Come Join The Valor Voyagers 6/12/05 Western Caribbean

[Snowball]

The Days Inn sounds like a great deal. I'm going to check that out too. Might be worth it to just stay there instead of even trying Priceline, especially considering the free shuttle from the airport and to the cruise port. Thanks for the info!!! [img]http://boards.cruisecritic.com/images/icons/icon14.gif[/img]

Marcy - Carnival also stays on ship time. When we are in Grand Cayman, the ship arrives at 8am ship time, which will be 9am island time, because the island doesn't observe daylight savings time. So that will give us 1 1/2 hours from arrival time to tender in and reach the meeting point for the tour. I think we'll be fine, but will watch the reviews as they come in to see what others have to say.

Sharon - I'm still watching airfare too. From Philly to Miami started at $305, and is now down to $223, but I'm hoping to pay around $150 (seen it as low as $103 from here too). I could fly into Fort Lauderdale too, and that is now $177, but then I have to pay more for transportation to the hotel from there. For now I'm just watching and waiting for the right time to pounce. ;)

[Marcys]

[quote name='Snowball'] Marcy - Carnival also stays on ship time. When we are in Grand Cayman, the ship arrives at 8am ship time, which will be 9am island time, because the island doesn't observe daylight savings time. So that will give us 1 1/2 hours from arrival time to tender in and reach the meeting point for the tour. I think we'll be fine, but will watch the reviews as they come in to see what others have to say. [/QUOTE]
OK...now I'm really confused!!:eek: I thought the Cayman's were behind, not ahead of us timewise? :confused: Because if the tour is 9:30 Cayman time and we get in 9 Cayman time, that would only leave 30 minutes to get ashore. The cruise confirmation that I got from Kevin has our arrival time in GC as 9, not 8? This time difference stuff always throws me for a loop!!;)

[Snowball]

Sorry - I got that backwards. :o We arrive at 9 ship time, which is 8 on island time. So we have until 10:30 ship time, or 9:30 island time to get to the excursion. Still 1 1/2 hours from when we are scheduled to arrive. I hope I got it right this time.

[Snowball]

Ok - I confirmed that I finally got it right using this website [url="http://www.timezoneconverter.com/"]http://www.timezoneconverter.com/[/url]. I put in 9:00 on June 16, 2005, and converted from US/Eastern time to America/Cayman time. It says that 9:00am Eastern is 8:00 Cayman time.

[sebastian01]

For those interested in the days inn, I just talked to them to check on how the shuttle works. For airport pickup, the run every hour. When you arrive you call the hotel to let them know you are there. It is free. Going to the port, they also run every hour starting at 10am. It is done as first come first serve. I tried to see if we had a group we could reserve a shuttle, but I don't think the lady really understood what I was wanting. She said to tell the shuttle people we had a group and they would try and put us on a shuttle together once they started running. I did read about someone who got tired of waiting (missed the 10am shuttle that was full) and took a taxi to the port for $15.00.

My airfair is still over $300.00 from Birmingham to Miami. I may have a long wait for airfare to drop. Did check with southwest, but their reservations are only being booked through Jun 6.

[Marcys]

Debbie, this is so confusing, isn't it?

OK...that's Grand Cayman! :)

Now what about Belize...that's 2 hours earlier than us? :confused: So, a 9 arrival time is 7 Belize time? Cave tubing is 9 to 2, 5 hours, right? So, 9 a.m. Belize time should be 11 a.m. ship time???? Plenty of time to get to shore, hopefully! A 6 p.m. ship departure is 4 p.m. Belize time?? So, that should give us a 2-hour window for any delays with cave tubing, actually less since you have to be onboard at least 30 minutes before departure, right? Again, I'm speaking from RCCL experience, is Carnival different?

If you promise not to laugh at me:o ...one of my fears in Belize is being an hour from the dock and having something happen to the van at that distance on secluded roads, with no taxis going by. (my concern is not personal safety, but making the ship). I suppose there are other tour busses going by. Does our guide carry a radio or cell phone? I guess I'm gunshy here since we made the last tender by 15 minutes last summer in Belize due to boat and inept crew problems with Coral Breeze.

[Marcys]

Debbie, we must have posted at the same time! That time converter website is great to know about!

