cruzincurt

In Tampa and Port Everglades, they only charge for 7 days parking.

If I recall correctly, those stinkers charge for 8 days on a 7 day cruise because they count Sunday or Saturday twice.:(

We have sailed the Epic and knew about the cabin layout before boarding. Not our first choice of layouts, but we lived with it. They have not repeated "that" design. All one has to do is look at the floor plans in the brochure or on the web. We always do so before picking any cabin on any ship, as we want cabins above and below us.

Apparently some don't, and book blind, no doubt through a poor TA. I followed a couple out of the Lido deck lobby once on the first day and heard "Look Marge, they have a pool". Really? Spend thousands of dollars and don't know what you bought?

The Epic was fine otherwise but we felt the interior decor was "dark" and seemed out of place in the Caribbean.

The Escape was much better. What does COSTCO have to do with your post title?

For interior ugly I pick the Carnival Legend. There must be around a million stencils of the same Greek urn on every square inch of the interior.

Second place is the Epic with ugly partial black exterior section and overall dark interior.

I'll preface this by saying I've been married 45 years and my proposal was pretty low key. I don't know if you have been living together or for how long. Perhaps this will be your first trip together, sharing every minute.

Personally, I would propose way before getting on the ship (just in case), otherwise it could be very awkward and a very long cruise. Doing it in advance, you have better control of the situation and then can look forward being committed and being together every minute of the cruse with your future plans to plot.

If you are sure the answer will be YES, then I'd do it early on the cruise if not before.

Best of luck for your future and perhaps many happy cruises together to follow.

but I think... on the ships where bottled water is not allowed, this is one way to smuggle it on :)

I started a countdown clock on my computer when it was 24 months to go to 62. Now that I've been retired almost 2 years, it was the best decision I ever made. Life is good, retirement makes it even better.

Because Federal laws trump state laws.

That doesn't explain charging State tax.

Done both several times. Hate Costa Maya which is a made up port.

We prefer Eastern as they most often include the private islands for a beach day without the hassle. Eastern can be more rocky as you are facing the wide Atlantic, but it is a ship after all and we like some motion.

So how does it work then that say when within Florida waters they charge sales tax on purchases and the casino is closed? Sort of disagrees with some of the above comments.

Overheard a woman complaining that she had been upgraded to a suite and she didn't like it because it was just too big for her.

What if you are going commando?:eek:

We attach lanyards just to make it easier to find the cards in a pocket or purse.

Port fees and taxes are the way to get tourists to pay for government services, such as the port operations. Here in Florida, and probably everywhere, we have a "bed tax" on every hotel room to gouge the visitors. Last time I read about it, Tampa was charging $6.75 per cruise passenger, probably more now.

Same applies to rental car fees and airport 9/11 fees. All goes into the black hole of government. They never have enough and always need more.

Just the cost of travel.

I don't think these statements are correct.

- Medical evacuation coverage varies widely depending on the policy. In recent shopping I saw some as low as $25,000 and as high as $1,000,000.

- Buying through a broker doesn't mean you can't deal directly with the insurance company's claims administrator. Some travelers like that the broker may assist you in the claims process if needed.

I guess I worded my response poorly. My point was for a given company with a certain amount of emergency medical assist value (say $25K), that part seems to stay the same but the rest of the policy cost varies with the overall fare amount.

Appears to me that once I purchase the policy, I'm working direct with the company that issued the policy, not some third party website.

Take look at a claims form, appears they go back direct to the issuing company.

I've purchased a Nationwide policy the last 6 times. Thankfully, I've never had to file a claim. Came close due to missing luggage from the SS Norway explosion back in 2001. Then CSA wanted receipts for my lost socks and underwear (really???)....but the suitcases showed up 2 weeks later so I didn't file.

On POP I have not noticed timing has nothing to do with it, more about the LP amount you can earn during a 24 hour window. For me it seems to stop at 500 LP. If you buy coin then it will allow you to earn more, it seems related to what you can earn with their free coin which totally understand.

