, but I know for her it is also due to lack of sleep. Then there were tears that she would never have truffle fries again and we didn’t get any tonight. Oh dear! I quickly called Melony and asked her if she could get some for us. She kind of acted put out about it…but that is her JOB! She said she would call and find out as it was just about time for Cagneys to close. I prayed she got right on it as I knew Claire was going to be one unhappy camper if she didn’t get any.
Luckily she was able to get them and Claire was so happy and ate them like it was her last meal ever. I thanked Melony but honestly it really did leave a bad taste in my mouth about how she acted put out…and I was making up envelopes for tips at that moment. I actually left her a lot less that I had intended to from my preplanning. Not that she wasn’t good, she was fine, but not over the top and we never did get some of the things we requested, like a foam topper for Claire and foam pillows. And we rarely saw her. If I had used her services more, I would have left more.
We all got ready for bed and watched some tv then. Skip and I faded out early but we found out the next morning Claire was up late again and she even watched us leave port. Oh my word. She is so overtired, yet she doesn’t go to sleep when she has the chance. Crazy kid.
Dinner sounded marvelous, except for the missing truffle fries. Glad in the end Claire got them! The sunset photos are beautiful.
Poor Claire She is now having to eat regular french fries at home. lol
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Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
Dinner looked delicious, and I liked the look of it, too. Too bad you didn't discover it earlier in the trip.
yes, now I wish I had known how good the steaks there were.
Quote:
Originally Posted by benchley
Looked like a lovely meal to end your cruise with. What a shame about the attitude of the crew member, not what you'd expect at all.
I just felt most of the crew on NCL was not what I expect but I think I just love DCL so much and for the most part they do a great job. It's hard to compare.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Considering Le Bistro had very mixed reviews, I'm glad you enjoyed your meal there so much. The mushroom soup and lobster looked delicious.
I always laugh when Skip gets mushroom soup because I grew up with mushroom soup as an added sauce..like on meatballs or pork chops..or hamburger gravy. I never thought anyone would actually eat it. Actually I guess I was the weird one. hahaha.
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
What a lovely meal for your last night! That steak looked so yummy!
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No one in their right mind wants to go home from vacation….that being said, Skip is always one who wants an early flight home (which I now rarely book…too bad for you), and typically is just done with vacation on that last morning. If we don’t have an early flight though he wants to do something to fill up our time before the flight…no rest and relaxation for him….as in 2014 when we had a later flight out of Orlando and he decided that morning we should go to Universal for a few hours.
Believe it or not, Skip was in no hurry to get off the ship today. That is a sure sign he had a wonderful time!
When we woke we were in Seattle already. We let Claire sleep a bit and I went outside to make some calls and check my phone and all that good stuff.
I headed back to the room and we finished getting ready for the day. Skip and Claire got some breakfast. Claire isn’t really big on breakfast but we kind of made her eat something since it could be awhile before we eat again. Once we had our bellies full we had to do the inevitable…..we had to disembark.
We headed to the Suite disembarking meeting area, which was at Chin Chin today. Florentina was there and took a group of us off. Basically she held some people back who were in line to get off and let us through. It’s funny as one guy was trying to get around her and she told him to stop and he just gave her a strange look and kept going. I suppose he was wondering why these people were allowed to cut in line.
We grabbed our bags and made it through Customs easily. We got off earlier than I expected. I like to wait till the last second to get off, but I guess we were moving faster than I thought that day. We headed outside and found the Shuttle Express stand and checked in. We told them we were early and he said it would be about 30 minutes or so. We found a spot out of the way and camped out.
When we walked back Skip was getting ready to call us. We had been called to board the shuttle and he was bringing the bags over to load. We had a lady driver and all the guys tried to help but she said it was just easier for her to do it.
We piled in the van and off we went. The driver asked what airlines and she told us that she was not going to drop us off in front of the Southwest area because it was very congested and she would drop us off further down and we could walk. Ok then. LOL.
The driver set her GPS to get us to the airport, which I thought was weird because you would think she would know the way back and forth easily if this was her job. Maybe she was new and still learning the ropes?
We arrived and were dropped off. Skip had talked to the driver a bit and told her we had a late flight (as did the other family in the van) and she gave some ideas of places to go that were fairly close to the airport. I think one was a park or garden and Skip asked if we wanted to go. I didn’t really care and in the end we decided we may be rushing it too much to get there and back.
We got in the very long line for Southwest. I had a bit of worry because I know you can’t check your bags in too early (found that out the year before). I figured we were border line on time now and I sure as heck didn’t want to drag these bags around any longer. A SW person came down the line and asked what time flights were. I believe ours was at 2:05. She told us we should be fine and that by the time we got to the front we would be right at the check in time. Good! I believe at the time we got in line it was about 9:40ish.
