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

[NHProud]

6 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Thanks for the contrarian suggestion.  Yes, we actually have thought about making 2 separte trips but as we get older, the bucket list gets longer and the window to vacation is shorter. 

 

I don’t think I will have the strength to walk 8 to 10 miles daily 20 years from now so I need to hit as many of the bucket list areas while I still can walk.

 

The top item list is visiting all the Disney parks in the world in the order they are built.

 

Besides London/Paris, we still need to visit Greece and other parts of Meditererian - probably a B2B cruise somewhere down the road next few year. 

 

Then there’s Asian countries like Korea/Singapore/Taiwan on top of going to Hong Kong and Shanghai to see the Disney parks there.

 

Then there’s Australia/New Zealand area along with Thailand/Malayasia and Iceland and Norwegian Fjords.  Haven’t even talked about Egypt or South America and Africa. 

 

I will be long dead before all the items on the bucket list is checked off.

 

Here’s our tentative high level schedule for 2 weeks as that’s the max time I can be away from work. This schedule has us flying into London first but in theory we can switch between the 2 cities if necessary, it will depend on the cost of the airfare.

 

One advantage of going to Paris earlier is their school kids are out by early July and Disneyland would be crowded so it might make sense to got to Paris first.

 

We might shortchange London by a day and give it to Paris as we might go back to London later on for cruises out of Southampton so we can catch whatever we missed this time around. But Paris may not be a repeat visit for any foreseeable future giving the long bucket list.

 

 

Thank you for your very long answer . I certainly don’t want to take you off topic .  I’ve been to Paris ,twice , and highly recommend Sainte Chapelle on the second level . C’est magnifique !  And , Sacré Coeur in Montmartre. 
 

London , the Proms at Victoria and Albert hall where we saw Midori perform. The concerts are a seasonal thing . Loved it. Also , the food emporium at Harrods. 

Respectfully, why do you want to visit every Disney property ? 

 

Edited August 2 by NHProud

[harryfat1]

13 hours ago, NHProud said:

Thank you for your very long answer . I certainly don’t want to take you off topic .  I’ve been to Paris ,twice , and highly recommend Sainte Chapelle on the second level . C’est magnifique !  And , Sacré Coeur in Montmartre. 
 

London , the Proms at Victoria and Albert hall where we saw Midori perform. The concerts are a seasonal thing . Loved it. Also , the food emporium at Harrods. 

Respectfully, why do you want to visit every Disney property ? 

 

Haha, no worries about hijacking the thread.  Like I said, I don’t believe in the concept of hijacking threads as we are all fellow travelers exchanging information.  Besides, I “know” the author of this thread so he won’t mind…

 

Technically, my wife and I have been to London and Paris many years before the boys were born.  But it was a brief visit for 2 days at each city as we were part of the Trafalgar tour visiting multiple European countries.  We now want to go back to see it again and show the boys.

 

That was back in the old days before cell phone/Google Maps where you would feel intimated to travel to foreign lands without speaking the native language.  Nowadays with cell phones (and Wi-Fi), you feel more confident to venture out.

 

Why do I want to visit every Disney property worldwide?  Simple – because my wife and I are big Disney fans.

 

How big?  We had various Mickey and Minnie items at our wedding.  We flew to Florida’s WDW for our honeymoon for 5 days before going on a Caribbean cruise.

 

I can’t count how many times I have been to the CA Disneyland.  When the boys were young, we used to have Disneyland annual passes where we would go down to southern CA every vacation break to visit Disneyland to maximize its value. I can navigate both parks without a map.

 

We have been to the Florida WDW about 6 times (including the honeymoon).  Been to the 2 Disney parks in Tokyo back in 2019.  Covid prevented us from going overseas and now with the boys being much older, it’s time to venture out.

 

To non-Disney fans, every park “is the same”.  But to hardcore Disney fans, they are all very different as we can list what each park is different in how the castles are formed or where the color of haunted mansions are different between Disneyland and Disneyworld.

 

Similar to non-cruise ship folks thinking every cruise ship is the same but all the hardcore CC folks will easily point out the differences between ships…

[harryfat1]

Back to the Central Park:

 

If you are a fan of the “Friends” TV show, this is supposed to be the fountain from the show but the real fountain is a model in a movie studio.

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Strawberry Fields – where John Lennon was shot.

 

 

There’s always a performer here trying to earn a buck from all the people coming by to pay tribute to the great Beatles.  Maybe the fact that we all showed up in the large group, the singer decided to perform Lennon’s legendary song with a big crowd gathering

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the song to follow along:

 

 

[harryfat1]

The Central Park Tour ends outside of the Dakota Apartments where Lennon was living at the time.

