August already?! That means in just a week, Colorado Dad and I will be heading to Anaheim for a long weekend to celebrate 75 years of Disney Animation at D23′s Destination D event. For this week’s blog hop theme of “August Calendar Cover”, I thought I’d share one of my favorite moments from a previous Destination D – last year’s celebration of Walt Disney World’s 40th anniversary.

For anyone who visited EPCOT in the 80s, you’ll probably recognize this pair. Yep, that’s Figment and his pal, the Dreamfinder – the stars of the original Journey Into Imagination attraction. Fans have long asked (or maybe it was begged) for Disney to bring the duo back, so when Ron Schneider (the actor who played the DreamFinder character in the parks) and the original Figment puppet stepped out on stage to sing One Little Spark along with Richard Sherman, the crowd pretty much went nuts.

Who knows what kind of surprises await us at this year’s Destination D, but with sessions spanning the entire 75-year history of Disney animated features, I’m sure there will be something great. Can’t wait to see what happens!

Venture into the imagination of some other great Disney fans and follow along on today’s blog hop by clicking on the button below. If you have a great Disney picture to share, make sure to link up!

We visited Target tonight to buy Colorado Boy some school supplies but Colorado Princess and I came home with something new too!

Have you heard about the Disney Artist Collection for Target? The collection includes t-shirts, dresses, sweatshirts and pajamas featuring classic Disney characters (like Oswald, the Big Bad Wolf, and Cleo from Pinocchio) for everyone in the family.

I got the cute Oswald sweatshorts on the left and Colorado Princess got the Snow White toddler dress, which has cute details like a bow on the back and a handkerchief hem. I’m a big fan of Oswald so what I REALLY wanted was the hoodie with different color Oswalds all over it, but the biggest size they had  was 5T and I just don’t think I’d be able to fit into that one

Lots of cute things although the supply, especially for the mens and boys t-shirts, was pretty low, so if you’re planning on picking something up from the collection, get over to your local Target soon!

I can always tell we’ve made it to the last day of our cruise because it’s always the day that has the fewest number of pictures. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m “pictured out” by this point, or if we’re just too busy soaking up that last bit of cruise fun, but either way, I’ll apologize now for the lack of photos

This was a bit of an unusual day – while we were heading into a port, we weren’t docking in Victoria until almost 7pm, so it was really more like a sea day. Because of that, we all slept in quite late. Once we got ready, we decided to head down to the atrium where they were doing a Character Dance Party! Sounds fun, right? Well…

Our kids were done. We got to the party and both refused to dance, ending up near tears as if we had asked them to do some horrible task, like cleaning their rooms. I should have known –  the end of the cruise blues were setting in…

Trip Tip #11:  Cruises are truly awesome and every one of my family members loves every cruise we’ve been on. But, all that fun combined with the food, the late nights and the early mornings can cause overload. Add to that a bit of sadness because you don’t want the fun to end, and it’s a situation ripe for a meltdown of some sort. Every kid (and parent!) is different, so your situation might be different, but for our kids we’ve learned that we just need to go with whatever their mood is for the day, even if it takes an abrupt 180 degree turn from just 5 minutes before.

Instead of dancing, the kids were ready to eat, so we headed up to Beach Blanket Buffet (for only the 2nd time!) and had a leisurely family lunch.

After lunch, the kids headed off to the kids club and Colorado Dad and I went back to the room to hang out on the verandah for awhile. We were surprised with this guy when we got back to the room:

He came with our customs paperwork and the luggage tags we would need to attach to our bags. Bummer, that meant it was almost time to start packing, so we spent a little bit of time sorting through the things we had accumulated over the week. Luckily, we didn’t have to spend too much time on that before it was time to head up to Vista Spa for our couples massage.

Trip Tip #12: Give yourself a gift and book a treatment at Vista Spa. It doesn’t matter what you choose, pretty much everything is great. Yes, it can be a little spendy, but seriously, it’s worth it. Pamper yourself! They do like to sell you the products used in your treatment, but if you don’t want to be hassled, just indicate that on the sheet you fill out before your session begins and they won’t ask.

Colorado Dad and I have both had massages onboard before, but this was the first time we’d done the couples massage. We didn’t splurge on the private villa treatment option, which includes a room with a private verandah and whirlpool (maybe next time!) but it was still great and the masseuse and masseur were both fantastic.

Because the ship was docking in Victoria around 6:45, they changed the evening entertainment schedule a little bit – moving the main dining’s show to 2pm and our show to 5:45pm – so after our massage, we headed to the clubs to pick up the kiddos. As we were doing that, we realized that the shops were only going to be open until 5pm and would not open again, so we stopped by to pick up a few last things, before heading to the show. After the show, the kids begged to go swimming one last time, so Colorado Dad took them while I started packing. I wish I had a good tip to share on packing, but I really don’t. It’s a miracle we fit everything back into our suitcases and didn’t leave anything behind!

As I was packing, we were coming into the dock at Victoria, so i took a break to grab a couple shots of the port.

We decided before the cruise that we were just going to stay on the ship in Victoria. Most of the excursions didn’t sound super appealing to us and we always like to have dinner in the dining room the last night, so just decided to skip it. I heard that it was a very cool city though, so we’ll definitely have to visit some day.

