Two Brothers, One Dad, Navigator of the Seas and Universal Studios: January 13th 2020

[NerdDad]

Hey everyone! I've loved reading the blog over the last year since I took my first cruise with my younger brother at his request. Now, I'm hooked and excited to share with you our next (now annual) cruise coming up on January 13th on the Navigator of the Seas. Our last trip was on the Mariner of the Seas and we're both very excited about going on its sister ship.

Who

The party will be the two of us (older brother and younger brother). My brother is turning 30 on this cruise and on embarkation day! When our Dad heard about our cruise plans, he decided he had to attend as well. We haven't done a vacation together as a group since we were 12 years old.  

Where

We're headed to Miami to board Navigator of the Seas! After Navigator, we're taking a quite jaunt up to Orlando to spend a few days at Universal Studios (another of my brother's favorite places). My wife and boys are more of the Disney type so it's a fun change of pace to head over to Universal for a few days.

How

Well, I love to vacation. After reading all the live blogs, I'm realizing I need to book Star Class at some point to REALLY get the "extra" experience. Instead, I decided to bring a little bit of star power to the rest of our vacation by (secretly) getting us a limo to bring us to the airport, upgrading our tickets to first class, and then upgrading what my Dad thinks is an inside stateroom to a suite (we have two rooms, two grand suites). Yes, I'm being "extra" as the kids say (do they still say that?) but I don't care! I'm on vacation! I'm excited to capture their reactions.

We're staying at the Hyatt Regency in Miami, flying down with Delta, and using my bevy of points, miles, and rewards to get us there. One small benefit of traveling a ton for work is making a major part of your vacation cash free. (Don't worry, this boys trip was already offset by a couples trip to keep the Mrs. happy. )

Then, We are starting with 3 days at Royal Pacific and then 1 day at Aventura (which none of us have stayed at yet). We wanted to add an extra day because I unfortunately need to fly from vacation to a work trip directly and instead of coming home for a day I’m going to stay an extra day. But it turns out Universal was almost all sold out... so doing a little split stay out of necessity (but still using our extra day or Express Pass). 

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We're a mere 6 days away from starting the journey down! I'm hoping Voom holds up and I can share photos and such from the travels as we go! If it ends up being of interest, I'm also happy to share about our time at Universal Studios though I know that's a bit of an extra excursion. 

This is only my third cruise though by brother and Dad have done a bunch more than I have. Either way, I'm excited to dive in, get to Coco Cay, and get into the "warm" water since we'll be flying down from New England. Almost there!

[SweetPea]

Awesome! Love Universal Orlando (We're APs ). Are you staying onsite? Not that you need to in January. Looking forward to following along.

[DanielB]

Sounds like a great time.  Looking forward to reading your adventures.  Safe travels 

 

[NerdDad]

6 hours ago, SweetPea said:

Are you staying onsite? Not that you need to in January. Looking forward to following along.

Yup, staying on-site! It’s MLK weekend and apparently the Pro Bowl is in town later that week so it’s actually slightly sold out.

We are starting with 3 days at Royal Pacific and then 1 day at Aventura (which none of us have stayed at yet). We wanted to add an extra day because I unfortunately need to fly from vacation to a work trip directly and instead of coming home for a day I’m going to stay an extra day. But it turns out Universal was almost all sold out... so doing a little split stay out of necessity (but still using our extra day or Express Pass).  

[druidspirit]

Can't wait to hear more. We had planned a guys cruise for November 2007 with my dad, younger brother, and myself. Unfortunately my dad was hit by a semi-truck in September of 2007 so we never made the trip. It took a few years before I decided to start sailing, so my wife and 2 boys went on our first cruise in 2016. My wife loves cruising as much as the boys and myself so we'll probably never have a "guys" trip .lol

[NerdDad]

@druidspirit I needed to make some “family cruise deposits” first to make this work.  I’m sorry to hear about your Dad. We lost our Mom pretty young a few years ago too. Small blessing in that it made us much closer and drove us to do trips like this.

[Sweety]

Have an awesome time. I love cruising with my parents. They are so enlightening.

[Lovetocruise2002]

10 hours ago, NerdDad said:

We haven't done a vacation together as a group since we were 12 years old.  

This alone makes me so happy to follow this blog!  Family time is so precious.  Especially when everyone is "adulting". 

10 hours ago, NerdDad said:

Yes, I'm being "extra" as the kids say (do they still say that?)

Haha!  Yes they do.  I teach 13 year olds and my daughter is 13.  I hear that word multiple times daily! 

