One Way Trip to Canada, Eh? FINAL THOUGHTS 08/10

[FauntleroyFAN07]

the museum day sounded like alot of fun.

isnt the SEA airport crazy busy....it was nuts when we were there.

 

[MAGICFOR2]

I think they only do that when they are at a terminal other then the DCL one at Port Canaveral, as they are not set up in the same way that Disney has theres set up.

Maybe that's what it is. Thanks. I see you have a TR for DLR - I will be over - we are moving to AZ next year and plan to have APs!

the museum day sounded like alot of fun.

isnt the SEA airport crazy busy....it was nuts when we were there.

I noticed SEA was crazy too. Seattle grew really fast in the past 10 yrs - turning into another LA. I think they haven't kept up with the growth too well, like alot of "Neuvo Huge" places!

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

I noticed SEA was crazy too. Seattle grew really fast in the past 10 yrs - turning into another LA. I think they haven't kept up with the growth too well, like alot of "Neuvo Huge" places!

yeah there food court reminded me of the day after thanksgiving mall shopping.

wasnt as good of food as the brat i had at the OR airport...now that was the most laid back airport i have ever been in, very calm and relaxing and did i mention my awesome smokey mountian brat.

 

[MAGICFOR2]

yeah there food court reminded me of the day after thanksgiving mall shopping.

wasnt as good of food as the brat i had at the OR airport...now that was the most laid back airport i have ever been in, very calm and relaxing and did i mention my awesome smokey mountian brat.

That's Oregon - calm and laid back! I really like PDX.

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Okay, I think I said I would post lessons learned and some final thoughts. Now I don't know what my thoughts were

Lessons Learned:

1. Don't buy a 3 day pass for DLR unless you have 3 days in a row - we find we won't be back to use our passes after all. Our original plan was to buy a 1 day pass at DL and skip CA this trip. That would have cost $140 instead of $218.

2. Getting a table together from the DISboards is great - I hope to do the same thing every cruise! So fun to have the DIS in common!

3. Just because it is a DCL ship doesn't mean DCL is manning the boarding process. Don't expect any Pixie Dust unless you're at PC. It might be a good idea to stop for a snack on the way to port.

4. It is okay to "stack" your pictures at Shutters and wait until the end to purchase them.

5. We could enjoy an oceanview cabin just as well as a balcony.

6. Don't forget to take time to check the Navigator sometimes - there are things on there you want to do!!!

7. Palo is not a "must do" for us, although we may try brunch next time

8. San Francisco is a great place to visit - can't wait to go back!

9. If you stick up for yourself with the grumpy cable car people, they will back down and be nice.

10. The Walt Disney museum is amazing!

11. In Canada, it is hard to find your way around and hard to find food. Next time I would do more research or book tours.

12. Don't visit Buchart Gardens in the off season.

13. Riding the train is great!

14. Sailing on points doesn't feel like a "waste of points." As long as you are doing what you enjoy for your vacation, it's always worth it.

15. You can have a great time at a Science museum, especially if the 4th is with you!

Final Thoughts

We took an RCCL cruise last Fall, in which we were disappointed in the service and the "dime you to death" attitude, and extremely disappointed in the food, but loved our room.

Now taking DCL again, we found that we enjoyed it more for many reasons.
1. The service
2. The passion of the CMs to be sure you are having fun!
3. The service
4. The delicious food
5. The service
6. World class shows
7. Being able to bring your own drinks on board
8. Free classes and activities
9. First run Disney movies
10. The complimentary drink stations
11. Oh, did I mention the service?

We will still be looking to book DCL when we cruise. Our next BIG Disney adventure will be in 2013 at WDW hopefully with all our kids and grandkids.
We will be taking quick trips to DLR as we will be living 4 hrs away - don't know if we'll be there before we move, but I hope so!

Thank you for sailing along with us - I enjoyed meeting some of you here!

Wishing you Magical Disney Vacations!!!

 

[dizneeat]

Thanks for wrapping up your trip report, Tammie!

I loved your reasons for taking DCL, but did I miss the word "service"?

Yip, that is what sets it apart most - service!

Okay, I need to rush, I am off to the hairdresser to have my hair cut, then tomorrow it will be packing galore and on Saturday we are finally off to WDW! can't wait!

Thanks for writing your TR again, Tammie! Now, please go and plan another visit to a Disney destination - I wanna read more!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Thanks for wrapping up your trip report, Tammie!

I loved your reasons for taking DCL, but did I miss the word "service"?

Yip, that is what sets it apart most - service!

Okay, I need to rush, I am off to the hairdresser to have my hair cut, then tomorrow it will be packing galore and on Saturday we are finally off to WDW! can't wait!