[Snowball]

Marcy - I think you have the times for Belize right. I understand your concern about making it back to the ship in time, but I'm sure we won't be the only bus traveling that route considering how popular the cave tubing excursions are. Perhaps Kathy can e-mail the tour operator and see if the drivers have cell phones with them.

[Marcys]

Well...I...uhmmm...err...sort of...already e-mailed Marvin about this!:o I haven't heard back yet. He probably thinks I'm a crackpot!

[Snowball]

Well it's a good thing that you e-mailed them instead of me - I probably would have e-mailed Reggie by mistake. :o One of these days I'm going to have all this information straight - I hope!! :rolleyes:

[Marcys]

Wellllll....I'd be curious to see Reggie's response to this, how he would handle a van breakdown!:D And, whether he'd pick up Marvin's stranded customers!! :D

[Snowball]

I just did a search for reviews on the [url="http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g34438-d85003-r2347565-Days_Inn_Downtown_Port-Miami_Florida.html"]Days Inn in downtown Miami[/url], and the results were not good. I'm not sure whether I'll even book them as a Priceline backup now. :( Has anyone here ever stayed there before? I think I'll do a search here on cruise critic and see what I can find.

[Marcys]

[font=Comic Sans MS][size=3][color=red][b]***********PLEASE NOTE*****************[/b][/color][/size][/font]
[b][font=Comic Sans MS][size=3][color=#ff0000][/color][/size][/font][/b]
[font=Arial][color=red][b]I just got the following response from Soto's after making my reservation with them last night! I didn't want to give them my credit card number on the form, but asked how else I could get it to them. That's why they are telling me to use 0's..... I think they have it wrong...help me out here again, Debbie...doesn't the ship arrive 9 a.m. SHIP, not local time??? I didn't want to e-mail them back until I confirm this time issue with you guys. Debbie, if you've been the contact person, do you want to get back to them?[/b][/color][/font]
[font=Arial][/font]
[font=Arial][size=2]///Thank you for your enquiry.[/size][/font]
[font=Arial][size=2]Kindly fill out the form and put 0's where the credit card number supposed to be. You can call me with the card number as time draws nearer. also, Valor arrives here at 9am local time (Eastern Standard Time) You will not have time to do the 9:30am tour therefore the 1pm - 3pm tour will be available. I will contact the others and tell them to reserve for the 1pm tour. Thanks.[/size][/font]
[font=Arial][size=2]KERRY, SOTOS CRUISES ///[/size][/font]

[Snowball]

I think that Kerry is forgetting that in June the ship will be on daylight savings time, but the island will not. So right now ship time matches island time because we are on standard time, but when we sail it will be during DST, thus causing the hour time difference.

I will e-mail Kerry to confirm that I have that right.

Could this get any more confusing??? :confused:

[Marcys]

ARRRGGGHHH!! (Is that an internet scream??) How much more frustrating can this get??

I THINK you've got it right, Debbie. But, I don't trust myself anymore with this time stuff. Please let us know what Soto's says.

Once we have things straightened out, I'm gonna make myself a card of the time changes, tour times, ship arrival and departure times, etc., for all the ports. That way, once on vacation I won't have to do any heavier thinking than...do I want a pina colada now, later, or now and later!!:D

[Snowball]

Here is the message I sent to Kerry:

[font='Times New Roman'][indent]I am sailing the Carnival Valor and am already booked with you for the 6/16/05 excursion at 9:30am. Someone else that is sailing with my group (Marcy) received an e-mail from you saying that the Valor does not arrive in Grand Cayman until 9am, so the 9:30 excursion was too early for us.



However, we sail in June, which is during daylight savings time. My understanding is that the island does not observe DST; therefore, ship time will be one hour earlier than island time. That will make our arrival in Grand Cayman 9am ship time, and 8am island time. Is that correct? If so, that will give us 1 ½ hours to tender in and meet up with you for the excursion. Is it still ok for those of us sailing the Valor that week to keep the 9:30 excursion? Please advise. Thank you.

[/indent][/font][font='Times New Roman'][/font][font='Times New Roman'][/font]
[font='Times New Roman'][font=Verdana][size=2]I'll let you know as soon as I hear back from her.[/size][/font][/font]

[Snowball]

[quote name='Marcys']Once we have things straightened out, I'm gonna make myself a card of the time changes, tour times, ship arrival and departure times, etc., for all the ports. That way, once on vacation I won't have to do any heavier thinking than...do I want a pina colada now, later, or now and later!!:D[/QUOTE]Actually, that's a really good idea. Maybe we could have something like that added to our group page so we could all just print it out before we go.