 

 

 

 

Time to tip/pay the man and we are on our own.

 

 

By the way, there are various kiosks in Central Park with workers there such that you can pick up a free map of the area if you are on your own and need some guidance.  But I think you will save time/frustration if you have a guide to take you to see all the highlights

 

 

 

Edited August 2 by harryfat1

[harryfat1]

The time was 1:20 PM and time for lunch.  NYC is famous for some of the food unique to the area.  We have eaten the Halal food and the NYC pizza.  Time for the famous NYC bagels for lunch.  Most of people associate bagels with breakfast but since we have free breakfast at the hotel, if we wanted bagels, it’d have to be during lunch time.

 

The tour ended on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  Per Google Maps, there isn’t a top-notch bagel place nearby and since we planned to go back to Central Park, we didn’t want to take the subway back down to Midtown only to come back up again.

 

So, we walked over to the closest Bagel shop a few blocks away and ordered Bagel sandwiches and ate them there as it was Air conditioned inside and they had nice cold water dispensers as the water inside our bottle from this morning was running low from walking around in the heat all morning long.

 

You don’t see cream cheese on display out here in California.  This looks like something you get from an ice cream store so it’s definitely a new experience for us

 

Museum of Natural History on the way as they are literally across the street from Central Park

 

 

 

You don't see this type of display back home

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

After lunch, it was time to walk back to Central Park as we wanted to see Belvedere Castle.  Well, they call it a castle but it’s just a façade castle but nevertheless, you get a good view of the area.

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Almost Disneyland-like in terms of a fake castle look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

As the staircase is very narrow where you can only have a person go up or down but not both, they have a worker there with a monitor connected to a camera mounted over the staircase. 

They only allow you to go up the staircase if there’s no one coming down from it as those people have higher priority.

 

 

 

 

Corner Seat

 

 

They are renovating the area where they used to have the Shakespeare in the Park plays

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

As you can see from the pictures, it was a sunny day, and with the heat/humidity, it was time for a water break before heading back to the hotel via the subway.

 

 

 

We got back at 4:30 and the favorite sight daily of coming back to the hotel lobby to see the cold water refreshment.  This being a hot day, there’s not much left but good enough for a quick drink at the lobby before heading up to the room.

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

The same routine as before – coming back to the room to rest and have a snack. 

 

Where is Café Promenade and the complimentary snacks?  Oh, well, guess we will have to buy our own snacks…

 

Time to try some of the macrons we bought yesterday.

 

 

[harryfat1]

We rested until dinner time before heading out.  Dinner for the night would be at the Hugh.  It’s just 5 blocks from the hotel.  Very nice and quiet setting.

 

Not too crowded on a weeknight for dinner as I believe it caters mostly to office workers as well as some tourists staying in the Midtown East.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

We got the Korean food. 

 

Good value and nice tasting on top of being in a bright open area.  Highly recommend to anyone in the area looking for a place to eat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 3 by harryfat1

[dani negreanu]

Given the choice, I'll travel to Europe end of June 😎

[NHProud]

@harryfat1 I e-mailed you an article on Paris .  My SIL and her kiddos have rented an Airbnb in Paris for 10 days in Oct.. They have tours booked to the champagne region because she loves wine. Also , a private tour at the Louvre .  
Have fun planning! 

[rncruiser]

I have a question for the frequent cruisers following this post. I am in the very early contemplation stages of planning a vacation for next summer. Given the extreme heat of this summer I am thinking on going somewhere cooler. Today I started to look at Norwegian Fjord cruises and I found that I could do a back to back on independence of the Seas for a 7 night Fjord cruise and a 8 night Notthern City cruise. My concern is two-fold. One, do I really want a 15 night cruise. I have never done more than 9 nights. I know that I am the only one who can answer that question. My other concern is the evening entertainment options. On an Oasis class ship I know I would enjoy seeing some of the shows twice but on a Freedom class ship I think once is enough. I know there are other things to do in the evening but my husband and I are not dancers. I’m usually lucky if I can get him up for one slow dance a cruise. And I doubt that the piano bar would be good enough to keep us going for a week. 
What has been the experience of those of you who have done B2B cruises been like?

[RobInMN]

Oasis class ships are our favorites, but they are limited in their itineraries. We did B2B 12 night Arctic Circle and 12 night Iceland & Ireland in 2022 on Jewel of the Seas. Prior to this, 8 nights was the longest we'd ever done, and this was our first Radiance class ship (and never done a Vision class). We had no issues with the length. We could have gone even longer.

