Tips & Tricks of all things cruising from a self professed cruise ADDICT.
Showing posts with label Norfolk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Norfolk. Show all posts
Saturday, May 10, 2014
National Cherry Blossom Festival
Although I have lived in Northern Virginia my entire life, I had never been to the National Cherry Blossom Festival. There were 100 trees originally given to the United States by Japan. Now, each year between late March and mid April, the Tidal Basin is surrounded by pink and white petals.
I took a Wednesday off work and headed to our nations capital with my sister & Nana. We drove to our local Metro station which is the easiest way to get around DC. The stop you want to get off is the Smithsonian. Once you are at street level, head left past the Washington Monument. You will pass some restrooms on the right side a little before the "pencil". I would take a moment to stop here because the bathrooms are few and far between. You will then turn left just past the monument and see the Tidal Basin, the Jefferson Memorial and the gorgeous blossoms.
The Cherry Blossom Festival provides tons of events throughout the month, more so on the weekends when it is more popular. There was a nice stage with different entertainment when we were there, with a local high schools band and other local talents. We stopped and ate a packed lunch at the picnic tables in front of the stage. There were also food trucks and little shops if you wanted a souvenir. We headed down towards the Jefferson Memorial along the basin. Even for a week day the area was pretty popular so I am sure there are tons of people who visit over the weekends. If you don't like large crowds or want to really be able to walk around with out much distraction, you might consider going during the week. We made our way completely around the basin, stopping at both the FDR & MLK memorial areas. On this side of the Basin, there are a lot of benches for you to enjoy the gorgeous view!
DC is less than an hour from Baltimore, and just a few hours from many Mid Atlantic cruise ports. If you are cruising around this time next year, look into the Festival as a side trip! There is plenty of museums, memorials and monuments to keep you busy.
I took a Wednesday off work and headed to our nations capital with my sister & Nana. We drove to our local Metro station which is the easiest way to get around DC. The stop you want to get off is the Smithsonian. Once you are at street level, head left past the Washington Monument. You will pass some restrooms on the right side a little before the "pencil". I would take a moment to stop here because the bathrooms are few and far between. You will then turn left just past the monument and see the Tidal Basin, the Jefferson Memorial and the gorgeous blossoms.
The Cherry Blossom Festival provides tons of events throughout the month, more so on the weekends when it is more popular. There was a nice stage with different entertainment when we were there, with a local high schools band and other local talents. We stopped and ate a packed lunch at the picnic tables in front of the stage. There were also food trucks and little shops if you wanted a souvenir. We headed down towards the Jefferson Memorial along the basin. Even for a week day the area was pretty popular so I am sure there are tons of people who visit over the weekends. If you don't like large crowds or want to really be able to walk around with out much distraction, you might consider going during the week. We made our way completely around the basin, stopping at both the FDR & MLK memorial areas. On this side of the Basin, there are a lot of benches for you to enjoy the gorgeous view!
DC is less than an hour from Baltimore, and just a few hours from many Mid Atlantic cruise ports. If you are cruising around this time next year, look into the Festival as a side trip! There is plenty of museums, memorials and monuments to keep you busy.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Hampton Inn Virginia Beach Ocean Front North
We spent an awesome weekend away in Virginia Beach and wanted to share a little about our hotel with you in case any readers are interested in a pre or post cruise stay when departing from Norfolk. Or maybe you are just interested in a taking a vaca to Virginia Beach. Either way we stayed at a fantastic hotel with excellent staff that I am sure many of you would enjoy!
We booked online via the Hampton Inn Virginia Beach North Ocean Front site with a great rate considering it was Easter weekend and lots of kiddos were on spring break. We choose the king size room with whirlpool and were not disappointed. The balcony room was clean spacious and had a great view.
Both checking in and out was a simple process that took nothing more than 2 minutes. The staff was friendly and hotel was in a great location. All rooms are oceanfront with good sized balconies. The hotel offered free parking, free WIFI which worked well and free breakfast from 6-10 am(we didnt get to try this).
Since we checked in around 8 pm on Friday we decided to eat at the North Beach Bar & Grill inside the lobby. The front desk offered a 10% off entrees coupon, one of the VA Beach coupon books near the elevators offered 15% off. The food was good as was the service but it was a bit over priced. They offered a full wine and beer list as well as a large drink menu.
The hotel was very quiet and had a convenient location on the boardwalk.
Very few cons about this hotel, certainly nothing that would stop me from staying here again.
- The elevators move painfully slow. Both between floors as well as the time it takes for the doors to open once you have stopped.
