Boat Ride

Categories Cruise, Travel

Ever since a friend of mine convinced me that cruises are more fun than I ever thought they could be, I’ve wanted to go on one. Over the holiday season, I found a deal using a tool called CruisePlum, and finally pulled the trigger on a quick cruise out of Fort Lauderdale.

Note: I make a nominal commission if you purchase from any of the Amazon links within this blog post.

Day 0

From January 5 to January 9, 2026, I was fortunate to float in the Atlantic (with my friend Kyle) just to the east of Florida and visit two ports in the Bahamas: Nassau on New Providence, and Freeport on Grand Bahama. Here are some overall notes on the experience as well as the cost for the sailing (and some extra curricular activities).

My trip started on January 3 with a stay in Sioux Falls and the new Canopy in the Steel District. This stay wasn’t because the flight would require an early start or anything, but just an excuse to start the vacation a little early. My friends an I took in an Augustana Vikings hockey game (which they unfortunately lost) and then ventured out and about for a few drinks around the town before settling in for bed (and some early morning pizza).

The next morning, we rolled out around 9am for a flight at 11ish from Sioux Falls to Chicago, and then Chicago to Fort Lauderdale. This trip was mostly uneventful, other than we had a minor delay on the second leg which afforded us some time to hang out in the United Club on the B concourse. Then we hopped on the second flight (a nearly brand new A321 neo <3) and headed out to Fort Lauderdale.

Of note, I wanted to make a lot of this trip excessively cheap. A nice treat over break for a low cost. I used miles to book the flight. I always imagine that miles are decreasing in value every day, and it’s worthwhile to spend them when the opportunity arises. This flight cost me 60,000 miles and $11.20 for taxes and fees. I had a mixed cabin return, so I paid $100 for an upgrade to first class on the last leg, bringing the total cost for round trip first class to Fort Lauderdale to $111.20.

When we got to Fort Lauderdale, it was the early evening, I think around 7:30pm. We decided to just unpack quick and just grab food at our hotel – Conrad Fort Lauderdale Beach. The room here retailed for around $465 per night, but I booked instead for 95,000 Hilton Honors points. I was torn on this, because it’s a high expense. However, a similar $140/night room was going for 60,000 points so it seemed like a steal. Thus, we stayed here.

The hotel itself was gorgeous and tidy. You could tell from the interior it may have had a different life previously, but while we were there as Conrad, it was lovely. I had a partial ocean view junior suite that featured a kitchenette, living area, jacuzzi tub, shower, and a simple balcony mostly overlooking the pool of the property. For dinner, Kyle and I grabbed a seat at the outdoor bar at Takato, the attached Japanese Korean fusion restaurant. We shared a spicy edamame starter and then dove into our respective dishes. Kyle had a nigiri sampler and I had their angry chicken dish with two additional pieces of shrimp nigiri. I was very happy with all of the food and drinks here, and I think Kyle was too. If I cruised out of Fort Lauderdale and could get this hotel for this rate again, I’d do it in a heartbeat, but I think usually I’d seek something a little more economical. I don’t match the usual clientele for this joint (there were two Rolls Royce’s at the valet in the evening and a Lamborghini in the morning).

Day 1

The next morning is where the fun really began, because neither Kyle nor I had never been on a cruise before. A little bit of background, Kyle is my mentor at work and one of my closest friends. We’ve been traveling all over the country together since I started working here, including some random trips that were relatively short notice for fun. The last two were for hockey games (C0achella Valley Firebirds AHL playoffs June 2024 and Vegas Golden Knights v. Minnesota Wild NHL playoffs during Easter 2025). This one was a bit longer notice at around 3 weeks, but it was still something neither of us had done.

I woke up early to snag a picture of the sunrise from my balcony and try to cool the jitters for this new experience. I had a bit of anxiety of this new mode of travel. Would I get sick? Would I be bored? Would the people not be pleasant? All of this really had me in my head about making this decision at all. Alas, our boarding time was realistically anytime after 11 since we’d purchased Royal Caribbean’s The Key for this sailing, so we had to get moving sooner rather than later.

What is The Key? It’s a semi-cheap product marketed as a VIP option. It offers some of the following as perks (subject to change I’m sure):

  • A welcome meal in the main dining room while the rest of the ship is sent to the buffet
  • Boarding whenever you want during the boarding window (granted, I’ve heard you can do this anyway depending on the ship because they board so fast)
  •  A discount on specialty restaurants booked in the first two days of sailing (but the discount is cheaper if you just book them in the app ahead of time almost universally)
  • A discount on a whole bottle of wine
  • One device granted access to the internet
  • A different menu for debarkation breakfast in the main dining room
  • I think there was something about priority access to certain events/tender movement, but that didn’t apply to us

We got to the ship shortly after 11 following a quick Lyft to the cruise terminal. This ship, the Radiance of the Seas, boarded out of terminal 19 at Port Everglades. The process was really easy, actually. We were immediately greeted by someone that took our bags (you pre-tag bags with documentation the cruise line provides). They asked for a tip and seemed satiated with a 5, which seemed fair to me too. Within the terminal, there really weren’t lines for much. Since we had The Key, there was a separate line for us at security and to check in. Security was straight forward with a metal detector and x-ray scan of the backpack I brought. Check in was equally simple with a quick scan of my boarding pass and passport. They do add a picture from the boarding time to your itinerary that will be visible to crew throughout your time on board.

That was really it! Then we wandered on board and started exploring the ship. There’s not too much to say about exploring the ship in general in my opinion, since there are already so many videos about each vessel. Once we got our bearings, we headed to our welcome lunch. I had a filet with a caesar salad as appetizer and Kyle had the salmon with the caesar as well. Oddly, the experience with this arrival meal seemed incredibly slow. To some degree, I understand because there wasn’t much else to do at the time, but the meal for drinks, a salad, a main, and light dessert took around 90 minutes. My steak was a touch underdone for what I had ordered (medium-rare), but delightful none the less.

