WONDERing to Alaska on June 9-16th 2014 (Day 5 Posted on 7/11)

[shanhop]

If the pictures disappear I am sorry, but they'll return shortly (on the 30th of the month).


Index - Links will take you to the first post of each day.
Planning Starts on Post 2
Pre-Cruise Day 1, Travel and Stanley Park Starts on Post 6,
Pre-Cruise Day 2, Capilano and Grouse Mountain Starts on Post 21
Cruise Day 1, Starts on Post 34
Cruise Day 2, At Sea, Starts on Post 43
Cruise Day 3, Tracey Arm Starts on Post 49
Cruise Day 4, Skagway Starts on 71
Cruise Day 5, Juneau Starts on 81
Cruise Day 6, Ketchikan
Cruise Day 7, At Sea
Cruise Day 8, Travel


*Much of this trip report was actually written while I was on the trip, now that I'm home, I'm polishing it, and posting it*

And we’re off!

As I sit here in the airport I thought it was a good time to start a trip report. We’re traveling from Houston to Vancouver for seven days on the Wonder in Alaska. It’s our second cruise as we sailed in March 2013, Spring Break on the Magic from Galveston to Cozumel and Grand Cayman.

Cruise – June 9th-16th 2014 from Vancouver to Alaska.
Me, Shannon, uber Disney planner.
DH, Scott, along for the ride.
Twins, 11 Kate and Emma. Into Star Wars as much as Disney.

Some Disney History...
September 2007 Trip with the grandparents....


Nov/December 2009 with grandparents, sister, BIL and Niece for my girls' birthday.


First Disney Cruise - Magic, March 2013 with the grandparents

 

[shanhop]

Pre Trip
We aren’t supposed to be on this cruise. This was a dummy cruise that we booked while on the March 2013 Caribbean cruise. The plan was to just book SOMETHING, and rebook for Alaska 2015 before we had to be paid in full. And then Disney changed the rules. You weren’t allowed to keep rebooking over and over again and keep you 10% off. Yes, we could have rebooked, but Disney was delayed at getting their schedule out. And then a funny thing happened. My husband said that if I wanted to, we could keep this cruise! Yippee!

So we, OK, who am I kidding, so then *I* started looking at flights and hotels, and joined a group on Disboards, and found our cruise’s FB site, and signed up for the FE group (our first time for FEs).

Since the cruise started on a Monday, I figured we should fly up Friday or Saturday and have a few days in Vancouver beforehand. Flights can be really wonky. There are directs, but only the first half the day. There was no good way to leave later on Friday, but there was Saturday morning flight. We did consider flying into Seattle, but with then you have the train and that transportation seems to take away from our touring time, so we bit the bullet and booked a non-stop Houston to Vancouver. There are no non-stops the other way in the afternoon, so we are booked through Denver.

Hotels – I know that everyone raves about the PanPacific, and that’s even where my parents stayed when they cruised out of Vancouver on Holland America. For some reason the Pan Pacific didn’t appeal to me. Seemed too fancy I guess.

I prefer Hilton properties, but they were totally booked for our weekend. So I explored Hotwire, read a lot, studied, read some more. I figured the 4-star hotel was going to be our best bet. I knew that one was the Hyatt Regency (my preferred option based on location), and have now forgotten what the other possibility was! So you should be able to tell that when I finally bit and booked on Hotwire, we got the Hyatt. It was $145 a night, for two nights totally $361.32 with all the taxes.

Plans for Vancouver
Saturday - land at noon, attempt to check in at hotel. Tour Stanley Park
Sunday – Capilano Bridge, Grouse Mountain.

