tncap

Is it just me or does anyone else miss the 'tall' whale tales? The flat ones don't look as cool.

I prefer the squat look. My favorites are on the Spirit-class.

Just booked the Riverside Hotel in Fort Lauderdale (NYOP) on Priceline. December 5-7 for $111/night.

Downtown, *3.5 stars.

The head chef there just won best in the Caymans, apparently.

I've got a cruise coming up that I'm probably going to have to cancel due to not being given all the days off of work that I need. Luckily, I got insurance for the trip. How did you go about filing the claim? I know that they require a notarized statement from the employer, but how do you go about doing that if the employer can't/won't go to a notary with you?

I sent in 33 pages of documents to ensure there would be no back-and-forth about missing something. I had my employer type up a form and luckily we had a notary in the office.

After dinner we didn't do much because we were exhausted from our very early, very physical day. BF and I hung out around the casino so I could watch one of my favorites sing. I'm not sure who this was singing next to her, but she would jump in occasionally and sing with people and I loved her too. That is her smiling for my picture. She saw me taking it and stopped to pose. :)

That is the lead female singer on board for the shows. She would also sing with Jeremy in the piano bar on occasion. She's a lot of fun.

I thing on december or january, there will be 8 slots to dock ships at Cozumel, becuz Puerta Maya pier will have a 3rd one, I read in the newspaper they began to built it a month ago or so

Yep - it is under construction presently.

They aren't too pushy about hawking the photos so someone in our group got it and a few others. I think they negotiated a better price since multiples were bought.

I had passed by Guy Harvey's in Grand Cayman before but had never gone in until a couple of weeks ago when we had no excursions planned.

I had no idea his studio was upstairs. He happened to be in and was painting a very large acrylic. He was very welcoming and would put down his brush to sign anything that was bought there that day and have a chat. We got a signed print and a couple of shirts. Was awesome to meet him!

We disembarked on 9/14 around 9:30am and there were already people checking in. We checked in on 9/7 around 11:15am and were on board by 11:30am (priority boarding - would have been zone 19 otherwise).

The music duo you liked was called Me and My Cousin but I agree - the live music on the Dream was great. We sailed the week after you.

It all depends upon the piano player. Ron Pass, who last year had his 10 year anniversary with Carnival was the best I had seen and heard on my many Carnival cruises. Here are two clips that are R-Rated.

 

 

He is on the Dream as a passenger this week doing scouting for his Rontourage cruise next year.

I prefer the piano bars on the Dream-class ships. Much more open than on the other classes.

I stayed in #2445 on the Triumph. Best 1A there is, in my opinion.

Do you tip with cash or add to the receipt you sign? Just wondered if the tip is added to the receipt you sign if that bartender gets it or if the tip goes into a tip pool to be split with others.

I was told by a bartender that if you add a tip to the receipt, it goes to that individual and not into the pool.

I made a counter-offer once but they still had plenty of people to contact with their original offer. I did take the GS upgrade immediately once, the offer was excellent I thought.

Grand Cayman is the only one of the three that I know has a booth for it right there in the port.

The rate is set at $8.00 for 1-4 people to downtown. We always tip as well.

We had a group of 31 at the blue hole last week and as stated the guides were amazing. The trip completely changed my perspective on Jamaica actually as my previous trip there to Dunn's River Falls was not good. I will post some pictures later this week in a new thread.

We had a group of 31 use Marva/Javia Shaw to the blue hole last week and had a blast! We went straight there from Montego Bay then back to Scotchie's for lunch and then some brief shopping.

In Galveston the window to collect the Texas taxes was not really even within line of sight of Customs. It looked very "voluntary" to me.

As an update, the Dream last week offered some of the steakhouse selections (and some selections that were not available in the steakhouse, such as a 1.5lb whole Maine lobster) in the MDR for a $20.00 surcharge.

We were deck 7 midship last week and the room was cold - not just cool.

I've gotten the call on two of my past four cruises. I think they wanted $350/pp to upgrade to an OS on the first one. Declined that. Called three days before departure on my last one and wanted $175/pp for an OS or $225/pp for a grand suite. Took the GS and was very happy with it.

I have a no-solo supplement cruise this December. I booked it in June. The supplement was re-added about 3 weeks after I booked and they had filled their quota.

The ship nor the ports had Marlboro Menthol full-flavored last week. My partner had to find substitutes the whole time.

We had a guarantee balcony, got our room assigned 33 days out, and were upsold to a grand suite 3 days before departure.