Originally Posted By mickeymeg Before I begin, let me say in short that this was one of the best vacations I have been on. We are already planning for our next one, this time somewhere warmer. Highlights on the ship were the stage shows, Pirate Party, meeting all the characters with the munchkin, sailing through Tracy Arm, the spa, Palo and our servers Marco from Croatia and Wira from Indonesia. Highlights in port were the White Pass railway, the Medenhall Glacier and lunch Tracy's Crab shack. For those that are still interested, let me present the long version.... The cast The Munchkin - Age 2, our daughter The small one - 23 months, our daughters best bud Friend One and Friend Two - The small ones Mama and Papa and our good friends Matt - My husband Myself sorry for the bad name changes, I just don't want to use friends names online. Disney Cruise May 3 – 10 2011 Day 1 Welcome Aboard We head out early to the Victoria Bus Station. Turns out we didn't need to be nearly as early as they said we did so we ended up waiting around for some time while the incompetent station staff had no idea what was going on or where we should meet our bus or even when it was coming. Once the bus got there though the on board staff was much better and seemed interested in getting us to where we were going. We caught the ferry and made it to the cruise ship terminal in Vancouver with no difficulty. I was somewhat stressed at this point that they would notice that I was pregnant and ask questions and find out that I was further along than their cut off and not let me on. Luckily no one noticed and this did not become an issue. I was even able to relax about it after the first few days. Once we passed the paper work and security we had our picture and skipped merrily along the gangway to the ship. As we boarded our name was announced and we were welcomed aboard by cast members as well as Chip and Dale and Peter Pan. Chip and Dale took the munchkin by surprise and she was quite scared of them at first. Peter Pan flew in and saved the day by distracting her. The first thing we did was set out to find out staterooms. Ours was room 2575 a deluxe inside cabin. It was just the right size and quite lovely. The only thing I would change was that next time, if we are still traveling with napping age children, that we book one with a porthole. After getting our things settled and unpacked we set out to explore the ship. We had a brief walkabout and tried to get our bearings as far as what was where. Then it was time for a safety drill. We went to our stateroom and listened for the horn signal. We gathered at the K on deck 4 and learned how to put on life jackets and take roll call. This is where we first met Nancy from Canada, a cast member we would meet again throughout our sailing. Next was the sailing away party. We went up to deck 9, the outside party deck and had a big dance party as we waved good by to all the people standing on the pier. They covered the Goofy pool so that it became a dance floor and we all leaned the dance moves as performers called them out. After learning the dance Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Pluto came out and danced with us. the munchkin loved this part and wanted to dance too. With hungry tummies from dancing we headed to our first dinner appointment at Animators Palate. What a fantastic restaurant. The walls are black and white sketches of Disney characters and the servers are wearing black and white vests and ties. As your meal progresses the walls come to life and all the paintings and decorations become coloured. At one point all the servers disappeared and so many characters came running out to say hello and do a dance for us. When they were through and the servers came back they were all coloured too. This was our favourite restaurant on the ship. At this meal we met Marco from Croatia and Wira from Indonesia. They were our head and assistant server. Both were absolutely fantastic and helped make our trip unforgettable. They follow us about our restaurant rotation so that where ever we are for dinner they are too. They had both girls drink orders down to a fine science and had everything ready for us when we got there. Marco was able to provide any thing we needed at a meal and Wira could do just about anything you needed him to and always with the biggest smile you have ever seen. To finish the day off we went to the Welcome Aboard, Let the Magic Begin ! Stage show. This was a sampler of sorts to showcase the talented cast we would have the opportunity to see doing various shows throughout the cruise. First the Disney Characters did some musical numbers. Then we saw a man with a guitar singing some humourus twists on classic Disney tunes. My favourite of his lyrics was When you re sitting at the Bar, Wondering where your children are, Take a hint, You re on a Ship, They can't go far. We weren't sure if the munchkin would like sitting through a stage show, as it turns out she loved it. She was absolutely memorized, especially by the Disney Characters. She couldn't take her eyes off the stage. We were delighted with her. By this