34 minutes ago, Sweety said:

I love cruising with my parents. They are so enlightening.

You can say that again!  Especially when you cruise with them as an adult lol.

[WAAAYTOOO]

What a great trip for you 3.  It makes my heart happy to see a family trip like this.  Enjoy it ALL !

[The Cruise Junkie]

Have A Great Cruise On My Favorite Ship In RCI Fleet. Also Have Fun At My Favorite Theme Park In Orlando.

[SweetPea]

3 hours ago, NerdDad said:

Yup, staying on-site! It’s MLK weekend and apparently the Pro Bowl is in town later that week so it’s actually slightly sold out.

We are starting with 3 days at Royal Pacific and then 1 day at Aventura (which none of us have stayed at yet). We wanted to add an extra day because I unfortunately need to fly from vacation to a work trip directly and instead of coming home for a day I’m going to stay an extra day. But it turns out Universal was almost all sold out... so doing a little split stay out of necessity (but still using our extra day or Express Pass).  

Nice! I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on Aventura as we have not stayed either. Have stayed RPR multiple times when they had the Loews First program and we were Platinum then. Scored some lovely upgrades during that era! Now we're HRH peeps. Can't wait to hear about it and Navigator. Happy countdown! 

[GregD]

Have a great time! Navigator is a fun ship. We sailed on her a few months ago in September  live blog. We also went to Universal afterwards. If you are a roller coaster fan, and also want to be a bit "extra" there as well,  check out a VIP tour, we used that and had a blast. Skip the line access on all the rides, it was a great experience, especially the new Hagrid Ride which has a 90 minute wait as I type this!

[WAAAYTOOO]

Not that I'm trying to "extra" you to death, but I believe that the Unlimited Dining Package on NAV is a great deal.  I LOVE Hooked...if you,  your brother and father enjoy seafood, it's really a treat.  Not only do you get all of your dinners in specialty restaurants, but you also get lunch on embarkation day and on any sea days.  We even found that Izumi was open on some of the port days so there is a lot of value (IMO) in the UDP on NAV.  Since you're all in suites, you will get breakfast daily in Chops, which is a huge step up from any of the other breakfast locations.

I hope your dad is super surprised and that he feels completely pampered.  Does your brother know you've upgraded everything ?

[NerdDad]

29 minutes ago, emsff02 said:

Have a great time! Navigator is a fun ship. We sailed on her a few months ago in September  live blog. We also went to Universal afterwards. If you are a roller coaster fan, and also want to be a bit "extra" there as well,  check out a VIP tour, we used that and had a blast. Skip the line access on all the rides, it was a great experience, especially the new Hagrid Ride which has a 90 minute wait as I type this!

I read your live blog @emsff02 and loved it! I've been waffling on the VIP tour because I sort of feel like you don't get to experience the park as much if you do it. (We did the shared VIP tour once before but sort of nervous bringing my very gregarious Dad into a shared tour setting. )

[NerdDad]

7 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Not that I'm trying to "extra" you to death, but I believe that the Unlimited Dining Package on NAV is a great deal. 

One step ahead of you! We got it during the last sale for a pretty good deal too. I'm not sure we'll ever be in the main dining room this trip.

 

8 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I hope your dad is super surprised and that he feels completely pampered.  Does your brother know you've upgraded everything ?

My brother is in on most things as he super enjoys planning things too so I don't want to rob him of that. If anyone has any tips on fun surprises, let me know. I'm going to let the concierge in on it when they email in hopes they have some fun ideas too.

[NerdDad]

I decided to get some t-shirts made a few weeks ago and they just arrived today! I'm not sure we'll end up doing the group t-shirt thing but they'll be funny to wear on certain days. (And, in order to understand the joke on one of them, it's important to know our last name is Daigle.) Please excuse all the drink package humor... it's more that we can no longer party like we used to but like to pretend we can when we cruise.

 

[WannaCruise]

What a special trip with the guys.  And how fun to combine a cruise with Universal.  Navigator is a great ship.  

Looking forward to hearing about it.  Have fun!

[SweetPea]

Just my $.02, but if you take advantage of Early Entry staying onsite and don't try to do Hagrid's over a weekend, you should be fine. Just make sure you know which park they're offering EE to. If it's the Studios, not IOA, you still should be fine if you go right at park opening. 

Also it sounds like you've stayed at RPR before so I'm guessing you're set with what room requests to make? 

