franl24fan

We cruise out of FLL several times a year always driving down a day early and stay at the Fairfield on Griffin Rd in Dania. We always use the stay and cruise program. That includes free parking for up to 30 days and free shuttle for 2 to the pier. We've never had a problem with parking there. The only negative is the car gets filthy but that's a minor issue. We also book the shuttle for the return to the hotel to pick up the car. Shuttle service is very good, drivers are nice and it's actually a couple of dollars less than a taxi. Hope this helps.

Thanks for input. It's nice to hear from someone who has stayed there. I think I'll call them and ask what security they have on the lot, hopefully at least cameras for 24 hour monitoring. Also nice to hear the shuttle service was good. At Port Canaveral I've had to wait over an hour to get on a hotel shuttle. t the Fairfield I got a rate of $154 for the cruise and park package, which is a good deal since I am parking for 18 days. It looks as if it's not too complicated to get to the Fairfield Inn from the FL turnpike. Only negative I read in the reviews is not being near any restaurants, but I can pack something to eat for supper. I have a 7AM flight. Staying there would eliminate some hassle, since the last time I had to drive down, fly out to San Diego, sail in from Panama Canal cruise, it required dropping car at Park N Go, take their shuttle to airport, hotel shuttle from airport to hotel, then shuttle in morning from hotel back to airport. Little tiring for a solo senior lady with luggage :-).

Sure wish they had not changed the I595 intersection, used to be so easy. It has to be hurting those off site parking lots, which I am sure the port was glad to see, since the port parking is $20/day.

Thanks Bob. I will continue to look at other options, maybe the new route to the Park N Go is not as bad as I am thinking it is. I admit I am intimidated by Ft lauderdale traffic.

Hi Bob

Have you heard any comments from folks who used the Fairfield Inn in Dania Beach to park while on a cruise? I always used the Park N Go lot, but with the new traffic pattern not sure I want to try it :) I am driving down on Oct 15, flying to Quebec early on Oct 16, cruising back into Port on 11/2. I plan on just grabbing a cab to go back to the hotel and get my car, rather than wait for a shuttle. I have never left my car in a hotel lot, so I am a little uneasy about it. I know you have lots of good advice. Thanks

I happened to notice this discussion, please excuse me for putting in a comment. I had previously booked a 13 day Australia/NZ for 2016, price was great (inside cabin came out to about $150/day), was all excited. Then I started pricing out all of the other pieces of the trip. The flight length from Florida was awful, meaning I would have to split trip into a few stops with overnight hotels. Even looking at Choice Air, airfare was going to be well over $2200. Then I looked at the shore excursions, again, prices at least double over other ports. Pre and post cruise hotels were well over $200. Food also sky high. And of concern to me was the complex arrangements needed, if one airline cancelled a flight (which is becoming routine) or was late, there was a ripple effect. By the time I got done with my estimates the total cost of the trip would have been well over triple the cost of the cruise itself. With great regret I cancelled the cruise and booked a Baltic cruise instead.

If you are going to do a B2B or multiple cruises, then the airfare might be worth it. You'd still have the other high expenses though. I looked at that option also, but even on sale the price of a B2B or transpacific were very high.

By all means do the cruise, or cruises, everyone has their own viewpoint. I am just offering a caution based on my own experience, and I am a very frugal traveler who finds every possible deal. This is a part of the world I should have gone to when I first retired.

I have recently sailed in an inside cabin on Rhapsody, Radiance, & Serenade and all had what I call a mini couch, some might call it a love seat. I know when I choose to lay down on it and read my legs are well over the arm rest, so I would say it is about 4 ft long. In addition I would not say they are comfy for reading, not only is the back at an odd angle, and the only place to put your legs up are on the glass coffee table, but there is really no good reading light in that area. It is OK if you're using an ereader but otherwise hard to see. I used to be able to read in bed, but after those ships went thru their recent drydocks the big light that was in the soffit over the bed was eliminated and now there are only the 2 small bedside lights. I ended up buying a battery powered clip on reading light at the first port, and will bring it with me from now on. My friends sail in balcony cabins and had the same small sofa until they were in a junior suite, that had a comfy reading chair.

