gumballz

Are Uber or Lyft still good options for post cruise transportation to LGB?  I’ve read that their future at the cruise ports may be questionable. I also read that so many people use these services that it’s difficult to get one.  Trying to decide if I should book Carnival’s transportation or go with Uber.  Any input on this?  Thanks!

It was most likely Mark Bennick. He is on the Triumph a couple of sailings every month and I know he was New Orleans bound around the 20th.

 

 

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Thank you

Thanks John. Do you remember the magicians name? Or can you look it up in the Fun Times (if you don't mind)?

Nice picture! Thanks for sharing. :)

The Imagination does not have hair dryers in the cabin. You can ask your cabin steward if he/she can get you one to borrow, and if there's one available he/she will....but it may be best to just bring your own.

I don't want to belittle anyone or start anything, but we were on this cruise and it was far from a disaster. Sure, we had some rough seas and high winds and we did miss two ports, but we were kept safe and Carnival added activities and did their best to keep everyone happy (not to mention their generosity in giving us the 25% discount). As I posted in the other thread (link above), the winds in Grand Turk that day were a steady 37 knots with some gusts.

I've posted a short video on YouTube of the captain attempting to dock. I'm not sure if posting a link is allowed, but I'll try. https://youtu.be/airGKzL0UXs

Happy Cruising :)

We were on the Glory last week and experienced the adverse weather and missed ports. We missed both ports due to high winds, as others have said. We spoke to Eric Brouman (Glory CD) right after he had finished dealing with the mob at the guest services. He told us that he was on the bridge as the captain was attempting to dock us in Grand Turk. The thrusters were working hard to counteract the wind (he said the winds were a steady 37 knots, with some gusts). The captain did attempt a few times, but eventually aborted and backed out. We were pretty close once, but that wind was nasty.

We watched the attempts to dock from our balcony on deck 7 and we were saying to each other that if we got close to that pier, the wind was going to shove us into it hard. We were glad the captain made the call to abort. It would have been foolish of him to attempt to dock us. The Caribbean Princess also skipped Grand Turk that day. I have photos and video, but haven't yet uploaded them so I don't know if they turned out or not.

As for the mob...yes, there was a large mob of people at the guest services chanting with their arms up ('We Have Rights' was the one we heard) and there was pushing and a lot of anger. Security was everywhere and crew members made a half circle to help keep the unruly passengers away from guest services. Someone (no clue who started it) announced that Carnival had not paid their required fees to Grand Turk in over a month, and that's why we were turned away. When someone asked who told them that, they said, "It's on the internet!" and people got angrier. It was absolutely ridiculous, to be honest. I also have a photo of the mob at guest services, but I won't post it because I don't agree with their behavior & there are a lot of faces in that photo.....so I also don't want to embarrass anyone who may have come to their senses after the fact and regret their decision to 'riot' (it was not a riot, but some people involved were calling it that).

We received port fees back for missed ports and we did get a 25% discount on another cruise. We felt that the offer was very generous, and unnecessary (although, we will use it!). A side note, our excursion was also cancelled in St Thomas because the weather had been so bad that visibility under water was minimal and there was a lot of seaweed. St Thomas was a beautiful day while we were there, though! :)

Someone mentioned above that the weather wasn't that bad....and it wasn't too bad. It was the wind that was bad. The seas were rough and we were tossed the first couple days. I believe it was the second night, around 2am-3am, a lot of people were awoken by the ship slamming down into the water extremely hard. So hard, that dishes fell in the aft dining room and things fell off of counters in some cabins (ours included). We were awoken with a start and immediately asked each other if we were ok, because it was loud and hard. We were rocking back and forth in our beds, too. It was kind of fun, but I can see where some people could be scared by it.

The only real problem with the ship, that we noticed or heard about, was that there was some water (or whatever liquid it was) leaking into some cabins. We know of at least 13 cabins that had minor to severe water issues during the week. Four of those were mid-ship and the rest were aft. We did see blowers in a few hallways, as well, so obviously there was water (or something) issues there too. With dry dock coming up, I'm sure they will address this problem.

