CruiserBruce

The itinerary is important. The airfare is the airfare. Being American doesn't affect that AFAIK. Some reading on the Alaska board would be beneficial. Sailing from Vancouver gives you the more scenic true Inside Passage, and usually more time in ports.

Have you checked into whether or not the ship will sell it to you? Many cruise lines do.

If you don't any priority (like Neptune Suite, CO or 4/5 Star Mariner), its highly unlikely you will be ashore by 9am.

Also, if you search back, there was also a great "Live from" thread for last year's cruise.

It has been discussed here a few times. Tends to be expensive.

You base this on what...the website? You know the website only tells you unassigned cabins, because you can't see GTY bookings? Literally, one additional booking can close out at least one (and possibly more) cabin categories, depending on the type and number of GTY bookings.

The casino is only closed while in port, and about 30 minutes after sailing, in the vast majority of cases anywhere. Hawaii is an exception, IIRC.

Its a drop in the bucket for total power plant replacement, yes. But it doesn't mean a lot of other stuff can't be done.

Yes, but we have sailed 5 times since resumption...2022, 2023 (3x) and 2024, and never put in a picture. Never did Verifly. Just showed up at the pier with required negative tests, and boarded quickly. I assume part of the reason for pretty normal speed boarding was (a) Neptune Suite pax and (b) low pax counts in 2022 and 2023.

Sounds reasonable. You can look up current and forecasted Vancouver weather, and perhaps San Francisco and LA, and subtract 10 degrees for being off shore.

You never needed to add a photo.

Doing some reading will in fact benefit you, as your questions are extremely general. This sort of question is asked frequently...there are many threads on the topic. In fact there is a "which cruise line" thread just two below this one as I write this.

Welcome to Cruise Critic! Define "best". Are you talking cruise line excursions, or private? What are your interests?

Try Halfacts.com.

It might be helpful to do some research on the Iceland board, here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/2705-iceland-and-greenland/