rjeffler

If you are a Costco member, check them for prices as well. I had reservations for Hertz in Anchorage and kept checking prices. I was able to get it quite a bit cheaper through Costco and Dollar.

Thanks!! I spent several hours online and couldn't find much at all for this summer with the major booking sites. Thinking I will have better luck calling when we decide to book. January sounds like a plan! thanks!

It really depends on where you are going and what kind of hotels you like. My family prefers known chains, and in some places those are scarce. I think I booked my June 2014 hotels in October 2013. I know the Holiday Inn in Seward filled up WAY early!!

It really depends on what day of the week. The Large Animal Research Facility gets great reviews! They are closed when we are there (Sunday/Monday) so we are visiting the Running Reindeer Ranch! Google it! Also, North Pole is close if you want to say you've been there!

I'm actually booked for June 6, 2014, but I already started my review which includes my pre-planning that I've been doing since last March. It is at: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2007041 Hope it helps some of you with your planning. It has certainly been an adventure for me for the past year!!:)

We booked a cruise to Alaska for June 12 2015 I am looking forward to your review !!

We are thinking about an Alaska cruise in either 2015 or 2016 so we are very much looking forward to your review!

Since this is nearly all Alaska based, I opened another thread on the Alaska board titled the same thing. I'm putting updates there.

If you are going this year, I just posted info on Monday regarding a Groupon I saw for a Helicopter Flight to Dog Sled on a Glacier in Seward. Regular price was $449, on sale for $249. FANTASTIC DEAL!! I paid for mine back in October (for my June cruise) and paid $500/pp for a similar tour in Juneau. I'm praying for good weather because I didn't leave myself time in any other ports to reschedule. :(

If you are looking for next year, I started a thread called 'Not quite OCD Alaska, but close' that goes over my pre-planning for my upcoming trip. I'll finish it off with the results in mid-June when I return!

I am also an obsessive prior planner and like to have as much paid for ahead of time as possible. I was able to get the tours I wanted and pay for all ahead of time. I think I was able to get better/smaller tours on my own than what the cruise line offered.

Here is the last bit of prep-work for my upcoming trip. I guess the rest will be done when we return and I can give an honest opinion of how we did!

Now we were ready to start looking at tours! This was going to be exhausting!! The first tours we booked were fishing in Seward, Dog Sledding on a Glacier in Juneau and Whale Watching in Icy Straight Point. Just to give you an idea, this is now in the October time frame (cruising June). I would suggest signing up for Groupon in any of the cities you are visiting. I have groupon set for Anchorage and Vancouver. You never know what they will have on sale. The last time we went to Vancouver, we got the Hop-on/Hop-off as a buy 1, get 1.

Originally we booked our fishing with Seward Military Resort. There were a couple of issues, so we ended up changing charters. The issues for me were that they were quite a ways outside of town, so a rental car was needed AND they didn’t fillet your fish for you. After doing quite a bit of research, we decided on Alaska Northern Outfitters. They even have a great option for families like mine. You pay the full price for the first person fishing and the 2nd person can go for $95 as a back up/photographer. If you buy fishing licenses for both, you can still catch the amount of fish that both can legally fish. I’m not super into fishing and simply wanted to go along for the ride, so this worked great for us. The other thing is, this company fillets the fish for you on the long ride back to Seward at the end of the day. Then, when you get off the dock, you simply visit the company on the dock to pack and mail your fish home! As with most of the companies, you still have to have a fishing license. You can buy it online in advance or buy it on the dock when you get to Seward. I’m all about having things done and paid for so I went ahead and bought the licenses online and will have them in hand when we arrive in town. The young lady I was dealing with by email was very easy to work with. She did my 50% deposit back in January (they were trying to close out 2013 books so she wanted to wait until then) and then I asked to charge the rest in early March as I was ready to pay it off. She happily processed my charges and I am just carrying the confirmations with me.

