publicpersona

Yes, that was one option I mentioned in my original post. My concerns about that approach (which may or may not be valid) are difficulties in registering a rental car, and also not wanting to carry a full-sized transponder on the trip. VTP was an excellent solution as far as I'm concerned, except when it didn't work. 😞 By the way, their website is still down. But like they've been saying for 3-4 days, it will be back up in 30 minutes.

At this point, I don't think Avis was at fault. They were billed the tolls based on pay by plate because the transponder I was using wasn't valid. I want to find out why VTP didn't work. By the way, VTP's website is still down.

Following up. I tried VTP and have mixed reviews. For someone doing a one-way rental MCO => PC and then PC -> MCO a week later, I don't think it is worth the hassle. Picking up and returning the VTP at MCO was a breeze for me since I flew into Terminal A (where the lone pickup kiosk is), and return out of Terminal B where there is a return drop also. One issue is that there isn't an elegant way to do multiple "trips" with one transponder. I couldn't leave the outbound rental car's license plate engaged all week while others were driving the same car, but there's no way to temporarily deactivate it without ending the trip, which would invalidate the VTP for the return. As a workaround I "changed vehicles" to a fictitious license plate for during the week. I did not get charged with anyone else's tolls. They do prefund the account with $10, and say they do refund any unused portion, but they haven't yet. I did register the return's rental car plate, hung the VTP from the rear-view, and made sure the Avis toll box was closed. Yet, I subsequently received a bill from Avis for the tolls on the return trip. Since it was just one day, the $4.95 charge in addition to higher tolls wasn't outrageous. Still .. I don't know why VTP didn't work on the return. I had read someone else had that issue and VTP reimbursed the charge. Great. So I was going to their website to see what that process was, but their website has been down for at least a couple days. They are disingenuously saying that the outage was planned (no it wasn't) and that the site would be back up within 30 minutes. Then they post the same message saying it will be 30 more minutes. That's been going on for days.

Yes, there was always a nice list but what they actually were pouring varied tremendously. I had previously found the Mondavi chard quite serviceable, but was unable to get any in many attempts over three days at just about every bar. Mirassou was frequently poured instead, as was La Terre. I like the Ravenswood Zin and tried to get it in the MDR but they poured something call Zin de Zin or some such instead. Not even close.

Just like Seashore, there is a "wine cellar" near the specialty restaurants but it is mostly just decoration. It wasn't staffed and you couldn't buy wine or anything there. I imagine they might have the occasional wine tasting event there, but I've not seen that venue used on two Sea* sailings. MSC isn't wine-lover friendly. Any time I ordered a chard on Easy Plus, even though specifically asking for the "Robert Mondavi Special Reserve" that was on the menu, what they actually poured was whatever random white wine was open. This was sometimes Mirassou, sometimes La Terre(ible), and on several occasions a sauvignon blanc. White wine is white wine. Even Saturday night when the Robert Mondavi was the recommended white wine on MDR menu, what they poured was some generic table wine. To be fair, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity aren't much better, except that in the MDR there generally was better selection than at other bars.

I'm a little confused. Odd numbered cabins are on the port side. Even are on the starboard side. With the bow of the ship nearest the lighthouse, that would not be 10033 as labelled.

We sail Thursday on Seaside and because it's only a 3nt cruise, we figured we could tolerate any stateroom as long as it was a balcony, so we took Bella GTY for the first time. I've only done MSC five times, but have over 70 cruises total, so it is not stressing me out that we still have no stateroom assignment 3 days prior to sailing. Of course, cannot print boarding pass for reason shown below. I plan to print out my booking confirmation and show up at embarkation if for some reason it still hasn't been assigned. Or should I be freaking out? I will call if necessary, but I am familiar with the quality of MSC's shoreside services and IT systems, so I wasn't looking forward to it.

Compared with Celebrity, I think you may be disappointed in Seashore balconies. Looking straight down from the balcony it is likely you will see a deck and perhaps extended stateroom outdoor areas, not the sea.

Nor does Aurea, although at one time it did.

Probably right. Maybe if we hang around a YC suite someone will let us crash on their couch for a few nights.

Same here. It demands immediate action, but you really can't fill it out yet. Our next sailing next week is a guarantee and we haven't been assigned a stateroom yet.

