Susan in Maine

Is that any of your business?

Are there 4 courses at the steakhouse or three? I.E. Starter, salad, main course, dessert Or Starter, main course, dessert? Thanks!

When I started cruising (late 1990's early 2000's) one of my first stops when I got onboard was the library. Usually it was a quiet room, comfortable chairs, and a few hundred books - many in other languages. I discovered several new authors that way. Sadly in the last few years there are fewer and fewer books in the libraries. Sigh Now I just bring my Kindle.

I'm going to go against the grain here. I'm one of those people who get extremely motion sick. I can make myself motion sick driving in stop and go traffic. By taking Bonine (meclizine) starting 24 - 48 hours ahead of time, I'm OK. If it's REALLY bad - I've been thru both a hurricane and a blizzard - I take Dramamine as well. Your father could also get an anti-emetic from his doctor as well. My suggestion is a smaller ship. A lot of the draw of the really big ships is all the stuff they have on them. Smaller ships are easier to navigate and have fewer families. They tend to be quieter with less of a party atmosphere. Unless, of course, your father is really excited about riding a roller coaster at sea!

When I started cruising, you bought phone cards as extras for the crew!! I'm old.

We LOVED LOVED LOVED our cove cabin that we had when we were on her a couple of years ago.

I'm going to use the title from another thread! We're on the Freedom in November, and would love some inside infomation! Susan in Maine!

Trains in Maine are not like subways. They don't run regularly - they primarily take people from Maine/Massachusetts to Boston and back. I LOVE Bean's (as we locals call it!) It's a great store - but it's just a store. I'd definitely go with the mail boat.

How can I say this delicately?? Never mind. Dump her.

I always use a travel agent - they deal with all the detail stuff so I don't have to. Generally I tell her what I want and she books it for me. I'm really not concerned about paying a few more dollars for the service. As to how I found her........ I booked my first trip with her in 1980!!! We're still working together after all these years. (yes, I'm old)

Neither. I'm staying with my mother-in-law who lives on Merritt Island, less than 15 minutes from Port Canaveral.

We are coming in on the train for our cruise in November. We'll be getting in to Orlando or Winter Park the day before the cruise and need to get to Merritt Island (where Port Canaveral is). Thanks!

How windy are these balconies? We have never been this high on the ship before, and I want to enjoy my balcony. If they are too windy/cold, I'll book on a lower deck. Thanks everyone!

Thank you!

If I bring my own wine on the ship, and wish to drink it in the MDR, will I be charged a corkage fee? If so, how much? This will be a 5 day on Carnival Freedom. Thank you!

Before everyone gets upset with me, I have nothing against getting a passport - my daughter and I both keep ours current at all times. I'm looking into taking my elderly mother on a cruise with my daughter and I in November. It will be a 5 day closed loop out of Port Canaveral to Bahamas, Bimini, and possibly Grand Turk. She (my mother) will be 89 by the time we sail. She will have no opportunity to travel anywhere after that. How important would a passport be for her? Can we get away with just her driver's license and birth certificate. If I have to I'll get her the passport, but I'd rather not. Thanks for the help! Susan in Maine

I have sailed on Carnival, RCCL, Disney, Princess and NCL. Whenever possible I chose RCCL, mostly because the food was so much better than Carnival and RCCL. I've been on 3 cruises since Covid - 2 Carnival and Anthem. The food on Carnival Magic (both cruises) was really good. On the Anthem (4/22), it was mediocre at best. After seeing these new menus it's not worth it to me to pay an extra 20% to 25% to be on RCCL. I'm sure I'll get 47 ways from Sunday for saying this.

If you really want to go to Bar Harbor, then go to Bar Harbor. Cruise ships are NOT transportation. There is no guarantee that ANY cruise ship will stop at any specific port. PS: Maine is worth a visit for more than a few hours! We're a lot more than just Portland and Bar Harbor.

For the record - fewer than 10% of visitors to Bar Harbor come from cruise ships. Contrary to what die hard cruisers believe, cutting off large cruise ships won't hurt the economy. Portland is a commercial port, and therefore has much better facilities for cruise ships. It makes more sense for the ships to dock there. Portland also has much more capacity than Bar Harbor to absorb 2000 - 4000 people all at once. For those of you who wished Bar Harbor limited the number of ships - that doesn't really help. One ship can have 4000+ passengers. Is that better than 2 1500 passenger ships?

Seriously? Cruise ships are NOT public transport. Pretty much anyone who gives advice on cruise ships will tell you that. If you want to go from point A to point B, don't count on a cruise ship! Anything can disrupt any itinerary and you are not guaranteed any specific port! And from Bar Harbor's perspective, people who are driving to the town are worth way more money than cruise ship passengers. There is NO discrimination here at all. If you consider not being able to go to a specific port by cruise ship "Discrimination", you have no idea what that word really means - talk about a 1st world problem?

I live about 45 minutes north of Portland, 2 1/2 hours south of Bar Harbor. You might have some color around Portland, but probably not much else. Also our color isn't great this year due to the summer drought.

That's going to be really late. It's late under normal circumstances, but between the really dry summer and the hurricane hitting Atlanta Canada, there won't be much, if anything, left. What ports are you visiting?

We were on the Sept 17 sailing of the Carnival Magic and it was really easy. We had an 11:00 - 11:30 Boarding window and got to the pier around 10:00 AM. We parked, went thru embarkation and were waiting to board by 10:20 AM. Our boarding group was C4, and we were on the ship, thru the muster call and eating lunch in the Lido at 11:25.

Just got back on 9/24 from NYC. Getting to the parking garage/terminal was incredibly easy! We drove down from NE and had no trouble driving thru the city. Everything the others said is true. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

We were in a Cove last November on the Magic. We LOVED it! Just got off the Magic on Saturday and had a regular balcony on Deck 8. We'll be going back to the Cove if we can get it.