NMTraveller

An 11 day cruise during Christmas 2023 for the Beyond is 6274 pp for a Sky Suite. Don't book a Christmas cruise at the last minute. They are very popular. Better yet book 2 years out if you can. Christmas cruises tend to run more.

Still a mess and a good reason to skip Canada. You can add to the list Ensenda due to the cartel violence and skipped ports there if you want. I would skip the US ports if they pulled a stunt like this also. As for rights, I did not issue the rights to anyone to make a mess of my vacation. Vacations are for fun, not stress and nonsense. Compensation for a messed up port call? I would much rather sail to a destination where the sailing is smooth.

We are scheduled to be on the Millenium during this time frame.

Well there are more young children on board than usual, but not very many at all. The few that are on board make it a very special time. It is very entertaining to watch the few young children on board. It is a very festive time of the year to cruise and I would highly recommend it.

I stayed at a very nice hotel this weekend. Their room service was where they would roll the table up to the room and to the balcony. Can you do this on Celebrity? If so how? Do you need to be in a suite?

Perhaps just another good reason for the Alaskan/Pacific cruises to skip Canada. If people do not care to work we should just sail to where they will work and accomdate us. Time to skip the striking countries and the nonsense that goes along with it. Time to sail to countries that are open for international tourists. If Canada is not open for business just skip them. Why do anything else? I am kind of getting tired of all of the excuses of people not working or wanting to work. I for one have been working and never missed a beat.

Thanks. That will give me more choices. It is about 2.5 hours more than some of the others but if the flights are available it is another choice.

DPS to LAX or SFO. Either would be fine. OK. I took a look today at Expert Flyer and whatever I saw the day before was gone. So I don't have an example. I have points on AA ( a bunch), Cathay Pacific (some I would really like to burn before I have to use them up in a silly way), some on Qantas (not enough for their high redemption prices for this flight), some on Delta (but do not want to fly on China Airlines or to China), some on Singapore Airlines (enough for the flight out but could accumulate some more for a flight back), none on United but I could get some for the flight. My criteria is shortest flight is best. I can find flights that should be 21 hours but are 28 hours or longer due to stopovers in places that are out of the way. I would do a fly in the night before for a positioning flight. I am just dummy booking now to figure out where I need to accumulate points. Right now the best flights (shortest) with points rewards are on United/Singapore air as far as what I am able to see or know where to look. Any other recommendations on where to look?

I have an Expert Flyer question now. When I log in to Expert Flyer I see a flight that would be fairly good. However when I use the AA app to try to book it, it does not show up. The flight is a fly in in the evening and take the remaining flight out the next day. Is this still bookable with AA? Do I need to call vs book with the app? Do I need to book using separate flights?

Thanks. I will take a look at some of the paid tools and see how they can help. Also I was not aware that they had booking services using frequent flier miles. Any recommendations on which ones to use or how to find one? Perhaps a rough idea of how much they charge?

I have been trying to see how many points it would cost me for a flight from DPS to LAX. When I try to book using the apps and the latest date 330 days out, I am not seeing much award availablility. I am trying to book on Cathay Pacific or American Airlines. American Airlines used to have pages and pages of flights available for award travel. Any idea what the issue is? I don't need to book now, just trying to figure out what airline to book in January and to make sure that I have the points. American Airlines only had several flights that were overly long. When I try to book Cathay Pacific and American with cash all kinds of flights show up. Now on the other hand I do find United Flights that I can book and that have availability with points.

Their bookings almost doubled... Take that to the bank. I would eventually expect to see full ships.

They could do the same for next year and skip Canada and give Alaska some economic relief. I am pretty sure that those cruises were not 100% full this year and they would have been much fuller. The same could be said for the Carribean Islands that have the strict rules. Why not skip them and go to others?

I am thinking about an Alaska cruise for next year, but not while they have the restrictions in place. Can't they just skip Canada until they are open for business?

I believe the changes are country specific. Mexico does not have many requirements. However if you go to the East coast the Bahamas and some other Eastern Carribean islands do.

I wonder if the river cruises will do the same this year? Otherwise I may rebook a river cruise as an ocean cruise.

I think that the page is rather confusing... All sailings departing UK and Europe and LA. What about the others...

Let's look at the business model here. If X still requires the vaccination, then it is missing out on familes booking cruises. Most of the unvaccinated are children. It is also missing out on large multifamily parties. Think 3 or 4 cabins at one booking of an extended family. In large groups there is always going to be one that is unvaxxed. That is a lot of business that they previously said no to before. So it is probably a calculated risk that is outweighed by the profits.

You don't think that a large majority of the unvaxxed have not already gotten the virus ( or been exposed and their body fought it off) and have some immunity? It is pretty hard to hide from this virus unless you are living in a bubble.

I would go with smaller boats in smaller ports. Otherwise you will find yourself on a bus for most of the day just getting there to the popular sites.

With ocean cruises dropping their restrictions on cruising I think that I will wait and see what happens with river cruises.

From reports of those onboard it sounds like quarantine is mostly voluntary and people choose to self quarantine or not. I question whether this is an issue any more?

A move in the right direction.

I just went to the HAL board and it sounded like the end of cruising was going to happen with the restrictions dropped. 🙂 🙂 I guess that perspective on this changes with age and health.

Unsweetened. Plenty of ice.