point we were pretty exhausted, despite only being on the ship half a day, so decided to turn in for the night. the munchkin fell asleep fairly quickly and we tucked her into the lovely little crib they provided for her. Unfortunately she is so tall that she only fit if I layed her in with her head in one corner and her feet in the other. She didn't seem to mind though. Day 2 The Open Ocean Did you know that Canadian Law says that any before any cruise ship company is allowed to travel through the inside passage they first have to sail around the outside of Vancouver Island with a local pilot to determine the seaworthiness of the ship. Once the pilot determines that the ship handles accordingly and he is convinced that the Captain and Crew are competent then the cruise line is given permission to sail the inside passage. The effectively means that any cruise lines maiden voyage to Alaska has the potential to be cursed by high seas. We started the day off by finding breakfast at The Beach Blanket Buffet. This restaurant is on deck 9 and has a lovely outdoor seating area for when the weather doesn't suck. It has your typical breakfast buffet fair with the addition of an omelet station, yum. After breakfast we decided to take a walking tour of the ship. We were hoping that we would get to see some of the inner workings of the ship such as where and how they manage to feed and house such a large crew that never seem to take breaks at all. Or maybe a quick peek at the bridge or engine or some other out of bounds area. This however, was not to be the case. We did get a good tour of the different areas of the ship including all the restaurants, pools, recreation areas etc that we could ever need to find. My favourite part of this tour had to be when the tour guide, who was from the United States, told us about the World of Sports area and was indicating that kids could stop in to play a game of hacky or saccer. It took a moment for us to figure out that he was trying to say hockey and soccer through a rather odd accent. At this point the ships movement was becoming more noticeable, unfortunately this is where Friend Two started to feel icky and left us for most of the day to hide in his stateroom. Matt, the munchkin and I went to check out the Oceaneer Kids Club and the munchkin enjoyed some play time and leaned the Do Si Do Dance with Snow White. We had lunch at Parrot Cay. I think they had a lovely Italian buffet, but by this point no one felt like eating too much. What I did sample was very tasty. Friend Two joined us for lunch, however he didn't last too long before having to run away again. This was to be the beginning of cursed meals in this restaurant. After lunch we went up on deck to get some fresh air and see if we could find Goofy. What we found was yucky rain and enough rocking to make all the water jump right out of the pools. I am kicking myself so much for not trying to get a picture of this. The sight was quite amazing as the water sloshed from side to side. We did find Goofy though and both girls thought that meeting him was so much fun. They had both seemed to have gotten over the initial shock of seeing a real live cartoon character. I think he got hugs and kisses from both of them. We took the munchkin down to have a nap after this. It took us a while to get her to sleep but once she was we threw her in the stroller to try to go for a walk so we were not stuck in our cabin. Of course she woke up the very moment we put her down so we tried to find a quite spot to wrestle her back to sleep. We found the Cadillac Lounge just about empty so we found a seat by a huge porthole and tried to get her to sleep again. After an hour or so of trying to enjoy the peace and quite while a very tall toddler squirms in your lap they started to set up for a wine tasting event. The clinking glasses and new people wandering about saying hello to her were not helping with the sleep, then one very kind man who had been setting up offered her a whole dish of chocolate that he had for his wine tasting. As you can imagine we stopped trying at this point. With a very sleepy and fairly wired munchkin we headed back to our cabin to get dressed for formal night. We had a bit of time so we stayed in our stateroom for a bit and checked out the tv offerings and I made the horrible mistake of picking up the Cruise Book in our room and starting to read it. Ships movement plus being below deck with no means of seeing the outside plus reading a book equals a really yucky case of motion sickness. I tried to ignore this as long as possible and continued to get ready for formal night as we had all been really looking forward to it. Once we were all, except for Friend Two as he was still feeling yucky, gussied up we headed up to the atrium to meet Captain Thord. We even got our picture taken with him. Then we headed off to Parrot Cay for dinner. I had really only been there a few minutes when I had to excuse myself to get to the washroom. Unfortunately I only made it just outside the restaurant (thank goodness I made it that far) before tossing my cookies in the hallway. I was so