emen822

On 9/12/2019 at 7:57 AM, lab_love123 said:

emen822 -- not from Texas but have the same situation for my November cruise. Flying into and staying near IAH, and need a shuttle to Galveston the next morning for embarkation. I have not been able to find that any of the shuttles offer hotel pick up. This is only from my research online; I haven't actually called any of the shuttle companies, so maybe it's available and just not advertised on websites. I'm going to stay at the Marriott in the airport, so I can just walk back over to the airport in the morning to catch my shuttle. My flight lands after dinner, so I just need to worry about breakfast. I'm not a big breakfast eater, so I had planned to just suffer through hotel coffee for the morning and bring a granola bar or something from home.

 

As far as safety - crime-wise I think Humble is fine. I'm just not sure how pedestrian friendly the streets are - busy streets/highways, and not sure of the sidewalk situation. But I'm not super familiar with it. So hopefully, someone more local and/or familiar will be able to help with that aspect.

Thank you for your reply.  I was reading reviews about one of the shuttle companies and two of the reviewers said that the driver called in the morning and offered to get them at their hotel instead of making them go to the hotel.  But that sounds like luck!  Staying closer to the airport is definitely a good option.  We still don't have flights booked so the hotel is still on the back burner.

9 minutes ago, ryndam said:

There are many hotels on JFK Blvd near IAH (Sheraton, Doubletree, Marriott, "Comforts") depending on your budget. There are also another group of similar hotel properties with addresses on the North Sam Houston Tollway. Many offer complimentary transportation from the IAH terminals to the hotel. There is also a Marriott hotel on the airport property, between the terminals at IAH that is connected to the terminals by a complimentary people-mover.

 

As for transportation choices IAH-Galveston port-IAH, there are quite a few similar threads on this board that discuss the many transfer opportunities. If you are comfortable with Uber or Lyft, both will pick up at the hotel and drive to the port; average fare IAH hotels-Galveston port is $75 +/- per car/each way, with an estimated 90 minutes transit time.

 

Rob

Thank you.  I wasn' t sure if Uber/Lyft was our only hotel pick up option but it seems it might be that way.  Will have to see if we want to do that rather than taking the shuttle back to the airport for the pick up.

I appreciate your response.

My sisters and I are cruising in February on the Liberty of the Seas.  We don't yet have our flights booked but are 99% sure we are flying into IAH and not HOU.  That being said, we are looking to stay in the Humble area since Galveston is having Mardi Gras during the same week as our cruise.  Two questions:  Is Humble a good choice (safe?)?   From the looks of the map, it seems there are lots of places nearby that we could walk to eat.  My next question is getting to the port the next day.  I know there are several shuttles who pick up at the airport and go to the pier but does anyone know of any shuttles that will pick you up at the hotel where you are staying?  Just wondering if we will need to go back to the airport in the morning to catch a shuttle.

Thanks for your help!

Mary

On 7/30/2019 at 10:06 PM, Julia429 said:

Which ship were you on? I was looking at maybe doing this on Liberty of the seas. Was wondering if they all give out free souvenir cups? I saw someone else say the also got a free avocado tool.

We were on the Freedom.  I'll be on the Liberty in February and hope they have it again.  We also received the free avocado tool.

Thanks for your review.  We are sailing this Saturday on the 8 nighter so I love hearing positive reviews.  I agree that the Alamo rental return was a breeze.  We did that in 2017 and it couldn't have gone any smoother. 

Glad you enjoyed your cruise!

13 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

Yes on Adventure 

Thank you for this information!  First I've heard of this 

10 minutes ago, tumbley said:

 

No need for apology!  I do value all suggestions - they help me think outside the box if the bartender happens to be stumped, too.  LOL

Apparently they can make a non alcoholic BBC version.  I just found this:

Non alcoholic ingredients:

1 1/2 oz Creme of Coconut

1 oz Pineapple Juice

Half a banana

Blend with crushed ice

Says it's from Royal Caribbean Cocktail Recipe Book 🤷‍♀️ 

Just now, tumbley said:

Do they usually have non-alcoholic Baileys cream on-board?

