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We're sailing the NCL Sun Northbound out of Vancouver next summer, in part because it does both Glacier Bay and Hubbard. We knew we wanted one-way, however, because we wanted to spend time visiting in Anchorage and see Denali. For the 3 of us (2 adults, 1 teen), the cruise itself is pretty budget. It looks like the excursion and the after-tour (probably DIY) are going to be the more expensive bit of the trip.

We're DCL sailors, so this will be our first non-Mickey cruise - but I couldn't imagine sailing the itineraries Disney sails in Alaska. NCL's changes in smoking policies have made this ship a possibility for our family. I'm looking forward to the itinerary and the ports, and trying not to read too much about NCL to worry me in the meantime! (I've done that before - twice we booked Celebrity, and twice we ended up cancelling, in part because of reading too much!) From what I can tell, it's hard to go too wrong in Alaska if you're aiming to enjoy the scenery and the wildlife.

When I used to travel to SeaTac for work, I'd take Shuttle Express to the hotel. It's a ride share, and they do appear to offer $22pp Cruise transfers as well. They were always quick, efficient, friendly, and easy to find.

You can find more info at http://shuttleexpress.com/seattle/cruise-transfers/

If you don't find any NA wines you like, you could always go for virgin mixed drinks - daiquiris, etc. Even after I was old enough to drink alcohol, I stuck with virgin strawberry daiquiris for years because I liked them! I'm sure the bartenders/servers can give you some suggestions for other drinks to try as well.

We recently booked the same itinerary on the Sun in 2016 and started looking at mini-suites (pricing similar to DCL) and ended up booking an Ocean View - which saved over $2K for the 3 of us and frees it up to use on excursions and post-cruise land tours. Just the difference between and OV and a Balcony was $1300 - which would more than pay for all of the ship-based excursions we might be interested in (not that we're going with ship-based excursions...). With the window, we can at least see outside, but we're very used to spending most of our awake times in public spaces, so spending the time on deck will not be a hardship.

I've never sailed Alaska, and I've never sailed NCL (so far, DCL only - though we keep trying to book something else!) but we've usually sailed insides and ocean views, and honestly for the most part, I'd rather save on the room so I can spend on the rest of the vacation. We're going on a 12n cruise in the Baltics this summer, and we're doing it in an inside. I plan to spend a lot of time on deck watching the scenery, watching us pull into and out of ports, and just enjoying the view.

I haven't sailed the Dream, but disembarkation is the same for all the ships at Port Canaveral. Not that this is not necessarily the case for any other disembarkation ports.

The last night of the cruise, you will receive Disney Character luggage tags to fill out and put on your bags. The tagged bags are then put out in the hall the night for the room stewards to collect. After the ship docs, the luggage gets unloaded into the luggage hall, and and are sorted by the Disney Character tags.

Once the ship clears customs, people can start leaving whenever they choose Breakfast is staggered based on your dining time, though you can also dine in the buffet on debarkation morning. Because of the staggered dining, Disney's done a fairly good job of keeping the lines for debarkation short without having to manage specifically who leaves when.

Once you have had breakfast and gathered all your hand bags, disembark the ship and they will scan your Key to the World card one last time. Then, you will head down stairs (escalators or elevator) to the luggage hall. When you enter the hall, there will be porters available to help with your luggage if you choose (remember - they work for tips!), but you don't need to use one if you wish to manage your bags yourselves.

Collect your luggage from the area with the Disney Character tags you placed on it. If you have trouble locating a bag, there are Cast Members around to help - sometimes the tags get torn off during transportation. Once you have your bags, get in line for customs. Make sure you have your customs form and your ID (Passports or photo id and birth certificates) ready for the customs officials. They may ask some questions or not. Once you are through customs, you can leave the terminal and head out to your transportation of choice.

We've never had a problem putting our luggage out the night before - we had one bag that had been damaged in transit on a cruise to Barcelona, so they managed to lose the tag on that bag and we had to find someone to locate it for us. If you do choose to carry all your luggage off the ship, you'll head down to the luggage hall and get in line for customs immediately. Just be aware that you'll have to keep track of the luggage in the morning (they usually request you carry all bags to breakfast in the main dining rooms and not return to your room) so that could be a consideration.

As for Pelican Plunge, they do have life vests for available right before you swim out to the platform. We've never tried it as my daughter isn't a strong swimmer, but I do recall seeing a lot of smaller kids going down the slides with life vests on.

Enjoy your cruise!

We don't have previous experience, but some of the fellow cruisers on our July Baltic have had experience with them in the past (2010) and had nothing but good things to say, so many of us are putting our trust in their experience and recommendation. So that's who we're using for our 2 day tour on our July cruise.

We have a group tour for our cruise with some of our cruisemates, and our contact at Anastasia couldn't be more helpful! They offered a 50% special for pre-payment prior to the end of December, and so we got a great deal, and working through getting our payments to them has been fine. They've even given what seems like decent guidance on how much cash to carry. Correspondence has been clear and quick - so far, we've had no complaints.