embarrassed. The cast members were fantastic about getting Matt for me and making sure that it was cleaned up and I was ok as soon as possible. I felt so bad for them and so embarrassed. However, I did feel much better at that moment. I went back to the cabin, cleaned myself us, thankfully nothing got on my dress, and returned to dinner trying to pretend in never happened. When I got there I found out that the munchkin had begged Matt to take her out of her seat, an odd thing for her at dinner when there is so much going on and crayons to be had, only to put her head on his shoulder and toss her cookies all over the back of his suit jacket and chair. Lovely. She seemed to be ok after this as well though. So we all proceeded to order dinner. When the appetizers came I had one bite and had to decide that eating really was a bad idea. the munchkin was asking to come out of her seat and sit with me now, so seeing the writing on the wall I excused us both from dinner and we went back to the stateroom. I filled the munchkin full of baby Gravol and she enjoyed watching old Goofy and Donald shorts while I layed there with my eyes closed wishing the boat to stop moving. Luckily they did postpone the Golden Mickey's so we did not miss them. This was the evening that Marco and Wira truly made us realize how awesome they were. After dinner, once Matt was back in our stateroom there was a knock at the door. Marco had thought to save my dinner and bring it down for me. He didn't even send someone to take it, he brought it himself so he could come and check on us. It was a very sweet thing to do that was above and beyond his role as server. I really appreciated what he did for us that evening. Friend One and I had a Manicure appointment later that evening. I was trying really hard to feel better enough to go. After a little while outside in the rain and fresh air I decided that I could do it, but I was going to go in my pjs. The manicure was fantastic. Kellane and Fallan were our lovely spa ladies. I felt bad that I was not in better spirits for it, but I think everyone was understanding. After an hour or so pampering and polishing we headed back down all shiny and sparkly to turn in for the night. After I had left for the manicure Matt took the munchkin out for a 'late night' walk about the ship in her pjs. They ran into Goofy and Donald and made friends with them for a while before heading down to bed. Day 3 Tracy Arm I think this was one of my very favourite days of the cruise. We started with breakfast at beach blanket again. Then we took the girls off to Wake Up and Wiggle. This was the first of several morning toddler age dance parties we attended. They thought it was really fun. A Disney cast member would lead the kids in an informal dance party for an hour or so. The kids had free run of the Promenade Lounge and even enjoyed climbing up on stage to dance and jump off the edge. When they were all danced out we spent a little while just wandering the ship and entertaining ourselves while waiting for the ship to arrive in Tracy Arm. We had lunch up on deck by sampling the many choices available. Fruit, wraps, burgers, pizza, chicken, you name it. Then the fun of Tracy Arm began. This is an absolutely beautiful narrow inlet with steep cliffs on either side and a huge glacier at the end. We sailed up the inlet all the way to the glacier then turned around to come back. Just about everyone on board the ship, including any cast members not active duty, were out deck enjoying the scenery. There were icebergs (ok, little ice flows really, but icebergs sounds more dramatic) everywhere that made a really neat sound as the ship pushed them aside and into each other. We saw a few seals out lounging in the sun and there were rumors of goats being spotted on the cliff side. I have my suspicions that a lot of the little white specs may have been chunks of ice or snow. The blue colour of the ice was just incredible. While we were out wandering on deck we ran into just about every character who was on the ship. They were all out in their new outfits for the journey to Alaska. the munchkin had a special meeting with Minnie Mouse. Before there were too many people out on deck we had a chance run in with Minnie and the munchkin ran right up and gave her hugs and kisses then as we left her to greet other people she followed the munchkin down the deck and held her hand and the two of them skipped hand in hand down the deck until Minnie found her camera crew she was looking for. Being the first trip up to Alaska there were a lot of cameras on board all shooting various things for promos. Minnie's handler was Nancy from Canada again. She thought this was such a sweet moment between Minnie and the munchkin that she told us that she would try and have the munchkin invited to a special meet and greet with the characters at the end of the trip. She couldn't make any promises but said she would try, we thought that was pretty awesome ! The whole time we were in Tracy Arm there was a helicopter buzzing about the ship and even a small little speed boat thing zipping about us. They were all taking