We Cruised on the Carnival Miracle to Alaska from 5/27 to 6/3 2014. I will start with Seattle.
Seattle was beautiful. We flew in on Memorial day 5/26 and spent the day. It was about 60 degrees and sunny all day. We took the Light Link Rail from the airport to downtown. Approx $2 PP and took about 30 minutes. What a savings to us VS a Cab or Limo. Our hotel was a block from Westlake station where the rail stopped. WE walked right there. We stayed at the Westin which was nice. We did the normal tourist things, the Market, Space needle.
Embarkation day; We took a cab from the hotel to pier 91; it cost us $13 and a tip. Check in was a breeze! We were checked in, sign and sail in hand, boarding picture taken, security picture taken, on ship, in our room and on Lido deck in less than 1 hour!!! (Sure glad I did not spend $50 on FTTF pass. It might be worth it at a port going to the Caribbean, but I think a waste of $ here) Lines at buffets were not long for Embarkation day. We found food right away and never had to search long and hard for a place to sit. Our room was nice, we had a balcony on Deck 8 forward (Cabin 8111) Starboard Nothing in our way of a view and no one above us. (SPA was above us, so very quiet) It was a good location, 1 deck up to Lido, yet out of the way of alot of Hallway traffic, and close to Elevators)
I loved our location of Cabin. The hallway only had about 8 cabins so not alot of traffic, Quiet Spa above us, no balcony above us either. Great views from Balcony, we saw alot of whales. Close to elevators and one deck below lido. Not alot of ship movement. Just noticed it one night night as we were heading back into the ocean. Other than that, pretty smooth sailing.