kenish

Where are they ignoring ADA guidelines? They are offering you the ability to arrange lift transportation. ADA, does not mean "free". It is up to you to finalize transportation issues, and to express your needs, double checking that they are taken care of. The cruise line, has stated they can not accommodate you. I suggest you make your own arrangements- DIRECT. You are asking for nothing but trouble- adding middle men.

 

Do you have the prior inquiry, stating that the lift was included in your transfer?

You're not totally correct. Services or facilities must be provided to the disabled with the same level of convenience, speed, price, etc. as the general public. If I understand OP's situation, a shuttle with a lift is $100 more than if OP didn't have a disability. That violates ADA.

However, if the free shuttle service provides "reasonable accommodations" which OP turned down, that isn't an ADA violation. Example: The company offered a special shuttle 10 minutes after the regular shuttle, and instead of a wheelchair lift they would get OP on and off through the back door assisted by attendants. That complies w/ ADA because the objective was met in a different way.

Sorry, my tongue-in-cheek wasn't meant to be taken seriously !!

Like I said, my bad....I've never ordered wine in coach.

The fine wines served in economy on most airlines come from the wine growing regions of Nebraska or Oklahoma. September was a good vintage. :)

Thank you for the great trip report and photos! FYI, the United plane in the fourth photo is a 787-8. United does not take delivery on A350's until 2018.

The US doesn't do passport control nor any customs procedures when exiting the US.

Interesting aside- the basis of this is the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects our freedom of movement and bars the government from controlling it. Hence, the US doesn't play "gatekeeper" and you're free to leave at any time. Rather unique in the world.

Of course, that's the high-minded theory....a host of government agencies know your exact travel history and plans. :) And last week a guy was prohibited from boarding a flight at our local airport, allegedly on his way to join ISIS.

Whale watching conditions out of Dana Point have been "epic" for the past 2 years. Whales, dolphins, and sharks have been sighted in record numbers. Some whales are lingering instead of heading north or south. Water temps are 60-65 which is rare. 10 degrees colder is the norm.

All the tours out of DP and Newport Beach are great, but Capt. Dave's out of DP is the guru of whale watching. Although Bruin's comments are basically true, it's been different lately. All that said, DP is in the southern edge of the LA metro area, a good hour's drive south of the cruise ports. Conditions may be different up in the Santa Monica Bay area which is what you were asking about.

Time for a road trip to say DFW, LAX or someplace that has the gates. :D

LAX is becoming "A380 central". Of the 13 airlines with A380's, 9 fly them to LAX. At certain times of the day there's 5-8 A380 departures in an hour's time.

OP- Need to contact Choice Air. You're their customer and are not the airline's customer (which is the main reason the fare is cheaper). I know you were waiting for CA to open on Monday...how was it resolved?

All the areas of interest to tourists in SF are very congested, very similar to Manhattan or central Boston. A car is more of a liability than a benefit. Agree with the comment about using transit or "sneaker-net". (There used to be a "Golden Parking Meter" competition. Contestants got a list of districts within the city and had to find legal street parking in each one. A referee rode with each driver, and the first one to return won a parking meter trophy)

OTOH, outlying areas such as Marin County and Napa are much easier to visit by rental car. If you plan to visit those areas, consider doing it the 2nd day and spending the night outside the city where there's free parking. Then drive to LA the next day.

In either case, you will save money by renting away from the airport, and possibly more by renting outside SF city limits.

A rap/ hip-hop rave is a fun way to start a vacation! :)

Probably would be better to start your own thread and put in the title which port you're disembarking from and ask about whether Taxis or Super shuttle is better.

 

There's two ports in this area -- the Port of Long Beach from which Carnival sails from' date=' and the Port of Los Angeles (San Pedro) from which just about all other cruise lines sail from.

 

Plus put which city the Jamaica Inn is. [/quote']

 

Agree.

