We’re Ron and Melissa and we own Sandy Sun Travel. We'd love to help you plan your dream vacation. Our specialties are cruise and beach vacations, but we are a full service travel agency, so we can help you plan a quick weekend trip, or that bucket-list vacation to anywhere.
We love to have fun together. We had a blast raising our children, we love our grandchildren, but being together as a couple is our favorite! We hope you follow along as we share our life and travels with you.
We post Vlogs after we take a cruise, trip or getaway. Depending on life- our schedule may change from time to time.
Check out our Facebook, Instagram or TikTok! Email us at rhargrove@dreamvacations.com or check us out at www.sandysuntravel.com
Send us some snail mail at PO Box 302 Kingston, IL 60135
This is true, but we wanted to share all of the drink packages available. Next time we do a video for NCL drink packages, we may split them up into alcohol and non-alcohol videos.
@@SandySunTravel You can take a flight straight to Key West, or take a flight to Miami/ Ft Lauderdale rent a car and take a beautiful scenic route to Key West and make stops along the way. That would be a good video .
Thank you for the info. Do you happen to know how much the mocktails are approximately? I have the soda package but I can’t find anything about ordering a mocktail.
I’m glad you enjoyed our video. You can get a drink as soon as you get on the ship! We didn’t attempt to take soda on the ship, but it is included in the alcohol packages. Last I checked, you aren’t able to take cans of soda onboard, but I did see multiple people ask for cans of soda to take back to their cabin, and that didn’t seem to be a problem. We’re not experts on soda- neither one of us drinks much soda at all.
It was really convenient. We ended up using an Uber to get to the port, but it was a 5 minute ride. It was just so hot the day we went, and we didn’t want to be sweaty when we got on the ship!
Nice hotel, Although we would drive directly to the port, it looks like a good option if we decide to stay in Tampa for a couple of days before a cruise. Thanks for sharing
So glad you enjoyed it. We try to do our ship tours as simply a ship tour. Our vlogs are the place where we do face shots and try to convey the experience of our cruise. We like to do the different formats so people can see the ship in the tours and get a feel for the cruise in our vlogs.
On our NCL last October, the package we had included wi-fi, 2 specialty dinner nights, excursion credit (which just about paid for it) plus cocktails and bottles of wine from the upper left of the wine list. It also included "bottlled" water. They were more like cartons. But one can always get water from the buffet. Just remember to fill a glass first then your bottle.
Very well done! Very nice and thorough walk through of the ship and I always love your Team narration! Thanks for taking the time to put this together and thanks for sharing! 😎😎😎😎
Great video. We were waiting for this video to help us make a decision . We need to see when my wife is able to take a few days off.We will contact you when we're ready. Thanks for sharing. It's awesome information.
Thanks for al the help getting us hooked up for our Panama Canal cruise next April. Anyone else reading this, Ron is great at finding the right deal for the right cruise for you. We highly recommend him.
I believe it’s $59.95 per day plus 18% gratuity We got a package that included Faster to Chill, dinner at the steakhouse, internet and priority boarding and debarkation for our 5 day cruise and it was $930ish
Part of the enjoyment of a balcony is the peaceful view without interrupting others or being interrupting to others in their enjoyment of how they use their balcony. Quiet calm seas at night or during the day are why extra is paid for it. Socializing is for when you are outside the room!
When I was a new cruiser, I did not realize I could turn the balcony light on and off. I thought it was controlled as an exterior light on the ship. I know...duh? But I did not know that was "my" light to turn on and off! 🙄🙄🙄
As someone who doesn’t drink alcoholic beverages, is a diabetic & pretty much only drinks tea, water & occasionally sparkling water, I’m not sure the exorbitant cost of drink packages makes no sense for me unless single bottles of water cost $10 per bottle which is robbery. I’ll bring a water purifier & use fountain water.
It is really easy to blow up the ov real cost of a cruise. Drink packages, wife, and dining are definitely expensive add ons. Especially if you have additional circumstances like you have. One of the nice things about cruising is that you can get a really great vacation for a relatively reasonable cost if you don't need or desire any add ons!
There is a page at 2:39 in our video where can see a link to download your edocs. It’s on the lower left hand side. It’s a blue button labeled “view edocs”
We had baked ziti in the Manhattan dining room. That’s part of the included dining. Sorry if we didn’t make that clear. We had 4 specialty dining nights that were wonderful We had 3 dinners in the included dining.
The Premium drink pkg SHOULD cover water containers! If it covers drinks up to $15, what's up with not including water containers and energy drinks? COME ON NCL!
NCL has two beverage packages. The Unlimited Open Bar package and the Premium Plus Package. We were surprised that water wasn’t included in the Open Bar package, but it was more than enough for us with the exception of the water
Great video. Thanks for the tips. I had been wondering about the exact time to be able to check in and you answered it for me. (9pm out here in CA the day before)
You guys are Saints! I do try to pack my patience when I travel and cruise or just leave the house, but I was getting quite annoyed by the lack of customer service as you told your story! 😡 I am curious as to how you picked the Even Hotel and if you did any due diligence prior to booking? Were there any Yelp or Travel Advisor reviews? Was the hotel just having a bad day(s) so to speak? Like a change in management or personnel or is it always this convoluted? As you know, our money will spend anywhere, so while the accommodations are important, it is the customer service that is still paramount. Yes, they made you whole but thankfully you all are experienced travelers (and Travel Agents). The resolution should not have been that complicated. In fact, they should have given you some kind of discount for your trouble and inconvenience. That might help me consider giving them a second chance. Anyone or business can have a bad day but what you went through was over the top! Bless you for remaining polite and professional! 😇😇😇 And thanks for the "heads up" on the Not-so-Even Hotel! 😄
Ha. Thank you for your kind words. Yes, there were some reviews and some of them weren’t very complimentary, but we thought there was a good chance that it would be fine. To be honest we had a hard time believing the reviews, and the price was so good that we thought it was worth the risk- $222 for a suite and breakfast??? We’re not mad- especially since we went in with some foreknowledge. That said, we were absolutely shocked that there was a problem with EVERY SINGLE INTERACTION. It was amazing. I don’t think they could have tried to be worse. The only saving grace is that our room was clean and breakfast was tasty. Thanks for watching our videos.
@@SandySunTravel I see, being some what fore warned would make a difference but very disappointing as a business model...or maybe just the staffing and customer service and complaint resolutions. Thanks again!
We were definitely on alert as a result of our due diligence, but it was really bad. Far worse than we let on in our video. We were discussing it with our friends last night and they were surprised that we were so gentle in our post. Have a great day!
Thank you so much for the content!! We really appreciate it! Love your videos and your all natural approach!! Look forward to more content!! Thanks for sharing!❤
Just got home from a Mediterranean cruise on the Norwegian Epic...it was amazing...Greece, Malta, Italy. Shore excursions were fantastic and so good to return home to the ship and our cozy cabin...floating hotel. We also really enjoyed "Maltings" stopped there often on our way to dinner or a night cap before bed.
Food republic is part of the dining plan for the speciality restaurants, you get x amount of dishes in terms of dining package, so please update your information
