[00:00:00] Speaker A: One of the people in our party can't have wheat and I specifically requested our server. Relax. Cause we know he's a great food allergy server and he did such a great job for her. She's 18, she just graduated high school, and she said she's always gonna remember this vacation because of what good food she had.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: Welcome back everybody to this week's episode of the DCL Duo podcast. Brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel and and also our good friend. Sorry I almost space. We've been packing all weekend. We leave for our adventures by Disney trip tomorrow. I'm a little discombobulated, but I also need to thank our good friends over at the DCL magazine. Thanks to Stephanie, Danny, Tim, Tatiana, those we've not had a chance to meet yet. We can't wait to meet you.
But if you have not already, please head over to dcl-magazine.com that is dcl-magazine.com and subscribe today if you use code DC L DUO that is code all caps DC L DUO.
And take 10% off everything in the DCL magazine store and the other stores for the DLR magazine, the WDW magazine, they got all kinds of stuff over there. It's great. Remember, showing our sponsor some love shows. The show a little bit of love. And we love to show that love to our sponsors. So head over there, check them out. And without further ado, Sam, I think we should bring in our guests and talk a little Disney news. What do you think? Yep. Ready? All right, here we go.
[00:01:36] Speaker C: Absolutely. I love it. Welcome back, Kelly to the show. Kelly has been on with us several, several times before. Kelly is a travel advisor with I believe, Platinum mouse. Is that right? The agency.
And Kelly runs DCL101 with a friend of hers, which is a really awesome social media account that gives lots of tips and tricks for Disney Cruise Line. So there's the short videos that give you on a particular topic. Great tips. She also runs after all travel blog and she's been on the show several times. She's also an allergist by trade as well. And so I feel like we always have to touch on food allergy stuff with you, Kelly, because you are a wealth of knowled in that arena. But it's lovely to have you back.
[00:02:24] Speaker A: Thank you. I'm so excited to be back.
[00:02:26] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, before we dive into your Alaska cruise, pun intended. No pun intended.
We have to hit on Disney cruise news. Now. This past week, of course, we had Stitch day upon us of 626 and Disney Cruise Line released some special sales for 626. You can find them through your travel advisor or, of course, on the Disney Cruise Line website if you're interested in figuring out whether or not one of those works. But if you are, the deadline is today, so you've got to probably do that booking before midnight. I don't know if it's midnight Eastern or midnight Pacific. Polly, do you know?
[00:03:08] Speaker A: I don't know.
I'm always in bed by midnight Eastern, so I'm not positive.
[00:03:13] Speaker C: Yeah, well, if you want to book, book right now. Because if you want to take advantage of one of those deals, do it, I guess, while you're watching this show. I mean, no better time to book an Alaska cruise than when you're watching a show talking about sailing DCL in Alaska. The other thing I wanted to make sure to let you know is thanks to my friends Tracy and Michael, who looked and saw in the DVC magazine, so Disney Vacation Club still does their own magazine. There are very, very few magazines out there besides, obviously, our friends at WDW magazine who have both the DLR and DCL magazine. But from July 22 through August 26, it's welcome Home Week on Disney Cruise Line. Now, there's welcome Home weeks at the parks that have special either gifts or promotions. But on Disney Cruise Line, the special promotion is free popcorn for DVC members. So it's just, you know, either you get a refill for your personal popcorn bucket or they'll give you one of those, you know, paper. Uh, it's not. You don't get like a free popcorn bucket, but you do get the free popcorn. So if you're interested, just make sure you let them know that you are a DVC member. They also will, of course, be giving, you know, gifts on board, as they always do. So if you're a DVC member, make sure you stop at the DVC desk whenever you're on board Disney Cruise Line. And you can get things like chapstick metal straws, maybe a hat, maybe a drawstring backpack and the like that. That sort of a thing.
I don't think there's anything else with news, unless I'm missing anything. Kelly, Brian, have I missed anything that has happened this week that you guys are aware of?
[00:04:54] Speaker B: Slow Newsweek. Slow Newsweek.
[00:04:56] Speaker C: Slow Newsweek. We're talking about popcorn. All right, all right. Well, with that, we'll jump into talking about Kelly's Alaska cruise. Now, before we dive into her cruise and the pre trip and all of that, Kelly, why don't you give folks Some background as to how many Disney cruises you've been on and what destinations you've been to previously.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: So this was my 21st Disney cruise.
We've been to Alaska once before. We've done two different Mediterranean ones, but different itineraries. We did northern Europe going to Iceland and Norway and northern France. We've done a bunch of eastern and western Caribbean Star Wars Day at Sea, Marvel Day at Sea, Halloween and Christmas cruises. So we've done a little bit of everything.
[00:05:43] Speaker C: Love it. Love it. Now, you'd been to Alaska before.
Did you sail on the Wonder to Alaska before? Because I know this one is a wonder cruise. Yeah. Okay. Any. Did you have any thoughts about booking the Magic this time, or were you like, ah, I gotta go back on the Wonder.
[00:05:59] Speaker A: I wanted to go back on the Wonder. Cause I've only been on the Wonder once before and I've been on the Magic a bunch. I was most recently on the Magic in August, so. So that's one reason. And we really wanted to go back to Mendenhall. So that's another reason. The itinerary. We prefer the Wonders itinerary over the Magic.
[00:06:16] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. Now, Brian, why don't you pull up that PowerPoint? We have a lovely PowerPoint that Kelly put together, which we always love it when our guests do that. Now, Kelly, of course you sailed out of Vancouver, since that's where Disney Cruise Line sailed out of. But. But you did have a quick visit to our fair city. The city of Seattle. I know. Yeah, I know that place. I recognize that.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: I've rubbed that pig before.
[00:06:41] Speaker C: Sorry.
[00:06:43] Speaker B: Home. I'm saying this. You're listening to this on an audio only feed in your car. You're like, what is Brian type? There is a. Like a bronze statue of a pig. Brass. Yeah. Brass statue of a pig.
[00:06:54] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:06:55] Speaker B: There's a metallic statue. How about that? At Place Market.
And it sits right out in front of the market. People love to take photos with it and rub it for luck and things like that. So anyway, yes, that's. That's what I mean by the pig. But Kelly, what did you do in Seattle? Where'd you stay? What'd you get up to?
[00:07:11] Speaker A: So we got there in the evening after flying in from the east coast, and we kind of just walked around the waterfront and had dinner. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency.
[00:07:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:20] Speaker A: And then the next morning we went out for coffee. You have to have coffee when you're in Seattle.
And then after that we got on the road and we on our. We drove to Bellingham. Because we planned on exploring North Cascades National park, but on the way, we stopped at Deception Point State Park, I believe it's called, and had lunch in this adorable town called La Connor.
So it was really. It was awesome.
[00:07:43] Speaker B: Oh, Loconna. I know Laconor. We pass there all the time. They build. They build boats there in Locaner. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: It was very cute little town. But Deception Pass State park was, like, just a place to kind of stop and stretch our legs. But we ended up spending a lot of time there. It was beautiful.
[00:07:56] Speaker B: I forget. That suspension bridge there, I think claims something. Sam. I don't know if it's the world's highest suspension or highest bridge. There's something with the Deception Pass bridge, and I can't remember what it is, but. Yeah.
[00:08:08] Speaker C: Yes. I don't remember what it is, but there's something special about that bridge.
[00:08:13] Speaker B: There's something special.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: It's beautiful.
[00:08:15] Speaker C: It's beautiful.
[00:08:16] Speaker B: Nice.
All right. And you made it up to Bellingham. It looks like you're on. Is that. Is that the Hood Canal or. I forget what.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: It's Lake Winthrop.
[00:08:25] Speaker B: Oh, Lake Winthrop. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:08:27] Speaker A: That's where our house was.
And then we. From there, we drove to North Cascades and we hiked. Part of the road was still closed. It opened up when we were on our cruise because there was a landslide, so we could only do what was west of the closure. But we got to do a lot. So we went to Lake Diablo, Lookout Point, and then we did two different hiking trails around the Lake Diablo area. And that was plenitiful. One day, it was. It was so beautiful. It was shockingly blue, that lake.
So that was just 10 of us at that point. And then the other eight folks joined us in Vancouver for the cruise.