 

Jamaica Inn is in MdR. Regardless of which port, I'd probably use Uber or Lyft. Best balance of convenience and cost, for me anyway. Shared van will probably be a length tour of LA, probably to drop off other cruisers at LAX enroute. Taxi fare will probably be far higher, and Execucar is usually close in cost to Uber / Lyft.

 

OP should check out all the options.

Correct. Flying to Orlando is entirely different from flying to San Juan. For one thing, San Juan is a lot further away. Also, there is a lot more competition into MCO. A lot of people have the option to drive there, so will only fly if the price is right, but everyone has to fly to San Juan so the airlines really have a captive audience for that route. Also, Orlando is a huge conference location and winter is peak season for business travelers heading there for such events, so again- supply and demand often result in more competitive airfare.

Agree. Business travel has much better revenue or "yield" than leisure travel. Since the percentage of business travel is much lower to SJU than MCO, leisure fares to SJU must compensate for that. Also, an aircraft sent to SJU from a hub (DFW, IAH, ATL, etc) is tied up 5+ hours longer than if it were flown to MCO or FLL. The plane is available for 2 more flights in the latter case. All of this makes flying to SJU more costly; a similar thing goes on with fares to Hawaii.

If you're going whale watching, we've had several unprecedented great years for marine life. All the whale watch tours are good, but most of us "locals" will agree the best is Captain Dave's out of Dana Point. (I have no financial connection to Capt. Dave's).

DP is about 30 minutes drive farther south than Newport. It was named after William Henry Dana who lived there and wrote "Two Years Before the Mast". As someone mentioned you might consider staying a night in the area...otherwise it makes for a long (but do-able) day.

We're looking to fly non-stop using Southwest. So that pretty much limits us to LAX.

Not sure when you're traveling, but Southwest begins nonstops from STL and MCI to Orange County on Nov. 22

Favorite freeway stories---

The owner of a company I worked for was deeply into organic and natural foods. They would special-order fresh, organic, Thanksgiving turkeys for all the employees from a farm in Central California. One year we waited and waited for the turkeys to arrive so we could all go home. Finally the owner told everyone to just buy a turkey and get reimbursed later.

Turns out the turkey farm's refrigerated bobtail truck overturned and spilled fresh turkeys all over the 405 near LAX....caused an epic Thanksgiving Eve traffic jam!!

Prices are higher from 10am through the afternoon because of the spike in demand from cruise ship passengers. Add Thanksgiving travel on top of that. "Recent experiences" aren't very relevant because you're traveling on one of the busiest travel days of the year. You probably need to plan to be at the terminal by 830am; 900am at the absolute latest, since I've heard security at FLL really backs up on busy travel days. Someone else with more FLL experience than me can comment.

Stress isn't caused by missing a flight....it's caused by the consequences (money, time, etc) if that happens. If you arrive at the airport or gate too late, you will be treated as a "no show" and have to purchase new tickets at the very expensive walk-up fare. (Southwest allows you call up til 10 minutes before departure for most of their fares and not be considered no-show). In any case, the next *available* flight may get you home well after 11pm, or even the next day. Only you can decide if this is a serious consequence or no big deal.

A few questions to answer:

- Is everyone in your party OK with flying in light aircraft such as a Cessna?

- Weather is an issue...what is their Plan B to get you back to the ship if they can't fly back due to afternoon thunderstorms, high winds, etc? (If they claim it's no problem, they can fly in any weather, I'd stay far away! FYI, I used to own a Cessna.) The important thing isn't the tour operator, it's who they hire to do the actual flying. I'd personally get all the right answers; aviation in Mexico varies from very safe to horrid.

- Cruiselines really vet their shore excursions for practicality and safety. It sounds like they don't offer flying excursions to Chichen Itza....there must be a reason why they don't. (Perhaps they can't rely on the return flight) ?

- I visited Chichen Itza on a trip in my college days. Cozumel was a sleepy fishing village back then :) Very memorable experience.