Thanks for writing your TR again, Tammie! Now, please go and plan another visit to a Disney destination - I wanna read more!

Karin! I'm so excited for you and Tom! I can't wait for you to come back so I can red all about it! have a wonderful time! Thank you for being here to read and for all your sweet comments! Yes, I really feel the need to plan SOMETHING!!!

 

[DMMarla07860]

loved your trip report, hopefully we get to cruise together again one day

 

[MAGICFOR2]

loved your trip report, hopefully we get to cruise together again one day

Thanks Julia! I hope so too. With all the cruises you and your dad take, we are bound to meet up some time!

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

i really enjoyed it as well, and nice to see you did some lessons learned....great idea, other people that do that in there TR are wise as well.

 

[glennbo123]

Thanks for your report Tammie. I enjoyed it!

 

[bbangel]

Loved the report - makes me so excited to do the same cruise next year and made the waiting just a little bit easier. I've stored up notes for dealing with the port in LA and touring San Francisco thanks to your stories. Apologies for the difficulties you had in Vancouver - hopefully you will come and see us again and find better food

 

[eandesmom]

Busy Seattle day! Too bad, next time you go through SEA try to eat in the main terminal, TONS more choices and it's quick to get out to the North Terminal, where you were.

Nice update and final thoughts!

 

[MEK]

You Know - I really need to visit the cruise boards more frequently. I didn't know you had a TR going. It sounds like you had a wonderful time. I am reading backwards. That video is adorable!

 

[Disneymaddness]

Thanks for the trip report, I really enjoyed it!

 

[nenner1]

We were all excited – we are all Star Wars fans, and there was to be a special exhibit at the museum in honor of May the 4th – MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU!!!

A-HA! I get it!

Marsha had a family membership to the museum, so it was just $4 each to get into the SW exhibit.

What a great deal!

Soon it was our turn to enter – the CMs were dressed in semi-costumes throughout the museum in honor of the day.

LOVE the Leia buns!!

We enjoyed the SW room – there was a Tatooine dwelling in the middle where you could go in and view a film. It was really cool – they had various artifacts from the planet and the movie, and the film was about real robots doing lots of human like things these days, and R2D2 graced us with his presence in person!

There was a Landspeeder, and then the girls tried their hands at what it would be like to drive one

That is just way too coo! What fun!

Past the Space Needle (Sorry for all the sideways pics - I rotated and saved the images and they still show up like this )

They look great to me! Someday I'll be up there!

And to Lunch! We went to a food court nearby so that everyone could have their favorite. This pic looks kind of like a Science Fair, but it was the entrance to the food area. Jim and I ordered Fish and Chips – still trying to get that Fresh from the Sea meal! We ended up ordering the Salmon and chips – YUMMO!

It *does* look like a science fair- too funny!

And into the insect room. There were lots of great exhibits and then there was the butterfly house. It was filled with tons of butterflies!


We had to be really careful not to touch them, hit them accidentally or step on them. They would land on you – these were especially attracted to purple. I was wearing a purple shirt and so were two of the girls!


A couple of them landed on my hands and camera. One little girl about 3 or 4 put her finger up so I could move one from my finger to hers – she was so excited!!!

You can't really see how big they are, but they have a wing span of about 8 in.

Hard to see here, but this is the outside of those same "eyeball" variety in the first couple of pics - when flying, they are an irridesent periwinkle color, and when they land or feel endangered, they fold up their wings and look like Owls.

Beautiful! Reminds me of the butterfly garden at Flower and garden Festival!

After we had made our way through, we had to stop in the doorway and spin around so a CM could inspect us and make sure we didn’t have any hitchhikers (no, not ghosts) on our backs! Then we had to stop one more time in a glass outer chamber and inspect each other to be sure we didn’t let any of our little friends out.

Oh, you mean like me, I accidentally let some out at F&G, they were trailing me and just flitted out through the chains to their new life in Future World. Oopsie.

(At least it was the last day of F&G...I mean who knows where they were headed, I could have rescued them from who knows what!!)

We headed home and had a nice dinner and some time to play games with the girls. Then we all went to bed early so Kirsten and Olivia could get up for school the next day.

No school for you the next day, just Cinco de Mayo!

Thursday, we had a nice relaxing day in the morning and then got ready to head to SEA to catch our flight. We had a 6:20 flight, so to avoid rush hour traffic, we left about 2:30 pm and arrived about 3:30. After we checked in, we decided to get a bite to eat. The United terminal was undergoing a remodel, so most of the restaurants were closed. The remaining ones were really crowded, but we managed to get a table eventually and had a nice BBQ beef sandwich and a glass of cab. We arrived back home about 10:30 pm and everything was nice and cold – it was about 25 degrees on May 5th 

Whuuuuttt? 25 degrees? Well, all the more excuse to consume many Mexican libations to keep you warm from the inside out.

