cavydad

We always carry sandwich bags when we travel. Room service will make sandwiches or we will order bread, peanut butter or bacon and make our own.

We also get apples and oranges.

We have never had a problem carrying off sandwiches in our day pack.

We were on the Legend of The Seas waiting to leave the ship after a 14 day cruise and watched the passengers in the theater rush off the ship. The cruise director had forgotten to release the platinum and diamond groups.

All the cruise director could say was it happens. We missed our train in San Diego and waited two more hours for the next train. Not terrible. Just a poor way to treat passengers at the end of a cruise.

Keith Williams was the cruise director on our Panama Canal cruise last November. It was not apparent that he had control of his staff. One example was leaving the ship in San Diego which was the most chaotic we have ever experienced. They had groups set up from diamond, emerald and then the large group in the theater. Waiting patiently to have our group called we had a large crowd go running out of the theater past our group. It was apparent no one was in charge. I found Keith running on the gangway and told him of the chaos. His only response was I know, I know and he kept running.

We were not wowed.

The La Terraza Hotel went beyond my expectations in resolving a problem!

I am rescinding notices that I placed on Tripadvisor and Cruise Critic telling everyone to avoid Hotel La Terraza.

Franklin Rivera, the manager somehow found our phone number and called to resolve our problem with the hotel. Most would have shrugged their shoulders and ignored the problem. But this hotel cares about their guests and the hotel's reputation.

The problem was Expedia called and told us the reservation we had booked and fully paid for in March and fully had been cancelled in September. The blame was on the hotel and we were told nothing could be done. At least Expedia refunded my payment for the room.

The hotel manager told rooms were available. We are traveling at the end of January and the hotel generally does not book rooms this far out. He also told us that Expedia told him we were booking the room for only one night even though we had paid for two nights. During the high season the hotel has a two night minimum. Very curious as we had paid for two nights. They also said we had booked a queen bedded room even though I had paid for a king bed.

The hotel manager told us he was calling every one who had an Expedia reservation that had been cancelled and was trying to correct the mess that Expedia had created.

The manager has called us more than three times to insure that we were happy and has worked with us in selecting a king bedded room. He is also matching the price we paid Expedia.

Kudos to the hotel for going out of their way to correct what had been a problem.

Lesson learned - book directly with the hotel and not with a travel consolidator such as Expedia.

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After posting on Cruise Critic and Tripadvisor along with contacting the hotel, it appears we will be staying at the Hotel Terraza.

Franklin the manager called and went out of his way to make sure we would have a terrific time at the hotel.

Expedia had screwed up our reservation. They indicated we wanted only one night, though we had paid for two, while the hotel had a two night minimum.

The manager told us he was calling every one who had an Expedia reservation and was trying to correct the mess that Expedia had created.

The manager has called us more than three times today to insure that we were happy and has worked with us in selecting a room.

Kudos to the hotel for going out of their way to correct what had been a problem.

Dining is part of the fun of cruising. My wife and I often share a third entree simply to see what it is. The waiter will often offer an entree that has not been ordered by our table as a sampler entree.

The Windjammer is a great place to hang out early in the morning the coffee and pastries are always good. We prefer breakfast and lunch in the main dining room. The service is always great and it offers a chance to meet people.

The specialty dining rooms are worth the splurge. But not every night as the food is too good. We tend to over indulge and need several day in between.

The Mystery Dinner is another way to enjoy food on a cruise. The cocktails and wine along with the food and festivities are great.

That said, cruising is what you make of it. Like life, there is always a unhappy person grumbling about something trivial, while many other folks are happy as clams.

Dollar cost averaging is the way to look at buying the RCL stock. They were only talking about buying several shares at a time. Yes, RCL stock has exploded in value. And it will drop sometime in the future. That's just how the stock market is.

I bought my RCL stock at $28 a share. Others bought it at $10. My daughters purchased it all over the spectrum, from the 20's to the 50's. When you are betting long on a company I do not see a concern with buying several shares now and more later.

The reality is to buy it while the funds are available rather than frittering it away on other things.

Granted, I prefer to purchase large blocks of stocks when the value is down. But in this case they only wanted to buy several shares at a time.

Go to Scottrade. They only charge $7.00 to purchase 1 or 100 shares. My stockbroker charges $60 to purchase stock. I use him when I need advice or an additional opinion.

