*OFFICIAL* CC Group Cruise 02/15/2014 Cupid's IV Southern Caribbean - Carnival Breeze

[Dspcentury]

It looks like I may be able to switch my hotel that I had booked (Holiday Inn by the airport) to the Intercontinental Hotel by the Holiday Inn by the Port of Miami. I get a free room from my credit card and it can be used at this hotel. I have to wait until Sept. It is interesting that this hotel is not booked at all and the Holiday Inn which is next door is booked solid!! I thought I saw previous posts saying that some were staying at Intercontinental. I could be wrong...nice looking hotel though..:)

[HeidiHo]

Good Morning!

 

Heidi, I think I caught your summer cold. I've felt rotten since Wednesday. What a way to spend a long weekend off.

 

Dave

 

Sorry You are sick too, Dave. I am on the mend now but I basically did nothing all weekend.

 

It looks like I may be able to switch my hotel that I had booked (Holiday Inn by the airport) to the Intercontinental Hotel by the Holiday Inn by the Port of Miami. I get a free room from my credit card and it can be used at this hotel. I have to wait until Sept. It is interesting that this hotel is not booked at all and the Holiday Inn which is next door is booked solid!! I thought I saw previous posts saying that some were staying at Intercontinental. I could be wrong...nice looking hotel though..:)

 

It could be due to price or maybe a 2 night minimum. When we booked our hotel there were still plenty of hotel rooms available at hotels near the port but they were either outrageously expensive or had 2 night minimums. We got the Fairfield Inn Miami Airport South for just under $200.00 and night. At that time, hotels near the pier were about $400.00 and up. I haven't check hotel prices lately. I should check again. We stayed at a hotel right next to the Fairfield when we were in Miami 2 years ago so I know the area is OK. It's not great, not like the Convention Center are of Ft. Lauderdale but is still OK. It's just older and has a more commercial feel. I know where there is a nice Cuban Restaurant a short walk away and there are restaurants in the hotel next door.

 

it's back to work at the OG tonight. I feel OK now but I am coughing just a bit but probably not enough to prevent me from working. I'll make sure I take cough medicine before I go. I don't think our customers would be very comfortable if a host with a bad cough hands them a pager. The only thing worse than that would be if the server delivering your food was coughing real bad.

 

Today is Eric's birthday. He's 25. We thought he wasn't moving home until next month but now it may be sooner. He told Dave yesterday that he'll move home just as soon as they put him on the schedule at the Longhorn Steakhouse here. He said the GM is supposed to call him Tuesday. It sure is going to be strange having both kids living at home again. It's going to be an adjustment, that's for sure. Dave promised to finish the bathroom. i'm not holding my breath though. :rolleyes:

 

Have a great day. :)

[momofzeke]

Dave, sorry you're not feeling well. Heidi, glad you're better.

 

Still plugging away at haying. What's been baled so far is 100 bales, where on a normal year those fields would have close to 500 bales. Pretty discouraging.

 

David, I'm amazed you were able to book a hotel near the port! Heidi if you find a better hotel than the one we booked let me know. I don't have time right now to look for one.

 

Heidi, I think it would be a huge adjustment to have kids living at home again! As sad as I was when my kids left the nest, we have gotten so used to it now that it would be hard to have them here all the time. Course, my kids have been out of college a lot longer than yours so that makes a difference. Greg has been out of college 7 years, and Brian has been out 5 years. I know lots of kids so have to move home after college just to survive. Good luck with the bathroom!!! ;) :D

Edited July 8, 2013 by momofzeke

[HeidiHo]

Sue - the Intercontinental that David was talking about is actually pretty reasonably priced compared to other downtown hotels. It's 269.00 for advance purchase or $289.00 to just hold a room on credit card. That's still quite a bit more than we are paying at the Fairfield. What do you think? The Fairfield has actually gone up in price and is almost as much as the Intercontinental now but when we booked I think it was just under $200.00 per night.

