put me on a ship

7 hours ago, jonnychoc said:

The Sun is also terminating on the 3rd in New Orleans as well.  Just adds to the volume and chaos.

 

Anyone know if the ports are open now to get cars out?  I'm not on the cruise but want to get a friends car out and back to them while they try to get home.

 

Thoughts?

Mandatory  evacuations begin today at 8 am. I'm not sure you will be able to go over the causeway. 

6 hours ago, emdia43 said:

Would the port of Tampa be able to handle a ship of that size?

No. It wouldn't fit under the bridge.

1 hour ago, david_sobe said:

 

Miami, Everglades and Canaveral have set Port Condition Yankee. No incoming vessels over 500 gross tons.

4 hours ago, alreadypacked said:

 

Looks like Port of Miami has cancelled their emergency status and is open (and likely will be tomorrow).

 

Miami, Port Everglades and Port Canaveral have all set Port Condition Yankee. Click on the USCG Marine Safety Information Bulletin for the details, but in a nutshell, no incoming vessels over 500 gross tons allowed for Condition Yankee.

ALERT | HURRICANE DORIAN

AUG. 31, 2019

ALL PORT USERS

PortMiami is open. The Captain of the Port has established Hurricane Port Readiness Condition YANKEE for PortMiami. See attached the USCG Marine Safety Information Bulletin for further information.

Passengers please contact the cruise lines for up to date itinerary information.

4 minutes ago, Susan in Maine said:

My mother-in-law lives on Merritt Island (10 minutes from Port Canaveral) and they are evacuating tomorrow. They are hearing a forecast that says Dorian is going to be a cat 4 by the time it hits land.

That's what NOAA is saying now. Cat 4. No official evacuations ordered yet, but everyone we know on beachside is evacuating.

4 hours ago, BandBWCsmom said:

I live about 20 min south of port canaveral. Evacuation warnings won't start until at least tomorrow. We don't even get a decision from the public schools until later today (they would be the shelters). We are supposed to sail on the Breeze on Saturday. Shutters up, everything brought indoors and turning a vacation into an evacuation (assuming we still sail)

We're a little farther south than you, about 35 minutes from the port. We're in full hurricane preparedness mode. Preparing for the worst, hoping for the best.

According to CruiseMapper, the Sunshine is in Port Canaveral this morning. It's not supposed to be. Does anybody know why?

16 hours ago, Petoonya said:

You'll do great snorkeling Kat. Hopefully since you're in a warm water state you can do some more practicing there before you leave. The Coral gardens is not all that challenging. Not deep, just the current can slam you into coral. You'll do great everywhere.  I'll be waiting to read your review when you return 🙂

That's what I'm nervous about. Being slammed into coral. 😮 And why I plan to be covered pretty much head to toe in neoprene.😁

On 5/13/2019 at 10:38 AM, Petoonya said:

Doing the Coral Gardens drift snorkel two times was really worth it. And there was plenty of time for the motu picnic. We brought water shoes, gloves, and some rash guards and pants ($20 on Amazaon) just for this and glad to have. There were people on the ship with some nasty cuts being treated. You can really get smashed up on sharp rocks depending on the current

that day. The clarity of the water in the Coral Gardens was like not even being in water, and the setting in the trees like paradise.

We already got pants, wetsuit jacket, water shoes, and gloves, most of it specifically for this excursion! My husband is way more into snorkeling than me, and much more experienced. I will admit, I am quite nervous about doing it.

BTW, I read your review...it's making me really excited and impatient! 

9 hours ago, Petoonya said:

Blah, blah, blah- here I go droning on again about Tahiti especially on Wind Spirit!

Think about maybe doing your excursions privately. We heard very mixed reactions on the ships tours on our 17 day in November.

Because we had so much time to plan I researched here and on Tripadvisor and glad I did. We had excellent experiences with providers. The only excursion we did with the ship was the visit to Coral Gardens when we were on Tahaa. It was surreal- so much so that we did it again on the second go round of it second visit to Tahaa. I'm embarrassed to post this again because I just did on a different thread, and it's very wordy. (Took me awhile to adjust to a non-Nirvana state). But here you go- this is my 17 day Tahiti cruise review https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=641857

We snorkeled with 3 different providers on the 4 days in Bora Bora and while they were all good I have my #1. If you can get enough people to commit to it, Ato in Fakarava is amazing. Went with him on previous cruise. We snorkeled at every stop on the 17 day and it was beyond memorable.

Again.....I'm soooooooo envious of you! 🙂

Thanks! The reason I asked is because we want to book the drift snorkeling at the Coral Gardens for both stops, but may or may not do it the second time. Another question, did you still have time for the motu picnic that day?

Does anybody know WindStar's cancellation policy for shore excursions? Thanks!

Kat

We're starting to plan our trip to Tahiti, the itinerary is 10 day including Tuamotus, and then the 7 day Tahiti cruise. My questions are: which island is the motu picnic by WindStar, and is there a special event evening, and where/when? Will the motu picnic and special event be the same island for both legs of the cruise?

