michigyrl

14 hours ago, GTO-Girl said:

and just FYI……GoPort can give you a package where they arranged your hotel and all transportation to and from the port…

GTO--Thank you!! That is great to know about GoPort. I'll reach out to them!

23 minutes ago, JohninDC said:

Cortrans, Cruise Control and Cocoa Beach Shuttle are often suggested on these boards.

Thanks JohninDC!! I'll check them out!

Cruising from Miami or Ft. Lauderdale is a breeze when it comes to transportation!! We're a group of 25 people that will be cruising out of Port Canaveral in June/2025. We're planning on flying in the day before the cruise, staying at a hotel and would prefer to get a private shuttle bus that can take us from the Orlando hotel to the port. Would appreciate any recommendations on a company that offers private shuttles for larger groups.

Yes...I'm a planning freak! :)

On 12/28/2019 at 11:51 PM, jenjes3 said:

Hello- we went to the Hilton formally the Radison. I had booked through the website.  I believe it was 55 per person which include palapa, lounge chairs, towels and use of the pools.  While I booked this I got a mixture of responses. Some said for guests of hotel only.   I booked it followed up confirming days before trip. I didn’t pay in advance. You pay at front desk. Good luck. It was beautiful 

 

 

Thanks for the info! We will be in Aruba in February and may do this. How did you get to Hilton from the port?

Thank you for this! I'm going on an all inclusive vacay in November and a cruise in February. I've been doing Keto since right after Christmas and was hoping to keep it going during the vacations.

Nice to know about the bacon replacement at Guy's too 😍😍

1 hour ago, whoopie said:

Where the medicines I you had in your pillbox RX or OTC?

The were prescription (RX)

7 minutes ago, coevan said:

 

 

 

that's odd, it's not on the CBP rules

I found the following on this website: https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/1160/~/traveling-with-medication

Can I travel with medications and medical devices, such as needles or oxygen tanks?

Prescription medications should be in their original containers with the doctor's prescription printed on the container. It is advised that you travel with no more than personal use quantities, a rule of thumb is no more than a 90 day supply.  If your medications or devices are not in their original containers, you must have a copy of your prescription with you or a letter from your doctor.  A valid prescription or doctors note is required on all medication entering the U.S. 

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for pharmaceutical admissibility determinations. If you have any questions as to whether a specific pharmaceutical may be imported into the United States, please visit the FDA's website, or call (301) 796-0356.

If you are traveling with medical devices such as needles or oxygen tanks that could pose a security or safety concern to others, be sure to have a copy of the prescription for those items from your doctor. You should also contact the Transportation Security Administration about any additional requirements they may have.

On one of my cruises, I was one of the "chosen" that had to do a complete customs inspection when leaving the ship. I've always carried a pill dispenser with me. They asked for my prescription bottles when they pulled the dispenser out of my purse. Of course, the bottles were sitting at home on my kitchen counter! 😣 Fortunately, they let me slide by with a warning. It is a requirement through customs. Should also say...I was not carrying  any narcotics of the sort.

My husband proposed to me on a cruise--my birthday cruise as well. One evening we went to the serenity area for a soak in the hot tub. When we got out we sat in one of the round loungers and he proposed to me there. A quiet proposal between the two of us under the stars. He had the ring in his swim trunks the whole time. :o

I was one of the "lucky" ones that had my card ding when leaving the cruise ship, which meant I was subject to customs doing an extensive search on all of my belongings. When I asked why I was chosen, they told me they always pick about 5 rooms per cruise to search--just my luck. I had my weekly (by the day) pill box with me and no prescription bottles. The customs agent basically told me I was lucky they were letting me go--that you always need to have your prescription bottles with you as they cannot determine just looking at the pills what they are.

This happened to me sailing on the Magic two weeks ago. When I checked in I was asked about the passenger sailing with me and I told them my sister had cancelled out on me. Within a few days the port fees and taxes had been credited to my credit card. I went to the atrium bar when I got on the ship and bought the Cheers package without any problems.

 

Enjoy your cruise. This was my first solo and I loved it!

Bummer...I was hoping they would refund it to my on-board spending account. Leaving on the Elation on the 21st and my aunt is not able to go now. I'm using cash for my on board account and that would have been helpful, but I will make due--either way I'll see the refund.

We are currently booked on the Paradise and my daughter was planning on getting married in Grand Cayman. We have 5 rooms booked between family members on each side. We just received the email yesterday from Carnival stating our itinerary changed to Cuba--the letter states a Passport and Visa are required to visit Cuba. They're a family of 5 and don't want the added expense so we are currently looking at other options (cruises) to take.

I just ordered mine (a reissue as my previous one expired)--mailed out the application form on Feb. 2nd and received my new passport on Feb. 13th--that's using regular (non-expedited) service.

The Christmas decorations went up on our Glory cruise a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy your cruise!!

My wife and I normally cruise alone. We've booked a large family cruise next June on the Splendor and I was wondering if anyone had ever had any experience doing Your Time dining with a large party, and if so, what was your experience?

 

I look forward to the responses.

 

 

Many Thanks,

Adam

Adam~we were a group of 10 people on the Glory a couple of weeks ago. We had no problem getting a table for 10 with Anytime dining...no waiting any night--including both elegant nights (which I was expecting a wait based on past cruises).

Of course, this might be out of the norm, but wanted you to know our experience.

Thanks for your review.

 

However, rather than just a short sentence to add to my post count :) How did you get to Jack's Shack?

 

DW finds it difficult to walk in the soft sand at Grand Turk. We have done a couple of excursions in the past and have a cabana reserved at Margaritaville coming up.

 

Can we grab a cab outside the port to Jack's Shack?