[00:09:00] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:09:00] Speaker C: It's kind of crazy. 18 people.
How does one organize 18 people? Kelly, can you give us any sort of tips and tricks? Like, how does one get like. It's herding cats? Right.
[00:09:13] Speaker A: Yeah. A lot of times I just end up making the decisions. I'll send questions out to the group via text, and if people don't answer, then I'm like, this is what we're doing, and it tends to work out. I think they, like. Most of them, kind of like it that way.
[00:09:26] Speaker C: Yeah. And this is all family, this group. Right.
[00:09:30] Speaker A: This isn't all friends. They're kind of almost like our family because we've been friends for so long. Yeah.
It's three families that are good friends.
[00:09:38] Speaker C: Love it.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: Let me back up and ask the logistics here for A bit. Because people always ask us, I'm flying into Seattle in advance of the cruise. It sounds like that was time well worth spent. You enjoyed that. And then the second question is always, well, where should I say, we covered that, but how do I get to Vancouver? So did you drive all the way up to Canada then from Bellingham?
[00:09:58] Speaker A: We did, yeah. And that wasn't very far. It only took us like about an hour and a half to get to Vancouver from Bellingham.
[00:10:03] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I think there might even be. Is there a ferry from Bellingham to. I guess that goes to Victoria.
[00:10:11] Speaker C: Vancouver island, where Victoria is, is not the city of Vancouver. For those who aren't familiar with British Columbia, Victoria is a beautiful place to visit as well. But it's not the same as the city of Vancouver and Disney Cruise Line sails out of the city of Vancouver. Other cruise lines, actually the ones that sail out of Seattle tend to. Actually some of them stop in Victoria as a port stop as in order to satisfy the, the Passenger Services Vessel act, they actually stop in Victoria often for like a half day or a full day. That's where you can see like the Bouchard Gardens. But yeah. So Seattle and to Vancouver, not counting the border crossing, meaning like waiting at the border crossing is about a three hour drive and so from Seattle to Bellingham's about an hour and a half and then Bellingham to Vancouver about another hour and a half. So other than the waiting at the border, it's a fairly easy drive.
[00:11:03] Speaker B: Speaking of, how was the border crossing for you? I find that getting into Canada is quick and I don't know, did you fly back out of Seattle then after the cruise or did you do a one way rental and fly back out of Vancouver?
[00:11:18] Speaker A: Yeah, we did a one way rental. So we flew home from Vancouver, but we were worried about the crossing. So we even were like looking on wait times to see if we should use the alternative crossing, but we didn't wait at all. I think we did Peace Arch Crossing, I think it's called Wait. We just drove right up. So it's nice.
[00:11:35] Speaker C: Yeah, it tends to be a short wait from US to Canada.
It tends to be a longer wait from Canada back into the US if you have Global Entry or Nexus passes, you can go in the fast lane, but everybody like, it's basically like a fast pass. You're still in the lane and you still have to like talk to them, but it's quicker. But you, everybody in your car has to have one of those.
[00:12:00] Speaker B: Well, Ed may know this better because we use Nexus, which is specific for states bordering Canada, you go up, you do an actual interview with a Canadian customs officer, a US Customs officer. They run background checks. And so it's supposed to speed. I don't know that Global Entry gets you the fast lane access. Cause you don't go through all that rigmarole.
[00:12:18] Speaker C: No, it does. It's. You do it. If you have Global Entry, I believe you're allowed in the Nexus lane coming back into the U.S. i don't think it works. Going out of the.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: Back in. Yes, back in. Okay, now I'm with you. Now. I've got it. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
[00:12:32] Speaker C: If you have Global Entry or Nexus coming into the US you get to be in the fast lane. If you have Nexus specifically, you have the fast lane, both directions. So we have that because we live in Washington and we find it makes going into Canada easy. But you. I don't think you can get it or at least not get it easily if you don't live in a border state.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: You have to live in a state that borders Canada to get Nexus. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. All right.
[00:12:55] Speaker A: We were worried, though, because the World cup was going on in Vancouver too. So we didn't know if that was going to increase traffic, but we didn't have any trouble.
[00:13:02] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:13:03] Speaker C: And we are avoiding downtown Seattle for that very reason, because the World cup is here. So.
[00:13:09] Speaker B: Totally agree with your comment in the chat about the. The. The borderline is usually backed up. Getting into the U.S. getting into Canada is very, very quick in my experience. Unless. Unless it's a holiday weekend in Canada and you're. Everyone's like, they've come down here. But most of the time the getting into Canada part is not the hard part. So.
[00:13:26] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:13:28] Speaker B: All right. Vancouver. It looks like you got up to some. Some fun here in Vancouver before you set sail. So what did you. What'd you do in Vancouver?
[00:13:36] Speaker A: So we only had about half a day after we drove before the cruise. So we walked around Stanley park and had dinner and gelato. It was really good. We were going to stay. We wanted to initially stay at the Pan Pacific, but the prices, because it was the weekend of a World cup game were very high, even if you did through Disney. So I have Hyatt points. So we ended up staying at another Hyatt Regency also. But it was a quick walk to the port and to downtown, so we enjoyed the location. So we mostly just walked around by foot and hung out by the water. It was a pretty day.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:14:09] Speaker C: Yeah. It looks like you had Great weather pretty much, year and time. I mean, this was just last week. Essentially. You got off the ship about a week ago.
There was great weather in the Pacific Northwest. It sounds like it was probably great weather in Alaska, as, I mean, that is technically still the Pacific Northwest. It's just a lot further north than the Northwest. Yeah, but, yeah, fantastic weather. All right, well, let's talk embarkation day. Next slide. Brian?
[00:14:36] Speaker B: No, this is glacier we're on.
[00:14:39] Speaker A: Yeah, there's pictures of us on embarkation day on the last slide to kind of combine them all.
[00:14:44] Speaker C: Oh, there you go. Yeah, yeah.
[00:14:45] Speaker B: So how was embarkation? Was it a pretty smooth process for you getting out of Vancouver?
[00:14:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I think everything went well at the port.
We had an early arrival, like very early port arrival time, and we got there about an hour after. So they just, like had us bypass a lot of the line.
So that went well. And then some. We split up for lunch. Some people went to the cabanas, and I went to Tiana's place, which I was really nice. It was relaxing and quiet when we were there.
[00:15:13] Speaker C: Nice.
That's because you're the professional, Kelly. You know better than to brave cabanas on embarkation day.
[00:15:22] Speaker A: So I love cabanas, but not on embarkation day. It's a mess. So crowded and suitcases everywhere. Long lines.
[00:15:29] Speaker C: Absolutely, absolutely. All right, now tell us.
[00:15:33] Speaker B: I want to ask. Sorry, I want to ask a couple pre cruise things here really fast before we dive into the cruise itself. So how was the. All the pre booking, the activity stuff? Because these Alaska sailings, like, there's some great excursions, but they can book up quickly. And so I'm just curious, how was it getting the excursions you wanted ahead of time? And then I'm curious how you did.
Did staterooms on board, given the sort of, you know, size of the family and the party you're sailing with.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: So stateroom wise, we. The 18 of us were in five staterooms, so we had four veranda staterooms and one inside stateroom. We had some kids in the inside stateroom, and they would come over to use the veranda, but we booked three of them early all in the same day, so they were connecting. So we had the stateroom host open them all. And so we had this giant veranda. We were almost the very aft of the ship, and so we had great views. And we spent a lot of the morning of Glacier day out there and a lot of other days just hanging out there together. We would order room service, and that was a really fun part of the Cruise, having that giant veranda with all of our friends booking excursions. We only did a couple through Disney Cruise Line.
We did the Glacier Day through them obviously and some of our friends are silver. So I was worried that we would have trouble getting all on the same glacier Explorer. But we didn't have any trouble. I had initially booked both time slots for myself to see which one they could get. But then we all ended up choosing the 3:30 so that worked out well. We booked the Lumberjack show through Disney and then some of the, for some of the excursions we did very active kind of strenuous excursions. So we had one 70 year old in our party. So she did a couple separate excursions from us. And then the little girls were too little so they went on the dog sledding one. And I was also worried they might not be able to get that. So I was able to book it under me and then change to their name so they could get it. So yeah, we got everything that we wanted and it worked out really well. And then the other things that I'll talk about we did through private excursion.
