A RETREAT BEYOND the stars July 7-13, 2024

Marriott Courtyard Orlando Airport Review

The great:  The staff here are absolutely lovely!  Everyone is friendly and helpful.  We haven’t walked by one staff member who didn’t greet us and that goes a long way with us.  They also have a 24 hour shuttle to and from the airport.  The AC in the room also worked great!

The good:  The pool was clean and they provided towels at the pool.  However, we grabbed the last two towels when we went in yesterday afternoon.  Not sure how often someone checks them.

The bad:  This Hotel is outdated (by decades) and they price gouge you on everything!  We’ve charged 6 waters to our room and didn’t ask about price because we weren’t planning on going anywhere else to get them. We got our invoice this morning and discovered that they charge $5.00 per bottle for 20 oz Aquafina bottles.  What?  At the PDX airport, for the exact same bottle, it was only $1.35!!  

The worst:  They don’t provide coffee in the lobby for guests!   Instead they have a cafe and want you to purchase a coffee at inflated prices.  We don’t make coffee in the rooms because of things we’ve heard.  Ewwww!  We had to leave the hotel to find coffee.  Not something we want to do when you need caffeine and it’s already over 80 degrees out!  They also don’t provide breakfast, except for what they offer at the cafe - which wasn’t a deal breaker, but not convenient when there are 15 people in line. We opted against it.

For us, we wouldn’t stay here again or recommend it to others. Here are a few pics we grabbed. We forgot to take pics of the room - sorry.

23 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Welcome aboard Mr. Flamin' britches !

Thanks, love that name better!

At the Brightline station at MCO. It’s very light and bright with floor to ceiling windows.  Check in was a breeze. 

Here are the pics of the snack bar areas in the premium lounge:

The train is nice. Great AC!  This beats driving every day!!!

2 minutes ago, CravingaCruise said:

The train is nice. Great AC!  This beats driving every day!!!

Hey, I got this hot chick sitting across from me shhhh, don’t tell my wife

Lunch on the train. Complimentary in premium class. 

Hilton Ft Lauderdale Marina Review

Beautiful hotel - This is what you expect when booking a hotel. Night and day difference from the last room. We got a King Water View Tower room. We’re on floor 14 in an even numbered room with a beautiful view of the cruise port!  Tomorrow morning we’ll wake up to see our ship awaiting our arrival!!!

Went to the restaurant for happy hour and prices were reasonable.  I’m a red wine snob and loved their house red!  We snacked a bit and drank a bit more.  We had a seat at the bar with a view of the marina.  Cool vibe, great service, very clean!  Absolutely lovely!  This will likely be our go-to for FLL cruises in the future.  

We would definitely recommend this hotel to anyone!

IT’S CRUISE DAY!  
Our ship is waiting!

And we’re ready!!!

Check in was a breeze!  Our driver dropped us off just past the check in point and a luggage handler named Johnny took our bags and walked us to the suite entrance nearby. We checked in with someone who sent us down the hallway to the elevator where someone else waited with us and pushed the button after we loaded in, then got back off. We were greeted by another person when we arrived at the Retreat lounge entrance and he checked us in with our passports. After a minute of light chatting and given instructions for what to expect we were free to hang out until they opened up the doors…which we were told would be approximately 10:50. 
 

At about 10:45 everyone else lined up and we hung back until the crowd cleared. We lived in the dorks do area for several years and I abused @FirePantyPop with Disney and Universal season passes.  He hates lines!

ITS CRUISE DAY!!!!!!!!

It's Cruise Day!!!!!  

Fort 2 drinks of the cruise - YUMMY!

Lychee Martini & Pineapple Mimosa 

We just met some of a group of 150 on board who travel together every year!  How fun is that?  They do a cruise every year and they’ve chartered 3 cruise ships in the past because there are so many. We’re making friends!!

LOL!  A couple wandered through the wrong doors and someone had to go get them. 

what are your first impressions of the ship??????

1 hour ago, asquared17 said:

what are your first impressions of the ship??????