Colorado Dad and the kids eventually showed up and helped me finish up the packing so we could get our bags out in the hall for pickup. Remember, unless you’re carrying your own luggage off the ship in the morning (something we might do next time), you have to have everything packed and ready the night before. This cruise, we didn’t have to have our luggage out in the hall until 10, but we were done packing before dinner so went ahead and put our luggage in the hall before dinner.

On our way to dinner, we took a stroll around the ship and ran into a few familiar faces:

I was happy with our decision to stay on the ship. The dining room was almost empty and we were the only ones in our server’s section so were able to have a little fun. Apparently so much fun that I can’t remember anything about the food we ate that night! Colorado Boy decided he wanted to “help”, so Yusuf taught him the proper way to serve drinks and food. Colorado Princess had been extremely shy during the whole cruise – barely speaking to Buyani and refusing to even look at Yusuf – but she finally came out of her shell and was giving high fives, hugs and even a kiss on the cheek by the end of the night.

It was a fun night and a great way to spend our last night on the ship. This guy was waiting for us when we got back to the room…anyone know what it is? A turtle maybe?

This week’s Wordless Wednesday theme is the letter “C” so I thought I’d share one of my favorite “C”s from my favorite nighttime parade.

Take a look at some other great Disney “C” pictures on today’s Wordless Wednesday blog hop via Focused on the Magic

The day dawned bright and sunny, with gorgeous views as we pulled into dock.

Our time in port was very short, only about 5 hours, so we decided to keep the planned excursions pretty light. We signed up for the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Exclusive Disney show but that was it. We had to be at the Lumberjack show at 7:45, but had the option to walk over on our own, so grabbed a quick bite to eat and disembarked. The ship docks right in downtown Ketchikan and it was only a 5 minute walk over to the show.

Trip Tip #10: You would think after hearing it several times, I would have learned that you “can’t bring perishable food, including liquids” into Alaska when you disembark. As I was waiting to disembark, with my cup of coffee in hand, I thought to myself “They surely don’t mean COFFEE, right?!?!” Well yeah, they do – no coffee, no dairy, no nothin’ – except water. If they see you with it before you leave the ship, they’ll just ask you to throw it away (which is what happened to me). If they see you with it after you’re on Alaskan soil, they’ll ask you to throw it away but you can also be subject to a fine. I can’t imagine they’ll fine you for a cup of coffee, but i guess better safe than sorry – just don’t take it with you

The show is in an outside arena area with bleacher seating. It was a gorgeous day, so we didn’t need to worry about rain or anything, but the seating area is covered and they have heaters above you, so I’m sure it would be comfortable even if the weather wasn’t great. After everyone was settled in, we met our host, Lee. The show we went to was billed as “Disney exclusive” which meant that Lee was actually “Lost Boy Lee” and…that was about it. Oh, except for this “hidden Mickey”

Lee explained that we were going to be part of a little friendly competition, with the audience divided in half, each side cheering on a team of two lumberjacks who would compete against each other doing various “lumberjack-y” tasks. There was lots of audience participation, with kid volunteers being picked for various activities and to be the lucky recipients of the wood “cookies” that were cut off the logs being used in the competition.

It was a cute show and the kids really enjoyed it, so overall, I would recommend it for families with younger kids. Colorado Boy was very excited because he got to keep one of the wood pieces AND got it signed by all the lumberjacks after the show!

After we looked around the requisite lumberjack gift shop, we strolled around the city of Ketchikan, visiting some of the totem poles and the shops on historic Creek Street – Ketchikan’s original “red-light district” now turned into a shopping area unique for being built over the waters (literally) of Ketchikan Creek.

We grabbed some yummy clam chowder and wondered around the dock area a little bit before heading back to the ship

Colorado Princess was ready to head to the club as soon as we got back, so we dropped her off and the rest of us went to try our hand at trivia again. This time it was theme park trivia but we didn’t do any better, coming in 3rd place for the 3rd time

By the time we were done with trivia, it was time for the “Friendship Rocks” show. This cute 15 minute show provides a slide show of pictures from the kid’s club and brings all the kids together up on the stage of the Walt Disney Theatre where they get to do a little dance routine with Mickey and Minnie. This was the first time either of the kids did it and Colorado Princess looked a little terrified the whole time, but she survived it and got a cool t-shirt as a souvenir!

The evening’s show was Dreams, which is one of my favorites. Colorado Dad has seen it several times, so he decided to skip it while I took the kids. Everyone enjoyed their time and then we all met up in Triton’s for dinner. The dinner menu was the Captain’s Gala but both Colorado Dad and I forgot to grab the camera, so we have no pictures and for some reason, the only thing I remember eating was the chocolate lava cake!

Once again, we were exhausted after dinner, so headed straight to our room for bed.

Next up: Till we meet again, the beginning of the end

No, I’m not talking about the hotdogs you can find in the Disney parks, although they are pretty delicious! The “weenie” we’re focusing on this week is that visual icon in every park that draws you in and gives you that “I’m here!” feeling. Since I frequent Disneyland the most, it’s NOT Sleeping Beauty castle that gets me. Instead it’s the mountain that towers over the castle (it’s almost twice as tall) – Matterhorn Mountain.