 

I am not real thrilled about the idea of having both kids living at home again. I've gotten pretty used to the peace and quiet around here. I love them to death and love spending time with them but it's really going to be an adjustment having them both living here again. I do want to get that bathroom finished and Dave actually worked on it yesterday. I think that's the first time he's touched it since January when he worked on it while Staci and I were on our cruise.

 

We are having thunderstorms this morning. It was raining very hard a few minutes ago but seems to have let up a bit for now.

 

Have a great day. :)

[Cruisin Dave]

Good evening Cupids,

I wish we were able to stay nearer the port so that we could go to Bayside. Love that area of Miami.

Heidi, wish we had some rain. It's dry as a bone around here. No rain in about 3 weeks.:(

Dave

[Dspcentury]

David, I'm amazed you were able to book a hotel near the port! Heidi if you find a better hotel than the one we booked let me know. I don't have time right now to look for one.

;) :D

 

Sue..I did not book yet because I am waiting for my coupon for the free room but that hotel has 600 rooms available right now and I have to wait tell Sept to book. I think that the rate at this hotel is 239.00. Maybe this is why no one is booking.

 

Dave..I know what you mean..I love the Bayside Market and to get this room would be a great way for me to celebrate Valentine's Day!!:)

[Flick]

I'm staying put at the LaQuinta because of the car situation and because I would rather spend my money on a nice "get acquainted" dinner. (The other two couples traveling with us (Jann and Ken and Lesjazz) have never met before. Sure Bayside is nice and all but......

This past Saturday we actually had no rain for the first time in two weeks. On Sunday I finally grilled those t-bones early and, bless Pete, the rains came just as I sat down at the table to eat them! Fortunately the sun is soooo hot that the water in the roads dryies up almost immediately. We have it timed right, however, we sit down to talk and share a bottle of wine just as the rains come.....

Edited July 9, 2013 by Flick

[momofzeke]

I think we'll stay put at our hotel too. Since i haven't booked a flight yet, i don't know what time we will be arriving, but it will be late evening or maybe even late night, so we won't have much time to do anything. We just need a place to sleep and shower the next day, so i think i would rather save the extra cash.

[HeidiHo]

Good Afternoon. :)

 

I'm happy with our hotel selection. I know we got a pretty good deal because it's a lot more expensive now. It went up right after we booked. I really don't want to spend more either. This cruise is the most expensive one we've ever done. I'm glad we booked the cruise early too because the cruise prices have gone up a lot too. Maybe it will go down some after final payment but who knows. I HAVE noticed that the 8C balconies that we booked have come available again a couple of times. It could be that group space that is not booked is being released by travel agencies. The 8C's had been sold out for while and then a couple of weeks ago I noticed a bunch available one day. They were gone again a couple of days later. Then one day last week there were some available but I never checked to see if they were still available after that. Last time I checked prices the 8C had gone up $180.00 per person from the time we booked. Of course, when they are showing sold out it's kind of hard to check prices. :rolleyes:

 

I have to got to work now. Have a good evening. :)

[SEXYREDBONE]

Hello Heidi we been chatting since last year Sept , you can add my name Rosalind and my husband Gary to the roll call , I am also on the other group since last year

[MiMiof2]

Good Morning!

School is DONE, so maybe I will have a chance to post more often : )

The couple cruising with us booked the 8C guarantee cabin. Shiela asked me when her cabin number would be available and I told her that it wouldn't be until much closer to the sail date. Well, she entered her booking number into Carnivals site, and BOOM! There was her cabin number! She did get a nice location.

With the high hotel costs near the port, we were thinking of staying just outside Miami, since we are driving down from the Orlando area. Shiela and DH are flying in from Chicago, and planned to fly into Orlando the night before, and ride down with us. However..... It looks like most of the flights go to Miami first THEN to Orlando. That would be foolish lol.

Looks like sunshine today! A beautiful day to have off school : ) it's going to be strange for awhile. For the last fourteen months I have worked full time and went to school full time. ( I told hubby that a cruise this fall would be a good graduation gift....)

We are still contemplating excursions. At this point, beach days sound the best to me.

Have a great day !