[Marcys]

Debbie, your letter sounds good. My brain is freid on this time issue. Could we even do an afternoon tour 1-3 island time, when we depart 5:30 ship time?

Just a thought to reduce all stress...how many of us are going on this tour? I wonder how much it is to do a charter just for us? Red sail sports does charters, I had contacted them about parasailing. Their half day fishing charters are from $300 for a half day for up to 8 people. That's $37.50 a person. They have catamarans for private charter. Just a thought... [url="http://www.redsailcayman.com"]www.redsailcayman.com[/url]

[Snowball]

Soto's said we needed a group of 30 to charter our own tour with them. I didn't see any way that we could come up with that many people - I think we only have about half that amount that wants to do the stingray excursion. :(

[Snowball]

Here is the reply I got from Kerry:

[indent][font=Arial][size=2]Thank you for your message.[/size][/font]
[font=Arial][size=2]I just spoke to a representative from Bodden Shipping Agency[/size][/font]
[font=Arial][size=2]This Agency organizes the schedule of visiting ships in co-ordination[/size][/font]
[font=Arial][size=2]with the Port Authority of the Cayman Islands [/size][/font][font=Arial][size=2]and she clarified [/size][/font]
[font=Arial][size=2]that Valor arrives here at 9am local time and [/size][/font][font=Arial][size=2]departs at 6:30pm[/size][/font]
[font=Arial][size=2]Therefore the 1pm - 3pm tour would be best for your group.[/size][/font]
[font=Arial][size=2]If I can be of further assistance, kindly let me know.[/size][/font]
[font=Arial][size=2][/size][/font]
[font=Arial][size=2]KERRY, SOTOS CRUISES[/size][/font]
[/indent]I'm still confused (but what else is new :rolleyes: ), but I'm thinking that maybe we would be better off just switching to the afternoon tour just to be safe. What do the rest of you think? I'll just go to the beach in the morning before the excursion instead of in the afternoon after the excursion. I will wait to hear back from you guys before I e-mail Kerry back.

[Marcys]

Debbie, the Carnival website is still showing us in GC from 9 to 5:30. How else can we confirm the time? They always list ship time, correct? Or, local time?

If the time was changed, the afternoon works out fine. In fact, this is almost preferable in that after 2 full days in port and late nights partying with new friends, this let's us sleep a little later and have a leisurely breakfast.

But, if we are right, then I don't know if there's enough time in the afternoon.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!

[Snowball]

[quote name='Marcys']If the time was changed, the afternoon works out fine. In fact, this is almost preferable in that after 2 full days in port and late nights partying with new friends, this let's us sleep a little later and have a leisurely breakfast.
[/QUOTE]You are making the afternoon excursion sound even better than the morning one. I'll still wait and see what everyone else says before I e-mail Kerry back and give her the go-ahead to switch us.

[Marcys]

How can we confirm our port time, because if we leave at 5:30, not 6:30, do we still have time for the afternoon tour.

Let's see, 5:30 ship time for sailaway means 5 for last tender, which means 4 island time. I guess that's OK since the tour ends at 3. We'd just need to make sure we were back at the dock by 3. If I remember, the distances weren't very far. Did I do this correctly?

Just a thought. Should we check with any other tour operators for their times? We did Nativeway last time, and they were good.

[Snowball]

I think you did it right. I don't see us having any problem with getting back to the ship in time if we switch to the afternoon excursion. We'll just have to hurry up when we get back on the ship so we can get ready for formal dinner that night.

I was just looking at the excursions on Carnival's website, and they are charging $93 for the cave tubing excursion in Belize. :eek: So we are saving $42 per person by booking with Wet N' Wild. That is so great!!! :cool:

[Marcys]

omigosh...you just added to my worries!:eek: Then I'll have to get everyone dressed in their formals and ready early to get a family picture!! Does Carnival do pics before dinner?? Oh well, we'll just have to make sure we get a good pic the first formal night!

As an aside...we always get a goofy family picture in addition to the serious one in our formal clothes. The photographer never wants to do it, but we make them. :D Then when others see it, they always say, that's so great, why didn't we think of it!!