-there are 16 rooms per floor and the elevators drop you off in between room 1 and 2. We were room 416 so we had to walk the entire length of the hotel to get to our room.
We booked online via the Hampton Inn Virginia Beach North Ocean Front site with a great rate considering it was Easter weekend and lots of kiddos were on spring break. We choose the king size room with whirlpool and were not disappointed. The balcony room was clean spacious and had a great view.
Both checking in and out was a simple process that took nothing more than 2 minutes. The staff was friendly and hotel was in a great location. All rooms are oceanfront with good sized balconies. The hotel offered free parking, free WIFI which worked well and free breakfast from 6-10 am(we didnt get to try this).
Since we checked in around 8 pm on Friday we decided to eat at the North Beach Bar & Grill inside the lobby. The front desk offered a 10% off entrees coupon, one of the VA Beach coupon books near the elevators offered 15% off. The food was good as was the service but it was a bit over priced. They offered a full wine and beer list as well as a large drink menu.
The hotel was very quiet and had a convenient location on the boardwalk.
Very few cons about this hotel, certainly nothing that would stop me from staying here again.
- The elevators move painfully slow. Both between floors as well as the time it takes for the doors to open once you have stopped.
-there are 16 rooms per floor and the elevators drop you off in between room 1 and 2. We were room 416 so we had to walk the entire length of the hotel to get to our room.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Carnival Glory:Debarking & Final Thoughts
Hey Guys! I know it has been a while since this cruise but I wanted to finish up on this post.
We had our couple days at sea with rough weather, lots of rain, nothing but rocking and they announced that we would be coming home a day early. They said the port was closing sunday due to flood warnings and the next weeks cruise was canceled. Honestly, it was such a relief to hear. We were in the dining room when they made the announcement and everyone clapped. After dinner we roamed for quite a bit and then headed back to our room to pack and head to the disco. Debarking was pretty easy, we waited a while since we had driven to the port and then headed out.
A couple of things we learned from this cruise:
- Never ever take a cruise before it goes in to be refurbished, they were out of a lot of knick knack type souvenirs, the shop was pretty bare, they were short on some food, the crew seemed to be ready for a break and didnt seem to mind expressing that
-Although the weather made a huge impact, it was clearly evident that we do not like sea days. A transatlantic cruise has been removed from my bucket list for sure!
- I don't think we will ever ever cruise during hurricane season again- although we didn't get sick, our travel mates were quite sick and it was a very unpleasant experience. It seemed to make a lot of people agitated. The staff were great (except for the front desk people) so that was a real help.
- I am also not sure we will ever cruise with people we know again. It is so nice to do whatever we want to do when we want and that makes it difficult when others want to do other things. Maybe it will be different with people who are seasoned cruisers, who knows.
Once we returned we were quickly refunded a days fare to the account used to purchase the cruise which was great. We were also given 20% off a future cruise to be used on a 2-6 day cruise which expires in October 2014. There are some destination exclusions but I am sure we will be able to find something to apply it to. We are hoping to use it towards a 7 day cruise, I have been in contact with Carnival so that we can try to work that out. I don't want all 7 days discounted, I would just like to have the 6 days of discount applied. Hopefully it works out, we prefer longer cruises.
Even before the weather we didnt get the same experience we received on previous cruises so we may try to branch out in the future and try a couple of different lines. Our first cruise was AMAZING and I am really wanting to have another great experience like that.
Sorry for the distance since the beginning of this post! Hope you enjoy!
American Tourister Fieldbrook 4-Pc. Luggage Set (Google Affiliate Ad)
We had our couple days at sea with rough weather, lots of rain, nothing but rocking and they announced that we would be coming home a day early. They said the port was closing sunday due to flood warnings and the next weeks cruise was canceled. Honestly, it was such a relief to hear. We were in the dining room when they made the announcement and everyone clapped. After dinner we roamed for quite a bit and then headed back to our room to pack and head to the disco. Debarking was pretty easy, we waited a while since we had driven to the port and then headed out.
A couple of things we learned from this cruise:
- Never ever take a cruise before it goes in to be refurbished, they were out of a lot of knick knack type souvenirs, the shop was pretty bare, they were short on some food, the crew seemed to be ready for a break and didnt seem to mind expressing that
-Although the weather made a huge impact, it was clearly evident that we do not like sea days. A transatlantic cruise has been removed from my bucket list for sure!
- I don't think we will ever ever cruise during hurricane season again- although we didn't get sick, our travel mates were quite sick and it was a very unpleasant experience. It seemed to make a lot of people agitated. The staff were great (except for the front desk people) so that was a real help.
