Ep. 710 - Disney Wonder to Alaska With 19 People: Excursions, Dining & Tips
DCL Duo Podcast: A Disney Cruise Line Fan Podcast
Travel advisor Sarah Tanzel shares the logistics and highlights of leading a massive 19-person multi-generational group on a Disney Wonder c
Key takeaways
- Flying the entire group directly into Vancouver avoids the logistical nightmare of transferring 19 people from Seattle.
- A 'choose-your-own-adventure' excursion strategy allows different age groups to enjoy tailored activities like Yukon tours or whale watching.
Main topics
- Multi-generational group travel logistics
- Alaska port excursions
Notable quotes
Life is short. Take the trip.
Conclusion
Successful large-group cruising relies on flexible planning and strate
Transcript preview
Speaker 3 (0:00) freezing. I was not expecting it to be as cold as it was. And it had to be in the 30s. And all the kids swam. Their parents were on the, Speaker 2 (0:09) you know, on Glacier Day. Yeah, they were Speaker 3 (0:11) on the lounge chairs, like covered up with the blankets and they had their hats and stuff on. And the kids were just going down the slide. And oh, they just had the kids had a ball. Speaker 2 (0:33) everyone to another episode of the DCL Duo podcast brought to you by We Do Travel Right. Life is short. Take the trip and let those folks at We Do Travel Right do the planning so you can do the relaxing. Welcome back to the show, guys. As you can tell from my voice, it is Sam. I am your host today. Brian is not able to join me. He is busy with some other stuff for the podcast, but never fear. I am not alone. You will not have to listen to me drone on for an hour today. I've got a great guest on tap today. I am welcoming for the first time on this show, but not a brand new Disney cruiser, a semi-new Disney cruiser, Sarah. Welcome to the show, Sarah. Thank Speaker 3 (1:14) you. Speaker 2 (1:14) It's so lovely to have you today. We are recording on a, I guess, midday on a Sunday afternoon. So thank you for joining me and breaking up your Sunday to chat with me. But Sarah, before we dive into talking about your amazing cruise on the Disney Wonder to Alaska, why don't you tell folks your Disney background and then your cruising background? I know you're a travel advisor, but let's start like before you became a travel Speaker 3 (1:42) advisor. Okay, so my... Disney background is I grew up in the 80s and 90s. So I like to think that's like the golden age of Disney. I know maybe younger people wouldn't think that, but you know. Speaker 2 (1:53) I'm with you, Sarah. Speaker 3 (1:54) You know, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Lion King. And then, but I actually didn't start going to, we went to Disney World for the first time when I was adult, an adult. I think I was around 23 or 24. So I didn't grow up like going to Disney. As far as cruising background, I have. been cruising since the 90s. I think my first cruise, I think, was on the big red boat, but it was just with my show choir. Oh, fun. Yeah, it was really fun. And I've been on Carnival. We've really hit, other than Norwegian, I think we've been on all the major lines. So Carnival, Royal, Holland, Princess. You know, we've hit most of those. We even did a Crystal River cruise when Crystal was still doing river cruises. And in 2022 was our first Disney cruise. And we did Mediterranean out of Barcelona and that went to Rome. Speaker 2 (2:49) Oh, wow. OK, interesting. Your two Disney cruises are like two epic destinations, one in the Med and one in Alaska. That's so interesting. Why did you decide to start cruising on Disney? Why did you choose that cruise in 2022 as opposed to one of the other lines that you had sailed on? Speaker 3 (3:09) Well, we were going to cruise with children. So we have eight children. At the time, we had five children going with us from seven to 18. So Disney seemed like a really good choice for us. We had done a Royal a couple of years before that. And I know this is, I just wasn't a big fan of Royal. It just, the ships were so large that. You know, we come from a teeny tiny town. I think we only have like 3,000 people in our town. It's actually a village. So when we were on the Harmony of the Seas, there was more people in Speaker 2 (3:45) our whole Speaker 3 (3:46) town. At the time in 2022, the magic was in Europe. So that was much more manageable for us. And I don't know, we just, we loved Disney World and we loved everything Disney. So we thought, well, let's try Speaker 2 (4:02) it. Let's try the cruise. Awesome. Wow. Eight children