National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! PRE-TRIP AND DURING TRIP REPORT COMPLETED About This Page:

[chezp]

National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder!

Pre-trip report – part one: “I wonder if Sue’s OK waiting another year?”


Before I officially start this pre-trip report, I’ll just briefly explain how it will work... I’m posting this introduction into three different forums, as our trip will take in distinct different elements. Those forums are:

• Globetrotting trip reports
• Disneyland trip reports
• Disney Cruise trip reports

Rather than putting the pre-trip report into all three, I’m going to put it into the Globetrotting one (and if you’re reading this is another forum), you can follow the link through to it to find it.

When it gets to the actual report, any live updates we’re able to do while we’re away will go into the relevant forum, as will the full report when we return.

Hope that all makes sense?

Dates: Friday 26 August – Sunday 18 September

Adventurers: Me, Cheryl (38) and DH Mark (45, turning 46 during the trip )

Destinations: cruising Alaska with Disney and exploring the American west coast and mid-west national parks and some cities along the way

Resorts:
26/08-28/08: Villas at Grand Californian, Disneyland
28/08-30/08: Pan Pacific Hotel, Vancouver
30/08-06/09: Disney Wonder cruising Alaska
06/09-08/09: Homewood Suites Convention Center, Seattle
08/09-09/09: Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, Yellowstone National Park
09/09-10/09: Old Faithfull Inn, Yellowstone National Park
10/09-11/09: Colter Bay Village, Grand Tetons National Park
11/09-12/09: Hampton Inn, Provo
12/09-13/09: Bryce Country Cabins, Bryce Canyon
13/09-14/09: Lake Powell Resort, Page
14/09-15/09: Blue Mountain Inn, Blanding
15/09-16/09: Hampton Inn, Rifle
16/09–17/09: Club Quarters, Chicago

Meets: we’re cruising with Sue (rescuesk) and husband Steve, Barb (GrammyGrumpy) and husband Bob and Bruce (zazu) and wife Marta. We’ll also be meeting a few other people along the way:
· our friends Mari and Raleigh, who we first met on our Med cruise in 2007, PassPorter e-book editor Carrie (elastigirl) and her husband Patrick, in Disneyland at the start of the trip
· our friend Joy (grumpygal) in Vancouver
· fellow PassPorter guides Debbie (DebiDebiDebi) and Sarah (DopeyGirl) in Seattle

Celebration: a once in a lifetime trip to see Alaska and some of America’s national parks.

I’d better not be rude, as I usually am and miss the introductions out. I must be honest, I figure that I post so much here that everyone must know who we are, but just in case you don’t, here’s a brief background for you....

Hi! My name’s Cheryl and I’m a Disney-holic, like most people here. My Disney history started, like many, with a family visit to Walt Disney World when I was a child with my parents. We later went back twice more as a family and I was bitten by the Disney bug.

Not long after I met my future hubby Mark, he headed out to Disney on a family trip and I remember enviously hearing about what he had been up to, while missing him hugely. So, when it came to planning our honeymoon in 1999, Disney World, along with Washington DC and New York, was a natural choice. Since then, we’ve been heading to WDW most years, with our visits becoming more frequent since we became Disney Vacation Club members in 2002.

However, we’ve branched out since, with three Disney cruises to date, the first in 2004, a three night one just to get our feet wet. We enjoyed it so much that we took the inaugural Disney cruise around the Mediterranean in 2007, with the most recent one on the Dream earlier this year. We’ve also made two visits to Disneyland in California together, to add to one I took with my parents in the 1980s.

Of course, living relatively near to Disneyland Paris, we’ve made regular visits there and our collection of Disney theme parks was finished off with a visit to Hong Kong and its Disneyland park in 2008, and finally a dream trip to Tokyo Disney in 2009.

As you’ve probably guessed by now, we love to travel and, like many others, we have a bucket list of places we want to see. For as long as I can remember, Alaska has been on Mark’s list, while I’ve always loved the idea of seeing Yellowstone and some of the other national parks in the mid West of the States, but we’ve never made it to any of them, until now that is...

