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Posted

So I don’t get in trouble with @OCSC Mike and @Lovetocruise2002 I guess I better start a blog for this cruise while I have some time on my flight back to Chicago from Austin.

as you can tell from the title this was originally supposed to be my first B2B. I wanted to try Utopia but flying to Florida for just a 3 night cruise really isn’t worth it even though I can fly on points and companion pass for the wife. I had a free instant certificate I had gotten on my Wonder cruise last summer as well as a mail offer from the casino that allowed me to book the B2B and even in the same cabin. Well a few months after booking I had the opportunity to buy my partner out of a restaurant we own together in Austin TX at the beginning of this year. So adding that to an already busy time for my consulting business with year end and my wife being extremely busy with her work and we already have 2 other big cruises booked this year she convinced me that we shouldn’t take the entire week. I acquiesced and said fine, but we are at least still going on the weekend one.

so trip details:

who’s going:  just wife and me

cabin: 9570 oceanview balcony

flight: fly out of Midway Thursday 1/16 at 7pm. Don’t love the late flight but again with wife vacation days had to minimize so she could still work this day 

hotel stay: springhill suites Cape Canaveral cocoa beach

Nassau we will stay on ship and I will mostly do flowrider while wife probably does the spa

pdcc am trying coco beach club for first time. Decided to book this when it got down to $103 on Black Friday. I’ve heard people say if can get it for under $100 it’s probably worth it. I bent the rules and rounded down 

booked mason jar brunch for embarkation day

booked chops plus 1 and will hopefully do either 150 Central Park or Giovanni’s as the other night. 

Will try and get as many photos as I can and it might turn into a big photo dump more than a live blog, but feel free to ask any questions and I will try and get the answer to them. 

Posted

Definitely jealous that you'll be on Utopia, even without the B2B. 

WOW Coco Beach Club for $103/person?!??!? I never saw it go under $150 for my September 2024 cruise, which was my price break point. Lucky!

Excited for you to get out of cold Chicago too. It's going to be fun!

Posted

I feel so unprepared but I finally got packed tonight. Took a miracle but forced the wife to get packed as well since she has to work tomorrow until 3 and we are heading to the airport right after she gets off work. Somebody is not happy about us leaving. I’ve been traveling a lot the last few weeks and she doesn’t like when I’m gone. 
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Posted

Well that was a little tighter than I like it. The wife got off work about 30 minutes late so we didn’t leave the house until 4 instead of 3 like I wanted. After driving a little fast made it to the airport just before 6pm. Quickly checked our bags, took probably 8 minutes to get through security and made a dash for the gate. Got there 15 minutes before boarding started. We are now on the plane so hopefully will take off on time and get to Orlando without any issues. 

Posted

IT’s CRUISE DAY!!!!  
 

Bumpy flight last night, but other than that we landed a little early and our bags came with us so I would say that’s a success. Grabbed an Uber pretty quickly. Driver offered water which was great as I was dying of thirst, only complaint is he might have been the slowest Uber driver ever. Took 43 minutes to get to hotel. Pretty sure I could have done that drive in about 30. So made it to the hotel around 11:40 and pretty much just crashed. Sorry didn’t get pictures of room; but it’s nice and definitely works for a quick overnight stay. Scheduled the shuttle to the port for 9:30 when we checked in last night. It’s $10/person which seems a little high. I will check what Uber pricing is around 9:30 this morning. 

Posted

Its cruise day 🥰

I feel like the drive from airport to any hotel close to the port is at least 45min to an hour when doing Orlando.

I believe my last rideshare from a hotel, Hampton Inn, where you could see the port from it was $14+tip. So depending on the hotel distance, $10pp might not be so bad.

Posted
43 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I will trade you that for the Polar Vortex that is coming our way!

Hard pass. I was careful to say "slightly cooler." I'm not a native who thinks anything under 70F is "cold."

I just went food shopping in shorts. It was a very comfortable 55F or so, no complaints here, we've just been below average.

Stay warm up there!

Posted

So shuttle got us to port right around 9:30. Had to wait outside until about 9:45 when doors opened. We had express boarding and were on the ship by 9:53. Didn’t stop moving once the doors opened. They just have the boarding process down to a science here.  Knocked out getting muster done and Wow bands activated. Of course had to get some ice cream after I got on. 
 

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Posted

Our Utopia boarding time was very early as well back in September!  They also have a great disembarkation process which helps get the new passengers on early.  But when you are doing only a 3 or 4 nighter…you Definitely want the first day to count!  
Now what will it take to get all other terminals and on/off processes to get onboard?  😝?

Posted
12 minutes ago, LandstromCruise said:

@OCSC Mike Jocelle says hello. She lit up when I told her you said hi. She is very nice. 

That’s awesome. Thanks for saying hi for us. My wife has her social media to message once in a while but I’m sure she’ll be happy to hear it.

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