Cyclebum

Got the mirror image cabin (5051)SB side booked for the Caribbean. See one downside, I sneak out for early coffee in the a.m. with DW sleeping. Normal V cabins have the curtain in the 'hall' to block light from entering the sleeping area but there appears to be nothing in this layout. That same curtain blocked light from the bathroom but if that is the bath door at the far side of the mirror, then opening that door will light up the bed area at night also. Am I wrong? Still wont change rooms because I like bigger balconies.

Did the 3 day Denali last May as R1L which has the identical schedule as yours with the exception of HAL included travel to fairbanks from Seattle 1 day before. There is time to do evening excursions the day you get to Denali, we did the sled dog Husky Homestead. All of our land excursions were scheduled and paid for weeks before we got there and it was not deducted from OBC, but the CreditCard just the same as any pre trip excursion with HAL. There are numerous buses doing the tundra tour, seemed like the start times were staggered about ten minutes apart. You get assigned to one of them. you may feel too tired after the TundraTour to do something else but there was no shortage of daylight as it never really got dark. There were plenty of independent tour operaters picking up people in front of the Mckinley Chalet the whole time we were there so if you schedule something with one of them odds are good you'll have door to door service. The Chena river last year in May was such that at the last minute we traded with another couple and did the class 3-4 version on day 3. For us, in our mid-60's, it wasn't that bad. Good rafting, nice scenery. Hope this helps.

Yes, Fairbanks hotel is covered by D1L. You need to book air to Fairbanks as that is not. HAL rep meets you by baggage claim in Fairbanks. Plenty of eating choices at the Park hotels and across the street. Lunch included on Tundra Wildness tour. Many or all of your questions will be answered on the HAL website in the FAQ section. Have fun, we did in 2015.

Thank You Cycle Bum. What cities did you tour and your opinion/excursions on these stops. Recommend any good restaurants?

The R1L does not go to the Yukon but we overnighted in Anchorage and recommend the Hard Rock for breakfast as we were pleasantly surprised by it. You have 3 nights in Denali like we did so try the pizza place on the other side of the highway, Prospector Pizza. They had 50 beers on tap it seemed. Lynx Pizza (lodge side of the street)between the McKinley and princess lodge OK. We had clear skies the day of the train so we saw Denali off and on for quite a while. Resorts have several choices for eating, good not great, and breakfasts seemed overpriced, IMO. Preferred Nenana Grill over Trading Post at Mckinley Chalet. While there we saw the huskies, did the Tundra tour and white water rafting. Riverboat excursion in Fairbanks had a big family style lunch. Again a couple of hotel possibilities in Fairbanks, we got Pikes Lodge, food there OK and they had trouble, IMO, handling the crowd. Yukon part was not in our tour but the ship at Skagway south is the same. White Pass RR, Juneau was whales, rainforests and glaciers and Ketchikan was missy fiords by plane, all good. You'll be tired by the end of the cruise but you'll love it. Our ship was the O'dam.

We did the R1L this past spring, so the first day is the same as yours. You will take the Hilton shuttle to the hotel after meeting the HAL rep at the airport. Next morning you will take that same shuttle back. Reserve your time at the hotel front desk so you aren't late because of a full shuttle. You will have to pay baggage fees to Alaska Airlines for all the bags going to Alaska. Watch your weight tools overweight is pricey. Your "meet me on the ship" bags will be taken from you after your flight lands in Alaska. We did not get the meal plan and didn't see much in savings plus it does't cover Seattle. We also added a day on each end to accommodate the flight schedules for us and not be rushed. Enjoy the trip.

We stayed in 8141 this past December. Overhang overhead is about half your balcony, which is the same the next 3 decks down. That is what creates the stepped look on those ships. People on deck 9 by the pool look over the aft rail and see 4 decks down which doesn't happen on side balconies. Noise from above is limited on aft cabins as there seems to be fewer chairs back there, we had a lot more noise when we had a cabin under the SeaView Bar on the starboard side. Seemed bar patrons moved the chairs more than the help. Prop noise/vibration on W'dam hardly noticeable to me but some are more sensitive to that. Caribbean was smooth that week, so the motion of the ocean wasn't much. I'd book it again.

You will like the cabin. Balcony is much roomier than those on the side of the ship. Halfacts has my pictures from the December cruise on the W'dam of 8141 that shows the balcony. Noise from above minimal. Balcony is only half covered so not totally protected from rain.

If your OBC is like what we got this past spring when the Noordam changed from Rome > Athens to Rome > Venice, (April15-26, 2014), you'll have to spend it all in 3 days before the cruise ends. Our HAL OBC was use or lose. What happened to us, almost 7 months before sailing, we got informed of a change by our TA and the options. Ended up with an extra $400 OBC and they covered the air fare, $450, that was a non-refundable flight from Athens to Rome that we had already booked. At first we were upset over the change but it ended up to be a great cruise. Changes happened, but I'd go with the new offer, $200pp aint bad.

Look for your hotel near exit 275/ 279 area just north of the I75/I275 split. That area is called Wesley Chapel. Good spot if you want to be 30/60 minutes from the port. Couple of the hotels were just built in the area last year. Because I live nearby I drive by them all and don't pay attention to all the names. Hampton Inn is one. Hope this helps.

Bigger memory cards don't always seem to be the best option. When I got my D800 it came with a 64 GB card. I can't get it to read on my computer that I do my pictures on. I have to connect it to my laptop and load the pictures on a flash drive to move the pictures. I have no issues with the 32 GB or smaller cards. I also take a Epson card reader that stores pictures on a hard drive. This gives me one more level of backup when I travel. I have never had a failure on a memory card, but have helped friends with theirs because they never format the cards when they move pictures. 8 or 16 GB will work for most of what I do, it all depends on the dead horse JPEG or RAW. The D800 consumes about 100 MB per picture when I record RAW and JPEG. If I am doing exposure brackets for HDR it really eats up the card capacity. As many posters have stated, buy a card that is fast as you can afford. You won't be disappointed. :)

Most 64GB cards and larger are ExFAT format. That will not work in all cameras and computers. e.g. My SonyA77 is tested by the factory to handle SDXC cards of that size and my iMac can read it. Older PCs on XP would need update KB955704 to support the card. Not sure about new Windows software.

I gave up hauling a download drive or PC as camera gear is plenty to keep track of. I just take twice the number of memory cards I expect to use. Shoot Jpeg plus Raw if your not sure what will do with the shot later. I mostly shoot Sony's Extra Fine on the A77 and Fine plus RAW on the A350. Just my 2cents.