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Apparently the day we are in port is St. Martin's Day which is a public holiday. I know that shops will be closed. We'd like to go to Mullet Beach. I'm guessing buses won't be available, but will taxis still be plentiful? I know this beach is a fair distance from port, will festivities (parades etc...) be an issue with traffic? Will the beach likely be packed with locals? Just wondering how much our visit will be impacted.......would love to hear from anyone who lives there or has visited on this day in previous years..........thanks!

Not everything attractive to a thief is valuable. Twice I have had my Xanax (that I take for flying) go missing, once from a hotel room and another time, either on the cruise or post cruise hotel stay. That time the bottle wasn't taken, but most of the pills were missing. At least the thief left me one for the trip home!

We plan to use Quickshuttle in May. It doesn't drop off at the Vancouver Pier until after May 11, presumably because there is no demand prior to that. The schedule is posted on their web-site, http://www.quickshuttle.com and there are five different pickup locations in the Seattle area, as opposed to just one (or two?) for the train. It is much cheaper than Amtrak. If the main reason for flying into Seattle is to save money, then taking the shuttle does that : )

Our cruisetour in early June ends in Fairbanks mid-week. We were trying to get back to Dulles (DC). The flights were so expensive and inconvenient (leaving at 1 am for example) that we decided to fly from Anchorage on the week-end, spending a few extra days in Alaska. When researching how to get from Fairbanks to Anchorage, I discovered that one way car rentals are prohibitively expensive (extra $300 or so upcharge), the train was over $200 pp and the cheapest bus was at least $100 pp and a very long ride because it went into Denali, where we will have just been. Ended up booking an Alaska Air flight for $115 pp........wish I could've found those under $100 fares but originally it was showing $150 and I was happy to get it for $115 "on sale". There were lots of flight options available. The flight home from Anchorage was more than $115 cheaper than the cheapest Fairbanks flight and had much better times available. Hope this helps..........

We just signed up for the 11 night Princess Cruise/Land Tour and chose "on your own".......here's why. All the lodging and transport is included. For $200 something more the package with activities included a stop at a wildlife center on the way to McKinley, the Natural History Tour in Denali and the Sternwheeler cruise in Fairbanks. To upgrade the tour in Denali (with Princess) was an additional $60 per person minimum. After researching here, I found that we could take the Denali park shuttle bus for only $35 per person all the way to Eielsson, which is further into Denali than any of the Princess tours go. I've already booked tickets for this through the park web-site. Most people agree that the Natural History Tour that is included is a complete waste, it doesn't even enter the official Park border. If we decide to do the Sternwheeler thing in Fairbanks, we can still book it through Princess and it is only $75, although there are some other things there I am more interested in. Our land trip does include McKinley Lodge, which doesn't offer a lot to do other than flightseeing, but since we arrive there after a six hour bus ride (not to mention a week long cruise) we will probably use that afternoon to relax and recover before hitting the land portion of Alaska.

CornishPastyman, thanks so much for posting your videos. They are fabulous. Not only can I now see how much of Pompeii we missed the first time we were there, I am inspired to see Herculaneium too. Although this is our first port and we will be jet-lagged, I will be making the effort to revisit and can't wait to go now in October!

Ship: Equinox

Deck - Sixth

Cabin # - 6243

Class – 2 C obstructed balcony

Starboard or Port Side - Port

Bed near?(balcony or bath) – Balcony

Quiet Cabin ( With comments on problems. Note if connecting. ) – Very quiet - not connecting

Balcony View - Give comments on view, noting if location of any obstructions was an issue. – View not really obstructed except if looking straight down, not a problem.

Balcony Size? Normal or oversized for class? - Oversized, angled and part of the hump. Biggest complaint, deck 5 smoking section (seating) was right below and heavily used throughout the cruise. Definitely affected our use of the balcony and ability to leave the doors open.

Was wind a problem? No

Any specific problems with this cabin? Other than the smoke from below, no.

Any other comments? Loved being mid-ship, near the stairs and elevators, very convenient. Too bad about the smoking, otherwise a great room.