The Glacier Dog Sledding was the one thing that I wanted to do on the trip and our friends were in for this as well. This is, by far, the most expensive tour I’ve ever done (this will be my 15th cruise). We did a lot of research on where to do this tour (Seward, Juneau, Skagway) but eventually settled on Juneau and ERA Flightseeing. In a perfect world, if our tour wasn’t able to go because of weather, we still had Skagway to do one (but we ended up planning something else there). On a side note, Groupon just two days ago (March 17th) had a sale for $249/pp for a similar tour from Seward. It would have been nice to be able to take advantage, but I wasn't willing to change all of my other plans to do this.

The Whale Watching we decided on was FISHES in ICP. There are so many companies that get good reviews that it was hard to decide. FISHES is a very small company and that is what drew me to it. Very close to the same price as the cruise ship tours, but a much smaller boat. This tour only allows up to 6 participants. Of our group of 8 on the cruise, only 4 wanted to participate. FISHES was fine with this. We told them we wouldn’t mind if another couple was put in with us as we are friendly folk, but I guess that doesn’t always happen. Bear in mind, this company does not take credit cards. It was the first company I ran into with this, but wasn’t a problem for my family.

I will mention here that you need to remember their weather when booking things in Alaska. It sometimes took a week or more to get a response, but many of the companies close for the winter and they are working on a skeleton staff.

I took much of December off for planning and simply read a lot on Cruise Critic. I read every review I could as well as much of the Alaska boards to see if I was missing anything.

Next, I decided to look at rental cars for Anchorage. I’m a bargain shopper at heart. My original reservation was for Hertz for 4 days at $191. Somehow, my price changed to $262 when I looked at it in early February. So, I decided to start shopping a bit more. If it doesn’t cost me to shop, I’ll spend 60 minutes a week just checking on rates. I have used coupon codes from AAA, Marriott, coupons found online, etc… I tried to use AmEx points to schedule the rental car, but the cost was double what I was getting it for. I ended up cancelling the Hertz rental when I found the same full-size car from Alamo for $162 through Costco.

We also decided in late January to do a rental car in Skagway and drive to the Emerald Lake. Avis is the national provider there. I gather there are a couple of smaller places, but we’d rather stay with a name we know. I will tell you here to book the car early through the Avis sight and don’t even waste your time looking for coupons. I did the wasting of time for you! Since this is a captive audience, they do not accept coupons, coupon codes, pre-pay, etc… The rate you get online is the rate you get. Also, more often than not, more than one ship is in port on a given day, so they will run out of cars. Get your rental as early as you can. We also bought Murray’s guide for $5 and printed it out. He gives you a link to email him back before you go to see if there were any updates from the prior year.

We are finally less than 90 days out from our cruise and I’m getting excited. Now I’m finally looking into things to do in Fairbanks, Seward, some of the ports and Vancouver!! For Fairbanks, I have scheduled us to go to Running Reindeer Ranch. I would have loved to go to the Large Animal Research Facility at the university, but we are there on a Sunday/Monday and they are closed. Running Reindeer Ranch is a family home with reindeer as pets. They allow you to take a walk with the reindeer and generally be able to interact with them much closer than you would at a zoo. In Ketchikan, it seemed like the Lumberjack show was the go to thing. Although very touristy, it gets great reviews! We all bought our tickets last week (1st week of March) for June 8th and the 1st show of the day is already sold out!! In Vancouver (which we did at the end of a cruise in 2010), we plan on doing a Hop-on/Hop-off as well as visiting Grouse Mountain. I haven’t actually bought the tickets for either of these yet and keep watching for specials.

Now it is time to wait and confirm and wait and confirm. Funny thing, but I’m glad I print everything and glad I check back. My original flight home, we were business class. In January, they changed the flight number and time and there wasn’t business class, so we were put in coach. I had to call, but they moved us to Economy plus for no charge. Amazingly enough, we got another change by email today and the latest flight does have business class. I had to call again, but they were able to switch me back to business because I had proof of my original purchase. My husband thinks I’m over the top OCD, but I simply call it being a good travel planner. I also have the time to spend time here and there perusing websites! When I finally get on the trip, I’m fine and simply enjoy myself!!

