Well, last night we finally made an executive decision on the plane tickets to Vancouver. We ended up using frequent flier miles for 2 tickets and purchasing outright 2 tickets. We will have to go out of the way through Dallas to get there, but the total expense for the 4 of us to get to Vancouver is only $1300 total. If we had purchased 4 tickets outright to Vancouver it would have been well over $2400. We also have some crazy flight time, because of the mileage tickets, but Suzanne and the kids will get to spend a week in Texas after the cruise with her family.
We also took care of the hotel arrangements, pre and post cruise. It seems there is some sort of concert event the night before the cruise and a regatta that weekend, so we were not able to find any good hotels in the down town area for less then $250. There were a few that appeared to be available online for over $300, but I’m not even sure that I could have actually booked those if I had followed through with all the booking steps. Downtown Vancouver is a great place to visit, so we had hoped to be able to spend a little time enjoying the sights the morning before the cruise, but it looks like the area is nearly all booked up.
The end result was that we booked a hotel both pre and post cruise near the airport. The hotel has free 24 hour transportation to and from the airport. That will make it very convenient for us as we are scheduled for a late arrival. The hotel booking also includes free breakfast.
Suzanne also booked a limo van to come pick us up at the hotel and take us to the cruise ship the next morning. The van will easily hold the 8 of us and even has a little trailer should we need the extra space for luggage.
Finally, for after the cruise, Suzanne booked a rental car for us to pick up right near the cruise terminal. The rental car will cost about the same as a cab ride to the hotel, but we’ll be able to see a bit more of Vancouver by having the car. We’ll stay at the same airport hotel, and then depart early in the morning for the airport, where we’ll be able to drop off the car.
This all sounds great to me–and so exciting!
And we are thrilled that Suzanne, Sean and Savannah will get to spend a week here in Dallas. We’ll miss seeing you, Steve, on this trip–but maybe next time, it will work out for you to spend some time with us.
Love,
~Anne
Darn Anne, had hoped to fix all of Suzanne’s spelling and grammatical errors before you read it :wink”
The anticipation is almost as much fun as the real thing. We sure appreciate Suzanne doing all the bookings for us. June will be here before we know it.