TheSkipper

I agree totally, check out the upgrade right now! Your MAY be able to do it at the pier, but then ask yourself the question "Why is the cabin still available?" You can pretty much count on NOT getting upgraded from you inside cabin to an outside. Not unheard of, but does not happen very often. When I have checked into upgrades while on board ship, I found them quite pricy. Hope this helps,

Hi Gang, Thanks Joey, Shari2 and Kieth for the tips. Best price I could get at Pier 66 was $339. Don't think that's going to happen. There is a Boat Show while we are in FTL and prices are going through the roof. We stayed Sheraton Yankee Trader on the beach last time and it too was a bit pricy. We fly into FTL on Southwest and simply cannot get there before 9 or 10 PM. We crash in our room, have breakfast, repack and head for the ship, so all the resort type stuff in kind of wasted. Going to keep on looking.

Hi Gang, Looking for suggestions for a one night pre-cruise stay in FTL. Have used a few hotels there on previous cruises, but thought I'd look for something different this time. All suggestions welcome! :grin: Thanks,

Enjoyed your review. The Majesty is special to us. We honeymooned aboard her exactly 13 years ago this month! Glad to hear she is still looking good!

We too have sailed SOS and she is a beautiful ship!! I think you will enjoy ere. As to your "upgrade" that often happens. A one category upgrade usually moves you up one deck, but you end up either very far forward or aft and that to me is not an upgrade. It certainly is not one if you find your room blocked by life boats. After 40+ cruises we have learned to book low and center in the ship unless we want a balcony and once we have selected a stateroom we stick with it and turn down those so called "upgrades." :wink:

I'm a folder guy as well. Have to be, sometimes we are booked three deep. But, alas we only have one booked for May at the present time, the Coral Princess from Lauderdale to San Fran. Not sure what we will do after that. A suggestion to all of you cruisers, keep a trip log. I have done so for all our 45 cruises. A day by day account of our adventures. Refer to it often as I plan future cruises. I also have saved every daily bulletin from every ship we have ever been on. What a reference library! After a cruise I simply add all the newsletters, room cards, name badges, special invites from the Captain, etc to a sealable plastic box. Keep the current one in the house and the filled older ones in the garage. Now, how's that for a "folder" guy?? :grin:

I see you have got a little info on a couple of the islands, so won't repeat that except to say you might want to see the French side of St. Martin. Aruba is a highly developed island with lots of high rise, high end hotels. Good shopping and very nice beaches. Last visit we took to island tour which was interesting, but nothing fantastic. Glad we did it, but would not repeat it. I was suprised how hot it was once we got away from the beach areas. A desert, just like home in Las Vegas! Hope this helps. :cool:

Mary Lou, It is about a half hour ride on an air conditioned bus (new buses). The beach facilities are great with tons of beach lounges. Sun or shade, your choice. Great staff. Drinks were included in the trip, and as I recall so was lunch. Probably the nicest beach we have visited in all of Mexico. You can search Costa Maya, they have a web site. Or, at least they did when we were planning our trip. There is also a beach right where you get off the ship, a small shopping plaza with local entertainment and even a swimming pool. The development of this area is coming along nicely. They were building housing for employees when we were there. :cool:

We loved the Jungle Beach. It was a fantastic day. Would go back in a heart beat and we have been to a lot of beaches. :cool:

JohnG's reply made me think of one thing I forgot to mention. Uniworld uses hotel style beds not something that turns into a sofa during the day which a lot of river cruise boats use (including Viking). The linens in the rooms are fantastic. Really thick towels, robes, duvets, several pillows all top drawer! but the REAL bed was the card that turned the trick for us. Don't want glorified bunks. Amadaus were the only others I saw that looked interesting, but they are more expensive. Viking has a lot of boats. Watched one of their boats rear end a docked tanker in Vienna and sink it! did a real job on the bow of the Viking boat. Wonder if there is much work for an unemployed river boat skippers? In San Diego the next couple of days, but checking my email every night in hotel room.

