Gardyloo

You can see both terminals from the Space Needle cam. https://www.spaceneedle.com/webcam I would guess that they'd be passing Edmonds around half an hour after sailing.

I wonder if the board administrators might consider removing Virgin America from the thread's title, since VX was acquired by Alaska Airlines some years ago.

I would contact Regent first and find out which airlines/routes they'll approve. Of the list I'd probably go with TAP via Lisbon. You'd have access to United's Polaris lounge at SFO, have a good long overnight with a decent flat bed, and a short connection through Lisbon airport to Barcelona. TAP's A330-900neo seems to offer a pretty decent flying experience.

I'd probably go with the Chitina Bay option because (a) the land is more open, allowing better sightlines for spotting bears and photographing them with less chance of them ducking into the bush, and (b) it seems that there are more brown bears at Chitina Bay vs. both brown and black bears at Redoubt.

Some caveats... If your itinerary includes any non-AA carriers - for example connecting at London to a British Airways flight to Barcelona, or returning from Italy via London or Madrid, etc. - the upgrade will only apply to the part of the trip actually operated by American. Any flights on partner airlines will still be in whatever fare class you booked based on the fare "bucket" - the underlying fare codes (listed above) in the basic ticket. AA has limited nonstop service to Barcelona and only one flight (that I can find) nonstop to/from Venice (from Philly.) There's a CLT-FCO nonstop, otherwise you'd have to change planes someplace like JFK, Dallas or Chicago. Mileage upgrades are generally not the most cost-effective use of your miles. Just as an exercise, assign a value of 2c per mile redeemed and add the "cost" in miles to the cash cost of the underlying ticket to see how it compares to buying the better seats in the first place (for which you'd receive miles rather than spending them.) You'd also be avoiding the (high) probability that upgrade seats won't be available on the dates you want, if at all (or one being available, not two.)

I don't think you really have enough time to do that much before your ship sails. With a 10 AM arrival, assuming it's on time, followed by bag claim and transport to the cruise terminal, it's likely you won't get to Pier 91 much before noon. Saturdays during cruise season are VERY busy at the airport and at all downtown tourist destinations - Pike Place market, underground tours, Seattle Center/Space Needle, etc. Dragging your luggage with you on some kind of tour sounds like a major PITA, and if the "salmon hatchery" tour is to the one in Issaquah, an outer suburb, I think you'd definitely run out of time. Remember one of the stops on your cruise is going to be Ketchikan, the self-styled "salmon capital of the world." Let me suggest this: book an Uber on your arrival and have the driver give you a little city tour on the way to the cruise terminal. The cost will obviously be more than the $40 - $50 that the straight transfer would have cost, but even if it's twice that it will still be cheaper than some tour. Have a look at this imaginary route - https://goo.gl/maps/qRSC873Hqmd9pX9G9 - which would give you a terrific overview of the city, useful on your return. When you get back, use the Port Valet service to have your luggage transferred to the airline from the ship. That will give you time to explore things on foot. You could visit the Pike Place market or do some other touristy thing and not have to worry about your bags slowing you down. Be sure to get to the airport at least 2 hours before your flight because of the massive congestion on cruise days.

Indeed, although Service's works are about the Yukon and not Alaska. For lovers of fiction, especially the genre of "alternative history," one of the best books about Alaska is The Yiddish Policemen's Union by the great Michael Chabon. Without too many spoilers, this is basically a murder mystery set in an alternative Sitka, one that has a population of over a million residents, the result of Sitka being designated as a Jewish homeland in North America following the destruction of the fledgling State of Israel in an alternative version of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Sitka is now an overwhelmingly Orthodox Jewish city, part of a federal territory within the boundaries of the State of Alaska, but about to be merged with Alaska following a 60+ year mandate as a Jewish territory. Beyond Sitka, the rest of SE Alaska is predominantly non-Jewish, with a larger Tlingit population than actually exists. In the middle of all the politics, the protagonist, an alcoholic local detective, embarks on a murder investigation with widespread ramifications... etc. As a whodunnit it's a terrific read, and as commentaries on Jewish culture, Native American aspirations, and how tenuous our reality is - so dependent on a series of coincidences the absence of which would make for a very different world... a masterpiece. Highly, highly recommended. The Yiddish Policemen's Union - Wikipedia

Or just phone Delta or Westjet and speak to a human. This happens all the time.

