gcornell

It’s worth a shot to also contact vendors directly. Most have very similar programs as the cruises do. I was curious for our Alaska cruise 2 years ago and easily found the exact same excursions on my own but wasn’t worth doing separately as they were almost the same price. I seem to recall some had availability as they blocked off a portion for non cruise guests.

Unfortunately not that I have found. In addition, in Alaska the cruise lines take up the majority of the local operators capacity so independent booking is hard. The excursions that usually have space on board are the basic walking/bus tours sometimes. Best to keep checking daily for cancellations.

Where’s the fun in that? Having facts prior to judging is against the rules of Internet forums. 😜

Could be but without having information it seems silly to jump to the worst conclusion. I guess I’m a glass half full person.

Thousands are laid off very day from well run and profitable companies and the unemployment rate is extremely low which indicates, to me, the job market is strong and operating efficiently. Companies have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders.

To each their own, but I seems a lot easier to let them handle it plus it removes the risk of missing someone.

Absolutely. If I pay more I expect my paper cut takes priority over an inside cabin passenger with a heart attack. 🤪 Joking of course.

I book everything very early to get best choice of cabins, flights, seats, excursions and hotel availability. Then I set up alerts or check back regularly for repricing. In all my years, flights have never gone lower after booking close to a year out but cruises and hotel rooms I usually get about 30% lower before final payment/travel.

Just wanted to update this. I have now repriced for the 5th time saving another $1,400 today alone for a total savings of $5,300.

Excursions can now be booked as soon as you make a deposit which can be years in advance. Keep in mind they may change so keep an eye out.

I’m in NY and did this last summer. 4 passengers. Each voucher is good for a sedan or very large SUV. You decide. Not sure if it holds 5 but Blacklane has a good chat option so I bet you can check that quick. We removed the transfer from one of the bookings and took the credit. The voucher is one per cabin.

I tip once for good service. Not twice.

FREE? Not likely. Most likely that suite cost her a lot of money

100% agree but unfortunately many make virtue signaling a sport.

Don’t forget I need 2 cabins.

Glad you had a great time. I really wanted to do SS Japan next year but the timing doesn’t work out with the kids school schedule so went with celebrity as they go in July and SS doesn’t. The one good thing is it’s well over $20k less so that helps.

I’ve done a bunch of SS cruises, with my kids (sorry lol) and doing our first Celebrity July 25 so can’t compare yet. Like many lines SS, is slowly cutting back while still charging a fortune. Sure the excursions are “included” but they recently made a huge cut back on the included excursions whereby most are simple walking tours from the pier or similar. They select excursions are the better ones and cost has increased dramatically. If you were to go, choose the most basic fare without the extras is my advice.

Sorry to hear that. Frustrating. I booked through an outside TA. I’ve emailed him 3 times and got a repricing within an hour or so. I think he does it online without any calls.

lol. Okay. That took a turn. Same as when we travel every summer. We manage just like the millions do every single day. Anyway I travel with my family so the kids school schedule is not flexible.

At a time where it seems like everything is getting more expensive and companies are figuring out new and creative ways to get more money from our pockets for the same or less product/service I curious it’s common that my July 25 Japan cruise has dropped 3 times? I booked 2 Aqua Prime cabins in December 2023 and have now repriced them 3 times for a total savings of over $3,000.

Agreed but it wouldn’t be the internet if people didn’t judge and criticize unfortunately.

As follow up, if your kids have only experienced one type of vacation, it's challenging to know if they will like a different type until you try. They don't know what they are missing because they haven't experienced it. As I said above, we were doing typical kid vacations until we decided to introduce something different to them. Looking back, there were no signs my kids were ready for adult type vacations. We gave it a shot, built up the excitement talking about the new experiences and places. They talk about it every day at school with teachers, their friends and with us. The maturity and confidence level of both my kids, but especially my midde school age daughter, has been incredible. She dives with sharks, drove an ATV through the packed streets of Cairo, rapelled down 250ft waterfalls, viewed Lions within just a few feet, etc. Priceless. So again, my suggestion is to go for it and expand their world.

Do it! When my kids were very young (up until age 8 we did the normal Disney trips, resorts, main line cruises, etc. Since that time, 6 years ago, they have travelled the world on what would be considered adult type trips - Africa a few times, Galapagos, Egypt, 3 Silversea cruises in which there were no or only a few kids and multiple scuba liveaboards where they were the only kids on the boat every time. They loved every minute of the “adult” trips and learned a great deal about the world and other cultures. On each trip I found the other adults severely underestimated the value of brining their kids on those types of trips but afterwards regretted not doing so after seeing ours.

In my case the credit was $93 per person for a total of $186.

Yes you can. When you get the link to book your ride you can choose an SUV. Obviously pickup all has to be from the same address. I did it last year as we had 2 cabins and I took the credit on one and the Blacklane on the other.