Jacketwatch, We just finished a 16 day river cruise six weeks ago. Boarded in Amsterdam and disembarked in Vienna. We sailed on the Uniworld's River Duchess. This was our 45th cruise with all the other being ocean cruises. We loved it! We had 110 people on board a ship which would hold 120. Food was outstanding! Cabins were on the small side, but very well laid out with plenty of storage. Even included a flat screen TV. A unique thing about river cruise boats is that in some ports they tie up side by side, so if you are the outboard boat you must cross over or through the other boats to get ashore. This gave us a chance ot see several boats from other lines and it appeared to us that Uniworld was a cut above most of the others. You will not have a casino, but we did have a workout room and sauna as well as a small beauty salon and gift shop. Service was fantastic! No production shows of course, but lots of local entertainers brought on board, etc. Almost all of the shore excursions are included in the price, which we enjoyed very much. Be happy to give you more detail if you wish. We sailed the Rhine, Main and Danube rivers going through 64 locks enroute to Vienna.

toss our 45 into the pot and we are now at 261. Checking in from the International Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, New Mexico!

Lisa63 you have got it figured out! Cabin location is an essential part of our planning. Long ago we were assigned a cabin right above the disco on an RCI ship. It sounded like we were inside a huge woofer speaker! We got moved inside of 20 minutes of entering the room! Since then I select the cabin and don't even think about upgrades.

Hi Gang, NO I did not do the donkey ride up the mountain, but you can watch them making their way up as you ride the tram to the top. At 245 lbs, I don't think they had a large enough donkey to get me up that mountain, would need an entire mule train! By the way at least one of the local dogs rides up and down whenever he feels like it. He rode up with us and it did not concern the operators at all, they said "he is always riding." And, it is my understanding that there are no privately owned cats on Santorini, they are all community property and fed and spoiled by everyone. Quite friendly as well. BTW, Santorni is the favorite spot for one of our favorite artists, Igor Medvidev. Most of this painted scenes are done in Santorini. He claims the light and color there is the best in the world.

Been there, done that and really do have a shirt I bought on Santorini!! Fantastic island. You are tendered ashore where you will find a few shops and an tram up the mountain side or if you wish you may ride a donkey up to the town at the top. Georgious views, great resturants, high fashion type shopping and super friendly folks. You will love it! :grin:

Received an email yesterday for a 10 day Mexican cruise out of San Diego for $499pp plus $33 tax. Sounds like a great deal to me. Promotion code when you call you TA is PES. Sailings are on October 6th and 16th. Wish I had either of those dates open! :undecided:

I would suggest you email Carnival. Go to their website and email from there and label it EMERGENCY. Your chance of an upgrade on a group booking with an assigned cabin is slim to none. I have turned down upgrades simply because it usually means moving up one deck and going all the way forward or all the way aft. That is not an upgrade in my book. My advise to new cruisers (and I get this question a lot) is book the cabin you really want and relax. But then I'm from Las Vegas and truly understand "the luck of the draw." :grin:

All it means is move up in category, which normally moves you up one deck higher on the ship. However, it also usually means that you very well move from a midships spot either all the way forward or all the way aft. Is the really an upgrade?? Don't ever count on moving up to an outside cabin from an interior or to a balcony from an ocean. This rarely ever happens. Also keep in mind the most stable part of the ship is low down and midships. :wink:

Joey and David, The couple of times we did the red eye thing into Lauderdale we rented a car on an hourly rate and did the tourist and/or the shopping thing. Had a great lunch in the Las Olas district, turned the car in and they drove us to the ship. Antigua has a beach for every day of the year! Ask your Cruise Director's Staff members and they will steer you in the right direction. They know the best spots in any of your ports. Count on it. :grin:

Hi Yellowshoes, I'm sure Park West can help you out. Mitarios is a very well known artist (and I probably spelled his name wrong) and is handled by Park West. Have seen a lot of his work at both their shipboard auctions and here in Las Vegas at land based auctions. Welcome abaord Cruise Crazies!

Will be in the Chat Room for about 1/2 hour.

I am afraid you already know the answer. Yes, make your reservations as soon as you get aboard. I don't know how this is going to work with a group of 10. The hours you mentioned are the busy times and if you just show up you will spend time waiting for a table or tables, count on it! :sad:

It states right in the press release that there are "connectivity charges". That means kiddies you will have to pay to use the network on your own laptop. Many hotels now have wireless in the rooms and there still is a charge to access their network, either hourly or by the day. Just one more income generating activity and you can bet your boots it spread throughout the cruise world. If I need the net, I go to an Internet Cafe ashore, unless I'm on Princess where I get free unlimited internet as an Elite Member of their Captain's Club. :grin:

You are right. Just tried the Chat Room again and got right into it. No one there, but I did get in! :smiley:

Did that and get the following message: Please log into your forum first. The Skipper not allowed. I am show at the top as logged in, so needless to say, I'm confused.