zebra

I have read previous articles but would like recommendations of good and reliable transportation OTHER THAN the train. We are arriving at Seatac in the evening, we are seniors and need to get to our hotel which is close to Pike Place Market. I know recommendations change over time, but if you did this trip in the past year or are planning for this Alaska cruise season, we would appreciate all suggestions.

Has anyone stayed at this hotel before? If so what are your reviews - the good, the bad and the ugly, please. We like that it is fairly close to Pike Place and the property pictures look good. I would appreciate your input.

I have not been able to read all these posts but have a question for the knowledgable Seattle members. We are an older couple with "not so good knees". We have stayed in Seattle 10 years ago when much fitter but now we would like to keep the walking up and down hills to a minimum. Like most people we would love to stay close enough to Pike Market and was wondering if you could give us an idea of which hotels to choose from that are more or less on the level, or just not a steep uphill climb to get to?

We haven't cruised on Princess for quite a while and wondered what the deposit amount is for a cruise? Is it the same amount for either standard or Plus?

Thanks for the replies. I'm wondering if it's not showing, as suggested, because it is still in GTY status, so there is not a cabin number allocated yet. Although the set sail pass is showing on my computer. Strange and confusing!

Thanks. Yes I have checked in to both cruises - both are open for check in. I was wondering if either it was too early to show set sail pass on the App or they are having issues with the App at the moment. We have used the App many, many times and don't remember having this issue previously. I can view the set sail pass on my laptop, but was wanting to use my phone for the digital set sail pass on my App at check in on sail day and not have to print out my set sail pass beforehand.

The website says - access your digital boarding pass on the App. I am not finding it on my App. Any insight please.

Breakfast is smoked salmon, onion and capers and also the delicious raisin bread. Lunch is definitely the lamb and chicken curries, fried fish & chips and also the various bread puddings and vanilla sauce. Dinner faves are shrimp, ceviche and also the stir fry's.

I agree! Even though we are loyal to Royal now, we did all our Alaska cruises and the cruise tour with Princess ...... remarkable, the absolute best. We stayed at the Denali Princess Lodge, the Kenai Princess Lodge and also the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage, all amazing..... and their glass domed train with excellent & hilarious tour guides made it a cruise tour to remember forever.

For your first time I would definitely say YES!!!! One thing to note is - the tour (like most tours) can be quite tiring, so I would say it's a MUST to do the tour BEFORE the cruise, not after. As the previous poster says you can then rest on the cruise. We have also done 3 Alaskan cruises and the one Cruise tour. The cruise tour gave us such a yearning to go back and explore Alaska that we took our RV, from Florida to Alaska and spent 5 months there ... it was off the charts unbelievable!! Now I would absolutely only rent a vehicle in Alaska and do it ourselves. It is so easy, not congested like the lower 48. To the person who said they would be afraid to overtake a slow RV - firstly the RV's travel at the same speed as the cars, don't forget you're not doing interstate speeds. Also it's no problem to overtake a RV because most of the time you have the road to yourselves and there isn't oncoming traffic for miles. The only busy places are Anchorage and Fairbanks.

I would seriously doubt that he would be able to use it on the dock anywhere near the ship. Since 9/11 there is a "security field" around every cruise ship. That is why you don't see any type of fisherman etc on the cruise docks. I would think if they allowed it onboard he would have to go somewhere away from the ships dock to use it...... definitely call RCCL for clarification.

I have another question please. At the various GTI stops for Bethlehem/Jerusalem was there easy access to bathrooms?

Hi, We are doing the Jerusalem/Bethlehem tour with Guided Israel Tours which is a 10 hour tour. My question is regarding bathroom facilities at the various tourists sights and stop. Were there plenty available and easily accessible? Does one have to pay anything to use the facilities? Many Thanks.

Yes, this was the exact experience at Port Canaveral a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks for the reply. Our tour leaves the top cable car station at 10am. We have been to Santorini a few times before but this will be the first time on such a huge ship (many more people) So I was trying to work out what time to aim for to leave the ship taking into account the bottleneck at the cable car and the fact that we will not be the only ship tendering that morning.

Very interested in your posts. We will be doing this next month on the Odyssey. I am very interested - did you do 3 days of tours in Israel? I'm just concerned about being "wiped out" as they sart early in the day and have a huge amoount of walking involved. I presume the WJ opens early as there will be many needing to get off the ship by 7am.

We have a private excursion booked on Santorini and wondered how long before we should plan to tender??

Personally I would suggest just renting a car in Cape town, an easy quick drive to the wine lands. In Franschhoek (basically small boutique style town with one main street) park the car and take the Wine tram to all the wineries of your choice. Each winery has it's own restaurant as well. We do this regularly and love it!! Amazing experience. https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=aaplw&ei=UTF-8&p=franschhoek+wine+tram#id=2&vid=93ae86fb525262ca4b57b7a1014b122e&action=click

See my reply on your other post.

I am an ex-South African who lived in three National Parks in Africa and we go back every 2nd year for a 1 to 2 month visit and safari. We spend a month in Kruger National Park which is South Africa's flagship park and it is off the charts amazing ..... life changing experience. one can rent a car and self drive and it's worth every cent. I see you are ending your cruise in Cape Town to optomize your SA trip I would suggest you fly from CT to Kruger Park, rent a car and spend a while enjoying the tremendous wildlife experience. Just a thought. We then fly from Kruger to Johannesburg and then back home to the US. Any questions, I would be more than happy to help.

We are on the Odyssey of the Seas next month and using Guided Israel Tours for the 3 days in Israel. We have had tons of communication from Leo and nothing mentioned about any limitations due to Shabbat. We will be there Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

On Allure they had a different smoothie in the Windjammer every breakfast. They also had smoothies on Independence in the WJ but didn't have any so not sure if it was same flavor each day or different.

Your MTD reservations do not guarantee you the same table anyway. They just guarantee you a spot somewhere in the main dining room. We were on the Allure and stood in line, a loooooooong line with all the others who had reservations at the same time as us. They just fill up the dining room on a first come, first served basis. We ate many nights at different restaurants and didn't have to notify them. In fact they are selling so many dining packages that they realize there are going to be people out on some nights. This was OUR experience on the Allure.

Yes you can, we have just cruised on the Indy and noticed many people with their water underarm 😄

We are just off the Independence and had a fantastic Captain's Corner with Captain Marshall!!!