Hokiegalcruiser

Thanks for the info. I will tell her to book and check for price drops. And to clarify my "free drink package", was in fact free because I ended up cancelling and rebooking my cruise when the sale come up and saving about $20 each after getting free drinks, a specialty dinner, and some on board credit. The cruise was more than a year out so it worked. But of course, I got lucky since often these specials do add to the price of the cruise. YMMV.

My friend is getting ready to book a short January cruise getaway. Does Carnival have any special deals that she should look for? For example, my last cruise on another line had a free drinks package promo. I have seen free gratuity promos. Is there anything like that on Carnival, either now or that comes up regularly? Thanks.

flight now arriving at 6:30 pm instead of noon. Leaving Monday am on Amtrak to Vancouver for cruise. Now one evening and Sunday. Want to see as much as possible. Staying near Pike Market. Give me an itinerary. GO!

Thanks for all your help. Also for your last comment Vibe Guy...but not needed this trip. LOL

Is there any hotel/ place that will hold a bag for a few hours until my check in time somewhere else? I am arriving by Link to Westlake stop around 11 and I want to go to Pike Market and and possibly other places and generally be a tourist without bringing my bag. Thanks

Can you take the LINK from the airport to The Pikes Market area air b&b?Or would taxi or uber be better?

This was the most wasted $$ of our entire trip. If you want to visit someplace like Granville Island or Stanley Park or any destination, take public transportation or cab to where you want to go. If you don't plan to go anywhere in Vancouver then take this bus.

The hotel right above the cruise terminal will hold your bags for $5 each. This does require you to leave for the airport from there, but depends what sites you are seeing if this a good idea.

We did the Skagway Glacier Safari independently and saved $20 pp. We were on the same excursion as the people who booked on the ship. Based on the info from cc and trip advisor, I would usually opt for the independent excursion in most cases unless in a dangerous port or if the excursion was several hours away from the ship. Usually cheaper and smaller groups.

Sorry for the delay in replying, trying to kick my cc addiction. We simply walked up to the bellman desk with our luggage and paid the fee in cash. They gave us a tag to pick up at the end of the day, which was very easy. Well worth the $5 bag. Btw they accepted US $ because that is what we had. We figured the difference was part of our tip.

Also recommend that you purchase dinner to eat on the train. We got some great deli sandwiches near Pioneer Square and some wine to enjoy as we wound our way up the tracks.

We did Spiedel's tour on the last of our 4 days in town, but wished we had done it earlier. Several friends said we "had to do it" and they were right. Touristy, yes, but a good basic history of the area and now we know what the purple glass grates on the sidewalk are.

We used Rainy Day Charters with Captain Jared. We booked the boat for 4 hours for four of us. He was extremely responsive when we emailed him a couple of times with questions and requests. He met us at the gangplank and we walked about a block to board his boat. He provided snacks and soft drinks and gave us lots of information about the area. He took us to a river area where we trolled for salmon. Unfortunately the salmon were late this year and we only caught two fish. Captain Jared seemed more upset than we were. He arranged for our fish to be processed and frozen, to be delivered when we got home. It was delicious!

Www. Ketchikanakfishing.com

907-617-3079

Also, only one allows bicycles, but I don't remember which, sorry.

Two of the three couples traveling together were celebrating anniversaries while onboard. The third couple surprised us both with Anniversary packages. Because we got an upgrade at the pier to a different room, we did not get any notice in our room about what was included. We did get chocolate covered strawberries and a small vase of a couple of flowers in the room. And when we were first in our room I heard a weird sound in the corridor. It was our steward taping balloons to our door. We would have not known about the picture without my friend telling us. I confirmed at the front desk that we were to get a picture, but when I went to the photo studio to pick one and they didn't have a clue. I had to go get in line (last night) and bring someone from the desk to tell the photo people.

With all that though, the balloons on the door helped us find our cabin all week long, and several of our neighbors remarked it helped them too.

We booked an assigned OV a year and a half in advance for our Volendam Alaska cruise in July. All three couples traveling together booked the same category. Two of us were upgraded to Vista Suite balconies at check in. This was our first cruise with HAL and the other couple's third.

Forgot to post, we were on the Volendam July 2017, and I would be happy to answer any other questions. There are not a lot of Volendam posts on cc, especially about the 7 day cruises.

Volendam's self service laundry was packed on gala night afternoon, mainly waiting for irons. For $20 you can send out as much as you can pack in a cloth laundry bag and it will come back washed and presssed. The library had all kinds of books and was a nice size place connected to the Explorers Lounge with the specialty coffees.

We also enjoyed the Glacier Point Safari. Our group of 6 booked independently. When we met our guide in the morning at the gangplank they put all of the people from our ship's booked excursion on one boat and our group and the other ship in port's customers on another. About 20 in each boat. Our group saved about $20pp for the same excursion. Thank you cc.

After our fantastic wilderness safari, we went to the Soapy Smith show about the gold rush and then went to the national park museum. The show is well done, a little corny , but a good history lesson entertainment.

This is why we booked our fishing trip privately. In Ketchikan we used Rainy Day Charters at http://www.ketchikanakfishing.com Our captain, Jared, met the 4 of us at the gangplank. We were the only ones on the boat. We had a 4 hour trip. Unfortunately the salmon were late this year, but Jared seemed more upset than we were that we only caught 2 coho. He arranged for our fish to be cleaned, flash frozen, and shipped home. We really enjoyed our trip.

Sailed HAL this July. Excellent service, very good food, and picked for the itinerary...Glacier Bay. Read more on the Alaska forum. Also wanted longer port times.

We were on the July 12 sailing of the Volendam out of Vancouver to Alaska. The ship was in code red the last 2 days, and my husband and another person in our group got it the last night, bad. The third husband got a light case that night, both other wives got it the day we disembarked. I fortunately did not. I called the infirmary for my husband at about 3:30am. The staff member I talked to told me to give him Imodium for one end and Dramamine for the other. We were told to disembark on a different deck ( self-disembarking), but when we got there there was some confusion. We thought they might quarantine us, but they wanted us off as quickly as possible. We were a Wednesday to Wednesday cruise, and another ship was too, hitting the same ports different days except our overlap in Skagway. I saw on cc that ship had it also.

If facing the Pan Pacific from across the street, you go down a sidewalk at the right of the building. We walked to it and found it easily.

Don't miss the Underground Tour, the Chiluly exhibit, and of course Pike Place Market. We loved Seattle.