orkaren

I agree that RCCL caters to a much older crowd in the off season. Your other option is to go in high season but then again you deal with massive amount of kids. RCCL is pushing large family groups with heavy discounts that brings kids, parents, grandparents and those dreaded scooters. Been on Carnival and they do cater to a "party" crowd. Now out of Port Canaveral the retirement communities like Lake Aston is a short drive away. Try a cruise out of the NY area, I being one of them love to "party". Celebrity cruise line part of RCCL caters to more of an upscale group of cruisers; I am not sure what is the age group or the "party" status.

Sorry you have an issue with the "dreaded" scooters. My husband is not a senior citizen but does have a progressive degenerative neurological condition that requires him to use a scooter or wheelchair to go anywhere. He would much prefer not to need a scooter but unfortunately has lost his ability to walk. Please don't judge or complain about items people might need to have a little fun in their lives.

Thank you to everyone for the suggestions - I will contact the different companies and see if I can get anything.

Thanks for the info. Do you happen to remember if you needed to climb stairs to get into the vehicle? My husband cannot do stairs but my son and son-in-law could probably carry him onto the vehicle.

We are a group of 5 adults and 2 children who will be stopping in St Thomas this November. We would like to go to Coral World and Coki beach accessible transportation for one of the members of the group, but are having trouble finding accessible transportation that can take us all. Does anyone have any ideas, suggestions, information about accessible transportation on St Thomas?

I have contacted several different transportation companies but can't find anything that can accommodate us. The only option I can think of right now is to try and take 2 taxis and hopefully the wheelchair or scooter (whichever we use that day) can fold up and fit in the trunk.

Does anyone out there have any experience or suggestions for me? Thanks!

We are a group of 5 adults and 2 children who will be stopping in St Thomas this November. We would like to go to Coral World and Coki beach accessible transportation for one of the members of the group, but are having trouble finding accessible transportation that can take us all. Does anyone have any ideas, suggestions, information about accessible transportation on St Thomas?

I have contacted several different transportation companies but can't find anything that can accommodate us. The only option I can think of right now is to try and take 2 taxis and hopefully the wheelchair or scooter (whichever we use that day) can fold up and fit in the trunk.

Does anyone out there have any experience or suggestions for me? Thanks!

Is it at a different time than the afternoon ice skating show time on the last day? We are trying to figure out what days/times to book everything and thought the 3 PM time for the ice show might be good but we would really like to see Splish Splash also.

We are now 24 hours out and the flight gods have smiled upon us. It’s been a very long time since I received a very early boarding pass on a Southwest Airlines flight. I am the guy that won’t pay for early boarding but will get up at the exact 24 hour window to check in for the best possible boarding pass for a non-upgrade passenger.

 

Today’s result A29, 30, 31, and 32

 

If you don’t fly Southwest none of that will make any sense so let me briefly bring you up to speed. Southwest does’t sell assigned seats. This means once you board the plane you just pick the seat that you want of the available seats on the plane. This means the later you board the more likely you are to be squeezed between a sumo wrestler and a big biker (with a mom tattoo on his forearm) in the dreaded middle seat. And don’t get me started on the overhead bin space. Hint - Storage space becomes non-existent after about half the passengers have boarded.

 

Anyway - Southwest boards in this order:

A1 - A15 - These are business select customers or frequent flyers with some level of status. Us normal folk will never see one of these boarding numbers.

A16 - A30 - The rest of the frequent flyers and Early Bird Check customers normally take up these spots.

- I believe it’s around about here they do family boarding or assisted boarding for young families or disabled customers.

A30 -A60 - Normal low life’s

B1 - B30 - Almost normal low life’s

B31 - B60 - How did this happen to us but at least we’re not in the C boarding group

C1 - C30 - Look at all the low life's ahead of us who paid too much just to board the plane.

C31 - C60 - First time flyers who have no idea that they are going to spend the next 3 hours cuddling with a sumo and a biker with arm rest issues.

Finally - Last minute arrivals - These are normally frequent flyers who thought Southwest wouldn’t let anyone board until they showed up. “But I am supposed to board First! Why are all those low life's already on MY plane!”

 

I have a friend who was a gate agent for Southwest for 37 years (Just retired a couple of weeks ago) That last statement about last minute arrivals would be funny if it wasn’t true. He has really good stories about the insane things passengers will say or do. He should write a book. I am sure it would make for a great read while sitting in the terminal at the airport.

