My Reality Meets CC Advice/Information

[Seago2]

If you want to post pics that are bigger than thumbnail size....:

 

Upload your pics to a photo sharing site (I use flickr and have an iPhone app). Then when you click "share", copy the BBCODE, not the HTML code, and paste it right here in the message, not as an attachment. It obviously looks just like code until you "submit reply".

[writesonstuff]

Thanks Seago2, I will give it a shot.

 

Just dropped off the lads at the airport and pleased that I wished I was going with them on their cruise. Maybe I will get over my fear of water yet. LOL. And for those cruising on the Crown Princess this weekend, get to the MDR early on lobster night, as my lads have challenged each other to a lobster eating contest.

 

Anyway, should have some stuff up and posted by this evening.

 

Cheers!

[writesonstuff]

Guess who left his cruise notes and hopefully the memory card with almost all of my port shots at work? Anyway, I have lost a day of blogging steam so thought I will do a freefall post of information new cruisers might like to hear from a first timer that just got back.

 

Wish I had brought...a night light (for interior cabin), emergency rain ponchos, collapsible water bottle (no not for booze, for water, I don't agree with rum runners), corkscrew (steward was great and got me one to keep in the room), sprayable sun screen (a must if you are traveling "solo" or with your mom, LOL and you haven't reached the romance part of the cruise), and water socks/shoes.

 

Glad I brought or followed the advice of CC posters...20 $1 bills, phone number of my airline booking desk, informed my credit card company of travel plans (don't know if this mattered or not), checked our travel documents before we left the house, checked our boarding passes on the first leg out (admittedly after we left the counter) because they were for Mr. and Mrs. MOM's names, checked our boarding passes on the first leg back because...wait for it...yes, same thing (don't know what the glitch was), printed out driving instructions for the driving parts of our trip, printed out the coupons for several outlet malls, and tons more which I hope I have already shared and should be sharing soon.

 

And as a reward for those who have read previous posts and this one, if you are considering taking older teens on a cruise and have some questions, my lads have agreed to be "interviewed" by me upon their return from their current cruise on the Crown Princess (departed today). So send me your's or your teens' questions and I will try to pull the info out of them when they get back. On a personal note, did anyone catch it on the FLL webcam(s)? I missed departure and I am pretty sure the horn blowing isn't up to the Westerdam, but assume they got on and the ship sailed because I didn't get any calls from Customs, Canada or US, or Princess.

 

Cheers! (I hope to get back on track on Monday night. Happy Easter!)

[pkt1976]

I too an OCD and am driving myself nuts planning for my trip. While not technically my first cruise, it will be my first time out of the country!! I am looking forward to reading more of your review.

[writesonstuff]

So for all of you that "over plan", is it a control thing, need to know everything, or just something that people do?

 

pkt1976, good luck with your out of country travel, it must be exciting to look forward to a new adventure. I know I am still thrilled about the cruise and I have been back for two weeks.

 

Anyway, here is my latest My reality post.

 

Getting to the port, baggage handling @ port and the “expected” tip, and embarkation process

The plan was to take advantage of the free breakfast (Holiday Inn Express, by Universal) leave Orlando by 08:00, be in FLL by 11:30 or so and hit the wine store when it opened at noon, drop off the car, catch the free shuttle (for Alamo and National) and get to the pier around 13:30, which we thought should be after the “rush”. As for our checked luggage, I printed off several baggage tags each for mom and I as I didn’t know if I was going to follow CC advice and “check” my wine and bottled water (I brought a small roller bag that could be checked or carried on).

My reality advice for getting to the port – my OCD to fact check, even my own notes/plans had me going through the internet for holes or improvements and lo and behold I found a Total Wines that was close to our hotel and still open, so I did my liquor shopping Saturday night; we left on time, had no problems with the route and tolls (thanks to CC advice, which were right on), but have this one piece of information that I haven’t found on CC, beware of drivers who insist on staying in the left lane and go below the speed limit and then worse, speed up when you are forced to pass them on the right; then we through made our own time delay when mom spotted a sign for Sawgrass Mills, we set it up in the GPS and off we went, mistake? LOL, let us just say that it is a big mall and my mom likes to shop; get to car rental center drop-off around 14:00 (without filling up the tank, ouch, for cruisers that rent a car either prepay for the tank of gas or fill up before you return the car) and thankfully the shuttle was right there (and yes, the driver checked our receipt), but of course now that I am worried, there are four other couples/groups on the shuttle and we end up being the last ones off. In retrospect, even though we made it on board with plenty of time to spare, I should have skipped the side trip. There have been lots of posts about possible delays like flat tires or accidents and even though I “knew” about those possibilities, in the heat of the moment I said yes to squeezing in another thing to do, so this is just a heads up to all of us who are great planners, but not necessarily the best tacticians.

My reality advice for baggage handling at the port – the paper baggage tags seemed flimsy to me so I shrunk them (technical term for printed at 85%) a little bit, stuck them in some smart phone protectors, put clear packing tape over top, used plastic ties to attach to our bags (after flights) and the bags got to our room so they worked (there is a CC thread on luggage tag tips that I have seen, so there are probably better ideas there); here is one of my few negative experiences (and it was only an irritant, not a complaint), I have always tipped baggage handlers in my travels, so I was slightly irritated with the request for a contribution for the boys, admittedly I didn’t have any bills in my hand, but I had just tipped the driver of the shuttle and deciding whether or not to carry on liquor, so it might have looked like I wasn’t going to tip (I think there was another CCer who mentioned this request being made to them, so maybe they get stiffed a lot); carried on six bottles of wine, six bottles of water AND…wait for it…two bottles of liquor (which I fully expected to be stored away for me for the duration of the cruise). What happened? Stay tuned…ok just read the next paragraph.

My reality advice for embarkation (after the rush) – I have added in “after the rush” because if you are trying to figure out when to check in, I cannot comment on the early hour or two of the embarkation process; we arrived at the ship around 14:30 and I cannot be more accurate because I was pretty well overwhelmed by this time (first that we had made it and second that I hadn’t canceled); anyway, we left our luggage with the porters, were quickly directed to security, where I showed them the wine and two bottles of liquor and asked how I could check them in and was told to just carry them on (any other CC posters encounter this before?); the health questionnaire was a surprise and not explained (maybe in HAL site, but I don’t recall), but there were counters and pencils available to use, so no problem other than the pushy lady who had “paid six large”; we waited maybe five minutes to get processed and get our key cards, but based on all of the weaving rows set up I am going to guess it is much longer at the start; we found our cabins easily because as per CC posts we had checked the deck plans, were greeted warmly by one of our stewards, the day’s schedule of events was in our room (or in the mailbox), our pre-ordered soda cards were in the room, and our invites for the Pinnacle Grill and Le Cirque were either in our room or in the mailbox; I cannot remember when our luggage arrived so no comments on that other than they were there before muster drill; of possible interest to some cruisers is that a mass was held before departure that mom went to which was a pleasant surprise for her; I will have a separate post for the muster/safety drill conducted before departure; and for newbies who have not experienced departing port and watching as the ship sails, you should be aware that there are several activities going on at the same time throughout the ship, so know in advance that you might have to decide on short notice what you really want to do so read the schedule ASAP.

Cheers!

[Seago2]

Looks like you did all your homework and that definitely helps!

 

I refuse to do any arts and crafts. I just get luggage tags at the pier and write my cabin numbers in.