Living the Dream: 2015 Disney Cruise Line Trip Report - Day 1: UNDER (a time constraint trying to get to) THE BOARDWALK, Part 2

Part 1 can be viewed here.

We dropped everything off, freshened up, and started heading out to the International Gateway.  This was the first time we have stayed at an Epcot resort, so not taking a bus or car to a park was unnatural to us.  When we walked out of the Boardwalk Inn and onto the Boardwalk, we both felt the smiles slowly form on our faces.  The entire area is just.........fun!

ESPN Club was getting busier as it was opening night for the NFL.  When we crossed the bridge over the water that the Friendship boats used, I had to pause and look over at the Beach Club.  I grabbed my phone and took this pic:

When Sheri asked what that was about, I told her that the last time I was there, I had the best beer I have ever tasted.  During the 2014 Disney World Marathon, one of the families that I have come to know and love, Tom and Molly Troost, had people stationed there to cheer the marathoners.  Tom was running his very first marathon (with no training for it, either, I might add…a bib fell into his lap the day before), while Molly and a couple of their daughters had some beers that they were handing out.  This was around mile 24.5, and I was struggling; my running partners, Ellie (a fellow Team AllEars teammate) and Darrell (someone who joined our group at the start and stayed with us the whole way…we bonded over those 26.2 miles), were good enough to stay with me to the end, despite my protests for them to finish.  Anyway, Molly saw us approaching and started screaming.  Then she showed us the cooler, which still had a couple of beers left.  She handed Ellie and me a Michelob Ultra, and we split the best-tasting beer I’ve ever had.  That place will forever be known by me as Troost’s Beer Corner! (You can read about this in one of my marathon installments...here.)

When we arrived to Guest Services, it was about 7:43, which was 2 minutes before the end of our FastPass window for Test Track.  I  knew we weren’t going to make it, so, while we waited for one couple ahead of us to get their issues straightened out (they needed a travel agent…badly), Sheri and I discussed what we should do.  We contemplated single rider line for Test Track, skipping Test Track and just going to Soarin, forgetting all the attractions and just going to La Cava del Tequila for the night…about eight minutes later (they REALLY needed a travel agent to help them before they got to the parks), we approached the cast member with the voucher and our IDs.  He smiled and said, “You’ve done this before, haven’t you?”  After the beating he took with the last guest, I think he was relieved to have an easy thing to do.  As we talked, the excellent Epcot background music changed, and I mentioned that I always thought Epcot had the best background music.  He agreed wholeheartedly, and we both also agreed that Adventureland in the Magic Kingdom was a close second.  He let us pick our characters for the AP cards and asked if we had dining reservations.  I mentioned that our flight landed over an hour late, and we ended up missing our last FP window; we were likely just going to enjoy the Epcot atmosphere until Illuminations and then grab something after the park closed over on the Boardwalk.

He looked at me and said, “Wait a second…let’s see what we can do.”  Yep, he was able to get us a FP for Test Track that was good until park closing.

Gotta love the Disney Magic..

Disney, if you’re reading this, please give the guy working at Guest Relations at International Gateway the evening of September 10^th kudos in his record…we weren’t looking for anything at all (we were just happy we made it), and he surprised us with the magic.  I wish I could have remembered or written down his name to pass it on.

He asked again if we wanted to look for reservations, and we declined, though I think he would have tried to get us whatever we wanted.  After expressing our thanks, we parted ways and headed to the entrance.  Another collective breath-holding commenced as we tried our MagicBands with the Annual Passes to get into a park for the first time.  Green lights all around (translation: they worked flawlessly).

The first thing that Sheri and I both noticed was the complete lack of people in Epcot.  It was QUIET!!!  Touringplans had predicted a 2/10 on the crowd calendar, and it was at most a 2.  Normally around 8pm, the UK Pavilion is bustling with tons of people; this night, however, we were able to make it through the UK with no problem at all.  There were a few starting to line up for Illuminations, but there were a LOT of open spaces.  As we turned towards Future Land, we saw our first crowd: a bunch of folks waiting for the FP viewing area. 

We caught a quick pic from PhotoPass in front of Spaceship Earth before heading over to Test Track.  We were immediately sent into the car design room, which took too long (LET US ON THE ATTRACTION…WE WANT THE CAR…WE WANT THE CAR…WE WANT…)  Okay, it actually was kind of neat once we saw how our designs performed on the course.  I checked the time, and, while we waiting for the final queue, Sheri and I discussed the next plan of action.  She asked if La Cava closed at 9.  I sent a message to my Moose friends to see if they knew how La Cava closed down (did they close at 9 or just quit seating people at 9?  I know that the Moose would know the answer).  We got our answer within 5 minutes, and, after checking the wait time for Soarin (5 minutes…5 minUTES???  ONLY 5 MINUTES??!!!!!!!), we decided to forego the tequila and salsa for Soarin.

We scanned our design and made it into the car.  I have to admit that I think I like the older version just a bit over the new Tron Track.   It’s close, but I think I like the hot/cold/corrosion room along with the more realistic semi-truck and the crash test.

After Test Track, we made a beeline to the Land Pavilion to see if the 5 minute wait was for real.  I timed the wait for TouringPlans and found that it was the AFAYCW time (Mush-speak for “as fast as you can walk”)…we were blowing by the Kronk Video and stopping the timer at exactly 5 minutes.