Yes. Both flights operate to/from Terminal 5, so follow the signs to flight connections, clear security, and off you go.

Still relevant and a wonderful read after all these years, Coming into the Country by the legendary John McPhee, is available on Amazon and through most sources. You won't regret it.

I think there's some misunderstanding of how things work on both pricing and award availability. Airlines use very sophisticated (and very secret) algorithms to determine how much to charge for a given flight, and when (or if) to release seats for that flight into award inventory (including upgrades.) While sales open at 330 days out (or 360, or fewer) depending on the airline, it's seldom the case that the cheapest fares will be offered then. Look at it from the airline's point of view. What will the price of fuel be in 11 months' time? What if there's a contract with baggage handlers that will expire in month 5? What if the economy threatens to tank because of a war someplace, on and on... So they hedge by setting fares high enough to cover those uncertainties, or at least minimize the potential downside. Later in the booking window, as things become more certain (fuel prices stabilize, strikes averted, etc.) the robots may be able to project that all the economy or business class seats on flight X aren't likely to sell between today and the flight date, so they'll release one or two into award or upgrade inventory. At the same time, the robots can bump the price (in miles/points) for those upgrade seats. This happens throughout the 330 (or whatever) booking period. In fact, it's often the case that the best award availability turns up a couple of weeks before the flight as the robots have decided that nobody is likely to turn up and pay thousands of dollars/pounds/euros for that flight. Sell them for miles and take those miles out of the contingent liability column on the books. Of course, waiting until the last minute doesn't work well for cruisers, who can't afford to play chicken with the cruise line. The thing is, these algorithms are working 24/7, and are also taking into account historic sales for the same city pair at the same time of year, how many seats the competition is making available for sale and at what prices for the same dates, operating cost trends, on and on. Thinking you can outsmart these robots is a fool's gambit. Now some airlines DO make some award seats available at D-330 or whatever. British Airways is famous for this BECAUSE BA also levies very high service charges for "award" seats, often totaling into the thousands of dollars, in addition to the miles/points/Avios needed. When you assign a nominal value to the points (say a penny a mile) and add that to the cash surcharge, you'll find that the "free" flight is actually not that far off the price you'd pay out of pocket for the same flight. So in that case the availability of the seats on Day 1 makes sense - YOU'RE paying the hedge cost. The same advice still holds. By all means get a sense of what the airfare might be and budget on the high end, just for safety's sake. But when it's time to fish or cut bait, and you see a fare you can live with, go for it and don't look back.

In years past a couple of car rental companies had kiosks at the cruise terminals (which one are you using?) that would shuttle customers to their downtown locations. Evidently these didn't survive Covid, so you'd have to take a cab or Uber to one of the downtown offices and get the car there. Not a big deal - there are numerous offices for the various companies in the downtown area. That said, some (all?) of the companies have taken to adding a one-way drop fee for cars collected downtown and dropped at the airport. It will likely be cheaper to go to the airport from the cruise terminal and get the car there, but you can do some dummy bookings to find out.

Most of the non-airline sites offering deeply discounted business- or first-class fares are "mileage brokers." These companies purchase frequent flyer miles from individuals and use them to book premium-cabin award seats, which they then sell to customers through their website gateways. While not illegal, this practice is counter to every airline's terms and conditions regarding redemption of miles or points. When discovered, the airline can and will cancel the tickets, or close the seller's mileage account. This is VERY risky behavior on the part of buyers of these "discounted" tickets. A few years ago I had a laptop stolen and almost instantly the thief managed to crack my password for my American Airlines frequent flyer account, in which I had a balance of almost half a million miles. When I discovered the breach, I contacted AA and they went to see if the miles had been redeemed for flights. Yep, my miles had been redeemed and the award tickets sold to purchasers for a round trip and two one-way business class flights between North America (one LAX, two Toronto) and Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific. The laptop thief (or a middleman) had sold the miles to the broker. Although they weren't supposed to tell me, when I called a few days later for an update, the AA agent volunteered that one of the one-way tickets had already been used, but the others had been canceled, one apparently at the gate as the purchaser of the ticket was about to board the flight. My miles eventually got restored. Whether the purchasers of the tickets from the mileage broker ever got their money back is unknown. I suspect they were out thousands of dollars. The broker is still in business. In my experience the best place to learn about deals in premium cabins is the "premium fare deals" board on Flyertalk - Premium Fare Deals - FlyerTalk Forums . You'll need to bone up on your airline and airport codes but it's worth the effort. I'll also point to a (typically wordy) post I made in another thread about the use of round-the-world tickets to fly in the pointy end at reasonable cost, provided you're willing to do the work. It starts in post no 11 on this thread: Head East or Head West? - Cruise Air - Cruise Critic Community