OK. You would know. That must have been a very recent change. And a good one.

On MSC, you'd pay full price unfortunately. On Royal/Celebrity, you pay the difference.

Marketing people have no moral compass. Even worse than "Free drinks & wi-fi" (for an added charge) was Celebrity's "Always Included" campaign that they stuck with for far too long. The thing that made it especially bad was their going out of their way to say "Every booking. Every sailing. Every stateroom." to make it sound like it was without exception. There were, of course, plenty of exceptions.

We'll be on Seaside next Thursday, so enjoying your review. Where is the best place to enjoy a specialty coffee (e.g., Latte with a shot of Bailey's) that is covered by drink package. I see that Venchi has them but that's a 3rd party not covered by drink package. Similar question for a good selection of wines by the glass.

[Talking traditional elevators, not the ones on Sea* ships] If every person got onto an elevator when it was heading in the opposite direction there would be twice as many bodies on the elevator. There would be twice as many incidents of the elevator door opening to a crowd of people who would have to say "I guess we'll have to wait." It's a study in queueing theory.

My pet peeve is people who get on an elevator that is going in the opposite direction of where they are going. As they board, they say (as if no one has ever thought to say it before), "Well, it has to go down(up) sometime" ha ha ha. What these people have managed to do is to double the load on the elevator during an already crowded time, making everyone wait twice as long.

For what it's worth, she had not set up an MSC account but once she did, found that she had indeed received points for the prior sailings even though her Voyager's Club number did not appear on the booking. Nevertheless, I sent off a request to add her number to the booking and I'll see how that goes.

In my case, we booked within 6 months of sailing so there isn't even a $50 to be concerned about. But I would be livid if we lost Player 2's status match due to 3 years inactivity when in fact she has been sailing regularly with MSC.

I've noticed that even though I supply MSC Club Member numbers for both of us in a stateroom when booking, only one appears on the booking details. Is that standard procedure, or do I need to be concerned that Player 2 is not getting credit for the cruise? While it may be true that discount on the booking and onboard benefits won't be any different, it may make a difference in maintaining current status for Player 2.

On the VTP website and in their app, they indicate only the one drop box in Terminal A. But you are right.. it isn’t that far between A and B landside. Could be worse .. could be Terminal C, but I think that’s only JetBlue domestic.

Thanks for all the excellent responses. I should have stated that this would be travel MCO->PC and then PC->MCO. So it sounds like VTP is what will work best, although I need to look at my flights to see if they are both in terminal A. If I had to schlep carry-ons over from terminal B that might influence the solution.

I've been doing some research about this (reading threads here, and the very helpful SunPass : Rental Vehicles) but still not sure what the best option is for me when renting a car. Please check me out on the following points, as I'm not 100% confident. If doing a one-day rental from Avis/Budget, it appears that the fee Avis/Budget charges is not really that bad .. about $4 in addition to the cash price for tolls. Where it gets bad is if you do a multi-day rental, then that's $4/day whether you use a toll road every day or not (true?). There is a pre-paid toll-by-plate option where you create an account, then register your rental car's license plate along with the start and stop "dates". Has anyone used this successfully? In particular, can you specify start and stop "times" as well? I didn't see where you sign up for the account. Some toll programs in other states (e.g., NC Quick Pass) can be used in Florida. In theory, you are supposed to register your rental license plate in their app, but as long as the transponder is read, it will go to your account even if the plate isn't registered. I have also heard that you must register the license plate and it could take 24 hours for it to actually be registered, but heck .. I won't have this car but for the 1-2 hours after registering the plate. Another negative is the transponders that work in other programs are full-size transponders, yet another item to have to pack and remember. If all else fails, cash at the toll booth is still an option on whatever they are calling the Beeline these days.

Someone who had a sinus condition requiring daily irrigation would be in trouble with no distilled water available. In that case, the distilled water isn't to protect a machine, but is needed to protect areas close to the brain from bacteria. As others have noted, what is sufficiently bacteria free to pass through your digestive tract is a way, way lower standard than water that will be in close contact with your brain.

There's a party goin' on right here (on Lighthouse beach, actually).A celebration to last throughout the years (or more realistically, from 9-11 PM I think).