It’s absolutely beautiful!  Definitely love the decor!  The room is awesome and Luminae for lunch was outstanding!  More to come on that later. The martini bar has a fun vibe!  I’m enjoying some pampering in the spa right now. I wasn’t able to have my traditional mani & pedi prior to the cruise because I broke one of my toes a couple of weeks ago. It’s in much better shape now so I indulged.  It’s lovely!

Pampering on a cruise…it’s a thing!  

I keep saying I'm gonna pamper myself on a cruise one of these times. It seems like a great way to be extra relaxed.

Bon voyage! Sounds like you are off to a great start!

27 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I keep saying I'm gonna pamper myself on a cruise one of these times. It seems like a great way to be extra relaxed.

You would think that, but the hard sell at the end kinda sux the life out of any relaxation. Mani and pedi might not be so bad, but facials and massages, no way! Been there, done that.  Never again! But, here's what i learned ... if you sign up for a facial, you get a checklist of what you think your problem areas are. Don't fill that out. It's only a cheatsheet for your therapist to "recommend" products to you. 

51 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

You would think that, but the hard sell at the end kinda sux the life out of any relaxation.

OMG!  Right??  She kept trying to “recommend” products for me and told me I could only get them on the ship. For the love of God…stop!!!  I have plenty of great products at home and I don’t have to mortgage my house for them!  

Embarkation Lunch at Luminae

Well…remember when I told you we were newly vegan?  @FirePantyPop has been good so far but I broke down as soon as I saw a lobster roll on the lunch menu.   It was so yummy!!!   At least I only ate half the bread and I had a great vegan salad prior to it.  I crammed all the yumminess into one half of the bun and ate that. I’d definitely recommend it to carnivores!

Our servers were awesome and we felt like the only couple in a very busy restaurant. It’s beautiful too. I took a couple of panoramic photos from our table before the place filled up.  A couple sat at the neighboring table who are Zenith members.  I felt so unworthy!

I almost forgot to take photos of lunch, as you can see by the roll with the bite out of it. Lol. 
 
We spent the afternoon at the martini bar with some new friends and had a great time, then came back to our room to meet our butler Akash and our room attendant Felix - great guys. We gave Akash our coffee order for the morning and let him know we’d like to be off the ship as soon as possible to scope out a spot at Hideaway Bay tomorrow. 

Unpacking is now complete and we’re off to dinner!  Why does it always feel like all we ever do on a ship is eat?

We weren’t super hungry for dinner and really didn’t want to change clothes so we wand wandered for a bit and ended up at the buffet. They had a ton of choices and everything I tried just wasn’t appetizing to me. I finally grabbed a couple pieces of veggie pizza and that did the trick. Great pizza!!!  

Sorry - failed on the pics. After pizza we wandered some more and went up to the magic carpet. I asked for a pineapple mimosa and he looked at me like I had 2 heads. A minute later he sat a glass full of ice up on the bar in front of me and was about to pour pineapple juice into it.  I told him it normally is served in a champagne flute and he said they were out of them. Then he magically found one.  We found out from the other bartender that this was his first cruise and only day 2.  Poor guy. I think he needed a bit more training. 

We’re exhausted and heading to bed. Coffee is arriving at 6:30am and we have to be ready to get off the ship at 7:45. We’ll catch up on sleep tomorrow in CocoCay!

Oh wait!  I did take a photo!  My first towel animal!  

That lobster roll looks so good! 

2 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

 

That lobster roll looks so good! 

 

It was!  It’s a signature dish on embarkation day that is apparently not to miss. Similar to the filet on night 1 in CK. I can already tell I’m gaining weight this cruise!

Good morning CocoCay!  We beat Wonder here!!

We’re waiting to get off the ship for CocoCay and our butler told us to come down at 7:45. We got down to the gangway and were ushered back into the elevator. I checked with our butler and he isn’t available for a priority debarkation. 
 

Smack Down Update:

Star class all the way!!!

