CaptnG

Guess we’re going to be making the long trek down the hall... oh well

Thanks for the information! good to know in advance so I don’t get my hopes up. 

We've booked the last balcony at the aft of the ship on deck 6 of Symphony of the seas. Does anyone know if there is direct access from the boardwalk to the stateroom hallway? I saw a cabin review that made me think there might be a door at the end of the hallway, which would be nice cause walking the hallways always feels much longer than a walk across the boardwalk, but I couldn't tell for sure. 

I’ve been checking the pricing for the water park on our cruise On The Symphony pretty frequently for the last three months and it seems to fluctuate from as low as  71$  up to 98$. Worth watching to see if you can get a lower rate.

Did you maybe buy the half day pass?

I did a back to back a few years ago started with 7 days on the Harmony and then we got onto the Freedom for another 8 days, the kids definitely preferred Harmony, I like them both but I didn't enjoy how on Freedom basically almost everything shut down by Midnight. 

I've been taking the direct Alaska flights to FLL from SEA for years now. Flying home there's basically two options, before the ship arrives back to port, or early evening... I've rented a car and gone to the beach to relax until our evening flight, but decided last time to just stay an extra night and fly out the next morning and thought that was a much more pleasant experience. 

We are going again this October and I got a little more creative this time because we didn't have an extra day to spend in FLL. I found one-way millage tickets on Alaska returning from MIA to SEA for only 12,500 points, because they partnered with American Airlines we're leaving MIA at noon instead of hanging around all day. Very excited! 

Thanks for the awesome review! We're sailing Horizon next March and it will be our first experience with Carnival. My kids are HUGE fans of Royal Caribbean Harmony of the seas, and had really wanted us to try the Symphony next March, but the price was twice as much! Carnival has always had a bit of a bad reputation in my mind so we'd avoided it, but the more I learn about all the cool stuff they offer at no extra cost the more excited I get! Gelato bar looks delicious, and I'm really looking forward to trying the world famous Guys Burger. Can't wait to be back at sea! :)

It was sort of an awful last day, having everything close so early and not knowing when we’d finally get to disembark. I’m sure it was also frustrating for those waiting to get on. I do feel like the last two days were soort of a mess in general since they announced we wouldn’t be into New York on time and lines to use the phones and internet to make alternative travel plans were outrageously long. By the time we finally got off on Saturday night it was almost midnight, didn’t get to the hotel until after midnight and didn’t get to sleep till after one am, had to follow that with a 6am flight.. not how we’d envisioned the end of our vacation, but I suppose there wasn’t much to be done about it. 

I only wish they had keep service going throughout the day. Even if they had canceled drink packages at least we could have gotten a glass of water without having to go all the way up to the buffet.

Thanks for sharing all your stories! It’s really helping to make me feel more comfortable with my choice to go ahead with my cruise. I had booked this trip as a surprise for my mom last Mother’s Day, and we’ve been excitedly planning ever since. Unfortunately my moms health has taken a turn for the worse and she’s not able to come. She’s encouraged me to go ahead, and I’ve been worried how I’ll feel traveling alone for the first time. I’m very hopeful after reading all your stories that I’ll be able to make the most of this trip. Although it will be bittersweet without her.

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We will also be renewing our vows at Magens Bay next week. We married there 20 years ago and promised to return and renew them every 10 years, which we did in 2008.

On both occasions, we did it away from the main beach area down among the trees to the south. But we've been hearing that the hurricane did a number down there and you wouldn't recognize it the same as it was.

Did you find it being that bad of condition from the hurricane?

You should look on youtube, there's lots of videos showing St Thomas after Irma. Looks like Megan's Bay was greatly affected, at the time the video I watched was shot there was no green vegetation left at all.

Oh! forgot to mention whale watching!

On my second visit to Dominica I went with a friend, I wanted to river raft, she wanted to go whale watching..It was my birthday so we decided to river raft Dominica, and whale watch in Grenada. Big mistake we found out! The whales are protected in Dominica not in Grenada. Our table mates took the whale watching tour in Dominica and saw so many whales, said they had an amazing experience...However, when we went on the whale watching trip in Grenada the next day we found out they basically never see whales, the guide said she'd been working on the boat for 5 years and only seen them once!

Lesson learned!

Dominica is lovely! I haven't been since the Hurricane last year, so I'm not sure what the current condition is.

I would highly recommend taking the open jeep tour that tours the island and goes to Ti Tou Gorge. We went to some beautiful gardens, smelled lots of amazing herbs, and flowers, including the main ingredient for chanel #5. The stop at Ti Tou Gorge was one of my best experiences ever, it's a fresh water stream through a gorge carved from an ancient volcanic eruption, we swam up a ways to a waterfall and jumped into the water from the rocks. The fresh water is rather cool, but when you get back to the entrance point there's a small waterfall of shower warm water heated from a thermal spring that you can rinse off and warm up in. The best part was that there were no other tours there, and apparently no one else on our jeep wanted to swim, so it was just us and the guide.. Not often you get the whole place to yourself on a cruise sponsored tour.

