DanJ

I live in southern Ontario about 100 miles west of Toronto. I would love to do the Toronto to Milwaukee if for no other reason than cruising the Welland Canal. It's a much more impressive thing than the Panama Canal, it just doesn't have the exotic location lol. I might even try to head down to the Thorold viewing site to see this ship when it comes through in a couple years. I've looked at the various Great Lakes options for the last 20 years or so and the prices are always sky high. At least Viking looks like a ship that will be enjoyable to be on. The other ones that I have seen are all pretty small and basically a means of transportation between the ports, not something to also enjoy the voyage on. It's definitely something out of a budget at the present time with 2 kids heading into university but I hope this is well enough supported to keep them around long enough for us to get a chance.

Dumb question, but not sure if it's been said in all these 41 pages. Do they get Captain Circle credit for all these days at least?

• Apparently this cruise is now an 8 day, with stops in Costa Maya and Cozumel, returning Sunday the 23rd. $200 pp OBC, 50% future cruise credit and up to $200 for air changes for those sailing, or full refund for those choosing not to go. No word yet on the changes obviously coming for the June 22nd sailing

Interesting. We had a feature on the place in our travel section this weekend which mentioned it has been almost sold out since opening. It's not a place I would spend a night at, I would want 2 or 3 nights. I love Hollywood and will be checking it out when we plan our next cruise.

An additional thought to these are that quite often the shuttles are busy and crowded and you may end up sitting on them while you go to every other ship on the way to yours. And that's after a possible wait for the shuttle in the first place. The airport is only a 15 dollar cab ride from the port and takes 5-10 minutes, so returning the car to there instead of the city locations is a good option as well.

Alamo and National also operate a free bus from the airport in case you wanted to check them out.

Is that $45 per room? Not really worth it as you would spend a combined less than that for a van taxi from the airport and to the port, which would carry all 4 of you and luggage easily. If you go with their package, you will be waiting for the shuttle at the airport, and will be on their schedule to go to the port, and maybe yours is the last ship they stop at.

Love Homewood Suites and will definitely be looking in to this one when we next manage to cruise from Port Canaveral. From other pics I've seen of it recently, it's a little more colourful than a typical Homewood Suites as well.

At that distance from the port, I don't see the point. I would go for the oceanview if you want a view.

I wouldn't either. But not sure how important it is to the poster to see some part of a ship in the distance. And as someone else said, you do get to see the water and beach very easily from the south side as well.

Dan, glad it worked for you. I know you were worried about construction.

How was your in laws marina room? We' ve always stayed in the tower.

The marina room was great. Freshly fixed up, modern fixtures and bathroom, very comfortable king size bed. We swapped the second night so the kids could spend the night with their grandparents (who spend the winter in Florida and the kids hadn't seen in over 2 months by that point). I've read in the past that at the Pier 66 or the Hilton Marina that these type of rooms are the so called "lesser" rooms, or the ones you get on reward points etc. While these rooms at the Bahia Mar are still the cheaper or first offered on points, they certainly aren't "lesser". Hopefully the owners can ever figure out what their renovation plans are going to be on that property and get their tower rooms fixed up the same way. Only drawback to the Marina building is it's a looong walk from the parking, which is on the north side of the tower.

We also enjoyed a previous stay several years ago at this LQ, and also recommend Ale House. Great pool patio overlooking the lake as well.

Well, that just rolls off the tongue lol. Good for them though, sounds like a well deserved honour.

Did the same thing in January. Had 2 nights so decided to spend it on the beach rather than looking at a highway interchange or mall parking lot. Weather sucked but what are you gonna do lol. If you can get it for under 250 a night, I would agree with the others about value for what you get. More than that and I would be shopping around a bit, although if the Mar is higher than 250, odds are everything else will be 300+. Again, this was January, and I don't know when you are going. Rates do fluctuate quite a bit depending on the season. We had a car so we ate at Duffys on 17th, but we did have breakfast in the marketplace on the main floor of the marina building one morning. Under 50 bucks for 6 of us. The restaurant in the main tower building looked expensive (20 dollar breakfast buffet, yikes lol).

It has an elevated walkway over to the beach which is nice with how busy traffic is. The walkway also connects the marina building to the main building and also goes back to the pool. The marina building rooms were renovated last year and are quite a bit nicer than the main building, although the rooms are a touch smaller and are cheaper. We could see the top of the Princess ship from my in-law's marina view room which was on the third floor. We had a 9th floor ocean view room. There are balcony doors but no real balcony to speak of, it might be 18 inches wide. More just to open up and get the sea air and look out of. If you got a partial ocean view room and asked for it on the south side and higher floor, you would have a decent view of the port less than 2 miles away.

The new Harmony of the Seas will be sailing out of Port Everglades starting this fall as well. You're a year from being able to really price out any hotel and air options. Easter that year falls on April 1 so that might factor some school holidays.

10-20 per passenger on excursions? I guess I'm a cheapskate on that department lol.

Being curious I just phoned Port Everglades and talked to someone in the parking department. Apparently you can access terminal 4 from the garage. On level 2 there is a gate at the south end of garage and security will let you through there, obviously with the right credentials (cruise paperwork).

DanJ,

 

Are you saying that it is impossible to use the Parking Garage in that area if one is sailing from Terminal 4?