 

 

Wow - I typed all that just to show you how special it is to get an A29 - A32 set of boarding passes. Basically all it means is that I’m the only idiot on this flight willing to get up ridiculously early…. two days in a row!

 

 

On the Docket for today -

 

My last day of work, gather everyone’s luggage and check the weight, re-distribute as necessary, double check girls carry ons for contraband, take the dog to friends house, and try to get a few hours of sleep.

 

 

 

Two Side Notes

 

1. Yes I am the guy who will open up a piece of luggage at the terminal to remove a 4 ounce object so that my bag is under the 50 pound limit. However, I am also the thoughtful guy who doesn’t want to do this and hold up the line. At home I always weigh the bags. It’s usually coming home where I get burned if we don’t get the distribution just right. Some hotels have scales for precisely this purpose.

--Side note to the side note - I live with 3 women… Packing light is like a foreign language to them.

 

2. Contraband in the carry on - If you want to terrorize your children give them a harmonica and let them take it through security at an airport. TSA Agent holding up a pink and purple Dora the Explorer backpack, “Who’s is this?” And watching my daughters eyes get as big as saucers. Then feeling my eyes get as big as saucers when I realize they won’t be taking a 7 year old to jail. What in the H E double hockey sticks did you pack? So now we know that a Harmonica looks just like a 9mm ammunition clip. You can’t say you haven’t been warned!

My husband is disabled and on our last Southwest flight we were the first ones boarded. When the lady who was A1 boarded she made a big deal to the steward about being first on the plane. He just looked at her and said, " No these folks were first". She was not happy but we thought it was pretty funny.

Don't be so judgmental about traveling if you are "confined" to a wheelchair. My husband has a progressive neurological disease and is a full time wheelchair user. However he views the wheelchair or scooter as something that gives him the freedom to travel and do the things that he used to do when he could walk. I guess it is all in how you look at things.

This kind of stuff makes me angry. She made the choice not to go on the cruise but now demands money. Royal Caribbean is giving her more than adequate compensation but she still wants more. I used to work in risk management and had to deal with people like this all the time. Unfortunately the business usually gives in to their demands just to keep them quiet and then pass the costs onto regular customers who don't complain. Too many people think they are entitled to something every time something doesn't go the way they thing it should.

I sure hope Uber can drop people off at the port. My last name is Uber and I plan on dropping off the family and luggage before I park the car.

I contacted someone at the Port Canaveral parking facility. She told me if we have the Florida toll exemption permit on the car (which we have) there will no charge for parking. I do not need to prove that we have any lifts or driving assists on the car. She suggested dropping passengers and luggage at the pier and then parking. I need to check if it works the same for Miami.

Someone from the Anthem storm cruise has already filed a class action lawsuit.

Last year I emailed the special needs department and asked if I could bring bottled water onboard for medical reasons. They sent me a reply that I could bring a "reasonable" amount. I bought a case of water, put a luggage tag on it, and gave it to the porter. It got to our room with the luggage. I did bring a copy of the email just in case, but had no problems.

Does anyone know if a lift needs to be permanently installed on a car to meet the parking exemption? We have a portable lift for my husband that we use both for the car and in the house. It is not actually installed on the car but my husband cannot get into the car without it.

Does anyone know if a lift needs to be permanently installed on a car to meet the parking exemption? We have a portable lift for my husband that we use both for the car and in the house. It is not actually installed on the car but my husband cannot get into the car without it.

Hi,

My husband and I will be on the same cruise as you. My husband uses a wheelchair and or scooter so I am also interested in accessible excursions.

Do you know if the park n cruise place has handicap accessible vans? We parked at a similar place in Ft. Lauderdale that did not have accessible vans but we didn't find out until we had parked our car. The driver and my son had to lift my husband in his wheelchair into the van. It was a very scary and dangerous situation that we don't want to repeat again.

I made my grandson a quiet book. It is made mainly of felt and has different activities on each page, such as shape sorting, counting beads, a road with cars, etc. They are fairly easy to make and it occupies my 2 year old grandson for quite awhile. You can google quiet books online and get lots of ideas. Haven't tried it for a cruise yet but we will be doing that next year.

Thanks for the review, we will be on Oasis but not until November 2016. I agree that Park and Go is convenient but please be aware that they do not have any wheelchair/handicap accessible vans. My husband cannot get out of his chair so the van driver and my son lifted him in his chair into the van. It was scary and potentially very dangerous.