and five of them joined you on the previous cruise. How many joined you on this cruise to Alaska? Five. Five again. Wow. Speaker 3 (4:16) What's the age range? So the ones on this cruise, we had our 11-year-old, our 13-year-old, our two 18-year-olds, and then our oldest, who is 33. Wow. What a range. Yeah. And then our oldest with that. the oldest, he has a wife and then a seven-year-old and a four-year-old. So our grandkids were with us. So yeah, it was, and then we had my mom and dad and my sister and her husband and their five kids. So there was 19 of us on this cruise. Oh Speaker 2 (4:45) my goodness. That is a big group for planning and a wide range of ages. What's, so who, who's the youngest in the group then? So we had, two Speaker 3 (4:57) four-year-olds, and then it went all the way up to 72, which was my dad. Speaker 2 (5:02) Wow. Yeah. So, okay. A huge range. Now, is that why you chose Alaska? I mean, I think Alaska is a great multi-generational cruise. I mean, sailing on Disney in general is great for multi-generational sailing. You can do, of course, Caribbean Bahamas. Those are pretty easy for multi-generational sailing. But why Alaska? This is going to be a horrible answer. Speaker 3 (5:25) But my main, my number one reason is my husband does not like doing Caribbean or Bahamian cruises. He just, he's not a tropical person. You know, so I have to choose ones that are, you know, not, not tropical. I mean, we went, we've even done one that was like a Canadian. You know, we left from Montreal and went to Speaker 2 (5:47) Boston. Speaker 3 (5:47) Oh yeah, like in Northeast. Yeah. So I, if I want to cruise, I have to choose. You know, like I said, we even did a Danube River cruise just because I like to cruise, but he doesn't like to do tropical. And there's not a lot of choices, really. No, Speaker 2 (6:02) I mean, most of the cruises, that's I mean, it's a great but most of the cruises that are out there on all the major lines, like most of them are Caribbean and Bahamian, right? Like they have different. ports that they go to, different islands that they go to, but they're mostly in that region of the world, at least sailing from the U.S. Obviously, you've got more options when you're sailing out of Europe and more options when you're sailing out of Australia. But on the American lines, yeah, the biggest number of choices are in the Caribbean or the Bahamas. That's so interesting. Does he just not like the... Like, is he not a beach person? Does he not like hot weather? Like, what is it about sailing in those areas? I don't know. He just, we've done, I mean, like I said, we did a royal Speaker 3 (6:46) and I believe a princess and a celebrity. We did all, two of them were Caribbean and the other one was just a Bahamian one. And he just did not, he did not care for them. So I'm Speaker 2 (7:00) like, Speaker 3 (7:00) well. Speaker 2 (7:01) I wonder if he would like a Disney one. I wonder if he would like the Disney private island experience. You'll have to ask him. Honestly, I am trying to convince him. And back this morning, Speaker 3 (7:12) I'm trying to get him to do a back-to-back in November and he's fighting me. Speaker 2 (7:18) Well, you know. Play a couple of our shows for him, because I would say that if you pick the right itinerary, like an itinerary, for example, that only goes to Disney's private islands, or even if you go to one of the other places, you just, you know, maybe don't get off. It might change his mind about what that experience can be like. But, you know. The convincing has to happen first. That's really funny. Okay. So now where are you guys, what part of the country are you guys coming from to get up to Vancouver for this Sailing on the Wonder? So we flew out of Detroit, Michigan. Okay. So, Speaker 3 (7:52) you know, we're not quite East Coast. Yeah. But like we're East Coast time and everything where we live. Yeah. Speaker 2 (7:59) Yeah. All right. Well, now how far in advance did you plan on coming into Vancouver and how did all of that go? So we planned on coming in Speaker 3 (8:10) two days early. So our cruise left on a Monday. We came in on Saturday morning. Perfect. Speaker 2 (8:14) Yeah, you get plenty of time. If there's any delays, you also have time to do a couple of things in the city of Vancouver. I think that's a great way of planning. And of course, from Detroit, I'm sure there are plenty of options, direct flight from Detroit to Vancouver. We actually only had one and it was a WestJet. Speaker 3 (8:32) And they actually... We could have flown direct