shots and video of the ship for promos as well. When the Characters would spot them they would all lean over the side and wave. It was really neat to be able to buy a picture of the ship taken from a helicopter while we were on board. Matt eventually took the munchkin off to the stateroom to get her to sleep then propped her up in the stroller once she fell asleep so that he could join the rest of us. We found a spot outside on deck 4 to spend the rest of voyage back out of Tracy Arm. It was really neat to be that much closer to the water. There were also much fewer people down there and we could hear the ice really well. Dinner that evening was at Triton's. It was lovely, the napkins here are very soft. I think this was where I tried the lamb something or another, aside from being huge, it was super yummy =) After dinner we went to the Golden Mickey's ! I was so happy that they had been postponed from the night before so we didn't miss them. As we arrived we walked down a hall way of paparazzi, the munchkin thought this was good fun and waved away to them all. The show was an awards show for the different qualities the characters in the classic Disney movies show. Throughout the show the 'host' learns that if she is confidant in herself she can do anything. We really enjoyed this show. We didn't know if the munchkin would be able to sit through a whole show, but she showed us. She was just mesmerized the whole time. Each time she saw a character she recognized she got really excited pointing and calling for them. Day 4 Skagway We had to get up really early so we could meet our away team at the scheduled time. We wanted to try Parrot Cay for breakfast but found out that the only place open that early was Beach Blanket, so we had breakfast there yet again. After that we headed up to the Walt Disney Theatre to meet up with the group taking the White Pass Railroad adventure with us. They put us into groups with stickers, do not put these stickers on your skin. the munchkin still has a red rectangle on her leg from where she stuck it and I had to peel it off of her. We met the train right outside the boat. We chose the car with the biggest windows, about half way through the line of cars. The train car was old fashioned looking complete with a wood stove in every car to keep us warm. We traveled along the outside of the town then up the mountain all the way to the Yukon Boarder. the munchkin really enjoyed being on the train and looking at the snow and mountains as we went past. We were able to go and stand on the platform just outside the door to the car as we were moving. This was the best part. It looked like you were moving a lot faster when you were outside. We went over a few trestles and through two tunnels. Inside the longest tunnel you could see many icicles formed on the side of the walls. They seemed to glow with how the day light was caught in them. At the turn around point at the top, the engine detached from the front of the train, drove past us on a side track and reattached itself at the other end. Then all the passengers flipped over the backs of the seats so we were pointed in the right direction and presto chango the train had tunred around. The girls ran about the train car and played hide and seek and tackled each other about half way down the mountain. Then they both fell asleep. Back in the town we went for a little walk to see what we could find. It is really only about a block big and it turned out all the shops and whatnot had just opened that day as we were the first ship in of the season. We had lunch in the only place we could find which turned out to be a little bar type restaurant in the middle of town. The only bar I have ever seen with a kids menu and high chairs. The food was ok, the service was kind of slow – the server said it was because they just opened that day- the worst part though was that there was a smoking section right in the middle of the no smoking section. I forgot that we might come across that in the states. After lunch we continued our walk about town. We found mostly tacky tourist shops, nothing too exciting. Then we let the girls have a little unwinding and a run about in a field then back to the ship. We got ready for dinner then took the girls off to Flounders Nursery so they could play and have fun while the big kids went to Palo for dinner. We thought checking the girls in would be harder than it was, the munchkin saw things to play with and took off and The Small One followed right behind her. So we said good bye and good luck to the cast members and off we went to Palo. Super Yum was to be had here. Grilled shrimp appetizers, Anti Pasta buffet on wheels, Lobster ravioli and two desserts ! We had the best chocolate souffle ever and I had some sort of strawberry and baked custard thing. Matt and Friend Two had a really neat looking orange float thing that was as much performance art as it was something to eat. Petar, our server, was fantastic and able to tell us anything about any of the dishes we wanted to eat and make all kinds of yummy suggestions. The only hitch in dinner plans was that we got a call