plasticmaster

In all honesty, I could drop my family and luggage at the terminal, park car at Park n Go, and walk back to terminal. It's only a 1 mile walk and I walk further than this for exercise before work every morning anyway. Anyone else done this?

Thanks Matt. What's the benefit? Does it save time? Less hassle?

I drove my own car from South Carolina to the Hampton Inn near Orlando airport. I chose this option because it was cheaper and had better reviews than the hotels near Port Canaveral/Cocoa Beach. I used the Go Port Canaveral parking package through the hotel and drove my car the next morning to their parking lot about 3 miles from the ship. This was a very pleasant experience all around and I would do it again. Hampton Inn was nice and clean. I believe they offered a shuttle service to the port as well for those who flew into Orlando and stayed at the hotel.

I'll be sailing on Independence in April from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale. I'll be leaving my car at Park N Go. Is it better to drop off my family and all luggage at the terminal before parking at Park n Go and have them wait for me while I park and ride the shuttle bus back, or better to go straight to Park n Go with whole family and all luggage? It will be me, my wife, and 2 teenage kids. Thanks.

Can someone tell me about the general times of the teen activities on Independence OTS? We're scheduled to sail on her in April and I'd like to book our My Time Dining reservations for dinner so as not to conflict with my kids planned activities. We did this last month for our cruise on Harmony and it worked great. There seemed to be a break in teen activities from 6-8pm, so that's when we went to dinner. This time worked perfectly also for activities that my wife and I had planned. Can I expect the same on Independence? I can't find a Teen Compass for Independence like I was able to find for Harmony. Thanks.

I sailed on Harmony a few weeks ago to eastern Caribbean and will be sailing on Independence next April to western Caribbean. Will the MDR menu on Independence have mostly the same items that I had on Harmony?

I've decided to stay overnight in Fort Lauderdale area the night before my cruise. I'll be driving in from SC. I'm looking for recommendations for a hotel that offers parking and shuttle to and from Port Everglades. Nothing fancy, just safe and clean and affordable package deal. Thanks.

I'll probably end up staying overnight near Ft. Pierce and then drive remainder on morning of sailing. I found some park and shuttle deals near the port.

I have family obligations the day before cruise and don't want to make the entire drive from SC to Fort lauderdale after leaving home later in the day. If I could save a couple hours of driving for morning of cruise, that would be better.

I'm looking into a cruise sailing from Ft. Lauderdale. I'll be driving down from SC the day before I sail and looking for hotel about 2 hours north of the port. I'm looking for parking and shuttle to cruise port also. Any recommendations? Last cruise, I stayed at Hampton Inn near Orlando airport and used their park and shuttle package through Go Port Canaveral/beach line parking and was very pleased. Is 2 hours north of Ft. Lauderdale too far to find a combo package like this?

I sailed on Harmony last week. This was my first cruise in 15 years. I remember midnight buffets with beautiful ice sculptures from cruises 15 and 20 years ago (Majesty and Explorer). They did not have the midnight buffet on Harmony. Is this something that cruises don't do anymore? Just wondering.

There were two scheduled sea days between St. Martin and Port Canaveral. What about St. Thomas, the day after St. Martin. Or 2 days in St. Martin since no cruise ship was scheduled to be there the next day. Or what about Coco Cay or Nassau instead of last sea day? It seems like any of those could have us back to Port Canaveral in time. It was still a wonderful cruise, just puzzling to me.

True. The rental car company in St. Martin told us there were no cruise ships scheduled to be there the day after us.

Just got off Harmony of the Seas on Sunday. Our stop at San Juan was canceled due to protests while we could visually see Puerto Rico from the ship. This was the correct decision. However, we were very disappointed that we did not stop anywhere else instead, especially after learning another ship was rerouted to Tortola. We proceeded very slowly to the next stop, St. Martin. It would have been nice to use the remaining 2 sea days to get in another stop. Therefore, our 7 night cruise had 2 stops and 4 sea days. Don't get me wrong, the ship is beautiful and we had a wonderful time. I just wish we could have gotten in another stop. Again, it was right decision, but disappointed we couldn't go anywhere else. Does anyone know why we did not call at a different port?

I just got off Harmony yesterday after a 7 night cruise. It was wonderful. Anyhow, I noticed all week that nice peaceful music was almost always being played over the ships speakers. However, during debarkation, I noticed that Metallica's "Enter Sandman" was being blasted in the Royal Promenade as we were leaving the ship. I'm not complaining as I like many genres of music including hard rock/ heavy metal. However, I'm wondering why such a stark contrast in music as we're leaving the ship? Is it to wake people up and make them hurry off the ship?