We are also not dancers, and never felt bored at any time. They rotated acts on & off the ship every couple days. In the 24 nights, there was only 1 repeat and that was when there was a sea day when the previous night's headliner did an encore show. We enjoy the trivia and games of which there's almost always something each evening.

Looks like you only have 3 sea days and port days that run until 5-6 (or 1 itinerary has 6/8/4/6). By the time you get back and eat dinner, you might not even have that much time to be worried about being entertained.

[rncruiser]

On 8/2/2024 at 3:22 PM, harryfat1 said:

Strawberry Fields – where John Lennon was shot.

 

 

There’s always a performer here trying to earn a buck from all the people coming by to pay tribute to the great Beatles.  Maybe the fact that we all showed up in the large group, the singer decided to perform Lennon’s legendary song with a big crowd gathering

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the song to follow along:

 

 

John Lennon was actually shot in front of The Dakota, across the street from Central Park. 

[perfect match]

On 8/2/2024 at 3:09 PM, harryfat1 said:

Why do I want to visit every Disney property worldwide?  Simple – because my wife and I are big Disney fans.

 

How big?  We had various Mickey and Minnie items at our wedding.  We flew to Florida’s WDW for our honeymoon for 5 days before going on a Caribbean cruise.

Harry, I didn’t realize that you and your wife as big Disney fans as we are. We got married at Disneyland in California. When we decided to move from CT to FL we drew a circle on the map around WDW that would make it an easy drive to get to the parks in an hour or less and have been Annual Passholders ever since. I could go on but let’s get back to your awesome NYC trip instead.

[Jaynay]

Harry, just wanted to let you know I'm finally caught up reviewing your New York trip. This has been so much fun and I don't even have a trip to New York planned! We did fly into NJ two days before our 2021 (Covid-delayed) 9 day Canada/New England cruise and visited 9/11 and Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island. Ellis Island was amazing! 

 

I thought I had researched the Path trains well but apparently not, we almost boarded the wrong train - bought tickets onsite even - just outside our Hyatt House hotel. A wonderful person rescued us and took us to the right location under construction! You make the trains look easy so apparently I didn't do enough research. 

 

And arriving at the Oculus, while stunning, was overwhelming, so much White -  white floors, white ceilings, white walls...  very few places to sit and get your wits about you and figure out which "hall" you came out of so you would know where to return, etc. Like you say, easy to say "I got this" from the comfort of your chair at home...  But we really enjoyed the trip and your review makes me want to go back again.

 

Your reports are wonderful, so detailed, entertaining, and very helpful. LOVE the maps, food pics, costs, tour vendors and your reviews of them, and details, details, details! Your pictures are great, and straying away from the trip at hand has been fun and interesting too... I could go on and on LOL! Just want you to know your reports are enjoyed by many, not just your friends and close CC followers!

[harryfat1]

On 8/3/2024 at 12:17 PM, NHProud said:

@harryfat1 I e-mailed you an article on Paris .  My SIL and her kiddos have rented an Airbnb in Paris for 10 days in Oct.. They have tours booked to the champagne region because she loves wine. Also , a private tour at the Louvre .  
Have fun planning! 

Thanks for the info.  What email account did you use?

 

Wow.  Private tour of the Louvre.  I heard that the place is crazy busy with crowds.

 

We are not museum people but I guess it's obligatory to see the Louvre just to check it off the list.  We considered going to the Met Museum in NYC but replaced it with something else on day 9.

 

 

[harryfat1]

13 hours ago, perfect match said:

Harry, I didn’t realize that you and your wife as big Disney fans as we are. We got married at Disneyland in California. When we decided to move from CT to FL we drew a circle on the map around WDW that would make it an easy drive to get to the parks in an hour or less and have been Annual Passholders ever since. I could go on but let’s get back to your awesome NYC trip instead.

Yeah, we are big Disney fans.  So we flew from CA to FL for our honeymoon and you flew from FL to CA for your wedding?

 

You should plan to see all the Disney parks worldwide.  Here is a summary of each park:

 

https://www.disneytouristblog.com/best-worst-disney-theme-parks-world/

 

The Paris Dinsey Studios is the lowest ranking one until they finish building the Frozen land and other improvements might elevate their status.

 

But at least Paris Disneyland is ranked #4, so seeing that park will be worthwhile as part of the European trip.

 

I must be a Disney fan in that when I look at YouTube videos of London and Paris, it's more of a trip-planning necessity.  But when I look at Paris Disneyland videos online, there's joy underneath in anticipation of seeing a new Disney park.

 

London/Paris is for the mind and Paris Disneyland is for the heart.

