Our WONDERful Alaskan Vacation

Friday, May 27^th

It has finally arrived!!! Time to leave for our vacation!  David was off on Friday for the long holiday weekend, so we decided to go spend the night in Denver on Friday night instead of driving to Denver on Saturday before our trip.  We were able to find a hotel where we could park our car for free.  The only problem was I thought we weren’t leaving until Saturday morning so when we decided to leave on Friday it put everything in high gear.  Oh well…that seems to be the way we like it around here J  We got all packed up and headed to Denver.  Our vacation was starting!! WOOHOO!

Saturday, May 28^th

Our flight left out of Denver with a direct flight to Seattle.  We got into Seattle around 2pm.  We stayed in a hotel downtown called Hotel 1000.  It was a pretty cool place to stay.  We were only a few blocks from the Pike Place Market.  After we got checked in we decided to walk over to the market and check it out.  David & I have been before, so I knew we wouldn’t be there very long.  We just walked around a little bit, watched a couple street performers and then headed back to the hotel.  We decided to order room service for supper and let the boys play in the room.  We had the COOLEST bathtub ever!  The water fell from the ceiling into a claw foot bathtub.  The LOVED it!!  Great kick off to vaca

Sunday, May 29^th

Today was train day. When we bought our plane tickets it was $200 per ticket cheaper for us to fly into Seattle than Vancouver.  That was when we decided to take the Amtrak train up to Vancouver.  It was exciting for the boys!  This wasn’t their first train ride, but probably the first one they will remember.  The LOVED it.  We headed to the train station early….really early.  We got there at 6 am!  Yeah…early.  That place was C-R-A-Z-Y.  We are used to flying & the craziness that in entailed with that & 2 kiddos, but this was a whole new dimension.  It’s just a big open room & you hope that you are in the right line for the right thing. You have to wait in line to give them your luggage, and then wait in line to get your seat assignments, and then wait in line to board the train.  Craziness I tell ya. 

We finally get on board and in our seats.  There was another family of four sitting across the isle from us & guess where they were going ??  You got it!  They were going on the cruise, too.  The ride up to Vancouver was uneventful.  That’s always a good thing for our family J The ride was pretty at times and we got to see a TON of bald eagles as well. 

Once into Vancouver we go through customs and find our way to a cab.  Then off we go to our next hotel.  We stayed at the Pan Pacific Hotel.  It is literally where the cruise ships dock.  It is a beautiful hotel in a great location.  That evening we walked around the area called ‘Gastown’ ate supper and then headed back to the hotel.

Eagle in flight

Our hotel

Monday, May 30^th

We headed to the Capilano Suspension Bridge.  Now, most of you that know me know I don’t do heights.  I just really don’t like them.  So hanging above a raging river at 230 ft is not my idea of bliss. But, I heard it was an awesome sight and thought it would a great thing for the boys.  It did not disappoint.  It really is a fun place.  It was pretty crowded when we went, but not unbearable.  Once you walk over the bridge there are giant trees and they have a fun little adventure trek for kids.  The boys loved it & we learned a lot about the rain forest in Vancouver.  We didn’t have any other major plans for the day so we just walked around and explored what we could on foot.  Most of our traveling party was supposed to be getting in today.  We ended up running into a few people as we were exploring and then learned that some of our party was stuck in the airport.  We all said a prayer & crossed our fingers that they would get into Vancouver before 3:30 on Tuesday.

Side note:  David started feeling a little crummy on Monday.  We made sure to hit the drugstore to buy any kind of medicine we could for all his symptoms…that took about $35! 

Exploring

Done with exploring!  Making the trip back across the bridge

Tuesday, May 31^st

Today’s the day!!!! We are getting on the ‘Mickey boat’ today!!! When we checked into the hotel  I mentioned to them that we were boarding the Wonder and asked a few questions about where the ship would be.  He moved our room and told me he put us where we would be able to see the boat pull in on Tuesday morning from our room.  So, we planned to wake up early and watch the boat pull in & dock that morning while we were eating breakfast in our room.  It was great!  The boys were SO excited when they saw it come in.  It was FINALLY here! 

