Sunshine States and New York

[Pink15]

The Gatwick people leave the ship today at noon, they are the last off, it's currently 7 am and we have yet to dock, so I would say no chance. The trip from the ship is an all day one, think it goes at 9 am.

[Pink15]

13 hours ago, Jim The Scot said:

Cant say I,m happy that the itinerary has been reversed for the sake of a few hours more in NY.Instead of what should have been 2 sea days on tracking the ship its now over 3 days.

 

Port Canaveral to NY = 1 day 16hrs and NY to Charleston =1 day 12hrs

 

 

Yes it feels as though we have had a lot of time at sea this week.

The itinery was changed due to the currents, we wouldn't have made it from Bahamas to Port Canareval in the original time battling against the flow. In my opinion, Freeport was a waste anyway, but you only get to say that in retrospect.

[NIX70]

5 minutes ago, Pink15 said:

The Gatwick people leave the ship today at noon, they are the last off, it's currently 7 am and we have yet to dock, so I would say no chance. The trip from the ship is an all day one, think it goes at 9 am.

I was afraid of that. OK, looks like we'll have to play it by ear. Thanks Pink15.

[gramwold]

hi NIX70,  we go in September for the 2 week cruise and we have booked the Cape  Canaveral space centre, it is a 7 hour long trip so we do it on the middle Sunday ( change over day ) as we will be in port all day long.  I cant see Marella  doing the space centre trip for departing passengers, also it is a very popular trip and it is most likely booked up when you looked.  The ask the shorex team is if they have cancellations. Its no help i know.   Enjoy the cruise and let us know how you get on.

[Jim The Scot]

4 hours ago, Pink15 said:

Yes it feels as though we have had a lot of time at sea this week.

The itinery was changed due to the currents, we wouldn't have made it from Bahamas to Port Canareval in the original time battling against the flow. In my opinion, Freeport was a waste anyway, but you only get to say that in retrospect.

Thanks for that Pink15

 

More importantly what was your thoughts on the cruise overall?

[Pink15]

Hi Jim, am home now after the overnight flight and missing it already!

cruise was fab, everybody seems to have had a good time. Food & drink plentiful, weather warm (some rain on sea day out of NY but not much).

Everything well organised, staff as friendly as ever. I would say about 75% full first week but more last week (half term).

I had been to NY before and love it so did my own thing there, but it did seem a bit of a slog there and back. We were only in Freeport for 4 hours, nothing there. Key West straight off ship into town. Miami you need to do a trip as it is vast. Charleston nice. Grand Turk & Dom Rep you can walk straight off ship into resort but need a trip to go further. 

[Jim The Scot]

Hi Pink

 

Wasn,t expecting a response so quick as I posted when you hadn,t quite docked in PC so thanks for the wee quick update and glad you had a fab time and nice to hear positive feedback.

 

We watched Discovery sail in and out of PC and NY and it got the impression the ship wasn,t at capacity as there wasn,t many on the decks.

 

Will be quite happy if our  cruise isn,t capacity,nothing worse than scrambling to find a lounger or somewhere to sit,especially on the sea days

 

We were intially down for the two week cruise but changed to one week then a week in Orlando so only doing Charleston,Freeport and NY

 

Mrs JTS has  been to NY twice but I haven,t and its always been on my to do list so looking forward to it

 

We have an excursion booked for our first day and was hoping to do our thing on the second day.How far from the port to main attractions,walkable or uber?

[Mannamead17]

Hi Pink.

 

I noticed there are no excursions bookable for Freeport I emailed tui who assured me excursions would be available from the 3rd June which they are not.

What did you do in Freeport? Doesn't seem an awful lot to do particularly in 4 hours?

 

Cheers 

[Pink15]

15 minutes ago, Mannamead17 said:

Hi Pink.

 

I noticed there are no excursions bookable for Freeport I emailed tui who assured me excursions would be available from the 3rd June which they are not.

What did you do in Freeport? Doesn't seem an awful lot to do particularly in 4 hours?

 

Cheers 

There is very little to do in Freeport, a small port side market.

There are excursions to some gardens, and also a bigger market. I think Freeport is in the less pretty part of the Bahamas.

Maybe they are having to rearrange the itinery for this one as well which is delaying things? If you have booked something and they change the day then they just roll it over to the new day. Even if things are full online they seem to be doing their best to put on another bus/a new trip an hour later so is worth checking as soon as you board.

[Pink15]

3 hours ago, Jim The Scot said:

Hi Pink

 

Wasn,t expecting a response so quick as I posted when you hadn,t quite docked in PC so thanks for the wee quick update and glad you had a fab time and nice to hear positive feedback.

 

We watched Discovery sail in and out of PC and NY and it got the impression the ship wasn,t at capacity as there wasn,t many on the decks.

 

Will be quite happy if our  cruise isn,t capacity,nothing worse than scrambling to find a lounger or somewhere to sit,especially on the sea days

 

We were intially down for the two week cruise but changed to one week then a week in Orlando so only doing Charleston,Freeport and NY

 

Mrs JTS has  been to NY twice but I haven,t and its always been on my to do list so looking forward to it

 

We have an excursion booked for our first day and was hoping to do our thing on the second day.How far from the port to main attractions,walkable or uber?