[00:17:32] Speaker C: Yeah. So great tips for strategizing for those listening, watching.
You know, if you are sailing with multiple rooms you can link so you can help each other book excursions. But if you have different castaway club statuses then you have different, different booking dates for your excursions. And so you are taking a bit of a gamble if you're booking through Disney Cruise Line. If you book for, you know, let's say the first family who is, you know, platinum for example, like Kelly is, then you may not be able to book those other folks on that excursion but you can do things like shift people around even on once you get on board. So if you, if Kelly books dog sledding in her name, but it's actually somebody else in her party, all she has to do is either call up to switch it or do it on board. But either way you can slot in a different person. But of course they won't let you book for yourself two conflicting excursions. So you can't book yourself on two excursions that are at the same time. So that's the one caveat. Yeah. But if you are doing, you can do two excursions that stack that are ones in the morning, ones in the afternoon or you can of course book one through Disney Cruise Line and book another one privately. And Disney doesn't know that they conflict. So it's not, not a problem. But yeah, let's. I love that. Like tell us the Age ranges. Like of all the folks you mentioned, there's a couple little girls, there's one 70 year old. What's the age range of range of everybody else on the on this trip?
[00:19:02] Speaker A: Yeah, so we had a five year old and nine year old girl. Then we had a bunch of teenagers.
Three 18 year olds, one 17 year old, two 19 year olds, two 15 year olds and a 14 year old.
Then a lot of people in their 40s and 50s and then one 70 year old.
[00:19:18] Speaker C: Gotcha.
[00:19:19] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:19:19] Speaker C: Mostly older kids, but. Yeah, but mostly older kids. But a couple of younger kids as well.
It's a lot to cater to. It does make sense that you did some more strenuous excursions. I will definitely dive into those. Let's start with Glacier Day since I know that's the next slide and of course that's your wonderful sea day on board.
Technically, your second sea day on board is Glacier Day. Tell us what you guys got up to. You said you spent some time on the balcony, the veranda that you were able to open up, but tell us about meeting characters and whatnot.
[00:19:55] Speaker A: Yeah. So in the morning I went to meet some of the characters.
The line was moving really fast. You know they have a new rule where each group can only take one photo. So you can't do like 10 combinations of photos with and without props.
So even though the line looked long, it really did move very quickly. So I think I met three characters up on deck and got photos there.
The little kids watched the frozen sing along and I joined them. We spent a lot of time just walking around the deck and taking pictures. And then as I mentioned, we ordered room service and all had lunch on our connected veranda. So like all 18 of us were on those three verandas for a while. And that was a really fun day.
[00:20:36] Speaker C: That's awesome.
[00:20:37] Speaker A: Then we had the 3:30 Glacier Explorer. I wasn't sure if Disney would let me book both Glacier Explorers for myself, but they did let me book the 12:30 and the 3:30 when I was waiting to see what my companions could get. And then we canceled it. So I thought the 331 worked out nice because we had time to see the characters and then also to have lunch on board so that we wouldn't have to rush the kids to all finish lunch. Time to get in line for the Glacier Explorer.
We had a little bit of drizzle on Glacier Explorer Day, but on the Glacier Explorer we saw lots of whales, we saw lots of seals.
We got really close. We saw this giant, giant iceberg that looked like, everyone said it looked like Elsa's palace. It was really cool. So they went all around it. For us, it was just a great day.
[00:21:24] Speaker C: I loved Glacier Day. I think it's like.
It's like, quintessential what you think of as an Alaska cruise. Right.
Like, the money shot when you see, like, the Dawes Glacier in front of you and you're approaching it either on the cruise ship or on the Glacier Explorer. I want to call out one comment, and I know the answer to this, but it's in the chat. But in case folks are watching and aren't seeing the chat because they're watching
[00:21:50] Speaker B: later, I was going to ask that question. Actually. I sweep the photo, not the chat.
[00:21:53] Speaker C: Yeah, it's the Helly Hansen jacket that Kelly's wearing. It is the. It's a Helly Hansen Mickey jacket. They. I don't know if they still sell them in Norway at Epcot, but they have in the past sold that jacket in Norway at Epcot. There was briefly a Disney Cruise Line version of the jacket. There's a men's version in black. Brian actually has the men's version. Or not in black. Sorry, a navy blue. Brian has the men's version. But the women's version, I think, only came in white, which is the only reason why I did not buy that jacket, because I don't want a white jacket, because I know, like, you kept it beautifully.
[00:22:28] Speaker A: It was hard.
[00:22:29] Speaker C: Yeah. I just know that it'll end up being, like, you know, dark gray if I buy a white jacket. So. Yeah, yeah.
So it's saying a few weeks ago. Sorry. Where did you get yours?
[00:22:43] Speaker A: I got mine in September in the Norway Pavilion. But they had a white Disney Cruise Line one for women, and the navy blue one on our cruise, they had plenty of them. They didn't, like, run out when I had done the Iceland, Alaska one. Iceland, Norway. They ran out, like, just a couple of days into the cruise. But this time I saw them every day in the stores.
[00:23:03] Speaker C: Yeah, I think it's a great. I think it's a great jacket. Again, if they only had a different color, because I cannot buy. I have one white, like, wool coat that is, like an off white, and I never wear it because I'm afraid I'm going to get it.
All right, Brian, let's look at the next slide.
[00:23:24] Speaker B: Glacier Explorer.
[00:23:27] Speaker C: You got to hold the big piece of ice, Kelly.
[00:23:31] Speaker A: Yeah, that was fun. Up on the top deck of the Glacier Explorer, and the. The water was so blue. You can kind of tell on the picture with all the seals. It was a really pretty blue color because it's glacier water, I guess. And then I tried to get pictures of the whales, but anytime I tried to get a picture, I would only get like.
Like that. Like their blow, but not the whole thing.
Even the kids liked it. My son was skeptical. He was like, I don't think we're going to get any closer than this ship is getting. But then after we did it, he was like, oh, yeah, that was awesome.
[00:24:02] Speaker C: That's awesome. I will say we saw some seals, but we did not see any whales from the Glacier Explorer. We had seen some whales earlier in the day kind of coming into the fjord, but just from like our veranda, but we did not see any that close to the glacier. That's pretty cool. Love it.
[00:24:23] Speaker A: We saw some earlier in the day, too. The day before, I had done the Art of the Theme tour during the sea day, and the cast member told us, like, at 9:30 in the morning, wherever we were sailing through is where they see the most whales. So we made sure everyone was out there then. And we did see a lot of whales at that time. It was really cool.
[00:24:40] Speaker C: Oh, that's a good tip. I feel like that's around when we saw whales on ours as well. Like it was that morning coming into the fjord.
[00:24:47] Speaker B: How was the. How was the weather for you overall across the cruise?
Cold, rainy, sunny. Like, what was going on?
[00:24:56] Speaker A: It was pretty warm. So two of the days were like in the 70s and sunny and they had a heat advisory and they would say things like, make sure you stay hydrated, which is the 100 where I live. So I thought that was funny.
Then on glacier day, it was like low 40s and it would drizzle intermittently, so it was a little bit cooler. And it certainly got cooler when we were on the smaller boat going faster near the glacier.
On Skagway day, we had a little drizzle in the morning, but by the time we did our hike, it stopped raining and it was probably in the 50s. So it was really. The weather was great.
[00:25:29] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:25:30] Speaker A: I couldn't have asked for better weather.
[00:25:32] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:25:32] Speaker C: Yeah. How are the lines? Oh, you mentioned the lines looked long, but they weren't, but they moved fast. How many characters did you end up waiting for? And did you find, like, if you had wanted to, could you have seen like, every single character or do you think that wouldn't have been possible?
[00:25:49] Speaker A: I think if you wanted to, you definitely could have just go back and forth because for Pluto and Donald, I probably wait at less than five minutes.
Oh, wow.
So I lined up early for Mickey. He was the first one. So I got in line about half an hour early because I didn't know what to expect.
And then I happened to run into Minnie Mouse in the hallway. So I didn't then wait in line for her. So I only did three. But if you had time, you could go back and forth and you're out on deck and you can see all the beautiful scenery. It's not like you're waiting in line inside.
So I think you definitely could do it and still probably have time to do the Glacier Explorer.
