franl24fan

You can park off the property a half the price at ParkNGo :D

They have a free shuttle that which runs to any terminal the ships go to.

No need to call them after a return- they run all the time and they're only 5 minutes away.

I am going down for the Harmony next month. I had always used Park N Go, but when they redid I595 it now dumps into the port, with no exit directly to Eller Drive. If I am coming from Florida Turnpike on 595, how do I now get into the park n go, and also how do I get back on 595 when I leave. I am a senior lady that finds the traffic in port area to be a real challenge for me, other drivers have no patience and I've missed my turns when in wrong lane.

My friends always park at the port, but I think the congestion there would be a real challenge for me.

I am looking at other parking lots that might have easier access from 595, maybe on Rt 84 or Rt 1.

Carnival offers Faster to the Fun, for a fee you get priority embark, earlier cabin availability. Seems to be pretty popular. Although I would like early cabin to go along with my priority embark I can see that being hard on the cabin stewards.

Love that name.

Leaving a note or saying anything usually results in more noise. No earplugs or white noise machine blocks it. On a cruise there are many late night activities so the coming and going is worst.

Since people are rude the only option is for hotels and cruise ships to change the door but that requires money.

Last cruise the slam family of parents and a teenager 2 cabins down set a record since I have started keeping track (can't sleep so I amuse myself). From midnight to 1AM they came and went 56 door slams. The next morning they had out the do not disturb sign. I used a house phone to call their cabin, when they groggily answered the phone I told them I would be calling them back the number of times they slammed their door after midnight. I got to 10 calls before they disconnected their phone. Next night no door slamming, but still loud talk and cursing.

You need reservations even early in the season. The tour that is most recommended is the 8 hour tour, it goes to the end of the paved road. I was a little leery of that long a time on a school bus, but it was awesome. The bus has comfy cloth seats with ample leg room. The tour makes several stops at comfort stations (although being warned to be on lookout for bears was a little unsettling). The box lunch that was provided was more than adequate and the contents were very tasty (I passed on the elk jerky), if you add your own half sandwich you will be very full. The driver was outstanding, a longtime Alaska resident that really passed on her love of the wilderness and what it is like to live in Alaska. She had a super zoom lens on a camera that fed up to video monitors throughout the bus, great for those of us "binocular challenged", elk way across the valley were on the monitor as if right next to the bus. We left the depot at 1PM and got back about 9:30, a little later than scheduled, but the time flew by, I was never bored or uncomfortable.

Whether you see Denali itself is a minute to minute thing. We came down from Fairbanks on the dome car and saw it twice, inside the park it never peeked out, and we didn't see it from Talkeetna. It is really hard to make out because it is snow covered white against a white backdrop. There are several other awesome mountains that the guides will sometimes claim to be Denali, but aren't :-).

I did the southbound cruisetour from Fairbanks and overall it was awesome. The best advice I can give is to budget a lot for meals, since they are not included in the land portion. The hotels used also do not include breakfast, so that can be another $10/person for continental. At most stops you have limited time, and no transportation, to find a selection of reasonable priced eateries, so you will spend easily $15/person for a sandwich at lunch, and over $25 for a burger for dinner, lots more if you want steaks or seafood.

My other major issue was the way the schedule was drastically changed, not just when there was an issue like the power at the lodge going out, but almost every day. It seemed to me the guides knew the schedule was not accurate ahead of time, but nothing was given to us. For example, the schedule said "afternoon arrival to Anchorage, free time and dinner on your own". We pulled into the downtown hotel at 4:30PM, almost everything was closed by 5PM. "Free afternoon" in Fairbanks meant being back at the hotel at 5PM, and although it was light out until 11PM, without a rental car you couldn't get to any museums, although they were closed.

If there is something that is a must see, as Denali Park was for me, I'd recommend arriving early to departure city, getting a rental car and do some things on your own before the tour starts. The schedule changed and we arrived by train from Fairbanks at 12PM, had to grab lunch and get on wilderness tour bus at 1PM, out to 9:00PM, then back to lodge. Our tour didn't go back to Denali the next day. If I had not gone down on my own I would not have been able to see the visitors center, the fil, the dogs and other things.

I think the cruise tour is a once in a lifetime, so yes a lot of research is needed to make the most of it. And you definitely want to do the land tour first, since your days run from luggage out at 6AM and back to hotel at dinner time or later. I was exhausted and slept the first day sea day on the ship.

If you have any other questions I'll try to help.

Princess gives double points, NCL does not.

