Alaskan Cruise Excursions
March 6, 2007
We have decided upon our excursions for our upcoming cruise to Alaska on board the Celebrity Mercury – or at least most of them. The cruise is an eight day round trip cruise from Vancouver, so a bit shorter than we normally do, but Alaska is an expensive cruise and we will be cruising with a bunch of my relatives in a sort of family reunion cruise. We last cruised Alaska on our honeymoon, 14 years ago.
We wont be doing too many excursion on this trip, instead opting for walking type tours in port. In Skagway, we will take the train tour through the mountains and forests. It is supposed to be a don’t miss excursion. At $110 a person, it had better be. That said, I imagine the sights will be spectacular.
The other excursion we will most likely do is the lumberjack show in Ketchikan. The kids are really excited about this one. My brother-in-law wants me to go salmon fishing with him in this port, and that sounds like fun, but I probably will opt to do the lumberjack show with the family instead. I need to make up my mind by this weekend.
We will visit a glacier in Juneau but it wont be an excursion. Last cruise to Alaska, we took a helicopter to the glacier there so it’s not a must do for us. However, the kids haven’t seen any glaciers, so we will probably take a bus to the point in Juneau where you can walk out to the glacier. I think the rest of my relatives are planning on doing a whale watching tour, but we are going to pass on that one. We have seen several whales on board ship and just don’t want to spend the money. I am sure they will have fun though. I don’t believe that any of my relatives have been to Alaska before.
We will fly into Vancouver a day early. However, we won’t get in until fairly late, so there wont be much site seeing. We are trying to decide if we want to stay near the airport since we get in late or spend the 30 minutes driving into town near the pier and staying at a hotel there. Most likely, we will pick a hotel near the pier so we can stroll around Vancouver in the morning before we board the Mercury. The gaslight quarter is a nice place to walk around a get a bite to eat before the cruise. For the return, we will also stay overnight in Vancouver before flying out the next day. Again, most likely near the pier so we can do some city site seeing before flying out in the morning.
I still haven’t made our airfare reservations but should do so in the next day or two. The research is done and we know what we will do. Luckily, we will be able to get two tickets on frequent flier mileage and only have to purchase two. At $500 a ticket, that is very helpful.
Everyone is looking forward to the cruise this June.
Alaskan Cruise Airfare
February 26, 2007
Our cruise to Alaska on board the Celebrity Mercury is approaching fast. The cruise is in mid June of this year. Unfortunately, we still don’t have our air arrangements for the cruise. The cruise is round trip out of Vancouver.
Air travel these days is unpleasant at best. I remember the days when air travel was fun and convenient. Today, the airlines have so drastically reduced the number of flights that it is hard to get travel on your schedule. The cost has significantly risen too. I guess the pressures to make a buck have scrimped them so hard, that it is us, the traveler, paying the piper.
When we booked the cruise, we started looking for low air fares to get us to Vancouver. The travel agent/cruise line wanted $500 a person for air fare in addition to the cruise cost. We thought that was high and said we would try to beat it. That was many, many months ago and we still cant really find a decent flight that beats that cost. Sure, with two stops or driving to a further away departure city, we can lower it a bit, but that’s not worth it. I would just as soon pay the high cost than those options.
Currently, you can find tickets for several hundred dollars cheaper than that price. However, the tickets must be used by like the end of March of April. In fact, I can get tickets for next week cheaper than in June. In the old days, purchasing early usually got you a good deal. Now, purchasing last minute is the best way to get a deal. For the last six months, the end date of the cheap tickets has moved to the right. Currently at March/April, I am hoping it will keep moving right with time. Only problem is that I am not sure I want to wait that close to the departure date to get my airline tickets. I just might get screwed even worse. Of course, there are a whole bunch of $500 tickets available today.
I tend to fly on American Airlines for business and it is my preferred airline. I think I currently have two frequent flier tickets available to Vancouver via mileage. We may just pull the trigger this weekend and get two $500 tickets and the two free ones. The frequent flier ones will disappear soon if we don’t act. I am not likely to find tickets for $250, so I would still be ahead of the game to get them now.
We have done some research on our next cruise too. Its really strange for but for three or four of our candidate options, the airfare will end up costing as much or more than a 10 – 16 day cruise. That doesn’t make any sense at all. Where is the Star Trek transporter room when you need it…
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