[00:26:25] Speaker B: How full was the sailing? Did it feel full?
[00:26:30] Speaker A: It felt like. So it felt empty to me. And I kept meaning to ask my server every night, like if they were at capacity.
I had looked online like shortly before our cruise and I didn't see many staterooms. But I've been sailing on the like all the wish class ships lately and I think that might be why. And then also we would go in the hot tub in the rainforest a lot and no one was there. I don't know if people just weren't going there because it was Alaska, but it really felt very, very empty to us. Like it felt like one of the post Covid cruises.
[00:27:00] Speaker C: Wow. Well, and you're still talking about like basically the middle of June, so most people are out of school. I mean we. That was like our last week of school. So we. But a lot of places finish the week before, right? We, we only had through, I think on the week you were on, we were in school in session through like Wednesday or something. So. But a lot of people are already out of school, so it's surprising. But you know, I have seen a lot of the Alaska sailings even coming up on these like sales and stuff because I think with just the capacity of having two ships there and the fleet being so much larger now with eight ships or seven in the US really, but eight ships, ships total. I wonder, you know, I wonder if that's why were there a lot of kids on board?
Ed in the chat was saying how. How crowded is somewhat dependent on how many kids are on the cruise. Of course, more kids you actually feel. I feel like it feels less crowded on the ship because a lot of the times the kids are in the kids club and so the adult spaces are not oversubscribed.
[00:28:04] Speaker A: And so the only musical we went to this time was Frozen and we had late dinner. So I didn't see that many kids. I felt like it was less children than I see on a typical Caribbean sailing For sure.
[00:28:15] Speaker C: Interesting. Yeah.
All right, well, let's go to the next slide.
Oh, here's Skagway, the White Pass Railway.
Tell us now, did you book the.
Tell us which White Pass rail. There's several different excursions you can book.
Did you book this through Disney or separately? And what specifically did you book? Because there are a couple different options with the railway.
[00:28:43] Speaker A: I know.
So we booked directly with White Pass and we booked what's called the hikers train. So you get on in downtown Skagway and they drop you off at the Lawton Glacier Trail. And then we hiked that and then they come and pick you up.
[00:28:58] Speaker C: Oh, cool.
[00:28:59] Speaker A: So we had done that years ago when the kids were younger.
It was, it's a beautiful hike, but we had a very limited amount of time. So we got dropped off at the trailhead at 1:40 and then they picked us up at 4:05.
So, you know, it's not like, well, it's not a steep hike, but there is a lot of like up and down.
So we had to walk very, very fast to the glacier. Then we had, we got to spend a little bit of time there and take pictures and then we had to walk very quickly back. So it was, that was our option. Or we could have been there for six hours and six hours would have been too long.
So since most of us are kind of experienced hikers, we did it. But I think doing it on that short amount of time I wouldn't do unless you know that you can keep the pace and you're kind of an experienced hiker. If you want to have more time and bring a picnic, you do have an option of going earlier in the morning.
But I thought with all the teenagers, like if they get bored it would be kind of miserable. So yeah, six hours go fast.
[00:29:56] Speaker C: Yeah, six hours with teenagers might not be so good. Now do they give you a guide or is this kind of a self guided. For the hiking part it was just with us.
[00:30:07] Speaker A: I do see places that you can book and a guide will go with you.
When we were getting back on the train, there were people with us who had a guide with them and they have an empty car just for the hikers and then they keep that car empty. So when the train comes back, that car will be for you. So on our car there's only two people that weren't in our group. We kind of took over the car.
[00:30:28] Speaker B: I remember this. When we took the train, they stopped at one point kind of in the middle of the. There wasn't a platform or Anything. And they were just. We're picking up a hiker. Um, so how did you. How did you know when you needed to be back from the hike? Like, did they tell you there's a specific time the train is going to come by and you need to be here at that time or get left behind kind of thing? Yeah, yeah.
[00:30:48] Speaker A: Yep. They told us, like, F405 will be here now. They also know how many hikers there are, so they know you're out there, I guess if you didn't make it back because something happened.
That picture of the train is right from where we got the train. So you're kind of just up in the.
Up on the side of the track. And we were just waiting for the train, but we got a lot of cool pictures and videos of other trains going by, because many of the trains will go by without. They don't all stop for the hikers.
So all of us did this except one member of our group, and then she just booked the train through Disney, and she just did the train up and back.
[00:31:22] Speaker B: Very nice. Ed's asking, how was the mosquito experience during the hike?
[00:31:27] Speaker A: So this time the mosquitoes weren't bad.
We had done it before in July, and then we had to wear mosquito nets.
I didn't think I would wear them. My friend gave them to me, and I was like, okay, thanks, and put it in my pocket. And then five minutes into the hike, I was like, thank you, and I put the mosquito net on. So we brought them with us, but we didn't need them this time.
[00:31:49] Speaker C: I don't know if it's because it
[00:31:49] Speaker A: was earlier in the season.
[00:31:51] Speaker C: I'm so glad that Ed asked this question and that you've answered it, because I will never do this hike, because mosquitoes, literally, I am like.
Like a moth to a flame with mosquitoes. They swarm me, and I get bitten all over. Unless I literally douse myself in deet. And I actually take it with me whenever I travel anywhere, because in the Pacific Northwest, we have very few mosquitoes here because it doesn't get hot and humid, but anywhere where there's a decent amount of humidity and heat, I am literally eaten alive. So I want to do this hike, but now I'm maybe not.
[00:32:33] Speaker A: You're mostly covered, right? You have on long pants and a long jacket.
[00:32:36] Speaker B: They find her.
[00:32:38] Speaker C: They find a way. They literally, literally go up my. They let go.
Yeah.
[00:32:43] Speaker B: I could be standing there in a swimsuit and not get bit, and Sam will get bit five times.
It is unreal. Is unreal.
[00:32:51] Speaker C: It's crazy. It, you know, they. They say it, you know, I must have sweet blood. And so I, you know, it must be something with my. Either my blood type or my pheromones or something like that. I don't know what it is, but.
[00:33:06] Speaker A: But if you are. If you're not a mosquito target and you. You like hiking. This is a beautiful hike. You go through big meadows and then there's a glacier river that's that pretty, like blue gray color. And the whole time you hear that nice noise of the. The river with the rocks.
So I think it's a. It's a really awesome hike for. It's like, I think about 3.2 miles round trip.
[00:33:28] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:33:29] Speaker C: Oh, cool.
[00:33:30] Speaker A: Maybe. Oh, wait, no, I think it might be. Sorry, I'm lying. I think it's 2.3 miles each way. So we were really booking it. We were like kind of jogging at the end.
[00:33:38] Speaker C: Yeah. So four and a half miles.
That's a lot. Yeah.
[00:33:42] Speaker B: How long did you have to do it in? Sorry, I missed that part.
[00:33:45] Speaker A: From 1:40 to 4:05.
But we got back at like 4 because we were just to be extra.
[00:33:52] Speaker C: Yeah, that's tight. That's tight, though.
Now, that's not tight for flat walking, but that's tight for hiking with ups and downs and, you know.
Yeah. And. And also just any uneven terrain. Right. You can't walk. Like, you're not power walking when you're on.
[00:34:09] Speaker A: Right. When you're on the train, like walking on the sidewalk.
Yeah.
[00:34:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:14] Speaker C: All right. Well, sounds cool. All right. Mendenhall Glacier Canoe and Hike. This is. We actually got several questions, I think, about the pictures from this.
What did you book? Who did you book this through? And how was it?
[00:34:30] Speaker A: This was awesome. It was such a good day. It was our third glacier of the trip, so we booked it. I used the Alaska Shore Excursions Group, but then it's kind of like Viator. So then there's smaller companies through it. So the company that took us was called Liquid Alaska Tours. And we did the Mendenhall Glacier Ice Adventure was the name of our package. And they were fabulous. They were so professional. They gave us all of our gear.
They gave us dry bags for the boat packed with snacks for us and everything because it's hard to bring snacks off the ship and all. So they met us downtown and they took us on two vans to the Tongass National Forest. And then we got on this one giant canoe. So for this one, the little girls didn't go. So there are 14 of us went on this. And then we had two guides. So there's 16 people on this massive canoe. So.
And they taught us how to paddle in unison.