It's possible to pick up a car at a downtown location (get there by cab or Uber from the cruise terminal) and drop it at the airport that night but watch out for very high "one way" surcharges, even if it's just across town. I'd do some dummy pricing, then probably just head to the airport, using a cab, Uber or transfer from the cruise line, get the car there, throw your luggage in the trunk, and go from there. It will speed things up at night and might save some money. Plus, if you plan to tour to someplace like Mount Rainier, or maybe do a "Vashon loop" (google the places on this map - https://goo.gl/maps/dkxYpbCGKiSrV8yU8 ) picking up at the airport will shorten the driving distance.

Oh it's worse than that. The Toronto Blue Jays will be playing the Mariners at T-Mobile Park the weekend of the 21st to 23rd. That means that in addition to the Swifties, roughly a zillion blue-clad Jays fans will be doing their annual cross-border invasion from Canada that weekend. This is - by far - the busiest baseball weekend in the whole season - sellouts every game, with the Jays fans outnumbering the Mariners fans hugely. So book your rooms now and be prepared for high prices and big crowds everywhere downtown.

Pretty much. For what it's worth (zilch? bupkis?) here's a link to a trip report I filed on Flyertalk during the Covid shutdown period, documenting our first RTW trip taken in 2005. If nothing else, it illustrates some of the power and flexibility of these products. Trip report – Our First RTW, 2005 - FlyerTalk Forums

Several questions that I'll address but maybe not in the same order. More info: At the risk of shoulder strain from patting my own back (yeah, right) let me point to a thread I posted years ago on TripAdvisor that I tried to make as something of a "primer" on RTW tickets. TA closed the thread to new comments some time back, but most of the things covered in it are still reasonably current. One major change is that Skyteam (Delta, KLM/Air France et al) discontinued their RTW product during the pandemic and haven't resumed selling it since, so one assumes it's gone. For other tickets, a couple of Oneworld "circle" products - Circle Atlantic and Circle Explorer - have also gone away. Of course prices have changed too (sometimes for the better) and airlines have joined or left the various alliances. But mostly the thread is pretty accurate. Here it is: About round-the-world (RTW) tickets - Air Travel Forum - Tripadvisor For booking, Star Alliance has a decent online "plan and book" tool - Round The World (staralliance.com) and Oneworld has one too Multi-City Flights: Round The World Airline Tickets - RTW | oneworld, but Oneworld's is buggy beyond hope, and has been for a decade. Honestly, it's okay to do some practice or "dummy" planning, but if you actually plan to book and ticket something, see your doctor about a Rogaine prescription first. If you get my drift. Fortunately, for would-be Oneworld RTW users, American Airlines maintains a "RTW desk" you can phone at 1-800-247-3247. I wouldn't do that until you've studied and plotted your route pretty thoroughly first, so you don't get lost in the weeds in the process. There are also some individuals and travel advisors who can book these for you, as well as some travel companies that can help assemble non-alliance RTWs, basically stringing together a bunch of one-way flights that do the trick. One good source for RTWs and other services is Flyertalk. Their "travel tools" board has some useful links for various services including booking assistance. Travel Tools - FlyerTalk Forums Flyertalk's "global airline alliance" boards, especially the Oneworld one, are probably the best source for detailed "how to" and hand-holding options. https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/global-airline-alliances-391/ As far as your upcoming trip to Europe and the Middle East goes, timing would be the important factor. RTW tickets are valid for a year from the first flight, so if you want to, say, buy a RTW ticket someplace in Europe or the Middle East on the upcoming trip, then fly home with it and use it to get to Singapore for that cruise, you'd have to be sure that the first flight (from Europe or the ME to home) and the last flight (from Tokyo back to Europe/ME) aren't more than 12 months apart, or else the RTW will turn into a pumpkin in the meantime. Savvy? Hope this helps a little.

