nycfa

I stayed up as well and got 11-11:30.  I couldn’t get the OB account set up cause it wouldn’t take my CC number but tried again this morning on my phone and was successful. Yay!  Two weeks…..

I have started piling up clothes and toiletries for packing in a room. I want to get down the suitcases today.  I’m so ready to go! 

We have two cruises this year book on CCL for the first time since 2016 as well. One is on the Horizon in September so I'm going to follow along! 

On 3/5/2024 at 12:21 PM, hbsurfcitycruiser said:

100% accurate. We will be at Jack's Shack 🙂

Same…..😂

2 hours ago, kermie1963 said:

Does anyone have any suggestions of what to do in Grand Turk? I'm trying to avoid excursions. There'll be my adult son and me.

Grand Turk is easy to just walk off the ship and have a beach day. No excursion needed.  Margaritaville is right there or you can walk down the beach to Jack's Shack.  

I think this thread will become more busy after final payment in January as people are firmly committed to go.

We are planning a laid back relaxed vacation.  No real plans other then sleeping in and beach days.  We just did NE and Canada on MSC this fall and thats pretty much what we did but swap beach days for walking around the ports (and DH getting a beer in each port LOL).

We toured w this company yesterday.(9/30) Picked us up at the ship promptly. We actually got off a bit early and the young man doing the tour was already there w a sign w our name on it.  We signed up for the Fort Louisbourg. The vehicle was very clean and in good condition. Our driver was very chatty and told us a lot about the area on the drive. We stopped at the light house on the way there for some amazing scenery.  When we arrived at the fort we had pre paid for tickets w the taxi company. So our driver walked in w us and got that taken care of.  
 

Driver went back to wait at the car while we explored the fort. Took about 2 hrs to walk around it. It was a beautiful day sunny and 70.  After we finished we met our driver in the parking lot and he drove us back to the ship. He offered to drop us off at a good restaurant or whatever but we just elected to go back to the ship for lunch. 
 

We had a great experience and would definitely recommend. I did have to call a few times to get ahold of someone for final payment but they are super busy this time of year. There is at least one ship in port everyday for Sept & Oct.  Our driver told us they have 60 cars and all were in use today. 
 

Glad you made it in last night!!  See ya in a few hours. 🙂

On 9/18/2023 at 2:38 PM, JamieLogical said:

 

I remembered having looked at sailings on the Meraviglia for the spring, but maybe only looked at May and June? Somehow I missed two sailings in April, an 11-day and a 10-day, that go to the eastern Caribbean out of Brooklyn. The 10-day seems like the perfect fit. It runs from a Thursday through a Sunday, so I would only have to miss 7 days of work. It sails out of NYC like my dad wants. And it goes someplace other than Bermuda. My parents have only ever cruised to Bermuda and my mom was really itching to go someplace new, which is why she had been interested in the Seascape sailing. By this time, my husband and I might be getting a little sick of the Meraviglia (I will have sailed her 5 times in a row then), but it's worth it to get to cruise with my parents. I don't know how many times I will have the opportunity to do that still. My dad will be 82 for the April sailing.

 

 

You didn't miss it......originally they were only going to be 7/8 day cruises and at some point they changed to the 10//11 day ones.  I saw people talking about it on other groups....some folks were happy...longer cruise same price....some not so happy...can't take off that much time at work etc....

2 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

We're enroute to Kelly's Mountain and the Cabot Trail. Driver says we should have a Peep Show at top of Kelly's Mountain.

Can't get good pix while we're moving - the roads are winding. Driver says we'll stop for good pix on way back down.

What company did you do this tour with? 

Thanks! I have been mentally preparing for the worst and hoping for the best! LOL  We will be getting on when you getting off next Sunday.  Have a great trip!

Yeah I was looking at his site a month or so ago and it was fine but now it's just a 404 Error message.

58 minutes ago, Nitemare said:

No rental depot has good reviews.  Most folks forget to write anything when nothing goes wrong.