The views were amazing. We could see Nugget Falls and the glacier. They would give us breaks and we were getting tired. And then we took the canoe onto land and we hiked to get really close to the glacier and see a beautiful view. So that's why we have the helmets on. We didn't need to wear the helmets during the canoeing part. But then when we were hiking, they said there could be falling rocks, so we had to wear helmets. And then we had time to just sit up there and check out the glacier and eat our snacks. And then we hiked back and canoed back and everyone had so much fun. And it was a blue sky day. They rarely have like blue sky days there. They said how lucky we were. So it was just like such a memorable experience.
It was a perfect day.
[00:36:05] Speaker B: I'm starting to feel like Alaska might be like Seattle where we just, you know, everyone thinks that the. We lie about the weather all the time. So like I'm starting to wonder like, because we were there and they had some nice weather and then you were there and they had some nice weather. So Alaska, I'm watching you. I think you actually have nicer weather than you ever. But I'm curious, how long did this excursion last and do you remember like what the price per person was?
[00:36:28] Speaker A: I actually had that written down. I don't know if I have it on the sheet. Oh, I do actually. So it was $358 a person for that? Yeah, but I would say it's expensive. But it was well worth it because it was really unique.
And then, let's see, times all of Shore was 6:45. But they didn't pick us up till 9. And we went downtown and had coffee and stuff and they met us and then I think we got back around like two o' clock and then we had lunch downtown before back to the ship.
[00:37:00] Speaker B: So plenty of time in a good
[00:37:02] Speaker C: part of the day. Yeah, yeah.
[00:37:03] Speaker B: Someone's asking in the chat. Arnold, it looks like, is asking the chat. How old was the youngest person on the hike? Did you have any like.
[00:37:11] Speaker A: Yeah, on the hike. The five year old went like the hike. The Skagway day.
Yeah, that she was five and she.
Ellie, she did an awesome job. She like power walked. She ran. We thought like her dad might have to carry her sometimes, but she was.
[00:37:24] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:37:25] Speaker A: She did. So did the nine year old. The girls did amazing.
[00:37:28] Speaker C: Yeah. Now on this canoe and hike. This was the 14 year old was the youngest on this one, right?
[00:37:35] Speaker A: Yes, yeah, yeah, the 14 year old was the youngest. Yeah, yeah. So two of the adults and two of the little kids, they did the Alaska dog sled camp. Dog sled summer camp. And they really liked it.
So, you know when you do the dog sled, you only end up in the snow if you take the helicopter.
But all of us, because of like safety concerns with tourist helicopters, all of us as a group decided we were doing no helicopters on this trip. So this is the dogs take them on a cart through like mud. But they got to meet the dogs in their camp. They got to hold a lot of the puppies and then they went on about like a two mile ride.
I have some cute videos of it with the dogs pulling them in carts. They said about eight people per cart. But they had a really good day and they were happy with how much they got to do, even though there wasn't actually snow. And they did book that through Disney.
[00:38:25] Speaker C: Yeah. And our friend Wesley and his son and wife, they went on that excursion and we just talked with them on the show. What was that? That was like three weeks ago. So if you're interested in hearing more about that excursion, check out the show we. The live show we did about three weeks ago with Wesley where we talked a little bit more in depth about that excursion. But yeah, I think that's a great option if you don't want to do the helicopter thing. Plus it's a lot less expensive than the helicopter excursion. The helicopter excursion is like 900 something dollars per person. So easily that adds up when you're talking about a family of three or family of four.
And so totally makes sense now this. You had mentioned Mendenhall Glacier was the reason why you wanted to do the wonder. In particular, you wanted to go back to Mendenhall Glacier, which you have to go from Juneau, of course.
What did you do the last time that, that you were in Alaska that you were so set on going back to Mendenhall?
[00:39:26] Speaker A: We just did hike around there then. So we went to Nugget Falls and then went a little bit past there. But the glacier has receded like dramatically since the last time we were there. You know, it's not in the water at all anymore. Now it's only up on the rock.
So you could see a little bit of it from Nugget Falls last time we went. But now they said, our guide said they call it Disappointment Trail because they get to Nugget Falls which is beautiful. But they don't get to see the glacier from there anymore because it's kind of around the bend. But we just knew it was so beautiful. And it's a glacier you can get really close to.
So that's why I wanted to go back.
[00:40:02] Speaker B: There's a good question in the chat. I want to come back to it at the end of the show after we've done all of your excursions. Because I think between the three of us, we've done a bunch of different kinds of excursions in Alaska.
So just. Jonathan, I see your question in the chat about excursions you suggest taking or avoiding. And we will come back to you here at the end of the show.
Should we move on to the next day then?
Go for it, Ketchikan.
It looks like. Oh, drive your own rib boat.
[00:40:30] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:40:30] Speaker B: All right, so tell me all about this. This looks like fun. I might want to do this.
[00:40:35] Speaker A: That was a really fun day, too. And so that day, our alo shore time wasn't until 11:45.
So in the morning, my daughter and I got massages at the spa before we went.
And then they met us right downtown, right outside of the port. And they drove us about 30 minutes. And then that top left photo, it's an old cannery. That's beautiful. And now they use it for weddings and events.
So that's where we met. And they. They had a whole bunch of suits you could wear, like rain jackets and rain pants and boots, but it was so hot that you didn't even need it. Like I. We ended up taking our regular rain jackets off even because it was so warm. You do have to be 25 to drive your own boat. So our 18 and 19 year olds were kind of disappointed, but they understood.
[00:41:21] Speaker B: It takes me out of the running immediately. Sorry, Sam, we can't do that.
[00:41:25] Speaker A: Too young. Too young.
So we broke into a few boats of four and then one boat of six. And they tell you where to go. We saw bears. We saw eagles. Then they threw fish to feed the eagles and they were landing right next to us. We saw a whole bunch of seals.
We saw these cool logging boats and got to learn a little about, like, the logging industry.
And it was just really fun. We got to go fast, so everyone really liked that too. It was another really good day. And this is the only excursion that all 18 of us did together.
[00:42:00] Speaker C: Oh, can I just ask who you booked this through? Because I know you didn't book this through Disney Cruise Line. So I'm curious.
[00:42:08] Speaker A: Right. So I did it like through that Alaska shirt excursion company. But the company that was our tour company was called Adventure View. V U E. So Ketchikan Adventure View. And it was called the Zodiac Wilderness Zodiac Boat Tour Quest.
[00:42:24] Speaker B: Nice.
Just afterwards. Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Kelly.
[00:42:30] Speaker A: They met us up on the dock of that old cannery and we had beer, wine or soda tasting. So they had asked us what we went up before and we got there up top, they were all ready for us. And then there were a bunch of snacks. So it was cheese and crackers and then reindeer sausage. I'm vegetarian, but everyone else really liked the reindeer sausage. So after riding the boats, we probably spent about like 30 to 45 minutes doing the tasting. We did rush a little bit because we had to get back for the lumberjack show. But it was a great day and the weather was glorious.
[00:43:01] Speaker B: Again, there are a couple comments in the chat here I want to cover off. So I think you mentioned. So Ed's asking, did they have specific routes you take for the ribboat? It sounds like you guys were sort of told kind of where to go with the boats.
[00:43:13] Speaker A: Yeah. So there was a guide in the first boat and then a guide in the last boat.
And so I was in the boat with the little girls. So most of the boats had six people, but four people, excuse me, and they went a little faster. I was in the boat with six people with the little girls and we were up in the back.
We would come together too at different points and they would, you know, teach us things and tell us about the environment.
So yeah, there's a, you have to follow a path and they, they, they don't just give you the boat and say, go, they're with you.
[00:43:45] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. This isn't the, I forget what they call it at Castaway, like the, the, the hang on to the rib thing on the back of a boat for dear life as they speed you around the ocean there. Yeah.
And then Wes, I see your comments in the chat. Wes is saying, sorry just to pop in here, but I think people get a bit turned off because the dog sled summer camp isn't in the snow. But we couldn't have had a better time getting one on one time with the dogs. Like, totally agree. We did the version that landed on the glacier. We saw them in the snow. We got great one on one time. I think the only, the only thing that tends to turn people off about the other experience, Wes, is we've heard from people who are like, I came back totally covered in mud.
