Suite on Mariner - Alaska

[Roland4]

Did you book the flights through Regent? Did THEY bring you in the night before BECAUSE of the train, or did you request a deviation?

 

We are flying to Anchorage from Los Angeles and it looks like the same-day flights arrive too late for the train.

 

FYI - The cutoff flight arrival time for same-day Regent transfer to the ship is 1:00PM. Our flight (on FF miles) arrives at 1:45 so we are doing an overnight at the Hilton and taking the Regent train transfer.

[dobes4me]

My travel agent took care of it . When we decided we wanted to do the train she called back and said Regent would pay for us to come in the day before and give us a voucher for dinner. Can't beat that. I don't know if it was because we booked the train at the same time as the cruise, don't know. I have a great TA and if there is a perk she always seems to find it.

 

Wow raiderette, you got a great deal! We were told that if we wanted to fly in a day earlier, we'd have to pay a $100 pp air deviation fee (plus any difference in air costs) and $395 pp for hotel and transfers (not sure if that price included the $90 pp train transfer or if that was extra). We decided that paying an additional $1000 was not worth it, so we're flying in the day of the cruise and taking the bus. I just hope we don't experience any travel delays and miss the ship!

[Travelcat2]

Wow raiderette, you got a great deal! We were told that if we wanted to fly in a day earlier, we'd have to pay a $100 pp air deviation fee (plus any difference in air costs) and $395 pp for hotel and transfers (not sure if that price included the $90 pp train transfer or if that was extra). We decided that paying an additional $1000 was not worth it, so we're flying in the day of the cruise and taking the bus. I just hope we don't experience any travel delays and miss the ship!

 

Sounds to me that you didn't get the best deal. Perhaps in the future you will consider other options.

[dobes4me]

Sounds to me that you didn't get the best deal. Perhaps in the future you will consider other options.

 

Not sure what other options you are referring to. Those are the options given to us by Regent.

[Travelcat2]

Sounds to me that you didn't get the best deal. Perhaps in the future you will consider other options.

 

I think I may have misread your post. Many people pay the deviation fee and the one night pre-cruise at a hotel. However, if you let Regent take care of the airfare, many times you receive one night at a hotel at Regent's expense. Now it sounds like you are saying that you are using Regent and instead of taking the train will take the bus????? Please let me know if I understand this correctly.

[dobes4me]

I think I may have misread your post. Many people pay the deviation fee and the one night pre-cruise at a hotel. However, if you let Regent take care of the airfare, many times you receive one night at a hotel at Regent's expense. Now it sounds like you are saying that you are using Regent and instead of taking the train will take the bus????? Please let me know if I understand this correctly.

 

Regent is taking care of our air. They have scheduled us to fly out the day the cruise starts. We asked if we could fly out the day before and were then told about the additional costs involved, so we declined. Since our flight arrives after 1pm, we will not be able to take the train.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

That's tough, but I'm sure it will work out fine. The only other strategy is to take their pre-cruise hotel package, then you don't pay the deviation fee, and you get the transfers, etc. Of course, these generally cost an arm and a leg.

[cruiseej]

The other option that's sometimes advantageous is to do it on your own. Instead of paying Regent $200 for a deviation and $800 for hotel and train to come in a day early, you could take the air credit from Regent and book your own transportation. (I'm not sure how much the air credit is from Phoenix; it was $400 for us from the east coast.) Booking your own air for a day earlier, a hotel for the night, and the train to Seward, minus the Regent air credit, would come to a lot less than the $1,000 Regent wanted to charge you. In any case, it sounds like your plans are set, so don't look back. :)

 

Flying in the afternoon of your departure, the one thing to keep a close watch on is whether there are any flight disruptions in the weeks before your departure due to Mt. Redoubt. If there are any such days, check with Regent's air department to see if they might try to move you a day earlier as a precaution. Since you have a daytime flight, I believe it's less likely that volcanic ash from an eruption would cause a flight cancellation than for nighttime flights, but since you don't have a lot of time leeway, it can't hurt to be proactive and keep an eye on what's happening. Hopefully Redoubt will not disrupt anyone's travel plans this season.

 

-- Eric

[raiderette]

Wow raiderette, you got a great deal! We were told that if we wanted to fly in a day earlier, we'd have to pay a $100 pp air deviation fee (plus any difference in air costs) and $395 pp for hotel and transfers (not sure if that price included the $90 pp train transfer or if that was extra). We decided that paying an additional $1000 was not worth it, so we're flying in the day of the cruise and taking the bus. I just hope we don't experience any travel delays and miss the ship!

 

I don't know what you could of done differently if that is what Regent offered. I too was worried about the Volcano. I hope it quiets down, last year we were worried about hurricanes, there is always something. I hope you don't miss the ship either from the looks of the posts I don't know how full our ship is. :confused:

[raiderette]

dobes4me,

I know this is off the subject but how far in advance are you going to make your request for bar set up in your room? Are you calling Regent direct or using your TA.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Why not do it online? Or not do it at all, but do it onboard. I don't bother my TA with things like this.

[raiderette]

As far as I know you can only do it online if you are in a butler suite or above, which is what did our last Regent cruise. This time we opted for a regular suite as the butler was disappointing to say the least. On another thread someone posted they did it through their TA, my husband and I would like a glass of wine on our balcony while we unpack.

[Bearnaise]

Regent is taking care of our air. They have scheduled us to fly out the day the cruise starts. We asked if we could fly out the day before and were then told about the additional costs involved, so we declined. Since our flight arrives after 1pm, we will not be able to take the train.

But that's how you get the flight the day before, precisely because the train leaves early. Book the train and Regent accommodates you by flying you in the day before so you can make the train. In other words, for the extra $90 or whatever it is, Regent comps the deviation fee for flying you in early and they comp the hotel. At least that's how it worked when we did it last June.

[JACKHAWK]

We didn't do anything except reserve the train.(we are flying from east coast)

 

Regent is flying us in the day before & comping the Hilton.

 

I guess we're just lucky.

[ImPeaches]

We didn't do anything except reserve the train.(we are flying from east coast)

 

Regent is flying us in the day before & comping the Hilton.

 

I guess we're just lucky.

 

Same for us. If you do reserve the train to Seward and your flight into Anchorage gets in too late for the train, they do indeed fly you in the day before and comp the night before the cruise at the Hilton.

[dobes4me]

dobes4me,

I know this is off the subject but how far in advance are you going to make your request for bar set up in your room? Are you calling Regent direct or using your TA.

 

raiderette-

I'll probably wait until we get closer. Not sure if I'll do it through my TA or just call Regent directly. Even if I did it through my TA, I'm one of those types that would call Regent anyway to double check :)

 

As for flying in early to make the train, I'm having my TA check on that.