andrzej5914

I'm parking at Capital Parking Thanksgiving week. Can anyone tell me if can I drop the family and luggage off at the port before going to the parking lot? Or do we have to take our luggage from the lot on the shuttle? Same question when returning. Thanks!

It's kind of a silly question but you can do it either way. On a way back I would take advantage of the shuttle to carry your family and your luggage as the port site is very busy and heavy traffic. Have a great trip!

Used Capital for our Halloween cruise out of Tampa and had no issues at all. Fortunately for us we only paid $3.99 a day, now it's $7.99 a day. Still a lot cheaper then the port parking garage.

For new reservations only.

http://www.capital-parking.com/cruise-parking.html

Whatever you or I paid is written in stone and we're good to go, but any new reservations will be charged $7.99.

try

http://www.capital-parking.com

It's a dirt lot but it is fenced in and they do provide a shuttle to/from port. It's less then 1 mile away. Unfortunately they did raise their prices recently. We paid $3.99 per day, for our upcoming cruise next week but now it's $7.99 (I believe).

The turnpike in Miami Dade County doesn't take cash; there are no manned toll booths on this stretch. Usually not a problem for the typical cruiser.

Except for the following story from the OP:

1) I picked up a rental car from Budget at the Orlando airport on Tuesday

The car had a sun pass toll device, with an "on and off" switch

Said it was $14.75 in convenience charges plus tolls if you use it.

I said no thanks, flipped it to off

2) Drove from Orlando to Ft. Pierce (Atlantic side)

Paid about $3-4 in tolls, avoid the sun pass lanes, paying in the cash lanes.

Get very nervous about tolls that are sun pass only or no attendants, so I went out of my way to have a handful of quarters. No issues!

Stayed in Ft. Pierce for 3 days

3)On the day of my cruise (Friday) I drove to Miami from Ft. Pierce, via the turnpike.

Probably had about 4 tolls to pay, $1.25, $1.25, $6, etc. Probably added up to about $9-10. All paid in cash, no issues

4) After the cruise, drove back to Ft. Pierce via turn pike, no issues

5) Next Day, drove from Ft. Pierce to Orlando to fly home. Paid another 3-4 tolls, via cash. No issues

Checked my credit card today... $30.15 in Budget Tolls!

I believe the issue is with Budget and s/he should challenge the charge. Besides, I don't believe there is no manned or coin machines available on the toll way. How would a tourist from Georgia, driving their own car, or a trucker from Texas know that before getting on the toll way and then what happens?

On Dollar, Thrifty, Sunshine, if you opt out of the Rental Car Companies toll scheme and access a sunpass only toll you will be charged the actual toll plus $25 per infraction:eek:.

 

Yeah, I'd worry.

Use the manual/manned toll booth, do not use the Sunpass ramp....

What's so hard to understand?

We do have the sticker on our car, but we live in Sarasota and go up to Tampa about 24 times a year, over the Sky Bridge. We paid ~$20 to get the sticker and received ~19.50 in credit. The toll is ~0.25 cheaper for us so it's a good deal for us but for rentals with the hard mounted transporter, just don't activate it. We can add more cash on line as needed.

What's the big worry?

https://www.sunpass.com/howSunPassWorks

What's the big deal?

Just don't activate it, and pay cash when and if going on any toll roads.

I went to their website. They only serve Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Ft. Lauderdale and Miami. Doesn't do any good for the people that don't live in those cities. Mycruisebus picks me up 4 miles from my house. Much better deal.

Huh?

They serve many more cities.

For example, here is a scheduled run from Tampa to Miami

TAMPA, FL 07:50 AM GLI Yes 1258

CLEARWATER, FL 08:20 AM 08:20 AM GLI 1258

ST PETERSBURG, FL 08:50 AM 09:00 AM :10 GLI 1258

SARASOTA, FL 09:45 AM 10:00 AM :15 GLI 1258

PORT CHARLOTTE, FL 10:50 AM 11:20 AM :30 GLI Yes 1258

FT MYERS, FL 12:10 PM 12:20 PM :10 GLI 1258

LABELLE (E), FL 01:05 PM 01:05 PM GLI 1258

CLEWISTON (E), FL 01:45 PM 01:45 PM GLI 1258

BELLE GLADE (E), FL 02:10 PM 02:10 PM GLI 1258

WEST PALM BEACH, FL 03:00 PM 03:10 PM :10 GLI 1258

FT LAUDERDALE, FL 04:15 PM 04:30 PM :15 GLI 1258

MIAMI NORTH, FL 04:55 PM 04:55 PM GLI 1258

MIAMI, FL 05:25 PM (END) GLI 1258

Why not just use Greyhound? Most mid-size or larger cities have stations and will get you to downtown area of the destination departure city and then you get a taxi to finalize the deal.

The bus is usually less than $30-40 R/T pp and the taxi is usually no more than $15 each way from/to the bus station.

We have never used it because we either drive ourselves to Tampa or have somebody drive us. We live in Sarasota, and we only cruise from Tampa, but we know some friends that used Greyhound and were very happy with their service. New buses, reclining seats, power ports, wi-fi, etc.

3...... :d

3......:d

g because I don't like to hurt peoples feelings so I usually just stay put and smile.On the last night of the cruise I had enough and wanted to enjoy just 1 dinner. I went to MTD room and it was better. We had a great time.

Just so you know, I believe you're confusing Windjammer Cafe with MTD, entirely different concept.

Windjammer will take anybody at any time (when they're open of course), even traditional dining and MTD people.

MTD will ONLY take the passengers that sign up for it either before or on the first day of the cruise. If you're not on a list, you can't just walk in.

MTD is in the same room as traditional dining, it's just a reserved section.

It appears you have a middle hump balcony room. There are some bigger hump balconies at either end and across the hallway, BUT they may be classified in a different category and thus little more expensive. The bigger balconies usually go first so they are difficult to reserve, but not always.

You have to look at your reservation, check the category of your cabin and then check the deck plan for your cruise and see what other cabins may be available in that category (that's if you don't want to spend more money), but if you are willing to spend more, check the higher balcony categories and see what's available.

The cabins at either end of the hump have bigger balconies and the ones across the hallway are huge.

Aft cabins, the ones that are facing back, also have bigger balconies.

But once again, just because you have a balcony cabin it doesn't mean you can grab any available balcony cabin. There are usually 5-6 different categories within the cabin categories and the price reflects it.

Hope this helps!