el344

Yes and yes.

IIRC, there was a shuttle bus from the ship to the terminal building. There was a line outside the terminal building for taxis. Our driver dropped us off and picked us up in front of a museum on the main square. We paid when he dropped us off. It seemed to be a well established smoothly running system.

Our driver would only take euros.

Round trip. Our driver picked us up on time for the return trip.

It was around 110€ for all six of us. Plus a tip.

Yes, we were able to get a taxi without pre booking. There was a line, but it moved quickly. We were able to put together a group of six while standing in line, so the cost was quite reasonable. You will need euros to pay.

We were in Zeebrugge today. The shuttle bus took us to the port terminal, arriving about 10:30. There was a line for taxis into Brugge. There were no taxis for about 15 minutes, then they started arriving very quickly, mostly minivans which easily accommodated 6 passengers. We shared with 4 other people. €50 for the ride into the center of the city, cash in Euros. We arranged for our taxi driver to pick all 6 of us up at 3:00, which he did. Another €50 back to the cruise terminal. Easy and cheaper than the shuttle. The line for the shuttle was really long.

Scroll down to post 7

I could not get my iPad connected on the Pride Monday while using NordVPN.

The WiFi on the Pride has been very flaky. Sometimes it’s fine, but I’ve had lots of intermittent outages.

They installed shower gel and shampoo dispensers today.

We are enjoying the completely renovated accessible Grand Suite 6182 on the Pride’s first cruise since a month long dry dock.

According to Antara, our steward, everything in the suite is brand new. And we’re all learning how it works.

There’s the really, really good stuff: there are 120 volt electrical outlets on BOTH sides of the bed and two USB slots on each bedside lamp. On the desk there are two more 120 volt outlets, one 220 volt outlet, and two more USB slots. We can each plug in our CPAP machines and charge our multiple devices without stringing 15’ extension cords across the room. All of which renders my multiple loooong extension cords and adapters surplus to requirements, I’m delighted to say.

More good stuff: there’s an automatic door opener out to the balcony and no threshold. The balcony is in great shape. No rust, clean new floors.

There are also automatic openers for both the cabin door and the bathroom. Not so good news: the doors cannot be held open or manually closed or even just touched without setting off a high pitched alarm that doesn’t stop until the door is allowed to close. And if you open the main door and then open the bathroom door before the main door closes, the bathroom door keeps the front door from closing, setting off the alarm on that door. Learning to keep our hands completely off a door until it completes its full cycle has been a slow and imperfect process for all of us, including our steward. Nonetheless, I love being able to get in and out of the cabin without assistance,

The bathroom is huge. It has both a roll in shower and a tub with lots of nicely placed grab bars. Oddly, the sink is not lowered for wheelchair access, and there could have been more counter space without affecting wheelchair access. The built-in Kleenex holder in the bathroom is too small to put a box of tissues in. There is no soap dish next to the sink. There is no shampoo, conditioner, or shower gel. There are two bars of Carnival soap.

The bad: There is virtually no light in the hall coming into the cabin. Fortunately I brought magnetic nightlights. Unfortunately the paneling on the walls makes most of them insufficiently magnetic to hold the lights up. They slide slowly down the wall. The door is still magnetic enough to hold the lights up.

For some reason, we didn’t have a phone. Antara said he’d been trying to get us one. No big deal, I thought, until the toilet — or I s it a head on a cruise ship? — started leaking the contents of the bowl when flushed. All over the floor. Then I really, really wished we had a phone since I had to go hunt down some way of reporting this crisis. Once the plumber came to fix it, we found out that it had happened yesterday morning. I do hope it’s fixed now. And shortly after that our phone arrived.

Both showers, the roll in and the one over the tub, are not wonderful. There are only hand held sprayers, the water pressure is very low, and the temperature is barely above lukewarm. 

While this is not specifically related to our cabin, I have been surprised at how many elevators there are and how fast they are. This is our first Carnival cruise. On both Celebrity and Princess the elevators were a constant source of frustration. I ride a small scooter, and sometimes four or five elevators would go by with too many people in them for me to get in. That hasn’t happened even once on this cruise.

A beautiful sight.

3 hours ago, TxTeach79 said:

have you heard anything from BA on how to catalog things, get compensation moving, etc.? 

Not a thing. I tried calling this morning, and the recording bragged that 90% of bags were located and returned within 48 hours. It also said I had to provide them with a detailed list of the contents because that is how they will search after 5 days. My Tiles are still saying Terminal 5 Airside, but they haven’t updated for 22hours, which makes me suspect they’re somewhere in the bowels of Heathrow where there are no phones to pick up a signal.

