em-sk

Thanks for the input!

If you are taking Skytrain, most (many) of the stations have airport check-in terminals with boarding pass printed in the station lobby. Then when you get to the airport you just need to head to baggage drop off and customs.

I have not booked flights yet because I wanted to make sure of all these details beforehand. I believe we will book through Choice Air as they seem to have the best prices. In most cases, the flights I have looked at are Code Share partners. There is only one flight with Air Canada which takes place in Canada, our first leg of the flight to Toronto.

We are hoping to fly inot Barcelona a few days early to see some sights so times are flexible on that portion.

 

em-sk mentioned that our bags would travel through with us. But, this does not happen when we travel to Florida. We have to go pick up our luggage, and haul it through the airport at Pearson. And that is when we are using the same Carrier! I am worried when we have to start switching terminals. And Frankfurt sounds like a nightmare!

Assuming everything is on one ticket.....

If you connected to the US in Toronto more than a year ago then you would have had to walk your bags through US Customs. They have changed that. Last few times I have do the transfer to the US you go to the same location and wait for your name to show up on a TV monitor. Once it pops up that means you bags have been transferred. If the US customs people want to see the bags they will pull them otherwise its automatically transferred and you are allowed to go through. It is a massive improvement. It is actually easier that most US airports now.

Air Canada and Lufthansa operate a joint venture profit sharing structure between Canada and Europe. They both leave from Terminal 1 in Toronto. They issue boarding passes for each other. It is seamless.

Frankfurt sounds worse than it is. Going through the passport check is smooth most of the time. There is the odd time I have arrived at the same moment as a series of large aircraft from the middle east and Asia and the line ups can be a bit long. Yours bags will automatically be transferred. There is this very long tunnel that connects the two parts of the airports that Lufthansa and their partners operate out, if you are unlikely to be at the other end it can be a bit of a walk.

My favorite airports in Europe to make Star Alliance transferees are Zurich, Munich, and Copenhagen. Unfortunately you usually end up in Frankfurt, still better than London or Paris in my books. Frankfurt is not bad as it sounds.

If you miss you flight just go over to a Lufthansa transfer desk and they will in most cases have rebooked you on the next flight.

It was offered at the M&G last week on Jewel. We didn't sign up so I can't say which night the actual dinner was held.

Last spring I ended up signing up at the M&G on the Jewel and was selected. Ended up seated with the Captain. Very pleasant dinner discussion. Sorry I don't remember which night it was. It was towards the end of the cruise. They had a number of seats allocate to those attending the Cruse Critic M&G.

As SadieN says, this is a very disastrous maritime area. Be prepared that you may miss the port of Astoria altogether.

 

We were there the end of September and had windy, rainy, rough weather. Our visit to Victoria ended up a closed port, and we weren't even allowed to try and enter Astoria. We just continued to cruise South to San Francisco.

 

According to our Captain the entrance to Astoria is one of the most dangerous and most often missed ports.

 

Hope you make it, I was looking forward to Tea at the Flavel House Museum on my Birthday, but alas it was not to be.

 

Have a great cruise!

The normal procedure for the pilot to board the ship is to winched down from a helicopter above the ship. When I was there on the Jewel, the captain said it was one of only two port he has ever been to where that was common procedure.

On a side, note the odd thing is that on the Jewel the helipad area taken up with with the basketball court. The captain said they have the pilot repelled into the Haven area.

I also like Astoria. Have a great cruise.....

Assuming you are arriving in to Toronto on Air Canada or Jazz. The video monitors in the terminal will have your connecting gate information.

You follow the signs to the connecting gate. It should point in the direction of some escalators that take you up one level. The security person at the top of the escalator is going to check that you have a passport with you and an international boarding pass before letting you into the international transfer area where you flight will depart from. The alrline is also going to do a passport check at the gate before you board the flight.

In Germany when you arrive they check your passport again when you go from International area to the European area.

Bags should be checked to Barcelona and you should not have to touch them until you arrive in Spain.

