IWORK2CRUISE

I pulled off a great surprise for my husband by bringing our 27 year old son! Epic 12/14/13.

We don't get to spend a lot of time with him and he had mentioned sometime back that he would like to go on another cruise. I knew it would make my husband happy, too.

While I couldn't keep it secret from our son, we did manage to keep his Dad in the dark until the evening before we flew to FL.

Son called asking to "drop in" for a visit before going to stay with a friend. That evening I pulled out the cruise docs and asked husband to take a look.

He was very surprised and pleased once he read sons name at the top!

I was on Epic 12/14-21 and have been pretty sick this past week.

My husband is coughing and has a sore throat but I have had much more congestion, headache, fever, etc. I have slept an awful lot the past few days!

 

I never felt any symptoms while on the cruise and place the blame more on the airport and airplane.

Just off of Epic yesterday and I heard some passengers remark that Epic will not return to Miami next fall. She may be staying in Europe.

Again, this was something that I overheard. There may not be any credabiltiy to it.

Oh my!

I have seen some of the glitches display 125,000-150,000 per person for 7 days.

Yours takes the cake!

I wonder how long you could charter the whole ship for?

Maybe you should wait a day or two before you make your decision.:)

New cruiser & 1st time poster. Just back from 1st NCL cruise at Canadian Thanksgiving (Sky) & loved it so much we immediately booked another: leaving on the Epic this coming wkd! Can't wait!

 

On the Sky they did the Danza Kuduro & I wish I'd joined in earlier! Looking to practice a bit this week before we go, and trying to find a video online of Danza Kuduro the way they teach it on NCL. Tried YouTube & Google but luck.

 

Any seasoned NCL-ers out there who can suggest a video link? Much appreciated!!

Welcome to cruise Critic

I don't know Kuduro.

But, come on over to our roll call.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1755588&page=17

We enjoyed our "really big balcony" on the Sun.

Actually, we had an inside cabin and spent most of the inside passage sail on the top deck of the ship.

This was a terrific place to be.

We were mesmerized by the scenery and could move port or starboard whenever we saw or heard of whales, eagles, etc.

 

If I were to book Alaska again and had the opportunity to have a balcony, I would want a forward or aft.

Yes, SAS is often recommended and we have used them, but I believe they will no longer take you to a hotel in Miami as they did in the past, only to the cruise pier. This time we booked with MJS Trans on recommendations here. Look for Gomjstrans on the web. $39 down to Miami for 2 people and return will probably be $13 per person.

 

Maybe someone else can chime in on what time they usually start boarding. I would say 10:30 to 11:30. I doubt you will get a pass if you are not in the first group called to board based on what I read here. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they are usually gone 15 to 20 minutes after boarding starts. They only sell 40 or 50. I'd get to the pier at 9:00 if you can. Good luck!

 

We have a confirmation from SAS to transport us from FLL to our hotel near Port of Miami on 12/12.

I do think it may be true that they do not go to all areas of Miami.

"Shuttle Service from FLL Airport (Fort Lauderdale, Broward County)*

to the Port of Miami and Downtown Area Miami Hotels

We are a Ft. Lauderdale based company and because of Permit Restrictions we cannot offer Miami to Miami Trips*

I happened to win in 2011 on Radiance.

The certificate said "best available inside or ocean view" and I had to submit three dates/ships.

At the time Allure was the newest ship and was excluded.

I selected two dates on Oasis and one on Explorer.

We got one of the Oasis dates and were assigned a forward facing ocean view on deck 10 that suited us just fine.

 

Apparently, we could have paid to upgrade to a balcony but we didn't feel the need to. What a great opportunity we had to try a new and beautiful ship! Especially since we had been hesitant to book such a large ship. FYI, we loved it and did not feel that it was too crowded as we had feared.

 

Congratulations to OP nealstuber. I hope you will bring your winning son as a third passenger.

Congratulations to shelpt, too.

Might want to check her airline ticket while you're at it~!

Always good to question if you are not sure.

My passport has my first name, maiden name (now middle name) and last name.

My husbands has first name, middle name and last name.

 

The cruise line for many years had First Name and Last Name. They now have a middle initial.

 

In my experience it has been more important for the passport name to match the airline name.

Again, that is just my experience.

One of our favorite cruises was on the Sun.

We sailed for 18 days from Vancouver to Alaska and back then on to San Francisco and the Mexican Riviera and back to San Francisco.

