Ep. 708 - Live Bonus Show - Ireland to Alaska: One Family's Late-Season Disney Cruise

DCL Duo Podcast: A Disney Cruise Line Fan Podcast

Melissa joins the DCL Duo podcast to recount her recent late-season Alaska cruise on the Disney Wonder. The episode explores the unique atmo

Key takeaways

• Late September Alaska sailings are predominantly adult-oriented due to school schedules in North America and Europe.
• Avoid third-party booking sites like Algotels to prevent hotel reservation cancellations caused by payment failures.

Main topics

• Disney Cruise Line Alaska
• Vegan dining tips

Notable quotes

It's possible to simultaneously feel like immense grief and sadness, but also still be brought slightly out of that by the magic and the joy.

Conclusion

A practical guide for cruisers looking to maximize their experience th

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) I think if I was on any other cruise line or any other ship that I think I would have just wanted to curl up or go home. But there's something about Disney that I think everybody listening to this understands that it's possible to simultaneously feel like immense grief and sadness, but also still be brought slightly out of that by the magic and the joy, I suppose, and to have those two things side by side. Speaker 2 (0:36) Everybody and welcome to another live episode of the DCL duo podcast brought to you by we do travel right as you can tell from those watching and those listening. I am hosting today without Brian, Brian to give people an update because we mentioned last week on the live show Brian was supposed to have dental surgery on Thursday. Well, that dental surgery did not happen because Brian came down with a cold on Wednesday of last week. So Surgery was canceled. It's being postponed to October, I think late October. But anyway, Brian is still sick and we're recovering from being sick. He's, you know, in that like really phlegmy coffee stage of being sick. And so he is actually here, but he is producing the show. So he is behind the scenes. So you will not see him today. But if you are in the chat. and you see DCL Duo chatting, that's Brian in the chat and he's in the background producing for me so that I can focus on our amazing guest who's joining me. So thankfully I'm not alone. She's joining me from the future. It is one o'clock in the morning on Wednesday for Melissa, who is joining me all the way from Ireland. Welcome to the show, Melissa. Thank you very much, Sam. I'm very excited. I'm so excited to have you here. I know you've got friends watching from both. You've got your husband watching in Ireland. You've got friends watching in Orlando. So we are worldwide people today. I want to, before we get into the show, I got to thank our show sponsors. Of course, we have We Do Travel, right? Of course, life is short. Take the trip. If you want to plan your next Disney trip or your next vacation, reach out to We Do Travel, right? Let them do the planning so you can focus on the relax. We also are sponsored on our live and bonus shows by the DCL Magazine. I got to remind everybody that the DCL Magazine, in fact, I think yesterday just announced their calendar is up for sale. So brand new Disney Cruise Line Magazine calendar is now offered for sale. So the first calendar will be... of course, the 2027 calendar. So if you want to order that calendar now, you'll have a beautiful calendar for next year. If you go to dcl-magazine.com, use code DCLDUO in all caps in order to get 10 % off anything you buy in the store. So that includes the calendar. That also includes the magazine. And it's fantastic. I've seen pictures of the calendar. It's just gorgeous. As I have said, there are many calendars, but this one is mine, meaning it is made for me. Super excited about the calendar. We got shout out from Tracy already to you, Melissa, who's loving your fuzzy ears. These are the Alaska ears from the Disney Wonder. I love them. Before we jump into talking about your amazing Alaska cruise, Melissa, I want to talk about just a couple of pieces of... news. We don't have anything huge news-wise in terms of itineraries or more information about the Believe, for example. But we did see the Believe had three of its gigablocks float out from all the news is essentially from Europe today, or this past week, or actually over in Singapore. But the gigablocks floated out of Meyerwerft for the... believe three of them actually. So super exciting. You can see that particularly the middle of the ship has been, you know, the big parts have been built. And so they are making their way with progress with the Disney believe. Another