Royal Caribbean, Travel

Morning in Seattle
Morning in Seattle

Today was our last day in Seattle.  We had decided to get to the airport early and get breakfast there.  We ordered an Uber to take us there.  We probably arrived around 8:20 AM or so for our 10:20 AM flights.  Nancy’s flight was on time, so after breakfast, she and my younger daughter headed to their gate. read more

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Royal Caribbean, Travel

On a recent Royal Caribbean cruise, we got a letter in our cabin from Port Valet.  This is a service offered by the Port of Seattle to check-in for your flight, receive your boarding passes, and have your luggage sent directly from outside your stateroom to your home airport.  We didn’t take advantage of this service on our cruise (because we were staying an additional night in Seattle), but it sounds very similar to a service offered by Disney Cruise Line. read more

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Royal Caribbean, Travel

Dunkin Donuts at Dulles Airport
Dunkin Donuts at Dulles Airport

One of the downside sometimes of getting free flights is that they tend to happen at odd times.  In this case, our flight to Seattle for our Alaska cruise was scheduled to leave Dulles at 7:00 am.  The night before our flight, I got an alert from United that our flight would be delayed by 30 minutes.  The message said that we should still show up on time, so that is what we planned on.  read more

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Royal Caribbean

Mendenhall Glacier
Mendenhall Glacier

For the summer of 2019, we had originally decided on a 10-night Mediterranean cruise on the Disney Magic.  As we got into the Summer of 2018, we came to the conclusion that we couldn’t make the cruise work with our schedule and our budget.  We already had a few cruises in the books that we had to pay for as well as a lot going on that would make it hard to plan a Europe trip.  Canceling that cruise was a huge burden lifted off our shoulders.  read more

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Disney Cruise

The travel day for our Spring Break cruise quickly approached.  Our flight on United Airlines was leaving Dulles at 8:15 am, so our scheduled taxi picked us up at 6 am.  We arrived quickly at Dulles ready to check in for our flight (really just drop off the bags since we checked in online).  The ticket area was really busy, probably because of Spring Break travelers like ourselves.  We got our bags dropped off and headed for the TSA Pre Check line.  The line was slightly backed up, but we managed to clear it without anyone getting pulled aside for additional screening, which might be a first.  On the way to our gate, we stopped for a free breakfast using our Priority Pass from our Hilton Aspire Cards.  We ended up pushing up against our departure time, so we had to cut breakfast short so we could get to our gate before boarding.  We walked over to our gate (which was nearby) and boarding started ten minutes later. read more

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Disney Cruise

The Disney Cruise Line Spring 2019 Itineraries were released at the end of October 2017.  While scanning through the list, we decided either the Magic or Wonder 5 night cruises would fit within our budget.  The Magic would be on a 5 night Western Caribbean leaving Miami on April 14th, 2019 with stops at Cozumel and Castaway Cay.  The Wonder would be on a 5 Night Baja cruise leaving San Diego on April 14, 2019 with stops at Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada read more

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Disney Parks, Shopping, Target, Travel

Sunrise over Dulles
Sunrise over Dulles

Time passed quickly as we waited for our travel day to arrive.  The travel itself was actually pretty anti-climatic.  The outbound flight for our trip left from Dulles airport.  We had arranged for a cab to pick us up at 6:00 am and drop us at Dulles.  We dropped our bags off and headed to the TSA Precheck line.  We had packed our carry on bags fairly full, mainly because we were sneaking Christmas presents on for our girls.  Of course, our carry on bags got pulled aside for additional screening.  Luckily, the girls cleared without issue and we shooed them away while TSA looked through the bag.  Nancy was able to tell the agent about the gifts and he discreetly searched the bag without revealing to the girls what the presents were.  After we reassembled the bags, we were on our way to the gate. read more

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Food Cost, Travel

Signs direct you to your gate at Dulles Airport
Signs direct you to your gate at Dulles Airport

Our travel day finally arrived for our trip.  The girls had school that day, so we had arranged to pick them up at 10:45 so we could get home in time for the taxi to pick us up at 11:30.  Our flight was scheduled for 1:45 pm, so with the taxi ride, we would have two hours at the airport to get through security, get some lunch, and arrive at the gate.  We picked up everyone and got back home in plenty of time for the taxi to arrive and take us to the airport.  We breezed through security thanks to TSA PreCheck read more

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