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The Cruise Thread

JB said:
All of those are solid, but they will be different ship to ship.
What I mean by Port is that for instance going out of Miami, is very different than going out of Ft Lauderdale, etc.
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I'm curious as to how it is different leaving from Miami vs. Ft Lauderdale. Is it the terminal? parking? access?
 
Jeanthemachine said:
I'm curious as to how it is different leaving from Miami vs. Ft Lauderdale. Is it the terminal? parking? access?
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Everytime I have ever left from FT Lauderdale it is far smoother than that of Miami.
 
Port of Miami - dated, frustrating to get to, a clusterblank in most cases. If I had to leave out of south Florida, I'd much rather leave out of Ft Lauderdale without question.
 
I've been out of Miami two times and it wasn't much of an issue. With that said, I've never been out of Ft. Lauderdale....so I have nothing to compare. Though I did fly in and out of the Ft. Lauderdale airport this last time, and I could SEE the Cruise Port and ships from my Terminal, so that's pretty close. I imagine that's part of the reason it could be smoother, due to ease of getting to and from there.
 
jdtox said:
Thanks for the tips...I wouldn't expect to get sea sick, but have never been on a ship that big or on the water that long. What do you mean by choose your port carefully? I've been looking at Royal Carribean and Celebrity mostly. Not sure about Norwegian. I have heard to avoid Carnival.
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This last month, we took the kids and went on a Disney Cruise. It was kid friendly, BUT the up side was the service was OUTSTANDING, the live shows were great, they have a 24 hour pop (or soda for our southern friends) station that's 100% free. So your not charged for that.....AND....they let you take your own alcohol on the side in your luggage. We were less than a half a block from a liquor store at the hotel we stayed at. So, that morning before we boarded the ship, I bought a small bottle of rum, and a few shooters of Jack and some Malibu and put those in the bag. No issues at all. We took out own tumble mugs (Mwards idea) and I filled it up with my favorite pop, poured in my rum and hit the pool.

Some cruises won't let you even have free pop!
 
I've only been on one cruise. Flew into Ft. Lauderdale and took a car service to the port of Miami. Everything actually went smooth for me but that's my only experience.
 
jdtox said:
Thanks for the tips...I wouldn't expect to get sea sick, but have never been on a ship that big or on the water that long. What do you mean by choose your port carefully? I've been looking at Royal Carribean and Celebrity mostly. Not sure about Norwegian. I have heard to avoid Carnival.
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Send me a PM with your email address and I'll send you Royal & Celebrity's latest friends and family rates.
 
Jeanthemachine said:
I'm curious as to how it is different leaving from Miami vs. Ft Lauderdale. Is it the terminal? parking? access?
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I work in the Port of Miami and although we have a new tunnel that helps alleviate traffic I'd still prefer to sail out of Ft. Lauderdale. It's right next to the airport and you don't have the downtown and South Beach traffic. It's kinda in the middle of nowhere really and alot more real estate (Port of Miami is an island).
 
Canes said:
I work in the Port of Miami and although we have a new tunnel that helps alleviate traffic I'd still prefer to sail out of Ft. Lauderdale. It's right next to the airport and you don't have the downtown and South Beach traffic. It's kinda in the middle of nowhere really and alot more real estate (Port of Miami is an island).
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Yeah, except number of rap albums named after the ports:

Port of Miami - 1
Port Everglades - 0
 
Jeanthemachine said:
I'm curious as to how it is different leaving from Miami vs. Ft Lauderdale. Is it the terminal? parking? access?
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Now for the serious answer.

I'd pay more attention to the nearest airport as you'll spend limited time in the port but getting through the airport and to the port can be a big issue. I avoid MIA like the plague. So much so that I will always fly out of FLL or PBI and take a connection (or two) over flying out of MIA, even for international.

MIA is a total disaster. That airport has been under construction for so long that entire contractor and legal firms have survived solely based on that project. It's also a lot further away from Port Miami (we removed the 'of' from the name because apparently that's too much work) than FLL is from Port Everglades. Getting from MIA to Port Miami takes a lot longer and is a lot more expensive (and fraught with danger) than getting from FLL to Port Everglades. If you're staying overnight you'll have better, cheaper options out of Port Everglades.

And finally, until new dredging is done at Port Miami, most of the bigger (read: newer and nicer) ships are at Port Everglades so you'll have better options there.

Avoid Carnival unless you want to ensure you get lucky with a drunken 20-something (and get VD at the same time).
 
OK, thinking about doing our first cruise in 2016. Thinking 6-8 nights would be awesome and I would love to avoid Mexico for ports of call.

