LasseKjus

On 3/13/2023 at 1:28 PM, OceanZena said:

Unless it's a suite, I too will refuse any upgrade offers that may come because I really want to try this particular cabin with the long balcony. And unless it's a suite, I don't want to stay mid ship again. The area may be considered a plus and an upgrade for most, but it's a big negative for me with all the foot traffic. 

 

BTW what is a "hidden window" interior and balcony? I'm picturing a solid wall where you push a button and then a window appears. I'm sure that can't be what it is lol.

Its listed as an interior, but it has a window that basically lets light in, but you can't see anything but another part of the ship, typically a lifeboat or a wall of some sort. I would book interiors if it weren't for the lack of light coming in. I don't spend much time in the room other than to sleep and shower, but I abhor sleeping in absolute darkness.

I changed cabins (Pride, June 30). The PVP originally told me they couldn't do it, but I booked on a Casino Rate and they sent me to a casino PVP. I had already paid for both my rooms in full, even though the pay by date wasn't for a month or so.

That was quick and easy with the casino PVP. They upgraded our room from hidden window interior to balcony for what the difference was. They had to find a booking code to match, which was the only challenge. It was like $350 to upgrade from hidden window interior to balcony.

HOWEVER, like a week after upgrading and paying in full the difference, I got an upgrade offer from Carnival. My second room was also hidden-window balcony and I was able to upgrade it for just $90 to balcony so we'd have side by side staterooms. Maybe if I'd have been patient, I'd have gotten a cheaper upgrade.

I have since received an additional upgrade offer. $40 to go from deck 4 to deck 8 balcony, $260 to go from regular balcony to extended balcony, or a strange $640 to upgrade to obstructed view balcony. I'm waiting for the suite if we're going to upgrade further, which I'm confident won't happen.

Coming out of Covid pause, about 8ish months after the restart, I was getting all kinds of offers for Carnival, with the best being $4 (not including taxes) per person for an inside state room for a 10-day Australian cruise in October. I did book a 5-day cruise over Thanksgiving 2021 for $25 per person, not including taxes.

I did book 9-day Norwegian itinerary for this summer which includes a $500 OBC, which is a casino rate. I'm not a huge gambler. I usually lose about $250 per cruise, but often that includes some winnings that I give back.

7 hours ago, CruiseIreland said:

What a positive review of ports that many, including myself, would consider challenging! 👏👏👏

It was such a fun trip. In our 17 days, we flew 12,593 miles and were in 14 different airports. With a family of five, to keep costs down, I found the cheapest flights possible. We drove to Atlanta and did ATL->LGA; JFK->MAD->LGW; LGW->CDG all in one day (costing just $370 per person, including bags). Then ORY->NAP. After the cruise, FCO->CMH->MIA, then FLL->TPA->home airport. We walked more than a quarter million steps and 106 miles per my phone. It was amazing that everything went according to plan.

6 hours ago, carlmm said:

Thank you for your review!

 

Would you mind some questions?

Would you tell us something about the evening entertainment? Live music? What kind? Until when? Deck parties? 

The first couple of days, the entertainment team was almost non-existent. Once we hit Barcelona, it was a different vibe. More sail away parties and the activities animation team had pool side games. There was one group of three singers (who weren't very good) singing a random assortment of late 80s/early 90s songs. There was karaoke. The theater shows were not very good, but being MSC, we had zero expectations. We weren't there for the ships, but the stops.

With things ever changing from a COVID standpoint, I though i’d give a review of our MSC Opera May 21-28 Mediterranean cruise.

This was supposed to be a May 2020 cruise, then a July 2020 cruise and it ended up being a May 2021 cruise. We went from a five person balcony on a newer ship, to two ocean views on a ship we last sailed 17 years ago.

We did four days in Paris before our cruise, which was incredibly fun to start.

Most of this review is how COVID affected the trip.

EMBARKATION — We boarded in Naples, Italy. Naples is a bit run down, it seems and can be sketchy. We stayed at the Holiday Inn and took a cab to the port at 8 a.m., arriving at 8:10 a.m. There was no real idea or order of what to do. There was one security officer checking documents prior to entering the terminal. We had to show tickets, passports and COVID vaccinations.

We get to enter the terminal and wait in a long line to enter the terminal building. The seemingly are letting in a handful of embarking passengers a little at a time. This line was over an hour of waiting outside. When we we get to enter, we are again in a queue, this time its nearly an hour and half. So we don’t board until 11 a.m., nearly three hours after arrival at the port.