This trip idea must have been born sometime in 2007 or 2008, at which point our friend Sue, who we met through the PassPorter boards, told us that she wanted to do an Alaskan cruise for her 50th birthday (oops, sorry Sue, was that a secret? ) for her 50th birthday in September 2010. We were immediately up for that, as I knew that Mark had always wanted to do an Alaskan cruise and we told her to sign us up for that one!

The plan was that we would all use our Disney Vacation Club points to cruise with Holland America, which sounded like a plan. It became less of a plan when they removed themselves from the DVC and the last cruises to Alaska with them took place in either 2008 or 2009. Great... so we started doing some research into which cruise line we might want to go with for 2010, but to be honest, we didn’t get very far. I think Sue liked one and I preferred another and I told Sue we’d go with her choice, as it was her birthday treat after all. We did both say though, on many occasions, “what a shame Disney don’t do cruises to Alaska”....

Fast forward to August/September 2009, the time of the first D23 convention and what do Disney do? They only go and announce that, with the arrival of the Disney Dream into the fleet from 2011, that will free up their existing ships to go and do something do, with the Wonder heading up to Alaska for the first time ever. I remember hearing all about how they unveiled the news and immediately thinking “I wonder if Sue’s OK to wait for another year to go with Disney?” Sure enough, she was thinking along exactly the same lines as me and I think she e-mailed me to suggest that. Ok, cool! Now we could use our DVC points once again for this cruise!

Next: our own little PassPorter cruise party!

[emmalovesdisney]

Wow, another PTR and what an amazing trip it sounds like!
Can't wait to hear more about all your plans - you are so lucky to be meeting with so many other passporters!
Some of the places yo are visiting are amazing (DH and I visited Seattle and Vancouver on our honeymoon) - if you have not been to Bryce before, it is truly one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen, I am sure you will enjoy it.

[bonphil]

Great start! you sure do pack of lot of action into your holidays!

[taylan1]

I can't wait for this trip report to start! My father is currently on an Alaskan Cruise and has sent us a couple of breath taking pictures and I can not wait to see all your wonderful pictures ( you do plan on taking pictures don't you ). My father has also been on a tour of the national parks and areas of the west, also breath taking and I can't wait to see your photos from there as well. I love my Dad but he promises photos and then forgets to send them to us. lol Some day we will see them all when he visits next. It is almost time, not much longer now.

[B.M.]

It's going to be such an amazing trip! I'm very excited for this TR!

[lauriep]

Great beginning! Can't wait to see how you fit all of this into one trip! I know it's 3 weeks, but that's a lot of ground to cover.

[Roxie2006]

I know this will be a wonderful adventure to follow. I am looking forward to it!!!

[Eeyoresmom]

Good heavens, Chez . . . I'm exhausted just reading the list of hotels! Sounds like a fantastic time, though.

[lexiemom]

Great plans Cheryl! I am glad it all came together and even though you had to wait an extra year you were able to use your points!

[jennie622]

This trip sounds juicier than the last!! Wowie!

[honeybee723]

Originally Posted by Eeyoresmom

Good heavens, Chez . . . I'm exhausted just reading the list of hotels! Sounds like a fantastic time, though.

I was thinking the exact same thing!!! This looks like it's going to be a great read.

[goofysdtr]

Ooo--a three week vacation sounds heavenly! Looking forward to hearing all about this one, Cheryl!

[momtolexi]

Seriously! I'm going to have to wait until mid-September to start reading your trip report Oh my goodness...what a WONDERFUL trip you and Mark have planned. Best wishes for a safe and awesome "once in a lifetime" trip! Cannot wait to see some updates along the way!

[Dlandmom2]

Great start! As always, I am amazed by all the planning you've already done for this trip! So many people, places and things to see!

[pamcarey]

What an amazing trip you have planned!