Didn't the OP say it was a round trip cruise from Singapore through Indonesia and Australia? So forgive the broken record, but where else, if anywhere, do you plan to travel in the year before the Singapore cruise or the year after, or elsewhere within the same year? In other words, if your cruise departs in, say, January 2025, do you have other international travels - cruise or otherwise - that would occur between, say, March 2024 and December 2025 (i.e., dates that encompass the cruise with up to 11 months on either side?) If so, you might want to have a look at a round-the-world ticket that would not only get you to Singapore and back, but which also could be used for other travel in addition to the Singapore "stopover" for the cruise. I've talked about this before (endlessly, it seems, yadda yadda) but because business class RTW tickets' prices vary hugely depending on where the travel begins and ends, and because the tickets are good for a year and allow up to 16 flights for the one price, it's possible to leverage two, maybe three separate trips out of the one investment. For example, say your Singapore cruise is in January 2025 and you'll be on the boat for four weeks. (Is that the one, on HAL?) So sometime in the late winter or spring of 2024, almost a year before the cruise, you fly (on your own dime, or use miles) someplace where business class RTW tickets are cheaper than they are in the US (which is pretty much anywhere, but there are some standouts.) You've already paid for the tickets, so all you need to do is show up for the first flight and off you go. RTW tickets require you to cross both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in the same direction (east to west or v.v.) and limit the amount of "doubling back" you can do between continents, but not within them. With a few exceptions you have to start and end in the same country, but not the same city. The most popular Oneworld RTW product, the Oneworld Explorer, is priced according to how many continents you touch in the course of your trip, between 3 and 6. In addition to intercontinental flights, it allows up to four flights in each continent, except six within North America, which includes Central America and the Caribbean. So with a 3-continent Oneworld Explorer, you'd be able to make 4 flights within Asia, 4 within Europe (which includes the Middle East and Mediterranean Africa) and 6 within North America, plus the 3 intercontinental flights between those continents. (That comes to 17, one more than the max, so you'd have to cut out one of the flight segments from someplace.) So back to some specifics. As I said, the prices for these tickets varies hugely between countries where the travel begins, not where the traveler lives. A three-continent Oneworld business class RTW starting and ending in the USA carries a base price (before taxes and fees) of US$10,426. The same ticket starting in Canada is (US)$7525. But if you start in Norway (Why? Don't ask.) it costs $4907. Or $4835 in Japan, or $4214 in Egypt. Now all of these are base prices; taxes and airline fees typically will add 15% - 25% to the total, depending on the airlines used and the countries visited - departure taxes, airline surcharges, etc. - but it's still pretty good value, and usually worth the cost of "positioning" yourself in the first RTW departure city/country at your own expense. Can you get from Charlotte to Oslo for less than the $5500 difference in the RTW ticket's cost? Duh. So let's play this out. You fly to Oslo or Cairo - use some of your AA miles if you have 'em. Tour the pyramids or see the northern lights, then head to the airport and fly home. Maybe your first flight (from either Oslo or Cairo) is to Doha, where you board a Qatar plane with Q-suites for your trip back across the pond - to JFK, Atlanta, Dulles - anywhere that Qatar flies. You connect to CLT and go back to work/retirement/whatever your lives include. Weeks or months later, you use the same ticket to head to Seattle or Anchorage for an Alaska cruise, or down to San Juan for a Caribbean cruise, or to the west coast, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica... wherever you want to go. All your flights are in the pointy end. Come time for the Singapore trip, your head from CLT to, say, Chicago, then ride in Japan Airlines' Sky Suites to Tokyo. Spend a few days in Japan (could be Hong Kong, could be Korea, could be Malaysia) then on to Singapore for the cruise. When you get back to Singapore, head back toward where you started - back to Norway, or if you started in Egypt, the ticket lets you end in any other Middle Eastern country. Israel? Jordan? Tour around some more, then use some of the many frequent flyer miles you've earned in the course of the year and fly home. Or maybe you buy a new RTW ticket, this time one that includes Africa, or South America, or Australia and New Zealand. Here's a map showing one of an infinity of possibilities for a 3-continent RTW. In addition to the Asia portions, it includes stops in Anchorage, Vancouver and Los Angeles for an Alaska cruise; it could just as easily include stops in the Caribbean, Atlantic Canada, Mexico or Central America, all accomplished between picking up the ticket and heading over the Pacific for the cruise out of Singapore. Substituting Oslo for Cairo on this map would be totally okay. Anyway, maybe some food for thought as you plan your travels over the next couple of years. Maybe you don't even wait until 2025 to get started. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Most airlines including AA have gone to "dynamic" pricing on award flights, meaning that the price in miles/points varies according to demand. The redemption requirement can vary from day to day, indeed from flight to flight. In the case of AA and flying from CLT, it's complicated by the fact that AA generally relies on connecting flights using British Airways out of London, which exposes you to BA's user fees and surcharges, which added to the mileage requirement turns "award" flights into pretty poor value. Regardless, booking now for June 2024 is impossible, so I would cool it until sometime this autumn or winter, when things will be bookable and hopefully more predictable.