One of the most interesting things is that despite being told we need travel insurance WE NEVER HAD TO SHOW IT. I originally bought insurance and then found it didn’t meet their requirements. I bought more and never showed it to anyone. I was a bit frustrated, but it wasn’t the end of the world.

COVID PRECAUTIONS ON THE SHIP — The crew wore masks, but there was very little in the way of mask wearing except in the nightly shows. The crew enforced masks in the theater.

Apparently the muster drill was virtual, watching on the TV and calling a number to say you watched. We apparently missed that and had to go to an in person makeup drill, which was not very time consuming.

We tried to play ping pong, golf and table soccer. Those were being cleaned regularly and we were limited to half hour increments of playing. There was an attendant at the hot tubs. There were only 7 allowed in the hot tubs and the attendant was tracking time. People were asked to leave the hot tub after 15 minutes.

It didn’t feel like we were very crowded until about day four. We had rolling embarkation, but it seemed like we turned over half the ship in Barcelona. It also seemed as if they were only using half the dining room.

We didn’t take any excursions through the ship.

THE SHIP — The ship is old and shows wear (like some of the elevator buttons you couldn’t even see the number they were so run down), but she is in good shape. She was very clean.

Food was plentiful and in typical MSC fashion not super but never bad. We were never hungry. Only juice is served at breakfast. Water is for purchase at dinner unless you book from the USA (which we are) and water is then included. Tips were only 10 Euro per person. I budgeted 15 Euro.

THE STOPS — OK, now is the cruise review.

Genoa. Cruise port is run down, but once you get away, it’s a crazy beautiful place. We seemingly walked straight up to an old castle which also held the Genoa World Cultures Museum. We navigated local transportation and found so many wonderful areas to explore. We had street pizza and gelato. We took a train back to the ship area after a long day of walking.

Marseilles. We got off the ship late. Apparently there was some sort of strike that was keeping us from getting off. We got off the ship two hours late and they let us have an extra hour. There was a shuttle to town, that you had to pay for, 16 euro per person. Didn’t expect that. We walked around Marseilles and hit many of the main stops. The old port, MuCum, the fort. Last shuttle back was an hour and a half prior to all aboard.

Barcelona. I could go back 100 times. It was so nice. We went to the Olympic museum and Olympic stadium area. We toured Montjuic and the palace and the Arenas de Barcelona. We bussed to Las Ramblas and explored there and trained back to the shuttle drop off. There was a shuttle to the main part of town which was 8 Euro.

La Goulette (Tunis, Tunisia). First time in Africa. We contemplated doing a shore excursion, but we did a private cab and did more than the excursions that we could do via the ship. We also did it for 1/3 of the price. We toured Tunis and its Medina area. We went to three stops in the archaeological area of Carthage and the went to Sidi Bou Said. On the way back to the ship, the cab driver took us through a tour of La Goulette.

Palermo. We were tired by now after four days in Paris and four days of heavy walking on the ship. We walked to the Palermo Cathedral and then to Ballaro street market. So incredible! We then wandered the streets of Palermo doing some shopping.

DISEMBARKATION — We had what we thought was a tight squeeze. We had a 10:31 train to Rome. I worried about how long it was going to take to get off. We were instructed that we would be called at 8:40 a.m. to disembark and I was worried how long passport/border control/customs would take. We eat breakfast, then we head to the theater to wait to be called. After 15 minutes of waiting, we get called to disembark right at 8:40 a.m. Our bags are waiting for us and there is literally no one checking passports or customs. We walk right out and by 8:50 a.m. we’re getting our cab to the train station.

AFTER THE CRUISE — Our flight was from Rome to Miami via Casablanca, Morocco, with a 20 hour layover. Casablanca was crazy amazing. So many nice people and so much to see and do. Everyone wants to do this trip all over again. Prior to the cruise, we toured Paris and spent two days in Disneyland Paris. It was a crazy fun two weeks and would love to do it all over again.

Similar situation for me. I called MSC directly and they said that they do not have any testing aboard any of their ships.

It's been 16-17 years, but I saw a Lazio match at Olympic Stadium. Ask around, people will tell you how to get there, that is what we did. From memory, there is a bus you have to take to get to the train station. It was packed. Think like 100 people on a bus designed for 30.

FWIW, we got shafted on our tickets (not that I really cared, actually). We paid 35 Euro second hand when the tickets were 1 Euro (for fan appreciation day).