With that done, we started exploring a bit further up. We found all of the usual haunts of a Royal ship, like the Schooner Bar, Casino Royale, the Windjammer (buffet), the helipad, and the pools. In all, the ship was really easy to find our way around after about an hour exploring. Once our rooms opened around 1pm, we headed in to get settled. Both of us had purchased balcony staterooms, but Kyle’s was the “spacious” model. This meant he had a larger couch and a bit more room in general. Overall, if you had more than one person, I do think the spacious room is worth the slight price difference, if you plan to sit somewhere other than the bed or on the balcony.

As we prepared for sail away, we grabbed a cocktail and headed for the helipad. On the Radiance, the helipad is on deck 6, but you access it from the perimeter of deck 5. The view up there was a delight and helped us understand the process of leaving the dock. We watched (and listened and moved) as the tension was released on all of the lines holding us to the dock. Other ships slowly departed around us including the Disney Dream, Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas, Princess’ Coral Princess, and Celebrity’s Reflection and Summit. We were the last of the train, slowly following the others easily out of Port Everglades. I felt my anxiety about it all fade as we left Fort Lauderdale behind us; the trip had begun.

The rest of the evening this first night really just was resting and exploring. We grabbed supper at the buffet and took in an aft view of the ship. Notably, while the outdoor seating felt wonderful to us South Dakotans at around 72 degrees, nobody really joined us either evening we dined outside. We met another bartender named Wayan that took great care of us and told us a lot about his life on the ship. This is a recurring item worth mentioning: all of the staff on board are very welcoming and kind. From the first few hours it was clear they all wanted us to have a nice, relaxing trip.

Day 2

We woke up the next morning in Nassau on New Providence in the Bahamas. This day was the first of the trip where I didn’t set any alarm and just sort of eased into the day. We grabbed a coffee before putting on swimming trunks to head over to Royal Caribbean’s brand new Royal Beach Club Paradise Island. The premise is, instead of booking a private trip to beach in Nassau, instead, visit Royal’s island. This makes sense from a business standpoint I’m sure, but here are my notes. We hopped off the ship and onto a small boat to ride over to the island.

The island itself is feature rich – there are plenty of places to eat, rest on the beach, rest in a pool, or party in a pool. It’s easy to get around, and despite there being 4 Royal Caribbean ships there the day we visited, it was not that crowded. Access to the island is an upcharge from the cruise fare, that can vary. During our sailing, I think it was as low as $150 for a direct purchase of visiting the island, or as low as $5/day if included with the drink package (on our sailing, $20 total). Since we had the drink package already, the price was so cheap it was absolutely worth it.

On the island, Kyle and I started with a gin and tonic at the first bar we found before wandering about to the chill beach to rest for a bit in the sun near the water. Of note, the waves were pretty intense on that part of the beach, but it was fine for us to watch from the shore. We snagged some food at one of the food spots. If I understand correctly, all of the food at each stand is the same. I had shrimp skewers over island slaw with a side of french fries and Kyle had the chicken tenders and mac and cheese. Both were fine; nothing to write home about, but definitely fine enough to get us through the day. I do think the shrimp were served too cold from sitting on the slaw while waiting for me to pick them up. After a bit more rest we ventured to the party cove area.

This place was a blast. Loud music from a live DJ. Loud in the way that you could feel the beat and clearly hear the words, but not so loud you couldn’t talk or have your ears hurt. I’ve been looking for a press release from whomever the integrator was that did the install, but it was everything I wanted. The bartenders here were very friendly and helpful, but there was an incident. I don’t know what caused it, but someone did vomit in the pool (or so we were told by someone that allegedly watched it happen). The staff on the island said it was a first since they’d only been open since December 23, 2026 I believe. They had us get out of the pool for 45 minutes or so and then let us back in after cleaning. The number of people that returned to the pool was small, and I think that makes sense. It was a bit of a rough patch for an otherwise lovely day.

After heading back to the ship, we experienced our first re-boarding. Cruise ships are odd, at least in this case, because when you leave you check out with your seapass (effectively your ship ID and door key). When you return, you wave your state ID at someone at the port, who might even look at it, and then they scan you back into the ship when you arrive with just your seapass. It’s odd being in a foreign country without really needing a passport, but much of that seems to be handled behind the scenes by the cruise companies and the countries they visit.

On board, we hopped in the hot tub for a bit and ran into a large group from Ohio. They too were just relaxing a bit during the holiday break. Then we headed to the room for a quick shower and rest before heading out for supper and drinks again. This evening, we once more ate at the aft of the ship in the Windjammer. The food was perfectly fine for being buffet style and our bartender friend was still a delight to hang with for a bit. We were going to try out the theater this evening for a piano show, but the drummer for the band had fallen ill so we ended up at the casino instead before hitting the nightclub for just a bit.

Day 3

Today’s port was Freeport on Grand Bahama. We slept in a ton this day, because of the consequences of our actions. This was also the first and only time I tried room service on the ship. With Royal Caribbean at the time I’m writing this, you can get free continental breakfast room service daily by either calling or placing a card on your door for your stateroom attendant to deliver to the kitchen. I just called in for a ham and cheese omelette with a side of bacon and orange juice. The omelette was way too big (seemingly 6 eggs or more), but it tasted good as did the bacon. There’s a small fee if you order something other than the continental items, for me it was $9.38.

Once we were up and moving, Kyle and I ventured into the port at Freeport. There were some gift shops and tents and certainly lots of folks willing to give us rides places, but we didn’t do much other than walk around and then grab some food at a little hut called Burger Boy and Girl. They had all manner of food, including a local fare: conch. We instead went with Jerk chicken and fries. It was $15/each for the combo, but it came with 8 chicken wings and a half pound of fries it seemed. It was very good, and just the right amount of spicy. The only problem was the mess I’d made of my hands when I was done.

