Carolina Girl 99

Also thought I would mention that there is currently a Latitudes past guest offer on select sailings (a couple of Breakaway ones that I'm considering, too) with 20% off passengers 1 and 2 fare, plus the Free at Sea offers, so check that out, too!

Hi Kim- I don't have any additional answers to your questions that have already been answered, just wanted to say hello. I'm also looking at a couple of Breakaway sailings- when are you going?

36 minutes ago, Herbaltees said:

Are you able to upgrade from your package to another if you want more?

You can't upgrade per se, but you can buy an additional SDP to supplement the free meals

How many dinners are included are based on the length of your cruise. I have a 14 day booked on Breakaway that includes a 5 SDP. If I remember correctly, the 7 day cruises include a 3 SDP

13 hours ago, psmarkle said:

PS. we were just in the Hilton Head area 2 days ago looking at that new Jimmy Buffet Latitudes 55+ neighborhood under construction!  A lot to like there!

I moved to the area in 2005, really love it here and so many things within reasonable driving distance- Florida ports, Atlanta, Charlotte, etc. We are in Bluffton, off the main highway about 10 minutes from Margaritaville. Haven't checked it out yet, as I'm about 3 years shy of the age requirements 🤣

14 minutes ago, Wave61 said:

Looking for something different for a change from the usual mojito......what's in a lava flow?

While the Miami Vice is a swirled blend of Pina Colada & Strawberry Daiquiri, the Lava Flow is similar with pineapple, coconut and strawberry flavors swirled together, sometimes with a banana and sometimes not depending on who makes them

This will be our very first Carnival cruise.....what's in the Funship?

My mom saw an ad for 'Provo Ponies' and wanted to check them out for our stop at Grand Turk. I told her that unfortunately they were located in Providenciales and not anywhere near the cruise port. So I started searching to see if anything was available for GT and came across 2 companies who do horseback riding: Chukka and Sunset Rides and Tours. Chukka only offers their tours when booked through the ship and unfortunately are not available (or already sold out) for our cruise. I'm still waiting to hear back from Sunset, but it looks like they can be booked independently. Has anyone gone riding with either company and can give a review? Most reviews I found online were not very recent. TIA!

4 hours ago, architect1337 said:

 

Very busy at bars with too few bar people. 

To get a drink, you need to go to a bar. Very few pool attendants walking around. 

We were Aurea on Seaside and spent a lot of time at the Top 19 Solarium deck. The Miramar bar is located up there and they had plenty of staff walking around taking orders when we wanted something

No, you just have to buy the ONE Plan and it can be shared among 4 devices. It registers the MAC address of the device, so it's definitely shared by device and not by the number of users if that makes sense

I almost always see fresh melons (honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon), pineapple, bananas, apples, oranges and maybe a few pears. Oftentimes there is some canned fruit out as well. I pretty much never see fresh berries on any line or ship out on the buffet. My thoughts are that they are quite perishable and expensive compared to other fruit that is bought in bulk. I have ordered fruit plates many times and gotten a really nice selection of fruit that is not otherwise found on ships- berries, grapes, kiwis, etc

for me it's typically a Miami Vice or Lava Flow

On 7/19/2019 at 5:04 PM, Charles4515 said:

 

There is a water park there. X2O adventures. Daniels Head is a good place to spot turtles. I posted about the electric boats last weekend. You don’t need to rent the boats or use the water park. Or you can rent a boat at H2O watersports in Somerset and head that way. 

 

 

Once again- thank you for the valuable information! How does Daniel's Head compare to Horseshoe- is it even fair to ask? And about how far/long of a drive is it from the Dockyard?

Book this one instead- it's cheaper than booking through the ship, gets better reviews and sails less crowded

https://www.restlessnative.bm/excursions
 

I was doing a little research on Bermuda for our upcoming cruise and stumbled across an article for 2-seater electric boats you can rent. Now, in keeping on topic- further investigation revealed that the boat rentals are at Daniel's Head Beach Park and reviews of that area said that sea turtles were often found swimming there. It appears to be a semi-secluded area, fairly close to the Dockyard and without the crowds that Horseshoe gets.

Interested in hearing from anyone who has experience with DHBP

2 hours ago, Bases5 said:

I love me some Carnival but I really like Royal. If you want to try Royal you have to really work at it, but you can find pricing very close. 

 I don’t think you can just pick a date and match. 

 I actually found a balcony on Oasis cheaper than a balcony on Carnival for my date range. 