Holy cow…Test Track and Soarin both in 35 minutes!  Yeah, I agree that September is a good month to tour the parks.

But wait…the day is not yet over!  We walked out and took the Imagination Pavilion route to World Showcase.  We decided that we would see the Imagination fountains and then just walk around to say HI to all the Pavilions while Illuminations was going on.

We made it to Mexico in the hopes of trying to grab a drink before it all closed, but 9:00 pm hit just as we got by La Hacienda de San Angel, and everything started shutting down.  We heard, “Good Evening….”, and the Illuminations spiel was starting.  As we made it out of Mexico and near Norway where they were building the Frozen stuff that caught on fire the day before, I stopped to look for a spot that wasn’t too bad to view the show, fully expecting to find nothing.  Sure enough, they were only about 2 deep by the railing almost all around the lagoon, so we stopped and helped blow out the torches to watch the show.

I still love love love this show!  This was the first time I’ve seen the show with the laser addition, and I have to concur that the lasers add quite a bit!  I know that there are rumors about a replacement coming in sometime in the future (rumors about the use of drone technology in the new show….kewl).  After the show was over (PEOPLE, don’t leave when “We Go On” starts…the show’s not over yet!), we continued our tour of the World Showcase Pavilions in a clockwise motion…Norway, China, Germany…I paused at Italy to grab a photo and post on Facebook, knowing that several friends were (then) currently on an Adventures by Disney European tour and just finished Venice and the Piazza San Marco, which the Italy Pavilion is fashioned after.

Mexico Pavilion

Germany Pavilion

Italy Pavilion

Continuing our tour of the World Showcase are the American Adventure and Japan, which are both dazzling at night.  Morocco was followed by France, and we had to get a picture there, of course!

France Pavilion

After crossing the bridge, we felt odd as we took a left to exit the International Gateway. 

Oh yeah…we could definitely stay at an Epcot Resort again!  #coughcoughBeachClub

Knowing that the chances were very slim, I tried to see if Beaches and Cream had a table available, as we were nearing the starving stage.  As expected, the Disney World App laughed at me.  We headed toward the Boardwalk and started walking around, in search of grub.  ESPN Club erupted in shouts and applause as we walked by.  I’d like to think it was because we were walking by; it was just a coincidence that Gronk grabbed a TD pass from Brady at the same time.

Boardwalk Joe’s came into sight, and a margarita was starting to sound good; however, the lack of food, coupled with alcohol, might have resulted in us skinny dipping in Crescent Lake.  We popped into the Boardwalk Bakery and each grabbed a smoked turkey sandwich (advice…they’re big enough to share) (reality…we didn’t share and regretted eating the entire sandwiches).  With food in hand, we made our way to Boardwalk Joe’s in search of fermentation.  While we both initially were thinking of margaritas, the Captain’s Seaside Sensation started calling our names, and we decided to give them a try.

I think that the base of the drink is the same base that they use for the ever-popular Dole Whips.  I knew it was going to be good, because they added a little Spiced Rum to it.

Oh…..yeah…..!

As we dined, we didn’t talk too much; we took in the sights and sounds around us: the occasional shouts from the ESPN Club; the friendship boats’ horns and engines; the end credits of a movie under the stars on the Boardwalk lawn; and the occasional clap of hands nearby.  Wait…clap of hands?  One of the cast member performers was doing his set on juggling and magic about 50 feet away from us, so we finished eating and headed over to catch the last few minutes of his set.  He brought up a couple of children from the gathering crowd and had them take part in the last skit.  I don’t think he said a single word, yet he was very entertaining.

Nice job Disney…it’s great seeing roving acts like these still around!

(please bring back Off Kilter)

Tomorrow was going to be a big day for us, so we decided to forego walking down to check out Jellyrolls and head in.  We walked around in the Belle Vue Lounge for a bit before calling it a night and heading up to our room.  I put the cruise luggage tags on the bags (after removing the airline tags), and we crash for the night.  I turned the television on and put it on sleep mode.

What channel?

Disney cartoons, of course.


(Day 2 starts HERE)

Living the Dream: 2015 Disney Cruise Line Trip Report - Day 1: UNDER (a time constraint trying to get to) THE BOARDWALK, Part 1

Pre-Trip post can be found HERE.

Typically, I like having a countdown for an upcoming trip; this adds to the excitement.  Things were so absolutely busy with the boys’ sports and other functions, coupled with real-world job and volunteer issues keeping us busy and stressed out, that we didn’t really have a countdown at all.  It seemed like we rolled over to each other in bed, looked at each other, and casually mentioned that our vacation was starting the next morning.


We NEEDED this trip like you couldn’t believe.

September 10th rolled around, and we had everything ready.  Since we were heading down to Florida the day before, we decided to take advantage of it and have a bit of fun at Disney World.  I was able to snag a great car rental rate (with taxes and fees, renting at Orlando International Airport and returning it at Port Canaveral, it was around $36).  I was also able to find a really good rate for a resort that I haven’t yet stayed at (Disney’s Boardwalk Inn), so we booked a room at the Boardwalk.

FastPass+ and dining reservations were made, and MagicBands were ordered.  Our passports had arrived, bags were packed, clients were all up-to-date, logistics for the kids/cat were all set…yeah, we were ready.


Oh, the things I do for research.