72 days until departure!!

Since your drive to Fairbanks from ANC takes you right past Denali you should look into 5/31 Drive to Denali with hotel nearby then afternoon at visitor center maybe evening dog sled show.

6/1 Into Park in early (Zero dark 30) AM then drive to Fairbanks.

6/2 Fairbanks.

One less day in Fairbanks.

Even more important if the mountain is out.

My ideas if you care.

Sightcrr.

I love ideas from others and think that is what this site is all about! :) Unfortunately, we have reservations at Running Reindeer Ranch in Fairbanks on the 1st and I don't want to miss that. I'll miss the Large Animal Research facility, so this is one of my chances to get up close and personal to some wildlife!

My opinion would be to stay downtown near Canada Place and enjoy yourself for the day. We did this in 2010 and have plans again for June. The hop-on/hop-off was great as well as the Capilano Suspension Bridge. Our flight in 2010 was also at 6:00am, but we simply had the front desk arrange a cab for 3:00 am. Our drive to the airport was 30 minutes - no traffic! I don't think there are any downtown hotels that have airport transfers. :(

We will be in Vancouver for the 2nd time in June after our Alaska cruise and plan on 2 days as we had such a good time last time! We did a hop-on/hop-off and toured most of the city as well as Capilano Suspension Bridge. This year, we plan the hop-on/hop-off again as well as a tour of Grouse Mountain to include a visit to Eye of the Wind. Cannot wait!!

If you can spare the time, stay and enjoy it. BTW, we are staying at the Marriott Pinnacle.

I'm on the 06/06/14 Southbound Seward to Vancouver on Radiance. My husband lived in Alaska for 7 years, so we are taking a couple of days in Fairbanks as well.

05/30 Fly to Anchorage

05/31 Drive to Fairbanks (stopping along the way)

06/01 Fairbanks - Running Reindeer Ranch, North Pole

06/02 Fairbanks - Chena Hot Springs

06/03 Drive to Anchorage (stopping at other places)

06/04 Train to Seward, Hike Exit Glacier

06/05 Seward - Full Day fishing through Alaska Northern Outfitters

06/06 Board Ship - Maybe Sealife Center

-------- Juneau - Helicopter to Dogsled on Glacier with ERA

Skagway - Avis Car Rental, driving to Yukon and Emerald Lake

Icy Straight Point - Whale Watching with FISHES

Ketchikan - Self-Tour Walking and Lumberjack show

06/13 Arrive Vancouver - Hop-on/Hop-off

06/14 Vancouver - Grouse Mountain & Eye of the Wind

06/15 Fly back home L

Remember, we drive in cars EVERY day and there are accidents, but we keep driving. Much better chance of being in a car accident than a helicopter accident!

All of you sledding fanatics.... Just got a notice from Groupon/Anchorage that there is a sale on Helicopter to Dog Sled on a Glacier from Seward. It is normally $449, on sale for $249. This is an unheard of deal!! Scoop it up if you can make it fit your schedule!!

It is on the Groupon/Anchorage site. Just got a notice that there is a groupon today for 90 Minute Helicopter and Dogsled Tour. Normal price is $449 and it is on sale for $249. There are a couple of limitations to the number on each tour, but the coupon is good through September 1. I wish I would have waited to buy mine as this would have saved me bundles!!

I've also had some changes to my flights since I booked them SOOOO long ago. I booked in July 2013 for a May 2014 flight. I did it so early so that I could get 1st class tickets for 1/2 the points. So, imagine my surprise when my return flight changed and there was no 1st/business class. They put me in economy. :( It took a phone call and I was changed to economy plus. Imagine my surprise again about 2 weeks later when I noticed they changed planes AGAIN and there was a 1st/business class but I was still in economy. I had to call again and was then put back into 1st/business. It simply shows, you have to watch your flights if you schedule them very far out. I check mine about every other week! I'm not a snob about 1st/business, but we saved points for this for a very long time and I wanted to make the most of the entire trip!!:)

Thanks for sharing your information.