My daughters bought several shares at a time and now have the 100 shares to get the cruise credit. They are young and are just happy to cruise on an interior room. They enjoy the cruise credit when they travel. They also enjoyed the run up in value of RCL stock.

I booked the room on March 18, 2014. Expedia on their confirmation told me the "reservation is booked. No need to call us to reconfirm this reservation".

Today, September 3 Expedia emailed and told me "the hotel is unable to accept the reservation for your upcoming stay".

I do not know why it took the hotel so long to realize they were overbooked.

Say hello to Hotel Terraza. I hope your stay is wonderful. Please tell them that someone posted on Cruise Critic about their experience with the hotel.

I did email the hotel. However no one has contacted me to explain the overbooking.

Expedia is willing to rebook me if I can find a hotel. They offered Holiday Inn Express and several others that are not located in Old San Juan. There were several in Old San Juan that had terrible ratings on Tripadvisor.

I always consider the location when I book a hotel. The Expedia person could not understand why location was important when there were rooms available elsewhere.

It is just disappointing to be told the reservation has been cancelled because someone overbooked the hotel.

Lesson learned, do not use Experia anymore. They have been very helpful in the past.

I am still searching for a new hotel in Old San Juan.

I booked the Hotel Terraza in March on Expedia. Today I was contacted by Expedia and was told the Hotel Terraza overbooked itself.

I was told the reservation was cancelled, nothing could be done, and I would need to find a new hotel.

The reservation was for January 30, 2015, which seems a long way off to be removed from the hotel. After all cancellations often occur.

Expedia offered hotels outside Old San Juan and was not sympathetic to the concept of location, location, location.

Just be wary if you book a room with Hotel La Terraza, there is no guarantee that they will honor the reservation.

On port days when we have an excursion we always order room service. We order it early in the morning and have never had a problem. This includes the Navigator, Legend, and the Majesty as well as the Celebrity Infinity.

We always stay at Embassy Suites in Fort Lauderdale. A great breakfast is included and the rooms are large enough for a family to spread out. The kids get their own television in the separate living room. There is a supermarket next door and family friendly restaurants nearby.

What we learned on our last transatlantic cruise is that many people book a cruise over to Europe in the spring and a cruise back to Florida in the fall. They then can book a round trip plane ticket based on the cruise schedule.

We used priority tendering on the Celebrity infinity in the Falkland Islands. We had a group of 20 persons and needed to meet our tour guide as soon as possible. The group was a mix of those with suites and those in the regular cabins. Two days before reaching the Falkland Islands we met with the cruise director and were able to get our group off on the first tender.

Was this fair? Most tours were quite short and our tour required the whole day. Had we waited for everyone to everyone to get off the ship within getting special attention we might not have completed the tour.

Other times we are happy to eat a leisurely breakfast and let everyone rush off the ship.

I carry a Swiss Army knife that has a cork screw and have never had a problem. In addition to opening wine the other attachments such as the screwdriver and knife blades are great for making travel repairs.

Find a 7 day cruise with lots of ports. That way if you do not enjoy sailing there will be a new port to explore each day.

Check out the RCL Adventure of The Seas that sails out of Puerto Rico. There are many ports on its itinerary and the ship is large enough to give the flavor of cruising.

We use the Embassy Suites when we sail out of Fort Lauderdale. It is close to the airport and the cruise ships. The happy hour and breakfast are included. Last time we shared a van to the ship.

We have arranged as well as joined tours through the cruise critic bulletin board on six cruises and they have always turned out great.

We begin by posting the itinerary as well as the name of the tour operator. The number of people that will be on the tour as well as the individual cost is given. Up front we give the price if we fill the van as will as if we do not fill it.

We have had great tours in Ephesus, Sicily, Falkland Islands, Panama, as well as other places.

The only challenge that I have ever had was in the Canary Islands. The cruise critic organizer could not say no to the other bulletin board members. The eight person tour resulted in three 40 passenger tour buses, nearly every cruise critic member aboard the ship joined the tour.

What we have discovered is the more experienced traveler will leap at the chance of joining the small tour group.

If you cannot fill the tour split the cost four the in filled seats and enjoy the smaller tour group.

View it as the cost per hour while you are on vacation. Why try to save money when you could be relaxing by the pool or exploring old San Juan? There is a limited amount of time to play and why spend the precious time hauling luggage?