piece of news out of Ireland out of your home country, Melissa is that we saw from Disney Cruise Line that they had like 30 Make-A-Wish kids that came on board the Disney Dream the other day. Was it big news in Ireland as well? It was, yeah. And it was really kind of odd to hear the Irish accents because Speaker 3 (4:42) it sounded kind of out of context. You don't usually hear of Make-A-Wish in that scenario. But yeah, it was beautiful. It was really moving to watch. Speaker 2 (4:49) Yeah, it was so good. The videos that they showed that Disney Cruise Line put out and sort of their little snippets on social media were beautiful to watch as well. Just fantastic. I love that they did that. It was on their British Isles itinerary. And actually, I just recorded an episode about that itinerary this weekend that will be out probably in October, but really sounds like a fantastic, of course, a fantastic itinerary that stopped around the UK. and of course in Ireland as well. But yeah, I would love to take one of those itineraries. And that was right before the dream set across for her transatlantic. So we know she's of course heading back to the United States as we currently are recording. Another piece of news, if people are living under a rock, you might not have heard this yet, but there are more deals on Disney Cruise Line, the biggest deals of which appear to be on the Disney Adventure with... It's kind of across the board, 50 % off on third and fourth passengers. So that's out of Singapore. But even there are more deals across the fleet coming out of the United States as well. And Disney is automatically applying. uh some some of the placeholder discounts or some of the cruises that you can use a placeholder discount for have gone on 25 off and so if you had a 10 placeholder discount but the cruise has gone on 25 off then you are getting that discount applied to your cruise i heard from a listener today um that they had that happen on a cruise they already had booked so um really kind of crazy to see Disney applying all of these discounts to cruises. It's just kind of unprecedented. Of course, that doesn't mean they're not still increasing their prices year over year. In fact, we put out a post on social media about that just today. But it's kind of amazing to watch. Maybe it will, I don't know, entice more people to try out Disney Cruise Line who have been more focused on other cruise lines. All Speaker 3 (6:48) right. Well, Melissa, Speaker 2 (6:49) let's get started with today's show and talk about your amazing cruise to Alaska on Disney Cruise Line on the Disney Wonder. I'm Speaker 3 (6:57) going Speaker 2 (6:57) to have Brian pull up the PowerPoint for us, but let's start with why Alaska? You live all the way over in Ireland. Why? I mean, you're coming way farther to go to Alaska. I mean, you could have sailed. You could have sailed out of Southampton. That's a lot closer this summer or out of Barcelona or somewhere over in Europe. Why did you choose to come to Alaska for a sailing in September of this year? We have Speaker 3 (7:24) a terrible habit of going very far away when Speaker 2 (7:27) we travel. Just to make it more Speaker 3 (7:30) expensive, you Speaker 2 (7:31) know. No, Speaker 3 (7:32) we were actually in Alaska two years ago on Celebrity. And I loved it. And my husband wasn't that into it because he didn't really like the food. Speaker 3 (7:41) heard so much about Disney in Alaska that I just really wanted to try it. It sounded like there was something really special about Disney Cruise Line there. So that's why I wanted to go back. I wanted him to give it another try and I knew he would love it. I needed it. Speaker 2 (7:53) Nice. Now tell me, what's your sort of Disney background? Are you somebody who has grown up with Disney being a part of your life? And, you know, have you done other sailings on Disney Cruise Line prior to deciding to jump right into Alaska? Speaker 3 (8:07) We have. So my background would be that I went to Disney. I was very lucky to Disney World twice as a child when I was six and eight, which was most unusual back then in Ireland to go all that way. And it was before Disneyland Paris was built. And then I met my husband and things kind of waned a little bit. I still loved Disney, but I wasn't as passionate about it. I met my husband and he is mad into Disney. So we planned a trip to Disney World 12 years ago now. And now we're annual pass holders, DVC members, the usual trajectory. We've been to all of the parks internationally apart from Shanghai and Hong Kong. Wow. Yeah, we've done the Adventures by Disney, the Disneyland Southern