nc762shooter

Years ago wife and I did an 8 day cruise for our anniversary out of Miami over July 4th and drove down from NC. Cruise sailed on a Saturday and we decided to leave around 8-9 pm Thursday and drive through the night to avoid traffic, especially because there were races at Daytona Friday and Saturday. We booked a hotel room in Port St. Lucie for Thursday night and Friday night even though we wouldn't be getting there until 5-6 am just to ensure we had a room ready for us to crash in whenever we got there. Just let the hotel know you will be checking in very late so they don't think you're a no show and cancel your booking. We took turns driving and napping and overall it wasn't a bad drive. Got to the hotel a bit after 6 am checked in and slept until about noon, then got up and went to grab some food, a couple things from the store we forgot to pack and caught a movie later that afternoon. Had a pizza delivered for dinner and went to bed early around 9 pm. Got up the next morning about 7 and checked out, on the road before 8 for the ~2 hour drive to Miami. Traffic was heavy but not bad until getting close to Miami but we didn't hit any major snags and were at the port before our check in time which I think was 11 am. We just parked at the port, yes, it's more expensive than some of the offsite lots but for we felt the security was worth it. I've seen enough accounts of people using cheap parking to save $50-60 only to come back and find that savings erased from having their car broken into. If I were to drive to a cruise from Miami I would seriously consider doing it this way again. Coming home for some reason we thought it would be a good idea to make it all the way to around Savannah before stopping at a hotel, I think we thought we might do some things there on the way home. After doing it, I would NOT plan to drive that far after getting off the ship again, we were tired and traffic was not fun. Of course it might have been better had we not stayed up until 2 am the last night and gotten 5 hours of sleep LOL. Depending on how tired you think you will be getting off the ship you may not want to drive for more than 2-3 hours tops. Now with internet working better on phones while on the road I probably wouldn't even book a hotel on the way home ahead of time, just start driving and find one when we start getting tired of driving. Our drive was roughly 780 miles and 11 hours total for reference so not quite as long as what you would have. Anyway this was our experience driving to and from Miami, it was definitely cheaper than flying and overall not bad. The drive down was definitely better and easier than the return with how we did it. If we were to do this drive again I would be fine doing the same thing going down but would definitely change how we do the return portion.

A foam pool noodle from Walmart or the dollar store tucked under the sheet makes a great bumper too. If you're flying in you could probably pick one up near the port so you don't have to pack it. It's also cheap enough that if you don't want the hassle of bringing it home you can ditch it.

We loved the oceanview aft cabins on the Fantasy class, the way the hull is sloped made that shelf probably be about 2 ft deep. Nowadays our daughter would love playing in there, especially since the curtains make it like a little stage. Honestly it would probably be a struggle to keep her from using blankets and pillows to make a nest and SLEEP in there🤣! You also get some noise during docking from the thrusters and vibration at times but not enough to be a problem in my opinion. You will feel movement being at the extreme end of the ship but to us it's much more like a slow, gentle rocking motion that is predictable, similar to a rocking chair or seesaw and is quite soothing. Midship the movements always felt choppier and less predictable to us. The best part on Fantasy (RIP) if you stayed on deck 7 was a "secret" staircase right across from the aft cabins that you could use to go up past the crew only deck area on 8 to another staircase and quickly get to Serenity and the Lido bar without having to go forward at all! We've never done an aft-facing balcony, only a regular side balcony very far aft, but from the sound of things is the soot level does seem to vary between ship classes with some being much worse than others. Not much way around the privacy thing though!

Those covers would be great if you decided you want interior levels of darkness😂. The shelf is neat, all the aft facing cabins on Fantasy class used to have really big ones before they added the balconies. Big enough that I (6'3" 230 lbs) could tuck sideways and recline fairly comfortably and watch the wake for a bit. My wife being a foot shorter could almost use it like a chaise lounge😆. Also makes a great place to keep your towel animals!

Exactly, I want to feel the ship moving, hear the wake, feel and hear the hum of the engines. Otherwise might as well be on land!

I cruise because I enjoy the sensations of being at sea, I'm one of those that wouldn't care if we pulled into port for days or not. That said, I don't mind having an even mix of port and sea days. Almost all the cruises I've been on had an equal number of port and sea days which I think is ideal, whether it was a 5 day, 7 day, or an 8 day. I look at the ports as something that has the potential to add to my vacation but not detract from it. I rank departure port/dates/price/ship above destinations when looking at cruises, if a cruise happens to have favorite ports or new ones that's just a bonus. I'm not going to let making it to a particular port or not make or break my vacation.