The website says they will compensate us for “reasonable essentials”, which m interpreting as everything I’ll need for the next 2 weeks. I’m going to embark upon a massive shopping endeavor in just a few minutes.

https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/baggage-essentials/lost-and-damaged-baggage/making-baggage-claims

I spent several hours and a couple of hundred euros this afternoon Shopping While Fat And Short at El Corte Ingles. Net haul after trying on a couple of dozen pants and tops: one top (black tee), one pair of pants (wide leg olive green crops that are full length on me), one nightgown, two pair of socks, and two pair of unmentionables. I was able to buy my husband underwear, tee shirt, sleep shirt, socks, and a shirt in about 15 minutes total. Life is not gender equitable where clothing is concerned.
 

I ran into 4 other victims of BA’s IT meltdown. One of them who is on a Celebrity cruise spent a little over €1500 in the women’s clothing designer department on some very nice stuff.
 

If the bags aren’t here tomorrow I’m hitting H&M, Zara, Primark, Uniqlo, C&A, and I may go back to El Corte Inglis and buy the €200 pair of perfectly ordinary black pants I tried on. At least they fit.

3 hours ago, TxTeach79 said:

how we’ve managed to be caught in the Southwest fiasco and now this… pretty impressive, kudos to me tbh 

Does this mean my lost bags are your fault?

My Tiles are showing Terminal 5 Airside. BA still says searching for them. Fortunately we’re right across the street from El Corte Ingles. Anyone know what a 38 x 32 pant is in Spain?

Could have been worse — at least we made it, even if our bags didn’t.

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/british-airways-flights-cancelled-system-outage-b2345934.html

I contacted Martin’s Taxi and this was their response:

GOOD DAY

NO NEED TO MAKE A BOOKING

TAXIS ARE WAITING IN LINE AT THE CRUISE TERMINAL ALSO 8 SEATERS

ROUND TRIP WOULD COST ABOUT 110 € PER CAR

YOU CAN AGREE THE RETURN TRIP WITH YOUR DRIVER

IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM YOU CAN ALWAYS CALL ME ON THE DAY

GREETINGS

LOU

MARTINS TAXI

ZEEBRUGGE

So I’m just going to assume I’ll be able to get a taxi at the Cruise Terminal.

Thanks for the suggestions!
 

No one on my roll call has mentioned Bruges, and most of the folks on the Facebook group for this cruise are planning to use the Cruise Express shuttle. I can’t use the shuttle because of my folding scooter, and even if I could the negative reviews would put me off. I’ve been looking at a couple of lists of taxi companies and was hoping for some recommendations of reliable companies. I’ve contacted Martin’s Taxi and am waiting to hear back. I’m also trying the find transfers site. I’ll report back my results.

We’ll try to be easy on all the new paint!

John, do you have any tips on how to pre-book a taxi?

We’re on this cruise as well. I’m looking at flights from London to Barcelona on May 25 and finding them in the $300 range. I’m also looking at flights from Bristol. We’ll be staying a little closer to Bristol than London for the week before we leave for Barcelona, and I figure we can stand EasyJet for 2 hours, particularly given the significant price difference even after paying for all the extras.

But I’m waiting until after I make the final payment on the cruise in the hopes that if they cancel it I can change plans more easily.

I am also seeing that in Dover passengers have to clear their staterooms by 6:15 am. Is that normal for Carnival arrivals in Dover?

I am seeing posts on Facebook that say that people waited in line for 50 minutes for the single Carnival shuttle bus. Is there any other way to get off the pier, or do you have to take the Carnival bus?

Thanks for starting this thread, craig01020! Based in large part on this thread and on the fact that this cruise hits all of my remaining European bucket list ports, we've booked that cruise as well.

There's already a roll call for this cruise:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2830418-carnival-pride-may-282023/#comment-62632577

But back to the fun of poor taste Aussies because we have no class.

 

Well that can be solved by paying extra to go to Aqua or Concierge. Us Kiwis will be in steerage hoping we can grab a lift on a scooter to dinner

I'll be happy to wander down from my trailer park suite on my properly pim*ed scooter to give you a lift. But only if you'll help me fight my way through the mobs of folks at the lifts who are exceptionally adept at overlooking us freakishly fat Americans who are just too dang lazy to walk, bless their hearts.

Another vote for the TravelScoot. I don't use the seat back at all, which makes getting on and off much easier. And I transfer to a chair for shows or meals or anywhere I'll be sitting for more than a few minutes.