Our entire group decided we would meet at 9 to go wait in line to start the boarding process.  All of us were there…except for Stephen, Tammy, Chase & Ally who were on their way from Seattle.  We were so glad to get word they were on their way & no longer stuck in the airport! 

We waited in line about an hour before we were able to go through customs.  Then we were inside the terminal!  We then went to the line to check in for the cruise.  We walked right up and started checking in.  It seemed like it was talking a while for the guy to check us in….. as we were standing there we saw the Whittings arrive!!  Everyone was now here! WAHOO! Well, it was taking the guy a long time.  We didn’t finish getting checked in until after the all of our group and then some!  At this point the boys are beyond restless.  We are in need of NO MORE LINES!  Oh well, off we go to stand in another line….the one to check the boys in for the kids club. (We could have done this on board, but didn’t want to ‘waste’ time on the ship) Once we got done with that line….MINNIE was out!!!!! So, off we go to another line J  But this was a good one!  We are going to see Minnie! The boys were so excited to see her despite the meltdown they were currently having over the tracking device that had just been attached to their arms for the kids club.  We got up to Minnie took a picture, then back to the meltdown.  I was ready to rip that thing off their arms so I didn’t have to hear them screaming anymore, but I knew that if I did that I would have to deal with it another time so we just toughed it out. 

After about 5 minutes of inconsolable crying from the boys they announced it was time for our assigned number to board! HALLELUJAH!  At this point I am just ready to get somewhere we are not making a scene!!!!!  The boys calmed down (for now) and as we are walking towards the boat they get SO excited.  Well, really we all were!  I think the 4 of us were giddy at this point.  The anticipation of them saying ‘Welcome Aboard, Hollis Family’ was getting to us!  We finally get to the door & they announce we are here….such an awesome thing!  So fun to hear, so fun to feel special. 

After we boarded, off we went to eat. Of course!  Really, it was lunchtime so we went to the buffet and got our eat on.  It’s always a great way to start the cruise J  Then we explored a little and waited for our rooms to be ready.  We got in our rooms around 2.  We got our luggage, unpacked and then waited for the time for us to go to our life boat drill.  So, as we are getting ready to leave for the life boat drill Jonathan starts complaining that his stomach hurts…bad.  He is really crying & saying it loud.  We made sure he was ok & then made sure he knew he could not say this out loud when we were at the drill.  We DID NOT want to get quarantined right off the bat if it wasn’t necessary!  So, during the drill Jonathan fell asleep on David’s shoulder (a relief to me!).  Right after the drill is the Sail Away party.  Since Jonathan was sleeping David decided to go to the room with him & Jackson and I got to go to the party.  It’s a fun dance party on Deck 9 with the characters.  We brought bubbles & Jackson was thrilled to be able to FINALLY blow them! When the party was over we went back to the room to check on Jonathan and get ready for supper.  Jonathan was still sleeping, so we all got ready and waited to wake Jonathan until the last minute. 

Our first meal was in Animator’s Palate.  It is an awesome restaurant that starts out in black & white and then turns to color throughout the course of your meal.  The kids love it!  The boys didn’t get much playtime during the day so they were really fidgety at supper.  We ended up taking them to the kid’s club after they were done eating.  This is just one of the awesome things about being on a Disney cruise…. the kids club J  David & I got to come back to the table & finish our meal in peace.  I don’t think we even talked to anyone else, just enjoyed the lack of drama at the table. J Each night there is a show, so we went to pick up the boys from the club and then headed to the show.  Disney has AWESOME shows, especially on the cruises.  They are compared to Broadway shows & have won all kinds of awards.  The boys LOVE, LOVE, LOVE watching them.  After the show was over we headed back to our room to turn in for the night.

There it is!!!!!!

Goofy came to visit while we were eating lunch!

