Dan

I'm willing to bet most of them in the airport area have park and cruise/fly packages. Most Comfort Inn (and sister brands) in an airport area have park and fly packages, so I'd think you could do that for cruising too. I'd do a seach on travelocity for hotels within a couple miles of FLL, and start calling.

It's been years since I've been to Daytona, but isn't it something like a 3 hour drive or a bit more down to Ft Lauderdale? You may be able to board the ship shortly after arriving there.

They usually have a very good background tour on the ship's TV channels, played at various times throughout the cruise. For safety and security, they don't do the bridge and engine room tours anymore.

It actually came up a week ago. There is a post down the list from Aug 31st.

I've looked into these in the past, since we are right in the Great Lakes area, with downtown Toronto less than 2 hours drive. But I'm just not ready to spend that kind of money on a cruise yet. Plus I'm still in the "ship is the destination" mindset, and these definitely don't fit that bill.

I remember the arcade on the Grand Princess had an arcade card that was similar to a sign and sail card. It fed into a card reader on the game and deducted from the card the amount to play the game. You would "charge up" the card at a machine in the arcade using your sign and sail card and put a certain dollar amount on the arcade card. Not sure if this is how Carnival does it or even if this practice is used anywhere else anymore. Or maybe the card readers simply read and charge the sign and sail card directly now.

Regarding Cuba, I think the issues the US government has with Cuba are deeper than just with Fidel and Raul. I don't think it's simply a case of when they go, Cuba will embrace democracy and the US will end the embargo. I beleive there will be lots of turmoil there after Castro as people try to fill in the power void.

I would love to see a mega ship cruising the Great Lakes. Only problem is they can't get there. Quebec City is as far as the big ones can go, and Montreal is as far as the mid sized ships can go.

I think as more and more big ships come online, the lines will be relegating more and more smaller ships to shorter cruises, thus gaining use of many of those ports on days that weren't popular port days during a typical 7 day cruise. Instead of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday being the big port of call days, they will spread out more onto weekends as these shorter cruises take up those days.

But if you are good with money, which you likely would have to be to not use a credit card, then using a reward card would be a piece of cake to you. As Tori said up top, if you are spending the money anyway, might as well get something back for it. I figure I can use one piece of plastic, and have the money come right out of my bank account, or the other piece of plastic, let Mastercard pay for it, then pay Mastercard, and get something in return. You can really maximize points by having household accounts charged to your card, if the vendor offers this. I pay for my satellite, utilities and phone on my credit card. We are getting a pool put in this week. Now, we don't have the cash to pay for it upfront, so I was going to use my line of credit. Almost slapped myself before asking "Do you guys take Mastercard?" "Why yes we do" Cool. Might as well let Mastercard pay for it for a month, then pay it off with the line of credit, and still earn points. I'm trying to figure out how to use my Mastercard for my mortgage when it comes up next year LOL.

Many banks have travel credit cards that earn points good on most travel packages. My bank has a travel card that earns a point per dollar spent. 5000 points equals $75 in travel credit. They start you off with 7500 points for applying. The good thing then is you aren't stuck with certain brands. And you can pay the taxes with points if you wish. You can also look at cards that give cash rebates. Then you simply put that rebate in the bank and don't touch it until you are ready to use it for a trip. Then you know you won't get stuck with blackout dates and availability issues. It takes forever to run up enough on a credit card to earn any menaingful amount of points, no matter what type of reward plan you are in. You have to use the card for anything and everything you can, and you also have to be diligent to keep on top of how much you've charged, or you will get a nasty surprise when the bill comes in. My general rule of thumb is any purchases over $100, I go to my online banking and transfer that amount over to my credit card as soon as practical after making the purchase. That way when the bill comes in, it won't have a high balance.

I have said before, and at least I'm starting to get through to some of the cruise lines (like NCL). Call it a service fee, not a gratuity, because that is what it is. I would prefer they put it in the price of the cruise, but with such stiff competition, every dollar they can knock down their advertised prices is needed to sell cruises. A couple comments on what I've read above. I'm not exactly sure what tipping in the UK entails if $70pp for 7 days is too much. Considering the number of people getting a cut of that, I think it's cheap. You would barely cover tips for a week of food if you had to pay for every meal on that , let alone the room stewards. I think the idea of paying some of the "tip" up front assumes the stewards are incapable of doing their jobs otherwise. It's been reported in various online articles that cabin staff take it as an insult to have somebody hand them 20 bucks when they first meet and say "do a good job and there's more where that came from". Of course, most of these people come from cultures where pride dictates they do a good job, not a greased palm. Not to mention you can't hide a bad job on a cruise ship. If the staffer did a bad job, and only a good job for those who slip some greenbacks early, then word would get back and this person would be let go. And quite often, these so-called savvy travellers who think they just bribed the steward into giving extra special service with the promise of more later, end up stiffing the steward anyway. There has been mention of phone cards. That is a great idea, and shows you put a little more personal thought into the crew member's service. You just have to be careful which you buy, since not all cards work for all situations. I'm pretty sure, and you can check with the purser's desk when you board, that tips over and above the daily recommendation, are for the person who gets it, and doesn't go into the pool. What you can do is write a note and enclose cash for the amount of the card you wanted to buy. Say you didn't want to end up buying the wrong card. The crew member will know which card to buy. Plus, many crew members use cell phones or internet access now, instead of lining up at the 4 pay phone in port, so they could apply the cash to their phone bill or onboard internet accounts.

