Planning our trip

1st February 2017. Location: The Tasman Sea, midway between Milford Sound, New Zealand and Hobart Tasmania, onboard Celebrity Solstice. A day at sea. Time to look at future opportunities to cruise, and (why not?) on this beautiful ship. It's our first sea cruise and we're enjoying it!

In the 2018 northern summer season, Celebrity ships sail in northern Europe, but the Solstice runs between the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, making its last journey north in early September. Then it crosses the Pacific to start again around Australia and New Zealand. So, with a promise of a good deal, and only 100 USD deposit, we booked the last trip to Alaska.

Fast forward to December 2017. Flights for 2018 have been on sale for a while, and British Airways have announced a sale. Time to think about how we get to Seattle to catch the ship, and what we might do before and after.

Airlines: BA - simple and we could go out and back from different places (but from Heathrow, so shuttle required); Icelandair via Keflavik (not actually cheaper, but giving a chance to also see Iceland - before or afterwards) - too complicated, and we decided we'll do a short visit another time; Thomas Cook to and from Seattle from mid 2018 - cheapest, but using the RAF's air tanker fleet, so sharing a movie on a pull down screen (hmm); Air Transat - a bit complicated, doing one leg via Toronto, and similarly priced; Aer Lingus via Dublin?

Where to go before and afterwards? Sailing from Seattle, so Vancouver, being just 100 miles away, seems an obvious choice; Seattle itself? - we last went in 1996, with the boys, saw the sights, went up the Space Needle, it's a nice city; Chicago first, then on empire Builder train to Seattle, over 3 days (not sure about bunk beds, though); a chance to catch a repositioning Celebrity ship from Vancouver, via the Aleutians to Tokyo, but who wants 2 weeks at sea in the autumn North Pacific, and disembarking at Yokohama at 4 am? Visiting the Olympic National Park? The clincher was the Pauline wants to leave the trip with the last memory being disembarkation from Celebrity Solstice and straight home.

So, then? BA to Heathrow; then Vancouver; 3 days there; the train (or bus) to Seattle; then direct back from Seattle to London and then on to Manchester.

We booked the flights, then Andrew realised he was a day out! Luckily, it was online, so you get a free change within 24 hours. Used Trivago to book in Vancouver, and that was it, until...

...in February, BA said that they were cancelling our return shuttle, and so we needed to wait 5 hours for the next one. The to-ing and fro-ing is a story in itself, but suffice to say, that we are driving to Heathrow - our choice, as we'll be home when we'd still be waiting for our connection.

All's now paid for, the final link is that we're on a bus from Vancouver to Seattle (faster than the train!), checked in to all but the flights, just about to start packing.Read more