It was interesting. Last home game of the season for Lazio. I had a fan try to start something with me. My buddy went to the bathroom at halftime. Everyone starts singing. Of course I don't because I don't know their song. Guy behind me gets in my face. I say, "I'm an American." He leaves me alone.

Next weekend we went to Como and Turnio for their last game of the season. Both were Serie A. Both were being relegated. Como's stadium seated about 8,000 with 1,000 in Curva Ospiti for the Turin fans. About 500 police were escorting the Turin fans to the stadium. Something would have happened if those cops weren't there. For this match, we walked up and got tickets for about 10 euro each.

Let's not confuse bankruptcy with going out of business. American Airlines went "bankrupt" in 2011 and has been growing ever since.

On 6/26/2019 at 6:27 PM, kodesthemoose said:

I am hopeful that this is a situation of MSC shoreside having no practical idea of what happens once you are on board, or even checking in. (not unheard of.)  I could be wrong, for sure.  But there would be zero reason to consider it an upgrade to go from a fantastica balcony to an inside room with no amenities.  The only reason that inside room is an upgrade is b/c it's in YC.  I suppose it's a few decks higher, but it's an inside room.  I would probably feign total ignorance, show up at the YC tent, get my YC luggage tags on, and enjoy the ride from there.  If someone said to me "Oh i'm sorry you don't get the perks" I would simply remind them that I paid to upgrade, not to downgrade my cruise.

 

Best of luck!! 

This is very true. We once booked a very last minute Costa Atlantica 7 days out from a Christmas Cruise. $399 per person, kids free, run of ship. We got assigned their top room, a balcony with spa treatments, a special dining room, priority embarkation. I called Costa and asked how we would get all of these perks. They said we would not get any of it since we got a special rate. Once on board, we got everything. It was like seaside had no idea what rate we booked at.

1 hour ago, Monica887 said:

Still planning on 10am. $100 credit per room. And if you want to disembark for a full refund you can.

And giving a one day refund to original form of payment. 

23 minutes ago, redheadfred78 said:

We're supposed to be on the Dec 29th sailing -- all of this is making me very nervous. If we'd purchased the trip insurance, I would have just canceled, but now I feel like we're forced to go on this mess of a ship. Hoping to make the most of it and not experience any major vacation bummers, but we spent all year saving our time and vacation days for this and it will be a huge bummer if things don't go as expected.

5 minutes ago, WhaleTailFlCruiser said:

 

True but at least you are still on Vacation, Also wondering how loud the construction was over night? I will be on the 29th sailing of the Legend and the Glory is supposed to be in Cozumel with us so will be interested in seeing the damage upclose. 

 

People will deal.. onboard now. We’re just leaving , but we got a note with 100 OBC and a prorated refund of one day, so for our party, that’s $400 OBC and a refund of nearly $2,000. A few dollars in taxes is offset by the refund. I’d like it to be warmer, but the refund helps. 

We're on the Dec. 22 sailing. I called my TA (who knew nothing of it) and Carnival. The rep on Carnival was great ... "We've been instructed to inform you..."

Basically, Carnival said its on but is still assessing. I asked about the possibility of changing pre-emptively and he said he'd have to find out what a rebooking policy is right now (normally, the response would be that I was in the no refund time frame). I asked if there was a possibility of it still being changed and he repeated that it's still being evaluated.

My gut would be that they are going to do everything they can to run this and the next sailing and if they need some time they will take it in early Jan. when there are fewer passengers and less expensive fares to refund and offer a 50 percent off a future sailing. It also could be just mostly external damage and that's going to be fixed while in ports.

I was wondering the same thing, but it's me and me who have different boarding times. We have two rooms for my family of five and we have two different boarding times. How is that possible. The reservations are linked and I did our onboard check in at the same time.

We booked 7-day Alaska southbound on the Zaandam just on Sunday June 28 got a Sunday July 5 cruise. We paid $299/pp at such an insanely low rate. But on Monday we got the upsell email for $149 pp to oceanview. We declined even though $348 pp got us in the top tier OV room.

We got another email on Wednesday to upgrade at $99 pp. we declined again since getting on the ship was the sole reason for our voyage. Any chance it comes down again to $49 pp. We're just four days out and there are at least 16 OV rooms available to purchase.

