TheSkipper

Joey, I'll second your motion re: west coast cruises. There are some great beaches south of Acopulco that can't be reached in 10 days round trip. Twelve or even fifteen night would be great for those of us on the Left Coast. We are going to do the Carnival Spirit out of SD for eight nights down to Acopulco in January 08, but that's as far south as we can get.

I think you are correct that airfares will affect cruise bookings if they remain as high as they are at present. This is the very first time we have had a problem with Southwest and the problem is Spring Break in Florida. If I had it to do over I would have picked different dates. American Airlines FF miles worked great for our flight to and from Rome for our Legend of the Seas cruise in May-June. We can drive to LA or SD, but how many time can you do Mexico? :huh: Have friends who TRY to use Delta miles and have found it almost impossible. My BIL may cancel his Glory cruise with us if he can't find a decent flight from Phoenix to Orlando.

I fly Southwest a lot around the Western states on business, thus our free tickets. Can't think of a better way to fly to a cruise than to fly free! They are kind of a cattle car, but once on board are no worse than any other airline and they are one of the only airlines who is making money. What I hit was Spring Break in Florida, so shame on me for planning to go there at that time. Checked Orbitz and some of the other sights and flights to Florida at that time of year are filling fast and prices are through the roof. Oh well, got our tickets, not exactly what we wanted, but as I said above the price was right. :cool:

Just got our airline tickets for our March cruise aboard the Glory. Using Southwest frequent flyer points, but the selection for our return flight on March 31st is already lousy. Had to book a three stop local to get back to Las Vegas from Orlando. Roe's sister is looking at over $800 for the two of them from Phoenix and return. Thought I was getting this done in plenty of time -- WRONG! So check into you Air soon.

Will be heading into Cozumel in March, so glad to see your report Jason.

Welcome Aboard. We will not be on your cruise, but are sailing on the Glory on March 24th, so will be able to let you know anything you want upon our return.

No gift here either and we too are booked on Carnival in March and putting together a group cruise for January 2008 in the Spirit. They are shipping me a carton of brochures, maybe they will slip in a little something with that. Yea, right!

Wow! What a show. Watched every minute of it and loved it. May even download into my MP4 player and show it to some friends. Looks like you had beautiful weather although somewhat cool. What program did you use to assemble your presentation?? How did you like Santorini?? We fell in love with it.

This is truly a "nothing" stop. We did it last May. As you have heard you are tendered into the port in the evening. There are some tours which are drive through Panama City. Heard a lot of complaints about those as they we so pressed for time they just zipped through the city and back to the ship. When we stepped ashore the walkways were covered with thousands of huge dead bugs, must have just sprayed. So we crunched our way up to their "shopping center" which was a total waste of time unless you needed booze for your cabin. We strolled through the center, not buying a thing and back down to the tender pier and boarded the next tender back to the ship. Total time ashore about fifteen minutes. Hope this helps guys.

And the beat goes on. Almost all cruise lines are making hand sanitizer available. We always take clorox handy wipes with us and clean the telephone, remote control, door handles, safe dial and pretty much anything we can reach in the cabin. Have a despenser of hand wash with sanitizer in the bathroom and a supply of the little packets with us at all times. All it takes is one sick passenger for these things to start. I have to laugh at the questionaire they had you when you arrive at the port asking if you are sick. After flying across the country and spending all that money to go on a cruise, how many folks do you think are going to answer "yes" to that question?? The reports I've read sound like the worst is past on this sailing.

Wow, what great suggestions. Just copied all into MS Word so I can be sure and have them with us. No doubt we will doing your resturant in Rome. All I had to do was mention mushroom lasagna to my wife and it is on her must do list Thanks, again for all the imput!! I'll look through our records and find the resturant in Venice for you. It is in a hotel near St. Marks Square. We did Chatau Briand for two with a great local rose wine and enjoyed it so much we went back the next night and did exactly the same thing. Will get back to you with the info. No doubt we will have dinner there while the ship overnights in Venice.

Stephen, Love your suggestions and no doubt they woud save money, but you have never seen how my wife packs. Huge suitcases to the max international weight limit plus a couple of carry on types. A few years ago we did some trains in Europe and I damn near died trying to lift this junk into overhead racks. They totally blocked the isles so had to get them up. At 72 years old, I'm not going to make that mistake again. If she travelled like Rick Steves with a back pack or normal sized suitcase, I'd be all for it. We have been to Rome a few times before and done the Vatican and most of the normal tourist stuff. This stop over is mainly to get a good rest after the 18 hours of travel and try and feel human again prior to going to the ship. Thanks again for your interest and suggestions. Would love a suggestion of a good place for dinner in the area we are staying. As to Port of Call, we are planning to do Tuscany out of Lovorno, since we did Florence the last time. In Naples, it will be the Almalfi coast and Pompii as we did Capri the last time. Cannes, no plans yet, but we have done the Monoco thing. Portofino, no plans other than finding a great sidewalk cafe and people watching. Venice, we have stayed in several times and have our favorite spots and resturants. In fact there we not only know where we want to eat, but what we want to eat as well. Croatia is totally new for us, so if you have any suggestions for Split and Dobrovnik, I'd love to hear them. Joey, Can't wait to read your review. Our Rome trip begins in Las Vegas on May 29th, spending just one night in Rome and then sailing on the Legend of the Seas on May 31st for 12 nights. Thanks to all for your comments and suggestions.