Looking forward to reading more.

Any plans for Denali?

Unfortunately, not going into Denali this trip. May on a future one.

Here is a bit more of my pre-planning:

The next hurdle was to figure out our schedule and see where we would need hotels and which we should use. Vancouver and Seward are the easiest as they don’t have as many options. The only chain hotel in Seward is Holiday Inn. In Vancouver, the biggest US chains that are there are Marriott and Best Western. Marriott suits us better and we had their credit card as well as loyalty club with some points already!! So, the schedule was:

05/30 Fly to Anchorage

05/31 Drive to Fairbanks (stopping along the way)

06/01 Fairbanks

06/02 Fairbanks

06/03 Drive to Anchorage (stopping at other places)

06/04 Train to Seward

06/05 Seward

06/06 Board Ship

-------- Cruise (Hubbard Glacier, Juneau, Skagway, Icy Straight Point, Ketchikan)

06/13 Arrive Vancouver

06/14 Vancouver

06/15 Fly back home L

My first hotel booked was the Holiday Inn, Seward. It is a small hotel and fills up quickly. I know for the days prior to our cruise, it was fully booked 7-8 months in advance. So, I went to charging on that card and got all of the bonuses I could. I was 400 points shy of having enough points for 2 nights, so I called to speak with someone. I was going to ask to use points for 1 night and points and money for the 2nd night. The lovely young lady I was talking to went ahead and just gave me both nights since I was sooo close to having enough points! I made sure to ask her name and wrote a lovely letter to Holiday Inn telling them what great service she provided.

The next hotel we scheduled was Vancouver. We decided to go with the Marriott Pinnacle since it is quite close to the port and downtown area and was a nicer hotel for the same number of points as the others. For those worried about making an early flight the next day, it is no problem. The last time we were in Vancouver, we simply had the hotel get us a cab for 3am. They drove us directly to the airport in less than 30 min as there was NO traffic. I would much rather get up a bit earlier to get to the airport than have my hotel sooo far outside the fun places to visit. Yes, there is the sky train, but we wanted to be in town. So, again, I charged, charged, charged on the credit card, got all the bonus points and then scheduled the hotel. We had a Marriott account prior, so we might have already had some points on it. This one cost us 70,000 points total for both nights.

Finally, I had to schedule hotels in Anchorage (1 night), Fairbanks (2 nights) and Anchorage (1 night). We are frequent Hilton guests, so this was the easiest for me. Homewood Suites by Hilton Anchorage was 40,000 points. Hampton Inn Fairbanks was 50,000 per night. The final night we choose the Hilton Anchorage for 50,000 points as it was closer to the train station and we would be boarding at 0’dark thirty!!

Just to give you a tally at this point, we’ve paid the $500 deposit on the cruise, $113.80 in 1st class airfare (both ways) and $0 for ALL hotel stays for the entire trip!

Next, I handled the travel from Anchorage to Seward. One of the other couples we are cruising with will arrive in Anchorage on 06/03. We decided to take the train from Anchorage to Seward together and spend a couple of days down there. My family is retired military, so we took advantage of the travel office at Elmendorf. Their email is aftravel at alaska dot net or phone is 907-753-2378 if you need it! We were able to book Goldstar service for $105/pp. Normal rate is $140/pp for 2014. We were able to book ours as well as our friends (non-military) for the same rate under our booking. I did this in September.

Next up will be the actual tours that we've scheduled for the trip!