Ground Transportation
I knew I didn’t want a car. Too much hassle in a downtown area, and having to pay for parking everywhere. As of the Wednesday before we cruised I was still undecided as to how we were getting from the airport to the hotel. I looked at the SkyTrain, as there’s a stop right across the street, but with four of us it wasn’t that much cheaper than a cab and we’d have to haul our luggage (four decent sized suitcases, a roller, and everyone's shoulder carry-ons. So the plan is a cab (I’m writing this while on our flight into Vancouver). I’ve heard that the majority of Vancouver cabs are Priuses and only hold four people. Don’t think we’ll fit with luggage, but I’ve heard there are also vans *crosses fingers*

Vancouver has both a HOHO Trolley and HOHO Bus (The HOHO stands for hop on, hop off). I had a couple people recommend the Trolley (officially called the Vancouver Trolley Company http://www.vancouvertrolley.com/) , and it stopped right at the hotel, so that’s what we chose. They had an internet special, that got the second day for free if you booked online. The family pack for two adults and two kids was just under $100, pretty sure that was Canadian $, so it’ll be closer to $90 when I check the credit card bill. (I checked, it was $91.36).

The HOHO will take us all over Downtown Vancouver on a set route, including Stanley Park where we can catch a bus to Capilano on Sunday.
We plan on walking to the cruise terminal on Monday I think it is two blocks.

(While I'm thinking about it, the Target Visa card has NO FOREIGN TRANSACTION FEES! So this was the card we used for just about everything in Vancouver).

 

[shanhop]

Cruise Plans.
Tuesday – At Sea – Palo Brunch. We did dinner on the first cruise, but have never done brunch. We aren’t planning on booking a dinner this trip as we don’t want to leave the girls alone for dinner (last time my parents were with us), and we really don’t want to miss any of the MDR meals.

Wednesday – Tracy Arm day – no specific plans other than hoping we get close really close to the glacier.

Thursday – Skagway –Helicopter Glacier Tour, at 1pm – booked privately through M&M tours (http://www.skagwayadventures.com/. Cost was $1258.80 for four people. ($299 per person plus 5% tax). If you booked at the dock, I think it was $325 a person. A helicopter flight to a glacier was a definite for me. How many opportunities do you get to do this?!? We booked this in February, before our window even opened to book with Disney. We chose doing a flight here over Juneau on the off chance that we ran into weather issues we could attempt to book something similar in Juneau. M&M was easy to book through. They don’t charge you until the day of the event (although there is a cancellation fee). They are supposed to meet us right at the dock .

Friday – Juneau, Private Whale Watching trip with Harv and Marv, 7:20 am. Whale watching was also tops on my list of things to do. I had heard lots of good things about Harv and Marv and liked the idea of a small boat rather than having 40-100 people on a bigger boat. H&M require you to book a private tour on a six-person boat if you have children under 14. My guess is they’ve had too many children ‘ruin it for others’. I understood this going in, and they make you pay for five people ($745), no matter how many you actually have. There was also sales tax and a fuel charge, making it $799.05 total. Harv and Marv requires you to pay half up front, and half two months out. They do charge a % fee if you use a credit card, so I paid by check. I mailed the two checks at once, and one was post dated for April 1st. http://www.harvandmarvs.com/

But low and behold, after posting that we had room for two more on this excursion on our cruise's Facebook group, and I had someone take me up on it! So our private excursion, we will be joined by another couple (R & J) who are traveling without children for their anniversary. I had them pay H&M directly for person #6, and pay me for person #5.

H&M will also take you to the Mendenhall Glacier after your trip. They’ll give you 20-30 minutes and take you back to the Wonder, or you can catch one of the other shuttles ($10 a head one way - I'd read it was $8, but the prices have gone up). We’re playing that one by ear.

I know 7:20 seems REALLY early, but since we’re from Texas on Central time, I think we’ll be fine. It gives us the rest of the day to see Juneau. I suspect we’ll head back to the ship for lunch and venture out again, probably taking the tramway up to the top of the mountain. *HA! That's not what happens*

Saturday – Ketchikan - Since we’ve spent oodles of money over the last two days on boats and helicopters, we have no excursion booked today. We plan on wondering town, finishing shopping and enjoying the ship.

Sunday – At sea

Monday –I hear the MAKE you get off

Mixology - Didn’t get a chance to do this last time REALLY want to do it this time.

