How about a FT cruise???
 

Punki brought this up on the cruise forum. A FT cruise to Alaska in 2006!!!

I volunteer to coordinate, do the logisitics planning, and make arrangements for group space with whichever cruise line we may decide to cruise.

Is anyone interested? If so, I guess we should decide, in this order:1) Dates
2) itinerary 3) cruise line.

Thoughts, anyone???

Hi,

Yes, sounds like a great idea.

My recommendation:

Celebrity or Princess

Shoulder Seasons (May-Jun)

Inside Passage - most scenic :)

Good Luck


Update: I just noticed that this is in the women traveller's forum. My mistake... pretend I didnt write this :o

I recommend that this be moved to Community. It's a great place for planning get togethers.

Cruises have been proposed before; for some reason, have never gotten much support. I'm not sure why. Maybe because hotel and air status doesn't count on a cruise ship? ;) Having said that, there are avid cruisers among FTers.

I am going to move this to community. Please follow it there.

We will be taking our first cruise (up the inside passage) the first week in August.

It was hard for us to decide to take this cruise but were convince because it is Hunki's 45th high school reunion. It takes a whole week, we usually aren't gone that long, we don't get miles or points, and there are no elite lines. We are, however, trying to keep an open mind and will report back whether or not we think it is worth repeating and whether or not we think that most FlyerTalkers would enjoy.

The best deals can be had, I do believe, in May and September.

Anybody else interested?

The class reunion is a week on a cruise ship? Interesting idea.

We have friends who've enjoyed various Alaskan cruises, but it seems an odd way to travel to me. (No points, no miles, lots of old people.)

But with a companionable group... this could be lots of fun. Let us know how it turns out.

~Pat

I know, I know, this got moved to community. Is there any possiblity we could leave it here for just a while? Maybe we women could get something going and if there is interest, open it up to community. I thought Punki had a great idea. With a great group of people with a common interest, it could be a really nice experience. Imagine afternoon trivia-instead of the normal cruise questions (sports, art, etc), we could have trivia devoted to miles, points, and airline food.

No miles, no points???? WELL-AA CRUISES is one way to get miles. http://www.aadvantagecruise.com/ I am sure there are more. We have booked our last three cruises through AA. Not the cheapest miles I have gotten, but miles anyway. AA's price was within $100.00 of any other TA AND they were the only online TA that could get me a SPECIFIC cabin on the QE2 last December.

Please, Moderator, leave this thread open for a week. If there is no response from women (we had a response from a gentleman), you may close the thread and I will bow out. Thanks

1) There ARE ways to make miles, plenty of them actually

2) There ARE elite lines, I get to use them, and I know several other Flyertalkers that are elites on the various cruise lines. Besides the elite lines there are many other perks I get as an elite, like free Internet access.

3) I think it is terribly hard for YOU to determine whether or not others will enjoy it, a cruise is a very personal thing, I love them, others will hate them for one person to be able to say that they "think" everyone else will like them is crazy talk.


That said; I think that the chances of getting a group of members that can all agree on a whole week of travelling is pretty slim... I do like the idea though.

That is our only problem on most long cruises, the weeklong cruises are not that bad.

Anything over a week turns most ships into a floating old folks home, and for some reason old people on sea are the most annoying kind of people you can possibly imagine, why can't they stay home and play their bingo.

The only way to get away from the geriatrics is to sail with Carnaval.

greatam: YHM, and the thread is open.

Well I'm booked on http://www.rssc.com/voyage/details.jsp?code=MAR060830 on 8/30/06 with a group from luxurycruisetalk.com - should be fun :)

We cruised Crown Princess some years ago and we were not happy campers. Too many geriatric patients. One died first night out. A poor young couple honeymooning could not find a soul their age. Food was awful. I agree with a previous poster - Flyertalkers belong on Carnival. More fun, hopefully younger crowd. We have liked the ones we have taken. If the trip includes Sitka, we would go.

The cruise we are taking is on Princess, and does visit Sitka. Will we get horrible food? :( Maybe that is a good thing for those of us who need to watch what we eat.

How about dancing on board? Can we dance every night? Do they have aerobics classes? What other physical activites are available?

ScottC seems to be an expert on cruising, so maybe he can help us plan the trip. I know we get miles for the cost of the trip if we put it on a credit card, but how else do we get miles?

I know that on Princess, one becomes elite after four trips, and even gets free internet access. Interestingly enough, internet access on Disney is pretty reasonably priced, probably due to a much younger patronage.

We will have to take one trip before we decide whether or not we would ever want to do four. If the bands are good and the dance floors sizeable (or at least uncrowded) that might be a big incentive for us to try it again.

