Quick question re: Port Canaveral as a port stop

[mmouse37]

Isn't NASCAR hall of fame in Daytona? Could also do a day visit to Disney's Vero Beach.

Don't think there is enough time to visit Vero Beach...they only have 8 hours and Vero Beach is about 75 miles or so from PC. Have to take into account the time to pick up the car and head out. Well, I guess they would have a few hours though 95 can be a pain if there is traffic heading back North. Same issue with Daytona...about 75 miles North of PC.

MJ

 

[DietCokeMommy]

Disney Springs or Universal City Walk are lots of fun to walk around and spend time in. I haven't spent as much time at City Walk, but DS has lots of things you could do. There's the boats that go all around the water there to the different resorts (it's fun to just hang out and check out the scenery), there's the hot air balloon ride thing, there's a big fancy bowling alley, a movie theater, and there's so many restaurants and places to shop. I'd go shop and have a great dinner, walk around, do the balloon ride or the boats. If you like cuban food, we loved Bongos Cafe.

 

[mevelandry]

Yeah, we're discovering how lousy NCL is and this may be our last cruise with them! They are offering nothing so far! And the 75% refund is through the travel insurance not NCL.

I'm actually surprised they offer nothing. Usually cruise lines offer at least the possibility to book another cruise with 50% off or change without fees. :/

 

[mevelandry]

Disney Springs or Universal City Walk are lots of fun to walk around and spend time in. I haven't spent as much time at City Walk, but DS has lots of things you could do. There's the boats that go all around the water there to the different resorts (it's fun to just hang out and check out the scenery), there's the hot air balloon ride thing, there's a big fancy bowling alley, a movie theater, and there's so many restaurants and places to shop. I'd go shop and have a great dinner, walk around, do the balloon ride or the boats. If you like cuban food, we loved Bongos Cafe.

City Walk is nice, they have fun restaurants and they have a very cool mini-golf.

 

[RedSox68]

I'm actually surprised they offer nothing. Usually cruise lines offer at least the possibility to book another cruise with 50% off or change without fees. :/

Yep, we were very surprised. Even give us onboard credit or a free excursion or something. Dang -- they are really cheap and stink at customer service right now

 

[southerngirl528]

Could also do a day visit to Disney's Vero Beach.

Day guests are not allowed to use the facilities other than dining at the restaurant there are going into the shop. Day guests would not be allowed access to pools, etc. And the beach in front of DVC Vero Beach requires a room key to get BACK to the resort after a walk on the beach.

RedSox, so very sorry about your cruise plan changes. I ENTIRELY agree that a port time of 1pm to 9pm allows NO real time to even remotely think of blowing the big bucks required to get a day pass to Disney. Or Universal for that matter. If you were annual pass holders it would be different but that time frame is still mighty iffy IMO.

If you decide to take the NCL shuttle offered to Disney Springs, I think you would MORE than find great diversion there. If you have not visited since the huge makeover and additions, I promise you won't recognize the place! I mean, LOTS of it is brand new, so you couldn't recognize it! It has tons of really great shopping, some excellent restaurants, (because I LOVE great Mexican food, we frequent Frontera Cocina, Rick Bayless' authentic mexican restaurant), and even a Sprinkles Cupcake ATM if you don't want to stand in line and drool over all their sweet offerings!

Whatever you decide, have FUN!!!

 

[FigmentSpark]

If you take the shuttle to Disney Springs, take an Uber or Minnie Van to one of the water parks. That'd be great for an afternoon, if you like that sort of thing. Round it out with dinner at DS.

 

[southerngirl528]

If you take the shuttle to Disney Springs, take an Uber or Minnie Van to one of the water parks. That'd be great for an afternoon, if you like that sort of thing. Round it out with dinner at DS.

Now there's a Disney idea that could work!

 

[mevelandry]

Yep, we were very surprised. Even give us onboard credit or a free excursion or something. Dang -- they are really cheap and stink at customer service right now

They will give you a little refund for port fees, I hope?

I'm hoping that they will offer outstanding customer service during the cruise to compensate.