We get it from your numerous videos, poems, and comments...you felt cramped :) Cabin width is the same for a specific model of aircraft, regardless of airline. The aisles need to be a minimum width, and what's left determines how wide the individual seats are.

Qatar (and any other airline) with 9 across seating (3-3-3) on a 787 have a seat width of 17.3", give or take a fraction of an inch. The seats are an inch wider in 8 across configurations (2-4-2) which JAL, ANA, and several others use.

That said, sometimes individual seats can vary up to an inch from standard, for example where the cabin begins to taper in the back.

Seatguru is a good resource to avoid a recurrence.

Key words in the press announcement: "Plan to" and "Pending regulatory approvals".

They may be waiting for approvals before loading the flights and selling seats to avoid having to rebook customers if approval is denied (unlikely) or delayed (possible). The approval process may even prohibit selling seats before certain steps in the process are completed (just my speculation).

In many airports, there is no designation of airline other than the two-letter IATA code.

There's even cases in the USA. When John Wayne / Orange County Airport (SNA) expanded and updated the terminals, they converted to a "flex" check-in and gate system. All the electronic signage and kiosks only display the IATA code.

I'm one for being exact too...if you're using specific industry terms and abbreviations in a post. No problem being casual and unofficial, but don't toss around incorrect codes. Another alternative is the 3-letter ICAO codes (CPA = Cathay Pacific, SWA= Southwest, AAL= American)...but some are still obscure (VX or VRD for Virgin America ???)

OP missing. Reported overdue to the authorities :)

I mentioned the need for a dataplan as well as the unavailability of UberX for direct pick-up at the terminal. Port of Seattle is actively planning to allow direct pick-ups at the terminal by Lyft, Sidecar, and UberX as early this month or July. My source is the Seattle Times and Port of Seattle's memo. Your source?

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/uber-lyft-sidecar-may-soon-be-able-to-pick-you-up-at-sea-tac/

http://www.portseattle.org/about/commission/meetings/2015/2015_05_26_RM_7a.pdf

Adding to Zach's comments, you're traveling the Friday before Christmas...the beginning of a very busy travel period but still a "shoulder" day. Seat availability on alternate flights may be scare or zero, and there are not many other flights that will get you to BCN on time. The more time cushion you provide the more options you will have.

One favorable thing is MIA weather should be better than EWR, YYZ, or other connecting cities. That said, the aircraft from MCO and MIA have to come from somewhere, so flying is always more iffy and subject to delay in the winter. (Once, my MIA-LAX flight was cancelled...beautiful weather in both cities but a huge blizzard at DFW caused an inevitable ripple effect).

Have you considered driving to MIA and flying from there instead of MCO? That takes out the risk of a problem with the MCO-MIA flight....at the expense of the inconvenience of driving down to MIA.

Thanks for the post. You will probably get a larger and more focused audience by posting on the South America board or the roll call for your specific cruise.

Nice, though I'm surprised at this. I thought there was a bit of oversupply on the LAX-SYD route; apparently there isn't.

LOL at the press release you linked. The banner has an AA 767 and a QF 737 with LAX in the background. Neither plane could make the trip nonstop! I wish their Marketing would consult Flight Ops before starting their Photoshop work :)

Ironically, you will get comprehensive answers very quickly with a Google search: "gmail access china"

Although this link is business-oriented, it's very useful: http://www.startupnoodle.com/access-your-gmail-in-china-a-guide-to-workarounds/#axzz3cbLIc7GV

Many VPN providers are themselves blocked! So you will need to ask your VPN provider whether or not they're blocked in China.

Along with Google, Wikipedia is also your friend: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Websites_blocked_in_mainland_China

Although a website like Yahoo or Gmail may work, specific keywords or content may be blocked. Of course assume *all* your internet activity in both directions is being captured and possibly monitored real-time. I'd plan with the assumption Gmail and VPN will *not* work and consider it a windfall if it does. Hope this helps.