(Booking an Itinerary for the Tour)
In 2007, my 87 year old mother in law, told my wife Sandy & I that she wanted to visit Japan one more time before she go. We planned on taking her this year, but she told my wife in January 2008 to forget about Japan and that her dream vacation was to take an Alaska Cruise to see the glaciers.
I priced the cruiselines as far out to get better pricing, I checked and compared prices from Carnival to Holland America, even checked with the cruise lines booking engines themselves, as well as other booking sites, I was happy and surprised to find a southbound Alaska cruise by Princess (5 Stars) for $398 inside cabin and $598 window cabin.
I don’t like inside cabins because they have no windows, I booked a partially obstructed cabin (FF category) for the best price, since you only really need the room for sleeping and showers. I priced it with and without the airline package, decided to book the cruise ala carte only due to financial constraints. We would have to save for the airfare and book it later, we booked the cruise in my daughter’s site, Vanessa so she could get the travel credit for certification.
Much to our delight, when we got the YTB confirmation regarding our booking itinerary, we found out that we got upgraded to the HH category, for those who are starting to book cruises, FF category rooms would have been on the 5th floor of the ship, we got upgraded to the HH category room which was on the 8th floor. The thing to remember here is that cruiselines charge by room category, the higher the rooms are on the ship the more expensive the rates.
(Booking the Airline Tickets and scheduling the Flights)
From there, I started to price open jaw flights, a point I would like to share with future Alaska travelers, when and if you book an Alaskan Cruise, book a round trip cruise, they may cost a little more, but sure would be cheaper on the airline tickets, remember, we don’t get paid high commissions on flights so why not book and get paid for a roundtrip cruise (i.e. Vancouver – Vancouver or Seattle – Seattle round trip).
I found this out after we booked the southbound cruise that leaves from Whittier, Alaska going to Vancouver, Canada. Although the cruise itself would have been worth the money, the airline tickets however can cost even higher than the cruise.
I priced the open jaw air tickets from Expedia to air consolidators FareBuzz and Cosmopolitan, the prices ranged from $469 - $789 PP/RT. I waited till the very last minute to book the flight, believe it or not, in my daughter’s YTB site. We saved around $700 for all four passengers compared to Expedia & Orbitz.
Next, since my mother in law is in her 80’s, I made sure a wheelchair was available for her on the airport as well as the embarkation on the cruise. Make sure you include this in your booking requests, if not available in the website, call the carriers and make the arrangements by phone.
(Scheduling Timelines & Transfers)
My daughter work and she needed to get her paycheck before departing, so I had to book a flight out of LAX after 12:00 noon. The direct flight in the early morning would have been cheaper but due to schedule constraint, we ended up with a 4 hour layover in San Francisco.
Our arrival in Anchorage was scheduled at 11:53 PM, Friday, August 29, 2008, I needed to book a hotel in Anchorage, called the hotel directly since the hotels I was finding in the booking portal was averaging $289 for 1 night. I booked the hotel by the airport to make sure that there will be a shuttle from and to the hotel. Spoke to a girl at the America’s Best Value Inn, 5 minutes from the airport, I introduced myself as a travel agent, I was able to book the hotel room for 4 @ $162, equipped with a kitchenette, regular room rate $189 (just a note, the rooms would have cost us $89 agent rate for double occupancy but since there were 4 of us traveling together they charged an extra per person rate of $20). We booked on their peak weekend, Labor Day which was on September 2nd Monday that is why the rates were so high.
Lastly, I needed to book transportation from Anchorage to Whittier, I tried rental cars, limousine services and shuttle services on the website and was not able to find any that could go one way, I ended up checking with Anchorage Visitor’s Center website to find shuttle services specializing in cruise transfers. I even called Princess Cruises to see if it was not too late to book hotel and transfer through them, customer service at Princess told me they were sold out for transfers in Anchorage and could only accommodate Vancouver transfers, the rate I quoted was $425 for just the Vancouver transfer hotel, ship, & airport transfers.
I priced out 3 shuttle companies and booked with the least expensive shuttle service and for what they offer. I booked with Girdwood Shuttle Transport (P.O. Box 1316, Girdwood, AK - Phone number (907) 783-1900) which included a sightseeing tour, Anchorage and Whittier is about 2 hours by travel distance, this shuttle service provided a way for us to experience Anchorage for the least amount of money.
And there we are, our tour manually packaged 1 week before our cruise, let me tell you, Sandy was really very anxious about all these, we are so used to booking all these steps at one time, again, we had to do this due to lack of funds at the time of booking.
Incidentally, just to encourage some of you who might want to plan travel on a budget like we did, I checked my booking engine for the same cruise category with Princess and found out that the price we paid for more than doubled by the time I finished booking the shuttle transfers, it went from $598 PP to $1489 PP. I was indeed pleased with these results.
(Trip Travelogue)
2 days prior to departure, my son-in-law who was going to drop us off at the airport found out he had to work, so I scrambled for one last minute arrangement, it meant we would have to drive to the airport and park our car at the airport while cruising.
I considered 5 options, (1) one way rental car, (2) airport shuttle, (3) park fly, (4) Limo service or (5) airport extended parking.
(1) One way Rental car – this option I priced would have cost me about $190 drop off + taxes included for an economy car ( wasn’t sure if the car would have enough luggage space for 4 travelers).
(2) Airport Shuttle – from m home in Riverside to airport and pick up upon our return would have cost us $249 per person.
(3) Park & Fly – this included a one night hotel stay at the airport and a maximum 7 days for parking included in the price for $389.
(4) Limousine Service - $129 per person one way x 8, would have cost me $1,032 and that is without the tipping.
(5) Extended Airport Parking - $9.95 per day x 9 days = $89.50.
