janrey1234

2 minutes ago, kearney said:

Here is something interesting as it relates to port closures.Coast Guard Policies Related to Port Closure Someplace I read that Canaveral was at Whiskey... yesterday.. as I recall.

2 minutes ago, kearney said:

Here is something interesting as it relates to port closures.Coast Guard Policies Related to Port Closure Someplace I read that Canaveral was at Whiskey... yesterday.. as I recall.

yankee as of last night 

10 minutes ago, irishgal432 said:

Still hoping. We are out of Fort Lauderdale and suppose to leave on Wednesday when the storm has passed way to the north.  If the storm path changes then I am not out anything if I don't go.  I have travel insurance that covers it and not lose anything.  I like travelling in September/October.   

Fort Lauderdale will all depend on the seas and when the port reopens and if Dorian doesn’t slow further.  

9 hours ago, irishgal432 said:

I’m on Allure. Hoping to 

I doubt it at this point.  Wednesday it is predicted to be about 70 miles off the coast near Port Canaveral at the moment.  I have doubts any ship trying to get in will do so as it is currently at cat 5 and expected to be a cat 4 when it skirts Florida.  I live near Daytona, don’t blame Royal for not coming in on Sunday as this mess was supposed to strike on Sunday.  It didn’t.  They did what they thought was right at the time. RC, I am sure will do right with FC credit and yes, you may pay more for a new cruise depending on when you book and what deals you get or got.  You get a year to apply the credit to a booked cruise not a year to take the cruise so watch the promotions and book one when you find a great price.  Might want to avoid August and September for the Caribbean though.

5 minutes ago, rolloman said:

Those tropical force winds will be well out in front of the storm...so I would not get to caught up in the "not supposed to hit until Monday or Tuesday etc. The port will close well ahead of this...

6 minutes ago, rolloman said:

Those tropical force winds will be well out in front of the storm...so I would not get to caught up in the "not supposed to hit until Monday or Tuesday etc. The port will close well ahead of this...

Of course, this is a given.  The port will also close early because they are concerned for their workers getting to shelters.  

11 minutes ago, ryano said:

 

I just cancelled my hotel reservation regardless.  Im not coming down even if I lose everything at this point. Gonna be an expensive lesson learned if so but there is no way I am subjecting myself to that kinda stress and chaos.  Its wishful thinking at this point to think this cruise will leave out on Sunday IMO and they know this already. 

Good choice,  it would be worse to end up in the middle of a category four hurricane then losing the money. 

I live near Daytona beach. At 8:00 am on Sunday it is expected to be 291 miles off the coast by 8 am on Monday it is expected to be 133 miles away.  While it is expected to hit at Indian River Shores it could go north or south and that may not be known until Saturday.   If the Captain decides to book it back tonight to Florida it could make it in on Saturday but then that would put anyone who is waiting on a flight searching for hotels or having to camp out at the Orlando airport, plus does the cruise line want to have the ship in dock when the hurricane hits, most likely if it did come in on Saturday and it could  scoot out after unloading they would do that.  If it doesn't make it in it will most likely sit out there until at least late Monday.   All this could change and more accurate forecasts won't be until at least Saturday.  If the ship continues to the next port on Friday I don't think it will risk it going back to Port Canaveral.  That is my opinion.  Now I need to decide what to do.  This is the biggest issue of where to go because waiting until Saturday to decide which way this thing is headed means not being able to leave due to traffic and what if we head north into Georgia or South Carolina and it changes course for there.

This is the revised schedule

Aug. 25 cruise delayed to Aug. 27

Instead of turning around on Saturday, the ship is now scheduled to arrive back on Sunday, with the Aug. 25 cruise delayed until Aug. 27.

Embarkation will be available both on Sunday and Monday, with the ship due to sail at 6 p.m. Monday.

Revised itinerary

The revised itinerary will feature Hilo (Hawaii) on Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Kahului (Maui) on Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Nawiliwili (Kauai) from 8 a.m. Thursday to 2 p.m. Friday. Pride of America will then return to Honolulu early morning of Saturday, Sept. 1.

