Thanksgiving 2025 – What to Expect

Things are changing all around us.    Customer service isn’t what it used to be.   Companies are gutting staff where they can, using automation and AI to perform tasks that a human once did.    And its showing.

To start, I’m expecting the next few days to be pretty hectic all around – airlines, hotels, and cruise lines are reporting record numbers of passengers.   Since the shutdown curtailed discretionary travel, we’re seeing an uptick in last minute bookings (heck – we’re seeing some GREAT deals over Christmas).   Even though we’ve got everyone back to work – lines are going to be long, traffic on the highways & airways is going to be at full capacity – and when things DO go wrong, there’s not going to be much hope.   Don’t expect to get rebooked quickly, and seats/space will be extremely limited.   Hotels will be pricing dynamically, so once they start to see an uptick in requests, AI will jack up the costs.  Basicly – travelers are going to need an extra level of patience this holiday period, because one hiccup is going to cause the entire system to fall apart (as we’ve seen in previous years when New York gets hit with a weather storm!).  The delays/cancellations can cascade as planes & crews aren’t where they should be, flight delays cause misconnections, which means the next flight with 5 open seats is now oversold by 10.   Just be prepared – consider Plan B, C, & D.   If you can’t get to where you are going, get close.   And if things really snowball, sometimes its a sign to just stay home.

Now on to happier things, that AI thing I was whining about earlier, well, its also doing more pricing & adjusting.   This year I haven’t seen a lot of “wow” Black Friday deals.  The cruise lines are merely recycling old sales – 30 to 50% off rebundled with a new name, or maybe 1 or 2 extra perks.   They are offering some REALLY good deals on excursions / tours / onboard offerings to cruisers who were already booked – and back to AI – its literally changing pricing by the hour (I’m looking at YOU, Royal Caribbean – where an upcoming cruise has moved the price of the VOOM package has gone from $28.99 a day, to $23.99, $20.99, $21.99 – just depends on the hour you look, I guess.   

There are some better deals to be coming out on Wednesday & Thursday, so keep an eye on our Facebook page or join our Alaska Travel Group and I’ll do my best to keep a list there.  

We’ve also launched our new Denali product for Southeast Alaska cruisers, which includes airfare, roundtrip train travel on the McKinley Explorer, 2+ nights luxury accommodations in Denali, and baggage transfers.   There’s a lot of smaller cruise boats that don’t go up to Seward or Whittier, so this is a great option to include a trip to Anchorage & see Mt. Denali.  Thru December 1st, use promo code SAVEBIG and you’ll get $200 off per person, a $50 discount on Taku Lodge/Wings Airways 5 Glacier Flightseeing in Juneau, and $70 off the Evening Horsecarriage Ride & BBQ in Denali when you book with us.  Learn more here.