Booking

I have been very picky when it comes to room selection for Alaska. I wanted a 4J cabin which is one of the forward cabins with a window view of the forward deck. That would be like the cabin I posted pictures of in Christmas Vista: Day 1.

The reason for that cabin selection is so I would have easy access to the forward deck for all of the Alaskan views with the ability to step back inside my cabin and still be able to see out the window if it gets too cold.

Some Carnival ships that frequent Alaska don’t even have 4J cabins. The ones that do only have about 15-20 of them. Some of those are accessible rooms that can’t be booked by everyone. I was likely going to have to get in early to get the room I desired.

Due to COVID-19 there was a lot of availability in 2021. They had the perfect cabin on Carnival Freedom for a pretty good price the first week of May 2021. I booked it. That cruise was of course canceled. I was unable to find a 4J available for April, May, or August of 2022. I thought I was going to put off Alaska for anther year.

I did keep checking back and finally a 4J cabin on deck 7 opened up for May 31st. The price was about 25% more than I had paid the prior year but it was still a couple hundred under the maximum I wanted to pay. I grabbed the room immediately. It’s actually the same room number I had on Carnival Vista in December. I was able to catch a price drop four months out and save 10% on the cost of the cruise.

Ship Change

In February Carnival decided to send Spirit and Splendor to Seattle instead of Freedom. I would’ve preferred to be on Freedom, but I was happy to be assigned Splendor over Spirit because Spirt did not have the 4J cabins I desired. Splendor has about the same cabin configuration at the front of the ship so I expected they would able to easily move me over to the same room on Carnival Splendor.

When the room assignments came down I got a big surprise. They moved me from my 4J to a spa interior. I guess they figured the loss of the window would be made up for by putting me in the spa. The only problem is I don’t use the spa. That’s why I don’t book the spa. 

There was only one possibility I had thought of that could bump me from my room. That’s if my room was an accessible room on Splendor. I checked the deck plans. Sure enough. Freedom and Splendor have the same number of 4J rooms but more of them are accessible on Splendor. They actually didn’t assign my room to anyone on the new cruise.

I didn’t want to call in and request they assign me an accessible room when I don’t require one. I started looking around at other cruises. It turns out the week before my cruise they had a regular 4J available one deck below the one I had originally booked. I put a hold on that room and once I was able to secure a flight change, I booked it.

Flight

I booked first class on Alaska Airlines. I knew I was going to look into first class on this four hour flight since I’m not able to get my Spirit flight with cheap upgrades to the exit row aisle seats and extra legroom.

The two airlines with the most flight options for this route were American and Alaska. American was going to be around $600 to upgrade to first class. Alaska was only $300.

First class on Alaska includes two checked bags which I may need anyway with the cold weather gear I’m going to need to pack. That’s a $140 value round trip. That means it’s really just about a $160 upgrade to first class. I also get priority boarding, a free meal, and access to their lounge. They don’t have a lounge in Dallas but they do have a nice one in Seattle.

I was originally flying in and out of Love Field. The timing didn’t work out to fly in and out of DFW on the original cruise. After the rebooking I was able to change my flights to DFW for $20 more than my original ticket. Alaska was great about switching flights. I had to call in for it because doing it online doubled the price for some reason.

There has been some talk recently about an Alaska Airlines strike. It sounds like even if it’s approved it wouldn’t take effect until after I’m back. If you’re flying Alaska this summer, it’s something to keep an eye on.

Flight Change

With just nine days to go until my travel day, Alaska Airlines sent me a “Schedule Change Alert” email. According to the email I was no longer on a flight that was supposed to leave DFW at 6:15am and arrive at SEA at 8:32am. I was now on a flight that leaves DFW at 2:45pm and arrives at 5pm. This is not good. I had two full days of activities planned, most of which I would not be able to do on a Sunday night. This flight change makes the first day a total loss.

I looked at every possible option. Moving to a different airline. Flying in a day earlier. Switching hotels. Every option cost me more time, a lot more money, or both.

I decided to call Alaska to see what they could do. When people get moved to later flights in the airport they get free hotels, cash, and prizes. It’s like an episode of Let’s Make a Deal in there. Surely they could give me some form of compensation for taking an entire day of vacation away from me.