Thanks!

Kat

Is Howl at the Moon available on the European itineraries? I tried searching, couldn't find an answer. Thanks!

Thanks! We've also been to San Juan several times, but thought if we docked close to Old Town, we would probably get off and walk around a bit. Or not. Seaside looks like an incredible ship, and we may decide to just stay on board.

Does anyone know which dock MSC Seaside goes to in San Juan? Is it the one close to Old San Juan, or the Pan American pier?

Thanks!

We're doing the 17 day Tahiti trip in December, and want to do a lot of snorkeling. Does anyone know if we can snorkel on our own in any of the ports? TIA!

I just put down a deposit for the Wind Surf Dec. 8 cruise RT from St. Maarten. I plan to fly in one day earlier. I started looking at possible hotels to book and am seeing the majority are still closed due to hurricane damage. There are ver few places to stay in St. Maarten now, almost nothing is open that is at $100 a night.

 

Since Windstar decided to commit to sailing from St. Maarten again they must assume everything will be in place and operating by November. But I am not so sure. I hesitate to buy a plane ticket to SXM only to have Windstar say St. Maarten cruise port isn't ready and move the cruises to Barbados like they did this year.

 

What do you all think about the odds of St. Maarten being good to go for this year's winter Caribbean cruise season?

I would think by December, at least several more hotels would be open. At least I hope so!

Can't you fly direct from St. Maarten to Orlando? You will be adding another 6 or 7 hours to your travel by flying by way of Newark. Not to mention the terrible on-time record Newark airport has.

No direct flights from Orlando. We're on the same cruise, actually on the one before also. We got a direct flight from Miami, it was the only direct flight we could find in FL.

We tried Star Pride this December, our first WindStar sailing. The motor yacht staterooms are huge. I was more concerned with having enough to do on the ship, and discovered that was not a problem. Instead of going to shows, etc. we made some really great friends!

The best night we have ever had on a cruise was the night of the deck BBQ (the food and choices were to die for!). We were in Les Saintes that day, along with Wind Surf. The captains arranged that we left at the same time, around 9 pm, I believe. We got to see Wind Surf raise her sails, absolutely stunning! And THEN, we were treated to a meteor shower! The captain turned most the lights off. It truly was a magical night.

We loved it so much we booked 4 more, all on sailing yachts. We're doing 2 on Wind Surf in December (B2B), and 2 on Wind Spirit the following December (again, B2B).

Are you CAS? If you upgrade from a inside offer you only receive inside offer perks. Doesn't matter if you upgrade to Haven you don't get any new perks

No, not CAS. I tried talking to someone different, which was her team lead. He is standing by what she said. I think I will call tomorrow and ask for a new cruise consultant. I feel like she is just blowing us off.

I really miss the cruise consultant I had before. He was awesome. So awesome he got promoted. :(

I'm wondering if anyone has had a similar experience, and I will try to explain so it makes sense.

We are booked in an interior cabin on the Escape, with the perks of shore excursion credit and $50 OBC. (We are after final payment). The balcony guaranty has dropped, and we want to upgrade for $40 PP, with no perks. We would rather have a bigger room than the credits.

My PCC is telling me she can't do it because we already have a shore excursion booked to use our shore excursion credit, even after I told her we would be willing to pay for the excursion now. She is saying I have to cancel the excursion, then MAYBE she can upgrade, but we would also have to pay more in port fees and taxes. She also said it probably would NOT work, and that we would have to upgrade to the next balcony category for an additional $210 PP with perks, and even that might not work.

I know I've paid to upgrade before, after final payment. This is a new cruise consultant for us, so is she giving us the runaround? Or is it a new policy for NCL? The cost isn't the issue, really, but it's the principle.

What say you all?

If you are looking for good food, you won't get it on MSC.

You will if you are in the Yacht Club. We thought the food was to die for!:D

Beg to differ. We love the Sailing ships, beautiful, great deck space, lovely rooms, more outside space. It is very subjective sail vs motor. We have completed 19 sails and 1 motor. We loved the motor yacht but our preference is is the sails. What is superb on both food, service, ambience, comfort, itinearies, and the joy of small ship sailing. Happy Sailing

We were in Les Saintes with Wind Surf, and the captains arranged to leave at the same time. We went out first, then waited for Wind Surf, and we sat there and watched as she raised her sails. Impressive! (We were also treated to a meteor shower at the same time!!) Quite a magical night!

What time did you have to leave St Bart’s, and how early could get on the island?

 

 

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We left St Bart's at 1:30 pm, and got there around 7 am. We did the 1 hour island tour, and a little shopping. I would say about 50% of the stores were still closed due to hurricane damage.

Just remember the Wind Surf is not as nice of a ship as the Pride. The cabins are much smaller. The service is the same.

We know the cabins are smaller, and honestly, the ship itself doesn't matter. It's more about the food, service and overall ambiance of the ship. And the Pride is old, and showing her age, but that did not affect our cruise.