from the nursery saying that the munchkin was upset and no one seemed able to fix things for her so she would like to be picked up. At least this didn't come until desert so we were nearly done anyhow. After dinner we went to see Disneynature: African Cats. This was a lovely movie about all the big cats that live in Africa. the munchkin really liked seeing the Lions and Cheetahs for the first 20 minutes or so. Then she climbed into my lap and fell asleep. She had a long day with only a very short nap on the train. We headed back to our cabin after the movie and threw her into bed clothes and all. She didn't move until about 5:00 the next morning. Day 5 Juneau After a slower paced breakfast we gathered our things and headed out to Juneau for the day. They had shuttles waiting to take us the quick drive into town and were dropped off in the middle of another touristy little town. We decided to take one of the $8 'narrated' shuttle services to the Mendenhall glacier. The 'narrated' part turned out to be the driver telling us about and pointing out whatever highlights he could think of along the way. In this case it was the Walmart and the McDonalds. When we hit the highway, or at least the part of the road where he decided he go super fast, the old school bus started shaking and shuttering and a few windows that had lost their rivets looked like they might blow out at any moment. Interesting drive behind us, we made it to the Glacier and it was well worth the adventure. It was the same lovely shade of blue as the glacier at Tracy Arm and we learned all about why it was that colour in the visitors centre. When we first arrived we ran into Smokey the Bear giving a speech about preventing forest fires. the munchkin had her picture taken with him and everything. Then a real bear wandered right up behind the little look out shelter where we were. Friend Two followed him with his camera for some time. He didn't seem to mind all the people. As this was the first day the visitors centre was open I think he was just checking out the beginning of tourist watching season. He wandered all about having a look and checking everyone out, but kept a safe distance. There were lots of park rangers around who didn't seem to concerned with his presence. After we had seen all the visitors centre had to offer we wandered out on the beach in front of the glacier lake and spent some lovely time just walking and seeing the scenery. We were watching some interesting birds we think are Arctic Turns play about. We tossed rocks at ice flows to see who could hit the furthest one and we mucked about in the icky but really cool feeling sand/clay like glacier muck that makes up a lot of the beach area. Then it was time to head back to town. After another exciting bus ride back to town we were looking for lunch. the munchkin was asleep in her stroller by this point which was nice as we wanted her to sleep as long as possible so she would have energy for the pirate party later on. We found lunch at a little hole in the wall type place called Tracy's Crab Shack. Boy are we glad that the bus driver made this suggestion. Even the locals were lining up. They had the best Crab Bisque and Coconut Crab Cakes ever. Super friendly people running it as well. Then we went for a quick and somewhat uneventful wander through the rest of the town. More tourist shops to be had, but without the charm of the ones in Skagway. We headed back to the ship and tried to get the munchkin to have another nap as it was shaping up to be a late night for her. After her snooze we put on all our Pirate gear and set off dinner at Parrot Cay. On the way we ran into Mickey and Minnie dressed in their pirate costumes as well so we had to stop and take pictures with them. We arrived for dinner a touch late and Marco and Wira were ready for us, even if they did give us a hard time for going to Palo the night before. Unfortunately The Small One had not had a decent nap and was quite fussy and did not make it through dinner. Friend Two and Friend One took it in turns to take her away to try and cheer her up, but eventually Friend One took her off to put her to bed early. Marco, once again showed his awesomeness by making sure that her dinner found its way down to the stateroom so she would not miss out. After dinner we headed off to Toy Story the Musical. What a fantastic show. They some how managed to make a real life stage even more 3D than real life. It was like a giant multi plane camera on stage with lights and scrims and such. The cast was wonderful, the stage technology was amazing, I can't believe they pull off such fantastic entertainment on a ship. We were all extremely impressed. Even the munchkin couldn't take her eyes off the stage. Then it was finally time for the Pirate Dance party up on the top deck. First a cast of dancers came out to warm up the audience. Once again they had put the dance floor over the pool and pulled out all the stops with decorating in a pirate theme. Then Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Donald and Chip and Dale came out to lead the fun. the munchkin danced and danced and