Did I make a mistake booking Alaska in May?

[WDWEPCOT]

We went first week of June - I’m bear crazy I did get lucky and saw 3! One close up!! May and June are just too early need to be there when the salmon are running. I got lucky to see the 3 I did - no bear excursions offered either - too early. Weather was awesome !!

 

[Pens Fan]

Thank you! What’s interesting though is that the Aug 23 sailing is a bit less $ than May 17...

That is surprising to me. I'd think both would be pushing it from a school holiday standpoint. Which, let's face it - drives Disney pricing probably more than anything. I know where we live our schools would be in session for both of those sailings. But I know a lot of schools are different. No clue!!

 

[Pens Fan]

We got one of the 7a verandahs where you still have plexiglass on the bottom and
a bit of obstruction on the top. Unlike the more fully enclosed navigators verandah.
From what I understand they are priced like 7a but are essentially cat 6.
There is only a handful of these and first to go. Which seems to be true...
To get cat 5c now it’s like $1500 + more

Do you mind sharing what cabin #'s those are? But if you want to keep it to yourself I totally understand!!!

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

Do you mind sharing what cabin #'s those are? But if you want to keep it to yourself I totally understand!!!

No, not at all - after all I for the info from these boards
My stateroom is 6634, there are 3 other rooms I believe - if you search secret verandah Disney wonder I believe you see the threads on them. The other one may be 7120? I have them written down at home I think.
My phone has like 3 % charge left right now or I’d search for you, but if you search for the above like I said threads will come up.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

That is surprising to me. I'd think both would be pushing it from a school holiday standpoint. Which, let's face it - drives Disney pricing probably more than anything. I know where we live our schools would be in session for both of those sailings. But I know a lot of schools are different. No clue!!

Where we live school is in session from 2nd week in September generally til last week of June. So for the May sailing we have to pull kid out of school. For August 23 nope.

 

[Alex Ash]

We did Alaska on DCL end of Aug and we had a fantastic time! However, it was Aug 2018 and because of the BC wildfires a large majority of the Inside Passage was so smoke covered we couldn't even see the land! We missed out on so much scenery and it was really unfortunate. Of course this was a specific event and doesn't happen every Aug, but I guess its a possibility, and not so much of a concern in May. Another area of interest for us was the glacier. During the cruise we visited Tracy Arm and they said because of the warm summer and the number of icebergs floating we weren't able to get as close to the glacier as they do at other times (we didn't do the excursion, this was the Wonder itself). I don't know how "true" this is, but my mom had been in both May and Aug and said they were able to get closer in May then we did on our Aug cruise. I felt like we had great weather in Aug, but my mom also said on their May cruise they were lucky and actually had less rain and warmer temps then the Aug one.

Based on these things, we actually have a May 2020 Alaska cruise booked and I am super excited to actually SEE the scenery we missed out on and hopefully get a bit closer to the glacier!

I don't know much about the bears, but these are just a couple other things to consider with May vs Aug.

 

[Pens Fan]

No, not at all - after all I for the info from these boards
My stateroom is 6634, there are 3 other rooms I believe - if you search secret verandah Disney wonder I believe you see the threads on them. The other one may be 7120? I have them written down at home I think.
My phone has like 3 % charge left right now or I’d search for you, but if you search for the above like I said threads will come up.

Thanks!

Edited to add:

Found it!! Thanks for your help https://www.disboards.com/threads/which-disney-wonder-secret-verandah-is-best.3697466/

 

[Debby7]

We are going the first cruise May 2021! Drier weather, no mosquitos!

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

Thanks!

Edited to add:

Found it!! Thanks for your help https://www.disboards.com/threads/which-disney-wonder-secret-verandah-is-best.3697466/

Ok charged my phone a bit on the way home
Great! Yeah that’s the one! So you can understand my dilemma now... lol

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

We are going the first cruise May 2021! Drier weather, no mosquitos!

We are on the same cruise then (unless we decide to change to Aug 23)

 

[xuxa777]

The bigger concern is what the coronavirus will be like by then. It is already present in Vancouver, 6 cases, one was from exposure on a flight. Hope all is better by then.

edit: just saw 2021, really hope things are resolved by then

 

[jdb in AZ]

sorry wrong thread.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

sorry wrong thread.

I was gonna say... I hope it won’t be around by summer 2021!
really hope they get it under control soon

 

[Spiffy MacSpiff]

We have bears up the wazoo where we live, so take this for what it's worth... but I think that if school wasn't an issue and I was looking forward to having a particular stateroom, I'd stick with May. You'll still be able to see and do lot of amazing things that are unique to Alaska.. Bears aren't locked up there, you can see them in a lot of places.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

We have bears up the wazoo where we live, so take this for what it's worth... but I think that if school wasn't an issue and I was looking forward to having a particular stateroom, I'd stick with May. You'll still be able to see and do lot of amazing things that are unique to Alaska.. Bears aren't locked up there, you can see them in a lot of places.

