HONEYMOON on the Utopia - Live stream and live updates! Oct 7 - 11

[Arzeena]

1 minute ago, iamchrisstone said:

she is much better this morning, thank you!  Please forgive me if I forgot, are you on the ship and have we met?  Rebekah and I have met and had many long convos with so many people, the ones on here I keep forgetting who is who lol. 
 

Either way, thank you for interacting with the thread with us. 

No, not on the ship.
I found this trip report and was following yours (and Mandy's report ...she is on the same sailing). I love to read trip reports and love all the pictures.

[iamchrisstone]

1 minute ago, Arzeena said:

No, not on the ship.
I found this trip report and was following yours (and Mandy's report ...she is on the same sailing). I love to read trip reports and love all the pictures.

we actually met her and Pete on day 1.  Super cool couple!

[Den7Cruiser]

Thank you for taking the time and effort to post such an excellent live stream.  I have enjoyed reading and following along. I agree, your joy is contagious!

 

I wish you both a lifetime of happiness!

p.s. also glad to hear you get an extra day to enjoy:)

[Another_Critic]

On 10/8/2024 at 12:00 PM, iamchrisstone said:

 

Your review and pictures are great, but I have noticed that all your selfies have a mirrored image.  I would recommend turning of the camera setting.

 

iPhone is Settings > Camera > Mirror Front Camera (turn off).  It will still show as mirrored when taking the picture, but will be reversed in the Photos app.

[iamchrisstone]

3 hours ago, Den7Cruiser said:

Thank you for taking the time and effort to post such an excellent live stream.  I have enjoyed reading and following along. I agree, your joy is contagious!

 

I wish you both a lifetime of happiness!

p.s. also glad to hear you get an extra day to enjoy:)

Thank you so much!  I wish the live streams were better.  We may try to do a couple more tonight or tomorrow. 

[iamchrisstone]

21 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

 

Your review and pictures are great, but I have noticed that all your selfies have a mirrored image.  I would recommend turning of the camera setting.

 

iPhone is Settings > Camera > Mirror Front Camera (turn off).  It will still show as mirrored when taking the picture, but will be reversed in the Photos app.

Yeah i noticed that and some I have remembered to change after the image as edited.  
 

thanks for the compliment and interacting with us!

[iamchrisstone]

Update.  We are now arriving to Port Canaveral at 6am Saturday instead of 1pm.  Still an extra day!

[iamchrisstone]

Are you guys ready for a crazy update?  How about the Northern Lights and a lightning storm from the Utopia south of Cuba!?!?

 

they are faint, but still crazy fascinating, especially if you zoom into the lightning. 
 

 

 

[perfect match]

Sorry I’ve disappeared from here for a couple of days but have been a bit distracted by Milton. Now that he’s finally gone and no major damage here I’m back to my normal routine. 
 

I’m so glad that you and Rebekah have an extra day added on to your honeymoon, and Northern Lights as well! Totally magical! We did not see them from our house in Central Florida. We tried, but no luck at all.

 

I’ll be interested to hear how you find things at Labadee since they’re sending ships there again after staying away due to the political unrest.

[iamchrisstone]

2 hours ago, perfect match said:

Sorry I’ve disappeared from here for a couple of days but have been a bit distracted by Milton. Now that he’s finally gone and no major damage here I’m back to my normal routine. 
 

I’m so glad that you and Rebekah have an extra day added on to your honeymoon, and Northern Lights as well! Totally magical! We did not see them from our house in Central Florida. We tried, but no luck at all.

 

I’ll be interested to hear how you find things at Labadee since they’re sending ships there again after staying away due to the political unrest.

Oh mercy!  I trust you, your family/friends and property are all safe. 

[iamchrisstone]

 

[iamchrisstone]

8 hours ago, perfect match said:

Sorry I’ve disappeared from here for a couple of days but have been a bit distracted by Milton. Now that he’s finally gone and no major damage here I’m back to my normal routine. 
 

I’m so glad that you and Rebekah have an extra day added on to your honeymoon, and Northern Lights as well! Totally magical! We did not see them from our house in Central Florida. We tried, but no luck at all.

 

I’ll be interested to hear how you find things at Labadee since they’re sending ships there again after staying away due to the political unrest.

I forgot to reply about Labadee.  It was nice.  Basically beaches, walking trails and a few activities. It's more of an authentic place over high tech tourist destination. It's nice but very few places have electricity, no wifi, not much tech.  I enjoyed it because it felt more authentic. We will do a video of this as well. 
 

that being said, I'm understanding that the security is too notch. 