In the past Princess had solo prices often higher than double. But now I will include them when looking for sales on a unique itinerary.

Seems as if carnival is missing out on a marketing chance. Wonder what the policy is on princess or ncl.

What is really nice on Royal is that I get double points even if I booked at a sale price at less than double cost. Next year I will have enough points to drop to 150 percent, less if cruise is on sale.

I don't chase points but rather itinerary and price, and of course cruise quality, which so far has resulted in Royal being my first choice. The few Carnival Cruises I've been on were quick cruises out of Port Canaveral on smaller ships, but next month will be the Valor, at decent per day rates. All things being equal I will probably choose Royal first because of the loyalty level perks I get, which are also honored on Celebrity. But I am now open to other lines even with fewer points.

As shown in my signature I have primarily sailed on Royal Caribbean. I have reached the highest loyalty program level I can realistically reach. I am now going to be looking at other cruise lines that have different itineraries or lower prices.

I have had a good time on Carnival and have a 4 day cruise booked in November, even with the 100 percent solo surcharge the per day rate was reasonable. But I was surprised that I only receive 4 points, on Royal Caribbean I receive 8 points to reflect the solo surcharge.

Has there been any discussion of Carnival changing their policy?? Is there an email address of Carnival CEO I might at least raise the issue with. That is how we finally got Royal to change.

There was quite a bit of discussion about this on the Diamond/Diamond Plus/Pinnacle thread. There seems to be no pattern as to who got the email offer. Some of us were small time slot players (600 points earned over 7 days), some were big time slot players. C&A status didn't seem to make a difference. Did seem that more folks living in Florida got the offer, guess since they thought we'd drive down to Miami.

Personally I did not find it attractive enough to still spend about $500 for a 4 day cruise on an older ship going to the same old ports. Folks we could easily drive to Miami may have found it worthwhile.

This offer seems to be more related to them trying to fill the Empress cabins while it waits for clearance to start sailing to Cuba, which is why the dates are only until end of year, rather than the recent changes to the casino loyalty program that will keep slot players such as myself from being asked to join the CR Players program and be offered discounts on the more desirable ships.

Every one has a different tolerance level for noise, unfortunately I am a light sleeper. After 2 horrible experiences I would not book cabin with connecting door. I probably overreact and also do not book a cabin near connecting cabins since in my experience those are often booked by folks traveling together and there is a lot of back and forth in the hallway. As a single lady I also don't feel safe. I book my cruises as soon as they open so I can be pretty choosy. I will go with the flow on a cruise unless someone is totally disrespectful of me by their rudeness.

By the way I am finding it more common for land hotels to only have rooms with connecting doors.I call the hotel before booking with them.

I have thanks....right now it's pretty quiet...but maybe I will get lucky later & find someone to share with.

My roll call is also slow. I will ask later where others are staying.

Carol, thanks for contacting Trinity, will be interested in their reply.

At least I have some options that are feasible.

I am starting to research hotels & transportation for my Sept. 2017 cruise on the Anthem....I will have Holiday Inn Reward points I was hoping to use...but the only Hotel I can find in the area is across from the Newark airport...they have an airport shuttle which is great...but is it going to be terribly expensive for me to get to the port the next day? I will be traveling solo....open to all hotel suggestions...the free night would be nice...but not if it's going to cost me more in travel expenses later...

I will be on the Sept 9, 2017 Anthem, also as a solo. What cruise are you on??.

I too was having a hard time finding out how to get to the port etc when I found this blog. Thanks to Carol, who is the guru of all things Cape Liberty, I am now planning on using Trinity Reservations to book a room for the night before the cruise with shuttle to the port the next day. The company just posted on their website that they will be offering packages without the parking included, since many of us fly in and don't need to pay extra for that option. I also don't need shuttle back to the airport, am going to do the ship excursion post cruise that has a short NYC tour with drop off at airport. She has also suggested a few other options for hotels and private car service. As a solo, the car services and taxis are pretty expensive.

Suggest you scroll back several pages and you will find my posts and her responses. It was a big surprise to me that the local hotels do not consider Cape Liberty a major revenue source and therefore do not cater to that market. The hotels around Newark Airport have widely varying reviews, which is always a concern for me, especially safety and cleanliness. Carol has suggested some hotels she uses, which Trinity also has contracts with, so about 6 months out I will work with them and see what is available.

Hope that helps.

 

I love Trinity reservations! I can't find their announcement about sleep/cruise packages. They are currently using the Ramada and Springhill Suites. The hotels are fine, but there are no off property dining or shopping options. The Ramada is a full service hotel. Springhill Suites offers free breakfast but has no restaurant. You have to walk over to the Courtyard to eat or order take out.