We loved that ship! It was prior to some renovations.

 

We would love to sail her again. Our schedules don't always coincide.

 

While our next cruise happens to be on Epic, we generally prefer smaller ships.

Watched her sail out, too. We go in 2 weeks and are really looking forward to it.:)

Frankly, I missed the line about Independence and just thought it was a generic questionnaire.
We have sailed numerous times on RCCL and have a cruise booked on Rhapsody for 09/2014 so I just thought they were contacting C&A members.
I did complete the survey and there were no questions about the Independence or drink vouchers.
You had to rate preferences for amenities and services.

It seemed that in some instances, they want to know if people preferred bathrobes or early disembarkation. Those are just some comparisons to the way questions were aasked.

Personally, I would never select early disembarkation. Drag me off the ship kicking and screaming!

I don't know about their hotels but we booked on our own in August, 2012 and were quite pleased. We also used credit card points and only spent about $20- $30 of our own cash.

 

Pre-cruise was The Tivoli Hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Post-cruise was Copenhagen Admiral Hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark

 

The Tivoli was modern and fun and had air conditioning. Also, quite an easy walk to Tivoli Gardens.

The Admiral was right on the water and had an old feel to it. I had thought that I read about AC but it didn't have it. We kept the windows open and used the fan.

 

The cruise line hotels are not always your best bargain. Look at a map to see hotel locations and check your own travel discounts.

The best thing about both of our hotels is that we were in walking distance of most popular sites.

Have a great cruise!

You will likely receive many answers/opinions.

Some of our most memorable cruises have been on smaller ships so we were reluctant to try a very large ship.

A little over 2 years ago I won a a free cruise while playing bingo on Royal Caribbean. We used that opportunity to try Oasis of the Seas and really enjoyed it. It didn't "feel" as big as we thought because there were so many different areas and activities. Not everyone gathered en mass. So, we started to think about trying Epic since we also love NCL.

 

Although NCL Dawn is one of our favorite (not small) ships we are sailing out on Epic for the first time next month.

 

From all that I have read, we should have a wonderful time. I do think though, that we will return to some smaller ships.

Thanks everyone.

No need. We always choose "our time" and have not had to wait long.

Some guests do prefer to pre-schedule but we prefer to have the option of watching a beautiful sunset without a rush to get ready.

 

 

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We have never used SAS but have heard good reviews in the past.

We will travel to FLL in December and need to go to our Miami hotel pre-cruise.

We then need to go from Port of Miami back to FLL after our cruise.

 

Any thoughts/suggestions/ideas?

 

Thanks!

To the OP,

Thank you for sharing and hope all is well.

My first thought after hearing about the terrible typhoon was of some of the lovely crew members we have met over the years.

Prayers for all who have families in the Philippines.

Cruising in December.

First time using Priceline and we got the Regency Hyatt Miami for 130.00. It comes to 156.00 with taxes.

I had thought that we would have had an opportunity to say yes or no but that is not how it works :(

We had hoped for the Intercontinental but are happy to still be near Bayside and paying less than the rates we could have booked directly through either hotel.

I do wish they still offered this from our area. Many years ago we sailed on the NCL Crown from NY to Bermuda. We took their bus service from Stamford, CT.

Now, if leaving from NY we drive and pay to park :(

Please note my cc name!

Unfortunately, I still work to pay many other bills. :(

One can still dream....

We loved JS 7414 aft!

It is so peaceful back there.

I did not know that the NCL "free" cruise was not actually free.

On our last Gem cruise the woman who won showed no real excitement and then stated that she was on the cruise because she won it at bingo on her last cruise!

I was most fortunate to win a free cruise at bingo on RCCL (I was so excited, I almost passed out) and we got to submit three dates and ships that would be "best available inside or ocean view" for caribbean cruises. They also did not include the New Jersey departures.

We had an amazing forward ocean view on Oasis and did not pay anything additional other than gratuities.

 

AND, I don't like the bingo machines. I always play on the paper boards.

I'll add another yes for Embassy Suites.

We enjoyed the Managers cocktail hour with free drinks and snacks as well as the morning breakfast.

The room was spacious and comfortable.

Good location. We walked down in the early morning to see ships arrive, then went back for breakfast, shower, change and depart. They ran shuttles to the port (maybe $12.00-$15.00 for the two of us?)