If you didn't enjoy Dominica because of the obvious poverty, I implore you to take a second look and focus your sights on the natural beauty of this island.

The weather was beautiful in South central Alaska for the first two weeks of September, blue bird sky and fall leaves [emoji260] anyone visiting got a real treat. Very special to have seen the beluga in Cook Inlet too. Hope you had a fantastic trip!

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Help! I’m taking my mom on her first cruise this October on the Breakaway from NY to the Carribean. She lives in remote Alaska, generally all she wears is jeans and T-shirts, and has no opportunity to shop before we leave, so I’ve offered to help and get a swim suit and a few other things for her. I asked what she wanted and got mostly generic answers, so I’m hoping you might have some advice. My mom is in her late 60s, she’s slender but not in great shape... any stores, items, or ideas would be very much appreciated! I know this is a very personal question to ask for help on, but I’m hoping a few of you ladies might know where to go to find something simple that anyone could wear?

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We have now cancelled the rental car and will take the Seabourn coach option from the Captain Cook hotel (they also depart from the airport). We can check in for the coach from 9:30AM and the last service departs at 11AM. It is a short walk from where we are staying at the Hilton.

 

The coach is cheaper and will get us there at about the same time with no worries about driving on the “wrong” side of the road!

 

 

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Sounds like a good choice! Sit on the right side of the bus to get the inlet views, and views of Kenai lake as you get close to Seward.

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Have to know.. as shown on the menu pic, what are clam chowder nuggets?!

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I only had time for a quick response this morning, so this is a fairly simplified explanation why it is difficult to provide average wave height that provide reasonable accuracy.

 

 

 

You will hear many people discussing waves & swell and many believe they are actually synonymous. This could not be further from the actual truth, however current wave height are a combination of both.

 

 

 

Wind waves are generated at the vessel's current location and the direction is consistent with the wind direction. The simplified explanation of wind wave height depends on 3 primary factors - wind speed (more wind = higher waves), wind duration (length of time wind direction is constant) and the fetch (uninterrupted distance the wind blows over the ocean). This is the reason in coastal waters and rivers you find wind waves are much smaller compared to ocean crossings.

 

 

 

Wind waves are closer together than swells.

 

 

 

Swells are created by distant storm systems that can be many hundreds, even thousand miles away. The wind waves created at the storm centre gain significant energy and travel vast distances over open oceans. Swells tend to be longer and lower.

 

 

 

All assumes open ocean transits, as shallow water significantly affects wave/swell heights.

 

 

 

Hopefully, this fairly simple explanation provides an idea how accurate wave height predictions are really only possible days or a few weeks in advance.

Great explanation! Thanks for providing so much insight.

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Sea conditions are less predictable than tempertures or even general weather patterns. There are certain areas where, given the right conditions, heavy seas might be expected: the Bay of Biscay, for example, due to its shape and shoaling seabed will likely give you the highest seas of any part of the Atlantic —— IF there has been strong steady winds from the northwest. In a period of variable winds from the south or east, it is likely to be as flat as anywhere. There is a patch of the Mediterranean south of Marseilles which can be very rough with a wind out of the north funneling down the Rhône valley - other times it will be as calm as the Bay of Naples following a windless week.

 

 

 

You get what you get - there are seasons: that half of the year when hurricanes MIGHT impact the Caribbean, the Gulf and East Coasts - but some years are active and others not. Around the Spring equinox Hatteras can get very nasty - but mostly not.

 

 

 

Sea conditions are so variable that the sort of meaningful statistics you seem to want are not really available.

I might be just putting my foot in my mouth here, cause you seem to have a lot of knowledge on the subject.. but as I was reading I was thinking how if you combined the information you shared, like what wind speeds and direction are most likely to cause rough seas with, for example..the historical weather forecast for NW winds near the bay of biscay, or when north winds off the Rhône valley are more frequent, perhaps with enough data you might be able to create something like what the OP was asking for. Like any distant weather forecast it would only provide averages, but come on we’re on CC, clearly we’ll take all the information we can get. [emoji12]Sounds like a really interesting idea to me.

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Bummer! Hope you were able to get out and explore town a little at least.

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Hope it works for you! Let me know if you have any trouble finding the app.

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There’s an app called ship mate, it lets you add your historical cruises and then provides not only the itinerary, but ship stats too.

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Not as old as some, but my first cruise was in 2003 on the Sun Princess, believe she was built in 1995. I also sailed on the millennium back in 2011, thought she was a lovely ship.

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Have you googled him? He might have a webpage or fan site that will give his schedule.

Good suggestion, I did try, and found a Facebook page but it didn’t have anything recent on it. 🤷*♀️

Guess we’ll find out when we’re onboard.

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Thanks for the responses, guess I’ll just keep my fingers crossed we see him this October.

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He was on one of my three Breakaway trips in the last 3 years. Good entertainer. A lot of entertainers come and go, so it's hard to know! (Except Arvin and Emily, who I am pretty sure are audio animatronic and fastened to the floor because they've always been there)

Hahaha think you might be onto something [emoji28]

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