busyone

Have you had good success with this company.  I have been considering them for our cruise but am trying to see what others think.

I was happy to read this review. I have been considering this company and have been seeking information about them on other sites.

On 3/25/2020 at 9:25 AM, Georgia_Peaches said:

Would you rather:

1.  have a table big enough for just your party at dinner in the MDR? or

2.  join other random people for dinner at a much larger table?

I choose 1. have a table for my party

Would you rather:

1. Book excursions only through the cruise line even if more expensive and have no fear of missing the boat? or

2. Go with better excursions with private vendors  even if you have to run for it at the pier to avoid missing the boat?

I really enjoyed sailing out of Tampa. Parking is really close, and you can even use valet for only a little more than the regular charge. One issue that your travel agent might be referencing is that you are somewhat limited by the size of ships that can sail because they must be small enough to pass under the Skyline Bridge. You will never be able to book one of the larger ships like The Escape there so it limits your options to some degree.  However, if you like the midsized and smaller ships, I think it is a nice option.

Hello from Central Florida,

We were on The Escape for its last cruise before the shutdown for our annual family Spring Break trip. Our party consisted of my two daughters and their husbands, our grandchildren, and my DH for a total of 10. We had a good trip, but on our way back to port we discovered our grandchildren would not be allowed to return to school for 14 days, and my children who work for the schools would also be quarantined for 14 days. Upon arriving back home, we discovered empty shelves and shortages of a wide range of items. It was all a bit surreal. Now the entire state is under stay-at-home orders. Restaurants are take out or delivery only, grocery stores have limits on how many are inside at a time, schools are doing distance learning, and movement is supposed to be limited except for essential services. Sadly, we see many local businesses having to close their doors. We hope they will be able to reopen once this is past and survive to thrive again. In our county we have about 75 cases with a 3 % death rate. It is probably a bit higher than the norm because we have a huge retirement community within the county, and half the cases are in that community.  My DH and I don't see much difference in our lives because we live in a rural area with our closest neighbor farther away than the length of two football fields. We are able to go out in the sunshine and enjoy being outside without fear of interacting with anyone. We wave at neighbors driving down the road in their cars, but do not encounter anyone face to face. We are using grocery store pick-up and have been able to secure enough food and supplies to meet our needs. Our biggest sacrifice has been not being able to have visits with our grandchildren. We saw them at least twice a week before, and we are now past 3 weeks of not visiting except on FaceTime. Our children won't let us break the isolation because they fear for our safety, since we are old. Funny, never think of myself as old, but I guess I am. Still, we feel blessed as we watch the situation in New York and have watched as the passengers on the Holland ship have been forced to sail around hoping for some port to let them enter. Just last night we watched the news as they were able to start disembarking at Ft. Lauderdale. I keep thinking that we could have been those people because their starting cruise date was the same as ours.  We are doing like so many of you--watching the news, staying home, and looking for the time when we are able to resume a more normal life. Hope everyone stays safe and this is over before too long.

When my daughter took our grandson a few years ago, we used private vendors who were willing to supply car seats for a few extra dollars. That might be something you could check out.

I believe you can use one of the certificates even if you are less than 6 months out with your booking.  Using two is the "double up" feature, which we were told requires a 6 month lead.  

Everyone, thanks for the info.  Knowing the location of the box office will be a big help.  We will head there as soon as we can after we get on the ship.

We are going on the Getaway in March and want to get reservations for the Big Top mystery.  What is the best way to secure the reservations once on board?

Sounds like she is now in corporate, but Julie was outstanding.  She was on the Pearl when we did Alaska, which was my second cruise.  We've done lots of cruises since then, but no other cruise director has come close to Julie.  She was everywhere and always trying to make the cruise especially enjoyable.  I always hoped to see her again, but she was too good not to move up the line to higher positions.

Carnival stays with ship time not local time, but vendors are aware of that. When communicating with them, they helped me establish the time once they knew we were on Carnival.

