Sailing from Southern Port (Not S Florida)

[greeneg]

Just to compliment Sky Suites poll on sailing from the Northeastern Ports, how many people would sail from non South Florida Southern Ports. ( Examples, Norfolk, VA, Wilmington, NC, Charleston, SC, Savannah, GA, Jacksonville, FL, Tampa, FL, etc.)

[richsea]

Hi Ed! Good poll!

I would consider sailing from any port in the Southern US providing I could get reasonable airfare from NYC. But my favorite port to sail from is San Juan, PR, due to the fact that there are so many low cost ways to fly there & the Caribbean itinireries are so much better than the typical east/west ones that are available from anywhere on the east coast.:)

[excitedofharpenden]

I'd definitely do Charleston and further south, maybe even Wilmington (been there once and loved it. Do they have cruise ship facilities there?), but not sure I'd go as far north as Richmond. We cruised out of Baltimore in November one year and it was warm and sunny when we left and cold and snowy 11 days later. The last sea day was chilly and overcast. Quite novel, but a shock after a Caribbean cruise. The trip around Cape Hatteras can be quite bumpy, so I've heard, more pronounced in Winter.

 

Phil

[Lois R]

Hi Ed:)

 

I would travel north or south:D depending on the price of

the cruise;)

I am 3.5 hours south of Charleston. I would LOVE to sail

from there! I love that city!

 

FLL is a 5 hour drive from here. With the price of

gas:eek: it is cheaper for me to fly SW roundtrip!

[SheilaNC]

Ed, would love a southern port North of S FL :)

 

We sailed out of Charleston during the short time when X did that and loved it. Got to stay in that special city for a day before sailing and could drive from home - a real novelty for us (as you know). The key is - would enough people do it to fill the ship. I'm guessing that the answer was NO when they pulled out of Charleston. Would also like Norfolk - seems to work for RCL and NCL and they have new terminal facilities. Wilmington has discussed building a cruise terminal but don't know if the city fathers were serious.

[Lois R]

Hi Sheila, nice to see you again:)

I hope you enjoyed your Azamara cruise.

 

I am going back on Mercury again in October:D wanna go?

[SheilaNC]

Lois,

Had a great Journey cruise and, yes, would love to sail on Mercury with you, but will have to wait until Feb. Don't want to hijack this thread...but wish Mercury could sail out of a Southern port :)

[98Charlie]

Was a toss up on the vote for me but ended up voting for ``don't care where we sail from.''

 

Actually I'd love to see X sail from Charleston, S.C. Sailed NCL from that port 3 years ago during the Christmas season and had a terrific pre- and post-cruise stay in the city.

 

Wish more cruise lines would sail from Charleston. The city offers a true welcoming atmosphere to visitors.

 

Dianne

[Lois R]

Lois,

Had a great Journey cruise and, yes, would love to sail on Mercury with you, but will have to wait until Feb. Don't want to hijack this thread...but wish Mercury could sail out of a Southern port :)

 

I ditto your thoughts:D wish she would sail from this

part of the country too!

[kb4683]

Voted for "I don't care....", but absolutely loved sailing from Jacksonville on Zenith, wish X could/would start sailing from there again. Charleston would also be nice! And, of course, Tampa is the closest for us :D.

 

Hey, X, are you listening???

[greeneg]

Hi Sheila, Lois and everybody. We took one cruise out of Charleston on Galaxy and never understood why X left the city. The ship was full on our cruise and we enjoyed the city as always.

 

Part of my reason for doing this thread was my personal theory that someone is missing a real opportunity here to carve out a niche by encouraging people not to have to fly to Florida. Charlotte is USAir's Florida/Caribbean Hub ( so they say) but air fares from here are usually some of the very highest in the Country.

 

We also did two cruises on the Zenith out of Jacksonville ( we still talk about that dinner at Ruby Tuesday's, Lois) and that worked fine for us also.

[SheilaNC]

Ed,

Wouldn't it be funny if we were both on the same Galaxy cruise out of Charleston. I remember our sailing date (Jan 23, 2005) because the weather was so unusual - actually snowing in Charleston when we got there the day before the cruise....

[fhmoore]

Norfolk's new cruise terminal is now open and quite stunning. Pre-cruise tours include beaching at Nags Head or Va Beach, Williamsburg, Jamestown and all the Naval history one can stand!! It's one of the few US ports I've ever seen that you can walk to a nice downtown area.

 

Southwest (Norfolk) Air-tran (Newport News-30 minutes) and Jet-Blue (Richmond-1 hour) all have made air rates very competitive. As much as I love Charleston flying there is about the most expensive route on the east coast.

 

The water is can be rough from here to mid-North Carolina.

 

I think you'll see a lot of ships sailing or making a port stop here with the new terminal. Our Harbor can handle the biggest of ships...a lot of them come here to the shipyards for mini-re-furbs.

 

And, no, I don't work for the chamber of commerce!!!

[SheilaNC]

Now if you can just get the docking availability to X's main office with a plea...it would be great. We're planning a weekend trip to Norfolk (just because we've never been there) and will plan to look around the cruise terminal. Which ships are leaving from there now?

[fhmoore]

Here's the info on our cruise terminal and ships visiting...

http://www.cruisenorfolk.org/

 

2008 will have a Royal Caribbean ship...the Granduer I think..alternating Bermuda, Canada/New England and Caribbean itineraries. Makes for some fun Back to Backs!

 

Spengle...let me know if I can suggest some fun ideas for your Norfolk adventure!

[SheilaNC]

Thanks for the offer...any suggestions can be emailed to address below. We haven't set a date yet. It's a shame than only the Grandeur is scheduled to Bermuda. When we were there on the Journey, we spoke to some folks on the Grandeur and they were only in port for 1 1/2 days. I don't understand why they don't do a 7 day cruise there - they could be there for 3 1/2 or 4 days that way...much better.

[fhmoore]

I think now that the terminal is open we'll have a lot more cruiselines place ships here. The Horizon was home ported here till it was sold and did a week long Bermuda itinerary. The Maasdam was also homeprted here for a few years.

 

It was a bit of a mess without a dedicated terminal so I think Celebrity and HAl pulled back till the terminal was complete. I don't think they thought it would be completed in time. A suprise to all...it was finished on time and within budget!!!

[DeepWaterMariner]

Don't forget Galveston or Houston. Houston has a new cruise terminal opening next year but no ships yet. We cruised Galaxy out of Galveston and would love to see her return.

[ocngypz]

Sailing from Tampa is okay, as I can get there from here for a reasonable airfare.

 

However, airfare... and the availability of airlift from my neck of the woods to the smaller airports in the South...........is terrible.

 

I prefer a quick cab ride from the airport to the ship. Even sailing from Port Canaveral is a turn off because of the long transfer time.