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

HeidiHo

By HeidiHo,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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Gojirart

Gojirart

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Hello everyone! I've been lurking for a while trying to catch up on all of the previous posts. We will be joining you on this cruise. We are both retired teachers (art and music). This will be our very first Carnival cruise (we've sailed with Princess, Holland america and Royal Caribbean before). I must admit a bit of nervousness with Carnival's recent reputation that's out there, but reading all of your posts has helped to put our minds at ease a bit. I also believe that any cruise is what you make of it. The itinerary is what snagged us - we've never visited the Dominican Republic or Curacao before. It has also been fun exploring options available on the ship. It looks like the Breeze is a great choice.

This will also be our first inside cabin. Retirement, though wonderful in many ways, does have a rather drastic affect on the paycheck ;) We are on deck 7 - it sounds like many of you are also on that deck.

We are from Waukesha Wisconsin and like Heidi (and many of the rest of you) are currently living in a very cold and white environment!

I am looking forward to meeting all of you. I hope there will be some official meet and mingle sort of activities planned.

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HeidiHo

HeidiHo

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Hello everyone! I've been lurking for a while trying to catch up on all of the previous posts. We will be joining you on this cruise. We are both retired teachers (art and music). This will be our very first Carnival cruise (we've sailed with Princess, Holland america and Royal Caribbean before). I must admit a bit of nervousness with Carnival's recent reputation that's out there, but reading all of your posts has helped to put our minds at ease a bit. I also believe that any cruise is what you make of it. The itinerary is what snagged us - we've never visited the Dominican Republic or Curacao before. It has also been fun exploring options available on the ship. It looks like the Breeze is a great choice.

This will also be our first inside cabin. Retirement, though wonderful in many ways, does have a rather drastic affect on the paycheck ;) We are on deck 7 - it sounds like many of you are also on that deck.

We are from Waukesha Wisconsin and like Heidi (and many of the rest of you) are currently living in a very cold and white environment!

I am looking forward to meeting all of you. I hope there will be some official meet and mingle sort of activities planned.

 

Welcome aboard Gojirart. I have family in southern Wisconsin (Twin Lakes) and we are actually flying out of Milwaukee for this cruise. My dad will drive us to the airport so we can leave our car at his house. O'Hare is only 20 minutes from our house but Southwest had pretty good fares and since we won't have to pay for bags on southwest we couldn't pass it up. Southwest doesn't fly out of O'Hare. They only fly out of Midway in Chicago and that is almost as far as Milwaukee and the flights were more expensive.

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momofzeke

momofzeke

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I finally did my online check in, and printed my cruise docs & luggage tags. Woo Hoo! :D

 

I still haven't figured out how we are getting from FLL to our hotel in Miami! Been so busy with Duck football and now year end stuff and Christmas, I just haven't taken the time to research it. Since Heidi & Dave will be arriving at FLL around the same time we are, we are planning to share transportation to the hotel (we are staying in the same one).

 

I don't think our hotel has a shuttle to the port, so we'll probably just share a van taxi with Heidi & Dave if that's what they want to do.

 

Starting to seem a little more real now! I even bought a few cruise clothes when we were in Bend last week. Got some really good sales at Macy's! Shorts and some tops. YAY! :D

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HeidiHo

HeidiHo

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I finally did my online check in, and printed my cruise docs & luggage tags. Woo Hoo! :D

 

I still haven't figured out how we are getting from FLL to our hotel in Miami! Been so busy with Duck football and now year end stuff and Christmas, I just haven't taken the time to research it. Since Heidi & Dave will be arriving at FLL around the same time we are, we are planning to share transportation to the hotel (we are staying in the same one).

 

I don't think our hotel has a shuttle to the port, so we'll probably just share a van taxi with Heidi & Dave if that's what they want to do.