Following this, we returned to the ship to wander a bit more. This is the first time I had a little bit of regret for not doing an excursion or booking a taxi to head to a beach somewhere nearby. I think it would have been worth it, instead of just resting on the ship. I also experience some intestinal distress at this point. I never did nail down what caused it, but it went away a little bit later in the afternoon when we dressed our best and headed for the steakhouse, Chops Grille.

Neither Kyle or I had done any of the specialty dining on the ship yet, nor had we taken up any of the offers along the way to do it. Before the sailing, prices were up to 45% off in the app for specialty dining or dining plans, but we decided to just walk in to the steakhouse because it was vacation. Fortunately, at around 6:30pm, they were able to seat us immediately as a table of two. From the menu, we both had the lobster bisque and caesar salad, followed by a petite filet. All were everything I wanted them to be. We paired them with a nice wine and at the end, they gave us a 20% discount for the two of us. It ended up being $52.87/each plus tip.

This evening, we just wandered about a bit before calling it a early night. Kyle went to bed a little bit before me, and I was fortunate to win a hot seat drawing in the casino for $200 in promotional chips. A dealer I’d ran into before said to plan on Ultimate Texas Hold’em instead of blackjack and I was almost immediately destroyed.

Day 4

This was our first and only sea day! Once again, we took the morning to sleep in a little bit. We had a paid tour of the ship planned and unfortunately, but understandably, I wasn’t able to go due to the prior days intestinal issues. Kyle went on the tour and seemed to think it was a good value for the money, he spent nearly two hours wandering all over the ship including the crew areas and the bridge.

While Kyle was out on the tour, I wandered about a bit with a coffee, completed a crossword and just people watched. When I got to my stateroom, I had a call from medical, following up on my survey for the tour where I stated I had some issues with my tummy. I took a quick survey with them and they left to call me back. They said since it only happened once, I couldn’t go on the tour, but I could continue to use the other amenities on the ship on my own. They take health very seriously, which I can appreciate.

I received two additional calls during this time. One from the shore excursions department, letting me know they’d refunded my money. And another from Next Cruise reminding me I’d received a complimentary cruise due to my casino play (more on that in a minute).

The rest of the day we really just wandered more. Lunch at the Windjammer was good again. During this seating, we were joined by Adonis who signed us up for a buy one get one free dinner at Giovani’s Table, the Italian specialty restaurant. This was a steal at a very fair $26.55/each plus tip. I once more had the filet, with an additional main of the carbonara. We split an eggplant parmesan starter, and had no dessert since we were stuffed. We did grab some magnets for our friend Tom back at home in the resort shop for $20.

Following dinner, we aimed for another early evening, but I did want to try to get to 300o points in the casino, so we knocked that out quick before bed.

Day 5

The trip home! We had to be out of our staterooms by 9:30ish so we grabbed a quick breakfast in the main dining room (we had a separate menu for being part of The Key), and were off the ship around 9:30. Clearing immigration was really simple and done using only biometrics. I walked up to a camera, and a light turned green, and I was back home.

We tried for a Lyft, but that was a futile effort without planning ahead, so we walked to a cab instead. This cabbie didn’t have the meter running and just said to give him $20 after he stumbled into getting us to a Starbucks to catch up on our work messages from the week. After that we hit an Irish pub nearby and then wandered to the airport for the ride home. Overall, I’d book a much earlier flight, noting the risk that the ship could be late, but we spent a long time doing nothing waiting to go home on Friday.

The trip home was largely uneventful, with half full airplanes as we went the opposite direction of the travel flow on a Friday.

Overall

Going on this cruise was an absolute blast, especially considering the actual cost for the base product. I would absolutely cruise on this ship, for this sailing again. I would probably schedule something to do in Freeport though, and if I didn’t have the drink package, I don’t know that the Royal Beach Club would be a repeat for me.

To summarize the base costs:

  • Airfare: 60,000 miles + $111.20
  • Hotel: 95,000 points
  • Cruise fare, port fees, taxes, gratuities, insurance: $765.20

The total base cost (excluding rewards points) for this trip was: $876.40 – which is bananas to me. I did, however, add a few basic upgrades:

  • Water delivery (12 1L bottles of Evian; in retrospect, the water around the ship was fine): $31.84
  • The Key, Drink Package, and Tour: $558.55 (I’d say none of this was super necessary)
  • Specialty Meals (a treat, but not required): $79.42
  • Magnets: $20

These additional items were $689.81. I did get a refund for the tour I couldn’t attend, which came it at around $97 back. Of note, I spent nearly the cost of the cruise fair and insurance on these additional items, none of which are absolutely necessary.

Thus, my cost for this trip was $1469.31 – a steal for a 5 day long get away in my opinion. I hope I can find a deal like this again in the future with Royal Caribbean, a sister company like Celebrity, or maybe even Virgin Voyages.

About the Casino

Those of you that know me, know that I enjoy a game of chance. Part of the reason I wanted to try going on a cruise, was to see if I could leverage some of the benefits of gaming on board. For context, I gamble in Vegas about twice per year, and due to that play I get modest complimentary rooms at a few properties (Park MGM, Resorts World, etc.) and heavily discounted rooms at others (Aria, The Cosmopolitan, etc.) However, the perks in Vegas are less and less, because even though those rooms are free, the food and drinks are quite expensive. MGM even mentioned this on a recent earnings call. So, I wanted to try cruising.

Before the trip, I spent some time learning about the casino loyalty program on Royal Caribbean, and the potential for cruise perks. There are a few items to consider:

  • Perks of achieving status in their casino program, like free drinks and discounts in other areas
  • Potential complimentary offers via standard marketing following a trip (these vary by your theoretical loss per amount wagered over time)
  • Instant cruise certificates attained for play on a single voyage (i.e. wager enough, and sail again for free or a discount)
    • These are clearly listed on each sailing at the host desk and available for review online
    • The individual sailings aren’t very searchable so I made a website to do it! https://royaloffers.pages.dev should contain the current instant certificate values and allow searching by either the certificate you earned OR sailings your interested in (to see the minimum points you may need)

For the trip, I brought $1500 in cash. $200 of that was for tips and the remainder was for gaming. I didn’t have much of a plan other than I knew I wanted to at a minimum get an instant cruise certificate, and if possible attain the second status in the Royal Caribbean Club Royale program, Prime. The perks of the varying levels of the program can be found here. I’m happy to say, I was able to achieve both. Prime yielding discounts on WiFi, free drinks in the casino, and an annual free interior room on a cruise up to 7 days in length.