My clothes were just covered and so. So I think there is a trade off there because we did not experience that with the snow version of the.
[00:44:32] Speaker C: Of course.
[00:44:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:44:33] Speaker C: So, yeah, but there is, like I said, there is a very different price point. And there is also, of course, the. The issue of some people are scared about taking a helicopter. And I completely understand that. If that's something that you're either nervous about, if either you're scared of heights or you're just nervous about the safety issues with a helicopter, I can understand opting for doing the summer camp. Holly jumped in the chat as well, and she said they did the summer camp and it was the highlight of their cruise. It's also, I think, one that you can do with slightly younger kids than the helicopter one as well. So there's another nice option depending upon the ages of folks in your group. But there are so many amazing excursions to be booked in Alaska, whether that's through Disney Cruise Line or through private tour options.
You just have to do some research. Obviously, we. We've covered several of them on this show. But hold on, hold on.
[00:45:28] Speaker B: I want to get to that question toward the end here.
Yeah, I did want to say Ed said snow version was also deceptively hot since the snow reflected all. Like, there are pros and cons to both of these. Big con aside, even from the helicopter up to the glacier, is if the weather turns bad while you're up there, you're stuck up there.
[00:45:45] Speaker C: So. Well, and it also gets canceled quite often.
Yeah, the helicopter ones get canceled than 50% of the time. So if you want to do something with dog sledding and you want to make sure it actually happens, the summer camp is your better option for that reason.
All right. On board five, my friend said her
[00:46:03] Speaker A: daughters didn't miss the snow. Like, they didn't. They didn't know there was a snow option, and she said they were just so happy with the experience. So I think that kids love it.
[00:46:13] Speaker C: I love that. Now, you did the private brunch. I see that picture.
And we love that that's such a great option for those who don't know. Kelly, why don't you tell fol how it is that you can book the private brunch in the Palo room on board one of the ships.
[00:46:31] Speaker A: Yeah. So there's an online form you can fill out. I think it's called La Dulce Vita. You have to search for it on the Disney Cruise Line website and you fill out who wants to go to the brunch, and you say your first choice and second choice. Dates and times, they don't tell you till closer to the cruise, so they still recommend that you book the Palo brunch spots that you want before that. So we all had it booked.
But then if you book the. If you do get the Palo brunch in the private dining room, they'll automatically cancel everybody's brunch reservations. Who's there? And you need to have at least 10 people in the private dining room for it to happen.
And so it takes a little bit longer, I feel like, in the private dining room than it does when you do it out there. But we were all hanging out with each other, so we didn't mind. It was our last sea day that we did that.
So we've done that now on the Wish and the Treasure and then now on the Wonder. Oh, we did on the magic, too. I think it's really fun, especially have. If you have a big party.
[00:47:29] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:47:29] Speaker A: And you can just try anything.
[00:47:32] Speaker C: Yeah. I think on the wish class, they'll do it actually with eight as a minimum. But I think on the ma. Yeah, but I think on the. The Magic and the Wonder, I think you're right. I think it is 10.
And the maximum number is a little slightly different as well. And it just has to do with how big the space is. The space is actually really like. I think the prime space is actually on those classic ships. The Magic and the Wonder, I think have the. In my opinion.
[00:47:57] Speaker B: I don't know about.
[00:47:58] Speaker A: That's nice.
[00:48:02] Speaker C: That's true. It does have the balcony and it's beautiful. But the table's not quite as big, actually. Even though the room is big, the table's not as big, if that, you know, that makes sense. Yeah, well, yeah. So you mentioned the Rainforest Room, Private brunch. What. What kinds of activities did you guys get up to? I mean, it's. It's always a packed cruise because on Alaska, because you're spending these longer days at port, you. Oh, you mentioned also you went to the lumberjack show actually in Ketchikan.
[00:48:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:32] Speaker C: I want to hear what you thought because we've got. Heard mixed reviews.
[00:48:37] Speaker A: So the last time we did it, we really loved it. This time we did the Disney one just because the time worked best with returning from our other port adventure.
And even the little kids felt like it was way too much goofy. So Goofy came out at the beginning and did a really long, like, calisthenics routine that didn't really have much to do with being a lumberjack. So I thought it was like a little bit Too much Disney. And I felt like it cut into the cool part of the Lumberjack show, so I don't think I would do it again. And I think most of our group was. I don't think anyone in our group liked the Lumberjack show this time, sadly.
[00:49:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
I mean, that's the only.
[00:49:14] Speaker A: We didn't like this, though.
[00:49:16] Speaker C: Yeah, that seems to be.
You're not the first person who said that to us. So that seems to be a bit of a consensus that. And that it definitely still caters to the younger crowd more than, like, so let's say the teenage crowd as well. Yeah. So.
[00:49:31] Speaker A: Yeah. But even the two little girls didn't like it. So no one liked it. No one liked it. It's okay. Because the rest of that day was perfect. So we're. We are. We're fine.
[00:49:40] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:49:42] Speaker B: I was going to say, why don't we. Why don't we pause here and let's actually talk about. Like, I would love to. To roll through two things with each of us and I will go last.
One excursion that you highly recommend. Like, it was like just. I mean, Alaska is. Let me just say this, Alaska is like, for me was a. Was a just an amazing cruise. It is easily top three. Disney Cruise Line. It may even be top two. I'd have to think hard about where it lands, but. But it's easily top three. I'm itching to go back. Like, I cannot wait to go back to Alaska with. With Disney or even another cruise line. Like, it was just so amazing up there. Lots of great things you can do. To the question that was asked in the chat about ones you recommend and ones to avoid. I have not yet heard an excursion I would completely avoid. I think there's ones that I would prefer to do over others.
But with that said, why don't we go through. I want. I want to hear from each person. One excursion they would just highly recommend and two, something unique on board that you have to do while you're in Alaska. So let's start with our guest, Kelly. Let's start with. Each of us will give one excursion that we just. You've got to do it. So, Kelly, you go first.
[00:50:57] Speaker C: It could be from your previous spelling or this one. Yeah. So
[00:51:03] Speaker A: it's a very close between our Skagway Glacier hike and Mendenhall. But I think the Mendenhall Ice adventure we did with the canoe and the hike that was just like perfect and like our quintessential Alaska. So that's the one I would say if I could pick One to tell people to do it would be that nice.
[00:51:20] Speaker B: Sam.
[00:51:21] Speaker C: I love that I'm gonna let you say the dog sledding, so I'm not gonna say the dog sledding.
[00:51:27] Speaker B: I'm sorry. Gonna say dog sled. I might say liars. I don't know.
[00:51:30] Speaker C: Maybe I. Okay, I'm gonna. I'm gonna say the Glacier Explorer. I. I don't know that you have to do it every time you sail to Alaska, but the Glacier Explorer is that boat that you get on on glacier day that gets you closer to the glacier. And like I said, I'm not sure you have to do it every time you do Alaska, but I was surprised by how awesome it was to be that much closer to the glacier than when you're on the ship. And I know that, like, you, you can get great views you can still get from the Disney Wonder or the Disney Magic, but I thought it was just incredible being able to get that much closer and being able to see the seals and being able to hear the sounds of the glaciers calving.
Yeah, I thought that was so magical. And yes, it's kind of expensive, but like $350 a person. I want to say around that. I don't remember the exact amount, but I think that was awesome. And I think if you are going to Alaska, that's. I would put that on like the must do list.
Brian.
[00:52:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I loved every excursion we did. Although I will, I will acknowledge from the chat, no, I am not going to recommend that you just take an excursion to Lyers.
It was a nice little cap off to the train ride.
I think I got to do. I got to do the helicopter out to the glacier.
I do like Ed's comments here about just. You can just do the helicopter to the, you know, out to the glacier, over the glacier. You don't have to land and see the dogs.
But I will say, like, the highlight of that was getting to see the sled dogs and learning about them and hearing the stories from their owners about why they're even raising these dogs and what they. So I absolutely loved the helicopter portion of it and I love the sled dog portion of it. And we, we also happen to just was gorgeous weather and so, so lucky. Yeah. And so we just got really lucky and be able to do it. I would say always have a backup plan for that day if you're ch. Choosing one of those, like, helicopter excursions.