For the sake of comparison, I looked today and there are a mess of cabins available and at least 8 pair that are connecting. The "select your room rate" is currently even cheaper than my super saver booking (stupid me). I also counted the sheer number of rooms available just one week out from sailing and it's 72 (now that may not be an actual count, but that's what one can select ... maybe some of those are soon to be assigned to guarantees). 72 rooms available seems like a ton.

Anyway, I called again to try to see if I could get the one oceanview room changed,even though I technically shouldn't be allowed to pick my stateroom, and upgrade the inside to oceanview.

I think my wording changed my outcome too. I asked "how much would it cost to change my rooms to the two connecting oceanviews?"

At first, I was met with, "this can't be done... we can upgrade both rooms to a balcony." But this agent was more salesperson than the first. When I said I wasn't interested in balcony, she said she'd see what she could do.

She coudn't do it, she said, to oceanview connecting since both rooms were for 3 people. I pointed out the sheer number of rooms available and I doubted they could sell 70+ rooms in the last 7 days unless they went on super sale and she again said she'd see what she could do and needed to talk to a supervisor.

After about 20 minutes of hold time, CARNIVAL DID AGREE TO ACCEPT MORE OF MY MONEY. Granted it wasn't much money and it's a less than a week cruise so we could have dealt, but it's nice to know they finally were rational and wanted more of my cash. Everything has its price. Problem solved.

I'm going to deal and see if there is anything that can be done at port. Looks like plenty of rooms are available currently.

So here's the deal. I booked a last-minute cruise on Carnival. As you see from my signature, haven't traveled on Carnival much, but this worked out with dates and price.

Booked an OV guarantee for three at the Super Saver rate and a Inside guarantee for two at the Super Saver rate. At the time, I was fully aware that I was not likely to get the rooms together. I've done this before on different lines. One time on Disney, I actually got two side-by-side ocean views when booked at inside. Other times last minute, I literally got the last cabins on the ship, so I just had to deal. We can deal with being separated.

I got my room assignments. Deck one for the ocean view (in the lowest category) and deck 7 for the inside (in the highest inside category).

I paid $770 for two for the inside room. On the Carnival site, there is an inside directly across the hall from the assignment for the ocean view available. It is $200 MORE than I have currently paid, but it is in the second lowest inside category.

I called Carnival to see about switching and paying the difference in fair. Again, I've done this before several times. Granted, we got in super cheap and I am not upset this can't be done. I knew what I was getting in to.

They would not make the switch because the cabin can not be downgraded. In short, they would not take more of my money because I can't downgrade a room.

Strange, but true.

When I try to book on Carnival's site, I get a certain price.

When I book on a different site, I get the same price, but I see rates for each passenger. The first two passengers are lower than the third passenger.

Is there anything I can do to get that third passenger rate at least to the price of the first two passengers. If I call Carnival will that help?

I don't have experience with CDF, but I've booked it. Seems like a good value and visits some interesting islands. Oh, and the price includes alcohol! :-)

 

I do understand that there will be limitations. Most of the passengers will not speak English. I suspect that many crew members, but not all, will. Some of the islands visited, such as Martinique, don't have a lot of English speakers on the island either. Also, it's an older ship.

 

Seems like an interesting cruise, although obviously it's not everyone's cup of tea.

Where did you book the CDF? I can't figure out anywhere online to look at prices and book.

We were in 6207 and 6208. The walking track was in between but you could see the ocean without an issue.

There is only the privacy curtain and it would be nice if there was a sheer curtain.

It was super quiet down the hallway. In 11 days, we saw one cabins worth of people come out of their room once. Never saw anyone down the hallway.

Just off 11-day Sun. It was $199 pp for the duration. We didn't do it, but we did three specialty nights.

1st night in La Cuccina. About 1/4 full.

2nd night in Moderno. One other table occupied.

3rd night (last night) in Le Bistro. About 1/2 full. I can't imagine those things are worthwhile to keep operating.

This was our third trip aboard the Norwegian Sun, but this was our first 11-day cruise. It was my wife and my 19th overall cruise and the kids have been on 14, 12, and 10 cruises at the ages of 10, 8 and 5 respectively. We are veteran cruisers. (It was our 6th in all on NCL with Disney at five being a close second in terms of time aboard).

EMBARKATION

This was the first time since our first cruise that we flew the day of. Given the length of the cruise, the kids were already missing two days of school and we didn’t want to push it any more, plus that meant more time away from our jobs and more vacation used. We boarded the shuttle to take us to the airport at 2:15 a.m. for our 5:30 a.m. flight. We were on the ground by 9:30 a.m. and made a few stops on our way to the cruise port. We were on board by 1 p.m. with lunch eaten and rooms ready.