There's a skybridge across Western Ave. between the main market level and a parking garage, then an elevator inside the garage will take you down to the waterfront level, if you don't want to use the Hillclimb stairs. https://goo.gl/maps/sfwE6Zjneh8oUYXU7

Well of course different strokes and all that, but some personal suggestions would include the following. Google them. 1. Bainbridge ferry + Bloedel Reserve. The ferry ride to Bainbridge Island is very scenic, but once you get there a tour of the Bloedel Reserve on the north end of Bainbridge Island is very worthwhile. This is one of the premier botanical garden complexes in the US and is well worth investing a couple of hours. 2. West Seattle Water Taxi and shoreline walk. The West Seattle Water Taxi departs from the same pier complex as the ferries, but only crosses Elliott Bay to Seacrest Park in West Seattle (part of the city.) From the pier on that side, there's a 2-mile waterfront pedestrian/bike path around Duwamish Head to Alki ("al - kai") Beach with our own wee Statue of Liberty looking out to the passing ferries, the Olympic Mountains, and the beach vollyballers. There are numerous cafes and restaurants along the way, including the very fun Marination Ma Kai (Hawaiian/Korean fusion) right on the water taxi pier. You can rent bikes or kayaks at the pier, or there's a free shuttle bus. 3. Fishermen's Terminal. Fishermen's Terminal is located a couple of miles north of downtown, along the Lake Washington Ship Canal, across from the Ballard district. This is the homeport for much of the Puget Sound fishing fleet, and a big part of the Alaska fleet, including some of the Deadliest Catch boats when they're in town. You can get a good meal at the Bay Cafe or Chinook's restaurant overlooking the boats, then walk off the carbs along the piers and jetties, past the moving memorial to fishers lost at sea. This is an iconic "real Seattle" destination. 4. Ballard Locks. These locks, operated by the Corps of Engineers, allow boats to transfer from Lakes Union and Washington down to sea level on Puget Sound. There are lovely gardens on the Ballard side, and a fun fish ladder with underwater viewing windows on the Magnolia (south) side, through which you can see migrating salmon when they're about. The locks are about a mile's walk from Fishermen's Terminal. 5. Museum of Flight. Second only to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (IMO) and a terrific place to take kids if any are with you. Their parents, too. 6. University of Washington campus and Union Bay nature walks. The UW campus (reached by light rail from downtown) is quite lovely. Just east of Husky Stadium is a complex of wetlands and sloughs on the edge of Lake Washington. There's an elevated (part boardwalk) nature trail, or you can rent canoes from the UW Aquatic Center to paddle through the channels where you can see a lot of animal and birdlife. It's hard to imagine that you're in the middle of a big city. There are more...