We finally made it up to the check in and I worried as we were still early but they had no issues and took our bags. Thank the Lord!!!
After that we walked all the way down to the smoking section, which is at the very end of each side of the terminal. We sat there for a bit and I texted family and friends and checked emails and all that fun stuff.
We then decided to head inside and get through security.
Then we were on a quest for lunch. I thought it would be good to do a sit down place since we had a long time to kill but it seemed no one agreed on anything or wanted to wait so in the end we found a pizza place and went there.
It wasn’t busy at all when we arrived but by the time we left every seat in the place was filled. I guess we arrived at the right time. I would have stayed there longer just chilling but Skip said we should get up so our table was freed up for others.
We headed to our gate and it was packed. I think there were 2 or 3 flights going out of this gate before us so we had quite a wait. I found a seat near a plug and plugged in devices to keep us charged up and Claire played games on her kindle and I on my phone. There was only one free seat, so I took that and Claire and Skip sat on the floor. Skip took a nap.
Skip asked why we didn’t stay another night then. I just rolled my eyes. Seriously???? Had I done that he would have been mad most likely.
As we waited around we did get some snacks and we saw the one family who were on our flight here…they had gone on Princess. They were taking the flight before ours. I had looked at the flight but it was quite a bit more in cost when I was booking and never went down that I saw so I chose the later one. That flight was overbooked too. They kept announcing that they needed people to give up their seats and they could get on the next flight and of course some perks were offered I am sure. Skip announced that if our flight was overbooked we were giving up our seats and we would tell them we would fly out tomorrow. Who is this man and what has he done with my husband? Of course our flight was full, but not over booked and we soon were called to board the plane.
I sat in the middle again and Claire in the window seat. The thing is she kept leaning on me and Skip was too and I felt so cramped and started having anxiety. I tend to get that at times when I know I am trapped, but typically it’s on the way home. I think the excitement of going someplace on the way there keeps it down. I got wiggly a bit and I mentioned to Skip I was having it and he said he was too. I guess we both were just tired as well and we were now crashing.
One thing I did to pass the time was I paid for the wifi. This was wonderful and I know on all future long flights I will buy it. I might even do it for some shorter ones as well.
I kept smelling a bad BO smell….and it was CLAIRE!!! I asked her if she had put deodorant on and she said I had packed it already so she didn’t. I let her know that in the future she can ask me for it. LOL!!!
Our next stop was Chicago. When we got off the plane we made our way to our gate but we had a little bit of time. How different it was tonight compared to last week during the day. Much more quiet and we noticed right away the popcorn place was not open and no scents of that wonderful stuff was floating our way.
We decided to get something to eat here as well and settled for McDonalds. We ordered our food and took it to our seats and ate and waited. I decided I should let my Aunt Mary know that our flights were going well and on time so she was aware since she was picking us up in Detroit. She never responded and I joked with Skip about it….”Should we be worried?”
I demanded that I sit in the window seat this time. I couldn’t take both of them leaning on me again. It was so much better. I could lean towards the window (which is something Claire should have been doing) and I felt like I had so much more room.
We soon were disembarking and heading to the bathrooms and then picking up our luggage. Aunt Mary text to say she was on her way but still a few minutes out, which was fine. We had to wait for the bags any ways.
Once all was picked up we waited for Aunt Mary and soon she was pulling up and there was like 3 lanes of traffic all stopped to pick up passengers so we darted out and loaded our bags quickly and got in and took off.
We chatted about the trip and then Aunt Mary made a confession. She said our other Aunt is visiting and staying at her house and they were both tired and got ready for bed. She said my text bothered her. She thought she was picking us up Sunday and so she then woke up her husband and asked when we were coming home and he wasn’t sure so she went and found my itinerary and sure enough it was today. LOL. Luckily she had plenty of time to get dressed and head up to get us. Of course had she not been there we would have lived and survived with her either coming later or us finding a close by airport hotel.
Now we joke with her as her husband flies a lot for work and she takes him and drops him off and we always ask her if she is sure she has the right day!
Once we arrived at her house we transferred the bags to our car and set off for home. It was good to be home, but of course the blues set in a bit too. We had such a fabulous time and the hum drum of everyday life and getting back to work is no fun.
Skip proclaimed this was the best vacation he has ever been on which means quite a bit. He often doesn’t comment on vacations and even though I know he has a good time he often will act like he didn’t have a good time. He still talks about it and I am sure in a few years we will be heading back to Alaska.
Now would I sail NCL again? Actually…yes I would. We had a very rare problem, which could have ruined many peoples whole vacation but we pushed through it and didn’t let it get us down….too much at least. Once we got going it was fabulous. It’s not the same as Disney and that still is my favorite line, but it had some perks. We enjoyed the beverage package. I don’t drink a lot so having it free was nice for me to try a few things and not feel like I had to drink its worth.
