Vacation Crazy

1 hour ago, Joe01 said:

Booked Harmony.

Still unsure to be honest. My gut is telling me that I made the wrong decision.

Go with your gut.  Sounds like you might be at the point of "been there done that".  We hit that point and wanted new experiences.  We have 2 first time cruises booked...an Alaskan and a Southern Caribbean.  The excitement of new ports is great!!  Good luck!

I'm a big price watcher.   Watching airfare and cruise fare prices are like watching the stock market...... lots of ups and downs!! 

1 hour ago, Sweety said:

Just brought my air fare on Southwest for my August cruises. Fare are up until October 1st.

Thanks so much for the tip!!  I had the release date of 2/7/19 circled on my calendar to book our Southwest flights.  I just booked our flights to Seattle for August.   So excited for our Alaskan cruise!  Having your flights booked just makes it feel so much closer. 

@lauraodonnell86   Thank you so much for the feedback and pics.  We have 9406 booked.   I looked into the aft balconies on a lower deck and they were triple occupancy.  A couple of questions.  I have read aft balconies can be very sunny.  It looks like deck 9 has very little overhang for shade??  Also, did you feel a lack of privacy with the upper decks looking down on you?   Thanks again!  Jane

On 12/30/2018 at 11:51 PM, lauraodonnell86 said:

We have cabin 9404 booked on Freedom in 3 weeks! I will try to take some photos and come back to report

Hope you had a great trip!  How did you like your aft balcony?  We are in a deep freeze here.  I'm dreaming of our Southern Caribbean cruise!!

No emails here either.  Just think of the technology on the ships yet they cannot figure out how to email their customers.   Ugh!!!!!

We just started playing too. I'm hoping it is a win-win situation.  We'll get some free OBC and be so sick of slot machines we will stay away from them once on board.  Oh.....who am I kidding!!!

On 12/29/2018 at 11:51 PM, JasonL said:

Barbados has such perfect white powder sand beaches. I've only done The Boatyard, but we absolutely loved it. The beach is deep and the sand perfect. They have water toys to play on and a rope swing off the pier. Volleyball nets, music ect...  For a beach day we loved it.

We decided on The Boatyard when we are in Barbados.  It looks like a boat tour to a shipwreck and snorkeling with turtles are included too.  Can't wait!!

5 hours ago, lauraodonnell86 said:

We have cabin 9404 booked on Freedom in 3 weeks! I will try to take some photos and come back to report

We have the cabin next door 9406.  It will be great to hear your feedback!  Have a wonderful trip!

Have a great trip.  Ringing in the New Year at sea......what could be better!!!  

We have our first aft balcony booked on Freedom (deck 9).  Watching the wake is so peaceful!   My only concern may be lack of privacy and shade.  It looks like the upper decks can look down on the balconies and they are very sunny.   Any feedback on this?  Thanks!

Just now, Matt said:

We took our kids to Craigdarroch Castle and Butchart Gardens earlier this year (they were 7 and 3). 

On my live blog, I noted:

The gardens were beautiful, but super crowded and I'm not sure my kids enjoyed it that much.  The highlight as I recall was buying them popcorn.

We have teenage boys so the castle, garden and tea excursions they offer are probably going to be out.  We will come up with something.  If it makes you feel better I'm sure they really loved that popcorn!!   

15 hours ago, Ron Max said:

I live in Victoria.  A few suggestions are: 1. Bug Zoo 2. Miniature World 3. Beacon Hill Park (petting zoo) 4. Harbour ferry or Water taxi tours of the inner harbour 5. Fishermans wharf - real close to Cruise Port. 6. Walk to the end of Ogden pier (where the ship docks) 7. Go whale watching.  8. Royal BC Musem (quite interactive)and IMAX. All these are very close together.

We are trying to decide what to do in Victoria in August.  We are leaning towards walking around Fisherman's wharf for the afternoon.  Do you know if you can still feed the seals?  I have read they may not be allowing that anymore.  Looking forward to visiting Victoria.  Thanks!

We did Bernard's tours when we were there in August. They offer different tour packages. We did the beach tour.  It was a great way see the island and learn some history along the way.  There was still quite a bit of hurricane damage and our tour guide talked a lot about the recovery process.  It was a great day!  Take a look at their website.    

On 10/23/2018 at 10:47 AM, Vacation Crazy said:

An Alaskan cruise on Ovation of the Seas--Aug 23, 2019.  Our first time to Alaska.  We are having so much fun "researching" this cruise.  304 days to go!!

