wstephensi

Charleston is a great city for a port call.  I've voiced much of my knowledge on a new port terminal.  Would anyone like to know something about Charleston?  

I grew up there, attended The Citadel and MUSC, was a city tour guide and horse cop.  I've flopped, boarded and stayed in many place down town.

Questions?

3 hours ago, KathyC said:

We visited Charleston earlier this year on Grandeur, loved it!  We'd go back for a land vacation, definitely.  The port area was pretty small, with not a lot of parking for a large ship.  It may be a good choice for one of Royal's smaller ships, like Majesty or Empress in the future.  I'm not sure though that there is enough parking for two ships to be sailing out at the same time.  But there may be more that I just didn't see.  Wasn't exactly looking for that at the time.  LOL 

You are correct.  There is barely enough for one ship.  Much of it in a gravel lot.  The plan for a new terminal would include a parking garage currently where the cargo terminal warehouses are.  With the advent of containerized shipping those warehouses are under used.

There are some other options.  A new cruise terminal could be built up the river in North Charleston.  It would remove many of the concerns of the SNOB's (Slightly North Of Broad Street), but would require buses and/or ferries to move passengers to downtown.  As it is now you get off the ship just a block (blocks in Charleston are very small)from The Market and can walk about anywhere you want downtown.

No work has been done on that solution to the best of my knowledge and would have to start from scratch.

I understand their concerns, but the plan calls for the new terminal to replace the existing cargo terminal.  Large cargo ships, trucks and trains are at the current terminal 24/7 along with large cargo cranes that cover the sky line. 

The issue went to the SC Supreme court this past summer.  I do not believe the court has issued a ruling on the current state permits. 

The Army Corps of Engineers permits are being challenged on the federal court side as well.

I believe it will happen, but may take several more years before ground is broke.

I live less than an hour away.  It would be nice to take advantage of some of those last minute cruise sales for a weekend trip.

Grew up in Charleston and live a short drive away.  I would love for RC to home port there.

The current very old passenger terminal is too small for many of the newer ships.  Currently, Carnival Sunshine is based out of Charleston.  The Sunshine replaced the Ecstasy in the last year or so.

There are plans to build a new passenger terminal with parking.  These plans have been on hold for many years due to obstruction by folks opposed to expansion of the cruise industry in Charleston.

Plans to widen and deepen the channel have been approved this month.  This improvement manly benefits the container-ship port as the current depth and width of the channel is good for most cruise ships.

I believe that Charleston will not see any other ships homeported until a new terminal with parking is constructed.

The old mayor was in favor of a new terminal, but the current mayor is not.

Not a problem.  Done it many times.

Never done the excursion.  But swam with a leopard ray once off the beach about 10 years ago.  Our last visit my wife and I stepped on a ray that was hidden under the sand just a couple of feet into the water off of Chill Island in the cabana section.  We both felt its tail whip our legs and both thought it was a small fish nibbling at our skin.  We were surprised to see the small sting ray, about the size of a dinner plate, swim away when we moved a couple of steps over.  

I hope they add one night to our double stop in 2020.  

Found a You Tube video and it looked like fun.  

We cruised in early Dec once and it was nice to see the ship decorated.

Seems like Santa visited the ship for the little one.  That was many years ago and may very from ship to ship.

Great reminders of our cruise on HOTS this past June.

Thanks for posting.

In general the winter in the south we see fewer insects.  I've never been to Coco Cay in Jan so I can not give you good intelligence.  

The old picnic style lunch on Coco Cay was bad with flies.  Like I said in a earlier post, I saw few if any flies in June with Perfect Day.

If you are truly worried, you could return to the ship for lunch.

I can confirm flies and mosquitoes on CoCo Cay.  In the past the flies were bad at CoCo Cay  and often complained about at the old style picnic lunch before Perfect Day.  Our visit in June was relatively bug free. There were complaints about flies following Dorian.  The storm washed up a great deal of sea weed that attracts and or breeds flies. 

I have seen a few flying insects ship board and even seen small birds on the ship.  

3 hours ago, Matt said:

This is an example of Royal Caribbean's algorithm working to balance supply and demand.

Essentially, too many people were booking up oceanview rooms, versus balcony rooms. As a result, the system began discounting balcony rooms to even things back out.

This automated pricing is more and more common on web based commerce sites.  True supply and demand economics at work.

As you may already know, You can book through RCCL.  It is costly though.

14 hours ago, YOLO said:

True, but they ruined it for themselves both too.  They will never cruise RCL again!  Can you imagine?  I got thrown off Freedom once.  Luckily, I was not banned for life...

Probably refused to leave on departure day.

Planning a New England/Canada cruise for our 30th anniversary in a couple of years.  Enchantment was our first cruise in '99.  The wife will be surprised.

Lobster night in MDR is a tail only, but usually all you can eat.  On my last cruise on HOS in June you could order a whole lobster in MDR off of the menu any night, but it was an up charge.

21 hours ago, Katrack said:

We stayed at the Pan Pacific hotel. It is attached to the port.  We thought it was perfect for our needs.

Ditto.

We always stay at the Residence Inn and Suites Cape Canaveral.  Many rooms/suites large enough for family of 4, good complimentary breakfast, port transportation and parking packages, close to Hertz, gas station, fast food, and a mile or less from the terminal.

3 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Hard to say since this is a hypothetical situation but my guess is the casino would open at, say, 6 or 7 PM like it does at other overnight ports (i.e. Bermuda).

I'm guessing here....It would be up to the Bahamanian laws on gambling and fees imposed vs revenue generated by the casino.  If the casino cannot be open and the revenue generated by it not replaced with revenue generated by an over night stay as the limiting factor in an overnight stay at Cocoa Cay.  Otherwise I see it as a win for guest and RCI.

I think it would be great to stay over night.  The possibilities for fun and entertainment are great.

What about the casino?  Would it be allowed to stay open if ship is docked? 

No issues on I-95 along southern section in SC.  Can't speak for the northern section around Florence, SC.

Sorry fro your disappointment.  

I play the free cruise Bingo every cruise and have been aware of this rule for some time.  The Bingo caller on my June cruise made sure to point this out before we started.

I'm still waiting to win that free cruise.

Jeremias was awesome on our cruise in June.  I got emails from him pre-cruise usually late in the evening.