Yes we have been to Canada and know how easy it is :)

It's the US processes that have some concerned.

I originally asked about immigration in Seward but it sounds like I should have asked for details of what actually happens in Vancouver.

Several Canadian Airports have US Pre-clearance, where you clear US formalities before boarding the aircraft. The same pre-clearance arrangement occurs for ferries from Victoria to Washington state, some cruise ships and the train service between Vancouver and the US.

I can't say I have the same problem. I still working on deciding on my next cruise and it will likely be my first to Alaska.

 

I noticed that NCL Sun does have 14 day cruises out of Vancouver. Not certain how much overlap there is with the "typical" 7 day cruise.

Never mind they repeat a good number of the ports going up and coming back. That is just silly, especially give they could pop into some Canadian ports like Prince Rupert or Nanaimo and don't.

I can't say I have the same problem. I still working on deciding on my next cruise and it will likely be my first to Alaska.

I noticed that NCL Sun does have 14 day cruises out of Vancouver. Not certain how much overlap there is with the "typical" 7 day cruise.

So US immigration will be there at Vancouver and that is to be expected as we are cruising to Alaska.

I was just wondering if anyone could explain what we can expect.

Will it be like our friends experience at LAX or is this confined to LAX?

I personally will be flying into LAX as we have a week or so at Mammoth Mountain prior to flying to Vancouver but other friends will be flying into Vancouver and just want to know what to expect.

Entering Canada usually does not involve finger printing and iris scanning. Usually for most people you answer the silly questions, they scan your passport, you pickup you luggage, hand-in a your declaration card and enjoy the rest of the day. If something pops up on the computer or the answers to the questions don't match what the customs people view are normal you may end up having a more involved interview.

From Canada going into the US is dependent on the port of entry there are a lot of of boarder crossing between Canada and the US. They tend to do things a little differently if you are entering by Sea Plane, Normal Air, Rail, ferry or driving across. No idea how the US authorities will pre-clear the cruise ship before it sails to Alaska, but it not necessarily the same as air travel.

As for entering Canada. I have not done an Alaska cruise yet, though I may do one this year. I did do a West Cost cruise last year. We filled out the Canada customs cards and handed in the cards to the cruise line when we boarded the ship in LA. The entire ship was cleared into Canada when we arrived in Victoria, next day was Nanaimo and finally disembarked in Vancouver. Since the ship was cleared in bulk in Victoria there was no customs at all in Vancouver.

I would just go with the flow.

I not sure that it is that the improvement Fees were extended as much as they were imposed by various airports. This started to occur in Canada some 20 years ago when the Canadian government moved out of the airport business and turned airports over to local governments or local airport authorities and they needed some means to fund improvements to their newly inherited airport facilities. I fully expect that some sort of similar fee is rolled into the taxes charged to people tickets in other parts of the world as well.

Silly fee, like most of the other silly fees included in an airline ticket. According to Wikipedia these airport fees exist at most airports in South America, and China. In the US it goes by a different name "Federal Passenger Facility Charge" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airport_improvement_fee

Back to the original question. Flights from Asia start to arrive around 9:30 am, but the bulk of the Asian flights are arriving closer to noon or early afternoon. I would take the earliest flight possible, especially if you are flying in from a US airport that is prone to delays.

I assume this is flying on BA. I don't know why the SEA prices are so much higher than YVR, but they are. This usually isn't the case, but most likely because SEA is a big business destination for BA while YVR is more a leisure market.

 

One thought I'll just throw out is that one can hire a car at YVR and drive one way to Seattle. If interested, there are a couple of alternative scenic routes to the main I-5 freeway. Counting taxis at both ends (and taking into account the very early morning departures) the price for two persons in the car can be similar to the business class train ride.

 

Nothing against the train trip, of course. It's quite scenic in parts, and by preclearing US border controls in Vancouver (southbound) you don't have any delays at the border, which are always a potential problem in a car.