We were in Grand Turk the day after Thanksgiving. We went ashore and got tickets to ride the trolley tour, which we really enjoyed. We went to a small shopping area, past the salt ponds where our guide did a little demonstration on how they used to gather salt, up to the lighthouse, and in areas that showed the impact of the hurricanes. Our guide told us history of the island and was entertaining. When we got back, we toured the John Glen exhibit. Some of our group did beach for the remainder of day, some shopped, and some of us headed back to the ship for a couple of hours of use of ship pools when the ship was less crowded. We had a good day at Grand Turk and were pleased with the choices we made.

Sorry your tour didn't go well. We did the Trikes 2:00 tour and had a good time. Of course, we were back at the ship before dark. We never felt unsafe and saw some gorgeous views from the various locations. Our guide told us interesting tidbits about Aruba and was willing to answer all our questions.

I don't expect a Disney World experience when I go to the beach, but we go to Florida natural beaches frequently and while there is some sea weed in the water on those beaches, the water is generally much better for swimming than what we had at Maya Chan. The grass was thick and you had to swim through it in on most of the beach. The sandy clear area in the water was fairly small, and it was pretty full with other swimmers and people floating in the chairs. The staff is friendly and if you want to lounge on the beach, it was perfect. Service was fine, and the food was good; however, we do not plan to book with them again because I prefer to swim in water that is not as grassy as what we encountered the day we were there.

When we went to Maya Chan, the sea grass did interfere with swimming. Our grandson was only 2 years old, and we were able to find an area near the shore that was relatively grass free for him, but other than in that spot, it was impossible to swim without being in the grass. The hospitality of the owners was wonderful and the food was very good, but we will not return in the future because we prefer being able to swim without so much grass.

We did not book balconies for awhile because the smoke was an issue for us. We started booking balconies again after the lines put rules in about not smoking on the balconies. When we sailed on the Splendor, we had neighbors smoking on their balcony. They had an ash tray that they placed on the floor of the balcony, and the smoke came under the balcony divider right onto our side of the balcony. We put up with it for the first day, but each time we tried to go on the balcony, they were out there smoking. I felt we had paid extra to have a balcony so we called guest services. They paid a visit to our neighbors, but they said they didn't catch them doing it so that was all they could do. The next day they were smoking on the balcony again, and our cabin steward was in the hall. I asked him to come on the balcony and he saw the smoke coming under the divider to our side of balcony. He was quite happy to call security himself and get them right up there. Apparently, they received a small bonus anytime they were able to "catch" smokers. After that visit by security, we did not have any additional problems. If I called guest services about regular cigarettes, I would not hesitate in calling over someone lighting up joints.

Hey, we are also planning a cruise that will include toddlers that may not be potty trained. Is there a splash pad on the Sunshine that they could use?

Our group includes cruisers Ages 1, 2, 5, 20s, 40s, 50s, and 60s. Our questions are mostly about the babies. Do both ships have the Dr. Seuss activities and are there splash areas for the babies? The week we can go has Eastern Caribbean for Splendor and Western for Glory. Which ports seem more child friendly as far as excursions are concerned. Thanks for any help in these areas.

I can't really recommend hotels at JFK because I'm not too familiar with New York, but we did a cruise in late September, and I finally opted for a car service. I was encouraged to use a taxi by several people, but I used Dial 7 and it ended up being one of the best choices I made. We were truly "newbies" to the city, and I just didn't want a small cash savings to spoil the first part of our visit. The car service was efficient and was only about $5 more than a cab with the online coupon. We were investing a good bit in this vacation, and it was worth $5 more to make transfer from JFK to the city easier. It was so nice to get off the plane, secure luggage, and call the operator. She gave specific directions for where to meet our car, and we located our driver with no problems. His car had an identification number clearly posted on the side, and he already had our destination programmed into his GPS system based on my reservation. He verified everything with me before we left the airport, and there were no surprises with rate, etc. He was polite, loaded our luggage quickly, and took us to our hotel. We sat back and enjoyed seeing the skyline of the city for the first time. Our flight landed at 8:20 A.M., and we collected luggage and were at our hotel in the middle of Times Square by 10:00 A.M. This was during the time that the Pope was in the city so we were very satisfied with the service.