I don't mean to sound like a curmudgeon but IMO the Pike Place Market is above all else a visual experience for visitors. Yes, there are tasty foods to nosh on, but if you come early and can stay a couple of hours, you can see quite a lot and experience many of the "highlights" of the market without having somebody curate the whole experience for you for fifty bucks or more. Come for breakfast, as early as you can. I'd suggest Lowell's, which opens at 8 AM. Get a window table and watch the ferries going back and forth across Elliott Bay, then after breakfast wander around the main and north arcades while the merchants are setting up for the day. Cross the street and do the ground level in the Sanitary Market and Triangle buildings, then if you want, re-cross the street and visit the lower levels in the main market. If you want to nibble, maybe try one of the long-standing vendors like the Mee Sum bakery (great hum bao rolls) or Piroshky, Piroshky, or a pastry from the Three Girls Bakery (been there for over a century.) I think for most people, a couple of hours, three max, is about the average limit. The Pike Place market is an institution, but, honestly, it's not THAT unique compared to other old-time markets around the country and world. The Grand Central Market and Farmers Market in Los Angeles are (IMO) just as colorful and historic as Pike Place, as is the Reading Market in Philly, Granville Island in Vancouver, or any number of markets around the world, including a couple in Dublin. The Pike Place Market offers terrific views of the waterfront from a few places, and IMO those add to whatever "uniqueness" is to be found, not just some artisan cheese vendor or some stall that throws salmon around (the same poor fish, all day long.) If you're heading to Pioneer Square later, why not take the light rail to the International District/Chinatown station and walk a block to Uwajimaya, Seattle's iconic pan-Asian (heavily Japanese) supermarket/department store. You want an unusual food/shopping experience? Play "name that vegetable" in the produce section, nosh in the food court that features stalls selling various Asian cuisines, buy some unusual Japanese snacks for the cruise, or visit the amazing Kinokuniya bookstore, a branch of Japan's biggest. You're on the Pacific Rim, after all, so see what's on offer. Just a suggestion, anyway.

I feel your pain. Web hosting services are notorious for sucking you in for cheap prices, then sticking it to you at renewal times. Is your domain (travelwithmitsugirly.com) registered with Wix also? If it were me, I'd find a free Wordpress theme template (thousands of them out there) and build a new Wordpress site using free or very low-cost extensions (like free photo galleries) then find a hosting service where you can park it. You don't have to use Wordpress for hosting; most competitive hosting services (GoDaddy, HostGator, Dotster, BlueHost, many others) will let you load Wordpress sites with minimum effort. Here's a site (many similar sites out there) highlighting some free Wordpress photo themes. 10+ Best Free Photography WordPress Themes 2023 - aThemes You can load a copy of Wordpress on to your home computer and develop the website offline, then upload it to a new hosting service quite easily. You'd then switch the nameservers (the actual address used by the web to locate your files) so that when someone types travelwithmitsugirly.com into their browser they get the new website rather than the old one. Here's a video (one of many) that might be helpful in showing how this is done. I recently had to migrate (move unchanged) from one hosting service to another when the old service wanted to increase my plan's annual fee by 300%. I moved to one of the above sites (GoDaddy in my case) where I got a 3-year plan for something like $100, or roughly $3/mo. My site (which is quite clunky and needs an update big time) has about 8 GB of files (lots of photos) and the migration took 48 hours. I could have (probably should have) developed a new Wordpress site and just uploaded it to the new host, but laziness won the day, as usual. FWIW, here's the site: Garde à l'eau! – Gardyloo's photos, notes and more It's really quite a simple process. Good luck!

Any supermarket.

Are you cruising the next day? How do you plan to get to the cruise terminal? In general I'd get a car, but depending on where you're staying going car-less is a possibility. Anyway, for one of the best breakfasts or brunches in SoCal, visit Martha's on 22nd Avenue in HB. Walk off the carbs along the Strand (beachfront pedestrian/bike path) steps from Martha's. You'll be thinking about which bank to rob so you can buy one of the houses facing the beach. Martha's Hermosa Beach - Breakfast, Brunch, Restaurant, Breakfast (marthashermosabeach.com) If you're feeling energetic, walking north along the Strand (from Martha's) will get you to the Manhattan Beach pier, something of an iconic location. Later, stroll down to Pier Avenue and hit one or more of the terrific cafes and/or bars along the pedestrianized street. The Lighthouse Cafe has been a major venue for jazz in the LA area for decades; it was used in the film La La Land a few years ago. The Lighthouse Cafe Map - https://goo.gl/maps/4aYXhcc9HLfHWMJg9