Prime is attained by earning 2500 or more points in the casino in the playing year, which runs from April 1 to March 31 annually. My point earning for this cruise was exactly 3000 points (which was intentional). You earn a single point for every $5 wagered on slots, $10 wagered on video poker, and some varying rate on table games. This means, I wagered at a minimum, around $15,000 on this cruise. However, I didn’t lose $15,000, I just cycled it. I understand that budgets are different for everyone, but here’s my experience.

On day 1, I brought $400 to the casino with me. I started by wandering around and eventually ended up at an empty Ultimate Texas Hold’em table. Here, I was very fortunate to win a few strong hands, along with a few weak ones, and turned that $300 into $700 after tipping in about 30 minutes of play. Using this new, free-ish, $400, I dove into slots and sort of went crazy. I bet higher than I normally would on a number of favorite games of mine like All Aboard, Dragon Link, Spin It Grand, and Mo Mo Mummy and went on an incredible run. Eventually, even with some awesome wins, I was down to nothing. I don’t recommend doing it, but you can play using a room charge, so I loaded $300 more to see how that process worked, and left with $400 in my pocket, or down $300. During all of this time, I had earned around 1270 points, cycling more than $6k through games that evening, for a cost of $300.

This is when I realized, I could really attain something. With the 1200 points I earned, I was already eligible for an instant certificate for another cruise from this list, including 155 sailings that offered a balcony for two for just the cost of fees and taxes. However, I like gaming, and I wanted to see if I could make prime, which was realistically just another day that had gone the same as the first. Results may vary of course, but I figured I’d give it another go the second day.

On day two, I largely played slots, only venturing to the tables some. This day, while long, didn’t have any really large notable wins, I just kept bopping up and down from my $500 buy in for the day, down to $100 and back. This is really what you want though, just to keep cycling and playing. Ideally finding a large win, but if not, spending what you’re willing to lose.  When I ran low on ammo, I loaded another $200 to see if I could reach 2500 points. I ended the second day at exactly 2500 points. This came with membership to Prime, and another tier of instant cruise certificate (with 645 balcony sailings for 2!). I left with no money, putting me down $1000 for the two day window.

In retrospect, I could have stopped here having achieved both goals of the trip. Included in the list of instant certificate cruises were 6 options for a balcony room on an Alaska cruise for free. However, the 3000 point level was only 500 points away. Since I’d earned 2500 points on $800, I figured it would be easy to get the last 500. I was very wrong, and thus is the nature of gaming.

Day three was a bust. I played for awhile and really only earned around 250 points on a $500 buy in which was a total loss. The highlight of the day was really winning (and losing) the freeplay. On the last day, I added $250 to a stateroom charge to get to 2903 points. The next tier of instant certificate was at 3000 points, or $485 of coin in away. I figured I could do it for about half of that, and if I booked it, I would receive $250 in free play. So I loaded up another $250 and was fortunate to get exactly 3000 points. Now, you should know your limits, and this $250 definitely isn’t something I’d recommend to everyone, but now I’d opened up to 986 sailings for 2, with a balcony over the next 12 months or so, including 43 more Alaska sailings than I had with the previous certificate.

So – in all, I spent quite a bit of each evening in the casino. I still made it to the nightclub and other haunts around the ship, but one to two hours a night I spent hanging with dealers, the hosts, and other gamblers in the casino. I met the usual cadre of friendly folks you do gambling, and some of the rude degenerates as well. Overall, I invested (and lost) $2000 in the casino over four days. That generated the above noted $15k in coin-in. As a result, I now have a free cruise from this list, and a 7 day interior room on a cruise to be determined sometime in April. As someone who enjoys gaming, this was a quality investment. It’s more than I plan to spend on future trips in the casino, but I think it was worth it on this first one.

As an example of why I think this is a workable item, since I like gaming, is the following: I’ve really wanted to go on an Alaska cruise, but it’s prohibitively expensive for an individual, and I now can go for “free” other than taxes and fees. In essence, I prepaid. But in my head, my cruise fare will be 1/2 of the $2000, or $1000, for a cruise to Alaska that would retail between $2000 and $4000 depending on sailing, room, and published discounts at the time. I included the sailing I’m considering below, which retails today at $4,465:

Update: I booked that Alaska cruise! I prepaid $200 on-board to activate the free play and get a little onboard credit with the instant certificate, so after paying an additional $728, I have this $5k+ cruise booked!

Things I’m Glad I Had

Before the trip, I researched a few things to bring along, and I want to highlight them here if you’re considering cruising soon too:

  • Magnets – most cruise ship walls are ferrous, so you can use magnets to hold things
  • Luggage tags – Royal has you print your tags at home and them staple them together, but I saw these from another person and grabbed them: https://amzn.to/3NT1j5l
  • Pepto Bismol – for the reasons noted above: https://amzn.to/45cxgeX
  • Money clip – most of the time I didn’t need my entire wallet, just some cash and my seapass, so I bought a cheap one: https://amzn.to/49ZhMxt
  • Approved power adapter – older ships like the Radiance of the Seas have few outlets, and they may be far from where you’re sitting or laying. I bought a multi-USB power adapter with a reasonably long power cord: https://amzn.to/4b4Hp18

Again, just sharing the stuff I thought improved my trip. I do receive a 1-5% commission if you buy anything. It helps pay the hosting for this blog nobody reads 🙂

Until next time,
Shawn

Turkey Day for One (Again)

Categories Travel

Once again this year, I decided to trek to Orlando for the Thanksgiving holiday. In the past few months I decided to become a passholder at Universal Orlando so I have been visiting more frequently. I figured why not extend the Thanksgiving holiday from Thursday to Monday to spend some time checking out what I already know at Universal, and also looking into SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa.

