IndyDenise

If you have a rental on Universal property you will pay for parking..at $20.00 a day.

You really wont need a car there. If you room is not ready the bell man will be glad to keep luggage for you.

We always check in at 7.00am as to start our early admittance "on time" to Harry Potter.

I have stayed Hard Rock and Royal Pacific. I like RP's location better, its closer to Islands of Adventure and the walk isn't as far. Hard Rock is closer to the Studios side and it can be tiring to walk back " home" after a long day. Portofino is farther out yet and most there use the transport back and forth (I think )

That said I would go with Hard Rock . They have a really nice zero entry pool , its massive with fantastic pool side service. Plus you"ll never know who you will run into there. I met Joan Rivers plus some of the Backstreet Boys.

Unrelated question: in your signature line you list the Holland Westerdam as a ship you cruised in November of 1998. Not sure how this was possible:

 

The Westerdam was christened on 25 April 2004 in Venice, Italy.

There have been three MS Westerdams. The one I assume the OP was on is now the Thompson Dream.

Last year, in March the Conquest stopped outside of Grand Cayman and loaded about 5 pax. Same trip we stopped outside of Cozumel and loaded a family of 4,

You can't use a gift card to buy a gift card in stores, if you are caught both will be confiscated . Too much fraud out there.

By the way, I am the Worlds Worse Flyer.

I take Zanax and/or Valium. I start by taking one(or two ) at least one hour before the flight. Another right before boarding.

(If I am going overseas I add stronger meds with the others..)

Then breakfast onboard of orange juice and vodka.

A double. Sucked down faster than the Naked and Afraiders drink safe water.

Turn on the Kindle Fire, put the ear plugs in, watch Tatum Channing do his Magic Mike and daydream that he did Pony just for me.

All good.

I TRIED to use the FlytoFun program but found it limiting.

You can pick your airline, but not your flight times..those are preset. I only had her check Southwest. Delta/American were already showing higher online with unwanted travel times (plus throw in baggage fees they were at least $100 higher )

We preferred Southwest but out of 6 flights listed each day only one was available for us. At a $45.00 increase over booking direct...and non-cancellable. You cancel you lose everything.

We just booked direct. Got the times I wanted. Cheaper price. And of course being Southwest I can cancel, change, etc and get the credit shell.

Make sure you do your research and know the prices of airfare via different carriers before you call ..

So sorry!!! I thought you meant in one room.

Try the Hyatt Place just down the road and book through ValueTrips.

The rooms have similar setups, only a divider instead of a door between the beds and couch.

You should keep your Embassy Suites reservation until the other one is confirmed.

I am confused.

A suite has either a king OR two doubles. Both have a pullout sofa.

Unless there is some room that doesn't show up on their website ( Presidential suite ? ) there is NO way that both a KING and two doubles will fit in the space.

Are you sure you have the right info ? I'm staying there ( again ) in August and may have others join me. If there is a room as you say I want that one! I love my friends but....:D

Btw, do you have a permit for Joe? ;)

My thoughts exactly .. We don't want to see POA and the lovely handed Huskerchick to get into trouble ala 50 Shades of Johnny Depp for animal smuggling :)

For me it's the ocean. There is something about it that touches my soul . I love sitting on a ship with nothing but miles of ocean to see.

As far as cruisers go I am a newbie ( only 5 under my belt) but I fell in love after my first one.

It is fun, of course, to visit new ports.. Also fun to gamble, eat , see shows, drink ( a lot ) , meet new people etc but I could do that at an all inclusive.

But then I'd miss being out in the middle of the ocean/seas.

Or if not on the ocean I'd like to be in Paris, I get the same feeling there. Almost like I'm "home".

Actually, dropping anchor for the Concordia was the about the ONLY thing they did right. It slowed the ship and swung it closer to shore to stop. Left it in shallower water and closer to shore for many who jumped into the water.

 

If they had not dropped the anchor it would have drifted further out from shore and sunk faster.

 

Hopefully all cruise lines and their entire officer lineup had mandatory learnings delivered about the many errors and bad decisions made on that ship.

 

But as said earlier, dropping anchor in a narrow busy channel is bad for the port... closes it down and damages coral more. They are more likely to have continuous efforts to free the ship.

Um, the anchor on the Concordia was dropped incorrectly. Captifellintothelifeboat let out way too much chain. IF it was dropped correctly the ship would not have listed as much. He should have dropped 90 meters, instead 120 was dropped ( roughly on both ). The anchors never caught.

When you research further you will find that the government has declared that they should only eat the whale meat once a month at most and most women and girls should never eat it due to the level of carcinogens in it. The meat is no longer any great part of any Faroese diet. Interesting.

That's why I find it disgusting. Killing the whales is not a necessity but a sport. I realize that the grind is part of their culture but that doesn't make it right.