As you would guess, I booked Extended Airport parking on my site because of the price. If you ask me, I personally would have liked to have the Limousine Service, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers.
I priced the cruiselines as far out to get better pricing, I checked and compared prices from Carnival to Holland America, even checked with the cruise lines booking engines themselves, as well as other booking sites, I was happy and surprised to find a southbound Alaska cruise by Princess (5 Stars) for $398 inside cabin and $598 window cabin.
I don’t like inside cabins because they have no windows, I booked a partially obstructed cabin (FF category) for the best price, since you only really need the room for sleeping and showers. I priced it with and without the airline package, decided to book the cruise ala carte only due to financial constraints. We would have to save for the airfare and book it later, we booked the cruise in my daughter’s site, Vanessa so she could get the travel credit for certification.
Much to our delight, when we got the YTB confirmation regarding our booking itinerary, we found out that we got upgraded to the HH category, for those who are starting to book cruises, FF category rooms would have been on the 5th floor of the ship, we got upgraded to the HH category room which was on the 8th floor. The thing to remember here is that cruiselines charge by room category, the higher the rooms are on the ship the more expensive the rates.
(Booking the Airline Tickets and scheduling the Flights)
From there, I started to price open jaw flights, a point I would like to share with future Alaska travelers, when and if you book an Alaskan Cruise, book a round trip cruise, they may cost a little more, but sure would be cheaper on the airline tickets, remember, we don’t get paid high commissions on flights so why not book and get paid for a roundtrip cruise (i.e. Vancouver – Vancouver or Seattle – Seattle round trip).
I found this out after we booked the southbound cruise that leaves from Whittier, Alaska going to Vancouver, Canada. Although the cruise itself would have been worth the money, the airline tickets however can cost even higher than the cruise.
I priced the open jaw air tickets from Expedia to air consolidators FareBuzz and Cosmopolitan, the prices ranged from $469 - $789 PP/RT. I waited till the very last minute to book the flight, believe it or not, in my daughter’s YTB site. We saved around $700 for all four passengers compared to Expedia & Orbitz.
Next, since my mother in law is in her 80’s, I made sure a wheelchair was available for her on the airport as well as the embarkation on the cruise. Make sure you include this in your booking requests, if not available in the website, call the carriers and make the arrangements by phone.
(Scheduling Timelines & Transfers)
My daughter work and she needed to get her paycheck before departing, so I had to book a flight out of LAX after 12:00 noon. The direct flight in the early morning would have been cheaper but due to schedule constraint, we ended up with a 4 hour layover in San Francisco.
Our arrival in Anchorage was scheduled at 11:53 PM, Friday, August 29, 2008, I needed to book a hotel in Anchorage, called the hotel directly since the hotels I was finding in the booking portal was averaging $289 for 1 night. I booked the hotel by the airport to make sure that there will be a shuttle from and to the hotel. Spoke to a girl at the America’s Best Value Inn, 5 minutes from the airport, I introduced myself as a travel agent, I was able to book the hotel room for 4 @ $162, equipped with a kitchenette, regular room rate $189 (just a note, the rooms would have cost us $89 agent rate for double occupancy but since there were 4 of us traveling together they charged an extra per person rate of $20). We booked on their peak weekend, Labor Day which was on September 2nd Monday that is why the rates were so high.
Lastly, I needed to book transportation from Anchorage to Whittier, I tried rental cars, limousine services and shuttle services on the website and was not able to find any that could go one way, I ended up checking with Anchorage Visitor’s Center website to find shuttle services specializing in cruise transfers. I even called Princess Cruises to see if it was not too late to book hotel and transfer through them, customer service at Princess told me they were sold out for transfers in Anchorage and could only accommodate Vancouver transfers, the rate I quoted was $425 for just the Vancouver transfer hotel, ship, & airport transfers.
I priced out 3 shuttle companies and booked with the least expensive shuttle service and for what they offer. I booked with Girdwood Shuttle Transport (P.O. Box 1316, Girdwood, AK - Phone number (907) 783-1900) which included a sightseeing tour, Anchorage and Whittier is about 2 hours by travel distance, this shuttle service provided a way for us to experience Anchorage for the least amount of money.
And there we are, our tour manually packaged 1 week before our cruise, let me tell you, Sandy was really very anxious about all these, we are so used to booking all these steps at one time, again, we had to do this due to lack of funds at the time of booking.
Incidentally, just to encourage some of you who might want to plan travel on a budget like we did, I checked my booking engine for the same cruise category with Princess and found out that the price we paid for more than doubled by the time I finished booking the shuttle transfers, it went from $598 PP to $1489 PP. I was indeed pleased with these results.
(Trip Travelogue)
2 days prior to departure, my son-in-law who was going to drop us off at the airport found out he had to work, so I scrambled for one last minute arrangement, it meant we would have to drive to the airport and park our car at the airport while cruising.
I considered 5 options, (1) one way rental car, (2) airport shuttle, (3) park fly, (4) Limo service or (5) airport extended parking.
(1) One way Rental car – this option I priced would have cost me about $190 drop off + taxes included for an economy car ( wasn’t sure if the car would have enough luggage space for 4 travelers).
(2) Airport Shuttle – from m home in Riverside to airport and pick up upon our return would have cost us $249 per person.
(3) Park & Fly – this included a one night hotel stay at the airport and a maximum 7 days for parking included in the price for $389.
(4) Limousine Service - $129 per person one way x 8, would have cost me $1,032 and that is without the tipping.
(5) Extended Airport Parking - $9.95 per day x 9 days = $89.50.
As you would guess, I booked Extended Airport parking on my site because of the price. If you ask me, I personally would have liked to have the Limousine Service, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers.
No comments:
Post a Comment