We polled the boys about 374 times to make sure they had everything they needed as they were heading to friends’ places for a night (they had school the next day).  After the 7th time we asked, they assured us that they had everything (we still polled them the remaining 367 times).  After we dropped them off at school, we went back home and waited.


I HATE WAITING!!!!!


I like taking the first flight out and getting to our destination as soon as possible.  This wasn’t going to work this time because of school.  To placate my A.D.D./O.C.D. tendencies, I worked a bit until it was time to leave.  The cat sensed that we were never coming back and bit me multiple times (anyone want a cat?).  We quadruple-checked everything, packed everything we were taking into the van, and headed out for our ten-minute drive to the airpoWAAAAIIIITTT!!  Wifey wanted a selfie first (grrr).

FINALLY, we were on our way to the airport.  Free parking was found (no money in the middle of the Monopoly board, though), and the first thing that told me that we’re on vacation occurred: I put my car keys in my carry-on instead of in my pocket.

Yeah, it’s a minor thing, but I still get giddy when I put the keys away.

I took a picture of where the car was located (in case I forgot when we got back)...

The checked bags got sent away, and we headed to the TSA checkpoint with our Passports for the first time ever.  I was half-expecting that we forgot to do something with the Passports and that the TSA agent would laugh at us when we presented them, telling us that we’re morons for not registering the passports online or calling them in for verification.  We made it through easily, even without a comment on how crazy my last name is!  I did, however, forget to take off my belt when I went through the scanner, so I had a TSA agent get to second base with me…since I forgot my belt, I almost expected him to steal third (he didn’t).


After verifying that all was good, I met back up with Sheri, who also got some action with a pat-down.  We grabbed a seat and waited for the flight, which came in early.  This was good…hopefully we could depart early and then arrive in Atlanta early enough for us to have a chance at flying standby on a flight that would get us into Orlando over an hour earlier (remember, we were going into one of the parks tonight…Epcot was the plan).

We departed on time.

Grrrr.


It was an uneventful flight.  We landed, checked the earlier flight (which was already starting to board), and decided to just take our time and make our scheduled flight.  We subwayed to the terminal we needed to be at and decided to grab a bite to eat at Chick-A-fil (yeah, it’s Chick-fil-A, but I made a mistake about 250 years ago and said “Chick-A-Fil” to wifey, and she still reminds me of my gaffe…every…time…we…see…a…flippin’…Chick…A…Fi…I MEAN CHICK-FIL-A!!!)

Food eaten, we chilled for a while, and I made the mistake of checking my e-mail while on vacation; I already made the mistake at the Bloomington Airport and had to deal with a volunteer position where I had to make an executive decision on a funding/budgetary concern on the fly.  The Atlanta e-mail crisis, though...ugh.  Our school district had to deal with an unanticipated mold problem, and they have done an awesome job trying to work around it while one building was cleared out.  The decision was made to make a change to the schedule and not have school on the following Monday (the day we get back).  This decision made perfect sense; however, when you’ve got logistics set up with the assumption that the kids will have school on Monday and you’re about 700 miles away and about to board a plane, you tend to go into overdrive and start thinking up alternative scenarios to recover the logistics that just got completely torpedoed.  We were already dealing with baseball changes that were occurring on the fly, thanks to the weather and to schedule additions.  The school thing…argh  (note to Dave…it was the right decision to make…it just had my heart rate hit around 220, which was probably where my blood pressure top number was approaching LOL).

I made a phone call and got voice mail.  Attempted phone call #2 and got the answering machine.  The third time was a charm, and I broke the news to my Mother-in-law, who was one of the primary logicians in our plan.  Luckily, I get along well with my Mother-in-Law, and, as she’s now connected to the internet, I will only say good things about her from here on out (Hi Cindy!).  She said that they’ll figure it out and that we shouldn’t worry about it.

Okay…all we needed then was for this Boeing 757 to adhere to the laws of physics and aerodynamics, and we would be in Disney World by 6:45…enough time to use the FastPass we set up for Test Track.  Even if we were slightly delayed, we’d still have until 7:45 pm to make it.


For those not used to my writing style, that last paragraph is known as foreshadowing.  Everyone knows that something had to happen, right?

Right.


We departed on time and were heading out to the active runway (the gate was at the west end, and the winds had us departing from the east to the west).  After the longish taxi, I noticed that, as we were heading to runway 27R, the second engine hadn’t been lit yet and that we were turning left near the international terminal instead of turning right to take the active.


That’s when the captain came on the intercom and informed us that they had blocked departures from the south side of the airfield due to weather.  Ops was working on a new route, which meant that we would likely have a longer route (just as the Captain said, “this new route will add about 20 minutes to our original flight”).  Immediately, I hearkened back to my online flying days (yeah, don’t ask).  Typically, we’d fly to Valdosta, GA and enter the LEESE2 or PIGLT4 arrival into MCO.  With the storm south of the airfield and us departing to the west, I figured we’d depart and make a long turn north, then east, and we’d have to join a new arrival, like the CWRLD4.  After about ten minutes, we started rolling west and then snuck through the ramps; we were going to depart on the north side.  Luckily, they snuck us in the queue and were only third in line rather than 238th in line.  We blasted off and headed west for quite a while…and then we turned left (south).  Were we going to come in over the Gulf and take the southwest arrival route in (COSTR3, for you aviation geeks)?

