Alaska Airlines today will inaugurate daily, year-round service between Seattle and Kahului, Hawaii, on the island of Maui. Flights from Seattle will depart daily at 8:20 a.m. Pacific time and arrive at 11:35 a.m. Hawaii time. Return flights will depart at 1:05 p.m. Hawaii time and arrive at 9:45 p.m. Pacific time.

“Our customers have welcomed our new Hawaii service with open arms,” said Gregg Saretsky, Alaska Airlines’ executive vice president of flight and marketing. “In addition to Kauai and Honolulu, which we began serving last winter, customers now can enjoy Alaska’s unique brand of service and earn Mileage Plan miles to the beautiful island of Maui.”

Visitors to Alaska’s Denali National Park and Preserve, one of the largest protected intact ecosystems in the world, will now have the opportunity to explore the park with the aid of an environmentally friendly vehicle — a fuel-efficient and emissions-reducing hybrid bus. IC Bus, North America’s largest school bus and commercial bus manufacturer, is delivering the Park’s first hybrid bus on July 17.

Assigned for use as part of the park’s shuttle service which extends 90 miles into the wilderness, the hybrid bus will transport visitors along a 45- mile route through August 30, during the Park’s peak season, enhancing visitors’ experience. A quieter engine will improve wildlife viewing as visitors see and hear nature in a way the other buses do not allow.

hotels.com(R), the leading provider of lodging worldwide, announced its new application for iPhone and iPod touch is available on Apple’s new App Store. The free application offers a richer mobile experience for researching and booking lodging and was built using Apple’s iPhone Software Development Kit.

“At hotels.com, we are focused on providing a beneficial service to users where and when it’s most convenient for them,” said Scott Booker, chief hotel expert and guest advocate. “We are pleased with the initial response to our web application for the iPhone and iPod touch, and hope new enhancements with the native application add greater value to booking with these mobile tools.”

Cruise dining just gets better and better, season by season.

And how can it not, when Royal Caribbean invests million of dollars in creating the favorite recipes that we love to eat during our vacation on one of their popular ships. Well-known celebrity chefs develop the menus that keep us asking for second helpings during breakfast, lunch, dinner and every other snack time in between.

Cookbooks are always available for purchase on your cruise, but if you’ve missed the opportunity of buying one the last time you were on a Royal Caribbean ship, here are a couple that are available for purchase online.