We really enjoyed the dining package as well. I liked trying several of the specialty restaurants. I think if/when we sail NCL again I would add that on so we can enjoy many of them again.
The crew was not as friendly as most of the DCL’s crew, but there were some members that were fabulous. Claire actually enjoyed the NCL kids club more than DCL’s. I think because it was a longer cruise and she really enjoyed the interactive part of it. It sounded like they really didn’t have a lot of free time play, which with DCL there is more of since the club is just so fabulous and big. She also really liked the counselors a lot.
The Nickelodeon part was neat, but not a must for us. Skip actually got annoyed by one of the Nick staff members….a guy and I can’t remember which one, but Skip said he drove him crazy. With Nick gone now from NCL it won’t really bother us, but I am glad we did get on a ship that had it so I now know what it was like.
A few days after I got home I did send off some emails to NCL about the problem we had with our lost reservation and the way it was handled. We have been given a nice onboard credit to use….originally within a year of the sail date, but I wrote back and said that would not be possible for us and they extended it for 2 years. So most likely we will be sailing NCL in the next year or so.
Upcoming vacations? I have one scheduled for Feb with many co-workers. It’s an educational type trip with fun thrown in. Several of us are starting out at Universal Studios Orlando then moving to Disney World for a few days and then onto the Disney Magic for a 4 night cruise. I have been asked if I will write about it and at this point I am not sure. It takes a lot of work and time. If I do it may not be started for a few months after I get back so I can get things situated and pictures edited. I might only do the cruise portion as we have more free time then and it won’t be all about education. I am thinking I may take less pictures this time around so that might not make for an interesting trip report….oh who am I kidding…you know I will be taking pictures. Hahaha.
I also may do it in segments and each part being its own report.
We also have been talking for over a year now of doing a big family cruise on the Disney Fantasy. So far nothing is booked but we are talking about November. Hopefully we can get that settled up soon.
Thanks so much for sticking with me all these months as I wrote about our experience. I hope it helped at least one person plan a perfect trip for themselves or answered some questions you may have had.
It does get sad when it's time to head home. so much for taking the time to share this trip with us. I do appreciate that it is a lot of work. Luke and I do want to take an Alaskan cruise, but we'll probably use DCL. I have learned so much from your excursions that will help even if we are on a different ship.
Yes, thank you for all the time and work you did to write this tr. At some point I would like to do an alaskan cruise and going back and forth on the two ship, so this was very helpful. I also let my son know about checking his account as he has the beverage package. He is going with several friends to the carribean the end of this month.
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Thank you so much for sharing this trip with us, I've loved reading all about it and it's brought back some wonderful memories for me of our Alaskan cruises.
Thank you for sharing this trip with us. We have been debating over an Alaskan cruise and it's helped make up our minds - we'r booking an Alaskan cruise
It does get sad when it's time to head home. so much for taking the time to share this trip with us. I do appreciate that it is a lot of work. Luke and I do want to take an Alaskan cruise, but we'll probably use DCL. I have learned so much from your excursions that will help even if we are on a different ship.
I hate coming home. Honestly I could travel all the time and it wouldn't bother me too much. I have a friend who goes all the time all over the place and I am so jealous. I really need to win that big lottery jackpot!!!
I hope someday to do DCL to Alaska but the cost is so high and now that Skip has tried another line I am betting he will be fine with something cheaper. LOL.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jandsdennis
Yes, thank you for all the time and work you did to write this tr. At some point I would like to do an alaskan cruise and going back and forth on the two ship, so this was very helpful. I also let my son know about checking his account as he has the beverage package. He is going with several friends to the carribean the end of this month.
Yes. I tell everyone I know to check their accounts as I have heard this has happened to more than 1 person. I am not sure how they can't get it right. They must have Disney IT working for them. lol.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Thank you so much for sharing this trip with us, I've loved reading all about it and it's brought back some wonderful memories for me of our Alaskan cruises.
I loved reading yours too because though it was different there were similar things and it was fun to see how your trip panned out compared to mine. I still need to get caught back up on yours. I just seem to be behind with everything lately. The last year has been that way. I guess the good thing is I have been busy with work and that's always good for me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by benchley
Thank you for sharing this trip with us. We have been debating over an Alaskan cruise and it's helped make up our minds - we'r booking an Alaskan cruise
I am glad to help. Alaska is just so beautiful. It is one of those trips I think you will talk about forever. We know some people who have cruised several times to Alaska and always say it's one of the best cruises they ever take.
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"Well, you're not getting any sympathy from me then...." 
Sorry you couldn't make Butchart Garden, but that was a very steep taxi fee. 
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so much for taking the time to share this trip with us. I do appreciate that it is a lot of work. Luke and I do want to take an Alaskan cruise, but we'll probably use DCL. I have learned so much from your excursions that will help even if we are on a different ship. 
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