Day 1, Thanksgiving, was relatively uneventful. I arrived for early park opening at Islands of Adventure about 10 minutes before 8am, checked out my favorite attractions at that park, and then proceeded to Universal Studios for the rest of the day. I did my usual activities, and the only changes of note were the addition of a annual passholder lounge that includes an Arctic Coke machine which partially freezes bottled soda, and an unusually close dispatch on Revenge of the Mummy which resulted in my train halting after the treasure room, before the turntable, and on the turntable. That was different.

Thanksgiving at Hogwarts is ok

Day 2, Black Friday, I checked out SeaWorld for the first time ever. All three coasters at SeaWorld Orlando are delightful B&M’s. The first one I rode was Manta. It is a much better implementation of a flying coaster than Nighthawk at Carowinds for two reasons: the restraint system and the fact that they use two stations for loading. Next, I wandered over to Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin. The ride utilizes neat trackless technology, but the real draw is the penguin exhibit that follows. Next, I rode Kraken, an older floorless coaster. Simple, but fun. Finally, I checked out Mako, the latest addition to the list of coasters at SeaWorld. It is well done, and has some great turns, but overall it doesn’t top Fury 325 at Carowinds for me. Following this I rode Wild Arctic and watched the whale, sea lion, and dolphin shows. The whale show was ok, with the major marvel being 3 ton mammals jumping out of the water and splashing people. The sea lion show had a lot of humor and more interaction with the animals, but overall the dolphin show was the best of the three.

Me riding Mako with some random people

It’s notable that I did not experience all attractions and shows at SeaWorld. I specifically excluded their latest ride, Infinity Falls, because I wasn’t interested in getting wet. Others were excluded simply because I didn’t wander into them.

I re-rode each of the coasters at SeaWorld and then called it a day at that park, I returned to my hotel for some supper and then headed back out to Universal to catch their night show that I enjoy. It’s a combination of LED lit fountains, moving head lighting, lasers, and pyrotechnics. Basically all of my favorite things.

Would love to see behind the scenes of a production like this

Day 3 was a big day. It included not only my first trip to Busch Gardens Tampa, but the “Roller Coaster Insider Tour”. The tour started at 7:30 AM at the park entrance, where our delightful guide Norman checked us off on his list of guests and had us go through security and scan our park tickets. Immediately after this, we walked to our first tour of the day at SheiKra, the first B&M dive coaster in North America. After locking out the attraction, we put on harnesses and ascended 200 ft to the top of the lift hill in an elevator of sorts to take in the view of the park and Tampa.

Safety first before we ascend

During this time, Norman shared numerous facts with us about SheiKra and roller coasters in general, while allowing us to take many pictures. I won’t include many more pictures here because I think you should take the tour yourself to get the full experience.

At the top of SheiKra, with a rainbow

We descended SheiKra, and then toured the maintenance bay for the coaster to see one train under annual inspection as well as another parked train. The personnel here, notably Paul and Javier, were incredibly knowledgeable and eager to talk with us about SheiKra and the other coasters in the park.

Next, we headed over to Cheetah Hunt which is an Intamin Blitz coaster featuring three linear synchronous motor launches (electro magnets on the track move the trains which contain magnets). At this ride, we locked it out in the control booth where a member of our party noted the number of dispatches was well beyond one million. After locking out, we descended to the second launch of the coaster where Norman again shared intricate details of how the coaster works and facts about the components within.

After leaving the second launch and re-locking the gate, we went to the maintenance area for Cheetah Hunt where we observed many cool things including this incredible pallet of magnets.

Watch your fingers…

When we returned to remove our locks, the staff for the day had arrived at Cheetah Hunt and were preparing for park open as we departed.

Finally, we arrived at Cobra’s Curse, a spinning coaster from Mack Rides. This ride is unique because of the lack of an initial lift hill and the rotating ride vehicles. There’s a lift elevator instead of a lift hill to start the ride, followed by what by all appearances is a normal roller coaster ride. Then, during one of the brake runs, the cars rotate to face backwards, and you proceed down some more track. Finally, you ascend up a second lift hill, and then continue down the remainder of the track with each car spinning freely. While not an extreme experience, it is still unique and very fun.

Another technical feature of Cobra’s Curse that is of note is the ability to dispatch separate ADA trains. This moves a train to separate loading area of the station to allow participants to take more time as necessary and avoid using the moving walkway for boarding. We were able to see this demonstrated during our tour of the ride control area, which was essentially the end of the tour. Then we rode the ride!

After ending the tour, we each received two ride readmit tickets which allow users to cut the lines of attractions. I used both of mine for Cheetah Hunt as it was an hour wait all day. I took in every coaster in Busch Gardens, and ignored water rides. Also, I checked out Falcon’s Fury twice, which is a unique implementation of a drop tower where you fall face down instead of seated.

Day 4 was fairly uneventful. I spent part of day working before heading to Universal Studios for an evening visit where I enjoyed my favorite attractions and part of the holiday parade. I ended the day with something different by checking out the nearby Blue Man Group show. It was unique and I would love to see it again.

Day 5 was the last day. I dropped into Islands of Adventure for early park admission and rode Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey as well as Spider-Man, where I captured this great picture of all my friends.

Another trip in the books. I don’t know where I’ll head next, but surely it’ll feature roller coasters.

Travel for One

Categories Travel

First off, this is my first blog post in about 7 years, please enjoy the mess. The plan was for computer stuff to be here, but you’re seeing this post because nearly everyone I ran into at each destination last weekend was flabbergasted by the fact that I was alone. I plan to outline the reasons it was awesome here.