Sounds like some are using my ideas/suggestions, so here is a bit more:

The next hurdle was to figure out our schedule and see where we would need hotels and which we should use. Vancouver and Seward are the easiest as they don’t have as many options. The only chain hotel in Seward is Holiday Inn. In Vancouver, the biggest US chains that are there are Marriott and Best Western. Marriott suits us better and we had their credit card as well as loyalty club with some points already!! So, the schedule was:

05/30 Fly to Anchorage

05/31 Drive to Fairbanks (stopping along the way)

06/01 Fairbanks

06/02 Fairbanks

06/03 Drive to Anchorage (stopping at other places)

06/04 Train to Seward

06/05 Seward

06/06 Board Ship

-------- Cruise (Hubbard Glacier, Juneau, Skagway, Icy Straight Point, Ketchikan)

06/13 Arrive Vancouver

06/14 Vancouver

06/15 Fly back home L

My first hotel booked was the Holiday Inn, Seward. It is a small hotel and fills up quickly. I know for the days prior to our cruise, it was fully booked 7-8 months in advance. So, I went to charging on that card and got all of the bonuses I could. I was 400 points shy of having enough points for 2 nights, so I called to speak with someone. I was going to ask to use points for 1 night and points and money for the 2nd night. The lovely young lady I was talking to went ahead and just gave me both nights since I was soooo close to having enough points! I made sure to ask her name and wrote a lovely letter to Holiday Inn telling them what great service she provided.

The next hotel we scheduled was Vancouver. We decided to go with the Marriott Pinnacle since it is quite close to the port and downtown area and was a nicer hotel for the same number of points as the others. For those worried about making an early flight the next day, it is no problem. The last time we were in Vancouver, we simply had the hotel get us a cab for 3am. They drove us directly to the airport in less than 30 min as there was NO traffic. I would much rather get up a bit earlier to get to the airport than have my hotel sooo far outside the fun places to visit. Yes, there is the sky train, but we wanted to be in town. So, again, I charged, charged, charged on the credit card, got all the bonus points and then scheduled the hotel. We had a Marriott account prior, so we might have already had some points on it. This one cost us 70,000 points total for both nights.

Finally, I had to schedule hotels in Anchorage (1 night), Fairbanks (2 nights) and Anchorage (1 night). We are frequent Hilton guests, so this was the easiest for me. Homewood Suites by Hilton Anchorage was 40,000 points. Hampton Inn Fairbanks was 50,000 per night. The final night we choose the Hilton Anchorage for 50,000 points as it was closer to the train station and we would be boarding at 0’dark thirty!!

Just to give you a tally at this point, we’ve paid the $500 deposit on the cruise, $113.80 in 1st class airfare (both ways) and $0 for ALL hotel stays for the entire trip!

Next, I handled the travel from Anchorage to Seward. One of the other couples we are cruising with will arrive in Anchorage on 06/03. We decided to take the train from Anchorage to Seward together and spend a couple of days down there. My family is retired military, so we took advantage of the travel office at Elmendorf. Their email is aftravel at alaska dot net or phone is 907-753-2378 if you need it! We were able to book Goldstar service for $105/pp. Normal rate is $140/pp for 2014. We were able to book ours as well as our friends (non-military) for the same rate under our booking. I did this in September.

That gets all of the hotel/travel/air done. Next will be the tours while we are in Alaska!

You really got 1st class for 25,000 points:eek: As soon as the cruisetour schedules are out for 2015 and I can book cruise and plane, I'm doing it. Looks like with the plane, the earlier the better.

Yes, 1st or Business for 25000 per person, per way! That's one of the reasons I decided to post my prep work now so that others could try for next year!

And, if you are planning to stay in Anchorage....as you should for at least a day or so, there is a great Hilton right near the visitor center and all of the major downtown attractions....:)

I do have one night planned at the Homewood Suites and one at the Hilton Anchorage (before and after our Fairbanks adventure).

I haven't even gone on my trip yet, but I know some are starting to plan for next year and I thought maybe I should start my post/review now and add to it after I cruise...

Let me start by saying, I am a frugal girl. My husband and I have traveled a lot and don’t want for much but I enjoy saving a dollar! I have a hard time spending money if I don’t have to, so this was a challenge for me. I wanted to be able to do everything I could without breaking my bank! I’m also the resident ‘cruise director/planner’ for all of my friends and family. I simply tell them what we are doing and we always have 4-6 cabins along for the ride. I do as much of the research as possible and send out emails monthly in the beginning giving tips on what they might need to do to prepare.

