To Alaska and Beyond! Updated 10/7: Sled Dog Camp Part III: Puppies! About This Page:

[statelady01]

Cast of Characters:

Me, Maureen, age 35, turning 36 during this trip!
Kevan, DH, age 40
Aaron, DBIL, age 16
Matthew, DS, age 10

The beginnings of this trip date back years because Alaska has been at the top of DH’s travel wish list ever since I have known him. Me? Um, yeah- I might be interested in a bear sighting or two, along with a glacier perhaps but it’s pretty much not been an absolute must do for me.

The past year had seen big milestones for our family. We survived a very difficult separation from Matthew, our 10 year old son. In January, Matt left us to live with my MIL in Arkansas. He was so miserable at school he begged us to go- and we eventually relented. It was a long 5 months between the time he left and the time we got to Arkansas a few weeks ago. But we made it.

Kevan and I celebrated 15 years of marital bliss. Marital bliss most of the time that is! It really has gone by quickly and we’ve had our share of awesome and down right horrible times. 15 years and 5 kids later. Wow. And most of the time we still do like each other. So there’s another reason to celebrate in a big way.


In May, Kevan turned 40. I must admit he took it well. He didn’t get a massive amount of tattoos, body piercings or demand we buy a Harley in some sort of mid life crisis. He really didn’t seem to mind the big 4-0 other than the occasional musings of how he was old- which I think I will do as well, when I get there. In 4 years. Hee Hee. (Don’t remind him).


In the fall, I submitted, on a dare from my Assistant Principal, a proposal to present at the National Kindergarten Conference in Las Vegas. I really didn’t think I stood a chance to be selected but low and behold, I was chosen to attend and present! The original plan was just to go out there myself, but my MIL graciously offered to watch our kids and have Kevan go with me. That was supposed to be the extent of this trip. Out to Las Vegas for four days and back home.

Small, relatively, simple plans in my world, tend to get bigger and bigger.

In November, I began thinking about what I should do for Kevan’s 40th. He does not like parties much so a big surprise bash was not going to be what he really wanted. MIL Beverly started helping me brainstorm. I don’t remember the exact manner in which Alaska came up, but it did. Having recently become a complete cruise junkie, my thoughts immediately zeroed in on an Alaskan cruise. Since MIL had planned to send Kevan with me to Vegas, we came up with the idea of combining both destinations in one trip.

The thought of leaving all five kids with her for at least 10 days did not resonate well with me. It was just too much to ask of her. I suggested taking along Aaron, my 16 year old BIL and Matthew- since by the time the trip came around, we would have only recently been reunited.

I began looking around at the different cruise lines that sailed to/ around Alaska and narrowed down the field of finalists. It came down to Norweigan Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean. NCL was priced somewhat higher but it did have the appeal of freestyle cruising- which would have been up Kevan’s alley. He has had no desire to cruise but it was the most economical way to go. I just hoped that the destination was enough motivation to get him on a ship. Having recently sailed Royal Caribbean in one of their oldest ships, I was impressed enough with it to choose Royal Caribbean for this adventure also. The dates of the sailing worked better in conjunction with the conference and the rate a little more competitive.

By the time MIL arrived to spend the Christmas holidays with us- I had a general idea of what we were looking for. I had enlisted the help of my OTHER better half, business partner, BFF and cruise diva Lynn. She and I spent many an hour pouring over deck plans and playing around on RCCL’s website. By the time we had schemed- I had a pretty a good idea of what we were looking for. Now we just had to book it and pull off the best Christmas surprise ever.

Coming Up Next: A cabin with a reputation ????

[Minnie Lor]

Ooo, sign me up to read your pre-TR and TR. I'm hooked. We would both love to go to Alaska and DH has said that is the only way he'd do a cruise.

[statelady01]

LOL Lorie!

We'll have to work on your DH then! That sums up Kevan exactly!!

[Minnie Lor]

Originally Posted by statelady01

LOL Lorie!

