4. Cabin Assignments: At the time of your deposit the best
located cabin available will be assigned to you. Very often
however, cruise lines stop assigning specific cabin numbers
but will continue to sell the cabin category. What this means
is you have what is called a “guarantee”. You
are guaranteed to get the cabin category that you have selected
but you may not know your cabin number until a few weeks or
so before we sail. Often (but not always) clients who book
a guarantee, will be upgraded at no extra cost.
5. Pre-Cruise Hotel and Party: We have taken over all 30
rooms at the very hip, retro Schubert Resort which is one
of Ft Lauderdale’s better guest houses. Rates begin
at $99.00 per day. The hotel does require a two night stay.
To make reservations you must call the Schubert Resort directly
at 866 – 763 – 7435. To view the hotel visit
www.schubertresort.com . The pre-cruise party will be at
the Schubert. For those of you who want a beachfront hotel
you may wish to stay at the Ocean Sky Resort for $89.00
daily. This is not a gay hotel but they will accept one
night stays. To reserve please call 800 – 678 –
9022 and mention The Cruise Retreat to get our rate. The
hotel’s web site is www.oceanskyresort.com
6. Cash less Society: When checking at the pier you will
need to leave a credit card imprint. Any thing you purchase
on the ship will be charged to your cabin account. Cash
is not accepted anywhere. Should you not have a credit card,
you will need to leave a cash deposit from which you may
draw.
7. Ship Board Activities: The first night of every cruise
we host a welcome cocktail party exclusively for our guests.
This is the first time the entire group will have a chance
to meet and mingle. We will make many useful announcements.
Other private events are also planned for the week. Full
details of our daily itinerary will be made available to
you upon check in on the ship.
8. Dining: We have confirmed a block of tables together
at 8:00PM each evening. Since the tables are ours, you may
feel free to move from table to table each evening. We encourage
this so that you get the chance to meet more people. Generally
on a seven night cruise there will be two formal nights
meaning suits or jackets and ties for gentlemen. Dining
the rest of the evenings is casual meaning slacks and shirt
or polo type shirt. Breakfasts, lunches and all meals in
the Mediterranean buffet are always casual.
9. Room Mates: We offer those who are traveling alone the
opportunity to be paired up with other solo travelers. We
match people up based upon cabin type booked, age range
and smoking preferences. We guarantee to find you a room
mate and do the best we can to find compatible room mates
but the truth is, it is somewhat of a gamble. You will be
given the opportunity to find a room mate on your own or
through our private Yahoo group up until August 1st. After
that we will assign roommates. If we pair you up, you will
not meet your roommate until onboard the ship.
10. Mingling with ship’s guests: We are a large gay
group on a ship that holds 2,800 passengers. We do plan
lots of activities of our own but we do also participate
in many of the ships activities. In our opinion, we get
the best of both worlds. Appropriate behavior in all public
areas is expected.
11. Shore Excursions: The ship will offer many excursions
to purchase. We however, will offer at least two or three
of our own including a chartered catamaran for swimming,
snorkeling and fun. Our trips are usually lower priced and
include more than what the ship will offer. Information
regarding our excursions will be sent to you about 60 days
prior to sailing.
12. Gratuities: A daily charge of $10.00 per person will
be added to your cabin account to serve as tips to porters,
waiters, cabins stewards, and pool boys.
13. Getting to the Ship: Most passengers will be flying
into Ft Lauderdale airport. You may take a taxi from the
airport for about $10.00 or you may purchase transfers from
the cruise line for $16.00 per person each way. If you stay
at our pre-cruise hotel, bus transfer to the pier will be
provided at a nominal charge. |