Clubs – The girls were 10 and spent a fair amount of time in the Lab last time. This year they are 11 and excited that they get to visit Edge. Since they are together, I have no qualms about letting them wander the ship on their own. They had that privilege last year too. But we will also get the bands for the Lab as well.

Sorry about the lack of pictures, but I swear there will be some when we get to the actual trip!

 

[KristiMc]

Joining in. We will be on the June 8, 2015 Alaskan cruise.

 

[nancipants]

My husband and I are on this cruise in July. Looking forward to hearing all about it!

 

[shanhop]

Airport
Flying is always an adventure! When we booked the flights, my husband had Gold status on Untied. Awesome! We were able to book two seats in Economy Plus (more legroom), and would get to check bags for free. Less than a week before the trip, I discovered that his status expired January 31st. Wah-wah-wah.

So instead of my planned five or six bags, I was determined to get us down to four. Not easy when you have heavy and sort of bulky FE gifts. But we did it, four checked bags, two of which were skirting that 50 pound limit. My scale showed 51, but we were trapped, and couldn’t move much.

Since we had a 9am flight, we left home before 6am, but being Saturday there was little traffic. Got to the parking lot and they asked Scott what terminal. I guess I should mention that the ONE thing I put Scott in charge of was our flights. He was in charge of keeping our passports, and getting the boarding passes, and being in charge for that part of the travel. He travel by air a lot more than me, and it allows me to worry about just keeping eyes on the girls. So it did not give me a whole lot of confidence when he was asked “which terminal” and didn’t know the answer!

We got parked, he looked up the gate as we borded the shuttle. And we were off. The girls and I hadn’t flown since our last trip to WDW in 2009, so this was all ‘new again’ to them. The shuttle from the lot dropped us off at a spot where we could check our luggage outside, and we figured "Why not?". The line was short. Well, after waiting in line we were told that international flights had to go inside. Lovely. So we dragged the luggage inside, and waited in line again.

Our 51# bags didn’t raise any alarms, so no reshuffling at the counter . The lines for security were starting to get long (and certainly grew exponentially behind us). Kate was excited to read that those under 12 didn’t have to take their shoes off. The girls and I got to go through the x-ray rather than the full body scanner. We stopped at Einstein Bros for bagels, and hung out at the gate.

We were told we had to line up and have our passports checked again. Scott had mentioned that two of us were in Boarding Group 5, and two in Group 4. But it wasn’t until now that he realized that the GIRLS were in 4, and the ADULTS were in Group 5. That makes NO sense since Scott and Kate were sitting together, and Emma and I were together. The couple in front of me in group 5 were split the same way. I did have one roller bag, so I went and stood in line now, in hopes of getting bin space, and Scott and the girls sat until Group 5 was actually called. Turns out it didn’t matter, there was plenty of space.

I sat in the back with Emma until after the drinks were served. Then I kicked Kate out of her Economy Plus seat with the extra five inches of leg room. I’ll trade back before landing (A) for safety reasons, B) because my rolling bag is back there, and C) I don’t trust them to gather up their own belongings).

*Funny story….When I moved to the Economy Plus seat, I was in a bulkhead row between my husband and another gentleman. After working a bit on his computer, he popped in a DVD which I recognized as Season 2, Disk 1 of Game of Thrones. I could see the video as they covered “Here’s what happened last season", but when then episode started, the man turned is computer almost sideways and contorted himself into what seemed to be the most uncomfortable position. A few minutes later the flight attendants (all male crew, a first for me) brought around the customs forms and the gentleman paused the DVD to listen, and then asked to borrow the pen I had handed just Scott when he was done with it. I said something about “Game of Thrones Season 2? It’s good isn’t it? We just started season 3.” He laughed and said yes. He said he started the first season earlier this year on a flight to Brazil and was a little bit shocked by the content, so now he always turns the computer all the way, so only he can see it. I said that I’d already seen it, so he didn’t have to worry about me. Later I retold it to Scott, and he said he’d never be comfortable watching that on an airplane.

