beigedog

There must be at least four days left in your cruise.

That's what I remembered from the last time. Thanks!

 

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Can someone answer this for me about what the current rule is? On a 7 day cruise (Harmony), what is the latest day onboard that I can still buy the alcohol drink package?

 

Thanks!

 

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See the perks in post #6.

Thanks, Bob! I saw where you'd posted that earlier but was just making sure. That's a nice surprise for today! You'd think the Royal travel agents would do a better job promoting it.

 

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Yes. Like I said. Booked 3x in a BW never been mentioned pre cruise, never an issue.

Thanks for your help. It's been several years since we've been in a boardwalk balcony and I didn't realize this was a perk now. You'd think the Royal agents would mention it.

 

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So, not trying to repeat the same questions, but when we booked our May 12th Harmony cruise in a boardwalk balcony a couple of months ago (through a Royal agent) they never mentioned this. Nor does our paperwork. But we'll get the soft drink package, too?

 

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I don't personally find much of a difference between the turnpike and i95. I actually kind of prefer i95 since it's 3 lanes. Turnpike is neverending slow drivers in left lane blocking traffic. Drives me crazy. Either will be fine though. Heck, I enjoy US27 sometimes.

 

But I'm really not sure why you would so adamantly want to avoid i95. The turnpike isn't that great and will cost you $20 for the pleasure.

 

If you aren't in a hurry to get down here, I'd take US27 and stop at Gatorama on the way. One of the last cool roadside attractions. Very Florida! You also have Bok Tower gardens and the Florida's Natural Visitors Center among other things. Sawgrass Recreation, too. And a more natural Florida, scenic drive. Why not make an interesting drive out of it?

 

Orlando is near some great springs too. Lots to do besides Disney stuff if you want more natural/nature type things to do.

These are all great ideas! I love the idea of roadside attractions. I loved Gatorland as a kid so Gatorama would be cool. Especially if I could get my wife to hold one. Lol. We really wanted to see gators in the wild so we had thought about going to Everglades park but this would probably suffice. Could you guess how much slower this route is than the turnpike (without stops of course)? Probably less traffic than the turnpike.

 

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What you propose it very doable. Some car rentals are available with no drop off fees within Florida.

 

Whichever highway you decide to take, I suggest that the one navigating do a frequent traffic update on Google maps. It is not unusual for a wreck to close the turnpike or I-95 for hours. Try to travel with a plan B.

Thanks for the tip. I'm trying to avoid I-95 if at all possible. We'll probably start the drive the Friday morning before our cruise after rush hour traffic.

 

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1000's of hotels in Orlando - it all depends upon what you want to do and location.

 

The drive to PE takes about 3.5+ hours depending upon the traffic - the toll road is worth it compared to I-95. We've left Orlando in the morning after an (early) breakfast and have been on a ship in Miami in time for lunch. :)

The toll road is definitely what we're looking at. I hate I-95 and I've had come to Jesus moments on I-4. We haven't decided whether to use Dollar's flat rate toll option or to buy a portable Sun Pass unit for the tolls.

 

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We are doing the same thing next week. However, after we pick up a rental car from Alamo we are driving out to the Space Coast and staying with friends. We thought about the big attractions but eventually settled on Cape Kennedy Visitor center instead. Then we will drive down A1A to Fort Lauderdale for an overnight stay, then drop the car at Alamo on Eller Drive, outside the gates to Port Everglades.

 

We got a great price for Alamo via ‘Flexible Autos /US car hire’ also known as General Rent a Car. About 20% less than direct with Alamo. The on,y thing we don’t get is the ability to bypass the checkin desk for the car, as it’s though a third party.

 

Only 4 days until we leave :D

We talked about doing this. We've already reserved a car through Dollar but I'll check into that Alamo deal. I would think that the drive on A1A from the Space Coast to Fort Lauderdale would take quite awhile with all of those stoplights, even though I'm sure there's much more to see than on the Turnpike from Orlando.

 

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So my wife and I will be flying 2 days before our cruise (leaving from Port Everglades) into Orlando. The airfare was far cheaper and the times were better so we just decided we'd spend a night in Orlando before driving a rental car to Fort Lauderdale. Has anyone here done that? We may do something like Universal for a day or we might just hangout at City Walk or downtown Disney and save a few bucks. Anyone here have any other suggestions of what to do in Orlando for a day or tips for making that drive to Fort Lauderdale? Hotel suggestions are also appreciated. Thanks!

 

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Yes, the beach roads are a mess and Uber is surging 10x.

 

Lots of great restaurants by your hotel. Duffys, Kellys Landing, Southport Raw Bar, 15th Street Fisheries, Mezzoluna, etc.

I second Southport Raw Bar but make sure you ask for a table out back on the deck. It's only a 7 or 8 minute walk from Embassy Suites and it's on the water.

