KmomChicago

Settled in at our hotel next to the Space Needle. It’s been a very long day but everything has gone smoothly. Good night!

Got it will do

Not the best shot but from the train looking back towards the airport. If you zoom way in you can see a plane taking off.

Yes we are on the light rail now. Not only cheap but apparently there’s an incident this evening on I 5 and it’s a parking lot.

At the gate at SeaTac. Remind me, taxi or Uber better here? Going to the Space Needle, Hyatt House.

Onboard! Our O’Hare flight is leaving 25 minutes earlier than originally booked. Somehow I missed or long forgot the change and thought it was 4:15, actually 3:50 but we are all good. Bag drop and security lines were short and fast. Alaska Airlines allows everyone a free carry on, so of course they don’t all fit and they were asking for volunteers to gate check which we happily did.

Vacation has begun.

We are at O’Hare eating a slightly overpriced McDonald’s brunch in Terminal 2. None of us ate before leaving the house. Flight loads in 25 minutes. We made good enough time but left minimal margin for error.

Thank you @wendyinvt and same to you!

Flight day! Lots to do before we drive up to O’Hare. We’re parking at a buddy’s house. When I went to U of I 40 years ago (😳) I made friends from the burbs. Carol who I lost to cancer in May 2004 was one. This other friend I will see today, ran in the same circle and we share a quiet thought together each year on that date. Carol left behind a happy marriage and three children aged 5 and under. She was a person of strong faith and was fine with “God’s Plan.” I was not and was not. Still not now, 20 years forward. I am deeply grateful, however, for the painful but powerful lesson she taught me about living a purpose-driven life. About optimism and thankfulness. I am immeasurably richer because of her.

You are going to love this ship. It has everything. I wish Stefon on SNL had reiewed it.

Thanks for the kind words. It’s one of those who-saved-who situations. I needed her and didn’t know. I volunteer regularly now at the rescue facility she came from and that, too, is something I didn’t know I needed.

Yeah I needa get caught up here as well, but right now I am packing so it will have to be maybe while I'm at O'Hare tomorrow waiting to board the plane.

How awesome and cool. Thank you for sharing this! Sweet Home Chicago. 🙂 Awesome, hope you are loving your cruise! Sounds wonderful!! Yes there is no shortage of world class cultural and artistic offerings. It is a living treasure trove. Thank you! Thank you! I was fortunate to visit Water Tower Place as a child in the 1980's heyday of the mall era. It is sort of hanging on but it is a far cry from what it used to be. I admit I usually like Chicago a lot better in the sunnier months. The week between the holidays is dark and brrr!!!

Thanks @harryfat1! You not only are definitely my mentor, you took me over the threshold to page 5 for this report! I don't think I have ever had this much going on for a live trip report before I even get to the ship. I look forward to your next cruises and chatting about the New York pre-cruise tips as I have thoughts as well. Also, please come back and ramble anytime! Best regards, Kmom

We are less than 24 hours from leaving the house and less than 48 (hopefully) from boarding Ovation of the Seas! Apparently we are also rich!

@tsahall01 this is a great tip, thanks so much! I will do that! @clochette thanks for following; I am so glad as well! ❤️ @Tiggercat I always enjoy finding some hack or fine details no one else ever notices so hopefully I will share some good Ovation tips, depending on my sleuthing skills.

I have no choice but to post this. Check out this incredible young woman REPRESENTING Chicago!!!! I love her name, I love that she’s a female Jr.! (She’s actually named after her grandmother). Can I get a little love for Chicago? Yes! I grew up in a minuscule farm town an hour’s drive south of the mean streets. I know Chicago’s reputation as well as anyone and a lot of it is deservedly not good. Really terrible. Nevertheless I love it. It is still my favorite city by a wide margin, after visiting NY, Paris, and many others worldwide. I use my Hyatt points for overnights up there whenever I can and it always feels like a magical place to me.

Kitty number two that I have to leave behind in order to cruise. She is as close to me in this pic as she appears. Actually she is kitty number one as I adopted her first, April 2020, as an overweight senior with special needs who nobody wanted and who waited at the rescue for three years before I showed up rather clueless about what I was getting into. The orange cat posted earlier joined her about 4 months later and he’s now around five years old.

We didn’t book anything after Adventure as we had done a lot of travel recently over the previous two years. Besides 4 cruises in that time we had a Disney World visit to the Epcot Food and Wine festival, and a trip to Iceland. Lastly, we had a January 2020 visit to DFW to see my brother over MLK weekend. Six Flags was experimenting with year round hours and we took advantage. I am not loyal to any airline and we did Southwest that round, which is through Midway in Chicago, unlike nearly every other carrier. The day we returned was the day O’Hare recorded its first case of Covid. During our final descent into Chicago, returning on SW in January 2020. Travel would suddenly feel scary for the next two months and stay that way until it stopped completely 8 weeks later.

Our second RCI voyage, Adventure of the Seas out of Bayonne, August 2019. We went north to Canada. Ma treated us this time and we were in two adjacent junior suites on the hump, one deck down from the Windjammer where we ate almost all meals. That venue was on its game. Food was varied, fresh and outstanding. Ma has limited mobility and crew were constantly helping her, offering to get her refills and second helpings and find us easy seating. We always like cruise buffets but that was the best buffet experience ever. Ginormous baklava at Windjammer, OMG! 🤤🤤😋😋 Our massive wedge shaped balcony. Poutine in Halifax.

Another past cruise, Oasis of the Seas, March 2018. While in port in Cozumel a year earlier, we were walking along the Carnival pier gawking over at the RCI’s. Brand new behemoth Harmony of the Seas with its big purple corkscrew slides was next to one of her sisters which looked like a baby ship in comparison. “We need a ship like that next,” we thought. I found a good deal on an interior guarantee which turned out to be spacious, brilliantly designed and well located on deck 10 near the forward elevators. Because I didn’t plan to do a review, I took hardly any photos. This is the Solarium immediately after embarking. These were both taken while we were in San Juan. This was a pretty good eastern Caribbean itinerary that also visited Labadee and St. Maarten. To this day I very slightly regret not visiting Maho Beach.

Yeah the doors will help a lot. They were embarrassing.