WestCoastCruiser123

I was on the 8/16 sailing. He read a lot of the lyrics from his ipad as he sang. I wasn't really into that. The area on Ocean 5 (same level) always seemed to be more packed with different bands and karaoke.

You can access the Lounge for happy hour. Make sure and go the first night or two. My little group branched off after that. Our solo director planned dinner each night following the happy hour. Have fun.

I loved your review. Gets me even more excited for my breeze cruise. :)

I was solo on the epic the week after thanksgiving last year. A lot of the ppl in the studios didn't come to the lounge for happy hour but we still had a sizable group for dinner. Maybe 25 ppl. After a few days the group I mostly hung out with stopped going to the lounge HH and just made our own dinner plan. Make sure to go to the lounge the first night. I had a great time with the other solos.

Hi neighbor. I'm also in vegas. Flying into FLL next month too but leaving from POM. Using SAS (highly recommended on CC and I used them in November) to pick up at the FLL hotel to downtown mia for $15/pp. Check their website for the hotels they'll pick you up from. Maybe you'll find some of them that have free shuttles the night before. Flight lands at 1am so didn't care about the hotel's location or amenities too much.

I stayed at south in march. There's a large strip mall behind the property. I definitely remember fast food but not sure about restaurants. Look at google maps. It might show you the store names. We had a car so we had dinner 10 mins away.

I live in the desert so I understand the hair challenges you face when going to miami. I have given up with dealing with my curly hair on cruises. I bought a few of those jeweled stretchy head bands and tend to just have a pony tail at night. The fancy headband makes it look a little dressier. But i'd be curious about product recommendations too. I usually use gel.

Keep checking the dates you want. Just be signed in to see the actual past guest rate. I kept checking and then the 8 day breeze dropped $500 last Friday with no solo surcharge. It only lasted 48 hrs until the 1As disappeared. I didn't care about the room type because I will barely be in the room.

I went on epic last nov, the week after thanksgiving. I paid many months in advance. After final payment, the price dropped significantly. Many people I met through the studios booked in the 1-2 weeks up to the cruise sailing and got a studio for $100s less than me. I will never get a cruise so far in advance again. In fact, just the other day, I got my cruise for next month with no solo supplement on carnival.

I'm not saying prices will drop on epic like they did last year. But I was really upset about the price variance. I still had a great time with the other solos though :)

Thank you for all saying that cancellation fee was weird (and ridiculous). I was thinking that this was some new policy and someone here might tell me that was normal. I just called Carnival to verify and this rep told me that the cancellation would just be the fare that I paid on Friday. Though, I liked your suggestions of no showing and changing the CC#.

I knew that the policy sounded weird when the original rep told me that because I was booked on a casino promotion, I got such a fabulous deal that the penalty for cancelling would be higher. First, the rate was already super low on the website without even logging in. Second, I don't play in the casino on a cruise so how would I have gotten a casino deal.

For insurance I'm really just looking for medical coverage (evacuation and emergency care). Probably also emergency cancellation as well since it's only a month away at this point.

I don't think I even have to get coverage for the port fees and taxes. I think that if you don't cruise that you don't have to pay for that, correct?

Really strange... Yesterday, I booked a cruise for next month for a great price. During the final payment disclaimers, the rep tells me that if I cancel, the cruise price is nearly 2.5Xs what I paid because I got a special deal. Not sure how it was special. It's just the past guest rate. Anyway, I have no plans to cancel, but what price do I insure the trip for? The actual price I paid or the much larger price they'll charge me to cancel?

Has anyone even heard of this before?

Hi neighbor. I'm in vegas too. Try SAS. I used them from POM to FLL last fall. There's also a Florida departure board that might have more suggestions.

On one cruise, the room attendant threw out the caps to my contact case I had left unscrewed on the sink. Thankfully I had an extra case and now I always bring an extra one too. Maybe he thought they were garbage from a used bottle.

Like the others mentioned, I bring a few extra pairs of lenses. Even with snorkeling in my contacts, I've never needed to use an extra pair. I just like knowing I don't have to worry about losing a lens in the ocean.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1924263

Have fun. It looks like it's a busy roll call.

I was on deck 5 MTD. There were 2 tops in our area though we preferred a shared table. The two hosts (or matre ds) for deck 5 were great. We made a standing 8 pm resv before the trip and had no problem changing it one night.

The bag was found in Atlanta. Strange since the airline the bag's owner used doesn't even fly to Atlanta. Now just working out how to get the bag back to the intended airline for delivery to the house.

Of course, the luggage valet fee is being refunded :rolleyes:

Thanks for the response. Royal is acknowledging that the bag did not get transferred to the airport. So we wouldn't have any recourse with the airline. We had travel insurance and some credit cards even cover lost baggage. It seems irresponsible to accept people's luggage with a maximum liability of $300. It's only been 24 hours, so we are still haning on to some hope that it will turn up. Hopefully it's just taking a ride to the western caribbean this week.

We used the luggage valet service when we disembarked Indy yesterday. They apparenently "misplaced" the bag and are only offering $300 in compensation. Has anyone had experience in dealing with this before? Do you have any contacts at royal that have been helpful to you in the past in this situation? If you would prefer not to publicly post your contact, please email me to my CC user name at yahoo.

Thanks so much!!

I also witnessed this horrific accident and posted my eyewitness on another thread. This accident happened Wednesday. Apparently reps from Miami were brought onboard in Puerto Rico, including the woman in charge of the internal investigation. The morning show on Saturday asked anyone who would like to make a statement to come down to the conference center between 9-11am. We decided to go so that if no one else showed up, at least we could be on record that there were definite issues with Indy's safety procedures. The staff present to talk to the witnesses was very compassionate and responsive. We were offered access to talk with a care team member (not sure the proper title) for further "counseling" if needed. I'm not sure if this "care" person/people were brought on board special for this accident, or if they are always on board. I even received a follow up message in my room later that day addressing one of my concerns.

It was heartbreaking to pull away so quickly and then see three floating life preservers and an upside down boat.

Thoughts and prayers to the families of the victims, who were just working a job so that we could enjoy our cruise. I hope the families are taken care of.

On board now. Docked in Puerto Rico. We were witnesses to the sad incident along with everyone on our port side of the ship at least aft of the hump. The port worker had just untied the rope and was getting back in his ship btwn our ship and celebrity when Indy turned on its thrusters. I even said why would we put our thrusters on before they left. The boat was essentially trapped btwn the ships and flipped over. Our side of the ship was shocked and saddened. Prayers to the friends and families of the victims!!!

Just got it confirmed yesterday, RCCLs shuttle is $30 from PE to MIA. I can book onboard.

I'm also cruising Saturday. Thanks for taking the time to post these. I was curious to see the times for the evening shows. Now I know :)

I used SAS for POM to FLL in nov and I was solo. It was $15. It did take a few calls to get a hold of them at POM to tell them I was ready. So don't be alarmed if you can't immediately get through.

I have the same issue. Seem to be more options going to FLL from Miami. Since I'm the only one that needs to go to mia at the end of the cruise docking in port everglades, I'll probably do the royal transfer. Does anyone know if I can book that on board? Thanks

Yes. It was great. The little pool was nice and clean. Walking distance to the free metro mover (forgot full name) and brickell village with restaurants. It really earns it's top place on trip advisors miami hotels. Nice free breakfast too. It's more like a boutique hotel than a Hampton. Not super close to port. Less than $20 cab ride to POM.