Take a boat directly to Nassau?

@snapster

So that’s how the Goatapus gets food.

@narfcake - Solved it.

@RiotDemon Affirmative. I suggested the A-Team method, but it was vetoed.

@RiotDemon Xanax will solve his problem.

@DaveInSoCal I suggested that, and it was likewise unacceptable. Thank you for the suggestion, though.

@CaptAmehrican The Pinar Del Rio ferry goes from Florida to Freeport only. The connecting ferry to Nassau takes 13 hours to get there. I’ve found an itinerary that would work for him but I’m just exploring less painful options.

How expensive is a private charter boat? And how would he find someone reputable?

@f00l I had looked into that for it, but it seemed that none of the cruises stayed there long enough, nor were there single legs available for puchase. I didn’t think to ask if they could separate it out - I’ll have to call them to find out. Most of the time my research was done late at night so I haven’t been able to call. Thanks for the tip. Recommend any particular cruise line?

@SirLouie
Never been on a cruise in my life.

A really clever travel agent who specializes in cruises might possibly be able on book him onto the 1st part of the cruise (outgoing) on one cruise run, and the 2nd part of the cruise (incoming) on another cruise run.

I don’t know how many days “in between” (off-ship) that would be. And I don’t know whether a cruise line would do it. Much would depend on the season and on unsold cabin space.

Also be aware that some cruise runs specialize: retirees, families, young singles, Star Trek fans, and the like. Depending on your friend’s prefs, there’s also that reason to know what you’re booking on; tho I suspect most cruises are for the general public.

@f00l AFAIK you can choose to disembark and stay in a port, but a cruise line is not going to sell just one step of an itinerary. You’d leave them with an empty cabin the rest of the trip. Cruise ships aren’t set up to be transportation, they are a moving destination. Is the ferry reasonably nice? I love being on boats, sitting on the deck by the railing reading or watching the waves. Most ferries I’ve been on are set up for this. I’d regard a 13 hour ferry ride to the Bahamas as relaxing, not grueling. I once got stuck spending the night in the Sydney airport while it was under the demolition phase of reconstruction, I couldn’t check my luggage and go to my gate as registration closed just before I arrived so I was stuck in the lobby, one wall had been knocked down to accommodate construction vehicles so it was 40 degrees inside, the construction crews were doing their level best to make as much noise as humanly possible (they were literally dropping forklift loads of metal and concrete all night), and the chairs were made of metal with fixed armrests so I couldn’t relax at all. It was the end of our vacation, we couldn’t afford a taxi and a hotel room. After that nightmare we still had something like 16 hours of economy air travel to endure to get home. That’s how I define grueling travel.

@f00l I called Royal Caribbean and they said no. All their cruises are round trip and originate in the states. I’ll have to see if there are any other cruise lines that can do it.

@SirLouie I assume you’ve looked at this site http://bahamasferries.com. These look like very nice boats, I’d like to spend a day on one. You have to see it as a part of the vacation, not just an impatiently slow form of transportation. Nassau’s like 200 miles from Florida and most boats aren’t nearly as fast as ground transportation. If you don’t fly then getting around is a time consuming proposition.

@SirLouie
@moondrake

Some cruise ships do sell “legs”. The QE2 certainly did during its years of transatlantic and around-the-world activity. I know that’s a bit of an extreme example.

That why I said it might depend on the season. In off-season, a line of ships who weren’t going out full anyway might be far more willing to make special arrangements for a potential customer that they could not otherwise sell to; as an empty berth on a cruise is as much the totally lost revenue as an empty seat in a plane.

In any case, I’d call a S Florida travel agent who specializes in cruises and books heavily to the Bahamas. A travel agent of that sort will know all this. The agent will know if it’s possible to make special arrangements with a cruise line that aren’t available to the public at large and how far the cruise line will go.

The agent will know if there is some sort of reasonable and comfortable means of getting directly to Nassau. The agent will know how comfortable the Freeport-Nassau connection is. The agent will know all sorts of stuff that only agents know.

@f00l I’m a travel agent and don’t know of any current cruise lines that will sell a return leg. You can buy a 4 night and get off but that’s rather pricey. There used to be a company down there that owned an old cruise ship and you paid to take it down to Freeport ans stay on the island, then come back on the ship. I know at one point they did allow you to book the trip down, and then whatever day you wanted to come back as opposed to a 3 night, 5 night, 7 night etc. Of course the return had to be a date the ship was going back to Florida. I can’t remember the name or if it is still in business but I’ll check to see if I can find out tomorrow.

@f00l World cruises are different, most of the ones I’ve seen are component based, made up of three or four sections which can be bought seperately or with a discount as a single large package. Haven’t been on one of those as I don’t want to spend months away from my pets,. The only cruises I know of which are really just transportation from one place to another are repositioning cruises, where the ships summer in the US and winter in Europe or something like that. They have to sail the ship across the ocean anyway, so they take on passengers to help defray their costs. These are usually quite modestly priced and do include some ports but you have to pay your own way home. For example, there’s a 17 day repositioning cruise in November out of Tampa with stops at the Bahamas, two Canary Islands, and two stops in Spain for $799. You just have to get home from Spain, or hang around in Europe till spring to catch your boat heading back here.