 

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Have no idea how I managed to attach that twice. [emoji1]

 

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This might help. This is the entertainment listing for our upcoming May 12th Harmony sailing.

 

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Allure all the way!

 

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Thanks everyone! I think we'll probably just go ahead and make the new booking now while they still have the cabin we want. We'll check with the Royal C&A people after this next cruise to see if the balcony discount can be applied.. if eligible with our fare.

 

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So my wife and I will be taking a 7 day Harmony cruise in May and will finally make Platinum level 2 days in. I know that Royal won't really consider us Platinum level until after the cruise. My question then is, we're looking at going ahead and booking the Symphony for next year. What do I then do to have Royal recognize our balcony discount? Do have to have them rebook it again after this cruise? I'm afraid that could get complicated.

 

Thanks!

 

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Only ones I know of are at the aft end of deck 7 which will take you down to the Boardwalk.

We've been in 11727 on Allure before the change and we've been in several other cabins in the same area. The only aft stairs that I know of are crew stairs and we only got to use them once on the way to muster in the aquatheater. I'll check that out on Harmony in May and see if they have any public stairs there.

 

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You get the stars/moon and the sounds of the ocean instead of the merry go round/movie.

 

But to each their own......

 

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In the very aft boardwalk balconies we've been in, we can't hear the merry go round and I don't remember that being open really late anyway. I've actually only ever heard a movie being played back there once but maybe we got lucky. Really the only time I remember it being noisy was during an aqua theater show.

 

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I don't think I would ever buy a boardwalk balcony unless it was on a serious discount. If I'm going to spend hundreds or thousands more just for a view of a room I'm rarely in, I'd rather not feel like I'm on a floating apartment complex.

It's all in what you like. I lived in apartment complexes way back in my college days and I wouldn't put it at anything alike. We spend very little time in our cabin anyway so that can make a difference I guess.

 

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One of two things: either not available for your sailing, or they have computed the discount off of some fake price and are showing the discounted price.

I would say it's the latter of the two. I just went rounds with 2 different Royal reps over this today for our May 12th Harmony sailing. The first rep told us it calculated to 25 percent off each person's regular price of $55/day. That comes to $41.25 a day versus the $45/day currently showing in our cruise planner. She went around and around telling me I was calculating incorrectly. So I called back to the C&A desk to get a rep tell me it was off $57/day which still doesn't calculate. She says, yes it's 20% off per person per day. So I said but that's not buy one get one half off. She had nothing else she could tell me. It's false advertising really and pretty irritating when I think of how many thousands of dollars I've spent with Royal.

My wife and I skip around between oceanview and boardwalk balconies on Oasis class ships. If you can get one of the 5 or 6 cabins closest to the aft you still get a pretty nice ocean view if you can manage I'd say decks 10-12. Not as much so on Harmony because the Abyss slides can get in the way. Yes you do look across at other balconies so you'd want to be mindful of your state of dress. The one thing that we love, is that at night you can still see things going on from your balcony. On an oceanview balcony, all you see is darkness at night.

 

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Another possibility is that the drinks they ordered were the drink of the day in a souvenir glass. That usually costs extra.

 

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My wife and I also just got off of Adventure Saturday and I agree with much of what you said. We have never been on Carnival but the food on Royal has really gone downhill. Also, we got into San Juan the day before the cruise and got stuck at the airport for 3 hours due to the taxi strike. Taxi drivers were standing around laughing at people and there was a large police presence. Uber was temporarily not allowing pickups at the airport. We walked down the road from Embassy Suites the next morning to catch an Uber XL to the airport. A taxi driver saw us and called two of his buddies there. They screamed at our driver and I thought there was going to be a fight. One of their guys followed us for awhile. Not going back to Puerto Rico anytime soon.

 

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I've never used Uber - can you order a driver that can provide two car seats (My guess would be no...but I'd be happy to be wrong)

 

 

Sorry, I guess I rushed that reply. I've never needed the car seats so I just don't know but it's doubtful. You could check the Uber app and see if there are any options there.

 

 

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We want to take the ship's transfer from the airport to the pier but RCCL won't allow us to purchase the transfers in advance since we are flying in the day before. RCCL will only let you pre-purchase transfers if you are flying in on the day of embarkation. We are staying at an airport hotel so we are thinking of just showing up in baggage claim the next day and trying to purchase the transfer to the ship at that time. Has anyone done this?

 

 

 

We have kids so we are having trouble with the car seat issue - we can't take cab to the port, a private car with rented car seats is crazy expensive, and our hotel does not have a shuttle to the port.

 

 

 

Any advice is welcome!

 

 

We use Uber from the hotel. Actually we used Uber XL last time for more room and it was way cheaper than a taxi or a shuttle. It took the guy about 5 minutes to show up.

 

 

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