Cruiser Formerly Known As Cheapo Dad's Trip Report on Odyssey of the Seas Sailing to A Minus B Plus C Plus H Islands

[harryfat1]

One lady dockside worker noticed us taking pictures of everything and offered to take pictures of the fam so here’s another picture to show everyone.  My older son and I have Christmas theme shirts on

 

 

 

I ask you – is there a happier sign than seeing the “To Ship” sign at every cruise terminal as you are just one escalator ride away from boarding the ship? You have traveled hundreds/thousands of miles to get here and you are about to start your cruise vacation.  How much happier can you get?

 

 

This being the Christmas Holiday season, they had these out for the kids (or adults like us) to snack on while waiting to board the ship.

 

 

[harryfat1]

Guess Port Everglades doesn’t want you to overload their escalators with big suitcases or maybe a safety issue in case it tips backward and hurts people behind/underneath you? 

 

 

Anyway, for those people who insist on taking their big old luggage with them instead of giving it to the porters, take the elevator up instead.

 

We don’t want to deal with the big luggage and we don’t even have a small carry-on.  Just the backpack for each person and we are good to go.  Especially since we take a picture every 20 steps or so, having any luggage gets in the way of picture taking.

[harryfat1]

After going upstairs, the first area you will see is the suites area.  You can tell as they have nicer seats and are partitioned off from the rest of the rift raft cruisers like yours truly. 

 

 

 

 

Being CFKACD, I’m sitting on the other side of the fence and chilling with my ghetto homies over at the cheap non-suite seats.

 

 

 

In looking at the section to the left of us, those are the people who got here before us.  Probably less than 100 people.  The timestamp of this picture was 10:50 AM after dropping off our luggage at 10:30 in the earlier post.  So less than 20 minutes from curbside to sitting down and waiting to board was super impressive.

 

So for those who will be sailing from Port Everglades, I would suggest arriving early if you want to board the ship earlier and wait inside the massive terminal instead of waiting in your hotel.

 

[perfect match]

Yes! We’re boarding the ship! 🛳️ 

 

We have those same luggage tag holders and I like them. I do need @h20skibum to post a You Tube video of how to print out all those luggage tags on one page though. It would be a whole lot easier than having to fold each tag exactly right so that I could squeeze the bulky tag into its holder! 
 

I have the Uber app on my phone but have never used either Uber or Lyft. We do most of our cruises out of Port Canaveral so close to home and an easy drive there. In FLL we’ve had good results with the hotel shuttle. We’ve only cruised out of Miami once. We were going to use Uber there but decided at the last minute to use the shuttle. It was not a good choice. The shuttle driver drove all of the way out to our terminal there but did not stop. He looped back through heavy traffic and stopped at every single other terminal before finally circling back around and out to our terminal and yes, he knew the first time past that we were going there! So by the time we finally got back to our terminal the computer system had gone down and we were left standing outside in the Miami heat and humidity for well over an hour before we even got inside. I doubt that we will ever take another hotel shuttle in Miami again! 😱

 

We never visit our “uncle in prison” any more. Our pictures never seem to come out good so we don’t buy them anyway. 

[luvtoride]

@harryfat1LOL, I guess you don’t purchase the “visit uncle in Prison” photo package from the cruise line then.  Since I had pre-purchased the 50 photo package, I wanted to make sure we had LOTS of photos to choose from, thus stopping to visit uncle in prison before taking the elevator up to the boarding area.  
 

[KmomChicago]

We never intend to visit the uncle in prison, and yet we do end up buying some of his street corner products anyway. Once in a while they take a very flattering photo of one or two or all of us, and we just happen to take a look and realize that’s better than we actually look in real life, better buy it while we have the chance. 

 

We were in Cozumel getting off Carnival Vista to go over to our shore excursion riding wave runners in our matching rasher shirts we had bought super cheap - like 12 bucks each or something - in Roatan a couple days earlier. We look prettier, thinner and cooler than usual so Uncle Bob roped us in to an unintended purchase. 
 

[mk907]

7 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

 

Is this common for y’all?  I would love to hear about your experience if you had your sea pass picture re-taken at the terminal.

