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Southern Waters

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Posts posted by Southern Waters

  1. On 9/25/2023 at 4:48 AM, tonyfsu21 said:

    March is an expensive month in Miami or Fort Lauderdale due to college spring break. The hotel prices will be 1-200% more than normal. 

    Some friends and I are on a cruise out of Miami on Feb 25; 3 of us are flying into FLL, the other 3 to MIA.  We'd like a hotel in the north Miami/south Ft. Lauderdale area that won't break the bank.  Matt's favorite in FLL (Marriott Ft. Lauderdale Airport) looks good and is definitely on the list, but I'd like to check out some a little further toward Miami as well.  Any suggestions?

  2. 21 hours ago, KristiZ said:

    Thanks.  I've been looking at the Parking Spot and others, including some hotels in the area that provide parking.  Love Field is a little steep at $13-25 per day unless you park uncovered further from the terminal. I just thought I'd see if anyone had personal experience parking in that area.

  3. We stayed at Travelodge by the Space Needle in June, with a group discount arranged by our TA.  Don't stay there!  It's in a good location but is badly in need of updating.  The beds in our tiny room were comfortable, and that plus the location is all it has going for it.  Faucet in our bathroom sink was almost impossible to turn off,  paint peeling around the windows, etc.  For about $250/night including taxes, it's a ripoff.  Two ladies from our group stayed at Doubletree near SeaTac for about $160 and they were pleased with it. I also have friends that stayed at Holiday Inn Express near SeaTac; it has a shuttle to the pier that I think cost them $15-20 each.

  4. On 7/8/2023 at 9:15 AM, Bowen said:

    It's very fast, we have a split every time, and without fail the passport lines are slower than the BC lines coming back from Galveston. We sailed in September, January, and April, part of the family used the BC line each time, they were through before the rest of us each time.

    I sailed from Galveston in 2018 with BC; embarkation and debark took about an hour each.  I sailed from there this past October with a passport.  Embarkation took  15-20 mins and we barely slowed down on debarkation.  I don't know how the process went for BC only, didn't notice.  Granted, the whole process has been streamlined since Covid but the staff at Galveston were awesome!

    Speaking of passport application wait times, I have a friend that has been waiting since March 28 for her renewed passport.  My first-time application in Feb 2020 only took 5 weeks.  Needless to say, I'm glad I don't need to renew for 6+ years!

  5. Our cruise on Ovation is a week from today.  As of this morning, the only show available to reserve is Spectra's Cabinet.  According to the May 11 cruise planner posted, other shows listed were "Live, Love, Legs", "The Beautiful Dream", and "Oh What a Night". The May 11 cruise was an 8-day with a different starting port and the itininerary was a little different, but I would expect that there will be one or more other shows on our cruise.  I'll keep checking daily but we may have to wait until after we board to book any more entertainment. 

  6. I think RCI should increase the number of ships with solo cabins available and adjust the fare accordingly.  A friend of mine was interested in going to Alaska on Ovation with us and was looking at booking a solo cabin. The ship actually has balcony solo cabins and there were still 3 or 4 available. But the price was around $2200, almost double what we each paid for our balcony cabin. The cabin is set up for one person and the passenger is being charged as though it's a double. I understand that the cruise line is looking at the bottom line and that's based on double occupancy,  but IMO these are solo cabins in name only.

  7. 21 hours ago, CruiseGus said:

    But there is sometimes a delay for checkin to become avalible on the app

    I can usually complete on the web site before it show up in the App

    We just did our check-in 4 days ago and since we were aiming for the 12:00 slot, I didn't drag myself out of bed at 2 AM (which is midnight in Seattle).  I did get up at 5:30 that morning and couldn't get through to check in on the app until 6:25, but had no problem getting the slot I wanted.  Guess no one is stampeding for those later slots 😆

  8. 3 hours ago, Bill80 said:

    yeah saw that. not so smart trying to fish from your balcony. i wanna fish in the ports....not from the cruise itself. 

    What was REALLY dumb was posting that video of him doing it.  I don't know if that's how Carnival found out about it, but him posting it might make others decide to do the same thing.  Carnival had to make an example of him to prevent that.

  9. 18 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

    They sell a lot of the slots online and then some people might cancel. Unlike show and dining reservations, they aren't holding back times. So it's going to be a 50/50 chance they may have available 

    I frequently look at the excursions offered for my cruise, checking prices, etc. and I've never seen North Star there.  For future reference, where in the app do you go to book it?  Nevermind,  I guess in the activities tab.

  10. I'm on Ovation in June and want to do North Star; I don't have a preference about doing it in port or at sea.  One of my friends wants to do it at sea but in the app it's showing that it's sold out.  I'm wondering if it's really sold out or are we only able to book it when we're on board?

  11. I had a similar issue for my upcoming cruise.  I booked WiFi for one device during BF sales for $13.99/day.  It showed that I could buy it for an additional device for $11.99/day.  About 2 months later, my roommate decided she wanted to get it.  This offer was still showing on my purchase history page, but when I clicked on it,  the offer was for $19.99/day.  I called RCL customer service and the agent had me send him a screen shot that also showed the current date and time.  He called me back the next morning and told me that his manager did an override in order to give us that $11.99 price because it was clearly offered and RCL honored it.

  12. 15 minutes ago, ScottD said:

    Its so weird...this seems to go both ways. We were never ONCE asked to fill out the surveys...one time we mentioned that we thought someone was doing a great job and appreciated them and she said cool, make sure you fill out the survey and point that out. But that was it...never asked us to make it a 10 and no one else ever mentioned the survey to us. 

    This has been my experience on the 2 cruises I've taken.   I was never asked by any staff about filling out the survey.  I've been fortunate to have excellent service and tipped our wait staff and cabin attendant extra $ and made sure to mention them by name in the surveys (I take their picture, paying special attention that their name tag is readable).

  13. 18 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

    Blasphemy. I usually gain roughly 10 lbs. on a 7-nighter, lol. Several pounds are water weight but still.

    The scarier part is that I also try to use the stairs as much as possible. 🤣

    Fortunately I’m a thin guy & it doesn’t take long to lose most of it back.

    The word "skinny" doesn't apply to me LOL.  I just tried to eat low carb except for my once daily lava flow mocktail.

  14. 28 minutes ago, Xaa said:

    I haven't sailed her, but I'm pretty sure Ovation has Sorrento's in the Esplanade on deck 4 like other quantum class ships

    You're right!  I just looked at the dining options on Ovation and Sorrento's is there.  What's funny is that now I can't find the "pizza delivery" that I swear I saw just the other day.  I'm glad to see I was wrong; guess I'm losing it 😆 

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