lostchild

can i get a rough estimate of how much Uber would cost from FLL to South Beach?? Also, any idea of how much Uber would be from MIA to a Fort Lauderdale hotel?

https://www.uber.com/fare-estimate

https://www.lyft.com/fare-estimate

Yes we just did it at the beginning of April and it was really fun. I think it was around $49 per person. The company they used was http://www.marinelandtours.com. You can see the pictures of the bus there. At the end of the tour, they take you to the 7 miles beach and let you stop at one of the beach club for about 45 min. So you could bring your swimming suit and towel and swim if you want or just hang out at the bar or eat lunch. One tip is that the bus doesn't have a speaker system. The guide moved to about 3rd of 4th row of the bus to speak so the back of the bus can hear. If you are in the first few rows you won't be able to hear him very well as he would be facing the back.

On our last cruise, the cruise's excursion was 45 min late. We had the walk/run of shame as the entire port side of the ship watched us on their balconies. The only saving grace is that we saw another bus pulling in just behind so we were not exactly the last bus.

I think you also have to deal with the problem of 1 adult and 4 kids. I think you cannot put the kids without an adult in a room unless it is a room connecting to the adult's room. So if you have 2 rooms and only 1 adult, the 2 rooms have to be connected. So finding a pair of connecting rooms with 1 of the 2 room could sleep 3 is definitely much more difficult than finding just any room that could sleep 3.

If it makes a difference Lyft allows you to add a tip to your fare (the total gets charged to your credit card) while Uber does not; if you choose to tip Uber drivers you'll need cash.

That's the reason I choose Lyft over Uber. It's just easier to tip using the app. And also easier if you decided NOT to tip. An Uber driver knows immediately if you tip of not as you leave the car because you have to tip in cash. Lyft doesn't know if he/she getting any tips until the next day. Even then, all he/she see is the total amount of tips not tip from individual trip.

I have found the Sky Lounge service slow on each of the 5 Solstice class cruises I have been on. I think they are perpetually understaffed at that location. The Silhouette is my favorite and we will be on it again in August

The Sky lounge is the one at the front on deck 14 right? On the first day, there was no bartender there. Everyone has to either wait in long line at the bar by the pool area or go all the way back to Oceanview Cafe bar to get a drink. :p

On Carnival, they have family room that sleep 2 adults and 3 kids in one room. On Disney and Celebrity, they have room that sleep 2 adults and 2 kids. These are just regular room with sofa turns into bed and a bunk bed pull down from the ceiling. I think you just need to find a connecting room that could sleep 3. If you go to the cruise site and look at the deck plan usually they have little symbol in the room showing you that those room has extra beds.

Thank you. Another question..sorry...Can uber be scheduled in advance, say, the day before? Being a cruise day they will probably be busy and it would be nice to know I'm set. Now looking at spending the night in Fort Lauderdale. How far to POM? We like to get to the port early.

You can but I really really don't think it would be busy. I think our last one was 2 min away from the hotel at around noon which is checkout time and everyone heading to the port. Not that many takes Uber. Everyone takes shuttles or taxi. You can look up the map distance from you hotel to POM. You can even go to Uber or Lyft site to estimate your fare. Usually it ends up around $1 per mile.

Hello everyone, just finished my Caribbean cruise on Sunday. It was a great first cruise. Let me give you my good and bad points:

 

+ Ship is stunning, absolutely beautiful, well kept and generally fantastic

+ Service was great, caring and professional

+ MDR food was great, very tasty

+ Ship never seemed crowded, there was always somewhere to sit, even loungers on sea day.

+ Cabin (C3) was nicely laid out, large bathroom and kept spotlessly clean by an amazing attendant

+ Boarding and embarkation was smooth at all ports, even tendering was without any lines. Port Everglades was breeze on embarkation and even smoother on disembarkation - had to wait like 5 minutes to get our bags and go through immigration.

+ Live music was great

- Food in the buffet was slightly lacking. Only cheaper items and no shrimps or seafood

- Service in Sky Observation Lounge was slow. A shame of this beautiful lounge

- Bar and Sommelier service at MDR was a bit slow and spotty. Sometimes they forgot orders, sometimes waiters had to track them down to place an order

Agree with everything especially the last 2. In general it seems like all the servers, except for specialty restaurants, seems to be very slow and don't really want to serve you drinks. MDR will have your drink ready the next day but if you finish it, they don't really come to refill unless you ask. The same with the buffet or just sitting at a table at any of the lounge. Oceanview cafe is the worst as the server will take your card, disappear for 10 to 15 min and then back with the drink. And then they flip the drink menu thing sideway. I am not sure what that means.. at first I thought it was a sign for any server to come back to check on you to see if you need another drink. But that was definitely not the case. Nobody ever come to ask unless you flag them down. The only person who ever ask.. is the coffee girl in the morning at the buffet...the one who sings "Coffee in Morning....." every morning.

I see my ship board credit but is there anyway to see my paid gratuities or free drink program to make sure I actually got it??

Have you tried clicking something called "Purchase History" or something like that? My drink and internet packages show up there.

Yes, you do. Here is a link to download Mobile Passport: http://www.porteverglades.net/cruising/mobile-passport/

 

Here is a link for Port Everglades information. Page 16 explains Global Entry and Mobile Passport, show your Global Entry card and you go to the front of the line.

http://en.calameo.com/read/004673538c598127b6702

 

I think Global Entry is what you should have.:cool: https://search.usa.gov/search?query=global+entry&affiliate=cbpgov

When we were at Port Everglades a few weeks ago, Global Entry has a separate line (left most) without wait. You do get some dirty looks from the people queuing up on the other 4 or 5 lines as you walk to the agent. Good thing I remember to bring our GE cards.