 

Starting to seem a little more real now! I even bought a few cruise clothes when we were in Bend last week. Got some really good sales at Macy's! Shorts and some tops. YAY! :D

 

Sue - I have done a little research on transportation from FLL to our hotel in Miami. I can't remember the names of the shuttle companies but I think we can do it for about $65.00 - $75.00 so it won't cost that much when we split it. I will try to look into again so we can reserve something soon. Our hotel does have a shuttle but I believe they said the first one was at 11:00 AM so we decided that we'd probably share a taxi and go a little earlier.

 

I have been waiting to do our on line check in because the credit card we want to use for our on board account expires in January so I was waiting for the new card to come in the mail. Dave and I each have a card for that account and he got his today but I didn't get mine. :confused: I suppose if it doesn't come in a couple of days I'll just use Dave's. It's the same account anyway, we each just have our own names on each card.

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ooulio

ooulio

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We are coming in on the Friday afternoon before the cruise. Please don't book with GO Shuttle. Worst one I have ever done. We did this in Feb this year. We took a town car. The guy who was the driver was awful. Smashed our new suitcases so bad. I am looking for one now. Is anyone looking for a ride that Friday afternoon to Miami. We are going downtown Miami.

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momofzeke

momofzeke

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Heidi ~ yes, a shuttle for $70 or so would be very affordable for us to split. If you find something, go ahead and book it. I agree, I would rather just take a cab to the ship and get there earlier. We can ask for a van taxi and the 4 of us would fit with our luggage fine.

 

It's trying to snow a little here.

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HeidiHo

HeidiHo

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I have a question for EVERYONE. What time do you think is a good time to meet on the first sea day and the last sea day? I think that's when we should do our "official" get togethers and I need to contact Carnival to see about arranging a room/lounge. I was thinking 2:00 but I'd like to see what everyone else thinks. I don't really want to meet a whole lot later than 2:00 because the people with early dinner might have to cut it short to get ready. The one on the first sea day could just be a meet and greet or we could do a white elephant exchange if most people would like that. When we did that before most everyone brought a small, inexpensive gift that somehow represented where they were from. I think I did a Chicago Christmas ornament. Maybe we'll do a cabin crawl on the last day. Anyone have any ideas on that? The couple that ran it last time had a few decks of cards and at every cabin everyone got a card. Whoever had the best hand at the end got a prize. I'm open to ideas.

 

Heidi ~ yes, a shuttle for $70 or so would be very affordable for us to split. If you find something, go ahead and book it. I agree, I would rather just take a cab to the ship and get there earlier. We can ask for a van taxi and the 4 of us would fit with our luggage fine.

 

It's trying to snow a little here.

 

Actually, taxi's are about the same price. Shared shuttles seem to be the most expensive because they have a per person charge of about $25.00. I'm beginning to think maybe a taxi would be best. I know we'd have a lot of luggage but there are usually van taxi's and the airport website says the taxi's will take 5 people. If we do a taxi then we don't have to worry about booking a shuttle that doesn't show up or something. I'll do some more research.

 

I'm very excited that I actually got Christmas Eve off from the OG (to those of you who don't know, the OG is the Olive Garden where I work as a host). I was sure I would work because Tuesday night is my regular night. Instead they replaced me with a girl who is a Muslim. She wouldn't be celebrating Christmas anyway.

 

We are supposed to be getting and ice storm tonight. My nephew and his wife live in Dubuque, Iowa and their kids didn't have school today because of ice. Most the time, whatever weather they have, we get a few hours later.

 

Have a great weekend. :)

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Cruisin Dave

Cruisin Dave

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Heidi, 2pm sounds like a great time for the Meet & Greet. It's not too early and not too late since the first seaday is Formal/Elegant night.

 

Hope everyone stays warm. When we awake Friday morning it was in the 60s and by the time I went to work it was in the lower 40s. No ice or snow here but our fellow cruisers from OKC are experiencing an ice storm like we had 2 weeks ago.

 

Be safe and have a great day.

 

Dave

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AKB10

AKB10

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Hello Cupids!!!

 

Yes Dave, we have ice. I don't think it is like what you had a few weeks ago though. We are suppose to get about 1/2 inch of ice, but so far it is not too bad. It does look pretty with the icicles hanging down off the houses and the grass and trees shining from the ice. My son had to go to work and he said so far the roads were not to bad. He just drove slow and easy.

