Our Wonder-ful Frozen Adventure to Alaska: Travelling Upper to Vancouver!

[wittykitty]

So I have decided to take the plunge and write a trip report for our recent Alaska cruise. This is my first trip report so you will have to bear with me as I try to work out how to add photos etc. It was reading the trip reports on here which got us interested in Alaska so I thought it would be nice to ‘pay it forward’ so that people currently planning can get a taster of what they will get to enjoy.

This report will be less a day by day account and more a review of the various different experiences we had. I tried to take plenty of photos and have kept the navigators but unfortunately my food photos are somewhat lacking…probably down to lack of self-control meaning I ate it before getting the camera out! So what I will probably do is one food report with the photos I did manage to take in.

Background

This is our first Disney cruise although we are regulars at WDW. This trip marked the end of a very busy year so it was a treat where we would get to enjoy some treats for working hard, and I hope you enjoy reading about trip we enjoyed so much. I’m a bit photo-shy so not many photos of us will creep in (sorry!). We are in our mid-twenties so sorry about the lack of detail on the facilities for kids. However, I will say that it must have been just as much fun for the little ones given how many were crying and refusing to leave the ship on disembarkation (I felt like doing the same! ).

Our travel began on the Friday evening straight after work. I had planned to have the Friday off work to wind down and ease into the trip but unfortunately due to how busy things were at work I had to go in, meaning we would be heading to Heathrow after work. At 5pm on the dot my computer was off, holiday notes were distributed and for the first time in a long time my out of office message was on and BlackBerry switched off. It felt great!

We were staying at the Sofitel in Terminal 5 so that we could have a relaxed get-up in the morning (our flight was at 3.30pm). And by relaxed get-up I mean as many hours as possible in the Virgin Clubhouse!



Check-in here was quick and efficient, and because I stay in this brand of hotels a fair bit for work we got an upgrade and a free house wine/beer each-always a good start to the holiday!

Some pictures of the room:



May have already jumped on the bed and done a ‘snow angel’ kind of dance because I was so glad to be away!





Sorry for the slightly boring pictures but I always like to know what the bathrooms are like (weird I know! ).

The bed was lovely and comfy and we had a surprisingly good night’s sleep dreaming of all the exciting things that were going to happen in the morning. On waking up we got showered and ready, got everything back into the cases and ready to go and then headed down for breakfast, which was included in our rate (I think it was around £20 on its own).

This breakfast was amazing and definitely a great way to start off a holiday of so much eating. The buffet was huge with a great continental selection, pastries, croissants, pain au chocolat, every bread imaginable, cold meats, cheese, full English breakfast, yoghurt, granola, pancakes, waffles and even an Asian breakfast selection with dumplings etc! For veggies the selection was great with veggie alternatives to all the meat options. I decided to drink lots of tea as I knew that the tea for the rest of the holiday probably wouldn’t be up to much





Yum!

Feeling completely stuffed we headed off to get our cases and check-out. It was an easy trip from the hotel to the Heathrow Express (only a few minutes) and we were soon on our way to Terminal 3! At this point I was almost breathless with excitement, well it was either excitement or too many shoes in the two cases I had insisted on bringing! This was the bit of the day I was most looking forward to, travelling Upper Class for the first time. This was a little treat to us, from us and I had been a bit anxious that I would think it was not worth the money. To let you all know from the offset, it was worth it. In fact, I think it has made me a bit of an air travel diva now! We usually go premium to Orlando which we love but this was another world.

We arrived towards the check-in desk and there was a queue so we were immediately taken up in the lifts to the ‘by invitation only’ area. I was on top lookout for celebs but it appears that Saturdays in July aren’t the best day to celeb spot. We were checked in quickly, went through the UC security lane in about 1 minute and then were off to walk through the duty free area and off to ‘Lounge H’, otherwise known as the clubhouse.

We checked in at the clubhouse and were given a quick tour of where everything is. It is a beautiful area and was pretty crowded when we arrived. As we were going on holiday we decided it was perfectly socially acceptable to start drinking and took a look at the cocktail menu:





Yum!

It is waiter service for the cocktails and as we were reading a waiter approached us. Being typically indecisive I couldn’t decide between a Red Carpet and a Cosmopolitan…so he suggested I get both and who am I to refuse! To off-set this I did also get an ice water…



My selection of goodies!