As I am an idiot to this, I would like to book something that wouldnt be overwhelming for a first timer and I also dont want to be surprised by unexpected charges. I know port activities arent covered, but I want to pay and not have to worry about sodas and other shenanigans.

Any suggestions on cruise lines, specific routes, etc?
 
Im cruising on Royal Carribean this december. I will not ruise carnival any longer because their service is horrible. NCL is good line as well nut RC i top on my list.
fupresti said:
OK, thinking about doing our first cruise in 2016. Thinking 6-8 nights would be awesome and I would love to avoid Mexico for ports of call.

As I am an idiot to this, I would like to book something that wouldnt be overwhelming for a first timer and I also dont want to be surprised by unexpected charges. I know port activities arent covered, but I want to pay and not have to worry about sodas and other shenanigans.

Any suggestions on cruise lines, specific routes, etc?
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Reach out to canes he works in the industry
 
My gf and I are planning on doing the cruise to Mexico . Cabo San Lucas is high on the list,excited to meet her family and explore this historic sites. I love that type of activities along with scuba diving and kayaking

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk
 
fupresti said:
OK, thinking about doing our first cruise in 2016. Thinking 6-8 nights would be awesome and I would love to avoid Mexico for ports of call.

As I am an idiot to this, I would like to book something that wouldnt be overwhelming for a first timer and I also dont want to be surprised by unexpected charges. I know port activities arent covered, but I want to pay and not have to worry about sodas and other shenanigans.

Any suggestions on cruise lines, specific routes, etc?
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To me RC and Celebrity are great ships that feature awesome amenities with so much more. Norwegian Also fits that bill. One thing to note however is that each brand has many boats and their ages and sizes make them rather different.
 
We are now looking at a cruise instead of Disney next fall. Is Carnival still the most kid friendly cruise?
 
Franklin51 said:
We are now looking at a cruise instead of Disney next fall. Is Carnival still the most kid friendly cruise?
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I would think Disney would be the most kid friendly.
 
JB said:
I would think Disney would be the most kid friendly.
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This. Disney is awesome for kids, but also has adult only areas if you want to drop the kids off at the play center for a while.
 
JB said:
I would think Disney would be the most kid friendly.
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Yea but the $$$ may be outa our range

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
HBirdman80 said:
Now for the serious answer.

I'd pay more attention to the nearest airport as you'll spend limited time in the port but getting through the airport and to the port can be a big issue. I avoid MIA like the plague. So much so that I will always fly out of FLL or PBI and take a connection (or two) over flying out of MIA, even for international.

MIA is a total disaster. That airport has been under construction for so long that entire contractor and legal firms have survived solely based on that project. It's also a lot further away from Port Miami (we removed the 'of' from the name because apparently that's too much work) than FLL is from Port Everglades. Getting from MIA to Port Miami takes a lot longer and is a lot more expensive (and fraught with danger) than getting from FLL to Port Everglades. If you're staying overnight you'll have better, cheaper options out of Port Everglades.

And finally, until new dredging is done at Port Miami, most of the bigger (read: newer and nicer) ships are at Port Everglades so you'll have better options there.

Avoid Carnival unless you want to ensure you get lucky with a drunken 20-something (and get VD at the same time).
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So much truth in this post. Everything in here is absolutely accurate. MIA is the worst airport I have ever been in, aside from third world countries. Carnival is a sloppy mess of young people trashing the place and getting as hammered as possible.
 
Franklin51 said:
Yea but the $$$ may be outa our range

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
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We found Disney to be surprisingly comparable to other cruise lines. I think Carnival is the cheapest, but there is a reason why and I would never sail with them.
 
jt2929 said:
This. Disney is awesome for kids, but also has adult only areas if you want to drop the kids off at the play center for a while.
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Any cruise in off season is cheap. But Disney is not a cheap way to go.
 
fupresti said:
OK, thinking about doing our first cruise in 2016. Thinking 6-8 nights would be awesome and I would love to avoid Mexico for ports of call.

As I am an idiot to this, I would like to book something that wouldnt be overwhelming for a first timer and I also dont want to be surprised by unexpected charges. I know port activities arent covered, but I want to pay and not have to worry about sodas and other shenanigans.

Any suggestions on cruise lines, specific routes, etc?
Click to expand...

My wife and I did the NCL Breakaway from NYC to Bermuda. It spends 3 days in Bermuda which is nice and relaxed for a first cruise, plus Bermuda is a really nice island to visit. Plus the NYC terminal on the west side of Manhattan is super easy to get through and you can play Bethpage while you are here.
 
Never been on a cruise. Just to confining for my phobia's!!
 
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