 

Yes! Every time we had pre-taken one, they would retake it and sometime twice if there’s a second checkpoint like you mentioned. The ONLY time I ever took one that I just knew they would retake because it was really bad was in Barcelona on a Mediterranean. Guess what?! No new photo. I had to live with the one I took (like a bad yearbook photo) popping up on their little security screen through all 5 ports we left the ship from!! 😂😆

 

Thanks to all for the luggage tag tips. I don’t have the fancy holders yet but often bring my mini sized stapler so I can staple to my heart’s content. The staples feel easier to be wasteful with than using an ENTIRE sheet of paper for 1/5th of a strip. 😜 Folding them takes exactly enough time to question why I don’t buy the holders. 

[h20skibum]

4 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Guess Port Everglades doesn’t want you to overload their escalators with big suitcases or maybe a safety issue in case it tips backward and hurts people behind/underneath you? 

I don’t remember seeing these signs, until just a few years ago.  When we were disembarking in Southampton in 2019, that is exactly what happened.  Someone was taking their big suitcases down the escalator, and they lost control of them.  It injured several people below them, and they had to shut the escalators down and everyone had to use the elevators.  It delayed our getting off the ship by about an hour.

 

They will let you on the escalator with a large bag, but you have to have a free hand to hold the rail.   
 

Maybe that incident, or others like it, prompted those signs.

[LuCruise]

9 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

After a quick scan of our sea passes and stuff, she took our pictures again.  Now I must be a crappy portrait photographer as I took everyone’s pictures on the phone app from home weeks ago as part of the check-in process. 

 

The same thing happened with the Navigator check-in back last August where they had to re-take everyone’s pictures again.  Same with the Odyssey, all 4 of us had to have our pictures taken again even though we did it on the App previously.

 

Is this common for y’all?  I would love to hear about your experience if you had your sea pass picture re-taken at the terminal.

 

Harry, it's funny reading your report as there as so many  things to which I can relate.
We also had the first check in time of 11:30am.  I was thinking maybe it was later than normal for this cruise as they wanted time to take down the Christmas tree, but you obviously didn't have that for your cruise. Not sure why.

 

Like you, we left our hotel at 10:30am and arrived shortly afterwards. Just walked in to the check in with no issue.  And we were definitely not the first ones witht the same idea as there were already rows of seats of people.

 

And yeah...they retook DH and my photo. Not sure what was wrong with them.  They didn't retake our kids.  

 

They started moving the line for us as 11am and we were onboard by 11:15am.  So much for arriving at 11:30am for our check in time. 

[h20skibum]

Maybe the trick with the photos is to find one they are happy with and stick with it.   They did retakes on a couple of cruises, but then they were satisfied with the photos of us that I did in early 2022.   
 

I have used those same photos for the last five cruises, without any retakes required.  I have even used them when I checked in for our Princess cruise next January.   Will see how it goes for our next Royal cruise this year. 
 

Maybe we are at that point where we don’t change much.

 

 

[edspec]

10 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

 

 

Has anyone gotten luggage tags from porters at the cruise terminal lately?

Southhampton QM2 in September.  They had a table outside set up for this so I'm guessing Cunard passengers aren't as comfortable completing this at home/hotel.  Their embarkation/debarkation was the smoothest, least crowded that I've ever experienced.

[edspec]

On 1/16/2024 at 8:46 PM, harryfat1 said:

Interesting concept of wearing used clothes and discarding them at the cruise port city.  Does that include a jacket/shoes/socks/underwear all in the bin at the hotel?

I try not to wear a jacket on a plane because I always feel so dirty after a flight.  I couldn't wear it without washing and a jacket is more than I want to deal with using ship's laundry.  I think like most traveler's I wear the clunkiest shoes/boots on the plane and I don't throw those away 🙂

[rncruiser]

We always avoid visiting Uncle Bob in prison when boarding. We are Diamond so we get a total of 4 free pictures. We know the boarding ones will not be the ones we choose, so why waste time getting on board. We do visit Uncle Bob on formal nights and even saw him in Labadee. I didn’t feel like I was wasting time in Labadee since I was doing my favorite activity there, floating on a mat. 
It has been many years since Royal has made money off us on photos. Same with alcohol, 4 free drinks a day is more than enough, and generally way more than we use, for each of us. Even our  27 and 32 year olds don’t drink that much, thankfully. 