 

[RedSox68]

If you take the shuttle to Disney Springs, take an Uber or Minnie Van to one of the water parks. That'd be great for an afternoon, if you like that sort of thing. Round it out with dinner at DS.

I don't think there would be enough time -- we don't dock until 1 p.m. and I'm not sure what time the water parks close, but I don't think we'd get enough time to make paying for a ticket worth it. Disney Springs would be ticketless and just require us to pay for the NCL shuttle -- which has a safety net of if we're running late, the ship can't leave without us.

Our friends were going to buy us dinner at the Frog & Onion in Bermuda for our anniversary, so I'm thinking dinner at Disney Springs instead maybe.

 

[mevelandry]

Day guests are not allowed to use the facilities other than dining at the restaurant there are going into the shop. Day guests would not be allowed access to pools, etc. And the beach in front of DVC Vero Beach requires a room key to get BACK to the resort after a walk on the beach.

RedSox, so very sorry about your cruise plan changes. I ENTIRELY agree that a port time of 1pm to 9pm allows NO real time to even remotely think of blowing the big bucks required to get a day pass to Disney. Or Universal for that matter. If you were annual pass holders it would be different but that time frame is still mighty iffy IMO.

If you decide to take the NCL shuttle offered to Disney Springs, I think you would MORE than find great diversion there. If you have not visited since the huge makeover and additions, I promise you won't recognize the place! I mean, LOTS of it is brand new, so you couldn't recognize it! It has tons of really great shopping, some excellent restaurants, (because I LOVE great Mexican food, we frequent Frontera Cocina, Rick Bayless' authentic mexican restaurant), and even a Sprinkles Cupcake ATM if you don't want to stand in line and drool over all their sweet offerings!

Whatever you decide, have FUN!!!

+1 for Sprinkles Cupcakes

 

[mevelandry]

I don't think there would be enough time -- we don't dock until 1 p.m. and I'm not sure what time the water parks close, but I don't think we'd get enough time to make paying for a ticket worth it. Disney Springs would be ticketless and just require us to pay for the NCL shuttle -- which has a safety net of if we're running late, the ship can't leave without us.

Our friends were going to buy us dinner at the Frog & Onion in Bermuda for our anniversary, so I'm thinking dinner at Disney Springs instead maybe.

Have you tried Raglan Road in Disney Springs? Nice atmosphere.

 

[RedSox68]

They will give you a little refund for port fees, I hope?

I'm hoping that they will offer outstanding customer service during the cruise to compensate.

Speaking of which, yesterday when I called NCL, I got a very unpleasant staff member who, after checking with the higher ups, came back on the phone and said "nope, they are not offering anything -- no options -- and they really don't have to". No, they don't have to do anything, but it sure would make for good will if you want any future business from us (which at this point won't happen now).

So I asked her about them compensating us for the difference in cruise pricing and this was her response: "You need to understand that the port fees for the Florida and Nassau ports are much higher than Bermuda, but they are not going to charge you those higher fees". Can you IMAGINE if they even tried that -- there'd be a mutiny.

So I called again today about changing a specialty dinner reservation because my original was scheduled for the late night stop at Port Canaveral. While we spoke, I told her how very disappointed we all were that NCL has dug their feet in and refused to offer passengers anything at all -- while reading that RCCL, Carnival and Disney have already offered various compensation or amenities, and she kept apologizing and saying she has heard this all day and passengers are very upset and feel NCL does not care. She even commented she was quite surprised that they weren't offering anything. Heck, we would have taken the option of a full credit for a future cruise to be allowed to cancel this one.

And as I type this, they just came on with the weather report on TV and said that this storm is going to be hitting the southern east coast, encompassing North Carolina, Florida, Bahamas -- yay, everywhere we're headed to

 

[Quellman]

Day guests are not allowed to use the facilities other than dining at the restaurant there are going into the shop. Day guests would not be allowed access to pools, etc. And the beach in front of DVC Vero Beach requires a room key to get BACK to the resort after a walk on the beach.

RedSox, so very sorry about your cruise plan changes. I ENTIRELY agree that a port time of 1pm to 9pm allows NO real time to even remotely think of blowing the big bucks required to get a day pass to Disney. Or Universal for that matter. If you were annual pass holders it would be different but that time frame is still mighty iffy IMO.

