Need help with multi-city airfare for Alaskan cruise??

[Chrissy]

We have put a down payment on a cruise to Alaska for our family of 4. The cruise departs Seward AK on May 30th, but we'd like to go out there earlier. The cruise ends in Vancouver BC.

Here is what I want:

To fly out of PHL on either Monday or Tuesday May 26th or 27th 2008 to ANC (anytime, but I only want to switch planes ONCE)

To come home I will either leave 6/6/08 no earlier than 11am (cruise docks at 7am) to PHL

or leave out of SEA 6/7/08 anytime going to PHL (again I only want to switch planes once)

I have checked alot of sites. Seems the price is different every time I look. Cheapest I found was 450's before taxes/fees PHL-ANC and return SEA-PHL, but flights had two layovers. I found flights with 1 layover for 560's but the time to leave YVR was 855am----too early!!!

Is it normally this expensive to fly out there??? Please help or I may have to cancel my trip. I refuse to spend over 600 pp to fly and I have not switching onto multiple planes, especially with two kids.

Thanks!!

[WillTravel]

I'd consider those to be pretty good prices, considering the season and the constraints.

Given that you want to include SEA and ANC, how about using Alaska and going to EWR? Is that possible? The 8:55 departure is not bad at all - it could easily be 6 AM!

[powerplantop]

I have to agree with Will, the prices that you are seaing look good.

For the most part airlines have good load factors on most flights. You would hate to know what I paid for my flight home for Christmas and it was a lot shorter.

Have you talked to the cruise line? Often they can get lower priced seats.

[Chrissy]

Thanks for your responses. I was wondering if this was typical fare. After a lot of thought and your responses we decided to book a Caribbean cruise instead. I'll have to save more to do Alaska. Its too expensive for us right now. Thanks a lot I will now head over to the hotel board to get help booking a Miami hotel precruise.

Thanks and Happy New Year!!!