CruiserBruce

Have you checked on TripAdvisor?

Agree...its all about layers. We also sailed Alaska our last time in June. We wore everything from shorts and tee shirts to medium heavy jackets. Come over to the Alaska board, here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/33-alaska/ You will see this discussed daily, and tons of info.

For snorkeling, check the Makena area beaches, or the northern Wailea beach areas. For beach time, any of the Wailea beaches...in front of Four Seasons (a little snorkeling there as well) or Grand Wailea.

Booking tours at the pier is not "a thing" in Europe.

Welcome to Cruise Critic! Looks like you already have done some reading, and discovered some of the reasons your cruise is inexpensive. Those were honest answers. The weather can be bad. The seas can be rough. Vendors and tours in towns will be shutting down, or already closed for the season. The further south you get, weather and seas should generally improve. But there are no guarantees.

There are so many variables to this question as to be impossible to answer. Is the cruise being sold as a B2B, as well as a single cruise? Or, as I dealt with yesterday booking a cruise, is this cruise being sold in 15 day, 19 day and 20 day versions? The cruise I just booked yesterday is being sold in that set up, and it showed very few cabins available for booking...23 months out!!! There could be a group on board that is allotted XX of cabins, and they haven't yet returned unsold cabins. Most importantly for your situation, you can't see how many guarantee bookings there are. A month before sailing, the cruise line is about to start assigning those, and doing upsells and upgrades to fill the ship.

Agree. It won't be 2 hours...it is highly unlikely to even be one hour. Is this a private tour for your party only? If so, you own that tour...they will wait. If you are joining a group on people, including non-cruise pax, then the time deadline is more important.

I have never rented a luggage cart. Sorry.

Totally agree.

Flights from down under will arrive in SFO or LAX around 6 or 7am...very busy times in Immigration and Customs. Many flights from the Asia and Australia area arrive then. I haven't cleared Immigration in DFW in a very long tome...but that was noon-ish, and crazy busy. Global Entry fixes all that. We can get through Immigration and Customs in SFO in less than 15 minutes now.

Koningsdam has been sailing east of Vancouver Island for several years now.

Coach is pretty much the same for all airlines. Getting through Immigration ( the more important and complicated issue, compared to Customs...get your ETA in advance) isn't impacted by what airline you fly, unless you are coming from a suspect country. As far as using Princess or booking on your own, it's a matter of price, but kn I w that Princess is probably selling you consolidator tickets, which are very low on the priority list if things go sideways. I would definitely fly in a day earlier if possible. I would do the non-stop from DFW, simply because it's a non-stop.

I would not be inclined to fly 8 or 10 hours for a 7 day cruise. Even if Windstar is so much better a cruise line, which it is.

There are many threads on the topic...many recommendations, like Rome in Limo, Rome Cabs, etc. All those threads saying Rome to the port, or the port to Rome, or the port to FCO all have vender recommendations. Plus, if you can manage your bags, there is the option of the train. However, it is definitely not recommended to arrive the day of sailing. Rome is one of the most amazing cities in the world. Ease your jetlag and see one of the best cities in the world.

Ride share drop off is at the front of the terminal. However, as you noted, the pick up is a little ways from the terminal. There is a shuttle to the ride share pick up lot. Uber/Lyft is very active in the Seattle area for your other transport needs. There is a shuttle service recommended here frequently...something Express. That might work for you as well.

Seas can be rough any time, any location. Not sure anyone can effectively say you have an XX% chance.

Best to ask this on the RCI board, here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/51-royal-caribbean-international/

Have you looked around the board? There are many threads on both hotels and transport. In fact, one that is commonly mentioned, GoPort, I believe, has hotel and transport packages.

As did ours last month.

Just follow the signage to the priority area. Pretty straight forward.

Yes...one of the better locations. Dedicated, electrified passenger rail trackage. Freight runs separate.

Just down the board is a huge thread on Rome in Limo, a wonderful company that operates in Naples, as well as other Italian ports. There are tons of recommendations there. Viator is a broker...they don't provide the actual tour. It is commonly discussed here that it is better for everyone to deal direct with local vendors to provide your desired tour. One of the benefits of working directly with a local vendor is that a vendor can build custom tours. Viator (and the several other brokers commonly mentioned here) will provide an out of the box, cookie cutter tour. If it is possible to visit the locations you desire, considering time and local conditions, the vendor, like Rome in Limo, will make it happen.

Where did you enter and exit the EU at? You should have had stamps at that location. That should have been the only stamps.

Be careful with that assumption. It's not true in most countries. Once you are in that country's waters, you need a visa. On the other hand, some countries don't require a visa for single day cruise ship visits. But your assumption is a mistake.

Have sailed both...just did 14 days on Zaandam. Nothing wrong with either. I would however, take Koningsdam, as it has more entertainment and dining venues. I take understaffing comments with a truckload of salt. People blame everything on understaffing. Conversely, after 14 days on Zaandam that was totally jammed to the gills (Eclipse cruise), I never felt there was any shortage of staff, in any way, at any time.