tonyfsu21

Can anyone recommend a place to stay close by the port? I prefer Hilton. Not sure about the area at all. Planning on arriving the evening before our cruise departs. TIA

@WAAAYTOOO- Check out Margaritaville Hotel on Hollywood beach. It's a great venue w/ tons of dining choices either in the hotel or on the boardwalk. You could always do a little gambling at the Hard Rock & stay @ Margaritaville!

Hyatt Pier 66 will be closed down by Sept. Developer to knock her down & build condos. Hard Rock is a construction nightmare as they are building the addition (glass guitar shaped hotel) and the outside area w/ all the great restaurants (including Martaranos) closed down until 2019. 

Congrats! I got off of Harmony a few weeks ago and your kids are going to love it! You will never want to sail a different class of ships again after sailing her. Ask away, I live in Fort Lauderdale as well if you have local questions as far as where to stay prior to cruise, activities, dining exc.

I'm imagining a replacement for that huge berth left vacant on Sundays w/o Allure.

Which ship replaces Allure on Sundays in Port Everglades????

"Really good reason" = RC annoyed that people (like my family) barge into our staterooms at 11am and pay no mind to the 1:00pm suggested time. Let's face it by 11am 90% of the rooms on the ship are good to go. It's just an added control measure from RC to let the cabin stewards have access to the hallways and clean up before the craziness.

Maybe it's just me and I don't like change and there's probably a really great reason for this... but this strikes me as a really annoying process.

Just got off Harmony 2 weeks ago. Let me clarify. Your sea pass card is no longer given to you in the terminal. You will find your cards in an envelope on your bed. The doors are propped open and you are greeted by your steward to accept the cards (after 1:00pm). You can still make purchases and these purchases are made with the bar code on your set sail paperwork that you print out prior to cruising.

We're in season here in South Florida. It's going to be tough to be under 150.00. In any case, try the Embassy Suites on 17th street causeway. It meets your criteria with the exception of pricing (most likely).

The slides are all enclosed.

Haha! It started out innocent enough until she needed 2 more people to fill up her van! They already drive on the wrong side of the road but she proceeded to barrel onto the sidewalk of the wrong-wrong side of the road into oncoming maniac traffic. Yelling "Atlantis Paradise Island"! Finally I told my wife to hand me $10 to cover the 2 spots so we could get outta the beeping horns and near misses. I was sitting shotgun and she called me her "co pilot". I can't help to wonder if co-pilot equates to co-conspirator for the potential vehicular homocide that took place moments later before the bridge? Oh well, that was a crazy ride!!! The best part is Big Mamas ability to continue on without the slightest interruption of her Bahamian History lecture as she is slamming into cars. This all happened before we even reached the toll plaza on the far side of the bridge. I hope a fellow forum member was in this van with us or knows of "big mama"!

Thanks Doug. I figured that might be the issue.

It was horrible! We were unable to move. The vacation as a whole was amazing but the stateroom situation was less than desireable. We were hoping in Nov the Loft will work out better. Thanks for the affirmation.

Anyone have experience w/ big mama? She's totally outta control. We literally side swipped a gentleman off the road and he drove into a bridge piling. She told us all the "he should have asked to move into her lane". We then clipped another cab on the bridge to paradise island and ripped the mirror off her van. I gave her a 20.00 tip & told her to get another mirror. Watch out for big mama and her big white van with 1 mirror.

Anyone with younger kids (4 and 1) have experience with the babysitting service? We have found that the balcony rooms are too small and have decided the only way we cruise is suite level +. We were literally tripping over pack & plays and toys. It was nearly impossible to get 2 young children asleep together in such a small cabin. Has anyone had a better experience w/ the loft? We were thinking about hiring the babysitting service from 9-12 every night. Thoughts?

Just got off the $1.3 billion dollar mega ship Harmony of the seas and it was amazing! This ship is top notch! I am really annoyed that the engineers did not extend the perimeter glass low enough to the ground in the ping pong area to avoid the balls from rolling under and all over the deck. Pretty crazy having to chase ping pong balls all over the sports deck. What a dumb engineering mistake!

Funny you bring this up. We just got off the Harmony of the seas. I bought the Voom service for 2 devices and my wife's iPhone 7 worked great never disconnecting. My iPhone 7+ disconnected every time I locked the screen and put in my pocket. Also important to note my wife could browse Facebook & send emails as well as picture texts to anyone. My phone would only allow me to text (no pictures). I could get emails but not send them. I could not update Facebook or browse safari. Nobody from the IT team on the ship could figure out why.

I have sailed both @ echo the comments from WAAAYTOOO. There is absolutely no substitute for sailing the Oasis class and I would highly recommend you give it a try.

As stated above, I do recall ordering bottles to the stateroom for a "fee". Can anyone confirm?

^^^^ this! The ship is lit up beautifully at night! We saw a shark swimming around the ship last time we were in Bermuda. Amazing to be there overnight!

@MNorris: the very first thing my entire family does when we get on the ship is go to Park Cafe for the amazing roast beef sandwiches! I seriously think they are the single best thing RC has to offer.

@WAAAYTOOO: oh no re: Wonderland! We are booked next week one night while on Harmony. I was afraid the food would be too weird. My wife is going to hate it. I hope the interesting beverage choices will overshadow the food!

@marc-

They may be giving SSN but not necessarily correct SSN's. There is no way to verify.

I believe they file a 1099 as per standard operating procedure. With that being said, w/o the winners SSN it's difficult to file....... I don't know anyone who divulges their SSN to a stranger.....