(Slightly less so) Cheapo dad's trip report on Independence of the Seas

[harryfat1]

Hey Harry!

My wife was just asking the other day if HarryFat1 had posted anything new? You see, when I first found your trip reports, we were reading everything we could about Freedom. We have booked out 1st cruise aboard her for June of this year and we were just devouring everything we could about FOS. Your report made great bedtime pillow talk for several days as I read each word you wrote OUT LOUD!!!!! Heck I even went back and read your Allure report as well. Glad to have found you and this Christmas Cruise report.

 

On a side note, my wife did ask that I not read each one of these reports out loud to her while in bed, So on this one it will be just me! Happy Cruising Harry!

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for the compliments and following my various installments of trip reports. I am sincerely honored by this.

 

One of my favorite book series is the "Dummies" series where they have a book to teach you how to do many projects and tasks. I know they have one for cruises in general. Check it out in the public library.

 

My version of the trip report is similar to that as I more or less walk a newbie to RCI through the entire pre planning and the boarding process. Being anal, I like to know as much detail as possible in my trip planning and not too many trip reports reflect that. A dummies trip report for dummies by a dummy, if you will.

 

As the old saying goes, "treat others as you would want to be treated yourself", I write my cheapo series with the thought of informing someone out there similar to what I would want if I was planning a cruise on Royal. If I read something, I want to be informed and entertained. So hopefully I have delivered at least partly to you and your wife on both accounts.

 

Now why is your wife asking about my new installment if she doesn't want to hear about it? Just so she can request 3 months credit on the annual CC fee?

 

Is the restriction just on not reading out loud but you can sing along? I will be adding many song links to this installment. When I get to day 1 of the trip report when we board the ship, you can sing in bed to your wife the Sir Mix A Lot song:

 

"I like big butts and I can not lie..."

[Mapleleaf14]

I get so much enjoyment out of your trip reports! Your sense of humour is delightful!

 

 

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[legendaryheck]

 

 

This picture haunts me! My wife and I went on our honeymoon cruise this past October and for some reason flights coming back Sunday from FLL to CMH were over $400 per ticket for Southwest so we decided to stay over night at FLL until a 4:30am flight Monday for $106 per ticket. I think I walked down to baggage claim back upstairs 50+ times in the 20 hours we were at the airport to stretch my legs and this picture brought back so much pain seeing that area again lol.

[micmacmissy]

Woot woot! Glad you're back Harry! I'm enjoying it already.

[dr_truth]

Excited to see your report! I was on this ship and had seen your prior reports and saw you were going from the roll call--I have to admit looking for your family and camera (but not seeing them). I did a first half of my report while on the ship sick in my cabin on Christmas. Haven't gotten around to second half. It will pale in comparison to yours as I don't have any of these great pictures!

[harryfat1]

This picture haunts me! My wife and I went on our honeymoon cruise this past October and for some reason flights coming back Sunday from FLL to CMH were over $400 per ticket for Southwest so we decided to stay over night at FLL until a 4:30am flight Monday for $106 per ticket. I think I walked down to baggage claim back upstairs 50+ times in the 20 hours we were at the airport to stretch my legs and this picture brought back so much pain seeing that area again lol.

 

Before I start, I noticed this is your first post here at CC. Honored that you selected my thread to chime in your experience.

 

When I first read your post, I was full of admiration of how someone can endure that much pain and boredom in being stuck at the airport for hours just to save money. You are in the running for top cheapo of the year here at CC.

 

Then as I re-read the post in typing my response, I changed my mind and instead give my admiration to your newlywed wife. The fact that she was able to endure this experience on honeymoon earns my highest admiration.

 

If I made my wife go through this experience on our honeymoon just to save some money, I would have been smacked on the side of the head and be in a coma for days. At the minimum, you could have spent some of the saved money on a basic 2 star hotel room at the airport such that you can shower and rest for few hours between 3 PM and 3 AM.

 

Unless it was a holiday weekend, the hotel rooms by the airport should be pretty cheap on a Sunday night as most cruisers would have sailed from the weekend past, except for a small handful of ships that sails on Monday. Hotwire or Priceline bidding should be able to land you an average priced 2 star airport hotel room for decent price.

 

Actually it’s not surprising at all that the cost of flights are more expensive on Sunday than Monday. That’s because most people want to go home ASAP after the cruise so the flights are packed solid with high demands. People want to get home by Sunday night so they can go to work on Monday as every vacation day is precious for the working stiffs that only get 10 to 15 vacation days per year for many American corporations.

 

That Monday morning flight is not popular due to its early hours on a Monday. We stayed one extra day from our Allure cruise because by coming home one day later, we save over $100 per person. Times 4 people, that’s over $400 in savings. Even if I get a room for $175 and have decent dinner, I would still be ahead in making that deal.

