Cruise Day 4 - At Sea

December 18th – Thursday:

Day 4 – Day at Sea: Sandy & I slept late and joined Long and Sarah for a late lunch, also met with Dorothy and Tony who joined us at the Lido Deck, we invited them back to dine with us for the last evening of the voyage which to our delight they were happy to agree.
This is when the ship makes more money by offering cruisers bargain sales of really high end items in time for Christmas giving. Sandy bought a gold earring and I was content in just looking around that might interest me.

As the afternoon progressed, we hit rocky seas, everyone seemed to be walking like they have balance problems as if we were all drunk. We had a great time hunting for all the pictures taken by the cruise photographers, from the embarkation to our dining. Sandy and I decided to purchase 4 of the 5x7 pictures that seemed reasonable for $33.

In the afternoon, I lost Sandy to shopping and I sat with Tony to watch the cruise version of the “Newly Wed Game”, and the participants were hilarious especially the couple who has been married 55 years. The show ended, and we sat around the theater for this evening, we as late diners had to see the 6PM musical show “Shout”. When the show started, everyone in our group watched this live performance that lasted 1.5 hours, and boy if you have ever seen a Vegas show, this show tops all the other shows we’ve seen so far. Costumes’ and musical numbers were great, the dancing and choreography could compete with any Broadway musicals.

After the show, we headed down to our dining room, this time, we were all together and enjoying the evening’s meal, I ordered both the flat iron steak and the short ribs, topping it again with the Melting Chocolate Cake.

After dinner, we all headed for the Leonardo Lounge to hear Long and the band singing and jamming the night away, we danced till midnight. The best thing about being in this cruise is that, everyone in the ship was just having a great time, we danced with total strangers, some were in their 20’s and with us seniors trying to keep up with their energy. Indeed, the night was a very festive and filled with high energy. The best part about this whole party ship is that you don’t have to be drunk to have a great time.

Let me give my personal reviews with Igal and Dorothy’s pair dancing techniques, they move in perfect synch and seemed effortless in waltz and the tango, I admire couples who share the same energy and passion for dancing, Sandy and I danced with everybody on the floor. When the band played their last song, we all moaned because the end of our vacation was at hand, but smile in our lips we all parted exchanging emails and telephone numbers.

Dorothy invited us to join tony & her for the New Year’s party, which we are seriously considering because they are such a fun couple.

Long Beach - Cruise Disembarkation

December 19th – Friday:

Day 5 – Long Beach Port: Disembarkation, we woke up around 8AM and met Sarah and Long at the Lido Deck which became our hang out during this fun cruise. We had assigned sequence to disembark, we waited with Dorothy and Tony, they were called first then when it came our turn, we barely spent ½ and our in the line to get off the ship, with boarding card and passport on hand we breezed right through immigration checkpoint. A note to future cruiser, having a US passport is like being treated in a VIP line pass. As soon as we collected our suitcases in the unloading area, we ended our Christmas cruise.

We dropped Sarah off back in Claremont where she picked up a car to go to work, we decided that we needed to stop at Marukai Japanese Market in West Covina, so we took Long and picked up our groceries before having lunch with Long at the Miki House.

We dropped Long in Corona and we came home to our home sweet home, like Dorothy says, “There’s no place like Home”.

Just a prologue for my future blogging, check my tips on how to have a festive Christmas Elegant table for under $50 bucks, next… see you soon.

Vancouver, Canada

September 6th – Saturday - 2008:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: As our final destination in our Alaska Southbound Cruise, I found Vancouver to be just as foreign as if I was in Europe somewhere. The ambiance and athmosphere definitely has a strong European influence, Half of the natives spoke French and half in English which was a relief for any American Traveler/Marveler.

September wind in Vancouver is on the chilly side, just as Alaska is ending their fall season, Vancouver just started theirs when we arrived in the Port of Vancouver.

As we disembarked from Princess Cruises, we were greeted by a myriad of tour vendors right on the port, we searched for what I thought was the most prominent in their advertising and was able to book a city tour in a private Van tour.

We were greeted by a young gentleman named Gary, who surprisingly was originally from Downey, California and has since moved to Vancouver to join his family there. He spoke with a slight Canadian American Accent and were delighted to have him as our tour guide.

The tour package consisted of historical City sights, Gas Lamp District, Stanley Park and Granville Market and a drop off to our hotel on the southwest end of the city.

