S'fest IV Cruises!

[Shan]

The following is a compilation of potential cruise departure dates, departure ports, cruise durations and cruise prices put together by our very own Vlad.

www.soulfulspike.com/staff/cruise/april_cruiselist.htm

The list is from Carnival, because this is where we might, if we have enough participants, get discounts on the cruise prices and other special amenities for our group with me as the "cruise coordinator" being a "past cruiser" with Carnival. We also wanted to try to keep from being overwhelmed by options and take too long a) pulling the information together and b) getting everyone to agree on everything, so we stuck with a) one cruise line and b) a choice of 3 and 4 day cruises with the assumption that a 3-4 day duration would be the easiest to manage around jobs, family, etc.

Also, we have chosen cruises in April because: a) cruises and flights are cheaper than later in the year, b) the weather is warm but not TOO warm c) hurricane season hasn't started yet and d) March is Spring Break season and we just want to avoid it but going backward into February, while cheaper, might give us inconsistent weather and going forward into May gives us much higher prices.

So I'm putting up a poll for everyone to vote on which one is their favorite, and I'm going to leave the poll open for a fairly long time. Here's why:

Before you vote on which cruise is the one you want, PLEASE take the time to check out the flight/s you will need (there are some links to a few airline websites at the bottom of the page Vlad made.) Make sure that a) you are comfortable with the price of the flight and b) the flight gets you there in good time to get to the ship. Generally "in good time" means that, since all these Carnival cruises depart at 4pm, you should account for things such as a potentially delayed flight, picking up your bags, transport time to the dock, transferring your bags to the ship, and getting through immigration to get ON the ship. Landing by 1pm is ideal and worked perfectly when we went.

Also, if flight price is a major factor (it is for me), you might think about some of the steeply discounted airlines like www.skybus.com. Some of them have very limited flight schedules, but they're so cheap that even if you have to stay overnight at a hotel, it might be worth it. I know people who have actually used this company. Anyway, just a suggestion.

After we figure out which duration, destination and departure port we want, we'll pick a date. But please feel free to PM me with questions first if you need help deciding. I am generally reachable immediately via YIM all day during the weekdays. You can get my YIM handle off the icon under my avatar here.

So...VOTE!


<edit> Passport Information! From this site, there are also links to the State Department site where there you will find more information on how to apply as well as the actual forms you need to do that. Thanks for the reminder, Jeff!


<edit 2> For anybody considering the cruise from Orlando (Ft. Canaveral): I called Carnival and found out that they have shuttle service available, leaving every 10 minutes from Orlando airport for the approximately 1hr ride to Ft. Canaveral. The shuttle service is part of the ticket price but please make sure, when booking (if we all do it separately instead of as a group) to make sure that your transportation voucher is included.

[Queen E]

Oh! Thanks for the skybus link! I can't go on the cruise, but I'm going to check it out for flights to England.

[Queen E]

D'oh! Never mind.

[Karen]

So, I'm assuming that Port Canaveral (Orlando) means that you fly into Orlando and somehow shuttle to Port Canaveral?

Prices don't look too bad from Chicago. Non-stop for $230.

[jeff]

If we go, I believe we will be driving down, So Mobile would work best for me, but Orlando is not out of the question, I mean 6 hours drive to Mobile would be much better than a 10 1/2 hour one to Orlando. But we got a good deal from Southwest Airlines from B'ham ot Orlando for our Disney trip 118$ Round trip per person.

If we could get that again, flying would be an option!

[Shan]

I modified the original post here to include some passport info.

[S'ewing S'cubie]

shanno said:

I modified the original post here to include some passport info.

That's because you are very clever.

[Vlad]

karen said:

So, I'm assuming that Port Canaveral (Orlando) means that you fly into Orlando and somehow shuttle to Port Canaveral?

Prices don't look too bad from Chicago. Non-stop for $230.

You are right, Karen. Most folks flying would use the closest "big" airport, that being in Orlando. It's about 45 minutes from the port.