Hope that helps

Sunday ~ July 25 2015 ~ Fairbanks to Denali

 

 

Earlier I said we did not budget very well for food. Well breakfast at the hotels averaged $20 a day. I realized halfway through the land tour that food averaged $75 a day a person. $20 for Breakfast $25 for Lunch and $30 for dinner. Definitely not something we budgeted for, and with more research, I'm sure we could have found more affordable eateries, however we were told that all restaurants in the "tourist" areas raise their prices for the summer months, since that is the majority of their income for the year (can't fault them for that)

 

 

Then we headed to the bus for our ride to the river boat excursion. This excursion was one of two that came with the land tour package and all in tour 7B went on.

When we got to the bus we met David and our driver Elizabeth

 

We came to find out that neither actually worked for Royal Caribbean. Royal subcontracts to tour companies in Alaska and not even David or Elizabeth worked for the same company. The company David worked for, which was seasonal and only operated during the summer months, contracted the bus company that Elizabeth worked for, which ran year long operations throughout Alaska. Each bus was given a different name so that we always would return to our bus, and even when we took the train, Elizabeth would drive and meet us at the next stop. So both David and Elizabeth were with us for the entire week of our land tour. Our bus's name was Ogilvie.

 

I was on land tour 6B in June, also had the Ogilvie bus and Elizabeth was also our driver. What a wonderful young lady, her talks on local info and how she is getting ready to climb Denali next year were awesome. I actually tipped her more than the tour director, although he was also very good, a kindergarten teacher from Anchorage.

 

I too was shocked by the price of food. And there was no way to get to less expensive eating places, except in Seward the Windsong Lodge runs a free shuttle to downtown. After seeing the menu at the lodge with $24 hamburgers, I jumped on the shuttle, was dropped off near a Subway, ran in and got a 6 inch sub (same price as lower 48, but the footlongs were double the usual price) and caught the shuttle on his way back to the lodge.

I was on tour 6B in June. We stayed at the Denali Park Lodge, about 6 miles south of the park. Nice rooms in pretty surroundings. Biggest problem was that the doors opened out and folks had no consideration for others, letting them slam shut all night. There was a 20 square mile power outage at 5AM, no water, no toilets, no lights, no coffee in dining room. The tour director found it the power wasn't going to be back on until at least noon, so instead of a free morning we left at 8AM for Anchorage. So we had about 6 hours in our rooms. Same at most other hotels.

I would still recommend the cruise tours as a good way to see that part of Alaska, unless you can handle making your own hotel reservations, rental cars etc. Having said that, my greatest disappointment with the cruise tour was the lack of advance information as to hotels and the daily schedule. I selected the 6B tour based on the material RCI posted in the descriptions (which did not have hotel details), then when I checked in for the cruise tour and was given the daily schedule I discovered there were major changes. For example, the free afternoon in Fairbanks was eliminated, and although the activity they did was fine, I was not able to see a few things I had planned on doing that afternoon. In Anchorage the advance materials said "arrive early afternoon, have rest of afternoon and evening on own" Instead we were scheduled to arrive at 7:30PM (due to power outage we got there at 4:30PM). Everything in downtown was closed up. They also changed the hotels we were supposed to be in.

Also be aware that meals are not included, and the hotels do not even provide a free continental breakfast (to buy one was about $14). Since you are without transportation there is little choice of where to eat, and everything in Alaska is super expensive ($12 minimum for a sandwich, $20 for a dinner). I really enjoyed the four hours on the Alaska Railroad Dome car, it had it's own dining car below, expensive but very well done. The days are very long, bags out at 6AM, get to next hotel about 6PM, or later if you do the wilderness tour in Denali. Doing the land portion pre cruise is highly recommended.

