Dress Like an Onion! If You're a Kid, Dress Like a Cocktail Onion! Alaska 7/3-7/10 COMPLETE!

TestingH2O

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 10, 2014
We did it! We took our 4th cruise and saw Alaska. And it was amazing. I'm going to write this report but I'm also going to accept the fact that it won't hold a candle to the real experience.

Travelers
Me - turning 40 in October and this is my birthday experience
DD - newly 5 and loves DCL
My mom - mid-70's lives in NM and is happy that I'm the travel agent now
My dad - mid-70's lives in NM and sometimes doesn't trust my travel planning skills. His birthday was June 30.

If you've read my previous reports, you know my husband just isn't a traveler. He refuses to fly and sometimes gets worried about being in the open water. Plus, he's a weirdo who doesn't think Alaska sounds interesting.

Travel Plan
DD and I travel to Seattle from St. Louis on June 30 to spend time exploring the area and seeing friends who moved away a couple years ago. We will meet mom and dad in Seattle on July 2 and drive to Vancouver. Stay overnight at the Pan Pacific before boarding the Wonder! We will drive back to Seattle on July 10 then fly out on the 11th.

Will we like the Wonder? How will DD do with all the excursions? What will a cold weather vacation be like? What wacky decisions might we make when looking at future bookings? All of this and more in the coming days!

A note about this report
I think I may end up with more posts because I took so many pictures. I'll do my best to cull them. However, I've got some on my phone and some on my DSLR, so I'll probably break some of those apart. I'm also going to try my best to get finished before school starts up again.

Table of Contents
June 30 - Travel to Seattle
July 1 - Mt Rainier
July 2 Part 1 - Breakfast 1 and 2 :ssst:
July 2 Part 2 - Pike Market
July 2 Part 3 - Gum Wall and Getting to Vancouver
July 2 Part 4a and 4b - Dinner and Canada Place (split due to an internet outage)
July 3 Part 1 - The Wonder Arrives
July 3 Part 2 - The Interim Hour
July 3 Part 3 - Embarkation and Sail Away
July 3 Part 4 - The Rooms and My Favorite Part
July 3 Part 5 - Dinner and a Show
July 4 Part 1 - Palo Brunch
July 4 Part 2 - Fourth of July
July 4 Part 3 - I Start A New Tradition
July 5 Part 1 - Where Are We Going?
July 5 Part 2 - Fjord
July 5 Part 3 - Sailing in the Fjord
July 5 Part 4 - Glacier
July 5 Part 5 - Naptime and Dinner
July 6 Part 1 - Debarking in Skagway
July 6 Part 2 - Time. Psh.
July 6 Part 3 - Sled Dogs
July 6 Part 4 - Emerald Lake
July 6 Part 5 - Two Amazing Surprises
July 6 Part 6 - Frozen Night
July 7 Part 1 - Looking for Whales
July 7 Part 2 - Humpback Whales
July 7 Part 3 - Orca Whales
July 7 Part 4 - Sea Lions, Eagles, and Shopping
July 7 Part 5 - Evening on Board
July 8 Part 1 - The Lumberjack Show
July 8 Part 2 - Crab Feast
July 8 Part 3 - Animation Magic
July 9 Part 1 - Princess, Heros, Coffee, and Games
July 9 Part 2 - Bittersweet Afternoon and Evening
July 10 - Disembark & Drive to Seattle
July 11 - Home Again
Wrap Up & What's Next
 
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Alaska is amazing. We did a "once in a lifetime" cruise there in 2015 and loved it so much that we repeated the trip May 2017. Seriously, I could go again, just to look at the scenery.

Kate
 
Headed to Alaska for the second time in a few weeks. Looking forward to your report as I get more and more excited in anticipation!
 


June 30 - Travel to Seattle

Our flight today was scheduled to take off around 2:00. This was going to be DD's longest flight to date, over 4 hours, so I wanted to get some energy out before we headed to the airport. Luckily the Sky Zone by our house has early morning hours in Fridays, so we went for a good bounce.

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Then we headed home, changed clothes, and loaded the car. DH went in late this day so we could say goodbye. With the extra days in Seattle, this was going to be a longer trip than usual.

I made a delicious early lunch of Mac and cheese and we were off to the airport.

Parking, bag check, and security were a breeze. Our flight was very full but on time. DD watched a movie and we had our snack. Then the bouncing caught up with her.