The following information is from this link

www.cruisecritic.com/ports/newport.cfm?ID=40

and I do not personally endorse any of the shuttle services mentioned:

"All cruise lines offer shuttles from the airport as part of cruise packages, or they may be arranged separately. In the port area, Art's Shuttle (321-783-2112), Blue Dolphin Shuttle (321-433-0011), and Busy Traveler Transportation (800-496-7433) all offer shuttle transportation. Beasley's Limousine (321-453-3680) and J.J.'s Limo (321-693-0004) offer limo service. Taxis are always available at the pier."

Rest assured, if Port Canaveral is chosen, we will manage to get to and from the Orlando airport as easily and inexpensively as possible. It's not as if thousands of others don't make this same trip every day.

Edit: We have found out specifically and for sure that transportation from the Orlando airport via shuttle is included as a service of the cruise line.

Vlad

[Shan]

dianeu said:

shanno said:

I modified the original post here to include some passport info.

That's because you are very clever.

Nah, it's because Jeff YIMd me to ask me about passports and I realized that, between trying to post all that stuff (and losing it once when I accidentally hit the wrong series of keys before I was done making it and had to delete it) while cooking dinner and chasing my kids around, I'd actually forgotten to put passport information in there.

[Queen E]

shanno said:

dianeu said:

That's because you are very clever.

Nah, it's because Jeff YIMd me to ask me about passports and I realized that, between trying to post all that stuff (and losing it once when I accidentally hit the wrong series of keys before I was done making it and had to delete it) while cooking dinner and chasing my kids around, I'd actually forgotten to put passport information in there.

Shut up, dude. You're clever. Deal with it.

[Shan]

mt said:

shanno said:

Nah, it's because Jeff YIMd me to ask me about passports and I realized that, between trying to post all that stuff (and losing it once when I accidentally hit the wrong series of keys before I was done making it and had to delete it) while cooking dinner and chasing my kids around, I'd actually forgotten to put passport information in there.

Shut up, dude. You're clever. Deal with it.

Nuh-uh, YOU shut up!

[Shan]

Also: if we end up without a clear ahead-of-the-pack cruise choice, we can always do a tie-breaker vote later on.

[leftylady]

shanno said:

Also: if we end up without a clear ahead-of-the-pack cruise choice, we can always do a tie-breaker vote later on.

Good idea, Shan.

You may need a tie breaker or something to evaluate responses. This set up for polling with only one choice reveals everyone's first choice but not a clear idea of particiaption/availability that comes from a ranking such as:

favorite
|
not favorite but would go along
|
(down to)
|
inconvenient, would not participate
|
absolutely not!


If you see what I mean, you could get different results/tallies if you ranked.

leftylady, who hasn't cast a vote yet but would be open to a couple of choices

[Shan]

leftylady said:

shanno said:

Also: if we end up without a clear ahead-of-the-pack cruise choice, we can always do a tie-breaker vote later on.

Good idea, Shan.

You may need a tie breaker or something to evaluate responses. This set up for polling with only one choice reveals everyone's first choice but not a clear idea of particiaption/availability that comes from a ranking such as:

favorite
|
not favorite but would go along
|
(down to)
|
inconvenient, would not participate
|
absolutely not!


If you see what I mean, you could get different results/tallies if you ranked.

leftylady, who hasn't cast a vote yet but would be open to a couple of choices

Yes, that's exactly the problem with the way the poll function works here: only one vote per poll. One S'fest, we had folks submit their rankings via PM, and there were charts and graphs, etc. But that's more time-consuming than we can manage right now, so we're doing the polling thing.

[Shan]

TRANSPORTATION UPDATE:

For anybody considering the cruise from Orlando (Ft. Canaveral): I called Carnival and found out that they have shuttle service available, leaving every 10 minutes from Orlando airport for the approximately 1hr ride to Ft. Canaveral. The shuttle service is part of the ticket price but please make sure, when booking (if we all do it separately instead of as a group) to make sure that your transportation voucher is included.