princeton123211

Except in the NE Corridor.

The Empire Builder is fun but keep in mind that Amtrak does not own the tracks that take you from Chicago to Seattle. Freight trains get the right of way and are always prioritized over Amtrak. This can result in long periods of time sitting around and waiting for freight trains to pass. They pad the schedule but sometimes it can be many hours delayed arriving into Seattle and in extreme circumstances it can be 15-24 hours late. You need to build in at least 2 days in Seattle in case to do this to meet a cruise.

And you get your day back!

The cruise line will tell you noon if you want to use their transportation. As has been said, Boston Logan is only about 15 minutes from the cruise port in normal traffic. If the ship arrives on time, you self disembark, grab an Uber, etc you can make a flight earlier than noon. Personally I wouldn't be comfortable with anything much earlier than 10:30/11 but I'm also a frequent traveller, have all the Precheck and Clear etc, and I'm ok gambling with it a bit to get home earlier.

The airport and cruise terminal are literally a 10-15 minute Uber ride from each other. Most of the satellite rental desks downtown are not near the cruise port but rather closer to downtown (and you could end up paying a one way drop fee to drop off there). Personally I would just return to BOS and Uber.

Boston is still spicy in July. Most brand name full service hotels (Hilton, Marriott, Westin, etc) are going to be in the $400-500 a night. 5 star will be $600+ a night. Residence Inn, Hampton Inn, Hilton Garden Inn, etc options will be $300-400 in the downtown core. There are some deals to be had (oddly enough around July 4th where hotel prices go down a bit) but it will still be expensive if you want to stay front and center.

Its going to really depend on your budget-- as the previous poster said its not uncommon for midrange hotels in Boston to be in the $500-600 a night category with true 5 star options in the historic core more than $1000 a night. Boston is small and you pay quite a bit to be in the center of things. One of my personal favorites due to its incredible location and history is the Fairmont Copley Plaza. But again, depending on the date it can be as low as $300 a night or pushing $800 a night in the busier season.

About $300 usd a night will be on the low end for Manhattan. I would focus on mid tier chains like Hilton Garden Inn, Residence Inn, Doubletree, Hampton Inn, etc. Keep in mind that hotel rooms in Manhattan run relatively small. If you have points with one of the major chains this would be a great opportunity to use them to upgrade into a 4 or 5 star which usually sell for hundreds of dollars more per night than your budget.

What's done is done but EWR would have been the much closer airport for Cape Liberty in NJ and LGA would have been closer to Manhattan than JFK. If there is a way to change to either of chose without penalty your overall trip will most likely be a little smoother and less traffic ridden. You'll want to look at Midtown Manhattan-- this will be close to most of the major sights you'll want to see and you allude to here. There are literally thousands of hotels in Manhattan so its hard to give specific advice without a little more info from you. "nothing super fancy just clean and close to stuff" can sometimes be $200-300 and can also be $400-500 all dependent on specific dates. A specific budget would help folks here make some more pointed recs. Consider TKTS Booth in Times Square for same day tickets at some steep discounts for Broadway shows. It's named Tom's in real life. Its better than average. I prefer Waverly Diner but its in a different part of town. Lexington Candy Shop is also a great one if you want to see a vintage diner/soda shop. Pastrami Queen on the UES is not a diner but its a great alternative to going down to Katz Delicatessen (which is actually worth trekking down to).

You basically have every drive thru fast food joint you can think of (except for In-N-Out Burger), you can do a Costco run, or grocery shop. That's about it in Kahului. As others have said-- industrial port and shopping area for folks that live on Maui that has zero places a tourist might be interested in. You need to give us a bit more about what you are interested in (besides not going to a beach, which is a shame because we have some nice ones!). If you are not a planner this would be a good time to take a shore excursion. If you can handle renting a car or hiring a driver there are a ton of things you can do on your own quite easily.

You will. A little bit less than an hour with normal traffic flow. This can easily take hours with heavy traffic. Friday is an awful day for this and traffic will be significant starting around 2:30pm and going straight through the normal commute into the evening. Parking is easy enough in short term lots or you can just try and time it for their approximate arrival time. To be perfectly blunt, you are going to have to rent a car to do this and rental costs, plus fuel, and your mental sanity it might cost about the same or less to just put them in a car service. Uber is going to cost about $150. A full car service like through an app called Blacklane will run around $200 and include a driver meet and greet in the terminal.

Which is true but you often end up paying their commission going through the hotel instead of directly to a bus or limo company.

The ship essentially is a floating hotel in these situations-- the gangway is manned 24/7 and you can come and go as you please until the all aboard time for your day of departure which will be listed at the gangway.

I would call them and see if they will waive the 2 night minimum they have in place for that weekend. Explain your situation. It's possible they will make an exception.

Correct-- but there was an insinuation that once at Dublin Airport there was a choice to go through one process or another which there is not.