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Even though she's 5, my daughter loves her sleep and would still nap most days if given the opportunity. Because they don't nap in kindergarten, we've been trying to get her used to staying up all day. But, knowing the time change was coming, I decided to let her sleep on the plane.

While she slept, a kid behind us started throwing a major fit. My guess is he was 6 or 7. He was flying with his dad and brother. I don't know what happened, but dad was clearly at his wits end. It wasn't pleasant, but I figure it's just part of flying. The flight attendants felt bad though and were giving everyone drinks. I wasn't going to turn down a strong Bloody Mary.

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Look at that thing. It's only pink!

Our flight landed and we met my friend's husband in bag claim. Then we loaded up and headed to her house.

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I wouldn't mind that view driving home each day. We had dinner and the girls reacquainted themselves. The kids went to bed and the adults talked some more about the next day. We decided we'd do a day on Mr Rainier including a picnic lunch.

Then it was off to bed at about 10:30 Seattle time but 12:30 St. Louis time. I was worried we'd be up at 4:30 due to the time change. :faint:

A small note where I recognize my awesomeness: I used packing cubes for this trip. Because I knew we'd have those days before the cruise, I used packing cubes to pack our Seattle clothes in a smaller bag rather than having to to open the big bags with all the Alaska gear. Also, in one of the big bags, I packed another small suitcase that would act as my carry on on boarding day. It contained my wine, FE gifts, and room for toiletries. Then, in Vancouver, is just swap out the Seattle bag for the boarding bag. Genius! My friends and family were impressed.

Next up: Mount Rainier
 
Washington state is gorgeous, looking forward to your Mt Rainer day!

I'm a packing cube convert, we used them for the first time this past January and I did the same as you - have a bag solely for travel day etc and it worked out really well.
 
Following along, I've loved your previous reports and can't wait to see your take on Alaska as it's on my cruise bucket list!
 
Very much looking forward to this trip report (we will be sailing to Alaska in May, 2018).

The Sky Zone visit was a stroke of genius!
 
July 1 - Mt Rainier

DD slept pretty well but, as predicted, she did try to wake me up at 4:30. However, my mom game was still strong and I convinced her to get back to sleep. At 7:30, she heard the other kids get up so she followed them. I was up about 30 minutes later. Once everyone was fed and the adults had sufficient amounts of caffeine, we loaded up for the day including warm jackets and food and were on the road at about 9:30. It felt like the middle of the day thanks to a but of jet lag, but I was pleased every time I checked the clock.

Our first stop was the Maple Valley Farmers market. I wished I could buy all the apples, berries, and flowers. We did get some cherries for the day though. There were also donuts. Mmmm.

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Look at those donuts! They are three times as wide as a regular one. We bought a skewer with huge donut holes for the kids, my friend and her husband each got a filled donut and I tried my first cronut. It was very good but maybe not worth the hype. However, my friend told me we'd go to another place the next day for a better one.

We began the drive and stopped part way there to see this cool sculpture park. The kids loved checking out all the strange things.

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After some running and a potty break, we got to the park.

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Because they are local, our friends keep a pass so we just drove on in. We used the Nisqually entrance and arrived around 12:30.

Our first stop was for lunch. Peanut butter sandwiches, chips, and fresh cherries. Yum! After eating, it was another potty stop and some mild rock climbing.

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Our first stop was Christine Falls.

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I forgot to say earlier that my friend was 38 weeks pregnant so our hiking plans were pretty mild. This was exacerbated by the fact that she could only get her feet in flip flops this day. Oh I remember those times. We couldn't make it all the way in to Carter Falls, but we saw a cool rock beach and crossed an awesome fallen tree bridge.

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Next we went to Narada Falls. It was amazing.

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We walked all the way down and got lots of spray. It was COLD!

Then we headed up to the visitors center and played in the snow for a bit before hitting the gift shop and refilling our water bottles.

We made a couple more beautiful stops via the Grove of the Patriarchs and drove through this cool tunnel.

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We got home around 6:30 and ordered pizza for dinner. After we ate, we gave all the girls pedicures. There was lots of glitter polish let me tell you.

The kids went to bed, we watched an episode of The Great British Baking Show and I did some laundry.

I went to bed around 11:00 with the plan to visit Pike Market the next morning before meeting up with my parents.
 
Gorgeous area!!!

38 weeks pregnant and she still wanted to show you Mt Rainier park? That's a good friend right there :thumbsup2:flower1:
 

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