We first started the tour by going to the downtown district of Vancouver, skyscrapers, Starbucks, MacDonald’s, the usual franchises, then we were given a tour of Vancouver’s China Town, consisted of 4 square block on the north end of the city, most of the shops were closed and on to the Zen Garden.

The historical Gas Lamp District was the most exciting part of the tour, we actually got to walk the streets where the gold miners once trekked on their way to the Yukon, the main building where the miners slept and lodged as well as the Gas Clock, one of the only 2 that exist in our modern day.

Followed be a tour of their famous Stanley Park, where the 100+ North American Indian Tribes are represented by their tribal Totem Poles and City Gates displayed prominently throughout the park as well as American Indian Dancer performing his bag pipe.

The tour ended in the Granville Market, used to be their manufacturing of cannery row, building exteriors were kept intact and the inside were renovated into shops and bazaars, not surprising to find that their market produce looked exactly the same as we have in California, but the ambiance due to the French Canadian speaking locals were enticing and exciting to a first time visitor.

As we finished the tour, we were dropped off right in front of our Hotel, the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel where we stayed for the evening. That evening we asked the concierge to the nearest Chinese Restaurant that offered their best.

September 7th – Sunday – 2008:

We had the entire morning to take a cab back to explore more of the residential parts of Vancouver and spent more time at the Granville Market, where we had lunch and shopped for about 4 hours. We took a cab to the airport for our 6PM departure.

We arrived in Los Angeles Airport approximately 8 PM, called the parking lot shuttle to pick us up at the center aisle of the airport and picked up our car. The trip home from the airport was very short and free from traffic since we came back on a Sunday evening.

Planning a Major Vacation

(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.

LAX - San Francisco - Anchorage

August 29, 2008 - Friday - 2008.

San Francisco - Anchorage

Sandy did all my packing, my daughter Vanessa was to arrive at my house after picking up her check and depositing it at the bank around 10:00 AM. Our timing and schedule was stress free, we had enough time to get to the airport, park the car and be shuttled to the terminal.

We checked in at the United Airlines curbside baggage check-in because of my mother-in-law who needed a wheel chair. The porter immediately weighed my daughter’s suitcase (since it was the biggest one), and it weighed 58 lbs. The porter instructed my daughter to move some of the contents out to meet minimum weight of 50 lbs. She transferred her cosmetic bag into Sandy’s and her weight came in just under 50 lbs. We paid the $15 per baggage charge and proceeded to the gates.

For those who do not travel as often as we do, keep your driver’s license and boarding tickets on hand while going through Airport Security, remove shoes, metal belts and jackets including blazers, separate laptops from the case, bagged liquids no more than 2 ounces, cell phones & keys. I forgot my belt, while going through the metal detector I beeped the hell out of the machine, of course I had to be frisked, an experience that is quite embarrassing and at the same time funny because I wasn’t the only one, on the other side of the glass screening room was this 80 year old woman clearly far from a suspected terrorist.

I also forgot to mention that my mother-in-law decided to walk with her cane through the security, even the cane had to be checked-in as well, how far we have come as far as beeping up security I found to be hilarious.

After the security check we proceeded to the gate, luckily the walk for my 86 year old mother-in-law wasn’t that far, the flight to San Francisco was booked solid, UA was selling upgrades to available business and first class seats, knowing this I did not even attempt to ask for an upgrade because there were 4 of us who needed to sit close to each other. On the 1 hour flight to San Francisco, I handed my business card to a lady who works as a marketing rep for a Sacramento Pharmaceutical company and who obviously travel frequently. She got so excited to find out that we are travel agents she asked for 3 more of my cards and handed it out to 2 other passengers on the plane.

We had a 6 hour layover in San Francisco, this was my 2nd time at this airport and my first time to have a long layover so we made the best of it, we arrived around 2 PM and our flight leaving at 8:00 PM. At the main terminal hub, they had shops and even Starbucks as well as other fast food services. We decided to have Sushi for snacks and parked our hand carries on one of the Eating areas’ table.

Sandy, Vanessa and Mom went shopping at the bookshops and the gift shops for about 3 hours while I started this trip report. Around 6 PM, we decided to have dinner and agreed on Chinese food because we were in San Francisco known for the largest Chinatown outside of China, I was pleasantly surprised the wonton soup I ordered tasted just like the ones you eat at Chinatown, I would definitely recommend the noodle or the wonton soup, very filling for $8.95.

