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If you haven't done Halloween Party, it's a lot of fun. You'll be able to get into the parks at 4 PM. Signed, They Guy Whose Wife Made Him Wear a Jack O' Lantern shirt The whole trip sounds awesome, have a great time.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/world/amp-stories/seaweed-invasion/ That stuff isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Maybe Murphy's law just bit you on that trip. Our Allure cruise was a 50th for me and a 25th for us. The cruise was during the same month as the anniversary at least, it was a few months different than my birthday. Our TA asked us about that it when we booked and asked which days we wanted them to be recognized. On those nights, they brought out a special dessert at dinner.

I wear dockers/slacks and a button-down or polo shirt but I've seen shorts, T-Shirts, jeans, sandals, etc so I don't think you'll be turned away for wearing jeans. You'll probably be in the middle, some will be dressed up more, some will be dressed down more.

Trip planning is half the fun... There's just too many options around Orlando to go wrong, even if you don't go to the parks. We just got back from a week at the Mouse and Disney Springs has some fantastic restaurants. Animal Kingdom Lodge has a couple of great restaurants and if you have reservation to eat there, you can park at the resort and wonder around it's own savanna observation areas. None of it is cheap but we had really good times. I don't know what time of year you're planning on going but if it's in the winter, I can't imagine there'd be a lot to do for a couple of days in Cocoa, other than KSC.

Exactly. I used to use Melbourne a lot and it is (or at least was) a nice little airport but there's not a lot of alternate flight options if something comes up. Plus, can you fly direct into Melbourne from your location? That's what caused me to stop using it as I would have had to transfer in Charlotte or Atlanta. If you can fly direct to MCO and have alternate flight options, that's what I would do. Melbourne is a little closer than MCO but it's not like FLL which is right across from the cruise port. It's still 25-30 minutes away. Plus, the bulk of the Orlando traffic is west of the airport towards the theme parks and I-4, the traffic between MCO and Cocoa Beach is not that bad (normally). If you're coming in a couple of days early, you can always do a theme park one day and/or Disney Springs or Universal CityWalk and then head over to Canaveral for the beach day or KSC. It would give you more options.

3.5 hour drive on Florida's turnpike. Should be good.

That's a good point. Luckily I haven't run into that situation.

I buy it for convenience and less stress as long as the "convenience fee" isn't too much. I'm not a huge drinker on land but will break even on the ship. I like the ability to try something and not feel like I just wasted $15 if I don't like it. It's less stress for me not to have to be calculating the cost every time I ordered or have my wife not get something because she doesn't want to spend extra money on it. I'm sure we lost $ on her the last cruise (even with her refreshment package) but I just considered it the convenience fee. Even at the new price, I'd still do it but if it's getting into the $75 range, then I'd re-think it.

Yep. A1-A15 are the "business class" or A-Lister slots, though you can buy into that at the gate for $30-50 depending on the length of the flight. The next slots will be for those with Early Bird, going in order of when Early Bird was purchased. It auto-checks you in and auto-assigns you a boarding position so you don't have to remember to check in 24 hours ahead of time. We just flew back from Orlando. We had a 0900 flight on a Saturday and I started trying at 0859 on Friday (no easy task as we were rope dropping at Epcot). I got in right away and got A29-31. My nephew was on the same flight, he checked in four minutes later and was around B12-13. I saved him a seat but there would have been places to sit together. When they flew down, he forgot and they got into the C group so they were not together on that one. They'll do the family boarding between A and B groups. But while a lot of people are going ahead of the B group, since they are families, they'll tend to fill up whole rows so it's not as bad as it initially seems. YOu could always book early bird for one person so they can get on-board earlier and save the seat next to them. As long as you're not trying to save the entire row, that's not a big deal.

Have a good trip! Looks good so far

Southwest out of BWI to Orlando or Fort Lauderdale is usually pretty good. It's become standard for us even though Dulles is a little closer. Have a good trip!

I'll defer to the Florida folks on how bad the traffic is but the plan sounds very stressful to me. The only way I'd attempt that is if I did the self-assist disembark. I personally wouldn't be getting off the ship at 1000 and relying on smooth traffic to get over to Fort Meyers. I don't live in SOuth Florida but I've had to travel there enough for work to know that traffic is not good.

You're doing a little better than us, we've had so-so food and phenomenal service and poor food and awful service! Enjoy your trip! Looks good so far.

I take it this Chops experience was better than some of the previous ones? Just curious as we've had lackluster experiences there and I know you haven't really raved about it either. As always, thanks for the blog and wonderful pictures.