- I am also not sure we will ever cruise with people we know again. It is so nice to do whatever we want to do when we want and that makes it difficult when others want to do other things. Maybe it will be different with people who are seasoned cruisers, who knows.
Once we returned we were quickly refunded a days fare to the account used to purchase the cruise which was great. We were also given 20% off a future cruise to be used on a 2-6 day cruise which expires in October 2014. There are some destination exclusions but I am sure we will be able to find something to apply it to. We are hoping to use it towards a 7 day cruise, I have been in contact with Carnival so that we can try to work that out. I don't want all 7 days discounted, I would just like to have the 6 days of discount applied. Hopefully it works out, we prefer longer cruises.
Even before the weather we didnt get the same experience we received on previous cruises so we may try to branch out in the future and try a couple of different lines. Our first cruise was AMAZING and I am really wanting to have another great experience like that.
Sorry for the distance since the beginning of this post! Hope you enjoy!
American Tourister Fieldbrook 4-Pc. Luggage Set (Google Affiliate Ad)
Friday, December 7, 2012
Carnival Glory : Fun Day at Sea 2 & 3
It started pouring when we got back to the port to do some shopping so we hurried through that and waited in line to re board, in the freezing cold rain. We went back to our rooms to shower and get ready for dinner. When we were in the dining room this evening, the ship suddenly moved pretty hard and a lot of dishes went tumbling. I believe the ship was turning but it was a shocker!
We were scheduled to visit Port Canaveral on Friday. They ended up announcing that our stop in PC was cancelled and we would remain at sea for the rest of our trip. Although I wasnt thrilled about a stop in PC, anything would have been better than being on a rocking rolling boat for 3 days in a row.
We were bound to make the best of the vaca so we spent our days at sea sleeping in, eating tons of good food and hanging out in the hot tubs. There were a lot of scheduled events that were cancelled due to the Lido being shut down. It was open to walk across but the wind and wet floor made it quite dangerous. I slipped right onto my tush one night so for the most part we just went down a floor and up in the middle to the buffet.
They offered some inside activities but mostly kept them in the tiny promenade area of the casino where there is little room. The casino was a good time, although I do not like to spend much so $10 and I am done.
Most of our time at night is spent in the disco. We usually just people watch but this time we did get up and dance and had a ball! The boat was rocking and rolling so people were going everywhere at some points. I will say that they could do a better job of the music selection. It seemed to be more of music from 10 or so years ago opposed to current. They also could make it more dance music. Some of the stuff you just can not dance to. It should be a clue when everyone walks off the dance floor but it happened every night.
They had two comedians on board this trip, the one we saw was Jorge Solano. We chose the adults show and it was very funny. He works with George Lopez and has been doing comedy for 20+ years.
Something else we had never done before this trip was the mini martini tasting. It is $18 for you to choose 4 out of 8 martinis. They come in 2 oz glasses each so it was a pretty good amount of alcohol. The martini bar always seemed to have a lot of people there and the bartender was great.
We were scheduled to visit Port Canaveral on Friday. They ended up announcing that our stop in PC was cancelled and we would remain at sea for the rest of our trip. Although I wasnt thrilled about a stop in PC, anything would have been better than being on a rocking rolling boat for 3 days in a row.
We were bound to make the best of the vaca so we spent our days at sea sleeping in, eating tons of good food and hanging out in the hot tubs. There were a lot of scheduled events that were cancelled due to the Lido being shut down. It was open to walk across but the wind and wet floor made it quite dangerous. I slipped right onto my tush one night so for the most part we just went down a floor and up in the middle to the buffet.
They offered some inside activities but mostly kept them in the tiny promenade area of the casino where there is little room. The casino was a good time, although I do not like to spend much so $10 and I am done.
Most of our time at night is spent in the disco. We usually just people watch but this time we did get up and dance and had a ball! The boat was rocking and rolling so people were going everywhere at some points. I will say that they could do a better job of the music selection. It seemed to be more of music from 10 or so years ago opposed to current. They also could make it more dance music. Some of the stuff you just can not dance to. It should be a clue when everyone walks off the dance floor but it happened every night.
They had two comedians on board this trip, the one we saw was Jorge Solano. We chose the adults show and it was very funny. He works with George Lopez and has been doing comedy for 20+ years.