No, I don't know that it is impossible, just very very inconvenient now. The port website doesn't even list the garage as parking for terminal 4 anymore, only 1 and 2. You would have to walk back over to Eisenhower, south through the new security checkpoint, which is almost at 24th St, and then walk back up the new 4 roadway to the terminal. And the same in reverse to get your car (plus having to sit in the security checkpoint lineup to get back to the terminal to pick up your luggage (unless you planned on making that walk with your luggage in tow). Too much hassle I think, but it's up to you. The new surface parking lot at 4 has about 170 spaces, not sure how many of those open up on a given day and how quickly they are taken again.

The problem is you don't have access to the parking garage anymore, as it's outside the secure zone next to terminal 2. Since the renovation and changing of the security checkpoint, terminal 4 is totally separated from 2 now. There is a surface parking lot at 4 now, although given it's size, I imagine it fills up quick. Of course the other problem comes about should you return to a different terminal and your car is parked at 4.

Have you considered parking at an offsite company like Park N Go? Not only are they much cheaper, but their shuttles are plentiful and will take you right to your car.

Alamo has a free bus from the airport to the cruise port. It's painless to drop off a car at the airport. The rental centre is on the left as you approach the airport, follow the signs for Alamo. Attendants will wave you into a line, you stop, get your stuff and leave. Go up one level, go outside and to the right and that's where the bus will be.

If your plan is to return the car the night before so as to save rental fee or parking fees, then yes, a cab will be easy to get outside the rental centre. From where Alamo is, terminal 1 is directly across the pedestrian bridge, so you could go over there and down to baggage claim and get a taxi there as well. Probably will be more taxis there than at the rental centre. You're probably looking at $20 with tip back to Renaissance.

Also keep checking your rate with Alamo as the date approaches. I have without fail been able to re-reserve at a cheaper rate within a couple days of the rental.

Awesome!! I was wondering if we'd be able to see the show from the ship! The hubs will be super happy...

 

Most of the planes for the show will be based at FLL, so right next to the port. At the very least, he will see them coming and going to the show.

The gas station convenience store mentioned above is a shade over a mile from the new cruise terminal beside Fishlips. If you happen to dock to the east of that at the regular transient ships terminals, it's even further and less hospitable of a walking environment. Sure, it's walkable for most, but then what? You really want to carry cases of soda and water back to the ship from there? In the Florida sun, you'll probably drink a case of water on the way back.

How much prior to last weekend did you book this hotel? I agree 360 is way expensive for that type of hotel and location, but given school breaks and heavy travel, I can see the rate creeping up if you wait too late. By the way, the hotel isn't a remodel, it's a fairly new hotel, opened in 2013. Unless they have renovated already lol.

FLying southwest, so that is a big advantage.

 

How do we find out which terminal??? Sailing Navigator on April 10

The Navigator will be at one of the mid 20's terminals at the end of Eller Dr, very close to the airport. Not sure if making the extra cab ride distance would be worthwhile or not. Total Wine and the other stores on 17th St are pretty out of the way from the short run from the airport to that part of the port.

Not airshow related, but I suggest if you are coming down A1A to 17th St to get back to the airport that you cut through the port. I thought of doing that when I was returning our rental car, and when I glanced down Eisenhower, it really wasn't that backed up at security, and wished I had made the turn. Traffic on 17th and US 1 getting to the airport was bumper to bumper all the way, and that was just a Saturday with nothing special going on. You might even consider pulling in to terminal 18 and dropping your luggage off so you don't have to deal with it after dropping the car off.

It's getting harder and harder to find the basic partial transit cruise that used to be so popular. The canal toll seems to average out to over $100 per passenger and many cruise lines would rather dock in Colon or Cristobal for the day and let you purchase a shore excursion to see the canal. A partial transit is a great way to experience it, and still have the convenience of returning to the same port you started from. Of course, depending on where you travel from, flying to one coast and home from the other might not be any difference or inconvenient if you did do a full transit cruise.

We did a partial on Carnival 15 years ago and it was a great experience in Panama. We entered the locks on the morning, dropped anchor in Gatun Lake for a few hours and then transited back through the same locks to the Caribbean Sea. While in Gatun Lake, some people left the ship to take shore excursions, one of which was watching the ship go back through the locks from grandstand seating on shore. The ship then docked in Colon for a couple hours and those people caught up with us there. Whether the current itineraries do something like that, I don't know. As I recall, there weren't a lot of kids on the ship, but then, it was Carnival's smallest ship at the time with barely over 1000 people on board. A casino dealer did comment to me this was the oldest crowd he had ever seen on Carnival lol. The afternoon transit was a great time to be on deck as there weren't nearly as many people out to watch it as the morning transit. Plus, the locks are much more impressive looking when seen from atop a ship looking down from the lake.

Regardless though, whichever cruise line you take to do the cruise, they all have kids programs and you still will be able to make use of them even if the number of kids numbers in the small dozens rather than the hundreds.

Yes, but lol.

Some cruise lines price cruises in CDN dollars and it's not a straight conversion from their US prices. For example, my recent cruise on Royal Caribbean, had I booked it with a Canadian travel agent, the Canadian price at the time would have been 10% higher than the US price (fortunate for me that the US TA had a group rate that was significantly less, so I still came out ahead). I believe Royal Caribbean uses a flat 25% exchange rate now, and I believe Princess also has a similar way of setting their Canadian prices.

I don't believe there is any residency restriction preventing the OP from booking a cruise through a CDN travel agent in Canadian dollars, as we had American friends do this exact thing a few years ago when the cruise line's exchange rate was favourable to the actual exchange, and they called our local TA and booked their cruise.