I emailed tech support about having noticed that after a while, it stopped rewarding gold coins through the shared balloons. Their specific response was that there was some kind of timer that would stop rewarding gold coins for some period of time. They said there was a countdown clock but I couldn't find it on the site. This is different from the bonus reward clock. Perhaps the timer starts after winning 500 LP, so we might both have the same observation.

I only play with free points, and they didn't indicate if it was different for purchased points.

So if free play has a limit of 500 coins/day, I'm working on a lost cause. 1,700,000 for a cruise = 500 a day for 3400 days or 9.3 years???

So we are on myVegas, myVegas blackjack, myKOMMI, and Pop!slots all sharing the gold coins across these platforms. All apps are on our Android tablet, Ipad, Android phone and laptop

Found out that on Pop!slots, they stop awarding gold coins after a while. There is some kind of timer that has to run out before they will start the gold coins adding during play. Don't know what the time is and according to MyVegas there is a clock to click on that shows the time remaining but I couldn't find it. So I play until the gold coins stop then wait a few hours to play again.

This is supposedly to protect their reward members from hacked automatic computer play.

You should also check at the cashier cage once on board. They have a printout and can check if you are due anything. I don't think they are going to come looking for you, it's up to you to ask.

My DW plays $5 hands ($20/hand) for 3 hours a night on Let it Ride and she gets offers. Also she runs several thousand through video poker during the week (cycles winnings back in). I play $5/$10 Craps but don't get any. So far she had gotten free inside rooms which we upgrade to balcony and deeply discounted other fare offers.

Sometimes the offer comes in the mail, sometimes someone calls us with an offer. We have no idea how the casino fairy works. We get offers from Carnival, NCL and HAL, never a nickle from Royal.

I like everything about cruising, but my FAVORITE thing is the first "ding" when they insert my card in the security podium as I step off the boarding ramp. I know I have 7 days of bliss ahead.

Many want to judge others, and to me that's the rudest of all.

 

I've been abused for using a wheelchair to board and later seen walking. There is a huge difference between walking up the ramp to the ship (and having to stand still for long periods which causes me more pain than walking) and walking on the flat.

I have a great deal of respect for those cruisers in wheelchairs, on scooters, using canes and/or oxygen. They are out experiencing life instead of sitting home. I hope I have the same drive to cruise should I need assistance.

They always get a clear path from me, I'm not in a hurry.

My major credit card, with which I purchased the cruise, has trip interruption insurance. I look to the extra trip insurance mostly for the medical emergency evacuation benefit. The sites linked in an earlier post will allow you to enter your info and compare quotes.

I just like to use a third party rather than that offered by the cruise line.

It appears to me that the emergency evacuation part of the insurance is pretty much fixed, its the actual value of the cruise fare itself that causes the rates to increase with the cost paid for the cruise. And it seems to go in steps. Try entering $2,000 then $2,001 and the price might jump.

On our last cruise we saw another type of poor elevator etiquette. There was a large group on the ship that as soon as the door would open they would immediately start pushing the close door button. If you were not standing in front of that particular elevator you could not get there in time to get on. It was very annoying.

Interesting as a friend of mine who is an elevator expert and inspector here in Florida once told me that the "close door" button is rarely connected and thus not operational. Just there for looks. Perhaps it actually works on ships?

Those that save seats for others who either never show up or come in in the middle of the show.

People who hold up their tablets or phones in the darkened theater in front of everyone behind them to record the show. Get a life and watch the show for real, you'll never look at the recording anyway, and anyone not on the cruise with you couldn't care less.

Coming from Port Canaveral we take the toll road 417 between the Beachline and I-4. That bypasses a lot of Orlando congestion to the South.

The interstate through the heart of Tampa is under construction and can get backed up Westbound even on a weekend.

Personally, I'd be nervous about that flight time as the airport just announced construction on the entry roads then there is the unknown security screening lines.