Sea Dog

Thanks for your review and being honest about the food. We will be on Liberty next month. We are basically just doing the MDR. I hope the food will be ok. It's disturbing that they can't even get a drink order right. Were there any shortages in food or liquor? Anything you could not get? How was the staff? Do they seem inexperienced and is the ship short staffed?

Update. Linda talked to someone at Hilton Downtown Miami who was actually nice and helpful. Rebooked for $218. Sorry to drag all of you along with me. Just glad it's over and lesson learned never book a hotel through a third party.

Can't go wrong with a Go Pro. I have the Hero 9 Black which takes great underwater video and pictures.

Yes looking back I should have not made the comment. I was in a bad mood. Reminds me of our Harmony cruise when my bottle of Blanton's bourbon I got in St. Maarten made my suitcase overweight. Instead of repacking I just paid the $75 excess bag fee. Most expensive bottle of bourbon I had ever bought. We normally have great dealings with Hilton. Linda is on the warpath and is going to call them today. After telling us they would not honor the $200 room rate and are charging us $400, Linda got on the website and found a AARP rate through them that was back to our original rate. I get really tired of hotel rate inconsistencies.

We've learned our lesson always now book direct with the hotel.

We already have a new booking with the Hilton Miami Downtown We did not get charged a cancellation fee. You would think that would be the case but no they did not. Right now they are blaming each other. Hilton says Booking dot com cancelled it and Booking dot com says Hilton cancelled it. Somebody screwed up.

You need to mind your own business.

Linda even wonders if she gave the old card right before we received new cards?

Even though she typed it wrong when she made the reservation in January the date would have been valid. I’m just surprised that went through the system like you said if everything did not match. Linda talked to the hotel but not a manager and she said they couldn’t do anything. Right now we are waiting to see if Booking.com can get Hilton to honor original price. If nothing else we will plead our case when we get to the hotel. One thing they don’t know is that my wife is a bull dog lawyer and really knows how to argue a point. They do not want to see her wrath 😉

Totally agree with this. At the time she made the reservation the expiration date was fine. Why not after an expiration date is reached contact the person who made the reservation and say hey this card expired how about a new card. It’s still our fault but I wish they would work with us instead of saying well sorry nothing we can do.

Yes Double Tree may be our backup plan. Is that the one at Biscayne Bay?

You are right I remember that thread. Not sure if it involved Booking.com. Update: linda has talked to a manager at Booking.com and they are going to ask Hilton to honor the original price. We will see. Still not holding my breath.

I think we will try and talk to a manager once on the ground and see if they would honor the original booking price because of an honest mistake.

Thanks I will look into that. We just may have to eat the extra cost this late in the game. Lesson learned, type, check, recheck then recheck.

Well it's always something!! Linda just got notified by email from Booking.com that our hotel reservation in Miami at the Hilton Downtown was cancelled due to invalid credit card number. Now grant you I called the Hilton last Friday to confirm our reservation and they said it was good. And we have not paid for the room yet anyway. Upon further inspection it appears that Linda gave Booking.com the wrong expiration date on the credit card. She typed in 04/22 back in January when we booked it and the actual date is 04/23. So our bad but when we go to rebook through Hilton our same room is now $200 higher at over $400 for one night. We asked if we could have the same price and they refused. Right now Linda is trying to get Booking.com to correct the issue and get us our original room rate. I do not have very much hope. She started to try and find a cheaper hotel but I said stay with Hilton because it's close to the terminal and I have shots of it in my pre cruise video for my review. Sucks that our mistake is costing us big time.

This post makes me chuckle as great minds think alike. I have done everything exactly like you. I have everything on my phone, paper copies as well in a folder that will be in back back and digital copies in a folder on laptop that I'm taking. I even sent an email to myself with all of our copies of driver licenses, passports, and vaccination cards to myself so that when I download the attachments to my camera roll they will be the first thing I see. I still need to do a little more laundry but all clothes are laid out and ready to be put in packing cubes. All toiletries and medical supplies are packed up in plastic ziplock bags to go into packing cubes. I have all electronics, cords and chargers laid out and tomorrow I will go to the bank to get my cash for tips and etc. Right now I'm leaning toward getting everything packed Thursday morning loading up car and taking a very long nap 3-4 hours then get up have dinner, watch the Kansas City Chiefs play at 7pm on Amazon then get about 3 hours sleep before getting up and heading to the airport. I'll be tired but I can nap on the plane. We get into Miami at 12:30pm so we could even take another nap go out to diner then call it an early night to be ready to board in the morning. I usually don't sleep much on a cruise I am too hyped up. I figure I'll sleep when I die. Cheers have a great two cruises. I know you will have a fantastic time.

Yes too bad we had already purchased 6 tests for $150 from eMed. I am really excited since this will be first time on Symphony.

Just thought of something else will chops be open for lunch on embarkation? I thought that is why they moved the Chop's lunch for the Key in the MDR because of all the people that have the key?

They had a table set up at Port Canaveral when we went on Harmony in the waiting area to make reservations. It could be because we were delayed boarding due to Coast Guard inspection. I never considered that I will try that. Thank you! No I will unfortunately have to wait till October of 2023 for that sailing. Can't come soon enough.

If it is mirroring your iPhone and connected to the ship’s wi-fi yes the health app will work.

I got the email last week. Approximately a couple of months after booking the key.

Thanks Lenny we will. I am really excited for this.

My email say's lunch for those with the Key are from 12pm to 1:30pm. This is for Symphony. It said do not arrive any later than noon so I assume even though you have a 1pm checkin you could show up earlier.

Good idea. I am going to make a beeline straight to central park where most of the restaurants are and pick one that has no people in line waiting to make reservations. I am assuming that there should be a restaurant manager at each restaurant even though they are not open for lunch. at least that was the way it's been on past sailings for me.

Thanks I will ask that when I make the reservations. I get nervous because with over 5,000 passengers on board you have to wonder how many have the UDP and even though there are a lot of restaurants on board it's not like they are that big and can seat a lot of people. We ended up getting "The Key" so we will have a Chops lunch in the MDR on level 4. Great advice and exactly what I was thinking. I hear that Hibachi goes really quick so even though I want to book it for Day 5 I think I'll book it first. Followed by CP150, Hooked, Chops and Jamie's. I am going to do Izzumi for lunch on a sea day.