?'s for the experienced!

[2112]

Well...we've decided not to change our flights. The cost to come in the night before is just too high. I realize the risk of the delay being high too, but I can't stress about that any more. I did get SOME good news. I talked to someone at Air Canada this morning and because our flight is connecting through Toronto, we will not have to go through customs/immigration in Vancouver. We will do that in Toronto. That should help save us some time when we land. And I DID book the transfers through the cruise line as well. I can't imagine we're going to be the only ones, but I guess we shall see. We will try to get an earlier flight that day since we have a decent layover in Toronto, but it will depend on how quickly we get through customs when we land. Guess we shall see.

 

For the transfer back to Anchorage, I am not going to use the official RCI cruise transfer. I don't want to be at the airport at 10 in the morning for a 5p flight. We're going to take the Alaska Cruise Transfer bus that has a wildlife tour included...gets you to the airport around noon and is pretty reasonable.

 

Flight times are very likely to change before your trip anyway. With a little luck, it will change to an earlier arrival rather than a later arrival.

 

Buy an insurance policy and read EVERY SINGLE WORD carefully BEFORE you buy it. Make sure it will cover the cost of your entire trip if that flight is late. Keep in mind, if that flight is late, you will not be going on a cruise AND your flight home isn't from Vancouver. A couple key words in a policy may be the difference between getting your money back or loosing every dollar you've spend on your vacation PLUS having to pay for a flight home out of your own pocket.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

I agree with the person that said your flight times may be changed. If the airlines changes your times you will have greater leverage to make a change without a fee.

 

I posted about our cruise on another thread. I figured out that I can paste my text and pictures here. So, in no particular order, this is my Icy Strat info:

 

"We took a whale watch from 10am to 1pm with Icy Strait Whale Adventures. We wanted to have a more personal experience so we independently booked a small boat (6 passengers).

We took an early tender and we had time to visit the Cannery Museum on the port before our tour.

Captain Coleen guarantees that you will see whales or you get ½ your money back. It was a brand new boat--very nice. By the end of our trip we were cold and tired (in a good way) and headed back to the ship for hot soup.

We loved our whale watch. We saw lots of whales (mostly heads and tails as they breeched the surface), but, I am not an adept enough photographer to get National Geographic type pictures. You will need to take my word for it. J

 

Two whales--the head of one and tail of the other.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Ok-- this is what we did in Ketchikan:

 

 

 

 

 

Ketchikan is a very small town. It is built into the side of the mountains around it.

 

 

 

Today there were three ships in port. Celebrity Infinity, a Carnival I do not know the name of and the Radiance of the Seas. We got here at 7 am, but we did not get off until a little before 9. The city bus was running on a Sunday schedule. We spent our morning at Totem Bight State Park and Potlatch Park. These are about 10 miles outside of town, so we rode the city bus ($1 each way; $.50 for seniors). The bus runs every hour.

 

You pick up the bus next to the eagle. You can see how close it is to the ship.

 

 

 

This state park started as a depression era CCC project to preserve abandoned Totem poles from various Alaska villages. Artisans duplicated and repaired totem poles and built a clan house before they turned it over to Alaska to operate. It is a beautiful waterfront location and we enjoyed touring on our own. It can get crowded when tour buses arrive.

 

This is the clan house:

 

 

This is a clan house from Potlatch Park.

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Dawn--Since you will not have time to see the totem poles in Vancouver you may enjoy seeing these in Kretchikan. Also, the waterfront location of the two parks would give everyone room to stretch their legs. There are a few grassy areas the kids can run around in and run off that energy. We enjoyed this laid back and very inexpensive day.

Ketchikan--continued from the previous posting:

The Totem poles were pretty spectacular. We saw one that my DH thinks was 150 feet. We hate the cedar trees that grow in our yard at home. (It seems there is always one falling on our driveway each winter in the snow.) But, we have a new found appreciation for cedar after seeing these totem poles made of red and yellow cedar.

 

For a self guided tour/description of the totem poles at Totem Bight Park click here: http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/units/totempol.htm

 

It is hard to do them justice with a picture.

 

I bought an Alaskan made Ulu knife at the gift shop in Potlatch Park.

It has a beautifully carved handle in the shape of a fish. (The Radiance staff collects your knives as you board. They label and store them for the duration of the cruise. ) In the interest of full disclosure, buying my Ulu caused me to narrowly miss the 11:10am bus back to town. The DH had already boarded the bus—but, got off to wait for the next bus with me. (a true pal)

 

As we waited we talked to an Alaska park volunteer. Totem Bight Park gives them a place to park their RV and $10/day in exchange for her work as a naturlist. They are heading back to Oregon next week.

 

The inside of the Clan hHouse at Potlatch Park:

 

 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

OK--last of these postings. We did a bus/train combo with Chilkoot tours in Skagway. [i see that you are thinking of doing that, too.] We worried that the weather would be bad and we would not see anything.

 

The day we were there it had rain before we got there and was raining as we left port. It was a cold and windy day. [almost raw]

 

But you can see that we still had good views. The bus and tain go on opposite sides of the valley. It is not the same experience. We did not have enough port time to take a longer trip so we only went to the summit. Here is part of my posting:

 

". . then we arrived at Fraser, BC and boarded the historical White Pass Railroad Train.

 

 

All of the Chilkoot passengers were in the same train car. We had lots of room to move around.