Friday

Friday morning I woke up around three in the morning and was eventually chauffeured to the train station by my roommate. You read that right; I took the train for the first time in my life and it was fantastic. The southbound Silver Meteor (Amtrak 97) arrived about 12 minutes late at 5:03. I was met by a crew of friendly folks who helped me stow my things and find my Viewliner Roomette. The bed was made up and a bottle of water was ready. I was the only person travelling in the cabin, so the second bed remained stowed. I crawled in and relaxed for a bit before falling asleep. The next thing I knew, light was shining in my room and we had arrived in Savannah, Georgia. It was around 7, a great time to head to breakfast.

I popped my head out of my little nook and Bianca pointed me in the direction of the dining car as she disassembled the bed into two seats facing each other. Meals are included with sleeping car reservations, so that rocks. Breakfast was fine. I enjoyed the scrambled eggs and bacon with some orange juice. Whatever orange juice is in Mountain Dew that is :). Something fun to note about a dining car, you are seated with random folks to maximize the use of the few seats that are available. My breakfast friends were from Virginia and headed towards Jacksonville. The young lady across from me was celebrating her 50th by going skydiving with an old friend. What a thing to do. Her companion didn’t seem interested in chatting as much and that’s totally fine too. When I returned to my cabin I setup my iPad and kicked back to watch a few episodes of a random Netflix show. We were off and moving again.

Around 11, one of the dining car employees stopped by with the passenger manifest that notified him I’d be disembarking in Orlando. He offered me the earliest lunch reservation at 11:30 and I took him up on it. When my reservation time arrived, I wandered forward 4 coaches to the dining car once more and was again greeted by George, the waiter. He sat me near the rear of the car this time with a mother and son. They were returning from New York to Orlando, so they had been on the train for awhile. The boy was super interested in his iPad and the dinner rolls he ordered so he didn’t care much about me. The lady and I spent most of meal time discussing the pros and cons of train travel, something she had done many times, and I was only just discovering. Lunch for me consisted of a hamburger that wasn’t great, but wasn’t the worst I have had. Imagine those microwave sandwiches from gas stations, that’s about all it is. I ate some of it, tipped George, and wandered back to my car with another Mountain Dew in hand.

train
My killer view from Car 9712 Roomette 7

In the meantime of lunch, we had a problem. You see, Amtrak doesn’t own most of the tracks they travel on, and we were suffering a touch from that. A freight train had broken down overnight and was blocking the tracks we were on. This meant that both the 91 Silver Star and 97 Silver Meteor were stopped. None of this bothered me though, because I had nowhere to be Friday, my plans started Saturday. Anything I got done Friday was just a bonus. More on that in a minute. Anyway, after about an hour and a half, of being stopped, the freight train had moved, the 91 Silver Star had continued on, and we followed. Yet another challenge was ahead…for me anyway.

Each Viewliner Roomette has a small toilet and sink setup, similar to what you find in commercial jets. While the ride in a train is smooth, it’s not that smooth, and my next battle was aiming while travelling forward at 80mph. I didn’t miss. After that adventure, I changed into shorts to wander Orlando in. Just over 2 hours late, we arrived and I signaled for an Uber.

I was staying at the Doubletree at the entrance to Universal Orlando, the whole reason for this trip. If you’ve never stayed at a Doubletree, I have two important pieces of information for you. First, you can have as many of their kickass cookies as you want. Just go ask for more, they’re always warm. Second, they sneak a 22% gratuity onto any meal purchase, so keep an eye on that. I checked in online so I headed straight to my room.

No big news on the features of the room. It wasn’t the purpose of the trip. I took a quick shower, noting the sulfur undertones in the scent of the water which seems to be an Orlando thing, and proceeded promptly on foot to the park.

While in the park, I only tried out a few rides the first night. I didn’t have a reason to wait in line for a bunch of them, or even stay in the park for very long. The promo pricing I found for the 4 day 2 park pass was cheaper than most one day passes so I was fine with basically burning a day. I just wanted to get a lay of the land for what I had planned for the second day. After a few hours, I snagged a cab back to the hotel for about 5 bucks.

I closed out the night with some OK room service at the hotel. The dish I ordered was $26, and the bill I received was for $36. I added a tip because there was a spot for it. Upon further inspection I realized I passively tipped 22% of the original meal cost, and then actively tipped more. Oh well, Merry Christmas dude that brought the tray!

Attractions Visited

  • Amtrak 97 Silver Meteor (never ridden a train so I consider it an attraction)
  • Universal Orlando’s City Walk (you have to walk through to get to either park)
  • Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure
    • Poseidon’s Fury (special effects show, very cool, no wait)
    • Hogwarts Express (Hogsmeade to Kings Cross)
  • Universal Studios Orlando
    • TRANSFORMERS: The Ride-3D
    • Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon
    • Universal’s Holiday Parade Featuring Macy’s (nightly parade with great lighting, music, and SANTA!)

Money Spent

  • Train Ticket – $245 (was $69, but I added the sleeping car for fun)
  • Breakfast – Free w/ sleeping car ticket
  • Lunch – Free w/ sleeping car ticket
  • Universal Orlando 4 day 2 park promo ticket – $180
  • Tips to George, Bianca, Greg, and Juan – $40
  • Tip to the dude that brought my supper – $10.72
  • Hotel reservation prepay – $256
  • TOTAL – $731.72

Saturday

Morning came earlier than expected, per usual, but that’s fine. I took a quick shower, and went downstairs to grab some grub. Turns out, I don’t spend enough time in hotels to have any sort of status, so it costs money to eat. That’s cool, I like breakfast food enough that I’ll pay for it. At this Doubletree, breakfast is provided by an onsite restaurant. The buffet is the best option at $14.95 + tax and auto 22% gratuity. My man Greg (not the cab driver, the waiter this time) hooked me up with discount. I ate a good spread of hash browns, eggs, bacon, and a banana because I’m super out of shape and today was a big walking day.

