DarthShoppingMaul

On the Wonder to Alaska, our table presented with 2 out of 9 travellers having a specific dietary issue and they had no problems with substitutions.

My mother in law had informed DCL prior to the cruise that she had some issues with certain foods and they were very accommodating as long as the foods she chose were allowed according to her diet. They were quite strict with keeping within the allowed items list but she was free to make any substitutions within that group of permissible foods.

Diner #2 is always very picky and usually doesn't like much except for meat, hamburgers, pasta and potatoes. Seafood and ethnic food are not on his favourite list as well. About a week before the cruise, he had a flare up of an intestinal condition and ate mostly steamed veggies and the occasional hunk of meat for the entire duration of the cruise. Our server had no problem bringing him a huge plate of steamed broccoli or asparagus every night. Initially, the head server noticed that he was not eating and even offered to bring him some Indian food that the crew eats. Even though Diner #2 refused his offer, I blurted out that I like Indian food and he brought a delicious tortilla and curry vegetable dish to our table the next night. What a surprise!!

Additions were also not an issue. My sister in law ordered 2 lobster tails with her main dish accompanied by a single serving of potatoes and asparagus.

What dates in August were you there? We were travelling as a family in a group of 9 from Aug 17 - 24.

Why not use packing cubes? We use ones made by eagle creek and they designed to fit nicely into suitcases.

I used to own a DSLR with big heavy lenses but have made the switch to mirrorless.

Cameras

1-Sony A6000 w/ OEM half case

2-Sony RX100m3 w/ OEM grip

Lenses:

1-Sony 16-70mm Zeiss f4

2-Sony 35mm f1.8

Accessories:

1-Manfrotto BeFree Carbon fibre tripod

2-Black Rapid Metro strap (A6000)

3-Op/Tech detachable strap (A6000)

4-Op/Tech finger cuff (rx100m3)

5-Metz Mecablitz 24 flash

6-Think Tank Retrospective 5

7-medium size Gorillapod with ball head

8-Crumpler Baby Scarer or Kata pouch (rx100m3)

Just got back from sailing on the Wonder and they have a nice plug in hair dryer in the top right hand drawer of the desk. There is also a plug that is specially designated for the hair dryer.

The bathroom with the toilet also had one of those infamous 'hot handle' hair dryers too.

The typical time is between 8:15 and 10 or 8 and 10' date=' so you can put them out right before you leave for dinner. We just plan on wearing to dinner the same clothing as we will wear off the ship the next morning[/quote']

 

On the Wonder coming back to Vancouver, the time range given was between 6pm and 10pm. There were many things to do between 6pm and 10pm (nightly show, character meets, and dinner) so I packed most of it in the afternoon. We use packing cubes, so it was easy to put most of the stuff away.

 

In fact, I should have just taken my suitcase off of the boat myself. When I got to the arrival hall, someone had taken my suitcase by mistake and it ended up in California before Disney lost and found notified me of it's location. Now, it's been sent to Orlando for inventory/customs purposes, and should be back to me in a couple of days.

We just got off the Wonder and had second sitting, which allowed us to take our time at port destinations. Dinner would run at least an hour to an hour and a half in any MDR.

We were sailing with someone with dietary restrictions, so our server gave her the following day's menu in advance and she pre ordered the next days MDR meal. This took some extra time and may have prolonged our sitting. In fact, our server had about 7 or 8 special order sheets amongst the tables he was responsible for.

The only issue with 2nd sitting may be on the last night of the cruise if you want Disney to take your bags to the terminal for you since they have to be outside your stateroom before 10pm.

We usually change our money at a couple of places. Rates are listed.

http://www.vbce.ca/

http://www.kingmark.ca

IMO, totally not worth spending all day to see Butchart. Not that it isn't pretty and extensive, but you can see more and as good or better right here in Vancouver with much less travel between them.

 

Queen Elizabeth park has extensive gardens, including two quarry gardens (not on the same scale as Butchart, but same idea) and is FREE. It's also just a couple of blocks walk from Van Dusen.

 

Dr Sun Yat Sen in Chinatown is better than anything at Butchart. On the UBC Campus there is a Japanese garden as well as more general Botanic garden (plus a set of suspended walkways through the trees). Stanley Park has the Rose Garden, extensive Rhododendrons, more trees than you can shake a stick at (also all free).

 

Grand total cost to travel between all of these would be $9.75pp (Day Pass on transit), and more relevantly you would have options to do other things around Vancouver which spending a day getting to & from Butchart deprives you of.

I would agree with the opinion on Butchart Gardens. There is alot more to see, and experience in Vancouver. I would not make a special trip out to Victoria just to see Butchart.