[momofzeke]

Hello Heidi we been chatting since last year Sept , you can add my name Rosalind and my husband Gary to the roll call , I am also on the other group since last year

 

There's another group? You mean another roll call? I'll have to check that out!

 

Good news, bad news. Good news is we finished the cutting. Bad news is we finished the cutting! Good because it's always nice to be done, but bad because the reason we are done so soon is that there just wasn't much to cut. Of the 1200 or so acres we hay, almost 600 of it didn't have enough hay on it to bother cutting.

 

I'm happy with our hotel too. The Cuban restaurant sounds perfect if we get there early enough for dinner. Some of the flights don't arrive until 9 or 10, but I'm hoping to avoid those. Still waiting for Southwest to open their schedule for our dates.

[HeidiHo]

Hello Heidi we been chatting since last year Sept , you can add my name Rosalind and my husband Gary to the roll call , I am also on the other group since last year

 

Welcome back Rosiland. It's been a while but I remember you and I'm pretty sure I already have you and Gary down for the group. I have tried to keep a list, even for the people who rarely post. I just let a message on the other roll call inviting everyone there to join us here too. We are not exclusive to official group members only.

 

Lisa - Congrats on finishing school. That must be a huge weight off your shoulders.

[HeidiHo]

 

I'm happy with our hotel too. The Cuban restaurant sounds perfect if we get there early enough for dinner. Some of the flights don't arrive until 9 or 10, but I'm hoping to avoid those. Still waiting for Southwest to open their schedule for our dates.

 

Sue - Hopefully the Cuban restaurant will have a bathroom by then. Do you remember a while back I told you that I read they were doing some remodeling and so the only thing they had for a bathroom was a porta potty outside. LOL. We are NOT going there if they don't have an indoor bathroom.

 

We are anxiously waiting for Southwest flights to open up too. We can fly out of either Midway in Chicago or Milwaukee. Southwest does not fly out of O'Hare which stinks for us because it's the closest airport. O'Hare is 20 minutes from us, Midway is about an hour and Milwaukee is an hour and a half. The nice thing about Milwaukee is my dad lives in southern Wisconsin so we can leave our car at his house and he can drive us to and from the airport. That's what we did when we flew Southwest for the Spirit cruise out of San Diego.

 

It's hot and humid here in Chicago again. Have a great day. :)

[Cruisin Dave]

Good afternoon Cupids,

 

We haven't flown SW in years. To get there we almost have to drive past DFW to get to Love Field. Plus, it's in downtown Dallas and that just means more traffic. I like direct flights and we can get one with AA. It may be a little more money but also less flying time.

 

Sue, it's dry as a bone around here with highs in the 100s. There may be a chance for rain this weekend. Grass fires are popping up and we are under a burn ban. Sorry to hear about the hay crop. Do you get a second crop?

 

Mimi, a fall cruise sounds great. Since we did DWD last month no cruise for us.

 

Dave

[Flick]

Dave, you want some rain? Boy, have I got rain for ya.....oh and tornadoes too just to keep you on your toes...three of em in the last three days because of all the storms. Yesterday we ran between the clouds and visited the Big Cat Sanctuary, a rescue operation in Sarasota. Being a "circus town" we have retired lions and tigers and oh my! who no longer perform at various circuses. (We have corporate headquarters for 50 circuses in Sarasota!) I tried to get airfares for Jann and Ken from SWA yesterday....they stop at Feb. 12th.!!! Incidentally, for those thinkin' about Southwest Carnival operates a bus to/from the pier to Ft. Lauderdale airport for $30.00 per person each way.The week before the fare coming to Florida was $311.00pp and going back to Orange Cty in California $148.00pp.

[HeidiHo]

Good Morning!

 

We have had too much rain this summer too. Last summer it was a drought, now this summer too much rain.

