40 years old celebration trip

I had prepared everything the night before, since the alarm would go off at 03:30. Passport, wallet, all luggage, clothes, everything was laid out to minimize the risk of forgetting anything in the middle of the night. When the alarm went off, I got up right away, tired but excited! Took a shower, got dressed,…

I fell asleep rather quickly, according to my Pixel Watch. The planes didn’t bother me that much. On the other hand, I’m still sort of on Swedish time, so I woke up already at 6 and had a hard time going back to sleep. Since the breakfast didn’t open until 06:30, and I couldn’t pick…

When I was at Disney World three years ago, the storm Ian closed the park for my third day. On that day, I was supposed to go to Magic Kingdom, and I had done the three other parks. So this time, it was first on my list. It seems I still haven’t adjusted timewise, so…

Immediately when I got up, I felt the 22k steps from yesterday. Not my usual amount of movement during a day. And when I wasn’t walking, I was standing, usually in a queue somewhere, just to be able to sit for about two minutes during a ride 😛 This morning, the mobile order worked as…

Apparently, I was a bit tired because I slept all the way until the alarm went off at 7:30. I packed up my stuff, took a shower, and then got to the car. Check out was very easy. I clicked on a couple of buttons in the app, and I could keep the keycard. Programmed…

It was almost cold in my room when I woke up this morning. And who is to blame for setting the thermostat too low? 😉 I took a warm shower, and while the hot water was pouring down, I was thinking a few hours forward when I would be standing in a line somewhere, in…

This morning, I actually snoozed twice before getting up. Took it quite slow and arrived at the Universal Islands of Adventure first at 9:45. Walked around for a bit, and ended up at The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. It was the same technology as the Transformers, a pod holding eight people over two rows, which then…

Today it was time for the newest park at Universal Resort Orlando, the Epic Universe. Early entry opened at 9, so not that early morning, but I got there at 8:25 to have some margins. It started with a queue, which would be the theme of today. At about 8:40, they opened the gates so…

Didn’t set an alarm for this morning. The plan was to do laundry and then see what happens. So when I woke up, I made my way two floors down to the guest laundry room. I loaded the machine, put in the detergent, and just realized that the machine was broken. Managed to pull out…

With all the preparations done yesterday and with express checkout, it was really easy to leave the hotel. Click on a link in an email, walk out to the car, use the room key to get out of the parking lot, and on my way to the airport. I stopped on the way to fill…

The night went alright, even though the AC unit turned on and off all night, and some construction work started at 07. I had the pool just outside my window, and I was on the ground floor, so the curtains had to stay closed. Jumped into the shower, which took minutes to get hot water.…

Since my scuba diving tour was cancelled, my plan was just to get on shore and explore the large town of Charlotte Amalie, population of about 8,000 according to Wikipedia. But first, I needed breakfast. Apparently, there were three options: room service, à la carte at Tides Dining Room, or buffet at Windjammer Marketplace. This…

After waking up by the ship docking at the port (the deck just below and in front of my cabin contains lots of the gear used to moor the ship), I left at 9:20 through the gate. My earlier (poor) research said that it was about a 25-minute walk to the place where I should…

After some buffet breakfast, I left the ship at 9:25. On the pier, they offered a shuttle to get to shore, because of the long walk. It was about 200 meters. Doesn’t get much more “cruising” than that, does it? After 15 minutes walking back and forth, I felt that I had “seen” what needed…

Today I tried room service to not have to queue in the buffet since I had a time to adhere to, 8 o’clock in the main theatre for the excursion. I had the alarm at 7, and had booked the time slot 7-7:30, so just before seven the phone rang, and they gave me a…

After a quick breakfast at Windjammer Market (the buffet), I left the ship at 9. There were four cruise ships docked, so quite many people in circulation. At least one ship had this as its home port, so people were checking in and out. I had to walk around that operation, but just a couple of…

Today I did a sleep-in. I had the alarm at 9 and woke up just before it, and slept through the whole night. It was well needed. I took it slow and left for breakfast at 9:45 with a small backpack, and 45 minutes later I was lying in a sunbed at the pool in…

I was awakened by the speaker at 7 o’clock to say that you could now disembark. Instead, I took a shower, got dressed, stuffed the last items into my backpack, and headed to Tides Restaurant for some breakfast. I was seated at 7:45, had the same server as the first night, and we recognized each…

I took a really slow morning. Today’s plan was to “do” Old San Juan and the forts, maybe followed by a quick jump into the ocean. So before I left the hotel, I asked for a beach towel. Should have gotten two; they are not big.  Got into an Uber at about 10. The driver…

When I decided to stay a couple of days in San Juan after the cruise, I started to look at what to do here. One thing that came high on the list of suggestions was a visit to El Yunque, the only tropical rainforest within the national forest system. So I found a guided tour,…

Like almost always, I was ahead of schedule. The Uber was booked for 8:45. At 8:20, I stepped out of the hotel, the check-out process had taken 15 seconds. While waiting, the guy who got his room cleaned out two days ago, he got his stuff back, and the hotel said there had been a misunderstanding.…