California one. And then cruising wise, this is our 19th cruise, but only our sixth on Disney Cruise Line. We've done Crystal, Regent, Silver Sea, Seabourn. We've done Celebrity Azamara. And then, as I said, Disney Cruise Line. And our first Disney cruise was in 2022. And it was on the Dream. It was a three night from Port Canaveral. And I didn't like it. Speaker 2 (9:10) Oh my gosh. I know. What didn't you like about it? I'm curious. It was only a three night. So that might be why you didn't like it. Yeah, Speaker 3 (9:18) that's definitely a factor. We much prefer longer sailings. But I think, I suppose we had only cruised on Crystal before that. We've kind of caught up a lot over the last few years in terms of numbers. And it was just a very different experience. And that time, it just didn't bring the magic that the parks brought to me at that point. I'm not sure why, but we gave it another chance when the dream came to Europe in 2024 and fell in love that time. And actually, we did the British Isles and Ireland cruise on that year. And we did a three night as well. And then, of course, things gained momentum, shall we say. And at this point, to be honest. Like Disney, if I could only sail two cruise lines in the world ever again, it would be Disney and Crystal, which are obviously very different products. But I would still pick Disney. Yeah. Speaker 2 (10:07) You'd still pick Disney over Crystal. Tell me, I have never sailed on Crystal. I know it's a luxury line. What do you love about Crystal? And is there a common thread between Crystal and Disney? Speaker 3 (10:24) I think Crystal is obviously very different. So it's a smaller ship. You typically only maybe have 700 people on board. The crew to guest ratio is like really huge. And it's just, it's very luxurious. Everything is luxurious. But for me, the commonality is really how it makes me feel. Speaker 1 (10:40) And I think Speaker 3 (10:41) that it's just that emotion that it evokes when I walk on the ship, when I interact with people on it, just that the feelings of it. And so it's hard to quantify in terms of, you know, the food is good on other lines or, you know, the rooms might be nicer on another ship, but it's that feeling for me. Speaker 2 (10:58) Oh, I love that. And I think to me, that always comes from the service level and the cast, right? Or crew on, you know, we call them cast on Disney, crew on other lines. But I feel like that's where a lot of that feeling comes from. I don't know if that's the same for you. Of course, on a smaller line, you're going to get a little bit. different style of service, a little bit more personal service. But I think that's where that kind of magic can come from on any line, frankly, if you have those great experiences. And I have to say the wonder being a smaller ship, I really felt that intimacy Speaker 3 (11:35) much more so than on the Dune. You can't see which of the other two ships we've been on. Speaker 2 (11:39) Love it. Yeah. All right. Brian, let me have you advance to the next slide. Speaker 2 (11:45) All right. So travel day, let's start with, um, did you, how far in advance did you, of course we're sailing from Vancouver. So if you're sailing from on Disney to Alaska, either on the wonder or on the magic, you are sailing from Vancouver, British Columbia. So that's a port in Canada for those listening and watching who aren't familiar. Um, how did you guys like, just like decide when you were coming in and how much time to spend in Vancouver ahead of time? I mean, you've got. quite a big of a time difference. So I'm just curious, did that sort of factor into how much time or did you come anyplace else in the United States prior to, or in Canada or the United States, I guess, in North America before going to Vancouver? Speaker 3 (12:28) No, we're lucky that in the summer here, Canada runs a direct flight from Dublin to Vancouver. And it actually is marginally shorter than going to Orlando from Dublin. The globe is a funny thing. Speaker 3 (12:42) Yeah. Yeah. So it's funny. So, um, no, we came the day before and then we actually stayed a night after the cruise because there was no direct flight the day we disembarked. So we had, I suppose, two pretty full days in Vancouver. Um, and we'd never been there before. So I was very excited to see it. Speaker 2 (13:00) Awesome. Well, tell us, what did you guys do in, uh, it's obviously the sailing party is the three of you. So you, your husband and mom. Speaker 3 (13:09) Yeah. My mother. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 2 (13:11) And now, where did you stay and what did you all do in Vancouver pre-cruise? Speaker 3 (13:17) So I need to tell you about a small blip we had on the day we arrived. So I had booked the Pan Pacific for the first night and the very last night. And we arrived and I booked it through a third party, which I've never had any problem with in the past. And I guess my tone is telling you that there was a problem when we arrived. So we checked in with a very helpful man who essentially, to cut a long story short, told us that they couldn't find a reservation because it had been cancelled. So it seems that certain third party websites don't actually, they're not even third party, they're fourth party. So they don't actually book directly with the hotel themselves. They guarantee you a price, guaranteed in inverted commas, and then they go and try and secure that price from a different third party website. And in this case, they hadn't been able to do that. So the hotel had cancelled the reservation because they hadn't received any money. Speaker 3 (14:03) The website we used, which was Algotels, which I unfortunately did not look up on Trustpilot before I booked through it. But if I had, I would have realized that lots of other people have had similar experiences. So they never let us know. So we were standing at the desk for an hour trying to sort this out. They only had one room left in the Pan Pacific that night. And so my first thought was, OK, where's my mother going to stay? And second of all, is this going to be a ridiculous price? The very helpful man. helped us. He printed out different options for my mother. Standing there, we managed to book her something online, which was actually a really nice hotel called the Azur Hotel, A-Z-U-R, which is only a couple of blocks back from Canada Place, was about 100 euros, so maybe 115, $16 cheaper. And she got a glass of champagne to the room she had. free breakfast in the morning. The service is really good. So I think it's actually a really good option that I would consider in the future or recommend to people. It was a bit more modern and more recently updated than the Pan Pacific. And she really liked it. But luckily, they did have the room for us on the way back. So the day we got off the cruise, we knew we could check into the Pan Pacific. So that was a bit of a saga and a bit stressful and especially getting off a long haul flight. But all's well that ends well. Speaker 2 (15:18) Oh my goodness. Wow. Yeah, that is like the travel nightmare. I mean, as you said, all's well that ends well. But that is kind of one of those travel nightmares that you just hope to not encounter. But wow, that's kind of crazy. Thank you for sharing. I mean, there are some, of course, reputable third-party sites that you can book through in order to get a better deal. I'm always uncomfortable even booking through the third-party website, even the trusted one, because their cancellation policies are usually not as favorable as the hotel's own policies. And so you can have a little bit of a snafu on that if you do need to make any kind of cancellation at the last minute. But all right, so you sort things out with the hotel. You and your husband are able to stay at Pan Pacific, which is helpful for the luggage transfer. be honest. That's one of the nice things. And also just rolling out of bed in the morning when you're heading onto the ship. But what did you guys end up doing in Vancouver? I see, of course, that's the arch in Chinatown. It looks like you were at a totem park and then a waterfront restaurant, maybe. Speaker 3 (16:27) Yes. So we headed, there was a particular vegan, we're both vegan, myself and my husband, my mother's not. And there was a particular vegan pizza place we wanted to go to on Main Street. You Speaker 2 (16:36) know, AI told me, sure, Speaker 3 (16:37) there's loads of interesting places nearby. Walk through Chinatown. Turns out Chinatown, everything is closed on a Sunday. And I asked for advice about safe walking routes. And let's just say the advice wasn't entirely accurate. So we had a bit of an eventful afternoon. Food is good. And we wanted to make our way, I suppose, up through nice parts of the city. But we managed to step through some uncomfortable situations en route. Speaker 3 (17:03) Yeah. So later on that afternoon, my mother decided she'd go back and relax in the hotel. And we went to a place I'd highly recommend. It's called Tap and Barrel right there beside Canada Place. Speaker 2 (17:14) Yeah. And they do a happy hour Speaker 3 (17:16) from 2 to 5.30 at the weekends. I think the hours are more extensive during the week, but it was... It was really good, really good food, great drinks, nice views. And then the