Vancouver Airport details
If you are coming from the US, you are on the upper level, and there’s actually a really neat native culture exhibit (my word for it, not theirs). So don’t rush through it!






You stay upstairs for a LONG while and then you go downstairs at a HUGE water wall I mention this water wall because at the bottom is (I think) your first shot at a bathroom. You are about to enter a huge line for customs/immigration, so take the opportunity if you need it.

Water wall:


Water escalators





The immigrations/customs line was REALLY long, but moved pretty quickly. After that you go and get your luggage. Luggage carts are free, but you do have to find one. Once you have your luggage we had a HUGE line to exit the area. You’ll need the customs form you filled out on the plane to leave with your luggage, so don’t put it away after your passport check at immigration. Round and round and round and you’ll eventually make it outside.
We decided to take a taxi, so we jumped in the taxi line. It was nice to be out in the sun and not dying of heat and humidity. My guess it was in high 60s. Line seemed long, but moved very quickly. Since with we four, and had five bags, we were put in a hatchback with a little more trunk room than the standard cab.


The cab driver was great. Just enough chatting, but not overwhelmingly so. DH paid for the cab, so I don’t have exact numbers, but I think it was roughly $40 with tip to go do the Hyatt Regency downtown.

It took about 90 minutes between the plane touching down, and us getting checked in at the hotel.


Hotel
As stated earlier, we booked the Hyatt Regency through Hotwire. http://vancouver.hyatt.com/en/hotel/home.html Check in was a breeze, just had to show an ID and give a Credit Card for incidentals (which I plan on there not being any). I was notified via email from my credit card company about a foreign charge, so apparently they billed/put a hold for $100. Not a big deal, but may be if you use a debit card.

Room we were given is on the 11th floor. The room is, according to the desk clerk, “a little bit bigger”, but if it is it’s not really usable space. There’s a long hallway from the door and then a turn to get o the room. Beds are only doubles, but she said rollways are free. We’ll see how we do as DH and I are spoiled by our king at home.

(These pictures were taken later in the trip, but felt most appropriate to go here. I never remember to take pictures as soon as we walk in the room!)

Long hallway from the door (The bathroom is the other side of the wall at the end)


Turn the corner and you can see the room...


Off to your left is a big space, with a huge closet, and a counter with an odd empty space... (no microwave)


But there was a coffee maker, and a small fridge. Also the door to the bathroom.


Pretty typical bathroom...




And room




View to the left,


View straight out.. (the rooftop, well 4th story rooftop, would be down to the right)

If you squint you can see the water....

 

[shanhop]

Happy to have readers, Kristi and Nanci! If I don't cover something you are interested in, just let me know.

 

[PacificDisMommy]

following along

 

[shanhop]

Welcome PacificDisMommy!


Saturday Afternoon - Stanley Park, here we come!
It was now almost 2 local time, almost 4pm our time and no one had had real food since 7:30 this morning. We went downstairs, asked about where we’d meet the Trolley, and headed down stairs to ground level. We looked around for a quick bite, but didn’t see anything within eyesight. We would later discover that on the other side of the hotel is a McDonalds and Tim Hortons. Hello breakfast!

A worker from the Vancouver Trolley Company saw us, and asked us who we were waiting for. When we realized he was with the Trolley, and showed him our preprinted tickets and he gave us stickers for today. This company's people have bright yellow jackets, so they were easy to spot.

We met an other couple, that was gong to be on our cruise, Mrs. M (we'll meet her again later). Her two grandsons would be with her, along with their parents (I'm blanking now whether it was her son and DIL, or daughter and SIL. She was asking the girls all sorts of questions about their trip so far (very sweet).

We waited about 15 minutes for the next Trolley. We also realized that we'd be able to pick up a bus to Capilano right here. I thought we'd have to take the Trolley someplace else to pick up the bus. Good for us!

We asked the Trolley agent about restaurants, and he pointed out the ones in Stanley Park. I had remembered the Stanley Park Bar and Grill from my research, and thought it would be good.