I got a little bit peckish so decided to get a selection of cold meats from the deli. They did all the usual stuff here and there was fruit and cookies (guess which of these we ended up getting! )



We also got a few of the little tapas dishes to share, you could order as many as you like and they were really yummy. We especially liked these roasted new potatoes with garlic mayo:



I had had great plans for my time in the lounge, such as get my nails and hair done but after a couple of drinks my plans changed and I decided to sit in the cinema area and just chill out. For those who are curious about what the clubhouse is like, here are a couple of cheeky shots I took whilst trying not to look like someone from the paparazzi!









The time in the lounge just flew by and before we knew it there was an announcement that everyone else was now on the plane and we could make our way down. Slightly sad to be leaving the clubhouse but excited to get on our way, we made our way to the gate.



We were on the plane in no time and were soon seated and introduced to our cabin crew. The service on this flight was excellent and we were told about all the features of the seat and timings for food etc. To my delight I soon had one of these in hand:



I know people always ask about the amenity kit so I took a picture, to be honest it was exactly the same as economy and premium economy and I don’t think I used anything in it.



After take-off we were given the lovely colourful menus:















The inflight entertainment wasn’t as awful as I had expected (I thought it would be the tapes rather than on-demand), and we did have a selection of films to watch. I actually didn’t watch anything as I wanted to just enjoy the experience and then have a nap to try and get onto Canada/Alaska time.

After a nice cup of tea (and it was nice, in a proper mug and not tasting vaguely of coffee as plane tea tends to) it was time for the meal. We both got different things so here is a selection of pictures of what we got:


Mozarrella Salad


Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli


Chicken Katsu


Lemon Tart
<a


Sticky Toffee Pudding



Crisps!

The food was good, although as we had already had a huge breakfast, snacks in the lounge and crisps on the plane, we maybe didn’t fully appreciate it! There was fruit, crisps, cookies etc and lots of retro sweets at the bar and you could help yourself.

After food I got my bed converted to lie flat and was soon fast asleep. It was lovely and comfy and really helped with any potential for jet lag. The flight was mainly calm, there was a bit of turbulence but lying down it sort of rocked me to sleep (something which also happened with the boat later in the holiday!).

Having a sixth sense for food I woke just in time for afternoon tea (which on UK time was about 10pm! ).





We sat together for this, and it was a lovely way to wake up and get ready for landing. Because it was Wimbledon they had chocolate covered strawberries which were yummy!



We landed in good time and were soon through Canadian immigration, which was really straightforward. For anyone wondering, they give you the form to fill out on the plane and it is just a basic declaration of how long you will be there. We had soon collected our bags and got a taxi to our hotel, the Pan Pacific at Canada Place. It was around $35 for the taxi (plus tip).

We were soon checked in and in our lovely room (pictures to follow tomorrow). Being too excited to sleep we went to explore and did the ‘Flyover Canada’ attraction which is like Soarin’ in Epcot. We really enjoyed this and it was a lovely introduction to Canada. We then had a fit of munchies (you are probably asking how on earth this can have happened, I asked myself the same thing!) and headed to the convention centre food court where we got Mcdonalds which we took back to the room (classy!).

Soon we were in bed with the alarm set for the next day…Grouse Mountain!

I hope you enjoyed reading.

[Cutiepie]

What a lovely travel day I can't wait for the rest of your report as we are doing this trip next year & I'm reading everything I can! How long did you spend in Vancouver before the cruise? I will probably be asking loads of questions

[MarkJ]

We're lucky enough to fly UC all the time - so its lovely to see such a detailed report about what you get and what its like. At least if someone says on the DIBB now "what is UC like" we can route them to your post.

Excellent report - Ive done this flight and then we went to Seattle for our cruise.

Its amazing isnt it that if you get a few hours sleep you seem to got onto Pacific time straight away - I didnt go to bed the first night until 11pm and slept like a log!

[Alison]

Great start! The lounge sounds like the perfect start to your trip! Looking forward to reading more.

[blondie]

Great start , would love to do this cruise , upper class looks fab x

[MarionG]

Great start, we were lucky enough to fly Upper...once... to Orlando...another world!
We have visited Vancouver and went to Grouse mountain so interested in how you enjoyed it.

[beck_loz]

Great start x

[Andi]

Terrific start, looking forward to reading more.

[Guest]

Oh wow that looks great. Loved reading the menus

[Chilly80]

Excellent start to your TR, please post more soon.