For those looking for possibilities of a room for Saturday if the cruise doesn’t sail try http://www.ilikaihotel.com/. They are showing rooms, reasonably priced and are offering cancellations due to hurricane. Give them a call and see if you can book a room just in case.

Has anyone ever seen this work? I will do anything to make my parents happy, including the most heartfelt letter of all time! But I want to know there is a shot in heck of it working first though.

Why do you need a shot in hell? Costs you nothing to make a phone call to customer service, explain what happened and see what they say. Stop having a defeatist attitude. Be polite, reasonable and you might be surprised they may give you something. Also, as someone else stated look at the credit card used to see if they have some sort of travel insurance.

Be warned...... the video arcade room will be your biggest concern..... you use your card to activate a game and sometimes there's a delay in the credits being applied so an impatient child (and adult) may swipe multiple times thinking the first swipe didn't process. Guest Services aren't that forgiving if you complain a $100 charge took place in the arcade (games run between $1 - $5 so it adds up)....... it may be a pain but you can also go to Guest Services daily and "recharge" her account with cash so she doesn't blow through the $400 on day one....

This, set her with a daily amount, but let her know if she doesn’t spend it all that day the next day will add to it so if she has her heart set on getting something she can save to get it. Spend all the daily amount early and no extra, she has to wait until you refill in the morning. Good teaching lesson. If you limit her on the week all at once she may not quite get it and spend it all early then be miserable the rest of the cruise.

IMO it is always better to do a land based Hawaii vacation. It is easy to island hop, and you get to see so much more of what really interests you.

Been there twice. Not easy to island hop especially these days in airports lugging your luggage around. Since we are spending so much time on every island we are basically considering it a floating hotel. If you rent a car rather than take their tours you can see just as much as you want. Going in September so they may or may not go to the Big Island. I will deal and enjoy regardless as I have already been to that island more recently. Disappointed on another day in Honolulu as we will have arrived on the Wednesday before, but it is what it is and is preferable to a sea day. I am sure they will do everything to make up for it.

The one time we did it everything came out very wrinkled including shorts that were wrinkle free. Took several washings at home to get them back to normal. After that I paid for the wash and press.

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I have booked Allure not Oasis but if you are booking a balcony for 3 it is more comfortable to book one with a couch bed and not a pullman. The diagrams will tell you which is which with symbols. I think the cabin class might be Superior Balcony. The third person in the cabin is usually much cheaper than the first two so if you split costs evenly between the 3 you all share a discount. We had MyTime dining and booked before the trip times based on ports and were able to have a table for just the 3 of us with the same wait staff every night. I loved the size of the Allure, especially on sea days as it never felt crowded.

I should add I never had a problem booking a cabin for 3. The balcony's seem to all come with either the pullman or the couch. The junior suites are limited, however, so if you are wanting one of those then yes, book early.

Of course the OP would have arranged appropriate travel insurance as soon as they made the cruise and flight bookings. By doing so they would have been recompensed for the cancelled flight less any reimbursement from the airline. Not sure that they took out travel insurance I heard someone say, then I am willing to bet they will next time

Not necessary with some credit cards. Check out your credit card company as many offer limited travel insurance including reimbursing you for unused vouchers. Most don't cover if you cancel a trip for personal reasons like work or you just decide not to go. Citibank is up to $3,000 no cost to you.

Try around the airport, Sheraton, Hampton Inn, Marriott and others

Hilton Garden Inn has a park and cruise http://www.hiltongardeninnmiami.com/park-cruise/

Yes, I saw this too. Unfortunately it seems Crown & Anchor is down, back up now.

Can you provide a link to the final report stating this fire was caused by smoking ? It would be great to have confirmation this was the cause. I also understood the fatality was the result of a heart attack.

 

The best I've been able to find is a report the cause of the fire was indeterminate, and thought to be caused by improperly disposed of smoking material.

The cause of death was not a heart attack http://www.internationalcruisevictims.org/LatestMemberStories/Richard_Liffridge.html. This is from a relative.

A complimentary bottle of win was included with our booking. I called our TA to find out if we could choose red vs. white or even champagne. The representative I spoke with at Costco didn't know and advised me to ask when we arrive at the port. Hoping someone else on CC can share how it works. Is it a certificate that we redeem? I'm thinking it is likely whatever happens to be delivered.