I have no problem with someone killing an animal for food. Sport killings I do have an issue with whether it's a lion, duck or whale.

The Faroe citizens also use modern technology in their grind. Motorized boats, sonar etc make this an easy slaughter . If they care about their traditions so much go back to the beginning and use row boats and luck. At least give the whales a fighting chance.

Seriously, the most noro I've seen is when I saw someone throwing up in the hall after drinking too much. It was disgusting.

So sorry about that.

Several lines have their itineraries listed into 2018!

 

 

 

Anyway I am having a hard time understanding why people want to visit a country where its citizens risk their lives to leave! In this country (The USA ) when was the last time you heard of a boat load of people risking their lives to get out and go to another country???

Visiting as a tourist is not the same as actually living there. I would love to see Cuba, I have a friend who went there last year and raves about the warm welcome he received.

I also loved Turkey and would love to see Egypt and Israel but there is no way I'd ever move there . Same with Russia, Costa Rica, Jamaica and Bahamas.

I would assume you have visited Mexico? Seems to be a lot of people there trying to get here illegally .

I'd like to thank you for your world blog, and now the Disney one.

I know that much effort goes into your postings and I appreciate every moment you have spent on them.

Thanks for taking me on your amazing journey with you.

Can you just keep cruising forever so that the blog never ends?

Diane and John,

Thank you for letting me "cruise" with you.

I've enjoyed every posting.

Thank you , again

Yes, but it tastes best out of a wine glass.

 

The red Solo cup is for the red Rhones. White Styrofoam is for the white Rhone blends. I thought that was common knowledge.

Yup! And my Mega Bubba Mug is for Coors!

Good thoughts.

 

 

 

I found a website (insuremytrip dot com) that compares different polices and found a better deal with good terms, 5% of trip cost. If I take 20 trips and insure at this rate, I'd need to have one cancelled trip out of 20 to make it "break even." I kinda think I'd beat those odds, but I always loose at Vegas and my last NCAA bracket was something like 2nd percentile on the ESPN thing, so my predictive powers stink.

 

 

 

- Joel

We didn't take any type of trip insurance for our last HAL cruise. This was the first time EVER that we risked doing this. With the money saved we booked a side to side with Carnival .

We really lucked out with the travel gods, but we were willing to play roulette with our money.

Should 2 pack for seadays too - just never know....

Well I don't know! Enlighten me? Lol!

I like this idea, next cruise I might bring a side of beef.

Good idea. I'm bringing an Aldi's. If I was cruising HAL again I'd step up my game and switch it to a Trader Joes.

THIS x 2!!! :eek:

Also Tylenol Migraine. One at bedtime keeps away those Migraines from lack of sleep and also stops a hangover from occurring .

Between the Imodium and the Tylenol both ends of my body ran like clockwork :)

Imodium AD. Seriously. Alcohol, over eating , greasy burgers, and burritos are a recipe for some major issues.

Maybe shopping at discount outlets like TJ Maxx, Marshall's and Ross is not normal procedure for some folks... but...... the poster who was asking about where they could replace lost luggage/clothing would have a limited budget from the airline.

 

 

 

They were on their way to the Caribbean thus needing shorts, tees/summery tops, flip-flops, swim suits, undies, and maybe a couple of sundresses for dinner. All of these items are available at deeply discounted prices at the stores being mentioned above. You could probably come up with a reasonably nice looking wardrobe for the week within the budget allowed. Is it what they probably would have shopped for at home? No .. but the circumstances here required some extensive shopping in a limited amount of time.:)

Those stores plus Steinmart get most of my clothing dollars. I COULD spend more elsewhere but the fact of the matter is that I'm cheap when it comes to clothing. I outfitted my last cruise with 5 long summertime dresses..and not one was over $9.00.

KK,

 

 

 

If you don't care Marshalls or TJ max, Don't waste your time going to Ross Store. They're all pretty much the same ran by different corporations. Ross is owned by Ross Store Inc ticker symbol (ROST) and the other stores are under (TJX). I have both company stocks in my investment funds.

 

 

 

I would go there to get a Adidas jogging shorts, exercise shirt or Speedo swimming trunks for half price of MSRP.

The Ross store in FL smells. Serious, it's bad. A combination of mold , plastic, and dirty socks ala my son. I'm a dedicated bargain shopper and I high tailed it outside. The smells of hot asphalt and car exhaust were ambrosia compared to Ross.

During my cruise ( two weeks ) ago three men were allowed to board via boat as we were leaving Grand Cayman. We weren't moving fast but that had to as scary as missing the ship in the first place.

When we were leaving Cozumel we also stopped in the water. This was a complete stop after we had been moving for about a half hour. Rumors ( never saw it so I can't confirm) that a family of 5 were brought onboard. Carnival WAS paging this family before we left.