@moondrake
What little I know of cruises comes from a friend who worked aboard the QE2 during the circumnavigate cruises. She really enjoyed getting to go around the world every winter for several years. (I bet!!! She got to visit unusual spots like Tristan de Cunha.)

Cunard used to sell legs as short as one week and would combine them in interesting and customized ways. For instance, if someone wanted to purchase HK to Australia, get off, stay two weeks, then fly to meet the QE2 somewhere else, Cunard would set that up, either with or without the airfare. They also cut all sorts into f other custom deals, both directly to passengers, and to special “travel agents to the filthy rich”. It’s a bit like a concierge service at Tiffany’s.

(A typical winter circumnavigative passenger would be so wealthy that the person could spend their entire life in top deck luxury onboard that ship and still just keep getting richer.)

That’s all I know about it. I thought that some of the Caribbean ships might do similar late in the season if demand slacked.

@f00l Moving onto cruise ships is a fairly viable option for healthy retirees. For flexible veteran cruisers it’s usually less than $100 a day for housing, as many meals a day as you can eat, full maid service, live entertainment and a free movie theater, several pools, free premium tv channels, an ever changing group of people to dine with and free room service, and interesting places to visit if you choose to disembark. A modestly priced health clinic with emergency medical is just an elevator ride away, as is a coin laundry and a rather pricey salon. About $3,000 a month is less than most all-inclusive assisted living places charge. If they allowed pets I’d already be doing it.

@moondrake

Those retirees you speak of aren’t the people who booked the premium decks on the QE2. I met some of them more than once - Cunard would invite their most personable employees to bring “nice friends” to parties Cunard threw for passengers in NYC. It was all quite innocent. Those ultra-wealthy retirees enjoy chatting to “interesting young people”.

These are people who basically have no idea how much money they have, but it’s way more than I could guess. They were, by and large, very nice, and absolutely fascinating. They did a fair amount of good, knew incredible people, and usually had intellectual interests.

It’s true that you can do that: live in shipboard - economically. These people didn’t. They took the winter round-the-world thing, and perhaps took the QE2 back and forth to Europe a few times each year. At other times, when the weren’t visiting their royal and noble titled friends, they were living in one of their several houses. Possibly just down the lane from Mar-A-Lago.

“After all, the house was built by Marjorie Merriweather Post. <sniff>. Those of us in the neighborhood could hardly have controlled who purchased the property from her estate. <sniff>.”

It’s another world than mine.

They mostly live in a non-showy fashion now - except for some really really huge social events. Then the vaults open and the jewels come out.

@cranky1950 Flight is not an option, but thanks for the suggestion.

@sammydog01 The last couple of people that tried that I heard didn’t fare too well.

http://www.thelocal.es/20170103/man-attempts-to-cross-into-spain-smuggled-inside-suitcase

@sammydog01 Me, too, but in mid March. RCL?

@moondrake Yep, March 4 though. That would have been cool.

@sammydog01 Yeah, we are on the Board Game Geek at sea cruise on the 18th. Getting there the 14th to see a bit of FL. Been planning to post a things to do in Florida query thread. May as well.

@moondrake Same ship, same itinerary except for the board game thing. We’re on spring break so no extra time in Florida.

@sammydog01 Maybe we’ll end up in your cabin. We’ve got an inside balcony that will be assigned by RCL. Got some nice perks by letting RCL pick the room. Since we’ll mostly be gaming we won’t be in the room much.

@moondrake We have an outside balcony and paid way more than the prices I found for your deal. That’s what you get for waiting until the last minute. Two adults and two teens in a tiny room- should be interesting.

@sammydog01 Oops, looks like we didn’t over pay too much. This is our first big vacation with the kids- I’m really excited!

@sammydog01 We got a fair price but not a great one. Spring break drove prices up and closed any margins for deal making. But I’d recommend if you cruise in the future that you go through CruiseCompete.com. I’ve gotten some amazing deals on there. Even on this cruise where flexibility was really limited, we got the inside balcony for $1,047 each (2 travellers) plus one voucher for a specialty restaurant dinner for two. In addition, because we let RCL pick our cabin, depending on which cabin we are assigned we’ll either be getting a meal voucher for four at Johnny Rockets and two beverage packages, or another specialty restaurant voucher and a bottle of wine. I’m glad you guys got an outside balcony. You are going to have an awesome trip.

@moondrake One of may end up sleeping on that balcony. And it may be me.

@sammydog01 If I could sleep in a chair I’d sleep on the seaside balcony. Or if I could kidnap a lounger from one of the decks.

@CaptAmehrican Are they crossing the gulf stream on that second leg? May be why even a faster boat is going slower. I no longer remember where it tracks. I remember nearly not moving forward coming back from the Dry Tortillas when we were in it trying to get out of the mainstream of it. Took hours and hours. Of course we were on a schooner…under sail.

@Kidsandliz

Dry Tortillas

Dry Tortugas

I’ll take a #1 combo dinner, please.

@f00l details details details picky picky picky - auto correct got me again. But the fort is cool, Lincoln’s murderer was kept there for a while and snorkeling there is nice.

@CaptAmehrican As the @f00l pointed out, auto correct got me - Tortugas not Tortillas…

@Kidsandliz
I would like to go there and get the Large Combo Mexican Plate after a day of sport and recreation.

With lots of frozen 'Rita’s and fresh tortillas. The latter dry, shaken, not stirred.

Heaven.

@f00l That’s gorgeous!