Welcome home ADF & keepcruising

[karmac]

I know your cruise wasn't P&O related but I do hope (as I'm sure you will)you're going to tell us all about it when you have time. Really looking forward to seeing some pics. Hope you had a wonderful time. I bet you're all very tired.

 

Karen

[aussiedisneyfan]

Hi and thanks Karmac. Just starting to get back into reading P&Os topics. Got a lot to catch up on. Am very tired. Daughter has fallen asleep already and I don't think I will be far behind. Just checked vcr and no recordings worked :(

 

Have tonnes of washing to do. Had to buy a suitcase while overseas becuase we were overweight in our luggage and had to divide it. I hope to get through the photos over the weekend and get some posted up next week.

[cheeso]

We have been following your adventures and can't wait to read all about them.

[keepcruising]

Thanks for the welcome home guys, as Jane said will try to post up photos and tell you all about it soon. Still going through washing and trying toget the kids back into some sort of routine, befor they are due to return to school tommorrow. Then will have time to ourselves to actually sort through photos, and write something.

[aussiedisneyfan]

Quick note to say I am sorry I haven't done anything about the photos yet. Been busy at work and sick too. Promise to do something this weekend. :rolleyes:

[Past it]

:( Sorry to hear your not well,hope you are feeling better soon.A lot of people may not realise how much time and work go into posting pics.Hope you feel up to it when you can.All the best...Brenda

[suexxx]

welcome home ADF and Keepcruising. Havent had computer for over 1 week. Got a big virus so had to get it fixed. Hope you all had a wonderful time after you made it over there. What an experience. look forward to reading about it when you are well and settled.:)

[kaseyoz]

hi ADF hope you are feeling much better today. That jetlag must be worse than the land/sea sickness!!!

 

rest up and look forward to hearing all about it

 

karon

[aussiedisneyfan]

Ok everyone, I have narrowed down my 1000 to just 80ish.

 

They are loaded up at http://au.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/aussiedisneyfan

 

and here is my daughter's journal. I don't think I will every get around to writing a trip report.

 

18/5

We stayed at the Ramada airport hotel. We went swimming and went to Dennys for dinner. Dennys is an American restaurant chain.

19/5

We arrived at our Seattle city hotel. We walked around town and went to Pike Place Market which is famous for throwing fish at the fish shops.

20/5

We hired a car and went to the Museum of Flight. We flew in a plane simulator and we did lots of different tricks. We learnt how to make rockets in a class. We saw lots of different airplanes, including the Concorde and an old Air Force 1 which belonged to the President of the United States.

We had dinner at the Rainforest Café for my birthday dinner. I had a “volcano” cake and they sang a different happy birthday. The restaurant was really cool, it had fake rainforest stuff like elephants and gorillas and it even had a thunderstorm every hour.

21/5

We went up the Space Needle which is like Telstra Tower. It took 41 seconds in the lift to get to the top. It was built in 1962 for the World Fair. We could see all around Seattle and saw Mount Rainer covered in Snow.

Daddy took us to the children’s museum. We played in the fake bush. We painted pictures and lots of other different things.

22/5

We went on a red double decker bus tour which took us around the city. We went to the Goldrush Museum and we learnt about the Klondike. People from everywhere went to Skagway and walked up white horse pass or it was sometimes called dead horse trail because thousands of horses died.

23/5

We went to the Seattle Police Museum. We learnt there was a big fire in 1889. We got to dress up in police uniforms and pretended we were locked up in gaol.

We caught a boat to somewhere and had fish and chips for lunch. We saw 2 seagulls with only 1 leg. All the seagulls were humungous

24/5

Daddy took Tiana and I on the duck. It is a bus and a boat. It was fun. We played in a water fountain which when the music started there were lots of different sprays the water came out of.

25/5

We packed our bags and walked to the Spaceneedle to have lunch. After that we took a cab to the airport and flew to Anchorage.

26/5

We took a trolley around town. The driver told us that their was a earthquake in 1964 which destroyed a whole suburb. After we met up with Sandra and family we took the bus to Seward. We saw lots of mountains covered in snow, a mountain goat and a Moose.

