baltodave

We booked this one as well. Originally, we were on Rhapsody the same week in the Panama Canal but when Rhapsody's itinerary changed, we "jumped ship" to Odyssey.

Just got email from RC. New itinerary: Colon- 2 sea days- Curaçao- Aruba- sea day - Colon. Same ship. I’ve seen some articles that because of a drought in Panama, Canal is limiting boat traffic there.

I emailed Michelle from MEI and she's looking in to it. We're hoping it's some sort of glitch and they pop back up. Currently, if you search for cruises departing Colon you only see some round trips that go to Southern Caribbean and one repositioning that goes from Colon to Ft Lauderdale (via So. Carib.) Fingers-crossed this is another mistake from RC's crack IT team.

WTF!? We had already booked hotels!

We use A2S when traveling out of the US. Otherwise we usually fly SWA since they have so many flights from BWI (our home airport) to Florida and the Caribbean. Here's the one bad thing about A2S: We wanted to make a slight change (to get a shorter connection) on an outbound flight but leave the return alone. The only thing A2S could do was to rebook everything so we had to leave it alone. On the positive side (as another poster mentioned), if there's a problem they will rebook you. On our recent flight to Vancouver, Air Canada screwed us (long story) and at around 2am, A2S was able to rebook us on another airline. Basically, A2S saved the day!

On our recent Alaska cruise, we used A2S and flew to Vancouver via Toronto. Looking back, the only advice I would give is to avoid Air Canada.

We are taking Mariner 9/29 - 10/7 and booked Cruise Control Transportation to take us from MCO to Port Canaveral and back. We are staying at an MCO-area hotel the night before the cruise so they are picking us up at the hotel the morning of 9/29. Our flight home (out of MCO) is on the afternoon of 10/7 so they are taking us from the cruise terminal to MCO that day. Since it's just the wife and me, this option is way cheaper than Uber/Lyft and gave us the flexibility of picking us up at the hotel the morning of embarkation and taking us back to the airport on disembarkation day.

To be honest, Alaska Tour & Travel was not cheap and Michelle was not familiar with them. That being said we had a great experience with them. 2 full days at Denali a wonderful "Wilderness Express" train to Anchorage. Alaska Tour & Travel arranged all the hotels. Since we had a night flight out of Anchorage, we just booked a separate one-day tour through Viator on the last day.

We took the reverse in June and loved it (7 night Radiance northbound Vancouver to Seward). We booked a 4 day land tour with a different company (Alaska Tour & Travel) afterwards and it was great. If your TA is the great Michelle C. from MEI, that's who we use, and she's wonderful. Anyway, to answer your question, Alaska Tour & Travel arranged for us to pick up a bus at Seward that took us to Anchorage (long ride). When we arrived in Seward, we were surprised that there wasn't anyone there yet to board the ship for the next cruise. We were told they were either still on buses or the train. Have a great time and hope the weather is a great as it was for us. Radiance was a great ship for Alaska!

Where did you hear that? If true, it would be awesome!

Wow, I've never seen a roulette wheel with just a single 0. I believe they have single and double 0's. Much to my shagrin, I've been to casinos that also have triple zeros (but don't think I've seen that on cruise ships).

@twangster I learn so much reading your posts! Thanks! and hopefully, I'll get a chance to meet you in Panama in March.

Great post @twangster ! I've also heard that the further north you go (e.g. Alaskan cruises) , the weaker the signal. @twangster: care to comment?

Here's my advice: It's certainly "R" rated and not for kids. Amazes me how many times I've seen parents bring their kids. It's hilarious. It's usually late (around 10:30PM). On Voyager (or larger) classes, it's in Studio B (the ice is covered). On smaller ships, in the lounge. If you need to, take a nap so you can stay up for it. You'll thank me later.

What pisses me off about Air2Sea. We booked Delta BWI-ATL-PTY down there and PTY-BWI on Copa for the return. I want to change the outbound Delta flight w/o touching the return. However A2S has to rebook everything at a higher price due to increase in Copa’s fare.

This is an interesting topic I raised with the captain of Radiance during our recent sailing. The issue is that the Voyager class ships (and larger) won't fit under the bridges in places like Baltimore and Tampa. In addition, (as @bobroo pointed out) there are some ports the larger ships can't go to. The captain of Radiance did point out that there will be another class (currently named "Discovery class") that will be built in 2025 or later. These will be smaller (but I don't know if small enough). On our recent Alaska cruise, we took Radiance and loved it. Last year, I was on Rhapsody (Vision class) for a Greek/Adriatic cruise and it was also great (one of my favorites was Montenegro). I'm not that interested in an "amusement park on water" and would rather experience the classic cruise experience and visit interesting destinations.

I wonder how many other folks are staying at the Crowne Plaza after the cruise. Maybe we can share a ride. There are 2 of us (wife and me).

We get a very similar policy with Allianz and also don't necessarily endorse them; just their service is very good. If you get insurance for each cruise, the annual policy is a better deal then insuring three separate cruises. So, even if you go on 2 per 12 months, it's a good idea since it will cover any trip that's at least 100 miles from your home. With one child in NY and another in Chicago, it's a no-brainer (we live in Maryland).

I love this idea!

Agree with the others about using a travel agent (TA). We used to use cruise.com (one of the big boys). Since they are so big, we got some extra perks like extra OBC. But a year or so ago, we switched to a TA with MEI and haven't looked back. With MEI, you might not get the extra perks, but the service is just fantastic.

We used Air2Sea to book our flights for this cruise. Our outbound is BWI-ATL-PTY on Delta and the return is PTY-BWI on Copa. We'd like to modify the outbound flight so our connection is not so long -- on the same airline-- (plus it appears that Delta has reduced the price slightly). The problem is that Copa has increased the price of the return a lot. We don't want to touch our return flight on Copa but A2S claims they have to rebook everything (which would cost us a lot more money). I looked into cancelling everything and booking on my own but the price would be even higher. Any suggestions?

We decided to book the Crowne Plaza close to the airport for one night after the cruise. (since we have a morning flight out of PTY on Sunday, March 24). Therefore, we are looking for a tour of the city that leaves from where we disembark in Fuerte Amador and drops us at the Crowne Plaza or airport (of course, with our luggage). Anyone have any suggestions?

Looks like for transfers we have options. I did an Uber estimate from the PTY airport to the Waldorf Astoria (WA) and it should be less than $20. It's a bit longer from the end of the cruise (Fuerte Amador) back to the airport so that RC excursion that @smokeybandit mentioned might make sense. It seems the longest ride would be from PTY or WA to Colon and hopefully, MEI or RCB can arrange a van or bus.

They typically do but I usually plan my own ride ahead of time; RC's prices are usually way out-of-line. In the case of this cruise, I'm waiting to see what others are doing (since so many are staying over)

If the Michelle at MEI is "Michelle Cunningham", she's on family vacay this week. Might want to wait until next week.