 

Dave is going on a canoe trip on the Wisconsin river this weekend. We have friends that have organized this trip almost annually for probably 25 years. We used to go every year but then stopped. It was a lot of fun but I tired of it as I got older. First of all, there are NO bathroom facilities on the river, ANYWHERE. :eek: Camping is on a sand bar. It's usually a pretty large group (10-15 canoes) and after paddeling the first few miles they tie the canoes together and float the rest of the way. It's fun but now that I am older (and fluffier)I know I would have trouble getting in and out of the canoe in deep water and sometimes you have no choice. With no facilities and with the canoes tied together, if you have to pee you have to get out of the canoe and pee in the water. The canoe barge cannot stop and pull over every time someone has to pee. And if it's hot, sometimes you need to get out of the canoe just to cool off. There's just no way I want to do that anymore. Much of the river is very shallow so getting in and out isn't always hard but if I did get out and the water got deep, there's no way I could pull myself up over the side of the canoe anymore. I would have to just float along side until we reached shallow water again. I really enjoyed these trips when I was young but it's not my thing anymore.

 

Yesterday we had our monthly team meeting at the travel agency and I was recognized for being #1 in sales for the month of June. :D This would be out of about 19 center based sales consultants. This would be the independent contractors only. We also have agents who are employed by the agency but they are recognized separately.

 

Have a great day. :)

[HeidiHo]

I forgot to mention that some of you might notice on the Carnival board here on Cruise Critic that some people are saying their Breeze itineraries for next winter have changed. No worries for us. It looks like only the 6 day sailings are affected. Of course, that doesn't mean they couldn't still change ours. That can happen on any cruise, at any time. It's in the contract but for now, our itinerary is the same. So if you see those posts, don't panic.

 

I also forgot that I wanted to tell you that Staci and I saw "Despicable Me 2" last night. Very funny movie but don't go if you don't enjoy animated movies. We liked the 1st one so we wanted to see the 2nd one.

[Cusp79]

WOW, 116 pages for the 2/15/13 cruise already ... this board has taken off! Hello, my name is Ryan and my bf's name is Greg. We have about 10 people in our groups plus an additional 8 from another group that will be on this cruise. We also have a group page on facebook for this cruise so people can get ideas on hotel, airfare, excursions, meet and greets, etc. (https://www.*****/487014908030614/). We've had a few people from the previous board join our group as well just to get ideas and meet more people. We're an open minded, fun loving, diverse, group of people. I'll have to take some time out this weekend to get caught up on this board but I hope to bond with some of the people in this thread!

[Cusp79]

P.S. I noticed some of you were talking about hotels ... the B2 Maimi (that's where we're staying before the cruise) is close to the port (like 0.9 miles) and rooms start at $224 (last I checked). Also it's within walking distance of the Bayside Market. Greg and I went there last year and did a water tour of Star Island ... it's a cool marketplace and the tours are nice.

Edited July 11, 2013 by Cusp79

[inlinesick]

im getting nervous about all that breeze intenaries changed lately! I know most of them are 6 days but still.....go carnival! less then 2 weeks from the liberty!!!!! sooo long!! just the girlfriend and i!!!!!

[HeidiHo]

WOW, 116 pages for the 2/15/13 cruise already ... this board has taken off! Hello, my name is Ryan and my bf's name is Greg. We have about 10 people in our groups plus an additional 8 from another group that will be on this cruise. We also have a group page on facebook for this cruise so people can get ideas on hotel, airfare, excursions, meet and greets, etc. (https://www.*****/487014908030614/). We've had a few people from the previous board join our group as well just to get ideas and meet more people. We're an open minded, fun loving, diverse, group of people. I'll have to take some time out this weekend to get caught up on this board but I hope to bond with some of the people in this thread!

 

Welcome Ryan and Greg. Glad you found your way over here. I sent a you a request to join your Facebook Group.

[Cusp79]

Got it Heidi, I'm main person of that account so I'll be accepting people that want to join. I noticed "Inlinesick" mentioned something about all the itinerary changes? I wasn't aware of this ... mind if I ask what changed?

[HeidiHo]

I noticed "Inlinesick" mentioned something about all the itinerary changes? I wasn't aware of this ... mind if I ask what changed?

 

Nothing has changed for our sailing. It seems to be the 6 night Breeze sailings. We do have some people on our roll call doing back to back cruises so they might be affected.

[Cusp79]

Oh okay, I was a little worried for a moment there!