[SeaHunt]

On 1/17/2024 at 1:13 AM, harryfat1 said:

 

I appreciate these blue runners at various sections of the beach.  Makes it easier to walk on

 

 

 

 

 

Yay! Another great (Formerly Known as) Cheapo Dad trip report! I'm catching up and want to say thanks so much for letting us sail along with your family again. 😁

 

Re the "blue runners" - I'm thinking these are the same as on the beach where I live (up the coast), and are actually for wheelchair/ADA access, though those in your picture look like they need a little help getting straightened up and cleaned off:

 

 

 https://www.hollywoodcra.org/176/ADA-Access-Program

 

 

Edited January 20 by SeaHunt

[harryfat1]

13 hours ago, perfect match said:

Yes! We’re boarding the ship! 🛳️ 

 

We have those same luggage tag holders and I like them. I do need @h20skibum to post a You Tube video of how to print out all those luggage tags on one page though. It would be a whole lot easier than having to fold each tag exactly right so that I could squeeze the bulky tag into its holder! 
 

I have the Uber app on my phone but have never used either Uber or Lyft. We do most of our cruises out of Port Canaveral so close to home and an easy drive there. In FLL we’ve had good results with the hotel shuttle. We’ve only cruised out of Miami once. We were going to use Uber there but decided at the last minute to use the shuttle. It was not a good choice. The shuttle driver drove all of the way out to our terminal there but did not stop. He looped back through heavy traffic and stopped at every single other terminal before finally circling back around and out to our terminal and yes, he knew the first time past that we were going there! So by the time we finally got back to our terminal the computer system had gone down and we were left standing outside in the Miami heat and humidity for well over an hour before we even got inside. I doubt that we will ever take another hotel shuttle in Miami again! 😱

 

We never visit our “uncle in prison” any more. Our pictures never seem to come out good so we don’t buy them anyway. 

 

Haha, no, not boarding the ship just yet.  We are just sitting down and waiting at the cruise terminal.  You should know by now the time warp difference between cruise reporting time and actual reality time when I upload the next set of photos. Just a tad more to go.

 

These rideshare apps are useful to have an idea of the cost of the ride before leaving home so you can judge if a rideshare is better than a professional shuttle service.

 

My wife doesn’t like the family being split up into different vehicles as we used to take taxis at other ports when we had 6 people (with the inlaws) and almost always one driver thinks he knows the “shortcut” and takes off in a different direction. 

 

Then half of us is dropped off at one part and the other half shows up later at another location and we have to somehow meet up.

 

In the upcoming December cruise on the Carnival Jubilee, we are looking at 11 people total going to Galveston and most likely we will do a shuttle service that fits all of us instead of 3 rideshare vehicles to split up everyone in the group.

 

[harryfat1]

13 hours ago, luvtoride said:

@harryfat1LOL, I guess you don’t purchase the “visit uncle in Prison” photo package from the cruise line then.  Since I had pre-purchased the 50 photo package, I wanted to make sure we had LOTS of photos to choose from, thus stopping to visit uncle in prison before taking the elevator up to the boarding area.  
 

 

6 hours ago, rncruiser said:

We always avoid visiting Uncle Bob in prison when boarding. We are Diamond so we get a total of 4 free pictures. We know the boarding ones will not be the ones we choose, so why waste time getting on board. We do visit Uncle Bob on formal nights and even saw him in Labadee. I didn’t feel like I was wasting time in Labadee since I was doing my favorite activity there, floating on a mat. 
It has been many years since Royal has made money off us on photos. Same with alcohol, 4 free drinks a day is more than enough, and generally way more than we use, for each of us. Even our  27 and 32 year olds don’t drink that much, thankfully. 

 

Actually, we bought a photo package from a previous Black Friday sale.  I will talk more about the package once we are on board.

 

Here’s our onboard picture as my wife bought a photo frame to mount the boarding photo.

 

 

Since my wife and I are both Finance people, we think differently about our uage of money.  Without getting too much into “accounting talk” where I would lose half of the readers, when we use money, we like to buy “assets” instead of spending it for temporary satisfaction.  For us, getting photos is a long-term asset that we will treasure forever. 

 

So we spend money on photo packages for long-term satisfaction.

 

We are not anywhere close to the Diamond level so we don’t have the perks of the photo and drinks on our cruises.  Maybe someday after I retire and have more free time to vacation, then we can get to a higher tier. 