27/5

We took a cab to the Exit Glacier. We had to walk to freezing cold water to reach it. When the earthquake hit in Anchorage it created a Tsunami in Seward which flooded half the town. In the afternoon we got on the cruise ship.

28/5

Today the ship went past the Hubbard glacier. We saw lots of Icebergs in the water.

29/5

We went on a helicopter up to a glacier. There were more than 200 dogs up there. We went on a dog sled ride and my favourite dog was Willy. He was the lead dog. After lunch we went to the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park Centre. I watched a movie about the goldrush. We went on a walking tour around Skagway. I did an activity sheet and became a junior park ranger.

30/5

We were in Juneau today. I stayed in the kids club called the Fun Factory all day. We played in the ball pit. Daddy went on a tour to the gardens and the Mendenhall Glacier. He saw bald eagles and upside down trees.

31/5

Today we caught a tender boat to Icy Strait Point. We had chicken and chips for lunch. We went to a salmon canning museum. You could send home a stuffed toy animal in a can if you lived in America. We went on a tram around the island and saw lots of different plants. We also saw a bald eagle and its nest. On the Hoonah island there are more bears than people except when the ships visit. Our ship the Summit was the first ship to visit Hoonah

1/6

We spend the whole day in Kidsclub. We played Bingo but none of us won any prizes. It was Tiana and John birthday and Tiana got a backpack from KidsClub and a pillow from Dan and after Dinner we all sang happy birthday and they got birthday cakes. After dinner we had a kids Disco.

2/6

Today we had a talent show. I did the hola hoop, acrobatics and backup dancing. At night we had a slumber party (while our Parents were packing the suitcases), we played in ballpit and watch sponge Bob and did not go to bed until nearly one AM.

3/6

We left the ship at 8:30 and took the taxi to the hotel. We left our bags at the hotel and went to Vancouver Lookout tower. We returned to our hotel and went asleep early.

4/6

The next day we took the seabus and a normal bus to the Capilano suspension bridge, a long bridge which goes from on site of the forest to the other site, After that we went to Grouse Mountain and saw a Lumberjack show and two orphaned Grizzly Bears.

5/6

We took the bus to Seattle and stayed in the Airport Hotel and had dinner at Denny’s.

6/6

We had breakfast at Denny’s and Lunch at McDonalds before we hopped on the airplane for our trip home.

7/6

In the plane

8/6

Arrived in Sydney took the Bus to Canberra and arrived home sweet home at about 2PM much to the surprise of Max.

[suexxx]

Hi ADF and family. You must be proud of your daughter for doing such a great job on her journal. I throughly enjoyed reading it. How old is she? Sounds like a great time was had. Photos are awesome. How did you fair in the cold? Did you have good cabins? Hope you are better by now. Will you do more overseas cruises in the future? suexxx

[aussiedisneyfan]

Allright, feeling guilty now coz I wasn't going to write a report. Here is an abridged one.

 

We spent a week in Seattle. First few nights at Seattle Pacific Hotel. Was pretty dumpy but lovely staff. We moved on to the Holiday Inn Express and it was lovely. Except for the blocked toilet. Very embarrassing. Keepcruising and family stayed on at original hotel after much confusion.

 

Seattle was lovely, we went up the Space Needle, to Museum of Flight, Boing museum, Rainforest cafe, ferry ride, Double decker bus ride. It was an easy city to get around free buses in dowtown area.

 

We flew to Anchorage on 25/5 and arrived at 7.30pm to a temp of 28 degrees! The amount of snow around us was just incredible. Was really hot and the place was covered in snow. Not actually in the town so we didn't touch any. I think it was our longest daylight. Sun didn't completely set and started rising again around 4am.

 

Did a bit of sightseeing, bought a camera since ours broke last cruise, ate a reindeer hotdog and then headed off on the bus to Seward where our ship left. The bus trip was amazing, driving through all those mountains of snow was jsut amazing and Fred managed to photograph the moose as we drove past.

 

We arrived in Seward at 5.30pm. A small town with not much happening, but certainly lots of cruise passengers. Keepcruising and I saw the Statendam depart. We gatecrashed the Holiday Inn hotel to do our washing. I think we spent half our holidays trying to wash and dry clothes.