Freedom of the Seas-May 24, 2020.  We will be celebrating our 25th anniversary!   

We stay at the Holiday Inn express on 17th St when we go out of Ft. Lauderdale.  They have a free airport shuttle service which is nice.  The sun trolley stop is located right in front of the hotel.  We hop on the sun trolley and head to the beach area for dinner.  The sun trolley is $1/person each way or $3 all day.  The hotel has a shuttle service to the port which is expensive. We call a taxi for around $10 for the quick  trip to the port.  

1 hour ago, tiny260 said:

We have cruised out of San Juan 2 times recently 2015 on Adventure and on Freedom in October, I have no complaints, I find the people and the island very refreshing. We will be stopping there in January as a port stop and i have no doubt we will have a great time. The people of Puerto Rico are very festive and lively, go with the flow.

We hired a driver to take us from the airport to the hotel in October, good to the companies word the driver was waiting by the baggage claim waiting for us, we had a very nice conversation about the island and the recovery from the hurricane, anyway our bags came and the driver didn't appear to want to help and I didn't hire a porter, so I'm a big strong guy, no problem, off to the car we go, as soon as we crossed the street the driver grabs the bags and hauls them down to the car and loads them, he explains to us that he couldn't touch the bags in the terminal or he would have been black balled by the porters, different culture, different rules.

Long story short we liked the guy so much that we hired him to drive us from the pier to the airport, we told him to be down stair at 9, we made it through customs really fast (I hired a porter this time) and I was worried that we would have to wait on the driver, so I was in the process of texting him when we walked outside, about 8:40, the driver was right there waiting on us.

Needless to say but I tipped him extremely well.  

So take the reviews for what they are, someone else's opinion...

1 hour ago, tiny260 said:

The people of Puerto Rico are very festive and lively, go with the flow.

All I read was go with the lava flow!  I'll have no problem doing that.  We will be on our anniversary cruise and first cruise without the kids.  Thanks for the feedback.  

8 hours ago, mom2mybugs said:

We loved cruising adventure out of San Juan.  It was my husband's first cruise and exploring Sam Juan the couple days before the cruise was amazing.  Loved El Morro and old San Juan.  We did cruise before the hurricane damage but I would definitely go back and looking forward to having San Juan as a port stop in March on allure.  Jane

We were there in August.  Old San Juan has recovered nicely from the hurricane.   I have a southern Caribbean cruise on hold for May, 2020.  It will be our 25th Anniversary cruise. We decided last night this is our trip!!  I will stop reading reviews.  Like I said some people find anything to complain about.  Enjoy your upcoming cruise.  

Thanks from one Jane to another!!

10 hours ago, BeatArmy2010 said:

San Juan is one of our favorite ports to leave from. You are already in the warmth. The old town is great...

the only complaint I've ever had is one the taxi driver left us at the Celebrity ship when we were going on Royal Caribbean or maybe it was vice versa...

plus if you sail out of San Juan, you're helping that island recover from the hurricane.

we will be there in less than a month!

Thanks for the positive feedback!  Enjoy your trip!!

We are looking at a Southern Caribbean cruise on Freedom OTS leaving from San Juan.  We have been to San Juan a few times(port stops) and absolutely love it!  I was surprised to read negative reviews about leaving out of San Juan. I always take reviews with a grain of salt because some people find anything to complain about.  Any feedback about this would be appreciated??   

Gotta love random price drops!!  I checked mine this morning but I'm going to check again!  

I'm looking at this program as a positive addition.  We stay in ocean view balcony staterooms.  It may give us the opportunity to stay in a junior suite someday for a reduced rate.   I priced a junior suite for our next cruise and it was $5,200 more than our ocean view balcony.  This thrifty girl could not justify that price(and I'm a compulsive price watcher)!!   I'm hoping this program may make upgrading more obtainable because the upgrade fairy has never come knocking at our door!

1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Where's the whirling dervish ?  LOL

Or as my kids call him "The twirly guy".  I was looking for him in the pics too. He puts on an amazing show.  

36 minutes ago, Matt said:

Ovation is definitely sailing Alaska again in 2020

Thanks.  That is exactly what I wanted to hear.  We are booked on Ovation to Alaska for 2019.  We are now looking at Hawaii 2020 for our 25th anniversary.  We are definitely checking off our bucket list!   I guess the saying on here is YOLO!!! 

6 minutes ago, jce2 said:

And now the impatient waiting begins......only checked 8 times so far (today......)

 

Good luck!  I hope you get exactly what you want.