 I have been looking and checking for months.

it can be done. It’s our first Oasis class and we are very excited 

↑ This! We took our one and only (so far) cruise out of PC on Oasis last summer - August 2018, in an Ocean View balcony with 3 people for $1911 total, including taxes and fees. I basically just stumbled across the date/price on one of those online TA sites where it's easy to search. I clicked all the way through to picking a room, got a price, took a screen shot and called up my regular TA, who verified she could get me that price. I think it's really hit or miss on what you can find out there for any given time

My son and I went to Roatan in 2017 and wanted to do ziplining as we had missed it the year before. I ended up booking us the Sun-Splash and Zip adventure through Roatan Ocean Adventures. For the bargain price of $65pp they took us to Jungle Top (closest to the port) where we spent probably 60-90 minutes doing the Canopy zip line tour, then we drove to the other side of the island past Mahogany Bay for some excellent snorkeling and finally they took us by boat over to Little French Key for a couple of hours of beach time. Highly recommend this tour!!

 http://roatanoceanadventures.com/?page_id=7

That's an awesome upgrade price and Escape's spa is fantastic!! Enjoy your cruise and Bermuda!!

4 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

I'm talking about just one, not both

See, I've been wondering about this as well. For example- 2 in a cabin are both required to buy the Deluxe package even though 1 doesn't want it. After buying the package, it is listed in the order history for both passengers as a separate item, with a cancel button showing. Could you conceivably just cancel the package for ONE passenger through the planner? This might be a good time to test that theory, esp if one bought at the sale price for the sake of buying, but didn't really need or want thepackage in the first place

If you don't need CFAR (cancel for any reason) or pre-existing condition coverage, you can often buy your policy up until a few days (or even 24 hours) before your departure date. I don't get either (mostly insuring for medical/evacuation as those can be very costly expenses) and never buy my policy before final payment is made. A few policies that insure for hurricanes and named storms need to be purchased about 7 days before coverage is effective, so if my cruise is during hurricane season as it often is, I buy a little earlier or really keep a good eye on weather reports

Booked an OV Balcony gty for Oasis in Aug 2018 and got assigned cabin 12722. Upper deck, no obstruction, but so far aft that is was a long walk down that corridor every time. Would book  gty cabin again

Since we've dredged up an old post- how about the rum cakes in Bermuda? We're going there in September and I know they sell them at the Dockyard. Any experience with those particular ones? They are pretty pricey compared to Tortuga 😯 maybe they offer free samples before buying!

https://www.dockglass.com/product-category/bdarumcakeco/rum-cake/

"Pedi-cabs"....thanks, couldn't remember the proper term for them. 

5 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

 

This was my speed test on Mariner April 28 2019.  The ship was docked at Nausau when the test was done. It was probably about 8am.  I was able to stream video at various times of the day.  Other times streaming had serious buffering. After dinner was a lot worse than most other times.  Mornings were best.  I uploaded images to CC no problem, surfed most websites without trouble, checked email and played online chess without a problem. I remember a 30 minuets FaceTime video call that worked without to much trouble on the afternoon just before sailaway on the same day as the test. I toured my grand daughter around the buffet, pool, waterslides, arcade and adventure ocean.  I think it dropped the connection twice in a dead spot or two but we were able to reconnect easily and carry on. I was reasonably satisfied with performance on Mariner.

Thanks- just the info I was looking for!

10 hours ago, dbrown84 said:

They don't guarantee you get to the ship in the departure port (since they can't control the airlines), but if you miss they will fly you to the next port.  The transfers between the airport and dock will be automatically added to your booking.  I've read mixed comments on whether you can remove it or not, but I choose to use the NCL shuttle for mine.  For $32 round trip (Miami) it was worth it.  I would've saved maybe 5 bucks doing my own transportation

7 hours ago, GA Dave said:

I live in Savannah and AA now has nonstop flights to and from MIA.  I checked for September of this year and they show a 6:13 AM and a 5:03 PM flight down to MIA and a 2:53 PM and a 9:50 PM flight back.  When my DW and I went on the Getaway last September out of Miami, we did our own flights on Delta thru ATL, as AA was only offering the early AM down/late PM back flights at that time.  We also have status with DL, so we were able to book very reasonable Economy Comfort + seats at more reasonable times than the AA flights.

Thank you both for the information! GA Dave, I know they finally started a SAV-MIA route recently, but I'm still seeing typically high prices for flying out of SAV

16 hours ago, PistolPete13 said:

 

The dolphins were inside the National Museum of Bermuda which is right across from where the ship docked.  Admission to the grounds is $15 USD.  The dolphins are part of the "Swim with Dolphins" program that was an NCL Excursion.  A bit expensive at $300 per person.  

I was there first thing in the morning (10AM or so) when then opened and the trainers were feeding the dolphins.  After walking around the ground for an hour I came back to the dolphin area.  The folks participating in the dolphin excursion were in the water at this point so I took a few photos of that.  You can sit there and watch the action for as long as you want to for the admission price to the museum. 

The clocktower mall definitely didn't open before 10AM while I was there.  Not sure about the closing time however.

 

Enjoy your trip!!

Thanks for all the info, Pete. I actually found a website for the Dolphin swim at the Museum, with about 16 different activities/encounters available. I did something similar in Hawaii and would love to do it again.

https://dolphinquest.com/bermuda/programs/