I booked my June 6, 2014 Alaska cruise on 2/13/2013 for the Southbound Seward to Vancouver. We booked within the first week as I wanted my choice of cabins. I’m not that interested in AFT cabins after we did one from Hawaii to Vancouver a few years ago. They seem a little too distant from everything for our likings. I knew this one was going to cost a LOT more than our prior cruises (14 total) but it was something my mother had wanted to do for a long time. She had a stroke in 2012 so my husband decided it was time to make it happen. Life is too short! So, we booked a balcony room (8102), my parents got a handicapped balcony (7110), long time family friends a regular balcony (7092) and some other friends went big with a suite (1032). I choose 8102 specifically for the size of the balcony and how close it was to my parents – up the stairs and right there! We have always had at least balcony rooms since our 2nd cruise and although I thought it would be much cooler on the balcony, we couldn’t live without it. This one seemed HUGE in the pictures! Can’t wait to see it in person!

Take this one how you want…some will like the suggestion, some will not. I’m not your financial planner and don’t know your finances. I know mine and my own limits! My first suggestion to anyone planning a trip like this is to join loyalty programs at any hotels, airlines, etc… Also, if your finances allow, sign up for the credit cards for the companies you plan on using. My husband travels a lot for work, so we already had a United and Hilton credit card. We also, for this trip, got a Marriott, Holiday Inn and Royal Caribbean card and maxed them out enough to get the initial bonus points. We don’t use the cards on a regular basis but simply use them to get the points we need and then go back to our regular cards. We do, however, travel with them. If we are staying at a Marriott, we use the Marriott credit card, ect… You get double the points and sometimes there are bonuses! The airline ones give you free luggage and sometimes a Club pass per year. We had saved lots of United and Hilton points for years as my husband doesn’t like to use them and save them for an ‘emergency’. To me, this was that time!! Most travel clubs will allow you to carry points over from year to year as long as long as you either stay or have the credit card that is accruing points.

My next suggestion is to join Cruise Fish. It is a website that tracks cabin prices of all cruise ships. It costs $1/per cruise to use. For this trip (for my $1), I put in triggers for 3 different cabin categories (E1, E2, GS). You tell it the category and the price you paid (per person, before fees, military, etc…) and if the cost goes lower than that, you get an email. Then, you call your TA or cruise line and request the lower price. I had just paid off my cruise on Feb 17th (final payment wasn’t due until 03/28) and I got an email on Feb 19th that my cabin prices had dropped by $98/pp. I called Royal Caribbean and they gave me the choice of a refund on my credit card or OBC for $196.00. I happened to choose the OBC as I know I’ll spend quite a bit on board with gambling, bingo, drinks, shopping… My parents cabin also went down the next day and they got the same credit! Amazingly enough, I had never heard of Cruise Fish before last year and can only imagine the money I could have saved in the past!! J

After booking the cruise, my first order of business was to get the airline booked. We had over 100,000 United points (from travel and the bonus from getting the United credit card) and wanted to book with them. Because this trip starts in Seward and ends in Vancouver, we ended up booking two one way tickets. My husband lived in Fairbanks, Alaska for 7 years back in the 90’s so we planned on going there. I wasn’t sure if we would fly to Fairbanks and do a 1 way car rental to Anchorage or fly to Anchorage and drive roundtrip to Fairbanks. After much research, I ended up scheduling our flight to Anchorage. I actually booked it the first day tickets were available – I think it was in June 2013. I was able to get us each 1st class tickets from Washington-Dulles to Anchorage for 25,000 points and $5/each. Because we were going 1 week prior to the cruise and then staying in Vancouver a bit longer, I had to wait 2 more weeks to schedule my return flight. That one, also 1st class from Vancouver to Washington-Dulles cost us 25,000 points and $51.90/each. I was ELATED to get first class tickets for the cost most people pay for coach!!