Nope.  We played chicken with a number of cells that were popping up.  I think I know how those in the shuttles felt during the asteroid collision avoidance scene in Armageddon.  We were banking left and right all over the place.  We ended up coming back north after that long detour south and came in over Valdosta.  Long story short: we were going to be landing quite a bit later than expected.  I looked at Sheri and, in my best Tom Hanks (Apollo 13 Hanks), I said, “We just lost Test Track.”

Luckily, we did land from the North, so that cut the taxiing time by a lot.  This was going to be a new experience for us; this was the first time we have ever landed in Orlando and not taken Magical Express to Disney World.  We still did the same routine, though…we got off the plane and skipped the bathrooms; we went straight for the tram to the terminal and made a beeline for the escalator down.  Off the escalator and…..whhooooaaaahhhhh…turn off the autopilot…we had to get our checked bags.  We headed left and made use of the (very quiet) facilities before grabbing the bags, which came out soon afterward.

Our instincts had us heading down the escalator and heading to the folks with the big white hands, but we instead had to force ourselves to head outside and over to the parking garage where the Budget FastBreak kiosk was.  We were first in line; all I had to do was show my ID, and we were heading to our car in less than a minute.  After we loaded up, we grabbed our Garmin and fired it up…and it never synced.  Sheri was getting a little concerned, but she forgot that she married a massively anal retentive guy who researches the heck out of everything and had already Google mapped the route no fewer than 8 times.  I looked at her and said, “All I need to do is get on Jeff Fuqua and hop on 417…trust me”.  She looked at me with this weird expression on her face (I see it at least 4-5 times a day), like “How the Hell do you know that??!!”  She finally gave up on the Garmin, grabbed her phone, and turned on Waze.  Boom…Fuqua to 417.

She didn’t appreciate the dance I did while driving.

Since we saved quite a bit on the car rental and were running late, we decided to turn on the I-Pass for the car and just blow through the toll booths.  Waze was trying to get us to stay on 417 and take Osceola in.  Hell no!  I mapped out (8 times…Google mapped) hopping on 536 and coming in Epcot Center Drive.  Sheri questioned her decision to marry me as well as my decision to ignore the Waze, especially since we have never been on 417 before.  “Trust me”, I said.  She gave me an “okay”, but I think she secretly started looking up AAA’s or the Boardwalk’s number to call for directions.
We got on 536, and Sheri started praying.  I ignored the signs telling me to take I-4.  Sheri just looked down at her phone (Waze was giving up on me, too).  We saw the “Welcome to Walt Disney World” sign.  Sheri wept with joy.

One turn onto Buena Vista Drive…one turn onto Epcot Resorts Boulevard, and Boo-yah…welcome to the Boardwalk!

We pulled in, checked in with at the security gate, and received our parking pass.   Once the gate was opened, we headed straight for the main entrance (we’re late…get outta da way, youz guyz!  Boardwalk…Jersey…get it?) and didn’t even give the valet/bellhops a chance to help us with our bags.  We had the trunk empty and were walking up went we received our first “Welcome Home, Mr. and Mrs. Mushrush!”

I love hearing that…waaaiiiiiit a minute…we didn’t tell you our name yet…how in the…??? (yes, I know how, but I still love seeing the Disney Magic going on here).  Sheri thought that was a nice touch.

The cast member who welcomed us home guided us to an open check-in slot, and all was done in a couple of minutes.  Sheri’s jaw dropped at the lobby and willingly let me park the car while she stayed behind to watch the bags.  I pahked the cah (that’s my Jersey accent, in honor of the Boardwalk) and found Sheri, who was busy taking pics around the lobby:

We headed over to the Inn side of the resort and finally saw the Belle Vue Lounge, site of the (in)famous 2007 Braless Girl incident at the Moose Meet.

There are pics out there of the incident (including an absolutely hilarious one of Tink trying to maintain eye contact with this unknown woman), but I just can't get myself to post them.  If you weren’t there…don’t ask.  We were fortunate to have missed that one as we hadn’t arrived yet for the Moose Meet.


We marveled at the theming of the hallways and then held our collective breath as Sheri tried using her MagicBand for the first time.  It worked!  We opened up the door, and it was my turn to have a jaw-drop moment…absolutely beautiful!

(The next installment can be viewed HERE)

Living the Dream: 2015 Disney Cruise Line Trip Report - Pre-trip

Okay, first off, let me introduce myself for those who may now know who I am.  The name’s Mush, and I’ve been a Disney freak for about ten years now.  After traveling several times with my family to the Walt Disney World resort, my wife (Sheri) and I became “those people” who helped plan out trips for friends and family members.

In early 2014, I started contemplating taking this trip planning to another level: since I do this for quite a few people all the time for free, why not do what I love and get paid for it at the same time?  Why not consider becoming a travel specialist?  It wouldn’t cost the people I help any more money; in fact, if I do things well, I could probably save them quite a bit of money than if they tried booking their trips themselves!  I could also help them with the actual itinerary planning, getting the My Disney Experience thing figured out, etc.  Yeah…why not?

So I did.

I have joined forces with two very good friends of mine at Starfish Travel, LLC, and I’m having an absolute blast helping people with their travel needs!

I anticipated that I’d have about 80% of my clients be friends/family and that they’d be using it for Disney World primarily.  I soon found out that I had the ratios flipped…the vast majority of my bookings are coming from referrals!  I consider this a VERY good thing, and I’ll take it any day of the week.

