RC Dancers

Since Carnival is nearly doubling the size of the current facility in Long Beach I think they are planning to put a bigger ship there. Keep in mind the Splendor sailed out of that terminal with no problem and is slightly bigger than the Conquest class. Since Vista III will carry roughly 60% more passengers this only makes sense. The Mexican Riviera has been a solid market for Carnival and with the expansion of one or two ports it could reignite even more interest in the region.

i thought it is the current lease holders of the Long Beach terminal who are doing the upgrade. Maybe CCL has some financial participation. In any case, my guess is that West Coast bookings for the Splendor are not up to CCL's expectations.

We sailed on Splendor five times when it was on the West Coast and are looking forward to it short term return.

We purchased one of the photo packages online before the cruise ($59 for 10 pictures).

This package was not available on board during our cruise.

The question in my mind for the December 2017 bookings on Seaside is if the ship will be complete for the first sailings.

It seems like Fincatieri is pretty good about finishing the ships on time. My concern came when Harmony of the Seas really wasn't finished for the first few sailinings, but it came out of STX France.

I will be following the Meraviglia very closely to see if it is done on time.

FYI, I was told on my last time there, that you can have a drink on the street, as long as it is in a cup.

You might consider touring Atlantis. We purchased the day pass for around $60 for adults to tour the digs. Your son might really like that.

I am bringing my Hubsan 502E with GPS on my next cruise. I am just planning to use it on shore. It cost $70 so if I lose it, so be it. If not, I will have some aerial pictures.

As far as frequencies go, it operates on the 2.4ghz band. If you use wi fi at an internet spot, you are also on the 2.4ghz band.

We had early dining last May and our MDR waiters told us that if showed up when the dining room opened, that our orders would be put in first.

Generally speaking, we were finished with our meals in about an hour and a half.

Blue Lagoon is a nice area if you are arriving late and just want dinner and a room.

 

We stayed at that Homewood and had a similar experience. Okay hotel, but there is nothing close by. We had a rental car though, and were able to see other parts of Miami.

We booked the Technotel all inclusive in the Progreso downtown terminal for $35 per person. We thought that it was a nice day.

When we returned to the Port of New Orleans, we used the baggage storage at the port. They actually took the bags to the airport for a very reasonable charge. We walked to town from there.

We thought the Triumph was very nice. Our main complaint was the smoking. Many events were held in the Casino which was very smokey and the night club was also very smokey.

Great ship for smokers!

We stayed once at the Homewood Blue Lagoon, but there really is nothing to do in that area. Our top preference is South Beach, but that area is too expensive for us. We generally stay Downtown now. They have a very good people mover system, which is similar to the airport people mover systems. Our previous stay was at the Courtyard Marriott, which was nice. We have booked the Langford this time based on price. We would have booked the YVE, but it was $100/night higher.

A couple of years ago, we rented from Alamo and they had a shuttle bus to Port Everglades.

Thank you for doing this live report. We will be interested to know if the shows have changed.

Love your CDO byline!

Just looked on Carnival's website and they have a Panama Canal transit to Long Beach scheduled for January 14, 2018.

Yay! She's coming back home.

The Miracle's transit to Tampa is scheduled for January 13, 2018

Very nice and smooth video. I can't get myself to pay DJI prices.

1 knot = 1 nautical mile per hour. 20 knots = 23 (statute) miles per hour. Can your drone fly at 23 mph? Some can fly that fast and faster. But just like being in a car and sticking your hand out the window, you would have to be able to go from still air in a shielded location into the fast moving air just outside the window.

Many ships have "secret decks" at the bow. Go out on one of those to get a real feel for how fast the ship is moving.

Of course we are still in the theoretical zone since it not not permitted to fly drones on the ship. A GPS drone should be able to be controlled based on relative positiion and compensate for wind. I have a Hubsan H502e on order to try to do some aerial photography on shore on my next couple of cruises. The sub $100 price will hopefully take the sting out of a flyaway.

Notwithstanding they're not allowed to be used on cruise ships, consider the ship is moving at 18-22 knots on sea days. You may not notice when you're standing on the deck behind the wind screens. But send that drone up in the air above the ship and it will. You can say bye-bye to the drone as the ship steams away.

Umm, I think it's a matter of relative wind vs the top speed of the drone. If the ship is doing 20 knots and has a 10 knot wind from the stern, you only have a 10 knot wind to deal with. if it's going in the other direction, then you have a 30 knot wind. The DJI phantom 4 has a top speed of about 40 knots, so theoretically it can handle either situation.

We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott Brickell last May, very nice location and close to the people mover. In December, we booked the Langford across the street based on price.

The crew always knows where the best wifi spots are.

If you haven't been to South Beach, I would definitely check it out.

We are flying in to FLL and staying downtown in December. We really like the downtown area with the people mover system. Bayside marketplace is very nice.

We were on the Costa Fortuna about six years ago and the dancing was very nice, but the smoking was horrendous, hopefully that has changed.

We found the Club Fusion on Grand Princess ships to be a good dance venue, but very hit and miss on scheduling.

We enjoyed the Manhattan room on the NCL Breakaway during dinner. Loved it when the Burn the Floor dancers performed.

We also really enjoyed the MSC Divina. We are more Latin oriented in our dancing and they would alternate bands in the Black and White lounge, so there was never a break. MSC had a fun dance contest at the end of the cruise where a random guest was paired with one of the ship's Professional dancers.

The last time we flew cruised from Port Everglades from Miami, we rented a car from Alamo. They had a shuttle bus from the Fort Lauderdale airport rental car drop off to Port Everglades.

There is also a Whole Foods market.

We like the downtown area, which is between the airport and the Port of Miami. There is a people mover to take you around. Bayside marketplace is close by. We have stayed at the Marriott Courtyard Brickell. This time we have booked the Langford Hotel.