Its approx a 20/25 minute walk to Times Square from Manhattan Cruise Terminal, 50th Street/12th Avenue, pretty flat walk, not too bad but the second day I was there it was hot! I was over near Grand Central and hobbling quite badly so got a yellow cab, it was about 2pm and traffic was average NY bad, cost including tip was $30, First night i had gone to a show and wasn't going to walk back in the dark, was going to Uber but a yellow cab pulled up to drop someone off so I got in, fare was $13, gave him $20, Uber is supposed to be cheaper but i thought that was reasonable. The yellow cabs are all on meter which you can see, think the flat charge is about $5 as soon as you get in , then 80c per minute, make sure you are on a street where the traffic is going towards the cruise terminal otherwise it will spend 5 minutes getting round the block!

[Mannamead17]

Thanks Pink. Nothing booked as yet, even Viator don't have a great deal of trips particularly if we are not there all day.

Just have to wait and see or try the markets if all else fails. Thanks for the reply

Cheers 

[Jim The Scot]

1 hour ago, Pink15 said:

Its approx a 20/25 minute walk to Times Square from Manhattan Cruise Terminal, 50th Street/12th Avenue, pretty flat walk, not too bad but the second day I was there it was hot! I was over near Grand Central and hobbling quite badly so got a yellow cab, it was about 2pm and traffic was average NY bad, cost including tip was $30, First night i had gone to a show and wasn't going to walk back in the dark, was going to Uber but a yellow cab pulled up to drop someone off so I got in, fare was $13, gave him $20, Uber is supposed to be cheaper but i thought that was reasonable. The yellow cabs are all on meter which you can see, think the flat charge is about $5 as soon as you get in , then 80c per minute, make sure you are on a street where the traffic is going towards the cruise terminal otherwise it will spend 5 minutes getting round the block!

Thanks again Pink

 

I have mobility issues so a walk of that distance is out so if we decide to do anything on our second day it will need to be a yellow cab or uber

 

Just done a uber price estimator $30/$33

[Pink15]

Just a note for the less mobile - to get off the ship in Miami & Port Canareval is a bit of a hike, lots of zig zag air bridges etc, assume these are to cope with the bigger ships. One lady I was on a trip with was upset as she thought we had all been waiting for her to get to the coach as she was a slow walker, if she had been told how far it was she would have left the meeting place earlier than the group and she would have felt better taking her time getting through the terminal. 

[Jim The Scot]

Itininary has now been changed for future cruises on TUI website and now showing Freeport as 1st port of call and Charleston last as opposed to the other way around

[Sheera07]

Has anyone done the Harbour lights cruise ? Is it dark enough to see the skyline lit up ? .

[ladyjayneq]

American Drean and Sunshine State and Sands.

Particularly for Jim the Scot and Scotstravellers.

On the flight from Glasgow what meals did you get, was there a breakfast or a lunch?  How long was the transfer time? 
can I ask what excursions were offered and what were your impressions, good and bad. 
any info would be most appreciated. 

[Pink15]

I flew from Birmingham.

Outbound there was a hot meal choice of beef or chicken. Later there was sandwiches.

Inbound, can't remember the hot meal (obviously not great!), with a breakfast toastie thing later.

I'm not a fan of airplane meals so only poked at them!

 

Transfer was 45-50 minutes. 

[ladyjayneq]

Hi Pink 15,

thanks for that, good to know we’re getting something, the flight is at 7:45 am so bearing in mind we’re supposed to be there 3 hours beforehand and we have a 3 &3/4 hour drive first I think we’ll be in need of food! 

[Hookedoncruising!]

Oh my goodness! Thats a long drive. Have you never thought of booking into a hotel with parking for the night before? Its sometimes not much dearer than paying for parking,and you would feel much better going for a long flight. Just a thought.

[ladyjayneq]

Hookedoncruising, yes that’s something we’re looking at. 

[Hookedoncruising!]

Glad to hear it 👍🏻 You would feel so much better not having the stress of driving such a distance beforehand, and could chill out the night before.

Hope you manage to find something🤞 Enjoy your cruise.

[Pink15]

Sounds like you will need sleep as much as food 🤗

As I said, I'm really not a fan of airplane food, I usually grab a meal deal from Boots etc.

[Jim The Scot]

5 hours ago, Hookedoncruising! said:

Oh my goodness! Thats a long drive. Have you never thought of booking into a hotel with parking for the night before? Its sometimes not much dearer than paying for parking,and you would feel much better going for a long flight. Just a thought.

Normally we stay overnight and we have a much shorter 1hr 30 mins drive but not this time.For the hotel we ,ve always stayed in plus parking they,re wanting £250 where for valet parking only we paid £119..Ironically if staying overnight at the hotel I,d need to drive my car to exactly the same car park in the morning we have booked

Although a hot complimentary breakfast is included with overnight stay, but with having the early flight we would miss out on that so it would be basically £130 for a bed

 

We,ll get breakfast in the lounge at airport which comes as a benefit of PE

Having said all that,if I was in ladyjayneq shoes I,d be forking out for an overnight stay

 

Edited July 2, 2023 by Jim The Scot

[ladyjayneq]

Jim the Scot,

we may go down the hotel route, just wish that we could get flights from Aberdeen. It was bad enough getting any flights from Aberdeen when we lived near Dyce but now we're in Morayshire so even further away. 

[Jim The Scot]

Yeah the flight situ ain,t great from up your way

 

I wished we had been able to get a flight from Edinburgh for this cruise which is only 25/30 min drive for us but generally no big issue for us for flights as we mainly do the Med which are Edinburgh