tonyfsu21

On 1/4/2020 at 3:37 PM, bobroo said:

This comes from the mouth of an idiot but on a serious note, why doesn't RCL create a gondola-like mode of transportation (just like a ski lift) to/from an airport to a cruise terminal??? In a circumstance where they are very close together like Fort Lauderdale or San Juan or Tampa.

Explain it off to the public that RCL is taking responsibility for it's passengers, reducing traffic congestion, eliminating chaos at the cruise terminal, and they are Saving Waves by reducing emissions on a meaningful scale. 

In comparison to other recent RCL projects like making their pier in Miami 200' longer, their new corporate headquarters, or "amplification" of an already existing revenue generating ship; some gondolas, some cable, and some access to public ROW would be comparatively cheap. At this point in time RCL spends hundreds of millions of dollars on each of many infrastructure improvements. A guy would like to think they wouldn't bat an eye to a cheap one that took responsibility for their passengers.

Of course RCL would charge for the ride, just please God don't make it more than the cost of my flight.

 

But I'm not very bright.... 

In Fort Lauderdale it would be more cost effective to pay the aliens to deliver passengers from FLL to the port in their flying disc. The only conceivable route would be the Dania cut off canal but there are 2 major obstacles with fixed bridges at US1 and also the FEC railroad fixed bridge rendering it unnavigable to anything of significance (especially at high tide). Taking into consideration Fort Lauderdale’s premium on land located near water it would cost billions not millions to replace a $6 Uber ride.

1 hour ago, steverk said:

Please don't be offended. Nobody is insinuating anything.

There's been a lot of false hopes over the last year and everyone just wants to be sure before investing their emotions in this.

Everyone is pleased and excited about the possibility. Thank you for sharing. 

I don’t get offended by anything so no big deal. 

On 4/24/2021 at 9:52 AM, smokeybandit said:

I'm skeptical, but for a minute let's assume it's true.  What would it mean?  We know cruising isn't starting until July at the earliest no matter what happens with the CSO.

 

Having crew stateside in April really would only make sense to get them vaccinated. Too early for cruise ramp up otherwise.  We already know from the vlogs that crew have had their deployments postponed.

Is there any idea how many foreign crew are legally living in the USA already? It would seem quite cost prohibitive to come to the USA just to get vaccinated, both for the individual and cruise line. But then again anyone in the USA should have easy access to vaccines at this point.

Let me know what your skeptical about and I will try and get some answers. Are you insinuating my contractors (whose livelihood depends on me) are feeding me false information? Not a single one of the dozens that are on my payroll for 10+ years even know that we cruise so they have no motives. They told me the hotel and others around it are filled with presumably crew from both RC and Carnival. 

1 hour ago, Matt said:

Interesting. How confident are you in their report?

Fairly confident. I drove by and there are few cars in the parking lots which makes total sense considering the crew wouldn’t have cars. 

My contractors who are staying on state road 84 in Fort Lauderdale are telling me that the hotels are filled to capacity with Royal Caribbean and Carnival crew. Possible assembly prior to restart? 

The Casino Royale as a whole is unorganized and frustrating especially when dealing with the players program. There is absolutely zero consistency across the fleet. 

Parking is easy at the new terminal. The way in is much easier then the way out though so be prepared. The elevator at the garage bottlenecks and holds everyone up. Significant delays most of the time during the high traffic hours of disembarkation. 

Ok, I figured if NCL adopted that rule then RC would soon follow. I’m really hoping the kids can still sail when we cruise in Nov (provided any ships are sailing). 

If sailing resumes with fully vaccinated crew & guests I would assume those of us with younger kids are going to be left out for the foreseeable future? I guess for some this is an ideal situation but it will certainly take the family out of family vacation. 

16 hours ago, UNCFanatik said:

Why do people feel thanksgiving is the best week to cruise? Please elaborate 

Holiday sailing vibes, best use of company vacation days since many get Thurs/Fri off + The RC Blog group cruise.

Roll it to Thanksgiving which IMHO (and many others on the blog) is the best week to cruise!!

On 3/24/2021 at 3:39 PM, monctonguy said:

Wow....that's insane....I mean, I may have pretty much thought and said it...but I was even holding out hope I was wrong.....

My streak seems to be intact.......:(

Makes me a little worried for our Nov cruise...its alot of planning and $ to tie up in hopes that 7 days after the CDC lifts we are good to go.....

Exactly. They would have a tough time ramping up to 100% in 1-2 months let alone 7 days. It looks like 2021 could be out. 

Not intending to highjack the thread topic but have you considered deck 17 lofts? IMHO it’s the best spot to be on an oasis class ship. Your perched up high & the suite lounge + CK are on the same deck. Not to mention the lofts are great options for suites.

19 hours ago, tonyfsu21 said:

Broward County has not been sleeping during the global pandemic. They have used this time to upgrade and build at Port Everglades. The convention center and a massive hotel are well underway. The Dania Beach area has had several major chain (budget) hotels built in anticipation. Downtown Fort Lauderdale is in the midst of a construction boom as well. When operations resume, Fort Lauderdale and it’s port will be ready. Port of Miami while nice can’t handle everything. Port Everglades is # 2. Based on what I am observing, RC needs Port Everglades more then Port Everglades needs RC. 

Exhibit A:

24 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

One we had a family and started family cruising, we tried both RC and NCL. Had no interest in Disney due to the outrageous costs.  No real interest in Carnival after some pre-kid cruises on it.