Being an economist, I don’t simply want to “put all my eggs in one basket”; I want to diversify, especially after I had three bookings coming in simultaneously and realized that I can handle an increased workload with travel planning fairly easily.  I decided to work at adding various cruise lines to my repertoire.  I don’t just want to start selling cruises, though, without knowing about them.  Sure, the various lines have their literature and their online programs that help agents familiarize themselves with the product, but I want to offer the same level of service with the cruise lines that I do with Disney World / Disneyland.  That means I need first-hand experience with the cruise lines.  The obvious choice for my first cruise experience: Disney Cruise Line (duh...told you that it was obvious).

There was a slight issue, however, that I knew I was going to have to deal with…my wife.  You see, Sheri is prone to motion sickness; I jokingly say that she needs Dramamine for the “it’s a small world” attraction at the Magic Kingdom.  As she is the “packer” of our family, I want her to go to see her perceptions of the ship: storage space, number of outlets, closets, etc.  There is another problem, too – she has seen the movie “Titanic” one too many times.  I had a significant task ahead of me: I had to convince someone who I love very much to take on what she considers a life-risking endeavor that she will likely be barfing on for the entire duration.

My tactic?  Get as many people as I could to talk up cruising to her!


If that didn’t work, I’d pour on the guilt… “I need to take this cruise so I can start selling cruises.  The longer I wait, the more bookings I’ll miss out on…”


If THAT one didn’t work, I considered just booking her without her knowledge and hitting her over the head with a club the day the cruise starts.  She’d come to after we leave port and will have no choice but to remain on the ship.


Luckily, I didn’t have to use that last option.


I presented it to her and she acquiesced fairly quickly, with a caveat: “if I’m sick the entire trip, you’re dead meat!”  I didn’t doubt her at all and took her at her word, so I started researching “how to keep your spouse from chumming the water on a cruise”.  She asked about price, and I went into this long diatribe about sailing seasons, room selections/locations, itineraries, etc.  When I woke her back up 45 minutes later, she said that I was the travel agent...do my job.


To avoid a sudden end to my life, I went with the shortest cruise that Disney offered: the 3-night Bahamas itinerary.  I recommended a time in September as it would still be warm and not in as high of demand as many other times of the year.  I casually forgot to mention that it was the peak of hurricane season in that area.  I opted for a mid- aft- stateroom with a balcony, which she agreed with.  Ba-da-bing…ba-da-boom…we were booked.  I was happy to hear that Cathy and Michelle, my friends who own Starfish Travel, seemed to agree that I made a decent selection for the booking, the option regarding transfers, the stateroom, etc.  As they have well over 100 cruises collectively under their belts, I took this as a sign that I might not be too terrible at this cruising travel agent thing after all.  In no time, we were booked (I did it quickly before Sheri’s buyer’s remorse set in).  For those interested, we decided to go with a Deluxe Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah, Cat 5C, Stateroom 7158, with the 3-night Itinerary A to Nassau.  This cruise eventually also had the “Halloween on the High Seas” events added.


I won’t bore you with the logistical issues we had.  You see, we have three other family members, a 12 year old son involved in everything, a 10 year old son also involved in a bunch of stuff, and a 1 year old cat that doesn’t like being left alone in the house for more than 20 minutes.  The boys weren’t going to be going on this trip, despite their protests.  They had school, baseball, football, etc.  The cat, however, just wanted someone to be nearby so she could bite him/her.  It took planning that rivaled a military invasion, but all things were covered, and I’m happy to report that all of them are still alive after the trip and that one is happily gnawing on my arm (I’ll let you decide which one that is).


As I write this, I’ll be offering up a few pointers that might help you in deciding whether or not a cruise is right for you (hint: for most of you, the answer will be a resounding “YES!!”).

One of the first pieces of advice that I could give you would be to ARRIVE TO THE AREA THE DAY BEFORE EMBARKATION (the day your ship departs).  This helps out with stress and anxiety that comes with flying in the day of the cruise.  One single delay can instantly mess up an entire vacation if one chooses to arrive on the day of the cruise.  Remember that, just because your area might have nice weather, your inbound plane (or crew) might have 2-3 stops before it gets to your airport, and delays can hit anywhere.

The next piece of advice that I would like to offer to you is to BUY TRAVEL INSURANCE!!!  Things can come up unexpectedly (like a delayed/canceled flight, an illness, a lifestyle change (think job loss), etc.  Also, cruises have a final payment day that is much earlier than many other types of vacation.  At the time of this writing, Disney World, for example, has a 45 day final payment date.  Many hotels have a 5:00-7:00 pm cancel on the day of your arrival.  Disney Cruise Line has a 75 day final payment for regular staterooms and 100 day final payment for those staying in concierge units or suites.  Of course, that is for cruises of 5 nights or fewer.  6-9 night cruises have a 90 day final payment date for both regular and concierge staterooms/suites.  For those cruising on 10+ night itineraries, the final payment date is 120 for regular staterooms and 150 for concierge units.  Of course, these are all different for cruises classified as “holiday” cruises.  Oh, and, if you’re not departing out of a U.S. port, then it’s 120 days for regular staterooms and 90 days for suites/concierge.

Confused yet?

