Essiesmom

You can cross off West Palm Beach, as the only ship sailing from there is Margaritaville @ Sea on two days to Freeport. What you are asking for is a two bedroom suite. Most suites with a separate bedroom has the 3/4 persons sleeping on a foldout couch in the living area. That would mean giving up the bedroom to your son. The better solution would be the connecting (inner connecting cabins) cabins. You haven’t said when you want this cruise to take place. You will find fewer ships sailing from FLL and Miami in the summer as many spend that time in Alaska and Europe. I have two websites for you to use in research. The first is cruisetimetables.com. You can use this site to see who is sailing from those ports and their itineraries. The second is cruisedeckplans.com. This site is for searching for cabins that fit your criteria. Although it is a member site if you want to see the cabin pictures, you can do a lot of research without a membership. On that site, select the cruise line, then the ship you are considering, and look at the cabin schematics on the left side of the page. Happy researching. EM

HAL isnt in the Caribbean in August because the ships can make more money in Alaska and Europe. EM

Virgin Voyages and the newer ships of MSC have solo cabins. EM

I believe it is still very much a construction zone. There are no ships scheduled to stop there until Oct. 9. So it will be awhile u til an update, if anyone even posts about it. EM

The elevators do not have up or down buttons for you to push. Instead there is a keypad where you press the deck you wish to go to, and press it once for each member of your party. The pad then tells you which elevator will stop for you, and approximately how long. The problems arise because many/most people press on,y once, even though there may be 4-8 people in their party. The elevator stops, and there is not enough room, because others on previous stops had more people than the times they pushed. Or the elevator does not stop because it is already full. Or the elevator stopped and people who did not push the floor get in… ut they are. It going to any of the decks pushed. There are no buttons inside the elevators to choose floors. So people who jump into any elevator that stops have no idea where it is going, and can’t choose the floor they want to go to. So, it works great if people read the instructions. There was a reviewer on a Carnival ship with the smart elevators who reported a couple on day 8 of a 10 day cruise, standing at the elevators asking ‘Is this elevator going up? Well, what goes up must come down…’. EM

I’m in the same boat, so to speak. Someone here once said she was so old she doesn’t buy green bananas. I have a cruise booked six months out, but I won’t go farther out, and this is an exception. EM

Are you testing posting, or did you intend to post this where others will see it?

I sailed from PC twice last year with different experiences with the parking. In August I did a 4+3 B2B on Seaside. When I entered the garage I paid for each leg separately, with two slips to leave on my dashboard. And incidentally paying twice for the middle day. In December I did a 3+7 on Seashore. This time she said I could only pay for the 3 day at that time, but pay for the 7 days on the way out. Well, with the construction with the new garage the exit was circuitous, and there did not seem to be any place to lay, so that last week was free. I will be back in a week for a simple 7 day. You can enter the parking garage without going past the luggage drop off. That is unless they have changed the traffic patterns…EM

And there is always cruisedeckplans.com. EM

You need to watch some of To Catch a Smuggler on NatGeo or Smithsonian. Granted, they are HSI and looking for drugs, agricultural products, etc. but they do care a great deal. EM

On cruisedeckplans, when you click on the info tab, note the asterisk *actual cabin size and layout may differ from size and diagram shown*. EM

Deck plans show it has t moved from its aft facing position, hard to imagine they would have shrunk the balcony. Where are you getting the conflicting info? EM

Scroll through a few pages and you will find lots of threads about scooters. EM

Does Virgin have a bridgecam channel on the TV? I usually leave that on and though ther is no picture at night, there is enough ambient light to make a nightlight. EM

That’s okay. I have a rechargeable motion activated nightlight that is magnetic. On MSC I put it on the wall across from the toilet. On Carnival it was on the doorframe. Recharge with a usb cable. EM

This is not a size concern…but do the bathrooms have a nightlight? Thanks. EM

Got mine. Only 153 more to Elite+. EM

They are both quintessential Greek islands, but while Mykonos is picturesque and quite walkable, Santorini is spectacular. EM

Not sure, but I think you have to wait for an email invitation. EM

And finally at Miraflores

I find this true for most of the ships I have sailed in the last few years. It’s as if they want you up and moving…spending…. EM

The govt is restarting the online passport renewals. You have to qualify: I believe you have to be 25, passport issued between 2009-2015 and no major changes, like gender. The blurb (notification from weather channel) said no expediting, possibly 6-8 weeks. But they are saying that about regular renewals, but people are reporting a two week turnaround. Google online renewal and check it out. I was one of the people who renewed on,one last year in the beta trial. The website is only open from 1pm ET. EM

And there is some liquid sunshine as she enters Pedro Miguel…

My sister had four girls. Whenever one of them said ‘I’m bored’, her reply was ‘clean your room’. It shut them up. But I guess that wouldn’t work on a cruise ship…. EM

You can board Armonia in three different ports, including Venice. So you could do either itinerary with a Venice embarkation. I haven’t been to Ancona or Brindisi but I have visited the others at least twice. EM