WisconsinFan

We are doing this one in October. We have been on Liberty many times, but not since 2017. We aren't worried about some "rust" as they do work hard to maintain all the ships and sea air is extremely hard on all vessels. If you are now just thinking of booking this for the fall, good luck on "value" as we booked over a year ago and have only watched everything go up as the ship has filled up. If you go in expecting to be disappointed, I am sure you will be.

The games will for sure be on in the Craft Social Bar.

No problems with the golf clubs on the tender. If you are doing the excursion to the Everglades with the cruise line they keep the luggage for you while you are on the excursion. Have fun!

Thanks for sharing. On this next August. 

So, I sent an email yesterday to ask a few questions and let them know my thoughts. I only signed my name. I got my response this morning. Similar response to what all you are getting, but the subject line was my upcoming cruise on Eclipse this coming October! So, I guess they now know exactly who I am, they must have run my email address through the system!

We shall see what happens with all of this.

Here's an old thread on this topic. It almost appears it is different for different lines and a bit impacted by Covid. Some had tenders all night, some had tenders stop at mid-night or 1:00 AM, while others like Mike had a much earlier stop.

My understanding is the tenders will run all night- every 30 minutes or so.

On 6/11/2023 at 11:31 AM, md80fan said:

Looking at doing a ABC island cruise and we always get a balcony cabin. Just curious which side of the ship is best. We like watching the approach to the islands from the balcony and trying to figure out from which direction they usually approach from. I am guessing from West to East but not sure. Also which side would be great to view the port from the balcony. 

The other question is we have done mostly Oasis class ships and love them for Aqua shows and Central park but trying to decide on Odyssey vs Symphony. We have already done Symphony but curious thoughts on this cruise to the Southern Caribbean.

 

Thanks

We were on Odyssey in February and approached Aruba with the port side towards the island. We than turned and backed into the pier, so actually both sides worked on our cruise. We had an aft balcony, the midnight sail away was spectacular.

10 hours ago, voyager70 said:

The Miami sail away is the most beautiful in FL in my opinion. Sailing through Biscayne Bay and past South Beach can’t be beat. Nothing wrong with the other Florida ports but nothing special either. I’ve never had any major issues with MIA or the drive to the port, although I’ve never been the one driving 😁 

Really spectacular after dark with the city lights.

My husband and I both own Dale sweaters 😉 so, depending on when we would go we might certainly have them with us. They are so very warm, so it would need to be a spring type cruise.

1 hour ago, cruisewiscrrq said:

From Stoughton, know all about Settende Mai. You?  Going on Viking Homelands Cruise in June. Too cold in May and have teacher in group. Always nice to see Bucky!

Waunakee! Love the Norwegian Dancers and do Hardanger (took a great class in Stoughton). Lefse and meatballs all day long, but lutefisk not so much. Still have family in Norway that we are in contact with so it is my goal to get to Norway someday.  Of course, if you live in Wisconsin Norway in May can't be all that different.

I had never thought about being in Norway during Syttende Mai! (Literally the 17th of May, or the Norway Constitution Day) I think it might be a great way to see local celebrations (where I live we celebrate Syttende Mai with a weekend festival) and having Norwegian blood I would find this interesting. Just starting to explore Norway for a cruise when I retire so stumbled on this as I am looking for a good time to go, and a good itinerary as well.

Fre wine is available. My father had it on Silhouette.

We have never bought through the cruise line- just feel that somehow it feels wrong (kinda like do you want breakage protection on your glasses as a 60 year old desk worker). It can be hard to compare coverage, but you need to decide what you need the insurance for- trip interruption, medical evac, and such. We have used Travel Guard (Wisconsin company, also known as AIG) and have filed a trip interruption claim with them do to a missed connection on way home one time. They have many plans to choose from. I know they have many plans to choose from- as we have changed our coverage over the years.

We had the same issue with the Cruise Planner. Requested with Resolutions an on board credit after the third time of calling and they obliged. $125.00 total for us.

On 8/16/2022 at 3:15 PM, Hatteras51 said:

The current taxi fare from downtown to Palm Beach is $13.00. There will be an additional charge if they pick you up inside the cruise port. In the past that has been $3.00. The taxis are charged an extra fee to enter the cruise port. Some drivers haven't paid for cruise port privileges, but thats not a problem.  They'll let you off right outside of the cruise gate. We've done that before.  Taxi rates will probably go up in 2023 because gas is over $6.00 a gallon there right now. By law, they can only carry 5 passengers. 

Thank you so much for the information! I bet we will drop this transfer, as it appears we are paying the same rate as one person in the taxi x2 where we can each ride in the cab for the same price 🙂

We have this purchased right now as well. We took a taxi to Eagle Beach in the day this past March and would consider taking a taxi to Palm Beach as well- but weren't sure if that was a good idea. Wish someone would pop on here to tell us a bit more about getting around Aruba at night.

Just bumping this one up. We also will be heading to La Romana but with Royal. Not much information on this port. It must be a relatively new stop. Our planner only has monkeys, dolphins and a river cruise listed. Can't tell what else there is to do. I have tried YouTube and have struck out.

Voyager does have a unique public men's bathroom with a waterfall urinal.

Terminal A for Freedom. That's all you need for Uber.

Yes, we just used it on 4/16/22. Cost was $27.00 per person and departs the port at 9:30am.

I agree the food waste must be large with self serve buffets. I work on a college campus, and my campus doesn't do the "swipe, eat all you want" type of service. Our students pay for what the decide to eat, so they still get to have cafeteria trays 😉 On other campuses where it's swipe in and take what you want trays are long gone! Why? The students don't think about what they actually will eat, so they take way more than they would eat. Campuses have combated that by removing trays so students will take only what they can carry. They can then go back if they want more.

Having staff serve can reduce that waste and keep things way more safe. Interesting, our very first cruise was on Disney in 2007 or so. The first few days the buffet was always served by cast members in an effort to cut down on Noro I believe. After day 2 we could serve ourselves.

I will mention that we like the crew serving on our survey for sure.

Starting to get organized and excited- now to get through the next two weeks here at work 😉

We have just asked for more bacon, no worries they are happy to give you more. I too am happy that they serve in the buffet line. We saw so many people before who would pick up a plate, change their mind put the plate back on the stack (um, you aren't a home), people pick things up- inspect them and then put the item back.

If you can swing it, put the boys in a room and the girls in a room and parents can have their own room. We tend to cruise with Royal and when our kids were those ages (and 13 or 14 at the oldest) we were able to put them in interiors across the hall from us with no issues. Again, we did have to call to do it- couldn't do it on the website. We did a HAL Alaska cruise with extended family (again all 4 kids about this age) my sister's son and daughter shared a cabin and our boys shared a cabin across the hall from the parents. Again, no issues. The interior cabins are usually priced well below the balcony cabins, only once when they were younger did they have a balcony next to us- and that was a sale happened and the balcony was cheaper than the interior so we moved them.

We were supposed to be calling there on Silhouette at the end of March, first part of April- I think our day was the 6th or 7th. Anyhow, it's been replaced with Bimini. Got an email about it, so it sounds like you will still make it. We have been to the Cayman's often. It might be hard to find out what is still open on 7 mile beach. I would just Google or check out Trip Advisor for suggestions.