I'm not sure.  I apologize...I just was trying to think of a non-citrus drink.  🤦‍♀️

My favorite is the BBC:  (Banana Baileys Colada)  😋

Hi, I just read about beach beds at CocoCay and was looking to book one for next week.  I know it $157 for the bed, and that is good for 4 people in one reservation.  I just want to be sure that the bed also comes with two loungers?  Some of the pictures I've seen only shows the bed and some have loungers on the side.  The website description does not say you get extra loungers.  Can anyone confirm?  Thank you.

[Also posted on the Royal board]

Hi, I just read about beach beds at CocoCay and was looking to book one for next week.  I know it $157 for the bed, and that is good for 4 people in one reservation.  I just want to be sure that the bed also comes with two loungers?  Some of the pictures I've seen only shows the bed and some have loungers on the side.  The website description does not say you get extra loungers.  Can anyone confirm?  Thank you.

10 minutes ago, orville99 said:

You should each get a credit of $19.95 on your account when you board. You can either use it to get a single 24-hour access to the internet, or apply the amount to a 3-day package. You can't combine the amounts, but on a 3-day cruise, it amounts to ~50% off the surf package. When you go to sign up for the internet, make sure you scroll down through the various offerings, because the cheap packages are all the way at the bottom of the list.

3 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

I believe the credit is now $23 off a package.

Great.  Thank you both. 

Hi, I'm taking a short cruise next month and was looking at the internet package.  Does anyone know if you still get a 24 hour diamond discount regardless of how long the cruise is?  I've only taken 5-8 night cruises so I'm not sure how that works.  Thanks in advance!

On 10/19/2018 at 5:01 PM, JillK said:

Last year I tried to use an old open Next Cruise that my parents transferred to me. They purchased it in 2012 while on board a Celebrity cruise but it is for Royal Caribbean (states as much on the certificate).

 

The agent was unable to get Royal to apply it to my booking as they argued it was for Celebrity so she asked me to call RCI. After finally getting Royal to agree that it was for a Royal cruise (which took two phone calls and lots of time on hold), it came with no OBC and strangely Royal was not going to take it in lieu of a deposit. In fact, there is print on the certificate that says "Payment Deposit of $100 per person is due at time of booking and is non-refundable."

 

In the end I didn't use it.... why would it? There was nothing but a $100 loss since the Royal agent was unable to articulate to me what the benefit would be or how the $100 invested was coming back my way. Further, in order to apply it, I had to transfer my booking to them and their fare was significantly higher than my TA that I finally said to forget it altogether.

 

I transferred it back to my parents and after a frustrating phone call between my father and Royal they purposefully let it lapse. 

 

Hope your outcome is much more positive than mine! 

 

 

wow, how frustrating. 

I called on Tuesday and was on the phone for about 45 minutes.  At first she couldn't find the reservation number; then when she finally did, she told me it was too old to use and not valid.  So I explained that it was still valid and could she possibly ask someone which she did and she was able to apply it.  Then once she applied it and added all our crown and anchor numbers, the price went up.  Back on hold I went.  Then she said there was no OBC attached to it.  I think I was on hold more than I was on the phone speaking .  In any event, I was able to get $25 obc added for a weekend cruise next month.  I am glad I was able to use it to get the $100 off the balance since it was all due at time of booking as well as some obc.   I still have one more to use from 2013 so hopefully that one goes smoothly. 

Thank you for your responses.  I'm looking at a short cruise so I figured the obc would be small but I'm glad to get $100 off the deposit in any event.  :)

I have an open booking confirmation (f/k/a Next Cruise) from 2013.  I put $100 down and the booking was left open.  Now I can't remember does that $100 go towards the deposit and I also get some obc with it?  They changed the rules so many times and I actually forgot about this one and hope to put it to good use before I lose it again.  

Can anyone help me out with the old rules?

Thanks in advance.