Next: Best and Worst and Lessons learned
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Over? Say it ain't sooooooo!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

i really enjoyed it as well, and nice to see you did some lessons learned....great idea, other people that do that in there TR are wise as well.

Thanks Dan! I learned about lessons from a very wise person.

Thanks for your report Tammie. I enjoyed it!

Thanks for reading Glen!

Loved the report - makes me so excited to do the same cruise next year and made the waiting just a little bit easier. I've stored up notes for dealing with the port in LA and touring San Francisco thanks to your stories. Apologies for the difficulties you had in Vancouver - hopefully you will come and see us again and find better food

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it and that it is helpful! I don't want to sound like I'm dissing Vancouver - I would love to come back and explore it the right way! I should have done some better research! Thanks for the invitation! I hope you really enjoy your cruise - PM me if you do a TR, so I can follow you!

Busy Seattle day! Too bad, next time you go through SEA try to eat in the main terminal, TONS more choices and it's quick to get out to the North Terminal, where you were.

Nice update and final thoughts!

I know - Jim always wants to run to the terminal where our gate is - as if somehow the flight will be changed to an hour early or something. Then we are often stuck with no choices for food - next time at SEA, (or some other places) I will insist on stopping first!

You Know - I really need to visit the cruise boards more frequently. I didn't know you had a TR going. It sounds like you had a wonderful time. I am reading backwards. That video is adorable!

Mary Ellen!!! Great to see you here and thank you for reading! That video was so fun - we were trying to see some of "our" crew we knew, but I just couldn't make anyone out it went so fast!

Thanks for the trip report, I really enjoyed it!

Thanks so much for reading, I'm glad you liked it!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

A-HA! I get it!

Smart Lady!

What a great deal!



LOVE the Leia buns!!

Cute, huh? There were several CMs sporting those!


That is just way too coo! What fun!

They had a blast!

They look great to me! Someday I'll be up there!

Yeah, they finally turned the right way. Oh, I want to be up there, too! We talked about going up there without kids the next day for lunch - pretty spendy, but decided not to ditch the girls!

It *does* look like a science fair- too funny!


Beautiful! Reminds me of the butterfly garden at Flower and garden Festival!

That's what I was thinking about when I was in there - us DISers are incurable!

Oh, you mean like me, I accidentally let some out at F&G, they were trailing me and just flitted out through the chains to their new life in Future World. Oopsie.

(At least it was the last day of F&G...I mean who knows where they were headed, I could have rescued them from who knows what!!)

Oh, I'm sure you did them a favor! They probably went to a flower garden somewhere around there, got married and had a family of baby butterflies!

No school for you the next day, just Cinco de Mayo!
To be honest, we were "sent to bed" by DSIS! She asked us to go to bed to watch TV so we didn't keep anyone up!


Whuuuuttt? 25 degrees? Well, all the more excuse to consume many Mexican libations to keep you warm from the inside out.

I was wishing we had hopped on a boat to Mexico about then!

Over? Say it ain't sooooooo!

Awww, thanks for being here - you made it really fun! As you can see, we have no ticker, but We're heading to AZ and Sedona this coming week, with Jim's mom, then camping for a week with the 'rents so I may post a little addendum - we'll see if we have any adventures

 

[MEK]

So, I am still reading out of order, but I love your TR.

First - I can't believe it was that cold and there were people in the pool. That's crazy. Too bad you couldn't enjoy the pirate party because it was so cold.

Lobster night - cool. Like your picture of the semi-formal night.

I'm shocked that Disney would hire some one to play piano and sing when they couldn't sing.

Oy on the appendicitis lady. Talk about bad timing.

OK - going back to read out of order again!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

So, I am still reading out of order, but I love your TR.

First - I can't believe it was that cold and there were people in the pool. That's crazy. Too bad you couldn't enjoy the pirate party because it was so cold.

Lobster night - cool. Like your picture of the semi-formal night.

I'm shocked that Disney would hire some one to play piano and sing when they couldn't sing.

Oy on the appendicitis lady. Talk about bad timing.

OK - going back to read out of order again!

This is funny - it's like watching a video in my head backwards! Maybe that's not too far off!

I knew it would be cold, but I was still shocked! Maybe I am more surprised that DCL didn't put out more blankets.

Thanks for the compliment

I was surprised about the piano man, too. Maybe he just doesn't do Billy Joel. Maybe he was an imposter and did it on a bet from the Kareoke the night before!

I was so impressed that she had her surgery and then came right back to the ship!