[NerdDad]

1 hour ago, SweetPea said:

Also it sounds like you've stayed at RPR before so I'm guessing you're set with what room requests to make?

@SweetPea would love your suggestions! I didn’t know you could make requests (we do most family trips to Disney). 

[SweetPea]

55 minutes ago, NerdDad said:

@SweetPea would love your suggestions! I didn’t know you could make requests (we do most family trips to Disney). 

I'm the Queen of requests at all 3 resorts that offer unlimited express! First tell me what type of room you booked, standard/garden, pool view, club, king suite? 

[NerdDad]

Standard two queens. Didn’t have a ton of options for the full stay seemingly. 

[SweetPea]

8 hours ago, NerdDad said:

Standard two queens. Didn’t have a ton of options for the full stay seemingly. 

Ok, then you'll want to request Tower 1. You'll have a shot at a park view, but if you don't, the views will still be better than Towers 2 or 3.  Plus if you plan to walk to the parks, you can use the stairs at the end of the hallway and take the door there. You'll be half way down the walking path then, avoiding the Rickshaws and walking through the pool area. And if you use the elevators instead of the stairs, you're closer to the restaurants, pool, and boat launch.

 

Now if you really want to push it (& i have), you can request a specific room. I'd try for 1541, which has both a park view and is a connecting room (don't remember which side connects), but sounds like you have 2 rooms or no? Anyway, those are my thoughts. Avoid Tower 2 as that is the pet tower, and Tower 3 standard view will give you a crummy highway view. 

[Sweety]

Please wear the t-shirts together and take a picture. When my Dad retire, his shirt read, "The Legend has Retired." Our shirts read, "We are with the Legend." Everybody on the ship loved them. They were taking pictures and made my Dad feel like the King he is. I love following stories like this. My parents are with me on three cruises, looking to book more.

[Sweety]

21 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Not that I'm trying to "extra" you to death, but I believe that the Unlimited Dining Package on NAV is a great deal.  I LOVE Hooked...if you,  your brother and father enjoy seafood, it's really a treat.  Not only do you get all of your dinners in specialty restaurants, but you also get lunch on embarkation day and on any sea days.  We even found that Izumi was open on some of the port days so there is a lot of value (IMO) in the UDP on NAV.  Since you're all in suites, you will get breakfast daily in Chops, which is a huge step up from any of the other breakfast locations.

I hope your dad is super surprised and that he feels completely pampered.  Does your brother know you've upgraded everything ?

We are celebrating Hooked on our anniversary. I went to school in Boston and looking forward to eating there. Is there a lot of food?

[NerdDad]

Ha! I went to Boston University! My first time at Hooked but excited for some seafood. 

[KWong]

On 1/7/2020 at 10:32 PM, NerdDad said:

The party will be the two of us (older brother and younger brother). My brother is turning 30 on this cruise and on embarkation day! When our Dad heard about our cruise plans, he decided he had to attend as well. We haven't done a vacation together as a group since we were 12 years old.  

Sounds like fun! We typically do a generational trip in the summer - at this point it's 14 of us: My parents, my two brothers, our spouses and kids (2 kids each). This year we're doing Symphony and I'll probably blog about that, like I'm doing with Indy right now.

I like the shirts! I'm actually thinking of getting some shirts done up for the cruise. Maybe some baseball or soccer style shirseys with numbers and all that. Guess I"ve got some time to figure out a design.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing how things go!

[Sweety]

55 minutes ago, NerdDad said:

Ha! I went to Boston University! My first time at Hooked but excited for some seafood. 

I did too.

[WAAAYTOOO]

1 hour ago, Sweety said:

We are celebrating Hooked on our anniversary. I went to school in Boston and looking forward to eating there. Is there a lot of food?

I don't recall there being a lot of food.  I certainly didn't leave hungry.  I guess it depends on what you order.

[NerdDad]

We still haven’t heard from the concierge so I shot an email to the Navigator’s email address and hope I don’t come off annoying. Just want to figure out specialty dining reservations so we can plan around them. 
 

Anyone else experience no email before the cruise? I haven’t had trouble before.

[GregD]

11 minutes ago, NerdDad said:

We still haven’t heard from the concierge so I shot an email to the Navigator’s email address and hope I don’t come off annoying. Just want to figure out specialty dining reservations so we can plan around them. 
 

Anyone else experience no email before the cruise? I haven’t had trouble before.

We got ours about a week out. I think you are well within the window of where you should be reaching out and not worrying if you are coming across as annoying.