 Wednesday, June 1st

This was a sea day, which meant a lot of exploring and finding fun things to do on the ship.  We just played around as much as we could!  This was formal night, so we knew after nap we would start getting all dressed up.  Now, I LOVE seeing my boys all dressed up.  I know that boys are made to get dirty, but man I sure like it when they clean up.  Mine sure clean up well ( I sure am humble).  The boys just LOVE the characters.  They always have.  So every.single.time. they see them they go crazy!  The characters seem to do so as well!  It is so much fun to see it.  The boys also carry on a conversation with them…with out the characters talking.  I know my boys talk a lot, but this just takes it up a level. J No really, the boys just love being around them and telling them all about anything they can think of!  Super fun to watch!

Gotta be able to have a goofy pic!

LOVE Mickey bars!!!! Thanks Tam :)

Our fun door!

Thursday, June 2nd

Today was the day we were going to cruise up to a glacier!  Pretty cool stuff.  It’s so hard to explain. And most pictures truly don’t do it justice, but we tried.  Basically all day was sitting outside watching the scenery.  There are noise ordinances so sometimes there was narration about what we were looking at and then other times it was just quite as we were moving slowly through the ice.  The boys went to the kids club for a little bit, but eventually it was time for a nap.  I took the boys back to the room for a nap & David stayed out and enjoyed watching us sail up as close as we could get to the glacier.  That night all the characters were in their Alaskan clothes.  They have some CUTE outfits! Each night we made sure we went to take pictures with the characters before dinner..we pretty much stalked them.  Anytime we could find someone to take a picture with, we were there.  Supper was in Tritan’s that night and it was GREAT!  The show was a comedian or something like that, so we didn’t go.  We went back to the room to prepare for the next day. We were going to get into our first port..Skagway!

Jackson scoping it all out

The ice we were sailing through!

Adorable Minnie!

Friday, June 3^rd

Skagway, AK.  We finally go to set our feet in Alaska!  It was a pretty dreary day, but that was exactly the weather we expected.  We had decided that we would just walk around the small town and spend time together as a family that morning.  It is a small town with a lot of souvenir shops.  We didn’t buy anything just enjoyed walking around seeing everything.  We got back on the boat for lunch and then it was nap time again.  It has always been important for us to keep a rather regular schedule no matter where we are.  So, that’s pretty much what we do.  Of course, we make exceptions and change things up a little but for the most part the schedule is the same. 

Since this was our 10^th anniversary trip I scheduled for us to get a couple’s massage followed by a dinner in Palo (the adult-only restaurant).  Now, this is not our first couple’s massage.  We got one on our cruise 2 years ago.  It was great….except for the fact they were doing a fire drill and all the alarms were going off in the massage room with us.  Relaxing, right?!?!  HA!  Anyway- we knew that was a fluke so we were excited about doing this again.  Our massage was great and relaxing and so was dinner!  It was awesome to think back 10 years and all the things God has done in our lives.  We are blessed and thank God for it!

Anniversary Celebration

Our view at dinner

AMAZING chocolate suffle'

Saturday, June 4^th

Juneau, AK.  Cold, rainy, dreary…again.  We were going on a FUN excursion today!  We were going to a summer camp for dogs that run the Iditarod.  WOW is about all I can say.  Those dogs are AMAZING animals.  When we got there we met the dog owner & she was our guide.  We got on a cart and the dogs pulled us around for about 1 ½ miles. It was a thrill!  After we finished our ride we got a chance to pet the dogs and then meet new puppies.  The neat thing about these dogs is that most of them are mutts.  They take dogs that do well racing and breed them together.  We were told that they are worthless until they are trained to race then they are worth a lot of $$.  Interesting.  I will admit I don’t know much about dog racing, but that was a surprise to me.  I thought they would be worth a lot no matter trained or not.  Anyhoo… after we were done with looking at the dogs we got back on the boat to eat lunch.  After lunch we decided we would take a bus to the Mendenhall glacier.  We had been told this was not to be missed.  They were right!  Now, we did not get to fully appreciate it and here is why.  You know the whole normalcy story I told ?  Well, there was no time for naps at Juneau so off we go on a 20 minute bus ride to the glacier.  Needless to say, the boys fell asleep in our laps on our way there.  Did we bring the stroller with us on the bus??  Of course not!  That would have made sense!  So, there we were each carrying a 40 lb sleeping kid trying to look at a glacier.  Our plan was to take a couple pictures then catch the next bus back. That’s exactly what we did.  We were at the glacier less than 20 minutes…. Oh well, at least we saw it, right?!?!  Once we got back to where the ship was I left David outside a store on a bench with both sleeping boys to buy a couple things for us to take home.  I shopped for all of 10 minutes.  When I came out of the store the boys were awake.  So, back to the ship we go. 

