harryfat1

Greetings from Aruba. Island tour earlier today Flip this on your head as software doesn't work for me

Went out again to take pictures of Curacao at night time as we don't sail until 8. So far today walked over 12,000 steps and we haven't eaten dinner yet. Think I may have found the cover picture for the next trip report unless something else shows up the next few days or steal one of my wife's pictures as she's a better photographer than me...🤪

Daryl is family, right? Back from the free walking tour of Curacao. Eating lunch now. Complimentary Northstar this afternoon Software wants to do landscape even though this isn't what's on the phone

Greetings from Curacao

Done unpacking. HAL pulling away at 4 pm. We should be the last one out of 8 ships to leave after 5 pm

Thanks. Loads of people for these Christmas cruises. I prefer the first week of December cruise more as it's cheaper and less crowded and still has the Holiday decors.

No explanation needed

Very empty Windjammer at 11:30

Thanks. Picture taken by the nice port check-in lady who liked our Holiday theme shirts.

Sitting here chilling with my new BFFs. As others have posted, Port Everglades doesn't ask when is your official check in time as terminal 18 is humongous to seat thousands of people. Unlike San Pedro which has less than 200 seats so they have to be very strict on the check in time.

Thanks. I'll make sure there's at least one working bar stool for you after our crazy parties... Oh, wait, I was thinking of the Carnival cruise parties and fights. Never mind...

There are 8 cruise ships in port today with 23,000+ passegettung off and 23,000+ folks like us trying to get on. The transfer companies and share ride drivers will have a busy (yet profitable) day transporting all the passengers to/from the cruise terminnals. We will be in line to board the Odyssey along with several thousand of my new BFFs in couple of hours.

Yeah. The surrey bike rental shops are raking in money at the Broadwalk. You see a surrey bike with a family of tourists st least once every 3 minutes. It was tiring though as the 2 row bike was very heavy to pedal. My legs were tired after the one hour pedaling it. Can't imagine doing it for two hours. I did check the free concert schedule awhile but they didn't have any performances yesterday.

Yeah, same here. It's been many years since I have cruised out of Fort Lauderdale but I recall they had like a tarp over that floweider. Will check it out tomorrow. I thought I read someone here at CC mentioned years ago it was some rich dude installed it for his son but after awhile his son got bored with it and stopped using it. Not sure how true is that urban legend or if the house has changed hands since...

Some sort light mayo sauce. Kinda sweet. Side note - I'm Getting old. After I paid for the lunch, I left the credit card at the restaurant. Didn't even realize it until I tried to take it out again to order dinner and realized it wasn't with me. So had to make an emergency phone call to the credit card company to block all access to the account going forward. Good thing I found out before I get on the ship with no wifi or calling ability...

Did you stayed there before? It's our first time visiting Hollywood Beach.

Flowrider on land

Went to Hollywood Beach and rented the Surrey bike to ride around the Broadwalk (they call it Broadwalk instead of Boardwalk) with lots of other tourists. Highly recommend visiti Hollywood Beach for anyone with an extra day pre cruise.

View of Fort Lauderdale from our hotel window looking at the gigantic guitar 🎸 building of Hard Rock hotel.

Yeah, it's always risky when you have to share trains or planes with others as you never know what other people are like. Besides talking all night long and had the spot light on while they read at 2 AM, they also went to the bathroom twice and since I sat in the aisle seat (my wife and 2 boys with her across the aisle), they woke me up the 2 times they went to the rest room. I like the planes with 2 people or 4 people configuration seating ax that way we don't have to sit with strangers as you never know whom you will get.

Yeah. Red eye sucks but many people from West coast uses it. Our flight was totally full with almost 200 people. For us, flying out on Wedesday red eye versus Thursday morning meant savings of $150/pp. Airlines were charging $500/pp one way from SFO to FLL as this is the super crowded Holiday travel season. So the way Cheapo dad's math works is if I can save $150/pp X 4 people = $600. I can use that for the hotel room and meal as well. So I opted for the red eye although it's a tiring experience. Yeah, the red eye sucks especially we had a non stop crying baby in the back row all night. In addition, I sat next to a couple that didn't sleep most of the trip in talking to each other and turn on their spot lights to read their books. Hope your son has a better red eye flight next week

Christmas cruise is over priced and over crowded. I wouldn't do it if it wasn't for the boys college schedule only has this week open that also works with my schedule. It's just the 4 of us. No inlaws this time. Haha, sorry, no live review. Too dumb to walk and chew gum to do a live review. You know my trip reports are weeks/months in the making. Besides, once the ship sails on day 1, I will have no internet connection until we come back on day 9. Cheapo dad not willing to pay for ship wifi. So at best I can do is few pictures here pre cruise to say hi to some old friends. Although as a teaser for the upcoming trip report, the working title is something like this "The cruiser formerly known as Cheapo Dad's trip report on Odyssey of the Seas sailing to A minus B plus C islands...."

Looks like you guys are consistently sailing at 18 knots. We just landed at FLL on a miserable red eye flight so we are on the same time zone now.

They said it's a brand new plane. First time I'm seeing usb plugs up this high up by the seat trays

On plane now with couple hundred of my new BFFs....