Well, after much procrastinating, our family (DH, DW, DD(8), and DGM) will be flying from Milwaukee to Vancouver the night before and staying at a Days Inn. There is a train at the airport that takes you directly to downtown, and the Days Inn, while not plush by any means, looks like it's comfortable. We priced out flying into Seattle, staying the night, taking a train, then staying another night on the return, taking the train back, catching a flight back from Seattle. Funny thing is that it turned out to be the same price when you factor in the extra hotels, meals, train tickets, etc. Plus, there is the consideration of the extra transfer and hauling of bags. We're just going to do the simple thing and fly directly into Vancouver, just spend the night and be one of the first in line at the port to get on the boat.
A couple of questions for all to consider:
1) What is the boarding process in Vancouver, and how does it differ (time wise) from Port Canaveral?
2) What degree of warm/cool clothing are you bringing? With all the consideration regarding extra bags, etc., I'm wondering if we're going to have think about a couple more bags for cool night sweaters, etc. We found that we were packing about 1/3 of what we did on our first
Disney Cruise down in the warm Caribbean, so what are you guys going to do to bulk up?
As far as excursions, we're just going to play it by ear. We found that all that planning and stressing wasn't worth it. We'll just get off the boat, wander around and see what strikes our fancy.
Well, here I go spending a couple grand to get us out there - but then it will be done!
Ben