 

Saturday morning Fred and all girls caught a taxi out to exit glacier. Was really interesting. Walked through a "creek" to get to it. Was absolutely freezing.

 

We boarded the ship about 1pm. Much fancier than our Aussie ones. We were met with champagne and guided to our staterooms by our stewards in dress uniform with white gloves.

 

Ship rundown: Much more luxurious than ours. Of course it was only 5 years old. There was free 24 hour roomservice. All food venues were free except for the elite 5 star dining. Buffet open 6am to 1am which had a design your own pizza/pasta station. There was also a coffe shop/patisserie.

 

Our cabin was basically the same as the Sun, Star etc. Bathroom a bit fancier, real tiles instead of prefab stuff. Cabin also had a bar fridge.

 

Ship was huge. Had an outdoor pool and indoor pool. Gym was much much bigger than the Suns. Lots of places to sit around and do nothing. There were lots of activities for adults and the kids. We went to most trivia's and won most of them too. Wasn't really any crafty activities offered. The shows were incredible. Life full broadway productions. Artists were very good and had a lot more room than our ships.

 

Service was wonderful. Nothing to complain about really. There was a electrical problem with the stageshow one night and which couldn't be fixed. Lots of complaints from people. I think some people just aren't happy unless they are complaining.

 

Itinerary:

 

Don't know what to say now. Alaska was just incredible. Such a natural beauty. Hubbard Glacier was about the only day that was cold. Even then only when the wind blew was it really cold. We staked out our front row positions and had a wonderful view. Saw some glacier fall off. Also enjoyed hot chocolate heavily spiked with baileys.

 

All the ports were lovely. We went on a helicopter flight to a glacier and then went on a dogsled ride. If you saw getaway the last couple of weeks. Pete and his wife Therese were the team that took us for our ride.

 

Vancouver was nice. We weren't there long enough to enjoy it. The kids were too tired on our first day so we basically stayed around the hotel. On the second day we went to Capilano Suspension Bridge. It was fun. There were lots of treetop bridges and it was all very green and beautiful.

 

Up to Grouse Mountain. Unfortunately as soon as wee headed up the fog and rain hit. No view to be seen. We saw a lumberjack show and the orphaned bear cubs.

 

Thats all I can think of. Had a wonderful time. If you ever get the chance to go then take it.

 

Any questions, feel free to ask.

[aussiedisneyfan]

Hi ADF and family. You must be proud of your daughter for doing such a great job on her journal. I throughly enjoyed reading it. How old is she? Sounds like a great time was had. Photos are awesome. How did you fair in the cold? Did you have good cabins? Hope you are better by now. Will you do more overseas cruises in the future? suexxx

 

Hi Suexx, Ang turned 9 on the trip. As I said it wasn't really cold. Our cabins were down on the 2nd deck to technically they weren't good but I actually enjoyed being so close to the water. we watched the icebergs float past our window which we couldn't have done up higher. There was also no waves compared to our oceans.

 

Would certainly love to cruise overseas again. Because of cancellation of our first leg we have been offered a free cruise replacement. Not sure if we will be able to take up the offer or not. Have til Sept next year to go.

[karmac]

They are loaded up at

http://au.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/aussiedisneyfan

 

....much to the surprise of Max.

 

Is anyone else having trouble viewing the photos? When I click on the link I get the yahoo home page.

 

Great journal. Tell Ang she did a great job. It was cool to read it from a childs perspective. I take it Max is the dog?

 

Karen

[aussiedisneyfan]

I never seem to get the links right. I think this one will work

 

http://au.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/aussiedisneyfan/album?.dir=/7e6d

 

Max is the cat.

[marie24]

Hi, ADF, I just had to post and tell you how much I enjoyed your pictures. They were spectacular! I live across Puget Sound from Seattle, so I see some pretty awesome scenery, but these pictures were very special. What kind of camera did you use? By the way, the light blue flowers in Alaska were Forget-Me-Nots, the state flower. I love them. My daughter has been working on the Pacific Sun since April and has been enjoying your part of the world also. Thanks for sharing the pictures. I hope you get another chance to come in our direction some day. You daughter's journal was great, too!

