ronandcarla

I don't know by reason of the following: Back in time when we lived in Pennsylvania during the late winter months we would either take a family cruise, Disney or St Maarten vacation and we would be so excited to leave cold weather and arrive in a hot climate and now that we sold our house and moved to Florida in a 55 + development with every amenity we could want and now the desire to do any of the above is not there. Maybe this time next year we will feel differently.

One good thing about living down here in Florida we are quite close to Orlando and not that so far from FT Lauderdale so if we are interested we only need a few weeks notice to go.

Thank You for the responses.

We are so used to flying in on the day of cruise to Ft Lauderdale taking a cab and it was so easy, now we live 75 miles from Pt Canaveral and it appears to be a pain we'll figure it out.

Thank You, Ron M

What is the best procedure that can be recommended for driving the short distance from our house to Port Canaveral, i.e. enter the port, drop off the luggage with porters, drop off guest, park where? We will be a party of two and going on the Oasis.

Thank You, Ron M

Every time we cruise to St Maarten and when we are finished shopping we always walk back to the ship, yes, I agree its a hike, but the scenery and walking path is wonderful and pedestrian friendly.

Love your review and photos.

As to the original poster: We recently moved from Eastern Pennsylvania to the Orlando area and before we left I asked the Allied Van Line mover about routes, viz PA Turnpike west to I 81 then south to I 77 then down that route to Route 26 which intersects with I 95, etc: We went 100 miles out of our way back up in PA, but you don't have to deal with I 95 up in Baltimore, Washington, etc., which can be a real nightmare: The entire roadway system that we took was wonderful and more than enough amenities, now if they could make a car go 600 miles an hour that would be super wonderful.

The whole idea of my time dining is just that, just show up when you are ready and proceed to the entry desk and wait a few minutes to be seated; in our opinion making reservations just don't make sense, in our real world at home we are so anal about everything and schedules, etc., so when we are on vacations we do things when we are ready. Whether you make reservations or not sometimes their will be a wait, but not real long.

Have a wonderful vacation and Happy New Year

First off I can't speak for Carnival; And if you have to travel by air do what we have done and many others do by flying in on the day of cruise, for us its convenient and we don't want another added expense (yes we buy travel insurance); just recently friends of ours went on the Majesty of the Seas and when they got back they told us the ship is dated and needs work and they wouldn't go on it again. If it was our choice and we live quite close to Port Canaveral we would take the Enchantment of Seas which isn't close to us at all. We have been on both ships but that was years ago. PS we discovered Key West by way of a cruise and a few years ago for 4 days we went there for a land mini vacation and had one of the best vacations ever.

We were on the Harmony the same week. I'd agree with you on most points. Although we both thought The Fine Line was pretty awesome. Grease was okay, but not really our type of show.

 

We didn't care for the MDR and only went once. The specialty dining was mostly excellent though.

 

To me the Rising Tide Bar seems like a waste of space. I rarely saw more than a handful of people inside of it.

 

The number of rude people (in our experience) was out of control. Not the Harmony staff, but the actual cruisers. Especially within the senior cruisers. Their behavior was just unbelievable. I went into the cruise thinking kids might be an issue, but their politeness was leaps and bounds ahead of the 65+ crowd. Line cutting, seat saving, seat stealing, rude comments, hitting us with wheelchairs/motorized carts, yelling at each other during and after shows, standing in the middle of hallways and walkways and refusing to move, complaining... constant complaints about everything. I'm about a patient a person as you'll find, but by the end of the cruise I was at my limit. We enjoyed the cruise, but in the future I would much prefer a younger, more well behaved cruise community.

We totally agree with you on the above statement; For all the complaining that older folks do relating to younger persons we think they are worse and an awful lot of them think they are entitled for everything. We much rather go on a spring break time frame when their are families and the age factor is substantially less. BTW we are 69 and 61 and still like to have fun and see other families building memories.

St Maarten

Aruba

Curacao

St Thomas

in that order

Is their anybody out there who can comment on the Asian Cruises relating to smoking on balconies and/or the casino? From what I've heard smoking is allowed in those areas, and if that is the case every trip report I have read is wonderful and I have never read about smoking, smells, etc.