That leads to my third recommendation…USE A TRAVEL AGENT TO BOOK YOUR CRUISES!!  Yes, it has sort of a self-promoting feel to it, but, after going through the process, I can honestly say that I believe it to be 100% wholly true.  Imagine missing a payment date and having your booking canceled. What about traveling with a child but not both parents?  Will you need a Passport?  How does embarkation/debarkation work?  What is actually included in the price?  Are there any other fees that I don’t know about?  How about bringing on or buying alcohol?  This stateroom seems like an AWESOME deal…should I book it, or is it just below the dance club?  What is a Guaranty booking???  I’ll have your back on these things. I’ll also be watching for deals that might lower the price for you or get you into a better stateroom (or get you a little on-board credit to cover for the difference in the fare).  I’ll help you with selecting the right cruise line, ship, itinerary, and stateroom that fits best with what you’re looking for.

Before we start talking about the actual cruise, though, we have to get there (remember what I just said about arriving the day before a cruise?).  The next installment of the trip report will be looking at the arrival day!  Yes, folks, there will be pictures from here on out!

For those who might be unfamiliar with my writing style, I try to include a lot of detail, so it seems that you're with us on the trip.  You might picture yourself walking alongside us as we experience the vacation...that's the goal, at least.

With that, I suggest you buckle up, because this was an amazing trip!!!  Here we go...

Day 1, Part 1 starts HERE.

Looking for LUV

Author's note: I first wrote this late last winter and filed it in the "get-it-off-my-chest-but-don't-post-it" category; however, with the recent news of Frontier Airlines ending service from our local airport, this immediately jumped to mind.  With a few edits, I was able to update the original writing to the present time it is being posted.  Please note that the expressions here are strictly my own; I am not representing any entity other than myself.





Okay…so I had a little free time on my hands, and, being A.D.D., that’s never a good thing.  As I pondered a trip to a warmer climate last winter during Central Illinois’s deep freeze, I again was reminded of the somewhat dismal flight options at our area's disposal.  BMI (Central Illinois Regional Airport) is just what its name tells us…a regional airport.  It was likely set up primarily as a spoke in the hub-and-spoke systems for most major airlines.  When AirTran (AirTran was the carrier, but Southwest had purchased AirTran and was beginning the merger changes) pulled out of BMI in 2012, however, the competition took a major hit.  Being an economist, I fully understand the decision to do this.


That doesn’t imply that I like it, though.

From what I have gathered, one of the primary reasons for Southwest not continuing service at BMI was that the demand likely would not be strong enough to sustain viability.  Initially, I agreed.  Then the A.D.D. got to me, and I started thinking a bit more on this.  Bloomington is just about equidistant to St. Louis (170 miles) and Indianapolis (173 miles).  Chicago’s Midway airport is a bit closer at 127 miles away.  The argument could be made that one in Central Illinois could simply drive to one of these three airports to fly Southwest; however, when you look at the metropolitan(ish) areas in central Illinois, the population base gives a more compelling factor for flights to/from BMI.  For example:

Bloomington/Normal:                                     131,000

Peoria (around 45 miles away):                      115,000

Decatur (46 miles away):                               75,000

Rantoul (50 miles away):                                 13,000

Champaign/Urbana (51 miles away):               124,000

LaSalle/Peru/Oglesby (63 miles away):               23,000

Springfield (66 miles away):                            117,000

Danville (81 miles away):                                  81,000

Galesburg (85 miles away):                               32,000

Charleston/Mattoon (97 miles away)                 40,000

All of these metro areas are closer to BMI than to MDW, STL, or IND.  That’s around 750,000 potential customers.  Throw in a conservative estimate of an additional 80,000 people living in smaller towns within that radius, and there are easily over three quarters of a million people closer to BMI than to any other airport that Southwest serves.  I could expand the radius to include the 380,000 plus people in the Quad Cities, (yes, at 142 miles, Bloomington is closer to the Quad Cities than Des Moines, Chicago, and St. Louis), and the population soars to well over 1 million potential customers.   My estimates apparently are very conservative – a 2011 article in the Decatur Herald-Review stated that around 1.8 million residents lived within 90 miles of BMI.

Compare that to places such as Manchester, NH (56 miles away from Boston’s Logan International Airport and with a population of 110,000…even with surrounding areas, it does not come close to BMI's customer potential).  Albany, NY is 107 miles to BDL (Hartford/Springfield…serviced by Southwest).  Some may say that Syracuse is close to Albany, but the Orangemen fans can take Southwest flights out of the closer Rochester airport.

The argument could still be made that they wouldn’t be able to fill the seat on the planes.  Let’s assume that the equipment arriving into BMI would be the 737-700, with a capacity of around 137.  If all flights originated at BMI (as the hub-spoke flights do), then filling multiple departures with that many passengers would be a very daunting task.  Southwest doesn’t follow the typical hub-spoke system, however.  They are more point-to-point oriented, and, if BMI is an intermediate stop rather than an originating flight, then many of the seats are already accounted for with passengers remaining on the plane to continue on to a subsequent destination.

Here are some numbers from when AirTran flew out of BMI.  BMI passenger counts were in the 550,000 range.  AirTran accounted for around 40% of that, which gives us around 220,000.  That includes both inbound and outbound passengers, so divide that total by 2, and we’re at 110,000.  Divide that by 365 days, and the daily departure number appears to be around 301.  This number may seem a bit small, but, when I worked at the old BMI terminal for Frontier and AirTran, the vast majority of those passengers were heading to MCO with the rest connecting through ATL to another city.  Back then, AirTran did not in any way cover the destination cities that Southwest currently reaches…the increase in destinations would undoubtedly increase ridership by a significant amount.  Throw in the notion that the departing flights will already have a portion of seats already filled, and I think a case could be made that they could have nearly 100% of the seats filled for several BMI departures/arrivals.