 

Marie

[Kazza1]

Great photos Aussiedisneyfan, thanks for sharing them with us:)

 

Karen

[aussiedisneyfan]

Hi Marie24,

 

The first photos until the mountain scenery were taken with my Nokia 6280 cell phone. We bought a Fuji Finepix S7000 in Anchorage. Almost everything was taken in Auto mode.

 

I should have realised what the flowers were. It's amazing what I learnt about Alaska and Seattle. I do remember that the forget-me-not was the state flower and that everyone kept telling us that the state bird was the mosquito ;)

 

Glad your daughter is enjoying here time on the Sun. I enjoyed my cruise on her.

[karmac]

Beautiful photos ADF. Makes me really want to do it now.

 

Karen

[Skyrules]

Great photo's looks like you all had a wonderful time.

 

Definetly on the "to do" list now!

 

 

Kym

[keepcruising]

OK now Jane has made me feel guilty about not having done mine yet, so here it is.

A link to some of my photos

http://community.webshots.com/user/malnars

 

Had an excellent time in Seattle, we hired a car to make getting around a bit easier, even though we didn’t use it very much. Most of the time we walked, and then caught the busses, as the metro downtown bus was free. We of course went to the space needle, and the musical fountain. But then also ventured to the museum of flight. We picked a good day to go, as it was the Cascade War birds Fly-in, where owners fly in their restored vintage military aircraft. This trip was planned for only a couple of hours, but was so good for all of us, even the kids, that we were there for the entire day.

From Seattle we had to make our own way to Seward. For this we split up with ADF’s family and we took a very scenic flight to Anchorage. This was probably the best decision we made, as we had three beautiful scenic flights over all different parts of Alaska. We flew via Juneau, Yakutat, then Cordova. Thanks to DH’s sweet talking, we got the opportunity to got to the cockpit and chat with the pilot, while the kids took turns “flying” the plane. The Pilot was great with the kids. He answered all of their questions, and let them sit in the co-pilots seat and pretend to fly. We even exchanged emails with him and are still staying in touch. The scenery for the last two legs of our flight were just spectacular, I must have taken over 100 shots, cause it just got better and better.

After a day in Anchorage we met up with ADF, and then we all caught a bus too Seward.

We caught a taxi to the Kenai Fjords National Park, and went for a short walk to the ‘Exit Glacier’. Had to cross through some water, I tell you what, I now have a greater understanding, why they say you cant last long in freezing waters like that. After only about 5 steps through shin high water, my legs were cramping in so much pain, for about 5 minutes, it was so cold, but that aside, it was worth it.

 

From there it was back to town to board the ship. That in itself was good, there was no long queues waiting like we used to do back home, then it was straight onto the ship. We were greeted with champagne on arrival, and the ship was just amazing. I think we were walking around in awe for the first hour or so. Words just can’t describe the ship. I was amazing.

 

They had similar activities to our ships. Trivia, pictionary, Karaoke.

Kids club was good, they also had certain activities for the whole family, ie Family disco, karaoke, and craft. It was nice to have the whole family do things together.

 

They too make a deal about your birthday. DH and youngest had B'day together on ths ship, Room steward delivered bottle of champagne, in ice bucket and glasses to our room, with a birthday note for us to enjoy. That was a nice surprise.

Even got a bag of goddies from activity staff that we got to know throughout the cruise.

 

In Skagway, we went on a helicopter flight to the glacier, then a dog sled ride. This was amazing, the whole family loved this. We even arranged it so that John could join us, which considering he’s in a wheel chair, and he thought he wouldn’t be able to do much, he said he had a ball, and he reckons that was the highlight of the trip for him.

Hubbard Glacier was great. They open up the helipad for the afternoon, so ADF and I were at the fron of the ship the whole morning, going photo crazy.

 

After cruise spent a couple of days in Vancouver. This was great too, went to Capilano Suspension bridge, and grouse Mountain.

Then back home to Aus.

All in all an amazing trip, and looking back the fact that the first 7 night were cancelled, probably made the trip even more enjoyable, as we got to do and see a lot more that we would have in the first place.

Definitly a place worth visiting at least once in a lifetime.

[karmac]

Great photos. Loved the ones of the ship's pool with the mountains in the background. Good to hear your hubby got to do more than he thought he would. That would have been a bonus.

 

Karen