beg3yrs

Another advantage to booking separately is EZair. You can now adjust both your inbound and outbound flights separately. As one booking if you have a change you must change both.

Many moons ago that was a problem. You had to call the CC people to get both credits.

delete

AFAIK yes. As long as you have WiFi to connect to and your phone support it.

Even the YVR airport's website suggests arriving three hour before departure for international flights. The problem is that Alaska Air's website states they will not accept checked bags until two hours before departure. So what's the point of arriving early if you're just going to stand around for an hour before you can check your bags? I tried communicating with Alaska Air and nobody will actually check with the AS station manager to see if they're making an exception. They just re-state what their written policy is. Anyone have experience with this? Is AS allowing bags to be checked earlier than two hours?

See post #3 in this thread.

That's a little misleading. If the $14.50 is put into a pool that gets distributed over the whole fleet, yes maybe less than a dollar a day of your contribution comes back to the ship but ... each ship in the fleet also contributes their dollar a day to your ship bringing it on average back close to the $14.50, possibly more in some circumstances. The effect of this is that if a particular cruise goes awry and the passengers stiff the crew, the misery is spread over the whole fleet. Conversely, an excellent cruise with higher than average tips will help the whole fleet.

Dine My Way

Didn't think about east coast cruisetours that include Canada. That said, it seems to me the penultimate paragraph is kind of an afterthought where they decided to include information for the southbound Alaskan cruisetours that end in Canada. I didn't at first understand why you'll get tested before leaving home for your southbound cruisetour. You can't use the test to get on the ship and unless your cruisetour is only a day two, it would be too old to use for ship embarkation. Just now realized you're testing to see if you've got the "C" so you can just cancel the whole trip (heaven forbid).

You are definitely confused. You are taking the landtour first so you end with the cruise, disembarking in Canada. That's the penultimate (second-to-last) paragraph in the screen grab I posted. So, you don't need to do your own testing to board the ship, Princess will take care of that for you. However, if you are flying back to the US from Vancouver, under the current requirements, you will have to get tested no sooner than one day in advance of your flight. For this you plan to purchase eMed tests is IMHO, a good one. Princess no longer provides this testing. If you are flying back on the same day as disembarkation, they will however, reimburse you.

Here's a screen grab of the policy: You can find it on this page: https://www.princess.com/plan/cruise-with-confidence/cruise-health/frequently-asked-questions/us-cruises/

Yes it's speculation but, as Joseph Heller once said, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you". The older and more experienced we get and the more times we've been around the block gives these posters some credibility. A student of the past would expect a high probability that there are drink price increases going to occur in the near future. Yeah, go ahead and call us curmudgeons, it doesn't mean we are wrong (yet).

Ohhhh - that's like what they do with the Platinum Studio digital files. Same thing, a low-res slide show. Very misleading.

It was mis-read in this post: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2851616-princess-cruises-introduces-all-inclusive-premier-package/page/11/#comment-63203244

Read it again. It's only the TAs who booked at TA rates are getting upgraded, not those who booked with them.

I see. Everyone has the discretion to use their own common sense but if their common sense doesn't match up with yours, they really don't have any. Hmm ...

I looked a a different date which had an earlier flight to SAN which had an earlier departure to SAN. Just checked FlightAware and the inbound for AS 3345 comes from SAN. And, that flight is inbound alternatively from SJC or PDX depending on the day, which is where the aircraft overnights. So you do have risk since there are already two preceding flights that morning.

Did you file in advance of your cruise?

I just looked at the Alaska Airlines schedule - you've got a direct flight so that helps. It's not the first one in the morning so there's still a potential for delays of your inbound aircraft. Typically for early flights the aircraft that sits overnight at your airport is a good bet for on-time departure. Anyway, I don't know what the price difference is for the earlier flight but I'd strongly consider the difference as insurance. Since you aren't using EzAir with their guarantees, you've got more risk. AFA the transfer goes, it's a per-person cost. You might do better with a cab or an Uber / Lyft.

It looks like the language that says they would cover the costs of tests for those flying on the day of disembarkation has disappeared. Do you know if they are no longer going to cover (as previously stated on the web-site that they would) or if this is just an omission?

I wouldn't go with that arrival time. Any kind of delay and your first leg is toast. Consider arriving the day before and spending a relaxing day in San Diego. Or, if the hotel is too expensive for your taste, pony up and take a (much) earlier flight. Departure is dicey but might be OK if you do an early walk off with bags in hand. Where are you flying from?

You can make an online booking at any of the Princess lodges at http://www.princesslodges.com

That's how I read their policy. Refunds are only for people flying out the same day.

Certainly valid points. It's currently our plan to do the electronically proctored test the day before out disembarkation in Victoria. If the ship's Internet is good that'll be first choice, otherwise we'll use our cell phone since we will have service in port. Given the latest possibilities, we'll also try to make the appointment with the medical staff when we board. If they balk we'll take it up with passenger services and see if it can be escalated. At least I now know how to request the refund for the tests we've just procured...

I would expect them to be ticketed any day now. We were recently ticketed at about 33 days out on Alaska Air. Not sure the option is still available but try going into the Travel section on the Personalizer and see if you can select the request early ticketing option. While you're inside the early ticketing window, it might put a notice on someone's screen that your account needs some attention.