CARIBBEAN CRUISE 2013/14: 1 Getting there

Sunday, December 29, 2013

The preliminaries had their ups and downs as usual, but things went fairly well right until the last minute. Son Paul and his family had to opt out during the initial planning due to necessary business meetings in selling their Vault software package in the US but everyone else was good to go.

When the boarding passes for the ship were printed I went over them, and found that no one would be permitted to board after 2 PM - I had initially counted on having up to about 3:30 PM. Marilynn checked the internet and found that it could take up to 4 hours to go through the immigration procedure in Miami for people without US or Canadian passports. As our flight was not due to land until 11:40 AM, I figured that there was a good chance we would not be able to make it to the ship on time.

I phoned American Airlines immediately where they told me the charge to change my business class reservation to a day earlier would be $690, more than the price I paid for the ticket, so I had it downgraded to economy and even so there was a fee of over $60. The agent said it would only be $13 per ticket to change the 7 economy tickets, plus $25 per ticket because they were purchased through a travel agent and not direct from AA. I was surprised to be informed that they would not accept a Costa Rican credit card over the phone, I must go to an AA office.

I was at the airport by 6:30 AM the day before yesterday. The agent said the fee per ticket was $35 for having tickets not purchased from AA, and that the total change charge per ticket considering the new selling price and fees would be $385. New tickets were available on line for $384!! The agent confirmed that in many cases it is better to throw away old tickets and just buy new ones! I was not happy, and made certain they knew it, so the agent finally went to discuss the situation with his supervisor, comming back with the reasonably good news that they would waive most charges and reduce the cost to $141.80 per ticket. Between that and having to add a hotel it was a very expensive day - almost $2,000.

Yesterday, Marilynn and I met up at the airport with son Ryan, his wife Eugenia, and 4 grand kids. The flight was delayed, but otherwise uneventful. In Miami we were booked into the Best Western Premier Miami International Airport Hotel & Suites Finding a hotel in Miami was difficult, I'd hoped for one near the cruise ship dock, but most hotels were fully booked and all were charging huge rates - this is the height of high season. I settled for two rooms at $321.39 each with a queen side sofa bed and a king bed to sleep four of us per room.

I'd phoned the hotel in the morning, but gave up after being on hold for 10 minutes, then getting an automatic dial system that gave two choices - Best Western's central reservation system or the operator. If the operator was selected it rang, then returned the call to the two choice automated system. When I finally contacted a live person at the hotel, he confirmed that the shuttle for the hotel ran every 30 minutes, and that there would be no problem in transporting 8 people. He also promised to have the sofa beds made up in advance, as we expected to be late arriving.

In reality we waited an hour and no shuttle. Ryan spotted the hotel van going by, and stopping about 300 feet further down the road. He went there to find they have only one shuttle, and that it was there to pick up aircrew. When Ryan told me I went to the van and asked the driver tell the hotel staff to be prepared to pay the fare for 2 taxis to get us there. The driver then decided to pick us up and take us to the hotel. Once we were in the van he stopped at the air crew exit, as the 5 person crew was there but the van was full, so they ended up taking taxis.

At the hotel check in was desperately slow as the one harried lady in reception tried to be switchboard operator (the operator from the auto dialling system doesn't exist), and did the same to callers as was done to me when I called earlier in the day, she would say "One moment please, put the phone on hold and ignore it until the caller went away.

When we were finally checked in we couldn't get into the rooms, as it turned out after a couple of trips back to the desk for new keys that the coding machine wasn't working. Finally a new machine was used and once in the room we found the sofa beds not made up and no bedding or pillows in the rooms for them. No one from housekeeping was on duty. A maintenance man went looking for bedding, finally giving up and contacted someone from housekeeping to come it.

Dinner in the restaurant, which was packed with many travellers arriving steadily on the overworked shuttle, was really interesting, as waiters would come in with plates of food they couldn't match up with customers and general chaos reined throughout. It was an interesting day!

The hotel rooms and facilities, are quite nice, and the harassed staff were doing everything they could within their ability to try to solve problems and please clients, but it was evident that hotel management were completely incompetent. They need a larger shuttle bus, as are used by other area hotels, to eliminate more than half the calls to reception from people left standing at the airport. A second person is needed at reception, particularly as the reservation desk is expected to act as hotel operator as well. From there on it is a matter of staff training and organization. As it is now, I'd not recommend the hotel.

This morning we arranged a shuttle to the cruise ship dock for $10 per person, a very good rate for Miami. Once there we booked the shuttle to take the 15 of us to the airport when the ship returns - the price was the same. I'd recommend the company, as I've seen nothing close to their pricing in the Maimi area - quotes I had received from airport to cruise ship transport were almost $300 one way. The company is Liebt Way Tours, 786-267-5536 or *chiquirito@gmail.com *.

The check in for the ship was slow and thorough, partly to ensure no one brought liquor on board. The cabins were better than expected, and once settled in we headed for the restaurant on the stern of the ship for drinks and food. Later we migrated to an open bar above the pool area, had a look around the ship, then Scott and I did a pub crawl until the wee hours of the morning.