[WAAAYTOOO]

29 minutes ago, emsff02 said:

We got ours about a week out. I think you are well within the window of where you should be reaching out and not worrying if you are coming across as annoying.

Agreed.  The Concierge email has been coming 5 days before sailing for us.  It’s time to give ‘em a little kick in the backside and get ‘em movin’.  

[NerdDad]

Two days to go! Sitting in a coffee shop while one of my little dudes attends a birthday party. Catching up on last minute concerns/flights as weather looks to be sweeping across the United States but so far things look OK for us.

We got a little bit of luck from Universal Orlando! Rooms seem to be opening up so we’re going to be staying at Royal Pacific the entire stay instead of doing the final night at Aventura. While we were a little bit excited to try the new hotel, we loathed the idea of packing our bags on the 12th night of our trip if we could avoid it. We’ll give Aventura a try another time and keep our bags in our rooms.

For my job, I travel a ton and have earned miles and points for days in the last year (flew 125,000 miles last year). I don’t regularly travel for work so when I do I tend to send kind, get-what-you-get emails to the brands I’m loyal to and see if they can do anything special for my family as we travel. I’ve had a TON of success with this and I probably do it once every two years. (I stayed about 65 nights in Hyatt last year after switching loyalties from Marriott brands at the suggestion of my boss.)

I’m not going to share too much in case it falls through but it looks like the Hyatt Regency Miami is going to be coming through a big surprise for my family. Will be very excited to share with you all assuming all works out!

My father, who isn’t the most computer literate gentleman, texted me last night because “something is wrong with my room number”. Turns out, he’s figured out (albeit indirectly) that we upgraded him to a suite. To avoid him giving our travel agent or Royal a hard time, we let him in on the surprise a little early. He is very excited albeit it I think slightly in shock and unsure how to respond. Just a lot of “oh wow, thank you’s”. Going to be a big week for him!

Tomorrow, we’ll be driving up to Boston to fly direct to Miami arriving later tomorrow evening. Very excited we’re so close and only a tiny bit of packing to go...

[NerdDad]

And we’re off! Successfully made it up to Boston Logan without any trouble. Dad was very surprised about the limo and remarked, “wow, so this is how you do it.” My brother and I laughed.

After a relatively simple 1.5 hour drive and a few glasses of champagne, we were checked in with Delta and hanging out in the Delta lounge up here. Our flight leaves in about an hour so we got here a little early but nothing to complain too much about. Dad is enjoying getting his phone charged and having a cup of coffee... or two. “It’s all free?!” We’ll, if you fly way too many miles with them it is.

Dad has figured out that we’re in First Class and asked what they’re serving for dinner. Club Sandwich or a Salad. He is unimpressed. This is going to be a trip to remember to say the least! Will report in once we get to Miami and the Hyatt.

[WAAAYTOOO]

You dad’s a Marine ?  That is awesome.  Tell him “Semper Fi” from Dan and me.  

[NerdDad]

Just now, WAAAYTOOO said:

You dad’s a Marine ?  That is awesome.  Tell him “Semper Fi” from Dan and me.  

Once a marine, always a marine.

[Lovetocruise2002]

@NerdDad can I just tell you right now how much this blog makes me smile.  I read about your description of your Dad, and it makes me think of mine.  My parents are simple in the sense that they are inside cabin people all the time.  They have taken more cruises than we have, always insides.  We're treating them to Star Class at the end of this year and I imagine that this is pretty much going to be their reaction too.  I am loving this!

[NerdDad]

Well, I certainly can’t complain about the hotel situation. We go on the plane and Dad was very excited still. Kept tapping my brother on the shoulder and looking and smiling at us.

The cake wasn’t quite on the plane... but it was at the Hyatt Regency. I shot an email to Hyatt telling them about Steve’s birthday and they went above and beyond. We showed up and instead of getting our two small rooms, we got this...

And not only this but a cake and some craft beers too! Steve was over the moon and we had SO much fun watching the football game and enjoying our beers.

It was so great! Thanks again to the team at Hyatt Regency for going above and beyond. It was such a great start to our vacation! This morning we’re getting ready and heading to the ship a little early this morning so we can get onto the suites. Today is Steve’s actual birthday too! So far so good!

[Sweety]

16 hours ago, NerdDad said:

Once a marine, always a marine.

My Uncle 32 years with the Marines.

[teddy]

17 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

You dad’s a Marine ?  That is awesome.  Tell him “Semper Fi” from Dan and me.  

From me, too.

[Lovetocruise2002]

Wow!  That is quite the upgrade in rooms!!