I called and got the “we’re experiencing an unusually high call volume,” message so I was expecting a long wait. Surprisingly I was connected to a representative almost immediately. I told him about the email I received. He asked my name. That was all I needed to say. He had my flight information pulled up.

Before I even had a chance to tell him how many problems this flight change was going to cause me, he told me he could book me in first class on an American Airlines flight that leaves DFW at 8:27am and arrives at SEA at 10:41am.

Losing two hours would be a lot better than losing nine hours. It isn’t perfect, but I was happy how quick and easily this change was made.

That was my second pleasant experience with Alaska customer service. The first one being when I moved my flight up a week following the ship change.

I originally was booked in seat 3F. I moved back to 4F since there was nobody in the next seat. Two days before the flight I checked again and there was someone next to me but both front row seats were now open. I switched to 1F, which is where I was originally on the Alaska Air flight.

The return flight is almost full. There’s no hope of having my own row on that one.

Parking

I’ve been using The Parking Spot for my airport parking the past year or so. You can’t just book them at any time and get the best price. A couple months out they were at $10/day. A month out I checked again and ended up getting my parking for $6.50/day. At the same time I checked for my August trip and it’s $16/day so I’ll wait on that one.

I’m actually going to be back by 7pm on May 31st. Since my reservation starts at 3am, I’m ending it at 3am in case of any delays. They charge you for that full day either way.

Hotel

The Carnival port is at Pier 91 which is not downtown. You have to make a decision on whether you want to be close to the port or close to downtown. I wanted to be able to do some sightseeing so I was looking at downtown hotels.

I ended up booking the Warwick for two nights before the cruise. I had pretty much decided on them already but then they sent me a black Friday deal that gave me the deluxe king room with city skyline view for $50 cheaper than I was going to pay for a standard room the day prior so I locked it in.

When Carnival changed ships on me the big hurt was canceling my hotel because it was going to cost me about $130 more to rebook.

Instead of jumping into that reservation, I monitored Seattle hotel prices for awhile. Let’s just say I know about a lot of Seattle hotels now. On one of my price checks, The Warwick, which was around $450 for the two nights had dropped down to $383. Then the next day they sent me a spring sale that dropped it to $364. I went ahead and booked it.

If there’s any chance you may want to book a Warwick in the future, I highly recommend registering an account and signing up for their emails. The member rate is better than a regular rate and the deals they send you in emails are better than the member rates. Spoiler alert: I booked the Warwick in New York for my next trip under the same sale.

Initially I was of the mind that you want to be as close to the Space Needle as possible. I’ve since found you actually want to be closer to Westlake Center. That is where the light rail and the monorail stations are located. The other end of the monorail is at the Seattle Center by the Space Needle so that will be an easy trip. The light rail is important because that’s how I’m coming from the airport. The Warwick is just two blocks from Westlake Center.

I also learned you don’t want to be in a hotel on the waterfront if you’re planning on going on foot for sightseeing. That’s because it’s uphill to everything from there. Apart from the Space Needle, Chihuly Gardens, and the Museum of Pop Culture, which are all in the same complex, everything else I’m going to do in Seattle is closer to the Warwick than the Space Needle hotels.

 

Last week I received an email from Warwick with a birthday month special. I did a mock booking of my current reservation and found I could upgrade to Executive King and save $60. I cancelled me existing reservation and rebooked. 

After I received the confirmation email I realized I may have been duped by the fine print. The fine print below indicates they may add $20 per night for an urban retreat fee. Even if they do add $40 to the cost it’s still an upgrade for $20 cheaper than my original reservation.

This was my original reservation email.

COVID-19 Testing

Since Carnival policy changed to a 72-hour requirement for fully vaccinated guests, I thought I would be able to test the day before I left for Seattle and be good. Recently Carnival added to their policy that any ship stopping in Canada will need to take either a PCR test three days before or an antigen two days before the cruise.

I have heard some people say the NAAT test I’ve been taking through Walgreens is actually a PCR test. Until I hear that directly from Carnival, I’m not taking my chances.

I can get a PCR test with a 1-2 day turnaround. But we’re talking about taking the test on a Saturday. Are they going to process that on Sunday? Is it going to take until Monday? Could it spill over into Tuesday which is embarkation day?

I’m going to take a regular PCR on Saturday and bring a home test as a backup. If I haven’t heard anything by Monday, I’ll take the home test.

I received my tests a week before the cruise. They have an expiration date of January 28, 2023. I should definitely be able to use the second test for my cruise out of New York in August.

ArriveCan

Another requirement for ships stopping in Canada is the ArriveCan app. If you’ve done Verifly it’s very similar. You have to provide them with passport and vaccination information when creating your profile. Then 72 hours prior to the cruise, you can fill out their questionnaire. I’m not within 72 hours yet so I can’t complete their questionnaire. That will likely happen the day before I fly to Seattle.

 

 

This is the letter Carnival sent out two weeks prior to the cruise explaining everything.

Verifly

I also completed the Verifly app. I still need to submit my test results when I receive them. Then it will be complete. There is a little more to the Verifly app than there was to the ArriveCan app. First I had to take a selfie for the app which is something I just LOVE to do. Also for Verifly I had to actually take pictures of my vaccination records. If you have an online QR code for your vaccination, you can submit that. I have one but it was not accepted because it read my middle name as being a part of my first name. It didn’t take long for my vaccination records to get verified. It was done within a couple hours of my submission.

Verifly is not required but it should make things easier on embarkation day. Also if something were to happen to my vaccination records prior to the cruise, I should still be able to board with this completed.

Pre-Cruise Activites

City Pass Seattle is something that’s very popular. For $115 you get the Space Needle (2 trips to the top in a 24 hour period) and the Aquarium. Plus you get to choose between three of these four: Argosy Harbor Tour, Museum of Pop Culture, Chihuly Gardens, and Woodland Park Zoo. I think the zoo will be the one most will skip since it’s about 7 miles away.

City Pass advertises that you save $91 booking through them. I find that they fudged the numbers a bit to make it look like a better deal than what it actually is. You can get a Space Needle and Chihuly combo ticket for $57. Mopop is $28. The Harbor Cruise is $35. The Aquarium is $26. If you wanted to do the Zoo instead of one of the others, the price is comparable at $27. Using the ones I would visit which is all except the zoo, I’m coming to $146. That means the savings is closer to $30 than the $91 they advertise. If there’s one thing on that list you don’t want to do, It’s not worth it.

You do get that second visit to the top of the Space Needle. I just wonder how many people will actually do it twice in 24 hours. If I did it I would make that first Space Needle visit on the first night at sunset or later. Then you have the entire second day to use the second visit. That’s when I would use the Chihuly and Mopop passes.

With the flight change causing me to lose two hours, I decided if I was going to cut something out it would be the aquarium. I crunched the numbers without the aquarium and found the City Pass still saved me a few dollars and I would still have the aquarium ticket and second space needle trip in my back pocket if I want them.

There is also a smaller City Pass package. With that you can pick from any of the three activities on the right for $83.

I went with the full City Pass.

They send you a QR code you can scan at the places. I saw on the harbor cruise website you could redeem your city pass for an online reservation. I think for that you would type in the number below the QR code. You have one year to start using the pass. Once you start it you have nine days to use all of your tickets. It would make a nice gift if you know someone going to Seattle within a year.

You an add City Pass to your Apple Wallet by clicking the Apple Wallet icon underneath the QR code.

Other than the places on the City Pass I am hoping to do Pike Place Market, The Great Wheel, Wings over Washington, The Underground Tour, The Public Library, Smith Tower Observatory, Sky View Observatory, Lumen Field, and Starbucks Reserve Roastery. 

Onboard Credit

I had already applied all of my future cruise credits with $600 onboard credit to other cruises when I booked this one so I don’t have that. I received $225 when I booked, but I lost $75 of it when I took the $220 price drop in February. I have $100 from my shareholder benefit giving me a total of $250 onboard credit for this cruise which will take care of my auto-gratuities and my internet package.