to Seattle, no problem. But it was moving 19 people from Seattle to Vancouver. I just wasn't going to try that. And actually, two weekends ago, when we were going to fly, WestJet was, I think it was their flight attendants that were going to strike. And so we had got this thing, you can cancel your flight if you want to. And I thought, oh, no, what are we going to do? they strike and we got out okay but I talked to somebody when I got on the ship and they were coming from Toronto and they actually did cancel theirs they had they they did the strike they canceled theirs and they had just got in Monday morning from Toronto and yeah so I was last minute Speaker 2 (9:19) Yeah, well, and that's a good point about flying 19 people, you know, and then if you had flown to Seattle, there are options for getting up, of course, from Seattle to Vancouver. It's about, you know, three, three and a half hour drive. But you'd have to rent a couple of cars for that many people. And of course, a lot of luggage or hire a car service and dealing with the border can, you know, be time consuming as well. But then the other thing is, you know, your other options are, you know, taking a bus or taking a train. And those. the dollars can actually add up for those costs per person, especially for that many people. So I do think, you know, if you're... just a smaller family flying into Seattle and then getting up to Vancouver, pretty easy. A larger group, a little bit harder to coordinate. Now, Sarah, since you're a travel advisor, I take it you were the wrangler of all things in terms of booking and choosing state rooms and all that kind of stuff. What, if anything, were you planning in advance? Like, were there things that you were like, okay, we want to do this as a group? in terms of excursions or onboard experiences. And then of course, dining. I mean, that's a lot of people to coordinate for dining. Was there anything that you were looking forward to or trying to plan in advance? I mean, dining, we did. We Speaker 3 (10:37) linked all our reservations. We all did dine at the same time. We just had one serving team, which I was kind of surprised. I thought maybe they'd give us two, but they did a phenomenal job. As far as excursions, I knew it was going to be really difficult. And there was such a range. I mean, my parents don't get around really well. So I knew, you know, there was just some things they would not be able to do. So I just kind of coordinated. So there were six in my immediate family. And so my husband and I and then our four boys still at home. So I just kind of coordinated us. And then I just kind of let everybody know like. these are the things we're doing, but there's these options as well. If you'd like to do that, here's some free things that you can do. I mean, I just didn't know what people wanted to do. So that's kind of what I did as far as excursions. But as far as like transfers, we all stayed at the same hotel beforehand. That stuff, you know, I coordinated for everyone. Speaker 2 (11:32) Yeah. Now, speaking of that, so it sounds like you did sort of a choose your own adventure in terms of port excursions, which makes sense because with that big of a range, you might not all want to do the same things or be really be able to do the same things because some of the younger kids, of course, can't do certain activities. Disney Cruise Line has age limits for certain things. Sometimes the tour providers age limits are actually lower, but Disney has their own. But in terms of... transfers. Like how did you coordinate that? Did you book through Disney Cruise Line any transfers or did you book those privately? Nope, Speaker 3 (12:06) I did those all private. I just, you know, I just kind of did a Google search and we ended up going with the company that we chose in Vancouver was Quest. And they just they sent two big sprinter vans to the airport and picked us all up and took Speaker 1 (12:19) us. We and we stayed at the Pan Pacific. Speaker 3 (12:21) So, yeah, they took us right down there. And then I, you know, the same company picked us up. from the cruise port, it was super simple and easy. So yeah. Speaker 2 (12:29) Well, and staying at the Pan Pacific makes it even that much easier because you only have the one transfer from the airport and then you literally have your bags picked up from your room and then you, you know, take the elevator down and you're at Canada Place. Yeah. Yeah. Now tell me any highlights from your time in Vancouver before? Did you guys do anything that you would recommend to