STATEROOM

Our rooms were quite large for the price. We originally booked a family stateroom ocean view, but opted to spend about $200 extra for connecting obstructed view ocean view rooms. Well worth the money. The rooms were large to begin compared to what I was expecting with and connecting them made them feel all the larger. We had more than enough room for 11 days of clothes for 5 people.

FOOD

The food was average to high average. This wasn’t our best food ship, but it wasn’t bad either. We kind of expect this on Norwegian, but one of the things we did enjoy the most was never having to wait for a table. We were seated usually between 7:30 p.m. and sometimes as late as 9 p.m., eating in between the Four Seasons and Seven Seas equally. The best meal, it was decided, in the main dining rooms was the beef stroganoff. The night of the chocolate buffet were the best deserts. The best part about freestyle cruising is that you are in and out of dinner in usually a little over an hour, unlike the near two hours of strict seating times.

We breakfasted in the MDR twice and those were brutally long mornings. Food was no different than on deck. We also lunched twice in the MDR and the menu there never changed. Disappointing on that front.

We did three speciality dining restaurants. We started at La Cuccina. That was very good, especially the minestrone soup, but it was a 2+ hour dinner. We dined two nights later at Moderno Churrascaria. It was very good, but very meat heavy. On the final night, we dined at Le Bistro. Portions are small for the price, but very good. Deserts more than made up for the lack of portion size. The Napoleon and Chocolate Fondue found good homes that night.

ENTERTAINMENT

The entertainment during the day was sparse, which was fine. We normally hang out by the pools anyway, with the kids swimming. We spend the majority of the time at the kid pool, which also had a hot tub. The kids made some friends, but usually prefer to play amongst the three of them. The area was never very crowded, nor was the main pool for that matter, with the exception of one day when a bunch of teenagers that were hanging out in the teen club decided it would be “make-out-with my just met girlfriend in the hot tub” time. They didn’t seem to care that there were 3-5 year old kids in the area. Annoying. Also, there was very little adherence to the posted rules. They never kicked kids out of the adult only pool areas and they never kicked any swim-diaper kids out of the kid pool. All this was fine as none of the pool areas were very busy. The main pools were alternately closed each of the first two days and the second-to-last day, one of the main pools had waves crashing against the sides while the other was calm.

Nighttime entertainment was spotty. The NCL dancers and singers were adequate, but the shows were moderate at best. The one comedian we saw was hilarious. We didn’t see the second comedian. The hypnotist was great as usual and even more entertaining as my wife was chosen to be one of the hypnotized. And she danced like Cher!

We didn’t hit any of the deck parties (like the white hot party) or lounge shows. They seemingly were sparsely attended. We did hear that Dancing with the Sun Stars was particularly entertaining.

PORTS

5 ports of call, the first of the three were new to us. We went to Cartegena (Columbia), Ornjastad (Aruba), Willemstad (Curacao), Phillipsburg (St. Maarten), Charlotte Amalie (St. Thomas).

Cartegena (7 a.m.-3 p.m.) was on Easter. We figured a lot would be closed. There is nothing around the port. A cab is needed to see anything. It looked very run down and disconcerting outside of the port. Inside the port were some shops and some animals on display. We booked a city tour by Segway (segwaycartegena.com) that picked us up at port at 11:30 a.m. and took us to the old town, which was amazing. The tour was fantastic, highly recommended. It was the best land tour we’ve ever been on. The kids loved the segway (as did I) and my five year old was taken along by scooter (like a moped) by another tour guide. He loved the ride. Lots to see and lots of culture in Cargegena.

Aruba (1 p.m.-7 p.m.) was on the monday after easter. We were a little late, landing at 1:30 p.m. and off by 2 p.m. Aruba’s port area is very nice. But very little was open. We didn’t have a tour booked and probably should have found a beach. The area was very nice and we can’t wait to go back.

Curacao (7 a.m.-5 p.m.) was a bust. I had been so looking forward to it because I heard a lot of nice things. We rented a car so we could see the whole island. We were off by about 10:30 a.m. and driving by 11:30. We drove toward the airport and hit the Hato Caves. Very fun tour, but it probably was the best thing to do on the island. I wanted to see some little league baseball fields as Curacao is a baseball hotbed (dozens of major league players and two-time Little League World Series champions), but there were not to be found. We found only one mention of a baseball player and one dilapidated softball field. We found no beaches that were very good. As excited as I was for Curacao, I was disappointed int the result.