So when you select a cruise tour and have a "must see" item, be aware you may or may not actually see it. Fortunately I chose to fly into Fairbanks 2 days early, rented a car & drove down to Denali for day before tour started, spent 4 hours in the park doing the visitor center, dog sled demo, hiked some paths. If I had not done that I would have been very disappointed since we got there on the train at noon, and had to be on the 8 hour wilderness tour at 1PM, back to lodge at 10:30PM.

The other thing I found odd about the cruise tour compared to other land tours I've taken with Road Scholar, was the lack of group unity. There was no welcome party, no name tags, no effort by tour director to suggest group dinners. Some couples paired off, but as a solo I had to work hard to be included. The quality of the tour director and bus driver was outstanding, they tried to make the long hours on the bus fun.

It is a very expensive vacation, but I considered it a once in a lifetime. You have to be flexible and go with the flow.

It will be interesting to see if having some competition will force RCL to lower the very high pricing they are showing for Oasis in PC (much higher than cruises out of Ft Lauderdale). Port Canaveral is kind of a unique market for cruises, many of the folks who would drive to a cruise are more price driven than brand loyalty. Since the ships do the same old East and West Caribbean routes, I personally am unwilling to pay sky high rates. If prices were close I would prefer Oasis (have been on it and Allure 3 times), but not at double the rate of NCL or Carnival. RCL might get the high rates for the first few months when people who can't or won't drive down to Ft Lauderdale would book it, but after that I think price will be big factor for most Floridians.

It could be you were looking at the few solo interior cabins on Anthem that are sometimes booked with the family suite. When the family suite does not need that cabin, it is opened up for solo booking. It is very small, not at all the same as the usual interior cabin or even a solo studio, I think it is something like 100 sq ft.

Don't give up on finding a cabin for a solo on most ships. I always sail as a solo and in almost all cases a regular interior cabin is only a small amount more than the studio cabins. When I looked at that tiny solo cabin on the Quantum class I knew there was no way I would be happy being in close contact with a family (with kids) :-). I feel the same way about connecting cabins.

There is no logic in how cabins are priced, for example recently I booked the Harmony in a balcony cabin for less than an interior. There are web sites that can be searched for solo specials.

Thank you for articulating my point better than I did. My question is indeed about the perceived value. I am not addressing whether or not I can afford a cruise, but whether it's worth the price asked. My experience is mostly with Royal, so I don't know how other cruise lines compare.

I agree with the idea of value, not cost. I too am a solo and RCI is often not a good value. I find the best way to decide on value of a cruise is to look at the per day cost for a particular itinerary or ship. It's not much value to me to go on an older ship to Bahamas, so anything over $100 a day is not worth doing. But a mid range ship doing a unique itinerary might have a value of $250/day for me. An Alaska cruise tour might be a value at $300/day. I have sailed Carnival out of PC on 4 day cruise to Bahamas because RCI wanted $275/day for an inside cabin on an old ship, Carnival offered an outside cabin on a comparable ship for $95/day. And I discovered Carnival is not as bad as some RCI loyalists make it out to be :-).

This is the third new card in 6 months, and it has always been within a week or so of my leaving on a trip. Guess I shop & travel too much :-). I leave Friday morning for my Alaska cruisetour and really want the double points on my RCI card for optional tours and my seapass account.

I've been using a backup card for the past week, no big deal, I was going to use that card for a rental car anyway (it has extra protection included). I tried to call BofA and get the number of the new card so I could get my automatic payments switched over, and despite answering several security questions they wouldn't tell me, which I can understand but still a hassle.

If I don't receive my new card today I will ask them to overnight it. I understand the security, but it seems they could just alert you and then flag the account for watch.

I am booked on the 7 day cruise from Copenhagen. The price for the 10 day was $1800 more in an inside cabin and I just couldn't see that difference for an overnight in St Petersburg. Suggest you look at some forums on the Moscow shore excursion, my friends really regretted doing it, said they spent almost the entire day on a bus and only had a very short time in Moscow. Same thing happens in LeHavre/Paris and the German port that advertises going into Berlin. And all of those shore excursions are very expensive. Not saying you shouldn't do it, just be sure you will have the experience you expect. For me, 12 hours in St Petersburg is enough. We'll do a 4 hour city tour in the morning, have lunch, then do 4 hours in the Hermitage. With the amount I am saving I am going to do a week on my own in Germany pre or post cruise.

