princeton123211

We fly into Seatac several times a year to visit family and only use Uber or Lyft now. The pandemic decimated what was left of Seattle taxis. Haven't been in the past few months so it's possible they have rebounded a bit, but Uber/Lyft are much nicer, similar in price, and they pick you right up on the 3rd floor parking garage.

I'm just surmising but I think everyone might be pleasantly surprised by October. It's the path of least resistance and some cruise lines have already said they are dropping testing requirements starting in August. It's the same fight airlines had with the US testing requirement. Bermuda understands that, while tourism isn't by far their main source of income, it isn't something that's worth making difficult.

You are sort of in an awkward situation in that you could stay at BWI where you're flying into but then have a longer commute to the cruise port, or you could take a car downtown and then be closer to the cruise port the day of sailing. What is your budget? Hard to make recommendation without that. Either way you'll have to go downtown to get to the ship so I would suggest just staying down there to get a richer experience.

I would say thats accurate about too much overlap, at least in the core of the downtown area. The HoHo tour will take you out to Charlestown Navy Yard/Bunker Hill as well as down into the Seaport area that the Duck Tour doesn't. The Duck Tour spends this time in the water between Boston and Cambridge. If you can live without the novelty of doing the Duck Tour, the Hoho tour will help you cover more ground and actually get off and see things. If you do the Duck Tour, use the time before or afterwards to just walk some of the Freedom Trail and touch up a few sites you won't get to see. Really no wrong answer but both of them together is a bit overkill.

An UberX is about $60 each way. The taxi is usually nearly similar but will be based on the meter so will depend on traffic, route, etc. Personally I would take the Uber.

My personal favorite was the one that Capt Nick Bates would tell, also on QE2. Another old lady (or was it the same one?) is sitting at the table with him and she was mulling the menu and didn't see much that she wanted to order. He reminded her, that because she was in Queens Grill, she could order whatever she wanted off menu and it was never a problem. Her eye's lit up and she promptly told the maitre'd that she spent all her money on this holiday and nothing would please her more than to have an elephant steak. Without batting an eye the maitre'd asked "Would that be Indian or African, madam?" Or something to that effect.

John Duffy, the legendary Hotel Manager from QE2 who was with her for nearly 30 years, used to tell us a great story at cocktail hour about a much older lady who spent a good chunk of her retirement money and booked some of the top accommodation in Queens Grill for her first, and presumably last, crossing. The first night out, explaining it was a tradition and small honor, he invited her to dine with him and the captain the next evening. Upon hearing this she immediately turned to him and said, "Son, I have spent far too much money on this trip to go and dine with the crew!"

There is also a charge for tolls,is there not ? At the Holland Tunnel $13.75 for peak times and $11.75 off peak-- assuming the Uber has EZPass which they nearly all universally do. Will just be added to the overall bill.