I am going to make some assumptions that may or may not be accurate at all here…they are simply numbers that I am guessing at.  I'm going to be very conservative here and assume that 75% of the seats of a 737-700 are open for a departing aircraft. That comes to around 105 seats available for BMI outbound traffic.  Southwest’s load factor (percent of available seats occupied) seems to hover somewhere around 80%.  80% of 105 seats gives us 84 seats expected to be filled for each departure.  If the percentage of seats available is lower (i.e., if more people stay on the plane at BMI to continue to the next destinations), then this makes it even more attractive for Southwest.  With AirTran’s numbers from the previous paragraph, that means that Southwest could likely have the demand for 3-4 flights and maintain their system-wide load factor. This is assuming ridership numbers from AirTran in 2011.  With Southwest’s coverage, I think it’s a decent assumption that total passengers could very well increase.

How much that number will increase, however, is anyone’s guess.  If SWA started service in Bloomington, the increase could come from several sources.  First, it will without a doubt take passengers from existing BMI service.  Delta, American, Frontier (which just announced that it is pulling out of BMI), and Allegiant will all have to cut fares to maintain competitiveness or have their load factors drop.  If Southwest offers daily service, then it may potentially deal a fatal blow to Allegiant’s twice-a-week service to Orlando/Sanford.  Delta will likely find itself back in the situation where it had to compete for passengers when AirTran had service to BMI – this is a win-win for BMI passengers.  The second source of increased ridership will come from the decreased overall cost of flying, from the passengers' perspective.  Some people in central Illinois simply choose not to fly because of the limited options and/or they do not want to drive to IND, MDW, or STL.  BMI will be a shorter and less-congested commute than MDW, IND, and STL for a lot of people (see above).  BMI is a smaller airport that doesn’t have many of the headaches that are inherent with larger airports.  BMI also has free parking.  Southwest’s fares are typically on-par or lower than other airlines, and they have the free checked bags offer, which keeps the overall cost lower relative to other airlines’ final costs.  I teach my Principles of Economics students that “people respond to incentives” early on; if SWA began service to central Illinois, the incentive to fly out of BMI will attract a number of people who would otherwise simply choose not to fly.

Some may argue that starting service would, in effect, cannibalize the population base for IND, MDW, and STL.  The economist in me thinks that the demand would still be there for the larger cities Yes, I think some who would normally fly out of Chicago, Indianapolis, or St. Louis would instead choose to fly out of BMI.  I don’t think this would be significant number, though.  Even if it were, each of these metro areas have well over 1.5 million people to draw from, and the loss of passengers due to the impact from service starting at BMI would likely not be that much at all, assuming an even distribution of passengers flying from BMI instead of IND, MDW, or STL.  SWA alone has around 250 daily departures from MDW…spreading out a small number of lost passengers over that many flights will probably make any impact negligible.

The next question that I think logically follows would be the destinations that you could directly fly to from BMI.  The point-to-point system creates an interesting dilemma here. Even though it is point-to-point, there are still “gateways” that I noticed when studying the SWA route map.

•      To get to many destinations along the east coast, a flight to BWI (Baltimore/Washington) would seem be the best fit.  The powers-that-be at BMI have always been looking for an eastern flight, and this could serve that role.

•      The demand for flights to Florida has always been high (that was AirTran’s bread and butter when it flew out of BMI).  I think there might actually be enough demand for an originating flight from BMI to MCO (have a flight arrive from somewhere and RON (Remain Overnight) at BMI).  That flight could probably be pretty full most every morning.  With that many passengers departing for MCO, you’ll need as many seats arriving from MCO, so the RON could arrive late night from MCO.  Those visiting Florida (myself included…I’m a huge Disney freak) often want to leave for vacation as soon as possible and return later (gotta get those last few hours with Mickey).

•       A west-coast gateway (or two) is definitely desirable, especially with Frontier pulling out of BMI.  The apparent gateways to the west via SWA are Phoenix (PHX), Denver (DEN), Houston-Hobby (HOU), and Las Vegas (LAS).  I think there would be enough demand for at least two westbound flights.  PHX would probably be the first choice for several reasons:

•       PHX-BMI-BWI falls in line pretty well with little deviation from the most direct route.
•       Arriving in PHX provides several short connections to the southwestern U.S. (e.g., California, Las Vegas, etc.).
•       There currently is no direct service from BMI to anywhere near PHX (American currently has a nonstop to DFW and Frontier has/had nonstop to DEN four days week at one point).  Allegiant does offer service from Peoria to LAS two days a week as well as from Peoria to Phoenix/Mesa twice a week.  

•      As for the other flight to the west coast…Denver might be the best pick.  The city itself is likely a destination for many, and, along with an additional option to get to California destinations, it can provide shorter flights to the northwest part of the U.S.  This could provide for additional service to MCO (DEN-BMI-MCO) if the demand for MCO is high enough.