 

Here is the website

http://trinityreservations.com/index.php

 

not sure if the new option will apply to all of the airports they handle, but the pricing for the BW, Ramada and Springhill Suites at Newark are all pretty decent. Not too worried about food, I can either get something before I leave the airport or walk over to the courtyard. My concern is that they seem to be a 3rd party agent like some of the hotel booking sites and concern about the hotels honoring the booking. I have googled for reviews and so far haven't found anything.

Price was $70 total for the 2 of us.

 

The price for the sleep/cruise package says the shuttle is included. Was there a reason you still had to pay what appears to be $17.50/person each way??

 

Nice to know info on Staten Island, there is nothing mentioned on either hotel website. I will eliminate them from consideration.

 

I found a website for a company called Trinity Reservations that offers shuttles for a few of the airport hotels (BW and Ramada), you book the hotel thru them rather than direct. They have just announced that starting in Oct there will be packages for sleep/cruise, without extra price for parking. I ran them thru Better Business and Yelp, no negative reviews that I can find.

I will contact Country Inn about 6 months out to book the package and see if I can get a reduced rate for only 1 person going one way. If I book with them I will call a week ahead and see if I can get on the list, if not I should be flying in by noon the day before cruise.

Still trying to get definitive answer from Hilton Garden Inn on Staten Island as to shuttle. They supposedly operate shuttle for their hotel and also the Hampton Inn that said I had to park a car. I sent an email to the hotel managers of both hotels, and also to Hilton Honors customer service.

I will continue to follow this thread and see if anyone else posts where they have had good experiences with a shuttle. And I will have my TA follow up with RCI as to their transfer availability, may also do a mock booking on Choice Air(or whatever it is called now), but I doubt it will be less than SW. Our sailing date thread has been pretty slow, but perhaps as we get closer there might be folks who would want to share a cab, or pick me up at the airport and I'd pay half the parking.

One of the greatest experiences I've had with cruise critic was the group I had on my Jewel TA a few years back, over a hundred active posters, many had done the route before so they knew who to contact for private tours, which they arranged for us. We ended up with twice the tours for half the price of ship excursions. And we didn't worry about getting back to port on time due to traffic jams etc since we had over 50 Pinnacle level cruisers who had the Captain's direct phone number :-). We had our own buses to transfer from London to Harwich, only glitch there was the bus company sent one with too small of a luggage hold for the number of people's luggage, had to hire a big black cab just to carry the extra baggage to the port, but we all took it in stride, price per person was still less than a third of RCI transfer (that required their expensive hotel stay). I have had many wonderful cruises due to the folks on cruise critic who share their knowledge.

Thanks again Carol for being so helpful. If I come up to Country Inn I'd love to buy you a cold one :-).

I would think a hotel would at least offer the cruise shuttle as an enhancement to their marketing plans. I would think anything that would set apart a hotel would be a plus factor. If there is really not that much demand, it would still seem economically feasible for a hotel to offer it either thru their own shuttle or contracted services. But they should at least make sure their websites clearly show the availability, and that the front desk clerks are trained on the details.

In Dania Beach (Ft Lauderdale) a shuttle company is located in the lobby of the hotels, and the hotels websites all specify the park and cruise option. Biggest difference is the length of the free parking, some hotels only do 7 days, some do 21 days. The shuttle is $10/person each way, the room rate is about $30 more than the usual rate, which is worth paying for the free parking. If you are flying in and don't need parking, you just book the usual rate and then buy your shuttle ticket from the company. But Ft Lauderdale has a huge cruise market, as does Port Canaveral.

I guess what is surprising to me is how difficult it is to find options for using something other than a taxi or uber. I wonder why Super Shuttle or some other shared van doesn't offer a transfer from the airport to the port, but they will go to hotels much further away. Has to be something to do with licensing or restrictions by the port itself, which usually translates to someone paid someone for the restriction. That happened at Port Canaveral for a short while, the PC authority voted to not allow offsite parking shuttles to come into the port so the port could collect the $20/day parking for their onsite lot. Lasted a few weeks then there was so much bad publicity and cruisers were contacting the cruise lines in protest, it was reversed. They still put the shuttles at the far end of the pick up zone.

