I started looking into an Alaska cruise before the holidays and our last family vacation, but Disney Vacation Club (DVC) had not released their point charts for the cruise on Holland America Line (HAL) yet. I finally got around to calling DVC back a couple weeks ago and found out that a 7-night cruise on HAL would be 192 points per adult during "value" season (late May, early June) for an outside cabin. My MIL had been talking about going on a family vacation to Alaska on a cruise ever since I mentioned that HAL was available using our DVC points. With points leftover from last year, this year's allotment of points and "borrowing" from next year, we had enough points to book 4 adults on HAL. We'd just pay cash for the kids. So, we are officially booked on Holland America Line departing Seattle on May 25th.
Our itinerary on the ms Amsterdam Alaska Explorer via Glacier Bay:
Day 0: Seattle, Washington departing at 4:00 pm
Day 1: At Sea
Day 2: Juneau, Alaska arriving 11:00 am, departing 10:30 pm
Day 3: Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising 4:00 pm
Day 4: Sitka, Alaska arriving 8:00 am, departing 5:00 pm
Day 5: Ketchikan, Alaska arriving 7:00 am, departing 1:00 pm
Day 6: Victoria, BC arriving 6:00 pm, departing Midnight
Day 7: Seattle, Washington arriving 7:00 am
Total points used: 768
Total money spent for 2 children and processing fee: $1123.
WOW - a 7 night Alaskan cruise (not including transportation) for 4 adults and 2 children was less than $1200! We'll be cat DA - pretty close to midship in cabins 2553 and 2557 with main dining. There will be 3 of us to each cabin so we'll be splitting up the kids. DH and I are HAL alumni having sailed HAL about 10 years ago. An upgrade to a verandah suite was over $400 per person, so I passed on that. I had mixed feelings about using all of our points for this year and most of our points for next year but we are planning a trip to the summer olympics in China next year (2008) so it didn't bother me as much to use our DVC points this year.
I turned around quickly and bought airline tickets to Seattle through Travelocity arriving on the 24th of May and departing on the 2nd of June. This gives us a day on either end of our trip to arrive/depart and to visit with DH's aunt, uncle, and cousins who live in Seattle. 4 plane tickets: $1660.40 on American Airlines. Our itinerary is pretty decent:
Thursday, May 24: Depart OKC at 1020 am and arrive Seattle 2:05 pm
Saturday, June 2: Depart Seattle 1110 am and arrive OKC 7:25 pm
Cost of entire trip: $2783.40
Next step: booking shore excursions....
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