      

•      Houston, or any Texas destination for that matter, is interesting.  Some may say that DAL might be a good fit since it connects to so many cities; The repealing of the Wright Amendment (just Google it) leaves everything up in the air regarding a Texas destination, though.  Regardless, I think trying to fit a Texas arrival/departure and keeping it in line with using BMI as an intermediate stop for another destination is daunting.  BWI might work, but I don’t know if there would be enough demand for a second BMI-BWI segment (then again, Portland, ME…only 99 miles from Manchester, NH, can support 3 daily flights to BWI).  Texas-BMI-MDW…while it may line up geographically, I can’t see any way that the airline could make a profit for such a short flight with the cost per mile and the suppressed demand due to the short distance.  Right now, the only nonstop option between Texas and BMI that I can (kind of) see working might be HOU-BMI-BWI.

•      Some may say that ATL would be another good one…why not, since Delta and AirTran both had nonstops before?  Well, Southwest was nothing short of jubilant when it gained access to ATL; however, it’s currently transitioning AirTran’s ATL hub into its point-to-point system.  SWA would still be competing with Delta for Atlanta passengers, which would likely decrease revenue passenger miles and load factors.  As I see Atlanta as more of a connecting city rather than a destination city for many, SWA could channel BMI passengers to MCO, BWI, or somewhere else if they wanted to end in ATL.

Summing up the flights...I see the following as potentially viable flights:

     

•       MCO X 2

•              BWI X2

•       PHX 

•       DEN

•       HOU

This gives 2 southeast flights to a high-demand destination, 2 east/northeast coast flights, a southern destination, and 2 western flights.  I know that I’m missing the northern part of the country…Delta has the control there with the old Northwest Airlines hubs at Detroit and Minneapolis.  I consider those as more hubs than final destinations, and SWA can probably route passengers to the final destination in other ways (similar to my earlier thoughts on ATL).

7 daily flights...80% load...75% of seats available...that comes to around 580 passengers per day.  More realistically, from my point of view, with only 50% of seats available (i.e., if more passengers do not disembark at BMI and remain on the plane), that number becomes around 385.  Why is this more realistic?  I think it is reasonable to assume that most of those departing BMI will ultimately return, so you'll need a comparable number of seats inbound as you have outbound.  While 75% is possible, I think the actual ratio is closer to 50/50 in terms of disembarking/remaining on the flight.  Compare that 385 number to AirTran's 301 passenger count with only 3 flights. 

Now, I’m not so naïve to think this is an easy thing to do.  There needs to be equipment, and not just aircraft.  The aircraft issue alone requires the logistical nightmare of pulling equipment off of existing routes and/or modifying routes to incorporate BMI.  Some of you might mention that Southwest ended service to Branson, Jackson, and Key West over the summer.  Branson and Key West were left-over markets from the AirTran merger; however, being that they were likely 717s or older 737s, they may already have those aircraft slated for sale/scrap.  There will also need to be TUGs, luggage carts, terminals at check-in and the gates, de-icing equipment, etc.  Add in a station manager and likely 6-8 customer service agents and 6-8 additional ramp agents most of the time (depending on the flight schedules), and it will definitely cost some money.  There’s also the issue of personnel in the form of the flight crew.  With only 1 overnight possibility, that should help the issue a bit, though there will always be a cost with a new airport.  SWA is probably still shuffling around as they reduce operations in ATL, so the cost might not be as significant as anticipated.  Put another way, there might be some equipment in ATL that is no longer needed and can be shipped to BMI.

Sooooo…what might a schedule look like?  Again, there are multiple options here.  One option would be to spread the flights out over 12 hours or so, like this:

Arrival	Time		Time	Departure
MCO	22:45(RON)	BMI	6:45	MCO
BWI	8:05	BMI	8:35	PHX
HOU	9:45	BMI	10:15	BWI
DEN	11:30	BMI	12:00	MCO
MCO	13:05	BMI	13:35	DEN
PHX	14:50	BMI	15:20	BWI
BWI	16:25	BMI	16:55	HOU

This would have about 12 hours of activity, and you could contract out the cleaning of the R.O.N. to another airline’s staff.

Alternatively, another option would be to stack arrivals and departures together.  The morning MCO flight still heads out early, but the arrivals from BWI, HOU, and DEN all come in around the same time and then all depart for PHX, BWI, and MCO around the same time, with the same thing occurring in the afternoon flights.  This will allow for (GASP) BMI to serve as a connecting point for SWA (e.g., a passenger could arrive from MCO in the afternoon and connect to the BWI flight).  I don’t think BMI is currently set up to handle a format such as this, though.  There simply is not enough in the terminal to pacify layover passengers (though that might create the incentive to finally get more vendors in the terminal).  Also, more workers would probably be needed over a shorter time frame to cover the logistics of the gate/ramp areas.

I know…this is more pipe-dream than anything else on my part.   I am fully confident that the gurus at Southwest have looked at these numbers a lot over the past several years when they decided to pull out of BMI with the AirTran merger.   I’m sure that there are several costs and other factors that have not been mentioned here.  Still, it seems that there would be a strong demand for its service, and, with its comparable final bottom-line price relative to other air carriers, I bet SWA would be welcomed with open arms by a lot of people if they choose to start service in central Illinois.  Hopefully, BMI is still on their radar as a possibility, especially with the combination of Frontier’s ending of service and a location that weathers economic fluctuations rather well.

…besides, I want another good option to get to Florida as winter is again descending on us.