I'm hopeful that I will be able to give them a good review after our trip this summer!

We were there a few years ago and did DCL's Discover Atlantis tour, which included transportation, access to the Dig aquarium and a tour. For the price, we thought it was a good deal.

It seemed to me that you could go to Atlantis and wander around the shops and maybe the casino without a pass. However, in order to get to any of the other areas (water park, aquarium, outdoor fish tanks) you had to go past someone checking wristbands - so you needed some kind of pass. They were selling them on-site, but the cost was high enough that the excursion made sense - I think it was $49/day just for the Dig access (and free range through the resort), and we paid $59 for the excursion which included transportation and the tour. They were pretty strict about checking wristbands, as well, and had people stationed at pretty much any access point.

We really enjoyed the excursion, the tour (which was kind of hokey, but had some very interesting information as well) and the aquarium. It was enough to give us a feel for the resort, and the idea that it might be a nice place to visit for a few days someday.

I don't think Disney has a Captain's table. However, in our 10 cruises, we've had the Captain in our dining room a handful of times. At least once he was dining with his family at a 4-top, and once with other officers. I've also seen some of the entertainers dining in the dining rooms. It doesn't seem that any of these people have a set schedule or table - it seems that they dine in the dining rooms when their schedule permits and tables are available.

Vests aren't rented - they're freely available at all of the lifeguard stands along the beach. You're only paying for rental of the mask/snorkel/fins.

If you bring your own - including vest - I'm sure you can probably use your vest just fine. They lifeguards will insist you get out of the water if you have no vest, but if your vest is yellow (ours are), they're not going to know the difference between yours and theirs. In fact, I don't think they even require it to be inflated - just that you wear it, so it might be more for visibility than anything else?

However, since the vests are free, if for some reason they insist, it's not a big deal to use them. I've never seen a lifeguard stand run out of them.

Enjoy your cruise!

Hi thanks for the replies, I wasn't vey clear in my first post!

 

We will be departing the ship in Copenhagen so will need to get to copenhagen airport! We did the early departure off of indie when we went with RCI and were off the ship in no time at all. So hoping it will work the same for disney.

I don't think Disney has ever ported out of Copenhagen before. I do know that when we sailed the EBTA to Barcelona, they didn't recommend any flights before 12pm - but the airport was a fair distance from the port, so that might have had something to do with it. You might get a better response on asking about general disembarkation and flight times on the Northern European ports board - there appear to be some locals on that board that might be able to help better with Copenhagen specifically.

As for getting off early - you can take all your bags off with you (don't put anything out the night before). Depending on the port, you might need to ask at Guest Services if there's anything special you need to do - I know in Barcelona they weren't calling groups in 2011 (it was just like Port Canaveral - leave when you want to) but apparently other ports are small enough that they have to limit the number of passengers disembarking at any time. There are usually a fair number of people trying to leave as soon as the doors open, so you probably won't be alone!

Enjoy your cruise!

DVC was giving pop-up cabanas/canopies away during their member meets on our Fantasy cruises last summer - and encouraging their use on CC. I don't think I saw any - and we didn't use ours - but I can see them being useful for families with small kids who want more shade near the water.

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If you have kids a Disney cruise is a must, but for adults RCCL is superior. IMHO

I think it depends on what, as adults, you enjoy.

We've cruised Disney for a while now, and have seen everything from pool games at the adult pool (yes, including wet t-shirt and belly flop) to talks from Imagineers on recent developments at Walt Disney World, with a lot of things in between.

In my experience, the trivia and evening game shows are much better attended on the 7+ night cruises. There are also multiple mixology/tastings offered at a reasonable price, towel folding and cooking demos, DVC/ABD talks (with freebie give-aways), movies (lots of first and second run in the theater - including 3D), and other random events here and there to keep the adults busy while the kids are in the clubs. Plus - characters! A lot of adults enjoy the character meet-and-greets as much as the children do - you don't have to be a child to get a photo with Mickey Mouse, and on the ship I feel much less guilty about taking time away from a child because there are plenty of opportunities!

The shortest we've taken was a 4-night, which in my opinion for any cruise ship is too short to get a good feel for the ship, the activities, and the ambiance. There's so much you miss - not just because of the time constraints on what you can fit into 4 days, but because the shorter cruises take that into account and don't schedule everything available on a longer cruise. I can't imagine sailing any ship for less than 5-7 nights, and would prefer 14 or more.

Yes, we enjoy Disney, but we also love Disney because of the level of service and the way they make everyone feel special on the ship. We're currently booked on a Celebrity S-Class ship for next fall because, from Gambee's review, it sounds very similar from a service perspective (though our DD12 will have a far different experience from what she's used to), but it really sounds like there is also a similar mix of adult activities as well. We've looked at RCI (our first cruise was originally booked on RCI, but then we switched to DCL) and hope to cruise it in the future, but we're more interested in education and relaxing and reading and less interested in rock climbing (though the flow riders look fun!) so I think these more laid-back cruise lines are a better fit for us right now. :D