Thank you!
Preferably we’d take the cruise in July or August but we did initially decide on May, we are not opposed taking our kid out of school, and with May long weekend (in Canada) one of the days is a holiday here. Still, we try to only take our son out of school for one holiday during the school year, and the older he gets the less ideal it becomes. We were on a cruise in January and he kept up with school work on the ship via google classroom his teacher uses.
Late August we still have the summer break where we live, so in that sense that time is more ideal, but it was mostly about seeing more wildlife.
I honestly never asked for the Aug 23 quote because I figured it’d be more $ than the May 17 sailing. I thought the Alaska cruise goes down in price first week in September.
The fact Aug 23 little bit less $ than May 17 tells me there is something less “desirable” about the Alaska cruise late August? Maybe the rain, maybe less daylight - I don’t know.
At this point I have my deposit down on May 17. If my preferred stateroom was available for the August sailing we’d probably switch.
However it’s not.... so right now sticking with May. Thanks for your encouraging words

 

[abdmom]

A little bit of background, we have previously cruised with Disney 5x, all Caribbean cruises.
We recently branched out to Royal Caribbean as well, but when we decided to cruise to Alaska I knew we wanted to go with Disney.
I have a dreams unlimited TA who graciously provided me with some quotes the day platinum opened. Just so we were ready to go when Gold bookings opened.
I asked for a few quotes in May and June, I knew I preferred June but it was just a bit too much $ then. I already have to convince hubby to pay more where he’d be perfectly happy paying less with Royal. Anyway. I received my quotes and told my TA to book the May 17th. She was amazing able to book a specific stateroom we wanted and I had my confirmation at 8:30 am yesterday! (Opening day for gold). Later on yesterday, I was talking to someone at work saying how excited I was to book Alaska, how we can’t wait to see all the wildlife etc.
I was quickly advised that if we want to see bears May is a bad time to go.
I panicked and started to look for information online. What I found is mostly conflicting, but the general consensus is that even August would be better than May.
Naturally I looked up some pricing for Aug 23, my preferred room was still available and it was actually slightly less $ than May 17 which was surprising...I emailed my TA late last night asking her opinion and wanting to change to Aug 23.
I understand the TA’s are swamped today, and unfortunately she hasn’t gotten back to me, now all the rooms on my list are sold out for Aug 23 and even Aug 30.
Of course I don’t blame my TA for that, I should have asked for an August quote too (I assumed it would be higher than May though) and I should have done my BEAR research sooner. Because I have a room I don’t want to give up, before I move my reservation to Aug 23 and have to pick a different room - I thought I would ask the Dis veterans here...
What do you think about cruising to Alaska mid-late May v late August? Has anyone seen bears in May? I know nothing is a guarantee in Alaska, not the weather or seeing the wildlife but we obviously want to maximize our chances. Also, any idea why May 17 would be more expensive (not much but it is) than Aug 23rd?
Our kid will still be out of school til September so I feel like we definitely should have picked August...
Before I panic some more, what is everyone else’s take on this?

May 18 is a holiday in Canada. May 25 is Memorial Day in the US. So the May 17 sailing should be quite popular. A lot of US schools go back in August. So, low demand close to Labor Day. The weather gets bad in Alaska later in the season.

For the best bear viewing, I would go 2nd week of July through 2nd week August. I went the first week of August to Anan Creek and had fabulous bear viewing. I wouldn't expect to see bears on any excursion that didn't involve flying to a remote location.

 

[StarSeven7]

Thank you!
Preferably we’d take the cruise in July or August but we did initially decide on May, we are not opposed taking our kid out of school, and with May long weekend (in Canada) one of the days is a holiday here. Still, we try to only take our son out of school for one holiday during the school year, and the older he gets the less ideal it becomes. We were on a cruise in January and he kept up with school work on the ship via google classroom his teacher uses.
Late August we still have the summer break where we live, so in that sense that time is more ideal, but it was mostly about seeing more wildlife.
I honestly never asked for the Aug 23 quote because I figured it’d be more $ than the May 17 sailing. I thought the Alaska cruise goes down in price first week in September.
The fact Aug 23 little bit less $ than May 17 tells me there is something less “desirable” about the Alaska cruise late August? Maybe the rain, maybe less daylight - I don’t know.
At this point I have my deposit down on May 17. If my preferred stateroom was available for the August sailing we’d probably switch.
However it’s not.... so right now sticking with May. Thanks for your encouraging words

Where are you located in Canada? I’m also in Canada and I’ve seen bears many times and I’ve never been on an Alaska cruise. Have I mentioned that bears freak me out and I’m always praying I won’t see one??

 

[Drfate102]

We booked the May 17th Alaska Cruise as well. But we picked it for price and the 22nd is my Birthday. My wife and I talked about seeing bears, but we are fortunate enough that my Sister-in-Law and her Husband are Park Rangers in Alaska, and have offered to take us to the bear sanctuary near the island that they live on. But as everyone has said, wildlife is unpredictable. you could go in July and not see any.

 

[Calantha]

We booked the May 17th Alaska Cruise as well. But we picked it for price and the 22nd is my Birthday.

We're going on the 17th as well, for my MIL's birthday. My son is still young enough that the time out of school is okay. I will add, we originally looked at a 7 day on the Fantasy in late June and were priced out of that.