We'll have to work on your DH then! That sums up Kevan exactly!!

but now all of our vacation money is being saved up for a trip to Tokyo in 4 yrs. with hopefully a bunch of PP's. Sadly, I need more vacation money in the budget.

[mcc0313]

Great start Mo...can't wait to hear more about your upcoming adventure.

[lauren-roxy]

Great start Maureen!! Congrats on getting picked to present at the Vegas conference!!

[rlb38]

Sounds great, looking forward to more.

[DrDolphin]

What a great start!! I am thinking about an Alaskan cruise for DH2B as next year's christmas present (a first anniversary gift in 2011 - oh heck we aren't even married and I am planning the 1st anniversary!!) since he can't come to alaska with me next week.

[Colexis Mom]

Great start Maureen!! More please!!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Minnie Lor

but now all of our vacation money is being saved up for a trip to Tokyo in 4 yrs. with hopefully a bunch of PP's. Sadly, I need more vacation money in the budget.

Tell me about it!

Great start - I can't wait to hear all about your trip, as we're hoping to do an Alaskan cruise one day. It's something Mark's wanted to do for some time.

[LizardCop]

KEWL!!!

An Alaska Cruise is on our list for next year, after Hawaii in the spring...

Looking forward to your experiences and report!

[Kenny]

DW is the Alaskan enthusiast between us, but I'm interested enough to tag along!

[statelady01]

Beverly and I hovered in a Books A Million a few nights before Christmas, lattes and laptop by our side. She would be helping a lot with the cost of the cruise, paying for Aaron and splitting the cost of Kevan’s fare for his birthday gift.

Finally, we had it. July 4 -11 on the Serenade of the Seas, departing and returning from/to Vancouver, Canada. This would align perfectly with my conference in Vegas. We booked a balcony, which as far as I was concerned – a must. I wasn’t going to go all the way to Alaska not to have a view. After much consideration, cabin 8088 was selected. MIL paid the deposit.

As grandmothers sometimes do, MIL went overboard (no pun intended!). After we finished the RCCL booking, she told me Emily and Katie (our daughters) as well as Kevin, our eldest son- should get as nice a trip as the rest of the family would have. Disney was offering the Kids Sail Free special- so we booked myself and the girls for a 3 day sojurn in May. Then we hit the Amtrak website and booked a Dad-Son overnight train trip for Kevin. Connor, our baby, would not be making any big adventures this year and we figured he’ll forgive us for it since he probably isn’t going to remember any of this anyway. When he turns 3, his first trip to Disney World will take place and it will be all about him on that one.

So as we closed down Books A Million that evening, I left in shock. We had booked 3 trips in the amount of time it took us to drink 2 lattes.

We decided to give the trip to Kevan as a birthday/Christmas combo chiefly because I did not want to have to plan in secret for the better part of 6 months. If this was his trip, he needed to make a lot of the decisions on where to go and what to do.

So Christmas morning arrives, he opens up a box with 2 Alaska guidebooks and a printout of the confirmation. He didn’t get it at first, but then it all sunk in.

He was still in shock most of the day and dove into the books straightaway. Thank goodness we had planned this at least 6 months in advance- there was a lot to learn about Alaska.

One night in January, I was surfing around Cruise Critic and decided to look at posts about Serenade of the Seas- when I noticed the number 8088 come up in a few threads. I kept digging and couldn’t believe it- we had secured one of the most coveted cabins onboard that ship! Lynn and I had looked at the deck plans back in the “investigative” phase if you will- but I didn’t realize that 8088 was that special. It’s midship and a hump cabin- giving us more balcony room on the rounded edges of the ship. The cruise adrenaline really started to pump at that point.

February came and we began to rethink the economics of our portion- money was going to be a bit tighter than I had expected. I went back to the RCCL site and began to play around with other cabin categories- when I noticed our category was pricing out cheaper than what we had booked. I called RCCL to inquire about this and then told the agent I would probably need to go to a much cheaper cabin anyway. I was floored when she told me that our category was on sale and she would be happy to adjust the rate! One phone call saved us nearly $1200!! Cruise adrenaline flowed through my veins once again!!