True True LOL  

Has anyone done the drop off/pick up of a car at the Avis on State Street in Brooklyn NY?

We live plan to do a one way rental to get to and from home (Much cheaper then parking or taking the train).   But the rental place doesn't exactly have the best reviews so just wanted to see if anyone had done it recently??

We plan to take an Uber/Taxi to and from the rental place and the port.  Any issues getting one?

Has anyone stayed in the Deck 11 Forward Cabins on the Venezia?  

We got an offer to upgrade and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

We are currently on Deck 7 in the Middle.

My Concerns:

How much motion there will be that forward and that high up?

Is it noisy?  I'm can't quiet decide if the gym plays a part or not?  I'm not sure how directly above the cabins it's located.

Thought?  Opinions?  

Thanks. 

On 6/12/2023 at 6:22 PM, lissie said:

We're hiring a car - this guide  is a little dated but will give you an idea of the distances - it looks like easy driving in the summer 

Toms Cape Breton Island Driving Tour Guide from Sydney, Nova Scotia Canada (tomsportguides.com)

Toms Sydney Nova Scotia Cruise Port Guide (tomsportguides.com)

OMG THANK YOU for posting the Toms Port Guides!!  Getting alot of ideas. 🙂

Those that did the mail run….did you stay on the boat the whole time out and back? or did you get off at any islands and catch the next ferry to get back? 

Just booked this today.  It will be cruise number 16 for us.  We haven't been to three of the ports.  We LOVE lots of sea days.  

18 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I am now delayed until 7:45.

 

 

Airports are a hot mess today with the weather. 

3 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

A couple of random updates, since I am not back onboard until tomorrow. My husband and I took the subway a lot and went back and forth between Manhattan and Brooklyn a few times yesterday and today and we saw a lot of advertising for MSC in the subway stations. Apparently they are advertising heavily to NYC residents.

 

Also, big news in packing. I got a new, giant backpack today from the Away store. I was excited to find out they have two physical locations in NYC. I had ordered my current carry-on from them online. Now I should have no issues re-racking all my stuff now that my laundry is all clean.

 

Almost weird to think I will be back onboard tomorrow. This semi-B2B thing is really strange.

 

Oh! Not sure if I mentioned it yesterday, but I did find two cheesey NYC magnets for the crew member that asked me to bring some back for him. Also got a Mario pin from the Nintendo Store as a surprise for one of the servers at Edge who was always interested in what video games my husband was playing on his Steamdeck.

I sometimes take 95 home from work and there is a big billboard for MSC in Westchester too

4 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

As an alternative you could just get a car service set up from NJ to pick you up.  We'll be on a 14 day repo cruise on the Enchanted Princess in August of 2024 that starts in Fort Lauderdale, ends in Brooklyn and stops in Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Dominica, St. Maarten, Barbados and San Juan, along with 6 sea days. We live in South Jersey so we will be pricing out local car services to pick us up.  I'm assuming it'll run about 350. Obviously yours would be cheaper since you're from North Jersey.

Wow that cruise sounds great!!!

Yay! Bon voyage can’t wait to hear more. 

8 minutes ago, L1211 said:

We’ve found a lack of understanding of Aurea benefits…

Hmmmmm….printing off Aurea benefits page now to add to my cruise folder JIC

Just now, L1211 said:

Thanks for following!  They had a wonderful massage but were not allowed in the thermal suite- they have not gone back.  The Too 19 area is lovely!  We have not tried their anytime dining yet.  Enjoy!!

Wow I’m on the ship in September and did Aurea for several reasons but a

big one was the thermal spa.  This makes me anxious. Did they tell the girls why? 

On 2/28/2023 at 7:49 PM, NCMtnBoys said:

 don't need parking anywhere but if we'd planned to park at the port, WHOA, $45/day is outrageous!

 

   

LOL Typical NY prices....to park at the airport is $75 a day so $45 is bargain.