Van Dusen and Queen Elizabeth park are at least 1km from one another walking north on Oak St and then east on 33rd Ave. It`s probably a 15 to 20 min walk for most people.

Thank you all so much! I'll bookmark this so we can use it as a guide! We are downtown at the Hyatt so hopefully pretty convenient to places.

 

We are foodies, lived in Singapore for 6 years and will be looking in Vancouver for some good cuisine! We love Korean and all Asian!

 

Have noticed your temps are warm right now which is great! Will be enjoying your city soon!

 

Any more ideas are welcome!

Most of the good Asian food is in Richmond, which is a municipality just south of Vancouver and connected to the downtown core and other areas via Skytrain. If you are at the Hyatt, just walk across to the Skytrain station and take a ride down.

Buy a transit pass or a book of 2 zone Faresavers for your voyages if you plan on taking Skytrain from your downtown hotel. You can obtain transit passes or Faresavers from grocery stores, London Drugs, 7-11, etc. There is a 7-11 at YVR in the domestic terminal that sells these and it may be a good idea to purchase them there if you are taking the Skytrain out of the airport.

Tickets purchased at Skytrain ticket vending machines at the airport (Sea Island) are subject to a $5 add fare tacked on to each ticket in addition to your fare. If you are travelling from the airport to downtown Vancouver, you will need to purchase a 2 zone ticket from the vending machine. The price will be $5 in addition to your 2 zone ticket. You can avoid the extra charge if you use Faresavers (a 2 zone Faresaver for Richmond to Vancouver travel) or a daypass, which is good for all zones.

A new designer outlet mall (Mcarthurglen) just opened on airport grounds (Sea Island). Skytrain service on Sea Island is free between YVR station and Templeton. However, the $5 add fare applies if you take the Skytrain from any Sea Island station elsewhere. Once again, you can avoid the extra $5 upcharge if you use a daypass or Faresavers.

The translink website is a good resource for public transit

http://www.translink.ca/

There are currently 3 Skytrain lines: Canada, Expo, and Millenium. If you are transiting from downtown Vancouver to Richmond, you will be looking to ride the Canada line.

You will find good Asian eats at Aberdeen Mall, Yaohan Center, and a massive cluster of restaurants on Alexandria Road. In fact, travelling to Richmond is like going to a cleaner and less crowded version of Asia. Our family`s favourite, Aberdeen mall, has a great food court and 3 or 4 sit down type restaurants for dumplings, seafood, and Korean BBQ. All are reachable via Skytrain.

Japanese Ramen restaurants are very popular here in Vancouver as well. There are many popular places in the West end of downtown: Santouka, Kintaro, Motomachi, Marutama, etc. Also worth mentioning are Tai Sho Ken (Chinatown area), Ramen Butcher (Chinatown), G-Men (Richmond), Ya Ya Ya (Richmond).

If sushi is your thing, then Vancouver will also meet your needs. There are many all you can eat places, but quality is lacking in most establishments. We usually go to a la carte places like Sushi Garden, Sushi Town, Samurai Sushi, Sushi California, etc. There are just too many good places to mention that are all listed on Urbanspoon.

We surprised our son with one of these character calls a couple of weeks ago for our Alaska cruise in mid August. My wife chose Mickey to call at 3pm and the call was executed on time.

It's an automated message that reminds you that you have scheduled a character call and to press 1 within a certain time frame to initiate the character greeting. After initiating the greeting, we handed the phone over to our little 8 year old boy and watched him explode in excitement. He actually said that the cruise was "a dream come true", so we were happy with our vacation decision.

I'm glad we finally got the character call over with so that our family can now talk about the cruise in front of the little one. We booked over 6 months ago and it was hard keeping it a secret from him.

The air quality in Vancouver was at its worst yesterday. We couldn't even open the windows at home since the smell of smoke was heavy in the air. Today, it's much cooler and the smell of smoke is gone for the most part. Unfortunately for those living east of Vancouver, the winds have pushed the smokey air into the Fraser Valley.

Although the smell of burning wood is gone, there is still an air quality advisory for the greater Vancouver area due to the small particulates still suspended in the air.

Google BC air quality for a link to those that grade the air around here.

How about a camera bag insert? It's basically a padded camera bag you put inside another bag. They sell them on Amazon , at Adorama, and from B&H photo. I am a fan of the ones made by Tenba.

Testing to see if I can post pictures to the forums. These pictures were taken on June 29 2015.

Why not try using some sort of shoulder pad to spread out the weight or to protect against any potential pain caused by a shoulder strap.