Café Con Monica

Travel Days: Universal Studios On New Year’s Day!

I think I have started and stopped typing this post about 8 times now but since I want to stick to posting about my travels here we are in December talking about New Years…but if you are looking for a fun trip for NYE then this could help!

As I mentioned in my previous post Travel Days: Orlando – New Years Eve we had already decided that we would leave Universal Studios for New Years Day. We didn’t know that it was going to be in the 50s and raining though!

I was most excited for Harry Potter everything but A was not….I know I am not sure how we make it work either. That being said I made us get up way early and head there…only to find that it was practically empty! Apparently people in Florida think 50s is too cold to be out all day. I kept checking the times for rides thinking they would fill up they never did, we actually rode every single ride we wanted to ride and the longest we waited for anything was about 25 minutes.

We started on one side and then took the Hogwarts train over to the other side…did the full loop and came back. At one point A asked me if the train was the only way to get back….I said yes knowing full well we could walk back but I couldn’t miss the chance!!

Anyway…here are some photos!


Trave Days: Carribean Cruise: Miami + Day at Sea

A couple weeks ago I decided to finally start sharing our Caribbean Cruise from this past June. In that post I talked about how we decided on the cruise and tried to book it while saving ourselves some money! You can see that post at Travel Days: Caribbean Cruise Pt. 1!

We decided to fly into Miami a day early to avoid rushing from Airport to the port on the same day of the cruise which was Sunday-Sunday! the added benefit was the flights were about $200 cheaper overall because we didn’t fly in the day of.

We booked a room at the Holiday Inn Port of Miami and we are very happy we did. The hotel is literally across the bridge from the port and across the street from a cute little shopping/market area Bayside Marketplace. So we got to walk around and explore a bit there when we arrived and before we headed to the port Sunday.

We had some lunch at La Camaronera and then dinner at CVI.CHE 105 because we wanted to try a place walking distance with drinks!

Then we got some rest and the next day we headed to the port and hopped on a big boat! We got settled into our room, got some dinner and relaxed.

Our first day was at Sea so we spent the morning at the pool getting sun and drinking frozen drinks…then we went to play Bingo and tried a beer and whiskey pairing class. We explored the boat and then got dressed up and had dinner and more drinks!

I loved coming back to our room to find the animal towels!
So that is the the beginning our cruise!

Travel Days: Caribbean Cruise Pt. 1

 

You can check out some of my other Travel Days Posts here! 
How we ended up on a 7 Night Western Caribbean Cruise

While I was taking all that time off the blog over the summer A and I went on a Caribbean Cruise. We had originally planned to be going to Europe with his group of friends at that time but alas group trips always find a way to fall apart and no one booked anything. We found ourselves 2 months before we both had time off and nothing planned. We eventually settled on a cruise (not what I wanted but A is not very good at just sitting around so All inclusive beach trip isn’t high on his radar) I have mentioned before I am a HUGE supporter of cheaper traveling so I was all about finding the best deal for this cruise, the cheapest flight to Miami and the best priced stay for the overnight before we boarded.

I scoured sights and came to this:

  • We booked on Expedia because they were offering the stops we wanted as well as deals like choices of drink package, 3 or 4 night dinner package, wifi for the trip or $$ towards an excursion. 
  • Considering that we both like to drink and the drink packages on cruises are ridiculous we saved over $400 choosing the drink package option. 
  • Expedia also offered $50 towards an excursion through them
  • I also took advantage of the Norweign Upgrade Advantage that lets you name a price you are willing to pay to upgrade your room. I low balled it HARD for a few different upgrades and eventually we got a bigger/nicer room for only $100 more. 
  •  We knew that 8 days is A LOT to be making plans for every day so we chose to only do excursions on 3 of the 4 stops.
  • We decided not to do the wifi package and instead choose to do 3 nights of dining package. (looking back now I would NOT do the dining package again. It was not worth it.)

This is my favorite photo from the trip and a glimpse of the kind of trip it was! 

FOLLOW

@cafeconmonica

[instagram-feed]