 

We are suppose to have a family get together today in Stillwater OK. It is about an hour drive from home. It may be canceled, but I hope not. I'm hoping the roads do not get too bad. The highways are usually kept clear, so hopefully we wouldn't have trouble making it there.

 

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

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AKB10

AKB10

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Heidi, 2 PM sounds like a great time for a meet and greet. Let us know where and when. Let us know if we need to bring a white elephant gift, that is always fun to do.

 

Also a cabin crawl would be fun. We did one on the first cupids cruise with a poker run included. It was great seeing each type of cabin. We met at a bar, those who wanted, got a drink to carry along with them. We went to about 6 different cabins. We went to an inside, oceanview, a few balconies and ended up on an aft wrap. On that cruise Frank and I had one of the L shape balconies and we were one of the "hosts". Some of the cabins had snacks or drinks.

 

Those who wanted to do the poker crawl all put in $5 (I may be wrong on the $ amount though). Each cabin that participated brought a deck of cards and gave each person a card at their cabin. At the last cabin the best hand received the pot. I also have read that other cabin crawls had a first, second and third place winner.

 

I would help you organize this if others are interested in doing it. Let me know.

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Cruisin Dave

Cruisin Dave

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Kathy, glad to hear that the ice storm in OKC wasn't as bad as the one we received earlier this month. That one kick our keyster. Could not go through that again anytime soon.

 

The cabin crawl is fun. The way Kathy explains it is the way I remember on most cruises. Our cabin is open for one of the cabins.

 

Dave

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momofzeke

momofzeke

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I like the 2 pm meet & greet idea. I'd be down with a white elephant gift exchange, that was pretty funny when we did it on the Spirit cruise.

 

I think a cabin crawl the last sea day would be great. We will have an adjoining balcony with Heidi and Dave, and I would offer to be one of the cabins we crawl to if Heidi is ok with it. The balcony with the divider open gives a little different type of balcony cabin.

 

Heidi, a van taxi from our airport to hotel would be fine with us. In fact, we would be willing to pay a little more for a taxi, especially if the shuttle has to stop and drop off other passengers at different hotels.

 

I'm still not sure what to do after the cruise since our flight doesn't leave until 4 pm. Last cruise, I was so sick the day we got off the ship (and the day before, as my friends who made a surprise visit to my cabin after dinner can attest), we just went to the airport and say there for hours. Heidi & Dave came and found us and we went with them to their terminal and had lunch, and ran into some of our other Cupid friends.

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AKB10

AKB10

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[quote name=HeidiHo;41015372

Actually' date=' taxi's are about the same price. Shared shuttles seem to be the most expensive because they have a per person charge of about $25.00. I'm beginning to think maybe a taxi would be best. I know we'd have a lot of luggage but there are usually van taxi's and the airport website says the taxi's will take 5 people. If we do a taxi then we don't have to worry about booking a shuttle that doesn't show up or something. I'll do some more research.

 

Have a great weekend. :)[/quote]

 

I have also been looking into transportation from FLL to Miami airport/hotel area. Does anyone know the taxi rate?

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HeidiHo

HeidiHo

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Good Afternoon!

 

I haven't had a chance to look into taxi's or shuttles any more. I've been kind of busy trying to get ready for Christmas. I will work at the OG tonight but then I'm off. I don't have alot to do, just wrapping and a little food prep tomorrow to bring to my sister's house on Christmas Day. We will go to Dave's brother's house Christmas Eve and we will just have pizza so I don't have to make anything to bring.

 

Dave waited until this afternoon to go Christmas shopping. He went out and was back after only an hour. He just grumbled about how much he hates shopping and he doesn't know what to get anyone so he might just give us all cash. I told him all I wanted was for him to finish the bathroom. LOL. He's off work now until after the new year so he would have the time. I'm not holding my breath though. :rolleyes:

 

I need to get ready for work now. Have a good evening. :)

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