Something else we had never done before this trip was the mini martini tasting. It is $18 for you to choose 4 out of 8 martinis. They come in 2 oz glasses each so it was a pretty good amount of alcohol. The martini bar always seemed to have a lot of people there and the bartender was great.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Carnival Glory: Embarkation Day
We went into this cruise with good spirits. We were very excited for this vacation. We had never been to the Bahamas so we were looking forward to that immensely. The weeks leading up to the cruise I watched the weather and storms forming and was very aware of the large probability of a storm changing some of our plans. What I was not prepared for was how large Sandy was going to be. The week before we left, the weather for Nassau on Wednesday & Thursday was 30 % & 40%. Monday morning it was obvious that was not the case, rain seemed to be 100%.
We were bound to make the most of it. With that in mind, we picked up the other couple traveling with us and left for Norfolk. We arrived at the port and parked at the closest parking garage, Town Point. Carnival recommends the Cedar Grove parking facility which is guarded 24 hours. It is also a mile away and you are bussed (for free) to the port, rate of parking is $15/day. Weeks before our cruise I contacted the division that handles the parking garages about parking at Town Point. They tried to persuade us to park at Cedar Grove and said that regardless of it not being posted anywhere, cruisers would be charged $15/day for cruise parking at the TP lot. To make a long story short we decided to park at the TP Garage for its convenience as it is located across the street. As mentioned before when we got to the garage there was no sign posting the difference in price for cruise parking. We took our ticket and finally found parking. It was packed! For anyone interested, when we left we were only charged $12/day.
We had received an email asking us to arrive between 1 and 3 pm. Since we were driving, that was our ETA anyways so that was no problem. There was a good number of people entering the port at the same time as we were but it went pretty fast. Once we got to security they asked if we had any wine, we answered yes since we had each brought our allotted bottle. They asked to see it but didn't look it over, shake it, or check the cork. We also brought a pocket knife which I had put in my carry on. When it went through, they asked to see the knife which was no problem since it is under the 4" or less regulation by Carnival. The only problem was that they pulled aside the bag they said it was in and I knew it wasnt in that one, I had packed our bags after all. I kept trying to say it was in the pink bag they kept telling me it was in the black bag. Finally they took the pink bag, I told them it was in the front pocket and they tried to open the top. Very frustrating as it was already holding up the line, all they had to do was listen. They opened the knife, checked it and then we were free to proceed.
Once we were in line to get our sail & sign cards, we hit another minor snafu. The 4 of us were booked in two rooms, my boyfriend in one & I in the other so that both rooms were eligible for the past guest rate. Carnival said to just have them switch the girls in each room here to avoid having to wait in line at guest services for new cards. When we got to the desk the 4 of us went together and I began to explain the situation. Before I could even finish she said we would need to handle that with guest services. I asked her why since Carnival had told us that they would do it and she said they couldnt do it and we would need to do this on board. Fine, we moved on and started to get our paperwork settled. Every time I would give her any information she would remind me that she couldnt change the people in the rooms and I needed to give her the info for one room at a time. I explained we had moved on and that I was giving her the info as it was on he "manifest" that she kept referring to. This happened 3 separate times. Finally she too had moved on and we were able to get our sail and sign cards. It took a couple extra minutes but we were finally on our way.
We skipped the embark photos and headed up the gang way to deck 3. We decided to go ahead and head to our rooms and get the keys settled later. We unpacked and I was shocked by the room. I am claustrophobic and the room was vastly different from our first two. It took a few days to get used to but more on that later. We explored the ship some, got ready for the muster drill and then met up with our friends for sail away. We were on our way to the Bahamas!! Sort of...
We were bound to make the most of it. With that in mind, we picked up the other couple traveling with us and left for Norfolk. We arrived at the port and parked at the closest parking garage, Town Point. Carnival recommends the Cedar Grove parking facility which is guarded 24 hours. It is also a mile away and you are bussed (for free) to the port, rate of parking is $15/day. Weeks before our cruise I contacted the division that handles the parking garages about parking at Town Point. They tried to persuade us to park at Cedar Grove and said that regardless of it not being posted anywhere, cruisers would be charged $15/day for cruise parking at the TP lot. To make a long story short we decided to park at the TP Garage for its convenience as it is located across the street. As mentioned before when we got to the garage there was no sign posting the difference in price for cruise parking. We took our ticket and finally found parking. It was packed! For anyone interested, when we left we were only charged $12/day.
