{"id":493,"date":"2016-11-23T05:53:09","date_gmt":"2016-11-23T05:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/askviptravelista.com\/?p=493"},"modified":"2016-11-17T02:35:56","modified_gmt":"2016-11-17T02:35:56","slug":"alaskan-cruise-day-eight-departure-and-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/askviptravelista.com\/alaskan-cruise-day-eight-departure-and-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaskan Cruise | Day Eight, Departure and Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"img_0816\"Again we were up early and despite having a very good time on the cruise, we are excited about going home.\u00a0 We had breakfast and was in our designated zone for debarking well before the appointed time.\u00a0 We were not supposed to debarking until 9:20 am but due to the efficiency of the cruise line we were off by 9:00 am.\u00a0 This efficiency continued through getting our luggage and proceeded through customs.\u00a0 Leaving customs we discovered Delta had a check in station located at the pier.\u00a0 The line was long but it moved swiftly.\u00a0 Once we boarded the transfer bus, we were back to the airport by 12:00 pm.\u00a0 Waiting on our plane,\u00a0 we had lunch, charged our electronic devices and tried to be patient as our plane did not leave until 2:48 pm.<\/p>\n

On the plane I decided to do a retrospect of our cruise and what I would change or look out for on the next cruise. Below are just a few additional tips and recommendations.<\/p>\n

Book excursions before you leave home: <\/strong>Our travel agent, L’Anda, encouraged us to book excursions early and so we booked all of our excursions before leaving home.\u00a0 This was good, because we were more likely to get the excursions we wanted.<\/p>\n

Pay close attention to announcements in tender ports\u00a0: <\/strong>Next time if there is a tender going to one of the ports of call, I will listen very carefully to the port announcements.\u00a0 What I heard is if you had\u00a0an excursion already planned you didn’t need a tender ticket (a ticket that allows you to get off the ship and is given out on a first come first serve basis).\u00a0 What I didn’t hear is that the only excursions not needing tender tickets were the ones booked directly through the cruise line. \u00a0While excursions purchased through other companies\u00a0are less expensive and typically smaller than excursions hosted by the cruise line, they do not come with pre-arranged tender tickets. Because of this little hearing error on my part, we almost missed our tour.\u00a0 We had to get the attention of a crew member to get off earlier than we were supposed to.<\/p>\n

Purchase\u00a0a beverage plan\u00a0:<\/strong>\u00a0Do get a beverage package, even if it only the least expensive one.\u00a0 That is what we had and that saved us tons of money.\u00a0 A coke is about $5.00 and a bottle of water even more.\u00a0 If you wanted mixed drinks or alcohol of any kind the price was very expensive, if not in a beverage package.<\/p>\n

Take advantage of everything the ship has to offer:<\/strong> \u00a0Although the cabins are nice, being out and about on the ship, you have the opportunity to meet so many people and participate in many of the activities you would otherwise miss.\u00a0 Because we were moving throughout the ship so much, we just happened upon several raffling contests and even won a couple of them.<\/p>\n

Specialty dining pricing is a food only cost:<\/strong> Remember, when you book a speciality restaurant, the price is only for the food and plain water.\u00a0 If you want anything more it has to be in your beverage package or you have to pay extra.<\/p>\n

Try all the restaurants that you can:<\/strong> Do try all of the restaurants included in your package, as well as at least one of the speciality restaurants.\u00a0 Don’t eat solely\u00a0at the buffet.\u00a0 Although the food is easier and quicker to get, it is a buffet and, after a while, you will notice the choice of food is the same for each meal every day and you get tired of it. Additionally, there will be so many other restaurant options, you are really missing out if you don’t check them out. Remember, the buffet is open longer than the other restaurants.\u00a0 So, if you don’t like what you had for you meal (or get hungry later),\u00a0 you can always go to the buffet and get something to eat.<\/p>\n

An internet plan might not be necessary for you:<\/strong> You don’t necessarily need an Internet package.\u00a0 They can be expensive.\u00a0 In some of the ports of call you may even be able to connect to your own server.\u00a0 Besides, if you stay on your devices all of the time; imagine how many opportunities you will be missing.\u00a0 It was so nice to go to dinner and see people talking to each other, have a break from hearing all of those different ring tones every five minutes, and to see children actually playing with each other.\u00a0 Give yourself a break – unplug for the 7 days.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the loyalty program:<\/strong>\u00a0If there are reward programs offered by the cruise line, sign up.\u00a0 If you sail with this cruise line again you will be entitled to a few extra perks.\u00a0 The more you sail the greater the perks.<\/p>\n

Consider booking your next cruise on board:<\/strong> The cruise line has a program where you get discounts if you book your next cruise on board and our agent let us know that Dream Vacations doubles that discount. If you are planning on going on another cruise the next year, this is a great way to save money.<\/p>\n

Book early and book with an agent:<\/strong>\u00a0Make sure to book early and especially with L’Anda Johnson at\u00a0Dream Vacations. She will get you the best deal for what you want and just as important, she will remind you when there are things that need your attention.\u00a0 The closer to our sail date she either called or emailed us with all sorts of reminders.\u00a0 Because of her, I knew I wasn’t forgetting anything and was not worried about anything.\u00a0 This made my vacation more enjoyable!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Again we were up early and despite having a very good time on the cruise, we are excited about going…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121,31,42],"tags":[122,151,155,21,66,33,36,152],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/askviptravelista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/askviptravelista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/askviptravelista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askviptravelista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askviptravelista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/askviptravelista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":594,"href":"https:\/\/askviptravelista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493\/revisions\/594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/askviptravelista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askviptravelista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askviptravelista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}