but did notice a lack of Mickey. To top off the evening off Mickey showed up at the very top of one smoke stack and flew to the next one then rappelled down to join the others on stage. We all had a blast dancing along with all characters, but by this point the munchkin was asking Matt to carry her, but keep dancing. She did not want to leave the party, but was nearly asleep on her feet so we decided to pack it in for the night. Day 6 Ketchikan and Mothers Day Today we would arrive in Ketchikan, however we were not scheduled to arrive until 12:00 so we had a nice relaxed morning to recover from the late pirate night. I got up to have breakfast with Friend Two , Friend One and The Small One while Matt and the munchkin slept in. We had breakfast at Tritons, then took The Small One for some morning toddler dancing while Friend One and I checked out what the Scrapbooking was all about. Then the munchkin and Matt joined us and we went off to get some breakfast for them at Beach Blanket. The weather was so lovely we could finally enjoy sitting outside. After breakfast we decided to just enjoy the outside as it was warm and the scenery was quite beautiful. the munchkin and Matt had a lot of fun running about and playing in World of Sports while Friend One and I watched the world go by. As we got nearer to Ketchikan there were planes and boats and ferries of all kinds to watch coming and going. The fire boat came out to spray its jets and welcome us into town. Once we were all tied up to the pier Matt said that he was not that interested in leaving the boat and he would be happy to stay with the munchkin so that Friend One and I could enjoy Mothers day without having to worry about keeping babies happy. With that offer Friend One and I set off to enjoy Ketchican on our own. What we found was not super exciting. This little town had the biggest collection of tourist traps at the side of the cruise ship pier. Lots of jewelry stores and tourist junk with 'Alaska' stamped on it. The most interesting shop we found was a taxidermy shop. In a strange sort of way it was amusing to see all the animals posed with 'dinner' and the interesting array products they sold including mink hair elastics. We also saw a little display from a birds of prey rescue group. They had a bald eagle, a red tailed hawk and a wee little owl out for display. It was neat to see the bids, however, I felt a little bad for them as there was a lot of people snapping flash photos at them and trying to pose with them and they didn't seem to happy about it. We decided that we would have some lunch then head back to the ship. We found a yummy looking crab place at the back of one of the big tourist centres. It turned out that their food was ok, but their service was terrible. It took them forever to take our order, even longer to bring it to us and then after we got tired of waiting for the bill we went to the counter to pay and still had to wait forever as no one wanted to deal with the cash register. The waitress was super cranky and made it seem like we (and everyone else there) were a problem for her. With that little hitch out of the way we had a lovely sunny stroll back to the ship. We watched them painting the ship yet again, they seem to do this in every port, then went back to find the others on the boat. I found Matt in the hot tub, he had put the munchkin down for a nap then put her into the nursery. That was as good a spot for her as any so I got my suit and Friend One, Friend Two and The Small One as well and we went up to the pool. After a nice afternoon on the pool deck we all got dressed up for semi formal night. It was another dinner at Triton's and since we had to cut formal night short before we had lots of fun dressing fancy this time. It was also the Captain's Gala menu, which meant that lobster tail was on the menu. Boy was it super delicious ! After dinner we took the girls for some toddler dancing at the Mothers Day dance. Then, while wandering afterwords the munchkin and I were approached by a Disney cast member that told me that I had a lovely daughter and he wanted to do something special for her and he took our cabin number. I thought it was a little strange but gave it to him anyhow as I was interested to see what would happen. We went back to our cabin to regroup and there with our nightly towel animal was a Mothers Day Card that the munchkin had made while in Flounders. They had sent it down to our room with that nights goodies so that it would be a surprise, what a terrific idea. Then Kairi, Matt and I had a bit of a walk around to find Snow White, Mickey, Minnie and any one else we could find to take pictures with in fancy dresses. Then it was time for bed. Day 7 The last day This was a very busy, but fun filled last day. We started with a character breakfast at Parrot Cay. The girls loved this ! As we ate breakfast we were visited by Mickey, Minnie, Chip, Dale, Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Pluto. As they came to our table we took pictures and had them sign the print of the ship with Mickey in Alaska that we had been given. One of the helpers for the