 

Especially since it’s your honeymoon, I thought you would want one more night of privacy with the wife (wink, wink) or at least sleep and rest up. Didn’t think anyone would actually want to pocket the entire amount of savings and not use some of the money saved.

 

Personally I think you are screwed for next 30 years as I am sure your wife will hold this against you as the years go on for being stuck at the airport for 20 hours instead of getting a basic hotel room for $100. This will be a never-ending story. The guys who are reading this and have been married for over 30 years will all nod and agree with me that you are screwed.

 

Can’t “undo” what your wife will complain about to kids and grand kids years down the road…Good luck.

 

Come on, guys (or gals), anyone else agrees with me?

[suesnake2002]

I was wondering why he just sat in airport rather than get a room for the nite

 

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[KiwiGal117]

 

 

Especially since it’s your honeymoon, I thought you would want one more night of privacy with the wife (wink, wink) or at least sleep and rest up. Didn’t think anyone would actually want to pocket the entire amount of savings and not use some of the money saved.

 

Personally I think you are screwed for next 30 years as I am sure your wife will hold this against you as the years go on for being stuck at the airport for 20 hours instead of getting a basic hotel room for $100. This will be a never-ending story. The guys who are reading this and have been married for over 30 years will all nod and agree with me that you are screwed.

 

Can’t “undo” what your wife will complain about to kids and grand kids years down the road…Good luck.

 

Come on, guys (or gals), anyone else agrees with me?

 

Ya, Harry, I'm with you. I'm a wife, and I would totally NOT let my husband forget this. I did also wonder when I read it and thought to myself - why didn't they get a cheap day room at a local hotel?? But I get it, every penny counts and to each their own, but I still think he'll never live this down.

[bobmacliberty]

Harry - I'm an Engineer. I might not be quite as high on the anal scale as you, but I'm up there. Since you are already on post #158 and are not even through day 0 yet, I decided to compare against your epic Allure and Freedom reports. For the Allure report, you started day 0 in post #24. The same point in your Freedom report is post #94. For this Independence report, it's post #144. There's a clear trend there, but day 0 is only a single data point.

 

Now, many of the postings so far on this current report are blah, blah, blah, oooh...another great Cheapo Dad report...blah, blah, blah postings. You were less of a Cruise Critic celebrity when writing your Allure and Freedom reports, so I need to factor in all your fan boy postings here. Since you are nice/anal enough to organize all of your reports by trip day number, I analyzed the post number to start each of your trip days. I may be anal, but I'm not crazy, so I straight line estimated the days in the middle of your trip.

 

I used the Allure and Freedom data to extrapolate from what you've done so far for Independence. I'll spare you the really nitty-gritty details but I will assume a slightly higher posts per day ratio this time around (improved celebrity factor), a 9 night trip rather than a 7 night trip, and a slight bump from the current cold weather keeping people on Cruise Critic more than they would have been the last 2 years, and a slight decrease because posts still keep trickling into your Allure and Freedom threads. Let's see...1555/1331...times 1.12...adding 23...times 9...divided by 7...carry the 4...I will extrapolate to a total post count on this thread of 2044.

 

 

Note the uptick at the end of each line, which is all of the additional posts after the official trip part of the report ends. Of course, I will need to update my estimates once you start talking about day 1 as I will have another data point then. :D

 

Yeah...I've got some time on my hands. Carry on.

 

BTW...you may have made the first Talking Heads reference that I've ever seen here. Well done.

[chooseauser]

Harry - I'm an Engineer. (snipped out the rest)

 

I'm an economist. Love the graph!

[harryfat1]

Harry - I'm an Engineer. I might not be quite as high on the anal scale as you, but I'm up there. Since you are already on post #158 and are not even through day 0 yet, I decided to compare against your epic Allure and Freedom reports. For the Allure report, you started day 0 in post #24. The same point in your Freedom report is post #94. For this Independence report, it's post #144. There's a clear trend there, but day 0 is only a single data point.

 

Now, many of the postings so far on this current report are blah, blah, blah, oooh...another great Cheapo Dad report...blah, blah, blah postings. You were less of a Cruise Critic celebrity when writing your Allure and Freedom reports, so I need to factor in all your fan boy postings here. Since you are nice/anal enough to organize all of your reports by trip day number, I analyzed the post number to start each of your trip days. I may be anal, but I'm not crazy, so I straight line estimated the days in the middle of your trip.

 

I used the Allure and Freedom data to extrapolate from what you've done so far for Independence. I'll spare you the really nitty-gritty details but I will assume a slightly higher posts per day ratio this time around (improved celebrity factor), a 9 night trip rather than a 7 night trip, and a slight bump from the current cold weather keeping people on Cruise Critic more than they would have been the last 2 years, and a slight decrease because posts still keep trickling into your Allure and Freedom threads. Let's see...1555/1331...times 1.12...adding 23...times 9...divided by 7...carry the 4...I will extrapolate to a total post count on this thread of 2044.

