FOPMan

For many destinations , its not especially hard, unless one or both parents use a wheelchair and cannot transfer to and from a seat in a minivan without substantial assistance. Step 1) car service to the airport, with an airline that has curbside luggage check-in. The driver can assist with getting bags into the vehicle at your parents’ home and checked in curbside. At some (smaller) airports, drivers may go in and help check in at a counter. Step 2) car service at the end of the flight to the hotel, booked in advance to include luggage assistance. The driver will help retrieve luggage from the carousel and load it into the vehicle and unload it at the destination hotel (or ship, if you elect same-day travel. Step 3) Stay at a smaller, private hotel that emphasizes personal service, such as The Riverside or Lago Mar in Fort Lauderdale. A smaller hotel will require leas walking around at the hotel. Both of the examples listed have a valet outside, waiting to assist guests with parking, luggage, directions, or other needs. They would take your bags and arrange for them to be taken to ylur parents’ room. At the end of the stay, the hotel bellhop will take their luggage from their room to the hotel entrance l. Step 4) to the ship! your parents could use a car service, taxi, shuttle, or uber/lyft to get to the ship. The driver or staff will manage their luggage. Once they arrive at the pier, the ship’s staff will take luggage at the curb. Your parents will need to clearly label what they want to hand carry. It is critical that all luggage be well-marked with their name, ship, and cabin number before leaving the hotel. Step 6, ship to plane, may vary a little bit depending on the cruise line. The easiest thing to so is to book an excursion that includes a drop-off at the airport.. No extra transportation arrangements need be nade. In most of these circumstances, your parents would put their luggage outside the cabin door by midnight and the ship’s staff would transfer it ashore. Assistance is available in handling bags ashore.

Like almost anywhere, I try to play to the chef’s strengths. I enjoy an incredibly broad set of flavors, and we eat a very, very diverse set of foods at home. In all likelihood, it you stayed with us for a month, you’d likely see y, Japanese, Thai, Indian, middle-eastern, South African, European, and both North and South America. I do a much, much better job preparing some than others. Aboard HAL, we always try to select items the kitchen staff are familiar with- if often results in a better-tasting, better-prepared product. Don’t order steak at a chip burger joint. Be cautious about ordering a vegan dish in a 5star stake restaurant.

One thing to be very careful of is HAL’s cancellation policy. We have done just as you described on a multi-week cruise early on, with the excursion being near the end, so we weren’t running into what was then a 3 day cancellation rule. It was effectively a cancellation and a new booking, not a change of payment (which is what youd need, not really a cancel/rebook).

Considering how much (little) alcohol was in a pour, you may drink more than you expect. At home, we are vert light drinkers- maybe a single beer (ok, so greater than 5% abv or a single glass of wine a month. And we feel it. On the NS in December, I could drink several margaritas and not feel much in alcohol effects.

Door widths can vary by door, cabin class, and ship, with the general exception that wheelchair accessible cabins are thevsame size on any particular ship.

If you carry your own bags off the ship. are among the first to disembark, are US citizens, have nothing to declare, have TSAPre or Clear, and take a taxi (to avoid meeting a specific driver), and the ship clears in a rimely manner, yiu should be OK

That is a fairly low price point for most of the year for most qualify hotels and especially those east of I-95 from Weat Palm Beach to the Keys.

Are you driving your own vehicle? Are you trying to return the vehicle to a rental organization before your cruise? You might consider staying at The Riverside in Fort Lauderdale. It is about a 40 minute drive from the Port of Miami (12 minutes from Port Everglades). It is where we usually stay, and literally where I grew up. I’ve known various hotel staff members for decades. When ladt there, we were with some of my high school friends. My wife was a bit surprised when we pointed out where my friend lives- she just moved back into her parents’ house after their death- you could see it from the restaurant- that close. Several of the restaurants in the immediate area, including the hotel’s own Riverside, have both food and beverage happy hours.