characters suggested that we could get all the characters on board the ship to sign the picture if we took it to guest services and asked. So we did that right after breakfast and have a fantastic and unique souvenir. After breakfast the munchkin and The Small One went with Friend Two and Friend One for some toddler dancing while Matt and I checked out the Animation class and learned to draw Donald duck. Matt's looked as perfect as could be while my Donald was lopsided and funny looking, I suppose that was to be expected. After some free time wandering about the ship and entertaining ourselves we had a lovely lunch at Triton's. Lunch in this restaurant turned out to be just as fancy as dinner with appetizers and salads and main courses and desserts all very very yummy. You really can't go wrong with the food anywhere on this ship. Then it was time for the munchkin to have a nap as it was looking like another late night and we knew that the next day would be an early start. We got her off to sleep then once again played the awesome parent and put her into Flounders nursery while she slept so that we would not be confined to the cabin. While she slept we went up to the pool deck and watched Finding Nemo while lounging in the hot tub with fancy drinks. After Nemo, Matt went to check on the munchkin while Friend One and I went to our last spa appointment for pedicures. With all the walking about ports I had really been looking forward to this and it did not disappoint at all. We had the same lovely ladies that did our manicures and they were just as fantastic this time around. We chatted with them about living in Victoria and Jamaica, where they were from and just a a lovely time relaxing while watching North Vancouver Island go by out the window. They were able to lend us some 'Cinderella' slippers so that we could go to dinner without mucking up our shiny piggies inside shoes. We were back at Animators Palate for dinner. This time the theme of dinner was 'till we meet again and about half way through the meal all the servers disappeared so that they could get ready for a show for us. They all came out carrying the flags of the countries represented by cast on the ship. It was a fun international showcase that wrapped up with a dramatic display of the flaming Baked Alaska that was to be served for dessert. After hugs and photos with Wira and Marco we headed back to our stateroom to do the fastest pack up we could possibly manage as we needed to have all our cases packed an in the hall before 10:00 and there were plenty of activities to be had that would keep us away until after that. Back in our stateroom we found that we had not one, but two pieces of mail. They were invitations to a special, invitation only, meet and greet party with the characters that would happen before the final Till We Meet Again event later in the evening. One was from Nancy from Canada and the other was from the Cast Member we had met the night before. We gave one of our invitations to The Small One so she could come too. With even more motivation to pack in a hurry we did as much as we could then headed out to the Disney Dreams: An Enchanted Classic stage show. This was yet another fantastic stage show. This time a young girl meets Peter Pan and learns to trust her imagination and find her inner ability to fly. Truly another example of a fabulous quality stage show. the munchkin loved seeing Peter Pan fly and was still just as thrilled to see all the characters who she by now thought she was personal friends with. After the show it was back down to the cabin to finish packing and get our bags to the hall so we could hurry off to see what this special meet and greet was all about. We got everything done just in time to head back up to Studio Sea, unfortunately though, The Small One was too sleepy to join us. The meet and greet was absolutely spectacular ! Even though they said it would only be a small number of kids we were still expecting to see quite a crowd, however there really was only a handful of kids. I would say a dozen, if that. Most of the crowd was parents taking photos. All the characters from the ship were there was well as the cast of the Disney Dreams show we had just seen. They were all so fantastic, they were giving the kids who were there all the personal Disney attention they could ever ask for. the munchkin walked right into the crowd and Belle and Snow White sat down and made friends with her. She walked around with them while giving a high five or kiss to any character she possibly could. This was a magical way to end off a magical vacation. When it was time to say good bye to all the characters the munchkin was one of the last to leave, she had to be sure to say good bye to everyone. We had to carry her out as she would have happily gone with them to do their last 'Till we meet again show. The show was very sweet. It was a bit like a cast call to highlight each character and give the crowd one last chance to wave good bye and cheer them on. There was also one last chance to have your picture taken and say good bye to the characters. the munchkin loved each one