We'll see how it goes the first time.

If we do like it, we will probably do a couple of repositioning trips, i.e., SFO/SEA. They are really cheap, only take a couple of days, and would still count toward elite status. One of those trips might be fund for a FlyerTalk cruise party.

Punki -

My husband and I have done 4 Princess cruises and truly enjoy them.

Western Carribean, Panama Canal, Alaska (out of SEA), and Mexican Rivera.

After you sail once, you are awarded their lowest tier of status and they send you mailings with offers that are hard to refuse (e.g. - we took an 11 day Panama cruise for $699 / pp. and our Alaska cruise was $799 for a balcony :) ).

If you are doing the Alaska cruise, please reserve a balcony. It is the one itinerary where I recommend the upgrade is worth it. If you do not have a balcony yet and wish to upgrade, book a standard room with a balcony (i.e. - not a "mini-suite") because the regular balcony rooms overlook the mini-suite balconies - so you have limited privacy. If you are on the Aloha or Baha deck, make sure your deck is not beside or below the recreation areas.

Wait until you get on-shore to book your site excursions. Not only are they less expensive, but you support the locals and you get more personalized attention. In Juneau we held up a sign in-port and found another couple to share a fishing charter with us. The four of us had a private boat for 6 hours and I caught one of the biggest salmon of the season (23 lbs.). After we returned, the wife took us on a personal tour of the city and stopped by Hubbard Glacier.

We have sailed on Carnival and Princess tends to attract a slightly older crowd compared to Carnival (translation - you are not going to get an overwhelming number of 18-to-25 year olds packed 4 to a room whose sole purpose of travel is to party). There are some retirees, but many passengers range in age from 30's - 50's. We have met some wonderful couples on our travels.

The food is tasty, plentiful, and presented nicely. We always opt for the flexible dining plan because we eat anytime and get to meet different people every night. Some people stress if they don't have a reservation, but we never made reservations and always got a table within 15 minutes of arriving at the restaurants.

The gym is beautiful - located at the front of the ship with large windows to view the wildlife. It gets crowded in the mornings, but you can reserve a treadmill.

After about 11 pm, most people retire to their rooms. The few nights we did go up to the disco late, it was filled with the staff and crew. Maybe everyone was outside viewing the northern lights? :confused:

Bring rain gear - it is guaranteed to rain at least one or more days during your trip and you will be more comfortable if you are prepared. Also, bring the most powerful pair of binoculars you can - you will not regret it!

I am sure you will have a wonderful time. If you have any other questions, feel free to PM me.

Just tossing out some suggestions for a FT cruise.

IMHO, the best time to be in Alaska is late August-early September. Warmer weather, with probably less rain. It is slightly more costly to cruise in this time frame rather than May, but only slightly more (about $75.00pp average). Also, lots of things are not open until Memorial Day in Alaska. Denali Park does not open some of the roads, due to snow still on the ground.

The animals are usually more active in August-September. They know winter is coming and are feeding as much as possible, so the lean days of winter do not do them in.

With all that in mind, I made some inquiries from two cruise lines. Princess and Celebrity. My personal feeling (and I may be entirely wrong): These two lines fit the “style” and age group of more FT’ers. Sophisticated, classy, yet not stuffy. And generally a younger crowd (35 to 65) than some lines. NO announcements on Celebrity, which is a real blessing. No belly flop contests, no drinking contests, less obnoxious behavior than on some lines. Nice discos, lovely ballroom dancing, good lounges, great food. I prefer Celebrity and have sailed with them 5 times. But I have been on 2 Princess cruises and have enjoyed them both. I felt I was nickled and dimed to death on Princess and I hate all the announcements.

Island Princess, Sapphire Princess, Coral Princess and Diamond Princess all sail north and south from Whittier (3 hours ANC) to Vancouver. Average price on a group rate for oceanview-$1050.00pp Average price-balcony-$1275.00pp. These are all seven day cruises. I only checked cruises from August 20-Sept. 15. The later we cruise, the better the price. That theory is also applicable on the amount of cabins we book on a group rate.

Celebrity-Summit sails north and south from ANC (Seward) to Vancouver. Mercury sails RT from Seattle, but the ports aren’t the greatest, IMHO. Infinity sails RT from Vancouver, and includes three days of cruising , with no port calls. Average price on Celebrity-oceanview-$1150.00pp, balcony-$1375.00pp.

I spoke directly to the cruise lines, not a TA. If we had enough interest, they would set aside a room or rooms for us to have our own trivia and conferences. How about one of Viajero Joven’s MR seminars?

I am just tossing out food for thought. Suggestions or comments, anyone?