Capt_BJ

There's A place where you can rent a Slingshot for guided or DIY beach cruising

Star link versus traditional maritime satellite Is the difference between a moving set of small satellites versus a geostationary satellite. The ONLY place a geostationary orbit can be achieved is ruffly 23,000 miles above the equator. A position that becomes hard to see above 75 north and complicated by mountains in the line of sight. (At this height and in an equatorial orbit in same direction as rotation of earth the speed the bird needs to stay UP matches earth rotational speed and satellite appears to be stationary in the sky) The low earth satellites as your map shows are moving but always in an orbit on a plane which passes thru the center of the earth (physics). Elon has minimal coverage (orbits) covering the low population poles. Nor does he yet carry tv! Note GPS is also A network of low earth orbit satellites. This network is 'complete' including polar orbits and usually at least 3 satellites are within sight and used to determine A 3 dimensional position

Wrt connectivity .... Comments about high latitude don't apply as rather than traditional maritime satellite this ship is using SpaceX Starlink which is low earth orbit network of satellites. I've checked my access at least once a day and it has never exceeded 10mbps, usually well below. Elon ain't convinced me he's got a winner yet. Maybe after a few hundred more of his satellites cloud the sky 🤔

Dunno about ipass but with Florida systems you can temporarily add the rental car tag# to the account which provides backup if the transponder is not read. A good idea. My sun pass even allows setting automatic delete for same information.

Saturn (on now) has a c port in the bedside tables. Most of the other standard USB are low power so a tablet or more (even a kindle fire) needs an adapter of one sort or another.

I'm a Canaveral local who cruises a lot ... last one was out of FLL/Port Everglades. Your transport options are more than LIMITED .... unless you drive they are virtually non-existent! But you've figured that out. You are ATLGIRL? Meaning Atlanta? If so, I-95 probably does not scare you .... the drive is EASY if you are comfortable on I-95. Straight north ~ 2 hours Renting a car IS the best option. At the Canaveral end your choices are (not all agencies have offices here). NATIONAL / ALAMO / ENTERPRISE has a shared office on the port property ..... shared shuttle Budget is next nearest to the port - just a few minutes away but gets reports of being the most hectic when things get busy (more on this at the end) Dollar / Thrifty share a site (and shuttle) a bit further away and AVIS is across the street ... 10 minutes away .... +++++++++++ Port Can' has recently taken over the ranking as 'busiest cruise port' .... not all of the support services have kept up with this growth. The port has acknowledged need for more parking garages and on a BUSY day the rental places get swamped. How do you know if yours is a busy day? Go to the red link then click the orange block .... this will bring up a spreadsheet of a 6 month window of the cruise port schedule (I can' post the link directly cuz when they update it changes ......you would get OLD info) Some days see one or two cruise ships and small ones at that ... NO WORRIES Other days see FIVE even SIX and some of those the BIG ONES .... then all I can say is plan ahead and manage your expectations . . .

p.s. I noted messages on the airport web site several times of late warning of parking garages FULL even the out lying extended parking lots! in fact ... right now .....

'right now' Terminal 1 to SW UberX $85 XL $120 Port to SW over 50 miles MCO to SW about 10 miles

I live an hour away and typically do two one way car rentals for that long of a trip or longer. Doing so starting next week. Yes it takes a lil time to get and return the car but only costing me $50 each end

in round numbers I'd figure travel time of an hour .... it is doable but probably won't be stress free. depending on the ships in PE that day Ft Lau' can be as crazy if not more so then MIA

with regard to waiting for a shuttle etc a BIG factor is the number of ships on the day in question. PC has become the busiest cruise port and frankly some of the services have some catching up to do. If you go here: https://www.portcanaveral.com/Cruise/Cruise-Lines-Schedules and click where it says: CLICK HERE to view cruise schedule you can get the port schedule for about 6 months at a time .. check and see how many ships are due. It could be ONE and then no problems .... and it could be SIX and several of those BIG ONES .... then things get a lil crazy ..... even the port is scrambling announcing construction of two additional parking garages (not yet begun) manage your expectations ....

note that the drink package(s) price will probably change a few times before your cruise ... this is normal (assuming your a few months out). AND note that the price they will show is PLUS 18% gratuity of that daily price. The only good part of this is if you buy and the price goes down you can cancel for a full refund and rebuy at the lower price. On our last RCCL cruise the price I eventually paid was $62/person/day plus grat' and frankly I don't think we got our money's worth but it avoided seeing a bar bill at the cruise end. Pre COVID I never bought until price was below $45. The price changes can be very short lived and for weeks leading up to a cruise I check the price every morning! <btw I'm leaving on a different line next week and their booze package is $25/person/day and includes the gratuity ..... the cruise costs more to be sure {small ship} but it is one of those things I look at for total cost of the cruise>

the accident ......

incident was captured on webcams .... I've linked a youtube copy as a sailor I see a big booboo and even have a theory as to why/how . . . short answer ..... NEVER <try to> cut across the bow of a larger vessel. That ain't in the 'rules of the road' it is just common sense . . . if things go bad the bigger boat always wins.

if you were wondering . . .

the cause ....

3 cruise ships in the cut and approaching terminal as of 3:30 pm

how 'bout a really nice b&b https://www.windemereinn.com/

hmmmmmm today's port activity suggests the pier extension is being used .... but tendering happening as well cuz two biguns in ...

Nor' Star is there at anchor, Viking Saturn at the pier

oops ... duplicate

if you are visual ..... it IS possible to walk to town over the bridge and there IS a free 'shuttle' not necessarily to these specific places ..... You could walk from the port to Publix and back and it would be 5 or 6 miles total <add distance for specific teminal>. I routinely walk this for exercise. Wanna do it pre cruise carrying some groceries one way? Oh, btw, if this is summer it will be 1000 degrees with 120% humidity .....

1055 is TIGHT here's your problem: They would be doing easy walk off the NCL Escape. today 50% or more plan to 'just walk off <early/first>' and ya know .... that math don't work! On one of our cruises folks started queuing up for 'walk off' several hours before we even docked!!!! At a minimum my stress level would be HIGH ..... final answer: 110% on the reactor is possible but not recommended ..... don't forget: port to MCO is 50 minutes with no issues MCO TSA screening is commonly SLOW/crowded/long (got PRE? .... get it) plane doors close 30 minutes before departure time there's the main road from port to MCO and if there is a problem on this road you can get STUCK with no way to get off; or the alternate routes add 45+ minutes to the commute

last hotel I stayed at I drove to and self parked. To get out of the parking lot you needed your key and there was a drop box next to the 'machine'.