Friday night, I decided to commit to spending my Saturday with 11 strangers on a “VIP” tour of Universal. This type of experience is one I will highly recommend forever and you should be able to pick up why below. What this meant for my morning commute was I didn’t have to be at the park before opening, but a touch after. My tour was scheduled for 9:30 so I walked over at 8:45 and spent some time milling around outside the gate. Around, 9:15 I entered the VIP entrance and signed in. In the lobby, they ask your name, check your ID, validate your ticket, and then give you your VIP ticket, lanyard, and meal pass. What they also do is put down notes about your appearance so your guide can find you and give you a warm fuzzy feeling when they greet you by name.

creds
The Creds

Next, you wander upstairs where there’s a spread of food and drinks along with some controlled chaos if it is a busy day. All the tables were full of families, so I stole a bottle of water and went to the couch. A few minutes later I met Jessica, our guide for the day. She was friendly, welcoming, and seemed to genuinely care about my experience. She asked a few questions about my interests, but I deflected with “I’m up for whatever the rest of the group wants.” Jessica did note there was a bit of a struggle finding all of our parties. There were 4 groups, including me, on the tour. Each family inquired why I was alone, I didn’t get too creative, but they seemed to appreciate the value of solo travel. One group was late, and one was hiding in plain site. Turns out, they didn’t provide quite the right description at check in, but we were able to depart a touch late to start our day.

It was immediately apparent that Jessica had a love for the parks and sharing everything she knows about them. The knowledge and history she shared as we wandered was wonderful and worth hearing in person so I won’t give any of the secret sauce away.

As you’re probably guessing, there is a cost to all of this (which I’ll list at the bottom like before). Here is what the cost includes:

  • 1 full service meal
  • 1 quick service meal
  • 1 extra drink
  • 1 extra snack
  • A great tour guide – go Jessica!
  • VIP access to rides and shows (12 is the magic number here. Also, VIP access to a ride means no wait access. You have no line. You walk up, cut in front of everyone, and sit in the best seats.)
  • Reserved VIP seating for parade viewing
  • Behind the scenes access to certain park elements

From about 10 to 5, we covered every square inch of Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios that members of our group had interest in. We started the day by entering the exit of TRANSFORMERS: The Ride-3D and filling a car with just our crew after a helpful pre-ride briefing from Jessica. This ride, like many others in the park is a motion simulator that relies mostly of manipulation of your senses to provide what feels like a high speed action packed ride protecting the AllSpark. Great way to start the day.

Next, we cut the queue at Despicable Me Minion Mayhem. Our goal: complete minion training while resisting the banana. It was chaos. I loved it, even if it was a little bumpy. Next was the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, a double inversion coaster where you pick your own tunes to jam to during the ride. There is an Easter egg I discovered after completing my adventures that may interest you, but I’ll let you figure that out on your own. Overall, a fun coaster, and we got the front row because our crew budged again (you should be seeing a trend), but the inversions did rattle my cage a little bit.

After that we were ready for a quick break so we headed to the front lot between the parks that is still functional. We received a quick briefing on what sound stages are used for at the moment and some of the history of what was filmed at the park. We also had a quick look at the Grinchmas dressing room soundstage. It appeared that Mannheim Steamroller had some gear around back there for their shows over the weekend. Then, we left the lot at a different location than we entered from, near a bathroom. That is always a welcome surprise when you’re crushing water like minions crush bananas.

Up next on the adventure was Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon. This ride is neat for a number of reasons. To start, all music throughout the lobbies and the ride was composed and performed by The Roots. Also, the Ragtime Gals sometimes appear for live performances and it uses a new live queuing system where you can schedule a time to return or retrieve a ticket and wait for the lobby lights to change to your color. Then a NBC page allows you into the waiting area where you receive the safety instructions as a rap. All of that combined with a cool auditorium style motion simulator made this adventure great, but it was better when we got off and Jessica showed us up to the operations room. We were able to peek in and see two ride operators at work. This is the type of stuff I really signed up for. 11/10. A+++. Will buy again.

We were going to head to the Revenge of the Mummy (a great ride) after that experience, but it was down for maintenance so we continued past that attraction to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley. We skipped the queue again by using an employee entrance and hopped on Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts. A word of caution: it is worth your time to return and wait in the regular queues for all of the rides as the themed elements are all fantastic, especially in the Harry Potter attractions. As for the ride itself, without spoiling the story, this is a motion simulator/coaster hybrid type of ride that features 3D videos. Don’t be scared off by the word coaster, there is only one drop.

We broke for lunch after that for about an hour. I used my quick-service meal on a burger, fries, shake, and water from Richter Burger Co. I didn’t want the shake, but it was included with the meal plan cost so whatever. The food was OK, but the service was great. Everybody within the park was so nice all the time.

Post food, we went the mild but fun route with a show instead of a thrill ride. As VIPs we had front row, reserved seats at the Grinchmas show. Think Jim Carrey Grinch and you’ll get the gist of the show. Enjoyable and fun for all ages. Also, air conditioning is great. We cut through the front lot to get to the show which technically takes place in the other park, Islands of Adventure. Upon departure we were in that park instead.

squad
One of the families got the Grinchmas folks to snag a picture of the squad

We cranked the thrill levels back up again with a spin on The Incredible Hulk Coaster. This coaster rides nicer than the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit and has some different features including a lift hill based launch, which even if expected is exciting. When we hopped off of this ride, we got a nice piece of sneaky background info on the artwork around the area from Jessica. You’ll have to take the tour to get more info.

Next up was The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. This is a 3D simulator very similar to Transformers, but featuring more physical elements including a functioning garbage truck and real fire. The icing on the cake for this experience was after the ride, we were able to witness a profile being run on one of the carriages in the maintenance area of the attraction. Jessica even pointed out different parts of the story that were occurring during the profile so we could see how a slow moving car can provide the sensation of high speed and falling. Loved every minute of this demo.

