coupon books in Alaska, any trouble using?

[MJN]

Hi all,

To those of you who have been to Alaska and purchased either Tour Saver coupon books or Northern Lights coupon books have you had any trouble using them? I was just looking at them on line and considering purchasing one or both of them for our July cruise and was noticing that the Tour Saver book especially had a lot of stipulations, such as "book in advance as we only accept one coupon per day", this was for a rafting tour. Others also had a lot of stipulations and I am just wondering if we will encounter a lot of "oh no, not one of those!" kind of reactions when we go to use them. Thanks to all who reply...just wanting to be sure it's not a waste of money. :)

[shopper77]

Hi all,

To those of you who have been to Alaska and purchased either Tour Saver coupon books or Northern Lights coupon books have you had any trouble using them? I was just looking at them on line and considering purchasing one or both of them for our July cruise and was noticing that the Tour Saver book especially had a lot of stipulations, such as "book in advance as we only accept one coupon per day", this was for a rafting tour. Others also had a lot of stipulations and I am just wondering if we will encounter a lot of "oh no, not one of those!" kind of reactions when we go to use them. Thanks to all who reply...just wanting to be sure it's not a waste of money. :)

 

We bought the Tour Saver book for our 2007 Alaska vacation. We did 11 days on land, which we planned ourselves. And than a week cruise. We used the book a lot. Lots of buy one get one free deals on hotels nights, flight over Mt. McKinney, rafting trip. We really saved a lot of money and got to see so much. I highly recommend the flight over Mt. McKinney. I would say the book was well worth the money. If we ever make it back to Alaska, we would defiantly buy another book. We never had any problems with it, and we did use 2 different coupons on the same day. Have fun and dress warm. :)

[ridge4]

We also used Toursaver on our Alaska cruise last year. We saved over $600, so I can highly recommend the investment.

 

However, the restrictions can be a problem. Many vendors do capacity control the coupon reservations. My suggestion is to decide which coupons you would be interested in using and contact the vendor about coupon reservations before you purchase the book. Many vendors will allow you to make your coupon booking, and you only need to arrive with your coupon book in hand. Others, however, require the book number to make a reservation. Even if they require the book number, you can determine if they have availability for coupon reservation.

 

We did not encounter any "oh, no!" attitudes at all.

[MJN]

Thank you for your responses about the tour-saver coupon book in Alaska. We will deffinitly be getting it. We will save quite a bit on the train, the Kenai fjords tour, Sea Life center, Aleyeska tram and other things we are interested in so it is good to know we won't encounter issues with most of the places. We will also follow your suggestions for booking in advance. We are planning out our itinerary now so we can have a good idea of what dates and times to plan for. That is the hardest thing, knowing exactly when and where, it's such a huge state. 11 days sounds like it was a nice trip. We are seeing that 7 days is not quite enough so we are trying to figure out if we can manage at least 9 days to see what we want to see and be a little less rushed. The Mt. Mckinley airflight really looks good and so does a river rafting trip. Did you stay in hotels, b&B's or camp? Thanks again for sharing your info :)

[klingoncruiser]

You might want to check out the Alaska Port board. They can help you with this question. They will also be a great help on a lot of things.

[MJN]

Hi, Thanks, yes I posted it in both places because I figured that some folks who may have already been to Alaska might not be still checking that board. I've already gotten some great responses in both places. These boards are great sources of information!Thanks all!

[Land Based]

Hi all,

To those of you who have been to Alaska and purchased either Tour Saver coupon books or Northern Lights coupon books have you had any trouble using them? I was just looking at them on line and considering purchasing one or both of them for our July cruise and was noticing that the Tour Saver book especially had a lot of stipulations, such as "book in advance as we only accept one coupon per day", this was for a rafting tour. Others also had a lot of stipulations and I am just wondering if we will encounter a lot of "oh no, not one of those!" kind of reactions when we go to use them. Thanks to all who reply...just wanting to be sure it's not a waste of money. :)

 

We purchased the Northern Lights coupon book. We are doing some traveling outside of a cruisetour and have already used several of the discount coupons to reserve excursions with no issues.

[Beaferd]

MJN

 

Now that you have done your Alaska trip can you enlighten me as to your use of the coupon books and any problems you have encountered. Looking forward to going to Alaska myself in July 2012 and am looking for any tips you my have to offer.

[jmf123]

This Alaska (Radiance) review is informative and entertaining, and also references the successful use of the Tour Saver book, enjoy!: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1434211&highlight=radiance+alaska+review