Mary

Watching your sail away on the Port of NY web cam. Looks like when you left the dock you took a scenic route toward Manhattan sailing by the Statue of Liberty before turning around and heading toward the Verrazano Bridge. Also looks like the North Star was running during your sail away. I imagine the views of NYC were pretty amazing.

I just saw the ship make a "u-turn" outside my building in downtown Manhattan. Happy to hear it was just a scenic tour and not some sort of emergency.

Wow sounds great value to me. Lunch,

the gadget and booze tasting!

Count me in!

 

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I would definitely do it again. Here are pictures of the souvenir glasses we were given (one per person). They are color changing glasses. The other picture shows the other margarita we were given (minus the glass). They came around to refill (or top off) the souvenir glass several times. :D (Small glass was just water.)

Anyone taken the avocado fiesta guacamole class in Sabor? Worth the $30?

I took the class on the Freedom in February. DEFINITELY worth it for us. We were given a full lunch, an avocado tool which they sold for either $20 or $25 (I haven't tried it yet but my sister did and said it works great) AND lots of margaritas. Plus we got a souvenir glass. I would definitely do it again.

When we were in Labadee last month, the boat to Columbus Cove wasn't operating (can't remember why) so we had to take the tram to the beach. For the people who had the bungalows, they were driven in golf carts right up to the beach.

Do you remember the cost for Sabor on-board? It is available in the cruise planner for $15 per person for dinner. Trying to figure out if I should book ahead or wait to use obc. Thanks.

I think Sabor was $30 pp (or 29pp?) if you book onboard. When we went to the lunch on Friday, it was $30 but included the extras.

What time does Freedom get back in port? When time does the "self assist" disembarkation start?

Not sure what time we were back in port but we walked off around 7:30.

We will be on this itinerary Saturday Mar 4th.

So they offered the 10 card punch for the last two days?

Also do you remember what time zone they used in St Maarten?

We have a tour that is picking us up at 10:15 their time.

If we arrive a 9am ship time is their time 8 9 or 10?

If you still have the compass it may tell you..

Thank you for the review!

I had been looking out for the 10 drink card offer because I had read another review saying they offered it on Thursday (but that very well could've been the 6 day itinerary now that I think of it.) Picture of card attached.

Unfortunately I don't have any of the compasses but we stayed on ships time for the entire cruise. That always somehow confuses me as well. :confused:

Great review. Which airport did you go to and what time was your flight?

Our flight was out of FLL and it was scheduled to depart at 11:25 (which it didn't...:evilsmile:...we left about an hour late).

There was a piano player every night in the Schooner Bar who was excellent. He sang everything from Billy Joel to Michael Jackson to John Legend to Phil Collins. Took all types of requests. We stayed and listened to him on our last night and didn't get back to the room until just after midnight, which was after the bag deadline. :o We put the bags out anyway and well, they weren't taken! So we woke up at 6:45 hoping to get a quick breakfast and be off by 9:00 but our plans changed as we now had to carry our stuff off. It turned out to be a blessing because it was the quickest I have ever been off a ship and we waited in line for 90 minutes just to check our bags in at the airport. So it worked out for us in the long run. (y)

Forgot to mention that there was also a medical emergency the first night. They had to take someone off the ship which was sad to see. I thought they said the coast guard was coming but the boat said fire and rescue. They asked the captain about the procedure on how they respond to such an emergency and he said they figure out who is the closest to come to them or if we needed to turn back. At that point, I think we were already out to sea for a few hours. Hats off to everyone who made the transition as smooth as possible and I hope the passenger is doing well.

Some random thoughts: The casino was sooooo smoky every night and was not very good to me. :mad: The ship itself is in very good condition. I did notice a big difference in the upsell of the onboard restaurants. They came over while in the windjammer, the pool area and also in the café promenade. If you are interested, you could definitely strike a deal with them. They almost convinced us to try Giovannis but we really wanted to do Chops and we had Sabor booked for a second meal.

Anyway, I'm drawing a blank right now about everything else (back to work syndrome) but if anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. And if I think of anything else, I'll add it to this thread.