We walked the shore line to get to Jack's--the sand was harder along the shoreline and much easier to walk on. I've been to Grand Turk twice and both times have walked to Jack's. My apologies but I can't answer your question about the cab.

Thought I would give a brief review of the Carnival Glory we took that left from Miami on Nov. 12th. We were a group of 10 friends/family with 5 rooms--several were first time cruisers.

We all flew in the day before-each taking different flights but all stayed at the Homewood Suites Miami-Airport/Blue Lagoon. The hotel was nice and clean. I would stay here again if I cruise out of Miami. The hotel offers free shuttle from the airport to the hotel.

I reserved Jiffy Jeff Transportation to shuttle us all to the port the morning of. They were very prompt and the driver friendly--I would recommend them but be prepared for them to revise your pickup time based on their timing that morning. They picked us up sooner than originally requested. We arrived at the port around 9:30. We all had Faster to Fun and check-in was a breeze. They gave us our key cards while checking in, and we were able to throw cash into our account as well. We also each had a bottle of wine in our carry on and they were never questioned, inspected, etc.

Our group mainly split up during the day and dined together in the evening. I won't go into a play-by-play of the entire cruise, but will comment on some of the particulars for my "now" fiance and I--I say "now" because we got engaged on this cruise! :)

Room:

We had room # 9249 which was a balcony room. Love having my room on the Lido deck since we spend our Days at Sea sunning by the pool. Room was standard. Our steward always greeted us by name when he saw us in the hallway and our room was maintained twice a day (no card asking how many times we wanted service).

Note: I put a dry erase board on our door as well as a picture of us. I was prepared to have them taken down given the new Carnival rule; however nothing was said about it and they remained on the door all week.

Food / Dining:

We ate breakfast in the Lido every morning. I know many people complain about "same food every day"--and I would say that's accurate; however they do have lots of options to choose from. My go-to was the omelet station which was always good, and my fiance enjoyed the Salmon Benedict.

Lunch was either Guy's Burgers or the Lido. Fiance LOVED Guy's burgers!

Our entire group had Any-Time Dining. About half the group met for dinner every night and a few joined in occasionally. We had Chandler for our waiter--very nice and personable. We enjoyed our dining experience and almost every meal was good / tasty.

Entertainment:

Fiance and I didn't see any shows except the Motown show which was just singing due to the rough seas (understandable) and the Epic Rock show--which we thoroughly enjoyed.

We also enjoyed a couple of the comedy shows--these were hit or miss. Some we really enjoyed and others not so much.

Ports of Call:

Half Moon Cay: always one of my favorite ports. A day spent soaking in the sun and quick dips in the ocean.

St. Thomas: did the Carnival excursion Extreme Zip Lining...first time Zip Lining and we do the "extreme"? Very fun and would highly recommend this excursion. The people that run this excursion were super friendly and I always felt safe.

Puerto Rico: walked around town and checked out the forts. Beautiful photo ops in this port.

Grand Turk: we parked our butt at Jack's Shack. It was overcast and a bit drizzly, but who cares? We stayed on beach and enjoyed ourselves with a few local beers.

Other notes:

Wine Package: this is the first cruise that I've bought the wine package. We really enjoyed having a bottle of wine with dinner and we will probably purchase the wine package on future cruises.

Bar Staff: this is the first cruise where I did not see a lot of bar waiters by the pool or in the lounges--not that it affected our cruise but just something we noticed. Past cruises they were much more noticeable.

Birthday gift: I turned 50 on this cruise!! :eek: I know there has been discussions / threads on gifts by Carnival. My room steward left a card in the room for a free 5x7 photo, and wrote a birthday message on the mirror.

Ship Condition: overall the ship was very clean and in good condition.

Always hate leaving the ship--with Faster to Fun we were off the ship, through customs and on our way to the airport in no time.

Overall we enjoyed our cruise and love the great ports!

If you have any questions, I'll try to answer them if I can.

There was one in the aft upstairs area of the buffet on the Glory. EM

Thank you for the info! Will be on The Glory in a couple of days--will look for it!

Just checked and our Glory cruise departing 11/12 also appears to be sold out!

Hi!

Has anyone ever had Saffie Midgley as the CD???

First time ever sailing Carnival so I'm unsure of all of the names. Lol.

Not that a CD will make or break my vacation, but I do feel like the more energetic, fun, vibrant, and involved they are it plays a big part on how the cruise will be. Just curious to know.

Thanks a lot!

I've never heard of her before either. We have a few first time cruisers with us on our November cruise. Although a CD never breaks my cruise...they can certainly help make the cruise. I've had Mike Pack and Matt M.--they were both fantastic and hard to live up to.

This is really disappointing--so far there's a group of 12 of us (might add a few more) going on the Glory in November--and 7 are 1st time cruisers!! I can roll with the punches, but I'd hate for the 1st timers to be left with a bad impression.

We were on the Conquest last year and watched the Super Bowl on the Lido. Lots of fun, drinking and game food.

I always fly in the day before our cruise. For our Feb/2014 cruise on the Conquest, our flights were leaving from Detroit Metro the evening before and I was worried because the weather is always unpredictable in Michigan. I told the other three people traveling with me that we need to have a backup plan just in case. They laughed it off. Sure enough...we were expecting A LOT of snow that evening and we flew out just as the snow was starting to hit. If our flight would have been any later, we would have been delayed.

From now on, when flying in the winter, I'll always book a morning departure the day before the cruise.

I had reserved the shuttle service from Avis back in June when I booked a car rental for my Triumph cruise next month. I just called and spoke with LaShonda after reading this thread. She confirmed they no longer offer this service, but they do have cabs waiting in the parking lot to take people to the terminal. I asked her if she knew what the cab fares were...she said anywhere from $45 to $55 depending on the number of occupants and luggage.