But I absolutely loved it. And I'll say just real quickly, I. I don't know if you would both Agree. But what I loved most about the Alaska cruise too is the port days were long and you got. You could go do an excursion and then you could also still see, still see the town and wander around and maybe grab a bite to eat or to grab a cup of coffee someplace. So I think that is so great with the Alaska, the Alaska sailings that you get such, such a good amount of time in these, these, these ports.
[00:54:02] Speaker C: So.
[00:54:02] Speaker B: All right, let's go back. And I'm Sam, I'm going to start with you this time. What's one onboard activity you must do if you're going to Alaska? I, I already, I think I already know where to go with this. I think everyone in the chat knows where Sam's going to go with this. But Sam, I'm gonna hand it over to you.
[00:54:18] Speaker A: You.
[00:54:19] Speaker C: I'm going to cheat and give two.
One is pictures with the characters. You have to do the pictures with the characters when they're in their Alaska gear.
But the one that is, that you must do is you must do dueling pianos. Dueling pianos in Azure or in azure or in what's the fathoms on the magic. They bring on these. They're not actually cast members from Disney. They are a vendor. I can't even remember what they're called. They're based in Orlando. But this is great company that they bring on that does dueling pianos. And they don't do it every night, but they do it like three or four nights of the cruise on most Alaska sailings. And it's like the most fun if, if you've ever been to Jelly rolls at Walt Disney World Boardwalk that doesn't exist anymore or you've ever been to.
What's the name of the place in New Orleans, Brian, that we like to get Pat O. Brian's Pat o'. Brien. Like there, there's dueling piano bars in cities, not around the country, not everywhere, but in multiple major cities. And there's nothing more fun than to sing along with dueling pianos. Yeah. Kelly, what about you?
[00:55:27] Speaker A: That sounds fun. I saw that on our navigator, the dueling pianos, but I didn't try it. I'll have to go back to Alaska next time.
[00:55:33] Speaker C: You gotta go back to Alaska.
[00:55:35] Speaker A: Yeah. I think that there's so onboard thing you have to do. I like to go to the COVID Cafe in the afternoon and get charcuterie and cheese boards and then either sit out on the deck or sit on the veranda and just, just look at the Inside Passage or the glaciers. I think that's A great part of the Alaska experience.
[00:55:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I'll say. From an onboard standpoint, you guys have pretty much covered it. I will just agree.
I loved the time on the balcony and we splurged way beyond and had these. We had the Roy Disney Suite. So we had these like huge floor to ceiling windows that we could just sit and watch the scenery go by. I remember I spent some time in there with like some electric binoculars that I had just kind of scanning the coastline looking for any signs of wildlife which was unfortunately missing from our Salem beyond the bears. I, I got to give credit to that bear excursion that we did because. Unbelievable the number of bears we saw. But most the other wildlife, it seemed like had kind of petered out for the. For the remainder of the season.
I wanted to answer some questions in the chat because we got a lot rolling in with recommendations and stuff. So Ed's clarifying that the glacier excursion he was talking about, they actually do land on the glacier and they walk you out near crevasses and things like that to show you how deep they can get. That sounds amazing. I might have to do that next time.
[00:56:53] Speaker A: We did that last time.
[00:56:54] Speaker B: Yeah, we got. Annabelle's in.
[00:56:57] Speaker C: It is Piano Party. Wesley in the. Thanks. Wes in the chat he's asking, is it Piano Party? Yes, that's the name of the vendor. Piano Party.
[00:57:04] Speaker B: Yes. And Annabelle's in Ketchikan is a fantastic stop for crab legs. I don't know if we went to. We went to Twisted Fish Company. Is that what it was called? Called Sam to remember the name.
[00:57:15] Speaker C: Yes. But we did that in.
Not in Ketchikan. We did it in Juneau.
[00:57:20] Speaker B: Juno. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So gonna add Annabelle's to the list.
Linda, I'm hearing to set aside at least a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars.
We have said it before. I will continue to say it. The pro. The cost of like the real cost of an Alaska cruise is like stateroom and then excursions. Like the excursions can, can. They vary wildly and they can be very expensive. And if you really want to experience kind of the wilds of Alaska, then you've. Yes, these things get. These things get pricey. If that's what you're going for, you can go to Alaska and just wander around these small towns, you know, find some independent tour operators, those sorts of things. But the Disney excursions tend to be a big part of, of this cruise.
[00:58:04] Speaker C: You could easily spend $2,000 a person on just excursions. I would say. Yeah, yeah.
[00:58:10] Speaker A: Our most affordable excursion was the train hike it was only $106 per adult. It was a little bit less for kids, so that's not too bad.
[00:58:18] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. And Ed's saying best activity on board is bring really good binoculars and watching for whales and sea life. Also watching the sunset at 10pm at night. Yes, you do get the, the midnight sun effect up in Alaska the further north you go. So, yeah, it's. It's a lot of fun. All right, Sam, what are we. What. What else do we have to cover here?
[00:58:37] Speaker A: Here?
[00:58:38] Speaker C: I don't know. Do we have any more slides?
[00:58:40] Speaker B: We do. We do not. That is the end of the slideshow.
[00:58:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:58:44] Speaker C: Kelly, I want to ask a little bit about the Disney difference. Like, because you have. I mean, obviously you've sailed a lot on Disney Cruise Line. You're a travel advisor, right? Like, do you think. I mean, Disney Cruise Line in Alaska is more expensive.
It's more expensive than other cruise lines. It's also more expensive than a Caribbean cruise. Like. Like, who is this kind of sailing for and who is Disney in Alaska specifically for, would you say?
[00:59:12] Speaker A: Yeah, I think as we talked about how the excursions are expensive, I think if you're going on the cruise and it's already a stretch and you're not going to be able to afford the excursions, then it might not be for you. Because the port towns themselves, while there's like some restaurants and shops, it's not like why you're going to Alaska. So I think it's better if you have enough money to do that and that you're interested in those things. If you're interested in wildlife and hiking and seeing glacier, some people, it's not, it's not for them. They want to relax on vacation. So I think it's for great. For active people who want to get out and do things and that their interests are wildlife and nature and hiking and national park kind of stuff, who have it in their budget to experience things beyond just like Creek street or the Lumberjack show.
[00:59:54] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:59:55] Speaker A: The quality, I think, is great.
Oh, go ahead.
[00:59:58] Speaker C: So, no, I was going to say, I think that's key. Right. If you're somebody who only likes warm weather vacationing and wants to sit on beaches, this is not the cruise for you. Right? I mean, that's a huge part of it.
[01:00:10] Speaker A: Yeah, we're tired at the end of the day on a lot of our days, you know, because we're really go, go going. So it's not the relaxation kind of cruise as much. The sea days help balance it out some.
I Think they do such a great job with food allergy. One of the people in our party can't have wheat. And I specifically requested our server relics because we know he's a great food allergy server and he did such a great job for her. She's 18, she just graduated high school and she said she's always going to remember this vacation because of what good food she had. He would always help her pre order every night, not just for the next dinner, but for her lunch and breakfast. So they don't just make sure she's safe, they made sure that she was happy. They even made her a chocolate lava cake. Took a couple nights for him to get that for her.
Three of the kids were celebrating their high school graduation. So that was really nice for her to celebrate it that way.
So that difference is huge. I'm not saying that you're not safe on other cruise lines, but they really go beyond with that. And honestly I haven't sailed on other cruise lines for so long sometimes it's probably hard for me to compare. Like maybe I should.
You're not nickel and dimed and stuff with soda packages and all, which I appreciate too.
But we are very happy with it. I know you know, it doesn't go to into the national park, so some people prefer lines that do that.
I loved this cruise. I think this might be my favorite Disney cruise I've been on and I've been on a lot of good ones. But we just had such a good time. So I do want to go back to Alaska eventually. Maybe I should try a different cruise line to go into Glacier Bay.
But that will be for a few years so I have time to think about it.
[01:01:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I sort of agree with you. Like Alaska and Norway probably top my list. And then after that it's like the longer the cruise, the nicer and more fun it was kind of thing.
So. So a couple questions in the chat that I just wanted to address. Someone's asked. Mark is asking what's the best month to see bears on Alaskan cruise.
[01:02:02] Speaker C: And late August, early September.
