CruisinNole

We still have ours from Sun Viking, 1993 and Nordic Prince, 1992, plus our sea pass cards and Compasses. Great little ships.

We are boarding Brilliance today. Just got word that the ship will depart at 10:00pm. All aboard at 9:30pm. Add 7 1/2 hours to your scheduled boarding time for your new boarding time. Ship won't dock in Tampa until 5:00pm. I'll believe it when I see it! Have you heard if Serenade will still dock at Terminal 6?

Update at 3:00pm.

Thanks for the info about Cozumel. Our next update is at 3:00pm. We're thinking that we might want to eat an early dinner. No telling when we'll get on the ship. I'll make a note to find out the email for someone who can help you with specialty dining planning.

We're boarding today. Just received an email. No ETA. Next update at 11am. Don't come early. You will be turned away.

We won't be able to make our 11:00am boarding time. Brilliance and Serenade are fogged out of Port Tampa! Latest word is that the ships probably won't dock until 1 or 2 pm. I feel for those passengers missing flights --- on Thanksgiving weekend, no less. She was our last cruise before the lockdown as well and this cruise and one in March, are rebooked (and rebooked and rebooked!) from 2020 and 2021. I will definitely try to post pics of the daily planners. A lot of activities have been loaded on the app. I believe you can view our cruise on the app.

Not too long ago, there was going to be an increase of price of gratuities so we went ahead and paid ahead of time. Can't remember if it was Royal or Celebrity.

I agree. We cruised out of PE in August and it was so easy. We dropped the bags off first and had no issues parking. We don't cruise out of Miami if we can help it. "Mess" is a perfect description.

We've cruised on Brilliance around 10 times. It's our favorite Royal ship. We'll be on her in less than 2 weeks. She is older and doesn't have all the bells and whistles but we like the size of the ship. She was our last cruise before Covid lockdown so it will be interesting to see her condition 3 years later.

We've done the 3-night package on Brilliance and then use our D+ BOGO for the other two nights. We aren't big on main dining. However, I don't see the 3-night package offered on my cruise on 26 Nov 22, just UDP and Chops+1.

Hello Neighbor, we're in North Port. We're fortunate to have water and power and the same spotty cell coverage. Flooding is terrible. I'm from Miami and have been through way too many hurricanes, including Charlie which devastated Punta Gorda in 2004. I told my husband that the next hurricane, we're going to put up the hurricane shutters and go on a cruise!

I don't know if this helps you to make a make a decision but I just heard on a Tampa news station that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are planning to go to Miami to practice for their home game Sunday against the Chiefs. I agree with the poster who posted that you may have problems flying out from BWI later in the week. We live 90 miles south of Tampa and right now, we're kind of on the border between being hit by a hurricane or tropical storm. By Saturday, our rain chance goes from 65% on Friday to 20%.

I too am unable to load the new version of the app on my Lenovo tablet however, I can update the app on my phone. I usually bring my tablet for my husband who has vision issues and has problems reading on a cellphone. November will be our first Royal cruise post-Covid. We'll be on the Brilliance. We cruised last month on Celebrity and he was able to view the main dining room menus on the tablet plus we were given paper menus. Will we be given paper copies of the menus in the main dining room or is viewing menus strictly on the app?

We went to Key West last month on Celebrity Equinox. We noticed a lot of stores closed or going out of business and were surprised how late some stores opened. --11am, noon. Plenty of t-shirt shops though so not to fear!

We are close enough to drive to the port, and we like being able to walk off the ship, get in our car and hit the road. Tampa will be a 9-hour drive for us, so a quick start is no small thing to us. My husband would be beyond livid if we were returned to a different terminal /had to wait for a shuttle. Let's just say, His middle name ain't Patience. You say this has happened "on occasion"? How often is that? I would say that it has happened 3 times out of 8 or 10 cruises. Not frequent. This is a small port. You can see the parking garage from the other terminal. If you take early departure and have to walk to the other terminal, you would lose maybe 10 minutes. The last time this happened, more people were walking than waiting for a shuttle. The few times that we've encountered any traffic problems at Port Tampa have been nothing compared to the normal traffic at the port in Miami.

We've cruised out of Tampa on Brilliance many times and never encountered this. We have, on occasion, left from one terminal and returned to a different terminal. In that case, you either have to walk to the terminal where you parked your car or wait for a shuttle. We were informed on the final day of a cruise that we would be docking at a different terminal. I believe the notice we received said that it was a mile from one terminal to the next. Weather is definitely a factor when this occurs. We use valet parking so that's not an issue. The valet brings your car to you. It's a little more expensive but worth it for us. We've never waited more than a couple of minutes for our car.

When we were not able to find one of our bags in Miami, I reported it to a woman in the baggage claim area who took all the info. Our tag was #2. We searched through bag tags numbers into the 30s and gave up because we rode down with friends who wanted to hit the road. About 2 hours later we get a call. The bag had been placed in the wrong bag tag area, in with bags with tag #38. They wanted us to drive back and pick up the bags. Of course, we told them that was not going to happen and since this was their fault, they needed to ship it to us. We were told that we'd have to pay. I called C&A to complain and we had our bag two days later, no shipping fee. I took a photo of the bag with its two #2 bag tags still attached in case they tried to charge us later on. You should have gotten a special number to call for status on the bag.

I don't feel bad about it all. My husband, who did not serve, likes to attend women veteran get togethers with me because no one thinks he's the veteran and asks him about his service. 😀 It's something I've gotten used to. We joke that I could be in the check out lane at Lowe's in uniform and he would be the one thanked for his service.

I attended a couple but being a female veteran, I was greatly outnumbered!

I hate to sound dense but what happens if you're a D+ in a suite, use up your 5 vouchers and then head to the SL for more drinks? Would you be charged for your cocktails? Asking for a friend. I would never drink that much...

My philosophy is that if you don't tell someone that there's a problem, they won't know. I was always someone who didn't want to be labeled a complainer but started being more vocal about issues after a Celebrity cruise where we had a problem with our cabin door handle mechanism, not the card reader. It would work some times; other times it was very difficult to turn the handle. One day we were struggling with the handle when the cabin attendant came by and assisted us. He told us that we should have told him the first time it happened so he could have contacted maintenance right away. That's when we realized that although it wasn't a huge issue for us, it might be for someone else and once we leave the ship, it becomes a problem for the next occupants. Also, it really made me wonder how long it had been a problem!

Yes, you should not have a problem with walking to Terminal 25 from the garage. There are sidewalks and also police to stop traffic to let you cross. I remember seeing info about the shuttles to Terminal 29 but don't remember seeing the frequency. You might check on the Port Everglades website for information.

There was a movable stand that says Retreat on it. We walked up to the man standing next to it and were guided to the check in area. The waiting area is a very nice large room. Refreshments are available. Great way to check in.

That's it! I couldn't remember Cruise Connection. We live just south of your cousin in North Port.

We too live a little south of Sarasota and there is an option that you might consider. That would be a cruise shuttle. Our experience was pre-Covid and I haven't a clue if the company is still in business but there was a bus that would pick passengers up in Port Charlotte (the nearest pickup for us) and drop them off at their ship. It's a longer trip because they picked up in Ft Myers and Naples also and then made the rounds of the cruise ships to drop off passengers. We used the bus after a transatlantic and were picked up around 10:00 and returned to Port Charlotte around 2:00pm. I believe there might have been a pick up in Venice as well. The price was reasonable too. Less than parking at the port.