Bodero

Wanted to resurrect this as I just found out the bad news about my Paradise sailing tomorrow - Verizon no longer offers any data at any price onboard Carnival.

You can see this reddit thread discussing the issue, but sure enough, after speaking with a Verizon rep, she confirmed I could not use data on my phone without going through Carnival's wifi plan. Of course, she sounded like she started working at Verizon today, and had no knowledge that we could in the past, but it is what it is.

At least Carnival's wifi prices are somewhat more favorable now, but Verizon's old $25 for 100MB plan was the best.

Is your life really that boring???

Unexpected reply, but... yes.

Following the tremendous success of the Royal Caribbean Brilliance of the Seas fog thread, I think it's time we start one for the Carnival Paradise!

Weather conditions in Tampa tonight and through tomorrow morning are similar to what they've been all week, causing massive delays for ships out to sea. The Brilliance was forced to delay its return to Tampa by a day and a half, canceling the next cruise.

Will the Paradise suffer the same fate? As I sit here in Channelside, I have great visibility to the port. The Brilliance still sits in Terminal 3, and I can see all the way to Davis Islands and beyond. But, out to sea and around the Skyway it may be a different story. The difference tonight, though, is that we had stronger winds than we did when the fog simply sat over us, suffocating us without visibility.

One other exception was that, despite the unprecedented full closure of the port, the USCG made an exception to the closure and guided the Brilliance in to port while leaving the rest of the cargo ships at sea beyond the Skyway bridge.

Any takers on the Paradise Delay, do you guys think it comes back right on time, or do you guys think it'll merely be a delay until the afternoon?

As a ship driver, I'm curious to see where the ship goes until the next trip. They can not stay at the terminal. a) it cost $$ and b) others will be using it. Maybe they'll just go anchor off Tampa ... where they were last night! Once the port opens and they are allowed to leave that is!

I'm curious too, but Terminal 3 is free through Saturday... the day the Brilliance was scheduled to be back and docking at 3. Royal Caribbean Vision of the Seas will join Brilliance on Saturday at T2. Carnival Paradise is scheduled to arrive Thursday in Terminal 2, and that's it through Sunday.

Per today's board meeting at Port Tampa Bay, the Port has now approved a contract with Royal Caribbean which will bring a second ship to Tampa starting in the Winter 2014 season.

Sources:

• https://twitter.com/jthalji/status/456073134505209856
  
• https://v3.boardbook.org/Public/PublicItemDownload.aspx?smk=30086, Page 51
  

No word on what ship it will be yet.

Right. And obviously thinks he knows the bridge history, need to deal with tides there etc.

If he won't cruise October to March, then let's add June to December hurricane season. That leaves April and May!!

How true. Not to mention that, living across the street, I think I have seen fog delays maybe three times tops this year, and the fog always clears by noon. It was so rare for me to wake up and not see the Paradise that I rushed to CC to see what the deal was.

Book an evening flight at best, the next day at worst. Why not, anyway? Spend an extra day in Tampa! :)

Really , all the places are no longer? That's sad. Is Hooters still there?

My friend I cruise with lives right there and never said a word.

We're probably neighbors then :)

Hooters is still there, as is Splitsville which is the other anchor (part time, Thursday through Sunday except for event days).

The piano bar, Stumpps, the IMAX, Wine Design, etc are all closed. The thai/sushi place is open as is the tapas place. Also, a new Mediterranean restaurant opened but I haven't been there yet.

The place has been tangled in legal ownership battles more than anything for the past 6 years, and just when it looked like it was settled a couple months ago, another lawsuit was launched.

2009 on the Inspiration. The ship was very late coming in and we didn't get to board until 7:00 pm, thank goodness we were priority boarding because the line was so very long. Coming back from our cruise it was closed again due to fog and most people missed their flights us being among them. I believe we got in around 12:30 pm . One good thing about port of Tampa is there's things to do right there in Chanelside .....movie theater, restaurant & museum .

Well, the movie theater is now closed, and all but a couple restaurants are closed (Splitsville is now only open Thursday-Sunday). But hey, there are worse places to be stranded!

If you have a bit of time, you can take streetcar to Ybor City for lunch and entertainment too.

One thing I just thought of was that if the ship can't dock because of fog maybe flights aren't taking off either.

 

I booked a flight last week with USAir and hit Feb 28 instead of March 28th. I realized the mistake within 10 minutes. I called USAir and because I didn't book it directly with them they said they had to charge me $200pp for the change.

 

Luckily the people I used to book with got the fees waived.

 

My wife and I always get insurance which covers everything from flight delays, baggage, medivac from ship for about $120. We are in our late 50's.

 

Bill

FYI, within the last year, airlines are required to give passengers 24 hours to cancel any reservation for a full refund. You could have canceled it and rebooked it with the proper date.

I had a business flight booked on US Airways that changed the next morning, I was able to cancel a flight about 22 hours later at no charge.

Sounds about right. I live nearby and can't see it on the horizon yet. Here's its track:

http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-82.57841/centery:27.68345/zoom:8/mmsi:355833000