 

 

The train goes down the other side of the valley from the road the van drove. The gold miners climbed a trail during the gold rush. (By the time the train was in service the gold rush was over.) I can not imagine how they did it. Each miner had to bring 1 ton of supplies to get into the Yukon or Canada turned them around. They carried it all up these mountains. UGH!

 

This is Inspiration Point:

 

 

 

More stunning valley views.

:

 

 

Thankfully they do not use this bridge anymore. :)

 

[Dawn414]

Buy an insurance policy and read EVERY SINGLE WORD carefully BEFORE you buy it. Make sure it will cover the cost of your entire trip if that flight is late. Keep in mind, if that flight is late, you will not be going on a cruise AND your flight home isn't from Vancouver. A couple key words in a policy may be the difference between getting your money back or loosing every dollar you've spend on your vacation PLUS having to pay for a flight home out of your own pocket.

 

2112...GOT THAT RIGHT! I talked to the person today from the travel agent's insurance...they don't cover a 'mechanical issue' with the plane. Well, that's a top reason why a plane might be delayed. SCRATCH them off the list! I am talking to a couple different ones though. I have some time on that. But it's not just the trip...it's the airfare, the excursions, the transfers...so yup...definitely on that! THX!

 

DRAGON of the SEAS...THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE PICTURES AND CAPTIONS...MY DAUGHTER (9 NOW...10 BY JUNE) saw the pictures and was like, "we're going to see that?" She was excuted. :)

[Krazy Kruizers]

Dawn 414

Have been reading this thread.

I noticed that you mentioned that you have decent layover in Toronto. Exactly how much time do you have between flights.

Icr Straight -- been there several times and have done the whale watching tours there 3 times and loved it.

[Dawn414]

Dawn 414

Have been reading this thread.

I noticed that you mentioned that you have decent layover in Toronto. Exactly how much time do you have between flights.

Icr Straight -- been there several times and have done the whale watching tours there 3 times and loved it.

 

2 1/2 hours assuming we are on time...we have to get our luggage and go through customs as well (but no customs in Vancouver). There are 2 other flights before ours. Air Canada rep said we'd never get on the 10a, but the 10:30 was a possibility although she didn't understand why I'd want to pay the money to get there 30 minutes earlier (shrug). Our connecting would leave at 11 est.

[1025cruise]

I wouldn't guarantee that 2.5 hours is enough to get through customs, collect your luggage, then recheckin for your flight to Vancouver, go through security, and then get to the gate.

[epixx]

2112...GOT THAT RIGHT! I talked to the person today from the travel agent's insurance...they don't cover a 'mechanical issue' with the plane. Well, that's a top reason why a plane might be delayed. SCRATCH them off the list! :)

 

Be VERY, VERY wary of the insurance you plan to purchase in your particular circumstances. You're going to have a really tough time finding trip insurance that will cover you under the "trip delay" clause because your scheduled plane arrival to ship departure interval is so short. Many plans require a delay of 6 hours or more before one can to claim benefits. Furthermore, you're going to have an even tougher time finding an plan that would cover you under the "trip interruption" clause if you miss embarkation. The benefits are paid if you need to return home for a covered reason, and, you guessed it, the Passenger Vessel Services Act and its consequences is not usually a covered reason.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

2 1/2 hours assuming we are on time...we have to get our luggage and go through customs as well (but no customs in Vancouver). There are 2 other flights before ours. Air Canada rep said we'd never get on the 10a, but the 10:30 was a possibility although she didn't understand why I'd want to pay the money to get there 30 minutes earlier (shrug). Our connecting would leave at 11 est.

 

 

I would not pay to get tickets for the earlier time. Let things just rest for a couple of months. Our fight was changed about 6 weeks before our trip. Airlines wait to see how the flights are filling up and cancel those that are not. They changed us to a flight 1.5 hours before the one we bought. I called to complain because that was a cheaper flight--but, they did not refund me the difference in the cost. :mad: [$40/ticket--just out of luck] But, they would have changed my flight to another flight with no change fee. We did not want a later flight so we had to leave it.

 

I agree that you will not have much time [if any extra time ] during this layover. We went through customs on a return flight from Jamaica in Charlotte, NC. [i know it is not Torornto--but, the process is the same in most places]

 

As was mentioned you need to wait for luggage before we could go to customs and we waited in a long line. Then we had to take our luggage to another desk to recheck for the rest of the flight after we cleared customs. [Recheck was very easy. It was already tagged from the previous leg and ready-- so all we did was hand it to an employee at a special desk--not the regular ticket counter. It took us about 2.5 hours and we had 2hrs 45 min. :eek:

 

One mistake we made was stopping at the restroom before we went to the luggage return. Others got there first and were in front of us in the customs line. I know it sounds silly, but, getting there as quickly as possible saves valuable time.

[1025cruise]

I believe in Toronto you clear customs before claiming luggage.

[frugaltravel]

I believe in Toronto you clear customs before claiming luggage.

 

Inccorect. You certainly clear immigration before claiming luggage, but in EVERY country I have traveled in (including multiple entry points in Canada including Toronto multiple times), I clear customs after claiming luggage. Makes sense - they have the right to inspect your luggage, so why would you go through customs inspection before you have all your possessions with you?

[1025cruise]

I must have been mistaken. From what I remember on my last trip through Toronto I went through immigration, since it was a business trip, I actually had to go into immigration, not just the cursory check, when I finished, I got my luggage, handed my form to the "gatekeeper" with no additional words said, got my rental car, and away I went.

[bjones555]

yyy

[cw2go]

yyy

 

 

???