[buffet24]

Nice review!   Congrats and thanks for the Honeymoon!!! 👍😁👍

[iamchrisstone]

Update from yesterday..... from what I can recall.

 

She got up a little earlier than I did and went to watch/video us coming into port and docking.  I knew she would enjoy that.  She came back to the room and then we got cleaned up, had a small breakfast and went to get off the ship.  As soon as we got to the gangway door, you could just feel the heat... or maybe it was the humidity.  I immediately began to sweat.

 

 

As soon as we get to land, on the left there is a walking trail.  We walked partway up that and started chatting with a couple for probably an hour and a half.  It was a very good convo.  The trail was beautiful and easy, so those of you that enjoy trails (more like a very wide sidewalk with trees and nature all around) but are nervous about how intense they may be, it is very easy.  It does have a little of an incline for a short part of it, but there are many benches.

 

 

We go back down and across the "steet" are the restrooms and a tram station.  At the tram station were come comfortably outdoor furniture and lemon/cucumber water.  We jumped on the tram to take it all around the island.

 

After the tram ride we just walked.  The first beach that you come to is beautiful with rocks all around, but you can not swim there.  I think one of the food options is right there.  It is also a great view to watch those ziplining from up in the mountain as they fly right by you.  

 

 

The rest of the island is quite different than other port that I have been to.  It is not full of technology, wifi and all the tourist normal things.  Yes, there are some activities, plenty of food and bars, etc but it feels much more authentic than other ports.  The shopping area is ran by locals with locally made items and yes, they will hassle you.  But this is a good opportunity to hassle back and pay less.  Example, there was a necklace with a sharks tooth on it I wanted to get for my 2 boys and I think he started out at $40 each and I got him down to $10.

 

Before we could buy anything, the locals informed us that they do not take our sea pass, so we had to head back to the ship to grab cash then head back down and buy a few items for the kids.

 

We stop at the beach so she could go frolicking in the ocean LOL.  I just hung out on a lounger to watch our stuff and give her some time to soak it all in.  She loved it!  We explored the island (actually, I don't think it's technically an island) a little longer and headed back.

 

 

 

If you play this video, she is the one on the left.  So proud of this girl.  I would never have gotten up in front of everyone to do a dance I've never seen.

 

 

 

We got to the room and we were both just drenched in sweat.  Both showered and headed to dinner at the main dining room.  From there we fill up our water bottles, meet with a couple friends for a bit and then went exploring the ship.

 

Oh, and I'll do a full post on this later plus a long form video, but she didn't know the cruise lines did the towel animals.  So each day she gets crazy excited when she sees them.  Well, last night our room steward made 2 towel monkeys (one big and one small) and had them hanging up in the room.  She went nuts!  I hope I got it on video because when you guys see her excitement, it's actually quite funny.

 

 

We just took in some live music, walked and right before bed, I grabbed her and took her up to deck 16 to see if we could see the northern lights.  Surprisingly, we could!  I did a post with several pictures earlier.  The northern lights were faint, but still could be seen with us south of Cuba.

 

[iamchrisstone]

2 minutes ago, buffet24 said:

Nice review!   Congrats and thanks for the Honeymoon!!! 👍😁👍

Thanks, buffet!  A lot more coming!

[perfect match]

17 hours ago, iamchrisstone said:

Oh mercy!  I trust you, your family/friends and property are all safe. 

Thank you for asking. Yes, we’re ok. Only mildly jealous of you and your beautiful bride. You’re cruising on Utopia, enjoying a bonus day on Labadee and watching the Northern Lights while off the coast of Cuba. We’re here in Florida raking hurricane debris out of the back yard and no Northern Lights! 😂😱😂  Seriously though, enjoy the rest of your time on Utopia. We’ll be on her in January. 

[iamchrisstone]

I have to update about yesterday and this morning as we are getting off in an hour. I will do that later.  We packed all of the ducks before I could take a picture.  Will do that maybe Monday. But here is our towel animal collection. 

[deckrbert]

Thank you all so much for taking time out of your vacation to post this LIVE! I have been interested in Utopia, and am excited to read your updates and cool little facts about the ship.

 

Congrats!

[iamchrisstone]

Just now, deckrbert said:

Thank you all so much for taking time out of your vacation to post this LIVE! I have been interested in Utopia, and am excited to read your updates and cool little facts about the ship.

 

Congrats!

Thanks deckebert!  Ill reply to any comments or questions but dont have any more updates for now.  Will post long form videos after i get time to edit them and such.  If you take the utopia, id love to hear your thoughts!