[01:02:05] Speaker B: Yes. Because they are feeding. And so what we saw was you
[01:02:09] Speaker C: go to the hatcheries.
[01:02:10] Speaker B: We were down by the. By a river. There was a. The. The part. The park or the, the excursion we went took us down to a boardwalk and they were right across from a bunch of hatcheries and the bears are fattening for.
[01:02:21] Speaker A: For.
[01:02:22] Speaker B: For the winter. And so they were just down there in force eating as much fish as they possibly could.
Kristen's asking, what would you suggest? I Should step back and say that's anecdotal in terms of like the. I think the wildlife seasons vary. It's all weather dependent. There's a bunch of factors that go into this. We've heard plenty of people who went on that same excursion who's like, we saw like a bear. And so you just.
[01:02:44] Speaker C: But they don't even offer the excursion that we went on. They don't actually offer it outside of August and September because most. If you went in June or July or even May, I guess you wouldn't. There wouldn't be any bears in that location. That doesn't mean you won't see bears elsewhere. But they're not there at those fish hatcheries yet. And so that's, you know, that's why they do it in those months, because they are fattening up. So there's not a guarantee you'll see bears there. But that's the best time to see bears is at a location like that in August, late August, early September, when they're getting ready for hibernation season.
[01:03:22] Speaker B: All right.
[01:03:23] Speaker C: What would you suggest minimum age for children if you want to make the most of the available excursions? Well, that depends. Are you willing to book outside of Disney?
Because my remem. My. My understanding and Kelly, maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong, is Disney has some minimum ages that they impose that are older than the minimum ages that a lot of the tour providers actually impose.
[01:03:50] Speaker A: That's right. Yeah. We've been able to do not just in Alaska, but when our kids were younger. We've been able to do other excursions like scuba diving and things that Disney wouldn't let us do when they were younger.
So I think it depends on your kids tolerance. If you try to take your kids on a hiking trail and they won't walk and hate it, you might not like it. So I think it depends. You have to know your child too, if they would tolerate that kind of stuff.
But it's really fun and it's very active. So I think Europe sometimes can be kind of boring for kids if they end up in churches and museums and stuff. Stuff. This is outside running around. They don't have to sit still or be quiet. So I think it's fun for kids. They get to see animals.
[01:04:29] Speaker C: Agree. And then there's active young kids. I think it's a great. A great cruise.
[01:04:34] Speaker B: And then some. Some discussion in the chat about whether the. So the. They still do the talk. So the naturalist talks. And I was gonna say when we were on board Absolutely. They had a natural soundboard and they would prep us for expectations for the next day. You know, talk about the glacier, talk about the wildlife, what we might see, bears, whales, all that sort of stuff. So did you have experience, Kelly?
[01:04:54] Speaker A: Yeah, we had three naturalist talks. I didn't have time to go to any, but some people in my group did. And one thing they told them to say, they. When they. They said to look for a bunch of birds floating on the ocean when we were on Glacier Day. And then a lot of times you would see whales near there. And we did, because our Connor would
[01:05:12] Speaker C: be like, look, there's birds.
[01:05:13] Speaker A: And we would watch and then we would see whales. So he learned something that helped us that day.
[01:05:17] Speaker B: Nice.
[01:05:18] Speaker C: Absolutely.
Yeah. I think it's typical for Disney to have one naturalist on board and then that one naturalist does like three talks and then they do an overhead talk on Glacier Day, but only for a certain amount of time. It actually has to be, I think it's like under an hour and only in certain locations. And that's dictated by like the Alaskan law or whatnot. And so because you're in like, essentially national parks areas and they don't want to disturb wildlife. So we thought the natural sunboard, our sailing was great. I think I went to two out of her three talks when we were on board.
And then Ashley's mentioning in the comments, you can also listen to them on your stateroom or watch them on your stateroom tv. So they do put them into your room. So if you're busy doing other stuff or you've got a kiddo that's napping or something like that, that's something that you can take advantage of. Yeah.
[01:06:10] Speaker B: Nice.
All right, well, I have one last question before we head out here, Kelly, which is just you've done it once, you've done it twice. Will you be going back to Alaska for a third time, do you think?
[01:06:22] Speaker A: I think so. I don't think right away we were supposed to go to Norway next year in August, like late July, early August. But now with the kids college schedules, we might not be able to, so I might have to reschedule it. But I definitely want to go back because I really loved it.
[01:06:38] Speaker B: You will love Pulpit Rock. I can already tell. There was a theme of hiking throughout your entire slide presentation. Pulpit Rock is for you. I can tell. So, yeah, you'll love it if you make it over to Norway. Well, Kelly, as you mentioned throughout the show, you yourself are a travel agent. Do you want to let folks know where they can find and book with you if they're interested.
[01:06:57] Speaker C: Sure.
[01:06:58] Speaker A: You can go to platinummouse.com Kelly K E L L Y But then my little videos about Disney Cruise Line stuff are on DCL101 on Facebook and then my Alaska, it's called Disney Cruise Line Alaska Facebook group. We have over 21,000 members now and I work really hard to keep it spam free. So it's a pretty useful group. Group.
[01:07:17] Speaker B: Nice, nice. Well that's great. I, I definitely check out all of Kelly's content. It's. It's all really good stuff.
As a reminder. So I, as we, as we head out here, first let me say thanks to everyone out there for watching and listening and to Kelly for spending some time with us.
As a reminder, we will not have a live show next Monday because we will not be in the United States. So we will be firmly on our Adventures by Disney River Cruise by that point. And uh, so. So I think I edited something like eight shows to release over the next two weeks.
I don't know how we have this much content.
It's a blessing and a curse I suppose. But.
So we've got a ton of content rolling out for you over the next two weeks even while we're on hiatus. Sam, do you remember who we've got? Oh, I guess our first live show. Yeah, look at us is us.
Yeah.
So we will be back on Monday, July 13th. I think I got that all correct. Monday, July 13th at 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern to give you the trip report from our ABD River Cruise podcast, Cruise Version 2.0.
I also wanted to highlight we are working on two very special episodes to come out of that. We're going to do an episode on our pre trip experience in Amsterdam because we'll be there for a few days ahead of the cruise and doing the sightseeing touring for thing. And we are also working on a show to highlight some of the experiences from those who are sailing with us on the ABD river cruise that we're going to record both of those hopefully while we're over in Europe. And then when we get back we've got some editing to do. They're going to be a different format of show and we're excited to see if you guys enjoy the format or not.
But it will be audio.
[01:09:00] Speaker C: Those shows, those two shows will be audio only.
[01:09:03] Speaker B: Audio only shows that we're going to be putting out. If you're familiar with a podcast called this American Life Life, we're going to try to emulate that by talking to a bunch of guests and other folks who are sailing with us and interviewing them about their experience and what they thought about it, but in a much more narrative format. So we're going to see how that goes.
Fingers crossed. We're waiting on a final approval from Adventures by Disney pr, but if we get it, we are going to have some time with one of the adventure guides as well on board the ship to interview them and we're really hoping that comes through.
I think we're just waiting on the name, but if that happens we will bring you that as well. And as we both have said to abdpr like the guides are what make the experience, in our opinion for Adventures by Disney. And so we're really kind of excited to highlight the experience from one of them and bring that experience a little closer to all of you who might be thinking about doing Adventures by Disney. But with that I will wrap up here and just say thank you again to Kelly. Thank you again to everyone out there watching and listening after the fact and we will see you in 2,020 week's time. So have a great evening everybody. We got to go finish packing.
Well, thanks to everyone out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact twice a week we publish shows. So be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us alive, we have a live show now every week Monday nights, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want help support the show, be sure to hit those five stars on Apple Podcasts. And if you leave us a written review, a five star written review, we will read it at the top of one of our main episodes. So please head over there and hit those five stars. If you've got questions or you'd like to connect with us, the best way to do that is to head over to DCLDuo.com it's got links links to all of our things. Full catalog of the podcast episodes including a searchable catalog for the podcast. Links off to our vlog, a link to our Etsy store. We sell some fun fan inspired magnets Link to our Patreon if you'd like to help directly support the show each and every month just head over to the website or patreon.com DCLDUO also as a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter that we're hoping to start really pumping out monthly here at least, and a few blog articles that we've written. So DC duo.com is the best way to connect with us. You can also, of course, email
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