sendtodb

We got caught up this postponement.  Called Costa today, and initiated a refund for the cruise.  They said it will take 7-10 days to process.  

Their email said they will work with you on transportation... if you have receipts.  I will be re-using most of my transportation, and was able to cancel a train trip.  Leaves me with one train trip I could not cancel.  Costa said that normally they would not refund something like that.. "when the customer cancels".  Say what?!?  Um, YOU cancelled the cruise.  I am just asking for my money back!

These transportation refund requests need to go through email (not via a live person), so sounds a bit iffy to me.

Anyone from the earlier postponement have to deal with this for transportation?  FYI, we booked ourselves, so no TA.

LOTS of good info!

clackey: That's what we DON'T want :o 1/2 hr or 45 minutes is ok, but an hour and a half w/ 3 kids is not! As 'cb at sea' mentioned, the sun is strong. Add that to the fact we are coming from the great white north (and are pale skinned), and this will be our 4th day in the hot sun... I think we can safely head back to the ship after 3.5 hrs at the beach. We should have 1 or 1.5 hrs at the port area for poking around while keeping an eye on the line!

blue_water: I love the idea of Rum Point... that is my kind of place... wow! Absolutely beautiful. With all our dynamics however, this trip may not be the time to do that. Next time definitely, when it is just our family. While I also like the idea of walking back from Cemetary, I know at least 3 in our group of 7 are looking to just plop down in the warm sand, grab a cold beverage, and let the stress melt away :D

Question for you b_w: I'd read up on C. Joes... sounds good for our group. If we want the majority of our time to be on the beach NEAR C. Joes, is there a nice beachy beach bar nearby? I could see sitting there enjoying the water, the rum punch, and THEN a trip for lunch before heading back to the port area.

And Capt_BJ, Sunset House is still in my sites! If the water looks clear & fairly calm when we arrive, we may split up from the pack!

Thanks for the various viewpoints folks... exactly what I was looking for!

Thanks for the info, bookbabe & CaptBJ!

Captain, I was originally going to Sunset House for snorkeling, and lunch / drinks. Thought that would be the smart thing to do on a busy day... go the opposite direction of everybody else! But our neighbors who just joined us want to do a beach (sand in the toes thing), so we thought we'd join them.

anyone else? with 4 ships leaving between 4 and 5pm, what time should I be back at the port so that I don't have to wait in a huge line?

...will gladly take opinions on ANY of the questions too! TIA

So here's the deal. We had plans for GC, but our neighbors just joined us on the cruise. They want to do a 7-mile beach day, and we thought it would be great to join them.

The problem is that there will be 4 ships in port, with 15K pax, and we are the last ones in (Carnival Victory in list below).

7-4 Carnival Conquest

8-4 MSC Divina

8-5 Independence of the Seas

9-430 Carnival Victory

Question #1 is: If we were to go to an area of 7-mile with food/drink, we had looked at Royal Palms due to what seemed like greater flexibility with gluten-free & vegetarian food options. BUT... since RP is one of the closest establishments, will it be packed? Are we better off going further down the strip... maybe to someplace like Surfside?

Question # 2 is: we live near a beach in NH, so know how a beach can be wide & sandy one season, then thin & rocky after a storm. We are going in a week. How does Royal Palms stack up with Surfside, sand-width-wise right about now? Just thinking that a wider beach can handle more of a crowd.

Question #3 is: We had bought Carnival's FTTF, which would've allowed us to get off the tender early, but our neighbors got into the deal too late. If we are in at 9AM, and assume we could get off by 10, how much time should we reasonably expect to have at the beach?

Question # 4 is: MAYBE THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION http://boards.cruisecritic.com/images/icons/icon6.gif What time should we be back to the dock? I've read a bunch of stories re: long lines trying to get tendered back to ships when there are a bunch of ships in port. Seeing as how all four ships are leaving at about the same time, what time should we be back? 2pm? 2:30?

Thanks so much! This is really last minute, and I don't want this to be a miserable experience with crowds, traffic, etc.

Can you folks tell me if this is reasonable? Family of 4, Blue Hole, Scotchies, Shaw Park, stop for shopping at a local market, etc. 4-5 hrs for $195 (includes entry fee for Blue Hole).

Thanks!