The Trolley stopped at a couple hotels before heading to Stanley Park. Or course I misread the Trolley map, and we should have gotten off at the Rose Garden stop for the restaurant, but didn’t realize it until after we left the stop. So we got off at the next stop, the Aquarium, and walked back.

Lunch at the Stanley Park Bar and Grill was quite good. We ate outside on the patio, the weather was gorgeous. Girls and Scott had the fish and chip. (Girls had kids meals). I had a burger. Scott had a beer, I had a frozen lemonade cocktail. Girls added the $2 ice cream, and got yummy sundaes. Their menu is on their FB site if you are interested Service was good, but had to ask waiter for water and about the girls ice cream (he seemed to go out of his way NOT to intrude). I meant to take pictures, but got distracted by taking the girls to the bathroom, and it didn't happen.

After that we walked back to the Stanley Park Rose Gardens, and they were stunning. Girls also went and played on the playground while we waited for the Trolley.

I had the girls pick their favorite roses to pose by. There were SO many different varieties.







I made it in a picture!


"Grass Angels"


The trees were so many different shades of green.



The Trolley (and other buses) are supposed to be on a roughtly 20 minute scheduled. We waited about 15 minutes for our Trolley Rode the Trolley to the Totem poles stop, and got off for pictures to hit up the gift shop and bathrooms.

Canada Place in the background, the sea plane Chevron station


Downtown Vancouver. It's also Prom. So many people getting fancy pictures taken. Not just parents snapping photos, but professional photographers with assistants, and huge flash units and everything.












There are descriptions for each pole. Here's an example (my kids are trying to shade the sign so I can take a picture)




Must stand on rock and take picture mom!!!!


As you can see from these pictures, it was bright and sunny, and actually quite warm by now. The Trolley driver had talked about how 'hot' it was, and Scott and I giggled. It was probably in the mid 70s.

The gift shop here is nice, and there are bathrooms (always important to know!)

 

[twindaddy]

Great trip report, we will be there on July 7th! subbing in to hear there rest!

 

[tiarasandcrowns]

Awesome trip report! Waiting to hear the rest as we are going on June 30th. We also have twin daughter's 10 1/2 years old We are also booked at the Hyatt through Hotwire. It's great reading your TR. Thanks in advance.

 

[Sorcerer Mom]

Loving your trip report and helpful tips! Can't wait to read more!

 

[disneyfaninaz]

So, that's what Stanley Park looks like in the sun!

 

[shanhop]

Vancouver, Stanley Park, Part 2

We then walked to the North side of the point. The park is REALLY narrow here. We then decided to walk back to the lighthouse.

It is worth noting here that Stanley Park has dedicated walking, bike and rollerblade lanes. Walkers should NOT be in the biking lanes, so be mindful. These lanes are technically one way, and we are now going the wrong way. But that’s less critical with the walkers.

Hey look, a lighthouse, let's walk there.


The tide was out, and the girls found steps down (incredibly steep, there's no way I'm going down there steps)


Lion's Gate Bridge


Canada Geese in Canada!


Another set of steps (I wouldn't let the go down these)


We're on the walking path, the bike path stays up top.


Seaplanes were SO close!


Flags! (also the road and bike path)


Seaplane! And Ironworker's Bridge (see, I was totally paying attention to the Trolley Driver!)


OK, so it's not a lighthouse, it's a lookout (and you can't go inside)


There were more of these discussing all of the different activities/economies of the Port. This is the important one


After taking pictures, we decided we were closer to the Totem Pole stop for the Trolley, so we continued to walk the wrong way around the end of the park back to that spot. We saw several sea planes take off. One seemed to go right over our heads. We also had a nice view of the cruise ships across the inner harbor.

We caught the trolley and rode it all the way to the steam clock. It was nice of the guide to slow down/stop at some picture spots. Note I said slow down, I was taking these pictures through the Trolley window. We were on the 2nd to last Trolley of the evening, so no one was really getting off. We had a nice tour of the sites, and noted some things we’ll do tomorrow if we get time. *Ha, ha, ha, such high hopes*

Inside the Trolley.