When planning our trip to Alaska, friends of ours who once worked Alaska cruises for one of the lines told us be sure to pick a ship that did Glacier Bay. They had worked several different cruises which included the different glaciers and said depending on the weather, the others might not be accessible for good views. We went with their advice and booked an itinerary with Glacier Bay even though it was more expensive than the others. It was spectacular. You get to see more than one glacier, and we were so close to the main glacier that it almost felt like you could touch it. We were also able to view it for a long time. The ship slowly did a 360 degree turn, which was an incredible viewing opportunity if on the top deck. The rangers were on board the ship and gave commentary during our visit. They also set up display tables with literature and offered question and answer sessions during our time sailing in and out of the area. We even saw a glacier with black ice in addition to the ones with the traditional blue ice. I have spectacular photos from our trip, and I definitely felt we had made the best choice for our trip.

We cruised in September and were flying out from JFK on Sunday. The cruise line said no flights should be booked earlier than noon at any airport and recommended later than 1:00 as a better choice. I don't know how much closer LaGuardia is, but we encountered no traffic delays and were off the ship fairly quickly. It was still about 10:15 when we arrived at JFK, and it was just a little before 11:00 when we cleared security. Having an 11:00 flight would have been a huge stresser. We had booked a 2:00 flight and found that we were able to travel without worrying if we would be late, and we used the time at the airport to grab food in a relaxed state of mind, which worked well for us.

On our trip at the end of September, we had rough seas on four of the seven nights. It was rough enough that they drained the pools because water was sloshing onto the deck, and we were unable to port in Halifax because the captain felt he couldn't safely dock. However, we met a couple who had done the same cruise in 2014 and were returning to the same route because it had been so beautiful. They said it had been perfect for them. Like others have said, you can't predict it.

I have parked at the Port of Miami and at two different off site locations. Based on my experiences, I too would bite the bullet and opt for the port parking. Port parking is expensive, but the long shuttle waits and less than desirable parking lot locations make the POM parking my choice for future cruises out of Miami.

I can truly say if you choose off site parking, it will probably depend on the day what level of service you get and how you feel afterwards. I just don't think you will get a clear, complaint free recommendation from people who have experienced what we did. We used Premier once and it was great. We were "sold" on them and booked with them right away for another cruise. Second time was a disaster, and I am not exaggerating. Standing in a line for a shuttle to get to the pier for over an hour just isn't acceptable to me. By the time we arrived at our ship, we had the fastest embarkation on record. There was no one in line by that point, and they rushed us on board. We used the other off site lot on another trip. We arrived and received quick transport to pier, even though the location seemed a bit shady. Our car was okay when we got back, but we called for a shuttle after the cruise, we waited until all other passengers were gone from pick up area. Port personnel came to ask if we needed help. We told them who we were waiting for, and they said, "Oh. Okay" It seemed they knew from previous experience what we were dealing with. We finally got to our car after more than 5 phone calls when we were told, "They are on their way." Our family has also used the off site parking in the locations you mentioned, and we never have any problems there, but when leaving from Miami we now bite the bullet and pay more. I hope your choice works better than ours.

We were in NYC before our cruise in September, and we chose Top of the Rock because we did not have an emotional attachment to going up in the EBS. We wanted good views, and the day we were there, we were really pleased. It was clear, and we could see the Statue of Liberty even without binoculars. When using my zoom lens on my camera, I was able to take a good shot of it. The view of Central Park was also really good because you could see the shape of the park and even make out the reservoir in the distance. We had visited the park the day before and knew the reservoir was large. Seeing how far it stretched across the park was really interesting. From one side of the observation deck, you look right at EBS. I have a nice photograph that I took of EBS from that spot. We also saw the Times Square ball from another area of the deck and the various bridges. There are three separate decks at differing heights, which is very nice. It gave space for the other viewers to spread out and you can see how the view changes as you go higher. Like others have said, I think it is a matter of preference, but I was quite pleased with the time we spent at Top of the Rock. I bought tickets in advance online, and it was a time saver for getting inside, but the wait for the elevator was still a bit long.