We skipped a few water rides and found ourselves going in the back of Skull Island: Reign of Kong. This is a simulator that takes place entirely in a sort of deuce and a half tour truck themed carriage. The best part of this ride is seeing how far animatronics have come, but you’ll have to ride to find out why it matters.

Now, as I have grown up (if you believe that) I have enjoyed getting entirely soaked at a theme park less and less. Jessica understood this and suggested we try out the water ride Jurassic Park River Adventure anyway. She snagged us seats in the back 2 rows and we were off. While you can tell this isn’t the newest ride in the park, the theming was still fantastic with a few good jumps. The splash at the end, which you can view from a bridge overhead, only got my right shoulder wet. Shout out to Jessica for saving the day there.

We were nearing the end of our exploration of the park, and we saved one of the best for nearly last. We went in the employee entrance to Hogwarts Castle and cut the line again for my favorite ride: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. This attraction is made up of a carriage that puts you on your back or at least leaning back for most of the ride. No 3D here, but some pretty great effects and robots are present along with the 2D videos. It is a blast. It seems that the ride can handle incredible volumes of people too. It is designed for continuous loading so you board and hop off from a moving walkway much like those in airports and the carriage never stops.

We had accomplished 11 attractions so far, so Jessica let us weigh in on what we should finish with. Provided the suggestion of a classic of the park, we all hopped on the Hogwarts Express at Hogsmeade station and rode to Kings Cross. Our destination: MEN IN BLACK Alien Attack, one of the few attractions that is the same as it was 11 years ago when I last visited the park. Jessica provided a few key pointers on how to take out aliens and our teams did OK. Unfortunately, completion of the ride marked the end of the VIP experience as well and we parted ways with our tour guide and each other. It was worth every penny and I will do it again.

After the tour is done, the VIP pass automatically becomes an express pass. If you’re in a group this is great, but for the most part being a single rider allowed me to board a ride faster than waiting in the express line. I rounded out the day by revisiting some of the attractions and attempting to catch the Hogwarts Castle lightshow thing, which proved difficult due to huge quantities of people attempting to do the same thing. Also, I enjoyed my first Butterbeer as my meal plan snack. I went with frozen, but Jessica did suggest the seasonally available hot Butterbeer. I used my full service meal on some low budget buffalo chicken strips and a water and walked back to the hotel.

Attractions Visited

  • Universal Orlando’s City Walk (you have to walk through to get to either park)
  • Universal Orlando VIP Experience
  • Universal Studios Orlando
    • During Tour
      • TRANSFORMERS: The Ride-3D
      • Despicable Me Minion Mayhem
      • Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit
      • Front Lot Tour
      • Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon
      • Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts
      • MEN IN BLACK Alien Attack
    • After Tour
      • I don’t really remember, was still pumped from tour
  • Universal Islands of Adventure
    • During Tour
      • Grinchmas
      • The Incredible Hulk Coaster
      • The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man
      • Skull Island: Reign of Kong
      • Jurassic Park River Adventure
      • Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
      • Hogwarts Express (Hogsmeade to Kings Cross)
    • After Tour
      • Still don’t remember

Money Spent

  • Universal Orlando Resort 2 park VIP experience for 11/25/17 – $275.84 (cheaper on slower days)
  • Lunch in park – $20.29 value for $0 with meal plan as quick service meal
  • Frozen Butterbeer – $7.75 value for $0 with meal plan as snack
  • Supper in park – $18.07 value for $0 with meal plan as full service meal
  • TOTAL – $275.84

Sunday

My trip was nearing its end and I had accomplished everything I wanted to already. This meant I had extraordinary flexibility on Sunday to take my time enjoying the park and its attractions. I started  by picking up an express pass at IOA for a cool $117. Pro tip: bring your own lanyard, it’ll tack on another $9.99 per adventurer to buy them at the park. Also, I didn’t really need it as a single rider, but I didn’t realize just how good single riders had it yet.

The first three rides I went on had no line at all in any of the queues so I just walked on Spider Man, Kong, and Forbidden Journey. The Hogwarts Express doesn’t have a single riders line so express can be worth it here, but other attractions, such as the Forbidden Journey don’t have express pass. You should definitely gauge the park attendance before hand and determine what an express pass is worth to you.

On the Studios side of the resort, I checked out most of the stuff from the day before and tied in The Simpsons Ride, E.T. Adventure, and The Revenge of the Mummy. I rode most attractions 2 or 3 times because there was very little wait on a post holiday Sunday and single riders get great service.

Attractions

  • Damn near everything

Money Spent

  • Universal Orlando 2 park Express Pass for 11/26/17 – $117.14 (not worth it on this slow day)
  • Kong Lanyard – $11.08
  • Lunch at Louies in the park – $12.23 w/ free orange soda left over as beverage on meal plan
  • TOTAL: $140.45

The End

Travelling alone rocks. Having no schedule rocks. Not arguing about what to do next rocks. Being creative with responses to why you’re alone rocks. Theme parks rock. Train travel rocks. I will go back to Universal alone again, probably sooner rather than later. It was a blast from start to finish.

I want to close on a serious, and sad, note. While I am totally down with travelling alone and experiencing fun new things alone, many folks prefer to do that with family and friends. I too can appreciate adventures to theme parks and the like with family and friends. That in mind, as the fly on the wall flying solo this past weekend I witnessed far too many families that seemed to be stressed or angry with one another. Remember, the park costs money and has lots of fun stuff to do together, but the point is that you’re together, not that you’re going to every attraction in the park. Before you blow up and shout at one another for desiring to experience different attractions or perhaps enjoy an attraction more than one time, pause and remember why you planned the trip in the first place: to spend time with one another. Your kids don’t want to remember getting chewed out for running to some attraction they’re super excited about. Be kind.

Universal Orlando Resort didn’t give any of this stuff to me for free and while this isn’t a review, know that I would do it all again if that helps you make your decision on an upcoming trip.