We will probably have a garment bag, 2 med. suitcases and 1 carry on. Think we would need an xl? thanks

No that should be fine. UberX is pretty much any 4 doors sedan type car. We haven't had any problem fitting two 29" tall hard suitcase, two 22" tall hard carry-on to any sedan's truck yet. And if you only have 2 passengers, you could put luggage on the passenger seat too if the driver is okay with that. Oh the other thing is that UberX driver may or may not help you with the luggage. I don't think they are require to, but so far only 1 driver just sit in the driver seat and didn't come out to help. Because the fare is so low, I usually tip them nicely.

UberXL is minivan or 7 passenger SUV.

Finally! Taxi from MCO to Universal Studio was $65. Lyft from Universal Studio to MCO was $18.

Uber is great but you need to be careful about the number of luggage. Most UberX could only fit 2 check-in size luggage + 2 carry-on's. So even though it could seat 4, it probably won't be able to transport 4 people with luggage to or from a cruise port! You will need to order an UberXL.

Having said that Uber/Lyft is amazing comparing to shuttle for us on the last cruise. When we left the hotel at noon, there were about 30 cruisers in the lobby with their luggage waiting for the shuttles which leave every 20 min. We just called a Lyft, got to the port probably before even the shuttles left the hotel and for about $12 total.

C. Eat at the speciality restaurant Qsine; great experience. BUT go hungry; don't eat for at least 4 hours prior!

That was one of the best meal we had on our vacations. It is just so much fun especially with a big group. You want to try all the dishes but in the end you did less than half. On the first sea day, the captain and head chef have a kitchen tour with Q&A. It was really great and you learn a lot about how the ship operates. At the end of the tour, the specialty restaurants give special discount and showcase.

Crystal Serenity does a 16 days roundtrip from Los Angeles to Hawaii. The ship is rated really high in reviews, but it is a long cruise and many sea days (10 or 11).

There is Unlimited for the entire trip ($249 for 7 days) with 2nd device 50% off

There is Unlimited for the day at $49

And I think there are 2 more options onboard that has minutes but I don't remember the price or the amount of time.

We have never found booking onboard to be a good deal (financially). However, on one cruise we did a future booking to grab a specific "hump" cabin. We immediately had the booking transferred to one of our favorite cruise agencies who "sweetened" our booking by adding a substantial OBC plus paying for our gratuities.

 

Hank

I was told that the benefit for booking onboard is the special onboard perks + OBC. We could always move it to another cruise if it is better or cheaper and in many cases you could keep the onboard perk/OBC on top of that. So we pretty much just pick a random 2019 cruise and booked it.

Uber or Lyft is half as reliable as a taxi? Curious where you are pulling that stat from?

I think maybe he is talking about some driver will cancel the ride because the traveling distance is too short for them and they don't make much money. But I think this will not be the case traveling from Port of Los Angeles to LAX. It is a good distance and they could easily pick up another passenger from LAX.

I carry meds in a multi pill case and also diabetes injectors all the time and have never had a problem. I do have a note from my doctor on the needles but nobody has ever asked to look at it.

 

DON

I did the same thing and fly everywhere and no one ever asked. I use to carry a letter from my doctor but haven't been in years. I do have photo of all the pills labels and insulin pens labels on my phone in case anyone asked.

Most of my families who drink took the alcoholic beverage package on the last cruise (first cruise for most of them). After the cruise, they all said they would not do it on the next cruise. They don't drink a lot normally and having the package encourage them to drink more than usual.. a lot more. Most morning they woke up with bad headaches. We took the non-alcoholic premium package which is great. It includes all the non-alcoholic drinks including water, sparkling water, specialty coffee, virgin mixed drink, smoothie, etc... and it is about 1/3 of the price of the cheapest alcoholic package. Even with a glass or 2 of wine in the evening, it is still much cheaper than the alcoholic package.

And also if you decided to buy it, it maybe better to buy it onboard. I don't know if it is the same for every cruise line, but on our last cruise if you buy it on 3rd day of the cruise, the package is 2 days cheaper. That's over $200 saving for 2 people. First day is only half day. 2nd day is likely a port day so you may not be on the ship. 3rd day is probably a sea day and that's when you start your drinking! I meant hydration!

You do realize that if the ship is late, the private tour vendors are aware, and will wait as well? They aren't going to abandon you. If the ship doesn't make the port stop, most will refund your money?

No I am not aware. I thought the tour won't wait an hour if it is mixed tour of people from our ship and from other ships. I guess they may refund the money? But isn't it varies depends on the company running the tour?

I am sure there are many reasons to book your tours and I did before without any problem. But I just don't want to "miss the boat." after my last cruise. It's just me trying to act on the safer side.

Dinner can often take a fairly long time, so 7:30 would be cutting it close to make a 9 p.m. show. I would recommend 6:30 or 7:00. And be sure to tell the waiter that you are going to the show.

Especially for Qusine! I think our group spent almost 3 hours there. It is unlimited courses by design. I think we had 6 or 7 courses + 5 different desserts. At other restaurants, we could order multiple entree but you kind of feel bad doing it as it is not really normal. But Qusine encourage you to keep going until you cannot eat anymore. :p

We booked all the excursions on the cruise line last time and after that cruise, we will not book any excursion outside of the cruise line. At one port, the ship was over an hour late to the port. All the cruise excursions are delayed to wait for us. If you book your own.. oh well. At another port, our excursion was delay because someone was missing during shopping. The group has to wait and then the traffic was bad. We were the last bus to arrive about 45 min after the ship was suppose to leave, but it waited for us. It was a run of shame looking up as everyone is on the balcony looking at us.

Uber or Lyft will be less than half the price of a Taxi.