When we traveled family style back in time and we always had a grand suite our daughter wanted to stay in bed my wife and I would go to the windjammer and have breakfast and then bring her back a tray of odds and ends for when she woke up and believe it or not the only person who said anything was our stateroom attendant who said to us that was his job to do that service for us and we told him that wouldn't be necessary for we can take care of ourselves.

Every cruise we go on and we are pool people so when the windjammer or other venues open up we go and get what we want and bring the tray of food to where our lounges are and eat there.

We were taking our daughter and fiancee (now husband) on that exact cruise a few years ago, but because of a snowstorm we weren't able to go so they went without us and had a great time and we wonder how our 6 straight days together would go; it's a big difference traveling family style when she was a minor versus now an adult.

And the very reason we like to cruise during later winter months when spring break is approaching is that the age group is considerably younger and brings much life to the atmosphere; and btw we are 69 and 61

For whatever it is worth all of our cruises we fly in the day of the cruise; to us getting a room for an overnight is such an inconvenience and an added expense and we always purchase travel insurance to cover a cancelled trip; I might add our last trip was cancelled by reason of snow and airport was closed for 2 1/2 days so even going the day before it wouldn't have happened that way either.

Good luck to whatever decision you make.

We listen to the spiel and then when the survey is presented we fill it out according to how we feel about each subject in question; the only persons who might not be invited back for a continuation of their contract could be one of the reasons they did not get a 5 star. Also under comments we specifically mention a person(s) name(s) when they have done an outstanding job.

Back in March 09 we were on the Navigator of the Seas for a 5 day cruise and we didn't realize we were on a Spring Break cruise until we arrived and onboard; anyway during the week the entire pool area was over taken by the college crowd and they had a wonderful time and very courteous to us older persons and the activities that took place poolside was quite eventful; and as to the dress codes for dining room nightly I would have to say you would have thought we were at a staged fashion show for the girls and guys were dressed beautifully, its a shame more of the older adults don't follow the same pattern.

As for us we wouldn't even hesitate to do another short cruise during the same time period.

We always play Craps for our cruise entertainment and allocate about $1000 for the week and I believe that has the best odds for winning; we have done quite well in the past and of course lost our allotment for the week on other cruises.

We're hoping everyone gets the app and maybe us still using the old school method, passports and paper declaration our line won't be so bad.

And we thought we were the only weird ones, our cleaning process begins with the airline seats, etc. and continues through the entire cruise and back. My friend from work does all of the above and brings her own sheets and pillow cases.

For us we don't see any issues whatsoever relating to the choices; as for the taste and prepared to the way we want them that has to be decided when they are presented to us. For all of our prior cruises maybe one time they weren't very good in tasting, but we were able to survive and move on.

For all of the complaints that are posted hereon relating to a lot of stupid things I'm surprised there are still RCCL customers on this designated board site!

Soft serve machines on the pool deck and as dessert in the Main Dining Room.

Which I could be wrong, but the ice cream located at the pool deck doesn't taste like real ice cream!!

For whatever it is worth and we travel as a family of 4 and RCCL created MTD was wonderful for every cruise we have been on we never make reservations and us and plenty of other persons with or without reservations never have to wait very long, the most 5-15 minutes and we usually show up at the restaurant podium around 7-7:30. Have a wonderful vacation it will be fine!

For us when we are cruising the eastern route i.e. St Thomas then St Maarten the best deal would be in St Thomas by reason that the jewelers know that we will be going to St Maarten next and they don't want to loose the deal; every shop we have been in have asked what ship we are on so they know the route; there have been occasions we lost out by reason that St Thomas had the product but wouldn't budge to the figure we wanted to pay and we decided to walk and try St Maarten, but they didn't have the product we wanted, oh there's always the next cruise!

No matter what ship or where you stay there will be smoking out on the balcony and thats a matter of fact; it appears to me that ever since they changed the rules about no smoking on the balcony the individuals have moved into the casino area by reason that it is more convenient.

When I made my statement about the military discount I was taking the whole picture in; when World War II, Korea and Viet Nam took place you were either drafted and/or joined the various services by our government, thereafter the draft was eliminated and it became a full volunteer service job for our government with wonderful amenities if you stayed in for a full retirement; now with all that said their could be numerous careers that should be included in the benefits programs, i.e., policeman, fireman, medics, how about all the people who volunteer for all telethons to cure people, I could go on and on and it would be endless. I don't think that it is fair to single out the military and not all of the other job/volunteers.