Tonight was pirate night.  It is such a fun thing Disney does.  Now, I will admit it is pretty strange that they still did the ‘Pirates in the Caribbean’ theme while we were in Alaska but I understand why they did.  It is SO popular.  LOTS of people LOVE this & go all out for it.  It is a lot of fun in the Caribbean with fireworks and a fun show including Capt.Hook.  They weren’t able to do the show because of the weather & no fireworks because the sun is still up at 10 pm, but still the characters are out.  The boys LOVE pirates.  There is a new Disney show named ‘Jake and the Neverland Pirates’ that they can’t get enough of it.  Because of this, they want to grow up to be pirates J So pirate night was a thrill for them.  Last time I had done a better job of planning out their clothes, but we made do.  They each got to pick something pirate from the store on board and were excited to be Pirate Mickey & Pirate Goofy.  They have a fun pirate dinner, but the group of adults went to Palo on this night so we didn’t do the dinner in the normal dining room.  We took the boys to see the characters then dropped them off in the kids club and we headed for dinner.  The show for this night was Toy Story so it was a MUST SEE for our family.  David & I had to leave dinner a little early to get the boys for the show, but it was worth it.  So glad all our friends understood why we wanted to leave early!  It had nothing to do with the company, that’s for sure! The show didn’t disappoint and we all went to bed with smiles on our faces!

Where the dogs live

Enjoying our ride

The dogs that pulled us

Puppies!

Mendenhall Glacier

David holding a sleeping boy

Pirate night!

Dinner with all the adults

Sunday, June 5^th

Ketchikan, AK.  We all decided that we would gather for a short devo/church service in one room that morning.  So, after breakfast we all headed to the Preslar’s room to meet with everyone.  This again reminds me of how awesome it is to be traveling with awesome Christian people.  What a great opportunity to worship our God in such an amazing place!  As we were finishing up our time together we watched as we pulled into the harbor.  There were sea planes EVERYWHERE.  They would take off and land right in front of a moving vessel!!  Pretty crazy stuff; it was fun to watch, though!  We went and ate lunch then we got to drop off the kids in the club because most of us were going to go kayaking together.  I have kayaked before, but never in a place where there are waves.  That was a whole new experience!  It is a lot intimidating at first, but we got used to it.  We got to see several bald eagles and we also saw a seal.  Other than that it was about enjoying the scenery God created.  Truly magnificent.  Apparently the tide was coming in when we starting rowing, so it was tough. After the tide came in the water rose like 10 – 12 feet and then the water was so smooth.  At the end we got to sit and relax in a little cove.  I don’t really have the words to describe this.  Something I hope I never forget!  As we returned from our trip walking off of the dock 2 bald eagles took off right in front of us and then crossed each other.  Pretty amazing sight for sure! Off we go back to the ship to get the boys from the club & to get them ready for semi-formal night.  Again, the boys absolutely loved seeing everyone and told them all about everything!  The show that night was the magician/comedian.  He was hilarious & the boys really liked watching all the tricks. 

Ready to go kayaking

Tammy & Scott....Tammy doing her thang!

Mr. Blaine always entertaining!

Monday, June 6^th

Hard to believe the end is near!  Today was a sea day, but was also our character breakfast.  We had to be in the restaurant at 8 am!  YIKES.  But we knew we couldn’t miss it!  Now, on our way up to breakfast we realize the boat is really rocking…no really it was rocking!  Jackson didn’t feel so good, but we all took our medicine and felt better.  On with the show!  We had gotten the boys an autograph book to start getting some signatures from the characters.  We thought they are getting to a good age to enjoy it, so we brought that with us to the breakfast.  We go to see Chip, Dale, Goofy, Mickey & Minnie.  At this point we saw that some of the characters were recognizing the boys.  When Mickey walked up and started signing the book he wrote the boys names down!  That’s was big for us!  To be able to remember our boys names out of all the kids they see was pretty cool.  The next thing that happened is one David & I will never forget.  As we start walking out..behind Mickey, he turns around and takes our boys by the hand and walks with them!!!!!!! He takes them to a window and just looks out with them.  The boys are talking to him like crazy about who knows what.  They just went on & on.  Finally, it was time for Mickey to go.  We just couldn’t believe it.  It was pretty awesome!