We’ll let you know if it changes. 

Your husband smile tells how awesome everything has been going until now.

3 hours ago, CravingaCruise said:

I can already tell I’m gaining weight this cruise!

Is NOT gaining weight even an option?

Agreed about the lobster roll btw.

1 hour ago, CravingaCruise said:

We’re waiting to get off the ship for CocoCay

Say hi to Wonder for me! Tell her I'll be there in 6 days and to get the food ready!

I missed the beginning of the vegan journey, but I'm pretty sure doesn't count.  

And that's disappointing. Your butler isn't available for priority disembarkation so it's not available to you at all? Your butler doesn't have a buddy system? Especially for PDCC. Seems like a missed opportunity here. If you ask me (and i know you're not), that would be GITCC ... that's "going in the comment card" if you don't recall!

3 hours ago, Sweety said:

Your husband smile tells how awesome everything has been going until now.

agreed!  It’s only gotten better!

2 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

5 hours ago, CravingaCruise said:

 

Is NOT gaining weight even an option?

@FirePantyPop is being so good so I’m trying. Not doing nearly as good as him but he inspires me to be that much better. Between the two of us we’ve lost about 80 pounds and he’s about to be taken off his blood pressure and cholesterol medication!  I have a ways left to go but my numbers are looking so much better!!  I knew coming on a cruise that i wouldn’t stay on plan. I’m not feeling bad about it at all!  

2 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

Say hi to Wonder for me! Tell her I'll be there in 6 days and to get the food ready!

I’ll tell her when we get back to the ship! 

45 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

I missed the beginning of the vegan journey, but I'm pretty sure doesn't count.  

Awesome!!!  

On 7/7/2024 at 10:48 AM, CravingaCruise said:

the dorks do area

I think I’m the dork and she’s the doer

1 hour ago, CravingaCruise said:

I’ll tell her when we get back to the ship! 

@OCSC Mike She said she can’t wait to see you again! 

Congrats on the weight loss.

I could not be vegan. I just can't, I know it works to help those of us who are softer than society deems appropriate, but I was miss too much. 

Also did they just give you free Effy jewelry???

We came back from CocoCay (full review of Hideaway beach coming up) after lunch to cool off a bit and then wandered the ship for a while.  There is just not as much to do on this ship!  They don’t have a Promenade like on the Royal ships and they definitely don’t have enough complimentary food places on board.  

@FirePantyPop has been drinking nothing but water all day. He has so much discipline!  

Mid-afternoon we stopped at the cafe and I got a cappuccino…guess what Pop had?  Yep, water. Can someone say boring?  While there I couldn’t resist a slice of carrot cake. I never claimed to have discipline. I totally forgot to take a picture of it on my plate so I went back and got a pic of the entire case.  Somehow chocolate chip cookies made it into a bag in front of me too. I don’t know how that happened!

2 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

Congrats on the weight loss.

Thank you!  We’re at the beginning of a long journey!  

2 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

Also did they just give you free Effy jewelry???

Ha!  They give you the charm necklace so it will entice you into filling it up with charms. Apparently if you wear it to certain events they’ll give you some charms. They’re probably the size of a speck of sand though!

5 minutes ago, CravingaCruise said:

There is just not as much to do on this ship!  They don’t have a Promenade like on the Royal ships and they definitely don’t have enough complimentary food places on board.  

To no one's surprise, besides the lack of vouchers and other D+ perks, these are the main reasons I've never really looked closely at Celebrity. Some of the suite stuff looked good in other blogs but that's not where us poors reside.

Oh ya!  Here’s the pic of the goodies in the case!

OMG!  PSA:  Nobody wants to smell your nasty cologne / perfume!  Especially if it smells like mold!!!!!

I have Celebrity booked in 2026, just a 4 night on Reflection because I was concerned by the lack of things to do and the possibility of too much frou frou cuisines. I originally had Ascent scheduled and I was going to completely cancel but the status match happened. 

Also paying suite prices and not receiving priority service is weird.