“Affordable” is a highly relative term. Dome may not blink at a $350 room. some may. I would expect any hotel I would be willing to stay at near the port of miami to be $300 plus tax between Thanksgiving and April 15. The same room would likely be $250 plus tax in June. None of the large name hotels is better of worse as far as accessibility is concerned I almost always have an easier time with hotels where I have status, such as diamond status or visit frequently enough that I have a relationship with staff.

It is over an hour bus to Florence. There had bern an excursion that was only bus service, plus a guide leading the riders from the bus parking to city center (no sightseeing, just leading is to the meet point for the return-no buses were allowed in the city center. Ten years ago, it was somewhere between $90 and $135 a person. And if was nog a shuttle, in the sense there were multiple buses over a period. Im not sure what would have happened if you were late getting to the meet spot, but the guide seemed impatient with our group, and everyone was there 10 minutes before deadline.

There’s no reason at all to be nervous. I’d drop your bags at 18 before parking and either walk over or grab a cab. There will be a number around dropping off other passengers to 25 or 26, so you needn’t worry about availability.

There is no currency value to return since there was no currency transfer in the first place. Kind of like you specifying the bed arrangement’ (together or separated).

It is a big issue if transferring into or out of a wheelchair is an issue.

There are some room service items for which there is a charge. Burgers from the Dive In on the Pinnacle ships, a steak, lobster, alcohol, soda, and smoked salmon come to mind. The free room service breakfast has declined from what is once was. But there are a wide range of included options available.

Ships at Port Everglades are fairly often NOT at the piers that the cruise lines advertise well advance, especially seemingly for Holland America. That being said, you could drop your bags at your ship. drive over to the garage closest to where you believe you are returning to, and grab a taxi back to your departure pier. There will be lots of cabs around, assuming its a Saturday or Sunday. Safe Travels!

I would not bank on making that train, unfortunately. 2:05 is the scheduled arrival time, not necessarily the time the plane is at the gate. You’ll need to deplane, collect luggage, get the bus, and get to the station. Safe travwls!

If everything goes perfectly and you have TSAPre or equivalent you might make it. If you are checking bags/not flying first class, your chances deminish.

You need to conply with the terms of your agreement with HAL under the rate code. I would be surprised if the rate code allowed a transfer of rate. That’s why you booked the cabins the way you did. You should live up to your commitments.

Think of it like an unadvertised early bird sale. I’m pretty sure there’s something about prices may change. I know I was saddened when HAL took away the Half Moon Cay beverage package. I’d been eyeing it for our cruise l, logged in to purchase it, and it was gone.

At least as far as Internet goes, my understanding is that they are changing to a new provider. Hopefully, passengers will see improvements in tranmission speed.

Another alternative is if you stay at Lago Mar (not to be confused with Trump’s Mar a Lago). Lago Mar is a private club and resort directly on Fort Lauderdale beach. It has several bars and restaurants on property. There are not other restaurants within an easy walk. The club is about 8 minutes (2 traffic lights, 7 turns) from Port Everglades.

The Hollywood Amtrak station is actually closer to the port by travel time, if not distance and may have closer hotels.

The park is not exactly south of Port Everglades, rather east and southeast. To get there from 17th street at the Intercoastal bridge, one would go west on 17th Street to Federal Highway/US1. Make a left hand turn onto Federal Highway/US1 and proceed past the airport. Make a left on Dania Beach Boulevard. Go east. When you get to the ocean, go north into the park. Quarterdeck is a local chain of restaurants/bars that is both affordable and pretty good. I’ve known Paul for 30 years. Their Dania location is on the Dania pier, which is on tour right as you come around the turn over the bridge over the intercostal.

Yes, you can walk down to the jetties (the cut through the barrier island where ships exit Port Everglades to the ocean. There isn’t easy access public parking further south than the public parking on Fort Lauderdale beach. There IS a pedestrian pathway to the beach near the Point of Americas condo. Everything below the high tide line is public property.

To a limited extent, and on some nights on some ships, they enable ordering a tenderloin from the PG. A limitation is the availability of equipment and chef/cook, as the production of food for the MDR snd the PG is technically different (eg different equipment and processes are used).