If you decide to take the NCL shuttle offered to Disney Springs, I think you would MORE than find great diversion there. If you have not visited since the huge makeover and additions, I promise you won't recognize the place! I mean, LOTS of it is brand new, so you couldn't recognize it! It has tons of really great shopping, some excellent restaurants, (because I LOVE great Mexican food, we frequent Frontera Cocina, Rick Bayless' authentic mexican restaurant), and even a Sprinkles Cupcake ATM if you don't want to stand in line and drool over all their sweet offerings!

Whatever you decide, have FUN!!!

It's been a while since I have been to Vero. Not like you can't piggy back off someone else's entrance but awkward none the less.

 

[mevelandry]

Speaking of which, yesterday when I called NCL, I got a very unpleasant staff member who, after checking with the higher ups, came back on the phone and said "nope, they are not offering anything -- no options -- and they really don't have to". No, they don't have to do anything, but it sure would make for good will if you want any future business from us (which at this point won't happen now).

So I asked her about them compensating us for the difference in cruise pricing and this was her response: "You need to understand that the port fees for the Florida and Nassau ports are much higher than Bermuda, but they are not going to charge you those higher fees". Can you IMAGINE if they even tried that -- there'd be a mutiny.

So I called again today about changing a specialty dinner reservation because my original was scheduled for the late night stop at Port Canaveral. While we spoke, I told her how very disappointed we all were that NCL has dug their feet in and refused to offer passengers anything at all -- while reading that RCCL, Carnival and Disney have already offered various compensation or amenities, and she kept apologizing and saying she has heard this all day and passengers are very upset and feel NCL does not care. She even commented she was quite surprised that they weren't offering anything. Heck, we would have taken the option of a full credit for a future cruise to be allowed to cancel this one.

And as I type this, they just came on with the weather report on TV and said that this storm is going to be hitting the southern east coast, encompassing North Carolina, Florida, Bahamas -- yay, everywhere we're headed to

I'm surprised. I've always felt it was the opposite (that port fees for Nassau and PC would be smaller)...

Hey, you might end up with a "surprise destination" cruise! Wouldn't be surprised to see them change the itinerary again pending on the path of the hurricane.

 

[Carrie in AZ]

If you take the shuttle to Disney Springs, take an Uber or Minnie Van to one of the water parks. That'd be great for an afternoon, if you like that sort of thing. Round it out with dinner at DS.

Dare I say Blizzard Beach just may be my favorite Disney park???!!! LOVE IT!! Such a great suggestion!!

 

[gotomu212]

Canaveral National Seashore isn’t far. It’s a national park- $10 enterance fee plus your transportation cost there. It’s a fantastic beach and there are kayaks at mosquito lagoon to rent. They also have ranger programs and guides.

 

[RedSox68]

I'm surprised. I've always felt it was the opposite (that port fees for Nassau and PC would be smaller)...

Hey, you might end up with a "surprise destination" cruise! Wouldn't be surprised to see them change the itinerary again pending on the path of the hurricane.

After seeing postings on CC about what other lines are offering their passengers it is very discouraging that NCL has yet to make any good will gestures to its passengers. Other lines are giving free credits and even 50% future cruises and more. Bummer

 

[meliscan]

Don't think there is enough time to visit Vero Beach...they only have 8 hours and Vero Beach is about 75 miles or so from PC. Have to take into account the time to pick up the car and head out. Well, I guess they would have a few hours though 95 can be a pain if there is traffic heading back North. Same issue with Daytona...about 75 miles North of PC.

MJ

The NASCAR Hall of Fame is actually in Charlotte. The track in Daytona is pretty cool but if there isn't a race I wouldn't rate it as a destination. IMO. Plus as the pp noted it is pretty far from port.

 

[rcchello]

My choice would be to get a reservation at Boma or Jiko and enjoy the Animal Kingdom lodge. I always enjoy hanging out on the lookout and watching the animals. Disney Springs has boat or bus access to all the resort hotels.