 

 

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Having purchased wine to be in the room, I do know that they will exchange it for another of the same price. I purchased a bunch of white and a couple of red but on the last night we had 2 red left no white and my companions preferred white. The waiter exchanged it for a white at dinner. It would have to be the same price or you pick up the difference I would guess.

Interesting comments. I agree with previous poster, for the sake of balance, what was decent?

 

You mentioned "no poolside cookout/BBQ" - don't believe any RC ship has ever had this so not a cutback. What RC ship were you on that had this?

 

$6000 is a lot of money - was this because of Thanksgiving? Or were you in a larger suite?

I remember Navigator having it in 2013 on sea day. I don't recall the Allure having it in 2015.

When we got off our Allure sailing on 11/20, there was a table set up where you could collect all your items that had been confiscated at check-in.

 

Obviously there were like 5 irons, but someone had also packed one of these. :confused: I'll admit it made me chuckle and scratch my head

Was it in a box? Perhaps they bought it locally intending to take it home not use it on board.

We do it all the time. We book a balcony cabin looking for those that have a pull out couch and not a pull down. Depending on the cruise ship you might have to go up to a junior suite, but the third person is reduced. If you or your sister are young and don't mind climbing up the pull down isn't bad, just that we are all over 60 so we prefer the couch. Sometimes they keep the couch made up during the day, if you prefer it to go back to couch mode say so to your steward, same goes if you choose the pull down bunk option. Yes, the bathrooms are small but they are small whether it is one in the room or 4. Don't book 2 inside rooms paying a higher single price, book a better room instead. The difference split 3 ways isn't all that much.

All these are good responses. I have only been on two lines RC and Carnival but wanted some ideas of what other lines are like. For me, if there is more than one day at sea then a bigger ship is important for something other than sit by the pool or drink to do and Royal Caribbean provided it on Allure and Navigator.

I am fascinated by the river cruise idea but they are very very expensive as we usually cruise with a friend and get one cabin which may also exclude some of the other cruise lines mentioned. I found RC and Carnival to be pretty good in pricing the 3rd person in a cabin. Celebrity I priced out and found the 3rd person was charged a much higher fee at least for the cruise I was looking at but it wasn't outrageous.

Cabins were ready on Carnival when we boarded because they didn't allow you on the ship until 1:30 but yeah on Royal we had to wait a bit because we boarded before 1:00.

If you are a party of 2 flying but only take one carry on between you (your purse doesn't count on most airlines) take a fold up duffle bag (Walmart) and pack it into one of your bags. This way, if overweight, just remove the duffle bag and fill it with as much dirty clothes as you can and carry it on. Then you have room for whatever it is you bought but can't carry on the plane.

I don't know if this has ever been discussed but what does a certain cruise line do better than any other line. I'll start

Royal Caribbean - no corkage fee on the 2 allowed bottles of wine

Carnival - appropriately priced water delivered to your room. $3.99 for a 6 pack is pretty reasonable.

Carnival - great fast check in for suite guests which was a pleasant surprise.

Royal Caribbean - My time dining that allows you to prebook time you want before the cruise. This worked out well as we didn't want first seating or late seating and every day varied because of excursions. We ended up having the same staff every night because of prebooking times.

Carnival - pagers for my time dining. I didn't see them being used on Royal but maybe that has changed.

Why would you want to know if they were fined? Would you have felt better if you knew they had to pay a fine? In that case they maybe should have just told you they fined them to make you feel better;)

 

Honestly IMO it´s None of your Business to know if they were fined or not. It´s between them and RCI.

But, it is his business they didn't stop him from doing so, and I suppose knowing the man was told and was fined would have at least said the staff tried their best to make him stop. It is rude to smoke on your balcony unless you are doing it at 3 am, never mind flicking the ashes and butts. We had someone dump water somewhere above us and it rained on our balcony. If someone is rude enough to smoke where they aren't supposed to, I will be rude enough to call them on it. At the very least use an e-cig on the balcony.