 

But with my luck, by then my doctor will tell me I’m too old and need to cut back on the alcohol consumption…

[harryfat1]

7 hours ago, h20skibum said:

Maybe the trick with the photos is to find one they are happy with and stick with it.   They did retakes on a couple of cruises, but then they were satisfied with the photos of us that I did in early 2022.   
 

I have used those same photos for the last five cruises, without any retakes required.  I have even used them when I checked in for our Princess cruise next January.   Will see how it goes for our next Royal cruise this year. 
 

Maybe we are at that point where we don’t change much.

 

 

 

Yeah, I would imagine a 50-pound hard-sided suitcase falling 20 feet and smacking into people below can cause some injuries.  Good safety measure.

 

Oh, Princess Cruise.  Which ship and what itinerary?  We were on the Majestic Princess to Alaska in 2022.  Nice cruise with better food than RCI but the entertainment was nonexistent.  We were bored to tears on our sailing at nighttime.

 

Princess has the medallion concept instead of a regular sea pass.  The sensor at the door will recognize who you are when you are about 6 feet from the door and your picture will show up on the screen of your door and the door will automatically unlock for you. Very convenient if you are holding drinks or food in your hands.

 

 

If your picture is really old, people walking by will think you are breaking into someone else’s cabin

 

My favorite joke on the difference between Princess and RCI cruises is the dance parties.  Whereas RCI has the 70s and 80s parties on the Royal Promenade (or 270) whereas the Princess has 70s and 80s parties at their atrium as well – except they meant the people dancing are in their 70s and 80s…

 

Princess dance party

 

 

RCI dance party

 

 

 

Yeah, for my kids, it’s a no-brainer to be on RCI instead of Princess

 

 

[harryfat1]

8 hours ago, LuCruise said:

Harry, it's funny reading your report as there as so many  things to which I can relate.
We also had the first check in time of 11:30am.  I was thinking maybe it was later than normal for this cruise as they wanted time to take down the Christmas tree, but you obviously didn't have that for your cruise. Not sure why.

 

Like you, we left our hotel at 10:30am and arrived shortly afterwards. Just walked in to the check in with no issue.  And we were definitely not the first ones witht the same idea as there were already rows of seats of people.

 

And yeah...they retook DH and my photo. Not sure what was wrong with them.  They didn't retake our kids.  

 

They started moving the line for us as 11am and we were onboard by 11:15am.  So much for arriving at 11:30am for our check in time. 

 

I’m curious on what is the earliest check-in time people have received for Port Everglades.  Has anyone gotten the 10:30 or 11 AM check-in time?  Do they even exist for the regular cruisers without the suites or other paid perks?

 

Without getting too far ahead in the trip report, when we disembarked on 12/31 (the same day you guys are coming on board), we got off at 9:30 and I head security said there were still 100+ people remaining on board that needed to get off so there’s a limit on how early the people can get on the ship while waiting for cruisers to get off.

 

Terminal 18 at Port Everglades is huge as it was designed to seat passengers on an Oasis-class ship.  As such, they can afford to let in people ASAP and just have them wait in the large waiting area.  Whereas some other ports like San Pedro have at max 200 seats inside so they are very strict on enforcement of the check-in time. 

 

[harryfat1]

11 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

We never intend to visit the uncle in prison, and yet we do end up buying some of his street corner products anyway. Once in a while they take a very flattering photo of one or two or all of us, and we just happen to take a look and realize that’s better than we actually look in real life, better buy it while we have the chance. 

 

We were in Cozumel getting off Carnival Vista to go over to our shore excursion riding wave runners in our matching rasher shirts we had bought super cheap - like 12 bucks each or something - in Roatan a couple days earlier. We look prettier, thinner and cooler than usual so Uncle Bob roped us in to an unintended purchase. 
 

 

Nice picture and matching outfit.

 

When the boys were younger, we were able to get them to wear “family uniform” on cruises.  Now they are older, they want individuality. Nobody wants to look like their old man...

 

I will have many “visit uncle in prison” photos for the rest of the cruise as that’s what we do.  Other cruisers have drinks or casino visits for their cruise.  That’s what makes cruising so great as it can appeal to different crowds.