folks who are listening? Um, we ended up Speaker 3 (12:55) doing the, just the hop on hop off trolley. I liked that. I mean, it took you to the major, we didn't, we only had really one full day there. So it took us to all the major, you know, Stanley Park, Granville Island. Those were the two things I wanted to see. If we had more time, I would have liked to go out outside of Vancouver to, you know, so that's basically what we did. We, you know, we ate at some good restaurants. Um, I have to look at the one restaurant was really good. It was Din. Tai Fung, I think it was. Yes, Tai Speaker 2 (13:24) Fung. I love Tai Fung. So Tai Fung is actually a chain. Yes. In Asia. Now it is a chain in the U.S. as well, but there's not a they're not in every major city. There is one in New York City now, but we've had them in Seattle, actually. So the first ones in the U.S. opened in California and then they expanded to the Seattle area. It's like my favorite dumpling place. So for those who have not eaten at a Din Tai Fung, it is like soup dumplings. So it's Taiwanese style. It's fantastic. It's so, so good. And it's a chain, but it's not like it doesn't feel like a chain restaurant. It's really, really good. Speaker 3 (14:02) Yeah. And it was fun. It was a fun experience, you know, if you haven't. I mean, we, like I said, we live in a teeny tiny town. We don't get that kind of experience here. So my boys thought it was wonderful. So we, we enjoyed that. And then there was also a really good sushi place right by Pan Pacific called Miku. And that was really good too. So, so we didn't do a whole lot. And, and honestly, I did not, like I said, we've been to Europe before. I did not expect the time change to affect me so bad. And it was, I don't know if it was just. going, you know, instead of going backwards or going forwards, it was, it was a killer. So yeah. Yeah. Speaker 2 (14:39) Well, yeah, it is a, it's a three hour time difference, of course, just to Vancouver and then going to Alaska. I think it's another hour that you usually change time, right. And in this, in that direction, because I remember when we sailed to Alaska, it was for us, it was only one hour at sea time difference, right. Cause we're on the West coast, but yeah, I mean, four hours can. can screw up Speaker 3 (15:02) your sleep schedule for sure. Speaker 2 (15:04) Yeah. Well, let's talk about embarkation. By the way, I have heard about Miku. We have not eaten there ourselves, but we've heard good things. So that's where I'm going to have to try. Next time we head up to Vancouver, I'm going to have to try Miku. Yeah. So let's talk about embarkation day. What time did you guys call for your luggage pickup and what time did you head down for your port arrival time? We Speaker 3 (15:25) probably called right They told us to call between 8 and 11. So I think we probably called at the earlier end of that. And they are super fast there. I mean, if you call for your luggage, I bet they were there within 10 minutes, maybe 15. And our embarkation was 1145. We had crews before. My sister and my parents hadn't. So they had a little bit later than us. But it was pretty... pretty fast. I mean, they got us on the ship. I think we were on probably by 12. We got in line about 11.37. We started to go in, and I think we were on by about 12.20. Oh, fantastic. Speaker 2 (16:05) Yeah. Yeah. Now, this being your second time on Disney Cruise Line, your first time was on either the Dream or the Fantasy, probably the Dream. It Speaker 3 (16:13) was on the Speaker 2 (16:13) Magic. Oh, on the magic. Oh, yeah, because it was before. Yeah. Twenty twenty two is a couple of years ago. So before they switched over. Yeah, that's actually when we sailed. We sailed in the Norwegian fjords the same year as you. So it's same season on the magic. Now. OK, so you're you're going from the magic to the wonder. What was your I mean, same, of course, class of ships, the same size. What was your what were your first impressions of the beautiful Disney wonder? We Speaker 3 (16:42) loved it. I mean, it felt like, I mean, it really felt like the same ship when we got on. But yeah, we loved it. I did think she was showing her age a bit. I do. I think tomorrow she's going in the dry dock from, I think they had one cruise after us. And then when those people get out. So I thought, you know, I could tell she was showing her age. One thing I didn't remember when we were on the Magic, and maybe it was different, is the... The stairs, it was really annoying me because it's like wide stairs. And then it went