Air line prices are hard to predict. One of the differences is Vancouver has Virgin Atlantic, Air Canada and BA plus some charter flights to Gatwick. Seattle has Delta and BA.

There is a long thread on Flyertalk on celebrity sightings. The Admirals clubs and up front on AA flights from JFK-LAX seem to be prime sighting flights and areas for famous people. Connections at DFW seem to have their share of sightings as well. It is pretty entertaining to see who and how they acted towards staff and other pax.

I suspect most celebrities try to blend in as much as possible and not get noticed. The JFK-LAX is the only domestic route in the US that has a real premium product that comes close to being the same as internal business class.

You should also factor in excursions. (Thankfully they don't charge double occupancy for those). The ship will offer those (if you select the individual destinations on the NCL web-site you can pick the excursion offered by NCL). The NCL price includes their markup, you can usually get a better deal booking directly with the operator.

Cruising is safe. So I would not worry about that.

If you are Canadian it is probably cheaper to fly to Vancouver. If your based in the US you can sometimes save of air flying into Seattle and taking the bus or train up to Vancouver.

Hunt around and you mighty find a discount on the cruise. The pricing can be variable as the cruise line tries to fill up the ship.

Only thing to add:

On NCL there is both a Traditional Stake House and Brazilian Stake House.

The Two complimentary main dinning rooms shave slightly different but very similar menus.

There are several treads on lobster night (I almost regret mentioning the item) but it is server it is usually in the main dinning room on the first night when you leave port.

All of this information is SO helpful, thank you - and keep it coming! Even information that seems to be the obvious (?) and of little information is still a big help! THANK YOU!

 

One thing I am concerned about is that if we don't do a ship excursion and we opt for public transportation I worry that we wouldn't make it back to the port on time (not due to our lack of timeliness, but something unforeseen with transportation). Is that likely? Or am I just being over-cautious?

For Naples if you are worried about missing the ship. Do Pompei first thing in the morning. Then take head back to the terminal area. You dock right right in the center of the city and there is a lot to see and do within a few blocks of the terminal.

Rome is a different story. The Terminal is in a town "Port of Civitavecchia" This is a very large industrial port, the port authority will operate a shuttle but form the entrance to the port and the ship. Take the shuttle, if you are heading to Rome, you need to walk over to the train station and take a train from Civitavecchia to Rome. (If you goggle for virtually any european rail company and you type in Civitavechia to Rome it will give you the schedule. Don't take the last train, I would again do the same thing explore Rome first thing in the morning, take the train back and spend the late evening exploring Civitavecchia before getting back on the ship.

If you want to do some ports on your own and use a tour for others I would do Naples on my own and given the distances and potentially do that as an organized excursion. Personally I usually try to use Rome as the start/end point for a cruise since a day does not do the city justice.

My understanding the EPIC is to wide to make its way through the panama canal. Can the new ships make it through the the canal?

The end result is that they need to keep a certain number of the older ships in North America to reposition to Alaska during the summer. Alternatively it would be to sail around South America. It will be interesting to see what happens on the west coat.

we were on the miracle in july 2013. sounds like we had the same victoria port time as you have. arriving late and only in victoria for a few hours. we took the bus ($2.00 per person round trip) downtown and shopped around, looked at all the lights, buildings, had coffee. we had about 45 minutes of dusk before it got really dark but we still had a great time. beautiful and clean city. you'll have fun!!

I live in Victoria, (not certain if that makes for a different perspective or not). However I would do the same thing, take the city bus into the inner harbor or walk down to the inner harbour and take a taxi or bus back to the ship when you are ready to head back. Most of the places you would want to look at are in walking distance. It makes for a pleasant walk even after dark.

If a cruise ship is in port, I am certain many of the tourist oriented shops will remain open.

Need some advice...We are 5 adults and one inlap infant flying on Alaska Air to our cruise out of Vancouver in May..Problem is.. now one adult can't go, of course air is paid for as well as the carrier knowing when we booked (in Nov) we would have the inlap infant..Should I be able to change the name and substitute the non going family member (of course I realize fee may be involved if I can even do it) and giving the infant that seat..or just assume I've paid for that seat and let the infant use it...Hope this isn't too confusing because it is to me...Very stressed out over what to do...Please help with suggestions on how you would manage this...before I call Alaska Air in the morning.