We had received an email asking us to arrive between 1 and 3 pm. Since we were driving, that was our ETA anyways so that was no problem. There was a good number of people entering the port at the same time as we were but it went pretty fast. Once we got to security they asked if we had any wine, we answered yes since we had each brought our allotted bottle. They asked to see it but didn't look it over, shake it, or check the cork. We also brought a pocket knife which I had put in my carry on. When it went through, they asked to see the knife which was no problem since it is under the 4" or less regulation by Carnival. The only problem was that they pulled aside the bag they said it was in and I knew it wasnt in that one, I had packed our bags after all. I kept trying to say it was in the pink bag they kept telling me it was in the black bag. Finally they took the pink bag, I told them it was in the front pocket and they tried to open the top. Very frustrating as it was already holding up the line, all they had to do was listen. They opened the knife, checked it and then we were free to proceed.
Once we were in line to get our sail & sign cards, we hit another minor snafu. The 4 of us were booked in two rooms, my boyfriend in one & I in the other so that both rooms were eligible for the past guest rate. Carnival said to just have them switch the girls in each room here to avoid having to wait in line at guest services for new cards. When we got to the desk the 4 of us went together and I began to explain the situation. Before I could even finish she said we would need to handle that with guest services. I asked her why since Carnival had told us that they would do it and she said they couldnt do it and we would need to do this on board. Fine, we moved on and started to get our paperwork settled. Every time I would give her any information she would remind me that she couldnt change the people in the rooms and I needed to give her the info for one room at a time. I explained we had moved on and that I was giving her the info as it was on he "manifest" that she kept referring to. This happened 3 separate times. Finally she too had moved on and we were able to get our sail and sign cards. It took a couple extra minutes but we were finally on our way.
We skipped the embark photos and headed up the gang way to deck 3. We decided to go ahead and head to our rooms and get the keys settled later. We unpacked and I was shocked by the room. I am claustrophobic and the room was vastly different from our first two. It took a few days to get used to but more on that later. We explored the ship some, got ready for the muster drill and then met up with our friends for sail away. We were on our way to the Bahamas!! Sort of...
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Carnival Glory: Not so Glorious
Hey guys!
We are back from the Glory a day early, and what a week it was. I need a vacation to recoup from that vacation! Unfortunately, Hurricane Sandy had other plans for us and our itinerary changed almost immediately. Due to a medical emergency that forced us to return close to Norfolk the first night, we arrived in Naasau late and couldnt stay for more than a handful of hours. Our stop in Freeport was cancelled and changed to Port Canaveral, which was also cancelled. We instead were at sea, in the storm for the remainder of the cruise. I have lots of notes, photos, and videos to go through but will be working on posting this week to give you all the details!
Our revised itinerary:
Oct 22 Norfolk- depart 5 pm
Oct 23 Day at Sea
Oct 24 Nassau 1-8 pm
Oct 25 Day at Sea
Oct 26 Day at Sea
Oct 27 Nofolk 11 am
We are back from the Glory a day early, and what a week it was. I need a vacation to recoup from that vacation! Unfortunately, Hurricane Sandy had other plans for us and our itinerary changed almost immediately. Due to a medical emergency that forced us to return close to Norfolk the first night, we arrived in Naasau late and couldnt stay for more than a handful of hours. Our stop in Freeport was cancelled and changed to Port Canaveral, which was also cancelled. We instead were at sea, in the storm for the remainder of the cruise. I have lots of notes, photos, and videos to go through but will be working on posting this week to give you all the details!
Our revised itinerary:
Oct 22 Norfolk- depart 5 pm
Oct 23 Day at Sea
Oct 24 Nassau 1-8 pm
Oct 25 Day at Sea
Oct 26 Day at Sea
Oct 27 Nofolk 11 am
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Carnival Glory
We are getting ready to take our third cruise on Monday!!!
Carnival Glory
This cruise will be different than our others for a couple of reasons:
We are traveling with another couple, one of whom has never cruised before.
We are driving to port rather than flying.
We are staying in a port for two days.
Right now we are just doing last minute errands, getting ready to start packing and hoping for the best weather wise!! Although I plan to enjoy this cruise I am excited to get back and give you all the details! Please leave a comment while I am gone if you have any questions regarding the ship, itinerary, ports of call, etc!
Carnival Glory
October 22 Norfolk 5 pm
October 23 Fun Day at Sea
October 24 Nassau 11:30 am
October 25 Nassau 10 pm
October 26 Freeport 8am - 3 pm
October 27 Fun Day at Sea
October 28 Norfolk 8 am
This cruise will be different than our others for a couple of reasons:
We are traveling with another couple, one of whom has never cruised before.
We are driving to port rather than flying.
We are staying in a port for two days.
Right now we are just doing last minute errands, getting ready to start packing and hoping for the best weather wise!! Although I plan to enjoy this cruise I am excited to get back and give you all the details! Please leave a comment while I am gone if you have any questions regarding the ship, itinerary, ports of call, etc!
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