How many Diamond members live close to a RCCL port?

[loudbmw]

I win the most distant Diamond driver - 11 hour drive to Port Canaveral from Virginia!

Made Diamond via a bunch of 3 & 4 day Jr Suite cruises on the Sovereign (now gone).

 

Now we stick with 7 day cruises on the Freedom.

 

Lou

[sisocialworker]

we live 10 miles away and it takes about 20 minutes to get there

[Shebbieal]

Diamond Plus here.

 

 

Very easy for us to go to any Florida port. The only major drawback for us last minute is needing a handicapped cabin. Every once in a while on a whim we can book close. Usually we book about a year in advance.

 

Sherry

[g8rmomx2]

We're Diamond, and about 50 minutes away from Port Canaveral in Orlando. We plan our annual family cruise about a year out, to get the cabins we want and to give the rest of the family plenty of lead time for flights, etc. The rest of the year we are proud to do our part to keep Royal Caribbean sailing out of Florida by taking advantage of resident and senior deals. No thanks necessary, Royal Caribbean, just doing our part.;););)

[shipknotshore]

We live about 5+ hours from the San Pedro terminal and 1-1/2 hrs. from San Francisco terminal. Love when we don't have to fly but love the Caribbean so we'll make the sacrifice ;) and buy those airline tix.

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

We live within an hour's drive of Port Everglades and the Port of Miami. We are about three hours from Port Canaveral. We are about four hours from Tampa. Yes, we are Diamond.

 

If the point is, however, that some reach Diamond because they don't have airfare to pay, that would assume several things, for example...that those who live close to ports NEVER fly to a more distant port in order to try itineraries such as Europe, or Alaska or Hawaii or go around South America. Such an assumption would be false in many cases.

[Vacation Boy]

Diamond member here....

 

We live about an hour and half from Galveston, on a good day that is.... Several cruises on Voyager, Rhapsody, and one on Spendour all from Galveston. The other Spendour, my first on RC, was from Miami.

 

I love having an RC ship close by, but sure wish RC would bring back year round cruising to Galveston. Carnival seems to be doing just fine with two ships, why can't RC?

[GlitterGirlFL]

My parents are in Port Orange, so a little over an hour from Port Canaveral, a couple of hours from South Florida, and they're Diamond Plus on RC. They're retired and take advantage of a lot of last minute deals.

 

Jules --We are also Diamond Plus DH and I and travel with a group of retired adults every September out of Port Canaveral now on the Freedom why not join us we have a group on the Sept 20 and 27 back to back Balcony around 900 pp we love to meet new people

[pumkinsmom]

We are diamond and live from 2-3 hrs from any of 4 ports. Close to half of our cruises have been out of San Juan.

[Niwel]

We're about 30-60 minutes from San Pedro (new home of the Mariner, former home of the Vision and the Monarch)

[Cruzin Carol]

D+ and 90 minutes from San Pedro but you can only do so many mexican cruises!

[kathy&bob]

We live10-15 miles west of KSC. 35 mins to Port Canaveral, 3 hrs to Jax, 4 or 5 to Pt Everglades or Miami, 1 1/2 to Tampa. Used all but Jax, had no shame in using SOS to get us to Diamond, and used it a few months later on Mariner, before she went to Ca, our favorite ship..

 

We try to stay local, but went to Explorer out of Bayonne Sept 07 ( New England, Ct, NS,, NF,Me and Ma and going to Ak in May on Serenade. Not to mention Carnival a couple times.

 

Airfares right now are great, go for what you what.

 

Bob & Kathy

[rascalious]

Diamond, and live in West Texas. We can fly to Houston/Galveston in about an hour to Houston Hobby and another hour drive to Galveston. That being said, we usually fly to Florida or San Juan for a Caribbean cruise. We have only done two cruises from our "home port" of Galveston.

We will fly to LA for our cruise on the Mariner in Sept. and fly to Ft. Lauderdale for our Enchantment cruise in July.

[rednancy1]

We're Diamond +, retired and live in Las Vegas. We can drive to San Pedro in 4-5 hours. But we also fly a lot to cruise other areas. :)

[MCManders99]

I live 30 minutes from Port Canaveral, 2 hours from Tampa, 3-4 hours from Ft Lauderdale/Miami but never been on an RCI cruise yet. The first will be aboard Freedom in Dec from Port Canaveral. I would love the chance to jump on a short cruise from PC but financially not possible. We book over a year in advance, once a cruise is over, we start saving for the next. We don't book until we figure we have enough money to.

[CVU]

We have a 10 minute drive to the port but the ship only goes to Alaska!:(

 

So, we fly great distances to get onto our ship and have not had a cruise shorter than 10 nights as we have to fly so far.

[snausman]

We are Diamond Plus. We live in Iowa so we fly to every port. We live right on the Mississippi and sometimes in the Mississippi.

 

Laura

[Ladylouwho]

ten minutes to ft laudedale and thirty to miami. Hence we have cruised ourselves into diamond plus. We go on a three nighter every time there is a three day weekend, longer ones when we have the time.

 

luckeeeeeeee!!!!!!

[rubrrick]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post on the site and was curious about where some of the frequent cruisers live. I live in Denver and the majority of my vacation expense is the airfare for getting to Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, or the like.

So I was wondering, how many of the frequent cruisers have the advantage of living close to the port?

 

Thanks!

 

Doug..........it took 11 posts for anyone to say..........Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

Now.........many posts later...........I wanted to say the same thing.

 

We have an 8 hour drive from our home in Arizona to the nearest port.......being either San Diego.....or Los Angeles.

 

And........it's an hour ........acutally just 48 minutes by jet. Then when you have to check in 2 hours before flight time.......then 45 minutes after landing to get your luggage......then another 15 to 20 minutes to catch the cab............for a 35 minute ride to San Pedro dock..........which all adds up to about 4 hours.........and the cab ride from LAX to San Pedro is about the same price as I pay for gas.........round trip.......I'm starting to drive more than fly.:)

 

Rick

[love2relax]

1 hour to Los Angeles, 1.5 hours to San Diego (but those times are only when there is no traffic)

I really wish that I lived in Florida for its proximity to cruise ports, but I love California. I just wish we had an itinerary more like the Caribbean or Bahamas than the Mexican Riviera.

[cruisegirl1]

My husband always says (in jest) that when they give out the prize for most cruises ( or credits - I never know which it is) that they should give one for those in Florida and one for those out of state. We have to drive 8-12 hours or fly to port.

 

 

If I lived near a port in Florida – I would be on the Monarch or Majesty once a month!

M

[big al]

45 min from FTL,70 min from Miami,2 hrs. 45 min from Port Canaveral-not bad,huh?

 

Big Al

[Tanker4]

One hour from Tampa, two hours from PC and we're working on D+:)

[constantcruiser]

We reached diamond before RCI ever brought a ship to Galveston, which is about a 5-hour drive for us. We flew to either the East or West Coast or San Juan (with 2 kids) once a year for a family cruise vacation. We could never afford a suite or a cruise longer than 7 nights, so it took us years to reach our current status (2 credits away from D+). But if RCI decides to deny Diamond members access to the concierge lounge, we'll never make it to the top...because we'll be starting the long climb all over again on Princess or Holland-America.

[rclcruzer]

Just made Diamond...one hour from Port Canaveral, two from Miami.

Gotta love it! :)

rclcruzer- you will love the Mariner!!

 

Gail

do love Mariner...already been on her :p