If it weren't for you kind folks on this thread I would still be researching. One thing I notice on the Country Inn and Embassy Suites under the stay/cruise package there is a disclaimer that the shuttle is sign up and first come, which implies I could book that hotel, not get to the sign up sheet early enough and not get on a shuttle. Down here the shuttles run as needed to handle the amount of people who have booked the package, which they know in advance. When the shuttle limits are reached, the package booking option is marked as sold out.

IMO your best option is Country Inns in Elizabeth. Call them directly. They should be able to offer you a transfer for $17.50 one way. Normally they add on $70 to the room rate for two people round trip transfer to get their sleep/cruise rate and I know they have prorated the transfer charge for folks who don't meet the two people round trip mold. If you don't get the answer you want, call back again.

 

If you decide to do the RCL transfer, what hotels are you considering and what is your budget?

Thanks for the info. I don't have a hotel preference. I'd like to be near restaurants for dinner the night I get in, which seems to be those around the outlet mall area. If a hotel has an airport shuttle, has transfer to the port and is clean and safe, a range of $200-$250 would be acceptable.

I will have to see if the RCI transfer can be bought without having booked the air thru them. From Orlando I can fly SW direct into Newark for less than $100 each way, so I doubt the choiceair would be worthwhile.

I'll look into the Country Inns. Have stayed at those before.

Sure seems as if the hotels up there are missing out on a lot of business by not marketing to folks who fly in for a cruise, or drive in but don't want to fight the port traffic. Many hotels near Port Canaveral have websites with easy to find options for cruisers to fly into Orlando, catch a shared shuttle or bus, stay the night before, then be shuttled over to the port. And the rates are very reasonable.

We arranged our transportation to the ship as part of our reservation...

Could you please provide more info on this. Was the transfer arranged thru Royal or thru your travel agent? Where was the pick up point, at the airport or did you need to have booked one of their hotels the night before to get the transfer. What was the cost per person? How far in advance could you book the transfer, maybe it is not showing up when my TA called because I am a year away from sailing, but I need to know my options before I commit to air fare. I would really like to try the Anthem, but not if the hassle factor of getting to the ship is too high.

I have been researching my options for several days (and last year before I cancelled my Anthem reservation out of frustration with lack of information) and find it very frustrating to figure out. Using trains or buses is not feasible for me. As a solo it is very expensive to get a taxi from EWR to port (I was quoted about $75 by companies mentioned on this thread.)

I am used to Florida ports where the hotels clearly show the stay/park/cruise booking option on their websites, with pricing. There are also many reasonable priced options to get to the port, either shared shuttles or taxis.

For the hotels mentioned on this thread and other sites, either the hotel website doesn't show the availability of a shuttle (whether included or at additional cost), the hotel front desk cannot give me the info when I call, the hotels have terrible reviews or are in isolated or unsafe areas.

I called the Hampton Inn Staten Island and was told the shuttle was only available for those who were parking there the night before. I explained I was flying into Newark, would need a hotel shuttle from the airport, stay the night before the cruise, then the next day would need a shuttle to the port. I don't mind paying for a reasonably priced room package that includes free parking, even without a car, as long as the shuttle was offered. Two different clerks insisted I had to park a car there to get the shuttle, which makes no sense. I can understand they don't want someone using the shuttle who hadn't stayed there, but that was not the case.

I sure hope I can arrange the transfer thru RCI, preferably without requiring also booking a super expensive hotel the night before the cruise. I am considering doing the post cruise Manhattan tour with drop off at EWR.

Thanks for any info.

As you can see by my signature I haven't done many Carnival cruises. Last year I did a last minute 4 day Carnival out of PC to Freeport & Nassau. Prime reason was price. As a solo, RCI 4 day cruise was going to come out to over $250/day for an inside cabin on an older ship. Although half the cabins were not booked 3 weeks out, RCI would not waive the solo surcharge or consider my Diamond Plus level.

Carnival was $250 for the 4 days, outside cabin. I liked that the cabin had a big picture window, not a porthole, and the bed was placed crosswise so I could walk around it and get to the window. When I got to the room there were several nice touches - on the bed was a vinyl mat so your suitcase wouldn't get the bed dirty. There were bathrobes in the closet, something I don't always get on RCI. The shower had a heavy duty curtain that stayed put. Nice selection of lotions etc. I liked that on embark day there were many crew members around the ship wearing T shirts that said "ASK ME", and they were very helpful. In the buffet area, I found it very nice that when I was going to get up and find something a crew member would come over and ask what I needed, and often it was a ship officer. As a solo, I have a problem with crew clearing my plate and drink away if I get up to get something, on Carnival they had a little sign you could leave on the table (I borrowed that idea and take one on RCI with me, unfortunately it is usually put to the side and the table cleared :-)). I did find the atmosphere on Carnival I little less "sedate", but not as bad as I expected. Didn't care for x rated shows, but they were clearly marked. Food was adequate, service was as good as RCI, and in some cases better.