 

Did one on RC, liked it. Then tried NCL. Nothing wrong with it in general, just the employees just didn't seem nearly as enthused about their jobs than on RC (except for the one bartender we frequented. he was great). We've done RC ever since.

Think about giving CCL another try. The new ships have so many options for kids & adults. I made the mistake of associating CCL with our pre-kid days partying in college and swore it off for many years. We tried 3 of the new ships and short of an RC Oasis class option I prefer CCL. We find that the new ships with 7+ day itineraries have the same vibe as RC with even better dining options and activities. 

1 hour ago, emmef said:

I've sailed both Royal and NCL.  One thing that I have noted is that if you aren't careful, NCL will nickel and dime you to death.  My experience has also been to watch prices on excursions. I really like Royal, and have several cruises booked with Royal, but I also have a 2023 cruise booked with NCL. The itinerary for that particular trip was hard to pass up (ABC islands during Spring Break) and they had some great specials running for airfare. 

100% true. All the “pick 3 free” items you get to pick as part of your cruise fare end up costing a significant amount of money in taxes and fees. 

Broward County has not been sleeping during the global pandemic. They have used this time to upgrade and build at Port Everglades. The convention center and a massive hotel are well underway. The Dania Beach area has had several major chain (budget) hotels built in anticipation. Downtown Fort Lauderdale is in the midst of a construction boom as well. When operations resume, Fort Lauderdale and it’s port will be ready. Port of Miami while nice can’t handle everything. Port Everglades is # 2. Based on what I am observing, RC needs Port Everglades more then Port Everglades needs RC. 

I have 44 years under my belt in East Fort Lauderdale. 20 of which I have been staring at the Port Everglades from my living room. Broward County is investing heavily in Port infrastructure to accommodate more large passenger & cargo ships as well as hotels, roads, new terminals and parking. As with everything else, it’s all about politics and money. RCL will be back in full force once they suck the life out of the port of Miami. Big things will happen once cruising is back in full operation mode! 

I have 2 young children (4 & 7) and we only do speciality dining for dinner. It’s never been an issue at all, ever. 

13 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

I'm surprised how many normally reputable hotel chains get subpar reviews in Nassau.

I’m not surprised at all. I wouldn’t stay at a Ritz Carlton in Nassau. Give it a try & report back. I’ve been way too many times and experienced the hotel service across the board from your average Hilton to the Baha Mar resort and the service is the same everywhere. You can’t evaluate this based on a resort day pass alone.

1 hour ago, Floski said:

Yesterday I was out drinking some fab Charleston craft beer, when I met up with 2 ladies who work with Norwegian.  

After the "I'm loyal to Royal" and then the frowns, I told them that I was totally happy with Royal and have no desire

to cruise any other line (of course, we all agreed on Carnival).   They told me that I was missing out and that NCL was

a great line and much cheaper than RC.

When I mentioned that my next cruise was in 19 weeks, aka 01 Aug, they both agreed that "that sailing will never happen".

They both suggested I re-book, regardless which line I re-up for.   I said "why don't y'all just let me go grab a big stick and

y'all can beat me to death?".   I really need this cruise.

One of them said that she would even offer me her "friends and family" discount on NCL, so I went over last night and 

tried to peruse their sight.  It might as well have been another language, as I had no idea what I was doing.   All I know is

that I want to travel out of Port Canaveral, but there were only 5 cruises from there.   

 

What do y'all think?  If you've been on Norwegian (Escape appears to be the only PC option), do you think it's a decent

alternative?   I'm not sure what kind of discount I'll get.   I don't mind trying, but it better be awfully enticing to make me

not take a Royal ship.

If you take the Oasis class out of the equation they are all the same budget cruise lines with minimal differences between the big 3. I think you might find Carnivals newer ships at least as good or better then NCL and RC. I’m somewhat loyal to Royal but wouldn’t hesitate to take an 8 day Southern Caribbean route on a newer CCL ship or a 7 day in the Haven suites on NCL. They all have good & bad attributes. 

IMHO the Bahamas and their government is a complete cluster f***. I can’t imagine getting stuck on the island for an extended period of time and the possibility of not being able to return to the US if there were COVID related issues on the ship. This is a 100% no go for us. 

30 minutes ago, JeffB said:

We've lived in S. FL for 8 years mostly in Fort Lauderdale. We're now in Cocnut Creek about 20 minutes north. On Thursday, we were part of a group that gathered on the Carrie B that does a tour along the New River. This river passes through central Fort Lauderdale and branching off of it are multiple canals. The New River enters into Port Everglades and you can access both the intercoastal waterway and the Atlantic Ocean from the Port Everglades Cut.

We toured past multi-million dollar homes and mega yachts and had that very same look pictured above as we turned around and headed back West bound - an empty cruise pier and terminal. I cried.

That emotion stokes a good deal of my posting here. I know others are frustrated too so, I feel like I have a friendly ear to complain to. But we could be out of the woods with COVID globally barring some of the silly, non-science based policies affecting the cruising life we love. If only .....   

I know the Carrie B very well! I was stuck behind her this afternoon on the way up the river. There’s only one thing worse then being stuck behind the Carrie B and that’s the Jungle Queen. The captain on the Jungle Queen stops for nobody, if your in the way you are going to get hit. 

Port Everglades looking sad & empty. Looking forward to the return of the cruise ships!