The flight from San Francisco and Anchorage took 4 hours, we boarded at 8:15 PM, I pointed out to my daughter Vanessa that the stewardess was an Alaskan native, very pretty Eskimo Indian features, tall and very pleasant. I later overheard this stewardess speaking tagalog to one of the passengers and found out she wasn’t an Eskimo lady but a Filipina. Tells you how much I know about other cultures.

While on the flight, I sat right next to a gentleman who was going salmon fishing in Sitka, after exchanging a bit of conversation, he slept most of the way. I have to caution travelers who travel with children and mature women, this flight is 1 hour shy of a Hawaii flight, moving about the cabin wasn’t a pleasant experience with not enough leg room and fully booked flight we were all on top of each other. Those of you who travelled long flights know what its like, you just make the best of it, take frequent bathroom breaks because for some unknown reasons, sitting for extended time your bladder cant hold water for more than 2 hours, 3-4 trips would be an average for this length of travel.

UA offered free drinks on flight and free headsets to watch the movie northbound. We arrived in Anchorage at midnight, it took another hour before we got out of the terminal, I called the hotel who sent a shuttle to pick us up, much to my surprise, the shuttle driver, Onassis, is a Filipino from Cebu my mother’s island and we both spoke Visayan.

If you want to find out about the cheapest way to see a city, talk to a transplant native, Onassis has been in Anchorage for 10 years, from the Philippines he went and got a job there as a banker (his day job and works partime as a shuttle driver), of course he took my business card regarding travel and pointed out that there was a city trolley tour.

Anchorage, Alaska City Tour

August 30th – Saturday - 2008:

Anchorage Alaska City Tour

Next morning, we ate continental breakfast included in the hotel rate and called a cab. I met a Middle Eastern Driver from Cairo whose name was Ezz, gave me his number and drove us to the “Alaska Native Heritage Museum”, about a 35 minute drive from downtown Anchorage, taxi cost is $37.

The Museum highlights over 100 native Alaska tribes, from Inuit to Tlingit. Each diverse in beliefs and ways of life with one common element, Alaska, the wildlife and fauna abounds within this majestic state. The entrance fee was $65 per adults and $35 per child, with agent rate, we paid $9.95 per adult ( not bad for an agent discount).

We watched the Alaskan performers on stage explaining about the main theme of their native dances, they pretty much tell the story of fishing, canoeing, building huts, even a dance describing the water plane taking off and having inclement weather. To me the most fascinating I’ve learned about their culture is how they go to hunt walruses and use the skin to make their canoes.

There several native craft makers who were doing illustration of how their native crafts are done and by what tribe, so even their native costumes vary by the region. We watched an Inuit native play a flute and native music which I found very suiting to everyone’s ears, if you like flute, this is must hear portion of the tour.

The compound was about10 acres of raw land, they built village houses that distinguished each of the different tribes. The villages of each tribe was quite a walk, I was in charge of pushing Mom’s wheel chair around and the path is not paved, it was a struggle to go around the park and since we had only 2 hours left to get back to our hotel for our shuttle pick up to Whittier, we did not go around the entire park, besides, most of what you see in one village pretty much resembles the next with little variation of the native homes and beliefs. We left the museum, from the park there is a shuttle from the Anchorage Visitor Center which is in the center of Anchorage for free.

If you want to take the same short excursion with minimal cost, take the cab from your hotel to the Visitor Center then you can take the shuttle to the museum for free, remember we paid $37 for our taxi. We had enough time to see the beautiful Civic Center and the main center of tourist attraction in Anchorage.

We hailed a cab back to our hotel, we were ½ an hour late in getting our suitcases to check out, the hotel that I thought was such a good rate, charged us another $89, I tried to talk to the owner, she was very unpleasant and rude, I just gave up and paid the extra night charge. Lesson to be learned form this, I should have asked to check out the baggage to their bell service, then take the excursion, this would have probably been the best way to avoid further charges we incurred. But I’m telling everyone NOT to stay at this Hotel, America’s Best Value Inn turned out to be ‘WORST VALUE INN”. Here’s what the hotel looked like:

We called the shuttle company and we had another hour to wait, next to the hotel was a McDonald so we went and grab a quick lunch before the bus arrived. Alaska Transportation had 2 rates; $40 for a non-stop trip & $51 for their Wildlife Tour, I would recommend the 2nd option which we took.