Specialty Dining

When I heard about the specialty restaurant price increase of May 1st, I decided to book some restaurants for my next couple cruises. I went ahead and booked the steakhouse for the first night and Tracy Arm Fjord night. That avoids the elegant nights and port days. I do have an excursion on Tracy Arm Fjord day but I should have plenty of time on the ship before my 7:30pm dinner reservation.

Excursions

The first excursion I booked was Tracy Arm Fjord Glacier Explorer. That’s the only excursion you can book that day so it sells out fast. At one point they canceled that excursion saying the boats wouldn’t be available for it. Then they added it back to the website a few weeks later. I was able to rebook it. It is one of those excursions that will sell out, then it will open back up if you keep watching it.

The next excursion I booked was for Icy Strait Point. In Juneau I was torn between going with a whale watching tour or a Mendenhall Glacier tour. Skagway was going to be the train but when that was changed to Icy Strait Point, I thought maybe this would be a good chance to remove one of those from Juneau.

For Icy Strait Point I booked Whales, Wildlife, & Bear search which is a 5 1/2 hour land and water combo excursion where I am guaranteed to see whales. I should also get to see bears and the reviews mentioned finishing up through the little town near Icy Strait Point which is another thing that was recommended for this port. It’s the longest and most expensive excursion available for Icy Strait Point other than one of the private driver excursions. All of the reviews for it have 5 stars.

For Juneau I was looking at all tours that included Mendenhall Glacier. When reading the reviews I constantly noticed people were saying they only had an hour at the glacier center. They wish they had more time. Some said they could walk to the waterfall but it was two miles and they only had 40 minutes. Bus drivers were threatening to leave people. In one case the driver actually did leave a family of six because the kids didn’t make it back from the waterfall on time. I read these similar complaints on multiple excursions that included Mendenhall Glacier. 

Another option is a big blue bus that takes you to and from the glacier center. You are supposed to be able to buy tickets from a kiosk at the pier. Then you can go to the glacier and return at your own pace. That is my plan for Juneau.

I wasn’t sure what to do in Ketchikan.  Finally Mother’s Day weekend Carnival sent out a discount code that was only supposed to be for spa treatments, but it worked for everything. I decided this was the perfect time to make a decision on Ketchikan.

I booked the lighthouses, totems, and eagles excursion. The totem poles are big in Ketchikan (literally and figuratively) so I wanted an excursion that included them. This one guarantees seeing bald eagles. Reviews confirmed they saw many bald eagles. Some saw them fishing and in their nests.

While that sale was going on I was able to cancel and rebook my other excursions at a 20% discount. I used my Carnival Mastercard which also gives a 10% statement credit on Carnival excursions.

This is the end result of the discount code I used for excursions. The savings on the two I had booked previously and the 10% statement credit for using the Carnival card paid for the 3rd excursion and my airport transfer. That left me with a $20.90 credit. It seems they may have forgotten about the $45 statement credit they gave me when I booked the two excursions at the higher rate a couple months back.

I haven’t booked anything for Victoria. This is just a stop to satisfy the requirement of visiting another country. We are only in port for a few hours at night. There are only a couple of excursion options offered by Carnival. Those are the Hop on, Hop off bus and a Horse drawn carriage city tour.

If I decide to book something it would probably be the bus. I can probably book that the day of the stop. I will most likely just get off and look around on my own. But I want to leave my options open in case I don’t want to get off of the ship at all.

Post Cruise Transportation

I have never booked Carnival transportation to or from the airport before. When Carnival had the discount code that could be used for excursions, I went ahead and booked my return trip to the airport with them. There were three time options (7:30, 8:30, and 9:30). I went with 9:30 which is supposed to get me to the airport by 10:30. I really just need to be there by 11 for my 1pm flight.

Port Valet

I am not going to need this but it sounds like an excellent service for those who can use it. If you have a later flight and want to explore Seattle, Port Valet is a free service that transfers your luggage from the port to the airport for you. You can sign up for Port Valet here. Carnival’s brand ambassador, John Heald, recently said that Carnival is not currently participating in Port Valet. If you’re cruising Carnival make sure you check with them before you count on the service being available even if it’s available on the website.