Well, it looks like we have made our hotel reseverations. Took a suggestion from Rick Steves's Rome 2007 book and booked the Hotel Aberdeen at Via Firenze 48. It is looking like we will hire a private car for our transfer to the ship unless RCI comes up with something better. 120 Euros one way for the two of us is a real hefty price, but that's Rome these days.

Hi Gang, Just booked the Legend of the Seas.. And will be flying into Rome a day early. Looking for hotel suggestions for one night and any advise on how to get to the ship. Looking forward to suggestions from some of you who have made this or a similar trip. Thanks,

We did the air trip in and it was not bad at all. It is however, pricy. Plane was of Russian manufacture and we landing on a dirt landing strip right next to CI. Flying in gives you plenty of time to see the sights, guided tour was included. Flew back to Cozumel with plenty of time to spare. We were sailing aboard Celebrity Mercury at the time. But, if you want to play it safe and save some $$ Tulum is great.

Really interesting. Includes info on all the ships which sail out off Lauderdale including pictures of them and a full year calandar of when they sail. Thanks for the link,

Let's see, 9 Carnival Cruises, 12 RCI, 20 Princess and 7 Celebrity. So, based on bookings Princess seems to be our favorite. However, our next two cruises are with Carnival and RCI. Go figure??

We did that cruise In early July. I know we were in London on the 4th and embarked shortly after that. Concerning our booked Batltic cruise sfter we got home we searched for the best price we could find on the net from a TA and when we transfered the booking to the TA I was part of a three way call with Princess who stated we would have to give up our $400 on board allowance and our half price insurance to use the TA's pricing. Not the way they explain it on the ship and not the way it has been handled in the past. So, we just booked on the Legend of the Seas for May 31st and will be canceling the Princess cruise tomorrow. Doing 12 days for about a grand less than the 10 day Princess cruise. :grin:

Oops, just read my post above. Correction: Fellow cruisers tend to be younger on Carnival!! Sorry about that, my head and fingers were going in different directions.

Well, let's see. We have done 9 Carnival cruises and 12 RCI sailings, so we do have a a basis for comparison. Carnival does have the edge in stateroom comfort and space IMHO. RCI has more dramatic common areas. Carnival crew is a little more outgoing and involved with the passengers. Food edge in recent years swings to Carnival. Fellow passengers tend to be younger on RCI and the overall cruise is a little more laid back. I guess the best example of how we feel is that our next cruise is on the Glory in March and we will probably book a European cruise on the Legend of the Seas today. So, we enjoy both.

We did this cruise several years ago and the seas were fairly calm, but the weather was rainy for a lot of the Scandinavian ports. We are booked on Star Princess for the Baltic run, but will most likely cancel that in favor of an RCI cruise out of Rome. Princess has jacked us around on the booking which we made while on board the Crown Princess a few weeks ago, so I think we are going to tell them to stuff it.

Gonna hate to see the Zenith, Sailed on her Inaugural Voyage and been abord her about three times since. Grand old gal, we will miss her.

Thanks for the recommendations Pat and Howard. I think I'm going to go with your idea. My wife's sister and her husband are coming down a couple days prior to the sailing and staying in our timeshare in Orlando. No way four adults and cruise luggage are going to fit in a rental carl. I think we will head back to the airport in the car and put them in a shuttle or cab and have them meet us there and all set up shuttle transfers to Port Canaveral. Unless my brother-in-law wants to rent his own car, Doubt that. Anyway thanks to all. Looking forward to a new port adventure.

Great review Cheyrl, especially interesting to us since the Glory will be our next ship. Sailing on her March 24th.

Hi Gang, In all off our cruises we have never used Port Canaveral to embark. Looking for any insights and tips. We will be staying in Orlando at a timeshare the week prior to our March cruise on the Glory and will have a rental car. One major question is should I keep the car and turn it in somewhere in or near Port Canaveral, or would it make sense to return it to where we picked it up and the Orlando airport and arrange some other form as transport?? Any comments, tips, experiences, etc. will be appreciated. :grin: