Cruising and Travel

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Salior's Code #75

A Little Fun with our Boys and Girls in Uniform!

Being in the military is a serious thing. Your life is constantly in danger, and you are away from your family and friends for long periods of time. Any second could be your last. These guys have figured out a way to pass some time and have fun, at the expense of their sleeping comrades. According to them, “If you fall asleep in the military, you will be messed with. It’s the law…or something. You’ve been warned.”

Harmony Of The Seas!!

The newest Oasis-class ship, Harmony of the Seas, will get things moving and shaking at the Bionic Bar. Watch the robotic bartenders work in sync as they mix up custom cocktails to the beat of the DJ.

The TRUTH About Cruising!!!!

Watch Video Of The TRUTH!!!

Is the Royal Caribbean International Drink Package worth it?

Slight change is not everyone has to buy the package in the same room. Great information.

Monday, March 30, 2015

Parking Information in Port Carnival Fla.

Travel Information

Parking Rates

Fees for parking apply to vehicles occupying a single standard car parking space. Vehicles occupying two or more parking spaces, such as buses or large campers, will be charged an additional fee for the oversized space.

Pre-paid Parking

Port Canaveral offers cruise passengers the option to pre-pay for parking ahead of time utilizing our online service. Please note that single spots are not available to be reserved at this time.

Length of Cruise	Parking Rates
Four Day	$60.00
Five Day	$75.00
Six Day	$90.00
Seven Day	$105.00
Eight Day	$120.00
Nine Day	$135.00

Book Parking @ Port Canaveral

Discount Port Parking for Partner Hotel Guests
Driving to Port Canaveral?
Many cruise passengers driving to Port Canaveral arrive at least one day before their cruise and stay in a local hotel, yet they would prefer the convenience of parking near their ship at the Port rather than taking a hotel shuttle. If this is your desire, why not save 40% on Port Canaveral parking?

Port Canaveral has partnered with 17 of our local hotels that now offer a Port Canaveral discount voucher at check out. The program is very simple. When making a hotel reservation with any of the active partner hotels listed below, tell them that you would like to take advantage of the Port Canaveral parking voucher program. During checkout the morning of your cruise, the hotel front desk will issue a voucher that you present to our parking attendant and you will receive your discount on the spot.

Please note that you cannot use this voucher when pre-paying for parking.

(list of hotels with addresses and phone numbers)

Passenger / Luggage Drop-Off & Pick-Up

Arrival

For passenger safety, security, and convenience, please proceed directly to the cruise terminal to drop off passengers and baggage. Porters will assist you with your baggage, and parking personnel will direct drivers to the appropriate parking facility. All parking facilities are convenient, secure and patrolled 24 hours a day.

Passenger and luggage drop off is available in front of the terminal or in the parking facility.

Departure

Passengers have the option to retrieve their vehicles and pick up their companions and luggage in front of the terminal entrance or they can walk with their luggage to their vehicle and depart when ready.

Cruise Terminal Locations

View a map of the cruise terminals.

Parking Directions

Port Canaveral is located in Brevard County, Florida's east coast, easily reachable by an efficient system of highways. State roads 528 , 520, and 50 are the Port's east-west highway links. These highways intersect with U.S. Highway 1, Interstate 95, the Florida Turnpike and Interstate 4 to provide excellent access to and from Port Canaveral.

Directions from Airports

From Orlando International Airport (MCO) This airport is approximately 45 minutes west of Port Canaveral. Take the North Exit from the Airport, staying to the right, to S.R. 528 East. Take S.R. 528 directly to Port Canaveral.

From Melbourne International Airport (MLB)
Melbourne International Airport (MLB) is located approximately 25 miles (40 minutes) south of Port Canaveral. Exit east (left) out of the airport onto NASA oulevard and follow to U.S. Highway 1. Turn left (north) onto U.S Highway 1. Travel approximately 20 minutes on U.S. Highway 1 past the intersection of S.R. 520 in Cocoa about one mile to the S.R. 528 exit. Exit and travel east on S.R. 528 for approximately 10 miles, crossing the Indian River, Merritt Island and the Banana River to reach Port Canaveral.

From Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB)
The airport is approximately 1 hour northwest of Port Canaveral. Exit the airport south to the Central Florida Greenway (Toll Road 417). Go south 23 miles to S.R. 528's (the Beach line Expressway) eastbound exit. Go east (37 miles) to the Port.

From Space Coast Regional Airport (TIX)
This airport is located about 20 minutes from the Port in Titusville FL. Exit and drive east for three blocks; turn south onto U.S. Highway 1 to the Beach line Expressway (S.R. 528) and follow this east to the Port.

From Daytona Beach International Airport (DAB)
Daytona Beach International Airport is about 75 miles north of Port Canaveral. Take I-95 south to S.R. 528 East and follow to the Port.

Acceptable Payment Methods

American Express, Visa, MasterCard, and Discover credit cards

Refunds

May be requested by contacting us at 783-7831 ext 239 - Monday through Friday. Please be prepared with the sailing date.

Port Canaveral Parking

At Port Canaveral, we offer secure cruise parking close to your terminal and ship. It's just part of how easy and stress-free cruising is from Port Canaveral.

Hotel vouchers and prepaid parking receipts need to be given to the parking booth attendant upon entry to the parking garage.

*Rates are subject to change without notice. Contact the Canaveral Port Authority at 321-783-7831 for the latest information.
DISABLED PARKING spaces are available and the fee is waived for vehicles that have special equipment, such as ramps, lifts, foot or hand controls.
NOTE: Ship schedules and assigned terminals are subject to change. Please check with your travel agent or cruise line for the latest information on where you will be embarking.

I still have questions. Who can I contact at Port Canaveral?

Parking & On-Line Reservations:
Lisa Botzenmayer
Sr. Admin. Cruise Operations
321-783-7831 ext. 327

Hotel Vouchers for Parking:
David Poston
Director of Cruise, Tourism, and Hospitality
321-783-7831 ext. 213

See our Stores that we are using for Make A Wish!

Make A wish Fashion for you and your home

Click on Links For Our Main stores

Nautical Jewelry Make A Wish

You can help us give a child a wish!

Sunday, March 29, 2015

What Does Make A Wish Do? BatKid: The Offical Make-A-Wish Story

Batkid: The Official Make-A-Wish Story

After months of planning "Wish Kid Becomes Batkid" finally became a reality on November 15th and took San Francisco and the world by storm! And now the official video has been released.

Hitting the streets in San Francisco with a police escort they filmed caper after caper in real time in order to keep the experience authentic for five year old Miles. There were no second takes. The characters, the coordination team and everyone involved had to make it great the first time. All of the cameras had to be in place, and all the special effects including the pyrotechnics had to be done live once and only once.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

A Sightseer's Tour Of Old San Juan

There are so many things to do in Puerto Rico, that the problem is not finding something of interest; rather, it is prioritizing the list of things to do in Puerto Rico according to how much time one has. I have lived in Puerto Rico for over 15 years and there are still many places on my Puerto Rico ‘bucket list’! Here is our great new inforgraphic on some of the top things to do in Puerto Rico. However, it is only a sampling… there are many more things to do and perhaps in the future we will add to them….

Here are some additional locations that should also be on the list:

Fajardo – Glowing waters of the Bioluminescent Bay; Boating/Marina Capital

Arecibo – Arecibo Observatory – largest radio telescope

Ponce – home of largest Carnaval, vejigante masks, and Art Museum

Coamo- Baths / Thermal Springs

Aibonito – known for its flowers and flower festival

Luquillo – Amazing Beaches and roadside food kioskos

Jayuya – Taino Indian relics

Loiza – traditional coconut vejigante masks

Barceloneta – black sand beaches

Dominican Republic: a 60-second guide

The Dominican Republic is the second largest Caribbean nation after Cuba, with approximately 10 million inhabitants. It occupies the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, of which the western third is the country of Haiti. Haiti feels very African and most people speak French and Creole – theDominican Republic is more Latin American, and Dominicans speak Spanish. Not to be confused with the little-developed Caribbean island of Dominica, population 73,000.

In line with the 3rd United Nation’s Annual International Day of Happiness, Gallup researchers have released the Gallup Positive Experience Index 014 survey results, hailing Latin American countries as the top 10 happiest countries in the world, Live Science reported.

There are about 143 countries that were included in the research and about a thousand respondents in each country were interviewed on “how happy they felt the day before.” According to Gallup, more than 70 percent of the respondents answered 5 common reasons of their happiness and those were when they experienced enjoyment, when they smiled or laughed, when felt well rested and when they were treated with respect.

The goal of the annual research is to promote happiness worldwide. Collecting data about happiness is seen to be a huge help in creating programs that can improve people’s way of life by making them happy.

The top 10 countries which bagged the highest number of “positive index scores” are as follows:

1. Paraguay
2. Colombia
3. Ecuador
4. Guatemala
5. Honduras
6. Panama
7. Venezuela
8. Costa Rica
9. El Salvador
10. Nicaragua

With these results, Latin America may and could be the unofficial sponsor of the United Nation’s International Happiness Day which is held annually, Business Administration reported.

Also, another similar survey but from a separate independent research was initiated. Jetpac City Guide is a popular iPhone application that administers Instagram data in helping its users in finding top locations. They’ve listed top venues around the world which had the most number of “smile scores” over the past 12 months, International Business Times reported.

According to the Jetpac survey, Brazil topped the list as the happiest country in the planet, followed by Nicaragua and Colombia. Amazingly, Philippines was included in the list at #9, making it the only country located outside the Americas.
International Day of Happiness takes place every 20th of March. This is to celebrate and acknowledge the relevance of happiness and well-being as universal goals and aspirations in the lives of every human being worldwide. The event is participated by countries that are members of the United Nations, organizations, civil societies, non-governmental organizations and individuals.

The Day of Happiness website encourages everyone to join and connect with other people around the globe and share happiness through various group activities. Individuals can also participate by connecting to loved ones and friends by sharing positive thoughts personally or online.

For the original report go to http://www.latinospost.com/articles/56528/20150321/top-10-happiest-countries-latin-america.htm

Mercy Ship Our Hospital Ship Provides Free Lifesaving Surgeries For People Where Medical Care Is Nearly Non-Existent.

www.mercyships.org

Mercy Ships is an international charity that was founded in 1978 by Don and Deyon Stephens. Mercy Ships currently operates the largest non-governmental hospital ship in the world, providing free health care, community development projects, community health education, mental health programs, agriculture projects, and palliative care for terminally ill patients.

Mercy Ships has operated in more than 57 developing nations and 18 developed nations around the world, with a current focus on the countries of Africa.

Australian marine pilotage company Australian Reef Pilots (ARP) has been bought by a consortium of its employees.

ARP, which services shipping through the Great Barrier Reef, has been sold by the private Brisbane-based company Torres Industries to a group of ARP executives and reef pilots, making for a very ‘hands on’ team.

ARP CEO Simon Meyjes has led the buyout and said it would be business as usual during the transition.

“We know the business and our customers intimately and want to seize the opportunities we can see to grow and expand our services,” Meyjes said. “We will maintain a strong focus on customer satisfaction and ship safety – it’s what sets us apart in this industry.”

Norwegian Cruise Line's partnership with Margaritaville is taking shape on the Norwegian Star, which carries the line's first Five O'Clock Somewhere bar following a two-week drydock.

It is no secret that Disney provides some of the best entertainment for families, especially for younger children, although for those cruisers looking for a family cruise to suit all ages then we’d recommend Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas. This Freedom Class cruise ship is much bigger than most and has an extensive list of onboard activities for both adults and children.