BadgerRedux

Thanks for the photo - wow, that really is out of the way; guess that explains why I couldn't seem to spot that 4th bed in photos.

Thanks, glad to hear good things about the cabin location! Pro's and con's for every area I'm sure.

First time cruiser here with a low stakes question. My husband and I booked our July, 2024 cruise late and so didn't have much choice of cabins; we ended up going with a midship, deck 5 cabin and didn't realize until later that it was one of the quad cabins (V5056-V5062 on the port side, V5053-V5057 starboard). It'll just be the two of us - is there anything that will be annoying about a cabin which could sleep 4? I've looked at several photos for these cabins, but never having been on a ship, I feel like I don't know what I'm looking at. Looks like there will be a couch for the 3rd person, but will there also be a bed which folds down for a 4th person? I'm aware of some of compromises/downsides with a midship deck 5 cabin and have made peace with them: we'll be looking down at the lifeboats on deck 4, our balcony will be somewhat shallower, elevators might be more crowded.

So glad to hear of people who make this work. We're working on learning to travel without checking a bag; we also don't mind sink laundry and some re-wearing; and we aren't really interested in the dressy dinner nights so expect to need fewer types of clothes/shoes than some people. We're aiming for just carryons and personal items for our (first) Alaska cruise in July; we'll see how it goes!

Thanks, that makes sense.

That's very interesting; my husband likes to watch a little YouTube every day and I was thinking we needed to get the more expensive streaming option to support that. I think you mentioned on another thread that you thought Premium filtered some of the streaming websites (Hulu, Netflix, etc.) but I was surprised that they wouldn't also filter out YouTube.

Thanks, I booked it; will see how it goes!

Thanks Wolfie11, I became interested in the salmon run when you responded to the post "Which port best to see bears" a few months back - you mentioned chilkatguides operating in Haines for around $150 (booked through skagwayexcursion.com) but I ended up looking at the one sold on alaskaexcursions.com for $225.50 which departs from Skagway. I'm assuming chilkatguides is the local operator behind the alaska excursions one too, right? The only difference is I'd be paying $75 extra to cover the Katamaran ferry round trip from Skagway to Haines?

I'm considering the Skagway Wildlife Safari Tour to Haines offered by (brokered by?) Alaska Shore Excursions; has anyone done this and would you recommend it? Our HAL cruise stops in Skagway July 24 and sounds like the salmon might be running then; hoping to see a bear but I know it's not guaranteed. I'm new to cruising and a little concerned about getting off the boat in time - we're supposed to be in Skagway by 7 AM, and excursion calls for meeting at the end of the pier by 7:30 AM; does this sound workable? Any thoughts appreciated! https://alaskashoreexcursions.com/skagway/wildlife-safari-and-bear-viewing-tour

I don't have reason to believe FE is any worse than other third parties, but in general, once things go wrong with a booking, the fact that it was booked through a 3rd party seems to slow down getting problems resolved. I guess we've all had an experience where the airline sends us back to the third party when there's an urgent problem. When I was using a credit card rewards portal to book our post-cruise flight, I almost went with the discount airline Westjet, but found it was impossible to get a question answered as Westjet's phone tree kept telling me they wouldn't deal with me if I was booking through a third party (and I was sure the credit card portal would not know the answer). I ended up going with a Delta flight for a few more points. Maybe some airlines cope with 3rd party booking better than others.

Weird, I'm still not seeing the 11 AM DTW to ORD flight #UA4749 (with connecting 4:14 PM ORD to ANC flight #UA450) on United's website, whether I'm logged in or not. I successfully booked the flight from the app so I'm all set, but it's odd that it was/is not visible to me as an option on the website.

Thanks everyone, for helping this first time cruiser! I ended up not using Flight Ease - booked the Detroit to Anchorage pre-cruise flights on the United app, and Vancouver to Detroit using my husband's credit card points which I'd forgotten about. As others predicted, Flight Ease wouldn't have saved much/any money since I was looking for economy, domestic flights. The weird issue I noticed must've been due to United rather than Flight Ease since the only place the flight didn't exist was united.com

That makes sense

You know, maybe it's not cheaper - looks like the cheap Vancouver to Detroit flight I saw on FE is only $287on Air Canada; now that Bob @rwmiller found our Detroit to Anchorage flight on the United App for $400, I'm going to try to book both flights direct.