By March, Kevan had read the guide books and began pouring through the shore excursion offerings. Most of the ones he had really wanted were outrageously priced- helicopter tours and things like that. While I wanted so desperately to give him all he wanted on this trip- $570 per person for such an excursion was just not realistic and luckily, he agreed. He found a few other things of interest and got on the phone with Matthew and Aaron to narrow our choices. We limited ourselves to one excursion in each port. The time docked wasn’t particularly lengthy and we wanted to also have the opportunity to explore Juneau and Skagway on our own, in addition to the planned excursions.

Beverly and I both began the mad hunt for airfare around this time as well. Several things complicated finding good airfares. Flying from our regional airport is very expensive. Flying at a peak travel time. Also, needing a multi city itinerary. All of these factored in to big frustration for what seemed like the longest time but finally, using Orbitz- we got an itinerary that came in slightly below $500 per person. The only downside was having to leave from Little Rock National Airport, a 2 hour drive from our area. Our itinerary also has us on three completely different airlines- 2 of which- Air Canada and United, I have never flown before.

I also made arrangements around this time for the conference. It’s being held at the Riveria Casino and Resort in Las Vegas. My one night before the conference was per diem, but the other 2 nights of our time there was not- so I did my own checking. I was shocked to find I was able to get a better rate at the Mirage instead- so I booked that for the entire time. We figured a car was going to be a necessity with me having to go back and forth- so I used some discount codes and got a intermediate rental with Dollar for just under $100 – taxes and fees included.

In early May, Royal Caribbean offered a 5% discount on Alaskan shore excursions, so we booked a majority of them at that time. My poor debit card was screaming leave me alone! Stick a fork in me! I am done and you are broke!

I also found accommodations for our overnight in Vancouver before the cruise at the Sheraton Wall Centre. I had that booked with a AAA rate of $170. One of the hotels I had really wanted to stay at was the Pan Pacific at Canada Place where the main cruise terminal is. (Course, we are sailing out of Ballayntne- which is the not so great one). Pan Pacific is very close to some of the things we hope to do in the morning before we board the ship and it gets fab reviews on Trip Advisor. Anyhow, I start surfing on Hotwire and doing some research to find that the Pan Pacific often comes up as a 5 * hotel and had the exact list of amenities that goes in the listing. And it comes up for $138 incuding all the taxes and fees. Should I? I did.. and wouldn't you know?? We got the Pan Pacific!! I am so excited about this little development!

I couldn’t believe my luck when I logged onto our reservation one evening to see that the My Time Dining waitlist had been opened up. I had previously had us set up for late seating as My Time was not available. My Time is Royal Caribbean’s version of freestyle dining- somewhat. You can dine anytime between 6:00-9:30 pm. Once onboard, we select a targeted time for each evening- such as 7:00- but if we need to change it according to our daily plans, we can. It’s being rolled out on a few ships and I figured we might give it a try.


Kevan and I also chose Chops Grille as our anniversary celebration dinner. It had a $25 per person surcharge. Matthew is too young to dine there- so he and Aaron can head to the teen/kids programs while we enjoy Chops.

At one point, I felt like I was really being nickeled and dimed before we even got onboard- but I think that mostly comes from the fact that RCCL has a lot of things being prepaid- all of the shore excursions, the Chops reservation and the soda pass. However, as I write now with 9 days to go- I am glad I prepaid all those things- it’s done and taken care of and won’t be hitting my onboard account.

Coming Up Next: A new feature to my trip reports..

[Minnie Lor]

I'm so excited for you and can't wait to read all about it when you get back. Hopefully, you take good notes 'cause we want details

[chezp]

Wow - it must've been some Christmas with a wonderful present like that for Kevan! I bet his face was a picture - how long did it take him to stop grinning?

The more I read about this, the more excited I get - it just sounds amazing.