Please let me know if you want more, because I have it!

I'm not cruising until June 6th, 2014, but I started my planning WAY in advance. I figured it might help someone else who might want to start planning for next year.

Let me start by saying, I am a frugal girl. My husband and I have traveled a lot and don’t want for much but I enjoy saving a dollar! I have a hard time spending money if I don’t have to, so this was a challenge for me. I wanted to be able to do everything I could without breaking my bank! I’m also the resident ‘cruise director/planner’ for all of my friends and family. I simply tell them what we are doing and we always have 4-6 cabins along for the ride. I do as much of the research as possible and send out emails monthly in the beginning giving tips on what they might need to do to prepare.

I booked my June 6, 2014 Alaska cruise on 2/13/2013 for the Southbound Seward to Vancouver on Royal Carribean Radiance of the Seas. We booked within the first week as I wanted my choice of cabins. I’m not that interested in AFT cabins after we did one from Hawaii to Vancouver a few years ago. They seem a little too distant from everything for our likings. I knew this one was going to cost a LOT more than our prior cruises (14 total) but it was something my mother had wanted to do for a long time. She had a stroke in 2012 so my husband decided it was time to make it happen. Life is too short! So, we booked a balcony room (8102), my parents got a handicapped balcony (7110), long time family friends a regular balcony (7092) and some other friends went big with a suite (1032). I choose 8102 specifically for the size of the balcony and how close it was to my parents – up the stairs and right there! We have always had at least balcony rooms since our 2nd cruise and although I thought it would be much cooler on the balcony, we couldn’t live without it. This one seemed HUGE in the pictures! Can’t wait to see it in person!

Take this one how you want…some will like the suggestion, some will not. I’m not your financial planner and don’t know your finances. I know mine and my own limits! My first suggestion to anyone planning a trip like this is to join loyalty programs at any hotels, airlines, etc… Also, if your finances allow, sign up for the credit cards for the companies you plan on using. My husband travels a lot for work, so we already had a United and Hilton credit card. We also, for this trip, got a Marriott, Holiday Inn and Royal Caribbean card and maxed them out enough to get the initial bonus points. We don’t use the cards on a regular basis but simply use them to get the points we need and then go back to our regular cards. We do, however, travel with them. If we are staying at a Marriott, we use the Marriott credit card, ect… You get double the points and sometimes there are bonuses! The airline ones give you free luggage and sometimes a Club pass per year. We had saved lots of United and Hilton points for years as my husband doesn’t like to use them and save them for an ‘emergency’. To me, this was that time!! Most travel clubs will allow you to carry points over from year to year as long as long as you either stay or have the credit card that is accruing points.

My next suggestion is to join Cruise Fish. It is a website that tracks cabin prices of all cruise ships. It costs $1/per cruise to use. For this trip (for my $1), I put in triggers for 3 different cabin categories (E1, E2, GS). You tell it the category and the price you paid (per person, before fees, military, etc…) and if the cost goes lower than that, you get an email. Then, you call your TA or cruise line and request the lower price. I had just paid off my cruise on Feb 17th (final payment wasn’t due until 03/28) and I got an email on Feb 19th that my cabin prices had dropped by $98/pp. I called Royal Caribbean and they gave me the choice of a refund on my credit card or OBC for $196.00. I happened to choose the OBC as I know I’ll spend quite a bit on board with gambling, bingo, drinks, shopping… My parents cabin also went down the next day and they got the same credit! Amazingly enough, I had never heard of Cruise Fish before last year and can only imagine the money I could have saved in the past!! J

If I'm getting too wordy or this isn't helping, please let me know. I have LOTS of notes still ready to post and am happy to do so. I will also make sure to do a post cruise with all of the follow up from my planning and letting you know how it went!!

No difference in the cruise, simply whether you would like to do extended time in either place before or after your cruise.

FYI, I'm there in June and already one of the three shows that day is SOLD OUT! Buy quick!