starketcher

We are wanting just a day at the beach and maybe some activities (pool, chairs, light lunch, etc) I do not think an AI would be cost effective for us. It leads to overdrinking, at least for the 2 of us!! We might have a few drinks, but if we AI, then we will "try to get our money's worth"!!

Planning on cruising out on April 5th and will need a hotel the night of the 4th that has park and cruise package. I stayed at Drury last time, but they do not have a room for that night. Just not sure which hotels offer the park and cruise, help!! Or, alternately, a cheap place to park for a 5 day cruise, but we will need a place for the Friday night prior, but I could stay in Biloxi area then drive in that morning. I'd just prefer a decent night in a hotel where we can leave the car.

How about fixing what is wrong in the US?

 

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Exactly!! If the US would focus on our problems; our problems would be minimal! In fact, if the US focused on why other countries can provide affordable drugs for its population, then we would not be having this discussion! And, the affordability of drugs in Belize would not be an issue.

Yes, you can buy it in Belize. The price are much cheaper.

People tickle me warning others about taking meds bought outside the US, when 90% of our meds are made outside the US. Typically, what you would buy there is labelled & packaged for US sales. There is always the possibility of counterfiet drugs, but that possibility exists here in the US where the profit from counterfeit drugs is much, much higher!

SOmetimes you will find "odd" drugs, but I would stay away from them. Also, they have drugs not yet approved by the FDA, but those drugs have been used in Canada and Europe for years. As long as you do your homework, there should be no problems. You are allowed a 90 day supply without custom problems.

The pharmacist in Belize is a US trained and registered pharmacist from Louisiana.

Scratch the Marriott Courtyard Downtown. It is a very nice hotel, but nothing is around it. See my comments a few pages back.

Jenn, I wont swear to it, and some of the Tampa locals would know better than I. But, I do believe the RI was located next to the Courtyard Downtown which was not really near anything.

As promised, we are just back from our cruise. We stayed at the CY Downtown and it waspretty much as reported here. Nice hotel, not much of anything other than businesses surrounding.

We got to TPA late, like 1 am. So we just needed a decent place to sleep. I used my Marriott points to get a free room and only had to use 10,000 points as opposed to the 15-25,000 that the other Marriotts in the area required. There is no airport shuttle to the CY Downtown, but that was not a concern becasue of our extremely late arrival since most hotel shuttles shutdown at 11 or 12. It was a $20 cab ride from TPA, we found a cab easily & it was bout a 15 minute drive with no traffic.

Checked in with a not too attentive desk clerk who didnt bother to even tell me the room #!!! Luckliy, he did write teh room number down and I found the elevators (which were not pointed out either) easily. We took our own luggage up on the cart which was no big deal.

The room: Very nice and clean. We even had a jacuzzi....I do not know if this was standard or not, but I did not request this when booking. It was welcomed after a long day (son graduated from high school, hosted a lunch prior to graduation, left immediately after grad to drive 2 hours to ATL, changed gates 5 (yes, FIVE) times prior to the flight (and yes each gate was at the end of ther terminal and we even had to change terminals twice!!), caught the red eye 11:30 flight to TPA.) So the jacuzzi was welcomed and used at 1:30 am!

I did hear a bit of road noise that most people probably would not notice when trying to fall asleep. We live in a rural community, so I would've noticed any type noise. My husband never mentioned this. Had a VERY sound sleep though, awoke at 8:30, dressed, my husband made him a small pot of coffee and we decided to just wait until we got to the ship to eat anything, forgoing breakfast. I did not notice any cont. breakfast offered on the website; however, it did appear that they had some type breakfast fixin's, but I did not check it out.

We caught the free shuttle to the port, which was probably 5 minutes away. I called the front desk to ask about the shuttle, they said to come on down. After talking to the shuttle driver, we found he had a list of people that he was to take to the port. The driver said it was no problem that he did not have our names. QUick drive and we were at theship. They were just letting people into the embarkment area, but the driver did tell us that he could drop us across the street to avoid being turned back.

All in all, a nice stay adn what we were looking for in a hotel room for the night!

When's your cruise? I am staying there in 2 weeks and will let you know.

They do have transport to the port but not from TPA to the hotel.No airport shuttle was no big deal for us since our flight gets in at 1 am, most hotel shuttles stop at midnight.

We will be staying there and would like to know if there is a store nearby(preferably selling beer and a bottle of vodka) that we can visit prior to boarding. Anyone know of anything nearby or on the way to the port?

SInce the picked you up from the ship, did you get off just as soon as you were anchored or have to wait? DId they return you to the ship or were you given a chance to go to the port to shop a bit? How much time did you have after returning? (I'd at least like to look around in port as last year we went cave tubing and didnt get a chance to look around.)

onbec, I believe we stayed at that Best Western about 5 yrs ago. I know we stayed on Dale Mabry. The room was nothing special; we paid $40. To be honest, we got there at 10 pm, went to bed, the kids went down and got doughnuts & juice the next morning, we checked out adn headed to the pier. I know that is not much help, but at least it didnt leave me with any bad memories!