berkyvdr

Would appreciate if anyone could give me an update on a reasonable place to park at Port Canaveral that you would recommend.

Thanks

We used Park Port Canaveral this past summer and a few years ago and were quite happy with them, although it cost us $47.65 USD for 4 nights which is more than the $7.99 I saw elsewhere on this thread.

Good luck!

Please research if you go Oasis in Grant Turk. There have been newbie incidents in the last few years.

I booked a ship's excursion with Oasis last February. They talked a good plan, but once beneath the waves, it was more or less fend for yourself. My group had 4 of us with the divemaster, which was a great ratio. One couple were experienced divers and stuck together taking pictures. Myself and the other lone diver were not very experienced. She had a lot of trouble with weights or something and the DM was so busy with her, it took me a while to get his attention to point out my depth gauge was not working and my mask was flooding. Turns out I had a strap end stuck in my mask. The DM did give me a substitute gauge. The conditions were great and we saw a lot, but I felt no one was really watching out for us.

Mostly I book privately, but only dove in GT because my dive in Cozumel the week before did not take place and I did not have the resources to properly research private operators in GT.

We had a booked an independent kayaking excursion in St. Lucia. There wer nine of us in our group, but we were the only two with time constraints. We set off with only one guide (that is another story!) whom we kept reminding of our time worries (there were numerous delays prior to commencing our excursion). He just kept saying he would handle it and we would not be late. He was NOT wearing a watch!

When we were confident of the proximity of the endpoint we paddled hard to return to the shop, not waiting for the group. There we were told to wait as return transport was being arranged. When it became clear that even if everyone made it back to the shop, there would be more delays as equipment needed to be returned, etc, we decided to try to find our own way back to the ship.

We headed in the general direction of our hopefully waiting taxi. But we first needed to cross an inlet and there was no water taxi, although we had been assured there was always one waiting. We ended up paying a random stranger to ferry us across the small body of water. Fortunately our driver was waiting for us and we made it back to ship with only 15 minutes to spare.

We are on a back to back from Port Everglades and thought we would go to the laundromat on our turnaround day in Fort Lauderdale. Using googlemaps gives us lots of options but most of the reviews are not very encouraging. I don't want my clothes coming out dirtier than when they started.

During the week we will do smaller items by hand. I know we can pay for cleaning on board, but we figure it would be cheaper to go to a laundromat for some of the things we would wear more often (gym clothes, etc.) We do have access to our car.

Has anyone done this? Are there any good, clean, reasonably priced laundromats within a half hour drive or so from the cruise pier?

Enjoyed reading your review of your trip on the Reflection, same one we were on. We have so many of the same pictures and memories and reading your review allowed me to enjoy it again! Your observational skills are amazing and I loved all your comments.

And yes, having not climbed Vesuvius twice, I guess it just means we have to return to Italy but . . . other trips to go on first!

Merry Christmas to you and your mom and the rest of our cc friends!

Marianne

A waterspot caught a lot of attention this morning. Do worry it kept its distance. So cool to watch.

So cool you got a picture of the waterspout! We heard about it, but were on the wrong side of the ship.

So cool you got a picture of the waterspout! We heard about it, but were on the wrong side of the ship.

Oops, posted this twice and although I can hit "edit" I cannot seem to delete.

Jamona2311, thanks for the link. We visited Venice, Florence and Rome in October 2005 as part of an escorted Globus tour.

Coincidence! We did a Globus tour visiting the same three places in 2004!

I, too, am enjoying your review and pictures. Can't wait to see the cruise review. It is a lot of work you have put into this!

It was a great cruise and we met many wonderful people!

Marianne

Wow, Good to know! We usually bring camp suds and a portable clothesline and do our own laundry, but I had considered using the laundry service on our next cruise as we will be on board for 11 days. I am now rethinking this! Thanks for posting.

The whole bathroom dilemma is a huge issue when we travel as well. I always include the question when I am researching private excursions and usually there is some kind of "facility".

A few years ago we were on a Mediterranean cruise and went DIY at all of the ports. Often we would spend an agonizing hour looking for a place to relieve ourselves whilst not absorbing any of the local culture or history as we were so focused on our quest for a decent WC.

This fall for our Mediterranean cruise we will be looking for private shore excursions. For our kayaking in Mykonos, the second half of the response I got was "In all the other cases we use the nature(discreet spots, especially for the ladies, have been located and noted!)" Can't say that I am looking forward to that aspect of the tour.

Maybe TMI requested and discussed, but I am thinking of wearing some of those special underwear or liners, just in case. Can anyone recommend something that works well?

And yes, getting old sucks--I expected wrinkles and some aches and pains, but a lot of the other stuff no one told me about!

Your pictures are breathtaking subtchr. And we thought we were the only ones who happened to have great weather on our trip to Alaska.

I know the OP has already booked for Ketchikan, but want to mention that we went kayaking and had an amazing time of it.

Alaska is so beautiful!

Phew, I sent two emails today (there seem to be an umber of email addresses to use) and finally got a pretty prompt response from Donaldson with all the details I needed.

Anyone else wish to join us? We are booked with Nature Isle for the Jewel Tour in Dominica on the 24th of February, leaving around 930 in the morning.

A relief to get that settled, now I can work on the other islands, where I am also waiting for replies.

Usually I initiate a contact with some questions before booking, but based on reviews, I just went ahead and booked. Got my paypal receipt for my deposit, but nothing else. Have sent 3 emails to the various addresses and no response yet. Will give it another few days and then I guess I will have to make an expensive phone call.

I read somewhere that the diving with Steve's was good, but the bathrooms and change rooms were dirty--Steve's responded that bathrooms are rented and other outfits use them. Did anyone else notice or was it just an off day?

I have read mixed reviews about Fair Helen. Action Adventures seems to have good reviews, but their website is less than helpful.

On top of that I read that currents might be problematic, so as a novice diver, I am considering diving at another port on our cruise. (I only ever go once per cruise as my husband does not dive--he sometimes goes along as a snorkeler, but sometimes just sits onboard and becomes queasy.)

We sailed with Gina and her son on Calabaza in 2011 and enjoyed ourselves immensely. We are visiting Barbados next year and will be booking with her again. You will not be disappointed if you sail with Calabaza!

I booked a dive with Stuart's Cove through the Disney Dream and discovered it was just myself and one of the crew. We were picked up at the cruise pier by bus and made a lot of stops to pick up other divers as we drove to the dive shop.

On the bus we heard others were diving with sharks, which is what crew member wanted to do and he spent much energy trying to switch his dive (and mine), however it did not happen as we would have returned too late to make it for ship's departure.

At the dive shop, there was minimal coordination and we both had to go back and forth from shop to boat to gather all equipment and no one there to help you select appropriate gear.

As a nervous novice diver, I was fortunately buddied with divemaster, but even he was a bit too relaxed for me.

We did have two good dives. I cut the second short as I was freezing cold although I did have a wetsuit on.

I did find there were an awful lot of people on the boat. Did they do a headcount??

On our return to the ship, there was an enourmous lineup to get through check point and ended up running the last little bit to get to ship just in time. That did not feel reassuring at all.

Is there someone who can tell me what the non-smoking/smoking policies are for the major lines? (in a quick excel spread sheet or something) We are non-smokers but have sailed with Carnival, HAL and Norwegian and are in the future sailing with Celebrity.

I just zoomed into the fact that as a Platinum cruiser you get free laundry! I did not know that!