Yep, it's the Genesis project (not sure of they have actually named the ship yet). 220,000 tons and about 5400 pax, double occupancy.

Welcome home. Sounds like a wonderful cruise.

You got that right. If they attacked a ship carrying evacuees, then what Israel is doing now will look like a Sunday picnic to what will happen. Just heard on the news this morning that Canada has charted 6 ships to evacuate people to Cyprus.

We did 2 in 2001, but the second was because my wife got pregnant and we figured that would be it for a while.

If they don't charge a fee, and simply add it to your shipboard account like a purchase, then I would be taking advantage of that just for the rewad points on my credit card.

Ok, what trouble did you get in that you are trying to get out of now? LOL

I would decline on the basis there were 3 people in the party. And to be frank, although dining at the captain's table would be great for braging rights, we've only had one captain so far that I would be able to understand what I'm sure would be great stories LOL.

One misconception many people have is that by removing the auto-tip, and handing the money over, that the crew member gets to keep it all. They still have to pool it whether they get it in cash directly, or through the auto-tip process, and risk immediate termination if they don't pool it. It's only fair, since there are more than 4 people on the crew who had a part in your good service. My preference would be to just have it included in the fare, but we know that's not going to fly, so I like the auto-tip. I don't buy into the theory of that "personal connection", of handing the cash over in person. The crew member wants the cash, and doesn't really care how they get it. And they also think of it as an insult if you tip partially in advance, as if they wouldn't do their job in case you were going to stiff them.

I never even realized, until I heard some controversy on the Jim Rome show about some remarks Arison made at the victory party, that he owned the Heat. I wonder when that happenned, and why the Arena isn't called the Carnival Centre. Seemed funny having both arenas in the final named after American Airlines LOL.

MIAMI, June 23 /PRNewswire/ -- The NBA definitely has global appeal. That will never be more evident than when the Miami HEAT's National Basketball Association (NBA) Larry O'Brien Championship trophy embarks on an international cruise-ship tour beginning this weekend. Micky Arison, the Miami HEAT's managing general partner and chairman and CEO of global cruise operator Miami-based Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), will personally escort the coveted trophy to cruise ships operating from ports in South Florida, Italy and China. The tour kicks off Sunday, June 25, when Arison will display the trophy to guests, officers and crew aboard Carnival Cruise Lines' 2,794-passenger Carnival Valor while it is docked at the Port of Miami. On Monday, June 26, Arison and the trophy will board a transatlantic flight from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to Genoa, Italy, to tour Costa Cruises' new 3,000-passenger Costa Serena and Costa Concordia, and Carnival Cruise Lines' 3,006-passenger Carnival Splendor, all in various stages of construction at the Fincantieri shipyard in nearby Sestri, Italy. The next stop is Hong Kong for a two-day cruise to Shanghai aboard the 1,000-passenger Costa Allegra departing June 30, marking the debut of Carnival Corporation & plc's new Asian cruise venture, Costa Asia. Arison and the trophy then return to Italy for Costa Concordia's inaugural celebration, which begins with a special one-night cruise from Genoa to Rome, July 4-5. The trophy will then be on display during a special benefit concert on board featuring world-renowned tenor Andrea Bocelli, as well as during the ship's gala naming ceremony July 7 with international supermodel Eva Herzigova serving as godmother. The whirlwind tour will continue to a number of other cruise-ship destinations to be determined. Eventually, the trophy will be placed on permanent display at the AmericanAirlines Arena in downtown Miami. On the first leg of this globetrotting tour, Arison and the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy will have traveled more than 18,000 miles across three continents. SOURCE Carnival Corporation & plc

I should have added that those Royal Caribbean ships you mentioned have lots to do for people your age. The Freedom is brand new, is the largest cruise ship in the world, and has a few more new things going on that the Voyager doesn't have, but the Voyager is a destination unto itself also.

I think you'd be hardpressed to find a cruise on any of the big lines that doesn't have widespread age appeal. I was 26, my wife 25, when we took our honeymoon on Holland America. We had an awesome time, and in the 4 cruises since, 2 on Princess, 2 on Carnival, didn't really notice much of a difference in age ranges that we saw on HAL.

joanandjoe, if you're main dislike of larger ships is the number of people, I think you will be happy with HAL. For as much larger as they are, the Vista ships don't have proportionately more people than say, the Statendam or Rotterdam class ships. I beleive the double occupancy is 1848 off the top of my head. You take a similar sized ship like the Radiance Of The Seas, which carries about 4-500 more people, and I think that would be noticed. Not to mention HAL ships in general have fewer third/fourth bunks filled.