BadgerRedux

Thanks for sharing how that worked out. We didn’t book the flights through HAL so would be on our own with that, but I’ll check into the train details in case it’s needed; always more comfortable with a contingency plan! ETA: glad your friends made the Tundra tour!

Wow, that's pretty grim. Glad you made your flight though!

That seems like a good way to handle it.

Glad to hear it sounds ok to you; and good advice about informing the flight crew if needed!

Thanks for the validation; husband and I both try to keep our perspective about risk, but if there isn't a plan B, then even unlikely things become a concern. For our airline (United), looks like we're on the 2nd of 8 flights for the initial leg; the 1st of 8 leaves an hour earlier but just has a longer layover with the same final leg so not sure it would buy us much. The final leg is out of Chicago O'Hare (ORD) and we're on the 1st of 2 flights, with the later flight departing almost 7 hours later than ours. So, if we miss our connection in ORD, hopefully there would be room for us on that later flight.

We're doing a 10 Day Double Denali cruisetour in July which includes Thursday night lodging in Anchorage and a Friday 9 AM coach from Anchorage to McKinley resort (Denali National Park). We booked a 1-stop flight arriving Thursday around 1 PM (not checking bags), with the idea that if something goes wrong, we could find some way to reach the Anchorage hotel by Friday morning. I'm starting to get anxious about the worst case and tempted to fly in a day early (Wednesday night), but husband feels we've got enough cushion. Have you heard of anyone missing the bus? If so, are there options to get us from Anchorage to Denali (as late as Friday night would be fine)? Betting the "how early do I need to fly in" question can be a hot button issue, but hoping for compassionate responses here!

Plus size here too; whenever my tinier grown kids tell me how they never check a bag, I'm thinking "well, it probably helps that your clothes are pretty small!" 😏 Interesting point of view on those videos - seeing what people thought they'd need vs the reality.

Anxiously waiting to hear how it goes 🙂

Thanks for the suggestions. I’m also not bothered by being seen in the same clothes multiple days so long as they’re clean. I’m actually considering splurging on the unlimited laundry package, as that would allow me to send some items at least every other day; I hear that HAL laundry does a good job with cool drying items on request.

I hear you about the timing - maybe the policy change includes not just bumping smaller parties for bigger ones, but also bumping people for other (not specified) reasons? I can imagine your frustration; I hope your new cabin turns out ok.

I guess it's possible HAL rolled out the policy gradually - customers of PCC's/TA's affected first, and online customers affected later (in just the past few weeks)? But that doesn't sound right as PCC's and TA's have more clout with HAL than online customers. Instead, I worry that online newbies like me were just out of the loop - we booked before the system was smart enough to warn us not to, but now we might be subject to the same algorithmic bumping as everyone else. @RuthC,your being bumped from one quad to another doesn't seem related to this recent policy change, since it wouldn't have made space for a larger party? Maybe it's just one of those mysterious "operational" moves where no one knows why. It would certainly be interesting to know the reason!

Ahh, thanks for explaining - now I see the Family cabins on the Konigsdam, Nieuw Statendam, and Rotterdam. So singles or couples booking those Family cabins might've always gotten a warning (or might not have seen those cabins when booking online), but the new policy is extending this approach to triples and quads. It sounds like triples and quads are now being hidden from couples booking online but that definitely wasn't the case when I booked 3.5 weeks ago; I'd like to think that HAL wouldn't bump me as it would seem like retroactively applying the new policy? But we'll see.

Maybe I misunderstood; a Princess cruise thread was also part of the discussion - possibly they were referring to Princess policies. My being a cruising amateur plus changing policies is a kind of perfect storm for confusion!

I'm glad you didn't get moved; keeping my fingers crossed! I get the feeling my cruise is full too, but sounds like you can't always tell from what you see online. In the other thread, a few people mentioned that 2 people in a "family" cabin were always at risk of being bumped; assuming by family cabin they meant a quad, then I'm surprised I didn't see a warning about this when I booked online. If there was a message, then I feel silly for missing it.

Thanks, I wondered why it looked funny. Nothing like posting late at night when you're feeling irritable 🙄

Thanks for the photo - wow, that really is out of the way; guess that explains why I couldn't seem to spot that 4th bed in photos.

Thanks, glad to hear good things about the cabin location! Pro's and con's for every area I'm sure.

First time cruiser here with a low stakes question. My husband and I booked our July, 2024 cruise late and so didn't have much choice of cabins; we ended up going with a midship, deck 5 cabin and didn't realize until later that it was one of the quad cabins (V5056-V5062 on the port side, V5053-V5057 starboard). It'll just be the two of us - is there anything that will be annoying about a cabin which could sleep 4? I've looked at several photos for these cabins, but never having been on a ship, I feel like I don't know what I'm looking at. Looks like there will be a couch for the 3rd person, but will there also be a bed which folds down for a 4th person? I'm aware of some of compromises/downsides with a midship deck 5 cabin and have made peace with them: we'll be looking down at the lifeboats on deck 4, our balcony will be somewhat shallower, elevators might be more crowded.

So glad to hear of people who make this work. We're working on learning to travel without checking a bag; we also don't mind sink laundry and some re-wearing; and we aren't really interested in the dressy dinner nights so expect to need fewer types of clothes/shoes than some people. We're aiming for just carryons and personal items for our (first) Alaska cruise in July; we'll see how it goes!

Thanks, that makes sense.

That's very interesting; my husband likes to watch a little YouTube every day and I was thinking we needed to get the more expensive streaming option to support that. I think you mentioned on another thread that you thought Premium filtered some of the streaming websites (Hulu, Netflix, etc.) but I was surprised that they wouldn't also filter out YouTube.

Thanks, I booked it; will see how it goes!

Thanks Wolfie11, I became interested in the salmon run when you responded to the post "Which port best to see bears" a few months back - you mentioned chilkatguides operating in Haines for around $150 (booked through skagwayexcursion.com) but I ended up looking at the one sold on alaskaexcursions.com for $225.50 which departs from Skagway. I'm assuming chilkatguides is the local operator behind the alaska excursions one too, right? The only difference is I'd be paying $75 extra to cover the Katamaran ferry round trip from Skagway to Haines?

I'm considering the Skagway Wildlife Safari Tour to Haines offered by (brokered by?) Alaska Shore Excursions; has anyone done this and would you recommend it? Our HAL cruise stops in Skagway July 24 and sounds like the salmon might be running then; hoping to see a bear but I know it's not guaranteed. I'm new to cruising and a little concerned about getting off the boat in time - we're supposed to be in Skagway by 7 AM, and excursion calls for meeting at the end of the pier by 7:30 AM; does this sound workable? Any thoughts appreciated! https://alaskashoreexcursions.com/skagway/wildlife-safari-and-bear-viewing-tour