For the rest of the day we just hung out on the ship.  We took the boys to see Aladdin in a theatre, went to a dance party with the characters and took the boys swimming!  It was a fun day!  That night we had our final dinner together and we were back where we started, Animator’s Palate.  As we were finishing up supper someone walks up to the table and gives us an invitation.  We open it and we were invited to a private farewell with the characters that night.  WHAT?!?!?!  US?!?!  Really?!?! Pretty cool!  We left supper and went to the show as usual.  Then after the show was when we would get to go to our special meet & greet.  (There were several other’s there..in total there were about 10 kids) I have to say that I didn’t ever expect to get to do anything like that so I decided that I was going to enjoy watching the boys instead of trying to watch it through my view finder of my camera.  I am so glad I did.  Now, don’t get me wrong…I still took a ton of pictures but most of the time I was just watching the boys.  Stitch had to be their favorite…hands down!  He just loved on them & loved on them.  They have never seen Lilo & Stitch, but that didn’t matter he was their new best friend J  The boys got to play with Capt. Hook’s sword!!  Highlight for them and of course they got to hug, dance & hi-5 everyone from Ariel to Daisy to Mickey to Stitch.  As it ended David & I took a deep breath.  Something to remember FOREVER!!!  That’s the Disney Magic J

Stephen is always a good sport!

Goofy stopped by again for a goofy pic :)

Taking a walk with Mickey

Chatting with Mickey

Our servers always made the kids feel special

There's Stitch!!  Having fun mingling

The whole group!!!! We definitely felt the Pixie Dust :)

Tuesday, June 7^th

Day to go home L.  I mean, really aren’t we all sad to leave the life of vacation?  But we all know we can’t live there so we were actually looking forward to getting home.  That morning we got up & went up to eat breakfast then get off the boat.  We told all of our traveling party so long & then headed for the bus to take us to SeaTac.  We arrived in Vancouver on the Amtrak, but the schedule didn’t work for us so we had to take a bus back to Seattle.  Everything was pretty uneventful until we get to the airport.  I am ALWAYS checking & rechecking to make sure we get all our stuff when we leave somewhere.  So, as we are getting off the bus I double checked with David that he had everything out of his seat & then I double checked my area.  We were confident we had everything.  We get our luggage & go to the counter to check in for our flight (hoping we get an earlier flight!).  As we are in line I ask David where one of the boys small blanket is(we called it a silky).  We look & look and then realize….it got left on the bus!!!!!!!  Really???  Oh.my.word. I am NOT ready to take on this right now…today!  The boys have slept with these blankets since they were really little.  I know they didn’t need it, but it was a security thing for them & it helped us calm them down in situations while traveling.  Whelp…that was gone!  Not only were we going to be traveling all day, now we had to break this habit…TODAY!  After I had a moment with tears, I sucked it up.  I knew it was overdue, so today would be the day they would separate from it. Now, we still had one silky but I knew that we could never have one without the other.  At that moment they were gone.  Now, during all this drama we did get on the earlier flight…thank goodness!  Our original flight wasn’t scheduled to leave Seattle until 7 pm!  It was 11am when we got to the airport…..that would have been a REALLLL long day.  But, like I said, we got on the earlier flight that was to leave at 2 pm.  With a couple delays’ it left almost 2 hours late, but it was still better that our original flight.  We finally got home with all of our luggage at 10:30 pm.  The boys were so tired they went to bed & didn’t even notice they didn’t have the silky….that easy.  It was sooo much harder in my head.

There it is…our amazing vacation!  Way more detail than you could ever dream of wanting to know, but hopefully it will help us remember and share with the boys as they get older.