dejavu21

I used A2Sea earlier this year for my Alaskan Cruise. We booked regular cabin flights (refundable, as I think they all are via A2S). One leg was United, operated by Air Canada, and one was United. I am a United member and was able to upgrade the tickets prior to final payment. With the Air Canada segment I was not able to. Not sure if this helps, but it is probably up to Delta in your case.

Just curious if you ended up doing Anguilla? We are looking at the day trip excursion to Meads Beach, Anguilla in January.

John, I just finished my Alaskan cruise and using Air2Sea for the first time. I'm a United member and so that was my prefered airline. I was able to choose seats after booking (before final payment) if I remember correctly. Also, because Air2Sea is considered a travel agent (by the airlines), seating assignments was all I could edit/change, even after final payment. It did take about a week before the Air2Sea booking showed up on my RC balance. I typically like to book airfare myself, but Air2Sea usually offers $500 discount off of airfare for any international destinations. Since we flew into Vancouver from Houston, we used them and paid way less. Hope this helps.

I've enjoyed whale watching tours in Alaska, they are amazing. I read that there are whale watching excursions in the caribbean during the winter months (Nov-Feb). My wife and I are on Rhapsody OTS in January out of San Juan and want to know if anyone has done a whale watching tour (private or through RC)?

*** UPDATE*** Disregard the hotel question below, I somehow missed your post on that. I see your currently enjoying this trip. I'm headed out on an Alaskan cruise with the kids in July, but the wife and I have this cruise booked (just for ourselves), January 2025 (only 223 days to go). I'm curious, where did you elect to stay pre-cruise, or did you fly in the morning of? We plan to fly in a couple of days early and are about to start looking for hotels. Enjoy the trip!

223 days to go. Who's ready? Where is everyone staying pre-cruise?

When I booked mine, I did get an e-mail from [email protected] confirmation, but it took 24 hours, so not as fast as they said I would. I can see my bookings, but can't really do anything with them until I pay for them. The only way I can see mine is to 1) Go to RC.com and view reservations, 2) click on "pay remaining balance", then 3) hit the back button, then I can see the cruise and flight details. The Air2Sea payment will be added to the cruise fare, all due on the final payment date. You can pay early as well, if you like.

That's what I was thinking, thanks for confirming for me.

That's what I was thinking, thanks for confirming for me.

Due to potential conflicts with my July 7th Alaska cruise, I may be forced to reschedule/change dates. I know RC charges $100 pp to rebook, but my questions are: 1) Does it matter if I re-book before or after final payment? Final payment is April 8th and I would like to wait as long as possible before re-booking in case the current date works. 2) Is there anything else I should consider in this current state? Thanks in advance!

Some great advice above. My wife and I did our first Alaskan cruise last year. One thing you might encounter when your doing research is "Glacier Bay National Park". We really wanted to go there and thus, we had to book Holland America because Royal had given up their rights to go there. It was amazing. We are going back July 2024, on RC, and loved the Vancouver area. There are a lot of great things to do there if going up early, and have also heard great things about Seattle. One thing we loved was cruising the Inside Passage as @Kathleen mentioned above. The calmness of the waters and scenery is simply amazing. As for Alaska, we loved it. My favorite stop was Skagway and taking the scenic train ride into the mountains (with a hike along the way). Oh another tip. If you go out of Seattle you are going to get the bigger ship (Ovation i think) and is Vancouver (Brilliance) which is a smaller ship. So, if looking at both of those ships there are some really good YouTube videos by HARR travel and others that give complete walkthroughs. Last, the sun is up for a long time in Alaska, 5am - 10pm sometimes, so we took blackout shades. Hope some of this helps.

I've been on several different cruise lines and have come to learn that sometimes your going to get an above average meal and sometimes it's going to be a bit below par, maybe due to seasoning, etc. Your on a cruise ship serving 5,000+ passengers, fast also. It is what it is. And if you are heading to the buffet, don't complain, it's a buffet. The food is always mediocre. If your going on a cruise and looking for 5 star meals, save your cash. If your spending $500-$1,000 a hand in the casino, I can see why you think the food is bad. This sounds like a pity party simply because they would not reshuffle.

Thanks @twangster

Thanks

yeah, I see the problem. On united.com you see the United flights operated by Air Canada. I guess I was expecting to see the Air Canada flights as well. Sorry for the goose chase. Either way, Air2Sea is cheaper at the moment.