of them, except Captain Hook. We couldn't get her within 20 feet of him, hard to say if it was his really big grinning head or the other loud pirates he was with, but either way she was having none of it. When we were all so tired we couldn't walk strait it was time to turn in. Day 8 Back to Vancouver We had to get up really really early as we had to have everything out of our room, be ready to go and be at breakfast by 7:00. the munchkin was not interested in waking up that morning and kept trying to climb back under the covers, even after she had been dumped in the shower. Breakfast was at Animators Palate and offered us one last chance to say good bye to Marco and Wira. the munchkin ran up to both of them after the meal and gave them big hugs. Then came the waiting game. We had to wait for them to call our luggage tag colour before we could leave the ship. This was ok as we found a quite spot in Studio Sea to wait. There were a few other families in there and the kids were all playing together on the stage and dance floor and were just enjoying the free time. Most of the adults looked pretty wiped out. Getting off the ship and finding our luggage was reasonably quick and very organized. We were all super impressed at Disney's organizational abilities to be able to get that many people off and sorted without any problems. Finding our bus was once again another issue. When we booked it they never made any mention of where or when to find it. The folks at the cruise ship terminal were able to find out for us though. It looked like we would be waiting around for at least an hour or so. We entertained the girls as long as we could and when the bus finally got there both of them were asleep within about 5 minutes of moving. From there it was smooth sailing back to the ferry and Victoria and we all slept for the rest of the day and most of the next.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Sounds great, thanks for sharing. The Disney cruises are great for the little ones. And the Alaskan ones sound really great. My step dad worked the cruises for about 3 years when he was a teen/20 something (he was one of the drummers on board), that's how we met. He worked most of the liners and did most of the routes - Mexico, the Caribbean, transatlantic crossing (his least fav), the Med etc. But his favorite was always the Alaskan cruises. He said they were the most beautiful. Sounds like you might agree. Lol. Anyway, I am glad you had a great time, look forward to reading about your next cruise.
Originally Posted By irishfan Thanks for the trip report, I'm booked to depart Vancouver on August 30th, cant wait!
Originally Posted By mickeymeg <<But his favorite was always the Alaskan cruises. He said they were the most beautiful. Sounds like you might agree. Lol.>> This was the first cruise I had ever done. While the scenery was very lovely, because of where we live we see a lot of it every day. It made us smile to see all the people from much further south running to see an eagle flying in the distance. We are already planning our next cruise (to take in a few years) and are thinking this time it will be somewhere warm and exotic. We would love to see somewhere different. Also, the pools were warm enough even for small kids, but getting out was a wee bit challenging =)
Originally Posted By WestWind Thanks for your detailed report mickeymeg. We have not yet been on a cruise but hope to. Your detailed report is the information not available in any promotional material and is very helpful.
Originally Posted By 999HAUNTS Great report! Feels like I was there too haha. Can you tell us a little about the scrapbooking?
Originally Posted By mickeymeg There was not too many people at the scrap booking party we went to. Had I known what it was all about before hand I would have been more prepared and attended the other sessions as well, if only just for the freebie paper. They provided a few sheets of Disney Cruise themed paper. It was different for each session so you could collect a number of pieces if you were at all of them. They also had felt pens and some stencils, some magazines you could cut out and other various bits and pieces to scrap with. There were a few finished books you could look at for inspiration. Then it was just up to you to put together your page. To make the best of it I should have already had a book started or brought some pictures with me. Without really knowing what I was doing or having any specific pictures in mind it was hard to know where to go with it. I am just a very new scrap booker really so maybe someone with more experience would have had a better idea. I took the paper and looked through the idea book and decided to do something with it when I got home and had looked at all my photos from the trip.
Originally Posted By A Happy Haunt thanks... I've look at some older Navigators on another site & I know the Scrapbooking will most likely be offered on our cruise!
Originally Posted By debtee Thanks for your trip report, it was great. We are booked on the Wonder for MR at Christmas. It's good to know about the scrapbooking in advance. Ta