 

 

Note the uptick at the end of each line, which is all of the additional posts after the official trip part of the report ends. Of course, I will need to update my estimates once you start talking about day 1 as I will have another data point then. :D

 

Yeah...I've got some time on my hands. Carry on.

 

BTW...you may have made the first Talking Heads reference that I've ever seen here. Well done.

 

Hi, Bob,

 

Haha, very impressive. Let me guess, SLOW Friday afternoon at work on a cold day after the New Years holiday where you are more than ready to go on your cruise next month?

 

Somebody on my roll call asked prior to sailing suggesting that since our sailing is 9 days and the Freedom was 6 days, he expects the new trip report to be 50% longer. I replied that 50% more is easy to do. I can just slap a whole bunch of pictures (throw in some rock pictures if necessary as sausage fillers) and write a bunch of nonsense to meet the quota. More I can do. Better – not likely.

 

Hehe, so now I have a budget/ceiling? In theory these trip reports can be summarized as in this format “We came. We cruised. We ate. We pooped. We got fat. We got sick. We went home”. Thank you for reading. One post review.;p

 

As for talking to people, this is like my annual post-holiday party. Whenever you throw a party, you have to greet your guests. Many people I have met the past few years, I only get to talk to them once a year as I am not active on these boards so it's my chance to catch up. After I do my spiel with the trip reports, I drift away to Trip advisor and make plan to look at rocks in 110 degree heat. Then I come back here in August to plan for my next trip. Just like whales migrating. Rinse and repeat.

 

I will add few more musical references before this is all over. But I thought I was the first person to bring in Sir Mix A Lot here, no? Are there other big butt fans here also?

 

I am especially honored when I see people with less than 100 posts writing something here. Social media can be a scary place and not everyone is comfortable to de-cloak from the darkness and fire a comment and then quickly re-cloak before some troll comes by and flames them for asking a “dumb question” so I always go out of my way to make sure they are recognized for their effort.

 

Since we are buddies, I will let you in a little secret, just don’t tell anyone. Per my 73 page compensation contract with CC, they promised to comp me a free lunch at the windjammer on the next Royal cruise for every 500 posts I can muster here on my trip report as they can sell more ads with those click baits. So I’m in no hurry to speed along this report. But this secret is just between us, OK? Mum’s the word…

[harryfat1]

I was wondering why he just sat in airport rather than get a room for the nite

 

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Ya, Harry, I'm with you. I'm a wife, and I would totally NOT let my husband forget this. I did also wonder when I read it and thought to myself - why didn't they get a cheap day room at a local hotel?? But I get it, every penny counts and to each their own, but I still think he'll never live this down.

 

Now I'm feeling bad for picking on the guy when he was nice to make a comment on my trip report. Not trying to be a bad person but sometimes we need to have the right trade off between saving money and being uncomfortable.

 

I know it must be expensive to have wedding and honeymoon. But don't go to extreme just trying to some money. Airport food can't be that cheap so if you ate there for 2 or 3 meals, that's extra expenses you could use to book a room. Anyway, moving on.

[tb4]

Hi Harry. Following along from NZ again. Still haven't made it to the Caribbean but you make it sound like it's worth the amount of time I'm going to have to spend in the air.

 

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[SherriZ366]

Harry -- enjoying your review.

 

I do an Excel Packing list too and have a cruise and non-cruise version. I group items (e.g. beach, prescriptions etc) and then I alphabetize -- it is easier to find things to mark off.

[harryfat1]

Excited to see your report! I was on this ship and had seen your prior reports and saw you were going from the roll call--I have to admit looking for your family and camera (but not seeing them). I did a first half of my report while on the ship sick in my cabin on Christmas. Haven't gotten around to second half. It will pale in comparison to yours as I don't have any of these great pictures!

 

Hi,

 

Sorry to hear you were sick on the cruise. That sucks.

 

Everyone has different cruise experience and I am sure yoursis great to share with everyone as well. Sometimes more isn’t good as people might just want something simple andnot have to wade through 1,500+ posts to find it. I’m sure your info will be helpfulto other cruisers.

[harryfat1]

Hi Harry. Following along from NZ again. Still haven't made it to the Caribbean but you make it sound like it's worth the amount of time I'm going to have to spend in the air.

 

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Hi,

 

Thanks again for following from down under.

 

I didn't know they moved the Solstice down under. I would like to come down one day but don't think my wallet and my flat butt can make it all the way down there. Someone needs to put me in a coma. Maybe like those science fiction movies where they put you to sleep for years until you wake up at the final destination.

