it's quite early...but wanted to get your opinions...should we fly into seattle? or vancouver? any thoughts?
I believe I've done this three times, but there could be some fuzzy math too. All these trips have started to blend together and I'm getting older every year.
One time we flew directly into Vancouver. Obviously the easiest, but there are very few direct flights even for me living in Chicago. Possible downside is if you miss the flight or there is a problem there aren't a lot of other options that day to get into Vancouver. If you're flying into Seattle you can find numerous flights all day long from most major cities and different carriers if you have to so you won't miss the boat.
One time we flew into Seattle and took a cruiseline's Bus from Seattle to the dock in Vancouver. We stayed at the cruise's choice of hotel pre-cruise and got dropped off right at the ship. That was really easy too. Don't know this far out if
DCL is going to set up anything like that. The possible downside is you can get caught up at the border for literally hours. If we take a bus we'll do it the day before unless DCL is offering the service. We wouldn't risk missing the boat.
A third time we flew into Seattle and then transferred to a smaller plane to fly to Vancouver. The price was almost the same as a direct flight and the scenery was awesome. Just a bit of a pain waiting around the airport for connecting flights. If the price is right this might be how we go this time.
My parents haven't done the train in a few years but they're not fans of the Seattle/Vancouver route even though that's their only option. My mother won't fly and they love taking it all over the USA and Canada. Things may have changed but they had to take all of their bags off the train themselves through customs and there weren't any carts or anything to help them.
ETA:I talked to my parents about this today. They said the last time they went by train there were porters at the train station to assist with luggage past customs. There wasn't assistance going by private bus. They had to take all of their luggage themselves and it was a 3 hour wait at the border. The time I went we didn't even have to take our luggage off the bus because it was going to be loaded right onto the ship. A customs agent just came onto the bus and looked over our passports.
i worked until 5:30 am .. so I am a wee bit tired.. but gotta love the paycheck for this week with that included..
I'm very impressed that you are looking into things that you want to do on this cruise. We're cruising the Baltics this summer and I don't have a clue for most of the ports.
WOO HOO!! 
