THEY WANT TO BUS ME TO THE SHIP

[montlee]

I just got my docs and find I'm flying from Pittsburgh to Seattle and then have a 3 hour bus ride to Seattle. My TA is fighting with them as we speak. Has this happened to anyone else?

[montlee]

I mean a 3 hour bus ride to Vancouver - sorry. See how upset I am?

[BEAV]

Unfortunately, this is common when sailing in/out of Vancouver, and the cruise line has the right to do it.

If your TA is unable to get Celebrity to rebook you in/out of Vancouver, it may be worth your while to check air prices to Vancouver on your own, then cancel the air through Celebrity. Not sure if you have sufficient time to do this, but if you do, it's worth investigating.

Crystal - 6/11/04 Harmony to Alaska
Celebrity (6)
NCL (5)
Princess (4)
Disney (2)
Royal Caribbean (2)
HAL (1)

[Guest]

This is a very common practice. Not just for cruiseline air but also many cruisers purchasing their own air find it much less expensive to fly to Seattle and take the Shuttle up to Vancouver. It's not a big deal unless the timing is too close for comfort.

Char

click <a href="mailto:gaultchar@aol.com">here</a href> to send me an e-mail

[911boss]

Hey Montlee, calm down. It's a beautiful drive.

[Pammie]

Last year when we cruised Alaska the Air Traffic
Controllers in Canada were going to go on strike. We had not choice that if they did to fly into Seattle and go the rest of the way by bus. Lucky they didn't strike. If we had to go by bus to catch the ship we would of done it.

Pammie

[gillianrose]

Is the bus ride on the same day as your ship departs or the day before?

[45014]

My husband and I chose to fly to Seattle and drive to Vancouver. I've been told the drive is beautiful. Of, course we are flying in the day before we sail, so that may make a difference in timing. We were told the hardest part was the waiting to get through to Canada. A friend of mine told me laast year that it took almost 3 hours.

[MISSYLOU]

I would think it would be more difficult to come back into the US from Canada. This was not the case prior to 911. We took the bus back from Vancouver and at the border crossing the agent got on the bus and asked if everyone was US citizens and then got back off. Did check passports or any other docs.

Karen & Paul [email]kmbix56@wmconnect.com[/email]
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[high seas gal]

Last September our Alaska cruise started in Seattle, but ended in Vancouver. We fully expected to be bussed back down to the airport in Seattle. Imagine our surprise when our cruise docs arrived, and we found that we were flying from Vancouver to Seattle, then from Seattle home. I have no idea how or why we got that little air hop ... most of the passengers were bussed. BTW, this was not Celebrity, but NCL. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img]

High Seas Gal
Northern California

NCL Sky Jun. 2000 (ALASKA)
NCL Sky Aug. 2001 (ALASKA)
Princess Regal Princess Jul. 2002 (ALASKA)
NCL Sun Sep. 2003 (ALASKA)
Celebrity Mercury Oct. 2004 (MEXICO)

[montlee]

To Gillianrose - actually, it's the same day and our plane doesn't get into 11:30. Till we get our luggage and depart on the bus, we don't have a lot of 'downtime'. I've resigned myself to it. It's just that, after a 6 hr. flight, I wasn't looking forward to a 3 hr. bus ride. Could be worse, I could not be going on a cruie at all.

[Sonny Goodman]

Your option, which may be too late now was to get an Air Deviation. This way you could have flown into Vancouver. The cruise lines charge about $35.00 per person plus any additional air fare cost.

[CaribbeanBound]

Well, this is better than being bused from Pittsburg to Seattle and shipped to Vancouver.