CanadaRob

Hope you enjoy your cruise!

 

Last summer we used Ace Luxry to transport us from MCO to Cocoa Beach, and used Cocoa Beach Shuttle to go from our hotel to the cruise ship. When we disembarked the ship, Ace Luxry took us back to MCO.

 

I believe Cocoa Beach Shuttle charged us $5.00 per person to the ship (well worth it), and Ace was less than renting a car and fooling with it. When we drove by the car rental places, I was glad I didn't screw with renting and returning - the lines were long.

 

We will cruise again in the future, and I'll do the exact same thing again. It was painless and worked extremely well.

Thanks for the detailed info

All the menus that I have found list specialty drinks and prices, but does anyone know the prices of basic drinks like a simple rum & coke or vodka & cranberry juice?

Varies from ship to ship or it might be ship class to class?

quantum was 12 for cocktails plus auto gratuity of 1.80.

Flying in from Alberta with an extra couple of day to shop and do I fly I with my college age kids before setting out on a Sunday to the FOS. Hoping for some feedback about cost effective ground transportation options for a family of 4 or 5. The other option might be a hotel in the port area and figure out transportation back to orlando for the day or 2. Lots of time to figure it out but my wife is kind of a planner so I thought I'd take this off her plate.

Thanks in advance!

Just got back but way way too long till December already planning for my 2016 cruise

If your looking for quieter with more sea days on a ship that will make you feel like your on a ship have you considered the Brilliance out of Tampa.

 

You could do 9 days (a B2B) leaving on The 19'th. At a quick glance comparing prices it is cheaper for the 9 days on brilliance than it is on either Freedom or Allure.

 

The stops include Key West, Cozumel on the first 5 day cruise and Cozumel on the second 4 day cruise.

 

Edit. We spent Christmas on the Freedom last year and loved it. Even with our shortened port times.

Thanks again,we have locked down the FReedom for the 20th my wife informs me it works better for the kids days home from university and allows for a shopping day in Orlando on the way in :) and for the kids to do Ifly in orlando so not missing out by not going QOS

Thanks for all the info. OMG those Mud Slide Cookies sound fabulous! Good thing I have lost a little weight :)

Found them once or twice at the promenade and my wife would take a little Baggie to go as mentioned a good option 1a is warm cookies from the oven at Wj wife second favorurite were the triple chocolate and if you ask at WJ they will give you a Baggie to go so you don't have to carry your plate

We sailed on Jan 11th & Jan 23rd. Our friends from Omaha, Nebraska were on the Jan 11th cruise with us. I suggested we skip AI because of the bad reviews, however they wanted to give each restaurant a chance. We were all surprised and glad we didn't decide based upon what we read on CC. We all loved AI. Each ordered something different and I remember that I had the Nebraska short ribs. All 3 were jealous! Everyone else enjoyed their meals (DH had the turkey dinner, One of our friends had the surf & turf, sorry I forget the other dinner). We were surprised that apple pie was not a dessert choice. I did have the banana split dessert. All 4 of us liked AI so much we went back later in the cruise. This time all 4 of us had the short ribs - no jealousy!

 

DH & I went again on our Jan 23rd cruise and the menu changed. They still had the short ribs and they added apple pie. I forget what they removed. The only thing we recall is the Caesar salad was gone.

 

We felt the service was not slow as many have reported. Help has been provided for the waiters. On our second cruise the head waiter for our area came by and we spoke with him for quite a while. RCCL realized the waiter could not do everything - drinks, order, clear the table, coffee etc and has added assistant waiters. We were pleased with service each time.

 

I must add we had the baked macaroni as an appetizer multiple times and I have read on CC they it's been taken off the menu. That's a dish we all really liked.

 

I think you have to give AI a chance and form your own opinion.

Well said, we went to AI after trying 3 other complimentary dining options and wish we had though of coming earlier. Love banana splits but not a huge fan of the banana dessert, again loved going for breakfast when I didn't want to do a full Buffett and order off the breakfast menu

Better question would be to ask if anybody has recently had an excellent meal at Silk

Gumbo was ok I did like the AIfor a sit down breakfast, same food as the Wj but also had beignets who doesn't like warm donuts for breakfast.....

Thanks for the info, I too have booked FOS but was considering oasis based on similar ports(-grand cayman). Feeling ok with Freedom at this point.

Happy anniversary, Also following along, not going until Christmas and a little unsure on this ship vs Oasis at same time, Really excited to see the report coming! Enjoy WDW!

Hello!

 

Thanks so much to all who have cruised the Quantum already and are being so kind to come and answer all our questions. You are all so fantastic!!

 

I've been reading and re-reading and re-reading and I hope I'm not repeating questions already asked and I just don't seem to see the answers to.

 

1 - The Royal iQ app; to use this you need a wifi connection, yes? So if I don't buy the no longer free wifi it's useless to me? I'm travelling with two teens boys and I don't want to buy wifi...I want them to enjoy the activities, not their phones. hee hee

 

2 - Northstar tickets: I've been looking for Cruise Compasses that are for my itinerary (Florida & Bahamas) and I see from others that you can pick up Northstar tickets in the mornings. Do you just get up and go get in a line, and hope you get a ticket, and if not get up the next day? Or is there some other way of getting them?

 

3 - Excursions: there are very few (for the amount of people on the boat) listed on the RCCL website. Are there more available once you get on the boat? I don't want to sign up for one of the two snorkel choices (can't afford the Atlantis choices for 4 people) just to find there are better or more choices once I am on board. We've been to Nassau twice before; once we took an island tour by bus and another we got off, walked around a bit, got tired of being hassled to braid my hair, so we had a cup of coffee in a small coffee shop near the port and got back on the boat. Left the kids on board for that one. :)

 

Thank you so much!! We aren't travelling until March, but I am so exited to get away from this NJ cold weather I am totally in crusin' mode now!!

With the north star seemed to have shorter lines early early so depending on kids age may not work early.

Excursions in the eastern caribbean were ok lots to book when in town.

Star water was ok again depending on kids ages and/or your age may not like this show it was not for everyone but still should see it.

Yea, but that is -20 C, which I assume stands for Canadian, ;) That's almost cold.

-4? F. Still not good, but way better than -20 F

RCI was seriously considering implementing DD on FR after Drydock when Captain Tor and HD Michael made the announcement on FR in August. However after a lot of considerations including structural, the company decided sometime this fall to keep the MDR on FR rather than DD. And now with DD being postponed for OA and AL and with the problems of DD implementation on QU, this seems like a good decision.

No real problems with DD took 2months to get most of the reservation kinks worked out. Split 50/50 on our cruise when an informal poll was done during captain Q&A. Sailing on Freedom and am ok with either.