Caribbean Cruise and Log cabin in the Smoky Mountains

[scottishmum]

Originally Posted by TrueBlue

If I left it up to Hubby we would never leave Kirkcaldy Jane

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lol , easy going, laid back yes I know the type

[Guest]

Loved reading your plans. Fantastic ship and log cabin! Amazing about it being cheaper to cruise from over there too! We paid only about £200 less than your Royal Caribbean price for Oct 2012 and that was just for a week cruising the Canaries with Island Cruises in April (with flights)!
A Med cruise for next summer for the 4 of us with RC came out at over £6000 for a fortnight. We couldn't do it, but I might have to start looking at Freedom of the Seas instead for another year :-)

Happy planning!

[TrueBlue]

Originally Posted by choccieaddict

Loved reading your plans. Fantastic ship and log cabin! Amazing about it being cheaper to cruise from over there too! We paid only about £200 less than your Royal Caribbean price for Oct 2012 and that was just for a week cruising the Canaries with Island Cruises in April (with flights)!
A Med cruise for next summer for the 4 of us with RC came out at over £6000 for a fortnight. We couldn't do it, but I might have to start looking at Freedom of the Seas instead for another year :-)

Happy planning!

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I also priced up RCI for 2 weeks med for next year too and couldn't believe the prices! Think that's what swung it for us to do the caribbean itinery instead.

We could have cruised with Carnival cruise line for a fraction of the price of RCI but I had my heart set on the Freedom ship. Maybe the next time we'll sail on Carnival as they get a good write up too.

[TrueBlue]

UPDATE

Hi all

Well since the last time I did an update I have got a few changes to tell you about.

First of all we have booked our flights (yah! )

We are now flying with Continental from Edinburgh - Newark - Orlando. Now... according the their flight times we won't arrive in Orlando until 9.30 PM. If this is still correct nearer the time (the flight is leaving 3 hours later than it did this year) then we will probably book into the hotel that's inside Orlando International Airport for the night (can't remember the name of the hotel). I really don't fancy arriving in Orlando so late at night and picking up a hired car and driving to Port Canaveral.

We are flying out on Thursday 4th October. The flights came in at £2599.00 for 2 adults and 2 kids.



The following day (friday) we'll probably head to Port Canaveral and book into a hotel for a couple of days. Not sure which hotel yet but one that's as close to the Port as possible. For the 2 days until our ship sails we'll just chill out at the pool and have a wander around the area. Don't plan on doing very much at all apart from chilling

Sunday we will check out of our hotel and head to the port for our ship (see page one for itinery details).

We have also booked our log cabin! I'm mega excited about this. It's GORGEOUS!

We have decided on a cabin called 'Must Be Dreaming'. It's through the same company (sugar Maple Cabins). Here's some of the pics of where we'll be staying in the Smokys

This is the cabin we have booked
































I was so excited about booking this that I made a bit of a mistake on the booking form!

I had booked our return flights (again with Continental) from Knoxville - Newark - Edinburgh for Thursday 18th October but on the booking form for the cabin I put down that we were staying on the Thursday night too instead of checking out on the Thursday. So basically I just cost myself an extra $239 plus tax!

I emailed them straight away and explained my error and within 10 mins I got a reply saying it was fine and they amended our booking form at their end and will only charge the nights we will be staying onto our credit card... Thank you so much Sugar Maple. I'm well impressed with this company already and we're not even there yet.

Our total for our 3 night stay at the cabin is $853.53. Not too bad when you compare it to a Disney hotel (in my opinion)

I only had to pay the deposit just now and the balance doesn't get charged to my credit card until we check in...another bonus.

When christmas and New year is over with i'll concentrate on the things that we're going to do when we're up in the Smokys. I've been on the Tennessee tourist board website and sent away for all the 'things to do' mags. I've had a quick flick through them bill will look into them in more detail early next year.

We know that we want to do Dollywood (Dolly Partons theme park) and also the Smoky Mountain National Park but apart from that we haven't thought of anything else yet.

I'm really so excited about this holiday as it's something totally different.

Only 10 months to wait now... i'd better get my new countdown up!

[Guest]

That cabin looks so luxurious! You're going to have an amazing trip!
The hotel at Orlando International is lovely too, we got a day room on our way home in 2009. It's called the Hyatt Regency. Roof top pool in case you fancy a late night dip :-)

[TrueBlue]

Originally Posted by choccieaddict

That cabin looks so luxurious! You're going to have an amazing trip!
The hotel at Orlando International is lovely too, we got a day room on our way home in 2009. It's called the Hyatt Regency. Roof top pool in case you fancy a late night dip :-)

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Thanks for giving me the name of the hotel Tina

Will look up prices over the next few weeks/months

[Scotty]

We had D1 cabin on Mariner OTS for my 40th a few years ago, same itinerary as you are doing.
Had a great cruise but it was too rough to get into Cococay which was disappointing. Ended up in San Juan instead.
St Maarten we did the segways then spent the afternoon on the beach. From St Thomas a trip to St John is great, idyllic.

The log cabin looks wonderful.

[Glee Fan]

Oh wow - what a trip! The cabins look amazing, am off to browse the website in a minute!

Think your plans sound wonderful. I have fancied a cruise for a while but I think my dh has this idea of cruises in years gone by, if you get me, I keep telling him they are not like that now! Or at least some are, but not one that I would book us on to!

Really looking forward to hearing about further updates.

[nikkimc]

We are staying in the Smokies for a week at the beginning of June so I will pop back to give my feedback. Were flying into Knoxville then back out of Atlanta as we want to go to the Six Flags park just outside Atlanta.

[TrueBlue]

I've been tweaking againg!... oppppps, how did that happen

I've decided that I can go all that way and actually land in MCO airport but not have a Disney fix. Soooooooo, i'm booking the following now :

Thursday 4th October fly into MCO and check into Disney's Pop Centuary hotel for 2 nights.

Then on Friday 5th October we're going to do MNSSHP. It's much cheaper for us to do this than to have a 1 day pass for Magic Kingdom. At least we can get in from 4pm and the park doesn't close until midnight. I only need a small fix... honest

On Saturday 6th October we are going to check into the Country Inn and Suites at Port Canaveral for 1 night before we set on our cruise on the Sunday

I don't think there'll be anymore tweaking, i'm just sooo pleased we're having a few hours in Magic Kingdom