St. Maarten (8 a.m.-5:30 p.m.) was fun. We have ben 6 other times and usually end up in Marigot. This time, we rented a car and were destined to hit the beaches. We headed toward Orient beach, but stopped first at LeGallion Beach. We should have stopped our day there. It was quiet, not-croweded, warm, clean …. about as good as a beach day could be. We then made our way to Orient Beach after hearing so much about it. It was nice, but very crowded. It was comical to see a dozen or so topless ladies (gents, don’t get excited …. these women were not worth looking at really) walk by. But we left after about an hour. We headed toward Marigot and shopped some and ate a sandwich and eclair at the West Indies Shopping Mall. Then we headed to Maho beach to see the planes come in but we were detoured by the new Blue Mall in Cupe Coy. Really upscale and high end. Nice establishment. We drove by Maho beach but were starting to get short on time and headed back to the ship. Traffic, as expected in SXM, was brutal. Took us an hour to drive the five miles from the Airport to the cruise port.

St. Thomas (8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.) was equally fun for our seventh trip to STT. The day started with immigration. I don’t remember having to do this in a while. But we had an early tour, so it was OK. We did St. John on your own. We have done non-ship sponsored trips to St. John and thought about it again, but we chose the more expensive ship tour. We ferried over, walked the mile to Honeymoon Beach and walked the mile back to get back on our noon return ferry. Would have loved longer, but not to be. We did some touring of Havensight Mall as the wife spent more of our hard-earned money.

DISEMBARKATION

About the easiest process ever. We had a super early flight out of Fort Lauderdale at 11:40 a.m. Not recommended by the cruise line. We did the express walk-off with all of our bags and sleepy young children. But we were out of our rooms and through customs in under a half hour. We were at the airport by 9:30 a.m. with plenty of time prior to our flight, which I’m writing and posting this from. Unfortunately, the cruise, as always, was too short. I really appreciate the longer than 7-day itinerary with five full sea days. Again, unfortunately, I have to be at work in about three hours and the flight will land in about an hour, so the vacation comes to an end. We don’t have another one planned as of yet, but the search for the next vacation will begin soon!

I called Country Inn at Houston Hobby the other day after I read on these boards that they have a package to stay 1 night with roundtrip transfers to/from the port for $200. When I called the front desk told me they no longer sell these but if I already had a room booked under this package they would honor it. Then he told me to talk to the shuttle manager and handed the phone off. The manager told me that if I book a room he would transfer my party to/from the port for $120 roundtrip plus the cost of the room so $200 total.

 

I haven't booked a cruise yet, looking at next year but want to figure out all of the logistics first. The shuttle driver said when I was ready to contact him and he gave me his number that he would book the room and schedule my transfers.

 

You could probably call and ask to speak with the shuttle manager and ask about getting to the port. See if he offers the same thing to you. Just a thought in case you are running out of options. But my concern was what happens if this man gets fired or quits prior to my trip and I'm stranded with no transfers? I'm looking at April 2013, not sure when your trip is.

 

Good luck.

For the same concerns you have, I cancelled this reservation and just booked a hotel in Galveston. Renting a car for the duration of the cruise and leaving it at the hotel we are staying at with free parking is still cheaper than cruise transportation to the ship or shuttles, limos or taxis.

I called Country Inn at Houston Hobby the other day after I read on these boards that they have a package to stay 1 night with roundtrip transfers to/from the port for $200. When I called the front desk told me they no longer sell these but if I already had a room booked under this package they would honor it. Then he told me to talk to the shuttle manager and handed the phone off. The manager told me that if I book a room he would transfer my party to/from the port for $120 roundtrip plus the cost of the room so $200 total.

 

I haven't booked a cruise yet, looking at next year but want to figure out all of the logistics first. The shuttle driver said when I was ready to contact him and he gave me his number that he would book the room and schedule my transfers.

 

You could probably call and ask to speak with the shuttle manager and ask about getting to the port. See if he offers the same thing to you. Just a thought in case you are running out of options. But my concern was what happens if this man gets fired or quits prior to my trip and I'm stranded with no transfers? I'm looking at April 2013, not sure when your trip is.

 

Good luck.

They are still offering it on their web site:

http://www.countryinns.com/offers/3035787