This week’s Wordless Wednesday theme is Transportation! We pretty much love all types of Disney transportation from the Monorail to the train to the cruise ships, but some of our favorites are those vehicles that don’t actually take us anywhere (but are a ton of fun!):

Taking a spin on the teacups…

Catching a lift to nowhere on the Jolly Trolley…

Taking a plunge on the Monorail water slides…

And visiting Aviator Minnie and her stunt plane…

But, if we had to pick ONE favorite mode of transporation, the hands-down winner is definitely the Monorail, and more importantly the Monorail cockpit. The view is unbeatable!

Thanks, as always, to Deb, the fabulous host of our weekly Disney blog hop. Do you have a favorite mode of transportation at Disney? Join in the fun and share your pictures by linking up to this week’s blog hop!

We had already docked in Juneau by the time we all woke up and it was pouring rain, so we made sure to grab our raincoats and umbrellas before heading to the Walt Disney Theatre to meet up for our excursion – Whale Watch and Mendenhall Glacier.

A bus was waiting to take us over to Auke Bay where we boarded a boat for the whale watching. The boat is pretty good sized – with 2 stories and enough room for maybe 100 – 150 people. There were 3 bathrooms onboard as well as a galley that served complimentary hot chocolate, coffee and donut holes as well as provided other snack options for purchase. I’ve heard some people complain about the size of these boats, because they can’t get as close to the whales as some of the smaller vessels, but we had no issues seeing the whales and a few came quite close to the boat, so I don’t feel like we missed out. The boat has a basic route it takes but the captain is in radio contact with other boats so will go wherever whales have been spotted. While we were heading to our first viewing spot, a naturalist talked about the animals we’d see as well as provided information about the surrounding area. We ended up seeing quite a few whales – 10 in all, including a baby and his mom, which was pretty neat. We also saw eagles, sea lions and seals.

We were out on the water for about 2 hours and then headed back into dock where our bus was waiting to take us over to Mendenhall Glacier.

In addition to the visitor’s center, the glacier area has a viewing platform that’s a quick 5 minute walk away as well as a longer hiking trail that will take you much closer to the glacier and waterfall that’s right next to it. The round trip estimate for the longer trail was 45 minutes and since we only had an hour to spend, we weren’t able to take that hike, although we did walk down the path a little bit. Both the glacier and surrounding area were beautiful.

After our visit to the glacier, the bus took us back to the ship where we boarded and headed to Parrot Cay for lunch. The ship set sail just a few minutes after we returned for our excursion, so we watched the Coast Guard escort us out of the bay as we ate lunch.

We all rested a little bit in the afternoon and Colorado Boy and I ran into an old friend when we went up to get a snack.

It was Pirate night, and the kids REALLY wanted to get their picture taken with Jack Sparrow, so we all got dressed up in our pirate garb and headed down to meet the Captain.

We scheduled our Palo dinner for this evening, so we did not go to the show, which was Toy Story The Musical. Instead, we dropped the kids off at the kids’ club and made our way up to Palo. Once again, our server was Hristo and he took excellent care of us. Unlike brunch, dinner is not a buffet – it’s all sitdown table service off the menu but you can order as many items as you want, so it almost feels like a buffet! For our appetizers, I ordered the grilled shrimp, Colorado Dad ordered the calamari and then Hristo recommended the mushroom polenta to share. I was a little skeptical of that one when it came out, but it was very good, as were the other items.

For our main course, I ordered the tuna, Colorado Dad ordered the lamb shank and then we both shared an order of the chianti-braised beef ravioli, which is my absolute favorite. I didn’t get a pic of the ravioli, but here are the other two.

For dessert, it was time for the famous Palo chocolate souffle. No pictures of this one either, because I dove into it immediately Hristo also recommended we try other desserts as well, so I got the almond cake and Colorado Dad got the apple crostata. Both were good, but the souffle is still number 1 for me!

We were stuffed by the time we left Palo’s, but it was almost time for the pirate party, so we figured we’d be able to burn off a few of those calories by joining in the dancing.

For those of you who have cruised before, you’ll know that the Pirates IN the Caribbean party is one of the highlights – fireworks at sea, swashbuckling pirates, dancing, plus Mickey saving the day – what more could you want? Well, I have to say that on the Alaskan cruises, it’s not nearly as exciting.

Because of noise restrictions in Alaska, fireworks are not allowed and they also do the whole show inside. It’s still the same show but it just doesn’t have quite the same impact. I’m not sure if it’s a smaller space, but it definitely FEELS smaller and the views aren’t quite as good.

Despite the differences, it is a fun party and the kids had fun dancing and bouncing around. By the end of the evening, our Pirate Princess was pretty exhausted

So we called it a night and headed back to our room where we found this guy “monkeying around”

Up next: Blue skies, plaid shirts and the smell of fresh cut wood

Did you miss any of our previous destinations? You can get to all of the Cruisin’ North to Alaska posts right here!