 

Tokyo Disney parks are ranked #1 & #2 on the list.  We were there in 2019.  It was wonderful.  Highly recommend it seeing both parks.  Here are a few pics (well, OK, quite a few):

 

Disney Sea

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Toyko Disneyland:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even soup is Mickey shaped

 

 

They have a cover overhead on Main Street

 

 

 

 

Back to Disney Sea.  Gondola ride (no extra charge - unlike Venice and Vegas)

 

 

 

 

 

Underground version of Fantasy Land at Disney Sea:

 

 

 

 

Disney Subway

 

 

Toy Story Mochi snacks (sweet inside)

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

5 hours ago, Jaynay said:

Harry, just wanted to let you know I'm finally caught up reviewing your New York trip. This has been so much fun and I don't even have a trip to New York planned! We did fly into NJ two days before our 2021 (Covid-delayed) 9 day Canada/New England cruise and visited 9/11 and Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island. Ellis Island was amazing! 

 

I thought I had researched the Path trains well but apparently not, we almost boarded the wrong train - bought tickets onsite even - just outside our Hyatt House hotel. A wonderful person rescued us and took us to the right location under construction! You make the trains look easy so apparently I didn't do enough research. 

 

And arriving at the Oculus, while stunning, was overwhelming, so much White -  white floors, white ceilings, white walls...  very few places to sit and get your wits about you and figure out which "hall" you came out of so you would know where to return, etc. Like you say, easy to say "I got this" from the comfort of your chair at home...  But we really enjoyed the trip and your review makes me want to go back again.

 

Your reports are wonderful, so detailed, entertaining, and very helpful. LOVE the maps, food pics, costs, tour vendors and your reviews of them, and details, details, details! Your pictures are great, and straying away from the trip at hand has been fun and interesting too... I could go on and on LOL! Just want you to know your reports are enjoyed by many, not just your friends and close CC followers!

Wow, thank you so much for the kind words.  Much appreciated.  You made my day...

 

I don't promise quality but quantity I can do.  It's like buffets on the cruise ships.  I throw everything out there - photos/maps/needless comments/YouTube videos. Hopefully, somebody will like some part of the report. 

 

There's an adage that most people are not following on Twitter - treat others as you would want to be treated. I write my trip reports the way I want to read reports when I am researching - detailed walkthroughs and enough photos and dumb humor to keep the ADHD in me from getting bored.  So in essence, I am writing for my closet self out there somewhere.

 

Yeah, it's easy to navigate online as you think you understand everything but in reality, you will likely get lost.  We have gotten lost many times but with my son helping on his iPhone map and his iWatch map on top of my Google map, we can figure out most of the time after getting lost.

 

Google Maps isn't very good on these underground connections like the Oculus where you can go above or underground.  They can't map the underground connection very well.

 

Getting lost is part of the adventure of traveling as you just take it for granted that you will get lost someway/somehow on every trip.  But those will be memorable stories you will never forget and that's the important thing you will remember when you are too old to travel but you will have these stories forever.

 

We got lost in Japan as well and had to use Google Translate to ask for help. I am sure we will be lost as well when we go to London/Paris.  It's a given but the lost stories will be re-told many times...

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Back to the trip report.

 

Done with dinner and time to head out for the last event of the night – the biggest tourist attraction (trap) in NYC – the Empire State Building. 

 

Simple ride to the area as the subway entrance is in the same building as the Hugh as it was only 1.5 miles away from ESB

 

More NYC Pizzeria

 

 

[harryfat1]

Now that we have made it to the Empire State Building (ESB), it’s a good time to explain the ticketing process.

 

Similar to the other observation decks, you must select a time in 30-minute increments on your reservation time.  Since sunset viewing is a popular time, ESB will charge you a premium for wanting to go up around sunset time.

 

During the early July period, sunset in NYC was around 8:30.  As such, ESB charges more if you select any time slots between 5 and 9 PM. 

 

Being cheap, I picked the 9 PM slot as I wanted the night scene more than sunset but if sunset is important to you, I would book a time slot 1 hour before give yourself time to go up there and be situated ahead of the sunset.

 

For example, if sunset is at 8:30, book the 7:30 time slot and be in line before 7:30 as you have some “pre-show” things to do before actually making it up there.  Take your pre-sunset pictures and then wait until it gets dark to do your nighttime photography as to maximize your time up there.

 

If we were just going to see only one observation deck, that would be my strategy as to time it to see both pre and post-sunset.  But since we had already seen 2 other observation decks, we are only here for the sunset as ESB does not have a glass (wired fence) that will cause reflection glare in your pictures.