The best part of the week was that we were kept safe and we were on a cruise and not at home working, cooking, cleaning, etc. Oh, and since we only stopped in San Juan and St Thomas, we didn't have to go through customs when we arrived back into Miami...so disembark was mega fast! :) We were group 1 (not self assist) and we were off at 7:30.

Hi Carl!

Nice little write-up! Thanks for taking the time to share with us. Happy to hear you're booked on the Dream next year. We will be sailing with you, so....see you then! :)

We sailed out of Long Beach a couple weeks ago and, although it was still somewhat of a mess, it was a little more organized. Diamonds/Platinums (as well as FTTF) still check in at the small building across from the parking garage. They tell you that you can wait inside, and they will escort you into the front of the line when we are allowed to board (we've tried that several times and not once were we escorted anywhere) or you can wait outside by the #1 sign.

We chose to wait outside this time and a rep approached the group waiting by the #1 sign and asked all the Diamond and Platinum guests to move over in front of the sign and the FTTF people were told to wait behind the #1 sign (some FTTF people got heated about this and caused a scene...which the rep handled well). Shortly after we were told to move, they allowed the Diamond & Plat people to board (after the two wedding parties). I'm guessing the FTTF people boarded right after us.

We checked in around 10:40 and were allowed to board at 11:10. That's the earliest we have been allowed to board in Long Beach in awhile. Usually it is later...in our experience.

We got the Croc Visor on the Imagination two weeks ago, but we were able to exchange them for Tervis cups.

My choice would be the Canon Powershot SX710 which has a long optical zoom yet is easy to carry. It also has built-in WiFi and it takes great vacation photos.

Oakman58, I also have the Canon Powershot SX710, and really like the WiFi feature. I was wondering if you can use that WiFi feature to send pictures from the camera to an iPad or iPhone while on the ship, without purchasing any of the ship's WiFi plans? Or, is it necessary to pay in order to do that? (hopefully that makes sense)

Well, not the cabin...but the hallway outside of your cabin. And, yes, we took it both ways. It will actually come out right below the Serenity area and you'll take different stairs up one more flight. You'll see what I mean. It's easy.

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We've stayed in U230 on the Inspiration & we'd stay in that cabin again. It's a quiet location and, if the window is clean enough, you can see the ship's wake. The cabin is a bit bigger than regular oceanview cabins, which is nice. We always try to book the aft facing cabins on the Fantasy class ships.

There's a stairway across from your cabin that will take you up to the Serenity area. The doorway wasn't marked, and we didn't know about it until our cabin steward told us to give it a try. It was nice to have access right outside our cabin (and since it wasn't well known, it was basically a private stairway).

Enjoy your cruise!

Mitsugirly, Thank you for the photos. I love the atmosphere in NOLA and I can only imagine how magical it must be during the holidays. I read about that Santa run...lol I think we just miss it. Too bad....looks fun!

Thank you both for your replies! I appreciate it!

Can anyone tell me when New Orleans decorates for the Christmas holiday season? Will lights/decorations be up the first week in December?

We've been to NOLA pretty much every time of the year, except December. We've heard how beautiful the city is when it's all decorated and we're hoping to experience it. I've searched the boards, and Google, but cannot find the answer.

Thanks for your help. :)

I haven't stayed in those specific cabins, but I have stayed in cabins that were below the Lido before (specifically the pool, as well). We could hear occasionally bumps and the scooting of chairs/loungers, but it wasn't bad. If you don't have any tolerance for noise, you may not like it. If you don't mind some noise now and then, you won't mind.

Enjoy your cruise!

Are you sure on your cabin numbers? If you have a cabin below a pool on the Miracle, you would be on the Panorama deck. Those cabins start with an 8.

Can anyone tell me what the current platinum gift is on the Valor

 

Thanks

The toiletry bag

Just a quick follow up to my previous post about our experience with a driver from Bernard's (posted above). Bernard did, indeed, contact us both by phone and email. I won't go into the details of our conversation, but I will say that Bernard is very professional and has assured me that he has taken care of the situation and it won't happen again.

