Mystic6

We were in Falmouth this past July. We chose to walk around the port and then hung out with our group at Margaritaville and had a blast. I'm not sure which port you were in previously, but the port at Falmouth is fenced in and regulated. The vendors were not pushy and were very polite. We were the only ship in port, so I expected to be hounded, but found it to be just the opposite. They were chatty but not pushy. I have heard that walking into town is a completely different experience.

We were on the 3-night sailing that came in late. We had late seating for dinner in Animator's Palette. Around 8:30pm there was a serious vibration that lasted a few minutes. After dinner we were sailing near Freeport when we noticed we were really moving slowly. I tried to look on the TV and the Bridge Report channel was turned off. I looked on the Marine Traffic app and it showed us at just over 9 kts. Commodore Tom came on the PA into all the staterooms just before 11pm to let us know we would be late to Port Canaveral and that they were working to reschedule flights for passengers who had booked them through DCL. Anyone else who had flights before 1:00pm were told to go to Guest Services. They said the next announcement would be at 8am.

We waited till the 8:00am announcement to leave for breakfast. At that time they told us we could stay in our staterooms until 11:00am. They asked everyone to stay away from the lobby atrium area until instructed to do so. They had movies in the theaters, a dance party up on deck 11, and other activities around the ship. They also were serving lunch in Cabanas. DCL handled this extremely well. We had table mates that were on the sailing last October that was delayed returning to PC because of Hurricane Matthew. They said that was a mess with people crowded into the atrium with nowhere to go. DCL obviously learned a lesson there and everything went very smoothly for us. We were allowed to depart just after 12:00 noon. We had our luggage and were pulling away from the parking garage before 12:30pm.

Thanks. It is through DCL, and from what I saw we would be meeting in the theater. And what you said about morning vs. afternoon was spot on.

Thanks Shmoo! Since it is Grand Cayman we will be tendering. I found a GC tendering info online that helps too.

This will be the first time we have done a port excursion not at Castaway Cay. We are swimming with dolphins at Grand Cayman. The Ashore time is 10:30am, and our excursion time is 10:45am. How does this work? Is 10:45am the time we meet somewhere on the ship? The time we depart the ship? I'm hoping someone who has done something like this before can help explain it. Thanks!

Here is the sheet from our 2015 cruise. Unfortunately is was a copy of the color sheet (they had run out of the others).

We usually stay at the Radisson at the Port and it is usually in the $135 range.

We were on the July 11-15 sailing and one of our nights the show was The Magic of Mike Super. I didn't go to see the main show that night, but did see him at one of the shows in Evolution. He was pretty entertaining.

You DON'T want to use the one from the rental car agency. Most of the ones I have seen charge upwards of $17 per day of your rental whether you use it each day or not. Use it one day out of 7, you get charged 7x whatever the daily fee is. Plus they charge you the cash rate for the tolls. It is much cheaper to just get your own ahead of time (if you will be going back to FL in the future) or pay cash (if you're not).

I know that selfie sticks are banned in the parks. I have a Gopole that I use with my GoPro when snorkeling. I used it last Summer at Castaway Cay with no issues. I'd like to use it again the year. Does anyone know if the selfie stick ban applies to CC now too?

Also, I can't figure out from the deck plan, if there is a multiple-deck atrium with any surrounding cabins on the higher decks. I know noise levels can be high in those cabins. So, looking for your help with some basic cabin choosing tips and experiences you may have had. Thanks so much to all my fellow Cruise Critic Members!! :)

No, there aren't any cabins that open to an atrium like that. The multiple-deck atrium is surrounded by public space. If noise level is a concern, I would try to get a cabin midway between two sets of elevators. I've had a cabin on the Dream that was just into the hallway off the elevator lobby. It was convenient, but it was a high traffic area.

Has anyone had any experience using the messaging feature in the Navigator app? We are sailing on the Dream in July and are thinking it would be a lot easier for my wife, daughter (15), and myself to use our iPhones than the Wave phones. Texting on the Wave phones is a real pain. I'm curious if anyone has used the Navigator app, what they thought of it, and how well it worked (or didn't!).

Thanks!

Mark

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Is this a camera? Or a spotlight?

 

That's a camera. The ring around the lens are for nighttime. I like to look behind me on a lot of rides - there are a lot more cameras you can't normally see.

Enjoying your trip report! Looking forward to more!

I used my 18-55mm kit lens for a lot of the shots. I brought a few with me, but that was the one I kept on mostly, I believe.

 

I bought a more all in one type lens (18-200mm) recently and took it on our Williamsburg trip and I really liked it. I could get closeups and far away shots much easier without the hassle of changing lenses. It's heavy though and I had a neck ach most of the time, so now I need to find some new type of strap to make it more comfy. My friend has a suggested one to me and I need to look into it. That lens in photography terms is not the "best" but for what I used it for, I was happy and it will go on more trips with me and I'll take less of the others. It's just such a hassle to switch lenses out constantly and heavy to bring so many along.

I just bought a Rapid Strap RS-7 (Curve) for my camera. I have a T4i with the 18-135mm kit lens. I used the RS-7 for the first time last week at a museum. It was a LOT better than the regular neck strap, but I did notice since the camera was on my right hip that I had a tendency to hook my right thumb in the strap to rest my arm. That put a lot more pull on the left shoulder. Once I realized what I was doing and that it was making my shoulder sore, I tried to stop. The shoulder strap was certainly a lot more comfortable than the neck strap though. Now I'm hoping to find a neck strap that hooks onto the camera instead of the kit Nikon one so that I can switch back to the neck one when I know I won't need to wear it for long periods of time.