Train Ride

One of the coolest parts of the trip was taking the White Pass & Yukon train ride up into the moutains in Skagway. The train went up 3,000 feet and at times it felt like you were literally along the edge of the cliff (probably because we actually were). It was a railroad built during the gold rush and was truly an engineering marvel. The views were amazing and the stories were incredible. I could not imagine being a part of the rush to Alaska. We saw another glacier on the train ride, but only for a few seconds. It was an amazing experience to go on this train ride through the mountains. It was SO WINDY in Skagway, I almost lost my hat twice.

The Entertainment

I think one of my favorite parts of the cruise was the variety of entertainment available all day. There was always something to choose from for all ages. The kids had the option of going to the oceaneer lab which was a special part of the ship just for kids. Most nights there was a live show to go see, we saw The Golden Mickeys, Frozen Musical and Disney Dreams. There were also magicians, comedians, musical acts, trivia, you name it.  We also watched some movies in the theatre and even played Bingo a few times. We didn't win big money, but Brian won some Disney swag and Wendy won some jewelry. There was never a shortage of things to do.

The Characters

The characters on the ship were one of the highlights for the kids each day. They would review the itinerary and decide which ones they wanted to see and get autographs from. Addy's autograph book is now quite full and here are all of the character photos we got.
Captain America, Tinkerbelle, Belle, Spider Man, Louie, Pluto, Mickey Mouse, Minne Mouse, Chip n Dale, Joy, Mr. and Mrs. Incredible, Daisy, Tiana, Captain Hook, Stitch and Woody.

One of the best moments was when Cameron put on his Iron Man costume to meet Captian America and they had a heart-to-heart about being super heros and joining forces. And even better was when one guest on the ship asked Cameron for his autograph when he was dressed up like Iron Man! Cameron got to sign her book- talk about super hero!

The Ship

We boarded the ship around 2:00 on Monday in Vancouver, after going through check in and customs and security. It was so fun to watch the kids explore the ship and there was so much to explore. 10 floors, 3 pools, 2 theatres and 1 waterslide. We found our room and then immediately headed up to the top deck in suits. We knew it wasn't going to be very warm in Alaska so this was our chance to hit the pool and the waterslide. Even after a week there were still areas of the ship to explore and ways for us to lose the kids on the way back from dinner. It's hard to imagine just how big the boat really is. There were about 4,000 people on the ship and 1,000 of them were Disney staff.

Back at it!

I know it has been forever, but we have been busy and I have the posts to prove it. The summer ended on a high for us as we were finally on our Disney Alaska cruise. It was amazing and everyone had a great time. It will take several posts for me to do it justice and even then I won't be able to illustrate just how great of a vacation it was. And now it's back to school and routine and reality. It was a bit of an adjustment but I do love this time of year and know it will be Christmas before we know it. But first, there are tons of pictures to come of Mickey and his friends and the beautiful scenery of Alaska and food, lots and lots of food.