Governor's Beach had great snorkeling you can get to right off the beach, if you have your own snorkeling equipment it makes for a budget friendly and chill day, plus way less crowded than the beach right at the port and Margaritaville.

Absolutely get it now, it's not going to get any cheaper and if you end up not wanting it later you can cancel and get your money back up until a day or so before you cruise.

Not that I want them removed but the menu still has several Fantasy class ships that are sadly no more.

The general consensus being that tipping an extra dollar makes you stand out enough to get better service seems to indicate it is not all that common, otherwise you would be blending in with the majority and not notice a difference.

If you really want to play it safe you could always show up in disguise!😁

According to one of the drink package calculators, beer prices average about $8. That can give you a rough idea until someone else can provide concrete numbers.

Or it was a cliff overlooking the port and was just a shortcut!

My prepaid gratuity from buying Cheers being split among the staff, I'm technically tipping some bartenders that may never actually make me a drink. I'd say the Cheers prepaid gratuities even out fairly well and isn't something to worry about.

I will almost always tip extra on a drink that requires more time/effort to prepare than say just a neat pour of whiskey or a rum and coke or being handed a bottle of beer. I don't feel bad about not always tipping extra on something that takes less than 10 seconds to prepare.

Check each port on tripadvisor, it should have a fairly comprehensive list of things to do along with ratings and reviews. Some ports also have official websites that would also have activities listed and hopefully those would all be reputable operators. Otherwise I don't know of any one site that would list available excursions similar to how the cruise lines do.

Yes, he said the play he saw was "mindblowing!"

I believe he said this in response to a yelp review that a visit to Ford's Theatre was a must not miss experience.

Indeed, that's definitely a win for the cruise line if someone is going to drink that much and not take advantage of Cheers lol. Carnival isn't the morality police looking to decree how much booze you can or cannot consume as long as you aren't endangering yourself or others, but they are most definitely interested in making money hence why it makes sense to put a limit on Cheers and doesn't make sense to limit pay as you go customers.

I would say a mix of the 2nd and 3rd options. I don't think tipping extra is as prevalent as a lot of the posts here would have you believe. Cheers gratuities are totaled up from everyone that buys the program and divided among the bar staff, so if I have a server or bartender who I particularly like every now and then I add an extra dollar or two just as an extra thank you.

But the trolling on both sides is quite entertaining! Rumor has it the infamous backpack is now being spotted in other threads... Oh ye of little faith in the power of these message boards🤣

Not to mention that someone who is fine with taking things that don't belong to them probably isn't going to be terribly bothered about being somewhere they shouldn't anyway...

It could very well be they bring up that number actual policy or not if someone is arguing and becoming a problem, but in the instances I've seen where someone needed to be cut off it was well before they hit that many Cheers or not. And getting loud and arguing certainly does not help your case that you should be served another drink at all, drunk or not😉! With one particular guest who clearly shouldn't but was insistent he still be served another whiskey and coke, the bartender ended up pretending to make him one and he just wound up with a glass of coke and stumbled away happy LOL🤣

Hmmm, the liquor and beverage policy makes no mention of a limit on sales other than they have the right to request ID or refuse sales at any time. The only place I see 15 mentioned is in the section about Cheers. Having a limit of 15 drinks on Cheers makes sense because it limits the damage you can do to their bottom line😂. They don't need to have a numerical limit on individual purchases since they can stop serving you at any time they deem fit, as long as you aren't being a problem they would love for you to keep spending money at the bar! 😁

Officially you cannot order a double as stated before. It is possible they will pour heavy for you especially once they get to know you a bit. Many times they would keep pouring from the bottle into the glass as they dumped the jigger in. From my experience if you are always friendly, patient and polite and not heavily intoxicated, the likelihood of this happening is high 😁. Although rare, if you have developed a rapport with a certain bartender you may find one who will make you an actual double by charging your Cheers account when you order, remembering your folio #, and entering the second drink after the 5 minutes have passed. I've only had this happen a few times, always times late at night and the bar was not very busy. A couple times I was planning to order 2 scotches waiting the five minutes in between to have with a cigar, when I told the bartender this he said he would go ahead and do a double pour for me and would enter the second scotch in after the 5 minute interval and not to worry about the wait. The other times were similar, late and not busy, was planning to order my last two Cheers drinks to take back to my balcony, and those bartenders did the same thing. It is important to note I did not and would not ask them to do this because I'm they aren't supposed to do this. It seems it was very situational and a judgement call on the bartender's part, when I ordered the 1st drink I told them I wanting to order a 2nd one after the 5 minutes passed so I could take them with me to my balcony or up to the cigar smoking area. Each of those times they told me not to worry about it, they would take care of it.