I've been having a little trouble lately coming up with topics for the blog. Therefore you may have noticed that you are not seeing as many blogs from me. If you are interested in learning about a destination, adventure or anything involving travel, let me know. Maybe it will trigger a post or even a series of posts. In the meantime, I am currently shopping for my niece's graduation trip. I think we have it narrowed down to a cruise. But the cruise itself may have changed this morning. She is probably going to be available for travel in the fall which opens up the possibilities pretty dramatically.
Cruise prices drop significantly when school starts in September. Fall is also when a lot of ships that summer away from the Caribbean to avoid hurricane season return. So, the number of cruises available goes up significantly. November and February have always been my favorite months for cruising because the weather is perfect in the Caribbean then, and prices are down. Originally, I was planning on sailing Freedom of the Seas out of Port Canaveral in September or October. It gets a little tricky because Rebecca's first nephew will be due the second week of September. He will be my first great nephew. I don't want to miss his birth and I'm pretty sure that Rebecca feels the same way. With that in mind, I'm sort of taking September out of the mix just to be safe.
So then I started looking at October options. Freedom does two Eastern Caribbean sailings out of Port Canaveral in October which is what I was looking at. I have only gone to the Eastern Caribbean once. Rebecca has never been. But there are drawbacks to this cruise. The biggest is that Royal Caribbean is trying to drive me away. They probably aren't doing it intentionally. I doubt that they are targeting me individually. But that doesn't change the effect. You see, they are offering fewer and fewer early and late dining seatings. When on a cruise, I am a late diner. One of my favorite parts of the day is sitting at dinner with a large group of new friends that I met on the first night of the cruise at our dinner table. I enjoy the conversation and getting to know them.
I know I've written about it before, but I have met some really neat people at dinner on a cruise ship. Regardless of which ship we go on and where we sail out of, my niece and I will be traveling together. We will drive to the port together probably talking all the way, we will stay in the same cabin together, probably talking quite a bit in the cabin and we will spend most of our time outside of the cabin in one another's company as well, either walking around the ship, laying around the pool, or on an excursion in a port of call. In any of those scenarios there is a pretty good chance we will talk to one another. We will have plenty of time to talk to each other during this trip. So, I don't see the point in doing "My Time Dining" where you walk into a dining room, they seat you at a table for two with a waiter or waitress you have never seen before (and won't see again) and you and your traveling companion have yet another opportunity to talk to one another.
I like having a group to talk to that one time a day. I also like having the same waiter and assistant waiter each night so that they get to know you and you get to know them. I like it when a waiter knows what I want to drink and brings it to me without a lot of fanfare. That doesn't happen with "My Time Dining". With "My Time Dining" you are just another person who was seated at one of their tables on a particular night. This is one of the reasons I will never sail on NCL again. (There are other reasons, but "My Time Dining" is a big one.) I was on NCL once, we were forced to do "My Time Dining" and I hated it. On that occasion I was with my nephew Chris, who is a great conversationalist and very entertaining to be around. But still, it would have been nice to talk to others too.
So sailing in October on Freedom of the Seas, both 5:30 and 8:00 dining options are booked. Nothing available.... So we would be stuck with "My Time Dining" which is a huge drawback in my opinion. Another drawback is that the cruise leaves from Port Canaveral which means we would either need to drive to the Florida or fly. For me flying and cruising isn't a deal breaker like it is for my Dad. If he has to fly he just about won't take the cruise because he worries about lost luggage, late flights and so on. I suppose he figures that a vacation is supposed to be relaxing and he won't be relaxed if he is worrying about those things.
While flying isn't a deal breaker for me, it does run the price up considerably. I looked at Southwest so that we could check luggage without paying extra, but those flights were too expensive. American has the least expensive flights into Orlando which is the airport that services Port Canaveral. The flights are direct which is nice. But it's $289 per person and then you each have to pay to check luggage. Then you have to get ground transportation to Port Canaveral which is a 45 minute drive from the airport. Apparently, renting a car at MCO and driving to Port Canaveral is the cheapest. Then the car rental agency shuttles you over to the ship terminal. Then coming back you shuttle to the car rental agency, get a car, then drive back to MCO. Sounds like a hassle and it costs $40 to $50. Additionally, I'm a scaredy cat about flying in on the same day you are supposed to leave for a cruse. So, if I fly, I'm going to have to get there the day before and then there is a hotel to pay for too. So, you pay $600 for two people to fly, $50 or so for luggage, $100 for that car rental going both ways, $125 for a hotel and $100 or so for several meals on the travel days. Offsite parking at DFW will be around $10 a day for 9 days. With all of that, you are paying a little over $1000 to fly.
So I had decided that if we sailed on Freedom out of Port Canaveral, we would drive. The ship leaves on Sunday. I decided driving we would need to leave on Friday in order to not make it miserable. When I drive long distances, I like to stop and enjoy myself along the way. So, I thought we would stay on the the road one night somewhere around Alabama. We could probably get by with an $80 room on that one. We would eat both lunch and dinner out. If we agreed to eat cheaply we could probably get by on $50 or so for both of us. Hopefully that hotel would have a free breakfast, so on Saturday we would again only eat two meals out. But arriving in Port Canaveral, we would want to go to a touristy seafood place (I know us, we're Meyers women). So meals on Saturday would be closer to $80. I'm thinking $125 for a hotel room. Cruise terminal parking is $120 for the week. Then when we get back the following Sunday, we would load up and drive home only spending one night on the road. So another $80 for a hotel and another $80 or so for meals for a couple of days. At current gas prices, we would spend about $300 on gas roundtrip. So, driving would cost about $915 saving us a whopping $100 give or take a little. So either way we go, we'll spend a lot of money getting there and back.
To help reduce the total price of the trip, I had decided that we would get an inside cabin on the ship which is something I have NEVER done before and it does not appeal to me. But honestly, we'd be on Freedom which is a great ship and has a lot to do on deck with great pools, so how much time would we need to spend in the room anyway. An inside Promenade cabin only runs $50 more than a regular inside cabin, so I decided we would go with that just so that we could have a window even if it is only looking down at all the other people strolling through the Promenade. So anyway, with the cost of getting to Florida, the price of the cruise itself along with travel insurance, we would be spending very close to $3000 for the two of us.
So then this morning I got an email from Princess and I remembered that Princess is bringing a ship into Houston this fall. Yes, you read that right, Houston. They will sail Caribbean Princess from the Bayport Terminal. So I started looking at options on a November cruise out of Houston on Princess. People..... I can get an aft facing balcony, pay for parking, gas and lunch at Buck-ees going each way for less than $2500. Plus, are you ready for this? 8:15 dining at a table for 8 people. Guess which way I'm leaning. Now, it's not an Eastern Caribbean cruise but it goes to my favorite place of all, Roatan. The other stops are Belize and Cozumel. Of those stops, Rebecca has only been to Cozumel. So, I fired off an email to her Mom this morning to check on November. We'll see what happens. But it has gotten me really excited! Maybe I'll have a new favorite cruise line.
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