next morning, the photo on the right is, Moiselle Fernanda went for a run in Stanley Park, which was just gorgeous, absolutely fabulous scenery. So then we got on the ship and you're right, the luggage transfer is worth its weight in gold. I would pay just for that. Speaker 2 (17:41) Yeah, it just makes everything just super easy. It's of course, there's plenty of hotels near Canada Place walking distance. There's even, you know, a nice hotel right across the street. I'm forgetting that. I think I remember. Speaker 3 (17:55) Yeah. Speaker 2 (17:56) And so there's just plenty that are really convenient. But of course, there's nothing more convenient than having your luggage picked up from your room and heading right downstairs to board your cruise ship. I also highly recommend a run in Stanley Park if you're a runner. It's a beautiful place. It's a beautiful place even if you're not a runner. They have a great aquarium to visit in Stanley Park if you're traveling, in particular if you're traveling with kids. The aquarium is a fantastic place to visit. But Vancouver is beautiful. But as you mentioned, there are streets in Vancouver. Vancouver is very urban. And there are streets and blocks of Vancouver and it's kind of hit and miss that are maybe not as pleasant with quite a large homeless population panhandling that sort of the kind of the things you expect in an urban atmosphere. And in some locations, you will feel perfectly safe in other locations, not so much. So it's definitely something to be aware of. Keep your wits about you. All of that. All right. Let's see the next slide, Brian. Oh, Embarkation. You already did it. Look at that. Brian is on the ball. Embarkation Day. Okay. So you wake up, you go do your run. You get all dressed up cute for Embarkation Day, of course. Obviously, you're a gal who likes to wear ears and dress in theme. I'm a gal who likes to do the same. How did the Embarkation process go? Check-in, all of that? Speaker 3 (19:28) It was relatively smooth, but it was much slower than we had anticipated. As I said, this was our sixth cruise. And any cruise we've been on previously, let's say you get an embarkation time of 11.30 like we did. Typically, well, we've embarked in Port Canaveral, Barcelona, and Southampton. And if you show up an hour before, normally you'll be through and waiting to get on the ship at that time. But that wasn't the case on this day. I'm not entirely sure whether that's typical or not, but really we should have waited and just shown up at 11.30 because there was no point. We were just standing around for about an hour beforehand. But once we got on the ship, all was smooth. With the exception that I heard a guest earlier in the summer say this, we tried to go to the sit-down meal in Tiana's place and it was full. There was actually a cast member walking up and down the corridor saying that it was full and recommending cabanas. But the very first thing I did was I I wanted to go and check that we had a table just for the three of us. So I went down to French Quarter Lounge and I knew I would love it, but I absolutely fell head over heels once I saw it. It's just everything I love. It's so well themed. The music is amazing. I love Princess and the Frog. It has people watching and windows to see out as well as being able to sit in a bar and music. I just, yeah, I couldn't have been happier. Once I saw that, I gave it a little squeal and ran back to the other two. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 2 (20:43) It's absolutely, I have to completely agree with you. The French Quarter Lounge is one of my favorite, I mean, it might actually be my favorite bar venue across the fleet. It is. well, maybe my favorite themed one because I do love Meridian and that's not really themed or it's a nautically themed, but not sort of IP themed. But yeah, the French Quarter Lounge is just a fantastic place. And I love the layout. I also love that they allow kids in there, even though it is a bar and lounge space and you have activities that happen and music that happens. And of course, the theming flows so nicely into Tiana's for dinner, of course. Now, were you able to secure that private? table for your dining? Speaker 3 (21:28) Yes, there was no problem. This sailing wasn't full by any means. We asked an officer and there were 2,013 people on board. But to be honest, there were hardly any children. So I think most people were a couple sailing, you know, just the two of them in the stateroom. So it was, there were lots of empty tables at dinner. It was never difficult. Interestingly, the British Isles and our little cruise we did two years