Rasstuss

Take a train to Leeds and rent a car and head over into Yorkshire. Spend a night in York then over to Scarborough . Work your way up the coast through Robin Hood’s Bay to Whitby. That place is an absolute hidden gem.

Look into the Go City Pass. We found some cheap plane tickets and had an AirBNB credit that had to be used and did a long weekend using Go City. Kids had a blast over 3 days without stepping foot on Disney or Universal property. It includes both Kennedy Space Center and Legoland along with a bunch of their stuff.

Being relatively close to the port in New Orleans and the convenience/lack of extra travel expense are a big plus. I have actually done a 4 day where I worked a half day on Thursday, jumped on the ship that afternoon, then went straight from the ship to the office on Monday morning and was working by 8:30. Nice little weekend trip only using 1 vacation day.

I would recommend doing a shorter one for the first time as well. If you are doing less than a week out of New Orleans then Carnival is your only option. It will be what you make of it, no reason you and the wife can't have a good time regardless of the other clientele on the ship. I would recommend the 5 day over the 4 day just so you get the extra port day. You will hit Cozumel regardless but the 2nd port is sometimes Costa Maya and sometimes Progresso. Since you said you were more interested in beaches I would say Costa Maya (just get out of the main port to a beach club), but if you would happen to want to explore ruins or the city of Merida then do Progresso.

As a self described beach bum it is certainly worth trying once. Will probably be much more affordable than going to a panhandle beach for the same amount of days with food and hotel/condo. Go look at the message boards on Crusie Critc to research more on the ships and ports.

We will do it occasionally at home. Will also sometimes on busy nights when running around and fast food becomes dinner will get breakfast burritos from Sonic. Always way better at dinner time because they are made fresh as no one else is ordering eggs at that time.

Was just on the Valor last week so will try to give a few tips.

I thought the food in the main dining was kinda hit and miss. Don’t be afraid to order 2 entrees because one might not be that great. Same with the sea day brunch but it is worth going to because not a lot going on on sea days. Guy’s burgers and the Mongolian Wok are both good, the Blue Iguana is ok, probably best at breakfast. There is also a BBQ place upstairs at the buffet that is a little hidden that is ok. Save the pizza place and deli for late night snacking because that is all that is available.

We spent a couple of nights hanging out at the red frog pub, really enjoyed the rock band in there. We ended up chatting with them a little bit between sets one night and I think your cruise will be the last they are on before their contract is up. As mentioned one thing Carnival does well is the comedy shows, check them out. There will be 2 comedians doing 2 nights each and then one night they will do a big show back to back in the main theater.

We didn’t do the drink package because it was more of a family thing. Had a few here and there and loaded up at an all inclusive in Costa Maya (see you are going to Progresso instead). For a bachelor party I would probably get it, if you get 5 or more drinks in a day it pays for itself. Just keep in mind if you get it you pay the gratuities upfront on the 15 drinks a day whether you use them or not.

Thought I would chime in with my first Breeze experience over the weekend. Wife and I flew home from Jacksonville to New Orleans Sunday. Plane had a mechanical issue and we had to wait while the other plane flew a route from Jacksonville to Norfolk, VA and back before it could take us to New Orleans which ended up being a 7 hour delay total. While yes that totally sucked I have to say the Breeze crew in Jacksonville were very upfront with info and accommodating. Also by the time we landed I had already received emails stating we were each getting $120 each in credits and the points were already in my account. $120 may not sound like much but keep in mind I only paid $39 each for these tickets. Talked to a few other passengers who regularly flew the route and they said they had never seen any delay like this. The way it was handled overall left me with a positive mindset and I will certainly use my credits to give them a 2nd chance at some point.

My parents (retired) have done multiple and love them. I know they have done NYC to Southampton, Port Canaveral to Barcelona, and Miami to L.A through the canal. They say you can’t beat the deals on a repositioning and they normally do U.S. to Europe and add on an extra leg or 2 to get more European ports in. I think half the fun for my Dad is searching for deals and booking and planning.

Do a tour of Wrigley. One added bonus of doing it while the Cubs are out of town is you get to go in the visitors locker room.

I’ve never been to Budd’s only High Point and Red Bud so I can’t speak to anything there specifically. I would say get there early and splurge on a pit pass. Watch the LCQs, maybe not as crazy as Supercross but still great battles to see who gets those last 4 spots. Decide if you want to set up in one spot or be mobile and go to different spots for different motos. Depending on how mobile you want to be make the decision on if you want to do a full on cooler or maybe just a backpack and small folding chair.

I will 2nd U.S. Park. I have used it multiple times with no issues. We used it as recently as Mardi Gras since we were traveling with my sister in law we specifically took her car and still got the 1st time discount.