I know others have their own opinions, that is what makes cruising great, something for everyone. If I just want a quick trip at a reasonable price I wouldn't hesitate to do Carnival again, just would expect a different experience and enjoy it.

Double points on the land portion if in a JS or better has been the policy at least since they changed from credits to points in 2011.

I also received double points for sailing as a solo, for the land portion as well as the cruise.

Thanks to all of you for posting this info. I have never used a surge suppresor onboard, I only need to recharge my camera battery and my tablet battery so using the one outlet is enough. Sometimes I have a standard extension cord packed and it gets flagged, other times it doesn't.

On my other thread I asked for info about a dual voltage power strip to use while in Ireland, not on a cruise, on a land tour. I ordered one today, and since my chargers are already dual voltage and I have one of those adaptor plugs I should be good. The issue that came up is that if I have one of those power strips with me to use in a hotel pre or post cruise, will it be confiscated. Hate going down to the naughty room. It sounds as if I should just turn it in when I go onboard, and be delayed at end of trip to reclaim it. I won't need it onboard, and it does have a surge suppressor so now I know I don't want to use it. Or I guess I can just leave it home and make do with the one outlet in a hotel room.

I travel with a 4 inch corded fan, plastic blades, since I am in an inside cabin and it at least moves some air around. I never know if it will send me to the naughty room or not. One cruise I was having major bronchitis and really needed more air in the cabin, was feeling so poorly that when I went down to the naughty room I started crying, very embarrassing, but the guard let me keep my fan. The one the ship may provide is the big floor fan, usually dirty and rusty and very noisy. Same inconsistency with my packed food utensils (that I use at hotels pre or post cruise), sometimes the butter knife is confiscated, which of course makes no sense - as if someone can't get a knife from the windjammer. I just let it go, don't bother claiming it at end of cruise, just buy another one at the Dollar Store. Power strips and extension cords are other items that may or may not go thru, so I usually pack them into my carry on bag.

RCI is consistently inconsistent :-).

You would have to cancel prior to final payment. And you may not have a good selection of cabins when you rebook, they are usually empty because experienced cruisers know which ones are not desirable. It primarily depends on if you booked under a promotion such as the BOGO. If you cancel and rebook that promo may not be on (although BOGO has been renewed constantly since 2014). Only way to know is to go online, delete any cookies (or use another computer) and do a mock booking. Although RCI info technology is awful, it does usually recognize if you already have a reservation and will not give you the same pricing as if you used a different computer. Had that happen to me. Without deleting the cookies, the price quoted was higher than my current price. When I used a friends computer, it reflected a slightly lower price, not worth the hassle to change.

In the past year or so prices have usually not been lowered even if cabins are empty. Same as they don't waive the solo supplement even if the ship is sailing half empty on a 4 day cruise to Nassau on an older ship. Makes no sense, but then one thing consistent about RCI is that there is no logic to their pricing or marketing :-)

IMHO your best bet is to book early, watch third party sites for price changes (or sign up for a tracking service), you or your agent call in to get the new price (which they don't have to do since pricing is always quoted as being for new bookings), then after final payment don't look at pricing again :-). You may receive an upgrade offer, although sometimes what they consider an upgrade is actually a worst cabin than what I have.

I'm sure others on here will have other comments.

On the few ships that have the swiper I just use any card that has a magnetic strip, such as my AAA card or my library card. That way my credit cards stay safely locked up in the safe. Don't know why they have not changed the instructions. Very few ships with the swiper are still out there.

I can't handle the smoke either so I limit my time in the casino to when it first opens in the morning, it seems smokers sleep in late :) Or if there is a day when the ship is in Labadee or Coco Cay & most folks are ashore. Some ships do have better air cleaners, I was on the Explorer last Feb and the air in the casino had a fruity non smokey smell all of the time. Aside from the smoke and smell, I really get annoyed when a smoker sits at a machine for an hour playing about $5, just to have a place to sit & smoke. It's a shame they eliminated the no smoking on formal nights, I definitely stay out of the casino then, the smoke is hard to get out of my dress clothes.

Fortunately for most cruises that I go on, the ports we go into have land based casinos that have better non smoking areas and pay off better. So I get my penny slot fun off of the ship. I especially like the casinos in Canada, they are totally non smoking.