 

The reason we do Caribbean is because we are closer to it. On our cruise, over 3,500 have US passports as it's from a US port so it's easier for many people to sail to Caribbean.

[harryfat1]

(OK, onward and forward with the trip report)

Saw my brother in law and his family there and it is always good to meet up with the family at a new sight ready for vacation. After we ate, we went back to the room and took a much needed morning nap. Close the dang curtains and just zonked out.

 

Don’t remember the exact time I woke up but it was good to sleep in a horizontal position again. This hotel lobby picture was time stamp was 1 something so I assumed we woke up around 12 something local time or 9 AM back home. At any rate, time to walk around and explore the area and grab some lunch.

 

The hotel is near a whole cluster of other hotels in the area (literally next door to Cambria Suites and Comfort Suites. Then down the road, there’s the BW/Springhill/Hyatt House and so on). Effectively surrounded by thousands of rooms that cater to the airport and cruise crowd. The driver who picked us up at the airport says 90% of his pickups from the 2 hotels are cruise passengers. The hotel name says Fort Lauderdale airport – cruise port in order to attract a wider audience but the actual location is Dania beach, next town over).

 

The room is nice as it's extra long with sofa and 2 queen beds and has plates and cups in case you want to order take outs or deliveries to eat in your room instead of going out to dinner.

 

Per Google map, we were down the road from the shopping mall and it was less around a mile walk, depending on what section of the mall you want to go. But somehow Dania Beach/mall area is not pedestrian friendly as you have to zigzag your way through various parking lots and sidewalks that just ends into nowhere and have to double back to cross at the proper cross walk without being fear of being run over the by the various speeding cars. The area by Double Tree Gallery one is much nicer place to walk around, but this place has a lot more activities and that’s what we wanted to do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Looking at our t-shirts, can you guess what we are going to do?

 

 

 

Outside view of the hotel:

 

 

Zoom in of the window washers using the cell phone. Not bad with its second zoom lens.

 

 

Walking to the mall and hoping not to get run over:

 

 

We don't have these at our neck of the woods. Seems like a good idea, though. To be high on top to see the entire mall area:

 

[harryfat1]

After grabbing a simple fast food lunch at Wendy’s, we headed for the ultimate destination at the mall – the theater. Now cheapo dad normally doesn’t watch movies while on vacation as I want to maximize my vacation time seeing different things but my original planning was to drop off luggage at front desk and then rest a bit at the lobby and head on out for the theater to rest/sleep as they had really comfy lounge chairs.

 

Especially since it was the premier week of the Star Wars movie so we just had to see go and see the movie. But since we all napped, we stayed awake the entire movie. So walked over to the theater and bought the tickets for the 3:30 showing. Had a little time to kill and walked over to Dave & Busters to meet up with the brother in law as they were playing games there. When it was time for us to head for the theater, we walked back.

 

The theater is very nice as they upgraded to the new trend of reserved seating at these super comfy lounge chairs which reclines. Too bad airlines don’t have these as coach seats.

 

As for the movie itself, I won’t mention the plot as to spoil the movie for people that plan to watch it. The movie was pretty good, had some story flaws in it as they try to make things interesting and exciting.

 

++++++++++

Dave & Busters:

 

 

Inside the theater:

 

 

Check out how much leg space we had. Not to mention the theater was less than half full as it's a weekday mid afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

 

The free appetizer:

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

After dinner, we continued to walk back toward the hotel but found couple of “the sidewalk ends here now” roads and had to double back. There is a Kmart and BJ’s warehouse along the way in case anyone needs stuff pre cruise. Saw that they were selling Shrek wipes.

 

 

Finally made it back to the hotel without being hit by the fast driving FL residents. Showered and tried to watch a bit of TV and caught up on texts and email with family/friends back home and it was time to crash as we are still feeling out of it from the red eye ordeal.

 

 

Comfort Suites next door:

 

 

Ours:

 

 

Attempt at Bokeh, didn't really work perfectly. Oh, well, glad you didn't pay for the pictures, right?

 

 

Last picture of day 0. Taken from our bedroom window:

 

[DandDM]

Long time lurker, first time poster (on your reviews). Thanks for taking the time this, always enjoy reading them a lot!

 

Cheers,

Edited January 6, 2018 by DandDM
clarification

[lbjen]

Well now I want some Jack Daniels Chicken.

[Glad Trimble]

Has the review of the cruise started yet?

 

 

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[golden6911]

Enjoying this so far! I like that you put your trip goals front and center, along with your sense of humor.

 

I am also an engineer, so I am looking forward to seeing your trip from that perspective. I also appreciate all your tips, particularly about calling a few weeks ahead to check entertainment.

Edited January 6, 2018 by golden6911