Lion's Gate Bridge





After Stanley Park, the Trolley goes all over Vancouver. We saw beaches, cricket grounds, went over two bridges, got close to Granville Island, saw the Olympic Stadium, Chinatown, Japanese area, etc. etc. etc.





The bus driver said he'd basically take us where we wanted to go within the downtown area, but we got off at the 2nd to last stop, the steam clock “just to see it”. I just wanted it to be clear that you weren't stuck at the "end of the line"






We saw the steam clock, bought a $2 bottle of water (seems to be the standard price), hit one touristy store for some Canada themed gifts, and walked the approximately nine blocks back to the hotel. There was a stop at a drug store for mole skin and Cadbury (the stuff we get in the US just isn't the same).

Totally wish we'd gone in and asked how much these were!


No free wifi, so while DH and the girls hit the heated pool and hot tub, I hung out in the lobby where there was free wifi (wifi in your room costs $15 or $20 a day (I think... ) depending on the speed you desire. And lots of dressed up kids (apparently one of the proms was here).

The children were asked if they were hungry on the walk home (they said no), but of course WERE hungry when they came up from the pool. It was almost 8, and they weren’t THAT hungry so Scott hit the McDonalds right downstairs. Some chicken nuggets seemed to tide them over until breakfast tomorrow. Of course it was noted that the Canadian nuggets both looked and tasted different (not bad, different).

There was Stanley Cup hockey to watch (triple overtime!), showers were taken and the girls are drifting off to sleep at 9pm. It’s amazingly bright outside. We didn't hear the cannon.

I was woken up by fireworks, loud fireworks that were down in the harbor somewhere. I could see the reflections off the buildings. I never remembered to ask WHY there were fireworks.


I found a picture of the pool from our room....

 

[shanhop]

So, that's what Stanley Park looks like in the sun!

Ha! We were very appreciative of the nice weather we had on this day. Notice my kids are in jackets so it wasn't hot. To those of us that grew up in Michigan but currently live in Houston it was heaven.

Thanks for reading everyone!

 

[bksaffle]

Your trip report absolutely cracks me up. We went on the May 24th Alaska Cruise, we too stayed at the Hyatt Regency (our room was also facing the same side of the hotel as yours), took the Hop On/Off Trolley tour, we also have 11 year old twins. And so MANY of the same pictures you took, we also took.

Another thing we are a Star Wars/Disney family as well. You want a good laugh??? Go to the website http://boredshorts.tv/ and watch the Cantina Scene, it is hilarious.

 

[shanhop]

Your trip report absolutely cracks me up. We went on the May 24th Alaska Cruise, we too stayed at the Hyatt Regency (our room was also facing the same side of the hotel as yours), took the Hop On/Off Trolley tour, we also have 11 year old twins. And so MANY of the same pictures you took, we also took.

That's an insane amount of similarities! You'll have to point out the rest of them as I post.

 

[DisneyFanDad]

I was on the same cruise last week. I also went into that same shop and looked at those same star wars stormtrooper tribal art prints.

Hills Native Art was that store, and the URL for their website is on the bottom of the window underneath the prints (I'm still new to the boards and can't embed links into replies yet). Unframed it was like $195? My wife wouldn't let me get it. There are two versions of the print, one for the hero and one for the villain.

 

[shanhop]

I was on the same cruise last week. I also went into that same shop and looked at those same star wars stormtrooper tribal art prints.

Hills Native Art was that store, and the URL for their website is on the bottom of the window underneath the prints (I'm still new to the boards and can't embed links into replies yet). Unframed it was like $195? My wife wouldn't let me get it. There are two versions of the print, one for the hero and one for the villain.

Thanks for the info! We are going to come across them again later in Alaska, but the prints were part of the store owner's personal collection, and not for sale. They did have a C3PO, but we did not like it nearly as much. Apparently they are very hard to find these days. It was also about $200.

 

[sdjen]

Thanks for taking the time to post. I am planning on about the same schedule for our cruise next summer. Enjoying the details and cannot wait to hear more.