[harryfat1]

10 hours ago, mk907 said:

Yes! Every time we had pre-taken one, they would retake it and sometime twice if there’s a second checkpoint like you mentioned. The ONLY time I ever took one that I just knew they would retake because it was really bad was in Barcelona on a Mediterranean. Guess what?! No new photo. I had to live with the one I took (like a bad yearbook photo) popping up on their little security screen through all 5 ports we left the ship from!! 😂😆

 

Thanks to all for the luggage tag tips. I don’t have the fancy holders yet but often bring my mini sized stapler so I can staple to my heart’s content. The staples feel easier to be wasteful with than using an ENTIRE sheet of paper for 1/5th of a strip. 😜 Folding them takes exactly enough time to question why I don’t buy the holders. 

 

Yeah, sometimes you wonder what your picture looks like on the security screen whenever you disembark the ship and the security guy looks at the picture and then you. Wonder if they ever snicker on how bad everyone's pictures look.

 

The great Erma Bombeck once said, “When you start to look like your Passport Photo, it’s time to go home…”

 

The lazy person in me would leave the stapler at home.  Just borrow one from the hotel front desk when you check out of the hotel.  One less thing to pack

[harryfat1]

7 hours ago, edspec said:

Southhampton QM2 in September.  They had a table outside set up for this so I'm guessing Cunard passengers aren't as comfortable completing this at home/hotel.  Their embarkation/debarkation was the smoothest, least crowded that I've ever experienced.

 

7 hours ago, edspec said:

I try not to wear a jacket on a plane because I always feel so dirty after a flight.  I couldn't wear it without washing and a jacket is more than I want to deal with using ship's laundry.  I think like most traveler's I wear the clunkiest shoes/boots on the plane and I don't throw those away 🙂

I guess the QM2 crowd might be expecting a different set of services from their cruise than the DIY RCI crowd.  Cunard cruisers likely assume these mundane stuff like luggage tags will be taken care of by someone from the cruise line/porters.

 

Taking off shoes and putting them back on at the airport is the worst as you have to take your backpack/belt/electronics with you while you walk shoeless to an empty bench to sit on to put yourself back in one piece again.  Glad I am on the TSA Precheck going forward.

[edspec]

TSA pre-check is the best. Bought it about 18 months ago and love it. 

[harryfat1]

2 hours ago, SeaHunt said:

 

Yay! Another great (Formerly Known as) Cheapo Dad trip report! I'm catching up and want to say thanks so much for letting us sail along with your family again. 😁

 

Re the "blue runners" - I'm thinking these are the same as on the beach where I live (up the coast), and are actually for wheelchair/ADA access, though those in your picture look like they need a little help getting straightened up and cleaned off:

 

 

 https://www.hollywoodcra.org/176/ADA-Access-Program

 

 

 

Thanks for reading another installment.  Glad to share our vacation info as I get to experience again the same cruise without the extra cost.  It’s like BOGO deal – great for cheapos…

 

Thanks for the info on the blue runners. That’s a good service they have in Florida as I have never seen these on the CA beaches.  

 

Yeah, agree that the Hollywood Beach runner needs a bit of maintenance.  Maybe they will do that come Spring break when there will be more people.

 

[harryfat1]

Thanks to all for sharing your experiences.  I always learn something new every time I write these trip reports.

 

Programming news before I start with a few pictures for today.  As some may have realized, I typically post new pictures nightly but tonight I will be busy because my workplace will have our annual holiday party at a fancy hotel. 

 

So there will be no new pictures tonight but I will have some pictures from the party as a bonus feature tomorrow so today's upload will be limited as I need to get dressed soon.

 

Unlike the RCI MDR where formal attire is "suggested".  For tonight's event formal attire is required.  So unless you want everyone in the company to know what a slob you are, you better have your good clothes on tonight. 

[h20skibum]

14 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

Oh, Princess Cruise.  Which ship and what itinerary? 

It is on the, soon to be new, Sun Princess. I say soon to be new, because it is just finishing sea trials and has the inaugural sailing in Europe next month.  Our sailing is a seven night Western Caribbean from Ft. Lauderdale.  Fits nicely after the family gets together at our rented beach house next Christmas/New Year.

 

The last time we sailed Princess, they were just starting to roll out medallion, so we haven’t experienced that yet.  I am excited to see the new ship.  It appears to be very similar in size to Odyssey, and it will be their largest ship.