We used them last week and were pleased with the shuttle service to & from the ship as well as the price. We did pay in advance and I would encourage you to do the same because they do a brisk business and their lot was quite full when we disembarked. I "think" pre-payment guarantees a parking spot.

How is the construction on 595 coming along? Last time I stayed at Park n Go they said the new flyover would make it more complicated to get into their lot.

We had a group booking and our TA arranged ahead of time for round robin seating, 1 table for 8 people and 2 tables of 6 people, all in same area next to each other, same waiter for all tables. Each night we moved around among ourselves so we all got to sit with different friends. Waiter had no problem with it, best solution to large group. We do this whenever our group is larger than 10 people.

I would say you need to price out the various options. I am flying from Orlando to Fairbanks on 5/29 to pick up a cruise tour. Choice Air was a lot more expensive than what I put together myself. Not sure if this is another consideration for you, but when you book thru Choice Air all notifications of flight changes etc go to Choice Air, not you (as of a few months ago that was the case). And I'm pretty sure your flights could be changed, it happened on my Choice Air flight to Heathrow, I wasn't notified by Choice, only found out when I checked in online day before flight, or else I would have missed the flight. If you try and change the notification on the reservation, it reverts back to Choice Air. On my flight to Fairbanks, and back from Vancouver, my flights were changed, substantially, by the airlines. Since I was notified directly, I was able to negotiate with the airlines, which resulted in much better flight times to Fairbanks, and a change of flight from Vancouver down to Seattle. I will look into Choice Air next year for a Scandinavia cruise, but price would have to be really a lot better to offset the loss of control over my reservation.

I sailed out of Harwich in 2012 on the Jewel TA and the port was fine. It was just getting to it that was a hassle, unless you paid the exorbitant rates for an RCI pre cruise hotel & transfer package (no transfer only offered). Fortunately our cc group had chartered our own buses to take us from London to Harwich.

The Scandinavia/Russia itineraries out of Copenhagen offer a good overview of the region, except you usually need 2 cruises to also see the Norwegian fjords. However, I personally find it amazing that folks will pay twice the price of a 7 day on the Serenade for the 10 day "ultimate" Scandinavia/Russia on Serenade, which goes out of Copenhagen and ends in Stockholm. The biggest difference is an overnight in St Petersburg and an added port in northern Germany. But for me as a solo, inside cabin, it is $1800 more for the 10 day over the 7 day. I don't want to spend an extra day in St Petersburg that badly :-). The 7 day cruise spends 12 hours in St Pete, time to take a city tour and spend a few hours in the Hermitage. Out of Copenhagen it is very inexpensive to fly to other destinations in Europe, I am thinking of taking that $1800 and jumping over to Edinburgh Scotland for a week.

The ferry drops you off at the bottom of a hill, pretty long walk to hotel in humid heat. Also, my experience with ferry was that they overcrowd it, and the one time I used it they sat off the dock until the hat they passed around got enough tips :)

We use them quite often. But last Saturday my Mother-in-law hurt her leg going to board the shuttle. She is on Plavix so she she bleeding quite a bit. They gave her first-aid then showed us where the nearest hospital was I followed them, even helped us get seen by the ER doctor quickly (12 stitches ).

Thanks to them we were able to make our cruise. She had a great time on the cruise. She is doing fine and very thankful.

I have always used Park n Go, but I am concerned about the impact of the I 595 construction on getting to the lot. Did you have any problems?? Thanks

I had used the Park N Cruise lot off of 528 for a few years but will not use it again. In December I went down & it was total chaos. They don't have enough parking or staff to handle the overlap of ships coming in and folks wanting to park. So they just closed the gate. There was no signage, no one to explain what was going on. Cars were backing up on the access road, no one knew where the line was, people cutting in, honking, screaming etc. I waited until 11AM when they finally started letting cars in, it took another 20 minutes for the mess to straighten out, then long wait to get on a shuttle. When I came back in, another long wait for shuttle, again no one directing lines, so lots of cutting in, pushing etc. They now have a sign saying no entry until 11AM, but still no organization.