I will, again, stress that I fully recommend Bernard's tour and will most definitely book him again in the future. He's a classy man and offers a top notch tour in St Maarten. If you're thinking about booking with him.....stop thinking and go for it. You won't be disappointed in the least! :)

I haven't heard back from Bernard (or anyone from his company) yet. I don't really expect him to tell me what, if anything, he will do about this...I was just hoping to help him to prevent it from happening again.

If you're worried at all about getting Simon, I'd just write Bernard and ask that he not assign you to him. I think he'd be ok with that, and give you someone else. As for us enjoying ourselves....we absolutely did. After we made it back safely, we laughed about it. Not because it was funny, but just that we thought it was ridiculous that he got so angry over something so trivial. I won't lie, though....there were a few tense moments in the van. We were happy to be back at the port. ha!

I'm sure you will have a wonderful time in St Maarten! Even though I was just there, I'm jealous that you're going! ;)

Hmm, weird. I was just relaying what I was told by our guide. Hopefully he was wrong. :)

We just returned from our cruise and loved it!

We booked a tour in St Kitts through Phillip Hurd. We did the Beyond the Ordinary tour, and cannot recommend it enough. Our driver was fabulous! Phillip was so friendly and gave us a very informative tour of his home/grounds and we left feeling like our visit to St Kitts was the best day of the cruise.

Meeting up with our driver was very easy. He was right where we were told he would be. We immediately felt like he was a new friend. The van we used was like brand new. The AC was cold and it was a nice ride. Our guide was just wonderful, bottom line.

We were given plenty of time to take photos in many different places, we were given a plethora of information and were encouraged to ask questions, if we had any.

Loved Caribelle Batik! It was a great stop! Loved the people....so friendly. Watching the woman waxing the material was nice. The gift shop is pretty large, great prices and they take credit cards.

I'll be happy to answer questions, if anyone has any. I recommend booking directly through Phillip Hurd, via his website (someone posted it above). He's quick to reply and very friendly. You won't be sorry if you choose to book with him! St Kitts is beautiful!

We were told last week, when we were in St Maarten (2-7-15), , that the butterfly farm took a nasty hit with the last hurricane and they lost most of the butterflies & facility. They are working to rebuild it.

I know this thread is a few months old, but I wanted to post our experience with Bernard's Tours.

Without going into too much detail, I'll say that we enjoyed the tour...overall. The booking part was easy, meeting up was easy, paying was easy, etc. The tour itself was beautiful. Our problem was with our driver/guide. He spent 4 hours telling us how much he hates his government and pointing out things that 'he' had to pay for as a taxpayer. At first we didn't thing much of it, but as the day went on and he continued to complain, it got old. If we didn't reply to his complaints, he would turn around as he drove to see if we were listening (I guess?). So, the 6 of us in the van would nod, say 'uh huh' or 'that sucks' just to please him.

Also, there was a (non) incident when we were at Maho beach. A man parked next to Simon's van and Simon felt that man was parked too close. Simon and the man got into a very loud argument, with the man storming off leaving his car there. Simon was furious and made sure the 6 of us knew what he felt about the man. When we left, he drove very fast and erratically, throwing his hands up, mumbling, honking and swerving. He told us we would not be going to Simpson Bay (which was included in the tour) and that he was taking us back to our ship. He also told us if we wanted to take any photos we could just take them as he drove. Ha! No thanks....we were all buckled in and white knuckling it.

I don't want you to not book Bernard's tour because of this. The tour itself (what we got of it) was nice. Informative, beautiful, etc. It was just our driver/guide that was not good. I have written to Bernard to let him know, because it's something I'm sure he would want to know. I also want you guys to know, so if you book....you can request to not have Simon as your driver, should you choose to.

Maybe others have had wonderful experiences with Simon, but that's not the case for the 6 of us. Maybe it was a once in a lifetime thing for him (doubt it, based on the level of his anger). Whatever it was, I wanted to share it. St Maarten is a beautiful place and Bernard's Tour was great to work with. I just wish we had been assigned to a different driver. :)