 

Thanks so much !!!

As soon as the person who is not going does not check-in the airline will cancel their reservation (usually without refunding any of the fees) and free up the seat for any standby passenger. You could try to phone the airline and convince them to either change it to the infant or else change it to a second seat booked by one of the other adults in the party (just say you need the extra room). You could also try to get the airline to provide a refund (usually in the form of a credit) then use the credit to buy the seat for the infant. What ever comes out cheapest.

Question: "Java Cafe' on the Sun...is this the 'Starbucks' on the Sun?

Any idea what time it opens?

I have read that Specialty coffee (good coffee) is not covered by the drink package. Good coffee?? Are the pastries and biscuits extra $$??

Thank you. I have never sailed with NCL(yet) so I don't know details.

No it is better than Starbucks (however some will disagree with me). NCL carries Lavazza brand coffee (http://www.lavazza.com) which is an Italian premium brand that can be prepared in a similar fashion to what you find at a Starbucks.

Premium Espresso based coffees are an extra charged, drip coffee and pastries etc are free.

I have been drinking Lavazza at home long before cruising NCL. Was quite happy to discover it is what they use.

Taxi and the ticket machines at the transit stations will also take Visa and Mastercard.

If you leave a tip I suspect the person receiving the tip will be equally appreciative in either currency.

For H20 on the EPIC the pool is used a pool during the day. In the evening the water is drained and pool floor is motorized and moves up to form a dance floor. It is weird.

On some nights they also do movies under the stars at H20 with popcorn.

There are two tickets involved. One one DL and AF to get us to and from Europe, the other to get from Paris to Krakow then back to Paris on a different carrier.

 

Air France doesn't service Krakow, nor do any of their alliance members.

 

The missed connection on the return in CDG is my concern. I think I'm going to see if this is covered under travel insurance--and for how much.

Air France and the airline you use to Krakow do not have to be in the same alliance to be ticketed together, they simply need to have an internline agreement with each other. Most major international airlines interline with each other including interlining with airlines outside of their alliances.

Air Canada does the same. Status passengers get first choice.

Thanks RickT and kenish.

 

The info in Manage My Bookings was like this yesterday, and earlier today before my original post, and I just checked again and it is still the same.

 

I just tried again to reserve seats and again it says confirmed, but in the space where it should give the seat number it just gives the flight number.

 

We will be staying in Miami for one night after getting off the ship so will try to check in from the hotel for the return flight, assuming it can be done 24 hours before departure. If not we will definitely get to the airport early - 3 hours prior to departure at least.

 

We are a family of 5 - not expecting to be able to sit together but we do have 2 children and hope that the younger one can be seated with a parent. The older one is 13 and will be fine on his own.

 

I put another call in for the TA to check everything but still not heard back. :mad: I gave up on using a TA for cruise bookings, maybe it is time to book my own flights too. It's too bad, I had great service from the previous TA who is no longer there.:(

On the seat assignment front, they normally block the first couple of rows in the economy section for frequent fliers. Those get released at check-in time.

They also move frequent fliers from economy to business class to free up seats in economy usually at the gate just before boarding. If you don't have the kids sitting next to the adults if you go up to the agent at the gate before they start processing the upgrades there is a chance they may be able to adjust some of your seats when they do the other adjustments.

Some other places you may want to go to:

On a transatlantic the ship is likely not full. That should make things a bit quit.

The Atrium area on Dec 5 has some nice seating. This is the area between the big TV screen and the cappuccino bar.

The walkway between the family pool area and H20 has outdoor seating that is also quite nice. I don't remember if it is covered or not.

The Blizz lounge has some fairly nice seating. During the day it was not busy unless there was a private function going on in the room. It has some fairly nice seating, thought a little weird. T