We are going to try the Park Port Canaveral lot (across from Radisson) later this month and see how that goes.

Although they deny it, Port Canaveral is doing everything it can to discourage off site parking, and not allowing the shuttles into the port until a later time is one way they are doing it.

I found the sliders to be OK, a little spicy for me. But one of my favorite items are the steak fries that come with the sliders. I order them with many other items and always find them to be crisp and tasty. As someone mentioned, as an adult I sometimes order the mac & cheese from the kids menu. And if all else fails and I've gone to the dining room to sit with friends and don't like any entrees, I order a salad, a soup, the steak fries, and dessert. Not healthy but once a cruise is OK :-). I'm always surprised when cruisers say they didn't know they could go totally off the standard meals on the menu. If you have a great waiter they will customize your meals.

I agree with your comments, although I know that RCI will not be paying attention or showing any inclination to change from their marketing strategy, unless and until it affects the bottom line. I am all for change when it makes sense, but for RCI to intentionally write off what has been a core market for them just doesn't seem like good business. Hopefully the roll out of dynamic dining to other ships won't happen too quickly, so that I will have time to enjoy "traditional" cruising before my health limits me to other travel.

Since the new push to attract the younger generation and families I have been wondering how that market will be able to afford the cruises that are very expensive for the cabin and then they will be running up a huge sea pass account for all of the extras. I can just see the lines at guest services when they realize all of those little pieces of paper they signed then threw away their copy appear on the last day. Or I guess since that market is going to be constantly on line, using their smart phones & tablets, maybe they will be tracking their account daily.

A lady on one of my cc threads responded to my question with what I expected, that her children & grandchildren expect her to pay for their cruises and all the extras:-). No way could they afford it.

I just received an email to book shore excursions for my Dec 13 Explorer 5 day to Nassau & Freeport, which on the web site is now being called Western Caribbean. It said I should book excursions in Roatan, Cozumel etc. I double checked the itinerary and we are still going to Bahamas :-). Sure hope the Captain knows where we are going.

And I cannot get into the cruise planner for any of my upcoming cruises, it just does an endless loop on blank screen. I thought it was my computer, but my TA also can't get into the cruise planner. Guess I'll have to call RCI to book a shore excursion. I can go into the general shore excursion description section to find out what is offered in a port, but can't book thru my reservation on line. And if I call RCI after being in the reservation, even if I closed out, they can't access it.

If it wasn't such a hassle, RCI computer system would be a good laugh.

I would have to say that my experiences with the LA have pretty all been bad in the last year or two. They really are just cruise sales people.

The exception was on the Rhapsody repo from Hawaii to Vancouver last May. The LA and her staff were always approachable, they had it set up so that appointments saw one crew member and another LA staff person was in the waiting area to answer general questions. That cruise was also one of the few I've been on where at the C&A welcome back you really felt appreciated. But I always say the crew follows the example of the Captain, and Captain Rob(and Captain Rick) on the Rhapsody are the most approachable in the fleet, always out and about, and taking part in ship activities.

When the first of those deals came out in May I quickly jumped on 2 cruises that would normally have been way out of my budget - an Alaska cruise tour and a 14 day repo from Quebec. Not only did I pay only 150%, but the per person rates at that time were really low. Since May, even with the 150% on the BOGOHO sale, the per person rates have almost tripled, so you can imagine how much they would be now. My cruise tour would now cost me almost $2000 more than when I booked, even with the so called sale.

I am currently looking at some options under the current sale, but it seems RCI realized they could "trick" new cruisers into assuming the sale was a great deal and they upped the per person rate just prior to the sale, resulting in the same price or more for solos.

Bottom line is you have to be on the web site often, look at 3rd party alerts, and be ready to jump on a sale.